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2014

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Perceptions Of Leaders, Teachers, Students And Parents In High Performing West Australian Catholic Secondary Schools Within The Context Of Tertiary Entrance Examinations, Michael O'Neill Jan 2014

Perceptions Of Leaders, Teachers, Students And Parents In High Performing West Australian Catholic Secondary Schools Within The Context Of Tertiary Entrance Examinations, Michael O'Neill

Theses

As for most of the developed world, Australia is no different in its scrupulous evaluation of school performance data. Annually much attention is given to data surrounding the performance of students, teachers and schools in high stakes Tertiary Entrance Examinations as students seek to qualify for a variety of university programs. So called ‘league tables’ are produced measuring school performance on a number of criteria which differ marginally from state to state. Such tables identify both successful and less successful schools. Notwithstanding the limitations of such comparisons and the fact that success is a relative term there is a great …

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Effects Of Toxic Cyanobacteria (Microcystis Aeruginosa) On The Feeding And Reproduction Ecology Of The Copepod Eurytemora Affinis From Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Nicholas J. Barrett Jan 2014

Effects Of Toxic Cyanobacteria (Microcystis Aeruginosa) On The Feeding And Reproduction Ecology Of The Copepod Eurytemora Affinis From Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Nicholas J. Barrett

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Toxic Cyanobacteria is known to be a bad food source to consumers as well as a main contributor to harmful algal blooms. This study investigates the feeding relationship between an invasive copepod in the Great Lakes system, Eurytemora affinis, and a toxic strain of cyanobacteria, Microcystis aeruginosa. E.affinis has been shown to feed on toxic cyanobacteria. By measuring the filtering rate, ingestion rate, egg production and offspring size between three different food conditions, we hope to gain insight into the effects of toxic cyanobacteria on the feeding and reproduction of this copepod. Food sources include a good green algal …

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Time Required For A Sphere To Fall Through A Funnel, J. Sridharan, Brett Altschul, S. Crittenden Jan 2014

Time Required For A Sphere To Fall Through A Funnel, J. Sridharan, Brett Altschul, S. Crittenden

Faculty Publications

We experimentally test a recently proposed theory of the behavior of a single frictional, inelastic, spherical particle falling under gravity through a symmetric funnel. We find that, while many qualitative results of the theory are supported by the data, the quantitative behavior of a real sphere falling through a real funnel differs from the predictions. The behavior above a 45◦ funnel angle, the duration, and the dependence of the duration on the initial horizontal position all show significant deviations from the predicted results. In particular, for drop positions near the gap, the duration of the fall is often significantly less …

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Development Of Sampling Efficiency And Internal Noise In Motion Detection And Discrimination In School-Aged Children, Hk Falkenberg, Wa Simpson, Gn Dutton Jan 2014

Development Of Sampling Efficiency And Internal Noise In Motion Detection And Discrimination In School-Aged Children, Hk Falkenberg, Wa Simpson, Gn Dutton

School of Psychology

The aim of this study was to use an equivalent noise (EN) to investigate the development and maturation of motion perception, and how the underlying limitations of sampling efficiency and internal noise effect motion detection and direction discrimination in school-aged children (5-14 years) and adults. Contrast energy thresholds of a 2 c/deg sinusoidal grating drifting at 1.0 or 6.0 Hz were measured as a function of added dynamic noise in three tasks: detection of a drifting grating; detection of the sum of two oppositely drifting gratings and direction discrimination of oppositely drifting gratings. Compared to the ideal observer, in both …

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Applications Of Dithieno [3,2-B2',3'-D] Pyrroles And Its Analogues To Conjugated Materials, Casey B. Mccausland Jan 2014

Applications Of Dithieno [3,2-B2',3'-D] Pyrroles And Its Analogues To Conjugated Materials, Casey B. Mccausland

Chemistry and Biochemistry

The promise of semiconducting materials with tunable electronic and optical properties that share the same mechanical flexibility, low production costs and ease of processing displayed by traditional polymers fuels the intense interest seen in developing devices employing conjugated polymers (CPs). Many examples of -conjugated systems have been studied and reported in the literature, of which Rasmussen and coworkers have advanced the field with their work involving N-alkyl, N-aryl, and N-acyl-dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrroles (DTPs). Using DTP as a template current investigations are targeting two analogues: pyrrolo[3,2-d:4,5-d’]bisthiazole (PBTz) and difuro[3,2-b:2’,3’-d]pyrroles (DFP). In comparison to polymers of DTP, the electron-deficient nature of thiazoles is known …

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Stereospecific Phototransformations Of Atropisomeric Chromophores, Elango Kumarasamy Jan 2014

