bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Relating Outputs, Outcomes and Impact in the Evaluation of International Development Projects
Authors: Walker Robert Kenyon 
Published: April 2023

Background: The recent controversies on the pages of the JMDE regarding UNDP evaluations, as well as the DAC criteria, are discussed in the light of two UNDP/GEF evaluations in Latin America for which the author was primarily responsible.Purpose: The author defends the utilization of all five evaluation criteria of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD (the DAC criteria), and their integration via Theories of Change.Setting: The pine/oak forest of Honduras and the mangrove regions along the coast of Brazil.Intervention: Two projects of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the respective governments.Research Design: Mid-term evaluations with site visits and interviews.Data Collection and Analysis: In the Brazilian case, longitudinal analysis of available data was conducted and related to the findings of the interviews and observation, as well as published reports and studies. A Theory of Change (action model) of the Honduran project was structured and graphically portrayed based on desk review of the project document and other documentation, adapted following initial interviews, and field tested.Findings: In Brazil, preliminary evidence derived in part from Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) questions with reference to results indicates a relative lack of project effectiveness and of preliminary signs of impact. The state of Pará offers one possible exception, related in part to the fact that a certain momentum had already been built up in that state prior to project start-up and in part to the early adoption through the project of a new method of transportation of the fiddler crab (Ucides cordatus), in baskets covered with wet sponges rather than in sacks. The Honduran project, with the strong support of the national government and the UNDP field office as well as GEF, successfully adapted the provisions of the project document to pursue a more community- and community organization-centered approach, rather than relying on the outside consultants originally specified. Project-supported gathering of impact data raised environmental awareness, strengthened the local university and established a baseline for future ex-post impact evaluation. Keywords: Theory of Change; DAC criteria; capacity development; displacement of goals; UNDP/GEF.
How Good are Our Measures? Investigating the Appropriate Use of Factor Analysis for Survey Instruments
Authors: Sanders Megan , Gugiu P. Cristian , Enciso Patricia 
Published: April 2023

Background: Evaluation work frequently utilizes factor analysis to establish the dimensionality, reliability, and stability of surveys. However, survey data is typically ordinal, violating the assumptions of most statistical methods, and thus is often factor-analyzed inappropriately. Purpose: This study illustrates the salient analytical decisions for factor-analyzing ordinal survey data appropriately and demonstrates the repercussions of inappropriate analyses. Setting: The data used for this study are drawn from an evaluation of the efficacy of a drama-based approach to teaching Shakespeare in elementary and middle school. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Survey research. Data Collection and Analysis: Four factor analytic methods were compared: a traditional exploratory factor analysis (EFA), a full-information EFA, and two EFAs within the confirmatory factor analysis framework (E/CFA) conducted according to the Jöreskog method and the Gugiu method. Findings: Methods appropriate for ordinal data produce better models, the E/CFAs outperform the EFAs, and the Gugiu method demonstrates greater model interpretability and stability than the Jöreskog method. These results suggest that the Gugiu E/CFA may be the preferable factor analytic method for use with ordinal data. Practical applications of these findings are discussed. Keywords: factor analysis; ordinal data; E/CFA; survey research.
Theories of Change: Making Value Explicit
Authors: Powell Steve 
Published: April 2023

Background: This article addresses two problems. The first is the Flexibility Problem: If we are to use a more flexible format for theories of change than for traditional logic models, one in which we can no longer assume that we only value things which are at the end of causal chains, nor that we intervene on all the things at the beginning of causal chains, how then can we show which things we value, and which things we intervene on? The second is the Definition Problem: What is the difference between a theory showing the causal influences within and around a project and, more specifically, a theory of change for the project?

Purpose: To solve the Flexibility Problem and the Definition Problem.

