Search results for: expert assessment

Authors: A. Jarrou, A. Iranzo, C. Nana

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The rapid development of the onshore/offshore wind industry and the continuous, strong, and long-term support from governments have made it possible to create factories specializing in the manufacture of the different parts of wind turbines, but in the literature, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyzes consider the wind turbine as a whole and do not allow the allocation of impacts to the different components of the wind turbine. Here we propose to treat each part of the wind turbine as a system in its own right. This is more in line with the current production system. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of two technological scenarios of wind turbine blades composition for an optimized wind turbine design using the impact 2002+ method and using 15 environmental impact indicators. This article aims to assess the environmental impacts associated with 1 kg of wind turbine blades. In order to carry out a realistic and precise study, the different stages of the life cycle of a wind turbine installation are included in the study (manufacture, installation, use, maintenance, dismantling, and waste treatment). The Impact 2002+ method used makes it possible to assess 15 impact indicators (human toxicity, terrestrial and aquatic ecotoxicity, climate change, land use, etc.). Finally, a sensitivity study is carried out to analyze the different types of uncertainties in the data collected.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, wind turbine, turbine blade, environmental impact

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Authors: Diane M. Bender

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In design education, professional education is delivered in a studio, where students learn and understand their discipline. This learning methodology culminates in a final review, where students present their work before instructors and invited reviewers, known as jurors. These jurors are recognized experts who add a wide diversity of opinions in their feedback to students. This feedback can be provided in multiple formats, mainly a verbal critique of the work. To better understand how these expert reviewers prepare for a studio review, a survey was distributed to reviewers at a multi-disciplinary design school within the United States. Five design disciplines are involved in this case study: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Respondents (n=122) provided information about if and how they received training on how to critique and participate in a final review. Common forms of training included mentorship, modeled behavior from other designers/past professors, workshops on critique from the instructing faculty prior to the crit session, and by being a practicing design professional. Respondents also gave feedback about how much the instructor provided course materials prior to the review in order to better prepare for student interaction. Finally, respondents indicated if they had interaction, and in what format, with students prior to the final review. Typical responses included participation in studio desk crits, a midterm jury member, meetings with students, and email or social media correspondence. While the focus of this study is the studio review, the findings are equally applicable to other disciplines. Suggestions will be provided on how to improve the preparation of guests in the learning process and how their interaction can positively influence student engagement.

Keywords: critique, design, education, evaluation, juror

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Authors: Tina Melkoshvili

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Drastic development of information and communication technologies in Georgia has led to the necessity of launching conceptually new, effective, flexible, transparent and society oriented form of government that is e-government. Through applying information technologies, the electronic system enables to raise the efficacy of state governance and increase citizens’ participation in the process. Focusing on the topic of e-government allows us to analyze success stories, attributed benefits and, at the same time, observes challenges hampering the government development process. There are number of methodologies elaborated to study the conditions in the field of electronic governance. They enable us to find out if the government is ready to apply broad opportunities of information and communication technologies and if the government is apt to improve the accessibility and quality of delivering mainly social services. This article seeks to provide comparative analysis of widely spread methodologies used for Electronic government projects’ assessment. It has been concluded that applying current methods of assessment in Georgia is related to difficulties due to inaccessible data and the necessity of involving number of experts. The article presents new indicators for e-government development assessment that reflect efficacy of e-government conception realization in the regions of Georgia and enables to provide quantitative evaluation of regional e-government projects including all significant aspects of development.

Keywords: development methodology, e-government in Georgia, information and communication technologies, regional government

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Authors: Ku Aina Afiqah Ku Adzman, Manmeet Mahinderjit Singh, Zarul Fitri Zaaba

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NFC operates on low-range 13.56 MHz frequency within a distance from 4cm to 10cm, and the applications can be categorized as touch and go, touch and confirm, touch and connect, and touch and explore. NFC applications are vulnerable to various security and privacy attacks such due to its physical nature; unprotected data stored in NFC tag and insecure communication between its applications. This paper aims to determine the likelihood of security risks happening in an NFC technology and application. We present an NFC technology taxonomy covering NFC standards, types of application and various security and privacy attack. Based on observations and the survey presented to evaluate the risk assessment within the touch and go application demonstrates two security attacks that are high risks namely data corruption and DOS attacks. After the risks are determined, risk countermeasures by using AHP is adopted. The guideline and solutions to these two high risks, attacks are later applied to a secure NFC-enabled Smartphone Attendance System.

Keywords: Near Field Communication (NFC), risk assessment, multi-criteria decision making, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

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Authors: Adandé Belarmain Fandohan

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Climate change has become a major concern globally, particularly in rural communities that have to find rapid coping solutions. Several vulnerability assessment approaches have been developed in the last decades. This comes along with a higher risk for different methods to result in different conclusions, thereby making comparisons difficult and decision-making non-consistent across areas. The effect of methods and computational approaches on estimates of people’s vulnerability was assessed using data collected from the Gambia. Twenty-four indicators reflecting vulnerability components: (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) were selected for this purpose. Data were collected through household surveys and key informant interviews. One hundred and fifteen respondents were surveyed across six communities and two administrative districts. Results were compared over three computational approaches: the maximum value transformation normalization, the z-score transformation normalization, and simple averaging. Regardless of the approaches used, communities that have high exposure to climate change and extreme events were the most vulnerable. Furthermore, the vulnerability was strongly related to the socio-economic characteristics of farmers. The survey evidenced variability in vulnerability among communities and administrative districts. Comparing output across approaches, overall, people in the study area were found to be highly vulnerable using the simple average and maximum value transformation, whereas they were only moderately vulnerable using the z-score transformation approach. It is suggested that assessment approach-induced discrepancies be accounted for in international debates to harmonize/standardize assessment approaches to the end of making outputs comparable across regions. This will also likely increase the relevance of decision-making for adaptation policies.

