Integrated Performance Evaluation Research Articles

Considering product life cycle characteristics and industry background in environmental impact analysis and application: a case study of a television.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used to evaluate product's life cycle environmental impact and identify the environmental weaknesses. However, it is difficult for existing LCA software to perform flexible LCA analysis based on the product life cycle characteristics and industry background. Meanwhile, under the existing LCA research model, product designers and manufacturers are usually not LCA evaluators, resulting in a certain time gap between the evaluation results and product improvement. Designers with less experience in green design often find it difficult to identify high environmental impact links in products at different life cycle stages and product levels, and updated products are challenging to meet various environmental restrictions. This paper establishes a multi-module product life cycle analysis model that combines product industry background that includes basic information, assessment information, structural information, and restriction information to achieve the multi-scenario of product LCA in different dimensions in a typical domain. The calculated mechanism of the dynamic power emission factor is built according to the service time and space dimensions. The proposed method forms an integrated environmental performance evaluation of household appliance (EPEHA) system. A software assessment and an optimization method are proposed to improve the EPEHA system. The results of this study show that these proposed methods can improve the timeliness and diversity of results analysis of product LCA in the field of household appliances in China. The universal data exchange format and simple operation interface of the EPEHA system enable people related to the product to quickly understand the environmental impact of the product in different scenarios, even if they lack green design knowledge and professional software training.

생태중심의 지속가능발전교육 실천을 위한 통합교육과정 설계

The purpose of this study is as follows. First, it is to examine the theoretical background of the integrated curriculum for ecological-oriented ESD practice. Second, in order to revitalize ESD, it is to design integrated curriculum activities for ESD practice. To this end, the theoretical background of the integrated curriculum for ESD practice was presented in three aspects: ecological-oriented education, complexity education, and community-based learning. Next, an integrated curriculum activities for ESD practice were designed for the 2022 revised high school curriculum, and examples of activities were presented by selecting two or more of the 5Ps of SDGs as common topics. Three projects were presented: “Human Life for Me and Us,” “The World Around Me, Cooperation for the Earth,” and “Effort for a Sustainable Future,” and the integrated performance evaluation activities for each project were presented. The projects presented in this study can be carried out in connection with democratic citizenship education and ecological-oriented education, and students can develop attitudes and practical skills to implement local problems in connection with their lives as ecological citizens.

Surface decorated cement-bonded particleboards from wood residues: An integrated performance evaluation

The disadvantages of cement-bonded particleboards (CBPBs) such as dark colour, bad surface roughness and low comfort performance severely limited their application in architectural interior decoration. Here, polyurethane (PU) and Birch veneer were applied to fabricate surface decorated CBPBs for further enhancing their decoration performances. PU- and Birch veneer-decorated CBPBs were successfully produced with graceful appearances. The mechanical property, thermal conductivity, and flame-retardant performances of surface decorated CBPBs were investigated. Results revealed that the veneer-decorated CBPBs exhibited higher modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) than the Original CBPBs, whereas the PU-decorated CBPBs did not demonstrate any improvement in these properties. Moreover, the surface decorated CBPBs displayed superior thermal insulation performances in comparison to the Original CBPBs with the lowest thermal conductivity being ∼0.1 W·m−1·K−1. The cone calorimeter test indicated that the flame retardancy of CBPBs would decrease after surface decoration due to the inherent flammability of PU and Birch veneer, but the combustion could remain confined to the surface layer. The cement-wood ratio exerts a noteworthy influence on the thickness swelling (TS), MOR and MOE of Veneer-decorated CBPBs. As the ratio elevated from 1.0 to 2.0, a substantial reduction in TS was observed, concomitant with a notable increase in both MOR and MOE. Overall, this study presented a simple and practical approach for the utilization of CBPBs as architectural interior decoration with higher mechanical properties and lower thermal conductivity.

