Plan Revision Research Articles

Knowledge, perception, and confidence of healthcare workers about COVID-19 preventive measures during the first wave of the pandemic: a cross-sectional study from Egypt.

The ongoing coronavirus-disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic had a variable history with differences in its various stages. This study evaluates the status of knowledge, perception, and confidence about COVID-19 preventive measures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Egypt. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in July 2020, in Egypt. An-online-based questionnaire was used to collect data. It included items to record demographic data, and an assessment of knowledge, the perception of healthcare facilities preparedness, and HCW confidence about applying infection prevention measures. A total of 465 responses were analyzed. HCWs' mean age was 36.76 ± 9.57 years, 94.2% (n=438) had an adequate level of knowledge, 31% (n=144) had an adequate perception level, and 39.4% (n=183) had an adequate confidence level. The main source of information was international organizations' websites 46.5% (n=216). The main barriers to applying preventive measures were the overcrowding of patient care areas 73.1% (n=339), and limited infection control supplies 68% (n=316). Factors associated with COVID-19 among HCWs were COVID-19 infected family members (OR: 5.86), inability to protect themselves and their families (OR: 5.73), uncertainty about the available hand hygiene supplies (OR: 3.76), male gender (OR: 3.07), and single HCWs (OR: 2.88). Although the majority reported an adequate knowledge level, lower rates of adequate perception and confidence were observed. Revision of preparedness plans in different facilities should be further studied. Psychological support and gender differences should be considered in response programs.

Evolution of Federal Oil Pollution Research Planning

ABSTRACT This paper describes the evolution of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research (ICCOPR) Oil Pollution Research and Technology Plan (R&T Plan) to address changing oil pollution risks associated with advancements in the energy industry practices. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) Title VII required development of an R&T Plan to identify the resources needed for the government research programs. The 1992 R&T Plan and its 1997 revision marked a major advancement in how the United States (U.S.) planned its oil pollution research. The first two plans met the needs of their time but were outdated when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 revealed a wide range of new research needed to address the risks associated with advancements in industry practices. ICCOPR responded to the new challenges by revising the Charter and establishing a six-year R&T Plan revision cycle. In September 2015, ICCOPR released the FY 2015–2021 R&T Plan, which established a new baseline plan for current and future planning. This paper describes the structured review process used to analyze more than 900 research needs identified since OPA 90 was enacted. The paper explains the new research classification process that established four Classes, 25 Standing Research Areas (SRAs), and 150 priority research needs in the R&T Plan. ICCOPR is working on the first revision in the new six-year planning cycle to cover the FY2022–2027 timeframe. The paper describes the factors being evaluated to update the list of priority needs. These factors include how well current priorities have been addressed and new or emerging oil pollution risks. An update on the status of addressing the priorities will be presented, including the number of SRAs addressed by ICCOPR agencies and others.

Expansion of the Fuel and Energy Balance Structure in Russia through the Development of a Closed-Loop Recycling

The goal of the study is to propose the basis for the concept of expanding the fuel balance in Russia through the development of a closed-loop resource cycle. We propose to use the criterion of energy potential of waste to generate new data on the resource base of the fuel and energy complex at the regional level. In order to form a reliable source for replenishment of the resource potential of the fuel and energy complex through waste recovery, the basic principles of data collection are proposed and the methodology for determining the energy potential at the city level is demonstrated using municipal solid waste (MSW) in 11 Russian cities as an example. The results of the evaluation have shown that due to energy recycling, MSW can cover from 2.11% to 6.01% of the heat demand of the territory under consideration. In the study, we propose to supplement the maximum involvement of waste in the fuel and energy balance (FEB) in Russia with the criterion of optimization of the energy balance at all levels and to distinguish a separate column “energy potential of waste” in the balance structure. This approach fundamentally changes the structure of the balance and gives the grounds for revision of plans for production and transportation of traditional energy resources.

Development of Riparian and Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystem Assessments for National Forests in the Western U.S.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture adopted a new planning rule that outlined a process for developing, amending, and revising land management plans for the 155 National Forests, 20 National Grasslands, and one Tallgrass Prairie managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The rule outlines a framework with three phases: assessment, development/amendment/revision, and monitoring. We are assisting National Forests in the western U.S. with the first phase by completing a series of assessments of riparian and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Here, we describe our methods and the lessons learned over the course of conducting assessments for seven National Forests. Per the requirements of the planning rule, we conduct a rapid assessment of ecological integrity that uses existing data to evaluate drivers, stressors, structure, function, composition, and connectivity. We have collaborated with National Forests, state agencies, and other research groups to obtain datasets representing various wetland landscape features. Our work supports the plan revision process, from assessment through plan approval, and informs future forest and project planning for the restoration and maintenance of structure, function, composition, and connectivity. We developed our assessment methods in collaboration with resource managers at the National Forest and regional level to ensure useful end products such as published technical reports, literature reviews, photo libraries, or collections of datasets related to riparian and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Our approach and lessons learned throughout the process are relevant to other resource management planning applications, analyses of landscape condition, as well as assessments of other ecosystems, such as forests or grasslands.

