This research comprises three interconnected studies, all anchored in the usability evaluation of mobile education applications, with guidance from the well-established Jakob Nielsen factors to heuristic evaluation. The first study delves into the analysis of mobile application reviews using a deep learning model and machine learning to unearth usability issues. In the second study, we examine the usability of two prominent educational applications, Canvas and Blackboard, integrated within Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (PSAU) and at the University of North Texas (UNT) from a student-oriented perspective. Through the synthesis of findings and insights from antecedent studies, we seek to augment the current body of knowledge and offer realistic recommendations for the enhancement of mobile education application usability. Our findings have the potential to improve the efficacy of platforms, offering developers a roadmap to refine application features and optimize the learning experience for both educators and learners.

This thesis proposes a novel approach for finding tables in text files containing a mixture of unstructured and structured text. Tables may be arbitrarily complex because the data in the tables may themselves be tables and because the grouping of data elements displayed in a table may be very complex. Although investigators have proposed competence models to explain the structure of tables, there are no computationally feasible performance models for detecting and parsing general structures in real data. Our emphasis is placed on the investigation of a new statistical procedure for detecting basic tables in plain text documents. The main task here is defining and testing this theory in the context of the Odessa Digital Library. / Master of Science

Yes / This paper introduces a rigorous framework for function modelling of complex multi-disciplinary systems based on the System State Flow Diagram (SSFD). The work addresses the need for a consistent methodology to support solution neutral function based system decomposition analysis, facilitating the design, modelling and analysis of complex systems architectures. A rigorous basis for the SSFD is established by defining conventions for states and function definition and representation scheme, underpinned by a critical review of existing literature. A set of heuristics are introduced to support the function decomposition analysis and to facilitate the deployment of the methodology with strong practitioner guidelines. The SSFD heuristics extend the existing framework of Otto and Wood (2001) by introducing a conditional fork node heuristic, to facilitate analysis and aggregation of function models across multiple modes of operation of the system. The empirical validation of the SSFD function modelling framework is discussed in relation to its application to two case studies: (i) a benchmark problem (Glue Gun) set for the engineering design community; and (ii) an industrial case study of an electric vehicle powertrain. Based on the evidence from the two case studies presented in the paper, a critical evaluation of the SSFD function modelling methodology is presented based on the function benchmarking framework established by Summers et al (2013), considering the representation, modelling, cognitive and reasoning characteristics. The significance of this paper is that it establishes a rigorous reference framework for the SSFD function representation and a consistent methodology to guide the practitioner with its deployment, facilitating its impact to industrial practice.

No description available.

No description available.

Modularization is a strategy used by many companies, to help them provide their customers with a high variety of customized products efficiently. This is done through the customization of different independent modules, which are connected by standardized interfaces that are shared throughoutthe entire module variety. Scania, being one of the large companies that provide modular products, has been successfully improving their modularization concepts for many years, and is one of the most iconic companies when it comes to modularization of buses, trucks and engines. But with the increasing need ofelectronics integrated in the vehicles, it is becoming more and more important to modularize the electrical system. There is currently an existing, modularized, product architecture for the electrical system, and Scania wants to know how well modularized it is, as there is no unified way that indicates what is considered to be the better solution.To analyze the current state of the electrical system, a systematic method of modularization was used, which would help answer three important questions: Are the modules well defined? Is there a way to systematically compare alternative solutions? What criteria are more important to focus on? Since there is no unified way of modularization, many modularization methods have been created, and each one has been optimized for a certain purpose. This project compares three different modularization methods and then uses one of the methods which is deemed to be the preferred method to help provide the answers that the company seeks when investigating the modularity of the electrical system. As the electrical system is very complex, and the project has limited amount of resources, it was decided to choose one of the control units as an example, which was the APS (air processing system). The literature study showed that the most rewarding method to use was the MFD (Module Function Deployment), as it provides more information about the product and what criteria the company should focus on. It was then decided to use the relevant steps in MFD to analyze the state of the APS as an example of how this method works. / Modularisering är en strategi som används av många företag, för att hjälpa dem att erbjuda sina kunder en mängd olika anpassade produkter på ett effektivt sätt. Detta görs genom anpassning av olika oberoende moduler, som är kopplade med standardiserade gränssnitt som utnyttjas av alla modulvarianterna. Scania, som är ett av de stora företagen som erbjuder modulariserade produkter, har framgångsrikt förbättrat sina modulariseringskoncept under många år och är ett av de mest ikoniska företagen närdet gäller modularisering av bussar, lastbilar och motorer. Men med det ökande behovet av elektronik integrerad i fordonen blir det allt viktigare att modularisera det elektriska systemet. Det finns för närvarande en befintlig, modulär produktarkitektur för det elektriska systemet, och Scania vill veta hur väl modulariserat det är, eftersom det inte finns något enat sätt som anger vad som anses vara den bättre lösningen. För att analysera det elektriska systemets nuvarande tillstånd, måste en systematisk metod förmodularisering användas, vilket skulle hjälpa till att svara på tre viktiga frågor: Är modulerna väldefinierade? Finns det ett sätt att systematiskt jämföra alternativa lösningar? Vilka kriterier är viktigare att fokusera på? Eftersom det inte finns något enhetligt sätt att modularisera har många modulariseringsmetoder skapats, och var och en har optimerats för ett visst ändamål. I projektet jämförs tre olika modulariseringsmetoder och använder sedan en av de metoder som anses vara den föredragna metoden för att hjälpa till att ge svaren som företaget söker när man undersöker modulariteten hos det elektriska systemet. Eftersom det elektriska systemet är väldigt komplext och projektet har begränsat antal resurser beslutades det att välja en av kontrollenheterna som ett exempel, vilket var APS (luftbehandlingssystem). Litteraturstudien visade att den mest givande metoden att använda var MFD (Module FunctionDeployment), eftersom det ger mer information om produkten och vilka kriterier företaget ska fokusera på. Det bestämdes sedan att använda de relevanta stegen i MFD för att analysera APS tillståndet som ett exempel på hur den här metoden fungerar.

