Digital Commons Network^™

How Similar Are Personality Scales Of The “Same” Construct? A Meta-Analytic Investigation, Victoria L. Pace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, meta-analytic reviews have estimated validities for the use of personality scales in the prediction of job performance from an array of empirical studies. A variety of personality measures were used in the original studies, and procedures and decisions concerning the categorization of these measures into Big Five personality factors have differed among reviewers. An underlying assumption of meta-analysis is that the predictors across included studies are essentially the same, as is the criterion. If this is not the case, then problems arise for both theoretical reasons and practical applications. If predictors that are not highly correlated are …

How To Estimate, Take Into Account, And Improve Travel Time Reliability In Transportation Networks, Ruey L. Cheu, Vladik Kreinovich, Francois Modave, Gang Xiang, Tao Li, Tanja Magoc

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Many urban areas suffer from traffic congestion. Intuitively, it may seem that a road expansion (e.g., the opening of a new road) should always improve the traffic conditions. However, in reality, a new road can actually worsen traffic congestion. It is therefore extremely important that before we start a road expansion project, we first predict the effect of this project on traffic congestion.

Traditional approach to this prediction is based on the assumption that for any time of the day, we know the exact amount of traffic that needs to go from each origin city zone A to every …

Reliability Modeling For The Advanced Electric Power Grid, Ayman Z. Faza, Sahra Sedigh, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The advanced electric power grid promises a self-healing infrastructure using distributed, coordinated, power electronics control. One promising power electronics device, the Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), can modify power flow locally within a grid. Embedded computers within the FACTS devices, along with the links connecting them, form a communication and control network that can dynamically change the power grid to achieve higher dependability. The goal is to reroute power in the event of transmission line failure. Such a system, over a widespread area, is a cyber-physical system. The overall reliability of the grid is a function of the respective reliabilities …

Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles -- A Vision For The Future, Mehdi Ferdowsi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the unique advantages of plug-in hybrid vehicles is their capability to integrate the transportation and electric power generation sectors in order to improve the efficiency, fuel economy, and reliability of both systems. This goal is performed via integration of the onboard energy storage units of plug-in vehicles with the power grid by power electronic converters and communication systems. Employing energy storage systems improves the efficiency and reliability of the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. Similarly, combining an energy storage system with the power train of a conventional vehicle results in a hybrid vehicle with higher fuel efficiency. …

Redundancy Optimization For Clock-Free Nanowire Crossbar Architecture, Yadunandana Yellambalase, Ravi Bonam, Minsu Choi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper a method is being proposed to find the optimal dimension of Programmable Gate Macro Block (PGMB) in clock-free nanowire crossbar architecture. A PGMB is a nanowire crossbar matrix with discrete number of rows and columns on which the NCL (Null Convention Logic) gates can be programmed. This method uses inherent redundancy to route through defective crosspoints. A 6 X 10 defect-free crossbar can be used to program any of the 27 threshold gates. Due to imperfections and variations in nanoscale manufacturing process, high defect densities are anticipated. Thus, such defects should be located when tested and the …

Reliability Of Pre-Service Teachers Coding Of Teaching Videos Using Video-Annotation Tools, Brigham R. Dye

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher education programs that aspire to helping pre-service teachers develop expertise must help students engage in deliberate practice along dimensions of teaching expertise. However, field teaching experiences often lack the quantity and quality of feedback that is needed to help students engage in meaningful teaching practice. The limited availability of supervising teachers makes it difficult to personally observe and evaluate each student teacher's field teaching performances. Furthermore, when a supervising teacher debriefs such an observation, the supervising teacher and student may struggle to communicate meaningfully about the teaching performance. This is because the student teacher and supervisor often have very …

Reliability Of Concrete Masonry Unit Walls Subjected To Explosive Loads, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

This study discuses the development of a procedure that can be used to assess the reliability of concrete masonry unit infill walls subjected to personnel-delivered blast loads. Consideration is given to maintain reasonable computational effort for both the structural analysis and reliability models. Blast load and wall resistance models are developed based on experimental and analytical data, and resistance is evaluated with a large strain, large displacement transient dynamic finite element analysis. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify significant random variables and a reliability analysis conducted with a feasible level of computational effort. Reliability indices are estimated for two …

Reliability Studies Of Tin/Hf-Silicate Based Gate Stacks, Naser Ahmed Chowdhury

Dissertations

Hafnium-silicate based oxides are among the leading candidates to be included into the first generation of high-Κ gate stacks in nano-scale CMOS technology because of their distinct advantages as far as thermal stability, leakage characteristics, threshold stability and low mobility degradation are concerned. Their reliability, which is limited by trapping at pre-existing and stress induced defects, remains to be a major concern.

