Expected Level Of Performance Research Articles

Seismic Performance Evaluation of Irregular Auditorium Building based on ASCE 41-23

This study discusses the seismic performance evaluation of an irregular auditorium building. The building is an educational facility which has roof span up to 46 meters, column height up to 10 meters, beam span up to 15 meters, cantilever up to 6.50 meters, 2 inclined columns with the angle up to 54.72°, and 1 transfer column with 1 transfer beam. The evaluation process was carried out using Tier 3 method with linear dynamic procedure which consisted of Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA) and Linear Time History Analysis (LTHA) according to ASCE 41-23 using SAP2000 subjected to short (S s ) and long (S ) period of earthquakes. The building is designed to Risk Category IV, which the target performance levels for structural components are Immediate Occupancy (IO) for Basic Safety Earthquake 1 for New Building (BSE-1N) and Life Safety (LS) for Basic Safety Earthquake 2 for New Building (BSE-2N). Even though the building had a torsional strength irregularity, the percentage of components with a Demand-Capacity Ratio value that did not meet the requirements was 9.87% of the total components; hence the linear procedure was assumed to be still applicable. Analyses showed that the average acceptance criteria ratio of the components with the RSA method was lower than with the LTHA method but the percentage of the components with acceptance criteria ratio exceeding 1 using RSA method was higher than using the LTHA method. In addition, the results indicated that the average performance level of the components was IO for BSE-1N and LS for BSE-2N, which both results had met the expected performance level targets. However, the maximum performance level of the components did not meet the IO performance level target for BSE-1N and did not meet the LS performance level target for BSE-2N.

The bright side and dark side of performance expectations: the role of organizational culture and the impact on employee performance and wellbeing

Organizational culture has the potential to contribute to employee performance and wellbeing when it creates reasonable expectations and provides employees with the necessary skills and other resources to succeed. A wide range of stakeholders inside and outside the organization influence performance expectations, which largely revolve around workload (the quantity, quality and timeliness of the tasks they are entrusted with), customer service, innovation, and internal relationships. Given the relative lack of attention paid in prior research to performance expectations as an element of organizational culture, our qualitative study sought to investigate the sources and types of expectations of employees and the impact on their actual performance and wellbeing. We focused on the finance industry, which has received considerable criticism in various countries in terms of the undue pressure exerted on employees and the effects on their stress levels. It was therefore surprising to find that most of our New Zealand participants felt that expected performance levels were reasonable, apart from the extra but temporary demands created by the Covid-19 pandemic, and that their wellbeing was a genuine concern to their employers. We signal new research directions to explore how organizations can shape cultures where performance expectations lead to good results and staff wellbeing.

Organizational resilience of audit firms – evidence from the outbreak of the COVID-19

PurposeThis paper examines the organizational resilience of audit firms during the early stages of COVID-19. The unexpected restrictions placed on travel and on-site working created unanticipated barriers for auditors in Hong Kong. The authors expect that auditors with greater organizational resilience can respond to unexpected situations and restore expected performance levels relatively quickly.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilize a sample of 1,008 companies listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) with a financial year-end of December 31. The authors identify five proxies contributing to organizational resilience: auditor size, industry specialization, diversity, geographic proximity to the client and auditing a new client. The authors use audit report timeliness as this study's main dependent variable.FindingsThis study's full-sample results suggest that larger auditors, industry specialists and auditors with closer relationships to clients issued more timely audit reports during the pandemic. The analysis of a subsample of companies that initially published unaudited financial statements reveals that industry expertise and longer auditor-client relationships significantly reduced the need for year-end audit adjustments. Finally, the authors find that larger auditors were more likely to offload clients, whereas industry specialists were more likely to retain clients.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of the paper suggests that audit firm characteristics associated cognitive abilities, behavioral characteristics and contextual conditions are associated with audit firm organizational resilience and, consequently, helps auditors respond unexpected changes in the audit environment.Practical implicationsThe findings of the paper are informative for those involved in audit firm management or auditor hiring and retention decisions.Originality/valueThis study is the first to link organizational resilience to the performance of audit firms in a time of unexpected events. The authors connect three auditor and two auditor-client dimensions to the organizational resilience of the audit firms.

