Review: update on performance assessment and monitoring systems for ophthalmologists

Performance assessment and monitoring systems are the process by which ophthalmologists demonstrate they are fit to continue practicing.Revalidation is the process by which licensed doctors are legally required to demonstrate to medical regulators that they are up to date and fit to practice in order to maintain their medical license,and began in the United Kingdom(UK)in 2012 following well-publicized events.Recertification is a different process which began in North America and demonstrates doctors have maintained competence,without involvement of external stakeholders.Arguments for and against the concept of performance assessment are reviewed.Stakeholders in performance assessment,whether part of the process or not,are doctors themselves,peers and other health care providers,patients,hospitals and health systems,medical regulators,and health policy makers.Early models of performance assessment included portfolios,credit accumulation,and closed-book examinations.Models are in evolution with the value of formative rather than summative assessments,and the need for methods of assessing procedural competency increasingly recognized.Emerging methods of performance assessment of practicing ophthalmologists include use of performance indicators,simulation,and workplace-based assessments.Alternate methods of assuring the public by improved detection of outliers are discussed.Despite weak evidence supporting performance assessments in demonstrating continuing competency to practice,the process is gradually being accepted worldwide.Further research into optimum methods of performance assessment and monitoring processes is required,along with cost-benefit analysis.

Design strategy and comprehensive performance assessment towards Zn anode for alkaline rechargeable batteries

Alkaline Zn-based primary batteries have been commercialized in the past decades.However,their success has not been extended to secondary batteries due to the poor cycle reversibility of Zn anodes.Although some research has been conducted on alkaline Zn anodes,their performance is still far from commercial requirements.A variety of degradation mechanisms,including passivation,dendrites,morphological changes,and hydrogen precipitation,are claimed responsible for the failure of alkaline Zn metal anodes.What’s worse,these constraints always interact with each other,which leads to a single strategy being unable to suppress all the issues.Therefore,a comprehensive evaluation of the positive and negative effects of various strategies on performance is important to promote the commercialization of alkaline Zn batteries.Herein,the recent progress and performance of improvement strategies for Zn anode in alkaline conditions are reviewed systematically.First,the principles and challenges of alkaline Zn anodes are briefly analyzed.Then,various design strategies for alkaline Zn anodes from the perspectives of ion and electron regulation are highlighted.Last,through a comprehensive summary of various performance parameters,the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies are compared and evaluated.On the basis of this assessment,we aim to provide more insights into the anode design of high-performance alkaline rechargeable Zn batteries.

Research and Application of Recycled Concrete Technology in Prefabricated Buildings

The utilization of waste concrete as a raw material for recycled concrete in the domain of prefabricated components is garnering greater interest.This paper delineates and examines the concept,categorization,methodologies of preparation,applicable sectors,and evaluative metrics of recycled concrete technology,highlighting its prospective benefits.Nonetheless,for the successful integration of recycled concrete technology into prefabricated component applications,it is imperative to systematically enhance its physical,mechanical,and attributes,as well as its environmental efficacy.Moreover,to foster the continued advancement of recycled concrete technology,innovative initiatives,standardization,educational programs,demonstration projects,and collaborative efforts are crucial to promote broader adoption and realize improved outcomes within the realm of prefabricated components.In conclusion,recycled concrete technology is poised to play a pivotal role in prefabricated construction,offering robust support for propelling the construction industry towards a sustainable future.

Analysis of the Application Value of Virtual Reality Combined with Flipped Classroom Teaching Mode in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Teaching

Objective:To analyze the value of using virtual reality combined with the flipped classroom teaching model in teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR).Methods:Two classes of our nursing program were randomly selected for the study from September 2022 to September 2023,Class A(52 students,conventional teaching method)and Class B(52 students,virtual reality combined with flipped classroom teaching mode).The assessment scores and independent learning ability scores of the students in the two classes were compared.Results:CPR theory and operation scores,passing rate,and independent learning ability scores of Class B were higher than those of Class A(P<0.05).Conclusion:the use of virtual reality combined with the flipped classroom teaching mode in CPR teaching is conducive to the improvement of students’assessment scores and independent learning ability.

