New Methodology For Evaluation Research Articles

A New Methodology for Evaluation of Large Vestibular Aqueduct in CT and MRI Images.

Development of a new method for large vestibular aqueduct (LVA)/large endolymphatic sac anomaly (LESA) assessment using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT)/cone beam CT (CBCT) images. The secondary objective was to compare both modalities. The gold standard for LVA diagnosis is the analysis of CT images using Valvassori and Clemis or Cincinnati criteria. The previous studies showed inconclusive results regarding the correlation between audiological and radiological data. Retrospective analysis of radiological images from 173 patients (315 ears), who were diagnosed with LVA/LESA based on CT/CBCT and/or MRI images of the temporal bone. The images obtained using both techniques were used to measure the following dimensions of vestibular aqueduct (VA)/endolymphatic duct (ED)/intraosseous endolymphatic sac (ES): width of the opening, length, and width at external aperture. In MRI images, the maximal contact diameters of the extraosseous or intraosseous ES and dura mater were measured as well. LVA has been reported to be bilateral in 82% (142 patients) and unilateral in 18% (31 patients) of cases. Comparison of MRI and CT/CBCT measurements showed a moderate correlation (0.64) in external aperture, a moderate correlation (0.57) in the width of the VA opening, and a weak correlation (0.34) in length measurements (p < 0.05). We developed a new method to identify the heterogeneous pathology of LVA/LESA using reconstruction along the VA/ED/intraosseous ES axis, three measurements on two planes, and focus on the maximal contact diameter between the extraosseous or intraosseous ES and dura mater.

Assessing polygonal approximations: A new measurement and a comparative study

Two proposals related to the evaluation of polygonal approximations are presented in this document. First, a new measurement, called normalized compression ratio and adjustment error (NCA), to provide a fair evaluation of the performance of the polygonal approximations of 2D closed curves is proposed. Second, a new methodology for evaluation of measurements for assessing polygonal approximations is also proposed. This methodology is based on the optimal quality curve concept, which can characterize the performance of the measurements. A simple visual analysis of the optimal quality curve allows possible drawbacks or weaknesses of the measurement to be detected. The new evaluation methodology is used to compare the performance of the proposed NCA and the most popular measurements, such as Rosin’s Merit, FOM or versions of FOM. Experiments show that NCA obtains the best results and, therefore, may be used to fairly evaluate the performance of polygonal approximations.

Property rights in theory versus practice: the current process of evaluation and compensation of property in Albania

In the latest and current attempt to solving the 30-year-old problem of the process of restitution of the rights of former owners in Albania, the Government has implemented a new methodology of evaluation of properties to be compensated. However, despite the remedy being in place for more than 6 years now, the domestic authorities have failed to materialize their predictions, with most intermittent deadlines having been missed, due to poor initial planning, numerous delays in implementation, poor execution, as well as necessities in amending the law. At the same time, these delays, especially the Government taking more than a year and a half to institute the necessary amendments to the law, pursuant to the findings of the ECtHR and Constitutional Court, have also put at risk the implementation of the law as a whole and the missing of the final deadline of 2026, for the finalization of the process.

A Fuzzy Simultaneous Evaluation of Criteria and Alternatives (F-SECA) for Sustainable E-Waste Scenario Management

The process of production, consumption, and final disposal of electrical and electronic equipment usually leads to harmful waste to the environment called e-waste. Eliminating and decreasing this type of waste could be considered as an essential goal for many enterprises working toward sustainable management systems. In this paper, we aim at introducing a new methodology for evaluation of sustainable e-waste management scenarios. The evaluation is defined as an MCDM (Multi-Criteria Decision-Making) problem, and the scenarios are the alternatives of the problem that need to be evaluated with respect to several sustainability criteria. An extended fuzzy SECA (Simultaneous Evaluation of Criteria and Alternatives) integrated with SMART (Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique), named F-SECA, is proposed to deal with the evaluation process. The α-cut approach is used to consider different levels of uncertainty and obtain interval values for assessment of criteria and alternatives. The proposed methodology helps us to make the evaluation with incorporation of subjective and objective data, opinions of multiple experts and uncertainty of information. We applied the methodology to evaluate sustainable e-waste management scenarios in a case. Through comparative and sensitivity analyses, the paper shows that the proposed methodology is efficient and gives reliable results.

