Performance Assessment Studies Research Articles

Performance Evaluation of Routing Metrics in the LOADng Routing Protocol

LOADng (Lightweight On-demand Ad hoc Distance-vector Routing Protocol - Next Generation) is an emerging routing protocol that emerged as an alternative to RPL (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks). Although some work has been dedicated to study LOADng, these works do not analyze the performance of this protocol with different routing metrics. A routing metric is responsible for defining values for paths during the route creation process. Moreover, based on these metrics information a routing protocol will select the path to forward a message. Thus, this work aims to realize a performance assessment study considering different routing metrics applied to LOADng. The scenarios under study consider different traffic patterns and network sizes. The routing metrics are evaluated considering the packet delivery ratio, average energy spent per bit delivered, average latency, and number of hops. The results reveals that routing metrics used by this protocol may influence (directly) the network performance.

音楽科におけるパフォーマンス評価に関する一考察 : 「真正の評価」論に焦点をあてて

音楽科におけるパフォーマンス評価に関する一考察 : 「真正の評価」論に焦点をあてて

Context-Aware Information Diffusion for Alerting Messages in 5G Mobile Social Networks

In emerging fifth generation (5G) systems, mobile social networks are expected to play an important role to enable proximity-based content distribution among devices. In this paper, we address social-awareness aspects and device-to-device (D2D) communications for information diffusion solutions in emergency scenarios. Context-aware information is collected from a set of devices deployed in the environment and received data are integrated and elaborated at the cellular base station before being delivered. In such a framework, we model the expected information diffusion time by taking into account both networking- and sociality-related metrics. In particular, we introduce the so-called social intercontact time which is able to model the interaction frequency between the user and a generic social platform. The proposed approach is compared with alternative solutions where the dissemination process is either managed through direct links from the central base station, as a conventional multicast scheme, or with the support from proximity communications, as a D2D-enhanced multicast scheme. The results of a performance assessment study show that the proposed framework achieves considerable gains, up to 50%, in terms of overall information diffusion time and data rate per user equipment.

Investigation of shear effects on the capacity and demand estimation of RC buildings

Considerable part of reinforced concrete building has suffered from destructive earthquakes in Turkey. This situation makes necessary to determine nonlinear behavior and seismic performance of existing RC buildings. Inelastic response of buildings to static and dynamic actions should be determined by considering both flexural plastic hinges and brittle shear hinges. However, shear capacities of members are generally neglected due to time saving issues and convergence problems and only flexural response of buildings are considered in performance assessment studies. On the other hand, recent earthquakes showed that the performance of older buildings is mostly controlled by shear capacities of members rather than flexure. Demand estimation is as important as capacity estimation for the reliable performance prediction in existing RC buildings. Demand estimation methods based on strength reduction factor (R), ductility (<TEX>${\mu}$</TEX>), and period (T) parameters (<TEX>$R-{\mu}-T$</TEX>) and damping dependent demand formulations are widely discussed and studied by various researchers. Adopted form of <TEX>$R-{\mu}-T$</TEX> based demand estimation method presented in Eurocode 8 and Turkish Earthquake Code-2007 and damping based Capacity Spectrum Method presented in ATC-40 document are the typical examples of these two different approaches. In this study, eight different existing RC buildings, constructed before and after Turkish Earthquake Code-1998, are selected. Capacity curves of selected buildings are obtained with and without considering the brittle shear capacities of members. Seismic drift demands occurred in buildings are determined by using both <TEX>$R-{\mu}-T$</TEX> and damping based estimation methods. Results have shown that not only capacity estimation methods but also demand estimation approaches affect the performance of buildings notably. It is concluded that including or excluding the shear capacity of members in nonlinear modeling of existing buildings significantly affects the strength and deformation capacities and hence the performance of buildings.

Avaliação de desempenho humano na esfera pública: estado da arte na literatura internacional e nacional

The purpose of this article is to analyze the scientific production published in journals related to human performance evaluation subject in the public sector. For this, the theme was studied in publications of articles databases Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), Periodicals Scientific Electronic Library (Spell) and Web of Science. This is an exploratory research, qualitative approach and the data analysis used bibliometric study focused on content analysis. The process enabled us to identify 41 relevant articles and aligned with the research topic. This study also investigated the temporal evolution of this portfolio, the authors reference the theme, the journals that publish more on the subject, the most cited articles, the most frequently used references and the main methodologies adopted. With the results, we can see a theoretical gap in the study of human performance assessment in the public sphere and the lack of an established theory on this topic in the field of public administration.

