Publicly Available Data-Based Flood Risk Assessment Methodology: A Case Study for a Floodplain in Poland

Flood risk assessment is used to estimate the expected consequences and probability of a flood. It leads to the strengthening of resilience through appropriate preparation for an event of a specific scale. The methodology described in this paper was developed by the authors for the purposes of flood risk assessment in Poland, introduced to and applied on an actual example. It is based on simple calculations and a comparison of the results with a template. All of the data required for calculation came from freely available sources. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of the flood risk assessment methodology in improving construction safety and identifying the factors that influence its implementation. The approach presented in this article is based on implementation of the parameters of floods, describing the characteristics of the exposed area and human vulnerability, among other factors, to the national risk assessment methodology, and then using it to determine the directions of activities aimed at reducing the risk of flooding. Simultaneously, assessment of these parameters might not be related directly to flood threats, but rather to the broader approach to risk assessment, including other threats. As a result of the application of the described methodology, it was estimated that the flood risk in the studied area is catastrophic, which requires immediate decisions of people responsible for safety.

Emotions in young tennis players: a new tennis-specific scale

To understand and assess responses related to the inadequate management of emotions in tennis competition, it has been developed the “Scale Perception Emotion Tennis” (SPET). This article will describe how the SPET tool could represent a first step in the direction of increasing awareness of the players and could be used by the coaches to compare their perception of the player’s emotions with the one of their athletes.

Assessment of the Analytic Scale of Argumentative Writing (ASAW)

The Analytic Scale of Argumentative Writing (ASAW) was developed because of the need for a genre-specific scale to assess English as a Second Language (ESL) university student writers’ argumentative essays. The present study reports the findings of field-testing ASAW. For this purpose, argumentative samples (n = 110) were collected and remote-scored by experienced raters (n = 5) who used ASAW. Overall, moderate to high inter-rater reliability (r = 0.7-0.9), as well as high (r = 0.84-0.92) and moderate to high (r = 0.70-0.77) intra-rater reliability coefficients after short (6-week) and long (9-week) rating intervals were obtained, respectively. Some established instruments were used to score the same essays rated using ASAW to test the concurrent validity of the scale. The scores assigned by the raters using the scale demonstrated moderate (r = 0.51) to high (r = 0.77) correlations with the scores awarded using several other standard instruments. The raters who used ASAW were given a questionnaire to evaluate the scale itself, and on average, the results indicated that the raters were highly satisfied with it. It took an average of 5.5 minutes for the raters to evaluate an essay, indicating it was economical. The study has useful implications for refinement of ASAW and development and validation of similar scales and benchmarks in the future.

Instrumented gait analysis defines the walking signature of CACNA1A disorders

Background Gait disturbances are a frequent symptom in CACNA1A disorders. Even though, data about their severity and progression are lacking and no CACNA1A-specific scale or assessment for gait is available. Methods We applied a gait assessment protocol in 20 ambulatory patients with genetically confirmed CACNA1A disorders and 39 matched healthy controls. An instrumented gait analysis (IGA) was performed by means of wearable sensors in basal condition and after a treadmill/cycloergometer challenge in selected cases. Results CACNA1A patients displayed lower gait speed, shorter steps with increased step length variability, a reduced landing acceleration as well as a reduced range of ankle motion compared to controls. Furthermore, gait-width in patients with episodic CACNA1A disorders was narrower as compared to controls. In one patient experiencing mild episodic symptoms after the treadmill challenge, the IGA was able to detect a deterioration over all gait parameters. Conclusions In CACNA1A patients, the IGA with wearable sensors unravels specific gait signatures which are not detectable at naked eye. These features (narrow-based gait, lower landing acceleration) distinguish these patients from other ataxic disorders and may be target of focused rehabilitative interventions. IGA can potentially be applied to monitor the neurological fluctuations associated with CACNA1A disorders.

Scrutinizing EFL Teachers’ Emotions in the Indonesian Context of Bandung

This study aims to investigate the most dominant emotions experienced by EFL teachers in the Indonesian context. Two kinds of questionnaires were employed in this study. This research involved participants of Bandung English Teachers. They were 72 EFL teachers who participated on the general scale of phase 1 and 68 EFL teachers who joined the specific scale questionnaire of phase 2. Three dimensions of emotions were explored in this research to know the level of emotions faced by teachers. Also, positive and negative emotions have been explored in this paper. A quantitative descriptive method was used to examine the data from two questionnaires as the main research instrument. This study adapted the Teacher Emotion Scale invented by Frenzel et al. (2016). The descriptive findings show that from two studies enjoyment is the most frequently experienced and anger is the lowest dimension of emotion preferred by EFL teachers. This study has proven the reliability of the research instrument. The research analysis shows that there is an insignificant difference between the two studies and both of them have a very close resemblance.