Growth and yield of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)in additive Intercropping system with Mung bean.

Some crops perform better in intercropping systems with other crops relative to their solcropping . Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was adopted to be studied in a field experiment within an additive intercropping system with mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) in a three rows in combinations (1:3 and 1:4 and 1:5) sunflower-Mung bean intercropped and sole cropped for studding growth , yield components and yield traits during the summer of 2021 at two different agro ecological locations of the governorate of Erbil- Iraq. Experiments were triplicated in a randomized complete block design (RCBD), Each location was a parcel of a local farmers land in the villages of Shamamr (Latitude: 406227, Longitude: 397954 rainfall isocline (350 mm y-1)) and Dukalla (Latitude: 358033 m, Longitude: 3993384 m),at the last of the semi insured and the first of the non-insured rainfall zones respectively . Shamamr location suppressed Dukalla location in most of morphological traits at the ages of 20 days after sowing (DAS), nd 60 DAS. Treatment row combination (1:3, 1:4 and 1:5) showed advantages in yield component traits over sole cropping of sunflower might be due to resources gains as solar radiation, conditioning heat environment and space .No advantages of intercropping were observed among cropping systems in seed yield while the treatment (1:5) possessed the highest Harvest index (0.6). Sunflower in Shamamr location is believed to perform better under intercropping system. More planting geometry is recommended to obtain more precise results. References : Abràmoff, M.D., Magalhães, P.J. and Ram, S.J., 2004. Image processing with ImageJ. Biophotonics international, 11(7), pp.36-42. Anas, M., Jabbar, A., Sarwar, M.A., Ullah, R., Abuzar, M.K., Ijaz, A. and Latif, S., 2017. Intercropping Sunflower with Mung beanfor improved productivity and net economic return under irrigated conditions. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research, 30(4). Bindi, M. and Olesen, J.E., 2011. The responses of agriculture in Europe to climate change. Regional Environmental Change, 11(1), pp.151-158. Dizayyee , Aryan Suad Ahmed . (2019).Modes of Interference Compatibility of Wheat, Chickpea and Wild mustard Intercropping in Different Row Proportions. PhD Dissertation , University of Salahaddin , College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences. Gebru, H., 2015. A review on the comparative advantages of intercropping to mono-cropping system. Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare, 5(9), pp.1-13. Jeon, D.J., Ki, S.J., Cha, Y., Park, Y. and Kim, J.H., 2018. New methodology of evaluation of best management practices performances for an agricultural watershed according to the climate change scenarios: A hybrid use of deterministic and decision support models. Ecological Engineering, 119, pp.73-83.(abstract). Jubr Al-Layla, M. and Shahadha Khalid Al-Juheishy, W., 2012. EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT INTERCROPPING SYSTEM IN SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus L.) ANDMUNGBEAN (Vigna radiata L.). Mesopotamia Journal of Agriculture, 40, pp.62-74. Khan, M. N., Shoaib Muhammad, Mahboob Asrar, M. S. Ashraf, and Qamar Rafi. "MB (Vigna radiata) intercropping enhances productivity of late season irrigated cotton in Punjab." Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology 8, no. 4 (2020): 472-479. Lithourgidis, A.S., Dordas, C.A., Damalas, C.A. and Vlachostergios, D., 2011. Annual intercrops: an alternative pathway for sustainable agriculture. Australian journal of crop science, 5(4), pp.396-410. Mousavi, S.R. and Eskandari, H., 2011. A general overview on intercropping and its advantages in sustainable agriculture. Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences, 1(11), pp.482-486. Nawar, A.I., Salama, H.S. and Khalil, H.E., 2020. Additive intercropping of SF and soybean to improve yield and land use efficiency: Effect of thinning interval and nitrogen fertilization. Chilean journal of agricultural research, 80(2), pp.142-152. Shi, H., Tian, H., Lange, S., Yang, J., Pan, S., Fu, B. and Reyer, C.P., 2021. Terrestrial biodiversity threatened by increasing global aridity velocity under high-level warming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(36). Vandermeer, J.H., 1992. The ecology of intercropping. Cambridge University Press. (book) .

