As data become more pervasive and computing power increases, the opportunity for transformative use of data grows. Collecting data from individuals can be useful to the individuals (by providing them with personalized predictions) and the data collectors (by providing them with information about populations). However, collecting these data is costly: answering survey items, collecting sensed data, and computing values of interest deplete finite resources of time, battery, life, money, etc. Dynamically ordering the items to be collected, based on already known information (such as previously collected items or paradata), can lower the costs of data collection by tailoring the information-acquisition process to the individual. This thesis presents a framework for an iterative dynamic item ordering process that trades off item utility with item cost at data collection time. The exact metrics for utility and cost are application-dependent, and this frame- work can apply to many domains. The two main scenarios we consider are (1) data collection for personalized predictions and (2) data collection in surveys. We illustrate applications of this framework to multiple problems ranging from personalized prediction to questionnaire scoring to government survey collection. We compare data quality and acquisition costs of our method to fixed order approaches and show that our adaptive process obtains results of similar quality at lower cost. For the personalized prediction setting, the goal of data collection is to make a prediction based on information provided by a respondent. Since it is possible to give a reasonable prediction with only a subset of items, we are not concerned with collecting all items. Instead, we want to order the items so that the user provides information that most increases the prediction quality, while not being too costly to provide. One metric for quality is prediction certainty, which reflects how likely the true value is to coincide with the estimated value. Depending whether the prediction problem is continuous or discrete, we use prediction interval width or predicted class probability to measure the certainty of a prediction. We illustrate the results of our dynamic item ordering framework on tasks of predicting energy costs, student stress levels, and device identification in photographs and show that our adaptive process achieves equivalent error rates as a fixed order baseline with cost savings up to 45%. For the survey setting, the goal of data collection is often to gather information from a population, and it is desired to have complete responses from all samples. In this case, we want to maximize survey completion (and the quality of necessary imputations), and so we focus on ordering items to engage the respondent and collect hopefully all the information we seek, or at least the information that most characterizes the respondent so imputed values will be accurate. One item utility metric for this problem is information gain to get a “representative” set of answers from the respondent. Furthermore, paradata collected during the survey process can inform models of user engagement that can influence either the utility metric ( e.g., likelihood therespondent will continue answering questions) or the cost metric (e.g., likelihood the respondent will break off from the survey). We illustrate the benefit of dynamic item ordering for surveys on two nationwide surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau: the American Community Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

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The adaptation of existing psychometric data data-collection instruments are is often utilized utilised in cross-cultural research as an alternative to the development of a new data data-collection instrument for a particular population, as the latter may not always be a viable option. However, given the relative novelty of this practice, several authors call for further research in this practicefield. The research assistants’ subjective experience in the administration of culturally tailored psychometric data data-collection instruments in a South African context was identified as a silence gap in the body of literature under review. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experience of research assistants during the administration of culturally tailored psychometric data data-collection instruments in order to broadly inform the practice of psychometric data data-collection instrument adaptation and cross-cultural assessment broadly. This study adhered to the meta-theoretical paradigm of Constructivism, while the methodological paradigm of qualitative research was adopted. Furthermore, a qualitative content analysis research design was employed, with document analysis of two focus focus-group discussions as a data data-collection strategy. The data was analysed by means of a theme analysis of the datea. The study found that the research assistants of the Kgolo Mmogo project experienced difficulty with regard to the language and comprehension of certain items of the culturally tailored psychometric data data-collection instruments. Their experiences also indicated the presence of culturally inappropriate questions, the presence of contradicting responses during the administration of the instruments, as well as the phenomenon of participants providing what they perceived to be the ‘correct’ response. Furthermore, the findings from this study suggested that the research assistants experienced the culturally tailored psychometric data data-collection instrument to have an informative and educational value. It seemed to informthat mothers felt informed about their children’s development, while it also served as a tool for HIV/AIDS education. Finally, the findings of this study suggested that the research assistants sometimes experienced that the assessment to placed an emotional strain on them. Their experience of emotional strain was related to difficulty with regard to role definition, as well as dealing with the often unrealistic expectations of the participants. The research assistants furthermore seemed to experience difficulty in relating to the interview-participant relationship. However, it seemed as if the research assistants’ experience of the participants’ spirituality rendered provided some relieve relief from the emotional strain they experienced during the assessments. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Gurdip Singh / Ad hoc based routing protocol is a reactive protocol to route messages between mobile nodes. It allows nodes to pass messages through their neighbors to nodes which they cannot directly communicate. It uses Route Request (RREQ) and Route Reply (RREP) messages for communication. Wireless sensor networks consist of tiny sensor motes with capabilities of sensing, computation and wireless communication. This project aims to implement data collector application to collect the temperature data from the set of wireless sensor devices located within a building, which will help in gathering the information by finding the route with minimum number of hops to reach destination and generates low message traffic by not encouraging the duplicate message within the network. Using this application, wireless devices can communicate effectively to provide the network information to the user. This system consists of a mobile wireless sensor device called base station which is connected to a PC to communicate and is the root of the network. It also consists of set of client sensor devices which are present in different parts of the building. This project has been evaluated by determining how well the ad hoc protocol performs by measuring the number of messages and time consumed in learning about the complete topology. This application will eventually find the path with minimum number of hops. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is also used to monitor the sensor nodes remotely. This project was developed using nesC and C programming languages with TinyOS and UNIX based operating systems. It has been tested with a sufficient number of motes and evaluated based on the number of messages generated and number of hops traveled for each route request.

