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Game-based learning (GBL) is widely utilised in various domains and continues to receive interest and attention from researchers and practitioners alike. However, there is still a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness, making GBL evaluation a critical undertaking. This paper proposes an integrated approach for planning and executing GBL evaluation studies and presents its application by evaluating the effectiveness of a GBL approach to improve the Arabic reading skills of migrant refugee children in an informal learning setup. The study focuses on how children's age group, learning modality preference, and prior mobile experience affect their learning, usability, and gameplay performance. A quasi-experiment with a one-group pretest-posttest design was conducted with 30 children (5–10 years old) from migrant refugee backgrounds. The results show a statistically significant improvement in their reading assessment score. The results also outline a clear impact of children's age groups on their learning gain, usability score, and total levels played. Moreover, learning modality preference and prior mobile experience both had a statistically significant effect related to usability and gameplay performance parameters. However, no effect was found on learning gain. Based on the findings, some design recommendations are suggested for more inclusive design focusing on user characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tactile sensors are utilized to measure multichannel pulse signals in pulse wave analysis (PWA). Owing to noise interferences, researchers have applied various denoising algorithms on multichannel pulse signals. To comprehensively assess these algorithms, numerous evaluation metrics have been proposed. However, these studies did not investigate the noise mechanisms in depth and lacked reference pulse signals, thus making the evaluations insufficiently objective. Materials and methods: An applicable denoising evaluation approach for multichannel pulse signal algorithms based on an arterial pulse acquisition system is established by superimposing real-world multichannel noise to the reference signals. The system, comprising a SphygmoCor and a uniaxial noise acquisition device, allows us to acquire single-reference pulse signals as well as real-world multichannel noise. Results: We assess eight popular denoising algorithms with three evaluation metrics, including amplitude relative error (ARE), mean square error (MSE) and increased percentage signal-noise ratio (SNR%). Our proposed approach provides accurate and objective evaluations of multichannel pulse signal denoising. Notably, classic algorithms for single-channel denoising are not recommended for multichannel denoising. Comparatively, RPCA-based algorithms can denoise pulse signals independently for each channel. Conclusion: This study sets the stage for the establishment of accurate and objective pulse signal denoising evaluations and provides insights for data-driven clinical diagnoses in cardiovascular medicine.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as an environmental policy has been adopted in some countries. However, in terms of achieving its stated objectives in the developing country context, EIA system performance often falls short compared with the developed country context. Evaluation of EIA system performance has gained considerable attention with the aim of ensuring the achievement of its purpose, most recognizably the promotion of sustainable development through informed decision‐making. Different evaluation approaches have been developed and applied to explore areas of inadequacy in the EIA system components, EIA implementation, and EIA report. Researchers have considered the context of the EIA system as the underlying cause of its limited performance in developing countries. However, the literature has not rigorously explored the relationship between EIA system performance and country context, and it is the subject of ongoing debate. Our aim in this article is to contribute to the practical analysis of the influence of country context on EIA system performance. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks and evaluation methods in the literature, we propose an evaluation approach to the EIA system performance that combines the importance of considering the country context in the evaluation process. It consists of EIA system components, EIA report, and an indicative set of country context indicators. The developed evaluation approach was validated by applying it to four case studies from southern Africa. The South African case study results are presented here. The outcome is a practical evaluation approach that promotes understanding of the relationship between EIA system performance and country context and can improve EIA system performance. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:1510–1524. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: The developing country context of southern Africa influences the performance of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) system.We discuss country context and EIA system development, country context and EIA system implementation, and country context and EIA system enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the methodology designed and applied by The National Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies and Quality of Services in the evaluation of programs and public policies throughout their years of existence (2007-2017). An eclectic methodology, mainly pluralistic, although partially adopting other perspectives and paradigms. It was the result of continuous learning and evaluation practice. It reflects on different institutional and organizational elements that conditioned both its methodology and its evaluation practice. The design of AEVAL evaluations, with particular reference to the methods and techniques used, and their evaluation process, are also analysed. Finally, some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Agency’s methodology are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines the difference of the capability approach to evaluating well-being and equality in housing, with data from the Netherlands. Conventionally, well-being/inequality