Development of A New Methodology for Evaluation of Beam Accuracy and Optical Quality of Solar Central Receiver Systems

In central tower concentrated solar power plants, the concentrated flux distribution at the receiver is controlled by the aiming strategy of thousands of heliostats in the field to accomplish the specific requirements of solar-thermal conversion processes. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the reflected solar flux from a heliostat or from a group of heliostats on a calibration target. The solar flux map at the target receiver is constructed using the information embedded in a captured high dynamic range image of the evaluated scene. In the present article, a methodology has been proposed to evaluate the optical performance of solar central receiver systems in terms of beam accuracy and optical quality of reflected light on calibration target. The developed system is a simple, automatic and effective tool used to accurately analyse the reflected solar flux without limitations of previous methods, such as using specific type of calibration target. The capability of the present methodology for accurate analysis is demonstrated through experimental indoor and outdoor tests.

A new methodology for evaluation of thermal or electrical conductivity of the skeleton of a porous material

A new methodology of the evaluation of the thermal/electrical properties of the skeleton of a porous material from measurements of the overall properties of this material saturated with various conductive fluids is proposed and numerically verified. The approach is based on the concept of equivalent microstructure and solution of the inverse homogenization problem in the framework of Mori-Tanaka-Benveniste micromechanical model.

A new methodology of evaluation of overheating in buildings

Overheating in built environments during climate extreme heat events is a major concern to human health, particularly for people vulnerable to prolonged exposure to heat and humidity. However, currently available methods for assessing the risk of overheating lack robust procedures to evaluate the effects of overheating on the comfort and health of vulnerable occupants residing in the various different dwellings. This paper developed a general methodology to define and characterise overheating events and evaluate the risk to reduced comfort and undesirable health effects of building occupants exposed to extreme heat events. Criteria to declare overheating were developed based on heat-related health outcomes related to limits for body dehydration and core temperature of healthy average-age and older adults. The methodology was then applied to a case study of a residential building with typical local construction practice for cold climates and compared with existing methods for assessing risk from exposure to extreme heat events. The results showed that all the methods predicted that highly insulated and airtight buildings are more prone to overheating than older buildings that are less well insulated and airtight. However, only the proposed methodology described in this paper predicted that natural ventilation through opening windows significantly reduced the overheating risk to below the threshold value. Furthermore, multi criteria methods might be difficult to apply in practice in that it is not guaranteed to violate all the criteria to declare a building space is not overheated. The proposed methodology sets the groundwork for establishing a benchmark model from which different overheating metrics can be compared.

From fission yield measurements to evaluation: new statistical methodology applied to 235U(nth, f ) mass yields

The study of fission yields has a major impact on the characterization and understanding of the fission process and is mandatory for reactor applications. The mass and isotopic yields of the fission fragments have a direct influence on the predictions of fuel burn-up and decay heat. Moreover, these data are requested for other studies as delayed neutron evaluation, antineutrino flux assessment or reactor program. Today, the lack of covariance matrix associated to evaluated fission yields induces overestimated uncertainties of mass yields since these observables result from the sum of isotopic and isomeric yields. Our collaboration starts a new program in the field of the evaluation of fission products in addition to the current experimental program. The goal is to define a new methodology of evaluation based on statistical tests in order to provide the best estimation with consistent sets of measurements. A ranking of solutions with associated covariance based on Shannon’s entropy criterion is proposed for the mass yields from 235 U(nth, f) reaction.

