Current Search: computer (x)
Pages
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Title
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The WOZ Recognizer: A Tool For Understanding User Perceptions of Sketch-Based Interfaces.
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Creator
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Bott, Jared, Laviola II, Joseph, Hughes, Charles, Foroosh, Hassan, Lank, Edward, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Sketch recognition has the potential to be an important input method for computers in the coming years; however, designing and building an accurate and sophisticated sketch recognition system is a time consuming and daunting task. Since sketch recognition is still at a level where mistakes are common, it is important to understand how users perceive and tolerate recognition errors and other user interface elements with these imperfect systems. A problem in performing this type of research is...
Show moreSketch recognition has the potential to be an important input method for computers in the coming years; however, designing and building an accurate and sophisticated sketch recognition system is a time consuming and daunting task. Since sketch recognition is still at a level where mistakes are common, it is important to understand how users perceive and tolerate recognition errors and other user interface elements with these imperfect systems. A problem in performing this type of research is that we cannot easily control aspects of recognition in order to rigorously study the systems. We performed a study examining user perceptions of three pen-based systems for creating logic gate diagrams: a sketch-based interface, a WIMP-based interface, and a hybrid interface that combined elements of sketching and WIMP. We found that users preferred the sketch-based interface and we identified important criteria for pen-based application design. This work exposed the issue of studying recognition systems without fine-grained control over accuracy, recognition mode, and other recognizer properties. In order to solve this problem, we developed a Wizard of Oz sketch recognition tool, the WOZ Recognizer, that supports controlled symbol and position accuracy and batch and streaming recognition modes for a variety of sketching domains. We present the design of the WOZ Recognizer, modeling recognition domains using graphs, symbol alphabets, and grammars; and discuss the types of recognition errors we included in its design. Further, we discuss how the WOZ Recognizer simulates sketch recognition, controlling the WOZ Recognizer, and how users interact with it. In addition, we present an evaluative user study of the WOZ Recognizer and the lessons we learned.We have used the WOZ Recognizer to perform two user studies examining user perceptions of sketch recognition; both studies focused on mathematical sketching. In the first study, we examined whether users prefer recognition feedback now (real-time recognition) or later (batch recognition) in relation to different recognition accuracies and sketch complexities. We found that participants displayed a preference for real-time recognition in some situations (multiple expressions, low accuracy), but no statistical preference in others. In our second study, we examined whether users displayed a greater tolerance for recognition errors when they used mathematical sketching applications they found interesting or useful compared to applications they found less interesting. Participants felt they had a greater tolerance for the applications they preferred, although our statistical analysis did not positively support this.In addition to the research already performed, we propose several avenues for future research into user perceptions of sketch recognition that we believe will be of value to sketch recognizer researchers and application designers.
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Date Issued
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2016
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Identifier
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CFE0006077, ucf:50945
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006077
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Title
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Modeling and Solving Large-scale Stochastic Mixed-Integer Problems in Transportation and Power Systems.
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Creator
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Huang, Zhouchun, Zheng, Qipeng, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Pazour, Jennifer, Chang, Ni-bin, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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In this dissertation, various optimization problems from the area of transportation and power systems will be respectively investigated and the uncertainty will be considered in each problem. Specifically, a long-term problem of electricity infrastructure investment is studied to address the planning for capacity expansion in electrical power systems with the integration of short-term operations. The future investment costs and real-time customer demands cannot be perfectly forecasted and...
Show moreIn this dissertation, various optimization problems from the area of transportation and power systems will be respectively investigated and the uncertainty will be considered in each problem. Specifically, a long-term problem of electricity infrastructure investment is studied to address the planning for capacity expansion in electrical power systems with the integration of short-term operations. The future investment costs and real-time customer demands cannot be perfectly forecasted and thus are considered to be random. Another maintenance scheduling problem is studied for power systems, particularly for natural gas fueled power plants, taking into account gas contracting and the opportunity of purchasing and selling gas in the spot market as well as the maintenance scheduling considering the uncertainty of electricity and gas prices in the spot market. In addition, different vehicle routing problems are researched seeking the route for each vehicle so that the total traveling cost is minimized subject to the constraints and uncertain parameters in corresponding transportation systems.The investigation of each problem in this dissertation mainly consists of two parts, i.e., the formulation of its mathematical model and the development of solution algorithm for solving the model. The stochastic programming is applied as the framework to model each problem and address the uncertainty, while the approach of dealing with the randomness varies in terms of the relationships between the uncertain elements and objective functions or constraints. All the problems will be modeled as stochastic mixed-integer programs, and the huge numbers of involved decision variables and constraints make each problem large-scale and very difficult to manage. In this dissertation, efficient algorithms are developed for these problems in the context of advanced methodologies of optimization and operations research, such as branch and cut, benders decomposition, column generation and Lagrangian method. Computational experiments are implemented for each problem and the results will be present and discussed. The research carried out in this dissertation would be beneficial to both researchers and practitioners seeking to model and solve similar optimization problems in transportation and power systems when uncertainty is involved.
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Date Issued
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2016
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Identifier
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CFE0006328, ucf:51559
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006328
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Title
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A Comparison of the Academic Achievement of English Learners and Non-English Learners in Digital and Non-Digital Learning Environments.
