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Pages
- Title
- JOURNEY.
- Creator
-
Martinsen, Suzann, Haxton, John, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In my drawings and animation, I create a representation of a culture that is instilled in me, yet foreign. The work is inspired from a childlike perspective to depict a personal primitive experience with the Korean culture. The subtleties of the animations are meant to reflect the quiet nature of Asian paintings and to allow the viewer to experience and interpret it as they choose. I want others to see without hearing words in an already noisy world.
- Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002089, ucf:47528
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002089
- Title
- PHYSICALLY-BASED VISUALIZATION OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDING DAMAGE PROCESS IN HURRICANE.
- Creator
-
Liao, Dezhi, Kincaid, J. Peter, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This research provides realistic techniques to visualize the process of damage to residential building caused by hurricane force winds. Three methods are implemented to make the visualization useful for educating the public about mitigation measures for their homes. First, the underline physics uses Quick Collision Response Calculation. This is an iterative method, which can tune the accuracy and the performance to calculate collision response between building components. Secondly, the damage...
Show moreThis research provides realistic techniques to visualize the process of damage to residential building caused by hurricane force winds. Three methods are implemented to make the visualization useful for educating the public about mitigation measures for their homes. First, the underline physics uses Quick Collision Response Calculation. This is an iterative method, which can tune the accuracy and the performance to calculate collision response between building components. Secondly, the damage process is designed as a Time-scalable Process. By attaching a damage time tag for each building component, the visualization process is treated as a geometry animation allowing users to navigate in the visualization. The detached building components move in response to the wind force that is calculated using qualitative rather than quantitative techniques. The results are acceptable for instructional systems but not for engineering analysis. Quick Damage Prediction is achieved by using a database query instead of using a Monte-Carlo simulation. The database is based on HAZUS® engineering analysis data which gives it validity. A reasoning mechanism based on the definition of the overall building damage in HAZUS® is used to determine the damage state of selected building components including roof cover, roof sheathing, wall, openings and roof-wall connections. Exposure settings of environmental aspects of the simulated environment, such as ocean, trees, cloud and rain are integrated into a scene-graph based graphics engine. Based on the graphics engine and the physics engine, a procedural modeling method is used to efficiently render residential buildings. The resulting program, Hurricane!, is an instructional program for public education useful in schools and museum exhibits.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001609, ucf:47190
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001609
- Title
- FLORIDA FIRST YEAR TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF PREPAREDNESS TO MEET NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS (NETS-T).
- Creator
-
Bedenbaugh, Larry, Taylor, Rosemarye, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this study was to determine if first year teachers in Florida perceived they were adequately prepared by their preservice education programs to meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). The study was designed to gather data about first year teacher perceptions of personal technology proficiency and self-reported technology integration practices. The data were measured using the First Year Teacher Perceptions Related to Preparedness to Meet...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to determine if first year teachers in Florida perceived they were adequately prepared by their preservice education programs to meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). The study was designed to gather data about first year teacher perceptions of personal technology proficiency and self-reported technology integration practices. The data were measured using the First Year Teacher Perceptions Related to Preparedness to Meet National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) survey instrument. The sample (N=257) for this study was drawn from the population of Florida first year PreK-12 public classroom teachers from the 2005–2006 school year who were still teaching during the 2006-2007 school year. Demographic variables, perceptions of personal technology skills, and self-reported technology integration practices were collected on the sample. Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to identify relationships between the variables. It was concluded that first year teachers in Florida who held a professional teaching certificate or graduated from a Florida public university's teacher education program perceived they were better prepared to meet national educational technology standards than first year teachers in Florida who did not. It was also determined that there was a statistically significant relationship between first year teacher perceptions for preparedness for technology integration and their perceived personal technology skills, as well as between self-reported technology integration practices of first year teachers and their perceptions of their ability to integrate technology. Two additional findings came to light during the study. The majority of first year teachers in Florida did not take the traditional university teacher preparation program as their path to certification. Additionally, the vast majority of first year teachers in Florida gave credit to independent learning in increasing their own personal technology skills.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- Identifier
- CFE0001727, ucf:47320
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001727
- Title
- ALAYZING THE EFFECTS OF MODULARITY ON SEARCH SPACES.