Using Stocks and Flows Diagrams to Understand Business Process Behavior

Business Process Modeling has traditionally focused on the activities and logic of how work is carried out. This is depicted through modeling notations like BPMN, which illustrate the sequence of activities, performers, and possible paths for each process instance. However, when measuring the performance of an organization and its processes, the aggregation of results from individual instances is often necessary. Unfortunately, these flows are not always smooth, as they may encounter variations, delays, accumulations, and other issues that can hinder expected performance levels. Therefore, understanding the behavior of business processes over time is crucial for improvement efforts. This paper demonstrates the use of stocks and flows diagrams for modeling business processes and simulating their behavior over time. Simulations aid in identifying critical points, removing bottlenecks, and enhancing overall process performance. We begin with a brief introduction to modeling business processes using stocks and flows diagrams, followed by a real-life case study in the healthcare sector, where stocks and flows models and simulations were employed to identify and resolve a problem.

Influence of Self-Regulated Learning on the Academic Performance of Engineering Students in a Blended-Learning Environment

The pandemic environment experienced for more than two years strongly accelerated the use of technological resources to support learning. Using these resources made it evident that higher education students expecting to succeed academically must master digital strategies. The combination of learning experiences and autonomous work required students to selfregulate their learning well to attain the expected performance levels for competitive work that characterizes the engineering profession. So, we designed an exploratory study to evaluate the effect of self-regulated learning on mechanical design students in a Blended Learning (BL) environment using Flipped Learning/Classroom didactics (FPC). Fifty-one students studying under two different educational-model curricula participated. The research employed a mixed methodology. For the quantitative part, the students’ academic grades and results of the Motivation and Learning Strategies Questionnaire (MSLQ SF) applied in its short Spanish version were employed. A questionnaire for self-study management and a competency observation rubric based on the Marzano & Kendall New Taxonomy were used for the qualitative part. The results showed that the students with the best levels of self-regulated learning in BL and FPC contexts obtained the best results in cognitive, organizational, and motivational resource management strategies. They also improved their disciplinary skills and had a higher academic performance.

DOES DYSFUNCTIONAL PRESENTEEISM AFFECT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE? EVIDENCE FROM UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN KHULNA REGION

With respect to performance, presenteeism can be functional if the individual can continue to work without leading to any significant lessening of work performance, or dysfunctional if one is unable to continue working at the expected performance level. At academic level, dysfunctional presenteeism refers to the situation when students are physically present in class but are to some extent unable to connect themselves mentally with academic affairs. This study tries to identify the factors responsible for such situation and trace its effect on academic performance among university students. A total of 168 students from Khulna University are taken as samples by applying systematic random sampling procedure. Dysfunctional presenteeism score (DPS) for students are estimated to measure productivity loss and the GPA score has been used to capture students’ academic performance. Different statistical measures and econometric models like ordinary least squares (OLS) and Tobit model have been used as analytical tools to reach the research objective. OLS analysis demonstrates that, social media usage, involvement in organizations, late night sleeping habits and exhaustion score have significant positive impact on DPS score and habit of hygiene practices and lifestyle scores have significant negative impacts on DPS scores. Tobit regression analysis demonstrates that, mother’s education level, residence type, study hours and lifestyle score have significant positive impact on academic performance but time needed to go to university, exhaustion score and DPS have significant negative impacts on academic performance. Therefore, this study suggests improving food quality, reducing class pressure and maintaining regular study routine for developing healthy lifestyle; and, thus, improves academic performance of the students.

