Evaluation Methodology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Truck crashes on steep downgrades exact devastating tolls on lives and property. An important intervention to reduce the frequency of truck crashes on downgrades has been to present quality information to drivers about upcoming downgrades through warning signs. The use of advance warning signs on downgrades to prevent truck crashes is the current state of practice for most highway agencies; thus, it is critical to assess the safety effectiveness of such warning signs. Though several studies have evaluated the efficacies of warning signs, the safety effectiveness of advance downgrade signs is less clear. This study uses a propensity scores framework to assess the effectiveness of current downgrade warning signs by matching treated and untreated downgrade segments in Wyoming. The advantage of propensity score matching over other traditional analysis techniques is that it reduces bias in safety evaluation by mimicking randomization and accounts for confounding factors. Using the risk r...

2025, Cogent Engineering

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2025, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

The claim that 100 ms system latency is fast enough for an optimal interaction with highly interactive computer systems has been challenged by several studies demonstrating that users are able to perceive latencies well below the 100 ms mark. Although a high amount of daily computer interactions is still characterized by mouse-based interaction, to date only few studies about latency perception thresholds have employed a corresponding interaction paradigm. Therefore, we determined latency perception thresholds in a mouse-based computer interaction task. We also tested whether user characteristics, such as experience with latency in computer interaction and interaction styles, might be related to inter-individual differences in latency perception thresholds, as results of previous studies indicate that there is considerable inter-individual variance in latency perception thresholds. Our results show that latency perception thresholds for a simple mouse-based computer interaction lie in the range of 60 ms and that inter-individual differences in latency perception can be related to user characteristics.

2025, SPIE Proceedings

Non-destructive evaluation technologies of a rigorous and objective nature are sought to quantitatively identify and evaluate the condition or health of highway structures. A global bridge evaluation methodology is under development based upon the structural identification concept, employing modal testing and instrumented monitoring as its principal experimental tools. The test results are transformed to modal flexibility, which has been demonstrated to be a conceptual, quantitative, comprehensive, and damage-sensitive signature. Three test sites are currently being tested, monitored, and studied in order to classify their similar bridge-type-specific behavior mechanisms. Practical, type-specific procedures for instrumented monitoring and nondestructive evaluation can then be developed for the whole group or type of highway bridges.

2025

In this paper we describe a type of data fusion involving the combination of evidence derived from multiple document representations. Our aim is to investigate if a composite representation can improve the online detection of novel events in a stream of broadcast news stories. This classification process otherwise known as first story detection FSD (or in the Topic Detection and Tracking pilot study as online new event detection [1]), is one of three main classification tasks defined by the TDT initiative. Our composite document representation consists of a semantic representation (based on the lexical chains derived from a text) and a syntactic representation (using proper nouns). Using the TDT1 evaluation methodology, we evaluate a number of document representation combinations using these document classifiers.

2025

In this paper, we explore the effects of data fusion on First Story Detection [1] in a broadcast news domain. The data fusion element of this experiment involves the combination of evidence derived from two distinct representations of document content in a single cluster run. Our composite document representation consists of a concept representation (based on the lexical chains derived from a text) and free text representation (using traditional keyword index terms). Using the TDT1 evaluation methodology we evaluate a number of document representation strategies and propose reasons why our data fusion experiment shows performance improvements in the TDT domain.

2025

Entrepreneurial approach and the decision-making it involves have always intrigued researchers and entrepreneurs alike. This study intends to investigate how entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control impact entrepreneurial intention and fear of failure and how these impact the entrepreneurial decision-making process. We develop a conceptual model where entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control impact entrepreneurial intention and fear of failure and then impact the choice to follow synoptic or effectual reasoning to pursue entrepreneurial activities. We also argue that self-efficacy is moderated by both the motivation behind seeking entrepreneurship and the institutional environment. We finally contend that although entrepreneurial education encourages following synoptic approach, institutional environment will influence the entrepreneur to follow an effectual approach.

