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The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and issues within the policy context of education and the school inspection system which might affect education quality in China and examine stakeholder perceptions of inspection content and context in one city region in China.

A mixed-methods design was used. In all, 365 teachers, headteachers and administrative staff from ten schools across the urban and rural area have responded the questionnaires. A total of 13 interviewees including teachers and headteachers from two urban schools and a rural school, city and national inspectors and an educational officer were conducted. The interview instrument was informed by both international and local literature and some of the quantitative findings.

This paper argues that student non-academic outcomes were perceived by participants to be more important than academic achievements in demonstrating education quality. The prevailing exam-oriented evaluation system still sets barriers for student all-round development. Educational equity in student performance has not drawn sufficient attention from the inspectorates of Shandong province.

School inspection standards remain to be improved to better support student all-round development and equity in educational outcomes within and between schools, and better accommodate policy contexts and local needs.

This study examines the school effectiveness factors which have been rarely tested in Chinese context and collects new empirical evidence to explore participants’ perceptions on the quality of school inspection criteria and education quality in Shandong province.

Visual inspection is used to assess a product’s quantitative characteristics (physical inspection) and/or to assess a product’s qualitative characteristics (sensory inspection). Due to the complexity of the product, inspection tasks are often performed by humans and are therefore prone to errors. It is particularly the case when controllers have to detect aesthetic anomalies, to evaluate them and decide if a product must be rejected or not. The paper details how to improve visual inspection.

This paper details how the performance of visual inspection can be measured. It then lists the actions which can be carried out to improve the detection and the evaluation of aesthetic anomalies. Finally, it describes how can be made the knowledge about visual inspection more explicit in order to be shared by controllers. The methods we propose are illustrated with a concrete example detailed throughout the paper.

The gage R2E2 we developed can be used to decide which corrective actions to carry out. The four generic descriptors and the list of their attributes we list are usable by a controller to both describe and characterize any aesthetic anomaly on the surface of any product. The paper details then how evaluate an anomaly with a grid or with a neural network when the link between attributes values and the overall intensity of the anomaly is not linear. Finally, a method to formalize the expertise of controllers is described.

The proposed approach has been applied in companies which are part of an european research program (INTERREG IV). The practices we suggested have significantly reduced the variability of the visual inspection results observed up to now.

The paper shows how to improve inspection vision of products.

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of inspection and maintenance (I&M) practices used for aging and newly built oil and gas (O&G) facilities. It also proposes a framework and an approach for mechanizing inspection planning to perform preventive maintenance (PM) activities, taking technical condition (TC) and relative degradation (RD) into consideration.

The paper systematically collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners. It also utilizes industrial experience that has been accrued and utilized from inspection planning practices for static mechanical equipment on aging O&G production plants.

The paper defines significant issues in I&M of O&G assets related to: different philosophies; stakeholders’ requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; items interacting with inspection planning mechanization processes and I&M optimization approaches. A framework is identified to mechanize the inspection planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from human involvement, while improving the effective utilization of data from different sources. The suggested approach improves the quality of an inspection program, while minimizing the variability and cost to the engineering contractors as well as to the owners of O&G facilities.

The mechanization of inspection planning (MIP) is vital to have inspection programs with uniform quality. The currently employed inspection practices face challenges in maintaining uniform quality from one inspection program to another due to the variability present in the planning process, especially among the different inspection planning engineers. The suggested fuzzy logic-based MIP supports the minimization of the variability and increases the quality of inspection programs.

The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. These will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the inspection planning problem and solution space within the O&G asset I&M context.

Inspection and maintenance of plant and machinery has traditionally been based on prescriptive industry practices. However, increased experience and a greater understanding of operational hazards is leading sections of industry to take a more informed approach to planning inspection and maintenance, targeting resources to reduce the risk to as low as reasonably practicable. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to asset management to minimize risks in the most cost effective way.

The approach shown optimizes run‐repair‐replace decision‐making in the integrity management of assets with the ultimate aim of maximising the impact of money spent on risk mitigation actions. The risk‐based approach, as opposed to the more conventional approaches, assesses failure in its wider context by considering not just the likelihood of failure, but also the consequences should the failure event occur.

The risk‐based methodology presents a cost‐effective way to minimise life cycle costs in the management of assets whilst maintaining reliability or availability targets, and operating within safety and environmental regulation.

In this paper, for demonstration, a wind turbine system consisting of a number of components including structural components is used. However, the methodology can be extended to any system in which components can be analyzed to provide the required inputs to the risk model.

At a time when competitive pressures force asset managers to prioritize their maintenance, the risk‐based methodology presented here is a rational, efficient and somewhat flexible way to asset integrity management.

Successful bridge management system (BMS) development requires a reliable bridge deterioration model, which is the most crucial component in a BMS. Historical condition ratings obtained from biennial bridge inspections are a major source for predicting future bridge deterioration in BMSs. However, historical condition ratings are very limited in most bridge agencies, thus posing a major barrier for predicting reliable future bridge performance. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary study as part of a long‐term research on the development of a reliable bridge deterioration model using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.

This proposed study aims to develop a reliable deterioration model. The development work consists of two major Stages: stage 1 – generating unavailable bridge element condition rating records using the Backward Prediction Model (BPM). This helps to provide sufficient historical deterioration patterns for each element; and stage 2 – predicting long‐term condition ratings based on the outcome of Stage 1 using time delay neural networks (TDNNs).

Long‐term prediction using proposed method can also be expressed in the same form of inspection records – element quantities of each bridge element can be predicted. The proposed AI‐based deterioration model does not ignore critical failure risks in small number of bridge elements in low condition states (CSs). This implies that the risk in long‐term predictions can be reduced.

