Academic literature on the topic 'Quality criteria ranking'

The problem of multi-criteria choice with non-uniform scales of criteria is considered. A model of a multicriteria choice problem is described, the main elements of which are sets of alternatives and quality criteria, as well as algorithms that allow ranking alternatives without prior reduction of the criteria scales to homogeneous ones. Algorithms for constructing aggregated ranking of alternatives are based on the construction of preference matrices by criteria containing information on the degree of superiority of one alternative over another. Propositions are proved that allow ranking alternatives with assessments according to two quality criteria. Algorithms for indexing alternatives are proposed that allow ranking alternatives for an arbitrary number of criteria. The best aggregated ranking is determined by the total distance to the rankings of alternatives by criteria. All algorithms have polynomial computational complexity, which makes it possible to work with large arrays of initial information. A software system for ranking alternatives in problems with big data has been developed. The initial information is stored in Excel tables, which makes it easy to take into account the limitations on the criteria scales. The operation of the software system is demonstrated by the example of choosing the best version of a drone for purchase in order to observe the terrain, shoot it and transmit information to the operator.

Globalization and market-based orientation of higher education institutions has increased interest of students, parents, employers, universities, funding agencies, governments, and relevant stakeholders in knowing the rank of their concerned universities at national/global level. This has led to the emergence of several global university ranking systems. Aligned with international trends of ranking, Higher Education of Pakistan [HEC] also initiated ranking of universities at the national level in Pakistan. Subsequently, HEC designed comprehensive ranking criteria for ranking of universities and has implemented it since 2010. This study analyzes the nature of HEC ranking criteria and its constituent indicators from the perspective of global university ranking systems. Using content and thematic analysis, this study found that global university ranking systems mainly focus quality of research and teaching, while HEC additionally focuses effective and efficient use of resources, provision of facilities, social integration, and impact on community development.

Globalization and market-based orientation of higher education institutions has increased interest of students, parents, employers, universities, funding agencies, governments, and relevant stakeholders in knowing the rank of their concerned universities at national/global level. This has led to the emergence of several global university ranking systems. Aligned with international trends of ranking, Higher Education of Pakistan [HEC] also initiated ranking of universities at the national level in Pakistan. Subsequently, HEC designed comprehensive ranking criteria for ranking of universities and has implemented it since 2010. This study analyzes the nature of HEC ranking criteria and its constituent indicators from the perspective of global university ranking systems. Using content and thematic analysis, this study found that global university ranking systems mainly focus quality of research and teaching, while HEC additionally focuses effective and efficient use of resources, provision of facilities, social integration, and impact on community development.

Ranking of scientific conferences plays a key role in the academic world, determining the level of significance and prestige of each event. The main results of ranking from the point of view of personalities are: determining the quality and influence of the scientific conference; a guide for selecting conferences; encouragement to conduct quality research; formation of the scientific community; improving the visibility and influence of the conference on the scientific community. The paper provides an overview of currently existing conference catalogs and conference ranking systems, both automatically and with the participation of expert councils. It is noted that the purpose of creating national ranking systems is to promote and popularize domestic conferences and journals. Based on the review of currently existing conference catalogs and conference ranking systems, the following criteria for ranking conferences can be formulated. Indicators of publication activity, based on the results of the analysis of published conference materials. The credibility of the speakers and the organizing committee of the conference. Number of presentations and the ratio of the number of presentations to the number of conference participants. Time for reviewing applications submitted to the conference. Ratio of submitted and accepted applications. Retrospective and geographical parameters.

Specifically targeting Yemeni universities, this research focuses on their potential to enter and enhance their positions in the international rankings such as Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE), Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QS), and Webometrics Ranking and SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR). Its objective is to encourage Yemeni universities to prioritize the criteria outlined in these rankings and view them as a means to access other international rankings. The research tackles the challenge of comprehending the criteria and application process required for Yemeni universities to participate in these rankings, as well as the rankings they have achieved. The study highlights the importance of this research by providing Yemeni university administrators with valuable insights regarding the criteria used for international rankings and the rankings obtained by Yemeni universities. This understanding can facilitate efforts to enhance the quality of higher education within these institutions. The findings of the study reveal that two Yemeni universities are listed in the QS. The University of Science and Technology, Yemen, ranks 151-170, while Thamar University in Thamar, Yemen, ranks 171-200. The findings of the study reveal that Ibb University secures the highest position among Yemeni universities in the SIR for 2023, with an overall score of 15.4 and a world rank of 3130. Sana’a University follows closely behind, ranking second among Yemeni universities according to these criteria, with a total score of 14.9 and a world rank of 3190.

