<p>This paper is concerned with the newly reformed national English test for Chinese college students, called the College English Test (CET) Band 4 (or Level 4). By comparing the test before and after it was reformed, there will be a close examination with regard to the aspects of test reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact and practicality. With an extra focus on how vocabulary and grammar are tested, the paper aims to investigate the extent to which the new system is considered useful and how effective it is in testing vocabulary and grammar.</p>

This paper is concerned with the newly reformed national English test for Chinese college students, called the College English Test (CET) Band 4 (or Level 4). By comparing the test before and after it was reformed, there will be a close examination with regard to the aspects of test reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact and practicality. With an extra focus on how vocabulary and grammar are tested, the paper aims to investigate the extent to which the new system is considered useful and how effective it is in testing vocabulary and grammar.

Nos dias atuais, em razão de vários fatores, está se tornando cada vez mais impraticável à administração pública garantir o cumprimento da arrecadação e fiscalização tributária. As normas simplificadoras, criadas em nome da praticabilidade, é a solução de compromisso que permite a garantia da tributação de todos, mas sem o custo irrazoável do aparato administrativo para averiguação individual de cada caso concreto. Deixar de avaliar individualmente cada caso na aplicação da lei tributária pode representar uma afronta aos princípios da segurança jurídica, legalidade, igualdade, capacidade contributiva entre outros. Analisar as soluções que atendam esta demanda pela praticabilidade e que não agridam a justiça individual assegurada pelos princípios constitucionais é o que visa esta dissertação. Entre as técnicas de simplificação abordadas, ressaltam-se as presunções e as ficções. As normas simplificadoras, como objeto de estudo, serão identificadas dentro do universo das normas tributárias verificando-se sua finalidade extrafiscal. A Praticabilidade é estudada, trazendo-se um conceito, que a identifica como de caráter principiológico e sua relação com o princípio da eficiência. Como princípio a Praticabilidade é confrontada com: segurança jurídica, legalidade, igualdade, capacidade contributiva, justiça fiscal, discriminação constitucional de competências, proporcionalidade, razoabilidade, neutralidade e proibição de confisco, identificando os limites jurídicos impostos à sua utilização. No estudo de casos, estes limites são verificados e confrontados com o posicionamento mais atual da jurisprudência. / Nowadays, due to various factors, it is becoming increasingly impractical to government enforce the tax collection and enforcement. The simplifying rules, created in the name of practicality, is a compromise that allows the guarantee of all taxes, but without the unreasonable cost of the administrative apparatus for individual investigation of each case. Failure to evaluate each case individually when applying the tax law may represent an affront to the principles of legal certainty, legality, equality, fiscal capacity among others. Analyze solutions to meet this demand by practicality and do not harm the individual justice guaranteed by the constitutional principles is what this thesis aims. Among the techniques addressed for simplification, we emphasize the presumptions and fictions. The simplifying rules, as an object of study, will be identified within the universe of tax rules checking its extrafiscal purpose. The Feasibility study is bringing up a concept, identifying it as a principiológico character and its relation to the principle of efficiency. In principle the Feasibility is confronted with legal certainty legality, equality, ability to pay, taxation, constitutional powers of discrimination, proportionality fairness, neutrality and prohibiting confiscation, identifying the legal limits on its use. In the case studies, these limits are checked and compared with the most current positioning of jurisprudence.

This essay is one part of my Bachelor's degree project, the other part being a dance performance with the title practical, efficient, necessary that was premiered in January of 2021. The essay discusses the main problem of the project (which was necessary movements and the lack thereof in dance) as for thoughts and methods that was used in the project in working with the theme of necessity. The essay begins by looking into movements of necessity from the perspective of a necessary movement being a practical movement that is in relation to survival and sprung out of urgency. It further explores necessary movements from the martial arts-perspective, and more specifically Muay Thai. The essay touches upon subjects such as the nervous system and the stress response as for preparatory movements as long term responses to urgency, while also looking into body-mind split theories. The essay also discusses protests as a method of self-defence, referring to artist and activist Rodney Diverlus analysis of the movements used in Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The main reference and conversation partner to many of the topics discussed in the essay is Pragmatist philosopher John Dewey and his thoughts in Art as Experience (1932) and Experience and Nature (1925). Further the essay describes the various methods used in the process of making the performance such as 'systematic choreographing' and 'temporary truths'. This allowed for further explorations of topics in the essay such as the starting and ending of movements, the power of repetition and sounds as necessity. The essay ends with reflections and refiguring of the concept of necessary movements. / <p>This work includes both a performing and a written part.</p>

