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2000

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Performance Characteristics Of A Low-Cost, Field-Deployable Miniature Ccd Spectrometer., S. Coles, M. Nimmo, P. J. Worsfold Jan 2000

Performance Characteristics Of A Low-Cost, Field-Deployable Miniature Ccd Spectrometer., S. Coles, M. Nimmo, P. J. Worsfold

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Miniature spectrometers incorporating array detectors are becoming a viable, low-cost option for field and process deployments. The performance characteristics of one such instrument are reported and compared with those of a conventional benchtop instrument. The parameters investigated were wavelength repeatability, photometric linearity, instrumental noise (photometric precision) and instrumental drift.

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Review: Composing Research, Peter Carino Jan 2000

Review: Composing Research, Peter Carino

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

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Multi-Board Concept - A Scenario Based Approach For Supporting Product Quality And Life Cycle Oriented Design, Aj Robotham, M Hertzum Jan 2000

Multi-Board Concept - A Scenario Based Approach For Supporting Product Quality And Life Cycle Oriented Design, Aj Robotham, M Hertzum

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This paper will describe the multi-board concept, which is a working approach for supporting life cycle oriented design and product quality. Aspects of this concept include construction of a common working environment where multiple display boards depict scenarios of the product life cycle, creating a shared quality mindset amongst designers, and developing creativity and synthesis in product design. The appropriateness of scenarios for supporting life cycle oriented design will be ar-gued and preliminary results from early experimentation will be presented. Initial results lead us to believe that the multi-board concept promises to be a useful means of communication amongst the …

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The Chain Of Quality Through Integrated Product Development, Aj Robotham Jan 2000

The Chain Of Quality Through Integrated Product Development, Aj Robotham

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Today, it is almost impossible to find a manufacturer who has not been significantly influenced by the quality culture, but it is evident that some are doing more to improve their product quality than others are. The so-called "Chain of Quality" through integrated product development is a useful metaphor since it recognises that quality is a continuing topic of attention throughout the product development process and that discrete, quality related activities in the process are inter-linked. Depending upon how the product development process is modelled, the chain can be viewed as open or closed with single or parallel threads. In …

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Beach Development Behind Detached Breakwater., Philip George Axe Jan 2000

Beach Development Behind Detached Breakwater., Philip George Axe

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Concurrent wave and morphology data were collected around a coastal protection scheme on the U. K. south coast. The scheme consists of eight detached breakwaters protecting a renourished sand and shingle beach, and is situated in a strongly macro-tidal environment. The development of the beach morphology is described. The beach trapped sand and shingle moving eastwards into it, and lost material from the eastern end. While the beach was designed to maintain a shingle beach, it was found that the scheme was most effective at trapping sand, which led to tombolo formation behind the updrift breakwaters. Current engineering design methods …

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On Turbo Codes And Other Concatenated Schemes In Communication Systems, Adrian Ambroze Jan 2000

On Turbo Codes And Other Concatenated Schemes In Communication Systems, Adrian Ambroze

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The advent of turbo codes in 1993 represented a significant step towards realising the ultimate capacity limit of a communication channel, breaking the link that was binding very good performance with exponential decoder complexity. Turbo codes are parallel concatenated convolutional codes, decoded with a suboptimal iterative algorithm. The complexity of the iterative algorithm increases only linearly with block length, bringing previously unprecedented performance within practical limits.. This work is a further investigation of turbo codes and other concatenated schemes such as the multiple parallel concatenation and the serial concatenation. The analysis of these schemes has two important aspects, their performance …

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Development Of A Quality Control Procedure For Force Platforms, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare Jan 2000

Development Of A Quality Control Procedure For Force Platforms, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare

Articles

A force platform is a technical method of quantitatively assessing balance indirectly. The use of force platforms in physiotherapy departments has become more prominent over the last few years. However, the main drawback in the use of force platforms is the lack of comprehensive calibration procedures, which casts doubt on the results obtained with these systems. Existing calibration tests are limited to testing the spatial accuracy of the force platform. This paper describes a comprehensive quality control test procedure which was developed. It is proposed that the developed quality control test procedure could be used to test all types of …