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Creator
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Vela, Enrique, Taylor, Rosemarye, Baldwin, Lee, Doherty, Walter, Nutta, Joyce, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which learning in a digital school environment impacts the reading and mathematics achievement of English learners (ELs) in elementary and secondary school settings. In addition, this study intended to determine the extent, if any, that learning in a digital school environment narrows the achievement gap in reading and mathematics between ELs and their non-EL counterparts in elementary and secondary schools. Based on data collected from...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which learning in a digital school environment impacts the reading and mathematics achievement of English learners (ELs) in elementary and secondary school settings. In addition, this study intended to determine the extent, if any, that learning in a digital school environment narrows the achievement gap in reading and mathematics between ELs and their non-EL counterparts in elementary and secondary schools. Based on data collected from the first year of a 1:1 digital pilot implementation in a large urban school district in Florida, the results of this study identified grade levels and school levels where the 2014 Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) 2.0 Reading and Mathematics Developmental Scale Scores (DSS) of ELs in digital school settings were significantly higher than in non-digital school settings. In addition, the study yielded some statistically significant differences in the learning gains in DSS of the 2014 FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics of ELs and non-ELs in digital school settings. These findings may be used to inform the planning of technology integration, academic interventions, and teacher preparation that focuses on the academic improvement of ELs.
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Date Issued
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2016
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Identifier
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CFE0006410, ucf:51455
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006410
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Title
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Structure-preserving finite difference methods for linearly damped differential equations.
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Creator
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Bhatt, Ashish, Moore, Brian, Choudhury, Sudipto, Gurel, Basak, Kauffman, Jeffrey L., University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Differential equations (DEs) model a variety of physical phenomena in science and engineering. Many physical phenomena involve conservative or dissipative forces, which manifest themselves as qualitative properties of DEs that govern these phenomena. Since only a few and simplistic models are known to have exact solutions, approximate solution techniques, such as numerical integration, are used to reveal important insights about solution behavior and properties of these models. Numerical...
Show moreDifferential equations (DEs) model a variety of physical phenomena in science and engineering. Many physical phenomena involve conservative or dissipative forces, which manifest themselves as qualitative properties of DEs that govern these phenomena. Since only a few and simplistic models are known to have exact solutions, approximate solution techniques, such as numerical integration, are used to reveal important insights about solution behavior and properties of these models. Numerical integrators generally result in undesirable quantitative and qualitative errors . Standard numerical integrators aim to reduce quantitative errors, whereas geometric (numerical) integrators aim to reduce or eliminate qualitative errors, as well, in order to improve the accuracy of numerical solutions. It is now widely recognized that geometric (or structure-preserving) integrators are advantageous compared to non-geometric integrators for DEs, especially for long time integration.Geometric integrators for conservative DEs have been proposed, analyzed, and investigated extensively in the literature. The motif of this thesis is to extend the idea of structure preservation to linearly damped DEs. More specifically, we develop, analyze, and implement geometric integrators for linearly damped ordinary and partial differential equations (ODEs and PDEs) that possess conformal invariants, which are qualitative properties that decay exponentially along any solution of the DE as the system evolves over time. In particular, we derive restrictions on the coefficient functions of exponential Runge-Kutta (ERK) numerical methods for preservation of certain conformal invariants of linearly damped ODEs. An important class of these methods is shown to preserve the damping rate of solutions of damped linear ODEs. Linearly stability and order of accuracy for some specific cases of ERK methods are investigated. Geometric integrators for PDEs are designed using structure-preserving ERK methods in space, time, or both. These integrators for PDEs are also shown to preserve additional structure in certain special cases. Numerical experiments illustrate higher order accuracy and structure preservation properties of various ERK based methods, demonstrating clear advantages over non-structure-preserving methods, as well as usefulness for solving a wide range of DEs.
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Date Issued
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2016
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Identifier
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CFE0006832, ucf:51763
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006832
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Title
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Network Partitioning in Distributed Agent-Based Models.
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Creator
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Petkova, Antoniya, Deo, Narsingh, Hughes, Charles, Bassiouni, Mostafa, Shaykhian, Gholam, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Agent-Based Models (ABMs) are an emerging simulation paradigm for modeling complex systems, comprised of autonomous, possibly heterogeneous, interacting agents. The utility of ABMs lies in their ability to represent such complex systems as self-organizing networks of agents. Modeling and understanding the behavior of complex systems usually occurs at large and representative scales, and often obtaining and visualizing of simulation results in real-time is critical.The real-time requirement...
Show moreAgent-Based Models (ABMs) are an emerging simulation paradigm for modeling complex systems, comprised of autonomous, possibly heterogeneous, interacting agents. The utility of ABMs lies in their ability to represent such complex systems as self-organizing networks of agents. Modeling and understanding the behavior of complex systems usually occurs at large and representative scales, and often obtaining and visualizing of simulation results in real-time is critical.The real-time requirement necessitates the use of in-memory computing, as it is dif?cult and challenging to handle the latency and unpredictability of disk accesses. Combining this observation with the scale requirement emphasizes the need to use parallel and distributed computing platforms, such as MPI-enabled CPU clusters. Consequently, the agent population must be "partitioned" across different CPUs in a cluster. Further, the typically high volume of interactions among agents can quickly become a signi?cant bottleneck for real-time or large-scale simulations. The problem is exacerbated if the underlying ABM network is dynamic and the inter-process communication evolves over the course of the simulation. Therefore, it is critical to develop topology-aware partitioning mechanisms to support such large simulations.In this dissertation, we demonstrate that distributed agent-based model simulations bene?t from the use of graph partitioning algorithms that involve a local, neighborhood-based perspective. Such methods do not rely on global accesses to the network and thus are more scalable. In addition, we propose two partitioning schemes that consider the bottom-up individual-centric nature of agent-based modeling. The ?rst technique utilizes label-propagation community detection to partition the dynamic agent network of an ABM. We propose a latency-hiding, seamless integration of community detection in the dynamics of a distributed ABM. To achieve this integration, we exploit the similarity in the process flow patterns of a label-propagation community-detection algorithm and self-organizing ABMs.In the second partitioning scheme, we apply a combination of the Guided Local Search (GLS) and Fast Local Search (FLS) metaheuristics in the context of graph partitioning. The main driving principle of GLS is the dynamic modi?cation of the objective function to escape local optima. The algorithm augments the objective of a local search, thereby transforming the landscape structure and escaping a local optimum. FLS is a local search heuristic algorithm that is aimed at reducing the search space of the main search algorithm. It breaks down the space into sub-neighborhoods such that inactive sub-neighborhoods are removed from the search process. The combination of GLS and FLS allowed us to design a graph partitioning algorithm that is both scalable and sensitive to the inherent modularity of real-world networks.