This document is a supplement to the article entitled “The Multidimensional Quality Metric (MQM) Framework: A New Framework for Translation Quality Assessment”, which has been acepted for publication in the upcoming January volume of JoSTrans, the Journal of Specialized Translation. The article is a coauthored project between Dr. Alan K. Melby, Dr. Troy Cox and myself. In this document you will find a preface describing the process of writing the article, an annotated bibliography of sources consulted in my research, a summary of what I learned, and a conclusion that considers the future avenues opened up by this research. Our article examines a new method for assessing the quality of a translation known as the Multidimensional Quality Metric, MQM. In our experiment we set the MQM framework to mirror, as closely as possible, the American Translators Association's (ATA) translator certification exam. To do this we mapped the ATA error categories to corresponding MQM error categories. We acquired a set of 29 student translations and had a group of student raters use the MQM framework to rate these translations. We measured the practicality of the MQM framework by comparing the time required for ratings to the average time required to rate translations in the industry. In addition, we had 2 ATA certified translators rate the anchor translation (a translation that was scored by every rater in order to have a point of comparison). The certified translators' ratings were used to verify that the scores given by the student raters were valid. Reliability was also measured, which found that the student raters were not interchangeable, but that the measurement estimate of reliability was adequate. The article's goal was to determine the extent to which the Multidimensional Quality Metric framework for translation evaluation is viable (practical, reliable and valid) when designed to mirror the ATA certification exam. Overall, the results of the experiment showed that MQM could be a viable way to rate translation quality when operationalized based on the ATA's translator certification exam. This is an important discovery in the field of translation quality, because it shows that MQM could be a viable tool for future researchers. Our experiment suggests that researchers ought to take advantage of the MQM framework because, not only is it free, but any studies completed using the MQM framework would have a common base, making these studies more easily comparable.

Introduction: The traditional IT investment evaluation methods and/or techniques tend to measure the quantitative value added by eHealth. However, there are contributions brought by innovation which are intangible and sundry, and thus are difficult to identify, measure and manage. A model presented by Vimarlund &amp; Koch (2011) aims for identifying the benefits that IT investments bring to health and social care organizations. It could be used as a tool that identifies and classifies the effects and indicators of IT innovation in-vestments at different organizational levels for different stakeholders. Purpose and research questions: This is an evaluative study with the purpose to validate Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model through practical application. A care study of EIAS (ERAS Interactive Audit System) is conducted. ERAS stands for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, which is an innovative process aims to enhance patient’s outcome after ma-jor surgery. EIAS is a system that supports the ERAS process. The aim is to achieve a deep understanding of IT investment evaluation. The model will be used in a real case as a guide to evaluate and identify impact that derives from the use and implementation of IT applica-tions. The process of evaluation could also be seen as a process of validation of the model in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. Through this study, we aim to find out: 1) What are the possible contributions that EIAS brings to Jönköping County Council? 2) How is the performance of Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model in practical application, in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability? Method: The purpose of this study is evaluative and it is conducted by using adductive ap-proach. Single case study will be adopted as the research strategy. In this study, qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured interview with key respondents. The data collected will be analyzed qualitatively with a narrative approach. Conclusion: Guided by Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model, the innovations that have been brought into healthcare organizations by EARS are electronic information supply, internal integration of clinical information and possibilities to learn from the system. The model has been validated in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. The evaluation model is a generic model to demonstrate the contribution of IT to innovation and change in health care. It could be used in both formative and summative assessment and as well as goal-free and goal-based evaluation. The issue of the productivity paradox has been noticed as some effects are not immediate after introducing of IT. User-participation or not could be considered as an important condition for the validity of the evaluation guided by the evaluation model.

The purpose of this study is to explore a potentially more practical approach to direct writing assessment using computer algorithms. Traditional rubric rating (RR) is a common yet highly resource-intensive evaluation practice when performed reliably. This study compared the traditional rubric model of ESL writing assessment and many-facet Rasch modeling (MFRM) to comparative judgment (CJ), the new approach, which shows promising results in terms of reliability and validity. We employed two groups of raters”novice and experienced”and used essays that had been previously double-rated, analyzed with MFRM, and selected with fit statistics. We compared the results of the novice and experienced groups against the initial ratings using raw scores, MFRM, and a modern form of CJ”randomly distributed comparative judgment (RDCJ). Results showed that the CJ approach, though not appropriate for all contexts, can be valid and as reliable as RR while requiring less time to generate procedures, train and norm raters, and rate the essays. Additionally, the CJ approach is more easily transferable to novel assessment tasks while still providing context-specific scores. Results from this study will not only inform future studies but can help guide ESL programs to determine which rating model best suits their specific needs.