High resolution radar target adaptive detector and performance assessment

The high resolution radar target detection is addressed in the non-Gaussian clutter. An adaptive detector is derived for range-spread target based on a novel covariance matrix estimator. It is proved that the new detector is constant false alarm rate （CFAR） to both of the clutter covariance matrix structure and power level theoretically for match cases. The simulation results show that the new detector is almost CFAR for mismatch cases, and it outperforms the existing adaptive detector based on the sample covariance matrix. It also shows that the detection performance improves, as the number of pulses, the number of secondary data or the clutter spike increases. In addition, the derived detector is robust to different subsets, estimated clutter group sizes and correlations of clutter. Importantly, the number of iterations for practical application is just one.

Case study of seismic performance assessment of irregular RC buildings: hospital structure of Avezzano(L'Aquila, Italy)

Most published studies on inelastic earthquake response of non-symmetric buildings are based on simplified inelastic, highly idealized models, while general conclusions regarding the inelastic torsional response of multistory building are still lacking. This paper aims to provide a useful contribution in the study of the torsional response of real irregular buildings. To this aim, the manuscript reports the comprehensive study on the seismic vulnerability of an irregular RC building： the hospital building ofAvezzano （L＇Aquila Italy）. For this multi-story building, which is irregular in both plan and elevation, the application of nonlinear static evaluation procedures is by no means straightforward. The study proposes a nonlinear static procedure based on pushover analysis under the multimodal distribution of lateral loads and a capacity spectrum method. This pushover procedure accounts for mass distribution, higher modes contribution and mode-shapes correlation. Furthermore, due to its non-iterative feature, it avoids problems of non-convergence and multiple solutions of the conventional capacity spectrum method. Applied to a real case study, the procedure is used to investigate, in a 3D plan irregular building, the sensitivity of torsional inelastic response to lateral force distribution, higher modes contribution, accidental eccentricity and controlled point for monitoring the target displacement.

Performance Assessment of a PID Controller

Performance assessment of a proportional-integral-derivative （PID） controller is condueted using the PIDachievable minimum variance as a benchmark. When the process model is unknown, we can estimate the PID-achievable minimum variance and the corresponding parameters by routine closed-loop operation data. Simulation results show that the process output variance is reduced by retuning controller parameters.

Application of a Novel Method for Machine Performance Degradation Assessment Based on Gaussian Mixture Model and Logistic Regression

The currently prevalent machine performance degradation assessment techniques involve estimating a machine＇s current condition based upon the recognition of indications of failure features,which entail complete data collected in different conditions.However,failure data are always hard to acquire,thus making those techniques hard to be applied.In this paper,a novel method which does not need failure history data is introduced.Wavelet packet decomposition（WPD） is used to extract features from raw signals,principal component analysis（PCA） is utilized to reduce feature dimensions,and Gaussian mixture model（GMM） is then applied to approximate the feature space distributions.Single-channel confidence value（SCV） is calculated by the overlap between GMM of the monitoring condition and that of the normal condition,which can indicate the performance of single-channel.Furthermore,multi-channel confidence value（MCV）,which can be deemed as the overall performance index of multi-channel,is calculated via logistic regression（LR） and that the task of decision-level sensor fusion is also completed.Both SCV and MCV can serve as the basis on which proactive maintenance measures can be taken,thus preventing machine breakdown.The method has been adopted to assess the performance of the turbine of a centrifugal compressor in a factory of Petro-China,and the result shows that it can effectively complete this task.The proposed method has engineering significance for machine performance degradation assessment.

Green Development for Supporting Sustainability of Northeast China:Performance Quantification,Spatio-temporal Dynamics and Implications

Green development is the cognition of geography to human-nature nexus under the background of the new era.As China is facing various eco-environment problems,green development has become a key approach towards ecological progress,and it is ultimately an explicit means to respond to support sustainable development in China.Quantifying green development performance is essential to track efforts towards sustainability and guide policymakers.However,applying the balanced property of’Economy-Ecology-Society’of green development to its performance assessment is rarely discussed.Here we elaborated the connotation of green development and developed a quantification model with coupling coordination degree to assess green development performance of the largest old industrial base of China,Northeast China.We found that the green development performance has been improved from a score of 0.443 in 2003 to 0.530 in 2019 but the disparities of green development performance were enlarging over time,especially for the cities in Heilongjiang.A positive spatial autocorrelation phenomenon of green development performance was confirmed,and Low-Low clusters in the northeastern Heilongjiang and High-High clusters in the central-eastern Liaoning were discovered.This study suggests the need to track the spatio-temporal dynamics of green development performance to provide references for achieving sustainable development goals in northeast China and other regions.