This article analyzes the experience of Ukrainian higher education institutions in measuring the quality of educational activities in the context of quality assurance. Based on the study, it is established that in developing regulatory provisions for quality assurance, higher education institutions are guided by regulations of Ukraine (Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education", "On Education") and other documents (Standards and recommendations for quality assurance in European Higher Education Area, ESG 2015, European Association for the Quality Assurance of Higher Education (ENQA), European University Association (EUA), European Association for Higher Education (EURASHE), international rankings indicators). Criteria for accreditation, framework procedures and rating assessment criteria are used to measure the quality of educational activities in Ukrainian higher education institutions. It is determined that the use of ranking is not a popular component of the group of criteria for assessing the quality of higher education, although this indicator provides an opportunity to classify according to various criteria and is more indicative for determining the competitiveness of higher education. After all, the prospects of using rankings as a criterion for measuring the quality of educational activities is the possibility of ranking higher education institutions by competitive quality, analysis of the functioning of higher education institutions, which provides opportunities to improve the quality of educational services.

Universities worldwide strive to achieve excellence in research, learning, teaching, and community services, which are the pillars of their strategic plans. However, satisfying international ranking criteria might not directly result in achieving their strategic objectives. This paper proposes a new approach to rank university colleges by evaluating their educational quality. Standard sets of criteria from multiple international university ranking systems and a university’s strategic plan’s Balanced Scorecard perspectives were cross-mapped for the evaluation. A new multi-criteria decision-making-based framework was applied to six colleges of a non-profit university in the Middle East. It revealed their performance rankings and contributions to the university’s educational quality objectives. This paper offers a novel approach for universities to develop strategies that satisfy multiple international ranking systems while achieving their strategic goals concurrently and as per their priorities. Implications include informing university leaders on the most contributing colleges and assisting in pinpointing quality shortcomings and their causes. This helps universities design better performance indicators and allocate resources to achieve educational excellence. This paper puts forward a new approach for universities to unify their efforts in satisfying the requirements of multiple international ranking systems while achieving their strategic goals.

Globalization and market-based orientation of higher education institutions has increased interest of students, parents, employers, universities, funding agencies, governments, and relevant stakeholders in knowing the rank of their concerned universities at national/global level. This has led to the emergence of several global university ranking systems. Aligned with international trends of ranking, Higher Education of Pakistan [HEC] also initiated ranking of universities at the national level in Pakistan. Subsequently, HEC designed comprehensive ranking criteria for ranking of universities and has implemented it since 2010. This study analyzes the nature of HEC ranking criteria and its constituent indicators from the perspective of global university ranking systems. Using content and thematic analysis, this study found that global university ranking systems mainly focus quality of research and teaching, while HEC additionally focuses effective and efficient use of resources, provision of facilities, social integration, and impact on community development.

The article analyzes the results of an expert survey on the quality criteria of the socio-economic development strategies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as part of the preparation and realization of the expert discussion “Is ranking regional strategies possible?” organized at the Strategic Planning Leaders Forum 2023. The survey involved 25 professionals dealing with the strategic planning of regions and cities. According to the results of the survey, the top ten most important qualities of the regional strategy were as follows: quality of strategic analysis; adequacy or compliance with specifics of the region; realism in taking into account resource constraints and objective processes; compliance with national goals, Presidential Executive Orders, and federal documents; consistency / methodology / harmony of logic; clarity of priorities; readiness for implementation (elaboration of implementation tools); correctness of the set of target indicators and their values; ambition, scale of goals and projects; taking into account risks and measures to increase shock resistance. Expert opinions on the possibility and expediency of rating strategies are systematized, divided into four groups: a) ranking and comparison is possible and useful if the goals and rules are clearly formulated; b) you can compare, you can’t rank; c) it can be ranked based on the results of implementation; d) comparison and ranking are impossible or useless. The difficulties of ranking texts and the preference for comparison and evaluation of strategies within the framework of annual competitions are revealed. A scheme for organizing an annual contest of regional strategies is proposed, including the following stages: selection of experts; a kick-off seminar of experts, following which a set of parameters and criteria for evaluation of each parameter are fixed; independent evaluation; a meeting of experts to identify and discuss the reasons for strong differences in evaluations; a public online seminar with presentation of the results.