- Creator
-
Garibay, Ozlem, Wu, Annie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
We are continuously challenged by ever increasing problem complexity and the need to develop algorithms that can solve complex problems and solve them within a reasonable amount of time. Modularity is thought to reduce problem complexity by decomposing large problems into smaller and less complex subproblems. In practice, introducing modularity into evolutionary algorithm representations appears to improve search performance; however, how and why modularity improves performance is not well...
Show moreWe are continuously challenged by ever increasing problem complexity and the need to develop algorithms that can solve complex problems and solve them within a reasonable amount of time. Modularity is thought to reduce problem complexity by decomposing large problems into smaller and less complex subproblems. In practice, introducing modularity into evolutionary algorithm representations appears to improve search performance; however, how and why modularity improves performance is not well understood. In this thesis, we seek to better understand the effects of modularity on search. In particular, what are the effects of module creation on the search space structure and how do these structural changes affect performance? We define a theoretical and empirical framework to study modularity in evolutionary algorithms. Using this framework, we provide evidence of the following. First, not all types of modularity have an effect on search. We can have highly modular spaces that in essence are equivalent to simpler non-modular spaces. This is the case, because these spaces achieve higher degree of modularity without changing the fundamental structure of the search space. Second, for the cases when modularity actually has an effect on the fundamental structure of the search space, if left without guidance, it would only crowd and complicate the space structure resulting in a harder space for most search algorithms. Finally, we have the case when modularity not only has an effect in the search space structure, but most importantly, module creation can be guided by problem domain knowledge. When this knowledge can be used to estimate the value of a module in terms of its contribution toward building the solution, then modularity is extremely effective. It is in this last case that creating high value modules or low value modules has a direct and decisive impact on performance. The results presented in this thesis help to better understand, in a principled way, the effects of modularity on search. Better understanding the effects of modularity on search is a step forward in the larger issue of evolutionary search applied to increasingly complex problems.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002490, ucf:47680
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002490
- Title
- AN IMPROVED THERMOREGULATORY MODEL FOR COOLING GARMENT APPLICATIONS WITH TRANSIENT METABOLIC RATES.
- Creator
-
Westin, Johan, Kapat, Jayanta, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Current state-of-the-art thermoregulatory models do not predict body temperatures with the accuracies that are required for the development of automatic cooling control in liquid cooling garment (LCG) systems. Automatic cooling control would be beneficial in a variety of space, aviation, military, and industrial environments for optimizing cooling efficiency, for making LCGs as portable and practical as possible, for alleviating the individual from manual cooling control, and for improving...
Show moreCurrent state-of-the-art thermoregulatory models do not predict body temperatures with the accuracies that are required for the development of automatic cooling control in liquid cooling garment (LCG) systems. Automatic cooling control would be beneficial in a variety of space, aviation, military, and industrial environments for optimizing cooling efficiency, for making LCGs as portable and practical as possible, for alleviating the individual from manual cooling control, and for improving thermal comfort and cognitive performance. In this study, we adopt the Fiala thermoregulatory model, which has previously demonstrated state-of-the-art predictive abilities in air environments, for use in LCG environments. We validate the numerical formulation with analytical solutions to the bioheat equation, and find our model to be accurate and stable with a variety of different grid configurations. We then compare the thermoregulatory model's tissue temperature predictions with experimental data where individuals, equipped with an LCG, exercise according to a 700 W rectangular type activity schedule. The root mean square (RMS) deviation between the model response and the mean experimental group response is 0.16°C for the rectal temperature and 0.70°C for the mean skin temperature, which is within state-of-the-art variations. However, with a mean absolute body heat storage error (e_BHS_mean) of 9.7 W·h, the model fails to satisfy the ±6.5 W·h accuracy that is required for the automatic LCG cooling control development. In order to improve model predictions, we modify the blood flow dynamics of the thermoregulatory model. Instead of using step responses to changing requirements, we introduce exponential responses to the muscle blood flow and the vasoconstriction command. We find that such modifications have an insignificant effect on temperature predictions. However, a new vasoconstriction dependency, i.e. the rate of change of hypothalamus temperature weighted by the hypothalamus error signal (DThy·dThy/dt), proves to be an important signal that governs the thermoregulatory response during conditions of simultaneously increasing core and decreasing skin temperatures, which is a common scenario in LCG environments. With the new DThy·dThy/dt dependency in the vasoconstriction command, the e_BHS_mean for the exercise period is reduced by 59% (from 12.9 W·h to 5.2 W·h). Even though the new e_BHS_mean of 5.8 W·h for the total activity schedule is within the target accuracy of ±6.5 W·h, e_BHS fails to stay within the target accuracy during the entire activity schedule. With additional improvements to the central blood pool formulation, the LCG boundary condition, and the agreement between model set-points and actual experimental initial conditions, it seems possible to achieve the strict accuracy that is needed for automatic cooling control development.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002460, ucf:47707
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002460
- Title
- MY MIND IS A HOLE IN THE UNIVERSE.