Keywords: maximum value transformation, simple averaging, vulnerability assessment, West Africa, z-score transformation

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Authors: Hyun Chul Cho, Hyunkyoung Oh, Hyun Yoon, Jooyeon Jin, Jae Won Lee

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Identifying, structuring, and racking the most important factors related to improving athletes’ performances could pave the way for improve training system. The purpose of this study was to identify the relative importance factors to improve performance of the of judo athletes with visual impairments, including blindness by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). After reviewing the literature, the relative importance of factors affecting performance of the blind judo was selected. A group of expert reviewed the first draft of the questionnaires, and then finally selected performance factors were classified into the major categories of techniques, physical fitness, and psychological categories. Later, a pre-selected experts group was asked to review the final version of questionnaire and confirm the priories of performance factors. The order of priority was determined by performing pairwise comparisons using Expert Choice 2000. Results indicated that “grappling” (.303) and “throwing” (.234) were the most important lower hierarchy factors for blind judo skills. In addition, the most important physical factors affecting performance were “muscular strength and endurance” (.238). Further, among other psychological factors “competitive anxiety” (.393) was important factor that affects performance. It is important to offer psychological skills training to reduce anxiety of judo athletes with visual impairments and blindness, so they can compete in their optimal states. These findings offer insights into what should be considered when determining factors to improve performance of judo athletes with visual impairments and blindness.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, blind athlete, judo, sport performance

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Authors: Maxutova I. O., Bulatbayeva A. A.

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In modern conditions, the competitiveness of the military, a special educational institution in the educational market, is determined by the quality of the provision of educational services and the economic efficiency of activities. Improving the quality of educational services of the military, the special educational institution is an urgent socially and economically significant problem. The article shows a possible system for the formation of the competitiveness of military, the special educational institution through an assessment of the quality of the educational process, the problem of the transition of the military, special educational institution to digital support of indicative monitoring of the quality of services provided is raised. Quality monitoring is presented in the form of a program or information system, the work of which is carried out in a military, the special educational institution through highlighted interrelated elements. A result-oriented model of management and assessment of the quality of work of the military, the special educational institution is proposed. The indicative indicators for assessing the quality of the teaching and methodological activity of the teacher are considered and described. The publication was prepared as part of an applied grant study for 2020-2022 commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the topic "Development of a comprehensive methodology for assessing the quality of education of graduates of military special educational institutions" IRN 00029/GF-20.

Keywords: quality assessment, indicative indicators, monitoring program, educational and methodological activities, professional activities, result

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Authors: M. G. Dirodi, G. Gugliotta, C. Leonardi

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The member states shall establish zones and agglomerations throughout their territory to assess and manage air quality in order to comply with European directives. In Italy decree 155/2010, transposing Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, merged into a single act the previous provisions on ambient air quality assessment and management, including those resulting from the implementation of Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. Decree 155/2010 introduced stricter rules for identifying zones on the basis of the characteristics of the territory in spite of considering pollution levels, as it was in the past. The implementation of such new criteria has reduced the great variability of the previous zoning, leading to a significant reduction of the total number of zones and to a complete and uniform ambient air quality assessment and management throughout the Country. The present document is related to the new zones definition in Italy according to Decree 155/2010. In particular, the paper contains the description and the analysis of the outcome of zoning and classification.

Keywords: zones, agglomerations, air quality assessment, classification

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Authors: Charles Amoatey

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The issue of risk in the mining industry is a global phenomenon and the Ghanaian mining industry is not exempted. The main purpose of this study is to identify the critical risk factors affecting the mining industry. The study takes an integrated view of the mining industry by examining the contribution of various risk factors to mining project failure in Ghana. A questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit the critical risk factors from key mining practitioners. About 80 respondents from 11 mining firms participated in the survey. The study identified 22 risk factors contributing to mining project failure in Ghana. The five most critical risk factors based on both probability of occurrence and impact were: (1) unstable commodity prices, (2) inflation/exchange rate, (3) land degradation, (4) high cost of living and (5) government bureaucracy for obtaining licenses. Furthermore, the study found that risk assessment in the mining sector has a direct link with mining project sustainability. Mitigation measures for addressing the identified risk factors were discussed. The key findings emphasize the need for a comprehensive risk management culture in the entire mining industry.