AbstractThis chapter presents the assessment of 11 sustainable urban mobility measures according to 10 criteria for European medium-sized touristic cities, using multi-criteria decision-making. The study includes the viewpoint of six different European stakeholder groups, identifying their interests and comparing their ranking on appropriate mobility measures. It was found that the majority of stakeholders give the highest priority to the wellbeing of local communities and the quality of life, despite the economic implications of services and the potential impact on incoming tourism. Mostly they emphasise on at least two out of five criteria categories: Society and Environment or Society and Mobility. Tourism stakeholders showed a high preference for environmental criteria, demonstrating the continuously raising awareness on the links of tourism and environment. “Mobility management and travel plans” policy was the most popular policy amongst all groups, indicating that the provision of information, personalised plans, and smart applications can increase the use of sustainable mobility modes and have a significant positive impact in all examined categories. Overall, the multi-criteria analysis performed in this study can be a valuable tool for decision-makers during the shaping of future policies for sustainable mobility in urban tourist destinations, considering numerous parameters and stakeholders’ viewpoints. Moreover, it can be further developed and adapted to specific needs.

AbstractReal-world design problems are a messy combination of constraints, objectives, and features. Exploring these problem spaces can be defined as a Multi-Criteria Exploration (MCX) problem, whose goals are to produce a set of diverse solutions with high performance across many objectives, while avoiding low performance across any objectives. Quality-Diversity algorithms produce the needed design variation, but typically consider only a single objective. We present a new ranking, T-DominO, specifically designed to handle multiple objectives in MCX problems. T-DominO ranks individuals relative to other solutions in the archive, favoring individuals with balanced performance over those which excel at a few objectives at the cost of the others. Keeping only a single balanced solution in each MAP-Elites bin maintains the visual accessibility of the archive – a strong asset for design exploration. We illustrate our approach on a set of easily understood benchmarks, and showcase its potential in a many-objective real-world architecture case study.