Current State of Practice Associated with the Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Custom Home Building Industry

ABSTRACT Building Information Modeling (BIM) entered the construction industry and is permeating the commercial sector. Research is being performed to expand the capabilities and applications within the industry. However, research has historically been primarily focused on the commercial sector and has seen limited study in other sectors of the industry, specifically the residential sector. This study focuses on the custom home building segment of residential construction in the United States because of the unique and complex nature of each project. These project characteristics may assist in the realization of some purported benefits of BIM implementation, like those experienced in commercial applications. Utilizing the Delphi method, industry experts identified and achieved consensus on the most common uses, benefits, and challenges they faced in their implementation of BIM. The primary uses of BIM in residential construction identified by this expert panel were design and visualization, the creation of construction documents, and quantity takeoffs. The leading benefits identified were client visualization, plan accuracy, improved client communication, and ease of plan revisions. The leading challenges identified by the panel were high software costs, the steep learning curve when training employees, and the time-consuming nature of creating and maintaining models correctly.

Can Forest Managers Plan for Resilient Landscapes? Lessons from the United States National Forest Plan Revision Process.

The United States Forest Service, a federal agency entrusted with managing 78 M hectares of national forestlands under a broad multiple-use mandate, has seen recent shifts in policy direction emphasizing ecological restoration, consideration of climate change impacts, and a focus on managing for resilient landscapes. The process of revising the comprehensive plans guiding national forest management presents opportunities to reorient objectives, activities, and commitments toward these goals. Here we analyze case studies of three national forests that have completed the forest plan revision process since 2014: the Francis Marion National Forest in coastal South Carolina, the Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona, and the Rio Grande National Forest in southern Colorado. We analyze plan revision participants' perspectives on the opportunities and barriers to reorienting national forest management toward resilient landscapes and the broader political, social, and institutional factors that influence these dynamics. Key opportunities included better promoting resilient landscape objectives by revising fire management guidelines, incorporating scientific data and modeling from multiple agency and non-agency partners, and building opportunities for adaptive management via long-term trust networks. Major barriers included inconsistent higher-level support for resilience objectives, an emphasis on meeting narrow quantitative performance targets, and under-investments in monitoring.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ B ЗАКЛАДАХ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ У СУЧАСНИХ УМОВАХ: ПРОБЛЕМИ, МЕТОДИ, ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ

The goal of teaching a foreign language in higher educational establishments in the context of the implementation of a competence-based approach is to form students’ communicative competence, which involves not only the development of speech skills and language skills, but also the assimilation of linguistic and cultural and socio-cultural knowledge. With the onset of 2020, people realized the need and relevance of information technology and, in particular, distance learning. This led to a significant change in the education strategy, the most important feature of which is the widespread use of various information technologies. At the moment, everyone uses Internet resources to carry out their activities at a distance. At the moment, due to the current situation in the country and in the world, the relevance of distance learning has become undeniable. The specificity of teaching foreign languages reveals both general problems of distance learning, as well as characteristic only for the discipline «Foreign language». With the decrease in study time, the problem of increasing the effectiveness of teaching arose, the solution of which is being addressed by teachers of foreign languages. Naturally, this entailed analysis and revision of curricula and plans, and, as a result, the search for new approaches and techniques to optimize the learning process in new conditions. Distance learning allows to implement individual study programs for students in the study of foreign languages. The article considers distance learning, analyze its advantages and shortcomings, explore ways of its implementation in the study of foreign languages ​​at universities and to demonstrate the role of computer technologies and Internet resources in the development of foreign language communicative competence and the students’ independent work skills forming. Distance learning is based on modern information and communication technologies of training and advanced training. Distance learning technologies can be seen as a natural stage in the evolution of the traditional education system. Thanks to technological progress, full-time and distance learning were able to integrate, complementing, and in some cases replacing each other. Thanks to the competence of teachers in this area, integration has become possible and does not harm the educational process, but, on the contrary, improves and effectively complements it.

