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In contrast to a purely hermeneutic approach, content analysis is an empirical method for the systematic and largely objective description of communicational content. Initially, content analysis was understood merely as a technique for describing communicational content. In the course of methodological development, content analysis was expanded into a method of social science data acquisition. Content analytic work is established in a broad spectrum of social science research institutions; The method of content analysis has long been standard among communication scholars and is experiencing a renaissance among empirically working educators, psychologists, sociologists, linguists and political scientists. The approach of the following article can be briefly summarised as follows: First, the historical development and the theoretical foundations of content analysis are treated. After a brief outline of the historical development and the theoretical foundations of content analysis, the question of the definition of content analysis is addressed. Finally, the process and implementation plan of a content analysis is presented. Content analysis as an empirical method for surveying social reality is also established in Turkey within a wide variety of social science research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Businesses face different types of risks, especially financial ones. Because these are the most feared due to the effect they have on the business operation, the present study is focused on describing the financial risk assessment procedure in importing companies. Methodologically, it is a descriptive field study of importing and marketing companies of motor vehicles, in the municipality of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Statistically, the ANOVA analysis of variance and Tukey's Hoc tests were made. The purpose of it is to know the positioning of the dimension with its respective indicators. It was found that the observed companies erroneously applied the financial risk assessment process; since they track the investments and later identify the administrative errors to later apply corrective actions. Therefore, mitigating the uncertainties originated and supervising the way of obtaining funds to achieve operational investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disassemblability evaluation is an important part of product maintainability design. Currently, the disassemblability evaluation of complex products is not systematic and complete. The main problems include (1) the existing methods are limited to individual components, ignoring the evaluation of the whole product; and (2) most studies focus on the single disassembly operations rather than a complete process. To address these problems, this paper proposes a hierarchical and process-oriented evaluation framework. Firstly, from the levels of component and product, a two-level evaluation index system is constructed, and the selected evaluation indexes reflect the features of both current operation and previous disassembly process. Secondly, based on Look-up Table, virtual maintenance, and simple algebraic operations, the evaluation indexes are quantified successively. Thirdly, a hierarchical evaluation procedure is presented, which includes two levels and four types of evaluations. Based on the synthetic application of different types of evaluations, the disassemblability of a product can be fully evaluated and understood. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed framework is verified by a case study of an electronic cabin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flexibility evaluation of distribution networks has attracted significant research attention with the increasing penetration of renewable energy. One particular gap in existing studies is that little attention has been paid to the probabilistic characteristics of uncertain regions. In this study, a novel sequential flexibility evaluation method is proposed based on the feasibility analysis of the uncertain region of photovoltaic active power and load demand. The model features the uncertain region with probabilistic characteristics, which is essential for analysing the impact of probabilistic characteristics of uncertain variables (PCUVs) on flexibility evaluation. The sequential direction matrix is adopted to reflect the major factor of flexibility shortage. The evaluation procedure is modelled as a bi‐level optimisation problem. Demonstrated by the simulation results, the flexibility index is larger by considering the PCUV. Furthermore, the elements in the sequential direction matrix indicate that the photovoltaic power during midday is the major cause of flexibility shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet is becoming one of the most adopted technologies of all times and one of its particular uses concerns the public health issues. The search for health related information and the exchange of experiences and opinions on symptoms and treatments is one of the main activities associated with eHealth websites, hence the need for these websites to be accessible to everybody, including those with some sort of disability. Nevertheless, when assessing the level of the WCAG 2.0 compliance of Iberian eHealth websites, the results achieved during a two stage, one year apart, evaluation indicated that these websites were definitely not accessible. By adding this finding to other similar results achieved by means of similar researches we believe that a new full scope Web accessibility and usability evaluation procedure was needed and is now presented. The referred proposal aims at creating a basis for both organisations and Web developers to understand how to perform an adequate assessment of their websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. Development of principles and approaches to the evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system. Methods. Methodical research is the foundation of ideology TQM, BSC concept and methods of organizing and analysis that made it possible to analyze the existing principles, approaches, tools and mechanisms for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system. Results. Existing methods, principles and approaches to the evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system and identified the most promising. Scientific innovation. A model for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality management system based on a process approach and conception BSC, which can simultaneously accommodate the interests and satisfaction of all stakeholders. The practice significance. The proposed procedures, which allow in practice to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of processes and QMS based on the results develop corrective and preventive action to improve business processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A protocol was developed and applied in a field survey to incorporate evaluation of herd welfare into the existing quality assurance program in Dutch dairy farming. Welfare was derived from the state of the biological needs