Privacy on the Internet has become one of the leading concerns for Internet users. These users are not wrong in their concerns if personally identifiable information is not protected and under their control. To minimize the collection of Internet users' personal information and help solve the problem of online privacy, a number of privacy-enhancing technologies have been developed. These so-called privacy-enhancing technologies still have usability issues in the user interfaces because Internet users do not have the choices required to monitor and control their personal data when released in online repositories. Current research shows a need exists to improve the overall usability of privacy-enhancing technology user interfaces. A properly designed privacy-enhancing technology user interface will give the Internet users confidence they can monitor and control all aspects of their personal data. Specific methods and criteria for assessing the usability of privacy-enhancing technology user interfaces either have not been developed or have not been widely published leading to the complexity of the user interfaces, which negatively affects the privacy and security of Internet users' personal data. This study focused on the development of a conceptual framework, which will provide a sound foundation for use in assessing the user interfaces of Web-based privacy-enhancing technologies for user-controlled e-privacy features. The study investigated the extent to which user testing and heuristic evaluation help identify the lack of user-controlled e-privacy features and usability problems in selected privacy-enhancing technology user interfaces. The outcome of this research was the development of a domain-specific heuristics checklist with criteria for the future evaluation of privacy-enhancing technologies' applications user interfaces. The results of the study show the domain-specific heuristics checklist generated more usability problems and a higher number of severe problems than the general heuristics. This suggests domain-specific heuristics can be used as a discount usability technique, which enforces the concept of usability that the heuristics are easy to use and learn. The domain-specific heuristics checklist should be of interest to privacy and security practitioners involved in the development of privacy-enhancing technologies' user interfaces. This research should supplement the literature on human-computer interaction, personal data protection, and privacy management.

Three studies were conducted to investigate how social media affordances influence individuals’ source credibility perceptions in risk situations. The MAIN model (Sundar, 2008), warranting theory (Walther & Parks, 2002), and signaling theory (Donath, 1999) served as the theoretical framework to examine the effects of bandwagon cues and identity cues embedded in retweets and users’ profile pages for health and risk online information processing. Study One examines whether bandwagon heuristics triggered by retweets would influence individuals’ source credibility judgments. Study Two investigates how bandwagon heuristics interact with different identity heuristics in credibility heuristics on an individual level. Study Three explores bandwagon heuristics at the organizational level. Three post-test only experiments with self-report online surveys were conducted to investigate the hypothesis and research questions. Results indicate that different online heuristic cues impact the judgments of competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness at different levels. Authority strongly influenced source credibility perceptions. A reverse-bandwagon effect was observed in influencing source credibility judgments. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Le formalisme « Problème de Satisfaction de Contraintes » (ou CSP pour Constraint Satisfaction Problem) peut être considéré comme un langage de représentation formelle qui couvre l'ensemble des problèmes dont la modélisation fait intervenir des contraintes. L'intérêt de ce formalisme réside dans l'exploitation de la généricité d'algorithmes de résolution puissants mais également dans la performance d'algorithmes dédiés à des problèmes particuliers.Dans ce travail de thèse, nous étudions la résolution de CSP par des méthodes de recherche arborescente basées sur la notion de « divergence » (une divergence est relative à la contradiction d’une décision proposée par une heuristique de référence). Dans ce cadre, nous proposons de nouveaux mécanismes d'amélioration des méthodes de recherche générales qui exploitent les échecs rencontrés pendant la résolution, en adoptant des heuristiques de pondération des variables et des valeurs. Nous proposons également d'autres techniques spécifiques aux méthodes à base de divergences qui conditionnent l’exploration de l’arbre de recherche développé, notamment la restriction des divergences, les différents modes de comptage ainsi que le positionnement des divergences. Ces propositions sont validées par des expérimentations numériques menées sur des problèmes de satisfaction de contraintes réels et aléatoires. Des comparaisons sont effectuées entre variantes de méthodes à divergences intégrant différentes combinaisons des améliorations et d’autres méthodes connues pour leur performance.Dans une seconde partie, nous étendons nos propositions à un contexte d'optimisation en considérant la résolution de problèmes d'ordonnancement avec contraintes de délais (time lags). Nous traitons l'adaptation d'une méthode de « recherche par montée de divergences » (Climbing Discrepancy Search) pour la résolution de ces problèmes. Nous validons les performances de certaines variantes de cette méthode intégrant les mécanismes proposés dans ce travail sur des problèmes-test de la littérature / The CSP (Constraint Satisfaction Problem) formalism can be considered as a simple example of a formal representation language covering all problems including constraints. The advantage of this formalism consists in the fact that it allows powerful general-purpose algorithms as much as useful specific algorithms.In this PhD thesis, we study several tree search methods for solving CSPs and focus on ones based on the discrepancy concept (a discrepancy is a deviation from the first choice of the heuristic). In this context, we propose improving mechanisms for general methods. These mechanisms take benefits from conflicts and guide the search by weighting the variables and the values. We propose also special mechanisms for methods based on discrepancies as the discrepancies restriction, the discrepancies counting, and the discrepancies positions. All propositions are validated by experiments done on real and random CSPs. We compare variants of methods based on discrepancies integrating several combinations of improvements and other methods known for their efficiency.In a second part, we extend our propositions to an optimisation context considering scheduling problems with time lags. In this purpose, we adapt a discrepancy-based method, Climbing Discrepancy Search, to solve these problems. Efficiency of some improved variants of this method is tested on known benchmarks

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