evaluation studies
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Author(s):  
Golnaz Jozanikohan ◽  
Mohsen Nosrati Abarghooei

AbstractThe complete characteristics knowledge of clay minerals is necessary in the evaluation studies of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Ten samples taken from two wells in a heterogeneous clastic gas reservoir formation in NE Iran were selected to conduct the transmission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) tests for the clay mineralogy studies. The FTIR analysis showed that there were clear signs of clay minerals in all samples. The wavenumber region of the clay minerals in FTIR tests was detected to be 3621, 3432, 1034, and 515 cm−1 for illite, 3567, 3432, 1613, 1088, 990, 687, 651, and 515 cm−1 for magnesium-rich chlorite, 3700, 3621, 3432, 1034, 687, and 463 cm−1 for kaolinite, and 3567, 1088, 990, and 463 cm−1 for glauconite. After screening of samples by the FTIR method, the samples were then analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The PXRD and SEM result showed illite was by far the most common clay present. Kaolinite, magnesium-rich chlorite, and traces of smectite and the mixed-layer clays of both the illite–smectite and chlorite-smectite types were also recognized. The combination of PXRD and WDXRF results could quantify the clay abundances in the each well too. It was concluded that the FTIR analysis successfully could show the absorption bonds of all constituent clays. However, the infrared absorption spectra of mixed-layer clays overlapped those of the respective constituents of each mixed-layer minerals. This can be considered as the evidence of the usefulness of FTIR technique in the screening of the samples for the clay mineralogy studies.


Land ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Yuqing Zhang ◽  
Kun Shang ◽  
Zhipeng Shi ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Xueming Li

Nighttime light images are valuable indicators of regional economic development, and nighttime light data are now widely used in town monitoring and evaluation studies. Using the nighttime light data acquired through Luojia1-01 and the geographic information system spatial analysis method, this study analyzed the spatial vitality pattern of 402 characteristic towns in six geographic divisions of China. The average DN (Digital Number) value of Guzhen, having the highest vitality level, was 0.05665221, whereas that of Xin’an, having the lowest vitality level, was 0.00000186. A total of 89.5% of towns have a low level of vitality. The regional differences were significant; high vitality towns are concentrated in economically developed coastal areas, mainly in two large regions of east China and south central. The average lighting densities of the towns in east China and south central were 0.004838 and 0.003190, respectively. The lighting density of the towns in west central was low, and the vitality intensity was generally low. A spatially significant positive correlation of small-town vitality was observed, and “high–high” agglomeration was primarily distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Fujian coastal areas in east and south China. The towns with high vitality intensity had similarities in their geographical location, convenient transportation conditions, and profound historical heritage or cultural accumulation along with many industrial enterprises. This research empirically demonstrates the feasibility of using the 130-m-high resolution of the nighttime lighting data of Luojia1-01 to evaluate the vitality at the town scale, and the vitality evaluation focuses on the spatial attributes of the town, which is meaningful to guide the development of the town in each region given the vast area of China and the large differences in the development of different regions.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meike Henseleit ◽  
Sandra Venghaus ◽  
Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs

In the late summer of 2018, the Hambach Forest (North Rhine Westphalia/ Germany) appeared prevalently in the media due to massive protests against its clearance for lignite mining with for the power generation. Because coal power as a form of energy supply is extremely climate intensive, the Hambach Forest rapidly became a symbol of the fight against climate change and the ongoing destruction of nature and its resources for economic reasons. Due to the extra-ordinarily prominent role of the Hambach Forest in the public opinion across Germany, this research addresses values of the forest to the population in monetary terms as well as the underlying factors that determine those values. For the analysis, a contingent valuation survey was conducted in December 2019 in Germany. The proposed amounts for the preservation of the Hambach Forest are mostly in accordance with previous evaluation studies of woods and forests, although this time almost only passive-use values are decisive. Further, a conversion of the WTP values to the area of the Hambach Forest results in an extra-ordinarily high per-hectare value of about 3.6 million. Thus, the symbolic value of the forest is remarkable and should be considered in future political decisions.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjila Kumari ◽  
Tara Jaiswal ◽  
Vinay Kumar ◽  
Neha Hura ◽  
Gulshan Kumar ◽  
...  

2-Arylquinazolines with a range of alkyl polyamines as side chain/ring functional motifs at 4th-position were considered for antileishmanial study with the rationale that related heterocyclic scaffolds and the polyamine functionalities...


