Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Assessment approach'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Assessment approach.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Assessment approach.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Cowell, Naina. "Story telling : a dynamic assessment approach." Thesis, University of East London, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.532931.
Full textAbstract:
Adolescents with language impairment frequently experience difficulties with story- telling tasks and the development of their story-telling or narrative abilities differ from those of typically developing young people. In this study a dynamic assessment and intervention approach was used to assist the development of narrative abilities of secondary-aged pupils with language difficulties. The initial phase of the study involved eliciting narratives from pupils using a wordless picture book. This was followed by two individually administered mediated learning experiences over a two-week period. Pupils' narratives were elicited and scored following this. The second phase involved small, group mediated teaching of narratives over a ten-week period at the end of which pupils' narratives were retested. Sixtysix pupils across four secondary schools participated in the study and were assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. A two-phase, sequential, mixed methods design incorporating both a within and a between subjects design using a test-mediate-retest method within a dynamic assessment paradigm was employed. Pupils' views were obtained through three focus groups. The views of the professionals involved in the intervention were obtained through post-intervention reflective sheets. A conventional content analysis that adopted a constructivist paradigm was used to analyse the data from the focus groups and the reflective sheets. A highly significant improvement was found in both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the intervention group's narratives following the dynamic assessment and intervention phase and the group-mediated teaching sessions. However, a within-group analysis showed a slight decline in the quantitative but not the qualitative narrative measures following the group mediated teaching of narratives. The pupils in the intervention group also showed significant gains in their narrative performance on a standardised test of narrative ability following the group mediated teaching of narratives. A surprising result was that pupils in the control group showed a five percent improvement in the qualitative but not the quantitative aspects of their narratives. Pupils and professionals reported an increased awareness and understanding of the importance of narratives and the inclusion of aspects that made up a complete narrative. Pupils reported on how particular mediation strategies had helped them with their story telling while professionals reported an increased understanding of a mediated teaching approach. Pupils and professionals reported an increase in confidence and expressed a need to link the mediated teaching of narratives to class-work and monitoring systems used in school. In spite of the study's limitations, the results showed how the narrative abilities of secondary-aged pupils with language difficulties could be developed through a dynamic assessment and intervention approach enabling pupils to become active learners.
2
Maddock, Ian Philip. "Instream habitat assessment : a geomorphological approach." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1994. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/32916.
Full textAbstract:
Instream habitat assessment methods are required to evaluate the biological quality of streams in relation to flow and channel morphology and to distinguish the effects of river management on the instream biota. A range of techniques are described and developed in this study ranging from a simple reconnaissance survey to the detailed Physical Habitat Simulation Model (PHABSIM) in order to establish a method for the classification of river channels, identification of key parameters that determine the biota and assessment of the influence of flow and bed morphology on habitat availability.
3
Soltanian-Zadeh, Sepeedah. "A Microsystems Approach for Drug Assessment." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82101.
Full textAbstract:
Cancer metastasis, the departure of cancer cells from the primary tumors and their spread to distant sites, is responsible for 90% of cancer related deaths. Thus, understanding the initial process which leads to cancer metastasis in the later stage and stopping the spread in the initial stage deems necessary. In spite of significant progress in diagnosis and treatment, there is still the need for robust and easy to use drug assessment methods. In this work we present two approaches for this purpose: a microengineered Boyden chamber, and a dielectrophoresis-based platform for cell characterization and drug assessment. Using these methods, we characterize the drug response of breast cancer, which is the second most common type of cancer among US women.
The micorengineered Boyden chamber we designed in this work is made of a silicon-based transmigration well with a 30µm-thick membrane and 8µm pores. This platform includes a deep microfluidic channel on the back-side sealed with a glass wafer. Using this platform, the migratory behavior of highly metastatic breast cancer cells, MDA-MB231, is tested under different drug treatment conditions. The second platform, the off-chip passivated electrode insulator-based dielectrophoresis (OπDEP) device, has been used to first distinguish between different breast cancer cell lines namely LCC1/MCF7, LCC9/MCF7, MCF7, and MDA-MB231, and also to probe the effect of different drug treatments on the cells. These versatile platforms will enable the enhanced integration with other technologies and running multiple assays simultaneously. Moreover, the methods presented show potential for next generation drug discovery and patient follow up purposes.Master of Science
4
Luffarelli, Marta. "A text mining approach to materiality assessment." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2021. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/23127/.
Full textAbstract:
Worldwide companies currently make a significant effort in performing the materiality analysis, whose aim is to explain corporate sustainability in an annual report. Materiality reflects what are the most important social, economic and environmental issues for a company and its stakeholders. Many studies and standards have been proposed to establish what are the main steps to follow to identify the specific topics to be included in a sustainability report. However, few existing quantitative and structured approaches help understanding how to deal with the identified topics and how to prioritise them to effectively show the most valuable ones. Moreover, the use of traditional approaches involves a long-lasting and complex procedure where a lot of people have to be reached and interviewed and several companies' reports have to be read to extrapolate the material topics to be discussed in the sustainability report. This dissertation aims to propose an automated mechanism to gather stakeholders and the company's opinions identifying relevant issues. To accomplish this purpose, text mining techniques are exploited to analyse textual documents written by either a stakeholder or the reporting company. It is then extracted a measure of how much a document deals with some defined topics. This kind of information is finally manipulated to prioritise topics based on how the author's opinion matters. The entire work is based upon a real case study in the domain of telecommunications.
5
Juarez, Garcia Hugon. "Multi-hazard risk assessment : an interdependency approach." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27271.
Full textAbstract:
This research began with the Joint Infrastructure Interdependencies Research Program (JIIRP). JIIRP was part of an effort by the Government of Canada to fund research to develop innovative ways to mitigate large disaster situations. An interdependency simulator (I2Sim) was developed in the University of British Columbia through this project. This tool was developed to take into account the dynamic changes of the functional conditions of any given system.
This thesis makes two major contributions to the capability of the simulator’s methodology, to handle seismic events and events that affect dense concentrations of people. The distinguishing characteristic of an earthquake event can affect the city and all the surrounding regions, causing damage to all lifeline systems. In its original form, I2Sim could model the damage and impact of each system on its own, but was unable to account for the effects of all other systems. The interdependency between systems is a crucial element for determining the impact of an earthquake and the time for recovery. The methodology proposed here can be used to measure Interdependencies and Resiliency in a region.
Two cases were studied and implemented to test the methodology and the simulator. The first one was an earthquake hazard in a relatively small region (UBC Campus) in which the interdependencies and resiliency would be revealed to the emergency managers of UBC Campus; the second one, was a localized event in a massive sporting event (Winter Olympics in Vancouver), a black out in a Football Stadium that caused an uncontrolled egress, and related casualties due to a collapsing stage and the evacuation process were modelled.
With the methodology and the simulator (I2Sim) it is possible to build up Region models, Disaster Scenarios, Objective Functions and Emergency Planning; and these, along with Interdependency and Resiliency calculations, will help in the preparedness, planning, response and recovery phases of any disaster.
6
Severn, Jamie. "A multilinearization approach for structural reliability assessment." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.430619.
Full text
7
Sanchez-Silva, Mauricio. "A systems approach to earthquake vulnerability assessment." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.294584.
Full text
8
Bakhshi, Andisheh. "Length-structured approach to fisheries stock assessment." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2017. http://digitool.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=28512.
Full textAbstract:
Modern fishing fleets have the capacity to over-exploit fish stocks. Inaccurate assessments could overestimate the stock size and as a result Total Allowable Catches (TAC) are set too high for sustainable stock conservation. Fisheries management need robust and reliable stock assessments to ensure that the species and environmental effect of fishing is sustainable. Since the demand for ecosystem based approaches to management has increased, the needs for improved estimates of un-assessed abundance have risen. Managers simply need to know how many fish left in the see and how much to limit the fishermen to fish to have sustainable fisheries. Therefore, accurate assessment of the market as well as by-catch stocks and records of true landings and discards are critical aspects of the scientific advice to the fisheries managers to accurately set TACs. Here, we consider the marine species that are left un-assessed. That is because they cannot be assessed by the existing methods. We therefore sought to fill the key gap with this matter. This thesis has five key elements. First we reviewed the stock assessment method with the emphasis on the length-structured models. Second, we produced a population model (so called survey-landings model) to make the use of survey frequency data extracted from International Bottom Trawl Survey and total annual landed biomass from commercial reports. Third, within a twin-experiment context and sensitivity analysis the model was assessed for accuracy and robustness in variability in initial parameter values and observational noise. Forth, applying the survey-landings model the population dynamics of the North Sea haddock was assessed and the results were compared with the International Council for Exploitation of the Sea assessment. Fifth, after the model proved to be reliable it is used as an alternative for age- or catch-at-length model, the population of the North Sea grey gurnards were modelled with confidence. This model enabled un-assessed species such as grey gurnards to be modelled and assessed for the first time.