Keywords: risk, assessment, mining, Ghana

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Authors: Eny Syatriana, Ardiansyah

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The purpose of recent study was to develop a learning model on writing, based on the reading texts which will be read by the students using reflection strategy. The strategy would allow the students to read the text and then they would write back the main idea and to develop the text by using their own sentences. So, the writing practice was begun by reading an interesting text, then the students would develop the text which has been read into their writing. The problem questions are (1) what kind of learning model that can develop the students writing ability? (2) what is the achievement of the students of STKIP YPUP through reflection strategy? (3) is the using of the strategy effective to develop students competence In writing? (4) in what level are the students interest toward the using of a strategy In writing subject? This development research consisted of some steps, they are (1) need analysis (2) model design (3) implementation (4) model evaluation. The need analysis was applied through discussion among the writing lecturers to create a learning model for writing subject. To see the effectiveness of the model, an experiment would be delivered for one class. The instrument and learning material would be validated by the experts. In every steps of material development, there was a learning process, where would be validated by an expert. The research used development design. These Principles and procedures or research design and development .This study, researcher would do need analysis, creating prototype, content validation, and limited empiric experiment to the sample. In each steps, there should be an assessment and revision to the drafts before continue to the next steps. The second year, the prototype would be tested empirically to four classes in STKIP YPUP for English department. Implementing the test greatly was done through the action research and followed by evaluation and validation from the experts.

Keywords: learning model, reflection, strategy, reading, writing, development

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Authors: Manahil Alfuraydan, Jodie Croxall, Lisa Hurt, Mike Kerr, Sinead Brophy

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental condition characterised by impairment in terms of social communication, social interaction, and a repetitive or restricted pattern of interest, behaviour, and activity. There is a significant delay between seeking help and a confirmed diagnosis of ASD. This may result in delay in receiving early intervention services, which are critical for positive outcomes. The long wait times also cause stress for the individuals and their families. Telehealth potentially offers a way of improving the diagnostic pathway for ASD. This review of the literature aims to examine which telehealth approaches have been used in the diagnosis and assessment of autism in children and adults, whether they are feasible and acceptable, and how they compare with face-to-face diagnosis and assessment methods. A comprehensive search of following databases- MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus with Full text, Business Sources Complete, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO and trail and systematic review databases including Cochrane Library, Health Technology Assessment, Database of Abstracts and Reviews of Effectiveness and NHS Economic Evaluation was conducted, combining the terms of autism and telehealth from 2000 to 2018. A total of 10 studies were identified for inclusion in the review. This review of the literature found there to be two methods of using telehealth: (a) video conferencing to enable teams in different areas to consult with the families and to assess the child/adult in real time and (b) a video upload to a web portal that enables the clinical assessment of behaviours in the family home. The findings were positive, finding there to be high agreement in terms of the diagnosis between remote methods and face to face methods and with high levels of satisfaction among the families and clinicians. This field is in the very early stages, and so only studies with small sample size were identified, but the findings suggest that there is potential for telehealth methods to improve assessment and diagnosis of autism used in conjunction with existing methods, especially for those with clear autism traits and adults with autism. Larger randomised controlled trials of this technology are warranted.

Keywords: assessment, autism spectrum disorder, diagnosis, telehealth

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Authors: Azin Shakibabarough, Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Ashutosh Bagchi

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Catastrophic bridge failure happens due to the lack of inspection, lack of design and extreme events like flooding, an earthquake. Bridge Management System (BMS) is utilized to diminish such an accident with proper design and frequent inspection. Visual inspection cannot detect any subsurface defects, so using Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques remove these barriers as far as possible. Among all NDE techniques, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been proved as a highly effective device for detecting internal defects in a reinforced concrete bridge deck. GPR is used for detecting rebar location and rebar corrosion in the reinforced concrete deck. GPR profile is composed of hyperbola series in which sound hyperbola denotes sound rebar and blur hyperbola or signal attenuation shows corroded rebar. Interpretation of GPR images is implemented by numerical analysis or visualization. Researchers recently found that interpretation through visualization is more precise than interpretation through numerical analysis, but visualization is time-consuming and a highly subjective process. Automating the interpretation of GPR image through visualization can solve these problems. After interpretation of all scans of a bridge, condition assessment is conducted based on the generated corrosion map. However, this such a condition assessment is not objective and precise. Condition assessment based on structural integrity and strength parameters can make it more objective and precise. The main purpose of this study is to present an automated interpretation method of a reinforced concrete bridge deck through a visualization technique. In the end, the combined analysis of the structural condition in a bridge is implemented.

Keywords: bridge condition assessment, ground penetrating radar, GPR, NDE techniques, visualization

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Authors: Jill Garner, Belinda Lange, Sheila Lennon, Maayken van den Berg

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Currently, there are approximately one billion people worldwide affected by a neurological condition. Many of whom are assessed and treated by a physiotherapist in a variety of settings. There is a lack of consensus in the literature related to what is clinically assessed by physiotherapists in people with neurological conditions. This study aimed to explore assessment in people with neurological conditions, including how health care setting, experience, and therapeutic approach, may influence neurological assessment. A national survey targeted Australian physiotherapists who assess adults with neurological conditions as part of their clinical practice. The survey consisted of 39 questions and was distributed to physiotherapists through the Australian Physiotherapy Association, and Chief Allied Health Officers across Australia and advertised on the National Neurological Physiotherapy Facebook page. In total, 395 respondents consented to the survey from all states within Australia. Most respondents were female (85.4%) with a mean (SD) age of 35.7 years. Respondents reported working clinically in acute, community, outpatients, and community settings. Stroke was the most assessed condition (58.0%). There is variability in domains assessed by Australian physiotherapists, with common inclusions of balance, muscle strength, gait, falls and safety, function, goal setting, range of movement, pain, coordination, activity tolerance, postural alignment and symmetry and upper limb. There is little evidence to support what physiotherapists assess in practice, in different settings, and in different states within Australia and not enough information to develop a decision tree regarding what is important for assessment in different settings. Further research is needed to explore this area and develop a consensus around best practices.