Measuring Marketing Performance: Investigation into Practice and Certification

The content validity of marketing performance measurement metrics in China is reported. Based on the respondents in the research, the statistic analysis of relative importance, and the frequencies of use of marketing metrics are given. It is shown that the marketing metrics are consistent with market orientation, sectors and the role of managers, that affect the way in measuring marketing performance. The investigation results provide certified basis for developing marketing performance assessment systems in Chinese enterprises.

A Comparative Technique for Performance Evaluation of Hammer Mill and Disk Mill in Yam Flour Processing

Grinding (Particle size reduction) of biomass is an age-long operation that is performed during the preparation process of certain food products. Among the grinding mill machines mostly used for this operation are hammer mill and disk mill. Being that the nature of biomass affects the performance and choice of grinding-mill machine to be adopted, it is imperative to compare and select appropriate grinding mill machine that is efficient and effective. In this paper, a comparative technique to evaluate and select appropriate grinding mill machine for particle size reduction of dried white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) is proposed. Hammer mill and disk mill machines were selected for consideration. Two white yam species (Benue and Delta Yam) were prepared into dried chips and ground using the selected mills. Among the attribute (performance parameters) considered are crushing time, particle size distribution and energy consumed. A measure of performance (Index I) based on the comparative technique was formulated and used in evaluating the performance of the two mills. In the hammer mill, index I recorded 2721.2 and 3719.82 par/kWh for Benue Yam chips at screen size 4 and 6 mm, respectively, while 2647.89 and 3472.01 par/kWh was recorded for Delta yam chips at screen size 4 and 6 mm, respectively. Index I values for the Disk mill were 2536.25 and 2433.42 par/kWh at 1.2 mm clearance distance for Benue Yam chips and Delta Yam chips, respectively. The results indicated that hammer mill performed better overall than the disk mill. The comparative technique was found suitable in the evaluation of the performance of the mills. It is recommended that hammer mill be adopted.

Research on the Performance Assessment Mechanism of Accurate Poverty Alleviation in Vocational Education

Vocational education is an effective way to achieve accurate poverty alleviation and get rid of intergenerational poverty.Vocational education is mainly to train skilled talents,not only to provide academic education for the children of poor families,but also to use a skill to achieve employment.It is of great necessity to implement accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education,and performance assessment is a very important part of the accurate poverty alleviation work of vocational education.This paper mainly analyzes the predicament of accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education and the problems in the construction of performance assessment system for accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education,and puts forward measures to improve the accurate poverty alleviation assessment system for vocational education and strengthen the accurate of vocational education.

Intelligent Student Mental Health Assessment Model on Learning Management System

A learning management system(LMS)is a software or web based application,commonly utilized for planning,designing,and assessing a particular learning procedure.Generally,the LMS offers a method of creating and delivering content to the instructor,monitoring students’involvement,and validating their outcomes.Since mental health issues become common among studies in higher education globally,it is needed to properly determine it to improve mental stabi-lity.This article develops a new seven spot lady bird feature selection with opti-mal sparse autoencoder(SSLBFS-OSAE)model to assess students’mental health on LMS.The major aim of the SSLBFS-OSAE model is to determine the proper health status of the students with respect to depression,anxiety,and stress(DAS).The SSLBFS-OSAE model involves a new SSLBFS model to elect a useful set of features.In addition,OSAE model is applied for the classification of mental health conditions and the performance can be improved by the use of cuckoo search optimization(CSO)based parameter tuning process.The design of CSO algorithm for optimally tuning the SAE parameters results in enhanced classifica-tion outcomes.For examining the improved classifier results of the SSLBFS-OSAE model,a comprehensive results analysis is done and the obtained values highlighted the supremacy of the SSLBFS model over its recent methods interms of different measures.