in housing have been evaluated by measures of economic/material means for housing or satisfaction. In theory, these evaluation approaches overlook some important normative concerns, and applying the capability approach – evaluating the capabilities to reside in ways a person values – can compensate for such weakness. However, its practical difference appears as yet contested. This study reviews the sources of such contesting views, and clarifies them by comparing the capability-oriented and conventional measures of housing deprivation in terms of their identification of deprived groups that welfare policies are supposed to address. The results showed that the overlap between the deprived groups was rather limited, revealing blind spots in the current welfare policies for housing and the informational benefits of capability-oriented evaluation. This study adds implications for measurement methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To offer simple and convenient assistance for the elderly and disabled, researchers focus on programming by demonstration approach to improve the intelligence and adaptability of wheelchair mounted robotic arm assistive robot. But how to easily and quickly obtain the demonstration information is still an urgent problem to be solved. Based on the systematic analysis of the daily living tasks in need of robot assistance, this paper proposes the key-point-based programming by demonstration recording approach to quickly obtain the demonstration information and develops a specified demonstration interface to simplify the operation process. A corresponding evaluation approach is also proposed from the demonstration trajectories and demonstration process two aspects. Additionally, tasks of "holding water glass task", "eating task", and "opening door task" are carried out and experimental results, as well as comparative evaluations confirm the validity of the proposed approach with high efficiency. This study can not only offer a convenient and feasible way to obtain the demonstration information of daily living tasks, but also lay a good foundation for the assistive robot to learn relative motion skills, especially for the demonstrated dexterous manipulation skills, and semi-autonomously accomplish complex, multi-step tasks following the user's instructions in the daily home environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, light emitting diode (LED) lamps have been widely utilized for lighting system due to its low-energy consumption. The harmonic emission standard is ignored by most of the manufacturers, high harmonic current will increase harmonic injection and cause fire risk. Existing research focuses on investigating harmonic emissions from several specific LED drivers, but a systematic evaluation approach is not given. The contribution of this paper proposed a LED harmonic evaluation in the management view, which can evaluate the harmonics of the LED lamps, accelerate the elimination of inferior LED lamps, and improve the power quality of distribution network. The evaluation approach combines G1 method and entropy method, which can make the weighting more scientific and rational. An evaluation model is established by collecting data, then the G1-entropy method is used to calculate the weights of harmonic characteristics in this model. Finally, we analyze and discuss the results, a specific evaluation approach is proposed, which can thoroughly and accurately represent the harmonic characteristics of LED lamps.

The stability with enough safety margin is one of basic requirements for design and operation of gravity dam engineering. The pre-stressed cable reinforcement is an effective way to enhance and ensure the sliding stability of gravity dam. In this paper, the sliding failure process of gravity dam before and after the pre-stressed cable-based reinforcement practice is simulated and analyzed based on the finite element method (FEM), and two criteria on strength and energy are investigated and integrated to evaluate the improvement effect of reinforcement measures on the stability of gravity dams. Considering the relationship between the strength loss and the overall failure of gravity dam system, a new strength reduction method is investigated to formulate the reduction coefficient for the stability of gravity dams. According to the energy evolution process of the dam system, an energy catastrophe model is built to determine the strength loss coefficient and the strain energy for of gravity dams. Based on the catastrophe theory, the strength loss coefficient as the control criterion and the strain energy as the state criterion are combined to evaluate the stability improvement of gravity dams undergoing pre-stressed cable reinforcement. A gravity dam taken as an example, the proposed bi-criteria approach for stability evaluation of gravity dams with pre-stressed cable reinforcement is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article was to assess the need and feasibility of a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach. There is a growing concern across the globe that a one-size-fits-all policy programme evaluation approach, based on the Western evaluation model, is not appropriate in culturally and developmentally different environments. These concerns have increased calls for culturally sensitive or culturally competent programme evaluation approaches. As a result, the call for a special Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach has increased. This article aims to analyse the literature in order to determine whether it is practically possible to establish a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach on a continent that comprises 54 countries with multiple cultures, customs, traditions, races, tribes, ethnicities, religions and languages. A qualitative approach based on a robust desktop review of available literature was used in this analysis to assess the need and feasibility of a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach in Africa. The main finding in this research was that there is currently no clarity on what the Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach will look like and how it would differently evaluate the aspects that are currently being evaluated