Stereospecific Phototransformations Of Atropisomeric Chromophores, Elango Kumarasamy

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Photochemical transformations are unique strategy in synthesis that enables us to access complex and structurally diverse organic scaffolds. However, the challenges in controlling the excited-state to perform stereoselective reactions left this method under-utilized. This dissertation describes a novel strategy that employs atropisomeric chromophores to perform stereospecific phototransformations. The success of this strategy is well established in thermal chemistry but not comprehensively investigated in photochemical transformations. This research largely relies on rotamer control in the ground state (NEER principle) wherein the axial chirality in the starting material was transferred to point chirality in the products upon excitation. The chapter 1 describes …

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Characterizing The Roles Of Exit Tunnel Residues In Ligand Binding And Catalysis Of Histone Deacetylase-8, Ruchi Gupta Jan 2014

Characterizing The Roles Of Exit Tunnel Residues In Ligand Binding And Catalysis Of Histone Deacetylase-8, Ruchi Gupta

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Histone deacetylases are an important class of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of acetyl-L-lysine side chains in histone and non-histone proteins to yield L-lysine and acetate, effecting the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. In addition to the active site pocket, the enzyme harbors an internal cavity for the release of acetate by-product. To probe the role of highly conserved amino acid residues lining this exit tunnel, site-directed alanine substitutions were made at tyrosine-18, tyrosine-20 and histidine-42 positions. These mutants were characterized by various biochemical and biophysical techniques to define the effect of mutations on ligand binding and catalysis of the …

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Bitcoin Financial Regulation: Securities, Derivatives, Prediction Markets, And Gambling, Jerry Brito, Houman B. Shadab, Andrea Castillo Jan 2014

Bitcoin Financial Regulation: Securities, Derivatives, Prediction Markets, And Gambling, Jerry Brito, Houman B. Shadab, Andrea Castillo

Articles & Chapters

The next major wave of Bitcoin regulation will likely be aimed at financial instruments, including securities and derivatives, as well as prediction markets and even gambling. While there are many easily regulated intermediaries when it comes to traditional securities and derivatives, emerging bitcoin denominated instruments rely much less on traditional intermediaries such as banks and securities exchanges. Additionally, the block chain technology that Bitcoin introduced for the first time makes completely decentralized markets and exchanges possible, thus eliminating the need for intermediaries in complex financial transactions. In this Article we survey the type of financial instruments and transactions that will …

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The Associations Between Student Perceptions Of The Classroom Psycho-Social Learning Environment And Motivation To Learn Chinese, Chongmin Ji Jan 2014

The Associations Between Student Perceptions Of The Classroom Psycho-Social Learning Environment And Motivation To Learn Chinese, Chongmin Ji

Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between students’ perception of their classroom psychosocial learning environment and motivation to learn Mandarin Chinese, which can support teachers in creating a good classroom environment. The students took two surveys (Likert scale and open-ended questions) that measured their perception of the classroom environment and the learning motivation. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentage) and inferential statistics (simple correlation, multiple regression, and two sample t-test) were used to analyze the quantitative data. The open-ended questions were coded and categorized based on the student responses. There were statistically significant associations between student …

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The Flipped Classroom: Shakespeare In The English Classroom, Anna Lynn Gross Jan 2014

The Flipped Classroom: Shakespeare In The English Classroom, Anna Lynn Gross

Education

Bergmann and Sams’ twenty-first century flipped classroom method was reviewed in depth to determine its effectiveness in improving student achievement and enjoyment of studying Hamlet by William Shakespeare, a text that is difficult to both read and comprehend. The flipped method was implemented into one of two 12th grade general English classes in rural Minnesota. The first section of 12th grade general English read the play aloud using the traditional read-aloud method and completed an in-depth passage analysis chart for homework. The second section, the intervention group, used the flipped method and read the play on their own with accompanying …

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Perceptions Of Secondary Mathematics Teachers Concerning Influences On Pedagogical Practices, Jamie Wirth Jan 2014

Perceptions Of Secondary Mathematics Teachers Concerning Influences On Pedagogical Practices, Jamie Wirth

Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of Secondary Math Teachers (SMTs) concerning the influences that affect teaching practices and also investigate the possible existence of pluralistic ignorance concerning the way SMTs perceive the effects of influences on their own teaching practices versus the way they perceive the effects of these same influences on the teaching practices of a typical SMT. While other studies have quantitatively analyzed teaching influences through the use of traditional surveys (Weiss, Pasley, Smith, Banilower, & Heck, 2003; Whittington, 2002; Banilower, Smith, Weiss, Malzahn, Campbell, & Weis, 2013; Smith, 2013), this study used …