2025, IEEE ACCESS

Anatomy education faces challenges in providing engaging, interactive, and collaborative learning experiences, particularly in understanding complex three-dimensional structures and maintaining long-term knowledge retention. Although virtual reality (VR) has shown promise in addressing spatial comprehension challenges, questions remain regarding its effectiveness in supporting collaborative learning and sustained knowledge retention. This longitudinal study examined Collaborative Immersive Virtual Anatomy Laboratory (C-IVAL), an innovative VR platform designed to enhance traditional anatomy learning through integrated collaborative features, immersive technology, and serious game elements. We conducted an experimental study with 65 medical students to evaluate their knowledge acquisition and technology acceptance compared to its non-collaborative predecessor, the Immersive Virtual Anatomy Laboratory (IVAL). Our evaluation framework combined quantitative assessments (knowledge tests, comprising pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test) with Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) analysis. Knowledge assessment revealed significant cognitive improvements, with mean knowledge scores increasing from 2.48 to 3.94 in the immediate post-tests, while long-term retention of anatomy knowledge showed sustained engagement for over two months. Importantly, C-IVAL demonstrated significantly higher scores across all TAM dimensions than the non-collaborative IVAL system, particularly for perceived usefulness and intention to use. Post-session feedback analysis showed 73.8% positive responses, highlighting enhanced social presence, immersive engagement, and effective collaboration, with 26.2% of constructive feedback focusing on system refinement and feature enhancement. This study contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of collaborative features in virtual reality education by offering insights into designing and implementing virtual learning environments that enhance both knowledge retention and user acceptance.

2025

Em 2005, a Comissão de Monitoramento e Avaliação, órgão colegiado de composição interministerial e coordenado pela Secretaria de Planejamento e Investimentos Estratégicos do Ministério do Planejamento Orçamento e Gestão (SPI/MP), demandou aos integrantes de sua Câmara Técnica o desenvolvimento de uma proposta metodológica para avaliação de programas do Plano Plurianual (PPA). Na ocasião, foi enfatizada a necessidade de uma proposta

2025

Students learning a new task with an unfamiliar interface must learn the task, the interface, and a taskto-device mapping which enables them to develop an efficient process for achieving goals with that software. To characterize student process and learning, we have used two methods which rely on log file data rather than the more typical interview-based data. The first method creates a graphic snapshot of process, and the second method creates a transition diagram of process. Both techniques are presented with examples of their use.

2025

PURPOSE: The focus of this paper is on management training and development. The purpose has been to address how coaching can be applied to learn about leadership tools and what effect this has on management behaviour and development. METHODOLOGY: This is a qualitative case study of a management development program. The empirical data were obtained using in-depth interviews, surveys, and observations. In addition to investigating the 14 participants, data were also collected from their superiors and subordinates. FINDINGS: One of the main findings is that coaching is a helpful training process to learn about the manager’s toolbox and to develop new management behavior. Furthermore, data revealed that the management training should be based on the specific work challenges that the participants experience at their workplace. Based on a variety of work challenges, the participants highlighted the following tools as most important: Emotional intelligence, empowerment, self-management, si...

2025, Livestock Science

Genetic correlations were computed for show jumping competition traits from national estimated breeding values (EBV) of stallions of five countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland and Sweden. Data involved 24,390 horses, i.e. 8993 stallions with EBV and their ancestors. There were 617 stallions with several EBVs in more than one country. Method involved MACE (Multi-Trait Across Country Evaluation) methodology based on deregressed proofs adapted to the existence of own performance for stallions and to missing EBVs for some ancestors. ASREML was used to estimate covariance with an equivalent multiple trait model described as a random regression model. Within country sire variances were considered as known. The estimated genetic correlations were high (0.86 to 0.88) especially for reliable estimates between Belgium, France, Sweden and between Sweden and Denmark, and relatively high (0.70 to 0.91) for other pairs. These results open perspectives for the international evaluation of sporthorses.

2025, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing

Simulation and physical implementation are both valuable tools in evaluating ad hoc network routing protocols, but neither alone is sufficient. In this paper, we present the design and performance of PRAN, a new system for the physical implementation of ad hoc network routing protocols that unifies these two types of evaluation methodologies. PRAN (Physical Realization of Ad hoc Networks) allows existing simulation models of ad hoc network routing protocols to be used-without modification-to create a physical implementation of the same protocol. We have evaluated the simplicity and portability of our approach across multiple protocols and multiple operating systems through example implementations in PRAN of the DSR and AODV routing protocols in FreeBSD and Linux using the standard existing, unmodified ns-2 simulation model of each. We illustrate the ability of the resulting protocol implementations to handle real, demanding applications by describing a demonstration with this DSR implementation transmitting real-time video streams over a multihop mobile ad hoc network; the demonstration features mobile robots being remotely operated based on the real-time video stream transmitted from the robot over the network. We also present a detailed performance evaluation of PRAN to show the feasibility of our architecture.

