Evaluation Of Practices Research Articles

Inhalational anaesthetic agent consumption within a multidisciplinary veterinary teaching hospital: an environmental audit

Inhalational anaesthetic agents are routinely used in veterinary anaesthesia practices, yet their consumption contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact. We conducted a 55-day observational study at a veterinary teaching hospital in Switzerland, monitoring isoflurane and sevoflurane consumption across small, equine and farm animal clinics and analysed the resulting environmental impact. Results revealed that in total, 9.36 L of isoflurane and 1.27 L of sevoflurane were used to anaesthetise 409 animals across 1,489 h. Consumption rates varied among species, with small and farm animals ranging between 8.7 and 13 mL/h, while equine anaesthesia exhibited a higher rate, 41.2 mL/h. Corresponding to 7.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in total environmental emissions or between 2.4 and 31.3 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per hour. Comparison to human anaesthesia settings showed comparable consumption rates to small animals, suggesting shared environmental implications, albeit on a smaller scale. This research highlights the importance of continued evaluation of veterinary anaesthesia practices to balance patient safety with environmental stewardship; potential mitigation strategies are explored and discussed.

Body Mass Index is Not an Appropriate Proxy for the Condition of Peri-Incisional Adiposity in Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty Patients

BackgroundThe American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons defined the acceptable threshold for elective safe surgery as a body mass index (BMI) under 40 due to the increased risk of complications. A consequence of this recommendation has been a hard cutoff based on BMI, which restricts access to care for an increasingly large and diverse population. There is an improved understanding that excess adipose tissue confers additional risk for postoperative complications, including infection, through mechanical and physiologic mechanisms. But, it is unclear if BMI is an accurate indicator of adiposity in total joint arthroplasty (TJA) patients and, thus, whether BMI is capturing clinically relevant information in obese patients. Our objective was to determine the relationship between peri-incisional adiposity (PIA) and BMI in a consecutive series of diverse primary TJA patients. MethodsA consecutive series of patients indicated for primary TJA were preoperatively evaluated. For each patient, the following variables were collected: BMI and measures of PIA on radiographs and ultrasounds. ResultsIn THA patients (N = 99), Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) = 0.436, which indicates a moderate correlation between BMI and adiposity. In total knee arthroplasty patients (N = 271), r = 0.395 for femoral PIA (FPIA) and r = 0.249 for tibial PIA, which indicates a weak correlation between BMI and adiposity measured on radiography. In total knee arthroplasty patients, r = 0.560 for femoral PIA and r = 0.544 for tibial PIA, which indicates a moderate correlation between BMI and adiposity measured on ultrasound. ConclusionsQuantification of obesity has become a common practice in the preoperative evaluation of primary TJA patients. The intent is to determine the magnitude of adipose tissue, which is one of the main drivers of postoperative complications in obesity. The BMI is ubiquitously used as a proxy for obesity due to its simplicity of attainment and calculation. We report that BMI has a weak-to-moderate association with PIA in this population. These findings indicate that BMI may not accurately represent the condition of peri-incisional adipose tissue and, thus, is not capturing the relevant obesity data for preoperative risk stratification in primary TJA patients. Level of evidenceIII.

Evaluation of INM practices and nano urea on the performance of drum seeded rice

Evaluation of INM practices and nano urea on the performance of drum seeded rice

Imprinting and the evolution of evaluation: A descriptive account of social impact evaluation methodological practice

This study investigates the evolution of evaluation approaches within the charitable sector, emphasising the proliferation of options throughout waves of evaluation diffusion. We draw on imprinting theory to describe the persistence of specific practices despite the emergence of alternatives. The research aims to examine the imprinted values and practices of earlier evaluation waves on the current practice of evaluation by documenting the current methodological practice in a large sample of evaluation reports. The study illuminates the enduring impact of theory-driven evaluation, introduced in the 1980s, on current practices. However, it also reveals how this approach has evolved over subsequent evaluation waves, acquiring divergent characteristics. This imprinting is not only due to effectiveness but also due to normative pressures, which prioritise conformity with norms over practical utility. The study highlights the potential consequences of this imprinting, including management-focused evaluations and mission drift. We conclude by offering practical options to address tensions within the field and call for further research to better understand the nuances of decision-making in evaluation approaches.

Evaluation Resources for Asthma Programs and Beyond.