Keywords: physiotherapy, neurological, assessment, domains

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Authors: Schröde C., Rodriguez D., Sánchez A., Abdul Malak, Churchill J., Boksmati T., Alharbi, Alsulmi H., Maghrabi S., Mowalad, Mutwalli R., Abualnaja Y.

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Formulating a strategy for sustainable development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s coastal and marine environment is at the core of the “Marine and Coastal Protection Assessment Study for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Coastline (MCEP)”; that was set up in the context of the Vision 2030 by the Saudi Arabian government and aimed at providing a first comprehensive ‘Status Quo Assessment’ of the Kingdom’s marine environment to inform a sustainable development strategy and serve as a baseline assessment for future monitoring activities. This baseline assessment relied on scientific evidence of the drivers, pressures and their impact on the environments of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. A key element of the assessment was the cumulative pressure hotspot analysis developed for both national waters of the Kingdom following the principles of the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework and using the cumulative pressure and impact assessment methodology. The ultimate goals of the analysis were to map and assess the main hotspots of environmental pressures, and identify priority areas for further field surveillance and for urgent management actions. The study identified maritime transport, fisheries, aquaculture, oil, gas, energy, coastal industry, coastal and maritime tourism, and urban development as the main drivers of pollution in the Saudi Arabian marine waters. For each of these drivers, pressure indicators were defined to spatially assess the potential influence of the drivers on the coastal and marine environment. A list of hotspots of 90 locations could be identified based on the assessment. Spatially grouped the list could be reduced to come up with of 10 hotspot areas, two in the Arabian Gulf, 8 in the Red Sea. The hotspot mapping revealed clear spatial patterns of drivers, pressures and hotspots within the marine environment of waters under KSA’s maritime jurisdiction in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. The cascading assessment approach based on the DPSIR framework ensured that the root causes of the hotspot patterns, i.e. the human activities and other drivers, can be identified. The adapted CPIA methodology allowed for the combination of the available data to spatially assess the cumulative pressure in a consistent manner, and to identify the most critical hotspots by determining the overlap of cumulative pressure with areas of sensitive biodiversity. Further improvements are expected by enhancing the data sources of drivers and pressure indicators, fine-tuning the decay factors and distances of the pressure indicators, as well as including trans-boundary pressures across the regional seas.

Keywords: Arabian Gulf, DPSIR, hotspot, red sea

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Authors: Yuxuan Tang

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Cognitive diagnostic assessment has received much attention in second language education, and assessment for it can provide pedagogically useful feedback for language learners. However, there is a lack of research on how students interpret and use cognitive diagnostic feedback. Thus the present study aims to adopt a mixed-method approach mainly to explore the relationship between the goal-orientation and students' response to cognitive diagnostic feedback. Almost 200 Chinese undergraduates from two universities in Xi'an, China, will be invited to do a cognitive diagnostic reading test, and each student will receive specialized cognitive diagnostic feedback, comprising of students' reading attributes mastery level generated by applying a well-selected cognitive diagnostic model, students' perceived reading ability assessed by a self-assessing questionnaire and students’ level position in the whole class. And a goal-orientation questionnaire and a self-generated questionnaire on the perception of feedback will be given to students the moment they receive feedback. In addition, interviews of students will be conducted on their future plans to see whether they have awareness of carrying out studying plans. The study aims to find a new perspective towards how students use and interpret cognitive diagnostic feedback in terms of their different goal-orientation (self-based, task-based, and other-based goals) by applying the newest goal orientation model, which is an important construct of motivation in psychology, seldom researched under language learning area. And the study is expected to provide evidence on how diagnostic feedback promotes students' learning under the educational belief of assessment for learning. Practically speaking, according to the personalized diagnostic feedback, students can take remedial self-learning more purposefully, and teachers can target students' weaknesses to adjust teaching methods and carry out tailored teaching.

Keywords: assessment for learning, cognitive diagnostic assessment, goal-orientation, personalized feedback

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Authors: Hossein Hassani, Ali Rezaei

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In recent years, the study of soil contamination problems surrounding mines and smelting plants has attracted some serious attention of the environmental experts. These elements due to the non- chemical disintegration and nature are counted as environmental stable and durable contaminants. Variability of these contaminants in the soil and the time and financial limitation for the favorable environmental application, in order to reduce the risk of their irreparable negative consequences on environment, caused to apply the favorable grading of these contaminant for the further success of the risk management processes. In this study, we use the contaminants factor risk indices, average concentration, enrichment factor and geoaccumulation indices for evaluating the metal contaminant of including Pb, Ni, Se, Mo and Zn in the soil of Sarcheshmeh copper mine area. For this purpose, 120 surface soil samples up to the depth of 30 cm have been provided from the study area. And the metals have been analyzed using ICP-MS method. Comparison of the heavy and potentially toxic elements concentration in the soil samples with the world average value of the uncontaminated soil and shale average indicates that the value of Zn, Pb, Ni, Se and Mo is higher than the world average value and only the Ni element shows the lower value than the shale average. Expert opinions on the relative importance of each indicators were used to assign a final weighting of the metals and the heavy metals were ranked using the TOPSIS approach. This allows us to carry out efficient environmental proceedings, leading to the reduction of environmental ricks form the contaminants. According to the results, Ni, Pb, Mo, Zn, and Se have the highest rate of risk contamination in the soil samples of the study area.