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Controller As Business Manager, James Lindell Jan 2014

Controller As Business Manager, James Lindell

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

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Factors Explaining The Risk Perception Of County Emergency Managers, Jared Jon Huibregtse Jan 2014

Factors Explaining The Risk Perception Of County Emergency Managers, Jared Jon Huibregtse

Emergency Management

This thesis attempted to explore how county emergency managers understand the risks most likely to manifest in their jurisdiction using an internet survey. This study addressed the following research questions: 1) What risks do county emergency managers perceive to be the most likely to manifest in their jurisdiction? 2) What factors explain their risk perceptions? Data were collected by internet survey which was sent to county emergency managers in FEMA Region V. When data collection ceased, 165 county emergency managers had completed the internet survey in full. Regression analysis revealed that a small amount of the variance in risk perception …

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Professional Development Programs: Making The Case For Investing In Support-Staff At A Private, Undergraduate Institution, Rebecca Lee Amundsen Jan 2014

Professional Development Programs: Making The Case For Investing In Support-Staff At A Private, Undergraduate Institution, Rebecca Lee Amundsen

Education

The purpose of this study was to determine whether support-staff at Concordia College feel valued by the institution and whether they perceive that workplace satisfaction will improve with the creation and implementation of a professional development program. A survey was conducted and responses were analyzed based on comparisons of the mean, frequency, and correlation, as well as an evaluation of written responses. There were no significant differences found between support-staff in academic departments and academic administrative offices in terms of level of satisfaction, feeling valued, or the perceived impact of a professional development program. Overall, support-staff perceived that a professional …

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Instructors' Attitudes Toward Online Visual Art Courses: Impact Of Technology Experience And Incentives, Misti D. Vogle Jan 2014

Instructors' Attitudes Toward Online Visual Art Courses: Impact Of Technology Experience And Incentives, Misti D. Vogle

Education

The general purpose of this quantitative study was to review university visual art instructor attitudes toward online visual art courses, instructor perspectives toward online education instructor incentives, and instructor experience with five main technologies in accredited higher education institutions in the United States. The general findings indicate that 1) respondents show a high percentage of visual art instructors have negative attitudes toward visual art online courses; 2) visual art instructors find instructor incentives to be an important aspect for visual art online courses; 3) visual art instructors have a high percentage of technology experience; 4) visual art instructors working full-time …

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A Study Of The Effect The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Self-Efficacy, Donald Christian Kenna Jan 2014

A Study Of The Effect The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Self-Efficacy, Donald Christian Kenna

Education

The learning model known as the flipped classroom is one of the developing ideas of educating students. Bergmann and Sams (2012) using a flipped classroom in 2007 when they recorded lecture for students to view at home and allowing students to work on “homework” in the classroom. This research was conducted to identify the effect of the flipped classroom on student self-efficacy and the difference in self-efficacy between genders using this model. This study was conducted with 22 physics students in two classes, a traditional and a flipped classroom. The student’s self-efficacy was scored with the Self-Efficacy Survey. The results …

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Regional Differences In Beverage And Fruit Consumption In China, Xiaotian Wu Jan 2014

Regional Differences In Beverage And Fruit Consumption In China, Xiaotian Wu

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the impact of regional and other demographic characteristics, such as age, education level, and household income, on food consumption in China. In total, data for 2342 households from 11 different Chinese cities were analyzed. Two separate studies on fruits and beverages were conducted, each with four `home food' groups and four `away from home food' groups. A two-step quadratic ideal demand system model was used to analyze the regional differences and the effects of the other demographic characteristics on food consumption in China. Regional differences in beverage and fruit consumption were identified …

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A Historical Analysis Of Natural Gas Demand, Nathan Richard Dalbec Jan 2014

A Historical Analysis Of Natural Gas Demand, Nathan Richard Dalbec

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

This thesis analyzes demand in the US energy market for natural gas, oil, and coal over the period of 1918-2013 and examines their price relationship over the period of 2007-2013. Diagnostic tests for time series were used; Augmented Dickey-Fuller, Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin, Johansen cointegration, Granger Causality and weak exogeneity tests. Directed acyclic graphs were used as a complimentary test for endogeneity. Due to the varied results in determining endogeneity, a seemingly unrelated regression model was used which assumes all right hand side variables in the three demand equations were exogenous. A number of factors were significant in determining demand for natural gas …

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Survival Analysis Of Foreclosures By Housing And Neighborhood Characteristics, Resha Shehari Aviena Dias Jan 2014

Survival Analysis Of Foreclosures By Housing And Neighborhood Characteristics, Resha Shehari Aviena Dias

