Cold-formed steel roof truss systems that use complex stiffener patterns in existing hat shape members for both top and bottom chord elements are a growing trend in the North American steel framing industry. When designing cold-formed steel sections, a structural engineer typically tries to improve the local buckling behavior of the cold-formed steel elements. The complex hat shape has proved to limit the negative influence of local buckling, however, distortional buckling can be the controlling mode of failure in the design of chord members with intermediate unbraced lengths. The chord member may be subjected to both bending and compression because of the continuity of the top and bottom chords. These members are not typically braced between panel points in a truss. Current 2001 North American Specifications (NAS 2001) do not provide an explicit check for distortional buckling. This dissertation focuses on the behavior of complex hat shape members commonly used for both the top and bottom chord elements of a cold-formed steel truss. The results of flexural tests of complex hat shape members are described. In addition, stub column tests of nested C-sections used as web members and full scale cold-formed steel roof truss tests are reported. Numerical analyses using finite strip and finite element procedures were developed for the complex hat shape chord member in bending to compare with experimental results. Both elastic buckling and inelastic postbuckling finite element analyses were performed. A parametric study was also conducted to investigate the factors that affect the ultimate strength behavior of a particular complex hat shape. The experimental results and numerical analyses confirmed that modifications to the 2001 North American Specification are necessary to better predict the flexural strength of complex hat shape members, especially those members subjected to distortional buckling. Either finite strip or finite element analysis can be used to better predict the flexural strength of complex hat shape members. Better understanding of the flexural behavior of these complex hat shapes is necessary to obtain efficient, safe design of a truss system. The results of these analyses will be presented in the dissertation. / Ph. D.

Test equating is important to large-scale testing programs because of the following two reasons: strict test security is a key concern for high-stakes tests and fairness of test equating is important for test takers. The question of adequacy of sample size often arises in test equating. However, most recommendations in the existing literature are based on classical test equating. Very few research studies systematically investigated the minimal sample size which leads to reasonably accurate equating results based on item response theory (IRT). The main purpose of this study was to examine the minimal sample size for desired IRT equating accuracy for the common-item nonequivalent groups design under various conditions. Accuracy was determined by examining the relative magnitude of six accuracy statistics. Two IRT equating methods were carried out on simulated tests with combinations of test length, test format, group ability difference, similarity of the form difficulty, and parameter estimation methods for 14 sample sizes using Monte Carlo simulations with 1,000 replications per cell. Observed score equating and true score equating were compared to the criterion equating to obtain the accuracy statistics. The results suggest that different sample size requirements exist for different test lengths, test formats and parameter estimation methods. Additionally, the results show the following: first, the results for true score equating and observed score equating are very similar. Second, the longer test has less accurate equating than the shorter one at the same sample size level and as the sample size decreases, the gap is greater. Third, concurrent parameter estimation method produced less equating error than separate estimation at the same sample size level and as the sample size reduces, the difference increases. Fourth, the cases with different group ability have larger and less stable error comparing to the base case and the cases with different test difficulty, especially when using separate parameter estimation method with sample size less than 750. Last, the mixed formatted test is more accurate than the single formatted one at the same sample size level. / Ph. D.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / Flight and weapons test ranges typically include multiple Telemetry Sites (TM Sites) that receive telemetry from platforms being flown on the range. Received telemetry is processed and forwarded by them to a Range Control Center (RCC) which is responsible for flight safety, and for delivering captured best source telemetry to those responsible for the platform being flown. When range equipment or operations are impaired in their ability to receive telemetry or process it correctly, expensive and/or one-of-a-kind platforms may have to be destroyed in flight to maintain safety margins, resulting in substantial monetary loss, valuable data loss, schedule disruption and potential safety concerns. Less severe telemetry disruptions can also result in missing or garbled telemetry data, negatively impacting platform test, analysis and design modification cycles. This paper provides a high level overview of a physics-compliant Range Test System (RTS) built upon Radio Frequency (RF) Channel Simulator technology. The system is useful in verifying range operation with most range equipment configured to function as in an actual mission. The system generates RF signals with appropriate RF link effects associated with range and range rate between the flight platform and multiple telemetry tracking stations. It also emulates flight and RF characteristics of the platform, to include signal parameters, antenna modeling, body shielding and accurate flight parameters. The system is useful for hardware, software, firmware and process testing, regression testing, and fault detection test, as well as range customer assurance, and range personnel training against nominal and worst-case conditions.