Energy levels of electrically active ionic defects within the thick high-Κ have been experimentally observed in the context of MOS band diagram for the first time in Hf-silicate gate stacks from low temperature and leakage measurements. Excellent match …

Examining Cronbach Alpha, Theta, Omega Reliability Coefficients According To Sample Size, Ilker Ercan, Berna Yazici, Deniz Sigirli, Bulent Ediz, Ismet Kan

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Differentiations according to the sample size of different reliability coefficients are examined. It is concluded that the estimates obtained by Cronbach alpha and teta coefficients are not related with the sample size, even the estimates obtained from the small samples can represent the population parameter. However, the Omega coefficient requires large sample sizes.

Ordinal Versions Of Coefficients Alpha And Theta For Likert Rating Scales, Bruno D. Zumbo, Anne M. Gadermann, Cornelia Zeisser

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Two new reliability indices, ordinal coefficient alpha and ordinal coefficient theta, are introduced. A simulation study was conducted in order to compare the new ordinal reliability estimates to each other and to coefficient alpha with Likert data. Results indicate that ordinal coefficients alpha and theta are consistently suitable estimates of the theoretical reliability, regardless of the magnitude of the theoretical reliability, the number of scale points, and the skewness of the scale point distributions. In contrast, coefficient alpha is in general a negatively biased estimate of reliability. The use of ordinal coefficients alpha and theta as alternatives to coefficient alpha …

A Unified Confidence Interval For Reliability-Related Quantities Of Two-Parameter Weibull Distribution, Zhenlin Yang, Min Xie, Augustine C.M. Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Statistical inference methods for the Weibull parameters and their functions usually depend on extensive tables, and hence are rather inconvenient for the practical applications. In this paper, we propose a general method for constructing confidence intervals for the Weibull parameters and their functions, which eliminates the need for the extensive tables. The method is applied to obtain confidence intervals for the scale parameter, the mean-time-to-failure, the percentile function, and the reliability function. Monte-Carlo simulation shows that these intervals possess excellent finite sample properties, having coverage probabilities very close to their nominal levels, irrespective of the sample size and the degree …

Jitter-Minimized Reliability-Maximized Joint Optimization Quality-Of-Service Routing For Gps Networks, Waseem Sheikh, Arif Ghafoor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

We propose a joint optimization framework for quality-of-service (QoS) routing with resource allocation in a generalized processor sharing (GPS) network. Our joint optimization framework provides a convenient way of maximizing the reliability or minimizing the jitter delay of paths. Data traffic is sensitive to droppage at buffers while it can tolerate jitter delay. On the other hand multimedia traffic can tolerate loss but it is very sensitive to jitter delay. Depending on the type of data, our scheme provides a convenient way of selecting the parameters which result in either reliabilty maximization or jitter minimization. We solve the optimization problem …

Forward And Backward Compatibility Of Solder Alloys With Component And Board Finishes, Anand Kannabiran, Elavarasan Pannerselvam, S. Manian Ramkumar

Articles

The primary objective of the research presented in this paper is to qualify the reliability of mixed assemblies by comparing them to the conventional Sn–Pb assembly and completely Pb-free assembly. The research investigates both forward and backward compatibility in electronic assemblies using a design of experiments (DOE) approach. The investigation utilized a test vehicle containing an area array component (BGA169) and chip components (0603 resistors). Hot air solder leveling (HASL) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finishes were used on the test vehicles to represent Sn–Pb and Pb-free alternatives, respectively. The assembled test vehicles were cut into two panels—one containing …

The Optimization Of The Threshold For The Preventive Maintenance Actions In A Condition-Based Maintenance Program Via Dynamic Programming Approach, Mehdi Jafarian, Majid Beikverdi, Kamran Shahanaghi, Zeinab Nezhadbiglari

