Current Search: Dissertations (x)
View All Items
Pages
- Title
- Topology and control investigation for low-voltage high-current isolated DC-DC converters.
- Creator
-
Mao, Hong, Batarseh, Issa, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; High conversion efficiency and fast transient response at high switching frequency are the two main challenges for low-voltage high-current DC-DC converters, which are the motivations of the dissertation work. To reduce the switching power loss, soft switching is a desirable technique to keep power loss under control at high switching frequencies. A Duty-Cycle-Shift (DCS) concept is proposed for half-bridge DC-DC converters to...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; High conversion efficiency and fast transient response at high switching frequency are the two main challenges for low-voltage high-current DC-DC converters, which are the motivations of the dissertation work. To reduce the switching power loss, soft switching is a desirable technique to keep power loss under control at high switching frequencies. A Duty-Cycle-Shift (DCS) concept is proposed for half-bridge DC-DC converters to reduce switching loss. The concept of this new control scheme is shifting one of the two symmetric PWM driving signals close to the other, such that ZVS can be achieved for the lagging switch due to the shortened resonant interval.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2004
- Identifier
- CFR0001718, ucf:52921
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0001718
- Title
- Computing a diameter-constrained minimum spanning tree.
- Creator
-
Abdalla, Ayman Mahmoud, Deo, Narsingh, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; In numerous practical applications, it is necessary to find the smallest possible tree with a bounded diameter. A diameter-constrained minimum spanning tree (DCMST) of a given undirected, edge-weighted graph, G, is the smallest-weight spanning tree of all spanning trees of G which contain no path with more than k edges, where k is a given positive integer. The problem of finding a DCMST is NP-complete for all values of k; 4
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; In numerous practical applications, it is necessary to find the smallest possible tree with a bounded diameter. A diameter-constrained minimum spanning tree (DCMST) of a given undirected, edge-weighted graph, G, is the smallest-weight spanning tree of all spanning trees of G which contain no path with more than k edges, where k is a given positive integer. The problem of finding a DCMST is NP-complete for all values of k; 4 <= k <= (n - 2), except when all edge-weights are identical. A DCMST is essential for the efficiency of various distributed mutual exclusion algorithms, where it can minimize the number of messages communicated among processors per critical section. It is also useful in linear lightwave networks, where it can minimize interference in the network by limiting the traffic in the network lines. Another practical application requiring a DCMST arises in data compression, where some algorithms compress a file utilizing a data-structure, and decompress a path in the tree to access a record A DCMST helps such algorithm to be fast without sacrificing a lot of storage storage space.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2001
- Identifier
- CFR0002215, ucf:52914
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0002215
- Title
- Energy aware design and analysis for synchronous and asynchronous circuits.
- Creator
-
Di, Jia, Yuan, Jiann S., Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; Power dissipation has become a major concern for IC designers. Various low power design techniques have been developed for synchronous circuits. Asynchronous circuits, however have gained more interests recently due to their benefits in lower noise, easy timing control, etc. But few publications on energy reduction techniques for asynchronous logic are available. Power awareness indicates the ability of the system power to scale...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; Power dissipation has become a major concern for IC designers. Various low power design techniques have been developed for synchronous circuits. Asynchronous circuits, however have gained more interests recently due to their benefits in lower noise, easy timing control, etc. But few publications on energy reduction techniques for asynchronous logic are available. Power awareness indicates the ability of the system power to scale with changing conditions and quality requirements. Scalability is an important figure-of-merit since it allows the end user to implement operational policy just like the user of mobile multimedia equipment needs to select between better quality and longer battery operation time. This dissertation discusses power /energy optimization and performs analysis on both synchronous and asynchronous logic.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2004
- Identifier
- CFR0001720, ucf:52913
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0001720
- Title
- The extent and impact of the incorporation of employee health promotion programs in the central Florida business community.