La réalité économique vécue aujourd’hui, principalement par les pays européens, apporte,en même temps qu’une naturelle préoccupation, un nouvel horizon de pensées, un souffle de nouvelles idées. La pratique a montré qu’une réduction des dépenses publiques n’est pas la solution la plus fiable pour répondre à la crise de la dette publique. La présente thèse se propose de démontrer que l’investissement dans la performance de la perception fiscale peut être une puissante prophylaxie. Au lieu de diminuer les dépenses générées par les plus divers services publics, la meilleure politique à adopter est le développement de la performance de l’Administration fiscale. Dans le texte, nous décrirons la performance d’une administration qui parvient à percevoir les ressources nécessaires au fonctionnementde l’État, avec un minimum de dépenses et en causant un préjudice moindre aux contribuables, dont les intérêts et les satisfactions sont préservés au maximum. Il s’agit d’une définition générale qui n’est pas restreinte à l’analyse d’une certaine ordonnance.Notre objectif est de construire une notion universelle, applicable en tout lieu. De la même manière, nous chercherons à identifier les moyens généraux qui promeuvent l’objectif de performance de l’Administration fiscale. Il ne fait pas de doute que cet objectif ne peut être atteint qu’en rendant le travail de l’administration plus pratique. Le « principe de praticité » aide exactement à la diminution des multiples tâches. Cet objectif est complété par la privatisation de certaines activités liées à la perception des impôts. Au-delà de la réduction du travail du Fisc, nous comprenons qu’il est nécessaire d’investir dans les mesures de contrôle et de diminution des litiges, qui en plus de dégrader la sensible relation entre administration et contribuable, retarde l’encaissement des impôts, ce qui a un impact négatif au niveau de la perception fiscale. Cet objectif peut être atteint par le biais du développement du consentement à l’impôt et de l’adoption de moyens alternatifs de résolution de litiges fiscaux. / The economic reality lived today primarily by European countries, along with a natural concern, brings a new horizon of thoughts, a breath of new ideas. The practice has already shown that cutting public spending is not the most reliable output to the Government debt crisis. What is intended to demonstrate with this thesis is that the investment in tax collection performance can be a powerful prophylaxis. Instead of reducing spending accomplished with the most diverse public services, the best policy to be adopted is the development of tax administration performance. In the text, we describe as performer the Administration which manages to raise the resources needed to perform its functions, the State with the least expenses for the minor nuisance caused possible for taxpayers, in which their interests and satisfactions to be preserved as much as possible. This is a general definition that is not restricted to a particular land-use analysis. Our goal is to build a universal notion applicable anywhere. Similarly, we seek to identify a general meanswhich promotes the objective of making the effective tax administration. There is no doubt that this goal can only be achieved if the work of the Administration becomes more practical. The "principle of practicality" helps exactly in the reduction of multiple tasks. This is complemented through the privatization of some activities related to tax collection. In addition to reducing the work of tax authorities, we understand that it is necessary to invest in control measures and reduction of disputes, which in addition to degrade the sensitive relationship between administration and taxpayers, slows the receipt of taxes, causing a negative impact on the level of revenues. This goal can be achieved, mainly through the development of consent to tax and the adoption of alternative means of dispute resolution.