The Effects of Decentralization in Strategy‐Making and National Culture on NPD Portfolio Planning

Traditionally, the understanding among scholars and practitioners has been that a portfolio of NPD projects is the expression of a firm's strategy and thus it must support the strategy. In keeping with this view, the current study focuses on new product development (NPD) portfolio planning, which is defined as a firm's effort to formulate portfolio decisions using a defined innovation strategy. Connecting portfolio decisions to a defined innovation strategy has been associated with higher innovation success. Surprisingly, empirical research indicates that portfolio decisions do not always support the company's innovation strategy. Furthermore, during recent years, an increasing number of authors underscore the importance of responsiveness and adaptability in portfolio decision‐making. The current study addresses these two issues by examining a direct effect of decentralization in strategy‐making on NPD portfolio planning, and a moderating effect of decentralization in strategy‐making on the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. The study also examines the influence of national culture on the proposed relationships. The theoretical model was tested using data from the 2012 PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Findings indicate that NPD portfolio planning positively influences NPD program success. Also, results revealed inverted U‐shaped direct and moderating effects, respectively, of decentralization in strategy‐making on NPD portfolio planning, and of decentralization in strategy‐making on the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. With regard to the moderating effect of national culture, results indicate that uncertainty avoidance does not moderate the relationship between NPD portfolio planning and NPD program success. Nonetheless, we found significant moderating effects of individualism and power distance on the curvilinear relationship between decentralization in strategy‐making and NPD portfolio planning.

PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS): Methods and Future Research Directions

Best practices data are critical for managing and researching new product development. For these purposes the PDMA Research Foundation conducted the 2012 PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS). This article reports the use of the CPAS data among product development researchers and provides a complete description of the data gathering and cleaning process needed to write additional articles using these data, including other articles in this special issue. This article also reports important results of the CPAS data, makes comparisons between the Best and the Rest firms, and makes comparisons among firms by geography, industry, product/technology/market types, and company size. The results offer insights for academics and practitioners to conduct further research and to find potential new product development best practices.

Sustainability, Social Media Driven Open Innovation, and New Product Development Performance*

Sustainability and social media use in open innovation play important roles in a firm's new product development (NPD) process. This research examines, in conjunction, the roles of sustainability and social media driven inbound open innovation (SMOI) for a firm's NPD performance, and further, takes a more refined approach by differentiating between different types of SMOI activities. To this end, this research develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) a firm's sustainability orientation (SO) is positively associated with its NPD performance, (2) customer focus (CF) partially mediates the SO–NPD performance link, and (3) particular SMOI activities moderate the CF–NPD performance link. The empirical results, using data from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)'s comparative performance assessment study, provide support for most of the framework. Notably, this research documents a positive link between SO and NPD performance, as well as a partial mediating role of CF. The results further suggest that social media driven open innovation activities focused on gathering market insights enhance CF directly, while social media driven open innovation activities that garner technical expertise enhance the link between CF and NPD performance. This paper bridges the separate literatures on sustainability and open innovation, and contributes to the NPD research. The findings suggest that managers should take a strategic approach to sustainability and embed it in the NPD process. Furthermore, managers should manage social media based open innovation carefully to fully benefit the firm during the front end and back end of NPD.

