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2007

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Factors Perceived To Contribute To Mathematics Avoidance Or Mathematics Confidence In Non-Traditional Age Women Attending A Community College, Jo Ann K Rawley Jan 2007

Factors Perceived To Contribute To Mathematics Avoidance Or Mathematics Confidence In Non-Traditional Age Women Attending A Community College, Jo Ann K Rawley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, the number of students entering postsecondary institutions immediately after high school has been decreasing, while the number of non-traditional aged students, defined as adults over 25, has substantially increased, with women making up the majority of this adult student group. Mathematics education is an area where non-traditional age women tend to have difficulty. Fifteen individual interviews were conducted with non-traditional age women enrolled in a community college, 10 identifying mathematics as the subject they would least enjoy and 5 identifying mathematics as the subject they would most enjoy. Data were analyzed by comparing the women's stories …

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Examining The Issues Surrounding Violating The Assumption Of Independent Observations In Reliability Generalization Studies: A Simulation Study, Jeanine L. Romano Jan 2007

Examining The Issues Surrounding Violating The Assumption Of Independent Observations In Reliability Generalization Studies: A Simulation Study, Jeanine L. Romano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because both validity and reliability indices are a function of the scores on a given administration of a measure, their values can often vary across samples. It is a common mistake to say that a test is reliable when in fact it is not the test that is reliable but the scores on the test that are reliable. In 1998, vacha-haase proposed a fixed-effects meta-analytic method for evaluating reliability that is similar to validity generalization studies called reliability generalization (rg). This study was conducted to evaluate alternative analysis strategies for the meta-analysis method of reliability generalization when the reliability estimates …

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Devil In A White Coat: The Temptation Of Forensic Evidence In The Age Of Csi, J. Herbie Difonzo, Ruth C. Stern Jan 2007

Devil In A White Coat: The Temptation Of Forensic Evidence In The Age Of Csi, J. Herbie Difonzo, Ruth C. Stern

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

On October 13, 2006, a couple and their two small children were found shot to death on a desolate stretch of Florida highway. Police found tracks along the roadway belonging to a van or sport utility vehicle. Concluding that the killer and the victims may have been traveling together, police also noted that the victims may have been lying down or kneeling when shot. The mother's defensive posture indicated that she had tried to shield the children from the bullets with her body. No footprints were found in the vicinity and the only physical evidence on the scene consisted of …

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Portable Emission Measurements Of Snowcoaches And Snowmobiles In Yellowstone National Park, Gary A. Bishop, Ryan Stadtmuller, Donald H. Stedman Jan 2007

Portable Emission Measurements Of Snowcoaches And Snowmobiles In Yellowstone National Park, Gary A. Bishop, Ryan Stadtmuller, Donald H. Stedman

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

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Practical Problems And Decision Making: The Effect Of Strategy And Experience, Sarah Flores '07 Jan 2007

Practical Problems And Decision Making: The Effect Of Strategy And Experience, Sarah Flores '07

Honors Projects

What is the most effective way to make a decision? To examine the impact of strategy at varying levels of experience, 270 undergraduates solved problems in college life. Participants at three Levels of Experience (First Years, Sophomores, and Residential Life Staff) were assigned to one of four Strategy Conditions (Analysis, Holistic Intuition, Time Limit and Control). Results showed a marginal main effect of Level of Experience, a main effect of Strategy Condition, and an interaction of the two. Time Limit was detrimental for all conditions, except for Staff. First Years performed better with Intuition than Analysis, and Staff scored nonsignificantly …

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Dynamics And Divergences In Electromagnetic Backgrounds, Paul Jameson Jan 2007

Dynamics And Divergences In Electromagnetic Backgrounds, Paul Jameson

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis investigates the behaviour of a charge which is subjected to either an electromagnetic background created by a laser or a background which is hidden behind the resolution limitations of accelerator experiments. When a charge interacts with an intense laser beam its dynamics changes. The resulting trajectory of a non-relativistic particle is solved in this thesis without having to employ the dipole approximation. Many fundamental features of this trajectory are analysed including the drift velocity and the appearance of higher harmonic oscillations. In contrast, the interaction between a charge and an unobserved electromagnetic background leads to the infrared catastrophe. …

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Colour, Copies And Confinement, A Ilderton, M Lavelle, D Mcmullan Jan 2007

Colour, Copies And Confinement, A Ilderton, M Lavelle, D Mcmullan

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

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Reinventing A Level 7 Programme In Electrical Engineering And Greatly Improving On Student Retention, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, Frank Costello, Leslie Shoemaker Jan 2007

Reinventing A Level 7 Programme In Electrical Engineering And Greatly Improving On Student Retention, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, Frank Costello, Leslie Shoemaker

Books/Book chapters

Following the successful implementation over a number of decades of a three-year Diploma in Electrical and Control Engineering at Technological University Dublin, the programme entered a period of extreme difficulty and uncertainty in the late nineteen ninetees and early years of the new millennium. As with many such engineering programmes, student numbers seeking to enter began to diminish. Furthermore, engagement and retention of students who had enrolled on the programme became evermore challenging, necessitating some radical moves in the formation and operation of the programme and in putting additional student support mechanisms in place. The situation hit rock bottom between …

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Engineering Science As Opposed To Natural Science, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, William Grimson Jan 2007

Engineering Science As Opposed To Natural Science, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, William Grimson

Presentations

No abstract provided.

