Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to develop an assessment of the fundamental, combined, and complex movement skills required to support childhood physical literacy. The secondary aim was to establish the fea...Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to develop an assessment of the fundamental, combined, and complex movement skills required to support childhood physical literacy. The secondary aim was to establish the feasibility, objectivity, and reliability evidence for the assessment.Methods: An expert advisory group recommended a course format for the assessment that would require children to complete a series of dynamic movement skills. Criterion-referenced skill performance and completion time were the recommended forms of evaluation. Children, 8–12 years of age, self-reported their age and gender and then completed the study assessments while attending local schools or day camps. Face validity was previously established through a Delphi expert(n = 19, 21% female) review process. Convergent validity was evaluated by age and gender associations with assessment performance. Inter-and intra-rater(n = 53, 34% female) objectivity and test–retest(n = 60, 47% female) reliability were assessed through repeated test administration.Results: Median total score was 21 of 28 points(range 5–28). Median completion time was 17 s. Total scores were feasible for all 995 children who self-reported age and gender. Total score did not differ between inside and outside environments(95% confidence interval(CI) of difference:-0.7 to 0.6;p = 0.91) or with/without footwear(95%CI of difference:-2.5 to 1.9; p = 0.77). Older age(p < 0.001, η2= 0.15) and male gender(p < 0.001, η2= 0.02)were associated with a higher total score. Inter-rater objectivity evidence was excellent(intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC) = 0.99) for completion time and substantial for skill score(ICC = 0.69) for 104 attempts by 53 children(34% female). Intra-rater objectivity was moderate(ICC = 0.52) for skill score and excellent for completion time(ICC = 0.99). Reliability was excellent for completion time over a short(2–4 days; ICC = 0.84) or long(8–14days; ICC = 0.82) interval. Skill score reliability was moderate(ICC = 0.46) over a short interval, and substantial(ICC = 0.74) over a long interval.Conclusion: The Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment is a feasible measure of selected fundamental, complex and combined movement skills, which are an important building block for childhood physical literacy. Moderate-to-excellent objectivity was demonstrated for children 8–12 years of age. Test–retest reliability has been established over an interval of at least 1 week. The time and skill scores can be accurately estimated by 1 trained examiner.展开更多
Since there is lack of methodology to assess the performance of defogging algorithm and the existing assessment methods have some limitations,three new methods for assessing the defogging algorithm were proposed.One w...Since there is lack of methodology to assess the performance of defogging algorithm and the existing assessment methods have some limitations,three new methods for assessing the defogging algorithm were proposed.One was using synthetic foggy image simulated by image degradation model to assess the defogging algorithm in full-reference way.In this method,the absolute difference was computed between the synthetic image with and without fog.The other two were computing the fog density of gray level image or constructing assessment system of color image from human visual perception to assess the defogging algorithm in no-reference way.For these methods,an assessment function was defined to evaluate algorithm performance from the function value.Using the defogging algorithm comparison,the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed methods.展开更多
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative methodology in shipping investment evaluation based on simulation of a project cash flow. It concerns a complementary approach to current practices and its aim i...The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative methodology in shipping investment evaluation based on simulation of a project cash flow. It concerns a complementary approach to current practices and its aim is to provide more information mainly to ship-owners that consider the feasibility of deploying Ro-Ro Passenger ferries. The paper examines a typical semi-conventional RoPax ferry operating in the Aegean Sea. It addresses important economic, operational and procedural issues concerning risk evaluation. The current status is that risk is a notion still strange to main stakeholders. The Greek practice in performing a feasibility study for a project draws on investor＇s experience and feeling aided by a preliminary economic study. The main thesis of this paper is that there are alternative techniques to evaluate investment risk and measure profitability of a project. A Monte Carlo simulation in collaboration with a typical Ro-Ro cash-flow model is implemented to reveal the extent of risk and provide a useful tool for the assessment of future investments in Greek Short Sea Shipping.展开更多
基金funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded to Dr. Meghann Lloyd and Dr. Mark Tremblay (IHD 94356)
文摘Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to develop an assessment of the fundamental, combined, and complex movement skills required to support childhood physical literacy. The secondary aim was to establish the feasibility, objectivity, and reliability evidence for the assessment.Methods: An expert advisory group recommended a course format for the assessment that would require children to complete a series of dynamic movement skills. Criterion-referenced skill performance and completion time were the recommended forms of evaluation. Children, 8–12 years of age, self-reported their age and gender and then completed the study assessments while attending local schools or day camps. Face validity was previously established through a Delphi expert(n = 19, 21% female) review process. Convergent validity was evaluated by age and gender associations with assessment performance. Inter-and intra-rater(n = 53, 34% female) objectivity and test–retest(n = 60, 47% female) reliability were assessed through repeated test administration.Results: Median total score was 21 of 28 points(range 5–28). Median completion time was 17 s. Total scores were feasible for all 995 children who self-reported age and gender. Total score did not differ between inside and outside environments(95% confidence interval(CI) of difference:-0.7 to 0.6;p = 0.91) or with/without footwear(95%CI of difference:-2.5 to 1.9; p = 0.77). Older age(p < 0.001, η2= 0.15) and male gender(p < 0.001, η2= 0.02)were associated with a higher total score. Inter-rater objectivity evidence was excellent(intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC) = 0.99) for completion time and substantial for skill score(ICC = 0.69) for 104 attempts by 53 children(34% female). Intra-rater objectivity was moderate(ICC = 0.52) for skill score and excellent for completion time(ICC = 0.99). Reliability was excellent for completion time over a short(2–4 days; ICC = 0.84) or long(8–14days; ICC = 0.82) interval. Skill score reliability was moderate(ICC = 0.46) over a short interval, and substantial(ICC = 0.74) over a long interval.Conclusion: The Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment is a feasible measure of selected fundamental, complex and combined movement skills, which are an important building block for childhood physical literacy. Moderate-to-excellent objectivity was demonstrated for children 8–12 years of age. Test–retest reliability has been established over an interval of at least 1 week. The time and skill scores can be accurately estimated by 1 trained examiner.
基金Projects(91220301,61175064,61273314)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(126648)supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Central South University,ChinaProject(2012170301)supported by the New Teacher Fund for School of Information Science and Engineering,Central South University,China
文摘Since there is lack of methodology to assess the performance of defogging algorithm and the existing assessment methods have some limitations,three new methods for assessing the defogging algorithm were proposed.One was using synthetic foggy image simulated by image degradation model to assess the defogging algorithm in full-reference way.In this method,the absolute difference was computed between the synthetic image with and without fog.The other two were computing the fog density of gray level image or constructing assessment system of color image from human visual perception to assess the defogging algorithm in no-reference way.For these methods,an assessment function was defined to evaluate algorithm performance from the function value.Using the defogging algorithm comparison,the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed methods.
文摘The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative methodology in shipping investment evaluation based on simulation of a project cash flow. It concerns a complementary approach to current practices and its aim is to provide more information mainly to ship-owners that consider the feasibility of deploying Ro-Ro Passenger ferries. The paper examines a typical semi-conventional RoPax ferry operating in the Aegean Sea. It addresses important economic, operational and procedural issues concerning risk evaluation. The current status is that risk is a notion still strange to main stakeholders. The Greek practice in performing a feasibility study for a project draws on investor＇s experience and feeling aided by a preliminary economic study. The main thesis of this paper is that there are alternative techniques to evaluate investment risk and measure profitability of a project. A Monte Carlo simulation in collaboration with a typical Ro-Ro cash-flow model is implemented to reveal the extent of risk and provide a useful tool for the assessment of future investments in Greek Short Sea Shipping.
