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This paper presents the thermodynamic analysis, performance assessment and working fluid selection for a novel integrated vapor compression cycle and the organic Rankine cycle system, which recovers ultra-low-temperature waste heat (50 °C) rejected by the condenser of a vapor compression cycle (VCC). The study is conducted on a vapor compression system of a 35 kW cooling capacity, followed by the component sizing of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on the available waste heat in the condenser of the refrigeration system. The effect of the operational parameters of the vapor compression cycle on the overall system performance are investigated. The system performance of the integrated system is estimated in terms of coefficient of performance, cycle thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency. The novel integrated systems has been analyzed thermodynamically for 36 pairs of pure refrigerants. Results show that the working fluid pair R600a/R141b with combined coefficient of performance (3.54), ORC thermal efficiency (3.05 %), electricity saving ratio (13.34 %) and total exergy destruction (6.94 kW) is the most suitable VCC/ORC working fluid pair in full condensing method. R407c-R141b is found to be the best working fluid pair in desuperheating method for the same integrated system. The performance analysis for full condensation and desuperheating methods are also investigated. The results indicate a 12.5 % improvement in the coefficient of performance of the integrated system using the full condensation method and a 2.5 % improvement using the desuperheating method compared to the standalone air conditioning system. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis results show that there exists optimum operating condition that maximize the system performance of the integrated system. © 2024 The Author(s)

The advent of wireless technologies has led to the development of novel services for end-users, with stringent needs and requirements. High availability, very high throughput, low latency, and reliability are all of them crucial performance parameters. To address these demands, emerging technologies, such as non-terrestrial networks or millimeter wave (mmWave), are being included in 5G and Beyond 5G (B5G) specifications. mmWave enables massive data transmissions, at the expense of a more hostile propagation, typical for high frequency bands. Consequently, the inherent instability of the physical channel significantly affects the upper layers of the protocol stack, resulting in congestion and data losses, which might strongly hinder the overall communication performance. These challenges can be addressed not only at the link layer, but at any affected layer. QUIC is a new transport protocol designed to reduce communications latency in many ways. Among other features, it enables the use of multiple streams to effectively manage data flows sent through its underlying UDP socket. This paper introduces an implementation of priority-based stream schedulers along with the design of a flexible interface. Exploiting the proposed approach, applications are able to set the required scheduling scheme, as well as the stream priorities. The feasibility of the proposed approach is validated through an extensive experiment campaign, which combines Docker containers, the ns-3 simulator and the Mahimahi framework, which is exploited to introduce realistic mmWave channel traces. The results evince that an appropriate stream scheduler can indeed yield lower delays for time-sensitive applications by up to 36% under unreliable conditions.

In this paper, a mobile virtual reality (VR) video streaming system is considered and assessed. The system comprises of a VR server, a VR center offering mobile edge computing along with a buffer, and a mobile head-mounted display (HMD). Markov-modulated processes are used to model the arrival and departure traffic at the VR center and the time-varying link quality of the wireless channel to the mobile HMD. As the Markovian arrival process at the VR center is independent of the link quality variations of the wireless channel, the VR center controls the delivery of VR video packets to the mobile HMD subject to the link quality of the wireless channel. The Markov models are used to derive expressions of queueing theoretical performance measures, i.e., throughput, queueing delay, and packet loss probability. Numerical results are provided to investigate performance trade-offs for real data traces. © 2024 IEEE.

Human performance in many visual experiments is assessed using probabilities of specific responses to uncertain visual events. Using signal detection theory with specific distributional assumptions, we frequently represent the combination of correct detections with correct negative responses to estimate with measures of discriminability, d', and a response criterion. A shortcoming of this approach involves limitations in generalizing the performance measures across different tasks, especially in experiments with dual or multiple tasks that require comparisons of the performance of simultaneous tasks. Our research aims to develop a framework enabling us to estimate the cognitive resources allocated to different tasks. We propose an approach to performance representation using an information-theoretic framework where the participants' performance can be expressed in terms of input and output entropy computed from response probabilities. In this presentation, we will first review the connection between signal detection theory and an information-theoretic representation of performance expressed in terms of channel capacity allocated to different tasks. The information-theoretic framework enables the characterization of cognitive load by the total channel capacity allocated by the participant to each concurrent task. To illustrate the approach, we will present a new analysis of multiple object tracking task using an information-theoretic framework and its use to define cognitive load.

Construction sites are among the most dangerous workplaces due to their complex, dynamic, continuously changing work environment. Many existing workplace safety planning techniques rely on two-dimensional drawings and manual expertise. Such efforts are cumbersome as safety plans quickly become outdated as construction work progresses. There has been significant research into automated safety planning, yet no community-wide standard exists for objectively measuring and comparing automated safety assessment efficacy. To address this, an automated performance assessment framework is proposed. It evaluates input solutions regarding newly formalized quantitative soundness, completeness, and spatial correctness indicators. The ground truth of the deadliest hazard falls-from-height is collected through a workshop with domain experts. We validate the proposed framework in a case study, where the performance of our previously developed automated safety planning algorithm is assessed by our new performance assessment framework. The results yield valuable insights into the importance of automated evaluation frameworks that can convince practitioners to invest in human-assisted Prevention through Design and Planning strategies.