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Thermal Effectiveness Characteristics Of Low Approach Indirect Evaporative Cooling Systems In Buildings, Ben Costelloe, Donal Finn Jan 2007

Thermal Effectiveness Characteristics Of Low Approach Indirect Evaporative Cooling Systems In Buildings, Ben Costelloe, Donal Finn

Articles

Meteorological enthalpy analysis of temperate and maritime climates above latitude 45°N suggests that the water-side evaporative cooling technique has considerable unrealised potential with contemporary “high temperature” building cooling systems—such as chilled ceilings and displacement ventilation. As low approach conditions are the key to exploiting the cooling potential of the ambient air, thermal performance at such conditions needs to be investigated. To address the research issues, an industrial scale test rig, based on a low approach open cooling tower and plate heat exchanger and designed to maximise evaporative cooling potential, has been constructed. The thermal effectiveness of such systems (as a …

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Quantum Dot Energy Relaxation Mediated By Plasmon Emission In Doped Covalent Semiconductor Heterostructures, A. V. Fedorov, Anna Baranov, I. D. Rukhlenko, T. S. Perova, Kevin Berwick Jan 2007

Quantum Dot Energy Relaxation Mediated By Plasmon Emission In Doped Covalent Semiconductor Heterostructures, A. V. Fedorov, Anna Baranov, I. D. Rukhlenko, T. S. Perova, Kevin Berwick

Articles

The interaction between interface plasmons within a doped substrate and quantum dot electrons or holes has been theoretically studied in double heterostructures based on covalent semiconductors. The interface plasmon modes, the corresponding dispersion relationship, and the intraband carrier relaxation rate in quantum dots are reported. We find the critical points in the interface plasmon density of states for multilayered structures results in enhanced quantum dot intraband carrier relaxation when compared to that for a single heterostructure. A detailed discussion is made of the relaxation rate and the spectral position dependencies on the quantum dot layer thickness as well as on …

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The Sheffer Group And The Riordan Group, Tian-Xiao He, Peter Shiue, Leetsch Hsu Jan 2007

The Sheffer Group And The Riordan Group, Tian-Xiao He, Peter Shiue, Leetsch Hsu

Scholarship

We define the Sheffer group of all Sheffer-type polynomials and prove the isomorphism between the Sheffer group and the Riordan group. An equivalence of the Riordan array pair and generalized Stirling number pair is also presented. Finally, we discuss a higher dimensional extension of Riordan array pairs.

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Symbolization Of Generating Functions; An Application Of The Mullin–Rota Theory Of Binomial Enumeration, Tian-Xiao He, Peter S, Leetsch Hsu Jan 2007

Symbolization Of Generating Functions; An Application Of The Mullin–Rota Theory Of Binomial Enumeration, Tian-Xiao He, Peter S, Leetsch Hsu

Scholarship

We have found that there are more than a dozen classical generating functions that could be suitably symbolized to yield various symbolic sum formulas by employing the Mullin–Rota theory of binomial enumeration. Various special formulas and identities involving well-known number sequences or polynomial sequences are presented as illustrative examples. The convergence of the symbolic summations is discussed.

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Construction Of Biorthogonal B-Spline Type Wavelet Sequences With Certain Regularities, Tian-Xiao He Jan 2007

Construction Of Biorthogonal B-Spline Type Wavelet Sequences With Certain Regularities, Tian-Xiao He

Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Two Number-Theoretic Problems That Illustrate The Power And Limitations Of Randomness, Andrew Shallue Jan 2007

Two Number-Theoretic Problems That Illustrate The Power And Limitations Of Randomness, Andrew Shallue

Scholarship

This thesis contains work on two problems in algorithmic number theory. The first problem is to give an algorithm that constructs a rational point on an elliptic curve over a finite field. A fast and easy randomized algorithm has existed for some time. We prove that in the case where the finite field has characteristic 2, there is a deterministic algorithm with the same asymptotic running time as the existing randomized algorithm.

