This dissertation provides evidence that information displays to support procedure following can aid performance and increase situational awareness and safety. The intent of such displays is to assist operators in not only following operational procedures, but also in comprehending the context of the procedures, enabling them to understand why, when, and how to deviate from the procedures if necessary. The results of the dissertation research show that the addition of procedure context increases situation awareness and reduces procedure-following errors, which has been shown to be a significant causative factor for accidents in aviation and other domains. In addition, a pilots ability to comprehend noncompliance appears to be limited, despite their interest in (and ability to) detect noncompliance. Pilots do not appear be able to interpret the consequences of that noncompliance, suggesting that the design of displays and procedures should assist them in doing so. The results also demonstrate that pilots attempted to use procedure information even when clearly outside the scope of the procedure. This means that procedures and procedure-support aids should consider operation outside of its normal bounds in their design, rather than only for nominal operation as is currently the case.

The idea that the same experimental findings can be reproduced by a variety of independent approaches is one of the cornerstones of science's claim to objective truth. However, in recent years, it has become clear that science is plagued by findings that cannot be reproduced and, consequently, invalidating research studies and undermining public trust in the research enterprise. The observed lack of reproducibility may be a result, among other things, of the lack of transparency or completeness in reporting. In particular, omissions in reporting the technical nature of the experimental method make it difficult to verify the findings of experimental research in biomedicine. In this context, the assessment of scientific reports could help to overcome - at least in part - the ongoing reproducibility crisis. In addressing this issue, this Thesis undertakes the challenge of developing strategies for the evaluation of reporting biomedical experimental methods in scientific manuscripts. Considering the complexity of experimental design - often involving different technologies and models, we characterise the problem in methods reporting through domain-specific checklists. Then, by using checklists as a decision making tool, supported by miniRECH - a spreadsheet-based approach that can be used by authors, editors and peer-reviewers - a reasonable level of consensus on reporting assessments was achieved regardless of the domain-specific expertise of referees. In addition, by using a text-mining system as a screening tool, a framework to guide an automated assessment of the reporting of bio-experiments was created. The usefulness of these strategies was demonstrated in some domain-specific scientific areas as well as in mouse models across biomedical research. In conclusion, we suggested that the strategies developed in this work could be implemented through the publication process as barriers to prevent incomplete reporting from entering the scientific literature, as well as promoters of completeness in reporting to improve the general value of the scientific evidence.

This master thesis is focused on Total Quality Management implementation into Sovereign Hotel Prague. The aim of this thesis is to discover the quality level of this hotel and initiate such arrangments that would lead to longterm sustainability.Therefore there is a complete intern audit realized, that is conducted out of 25 quality checklists with all together 376 evaluation criteria. There are also used reviews from Tripadvisor and Booking.com for evaluation of the quality in hotel Sovereign. The results from the intern audit lead to implementation of TQM in the hotel. The theoretical part is focused on definition of quality, its characters, aspects and possibilities of quality management. It describes the principles of Total Quality Management and its use in hotel business. Facilities, services, organisational structure and market position of Hotel Sovereign is also characterised.

The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a checklist, compared to a smart pump and bar-code verification system, at detecting different categories of errors in intravenous medication administration. To address this objective, a medication administration safety checklist was first developed in an iterative user-centered design process. The resulting checklist design was then used in a high-fidelity simulation experiment comparing the effectiveness of interventions towards two classifications of error: execution and planning errors. Results showed the checklist provided no additional benefit for error detection over the control condition of current nursing practice. Relative to the checklist group, the smart pump and bar-coding intervention demonstrated increased effectiveness at detecting planning errors. Results of this work will this work will help guide the selection, implementation and design of appropriate interventions for error mitigation in medication administration.

The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a checklist, compared to a smart pump and bar-code verification system, at detecting different categories of errors in intravenous medication administration. To address this objective, a medication administration safety checklist was first developed in an iterative user-centered design process. The resulting checklist design was then used in a high-fidelity simulation experiment comparing the effectiveness of interventions towards two classifications of error: execution and planning errors. Results showed the checklist provided no additional benefit for error detection over the control condition of current nursing practice. Relative to the checklist group, the smart pump and bar-coding intervention demonstrated increased effectiveness at detecting planning errors. Results of this work will this work will help guide the selection, implementation and design of appropriate interventions for error mitigation in medication administration.