Rethinking the evaluation of solar photovoltaic projects under YieldCo mode: A real option perspective

Many corporations invest in solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to mitigate climate change. However, lack of capital poses a great challenge to the development of the solar PV industry. YieldCos that are a financial tool to securitize assests for renewable energy corporations were introduced to alleviate the financial pressure, but their achievements are unable to meet the expected performance level. Therefore, a question araises: Can YieldCos promote the development of solar PV industry? To solve this issue, this paper utilized a real option method to investigate whether YieldCos can facilitate the deployment of solar PV projects and their impact on decision-making processes. Based on the solution obtained from the real option model, we explore the impacts of decisive factors on the defer option value, investment threshold and expected execution time. The joint impacts of the dividend ratio and other factors are also investigated. We conclude that YieldCos are suitable for solar PV projects, while a high dividend ratio will make investors postpone their investments. In addition, by using the technological level to represent the drift term of investment, we further discuss how decision-makers should react to the potential technological innovation. Moreover, we also discuss the impacts of potential declines in feed-in tariffs on investors’ behaviour. We conclude that YieldCos can promote the development of solar PV in China as it can urge investors to invest at an early stage. Related policy recommendations are also proposed.

First Experiments with CRYRING@ESR

The low-energy heavy ion storage ring CRYRING was transported from Stockholm to Darmstadt, modernized and reconfigured, and recommissioned as CRYRING@ESR. The machine is now in operation with all installations in service and is available as a user facility for experiments proposed through the SPARC collaboration. During the 2020–2022 period, we brought a number of experimental installations into service and used them to measure first data: the ultra-cold electron cooler for merged-beam electron–ion collisions, the gas jet target for atomic collisions, a next-generation microcalorimeter-based X-ray spectroscopy setup, and others. Ions can be injected either in low charge states from a local ion source through a 300 keV/u RFQ linac, or in high charge states from the GSI accelerator chain through ESR. This allows for very broad access to ions across the entire periodic table. CRYRING@ESR is able to de- or accelerate ions and cool and store beams of isotopically pure species in a desired charge state. While the analysis is still largely ongoing, the first experimental data already show that the machine reached its expected performance level, and our high expectations regarding achievable resolution in spectroscopy experiments have been fulfilled. With access to new classes of ions available through ESR injection and a new generation of experimental instrumentation, CRYRING@ESR is a unique facility for experiments with heavy, highly charged ions. Here, we will review our present setup and machine performance, discuss the data from our first commissioning experiments and briefly preview the upcoming new installations for the coming years.

Quality and Risk Management in Industrial Production Systems: A Literature Review

Abstract Nowadays quality management and specific tools can represent a challenge in SMEs (small and medium enterprises). To assure the expected quality of the products, SPC (statistical process control) combined with industry 4.0 specifics offer instantaneous responses and triggers for needed actions. Therefore, risk analyses are used as enablers for quality-oriented behaviour, and risk mitigation and identification, together with collected data, represent a comprehensive system that leads enterprises to achieve the expected performance level needed to remain competitive in the market. In addition, risk management and quality management cannot be treated without looking at the maintenance activities and policies which can have a considerable impact on those two. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the papers from the quality management sector and articles where risk management and maintenance are seen as facilitators for quality improvement with an impact on the performance level. The main contribution of each paper is listed in the table which simplifies the reader’s access to the work done in the field and the overview presented enables easy access to trends in this field and offers a starting point for future research by presenting the gaps.

Empirical Performance Levels of Strengthened Masonry Buildings Struck by the 2016 Central Italy Earthquake: Proposal of a New Taxonomy

ABSTRACT The complexity of the historical built environment may be reduced by discretizing buildings in types. At urban scale, typological classifications feed vulnerability models. Several literature procedures define types by the evaluation of constructive, geometrical, and structural features, but none seems to consider improving or upgrading interventions. These are the expected performance levels prescribed by seismic codes for strengthening existing masonry buildings. Notwithstanding, the 2016 Central Italy earthquake revealed the potentially detrimental role of interventions on the seismic behaviour of a building. A new performance-based taxonomy of masonry buildings is here proposed starting from the analysis of 2306 inspected dwellings struck by that event. Building features, i.e., masonry and diaphragm types, were matched to strengthening techniques, thus obtaining a preliminary description of that sample. The empirical evidence showed the performance levels of buildings with interventions, which were graded in four categories: upgrading and improvement, downgrading and worsening depending on their compliance with the box-like behaviour. Therefore, an expansion of the coded possible performance levels was found. Those levels entered the final taxonomy of the sample, yielding 15 robust performance-based types, which were cross-validated through the analysis of their most common damage mechanisms.

