Proposed Assessment Criteria Research Articles

Quality Assessment of Digital Health Apps: Umbrella Review.

With an increasing number of digital health apps available in app stores, it is important to assess these technologies reliably regarding their quality. This is done to mitigate the risks associated with their use. There are many different guidelines, methods, and metrics available to assess digital health apps with regard to their quality. This study aimed to give a holistic summary of the current methods and "condition agnostic" frameworks that are broadly applicable for the quality assessment of all digital health apps. A systematic search of literature was conducted on 4 databases: Scopus, PubMed, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore. We followed the PICOS (Population, Patient, or Problem; Intervention; Comparison; Outcomes; and Study Design) and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodologies when conducting this umbrella review. The search was conducted on January 26, 2024, for review articles published between 2018 and 2023. We identified 4781 candidate papers for inclusion; after title and abstract screening, 39 remained. After full-text analysis, we included 15 review articles in the full review. Of the 15 review articles, scoping reviews were the most common (n=6, 40%), followed by systematic reviews (n=4, 27%), narrative reviews (n=4, 27%), and a rapid review (n=1, 7%). A total of 4 (27%) review articles proposed assessment criteria for digital health apps. "Data privacy and/or security" was the most mentioned criterion (n=13, 87%) and "Cost" was the least mentioned criterion (n=1, 7%) for the assessment of digital health apps. The Mobile App Rating Scale was the most frequently used framework for quality assessment of digital health apps. There is a lack of unity or consolidation across identified frameworks, as most do not meet all the identified criteria from the reviewed articles. Safety concerns associated with the use of digital health apps may be mitigated with the use of quality frameworks.

Confused Constitutionalism in Hungary—New Assessment Criteria for Recognising a Populist Constitutional Court

The starting point of the paper is that the early constitutional changes after the populist transformation of Hungarian majority state politics (from 2010) and the application of the new Fundamental Law (since 2012) have created difficulty in achieving constitutional justice by judicial means. The fundamental populist constitutional transformation and, within this, the transformation of the regulation of the Constitutional Court have created great challenges for constitutional adjudication. Scholarship on the transformation of the Hungarian Constitutional Court regards the change of jurisprudence as a consequence of the constitutional environment, which ended up in institutional state capture. Basing my arguments on the classic competence-related issues of constitutional justice, activism and deference, I argue here that for constitutional courts, there is always a limited room for manoeuvre by interpretation except for in a ‘hard’ dictatorship. Populist Hungarian jurisprudence is, therefore, not only a consequence of constitutional change but a contribution per se—a cause of the construction of a populist constitution. This job has been done by constitutional interpretation in an activist or deferent manner with regard to specific politically sensitive issues. EU- and emergency-related constitutional conflicts are used here as examples to explain the proposed assessment criteria. The conclusion is that either the Court is activist or deferent, it contributes actively to the populist construction by constitutional interpretation.

Критериально-оценочный аппарат сформированности профессионально значимых ценностей будущего учителя-филолога

The research aims to develop a criterion-based assessment tool to determine the level of formation of the system of professionally significant values in future language and literature teachers to enhance their professional training. The paper describes the assessment criteria, identifies indicators, and selects measures to determine the level of formation of the system of professionally significant values in future language and literature teachers. The research is novel in that it is the first to propose assessment criteria for the formation of the system of professionally significant values in future language and literature teachers: the motivational-value, professional-philological, operational-activity, reflexive criteria, which help determine the level of formation of the said system: the low (basic), medium (productive), high (creative) levels. As a result, it is found that the formation of the system of professionally significant values in future language and literature teachers, which affects the effectiveness of their subsequent professional teaching activities, is a complex process. This process is carried out according to four criteria, for each of which indicators have been selected to choose a diagnostic toolkit that provides the opportunity to adequately examine and evaluate the components of the teacher’s system of professionally significant values.