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Thermal Control Of An Occupied Room: Investigating The Use Of Carbon Dioxide Concentration As An Auxiliary Control Variable, Kevin O'Connell, Aidan O'Dwyer Jan 2007

Thermal Control Of An Occupied Room: Investigating The Use Of Carbon Dioxide Concentration As An Auxiliary Control Variable, Kevin O'Connell, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper details the theoretical and experimental work done in the examination of the relationship between human generated carbon dioxide concentration and temperature rise in an occupied room. Generation of carbon dioxide by humans is linked to metabolic rate and heat generation. Therefore, carbon dioxide concentration may be used as an indicator of occupancy in a room. Typically, a heating control system will react slowly to changes in room occupancy if temperature is used as the process variable. The aim of the work was to establish if carbon dioxide concentration in the space could be used as an auxiliary control …

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Transfer Function Modelling: A Student-Centred Learning Approach, Aidan O'Dwyer Jan 2007

Transfer Function Modelling: A Student-Centred Learning Approach, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

Traditionally, the modelling of real systems in engineering, using transfer functions, has been done in a mathematically intense manner. However, non-traditional learners such as mature students, part-time students and students without a conventional second-level educational background may not have strong mathematical foundations; in addition, all students increasingly expect technical work which is practical and which motivates independent learning. This paper reports on, reflects on and evaluates an innovative experiment developed by the author to estimate a transfer function model of a person’s eye-brain-hand motor response. In the experiment, carried out using a PC with data acquisition capability, the person is …

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Experiences With Virtual Learning Environments In Control Engineering Education, Aidan O'Dwyer Jan 2007

Experiences With Virtual Learning Environments In Control Engineering Education, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

The twin pressures of the need for students to learn a wider variety of concepts, ideally in a self-learning mode, and the reduction in class contact time has led to the use of increased levels of information technology in control engineering education. This paper reports on, reflects on, and evaluates the author’s use of virtual laboratories (computer based laboratories available on the internet) in control engineering modules at DIT Kevin St. The use of the virtual laboratories helps in the ongoing evolution of the teaching approach from a traditional didactic lecture and laboratory course to a more learner-centred approach. The …

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Stability Analysis And Control Synthesis Of Affine Fuzzy Systems, Ruiyao Gao, Aidan O'Dwyer Jan 2007

Stability Analysis And Control Synthesis Of Affine Fuzzy Systems, Ruiyao Gao, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper presents an approach to stability analysis and control synthesis of affine fuzzy systems. The analysis is based on quadratic Lyapunov functions. The approach considers the nonlinear offset terms in affine fuzzy systems as non-vanishing perturbations added to the corresponding nominal linear blending systems. The affine fuzzy system is bounded by an ultimate limit if the corresponding linear blending system is exponentially stable. A state feedback controller with an extra term is designed with guaranteed global stability. The ultimate bounds are determined for both the open loop system and the compensated system.

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An Approach To Unification Using A Linear Systems Model For The Propagation Of Broad-Band Signals, Jonathan Blackledge Jan 2007

An Approach To Unification Using A Linear Systems Model For The Propagation Of Broad-Band Signals, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

We review the inhomogeneous scalar Helmholtz equation in three-dimensions and the scattering of scalar wavefields from a scatterer of compact support. An asymptotic solution is then considered representing the effect of the frequency approaching zero when a ‘wavefield’ reduces to a ‘field’. The characteristics of ultra-low frequency Helmholtz scattering are then considered and the physical significance discussed of a model that is based on the scattering of Helmholtz wavefields over a broad frequency spectrum. This is equivalent to using a linear systems approach for modelling the propagation, interaction and detection of broad-band signals and provides an approach to the classification …

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Diffusion And Fractional Diffusion Based Models For Multiple Light Scattering And Image Analysis, Jonathan Blackledge Jan 2007

Diffusion And Fractional Diffusion Based Models For Multiple Light Scattering And Image Analysis, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

This paper considers a fractional light diffusion model as an approach to characterizing the case when intermediate scattering processes are present, i.e. the scattering regime is neither strong nor weak. In order to introduce the basis for this approach, we revisit the elements of formal scattering theory and the classical diffusion problem in terms of solutions to the inhomogeneous wave and diffusion equations respectively. We then address the significance of these equations in terms of a random walk model for multiple scattering. This leads to the proposition of a fractional diffusion equation for modelling intermediate strength scattering that is based …

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Engineering Science As Opposed To Natural And Applied Science, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, William Grimson Jan 2007

Engineering Science As Opposed To Natural And Applied Science, Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy, William Grimson

Books/Book chapters

In exploring the epistemology of engineering science we propose a model of engineering. This model incorporates the goals of engineering, the approach to engineering (also called the engineering method) and the role of experience in engi-neering. The basis for understanding the nature of engineering science will be ex-plored, and will be contrasted with natural science. To begin, a large-scale engi-neering project that was successfully completed in Ireland many years ago is dis-cussed - specifically, the development of a megalithic passage tomb as an exemplar of the engineering method in structural design, project management and aesthetics. This exemplar firmly demonstrates that …

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Engineering - An Inherently Philosophical Enterprise, William Grimson Jan 2007

Engineering - An Inherently Philosophical Enterprise, William Grimson

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

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From Certificates To Doctorates, By Degrees: Dublin Institute Of Technology - A Photographic Memoir, Jimmie Robinson Jan 2007

From Certificates To Doctorates, By Degrees: Dublin Institute Of Technology - A Photographic Memoir, Jimmie Robinson

Books

Jimmie Robinson has photographed visitors and events at Dublin Institute of Technology for 43 years. In this photographic memoir, he chronicles the development of DIT over its first 120 years from behind the lens.