9
Henry, Joel. "An integrated approach to software process assessment." Diss., This resource online, 1993. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06062008-170922/.
Full text
10
Williams, A. Lynn. "A Phonological Approach to Assessment and Intervention." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1998. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2027.
Full text
11
ISOLA, FEDERICA. "Strategic environmental assessment approach: governance and planning." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11584/266191.
Full textAbstract:
The dissertation is framed within the topics of regional governance and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Compared to its relationship with governance the SEA may be defined as a set of rules, principles, techniques and tools with the function of supporting the decision making
process. The evaluation process is strategically relevant when applying the principles of environmental sustainability to regional and urban planning. SEA is a fundamental instrument for the environmental integration during the elaboration and adoption of plans; SEA offers an opportunity to bring about a real change of attitude and culture at strategic levels into strategic decision-making process; SEA, according to the Directive 2001/42/EC, provides the most adequate opportunity to integrate different regional planning methods. The dissertation mechanisms of regional governance, defined as the process involving the formation and implementation of decisions. The objective of this study is to analyse the relationships between the various stakeholders and governmental institutions, with the aim of defining in what terms, with reference to regional governance, the theoretical principles of sustainable development (in terms of managing the relationship between natural resources and economic development) can be applied to the planning phases.
The main aim is to build a framework for sequential activities in the planning process, of a new model of governance able to relate to different levels of government, from a political level to a local
level.
The Sardinian case study contains some interesting aspects of planning and evaluation processes
currently under way, which could be exported and developed further. However, it does suffer from
several inconsistencies which are highlighted by the Directive 2001/42/EC.
The innovative aspect of the research project, respect to the current planning situation of the SEA
and the planning procedures, consists in the creation of a Protocol for the integration of the two
approaches related to the construction of the plan and the activation process of SEA.
In particular in the construction of system to accompany and support the government in adapting
the plans, and secondly to support local authorities in the definition of strategic choices. Don’t exist
in Sardinia a guidance for SEA process of general plan, This Guidance is intended to be valid for all
plans from regional to urban plans by defining a decisional process where the SEA is part of the
plan, creating a process more inclusive of aspects of environmental and public consultation. The
involvement of consulting the public and authorities with environmental responsibilities is the goal
of the new model of the assessment process.
12
Tsang, Hing-ho. "Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment direct amplitude-based approach /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36783456.
Full text
13
Williams, Malcolm. "An argumentation-centred approach to translation quality assessment." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6217.
Full textAbstract:
Translation quality assessment (TQA) types may be divided into two main types: (1) models with a quantitative dimension, such as SEPT (1979), Sical (1986) and GTS (2000), and (2) non-quantitative, more textological models such as Nord (1991) and House (1997). Because it tends to focus on microtextual (lexical, syntactic) analysis, sampling and error counts, Type 1 suffers from major shortcomings. First, because of time constraints, it cannot assess, except on the basis of statistical probabilities, the acceptability of the content of the translation as discourse. Second, the microtextual analysis inevitably hinders any serious assessment of the content macrostructure of the translation. Third, the establishment of an acceptability threshold based on a specific number of errors is vulnerable to criticism both theoretically and in the marketplace. Type 2 cannot offer a cogent acceptability threshold either, precisely because it does not propose error weighting and quantification for individual texts. Another drawback of Type 2 is that it is applied almost exclusively to literary and advertising texts. What is needed is a model that combines the quantitative and textological dimensions, along the lines proposed by Bensoussan and Rosenhouse (1990) and Larose (1987, 1998), and targets instrumental (pragmatic) translations. The goal of this thesis is to develop an argumentation-centred model to meet this need. With Toulmin's argument macrostructure (1984) as a starting point, a set of argumentation parameters are developed: macrostructure, propositional functions (Widdowson 1978) and reasoning structure (Thomas 1986), conjunctives and inference indicators (Halliday and Hasan 1976; Roulet et al. 1985; and Thomas 1986), argument types (Corbett and Connors 1999), figures of speech, and narrative strategy (Ouellet 1992). These parameters provide a framework for assessing the degree to which translations preserve the argumentation, coherence and cohesion of the message of the source text, for determining critical passages for TQA, and for proposing a new breakdown of errors based on three levels of seriousness. A weighting grid is then added to the model to enable evaluators to take account of conventional parameters such as target-language errors. Finally, a new set of quality standards is proposed for instrumental texts produced by professionals and students alike.
14
Malviya, Shruti. "Global Diatom Biodiversity : An Assessment Using Metabarcoding Approach." Thesis, Paris 11, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015PA112075/document.
Full textAbstract:
Les diatomées (Stramenopiles, Bacillariophyceae) jouent un rôle important sur le plan écologique et sont l'un des groupes phytoplanctoniques les plus divers, avec environ 1800 espèces planctoniques estimées. Bien que largement étudiées, leurs modèles de diversité et de distribution biogéographique ne sont pas bien connus. L'avènement du séquençage de l'ADN à haut débit a révolutionné les études de biodiversité moléculaire facilitant la compréhension de la biogéographie, de la structure des communautés et des processus écologiques. Les deux principaux objectifs de cette thèse sont (1) d'enquêter sur les modèles de la biodiversité mondiale et la structure des communautés de diatomées planctoniques à travers les océans du monde, et (2) de comprendre les mécanismes et processus déterminants la structure de la communauté. Cette thèse présente également une première tentative de discerner la répartition des espèces rares dans les communautés de protistes. L'étude a été réalisée en utilisant les données de metabarcoding générées à partir des échantillons biologiques et des données environnementales associées recueillies au cours de la campagne Tara Oceans (2009-2013), une circumnavigation globale couvrant toutes les principales provinces océaniques. Le matériel d’étude pour cette thèse est constitué d’un total de 12 millions de séquences de la sous unité V9 du 18S ribosomal (barcode), récoltées à partir de 46 stations soit 293 échantillons. Basée sur 63371 metabarcodes de diatomées uniques, cette étude présente une évaluation approfondie de la distribution mondiale des diatomées et de leur diversité. Les analyses révèlent des faits marquants liées à la biogéographie des diatomées, par exemple une nouvelle estimation du nombre total d'espèces de diatomées planctoniques, une diversité considérable inconnue, une diversité exceptionnellement élevée en haute mer, et des patrons de diversité complexes entre les provinces océaniques. La thèse examine ensuite les facteurs qui déterminent les modèles de bêta-diversité. Les résultats suggèrent que les diatomées sont des communautés structurées et réglementées par l'hétérogénéité de l'environnement et des processus spatiaux. Néanmoins, la majorité de la variation totale dans la composition de la communauté ne peut être expliquée ni par les facteurs environnementaux, ni par les distances spatiales, ce qui justifie les analyses futures se concentrant sur les interactions biologiques, les événements historiques, et d'autres facteurs qui ne sont pas considérés. La thèse décrit en outre une approche pour caractériser les clusters significativement associés de ribotypes concomitants. Enfin, une étude préliminaire de communautés de protistes fractionnées par taille révèle que la queue (de leurs distributions rang abondance) semble suivre un comportement en loi de puissance dans presque toutes les communautés de protistes. Cette observation peut indiquer un mécanisme universel potentiel qui peut expliquer l'organisation de communautés planctoniques marines. De façon générale, ce travail présent une perspective globale et complète de la distribution et de la diversité des diatomées dans les océans du monde. La thèse propose un cadre global pour l'évaluation de la diversité mondiale basée sur le metabarcoding, qui pourra être utilisé pour étudier la distribution et la diversité des autres lignées taxonomiques. Par conséquent, ce travail fournit un point de référence pour explorer comment les communautés microbiennes feront face à la variation des conditions environnementalesDiatoms (Stramenopiles, Bacillariophyceae) are an ecologically important and one of the most diverse phytoplanktonic groups, with an estimated ~1,800 marine planktonic species. Although widely studied, their diversity and biogeographic distribution patterns are not well known. The advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing has revolutionized molecular biodiversity studies facilitating the understanding of biogeography, community assembly and ecological processes. The two major goals of this thesis are (1) to investigate global biodiversity patterns and structure of marine planktonic diatom communities across the world’s oceans, and (2) to understand the mechanisms and processes determining their community structure and assembly. This thesis also presents an initial attempt to discern the distribution of rare species in protist communities. The study was conducted using the metabarcoding data generated from the biological samples and associated environmental data collected during the Tara Oceans (2009-2013) global circumnavigation covering all major oceanic provinces. A total of ~12 million diatom V9-18S rDNA tags from 46 sampling stations, constituting 293 size fractionated samples represent the study material for the thesis. Using 63,371 unique diatom metabarcodes, this study presents an in-depth evaluation of global diatom distribution and diversity. The analyses study draw a number of revelations related to diatom biogeography, e.g. a new estimate of the total number of planktonic diatom species, a considerable unknown diversity, exceptionally high diversity in the open ocean, complex diversity patterns across oceanic provinces. The thesis then looks into the factors determining the beta-diversity patterns. The results suggest that diatoms represent biogeographically structured ecological communities regulated by both environmental heterogeneity and spatial processes. Nonetheless, the majority of the total variation in community composition remained unexplained by either the examined measured environmental factors or spatial distances, which warrants future analyses focusing on biological interactions, historical events, and other factors that are not considered. The thesis further outlines an approach to characterize significantly associated clusters of co-occurring ribotypes. Finally, a preliminary study of size-fractionated protistan communities reveals that the tail (of their rank-abundance distributions) appears to follow a power-law behavior in almost all protistan communities. This observation may indicate a potential universal mechanism which can explain the organization of marine planktonic communities. In general, this work has presented a global comprehensive perspective on diatom distribution and diversity in the world’s oceans. The thesis offers an overall framework for metabarcoding-based global diversity assessments which in turn can be employed to study distribution and diversity of other taxonomic lineages. Consequently, this work provides a reference point to explore how microbial communities will respond/change in response to environmental conditions
15
Ou, Chih-Sheng. "Sustainable infrastructure materials: A life cycle assessment approach." Connect to online resource, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3273699.