Keywords: contamination coefficient, geoaccumulation factor, TOPSIS techniques, Sarcheshmeh copper complex

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Authors: Falak Nawaz

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The Climate Change Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment carried out in the coastal regions of Thatta and Malir districts underscore the potential risks and challenges associated with climate change affecting water resources. This study was conducted by the author using participatory rural appraisal tools, with a greater focus on conducting focus group discussions, direct observations, key informant interviews, and other PRA tools. The assessment delves into the specific impacts of climate change along the coastal belt, concentrating on aspects such as rising sea levels, depletion of freshwater, alterations in precipitation patterns, fluctuations in water table levels, and the intrusion of saltwater into rivers. These factors have significant consequences for the availability and quality of water resources in coastal areas, manifesting in frequent migration and alterations in agriculture-based livelihood practices. Furthermore, the assessment assesses the adaptive capacity of communities and organizations in these coastal regions to effectively confront and alleviate the effects of climate change on water resources. It considers various measures, including infrastructure enhancements, water management practices, adjustments in agricultural approaches, and disaster preparedness, aiming to bolster adaptive capacity. The study's findings emphasize the necessity for prompt actions to address identified vulnerabilities and fortify the adaptive capacities of Sindh's coastal areas. This calls for comprehensive strategies and policies promoting sustainable water resource management, integrating climate change considerations, and providing essential resources and support to vulnerable communities.

Keywords: climate, climate change adaptation, disaster reselience, vulnerability, capacity, assessment

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Authors: Qisheng Hu, Jianglei Han, Yue Yang, My Hoa Ha

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When a company is considering purchasing software for commercial use, contract risk assessment is critical to identify risks to mitigate the potential adverse business impact, e.g., security, financial and regulatory risks. Contract risk assessment requires reviewers with specialized knowledge and time to evaluate the legal documents manually. Specifically, validating contracts for a software vendor requires the following steps: manual screening, interpreting legal documents, and extracting risk-prone segments. To automate the process, we proposed a framework to assist legal contract document risk identification, leveraging pre-trained deep learning models and natural language processing techniques. Given a set of pre-defined risk evaluation problems, our framework utilizes the pre-trained transformer-based models for question-answering to identify risk-prone sections in a contract. Furthermore, the question-answering model encodes the concatenated question-contract text and predicts the start and end position for clause extraction. Due to the limited labelled dataset for training, we leveraged transfer learning by fine-tuning the models with the CUAD dataset to enhance the model. On a dataset comprising 287 contract documents and 2000 labelled samples, our best model achieved an F1 score of 0.687.

Keywords: contract risk assessment, NLP, transfer learning, question answering

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Authors: Frederic Jumelle, Kelvin So, Didan Deng

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A method and system for neuropsychological performance test, comprising a mobile terminal, used to interact with a cloud server which stores user information and is logged into by the user through the terminal device; the user information is directly accessed through the terminal device and is processed by artificial neural network, and the user information comprises user facial emotions information, performance test answers information and user chronometrics. This assessment is used to evaluate the cognitive performance and emotional response of the subject to a series of dichotomous questions describing various situations of daily life and challenging the users' knowledge, values, ethics, and principles. In industrial applications, the timing of this assessment will depend on the users' need to obtain a service from a provider, such as opening a bank account, getting a mortgage or an insurance policy, authenticating clearance at work, or securing online payments.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, neurofinance, neuropsychology, risk management

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Authors: R. M. R. Hussein

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Sustainable urban waterfront development is one of the most interesting phenomena of urban renewal in the last decades. However, there are still many cities whose visual image is compromised due to the lack of a sustainable urban waterfront development, which consequently affects the place of those cities globally. This paper aims to reimagine the role of waterfront areas in city design, with a particular focus on Egypt, so that they provide attractive, sustainable urban environments while promoting the continued aesthetic development of the city overall. This aim will be achieved by determining the main principles of a sustainable urban waterfront and its applications. This paper concentrates on sustainability assessment rating systems. A number of international case-studies, wherein a city has applied the basic principles for a sustainable urban waterfront and have made use of sustainability assessment rating systems, have been selected as examples which can be applied to the urban waterfronts in Egypt. This paper establishes the importance of developing the design of urban environments in Egypt, as well as identifying the methods of sustainability application for urban waterfronts.