We explore the dynamics of centralised and decentralised wastewater infrastructure across various scenarios and introduce novel insights into their performance regarding structural vulnerability, hydraulic capacity, and costs. This study determines circumstances under which infrastructure hybridisation outperforms traditional centralised infrastructure paradigms. We combined system analysis to map out the modelling problem with the model-based exploration of the transition space using the novel TURN-Sewers model. System diagramming was used to identify the parameters or combinations of parameters that significantly influence the performance indicators being assessed. This allowed the creation of relevant simulation scenarios to identify circumstances where a decentralised sewer system could outperform a centralised one. TURN-Sewers was applied to model the infrastructure maintenance and generation of new infrastructure over 20 years for a municipality on the Swiss Plateau, considering a population growth rate of 0.03 a−1. Results show that decentralisation in expansion areas with higher densification can outperform the hydraulic performance and structural vulnerability of expanding centralised sanitary wastewater infrastructure. Decentralised systems can also offer economic advantages when capital expenditure costs for small-scale wastewater treatment plants are significantly reduced compared to current costs, particularly at higher discount rates, e.g. reaping effects of economies of scale. The findings of this study emphasise the potential of transition pathways towards decentralisation in urban water infrastructures and the value of models that allow the exploration of this transition space., Policy Analysis

Dataset obtained for the study published in the paper: “Direct evaporative cooling from wetted surfaces: Challenges for a clean air conditioning solution”. Evaporative cooling has a major role to play in fighting climate change and in achieving a low-carbon economy. Wetted media are commonly called evaporative cooling pads and are widely used in greenhouses, intensive livestock farming, and industrial facilities. These can enhance their application to indoor occupied spaces such as residential or commercial cooling, or in hybrid air conditioning systems. Existing results on these less studied performance issues are reviewed, and we identify the gaps in the literature in addition to highlighting the main challenges encountered, in an effort to guide future researchers in the field and enhance the application of direct evaporative cooling. Existing results on these less studied performance issues are reviewed, and we identify the gaps in the literature, such as power requirements and the coefficient of performance, water consumption, risk of water entrainment, material decay, and air quality, as well as the effect of water temperature and salinity, solar radiation, or wind speed. In addition to highlighting the main challenges encountered, in an effort to guide future researchers in the field and enhance the application of direct evaporative cooling.

OBJECTIVE: Patient-specific virtual reality (VR) simulation of cochlear implant (CI) surgery potentially enables preoperative rehearsal and planning. We aim to gather supporting validity evidence for patient-specific simulation through the analysis of virtual performance and comparison with postoperative imaging. METHODS: Prospective, multi-institutional study. Pre- and postoperative cone-beam CT scans of CI surgical patients were obtained and processed for patient-specific VR simulation. The virtual performances of five trainees and four attendings were recorded and (1) compared with volumes removed during actual surgery as determined in postoperative imaging, and (2) assessed using the Copenhagen Cochlear Implant Surgery Assessment Tool (CISAT) by two blinded raters. The volumes compared were cortical mastoidectomy, facial recess, and round window (RW) cochleostomy as well as violation of the facial nerve and chorda. RESULTS: Trainees drilled more volume in the cortical mastoidectomy and facial recess, whereas attendings drilled more volume for the RW cochleostomy and made more violations. Except for the cochleostomy, attendings removed volumes closer to that determined in postoperative imaging. Trainees achieved a higher CISAT performance score compared with attendings (22.0 vs. 18.4 points) most likely due to lack of certain visual cues. CONCLUSION: We found that there were differences in performance of trainees and attendings in patient-specific VR simulation of CI surgery as assessed by raters and in comparison with actual drilled volumes. The presented approach of volume comparison is novel and might be used for further validation of patient-specific VR simulation before clinical implementation for preoperative rehearsal in temporal bone surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: n/a Laryngoscope, 2023., Funding agencies:Nationwide Children's Department of OtolaryngologyDet Frie Forskningsrad (DFF) 8026-00003B

Objective: This research aims to develop a performance assessment instrument that can measure Drawing Skills in Machining Engineering Skills Competency Vocational School students, in addition to determining the feasibility and results of testing the performance assessment instrument. Method: This research is development research with a 4D Model, which consists of four stages, namely Defining, Designing, Developing, and Disseminating, and is limited to the development stage only. Results: The results of the research show that the vocational school students' drawing skills instrument for machining engineering skills competency was carried out by validating the contents of the instrument using the content validity ratio (CVR) method. Instrument trials were conducted at State Vocational School 2 Surabaya in the Machining Engineering skills program, totaling thirty-one students. Of the thirty instrument items developed, the test results referred to the CVR, total correlation, OMS, and IMS criteria; two items did not meet the requirements, so these items had to be revised or eliminated. Novelty: This research presents novelty by designing a particular Performance Assessment instrument to measure the drawing skills of vocational school students who have technical drawing competency, especially in the psychomotor aspect, so that it will make it easier for teachers to carry out assessments.

The combination of measuring performance and giving feedback creates tension between formative and summative purposes of progress evaluations and can be challenging for supervisors. There are conflicting perspectives and evidence on the effects supervisor-trainee relationships have on assessing performance. The aim of this study was to learn how progress evaluations are used in postgraduate education with longitudinal supervisor-trainee relationships. Progress evaluations in a two-year community-pharmacy specialization program were studied with a mixed-method approach. An adapted version of the Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists (CanMEDS) framework was used. Validity of the performance evaluation scores of 342 trainees was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Semi-structured interviews were held with fifteen supervisors to investigate their response processes, the utility of the progress evaluations, and the influence of supervisor-trainee relationships. Time and CanMEDS roles affected the three-monthly progress evaluation scores. Interviews revealed that supervisors varied in their response processes. They were more committed to stimulating development than to scoring actual performance. Progress evaluations were utilized to discuss and give feedback on trainee development and to add structure to the learning process. A positive supervisor-trainee relationship was seen as the foundation for feedback and supervisors preferred the roles of educator, mentor, and coach over the role of assessor. We found that progress evaluations are a good method for directing feedback in longitudinal supervisor-trainee relationships. The reliability of scoring performance was low. We recommend progress evaluations to be independent of formal assessments in order to minimize roles-conflicts of supervisors.