through Western evaluation approaches. This article recommends the domestication and universalisation of existing Western programme evaluation approaches. Evaluators must consider the socio-economic and environmental context of indigenous African people, without isolating their need for better goods and services from the broader national and international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As hotspots of biocultural diversity (BCD), mountain areas contain the richest ecosystems with cultural characteristics. However, in the context of cultural homogenization and ecological decline, some high-value mountain areas are still not adequately protected, and some protected areas (PAs) even suffer from an imbalance between natural and cultural protection. To improve the coverage and conservation effectiveness of PAs in mountain areas, we propose a BCD evaluation approach to identify conservation gaps and prioritization, taking the Taishan Mountain Area (TMA) as a study case: first, we used four biodiversity factors (topographic diversity, geological diversity, ecosystem services, bird species distribution) and four cultural diversity factors (cultural landscape, intangible cultural heritage, traditional production modes, population and economy) to evaluate the BCD values; second, we generated a map of BCD hotspots and graded them into three levels; and finally, we compared the evaluation result with the PAs' layout in the TMA and determined the conservation gap and prioritization. We find that 43.92% of the high BCD areas and 84.39% of the medium BCD areas within the mountain area are inadequately protected, and 10.79% of the low BCD areas may be overprotected, classifying the above conservation gaps as three priority levels of conservation. Our study indicates that the current PAs in mountain areas are insufficiently protected and urgently need to be expanded; (2) by analyzing the coupling relationship between biodiversity and cultural diversity, it is found that only 23.90% of the relationships between the two were coordinated or above in the TMA; (3) we propose the optimization strategies of four typical conservation gaps in the TMA; (4) we finally develop an integrated conservation model of biological and cultural values for different PA categories in mountain areas based on a gap analysis. Optimizing mountain conservation and management based on the BCD evaluation results is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of human beings and nature while guaranteeing the unbiased allocation of conservation resources in mountain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of a diverse and vast amount of realistic and labeled electrocardiogram (ECG) signals in improving the performance of biomedical signal processing algorithms, and the situation of severe lack of the signals, three generative models based on deep learning are introduced for the generation of ECG signals: The WaveNet-based model, the SpectroGAN model, and the WaveletGAN model. The WaveNet-based model adopts μ -law companding transformation as a preprocessing method and then is followed by a sequence of convolutional layers with dilation; SpectroGAN and WaveletGAN use short-term Fourier transform (STFT) and stationary wavelet transform (SWT) respectively to obtain suitable input form for the generative adversarial networks (GAN). Our proposed models are capable of generating ECG signals containing three different heartbeat types: normal beat, left bundle branch block beat and right bundle branch block beat. The synthetic ECG signals generated by our models are more realistic since deep artificial neural networks can discover intricate structure and characteristics of real ECG signals instead of manually setting specific parameters for synthesis. Besides, ECG signals produced by one of our proposed models could be naturally continuous and be up to more than 20 seconds. Furthermore, we first provide an evaluation approach for quantitatively demonstrating the performance of ECG generative models. The study demonstrates that deep learning is a feasible and effective method for ECG generation. Our proposed ECG generative models can be utilized to assess biomedical signal processing algorithms so as to improve their performance in clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to analyze how different typologies and evaluation approaches relate to assessment requirements of a program inserted in an innovation ecosystem. Methodology involved interviews with 21 stakeholders and a documentary survey. Although the nature of the program suggests greater alignment with developmental evaluation and a subjectivist approach, the results also imply assessment demands based on the objectivist approach. Conclusions highlight the relevance of stakeholders' demand for defining evaluation guidelines, and indicate that programs inserted in collaborative networks receive a diversity of demands that require multiple typologies and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a rapid performance evaluation approach for lower mobility hybrid robot, which provides guidance for manipulator evaluation, design, and optimization. First, a general position vector model of gravity center for the lower mobility hybrid robot in the whole workspace is constructed based on a general inverse kinematic model. A performance evaluation index based on gravity-center position is then proposed, where the coordinates pointing to the supporting direction are selected as the evaluation index of the robot performance. Furthermore, the credibility of the evaluation approach is verified from a 5-DOF hybrid robot (TriMule) by comparing with the condition number and the first natural frequency. Analysis results demonstrate that the evaluation index can not only reflect the performance spatial distribution in the whole workspace but also is sensitive to the performance difference caused by mass distribution. The proposed performance evaluation approach provides a new index for the rapid design and optimization of the cantilever robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although virtual reality became popular technology whose application is recognized in various domains, the field generally still lacks a widespread culture of usability. This is also