AbstractBuilding on the two rounds of exposure studies with human milk coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the mid-1980s and 1990s on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF), five expanded studies on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were performed between 2000 and 2019. After the adoption of the Stockholm Convention on POPs (the Convention) in 2001, WHO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) collaborated in joint studies starting in 2004. The collaboration aimed at provision of POPs data for human milk as a core matrix under the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) to assess the effectiveness of the Convention as required under Article 16. Over time, the number of analytes in the studies expanded from the initial 12 POPs targeted by the Convention for elimination or reduction to the 30 POPs covered under the Stockholm Convention and two other POPs proposed for listing as of 2019. Many of these chemicals have numerous congeners, homologous groups, isomeric forms, and transformation products, which significantly extends the number of recommended analytes.In the studies between 2000 and 2019, 82 countries from all five United Nations regions participated, of which 50 countries participated in more than one study. For the human milk samples of the 2016–2019 period, results are available for the full set of 32 POPs of interest for the Convention until 2019: (i) the 26 POPs listed by the start of the study in 2016; (ii) decabromodiphenyl ether [BDE-209] and short-chain chlorinated paraffins [SCCP] as listed in 2017; (3) dicofol and perfluorooctanoic acid [PFOA] as listed in 2019; (4) medium-chain chlorinated paraffins [MCCP] and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid [PFHxS] as proposed for listing. This is a unique characteristic among the core matrices under the GMP.Four key messages can be derived: These studies are an efficient and effective tool with global coverage as key contributor to the GMP. After collection of a large number of individual samples (usually 50) fulfilling protocol criteria, pooled samples are prepared using equal aliquots of individual samples (physical averaging) and are considered to be representative for a country, subregion or subpopulation at the time of the sampling. The analysis of pooled representative human milk samples by dedicated Reference Laboratories meeting rigorous quality criteria contributes to reliability and comparability and reduces uncertainty of the analytical results. Additionally, this concept is very cost-effective. These studies can be used for regional differentiation based on concentrations of individual POPs between and within the five UN Regional Groups (African Group, Asia-Pacific Group, Eastern European Group, Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries; Western European and Others Group). For some POPs, a wide range of concentrations with up to three orders of magnitude between lower and upper concentrations was found, even for countries in the same UN region. Some countries had levels within the usual range for most POPs, but high concentrations for certain POPs. Findings of concentrations in the upper third of the frequency distribution may motivate targeted follow-up studies rather than if the observed level of a POP is found in the lower third of frequency distribution. However, the concentration of a POP has also to be seen in context of the sampling period and the history and pattern of use of the POPs in each country. Therefore, results are not intended for ranking of individual countries but rather to distinguish broader patterns. These studies can provide an assessment of time trends, as possible sources of variation were minimized by the survey concepts building on two factors (sampling design; analysis of the pooled samples by dedicated Reference Laboratories). The estimation of time trends based on comparison of median or mean concentrations in UN Regional Groups over the five surveys in five equal four-year periods between 2000 and 2019 provides a first orientation. However, the variation of the number of countries participating in a UN Regional Group in a certain period can influence the median or mean concentrations. Thus, it is more prudent to only use results of countries with repeated participation in these studies for drawing conclusions on temporal trends. The reduction rates in countries should be seen in context with the concentration range: A differentiation of high levels and those in the range of the background contamination is meaningful. If high levels are found, sources might be detected which could be eliminated. This can lead to significant decrease rates over the following years. However, if low background levels are reported, no specific sources can be detected. Other factors for exposure, e.g. the contamination of feed and food by air via long-range transport and subsequent bioaccumulation, cannot be influenced locally. However, only very few time points from most individual countries for most POPs of interest are available, which prevents the derivation of statistically significant temporal trends in these cases. Yet, the existing data can indicate decreasing or increasing tendencies in POP concentrations in these countries. Furthermore, pooling of data in regions allows to derive statistically significant time trends in the UN Regional Groups and globally. Global overall time trends using the data from countries with repeated participation were calculated by the Theil–Sen method. Regarding the median levels of the five UN Regional Groups, a decrease per 10 years by 58% was found for DDT, by 84% for beta-HCH, by 57% for HCB, by 32% for PBDE, by 48% for PFOS, by 70% for PCB, and by 48% for PCDD and PCDF (expressed as toxic equivalents). In contrast, the concentrations of chlorinated paraffins (CP) as “emerging POPs” showed increasing tendencies in some UN Regional Groups. On a global level, a statistically significant increase of total CP (total CP content including SCCP [listed in the Convention in 2017] and MCCP [proposed to be listed]) concentrations in human milk of 30% over 10 years was found. The studies can provide the basis for discussion of the relative importance (“ranking”) of the quantitative occurrence of POPs. This, however, requires a differentiation between two subgroups of lipophilic substances ([i] dioxin-like compounds, to be determined in the pg/g [=ng/kg] range, and [ii] non-dioxin-like chlorinated and brominated POPs, to be determined in the ng/g [=μg/kg] range; both groups reported on lipid base) and the more polar perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS); reported on product base [as pg/g fresh weight] or on volume base [ng/L]. For this purpose, results for the complete set of the 32 POPs of interest for the 2016–2019 period were considered. By far, the highest concentrations of lipophilic substances were found for DDT (expressed as “DDT complex”: sum of all detected analytes, calculated as DDT; maximum: 7100 ng/g lipid; median: 125 ng/g lipid) and for chlorinated paraffins (total CP content; maximum: 700 total CP/g lipid; median: 116 ng total CP/g lipid). PCB was next in the ranking and had on average an order of magnitude lower concentrations than the average of the total CP concentrations. The high CP concentrations were caused predominantly by MCCP. If the pooled samples from mothers without any known major contamination source nearby showed a high level of CP, some individual samples (e.g. from local population close to emission sources, as a result of exposure to consumer products or from the domestic environment) might even have significantly higher levels. The lactational intake of SCCP and MCCP of the breastfed infant in the microgram scale resulting from the mothers’ dietary and environmental background exposure should therefore motivate targeted follow-up studies and further measures to reduce exposure (including in the case of MCCP, regulatory efforts, e.g. restriction in products). Further, due to observed levels, targeted research should look at the balance among potential adverse effects against positive health aspects for the breastfed infants for three groups of POPs (dioxin-like compounds; non-dioxin-like chlorinated and brominated POPs; PFAS) regarding potentially needed updates of the WHO guidance. As an overall conclusion, the seven rounds of WHO/UNEP human milk exposure studies are the largest global survey on human tissues with a harmonized protocol spanning over the longest time period and carried out in a uniform format. Thus, these rounds are an effective tool to obtain reliable and comparable data sets on this core matrix and a key contributor to the GMP. A comprehensive set of global data covering all POPs targeted by the Stockholm Convention, in all UN Regional Groups, and timelines covering a span of up to three decades allows to evaluate data from various perspectives. A widened three-dimensional view is necessary to discuss results and can be performed using the three pillars for assessments of the comprehensive data set, namely: analytes of interest; regional aspects; time trends. This can identify possible problems for future targeted studies and interventions at the country, regional, or global level. Long-term trends give an indication of the effectiveness of measures to eliminate or reduce specific POPs. The consideration of countries with repeated participation in these studies provides the best possible database for the evaluation of temporal trends. The continuation of these exposure studies is important for securing sufficient data for reliable time trend assessments in the future. Therefore, it is highly recommended to continue this monitoring effort, particularly for POPs that are of public health concern.