Full text
16
Tsang, Hing-ho, and 曾慶豪. "Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment: direct amplitude-based approach." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B36783456.
Full textAbstract:
The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine and Science (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize, 2005-2006.published_or_final_version
abstract
Civil Engineering
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
17
Toole, Edward. "An expert system approach to chemical hazard assessment." Thesis, Glasgow Caledonian University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319147.
Full textAbstract:
Hazard assessment involves the retrieval of appropriate chemical hazard data and the production of an assessment which complies with relevant regulations. This is a complex process requiring detailed knowledge of chemical hazards and hazard assessment regulations. The purpose of this project is to investigate the use of an expert system approach for hazard assessment of complex systems. The approach has focused on the design, development and evaluation of an expert hazard assessor after appropriate modelling of chemical database retrieval, and legislative knowledge base. An "intelligent form" was designed to link the legislation to the chemical hazard data. To facilitate ease of use, the program was extended to include an on-line help facility, and a user friendly interface to address local and remote databases. The feasibility and benefits of the Expert Hazard Assessor ( EHA ) have been demonstrated through system testing and evaluation using sample regulations, and available chemical data, by groups of inexperienced users. Comparison with a previous standard expert system, also shows the EHA to be more comprehensive in output, more efficient, easier to use for the non-expert assessor, and provides better help support. The results suggest that an EHA such as the one detailed in this work is of significant benefit in providing appropriate hazard assessment.
18
Jasionowski, Andrzej. "An integrated approach to damage ship survivability assessment." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2001. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=20411.
Full textAbstract:
This research concentrates on damage ship stability and means for assessing dynamic ship performance in this state. A consolidation of many approaches for tackling damage ship dynamics has been undertaken, culminating in the development of a numerical tool for simulating ship behaviour while accounting for progressive flooding and the ensuing effects of floodwater motion. General features that have been accounted for in a new purposely developed numerical program PROTEUS3 include the following: Linear concepts regarding intact ship hydrodynamics based on strip theory and Rankine source method (RSM). These are further utilised by convolution and spectral transformations in deriving relevant time domain force realisations. Non-linear excitation/restoring forces calculated from pressure integration up to the instantaneous undisturbed wave profile. Non-linearities in hydrodynamic properties arising from variation of mean underwater geometry due to occurrence of non-stationary asymm etries in mass distribution are taken into account by a database approach. Forward speed in arbitrary heading. Progressive flooding through a ship with any internal subdivision and floodwater motion simulations based on free-mass-on-potential-surface (FMPS) model. Non-linear treatment of the effects of cargo shift or floodwater motions on the overall ship dynamic behaviour. The underlying modelling has been explained by rigorous derivation of all the relevant equations from first principles. Validity of the model has been tested comprehensively through comparison with available physical model tests data. A thorough investigation on the new effects of modelling advancements concerning the accuracy of the developed model has been undertaken and the results are presented and discussed. Despite the introduction of simplifying assumptions concerning floodwater behaviour, the predictions show consistency with physical experimental data. It is believed that this pragmatic approach constitutes a very efficient tool for predictions of vessel performance in extremely adverse conditions. This effectiveness has been demonstrated by undertaking forensic analysis of two of the most controversial accidents of the last two decades, namely the loss of MV Derbyshire and the NW Estonia disaster.
19
Uziela, Karolis. "Protein Model Quality Assessment : A Machine Learning Approach." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för biokemi och biofysik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-137695.
Full textAbstract:
Many protein structure prediction programs exist and they can efficiently generate a number of protein models of a varying quality. One of the problems is that it is difficult to know which model is the best one for a given target sequence. Selecting the best model is one of the major tasks of Model Quality Assessment Programs (MQAPs). These programs are able to predict model accuracy before the native structure is determined. The accuracy estimation can be divided into two parts: global (the whole model accuracy) and local (the accuracy of each residue). ProQ2 is one of the most successful MQAPs for prediction of both local and global model accuracy and is based on a Machine Learning approach. In this thesis, I present my own contribution to Model Quality Assessment (MQA) and the newest developments of ProQ program series. Firstly, I describe a new ProQ2 implementation in the protein modelling software package Rosetta. This new implementation allows use of ProQ2 as a scoring function for conformational sampling inside Rosetta, which was not possible before. Moreover, I present two new methods, ProQ3 and ProQ3D that both outperform their predecessor. ProQ3 introduces new training features that are calculated from Rosetta energy functions and ProQ3D introduces a new machine learning approach based on deep learning. ProQ3 program participated in the 12th Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP12) and was one of the best methods in the MQA category. Finally, an important issue in model quality assessment is how to select a target function that the predictor is trying to learn. In the fourth manuscript, I show that MQA results can be improved by selecting a contact-based target function instead of more conventional superposition based functions.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.
20
Staroverova, V. A. "An integrated approach to the renewable energy assessment." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2012. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/26795.
Full text
21
Timchenko, M. A., and Olga Cherednichenko. "Towards a quality assessment procedure: qualimetry based approach." Thesis, Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут", 2011. http://repository.kpi.kharkov.ua/handle/KhPI-Press/46407.
Full text
22
Selvaraj, Rajkumar. "Plant-wide energy assessment using a systems approach." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2003. http://etd.wvu.edu/templates/showETD.cfm?recnum=3125.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 97 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97).
23
Williams, A. Lynn. "A Systemic Approach to Phonological Assessment and Intervention." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1999. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2026.
Full text
24
Williams, A. Lynn. "From Assessment to Intervention: A Systemic Phonological Approach." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1997. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2108.
Full text
25
Ali, Ammar. "PRODUCT DISASSEMBLABILITY AND REMANUFACTURABILITY ASSESSMENT: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH." UKnowledge, 2017. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/me_etds/109.
Full textAbstract:
Majority of the products get discarded at end-of-life (EoL), causing environmental pollution, and resulting in a complete loss of all materials and embodied energy. Adopting a closed-loop material flow approach can aid preventing such losses and enable EoL value recovery from these products. Design and engineering decisions made and how products are used impact the capability to implement EOL strategies such as disassembly and remanufacturing. Some underlying factors affecting the capability to implement these EOL strategies have been discussed in previous studies. However, relevant metrics and attributes are not well defined and comprehensive methods to quantitatively evaluate them are lacking. This study will first identify key lifecycle oriented metrics affecting disassemblability and remanufacturability. Then a methodology is proposed for the quantitative evaluation of these strategies considering the quality of returns, product-design characteristics and process technology requirements. Finally, an industrial case-study is presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed method.
26
Willis, Jillian Ellen. "Towards learner autonomy : an assessment for learning approach." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2011. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/45498/1/Jill_Willis_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Using Assessment for Learning (AfL) may develop learner autonomy however, very often AfL is reduced to a set of strategies that do not always achieve the desired outcome. This research adopted a different approach that examined AfL as a cultural practice, situated within influential social relationships that shape learner identity. The study addressed the question “What are the qualities of the teacher-student relationship that support student learning autonomy in an AfL context?” Three case studies of the interactions of Queensland middle school teachers and their classes of Year 7, 8 and 9 were developed over one year. Data were collected from field notes and video recordings of classroom interactions and individual and focus group interviews with teachers and students. The analysis began with a close look at the field data. Interpretations that emerged from a sociocultural theoretical understanding were helpful in informing the process of analysis. Themes and patterns of interrelationships were identified through thematic coding using a constant comparative approach. Validation was achieved through methodological triangulation. Four findings that inform an understanding of AfL and the development of learner autonomy emerged. Firstly, autonomy is theorised as a context-specific identity mediated through the teacher-student relationship. Secondly, it was observed that learners negotiated their identities as knowers through AfL practices in various tacit, explicit, group and individual ways in a ‘generative dance’ of knowing in action (Cook & Brown, 2005). Thirdly, teachers and learners negotiated their participation by drawing from identities in multiple communities of practice. Finally it is proposed that a new participative identity or narrative for assessment is needed. This study contributes to understandings about teacher AfL practices that can help build teacher assessment capacity. Importantly, autonomy is understood as an identity that is available to all learners. This study is also significant as it affirms the importance of teacher assessment to support learners in developing autonomy, a focus that challenges the singular assessment policy focus on measuring performance. Finally this study contributes to a sociocultural theoretical understanding of AfL.