Evaluation can ensure the quality of public health programs. Systematic efforts to identify and fully engage everyone involved with or affected by a program can provide critical information about asthma programs and the broader environment in which they operate. To assist evaluators working at programs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC's) National Asthma Control Program (NACP), we developed a package of tools that build on the CDC's 1999 Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health. The resulting suite of evaluation tools guides evaluators through a structured but flexible process, engaging a diverse array of interest holders and actively involving them in evaluation planning and implementation, all while strengthening their capacity to meaningfully contribute to the evaluation process. For our newest tool, our team reviewed the recent evaluation literature to create an enhanced version of the 1999 framework that describes important elements of professional evaluation practice. Although the original framework describes the steps to take in conducting an evaluation and the standards for a high-quality evaluation, our enhanced framework includes an explanation of how evaluators should approach their work: by incorporating critical reflection, interpersonal competence, situational awareness, and cultural responsiveness. In this article, we highlight many of the evaluation resources our team has created since the NACP's inception, culminating in a free e-text called Planting the Seeds of High-Quality Program Evaluation in Public Health. Public health professionals working in many types of programs - not just asthma - may find these resources useful.

Performance and Interpretation of Lung Scintigraphy: An Evaluation of Current Practices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and United States.

Although ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy is a widely used imaging test, different options are possible for the acquisition and interpretation of the scan. The aim of this study was to assess current practices regarding the use and interpretation of lung scintigraphy in various clinical indications. An online survey comprising 25 questions was sent to nuclear medicine departments in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and United States between 2022 and 2023. A single response per department was consolidated. Four hundred nineteen responses were collected (Australia: 32, Canada: 58, France: 149, Germany: 92, and United States: 88). For acute pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnosis, 82.8% of centers reported using SPECT acquisitions (Australia: 93.3%, Canada: 91.8%, France: 99.2%, Germany: 96.2%, and United States: 32.1%). Among them, SPECT images were combined with a CT scan in 70.5% of centers. A total of 10.6% of centers reported not using ventilation for acute PE diagnosis. SPECT acquisition was used in 97.8% of centers using 99m Tc carbon particles, 97.1% 81m Kr gas, 58.7% 99m Tc-DTPA, and 19.4% 133 Xe gas, respectively. For V/Q SPECT interpretation, the EANM criteria were used in 65.0% of departments. A very wide variety of practices were observed in pregnant women and in COVID-19 patients. SPECT acquisition was widely used in the follow-up of PE and for the screening of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (>90% of centers), with inconsistency regarding the interpretation of matched perfusion defects in this setting. This survey shows the strong adoption of SPECT in the various clinical indications of lung scintigraphy, except in the United States, where planar imaging is still mostly used. The survey also shows variability in interpretation criteria both for PE diagnosis and screening for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, highlighting the need for further standardizations of practices.

Village Waste Management Strategy as an Economic Asset: Accounting Evaluation and Implementation of Sustainable Practices in Bongkasa Village, Abiansemal District, Badung Regency

As a principle, governance is a system of rules, processes and behaviors that influence how power is exercised at different levels of government, especially in relation to openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. Good governance contributes to various development goals due to internal changes in the way power is managed from conventional control and command by the state to new ways that are more networked and balanced with various stakeholders. Based on this statement, every organization needs to implement good governance and it is possible at the village government level. The importance of implementing village governance that leads to a good village governance system will also lead to efforts to improve and enhance the government management process so that performance will be better. To encourage the realization of good village governance, it is important to build good governance that is transformed into good village governance. This view leads to the argument that certain villages, which have not yet formed good village governance, will experience disorientation in the implementation of government, if the maturity of human resources and institutional institutions is not prepared. Corruption and abuse of authority are major issues in village governance. Therefore, the village government must be able to apply the principle of accountability in village financial management, where all village government activities must be accountable to the village community.

Tracking the Development of COVID-19-related PsyArXiv Preprints

Given the need for a rapid and critical response from behavioural sciences during times of crisis, this study investigated the trajectory of all preprints posted to the repository PsyArXiv up to 19 May 2020 that were related to COVID-19 (n = 211). Specifically, we examined the trajectory, transparency, and diversity of these preprints as compared to PsyArXiv preprints unrelated to COVID-19 (n = 167) and articles published in psychology journal articles (n = 75) within the same time frame. Preprints related to COVID-19 had similar traction to published journal articles on COVID-19, but compared to preprints unrelated to COVID-19, the COVID-19 preprints were more likely to be subsequently published during a follow-up period (until 2 March 2021), were published more quickly, and received more citations. Preprints related to COVID-19 reported fewer open science practices than preprints unrelated to COVID-19, but more than COVID-19 journal articles. Primary affiliations for all preprints and journal articles predominantly originated from Western countries, but this was comparatively more for preprints (both related to and not related to COVID-19), even though preprints had more international authorship teams than journal articles. In conclusion, this study sheds light on preprint dissemination within the field of psychology amid the COVID-19 crisis, emphasising the swift spread, heightened probability of subsequent publication, and diverse adherence to open science practices among COVID-19-related preprints. These results underline the continual need for rigorous evaluation and advancement of scholarly communication practices, especially during periods of global urgency, to uphold transparency, diversity, and rigour in disseminating vital research findings.