Organizational Resilience of Audit Firms - Evidence from the Outbreak of COVID-19

This paper examines the organizational resilience of audit firms during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unexpected restrictions to travelling and on-site working imposed unanticipated barriers for auditors in Hong Kong. Management research suggests that companies with more organizational resilience can respond to and learn from unexpected situations and resume expected performance levels or even create new opportunities. Using a sample of firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), we examine auditor-client characteristics contributing to organizational resilience. Firstly, our full-sample results suggest that larger auditors, industry specialists and auditors with closer relationships to clients have more timely audit reports during the COVID-19 outbreak. Second, analyzing a subsample of companies that initially had to publish unaudited financial statements, we find evidence that industry expertise and longer auditor-client relationship significantly reduced the need for year-end audit adjustments. These findings provide unique evidence of audit firm characteristics associated with capacity for organizational resilience and maintaining expected performance levels. Moreover, examining auditor resignations we find that larger auditors were more likely to offload clients, whereas industry specialists were more likely to keep the clients that operate within their specialization. Finally, we do not find any evidence that investors would price having more resilient auditors. To conclude, our findings indicate that during the unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic larger auditors, industry specialists, and auditors with closer ties to the clients, exhibit higher levels of resilience and are able maintain the expected performance levels.

Handwriting Readiness among Digital Native Kindergarten Students

Aims: Handwriting is an essential life skill, impacted by proficiency in visual-motor integration and fine motor control. The increase in the use of digital technology has changed the way children interact with their environments, and potentially, the development of the important requisite skills for handwriting. This study examined the “handwriting readiness” skills of children born in the digital age. Methods: 219 children in their first year of formal schooling (mean age = 5 years, 10 months), completed the Beery Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (Beery-VMI) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) Short Form to assess visual motor integration, overall motor proficiency, and fine motor proficiency. Pencil grasp was also observed. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics and comparison to established normative data using summary t-tests. Results: Participants met the expected performance level on the Beery-VMI and the manual dexterity subtest of the BOT-2. However, overall motor proficiency on the BOT-2 for our sample was lower than published normative data. Further, 60.3% of participants used static pencil grasps. Conclusions: The findings prompt us to question the potential contribution of digital technology to changes in motor performance among children in the digital age.

Reliability and failure mechanism of a slope with non-stationarity and rotated transverse anisotropy in undrained soil strength

Natural soils often exhibit rotated transverse anisotropy due to various geological processes (e.g., tectonic movement, filling and soil deposition), and the trend of soil strength usually changes with depth. This study combines rotated transverse anisotropy with non-stationary random field (RF) to investigate the reliability and failure mechanism of a slope under undrained conditions. Two scenarios of non-stationary RF are considered: (a) the trend of soil strength increases along depth; (b) the trend increases along the direction perpendicular to bedding. It is found that the expected performance levels of slope reliability would be significantly different under different directions of the trend. When the undrained shear strength increases along the direction perpendicular to bedding, the changes of slope reliability and sliding consequence would be sensitive to the dip angle of strata. Besides, the failure mechanism can be affected by the direction of the trend and strata orientation. Generally, shallow failure is more likely to occur on the dip slope when soil strength increases along the direction perpendicular to bedding, while for reverse slope with soil strength increasing perpendicularly to the bedding, deep failure mechanism is significantly dominant.

Emerging Neuropathophysiological and Acid-base Disorder in Coronavirus Disease-19: A Close Look at Diagnostic Prospect in Containment Operations