27
MATTA, MICHAEL. "Intellectual Giftedness in Adulthood. A Multimethod Assessment Approach." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/199079.
Full textAbstract:
La plusdotazione è stata ampiamente esaminata nei bambini e negli adolescenti, mentre un minor numero di articoli è stato pubblicato nello stesso gruppo in età adulta. Come suggerito dalla National Association for Gifted Children (2010), il termine plusdotazione si riferisce a "livelli eccezionali di attitudine (definita come un’eccezionale capacità di ragionare e apprendere) o di competenza (prestazioni documentate o risultati superiori o superiori al 10%) in uno o più domini (come intellettuale, creativo, artistico, leadership o accademico)”. Questa tesi ha esaminato il gruppo dotato di individui con elevate abilità intellettive (cioè punteggi ai test di intelligenza pari o superiori a 130) piuttosto che coloro che hanno raggiunto risultati concreti di vita.
Nel corso dell'ultimo secolo, l'intelligenza elevata è stata spesso considerata una “carta vincente” perché forti relazioni sono state trovate con la salute fisica, l’adattamento psicologico e posizioni lavorative più prestigiose. Recentemente, questa posizione è stata contestata perché prove empiriche hanno dimostrato che le persone con straordinarie capacità intellettuali riportavano anche livelli più elevati di disregolazione affettiva, deficit di attenzione e iperattività, disturbi dello spettro autistico e disordini immunitari.
La presente tesi mira ad affrontare questi problemi, esplorando le abilità cognitive, la personalità e il funzionamento emotivo di individui adulti plusdotati, applicando i principi del Multimethod Assessment.
Nel Capitolo 1, la plusdotazione intellettiva è stata definita secondo il modello CHC. Quindi, ho esaminato il profilo cognitivo di questi soggetti; i pattern delle loro prestazioni (cioè quale fosse il miglior indicatore di intelligenza superiore); e la variabilità dei punteggi nei diversi domini.
Nel Capitolo 2, ho esaminato i tratti della personalità e la regolazione emotiva dei soggetti gifted adulti secondo le teorie della developmental psychology and psychopathology. Ho considerato una versione aggiornata dell’“ipotesi della disarmonia” per descrivere come vulnerabilità e disadattamenti dello sviluppo possano derivare da inadeguate risposte dell'ambiente (ad esempio, amici, insegnanti, genitori, società) verso i bisogni delle persone con abilità intellettive sopra la media.
Nel Capitolo 3, ho esaminato l'intelligenza emotiva (EI), intesa sia come insieme di abilità intellettive sia di tratti della personalità. Ho condotto uno studio esplorativo per verificare se gli adulti plusdotati mostrassero risultati simili a quelli ottenuti da soggetti più giovani e ho testato la teoria dell’investimento applicata all’EI che descrive le relazioni tra l'intelligenza cristallizzata e quella emotiva.
In conclusione, ho integrato i risultati dei tre capitoli in base alla multiple lenses analysis (Lilienfeld, 2017) e ho descritto le somiglianze e le differenze di questo gruppo in base agli aspetti genetici, psicologici e socioculturali rispetto alla popolazione generale.Giftedness has been extensively examined in children and adolescents, whereas fewer papers have been published on the same group in adulthood. As suggested by the National Association for Gifted Children (2010), giftedness refers to “outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains (such as intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or academic)”. This dissertation has examined the gifted group composed of individuals with high intellectual aptitude (i.e. intelligence test scores equal to or greater than 130) rather than who have obtained concrete life achievements. Over the last century, high intelligence has been often considered a “winning card” because strong relationships have been found with better physical health, psychological adjustment and more prestigious job position. Recently, this position has been challenged because empirical evidences have shown that people with extraordinary intellectual abilities reported higher levels of affective dysregulation, attentional and hyperactivity deficit, autism spectrum disorders, and immune disorders. The present dissertation aims to approach these issues, exploring cognitive, personality, and emotional functioning of intellectually gifted individuals in adulthood, applying the principles of the Multimethod Assessment Approach. In the Chapter 1, intellectual giftedness has been defined according to the CHC model. Then, I have examined cognitive profile of gifted adults; pattern of their performance (i.e. what is the best indicator of superior intelligence?); and scores variability across different domains. In the Chapter 2, I have examined personality traits and emotional regulation of gifted individuals according to developmental psychology and psychopathology theories. I have considered an updated version of the disharmony hypothesis in order to describe how vulnerabilities and developmental maladjustments may result from inadequate responses of the environment (e.g., friends, teachers, parents, society) to gifted individuals’ unique needs. In the Chapter 3, I have examined emotional intelligence (EI), both as a set of intellectual abilities and of personality traits. I have conducted an exploratory study to test whether gifted adults showed similar results to those obtained by gifted students, and the investment model of EI which describes the relationships between crystallized and emotional intelligence. In conclusion, I have combined results from the three chapters according to multiple lenses analysis (Lilienfeld, 2017) and I have described similarities and differences of this group in genetic, psychological, and sociocultural aspects compared to the general population.
28
Harding, Kevin. "A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5324.
Full textAbstract:
Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.
The intrinsic environmental advantages of industrial scale bioprocesses over chemical processes remain a discussion point owing to limited objective analysis. Studies to date are often limited to energy or global warming considerations with little regard for full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses. This, in part, may be owing to the difficulty in obtaining the material and energy balance inventory required for such assessment at an early stage in process development. However, these studies are important in designing and selecting environmentally beneficial processes for the conversion of renewable resources to commodity and energy products. The overall objective of the thesis is to obtain the data required to perform these LCA analyses. To achieve the overall objective, the thesis presents a methodology to obtain the material and energy balance data estimates required for the LCA of industrial bioprocesses through a generic flowsheet model. The flowsheet was presented as a MS-Excel spreadsheet allowing aerobic or anaerobic production of intra- or extracellular products using batch or continuous microbial processes. A database presented in the model facilitates the use of a variety of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus inputs and provides relevant constants and physical data. Typically downstream processing units were taken into account and included downstream chemical inputs (reacting or inert). The model was built using a stoichiometric approach, first principles and rules of thumb.
29
Beaman, A. L. "A new approach to the assessment of odour nuisance." Thesis, Open University, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.382967.
Full text
30
Butler, Bridget. "Risk management of groundwater pollution : a knowledge-based approach." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1998. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7477.
Full textAbstract:
Risk assessment and risk management now underpin environmental protection in the UK. Risk assessment provides for a structured and systematic analysis of a problem, and is an objective tool to inform risk management decisions. In particular, risk assessment can assist in the prioritisation of management activities to direct resources more effectively to significant risks. However, the application of risk assessment remains ad hoc and often focused on quantified approaches. The problem of how to integrate the results of a risk assessment into decisionmaking processes remains. The objective of this research was to assess whether a knowledgebased approach could be usefully applied to risk management decisions associated with the protection of groundwater. The use of a knowledge-based system offers considerable potential to support regulatory decision-making relating to environmental risks. Such systems utilise expert knowledge to solve specific problems as an expert would but without requiring specialist or skilled users. This research describes the development of a prototype decision-support system to assist non-specialist regulatory personnel, in the prioritisation of risks and management activities relating to groundwater threats from hydrocarbon point-sources. The research focused on the knowledge acquisition process using semi-structured interviews, concept sorting and risk rating to identify the type of information required by the expert in their decision-making processes and also to distinguish any differences of approach between experts and 'non-experts'. A conceptual model was developed that represented expert decision-making and problem solving. This model was used to develop the prototype decision-support system which was subsequently evaluated by experts and users, resulting in system refinements. A positive response to the usability and utility of the system was received from both expert and user groups, suggesting a knowledge-based approach can be usefully applied to risk management decisions associated with the protection of groundwater.
31
Alvarado, Bueno Mauricio. "Landslide motion assessment including thermal interaction : an MPM approach." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/525825.
Full textAbstract:
Risk associated with landslides of natural or man-made origin depends on the prediction of the post-failure behaviour of the mobilized mass. Numerical models capable of integrating the landslide geometry and its evolution, the coupled hydro mechanical interaction and the soil properties in the context of dynamic forces and large displacements are currently under development. This thesis is a contribution to this effort.