The impact of variation evaluation practices in teaching from one professor to another due to the difference in academic qualifications among physical education and sports professors in secondary education in algeria

The impact of variation evaluation practices in teaching from one professor to another due to the difference in academic qualifications among physical education and sports professors in secondary education in algeria

Evaluation in Neural Style Transfer: A Review

AbstractThe field of neural style transfer (NST) has witnessed remarkable progress in the past few years, with approaches being able to synthesize artistic and photorealistic images and videos of exceptional quality. To evaluate such results, a diverse landscape of evaluation methods and metrics is used, including authors' opinions based on side‐by‐side comparisons, human evaluation studies that quantify the subjective judgements of participants, and a multitude of quantitative computational metrics which objectively assess the different aspects of an algorithm's performance. However, there is no consensus regarding the most suitable and effective evaluation procedure that can guarantee the reliability of the results. In this review, we provide an in‐depth analysis of existing evaluation techniques, identify the inconsistencies and limitations of current evaluation methods, and give recommendations for standardized evaluation practices. We believe that the development of a robust evaluation framework will not only enable more meaningful and fairer comparisons among NST methods but will also enhance the comprehension and interpretation of research findings in the field.

Cross-effects of cultural and gay capitals in access to refugee status on the grounds of SOGI in France: Study of the formal and informal preparations of West African men for asylum trials

Abstract According to literature, ethnocentric representations of homosexuality structure the decision to grant asylum, or not, on the ground of sexual orientation. This ethnocentric criticism has recently led to a technicalization of evaluation practices by asylum judges, which are now based on a narrative and discursive mastery, a field in which respondents are unequal depending on their cultural and gay capitals. While the assessment as such appears to be more equitable, Western norms of gender and sexuality, and practicing self-narrative through their prism, continue to impose themselves in different ways, particularly in formal associative accompaniment or in informal preparation for the refugee status determination process. A 2-fold ethnographic approach, attentive to associative backing and the daily experience of exile as formal and informal spaces of asylum preparation and identity formation, is used to analyse the manner in which cultural and gay capitals influence identity formation, preparation for asylum trials, and chances of obtaining refugee status.

Adverse drug events in cost-effectiveness models of pharmacological interventions for diabetes, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic macular edema: a scoping review.

The objective of this review was to examine the role of adverse drug events (ADEs) caused by pharmacological interventions in cost-effectiveness models for diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic macular edema. Guidelines for economic evaluation recognize the importance of including ADEs in the analysis, but in practice, consideration of ADEs in cost-effectiveness models seem to be vague. Inadequate inclusion of these harmful outcomes affects the reliability of the results, and the information provided by economic evaluation could be misleading. Reviewing whether and how ADEs are incorporated in cost-effectiveness models is necessary to understand the current practices of economic evaluation. Studies included were published between 2011-2022 in English, representing cost-effectiveness analyses using modeling framework for pharmacological interventions in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, or diabetic macular edema. Other types of analyses and other types of conditions were excluded. The databases searched included MEDLINE (PubMed), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and NHS Economic Evaluation Database. Gray literature was searched via the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, European Network for Health Technology Assessment, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment. The search was conducted on January 1, 2023. Titles and abstracts were screened for inclusion by 2 independent reviewers. Full-text review was conducted by 3 independent reviewers. A data extraction form was used to extract and analyze the data. Results were presented in tabular format with a narrative summary, and discussed in the context of existing literature and guidelines. A total of 242 reports were extracted and analyzed in this scoping review. For the included analyses, type 2 diabetes was the most common disease (86%) followed by type 1 diabetes (10%), diabetic macular edema (9%), and diabetic retinopathy (0.4%). The majority of the included analyses used a health care payer perspective (88%) and had a time horizon of 30 years or more (75%). The most common model type was a simulation model (57%), followed by a Markov simulation model (18%). Of the included cost-effectiveness analyses, 26% included ADEs in the modeling, and 13% of the analyses excluded them. Most of the analyses (61%) partly considered ADEs; that is, only 1 or 2 ADEs were included. No difference in overall inclusion of ADEs between the different conditions existed, but the models for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema more often omitted the ADE-related impact on quality of life compared with the models for diabetes mellitus. Most analyses included ADEs in the models as probabilities (55%) or as a submodel (40%), and the most common source for ADE incidences were clinical trials (65%). The inclusion of ADEs in cost-effectiveness models is suboptimal. The ADE-related costs were better captured than the ADE-related impact on quality of life, which was most pronounced in the models for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. Future research should investigate the potential impact of ADEs on the results, and identify the criteria and policies for practical inclusion of ADEs in economic evaluation.