International large-scale assessments such as PISA or PIAAC have started to provide public or scientific use files for log data; that is, events, event-related attributes and timestamps of test-takers’ interactions with the assessment system. Log data and the process indicators derived from it can be used for many purposes. However, the intended uses and interpretations of process indicators require validation, which here means a theoretical and/or empirical justification that inferences about (latent) attributes of the test-taker’s work process are valid. This article reviews and synthesizes measurement concepts from various areas, including the standard assessment paradigm, the continuous assessment approach, the evidence-centered design (ECD) framework, and test validation. Based on this synthesis, we address the questions of how to ensure the valid interpretation of process indicators by means of an evidence-centered design of the task situation, and how to empirically challenge the intended interpretation of process indicators by developing and implementing correlational and/or experimental validation strategies. For this purpose, we explicate the process of reasoning from log data to low-level features and process indicators as the outcome of evidence identification. In this process, contextualizing information from log data is essential in order to reduce interpretative ambiguities regarding the derived process indicators. Finally, we show that empirical validation strategies can be adapted from classical approaches investigating the nomothetic span and construct representation. Two worked examples illustrate possible validation strategies for the design phase of measurements and their empirical evaluation.

Assessing the quality of learning in higher education is one of the efforts to ensure its standards. Typically, the assessment of the quality of learning implementation involves observation by multiple raters. This study aims to provide construct validity evidence and estimate the reliability of performance assessment instruments for educators in higher education. 225 second-year and third-year students from the Faculty of Education participated as raters, evaluating the performance of educators in their teaching practices. Forty assessment items were used to evaluate the performance of 19 instructors. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Generalizability Theory (G-Theory) were employed to examine the quality of the performance assessment instruments. The EFA analysis resulted in the identification of five factors that contribute to educators' performance in teaching: (1) readiness and planning, (2) pedagogy and professionalism, (3) personality, (4) social relationships within the classroom, and (5) social relationships beyond the classroom, collectively explaining 67.671% of the variance. Of the 40 assessment items, 37 demonstrated construct validity, while three required revisions. These findings indicate the alignment between the instrument's factors and the formulated theory of teaching competence. The reliability of the measurements was estimated using G-Theory in RStudio, yielding a relative G coefficient of 0.88 for three raters. The D-Study results indicated that the instrument could be used to assess performance, with an estimated generalizability coefficient of 0.738, requiring a minimum of five raters for each person (educator) being evaluated. We recommend employing G-Study and D-Study to determine the number of raters involved in performance assessment as a means of cost and time efficiency in the evaluation process.

Flood resilience has aroused significant interest in coastal areas dealing with a growing frequency of severe rainstorms caused by climate change and urbanisation. At the core of flood resilience is the development of a resilient green-grey-blue infrastructure system that can resist, absorb, and recover from floods in a timely manner. Current flood resilience research, however, is limited to evaluating single infrastructure systems, failing to examine the dynamic process or find ideal spatial infrastructure designs for decision-makers. This research proposes a scenario-based assessment framework for integrated green-grey-blue infrastructure systems to improve flood resilience during urban design decision-making. Rainfall-runoff, drainage networks, and river system models are interlinked to provide quantitative simulation evaluations of water quantity and urban impact in various spatial organisations of infrastructure design. A dynamic, multi-criteria decision-making process is used to reveal the importance of five temporal indicators and rank design alternatives. In Guangzhou, China, the efficiency of this architecture is demonstrated on Pazhou Island, a typical river network area. Given the limited water and green space available, the results demonstrate that submerged areas exert a greater influence during peak rainfall, and blue infrastructure storage becomes an essential factor following rainfall. Furthermore, from a spatial perspective, the looped network of green-blue infrastructure enhances flood resilience, and downstream waterway connections and green space-aligned waterways boost the water storage capacity of green-grey-blue infrastructure. This paradigm can improve flood resilience in the Greater Bay Area in the future, especially in response to heavy rainstorms and river floods., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care. Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Landscape Architecture