Enhancing Public Financial Management through Performance Evaluation and Cost Systems

Purpose: This study aims to explore public financial management (PFM) through performance evaluation and cost systems, seeking to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of managing public funds. The study highlights the importance of integrating performance evaluation and cost systems to achieve optimal resource allocation and transparency in attaining societal objectives. Research Design and Methodology: This research employs a qualitative approach through a literature review. The research process involves systematic searches of relevant literature, thematic analysis, and synthesis of findings from various studies. The focus is on the design, implementation, and impact of performance evaluation and cost systems in PFM and the challenges and opportunities encountered in their application. Findings and Discussion: The findings indicate that integrating performance evaluation and cost systems can improve public financial management by providing more comprehensive information for decision-making. This integration enables governments to allocate resources more efficiently, identify areas for improvement, and enhance transparency and accountability in managing public funds. However, the study also identifies challenges related to data availability, organizational complexity, and cultural resistance to change. Implications: This study has a practical impact on governments and policymakers in optimizing public financial management. Investment in data infrastructure, capacity-building, and change management strategies is necessary to overcome challenges in implementing integrated performance evaluation and cost systems. Furthermore, the study encourages further research to explore these integrated systems' long-term impact and sustainability in different contexts.

Integrated Performance Evaluation of Aerogel-Based Fibre-Enhanced Thermal Renders Applied on Building Walls.

In this work, aerogel renders were enhanced with fibres for use in new building walls, emphasising a Mediterranean climate. The main novelty of the study relies on an integrated evaluation of the aerogel-based fibre-enhanced thermal renders from environmental, energy and economic approaches. Therefore, optimum insulation thicknesses, life cycle savings, payback periods, abiotic depletion potential from fossil fuels (ADP-ff) and global warming potential (GWP) impacts were quantified as a function of the energy consumption. The cost optimisation of aerogel-based renders enabled a reduction from 2477.4 to 1021.7 EUR∙m-3 for the reference formulation, and the sisal-optimised render led to the best-integrated performance. A higher DD* (degree-days equivalent) led to higher optimum thicknesses (the Azores required 0.02 m and 0.01 m and Bragança 0.06 m and 0.03 m for cost-optimised and non-optimised thermal renders with sisal fibre, respectively). The optimum thickness related to the ADP-ff and GWP impacts was higher, 0.04 m for the Azores and 0.09 m for Bragança. A steeper decrease in the annual energy consumption occurred for thermal renders up to 0.02 m in the Azores and 0.04 m in Bragança. Aerogel-based fibre-enhanced thermal renders had benefits, mainly from 600 DD* onwards.

An integrated care pathway for maternal and childcare: evidence from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda

Abstract Performance monitoring and evaluation are key to quality improvement in maternal and child healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study presents the experience of designing and implementing bottom-up and integrated performance evaluation tools for care pathway to monitor and manage maternity healthcare services. The research project involved four health districts and relative reference hospitals, supported by the NGO Doctors with Africa CUAMM in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. The maternal and childcare pathway developed consists of 23 indicators, calculated at hospital and district level, relating to pregnancy, childbirth and first year of life phases. The authors developed staves and performance maps, as graphical representation tools, to display longitudinally integrated health services provision performance along the continuum of care. Substantial variation was observed between the phases of each maternal and childcare pathway and across the care pathways of the different analysed settings. The most impressive results across the four settings are: 1) regarding pregnancy phase, that women tend to attend more than four antenatal classes, still with a quite high drop-out rate, and are largely tested for syphilis, 2) with respect to childbirth, that there are varying percentage levels in terms of C-sections, episiotomies and peri/intra-partum asphyxia cases, and 3) as it regards first year of life, there emerges scope for improvement considering the vaccination coverages attained for pentavalent, measles and polio vaccinations. Thanks to the collaboration with local managers and health professionals, the maternal and childcare pathway allowed to monitor the changes in the quality of maternity services provided within the analysed contexts. The benchmarking approach encouraged local professionals to learn from other settings. The use of such tool allowed the development of targeted quality improvement actions, shared among all involved stakeholders. Key messages • In collaboration with local professionals, we designed and implemented an integrated pathway for maternal and childcare, covering the phases of pregnancy, childbirth and first year of life. • Benchmarking performance results encouraged collaboration among professionals and allowed the identification of actions to improve the provision of maternal and childcare services.