Setting: N/A

Intervention: N/A

Research Design: N/A

Data Collection and Analysis: N/A

Findings: A definition of “Theory of Change” is introduced, based upon a definition of “Theory” together with two symbols to mark variables we value (“♥”, or any suitable alternative symbol) and variables we intervene on (“▶”, or any suitable alternative symbol). These two definitions and the two symbols together answer both the Flexibility Problem and the Definition Problem, and have some interesting side-effects as follows. Firstly, they suggest that it is the task of evaluators to model how stakeholders value aspects of a project just as much as it is to model the causal chains within a project. Secondly, evaluators are able to model the fact that stakeholders may value variables which are not at the end of a causal chain, throwing a new light on the debate between results-based and principles-based programming. Thirdly, they provide a way to understand the behaviour of stakeholders and stakeholder groups in terms of their own theories of change – the way they view the world and how they can get what they want – rather than from the traditional behaviourist perspective more familiar to most evaluators.
Being Blind in a World of Multiple Perspectives: The Evaluator’s Dilemma Between the Hope of Becoming a Team Player and the Fear of Becoming a Critical Friend with No Friends
Authors: Tarsilla Michele 
Published: April 2023

Background: A large number of evaluation theorists have debated the issue of objectivity and bias in evaluation over the last five decades. In particular, the degree to which distance from the evaluand enhances the validity and reliability of evaluation findings has been a prominent topic of discussion.
Purpose: This article has two primary objectives. First, it intends to present some of the positivist and post-positivist theories on distance that have dominated the evaluation discourse since the late 1960’s, by also showing the limitations of their respective assumptions. Second, it describes a more recent evaluation theory on distance that is proving to help evaluators rapport with their evaluand more effectively, especially in the case of complex programs involving a large variety of stakeholders.
Setting: Not applicable.
Subjects: Not applicable.
Research Design: Not applicable.
Data Collection and Analysis: The paper is the result of both a desk review and a series of interviews with some major evaluation theorists aimed to compare and contrast some of the most relevant ideas on distance in evaluation expressed over the last five decades.
Findings: The author shows that evaluators today are still facing the dilemma of whether they should seek proximity to or distance from the evaluand. However, the author identifies an increasingly popular evaluation approach (herewith referred as the pluralist approach as opposed to the niche approach) that promises to overcome the issue of distance in evaluation more successfully than any other earlier theory. The author dismisses the idea of absolute distance, predicated by both Scriven and Campbell. In doing so, he also shows that evaluators who are closer to the evaluand and the context contiguous to it tend to have a deeper understanding of the issues at stake and therefore enhance the overall quality of their evaluation. In addition, the author acknowledges that evaluators today have a new important role to play vis-à-vis their evaluand: mediating stakeholders’ competing values and agendas for the sake of equity and social justice.
Conclusions: The author concludes that the proximity to the evaluand and the integration of multiple perspectives in an evaluation represent two of evaluation’s most enriching—rather than detrimental—factors. The author also asserts that a truly participatory approach can effectively coexist with advocacy, so long as evaluators are able to clarify their stances vis-à-vis the social, economic, and political issues associated with their evaluand.
“Process Values” and “Deep Values” in Evaluation
Authors: Davidson E. Jane 
Published: April 2023

Background: Many evaluation theorists and practitioners have advocated the application of cultural values to the evaluation process to ensure cultural appropriateness and responsiveness.
Purpose: This article draws a distinction between these “process values” and “deep values” in evaluation, using the specific example of cultural values to illustrate. The application of “deep values” refers to the deliberate and systematic inclusion of [in this case, cultural] values in the very definitions of “quality” and “value” used in an evaluation, and in the evaluative interpretation of evidence.
Setting: Not applicable.
Subjects: Not applicable.
Research Design: Not applicable.
Data Collection and Analysis: Not applicable.
Findings: Not applicable.
Conclusions: Including “deep cultural values” in the “merit determination” or “valuing” step in evaluation is partly about ensuring the right voices are at the sense-making table, but it’s also about having practical evaluation-specific methodologies for systematically and transparently building in those cultural values.
Evaluation Independence in Organizations
Authors: Picciotto Robert 
Published: April 2023

Background: Evaluation independence is a neglected issue in the literature. Yet, it is a critical aspect of evaluation governance in organizations. Purpose: The article draws on organizational theory, institutional economics and international development evaluation practice to define evaluation independence in organizations, outline principles geared to the design of evaluation processes within organizations and trigger a debate on evaluation independence in the evaluation community. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Literature review informed by personal exposure to management of the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group. Data Collection and Analysis: Not applicable. Findings: Independent and self-evaluation are complementary and synergistic. Organizational theory demonstrates that a judicious combination of independent and self-evaluation contributes to managerial accountability and double loop learning. Keywords: independence; accountability; internal evaluation; external evaluation; double loop learning
Rubrics: A Method for Surfacing Values and Improving the Credibility of Evaluation
Authors: King Julian , McKegg Kate , Oakden Judy , Wehipeihana Nan 
Published: April 2023