- Creator
-
Gramling, Glen, Hall, Scott, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Today, science and creative fiction are closer than ever. The current unified theory of physics is bringing parallel worlds and infinite realities into the light of truth, proving that we have the creative power to build worlds with grandiose landscapes, uncanny characters, and miraculous events that exists throughout the vast plane of reality. My life experiences become a skewed alternate reality absorbing all of my thoughts, fears, and fascinations without control. As I glimpse into my own...
Show moreToday, science and creative fiction are closer than ever. The current unified theory of physics is bringing parallel worlds and infinite realities into the light of truth, proving that we have the creative power to build worlds with grandiose landscapes, uncanny characters, and miraculous events that exists throughout the vast plane of reality. My life experiences become a skewed alternate reality absorbing all of my thoughts, fears, and fascinations without control. As I glimpse into my own mind, I record the imagery of my imagined worlds and chronicle its events. I am not conceptualizing; I'm not asking what if. I am giving you a looking glass allowing you to see for yourself.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002554, ucf:47652
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002554
- Title
- AFFECTIVE DESIGN IN TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION.
- Creator
-
Rosen, Michael, Kitalong, Karla, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Traditional human-computer interaction (HCI) is based on 'cold' models of user cognition; that is, models of users as purely rational beings based on the information processing metaphor; however, an emerging perspective suggests that for the field of HCI to mature, its practitioners must adopt models of users that consider broader human needs and capabilities. Affective design is an umbrella term for research and practice being conducted in diverse domains, all with the common thread of...
Show moreTraditional human-computer interaction (HCI) is based on 'cold' models of user cognition; that is, models of users as purely rational beings based on the information processing metaphor; however, an emerging perspective suggests that for the field of HCI to mature, its practitioners must adopt models of users that consider broader human needs and capabilities. Affective design is an umbrella term for research and practice being conducted in diverse domains, all with the common thread of integrating emotional aspects of use into the creation of information products. This thesis provides a review of the current state of the art in affective design research and practice to technical communicators and others involved in traditional HCI and usability enterprises. This paper is motivated by the developing technologies and the growing complexity of interaction that demand a more robust notion of HCI that incorporates affect in an augmented and holistic representation of the user and situated use.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000590, ucf:46474
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000590
- Title
- MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF SMALLPOX WITHOPTIMAL INTERVENTION POLICY.
- Creator
-
LAWOT, NIWAS, ROLLINS, DAVID, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In this work, two differential equation models for smallpox are numerically solved to find the optimal intervention policy. In each model we look for the range of values of the parameters that give rise to the worst case scenarios. Since the scale of an epidemic is determined by the number of people infected, and eventually dead, as a result of infection, we attempt to quantify the scale of the epidemic and recommend the optimum intervention policy. In the first case study, we mimic a densely...
Show moreIn this work, two differential equation models for smallpox are numerically solved to find the optimal intervention policy. In each model we look for the range of values of the parameters that give rise to the worst case scenarios. Since the scale of an epidemic is determined by the number of people infected, and eventually dead, as a result of infection, we attempt to quantify the scale of the epidemic and recommend the optimum intervention policy. In the first case study, we mimic a densely populated city with comparatively big tourist population, and heavily used mass transportation system. A mathematical model for the transmission of smallpox is formulated, and numerically solved. In the second case study, we incorporate five different stages of infection: (1) susceptible (2) infected but asymptomatic, non infectious, and vaccine-sensitive; (3) infected but asymptomatic, noninfectious, and vaccine-in-sensitive; (4) infected but asymptomatic, and infectious; and (5) symptomatic and isolated. Exponential probability distribution is used for modeling this case. We compare outcomes of mass vaccination and trace vaccination on the final size of the epidemic.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001193, ucf:46848
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001193
- Title
- A COMMON COMPONENT-BASED SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL PC-BASED VIRTUAL SIMULATION.