Knowledge and data jointly driven aeroengine gas path performance assessment method

Aeroengines,as the sole power source for aircraft,play a vital role in ensuring flight safety.The gas path,which represents the fundamental pathway for airflow within an aeroengine,directly impacts the aeroengine's performance,fuel efficiency,and safety.Therefore,timely and accurate evaluation of gas path performance is of paramount importance.This paper proposes a knowledge and data jointly driven aeroengine gas path performance assessment method,combining Fingerprint and gas path parameter deviation values.Firstly,Fingerprint is used to correct gas path parameter deviation values,eliminating parameter shifts caused by non-component performance degradation.Secondly,coarse errors are removed using the Romanovsky criterion for short-term data divided by an equal-length overlapping sliding window.Thirdly,an Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition and Non-Local Means(EEMD-NLM)filtering method is designed to“clean”data noise,completing the preprocessing for gas path parameter deviation values.Afterward,based on the characteristics of gas path parameter deviation values,a Dynamic Temporary Blended Network(DTBN)model is built to extract its temporal features,cascaded with Multi-Layer Perceptron(MLP),and combined with Fingerprint to construct a Dynamic Temporary Blended AutoEncoder(DTB-AutoEncoder).Eventually,by training this improved autoencoder,the aeroengine gas path multi-component performance assessment model is formed,which can sufficiently decouple the nonlinear mapping relationship between aeroengine gas path multi-component performance degradation and gas path parameter deviation values,thereby achieving the performance assessment of engine gas path components.Through practical application cases,the effectiveness of this model in assessing the aeroengine gas path multi-component performance is verified.

TIMODAZ:A successful international cooperation project to investigate the thermal impact on the EDZ around a radioactive waste disposal in clay host rocks

Disposal of spent nuclear fuel and long lived radioactive waste in deep clay geological formations is one of the promising options worldwide. In this concept of the geological disposal system, the host clay formation is considered as a principal barrier on which the fulfillment of key safety functions rests. Between 2006 and 2010, the European Commission project TIMODAZ, which gathered 15 partners from 8 countries, has investigated the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical （THM） effects on clay formations for geological disposal of radioactive waste, and specific attention was paid to investigating the thermal effect on the evolution of the damaged zone （DZ）. Three types of potential host clay formations were investigated： the Boom Clay （Belgium）, the Opalinus Clay （Switzerland） and the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite （France）. Intensive experimental （laboratory and in situ in underground research laboratories） and numerical studies have been performed. Multi-scale approach was used in the course of the project. High degree of similarities between the failure modes, sealing process, stress paths, deformation, etc., observed in laboratories and in situ has been obtained, which increased the confidence in the applicability of laboratory test results and up-scaling perspective. The results of the laboratory and in situ tests obtained allowed the parameters for numerical models at various scales to be derived and provided the basis for the simplified performance assessment models that are used to assess the long-term safety of a repository. The good cooperation between the numerical modeler and experimenters has allowed an in-depth analysis of the experimental results and thus better understanding the underlying processes, and consequently increased the capabilities to model the THM effects in claystones. This paper presents the main achievements obtained by TIMODAZ project and shows how a European scientific community investigates a problem of concern in a collaborative way and how the obtained main results are applied to the performance assessment of a geological repository.

Implications of safety requirements for the treatment of THMC processes in geological disposal systems for radioactive waste

The mission of nuclear safety authorities in national radioactive waste disposal programmes is to ensure that people and the environment are protected against the hazards of ionising radiations emitted by the waste.It implies the establishment of safety requirements and the oversight of the activities of the waste management organisation in charge of implementing the programme.In Belgium,the safety requirements for geological disposal rest on the following principles:defence-in-depth,demonstrability and the radiation protection principles elaborated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection(ICRP).Applying these principles requires notably an appropriate identification and characterisation of the processes upon which the safety functions fulfilled by the disposal system rely and of the processes that may affect the system performance.Therefore,research and development(R&D)on safety-relevant thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical(THMC)issues is important to build confidence in the safety assessment.This paper points out the key THMC processes that might influence radionuclide transport in a disposal system and its surrounding environment,considering the dynamic nature of these processes.Their nature and significance are expected to change according to prevailing internal and external conditions,which evolve from the repository construction phase to the whole heatingecooling cycle of decaying waste after closure.As these processes have a potential impact on safety,it is essential to identify and to understand them properly when developing a disposal concept to ensure compliance with relevant safety requirements.In particular,the investigation of THMC processes is needed to manage uncertainties.This includes the identification and characterisation of uncertainties as well as for the understanding of their safety-relevance.R&D may also be necessary to reduce uncertainties of which the magnitude does not allow demonstrating the safety of the disposal system.