Mehdi Jafarian

The last step of a condition based maintenance (CBM) program is maintenance decision-making. This step is the most important and the most critical stage of maintenance for executive personnel and management whom work on taking maintenance actions. This decision making would be done according to certain criteria such as risk, cost, reliability and availability. This paper considered a dynamic programming model to optimization of the threshold for the preventive maintenance actions in a condition-based maintenance program. The basis of this modeling is the average cost of maintenance actions, failures and exchanges. In this paper, we improved the memory of the …

Perspectives For The Future Of Geotechnical Engineering, R. Chowdhury, P. Flentje

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

This paper first presents a brief overview of the way geotechnical engineering has developed over the last century in association with a number of empirical, analytical and observational approaches. In order to explore the need for fresh perspectives, improvements in existing approaches and the development of new ones, it is necessary to consider the enormous challenges that the engineering profession will face in the foreseeable future due to global developments. These include energy needs, climate change, rising sea levels, rapid increase in population, depletion of resources (water and fossil fuels) and increasing proportion of lands which are ill-suited for development …

Pipe Structural Reliability Evaluating System, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

The MAC system (Mecanique d'Auscultation des Conduites, i.e., buried pipelines mechanical inspection) is an integrated mechanical-electronic system that inspects different kinds of pipes (reinforced concrete, plain concrete, masonry, and clay) from 0.7 to 4.0 m in diameter. The system assesses the reliability of the pipe by analyzing the pipe-soil interactive structural behavior.

Hot Carrier Effect On Ldmos Transistors, Liangjun Jiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the main problems encountered when scaling down is the hot carrier induced degradation of MOSFETs. This problem has been studied intensively during the past decade, under both static and dynamic stress conditions. In this period it has evolved from a more or less academic research topic to one of the most stringent constraints guaranteeing the lifetime of sub-micron devices. New drain engineering technique leads to the extensive usage of lateral doped drain structures. In these devices the peak of the lateral field is lowered by reducing the doping concentration near the drain and by providing a smooth junction …

Projectcenter, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets

As a subscription based service, ProjectCenter provides an entire project team with point and click access to all relevant project information, without having to purchase additional software or learn complex systems. Shared information includes directory, specification, correspondence, sketches, meeting notes, shop drawing logs and field reports, RFIs, CCDs and CAD drawings.

Optimization For Software Release And Crash, Tanvir Khan

LSU Master's Theses

Software testing is a process to detect faults in the completeness and quality of developed computer software. Testing is a key process in assuring quality by identifying defects in software, and possibly fixing them, before it is delivered to end-users. A major decision to make during this software testing is, to determine whether to continue testing and eventually releasing the software, or when to stop the test and ‘crash’ it. Such a decision needs to be made to optimally balance the tradeoff between the cost of development and the reliability of the software. In this paper, a new optimal strategy …

Effect Of Repeated Function Allocation And Reliability On Automation Induced Monitoring Inefficiency, Lauriann Maria Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to extend previous findings of Mouloua, Parasuraman, and Molloy (1993), Parasuraman, Mouloua, and Molloy (1996), Hilburn, Parasuraman, and Mouloua (1996), and Oakley, Mouloua, and Hancock (2003) by: 1) examining the effect of repeated adaptive function allocation to manual control of minimal length (5 minutes) to reduce of human error and minimize workload; 2) explore the placement or timing of adaptive function allocation intervals (approximately 20 minutes of automation control to reduce the human operators' monitoring decrement between intervals, maintain adaptive recovery performance levels, and improve response times); 3) examine different levels of automation reliability …

Low Dislocation Density Gallium Nitride Templates And Their Device Applications, Jinqiao Xie

Theses and Dissertations

The unique properties, such as large direct bandgap, excellent thermal stability, high μH × ns, of III-nitrides make them ideal candidates for both optoelectronic and high-speed electronic devices. In the past decades, great success has been achieved in commercialization of GaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). However, due to the lack of native substrates, thin films grown on sapphire or SiC substrates have high defect densities that degrade the device performance and reliability. Conventional epitaxy lateral overgrowth (ELO) can reduce dislocation densities down to ∼10-6 cm-2 in the lateral growth area, but requires ex situ photolithography …