Background: The challenges of valuing in evaluation have been the subject of much debate; on what basis do we make judgments about performance, quality, and effectiveness? And according to whom? (Julnes, 2012b). There are many ways identified in the literature for carrying out assisted valuation (Julnes, 2012c). One way of assisting the valuation process is the use of evaluative rubrics. This practice-based article unpacks the learnings of a group of evaluators who have used evaluative rubrics to grapple with this challenge. Compared to their previous practice, evaluative rubrics have allowed them to surface and deal with values in a more transparent way. In their experience when evaluators and evaluation stakeholders get clearer about values, evaluative judgments become more credible and warrantable. Purpose: Share practical lessons learned from working with rubrics. Setting: Aotearoa (New Zealand). Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Not applicable. Data Collection and Analysis: Not applicable. Findings: They have found that while evaluative rubrics look beguilingly simple they are hard to do well. However, when done well, evaluative rubrics can substantially increase the use and credibility of evaluation.Keywords: Rubrics; values; valuation; stakeholder; validity; credibility; utility
Mitigation of tsunami debris impact by fender structures for reinforced-concrete buildings
Authors:   , Tun Zin 
Published: April 2023

The impact of large debris such as loaded shipping containers can cause significant damage to buildings at shorelines. In this study, the building and protection structures are connected with fenders to reduce the impact of large debris. The objective is to study the building with a fender structure that reduces the impact of the shipping container. For a fender structure, cone-shaped rubber fenders are used to absorb the impact energy. Various fender reactions are considered as a parameter to conduct the efficiency of the fender. Tsunami pushover analyses using the force-controlled and displacement-controlled methods are used to obtain the capacity of the building. The energy approach for shipping container impact is used to evaluate the resistance of the building. Capacity curves, energy absorptions, inter-story drift ratios of the buildings with and without fender structures are studied. The fender can effectively absorb the debris impact. A design recommendation is proposed for the building with a fender structure. It is found that fender yield forces in the fender structure is the key parameter for the performance of the main building. Then, a three-dimensional tsunami pushover analysis is conducted on the building with 6 fender units. It is found that building with fenders can effectively resist all types of shipping container impact cases.
A robust system for core thai natural language processing technologies
Authors:   , Udomcharoenchaikit Can 
Published: April 2023

As the amount of unstructured textual data grows, it becomes increasingly important to build an intelligent system that can process it. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a technology that allows a computer to exploit human languages to perform tasks. Deep learning models have shown excellent results across fundamental tasks in NLP, such as word segmentation, part-of-speech tagging, and named-entity recognition. However, in many situations, these proposed methods fail to perform well. For an NLP system to be robust, it must address issues such as out-of-vocabulary and spelling-mistakes. This thesis's research goal is to develop NLP models that can handle malformed texts to improve their real-world setting usability. In this thesis, I propose novel models and evaluations that focus on robustness against malformed texts.

This dissertation proposes multiple novel training strategies and architectures to improve the robustness against malformed texts. This thesis explores input data manipulation strategies that diversify training data, such as UNK masking and adversarial training. It explores how sub-lexical information can improve the robustness of word embeddings. Furthermore, it examines similarity constraint techniques, such as triplet loss, which constraint the similarity between the original texts and the parallel perturbed texts.

I also propose alternative evaluation schemes that reveal the weaknesses of NLP systems by introducing typographical adversarial examples to the test sets. Our adversarial evaluation schemes show that current deep learning models are not robust against misspelled inputs, and they also show that our proposed training strategies and architectures can improve the performance over malformed texts.
Synthesis of MWCNTs by chemical vapor deposition from Methane Using FeMo/MgO catalyst : role of hydrogen and kinetic study
Authors:   , Chotmunkhongsin Chawalkul 
Published: April 2023

