Standards, Volume 3, Issue 2 (June 2023) – 10 articles

This contribution aims to analyze compliance with the rules relating to disturbances in the domain of health due to exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). This concerns safety standards for exposed living tissue and the integrity of exposed medical devices acting on the body. This investigation is carried out by reviewing and analyzing these exposure effects. In the paper, the EMF exposure, the nature of sources and the characters of their interactions with objects are first illustrated. Then, EMF exposure restrictions accounting for living tissues safety standards as well as medical devices constancy are discussed. Exposure biological effects comprising both thermal and non-thermal effects are then detailed. The verification and control of EMF effects are next illustrated including mathematical modeling of EMF effects, governing equations and body tissues representation in the solution of these equations. At the end of the paper, two examples representing the cases of tissues and devices are given to check the rules under exposure to EMF: biological effects on exposed human tissues and integrity of a magnetic resonance imager under external disturbance. Full article

The biological durability of wood is an important property for outdoor applications of wood-based products. In temperate climate zones, the most critical biological hazard is wood-destroying fungi, and the European standard EN 350 in combination with EN 113-2 provide guidance on sampling, testing, and classifying wood durability against brown and white rot fungi. However, in their latest revised versions, both standards recommend the use of probability density functions for fitting mass loss data (ML). Subsequently, the durability of wood and its variability should be further characterised. The aim of this study was to statistically analyse the ML data from laboratory agar plate tests with different European-grown wood species and to examine the effect of different statistical treatments on the standardised classification scheme of wood durability. It was concluded that more precise guidance is needed on the sampling procedure since significant differences in durability exist between stem zones. The assignment of dispersion indicators requires a revision to ensure clear, unmistakable, and reproducible durability classification of wood. Deficits in the description of the proposed statistical treatments in both standards became evident. It can be questioned whether the application of probability density functions provides additional information about the variability of wood durability. Full article

This article presents a model for the comparison of plea bargain proposals. The use of the model increases the possibility of the satisfactory development of the negotiation of rewarded collaboration agreements recently permitted under Brazilian law. A novelty in the model is the objective consideration of society’s interest in adequately punishing defendants whose guilt can be proven. To allow for the inclusion of this element, a multicriteria approach that adds the criteria representing the prosecution’s aims to the criteria regarding the accused’s positions is adopted. The importance of the criteria is derived without direct criteria weighting. A novel joint treatment to criteria collinearity and interaction is developed, which enables the model to accommodate any number of defendants, proposals, and criteria. The framework so developed enhances transparency and encourages collaboration. By assigning a new meaning to the plea bargain, it is able to bring about the necessary shift in cultural standards that can lead to the effective weakening of criminal organizations. Full article

The aim of this study is to identify the differentiated services university libraries are able to offer students by prioritizing service quality factors using the various dimensions and factors of service quality. The paper proposes a study that adopts the Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (PZB) service quality model to construct a model for measuring the service quality of a university library. The study conducts analysis using an expert questionnaire and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify students’ needs with respect to the library’s service quality. This study covered 44 different graduate institutes, but it is aimed at postgraduate student-oriented university libraries, which may not reveal the real status of different types of libraries. The five dimensions of service quality identified in this study by order of importance are responsiveness, tangibility, reliability, assurance, and empathy. The first three criteria of the twenty-two assessment criteria are “The staff is unwilling to help students”, “The library’s facilities match up with the type of services” and “Students are unable to receive fast services from staff”. This article seeks to provide innovative methods for previous library management in the university library and the research results could also provide useful references with social implications and novel value to the university library’s management team to improve the library’s service quality. Full article

This paper gives an overview of scientific challenges in implementing and certifying “Zero residue” approach. The rationale behind the concept is that final control of commodities during/immediately after harvesting should confirm that traces of all used plant protection products are less than or equal to 0.01 mg/kg. To evaluate the risks in applying this concept, FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) as a tool has been used. Among the most common factors affecting the pesticide residue levels in fresh produce, the following three appeared to be the biggest challenges in the “Zero residue” concept implementation and certification process: the use of unregistered plant protection products, inadequate sampling plan, and inappropriate laboratory methods. The analysis showed that all three factors have strong influence on achieving “Zero residue” limits. Full article