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Date Issued
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2017
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Identifier
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CFE0006903, ucf:51706
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006903
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Title
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Online, Supervised and Unsupervised Action Localization in Videos.
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Creator
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Soomro, Khurram, Shah, Mubarak, Heinrich, Mark, Hu, Haiyan, Bagci, Ulas, Yun, Hae-Bum, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Action recognition classifies a given video among a set of action labels, whereas action localization determines the location of an action in addition to its class. The overall aim of this dissertation is action localization. Many of the existing action localization approaches exhaustively search (spatially and temporally) for an action in a video. However, as the search space increases with high resolution and longer duration videos, it becomes impractical to use such sliding window...
Show moreAction recognition classifies a given video among a set of action labels, whereas action localization determines the location of an action in addition to its class. The overall aim of this dissertation is action localization. Many of the existing action localization approaches exhaustively search (spatially and temporally) for an action in a video. However, as the search space increases with high resolution and longer duration videos, it becomes impractical to use such sliding window techniques. The first part of this dissertation presents an efficient approach for localizing actions by learning contextual relations between different video regions in training. In testing, we use the context information to estimate the probability of each supervoxel belonging to the foreground action and use Conditional Random Field (CRF) to localize actions. In the above method and typical approaches to this problem, localization is performed in an offline manner where all the video frames are processed together. This prevents timely localization and prediction of actions/interactions - an important consideration for many tasks including surveillance and human-machine interaction. Therefore, in the second part of this dissertation we propose an online approach to the challenging problem of localization and prediction of actions/interactions in videos. In this approach, we use human poses and superpixels in each frame to train discriminative appearance models and perform online prediction of actions/interactions with Structural SVM. Above two approaches rely on human supervision in the form of assigning action class labels to videos and annotating actor bounding boxes in each frame of training videos. Therefore, in the third part of this dissertation we address the problem of unsupervised action localization. Given unlabeled videos without annotations, this approach aims at: 1) Discovering action classes using a discriminative clustering approach, and 2) Localizing actions using a variant of Knapsack problem.
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Date Issued
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2017
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Identifier
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CFE0006917, ucf:51685
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006917
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Title
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Holistic Representations for Activities and Crowd Behaviors.
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Creator
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Solmaz, Berkan, Shah, Mubarak, Da Vitoria Lobo, Niels, Jha, Sumit, Ilie, Marcel, Moore, Brian, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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In this dissertation, we address the problem of analyzing the activities of people in a variety of scenarios, this is commonly encountered in vision applications. The overarching goal is to devise new representations for the activities, in settings where individuals or a number of people may take a part in specific activities. Different types of activities can be performed by either an individual at the fine level or by several people constituting a crowd at the coarse level. We take into...
Show moreIn this dissertation, we address the problem of analyzing the activities of people in a variety of scenarios, this is commonly encountered in vision applications. The overarching goal is to devise new representations for the activities, in settings where individuals or a number of people may take a part in specific activities. Different types of activities can be performed by either an individual at the fine level or by several people constituting a crowd at the coarse level. We take into account the domain specific information for modeling these activities. The summary of the proposed solutions is presented in the following.The holistic description of videos is appealing for visual detection and classification tasks for several reasons including capturing the spatial relations between the scene components, simplicity, and performance [1, 2, 3]. First, we present a holistic (global) frequency spectrum based descriptor for representing the atomic actions performed by individuals such as: bench pressing, diving, hand waving, boxing, playing guitar, mixing, jumping, horse riding, hula hooping etc. We model and learn these individual actions for classifying complex user uploaded videos. Our method bypasses the detection of interest points, the extraction of local video descriptors and the quantization of local descriptors into a code book; it represents each video sequence as a single feature vector. This holistic feature vector is computed by applying a bank of 3-D spatio-temporal filters on the frequency spectrum of a video sequence; hence it integrates the information about the motion and scene structure. We tested our approach on two of the most challenging datasets, UCF50 [4] and HMDB51 [5], and obtained promising results which demonstrates the robustness and the discriminative power of our holistic video descriptor for classifying videos of various realistic actions.In the above approach, a holistic feature vector of a video clip is acquired by dividing the video into spatio-temporal blocks then concatenating the features of the individual blocks together. However, such a holistic representation blindly incorporates all the video regions regardless of their contribution in classification. Next, we present an approach which improves the performance of the holistic descriptors for activity recognition. In our novel method, we improve the holistic descriptors by discovering the discriminative video blocks. We measure the discriminativity of a block by examining its response