The use of league tables and rankings (LTRs) as a tool to rank or measure the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) has grown in popularity. Research indicates that these ranking criteria are often discussed from the standpoint of governments, the HEI management, and the ranking institutions producing these LTR publications. The opinions of the students on the suitable ranking criteria used by ranking institutions are generally omitted. This chapter investigates the applicable criteria for ranking HEIs in South Africa, from the perspective of students. A survey was conducted to determine the most relevant university ranking criteria considered by university students. The results indicate that the students perceive resources and infrastructure, accreditation, international orientation, research output, faculty quality, and teaching and learning as the most relevant criteria for ranking HEIs. Managerial recommendations are provided for HEIs to address the ranking criteria rated important by students.

Communication protocols are guidelines governing the transmission of data between the entities of the vehicular networks. These protocols play a crucial role in enabling optimal connectivity, ensuring safety and traffic management. The effective functioning of the V2V network depends on the right choice of communication protocols, as the mismatch in selection results in incompatibility, performance degradation, congestion, and other security issues. This chapter focuses primarily on the intervention of a multi-criteria approach in making an optimal selection of the communication protocols used in the V2V network. The decision-making problem comprises the alternatives namely IEEE 802.11p, Cellular-V2X, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), LTE-V2X, IEEE 1609.x, and ITS-G5. The criteria considered are Compatibility, Security, Data Rate, Range, Scalability, and Spectral Efficiency. Different MCDM approaches such as AHP, Entropy method, and FUCOM are applied to this linguistic decision matrix to obtain the criterion weights, and methods such as COPRAS, SMART, and MAIRCA are applied in ranking the alternatives. A comparative analysis is made to determine the validity of the criterion weights and ranking results. These combined MCDM approaches shall be applied to other decision-making scenarios of vehicular networking to design optimal solutions.

The global ranking of universities continues to elicit mixed results for universities. Based on such ranking, local governments find an opportunity to evaluate their accreditation, quality assurance, and standardization criteria for universities. They further get a chance to assess funding and other support needed by local institutions to strengthen their contribution to quality research and learning. Ranking pushes these institutions to re-evaluate their policies based on the realization that highly ranked universities make quality brands. This chapter gives a critical overview of ethical issues associated with global university ranking. It reveals that ranking indicators contain inherent weaknesses that disadvantage universities within lower and middle-income countries. It therefore proposes that crucial stakeholders must initiate and implement the removal of national, continental, and global impediments that limit fairness in the international competition of universities.

The evaluation of the Quality of Services (QoS) has been a topic of particular interest to many authors. In the literature, many works have been developed where different models are proposed to assess the QoS in different environments. These models evaluate the QoS from a set of criteria, which may vary from one environment to another, and thus they do not always have the same importance. Considering this, there have been many studies proposing techniques to evaluate the performance of the quality criteria. Techniques have also been developed to obtain the ranking of a given service provider. The purpose of this chapter is to make a literature review of service quality models, methods for determining the weights of the criteria, and the methods used to conduct an overall assessment of service providers.

Poor quality control has become a major threat to medical laboratory services, especially in the developing countries. It has become necessary to assess and rank the quality of diagnostic services in medical laboratories using systematic approaches. The main aim of this research is to develop and apply a quantitative method in ranking medical laboratory services. This method is based on a combination of Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) with fuzzy set theory. VIKOR is a multiple criteria decision making technique which focuses on ranking and selection from a set of alternatives, and determines the compromise solution for a problem with different criteria. This approach aids decision makers to achieve the most acceptable decision amidst numerous alternatives. In the present evaluation method, international standard ISO 15189 (Medical Laboratories Particular Requirements for Quality and Competence) proposed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is used as a fundamental source of selected attributes of a medical laboratory. The study compares three medical laboratories to each other and ranks them. This study will be a valuable and effective contribution in enhancing both qualitative and quantitative criteria in the field of medical laboratory services. Finally, some directions for further studies are proposed.

