Picturing and modelling catchments by representative hillslopes

Science.gov (United States)

Loritz, Ralf; Hassler, Sibylle; Jackisch, Conrad; Zehe, Erwin

2016-04-01

Hydrological modelling studies often start with a qualitative sketch of the hydrological processes of a catchment. These so-called perceptual models are often pictured as hillslopes and are generalizations displaying only the dominant and relevant processes of a catchment or hillslope. The problem with these models is that they are prone to become too much predetermined by the designer's background and experience. Moreover it is difficult to know if that picture is correct and contains enough complexity to represent the system under study. Nevertheless, because of their qualitative form, perceptual models are easy to understand and can be an excellent tool for multidisciplinary exchange between researchers with different backgrounds, helping to identify the dominant structures and processes in a catchment. In our study we explore whether a perceptual model built upon an intensive field campaign may serve as a blueprint for setting up representative hillslopes in a hydrological model to reproduce the functioning of two distinctly different catchments. We use a physically-based 2D hillslope model which has proven capable to be driven by measured soil-hydrological parameters. A key asset of our approach is that the model structure itself remains a picture of the perceptual model, which is benchmarked against a) geo-physical images of the subsurface and b) observed dynamics of discharge, distributed state variables and fluxes (soil moisture, matric potential and sap flow). Within this approach we are able to set up two behavioral model structures which allow the simulation of the most important hydrological fluxes and state variables in good accordance with available observations within the 19.4 km2 large Colpach catchment and the 4.5 km2 large Wollefsbach catchment in Luxembourg without the necessity of calibration. This corroborates, contrary to the widespread opinion, that a) lower mesoscale catchments may be modelled by representative hillslopes and b) physically

How Are Feedbacks Represented in Land Models?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Chen

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Land systems are characterised by many feedbacks that can result in complex system behaviour. We defined feedbacks as the two-way influences between the land use system and a related system (e.g., climate, soils and markets, both of which are encompassed by the land system. Land models that include feedbacks thus probably more accurately mimic how land systems respond to, e.g., policy or climate change. However, representing feedbacks in land models is a challenge. We reviewed articles incorporating feedbacks into land models and analysed each with predefined indicators. We found that (1 most modelled feedbacks couple land use systems with transport, soil and market systems, while only a few include feedbacks between land use and social systems or climate systems; (2 equation-based land use models that follow a top-down approach prevail; and (3 feedbacks’ effects on system behaviour remain relatively unexplored. We recommend that land system modellers (1 consider feedbacks between land use systems and social systems; (2 adopt (bottom-up approaches suited to incorporating spatial heterogeneity and better representing land use decision-making; and (3 pay more attention to nonlinear system behaviour and its implications for land system management and policy.

Selection of Representative Models for Decision Analysis Under Uncertainty

Science.gov (United States)

Meira, Luis A. A.; Coelho, Guilherme P.; Santos, Antonio Alberto S.; Schiozer, Denis J.

2016-03-01

The decision-making process in oil fields includes a step of risk analysis associated with the uncertainties present in the variables of the problem. Such uncertainties lead to hundreds, even thousands, of possible scenarios that are supposed to be analyzed so an effective production strategy can be selected. Given this high number of scenarios, a technique to reduce this set to a smaller, feasible subset of representative scenarios is imperative. The selected scenarios must be representative of the original set and also free of optimistic and pessimistic bias. This paper is devoted to propose an assisted methodology to identify representative models in oil fields. To do so, first a mathematical function was developed to model the representativeness of a subset of models with respect to the full set that characterizes the problem. Then, an optimization tool was implemented to identify the representative models of any problem, considering not only the cross-plots of the main output variables, but also the risk curves and the probability distribution of the attribute-levels of the problem. The proposed technique was applied to two benchmark cases and the results, evaluated by experts in the field, indicate that the obtained solutions are richer than those identified by previously adopted manual approaches. The program bytecode is available under request.

Reflexion on linear regression trip production modelling method for ensuring good model quality

Science.gov (United States)

Suprayitno, Hitapriya; Ratnasari, Vita

2017-11-01

Transport Modelling is important. For certain cases, the conventional model still has to be used, in which having a good trip production model is capital. A good model can only be obtained from a good sample. Two of the basic principles of a good sampling is having a sample capable to represent the population characteristics and capable to produce an acceptable error at a certain confidence level. It seems that this principle is not yet quite understood and used in trip production modeling. Therefore, investigating the Trip Production Modelling practice in Indonesia and try to formulate a better modeling method for ensuring the Model Quality is necessary. This research result is presented as follows. Statistics knows a method to calculate span of prediction value at a certain confidence level for linear regression, which is called Confidence Interval of Predicted Value. The common modeling practice uses R2 as the principal quality measure, the sampling practice varies and not always conform to the sampling principles. An experiment indicates that small sample is already capable to give excellent R2 value and sample composition can significantly change the model. Hence, good R2 value, in fact, does not always mean good model quality. These lead to three basic ideas for ensuring good model quality, i.e. reformulating quality measure, calculation procedure, and sampling method. A quality measure is defined as having a good R2 value and a good Confidence Interval of Predicted Value. Calculation procedure must incorporate statistical calculation method and appropriate statistical tests needed. A good sampling method must incorporate random well distributed stratified sampling with a certain minimum number of samples. These three ideas need to be more developed and tested.

Water quality modeling of the Medellin river in the Aburrá Valley

OpenAIRE

Giraldo-B., Lina Claudia; Palacio, Carlos Alberto; Molina, Rubén; Agudelo, Rubén Alberto

2015-01-01

Water quality modeling intends to represent a water body in order to assess their status and project the effects of different measures taken for their protection. This paper presents the results obtained from the Qual2kw model implementation in the first 50 kilometers of the Aburrá-Medellín River, in their most critical conditions of water quality, which correspond to low flow rates. After the model calibration, three recovery scenarios (short-term, medium-term and long-term) were evaluated. ...

STATISTICAL MODELS OF REPRESENTING INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreea Feraru

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article entitled Statistical Models of Representing Intellectual Capital approaches and analyses the concept of intellectual capital, as well as the main models which can support enterprisers/managers in evaluating and quantifying the advantages of intellectual capital. Most authors examine intellectual capital from a static perspective and focus on the development of its various evaluation models. In this chapter we surveyed the classical static models: Sveiby, Edvisson, Balanced Scorecard, as well as the canonical model of intellectual capital. Among the group of static models for evaluating organisational intellectual capital the canonical model stands out. This model enables the structuring of organisational intellectual capital in: human capital, structural capital and relational capital. Although the model is widely spread, it is a static one and can thus create a series of errors in the process of evaluation, because all the three entities mentioned above are not independent from the viewpoint of their contents, as any logic of structuring complex entities requires.

Quality of Artemisinin-Containing Antimalarials in Tanzania's Private Sector--Results from a Nationally Representative Outlet Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Act Consortium Drug Quality Project Team And The Impact Study Team

2015-06-01

Ensuring that artemisinin-containing antimalarials (ACAs) are of good quality is a key component of effective malaria treatment. There are concerns that a high proportion of ACAs are falsified or substandard, though estimates are rarely based on representative data. During a nationally representative survey in Tanzania, ACAs were purchased from private retail drug outlets, and the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) was measured. All 1,737 ACAs contained the labeled artemisinin derivative, with 4.1% being outside the 85-115% artemisinin API range defined as acceptable quality. World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified drugs had 0.1 times the odds of being poor quality compared with non-prequalified ACAs for the artemisinin component. When partner components of combination therapies were also considered, 12.1% were outside the acceptable API range, and WHO prequalified ACAs had 0.04 times the odds of being poor quality. Although the prevalence of poor quality ACAs was lower than reported elsewhere, the minority of samples found to be substandard is a cause for concern. Improvements in quality could be achieved by increasing the predominance of WHO prequalified products in the market. Continued monitoring of quality standards is essential. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

The impact of working memory and the “process of process modelling” on model quality: Investigating experienced versus inexperienced modellers

Science.gov (United States)

Martini, Markus; Pinggera, Jakob; Neurauter, Manuel; Sachse, Pierre; Furtner, Marco R.; Weber, Barbara

2016-01-01

A process model (PM) represents the graphical depiction of a business process, for instance, the entire process from online ordering a book until the parcel is delivered to the customer. Knowledge about relevant factors for creating PMs of high quality is lacking. The present study investigated the role of cognitive processes as well as modelling processes in creating a PM in experienced and inexperienced modellers. Specifically, two working memory (WM) functions (holding and processing of information and relational integration) and three process of process modelling phases (comprehension, modelling, and reconciliation) were related to PM quality. Our results show that the WM function of relational integration was positively related to PM quality in both modelling groups. The ratio of comprehension phases was negatively related to PM quality in inexperienced modellers and the ratio of reconciliation phases was positively related to PM quality in experienced modellers. Our research reveals central cognitive mechanisms in process modelling and has potential practical implications for the development of modelling software and teaching the craft of process modelling. PMID:27157858

ONLINE MODEL OF EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE EQUASP IMPLEMENTATION: EXPERIENCE OF VYATKA STATE UNIVERSITY

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Valentin Pugach

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the problem of assessing the quality of higher education. In the Russian Federation recently quality assessment of educational services provided by state-accredited universities is carried out by the state represented by the Ministry of education and science. State universities have simulated internal systemseducation quality assessment in accordance with the methodology proposed by the Ministry of education and science. Currently more attention is paid to the independent assessment of education quality which is the basis of professional public accreditation. The project "EQUASP" financed within the framework of the TEMPUS programme is directed to the problem of implementing the methodology of the online model of independent higher education quality assessment in the practice of Russian universities. The proposed model for assessing the quality of education is based on usage of 5 standards. The authors have done a comparative analysis of the model of higher education quality assessment existing in Vyatka State University and the model of education quality assessing offered by European universities-participants of the project EQUASP. The authors have presented the main results of investigation of this problem and some suggestions for improving the model of education quality assessment used by Vyatka State University.

Models with Men and Women: Representing Gender in Dynamic Modeling of Social Systems.

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Palmer, Erika; Wilson, Benedicte

2018-04-01

Dynamic engineering models have yet to be evaluated in the context of feminist engineering ethics. Decision-making concerning gender in dynamic modeling design is a gender and ethical issue that is important to address regardless of the system in which the dynamic modeling is applied. There are many dynamic modeling tools that operationally include the female population, however, there is an important distinction between females and women; it is the difference between biological sex and the social construct of gender, which is fluid and changes over time and geography. The ethical oversight in failing to represent or misrepresenting gender in model design when it is relevant to the model purpose can have implications for model validity and policy model development. This paper highlights this gender issue in the context of feminist engineering ethics using a dynamic population model. Women are often represented in this type of model only in their biological capacity, while lacking their gender identity. This illustrative example also highlights how language, including the naming of variables and communication with decision-makers, plays a role in this gender issue.

A New Strategy for Quality Evaluation and Identification of Representative Chemical Components in Polygonum multiflorum Thunb.

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Yun-xia Li

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. (HSW is widely used as herb medicine and health food additive. Recently, a series of HSW-induced hepatotoxicities have been reported and many studies have been carried out to investigate it. But contradictory conclusions were drawn that might be caused by the inconsistent quality of market decoction pieces. Therefore, the HSW decoction pieces quality was evaluated with a developed novel method in the paper. 25 batches of raw HSW (RHSW and 21 batches of processed HSW (PHSW samples were purchased from different provinces of China. HPLC determination was performed to identify and detect the contents of 16 chemical compounds in herbal material. Fingerprint similarity was analyzed using chromatography information and the results showed that most herbs were in good similarity. Then, a comprehensive evaluation strategy based on principal component analysis with representative quality control indicators was developed to evaluate the quality of HSW samples. And the rationality of the developed method was verified by HCA analysis. The results showed that the herb from Dabashan, Sichuan Province, no matter RHSW or PHSW had the best quality. Different representative components were selected for RHSW or PHSW decoction pieces which might be caused by the chemical reaction during processing. And most PHSW were unqualified according to the requirement of Chinese Pharmacopeia which might take the responsibility for the toxicity of HSW.

Quality Model Based on Cots Quality Attributes

OpenAIRE

Jawad Alkhateeb; Khaled Musa

2013-01-01

The quality of software is essential to corporations in making their commercial software. Good or poorquality to software plays an important role to some systems such as embedded systems, real-time systems,and control systems that play an important aspect in human life. Software products or commercial off theshelf software are usually programmed based on a software quality model. In the software engineeringfield, each quality model contains a set of attributes or characteristics that drives i...

Attention modeling for video quality assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

You, Junyong; Korhonen, Jari; Perkis, Andrew

2010-01-01

averaged spatiotemporal pooling. The local quality is derived from visual attention modeling and quality variations over frames. Saliency, motion, and contrast information are taken into account in modeling visual attention, which is then integrated into IQMs to calculate the local quality of a video frame...... average between the global quality and the local quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the combination of the global quality and local quality outperforms both sole global quality and local quality, as well as other quality models, in video quality assessment. In addition, the proposed video...... quality modeling algorithm can improve the performance of image quality metrics on video quality assessment compared to the normal averaged spatiotemporal pooling scheme....

Evaluating the Quality of the Learning Outcome in Healthcare Sector: The Expero4care Model

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Cervai, Sara; Polo, Federica

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to present the Expero4care model. Considering the growing need for a training evaluation model that does not simply fix processes, the Expero4care model represents the first attempt of a "quality model" dedicated to the learning outcomes of healthcare trainings. Design/Methodology/Approach: Created as development…

Modeling framework for representing long-term effectiveness of best management practices in addressing hydrology and water quality problems: Framework development and demonstraton using a Bayesian method

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Best management practices (BMPs) are popular approaches used to improve hydrology and water quality. Uncertainties in BMP effectiveness over time may result in overestimating long-term efficiency in watershed planning strategies. To represent varying long-term BMP effectiveness in hydrologic/water q...

Use of CFD modeling for estimating spatial representativeness of urban air pollution monitoring sites and suitability of their locations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santiago, J. L.; Martin, F.

2015-01-01

A methodology to estimate the spatial representativeness of air pollution monitoring sites is applied to two urban districts. This methodology is based on high resolution maps of air pollution computed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling tools. Traffic-emitted NO 2 dispersion is simulated for several meteorological conditions taking into account the effect of the buildings on air flow and pollutant dispersion and using a steady state CFD-RANS approach. From these results, maps of average pollutant concentrations for January -May 2011 are computed as a combination of the simulated scenarios. Two urban districts of Madrid City were simulated. Spatial representativeness areas for 32 different sites within the same district (including the site of the operative air quality stations) have been estimated by computing the portion of the domains with average NO 2 concentration differing less than a 20% of the concentration at each candidate monitoring site. New parameters such as the ratio AR between the representativeness area and the whole domain area or the representativeness index (IR) has been proposed to discuss and compare the representativeness areas. Significant differences between the spatial representativeness of the candidate sites of both studied districts have been found. The sites of the Escuelas Aguirre district have generally smaller representativeness areas than those of the Plaza de Castilla. More stations are needed to cover the Escuelas Aguirre district than for the Plaza de Castilla one. The operative air quality station of the Escuelas Aguirre district is less representative than the station of the Plaza de Castilla district. The cause of these differences seems to be the differences in urban structure of both districts prompting different ventilation. (Author)

Use of CFD modeling for estimating spatial representativeness of urban air pollution monitoring sites and suitability of their locations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santiago, J. L.; Martin, F.

2015-07-01

A methodology to estimate the spatial representativeness of air pollution monitoring sites is applied to two urban districts. This methodology is based on high resolution maps of air pollution computed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling tools. Traffic-emitted NO{sub 2} dispersion is simulated for several meteorological conditions taking into account the effect of the buildings on air flow and pollutant dispersion and using a steady state CFD-RANS approach. From these results, maps of average pollutant concentrations for January -May 2011 are computed as a combination of the simulated scenarios. Two urban districts of Madrid City were simulated. Spatial representativeness areas for 32 different sites within the same district (including the site of the operative air quality stations) have been estimated by computing the portion of the domains with average NO{sub 2} concentration differing less than a 20% of the concentration at each candidate monitoring site. New parameters such as the ratio AR between the representativeness area and the whole domain area or the representativeness index (IR) has been proposed to discuss and compare the representativeness areas. Significant differences between the spatial representativeness of the candidate sites of both studied districts have been found. The sites of the Escuelas Aguirre district have generally smaller representativeness areas than those of the Plaza de Castilla. More stations are needed to cover the Escuelas Aguirre district than for the Plaza de Castilla one. The operative air quality station of the Escuelas Aguirre district is less representative than the station of the Plaza de Castilla district. The cause of these differences seems to be the differences in urban structure of both districts prompting different ventilation. (Author)

Use of CFD modeling for estimating spatial representativeness of urban air pollution monitoring sites and suitability of their locations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santiago, J.L.; Martin, F.

2015-07-01

A methodology to estimate the spatial representativeness of air pollution monitoring sites is applied to two urban districts. This methodology is based on high resolution maps of air pollution computed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling tools. Traffic-emitted NO2 dispersion is simulated for several meteorological conditions taking into account the effect of the buildings on air flow and pollutant dispersion and using a steady state CFD-RANS approach. From these results, maps of average pollutant concentrations for January–May 2011 are computed as a combination of the simulated scenarios. Two urban districts of Madrid City were simulated. Spatial representativeness areas for 32 different sites within the same district (including the site of the operative air quality stations) have been estimated by computing the portion of the domains with average NO2 concentration differing less than a 20% of the concentration at each candidate monitoring site. New parameters such as the ratio AR between the representativeness area and the whole domain area or the representativeness index (IR) has been proposed to discuss and compare the representativeness areas. Significant differences between the spatial representativeness of the candidate sites of both studied districts have been found. The sites of the Escuelas Aguirre district have generally smaller representativeness areas than those of the Plaza de Castilla. More stations are needed to cover the Escuelas Aguirre district than for the Plaza de Castilla one. The operative air quality station of the Escuelas Aguirre district is less representative than the station of the Plaza de Castilla district. The cause of these differences seems to be the differences in urban structure of both districts prompting different ventilation. (Author)

Fasting Plasma Glucose, Self-Appraised Diet Quality and Depressive Symptoms: A US-Representative Cross-Sectional Study

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Erin Hoare

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Depression and type 2 diabetes (T2D contribute significantly to global burden of disease and often co-occur. Underpinning type 2 diabetes is poor glycaemic control and glucose is also an obligatory substrate for brain metabolism, with potential implications for cognition, motivation and mood. This research aimed to examine the relationships between fasting plasma glucose and depressive symptoms in a large, population representative sample of US adults, controlling for other demographic and lifestyle behavioural risk factors. Using the 2013–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES data, this study first investigated the relationship between fasting plasma glucose and mental disorders at a population-level, accounting for demographic, health behavioural and weight-related factors known to co-occur with both type 2 diabetes and mental disorders. Depressive symptoms were derived from the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire. Fasting plasma glucose was obtained through medical examination and demographic (age, household income, sex and health characteristics (perceived diet quality, daily time sedentary were self-reported. Body mass index was calculated from objectively measured height and weight. In the univariate model, higher fasting plasma glucose was associated with greater depressive symptoms among females (b = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.43, p < 0.05, but not males. In the final fully adjusted model, the relationship between fasting plasma glucose and depressive symptoms was non-significant for both males and females. Of all independent variables, self-appraised diet quality was strongly and significantly associated with depressive symptoms and this remained significant when individuals with diabetes were excluded. Although diet quality was self-reported based on individuals’ perceptions, these findings are consistent with a role for poor diet in the relationship between fasting plasma glucose and depressive symptoms.

A Statistical and Spectral Model for Representing Noisy Sounds with Short-Time Sinusoids

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Myriam Desainte-Catherine

2005-07-01

Full Text Available We propose an original model for noise analysis, transformation, and synthesis: the CNSS model. Noisy sounds are represented with short-time sinusoids whose frequencies and phases are random variables. This spectral and statistical model represents information about the spectral density of frequencies. This perceptually relevant property is modeled by three mathematical parameters that define the distribution of the frequencies. This model also represents the spectral envelope. The mathematical parameters are defined and the analysis algorithms to extract these parameters from sounds are introduced. Then algorithms for generating sounds from the parameters of the model are presented. Applications of this model include tools for composers, psychoacoustic experiments, and pedagogy.

A state of the art regarding urban air quality prediction models

Science.gov (United States)

Croitoru, Cristiana; Nastase, Ilinca

2018-02-01

Urban pollution represents an increasing risk to residents of urban regions, particularly in large, over-industrialized cities knowing that the traffic is responsible for more than 25% of air gaseous pollutants and dust particles. Air quality modelling plays an important role in addressing air pollution control and management approaches by providing guidelines for better and more efficient air quality forecasting, along with smart monitoring sensor networks. The advances in technology regarding simulations, forecasting and monitoring are part of the new smart cities which offers a healthy environment for their occupants.

A state of the art regarding urban air quality prediction models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Croitoru Cristiana

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Urban pollution represents an increasing risk to residents of urban regions, particularly in large, over-industrialized cities knowing that the traffic is responsible for more than 25% of air gaseous pollutants and dust particles. Air quality modelling plays an important role in addressing air pollution control and management approaches by providing guidelines for better and more efficient air quality forecasting, along with smart monitoring sensor networks. The advances in technology regarding simulations, forecasting and monitoring are part of the new smart cities which offers a healthy environment for their occupants.

Quality models for audiovisual streaming

Science.gov (United States)

Thang, Truong Cong; Kim, Young Suk; Kim, Cheon Seog; Ro, Yong Man

2006-01-01

Quality is an essential factor in multimedia communication, especially in compression and adaptation. Quality metrics can be divided into three categories: within-modality quality, cross-modality quality, and multi-modality quality. Most research has so far focused on within-modality quality. Moreover, quality is normally just considered from the perceptual perspective. In practice, content may be drastically adapted, even converted to another modality. In this case, we should consider the quality from semantic perspective as well. In this work, we investigate the multi-modality quality from the semantic perspective. To model the semantic quality, we apply the concept of "conceptual graph", which consists of semantic nodes and relations between the nodes. As an typical of multi-modality example, we focus on audiovisual streaming service. Specifically, we evaluate the amount of information conveyed by a audiovisual content where both video and audio channels may be strongly degraded, even audio are converted to text. In the experiments, we also consider the perceptual quality model of audiovisual content, so as to see the difference with semantic quality model.

Water quality modelling of an impacted semi-arid catchment using flow data from the WEAP model

Science.gov (United States)

Slaughter, Andrew R.; Mantel, Sukhmani K.

2018-04-01

The continuous decline in water quality in many regions is forcing a shift from quantity-based water resources management to a greater emphasis on water quality management. Water quality models can act as invaluable tools as they facilitate a conceptual understanding of processes affecting water quality and can be used to investigate the water quality consequences of management scenarios. In South Africa, the Water Quality Systems Assessment Model (WQSAM) was developed as a management-focussed water quality model that is relatively simple to be able to utilise the small amount of available observed data. Importantly, WQSAM explicitly links to systems (yield) models routinely used in water resources management in South Africa by using their flow output to drive water quality simulations. Although WQSAM has been shown to be able to represent the variability of water quality in South African rivers, its focus on management from a South African perspective limits its use to within southern African regions for which specific systems model setups exist. Facilitating the use of WQSAM within catchments outside of southern Africa and within catchments for which these systems model setups to not exist would require WQSAM to be able to link to a simple-to-use and internationally-applied systems model. One such systems model is the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model, which incorporates a rainfall-runoff component (natural hydrology), and reservoir storage, return flows and abstractions (systems modelling), but within which water quality modelling facilities are rudimentary. The aims of the current study were therefore to: (1) adapt the WQSAM model to be able to use as input the flow outputs of the WEAP model and; (2) provide an initial assessment of how successful this linkage was by application of the WEAP and WQSAM models to the Buffalo River for historical conditions; a small, semi-arid and impacted catchment in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The simulations of

Quality by control: Towards model predictive control of mammalian cell culture bioprocesses.

Science.gov (United States)

Sommeregger, Wolfgang; Sissolak, Bernhard; Kandra, Kulwant; von Stosch, Moritz; Mayer, Martin; Striedner, Gerald

2017-07-01

The industrial production of complex biopharmaceuticals using recombinant mammalian cell lines is still mainly built on a quality by testing approach, which is represented by fixed process conditions and extensive testing of the end-product. In 2004 the FDA launched the process analytical technology initiative, aiming to guide the industry towards advanced process monitoring and better understanding of how critical process parameters affect the critical quality attributes. Implementation of process analytical technology into the bio-production process enables moving from the quality by testing to a more flexible quality by design approach. The application of advanced sensor systems in combination with mathematical modelling techniques offers enhanced process understanding, allows on-line prediction of critical quality attributes and subsequently real-time product quality control. In this review opportunities and unsolved issues on the road to a successful quality by design and dynamic control implementation are discussed. A major focus is directed on the preconditions for the application of model predictive control for mammalian cell culture bioprocesses. Design of experiments providing information about the process dynamics upon parameter change, dynamic process models, on-line process state predictions and powerful software environments seem to be a prerequisite for quality by control realization. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology Journal published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Frame model of knowledge in quality control systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Macherauskas, V.Yu.

1982-09-01

The purpose of this article is to develop a semiotic model for representation of data and knowledge in a system for supplying operational information to management personnel on the progress of a technological process, with the aim of enabling an analysis of deviations of product quality and formulation of recommendations to the technologists as to how to eliminate them. Since any knowledge of people that can be realistically utilized in machine systems is represented in natural language form, special languages for representation of knowledge, based on the concept of frames, are being developed for formation of semiotic models in computers. This article defines the frames, followed by a description of a mechanism of knowledge manipulation and of some aspects of realization of a frame model of knowledge. 9 references.

Food quality, effects on health and sustainability today: a model case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Borroni, Vittorio Natale; Fargion, Silvia; Mazzocchi, Alessandra; Giachetti, Marco; Lanzarini, Achille; Dall'Asta, Margherita; Scazzina, Francesca; Agostoni, Carlo

2017-02-01

The Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico is a five-century institution that, besides the unique clinical role in the center of Milan, may rely on benefactor donations such as fields and farming houses not far from the city, for a total of 8500 ha, all managed by the "Sviluppo Ca' Granda' Foundation". Presently, the main products of these fields are represented by rice and cow's milk. During the latest years, farmers and managers have developed a model of sustainable food production, with great attention to the product quality based on compositional analysis and functional nutritional characteristics. This experience represents a new holistic model of food production and consumption, taking great care of both sustainability and health.

Development of a Representative Mouse Model with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Verbeek, Jef; Jacobs, Ans; Spincemaille, Pieter; Cassiman, David

2016-06-01

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent liver disease in the Western world. It represents a disease spectrum ranging from isolated steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In particular, NASH can evolve to fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure. The development of novel treatment strategies is hampered by the lack of representative NASH mouse models. Here, we describe a NASH mouse model, which is based on feeding non-genetically manipulated C57BL6/J mice a 'Western style' high-fat/high-sucrose diet (HF-HSD). HF-HSD leads to early obesity, insulin resistance, and hypercholesterolemia. After 12 weeks of HF-HSD, all mice exhibit the complete spectrum of features of NASH, including steatosis, hepatocyte ballooning, and lobular inflammation, together with fibrosis in the majority of mice. Hence, this model closely mimics the human disease. Implementation of this mouse model will lead to a standardized setup for the evaluation of (i) underlying mechanisms that contribute to the progression of NAFLD to NASH, and (ii) therapeutic interventions for NASH. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Biodiversity and soil quality in agroecosystems: the use of a qualitative multi-attribute model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cortet, J.; Bohanec, M.; Griffiths, B.

2009-01-01

In ecological impact assessment, special emphasis is put on soil biology and estimating soil quality from the observed biological parameters. The aim of this study is to propose a tool easy to use for scientists and decision makers for agroecosystems soil quality assessment using these biological...... parameters. This tool was developed as a collaboration between ECOGEN (www.ecogen.dk) soil experts and decision analysts. Methodologically, we have addressed this goal using model-based Decision Support Systems (DSS), taking the approach of qualitative multi-attribute modelling. The approach is based...... on developing various hierarchical multiattribute models that consist of qualitative attributes and utility (aggregation) functions, represented by decision rules. The assessment of soil quality is based on two main indicators: (1) soil diversity (assessed through microfauna, mesofauna and macrofauna richness...

Modeling water quality in an urban river using hydrological factors--data driven approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Fi-John; Tsai, Yu-Hsuan; Chen, Pin-An; Coynel, Alexandra; Vachaud, Georges

2015-03-15

Contrasting seasonal variations occur in river flow and water quality as a result of short duration, severe intensity storms and typhoons in Taiwan. Sudden changes in river flow caused by impending extreme events may impose serious degradation on river water quality and fateful impacts on ecosystems. Water quality is measured in a monthly/quarterly scale, and therefore an estimation of water quality in a daily scale would be of good help for timely river pollution management. This study proposes a systematic analysis scheme (SAS) to assess the spatio-temporal interrelation of water quality in an urban river and construct water quality estimation models using two static and one dynamic artificial neural networks (ANNs) coupled with the Gamma test (GT) based on water quality, hydrological and economic data. The Dahan River basin in Taiwan is the study area. Ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) is considered as the representative parameter, a correlative indicator in judging the contamination level over the study. Key factors the most closely related to the representative parameter (NH3-N) are extracted by the Gamma test for modeling NH3-N concentration, and as a result, four hydrological factors (discharge, days w/o discharge, water temperature and rainfall) are identified as model inputs. The modeling results demonstrate that the nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) network furnished with recurrent connections can accurately estimate NH3-N concentration with a very high coefficient of efficiency value (0.926) and a low RMSE value (0.386 mg/l). Besides, the NARX network can suitably catch peak values that mainly occur in dry periods (September-April in the study area), which is particularly important to water pollution treatment. The proposed SAS suggests a promising approach to reliably modeling the spatio-temporal NH3-N concentration based solely on hydrological data, without using water quality sampling data. It is worth noticing that such estimation can be

Explicitly represented polygon wall boundary model for the explicit MPS method

Science.gov (United States)

Mitsume, Naoto; Yoshimura, Shinobu; Murotani, Kohei; Yamada, Tomonori

2015-05-01

This study presents an accurate and robust boundary model, the explicitly represented polygon (ERP) wall boundary model, to treat arbitrarily shaped wall boundaries in the explicit moving particle simulation (E-MPS) method, which is a mesh-free particle method for strong form partial differential equations. The ERP model expresses wall boundaries as polygons, which are explicitly represented without using the distance function. These are derived so that for viscous fluids, and with less computational cost, they satisfy the Neumann boundary condition for the pressure and the slip/no-slip condition on the wall surface. The proposed model is verified and validated by comparing computed results with the theoretical solution, results obtained by other models, and experimental results. Two simulations with complex boundary movements are conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the E-MPS method to the ERP model.

Modeling the Subjective Quality of Highly Contrasted Videos Displayed on LCD With Local Backlight Dimming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mantel, Claire; Bech, Søren; Korhonen, Jari

2015-01-01

Local backlight dimming is a technology aiming at both saving energy and improving visual quality on television sets. As the rendition of the image is specified locally, the numerical signal corresponding to the displayed image needs to be computed through a model of the display. This simulated...... signal can then be used as input to objective quality metrics. The focus of this paper is on determining which characteristics of locally backlit displays influence quality assessment. A subjective experiment assessing the quality of highly contrasted videos displayed with various local backlight......-dimming algorithms is set up. Subjective results are then compared with both objective measures and objective quality metrics using different display models. The first analysis indicates that the most significant objective features are temporal variations, power consumption (probably representing leakage...

[Review on HSPF model for simulation of hydrology and water quality processes].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhao-fu; Liu, Hong-Yu; Li, Yan

2012-07-01

Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF), written in FORTRAN, is one ol the best semi-distributed hydrology and water quality models, which was first developed based on the Stanford Watershed Model. Many studies on HSPF model application were conducted. It can represent the contributions of sediment, nutrients, pesticides, conservatives and fecal coliforms from agricultural areas, continuously simulate water quantity and quality processes, as well as the effects of climate change and land use change on water quantity and quality. HSPF consists of three basic application components: PERLND (Pervious Land Segment) IMPLND (Impervious Land Segment), and RCHRES (free-flowing reach or mixed reservoirs). In general, HSPF has extensive application in the modeling of hydrology or water quality processes and the analysis of climate change and land use change. However, it has limited use in China. The main problems with HSPF include: (1) some algorithms and procedures still need to revise, (2) due to the high standard for input data, the accuracy of the model is limited by spatial and attribute data, (3) the model is only applicable for the simulation of well-mixed rivers, reservoirs and one-dimensional water bodies, it must be integrated with other models to solve more complex problems. At present, studies on HSPF model development are still undergoing, such as revision of model platform, extension of model function, method development for model calibration, and analysis of parameter sensitivity. With the accumulation of basic data and imorovement of data sharing, the HSPF model will be applied more extensively in China.

Application of HEC-RAS water quality model to estimate contaminant spreading in small stream

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Halaj, Peter; Bárek, Viliam; Halajová, Anna Báreková; Halajová, Denisa [Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra (Slovakia)

2013-07-01

The paper presents study of some aspects of HEC-RAS water quality model connected to simulation of contaminant transport in small stream. Authors mainly focused on one of the key tasks in process of pollutant transport modelling in streams - determination of the dispersion characteristics represented by longitudinal dispersion coefficient D. Different theoretical and empirical formulas have been proposed for D value determination and they have revealed that the coefficient is variable parameter that depends on hydraulic and morphometric characteristics of the stream reaches. Authors compare the results of several methods of coefficient D assessment, assuming experimental data obtained by tracer studies and compare them with results optimized by HEC-RAS water quality model. The analyses of tracer study and computation outputs allow us to outline the important aspects of longitudinal dispersion coefficient set up in process of the HEC-RAS model use. Key words: longitudinal dispersion coefficient, HEC-RAS, water quality modeling.

Representing the environment 3.0. Maps, models, networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Letizia Bollini

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Web 3.0 is changing the world we live and perceive the environment anthropomorphized, making a stratifation of levels of experience and mediated by the devices. If the urban landscape is designed, shaped and planned space, there is a social landscape that overwrite the territory of values, representations shared images, narratives of personal and collective history. Mobile technology introduces an additional parameter, a kind of non-place, which allows the coexistence of the here and elsewhere in an sort of digital landscape. The maps, mental models, the system of social networks become, then, the way to present, represented and represent themselves in a kind of ideal coring of the co-presence of levels of physical, cognitive and collective space.

Modeling the leakage of LCD displays with local backlight for quality assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mantel, Claire; Korhonen, Jari; Pedersen, Jesper M.

2014-01-01

The recent technique of local backlight dimming has a significant impact on the quality of images displayed with a LCD screen with LED local dimming. Therefore it represents a necessary step in the quality assessment chain, independently from the other processes applied to images. This paper...... investigates the modeling of one of the major spatial artifacts produced by local dimming: leakage. Leakage appears in dark areas when the backlight level is too high for LC cells to block sufficiently and the final displayed brightness is higher than it should. A subjective quality experiment was run...... on videos displayed on LCD TV with local backlight dimming viewed from a 0° and 15° angles. The subjective results are then compared objective data using different leakage models: constant over the whole display or horizontally varying and three leakage factor (no leakage, measured at 0° and 15...

Higher Education Quality Assessment Model: Towards Achieving Educational Quality Standard

Science.gov (United States)

Noaman, Amin Y.; Ragab, Abdul Hamid M.; Madbouly, Ayman I.; Khedra, Ahmed M.; Fayoumi, Ayman G.

2017-01-01

This paper presents a developed higher education quality assessment model (HEQAM) that can be applied for enhancement of university services. This is because there is no universal unified quality standard model that can be used to assess the quality criteria of higher education institutes. The analytical hierarchy process is used to identify the…

External Validation of the Acoustic Voice Quality Index Version 03.01 With Extended Representativity.

Science.gov (United States)

Barsties, Ben; Maryn, Youri

2016-07-01

The Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) is an objective method to quantify the severity of overall voice quality in concatenated continuous speech and sustained phonation segments. Recently, AVQI was successfully modified to be more representative and ecologically valid because the internal consistency of AVQI was balanced out through equal proportion of the 2 speech types. The present investigation aims to explore its external validation in a large data set. An expert panel of 12 speech-language therapists rated the voice quality of 1058 concatenated voice samples varying from normophonia to severe dysphonia. The Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients (r) were used to measure concurrent validity. The AVQI's diagnostic accuracy was evaluated with several estimates of its receiver operating characteristics (ROC). Finally, 8 of the 12 experts were chosen because of reliability criteria. A strong correlation was identified between AVQI and auditoryperceptual rating (r = 0.815, P = .000). It indicated that 66.4% of the auditory-perceptual rating's variation was explained by AVQI. Additionally, the ROC results showed again the best diagnostic outcome at a threshold of AVQI = 2.43. This study highlights external validation and diagnostic precision of the AVQI version 03.01 as a robust and ecologically valid measurement to objectify voice quality. © The Author(s) 2016.

Experiments with data assimilation in comprehensive air quality models: Impacts on model predictions and observation requirements (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Mathur, R.

2009-12-01

Emerging regional scale atmospheric simulation models must address the increasing complexity arising from new model applications that treat multi-pollutant interactions. Sophisticated air quality modeling systems are needed to develop effective abatement strategies that focus on simultaneously controlling multiple criteria pollutants as well as use in providing short term air quality forecasts. In recent years the applications of such models is continuously being extended to address atmospheric pollution phenomenon from local to hemispheric spatial scales over time scales ranging from episodic to annual. The need to represent interactions between physical and chemical atmospheric processes occurring at these disparate spatial and temporal scales requires the use of observation data beyond traditional in-situ networks so that the model simulations can be reasonably constrained. Preliminary applications of assimilation of remote sensing and aloft observations within a comprehensive regional scale atmospheric chemistry-transport modeling system will be presented: (1) A methodology is developed to assimilate MODIS aerosol optical depths in the model to represent the impacts long-range transport associated with the summer 2004 Alaskan fires on surface-level regional fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations across the Eastern U.S. The episodic impact of this pollution transport event on PM2.5 concentrations over the eastern U.S. during mid-July 2004, is quantified through the complementary use of the model with remotely-sensed, aloft, and surface measurements; (2) Simple nudging experiments with limited aloft measurements are performed to identify uncertainties in model representations of physical processes and assess the potential use of such measurements in improving the predictive capability of atmospheric chemistry-transport models. The results from these early applications will be discussed in context of uncertainties in the model and in the remote sensing

Pediatric health-related quality of life: a structural equation modeling approach.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ester Villalonga-Olives

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: One of the most referenced theoretical frameworks to measure Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL is the Wilson and Cleary framework. With some adaptions this framework has been validated in the adult population, but has not been tested in pediatric populations. Our goal was to empirically investigate it in children. METHODS: The contributory factors to Health Related Quality of Life that we included were symptom status (presence of chronic disease or hospitalizations, functional status (developmental status, developmental aspects of the individual (social-emotional behavior, and characteristics of the social environment (socioeconomic status and area of education. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the measurement structure of the model in 214 German children (3-5 years old participating in a follow-up study that investigates pediatric health outcomes. RESULTS: Model fit was χ2 = 5.5; df = 6; p = 0.48; SRMR  = 0.01. The variance explained of Health Related Quality of Life was 15%. Health Related Quality of Life was affected by the area education (i.e. where kindergartens were located and development status. Developmental status was affected by the area of education, socioeconomic status and individual behavior. Symptoms did not affect the model. CONCLUSIONS: The goodness of fit and the overall variance explained were good. However, the results between children' and adults' tests differed and denote a conceptual gap between adult and children measures. Indeed, there is a lot of variety in pediatric Health Related Quality of Life measures, which represents a lack of a common definition of pediatric Health Related Quality of Life. We recommend that researchers invest time in the development of pediatric Health Related Quality of Life theory and theory based evaluations.