2025

When a major event such as a crisis situation occurs, people post messages on social media sites such as Twitter, in order to exchange information or to share emotions. These posts can provide useful information to raise situation awareness and support decision making, e.g., by aid organizations. In this paper, we propose a novel method for social media crawling, which exploits a Bayesian inference framework to keep track of keyword changes over time and uses a counter-stream to gauge the inclusion of noise and irrelevant information. In addition, we present a framework to evaluate real-time adaptive social search algorithms in a reproducible manner, which relies on a semi-automated approach for ground-truth construction. We show that our method outperforms previous methods for very large scale events.

2025, Proceedings of the 7th ACM conference on Designing interactive systems

Participatory Design is a design approach that provides a popular set of techniques for designing interactive systems in collaboration with end-users. Technology probes are one of such techniques, developed recently to encourage users' engagement with design ideas while capturing interaction. In this paper, we describe a technology probe called Zebra, which aimed at exploring the design of an observation tool for fieldwork with busy professionals. We deployed Zebra in the coffee room of our lab and observed researchers' reactions to the proposed concepts it embodied, both as researchers and as participants. We found that participants engaged with the probe in ways ranging from playful performances, through to abandoning the social space. Based on analysis of the collected qualitative and quantitative data, we present our reflections on the Zebra probe, how it eased the burden of engagement in the design process, and helped us better understand the potential of the observation tool for participatory design with busy professionals.

2025, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering

This paper presents a new method for selecting a patient specific forward model to compensate for anatomical variations in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) monitoring of neonates. The method uses a combination of shape sensors and absolute reconstruction. It takes advantage of a probabilistic approach which automatically selects the best estimated forward model fit from pre-stored library models. Absolute/static image reconstruction is performed as the core of the posterior probability calculations. The validity and reliability of the algorithm in detecting a suitable model in the presence of measurement noise is studied with simulated and measured data from 11 patients. The paper also demonstrates the potential improvements on the clinical parameters extracted from EIT images by considering a unique case study with a neonate patient undergoing computed tomography imaging as clinical indication prior to EIT monitoring. Two well-known image reconstruction techniques, namely GREIT and tSVD, are implemented to create the final tidal images. The impacts of appropriate model selection on the clinical extracted parameters such as center of ventilation and silent spaces are investigated. The results show significant improvements to the final reconstructed images and more importantly to the clinical EIT parameters extracted from the images that are crucial for decision-making and further interventions.

2025, 2010 12th International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition

The classification process in handwriting recognition is designed to provide lists of results rather than single results, so that context models can be used as post-processing. Most of the time, the length of the list is determined once and for all the items to classify. Here, we present a method based on Dempster-Shafer theory that allows a different length list for each item, depending on the precision of the information involved in the decision process. As it is difficult to compare the results of such an algorithm to classical accuracy rates, we also propose a generic evaluation methodology. Finally, this algorithm is evaluated on Latin and Arabic handwritten isolated word datasets.

2025, Health Informatics Journal

This paper details findings from a study of information seeking by National Health Service patients which explored motivational triggers for information needs. Previous research has highlighted the importance of contextual elements in users changing information needs. This paper highlights how those needs may center on specific real world events and in particular a patient's consultation with their doctor. Patients initiate information seeking to identify a need a clinical intervention, in preparation for the patient/doctor ...

2025, EPL (Europhysics Letters)

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are a cutting edge topic. Almost everybody -users, marketers, brands, companies, and researchers-is approaching OSNs to better understand them and take advantage of their benefits. Maybe one of the key concepts underlying OSNs is that of influence which is highly related, although not entirely identical, to those of popularity and centrality. Influence is, according to Merriam-Webster, "the capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways". Hence, in the context of OSNs, it has been proposed to analyze the clicks received by promoted URLs in order to check for any positive correlation between the number of visits and different "influence" scores. Such an evaluation methodology is used in this paper to compare a number of those techniques with a new method firstly described here. That new method is a simple and rather elegant solution which tackles with influence in OSNs by applying a physical metaphor.