Monitoring and Evaluation Practices on the Implementation of Educational Projects among Non-governmental Organizations in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Monitoring and Evaluation Practices on the Implementation of Educational Projects among Non-governmental Organizations in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Influence of monitoring and evaluation practices on the sustainability of donor-funded community water projects in Kismayu, Somalia

Influence of monitoring and evaluation practices on the sustainability of donor-funded community water projects in Kismayu, Somalia

Noted, but not decisive. A cross-disciplinary analysis of metrics usage in Polish evaluative cultures

Abstract Metrics-based reasoning patterns diffuse from core to periphery as peripheral and semi-peripheral countries adopt Western evaluation standards as formal categories or cultural scripts. While these scripts are applied across disciplines, each field maintains its own traditional criteria for scientific assessment. Consequently, scholars navigate between internalized and externally imposed evaluative frameworks when writing reviews. This study examines how metrics-based reasoning diffuses differently across disciplines through evaluative practices, with metrics being transformed and interpreted within the context of each field's unique evaluative culture. To compare diffusion patterns, this article analyzes 174 negative habilitation reviews across four Polish disciplines: art history, mathematics, materials engineering, and sociology. Despite uniform policy incentives, reviewers employed diverse criteria when assessing publication records. Materials engineering exhibited the most extensive use and emphasis on metrics, while art history relied minimally on indicators. Crucially, metrics were never the sole basis for negative conclusions but were consistently accompanied by additional forms of reasoning.

Formal authorship in the wake of uncertain futures: the narrative of publish or perish in the humanities

Abstract Publish or Perish has a variety of meanings. Most often, the term is understood as a reference to the material requirements of publishing relentlessly in order to make or advance a career in contemporary academia. In this article, I show that Publish or Perish is also a cultural narrative that appears to provide a formal rationalistic solution to the uncertainty of early career scholars. Funds are scarce, competition is fierce, the individual future within academia is unknown—the Publish or Perish narrative claims that if you just keep publishing, you can overcome these obstacles. This narrative is perpetuated among aspiring scholars and creates peer pressure where it exerts its power to a certain extent regardless of material requirements, especially in the humanities. Based on extensive discussion of literature and data from a qualitative study with humanities scholars in Germany and the UK, employing a cultural sociological approach, I trace the meaning of Publish or Perish as this narrative. I look at how it is passed on among early career scholars, and how senior scholars respond to it in situations of mentorship and supervision. This perspective emphasizes the importance of everyday situations that trigger anxiety, as well as the importance of mentorship as a crucial means of reducing this anxiety. This is pertinent to reforms of evaluation practices that tend to abstract from such mundane situations. The notion of the slippery slope (Hartmut Rosa) helps comprehend this anxiety.

How bibliometric evaluation makes the academia an ‘Iron Cage’: Evidence from Chinese academics

Abstract In response to the escalating reliance on bibliometrics for research evaluation within Chinese universities, this study delves into the far-reaching impact of this trend. Through comprehensive interviews with 15 academics from research-intensive universities encompassing diverse demographics, including gender, age, academic rank, and knowledge domains, the research sheds light on the consequences of bibliometric evaluation at individual and organizational levels. The findings expose how bibliometric evaluation practices can disrupt scholarly autonomy, undermine self-efficacy, erode motivation for innovative research, and trigger opportunistic behaviors among university academics. These outcomes, akin to the ‘Tragedy of the Commons,’ not only hinder institutional progress but also corrode the fabric of collegiality, and result in the performance paradox. The dominance of administrative logic over academic logic has transformed individual researchers and universities into participants in a system of administrative conformity, altering the essence of academic pursuit. Despite China’s earnest efforts to reform university research evaluation, the Chinese bibliometric evaluation sustains a cycle of self-reinforcement that impedes reform progress, particularly in terms of peer review. It is suggested that adopting a nurturing, nuanced approach to bibliometric evaluation is imperative for maintaining a harmonious academic ecosystem and fostering genuine societal advancement.