No Reference Video-Quality-Assessment Model for Monitoring Video Quality of IPTV Services

Science.gov (United States)

Yamagishi, Kazuhisa; Okamoto, Jun; Hayashi, Takanori; Takahashi, Akira

Service providers should monitor the quality of experience of a communication service in real time to confirm its status. To do this, we previously proposed a packet-layer model that can be used for monitoring the average video quality of typical Internet protocol television content using parameters derived from transmitted packet headers. However, it is difficult to monitor the video quality per user using the average video quality because video quality depends on the video content. To accurately monitor the video quality per user, a model that can be used for estimating the video quality per video content rather than the average video quality should be developed. Therefore, to take into account the impact of video content on video quality, we propose a model that calculates the difference in video quality between the video quality of the estimation-target video and the average video quality estimated using a packet-layer model. We first conducted extensive subjective quality assessments for different codecs and video sequences. We then model their characteristics based on parameters related to compression and packet loss. Finally, we verify the performance of the proposed model by applying it to unknown data sets different from the training data sets used for developing the model.

Evaluation of the Current State of Integrated Water Quality Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Arhonditsis, G. B.; Wellen, C. C.; Ecological Modelling Laboratory

2010-12-01

Environmental policy and management implementation require robust methods for assessing the contribution of various point and non-point pollution sources to water quality problems as well as methods for estimating the expected and achieved compliance with the water quality goals. Water quality models have been widely used for creating the scientific basis for management decisions by providing a predictive link between restoration actions and ecosystem response. Modelling water quality and nutrient transport is challenging due a number of constraints associated with the input data and existing knowledge gaps related to the mathematical description of landscape and in-stream biogeochemical processes. While enormous effort has been invested to make watershed models process-based and spatially-distributed, there has not been a comprehensive meta-analysis of model credibility in watershed modelling literature. In this study, we evaluate the current state of integrated water quality modeling across the range of temporal and spatial scales typically utilized. We address several common modeling questions by providing a quantitative assessment of model performance and by assessing how model performance depends on model development. The data compiled represent a heterogeneous group of modeling studies, especially with respect to complexity, spatial and temporal scales and model development objectives. Beginning from 1992, the year when Beven and Binley published their seminal paper on uncertainty analysis in hydrological modelling, and ending in 2009, we selected over 150 papers fitting a number of criteria. These criteria involved publications that: (i) employed distributed or semi-distributed modelling approaches; (ii) provided predictions on flow and nutrient concentration state variables; and (iii) reported fit to measured data. Model performance was quantified with the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency, the relative error, and the coefficient of determination. Further, our

Representing macropore flow at the catchment scale: a comparative modeling study

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, D.; Li, H. Y.; Tian, F.; Leung, L. R.

2017-12-01

Macropore flow is an important hydrological process that generally enhances the soil infiltration capacity and velocity of subsurface water. Up till now, macropore flow is mostly simulated with high-resolution models. One possible drawback of this modeling approach is the difficulty to effectively represent the overall typology and connectivity of the macropore networks. We hypothesize that modeling macropore flow directly at the catchment scale may be complementary to the existing modeling strategy and offer some new insights. Tsinghua Representative Elementary Watershed model (THREW model) is a semi-distributed hydrology model, where the fundamental building blocks are representative elementary watersheds (REW) linked by the river channel network. In THREW, all the hydrological processes are described with constitutive relationships established directly at the REW level, i.e., catchment scale. In this study, the constitutive relationship of macropore flow drainage is established as part of THREW. The enhanced THREW model is then applied at two catchments with deep soils but distinct climates, the humid Asu catchment in the Amazon River basin, and the arid Wei catchment in the Yellow River basin. The Asu catchment has an area of 12.43km2 with mean annual precipitation of 2442mm. The larger Wei catchment has an area of 24800km2 but with mean annual precipitation of only 512mm. The rainfall-runoff processes are simulated at a hourly time step from 2002 to 2005 in the Asu catchment and from 2001 to 2012 in the Wei catchment. The role of macropore flow on the catchment hydrology will be analyzed comparatively over the Asu and Wei catchments against the observed streamflow, evapotranspiration and other auxiliary data.

The Influence of Syntactic Quality on Pragmatic Quality of Enterprise Process Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merethe Heggset

2015-12-01

Full Text Available As approaches and tools for process and enterprise modelling are maturing, these techniques are being taken into use on a large scale in an increasing number of organizations. In this paper we report on the use of process modelling in connection to the quality system of Statoil, a large Norwegian oil company, in particular, on the aspects found necessary to be emphasized to achieve the appropriate quality of the models in this organization. Based on the investigation of usage statistics and user feedback on models, we have identified that there are problems in comprehending some of the models. Some of these models has poorer syntactic quality than the average syntactic quality of models of the same size. An experiment with improving syntactic quality on some of these models has given mixed results, and it appears that certain syntactic errors hinder comprehension more than others.

A constitutive model for representing coupled creep, fracture, and healing in rock salt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chan, K.S.; Bodner, S.R.; Munson, D.E.; Fossum, A.F.

1996-01-01

The development of a constitutive model for representing inelastic flow due to coupled creep, damage, and healing in rock salt is present in this paper. This model, referred to as Multimechanism Deformation Coupled Fracture model, has been formulated by considering individual mechanisms that include dislocation creep, shear damage, tensile damage, and damage healing. Applications of the model to representing the inelastic flow and fracture behavior of WIPP salt subjected to creep, quasi-static loading, and damage healing conditions are illustrated with comparisons of model calculations against experimental creep curves, stress-strain curves, strain recovery curves, time-to-rupture data, and fracture mechanism maps

Air quality dispersion models from energy sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lazarevska, Ana

1996-01-01

Along with the continuing development of new air quality models that cover more complex problems, in the Clean Air Act, legislated by the US Congress, a consistency and standardization of air quality model applications were encouraged. As a result, the Guidelines on Air Quality Models were published, which are regularly reviewed by the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, EPA. These guidelines provide a basis for estimating the air quality concentrations used in accessing control strategies as well as defining emission limits. This paper presents a review and analysis of the recent versions of the models: Simple Terrain Stationary Source Model; Complex Terrain Dispersion Model; Ozone,Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Dioxide Models; Long Range Transport Model; Other phenomenon Models:Fugitive Dust/Fugitive Emissions, Particulate Matter, Lead, Air Pathway Analyses - Air Toxic as well as Hazardous Waste. 8 refs., 4 tabs., 2 ills

Algorithms to analyze the quality test parameter values of seafood in the proposed ontology based seafood quality analyzer and miner (ONTO SQAM model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vinu Sherimon

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Ensuring the quality of food, particularly seafood has increasingly become an important issue nowadays. Quality Management Systems empower any organization to identify, measure, control and improve the quality of the products manufactured that will eventually lead to improved business performance. With the advent of new technologies, now intelligent systems are being developed. To ensure the quality of seafood, an ontology based seafood quality analyzer and miner (ONTO SQAM model is proposed. The knowledge is represented using ontology. The domain concepts are defined using ontology. This paper presents the initial part of the proposed model – the analysis of quality test parameter values. Two algorithms are proposed to do the analysis – Comparison Algorithm and Data Store Updater algorithm. The algorithms ensure that the values of various quality tests are in the acceptable range. The real data sets taken from different seafood companies in Kerala, India, and validated by the Marine Product Export Development Authority of India (MPEDA are used for the experiments. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated using standard performance metrics such as precision, recall, and accuracy. The results obtained show that all the three measures achieved good results.

Study on Software Quality Improvement based on Rayleigh Model and PDCA Model

OpenAIRE

Ning Jingfeng; Hu Ming

2013-01-01

As the software industry gradually becomes mature, software quality is regarded as the life of a software enterprise. This article discusses how to improve the quality of software, applies Rayleigh model and PDCA model to the software quality management, combines with the defect removal effectiveness index, exerts PDCA model to solve the problem of quality management objectives when using the Rayleigh model in bidirectional quality improvement strategies of software quality management, a...

Spatial data quality and coastal spill modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Y.; Brimicombe, A.J.; Ralphs, M.P.

1998-01-01

Issues of spatial data quality are central to the whole oil spill modelling process. Both model and data quality performance issues should be considered as indispensable parts of a complete oil spill model specification and testing procedure. This paper presents initial results of research that will emphasise to modeler and manager alike the practical issues of spatial data quality for coastal oil spill modelling. It is centred around a case study of Jiao Zhou Bay in the People's Republic of China. The implications for coastal oil spill modelling are discussed and some strategies for managing the effects of spatial data quality in the outputs of oil spill modelling are explored. (author)

Combining 3d Volume and Mesh Models for Representing Complicated Heritage Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, F.; Chang, H.; Lin, Y.-W.

2017-08-01

This study developed a simple but effective strategy to combine 3D volume and mesh models for representing complicated heritage buildings and structures. The idea is to seamlessly integrate 3D parametric or polyhedral models and mesh-based digital surfaces to generate a hybrid 3D model that can take advantages of both modeling methods. The proposed hybrid model generation framework is separated into three phases. Firstly, after acquiring or generating 3D point clouds of the target, these 3D points are partitioned into different groups. Secondly, a parametric or polyhedral model of each group is generated based on plane and surface fitting algorithms to represent the basic structure of that region. A "bare-bones" model of the target can subsequently be constructed by connecting all 3D volume element models. In the third phase, the constructed bare-bones model is used as a mask to remove points enclosed by the bare-bones model from the original point clouds. The remaining points are then connected to form 3D surface mesh patches. The boundary points of each surface patch are identified and these boundary points are projected onto the surfaces of the bare-bones model. Finally, new meshes are created to connect the projected points and original mesh boundaries to integrate the mesh surfaces with the 3D volume model. The proposed method was applied to an open-source point cloud data set and point clouds of a local historical structure. Preliminary results indicated that the reconstructed hybrid models using the proposed method can retain both fundamental 3D volume characteristics and accurate geometric appearance with fine details. The reconstructed hybrid models can also be used to represent targets in different levels of detail according to user and system requirements in different applications.

Analysis of Mental Processes Represented in Models of Artificial Consciousness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luana Folchini da Costa

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The Artificial Consciousness concept has been used in the engineering area as being an evolution of the Artificial Intelligence. However, consciousness is a complex subject and often used without formalism. As a main contribution, in this work one proposes an analysis of four recent models of artificial consciousness published in the engineering area. The mental processes represented by these models are highlighted and correlations with the theoretical perspective of cognitive psychology are made. Finally, considerations about consciousness in such models are discussed.

Can Geostatistical Models Represent Nature's Variability? An Analysis Using Flume Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Scheidt, C.; Fernandes, A. M.; Paola, C.; Caers, J.

2015-12-01

The lack of understanding in the Earth's geological and physical processes governing sediment deposition render subsurface modeling subject to large uncertainty. Geostatistics is often used to model uncertainty because of its capability to stochastically generate spatially varying realizations of the subsurface. These methods can generate a range of realizations of a given pattern - but how representative are these of the full natural variability? And how can we identify the minimum set of images that represent this natural variability? Here we use this minimum set to define the geostatistical prior model: a set of training images that represent the range of patterns generated by autogenic variability in the sedimentary environment under study. The proper definition of the prior model is essential in capturing the variability of the depositional patterns. This work starts with a set of overhead images from an experimental basin that showed ongoing autogenic variability. We use the images to analyze the essential characteristics of this suite of patterns. In particular, our goal is to define a prior model (a minimal set of selected training images) such that geostatistical algorithms, when applied to this set, can reproduce the full measured variability. A necessary prerequisite is to define a measure of variability. In this study, we measure variability using a dissimilarity distance between the images. The distance indicates whether two snapshots contain similar depositional patterns. To reproduce the variability in the images, we apply an MPS algorithm to the set of selected snapshots of the sedimentary basin that serve as training images. The training images are chosen from among the initial set by using the distance measure to ensure that only dissimilar images are chosen. Preliminary investigations show that MPS can reproduce fairly accurately the natural variability of the experimental depositional system. Furthermore, the selected training images provide

Representative Model of the Learning Process in Virtual Spaces Supported by ICT

Science.gov (United States)

Capacho, José

2014-01-01

This paper shows the results of research activities for building the representative model of the learning process in virtual spaces (e-Learning). The formal basis of the model are supported in the analysis of models of learning assessment in virtual spaces and specifically in Dembo´s teaching learning model, the systemic approach to evaluating…

A review of hydrological/water-quality models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liangliang GAO,Daoliang LI

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Water quality models are important in predicting the changes in surface water quality for environmental management. A range of water quality models are wildly used, but every model has its advantages and limitations for specific situations. The aim of this review is to provide a guide to researcher for selecting a suitable water quality model. Eight well known water quality models were selected for this review: SWAT, WASP, QUALs, MIKE 11, HSPF, CE-QUAL-W2, ELCOM-CAEDYM and EFDC. Each model is described according to its intended use, development, simulation elements, basic principles and applicability (e.g., for rivers, lakes, and reservoirs and estuaries. Currently, the most important trends for future model development are: (1 combination models─individual models cannot completely solve the complex situations so combined models are needed to obtain the most appropriate results, (2 application of artificial intelligence and mechanistic models combined with non-mechanistic models will provide more accurate results because of the realistic parameters derived from non-mechanistic models, and (3 integration with remote sensing, geographical information and global position systems (3S ─3S can solve problems requiring large amounts of data.

Air quality model guideline

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Idriss, A.; Spurrell, F.

2009-06-01

Alberta Environment has developed a guidelines for operations and proposed operations that require approvals under the province's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or that operate under a code of practice for emissions to the atmosphere. In an effort to ensure consistency in the use of dispersion models for regulatory applications in Alberta, this document provided detailed guidance on suitable methods and approaches that should be employed to assess air quality from emission sources, specifically, information required to demonstrate that a source meets the Alberta ambient air quality objectives. The document outlined the statutory authority and provided an overview of the approach. It provided detailed advice on the types and uses of dispersion models with particular reference to the modelling protocol, input data, and output interpretation. Guidance on the application of regulatory models were also presented. Various models were described and their intended uses were explained. Internet addresses for different modelling resources were also offered. Last, some information about regional modelling in the province of Alberta was discussed. 40 refs., 4 tabs., 7 figs., 3 appendices.

Quality assessment for radiological model parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Funtowicz, S.O.

1989-01-01

A prototype framework for representing uncertainties in radiological model parameters is introduced. This follows earlier development in this journal of a corresponding framework for representing uncertainties in radiological data. Refinements and extensions to the earlier framework are needed in order to take account of the additional contextual factors consequent on using data entries to quantify model parameters. The parameter coding can in turn feed in to methods for evaluating uncertainties in calculated model outputs. (author)

Towards an integrated model of floodplain hydrology representing feedbacks and anthropogenic effects

Science.gov (United States)

Andreadis, K.; Schumann, G.; Voisin, N.; O'Loughlin, F.; Tesfa, T. K.; Bates, P.

2017-12-01

The exchange of water between hillslopes, river channels and floodplain can be quite complex and the difficulty in capturing the mechanisms behind it is exacerbated by the impact of human activities such as irrigation and reservoir operations. Although there has been a vast body of work on modeling hydrological processes, most of the resulting models have been limited with regards to aspects of the coupled human-natural system. For example, hydrologic models that represent processes such as evapotranspiration, infiltration, interception and groundwater dynamics often neglect anthropogenic effects or do not adequately represent the inherently two-dimensional floodplain flow. We present an integrated modeling framework that is comprised of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrology model, the LISFLOOD-FP hydrodynamic model, and the Water resources Management (WM) model. The VIC model solves the energy and water balance over a gridded domain and simulates a number of hydrologic features such as snow, frozen soils, lakes and wetlands, while also representing irrigation demand from cropland areas. LISFLOOD-FP solves an approximation of the Saint-Venant equations to efficiently simulate flow in river channels and the floodplain. The implementation of WM accommodates a variety of operating rules in reservoirs and withdrawals due to consumptive demands, allowing the successful simulation of regulated flow. The models are coupled so as to allow feedbacks between their corresponding processes, therefore providing the ability to test different hypotheses about the floodplain hydrology of large-scale basins. We test this integrated framework over the Zambezi River basin by simulating its hydrology from 2000-2010, and evaluate the results against remotely sensed observations. Finally, we examine the sensitivity of streamflow and water inundation to changes in reservoir operations, precipitation and temperature.

Environmental quality model in centralised radiopharmacy units: Guidelines from French Society of Radiopharmacy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruel, D.; Duez, C.; Ebel-Lao, S.; Garrigue, H.; Le Meur, C.

2011-01-01

The preparation of radiopharmaceutical drugs refers to the assessment of both pharmaceutical drugs and radionuclides preparations regulations. It should avoid microbiological contamination while ensuring staff as well as environmental protection from radioactive exposure. Therefore, in order to warranty sterility of injected doses, the environmental quality, specifically units indoor air quality and surfaces quality must be guaranteed. The aim of this work is to propose guidelines pertaining to environmental quality monitoring in the special field of radiopharmacy. These propositions are based on available guidances, including regulations, treating about methodology to apply for evaluation and control of hospital's environment. Throughout this report, the French College of Radiopharmacy proposals both improve the methodology for control and data analysis (targeted grade of environment, threshold for notification and corrective actions) and ensure follow-up and management of nonconformities. These recommendations represent a model for harmonization of radio-pharmacists practices with regards to frequency of environmental quality controls for facilities and equipments in their centralised radiopharmacy units. (authors)

STREAMFLOW AND WATER QUALITY REGRESSION MODELING ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... downstream Obigbo station show: consistent time-trends in degree of contamination; linear and non-linear relationships for water quality models against total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended sediment (TSS), chloride, pH and sulphate; and non-linear relationship for streamflow and water quality transport models.

Testing the validity of a Cd soil quality standard in representative Mediterranean agricultural soils under an accumulator crop

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Recatala, L.; Sanchez, J.; Arbelo, C.; Sacristan, D.

2010-01-01

The validity of a quality standard for cadmium (Cd) in representative agricultural Mediterranean soils under an accumulator crop (Lactuca sativa L.) is evaluated in this work considering both its effect on the crop growth (biomass production) and the metal accumulation in the edible part of the plant. Four soils with different properties relevant to regulate the behaviour of heavy metals were selected from the Valencian Region, a representative area of the European Mediterranean Region. For all soils, the effective concentration of added Cd causing 50% inhibition (EC 50 ) on the biomass production was much higher than the minimum legal concentration used to declare soils as contaminated by cadmium, i.e. 100 times the baseline value for Cd, in Spain (Spanish Royal Decree 9/2005). As expected, Cd toxicity in the crop was higher in the soils having less carbonate content. On the other hand, for all soils, from the second dose on, which represents 10-times the baseline value for Cd, the metal content in crops exceeded the maximum level established for leaf crops by the European legislation (Regulation EC no. 466/2001). Soil salinity and coarse textures make the accumulation of Cd in the edible part of the plant easier. Therefore, the legal baseline soil cadmium content established by the Spanish legislation seems not valid neither from the point of view of the effect on the crop growth nor from the point of view of the metal accumulation in the edible part of the plant. In order to realistically declare contaminated soils by heavy metals, soil quality standards should be proposed taking into account the soil properties. Further research in other agricultural areas of the region would improve the basis for proposing adequate soil quality standards for heavy metals as highlighted by the European Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.

Testing the validity of a Cd soil quality standard in representative Mediterranean agricultural soils under an accumulator crop

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Recatala, L., E-mail: luis.recatala@uv.es [Departamento de Planificacion Territorial, Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificacion-CIDE (CSIC-Universitat de Valencia-Generalitat Valenciana), Cami de la Marjal S/N, 46470 Albal (Valencia) (Spain); Sanchez, J. [Departamento de Planificacion Territorial, Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificacion-CIDE (CSIC-Universitat de Valencia-Generalitat Valenciana), Cami de la Marjal S/N, 46470 Albal (Valencia) (Spain); Arbelo, C. [Departamento de Edafologia y Geologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 La Laguna (Tenerife), Islas Canarias (Spain); Sacristan, D. [Departamento de Planificacion Territorial, Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificacion-CIDE (CSIC-Universitat de Valencia-Generalitat Valenciana), Cami de la Marjal S/N, 46470 Albal (Valencia) (Spain)

2010-12-01

The validity of a quality standard for cadmium (Cd) in representative agricultural Mediterranean soils under an accumulator crop (Lactuca sativa L.) is evaluated in this work considering both its effect on the crop growth (biomass production) and the metal accumulation in the edible part of the plant. Four soils with different properties relevant to regulate the behaviour of heavy metals were selected from the Valencian Region, a representative area of the European Mediterranean Region. For all soils, the effective concentration of added Cd causing 50% inhibition (EC{sub 50}) on the biomass production was much higher than the minimum legal concentration used to declare soils as contaminated by cadmium, i.e. 100 times the baseline value for Cd, in Spain (Spanish Royal Decree 9/2005). As expected, Cd toxicity in the crop was higher in the soils having less carbonate content. On the other hand, for all soils, from the second dose on, which represents 10-times the baseline value for Cd, the metal content in crops exceeded the maximum level established for leaf crops by the European legislation (Regulation EC no. 466/2001). Soil salinity and coarse textures make the accumulation of Cd in the edible part of the plant easier. Therefore, the legal baseline soil cadmium content established by the Spanish legislation seems not valid neither from the point of view of the effect on the crop growth nor from the point of view of the metal accumulation in the edible part of the plant. In order to realistically declare contaminated soils by heavy metals, soil quality standards should be proposed taking into account the soil properties. Further research in other agricultural areas of the region would improve the basis for proposing adequate soil quality standards for heavy metals as highlighted by the European Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.

Quality Systems. A Thermodynamics-Related Interpretive Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefano A. Lollai

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In the present paper, a Quality Systems Theory is presented. Certifiable Quality Systems are treated and interpreted in accordance with a Thermodynamics-based approach. Analysis is also conducted on the relationship between Quality Management Systems (QMSs and systems theories. A measure of entropy is proposed for QMSs, including a virtual document entropy and an entropy linked to processes and organisation. QMSs are also interpreted in light of Cybernetics, and interrelations between Information Theory and quality are also highlighted. A measure for the information content of quality documents is proposed. Such parameters can be used as adequacy indices for QMSs. From the discussed approach, suggestions for organising QMSs are also derived. Further interpretive thermodynamic-based criteria for QMSs are also proposed. The work represents the first attempt to treat quality organisational systems according to a thermodynamics-related approach. At this stage, no data are available to compare statements in the paper.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Subjective Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazaheri, Mehrdad

2011-01-01

In Order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling. Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55) and healthy (N=48). To assess satisfaction and negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress among the participants, they were asked to fill out the WHOQOL-BREF and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42). Our findings on running the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the proposed model of QOL-DASS fitted the data well for the both healthy and unhealthy groups. Our findings with CFA to evaluate the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the different satisfaction domain ratings and the negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress as the observed variables can represent the underlying constructs of general health and quality of life on both healthy and unhealthy groups.

The QOL-DASS Model to Estimate Overall Quality of Life and General Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehrdad Mazaheri

2011-01-01

Full Text Available "n Objective: In order to find how rating the WHOQOL-BREF and DASS scales are combined to produce an overall measure of quality of life and satisfaction with health rating, a QOL-DASS model was designed ; and the strength of this hypothesized model was examined using the structural equation modeling "n "nMethod: Participants included a sample of 103 voluntary males who were divided into two groups of unhealthy (N=55 and healthy (N=48. To assess satisfaction and negative  emotions of depression, anxiety and stress among the participants, they were asked to fill out the WHOQOLBREF and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42. "nResults: Our findings on running the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the proposed model of QOL-DASS fitted the data well for the both healthy and unhealthy groups "nConclusion: Our findings with CFA to evaluate the hypothesized model of QOL-DASS indicated that the different satisfaction domain ratings and the negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress as the observed variables can represent the underlying constructs of general health and quality of life on both healthy and unhealthy groups.

Integrated modeling of software cost and quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rone, K.Y.; Olson, K.M.

1994-01-01

In modeling the cost and quality of software systems, the relationship between cost and quality must be considered. This explicit relationship is dictated by the criticality of the software being developed. The balance between cost and quality is a viable software engineering trade-off throughout the life cycle. Therefore, the ability to accurately estimate the cost and quality of software systems is essential to providing reliable software on time and within budget. Software cost models relate the product error rate to the percent of the project labor that is required for independent verification and validation. The criticality of the software determines which cost model is used to estimate the labor required to develop the software. Software quality models yield an expected error discovery rate based on the software size, criticality, software development environment, and the level of competence of the project and the developers with respect to the processes being employed

The EDEN-IW ontology model for sharing knowledge and water quality data between heterogenous databases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stjernholm, M.; Poslad, S.; Zuo, L.

2004-01-01

The Environmental Data Exchange Network for Inland Water (EDEN-IW) project's main aim is to develop a system for making disparate and heterogeneous databases of Inland Water quality more accessible to users. The core technology is based upon a combination of: ontological model to represent...... a Semantic Web based data model for IW; software agents as an infrastructure to share and reason about the IW se-mantic data model and XML to make the information accessible to Web portals and mainstream Web services. This presentation focuses on the Semantic Web or Onto-logical model. Currently, we have...

Model quality and safety studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, K.E.

1997-01-01

The paper describes the EC initiative on model quality assessment and emphasizes some of the problems encountered in the selection of data from field tests used in the evaluation process. Further, it discusses the impact of model uncertainties in safety studies of industrial plants. The model...... that most of these have never been through a procedure of evaluation, but nonetheless are used to assist in making decisions that may directly affect the safety of the public and the environment. As a major funder of European research on major industrial hazards, DGXII is conscious of the importance......-tain model is appropriate for use in solving a given problem. Further, the findings from the REDIPHEM project related to dense gas dispersion will be highlighted. Finally, the paper will discuss the need for model quality assessment in safety studies....

Three dimensional modelling of customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty for measuring quality of service

OpenAIRE

Pezeshki, Vahid

2009-01-01

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University. The aim of this thesis is to propose a model that explains the relationship between customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty based on service quality attributes. The three elements of satisfaction, retention and loyalty towards products represent ongoing challenges for the corporate financial performance. Customer behaviour analysis (known as business intelligence or customer relationship...

Measures of Quality in Business Process Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radek Hronza

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Business process modelling and analysing is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of Applied (Business Informatics. Quality of business process models (diagrams is crucial for any purpose in this area. The goal of a process analyst’s work is to create generally understandable, explicit and error free models. If a process is properly described, created models can be used as an input into deep analysis and optimization. It can be assumed that properly designed business process models (similarly as in the case of correctly written algorithms contain characteristics that can be mathematically described. Besides it will be possible to create a tool that will help process analysts to design proper models. As part of this review will be conducted systematic literature review in order to find and analyse business process model’s design and business process model’s quality measures. It was found that mentioned area had already been the subject of research investigation in the past. Thirty-three suitable scietific publications and twenty-two quality measures were found. Analysed scientific publications and existing quality measures do not reflect all important attributes of business process model’s clarity, simplicity and completeness. Therefore it would be appropriate to add new measures of quality.

Emissions inventories for urban airshed model application in the Philadelphia Aqcr (Air Quality Control Region)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1982-04-01

This report documents the procedures used to develop emissions input required by the Urban Airshed photochemical oxidant model. Ambient air quality data were gathered as part of another effort during the summer of 1979 in Philadelphia to be used in the model validation effort. For 1979 and the 1987 projection year, ES compiled hour by hour emissions data for a representative weekday in the oxidant season. The pollutants inventoried are five categories of VOC required by the Airshed model, four categories of VOC defined in RAPS, NO, NO2, CO, SO2, and TSP. Point and area sources were considered with the highway vehicle portion of the inventory being subcontracted to DVRPC. County level area source data were allocated to a 502-cell grid system. Projections were made so that ozone air quality in 1987 could be investigated. ES developed annualized EIS/PandR data and data files containing temporal and VOC/NOx profiles in order to generate the data packets required by the Airshed model.

Labour Quality Model for Organic Farming Food Chains

OpenAIRE

Gassner, B.; Freyer, B.; Leitner, H.

2008-01-01

The debate on labour quality in science is controversial as well as in the organic agriculture community. Therefore, we reviewed literature on different labour quality models and definitions, and had key informant interviews on labour quality issues with stakeholders in a regional oriented organic agriculture bread food chain. We developed a labour quality model with nine quality categories and discussed linkages to labour satisfaction, ethical values and IFOAM principles.

Effects of Meteorological Data Quality on Snowpack Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Havens, S.; Marks, D. G.; Robertson, M.; Hedrick, A. R.; Johnson, M.

2017-12-01

Detailed quality control of meteorological inputs is the most time-intensive component of running the distributed, physically-based iSnobal snow model, and the effect of data quality of the inputs on the model is unknown. The iSnobal model has been run operationally since WY2013, and is currently run in several basins in Idaho and California. The largest amount of user input during modeling is for the quality control of precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and wind direction inputs. Precipitation inputs require detailed user input and are crucial to correctly model the snowpack mass. This research applies a range of quality control methods to meteorological input, from raw input with minimal cleaning, to complete user-applied quality control. The meteorological input cleaning generally falls into two categories. The first is global minimum/maximum and missing value correction that could be corrected and/or interpolated with automated processing. The second category is quality control for inputs that are not globally erroneous, yet are still unreasonable and generally indicate malfunctioning measurement equipment, such as temperature or relative humidity that remains constant, or does not correlate with daily trends observed at nearby stations. This research will determine how sensitive model outputs are to different levels of quality control and guide future operational applications.

Parametric packet-based audiovisual quality model for IPTV services

CERN Document Server

Garcia, Marie-Neige

2014-01-01

This volume presents a parametric packet-based audiovisual quality model for Internet Protocol TeleVision (IPTV) services. The model is composed of three quality modules for the respective audio, video and audiovisual components. The audio and video quality modules take as input a parametric description of the audiovisual processing path, and deliver an estimate of the audio and video quality. These outputs are sent to the audiovisual quality module which provides an estimate of the audiovisual quality. Estimates of perceived quality are typically used both in the network planning phase and as part of the quality monitoring. The same audio quality model is used for both these phases, while two variants of the video quality model have been developed for addressing the two application scenarios. The addressed packetization scheme is MPEG2 Transport Stream over Real-time Transport Protocol over Internet Protocol. In the case of quality monitoring, that is the case for which the network is already set-up, the aud...

Metrics for analyzing the quality of model transformations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Amstel, van M.F.; Lange, C.F.J.; Brand, van den M.G.J.; Falcone, G.; Guéhéneuc, Y.G.; Lange, C.F.J.; Porkoláb, Z.; Sahraoui, H.A.

2008-01-01

Model transformations become increasingly important with the emergence of model driven engineering of, amongst others, objectoriented software systems. It is therefore necessary to define and evaluate the quality of model transformations. The goal of our research is to make the quality of model

Local and regional minimum 1D models for earthquake location and data quality assessment in complex tectonic regions: application to Switzerland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Husen, S.; Clinton, J. F.; Kissling, E.

2011-01-01

One-dimensional (1D) velocity models are still widely used for computing earthquake locations at seismological centers or in regions where three-dimensional (3D) velocity models are not available due to the lack of data of sufficiently high quality. The concept of the minimum 1D model with appropriate station corrections provides a framework to compute initial hypocenter locations and seismic velocities for local earthquake tomography. Since a minimum 1D model represents a solution to the coupled hypocenter-velocity problem it also represents a suitable velocity model for earthquake location and data quality assessment, such as evaluating the consistency in assigning pre-defined weighting classes and average picking error. Nevertheless, the use of a simple 1D velocity structure in combination with station delays raises the question of how appropriate the minimum 1D model concept is when applied to complex tectonic regions with significant three-dimensional (3D) variations in seismic velocities. In this study we compute one regional minimum 1D model and three local minimum 1D models for selected subregions of the Swiss Alpine region, which exhibits a strongly varying Moho topography. We compare the regional and local minimum 1D models in terms of earthquake locations and data quality assessment to measure their performance. Our results show that the local minimum 1D models provide more realistic hypocenter locations and better data fits than a single model for the Alpine region. We attribute this to the fact that in a local minimum 1D model local and regional effects of the velocity structure can be better separated. Consequently, in tectonically complex regions, minimum 1D models should be computed in sub-regions defined by similar structure, if they are used for earthquake location and data quality assessment. (authors)

Local and regional minimum 1D models for earthquake location and data quality assessment in complex tectonic regions: application to Switzerland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Husen, S.; Clinton, J. F. [Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zuerich, Zuerich (Switzerland); Kissling, E. [Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zuerich, Zuerich (Switzerland)

2011-10-15

One-dimensional (1D) velocity models are still widely used for computing earthquake locations at seismological centers or in regions where three-dimensional (3D) velocity models are not available due to the lack of data of sufficiently high quality. The concept of the minimum 1D model with appropriate station corrections provides a framework to compute initial hypocenter locations and seismic velocities for local earthquake tomography. Since a minimum 1D model represents a solution to the coupled hypocenter-velocity problem it also represents a suitable velocity model for earthquake location and data quality assessment, such as evaluating the consistency in assigning pre-defined weighting classes and average picking error. Nevertheless, the use of a simple 1D velocity structure in combination with station delays raises the question of how appropriate the minimum 1D model concept is when applied to complex tectonic regions with significant three-dimensional (3D) variations in seismic velocities. In this study we compute one regional minimum 1D model and three local minimum 1D models for selected subregions of the Swiss Alpine region, which exhibits a strongly varying Moho topography. We compare the regional and local minimum 1D models in terms of earthquake locations and data quality assessment to measure their performance. Our results show that the local minimum 1D models provide more realistic hypocenter locations and better data fits than a single model for the Alpine region. We attribute this to the fact that in a local minimum 1D model local and regional effects of the velocity structure can be better separated. Consequently, in tectonically complex regions, minimum 1D models should be computed in sub-regions defined by similar structure, if they are used for earthquake location and data quality assessment. (authors)

Perceived Service Quality models: Are They Still Relevant?

OpenAIRE

Polyakova, Olga; Mirza, Mohammed T.

2015-01-01

This paper reviews the concept of perceived service quality and provides an update to the body of service quality knowledge. It consolidates the pathway of perceived service quality concept, from its emergence to the research model’s development. It also critically reviews service characteristics as prerequisites of perceived service quality conceptualisation. The examination of six perceived service quality models is intended to identify a superior model that could be used by further researc...

A water quality index model using stepwise regression and neural networks models for the Piabanha River basin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Villas Boas, M. D.; Olivera, F.; Azevedo, J. S.

2013-12-01

The evaluation of water quality through 'indexes' is widely used in environmental sciences. There are a number of methods available for calculating water quality indexes (WQI), usually based on site-specific parameters. In Brazil, WQI were initially used in the 1970s and were adapted from the methodology developed in association with the National Science Foundation (Brown et al, 1970). Specifically, the WQI 'IQA/SCQA', developed by the Institute of Water Management of Minas Gerais (IGAM), is estimated based on nine parameters: Temperature Range, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Fecal Coliforms, Nitrate, Phosphate, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, pH and Electrical Conductivity. The goal of this study was to develop a model for calculating the IQA/SCQA, for the Piabanha River basin in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), using only the parameters measurable by a Multiparameter Water Quality Sonde (MWQS) available in the study area. These parameters are: Dissolved Oxygen, pH and Electrical Conductivity. The use of this model will allow to further the water quality monitoring network in the basin, without requiring significant increases of resources. The water quality measurement with MWQS is less expensive than the laboratory analysis required for the other parameters. The water quality data used in the study were obtained by the Geological Survey of Brazil in partnership with other public institutions (i.e. universities and environmental institutes) as part of the project "Integrated Studies in Experimental and Representative Watersheds". Two models were developed to correlate the values of the three measured parameters and the IQA/SCQA values calculated based on all nine parameters. The results were evaluated according to the following validation statistics: coefficient of determination (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Final Prediction Error (FPE). The first model was a linear stepwise regression between three independent variables

A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF SOFTWARE QUALITY MODELS

OpenAIRE

Dr.Vilas. M. Thakare; Ashwin B. Tomar

2011-01-01

This paper aims to provide a basis for software quality model research, through a systematic study ofpapers. It identifies nearly seventy software quality research papers from journals and classifies paper asper research topic, estimation approach, study context and data set. The paper results combined withother knowledge provides support for recommendations in future software quality model research, toincrease the area of search for relevant studies, carefully select the papers within a set ...

Recurrent and Dynamic Models for Predicting Streaming Video Quality of Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Bampis, Christos G; Li, Zhi; Katsavounidis, Ioannis; Bovik, Alan C

2018-07-01

Streaming video services represent a very large fraction of global bandwidth consumption. Due to the exploding demands of mobile video streaming services, coupled with limited bandwidth availability, video streams are often transmitted through unreliable, low-bandwidth networks. This unavoidably leads to two types of major streaming-related impairments: compression artifacts and/or rebuffering events. In streaming video applications, the end-user is a human observer; hence being able to predict the subjective Quality of Experience (QoE) associated with streamed videos could lead to the creation of perceptually optimized resource allocation strategies driving higher quality video streaming services. We propose a variety of recurrent dynamic neural networks that conduct continuous-time subjective QoE prediction. By formulating the problem as one of time-series forecasting, we train a variety of recurrent neural networks and non-linear autoregressive models to predict QoE using several recently developed subjective QoE databases. These models combine multiple, diverse neural network inputs, such as predicted video quality scores, rebuffering measurements, and data related to memory and its effects on human behavioral responses, using them to predict QoE on video streams impaired by both compression artifacts and rebuffering events. Instead of finding a single time-series prediction model, we propose and evaluate ways of aggregating different models into a forecasting ensemble that delivers improved results with reduced forecasting variance. We also deploy appropriate new evaluation metrics for comparing time-series predictions in streaming applications. Our experimental results demonstrate improved prediction performance that approaches human performance. An implementation of this work can be found at https://github.com/christosbampis/NARX_QoE_release.

Quality improvement in healthcare delivery utilizing the patient-centered medical home model.

Science.gov (United States)

Akinci, Fevzi; Patel, Poonam M

2014-01-01

Despite the fact that the United States dedicates so much of its resources to healthcare, the current healthcare delivery system still faces significant quality challenges. The lack of effective communication and coordination of care services across the continuum of care poses disadvantages for those requiring long-term management of their chronic conditions. This is why the new transformation in healthcare known as the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) can help restore confidence in our population that the healthcare services they receive is of the utmost quality and will effectively enhance their quality of life. Healthcare using the PCMH model is delivered with the patient at the center of the transformation and by reinvigorating primary care. The PCMH model strives to deliver effective quality care while attempting to reduce costs. In order to relieve some of our healthcare system distresses, organizations can modify their delivery of care to be patient centered. Enhanced coordination of services, better provider access, self-management, and a team-based approach to care represent some of the key principles of the PCMH model. Patients that can most benefit are those that require long-term management of their conditions such as chronic disease and behavioral health patient populations. The PCMH is a feasible option for delivery reform as pilot studies have documented successful outcomes. Controversy about the lack of a medical neighborhood has created concern about the overall sustainability of the medical home. The medical home can stand independently and continuously provide enhanced care services as a movement toward higher quality care while organizations and government policy assess what types of incentives to put into place for the full collaboration and coordination of care in the healthcare system.

Evaluation of model quality predictions in CASP9

KAUST Repository

Kryshtafovych, Andriy

2011-01-01

CASP has been assessing the state of the art in the a priori estimation of accuracy of protein structure prediction since 2006. The inclusion of model quality assessment category in CASP contributed to a rapid development of methods in this area. In the last experiment, 46 quality assessment groups tested their approaches to estimate the accuracy of protein models as a whole and/or on a per-residue basis. We assessed the performance of these methods predominantly on the basis of the correlation between the predicted and observed quality of the models on both global and local scales. The ability of the methods to identify the models closest to the best one, to differentiate between good and bad models, and to identify well modeled regions was also analyzed. Our evaluations demonstrate that even though global quality assessment methods seem to approach perfection point (weighted average per-target Pearson\\'s correlation coefficients are as high as 0.97 for the best groups), there is still room for improvement. First, all top-performing methods use consensus approaches to generate quality estimates, and this strategy has its own limitations. Second, the methods that are based on the analysis of individual models lag far behind clustering techniques and need a boost in performance. The methods for estimating per-residue accuracy of models are less accurate than global quality assessment methods, with an average weighted per-model correlation coefficient in the range of 0.63-0.72 for the best 10 groups.