The research reported on in this thesis forms part of the foundation of a bigger research project in which an attempt is made to provide better, faster and more efficient feedback on student writing. The introduction presents the localised and international context of the study, and discusses some of the problems experienced with feedback practice in general. The introduction also gives a preview of the intended practical implementation of the research reported on in this thesis. From there on, the thesis is presented in article form with each article investigating and answering a part of two main guiding questions. These questions are: 1. Does feedback on student writing work? 2. How can feedback on student writing be implemented as effectively as possible? The abstracts for the five individual articles are as follows: Article 1 Article 1 presents a rubric for the evaluation of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software based on international recommendations for effective CALL. The rubric is presented after a brief overview of the pedagogical and implementation fundamentals of CALL, and a discussion of what needs to be included in a needs analysis for CALL evaluation. It is then illustrated how the evaluation criteria in the rubric can be used in the design of a new CALL system. Article 2 Providing feedback on student writing is a much-debated topic. One group of researchers argues that it is ineffective and another group remains convinced that it is effective, while at ground level teachers and lecturers simply carry on “marking” texts. The author of this article contends that both arguments have valid contributions to make and uses the arguments both for and against feedback to create a checklist for effective feedback practice. Adhering to this checklist should counter most of the arguments against feedback while supporting and improving the positive arguments in favour of feedback. Article 3 This article reports on an experiment which tested how effectively standardised feedback could be used when marking L2 student writing. The experiment was conducted using a custom-programmed software tool and a set of standardised feedback comments. The results of the experiment prove that standardised feedback can be used consistently and effectively to a degree, even though some refinements are still needed. Using standardised feedback in a standard marking environment can assist markers in raising their awareness of errors and in more accurately identifying where students lack knowledge. With some refinements, it may also be possible to speed up the marking process. Article 4 This article describes an experiment in which Boolean feedback (a kind of checklist) was used to provide feedback on the paragraph structures of first-year students in an academic literacy course. The major problems with feedback on L2 writing are introduced and it is established why a focus on paragraph structures in particular is of importance. The experiment conducted was a two-draft assignment in which three different kinds of feedback (technique A: handwritten comments; technique B: consciousness raising through generalised Boolean feedback; and technique C: specific Boolean feedback) were presented to three different groups of students. The results indicate that specific Boolean feedback is more effective than the other two techniques, partly because a higher proportion of the instances of negative feedback on the first draft were corrected in the second draft (improvements), but more importantly because in the revision a much lower number of changes to the text resulted in negative feedback on the second draft (regressions). For non-specific feedback, almost as many regressions occurred as improvements. In combination with automatic analytical techniques made possible with software, the results from this study make a case for using such checklists to give feedback on student writing. Article 5 This article describes an experiment in which a series of statements, answerable simply with yes or no (labelled Boolean feedback), were used to provide feedback on the introductions, conclusions and paragraph structures of student texts. A write-rewrite assignment (the same structure as in article 4) was used and the quality of the student revisions was evaluated. The results indicate that the students who received Boolean feedback showed greater improvement and fewer regressions than students who received feedback using the traditional method. The conclusion provides a brief summary as well as a preview of the immense future research possibilities made possible by this project. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The research reported on in this thesis forms part of the foundation of a bigger research project in which an attempt is made to provide better, faster and more efficient feedback on student writing. The introduction presents the localised and international context of the study, and discusses some of the problems experienced with feedback practice in general. The introduction also gives a preview of the intended practical implementation of the research reported on in this thesis. From there on, the thesis is presented in article form with each article investigating and answering a part of two main guiding questions. These questions are: 1. Does feedback on student writing work? 2. How can feedback on student writing be implemented as effectively as possible? The abstracts for the five individual articles are as follows: Article 1 Article 1 presents a rubric for the evaluation of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software based on international recommendations for effective CALL. The rubric is presented after a brief overview of the pedagogical and implementation fundamentals of CALL, and a discussion of what needs to be included in a needs analysis for CALL evaluation. It is then illustrated how the evaluation criteria in the rubric can be used in the design of a new CALL system. Article 2 Providing feedback on student writing is a much-debated topic. One group of researchers argues that it is ineffective and another group remains convinced that it is effective, while at ground level teachers and lecturers simply carry on “marking” texts. The author of this article contends that both arguments have valid contributions to make and uses the arguments both for and against feedback to create a checklist for effective feedback practice. Adhering to this checklist should counter most of the arguments against feedback while supporting and improving the positive arguments in favour of feedback. Article 3 This article reports on an experiment which tested how effectively standardised feedback could be used when marking L2 student writing. The experiment was conducted using a custom-programmed software tool and a set of standardised feedback comments. The results of the experiment prove that standardised feedback can be used consistently and effectively to a degree, even though some refinements are still needed. Using standardised feedback in a standard marking environment can assist markers in raising their awareness of errors and in more accurately identifying where students lack knowledge. With some refinements, it may also be possible to speed up the marking process. Article 4 This article describes an experiment in which Boolean feedback (a kind of checklist) was used to provide feedback on the paragraph structures of first-year students in an academic literacy course. The major problems with feedback on L2 writing are introduced and it is established why a focus on paragraph structures in particular is of importance. The experiment conducted was a two-draft assignment in which three different kinds of feedback (technique A: handwritten comments; technique B: consciousness raising through generalised Boolean feedback; and technique C: specific Boolean feedback) were presented to three different groups of students. The results indicate that specific Boolean feedback is more effective than the other two techniques, partly because a higher proportion of the instances of negative feedback on the first draft were corrected in the second draft (improvements), but more importantly because in the revision a much lower number of changes to the text resulted in negative feedback on the second draft (regressions). For non-specific feedback, almost as many regressions occurred as improvements. In combination with automatic analytical techniques made possible with software, the results from this study make a case for using such checklists to give feedback on student writing. Article 5 This article describes an experiment in which a series of statements, answerable simply with yes or no (labelled Boolean feedback), were used to provide feedback on the introductions, conclusions and paragraph structures of student texts. A write-rewrite assignment (the same structure as in article 4) was used and the quality of the student revisions was evaluated. The results indicate that the students who received Boolean feedback showed greater improvement and fewer regressions than students who received feedback using the traditional method. The conclusion provides a brief summary as well as a preview of the immense future research possibilities made possible by this project. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This Major Degree Project explores the concept of “complete streets” and the framing of an appropriate “complete streets” checklist for historic districts and character neighbourhoods in downtown contexts, attempting to learn especially from the case of Winnipeg’s Warehouse District Neighbourhood. A “complete streets” checklist is considered to include a combination of infrastructure and urban design considerations, such as sidewalks, bike lanes, intersections, transit stops, curb extensions, travel lane widths, and parking needs. It proceeds from the premise that if an individual street or system of streets is ‘complete’, individuals will be more likely to reduce the time spent using automobiles, and increase the time expended on walking, biking, or using other transit alternatives, while making travel on the streets safer and more enjoyable for all users. The MDP examines the current street-related infrastructure and uses within the Warehouse District Neighbourhood of Downtown Winnipeg and discusses the relevance of current or recent City of Winnipeg plans and proposals. Taking the form of a practicum, the research sought to inform and engage local planners, engineers and public officials regarding a “complete streets” approach to their work – primarily in terms of the recommended framing of a complete streets checklist as well as recommendations for future area improvements in the Warehouse District Neighbourhood, demonstrating the usefulness of the checklist.

Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, guidelines may conflict with each other, creating a need for slow and time-consuming expert intervention. Second, guidelines may be hard to check programmatically, requiring experts to manually use multipage style guides that suffer from drawbacks related to searchability, navigation, conflict, and obsolescence. In my dissertation, I focus on exploring mixed-initiative methods as a solution to these challenges in two complex tasks: biological network visualization where guidelines may conflict, and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. For biological network visualization, I explore the use of crowdsourcing to scale up time-consuming manual layout tasks. To support the network-based collaboration required for crowdsourcing, I first implemented a system called GraphSpace. It fosters online collaboration by allowing users to store, organize, explore, lay out, and share networks on a web platform. I then used GraphSpace as the infrastructure to support a novel mixed-initiative crowd-algorithm approach for creating high-quality, biological meaningful network visualizations. I also designed and implemented Flud, a system that gamifies the graph visualization task and uses flow theory concepts to make algorithmically generated suggestions more readily accessible to non-expert crowds. Then, I proposed DeepLayout, a novel learning-based approach as an alternative to the non-machine learning-based method used in Flud. It has the ability to learn how to balance complex conflicting guidelines from a layout process. Finally, in the domain of web design, I present a real-world iterative deployment of a system called Critter. Critter augments traditional quality assurance techniques used in structured domains, such as checklists and expert feedback, using mixed-initiative interactions. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods. / Doctor of Philosophy / Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, sometimes the guidelines may conflict with each other under a certain scenario. In this situation, tasks require expert opinion to prioritize one guideline over the other. This dependence on expertise makes the design process slow and time-consuming. Second, sometimes it is difficult to determine which guidelines have been fulfilled. In this scenario, experts have to manually go through a list of guidelines and make sure applicable guidelines have been successfully applied to the final product. However, using a list of guidelines has its own drawbacks. Not all guidelines are applicable to a project, and finding a relevant guideline can be strenuous for experts. Moreover, a design process is not as simple as following a list of guidelines. Design processes are dynamic, non-linear, and iterative. Due to these reasons, a simple list of guidelines does not align with the designers' workflow. My dissertation focuses on exploring mixed-initiative methods where computers and humans collaborate in a tight feedback loop to help follow guidelines. To this end, I present solutions for two complex creative tasks: biological network visualization where we can compute how well a design adheres to the guidelines but guidelines may conflict and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods.

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