to a pre-learned support vector machine model. In particular, a block is considered discriminative if it responds positively for positive training samples, and negatively for negative training samples. We pose the problem of finding the optimal blocks as a problem of selecting a sparse set of blocks, which maximizes the total classifier discriminativity. Through a detailed set of experiments on benchmark datasets [6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 10], we show that our method discovers the useful regions in the videos and eliminates the ones which are confusing for classification, which results in significant performance improvement over the state-of-the-art.In contrast to the scenes where an individual performs a primitive action, there may be scenes with several people, where crowd behaviors may take place. For these types of scenes the traditional approaches for recognition will not work due to severe occlusion and computational requirements. The number of videos is limited and the scenes are complicated, hence learning these behaviors is not feasible. For this problem, we present a novel approach, based on the optical flow in a video sequence, for identifying five specific and common crowd behaviors in visual scenes. In the algorithm, the scene is overlaid by a grid of particles, initializing a dynamical system which is derived from the optical flow. Numerical integration of the optical flow provides particle trajectories that represent the motion in the scene. Linearization of the dynamical system allows a simple and practical analysis and classification of the behavior through the Jacobian matrix. Essentially, the eigenvalues of this matrix are used to determine the dynamic stability of points in the flow and each type of stability corresponds to one of the five crowd behaviors. The identified crowd behaviors are (1) bottlenecks: where many pedestrians/vehicles from various points in the scene are entering through one narrow passage, (2) fountainheads: where many pedestrians/vehicles are emerging from a narrow passage only to separate in many directions, (3) lanes: where many pedestrians/vehicles are moving at the same speeds in the same direction, (4) arches or rings: where the collective motion is curved or circular, and (5) blocking: where there is a opposing motion and desired movement of groups of pedestrians is somehow prohibited. The implementation requires identifying a region of interest in the scene, and checking the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix in that region to determine the type of flow, that corresponds to various well-defined crowd behaviors. The eigenvalues are only considered in these regions of interest, consistent with the linear approximation and the implied behaviors. Since changes in eigenvalues can mean changes in stability, corresponding to changes in behavior, we can repeat the algorithm over clips of long video sequences to locate changes in behavior. This method was tested on over real videos representing crowd and traffic scenes.
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFE0004941, ucf:49638
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004941
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Title
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Modeling Learner Mood in Realtime through Biosensors for Intelligent Tutoring Improvements.
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Creator
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Brawner, Keith, Gonzalez, Avelino, Boloni, Ladislau, Georgiopoulos, Michael, Proctor, Michael, Beidel, Deborah, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Computer-based instructors, just like their human counterparts, should monitor the emotional and cognitive states of their students in order to adapt instructional technique. Doing so requires a model of student state to be available at run time, but this has historically been difficult. Because people are different, generalized models have not been able to be validated. As a person's cognitive and affective state vary over time of day and seasonally, individualized models have had differing...
Show moreComputer-based instructors, just like their human counterparts, should monitor the emotional and cognitive states of their students in order to adapt instructional technique. Doing so requires a model of student state to be available at run time, but this has historically been difficult. Because people are different, generalized models have not been able to be validated. As a person's cognitive and affective state vary over time of day and seasonally, individualized models have had differing difficulties. The simultaneous creation and execution of an individualized model, in real time, represents the last option for modeling such cognitive and affective states. This dissertation presents and evaluates four differing techniques for the creation of cognitive and affective models that are created on-line and in real time for each individual user as alternatives to generalized models. Each of these techniques involves making predictions and modifications to the model in real time, addressing the real time datastream problems of infinite length, detection of new concepts, and responding to how concepts change over time. Additionally, with the knowledge that a user is physically present, this work investigates the contribution that the occasional direct user query can add to the overall quality of such models. The research described in this dissertation finds that the creation of a reasonable quality affective model is possible with an infinitesimal amount of time and without (")ground truth(") knowledge of the user, which is shown across three different emotional states. Creation of a cognitive model in the same fashion, however, was not possible via direct AI modeling, even with all of the (")ground truth(") information available, which is shown across four different cognitive states.
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFE0004822, ucf:49734
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004822
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Title
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Development of Full Surface Transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Technique for Internal Cooling Channels.
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Creator
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Tran, Lucky, Kapat, Jayanta, Kassab, Alain, Vasu Sumathi, Subith, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Proper design of high performance industrial heat transfer equipment relies on accurate knowledge and prediction of the thermal boundary conditions. In order to enhance the overall gas turbine efficiency, advancements in cooling technology for gas turbines and related applications are continuously investigated to increase the turbine inlet temperature without compromising the durability of the materials used. For detailed design, local distributions are needed in addition to bulk quantities....