Ambidextrous Idea Generation—Antecedents and Outcomes*

Ambidexterity, defined as the capability to develop both incremental and radical innovations, is an important driver of firm success. Idea generation is an essential starting point for both types of innovation. Therefore, this study investigates whether ambidextrous idea generation, defined as the capability to actively generate both incremental and radical ideas, affects new product development (NPD) success. Analyses on the Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) data, which includes data from 453 companies distributed over 24 countries, demonstrate that ambidextrous idea generation does indeed affect NPD program success. Consequently, this study also investigates which antecedents foster ambidextrous idea generation. The innovation paradox concept predicts that achieving ambidexterity requires overcoming paradoxical antecedents. Therefore, we tested whether combinations of financial and breakthrough orientations (the paradox of strategic emphasis), a formal innovation process and an innovation culture (the paradox of innovation drivers), tight and loose customer coupling (the paradox of customer orientation), and internal development and external collaboration (the paradox of openness) affects ambidextrous idea generation. The results show that only customer orientation and openness have the expected inverted u‐shaped effect. These finding are in line with construal level theory, which predicts that the organizational characteristics that influence idea‐generation activity must be at the same construal level to have the desired effect. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, the analyses indicate that ambidextrous idea generation has significant repercussions for the entire NPD program. Second, the results show that resolving innovation paradoxes only has an effect if the construal level of the paradox and the activity match. This finding indicates an important boundary condition for the innovation paradox concept.

Mapping the Impact of Social Media for Innovation: The Role of Social Media in Explaining Innovation Performance in the PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study

Social media (SM) allow users to easily create, edit, or share content. The vast numbers of individuals that converge around sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter embody a rich source of external knowledge that could be utilized for new product development (NPD). Complementing other channels for open innovation (OI), SM can provide access to novel information about customer needs and technological solutions unknown to the firm. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are considerable benefits from using SM during an innovation project, but empirical evidence is scarce. Contributing to the perspective of openness in search, a number of hypotheses propose how SM as a new channel for OI can contribute to firm performance. This model is tested using data from the PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study, identifying factors influencing the relationship between SM and NPD performance. The findings indicate that utilizing information from SM channels can lead to higher performance, but that this link is influenced by the formalization of a firm's NPD process. This study also finds that the ability of a firm to benefit from external search in SM strongly depends on complementary internal processes when organizing and conducting this activity. Furthermore, managers have to take care when utilizing information from SM channels in radical projects, as for this kind of project only a weak significant performance contribution of SM could be found.

Firm Characteristics and NPD Program Success: The Significant Influence of Global Discovery Management

Managing new product development (NPD) with a global point of view is argued to be essential in current business more than ever. Accordingly, many firms are trying to revitalize their NPD processes to make them more global. Therefore, examining global NPD management is one of the top priorities for research. While scholars have examined global launch management, there has been scant attention on the direct effect of global discovery management on NPD success. Therefore, this study investigates how a globally managed discovery phase enhances a firm's overall NPD success. Drawing upon the resource‐based view (RBV) and using Kotabe's () generic model for market success in global competition as the overarching framework, this study examines four drivers of NPD success: global discovery management, the firm's “global footprint,” its inbound knowledge sourcing practices (i.e., “open innovation proclivity”), and nationality of the teams (i.e., “cross‐national global NPD team use”). The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 255 business units from multiple industries, headquartered worldwide, and surveyed during the 2012 PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS). The PLM‐SEM analyses show that, of the four drivers examined, only global discovery management strongly influences a firm's NPD program success. The findings enhance our understanding of the particularities in global NPD. Based on the study's results, suggestions are provided as to how multinationals can leverage their international operations in the course of their front‐end activities.

Consistency Matters in Formally Selecting Incremental and Radical New Product Ideas for Advancement

Several new product development (NPD) scholars have argued that formal processes should be used when selecting incremental new product ideas for advancement at the very beginning of the fuzzy front end (FFE), but that such formal processes may be less beneficial when selecting radical new product ideas. However, arguments also exist for using formal idea selection processes for both types of new product ideas. In practice, informal processes are used for selecting both idea types and more formal processes are used for selecting radical ideas. Unequivocal empirical evidence for either of the opposing views or practices is lacking.This study sheds light on this matter using data from 161 of the firms that participated in the Product Development and Management Association's latest (2012) Comparative Performance Assessment Study. The results reveal that the highest idea success rate (i.e., the proportion of selected ideas that are eventually launched as new products and are successful in the marketplace) is associated with firms’ use of formal processes to select the vast majority of both incremental and radical new product ideas for advancement. This finding supports earlier claims that even for (raw) idea selection processes that take place at the very beginning of the FFE, managers need to adopt a portfolio perspective and consistently use formal idea advancement selection processes to ensure attaining the right balance between radical and incremental projects in later stages of the NPD pipeline to enhance overall NPD success. Notably, this finding shows that common managerial practices of using inconsistent approaches for selecting radical and incremental ideas for advancement need to be reconsidered.