Exploring the Use of Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models to Account for the Benefits of Public Lands: An Example from National Forest Planning in the United States

A shared understanding of the benefits and tradeoffs to people from alternative land management strategies is critical to successful decision-making for managing public lands and fostering shared stewardship. This study describes an approach for identifying and monitoring the types of resource benefits and tradeoffs considered in National Forest planning in the United States under the 2012 Planning Rule and demonstrates the use of tools for conceptualizing the production of ecosystem services and benefits from alternative land management strategies. Efforts to apply these tools through workshops and engagement exercises provide opportunities to explore and highlight measures, indicators, and data sources for characterizing benefits and tradeoffs in collaborative environments involving interdisciplinary planning teams. Conceptual modeling tools are applied to a case study examining the social and economic benefits of recreation on the Ashley National Forest. The case study illustrates how these types of tools facilitate dialog for planning teams to discuss alternatives and key ecosystem service outcomes, create easy to interpret visuals that map details in plans, and provide a basis for selecting ecosystem service (socio-economic) metrics. These metrics can be used to enhance environmental impact analysis, and help satisfy the goals of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the 2012 Planning Rule, and shared stewardship initiatives. The systematic consideration of ecosystem services outcomes and metrics supported by this approach enhanced dialog between members of the Forest planning team, allowed for a more transparent process in identification of key linkages and outcomes, and identified impacts and outcomes that may not have been apparent to the sociologist who is lacking the resource specific expertise of these participants. As a result, the use of the Ecosystem Service Conceptual Model (ESCM) process may result in reduced time for internal reviews and greater comprehension of anticipated outcomes and impacts of proposed management in the plan revision Environmental Impact Statement amongst the planning team.

Forest Management Plan for Implementation of a Pilot REDD+ Project for Masito Community Forest Reserve, Kigoma, Tanzania for 2012-2017: Management Prescriptions

A forest management plan and particularly the management prescriptions within the plan form the basis for implementation of a forest management project and thereafter the basis for evaluation of performance of the project. The current paper presents management prescriptions for implementation of a pilot REDD+ project for Masito Community Forest Reserve, Kigoma, Tanzania for the period 2012-2017. The description of the management prescriptions is presented under 9 major sections, namely: (1) prescriptions on forest resources; (2) physical resources; (3) human resources; (4) enhancement of community participation; (5) initiatives for revenue generation and sharing; (6) inter-sectoral linkages and co-operation; (7) financial implications; (8) annual plan of operations, and; (9) plan endorsement, monitoring, evaluation and revision. The main prescriptions are that no wood would be harvested from the forest, the forest would be allowed to regenerate only naturally without tree planting, the forest would be managed by the previous REDD+ project arrangements depending on availability of funds. The plan would be approved by the Director, Forestry and Beekeeping Division. The revision of the plan would be done in 2016/17 and would be initiated by the Director of the Jane Goodall Institute REDD+ project.

The Process and Problems of EFL Learners in English Writing

The objectives of the study were to investigate the process of English writing from students of undergraduate international class, to describe problems faced by students in writing English, and to find out the factors which inhibit and improve their writing skills. There were six female respondents in international class. The study used documentation from the students’ work, open-ended questionnaire and interview as the instruments for data gathering. All the data were analyzed by using descriptive qualitative approach. The results of this study showed that all students used four stages in the process of English writing: planning, drafting, editing and final revision. The students’ English writing problems covered content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanic. The factors which inhibit them in writing English included not being confident in writing English, not mastering grammar and vocabulary, and lack of practice in writing. The aspects which encourage them to write English were due to the demands as international class students, watching English movie, reading English books or journals, listening English songs and having ambition to acquire scholarship overseas.

Pédagogie et didactique DE L’enseignement

The teaching profession is made up of multiple issues. Teachers must plan their lessons, give their lessons, and evaluate the learning. But, as everyone in the college community knows, the teaching profession is not limited to these three tasks. Teachers should also be involved in program development and evaluation, the production and revision of master plans, and the development of lesson plans. They must select appropriate teaching methods for the different types of content they teach. They must also carefully choose methods to uncover the learning difficulties of their students, often specific to their discipline. They must finally accompany students on the path of conceptual and formal understanding of the discipline, despite their individual differences and varied learning goals. This list is of course not exhaustive, but all the activities listed there have one thing in common: they are all fundamentally didactic activities.
 Didactics is the discipline of the sciences of education which is interested in contents as school subjects, as objects of teaching and learning (Reuter et al., 2013, Tochon, 1999). Although it is first and foremost a university discipline, a component of educational sciences, didactics is profoundly pragmatic: It seeks to satisfy concrete and functional goals, with a practical intention (Tochon, 1999). As Réal Larose and Sophie René de Cotret, professors at the Universityof Montreal, say, "The didactics of a discipline can be developed in concrete action, in the same spirit as for some the path is made by walking "(Larose and de Cotret, 2002, 18).
 It is quite different for the teacher. The "male or female teacher" of school who did not have the same status as other professionals, today plays a growing role in the conservation and transmission of the values ​​of our society. The highest court in the country has recently reaffirmed it; the teacher is a role model for both students and society whose values ​​they must reflect.
 