New Ranking System for Higher Education Institutions in Oman as a tool for achieving SDGs

This study aims to construct a conceptual framework for ranking Higher Education Institutions in Oman (OHEIs) to achieve country-level Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study utilizes a quantitative research design with focus groups being surveyed in five well-respected universities in Oman. The findings indicate that the newly proposed assessment criteria match and complete the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking, which overlooks the majority of OHEIs. The practical novelty of this study lies in proposing Oman's first multidimensional ranking system for higher education institutions, which can be applied to other countries’ SDG-monitoring approach modification and improving Oman’s sustainable development. The theoretical novelty of this paper includes a new interpretation of SDGs, with a focus on higher education institutions, which can be used in future similar studies. The significance of this study lies in its proposal of a novel ranking system for OHEIs that is expected to contribute to SDG achievement in Oman.

Quality Assessment Criteria and Methods for 3D Digital Replica of Historical Printing Woodblocks

With the available 3D scanning technologies and the special historical characteristics of printing woodblocks, it is necessary to have concrete methods to assess the visual quality of 3D digital replica for preservation and promotion purposes. In this paper, we present our study for assessing the visual quality of 3D digital replica of historical printing woodblocks. In our study, first, assessment criteria are formed to meet the preservation requirements by consulting with printing woodblock conservationists and assessment methods are developed to assess the quality of 3D digital woodblock replica regarding those criteria. Then, a suitable 3D scanning method is applied to a typical set of printing woodblocks to obtain their 3D digital replicas which are used to evaluate the proposed assessment methods. The experimental results reveal that our proposed assessment criteria and methods can be used to evaluate visual quality of 3D digital woodblock replicas regarding the requirements of preservation and promotion of woodblocks.

The Importance of Measuring Mental Wellbeing in the Context of Psychological Distress: Using a Theoretical Framework to Test the Dual-Continua Model of Mental Health.

In total, 2065 participants (female n = 1193; 57.8%) completed two online assessments (minimum 30 days apart) measuring psychological distress, mental wellbeing, and demographic information. In total, 1.1% of participants experienced high distress as well as mental wellbeing confirming that psychological distress and mental wellbeing exist independently (Criterion 1). Bipolarity (Criterion 2) was partly disconfirmed: mental wellbeing consistently decreased as symptom severity increased for depression; however, anxiety and stress did not meet bipolarity requirements. Functional independence (Criterion 3) was established: longitudinal analysis found that participants reliably and simultaneously increased (2.7%) or decreased (4.2%) in distress and mental wellbeing, while cross-sectional analysis showed that psychological distress only explained 38% of the variance in mental wellbeing. Findings provide further support for the dual-continua model through analysis of the proposed assessment criteria, suggesting a further need to measure the dual-continua model at the subdomain level, e.g., depression, anxiety, and stress, as opposed to global psychological distress. Validation for the proposed assessment criteria provides important methodological foundations for future studies.

Identifying relevant topics and their competency levels for dental materials science: a fuzzy Delphi study

BackgroundDental materials science is an important core course in undergraduate dental programs which integrates foundational concepts of chemical engineering and materials science into clinical dentistry. The present study aimed to identify relevant dental materials science topics for Malaysian undergraduate dental curricula and to determine their appropriate competency levels in terms of cognitive and psychomotor taxonomies.MethodsPotential dental materials science topics were drafted in alignment with the revised national competency statement. The list of topics was further amended after comparing it with those recommended topics in the literature. Fuzzy Delphi method was applied. Experts were selected based on the different inclusion criteria. They ranked the topics using a five-point Likert scale and recommended the appropriate cognitive and psychomotor levels. Next, fuzzy evaluation was performed. Consensus was deemed for a topic to be included if (a) the average expert agreement was ≥ 75%, (b) the d-construct threshold value for each topic was ≤ 0.2 and (c) the average fuzzy number was ≥ 0.5.ResultsSixty-two experts participated in the study. They accepted 33 out of 36 potential dental materials science topics. The average Likert score and fuzzy number ranged from 3.63 to 4.92 and 0.526 to 0.784, respectively. Furthermore, “Endodontic materials” was ranked as the most significant topic. Meanwhile, many topics required dental students to demonstrate a cognitive level of “Apply” and a psychomotor level of “Guided response”. Based on mean scores, “Impression materials” was rated as the most cognitively demanding topic, whilst “Temporary restorative materials” was the most demanding topic for psychomotor taxonomy.ConclusionThe present study has identified relevant dental materials science topics and their appropriate cognitive and psychomotor levels using the Fuzzy Delphi approach. The findings of the present study form the basis for future studies to develop measurable learning outcomes, design corresponding innovative pedagogy and propose assessment criteria for each topic.

