21. As used in this guidance, the term "genetic information" has the same definition as "protected genetic information" in Executive Order 13145. In general, genetic information is information about an individual's genetic tests, information about the genetic tests of an individual's family members, or information about the occurrence of a disease, medical condition, or disorder in family members of the individual. See Exec. Order No. 13,145, To Prohibit Discrimination in Federal Employment Based on Genetic Information, 65 Fed. Reg. 6877 (Feb. 8, 2000).
Where Is the Data From?
Consumer Reports obtains its reliability data from the Auto Surveys sent to Consumer Reports members each year. In all, we received responses on over 330,000 vehicles in our 2023 surveys, detailing 2000 to 2023 models and some early 2024s.
When we have small sample sizes on vehicles, we may use brand history and the reliability of similar models that may share major components. This gives us the ability to predict reliability of brand-new vehicles or ones that have been recently redesigned. We will publish the data only if we feel the sample size is sufficiently large and indicative of the model.
What Different Reliability Scores Does CR Publish?
Consumer Reports uses the data from its member surveys to compile detailed reliability histories on several hundred makes and models of cars, minivans, pickups, and sport-utility vehicles, covering the 2000 to 2023 model years and some early 2024s. For each model that we have sufficient data on, the reliability history chart shows you whether the model has had more or fewer problems than the average model of that year in each of the relevant 20 trouble spots. That information can be a big help when inspecting and purchasing a used car. The overall reliability verdict summarizes from among 20 trouble spots for each model year and compares that with the average of all vehicles in the same model year. We use these reliability scores to identify lists of reliable used cars and used cars to avoid.
The wide range of approaches to data analysis in qualitative research can seem daunting even for experienced researchers. This handbook is the first to provide a state-of-the art overview of the whole field of QDA; from general analytic strategies used in qualitative research, to approaches specific to particular types of qualitative data, including talk, text, sounds, images and virtual data.
Qualitative content analysis is a method for systematically describing the meaning of qualitative data (Mayring, 2000; Schreier, 2012). This is done by assigning successive parts of the material to the categories of a coding frame. This frame is at the heart of the method, and it ...
For the purposes of this document, the term model refers to a quantitative method, system, or approach that applies statistical, economic, financial, or mathematical theories, techniques, and assumptions to process input data into quantitative estimates. Models meeting this definition might be used for analyzing business strategies, informing business decisions, identifying and measuring risks, valuing exposures, instruments or positions, conducting stress testing, assessing adequacy of capital, managing client assets, measuring compliance with internal limits, maintaining the formal control apparatus of the bank, or meeting financial or regulatory reporting requirements and issuing public disclosures. The definition of model also covers quantitative approaches whose inputs are partially or wholly qualitative or based on expert judgment, provided that the output is quantitative in nature.2
An application has to meet various requirements in order to be useful. There are functionalrequirements (what it should do, such as allowing data to be stored, retrieved, searched, and processed invarious ways), and some nonfunctional requirements (general properties like security,reliability, compliance, scalability, compatibility, and maintainability). In this chapter wediscussed reliability, scalability, and maintainability in detail.
A new NIDA-supported dataset now allows researchers to compare their MRI-based scans against more than 10,000 brain images, thereby enhancing reliability and reproducibility. The Consortium for Reproducibility and Reliability (CoRR) dataset is managed by the Child Mind Institute (CMI).
The reliability function is theoretically defined as the probability of success at time t, which is denoted R(t). In practice, it is calculated using different techniques and its value ranges between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates no probability of success while 1 indicates definite success. This probability is estimated from detailed (physics of failure) analysis, previous data sets or through reliability testing and reliability modeling. Availability, testability, maintainability and maintenance are often defined as a part of "reliability engineering" in reliability programs. Reliability often plays the key role in the cost-effectiveness of systems.
Furthermore, human errors in management; the organization of data and information; or the misuse or abuse of items, may also contribute to unreliability. This is the core reason why high levels of reliability for complex systems can only be achieved by following a robust systems engineering process with proper planning and execution of the validation and verification tasks. This also includes careful organization of data and information sharing and creating a "reliability culture", in the same way that having a "safety culture" is paramount in the development of safety critical systems.
For existing systems, it is arguable that any attempt by a responsible program to correct the root cause of discovered failures may render the initial MTBF estimate invalid, as new assumptions (themselves subject to high error levels) of the effect of this correction must be made. Another practical issue is the general unavailability of detailed failure data, with those available often featuring inconsistent filtering of failure (feedback) data, and ignoring statistical errors (which are very high for rare events like reliability related failures). Very clear guidelines must be present to count and compare failures related to different type of root-causes (e.g. manufacturing-, maintenance-, transport-, system-induced or inherent design failures). Comparing different types of causes may lead to incorrect estimations and incorrect business decisions about the focus of improvement.
One of the most important design techniques is redundancy. This means that if one part of the system fails, there is an alternate success path, such as a backup system. The reason why this is the ultimate design choice is related to the fact that high-confidence reliability evidence for new parts or systems is often not available, or is extremely expensive to obtain. By combining redundancy, together with a high level of failure monitoring, and the avoidance of common cause failures; even a system with relatively poor single-channel (part) reliability, can be made highly reliable at a system level (up to mission critical reliability). No testing of reliability has to be required for this. In conjunction with redundancy, the use of dissimilar designs or manufacturing processes (e.g. via different suppliers of similar parts) for single independent channels, can provide less sensitivity to quality issues (e.g. early childhood failures at a single supplier), allowing very-high levels of reliability to be achieved at all moments of the development cycle (from early life to long-term). Redundancy can also be applied in systems engineering by double checking requirements, data, designs, calculations, software, and tests to overcome systematic failures.
Reliability engineers, whether using quantitative or qualitative methods to describe a failure or hazard, rely on language to pinpoint the risks and enable issues to be solved. The language used must help create an orderly description of the function/item/system and its complex surrounding as it relates to the failure of these functions/items/systems. Systems engineering is very much about finding the correct words to describe the problem (and related risks), so that they can be readily solved via engineering solutions. Jack Ring said that a systems engineer's job is to "language the project." (Ring et al. 2000)[23] For part/system failures, reliability engineers should concentrate more on the "why and how", rather that predicting "when". Understanding "why" a failure has occurred (e.g. due to over-stressed components or manufacturing issues) is far more likely to lead to improvement in the designs and processes used[4] than quantifying "when" a failure is likely to occur (e.g. via determining MTBF). To do this, first the reliability hazards relating to the part/system need to be classified and ordered (based on some form of qualitative and quantitative logic if possible) to allow for more efficient assessment and eventual improvement. This is partly done in pure language and proposition logic, but also based on experience with similar items. This can for example be seen in descriptions of events in fault tree analysis, FMEA analysis, and hazard (tracking) logs. In this sense language and proper grammar (part of qualitative analysis) plays an important role in reliability engineering, just like it does in safety engineering or in-general within systems engineering.
Reliability modeling is the process of predicting or understanding the reliability of a component or system prior to its implementation. Two types of analysis that are often used to model a complete system's availability behavior including effects from logistics issues like spare part provisioning, transport and manpower are fault tree analysis and reliability block diagrams. At a component level, the same types of analyses can be used together with others. The input for the models can come from many sources including testing; prior operational experience; field data; as well as data handbooks from similar or related industries. Regardless of source, all model input data must be used with great caution, as predictions are only valid in cases where the same product was used in the same context. As such, predictions are often only used to help compare alternatives.
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