Reliability Evaluation Process Research Articles

An integrated performance evaluation of financial holding companies in Taiwan

There has been a worldwide trend for financial institutions to become larger in scale and more diversified in scope, with Taiwan being no exception. Fourteen financial holding companies (FHCs) have each begun to function as a management umbrella in Taiwan by investing in different types of financial services such as banking, insurance, and securities. This paper focuses on this local financing issue from an integrated methodological perspective by model innovations proposed in several earlier studies. For example, the efficiency of profitability and marketability are combined to evaluate the FHCs’ performance. To conduct a valid and reliable evaluation process while applying the FHC’s case in Taiwan, we integrate the slacks-based measure (SBM) and slacks-based measure of super efficiency (super-SBM) models in order to directly handle the slacks and identify the best performers. A new scheme that deals with the negative output data in the SBM/super-SBM is also introduced. Inter-temporal efficiency change, which is decomposed into ‘catch-up’ and ‘frontier-shift’ effects, is analyzed by means of the SBM-based Malmquist index. A decision-making matrix is also presented to help the FHCs’ managerial authorities position themselves in the industry. The above techniques show with a high degree of consistency that large-sized FHCs perform better than small-sized ones.

Speaking the Same Language within the International Organizations: A Proposal for an Enhanced Evaluation Approach to Measure and Compare Success of International Organizations

It is currently difficult for Member States to assess and compare the success or performance of UN organizations despite recent movements towards results-based approaches. Efforts in the implementation of logical frameworks have been too independent and uncoordinated and left at the discretion of agencies. This has led to different and deficient implementations of the same theoretical approach making it almost impossible to draw any conclusions. The lack of a common approach is perceptible across agencies in the diversity of evaluation standards and terminology used to describe the same concepts, the unevenness and diversity of staff training as well as in the way intentions and results are presented. The myriad of organizations with some different sort of evaluation role may be seen as an additional symptom of the lack of coordination within the UN system. The establishment of a useful and reliable evaluation process in the UN system requires three main elements: 1- a common and enhanced evaluation framework, 2- the human and organizational capacity to ensure the accurate implementation of the framework, and 3- the commitment of Member States and agencies to implement the approach. This report mainly discusses the common evaluation framework and methodological issues, although it also provides significant insight regarding how to build the human and organizational capacity of the UN to carry out this approach. Assessing the success of an organization entails the determination of three elements: mandate or mission relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency. The report provides insight into these three components of success but its primary focus is on effectiveness. Measuring effectiveness entails establishing precise targets to be reached by agencies and collecting actual results in order to assess if intended targets are being met. Indeed, assessing effectiveness encompasses comparing intentions (provided by targets) to actual achievements (collected through monitoring). The UN Secretariat itself does not provide targets to be met by the organization. Additionally, it over-emphasizes outputs (output implementation rates) and disregards the “big picture” provided by outcomes. Under the proposed approach, subprograms meeting most of their targets are the most effective. Programs (agencies) with a large share of effective subprograms (programs) may be considered effective themselves. As a way to simplify and give an intuitive sense of effectiveness, subprograms could be attributed a category or color following a “traffic light” methodology (green for satisfactory, amber for average, red for below expectations) according to the share of targets satisfactorily met. The same could be done for programs according to their share of satisfactory subprograms. Program and subprogram performance data of every agency could be centralized (by a coordinating body) in a comprehensive webpage that would facilitate comparison between similar functions or themes across the UN system [Please refer to pg. 27 for an elaborate illustration]. The report also suggests the possibility of complementing this objective approach with a perception survey. Despite significant limitations of this type of subjective approach, it is still widely used and gives an idea of which organizations are best regarded by their peers. Contrasting actual performance data and perception indicators could be revealing, and could shed light in areas where the objective methodology may fall short. One of the most important recommendations concerns the organizational capacity ensuring the accurate implementation of the evaluation approach. This capacity should be embodied by a centralizing coordinating body (perhaps under the CEB) that would 1-ensure a common evaluation training and support of UN staff and uniformity of standards (terminology, methods, etc.), 2- centralize performance data gathered from agencies in a common database and present results in a user-friendly manner where programs and agencies could be compared and 3- verify the validity of the data submitted by the agencies (performance auditing).

Learning curve of vitrification assessed by cumulative summation test for learning curve (LC-CUSUM)

We used the cumulative summation test for learning curve (LC-CUSUM), a specifically designed statistical tool, to evaluate the first 50 procedures performed by a trainee in vitrification and to provide a usable model for monitoring the learning process of this technique. Given the lack of models to evaluate IVF technologies, the CUSUM methodology could prove useful for quality control in laboratories.