Keywords: sustainable urban waterfront, green infrastructure, energy efficient, Cairo

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Authors: László Schmidt

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In the context of artificial intelligence, we need to pay primary and particular attention to ethical principles not only in the design process but also during the application process. According to the European Commission's Ethical Guidelines, AI must have three main characteristics: it must be legal, ethical and stabil. We must never lose sight of the ethical principles because we risk that this new technology will not help democratic decision-making under the rule of law, but will, on the contrary, destroy it. The rapid spread and use of artificial intelligence poses an enormous challenge to both lawmaking and law enforcement. On legislation because AI permeates many areas of our daily lives that the legislator must regulate. We can see how challenging it is to regulate e.g., selfdriving cars/taxis/vans etc. Not to mention, more recently, cryptocurrencies and Chat GPT, the use of which also requires legislative intervention, from copyright to scientific use and even law of succession. Artificial intelligence also poses an extraordinary challenge to law enforcement. In criminal cases, police and prosecutors can make great use of AI in investigations, e.g. in forensics, DNA samples, reconstruction, identification, etc. But it can also be of great help in the detection of crimes committed in cyberspace. In criminal or civil court proceedings, AI can also play a major role in the evaluation of evidence and proof. For example, a photo or video or audio recording could be immediately revealed as genuine or fake. Likewise, the authenticity or falsification of a document could be determined much more quickly and cheaply than with current procedure (expert witnesses). Neither the current Hungarian Civil Procedure Act nor the Criminal Procedure Act allows the use of artificial intelligence in the evidentiary process. However, this should be changed. To use this technology in court proceedings would be very useful. The procedures would be faster, simpler, and therefore cheaper. Artificial intelligence could also replace much of the work of expert witnesses. Its introduction into judicial procedures would certainly be justified, but with due respect for human rights, the right to a fair trial and other democratic and rule of law guarantees.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, judiciary, Hungarian, court practice

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Authors: Heikki Valmu, Eero Kupila, Raisa Vartia

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A major curricular reform was implemented in Metropolia UAS in 2014. The teaching was to be based on larger course entities and collaborative pedagogy. The most thorough reform was conducted in the department of electrical engineering and automation technology. It has been already shown that the reform has been extremely successful with respect to student progression and drop-out rate. The improvement of the results has been much more significant in this department compared to the other engineering departments making only minor pedagogical changes. In the beginning of the spring term of 2017, a thorough student feedback project was conducted in the department. The study consisted of thirty questions about the implementation of the curriculum, the student workload and other matters related to student satisfaction. The reply rate was more than 40%. The students were divided to four different categories: first year students [cat.1] and students of all the three different majors [categories 2-4]. These categories were found valid since all the students have the same course structure in the first two semesters after which they may freely select the major. All staff members are divided into four teams respectively. The curriculum consists of consecutive 15 credit (ECTS) courses each taught by a group of teachers (3-5). There are to be no end exams and continuous assessment is to be employed. In 2014 the different teacher groups were encouraged to employ innovatively different assessment methods within the given specs. One of these methods has been since used in categories 1 and 2. These students have to complete a number of compulsory tasks each week to pass the course and the actual grade is defined by a smaller number of tests throughout the course. The tasks vary from homework assignments, reports and laboratory exercises to larger projects and the actual smaller tests are usually organized during the regular lecture hours. The teachers of the other two majors have been pedagogically more conservative. The student progression has been better in categories 1 and 2 compared to categories 3 and 4. One of the main goals of this survey was to analyze the reasons for the difference and the assessment methods in detail besides the general student satisfaction. The results show that in the categories following more strictly the specified assessment model much more versatile assessment methods are used and the basic spirit of the new pedagogy is followed. Also, the student satisfaction is significantly better in categories 1 and 2. It may be clearly stated that continuous assessment and teacher cooperation improve the learning outcomes, student progression as well as student satisfaction. Too much academic freedom seems to lead to worse results [cat 3 and 4]. A standardized assessment model is launched for all students in autumn 2017. This model is different from the one used so far in categories 1 and 2 allowing more flexibility to teacher groups, but it will force all the teacher groups to follow the general rules in order to improve the results and the student satisfaction further.

Keywords: continuous assessment, course integration, curricular reform, student feedback

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Authors: Majid Azizi, Payam Ghorbannezhad, Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Ghofrani

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Environmental issues in the furniture industry are of great importance due to the use of natural materials such as wood and chemical substances like adhesives and paints. These issues encompass environmental conservation and managing pollution and waste generated. Improper use of wood resources, along with the use of chemicals and their release, leads to the depletion of natural resources, damage to forests, and the emission of greenhouse gases. Therefore, identifying influential indicators in the life cycle assessment of classic furniture and proposing solutions to reduce environmental impacts becomes crucial. In this study, the life cycle of classic furniture was evaluated using a hierarchical analytical process from cradle to grave. The life cycle assessment was employed to assess the environmental impacts of the furniture industry, ranging from raw material extraction to waste disposal and recycling. The most significant indicators in the furniture industry's production chain were also identified. The results indicated that the wood quality indicator is the most essential factor in the life cycle of classic furniture. Furthermore, the relative contribution of each type of traditional furniture was proposed concerning impact categories in the life cycle assessment. The results showed that among the three proposed types, the design and production of furniture with prefabricated parts had the most negligible impact in categories such as global warming potential and ozone layer depletion compared to furniture design with solid wood and furniture design with recycled components. Among the three suggested types of furniture to reduce environmental impacts, producing furniture with solid wood or other woods was chosen as the most crucial solution.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, analytic hierarchy process, environmental issues, furniture

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Authors: Muhammad Saleem Ullah Khan Sumbal, Eric Tsui, Ricky Cheong, Eric See To