- Creator
-
Berlin, Thomas, Lytle, J. Stephen, Health and Professional Studies
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Health and Professional Studies Thesis; Employee health insurance premiums continue to rise exponentially despite stagnant inflation rates. The national trend in recent years has been to decrease benefit usage by attempting to establish a healthier workforce. The incorporation of employee health promotion programs either within, or outside of the worksite, is the favored means of providing a solution. The purpose of this study is to determine the...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Health and Professional Studies Thesis; Employee health insurance premiums continue to rise exponentially despite stagnant inflation rates. The national trend in recent years has been to decrease benefit usage by attempting to establish a healthier workforce. The incorporation of employee health promotion programs either within, or outside of the worksite, is the favored means of providing a solution. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of employee health promotion program usage in Central Florida, and the economic impact, if any, of these programs. The basic research questions for this study are: 1. What percentage of the corporations surveyed have instituted employee health promotion programs. 2. What is the most common program content among the companies using such? 3. What is the average cost of program implementation (per employee) and the average annual operations cost for companies using health promotion programs? 4. Has a real of perceived monetary gain been determined by the use of the health promotion programs? 5. Can any cost savings be originated? 6. Does a relative difference in savings exist between large and small companies by using such programs? 7. What percentage of Central Florida companies using health promotion programs depend upon extraneous services (e.g., PPOs, HMOs, consultants) to initiate and/or perpetuate their programs? The procedure of study will include the use of a survey questionnaire mailed to a representative sampling of 100 various size area business establishments, grouped according to employee number. Quantification and analysis of survey results will then be summarized and used to ascertain the effectiveness of such endeavors.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1990
- Identifier
- CFR0008147, ucf:52952
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0008147
- Title
- An adaptive integration architecture for software reuse.
- Creator
-
Williams, Denver Robert Edward, Orooji, Ali, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; The problem of building large, reliable software systems in a controlled, cost effective way, the so-called software crisis problem, is one of computer science's great challenges. From the very outset of computing as science, software reuse has been touted as a means to overcome the software crisis issue.
- Date Issued
- 2001
- Identifier
- CFR0000786, ucf:52928
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0000786
- Title
- A unified approach to dynamic modeling of high switching frequency pwm converters.
- Creator
-
Iannello, Christopher J., Batarseh, Issa, Engineering
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; This dissertation will present the development of a unified approach for dynamic modeling of the PWM and soft-switching power converters. Dynamic modeling of non-linear power converters is very important for the design and stability of their closed loop control. While the use of equivalent circuits is often preferred due to simulation efficiency issues, no unified and widely applicable method for the formulation of these equivalents...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; This dissertation will present the development of a unified approach for dynamic modeling of the PWM and soft-switching power converters. Dynamic modeling of non-linear power converters is very important for the design and stability of their closed loop control. While the use of equivalent circuits is often preferred due to simulation efficiency issues, no unified and widely applicable method for the formulation of these equivalents exists.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2001
- Identifier
- CFR0000833, ucf:52929
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0000833
- Title
- An intelligent editor for natural language processing of unrestricted text.
- Creator
-
Glinos, Demetrios George, Gomez, Fernando, Arts and Sciences
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; The understanding of natural language by computational methods has been a continuing and elusive problem in artificial intelligence. In recent years there has been a resurgence in natural language processing research. Much of this work has been on empirical or corpus-based methods which use a data-driven approach to train systems on large amounts of real language data. Using corpus-based methods, the performance of part-of...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; The understanding of natural language by computational methods has been a continuing and elusive problem in artificial intelligence. In recent years there has been a resurgence in natural language processing research. Much of this work has been on empirical or corpus-based methods which use a data-driven approach to train systems on large amounts of real language data. Using corpus-based methods, the performance of part-of-speech (POS) taggers, which assign to the individual words of a sentence their appropriate part of speech category (e.g., noun, verb, preposition), now rivals human performance levels, achieving accuracies exceeding 95%. Such taggers have proved useful as preprocessors for such tasks as parsing, speech synthesis, and information retrieval. Parsing remains, however, a difficult problem, even with the benefit of POS tagging. Moveover, as sentence length increases, there is a corresponding combinatorial explosing of alternative possible parses. Consider the following sentence from a New York Times online article: After Salinas was arrested for murder in 1995 and lawyers for the bank had begun monitoring his accounts, his personal banker in New York quietly advised Salinas' wife to move the money elsewhere, apparently without the consent of the legal department. To facilitate the parsing and other tasks, we would like to decompose this sentence into the following three shorter sentences which, taken together, convey the same meaning as the original: 1. Salinas was arrested for murder in 1995. 2. Lawyers for the bank had begun monitoring his accounts. 3. His personal banker in New York quietly advised Salinas' wife to move the money elsewhere, apparently without the consent of the legal department. This study investigates the development of heuristics for decomposing such long sentences into sets of shorter sentences without affecting the meaning of the original sentences. Without parsing or semantic analysis, heuristic rules were developed based on: (1) the output of a POS tagger (Brill's tagger); (2) the punctuation contained in the input sentences; and (3) the words themselves. The heuristic algorithms were implemented in an intelligent editor program which first augmented the POS tags and assigned tags to punctuation, and then tested the rules against a corpus of 25 New York Times online articles containing approximately 1,200 sentences and over 32,000 words, with good results. Recommendations are made for improving the algorithms and for continuing this line of research.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1999
- Identifier
- CFR0008181, ucf:53055
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0008181
- Title
- Enterface : a novella.