In this sense, the material point method (MPM) is especially suited for analyzing landslides with large displacements. This numerical procedure must be accompanied by tests under controlled conditions in order to accurately check and calibrate the numerical response.
In this thesis the capabilities of the MPM code developed are evaluated through the modelling of scaled laboratory slope tests with large displacements. In order to achieve an adequate comparison of the experimental and numerical results, the experiments are analysed by means of the interpretation of sequential digital images of the movement of the granular medium during the test (PIV technique). A novel procedure is developed to obtain the field of deformations over time and the tracking of particle path in a manner suitable for comparison with numerical results calculated in MPM.
The main objective of the thesis was the development of a comprehensive calculation
tool capable of simulating the behaviour of the slides from the initial triggering to the post-failure phase including thermal effects that determine the evolution of the movement.
A formulation for non-isothermal problems coupled with hydraulic and mechanical
behaviour in MPM was developed and implemented. The formulation includes the dissipation of frictional work as heat, which takes place, mainly, in shear bands. The described phenomena are strongly dependent on the thickness of the shear band and this result in a strong dependence of the numerical results in MPM with the discretization mesh. A novel procedure to solve this problem is presented in this thesis.
Finally, very rapid Vajont landslide (Italy 1963) is modelled. A plain strain 2D model is presented without an “a priori” definition of the sliding surface. In fact, in a generalization of previous and recent work, the mobilized materials are not restricted to rigid solids interconnected along a predefined contact surface and the heat generation is not it is limited to a single predefined surface. Thus, thermal interaction processes are developed throughout the model as a function of the location and intensity of deformations.El riesgo asociado con deslizamientos de origen natural o artificial depende de la predicción del comportamiento posterior a la rotura de la masa movilizada. Actualmente se están desarrollando modelos numéricos capaces de integrar la geometría del deslizamiento y su evolución, la interacción hidromecánica acoplada y las propiedades del suelo en el contexto de fuerzas dinámicas y grandes desplazamientos. Esta tesis es una contribución a este esfuerzo. En este sentido, el método del punto material (MPM) es especialmente adecuado para analizar deslizamientos con grandes desplazamientos. Este procedimiento numérico debe ir acompañado de ensayos bajo condiciones controladas para poder comprobar y calibrar la respuesta numérica. En esta tesis se evalúan las capacidades del código MPM desarrollado, mediante la modelación de ensayos de laboratorio a escala con grandes desplazamientos. Para lograr una adecuada comparación de los resultados experimentales y numéricos, se analizan los experimentos mediante la interpretación de imágenes digitales secuenciales del movimiento del medio granular durante el ensayo (técnica PIV). Con este fin, se desarrolla un procedimiento novedoso para la obtención del campo de deformaciones en el tiempo y el seguimiento de la trayectoria de las partículas de forma idónea para la comparación con resultados numéricos calculados en MPM. El principal objetivo de la tesis fue el desarrollo de una herramienta potente de cálculo capaz de simular el comportamiento de los deslizamientos desde la rotura inicial hasta la fase de post-rotura incluyendo efectos térmicos que determinan la evolución del movimiento. Para esto, se desarrolla e implementa una formulación para problemas no isotérmicos acoplados con el comportamiento hidráulico y mecánico en MPM. Esta formulación incluye la disipación del trabajo friccional en forma de calor, lo cual ocurre principalmente en las bandas donde se localiza la deformación de corte. Este fenómeno descrito es fuertemente dependiente con el espesor de la banda de corte y esto se traduce en una fuerte dependencia de los resultados numéricos en MPM con la malla de discretización empleada. En esta tesis se presenta un novedoso procedimiento para solventar este problema. Por último se presenta la modelación del movimiento ocurrido en el deslizamiento rápido de Vajont (Italia 1963). Se introduce un modelo 2D en deformación plana sin una definición "a priori" de la superficie de deslizamiento. De hecho, generalizando los trabajos hechos anteriormente, los materiales movilizados no se restringen a solidos rígidos interconectados a lo largo de una superficie de contacto predefinida y la generación de calor no se limita a una única superficie predefinida. Así, los procesos de interacción térmica se desarrollan en todo el modelo en función de la localización e intensidad de las deformaciones.
32
Parés, Casellas Marta. "Preclinical assessment of a gene editing approach for MNGIE." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/671287.
Full textAbstract:
La MNGIE és una malaltia metabòlica rara causada per mutacions recessives en el gen TYMP, el qual codifica per l'enzim TP. Això causa una acumulació sistèmica de nucleòsids que provoca toxicitat mitocondrial, i normalment acaba sent letal durant les primeres dècades de vida.
L'objectiu d'aquest treball era aconseguir una integració eficaç de l'ADNc humà de TYMP dins d'un intró dels gens Tymp i Alb en hepatòcits per l'acció coordinada de dos elements: la CRISPR/Cas9 i els templates amb l'ADNc de TYMP. Aquests templates van ser dissenyats per a ser integrats en una regió subseqüent a un promotor genòmic, de manera que l'expressió de l'ADNc de TYMP estaria sota el seu control. En el cas del locus Alb, l'edició gènica correcta produiria una proteïna híbrida Alb-hTP que tindria capacitat secretora. Amb aquesta aproximació, els hepatòcits serien editats permanentment i l'ADNc de TYMP seria expressat a llarg termini, de manera que es resoldria el problema de pèrdua d'expressió del transgèn sovint detectada en teràpies gèniques convencionals. Es van provar dues estratègies diferents. En la primera, els ARNs de la CRISPR/Cas9 varen ser introduïts per nanopartícules (NPs). Això va permetre una expressió elevada però transitòria. Es van provar dues NPs diferents: les NPs polimèriques (PNPs) de GEMAT-IQS, i les NPs lipídiques (NPLs) d'Acuitas Therapeutics®. En la segona estratègia, el sistema CRISPR/Cas9 va ser lliurat com a ADN dins de vectors AAV.
Els resultats in vitro i in vivo van corroborar que l'ADNc de TYMP podia ser inserit amb èxit en els dos loci. També vam corroborar la presència d'ARNm de TYMP i de proteïna TP funcional dins les cèl·lules editades. L'experimentació in vivo es va fer amb el model de ratolí de MNGIE. Els nivells plasmàtics de Thd i dUrd dels animals tractats van ser monitorats per valorar l'eficiència de les diferents estratègies d'edició gènica. Els millors resultats es van obtenir en els animals tractats amb les NPLs que portaven els ARNs de la CRISPR/Cas9 i els vectors rAAV2/8 que portaven els templates d'ADN. Aquests ratolins van presentar una correcció bioquímica estable i consistent que es va correlacionar amb la presència d'ARNm TYMP i d'enzim TP funcional en les cèl·lules del fetge. A més, els ratolins editats en el locus Alb van presentar una activitat TP significativa en plasma, el qual confirma que l'enzim híbrid pot ser secretat amb èxit tot mantenint la seva activitat en plasma. Tanmateix, la reducció de nivells plasmàtics de nucleòsids no va ser suficient per assolir els nivells detectats en els ratolins WT, de manera que hi ha espai per a l'optimització. Sorprenentment, en alguns casos l'edició gènica es va produir en absència de la CRISPR/Cas9, el qual suggereix que els templates d'ADN sols podrien provocar la inserció correcta a través de recombinació homòloga. Tots aquests resultats confirmen que la nostra estratègia d'edició gènica és viable, tot i que necessitem augmentar l'eficiència global del procediment per aconseguir una correcció bioquímica total en el model de MNGIE.El MNGIE es una enfermedad metabólica rara causada por mutaciones recesivas en el gen TYMP, el cual codifica la enzima TP. Esto causa una acumulación sistémica de nucleósidos que provoca toxicidad mitocondrial, y normalmente acaba siendo letal durante las primeras décadas de vida. El objetivo de este trabajo era conseguir una integración eficaz del ADNc humano de TYMP dentro de un intrón de los genes Tymp y Alb en hepatocitos por la acción coordinada de dos elementos: la CRISPR/Cas9 y los templates con el ADNc de TYMP. Estos templates fueron diseñados para ser integrados en una región subsecuente a un promotor genómico, de forma que la expresión del ADNc de TYMP estaría bajo su control. En el caso del locus Alb, la edición génica correcta produciría una proteína híbrida Alb-hTP que tendría capacidad secretora. Con esta aproximación, los hepatocitos serían editados permanentemente y el ADNc de TYMP sería expresado a largo plazo, de forma que se resolvería el problema de pérdida de expresión del transgén a menudo detectada en terapias génicas convencionales. Se probaron dos estrategias diferentes. En la primera, los ARNs de la CRISPR/Cas9 fueron introducidos por nanopartículas (NPs). Esto permitió una expresión elevada pero transitoria. Se probaron dos NPs diferentes: las NPs poliméricas (PNPs) de GEMAT-IQS, y las NPs lipídicas (NPLs) de Acuitas Therapeutics®. En la segunda estrategia, el sistema CRISPR/Cas9 fue librado como ADN dentro de vectores AAV. Los resultados in vitro e in vivo corroboraron que el ADNc de TYMP podía ser insertado con éxito en los dos loci. También corroboramos la presencia de ARNm de TYMP y de proteína TP funcional dentro de las células editadas. La experimentación in vivo se hizo con el modelo de ratones de MNGIE. Los niveles plasmáticos de Thd y dUrd de los animales tratados fueron monitorizados para valorar la eficiencia de las diferentes estrategias de edición génica. Los mejores resultados se obtuvieron en los animales tratados con las NPLs que llevaban los ARNs de la CRISPR/Cas9 y los vectores rAAV2/8 que llevaban los templates de ADN. Estos ratones presentaron una corrección bioquímica estable y consistente que se correlacionó con la presencia de ARNm TYMP y de enzima TP funcional en las células del hígado. Además, los ratones editados en el locus Alb presentaron una actividad TP significativa plasma, lo cual confirma que la enzima híbrida puede ser secretada con éxito manteniendo su actividad en plasma. Aun así, la reducción de niveles plasmáticos de nucleósidos no fue suficiente para lograr los niveles detectados en los ratones WT, de forma que hay espacio para la optimización. Sorprendentemente, en algunos casos la edición génica se produjo en ausencia de la CRISPR/Cas9, lo cual sugiere que los templates de ADN solos podrían provocar la inserción correcta a través de recombinación homóloga. Todos estos resultados confirman que nuestra estrategia de edición génica es viable, a pesar de que necesitamos aumentar la eficiencia global del procedimiento para conseguir una corrección bioquímica total en el modelo de MNGIE.