- Creator
-
Lewis, Joshua, Proctor, Michael, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Commercially available military-themed virtual simulations have been developed and sold for entertainment since the beginning of the personal computing era. There exists an intense interest by various branches of the military to leverage the technological advances of the personal computing and video game industries to provide low cost military training. By nature of the content of the commercial military-themed virtual simulations, a large overlap has grown between the interests, resources,...
Show moreCommercially available military-themed virtual simulations have been developed and sold for entertainment since the beginning of the personal computing era. There exists an intense interest by various branches of the military to leverage the technological advances of the personal computing and video game industries to provide low cost military training. By nature of the content of the commercial military-themed virtual simulations, a large overlap has grown between the interests, resources, standards, and technology of the computer entertainment industry and military training branches. This research attempts to identify these commonalities with the purpose of systematically designing and evaluating a common component-based software architecture that could be used to implement a framework for developing content for both commercial and military virtual simulation software applications.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001177, ucf:46868
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001177
- Title
- COGNITIVE TRAINING TRANSFER USING A PERSONAL COMPUTER-BASED GAME:A CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE CASE STUDY.
- Creator
-
Woodman, Michael, Proctor, Michael, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Developers of Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) gaming software are making remarkable strides in increasing the realism of their software. This realism has caught the attention of the training community, which has traditionally sought system and operational replication in training systems such as flight simulators. Since games are designed and marketed for entertainment and not designed for training of tasks, questions exist about the effectiveness of games as a training system in achieving the...
Show moreDevelopers of Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) gaming software are making remarkable strides in increasing the realism of their software. This realism has caught the attention of the training community, which has traditionally sought system and operational replication in training systems such as flight simulators. Since games are designed and marketed for entertainment and not designed for training of tasks, questions exist about the effectiveness of games as a training system in achieving the desired transfer of skills to the actual environment. Numerous studies over the past ten years have documented that PC-based simulation training environments can offer effective training for certain types of training, especially aircraft piloting tasks. Desktop games have been evaluated from a case study approach for use in aviation training (Proctor, et al., 2004) and education planning and evaluating small unit tactics) (Proctor, et al., 2002) with positive results. Based on the review of selected studies in this area, PC-based simulator platforms have been found to have a positive training impact on cognitive skills (as opposed to psycho-motor skills). Specifically, the literature review has identified that skill sets involved in team resource management, intra- and inter-team coordination, and tactical team maneuvers have been shown to benefit from the use of PC-based simulation training. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the training transfer associated with a Tactical Decision-making game, using Close Combat: First to Fight as a case study. The null hypothesis tested was that traditional field training is equivalent to virtual training combined with field training. Measurements of the subjects' performance in live training were recorded. Additionally, self assessment questionnaires were administered.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001023, ucf:46800
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001023
- Title
- HEBREW AND COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: THE EFFECTS OF A LANGUAGE MANIPULATION ON PERCEPTION, IDENTITY, AND PRESERVATION.
- Creator
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Nir, Tamar, Sims, Valerie K., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This study aimed to explore the ways in which Hebrew is currently being manipulated online through a linguistic deviation called Fakatsa. In this study, participants were asked to rate random statements of frivolous or serious topics in either standard grammatical Hebrew or Fakatsa Hebrew conditions on specific judgment values. It was hypothesized that participants would rate the Fakatsa writer negatively on certain characteristics, such as intelligence, education, religiosity, and...