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Organizations are posed to a threat of valuable knowledge loss when employees leave either due to retirement, resignation, job change or because of disabilities e.g. death, etc. Due to changing economic conditions, globalization, and aging workforce, organizations are facing challenges regarding retention of valuable knowledge. On the one hand, large number of employees are going to retire in the organizations whereas on the other hand, younger generation does not want to work in a company for a long time and there is an increasing trend of frequent job change among the new generation. Because of these factors, organizations need to make sure that they capture the knowledge of employee before (s)he walks out of the door. The first step in this process is to know what type of knowledge employee possesses and whether this knowledge is important for the organization. Researchers reveal in the literature that despite the serious consequences of knowledge loss in terms of organizational productivity and competitive advantage, there has not been much work done in the area of knowledge loss assessment of departing employees. An important step in the knowledge retention process is to determine the critical ‘at risk’ knowledge. Thus, knowledge loss risk assessment is a process by which organizations can gauge the importance of knowledge of the departing employee. The purpose of this study is to explore this topic of knowledge loss risk assessment by conducting a qualitative study in oil and gas sector. By engaging in dialogues with managers and executives of the organizations through in-depth interviews and adopting a grounded methodology approach, the research will explore; i) Are there any measures adopted by organizations to assess the risk of knowledge loss from departing employees? ii) Which factors are crucial for knowledge loss assessment in the organizations? iii) How can we prioritize the employees for knowledge retention according to their criticality? Grounded theory approach is used when there is not much knowledge available in the area under research and thus new knowledge is generated about the topic through an in-depth exploration of the topic by using methods such as interviews and using a systematic approach to analyze the data. The outcome of the study will generate a model for the risk of knowledge loss through factors such as the likelihood of knowledge loss, the consequence/impact of knowledge loss and quality of the knowledge loss of departing employees. Initial results show that knowledge loss assessment is quite crucial for the organizations and it helps in determining what types of knowledge employees possess e.g. organizations knowledge, subject matter expertise or relationships knowledge. Based on that, it can be assessed which employee is more important for the organizations and how to prioritize the knowledge retention process for departing employees.

Keywords: knowledge loss, risk assessment, departing employees, Hong Kong organizations

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Taki Eddine Seghier, Mohd Hamdan Ahmad, Yaik-Wah Lim, Samuel Opeyemi Williams

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The assessment of building sustainability to achieve a specific green benchmark and the preparation of the required documents in order to receive a green building certification, both are considered as major challenging tasks for green building design team. However, this labor and time-consuming process can take advantage of the available Building Information Modeling (BIM) features such as material take-off and scheduling. Furthermore, the workflow can be automated in order to track potentially achievable credit points and provide rating feedback for several design options by using integrated Visual Programing (VP) to handle the stored parameters within the BIM model. Hence, this study proposes a BIM-based tool that uses Green Building Index (GBI) rating system requirements as a unique input case to evaluate the building sustainability in the design stage of the building project life cycle. The tool covers two key models for data extraction, firstly, a model for data extraction, calculation and the classification of achievable credit points in a green template, secondly, a model for the generation of the required documents for green building certification. The tool was validated on a BIM model of residential building and it serves as proof of concept that building sustainability assessment of GBI certification can be automatically evaluated and documented through BIM.

Keywords: green building rating system, GBRS, building information modeling, BIM, visual programming, VP, sustainability assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Nurfirdawati Muhamad Hanafi, Azmanirah Ab Rahman, Marina Ibrahim Mukhtar, Jamil Ahmad, Sarebah Warman

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This study was conducted to generate empirical evidence on validity and reliability of the item of Competency Assessment Implementation (CAI) Instrument using Rasch Model for polythomous data aided by Winstep software version 3.68. The construct validity was examined by analyzing the point-measure correlation index (PTMEA), in fit and outfit MNSQ values; meanwhile the reliability was examined by analyzing item reliability index. A survey technique was used as the major method with the CAI instrument on 156 teachers from vocational schools. The results have shown that the reliability of CAI Instrument items were between 0.80 and 0.98. PTMEA Correlation is in positive values, in which the item is able to distinguish between the ability of the respondent. Statistical data obtained shows that out of 154 items, 12 items from the instrument suggested to be omitted. This study is hoped could bring a new direction to the process of data analysis in educational research.

Keywords: competency assessment, reliability, validity, item analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: G. S. Dangayach, Gaurav Gaurav, Alok Bihari Singh

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The popularity of vehicles in both industrialized and developing economies led to a rise in the production of tyres. People have become increasingly concerned about the tyre industry's possible environmental impact in the last two decades. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to assess the environmental impacts of industrial tyres throughout their life cycle, which included four stages: manufacture, transportation, consumption, and end-of-life. The majority of prior studies focused on tyre recycling and disposal. Only a few studies have been conducted on the environmental impact of tyre production process. LCA methodology was employed to determine the environmental impact of tyre manufacture process (gate to gate) at an Indian firm. Comparative analysis was also conducted to identify the environmental hotspots in various stages of tire manufacturing. This study is limited to gate-to-gate analysis of manufacturing processes with the functional unit of a single tyre weighing 50 kg. GaBi software was used to do both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Different environmental impact indicators are measured in terms of CO2, SO2, NOx, GWP (global warming potential), AP (acidification potential), EP (eutrophication potential), POCP (photochemical oxidant formation potential), and HTP (toxic human potential). The results demonstrate that the major contributor to environmental pollution is electricity. The Banbury process has a very high negative environmental impact, which causes respiratory problems to workers and operators.