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

Losing a home affects not only the homeowner but the community at large. This thesis examines both housing and neighborhood characteristics to determine which characteristics have an impact on the speed of the sale of a foreclosed property. The findings from the Cox Proportional hazard model show which characteristics buyers value more when buying a foreclosed property. These characteristics can be different from the ones that are used to determine the sales price of a foreclosed property. Both financial institutions and real estate speculators can benefit from knowing which housing characteristics are preferred in a foreclosed property, allowing them to …

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Ph Responsive Capsules Containing Composite Coatings For Corrosion Inhibition In Metal Alloys, Kiran Bhat Kashi Jan 2014

Ph Responsive Capsules Containing Composite Coatings For Corrosion Inhibition In Metal Alloys, Kiran Bhat Kashi

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Hexavalent chromes have be used as effective corrosion inhibitors due to their high inhibitor efficiency and low cost for the protection of several metal alloys. However, owing to their toxicity federal legislations restrict the use and distribution of these highly toxic materials. The need for an environmentally friendly yet effective alternative to the chrome based corrosion inhibitors has led to the investigation of rare earth metals as potential candidates. Cerium is one such rare earth metal that has received considerable attention as an alternative to hexavalent chromes. However, the high water solubility of some of the cerium salts makes it …

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Responsive Polymer-Based Colliods For Drug Delivery And Bioconversion, Olena Kudina Jan 2014

Responsive Polymer-Based Colliods For Drug Delivery And Bioconversion, Olena Kudina

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Responsive polymer-based colloids (RPBC) are the colloidal structures containing responsive polymeric component which is able to adapt its physico-chemical properties to the environment by undergoing chemical and/or conformational changes. The goal of the dissertation is to develop and characterize several groups of RPBC with different morphological complexity and explore their potential in drug delivery and bioconversion. The role of RPBC morphology for these specific applications is discussed in details. Three groups of RPBC were fabricated: i. polymeric micelles; ii. mixed polymeric micelles; iii. hybrid polymer-inorganic particles. All fabricated RPBCs contain polymeric component in their structure. The dissertation investigates how the …

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A New Methodology For The Design And Tuning Of Robust Pid Controllers In Electric Drives, Chaudhry Arshad Mehmood Jan 2014

A New Methodology For The Design And Tuning Of Robust Pid Controllers In Electric Drives, Chaudhry Arshad Mehmood

Electrical and Computer Engineering

AC induction motor-drive systems are the backbone for numerous industrial applications, such as aerospace, medical equipment, and nuclear power plants. The control performance of electric drives is sensitive to several uncontrollable disturbances from changes in ambient conditions in the form of machine parameter variations such as: magnetizing inductance (Lm), and rotor resistance (Rr). Such variations may trigger instability because of mismatch between the reference and desired conditions. The most common techniques to solve the issue are: (a) gain adaptation that requires instrumentation to monitor system, (b) nonlinear control methods, such as sliding mode, feedback linearization, and (c) robust control method, …

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Network Convergence In Multicarrier Hybrid Cellular Network, Siqian Liu Jan 2014

Network Convergence In Multicarrier Hybrid Cellular Network, Siqian Liu

Electrical and Computer Engineering

In a multicarrier communication system with known channel state information at transmitter (CSIT), it is well-known that the water-filling power allocation scheme is optimal in achieving the Shannon capacity. However, in a multicarrier broadcast network (e.g. over-the-air TV network) without CSIT, the optimal power allocation among subcarriers is still unknown, largely due to the heterogeneity of the channel conditions associated with different receivers. In the first part of the thesis, the performance of a generic multicarrier broadcast network is thoroughly studied by exploiting the frequency diversity over subcarriers. In particular, the performance metric is first defined based on the relationship …

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Secure Data Sharing In Cloud, Revathi Dhamotharan Jan 2014

Secure Data Sharing In Cloud, Revathi Dhamotharan

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Cloud storage is widely used for sharing data due to low cost maintenance. But, it is also necessary to secure data on cloud. Secure Data Sharing in Cloud focuses mainly on: a) privacy and confidentiality, b) key management and encryption, c) secure data sharing without re-encryption and d) forward and backward access control. When user wants to share data, it sends request to trusted party that generates a symmetric key which is used to encrypt the data for sharing. This key is used to compute two key shares for trusted party and user. The key is deleted using secure overwriting. …

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A Compact Cylindrical-Shape Microstrip Structure With Cloaking Properties For Mutual Coupling Reduction In Array Antennas, Syed Aftab Naqvi Jan 2014

A Compact Cylindrical-Shape Microstrip Structure With Cloaking Properties For Mutual Coupling Reduction In Array Antennas, Syed Aftab Naqvi