MNGIE is a rare metabolic disease caused by recessive mutations in the TYMP gene, which encodes the enzyme TP. This causes a systemic accumulation of nucleosides which results in mitochondrial toxicity that is usually lethal during the first decades of life. The goal of the present work was to achieve an efficient integration of the human TYMP cDNA on introns of the Tymp and Alb genes of murine hepatocytes by the coordinated action of two elements: CRISPR/Cas9 system and TYMP cDNA templates. These templates were designed to be integrated in a region downstream a genomic promoter, so that the TYMP cDNA expression will be under its control. In the case of the Alb locus the successful gene editing produced a hybrid Alb-hTP protein with a secretory ability. With this approach, hepatocytes would be permanently edited and the TYMP cDNA would be expressed long-term, thus overcoming the problem of loss of transgene expression often detected in conventional gene therapies. Two distinct strategies were tested. In the first one, CRISPR/Cas9 RNAs were delivered by nanoparticles (NPs). This allowed a high but transient expression. We tested NPs of two different sources: polymeric NPs (PNPs) of GEMAT-IQS, and lipid NPs (LNPs) of Acuitas Therapeutics®. In the second approach, CRISPR/Cas9 was delivered as DNA inside AAV vectors. Both in vitro and in vivo results corroborated that the TYMP cDNA could be successfully inserted in both loci. We also assessed the presence of TYMP mRNA and functional TP protein in the edited cells. In vivo experimentation was performed with the mice model of MNGIE. The Thd and dUrd plasma levels of treated animals were monitored to assess the effectivity of the different genome editing approaches. The best results were obtained in animals treated with LNPs carrying the CRISPR/Cas9 RNAs and rAAV2/8 vectors carrying the DNA templates. These mice showed a consistent and stable biochemical correction that correlated with the presence of TYMP mRNA and functional TP enzyme in liver cells. Moreover, mice of the Alb locus gene editing group presented significant TP activity in plasma, which confirms that the hybrid enzyme can be successfully secreted and maintains its activity in plasma. However, the reduction of plasma nucleoside levels was not enough to reach the levels observed in WT mice, so there is room for optimization. Unexpectedly, in some cases genome edition was observed in the absence of CRISPR/Cas9, which suggests that the DNA templates alone could trigger the correct insertion through homologous recombination. All these results confirm that our genome editing approach is viable, although we need to increase the overall efficiency of the procedure to achieve a full biochemical correction in the murine model of MNGIE.
33
Yang, Fang. "A Comprehensive Approach for Bulk Power System Reliability Assessment." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/14488.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract
The goal of this research is to advance the state of the art in bulk power system reliability assessment. Bulk power system reliability assessment is an important procedure at both power system planning and operating stages to assure reliable and acceptable electricity service to customers. With the increase in the complexity of modern power systems and advances in the power industry toward restructuring, the system models and algorithms of traditional reliability assessment techniques are becoming obsolete as they suffer from nonrealistic system models and slow convergence (even non-convergence) when multi-level contingencies are considered and the system is overstressed. To allow more rigor in system modeling and higher computational efficiency in reliability evaluation procedures, this research proposes an analytically-based security-constrained adequacy evaluation (SCAE) methodology that performs bulk power system reliability assessment.
The SCAE methodology adopts a single-phase quadratized power flow (SPQPF) model as a basis and encompasses three main steps: (1) critical contingency selection, (2) effects analysis, and (3) reliability index computations. In the critical contingency selection, an improved contingency selection method is developed using a wind-chime contingency enumeration scheme and a performance index approach based on the system state linearization technique, which can rank critical contingencies with high accuracy and efficiency. In the effects analysis for selected critical contingencies, a non-divergent optimal quadratized power flow (NDOQPF) algorithm is developed to (1) incorporate major system operating practices, security constraints, and remedial actions in a constrained optimization problem and (2) guarantee convergence and provide a solution under all conditions. This algorithm is also capable of efficiently solving the ISO/RTO operational mode in deregulated power systems. Based on the results of the effects analysis, reliability indices that provide a quantitative indication of the system reliability level are computed. In addition, this research extends the proposed SCAE framework to include the effects of protection system hidden failures on bulk power system reliability.
The overall SCAE methodology is implemented and applied to IEEE reliability test systems, and evaluation results demonstrate the expected features of proposed advanced techniques. Finally, the contributions of this research are summarized and recommendations for future research are proposed.
34
JR, CRISTINO LALICA TIBURAN. "A GEOSPATIAL-BASED VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT APPROACH OF PHILIPPINE WATERSHEDS." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/157882.
Full text
35
Papadopoulos, Timothy Cosma. "A cognitive approach to reading difficulties, assessment and remediation." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ29089.pdf.
Full text
36
Racicot, Kelley Ann. "Active assessment in engineering design using a systems approach." Online access for everyone, 2007. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Summer2007/k_racicot_072707.pdf.
Full text
37
Mentis, Dimitrios. "Wind Energy Assessment in Africa; A GIS-based approach." Thesis, KTH, Energisystemanalys, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-125744.
Full textAbstract:
This study analyses the potential of onshore wind power on the African continent. Appropriate socio-economic and geographical constraints as well as current technology’s efficiencies are applied in order to reach the desired result. The current energy access in Africa is described to illustrate the need of promoting the wind power penetration on the continent. The existing as well as the under construction wind farms are mapped. Thereafter, the methodology of approaching the resource assessment is analyzed. For the energy generation assessment, not only wind speed strength but also its probability of occurrence over a certain period of time is important and thus considered in this study. High resolution wind speed data from Vortex and lower resolution daily wind speed data are combined and processed in order to obtain a fine wind speed distribution and thus wind energy production generated by selected wind turbine models. The different categories of wind power potential are defined and evaluated. Additionally, screening criteria regarding the localization of wind farms are outlined and implemented through GIS analysis. Subsequently interactive maps are prepared. ArcGIS software is used in order to capture, store and manipulate the required data and to obtain a holistic view of the study. The study is conducted at a continental level using a 1km×1km (longitude, latitude) land-use grid as the finest resolution. Ultimately the results of this work are presented and compared with similar approaches and significant conclusions are drawn. Based on the analysis there are some countries that signify high yearly wind energy yield, such as South Africa, Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Mauritania, Tunisia and Morocco, whilst Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, Burundi, Liberia, Benin and Togo indicate the least wind power potential. Also important future work is suggested.Denna studie analyserar potentialen för landbaserad vindkraft på den afrikanska kontinenten. Lämpliga socioekonomiska och geografiska begränsningar samt aktuella vindkraftverkens effektkurvor tillämpas för att nå det önskade resultatet. Den nuvarande tillgången till energi i Afrika beskrivs för att illustrera behovet av att främja vinkraftens penetration på kontinenten. De befintliga vindkraftverken såväl som de under konstruktion kartläggs. Därefter analyseras metoden för att närma sig resurs bedömningen. Bedömningen av energiproduktion och vindhastighet samt dess sannolikhet att inträffa under en viss tid är både viktigt och nödvändigt för denna studie. De olika kategorierna av potential för vindkraftverk definieras och utvärderas. Dessutom beskrivs kriterier av lokalisering för vindkraftverk och genomförs genom GIS-analys. Därefter förbereds interaktiva kartor. ArcGIS software används för att fånga, lagra och manipulera data som krävs samt för att få en helhetssyn av studien. Studien genomförs vid en kontinental nivå genom att använda en 1 km x 1 km (longitud, latitud) rutnät för markanvändning med den finaste upplösningen. Slutligen presenteras resultaten av detta arbete och jämförs med liknande metoder, viktiga slutsatser dras samt viktigt framtida arbete föreslås.