Show moreProper design of high performance industrial heat transfer equipment relies on accurate knowledge and prediction of the thermal boundary conditions. In order to enhance the overall gas turbine efficiency, advancements in cooling technology for gas turbines and related applications are continuously investigated to increase the turbine inlet temperature without compromising the durability of the materials used. For detailed design, local distributions are needed in addition to bulk quantities. Detailed local distributions require advanced experimental techniques whereas they are readily available using numerical tools. Numerical predictions using a computational fluid dynamics approach with popular turbulence models are benchmarked against a semi-empirical correlation for the friction in a circular channel with repeated-rib roughness to demonstrate some shortcomings of the models used. Numerical predictions varied widely depending on the turbulence modelling approach used. The need for a compatible experimental dataset to accompany numerical simulations was discussed.An exact, closed-form analytical solution to the enhanced lumped capacitance model is derived. The temperature evolution in a representative 2D turbulated surface is simulated using Fluent to validate the model and its exact solution. A case including an interface contact resistance was included as well as various rib sizes to test the validity of the model over a range of conditions. The analysis was extended to the inter-rib region to investigate the extent and magnitude of the influence of the metallic rib features on the apparent heat transfer coefficients in the inter-rib region. It was found that the thermal contamination is limited only to the regions closest to the base of the rib feature.An experimental setup was developed, capable of measuring the local heat transfer distributions on all four channel walls of a rectangular channel (with aspect ratios between 1 and 5) at Reynolds numbers up to 150,000. The setup utilizes a transient thermochromic liquid crystals technique using narrow band crystals and a four camera setup. The setup is used to test a square channel with ribs applied to one wall. Using the transient thermochromic liquid crystals technique and applying it underneath high conductivity, metallic surface features, it is possible to calculate the heat transfer coefficient using a lumped heat capacitance approach. The enhanced lumped capacitance model is used to account for heat conduction into the substrate material. Rohacell and aluminum ribs adhered to the surface were used to tandem to validate the hybrid technique against the standard technique. Local data was also used to investigate the effect of thermal contamination. Thermal contamination observed empirically was more optimistic than numerical predictions.Traditional transient thermochromic liquid crystals technique utilizes the time-to-arrival of the peak intensity of the green color signal. The technique has been extended to utilize both the red and green color signals, increasing the throughput by recovering unused data while also allowing for a reduction in the experimental uncertainty of the calculated heat transfer coefficient. The over-determined system was solved using an un-weighted least squares approach. Uncertainty analysis of the multi-color technique demonstrated its superior performance over the single-color technique. The multi-color technique has the advantage of improved experimental uncertainty while being easy to implement.
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Date Issued
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2014
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Identifier
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CFE0005430, ucf:50436
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005430
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Title
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Message Prioritization in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Study of Mobile Device Use in the Classroom.
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Creator
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Wills, Paul, Malala, John, Hastings, Sally, Miller, Ann, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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College students are using their mobile devices during class and this research investigates different aspects of why college students feel so inclined to use these devices during class as well as by what means are students using to participate in computer-mediated communication while simultaneously engaging in classes. This research surveyed 146 students on their perceived use of their own mobile device use during class. The study compared how often different types of devices, such as mobile...
Show moreCollege students are using their mobile devices during class and this research investigates different aspects of why college students feel so inclined to use these devices during class as well as by what means are students using to participate in computer-mediated communication while simultaneously engaging in classes. This research surveyed 146 students on their perceived use of their own mobile device use during class. The study compared how often different types of devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, and different types of social media outlets, like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites, were used during class. The study compares these devices and media outlets to students' perception of the levels of incivility of using these various means of communication during class and their perceptions of how they impact their ability to focus on the class. Mobile phones, Facebook, and Twitter use were negatively associated with the perception of the incivility of use in the classroom. This research found phone use was viewed as more uncivil than tablets and tablet use was viewed as more uncivil than laptop use. In addition, students' perceptions of instructors' tolerance of mobile phone and laptop use was negatively associated with their perception of the incivility of using those devices during class. All three tested mobile devices and all three tested social media outlets were positively associated with students' perception that its use affects their ability to focus on the class. This research found mobile phones use as more distracting than laptops and laptops use as more distracting than tablets. ?
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFE0005073, ucf:49958
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005073
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Title
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Bridging the Gap Between Fun and Fitness: Instructional Techniques and Real-World Applications for Full-Body Dance Games.
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Creator
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Charbonneau, Emiko, Laviola II, Joseph, Hughes, Charles, Tappen, Marshall, Angelopoulos, Theodore, Mueller, Florian, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Full-body controlled games offer the opportunity for not only entertainment, but education and exercise as well. Refined gameplay mechanics and content can boost intrinsic motivation and keep people playing over a long period of time, which is desirable for individuals who struggle with maintaining a regular exercise program. Within this gameplay genre, dance rhythm games have proven to be popular with game console owners. Yet, while other types of games utilize story mechanics that keep...
Show moreFull-body controlled games offer the opportunity for not only entertainment, but education and exercise as well. Refined gameplay mechanics and content can boost intrinsic motivation and keep people playing over a long period of time, which is desirable for individuals who struggle with maintaining a regular exercise program. Within this gameplay genre, dance rhythm games have proven to be popular with game console owners. Yet, while other types of games utilize story mechanics that keep players engaged for dozens of hours, motion-controlled dance games are just beginning to incorporate these elements. In addition, this control scheme is still young, only becoming commercially available in the last few years. Instructional displays and clear real-time feedback remain difficult challenges.This thesis investigates the potential for full-body dance games to be used as tools for entertainment, education, and fitness. We built several game prototypes to investigate visual, aural, and tactile methods for instruction and feedback. We also evaluated the fitness potential of the game Dance Central 2 both by itself and with extra game content which unlocked based on performance.Significant contributions include a framework for running a longitudinal video game study, results indicating high engagement with some fitness potential, and informed discussion of how dance games could make exertion a more enjoyable experience.
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFE0004829, ucf:49690
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004829
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Title
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Automatic 3D human modeling: an initial stage towards 2-way inside interaction in mixed reality.
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Creator
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Xiong, Yiyan, Hughes, Charles, Pattanaik, Sumanta, Laviola II, Joseph, Moshell, Michael, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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3D human models play an important role in computer graphics applications from a wide range of domains, including education, entertainment, medical care simulation and military training. In many situations, we want the 3D model to have a visual appearance that matches that of a specific living person and to be able to be controlled by that person in a natural manner. Among other uses, this approach supports the notion of human surrogacy, where the virtual counterpart provides a remote presence...