Towards Representative Metallurgical Sampling and Gold Recovery Testwork Programmes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon C. Dominy

2018-05-01

Full Text Available When developing a process flowsheet, the risks in achieving positive financial outcomes are minimised by ensuring representative metallurgical samples and high quality testwork. The quality and type of samples used are as important as the testwork itself. The key characteristic required of any set of samples is that they represent a given domain and quantify its variability. There are those who think that stating a sample(s is representative makes it representative without justification. There is a need to consider both (1 in-situ and (2 testwork sub-sample representativity. Early ore/waste characterisation and domain definition are required, so that sampling and testwork protocols can be designed to suit the style of mineralisation in question. The Theory of Sampling (TOS provides an insight into the causes and magnitude of errors that may occur during the sampling of particulate materials (e.g., broken rock and is wholly applicable to metallurgical sampling. Quality assurance/quality control (QAQC is critical throughout all programmes. Metallurgical sampling and testwork should be fully integrated into geometallurgical studies. Traditional metallurgical testwork is critical for plant design and is an inherent part of geometallurgy. In a geometallurgical study, multiple spatially distributed small-scale tests are used as proxies for process parameters. These will be validated against traditional testwork results. This paper focusses on sampling and testwork for gold recovery determination. It aims to provide the reader with the background to move towards the design, implementation and reporting of representative and fit-for-purpose sampling and testwork programmes. While the paper does not intend to provide a definitive commentary, it critically assesses the hard-rock sampling methods used and their optimal collection and preparation. The need for representative sampling and quality testwork to avoid financial and intangible losses is

One multi-media environmental system with linkage between meteorology/ hydrology/ air quality models and water quality model

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, C.; Lynch, J. A.; Dennis, R. L.

2016-12-01

The biogeochemical processing of nitrogen and associated pollutants is driven by meteorological and hydrological processes in conjunction with pollutant loading. There are feedbacks between meteorology and hydrology that will be affected by land-use change and climate change. Changes in meteorology will affect pollutant deposition. It is important to account for those feedbacks and produce internally consistent simulations of meteorology, hydrology, and pollutant loading to drive the (watershed/water quality) biogeochemical models. In this study, the ecological response to emission reductions in streams in the Potomac watershed was evaluated. Firstly, we simulated the deposition by using the fully coupled Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CAMQ) model; secondly, we created the hydrological data by the offline linked Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model and the WRF model. Lastly, we investigated the water quality by one comprehensive/environment model, namely the linkage of CMAQ, WRF, VIC and the Model of Acidification of Groundwater In Catchment (MAGIC) model from 2002 to 2010.The simulated results (such as NO3, SO4, and SBC) fit well to the observed values. The linkage provides a generally accurate, well-tested tool for evaluating sensitivities to varying meteorology and environmental changes on acidification and other biogeochemical processes, with capability to comprehensively explore strategic policy and management design.

Modeling discharge and water quality in a temporary river basin using SWAT model: A case-study on the Ardila river

OpenAIRE

Durão, Anabela; Serafim, António; Brito, David; Morais, Manuela

2012-01-01

Temporary rivers have a hydrologic variability, which are characterized by long drought periods and short floods events, that influences water quality. Analysis of river flow generated in the Ardila river basin (temporary regime) using precipitation data (from 1931 to 2003) from a weather station, located within the basin, at the Portuguese side (which represents only 22% of the study area) showed a discrepancy between the modeled and observed runoff since 1981. It was also revealed a satisfa...

A spring-mass-damper system dynamics-based driver-vehicle integrated model for representing heterogeneous traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Munigety, Caleb Ronald

2018-04-01

The traditional traffic microscopic simulation models consider driver and vehicle as a single unit to represent the movements of drivers in a traffic stream. Due to this very fact, the traditional car-following models have the driver behavior related parameters, but ignore the vehicle related aspects. This approach is appropriate for homogeneous traffic conditions where car is the major vehicle type. However, in heterogeneous traffic conditions where multiple vehicle types are present, it becomes important to incorporate the vehicle related parameters exclusively to account for the varying dynamic and static characteristics. Thus, this paper presents a driver-vehicle integrated model hinged on the principles involved in physics-based spring-mass-damper mechanical system. While the spring constant represents the driver’s aggressiveness, the damping constant and the mass component take care of the stability and size/weight related aspects, respectively. The proposed model when tested, behaved pragmatically in representing the vehicle-type dependent longitudinal movements of vehicles.

Data Structure Analysis to Represent Basic Models of Finite State Automation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Gurenko

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Complex system engineering based on the automaton models requires a reasoned data structure selection to implement them. The problem of automaton representation and data structure selection to be used in it has been understudied. Arbitrary data structure selection for automaton model software implementation leads to unnecessary computational burden and reduces the developed system efficiency. This article proposes an approach to the reasoned selection of data structures to represent finite algoristic automaton basic models and gives practical considerations based on it.Static and dynamic data structures are proposed for three main ways to assign Mealy and Moore automatons: a transition table, a matrix of coupling and a transition graph. A thirddimensional array, a rectangular matrix and a matrix of lists are the static structures. Dynamic structures are list-oriented structures: two-level and three-level Ayliff vectors and a multi-linked list. These structures allow us to store all required information about finite state automaton model components - characteristic set cardinalities and data of transition and output functions.A criterion system is proposed for data structure comparative evaluation in virtue of algorithmic features of automata theory problems. The criteria focused on capacitive and time computational complexity of operations performed in tasks such as equivalent automaton conversions, proving of automaton equivalence and isomorphism, and automaton minimization.A data structure comparative analysis based on the criterion system has done for both static and dynamic type. The analysis showed advantages of the third-dimensional array, matrix and two-level Ayliff vector. These are structures that assign automaton by transition table. For these structures an experiment was done to measure the execution time of automation operations included in criterion system.The analysis of experiment results showed that a dynamic structure - two

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT MODEL AT THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS PREPARATION LEVEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dusko Pavletic

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The paper expresses base for an operational quality improvement model at the manufacturing process preparation level. A numerous appropriate related quality assurance and improvement methods and tools are identified. Main manufacturing process principles are investigated in order to scrutinize one general model of manufacturing process and to define a manufacturing process preparation level. Development and introduction of the operational quality improvement model is based on a research conducted and results of methods and tools application possibilities in real manufacturing processes shipbuilding and automotive industry. Basic model structure is described and presented by appropriate general algorithm. Operational quality improvement model developed lays down main guidelines for practical and systematic application of quality improvements methods and tools.

Understanding Quality in Process Modelling: Towards a Holistic Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Recker

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Quality is one of the main topics in current conceptual modelling research, as is the field of business process modelling. Yet, widely acknowledged academic contributions towards an understanding or measurement of business process model quality are limited at best. In this paper I argue that the development of methodical theories concerning the measurement or establishment of process model quality must be preceded by methodological elaborations on business process modelling. I further argue that existing epistemological foundations of process modelling are insufficient for describing all extrinsic and intrinsic traits of model quality. This in turn has led to a lack of holistic understanding of process modelling. Taking into account the inherent social and purpose-oriented character of process modelling in contemporary organizations I present a socio-pragmatic constructionist methodology of business process modelling and sketch out implications of this perspective towards an understanding of process model quality. I anticipate that, based on this research, theories can be developed that facilitate the evaluation of the ’goodness’ of a business process model.

Putting people into water quality modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Strickert, G. E.; Hassanzadeh, E.; Noble, B.; Baulch, H. M.; Morales-Marin, L. A.; Lindenschmidt, K. E.

2017-12-01

Water quality in the Qu'Appelle River Basin, Saskatchewan is under pressure due to nutrient pollution entering the river system from major cities, industrial zones and agricultural areas. Among these stressors, agricultural activities are basin-wide; therefore, they are the largest non-point source of water pollution in this region. The dynamics of agricultural impacts on water quality are complex and stem from decisions and activities of two distinct stakeholder groups, namely grain farmers and cattle producers, which have different business plans, values, and attitudes towards water quality. As a result, improving water quality in this basin requires engaging with stakeholders to: (1) understand their perspectives regarding a range of agricultural Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) that can improve water quality in the region, (2) show them the potential consequences of their selected BMPs, and (3) work with stakeholders to better understand the barriers and incentives to implement the effective BMPs. In this line, we held a series of workshops in the Qu'Appelle River Basin with both groups of stakeholders to understand stakeholders' viewpoints about alternative agricultural BMPs and their impact on water quality. Workshop participants were involved in the statement sorting activity (Q-sorts), group discussions, as well as mapping activity. The workshop outcomes show that stakeholder had four distinct viewpoints about the BMPs that can improve water quality, i.e., flow and erosion control, fertilizer management, cattle site management, as well as mixed cattle and wetland management. Accordingly, to simulate the consequences of stakeholder selected BMPs, a conceptual water quality model was developed using System Dynamics (SD). The model estimates potential changes in water quality at the farm, tributary and regional scale in the Qu'Appelle River Basin under each and/or combination of stakeholder selected BMPs. The SD model was then used for real

Validating a model that predicts daily growth and feed quality of New Zealand dairy pastures.

Science.gov (United States)

Woodward, S J

2001-09-01

The Pasture Quality (PQ) model is a simple, mechanistic, dynamical system model that was designed to capture the essential biological processes in grazed grass-clover pasture, and to be optimised to derive improved grazing strategies for New Zealand dairy farms. While the individual processes represented in the model (photosynthesis, tissue growth, flowering, leaf death, decomposition, worms) were based on experimental data, this did not guarantee that the assembled model would accurately predict the behaviour of the system as a whole (i.e., pasture growth and quality). Validation of the whole model was thus a priority, since any strategy derived from the model could impact a farm business in the order of thousands of dollars per annum if adopted. This paper describes the process of defining performance criteria for the model, obtaining suitable data to test the model, and carrying out the validation analysis. The validation process highlighted a number of weaknesses in the model, which will lead to the model being improved. As a result, the model's utility will be enhanced. Furthermore, validation was found to have an unexpected additional benefit, in that despite the model's poor initial performance, support was generated for the model among field scientists involved in the wider project.

Representing Operational Knowledge of PWR Plant by Using Multilevel Flow Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xinxin; Lind, Morten; Jørgensen, Sten Bay

2014-01-01

situation and support operational decisions. This paper will provide a general MFM model of the primary side in a standard Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor ( PWR ) system including sub - systems of Reactor Coolant System, Rod Control System, Chemical and Volume Control System, emergency heat removal......The aim of this paper is to explore the capability of representing operational knowledge by using Multilevel Flow Modelling ( MFM ) methodology. The paper demonstrate s how the operational knowledge can be inserted into the MFM models and be used to evaluate the plant state, identify the current...... systems. And the sub - systems’ functions will be decomposed into sub - models according to different operational situations. An operational model will be developed based on the operating procedure by using MFM symbols and this model can be used to implement coordination rules for organize the utilizati...

Interface between the model of quality QUALZE and a geographic information system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Betancur, T; Sierra C, J.H.

1998-01-01

For the decision making related to the adequate utilization of a natural resource, is required count on versatile mechanisms that permit a rapid access the information related to the conditions of the system on the one which is intended to act, so that they could be analyzed and be designed political of managing and control that guarantee the preservation of the resource. A model is a design tool that permits to represent the simplified way reality and if is built of adequate way possesses a value predictive enormously useful for the managing of a natural resource. The water, essential element for the life, it has suffered deterioration in its quality, on account of man activities that they have established the irrational use of the water. The principal objective of the mathematical current models of water is to produce a tool that has the capacity to simulate the hydrological behavior and the quality of an aquatic system. The power to simulate the behavior of a water current permits to predict the changes that will have, when vary the element exhausts that affect its conditions

Sexual Quality of Life and Aging: A Prospective Study of a Nationally Representative Sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Miriam K; Eaton, Nicholas R; Krueger, Robert F

2017-02-01

Unlike other life domains, sexual quality of life (SQoL) has a negative relationship with age. This study disentangled the effect of age in this relationship from confounding sociocultural influences (e.g., the period of time in which data were collected, and cohort differences) and aimed to understand the roles of other sexual domains (i.e., frequency, perceived control, thought and effort invested in sex, and number of sexual partners). We analyzed data from the longitudinal Midlife in the United States study (n = 6,278; age range 20-93), which were collected between 1995 and 2013. Repeated measures linear mixed-effects models showed that age was the most robust time-related predictor of declining SQoL. However, after the sexual domains were included in the model, age had a positive relationship with SQoL and older adults' SQoL was differentially influenced by the quality-not quantity-of sex. When partnership characteristics were included in the model, age was no longer related to SQoL. These findings suggest that aging may be associated with the acquisition of skills and strategies that can buffer age-related declines in SQoL, particularly in the context of a positive relationship. We summarize these findings as sexual wisdom.

QUALITY OF AN ACADEMIC STUDY PROGRAMME - EVALUATION MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirna Macur

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Quality of an academic study programme is evaluated by many: employees (internal evaluation and by external evaluators: experts, agencies and organisations. Internal and external evaluation of an academic programme follow written structure that resembles on one of the quality models. We believe the quality models (mostly derived from EFQM excellence model don’t fit very well into non-profit activities, policies and programmes, because they are much more complex than environment, from which quality models derive from (for example assembly line. Quality of an academic study programme is very complex and understood differently by various stakeholders, so we present dimensional evaluation in the article. Dimensional evaluation, as opposed to component and holistic evaluation, is a form of analytical evaluation in which the quality of value of the evaluand is determined by looking at its performance on multiple dimensions of merit or evaluation criteria. First stakeholders of a study programme and their views, expectations and interests are presented, followed by evaluation criteria. They are both joined into the evaluation model revealing which evaluation criteria can and should be evaluated by which stakeholder. Main research questions are posed and research method for each dimension listed.

Uncertainty estimation and risk prediction in air quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garaud, Damien

2011-01-01

This work is about uncertainty estimation and risk prediction in air quality. Firstly, we build a multi-model ensemble of air quality simulations which can take into account all uncertainty sources related to air quality modeling. Ensembles of photochemical simulations at continental and regional scales are automatically generated. Then, these ensemble are calibrated with a combinatorial optimization method. It selects a sub-ensemble which is representative of uncertainty or shows good resolution and reliability for probabilistic forecasting. This work shows that it is possible to estimate and forecast uncertainty fields related to ozone and nitrogen dioxide concentrations or to improve the reliability of threshold exceedance predictions. The approach is compared with Monte Carlo simulations, calibrated or not. The Monte Carlo approach appears to be less representative of the uncertainties than the multi-model approach. Finally, we quantify the observational error, the representativeness error and the modeling errors. The work is applied to the impact of thermal power plants, in order to quantify the uncertainty on the impact estimates. (author) [fr

Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

OpenAIRE

Navid Haghighat

2017-01-01

This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive crite...

The Model Method: Singapore Children's Tool for Representing and Solving Algebraic Word Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Swee Fong; Lee, Kerry

2009-01-01

Solving arithmetic and algebraic word problems is a key component of the Singapore elementary mathematics curriculum. One heuristic taught, the model method, involves drawing a diagram to represent key information in the problem. We describe the model method and a three-phase theoretical framework supporting its use. We conducted 2 studies to…

An integrated system dynamics model developed for managing lake water quality at the watershed scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hui; Benoit, Gaboury; Liu, Tao; Liu, Yong; Guo, Huaicheng

2015-05-15

A reliable system simulation to relate socioeconomic development with water environment and to comprehensively represent a watershed's dynamic features is important. In this study, after identifying lake watershed system processes, we developed a system dynamics modeling framework for managing lake water quality at the watershed scale. Two reinforcing loops (Development and Investment Promotion) and three balancing loops (Pollution, Resource Consumption, and Pollution Control) were constituted. Based on this work, we constructed Stock and Flow Diagrams that embedded a pollutant load model and a lake water quality model into a socioeconomic system dynamics model. The Dianchi Lake in Yunnan Province, China, which is the sixth largest and among the most severely polluted freshwater lakes in China, was employed as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the model. Water quality parameters considered in the model included chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP). The business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and three alternative management scenarios on spatial adjustment of industries and population (S1), wastewater treatment capacity construction (S2), and structural adjustment of agriculture (S3), were simulated to assess the effectiveness of certain policies in improving water quality. Results showed that S2 is most effective scenario, and the COD, TN, and TP concentrations in Caohai in 2030 are 52.5, 10.9, and 0.8 mg/L, while those in Waihai are 9.6, 1.2, and 0.08 mg/L, with sustained development in the watershed. Thus, the model can help support the decision making required in development and environmental protection strategies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality model for semantic IS standards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Folmer, Erwin Johan Albert

2011-01-01

Semantic IS (Information Systems) standards are essential for achieving interoperability between organizations. However a recent survey suggests that not the full benefits of standards are achieved, due to the quality issues. This paper presents a quality model for semantic IS standards, that should

Developing a TQM quality management method model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhang, Zhihai

1997-01-01

From an extensive review of total quality management literature, the external and internal environment affecting an organization's quality performance and the eleven primary elements of TQM are identified. Based on the primary TQM elements, a TQM quality management method model is developed. This

Production system with process quality control: modelling and application

Science.gov (United States)

Tsou, Jia-Chi

2010-07-01

Over the past decade, there has been a great deal of research dedicated to the study of quality and the economics of production. In this article, we develop a dynamic model which is based on the hypothesis of a traditional economic production quantity model. Taguchi's cost of poor quality is used to evaluate the cost of poor quality in the dynamic production system. A practical case from the automotive industry, which uses the Six-sigma DMAIC methodology, is discussed to verify the proposed model. This study shows that there is an optimal value of quality investment to make the production system reach a reasonable quality level and minimise the production cost. Based on our model, the management can adjust its investment in quality improvement to generate considerable financial return.

Hydrogen for representing groundwater quality and contamination; Hidrogramas para la representacion de la calidad t contaminacion de las aguas subterraneas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Queralt, R. [Dept. Medi Ambient, Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain)

2000-07-01

A new groundwater hydrogram called Roda is defined. It represents the quality and contamination of the water in the form of a wheel, or clock, in which the circumference is equivalent to the legal or defined concentration limit for each of the radii corresponding to the 12 parameters involved: chlorides, sulphates, bicarbonates, nitrates, manganese, TOC, iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium and conductivity. Its practical application to the groundwater in various Catalan aquifers is reported. This involved a trial with a graphic representation hydrogram that complements already existing indices such as the ISQA for physicochemical quality, the BMWPC for biological quality and the star system for inshore seawater. It is hoped to devise a simpler representation system than RODA in the form of an index or equivalent. (Author) 10 refs.

77 FR 4808 - Conference on Air Quality Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-31

... Modeling AGENCY: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of conference. SUMMARY: The EPA will be hosting the Tenth Conference on Air Quality Modeling on March 13-15, 2012. Section 320 of the... First, Second, and Third Conferences on Air Quality Modeling as required by CAA Section 320 to help...

The immature dentate gyrus represents a shared phenotype of mouse models of epilepsy and psychiatric disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Rick; Kobayashi, Katsunori; Hagihara, Hideo; Kogan, Jeffrey H; Miyake, Shinichi; Tajinda, Katsunori; Walton, Noah M; Gross, Adam K; Heusner, Carrie L; Chen, Qian; Tamura, Kouichi; Miyakawa, Tsuyoshi; Matsumoto, Mitsuyuki

2013-06-01

There is accumulating evidence to suggest psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, share common etiologies, pathophysiologies, genetics, and drug responses with many of the epilepsies. Here, we explored overlaps in cellular/molecular, electrophysiological, and behavioral phenotypes between putative mouse models of bipolar disorder/schizophrenia and epilepsy. We tested the hypothesis that an immature dentate gyrus (iDG), whose association with psychosis in patients has recently been reported, represents a common phenotype of both diseases. Behaviors of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha (α-CaMKII) heterozygous knock-out (KO) mice, which are a representative bipolar disorder/schizophrenia model displaying iDG, and pilocarpine-treated mice, which are a representative epilepsy model, were tested followed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)/immunohistochemistry for mRNA/protein expression associated with an iDG phenotype. In vitro electrophysiology of dentate gyrus granule cells (DG GCs) was examined in pilocarpine-treated epileptic mice. The two disease models demonstrated similar behavioral deficits, such as hyperactivity, poor working memory performance, and social withdrawal. Significant reductions in mRNA expression and immunoreactivity of the mature neuronal marker calbindin and concomitant increases in mRNA expression and immunoreactivity of the immature neuronal marker calretinin represent iDG signatures that are present in both mice models. Electrophysiologically, we have confirmed that DG GCs from pilocarpine-treated mice represent an immature state. A significant decrease in hippocampal α-CaMKII protein levels was also found in both models. Our data have shown iDG signatures from mouse models of both bipolar disorder/schizophrenia and epilepsy. The evidence suggests that the iDG may, in part, be responsible for the abnormal behavioral phenotype, and that the underlying pathophysiologies in epilepsy

An effective quality model for evaluating mobile websites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hassan, W.U.; Nawaz, M.T.; Syed, T.H.; Naseem, A.

2015-01-01

The Evolution in Web development in recent years has caused emergence of new area of mobile computing, Mobile phone has been transformed into high speed processing device capable of doing the processes which were suppose to be run only on computer previously, Modem mobile phones now have capability to process data with greater speed then desktop systems and with the inclusion of 3G and 4G networks, mobile became the prime choice for users to send and receive data from any device. As a result, there is a major increase in mobile website need and development but due to uniqueness of mobile website usage as compared to desktop website, there is a need to focus on quality aspect of mobile website, So, to increase and preserve quality of mobile website, a quality model is required which has to be designed specifically to evaluate mobile website quality, To design a mobile website quality model, a survey based methodology is used to gather the information regarding website unique usage in mobile from different users. On the basis of this information, a mobile website quality model is presented which aims to evaluate the quality of mobile websites. In proposed model, some sub characteristics are designed to evaluate mobile websites in particular. The result is a proposed model aims to evaluate features of website which are important in context of its deployment and its usability in mobile platform. (author)

Quality Assurance Model for Digital Adult Education Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Dimou, Helen; Kameas, Achilles

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to present a model for the quality assurance of digital educational material that is appropriate for adult education. The proposed model adopts the software quality standard ISO/IEC 9126 and takes into account adult learning theories, Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives and two instructional design models: Kolb's model…

Design and Fabrication of DebriSat - A Representative LEO Satellite for Improvements to Standard Satellite Breakup Models

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, S.; Dietrich, A.; Fitz-Coy, N.; Weremeyer, M.; Liou, J.-C.

2012-01-01

This paper discusses the design and fabrication of DebriSat, a 50 kg satellite developed to be representative of a modern low Earth orbit satellite in terms of its components, materials used, and fabrication procedures. DebriSat will be the target of a future hypervelocity impact experiment to determine the physical characteristics of debris generated after an on-orbit collision of a modern LEO satellite. The major ground-based satellite impact experiment used by DoD and NASA in their development of satellite breakup models was SOCIT, conducted in 1992. The target used for that experiment was a Navy transit satellite (40 cm, 35 kg) fabricated in the 1960's. Modern satellites are very different in materials and construction techniques than those built 40 years ago. Therefore, there is a need to conduct a similar experiment using a modern target satellite to improve the fidelity of the satellite breakup models. To ensure that DebriSat is truly representative of typical LEO missions, a comprehensive study of historical LEO satellite designs and missions within the past 15 years for satellites ranging from 1 kg to 5000 kg was conducted. This study identified modern trends in hardware, material, and construction practices utilized in recent LEO missions. Although DebriSat is an engineering model, specific attention is placed on the quality, type, and quantity of the materials used in its fabrication to ensure the integrity of the outcome. With the exception of software, all other aspects of the satellite s design, fabrication, and assembly integration and testing will be as rigorous as that of an actual flight vehicle. For example, to simulate survivability of launch loads, DebriSat will be subjected to a vibration test. As well, the satellite will undergo thermal vacuum tests to verify that the components and overall systems meet typical environmental standards. Proper assembly and integration techniques will involve comprehensive joint analysis, including the precise

Improving PSA quality of KSNP PSA model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Joon Eon; Ha, Jae Joo

2004-01-01

In the RIR (Risk-informed Regulation), PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) plays a major role because it provides overall risk insights for the regulatory body and utility. Therefore, the scope, the level of details and the technical adequacy of PSA, i.e. the quality of PSA is to be ensured for the successful RIR. To improve the quality of Korean PSA, we evaluate the quality of the KSNP (Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant) internal full-power PSA model based on the 'ASME PRA Standard' and the 'NEI PRA Peer Review Process Guidance.' As a working group, PSA experts of the regulatory body and industry also participated in the evaluation process. It is finally judged that the overall quality of the KSNP PSA is between the ASME Standard Capability Category I and II. We also derive some items to be improved for upgrading the quality of the PSA up to the ASME Standard Capability Category II. In this paper, we show the result of quality evaluation, and the activities to improve the quality of the KSNP PSA model

Modeling and Depletion Simulations for a High Flux Isotope Reactor Cycle with a Representative Experiment Loading

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chandler, David [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division; Betzler, Ben [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division; Hirtz, Gregory John [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division; Ilas, Germina [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division; Sunny, Eva [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division

2016-09-01

The purpose of this report is to document a high-fidelity VESTA/MCNP High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) core model that features a new, representative experiment loading. This model, which represents the current, high-enriched uranium fuel core, will serve as a reference for low-enriched uranium conversion studies, safety-basis calculations, and other research activities. A new experiment loading model was developed to better represent current, typical experiment loadings, in comparison to the experiment loading included in the model for Cycle 400 (operated in 2004). The new experiment loading model for the flux trap target region includes full length ²⁵²Cf production targets, ⁷⁵Se production capsules, ⁶³Ni production capsules, a ¹⁸⁸W production capsule, and various materials irradiation targets. Fully loaded ²³⁸Pu production targets are modeled in eleven vertical experiment facilities located in the beryllium reflector. Other changes compared to the Cycle 400 model are the high-fidelity modeling of the fuel element side plates and the material composition of the control elements. Results obtained from the depletion simulations with the new model are presented, with a focus on time-dependent isotopic composition of irradiated fuel and single cycle isotope production metrics.

A conceptual competitive intelligence quality assurance model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tshilidzi Eric Nenzhelele

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Competitive Intelligence (CI improves the quality of product and service, decision-making and it improves quality of life. However, it has been established that decision makers are not happy about the quality of CI. This is because enterprises fail in quality assurance of CI. It has been concluded that most enterprises are clueless concerning CI quality assurance. Studies that previously attempted to resolve CI quality problem were limited in scope and focused too much on the quality of information than the overall CI quality. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual CI quality assurance model which will help in quality assurance of CI. The research was qualitative in nature and used content analysis.

Application of Service Quality Model in Education Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ting Ding Hooi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Most of the ideas on service quality stem from the West. The massive developments in research in the West are undeniable of their importance. This leads to the generation and development of new ideas. These ideas were subsequently channeled to developing countries. Ideas obtained were then formulated and used by these developing countries in order to obtain better approach in channeling service quality. There are ample to be learnt from the service quality model, SERVQUAL which attain high acceptance in the West. Service quality in the education system is important to guarantee the effectiveness and quality of education. Effective and quality education will be able to offer quality graduates, which will contribute to the development of the nation. This paper will discuss the application of the SERVQUAL model into the education environment.

ISO 9000 and the total quality management models

OpenAIRE

Pacios Lozano, Ana Reyes

1997-01-01

Establishes the most outstanding differences between the ISO 9000 norms and total quality management as forms or manners of managing quality used in some information services. Compares two models of total quality: European Foundation far Quality Management and Malcolm Baldrige Awards.

Developing a stochastic conflict resolution model for urban runoff quality management: Application of info-gap and bargaining theories

Science.gov (United States)

Ghodsi, Seyed Hamed; Kerachian, Reza; Estalaki, Siamak Malakpour; Nikoo, Mohammad Reza; Zahmatkesh, Zahra

2016-02-01

In this paper, two deterministic and stochastic multilateral, multi-issue, non-cooperative bargaining methodologies are proposed for urban runoff quality management. In the proposed methodologies, a calibrated Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is used to simulate stormwater runoff quantity and quality for different urban stormwater runoff management scenarios, which have been defined considering several Low Impact Development (LID) techniques. In the deterministic methodology, the best management scenario, representing location and area of LID controls, is identified using the bargaining model. In the stochastic methodology, uncertainties of some key parameters of SWMM are analyzed using the info-gap theory. For each water quality management scenario, robustness and opportuneness criteria are determined based on utility functions of different stakeholders. Then, to find the best solution, the bargaining model is performed considering a combination of robustness and opportuneness criteria for each scenario based on utility function of each stakeholder. The results of applying the proposed methodology in the Velenjak urban watershed located in the northeastern part of Tehran, the capital city of Iran, illustrate its practical utility for conflict resolution in urban water quantity and quality management. It is shown that the solution obtained using the deterministic model cannot outperform the result of the stochastic model considering the robustness and opportuneness criteria. Therefore, it can be concluded that the stochastic model, which incorporates the main uncertainties, could provide more reliable results.

Lightweight Expression of Granular Objects (LEGO) Content Modeling Using the SNOMED CT Observables Model to Represent Nursing Assessment Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Christie

2016-01-01

This poster presentation presents a content modeling strategy using the SNOMED CT Observable Model to represent large amounts of detailed clinical data in a consistent and computable manner that can support multiple use cases. Lightweight Expression of Granular Objects (LEGOs) represent question/answer pairs on clinical data collection forms, where a question is modeled by a (usually) post-coordinated SNOMED CT expression. LEGOs transform electronic patient data into a normalized consumable, which means that the expressions can be treated as extensions of the SNOMED CT hierarchies for the purpose of performing subsumption queries and other analytics. Utilizing the LEGO approach for modeling clinical data obtained from a nursing admission assessment provides a foundation for data exchange across disparate information systems and software applications. Clinical data exchange of computable LEGO patient information enables the development of more refined data analytics, data storage and clinical decision support.

Improving the quality of clinical coding: a comprehensive audit model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid Moghaddasi

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The review of medical records with the aim of assessing the quality of codes has long been conducted in different countries. Auditing medical coding, as an instructive approach, could help to review the quality of codes objectively using defined attributes, and this in turn would lead to improvement of the quality of codes. Method: The current study aimed to present a model for auditing the quality of clinical codes. The audit model was formed after reviewing other audit models, considering their strengths and weaknesses. A clear definition was presented for each quality attribute and more detailed criteria were then set for assessing the quality of codes. Results: The audit tool (based on the quality attributes included legibility, relevancy, completeness, accuracy, definition and timeliness; led to development of an audit model for assessing the quality of medical coding. Delphi technique was then used to reassure the validity of the model. Conclusion: The inclusive audit model designed could provide a reliable and valid basis for assessing the quality of codes considering more quality attributes and their clear definition. The inter-observer check suggested in the method of auditing is of particular importance to reassure the reliability of coding.

Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Navid Haghighat

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive criteria and effective measurement techniques as the fundamentals of a valuable framework. In this paper, service quality models improvement is described based on three major service quality concepts, the disconfirmation, performance and hierarchical concepts which are developed subsequently. Reviewing various criteria and different measurement techniques such a statistical analysis and multi-criteria decision making assist researchers to have a clear understanding of the development of the evaluation framework in the airline industry. This study aims at promoting reliable frameworks for evaluating airline service quality in different countries and societies due to economic, cultural and social aspects of each society.

Evaluating predictive models of software quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciaschini, V; Canaparo, M; Ronchieri, E; Salomoni, D

2014-01-01

Applications from High Energy Physics scientific community are constantly growing and implemented by a large number of developers. This implies a strong churn on the code and an associated risk of faults, which is unavoidable as long as the software undergoes active evolution. However, the necessities of production systems run counter to this. Stability and predictability are of paramount importance; in addition, a short turn-around time for the defect discovery-correction-deployment cycle is required. A way to reconcile these opposite foci is to use a software quality model to obtain an approximation of the risk before releasing a program to only deliver software with a risk lower than an agreed threshold. In this article we evaluated two quality predictive models to identify the operational risk and the quality of some software products. We applied these models to the development history of several EMI packages with intent to discover the risk factor of each product and compare it with its real history. We attempted to determine if the models reasonably maps reality for the applications under evaluation, and finally we concluded suggesting directions for further studies.

Evaluating Predictive Models of Software Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Ciaschini, V.; Canaparo, M.; Ronchieri, E.; Salomoni, D.

2014-06-01

Applications from High Energy Physics scientific community are constantly growing and implemented by a large number of developers. This implies a strong churn on the code and an associated risk of faults, which is unavoidable as long as the software undergoes active evolution. However, the necessities of production systems run counter to this. Stability and predictability are of paramount importance; in addition, a short turn-around time for the defect discovery-correction-deployment cycle is required. A way to reconcile these opposite foci is to use a software quality model to obtain an approximation of the risk before releasing a program to only deliver software with a risk lower than an agreed threshold. In this article we evaluated two quality predictive models to identify the operational risk and the quality of some software products. We applied these models to the development history of several EMI packages with intent to discover the risk factor of each product and compare it with its real history. We attempted to determine if the models reasonably maps reality for the applications under evaluation, and finally we concluded suggesting directions for further studies.

DockQ: A Quality Measure for Protein-Protein Docking Models.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sankar Basu

Full Text Available The state-of-the-art to assess the structural quality of docking models is currently based on three related yet independent quality measures: Fnat, LRMS, and iRMS as proposed and standardized by CAPRI. These quality measures quantify different aspects of the quality of a particular docking model and need to be viewed together to reveal the true quality, e.g. a model with relatively poor LRMS (>10Å might still qualify as 'acceptable' with a descent Fnat (>0.50 and iRMS (<3.0Å. This is also the reason why the so called CAPRI criteria for assessing the quality of docking models is defined by applying various ad-hoc cutoffs on these measures to classify a docking model into the four classes: Incorrect, Acceptable, Medium, or High quality. This classification has been useful in CAPRI, but since models are grouped in only four bins it is also rather limiting, making it difficult to rank models, correlate with scoring functions or use it as target function in machine learning algorithms. Here, we present DockQ, a continuous protein-protein docking model quality measure derived by combining Fnat, LRMS, and iRMS to a single score in the range [0, 1] that can be used to assess the quality of protein docking models. By using DockQ on CAPRI models it is possible to almost completely reproduce the original CAPRI classification into Incorrect, Acceptable, Medium and High quality. An average PPV of 94% at 90% Recall demonstrating that there is no need to apply predefined ad-hoc cutoffs to classify docking models. Since DockQ recapitulates the CAPRI classification almost perfectly, it can be viewed as a higher resolution version of the CAPRI classification, making it possible to estimate model quality in a more quantitative way using Z-scores or sum of top ranked models, which has been so valuable for the CASP community. The possibility to directly correlate a quality measure to a scoring function has been crucial for the development of scoring functions for

Evaluation Model of Tea Industry Information Service Quality

OpenAIRE

Shi , Xiaohui; Chen , Tian’en

2015-01-01

International audience; According to characteristics of tea industry information service, this paper have built service quality evaluation index system for tea industry information service quality, R-cluster analysis and multiple regression have been comprehensively used to contribute evaluation model with a high practice and credibility. Proved by the experiment, the evaluation model of information service quality has a good precision, which has guidance significance to a certain extent to e...

Quality of peas modelled by a structural equation system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bech, A. C.; Juhl, H. J.; Hansen, M.

2000-01-01

in a PLS structural model with the Total Food Quality Model as starting point. The results show that texture and flavour do have approximately the same effect on consumers' perception of overall quality. Quality development goals for plant breeders would be to optimse perceived flavour directly...

Representing Sudden Shifts in Intensive Dyadic Interaction Data Using Differential Equation Models with Regime Switching.

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Sy-Miin; Ou, Lu; Ciptadi, Arridhana; Prince, Emily B; You, Dongjun; Hunter, Michael D; Rehg, James M; Rozga, Agata; Messinger, Daniel S

2018-06-01

A growing number of social scientists have turned to differential equations as a tool for capturing the dynamic interdependence among a system of variables. Current tools for fitting differential equation models do not provide a straightforward mechanism for diagnosing evidence for qualitative shifts in dynamics, nor do they provide ways of identifying the timing and possible determinants of such shifts. In this paper, we discuss regime-switching differential equation models, a novel modeling framework for representing abrupt changes in a system of differential equation models. Estimation was performed by combining the Kim filter (Kim and Nelson State-space models with regime switching: classical and Gibbs-sampling approaches with applications, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999) and a numerical differential equation solver that can handle both ordinary and stochastic differential equations. The proposed approach was motivated by the need to represent discrete shifts in the movement dynamics of [Formula: see text] mother-infant dyads during the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), a behavioral assessment where the infant is separated from and reunited with the mother twice. We illustrate the utility of a novel regime-switching differential equation model in representing children's tendency to exhibit shifts between the goal of staying close to their mothers and intermittent interest in moving away from their mothers to explore the room during the SSP. Results from empirical model fitting were supplemented with a Monte Carlo simulation study to evaluate the use of information criterion measures to diagnose sudden shifts in dynamics.

[Quality management in cardiovascular echography].

Science.gov (United States)

Gullace, Giuseppe

2002-12-01

The quality management of an organization can be defined as the ability to identify, plan and implement programs of measure, analysis, verification and control that allow to monitor management, resources, activities, processes and output/outcome of the same organization, including the satisfaction of the customers. Whatever the model used, it is demonstrated that the management-quality system, either for professional quality or for organization, turns out to be effective even in the health organizations within and to any level of organizational-structural complexity. The present paper concerns the experience of the Italian Society of Cardiovascular Echography (SIEC) on quality certification, both as a scientific society compared to other health organizations and to cardiovascular echo laboratories, and the definition of minimum requirements for the accreditation of the same laboratories. The model most frequently used for quality management is represented by the ISO 9000: Vision 2000, that is a management model with specific reference to the organization and the customer satisfaction. The model applied to the health structure needs a rapid change in mentality that addresses the operators to define, share and achieve objectives to be brought on by means of an active collaboration, group activity and deep sense of belonging necessary to the attainment of expected objectives. When the model is applied by a scientific society, it is necessary to take into account the different structural and functional organization, the constitution and the operators differing on the point of view of origin, experiences, mentality, and roles. The ISO 9000: Vision 2000 model can be applied also to the cardiovascular echo laboratory which may be compared to a simple organization; for its corrected functioning, SIEC has defined minimal requirements for the accreditation, realization and modalities to carry out and manage quality. The quality system represents a new way of operating of an

Using a Mechanistic Reactive Transport Model to Represent Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Climate Sensitivity

Science.gov (United States)

Guerry, N.; Riley, W. J.; Maggi, F.; Torn, M. S.; Kleber, M.