New Methodology for Evaluation and Project Management in Engineering

New Methodology for Evaluation and Project Management in Engineering

New Methodology for Evaluation of Non-pilot Relay Distance Protection

Distance relays are typically used in transmission line protection. Their accuracy depends on the correct relay parameterization, phasor estimators, and correct usage of distance characteristics. Identifying suitable relay parameterization and algorithms considering multiple transmission line with various topologies and different fault types is a hard task. Here, a methodology based on the relay trip performance is proposed to evaluate all the main concerns of distance protection such as: maloperation trips per relay units in each fault type, overreach operation, and maloperation due to faults closer to the relay. The methodology could identify the best phasor estimators and distance configurations among those evaluated, as well as it could verify the power system topologies which yield in challenges for distance protection. The results achieved by the proposed methodology demonstrated that it can be useful for assisting the development of phasor estimators and new distance characteristics, as well as for setting existing distance protection in specific power system topologies.

New methodology of evaluation of best management practices performances for an agricultural watershed according to the climate change scenarios: A hybrid use of deterministic and decision support models

Climate change is a primary driver that alters water pollution hotspots in watersheds, which complicates the use of Best management practices (BMPs) for diffuse pollution mitigation strategies. The objective of this study is to evaluate future changes in BMPs on total phosphorus (TP) loads to the river system, depending on climate change. Current weather data were collected from 2000 to 2010 and future weather data from 2040 to 2050 were obtained from regional climate model simulations based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios. This study describes various BMP implementation plans at affordable cost that are adapted to different weather conditions, current (for 2000–2010) and future climate scenarios (for 2040–2050). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), i.e., one of the deterministic models for watershed management, was used to estimate total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiency of various types of BMP at two crop fields (rice paddy and soybean fields) in the Yeongsan River (YR) watershed of Korea. The Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), i.e., one of the artificial intelligence (AI) models for decision support framework, was applied to obtain allow for trade-off analysis between two conflict objectives, the maximum TP load reduction against implementation costs. The SWAT simulation results showed that the model performance based on the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and percent bias was acceptable for simulating three parameters; daily flow discharge, monthly sediment loads, and TP loads in the river. As a result, monthly sediment loads and TP loads increase remarkably under all future climate change scenarios except for July, when a comparable amount of precipitation is recorded during the present and future conditions. New implementation of BMPs, therefore, will be required for future climate change scenarios to achieve 50% TP load reduction in the given watershed condition. Interestingly, parallel terraces which showed good efficiency in reducing TP loads at both fields under the current weather condition cannot be effective any more under the worst-case weather scenario in the future climate. In such a case, detention ponds can be proposed as BMP alternative to parallel terraces. Overall, this study not only demonstrates that watershed management plans using BMPs should be adjusted according to climate change scenarios, but also that the hybrid use of SWAT model and AI can help in refining existing and future BMPs at affordable cost.

Diagnosis of Sustainability in the Food Engineering Creation Program of the Polytechnic University of the State of Carchi (UPEC) in the Substantive Function “Teaching”