2025

Recently, speech recognition performance has been drastically improved by statistical methods and huge speech databases. Now performance improvement under such realistic environments as noisy conditions is being focused on. Since October 2001, we from the working group of the Information Processing Society in Japan have been working on evaluation methodologies and frameworks for Japanese noisy speech recognition. We have released frameworks including databases and evaluation tools called CENSREC-1 (Corpus and Environment for Noisy Speech RECognition 1; formerly AURORA-2J), CENSREC-2 (in-car connected digits recognition), CENSREC-3 (in-car isolated word recognition), and CENSREC-1-C (voice activity detection under noisy conditions). In this paper, we newly introduce a collection of databases and evaluation tools named CENSREC-4, which is an evaluation framework for distant-talking speech under hands-free conditions. Distant-talking speech recognition is crucial for a hands-free speech interface. Therefore, we measured room impulse responses to investigate reverberant speech recognition. The results of evaluation experiments proved that CENSREC-4 is an effective database suitable for evaluating the new dereverberation method because the traditional dereverberation process had difficulty sufficiently improving the recognition performance. The framework was released in March 2008, and many studies are being conducted with it in Japan.

2025, 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology

The field of multi-agent systems has reached a significant degree of maturity with respect to frameworks, standards and infrastructures. Focus is now shifted to performance evaluation of real-world applications, in order to quantify the practical benefits and drawbacks of agent systems. Our approach extends current work on generic evaluation methodologies for agents by employing fuzzy weighted trees for organizing evaluation-specific concepts/metrics and linguistic terms to intuitively represent and aggregate measurement information. Furthermore, we introduce meta-metrics that measure the validity and complexity of the contribution of each metric in the overall performance evaluation. These are all incorporated for selecting optimal subsets of metrics and designing the evaluation process in compliance with the demands/restrictions of various evaluation setups, thus minimizing intervention by domain experts. The applicability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through the evaluation of a real-world test case.

2025

This paper examines an approach to estimating the net additionality of financial assistance to indigenously-owned firms in Ireland for the period 2000 to 2002. Using a sample of Enterprise Ireland assisted-firms an innovative self-assessment case study methodology was adopted in order to test the ways in which estimates of partial deadweight can be derived. The results show that the net additionality of Enterprise Ireland assistance can be estimated as around 50 per cent for this sample of case studies which represent a pool of clients which accounted for just-over two-thirds of the financial assistance provided by Enterprise Ireland in the period of the study.

2025, Proceedings of the ninth ACM international conference on Multimedia - MULTIMEDIA '01

A mathematical model for interactive sound synthesis based on the application of Genetic Algorithms (GA) is presented. The Evolutionary Sound Synthesis Method (ESSynth) generates sequences of waveform variants by the application of genetic operators on an initial population ofwaveforms. We describe how the waveforms can be treated as genetic code, the fitness evaluation methodology and how genetic operations such as crossover and mutation are used to produce generations of waveforms. Finally, we discuss the results evaluating the generated sounds.

2025

This paper reports on the evaluation experience in European projects focused on change in education and training. The design of evaluation processes and practices in this kind of environment provides resources for 'sense making' for those involved in the change process and in so doing re-conceptualises the notion of quality as one of enhancement and development. The paper describes the main features of the distance teaching projects evaluated, the main phases of the evaluation approach and eventually proposes a discussion on the observed effects of such an evaluation approach on quality enhancement and change processes.

2025, Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics

This paper describes an evaluation framework that allows a standardized and quantitative comparison of IVUS lumen and media segmentation algorithms. This framework has been introduced at the MICCAI 2011 Computing and Visualization for (Intra)Vascular Imaging (CVII) workshop, comparing the results of eight teams that participated. We describe the available data-base comprising of multi-center, multi-vendor and multi-frequency IVUS datasets, their acquisition, the creation of the reference standard and the evaluation measures. The approaches address segmentation of the lumen, the media, or both borders; semi-or fully-automatic operation; and 2-D vs. 3-D methodology. Three performance measures for quantitative analysis have been proposed. The results of the evaluation indicate that segmentation of the vessel lumen and media is possible with an accuracy that is comparable to manual annotation when semi-automatic methods are used, as well as encouraging results can be obtained also in case of fully-automatic segmentation. The analysis performed in this paper also highlights the challenges in IVUS segmentation that remains to be solved.