Show more3D human models play an important role in computer graphics applications from a wide range of domains, including education, entertainment, medical care simulation and military training. In many situations, we want the 3D model to have a visual appearance that matches that of a specific living person and to be able to be controlled by that person in a natural manner. Among other uses, this approach supports the notion of human surrogacy, where the virtual counterpart provides a remote presence for the human who controls the virtual character's behavior. In this dissertation, a human modeling pipeline is proposed for the problem of creating a 3D digital model of a real person. Our solution involves reshaping a 3D human template with a 2D contour of the participant and then mapping the captured texture of that person to the generated mesh. Our method produces an initial contour of a participant by extracting the user image from a natural background. One particularly novel contribution in our approach is the manner in which we improve the initial vertex estimate. We do so through a variant of the ShortStraw corner-finding algorithm commonly used in sketch-based systems. Here, we develop improvements to ShortStraw, presenting an algorithm called IStraw, and then introduce adaptations of this improved version to create a corner-based contour segmentatiuon algorithm. This algorithm provides significant improvements on contour matching over previously developed systems, and does so with low computational complexity. The system presented here advances the state of the art in the following aspects. First, the human modeling process is triggered automatically by matching the participant's pose with an initial pose through a tracking device and software. In our case, the pose capture and skeletal model are provided by the Microsoft Kinect and its associated SDK. Second, color image, depth data, and human tracking information from the Kinect and its SDK are used to automatically extract the contour of the participant and then generate a 3D human model with skeleton. Third, using the pose and the skeletal model, we segment the contour into eight parts and then match the contour points on each segment to a corresponding anchor set associated with a 3D human template. Finally, we map the color image of the person to the 3D model as its corresponding texture map. The whole modeling process only take several seconds and the resulting human model looks like the real person. The geometry of the 3D model matches the contour of the real person, and the model has a photorealistic texture. Furthermore, the mesh of the human model is attached to the skeleton provided in the template, so the model can support programmed animations or be controlled by real people. This human control is commonly done through a literal mapping (motion capture) or a gesture-based puppetry system. Our ultimate goal is to create a mixed reality (MR) system, in which the participants can manipulate virtual objects, and in which these virtual objects can affect the participant, e.g., by restricting theirmobility. This MR system prototype design motivated the work of this dissertation, since a realistic 3D human model of the participant is an essential part of implementing this vision.
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Date Issued
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2014
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Identifier
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CFE0005277, ucf:50543
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005277
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Title
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Complementary Layered Learning.
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Creator
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Mondesire, Sean, Wu, Annie, Wiegand, Rudolf, Sukthankar, Gita, Proctor, Michael, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Layered learning is a machine learning paradigm used to develop autonomous robotic-based agents by decomposing a complex task into simpler subtasks and learns each sequentially. Although the paradigm continues to have success in multiple domains, performance can be unexpectedly unsatisfactory. Using Boolean-logic problems and autonomous agent navigation, we show poor performance is due to the learner forgetting how to perform earlier learned subtasks too quickly (favoring plasticity) or...
Show moreLayered learning is a machine learning paradigm used to develop autonomous robotic-based agents by decomposing a complex task into simpler subtasks and learns each sequentially. Although the paradigm continues to have success in multiple domains, performance can be unexpectedly unsatisfactory. Using Boolean-logic problems and autonomous agent navigation, we show poor performance is due to the learner forgetting how to perform earlier learned subtasks too quickly (favoring plasticity) or having difficulty learning new things (favoring stability). We demonstrate that this imbalance can hinder learning so that task performance is no better than that of a sub-optimal learning technique, monolithic learning, which does not use decomposition. Through the resulting analyses, we have identified factors that can lead to imbalance and their negative effects, providing a deeper understanding of stability and plasticity in decomposition-based approaches, such as layered learning.To combat the negative effects of the imbalance, a complementary learning system is applied to layered learning. The new technique augments the original learning approach with dual storage region policies to preserve useful information from being removed from an agent's policy prematurely. Through multi-agent experiments, a 28% task performance increase is obtained with the proposed augmentations over the original technique.
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Date Issued
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2014
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Identifier
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CFE0005213, ucf:50626
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005213
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Title
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Grace Hopper and the Marvelous Machine: Lessons for Modern Technical Communicators from the Mark I ASCC Manual.
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Creator
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Meyr, Jessica, Jones, Dan, Dombrowski, Paul, Applen, John, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Women's technical writing achievements often go unrecognized, both due to the invisibility of technical writing professionals in general, and a lack of famous technical communication role models in particular. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and present an early major work in the technical writing of Rear Admiral (")Amazing(") Grace Hopper, inventor of the compiler and an important figure in computer science history. Although Hopper is arguably best known for popularizing the idea of...
Show moreWomen's technical writing achievements often go unrecognized, both due to the invisibility of technical writing professionals in general, and a lack of famous technical communication role models in particular. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and present an early major work in the technical writing of Rear Admiral (")Amazing(") Grace Hopper, inventor of the compiler and an important figure in computer science history. Although Hopper is arguably best known for popularizing the idea of the (")computer bug,(") her achievements in computer science extend from invention of the software compiler to tireless promotion of the programming language COBOL. Her work A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, written for the first digital computer in America, is analyzed here according to Mike Markel's eight criteria of excellent technical writing: honesty, clarity, accuracy, comprehensiveness, accessibility, conciseness, professional appearance, and correctness. I also cover other specific strengths of Grace's approach, including how she establishes sufficient context, highlights multiple uses for information, and provides numerous well-chosen examples for audience needs. However, I also discuss how modern research principles for improving technical writing, including task-orientation, attention to cognitive load, and minimalism, help explain the manual's shortcomings. I conclude my study with a discussion of Hopper's later work, (")The Education of a Computer,(") to demonstrate her growth as a writer. The conclusion also highlights areas awaiting further research and cements my recommendation that study of Grace Hopper's work be incorporated into our historical understanding of the discipline. Hopper's technical writing deserves to be more widely understood and appreciated as a vital contribution to early software documentation.