Assessment of the river ports of Ukraine regarding their logistics zones` organizational capability

Relevance in the research topic. A postwar Ukraine should restore not only its political and economic components, but the infrastructure as well. Logistics zones organization at territories attractive by the existing transport infrastructure and geographical location hypothetically hold the attention. In this aspect, the most profitable territories are river ports. It is a significant factor, as it will affect substantially the further development of river logistics, being a promising task for the future. Problem statement. The relevance in the research topic determines researchers` efforts to assess river ports` technical and technological facilities, their geographical location and connection to the mainland transport infrastructure. This is an urgent need to analyze organizational capability of river ports` logistics zones, which are the core elements of the country's logistics infrastructure. Analysis of recent research and publications. The issue of the development of the logistics infrastructure of Ukraine as the aspect of plan implementation to join the European Union is gaining more and more importance. The river infrastructure is also not left out of researchers' attention. Ukrainian scholars like Hurii N., Horodova A., Odynets T., Irtyshcheva I., Boyko Y., Okorokova A., Vernyhora R., Tsukrova P., Slipenko A., Manaenko I., Tymoshchuk O., Horoshko K., Shakhova A. and others devoted their scientific publications to river infrastructure and river transport research, development of river industry capacity. Detailed information analysis of the theme made by the domestic scholars made it possible to ascertain that now no one pays attention to the river ports` development issue through their logistics zones organization. It requires thorough research. Unsolved parts of the general problem. Now the theme regarding logistics zones organization based on the existing river infrastructure remain unexplored. Study task and objective. The study objective was to provide comprehensive assessment of the river ports of Ukraine as for the possibility to start up logistics zones. To achieve it the following tasks have been solved: currently operating river ports have been found out; port selection criteria have been substantiated; the most suitable river ports for the logistics zones organization have been determined. Research method and methodology. While doing the research, general scientific (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, group analysis) and special (abstraction, etc.) methods of studying economic phenomena and processes have been used. The main material (study results). A study of actual operational capacity of the existing river ports, unloading terminals and berths, their topological interconnection taking into account the spatial factor has been carried out. An expert survey in the field of logistics, in particular, river logistics has been conducted. Key assessment criteria to select ports to start up logistics zones inside the area or nearby have been proved. The proposed assessment criteria have been applied to select seven river ports as potentially suitable for the organization of logistics zones inside the area or nearby. It has been assumed that the logistics zones could become the core elements to form regional distribution logistics centers or regional logistics clusters. Conclusions. The actual number of currently operating river ports, unloading terminals and berths in the general river infrastructure of Ukraine has been found out. Five criteria have been proved and proposed to select the most suitable river ports to start up the logistics zones, namely port capacity and territory, port size length, berth depth and land transport network accessibility. The following river ports have been recommended to choose to start up working logistics zones: Izmail, Reni, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Dnipro and Novokakhovka. The selected river ports are topologically linked to the regions and could be integrated into the regional distribution logistics centers.

New C-indices for assessing importance of longitudinal biomarkers in fitting competing risks survival data inthepresence of partially masked causes.