2025, Proteome Science

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) potentially carries an archive of peptides and small proteins relevant to pathological processes in the central nervous system (CNS) and surrounding brain tissue. Proteomics is especially well suited for the discovery of biomarkers of diagnostic potential in CSF for early diagnosis and discrimination of several neurodegenerative diseases. ProteinChip surfaceenhanced laser-desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) is one such approach which offers a unique platform for high throughput profiling of peptides and small proteins in CSF. In this study, we evaluated methodologies for the retention of CSF proteins < 20 kDa in size, and identify a strategy for screening small proteins and peptides in CSF. ProteinChip array types, along with sample and binding buffer conditions, and matrices were investigated. By coupling the processing of arrays to a liquid handler reproducible and reliable profiles, with mean peak coefficients of variation < 20%, were achieved for intra-and inter-assays under selected conditions. Based on peak m/z we found a high degree of overlap between the tested array surfaces. The combination of CM10 and IMAC30 arrays was sufficient to represent between 80-90% of all assigned peaks when using either sinapinic acid or α-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid as the energy absorbing matrices. Moreover, arrays processed with SPA consistently showed better peak resolution and higher peak number across all surfaces within the measured mass range. We intend to use CM10 and IMAC30 arrays prepared in sinapinic acid as a fast and cost-effective approach to drive decisions on sample selection prior to more in-depth discovery of diagnostic biomarkers in CSF using alternative but complementary proteomic strategies.

2025

This paper has as objectives to report the application of a method based on the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis – MCDA. It is a methodology in the process of prioritization of earth roads maintenance, taking into consideration a set of variables which are related to physical, climatic, traffic, management and social aspects and that influence the functioning of those roads. The method for prioritization applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process – AHP through interviews with engineering professionals who are specialized in the conception and analysis of highway projects and that were divided into five groups according to their professional areas: a group of civil servants, a group of consultants, a group of professors, a group of Masters in Transportation Engineering and a group of Master degree students. In order to help in the application of the AHP, the software Expert Choice was used to make the calculation of the logical consistency of the comparison matrices more easily and indic...

2025, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

X3D-UML utilises X3D (eXtensible 3D) to enable standards-based advanced 3D UML visualisations. Using X3D-UML, 3D UML State Machine Diagrams have been evaluated against actual user tasks and data, using the Sequential Evaluation methodology. The results of User Task Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation and Formative Evaluation phases provide clear evidence that the use of UML extended with 3D is a practical solution for visualising complex system behaviour. RoseRT model metrics show between 56%-90% of state machine diagram work would benefit from such 3D UML extensions; hence the 3D improvement can deliver considerable benefit to organisations.

2025, SEBD

Information Retrieval is a research field strongly rooted in experimentation. Indeed, measuring is a key to scientific progress. Multilingual and multimedia information access systems, such as search engines, are increasingly complex: they need to satisfy diverse user needs and support challenging tasks. It is therefore fundamental to provide automated tools to examine system behaviour, both visually and analytically. This paper provides an analytical model for examining performances of IR systems, based on the discounted cumulative gain family of metrics, and visualization for interacting and exploring the performances of the system under examination.

2025, Computers & Education

Mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become a learning tool with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning. Although there have been qualitative analyses of the use of mobile devices in education, systematic quantitative analyses of the effects of mobile-integrated education are lacking. This study performed a meta-analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated mobile devices in teaching and learning, in which 110 experimental and quasiexperimental journal articles published during the period 1993e2013 were coded and analyzed. Overall, there was a moderate mean effect size of 0.523 for the application of mobile devices to education. The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed and the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning in different levels of moderator variables were synthesized based on content analyses of individual studies. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed.

2025, iranian journal of nuclear medicine

Introduction: Image quality and accuracy of in vivo activity quantification in SPECT are affected by collimator penetration and scatter components, especially in high energy imaging. These phenomena highly depend on the collimator characteristic and photon energy. The presence of penetrated and scattered photons from collimator in SPECT images degrades spatial resolution, contrast and image quality. Knowledge of penetration and scatter distribution is essential for optimization of collimator design and development of reconstruction algorithms.The aim of this study to survey the collimator performance of the newly developed HiReSPECT dual head gamma camera with pixelated array CsI(Na). Methods:We modeled the HiReSPECT, by using SIMIND Monte Carlo simulation code. The contribution of geometric, scatter and penetration components were quantitatively calculated for the different energy sources. Then we compared these results with simulation results of another small animal SPECT with com...