An analysis of Bayesian estimates for missing higher orders in perturbative calculations

With current high precision collider data, the reliable estimation of theoretical uncertainties due to missing higher orders (MHOs) in perturbation theory has become a pressing issue for collider phenomenology. Traditionally, the size of the MHOs is estimated through scale variation, a simple but ad hoc method without probabilistic interpretation. Bayesian approaches provide a compelling alternative to estimate the size of the MHOs, but it is not clear how to interpret the perturbative scales, like the factorisation and renormalisation scales, in a Bayesian framework. Recently, it was proposed that the scales can be incorporated as hidden parameters into a Bayesian model. In this paper, we thoroughly scrutinise Bayesian approaches to MHO estimation and systematically study the performance of different models on an extensive set of high-order calculations. We extend the framework in two significant ways. First, we define a new model that allows for asymmetric probability distributions. Second, we introduce a prescription to incorporate information on perturbative scales without interpreting them as hidden model parameters. We clarify how the two scale prescriptions bias the result towards specific scale choice, and we discuss and compare different Bayesian MHO estimates among themselves and to the traditional scale variation approach. Finally, we provide a practical prescription of how existing perturbative results at the standard scale variation points can be converted to 68%/95% credibility intervals in the Bayesian approach using the new public code MiHO.

“Do they mean what they say?” Measuring greenwash in the sustainable property development sector

PurposeThis study aims to measure the greenwash construct in the sustainable property development (GSPD) context. Property development products such as residential homes, which are generally high-priced, require a long-term financial commitment from the consumers. It makes the property development sector unique. Hence, a specific scale is required to measure greenwash activities in this specific context by the marketers. However, the scale available to measure the greenwash construct is general which is not suitable to use in this particular context. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap in the literature.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted to develop the GSPD measure in different phases. In developing the scale, qualitative interviews (study 1) were conducted to generate the initial pool of items. The preliminary set of questions were then validated (content and face validity) by experts' opinions. Exploratory factor analysis (using SPSS) was conducted to extract the factor structure of the newly developed measure (study 2) which was then again validated to ensure predictive reliability and nomological validity by using the SEM-PLS technique (study 3).FindingsThe exploratory factor analysis result revealed that greenwash in sustainable property development (GSPD) is a multi-dimensional construct. The dimensions are namely, false claims and misleading claims. The confirmatory composite analysis confirmed these two dimensions.Practical implicationsThis newly developed GSPD scale will enable the researchers to measure the greenwash activities practiced by some of the housing developers. Marketers will be conscious to avoid such activities. Moreover, the government agencies may use this scale to monitor measure and deter greenwashing activities by property development companies.Originality/valueThis is a pioneer study that develops and validates a new scale to measure greenwash construct in sustainable property development in a developing context i.e. Malaysia. In addition, this study operationalized the greenwash construct in sustainable property development as a multi-dimensional behavioural construct determined by two dimensions i.e. false claims and misleading claims.

Multiscale accessibility and urban performance

Accessibility is fundamentally thought to be related to functional, economic, and social performances of cities and geographical systems and, therefore, constitutes an essential aspect for spatial planning. Previous studies focused on cities or metropolitan scales, often disregarding their position within regional and national systems, which can greatly affect their performance. Although accessibility at various spatial scales has been examined, the studies focused on accessibility patterns at different scales, with no reference to the level of accessibility of cities over local, regional, and national scales simultaneously, i.e. multiscale accessibility. This study aims to elucidate the multiscale accessibility level of individual cities and examine its relationship to urban performance in the urban system of Israel. Spatial accessibility was analyzed using the space syntax methodology for the entire national road network across multiple geographic scales—from the local to the national scale. Based on three distinct spatial accessibility systems identified, a unique multiscale accessibility profile was created for individual cities in Israel. Subsequently, each city’s multiscale accessibility profiles were examined against urban performance indicators determined from urban scaling theory. We found that the superiority of cities characterized by high accessibility level plays a role not only for a specific scale but also over scales and spatial systems. Moreover, most urban performance indicators related to the multiscale accessibility profiles of cities, while some multiscale accessibility profiles can be related to over- or under-performance of cities. The findings suggest that pervasive accessibility across spatial scales is inherently connected to urban performance and may indicate on the implementation and interpretation of accessibility. These findings may assist in various aspects of spatial planning at various scales.

Regularity in Sobolev and Besov Spaces for Parabolic Problems on Domains of Polyhedral Type

This paper is concerned with the regularity of solutions to linear and nonlinear evolution equations extending our findings in Dahlke and Schneider (Anal Appl 17(2):235–291, 2019, Thms. 4.5, 4.9, 4.12, 4.14) to domains of polyhedral type. In particular, we study the smoothness in the specific scale $$\ B^r_{\tau ,\tau }, \ \frac{1}{\tau }=\frac{r}{d}+\frac{1}{p}\ $$ B τ , τ r , 1 τ = r d + 1 p of Besov spaces. The regularity in these spaces determines the approximation order that can be achieved by adaptive and other nonlinear approximation schemes. We show that for all cases under consideration the Besov regularity is high enough to justify the use of adaptive algorithms.