Integrated performance evaluation of asphalt mixtures with very high reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content

• Asphalt mixtures with very high RAP content (>50 %) can outperform conventional mixtures with regard to different performance aspects. • Conventional volumetric-based mix design methods are not sufficient for asphalt mixtures containing very high RAP. • Restoration of gradation based upon Bailey method was found effective regarding performance. • An integrated performance-based index was introduced to rank asphalt mixtures with high RAP content. Conventional mix design methods are incapable of making the most of RAP, especially in very high content (>50 %). RAP is not the kind of waste to just get rid of, but it has the potential to build better asphalt pavements. Therefore, the aim of this research is to modify practices and criteria within mix design and develop a ranking system in order to better fabricate and evaluate asphalt mixtures containing very high RAP, respectively. The specific challenges of this mixture type including gradation, production, compaction, volumetric properties and optimal asphalt content (AOC) were handled in this study. Also, a general performance index integrating essential performance aspects including rutting, cracking, aging and moisture sensitivity was developed. It had been found that rejuvenation and aging potential are important in mixtures with very high RAP content, so rejuvenation was made based upon previous studies and aging potential was included in the performance evaluation. Paying more attention to gradation within mix design was proved very important and Bailey method was found impactful on improving aggregate structure of mixtures with high RAP content. It was observed that the target air void of 3 % leads to better coating of virgin aggregates of this mixture type.

A novel algorithm for optimal buffer allocation in automated asynchronous unreliable lines

The Buffer Allocation Problem is a well-known optimization problem aiming at determining the optimal buffer sizes in a manufacturing system composed by various machines decoupled by buffers. This problem still has scientific relevance because of problem complexity and trade-off between conflicting goals. Moreover, it assumes industrial relevance in reconfigurable manufacturing lines, where buffer sizes can be easily adapted to the production scenario. This work proposes a novel algorithm integrating performance evaluation and optimization by means of throughput cuts based on a linear approximation. Numerical results show the validity of the proposed approach with respect to the traditional gradient-based method. Moreover, an industrial case study integrating the proposed approach into a decision-support system for the buffer allocation and reallocation is analyzed.

Integrated Performance Evaluation Indicators for Water Supply Systems

Integrated Performance Evaluation Indicators for Water Supply Systems

A new perspective to improve the treatment of Lianhuaqingwen on COVID-19 and prevent the environmental health risk of medication.

Lianhuaqingwen (LH), one traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used to treat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but its ecotoxicity with potential human health security has not been well investigated. To overcome such adverse effects and improve its medication efficacy, an intelligent multi-method integrated dietary scheme, screening, and performance evaluation approach was developed. Thirteen LH compounds were selected, and the main protease (Mpro) was used as the potential drug target. Resulted information showed that the more compounds of LH added, the higher medication efficacy obtained using multi-method integrated screening system, expert consultation method, and molecular dynamics simulation. Pharmacodynamic mechanism analysis showed that low total energy and polar surface area of LH active compound (i.e., β-sitosterol) will contribute to the best therapeutic effect on COVID-19 using quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) and sensitivity models. Additionally, when mild COVID-19 patients take LH with the optimum dietary scheme (i.e., β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, carotene, and vitamin E), the medication efficacy were significantly improved (23.58%). Pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics results showed that LH had certain human health risks and ecotoxicity. This study revealed the multi-compound interaction mechanism of LH treatment on COVID-19, and provided theoretical guidance for improving therapeutic effect, evaluating TCM safety, and preventing human health risk.Graphical abstract Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-022-21125-w.

Fuzzy logic-based integrated performance evaluation of a water distribution network

Abstract A water distribution network (WDN) is an essential component of an urban water supply scheme to deliver safe and adequate water to consumers under various operational conditions. This study focuses on the performance evaluation of an urban WDN using fuzzy logic-based aggregation of reliability, resilience, and vulnerability indices. To assess the individual performance indicators, this study advocates the pressure-dependent analysis (PDA) for hydraulic simulation. Furthermore, it advocates a fuzzy rule-based aggregated performance index (API) that will deliver the outcome in linguistic form and help the decision-maker to prioritize the maintenance of the WDN. The proposed method is illustrated with the help of a real-time WDN for part of Dire Dawa city in Ethiopia. It has been found that the API values for this network are 0.721 and 0.624, respectively, under normal and abnormal conditions, which are just satisfactory. It has been noticed that nodes J4, J44, J47, and J49 are critical from the overall low API. Efforts should be made to improve the hydraulic and residual chlorine conditions at these nodes to increase the API. It is felt that such a methodology will help the decision-makers to improve the performance of an existing urban WDN.