2025, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Prostate cancer is a major health threat for men. For over five years, the U.S. National Cancer Institute has performed prostate biopsies with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided robotic system. Purpose: A retrospective evaluation methodology and analysis of the clinical accuracy of this system is reported. Methods: Using the pre and post-needle insertion image volumes, a registration algorithm that contains a two-step rigid registration followed by a deformable refinement was developed to capture prostate dislocation during the procedure. The method was validated by using three-dimensional contour overlays of the segmented prostates and the registrations were accurate up to 2 mm. Results: It was found that tissue deformation was less of a factor than organ displacement. Out of the 82 biopsies from 21 patients, the mean target displacement, needle placement error, and clinical biopsy error was 5.9 mm, 2.3 mm, and 4 mm, respectively. Conclusion: The results suggest that motion compensation for organ displacement should be used to improve targeting accuracy.

2025, Springer eBooks

2025, Journal of health services research & policy

Wayfinding in hospitals is a complex problem since patients, who are likely to be under stress, may have to navigate their way to multiple locations in the course of a single visit. While good wayfinding design can reduce stress, poor wayfinding can not only increase individuals' anxiety but also generate additional costs for the hospital due to: lost time among staff members who need to direct patients rather than concentrate on their designated task; missed appointments or delayed meetings; and additional security staff to ensure that patients do not enter restricted areas. We investigated to what extent a questionnaire, developed by collecting data about the subjective experiences of wayfinders with diverse needs and abilities, could uncover wayfinding problems in hospitals. The methodology we developed involved four steps: creating an initial questionnaire based on the literature; customizing the questionnaire to a hospital environment; validating and verifying the questionn...

2025

A Case Study of a Community Based Participatory Approach to Agroforestry Research and Development in Western Kenya ___________________________________________________________________________ A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so the saying by Chinese Philosopher Confucious goes. This journey began in September 2003 when I came to Wageningen University to enroll for a PhD Programme under the Participatory Approaches and Upscaling Programme (PAU) coordinated by Technology and Agrarian Development (TAD) Chair Group. It has been indeed a long journey full of ups and downs, but everything that has a begginning also has an end. It has finally come to an end and I wish to acknowledge the support of people and institutions that have contributed to my being able to complete this journey. First and foremost I wish to thank the Rockefeller Foundation, for providing financial support both for my fieldwork in Kenya and my stay in the Netherlands. My gratitude also goes to Dr. Paul Konuche -Director, Kenya Forestry Research Institute for granting me study leave. I also wish to thank the Centre Director, Muguga Regional Research Centre, Mr Elly Mwanza for logistical support; he was always willing to assist. He provided a vehicle whenever I wanted to go to the field, even on short notice. Asante sana! I wish to acknowledge the support I received from my supervision team. My promoter, Prof. Paul Richards, co-promoters Dr. Paul Hebinck and Dr. Steven Franzel all put in many hours to ensure the completion of this thesis. It was indeed an honour to work with Paul Richards. He introduced me to realism and realist evaluation that have formed the basis for my thesis. There are many times I got confused and overwhelmed, but I now look back and appreciate the fact that confusion is part of the process. Paul, your philosophical and critical comments/suggestions and final editing of the thesis have made it what it is today. Thank you! And to you Paul Hebinck, your optimistic nature and enthusiasm often made me feel so at ease even when the going got tough. You always had time for me even when you had other deadlines to meet. The frequent meetings we had and your suggestions greatly improved the thesis. Asante sana! To Steve, thank you for making it possible for me to use the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) facilities in Nairobi and for your suggestions and valuable comments during the initial stages of my fieldwork and also when I was writing articles for journals. Your encouraging words often gave me the motivation to write more papers. Dank u wel! To Dr. Conny Almekinders, the coordinator of the PAU Programme, no amount of words can really describe my appreciation. Your vigour, energy, and support in all aspects of my stay in the Netherlands are highly appreciated; from identification of relevant courses, field visits, finding a suitable co-promoter, financial matters and even taking time to show us (PhD students in the programme) many interesting sites in the Netherlands. Thank you for incorporating personal development and peer learning in the programme, it indeed made me understand myself better and how to relate with others in addition to creating an environment of sharing ideas with my fellow students which greatly improved the development of my research proposal during the early stages. Dank u wel! Inge Ruisch, thank you for adminstrative support (tickets, making sure I had a room in Bornsesteeg whenever I came to the Netherlands, allowances etc.) and for being a friend, your occasional loud laughter, something we hardly hear of in the Netherlands, often made me feel like I was back in Kenya. Thanks Inge for taking me to many social places; it indeed made my stay in the Netherlands enjoyable. Asante sana Inge! Na Mungu akubariki. My colleagues from the third cohort; Dr.