Competing risks survival data in the presence of partially masked causes are frequently encountered in medical research or clinical trials. When longitudinal biomarkers are also available, it is of great clinical importance to examine associations between the longitudinal biomarkers and the cause-specific survival outcomes. In this article, we propose a cause-specific C-index for joint models of longitudinal and competing risks survival data accounting for masked causes. We also develop a posterior predictive algorithm for computing the out-of-sample cause-specific C-index using Markov chain Monte Carlo samples from the joint posterior of the in-sample longitudinal and competing risks survival data. We further construct the C-index to quantify the strength of association between the longitudinal and cause-specific survival data, or between the out-of-sample longitudinal and survival data. Empirical performance of the proposed assessment criteria is examined through an extensive simulation study. An in-depth analysis of the real data from large cancer prevention trials is carried out to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed methodology.

1613P Prevalence and predictive value for 6-month mortality of four criteria for assessment of sarcopenia in older patients with cancer: NutriAgeCancer national prospective cohort study

Older patients with cancer are at increased risk of sarcopenia. The European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP)2 proposed criteria for case-finding, diagnosis and severity assessment of sarcopenia. The aim was to estimate the prevalence of each criteria: an abnormal SARC-F [Strength, Assistance with walking, Rising from a chair, Climbing stairs, and Falls] questionnaire, low handgrip strength (HGS), low arm circumference (AC, substitute for muscle mass), low physical performance (PP; abnormal timed up-and-go test [TUG] or incapable), and their predictive value for 6-month mortality in older cancer patients, overall and by metastatic status.

Valuing Cultural Landscape Heritage in Historic Areas: Proposed Assessment Criteria from Thailand

A historic area is a valuable cultural heritage site. A historic community’s landscape is no less valuable than the historic buildings. In Thailand, conservation organisations only preserve and value buildings with high archaeological importance. The appreciation of surrounding landscapes is still lacking. This study aimed to establish criteria for valuing cultural landscape in Thailand. The methodology was by reviewing concepts of cultural heritage, historic area, cultural landscape, and evaluation criteria created by UNESCO and Thai organisations so as to build the new criteria. We then proposed the criteria in four areas: aesthetics, history, science and education, and society, which would correspond to current guidelines to cover cultural landscapes comprehensively.

A critical review of the proposed academic performance indicators for the assessment of individual researchers in Hungary

The academic performance indicators of the Doctor of Science title, the highest and most prestigious qualification awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), are key in the national assessment system. The types of performance indicators, as well as their minimum values, are incorporated into the application requirements for academic promotions, scientific qualifications, and research scholarships. HAS has proposed a reform of these performance indicators, to align with the current national and global trends. The proposed modifications are generally based on arbitrary decisions and the consensus between academicians, namely, the representatives of the sections of HAS. This paper contains a bibliometric analysis of 25,000 publications produced between 2011 and 2020 by 683 researchers affiliated with HAS’s Section of Earth Sciences. The bibliometric data of the publications are processed by an integer and fractional counting, respectively. The main goal of the paper is to argue that discipline-specific co-authorship patterns should be accounted for in the assessment procedure. It is also shown that the homogenization of the performance indicators and the rigid use of the integer counting method favor hard natural science disciplines and put social science disciplines at a disadvantage. Finally, the paper describes some components of an alternative publishing strategy which would be most prudent for researchers, given the proposed assessment criteria.

Extensive Study of Cloud Computing Technologies, Threats and Solutions Prospective

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides logical separation between data, network, applications and machines from the physical constrains of real machines. IaaS is one of the basis of cloud virtualization. Recently, security issues are also gradually emerging with virtualization of cloud computing. Different security aspects of cloud virtualization will be explored in this research paper, security recognizing potential threats or attacks that exploit these vulnerabilities, and what security measures are used to alleviate such threats. In addition, a discussion of general security requirements and the existing security schemes is also provided. As shown in this paper, different components of virtualization environment are targets to various attacks that in turn leads to security issues compromising the whole cloud infrastructure. In this paper an overview of various cloud security aspects is also provided. Different attack scenarios of virtualization environments and security solutions to cater these attacks have been discussed in the paper. We then proceed to discuss API security concerns, data security, hijacking of user account and other security concerns. The aforementioned discussions can be used in the future to propose assessment criteria, which could be useful in analyzing the efficiency of security solutions of virtualization environment in the face of various virtual environment attacks.