- Creator
-
McLeod, Hubert Calip, Rushin, Pat, Arts and Sciences
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; A computer screen places each of us in an interface and virtual reality provides a totally simulated environment, a virtual world that we can enter. Enterface is a novella that examines the question first posed by Michael Heim: How far can we enter cyberspace and still remain human? It also explores the power and the limitation of language and the role of stories to shape reality in human life. Its themes are death, technology, ethics, and love. It is informed by Wittgensteinian philosophy, Norse mythology, and the "metaphysics of virtual reality." The plot involves Moses Mackinow, a former Air Force officer and entrepreneur, who decides there should be a way to simply live forever. He hits upon the idea that life could be digitized, and a civilization, a world of complete, sentient humans could be created in cyberspace--a world he could enter upon his death and continue to live. A variety of technologies are available to digitize the physical human (x-rays, CTSCNS, Magnetic Resonance Images, graphic images, etc.), but the big problem is how to synthesize his human heart. Moses decides that the stories of his life are the keys to creating the "rag and bone shop" of his eternal heart. Getting the stories "right" is critical to the prospect of digitizing life and is a major focus of the novella action. The novella traces the reduction of Moses as a a human being as he pursues his obsession, compromising one principle after another. Everything in the environment of the novella, reflects this reduction. Everything becomes less than it was, a glimpse of humanity reduced to bits and bytes, floating 1's and 0's. Enterface is a work at war with itself.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1999
- Identifier
- CFR0011964, ucf:53091
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011964
- Title
- Is there a difference in learning styles of honors versus non-honors students as assessed by the GEFT?.
- Creator
-
Hollister, Debra Lee, Kubala, Thomas, Education
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Education Thesis; The goal of this research was to find if there was a discernible difference in the preferred learning style of an honors student versus a non-honors student based on the Group Embedded Figures Test. Although many instructors use the lecture method to teach, it many not be the most productive tool for students to learn. The information from this study could be of help when an instructor is preparing to instruct a group of students in...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Education Thesis; The goal of this research was to find if there was a discernible difference in the preferred learning style of an honors student versus a non-honors student based on the Group Embedded Figures Test. Although many instructors use the lecture method to teach, it many not be the most productive tool for students to learn. The information from this study could be of help when an instructor is preparing to instruct a group of students in an honors, AP (advanced placement) or gifted class as to determine what activities would provide the best retention of material. The results of this study were analyzed to examine the variables of being an honors or non-honors student, gender, age, ethnicity, degree being pursued and being a full time or part time student. According to the Chi2 analysis, it was found that there is no one learning style that is preferred by students who take honors classes versus other students. It was also discovered that gender, age, ethnicity, degree being pursued and being either a full time or part time student did not impact preferred learning style for the students on the East Campus of Valencia Community College. Suggested use for this study would be to inform instructors and faculty that there is no one learning style preferred by the honors student. This information can not be reiterated enough to ensure that students are given many different types of opportunities to successfully accomplish their academic goals.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2001
- Identifier
- CFR0011946, ucf:53105
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011946
- Title
- Exploring the Innovation Environment within the Systems Engineering Context of a Defense Organization: A Preliminary Framework.
- Creator
-
Odeh, Khaled, Rabelo, Luis, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Lee, Gene, Karwowski, Waldemar, Uddin, Nizam, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Innovation may involve the introduction of ideas for designing or producing new products, or introducing improvements to products, processes, services or any other aspect of an organization to the market place. A major element for measuring organizational strength is its perception of innovation and the ability of the organization to build on and sustain such strength. While there is no shortage of research and study materials on innovation, there is, however, a shortage of thorough and...