Reliability Of Fault-Tolerant Systems With Parallel Task Processing, Gregory Levitin, Min Xie, Tieling Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The paper considers performance and reliability of fault-tolerant software running on a hardware system that consists of multiple processing units. The software consists of functionally equivalent but independently developed versions that start execution simultaneously. The computational complexity and reliability of different versions are different. The system completes the task execution when the outputs of a pre-specified number of versions coincide. The processing units are characterized by different availability and processing speed. It is assumed that they are able to share the computational burden perfectly and that execution of each version can be fully parallelized. The algorithm based on the universal …

Assessment Of Humeral Head Position In Competitive Baseball Players, Melanie S. Werstine

Digitized Theses

Objectives: 1) to estimate the intra and inter-rater reliability of measures of relative humeral head position based on the palpation of two bony landmarks (operationally defined as the distance between the most anterior border of the acromion to the most anterior aspect of the humeral head), 2) to compare the humerus-to-acromion distance in the dominant and non-dominant shoulders of baseball players and controls, and 3) to compare external and internal range of motion in the dominant and non-dominant shoulders of baseball players and controls. Methods: Sixty healthy participants (30 controls and 30 baseball players) were assessed by two experienced physical …

Statistical Models For Hot Electron Degradation In Nano-Scaled Mosfet Devices, Suk Joo Bae, Seong-Joon Kim, Way Kuo, Paul H. Kvam

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

In a MOS structure, the generation of hot carrier interface states is a critical feature of the item's reliability. On the nano-scale, there are problems with degradation in transconductance, shift in threshold voltage, and decrease in drain current capability. Quantum mechanics has been used to relate this decrease to degradation, and device failure. Although the lifetime, and degradation of a device are typically used to characterize its reliability, in this paper we model the distribution of hot-electron activation energies, which has appeal because it exhibits a two-point discrete mixture of logistic distributions. The logistic mixture presents computational problems that are …

On The Reliability Of Moral And Intellectual Virtues, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Individual Identification Of Polar Bears By Whisker Spot Patterns, Carlos Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many types of ecological studies require identification of individual animals. I developed and evaluated an automated identification system for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) based on their whisker spot patterns. First, I measured the reliability of using whisker spot patterns for identification from polar bear photographs taken in western Hudson Bay. This analysis involved estimating the complexity of each whisker spot pattern in terms of its information content. I found that 98% of patterns contained enough information to be reliable, and this result varied little among three different observers. Based on these results, I implemented a computer-aided identification system for polar …

The Principled Exception And The Forgotten Criterion, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The principled exception to the hearsay rule is routinely described as being settled by the "twin criteria" of necessity and reliability. In fact a third criterion is also — or at least ought to be — at play: that admitting the evidence through hearsay would not undermine any other rule of evidence. The Court has made reference to this third criterion in the past, but it has largely been ignored in both Supreme Court and lower court decisions. The recent judgement in Couture depends in a limited way on that question, and so it marks an opportunity to articulate the …

An Estimation Of The Reliability And Validity Of A Weightbearing Measure Of Ankle Dorsiflexion Range Of Motion, Martin D. Chisholm

Digitized Theses

The Lunge Test Difference Score (LTDS) measures ankle dorsiflexion ROM in weightbearing. Its reliability and validity were estimated in 53 participants (34.6 ± 13.9 years) with orthopaedic ankle injuries. The LTDS, the Lower Extremity Functional Scale, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Global Foot and Ankle Scale were recorded on three occasions. Test-retest reliability was determined from the results of the final two testing sessions. Correlations between the LTDS and the functional measures were used to validate the LTDS. Correlation between the Global Rating of Change scale and change in LTDS quantified sensitivity to change. The ICC2,1 was 0.94 …

Discovering Software Reliability Patterns Based On Multiple Software Projects, Yi Liu, Gerald Adkins, Jeng-Foung Yao, Gita Williams

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Discovering patterns that indicate software reliability provides valuable information to software project managers. Software Quality Classification (SQC) modeling is a methodology that can be used to discover reliability patterns of large software projects. However, the patterns found by SQC modeling may not be accurate and robust owing to insufficient information used in the training process. This study compares two genetic programming-based SQC models using different volumes of data. These data were extracted from seven different NASA software projects. The results demonstrate that combining data from different projects can produce more accurate and reliable patterns.