Show moreThis study aimed to explore the ways in which Hebrew is currently being manipulated online through a linguistic deviation called Fakatsa. In this study, participants were asked to rate random statements of frivolous or serious topics in either standard grammatical Hebrew or Fakatsa Hebrew conditions on specific judgment values. It was hypothesized that participants would rate the Fakatsa writer negatively on certain characteristics, such as intelligence, education, religiosity, and nationalism and positively on other characteristics, such as femininity and creativity. Twenty-four participants completed this experiment. Results showed that participants responded as expected for certain negative attributes typical of Fakatsa and deviations to computer-mediated communication and did not respond as expected for any the positive attributes typical of Fakatsa. The results showed that fluent Hebrew speakers viewed users of the Fakatsa manipulation differently than users of standard Hebrew and may suggest personal biases and perceptions when encountering computer-mediated communication.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFH2000043, ucf:45531
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000043
- Title
- TOWARD INCREASING PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY IN GAS TURBINES FOR POWER GENERATION AND AERO-PROPULSION: UNSTEADY SIMULATION OF ANGLED DISCRETE-INJECTION COOLANT IN A HOT GAS PATH CROSSFLOW.
- Creator
-
Johnson, Perry, Kapat, Jayanta, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This thesis describes the numerical predictions of turbine film cooling interactions using Large Eddy Simulations. In most engineering industrial applications, the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, usually paired with two-equation models such as k-[epsilon] or k-[omega], are utilized as an inexpensive method for modeling complex turbulent flows. By resolving the larger, more influential scale of turbulent eddies, the Large Eddy Simulation has been shown to yield a significant...
Show moreThis thesis describes the numerical predictions of turbine film cooling interactions using Large Eddy Simulations. In most engineering industrial applications, the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, usually paired with two-equation models such as k-[epsilon] or k-[omega], are utilized as an inexpensive method for modeling complex turbulent flows. By resolving the larger, more influential scale of turbulent eddies, the Large Eddy Simulation has been shown to yield a significant increase in accuracy over traditional two-equation RANS models for many engineering flows. In addition, Large Eddy Simulations provide insight into the unsteady characteristics and coherent vortex structures of turbulent flows. Discrete hole film cooling is a jet-in-cross-flow phenomenon, which is known to produce complex turbulent interactions and vortex structures. For this reason, the present study investigates the influence of these jet-crossflow interactions in a time-resolved unsteady simulation. Because of the broad spectrum of length scales present in moderate and high Reynolds number flows, such as the present topic, the high computational cost of Direct Numerical Simulation was excluded from possibility.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFH0004086, ucf:44798
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004086
- Title
- A COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY-BASED MODEL OF THE INFANT HIP ANATOMY FOR DYNAMIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF HIP DYSPLASIA BIOMECHANICS.
- Creator
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Snethen, Kyle, Kassab, Alain, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Newborns diagnosed with hip dysplasia face severe consequences when treatments fail. The Pavlik harness presents the most common worldwide treatment for correcting this medical hip abnormality in newborns, but becomes increasingly ineffective as subluxation increases. A dynamic finite element analysis on the hip joint would yield results that could provide insight to physicians as to how the Pavlik harness could be optimized to increase its success rate and develop patient-specific treatment...
Show moreNewborns diagnosed with hip dysplasia face severe consequences when treatments fail. The Pavlik harness presents the most common worldwide treatment for correcting this medical hip abnormality in newborns, but becomes increasingly ineffective as subluxation increases. A dynamic finite element analysis on the hip joint would yield results that could provide insight to physicians as to how the Pavlik harness could be optimized to increase its success rate and develop patient-specific treatment plans. The study completes the first step in such an analysis by generating a three-dimensional model of an infant hip joint directly derived from computed tomography imaging in order to accurately represent the anatomical locations of muscle origins and insertions points as well as the unique cartilaginous characteristics of a neonate hip and femur. Such models will further enhance findings on the biomechanics of hip dysplasia that resulted from a preliminary study using computer-aided design to recreate the hip joint. In addition to the models, the orientation of the psoas tendon in a dysplastic hip through full range abduction and flexion was analyzed using a cadaveric dissection. It was determined that the psoas tendon was not an obstruction to reduction when the hip was in flexion so long as the tendon was not adherent to the hip capsule, and therefore can be disregarded in a finite element analysis or dynamic simulation that introduces flexion. The work of this thesis will lay the foundation for complex finite element analyses regarding the biomechanics of hip dysplasia in neonates as well as other hip abnormalities relevant to early child development.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004423, ucf:45144
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004423
- Title
- THE EFFECTS OF TRAINING ON GOAL ORIENTATION, MENTORING RELATIONSHIP PROCESSES, AND OUTCOMES.