Show moreInnovation may involve the introduction of ideas for designing or producing new products, or introducing improvements to products, processes, services or any other aspect of an organization to the market place. A major element for measuring organizational strength is its perception of innovation and the ability of the organization to build on and sustain such strength. While there is no shortage of research and study materials on innovation, there is, however, a shortage of thorough and realistic analysis of the intersection of innovation management, and measurement of innovation within the systems engineering context of defense organizations. In addition, while most research studies seem to adopt strictly quantitative innovation factors in determining innovation success and performance, they seem to have overlooked the qualitative side of it. An objective of this research study is to address the need for exploring the innovation environment within the systems engineering context of a defense organization. In addition, the research presents a new model for exploring innovation factors within the examined environment, using both quantitative and qualitative factors. The research uses a number of data collection instruments that include a survey construct to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The study identified significant factors that could be used to properly determine innovation within the systems engineering context of defense organizations using traditional statistics and data mining modeling. New indicators such as security and organizational leadership are discovered as important to define, monitor, and assess the innovation of the defense industry within the context of systems engineering.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004903, ucf:49643
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004903
- Title
- Natural Disasters.
- Creator
-
Cobb, Rebecca, Milanes, Cecilia, Poissant, David, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Natural Disasters is a collection of twelve short stories that feature a variety of narrators as they interact with the ones they love. In these stories, characters experience puberty, friendship, love, loss, trauma, and the everyday magic of living as they fight to master their own failings. Those lucky enough find solace in the forgiving beauty of nature, while others succumb to the untamable power of its disasters. This thesis is useful, important, and unique as it focuses on the stories...
Show moreNatural Disasters is a collection of twelve short stories that feature a variety of narrators as they interact with the ones they love. In these stories, characters experience puberty, friendship, love, loss, trauma, and the everyday magic of living as they fight to master their own failings. Those lucky enough find solace in the forgiving beauty of nature, while others succumb to the untamable power of its disasters. This thesis is useful, important, and unique as it focuses on the stories of a variety of characters, mostly women and children, and displays the beauty and fearsome power of nature as the characters strive to achieve their goals. In today's political and social climate, women, children, and nature are often taken for granted, underestimated, and even forgotten about. Here, they are anything but forgotten. Women join together to fight trauma, children stand together and face some of today's worst natural disasters, and nature is portrayed as a source of magic. This thesis gives these characters a voice and shines a spotlight on their importance to the world and society as a whole.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006867, ucf:51741
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006867
- Title
- Video categorization using semantics and semiotics.
- Creator
-
Rasheed, Zeeshan, Shah, Mubarak, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; There is a great need to automatically segment, categorize, and annotate video data, and to develop efficient tools for browsing and searching. We believe that the categorization of videos can be achieved by exploring the concepts and meanings of the videos. This task requires bridging the gap between low-level content and high-level concepts (or semantics). Once a relationship is established between the low-level computable...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; There is a great need to automatically segment, categorize, and annotate video data, and to develop efficient tools for browsing and searching. We believe that the categorization of videos can be achieved by exploring the concepts and meanings of the videos. This task requires bridging the gap between low-level content and high-level concepts (or semantics). Once a relationship is established between the low-level computable features of the video and its semantics, .the user would be able to navigate through videos through the use of concepts and ideas (for example, a user could extract only those scenes in an action film that actually contain fights) rat her than sequentially browsing the whole video. However, this relationship must follow the norms of human perception and abide by the rules that are most often followed by the creators (directors) of these videos. These rules are called film grammar in video production literature. Like any natural language, this grammar has several dialects, but it has been acknowledged to be universal. Therefore, the knowledge of film grammar can be exploited effectively for the understanding of films. To interpret an idea using the grammar, we need to first understand the symbols, as in natural languages, and second, understand the rules of combination of these symbols to represent concepts. In order to develop algorithms that exploit this film grammar, it is necessary to relate the symbols of the grammar to computable video features.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2003
- Identifier
- CFR0001717, ucf:52920
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0001717
- Title
- Larger-first partial parsing.