2011-12-01

The nature of long term Soil Organic Matter (SOM) dynamics is uncertain and the mechanisms involved are crudely represented in site, regional, and global models. Recent work challenging the paradigm that SOM is stabilized because of its sequential transformations to more intrinsically recalcitrant compounds motivated us to develop a mechanistic modeling framework that can be used to test hypotheses of SOM dynamics. We developed our C cycling model in TOUGHREACT, an established 3-dimensional reactive transport solver that accounts for multiple phases (aqueous, gaseous, sorbed), multiple species, advection and diffusion, and multiple microbial populations. Energy and mass exchange through the soil boundaries are accounted for via ground heat flux, rainfall, C sources (e.g., exudation, woody, leaf, root litter) and C losses (e.g., CO2 emissions and DOC deep percolation). SOM is categorized according to the various types of compounds commonly found in the above mentioned C sources and microbial byproducts, including poly- and monosaccharides, lignin, amino compounds, organic acids, nucleic acids, lipids, and phenols. Each of these compounds is accounted for by one or more representative species in the model. A reaction network was developed to describe the microbially-mediated processes and chemical interactions of these species, including depolymerization, microbial assimilation, respiration and deposition of byproducts, and incorporation of dead biomass into SOM stocks. Enzymatic reactions are characterized by Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with maximum reaction rates determined by the species' O/C ratio. Microbial activity is further regulated by soil moisture content, O2 availability, pH, and temperature. For the initial set of simulations, literature values were used to constrain microbial Monod parameters, Michaelis-Menten parameters, sorption parameters, physical protection, partitioning of microbial byproducts, and partitioning of litter inputs, although there is

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and dietary quality among US adults: findings from a nationally representative survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Binh T; Shuval, Kerem; Njike, Valentine Y; Katz, David L

2014-09-01

To examine the association of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and diet quality among low-income adults. We examined US nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, and 2009-2010. The data were analyzed from October 7, 2013, to March 1, 2014. The analytic sample consisted of 4211 low-income adults aged 20 to 64 years, of whom 1830 participate in SNAP. We adhered to the National Cancer Institute method in calculating the Healthy Eating Index 2010 and other dietary indicators, such as empty calorie intake. Bivariate and multivariable regression was used to compare SNAP participants and income-eligible nonparticipants among the full sample and subsamples of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and food insecurity. Compared with low-income nonparticipants, adjusted analyses reveal that SNAP participants had lower dietary quality scores overall (42.58 vs 44.36, P≤.0001) and lower scores for fruits and vegetables, seafood and plant proteins (1.55 vs 1.77, P≤.0022), and empty calories (9.03 vs 9.90, P≤.0001), but they exhibited comparable scores on whole grain, refined grain, total dairy, total protein, fatty acid, and sodium intakes. The association between SNAP participation and lower dietary quality was statistically significant among women, Hispanics, young adults, and individuals who were food secure. Our analyses suggest that SNAP participants have lower dietary quality than their income-eligible nonparticipant counterparts. Although SNAP has an important role in providing nutrition assistance to eligible low-income individuals, interventions are warranted to improve the dietary quality of participants. Copyright © 2014 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

QAM: PROPOSED MODEL FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN CBSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Latika Kharb

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Component-based software engineering (CBSE / Component-Based Development (CBD lays emphasis on decomposition of the engineered systems into functional or logical components with well-defined interfaces used for communication across the components. Component-based software development approach is based on the idea to develop software systems by selecting appropriate off-the-shelf components and then to assemble them with a well-defined software architecture. Because the new software development paradigm is much different from the traditional approach, quality assurance for component-based software development is a new topic in the software engineering research community. Because component-based software systems are developed on an underlying process different from that of the traditional software, their quality assurance model should address both the process of components and the process of the overall system. Quality assurance for component-based software systems during the life cycle is used to analyze the components for achievement of high quality component-based software systems. Although some Quality assurance techniques and component based approach to software engineering have been studied, there is still no clear and well-defined standard or guidelines for component-based software systems. Therefore, identification of the quality assurance characteristics, quality assurance models, quality assurance tools and quality assurance metrics, are under urgent need. As a major contribution in this paper, I have proposed QAM: Quality Assurance Model for component-based software development, which covers component requirement analysis, component development, component certification, component architecture design, integration, testing, and maintenance.

Modeling Perceived Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Probability of Guest Returning to the Destination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivera Blagojevic Popovic

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In the hotel industry, it is a well-known fact that, despite of quality and variety of services provided, there is a low probability that the guests will return. This research is focused on identifying the basic factors of the hotel offer, which could determine the influence on the correlation between the guests’ satisfaction and the probability of their return. The objective of the article is to explore the relationship between the guests’ satisfaction with the quality hotel services in total (including the tourist offer of the place and the probability of his return to the same destination. The questionnaire method was applied in the survey, and the data were analysed based on factor analysis. Thereafter, the model for forecasting the probability of the guests returning to the destination was established, by using the example of Montenegrin tourism. The model represents a defined framework for the guest’s decision-making process. It identifies two main characteristics of guest experiences: satisfaction and rated quality (of the destination’s overall hotel service and tourist offer. The same model evaluates the impact of the above factors on the probability of the guests’ returning to the same destination. The starting hypothesis was the existence of a high degree of correlation between the guests’ satisfaction (with the destination’s hotel services and tourist offer and the probability of returning to the selected Montenegrin destinations. The research confirmed the above-mentioned hypothesis. The results have revealed that there are significant differences in perceived quality, i.e. satisfaction between the target groups of Eastern and Western European tourists

A systematic literature review of open source software quality assessment models.

Science.gov (United States)

Adewumi, Adewole; Misra, Sanjay; Omoregbe, Nicholas; Crawford, Broderick; Soto, Ricardo

2016-01-01

Many open source software (OSS) quality assessment models are proposed and available in the literature. However, there is little or no adoption of these models in practice. In order to guide the formulation of newer models so they can be acceptable by practitioners, there is need for clear discrimination of the existing models based on their specific properties. Based on this, the aim of this study is to perform a systematic literature review to investigate the properties of the existing OSS quality assessment models by classifying them with respect to their quality characteristics, the methodology they use for assessment, and their domain of application so as to guide the formulation and development of newer models. Searches in IEEE Xplore, ACM, Science Direct, Springer and Google Search is performed so as to retrieve all relevant primary studies in this regard. Journal and conference papers between the year 2003 and 2015 were considered since the first known OSS quality model emerged in 2003. A total of 19 OSS quality assessment model papers were selected. To select these models we have developed assessment criteria to evaluate the quality of the existing studies. Quality assessment models are classified into five categories based on the quality characteristics they possess namely: single-attribute, rounded category, community-only attribute, non-community attribute as well as the non-quality in use models. Our study reflects that software selection based on hierarchical structures is found to be the most popular selection method in the existing OSS quality assessment models. Furthermore, we found that majority (47%) of the existing models do not specify any domain of application. In conclusion, our study will be a valuable contribution to the community and helps the quality assessment model developers in formulating newer models and also to the practitioners (software evaluators) in selecting suitable OSS in the midst of alternatives.

Business Process Modelling for Measuring Quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heidari, F.; Loucopoulos, P.; Brazier, F.M.

2013-01-01

Business process modelling languages facilitate presentation, communication and analysis of business processes with different stakeholders. This paper proposes an approach that drives specification and measurement of quality requirements and in doing so relies on business process models as

Predicting personal preferences in subjective video quality assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korhonen, Jari

2017-01-01

In this paper, we study the problem of predicting the visual quality of a specific test sample (e.g. a video clip) experienced by a specific user, based on the ratings by other users for the same sample and the same user for other samples. A simple linear model and algorithm is presented, where...... the characteristics of each test sample are represented by a set of parameters, and the individual preferences are represented by weights for the parameters. According to the validation experiment performed on public visual quality databases annotated with raw individual scores, the proposed model can predict...

Collaborative problem solving with a total quality model.

Science.gov (United States)

Volden, C M; Monnig, R

1993-01-01

A collaborative problem-solving system committed to the interests of those involved complies with the teachings of the total quality management movement in health care. Deming espoused that any quality system must become an integral part of routine activities. A process that is used consistently in dealing with problems, issues, or conflicts provides a mechanism for accomplishing total quality improvement. The collaborative problem-solving process described here results in quality decision-making. This model incorporates Ishikawa's cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagram, Moore's key causes of conflict, and the steps of the University of North Dakota Conflict Resolution Center's collaborative problem solving model.

Modelling End-User of Electronic-Government Service: The Role of Information quality, System Quality and Trust

Science.gov (United States)

Witarsyah Jacob, Deden; Fudzee, Mohd Farhan Md; Aizi Salamat, Mohamad; Kasim, Shahreen; Mahdin, Hairulnizam; Azhar Ramli, Azizul

2017-08-01

Many governments around the world increasingly use internet technologies such as electronic government to provide public services. These services range from providing the most basic informational website to deploying sophisticated tools for managing interactions between government agencies and beyond government. Electronic government (e-government) aims to provide a more accurate, easily accessible, cost-effective and time saving for the community. In this study, we develop a new model of e-government adoption service by extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) through the incorporation of some variables such as System Quality, Information Quality and Trust. The model is then tested using a large-scale, multi-site survey research of 237 Indonesian citizens. This model will be validated by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The result indicates that System Quality, Information Quality and Trust variables proven to effect user behavior. This study extends the current understanding on the influence of System Quality, Information Quality and Trust factors to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

DockQ: A Quality Measure for Protein-Protein Docking Models

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Sankar

2016-01-01

The state-of-the-art to assess the structural quality of docking models is currently based on three related yet independent quality measures: Fnat, LRMS, and iRMS as proposed and standardized by CAPRI. These quality measures quantify different aspects of the quality of a particular docking model and need to be viewed together to reveal the true quality, e.g. a model with relatively poor LRMS (>10Å) might still qualify as 'acceptable' with a descent Fnat (>0.50) and iRMS (iRMS to a single score in the range [0, 1] that can be used to assess the quality of protein docking models. By using DockQ on CAPRI models it is possible to almost completely reproduce the original CAPRI classification into Incorrect, Acceptable, Medium and High quality. An average PPV of 94% at 90% Recall demonstrating that there is no need to apply predefined ad-hoc cutoffs to classify docking models. Since DockQ recapitulates the CAPRI classification almost perfectly, it can be viewed as a higher resolution version of the CAPRI classification, making it possible to estimate model quality in a more quantitative way using Z-scores or sum of top ranked models, which has been so valuable for the CASP community. The possibility to directly correlate a quality measure to a scoring function has been crucial for the development of scoring functions for protein structure prediction, and DockQ should be useful in a similar development in the protein docking field. DockQ is available at http://github.com/bjornwallner/DockQ/ PMID:27560519

A possibilistic model to determine the cost of environmental quality in mid/short term planning of an electricity distribution system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schweickardt, Gustavo Alejandro; Gimenez Alvarez, Juan Manuel

2012-01-01

This work presents a Possibilistic Optimization Model to determine the Dynamic Environmental Quality Cost, applied on an Electricity Distribution System and measured as Network System Visual Impact. The Mid/Short Term Planning is the Regulatory Control Period. A multicriteria optimization approach is proposed, and for each criterion, non-stochastic uncertainties are recognized and represented by mean the introduction of Fuzzy Sets. In this way, a possibility in the occurrence of criteria variables values is established. In addition, as consequence of uncertainties of criteria preference ranking, a Model to obtain criteria Priority Vector is introduced. The Environmental Quality Cost determination is based in the relationship between the Investment Cost and an Impact Index of Network System Environmental Quality, proposed in this work. Finally, a simulation on a real system and the most important conclusions are presented.

Adjustment of regional regression models of urban-runoff quality using data for Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville, Tennessee

Science.gov (United States)

Hoos, Anne B.; Patel, Anant R.

1996-01-01

Model-adjustment procedures were applied to the combined data bases of storm-runoff quality for Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville, Tennessee, to improve predictive accuracy for storm-runoff quality for urban watersheds in these three cities and throughout Middle and East Tennessee. Data for 45 storms at 15 different sites (five sites in each city) constitute the data base. Comparison of observed values of storm-runoff load and event-mean concentration to the predicted values from the regional regression models for 10 constituents shows prediction errors, as large as 806,000 percent. Model-adjustment procedures, which combine the regional model predictions with local data, are applied to improve predictive accuracy. Standard error of estimate after model adjustment ranges from 67 to 322 percent. Calibration results may be biased due to sampling error in the Tennessee data base. The relatively large values of standard error of estimate for some of the constituent models, although representing significant reduction (at least 50 percent) in prediction error compared to estimation with unadjusted regional models, may be unacceptable for some applications. The user may wish to collect additional local data for these constituents and repeat the analysis, or calibrate an independent local regression model.

MEASURING THE DATA MODEL QUALITY IN THE ESUPPLY CHAINS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zora Arsovski

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The implementation of Internet technology in business has enabled the development of e-business supply chains with large-scale information integration among all partners.The development of information systems (IS is based on the established business objectives whose achievement, among other things, directly depends on the quality of development and design of IS. In the process of analysis of the key elements of company operations in the supply chain, process model and corresponding data model are designed which should enable selection of appropriate information system architecture. The quality of the implemented information system, which supports e-supply chain, directly depends on the level of data model quality. One of the serious limitations of the data model is its complexity. With a large number of entities, data model is difficult to analyse, monitor and maintain. The problem gets bigger when looking at an integrated data model at the level of participating partners in the supply chain, where the data model usually consists of hundreds or even thousands of entities.The paper will analyse the key elements affecting the quality of data models and show their interactions and factors of significance. In addition, the paper presents various measures for assessing the quality of the data model on which it is possible to easily locate the problems and focus efforts in specific parts of a complex data model where it is not economically feasible to review every detail of the model.

Data Acquisition for Quality Loss Function Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Søren Nygaard; Howard, Thomas J.

2016-01-01

Quality loss functions can be a valuable tool when assessing the impact of variation on product quality. Typically, the input for the quality loss function would be a measure of the varying product performance and the output would be a measure of quality. While the unit of the input is given by t...... by the product function in focus, the quality output can be measured and quantified in a number of ways. In this article a structured approach for acquiring stakeholder satisfaction data for use in quality loss function modelling is introduced.......Quality loss functions can be a valuable tool when assessing the impact of variation on product quality. Typically, the input for the quality loss function would be a measure of the varying product performance and the output would be a measure of quality. While the unit of the input is given...

Quality management using model-driven engineering: an overview

OpenAIRE

Ruiz-Rube, Iván; Escalona, María José

2014-01-01

Quality Management (QM) is one of the critical points of any software development process. In recent years, several proposals have emerged on this issue, mainly with regard to maturity models, quality standards and best practices collections. Besides, Model Driven Engineering (MDE) aims to build software systems through the construction and transformation of models. However, MDE might be used for other different tasks. In this poster, we summarize the main contributions abou...

Modelling lateral beam quality variations in pencil kernel based photon dose calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyholm, T; Olofsson, J; Ahnesjoe, A; Karlsson, M

2006-01-01

Standard treatment machines for external radiotherapy are designed to yield flat dose distributions at a representative treatment depth. The common method to reach this goal is to use a flattening filter to decrease the fluence in the centre of the beam. A side effect of this filtering is that the average energy of the beam is generally lower at a distance from the central axis, a phenomenon commonly referred to as off-axis softening. The off-axis softening results in a relative change in beam quality that is almost independent of machine brand and model. Central axis dose calculations using pencil beam kernels show no drastic loss in accuracy when the off-axis beam quality variations are neglected. However, for dose calculated at off-axis positions the effect should be considered, otherwise errors of several per cent can be introduced. This work proposes a method to explicitly include the effect of off-axis softening in pencil kernel based photon dose calculations for arbitrary positions in a radiation field. Variations of pencil kernel values are modelled through a generic relation between half value layer (HVL) thickness and off-axis position for standard treatment machines. The pencil kernel integration for dose calculation is performed through sampling of energy fluence and beam quality in sectors of concentric circles around the calculation point. The method is fully based on generic data and therefore does not require any specific measurements for characterization of the off-axis softening effect, provided that the machine performance is in agreement with the assumed HVL variations. The model is verified versus profile measurements at different depths and through a model self-consistency check, using the dose calculation model to estimate HVL values at off-axis positions. A comparison between calculated and measured profiles at different depths showed a maximum relative error of 4% without explicit modelling of off-axis softening. The maximum relative error

Can we trust climate models to realistically represent severe European windstorms?

Science.gov (United States)

Trzeciak, Tomasz M.; Knippertz, Peter; Owen, Jennifer S. R.

2014-05-01

Despite the enormous advances made in climate change research, robust projections of the position and the strength of the North Atlantic stormtrack are not yet possible. In particular with respect to damaging windstorms, this incertitude bears enormous risks to European societies and the (re)insurance industry. Previous studies have addressed the problem of climate model uncertainty through statistical comparisons of simulations of the current climate with (re-)analysis data and found that there is large disagreement between different climate models, different ensemble members of the same model and observed climatologies of intense cyclones. One weakness of such statistical evaluations lies in the difficulty to separate influences of the climate model's basic state from the influence of fast processes on the development of the most intense storms. Compensating effects between the two might conceal errors and suggest higher reliability than there really is. A possible way to separate influences of fast and slow processes in climate projections is through a "seamless" approach of hindcasting historical, severe storms with climate models started from predefined initial conditions and run in a numerical weather prediction mode on the time scale of several days. Such a cost-effective case-study approach, which draws from and expands on the concepts from the Transpose-AMIP initiative, has recently been undertaken in the SEAMSEW project at the University of Leeds funded by the AXA Research Fund. Key results from this work focusing on 20 historical storms and using different lead times and horizontal and vertical resolutions include: (a) Tracks are represented reasonably well by most hindcasts. (b) Sensitivity to vertical resolution is low. (c) There is a systematic underprediction of cyclone depth for a coarse resolution of T63, but surprisingly no systematic bias is found for higher-resolution runs using T127, showing that climate models are in fact able to represent the

Design and Establishment of Quality Model of Fundamental Geographic Information Database

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, W.; Zhang, J.; Zhao, Y.; Zhang, P.; Dang, Y.; Zhao, T.

2018-04-01

In order to make the quality evaluation for the Fundamental Geographic Information Databases(FGIDB) more comprehensive, objective and accurate, this paper studies and establishes a quality model of FGIDB, which formed by the standardization of database construction and quality control, the conformity of data set quality and the functionality of database management system, and also designs the overall principles, contents and methods of the quality evaluation for FGIDB, providing the basis and reference for carry out quality control and quality evaluation for FGIDB. This paper designs the quality elements, evaluation items and properties of the Fundamental Geographic Information Database gradually based on the quality model framework. Connected organically, these quality elements and evaluation items constitute the quality model of the Fundamental Geographic Information Database. This model is the foundation for the quality demand stipulation and quality evaluation of the Fundamental Geographic Information Database, and is of great significance on the quality assurance in the design and development stage, the demand formulation in the testing evaluation stage, and the standard system construction for quality evaluation technology of the Fundamental Geographic Information Database.

Towards benchmarking an in-stream water quality model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2007-01-01

Full Text Available A method of model evaluation is presented which utilises a comparison with a benchmark model. The proposed benchmarking concept is one that can be applied to many hydrological models but, in this instance, is implemented in the context of an in-stream water quality model. The benchmark model is defined in such a way that it is easily implemented within the framework of the test model, i.e. the approach relies on two applications of the same model code rather than the application of two separate model codes. This is illustrated using two case studies from the UK, the Rivers Aire and Ouse, with the objective of simulating a water quality classification, general quality assessment (GQA, which is based on dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand and ammonium. Comparisons between the benchmark and test models are made based on GQA, as well as a step-wise assessment against the components required in its derivation. The benchmarking process yields a great deal of important information about the performance of the test model and raises issues about a priori definition of the assessment criteria.

Development of an Instructional Quality Assurance Model in Nursing Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ajpru, Haruthai; Pasiphol, Shotiga; Wongwanich, Suwimon

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an instructional quality assurance model in nursing science. The study was divided into 3 phases; (1) to study the information for instructional quality assurance model development (2) to develop an instructional quality assurance model in nursing science and (3) to audit and the assessment of the developed…

Quality Concerns in Technical Education in India: A Quantifiable Quality Enabled Model

Science.gov (United States)

Gambhir, Victor; Wadhwa, N. C.; Grover, Sandeep

2016-01-01

Purpose: The paper aims to discuss current Technical Education scenarios in India. It proposes modelling the factors affecting quality in a technical institute and then applying a suitable technique for assessment, comparison and ranking. Design/methodology/approach: The paper chose graph theoretic approach for quantification of quality-enabled…

Quantifying effects of hydrological and water quality disturbances on fish with food-web modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Changsen; Zhang, Yuan; Yang, Shengtian; Xiang, Hua; Sun, Ying; Yang, Zengyuan; Yu, Qiang; Lim, Richard P.

2018-05-01

Accurately delineating the effects of hydrological and water quality habitat factors on the aquatic biota will significantly assist the management of water resources and restoration of river ecosystems. However, current models fail to comprehensively consider the effects of multiple habitat factors on the development of fish species. In this study, a dynamic framework for river ecosystems was set up to explore the effects of multiple habitat factors in terms of hydrology and water quality on the fish community in rivers. To achieve this the biomechanical forms of the relationships between hydrology, water quality, and aquatic organisms were determined. The developing processes of the food web without external disturbance were simulated by 208 models, constructed using Ecopath With Ecosim (EWE). These models were then used to analyze changes in biomass (ΔB) of two representative fish species, Opsariichthys bidens and Carassius auratus, which are widely distributed in Asia, and thus have attracted the attention of scholars and stakeholders, due to the consequence of habitat alteration. Results showed that the relationship between the changes in fish biomass and key habitat factors can be expressed in a unified form. T-tests for the unified form revealed that the means of the two data sets of simulated and observed ΔB for these two fish species (O. bidens and C. auratus) were equal at the significance level of 5%. Compared with other ecological dynamic models, our framework includes theories that are easy to understand and has modest requirements for assembly and scientific expertise. Moreover, this framework can objectively assess the influence of hydrological and water quality variance on aquatic biota with simpler theory and little expertise. Therefore, it is easy to be put into practice and can provide a scientific support for decisions in ecological restoration made by river administrators and stakeholders across the world.

A quality management model for radiation oncology physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sternick, E.S.

1991-01-01

State-of-the-art radiation physics quality programs operate in a data rich environment. Given the abundance of recordable events, any formalism that serves to identify and monitor a set of attributes correlated with quality is to be regarded as an important management tool. The hierarchical tree structure model describes one such useful planning method. Of the several different types of tree structures, one of the most appropriate for quality management is the pyramid model. In this model, the associations between an overall program objective and the intermediate steps leading to its attainment, are indicated by both horizontal and vertical connectors. The overall objective of the system under study occupies the vertex of the pyramid, while the level immediately below contains its principal components. Further subdivisions of each component occur in successively lower levels. The tree finally terminates at a base level consisting of actions or requirements that must be fulfilled in order to satisfy the overall objective. A pyramid model for a radiation oncology physics quality program is discussed in detail. (author). 21 refs., 4 figs., 6 tabs

Air Quality Modelling and the National Emission Database

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, S. S.

The project focuses on development of institutional strengthening to be able to carry out national air emission inventories based on the CORINAIR methodology. The present report describes the link between emission inventories and air quality modelling to ensure that the new national air emission...... inventory is able to take into account the data requirements of air quality models...

Klang River water quality modelling using music

Science.gov (United States)

Zahari, Nazirul Mubin; Zawawi, Mohd Hafiz; Muda, Zakaria Che; Sidek, Lariyah Mohd; Fauzi, Nurfazila Mohd; Othman, Mohd Edzham Fareez; Ahmad, Zulkepply

2017-09-01

Water is an essential resource that sustains life on earth; changes in the natural quality and distribution of water have ecological impacts that can sometimes be devastating. Recently, Malaysia is facing many environmental issues regarding water pollution. The main causes of river pollution are rapid urbanization, arising from the development of residential, commercial, industrial sites, infrastructural facilities and others. The purpose of the study was to predict the water quality of the Connaught Bridge Power Station (CBPS), Klang River. Besides that, affects to the low tide and high tide and. to forecast the pollutant concentrations of the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solid (TSS) for existing land use of the catchment area through water quality modeling (by using the MUSIC software). Besides that, to identifying an integrated urban stormwater treatment system (Best Management Practice or BMPs) to achieve optimal performance in improving the water quality of the catchment using the MUSIC software in catchment areas having tropical climates. Result from MUSIC Model such as BOD5 at station 1 can be reduce the concentration from Class IV to become Class III. Whereas, for TSS concentration from Class III to become Class II at the station 1. The model predicted a mean TSS reduction of 0.17%, TP reduction of 0.14%, TN reduction of 0.48% and BOD5 reduction of 0.31% for Station 1 Thus, from the result after purposed BMPs the water quality is safe to use because basically water quality monitoring is important due to threat such as activities are harmful to aquatic organisms and public health.

Hydrodynamic modelling of recreational water quality using Escherichia coli as an indicator of microbial contamination

Science.gov (United States)

Eregno, Fasil Ejigu; Tryland, Ingun; Tjomsland, Torulv; Kempa, Magdalena; Heistad, Arve

2018-06-01

Microbial contamination of recreational beaches is often at its worst after heavy rainfall events due to storm floods that carry fecal matter and other pollutants from the watershed. Similarly, overflows of untreated sewage from combined sewerage systems may discharge directly into coastal water or via rivers and streams. In order to understand the effect of rainfall events, wind-directions and tides on the recreational water quality, GEMSS, an integrated 3D hydrodynamic model was applied to assess the spreading of Escherichia coli (E. coli) at the Sandvika beaches, located in the Oslo fjord. The model was also used to theoretically investigate the effect of discharges from septic tanks from boats on the water quality at local beaches. The model make use of microbial decay rate as the main input representing the survival of microbial pathogens in the ocean, which vary widely depending on the type of pathogen and environmental stress. The predicted beach water quality was validated against observed data after a heavy rainfall event using Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (E) and the overall result indicated that the model performed quite well and the simulation was in - good agreement with the observed E. coli concentrations for all beaches. The result of this study indicated that: 1) the bathing water quality was poor according to the EU bathing water directive up to two days after the heavy rainfall event depending on the location of the beach site. 2) The discharge from a boat at 300-meter distance to the beaches slightly increased the E. coli levels at the beaches. 3) The spreading of microbial pathogens from its source to the different beaches depended on the wind speed and the wind direction.

Representing environment-induced helix-coil transitions in a coarse grained peptide model

Science.gov (United States)

Dalgicdir, Cahit; Globisch, Christoph; Sayar, Mehmet; Peter, Christine

2016-10-01

Coarse grained (CG) models are widely used in studying peptide self-assembly and nanostructure formation. One of the recurrent challenges in CG modeling is the problem of limited transferability, for example to different thermodynamic state points and system compositions. Understanding transferability is generally a prerequisite to knowing for which problems a model can be reliably used and predictive. For peptides, one crucial transferability question is whether a model reproduces the molecule's conformational response to a change in its molecular environment. This is of particular importance since CG peptide models often have to resort to auxiliary interactions that aid secondary structure formation. Such interactions take care of properties of the real system that are per se lost in the coarse graining process such as dihedral-angle correlations along the backbone or backbone hydrogen bonding. These auxiliary interactions may then easily overstabilize certain conformational propensities and therefore destroy the ability of the model to respond to stimuli and environment changes, i.e. they impede transferability. In the present paper we have investigated a short peptide with amphiphilic EALA repeats which undergoes conformational transitions between a disordered and a helical state upon a change in pH value or due to the presence of a soft apolar/polar interface. We designed a base CG peptide model that does not carry a specific (backbone) bias towards a secondary structure. This base model was combined with two typical approaches of ensuring secondary structure formation, namely a C α -C α -C α -C α pseudodihedral angle potential or a virtual site interaction that mimics hydrogen bonding. We have investigated the ability of the two resulting CG models to represent the environment-induced conformational changes in the helix-coil equilibrium of EALA. We show that with both approaches a CG peptide model can be obtained that is environment-transferable and that

Predictive model for determining the quality of a call

Science.gov (United States)

Voznak, M.; Rozhon, J.; Partila, P.; Safarik, J.; Mikulec, M.; Mehic, M.

2014-05-01

In this paper the predictive model for speech quality estimation is described. This model allows its user to gain the information about the speech quality in VoIP networks without the need of performing the actual call and the consecutive time consuming sound file evaluation. This rapidly increases usability of the speech quality measurement especially in high load networks, where the actual processing of all calls is rendered difficult or even impossible. This model can reach its results that are highly conformant with the PESQ algorithm only based on the network state parameters that are easily obtainable by the commonly used software tools. Experiments were carried out to investigate whether different languages (English, Czech) have an effect on perceived voice quality for the same network conditions and the language factor was incorporated directly into the model.

Urban Hydrology and Water Quality Modeling - Resolution Modeling Comparison for Water Quantity and Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Fry, T. J.; Maxwell, R. M.

2014-12-01

Urbanization presents challenging water resource problems for communities worldwide. The hydromodifications associated with urbanization results in increased runoff rates and volumes and increased peak flows. These hydrologic changes can lead to increased erosion and stream destabilization, decreased evapotranspiration, decreased ground water recharge, increases in pollutant loading, and localized anthropogenic climate change or Urban Heat Islands. Stormwater represents a complex and dynamic component of the urban water cycle that requires careful mitigation. With the implementation of Phase II rules under the CWA, stormwater management is shifting from a drainage-efficiency focus to a natural systems focus. The natural system focus, referred to as Low Impact Development (LID), or Green Infrastructure, uses best management practices (BMPs) to reduce the impacts caused by urbanization hydromodification. Large-scale patterns of stormwater runoff from urban environments are complex and it is unclear what the large-scale impacts of green infrastructure are on the water cycle. High resolution physically based hydrologic models can be used to more accurately simulate the urban hydrologic cycle. These types of models tend to be more dynamic and allow for greater flexibility in evaluating and accounting for various hydrologic processes in the urban environment that may be lost with lower resolution conceptual models. We propose to evaluate the effectiveness of high resolution models to accurately represent and determine the urban hydrologic cycle with the overall goal of being able to accurately assess the impacts of LID BMPs in urban environments. We propose to complete a rigorous model intercomparison between ParFlow and FLO-2D. Both of these models can be scaled to higher resolutions, allow for rainfall to be spatially and temporally input, and solve the shallow water equations. Each model is different in the way it accounts for infiltration, initial abstraction losses

Quality assessment in higher education using the SERVQUALQ model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabina Đonlagić

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is striving towards growth and increased employment and it has been proven by empirical studies worldwide that higher education contributes to socio-economic development of a country. Universities are important for generation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge in order to contribute to socio-economic benefits of a country. Higher education institutions are being pressured to improve value for their activities and providing quality higher education service to students should be taken seriously. In this paper we will address the emerging demand for quality in higher education. Higher education institutions should assess quality of their services and establish methods for improving quality. Activities of quality assurance should be integrated into the management process at higher education institutions. This paper is addressing the issue of service quality measurement in higher education institutions. The most frequently used model in this context is the SERVQUAL model. This model is measuring quality from the students' point of view, since students are considered to be one of the most important stakeholders for a higher education institution. The main objective of this research is to provide empirical evidence that the adapted SERVQAL model can be used in higher education and to identify the service quality gap based on its application at one institution of higher education (Faculty of Economics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, results of the gap analysis using the SERVQUAL methodology provide relevant information in which areas improvement is necessary in order to enhance service quality.

Source apportionment of population representative samples of PM(2.5) in three European cities using structural equation modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Ilacqua, Vito; Hänninen, Otto; Saarela, Kristina; Katsouyanni, Klea; Künzli, Nino; Jantunen, Matti

2007-10-01

Apportionment of urban particulate matter (PM) to sources is central for air quality management and efficient reduction of the substantial public health risks associated with fine particles (PM(2.5)). Traffic is an important source combustion particles, but also a significant source of resuspended particles that chemically resemble Earth's crust and that are not affected by development of cleaner motor technologies. A substantial fraction of urban ambient PM originates from long-range transport outside the immediate urban environment including secondary particles formed from gaseous emissions of mainly sulphur, nitrogen oxides and ammonia. Most source apportionment studies are based on small number of fixed monitoring sites and capture well population exposures to regional and long-range transported particles. However, concentrations from local sources are very unevenly distributed and the results from such studies are therefore poorly representative of the actual exposures. The current study uses PM(2.5) data observed at population based random sampled residential locations in Athens, Basle and Helsinki with 17 elemental constituents, selected VOCs (xylenes, trimethylbenzenes, nonane and benzene) and light absorbance (black smoke). The major sources identified across the three cities included crustal, salt, long-range transported inorganic and traffic sources. Traffic was associated separately with source categories with crustal (especially Athens and Helsinki) and long-range transported chemical composition (all cities). Remarkably high fractions of the variability of elemental (R(2)>0.6 except for Ca in Basle 0.38) and chemical concentrations (R(2)>0.5 except benzene in Basle 0.22 and nonane in Athens 0.39) are explained by the source factors of an SEM model. The RAINS model that is currently used as the main tool in developing European air quality management policies seems to capture the local urban fraction (the city delta term) quite well, but underestimates

Development of Water Quality Modeling in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

This presentation describes historical trends in water quality model development in the United States, reviews current efforts, and projects promising future directions. Water quality modeling has a relatively long history in the United States. While its origins lie in the work...

SU-C-BRD-01: A Statistical Modeling Method for Quality Control of Intensity- Modulated Radiation Therapy Planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, S; Meyer, R; Shi, L; D'Souza, W; Zhang, H

2014-01-01

Purpose: To apply a statistical modeling approach, threshold modeling (TM), for quality control of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plans. Methods: A quantitative measure, which was the weighted sum of violations of dose/dose-volume constraints, was first developed to represent the quality of each IMRT plan. Threshold modeling approach, which is is an extension of extreme value theory in statistics and is an effect way to model extreme values, was then applied to analyze the quality of the plans summarized by our quantitative measures. Our approach modeled the plans generated by planners as a series of independent and identically distributed random variables and described the behaviors of them if the plan quality was controlled below certain threshold. We tested our approach with five locally advanced head and neck cancer patients retrospectively. Two statistics were incorporated for numerical analysis: probability of quality improvement (PQI) of the plans and expected amount of improvement on the quantitative measure (EQI). Results: After clinical planners generated 15 plans for each patient, we applied our approach to obtain the PQI and EQI as if planners would generate additional 15 plans. For two of the patients, the PQI was significantly higher than the other three (0.17 and 0.18 comparing to 0.08, 0.01 and 0.01). The actual percentage of the additional 15 plans that outperformed the best of initial 15 plans was 20% and 27% comparing to 11%, 0% and 0%. EQI for the two potential patients were 34.5 and 32.9 and the rest of three patients were 9.9, 1.4 and 6.6. The actual improvements obtained were 28.3 and 20.5 comparing to 6.2, 0 and 0. Conclusion: TM is capable of reliably identifying the potential quality improvement of IMRT plans. It provides clinicians an effective tool to assess the trade-off between extra planning effort and achievable plan quality. This work was supported in part by NIH/NCI grant CA130814

Representing Reservoir Stratification in Land Surface and Earth System Models

Science.gov (United States)

Yigzaw, W.; Li, H. Y.; Leung, L. R.; Hejazi, M. I.; Voisin, N.; Payn, R. A.; Demissie, Y.

2017-12-01

A one-dimensional reservoir stratification modeling has been developed as part of Model for Scale Adaptive River Transport (MOSART), which is the river transport model used in the Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME) and Community Earth System Model (CESM). Reservoirs play an important role in modulating the dynamic water, energy and biogeochemical cycles in the riverine system through nutrient sequestration and stratification. However, most earth system models include lake models that assume a simplified geometry featuring a constant depth and a constant surface area. As reservoir geometry has important effects on thermal stratification, we developed a new algorithm for deriving generic, stratified area-elevation-storage relationships that are applicable at regional and global scales using data from Global Reservoir and Dam database (GRanD). This new reservoir geometry dataset is then used to support the development of a reservoir stratification module within MOSART. The mixing of layers (energy and mass) in the reservoir is driven by eddy diffusion, vertical advection, and reservoir inflow and outflow. Upstream inflow into a reservoir is treated as an additional source/sink of energy, while downstream outflow represented a sink. Hourly atmospheric forcing from North American Land Assimilation System (NLDAS) Phase II and simulated daily runoff by ACME land component are used as inputs for the model over the contiguous United States for simulations between 2001-2010. The model is validated using selected observed temperature profile data in a number of reservoirs that are subject to various levels of regulation. The reservoir stratification module completes the representation of riverine mass and heat transfer in earth system models, which is a major step towards quantitative understanding of human influences on the terrestrial hydrological, ecological and biogeochemical cycles.

Work environment quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Herman; Busck, Ole Gunni; Lind, Jens

2011-01-01

The article explores how employee participation influences the quality of the work environment and workers’ well-being at 11 Danish workplaces from within six different industries. Both direct participation and representative forms of participation at the workplace level were studied. Statistical...... as well as qualitative comparative analyses reveal that work environment quality and high levels of participation go hand in hand. Within a typology of participation models the highest level of participation, including strong elements of collective participation, and also the best work environment...

Mathematical models for atmospheric pollutants. Appendix D. Available air quality models. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drake, R.L.; McNaughton, D.J.; Huang, C.

1979-08-01

Models that are available for the analysis of airborne pollutants are summarized. In addition, recommendations are given concerning the use of particular models to aid in particular air quality decision making processes. The air quality models are characterized in terms of time and space scales, steady state or time dependent processes, reference frames, reaction mechanisms, treatment of turbulence and topography, and model uncertainty. Using these characteristics, the models are classified in the following manner: simple deterministic models, such as air pollution indices, simple area source models and rollback models; statistical models, such as averaging time models, time series analysis and multivariate analysis; local plume and puff models; box and multibox models; finite difference or grid models; particle models; physical models, such as wind tunnels and liquid flumes; regional models; and global models

Hydrologic and Water Quality Model Development Using Simulink

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James D. Bowen

2014-11-01

Full Text Available A stormwater runoff model based on the Soil Conservation Service (SCS method and a finite-volume based water quality model have been developed to investigate the use of Simulink for use in teaching and research. Simulink, a MATLAB extension, is a graphically based model development environment for system modeling and simulation. Widely used for mechanical and electrical systems, Simulink has had less use for modeling of hydrologic systems. The watershed model is being considered for use in teaching graduate-level courses in hydrology and/or stormwater modeling. Simulink’s block (data process and arrow (data transfer object model, the copy and paste user interface, the large number of existing blocks, and the absence of computer code allows students to become model developers almost immediately. The visual depiction of systems, their component subsystems, and the flow of data through the systems are ideal attributes for hands-on teaching of hydrologic and mass balance processes to today’s computer-savvy visual learners. Model development with Simulink for research purposes is also investigated. A finite volume, multi-layer pond model using the water quality kinetics present in CE-QUAL-W2 has been developed using Simulink. The model is one of the first uses of Simulink for modeling eutrophication dynamics in stratified natural systems. The model structure and a test case are presented. One use of the model for teaching a graduate-level water quality modeling class is also described.

Fuzzy model for determination and assessment of groundwater quality in the city of Zrenjanin, Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiurski-Milosević Jelena Ž.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The application of the fuzzy logic for determination and assessment of the chemical quality of groundwater for drinking purposes in the city of Zrenjanin is presented. The degree of certainty and uncertainties are one of the problems in the most commonly used methods for assessing the water quality. Fuzzy logic can successfully handle these problems. Evaluation of fuzzy model was carried out on the samples from two representative wells that are located at depths of two aquifers from which water is taken to supply the population as drinking water. The samples were analyzed on 8 different chemical water quality parameters. In the research arsenic concentration (As3+, As5+ is considered as the dominant parameter due to its suspecting carcinogenic effects on human health. This type of research is for the first time conducted in the city of Zrenjanin, middle Banat region. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. MNTR174009 i br. TR34014

Modeling and simulation of different and representative engineering problems using Network Simulation Method.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Pérez, J F; Marín, F; Morales, J L; Cánovas, M; Alhama, F

2018-01-01

Mathematical models simulating different and representative engineering problem, atomic dry friction, the moving front problems and elastic and solid mechanics are presented in the form of a set of non-linear, coupled or not coupled differential equations. For different parameters values that influence the solution, the problem is numerically solved by the network method, which provides all the variables of the problems. Although the model is extremely sensitive to the above parameters, no assumptions are considered as regards the linearization of the variables. The design of the models, which are run on standard electrical circuit simulation software, is explained in detail. The network model results are compared with common numerical methods or experimental data, published in the scientific literature, to show the reliability of the model.

Does High School Facility Quality Affect Student Achievement? A Two-Level Hierarchical Linear Model

Science.gov (United States)

Bowers, Alex J.; Urick, Angela

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to isolate the independent effects of high school facility quality on student achievement using a large, nationally representative U.S. database of student achievement and school facility quality. Prior research on linking school facility quality to student achievement has been mixed. Studies that relate overall…

Hybrid Model for e-Learning Quality Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suzana M. Savic

2012-02-01

Full Text Available E-learning is becoming increasingly important for the competitive advantage of economic organizations and higher education institutions. Therefore, it is becoming a significant aspect of quality which has to be integrated into the management system of every organization or institution. The paper examines e-learning quality characteristics, standards, criteria and indicators and presents a multi-criteria hybrid model for e-learning quality evaluation based on the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process, trend analysis, and data comparison.

Impact of inherent meteorology uncertainty on air quality model predictions

Science.gov (United States)

It is well established that there are a number of different classifications and sources of uncertainties in environmental modeling systems. Air quality models rely on two key inputs, namely, meteorology and emissions. When using air quality models for decision making, it is impor...

Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM), released in 2002, is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Modeling and simulation of different and representative engineering problems using Network Simulation Method

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Mathematical models simulating different and representative engineering problem, atomic dry friction, the moving front problems and elastic and solid mechanics are presented in the form of a set of non-linear, coupled or not coupled differential equations. For different parameters values that influence the solution, the problem is numerically solved by the network method, which provides all the variables of the problems. Although the model is extremely sensitive to the above parameters, no assumptions are considered as regards the linearization of the variables. The design of the models, which are run on standard electrical circuit simulation software, is explained in detail. The network model results are compared with common numerical methods or experimental data, published in the scientific literature, to show the reliability of the model. PMID:29518121

Development of a method for the classification of geochemical data quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sugita, Kenichirou

2005-03-01

This report describes the development of a method for the classification of geochemical data quality. The project had four tasks: (1) review of quality information; (2) development of Evidence Support Logic (ESL) models; (3) development of rules for choosing parameter values; (4) classification of existing data. During H15, JNC developed a preliminary system for classifying groundwater chemical data according to its quality. This system gives a very general indication of data quality, but has a number of limitations. Notably, it is based on adding together scores for individual quality indicators, so that high scores given by some indicators tend to compensate for low scores given by other indicators. Additionally, the system does not distinguish between cases where data quality is poor and cases where data quality is unknown. A further limitation is that the system is based on only a small number of the quality indicators that could be used. By using ESL to develop a new system for classifying geochemical data quality, these limitations can be avoided. This methodology involves weighing evidence for and against a particular hypothesis being true or reliable. Varied evidence, which may be quantitative or qualitative, can be evaluated in an integrated fashion. A process model is constructed to link a hypothesis of interest to evidence corresponding to observations and quantitative data, usually via intermediate processes. An arithmetical approach is then used to propagate evidence through the model. Thus, the approach does not rely on simple addition of quality scores for individual parameters. In this project, evidence for and evidence against the hypothesis that groundwater chemical data represent in-situ conditions are evaluated independently. Both kinds of evidence are represented using numerical scales from 0 to 1. Lack of information about data quality is then represented by 1 - evidence for - evidence against. In this way the situation where the available

Representing Uncertainty by Probability and Possibility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

of uncertain parameters. Monte Carlo simulation is readily used for practical calculations. However, an alternative approach is offered by possibility theory making use of possibility distributions such as intervals and fuzzy intervals. This approach is well suited to represent lack of knowledge or imprecision......Uncertain parameters in modeling are usually represented by probability distributions reflecting either the objective uncertainty of the parameters or the subjective belief held by the model builder. This approach is particularly suited for representing the statistical nature or variance...

MOOC Quality: The Need for New Measures

Science.gov (United States)

Hood, Nina; Littlejohn, Allison

2016-01-01

MOOCs are re-operationalising traditional concepts in education. While they draw on elements of existing educational and learning models, they represent a new approach to instruction and learning. The challenges MOOCs present to traditional education models have important implications for approaching and assessing quality. This paper foregrounds…

Mathematical modelling of the process of quality control of construction products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pogorelov Vadim

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The study presents the results of years of research in the field of quality management of industrial production construction production, based on mathematical modelling techniques, process and results of implementing the developed programme of monitoring and quality control in the production process of the enterprise. The aim of this work is the presentation of scientific community of the practical results of mathematical modelling in application programs. In the course of the research addressed the description of the applied mathematical models, views, practical results of its application in the applied field to assess quality control. The authors used this mathematical model in practice. The article presents the results of applying this model. The authors developed the experimental software management and quality assessment by using mathematical modeling methods. The authors continue research in this direction to improve the diagnostic systems and quality management systems based on mathematical modeling methods prognostic and diagnostic processes.

Tracers and traceability: implementing the cirrus parameterisation from LACM in the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT chemistry transport model as an example of the application of quality assurance to legacy models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. M. Horseman

2010-03-01

Full Text Available A new modelling tool for the investigation of large-scale behaviour of cirrus clouds has been developed. This combines two existing models, the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT chemistry transport model (nupdate library version 0.80, script mpc346_l and cirrus parameterisation of Ren and MacKenzie (LACM implementation not versioned. The development process employed a subset of best-practice software engineering and quality assurance processes, selected to be viable for small-scale projects whilst maintaining the same traceability objectives. The application of the software engineering and quality control processes during the development has been shown to be not a great overhead, and their use has been of benefit to the developers as well as the end users of the results. We provide a step-by-step guide to the implementation of traceability tailored to the production of geo-scientific research software, as distinct from commercial and operational software. Our recommendations include: maintaining a living "requirements list"; explicit consideration of unit, integration and acceptance testing; and automated revision/configuration control, including control of analysis tool scripts and programs.

Initial testing of the resulting model against satellite and in-situ measurements has been promising. The model produces representative results for both spatial distribution of the frequency of occurrence of cirrus ice, and the drying of air as it moves across the tropical tropopause. The model is now ready for more rigorous quantitative testing, but will require the addition of a vertical wind velocity downscaling scheme to better represent extra-tropical continental cirrus.

River water quality model no. 1 (RWQM1): I. Modelling approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shanahan, P.; Borchardt, D.; Henze, Mogens

2001-01-01

Successful river water quality modelling requires the specification of an appropriate model structure and process formulation. Both must be related to the compartment structure of running water ecosystems including their longitudinal, vertical, and lateral zonation patterns. Furthermore...

Quality control of geological voxel models using experts' gaze

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maanen, P.P. van; Busschers, F.S.; Brouwer, A.M.; Meulen, M.J. van der; Erp, J.B.F. van

2015-01-01

Due to an expected increase in geological voxel model data-flow and user demands, the development of improved quality control for such models is crucial. This study explores the potential of a new type of quality control that improves the detection of errors by just using gaze behavior of 12

Quality Control of Geological Voxel Models using Experts' Gaze

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Maanen, Peter-Paul; Busschers, Freek S.; Brouwer, Anne-Marie; van der Meulendijk, Michiel J.; van Erp, Johannes Bernardus Fransiscus

Due to an expected increase in geological voxel model data-flow and user demands, the development of improved quality control for such models is crucial. This study explores the potential of a new type of quality control that improves the detection of errors by just using gaze behavior of 12

Application of the health and fitness service quality scale (HAFSQ) in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Service quality in health and recreational services represents a growing, yet currently understudied area in the service industry. Consequently, this study proposes an integrated model of health and fitness service quality and examines the relationship among service quality, satisfaction and loyalty. A thirty-nine item health ...

Dietary intake patterns and diet quality in a nationally representative sample of women with and without severe headache or migraine.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, E Whitney; Lipton, Richard B; Peterlin, B Lee; Raynor, Hollie A; Thomas, J Graham; O'Leary, Kevin C; Pavlovic, Jelena; Wing, Rena R; Bond, Dale S

2015-04-01

The role of diet in migraine is not well understood. We sought to characterize usual dietary intake patterns and diet quality in a nationally representative sample of women with and without severe headache or migraine. We also examined whether the relationship between migraine and diet differs by weight status. In this analysis, women with migraine or severe headache status was determined by questionnaire for 3069 women, ages 20-50 years, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1999-2004. Women who experienced severe headaches or migraines were classified as migraine for the purposes of this analysis. Dietary intake patterns (micro- and macronutrient intake and eating frequency) and diet quality, measured by the Healthy Eating Index, 2005, were determined using one 24-hour dietary recall. Dietary intake patterns did not significantly differ between women with and without migraine. Normal weight women with migraine had significantly lower diet quality (Healthy Eating Index, 2005 total scores) than women without migraine (52.5 ± 0.9 vs. 45.9 ± 1.0; P quality differs by migraine status in normal weight women. Prospective analyses are needed to establish how diet relates to migraine onset, characteristics, and clinical features in individuals of varying weight status. © 2015 American Headache Society.

Embryo quality predictive models based on cumulus cells gene expression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devjak R

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Since the introduction of in vitro fertilization (IVF in clinical practice of infertility treatment, the indicators for high quality embryos were investigated. Cumulus cells (CC have a specific gene expression profile according to the developmental potential of the oocyte they are surrounding, and therefore, specific gene expression could be used as a biomarker. The aim of our study was to combine more than one biomarker to observe improvement in prediction value of embryo development. In this study, 58 CC samples from 17 IVF patients were analyzed. This study was approved by the Republic of Slovenia National Medical Ethics Committee. Gene expression analysis [quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR] for five genes, analyzed according to embryo quality level, was performed. Two prediction models were tested for embryo quality prediction: a binary logistic and a decision tree model. As the main outcome, gene expression levels for five genes were taken and the area under the curve (AUC for two prediction models were calculated. Among tested genes, AMHR2 and LIF showed significant expression difference between high quality and low quality embryos. These two genes were used for the construction of two prediction models: the binary logistic model yielded an AUC of 0.72 ± 0.08 and the decision tree model yielded an AUC of 0.73 ± 0.03. Two different prediction models yielded similar predictive power to differentiate high and low quality embryos. In terms of eventual clinical decision making, the decision tree model resulted in easy-to-interpret rules that are highly applicable in clinical practice.

Technical note: Representing glacier geometry changes in a semi-distributed hydrological model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Seibert

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Glaciers play an important role in high-mountain hydrology. While changing glacier areas are considered of highest importance for the understanding of future changes in runoff, glaciers are often only poorly represented in hydrological models. Most importantly, the direct coupling between the simulated glacier mass balances and changing glacier areas needs feasible solutions. The use of a complex glacier model is often not possible due to data and computational limitations. The Δh parameterization is a simple approach to consider the spatial variation of glacier thickness and area changes. Here, we describe a conceptual implementation of the Δh parameterization in the semi-distributed hydrological model HBV-light, which also allows for the representation of glacier advance phases and for comparison between the different versions of the implementation. The coupled glacio-hydrological simulation approach, which could also be implemented in many other semi-distributed hydrological models, is illustrated based on an example application.

The Lived Environment Life Quality Model for institutionalized people with dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Wendy; Lampe, Jenna L; Logan, Christina A; Metcalfe, Amy R; Hoesly, Beth E

2017-02-01

There is a need for a conceptual practice model that explicates ecological complexities involved in using occupation to optimize the quality of life of institutionalized people with dementia. This study aimed to prepare the Lived Environment Life Quality Model, a dementia-specific conceptual practice model of occupational therapy in institutional facilities, for publication and application to practice. Interviews and focus groups with six expert occupational therapists were subjected to qualitative content analysis to confirm, disconfirm, and further develop the model. The model's lived-environment domain as the focus of assessment and intervention was extensively confirmed, and its quality-of-life domain as the focus of intervention goals and outcomes was both confirmed and further developed. As confirmed in this study, the Lived Environment Life Quality Model is a client-centred, ecologically valid, and occupation-focused guide to optimizing quality of life of institutionalized adults with dementia in present moments and progressively over time.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MODELS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND CSR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CĂTĂLINA SITNIKOV

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Lately, the quality management has integrated more and more among its components Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR. With strong roots in the foundation for sustainable development, protection of the environment, issues of social justness and economic growth, CSR raises numerous issues related to obtaining profits, business performance and firms and activities based on the quality of management. From the point of view of the last issues, the models of quality management built on the fundamental principles of quality become the foundation and catalyst for the effective implementation of CSR in organizations. This is the reason why it is necessary to investigate the extent to which quality management models provide frameworks and guidelines for integrating CSR in the management of quality and, moreover, in the management of the organization, with a clear focus on the extent to which the concept can be institutionalized and operated by the organization.

Adding Postal Follow-Up to a Web-Based Survey of Primary Care and Gastroenterology Clinic Physician Chiefs Improved Response Rates but not Response Quality or Representativeness.

Science.gov (United States)

Partin, Melissa R; Powell, Adam A; Burgess, Diana J; Haggstrom, David A; Gravely, Amy A; Halek, Krysten; Bangerter, Ann; Shaukat, Aasma; Nelson, David B

2015-09-01

This study assessed whether postal follow-up to a web-based physician survey improves response rates, response quality, and representativeness. We recruited primary care and gastroenterology chiefs at 125 Veterans Affairs medical facilities to complete a 10-min web-based survey on colorectal cancer screening and diagnostic practices in 2010. We compared response rates, response errors, and representativeness in the primary care and gastroenterology samples before and after adding postal follow-up. Adding postal follow-up increased response rates by 20-25 percentage points; markedly greater increases than predicted from a third e-mail reminder. In the gastroenterology sample, the mean number of response errors made by web responders (0.25) was significantly smaller than the mean number made by postal responders (2.18), and web responders provided significantly longer responses to open-ended questions. There were no significant differences in these outcomes in the primary care sample. Adequate representativeness was achieved before postal follow-up in both samples, as indicated by the lack of significant differences between web responders and the recruitment population on facility characteristics. We conclude adding postal follow-up to this web-based physician leader survey improved response rates but not response quality or representativeness. © The Author(s) 2013.

Representing the Marginal Stability of Peptides in Coarse Grained Models

Science.gov (United States)

Sayar, Mehmet; Dalgicdir, Cahit; Ramezanghorbani, Farhad

Tertiary structure of proteins is only marginally stable; such that the folded structure is separated from local minima by as little as 10 kcal/mol. In particular for intrinsically disordered peptides, this marginal stability is key to understanding their complex behavior. Bottom-up coarse grained (CG) models for proteins/peptides which rely on structural and/or thermodynamic reference data from experiments or all atom simulations inherently focus on the equilibrium structure and fail to capture the conformational dynamics of the molecule. In this study, we present a CG model for a synthetic peptide, LK, which successfully captures the conformational flexibility of the molecule in different environments. LK peptide is composed of leucine and lysine residues and displays a stark conformational transition from a degenerate conformation in dilute solution to a fully stable alpha-helix at macroscopic and molecular interfaces. In this study we demonstrate that by carefully combining atomistic references from both the unfolded and folded states, one can create a CG model that can represent not only the folded state, but also the conformational transitions that the peptide exhibits in response to changes in the environment. M. Sayar thanks TÜBİTAK (Grant No. 212T184) and TÜBA Distinguished Young Scientist Award (2012 awardee) for financial support.

A pilot modeling technique for handling-qualities research

Science.gov (United States)

Hess, R. A.

1980-01-01

A brief survey of the more dominant analysis techniques used in closed-loop handling-qualities research is presented. These techniques are shown to rely on so-called classical and modern analytical models of the human pilot which have their foundation in the analysis and design principles of feedback control. The optimal control model of the human pilot is discussed in some detail and a novel approach to the a priori selection of pertinent model parameters is discussed. Frequency domain and tracking performance data from 10 pilot-in-the-loop simulation experiments involving 3 different tasks are used to demonstrate the parameter selection technique. Finally, the utility of this modeling approach in handling-qualities research is discussed.

Software Quality Assessment Tool Based on Meta-Models

OpenAIRE

Doneva Rositsa; Gaftandzhieva Silvia; Doneva Zhelyana; Staevsky Nevena

2015-01-01

In the software industry it is indisputably essential to control the quality of produced software systems in terms of capabilities for easy maintenance, reuse, portability and others in order to ensure reliability in the software development. But it is also clear that it is very difficult to achieve such a control through a ‘manual’ management of quality.There are a number of approaches for software quality assurance based typically on software quality models (e.g. ISO 9126, McCall’s, Boehm’s...

Optimum profit model considering production, quality and sale problem

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chung-Ho; Lu, Chih-Lun

2011-12-01

Chen and Liu ['Procurement Strategies in the Presence of the Spot Market-an Analytical Framework', Production Planning and Control, 18, 297-309] presented the optimum profit model between the producers and the purchasers for the supply chain system with a pure procurement policy. However, their model with a simple manufacturing cost did not consider the used cost of the customer. In this study, the modified Chen and Liu's model will be addressed for determining the optimum product and process parameters. The authors propose a modified Chen and Liu's model under the two-stage screening procedure. The surrogate variable having a high correlation with the measurable quality characteristic will be directly measured in the first stage. The measurable quality characteristic will be directly measured in the second stage when the product decision cannot be determined in the first stage. The used cost of the customer will be measured by adopting Taguchi's quadratic quality loss function. The optimum purchaser's order quantity, the producer's product price and the process quality level will be jointly determined by maximising the expected profit between them.

A model-driven approach for representing clinical archetypes for Semantic Web environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Costa, Catalina; Menárguez-Tortosa, Marcos; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás; Maldonado, José Alberto

2009-02-01

The life-long clinical information of any person supported by electronic means configures his Electronic Health Record (EHR). This information is usually distributed among several independent and heterogeneous systems that may be syntactically or semantically incompatible. There are currently different standards for representing and exchanging EHR information among different systems. In advanced EHR approaches, clinical information is represented by means of archetypes. Most of these approaches use the Archetype Definition Language (ADL) to specify archetypes. However, ADL has some drawbacks when attempting to perform semantic activities in Semantic Web environments. In this work, Semantic Web technologies are used to specify clinical archetypes for advanced EHR architectures. The advantages of using the Ontology Web Language (OWL) instead of ADL are described and discussed in this work. Moreover, a solution combining Semantic Web and Model-driven Engineering technologies is proposed to transform ADL into OWL for the CEN EN13606 EHR architecture.

How realistic are air quality hindcasts driven by forcings from climate model simulations?

Science.gov (United States)

Lacressonnière, G.; Peuch, V.-H.; Arteta, J.; Josse, B.; Joly, M.; Marécal, V.; Saint Martin, D.; Déqué, M.; Watson, L.

2012-12-01

Predicting how European air quality could evolve over the next decades in the context of changing climate requires the use of climate models to produce results that can be averaged in a climatologically and statistically sound manner. This is a very different approach from the one that is generally used for air quality hindcasts for the present period; analysed meteorological fields are used to represent specifically each date and hour. Differences arise both from the fact that a climate model run results in a pure model output, with no influence from observations (which are useful to correct for a range of errors), and that in a "climate" set-up, simulations on a given day, month or even season cannot be related to any specific period of time (but can just be interpreted in a climatological sense). Hence, although an air quality model can be thoroughly validated in a "realistic" set-up using analysed meteorological fields, the question remains of how far its outputs can be interpreted in a "climate" set-up. For this purpose, we focus on Europe and on the current decade using three 5-yr simulations performed with the multiscale chemistry-transport model MOCAGE and use meteorological forcings either from operational meteorological analyses or from climate simulations. We investigate how statistical skill indicators compare in the different simulations, discriminating also the effects of meteorology on atmospheric fields (winds, temperature, humidity, pressure, etc.) and on the dependent emissions and deposition processes (volatile organic compound emissions, deposition velocities, etc.). Our results show in particular how differing boundary layer heights and deposition velocities affect horizontal and vertical distributions of species. When the model is driven by operational analyses, the simulation accurately reproduces the observed values of O3, NOx, SO2 and, with some bias that can be explained by the set-up, PM10. We study how the simulations driven by climate

Innovations in projecting emissions for air quality modeling ...

Science.gov (United States)

Air quality modeling is used in setting air quality standards and in evaluating their costs and benefits. Historically, modeling applications have projected emissions and the resulting air quality only 5 to 10 years into the future. Recognition that the choice of air quality management strategy has climate change implications is encouraging longer modeling time horizons. However, for multi-decadal time horizons, many questions about future conditions arise. For example, will current population, economic, and land use trends continue, or will we see shifts that may alter the spatial and temporal pattern of emissions? Similarly, will technologies such as building-integrated solar photovoltaics, battery storage, electric vehicles, and CO2 capture emerge as disruptive technologies - shifting how we produce and use energy - or will these technologies achieve only niche markets and have little impact? These are some of the questions that are being evaluated by researchers within the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development. In this presentation, Dr. Loughlin will describe a range of analytical approaches that are being explored. These include: (i) the development of alternative scenarios of the future that can be used to evaluate candidate management strategies over wide-ranging conditions, (ii) the application of energy system models to project emissions decades into the future and to assess the environmental implications of new technologies, (iii) and methodo

Development and application of air quality models at the US ...

Science.gov (United States)

Overview of the development and application of air quality models at the U.S. EPA, particularly focused on the development and application of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model developed within the Computation Exposure Division (CED) of the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL). This presentation will provide a simple overview of air quality model development and application geared toward a non-technical student audience. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, process models, and decision support tools for use both within and outside of EPA.

Non-intrusive speech quality assessment in simplified e-model

OpenAIRE

Vozňák, Miroslav

2012-01-01

The E-model brings a modern approach to the computation of estimated quality, allowing for easy implementation. One of its advantages is that it can be applied in real time. The method is based on a mathematical computation model evaluating transmission path impairments influencing speech signal, especially delays and packet losses. These parameters, common in an IP network, can affect speech quality dramatically. The paper deals with a proposal for a simplified E-model and its pr...

LES of n-Dodecane Spray Combustion Using a Multiple Representative Interactive Flamelets Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davidovic Marco

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A single-hole n-dodecane spray flame is studied in a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES framework under Diesel-relevant conditions using a Multiple Representative Interactive Flamelets (MRIF combustion model. Diesel spray combustion is strongly affected by the mixture formation process, which is dominated by several physical processes such as the flow within the injector, break-up of the liquid fuel jet, evaporation and turbulent mixing with the surrounding gas. While the effects of nozzle-internal flow and primary breakup are captured within tuned model parameters in traditional Lagrangian spray models, an alternative approach is applied in this study, where the initial droplet conditions and primary fuel jet breakup are modeled based on results from highly resolved multiphase simulations with resolved interface. A highly reduced chemical mechanism consisting of 57 species and 217 reactions has been developed for n-dodecane achiving a good computational performance at solving the chemical reactions. The MRIF model, which has demonstrated its capability of capturing combustion and pollutant formation under typical Diesel conditions in Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS simulations is extended for the application in LES. In the standard RIF combustion model, representative chemistry conditioned on mixture fraction is solved interactively with the flow. Subfilter-scale mixing is modeled by the scalar dissipation rate. While the standard RIF model only includes temporal changes of the scalar dissipation rate, the spatial distribution can be accounted for by extending the model to multiple flamelets, which also enables the possibility of capturing different fuel residence times. Overall, the model shows good agreement with experimental data regarding both, low and high temperature combustion characteristics. It is shown that the ignition process and pollutant formation are affected by turbulent mixing. First, a cool flame is initiated at approximately

Assessment and prediction of air quality using fuzzy logic and autoregressive models

Science.gov (United States)

Carbajal-Hernández, José Juan; Sánchez-Fernández, Luis P.; Carrasco-Ochoa, Jesús A.; Martínez-Trinidad, José Fco.

2012-12-01

In recent years, artificial intelligence methods have been used for the treatment of environmental problems. This work, presents two models for assessment and prediction of air quality. First, we develop a new computational model for air quality assessment in order to evaluate toxic compounds that can harm sensitive people in urban areas, affecting their normal activities. In this model we propose to use a Sigma operator to statistically asses air quality parameters using their historical data information and determining their negative impact in air quality based on toxicity limits, frequency average and deviations of toxicological tests. We also introduce a fuzzy inference system to perform parameter classification using a reasoning process and integrating them in an air quality index describing the pollution levels in five stages: excellent, good, regular, bad and danger, respectively. The second model proposed in this work predicts air quality concentrations using an autoregressive model, providing a predicted air quality index based on the fuzzy inference system previously developed. Using data from Mexico City Atmospheric Monitoring System, we perform a comparison among air quality indices developed for environmental agencies and similar models. Our results show that our models are an appropriate tool for assessing site pollution and for providing guidance to improve contingency actions in urban areas.

Quality assurance of weather data for agricultural system model input

Science.gov (United States)

It is well known that crop production and hydrologic variation on watersheds is weather related. Rarely, however, is meteorological data quality checks reported for agricultural systems model research. We present quality assurance procedures for agricultural system model weather data input. Problems...

Non-intrusive Packet-Layer Model for Monitoring Video Quality of IPTV Services

Science.gov (United States)

Yamagishi, Kazuhisa; Hayashi, Takanori

Developing a non-intrusive packet-layer model is required to passively monitor the quality of experience (QoE) during service. We propose a packet-layer model that can be used to estimate the video quality of IPTV using quality parameters derived from transmitted packet headers. The computational load of the model is lighter than that of the model that takes video signals and/or video-related bitstream information such as motion vectors as input. This model is applicable even if the transmitted bitstream information is encrypted because it uses transmitted packet headers rather than bitstream information. For developing the model, we conducted three extensive subjective quality assessments for different encoders and decoders (codecs), and video content. Then, we modeled the subjective video quality assessment characteristics based on objective features affected by coding and packet loss. Finally, we verified the model's validity by applying our model to unknown data sets different from training data sets used above.

Designing the model for evaluating business quality in Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Ježovita

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The main objective of the paper includes designing a model for evaluating the financial quality of business operations. In that context, for the paper purposes, the financial quality of business operations is defined as an ability to achieve adequate value of individual financial ratios for financial position and performance evaluation. The objective of the model is to obtain comprehensive conclusion about the financial quality of business operation using only value of the function. Data used for designing the model is limited to financial data available from the annual balance sheet and income statement. Those limitations offer the opportunity for all sizes of companies from the non-financial business economy sector to use the designed model for evaluation purposes. Statistical methods used for designing the model are multivariate discriminant analysis and logistic regression. Discriminant analysis resulted in the function which includes five individual financial ratios with the best discriminant power. Respecting the results obtained in the classification matrix with classification accuracy of 95.92% by the original sample, or accuracy of 96.06% for the independent sample, it can be concluded that it is possible to evaluate the financial quality of business operations of companies in Croatia by using the model composed of individual financial ratios. Conducted logistic regression confirms the results obtained using discriminant analysis.

Data Quality Enhanced Prediction Model for Massive Plant Data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Moon-Ghu; Kang, Seong-Ki; Shin, Hajin

2016-01-01

This paper introduces an integrated signal preconditioning and model prediction mainly by kernel functions. The performance and benefits of the methods are demonstrated by a case study with measurement data from a power plant and its components transient data. The developed methods will be applied as a part of monitoring massive or big data platform where human experts cannot detect the fault behaviors due to too large size of the measurements. Recent extensive efforts for on-line monitoring implementation insists that a big surprise in the modeling for predicting process variables was the extent of data quality problems in measurement data especially for data-driven modeling. Bad data for training will be learned as normal and can make significant degrade in prediction performance. For this reason, the quantity and quality of measurement data in modeling phase need special care. Bad quality data must be removed from training sets to the bad data considered as normal system behavior. This paper presented an integrated structure of supervisory system for monitoring the plants or sensors performance. The quality of the data-driven model is improved with a bilateral kernel filter for preprocessing of the noisy data. The prediction module is also based on kernel regression having the same basis with noise filter. The model structure is optimized by a grouping process with nonlinear Hoeffding correlation function

Data Quality Enhanced Prediction Model for Massive Plant Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Moon-Ghu [Nuclear Engr. Sejong Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kang, Seong-Ki [Monitoring and Diagnosis, Suwon (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Hajin [Saint Paul Preparatory Seoul, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

This paper introduces an integrated signal preconditioning and model prediction mainly by kernel functions. The performance and benefits of the methods are demonstrated by a case study with measurement data from a power plant and its components transient data. The developed methods will be applied as a part of monitoring massive or big data platform where human experts cannot detect the fault behaviors due to too large size of the measurements. Recent extensive efforts for on-line monitoring implementation insists that a big surprise in the modeling for predicting process variables was the extent of data quality problems in measurement data especially for data-driven modeling. Bad data for training will be learned as normal and can make significant degrade in prediction performance. For this reason, the quantity and quality of measurement data in modeling phase need special care. Bad quality data must be removed from training sets to the bad data considered as normal system behavior. This paper presented an integrated structure of supervisory system for monitoring the plants or sensors performance. The quality of the data-driven model is improved with a bilateral kernel filter for preprocessing of the noisy data. The prediction module is also based on kernel regression having the same basis with noise filter. The model structure is optimized by a grouping process with nonlinear Hoeffding correlation function.

Water quality diagnosis system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagase, Makoto; Asakura, Yamato; Sakagami, Masaharu

1989-01-01

By using a model representing a relationship between the water quality parameter and the dose rate in primary coolant circuits of a water cooled reactor, forecasting for the feature dose rate and abnormality diagnosis for the water quality are conducted. The analysis model for forecasting the reactor water activity or the dose rate receives, as the input, estimated curves for the forecast Fe, Ni, Co concentration in feedwater or reactor water pH, etc. from the water quality data in the post and forecasts the future radioactivity or dose rate in the reactor water. By comparing the result of the forecast and the setting value such as an aimed value, it can be seen whether the water quality at present or estimated to be changed is satisfactory or not. If the quality is not satisfactory, it is possible to take an early countermeasure. Accordingly, the reactor water activity and the dose rate can be kept low. Further, the basic system constitution, diagnosis algorithm, indication, etc. are identical between BWR and PWR reactors, except for only the difference in the mass balance. (K.M.)

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model

Science.gov (United States)

Agresti, W. W.; Evanco, W. M.; Smith, M. C.

1990-01-01

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model are discussed. The overall research objective is to establish a capability to project a software system's quality from an analysis of its design. The technical approach is to build multivariate models for estimating reliability and maintainability. Data from 21 Ada subsystems were analyzed to test hypotheses about various design structures leading to failure-prone or unmaintainable systems. Current design variables highlight the interconnectivity and visibility of compilation units. Other model variables provide for the effects of reusability and software changes. Reported results are preliminary because additional project data is being obtained and new hypotheses are being developed and tested. Current multivariate regression models are encouraging, explaining 60 to 80 percent of the variation in error density of the subsystems.

Modeling of Cementitious Representative Volume Element with Additives

Science.gov (United States)

Shahzamanian, M. M.; Basirun, W. J.

CEMHYD3D has been employed to simulate the representative volume element (RVE) of cementitious systems (Type I cement) containing fly ash (Class F) through a voxel-based finite element analysis (FEA) approach. Three-dimensional microstructures composed of voxels are generated for a heterogeneous cementitious material consisting of various constituent phases. The primary focus is to simulate a cementitious RVE containing fly ash and to present the homogenized macromechanical properties obtained from its analysis. Simple kinematic uniform boundary conditions as well as periodic boundary conditions were imposed on the RVE to obtain the principal and shear moduli. Our current work considers the effect of fly ash percentage on the elastic properties based on the mass and volume replacements. RVEs with lengths of 50, 100 and 200μm at different degrees of hydration are generated, and the elastic properties are modeled and simulated. In general, the elastic properties of a cementitious RVE with fly ash replacement for cement based on mass and volume differ from each other. Moreover, the finite element (FE) mesh density effect is studied. Results indicate that mechanical properties decrease with increasing mesh density.

The Total Quality Management Model Department of Personnel State of Colorado,

Science.gov (United States)

A panel of three members will present the Total Quality Management model recently designed for the Department of Personnel, State of Colorado. This model was selected to increase work quality and productivity of the Department and to exemplify Governor Romer’s commitment to quality work within state government.

Accounting for representativeness errors in the inversion of atmospheric constituent emissions: application to the retrieval of regional carbon monoxide fluxes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Reza Koohkan

2012-07-01

Full Text Available A four-dimensional variational data assimilation system (4D-Var is developed to retrieve carbon monoxide (CO fluxes at regional scale, using an air quality network. The air quality stations that monitor CO are proximity stations located close to industrial, urban or traffic sources. The mismatch between the coarsely discretised Eulerian transport model and the observations, inferred to be mainly due to representativeness errors in this context, lead to a bias (average simulated concentrations minus observed concentrations of the same order of magnitude as the concentrations. 4D-Var leads to a mild improvement in the bias because it does not adequately handle the representativeness issue. For this reason, a simple statistical subgrid model is introduced and is coupled to 4D-Var. In addition to CO fluxes, the optimisation seeks to jointly retrieve influence coefficients, which quantify each station's representativeness. The method leads to a much better representation of the CO concentration variability, with a significant improvement of statistical indicators. The resulting increase in the total inventory estimate is close to the one obtained from remote sensing data assimilation. This methodology and experiments suggest that information useful at coarse scales can be better extracted from atmospheric constituent observations strongly impacted by representativeness errors.

Using ecosystem services to represent the environment in hydro-economic models

Science.gov (United States)

Momblanch, Andrea; Connor, Jeffery D.; Crossman, Neville D.; Paredes-Arquiola, Javier; Andreu, Joaquín

2016-07-01

Demand for water is expected to grow in line with global human population growth, but opportunities to augment supply are limited in many places due to resource limits and expected impacts of climate change. Hydro-economic models are often used to evaluate water resources management options, commonly with a goal of understanding how to maximise water use value and reduce conflicts among competing uses. The environment is now an important factor in decision making, which has resulted in its inclusion in hydro-economic models. We reviewed 95 studies applying hydro-economic models, and documented how the environment is represented in them and the methods they use to value environmental costs and benefits. We also sought out key gaps and inconsistencies in the treatment of the environment in hydro-economic models. We found that representation of environmental values of water is patchy in most applications, and there should be systematic consideration of the scope of environmental values to include and how they should be valued. We argue that the ecosystem services framework offers a systematic approach to identify the full range of environmental costs and benefits. The main challenges to more holistic representation of the environment in hydro-economic models are the current limits to understanding of ecological functions which relate physical, ecological and economic values and critical environmental thresholds; and the treatment of uncertainty.

Operation quality assessment model for video conference system

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Bangshi; Qi, Feng; Shao, Sujie; Wang, Ying; Li, Weijian

2018-01-01

Video conference system has become an important support platform for smart grid operation and management, its operation quality is gradually concerning grid enterprise. First, the evaluation indicator system covering network, business and operation maintenance aspects was established on basis of video conference system's operation statistics. Then, the operation quality assessment model combining genetic algorithm with regularized BP neural network was proposed, which outputs operation quality level of the system within a time period and provides company manager with some optimization advice. The simulation results show that the proposed evaluation model offers the advantages of fast convergence and high prediction accuracy in contrast with regularized BP neural network, and its generalization ability is superior to LM-BP neural network and Bayesian BP neural network.

A software quality model and metrics for risk assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Hyatt, L.; Rosenberg, L.

1996-01-01

A software quality model and its associated attributes are defined and used as the model for the basis for a discussion on risk. Specific quality goals and attributes are selected based on their importance to a software development project and their ability to be quantified. Risks that can be determined by the model's metrics are identified. A core set of metrics relating to the software development process and its products is defined. Measurements for each metric and their usability and applicability are discussed.

Modelling the impact of future socio-economic and climate change scenarios on river microbial water quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, M M Majedul; Iqbal, Muhammad Shahid; Leemans, Rik; Hofstra, Nynke

2018-03-01

Microbial surface water quality is important, as it is related to health risk when the population is exposed through drinking, recreation or consumption of irrigated vegetables. The microbial surface water quality is expected to change with socio-economic development and climate change. This study explores the combined impacts of future socio-economic and climate change scenarios on microbial water quality using a coupled hydrodynamic and water quality model (MIKE21FM-ECOLab). The model was applied to simulate the baseline (2014-2015) and future (2040s and 2090s) faecal indicator bacteria (FIB: E. coli and enterococci) concentrations in the Betna river in Bangladesh. The scenarios comprise changes in socio-economic variables (e.g. population, urbanization, land use, sanitation and sewage treatment) and climate variables (temperature, precipitation and sea-level rise). Scenarios have been developed building on the most recent Shared Socio-economic Pathways: SSP1 and SSP3 and Representative Concentration Pathways: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 in a matrix. An uncontrolled future results in a deterioration of the microbial water quality (+75% by the 2090s) due to socio-economic changes, such as higher population growth, and changes in rainfall patterns. However, microbial water quality improves under a sustainable scenario with improved sewage treatment (-98% by the 2090s). Contaminant loads were more influenced by changes in socio-economic factors than by climatic change. To our knowledge, this is the first study that combines climate change and socio-economic development scenarios to simulate the future microbial water quality of a river. This approach can also be used to assess future consequences for health risks. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the Quality Management Models in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Basar, Gulsun; Altinay, Zehra; Dagli, Gokmen; Altinay, Fahriye

2016-01-01

This study involves the assessment of the quality management models in Higher Education by explaining the importance of quality in higher education and by examining the higher education quality assurance system practices in other countries. The qualitative study was carried out with the members of the Higher Education Planning, Evaluation,…

A concurrent optimization model for supplier selection with fuzzy quality loss

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosyidi, C.; Murtisari, R.; Jauhari, W.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research is to develop a concurrent supplier selection model to minimize the purchasing cost and fuzzy quality loss considering process capability and assembled product specification. Design/methodology/approach: This research integrates fuzzy quality loss in the model to concurrently solve the decision making in detailed design stage and manufacturing stage. Findings: The resulted model can be used to concurrently select the optimal supplier and determine the tolerance of the components. The model balances the purchasing cost and fuzzy quality loss. Originality/value: An assembled product consists of many components which must be purchased from the suppliers. Fuzzy quality loss is integrated in the supplier selection model to allow the vagueness in final assembly by grouping the assembly into several grades according to the resulted assembly tolerance.

A concurrent optimization model for supplier selection with fuzzy quality loss

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosyidi, C.; Murtisari, R.; Jauhari, W.

2017-07-01

The purpose of this research is to develop a concurrent supplier selection model to minimize the purchasing cost and fuzzy quality loss considering process capability and assembled product specification. Design/methodology/approach: This research integrates fuzzy quality loss in the model to concurrently solve the decision making in detailed design stage and manufacturing stage. Findings: The resulted model can be used to concurrently select the optimal supplier and determine the tolerance of the components. The model balances the purchasing cost and fuzzy quality loss. Originality/value: An assembled product consists of many components which must be purchased from the suppliers. Fuzzy quality loss is integrated in the supplier selection model to allow the vagueness in final assembly by grouping the assembly into several grades according to the resulted assembly tolerance.

QUALITY SERVICES EVALUATION MODEL BASED ON DEDICATED SOFTWARE TOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANDREEA CRISTINA IONICĂ

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduced a new model, called Service Quality (SQ, which combines QFD and SERVQUAL methods. This model takes from the SERVQUAL method the five dimensions of requirements and three of characteristics and from the QFD method the application methodology. The originality of the SQ model consists in computing a global index that reflects the customers’ requirements accomplishment level by the quality characteristics. In order to prove the viability of the SQ model, there was developed a software tool that was applied for the evaluation of a health care services provider.

Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model Forms

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Protein single-model quality assessment by feature-based probability density functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Renzhi; Cheng, Jianlin

2016-04-04

Protein quality assessment (QA) has played an important role in protein structure prediction. We developed a novel single-model quality assessment method-Qprob. Qprob calculates the absolute error for each protein feature value against the true quality scores (i.e. GDT-TS scores) of protein structural models, and uses them to estimate its probability density distribution for quality assessment. Qprob has been blindly tested on the 11th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP11) as MULTICOM-NOVEL server. The official CASP result shows that Qprob ranks as one of the top single-model QA methods. In addition, Qprob makes contributions to our protein tertiary structure predictor MULTICOM, which is officially ranked 3rd out of 143 predictors. The good performance shows that Qprob is good at assessing the quality of models of hard targets. These results demonstrate that this new probability density distribution based method is effective for protein single-model quality assessment and is useful for protein structure prediction. The webserver of Qprob is available at: http://calla.rnet.missouri.edu/qprob/. The software is now freely available in the web server of Qprob.

EMMA model: an advanced operational mesoscale air quality model for urban and regional environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jose, R.S.; Rodriguez, M.A.; Cortes, E.; Gonzalez, R.M.

1999-01-01

Mesoscale air quality models are an important tool to forecast and analyse the air quality in regional and urban areas. In recent years an increased interest has been shown by decision makers in these types of software tools. The complexity of such a model has grown exponentially with the increase of computer power. Nowadays, medium workstations can run operational versions of these modelling systems successfully. Presents a complex mesoscale air quality model which has been installed in the Environmental Office of the Madrid community (Spain) in order to forecast accurately the ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide air concentrations in a 3D domain centred on Madrid city. Describes the challenging scientific matters to be solved in order to develop an operational version of the atmospheric mesoscale numerical pollution model for urban and regional areas (ANA). Some encouraging results have been achieved in the attempts to improve the accuracy of the predictions made by the version already installed. (Author)

Urban air quality management. V. 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

This is the first in a series of reports commissioned by the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) to represent members' views on the management of urban air quality in the growing cities in developing countries. In this report, a general, science based framework is provided as a basis for understanding the nature of the problem in any specific urban area, the range of solutions that might be available, and the potential impact of each solution and its least cost privatisation. The topics covered are: a process for urban air quality management; setting air quality targets; a structured approach to the assessment of current and future air quality modelling methodologies; identification and collation of air quality model input data; development of socio-economic scenarios -long-term trend forecasting; cost effectiveness studies; the IPIECA approach to urban air quality management - development of partnerships; encouraging commitment to implementation of programme recommendations. (7 figures; 2 tables; 18 references). (UK)

Management Model for efficient quality control in new buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. E. Rodríguez-Jiménez

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The management of the quality control of each building process is usually set up in Spain from different levels of demand. This work tries to obtain a model of reference, to compare the quality control of the building process of a specific product (building, and to be able to evaluate its warranty level. In the quest of this purpose, we take credit of specialized sources and 153 real cases of Quality Control were carefully revised using a multi-judgment method. Applying different techniques to get a specific valuation (impartial of the input parameters through Delphi’s method (17 experts query, whose matrix treatment with the Fuzzy-QFD tool condenses numerical references through a weighted distribution of the selected functions and their corresponding conditioning factors. The model thus obtained (M153 is useful in order to have a quality control reference to meet the expectations of the quality.