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Date Issued
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2017
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Identifier
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CFE0006625, ucf:51263
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006625
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Title
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MYSPACE OR OURSPACE: A MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY VIEW OF MYSPACE.
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Creator
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Schrock, Andrew, Brown, Timothy, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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MySpace is a type of "social networking" website where people meet, socialize, and create friendships. The way MySpace members, particularly younger individuals, interact online underscores the changing nature of mass media. Media system dependency states that individuals become reliant on media in their daily life because of fundamental human goals. This reliance, termed a dependency, leads to repeated use. Media system dependency was applied in the current study to explain how and why...
Show moreMySpace is a type of "social networking" website where people meet, socialize, and create friendships. The way MySpace members, particularly younger individuals, interact online underscores the changing nature of mass media. Media system dependency states that individuals become reliant on media in their daily life because of fundamental human goals. This reliance, termed a dependency, leads to repeated use. Media system dependency was applied in the current study to explain how and why individuals became habitual MySpace users. To attain results a survey was administered to a convenience sampling of 401 adult undergraduates at the University of Central Florida. Members reported MySpace dependency had a moderate correlation to MySpace use, and they actively used the website an average of 1.3 hours of use per day. Results indicated members use MySpace to primarily satisfy play and interaction orientation dependencies. MySpace use was found to have a correlation with number of MySpace friends. "Number of friends created" in turn had a correlation with MySpace dependency, as people returned to interact with their friends. Individual factors were also found to be a source of influence in MySpace dependency. These individual factors were demographics, psychological factors related to use of the Internet, and psychological factors related to use of MySpace. Factors related to MySpace, extroversion and self-disclosure, were positively correlated with intensity of dependency. The influence of factors related to the Internet was partly supported; computer self-efficacy was not significantly related to MySpace dependency, while computer anxiety was significantly related to MySpace dependency. Speed of connection to the Internet and available time to use the Internet were not related to MySpace dependency. Additionally, significant differences were found between genders in overall dependency, extroversion, self-disclosure, computer anxiety, and computer self-efficacy. These findings provide evidence that MySpace members were little, if at all, constrained by factors related to use of the Internet, but were attracted to the websites for similar reasons as real-life relationships. Finally, MySpace is just one of the large number of online resources that are predominantly social, such as email, message boards, and online chat. This study found that through a "technology cluster" MySpace members use these other social innovations more frequently than non-members. However, members also used significantly more non-social innovations, which may indicate that MySpace members are part of a larger technology cluster than anticipated or perhaps are in the same category of innovation adopter.
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Date Issued
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2006
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Identifier
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CFE0001451, ucf:47057
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001451
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Title
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AN APPROACH FOR COMPUTING INTERVISIBILITY USING GRAPHICAL PROCESSING UNITS.
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Creator
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Tracy, Judd, Schiavone, Guy, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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In large scale entity-level military force-on-force simulations it is essential to know when one entity can visibly see another entity. This visibility determination plays an important role in the simulation and can affect the outcome of the simulation. When virtual Computer Generated Forces (CGF) are introduced into the simulation these intervisibilities must now be calculated by the virtual entities on the battlefield. But as the simulation size increases so does the complexity of...
Show moreIn large scale entity-level military force-on-force simulations it is essential to know when one entity can visibly see another entity. This visibility determination plays an important role in the simulation and can affect the outcome of the simulation. When virtual Computer Generated Forces (CGF) are introduced into the simulation these intervisibilities must now be calculated by the virtual entities on the battlefield. But as the simulation size increases so does the complexity of calculating visibility between entities. This thesis presents an algorithm for performing these visibility calculations using Graphical Processing Units (GPU) instead of the Central Processing Units (CPU) that have been traditionally used in CGF simulations. This algorithm can be distributed across multiple GPUs in a cluster and its scalability exceeds that of CGF-based algorithms. The poor correlations of the two visibility algorithms are demonstrated showing that the GPU algorithm provides a necessary condition for a "Fair Fight" when paired with visual simulations.
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Date Issued
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2004
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Identifier
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CFE0000306, ucf:46315
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000306
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Title
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EXAMINING INSTANT MESSAGING IMPACT ON LEARNING USING AN INTEGRATED WORKED-EXAMPLE FORMAT.
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Creator
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Nasah, Angelique, Hirumi, Atsusi, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Instant messaging with Internet-based software is a ubiquitous form of communication in industrialized nations. In fact, many educators are observing that students engage with instant messaging while simultaneously engaged in academic activity. Though this type of multitasking is pervasive, educational researchers have not examined how the practice of instant messaging impacts learning outcomes. This dissertation describes the background, empirical and theoretical foundations, methods and...
Show moreInstant messaging with Internet-based software is a ubiquitous form of communication in industrialized nations. In fact, many educators are observing that students engage with instant messaging while simultaneously engaged in academic activity. Though this type of multitasking is pervasive, educational researchers have not examined how the practice of instant messaging impacts learning outcomes. This dissertation describes the background, empirical and theoretical foundations, methods and results of a study examining the impact of instant messaging activity on learning, where instant messaging and learning are simultaneous activities. The question posed is grounded in the related areas of instant messaging practices, the Generation M profile, Cognitive Load Theory, and integration of instant messaging in K-16 classrooms. This work presents empirical evidence pointing out the necessity of conducting empirical study regarding how instant messaging activity might impact learning. Quantitative methods used to conduct the study are presented including data collection instruments. The results of the study are discussed in broad terms related to Generation M and Cognitive Load Theory. Methodological limitations related to practice opportunities for the research sample as well as the performance measure used are detailed. In addition, implications of the results in relationship to those teaching members of Generation M in K-16 classrooms as well as those designing instruction for this population are discussed. The discussion concludes with recommendations for further research in this area.