evident when considering environments intended for learning, specifically virtual learning environments (VLEs). According to our findings, it is clear that there is a growing need for systematic evaluation approach to help with the design and development of usable learner-centered VLE solutions. After comprehensive introductory background and state of the art in the field, this article provides an insight into Scenario-based Group Usability Testing (ScerGUT), a mixed methods approach to the evaluation of three-dimensional VLEs which integrates several different methods of usability testing with measurements of educational value. While the majority of the existing work has made use of usually one single usability assessment technique, ScerGUT employs a number of methods putting in focus users and user testing. To examine efficiency and applicability of the approach, empirical validation is conducted as a case study of particular VLE. The contribution of the article is twofold: (a) ScerGUT as a mixed methods approach to the evaluation of VLEs, which brings new scientific value and could help other researchers and (b) ScerGUT's application to a particular VLE, which brings quantitative and qualitative results, thus providing an insight into ease of use and educational value of specific VLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a flexible model and testing arrangement that can be used to mimic the fault infeed characteristics of power electronics converters and evaluate the performance of transmission protection schemes to faults when the system is 'converter‐dominated'. That is sources (e.g. renewables) and infeeds (e.g. HVDC interconnectors) that are interfaced to the main power system via converters. Actual protection relays are injected, in real‐time, using the outputs of the various fault simulations. A range of potential protection issues, including slow tripping, erroneous discrimination and non‐operation, are illustrated for particular scenarios. The main contributions of the study include knowledge of how different protection schemes may be affected by converter‐interfaced sources and guidance on possible solutions to the observed problems. Two solution options are highlighted: changes to the fault detection methods used within relays, and/or defining the fault‐response elements of future grid codes (and therefore future converter fault responses) to ensure that existing protection schemes will not be adversely affected in future low‐carbon, converter‐dominated systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economicscience todayfails to answer the question whether the terms “investment climate”and “investment attractiveness’ are identical in meaning. The time-based approach to the assessment of the investment climate of a region suggested by the author draws a clear distinction between the notions of investment attractiveness and investment climate. The investment attractiveness evaluation makes use of the investment potential and risk; the conclusion on the investment climate of a region is made based on the data about its investment attractiveness over a long-term period (10 years and more). Therefore, the investment climate of a region is regarded as its investment attractiveness in the dynamic aspect. The author’s time-based approach has been tried out on three regions - the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Smolensk Region and the Republic of Buryatia. The information sources included statistical data for 2001-2012, statutory documents, news media. The evaluation of the investment climate in the regions exposed negative tendencies. The information on the Smolensk Region and Republic of Buryatia provide evidence of the end of the “linear growth”period of the investment attractiveness observed earlier in 2002-2007.The NizhnyNovgorod Region is so far holding its positions -investors are still hoping for a slight growth in the years to come. Even so, the investment risks are high for all the regions analyzed, and the investment climate can be characterized as weakly favorable. It may be assumed that the basic function describing the dynamics of the investment attractiveness (trend search) looks like a sine wave. However this assumption may be only proved by statistical data gathered over 20 or more years.

Background: Tactile sensors are utilized to measure multichannel pulse signals in pulse wave analysis (PWA). Owing to noise interferences, researchers have applied various denoising algorithms on multichannel pulse signals. To comprehensively assess these algorithms, numerous evaluation metrics have been proposed. However, these studies did not investigate the noise mechanisms in depth and lacked reference pulse signals, thus making the evaluations insufficiently objective., Materials and Methods: An applicable denoising evaluation approach for multichannel pulse signal algorithms based on an arterial pulse acquisition system is established by superimposing real-world multichannel noise to the reference signals. The system, comprising a SphygmoCor and a uniaxial noise acquisition device, allows us to acquire single-reference pulse signals as well as real-world multichannel noise., Results: We assess eight popular denoising algorithms with three evaluation metrics, including amplitude relative error (ARE), mean square error (MSE) and increased percentage signal-noise ratio (SNR%). Our proposed approach provides accurate and objective evaluations of multichannel pulse signal denoising. Notably, classic algorithms for single-channel denoising are not recommended for multichannel denoising. Comparatively, RPCA-based algorithms can denoise pulse signals independently for each channel., Conclusion: This study sets the stage for the establishment of accurate and objective pulse signal denoising evaluations and provides insights for data-driven clinical diagnoses in cardiovascular medicine., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Seepage failure and slope instability in dike engineering are the most common dangerous cases which can easily lead to the break accident. The two dangerous cases have remarkable features such as complex causes, many influencing factors and strong uncertainty. The advantages in the safety factor method and the reliability analysis method