A microcomputer based hardware, the Time Interval Board, was designed and the software interface control program was developed. The board measures time intervals between consecutive pulses from a discriminator output. The data is stored in on-board 16K x 16 memory. The microcomputer empties and processes the data when the on-board memory is filled. Data collection continues until the preset collection period is finished or a forced end is initiated. During this period, control is passed between the hardware and the microcomputer via the interface circuit. The designed hardware is IBM PC compatible.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Reliable System Services Corporation (RSS Corp.) presents the feasibility of a low cost, low power, high capacity, robust RF Communications Network using SATCOM and UAV relays. The developed architecture will be suitable for OTH Large Area Test and Training exercises as well as applications for OTH Digital Battlefield scenarios. A specific application is shown for the planned Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) missions, although the developed architecture will have broader applications for any surface combatant requiring an Over-the-Horizon (OTH) data link to distributed players and sensors. A conceptual design for the IP network radio system will implement RSS Corp. developed secure IRIDIUM global full duplex data links and Harris Corp. developed long range high bandwidth 802.11 full duplex data links. The results will be significant, and the developed system could be a cornerstone of the future digital battlefield combat communications architecture. The developed technology will also have significant use in any application for Test, Evaluation and Training Ranges requiring net centric, command/control and wide bandwidth TLM data collection from distributed remote players and sensors.

This thesis is the result of many years of research in the field of manufacturing cost modelling. It particularly focuses on the Data Collection Process for the development of manufacturing cost models in the UK Aerospace Industry with no less important contributions from other areas such as construction, process and software development. The importance of adopting an effective model development process is discussed and a new CMD Methodology is proposed. In this respect, little research has considered the development of the cost model from the point of view of a standard and systematic Methodology, which is essential if an optimum process is to be achieved. A Model Scoping 3 Framework, a functional Data Source and Data Collection Library and a referential Data Type Library are the core elements of the proposed Cost Model Development Methodology. The research identified a number of individual data collection methods, along with a comprehensive list of data sources and data types, from which essential data for developing cost models could be collected. A Taxonomy based upon sets of generic characteristics for describing the individual data collection, data sources and data types was developed. The methods, tools and techniques were identified and categorised according to these generic characteristics. This provides information for selecting between alternative methods, tools and techniques. The need to perform frequent iterations of data collection, data identification, data analysis and decision making tasks until an acceptable cost model has been developed has become an inherent feature of the CMDP. It is expected that the proposed model scoping framework will assist cost engineering and estimating practitioners in: defining the features, activities of the process and the attributes of the product for which a cost model is required, and also in identifying the cost model characteristics before the tasks of data identification and collection start. It offers a structured way of looking at the relationship between data sources, cost model characteristics and data collection tools and procedures. The aim was to make the planning process for developing cost models more effective and efficient and consequently reduce the time to generate cost models.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Desktop Processors (IBM PC, PC-compatible, and Macintosh) have made a major impact on how the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD}, Patuxent River engineering community performs their work in aircraft weapons tests. The personal processors are utilized by the flight-test engineers not only for report preparation, but also for post-flight Engineering Unit (EU) data reduction and analysis. Present day requirements direct a need for improved post-flight data handling than those of the past. These requirements are driven by the need to analyze all the vehicle's parameters prior to the succeeding test flight, and to generate test reports in a more cost effective and timely manner. This paper defines the post-flight data distribution system at NAWCAD, Patuxent River, explains how these tasks were handled in the past, and the development of a real-time data storage designed approach for post-flight data handling. This engineering design is then described explaining how it sets the precedence for NAWCAD, Patuxent River's future plans; and how it provides the flight-test engineer with the test vehicle's EU data immediately available post-flight at his desktop processor.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In wireless sensor networks, source nodes usually send their data packets to a single sink following a specific routing protocol. In this way, unicast delivery becomes a dominant means of data transmission through the network. However, if one of links in the route is out of order, a dynamic routing protocol will rule the search by the routers for a new transmission route and thus, more time will be taken with regards to searching for the route. In this paper, a condition in which an emergency occurs is envisioned. Source nodes must send the emergency information packets to the possible sink as soon as possible. Then the multicast delivery should be taken instead of the unicast delivery so as to save more time.