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Development Of A Novel Method For Assessing Balance: The Quantitative Posturography System, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare Jan 2000

Development Of A Novel Method For Assessing Balance: The Quantitative Posturography System, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare

Articles

Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium while sitting or standing. There are a number of different methods, which are used to assess balance: technical methods such as Sway Magnetometry, Ataxia Meter and Force Platforms and clinical methods such as Functional Reach Test, Berg Balance Test and Fall Risk Index. The most frequently used technical method is the force platform. There are two types of Force Platform a static and a dynamic Force Platform of which the dynamic Force Platform has been found to be more sensitive at detecting impaired balance. The Quantitative Posturography System (QPS) described in this paper …

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A Scene Similarity Metric For Matching Configurations Of Image Objects, James Carswell Jan 2000

A Scene Similarity Metric For Matching Configurations Of Image Objects, James Carswell

Articles

This paper proposes a novel solution to querying image databases by matching raster features to imagery completely in the raster/spatial domain using the shape of single features together with their spatial relations as the matching primitives. The core feature-based matching module combines a revised least-squares matching algorithm, to accomplish the matching process on binary images, with a unique implementation of a feature library that organizes and links query objects with their images in the database, thus enabling fast and efficient real-time retrieval of relevant imagery. The purpose is to extend this previous work of ours, which matches on the shape …

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Civilian Conservation Corps Rubble And Masonry Dams And Gully Morphology In Northeastern Iowa, Timothy Robert Beerman Jan 2000

Civilian Conservation Corps Rubble And Masonry Dams And Gully Morphology In Northeastern Iowa, Timothy Robert Beerman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1933 in an effort to help solve the problems associated with the lack of jobs for young men, the nations dwindling natural resources, and problems associated with soil erosion. The CCC's work in Iowa was primarily in the areas of reforestation and erosion control. Company 1749 of Cresco, Iowa stands out as an example of how the CCC worked to halt erosion. As a part of their erosion-control strategy, Company 1749 built a large number of rubble and masonry dams on gullies. These dams were designed to trap sediments and prevent further …

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Gender, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, Experience, And The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition, Short Form (Wais-Iii), Laura Jean Blalock Jan 2000

Gender, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, Experience, And The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition, Short Form (Wais-Iii), Laura Jean Blalock

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender, self-efficacy, anxiety, experience and the WAIS-III, short form. This study investigated the hypotheses that gender differences occur on select subtests of the WAISIII, short form, that math self-efficacy, math attitudes, and math experience affect Arithmetic scores, and that motor speed affects performance on the Digit Symbol subtest. The sample consisted of 93 undergraduate students from the University of Northern Iowa (36 males, 57 females). Students completed questionnaires and were administered the WAIS-III short form individually. Males scored higher on the Arithmetic, Information, and Digit Span subtests and …

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The Effects Of Computer Animations On Secondary Students’ Understanding Of The Crushing Can Chemical Demonstration, Resa Marie Kelly Jan 2000

The Effects Of Computer Animations On Secondary Students’ Understanding Of The Crushing Can Chemical Demonstration, Resa Marie Kelly

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Understanding chemistry requires the ability to think at three different levels: submicrochemistry, macrochemistry, and representational chemistry. Students often have difficulty making connections among these three areas due to the abstract nature of many chemistry concepts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how computer animations affected secondary students' understanding of the Crushing Can Demonstration. This investigation compared two groups of chemistry students at a large, suburban high school. The treatment group viewed the animation after seeing and discussing the crushing can demonstration, while the control group received the same instruction as the treatment group but did not see the …

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Convergence Analysis Of Adaptive Critic Based Optimal Control, S. N. Balakrishnan, Xin Liu Jan 2000

Convergence Analysis Of Adaptive Critic Based Optimal Control, S. N. Balakrishnan, Xin Liu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Adaptive critic based neural networks have been found to be powerful tools in solving various optimal control problems. The adaptive critic approach consists of two neural networks which output the control values and the Lagrangian multipliers associated with optimal control. These networks are trained successively and when the outputs of the two networks are mutually consistent and satisfy the differential constraints, the controller network output produces optimal control. In this paper, we analyze the mechanics of convergence of the network solutions. We establish the necessary conditions for the network solutions to converge and show that the converged solution is optimal.