38
Cheng, Carol Shaoyu. "A hybrid approach to power system voltage security assessment." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/15469.
Full text
39
Radzevičiūtė, Eglė. "Assessment of foreign direct investment by gravity model approach." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2013. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2013~D_20130129_192400-56972.
Full textAbstract:
In the thesis foreign direct investment in the Baltic countries using gravity model have been analysed. The first part of the thesis consists of foreign direct investment definition, the positive and negative influencing factors of foreign direct investment evaluation criteria analysis of the scientific literature and the authors different approaches to them. It is also made a critical evaluation of literature, authors usually distinguishing factors mentioned in different sources that affect foreign direct investment. Also in the first part of the paper theoretically gravity model and its application in practice of direct foreign investment assessment has been described. In the practical, analytical part the analysis of the chosen 7 most popular parameters from has been performed using the graphical methods. Also analyzed the market size, average wages, education levels, tax burden, economic openness index , GDP per capita and the average disposable income per household member on foreign direct investment in the Baltic countries, using multiple regression and correlation analysis and using a gravity model. The thesis ends with conclusions and recommendations. Structure: introduction, theoretical part, practical part, conclusions and suggestions, references. Thesis consist of: 77 p. text without appendixes, 19 pictures, 34 tables, 55 bibliographical entries.Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamos tiesioginės užsienio investicijos Baltijos šalyse taikant gravitacinį modelį. Pirmoje darbo dalyje pateikiama tiesioginių užsienio investicijų sąvokos, teigiamą ir neigiamą įtaką darančių veiksnių, tiesioginių užsienio investicijų vertinimo kriterijų analizė mokslinėje literatūroje bei skirtingas autorių požiūris į juos. Taip pat atliktas kritinis literatūros vertinimas, išskiriant dažniausiai autorių minimus veiksnius skirtinguose šaltiniuose, kurie daro įtaką tiesioginėms užsienio investicijoms. Taip pat pirmoje darbo dalyje teoriniu požiūriu išanalizuotas gravitacinis modelis bei jo taikymas praktikoje tiesioginėse užsienio investicijoms įvertinti. Praktinėje, analitinėje darbo dalyje pagal pasirinktus 7 parametrus iš dažniausiai pasitaikančių literatūros apžvalgose išanalizuotas Baltijos šalių tiesioginių užsienio investicijų atvejis naudojant grafinę analizę. Taip pat nagrinėjamas rinkos dydžio, vidutinio darbo užmokesčio, išsilavinimo lygio, mokesčių naštos, ekonominio atvirumo indekso BVP vienam gyventojui bei vidutinių disponuojamų pajamų vienam namų ūkio nariui įtaka tiesioginėms užsienio investicijoms Baltijos šalyse naudojant daugianarę koreliacinę regresinę analizę bei pritaikant gravitacinį modelį. Darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados ir siūlymai. Darbą sudaro 2 dalys: įvadas, teorinė dalis, praktinė dalis išvados ir siūlymai, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 77 p. teksto be priedų, 19 iliustr., 34 lent., 55... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
40
Yu, Xijun, and 于錫軍. "A landscape approach to strategic environmental assessment for spatialplanning." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2007. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B38323953.
Full text
41
Castillo, Nicodemus Herb. "A methodological approach for indicator-based sustainable transport assessment." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2004. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7696.
Full textAbstract:
Sustainable transport is now a popular goal of transport planning. As with any aspiration, systems and mechanisms are required to assess and gauge success in achieving this policy goal. There is increasing reliance on sustainable transport indicators as appropriate tools for this purpose. The usefulness and credibility of any indicator-based assessment will undoubtedly depend on the specific indicators utilised. As such, indicators must be selected carefully to maximise their contribution to the sustainable transport decision making process. A review of current applications of sustainable transport indicators has revealed however, that they are typically selected in an ad hoc and arbitrary fashion. Development of a framework that facilitates transparent and systematic indicator selection would therefore represent a significant advance in transport research. In that regard, this thesis presents the Evaluative and Logical Approach to Sustainable Transport Indicator Compilation (ELASTIC), a methodological framework which provides a flexible, participatory and systematic mechanism for identifying and selecting key sustainable transport indicators. The output of ELASTIC is the Transport Sustainability Profile (TSP), a small un-aggregated suite of sustainable transport indicators which together can provide a snapshot of the sustainability of a transport system. Using various multi-criteria and statistical techniques, ELASTIC applies a robust process to evaluate and select indicators based on their analytical soundness and their relevance to key objectives of sustainable transport. A generic and transferable tool, ELASTIC is capable of application at different geographical scales as well as to non-transport sustainability assessment. For the purpose of this research, the framework is demonstrated through application to England, UK where the judgements of relevant Academics and Transport Planners are elicited and entered into the ELASTIC framework to systematically select a subset of 15 indicators from an initial set of 200. By disaggregating the sample of stakeholders into regional groupings, different context-specific suites of indicators for the regional groupings were also derived. The demonstration confirms ELASTIC to be an inclusive and practical approach to compiling a suite of sustainable transport indicators specific to context and which reflects the unique values of key stakeholders.
42
Vesterberg, Jimmy. "A regression approach for assessment of building energy performance." Licentiate thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för tillämpad fysik och elektronik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92465.
Full textAbstract:
Reliable evaluation methods is needed to ensure that investments in energy conservation measures (ECMs) and the construction of new energy efficient buildings lives up to the promised and expected performance. This thesis presents and evaluates a regression method for estimation of influential building parameters: transmission losses above ground (including air leakage), ground heat loss, and overall heat loss coefficient. The analysis is conducted with separately metered electricity, heating and weather data using linear regression models based on the simplified steady-state power balance for a whole building. The evaluation consists of analyzing the robustness of the extracted parameters, their suitability to be used as input values to building energy simulations (BES) tools. In addition, differences between uncalibrated and calibrated BES models are analyzed when they are used to calculate energy savings. Finally the suitability of using a buildings overall heat loss coefficient as a performance verification tool is studied. The presented regression method exhibits high robustness and good agreement with theory. Knowledge of these parameters also proved beneficial in BES calibration procedures as well as in performance verifications. Thus, the presented method shows promising features for reliable energy performance assessments of buildings.
43
Morris, William Alan. "A Rhetorical Approach to Examining Writing Assessment Validity Claims." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619704495223314.