Keywords: life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental impact indicators, tyre manufacturing process, environmental impact assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Shaleeza Sohail

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Self, and peer evaluations are some of the main components in almost all group assignments and projects in higher education institutes. These evaluations provide students an opportunity to better understand the learning outcomes of the assignment and/or project. A number of online systems have been developed for this purpose that provides automated assessment and feedback of students’ contribution in a group environment based on self and peer evaluations. All these systems lack a progressive aspect of these assessments and feedbacks which is the most crucial factor for ongoing improvement and life-long learning. In addition, a number of assignments and projects are designed in a manner that smaller or initial assessment components lead to a final assignment or project. In such cases, the evaluation and feedback may provide students an insight into their performance as a group member for a particular component after the submission. Ideally, it should also create an opportunity to improve for next assessment component as well. Self and Peer Progressive Assessment and Feedback System encourages students to perform better in the next assessment by providing a comparative analysis of the individual’s contribution score on an ongoing basis. Hence, the student sees the change in their own contribution scores during the complete project based on smaller assessment components. Self-Assessment Factor is calculated as an indicator of how close the self-perception of the student’s own contribution is to the perceived contribution of that student by other members of the group. Peer-Assessment Factor is calculated to compare the perception of one student’s contribution as compared to the average value of the group. Our system also provides a Group Coherence Factor which shows collectively how group members contribute to the final submission. This feedback is provided for students and teachers to visualize the consistency of members’ contribution perceived by its group members. Teachers can use these factors to judge the individual contributions of the group members in the combined tasks and allocate marks/grades accordingly. This factor is shown to students for all groups undertaking same assessment, so the group members can comparatively analyze the efficiency of their group as compared to other groups. Our System provides flexibility to the instructors for generating their own customized criteria for self and peer evaluations based on the requirements of the assignment. Students evaluate their own and other group members’ contributions on the scale from significantly higher to significantly lower. The preliminary testing of the prototype system is done with a set of predefined cases to explicitly show the relation of system feedback factors to the case studies. The results show that such progressive feedback to students can be used to motivate self-improvement and enhanced team skills. The comparative group coherence can promote a better understanding of the group dynamics in order to improve team unity and fair division of team tasks.

Keywords: effective group work, improvement of team skills, progressive feedback, self and peer assessment system

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Tayyaba Bibi, Jenny Ronan, Robert Hernan, Kathleen O’Rourke, Brendan McHugh, Evin McGovern, Michelle Giltrap, Gordon Chambers, James Wilson

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Sediment contamination is a major source of ecosystem stress and has received significant attention from the scientific community. Both the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) require a robust set of tools for biological and chemical monitoring. For the MSFD in particular, causal links between contaminant and effects need to be assessed. Appropriate assessment tools are required in order to make an accurate evaluation. In this study, a range of recommended sediment bioassays and chemical measurements are assessed in a number of potentially impacted and lowly impacted locations around Ireland. Previously, assessment indices have been developed on individual compartments, i.e. contaminant levels or biomarker/bioassay responses. A number of assessment indices are applied to chemical and ecotoxicological data from the Seachange project (Project code) and compared including the metal pollution index (MPI), pollution load index (PLI) and Chapman index for chemistry as well as integrated biomarker response (IBR). The benefits and drawbacks of the use of indices and aggregation techniques are discussed. In addition to this, modelling of raw data is investigated to analyse links between contaminant and effects.

Keywords: bioassays, contamination indices, ecotoxicity, marine environment, sediments

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Ogbuagu Josephat Okechukwu, Okeke Abuchi Princewill, Arinze Rosemary Uche, Tabugbo Ifeyinwa Blessing, Ogbuagu Adaora Stellamaris

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Phthalates or Phthalate esters (PAEs), categorized as an endocrine disruptor and persistent organic pollutants, are known for their environmental contamination and toxicological effects. In this study, the concentration of selected phthalates was determined across the sampling site to investigate their occurrence and the ecological and health risk assessment they pose to the environment. Water and sediment samples were collected following standard procedures. Solid phase and ultrasonic methods were used to extract seven different PAEs, which were analyzed by Gas Chromatography with Mass Detector (GCMS). The analytical average recovery was found to be within the range of s83.4% ± 2.3%. The results showed that PAEs were detected in six out of seven samples with a high percentage of detection rate in water. Di-n-butyl phthalate (DPB) and diisobutyl phthalates (DiBP) showed greater detection rate compared to other PAEs monomers. The concentration of PEs was found to be higher in the sediment samples compared to the water samples due to the fact that sediments serve as a sink for most persistent organic pollutants. The concentrations of PAEs in water samples and sediments ranged from 0.03 ± 0.01 to 0.29 ± 0.002 ppm and 3.99 ± 0.43 to 6.04 ± 1.25 ppm, respectively. Ecological risk assessment using the risk quotient method (RQ) reveals that the estimated environmental risk caused by phthalates lies within the moderate level as RQ ranges from 0.1 to 1.0, whereas the health risk assessment caused by phthalates on estimating the average daily dose reveals that the ingestion of phthalates was found to be high which can cause serious carcinogenic occurrence in the human system with time due to excess accumulation.

Keywords: phthaletes, assessment, marine pollution, endocrine

Procedia PDF Downloads 38