The two major barriers militating against rapid containment of the spread of coronavirus (CoV) disease (COVID)-19 include lack of effective contact tracing and the failure to detect and diagnose the infection early. Lack of diagnostic tools for early diagnosis has contributed to the bane of the current wild spread of COVID-19 and its containment. The current chest computed tomography (CT) for COVID-19 screening, an evolving technique, is arguably reported to have 97% diagnostic sensitivity over the viral polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that has detection of 70%. However, CT has largely been criticized as speculative and thus generates disagreement among various international radiology societies and organizations. Until now, nucleic acid detection by real-time PCR (advanced with next-generation sequencing) remains the gold standard test and clinical diagnosis technique for COVID-19. The use of this method in diagnoses, while it is more precise, is also time-consuming and may not meet the goal of rapid detection of early infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2. Although many available tests, such as other PCR-based, serology, isothermal nucleic amplification, and among others, are coming up, the testing accuracy and/or timeliness have hampered their expected performance level. As a result, there is still a need to develop more methods to detect the current spread of COVID-19 rapidly. COVID-19 is now associated with olfactory dysfunctions in several reports. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) established that anosmia is a notable symptom of COVID-19. Furthermore, acute systemic acidosis has been associated with COVID-19. This report critically discusses the potential pathophysiologies of COVID-19 in association with neuropathological and acid-base disorders and their prospect for diagnostics.

Accurate Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling Measurement for Low-Power Microcontrollors in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) began to permeate all facets of life thanks to low cost, inherent intelligent-processing capability, simple installation, flexible networking and low energy consumption characteristics. Also, the evaluation of real-world applications on different platforms can solve the implementation problems and contribute to broadening the spectrum of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the microcontroller's average consumption of a wireless sensor node through architectural and design processes using advanced technologies. This paper provides a state-of-the-art investigation on the most up-to date Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques. A benchmark is given to choose the appropriate DVFS technique according to the type of component, the time and resources constraints, the application requirements, the expected performance level, etc. An energy-saving design is implemented using an ultra-low power microcontroller MSP430 and is based on the DVFS strategy. To efficiently quantify the consumed energy and to ensure more accuracy, a new concept is introduced, which is the normalized power to offer more accuracy. Real voltage/frequency scaling measurement were conducted. We show that a high voltage/frequency can lead to up to 57% increase of the normalized-power.

Çalışanın Stres Düzeyi ile İş Performansı Arasında Bir İlişki Var mı? Eczacılık Mesleğine Yönelik Bir Literatür Taraması

Eczacılık mesleğindeki stres kavramının son yıllarda, özellikle iş yükünün artmasıyla birlikte, bilimsel çalışmaların dikkatini çekmeye başladığı söylenebilir. Stresin çalışan ve kuruluş üzerinde birçok olumlu veya olumsuz etkisi olabilir. Olumsuz etkisi olan bir stres, çalışanın enerji kaybetmesine ve hatta tükenmesine neden olabilir. Çalışanın iş performansını olumlu etkileyen stres “pozitif”, iş performansını olumsuz etkileyen stres “negatif” olarak değerlendirilebilir. Bu çalışmada, eczacının ya da eczane çalışanının stres düzeyi ile iş performansı arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesi amacıyla, ScienceDirect, Proquest ve Google Scholar online veri tabanları üzerinde bir literatür taraması yapılmıştır. Literatür taraması sonucunda, eczacılık mesleğindeki çalışanların stres düzeyi ile iş performansı arasındaki ilişkiyi doğrudan inceleyen çalışmalara rastlanılmamasına rağmen, yapılan diğer çalışma sonuçlarında eczacı ya da eczane çalışanındaki stresin iş performansını da azalttığına ilişkin ilişkileri ortaya koyan çok sınırlı sayıda çalışmaya rastlanılmıştır. Alan yazın incelendiğinde, eczacılık mesleğindeki çalışanların yoğun işlerinden ve beklenilen performans düzeyinden dolayı strese maruz kaldıkları ve bu durumun iş performans düzeyini de olumsuz yönde etkilediği belirlenmiştir. Bununla birlikte, stresin sadece iş performansı ile sınırlı kalmayıp, aynı zamanda yaptığı işten tatmin olamama, yaptığı işe göre kazancını düşük olarak görme, çalışma saatlerini fazla görüp bunu bir yük olarak değerlendirme gibi olumsuz olarak nitelendirilebilecek algıya da yol açtığı gözlenmiştir

A positive energy building for the Middle East climate: ReStart4Smart Solar House at Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018