Poor quality control has become a major threat to medical laboratory services, especially in the developing countries. It has become necessary to assess and rank the quality of diagnostic services in medical laboratories using systematic approaches. The main aim of this research is to develop and apply a quantitative method in ranking medical laboratory services. This method is based on a combination of Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) with fuzzy set theory. VIKOR is a multiple criteria decision making technique which focuses on ranking and selection from a set of alternatives, and determines the compromise solution for a problem with different criteria. This approach aids decision makers to achieve the most acceptable decision amidst numerous alternatives. In the present evaluation method, international standard ISO 15189 (Medical Laboratories Particular Requirements for Quality and Competence) proposed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is used as a fundamental source of selected attributes of a medical laboratory. The study compares three medical laboratories to each other and ranks them. This study will be a valuable and effective contribution in enhancing both qualitative and quantitative criteria in the field of medical laboratory services. Finally, some directions for further studies are proposed.

Abstract Corrosion in automotive exhaust systems can be broadly classified as (a) cold end corrosion and (b) hot end corrosion. For the cold end, the requirements include inside-out perforation corrosion resistance and cosmetic corrosion resistance. Perforation corrosion causes noticeable degradation in noise quality and may even affect the back pressure. For the hot end, the key concern has been perforation corrosion resistance. With the use of oxygen sensors in catalytic converters, the failure criteria will become more stringent. Numerous accelerated corrosion tests have been used to rank materials for the Hot End and the Cold End. These include (a) Continuous Test, (b) Cyclic Tests - Hot End, (c) Cyclic Tests - Cold End, (d) Electrochemical Ranking. In this paper we evaluate some of the commonly used exhaust materials in these accelerated tests. These accelerated tests are easy to use, inexpensive to run as compared to proving ground testing or trailer testing and can provide information in a relatively short time. Here we report lab work to date on some of the accelerated corrosion testing for perforation corrosion resistance. Note that these tests are useful for ranking materials only. Life expectancy of the material can be given only after a correlation is established between the accelerated tests and field performance. The electrochemical tests were designed to gain insight into pit growth kinetics in the accelerated tests.

The issues of software quality assessment are considered. The criteria of software quality are considered on the basis of updating the selection of software quality indicators. A method for ranking selected indicators to determine software quality criteria based on analytic hierarchy process has been proposed.

Ranking of scientific conferences plays a key role in the academic world, determining the level of significance and prestige of each event. The main results of ranking from the point of view of personalities are: determining the quality and influence of the scientific conference; a guide for selecting conferences; encouragement to conduct quality research; formation of the scientific community; improving the visibility and influence of the conference on the scientific community. The paper provides an overview of currently existing conference catalogs and conference ranking systems, both automatically and with the participation of expert councils. It is noted that the purpose of creating national ranking systems is to promote and popularize domestic conferences and journals. Based on the review of currently existing conference catalogs and conference ranking systems, the following criteria for ranking conferences can be formulated. Indicators of publication activity, based on the results of the analysis of published conference materials. The credibility of the speakers and the organizing committee of the conference. Number of presentations and the ratio of the number of presentations to the number of conference participants. Time for reviewing applications submitted to the conference. Ratio of submitted and accepted applications. Retrospective and geographical parameters.

With the rising number of Internet of Things devices and context providers, the need for sorting and selecting them according to user requirements and to the quality of sensed information becomes prevalent. Thus, this paper presents the Rhadamanthys architecture, designed to fulfill this requirement using Quality of Context information for both ranking and selection. Individual Quality of Context criteria as defined in the literature are evaluated for each available provider and used in formulae to obtain a single score that enables ranking and allows selection.