An integrated performance evaluation approach for the Indian smart cities

A smart city can be defined as an urban region with modern technological features, enhanced mobility and upgraded public utility services. Query In this paper, the application of an integrated approach is proposed to assess the relative performance of 98 Indian smart cities with respect to 11 evaluation criteria. Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is first adopted to divide all the considered criteria into appropriate cause and effect groups along with the determination of their weights. It also identifies the most influential criterion which dominates the others, and the most trivial criterion which is being dominated by the others. The application of the generalized k-means clustering algorithm reduces the initial dataset containing 98 smart cities into a manageable set with only 23 efficient cities. Finally, multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) method is adopted to rank the shortlisted cities from the best to the worst. In the derived ranking list, Aizawl occupies the top position, followed by Mangalore. Warangal and Bilaspur are the two worst performing cities. The proposed approach can also recognize the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the cities so that appropriate remedial measures can be augmented to strengthen the lagging infrastructures of the underperforming Indian smart cities.

Integrated performance analysis of a space heating system assisted by photovoltaic/thermal collectors and ground source heat pump for hotel and office building types

Utilizing the solar and geothermal energy in space heating systems can save fossil fuels and reduce emissions. In this study, compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) photovoltaic/thermal collectors (PV/T), absorption and ground source heat pumps are integrated to a novel space heating system for use in hotel and office buildings. A full simulation model of the system is constructed and validated by using the Engineering Equation Solver software. The heating system is analyzed against its energy, environmental, economic, and flexibility performance using multiple variables including the PV coverage ratio, ambient temperature, solar beam irradiance, and electricity price. The results show that integrating solar and geothermal energy can be effective to supplement the space heating demand. The best integrated performance point of the office building gives a 32% energy saving ratio, 9% annual cost savings ratio, 23% emission reduction ratio, and 67% excess adjustable ratio compared to a pure ground heat pump system. This research provides new directions of integrated performance evaluation of heating systems assisted by renewable energy resources.

Integrated Performance Evaluation and Strategic Implication Report on Z Energy Limited

Z Energy Limited is a New Zealand-based fuel company, founded in 2010. In 2013, Z Energy became a listed company on the NZX, and also started to trade on the Australian Stock Exchange publicly. This report focuses on Z Energy’s non-financial performances and how they affect company’s value. Z Energy has been devoting itself to sustainable development while the actual performances were usually under the expectations. On the other hand, Z needs to deal with the challenges raised from electric energy. Even though Z has been trying to positively respond to the market variations and expecting a promising future, the outcomes are less likely to be optimistic. From the macroeconomic perspective, Z is significantly influenced by global crude oil prices and forex rates, it is sensitive to the changes in market conditions. Although New Zealand has a low-inflation economic environment, the impact of international economic conditions will override the influence from the domestic market. However, Z has also made some achievements in supplying biofuels and developed a long-term cooperation with Fonterra. In addition, Z Energy has applied numerous methods, such as HSSE strategy, to improve employee involvement and loyalty, and adopts “Strengthen the Core” strategy to expand businesses.

Integrated Performance Evaluation Indicators for Water Supply Systems Mohamed Ahmed Reda Hamed, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Canadian International Colleague (Cic), El Sheikh Zayed, Giza, Egypt

Integrated Performance Evaluation Indicators for Water Supply Systems Mohamed Ahmed Reda Hamed, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Canadian International Colleague (Cic), El Sheikh Zayed, Giza, Egypt

The Evaluation of Humanitarian Supply Chain Performance Based On Balanced Scorecard-DEMATEL Approach

Measuring the performance of the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) becomes a necessary nowadays regarding to the increasing wars around the world. This study aims to propose an integrated performance evaluation approach for the HSC in the context of war. The proposed framework includes two main stages. The first stage implicates determining the performance indicators by the literature review and classifies the indicators based on the Balanced Scorecard dimensions. The second stage involves prioritizing the Balanced Scorecard dimensions and performance indicators by DEMATEL. According to results of the study, the most important dimension in the performance measurement for the HSC in the context of war is the customer. Moreover, service quality has the highest impact in the HSC performance measurement. This study extends the current state of knowledge, which provides a novel combined method to measure the performance HSC in context of war disaster.

On the performance of DF-based multi-hop system over α − κ − μ and α − κ − μ-extreme fading channels

Several emerging application scenarios for the multi-hop wireless networking have been introduced in 5G and beyond networks, to provide ultra-low latency and much higher data rate to the end users. In this work, an integrated performance evaluation of a decode-and-forward (DF) multi-hop wireless communication system is undertaken over the non-linear generalized α−κ−μ and α−κ−μ-Extreme fading models. Novel closed-form expressions for the amount of fading (AoF), channel capacity under various adaptive transmission techniques are derived. Additionally, decoding error probability for short packet communication is derived and analyzed. The provided expressions are very useful in designing the channel/link quality for practical multi-hop communication networks. The effects of the fading parameters and the number of hops on the system performance are demonstrated. The correctness of the proposed solutions has been corroborated by comparing them with Monte Carlo simulation results.