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An Evaluation Of The Ductile Iron Casting Training Program At The Industrial Technology Department Of A Midwestern University, Khalid D. Alkarimy Jan 2000

An Evaluation Of The Ductile Iron Casting Training Program At The Industrial Technology Department Of A Midwestern University, Khalid D. Alkarimy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study is to determine how efficient this training program is as measured by (a) increasing the knowledge of new employees about the ductile iron casting process and other casting processes as perceived by the participants, (b) participants achievement of the program learning objectives as perceived by the participants, and (c) a positive reaction and attitude toward the program contents, instructors, facility and handout as perceived by the participants. The problem of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Ductile Iron Casting Training program offered by the Industrial Technology department of a Midwestern University to …

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Investigation Of The Job Training Partnership Act Career Inventory In Predicting Career Clusters For Clients In Black Hawk County, Amy Bryte Jan 2000

Investigation Of The Job Training Partnership Act Career Inventory In Predicting Career Clusters For Clients In Black Hawk County, Amy Bryte

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) is a federally funded program that is an approach to employee training and placement to the economically disadvantaged, dislocated workers, or those facing significant employment barriers. The goal of ITP A is to put People to work by placing them in jobs through various training activities. Overall the ITP A program strives to move jobless individuals into permanent self-sustaining employment. A service offered through the ITPA program is career inventory. Career inventory are assessment tools used to determine a client's current abilities, values, and interests. After a client completes the career inventory they are …

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An Investigation Of Student Understanding Of Light In Geometrical Optics: Relating Formalism To Conceptual Understanding Of The Physical Phenomena, Ekaterina Denissova Jan 2000

An Investigation Of Student Understanding Of Light In Geometrical Optics: Relating Formalism To Conceptual Understanding Of The Physical Phenomena, Ekaterina Denissova

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This paper reports on a study of student understanding of the nature and properties of light prior to instruction and by the completion of a unit on geometrical optics in a General Physics II course at University of Northern Iowa. The emphasis of this study was placed on the ability to make connections between the formalism of physics and real world phenomena. The ability to apply appropriate concepts and principles from geometrical optics, including the drawing of ray diagrams, to predict and explain image formation and light behavior was chosen as the operational criterion to assess students' conceptual understanding. The …

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An Analog Front-End Speech Processor Using The Ratio Spectrum, John G. Harris, Shao Jen Lim Jan 2000

An Analog Front-End Speech Processor Using The Ratio Spectrum, John G. Harris, Shao Jen Lim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We have combined the standard front-end filter bank with a feature extraction process to produce a model that requires dramatically less hardware (or software). This new model, based on the frequency-sampled ratio spectrum, can be interpreted as a small set of constant-Q filters whose center frequencies adapt to locations of high signal energy. The resulting feature vectors are shown to outperform several competing techniques for phoneme recognition. Results from fabricated CMOS analog VLSI circuits illustrate a hardware efficient method to sample the ratio spectrum.

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Development Of A Functional Basis For Design, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood Jan 2000

Development Of A Functional Basis For Design, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Functional models represent a form independent blueprint of a product. As with any blueprint or schematic, a consistent language or coding system is required to ensure others can read it. This paper introduces such a design language, called a functional basis, where product function is characterized in a verb-object (function-flow) format. The set of functions and flows is intended to comprehensively describe the mechanical design space. Clear definitions are provided for each function and flow. The functional basis is compared to previous functional representations and is shown to subsume these attempts as well as offer a more consistent classification scheme. …