Dancesport involves a variety of body movements performed to the rhythm of a song that is materialized in a choreography piece where the two partners try to convey emotions in a unique and personal way, which leads us to assert that dance has no boundaries, no barriers, it is simply felt and expressed. Dancesport provides the necessary framework to transmit a compositional message, trigger emotions, present an artistic creation, generate a show, that is why assessing the dancers’ performance often has a subjective character as regards technical execution, artistic mastery, plasticity and beauty of movement, shortly, the quality of dance. In this research, we developed and used an evaluation/ judging system which included five criteria: movement to music, posture and coordination, quality of movement and balance, partnered relationship and leading, choreography and presentation, and a larger or smaller number of sub-criteria. The aim was to prove the efficiency of a computerized system intended to reduce subjectivity in the evaluation of dancers’ competitive performance. Transposition of the evaluation/judging system to a computerized application using Web-based technology with extension for tablet ensures effectiveness for the judging panel, reducing the time needed to establish rankings, facilitating the work of the competition Secretariat and removing the possible human errors. The application summarized information on organized competitions, users, couples of dancers, dances, classes, age categories, to which each judge can login to access scoring sheets/per criterion/dance and check each sub-criterion for each component, male and female counterparts. The major difference between the two evaluation systems (one used by the DanceSport Federation, the other developed by us) could be noted in the hierarchy of couples in the mid-ranking, where the value level of dancers was close and their order in the ranking was decided by a few tenths or hundredths of a point.

Abstract— Supplier selection is an important part of the supply chain due to its high effects on the quality and price of the organization’s products or given services. This paper aims to engage industry 4.0 technology in the supplier selection process to reduce the uncertainty of subjective expert judgments by engaging the voice of customers in the criteria evaluation process. For this purpose, a supplier selection methodology has been developed including a decision support system powered by industry 4.0 technologies, to assess the importance of criteria. The proposed methodology is implemented on supplier selection in the dental sector. The evaluation criteria are established through a literature survey and applying the questionnaire to dental experts. The results of the criteria evaluation using the decision support system indicated the most frequent criteria are usability criteria followed by price and esthetics criteria, and the result of the supplier ranking of five potential suppliers using the F-TOPSIS indicated that supplier S4 is the most appropriate supplier. Keywords— supplier selection, industry 4.0 technologies , questionnaire analysis, MCDM, dental sector.

AMICA is an argument mining-based search engine, specifically designed for the analysis of scientific literature related to Covid-19. AMICA retrieves scientific papers based on matching keywords and ranks the results based on the papers' argumentative content. An experimental evaluation conducted on a case study in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Health shows that the AMICA ranking agrees with expert opinion, as well as, importantly, with the impartial quality criteria indicated by Cochrane Systematic Reviews.

The social significance and quality of scientific research largely depend on the usefulness of research results for the social and scientific community. The lack of funds and the desire to allocate funding to high-quality research projects make the assessment of the quality of research and the valorization of knowledge increasingly important. However, it is very difficult to apply criteria that can objectively assess scientific research, providing precise qualitative and quantitative data on which funding agencies could base their decisions. The product of scientific research is mainly information published in scientific journals. They are the basis for the dissemination of knowledge and the basic criteria for academic and scientific evaluation, fundraising for scientific research and career advancement. In addition to the evaluation of scientific publications, there is a wide range of other activities that reflect the scientific credibility of scientists, such as: number and quality of grants for scientific research projects, leadership in national or international academic societies, membership in editorial boards of reputable journals, doctoral dissertation mentorships and the like. Although these activities are important and give credibility to the scientist, the relevant scientometric systems cover only publications, neglecting other criteria of scientific importance in evaluation for purpose of academic advancement of a scientist, as well as competitions for grants for financial support of scientific research. The reason for this is the fact that these activities, regardless of their importance, are very heterogeneous, with specific characteristics, and require very diverse parameters for evaluation. Therefore, there are no universal evaluation criteria for these activities and their quality is generally assessed individually, depending on the purpose of the assessment. Regardless of the shortcomings, university ranking systems are important comparative parameters for assessing the quality of scientific and educational value of universities.

Diversity-oriented searches retrieve objects not only similar to a reference element but also related to the different types of collections within the queried dataset. While such characterization is flexible enough to include methods originally from information retrieval, data clustering, and similarity searching under the same umbrella, diversity metrics are expected to be much less paradigm-biased in order to discriminate which approaches are more suitable and when they should be applied. Accordingly, we extend and implement a broad set of quality metrics from those distinct realms and experimentally discuss their trends and limitations. In particular, we evaluate the suitability of data clustering indexes, and similarity-driven measures regarding their adherence to diversified similarity searching. Experiments in real-world datasets indicate such measures are capable of distinguishing diversity methods from different paradigms, but they heavily favor the approaches of the same group – especially cluster indexes. As an alternative, we argue diversity is better addressed by a set of measures rather than a single quality value. Therefore, we propose the Diversity Features Model (DFM) that combines the perspectives of the competing approaches into a multidimensional point whose features are calculated based on the distance distribution within both retrieved and queried datasets. Empirical evaluations showed DFM compares different diversity searching approaches by considering multiple criteria, whereas overall winners can be found by ranking aggregation or visualized through parallel coordinates maps.