Defining Quality of Life in the Children of Parents with Severe Mental Illness: A Preliminary Stakeholder-Led Model

Science.gov (United States)

Bee, Penny; Berzins, Kathryn; Calam, Rachel; Pryjmachuk, Steven; Abel, Kathryn M.

2013-01-01

Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL) in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13–18 yrs) with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key ‘meta-themes’. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i) the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii) improved problem-based coping skills and iii) increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third sector

Defining quality of life in the children of parents with severe mental illness: a preliminary stakeholder-led model.

Science.gov (United States)

Bee, Penny; Berzins, Kathryn; Calam, Rachel; Pryjmachuk, Steven; Abel, Kathryn M

2013-01-01

Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL) in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13-18 yrs) with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key 'meta-themes'. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i) the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii) improved problem-based coping skills and iii) increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third sector providers to

Defining quality of life in the children of parents with severe mental illness: a preliminary stakeholder-led model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Penny Bee

Full Text Available Severe parental mental illness poses a challenge to quality of life (QoL in a substantial number of children and adolescents, and improving the lives of these children is of urgent political and public health concern. This study used a bottom-up qualitative approach to develop a new stakeholder-led model of quality of life relevant to this population. Qualitative data were collected from 19 individuals participating in focus groups or individual interviews. Participants comprised 8 clinical academics, health and social care professionals or voluntary agency representatives; 5 parents and 6 young people (aged 13-18 yrs with lived experience of severe parental mental illness. Data underwent inductive thematic analysis for the purposes of informing a population-specific quality of life model. Fifty nine individual themes were identified and grouped into 11 key 'meta-themes'. Mapping each meta-theme against existing child-centred quality of life concepts revealed a multi-dimensional model that endorsed, to a greater or lesser degree, the core domains of generic quality of life models. Three new population-specific priorities were also observed: i the alleviation of parental mental health symptoms, ii improved problem-based coping skills and iii increased mental health literacy. The identification of these priorities raises questions regarding the validity of generic quality of life measures to monitor the effectiveness of services for families and children affected by severe mental illness. New, age-appropriate instruments that better reflect the life priorities and unique challenges faced by the children of parents with severe mental illness may need to be developed. Challenges then remain in augmenting and adapting service design and delivery mechanisms better to meet these needs. Future child and adult mental health services need to work seamlessly alongside statutory education and social care services and a growing number of relevant third

Researches of fruit quality prediction model based on near infrared spectrum

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Yulin; Li, Lian

2018-04-01

With the improvement in standards for food quality and safety, people pay more attention to the internal quality of fruits, therefore the measurement of fruit internal quality is increasingly imperative. In general, nondestructive soluble solid content (SSC) and total acid content (TAC) analysis of fruits is vital and effective for quality measurement in global fresh produce markets, so in this paper, we aim at establishing a novel fruit internal quality prediction model based on SSC and TAC for Near Infrared Spectrum. Firstly, the model of fruit quality prediction based on PCA + BP neural network, PCA + GRNN network, PCA + BP adaboost strong classifier, PCA + ELM and PCA + LS_SVM classifier are designed and implemented respectively; then, in the NSCT domain, the median filter and the SavitzkyGolay filter are used to preprocess the spectral signal, Kennard-Stone algorithm is used to automatically select the training samples and test samples; thirdly, we achieve the optimal models by comparing 15 kinds of prediction model based on the theory of multi-classifier competition mechanism, specifically, the non-parametric estimation is introduced to measure the effectiveness of proposed model, the reliability and variance of nonparametric estimation evaluation of each prediction model to evaluate the prediction result, while the estimated value and confidence interval regard as a reference, the experimental results demonstrate that this model can better achieve the optimal evaluation of the internal quality of fruit; finally, we employ cat swarm optimization to optimize two optimal models above obtained from nonparametric estimation, empirical testing indicates that the proposed method can provide more accurate and effective results than other forecasting methods.

Quality assessment of protein model-structures based on structural and functional similarities.

Science.gov (United States)

Konopka, Bogumil M; Nebel, Jean-Christophe; Kotulska, Malgorzata

2012-09-21

Experimental determination of protein 3D structures is expensive, time consuming and sometimes impossible. A gap between number of protein structures deposited in the World Wide Protein Data Bank and the number of sequenced proteins constantly broadens. Computational modeling is deemed to be one of the ways to deal with the problem. Although protein 3D structure prediction is a difficult task, many tools are available. These tools can model it from a sequence or partial structural information, e.g. contact maps. Consequently, biologists have the ability to generate automatically a putative 3D structure model of any protein. However, the main issue becomes evaluation of the model quality, which is one of the most important challenges of structural biology. GOBA--Gene Ontology-Based Assessment is a novel Protein Model Quality Assessment Program. It estimates the compatibility between a model-structure and its expected function. GOBA is based on the assumption that a high quality model is expected to be structurally similar to proteins functionally similar to the prediction target. Whereas DALI is used to measure structure similarity, protein functional similarity is quantified using standardized and hierarchical description of proteins provided by Gene Ontology combined with Wang's algorithm for calculating semantic similarity. Two approaches are proposed to express the quality of protein model-structures. One is a single model quality assessment method, the other is its modification, which provides a relative measure of model quality. Exhaustive evaluation is performed on data sets of model-structures submitted to the CASP8 and CASP9 contests. The validation shows that the method is able to discriminate between good and bad model-structures. The best of tested GOBA scores achieved 0.74 and 0.8 as a mean Pearson correlation to the observed quality of models in our CASP8 and CASP9-based validation sets. GOBA also obtained the best result for two targets of CASP8, and

Review of air quality modeling techniques. Volume 8

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosen, L.C.

1977-01-01

Air transport and diffusion models which are applicable to the assessment of the environmental effects of nuclear, geothermal, and fossil-fuel electric generation are reviewed. The general classification of models and model inputs are discussed. A detailed examination of the statistical, Gaussian plume, Gaussian puff, one-box and species-conservation-of-mass models is given. Representative models are discussed with attention given to the assumptions, input data requirement, advantages, disadvantages and applicability of each

ADKAR MODEL VS. QUALITY MANAGEMENT CHANGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gratiela Dana Boca

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This research was conducted through different countries to identify dimensions and antecedents of buyer-seller relationships quality. In light of the findings dimensions of relationship quality have emerged: mutual trust, partners’ commitment in the relationship, cooperation and creativity and innovation. Also, the research identifies several key success factors in business relationships that are grouped into different categories: factors related to relational behaviours and factors related to characteristics of the offer. These results serve as valuable indicators, allowing managers to evaluate, adjust and develop their relationships marketing strategies. The ADKAR model provides a tool for improving the connection between individual performance, organizational change management and business results. This study provides a significant contribution to the relationship quality literature and present few ideas for future management in a new manufacture vision for MANU-FUTURE.

The Feasibility of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as an Assessment and Quality Assurance Model

Science.gov (United States)

Matorera, D.; Fraser, W. J.

2016-01-01

Business schools are globally often seen as structured, purpose-driven, multi-sector and multi-perspective organisations. This article is based on the response of a graduate school to an innovative industrial Quality Function Deployment-based model (QFD), which was to be adopted initially in a Master's degree programme for quality assurance…

Perceptual video quality assessment in H.264 video coding standard using objective modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Karthikeyan, Ramasamy; Sainarayanan, Gopalakrishnan; Deepa, Subramaniam Nachimuthu

2014-01-01

Since usage of digital video is wide spread nowadays, quality considerations have become essential, and industry demand for video quality measurement is rising. This proposal provides a method of perceptual quality assessment in H.264 standard encoder using objective modeling. For this purpose, quality impairments are calculated and a model is developed to compute the perceptual video quality metric based on no reference method. Because of the shuttle difference between the original video and the encoded video the quality of the encoded picture gets degraded, this quality difference is introduced by the encoding process like Intra and Inter prediction. The proposed model takes into account of the artifacts introduced by these spatial and temporal activities in the hybrid block based coding methods and an objective modeling of these artifacts into subjective quality estimation is proposed. The proposed model calculates the objective quality metric using subjective impairments; blockiness, blur and jerkiness compared to the existing bitrate only calculation defined in the ITU G 1070 model. The accuracy of the proposed perceptual video quality metrics is compared against popular full reference objective methods as defined by VQEG.

Parametric Packet-Layer Model for Evaluation Audio Quality in Multimedia Streaming Services

Science.gov (United States)

Egi, Noritsugu; Hayashi, Takanori; Takahashi, Akira

We propose a parametric packet-layer model for monitoring audio quality in multimedia streaming services such as Internet protocol television (IPTV). This model estimates audio quality of experience (QoE) on the basis of quality degradation due to coding and packet loss of an audio sequence. The input parameters of this model are audio bit rate, sampling rate, frame length, packet-loss frequency, and average burst length. Audio bit rate, packet-loss frequency, and average burst length are calculated from header information in received IP packets. For sampling rate, frame length, and audio codec type, the values or the names used in monitored services are input into this model directly. We performed a subjective listening test to examine the relationships between these input parameters and perceived audio quality. The codec used in this test was the Advanced Audio Codec-Low Complexity (AAC-LC), which is one of the international standards for audio coding. On the basis of the test results, we developed an audio quality evaluation model. The verification results indicate that audio quality estimated by the proposed model has a high correlation with perceived audio quality.

APOLLO: a quality assessment service for single and multiple protein models.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zheng; Eickholt, Jesse; Cheng, Jianlin

2011-06-15

We built a web server named APOLLO, which can evaluate the absolute global and local qualities of a single protein model using machine learning methods or the global and local qualities of a pool of models using a pair-wise comparison approach. Based on our evaluations on 107 CASP9 (Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction) targets, the predicted quality scores generated from our machine learning and pair-wise methods have an average per-target correlation of 0.671 and 0.917, respectively, with the true model quality scores. Based on our test on 92 CASP9 targets, our predicted absolute local qualities have an average difference of 2.60 Å with the actual distances to native structure. http://sysbio.rnet.missouri.edu/apollo/. Single and pair-wise global quality assessment software is also available at the site.

The Grand Challenge of Basin-Scale Groundwater Quality Management Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Fogg, G. E.

2017-12-01

The last 50+ years of agricultural, urban and industrial land and water use practices have accelerated the degradation of groundwater quality in the upper portions of many major aquifer systems upon which much of the world relies for water supply. In the deepest and most extensive systems (e.g., sedimentary basins) that typically have the largest groundwater production rates and hold fresh groundwaters on decadal to millennial time scales, most of the groundwater is not yet contaminated. Predicting the long-term future groundwater quality in such basins is a grand scientific challenge. Moreover, determining what changes in land and water use practices would avert future, irreversible degradation of these massive freshwater stores is a grand challenge both scientifically and societally. It is naïve to think that the problem can be solved by eliminating or reducing enough of the contaminant sources, for human exploitation of land and water resources will likely always result in some contamination. The key lies in both reducing the contaminant sources and more proactively managing recharge in terms of both quantity and quality, such that the net influx of contaminants is sufficiently moderate and appropriately distributed in space and time to reverse ongoing groundwater quality degradation. Just as sustainable groundwater quantity management is greatly facilitated with groundwater flow management models, sustainable groundwater quality management will require the use of groundwater quality management models. This is a new genre of hydrologic models do not yet exist, partly because of the lack of modeling tools and the supporting research to model non-reactive as well as reactive transport on large space and time scales. It is essential that the contaminant hydrogeology community, which has heretofore focused almost entirely on point-source plume-scale problems, direct it's efforts toward the development of process-based transport modeling tools and analyses capable

Representing Degree Distributions, Clustering, and Homophily in Social Networks With Latent Cluster Random Effects Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Krivitsky, Pavel N; Handcock, Mark S; Raftery, Adrian E; Hoff, Peter D

2009-07-01

Social network data often involve transitivity, homophily on observed attributes, clustering, and heterogeneity of actor degrees. We propose a latent cluster random effects model to represent all of these features, and we describe a Bayesian estimation method for it. The model is applicable to both binary and non-binary network data. We illustrate the model using two real datasets. We also apply it to two simulated network datasets with the same, highly skewed, degree distribution, but very different network behavior: one unstructured and the other with transitivity and clustering. Models based on degree distributions, such as scale-free, preferential attachment and power-law models, cannot distinguish between these very different situations, but our model does.

A class representative model for Pure Parsimony Haplotyping under uncertain data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Catanzaro

Full Text Available The Pure Parsimony Haplotyping (PPH problem is a NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that consists of finding the minimum number of haplotypes necessary to explain a given set of genotypes. PPH has attracted more and more attention in recent years due to its importance in analysis of many fine-scale genetic data. Its application fields range from mapping complex disease genes to inferring population histories, passing through designing drugs, functional genomics and pharmacogenetics. In this article we investigate, for the first time, a recent version of PPH called the Pure Parsimony Haplotype problem under Uncertain Data (PPH-UD. This version mainly arises when the input genotypes are not accurate, i.e., when some single nucleotide polymorphisms are missing or affected by errors. We propose an exact approach to solution of PPH-UD based on an extended version of Catanzaro et al.[1] class representative model for PPH, currently the state-of-the-art integer programming model for PPH. The model is efficient, accurate, compact, polynomial-sized, easy to implement, solvable with any solver for mixed integer programming, and usable in all those cases for which the parsimony criterion is well suited for haplotype estimation.

A stochastic dynamic programming model for stream water quality ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

constraints of the water quality management problem; (ii) a water quality simulation model ... of acceptance and limited implementation of optimisation techniques. .... The response of river system to these sources of pollution can be integrated ...

An approach to quality classification of deep groundwaters in Sweden and Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laaksoharju, M.; Smellie, J.; Ruotsalainen, P.; Snellman, M.

1993-11-01

The quality and representativeness of groundwaters sampled in the Swedish SKB and in the Finnish TVO nuclear waste disposal site investigations have been evaluated. By definition a high quality sample is considered to be the one which best reflects the undisturbed hydrological and geochemical in situ conditions for the sampled section. Manual (expert judgement), statistical multivariate, mixing models and quality scoring system have been used to classify the waters regarding representativity. The constructed scoring system is best suited for quality classification, although the expert judgement is always needed as a complement. The observations are scored on a continuous scale based on the response of selected quality indicating parameters. Less representative samples are not rejected but given a value indicating the confidence of the observation. Finnish data obtained 45% of the possible scores compared to 55% for the Swedish data. The quality is generally 10% higher in the Swedish samples compared to the Finnish samples. The difference in sampling procedure is the probable reason for this

Effect of the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall inputs in water quality integrated catchment modelling for dissolved oxygen concentrations

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno Ródenas, Antonio Manuel; Cecinati, Francesca; ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire; Langeveld, Jeroen; Clemens, Francois

2016-04-01

Maintaining water quality standards in highly urbanised hydrological catchments is a worldwide challenge. Water management authorities struggle to cope with changing climate and an increase in pollution pressures. Water quality modelling has been used as a decision support tool for investment and regulatory developments. This approach led to the development of integrated catchment models (ICM), which account for the link between the urban/rural hydrology and the in-river pollutant dynamics. In the modelled system, rainfall triggers the drainage systems of urban areas scattered along a river. When flow exceeds the sewer infrastructure capacity, untreated wastewater enters the natural system by combined sewer overflows. This results in a degradation of the river water quality, depending on the magnitude of the emission and river conditions. Thus, being capable of representing these dynamics in the modelling process is key for a correct assessment of the water quality. In many urbanised hydrological systems the distances between draining sewer infrastructures go beyond the de-correlation length of rainfall processes, especially, for convective summer storms. Hence, spatial and temporal scales of selected rainfall inputs are expected to affect water quality dynamics. The objective of this work is to evaluate how the use of rainfall data from different sources and with different space-time characteristics affects modelled output concentrations of dissolved oxygen in a simplified ICM. The study area is located at the Dommel, a relatively small and sensitive river flowing through the city of Eindhoven (The Netherlands). This river stretch receives the discharge of the 750,000 p.e. WWTP of Eindhoven and from over 200 combined sewer overflows scattered along its length. A pseudo-distributed water quality model has been developed in WEST (mikedhi.com); this is a lumped-physically based model that accounts for urban drainage processes, WWTP and river dynamics for several

Social Modulation or Hormonal Causation? Linkages of Testosterone with Sexual Activity and Relationship Quality in a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Sample of Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Aniruddha; Sawin, Nicole

2016-11-01

This study used population-representative longitudinal data from the 2005-2006 and 2010-2011 waves of the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project-a probability sample of US adults aged 57-85 at baseline (N = 650 women and 620 men)-to examine the causal direction in linkages of endogenous testosterone (T) with sexual activity and relationship quality. For both genders, our autoregressive effects indicated a large amount of temporal stability, not just in individual-level attributes (T, masturbation) but also dyadic ones (partnered sex, relationship quality)-indicating that a need for more nuanced theories of relational processes. Cross-lagged results suggested gender-specific effects-generally more consistent with sexual or relational modulation of T than with hormonal causation. Specifically, men's findings indicated their T might be elevated by their sexual (masturbatory) activity but not vice versa, although androgen levels did lower men's subsequent relationship quality. Women's T, in contrast, was negatively influenced not just by their higher relationship quality but also by their more frequent partnered sex-perhaps reflecting a changing function of sexual activity in late life.

A Neural Network Model for Prediction of Sound Quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen,, Lars Bramsløw

An artificial neural network structure has been specified, implemented and optimized for the purpose of predicting the perceived sound quality for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. The network was implemented by means of commercially available software and optimized to predict results...... obtained in subjective sound quality rating experiments based on input data from an auditory model. Various types of input data and data representations from the auditory model were used as input data for the chosen network structure, which was a three-layer perceptron. This network was trained by means...... the physical signal parameters and the subjectively perceived sound quality. No simple objective-subjective relationship was evident from this analysis....

College quality and hourly wages: evidence from the self-revelation model, sibling models and instrumental variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Borgen, Nicolai T

2014-11-01

This paper addresses the recent discussion on confounding in the returns to college quality literature using the Norwegian case. The main advantage of studying Norway is the quality of the data. Norwegian administrative data provide information on college applications, family relations and a rich set of control variables for all Norwegian citizens applying to college between 1997 and 2004 (N = 141,319) and their succeeding wages between 2003 and 2010 (676,079 person-year observations). With these data, this paper uses a subset of the models that have rendered mixed findings in the literature in order to investigate to what extent confounding biases the returns to college quality. I compare estimates obtained using standard regression models to estimates obtained using the self-revelation model of Dale and Krueger (2002), a sibling fixed effects model and the instrumental variable model used by Long (2008). Using these methods, I consistently find increasing returns to college quality over the course of students' work careers, with positive returns only later in students' work careers. I conclude that the standard regression estimate provides a reasonable estimate of the returns to college quality. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Determination of representative CANDU feeder dimensions for engineering simulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, S.; Muzumdar, A.

1996-01-01

This paper describes a logic for selection of representative channel groups and a methodology for determination of representative CANDU feeder dimensions and the pressure drops between inlet/outlet header and fuel channel in the primary loop. A code, MEDOC, was developed based on this logic and methodology and helps perform a calculation of representative feeder dimensions for a selected channel group on the basis of feeder geometry data (fluid volume, mass flow rate, loss factor) and given property data (pressure, quality, density) at inlet/outlet header. The representative feeder dimensions calculated based on this methodology will be useful for the engineering simulator for the CANDU type reactor. (author)

Development, implementation and quality assurance of biokinetic models within CONRAD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nosske, D.; Birchall, A.; Blanchardon, E.; Breustedt, B.; Giussani, A.; Luciani, A.; Oeh, U.; Lopez, M. A.

2008-01-01

The work of the Task Group 5.2 'Research Studies on Biokinetic Models' of the CONRAD project is presented. New biokinetic models have been implemented by several European institutions. Quality assurance procedures included intercomparison of the results as well as quality assurance of model formulation. Additionally, the use of the models was examined leading to proposals of tuning parameters. Stable isotope studies were evaluated with respect to their implications to the new models, and new biokinetic models were proposed on the basis of their results. Furthermore, the development of a biokinetic model describing the effects of decorporation of actinides by diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid treatment was initiated. (authors)

Measures of quality of process models created in BPMN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radek Hronza

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Description, documentation, evaluation and redesign of key processes during their execution should be an essential part of the strategic management of any organization. All organizations live in a dynamically changing environment. Therefore they must adapt its internal processes to market changes. These processes must be described. Suitable way of description could be BPMN notation. Right after description of processes via BPMN, processes should be controlled to ensure expected of their quality. System (which could be automated based on mathematical expression of qualitative characteristics of process models (i.e. measures of quality of process models can support mentioned process controls. Research team trying to design and get into practical use such a tool. The aim of this publication is description of mentioned system – based on measures of the quality of process models - and answer associated scientific questions.

Water quality assessment and meta model development in Melen watershed - Turkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Erturk, Ali; Gurel, Melike; Ekdal, Alpaslan; Tavsan, Cigdem; Ugurluoglu, Aysegul; Seker, Dursun Zafer; Tanik, Aysegul; Ozturk, Izzet

2010-07-01

Istanbul, being one of the highly populated metropolitan areas of the world, has been facing water scarcity since the past decade. Water transfer from Melen Watershed was considered as the most feasible option to supply water to Istanbul due to its high water potential and relatively less degraded water quality. This study consists of two parts. In the first part, water quality data covering 26 parameters from 5 monitoring stations were analyzed and assessed due to the requirements of the "Quality Required of Surface Water Intended for the Abstraction of Drinking Water" regulation. In the second part, a one-dimensional stream water quality model with simple water quality kinetics was developed. It formed a basic design for more advanced water quality models for the watershed. The reason for assessing the water quality data and developing a model was to provide information for decision making on preliminary actions to prevent any further deterioration of existing water quality. According to the water quality assessment at the water abstraction point, Melen River has relatively poor water quality with regard to NH(4)(+), BOD(5), faecal streptococcus, manganese and phenol parameters, and is unsuitable for drinking water abstraction in terms of COD, PO(4)(3-), total coliform, total suspended solids, mercury and total chromium parameters. The results derived from the model were found to be consistent with the water quality assessment. It also showed that relatively high inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations along the streams are related to diffuse nutrient loads that should be managed together with municipal and industrial wastewaters. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Service Quality in Distance Education using the Gronroos Model

OpenAIRE

Hamid, Fazelina Sahul; Yip, Nick

2016-01-01

Demand for distance education programs have been increasing rapidly over the years. As a result, assessment of the quality of distance education programs has become a strategic issue that is very pertinent for program survival. This study uses Gronroos Model for assessing the service quality of the Malaysian distance education institutions. This model is chosen because it takes into account of the service delivery process and also service outcome. Our study confirms the multidimensional natur...

Development and application of new quality model for software projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Karnavel, K; Dillibabu, R

2014-01-01

The IT industry tries to employ a number of models to identify the defects in the construction of software projects. In this paper, we present COQUALMO and its limitations and aim to increase the quality without increasing the cost and time. The computation time, cost, and effort to predict the residual defects are very high; this was overcome by developing an appropriate new quality model named the software testing defect corrective model (STDCM). The STDCM was used to estimate the number of remaining residual defects in the software product; a few assumptions and the detailed steps of the STDCM are highlighted. The application of the STDCM is explored in software projects. The implementation of the model is validated using statistical inference, which shows there is a significant improvement in the quality of the software projects.

A manufacturing quality assessment model based-on two stages interval type-2 fuzzy logic

Science.gov (United States)

Purnomo, Muhammad Ridwan Andi; Helmi Shintya Dewi, Intan

2016-01-01

This paper presents the development of an assessment models for manufacturing quality using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic (IT2-FL). The proposed model is developed based on one of building block in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), which is benefit of SCM, and focuses more on quality. The proposed model can be used to predict the quality level of production chain in a company. The quality of production will affect to the quality of product. Practically, quality of production is unique for every type of production system. Hence, experts opinion will play major role in developing the assessment model. The model will become more complicated when the data contains ambiguity and uncertainty. In this study, IT2-FL is used to model the ambiguity and uncertainty. A case study taken from a company in Yogyakarta shows that the proposed manufacturing quality assessment model can work well in determining the quality level of production.

A simple parametric model observer for quality assurance in computer tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Anton, M.; Khanin, A.; Kretz, T.; Reginatto, M.; Elster, C.

2018-04-01

Model observers are mathematical classifiers that are used for the quality assessment of imaging systems such as computer tomography. The quality of the imaging system is quantified by means of the performance of a selected model observer. For binary classification tasks, the performance of the model observer is defined by the area under its ROC curve (AUC). Typically, the AUC is estimated by applying the model observer to a large set of training and test data. However, the recording of these large data sets is not always practical for routine quality assurance. In this paper we propose as an alternative a parametric model observer that is based on a simple phantom, and we provide a Bayesian estimation of its AUC. It is shown that a limited number of repeatedly recorded images (10–15) is already sufficient to obtain results suitable for the quality assessment of an imaging system. A MATLAB® function is provided for the calculation of the results. The performance of the proposed model observer is compared to that of the established channelized Hotelling observer and the nonprewhitening matched filter for simulated images as well as for images obtained from a low-contrast phantom on an x-ray tomography scanner. The results suggest that the proposed parametric model observer, along with its Bayesian treatment, can provide an efficient, practical alternative for the quality assessment of CT imaging systems.

Preparing the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) for global retrospective air quality modeling

Science.gov (United States)

The US EPA has a plan to leverage recent advances in meteorological modeling to develop a "Next-Generation" air quality modeling system that will allow consistent modeling of problems from global to local scale. The meteorological model of choice is the Model for Predic...

Quality of life of older adults in Canada and Norway: examining the Iowa model.

Science.gov (United States)

Low, Gail; Molzahn, Anita E; Kalfoss, Mary

2008-06-01

In this study, Glick and Tripp-Reimer's (1996) Iowa model for gerontological nursing serves as a guiding framework for a descriptive exploratory study of quality of life (QOL) of older adults. Using secondary data, the authors explored whether the effects of health appraisal, morbidities, social support transitions (SST), and the environment on QOL would be partly mediated by cognitive developmental transitions (CDT). Data sets were available from studies with random samples of community-dwelling older adults from Canada (n = 202) and Norway (n = 490). The partly and fully mediated effects found suggest positive CDT in older age might be significantly enhanced by the presence of intimate ties, positive perceptions of one's health limitations, and residence in a healthy, safe, and resource-rich physical environment. These findings represent a novel attempt at testing complex linkages between aspects of elder, environment, and nursing concepts within the Iowa model warranting further research.

Use of Quality Models and Indicators for Evaluating Test Quality in an ESP Course

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

IEVA RUDZINSKA

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Qualitative methods of assessment play a decisive role in education in general and in language learning in particular. The necessity to perform a qualitative assessment comes from both increased student competition in higher education institutions (HEIs, and hence higher demands for fair assessment, and a growing public awareness on higher education issues, and therefore the need to account for a wider circle of stakeholders, including society as a whole. The aim of the present paper is to study the regulations and laws pertaining to the issue of assessment in Latvian HEIs, as well as to carry out literature sources analysis about assessment in language testing, seeking to select criteria characterizing the quality of English for Specific Purposes (ESP tests and to apply the model of evaluating the quality of a language test on an example of a test in sport English, developed in a Latvian higher education institution. An analysis of the regulations and laws about assessment in higher education and literature sources about tests in language courses has enabled the development of a test quality model, consisting of seven intrinsic quality criteria: clarity, adequacy, deep approach, attractiveness, originality/similarity, orientation towards student learning result/process, test scoring objectivity/subjectivity. Quality criteria comprise eleven indicators. The reliability of the given model is evaluated by means of the whole model, its criteria and indicator Cronbach’s alphas and point-biserial (item-total correlations or discrimination indexes DI. The test was taken by 63 participants, all of them 2nd year full time students attending a Latvian higher education institution. A statistical data analysis was performed with SPSS 17.0. The results show that, although test adequacy and clarity is sufficiently high, attractiveness and deep approach should be improved. Also the reliability of one version of the test is higher than that of the other one

Value-added strategy models to provide quality services in senior health business.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ya-Ting; Lin, Neng-Pai; Su, Shyi; Chen, Ya-Mei; Chang, Yao-Mao; Handa, Yujiro; Khan, Hafsah Arshed Ali; Elsa Hsu, Yi-Hsin

2017-06-20

The rapid population aging is now a global issue. The increase in the elderly population will impact the health care industry and health enterprises; various senior needs will promote the growth of the senior health industry. Most senior health studies are focused on the demand side and scarcely on supply. Our study selected quality enterprises focused on aging health and analyzed different strategies to provide excellent quality services to senior health enterprises. We selected 33 quality senior health enterprises in Taiwan and investigated their excellent quality services strategies by face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews with CEO and managers of each enterprise in 2013. A total of 33 senior health enterprises in Taiwan. Overall, 65 CEOs and managers of 33 enterprises were interviewed individually. None. Core values and vision, organization structure, quality services provided, strategies for quality services. This study's results indicated four type of value-added strategy models adopted by senior enterprises to offer quality services: (i) residential care and co-residence model, (ii) home care and living in place model, (iii) community e-business experience model and (iv) virtual and physical portable device model. The common part in these four strategy models is that the services provided are elderly centered. These models offer virtual and physical integrations, and also offer total solutions for the elderly and their caregivers. Through investigation of successful strategy models for providing quality services to seniors, we identified opportunities to develop innovative service models and successful characteristics, also policy implications were summarized. The observations from this study will serve as a primary evidenced base for enterprises developing their senior market and, also for promoting the value co-creation possibility through dialogue between customers and those that deliver service. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford

Construction sequence scale model: an aid to productivity and quality assurance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clothier, W.A. Sr.

1978-01-01

The natural tendencies of an engineering scale model to promote a high level of quality by error prevention during design and construction stages of a project are studied. A brief section on the basic history of engineering modeling is used to describe TVA's usage of the model. The basic design model is explored in an overview touching the highlights of that form of modeling. A detailed look at the construction sequence model, a relatively new form of model, is presented to demonstrate quality and productivity awareness

Representing dispositions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Röhl Johannes

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Dispositions and tendencies feature significantly in the biomedical domain and therefore in representations of knowledge of that domain. They are not only important for specific applications like an infectious disease ontology, but also as part of a general strategy for modelling knowledge about molecular interactions. But the task of representing dispositions in some formal ontological systems is fraught with several problems, which are partly due to the fact that Description Logics can only deal well with binary relations. The paper will discuss some of the results of the philosophical debate about dispositions, in order to see whether the formal relations needed to represent dispositions can be broken down to binary relations. Finally, we will discuss problems arising from the possibility of the absence of realizations, of multi-track or multi-trigger dispositions and offer suggestions on how to deal with them.

Assessing the fit of the Dysphoric Arousal model across two nationally representative epidemiological surveys: The Australian NSMHWB and the United States NESARC.

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, Cherie; Carragher, Natacha; Elhai, Jon D

2013-01-01

Since the initial inclusion of PTSD in the DSM nomenclature, PTSD symptomatology has been distributed across three symptom clusters. However, a wealth of empirical research has concluded that PTSD's latent structure is best represented by one of two four-factor models: Numbing or Dysphoria. Recently, a newly proposed five-factor Dysphoric Arousal model, which separates the DSM-IV's Arousal cluster into two factors of Anxious Arousal and Dysphoric Arousal, has gathered support across a variety of trauma samples. To date, the Dysphoric Arousal model has not been assessed using nationally representative epidemiological data. We employed confirmatory factor analysis to examine PTSD's latent structure in two independent population based surveys from American (NESARC) and Australia (NSWHWB). We specified and estimated the Numbing model, the Dysphoria model, and the Dysphoric Arousal model in both samples. Results revealed that the Dysphoric Arousal model provided superior fit to the data compared to the alternative models. In conclusion, these findings suggest that items D1-D3 (sleeping difficulties; irritability; concentration difficulties) represent a separate, fifth factor within PTSD's latent structure using nationally representative epidemiological data in addition to single trauma specific samples. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Photovoltaic module quality in the Kenyan solar home systems market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duke, R.D.; Jacobson, A.; Kammen, D.M.

2002-01-01

As one of the largest unsubsidized markets for solar home systems (SHSs) in the world, Kenya represents a promising model for rural electrification based on private purchases of clean decentralized photovoltaic technologies. Small amorphous-silicon modules dominate the market and most brands provide high quality and affordable service. Product quality varies widely, however, and the public has limited capacity to distinguish among competing brands. This imposes direct hardships on households with the misfortune to purchase low-quality equipment, and it constrains sales as some customers refrain from purchasing solar equipment due to the associated performance uncertainty. This article analyzes market failure associated with photovoltaic module quality in the Kenyan SHS market and develops strategies to address the problem - emphasizing that similar quality problems may exist for other SHS components and in other markets. The principal conclusion is that domestic product testing with public disclosure represents an inexpensive low-risk strategy, but it may prove inadequate. Mandatory product quality standards based on international testing regimes (e.g. IEC standards), augmented with a basic domestic testing option, would provide stronger assurance, but the risks associated with this intervention suggest caution. An emerging multilateral SHS market support effort (PVMTI) should ensure quality for the credit-based sales it promotes in Kenya; however, the long-term impact of this approach is not yet clear and it is unlikely to address quality problems associated with the unsubsidized sales-based markets for SHSs. Finally, fee-for-service models would decisively address quality problems, but launching this model in the Kenyan market would likely require large subsidies. (author)

Investigation of representing hysteresis in macroscopic models of two-phase flow in porous media using intermediate scale experimental data

Science.gov (United States)

Cihan, Abdullah; Birkholzer, Jens; Trevisan, Luca; Gonzalez-Nicolas, Ana; Illangasekare, Tissa

2017-01-01

Incorporating hysteresis into models is important to accurately capture the two phase flow behavior when porous media systems undergo cycles of drainage and imbibition such as in the cases of injection and post-injection redistribution of CO2 during geological CO2 storage (GCS). In the traditional model of two-phase flow, existing constitutive models that parameterize the hysteresis associated with these processes are generally based on the empirical relationships. This manuscript presents development and testing of mathematical hysteretic capillary pressure—saturation—relative permeability models with the objective of more accurately representing the redistribution of the fluids after injection. The constitutive models are developed by relating macroscopic variables to basic physics of two-phase capillary displacements at pore-scale and void space distribution properties. The modeling approach with the developed constitutive models with and without hysteresis as input is tested against some intermediate-scale flow cell experiments to test the ability of the models to represent movement and capillary trapping of immiscible fluids under macroscopically homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. The hysteretic two-phase flow model predicted the overall plume migration and distribution during and post injection reasonably well and represented the postinjection behavior of the plume more accurately than the nonhysteretic models. Based on the results in this study, neglecting hysteresis in the constitutive models of the traditional two-phase flow theory can seriously overpredict or underpredict the injected fluid distribution during post-injection under both homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions, depending on the selected value of the residual saturation in the nonhysteretic models.

CT radiation dose and image quality optimization using a porcine model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zarb, Francis; McEntee, Mark F; Rainford, Louise

2013-01-01

To evaluate potential radiation dose savings and resultant image quality effects with regard to optimization of commonly performed computed tomography (CT) studies derived from imaging a porcine (pig) model. Imaging protocols for 4 clinical CT suites were developed based on the lowest milliamperage and kilovoltage, the highest pitch that could be set from current imaging protocol parameters, or both. This occurred before significant changes in noise, contrast, and spatial resolution were measured objectively on images produced from a quality assurance CT phantom. The current and derived phantom protocols were then applied to scan a porcine model for head, abdomen, and chest CT studies. Further optimized protocols were developed based on the same methodology as in the phantom study. The optimization achieved with respect to radiation dose and image quality was evaluated following data collection of radiation dose recordings and image quality review. Relative visual grading analysis of image quality criteria adapted from the European guidelines on radiology quality criteria for CT were used for studies completed with both the phantom-based or porcine-derived imaging protocols. In 5 out of 16 experimental combinations, the current clinical protocol was maintained. In 2 instances, the phantom protocol reduced radiation dose by 19% to 38%. In the remaining 9 instances, the optimization based on the porcine model further reduced radiation dose by 17% to 38%. The porcine model closely reflects anatomical structures in humans, allowing the grading of anatomical criteria as part of image quality review without radiation risks to human subjects. This study demonstrates that using a porcine model to evaluate CT optimization resulted in more radiation dose reduction than when imaging protocols were tested solely on quality assurance phantoms.

DeepQA: Improving the estimation of single protein model quality with deep belief networks

OpenAIRE

Cao, Renzhi; Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Hou, Jie; Cheng, Jianlin

2016-01-01

Background Protein quality assessment (QA) useful for ranking and selecting protein models has long been viewed as one of the major challenges for protein tertiary structure prediction. Especially, estimating the quality of a single protein model, which is important for selecting a few good models out of a large model pool consisting of mostly low-quality models, is still a largely unsolved problem. Results We introduce a novel single-model quality assessment method DeepQA based on deep belie...

On Regional Modeling to Support Air Quality Policies (book chapter)

Science.gov (United States)

We examine the use of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in simulating the changes in the extreme values of air quality that are of interest to the regulatory agencies. Year-to-year changes in ozone air quality are attributable to variations in the prevailing meteo...

Modeling E-learning quality assurance benchmarking in higher education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alsaif, Fatimah; Clementking, Arockisamy

2014-01-01

Online education programs have been growing rapidly. While it is somehow difficult to specifically quantify quality, many recommendations have been suggested to specify and demonstrate quality of online education touching on common areas of program enhancement and administration. To design a model

A model for representing the Italian energy system. The NEEDS-TIMES experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cosmi, C.; Pietrapertosa, F.; Salvia, M. [National Research Council, Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, C.da S. Loja, I-85050 Tito Scalo (PZ) (Italy)]|[Federico II University, Department of Physical Sciences, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples (Italy); Di Leo, S. [National Research Council, National Institute for the Physics of Matter, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples (Italy)]|[University of Basilicata, Department of Environmental Engineering and Physics, C.da Macchia Romana, I-85100 Potenza (Italy); Loperte, S.; Cuomo, V. [National Research Council, Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, C.da S. Loja, I-85050 Tito Scalo (PZ) (Italy); Macchiato, M. [Federico II University, Department of Physical Sciences, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples (Italy)]|[National Research Council, National Institute for the Physics of Matter, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples (Italy)

2009-05-15

Sustainability of energy systems has a strategic role in the current energy-environmental policies as it involves key issues such as security of energy supply, mitigation of environmental impact (with special regard to air quality improvement) and energy affordability. In this framework modelling activities are more than ever a strategic issue in order to manage the large complexity of energy systems as well as to support the decision-making process at different stages and spatial scales (regional, national, Pan-European, etc.). The aim of this article is to present a new model for the Italian energy system implemented with a common effort in the framework of an integrated project under the Sixth Framework Programme. In particular, the main features of the common methodology are briefly recalled and the modelling structure, the main data and assumptions, sector by sector, are presented. Moreover the main results obtained for the baseline (BAU) scenario are fully described. (author)

An equivalent body surface charge model representing three-dimensional bioelectrical activity

Science.gov (United States)

He, B.; Chernyak, Y. B.; Cohen, R. J.

1995-01-01

A new surface-source model has been developed to account for the bioelectrical potential on the body surface. A single-layer surface-charge model on the body surface has been developed to equivalently represent bioelectrical sources inside the body. The boundary conditions on the body surface are discussed in relation to the surface-charge in a half-space conductive medium. The equivalent body surface-charge is shown to be proportional to the normal component of the electric field on the body surface just outside the body. The spatial resolution of the equivalent surface-charge distribution appears intermediate between those of the body surface potential distribution and the body surface Laplacian distribution. An analytic relationship between the equivalent surface-charge and the surface Laplacian of the potential was found for a half-space conductive medium. The effects of finite spatial sampling and noise on the reconstruction of the equivalent surface-charge were evaluated by computer simulations. It was found through computer simulations that the reconstruction of the equivalent body surface-charge from the body surface Laplacian distribution is very stable against noise and finite spatial sampling. The present results suggest that the equivalent body surface-charge model may provide an additional insight to our understanding of bioelectric phenomena.