 The teacher, in order to fulfill his role, enjoys the rights that he is entitled to under the legislation and, to a lesser extent, collective agreements. But to be a "model" also has important duties, particularly that of conveying, by gesture, speech, as well as by attitude, these values ​​of our society. It is these rights and obligations imposed on educational professionals that will be the subject of this article.
 In this article, I propose a reflection on the rights, the place and the role of teachers in the school context at a time when many countries will be confronted, in the coming years, with a significant renewal of the Faculty Staff. It is the question of the professional identity of teachers that is at the heart of current questions.

Predicting Audit Opinion in Consolidated Financial Statements with Artificial Neural Networks

The models for predicting audit opinion analyze the variables that affect the probability of obtaining a qualified opinion. This helps auditors to plan revision procedures and control their performances. Despite their apparent relevance, existing models have only focused on the context of individual financial statements and none have referred to consolidated financial statements. The consolidated information is essential for decision-making processes and understanding the true financial situation of a company. Our objective is to provide a new audit opinion prediction model for consolidated financial statements. To this end, a sample of group of Spanish companies was chosen and an artificial neural network technique, the multilayer perceptron, was used. The results show that the developed method managed to predict the audit opinion with accuracy above 86%. Moreover, there exist important differences concerning the most significant variables in the audit opinion prediction for individual accounts, since when using consolidated financial statements, the variables referring to industry, group size, auditor, and board members were converted into the main explanatory parameters of the prediction.

A treatment planning study of combined carbon ion-beam plus photon intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

Combined photon intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and sequential dose-escalated carbon ion beam therapy (IBT) is a technically advanced treatment option for head and neck malignancies. We proposed and evaluated an integrated planning strategy as opposed to an established and largely separated planning workflow. Ten patients with representative malignancies of the head and neck region underwent combined carbon-photon radiotherapy (RT) in our facilities. Clinical plans were created according to the separated workflow with independent optimization stages for both modalities. Experimental plans incorporated the existing carbon IBT dose distribution into the optimization stage of a step-and-shoot photon IMRT (bias dose planning). Cumulative dose distributions showed statistically significant differences between the two planning strategies and were predominantly in favor of the integrated approach. As such, target irradiation was generally maintained or even improved in a subset of metrics, while normal tissue sparing was widely enhanced; for instance, in the ipsilateral temporal lobe with median Dmean of -16% (p<0.001). Maximum doses D1% (with adjustment for different fractionation) fell below thresholds for toxicity risk in a minority of instances, where they were previously exceeded. Integral dose did not differ significantly. Our findings indicate that combination planning of carbon-photon RT for head and neck malignancies may benefit from a proposed bias dose method, yielding favorable dose distribution characteristics and a streamlined planning workflow with fewer plan revisions. Further research is necessary to validate these observations in terms of robustness and their potential for higher tumor control.

EXCESS VULNERABILITY FROM SUBSIDIZED FLOOD INSURANCE: HOUSING MARKET ADAPTATION WHEN PREMIUMS EQUAL EXPECTED FLOOD DAMAGE

We calculate there are 8.1% more houses in Allegheny County, PA (Pittsburgh) due to flood insurance subsidies. Conversely, if/when National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) premiums rise by 50% to equal expected damages, property values will decrease by 8.8% in the short-term, with about half of that recuperated in the long run (4.7%) as quality-adjusted housing stocks contract by 7.5% over decades. This analysis informs community planning and current NFIP revisions that strive to balance solvency and social consequences. Furthermore, our extension of Poterba’s (1984) dynamic user-cost of housing model can be used in integrated assessment models of climate change adaptation.