- Creator
-
Van Delden, Sebastian Alexander, Gomez, Fernando, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; Larger-first partial parsing is a primarily top-down approach to partial parsing that is opposite to current easy-first, or primarily bottom-up, strategies. A rich partial tree structure is captured by an algorithm that assigns a hierarchy of structural tags to each of the input tokens in a sentence. Part-of-speech tags are first assigned to the words in a sentence by a part-of-speech tagger. A cascade of Deterministic Finite State...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; Larger-first partial parsing is a primarily top-down approach to partial parsing that is opposite to current easy-first, or primarily bottom-up, strategies. A rich partial tree structure is captured by an algorithm that assigns a hierarchy of structural tags to each of the input tokens in a sentence. Part-of-speech tags are first assigned to the words in a sentence by a part-of-speech tagger. A cascade of Deterministic Finite State Automata then uses this part-of-speech information to identify syntactic relations primarily ina descending order of their size. The cascade is divided into four specialized sections: (1) a Comma Network, which identifies syntactic relations associated with commas; (2) a Conjunction Network, which partially disambiguates phrasal conjunctions and fully disambiguates clausal conjunctions; (3) a Clause Network, which identifies non-comma-delimited clauses; and (4) a Phrase Network, which identifies the remaining base phrases in the sentence. Each automaton is capable of adding one ore more levels of structural tags to the to the tokens in a sentence. The larger-first approach is compared against a well-known easy-first approach. The results indicate that this larger-first approach is capable of (1) producing a more detailed partial parse than an easy first approach; (2) providing better containment of attachment ambiguity; (3) handling overlapping syntactic relations; and (4) achieving a higher accuracy than the easy-first approach. The automata of each network were developed by an empirical analysis of several sources and are presented here in details.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2003
- Identifier
- CFR0000760, ucf:52932
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0000760
- Title
- The battle's lost and won: ratification of the nineteenth amendment in Tennessee.
- Creator
-
Beale, Judith, Leckie, Shirley A., Arts and Sciences
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; Tennessee ratified the Nineteenth amendment by a margin of one vote. This study, therefore, examines Tennessee, its politics, and its politicians to see to what extent the usual historical explanations that states' rights and the liquor and railroad industries were the main obstructions to Tennessee's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. It concludes that women's increased access to education and employment affected too...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; Tennessee ratified the Nineteenth amendment by a margin of one vote. This study, therefore, examines Tennessee, its politics, and its politicians to see to what extent the usual historical explanations that states' rights and the liquor and railroad industries were the main obstructions to Tennessee's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. It concludes that women's increased access to education and employment affected too few women in the state to cause a great demand for the vote. Moreover, corporate opponents and racist fears were less important as impediments to ratification than historians have believed. Legislators voted neither out of fear of federal intervention, nor from party loyalty; they considered each issue on its merits. Whether it was good for the state, their constituents, and their own political careers seem likely reasons for their decisions. Woman suffrage hung in the balance until the last possible minute so that one vote eventually determined the outcome in Tennessee.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2000
- Identifier
- CFR0000175, ucf:52936
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0000175
- Title
- Legacy to the people : community and the Orange County Regional History Center.
- Creator
-
Beatty, Robert L., Leckie, Shirley A., Arts and Sciences
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; The development and birth of the Orange County Regional History Center is perhaps unlike any other local history museum in the United States. Its story is worth telling because of its long gestation, the difficulties in bringing this center to life, and the goals of the people who made it possible. All of these elements are a vital part of the history of Orange County, Florida and should not be overlooked. In this light, this...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences Thesis; The development and birth of the Orange County Regional History Center is perhaps unlike any other local history museum in the United States. Its story is worth telling because of its long gestation, the difficulties in bringing this center to life, and the goals of the people who made it possible. All of these elements are a vital part of the history of Orange County, Florida and should not be overlooked. In this light, this thesis will discuss more fully three topics in relation to the creation of the new History Center. First, it will look at the American museum field and its role as a community-building enterprise in American society. Second, it will examine the history of Central Florida, a region that sorely lacks a strong sense of community. Third, it will trace the transformation of the Orange County Historical Society and Museum from a small volunteer-run museum into the Orange County Regional History Center, the largest history museum in Central Florida. The ultimate goal of the History Center is to foster a sense of community in a region with little feeling of connectedness. This community building goal has evolved from both a renewed emphasis on community service in the museum field, and the desire of the History Center's leaders and staff to serve more effectively the Central Florida region. My thesis tells the story of the history and development of the Regional History Center, an institution dedicated to bringing the diverse community of Central Florida together for discussion, dialogue, and reflection. It also identifies some of the new roles and functions it must assume in the future and the new tasks that await it as it strives to become more useful and relevant to its community. In that way, and through that resource, the institution can help build the foundation for a more promising future for present and future residents of Orange County.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2002
- Identifier
- CFR0000195, ucf:52935
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0000195
- Title
- Crash quality- an approach for evaluating spending on quality improvement initiatives.