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Tuning Parameter Tolerance Design: Foundations, Methods, And Measures, Daniel A. Mcadams, Kristin L. Wood Jan 2000

Tuning Parameter Tolerance Design: Foundations, Methods, And Measures, Daniel A. Mcadams, Kristin L. Wood

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a novel technique is presented to solve tolerance design problems. To achieve the desired performance tolerance, the technique uses a subtle, but significant, change in the design: the addition of a tuning parameter in place of an increase in component precision. Statistical models are used to develop a framework for the tuning parameter design method. Also developed is a new, dimensionless design metric which ranks candidate tuning parameters. A step-by-step method is developed for the application of tuning parameters using this metric. The step-by-step tuning parameter design method is applied to a heavy-duty manual stapler as a …

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Using Quantitative Functional Models To Develop Product Architectures, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood, Richard H. Crawford Jan 2000

Using Quantitative Functional Models To Develop Product Architectures, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood, Richard H. Crawford

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Developing product architectures is a key phase in design and development processes. It encompasses the transformation from functional model to alternative product layouts. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for representing a functional model of a product in a quantitative manner. In addition to describing product functionality, the quantitative functional model also incorporates customer need ratings. Product design knowledge can be archived and transmitted in databases using this novel representation. Numerical manipulations of such a database assist in developing product architectures. In particular, product families and customer need ratings for modules are easily computed. Prior to the methodology, a …

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E-Commerce Systems Development Methodologies, M. Rossi, Keng Siau, S. Purao Jan 2000

E-Commerce Systems Development Methodologies, M. Rossi, Keng Siau, S. Purao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Methodologies. This is the first time we organize this new minitrack on electronic commerce systems development. The flexibility, scalability, user-friendliness, privacy, security, intuitiveness, and other important characteristics of electronic commerce systems make the systems development process of such systems very multifaceted and complex. Today, most electronic commerce systems are built based on intuition and rule of thumbs.Many practitioners have the misconception that there is no need for a systematic modeling and design technique for these systems. The lack of appropriate methods and methodologies to support electronic commerce systems development is another stumbling block. Most of the widely used methods are …

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Search For R-Parity Violating Decays Of Supersymmetric Particles In E+E- Collisions At Centre-Of-Mass Energies Near 183 Gev, R. Barate, M. Thulasidas Jan 2000

Search For R-Parity Violating Decays Of Supersymmetric Particles In E+E- Collisions At Centre-Of-Mass Energies Near 183 Gev, R. Barate, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Searches for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a single dominant LLE¯LLE¯, LQD¯LQD¯ or U¯D¯D¯U¯D¯D¯ coupling are performed using the data collected by the ALEPH collaboration at centre-of-mass energies of 181–184 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. Upper limits on the production cross-sections and lower limits on the masses of charginos, sleptons, squarks and sneutrinos are derived.

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Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching And Learning, Helga M. Gudenschwager Jan 2000

Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching And Learning, Helga M. Gudenschwager

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Research shows that knowing what preservice teachers believe about teaching and learning helps their instructors to reinforce those beliefs that are compatible with current approaches in education and challenge those that promote the perpetuation of antiquated and ineffective teaching practices. Four main research questions guided this study: 1. To what extent the beliefs expressed by participants aligned with traditional or constructivist perspectives? 2. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their preference for practices aligned with these perspectives? 3. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their beliefs about the goals of education and effective strategies …

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Integration Of Csab And Abet, Lee W. Saperstein, Kenneth Martin, Doris K. Lidtke Jan 2000

Integration Of Csab And Abet, Lee W. Saperstein, Kenneth Martin, Doris K. Lidtke

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) and the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) signed a Memorandum of Agreement in November 1998 to integrate CSAB''s accreditation services with ABET, with a transition time of approximately two years. During the interim period, the operations of the Computer Science Accreditation Commission (CSAC) are contracted by CSAB to ABET. A committee with CSAC, CSAB, and ABET representation is working to set up the new commission for accrediting programs in the computing sciences. This new commission will probably be called the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC). Other activities are underway to try to …