As the world population grows, technologies are developed to improve food industrialization processes that are characterized by using large amounts of resources that modify social, economic, political and environmental systems that are the main components of sustainability. The incorporation of sustainability in Higher Education Institutions in Latin America is a relatively new process; it initiates with the implementation of study programs that promote a society responsible with the environment. The objective of this investigation was to diagnose the Creation Program of Food Engineering of the Polytechnic University of the State of Carchi (UPEC) in the substantive function “Teaching” to know the current situation in relation to sustainability. The main contribution of this research was designing a new methodology for evaluation of sustainability, taking the Sustainable Development Objectives from UN 2015 as a reference for calculating the percentage of sustainability contained in the curriculum. There were no references to similar diagnosis made in other universities in the world that could serve as reference for the present investigation. The percentage of hours with sustainability content was calculated as 24.15% considering teaching hours that showed sustainability contents, this was the Overall Sustainability Percentage. Human related courses presented greater percentage of sustainability. The most common Sustainable Development Objective was “Health and wellbeing”. The presence of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Objectives is evident but below 50%, presenting a possibility of improvement. There is a fertile ground for the incorporation of the sustainability approach in the career of Food Engineering in the UPEC, which with only four years of creation; it is a suitable institutional time to consolidate a commitment to food production, conservation and industrialization in a sustainable way, with the urgency demanded by today situation.

From fission yield measurements to evaluation: status on statistical methodology for the covariance question

Studies on fission yields have a major impact on the characterization and the understanding of the fission process and are mandatory for reactor applications. Fission yield evaluation represents the synthesis of experimental and theoretical knowledge to perform the best estimation of mass, isotopic and isomeric yields. Today, the output of fission yield evaluation is available as a function of isotopic yields. Without the explicitness of evaluation covariance data, mass yield uncertainties are greater than those of isotopic yields. This is in contradiction with experimental knowledge where the abundance of mass yield measurements is dominant. These last years, different covariance matrices have been suggested but the experimental part of those are neglected. The collaboration between the LPSC Grenoble and the CEA Cadarache starts a new program in the field of the evaluation of fission products in addition to the current experimental program at Institut Laue-Langevin. The goal is to define a new methodology of evaluation based on statistical tests to define the different experimental sets in agreement, giving different solutions for different analysis choices. This study deals with the thermal neutron induced fission of 235U. The mix of data is non-unique and this topic will be discussed using the Shannon entropy criterion in the framework of the statistical methodology proposed.

Software and Hardware FPGA-Based Digital Watermarking and Steganography Approaches: Toward New Methodology for Evaluation and Benchmarking Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Techniques

Evaluating and benchmarking software and hardware field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based digital watermarking are considered challenging tasks because of multiple and conflicting evaluation criteria. A few evaluation and benchmarking techniques/frameworks have been implemented to digital watermarking or steganography; however, these approaches still present certain limitations. In particular, fixing some attributes on account of other attributes and well-known benchmarking approaches are limited to robust watermarking techniques. Thus, this study aims toward a new methodology for evaluation and benchmarking using multi-criteria analysis for software and hardware “FPGA”-based digital watermarking or steganography. To achieve this objective, two iterations are conducted. The first iteration consists of two stages: discussing software and hardware “FPGA”-based digital watermarking or steganography to create a dataset with various samples for benchmarking and discussing the evaluation method and then discussing the test for software and hardware “FPGA”-based digital watermarking or steganography according to multi-criteria evaluation (i.e., complexity, payload and quality) to create a decision matrix. The second iteration applies different decision-making techniques (i.e., SAW, MEW, HAW, TOPSIS, WSM and WPM)) to benchmark the results of the first iteration (i.e., software or hardware FPGA-based digital watermarking or steganography approaches). Then, the discussed mean, standard deviation and paired sample [Formula: see text]-test results are used to measure the correlations among different techniques based on the ranking results. The discussion findings are described as follows: (1) the integration of developer and evaluator preferences into the evaluation and benchmarking for software and hardware FPGA-based digital watermarking or steganography, (2) the process of assigning weights and (3) visualizing large-scale data sample in either software or hardware FPGA-based digital watermarking or steganography algorithms.

A New Methodology for Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of Materials at Very High Rates of Loading

This paper focuses on the development of a straight forward and inexpensive testing machine, and methodology for the characterization of materials in working conditions similar to those found in metal cutting. Special emphasis is given to the material rate dependence and to the assessing of the proposed methodology against conventional testing at very high rates of loading. The experimental results have demonstrated that rate-dependent hardness can be used to estimate flow stress at high rates of loading and that contact phenomena become even more prominent for severe monotonic deformation.