Ceramic tile adhesives (CTA) are playing a dominant role for the business of dry-mix producers. Their quality is classified according to EN 12004. In addition, this standard describes the procedure of a CTA’s performance evaluation. Therefore, a defined ceramic tile, a concrete substrate, and the actual tile adhesive is required. In our study, we investigated the influence of different concrete slabs on the results of two tile adhesives. In two cases, the influence of an additional thermal storage of the concrete slabs was evaluated. The tests were strictly performed according to EN 12004-2:2017. The highest variation for the same tile adhesive was found for the adhesion after heat storage measured on different concrete substrates. With a higher polymer content the influence tended to level out. Additionally, a significant deviation was observed for the adhesion strength after water storage, even causing a lower CTA classification on one substrate. The results of our investigation show that the quality of concrete slabs and their storage conditions should be seriously considered in comparing the performance of tile adhesive according to EN 12004. Full article

Software development has a problem with transparency/visibility. As an intangible product, software and its intermediate development results are hard to see or touch. Customers of custom software have difficulties checking progress, and risk coming out with costly but low-quality software. In the space domain with its often expensive and one-of-a-kind devices, which are developed in complex multitier supply chains, the risk is even greater. This paper presents the SKQuest data set. It contains the completed responses with 190 variables from an empirical study with over 100 software experts. The data set covers distinct aspects of measuring metrics and transparency in software projects. To show what information lies in the data set, the paper investigates, and affirms, from different perspectives, the following questions: Is transparency a problem in software development projects? Is there a desire for more transparency in projects? Can metrics contribute to improving the situation? Moreover, it attempts to replicate the results of an earlier study. The main contribution of this paper is, however, the SKQuest data set that is published with this paper in CSV formatas. It is a tool that enables systematic investigations of software metrics and allows research on how they can improve the efficiency of the software lifecycle, not limited to, but particularly with respect to transparency. Consequently, the paper may serve as a starting point for future research avenues in academia and industry and help to improve existing and future standards in software development. Full article

This study investigates the effectiveness of robust estimators of location and dispersion, used in proficiency testing and listed in ISO 13528:2015, in outlier detection. The models utilize (a) kernel density plots, (b) Z-factors, (c) Monte Carlo simulations, and (d) distributions derived from at most two contaminating distributions and one main Gaussian. The simulation parameters cover a wide range of those commonly encountered in proficiency testing (PT) schemes, so the results presented are of fairly general application. We chose a functional sub-optimal solution by grouping and classifying the model settings, resulting in five matrices readily usable for selecting the best robust estimator. Whenever at most half of the distribution of each contaminating population is outside the central distribution, there is only one optimal estimator. For all other cases, the five matrices provide the appropriate robust statistic. The proposed method applies to 95.1% of 144 results for an existing PT for cement. These actual datasets indicate that the Hampel estimator for the mean and the Q-method for the standard deviation provide the most appropriate performance statistic in 86.1% of the cases. Full article

With the rapid advancement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies in recent years, their uses have been increasingly adopted in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. To satisfy the needs of various types of construction projects, a considerable amount of research work has been performed to implement and refine the operations, safety, and accuracy of UAVs. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive literature review that focuses on UAV research in construction management during the timeframe of 2016 to 2021. A total of 95 papers were identified and collected from a list of 21 relevant journals and conference proceedings, and were then categorized by their research topic, sensor types, and targeted structures. The results of 47 exemplary studies were reported in two categories, namely UAV uses and construction uses. The research topics identified for UAV uses include algorithm, applications, operations, framework, and training, while research topics identified for construction use include inspection, surveying, safety, and monitoring. The connection between the research topics, sensor types, targeted structures, and other advanced technologies were also discussed. This paper summarizes the current results of UAV research in construction management, reviews the methodology, benefits, and limitations of the reviewed literature, and provides valuable knowledge for the future trend of UAV applications in the civil, infrastructure, and construction industries. Full article