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Family Structure And Children's Academic Achievement : The Role Of Income And Parental Control, Jean M. Hoth Jan 2000

Family Structure And Children's Academic Achievement : The Role Of Income And Parental Control, Jean M. Hoth

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine the relationship between family structure and children's academic achievement, and to assess the roles of income and parental control in this relationship. The present study involves secondary analysis of data from the National Survey of Families and Households (Sweet & Bumpass, 1996) The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) is a national random sample survey conducted in two waves that covers a wide variety of issues on American family life. This study examines data gathered from the second wave of this data set. The total sample for the present research …

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The Effects Of Substituting Iron For Manganese In Smmn₆Ge₆: Magnetic And Crystallographic Properties, J. Han, William B. Yelon, Naushad Ali, I. Dubenko, G. K. Marasinghe, Ph. I'Héritier, William Joseph James Jan 2000

The Effects Of Substituting Iron For Manganese In Smmn₆Ge₆: Magnetic And Crystallographic Properties, J. Han, William B. Yelon, Naushad Ali, I. Dubenko, G. K. Marasinghe, Ph. I'Héritier, William Joseph James

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

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An Evaluation Of Two Different Data Modeling Techniques For Data Warehousing, Litao Fu Jan 2000

An Evaluation Of Two Different Data Modeling Techniques For Data Warehousing, Litao Fu

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The database community is devoting increasing attention to the research themes concerning data warehouses. After having invested a lot of time and resources to build huge and complex information systems, managers ask for support in obtaining quickly summary information to help in planning and decision making. Data warehousing systems address this issue by enabling managers to acquire and integrate information from different sources and to query efficiently very large databases. Building a data warehouse requires adopting design and implementation techniques completely different from those underlying information. Multidimensional data structures used for decision support applications in data warehouses have rather different …

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A Systolic Image Difference Algorithm For Rle-Compressed Images, Fikret Erçal, Mark Allen, Hao Feng Jan 2000

A Systolic Image Difference Algorithm For Rle-Compressed Images, Fikret Erçal, Mark Allen, Hao Feng

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new systolic algorithm which computes image differences in run-length encoded (RLE) format is described. The binary image difference operation is commonly used in many image processing applications including automated inspection systems, character recognition, fingerprint analysis, and motion detection. The efficiency of these operations can be improved significantly with the availability of a fast systolic system that computes the image difference as described in this paper. It is shown that for images with a high similarity measure, the time complexity of the systolic algorithm is small and, in some cases, constant with respect to the image size. A formal proof …

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Association Rules For Web Data Mining In Whoweda, Sanjay Kumar Madria, C. Raymond, M. Mohania, Sourav S. Bhowmick Jan 2000

Association Rules For Web Data Mining In Whoweda, Sanjay Kumar Madria, C. Raymond, M. Mohania, Sourav S. Bhowmick

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The authors discuss association rules which can be discovered from Web data. The association rules are discussed within the scope of our WHOWEDA (warehouse of Web data) project. WHOWEDA is supported by a Web data model and a set of algebraic operators. The Web data model allows a uniform and integrated view of Web data gathered using a user''s query graph. A user''s query graph describes the query by example (what the user perceives as the query) and the Web coupling query gathers instances of such a query graph from the Web and stores them in the form of subgraphs …

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A Hysteresis Current-Regulated Control For Multi-Level Drives, Keith Corzine Jan 2000

A Hysteresis Current-Regulated Control For Multi-Level Drives, Keith Corzine

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Most multi-level converters are controlled through the use of voltage-source based control techniques such as space-vector modulation or multi-level sine-triangle modulation. However, in many applications such as field oriented drives, a high bandwidth current-source inverter based control is more desirable. In this paper, the concept of a multi-level hysteresis current-source control is set forth. The new control is experimentally verified using a four-level converter/induction motor drive system and the results are compared to a space vector modulation controller. A dynamic study involving a step change in current command demonstrates the controls high bandwidth.

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