2022 ◽  
pp. 1521-1548
Author(s):  
Laila Shoukry ◽  
Johannes Konert ◽  
Stefan Göbel

In this chapter, the topic of evaluating learner experience in serious games is discussed with respect to four different dimensions: gaming, learning, using and context with a special focus on using multimodal data. After reviewing relevant research fields, the steps involved in a serious games evaluation process is investigated and relevant evaluation studies are reviewed with emphasis on the use of different modalities for recording and assessing in-game interactions. Finally, a theoretical framework (LeGUC) is proposed defining parameters related to the four dimensions discussed which can be observed during evaluation studies of serious games and how they relate to logged in-game interactions. The framework is based on relevant literature as well as a conducted observational user study.


2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanaka Parvathi Kannaiah ◽  
Abimanyu Sugumaran

Analyzing a drug over its overlapped spectra utilizes sophisticated instruments and more toxic solvents, which has a deleterious effect on environmental safety. There is an alarming need to develop a simple, novel, and cost-effective method for determining combined substances that are non-toxic to the environment. So, the study aimed to develop four simple, fast and eco-friendly spectrophotometric techniques for quantifying clotrimazole and tinidazole in bulk and ointment dosage form. Stock solutions produced at concentrations of 7 to 13 and 17.5 to 32.5 µg/mL of clotrimazole and tinidazole in 10% v/v ethanol and scanned in the UV-visible range 200-450 nm, and used for all methods. The methods were validated according to the International Council for Harmonization guidelines and found to be within limits. Additionally, the outliers were tested by using the Grubbers test and found within limits. Finally, green evaluation studies show that the method is more environmentally friendly, as confirmed by four assessment tools.


BMJ Open ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. e053820
Author(s):  
Noah A Haber ◽  
Emma Clarke-Deelder ◽  
Avi Feller ◽  
Emily R Smith ◽  
Joshua A. Salomon ◽  
...  

IntroductionAssessing the impact of COVID-19 policy is critical for informing future policies. However, there are concerns about the overall strength of COVID-19 impact evaluation studies given the circumstances for evaluation and concerns about the publication environment.MethodsWe included studies that were primarily designed to estimate the quantitative impact of one or more implemented COVID-19 policies on direct SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 outcomes. After searching PubMed for peer-reviewed articles published on 26 November 2020 or earlier and screening, all studies were reviewed by three reviewers first independently and then to consensus. The review tool was based on previously developed and released review guidance for COVID-19 policy impact evaluation.ResultsAfter 102 articles were identified as potentially meeting inclusion criteria, we identified 36 published articles that evaluated the quantitative impact of COVID-19 policies on direct COVID-19 outcomes. Nine studies were set aside because the study design was considered inappropriate for COVID-19 policy impact evaluation (n=8 pre/post; n=1 cross-sectional), and 27 articles were given a full consensus assessment. 20/27 met criteria for graphical display of data, 5/27 for functional form, 19/27 for timing between policy implementation and impact, and only 3/27 for concurrent changes to the outcomes. Only 4/27 were rated as overall appropriate. Including the 9 studies set aside, reviewers found that only four of the 36 identified published and peer-reviewed health policy impact evaluation studies passed a set of key design checks for identifying the causal impact of policies on COVID-19 outcomes.DiscussionThe reviewed literature directly evaluating the impact of COVID-19 policies largely failed to meet key design criteria for inference of sufficient rigour to be actionable by policy-makers. More reliable evidence review is needed to both identify and produce policy-actionable evidence, alongside the recognition that actionable evidence is often unlikely to be feasible.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Rita Sevastjanova ◽  
Wolfgang Jentner ◽  
Fabian Sperrle ◽  
Rebecca Kehlbeck ◽  
Jürgen Bernard ◽  
...  