Abstract There is a broad consensus in the software engineering (SE) research community that understanding system desiderata and design creativity is critical for the success of software projects. This has motivated a plethora of research in SE to improve requirements engineering (RE) processes. However, little research has investigated the relationship between the way desiderata are presented (i.e., framed) and creative design performance. This dissertation, therefore, examines the effects of more formal presentations of desiderata on design creativity. The research was conducted in three phases. The first consisted of summarizing the available literature on cognitive biases in SE to build a comprehensive body of knowledge, understand the current state of research, and identify the relevant literature to position and delineate subsequent investigations involving the framing effect and fixation. This research phase also investigated how creativity is conceptualized (i.e., understood, assessed and improved) in SE by exploring the perceptual differences and similarities between SE researchers and practitioners. In the second phase, two controlled experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of framing desiderata first as requirements (in general) and then as prioritized requirements on design creativity (i.e., the originality and practicality of a design). The third phase involved a protocol study to explore the underlying cognitive mechanisms that may explain why framing desiderata as formal requirements affects creativity. The empirical evidence from the second and third phases was interpreted together to propose a theoretical framework that explains the effect of specification formality on design creativity. While the results of the experiments show that specification formality is negatively related to design creativity (i.e., desiderata framed as requirements or prioritized requirements result in designs that are less creative), the findings from the protocol study indicate that the negative relationship between specification formality and design creativity is mediated by fixation (i.e., more formal presentation of desiderata induces fixation and hinders critical thinking). Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that more formal and structured presentations of desiderata cause requirements fixation—the tendency to attribute undue confidence and importance to desiderata presented as formal requirements statements—that affects design creativity, and thus undermines software engineering success. / Tiivistelmä Ohjelmistotuotannon tutkijoiden keskuudessa on laaja yksimielisyys järjestelmän tarpeiden ja suunnittelun luovuuden ymmärtämisen kriittisyydestä ohjelmistoprojektien menestyksessä. Tämä on motivoinut monia ohjelmistotuotannon vaatimusmäärittelyprosessien parantamiseen liittyviä tutkimuksia. Harvassa on tarkasteltu tarpeiden esitystavan (eli muotoilun) ja luovan suunnittelun lopputuloksen välistä yhteyttä. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan tarpeiden muodollisempien esitystapojen vaikutuksia suunnittelun luovuuteen. Tutkimus oli kolmivaiheinen. Ensin referoitiin ohjelmistotuotannossa kognitiivisiin harhoihin liittyvä kirjallisuus kartoittamaan nykytutkimuksen tila ja merkityksellinen kirjallisuus myöhempien, kehysvaikutuksen ja fiksaation sisältävien tutkimusten sijoittamiseen ja rajaamiseen. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin luovuuden käsitteellistämistä (eli ymmärrettävyyttä, arviointia ja parantamista) tutkimalla katsannollisia eroja ja yhtäläisyyksiä tutkijoiden ja ammattilaisten välillä. Toisessa vaiheessa tehtiin kaksi kontrolloitua koetta tarpeiden muotoilun vaikutuksien tutkimiseksi, ensin vaatimuksina (yleisesti) ja sitten tärkeysjärjestykseen laitettuina vaatimuksina suhteessa suunnittelun luovuuteen (eli omaperäisyyteen ja käytännöllisyyteen). Lopuksi, protokollatutkimuksella selvitettiin taustalla olevia kognitiivisia mekanismeja selittämään syitä muodollisina vaatimuksina esitettyjen tarpeiden vaikutuksista luovuuteen. Toisesta ja kolmannesta vaiheesta saatujen empiiristen aineistojen tulkittiin yhdessä muodostavan teoreettisen viitekehyksen, joka selittää määrittelyn muodollisuuden vaikutusta suunnittelun luovuuteen. Vaikka kokeiden tulokset osoittavat määrittelyjen muodollisuuden vaikuttavan negatiivisesti suunnittelun luovuuteen (eli tarpeiden muotoilu vaatimuksina tai priorisoituina vaatimuksina vähentää suunnitelmien luovuutta), protokollatutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat fiksaation vaikuttavan negatiiviseen yhteyteen määrittelyjen muodollisuuden ja suunnittelun luovuuden välillä (eli tarpeiden muodollisempi esitystapa aiheuttaa fiksaatiota ja vaikeuttaa kriittistä ajattelua). Kaiken kaikkiaan, väitöskirjan tulokset esittävät muodollisempien ja strukturoidumpien tarpeiden esitystapojen aiheuttavan vaatimusten fiksaatiota, taipumusta pitää luottamusta ja tärkeyttä tarpeiden muodollisten vaatimusten ilmaisun ansioina, joka vaikuttaa suunnittelun luovuuteen heikentäen ohjelmistotuotannon menestymisen mahdollisuutta.

This project, overall, involves a theory of law as dimensions. Throughout the history of the study of law, many different theoretical paradigms have emerged proffering different and competing ways to answer the question ‘what is law’? Traditionally, many of these paradigms have been at irreconcilable odds with one another. Notwithstanding this seeming reality, the goal of this project was to attempt to take three of the leading paradigms in legal theory and provide a way to explain how each might fit into a single coherent theory of law. I set out to accomplish this by drawing on the field of theoretical physics and that field’s use of spatial dimensions in explaining various physical phenomena. By engaging in a dimensional analysis of law, I found that I was able to place each paradigm within its own dimension with that dimension being defined by a specific element of time, and in doing so much of the conflict between the paradigms came to be ameliorated. The project has been divided into two main parts. PART I discusses the fundamentals of legal theory (Chapter 1) and the fundamentals of dimensions (Chapter 2). These fundamentals provide a foundation for a dimensional analysis of law which takes place throughout PART II. In Chapter 3, I argue that the three fundamental theses of Positivism coalesce with the 1st-dimension of law, which is defined as law as it exists at any one point in time. From there, I argue in Chapter 4 that the 2nd-dimension of law, being law as it exists between two points in time (i.e. when cases are adjudicated), is characterized by Pragmatism. I then turn, in Chapter 5, to argue that the 3rd-dimension of law, being law as it exists from the very first point in legal time to the ever changing present day, coalesces with the fundamental theses of Naturalism. Ultimately then, I argue that a theory of law as dimensions, through the vantage points of the specific elements of time, provides a more complete account of the nature of law.