are integrated. A dual criterion, which combines the certain index (safety factor) with the uncertain index (reliability), is proposed to evaluate the seepage and stability safety of dike engineering. The dynamic determination approach for the safety status of dike engineering and the corresponding dangerous water level threshold is developed. A representative section of one actual dike engineering is taken as an example. The seepage and stability safety of dike section is analyzed. The more comprehensive and objective evaluation results on service safety status and development trend are obtained. The determined threshold of dangerous water level, which can ensure the service safety of dike engineering, is very helpful to guide the scientific management of dike engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two methods are widely used for evaluating the precision of satellite clock products, namely the single-satellite method (SSM) and the multi-satellite method (MSM). In the satellite clock product evaluation, an important issue is how to eliminate the timescale difference. The SSM selects a reference satellite to eliminate the timescale difference by between-satellite differencing, but its evaluation results are susceptible to the gross errors in the referenced satellite clock offsets. In the MSM, the timescale difference is first estimated and then removed. Unlike the GPS, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) consists of three types of satellites, namely geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO), inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO), and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. The three types of satellites have uneven orbital accuracy. In the generation of satellite clock products, the orbital errors are partly assimilated into the clock offsets. If neglecting the orbital accuracy difference of the three types of BeiDou satellites, the MSM will obtain biased estimates of the timescale difference and finally affect the clock product evaluation. In this study, an improved multi-satellite method (IMSM) is proposed for evaluating the real-time BDS clock products by removing the assimilated orbital errors of the three types of BDS satellites when estimating the timescale difference. Three real-time BDS clock products disseminated by three different International GNSS Service (IGS) analysis centers, namely CLK16, CLK20, and CLK93, over a period of two months are used to validate this method. The results indicate that the assimilated orbital errors have a significant impact on the estimation of the timescale difference. Subsequently, the IMSM is compared with the SSM in which the referenced satellite is rigorously chosen, and their RMS difference is only 0.08 ns, which suggests that the evaluation results obtained by the IMSM are accurate. Compared with the traditional MSM, the IMSM improves the RMS by 0.16, 0.11, and 0.07 ns for CLK16, CLK20, and CLK93, respectively. Finally, three real-time BDS clock products are evaluated using the proposed method, and results reveal a significant precision difference among them.

Abstract Natural ventilation is widely applied in buildings considering its potential of improving indoor air quality and saving building energy costs. However, to evaluate its viability and determine the ventilation rates quickly and relatively accurately during early design stage is challenging. This paper explores a fast and accurate evaluation approach in the form of empirical equations to estimate the ventilation rate and potential of wind-driven natural ventilation. By using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with results validated for both cross and single natural ventilation strategies, this study conducted a series of simulations to determine critical ventilation coefficients for the empirical equations as functions of wind direction, speed and building height. The proposed evaluation approach could help architects and engineers to evaluate the viability of natural ventilation during early building design. This approach was also demonstrated to evaluate the potential of natural ventilation in 65 cities of North America so a series of natural ventilation potential maps were generated for a better understanding of natural ventilation potential in different climates and for the climate-conscious design of buildings in North America. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • A new approach to estimating annual natural ventilation potential was developed. • A GPU-based simulation tool was developed for the proposed approach. • GIS maps of annual potential hours were created for 65 North American cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review offers an articulated argument and commentary on the evaluation section of the proposal for a new regulation on EU Cohesion Policy. The main arguments are based on the comparison of the new proposal with past experience and unresolved problems in previous programming periods. The new proposal includes some improvements which may reinforce future evaluation, but also some shortcomings that may weaken evaluations and reproduce past failures. There is time enough to discuss and modify the proposal of the regulation to avoid these risks. My ideas and suggestions focus on the necessity to continue and strengthen the commitment to improve the evaluation process and quality but do not imply a drastic change of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reinforcement measures, such as pre-stressed anchor cable and concrete anti-seepage layer covering original dam body, are often used to improve the structural stability, control the crack development and advance the carrying capacity of concrete dam engineering. This paper focuses on the reinforcement effect evaluation problem of gravity dam with cracks. Some mechanical and mathematical methods, such as the J integral and interaction integral methods in fracture mechanics, the support vector machine (SVM) method, are combined. According to the integrated criteria on crack behavior improvement and carrying capacity advancement, the implementation approach for reinforcement effect identification and long-term forecast of gravity dam with cracks is investigated. Firstly, considering the effect of