2025, Biological Trace Element Research

The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the iron bioavailability of a new ferric pyrophosphate salt stabilized and solubilized with glycine. The prophylacticpreventive test in rats, using ferrous sulfate as the reference standard, was applied as the evaluating methodology both using water and yogurt as vehicles. Fifty female Sprague-Dawley rats weaned were randomized into five different groups (group 1: FeSO 4 ; group 2: pyr; group 3: FeSO 4 + yogurt; group 4: pyr + yogurt and group 5: control). The iron bioavailability (BioFe) of each compound was calculated using the formula proposed by Dutra-de-Oliveira et al. where BioFe %=(HbFef -HbFei) × 100/ToFeIn. Finally, the iron bioavailability results of each iron source were also given as relative biological value (RBV) using ferrous sulfate as the reference standard. The results showed that both BioFe % and RBV % of the new iron source tested is similar to that of the reference standard independently of the vehicle employed for the fortification procedure (FeSO 4 49.46±12.0% and 100%; Pyr 52.66±15.02% and 106%; FeSO 4 + yogurth 54.39±13.92% and 110%; Pyr + yogurt 61.97±13.54% and 125%; Control 25.30±6.60, p<0.05). Therefore, the stabilized and soluble ferric pyrophosphate may be considered as an optimal iron source for food fortification.

2025, Biological trace element research

The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the iron bioavailability of a new ferric pyrophosphate salt stabilized and solubilized with glycine. The prophylactic-preventive test in rats, using ferrous sulfate as the reference standard, was applied as the evaluating methodology both using water and yogurt as vehicles. Fifty female Sprague-Dawley rats weaned were randomized into five different groups (group 1: FeSO(4); group 2: pyr; group 3: FeSO(4) + yogurt; group 4: pyr + yogurt and group 5: control). The iron bioavailability (BioFe) of each compound was calculated using the formula proposed by Dutra-de-Oliveira et al. where BioFe % = (HbFef - HbFei) x 100/ToFeIn. Finally, the iron bioavailability results of each iron source were also given as relative biological value (RBV) using ferrous sulfate as the reference standard. The results showed that both BioFe % and RBV % of the new iron source tested is similar to that of the reference standard independently of the vehicle employe...

2025

Title page for ETD etd-08082007-115935. Type of Document, Dissertation. Author, Özbay, Kaan. URN, etd-08082007-115935. Title, A framework for dynamic traffic diversion during non-recurrent congestion :models and algorithms. Degree, Ph. D.... more

2025

Objective Valid, reliable critical appraisal tools advance quality improvement (QI) intervention impacts by helping stakeholders identify higher quality studies. QI approaches are diverse and differ from clinical interventions. Widely used critical appraisal instruments do not take unique QI features into account and existing QI tools (eg, Standards for QI Reporting Excellence) are intended for publication guidance rather than critical appraisal. This study developed and psychometrically tested a critical appraisal instrument, the QI Minimum Quality Criteria Set (QI-MQCS) for assessing QI-specific features of QI publications. Methods Approaches to developing the tool and ensuring validity included a literature review, in-person and online survey expert panel input, and application to empirical examples. We investigated psychometric properties in a set of diverse QI publications (N=54) by analysing reliability measures and item endorsement rates and explored sources of disagreement between reviewers. Results The QI-MQCS includes 16 content domains to evaluate QI intervention publications:

2025

Quality models are important tools for quality management. In software de- velopment projects, they are useful as predictive tools for assessing the state of the product being developed and the process used. In order to achieve software quality, a high-quality Software Requirements Specification (SRS) is required. This document is generated at the beginning of a software development project, and is used in all stages. Thus, it is essential to evaluate the quality of the SRS in order to be able to take early corrective and enhancement actions. However, assessing the quality of a SRS is not a simple process, mainly by the multitude of proposals, often contradictory, of the attrib- utes to be evaluated and the methodologies used for that purpose. Thus, it is mandatory to consider proven quality models for guiding this evaluation process. Related to this, this work performs an exploratory analysis of various quality models proposed in this area which can be used as a basis for SRS quali...

