General Evaluation Process Research Articles

Evaluation of Quality Research in Italy: a comparison between different models adopted in the past

The fourth research quality evaluation (VQR4) recently launched by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) is now an integral part of the general evaluation process of Italian universities. After an introduction to the concept of evaluation, the previous VQR, known as VQR3, is critically examined through studies by authors who played a predominant role in it. It appears that, with each exercise, the methodologies have been refined, the scope has significantly expanded, and researchers have become increasingly familiar with the processes.

Damage mechanism and assessment of precast double-column bridge piers under blast impact

This paper aims to investigate the damage mechanism of precast double-column bridge piers under blast impact and propose a new damage evaluation method. The three-dimensional solid separation model of a pier column under explosion actions is established using ANSYS/LS-DYNA, and the accuracy of the numerical simulation method is verified by the existing experimental results. Subsequently, numerical experiments of the double-column bridge piers under explosions are carried out. The damage accumulation process and local failure mechanism are investigated with the analyses of the propagation of stress waves in concrete. In addition, the criteria containing residual bearing capacity and local damage are introduced in the damage assessment, aiming to evaluate the explosion damage degree of bridge piers comprehensively. The P-I (pressure-impulse) curves of precast double-column piers are established, based on the overpressure-impulse damage assessment method by Henrych’s empirical formula. The general evaluation process and method of double-column bridge piers under blast impacts are proposed and verified. The research results provide important insights and references for the anti-blast design of precast double-column piers and their bridge systems.

Developing an Evaluation Framework for Selecting Optimal Medical Devices

The objective of this study is to summarize the current general evaluation process that stakeholders use to evaluate single or multiple medical devices to select the optimal medical device. This study constructed a novel evaluation framework to select the optimal medical device by overcoming the limitations of assessments that were previously confined to the medical device cycle and the purpose of the specific assessment. It also presents a general framework for incorporating usability evaluations into the frame to reflect the objectives and characteristics of key stakeholders in the medical device industry. In addition, the results of medical device evaluation are further analyzed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).

ROLE OF SPORTS ACTIVITIES IN THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS OF STREET CHILDREN (A PILOT STUDY)

This article deals with the socio- cultural and socio- economical features of the street children and the effect of sport activities upon their socialization. The study was carried out upon 133 children who live or work in the streets of Ankara with or without home fitting perfectly well in the description of “street children” who had been involved in sports at various degrees before... the data were collected by the use of the 69 question socialization scale developed by Sahan (2007). The data obtained were evaluated by the use of SPSS statistical software. The data were first subjected to frequency analysis and listed in tabular manner. The percentage of the variables in the sample was determined and the features of the sample were first subjected to a general evaluation process. Then the analysis process to be applied to hypotheses was started and the raw data were evaluated by the use of Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis Nonparametric Test. It was concluded that here was not a statistically significant difference between the socialization levels of the children interested and not interested in sports according to gender and the income levels of the families. On the other hand, there was significant difference in the socialization levels of the children if the interest in sports and family income parameters are considered together. Article visualizations:

Usage of an ıntelligent software system in teaching algorithm and flowchart concepts

Objective of this work is to introduce an Artificial Intelligence supported educational software system, which has been developed for teaching important subjects of computer programming: algorithm and flowchart concepts, and touch upon the findings, which were obtained for evaluating success of the system. The software system introduced in the work is tightly connected to the rule of teaching essential computer programming concepts, but ensures this task in the context of an Artificial Intelligence supported, intelligent mechanism. In order to have idea about whether the software is an effective teaching tool or not, a general evaluation process has been planned; students subjected to the work have been taken into this process. Findings obtained via evaluation process have shown that the developed software system is successful at effectively teaching the algorithmic thinking logic, which is the essential focus, and algorithm - flowchart concepts. Additionally, it is also possible to express that the software system has improved students' success rates in the courses related to essentials of computer programming and students have found both software and the performed educational processes pretty effective.

Integrating gray system theory and logistic regression into case-based reasoning for safety assessment of thermal power plants

Safety assessment of thermal power plants (TPPs) is one of the important means to guarantee the safety of production in thermal power production enterprises. Due to various technical limitations, existing assessment approaches, such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP), Monte Carlo methods, artificial neural network (ANN), etc., are unable to meet the requirements of the complex security assessment of TPPs. Currently, most of the security assessments of TPP are completed by the means of experts’ evaluations. Accordingly, the assessment conclusions are greatly affected by the subjectivity of the experts. Essentially, the evaluation of power plant systems relies to a large extent on the knowledge and length of experience of the experts. Therefore in this domain case-based reasoning (CBR) is introduced for the security assessment of TPPs since this methodology models expertise through experience management. Taking the management system of TPPs as breakthrough point, this paper presents a case-based approach for the Safety assessment decision support of TPPs (SATPP). First, this paper reviews commonly used approaches for TPPs security assessment and the current general evaluation process of TPPs security assessment. Then a framework for the Management System Safety Assessment of Thermal Power Plants (MSSATPP) is constructed and an intelligent decision support system for MSSATPP (IDSS-MSSATPP) is functionally designed. IDSS-MSSATPP involves several key technologies and methods such as knowledge representation and case matching. A novel case matching method named Improved Gray CBR (IGCBR) has been developed in which a statistical approach (logistic regression) and Gray System theory are integrated. Instead of applying Gray System theory directly, it has been improved to integrate it better into CBR. In addition this paper describes an experimental prototype system of IDSS-MSSATPP (CBRsys-TPP) in which IGCBR is integrated. The experimental results based on a MSSATPP data set show that CBRsys-TPP has high accuracy and systematically good performance. Further comparative studies with several other common classification approaches also show its competitive power in terms of accuracy and the synergistic effects of the integrated components.

A general multi-level evaluation process for hybrid MADM with uncertainty

Based on an evidential reasoning framework, a general multilevel evaluation process is developed in this paper for dealing with a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problem with both quantitative and qualitative attributes. In this new process, a qualitative attribute may be evaluated by uncertain subjective judgments through multiple levels of factors and each of the judgments may be assigned by single or multiple experts in any rational way within the evidential reasoning framework. The qualitative attributes can then be quantified by means of general evaluation analysis and evidential reasoning. A few evaluation analysis models and the corresponding evidential reasoning algorithms are explored for parallel combination and hierarchical propagation of factor evaluations. With all the qualitative attributes being quantified by this rational process, the MADM problem represented by an extended decision matrix is then transformed into an ordinary decision matrix, which can be dealt with using a traditional MADM method. This new general evaluation process and the hybrid decision making procedure are demonstrated using a multiple attribute motor cycle evaluation problem with uncertainty. >