- Creator
-
Scielzo, Shannon, Smith-Jentsch, Kimberly, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of preparatory training for mentors and protégés with respect to relationship processes and outcomes. Specifically, it was proposed that training provided to mentors and their protégés should foster a high learning goal orientation and a low avoid goal orientation. The former is associated with learning for the sake of continuous improvement and the latter is associated with a willingness to be...
Show moreThe purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of preparatory training for mentors and protégés with respect to relationship processes and outcomes. Specifically, it was proposed that training provided to mentors and their protégés should foster a high learning goal orientation and a low avoid goal orientation. The former is associated with learning for the sake of continuous improvement and the latter is associated with a willingness to be perceived by others as having failed at a task. It was hypothesized that mentors and protégés who received goal orientation training prior to beginning their formal mentoring sessions would engage in greater feedback-seeking and would be more willing to self-disclose potentially ego-threatening information. Moreover, it was expected that training would also lead participants to expect such behaviors from their partners and as a result respond more positively when the desired behaviors were demonstrated. Eighty (i.e., first and second semester freshmen) were paired with eighty mentors (i.e., college juniors and seniors with a minimum grade point average of 3.0), resulting in a total of 160 study participants. All participants received one hour of preparatory training. A two by two factorial design was employed whereby mentors and protégés each received either goal orientation training or training simply designed to orient them to computer-mediated communication. After training, mentors and protégés met with one another using online chat for four, 30-minute weekly chat sessions. Results indicated that a) protégés in a high state of avoid goal orientation felt they received less psychosocial support the more their mentor disclosed his/her own personal downfalls, b) mentors who received goal orientation training felt they had provided greater career support the more their protégés sought feedback but the reverse was true for mentors who did not receive goal orientation training, c) mentor self-disclosure was more strongly related to their protégé's self-disclosure if the protégé had received goal orientation training, and finally d) mentor and protégé perceptions of the psychosocial and career support that had been provided/received during online sessions were more strongly correlated if the two had received the same type of preparatory training (especially if both received goal orientation training).
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002203, ucf:47918
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002203
- Title
- A Causal Comparative Analysis of a Computer Adaptive Mathematics Program Using Multilevel Propensity Score Matching.
- Creator
-
Seabolt, Justin, Sivo, Stephen, Bai, Haiyan, Swan, Bonnie, Vitale, Thomas, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a computer adaptive mathematics program, i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics Instruction in Central Florida School District (CFSD) using a variety of quantitative analyses. In particular, students in the fifth grade at CFSD were examined in relation to the gains made on their end-of-year statewide mathematics assessment, known as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA Math). Per i-Ready(&)#174;, students who use i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a computer adaptive mathematics program, i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics Instruction in Central Florida School District (CFSD) using a variety of quantitative analyses. In particular, students in the fifth grade at CFSD were examined in relation to the gains made on their end-of-year statewide mathematics assessment, known as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA Math). Per i-Ready(&)#174;, students who use i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics Instruction for a minimum of 45 minutes per subject per week for at least 25 weeks show significantly greater gains than those who do not (Curriculum Associates, 2017b). Therefore, two propensity score matching methods (one considering the multilevel structure of the data) were examined and compared to split students into the following two comparison groups: those who used the program with fidelity and those who did not. Next, a series of multilevel models, using both propensity score matching methods, and dependent t-tests were examined to evaluate the effectiveness of i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics Instruction. In conclusion, the use of the multilevel propensity score matching technique yielded a better fit for explaining the variation in relation to gains students in the fifth grade made on the FSA Math assessment. Additionally, i-Ready(&)#174; Mathematics Instruction did positively impact fifth grade students in Central Florida School District who used the program with fidelity with relation to their FSA Math score gains, compared to those who did not use the program with fidelity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007245, ucf:52210
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007245
- Title
- The Relationship of Computer Science Immersion in Elementary Schools to Achievement of High Poverty Students.