Electrical and Computer Engineering

A cylindrical-shaped microstrip structure with cloaking properties is presented as a shielding device to reduce the mutual coupling between two patch antennas. The surface comprises of a number of 2-port microstrip (2-PM) elements printed on individual substrates and, to enclose a particular region, several 2-PM elements are interconnected into a cylindrical shape. Each 2-PM element has the capability of coupling an incident EM field on the surface to the adjacent interconnected elements. Then, because the 2-PM elements are connected into a cylindrical shape, the incident EM field is re-radiated from the other interconnected 2-PM elements in a direction away from …

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Implementation Of Fourier Repetitive Control In Labview, Fan He Jan 2014

Implementation Of Fourier Repetitive Control In Labview, Fan He

Electrical and Computer Engineering

This thesis presents position control as well as current (torque) control of a DC servo motor with a periodic input. Position control is achieved by using Fourier repetitive control scheme. Simulation on position control is carried out and results discussed. Experiment is executed based on a testing platform that is built using two, mechanically linked DC servo motors and LabVIEW to incorporate the Fourier repetitive control algorithms. The experiment results validate the feasibility of controlling motor positions via Fourier repetitive control scheme. Suggestions on improving the implementation of Fourier repetitive control theory are also made. Experiment results on current (torque) …

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Content Dissemination Schemes For Mobile Clouds: Modeling, Analysis, And Verification, Ankan Ghosh Jan 2014

Content Dissemination Schemes For Mobile Clouds: Modeling, Analysis, And Verification, Ankan Ghosh

Electrical and Computer Engineering

In this work, we capitalize on our previous work on the Hybrid Scheme for Message Replication (HSM) for opportunistic networks, to develop two content dissemination schemes for mobile clouds, namely, the Forecast and Relay (FAR) and Utility-Based Scheme (UBS). Simulation results with synthetic mobility models validate that the proposed schemes outperform existing routing strategies, such as the PRoPHET, Epidemic, Random, and Wave. We have exploited High-Level Petri Nets to model and analyze the communication processes encompassing HSM, FAR, and UBS. The UBS has been conceived to overcome a crucial design limitation of HSM and FAR, made evident through formal analysis. …

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Evaluating The Usefulness Of Requirement Error Taxonomy As A Defect Prevention Technique: An Empirical Investigation, Sana Rehman Jan 2014

Evaluating The Usefulness Of Requirement Error Taxonomy As A Defect Prevention Technique: An Empirical Investigation, Sana Rehman

Computer Science

Defect prevention techniques can be used during the creation of software artifacts to help developers create high-quality artifacts. The Requirement Error Taxonomy developed by Walia et al. [22, 23] helps focus developer’s attention on common errors that can occur during requirements engineering. This paper investigates the usefulness of the Requirement Error Taxonomy as a defect prevention technique. The goal was to determine if making requirements engineers’ familiar with the Requirement Error Taxonomy would reduce the likelihood that they commit errors while developing a requirements document. We conducted an empirical study in which the participants used the Requirement Error Taxonomy during …

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Adapting Web Page Tables On Mobile Web Browsers: Results From Two Controlled Empirical Studies, Ramakanth Reddy Annadi Jan 2014

Adapting Web Page Tables On Mobile Web Browsers: Results From Two Controlled Empirical Studies, Ramakanth Reddy Annadi

Computer Science

Displaying web page content in mobile screens is a challenging task and users often face difficulty retrieving the relevant data. It can force them to adopt a time-consuming hunt-and-peck strategy. Application of design principles can improve the view of the webpage data content and reduce the time consumption in viewing it. This is especially true with HTML tabular data content. This thesis discusses the background and applications of the gestalt design principle techniques to HTML tabular data content. An empirical study was performed to investigate the usability of two types of the adaptive styles namely, single and multi-layout. This thesis …

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Applied Nonparametric Statistical Tests To Compare Evolutionary And Swarm Intelligence Approaches, Srinivas Adithya Amanchi Jan 2014

Applied Nonparametric Statistical Tests To Compare Evolutionary And Swarm Intelligence Approaches, Srinivas Adithya Amanchi

Computer Science

Recently, in many experimental studies, the statistical analysis of nonparametric comparisons has grown in the area of computational intelligence. The research refers to application of different techniques that are used to show comparison among the algorithms in an experimental study. Pairwise statistical technique perform individual comparison between two algorithms and multiple statistical technique perform comparison between more than two algorithms. Techniques include the Sign test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, the multiple sign test, the Friedman test, the Friedman aligned ranks test and the Quade test. In this paper, we used these tests to analyze the results obtained in an experimental …

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