¡@¡@Recently due to the significant economic growth in Taiwan, buildings were constructed taller with usage diversified. However, the Building Code is difficult to cope with this rapid change and also sometimes with design negligence, fire accidents are not uncommon in this country. ¡@¡@Based on former experience, casualties occurred mainly due to the smoke hazard and inadequate time for egress. Therefore, quantitative assessment on these two items has become increasingly important, which is the main theme of this study. ¡@¡@During the design stage, a lot of constraints existed in adapting the local fire code, which is prescriptive in nature, especially in designing buildings with large spaces, atria, or malls. In that case, performance-based design was often attempted followed by quantitative risk assessment to validate its design effectiveness. ¡@¡@In this study, the ABRI Manual for Fire Risk assessment has been applied, followed by the F method for comparative study. The result indicated that both methods can be applied as reliable tools for fire risk assessment and warrants its application in engineering projects.

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[pt] Os constructos responsáveis pela fundamentação teórica da neuropsicologia foram, em grande parte, constituídos a partir da convergência de várias ciências. Sendo assim, para que se possa compreender a neuropsicologia, é necessário ter em mente um percurso histórico desde os estudos iniciais da história da mente e do cérebro. A avaliação neuropsicológica ocupa um lugar central na neuropsicologia, uma vez que auxilia no exame de determinadas manifestações do indivíduo para a investigação do funcionamento cognitivo e mental. A avaliação neuropsicológica deve abranger a análise quantitativa e a análise qualitativa. Os resultados quantitativos dos testes neuropsicológicos refletem a maturidade conceitual e o nível cognitivo dos pacientes, porém é importante ressaltar que muitas variáveis externas aos testes podem interferir nesse desempenho. Assim, os escores dos testes, isoladamente, fornecem pouca informação acerca do funcionamento do paciente, sendo muitas vezes importante verificar como ele soluciona um problema e o porquê de não conseguir executar determinadas tarefas. Com o objetivo de averiguar a importância da avaliação qualitativa na prática dos psicólogos que realizam a avaliação neuropsicológica, foi realizada uma entrevistada semiestruturada com 11 profissionais. A entrevista semiestruturada, neste caso, visou o entendimento amplo do processo de avaliação neuropsicológica na prática de cada profissional. Os resultados foram organizados em princípios de classificação, dando origem, por sua vez, a conjuntos de categorias que, ao serem analisados, permitiram concluir que a importância dada pelos neuropsicólogos à avaliação qualitativa ainda está muito aquém da avaliação quantitativa. / [en] Constructs responsible for the theoretical basis of neuropsychology were largely formed from the convergence of various sciences. Thereafter, so that we can understand the neuropsychology, it is necessary to bear in mind a historical journey since the initial studies of the mind and brain history. Neuropsychological assessment plays a central role in neuropsychology, as it assists in the examination of certain manifestations of individual for investigation of cognitive and mental functioning. Neuropsychological assessment should cover quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative results of the neuropsychological tests reflect the conceptual maturity and cognitive level of patients, however it is important to stress that many external tests variables may interfere with this performance. Thus, scores from tests, separately, provide little information about the patient s functioning; being often important to check how he or she solves a problem and why can not perform certain tasks. In order to investigate the importance of qualitative assessment in the practice of psychologists who carry out the neuropsychological assessment, a semi-structured interview was performed with 11 professionals. The semi-structured interview, in this case, aimed at comprehensive understanding of the neuropsychological assessment process in regard to the practice of each professional. Results were organized in classification principles, leading afterwards to sets of categories that, since analyzed, allowed to conclude that the importance given by neuropsychologists to the qualitative assessment is still far short of quantitative one.

abstract: The efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been convincingly demonstrated in studies that compare motor performance with and without stimulation, but characterization of performance at intermediate stimulation amplitudes has been limited. This study investigated the effects of changing DBS amplitude in order to assess dose-response characteristics, inter-subject variability, consistency of effect across outcome measures, and day-to-day variability. Eight subjects with PD and bilateral DBS systems were evaluated at their clinically determined stimulation (CDS) and at three reduced amplitude conditions: approximately 70%, 30%, and 0% of the CDS (MOD, LOW, and OFF, respectively). Overall symptom severity and performance on a battery of motor tasks - gait, postural control, single-joint flexion-extension, postural tremor, and tapping - were assessed at each condition using the motor section of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-III) and quantitative measures. Data were analyzed to determine whether subjects demonstrated a threshold response (one decrement in stimulation resulted in ≥ 70% of the maximum change) or a graded response to reduced stimulation. Day-to-day variability was assessed using the CDS data from the three testing sessions. Although the cohort as a whole demonstrated a graded response on several measures, there was high variability across subjects, with subsets exhibiting graded, threshold, or minimal responses. Some subjects experienced greater variability in their CDS performance across the three days than the change induced by reducing stimulation. For several tasks, a subset of subjects exhibited improved performance at one or more of the reduced conditions. Reducing stimulation did not affect all subjects equally, nor did it uniformly affect each subject's performance across tasks. These results indicate that altered recruitment of neural structures can differentially affect motor capabilities and demonstrate the need for clinical consideration of the effects on multiple symptoms across several days when selecting DBS parameters. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Bioengineering 2013

X-ray flourescence (XRF) and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) measurements for manganese, iron, copper, and zinc were compared for 96 samples of 21 foods from different sources. Correlation coefficients were 0.94 for manganese, 0.99 for iron, 0.93 for copper, and 0.91 for zinc for XRF vs. AAS determinations. Similiar comparisons were performed on 228 samples of fast foods purchased in Utah retail outlets. Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.91 for copper to 0.97 for iron and zinc. Comparisons of values generated by XRF for manganese, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, arsenic, and aluminum to values certified by the National Bureau of Standards indicated no significant differences by student's t tests. The simultaneous multielement capabilities of XRF allowed for an extensive screening study for high levels of toxic minerals in the fast foods. Levels of selenium, arsenic, and aluminum in fast foods were determined by XRF. Inductively coupled plasma was used to screen for high cadmium levels since cadmium detection limits by XRF were too high to be of value.