- Creator
-
Erickson, Keith, Taylor, Rosemarye, Ceballos, Marjorie, Gordon, William, Clark, M. H., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between the implementation of a computer science immersive learning experience and achievement on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) or the FSA Mathematics. Two research questions, each with two sub-questions, guided the research of the study. The sub-questions addressed historically underrepresented groups in computer science. These subgroups included African Americans, Hispanics, Mixed Race...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between the implementation of a computer science immersive learning experience and achievement on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) or the FSA Mathematics. Two research questions, each with two sub-questions, guided the research of the study. The sub-questions addressed historically underrepresented groups in computer science. These subgroups included African Americans, Hispanics, Mixed Race individuals, and females. Research Question 1 analyzed the relationship between the implementation of the computer science immersive learning experience when a cohort control group design was used. Research Question 2 determined if a relationship existed when the treatment schools were compared to demographically similar schools that did not receive the treatment of computer science immersion. A two-way analysis of variances (ANOVA) was run for each of the research questions with the subgroups of students used as moderators for the treatment. Statistical significance was found for the following groups; fourth grade ELA Hispanic cohort, fourth grade Hispanic mathematics cohort, third grade ELA cohort, third grade mathematics cohort, the ELA treatment group, and the mathematics treatment group. Statistically significant findings showed negative, positive, and neutral effects on the treatment groups. These findings provide implications for the implementation of computer science immersion in other elementary schools with similar student demographic variables. Further investigation is needed to determine other potential impacts on student achievement over time.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007627, ucf:52559
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007627
- Title
- Action Recognition, Temporal Localization and Detection in Trimmed and Untrimmed Video.
- Creator
-
Hou, Rui, Shah, Mubarak, Mahalanobis, Abhijit, Hua, Kien, Sukthankar, Rahul, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Automatic understanding of videos is one of the most active areas of computer vision research. It has applications in video surveillance, human computer interaction, video sports analysis, virtual and augmented reality, video retrieval etc. In this dissertation, we address four important tasks in video understanding, namely action recognition, temporal action localization, spatial-temporal action detection and video object/action segmentation. This dissertation makes contributions to above...
Show moreAutomatic understanding of videos is one of the most active areas of computer vision research. It has applications in video surveillance, human computer interaction, video sports analysis, virtual and augmented reality, video retrieval etc. In this dissertation, we address four important tasks in video understanding, namely action recognition, temporal action localization, spatial-temporal action detection and video object/action segmentation. This dissertation makes contributions to above tasks by proposing. First, for video action recognition, we propose a category level feature learning method. Our proposed method automatically identifies such pairs of categories using a criterion of mutual pairwise proximity in the (kernelized) feature space, and a category-level similarity matrix where each entry corresponds to the one-vs-one SVM margin for pairs of categories. Second, for temporal action localization, we propose to exploit the temporal structure of actions by modeling an action as a sequence of sub-actions and present a computationally efficient approach. Third, we propose 3D Tube Convolutional Neural Network (TCNN) based pipeline for action detection. The proposed architecture is a unified deep network that is able to recognize and localize action based on 3D convolution features. It generalizes the popular faster R-CNN framework from images to videos. Last, an end-to-end encoder-decoder based 3D convolutional neural network pipeline is proposed, which is able to segment out the foreground objects from the background. Moreover, the action label can be obtained as well by passing the foreground object into an action classifier. Extensive experiments on several video datasets demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed approach for video understanding compared to the state-of-the-art.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007655, ucf:52502
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007655
- Title
- ROBUST DIALOG MANAGEMENT THROUGH A CONTEXT-CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE.
- Creator
-
Hung, Victor, Gonzalez, Avelino, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This dissertation presents and evaluates a method of managing spoken dialog interactions with a robust attention to fulfilling the human user's goals in the presence of speech recognition limitations. Assistive speech-based embodied conversation agents are computer-based entities that interact with humans to help accomplish a certain task or communicate information via spoken input and output. A challenging aspect of this task involves open dialog, where the user is free to converse in an...
