Instructional evaluation is essential for assessing the effectiveness of learning events. In today's economy, corporations are under great pressure to reduce expenses, and training budgets often feel the effects. The closure of in-house training programs, combined with the reduction of training budgets, could be seen as evidence of training professionals' inability to prove their worth in terms of organizational benefit. To solidify their value to an organization, training departments must assess the effectiveness of their programs and provide evidence that they are supporting the organization's goals. The purpose of this study was to determine how employer-sponsored training is evaluated in the financial services industry by firms affiliated with DALBAR, Inc., using Kirkpatrick's four-level evaluation model as a framework. The total population for this study consisted of all financial services organizations providing education and training. The target population was limited to the financial services organizations that subscribe to the services provided by DALBAR, Inc. Affiliation with DALBAR was considered an indicator of interest in raising standards of excellence within the financial services industry. Therefore, DALBAR affiliation was believed to represent organizations whose training personnel had current knowledge of industry practices and thereby would report higher usage of evaluation than the total population of other entities. Data was collected using a modified survey instrument. Patterns, trends, models and methods of training evaluation among these financial services organizations were examined. Finally, barriers to implementation of training evaluation were identified and explored. Recommendations for practice include increasing training department staff members' knowledge of evaluation theories and techniques, as well striving to make training evaluation a priority for the organization as a whole. Among the recommendations for future research is the execution of a qualitative study to be conducted through in-depth interviews with selected respondents to explore in greater detail the relationships between organizational characteristics and the implementation of higher levels of evaluation.

Acid fracturing is one of the preferred methods to stimulate wells in carbonate reservoirs. It consists of injecting an acid solution at high enough pressure to break down the formation and to propagate a two-wing crack away from the wellbore. The acid reacts with the carbonate formation and this causes the etching of the fracture surfaces. After the treatment, the created etched surfaces do not close perfectly and that leaves behind a highly conductive path for the hydrocarbons to be produced. We distinguish the issue of treatment sizing (that is the determination of the volume of acid to be injected) and the issue of creating optimum fracture dimensions given the size of the treatment. This is reasonable because the final cost of a treatment is determined mainly by the volume of acid injected and our goal should be to achieve the best performance of the treated well. The well performance depends on the created fracture dimensions and fracture conductivity and might change with time due to various reasons. This research evaluates two field cases from Saudi Aramco where acid fracturing treatment has been used to stimulate a carbonate formation. I investigated the following issues: a) how effective was the treatment to restoring the initial productivity, b) how did the productivity of the well change with time; c) what are the possible reasons for the change in performance, d) what are our options to improve acid fracture design in the future? Based on our research work both near-well liquid drop-out and fractureconductivity deterioration can impact the production in different proportion. Moreover, the fracturing model tends to overestimate the fracture conductivity in some cases as shown in SA-2. Also, the “Acid fracture Number” concept proves to be an effective way to evaluate the acid fracturing treatment. Several recommendations were made based on this research work as described in the last part of my thesis.

ABSTRACT Business loan is an important process and main revenue to bank. Loan asset is crucial in balance sheet. Asset quality is relevant to operating security, so bank should enhance the management and evaluation of loan process to ensure the operating security and performance during making a deal with clients. Sound evaluation model could help related staff evaluate the credit of clients and lower overdue loan ratio. IC industry is always the driving industry in Taiwan. Taiwan DRAM revenue, as a second place leader, accounts for more than 20% of world market. The nature of DRAM industry is huge capital, high technology level, fast price variation and those mean high risks during loan. Banks in Taiwan serve DRAM companies very often. In case of overdue loan, bank will be affected heavily. Thus, bank should build evaluation model of loan to ensure the security of loan. After reviewing related literature, this research identifies key factors of loan decision and invites related bank employees in north Hsin-Chu City to join AHP questionaire. Then this research conducts quantitative analysis through AHP. This research collects 16 bank professionals' opinions. Among 16 there are 6 Consistency Indexes higher than 0.1, so only 10 opinions are accepted. The result shows 3 main factors in loan evaluation: industrial evaluation, financial analysis and loan evaluation (listed in order). Besides, among overall criteria, the most important 5 are expansion of competitors' factory, ability to raise fund, quick ratio, new application, and collateral. This research proposes the following 4 suggestions: 1. Bank should ask professional industrial research institute for DRAM industrial evolution to reduce the credit risk. 2. The ability to raise fund is relevant to whether DRAM companies could get through the recession. Recent cash flow should be paid attention to. 3. The feasibility of capital expenditure plan should be evaluated as project finance and financial planning should be conducted with sensitivity analysis. 4. Risk cost should be considered when setting DRAM loan rate. Ensure return is consistent with the risk.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 71 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-61).

Zugl.: München, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2003 / Hergestellt on demand

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2009

Thesis (M.S. in Human Systems Integration)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): O'Connor, Paul E. Second Reader: McCauley, Michael E. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 29, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Crew resource management, bridge resource management, human error, human factors. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-70). Also available in print.

Zugl.: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2002. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 169 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Mary K. Marvel. Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-169).