Population-Based Intelligent Search in Reliability Evaluation of Generation Systems With Wind Power Penetration

Adequacy assessment of power-generating systems provides a mechanism to ensure proper system operations in the face of various uncertainties including equipment failures. The integration of time-dependent sources such as wind turbine generators (WTGs) makes the reliability evaluation process more challenging. Due to the large number of system states involved in system operations, it is normally not feasible to enumerate all possible failure states to calculate the reliability indices. Monte Carlo simulation can be used for this purpose through iterative selection and evaluation of system states. However, due to its dependence on proportionate sampling, its efficiency in locating failure states may be low. The simulation may thus be time-consuming and take a long time to converge in some evaluation scenarios. In this paper, as an alternative option, four representative population-based intelligent search (PIS) procedures including genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial immune system (AIS), and ant colony system (ACS) are adopted to search the meaningful system states through their inherent convergence mechanisms. These most probable failure states contribute most significantly to the adequacy indices including loss of load expectation (LOLE), loss of load frequency (LOLF), and expected energy not supplied (EENS). The proposed solution methodology is also compared with the Monte Carlo simulation through conceptual analyses and numerical simulations. In this way, some qualitative and quantitative comparisons are conducted. A modified IEEE Reliability Test System (IEEE-RTS) is used in this investigation.

Generator System Reliability Analysis Including Wind Generators Using Hourly Mean Wind Speed

The aim of the article is to study the generator system reliability analysis with wind energy penetration in the conventional grid. It presents the reliability evaluation process, which has accurately modeled the intermittent nature of wind resource. A stochastic model with hourly mean wind speed (HMWS), standard deviation and sequential Monte Carlo simulation is used for reliability analysis. Case studies based on Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) test system are presented using wind data from two sites in Maharashtra and one Gujarat state of India. The proposed HMWS method offers advantages, such as fast convergence of the reliability indices and high efficiency, over the Weibull method.

IFAS: Interactive flexible ad hoc simulator

Ad hoc networks are characterized by fast, dynamic changes in the topology of the network. Introduction of new routing algorithms requires a deep and reliable evaluation process. In this paper, we describe an interactive flexible ad hoc simulator (IFAS) that presents a modern and novel approach to the family of ad hoc simulators. This simulator supports unique viewing, debugging, tuning and interactive capabilities that shorten significantly the design and debug process of new algorithms. The development of the IFAS is ongoing; however, we consider this new simulator as an innovative tool that will supplement traditional simulators.

Infant Polysomnography: Reliability

Infant polysomnography (IPSG) is an increasingly important procedure for studying infants with sleep and breathing disorders. Since analyses of these IPSG data are subjective, an equally important issue is the reliability or strength of agreement among scorers (especially among experienced clinicians) of sleep parameters (SP) and sleep states (SS). One basic issue of this problem was examined by proposing and testing the hypothesis that infant SP and SS ratings can be reliably scored at substantial levels of agreement, that is, kappa (kappa) > or = 0.61. In light of the importance of IPSG reliability in the collaborative home infant monitoring evaluation (CHIME) study, a reliability training and evaluation process was developed and implemented. The bases for training on SP and SS scoring were CHIME criteria that were modifications and supplements to Anders, Emde, and Parmelee (10). The kappa statistic was adopted as the method for evaluating reliability between and among scorers. Scorers were three experienced investigators and four trainees. Inter- and intrarater reliabilities for SP codes and SSs were calculated for 408 randomly selected 30-second epochs of nocturnal IPSG recorded at five CHIME clinical sites from healthy full term (n = 5), preterm (n = 4), apnea of infancy (n = 2), and siblings of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (n = 4) enrolled subjects. Infant PSG data set 1 was scored by both experienced investigators and trained scorers and was used to assess initial interrater reliability. Infant PSG data set 2 was scored twice by the trained scorers and was used to reassess inter-rater reliability and to assess intrarater reliability. The kappa s for SS ranged from 0.45 to 0.58 for data set 1 and represented a moderate level of agreement. Therefore, rater disagreements were reviewed, and the scoring criteria were modified to clarify ambiguities. The kappa s and confidence intervals (CIs) computed for data set 2 yielded substantial inter-rater and intrarater agreements for the four trained scorers; for SS, the kappa = 0.68 and for SP the kappa s ranged from 0.62 to 0.76. Acceptance of the hypothesis supports the conclusion that the IPSG is a reliable source of clinical and research data when supported by significant kappa s and CIs. Reliability can be maximized with strictly detailed scoring guidelines and training.

Reliability Prediction in Early Phases of Product Design

Summary Computer support of design and development procedures is becoming more and more diversified, sophisticated and efficient. Can it be expected that the design and development process will, in the future, be fully controlled by highly sophisticated computer support, analytical modeling and simulation? The paper explains some drawbacks of the design evaluation method by which dimensional suitability is evaluated using the criterion or 'sufficient safety’, and points to the advantages of 'design for reliability’ enabling simultaneous evaluation of the functional and dimensional suitability of solutions. Research has shown that even the most complete computer-supported analytical methods do not enable the designer to predict reliability during operation with sufficiently low statistical risk. Even the implementation of partial, yet relevant tests results into the analytical reliability evaluation process does not essentially improve its efficiency. It is only model or prototype testing that makes it possibk to predict reliability with sufficiently low risk. A new method was developed to predict the probability of stress state occurrences during operation. It probably need not be mentioned that this kind of reliability prediction requires maximum computer support. So to meet these needs, a computer-supported system for this kind of analysis has been developed.