Evaluation of electrical insulation in three-phase induction motors and classification of failures using neural networks

This paper presents a study for the evaluation of the electrical insulation of the stator of three-phase induction motors (IM) and the classification of the failure mechanism using an approach based on computational intelligence tools (CIT). A brief review showing the main parameters for the evaluation of insulation condition and testing of IMs is presented, as well as the promising use of CITs for fault diagnosis of industrial equipment, including motors. This paper proposes a new methodology for evaluation and classification of insulation conditions with the aid of K-means clustering and of a classifier based on ANNs (artificial neural networks).

A new methodology for evaluation of nematode viability.

Nematodes infections are responsible for debilitating conditions and economic losses in domestic animals as well as livestock and are considered an important public health problem due to the high prevalence in humans. The nematode resistance for drugs has been reported for livestock, highlighting the importance for development of new anthelmintic compounds. The aim of the current study was to apply and compare fluorimetric techniques using Sytox and propidium iodide for evaluating the viability of C. elegans larvae after treatment with anthelmintic drugs. These fluorescent markers were efficient to stain larvae treated with ivermectin and albendazole sulfoxide. We observed that densitometric values were proportional to the concentration of dead larvae stained with both markers. Furthermore, data on motility test presented an inverse correlation with fluorimetric data when ivermectin was used. Our results showed that lower concentrations of drugs were effective to interfere in the processes of cellular transport while higher drugs concentrations were necessary in order to result in any damage to cell integrity. The methodology described in this work might be useful for studies that aim to evaluate the viability of nematodes, particularly for testing of new anthelminthic compounds using an easy, economic, reproducible, and no time-consuming technique.

An Optimization Tool for Impact Analysis of Composite Structures

Composite materials exhibit complex failure behavior under impact loading especially such as that for composite landing gear structure. Possible failure modes in composites may include matrix cracking, fiber breakage, kinking, fiber-matrix debonding or delamination between composite plies. In order to better understand the damage mechanisms and non-linear response of composite structures under impact, complex geometries, materials, ply orientations and stacking sequence need to be considered. However, general drop test analysis for composite structures usually takes a lot of computational efforts, and it may be even more expensive for failure analysis and optimization when various structural geometries and design configurations are taken into account. This paper proposes a new methodology for evaluation and optimization of failure behavior of composite structures subjected to impact loading, whereby drop test analysis of composite structures is modeled by explicitly dynamics analysis of two-dimensional structures and implicit analysis of three-dimensional solid structures to predict delamination or out-of-plane failure. The above-mentioned modeling strategy helps speed up the optimization process and considerably save computational time and efforts. The proposed methodology together with reliable optimization algorithms and failure theory criteria are integrated and coded into a FE optimization tool by Python script. It is shown that the optimization tool effectively helps engineers and researchers perform optimization of general composite structures and fully take into account of various geometries, materials, loading configurations, composite stack-up and sequences and individual ply's orientation.

EVALUATING SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF HCI ON AN EXAMPLE OF A NON-TASK ORIENTED CONVERSATIONAL SYSTEM

The evaluation of subjective aspects of HCI, such as human-likeness, likeability or users' emotions towards computers is still quite a neglected issue, especially in the field of non-task oriented conversational systems (chatterbots). In this paper we try to bridge this gap by proposing a new methodology of evaluation. The methods presented were tested in our research on humor-equipped chatterbots. We describe them in details, discuss their drawbacks and usability. In one of the presented methods we used an emotiveness analysis system, which itself can be considered an AI tool, as it was used to detect users' emotions towards conversational systems, and to perform their automatic evaluation. We also propose some methods that we have not used yet, which, however, seem applicable in this field, such as brain scanning techniques. Finally, we give some ideas that should be addressed in the future.