Whom Should We Talk to? Investigating the Varying Roles of Internal and External Relationship Quality on Radical and Incremental Innovation Performance

Research suggests that close relationships with internal and external partners are likely to have a significant impact on new product development (NPD). What is unclear is how the effects of internal and external relationships influence development paths for different types of innovations. Prior literature indicates that the pathways for developing incremental innovations differ considerably from those for radical innovations. Thus it is plausible that the effects of external versus internal relationships vary across these two innovation types. This paper uses the 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) data set to investigate the roles of internal and external relationship quality on the development of both incremental and radical innovations. The results find that internal and not external relationship quality is beneficial for the development of incremental innovations. When driven by internal relationships, a flexible NPD process is advantageous for the financial performance of incremental innovations. Meanwhile external and not internal relationship quality is valuable for developing radical innovations. External relationship quality results in process flexibility, leading to project execution success and subsequent financial performance for radical innovations. As expected, project execution success consistently leads to increased financial performance. These findings indicate the critical differences in types of relationship quality required when developing new products based on radical versus incremental innovations.

Rescuing the Clinical Breast Examination: Advances in Classifying Technique and Assessing Physician Competency.

Develop new performance evaluation standards for the clinical breast examination (CBE). There are several, technical aspects of a proper CBE. Our recent work discovered a significant, linear relationship between palpation force and CBE accuracy. This article investigates the relationship between other technical aspects of the CBE and accuracy. This performance assessment study involved data collection from physicians (n = 553) attending 3 different clinical meetings between 2013 and 2014: American Society of Breast Surgeons, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Four, previously validated, sensor-enabled breast models were used for clinical skills assessment. Models A and B had solitary, superficial, 2 cm and 1 cm soft masses, respectively. Models C and D had solitary, deep, 2 cm hard and moderately firm masses, respectively. Finger movements (search technique) from 1137 CBE video recordings were independently classified by 2 observers. Final classifications were compared with CBE accuracy. Accuracy rates were model A = 99.6%, model B = 89.7%, model C = 75%, and model D = 60%. Final classification categories for search technique included rubbing movement, vertical movement, piano fingers, and other. Interrater reliability was (k = 0.79). Rubbing movement was 4 times more likely to yield an accurate assessment (odds ratio 3.81, P < 0.001) compared with vertical movement and piano fingers. Piano fingers had the highest failure rate (36.5%). Regression analysis of search pattern, search technique, palpation force, examination time, and 6 demographic variables, revealed that search technique independently and significantly affected CBE accuracy (P < 0.001). Our results support measurement and classification of CBE techniques and provide the foundation for a new paradigm in teaching and assessing hands-on clinical skills. The newly described piano fingers palpation technique was noted to have unusually high failure rates. Medical educators should be aware of the potential differences in effectiveness for various CBE techniques.

Do We Have to Get Along to Innovate? The Influence of Multilevel Social Cohesion on New Product and New Service Development

In this study, based on the Comparative Performance Assessment Study survey conducted by the Product Development Management Association, the authors develop and test a model which considers the antecedents and performance outcomes of social cohesion, a seemingly critical organizational factor in new product development (NPD). Using a sample of over 450 innovation and product development professionals from North America, Europe, and Asia, social cohesion is conceptualized and tested across three levels—within team cohesion, between team cohesion, and between firm cohesion. The results of a structural equation model indicate several differences between the antecedents of the varying forms of social cohesion. A post hoc exploration of the difference between goods‐ versus service‐dominant firms provides a clearer picture of cohesion's influence on innovation outcomes. Specifically, within team and between team cohesion are positively associated with new services performance, while for traditional goods‐based NPD, within team, between team, and between firm cohesion all appear to be positively related to performance. The findings suggest that high social cohesion is not always optimal and that managers should focus on specific types or levels of social cohesion as opposed to thinking about social cohesion as a one‐dimensional construct. The findings also suggest that goods‐ and service‐centric firms can use different tactics or strategies to drive social cohesion and, ultimately, new product performance, and that innovation managers may need to allocate resources differently depending on the nature of the market offering being developed. The paper also presents several implications for theory and practice, as well as future research directions related to the various levels of social cohesion and their influence on new product and new service performance.