Development of Speaking Skills Assessment Criteria for Engineering Students

The purpose of the article is to put forward English monologue production assessment criteria to verify the efficiency of the devised methodology of teaching English for future mechanical engineers. In the course of the research, theoretical, empirical, and statistical methods have been used. Various approaches to identifying the assessment criteria have been thoroughly analyzed. Seven criteria to assess the monologue production skills, five primary and two secondary ones, have been suggested. The allocation of the points by every criterion according to the devised scales have been elucidated. The proposed assessment criteria were used in the methodological experiment that was held at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv National Technical University. The experiment in question aimed to verify the efficiency of the devised methodology of teaching English monologue production to students majoring in mechanical engineering. Three experimental groups, 34 students in total, studying in their final year of Bachelor studies within the Subject Areas of Applied Mechanics and Industrial Engineering, participated in the methodological experiment. The conducted experiment confirmed the efficiency of the methodology proposed.

A Methodology for Assessing the Impact of Living Labs on Urban Design: The Case of the Furnish Project

This paper presents a framework to support the assessment of urban design projects through Urban Living Labs (ULLs). The framework is based on the Tactical Urbanism (TU) practices and involves the use of Mobile Urban Elements (MUE) in uncertain and potentially confusing conditions (e.g., the COVID-19 context). The methodology includes the application of the Four-Phase Model (problem and ideation; development; implementation, testing and assessment; final proposal) and a quantitative and qualitative assessment. The proposed assessment criteria were developed through an evaluation according to three aspects: (1) feasibility impact; (2) social impact; and (3) spatial impact. The methodology was applied to Furnish, an urban design project based on a ULL and prototyping, which was recently developed in five European cities. The empirical results, obtained using the impact analysis, indicate that the prototypes developed in the project are transferable to other cities and generate social interaction in public spaces. The applied research showed that the Four-Phase Model may be used as a new and improved iterative design process: the LOOP Scheme. The application of this assessment methodology to ULLs may provide valuable information for the future planning of urban interventions in public spaces.

Attribute-based Encryption for Cloud Computing Access Control

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) for cloud computing access control is reviewed in this article. A taxonomy and comprehensive assessment criteria of ABE are first proposed. In the taxonomy, ABE schemes are assorted into key-policy ABE (KP-ABE) schemes, ciphertext-policy ABE (CP-ABE) schemes, anti-quantum ABE schemes, and generic constructions. In accordance with cryptographically functional features, CP-ABE is further divided into nine subcategories with regard to basic functionality, revocation, accountability, policy hiding, policy updating, multi-authority, hierarchy, offline computation, and outsourced computation. In addition, a systematical methodology for discussing and comparing existing ABE schemes is proposed. For KP-ABE and each type of CP-ABE, the corresponding access control scenario is presented and explained by concrete examples. Specifically, the syntax of ABE is given followed by the adversarial model and security goals. ABE schemes are discussed according to the design strategies and special features and are compared in the light of the proposed assessment criteria with respect to security and performance. Compared to related state-of-the-art survey papers, this article not only provides a broader 12 categories of ABE schemes, but also makes a more comprehensive and holistic comparison. Finally, a number of open research challenges in ABE are pointed out.

Multicentre study of physical abuse and limb fractures in young children in the East Anglia Region, UK

ObjectiveTo determine if the detection of physical abuse in young children with fractures is of uniform high standard in the East Anglia Region of the UK, and whether we can...