Change Detection Based on Artificial Intelligence: State-of-the-Art and Challenges

Change detection based on remote sensing (RS) data is an important method of detecting changes on the Earth’s surface and has a wide range of applications in urban planning, environmental monitoring, agriculture investigation, disaster assessment, and map revision. In recent years, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become a research focus in developing new change detection methods. Although some researchers claim that AI-based change detection approaches outperform traditional change detection approaches, it is not immediately obvious how and to what extent AI can improve the performance of change detection. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art methods, applications, and challenges of AI for change detection. Specifically, the implementation process of AI-based change detection is first introduced. Then, the data from different sensors used for change detection, including optical RS data, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, street view images, and combined heterogeneous data, are presented, and the available open datasets are also listed. The general frameworks of AI-based change detection methods are reviewed and analyzed systematically, and the unsupervised schemes used in AI-based change detection are further analyzed. Subsequently, the commonly used networks in AI for change detection are described. From a practical point of view, the application domains of AI-based change detection methods are classified based on their applicability. Finally, the major challenges and prospects of AI for change detection are discussed and delineated, including (a) heterogeneous big data processing, (b) unsupervised AI, and (c) the reliability of AI. This review will be beneficial for researchers in understanding this field.

An LCA-based environmental impact assessment model for regulatory planning

Assessing the environmental impact (EI) of regulatory planning (a lower tier in the Chinese urban planning system) has significant implications for improving the environmental performance of the future built environment. Current environmental impact assessments generally focus on microscale and macroscale, while mesoscale studies at region level are lacking. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an LCA-based environmental impact assessment model for regulatory planning, which focuses on embodied EI of urban construction and operational EI associated with the operation of the built environment. To ensure the regulatory plans both meet the environmental limits and fit well with environmental policy requirements, this paper also presents a new impact analysis method by integrating environmental carrying capacity analysis and distance to target method. The Statutory Plan of Shenzhen Futian Free Trade Zone 03-T2 is used as a case study to test and demonstrate the applying process and functions of the proposed method. Results indicate that the proposed model can effectively quantify the future environmental impact associated with a regional development plan, and can potentially be used as a tool for urban administrators to make decisions on regulatory planning revision and provide references for environmental management.

Improving Teacher's Ability through Training in Learning Strategies Based on Cooperative STAD Techniques

This research aims to improve the ability of teachers through cooperative learning strategies based on STAD techniques in grades VII, VIII, and IX at Junior High School 8 Bogor. This study using the method of action research. The model chosen in this action research is Lewin's cycle model in Mills which has the view that action research is depicted as a spiral cycle and includes stages: (a) planning (plan), (b) action (act), (c) observation, and (d) reflection and revision of action plans in the cycle if they are still needed for improvement. The results showed that 1) The application of the STAD cooperative learning strategies through training proved to contribute to the second cycle and the third cycle on improving the ability of teachers to design lesson plans; 2) Implementation of learning with cooperative learning strategies STAD techniques, the exploration of teachers provides information with learning media to be analyzed by students, the elaboration of the teacher guides the discussion where each group has a peer tutor and motivates each group to do cooperative skills; 3) The implementation of STAD techniques of cooperative learning techniques through training in the implementation of preliminary learning activities contribute to the second cycle in the third cycle on improving the ability of teachers to carry out preliminary learning activities. The STAD strategy can increase the ability of teachers.

The Role of Precision in Spatial Narratives: Using a Modified Discourse Quality Index to Measure the Quality of Deliberative Spatial Data

The importance of spatial precision in geographic information science is not limited to quantitative data. As spatial data can also exist in qualitative form, modifying a discourse quality index from the field of discourse ethics can help understand whether mentioning specific spatial locations changes the quality of spatial narratives. The discourse quality index was modified by incorporating an item into the index that detected the presence and magnitude of a spatial precision construct. The spatial narratives analyzed with this modified index were 151 public comments submitted during a public policy revision process, for a national forest plan revision at the Chugach National Forest in Alaska, USA.Analysis showed when discourse quality values underwent a comparison of means test, the values were significantly changed between comments with no spatial precision versus those considered to have spatial precision. The results suggest, preliminarily, that employing spatial precision in narratives changes discourse quality during deliberative activities. Further, the way in which people use spatial precision to communicate during a policy revision process can impact how spatial narratives are understood and valued.

Using Forest Inventory and Analysis Data to Support National Forest Management: Regional Case Studies

Abstract Although many forestry practitioners have a general understanding of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and the type of data collected, most non-expert users of FIA reports and basic data are unlikely to be familiar with the breadth of information available and the many potential uses of the data. We present case studies from three USDA Forest Service regions to highlight a variety of applications of FIA data, from informing the forest plan revision process to supplying managers with timely information on important forest attributes at the stand and landscape scales. These examples illustrate the utility of FIA data in meeting managers’ information needs, the importance of the linkages between research and management throughout the agency, and the role that the FIA program can play in fostering those collaborations.

Linda E. Bireley

Linda E. Bireley