Thermodynamic modeling of a nuclear energy based integrated system for hydrogen production and liquefaction

A nuclear based integrated system for hydrogen production and liquefaction with a newly developed four-step magnesium–chlorine cycle is proposed. The system uses nuclear energy to supply heat for the Rankine cycle and Mg–Cl cycle, where the power produced by the Rankine cycle is used to run the electrolysis steps of the Mg–Cl cycle and liquefaction cycle compressors. The four-step Mg–Cl cycle is specifically designed to decrease the electrical work consumption of the cycle by capturing HCl in dry form with an additional step to conventional three-step cycle. A performance assessment study is undertaken based on energy and exergy analysis of the subsystems, and total energy and exergy efficiencies of the plant are found to be 18.6%, and 31.35%. The comparisons of the subsystem efficiencies and total exergy destructions show that highest irreversibility ratio belongs to the Mg–Cl cycle by 41%, respectively.

Effects of various parameters on energy and exergy efficiencies of a solar thermal hydrogen production system

In the present paper, a solar-based thermally-driven hydrogen production system is considered and analyzed thermodynamically, and a performance assessment study of this system is undertaken based on both energy and exergy efficiencies. A case study is also presented to analyse the system performance based on various climatic parameters, for example, intensity of solar radiation, ambient temperature, etc. The effects of such operating conditions and system parameters on the energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are also investigated. The results show that the concentrator performs well with higher solar radiations, concentration factor, absorptivity of absorber surface, reflectivity of reflector surface, with lower heat loss coefficients and area of collector surface. The exergy efficiency of the collector increases with the temperature of the collector surface initially, becomes maximum (36% approximately) at 400 °C and then reduces with further increase in temperature. Finally, overall energy and exergy efficiencies of this solar thermal hydrogen system are evaluated and compared for practical applications.

Study of Performance Assessment for Urban Renewal Project in Taipei City

Study of Performance Assessment for Urban Renewal Project in Taipei City

Cognitive Workload ≠ Crash Risk: Rejoinder to Study by Strayer et al. (2015).

Strayer et al.'s article is a significant attempt to scale the cognitive workload of different potentially distracting tasks. It is tempting but not warranted to equate the workload with the relative risk of crash involvement. In this article, I list the reasons why the scaling should not be generalized to safety implications in real driving and argue for the combination of studies of maximal performance assessment (e.g., simulation) with behavioral assessment (e.g., naturalistic driving).

Long-term safety analysis and model validation through URL research

In Germany, all types of radioactive wastes will be disposed of in deep geological repositories. While a repository for low-level radioactive waste (LLW) has recently been licensed, different host rock formations are considered for disposal of heat producing high-level waste (HLW). The latter includes directly disposed spent fuel (SF) and vitrified waste from its reprocessing. Different canisters and disposal concepts are considered for spent fuel disposal, i.e. thick-walled iron casks in horizontal drifts or thin-walled BSK3 steel casks in vertical boreholes.GRS is the leading expert institution in Germany concerning nuclear safety and waste management. For the recent 30 years, GRS has developed and continuously improves a set of computer codes, which allow assessing the performance and the long-term safety of repositories in various host rocks (salt, clay or granite) adopting different technical options. Advanced methods for deterministic as well as probabilistic assessments are available. To characterize the host rocks and backfill/buffer materials and to develop disposal technologies, comprehensive laboratory experiments and a large number of in-situ tests have been performed at GRS’ geo-laboratory and underground research laboratories in different host formations. Thermo-hydro-mechanico-chemical (THMC) processes occurring in the host rocks and engineered barrier systems are numerically simulated.The paper presents an overview of GRS’ work highlighting important results of performance assessment (PA) studies for both the salt and clay options. Also, recent results of in-situ investigations and laboratory studies are presented together with modeling results. Special emphasis is dedicated to the consideration of coupled THM processes which are of relevance in PA.