The proposed methodology aims to utilise limited bridge inspection records over a short period to predict large datasets spanning over a much longer time period for a reliable, accurate and efficient long‐term bridge deterioration model. Typical uncertainty, due to the limitation of overall condition rating (OCR) method, can be minimised in long‐term predictions using limited inspection records.

Quantitatively detecting surface defects in a circular annulus with high levels of accuracy and efficiency has been paid more attention by researchers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the theoretical dispersion equations for circumferential guided waves and then develop an efficient technique for accurate reconstruction of defects in pipes.

The methodology applied to determine defects in pipelines includes four steps. First, the theoretical work is carried out by developing the appropriate dispersion equations for circumferential guided waves in a pipe. In this phase, formulations of strain-displacement relations are derived in a general equidistant surface coordinate. Following that, a semi-analytical finite element method (SAFEM) is applied to solve the dispersion equations. Then, the scattered fields in a circular annulus are calculated using the developed hybrid finite element method and simulation results are in accord with the law of conservation of energy. Finally, the quantitative detection of Fourier transform (QDFT) approach is further enhanced to efficiently reconstruct the defects in the circular annuli, which have been widely used for engineering applications.

Results obtained from four numerical examples of flaw detection problems demonstrate the correctness of the developed QDFT approach in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Reconstruction of circumferential surface defects using the extended QDFT method can be performed without involving the analytical formulations. Therefore, the streamlined process of inspecting surface defects is well established and this leads to the reduced time in practical engineering tests.

In this paper, the general dispersion equations for circumferential ultrasonic guided waves have been derived using an equidistant surface coordinate and solved by the SAFEM technique to discover the relationship between wavenumber of a wave and its frequency. To reconstruct defects with high levels of accuracy and efficiency, the QDFT approach has been further enhanced to inspect defects in the annular structure.

This paper aims to report on the findings from a research project, incorporated by Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, investigating the integration of inspection management with analysis of document information.

A combination of group and individual interviews were undertaken with qualitative methods of analysis to develop an integrated process model. The model developed uses integrity management factors, which allows flexibility and the early integration of inspection management systems at a strategic level, although detailed planning is still required through the use of integrated management tools. The model combines information on responsibilities, tasks and policies, of personnel in the inspection management of the piping system with the oil and gas industry.

The six inspection activities recognized for the main practical model are, namely, identify pipeline situation; inspect and measure defects; inspection assessment; design inspection; implement inspection activities and measure and report inspection.

This research presented not only a process but also the framework and techniques to manage and improve management effectiveness and inspection efficiency in pipelines of the oil and gas industry. This study will be useful to researchers maintenance professionals and others concerned with inspection and maintenance management of facilities and equipment in the oil and gas industry.

The majority of the population in Hong Kong live in multi‐storey high‐rise buildings. The safety conditions of these buildings are a major concern of the Government and the public. Fire safety is one of the major concerns especially after several large fire tragedies in the past few years. The Hong Kong Government has introduced a mandatory safety assurance requirement which is called the “Building Safety Inspection Scheme”. Under this scheme, building owners are required to appoint appropriate building professionals to assess the safety level of their buildings and to recommend appropriate actions. One of the major aspects relates to the fire safety. In order to ensure uniform standards and easy administration, the Hong Kong Government intends to publish a Code of Practice on the assessment for use by building professionals. This paper proposes a fire safety assurance approach including the fire safety assessment method which may form the basis of the Code of Practice.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate if automated vulnerability scanning accurately identifies vulnerabilities in computer networks and if this accuracy is contingent on the platforms used.

Both qualitative comparisons of functionality and quantitative comparisons of false positives and false negatives are made for seven different scanners. The quantitative assessment includes data from both authenticated and unauthenticated scans. Experiments were conducted on a computer network of 28 hosts with various operating systems, services and vulnerabilities. This network was set up by a team of security researchers and professionals.

The data collected in this study show that authenticated vulnerability scanning is usable. However, automated scanning is not able to accurately identify all vulnerabilities present in computer networks. Also, scans of hosts running Windows are more accurate than scans of hosts running Linux.

This paper focuses on the direct output of automated scans with respect to the vulnerabilities they identify. Areas such as how to interpret the results assessed by each scanner (e.g. regarding remediation guidelines) or aggregating information about individual vulnerabilities into risk measures are out of scope.

This paper describes how well automated vulnerability scanners perform when it comes to identifying security issues in a network. The findings suggest that a vulnerability scanner is a useable tool to have in your security toolbox given that user credentials are available for the hosts in your network. Manual effort is however needed to complement automated scanning in order to get satisfactory accuracy regarding network security problems.

Previous studies have focused on the qualitative aspects on vulnerability assessment. This study presents a quantitative evaluation of seven of the most popular vulnerability scanners available on the market.

This paper aims to provide top-level design and basic platform for intelligent application in China high-speed railway.

Based on the analysis for the future development trends of world railway, combined with the actual development needs in China high-speed railway, The definition and scientific connotation of intelligent high-speed railway (IHSR) are given at first, and then the system architecture of IHSR are outlined, including 1 basic platform, 3 business sectors, 10 business fields, and 18 innovative applications. At last, a basic platform with cloud edge integration for IHSR is designed.

The rationality, feasibility and implementability of the system architecture of IHSR have been verified on and applied to the Beijing–Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, providing important support for the construction and operation of the world’s first IHSR.

This paper systematically gives the definition and connotation of the IHSR and put forward the system architecture of IHSR for first time. It will play the most important role in the design, construction and operation of IHSR.