Full text
44
Bouraoui, Atidel. "Image quality assessment using an artificial neural network approach." Paris 13, 2012. http://scbd-sto.univ-paris13.fr/intranet/edgalilee_th_2012_lahoulou_ep_bouraoui.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
L’évaluation de la qualité d'image présente un intérêt substantiel pour les services ainsi que pour les systèmes de traitement d'images où le dernier maillon de la chaîne est l’observateur humain. En effet, la qualité d'image peut être mesurée de deux manières différentes. La première, appelée «évaluation subjective de la qualité", est l'approche évidente étant donnée la nature subjective de la qualité visuelle des médias. La seconde est appelée «évaluation objective de la qualité» qui permet de produire automatiquement des valeurs mesurant la qualité de l'image de manière quantitative. Il existe un large éventail de mesures d'évaluation objective de la qualité d'image pour lesquelles une taxonomie a été proposée au début de ce manuscrit. Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de fournir une évaluation statistique complète et approfondie des performances prédictives d'une large variété de mesures objectives de qualité avec référence complète sur un certain nombre de bases de données étiquetées avec des scores indiquant la qualité des images qui sont évaluées de manière subjective selon des protocoles strictes. Le second objectif consiste à définir les attributs de l'image qui sont les plus pertinents pour l’évaluation de sa qualité. Deux méthodes de sélection de caractéristiques ont été utilisées, à savoir la minimisation du risque structurel et l’approche basée sur le modèle connexionniste. Cela nous a permis de développer deux nouvelles métriques objectives de qualité d'image avec référence réduite où l’estimation de la qualité de l'image nécessite l'utilisation de seulement quelques uns des descripteurs de l’image de référence et celle de test. Le troisième objectif de ce travail de recherche est d'exploiter les techniques d'apprentissage supervisé, en particulier le modèle du perceptron multicouche, pour l’estimation automatique de la qualité de l'image. Le système apprend à partir des étiquettes de la qualité subjective issues des bases d’images utilisées et construit un modèle capable de généraliser après un certain temps d’entraînement. En d’autres termes, le modèle doit continuer à fournir une mesure objective toujours corresponde à l'avis de l'homme à toute image qui lui est présentée. L'objectif principal était d'optimiser la performance prédictive des mesures développées en fonction de la corrélation, la monotonicité et la précision. La fonction de coût par défaut basée sur l'erreur a été employée pour la première mesure développée (que nous avons appelé ECF) et une fonction de coût personnalisée basée sur la corrélation a été proposée pour concevoir la deuxième mesure (que nous avons appelé le CCF). L’étude comparative de ces deux nouvelles métriques à dix-huit autres algorithmes de qualité d'image avec référence complète sur trois bases de données de qualité d'image montre que les algorithmes d’ECF et CCF prennent en considération les non-linéarités du système visuel humain. L'ECF est plus précise que la majorité des mesures étudiées, tandis que la CCF améliore largement les résultats de toutes les métriques concurrentes en termes de corrélation et de monotonicitéImage quality assessment presents a substantial interest for image services that target human observers. Indeed, Image quality can be measured in two different ways. The first, called “subjective quality assessment”, is the obvious approach given the subjective nature of the visual data quality. The second one is called “objective quality assessment” that automatically allow to produce values that score image quality. There exists a large array of objective image quality assessment measures for which a taxonomic scheme has been proposed in the beginning of this manuscript. In fact, the first objective of this thesis is to provide a complete and thorough statistical predictive performance assessment of a variety of full‐reference objective quality measures over number of subjectively rated image quality databases. The second is to define the image attributes that are the most relevant to its quality evaluation. Two feature selection methods have been used including the structural risk minimization and the neural network based approaches. This allowed us to develop two new objective reduced‐reference image quality metrics where the image quality assessment requires the use of only a few features of the reference and the test images. The third objective of this research work is to exploit the supervised machine learning techniques, especially the multilayer perceptron based model, for automatic image quality appreciation. The system learns from the subjective quality scores and builds a model capable to further provide an objective measure that continues to match with the human opinion to any other image. The main target was to optimize the predictive performance of the developed measures according to correlation, monotonicity and accuracy. The default cost function based on error was employed for the first developed measure (that we called ECF) and a customized cost function based on correlation was proposed to design the second metric (that we called CCF). The comparative investigation to eighteen other full‐reference image quality algorithms over three image quality databases shows that both ECF and CCF take into consideration the nonlinearities of the human visual system. The ECF is more accurate than the majority of the metrics under study, while the CCF outperforms all its counterparts in terms of correlation and hence monotonicity
45
Jones, Kelley Simmons. "Childhood Sexual Behavior: An Integrated Developmental Ecological Assessment Approach." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1463340188.
Full text
46
Pourebadi, Maryam. "A DEEP LEARNING APPROACH FOR BLIND IMAGE QUALITY ASSESSMENT." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1499797575099571.
Full text
47
Sánchez, Royo Begoña. "AN APPROACH TOWARDS HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/12269.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses the case study of the Fallas festival in the city of Valencia (Spain), to
assess the value of intangible cultural heritage. Within this framework the thesis
explores a number of different issues: for example how social agents frame different
qualities and benefits of cultural heritage in order to describe the value and claims for
funding the arts. It finds that value assessment for claiming funds presents many
challenges such as: identifying the values of the heritage in question; describing them;
and ranking them according to their contribution to the public welfare. It examines the
methodological techniques for assessing heritage values and goes on to discuss a
number of tools that are, or could be, used for assessment.
The thesis also explores how public bodies legitimise cultural funding. It examines the
role of non-government arts organisations in supporting the arts. It proposes the
analysis of donor decisions through a multi-attribute technique where donors state their
importance to donor situations under specific conditions or attributes. Finally, it
describes how the stakeholder approach can be applied for searching new ways of
funding festivals. It also considers how intangible cultural heritage goods can be
assessed within the process of cost-benefit evaluation. It also analyses how public
bodies, as the principal supporters of culture, deal with the problem of valuing
intangibles on social investments.
The study uses the Fallas festival to test the research hypothesis. It uses a number of
economic and statistical techniques to evaluate the Fallas Festival, these include
Contingent Valuation, Choice Experiment and Descriptive and Multiatribute Statistics.
The statistical techniques reveal that historical benefits are intrinsically valuable in the
Fallas festival. The historical value that the members of the neighbourhood
associations place on the Fallas festival justify that local social agents should support
this festival.Sánchez Royo, B. (2011). AN APPROACH TOWARDS HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/12269
Palancia
48
Boateng, Prince. "A dynamic systems approach to risk assessment in megaprojects." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/2784.
Full textAbstract:
Purpose- Megaprojects are large, complex, and expensive projects that often involve social, technical, economic, environmental and political (STEEP) challenges. Despite these challenges, project owners and financiers continue to invest large sums of money in megaprojects that run high risks of being over schedule and over budget. While some degree of cost, schedule and quality risks are considered during planning, the challenge of understanding how risk interactions and impacts on project performance can be modelled dynamically still remains. The consequences learnt from past experiences indicate that there was a lack of dynamic tools to manage such risks effectively in megaproject construction. In seeking to help address these problems, this research put forward an innovative dynamic systems approach called SDANP to risk assessment in megaprojects construction. Design/methodology/approach – The research has developed an innovative SDANP method which involves an integrative use of system dynamics (SD) and analytic network process (ANP) for risk assessment. The SDANP model presented in the thesis has been testified by using data and information collected through a questionnaire survey and interviews from supply-side stakeholders involved in the Edinburgh Tram Network (ETN) project at the Phase One of its construction stage. The SDANP method is a case study risk assessment driven process and can be used against STEEP challenges in megaprojects. Findings – The result of the case study project revealed that the SDANP method is an effective tool for risk assessment to support supply-side stakeholders in decision making in construction planning. The SDANP model has demonstrated its efficiency through case study, and has convinced construction practitioners in terms of its innovation and usefulness. Research limitations/implications – Although the SDANP model has been developed for generic use in risk assessment, data and information used to run the simulation were based on the ETN project, which is in Edinburgh, Scotland. The use of the SDANP model in other megaprojects requires further data and information from local areas. Practical implications – The SDANP method provides an innovative approach to a comprehensive dynamic risk assessment of STEEP issues at the construction planning stage of megaprojects for the first time. It provides an interactive quantitative way for developers to prioritise and simulate potential risks across the project supply network, to understand and predict in advance the consequences of STEEP risks on project performance at the construction stage. Originality/value - The research made an original contribution in quantitative risk assessment with regard to the need for a methodological innovation in research and for a powerful sophisticated tool in practice. The SDANP has shown its advantages over existing tools such as the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and the risk assessment matrix (RAM).
49
Pettersson, Emil, and Simon Hellgren. "Electric-driven Compaction Equipment Assessment: A Sustainable Lifecycle Approach." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för maskinteknik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-14935.
Full text
50
Remak, Edit. "A real options game approach to health technology assessment." Thesis, Brunel University, 2015. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/12565.
Full textAbstract:
Current economic evaluations do not explicitly acknowledge that there are multiple decision points throughout the lifecycle of new health technologies which, in the presence of uncertainty and irreversible consequences of those decisions, influence value. Real options analysis (ROA) has been proposed to overcome these limitations. However, applications to date all assumed that decisions influencing the arrival of information are made by the same actors making the decisions on adoption. The aim of this thesis is to explicitly incorporate into health technology assessment (HTA) the impact of uncertainty on decision making about new health technologies in the presence of irreversibilities. I present a series of analyses comparing “traditional” economic evaluation methods to applications of ROA using the case study of drug-eluting stents (DES). The conventional application of ROA allowed for flexibility in decisions incorporating all economic consequences of changing decisions. Over and above uncertainty surrounding the current estimate of value, three major components contributing to the economic value of the new technology were assumed to also change over time. This type of analysis can be used to determine the optimal initial decision allowing for changes in decisions and the optimal timing for review. However, it assumes that new information will always be revealed, regardless of the original decision on adoption. To reflect the combined impact of coverage, pricing and research decisions in HTA and therefore to make information arrival endogenous, a more complex approach is suggested: a Real Options Game (ROG) combining ROA with a game theoretical approach. In the ROG the HTA body and the manufacturer are assumed to play a sequential, incomplete information game, where the manufacturer has control over the arrival of information. The manufacturer decides whether to submit evidence, reduce price and conduct more research, while the HTA body decides on adoption. The DES analysis modelled a series of decision points between 2005 and 2010, with decisions not depending on hindsight, but allowing for predicted changes in value, incorporating a drift in information and responses by the other party. Payoffs were estimated for both players using a probabilistic Markov model. Optimal strategies incorporating the impact of earlier decisions on research were determined. HTA is a dynamic and interactive process, therefore results of the ROA analyses sometimes suggested a different course of action compared to traditional analyses. The best decision may depend on predictions of how other parties will react, as well as likely evolution of the evidence base and the costs of decision reversal.