Abstract The city of Dubai (UAE), in accordance with its program of transformation into one of the most smart and sustainable cities, hosted the 2018 edition of Solar Decathlon, the first in the Middle East (SDME 2018). The harsh climate of UAE, along with the booming construction industry and energy consumptions and CO2 emissions among the world’s highest, tasked participating university teams to find innovative solutions able to drive the region building sector towards a more sustainable future. Sapienza University of Rome participated, representing Italy, to SDME 2018 with the project ReStart4Smart, a full scale prototype of a single family energy positive smart home specifically designed for the Middle East climate and fully consistent with the Arab culture. This article examines the ReStart4Smart project in terms of energy strategies, architectural concept and technological solutions adopted, in order to verify, through a detailed analysis of energy simulations and monitoring carried out on the prototype built in Dubai, the expected performance levels. Results achieved demonstrate how the Restart4 Smart project represents, consistently with the Arab tradition, a valid proposal for zero-energy intelligent housing, perfectly responsive to the social demand emerging from the populations of the Middle East.

Media Casting as a Service: Industries Convergence Opportunity and Caching Service for 5G Indoor gNB

Fifth-Generation (5G) mobile networks are expected to perform according to the stringent performance targets assigned by standardization committees. Therefore, significant changes are proposed to the network infrastructure to achieve the expected performance levels. Network Function Virtualization, cloud computing and Software Defined Networks are some of the main technologies being utilised to ensure network design, with optimum performance and efficient resource utilization. The aforementioned technologies are shifting the network architecture into service-based rather device-based architecture. In this regard, we introduce Media Casting as a service (MCaaS) and IoRL-Cache service (IoRL-C). The former is a service that proposed as an integration solution between the broadcasting industry and Mobile Network Operators, while the latter proposed as a solution for improving IoRL small-cells caching efficiency. IoRL is an emerging 5G small-cell for indoor environment, which utilises mmWave and Visible Light Communications (VLC) as access technologies, while exploiting Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) technologies to offer flexible and intelligent services to its clients. In this paper, we introduce MCaaS and IoRL-C services, we perform simulation work for testing IoRL-C as a proof of concept for both services. The network was simulated using OMNeT++ simulation tool, and we validated the services efficiency by comparing their performance with traditional deployments. We have also examined the cache service performance at different link lengths, and found out that IoRL-C is able to support IoRL small-cells with more than 50+Km separation distances.

A Tool-Based Framework to Assess and Challenge the Responsiveness of Emergency Call Centers

Emergency call centers (ECCs) are upstream of the prehospital emergency medical system and the life of many people depends on their effectiveness and responsiveness. This notwithstanding, the way their operations are organized and managed differs from one place to another. Also, depending on the number of incoming calls and available resources, they can operate differently. In the face of these heterogeneous situations, some ECCs do not always meet the expected performance levels: people still wait for too long before their call is answered. Moreover, they may have difficulties in managing an important upsurge of calls, especially in periods of crisis. Therefore, to support ECCs' organizational improvement steps, this article aims to develop a tool-based framework that would enable to make clear and objective diagnoses, especially as regards responsiveness. Our proposal allows considering both nominal (normal days) and exceptional (crisis days) demands. It is based on data science, process mining, and discrete event simulation tools. By experimenting it on a French real case, the results show that such a tool-based framework can be very valuable for improving the performance of ECC organizational setups in both normal and disrupted situations.

Feature Correlation Measure Based Real Time Discrimination Prevention with Transactional Data Sets using Social Networks

The effect of social network in anti-discrimination has been analyzed in detail.Various approaches towards anti-discrimination on transactional data have been identified, but does not produced expected performance level. To improve the performance, a feature correlation measure based approach has been presented in this article. The method reads the transactional data set and generates number of patterns based on the purchase details. For each pattern generated, the method estimate pattern impact measure towards the data set. Based on the value of PIM (Pattern Impact Measure), a subset of patterns is selected. With the selected pattern set, the method reads the social network user data and identifies the list of items being discussed. According to identified items, the method estimates the feature correlation measure (FCM) for each items identified. According to the value of FCM, a subset of items with higher value has been selected. The selected items are identified as more sensitive and being sanitized with the publishing data set. The sanitization is performed using probabilistic sanitization algorithm. The FCM algorithm has leverage the discrimination prevention and sanitization performance.