Introduction : L’utilisation des observations rapportées pour prendre des décisions sur la progression de stagiaires est devenue une stratégie prépondérante d’évaluation des apprentissages dans des programmes professionnalisants en sciences de la santé. Cependant, le corps professoral a peu de données sur lesquelles s’appuyer pour guider ses pratiques. But et objectifs : Explorer le processus mis en place dans des programmes professionnalisants en sciences de la santé pour la réalisation de l’évaluation de la performance de stagiaires basée sur des observations rapportées. De manière plus spécifique, les objectifs de l’étude sont : 1) dresser le portrait des écrits scientifiques au sujet de l’utilisation des observations rapportées pour la réalisation de l’évaluation de la performance de stagiaires dans les programmes professionnalisants en sciences de la santé; et 2) Explorer la perspective de métaévaluatrices et métaévaluateurs en sciences infirmières quant aux éléments à considérer pour la réalisation de l’évaluation de la performance de stagiaires basée sur des observations rapportées. Méthodes et résultats : Le Processus des connaissances à la pratique a guidé la conduite de cette étude multiphases. L’étude est composée de deux phases et d’une seule collecte de données. La Phase 1 (une étude de la portée des écrits) permet de répondre à l’objectif 1. Lors de cette phase, la manière dont s’opérationnalise l’évaluation de la performance de stagiaires basée sur des observations rapportées dans les programmes de médecine et de sciences infirmières a été décrite. Les entrevues conduites auprès de professeures et professeurs cliniciens en sciences infirmières (n = 13) ont permis de compléter l’opérationnalisation proposée et issue de la synthèse des écrits. En effet, la perspective de ces membres du corps professoral a permis d’ajouter la première étape de l’opérationnalisation. La Phase 2, une étude descriptive qualitative visait à répondre à l’objectif 2. Les entre, Introduction: The use of reported observations to make decisions about trainee progression has become a prominent assessment strategy in health profession education programs (HPE). However, competency committee members and faculty have little data to guide their practices. Purpose and objectives: To explore the process in place in HPE programs for conducting the assessment of trainee’s performance based on reported observations. More specifically, the objectives of the study are: 1) to provide an overview of the scientific literature on the use of reported observations for the assessment of trainee’s performance in HPE programs; and 2) to explore the elements to be considered from nurses meta-assessors for the implementation of the assessment of trainee’s performance based on reported observations. Methods and results: The Knowledge to Action (KTA) process guided the conduct of this multi-phases study. The study consisted of two phases and a single data collection. Phase 1, a scoping study of the literature, addresses Objective 1. In this phase a description of how the assessment of trainee’s performance based on reported observations was operationalized for medical and nursing programs is proposed. Interviews with clinical nursing faculty (n = 13) completed the proposed operationalization from the literature synthesis. The first step of the operationalization was added by the perspectives of clinical nursing faculty. Phase 2, a qualitative descriptive study, addressed Objective 2. The nursing clinical faculty identified several elements to consider which were reported under the following three themes: 1) the climate of information sharing and communication; 2) the appropriation of the meta-assessor roles’; and 3) the challenges of assessing trainee’s performance based on reported observations. Conclusion: The project’s primary impact consists of scientific contribution. This scientific knowledge will contribute to informing higher education and health ca

Background and Aim: Performance assessment of the Stroke Pathway is a key element in healthcare quality. The aim of this study has been to carry out a retrospective assessment of the Stroke Pathway in a first level Stroke Unit in Italy, analyzing the temporal trend of the Stroke Pathway performance and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out analyzing data from 1/01/2010 to 31/12/2020. The following parameters were considered: volume and characteristics of patients with ischemic stroke undergoing intravenous thrombolysis, baseline modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, Onset-to-Door (OTD), Door-To-Imaging (DTI) and Door-To-Needle (DTN) Times, mRS score 3 months after the ischemic event onset (3 m-mRS) and NIHSS score 24 h after the ischemic event onset (24 h-NIHSS). The study also compared the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (March-December 2019) with the one immediately following it (March-December 2020). Results: 418 patients were included. Over time, treatment was extended to older patients (mean age from 66.3 to 75.51 years; p = 0.006) and with a higher level of baseline disability (baseline mRS score from 0.22 to 1.22; p = 0.000). A statistically significant reduction over the years was found for DTN, going from 90 min to 61 min (p = 0.000) with also an increase in the number of thrombolysis performed within the “golden hour” – more than 50% in 2019 and more of 60% in 2020. Comparing pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic periods, the number of patients remained almost unchanged, but with a significantly higher baseline disability (mRS = 1.18 vs. 0.72, p = 0.048). The pre-hospital process indicator OTD increased from 88.13 to 118.48 min, although without a statistically significant difference (p = 0.197). Despite the difficulties for hospitals due to pandemic, the hospital process indicators DTI and DTN remained substantially unchanged, as well as the clinical

Assessing complex skills such as writing, designing, or problem-solving is a challenge. Comparative judgement is considered to be a reliable and valid method for assessing student work (e.g., Lesterhuis et al., 2018; Verhavert et al., 2019). In comparative judgement, students’ work is evaluated by pairwise comparison. As assessors only must indicate which piece of work is better, differences in severity are not at play (Pollitt, 2012). Furthermore, each work is compared with several others and evaluated by multiple assessors. Based on these comparisons, the quality of each individual work can be estimated. This quality score reflects, so to speak, the shared consensus of the assessors (Jones et al., 2015; van Daal et al., 2019). The comparative judgement approach is based on Thurstone’s law of comparative judgement (1927), which states that it is possible to discriminate between objects on a single scale through a series of pairwise comparisons (Thurstone, 1927). Even though Thurstone already proposed the possibility of using comparative judgement for assessment in education, it was not until 2004 that Pollitt introduced the method in education in his paper “Let’s stop marking exams”. His work convincingly explained the merits of comparative assessment in terms of validity and provided the first evidence for a reliable summative assessment. Now, almost two decades later, various comparative judgement tools are available for education, such as Comproved or NoMoreMarking. Moreover, researchers around the world have investigated the quality of the method, where and/or how it can be applied, and how the method can be improved. In this Research Topic, we aim to provide a state-of-the-art of research on comparative judgement in education. We bring together current insights on the validity, reliability and efficiency of the method. In their contributions to this Research Topic, the authors present recent empirical research, each with their own approach, perspective and

Water supply and sewer networks are critical infrastructures that provide a basic service to society. However, these systems constantly age and degrade over time. In addition, since network infrastructures are so extensive in length, they require a significant investment in maintenance tasks. Hence, within the context of infrastructure asset management (IAM), accurately defining the most efficient investment planning possible is essential to ensure their long-term sustainability. This paper presents an original five-step comprehensive framework to successfully implement an infrastructure asset management strategy and plan long-term investments. Moreover, this methodology integrates innovative and relevant operational and convenience factors that, while provide the problem both with realism and practicality, have not been addressed so far. To illustrate the usefulness and applicability of this methodology, the case study of a large water company in Spain is presented.