Show moreThis dissertation presents and evaluates a method of managing spoken dialog interactions with a robust attention to fulfilling the human user's goals in the presence of speech recognition limitations. Assistive speech-based embodied conversation agents are computer-based entities that interact with humans to help accomplish a certain task or communicate information via spoken input and output. A challenging aspect of this task involves open dialog, where the user is free to converse in an unstructured manner. With this style of input, the machine's ability to communicate may be hindered by poor reception of utterances, caused by a user's inadequate command of a language and/or faults in the speech recognition facilities. Since a speech-based input is emphasized, this endeavor involves the fundamental issues associated with natural language processing, automatic speech recognition and dialog system design. Driven by Context-Based Reasoning, the presented dialog manager features a discourse model that implements mixed-initiative conversation with a focus on the user's assistive needs. The discourse behavior must maintain a sense of generality, where the assistive nature of the system remains constant regardless of its knowledge corpus. The dialog manager was encapsulated into a speech-based embodied conversation agent platform for prototyping and testing purposes. A battery of user trials was performed on this agent to evaluate its performance as a robust, domain-independent, speech-based interaction entity capable of satisfying the needs of its users.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003230, ucf:48556
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003230
- Title
- QUERY PROCESSING IN LOCATION-BASED SERVICES.
- Creator
-
Liu, Fuyu, Hua, Kien, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
With the advances in wireless communication technology and advanced positioning systems, a variety of Location-Based Services (LBS) become available to the public. Mobile users can issue location-based queries to probe their surrounding environments. One important type of query in LBS is moving monitoring queries over mobile objects. Due to the high frequency in location updates and the expensive cost of continuous query processing, server computation capacity and wireless communication...
Show moreWith the advances in wireless communication technology and advanced positioning systems, a variety of Location-Based Services (LBS) become available to the public. Mobile users can issue location-based queries to probe their surrounding environments. One important type of query in LBS is moving monitoring queries over mobile objects. Due to the high frequency in location updates and the expensive cost of continuous query processing, server computation capacity and wireless communication bandwidth are the two limiting factors for large-scale deployment of moving object database systems. To address both of the scalability factors, distributed computing has been considered. These schemes enable moving objects to participate as a peer in query processing to substantially reduce the demand on server computation, and wireless communications associated with location updates. In the first part of this dissertation, we propose a distributed framework to process moving monitoring queries over moving objects in a spatial network environment. In the second part of this dissertation, in order to reduce the communication cost, we leverage both on-demand data access and periodic broadcast to design a new hybrid distributed solution for moving monitoring queries in an open space environment. Location-based services make our daily life more convenient. However, to receive the services, one has to reveal his/her location and query information when issuing location-based queries. This could lead to privacy breach if these personal information are possessed by some untrusted parties. In the third part of this dissertation, we introduce a new privacy protection measure called query l-diversity, and provide two cloaking algorithms to achieve both location k-anonymity and query l-diversity to better protect user privacy. In the fourth part of this dissertation, we design a hybrid three-tier architecture to help reduce privacy exposure. In the fifth part of this dissertation, we propose to use Road Network Embedding technique to process privacy protected queries.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003487, ucf:48949
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003487
- Title
- Modeling Transport and Protein Adsorption in Microfluidic Systems.
- Creator
-
Finch, Craig, Hickman, James, Kincaid, John, Lin, Kuo-Chi, Behal, Aman, Cho, Hyoung, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This work describes theoretical advances in the modeling and simulation of microfluidic systems and demonstrates the practical application of those techniques. A new multi-scale model of the adsorption of hard spheres was formulated to bridge the gap between simulations of discrete particles and continuum fluid dynamics. A whispering gallery mode (WGM) biosensor was constructed and used to measure the kinetics of adsorption for two types of proteins on four different surfaces. Computational...
Show moreThis work describes theoretical advances in the modeling and simulation of microfluidic systems and demonstrates the practical application of those techniques. A new multi-scale model of the adsorption of hard spheres was formulated to bridge the gap between simulations of discrete particles and continuum fluid dynamics. A whispering gallery mode (WGM) biosensor was constructed and used to measure the kinetics of adsorption for two types of proteins on four different surfaces. Computational fluid dynamics was used to analyze the transport of proteins in the flow cell of the biosensor. Kinetic models of protein adsorption that take transport limitations into account were fitted to the experimental data and used to draw conclusions about the mechanisms of adsorption. Transport simulations were then applied to the practical problem of optimizing the design of a microfluidic bioreactor to enable (")plugs(") of fluid to flow from one chamber to the next with minimal dispersion. Experiments were used to validate the transport simulations. The combination of quantitative modeling and simulation and experiments led to results that could not have been achieved using either approach by itself. Simulation tools that accurately predict transport and protein adsorption will enable the rational design of microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0004474, ucf:49313
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004474