Review question / Objective: This review aims to evaluate the methodological quality of RCT-abstracts in leading critical care nursing journals. A methodological quality review with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) criteria will be performed in RCT-abstracts published between 2011-2021 in the first Scopus-ranking (2021) nursing journals. Eligibility criteria: Abstracts of scientific articles will be included if they fulfil the following inclusion criteria: 1) they report the results of parallel and/or cross-over group RCTs, 2) they are written in English, 3) they refer to the care of adult patients with acute/critical illness or conducted in adult ICUs.Manuscripts reporting results of pilot or feasibility studies, cluster trials, observational or cohort studies, interim analyses, economic analyses of RCTs, post-trial follow-up studies, subgroup and secondary analyses of previously published RCTs, editorials and RCTs without an abstract such as RCTs published as letters to the editor, single-subject clinical trials will be excluded.

We study the effects of an admission policy change that caused a massive shift in student composition in public and private junior secondary schools in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In 2018, the primary criterion for admission into Yogyakarta’s 16 preferred, free public schools (grades 7-9) changed from a grade 6 exam score ranking to a neighborhood-to-school distance ranking. This policy change resulted in a decline in average grade 6 scores in public schools by 0.4 standard deviations (s.d.) and a 0.4 s.d. increase in private schools. We assessed learning impacts caused by the changed student composition by comparing two otherwise similar cohorts of students admitted before and after the policy change. Average grade 8 test scores across math and Indonesian declined by 0.08 s.d. (not significant). To understand which students throughout the education system gained and lost in terms of learning, we simulated public school access under the 2018 policy and its predecessor for both cohorts. In public schools, teachers attempted to adapt lessons to lower-scoring students by changing teaching approaches and tracking students. These responses and/or exposure to different peers negatively affected learning for students predicted to have access to public schools under both policies (-0.13 s.d., significant at the 10 percent level) and aided students with predicted public school access under the new policy slightly (0.12 s.d., not significant). These results are in contrast to existing literature which finds little or no impact from shifts in student composition on incumbent students’ learning. In private schools, we found no such adaptations and no effects on predicted incumbent students. However, students predicted to enter private schools under the new policy saw large negative effects (-0.24 s.d., significant), due to lower school quality and/or peer effects. Our results demonstrate that effects from high-performing, selective schools can be highly heterogenous and influenced by student composition.

We study the effects of an admission policy change that caused a massive shift in student composition in public and private junior secondary schools in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In 2018, the primary criterion for admission into Yogyakarta’s 16 preferred, free public schools (grades 7-9) changed from a grade 6 exam score ranking to a neighborhood-to-school distance ranking. This policy change resulted in a decline in average grade 6 scores in public schools by 0.4 standard deviations (s.d.) and a 0.4 s.d. increase in private schools. We assessed learning impacts caused by the changed student composition by comparing two otherwise similar cohorts of students admitted before and after the policy change. Average grade 8 test scores across math and Indonesian declined by 0.08 s.d. (not significant). To understand which students throughout the education system gained and lost in terms of learning, we simulated public school access under the 2018 policy and its predecessor for both cohorts. In public schools, teachers attempted to adapt lessons to lower-scoring students by changing teaching approaches and tracking students. These responses and/or exposure to different peers negatively affected learning for students predicted to have access to public schools under both policies (-0.13 s.d., significant at the 10 percent level) and aided students with predicted public school access under the new policy slightly (0.12 s.d., not significant). These results are in contrast to existing literature which finds little or no impact from shifts in student composition on incumbent students’ learning. In private schools, we found no such adaptations and no effects on predicted incumbent students. However, students predicted to enter private schools under the new policy saw large negative effects (-0.24 s.d., significant), due to lower school quality and/or peer effects. Our results demonstrate that effects from high-performing, selective schools can be highly heterogenous and influenced by student composition.