- Creator
-
Ferreira, Labiche, Hosni, Yasser A., Engineering
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; The quality movement has become popular among corporations big and small for one reason: empirical evidence suggests that quality and productivity (and hence profitability) are linked. Unfortunately, while many firms accept that quality and productivity go together, few actually track the gains associated with their quality improvement programs. Companies also tend to spend on quality improvement with no indication of estimation of...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; The quality movement has become popular among corporations big and small for one reason: empirical evidence suggests that quality and productivity (and hence profitability) are linked. Unfortunately, while many firms accept that quality and productivity go together, few actually track the gains associated with their quality improvement programs. Companies also tend to spend on quality improvement with no indication of estimation of the impact of funding on the targeted process. It would be of great value to know: (1) the impact of spending to enhance the product/process quality level, and (2) the point at which expenditures for quality improvement are not economical. This research involves modeling the quality level of a product composed of integrated components/processes and the costs associated with quality improvement. Presented in this research is a methodology for determining the point at which the target quality level is reached. This point signifies when future spending should be re-directed. The research defines this point as the "Crash Quality Point (CQP)." Cases of a single process level and double level three-stage process are modeled to conceptualize CQP. The finding from the output analysis reveal that the quality level approaches the target level at varying points in time. Any spending beyond this point does not have an impact on the quality level compared to the period prior to the Crash Quality Point. Spending past this point is futile and these funds could be spent on the quality improvement projects. The special case modeled also illustrates the use of this tool in the selection of processes for improvements based on the quality level of the process. This is an added advantage in scenarios where funds are limited and management is constrained to improve process quality with limited funds. Using a real world example validates the proposed CQP methodology. The results of the validation indicate that the model developed can assist managers in forecasting the budget requirements for quality spending based on the quality improvement goals. The tool also enables managers to estimate the point in time at which allocations of funds may be directed for process reengineering. The CQP method will enable quality improvement professionals to determine the economical viability and the limits in expenditures on quality improvement. It enables managers to evaluate spending alternatives and approximate when the point of diminishing return is reached.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2000
- Identifier
- CFR0011594, ucf:53046
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011594
- Title
- The working relationship of international teaching assistants and undergraduate students.
- Creator
-
Farina, Marcella, Stebbins, Consuelo, Arts and Sciences
- Abstract / Description
-
The present study was conducted to ascertain undergraduate views about the effectiveness of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in the American classroom. The study was administered to a stratified cluster sampling by college of the target population, undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, Florida. The instrument used, Questionnaire of Undergraduates about International Teaching Assistants (QUITA) as developed by Wanda Fox (1990), is composed of a total...
Show moreThe present study was conducted to ascertain undergraduate views about the effectiveness of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in the American classroom. The study was administered to a stratified cluster sampling by college of the target population, undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, Florida. The instrument used, Questionnaire of Undergraduates about International Teaching Assistants (QUITA) as developed by Wanda Fox (1990), is composed of a total of 40 items regarding personal and academic background, cultural exposure to and views about non-native speakers of English, and ITA-classroom effectiveness and problem-solving strategies. On the basis of data from the Fall 1998 semester, approximately 15% of the total number of ITA-taught course sections per college were surveyed. The subjects responded anonymously using computerized answer sheets. Upon completion of the data collection phase, all surveys were analyzed for response frequencies. In addition, background and demographic information regarding the participants and information regarding undergraduate exposure to IT As and IT A instruction were also summarized. The Likert-type items were combined to reveal an overall ATITA (Attitude toward International Teaching Assistants) score. The results of the ATITA portion of the study indicate that undergraduate student views toward IT As and IT A instruction are between neutral and mildly positive. Furthermore, survey responses indicated that undergraduates resolve conflicts involving IT As through personal means. The closing recommendations suggest maintaining open lines of communication between undergraduates, ITAs, and administrators alike.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1999
- Identifier
- CFR0003046, ucf:52915
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0003046
- Title
- Expectation and satisfaction of freshmen and seniors in higher education.