2025, Sigir Forum

Stylistics for Text Retrieval in Practice has met during SIGIR 2006. With participants from both academia and industry, the workshop spurred interesting discussions on the future of stylistics, its practical uses, and "killer app". The papers presented varied from customer feedback evaluation systems to automatic speech generation. Recent years have seen an increased attention to various aspects of automatic analysis and extraction of stylistic aspects of natural language texts. This workshop focused on "style", i.e., the manner of expression of the "content" and was open to submissions on modelling, representing, explaining, and utilizing variation in the manner of expression. Potentially useful applications of stylistic analysis abound, including systems for genre-based information retrieval, authorship attribution, plagiarism detection, context-sensitive text or speech generation systems, organizing and retrieving documents based on their writing style, attitude, or sentiment, quality or appropriateness filters for messaging systems, detecting abusive or threatening language, and more. This year, participants were expected to bring with them a method for applying stylistic analysis to information access tasks. In particular, the organizers encouraged working systems and demonstrations. Participants were asked to address the following key challenge question in their participation proposals: * WHAT IS A MEANINGFUL "KILLER APP" FOR STYLISTIC TEXT ANALYSIS? * and to consider the following questions for discussion in session: 1. How does style relate to other forms of non-topical textual variation? 2. What features are best for different style analysis tasks? 3. Is cross-lingual or 'universal' style analysis possible, and if so, how? 4. How might we develop useful shared resources for moving style research forward?

2025, Computers & education

The purpose of the study was to examine the development of studentsÕ high-level computer skills and competence (student expertise) in information and communication technology (ICT), and to examine the characteristics of such expertise. Eighteen lower secondary school students, selected to represent both genders and all school achievement levels, were given laptops for three years to be used both at school and at home. The data of the longitudinal study consisted of a test on ICT skills; self-evaluation questionnaires on ICT competence, thoughts about their own expertise, ICT-related activities and task, interest in ICT, and classroom observations. The results of the study indicated that the intensive use of ICT and the processoriented learning environment supported the development of student expertise. In the analysis, three groups were identified, which oriented themselves somewhat differently in relation to ICT: student experts (n = 6), advanced users (n = 8) and non-interested users (n = 4). The experts differed from the other groups in respect of especially focusing on advancing their ICT skills; they had undertaken ICT-related tasks outside the school, they had metacognitive consciousness about their competence, and they had future plans concerning ICT in their further education and profession.

2025

Crowdsourcing applications that integrate storytelling and geotagging capabilities offer new avenues for engaging the public in cultural heritage. However, standardised evaluation frameworks are lacking. This paper presents an applied... more

2025, … and information systems: JURIX 2004, the …

This paper discusses some features of evidentiary reasoning in law, more specifically the introduction of "alternative suspects" by defence solicitors, within the framework of a first principle (or model) based decision support system for crime investigation. We introduce some observations from legal reasoning and legal doctrine to argue that the existing approach may not be able to capture some important distinctions and concepts of legal reasoning. We then introduce some ideas from dynamic logic and update semantics, in particular the concept of "pegs", as good candidates to add the necessary expressive power to model based reasoning systems.

2025, The Florida AI Research Society

2025, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

This paper discusses the recognition of textual entailment in a text-hypothesis pair by applying a wide variety of lexical measures. We consider that the entailment phenomenon can be tackled from three general levels: lexical, syntactic and semantic. The main goals of this research are to deal with this phenomenon from a lexical point of view, and achieve high results considering only such kind of knowledge. To accomplish this, the information provided by the lexical measures is used as a set of features for a Support Vector Machine which will decide if the entailment relation is produced. A study of the most relevant features and a comparison with the best state-of-the-art textual entailment systems is exposed throughout the paper. Finally, the system has been evaluated using the Second PASCAL Recognising Textual Entailment Challenge data and evaluation methodology, obtaining an accuracy rate of 61.88%.

2025, Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Computing Technologies, Tools and Applications

In today's information and technological age, the Internet provides resources that offer easy and efficient solutions for tasks but also poses threats such as privacy theft and data breaches. This work proposes the design of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) utilizing the Snort tool to improve network security. The research reviews past studies on IDS, while the methodology discusses the implementation of the Waterfall Model for development. Results include the study's preliminary conclusions, system use case diagrams, and details on the creation and examination of prototypes. The recommendations section provides ideas for potential future changes. The final section reviews the project phases and highlights the successes of the project, including the development of a Linux-based Network Intrusion Detection System using Snort IDS to enhance network security.

2025, In: CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE ARROZ IRRIGADO, 7., 2011, Balneário Camboriú. Racionalizando recursos e ampliando oportunidades: anais. Itajaí: Epagri, 2011.

2025, In: CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE ARROZ IRRIGADO, 7., 2011, Balneário Camboriú. Racionalizando recursos e ampliando oportunidades: anais. Itajaí: Epagri, 2011. v. 1.