of cows. Welfare targets and critical control points were selected according to HACCP principles, while restriction was to dairy herds with loose-cubicle housing (>90% of Dutch herds). The feasibility for measurement of the protocol was tested in a pilot study with 52 preselected, medium-sized herds for time needed for the observations (set at ~1 h to 2 h ), robustness of parameters (threshold of 80% true cases for repeated scores), and opinions from inspectors and farmers, which were variable but positive on average. The final protocol consisted of 16 animal-based and 14 environment-based parameters. From a random sample of 240 dairy herds (1% of Dutch farms), 164 herds (12,267 cows) with median herd size of 67 cows (SD=38) participated in the field survey, on a voluntary basis. The time needed for scoring averaged 78 min (SD=22) per herd. Animal-based parameters included leg disorders, normal and abnormal locomotion, external lesions, skin and teat problems, poor body condition, and fearfulness of the herd. Herd prevalence averaged highest for abnormal locomotion (43.8%), swollen hocks and knees (25.2%), dermatophytosis (24.2%), scabies (20.1%), and filthiness (17.4%). However, herd prevalence was lowest (<2%) for lying down in passageways, clinical mastitis, and arthritis. Analysis on percentiles revealed large variation between herds for most parameters. ‘Fearfulness’ was scored ‘calm’ or ‘extremely calm’ in 68% of herds. Overall, our data suggest that herds were distinguishable by scoring ‘generally good’ or ‘generally poor’ for a wide set of animal-based parameters ( p <0.05). Environment-based parameters included technical dimensions and stocking densities of the feeding gate and cubicles, availability of feed at the feeding gate, the floor of cubicles, and access to and hygiene of drinking water. The scores were analyzed on basis of statistical parameters and prevalence distribution, and were compared with existing technical Dutch recommendations, the ‘standard’. Deviations from the recommendations could partly be attributed to the age of the facilities. For most herds, the cubicle bed was a rubber mat (44%) or mattress (21%), whereas litter as bedding material was observed in 21% of herds; but there was no Dutch standard. For stocking rates of the feeding gate and cubicles, the results were variable. But for lactating cows, the average stocking rates of feeding gate (103.6%; SD=26.7) and cubicles (95.8%; SD=14.1) were close to standard (100%). Provision, hygiene, and access to drinking water were generally according to requirement (>96% of herds). Overall, our results indicate various directions for welfare improvement in practice, both at the individual farm and sector level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Ermüdungssicherheit von stählernen Hängern in bestehenden Stabbogenbrücken erfordert in der Regel umfangreiche Nachrechnungen an räumlichen Gesamttragwerken und an Hänger-Teilmodellen. Zur einheitlichen und kostengünstigen Beurteilung dieser Problematik wurde für die betroffenen Bauwerke der Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung als alternative Vorgehensweise ein ingenieurmäßiges Bewertungsverfahren erarbeitet. Dieses basiert auf Näherungslösungen, die eine Abschätzung der in Rundstahlhängern und ihren Anschlussbereichen auftretenden Beanspruchungen durch Winderregung und Verkehr erlauben. Zwei der hierzu entwickelten Näherungsverfahren - zur Eigenfrequenzermittlung sowie zur Bestimmung von relevanten Biegebeanspruchungen in Hängern - werden nachfolgend beschrieben. Approximation method to evaluate the fatigue design of hangers. A detailed investigation of the fatigue design of steel hangers in existing arch bridges usually requires extensive recalculations using 3D models of the complete structure and partial submodels of the hangers. As an alternative approach, an engineering assessment procedure has been developed to evaluate the affected bridges of the German waterways and shipping administration, to ensure standardised and economic treatment of this issue. It is based on approximate methods that make it possible to estimate the loads in round steel hangers and their connection areas under the influence of wind and traffic. Two of the approximation methods developed for this purpose - the determination of the natural frequency and of relevant bending stresses in hangers - are described below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with evaluating an interactive learning environment (ILE) during the iterative-design process. Various aspects of the system must be assessed and a number of evaluation methods are available. In designing the ILE Ambre-add, several techniques were combined to test and refine the system. In particular, we point out the merits of combining measures of the ILE's impact on learning with analyses of the learner's activity. In this article, the approach used to evaluate Ambre-add is described and analyzed, and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Then, a general procedure for evaluating ILEs during iterative design is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welded bond quality is a very important working aspect for the manufacturing and construction industries. A product is affected by quality of welding. A set of evaluation methods for welding operators is proposed in this paper, based on a theoretical analysis, to assure the quality of product. A new index using a categorical quantity expression to evaluate the welding performance is proposed. The mathematical relationship of welding performance, number of bad welds and the maximum tolerable number of bad welds are derived. Then, the best estimators and the deviations of this index are statistically inferred. Finally, a procedure and criteria are proposed to evaluate the performance of a welding operator. This evaluation method can be used in decision-making for the selection of a welding operator. Besides, it can also be used as an analytical tool to evaluate and improve the welding ability of a welding technician and the welding performance of a welding operator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common approach to wavelength measurement is the travelling interferometer (wavemeter). We present an evaluation procedure that allows to achieve high precision with a compact device. The zero crossings of the interference signal corresponding to the reference laser is used to sample the signal of the probe laser. Electronic noise and fluctuations of the laser frequency cancel due to the large number of sample points. The evaluation procedure has been applied to a wavemeter based on a continuously moving Mach–Zehnder interferometer. A travelling path of 10 cm was sufficient to yield 3σ-accuracy of Δλ/λ=3.2×10−9, demonstrated by comparison with cesium saturation spectroscopy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the status of software quality assurance as a relatively new and autonomous field. The history of its development from hardware quality assurance programs is discussed, current methods are reviewed, and future directions are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]