Innovative Supplier Partnership Assessment Model in a Polish Trading Enterprise

The relationship between a company and a supplier is a strategic resource for both parties. Therefore, the necessity to develop a mechanism of an integrated approach to cooperation with suppliers, which is based on partnership, is becoming more and more pronounced. Such an approach necessitates taking into consideration an abundance of factors accompanying cooperation within a mutual venture. These factors may include: compatibility of businesses – similar values, organizational cultures, and goals or the philosophy and management methods. The objective of the article is to present a supplier partnership assessment model as implemented in a Polish trading enterprise, as well as proposed assessment criteria and methods. Verification of the criteria applied to suppliers has been performed on the example of Centrum Projekcji Multimedialnych, which is a dealer of the following companies: inFocus, Sony, Sanyo, Toshiba, Epson, Panasonic, and 3M. Operational data of the company have been used for that purpose; in turn, the assessment and selection of the key suppliers took place through the use of the following methods: ABC analysis, scoring, the graphics method, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. Out of 18 suppliers that the company cooperates with on an ongoing basis, six key ones were selected. The results of supplier partnerships suggest that some criteria applicable to the company’s suppliers are more significant than others, and that they are the ones which ought to underlie the system of such assessment. The presented supplier partnership assessment model allows selecting suppliers that will be providing best quality goods at the lowest price.

An IT Governance Framework for Virtual Enterprise in Tourism Industry: Evidence from Small Tourism Enterprises in Thailand

Information technology (IT) plays a significant role on a highly information-intensive industry like tourism industry globally and dramatically. Virtual enterprise (VE) concept is an innovation that enables small tourism enterprises (STEs) in developing countries to offer effective tourism services without large investment in IT. As STEs operate their VEs based on cloud-sourcing environment, STEs have to deal with IT risks that may affect the entire organization. As almost all STEs are found lacking in IT management experience, it is not effective to apply traditional IT governance frameworks, such as Control objectives for information and related technologies (COBIT), IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), and International organization for standardization (ISO). This study proposes an IT governance framework for STEs operating in VE concept with cloud-sourcing environment. The methodology began with multiple-case study research via semi-structure interviews. Subjects are IT leaders from 10 STEs. IT governance framework for STEs was derived from the interview results, the framework consists of five IT governance areas: Strategy, Administration, Technology and Infrastructure, Supply, and Human Resource. This study also proposed performance assessment criteria for assessing IT governance performance. The proposed assessment criteria were integrated from relevance criteria in COBIT, ISO38500, ITIL, and previous research. STEs can adopt the proposed framework in their VEs to ensure the achievement of effectiveness and efficiency of their services in virtual environment. This will eventually guarantee their continued success in tourism services at present and in the future.

Assessment criteria for parents to determine the trustworthiness of maternal and child health apps: a pilot study

Mobile software applications (apps) on health-related topics are among the most popular apps used today. However, concerns have been raised about privacy and security risks of consumer data, and disclosure to third parties. Concerns have also been raised about the content rating of apps and whether it corresponds with in-app advertising. The aim of this project was to explore international regulation of health apps and existing standards for app developers. A literature review was conducted focusing on standards, compliance, guidelines, awareness and technology. A set of assessment criteria was then developed that could be used by parents to evaluate the trustworthiness of maternal and child health apps. In the pilot study the criteria were assessed against ten maternal and child health apps selected from Google play, Apple store, the SocialWellth app library and the former UK National Health Service app library. Only one of the ten maternal and child health apps met all ten assessment criteria; two apps met only five criteria. The least frequently met criteria involved use of a trustmark and government approval, and in-app advertising falling outside the content rating. Our evaluation highlighted issues with the way information is made available to consumers through maternal and child health apps. It also demonstrated that not all app developers and advertisers follow existing relevant international guidelines or technology standards. Given this environment, our proposed assessment criteria are a means by which parents can make their own evaluation of the trustworthiness of maternal and child health apps before downloading them.