Integration Experiences of International Students: A Case Study of Sub-Saharan Students in a Moroccan School of Design and Engineering

An increasing number of international Students opt for studying at a university in a foreign country. It is believed that this mobility makes these students face academic and social integrating challenges in their new learning environment. In Morocco, thousands of students, who are scholarship-granted by the Moroccan government, coming from different countries, chiefly from Sub-Saharan Africa seek education in different universities of the kingdom. The main aim of this study extends its focus to explore two outcomes. Particularly, it investigates the social and academic integration experiences of a case study of international students undertaking an undergraduate programme at a Moroccan school of design and engineering along with the challenges these students encounter. Moreover, the study situates these experiences within the institutional conscious efforts that are implemented to achieve an integrational goal. Data were collected from a case study in spring 2019 by interviewing 20 Sub-Saharan students studying at the Moroccan Design and Technology engineering school in Meknes (ENSAM: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers) and 3 of the school staff members. Using thematic analysis and then interpretative phenomenology as a guiding framework to analyse and present the data, the findings revealed that the study's participants have experienced both their social and academic integrative patterns at the school in the same way. Indeed, three major themes were identified and analysed, namely, Programmes promoted by ENSAM on integration, relationship patterns between Sub-Saharan and Moroccan students and barriers to integration. The study revealed that the various integration efforts carried out by the school do not sufficiently cater for Sub-Saharan students' perspectives on their social and academic integration experiences. Additionally, staff knowledge regarding the integration of these minority groups is not adequately enhanced through pre-service training that covers best practices for successful integration. Language barrier and interaction patterns between Sub-Saharan students with their host ones are also found to influence Sub-Saharan students' social and academic integration. It is suggested that Moroccan Higher education institutions (HEIs) should acknowledge integration as a long and challenging process for Sub-Saharan students, and that an evaluation of integrative practices promoted at the school is needed.

Delineation of 12-Lead ECG Representative Beats Using Convolutional Encoder-Decoders with Residual and Recurrent Connections.

The aim of this study is to address the challenge of 12-lead ECG delineation by different encoder-decoder architectures of deep neural networks (DNNs). This study compares four concepts for encoder-decoders based on a fully convolutional architecture (CED-Net) and its modifications with a recurrent layer (CED-LSTM-Net), residual connections between symmetrical encoder and decoder feature maps (CED-U-Net), and sequential residual blocks (CED-Res-Net). All DNNs transform 12-lead representative beats to three diagnostic ECG intervals (P-wave, QRS-complex, QT-interval) used for the global delineation of the representative beat (P-onset, P-offset, QRS-onset, QRS-offset, T-offset). All DNNs were trained and optimized using the large PhysioNet ECG database (PTB-XL) under identical conditions, applying an advanced approach for machine-based supervised learning with a reference algorithm for ECG delineation (ETM, Schiller AG, Baar, Switzerland). The test results indicate that all DNN architectures are equally capable of reproducing the reference delineation algorithm's measurements in the diagnostic PTB database with an average P-wave detection accuracy (96.6%) and time and duration errors: mean values (-2.6 to 2.4 ms) and standard deviations (2.9 to 11.4 ms). The validation according to the standard-based evaluation practices of diagnostic electrocardiographs with the CSE database outlines a CED-Net model, which measures P-duration (2.6 ± 11.0 ms), PQ-interval (0.9 ± 5.8 ms), QRS-duration (-2.4 ± 5.4 ms), and QT-interval (-0.7 ± 10.3 ms), which meet all standard tolerances. Noise tests with high-frequency, low-frequency, and power-line frequency noise (50/60 Hz) confirm that CED-Net, CED-Res-Net, and CED-LSTM-Net are robust to all types of noise, mostly presenting a mean duration error < 2.5 ms when compared to measurements without noise. Reduced noise immunity is observed for the U-net architecture. Comparative analysis with other published studies scores this research within the lower range of time errors, highlighting its competitive performance.

Strategic Evaluation of Sustainable Practices for HVAC Systems in Small and Medium-Sized U.S. Manufacturers

Abstract This paper investigates the often overlooked yet crucial role of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in advancing sustainable manufacturing practices in the United States. Through all outcomes of the energy assessments conducted by the Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) in various industrial settings, the current study focuses on the energy consumption of HVAC systems and assesses the impact of their energy-efficient measures on the overall industrial energy usage. In-depth analysis covers both technological and economic facets of resource management practices, utilizing case studies and data from energy assessments on 20,818 small- and medium-sized manufacturing facilities. The results reveal substantial potential for reducing energy consumption, estimated at 71.9 million MMBtu per year, along with annual energy cost savings of approximately $744 million per year and a noteworthy mitigation of 8.7 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, all achievable through HVAC system improvements. These findings show the practical significance of sustainable HVAC practices and their potential to improve energy efficiency and mitigate the environmental impact within the manufacturing sector.