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Date Issued
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2008
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Identifier
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CFE0002113, ucf:47540
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002113
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Title
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OPTIMIZING THE DESIGN OF MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES.
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Creator
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Reeves, Leah, Stanney, Kay, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Due to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information...
Show moreDue to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information presentation (e.g., via which modalities) to capitalize on an individual operator's information processing capabilities and the inherent efficiencies associated with redundant sensory information, thereby alleviating information overload. The present effort addresses this issue by proposing a theoretical framework (Architecture for Multi-Modal Optimization, AMMO) from which multimodal display design guidelines and adaptive automation strategies may be derived. The foundation of the proposed framework is based on extending, at a functional working memory (WM) level, existing information processing theories and models with the latest findings in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and other allied sciences. The utility of AMMO lies in its ability to provide designers with strategies for directing system design, as well as dynamic adaptation strategies (i.e., multimodal mitigation strategies) in support of real-time operations. In an effort to validate specific components of AMMO, a subset of AMMO-derived multimodal design guidelines was evaluated with a simulated weapons control system multitasking environment. The results of this study demonstrated significant performance improvements in user response time and accuracy when multimodal display cues were used (i.e., auditory and tactile, individually and in combination) to augment the visual display of information, thereby distributing human information processing resources across multiple sensory and WM resources. These results provide initial empirical support for validation of the overall AMMO model and a sub-set of the principle-driven multimodal design guidelines derived from it. The empirically-validated multimodal design guidelines may be applicable to a wide range of information-intensive computer-based multitasking environments.
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Date Issued
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2007
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Identifier
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CFE0001636, ucf:47237
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001636
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Title
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COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS INVESTIGATION OF THE ORIENTATION OF A PEDIATRIC LEFT VENTRICLE ASSIST DEVICE CANNULA TO REDUCE STROKE EVENTS.
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Creator
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Guimond, Stephen, Kassab, Alain, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Ventricle Assist Devices (VADs), which are typically either axial or centrifugal flow pumps implanted on the aortic arch, have been used to support patients who are awaiting cardiac transplantation. Success of the apparatus in the short term has led to long term use. Despite anticoagulation measures, blood clots (thrombi) have been known to form in the device itself or inside of the heart. The Ventricle Assist Devices supply blood flow via a conduit (cannula) implanted on the ascending aorta....
Show moreVentricle Assist Devices (VADs), which are typically either axial or centrifugal flow pumps implanted on the aortic arch, have been used to support patients who are awaiting cardiac transplantation. Success of the apparatus in the short term has led to long term use. Despite anticoagulation measures, blood clots (thrombi) have been known to form in the device itself or inside of the heart. The Ventricle Assist Devices supply blood flow via a conduit (cannula) implanted on the ascending aorta. Currently, the implantation angle of the VAD cannula is not taken into consideration. Since the VADs supply a significant amount of blood flow to the aorta, the implantation angle can greatly affect the trajectory of the formed thrombi as well as the cardiac flow field inside of the aortic arch. This study aims to vary the implantation angle of a pediatric Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) through a series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software simulations focusing on the aortic arch and its branching arteries of a 20 kg pediatric patient in order to reduce the occurrence of stroke.
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Date Issued
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2012
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Identifier
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CFH0004305, ucf:45044
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004305
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Title
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STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING WITH EMPHASIS ON COMPUTER VISION, DAMAGE INDICES, AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS.
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Creator
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ZAURIN, RICARDO, CATBAS, F. NECATI, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the sensing and analysis of a structure to detect abnormal behavior, damage and deterioration during regular operations as well as under extreme loadings. SHM is designed to provide objective information for decision-making on safety and serviceability. This research focuses on the SHM of bridges by developing and integrating novel methods and techniques using sensor networks, computer vision, modeling for damage indices and statistical approaches....
Show moreStructural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the sensing and analysis of a structure to detect abnormal behavior, damage and deterioration during regular operations as well as under extreme loadings. SHM is designed to provide objective information for decision-making on safety and serviceability. This research focuses on the SHM of bridges by developing and integrating novel methods and techniques using sensor networks, computer vision, modeling for damage indices and statistical approaches. Effective use of traffic video synchronized with sensor measurements for decision-making is demonstrated. First, some of the computer vision methods and how they can be used for bridge monitoring are presented along with the most common issues and some practical solutions. Second, a conceptual damage index (Unit Influence Line) is formulated using synchronized computer images and sensor data for tracking the structural response under various load conditions. Third, a new index, Nd , is formulated and demonstrated to more effectively identify, localize and quantify damage. Commonly observed damage conditions on real bridges are simulated on a laboratory model for the demonstration of the computer vision method, UIL and the new index. This new method and the index, which are based on outlier detection from the UIL population, can very effectively handle large sets of monitoring data. The methods and techniques are demonstrated on the laboratory model for damage detection and all damage scenarios are identified successfully. Finally, the application of the proposed methods on a real life structure, which has a monitoring system, is presented. It is shown that these methods can be used efficiently for applications such as damage detection and load rating for decision-making. The results from this monitoring project on a movable bridge are demonstrated and presented along with the conclusions and recommendations for future work.
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Date Issued
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2009
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Identifier
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CFE0002890, ucf:48039
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002890
Pages