Many cities worldwide have built various types of facilities to manage the large amounts of construction waste generated year by year. One issue of great importance to the operational efficiency of these waste management facilities is the logistics management associated with waste collection and transportation activities. This research develops a queuing system to improve the management of inert construction waste (ICW). This system combines the queuing theory, a reverse logistics network (RLN) and a simulation function. The RLN integrates the sources of waste generation, the collecting and recycling facilities and the landfills, and the simulation function simulates the different processing capacities of the queuing system and the weekday and weekend operations of the facilities in the RLN. Multiple scenarios are considered in evaluating the effect of the queuing delays on the RLN to optimize ICW logistics management across the RLN. A comprehensive case study based on the practice of ICW management in Hong Kong further substantiates the utility of the proposed queuing system. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

The adoption of distributed energy resources such as PV cells, electric vehicles and batteries in electric grids is increasing steadily. This brings new challenges for distribution networks. The current network tariffs were not designed for these types of usage and, in many cases, they are not adequate anymore. Thus, many new tariff frameworks have been proposed. In this paper, we focus on the question of how to assess whether a given tariff framework fulfills its objectives. We propose to use quantitative indicators for performance assessment. We give examples of indicators for common objectives and demonstrate how they can be derived from a cost-accounting methodology for distribution networks., Energy & Industry, Intelligent Electrical Power Grids

Nationale Bildungsstandards legen domänenspezifische und fächerübergreifende Kompetenzen für einzelne Jahrgangsstufen fest. Bildungsstandards sind primär Leistungsstandards und beschreiben die fachbezogenen Kompetenzen, die Schülerinnen und Schüler bis zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt ihres Bildungsganges zu erwerben haben. Der Beitrag beschreibt das hierzu erstellte erste Kompetenzmodell der GPJE für den Politikunterricht und den Kenntnisstand von 2007 zur notwendigen Weiterentwicklung.

Public support for stringent climate policies is currently weak. We develop a model to study the dynamics of public support for climate policies. It comprises three interconnected modules: one calculates policy impacts; a second translates these into policy support mediated by social influence; and a third represents the regulator adapting policy stringency depending on public support. The model combines general-equilibrium and agent-based elements and is empirically grounded in a household survey, which allows quantifying policy support as a function of effectiveness, personal wellbeing and distributional effects. We apply our approach to compare two policy instruments, namely carbon taxation and performance standards, and identify intertemporal trajectories that meet the climate target and count on sufficient public support. Our results highlight the importance of social influence, opinion stability and income inequality for public support of climate policies. Our model predicts that carbon taxation consistently generates more public support than standards. Finally, we show that under moderate social influence and income inequality, an increasing carbon tax trajectory combined with progressive revenue redistribution receives the highest average public support over time. © 2022 The Author(s)

Evaporative cooling has a major role to play in fighting climate change and in achieving a low-carbon economy. As it helps to reduce energy demand for air conditioning, it is gaining attention in terms of improving energy efficiency in buildings. Evaporative cooling from wetted media can enhance water–air con tact, thereby improving heat and mass transfer further and avoiding aerosols. Wetted media are commonly called evaporative cooling pads and are widely used in greenhouses, intensive livestock farming, and industrial facilities. How ever, a deep understanding of evaporative cooling pad performance can enhance their application to indoor occupied spaces such as residential or commercial cooling, or in hybrid air conditioning systems. Most studies analyze pad perfor mance mainly in terms of pressure drop and saturation effectiveness. However, some studies propose alternative cooling efficiency parameters and others pro vide insights into key aspects such as power requirements and the coefficient of performance, water consumption, risk of water entrainment, material decay, and air quality, as well as the effect of water temperature and salinity, solar radi ation, or wind speed. Existing results on these less studied performance issues are reviewed, and we identify the gaps in the literature in addition to highlight ing the main challenges encountered, in an effort to guide future researchers in the field and enhance the application of direct evaporative cooling.

Data hiding or information hiding is a prominent class of information security that aims at reliably conveying secret data embedded in a cover object over a covert channel. Digital media such as audio, image, video, and three-dimensional (3D) media can act as cover objects to carry such secret data. Digital media security has acquired tremendous significance in recent years and will be even more important with the development and delivery of new digital media over digital communication networks. In particular, least significant bit (LSB) data hiding is easy to implement and to combine with other hiding techniques, offers high embedding capacity for data, can resist steganalysis and several types of attacks, and is well suited for real-time applications. This article provides a comprehensive survey on LSB data hiding in digital media. The fundamental concepts and terminologies used in data hiding are reviewed along with a general data hiding model. The five attributes of data hiding, i.e., capacity, imperceptibility, robustness, detectability, and security, and the related performance metrics used in this survey to compare the characteristics of the different LSB data hiding methods are discussed. Given the classification of data hiding methods with respect to audio, image, video, and 3D media, a comprehensive survey of LSB data hiding for each of these four digital media is provided. In particular, landmark studies, state-of-the-art approaches, and applications of LSB data hiding are described for each of the four digital media. Their performance is compared with respect to the data hiding attributes which illustrates benefits and drawbacks of the reviewed LSB data hiding methods. The article concludes with summarizing main findings and suggesting directions for future research. This survey will be helpful for researchers and practitioners to keep abreast about the potential of LSB data hiding in digital media and to develop novel applications based on suitable perf

