The ability to understand speech in noise has a profound impact on everyday communication, but cannot be predicted on the basis of puretone thresholds and/or performance on tests of speech in quiet. The aim of this thesis was to develop an adaptive speech in noise test based on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) that would be reliable and valid for speakers of New Zealand English (NZE). The methodology used followed the standard procedures for developing the HINT in a new language. Five hundred sentences of 5-7 syllables were collected from New Zealand children’s books and recorded by a native NZE speaker. Nine normal-hearing native NZE speakers aged 18-50 listened to three sets of 50 sentences at -2, -4 and -7 dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) in order to establish a performance-intensity (PI) function for these sentences. Three groups of 10 participants were scored on their performance on the sentences in 65 dBA speech-weighted noise at varying SNR. After each round of testing with a new group of participants, the SNR of each sentence was adjusted in order to get closer to 70% intelligibility for all sentences. Sentences that were too easy or difficult or did not respond to adjustments were discarded. Once the remaining 240 sentences were of approximately equal intelligibility, 24 phonemically matched lists of 10 sentences were formed and tested on 12 participants using the adaptive HINT software. The overall mean threshold was calculated as -6 dB, s.d=1.1 dB. The lists were combined to form 12 lists of 20 sentences which would become the NZHINT. Time delays meant that the collection of normative data could not be completed.

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For many school psychologists the constraints of time create a need to identify an instrument that can be used to screen students referred for comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations. This study examined the relationship between scores students obtained on the group-administered Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) and those they obtained on the individually administered Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SB:FE). Comparisons were made between the Cognitive Skills Index (CSI) and Sattler's Factor scores from the SB:FE, and between the CSI and the SB:FE Composite score.The subjects were 75 elementary public school students who were enrolled in regular education classes at least 50% of their school day. The students were referred for comprehensive evaluations because of concern about their academic progress. Archival data from tests administered during the 1987-1988 school year were gathered from the students' cumulative school files.Pearson product moment correlations indicate that (in the sample studied) there was a significant positive correlation between the CSI scores and each of the Factor scores and the Composite scores. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to test mean differences. The data indicate that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the CSI and the Verbal Comprehension Factor score, nor between the CSI and Memory Factor. However, the Nonverbal Reasoning/Visualization and Composite means differed significantly from the CSI mean.The results of this study suggest that the CSI can make a worthwhile contribution to referral information. Correlational and mean difference data derived from this study demonstrate the need for caution when interpreting and applying statistical findings. Additional research is needed to clarify further the relationship among group-administered and individually administered intelligence tests, and between the SB:FE and other individually administered intelligence tests. / Department of Educational Psychology

The customary procedures of roundness measurement have been developed in response to particular needs as they have arisen, incorporating approximations as appropriate. Consequently, the direct extension of these procedures to more complex measurements such as “cylindricity” is a questionable exercise. The present work develops a mathematically consistent description of the processes underlying the measurement and analysis of roundness. From this are derived analytical methods appropriate to measurements for which instrumentation is, in some cases, yet to become available. New, highly efficient algorithms for solving the minimum circumscribing, maximum inscribing and minimum zone reference figures are also produced. The method adopted identifies important features of roundness measurement such as eccentricity and radius suppression as translations between co-ordinate frames associated with the workpiece and instrument. Reference figure fitting is expressed formally as a problem in optimisation and the standard methods of Operations Research applied to it. All four standard reference circles are re-examined in this way leading to generalisations of measurement conditions and improved solution methods. Earlier advocacy of the limacon as a reference figure is confirmed and extended. The relationship of circular and limacon references is studied and an eccentricity ratio shown to be a suitable control over the approximations used in practice. The use of “limacon cyndroids” seems to provide a working approximation for the measurement of cylindricity. It is recommended that cylindrical reference figures be fitted by standard techniques of linear programming rather than by special algorithm.

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Performance testing and computer simulations have promising applications in Quality by Design approaches. The objectives of these studies were to investigate the performance of the disintegration test using different setups in addition to comparing the performance of the disintegration test with the rupture test using soft gelatin dietary supplements capsules. Classifying common herbs according to the Biopharmaceutical Classification System approach was also investigated using ADMET predictor TM. The final objective was evaluation the predictive power of computer simulations of in vitro dissolution in different media. The studies concluded that the disintegration test is robust only if firm specifications were applied. However, this test has no advantage over the rupture test. In silico methods can be used to classify herbs according to the BCS. Computer simulations of dissolution in vitro can be also a potential tool to estimate the dissolution behavior. These tools facilitate prediction of quality desired in a product. / Pharmaceutical Sciences