Take the Reins on Model Quality with ModelCHECK and Gatekeeper

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Corey

2012-01-01

Model quality and consistency has been an issue for us due to the diverse experience level and imaginative modeling techniques of our users. Fortunately, setting up ModelCHECK and Gatekeeper to enforce our best practices has helped greatly, but it wasn't easy. There were many challenges associated with setting up ModelCHECK and Gatekeeper including: limited documentation, restrictions within ModelCHECK, and resistance from end users. However, we consider ours a success story. In this presentation we will describe how we overcame these obstacles and present some of the details of how we configured them to work for us.

A New Empirical Sewer Water Quality Model for the Prediction of WWTP Influent Quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langeveld, J.G.; Schilperoort, R.P.S.; Rombouts, P.M.M.; Benedetti, L.; Amerlinck, Y.; de Jonge, J.; Flameling, T.; Nopens, I.; Weijers, S.

2014-01-01

Modelling of the integrated urban water system is a powerful tool to optimise wastewater system performance or to find cost-effective solutions for receiving water problems. One of the challenges of integrated modelling is the prediction of water quality at the inlet of a WWTP. Recent applications

Urban Landscape Characterization Using Remote Sensing Data For Input into Air Quality Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Crosson, William; Khan, Maudood

2005-01-01

The urban landscape is inherently complex and this complexity is not adequately captured in air quality models that are used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, particularly for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of air quality models to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well these models predict ozone pollutant levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban growth projections as improved inputs to meteorological and air quality models focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. The National Land Cover Dataset at 30m resolution is being used as the land use/land cover input and aggregated to the 4km scale for the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling schemes. Use of these data have been found to better characterize low density/suburban development as compared with USGS 1 km land use/land cover data that have traditionally been used in modeling. Air quality prediction for future scenarios to 2030 is being facilitated by land use projections using a spatial growth model. Land use projections were developed using the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan developed by the Atlanta Regional Commission. This allows the State Environmental Protection agency to evaluate how these transportation plans will affect future air quality.

Evolution of Air Quality Model at the US EPA

Science.gov (United States)

At the US EPA, we have developed an air quality model, CMAQ, in the past 20+ years. Throughout the years, the model has been upgraded with respect to advancement of science. We have extended the model from regional to hemispheric. We have coupled it with meteorological model, WR...

A framework for extracting and representing project knowledge contexts using topic models and dynamic knowledge maps

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jin; Li, Zheng; Li, Shuliang; Zhang, Yanyan

2015-07-01

There is still a lack of effective paradigms and tools for analysing and discovering the contents and relationships of project knowledge contexts in the field of project management. In this paper, a new framework for extracting and representing project knowledge contexts using topic models and dynamic knowledge maps under big data environments is proposed and developed. The conceptual paradigm, theoretical underpinning, extended topic model, and illustration examples of the ontology model for project knowledge maps are presented, with further research work envisaged.

Accelerating the Global Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (GNAQPMS) model on Intel Xeon Phi processors

OpenAIRE

Wang, Hui; Chen, Huansheng; Wu, Qizhong; Lin, Junming; Chen, Xueshun; Xie, Xinwei; Wang, Rongrong; Tang, Xiao; Wang, Zifa

2017-01-01

The GNAQPMS model is the global version of the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modelling System (NAQPMS), which is a multi-scale chemical transport model used for air quality forecast and atmospheric environmental research. In this study, we present our work of porting and optimizing the GNAQPMS model on the second generation Intel Xeon Phi processor codename “Knights Landing” (KNL). Compared with the first generation Xeon Phi coprocessor, KNL introduced many new hardware features such as a boo...

Sensitivity of a complex urban air quality model to input data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seigneur, C.; Tesche, T.W.; Roth, P.M.; Reid, L.E.

1981-01-01

In recent years, urban-scale photochemical simulation models have been developed that are of practical value for predicting air quality and analyzing the impacts of alternative emission control strategies. Although the performance of some urban-scale models appears to be acceptable, the demanding data requirements of such models have prompted concern about the costs of data acquistion, which might be high enough to preclude use of photochemical models for many urban areas. To explore this issue, sensitivity studies with the Systems Applications, Inc. (SAI) Airshed Model, a grid-based time-dependent photochemical dispersion model, have been carried out for the Los Angeles basin. Reductions in the amount and quality of meteorological, air quality and emission data, as well as modifications of the model gridded structure, have been analyzed. This paper presents and interprets the results of 22 sensitivity studies. A sensitivity-uncertainty index is defined to rank input data needs for an urban photochemical model. The index takes into account the sensitivity of model predictions to the amount of input data, the costs of data acquistion, and the uncertainties in the air quality model input variables. The results of these sensitivity studies are considered in light of the limitations of specific attributes of the Los Angeles basin and of the modeling conditions (e.g., choice of wind model, length of simulation time). The extent to which the results may be applied to other urban areas also is discussed

Monitoring Quality Across Home Visiting Models: A Field Test of Michigan's Home Visiting Quality Assurance System.

Science.gov (United States)

Heany, Julia; Torres, Jennifer; Zagar, Cynthia; Kostelec, Tiffany

2018-06-05

Introduction In order to achieve the positive outcomes with parents and children demonstrated by many home visiting models, home visiting services must be well implemented. The Michigan Home Visiting Initiative developed a tool and procedure for monitoring implementation quality across models referred to as Michigan's Home Visiting Quality Assurance System (MHVQAS). This study field tested the MHVQAS. This article focuses on one of the study's evaluation questions: Can the MHVQAS be applied across models? Methods Eight local implementing agencies (LIAs) from four home visiting models (Healthy Families America, Early Head Start-Home Based, Parents as Teachers, Maternal Infant Health Program) and five reviewers participated in the study by completing site visits, tracking their time and costs, and completing surveys about the process. LIAs also submitted their most recent review by their model developer. The researchers conducted participant observation of the review process. Results Ratings on the MHVQAS were not significantly different between models. There were some differences in interrater reliability and perceived reliability between models. There were no significant differences between models in perceived validity, satisfaction with the review process, or cost to participate. Observational data suggested that cross-model applicability could be improved by assisting sites in relating the requirements of the tool to the specifics of their model. Discussion The MHVQAS shows promise as a tool and process to monitor implementation quality of home visiting services across models. The results of the study will be used to make improvements before the MHVQAS is used in practice.

Potential of mathematical modeling in fruit quality | Vazquez-Cruz ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A review of mathematical modeling applied to fruit quality showed that these models ranged inresolution from simple yield equations to complex representations of processes as respiration, photosynthesis and assimilation of nutrients. The latter models take into account complex genotype environment interactions to ...

Representing grounding line migration in synchronous coupling between a marine ice sheet model and a z-coordinate ocean model

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, D. N.; Snow, K.; Holland, P.; Jordan, J. R.; Campin, J.-M.; Heimbach, P.; Arthern, R.; Jenkins, A.

2018-05-01

Synchronous coupling is developed between an ice sheet model and a z-coordinate ocean model (the MITgcm). A previously-developed scheme to allow continuous vertical movement of the ice-ocean interface of a floating ice shelf ("vertical coupling") is built upon to allow continuous movement of the grounding line, or point of floatation of the ice sheet ("horizontal coupling"). Horizontal coupling is implemented through the maintenance of a thin layer of ocean ( ∼ 1 m) under grounded ice, which is inflated into the real ocean as the ice ungrounds. This is accomplished through a modification of the ocean model's nonlinear free surface evolution in a manner akin to a hydrological model in the presence of steep bathymetry. The coupled model is applied to a number of idealized geometries and shown to successfully represent ocean-forced marine ice sheet retreat while maintaining a continuous ocean circulation.

Patient perception of nursing service quality; an applied model of Donabedian's structure-process-outcome approach theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Hideyuki; Takemura, Yukie; Kanda, Katsuya

2011-09-01

Nursing is a labour-intensive field, and an extensive amount of latent information exists to aid in evaluating the quality of nursing service, with patients' experiences, the primary focus of such evaluations. To effect further improvement in nursing as well as medical care, Donabedian's structure-process-outcome approach has been applied. To classify and confirm patients' specific experiences with regard to nursing service based on Donabedian's structure-process-outcomes model for improving the quality of nursing care. Items were compiled from existing scales and assigned to structure, process or outcomes in Donabedian's model through discussion among expert nurses and pilot data collection. With regard to comfort, surroundings were classified as structure (e.g. accessibility to nurses, disturbance); with regard to patient-practitioner interaction, patient participation was classified as a process (e.g. expertise and skill, patient decision-making); and with regard to changes in patients, satisfaction was classified as an outcome (e.g. information support, overall satisfaction). Patient inquiry was carried out using the finalized questionnaire at general wards in Japanese hospitals in 2005-2006. Reliability and validity were tested using psychometric methods. Data from 1,810 patients (mean age: 59.7 years; mean length of stay: 23.7 days) were analysed. Internal consistency reliability was supported (α = 0.69-0.96), with factor analysis items of structure aggregated to one factor and overall satisfaction under outcome aggregated to one. The remaining items of outcome and process were distributed together in two factors. Inter-scale correlation (r = 0.442-0.807) supported the construct validity of each structure-process-outcome approach. All structure items were represented as negative-worded examples, as they dealt with basic conditions under Japanese universal health care system, and were regarded as representative related to concepts of dissatisfaction and no

Development of a model web-based system to support a statewide quality consortium in radiation oncology.

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Jean M; Feng, Mary; Benedetti, Lisa A; Marsh, Robin; Griffith, Kent A; Matuszak, Martha M; Hess, Michael; McMullen, Matthew; Fisher, Jennifer H; Nurushev, Teamour; Grubb, Margaret; Gardner, Stephen; Nielsen, Daniel; Jagsi, Reshma; Hayman, James A; Pierce, Lori J

A database in which patient data are compiled allows analytic opportunities for continuous improvements in treatment quality and comparative effectiveness research. We describe the development of a novel, web-based system that supports the collection of complex radiation treatment planning information from centers that use diverse techniques, software, and hardware for radiation oncology care in a statewide quality collaborative, the Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium (MROQC). The MROQC database seeks to enable assessment of physician- and patient-reported outcomes and quality improvement as a function of treatment planning and delivery techniques for breast and lung cancer patients. We created tools to collect anonymized data based on all plans. The MROQC system representing 24 institutions has been successfully deployed in the state of Michigan. Since 2012, dose-volume histogram and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine-radiation therapy plan data and information on simulation, planning, and delivery techniques have been collected. Audits indicated >90% accurate data submission and spurred refinements to data collection methodology. This model web-based system captures detailed, high-quality radiation therapy dosimetry data along with patient- and physician-reported outcomes and clinical data for a radiation therapy collaborative quality initiative. The collaborative nature of the project has been integral to its success. Our methodology can be applied to setting up analogous consortiums and databases. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aircraft model prototypes which have specified handling-quality time histories

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, S. H.

1978-01-01

Several techniques for obtaining linear constant-coefficient airplane models from specified handling-quality time histories are discussed. The pseudodata method solves the basic problem, yields specified eigenvalues, and accommodates state-variable transfer-function zero suppression. The algebraic equations to be solved are bilinear, at worst. The disadvantages are reduced generality and no assurance that the resulting model will be airplane like in detail. The method is fully illustrated for a fourth-order stability-axis small motion model with three lateral handling quality time histories specified. The FORTRAN program which obtains and verifies the model is included and fully documented.

DeepQA: improving the estimation of single protein model quality with deep belief networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Renzhi; Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Hou, Jie; Cheng, Jianlin

2016-12-05

Protein quality assessment (QA) useful for ranking and selecting protein models has long been viewed as one of the major challenges for protein tertiary structure prediction. Especially, estimating the quality of a single protein model, which is important for selecting a few good models out of a large model pool consisting of mostly low-quality models, is still a largely unsolved problem. We introduce a novel single-model quality assessment method DeepQA based on deep belief network that utilizes a number of selected features describing the quality of a model from different perspectives, such as energy, physio-chemical characteristics, and structural information. The deep belief network is trained on several large datasets consisting of models from the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) experiments, several publicly available datasets, and models generated by our in-house ab initio method. Our experiments demonstrate that deep belief network has better performance compared to Support Vector Machines and Neural Networks on the protein model quality assessment problem, and our method DeepQA achieves the state-of-the-art performance on CASP11 dataset. It also outperformed two well-established methods in selecting good outlier models from a large set of models of mostly low quality generated by ab initio modeling methods. DeepQA is a useful deep learning tool for protein single model quality assessment and protein structure prediction. The source code, executable, document and training/test datasets of DeepQA for Linux is freely available to non-commercial users at http://cactus.rnet.missouri.edu/DeepQA/ .

Uncertainty analyses of the calibrated parameter values of a water quality model

Science.gov (United States)

Rode, M.; Suhr, U.; Lindenschmidt, K.-E.

2003-04-01

For river basin management water quality models are increasingly used for the analysis and evaluation of different management measures. However substantial uncertainties exist in parameter values depending on the available calibration data. In this paper an uncertainty analysis for a water quality model is presented, which considers the impact of available model calibration data and the variance of input variables. The investigation was conducted based on four extensive flowtime related longitudinal surveys in the River Elbe in the years 1996 to 1999 with varying discharges and seasonal conditions. For the model calculations the deterministic model QSIM of the BfG (Germany) was used. QSIM is a one dimensional water quality model and uses standard algorithms for hydrodynamics and phytoplankton dynamics in running waters, e.g. Michaelis Menten/Monod kinetics, which are used in a wide range of models. The multi-objective calibration of the model was carried out with the nonlinear parameter estimator PEST. The results show that for individual flow time related measuring surveys very good agreements between model calculation and measured values can be obtained. If these parameters are applied to deviating boundary conditions, substantial errors in model calculation can occur. These uncertainties can be decreased with an increased calibration database. More reliable model parameters can be identified, which supply reasonable results for broader boundary conditions. The extension of the application of the parameter set on a wider range of water quality conditions leads to a slight reduction of the model precision for the specific water quality situation. Moreover the investigations show that highly variable water quality variables like the algal biomass always allow a smaller forecast accuracy than variables with lower coefficients of variation like e.g. nitrate.

Estimating Spoken Dialog System Quality with User Models

CERN Document Server

Engelbrecht, Klaus-Peter

2013-01-01

Spoken dialog systems have the potential to offer highly intuitive user interfaces, as they allow systems to be controlled using natural language. However, the complexity inherent in natural language dialogs means that careful testing of the system must be carried out from the very beginning of the design process.   This book examines how user models can be used to support such early evaluations in two ways:  by running simulations of dialogs, and by estimating the quality judgments of users. First, a design environment supporting the creation of dialog flows, the simulation of dialogs, and the analysis of the simulated data is proposed.  How the quality of user simulations may be quantified with respect to their suitability for both formative and summative evaluation is then discussed. The remainder of the book is dedicated to the problem of predicting quality judgments of users based on interaction data. New modeling approaches are presented, which process the dialogs as sequences, and which allow knowl...

Indoor air quality in the Greater Beirut area: a characterization and modeling assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Fadel, Mutasem; El-Hougeiri, Nisrine; Oulabi, Mawiya

2003-01-01

This report presents the assessment of IAQ at various environments selected from different geographic categories from the Greater Beirut area (GBA) in Lebanon. For this purpose, background information about indoor air quality was reviewed, existing conditions were characterized, an air-sampling program was implemented and mathematical modeling was conducted. Twenty-eight indoor buildings were selected from various geographic categories representing different environments (commercial and residential...). Indoor and outdoor air samples were collected and analyzed using carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (TSP), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) as indicators of indoor air pollution (IAP).Samples were further analyzed using the energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence technique (EDXRF) for the presence of major priority metals including iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu) and bromine (Br). Indoor and outdoor measured levels were compared to the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and health-based National Ambient Air Quality standards (NAAQS), respectively. For the priority metals, on the other hand, indoor measured values were compared to occupational standards recommended by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Constraining the uncertainty in emissions over India with a regional air quality model evaluation

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Karambelas, Alexandra; Holloway, Tracey; Kiesewetter, Gregor; Heyes, Chris

2018-02-01

To evaluate uncertainty in the spatial distribution of air emissions over India, we compare satellite and surface observations with simulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Seasonally representative simulations were completed for January, April, July, and October 2010 at 36 km × 36 km using anthropogenic emissions from the Greenhouse Gas-Air Pollution Interaction and Synergies (GAINS) model following version 5a of the Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants project (ECLIPSE v5a). We use both tropospheric columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and surface observations from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to closely examine modeled nitrogen dioxide (NO2) biases in urban and rural regions across India. Spatial average evaluation with satellite retrievals indicate a low bias in the modeled tropospheric column (-63.3%), which reflects broad low-biases in majority non-urban regions (-70.1% in rural areas) across the sub-continent to slightly lesser low biases reflected in semi-urban areas (-44.7%), with the threshold between semi-urban and rural defined as 400 people per km2. In contrast, modeled surface NO2 concentrations exhibit a slight high bias of +15.6% when compared to surface CPCB observations predominantly located in urban areas. Conversely, in examining extremely population dense urban regions with more than 5000 people per km2 (dense-urban), we find model overestimates in both the column (+57.8) and at the surface (+131.2%) compared to observations. Based on these results, we find that existing emission fields for India may overestimate urban emissions in densely populated regions and underestimate rural emissions. However, if we rely on model evaluation with predominantly urban surface observations from the CPCB, comparisons reflect model high biases, contradictory to the knowledge gained using satellite observations. Satellites thus

Frameworks for Assessing the Quality of Modeling and Simulation Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Rider, W. J.

2012-12-01

The importance of assuring quality in modeling and simulation has spawned several frameworks for structuring the examination of quality. The format and content of these frameworks provides an emphasis, completeness and flow to assessment activities. I will examine four frameworks that have been developed and describe how they can be improved and applied to a broader set of high consequence applications. Perhaps the first of these frameworks was known as CSAU [Boyack] (code scaling, applicability and uncertainty) used for nuclear reactor safety and endorsed the United States' Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC). This framework was shaped by nuclear safety practice, and the practical structure needed after the Three Mile Island accident. It incorporated the dominant experimental program, the dominant analysis approach, and concerns about the quality of modeling. The USNRC gave it the force of law that made the nuclear industry take it seriously. After the cessation of nuclear weapons' testing the United States began a program of examining the reliability of these weapons without testing. This program utilizes science including theory, modeling, simulation and experimentation to replace the underground testing. The emphasis on modeling and simulation necessitated attention on the quality of these simulations. Sandia developed the PCMM (predictive capability maturity model) to structure this attention [Oberkampf]. PCMM divides simulation into six core activities to be examined and graded relative to the needs of the modeling activity. NASA [NASA] has built yet another framework in response to the tragedy of the space shuttle accidents. Finally, Ben-Haim and Hemez focus upon modeling robustness and predictive fidelity in another approach. These frameworks are similar, and applied in a similar fashion. The adoption of these frameworks at Sandia and NASA has been slow and arduous because the force of law has not assisted acceptance. All existing frameworks are

Relationship between soybean yield/quality and soil quality in a major soybean-producing area based on a 2D-QSAR model

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Ming; Li, Shiwei

2017-05-01

Based on experimental data of the soybean yield and quality from 30 sampling points, a quantitative structure-activity relationship model (2D-QSAR) was established using the soil quality (elements, pH, organic matter content and cation exchange capacity) as independent variables and soybean yield or quality as the dependent variable, with SPSS software. During the modeling, the full data set (30 and 14 compounds) was divided into a training set (24 and 11 compounds) for model generation and a test set (6 and 3 compounds) for model validation. The R2 values of the resulting models and data were 0.826 and 0.808 for soybean yield and quality, respectively, and all regression coefficients were significant (P test set were 0.961 and 0.956, respectively, indicating that the models had a good predictive ability. Moreover, the Mo, Se, K, N and organic matter contents and the cation exchange capacity of soil had a positive effect on soybean production, and the B, Mo, Se, K and N contents and cation exchange coefficient had a positive effect on soybean quality. The results are instructive for enhancing soils to improve the yield and quality of soybean, and this method can also be used to study other crops or regions, providing a theoretical basis to improving the yield and quality of crops.

A reference-dependent model of the price-quality heuristic

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gneezy, A.; Gneezy, U.; Lauga, D.O.

2014-01-01

People often use price as a proxy for quality, resulting in a positive correlation between prices and product liking, known as the "price- quality" (P-Q) heuristic. Using data from three experiments conducted at a winery, this article offers a more complex and complete reference-dependent model of

New statistical potential for quality assessment of protein models and a survey of energy functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rykunov Dmitry

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Scoring functions, such as molecular mechanic forcefields and statistical potentials are fundamentally important tools in protein structure modeling and quality assessment. Results The performances of a number of publicly available scoring functions are compared with a statistical rigor, with an emphasis on knowledge-based potentials. We explored the effect on accuracy of alternative choices for representing interaction center types and other features of scoring functions, such as using information on solvent accessibility, on torsion angles, accounting for secondary structure preferences and side chain orientation. Partially based on the observations made, we present a novel residue based statistical potential, which employs a shuffled reference state definition and takes into account the mutual orientation of residue side chains. Atom- and residue-level statistical potentials and Linux executables to calculate the energy of a given protein proposed in this work can be downloaded from http://www.fiserlab.org/potentials. Conclusions Among the most influential terms we observed a critical role of a proper reference state definition and the benefits of including information about the microenvironment of interaction centers. Molecular mechanical potentials were also tested and found to be over-sensitive to small local imperfections in a structure, requiring unfeasible long energy relaxation before energy scores started to correlate with model quality.

An inexact fuzzy-chance-constrained air quality management model.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Ye; Huang, Guohe; Qin, Xiaosheng

2010-07-01

Regional air pollution is a major concern for almost every country because it not only directly relates to economic development, but also poses significant threats to environment and public health. In this study, an inexact fuzzy-chance-constrained air quality management model (IFAMM) was developed for regional air quality management under uncertainty. IFAMM was formulated through integrating interval linear programming (ILP) within a fuzzy-chance-constrained programming (FCCP) framework and could deal with uncertainties expressed as not only possibilistic distributions but also discrete intervals in air quality management systems. Moreover, the constraints with fuzzy variables could be satisfied at different confidence levels such that various solutions with different risk and cost considerations could be obtained. The developed model was applied to a hypothetical case of regional air quality management. Six abatement technologies and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission trading under uncertainty were taken into consideration. The results demonstrated that IFAMM could help decision-makers generate cost-effective air quality management patterns, gain in-depth insights into effects of the uncertainties, and analyze tradeoffs between system economy and reliability. The results also implied that the trading scheme could achieve lower total abatement cost than a nontrading one.

COST OF QUALITY MODELS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION IN MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.M. Vaxevanidis

2009-03-01

Full Text Available In order to improve quality, an organization must take into account the costs associated with achieving quality since the objective of continuous improvement programs is not only to meet customer requirements, but also to do it at the lowest, possible, cost. This can only obtained by reducing the costs needed to achieve quality, and the reduction of these costs is only possible if they are identified and measured. Therefore, measuring and reporting the cost of quality (CoQ should be considered an important issue for achieving quality excellence. To collect quality costs an organization needs to adopt a framework to classify costs; however, there is no general agreement on a single broad definition of quality costs. CoQ is usually understood as the sum of conformance plus non-conformance costs, where cost of conformance is the price paid for prevention of poor quality (for example, inspection and quality appraisal and cost of non-conformance is the cost of poor quality caused by product and service failure (for example, rework and returns. The objective of this paper is to give a survey of research articles on the topic of CoQ; it opens with a literature review focused on existing CoQ models; then, it briefly presents the most common CoQ parameters and the metrics (indices used for monitoring CoQ. Finally, the use of CoQ models in practice, i.e., the implementation of a quality costing system and cost of quality reporting in companies is discussed, with emphasis in cases concerning manufacturing firms.

Systems Engineering Metrics: Organizational Complexity and Product Quality Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Mog, Robert A.

1997-01-01

Innovative organizational complexity and product quality models applicable to performance metrics for NASA-MSFC's Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory (SAIL) missions and objectives are presented. An intensive research effort focuses on the synergistic combination of stochastic process modeling, nodal and spatial decomposition techniques, organizational and computational complexity, systems science and metrics, chaos, and proprietary statistical tools for accelerated risk assessment. This is followed by the development of a preliminary model, which is uniquely applicable and robust for quantitative purposes. Exercise of the preliminary model using a generic system hierarchy and the AXAF-I architectural hierarchy is provided. The Kendall test for positive dependence provides an initial verification and validation of the model. Finally, the research and development of the innovation is revisited, prior to peer review. This research and development effort results in near-term, measurable SAIL organizational and product quality methodologies, enhanced organizational risk assessment and evolutionary modeling results, and 91 improved statistical quantification of SAIL productivity interests.

A Rotational Blended Learning Model: Enhancement and Quality Assurance

Science.gov (United States)

Ghoul, Said

2013-01-01

Research on blended learning theory and practice is growing nowadays with a focus on the development, evaluation, and quality assurance of case studies. However, the enhancement of blended learning existing models, the specification of their online parts, and the quality assurance related specifically to them have not received enough attention.…

Using semantics for representing experimental protocols.

Science.gov (United States)

Giraldo, Olga; García, Alexander; López, Federico; Corcho, Oscar

2017-11-13

An experimental protocol is a sequence of tasks and operations executed to perform experimental research in biological and biomedical areas, e.g. biology, genetics, immunology, neurosciences, virology. Protocols often include references to equipment, reagents, descriptions of critical steps, troubleshooting and tips, as well as any other information that researchers deem important for facilitating the reusability of the protocol. Although experimental protocols are central to reproducibility, the descriptions are often cursory. There is the need for a unified framework with respect to the syntactic structure and the semantics for representing experimental protocols. In this paper we present "SMART Protocols ontology", an ontology for representing experimental protocols. Our ontology represents the protocol as a workflow with domain specific knowledge embedded within a document. We also present the S ample I nstrument R eagent O bjective (SIRO) model, which represents the minimal common information shared across experimental protocols. SIRO was conceived in the same realm as the Patient Intervention Comparison Outcome (PICO) model that supports search, retrieval and classification purposes in evidence based medicine. We evaluate our approach against a set of competency questions modeled as SPARQL queries and processed against a set of published and unpublished protocols modeled with the SP Ontology and the SIRO model. Our approach makes it possible to answer queries such as Which protocols use tumor tissue as a sample. Improving reporting structures for experimental protocols requires collective efforts from authors, peer reviewers, editors and funding bodies. The SP Ontology is a contribution towards this goal. We build upon previous experiences and bringing together the view of researchers managing protocols in their laboratory work. Website: https://smartprotocols.github.io/ .

Conceptual design of a regional water quality screening model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, M.J.

1981-01-01

This water quality assessment methodology is intended to predict concentrations at future times and to estimate the impacts on water quality of energy-related activities (including industrial boilers). Estimates of impacts on water quality at future times are based on incremental changes in pollutant inputs to the body water. Important features of the model are: use of measured concentrations to account for existing conditions; consideration of incremental changes in pollutant loads; emphasis on the energy sector and industrial boilers; analysis restricted to streams only; no attempt to fully account for pollutant behavior; and flexible design, so that future improvements can be incorporated. The basic approach is very similar to the one used by Argonne's ARQUAL model but will allow more complex pollutant behavior and more flexibility in use

Stochastic spatio-temporal model of coral cover as a function of herbivorous grazers, water quality, and coral demographics

Science.gov (United States)

Neuhausler, R.; Robinson, M.; Bruna, M.

2017-12-01

Over the last 60 years we have seen an increased amount of ecological regime shifts in tropical coastal zones, from coral reefs to macroalgae dominated states, as a result of natural and anthropogenic stresses. However, these shifts are not always immediate- macroalgae are generally present in coral reefs, with their distribution regulated by herbivorous fish. This is especially true in Moorea, French Polynesia, where macroalgae are shown to flourish in spaces that provide refuge from roaming herbivores. While there are currently modeling efforts in projecting ecological regime shifts in Moorea, temporal deterministic models have been utilized, which fail to capture metastability between multiple steady states and can have issues when dealing with very small populations. To address these concerns, we build on these models to account for spatial variations and individual organisms, as well as stochasticity. Our model can project the percent cover of coral, macroalgae, and algae turf as a function of herbivorous grazers, water quality, and coral demographics. Grazers, included as individual fish (particles), evolve according to a kinetic model and interact with neighbouring benthic assemblages, represented as nodes. Water quality and coral demographics are input parameters that can vary over time, allowing our model to be run for temporally changing scenarios and to be adjusted for different reefs. We plan to engage with previous Moorea Reef Resilience Models through a comparative analysis of our models' outcomes and existing Moorea data. Coupling projective models with available data is useful for informing environmental policy and advancing the modeling field.

Structure-based Markov random field model for representing evolutionary constraints on functional sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Chan-Seok; Kim, Dongsup

2016-02-24

Elucidating the cooperative mechanism of interconnected residues is an important component toward understanding the biological function of a protein. Coevolution analysis has been developed to model the coevolutionary information reflecting structural and functional constraints. Recently, several methods have been developed based on a probabilistic graphical model called the Markov random field (MRF), which have led to significant improvements for coevolution analysis; however, thus far, the performance of these models has mainly been assessed by focusing on the aspect of protein structure. In this study, we built an MRF model whose graphical topology is determined by the residue proximity in the protein structure, and derived a novel positional coevolution estimate utilizing the node weight of the MRF model. This structure-based MRF method was evaluated for three data sets, each of which annotates catalytic site, allosteric site, and comprehensively determined functional site information. We demonstrate that the structure-based MRF architecture can encode the evolutionary information associated with biological function. Furthermore, we show that the node weight can more accurately represent positional coevolution information compared to the edge weight. Lastly, we demonstrate that the structure-based MRF model can be reliably built with only a few aligned sequences in linear time. The results show that adoption of a structure-based architecture could be an acceptable approximation for coevolution modeling with efficient computation complexity.

Toronto area ozone: Long-term measurements and modeled sources of poor air quality events

Science.gov (United States)

Whaley, C. H.; Strong, K.; Jones, D. B. A.; Walker, T. W.; Jiang, Z.; Henze, D. K.; Cooke, M. A.; McLinden, C. A.; Mittermeier, R. L.; Pommier, M.; Fogal, P. F.

2015-11-01

The University of Toronto Atmospheric Observatory and Environment Canada's Centre for Atmospheric Research Experiments each has over a decade of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy measurements in southern Ontario. We present the Toronto area FTIR time series from 2002 to 2013 of two tropospheric trace gases—ozone and carbon monoxide—along with surface in situ measurements taken by government monitoring programs. We interpret their variability with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model and determine the atmospheric conditions that cause pollution events in the time series. Our analysis includes a regionally tagged O3 model of the 2004-2007 time period, which quantifies the geographical contributions to Toronto area O3. The important emission types for 15 pollution events are then determined with a high-resolution adjoint model. Toronto O3, during pollution events, is most sensitive to southern Ontario and U.S. fossil fuel NOx emissions and natural isoprene emissions. The sources of Toronto pollution events are found to be highly variable, and this is demonstrated in four case studies representing local, short-, middle-, and long-range transport scenarios. This suggests that continental-scale emission reductions could improve air quality in the Toronto region. We also find that abnormally high temperatures and high-pressure systems are common to all pollution events studied, suggesting that climate change may impact Toronto O3. Finally, we quantitatively compare the sensitivity of the surface and column measurements to anthropogenic NOx emissions and show that they are remarkably similar. This work thus demonstrates the usefulness of FTIR measurements in an urban area to assess air quality.

Quality of Life and Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: Preliminary Analysis of a Conceptual and Theoretical Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Bishop, Malachy

2005-01-01

This article describes and presents an initial analysis of a quality-of-life?based model of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability. This model, termed disability centrality, represents a conceptual and theoretical synthesis of several existing theories and models, drawn from the quality-of life, rehabilitation counseling, and…

Introducing litter quality to the ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS: Effects on short- and long-term soil carbon dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Portner, Hanspeter; Wolf, Annett; Rühr, Nadine; Bugmann, Harald

2010-05-01

Many biogeochemical models have been applied to study the response of the carbon cycle to changes in climate, whereby the process of carbon uptake (photosynthesis) has usually gained more attention than the equally important process of carbon release by respiration. The decomposition of soil organic matter is driven by a combination of factors like soil temperature, soil moisture and litter quality. We have introduced dependence on litter substrate quality to heterotrophic soil respiration in the ecosystem model LPJ-GUESS [Smith et al.(2001)]. We were interested in differences in model projections before and after the inclusion of the dependency both in respect to short- and long-term soil carbon dynamics. The standard implementation of heterotrophic soil respiration in LPJ-GUESS is a simple carbon three-pool model whose decay rates are dependent on soil temperature and soil moisture. We have added dependence on litter quality by coupling LPJ-GUESS to the soil carbon model Yasso07 [Tuomi et al.(2008)]. The Yasso07 model is based on an extensive number of measurements of litter decomposition of forest soils. Apart from the dependence on soil temperature and soil moisture, the Yasso07 model uses carbon soil pools representing different substrate qualities: acid hydrolyzable, water soluble, ethanol soluble, lignin compounds and humus. Additionally Yasso07 differentiates between woody and non-woody litter. In contrary to the reference implementation of LPJ-GUESS, in the new model implementation, the litter now is divided according to its specific quality and added to the corresponding soil carbon pool. The litter quality thereby differs between litter source (leaves, roots, stems) and plant functional type (broadleaved, needleleaved, grass). The two contrasting model implementations were compared and validated at one specific CarboEuropeIP site (Lägern, Switzerland) and on a broader scale all over Switzerland. Our focus lay on the soil respiration for the years 2006

Modeling Air-Quality in Complex Terrain Using Mesoscale and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Air-quality in a complex terrain (Colorado-River-Valley/Grand-Canyon Area, Southwest U.S.) is modeled using a higher-order closure mesoscale model and a higher-order closure dispersion model. Non-reactive tracers have been released in the Colorado-River valley, during winter and summer 1992, to study the ...

A Dynamic Panel Model of the Associations of Sweetened Beverage Purchases With Dietary Quality and Food-Purchasing Patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Piernas, Carmen; Ng, Shu Wen; Mendez, Michelle A.; Gordon-Larsen, Penny; Popkin, Barry M.

2015-01-01

Investigating the association between consumption of sweetened beverages and dietary quality is challenging because issues such as reverse causality and unmeasured confounding might result in biased and inconsistent estimates. Using a dynamic panel model with instrumental variables to address those issues, we examined the independent associations of beverages sweetened with caloric and low-calorie sweeteners with dietary quality and food-purchasing patterns. We analyzed purchase data from the Homescan survey, an ongoing, longitudinal, nationally representative US survey, from 2000 to 2010 (n = 34,294). Our model included lagged measures of dietary quality and beverage purchases (servings/day in the previous year) as exposures to predict the outcomes (macronutrient (kilocalories per capita per day; %), total energy, and food purchases) in the next year after adjustment for other sociodemographic covariates. Despite secular declines in purchases (kilocalories per capita per day) from all sources, each 1-serving/day increase in consumption of either beverage type resulted in higher purchases of total daily kilocalories and kilocalories from food, carbohydrates, total sugar, and total fat. Each 1-serving/day increase in consumption of either beverage was associated with more purchases of caloric-sweetened desserts or sweeteners, which accounted for a substantial proportion of the increase in total kilocalories. We concluded that consumers of both beverages sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners and beverages sweetened with caloric sweeteners had poorer dietary quality, exhibited higher energy from all purchases, sugar, and fat, and purchased more caloric-sweetened desserts/caloric sweeteners compared with nonconsumers. PMID:25834139

Use of single-representative reverse-engineered surface-models for RSA does not affect measurement accuracy and precision.

Science.gov (United States)

Seehaus, Frank; Schwarze, Michael; Flörkemeier, Thilo; von Lewinski, Gabriela; Kaptein, Bart L; Jakubowitz, Eike; Hurschler, Christof

2016-05-01

Implant migration can be accurately quantified by model-based Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA), using an implant surface model to locate the implant relative to the bone. In a clinical situation, a single reverse engineering (RE) model for each implant type and size is used. It is unclear to what extent the accuracy and precision of migration measurement is affected by implant manufacturing variability unaccounted for by a single representative model. Individual RE models were generated for five short-stem hip implants of the same type and size. Two phantom analyses and one clinical analysis were performed: "Accuracy-matched models": one stem was assessed, and the results from the original RE model were compared with randomly selected models. "Accuracy-random model": each of the five stems was assessed and analyzed using one randomly selected RE model. "Precision-clinical setting": implant migration was calculated for eight patients, and all five available RE models were applied to each case. For the two phantom experiments, the 95%CI of the bias ranged from -0.28 mm to 0.30 mm for translation and -2.3° to 2.5° for rotation. In the clinical setting, precision is less than 0.5 mm and 1.2° for translation and rotation, respectively, except for rotations about the proximodistal axis (RSA can be achieved and are not biased by using a single representative RE model. At least for implants similar in shape to the investigated short-stem, individual models are not necessary. © 2015 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:903-910, 2016. © 2015 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Model-based monitoring of stormwater runoff quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birch, Heidi; Vezzaro, Luca; Mikkelsen, Peter Steen

2013-01-01

Monitoring of micropollutants (MP) in stormwater is essential to evaluate the impacts of stormwater on the receiving aquatic environment. The aim of this study was to investigate how different strategies for monitoring of stormwater quality (combining a model with field sampling) affect the infor...

New Methods for Air Quality Model Evaluation with Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, T.; Harkey, M.

2015-12-01

Despite major advances in the ability of satellites to detect gases and aerosols in the atmosphere, there remains significant, untapped potential to apply space-based data to air quality regulatory applications. Here, we showcase research findings geared toward increasing the relevance of satellite data to support operational air quality management, focused on model evaluation. Particular emphasis is given to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard the NASA Aura satellite, and evaluation of simulations from the EPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This work is part of the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (AQAST), and is motivated by ongoing dialog with state and federal air quality management agencies. We present the response of satellite-derived NO2 to meteorological conditions, satellite-derived HCHO:NO2 ratios as an indicator of ozone production regime, and the ability of models to capture these sensitivities over the continental U.S. In the case of NO2-weather sensitivities, we find boundary layer height, wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity to be the most important variables in determining near-surface NO2 variability. CMAQ agreed with relationships observed in satellite data, as well as in ground-based data, over most regions. However, we find that the southwest U.S. is a problem area for CMAQ, where modeled NO2 responses to insolation, boundary layer height, and other variables are at odds with the observations. Our analyses utilize a software developed by our team, the Wisconsin Horizontal Interpolation Program for Satellites (WHIPS): a free, open-source program designed to make satellite-derived air quality data more usable. WHIPS interpolates level 2 satellite retrievals onto a user-defined fixed grid, in effect creating custom-gridded level 3 satellite product. Currently, WHIPS can process the following data products: OMI NO2 (NASA retrieval); OMI NO2 (KNMI retrieval); OMI

Treatment of Events Representing System Success in Accident Sequences in PSA Models with ET/FT Linking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vrbanic, I.; Spiler, J.; Mikulicic, V.; Simic, Z.