Introduction - In light of reforms demanding increased transparency of student performance assessments, this study offers an in-depth perspective of how teachers develop their assessment practice. Much is known about factors that influence assessments, and different solutions claim to improve the validity and reliability of assessments of students' clinical competency. However, little is known about how teachers go about improving their assessment practices. This study aims to contribute empirical findings about how teachers' assessment practice may change when shared criteria for assessing students' clinical competency are developed and implemented. Methods - Using a narrative-in-action research approach grounded in narrative theory about human sense-making, one group including nine health professions teachers was studied over a period of 1 year. Drawing upon data from observations, interviews, formal documents and written reflections from these teachers, we performed a narrative analysis to reveal how these teachers made sense of experiences associated with the development and implementation of joint grading criteria for assessing students' clinical performances. Results - The findings present a narrative showing how a shared assessment practice took years to develop and was based on the teachers changed approach to scrutiny. The teachers became highly motivated to use grading criteria to ensure fairness in assessments, but more importantly, to fulfil their moral obligation towards patients. The narrative also demonstrates how these teachers reasoned about dilemmas that arose when they applied standardised assessment criteria. Discussion - The narrative analysis shows clearly how teachers' development and application of assessment standards are embedded in local practices. Our findings highlight the importance of teachers' joint discussions on how to interpret criteria applied in formative and summative assessments of students' performances. In particular, teacher, QC 20220328

Thermodynamic models constitute one of the essential tools to properly design supersonic ejectors. However, by their simplistic nature, most of said models remain unable to properly integrate the adequate physics that takes place within the device. Most notably, the Fabri-choking theory constitutes the building block of the large majority of those models. However, it has recently been shown that the so-called compound-choking theory may be better suited to predict the behavior of a double choked ejector. In the present study, a new state-of-the-art thermodynamic model based on the compound-choking theory is presented. First, the algorithm of the on- and off-design model is laid out. Then, the link between Fabri- and compound-choking is clarified by comparing the model with its Fabri-choking counterpart. Characteristic curves are calibrated onto air and R134a experimental data. Finally, an analytical study is performed to show that imposing the compound-choking is actually equivalent to maximizing the mass flow rate within the ejector. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Airspace’s increasing demand is a current concern without a solution. Different research projects aim to expand its available capacity by improving software performance, for example, concerning trajectory prediction and conflict detection methods. This research contributes to this goal by investigating the effect of different look-ahead time values on a state-based conflict detection method’s performance. A parallel analysis is made concerning the traffic density and meteorological conditions’ influence. The simulations use actual air traffic data, obtained from the OpenSky database. Corrective data processing is implemented to minimize the noise due to data resolution issues, and time shifting techniques are analyzed and implemented to counteract the human bias natural in real recorded data. The chosen air traffic simulator is the open-source BlueSky Simulator, which integrates the state-based method analyzed. The data is selected considering the traffic density (Eurocontrol database) and the meteorological conditions (ERA5 data from Climate Copernicus) since Light, Medium, and High bins are created. The traffic density bins generation makes use of k-clustering, while the meteorological conditions bins go through a more complex process to identify atmospheric cold fronts. The performance is obtained for different classification approaches, showing the impact more flexible metrics have on the results. For flexible metrics, the performance of the state-based conflict detection method is higher than for stricter metrics. For the first one mentioned, values higher than 120s look-ahead time are not fruitful, while, for the second one, all look-ahead times are not effective in state-based conflict detection. An analysis focusing on the flight phase showed the performance is better for the cruise phase, raising the effective look-ahead times to 300s and 180s for each approach, respectively. Concerning the secondary independent variables, firstly, Aerospace Engineering | Control & Simulation

Cloud Computing has assumed a relevant role in the ICT, profoundly influencing the life-cycle of modern applications in the manner they are designed, developed, and deployed and operated. In this article, we tackle the problem of supporting the design-time analysis of Cloud applications to identify a cost-optimized strategy for allocating components onto Cloud Virtual Machine infrastructural services, taking performance requirements into account. We present an approach and a tool, SPACE4Cloud, that supports users in modeling the architecture of an application, in defining performance requirements as well as deployment constraints, and then in mapping each architecture component into a corresponding VM service, minimizing total costs. An optimization algorithm supports the mapping and determines the Cloud configuration that minimizes the execution costs of the application over a daily time horizon. The benefits of this approach are demonstrated in the context of an industrial case study. Furthermore, we show that SPACE4Cloud leads to a cost reduction up to 60 percent, when compared to a first-principle technique based on utilization thresholds, like the ones typically used in practice, and that our solution is able to solve large problem instances within a time frame compatible with a fast-paced design process (less than half an hour in the worst case). Finally, we show that SPACE4Cloud is suitable to model even microservice-based applications and to compute the corresponding optimized deployment configuration which is compared with a state-of-the art meta-heuristic alternative method, achieving savings between 21 and 85 percent.

Wind turbines are being designed with increasingly sophisticated electrical and mechanical components, leading to more complicated maintenance procedures and higher failure costs. Much of the research in this area has provided reliable early warning of wind turbine failures in an effort to reduce downtime and maintenance costs. Recently, data-driven approaches have been introduced into the health status assessment of wind turbines. However, obtaining high-precision failure predictions and interpretable health status assessments is still challenging. In this research, we propose a unified framework for predicting failures in and assessing the health of wind turbines. First, we empirically grouped wind turbine failures into four categories. Low frequency failures involving extensive downtime are critical, due to their tendency to gradually deteriorate and the severe consequences they introduce; thus, these were adopted here for use in the predictive maintenance strategy. The adaptive maximum mean discrepancy algorithm, a novel similarity metric for distributions, was used as a means of capturing the dynamic weights of sensor attributes and predicting potential failures. A convolutional neural network was then employed to identify false alarms and improve the precision of the model. This approach will significantly improve the prediction rate and reflect the relationship between failures and features/sensors, which is essential to further improve the performance of wind turbines. Experiments showed that our health assessment method had a higher failure prediction rate and a lower false alarm rate than the traditional method. The process also provides the gradual degradation trend for wind turbines, as influenced by specific failures. An empirical study of one-year of SCADA data from six wind turbines was further used to demonstrate the interpretability of the approach.