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Evolution Of Prehension Ability In An Anthropomorphic Neurorobotic Arm, G Massera Jan 2007

Evolution Of Prehension Ability In An Anthropomorphic Neurorobotic Arm, G Massera

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In this paper, we show how a simulated anthropomorphic robotic arm controlled by an artificial neural network can develop effective reaching and grasping behaviour through a trial and error process in which the free parameters encode the control rules which regulate the fine-grained interaction between the robot and the environment and variations of the free parameters are retained or discarded on the basis of their effects at the level of the global behaviour exhibited by the robot situated in the environment. The obtained results demonstrate how the proposed methodology allows the robot to produce effective behaviours thanks to its ability …

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Behavioural Syndromes In Brook Charr, Salvelinus Fontinalis: Prey-Search In The Field Corresponds With Space Use In Novel Laboratory Situations, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Robert L. Mclaughlin Jan 2007

Behavioural Syndromes In Brook Charr, Salvelinus Fontinalis: Prey-Search In The Field Corresponds With Space Use In Novel Laboratory Situations, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Robert L. Mclaughlin

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Analysis Of Supercritical Stratified Tidal Flow In A Scottish Fjord, Nataliya Stashchuk, Mark Inali, Vasiliy Vlasenko Jan 2007

Analysis Of Supercritical Stratified Tidal Flow In A Scottish Fjord, Nataliya Stashchuk, Mark Inali, Vasiliy Vlasenko

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The baroclinic tidal regime of the fjord Loch Etive (Scotland) is studied. Analysis is performed on the basis of both in situ data and numerical simulations, with the use of a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic fine-resolution model. It was found that the crest of the sill that separates Loch Etive into inner and outer parts is subjected to a supercritical flow regime with maximum Froude numbers in excess of 5. Strong supercritical conditions lead to the formation of flow separation just above the sill's crest. As is inherent to jet-type fjordic systems, this, in turn, leads to a weak nonlinear baroclinic …

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Hologram-Based Humidity Indicator For Domestic And Packaging Applications, Izabela Naydenova, Raghavendra Jallapuram, Vincent Toal, Suzanne Martin Jan 2007

Hologram-Based Humidity Indicator For Domestic And Packaging Applications, Izabela Naydenova, Raghavendra Jallapuram, Vincent Toal, Suzanne Martin

Conference Papers

A passive indicator for Relative Humidity based on a photopolymer recorded hologram has been developed. The indicator works on the principle that the wavelength reconstructed by a reflection hologram is dependent on the spacing between the fringe planes of the hologram. As the Relative Humidity changes, the hologram swells or shrinks and the apparent colour of the reconstructed image changes. The response time, operational range and reversibility of the indicator have been studied in a controlled humidity environment. Response times from less than a minute to tens of minutes depending on the holograms physical properties have been measured. Indicators with …

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A Study Of Linear Error Correcting Codes, Cen Jung Tjhai Jan 2007

A Study Of Linear Error Correcting Codes, Cen Jung Tjhai

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Since Shannon's ground-breaking work in 1948, there have been two main development streams of channel coding in approaching the limit of communication channels, namely classical coding theory which aims at designing codes with large minimum Hamming distance and probabilistic coding which places the emphasis on low complexity probabilistic decoding using long codes built from simple constituent codes. This work presents some further investigations in these two channel coding development streams. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes form a class of capacity-approaching codes with sparse parity-check matrix and low-complexity decoder Two novel methods of constructing algebraic binary LDPC codes are presented. These methods …

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Improving The Prediction Of The Behaviour Of Masonry Wall Panels Using Model Updating And Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Chengfei Sui Jan 2007

Improving The Prediction Of The Behaviour Of Masonry Wall Panels Using Model Updating And Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Chengfei Sui

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Out-of-plane laterally loaded masonry wall panels are still much used in modem structures. However due to their anisotropic and highly composite nature, it is extremely difficult to understand their behaviour and to date there is no analytical method that is capable of accurately predicting the response of masonry panels to the applied loadings. This is one of the major obstacles in analysing and designing masonry structures. This research studied a new method that accurately predicts the response of laterally loaded masonry wall panels. In this dissertation, the method of using corrector factors developed by previous researchers was further studied using …

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