2002-01-01

Treatment of events that represent systems' successes in accident sequences is well known issue associated primarily with those PSA models that employ event tree / fault tree (ET / FT) linking technique. Even theoretically clear, practical implementation and usage creates for certain PSA models a number of difficulties regarding result correctness. Strict treatment of success-events would require consistent applying of de Morgan laws. However, there are several problems related to it. First, Boolean resolution of the overall model, such as the one representing occurrence of reactor core damage, becomes very challenging task if De Morgan rules are applied consistently at all levels. Even PSA tools of the newest generation have some problems with performing such a task in a reasonable time frame. The second potential issue is related to the presence of negated basic events in minimal cutsets. If all the basic events that result from strict applying of De Morgan rules are retained in presentation of minimal cutsets, their readability and interpretability may be impaired severely. It is also worth noting that the concept of a minimal cutset is tied to equipment failures, rather than to successes. For reasons like these, various simplifications are employed in PSA models and tools, when it comes to the treatment of success-events in the sequences. This paper provides a discussion of major concerns associated with the treatment of success-events in accident sequences of a typical PSA model. (author)

Conceptual Model As The Tool For Managing Bank Services Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kornelija Severović

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Quality has become basic factor of economic efficiency and basic principle of business activities of successful organizations. Its consequence is revolution on the area of quality that has comprised all kinds of products and services and so the bank services as well. To understand the present and future needs of clients and to know how to fulfill and try to exceed their expectations is the task of each efficient economy. Therefore, the banks in the developed economies try to re-orientate organizationally, technologically and informatically their business activities placing the client in the core of this business activity. Significant indicators of quality services that banks offer is measured by the waiting time of clients for the offer of the desirable service and the number of clients who give up to enter the bank due to the long waiting queues. Dissatisfied client is the worst work result and business activity of banks. Following the stated, the great effort is made to improve service qualities, which means professionalism and communication of personnel with whom the clients come in contact, and giving punctual and clear information and short waiting period of standing in the lines. The aim of this work is to present and describe the functioning of bank system under the conditions of establishing quality in offering services to clients and to recognize basic guidelines for quality increase in the work of sub branches. Since the banking is very dynamic and complex system, the conceptual model is carried out for the purpose of optimization of the stated quality parameters for the bank business activity; this model, in further research, will serve for the development of simulation model.

An economically designed, integrated quality and maintenance model using an adaptive Shewhart chart

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Panagiotidou, Sofia; Nenes, George

2009-01-01

This paper proposes a model for the economic design of a variable-parameter (Vp) Shewhart control chart used to monitor the mean in a process, where, apart from quality shifts, failures may also occur. Quality shifts result in poorer quality outcome, higher operational cost and higher failure rate. Thus, removal of such quality shifts, besides improving the quality of the outcome and reducing the quality cost, is also a preventive maintenance (PM) action since it reduces the probability of a failure and improves the equipment reliability. The proposed model allows the determination of the scheme parameters that minimize the total expected quality and maintenance cost of the procedure. The monitoring mechanism of the process employs an adaptive Vp-Shewhart control chart. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, its optimal expected cost is compared against the optimum cost of a fixed-parameter (Fp) chart

Application of water quality models to rivers in Johor

Science.gov (United States)

Chii, Puah Lih; Rahman, Haliza Abd.

2017-08-01

River pollution is one the most common hazard in many countries in the world, which includes Malaysia. Many rivers have been polluted because of the rapid growth in industrialization to support the country's growing population and economy. Domestic and industrial sewage, agricultural wastes have polluted the rivers and will affect the water quality. Based on the Malaysia Environment Quality Report 2007, the Department of Environment (DOE) has described that one of the major pollutants is Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). Data from DOE in 2004, based on BOD, 18 river basins were classified polluted, 37 river basins were slightly polluted and 65 river basins were in clean condition. In this paper, two models are fitted the data of rivers in Johor state namely Streeter-Phelps model and nonlinear regression (NLR) model. The BOD concentration data for the two rivers in Johor state from year 1981 to year 1990 is analyzed. To estimate the parameters for the Streeter-Phelps model and NLR model, this study focuses on the weighted least squares and Gauss-Newton method respectively. Based on the value of Mean Square Error, NLR model is a better model compared to Streeter-Phelps model.

A formal model for total quality management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.C. van der Made-Potuijt; H.B. Bertsch (Boudewijn); L.P.J. Groenewegen

1996-01-01

textabstractTotal Quality Management (TQM) is a systematic approach to managing a company. TQM is systematic in the sense that it is uses facts through observation, analysis and measurable goals. There are theoretical descriptions of this management concept, but there is no formal model of it. A

Calibration of Linked Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Model for Santa Margarita Lagoon

Science.gov (United States)

2016-07-01

was used to drive the transport and water quality kinetics for the simulation of 2007–2009. The sand berm, which controlled the opening/closure of...TECHNICAL REPORT 3015 July 2016 Calibration of Linked Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Model for Santa Margarita Lagoon Final Report Pei...Linked Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Model for Santa Margarita Lagoon Final Report Pei-Fang Wang Chuck Katz Ripan Barua SSC Pacific James

Managing postgraduate research service quality: Developing and assessing a conceptual model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shawn Ramroop

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on the conceptual development and empirical evaluation of a postgraduate (PG research service quality management model, through conducting an electronic survey among a cohort of master’s and doctorate graduates at one of the top three research universities in South Africa, using specifically developed and validated research instruments.By fitting the data from a sample of 117 graduates to a conceptual model using structural equation modelling, it became evident that the PG research students’ perception of the Organisational Climate for Research (OCR is associated with their perception of the PG Research Service Quality (PGSQUAL, the PG Service Experience (SERVEXP and their perception of their Role (RC. However, no association was found between the students’ perception of the research climate (OCR and their satisfaction (SERVSAT with the research service; the service experience (SERVEXP and postgraduate research service quality (PGSQUAL; service satisfaction (SERVSAT and postgraduate service quality (PGSQUAL.  The aforementioned findings imply that higher education institutions need to create a research climate which is supportive of service quality, and better manage the research climate, so that the PG students are clear about their role, which will eventually translate to a better PG service experience and improved perception of PG service quality.

Indicators to support the dynamic evaluation of air quality models

Science.gov (United States)

Thunis, P.; Clappier, A.

2014-12-01

Air quality models are useful tools for the assessment and forecast of pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere. Most of the evaluation process relies on the “operational phase” or in other words the comparison of model results with available measurements which provides insight on the model capability to reproduce measured concentrations for a given application. But one of the key advantages of air quality models lies in their ability to assess the impact of precursor emission reductions on air quality levels. Models are then used in a dynamic mode (i.e. response to a change in a given model input data) for which evaluation of the model performances becomes a challenge. The objective of this work is to propose common indicators and diagrams to facilitate the understanding of model responses to emission changes when models are to be used for policy support. These indicators are shown to be useful to retrieve information on the magnitude of the locally produced impacts of emission reductions on concentrations with respect to the “external to the domain” contribution but also to identify, distinguish and quantify impacts arising from different factors (different precursors). In addition information about the robustness of the model results is provided. As such these indicators might reveal useful as first screening methodology to identify the feasibility of a given action as well as to prioritize the factors on which to act for an increased efficiency. Finally all indicators are made dimensionless to facilitate the comparison of results obtained with different models, different resolutions, or on different geographical areas.

The ability of current micro-velocity models to represent center-limb line profiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, J.C.; Testerman, L.

1975-01-01

Results are presented on the ability of microturbulences, LTE line formation and a homogeneous thermal model to realistically represent the center-limb variation of temporally and spacially averaged solar line profiles. Three somewhat similar semi-empirical thermal models have been used in combination with five current microturbulence models which cover the gamut of homogeneous-isotropic to nonhomogeneous-anisotropic. From high resolution photoelectric data for (lambdalambda 5000-6000 at five μ-values(1,0.63,0.4,0.25,0.16) obtained at KPNO, were selected 17 Fe I and 5 Fe II line profiles to be unblended and symmetrized for study. An iterative scheme has been developed to calculate theoretical profiles for the various combination of models and compare them to the observed profile using the abundance at each limb position and the magnitude of the pressure broadening at the center of the disc as parameters. It was found that a microturbulence model, for which the radial and tangential components increase into deeper layers with xisub(tan)>xisub(rad), produces a reasonable good center-limb fit for lines less than 100mA. However for lines stronger than 140mA, microturbulence models with no depth dependence produce the best match between theory and observation. Thus there is reason to question the uniqueness of the microturbulence concept. (Auth.)

Assessment of the assessment: Evaluation of the model quality estimates in CASP10

KAUST Repository

Kryshtafovych, Andriy

2013-08-31

The article presents an assessment of the ability of the thirty-seven model quality assessment (MQA) methods participating in CASP10 to provide an a priori estimation of the quality of structural models, and of the 67 tertiary structure prediction groups to provide confidence estimates for their predicted coordinates. The assessment of MQA predictors is based on the methods used in previous CASPs, such as correlation between the predicted and observed quality of the models (both at the global and local levels), accuracy of methods in distinguishing between good and bad models as well as good and bad regions within them, and ability to identify the best models in the decoy sets. Several numerical evaluations were used in our analysis for the first time, such as comparison of global and local quality predictors with reference (baseline) predictors and a ROC analysis of the predictors\\' ability to differentiate between the well and poorly modeled regions. For the evaluation of the reliability of self-assessment of the coordinate errors, we used the correlation between the predicted and observed deviations of the coordinates and a ROC analysis of correctly identified errors in the models. A modified two-stage procedure for testing MQA methods in CASP10 whereby a small number of models spanning the whole range of model accuracy was released first followed by the release of a larger number of models of more uniform quality, allowed a more thorough analysis of abilities and inabilities of different types of methods. Clustering methods were shown to have an advantage over the single- and quasi-single- model methods on the larger datasets. At the same time, the evaluation revealed that the size of the dataset has smaller influence on the global quality assessment scores (for both clustering and nonclustering methods), than its diversity. Narrowing the quality range of the assessed models caused significant decrease in accuracy of ranking for global quality predictors but

Confirmatory factor analysis of the thyroid-related quality of life questionnaire ThyPRO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Watt, Torquil; Grønvold, Mogens; Deng, Nina

2014-01-01

Background and aimThyroid diseases are prevalent and chronic. With treatment, quality of life is restored in most, but not all patients. Construct validity of the thyroid-related quality of life questionnaire, ThyPRO, has been established by multi-trait scaling, but not evaluated with more.......ResultsEach ThyPRO scale was adequately represented by a unidimensional model after minor revisions. Eleven items were identified in the unidimensional models as potentially misfitting and were investigated further by multidimensional modeling.ConclusionElaborate psychometric modeling supported the construct...

Root zone water quality model (RZWQM2): Model use, calibration and validation

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Liwang; Ahuja, Lajpat; Nolan, B.T.; Malone, Robert; Trout, Thomas; Qi, Z.

2012-01-01

The Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) has been used widely for simulating agricultural management effects on crop production and soil and water quality. Although it is a one-dimensional model, it has many desirable features for the modeling community. This article outlines the principles of calibrating the model component by component with one or more datasets and validating the model with independent datasets. Users should consult the RZWQM2 user manual distributed along with the model and a more detailed protocol on how to calibrate RZWQM2 provided in a book chapter. Two case studies (or examples) are included in this article. One is from an irrigated maize study in Colorado to illustrate the use of field and laboratory measured soil hydraulic properties on simulated soil water and crop production. It also demonstrates the interaction between soil and plant parameters in simulated plant responses to water stresses. The other is from a maize-soybean rotation study in Iowa to show a manual calibration of the model for crop yield, soil water, and N leaching in tile-drained soils. Although the commonly used trial-and-error calibration method works well for experienced users, as shown in the second example, an automated calibration procedure is more objective, as shown in the first example. Furthermore, the incorporation of the Parameter Estimation Software (PEST) into RZWQM2 made the calibration of the model more efficient than a grid (ordered) search of model parameters. In addition, PEST provides sensitivity and uncertainty analyses that should help users in selecting the right parameters to calibrate.

MODELS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: CONTENT AND SCOPE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Awny ZREKAT

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this article are analyzed methods developed to prevent the wastage of the majority of the benefit from the production process: JIT, Value Engineering and Constructability. These methods were developed parallel to the development of quality control, quality assurance and total quality management.MODELE DE SISTEM AL MANAGEMENTULUI CALITĂŢII: CONŢINUTUL ŞI DOMENIUL DE APLICAREÎn acest articol sunt analizate metodele de prevenire a pierderilor beneficiului majoritar din procesul de producţie: JIT (eficienţa timpului, Valoarea Inginerie, Constructivitate. Aceste metode au fost dezvoltate în paralel cu evoluţia controlului calităţii, asigurarea calităţii şi managementului calităţii totale.

Regional climate models' performance in representing precipitation and temperature over selected Mediterranean areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Deidda

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the relative performance of several climate models in providing reliable forcing for hydrological modeling in six representative catchments in the Mediterranean region. We consider 14 Regional Climate Models (RCMs, from the EU-FP6 ENSEMBLES project, run for the A1B emission scenario on a common 0.22° (about 24 km rotated grid over Europe and the Mediterranean region. In the validation period (1951 to 2010 we consider daily precipitation and surface temperatures from the observed data fields (E-OBS data set, available from the ENSEMBLES project and the data providers in the ECA&D project. Our primary objective is to rank the 14 RCMs for each catchment and select the four best-performing ones to use as common forcing for hydrological models in the six Mediterranean basins considered in the EU-FP7 CLIMB project. Using a common suite of four RCMs for all studied catchments reduces the (epistemic uncertainty when evaluating trends and climate change impacts in the 21st century. We present and discuss the validation setting, as well as the obtained results and, in some detail, the difficulties we experienced when processing the data. In doing so we also provide useful information and advice for researchers not directly involved in climate modeling, but interested in the use of climate model outputs for hydrological modeling and, more generally, climate change impact studies in the Mediterranean region.

Hourly Water Quality Dynamics in Rivers Downstream of Urban Areas: Quantifying Seasonal Variation and Modelling Impacts of Urban Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchins, M.; McGrane, S. J.; Miller, J. D.; Hitt, O.; Bowes, M.

2016-12-01

Continuous monitoring of water flows and quality is invaluable in improving understanding of the influence of urban areas on river health. When used to inform predictive modelling, insights can be gained as to how urban growth may affect the chemical and biological quality of rivers as they flow downstream into larger waterbodies. Water flow and quality monitoring in two urbanising sub-catchments (long term flow records are available, but particular focus is given to monitoring of an extended set of sites during prolonged winter rainfall. In the Ray sub-catchment streams were monitored in which urban cover varied across a range of 7-78%. A rural-urban gradient in DO was apparent in the low flow period prior to the storms. Transient low DO (works (STW). In this respect temperature- and respiration-driven DO sags in summer were at least if not more severe than those driven by the winter storms. Likewise, although winter storm NH4 concentrations violated EU legislation downstream of the STW, they were lower than summer concentrations in pollutant flushes following dry spells. In contrast the predominant phenomenon affecting water quality in the Cut during the storms was dilution. Here, a river water quality model was calibrated and applied over the course of a year to capture the importance of periphyton photosynthesis and respiration cycles in determining water quality and to predict the influence of hypothetical urban growth on downstream river health. The periods monitored intensively, dry spells followed by prolonged rainfall, represent: (i) marked changes in conditions likely to become more prevalent in future, (ii) situations under which water quality in urban areas is likely to be particularly vulnerable, being influenced for example by first flush effects followed by capacity exceedance at STW. Despite this, whilst being somewhat long lasting in places, impacts on DO were not severe.

Impairment-Factor-Based Audiovisual Quality Model for IPTV: Influence of Video Resolution, Degradation Type, and Content Type

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garcia MN

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an audiovisual quality model for IPTV services. The model estimates the audiovisual quality of standard and high definition video as perceived by the user. The model is developed for applications such as network planning and packet-layer quality monitoring. It mainly covers audio and video compression artifacts and impairments due to packet loss. The quality tests conducted for model development demonstrate a mutual influence of the perceived audio and video quality, and the predominance of the video quality for the overall audiovisual quality. The balance between audio quality and video quality, however, depends on the content, the video format, and the audio degradation type. The proposed model is based on impairment factors which quantify the quality-impact of the different degradations. The impairment factors are computed from parameters extracted from the bitstream or packet headers. For high definition video, the model predictions show a correlation with unknown subjective ratings of 95%. For comparison, we have developed a more classical audiovisual quality model which is based on the audio and video qualities and their interaction. Both quality- and impairment-factor-based models are further refined by taking the content-type into account. At last, the different model variants are compared with modeling approaches described in the literature.

A variation reduction allocation model for quality improvement to minimize investment and quality costs by considering suppliers’ learning curve

Science.gov (United States)

Rosyidi, C. N.; Jauhari, WA; Suhardi, B.; Hamada, K.

2016-02-01

Quality improvement must be performed in a company to maintain its product competitiveness in the market. The goal of such improvement is to increase the customer satisfaction and the profitability of the company. In current practice, a company needs several suppliers to provide the components in assembly process of a final product. Hence quality improvement of the final product must involve the suppliers. In this paper, an optimization model to allocate the variance reduction is developed. Variation reduction is an important term in quality improvement for both manufacturer and suppliers. To improve suppliers’ components quality, the manufacturer must invest an amount of their financial resources in learning process of the suppliers. The objective function of the model is to minimize the total cost consists of investment cost, and quality costs for both internal and external quality costs. The Learning curve will determine how the employee of the suppliers will respond to the learning processes in reducing the variance of the component.

Influence of air quality model resolution on uncertainty associated with health impacts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. M. Thompson

2012-10-01

Full Text Available We use regional air quality modeling to evaluate the impact of model resolution on uncertainty associated with the human health benefits resulting from proposed air quality regulations. Using a regional photochemical model (CAMx, we ran a modeling episode with meteorological inputs simulating conditions as they occurred during August through September 2006 (a period representative of conditions leading to high ozone, and two emissions inventories (a 2006 base case and a 2018 proposed control scenario, both for Houston, Texas at 36, 12, 4 and 2 km resolution. The base case model performance was evaluated for each resolution against daily maximum 8-h averaged ozone measured at monitoring stations. Results from each resolution were more similar to each other than they were to measured values. Population-weighted ozone concentrations were calculated for each resolution and applied to concentration response functions (with 95% confidence intervals to estimate the health impacts of modeled ozone reduction from the base case to the control scenario. We found that estimated avoided mortalities were not significantly different between the 2, 4 and 12 km resolution runs, but the 36 km resolution may over-predict some potential health impacts. Given the cost/benefit analysis requirements motivated by Executive Order 12866 as it applies to the Clean Air Act, the uncertainty associated with human health impacts and therefore the results reported in this study, we conclude that health impacts calculated from population weighted ozone concentrations obtained using regional photochemical models at 36 km resolution fall within the range of values obtained using fine (12 km or finer resolution modeling. However, in some cases, 36 km resolution may not be fine enough to statistically replicate the results achieved using 2, 4 or 12 km resolution. On average, when modeling at 36 km resolution, an estimated 5 deaths per week during the May through September ozone

The pyramid model as a structured way of quality management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

van der Tuuk Adriani Willem

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Three quality systems that can be used in blood establishments are briefly explained. The Pyramid model is described as a tool to manage the quality systems. Finally, some experiences in other countries are given to prove the validity of the system.

Terminology and methodology in modelling for water quality management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carstensen, J.; Vanrolleghem, P.; Rauch, W.

1997-01-01

There is a widespread need for a common terminology in modelling for water quality management. This paper points out sources of confusion in the communication between researchers due to misuse of existing terminology or use of unclear terminology. The paper attempts to clarify the context...... of the most widely used terms for characterising models and within the process of model building. It is essential to the ever growing society of researchers within water quality management, that communication is eased by establishing a common terminology. This should not be done by giving broader definitions...... of the terms, but by stressing the use of a stringent terminology. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to advocate the use of such a well defined and clear terminology. (C) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd....

Correlation-regression model for physico-chemical quality of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

abusaad

areas, suggesting that groundwater quality in urban areas is closely related with land use ... the ground water, with correlation and regression model is also presented. ...... WHO (World Health Organization) (1985). Health hazards from nitrates.

Modeling of Water Quality 'Almendares River'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Domínguez Catasús, Judith

2005-01-01

The river Almendares, one of the most important water bodies of the Havana City, is very polluted. The analysis of parameters as dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen demand is very helpful for the studies aimed to the recovery of the river. There is a growing recognition around the word that the water quality models are very useful tools to plan sanitary strategies for the handling of the contamination. In the present work, the advective, steady- state Streeter and Phelps model was validated to simulate the effect of the multiple-point and distributed sources on the carbonaceous oxygen demand, NH4 and dissolved oxygen. For modeling purposes the section of the river located between the point where the waste water treatment station Maria del Carmen discharges to the river and the Bridge El Bosque, was divided in 11 segments. The use of the 99mTc and the Rodamine WT as tracers allowed determining the hydrodynamic parameters necessary for modeling purposes. The validated model allows to predict the effect of the sanitary strategies on the water quality of the river. The main conclusions are: 1. The model Streeter and Phelps calibrated and validated in the Almendares between the confluence of the channel 'María del Carmen' and bridge the Forest of Havana, described in more than 90% The behavior of the dissolved oxygen and BODn (in terms of ammonia), and more than 85%, the carbonaceous demand oxygen, which characterizes the process of purification. 2. Model validation Streeter and Phelps, indicates that implicit conceptual model is appropriate. This refers primarily to the considerations relating to the calculation of the kinetic constants and the DOS, the segmentation used, to the location of the discharges and the Standing been about them, to the river morphology and hydrodynamic parameters . 3. The calibration procedure Streeter and Phelps model that determines the least-squares Kr-Kd pair that best fits the OD and uses this Kr to model BOD gets four% increase in

The Measurement of Quality of Semantic Standards : the Application of a Quality Model on the SETU standard for eGovernment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Folmer, Erwin; van Bekkum, Michael; Oude Luttighuis, Paul; van Hillegersberg, Jos

2011-01-01

eGovernment interoperability should be dealt with using high-quality standards. A quality model for standards is presented based on knowledge from the software engineering domain. In the tradition of action research the model is used on the SETU standard, a standard that is mandatory in the public

Soil Quality Index Determination Models for Restinga Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Bonilha, R. M.; Casagrande, J. C.; Soares, R. M.

2012-04-01

The Restinga Forest is a set of plant communities in mosaic, determined by the characteristics of their substrates as a result of depositional processes and ages. In this complex mosaic are the physiognomies of restinga forests of high-stage regeneration (high restinga) and middle stage of regeneration (low restinga), each with its plant characteristics that differentiate them. Located on the coastal plains of the Brazilian coast, suffering internal influences both the continental slopes, as well as from the sea. Its soils come from the Quaternary and are subject to constant deposition of sediments. The climate in the coastal type is tropical (Köppen). This work was conducted in four locations: (1) Anchieta Island, Ubatuba, (2) Juréia-Itatins Ecological Station, Iguape, (3) Vila das Pedrinhas, Comprida Island; and (4) Cardoso Island, Cananeia. The soil samples were collect at a depths of 0 to 5, 0-10, 0-20, 20-40 and 40 to 60cm for the chemical and physical analysis. Were studied the additive and pondering additive models to evaluate soil quality. It was concluded: a) the comparative additive model produces quantitative results and the pondering additive model quantitative results; b) as the pondering additive model, the values of Soil Quality Index (SQI) for soils under forest of restinga are low and realistic, demonstrating the small plant biomass production potential of these soils, as well as their low resilience; c) the values of SQI similar to areas with and without restinga forest give quantitative demonstration of the restinga be considered as soil phase; d) restinga forest, probably, is maintained solely by the cycling of nutrients in a closed nutrient cycling; e) for the determination of IQS for soils under restinga vegetation the use of routine chemical analysis is adequate. Keywords: Model, restinga forest, Soil Quality Index (SQI).

Impacts on quality of life related to dental caries in a national representative sample of Thai 12- and 15-year-olds.

Science.gov (United States)

Krisdapong, S; Prasertsom, P; Rattanarangsima, K; Sheiham, A

2013-01-01

Dental caries is generally given the highest priority in national oral health services for school-aged populations. Yet, there is no study exploring the impacts on quality of life specifically related to dental caries in national samples of school-aged children. This study assessed prevalence and characteristics of oral impacts attributed to dental caries on quality of life and compared them with overall oral health impacts. In addition, associations of oral impacts attributed to dental caries and dental caries status were investigated. A national representative sample of 1,063 12- and 811 15-year-olds completed a sociodemographic and behavioural questionnaire, and were orally examined and interviewed about oral health-related quality of life using the Child-OIDP or OIDP indexes, respectively. Associations of condition-specific impacts (CS impacts) attributed to dental caries with components of DMF were investigated using χ(2) tests and multivariate logistic regressions. CS impacts attributed to dental caries were reported by nearly half the children and such impacts accounted for half of overall oral impacts from all oral conditions. The majority of impacts were of little intensity and affected only 1-2 daily performances, particularly performances on Eating, Emotional stability and Cleaning teeth. CS impacts were significantly positively associated with number of decayed teeth, and strongly associated with severe decay. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Bibliography for the Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model

Science.gov (United States)

The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) is a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in indoor air quality in commercial buildings.

Retention performance of green roofs in representative climates worldwide

Science.gov (United States)

Viola, F.; Hellies, M.; Deidda, R.

2017-10-01

The ongoing process of global urbanization contributes to an increase in stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces, threatening also water quality. Green roofs have been proved to be innovative stormwater management measures to partially restore natural states, enhancing interception, infiltration and evapotranspiration fluxes. The amount of water that is retained within green roofs depends not only on their depth, but also on the climate, which drives the stochastic soil moisture dynamic. In this context, a simple tool for assessing performance of green roofs worldwide in terms of retained water is still missing and highly desirable for practical assessments. The aim of this work is to explore retention performance of green roofs as a function of their depth and in different climate regimes. Two soil depths are investigated, one representing the intensive configuration and another representing the extensive one. The role of the climate in driving water retention has been represented by rainfall and potential evapotranspiration dynamics. A simple conceptual weather generator has been implemented and used for stochastic simulation of daily rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. Stochastic forcing is used as an input of a simple conceptual hydrological model for estimating long-term water partitioning between rainfall, runoff and actual evapotranspiration. Coupling the stochastic weather generator with the conceptual hydrological model, we assessed the amount of rainfall diverted into evapotranspiration for different combinations of annual rainfall and potential evapotranspiration in five representative climatic regimes. Results quantified the capabilities of green roofs in retaining rainfall and consequently in reducing discharges into sewer systems at an annual time scale. The role of substrate depth has been recognized to be crucial in determining green roofs retention performance, which in general increase from extensive to intensive settings. Looking at the

Air Quality Forecasts Using the NASA GEOS Model

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Christoph A.; Knowland, K. Emma; Nielsen, Jon E.; Orbe, Clara; Ott, Lesley; Pawson, Steven; Saunders, Emily; Duncan, Bryan; Follette-Cook, Melanie; Liu, Junhua;

Application of Gap Model in the Researches of Hotel Services Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Blešić

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This work presents the research results of the hotel services quality by applying Gap model and SERVQUAL questionnaire. The research was conducted in five health spa centers in the West Morava river valley region during August and September 2008. The reach is aimed at testing of Gap model, i.e. identification of exceptions when the hotel services quality in the observed sample is concerned.

MODELING THE TRANSPORT AND CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE EMISSIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL AIR QUALITY USING A VARIABLE-GRID-RESOLUTION AIR QUALITY MODEL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kiran Alapaty

2003-12-01

This document, the project's first semiannual report, summarizes the research performed from 04/17/2003 through 10/16/2003. Portions of the research in several of the project's eight tasks were completed, and results obtained are briefly presented. We have tested the applicability of two different atmospheric boundary layer schemes for use in air quality model simulations. Preliminary analysis indicates that a scheme that uses sophisticated atmospheric boundary physics resulted in better simulation of atmospheric circulations. We have further developed and tested a new surface data assimilation technique to improve meteorological simulations, which will also result in improved air quality model simulations. Preliminary analysis of results indicates that using the new data assimilation technique results in reduced modeling errors in temperature and moisture. Ingestion of satellite-derived sea surface temperatures into the mesoscale meteorological model led to significant improvements in simulated clouds and precipitation compared to that obtained using traditional analyzed sea surface temperatures. To enhance the capabilities of an emissions processing system so that it can be used with our variable-grid-resolution air quality model, we have identified potential areas for improvements. Also for use in the variable-grid-resolution air quality model, we have tested a cloud module offline for its functionality, and have implemented and tested an efficient horizontal diffusion algorithm within the model.

Energy Auditor and Quality Control Inspector Competency Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Head, Heather R [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kurnik, Charles W [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Schroeder, Derek [U.S. Department of Energy; Cutchin, Kelly [Simonson Management Services

2018-05-02

The Energy Auditor (EA) and Quality Control Inspector (QCI) Competency model was developed to identify the soft skills, foundational competencies and define the levels of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) required to successfully perform the tasks defined in the EA and QCI Job Task Analysis (JTAs), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) used the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Competency Model Clearinghouse resources to develop a QCI and EA Competency Model. To keep the QCI and EA competency model consistent with other construction and energy management competency models, DOE and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory used the existing 'Residential Construction Competency Model' and the 'Advanced Commercial Building Competency Model' where appropriate.

A MODEL OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR A QUALITY LEARNING IN ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION (IHE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ara Hidayat

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The quality of Islamic education is generally influenced by several factors, among other things: leadership, organizational culture, lecturercompetence versus faculty student ratio, dynamic curriculum, library collections and learning facilities. The factors above are most likely to influence and impact the quality of education process in general. Developing a model of management strategy for quality learning is a minimal effort to improve quality graduates of a university. The model was developed on the basis of the following theories: (1 transformative leadership (Tichy and Devana (1997, (2 strategy of learning organization, (Peter (2002, and (3 a quality-based management (Griffin, 2004. Furthermore, the model shares the following characteristics: (1 a quality learning emerges from an effective and efficient management of academic service; (2 developing management of a quality learning is continuous lecture development; (3 lecture plays an important role in developing a quality learning; (4 a quality learning stipulates that a leader be loyal and committed to their job, wise and have a sense of democracy.

Water quality modelling and optimisation of wastewater treatment network using mixed integer programming

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mahlathi, Christopher

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Instream water quality management encompasses field monitoring and utilisation of mathematical models. These models can be coupled with optimisation techniques to determine more efficient water quality management alternatives. Among these activities...

Quality Model of Foodstuff in a Refrigerated Display Cabinet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cai, Junping; Risum, Jørgen; Thybo, Claus

2006-01-01

Commercial refrigerating systems need to be defrosted regularly to maintain a satisfactory performance. When defrosting the evaporator coil, the air temperature inside the display cabinet will increase, and float outside the normal temperature range for a period of time, the question is what...... happens to the food inside during this period, when we look at the quality factor? This paper discusses quality model of foodstuff, different scenarios of defrost scheme are simulated, questions such as how the defrost temperature and duration influence the food temperature, thus the food quality, as well...... as what is the optimal defrost scheme from food quality point of view are answered. This will serve as a prerequisite of designing of optimal control scheme for the commercial refrigeration system, aiming at optimizing a weighed cost function of both food quality and overall energy consumption of system....

Modeling LCD Displays with Local Backlight Dimming for Image Quality Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korhonen, Jari; Burini, Nino; Forchhammer, Søren

2011-01-01

for evaluating the signal quality distortion related directly to digital signal processing, such as compression. However, the physical characteristics of the display device also pose a significant impact on the overall perception. In order to facilitate image quality assessment on modern liquid crystaldisplays...... (LCD) using light emitting diode (LED) backlight with local dimming, we present the essential considerations and guidelines for modeling the characteristics of displays with high dynamic range (HDR) and locally adjustable backlight segments. The representation of the image generated by the model can...... be assessed using the traditional objective metrics, and therefore the proposed approach is useful for assessing the performance of different backlight dimming algorithms in terms of resulting quality and power consumption in a simulated environment. We have implemented the proposed model in C++ and compared...

Representativeness of the European social partner organisations: Hospitals - Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grünell, M.

2009-01-01

The aim of this representativeness study is to identify the respective national and supranational actors (i.e. trade unions and employer organisations) in the field of industrial relations. This study will, in particular, focus on their representational quality as well as on their role in collective

A methodology model for quality management in a general hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Stern, Z; Naveh, E

1997-01-01

A reappraisal is made of the relevance of industrial modes of quality management to the issues of medical care. Analysis of the nature of medical care, which differentiates it from the supplier-client relationships of industry, presents the main intrinsic characteristics, which create problems in application of the industrial quality management approaches to medical care. Several examples are the complexity of the relationship between the medical action and the result obtained, the client's nonacceptance of economic profitability as a value in his medical care, and customer satisfaction biased by variable standards of knowledge. The real problems unique to hospitals are addressed, and a methodology model for their quality management is offered. Included is a sample of indicator vectors, measurements of quality care, cost of medical care, quality of service, and human resources. These are based on the trilogy of planning quality, quality control, and improving quality. The conclusions confirm the inadequacy of industrial quality management approaches for medical institutions and recommend investment in formulation of appropriate concepts.

The role of subcutaneous tissue stiffness on microneedle performance in a representative in vitro model of skin.

Science.gov (United States)

Moronkeji, K; Todd, S; Dawidowska, I; Barrett, S D; Akhtar, R

2017-11-10

There has been growing interest in the mechanical behaviour of skin due to the rapid development of microneedle devices for drug delivery applications into skin. However, most in vitro experimentation studies that are used to evaluate microneedle performance do not consider the biomechanical properties of skin or that of the subcutaneous layers. In this study, a representative experimental model of skin was developed which was comprised of subcutaneous and muscle mimics. Neonatal porcine skin from the abdominal and back regions was used, with gelatine gels of differing water content (67, 80, 88 and 96%) to represent the subcutaneous tissue, and a type of ballistic gelatine, Perma-Gel®, as a muscle mimic. Dynamic nanoindentation was used to characterize the mechanical properties of each of these layers. A custom-developed impact test rig was used to apply dense polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microneedles to the skin models in a controlled and repeatable way with quantification of the insertion force and velocity. Image analysis methods were used to measure penetration depth and area of the breach caused by microneedle penetration following staining and optical imaging. The nanoindentation tests demonstrated that the tissue mimics matched expected values for subcutaneous and muscle tissue, and that the compliance of the subcutaneous mimics increased linearly with water content. The abdominal skin was thinner and less stiff as compared to back skin. The maximum force decreased with gel water content in the abdominal skin but not in the back skin. Overall, larger and deeper perforations were found in the skin models with increasing water content. These data demonstrate the importance of subcutaneous tissue on microneedle performance and the need for representative skin models in microneedle technology development. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A deterministic aggregate production planning model considering quality of products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madadi, Najmeh; Wong, Kuan Yew

2013-01-01

Aggregate Production Planning (APP) is a medium-term planning which is concerned with the lowest-cost method of production planning to meet customers' requirements and to satisfy fluctuating demand over a planning time horizon. APP problem has been studied widely since it was introduced and formulated in 1950s. However, in several conducted studies in the APP area, most of the researchers have concentrated on some common objectives such as minimization of cost, fluctuation in the number of workers, and inventory level. Specifically, maintaining quality at the desirable level as an objective while minimizing cost has not been considered in previous studies. In this study, an attempt has been made to develop a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model that serves those companies aiming to incur the minimum level of operational cost while maintaining quality at an acceptable level. In order to obtain the solution to the multi-objective model, the Fuzzy Goal Programming approach and max-min operator of Bellman-Zadeh were applied to the model. At the final step, IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio software was used to obtain the experimental results based on the data collected from an automotive parts manufacturing company. The results show that incorporating quality in the model imposes some costs, however a trade-off should be done between the cost resulting from producing products with higher quality and the cost that the firm may incur due to customer dissatisfaction and sale losses.

Structural Equation Model for Evaluating Factors Affecting Quality of Social Infrastructure Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shahid Hussain

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The quality of the constructed social infrastructure project has been considered a necessary measure for the sustainability of projects. Studies on factors affecting project quality have used various techniques and methods to explain the relationships between particular variables. Unexpectedly, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM has acquired very little concern in factors affecting project quality studies. To address this limitation in the body of knowledge, the objective of this study was to apply the SEM approach and build a model that explained and identified the critical factors affecting quality in social infrastructure projects. The authors developed a quantitative approach using smart-PLS version 3.2.7. This study shed light on the views of different experts based on their experience in public construction projects in Pakistan. Particularly, the authors aimed to find out the relationships between construction, stakeholders, materials, design, and external factors, and how these relate to project quality. The findings of this study revealed that the R2 value of the model was scored at 0.749, which meant that the five exogenous latent constructs collectively explained 74.9% of the variance in project quality. The Goodness-of-Fit of the model was 0.458. The construction related factor was the most important out of the five constructs. This study determined that better planning and monitoring and evaluation should be developed to better address and control the quality defects by decision-makers, project managers as well as contractors. These findings might support practitioners and decision makers to focus on quality related problems that might occur in their current or future projects.

Atmospheric Boundary Layer Modeling for Combined Meteorology and Air Quality Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Atmospheric Eulerian grid models for mesoscale and larger applications require sub-grid models for turbulent vertical exchange processes, particularly within the Planetary Boundary Layer (PSL). In combined meteorology and air quality modeling systems consistent PSL modeling of wi...

A NEW COMBINED LOCAL AND NON-LOCAL PBL MODEL FOR METEOROLOGY AND AIR QUALITY MODELING

Science.gov (United States)

A new version of the Asymmetric Convective Model (ACM) has been developed to describe sub-grid vertical turbulent transport in both meteorology models and air quality models. The new version (ACM2) combines the non-local convective mixing of the original ACM with local eddy diff...

Representing Misalignments of the STAR Geometry Model using AgML

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Jason C.; Lauret, Jérôme; Perevotchikov, Victor; Smirnov, Dmitri; Van Buren, Gene

2017-10-01

The STAR Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was designed to provide high-precision tracking for the identification of charmed hadron decays in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. It consists of three independently mounted subsystems, providing four precision measurements along the track trajectory, with the goal of pointing decay daughters back to vertices displaced by less than 100 microns from the primary event vertex. The ultimate efficiency and resolution of the physics analysis will be driven by the quality of the simulation and reconstruction of events in heavy-ion collisions. In particular, it is important that the geometry model properly accounts for the relative misalignments of the HFT subsystems, along with the alignment of the HFT relative to STARs primary tracking detector, the Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The Abstract Geometry Modeling Language (AgML) provides a single description of the STAR geometry, generating both our simulation (GEANT 3) and reconstruction geometries (ROOT). AgML implements an ideal detector model, while misalignments are stored separately in database tables. These have historically been applied at the hit level. Simulated detector hits are projected from their ideal position along the track’s trajectory, until they intersect the misaligned detector volume, where the struck detector element is calculated for hit digitization. This scheme has worked well as hit errors have been negligible compared with the size of sensitive volumes. The precision and complexity of the HFT detector require us to apply misalignments to the detector volumes themselves. In this paper we summarize the extension of the AgML language and support libraries to enable the static misalignment of our reconstruction and simulation geometries, discussing the design goals, limitations and path to full misalignment support in ROOT/VMC-based simulation.

Accounting for and predicting the influence of spatial autocorrelation in water quality modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Miralha, L.; Kim, D.

2017-12-01

Although many studies have attempted to investigate the spatial trends of water quality, more attention is yet to be paid to the consequences of considering and ignoring the spatial autocorrelation (SAC) that exists in water quality parameters. Several studies have mentioned the importance of accounting for SAC in water quality modeling, as well as the differences in outcomes between models that account for and ignore SAC. However, the capacity to predict the magnitude of such differences is still ambiguous. In this study, we hypothesized that SAC inherently possessed by a response variable (i.e., water quality parameter) influences the outcomes of spatial modeling. We evaluated whether the level of inherent SAC is associated with changes in R-Squared, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), and residual SAC (rSAC), after accounting for SAC during modeling procedure. The main objective was to analyze if water quality parameters with higher Moran's I values (inherent SAC measure) undergo a greater increase in R² and a greater reduction in both AIC and rSAC. We compared a non-spatial model (OLS) to two spatial regression approaches (spatial lag and error models). Predictor variables were the principal components of topographic (elevation and slope), land cover, and hydrological soil group variables. We acquired these data from federal online sources (e.g. USGS). Ten watersheds were selected, each in a different state of the USA. Results revealed that water quality parameters with higher inherent SAC showed substantial increase in R² and decrease in rSAC after performing spatial regressions. However, AIC values did not show significant changes. Overall, the higher the level of inherent SAC in water quality variables, the greater improvement of model performance. This indicates a linear and direct relationship between the spatial model outcomes (R² and rSAC) and the degree of SAC in each water quality variable. Therefore, our study suggests that the inherent level of

Developing a model of quality management methods and evaluating their effects on business performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhang, ZH

From an extensive review of the total quality management (TQM) literature, a model of quality management methods (QMMs) was developed. The model has 83 QMMs which are categorized by the 11 TQM elements they primarily aim to improve. Ten manufacturing companies which were renowned for quality

The choices, choosing model of quality of life: linkages to a science base.

Science.gov (United States)