Increments in economic efficiency resulting from the application of standards generate economic benefits for both producers and consumers. As a result, it is of the utmost importance for organizations to be aware of the benefits that standards bring to their operations. This paper deals with specific categories of standardization effects that organizations can achieve in the processes of formal standardization. The goal was to rank organizations by size, based on the effects that they can gain by getting involved in formal standardization. The data gathered from a survey of experts from the Institute for Standardization of Serbia form the basis of our multicriteria analysis of standardization indicators for micro, small, medium-sized, and large organizations. The final ranking for determining the achievement of standardization effects in different-sized organizations was performed using the PROMETHEE-GAIA method. Our analysis showed that micro organizations were the best performers since they are more flexible than the other size categories of organizations. In contrast, the other types of organizations have lower significant preferences concerning all the criteria. Finally, one of the conclusions is that all observed organizations have the potential to achieve the effects of standardization, although they may differ.

The positioning and format of performance assessment in examination physical education varies between courses across Australia and internationally. This paper centres on developments in performance assessment in the Physical Education Studies (PES) course in Western Australia (WA). In 2021 The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) undertook an assessment validation trial of school-based assessment of students participating in modified format competitive game play in the 10 PES sports. This contrasted to existing centralised examination arrangements. The paper reports on findings from observation of the trial in nine of the 10 sport contexts, and semi-structured interviews with teachers, validators and SCSA staff. Analysis drew on conceptualisations of quality assessment to critically examine features of assessment information collection and judgement processes in the trial and the inter-relationships between these two elements of assessment. Discussion highlights issues of quality and equity in performance assessment for future policy and research to consider.

Interactive methods support decision makers in finding the most preferred solution in multiobjective optimization problems. They iteratively incorporate the decision maker's preference information to find the best balance among conflicting objectives. Several interactive methods have been developed in the literature. However, choosing the most suitable interactive method for a given problem can prove challenging and appropriate indicators are needed to compare interactive methods. Some indicators exist for a priori methods, where preferences are provided at the beginning of the solution process. We present some numerical experiments that illustrate why these indicators are not suitable for interactive methods. As the main contribution of this paper, we propose a set of desirable properties of indicators for assessing interactive methods as the first step of filling a gap in the literature. We discuss each property in detail and provide simple examples to illustrate their behavior., © 2022 ACM

Achieving a sustainable agricultural system requires an effective assessment of economic, environmental, and social conditions. Existing research has mainly focused on a single sector and lacks critical comparisons of determinants and trade-offs between sustainability dimensions. This study adopts a cross-sectoral perspective to assess and compare the sustainability performance of fruit and vegetable farms in Ecuador. Furthermore, the study analyzes the relation between sustainability outcomes on the one hand and farm resources, farmer demographics, and farm size on the other. Principal Component Analysis and a General Linear Regression model are used in the analysis. The results show that clear disparities in sustainability performance exist between different fruit and vegetable sectors. Furthermore, on average, farms with a higher social- and economic-oriented sustainability performance are more proficient in exploiting conventional resources (land and labour). In contrast, farms with a higher environmental-oriented performance display better handling of ecological resources such as water and forests. A sustainable use of resources is needed to prevent conflicts between sustainability dimensions. The research provides novel insights to stakeholders on the integrated assessment of agricultural sustainability and its results.

Interpreting accuracy is one of the most commonly used indicators of cognitive demands in experimental interpreting studies. One possibility to assess interpreting performance is to analyse interpreting accuracy based on meaning units. The methodological approaches used thus far, however, have some drawbacks: (a) they are limited to an assessment of sense consistency with no indication of the logical cohesion of the rendition, (b) they do not take into account the difference between unintended and strategic omissions or, more generally, the prioritization of source speech information as an interpreting strategy, and (c) they do not allow for the observation of fluctuations of cognitive load or effects of fatigue. In this article, we will present a refined approach to unit-based accuracy analysis that may contribute to solving the issues mentioned above. The new method will be illustrated by means of an example data set from a larger project consisting of the renditions of ten professional and ten student interpreters. It will also include relevant statistical analyses.

Purpose: Navigational strategies create a scenario whereby percutaneous needle-based interventions of the liver can be guided using both pre-interventional 3D imaging datasets and dynamic interventional ultrasound (US). To score how such technologies impact the needle placement process, we performed kinematic analysis on different user groups. Methods: Using a custom biopsy phantom, three consecutive exercises were performed by both novices and experts (n = 26). The exercise came in three options: (1) US-guidance, (2) US-guidance with pre-interventional image-registration (US + Reg) and (3) US-guidance with pre-interventional image-registration and needle-navigation (US + Reg + Nav). The traveled paths of the needle were digitized in 3D. Using custom software algorithms, kinematic metrics were extracted and related to dexterity, decision making indices to obtain overall performance scores (PS). Results: Kinematic analysis helped quantifying the visual assessment of the needle trajectories. Compared to US-guidance, novices yielded most improvements using Reg (PSavg(US) = 0.43 vs. PSavg(US+Reg) = 0.57 vs. PSavg(US+Reg+Nav) = 0.51). Interestingly, the expert group yielded a reversed trend (PSavg(US) = 0.71 vs PSavg(US+Reg) = 0.58 vs PSavg(US+Reg+Nav) = 0.59). Conclusion: Digitizing the movement trajectory allowed us to objectively assess the impact of needle-navigation strategies on percutaneous procedures. In particular, our findings suggest that these advanced technologies have a positive impact on the kinematics derived performance of novices., Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology

We evaluate the capacity of the Regional Climate Models, included in the regional scale reduction experiment (CORDEX-CORE), to represent the monthly precipitation and evaporation in a watershed of the Colombian Orinoco region. In addition, we use precipitation and evaporation data from sources such as Climate Hazards Center InfraRed Precipitation with Station data, ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis, Global Precipitation Climatology Center and Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model. The comparisons between the assemblies of the RCMs and the observations were done using graphical and quantitative methods, among them: box plots, percentages of bias, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, among others. Our results allow concluding that the average precipitation values are adequately represented, in terms of their temporality and magnitude, by the assembly of the RegCM model while the average values of total evaporation are better represented by the assembly of the REMO model in terms of temporality, but not in its magnitude. Furthermore, the long-term flow estimation shows that the total evaporation values provided by the RCMs allow an adequate estimation of the long-term average flow, but not the adequate estimation of the annual flow cycle. This work is a pioneer in the evaluation of the monthly precipitation and evaporation data provided by CORDEX-CORE in the Colombian Orinoco, sets precedents for the incorporation of regional models data for hydrological purposes in poorly instrumented areas of the country, and is the first step towards the evaluation of regional climate change scenarios., Con el fin de representar la precipitación y evaporación total mensual en una cuenca hidrográfica del Orinoco colombiano, este trabajo evaluó la capacidad de los modelos climáticos regionales incluidos en el Experimento regional coordinado de reducción de escala (CORDEX-CORE). Para ello, complementariamente, se incluyeron datos de precipitación y evaporación total de fuentes como Climate Hazards Center InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), el reanálisis atmosférico (ERA5), Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC) y Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM). Las comparaciones entre los ensambles de los modelos y las observaciones se hicieron utilizando métodos gráficos y métodos cuantitativos, entre ellos: diagramas de cajas, porcentajes de sesgo, eficiencia de Nash-Sutcliffe, entre otros. Los resultados evidencian que los valores promedio de precipitación están adecuadamente representados, en términos de su temporalidad y magnitud, por el ensamble del modelo RegCM, mientras que los valores promedio de evaporación total están mejor representados por el ensamble del modelo REMO en términos de la temporalidad, más no en su magnitud. Por otra parte, las estimaciones de caudal de largo plazo evidencian que los valores de evaporación total proporcionados por los modelos permiten una adecuada estimación del caudal promedio de largo plazo, pero no la adecuada estimación del ciclo anual de caudales. Este trabajo es pionero en la evaluación de los datos de precipitación y evaporación total mensual suministrados por CORDEX-CORE en el Orinoco colombiano, sienta precedentes para la incorporación de datos de modelos regionales para fines hidrológicos en zonas poco instrumentadas del país, y es el primer paso hacia la evaluación de escenarios regionalizados de cambio climático.

Producción Científica, Evaporative cooling has a major role to play in fighting climate change and in achieving a low-carbon economy. As it helps to reduce energy demand for air conditioning, it is gaining attention in terms of improving energy efficiency in buildings. Evaporative cooling from wetted media can enhance water–air contact, thereby improving heat and mass transfer further and avoiding aerosols. Wetted media are commonly called evaporative cooling pads and are widely used in greenhouses, intensive livestock farming, and industrial facilities. However, a deep understanding of evaporative cooling pad performance can enhance their application to indoor occupied spaces such as residential or commercial cooling, or in hybrid air conditioning systems. Most studies analyze pad performance mainly in terms of pressure drop and saturation effectiveness. However, some studies propose alternative cooling efficiency parameters and others provide insights into key aspects such as power requirements and the coefficient of performance, water consumption, risk of water entrainment, material decay, and air quality, as well as the effect of water temperature and salinity, solar radiation, or wind speed. Existing results on these less studied performance issues are reviewed, and we identify the gaps in the literature in addition to highlighting the main challenges encountered, in an effort to guide future researchers in the field and enhance the application of direct evaporative cooling., Junta de Castilla y León - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant VA272P18)

This paper presents a numerical study on heat sink thermal performance using phase change materials (PCM) and a vapor chamber for heat source cooling. Heat sink performance in both natural and forced convection heat transfer modes is investigated. The influence of various geometrical parameters such as number, height and thickness of fins for three different modes of conventional heat sink, PCM-based heat sink and heat sink integrated with vapor chamber is studied. Numerical results showed that the number of fins and fin height were more effective than the fin thickness in reducing heat source temperature. Furthermore, in natural convection, the addition of PCM and vapor chamber to the heat sink reduces the heat source temperature by a maximum of 33.1% and 9.5%, respectively, compared to a conventional heat sink. But in forced convection, the use of vapor chamber reduces the heat source temperature by 7.9% while the addition of PCM to the heat sink affects its performance adversely. In fact when fresh air is blown to the heat sink, it provides a higher temperature potential at all the surfaces., QC 20201202

Geologic disposal is a promising solution for a safe permanent isolation of accumulated high-level nuclear waste from nuclear powerplants. The behavior of host rock is highly coupled thermally, hydromechanically, and chemically. Numerical simulations of such coupled phenomena for the extremely long term (>100,000 years) and large length scale (>1 km) of geologic disposal remain to be computationally challenging. In this study, a methodology has been developed to approximate stress and stress-induced permeability change in host rock using only thermo-hydrological (TH) variables. A coupled thermo-hydromechanical (THM) simulation is carried out using TOUGH-FLAC simulator to model THM behaviors of a generic nuclear waste repository, in order to evaluate the performance of the developed methodology, which is implemented in a coupled TH simulation. Results show that stress and permeability change estimated by the developed methodology in the TH-coupled simulation match those calculated in the THM-coupled simulation over the simulated timeframe of over 10,000 years. Details about errors in stress and permeability estimates accrued by the developed methodology are discussed in this paper. The developed methodology will help incorporate stress-induced permeability change into existing TH simulators for the long-term radionuclide transport in geologic disposal.