- Creator
-
Rodriguez, Reuban Beryrl, Lynn, Mary Ann, Education
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Education Thesis; The purpose of this study was to examine the expectation, satisfaction and performance gap levels between selected freshman and seniors as measured by the selected SSI scales. The problem was to determine if expectation, satisfaction, and performance gap levels differed between freshman and seniors in 1995 and freshman and seniors in 1998 based on class level, gender and age. The study examined four selected scales from the twelve...
Show moreUniversity of Central Florida College of Education Thesis; The purpose of this study was to examine the expectation, satisfaction and performance gap levels between selected freshman and seniors as measured by the selected SSI scales. The problem was to determine if expectation, satisfaction, and performance gap levels differed between freshman and seniors in 1995 and freshman and seniors in 1998 based on class level, gender and age. The study examined four selected scales from the twelve scales derived from the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI): Campus Climate, Campus Life, Campus Support Services, and Instruction Effectiveness. Respondents rated all items on a 7-point Likert scale with respect to their expectations of and satisfaction with student services represented by the scales. Findings indicated that, for both 1995 and 1998, freshman had significantly higher levels of expectation than did seniors in regard to campus climate, campus life and campus support services; freshman has significantly higher levels of satisfaction than seniors with campus climate, campus life, campus support services and instructional effectiveness; seniors had significantly higher levels of unmet needs than did freshman for campus support services and instructional effectiveness, and; there were no significant differences between freshman and seniors according to gender or age. Responses of 1995 freshman and seniors and 1998 freshman and seniors were similar. The four selected scales served as having the potential to guide administrators in assessing the levels of student satisfaction with both academic and nonacademic student services.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1999
- Identifier
- CFR0011945, ucf:53107
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0011945
- Title
- On the design and performance of cognitive packets over wired networks and mobile ad hoc networks.
- Creator
-
Lent, Marino Ricardo, Gelenbe, Erol, Engineering and Computer Science
- Abstract / Description
-
University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis; This dissertation studied cognitive packet networks (CPN) which build networked learning systems that support adaptive, quality of service-driven routing of packets in wired networks and in wireless, mobile ad hoc networks.
- Date Issued
- 2003
- Identifier
- CFR0001374, ucf:52931
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFR0001374
- Title
- A needs analysis for K-12 school improvement projects and their use as the dissertation in practice for the professional practice education doctorate program at the University of Central Florida.
- Creator
-
Biddle, Jeffrey, Boote, David, Taylor, Rosemarye, Vitale, Thomas, Hayes, Grant, Flanigan, Jacquelyn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This study conducted at the University of Central Florida was completed to inform the Ed. D. in Education program within the College of Education and Human Performance. The main purpose of the study was to determine the Dissertation in Practice (DiP) project types that should be allowed for use as the capstone requirement based on a needs analysis of K-12 schools and school districts. The secondary purpose was to inform the instructional design of the program to ensure the necessary skills...
Show moreThis study conducted at the University of Central Florida was completed to inform the Ed. D. in Education program within the College of Education and Human Performance. The main purpose of the study was to determine the Dissertation in Practice (DiP) project types that should be allowed for use as the capstone requirement based on a needs analysis of K-12 schools and school districts. The secondary purpose was to inform the instructional design of the program to ensure the necessary skills and knowledge required are included in the program.The study was conducted in the University of Central Florida's Ed. D. in Education program and employed a qualitative approach to a needs analysis. Interviews were conducted with two distinctly different participant groups. The first group was comprised of administrators and teacher-leaders identified by a superintendent of a rural school district in Central Florida as (")highly effective("). The second group of participants was comprised of current Ed. D. students working in K-12 education with more than 10 years' experience.This research identified specific project types that best support school improvement and should therefore be integrated into the Ed. D. in Education program as allowable project types for use as the Dissertation in Practice. The results also identified qualities of highly effective administrators and teacher-leaders that may be considered by program faculty for inclusion in the design and implementation of the curriculum for the Ed. D. in Education program.Implications of this research include using the results to inform instructional practices and the allowable DiP projects for the Ed. D. in Education program. As this study was a needs analysis that serves as a basis for program instructional decisions, the results of this study may inform other Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) member institutions how to modify or enhance their programs as well.The focus on this study was exclusively on K-12 education. However many students enrolled in the program work in business, government, or non-profit settings. This research could be replicated to determine improvement project types that are commonly implemented in those settings in order to better meet the needs of all students enrolled in the Ed. D. in Education program.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005306, ucf:50539
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005306