Linguistic insight in the form of high-level relationships and rules in text builds the basis of our understanding of language. However, the data-driven generation of such structures often lacks labeled resources that can be used as training data for supervised machine learning. The creation of such ground-truth data is a time-consuming process that often requires domain expertise to resolve text ambiguities and characterize linguistic phenomena. Furthermore, the creation and refinement of machine learning models is often challenging for linguists as the models are often complex, in-transparent, and difficult to understand. To tackle these challenges, we present a visual analytics technique for interactive data labeling that applies concepts from gamification and explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) to support complex classification tasks. The visual-interactive labeling interface promotes the creation of effective training data. Visual explanations of learned rules unveil the decisions of the machine learning model and support iterative and interactive optimization. The gamification-inspired design guides the user through the labeling process and provides feedback on the model performance. As an instance of the proposed technique, we present QuestionComb , a workspace tailored to the task of question classification (i.e., in information-seeking vs. non-information-seeking questions). Our evaluation studies confirm that gamification concepts are beneficial to engage users through continuous feedback, offering an effective visual analytics technique when combined with active learning and XAI.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Jackson Santo ◽  
Jill A Brown ◽  
Stephanie A Q Gomez ◽  
Lauren A Shirey

ABSTRACT Service Members and military beneficiaries face complex and ill-structured challenges, including suicide, sexual violence, increasing health care costs, and the evolving coronavirus pandemic. Military and other government practitioners must identify effective programs, policies, and initiatives to preserve the health and ensure the readiness of our Force. Both research and program evaluation are critical to identify interventions best positioned to prevent disease, protect the public’s health, and promote health and well-being within our ranks to retain a medically ready force and reduce the global burden of disease. While military and medical leaders are typically well versed in research and understand the role of research in evidence-informed decisions, they may be less aware of program evaluation. Program evaluation is the systematic application of scientific methods to assess the design, implementation, improvement, or outcomes of a program, policy, or initiative. Although program evaluators commonly utilize scientific or research methods to answer evaluation questions, evaluation ultimately differs from research in its intent. Several recently published federal and Department of Defense policies specifically reference program evaluation, emphasizing its importance to the military and government as a whole. The Army is uniquely positioned to conduct medical and public health evaluation activities and there are several Army organizations and entities that routinely perform this work. For example, the United States Army Public Health Center (APHC) is among recognized military experts in public health assessment and program evaluation. Given the breadth of our work, the APHC understands the challenges to conducting evaluation studies in the Army and we have thoughtfully examined the conditions common to successful evaluation studies. In this commentary, we share our lessons learned to assist military colleagues, potential partners, and others in successfully evaluating the programs, policies, and initiatives necessary to keep our Service Members and beneficiaries healthy and ready. There are several challenges to executing evaluation studies in the Army that may be relevant across all Services. These include but are not limited to frequent Army leadership transitions, urgency to report study results, lack of program documentation and adequate planning for evaluation, expectation management to ensure stakeholders are well-informed about the evaluation process, and a disorganized data landscape. These challenges may hinder the successful execution of evaluation studies, or prevent them from being attempted in the first place, depriving Army leaders of quality, actionable information to make evidence-informed decisions. Despite the aforementioned challenges, we have identified a number of best practices to overcome these challenges and conduct successful evaluation studies. These facilitators of successful evaluations can be summarized as: collaboration with engaged stakeholders who understand the value of evaluation, evaluation studies aligned with larger strategic priorities, agile methodology, thoughtful evaluation planning, and effective communication with stakeholders. We wholeheartedly recommend and encourage program evaluation at every opportunity, and we anticipate the call for evaluation and evidence-informed decisions to continually increase. Our hope is that others – to include partners and stakeholders within and external to the military – will be able to leverage and apply this information, especially the identified best practices, in their evaluation efforts to ensure success.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Christina Koukelli ◽  
Alejandro Prieto ◽  
Serdar Asut

The paper explores the potentials of shape memory alloys (SMAs) for the design of autoreactive façade systems without using additional external energy. The exploration is conducted and assessed through the design of a façade concept for the city of Athens in Greece, aiming to improve both the indoor and outdoor environment by means of a kinetic autoreactive system featuring a dual-seasonal function, with a focus on the building’s direct and indirect impact on the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The paper covers a demonstration of the methodology followed, using a feedback-loop logic informed by environmental and energy performance evaluation studies in Grasshopper to optimize the geometry and movement of the shading component. During the façade design process, a comprehensive and systematic computational toolset is being developed, targeted on the abovementioned performance evaluation studies. Through the development and assessment of the façade concept, the objective is to explore the potentials and limitations for the application of autoreactive envelopes in the façade design. At the same time, the aim is to exploit the possibilities and optimization potentials offered through the developed iterative computational workflows, by showcasing the methodology and interoperability logic of the digital tools used for the data interchange.


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