Testing and assessing the performance of a new warm mix asphalt with SMC

Warm mix asphalt （WMA} is a new technology which asphalt mix is produced and placed at normal temperature. It has advantages including low cost, environmentally friendly, haul-convenience, and so on. WMA has been widely tested and applied in the USA in the last decade, but it has just started in China. Recently, a new WMA using a new plastic- macromolecule-normal temperature additive, which was called ＂SMC＂ by the production company, was introduced as asphalt modifier. Based on discussing the strength forming process of this new WMA with SMC, a series of laboratory tests, including Marshall stability test （MST）, boiling test （BT）, modified immersion Marshall test （MIMT）, freeze-thaw split- ring test （FTST）, rutting test （RT）, low-temperature bending test （LTBT）, and abrasion loss test （ALT）, were conducted in this study to assess the performance of this WMA and the capability of applying it on low volume roads in China. SMC modified asphalt mixed under normal temperature is used in testing samples. It was found that this WMA product exhibited merits on its strength, which was about 6.7 kN bigger than the requirement of 5.0 kN in the JTG F40-2004, on high-temperature stability, which is about 1100 times/ram greater than the requirement of 600-1000 times/mm in the ）TG F40-2004, and on its storage stability. Based on these indicators, it is recommended that this product could be used for low volume low class roads construction. However, due to the relatively lower water resistance and low-temperature cracking resistance, this product is suggested to be applied first in the areas with warm weather and little rainfall. In order to improve the perfor- mance of this WMA with SMC, further research on this SMC asphalt modifier should be continued.

Review on Sustainable Cities:Assessing the Performance and Practice of Urban Environments

Sustainable Cities:Assessing the Performance and Practice of Urban Environments Authors:Pierre Laconte,Chris Gossop Year:2016 Publisher:I.B.Tauris & Co.Ltd ISBN:9781784532321(288 pages,in English) How to build sustainable cities has always been a common concern to the world for a long period of time.Sustainable development usually includes three dimensions:economy,society。

Performance analysis of frequency‑mixed PPP‑RTK using low‑cost GNSS chipset with different antenna configurations

Low-cost Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)devices offer a cost-effective alternative to traditional GNSS systems,making GNSS technology accessible to a wider range of applications.Nevertheless,low-cost GNSS devices often face the challenges in effectively capturing and tracking satellite signals,which leads to losing the observations at certain frequencies.Moreover,the observation peculiarities of low-cost devices are in contradistinction to those of traditional geodetic GNSS receivers.In this contribution,a low-cost PPP-RTK model that considers the unique characteristics of different types of measurements is developed and its performance is fully evaluated with u-blox F9P receivers equipped with three distinctive antenna configurations:vertical dipole,microstrip patch,and helix antennas.Several static and kinematic experiments in different scenarios are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.The results indicate that the mixed-frequency PPP-RTK model outperforms the traditional dual-frequency one with higher positioning accuracy and fixing percentage.Among the three low-cost antennas tested,the vertical dipole antenna demonstrates the best performance under static conditions and shows a comparable performance as geodetic antennas with a positioning accuracy of 0.02 m,0.01 m and 0.07 m in the east,north,and up components,respectively.Under low-speed kinematic scenarios,the helix antenna outperforms the other two with a positioning accuracy of(0.07 m,0.07 m,0.34 m).Furthermore,the helix antenna is also proved to be the best choice for vehicle navigation with an ambiguity fixing rate of over 95%and a positioning accuracy of(0.13 m,0.14 m,0.36 m).