Effects of Temporary Clips on Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Anterior Circulation of Brain Aneurysm Surgery Among Rasul Akram Hospital Patients During 2017-2018

Background and Aim: Cerebrovascular brain incidents especially brain aneurysm ruptures are a major cause of death and disability. Monitoring Somatosensory Evoked Potential (SSEP) and corresponding changes are used for identifying cerebral ischemia and predicting neuronal injuries during using temporary clips in brain aneurysm surgeries. This approach limits integrated performance evaluation for somatosensory and cortex paths. Methods and Materials/Patients: This clinical trial study was conducted on the patients who were candidate for anterior cerebral circulation aneurysm surgery during 2017-2018 in Rasul Akram Hospital. SSEP monitoring was performed related to the median nerve in the contralateral wrist to examine the Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) and posterior tibialis nerve in the contralateral ankle to examine Anterior Cerebral Artery (ACA) during the surgery procedure. Incentive parameters with a power of 5 to 25 milliampere and corresponding duration of 0.2 milliseconds and waves with a frequency of 3.3 Hertz were registered. Before locating temporary clips, SSEP was extracted as a baseline from every patient and then recorded. Results: Totally 9 patients (9 aneurysms) were studied. Three of them were men and 6 patients women. The age of patients ranged 39-78 years. The clinical status of patients was assessed using the Hunt-Hess scale. Five cases were classified as grade 1, 2 cases as grade 2, and 2 cases as grade 3. Among 9 aneurysms, 7 cases were about A.com artery and 2 cases were in connection with MCA artery, having the size of 5 to 11 millimeters. Friedman test was applied to explore average latency change percentage and amplitude change percentage in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd minutes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd clips where the results were significantly different (P=0.050). Conclusion: Neuromonitoring can be used as an index for examining tissue perfusion level of the brain and help to prevent accidental ischemic injuries of the brain followed by temporary clipping.

An integrated performance evaluation approach for the Indian international airports

This paper deals with the applications of best worst method (BWM) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) method to assess the performance of 32 major Indian international airports based on eight evaluation criteria. The BWM is applied to derive the criteria weights based on the opinions of four decision makers, while MABAC method is employed to rank the considered airports from the best to the worst along with the identification of their relative strengths and weaknesses. The advantages of these methodologies are also enumerated. It is observed that annual revenue is the most important evaluation criterion, followed by the total number of passengers. Based on this integrated analysis, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Surat International Airport respectively emerge out as the best and the worst performing international airports in India.

Integrated performance evaluation method study and performance based department ranking: a case study

Enterprise companies, which make future strategic plan, need to view overall performance. In this direction, monitoring decision-making unit (DMU) performances is a critical issue. Therefore, it should be fair and consistent performance evaluation and prepared open and clear reports. To handle with these requirements, this study focusses on establishing a comprehensive method of performance evaluations (PE). Five main stages exist as a framework of the study. Firstly, right PE tool are selected in terms of strategic frame of companies. In this study, we examine balanced scorecard (BSC) approach that considers not only financial but also non-financial topics to watch overall performance. BSC has key performance indicators (KPI) that show objectives and actualizations belonging to related DMU, and BSC also provides proper and summary reports including different perspectives. The next step is determination of KPI’s weights. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to determine KPI priorities. Because BSC evaluates DMU’S separately, it does not provide satisfied comparison among different DMU’s. In here, we propose data envelopment analyses (DEA) that is linear program based non-parametric approach. However, DEA works correctly for only homogeneous DMU’s. As a third step, classification process is applied to ensure homogeneity. Then, using BSC KPI’s as outputs and DMU budgets as input, DEA model is run for each class. As a last step, we separate DMUs into categories using efficiency score obtained from fourth stage. To determine category numbers, Hierarchical Clustering Analyze (AHCA) method is used and group elements are selected with applying K-Means Clustering Analyze technique. At the end, a case study is given to show how developed model is applied within a company that uses only BSC tool for PE currently. It could be said that this integrated methodology is more efficient and reliable for decision-making process.