The Own Risk and Solvency Assessment, ORSA, is referred to as the heart of the regulation to be for European insurance companies - Solvency II. The aim of the ORSA process is to provide an overall and holistic view of the insurer’s risks by analyzing their current financial status and business strategy at hand. There is no predefined way to implement this process, which means that the companies are forced to develop a model themselves, as they see fit. In collaboration with a regional insurance company in Sweden we develop a structure and framework for an ORSA-model, flexible enough to be used by similar insurers yet standardized enough to overcome the issue of constrained resources within these smaller organizations. We apply a risk-factor based approach and tie together a balance sheet projection and stress testing, designed to be further developed as the individual insurer see fit. The suggested approach yields partially satisfying results and we consider the model to be particularly well-suited for assessing risk in the context of the small, non-life insurer. / Den egna risk- och solvensutvärderingen, ORSA, kallas hjärtat av det kommande regelverket för europeiska försäkringsbolag - Solvens II. Syftet med ORSA-processen är att ge en övergripande helhetsbild av försäkringsgivarens risker genom att analysera deras finansiella ställning och affärsstrategi. Det finns inget fördefinierat sätt att genomföra denna process, vilket innebär att företagen tvingas att utveckla en modell på egen hand, på ett sätt som de finner lämpligt. I samarbete med ett regionalt försäkringsbolag i Sverige utvecklar vi en struktur och en grund för en ORSA-modell. En modell som är tillräckligt flexibel för att kunna användas av liknande försäkringsgivare men samtidigt standardiserad nog att lösa problemet med begränsade resurser i dessa mindre organisationer. Vi tillämpar en riskfaktor-baserad metod, prognostiserar resultat- och balansräkning för bolaget och utför stresstester. Metoden är utformad för att utvecklas vidare av den enskilde försäkringsgivaren så som de finner lämpligt. Den föreslagna metoden ger delvis tillfredsställande resultat och vi anser att det är en grund väl lämpad att använda som utgångspunkt för att konstruera riskmätningsmetoder för små, skadeförsäkringsbolag.

The aim of this thesis is to find out how English teachers at secondary schools grade students' performance, to what extent teachers grade systematically and what the possible weaknesses in these systems are. A questionnaire sent to various types of secondary schools ('gymnázium', SOŠ, SOU) was used for data collection. Respondents were evaluated based on their grading approach, with questions covering, among others, the following areas: use of grading criteria and type of activities graded, grading principles followed, availability of grading guidelines within schools and the extent to which these were binding, teacher instruction on grading at university, and so on. The results of the research pointed to a non-systematic grading approach in English lessons which may result in inconsistency in student performance assessment across the secondary school system. In its conclusion, the thesis identified critical areas of the non-systematic grading approach and sought possible improvements. Keywords: grading, assessment, quantitative assessment, English languages skills, secondary schools, English teachers

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英國政府認為公共投資計畫案，必須具備公帑節省之價值（value for money），才能採取民間融資創建（private finance initiative）。本文是從制度面探討如何評估公帑節省之價值（VfM）。一旦部會有初步的證據支持PFI是適當的採購模式，部會就應該開始進行三階段的VfM評估。在第一階段，採購當局應該對可能適用PFI的採購計畫進行定性（qualitative assessment）和定量評估（quantitative assessment）。在第二階段專案團隊應該對計畫中的組成專案執行更細部的分析，這個分析結果將成為未來要公告的專案概要樣本（OBC）的一部分。當第二階段的評估結果顯示此時PFI專案具有VfM，第三階段（在OBC刊登於歐盟公告至採購程序結束的這段期間）仍須持續地進行評估VfM，以確保VfM的結果不會變化。 本文結論的後半部闡明了採購當局在做VfM評估時常會遇到的實務問題，並根據專家、學者的看法以及實際評估報告的結果提出建議，以供未來政府部門在進行VfM評估時之參考。

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a disease in which the body has "turned on itself", with its immune system attacking mobility. In RA, an immune mechanism attacks and destroys the joints and limits mobility, in some circumstances to the point of needing replacement of joints. The aim of this research is the development of a less costly, widely accessible, passive sensing technology that provides a quantitative assessment of RA and that monitors the therapeutic effectiveness on joint-debilitating diseases. The proposed solution relies on a quantitative evaluation of human gestures. Such a quantitative assessment supports the comparison between the motion capabilities of a patient and that of a healthy person, using a kinematic model of the human skeleton. Criteria for the classification of severity were established, and tables were generated to classify the levels of severity as a function of the measurements extracted from processed videos of a subject performing predefined movements. This research project, while contributing a new tool to the process of classification of RA level of severity, opens the way for using widely accessible digital imaging for diagnosing and monitoring the evolution of the illness. Replacing MRI or HRUS with a cheaper and more accessible technology would have a major impact on health care services. From the clinical point of view, the proposed techniques based on digital images processing combined with a monitoring approach based on infrared images that was previously developed may provide a utility of care for patients with RA, as well as an alternative and automated approach for early detection of RA and active inflammation at a critical time.