In this study, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) of methane over FeMo/MgO catalyst in a fixed-bed reactor. The role of hydrogen on CNTs synthesis and kinetics of CNTs formation were experimentally investigated. The study revealed that hydrogen in the catalyst reduction process plays an important role in the structural changes of FeMo/MgO catalyst. The catalyst structure fully transformed into metallic FeMo, resulting in the increased yield of 5 folds higher than the non-reduced catalyst. However, the slightly larger diameter and lower crystallinity ratio of CNTs was obtained. The hydrogen co-feeding during the synthesis can slightly increase the CNTs yield, achieving the optimum amount of hydrogen addition. Further increase in hydrogen to the excess condition would inhibit the methane decomposition, resulting in less product yield. It was found hydrogenation of carbon to methane has proceeded during hydrogen co-feed process. However, the hydrogenation was non-selective to allotropes of carbon. Therefore, the addition of hydrogen would not benefit either maintaining the catalyst stability or improving the crystallinity ratio of the product by eliminating amorphous carbon from the catalyst surface and the product. The kinetic model of CNTs formation correlates with pseudo-first order of methane partial pressure. The rate of CNTs formation increases with the partial pressure of methane but decreases when saturation is exceeded. The activation energy was found to be 13.22 kJ mol-1, showing the rate controlling step to be in the process of mass transfer.
Techno-economic analysis of hydrogen production from dehydrogenation and steam reforming of ethanol for carbon dioxide conversion to methanol
Authors:   , Khamhaeng Phatchayada 
Published: April 2023

Decreasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by converting to higher-valued product has become of interest. Hydrogen (H2) is an important feedstock required in thermochemical conversion of CO2 to chemicals such as methanol. The cost and availability of H2 affect the cost of CO2 conversion. This study is focused on the process simulation of H2 production from ethanol feedstock. Steam reforming of ethanol is compared with dehydrogenation of ethanol to H2 with valued products including ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde. Form this study, steam reforming of ethanol presents the lowest cost of H2 production at 1.90 USD/kg H2 while dehydrogenation of ethanol presents the cost at 3.57 and 3.40 USD/kg H2, respectively. Although presenting the lowest cost, steam reforming of ethanol provides a net positive CO2 emission in the overall CO2 conversion to methanol process. In contrast, ethanol dehydrogenation to H2 and byproducts, ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde, promotes a net negative CO2 emission of -253.33 kg/ton methanol and -5.55 kg /ton methanol, respectively. The results present a decreasing CO2 emission with an increasing cost of H2 production.
Understanding the response in Pugionium cornutum (L.) Gaertn. seedling leaves under drought stress using transcriptome and proteome integrated analysis
Authors: Wang Ping , Wu Zhaoxin , Chen Guihua , Yu Xiaojing 
Published: April 2023

Background
Drought is one of the crucial constraints limiting horticultural plant’s production and development around the world. Pugionium cornutum is an annual or biennial xerophyte with strong environmental adaptability and drought resistance; however, the mechanisms with respect to response to drought stress remain largely unclear.

Methods
After seedling emergence, the gravimetric method was used to control soil relative water content (SRWC). Drought stress was applied to the six-leaf stage P. cornutum seedlings. The soil water content of different drought stress levels (L) was controlled by gravimetric method as follows: control (L1): 70–75% SRWC; moderate drought level (L2): 40–45% SRWC; severe drought level (L3): 30–35% SRWC, and the water was added to different drought stress levels at about 18:00 p.m. every day. The experiment ended when the leaves of P. cornutum showed severe wilting (10-leaf stage). Samples were harvested and stored at −80 °C for physiological determination, and transcriptomic and proteomic sequencing.

Results
Compared with L1, the leaves of P. cornutum seedlings were increasingly wilted after drought treatment; the SRWC of the drought-stress leaves decreased notably while the leaf water potential was rose; the proline, malondialdehyde (MDA) content increased with the continuous drought treatment but peroxidase (POD) activity decreased. Besides, 3,027 differential genes (DGs) and 196 differential proteins (DPs), along with 1,943 DGs and 489 DPs were identified in L2-L1 and L3-L1, respectively. The transcriptome and proteome integrated analysis manifested that only 30 and 70 were commonly regulated both in L2-L1 and L3-L1, respectively. Of which, 24 and 61 DGs or DPs showed the same trend including sHSPs, APX2, GSTU4, CML42, and POD, etc. However, most of DGs or DPs were regulated only at the transcriptome or proteome level mainly including genes encoding signal pathway (PYR1, PYLs, SnRK2J, PLC2, CDPK9/16/29, CML9, MAPKs), transcription factors (WRKYs, DREB2A, NAC055, NAC072, MYB and, HB7) and ion channel transporters (ALMT4, NHX1, NHX2 and TPK2). These genes or proteins were involved in multiple signaling pathways and some important metabolism processes, which offers valuable information on drought-responsive genes and proteins for further study in P. cornutum.