reinforcement practice on structural behavior, stress field and strain field of original crack tip zone in gravity dam, the stress intensity factor (SIF) is taken to represent the combined action response of reinforcement practice and loads. To improve the computation efficiency and accuracy, which are the shortcomings existing in the conventional methods applied to the calculation of stress field with complex crack surface and crack tip, the improved J integral method is combined with the interaction integral method to calculate the SIF of crack tip in gravity dam after the reinforcement implementation. Then, the cracking safety of gravity dam is regarded as a goal, the SIF is regarded as a control index. A SVM method is proposed to determine the critical loads ensuring the cracking safety of gravity dam. An approach using two criteria on SIF and critical load is developed to implement the reinforcement effect evaluation of gravity dam with cracks. Lastly, an actual gravity dam undergoing reinforcement practice is taken as an example. The approach proposed in this paper is used to calculate the SIF of crack tip and the critical loads of cracking safety. The reinforcement effect identification and long-term forecast of gravity dam are fulfilled by analyzing the development of SIF and critical load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Rationale: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) standards for guideline development have had unintended negative consequences. A more efficient approach is desirable.Objectives: To determine whether a modified Delphi process early during guideline development discriminates recommendations that should be informed by a systematic review from those that can be based upon expert consensus.Methods: The same questions addressed by IOM-compliant pulmonary or critical care guidelines were addressed by expert panels using a modified Delphi process, termed the Convergence of Opinion on Recommendations and Evidence (CORE) process. The resulting recommendations were compared. Concordance of the course of action, strength of recommendation, and quality of evidence, as well as the duration of recommendation development, were measured.Measurements and Main Results: When 50% agreement was required to make a recommendation, all questions yielded recommendations, and the recommended courses of action were 89.6% concordant. When 70% agreement was required, 17.9% of questions did not yield recommendations, but for those that did, the recommended courses of action were 98.2% concordant. The time to completion was shorter for the CORE process (median, 19.3 vs. 1,309.0 d; P = 0.0002).Conclusions: We propose the CORE process as an early step in guideline creation. Questions for which 70% agreement on a recommendation cannot be achieved should go through an IOM-compliant process; however, questions for which 70% agreement on a recommendation can be achieved can be accepted, avoiding a lengthy systematic review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to hydraulic-fracturing practices conducted in shale reservoirs, effective stimulated reservoir volume (ESRV) significantly affects the production of hydraulic fractured well. Therefore, estimating ESRV is an important prerequisite for confirming the success of hydraulic fracturing and predicting the production of hydraulic fracturing wells in shale reservoirs. However, ESRV calculation remains a longstanding challenge in hydraulic-fracturing operation. In considering fractal characteristics of the fracture network in stimulated reservoir volume (SRV), this paper introduces a fractal random-fracture-network algorithm for converting the microseismic data into fractal geometry. Five key parameters, including bifurcation direction, generating length (d), deviation angle (α), iteration times (N) and generating rules, are proposed to quantitatively characterize fracture geometry. Furthermore, we introduce an orthogonal-fractures coupled dual-porosity-media representation elementary volume (REV) flow model to predict the volumetric flux of gas in shale reservoirs. On the basis of the migration of adsorbed gas in porous kerogen of REV with different fracture spaces, an ESRV criterion for shale reservoirs with SRV is proposed. Eventually, combining the ESRV criterion and fractal characteristic of a fracture network, we propose a new approach for evaluating ESRV in shale reservoirs. The approach has been used in the Eagle Ford shale gas reservoir, and results show that the fracture space has a measurable influence on migration of adsorbed gas. The fracture network can contribute to enhancement of the absorbed gas recovery ratio when the fracture space is less than 0.2 m. ESRV is evaluated in this paper, and results indicate that the ESRV accounts for 27.87% of the total SRV in shale gas reservoirs. This work is important and timely for evaluating fracturing effect and predicting production of hydraulic fracturing wells in shale reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a complex and high-level set of routing problems. One of its important variants is the Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem (DVRP) in which not all customers are known in advance, but are revealed as the system progresses. DVRP is a Dynamic Optimization Problem (DOP) that has become a challenging research topic in the past two decades. In DOPs, at least one part of the problem changes as time passes. For DVRP, customers change as a system progresses. Consequently, DVRP applications are seen to operate on a dynamic basis in various real-life systems. To date, a time-based evaluation approach has been used to evaluate periodic re-optimized DVRP systems, which are evaluated by solving while using a specific time budget. In this paper, we solve DVRP while using an enhanced Genetic Algorithm (GA) that tries to increase both diversity and the capability to escape from local optima. Also, we propose a fair weighted fitness evaluation approach as an alternative for the biased time-based approach, regardless of the specifications and power of the running system. The proposed enhanced GA outperformed the previously published algorithms based on both the time-based and weighted fitness evaluation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]