This study examined the utility of the Trail Making Test Quotient (Trails B/ Trails A) in assessing executive functioning relative to that of common tests of executive function such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Category Test, and the Stroop Test. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship of the Trail Making Test Quotient (Trails B/ Trails A) with other common tests of executive functioning (i.e., Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop, Category Test) to determine whether these tests are measuring similar domains of functioning or whether Trail Making Test Quotient (Trails B/ Trails A) offers a more pure measure of executive functioning over and beyond that of Trail Making Test B alone or the difference score, Trail Making Test (Trails B- Trails A). A series of partial correlations were conducted involving the Trail Making Test scores (Quotient, Difference, and B [Raw]), and the scores of the executive functioning measures (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Category Test, and Stroop), controlling for age, education, and gender. Trails Quotient, Trails B Raw, and Trails Difference were found to significantly negatively correlate with WCST Total # of Categories. Only Trails B Raw and Trails Difference were found to significantly positively correlate with WCST Perseverative Responses and Category Error. None of the Trail Making Test measures used in this study were found to significantly correlate Stroop Interference. Correlation coefficients were compared to determine the strength of Trails Quotient's relationship with the aforementioned executive functioning measures relative to that of Trails Difference and Trails B Raw. Contrary to the hypotheses of the current study, the Trails Quotient demonstrated a significantly weaker correlation with WCST Total # of Categories, WCST Perseverative Responses, and Category Error than that of Trails Difference and Trails B Raw. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the correlation coefficients of Trails Quotient, Trails Difference, and Trails B Raw with Stroop Interference. However, upon further investigation using exploratory factor analyses, it was discovered that Trails Quotient may have represented a particular component of executive functioning more so than the Trails Difference and Trails B Raw. The results suggest that Trails Quotient offers a unique estimate of executive skill specific to cognitive organization, whereas Trails B Raw and Trails Difference represent multiple executive domains including regulatory and organizational abilities. Clinical practice will benefit from the current study's findings in that assessment of complex executive functioning will be more precise. Future research is needed to determine the utility of the Trails Quotient in identifying specific types and locations of brain injury. Assessment of specific impaired frontal skills common to degenerative dementias and traumatic brain injury may be possible with the use of Trails Quotient contingent upon further research. Future research into the domains of executive functioning and the Trail Making Test should focus on specific skills within regulatory and organizational components, and the development of normative data for Trails Quotient.

In this thesis we investigate the use of pairwise testing for PLC embedded software. We compare these automatically generated tests with tests created manually by industrial engineers. The tests were evaluated in terms of fault detection, code coverage and cost. In addition, we compared pairwise testing with randomly generated tests of the same size as pairwise tests. In order to automatically create test suites for PLC software a previously created tool called Combinatorial Test Tool (CTT) was extended to support pairwise testing using the IPOG algorithm. Once test suites were created using CTT they were executed on real industrial programs. The fault detection was measured using mutation analysis. The results of this thesis showed that manual tests achieved better fault detection (8% better mutation score in average) than tests generated using pairwise testing. Even if pairwise testing performed worse in terms of fault detection than manual testing, it achieved better fault detection in average than random tests of the same size. In addition, manual tests achieved in average 97.29% code coverage compared to 93.95% for pairwise testing, and 84.79% for random testing. By looking closely on all tests, manual testing performed equally good as pairwise in terms of achieved code coverage. Finally, the number of tests for manual testing was lower (12.98 tests in average) compared to pairwise and random testing (21.20 test in average). Interestingly enough, for the majority of the programs pairwise testing resulted in fewer tests than manual testing.

The problem of this study was to isolate General Aptitude Test Battery patterns for persons who have succeeded in certain major fields of study at North Texas State University, Denton, Texas. In addition to the basic problem stated above, an effort was made to (1) determine the significance of the relationships between GATB scores and grade-point averages for all undergraduate courses taken; (2) determine the relationships between GATB scores and grade-point averages for all undergraduate courses in the major field of study, and (3) conduct a survey of all subjects selected for this study to determine their past, present and expected future fields of occupational endeavor since graduation from college and the relationship between such employment and the individual's major field of study in college.

Eighty-eight (N = 88) non-brain-injured adults were tested with one of two versions of the Booklet Category Test (BCT). Forty-four (N = 44) individuals were tested with the standard version of the BCT, and forty-four (N = 44) were tested with a revised BCT in which between-subtest cueing was removed, called the Noncued Category Test (NCT). The results of this study indicate that removal of cueing instructions changes the Category test significantly. Subjects administered the NCT scored significantly more errors than those who were administered the standard Category test. While BCT scores correlated significantly with nonverbal intelligence scores, NCT scores did not. However, the difference in these correlations was not significant, indicating that the intelligence aspect measured in the two versions is not different. Neither the BCT nor the NCT correlated significantly with the Wisconsin Card Sort, Word Fluency, Stroop, or Trail Making Test. It is recommended that the NCT be administered to circumscribed clinical populations in order to best utilize present findings.

Two procedures for detection of differential item functioning (DIF) for polytomous items were generalized to detection of differential testlet functioning (DTLF). The methods compared were the logistic discriminant function analysis procedure for uniform and non-uniform DTLF (LDFA-U and LDFA-N), and the Mantel score test procedure. Further analysis included comparison of results of DTLF analysis using the Mantel procedure with DIF analysis of individual testlet items using the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure. Over 600 chi-squares were analyzed and compared for rejection of null hypotheses. Samples of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 were drawn by gender subgroups from the NELS:88 data set, which contains demographic and test data from over 25,000 eighth graders. Three types of testlets (totalling 29) from the NELS:88 test were analyzed for DTLF. The first type, the common passage testlet, followed the conventional testlet definition: items grouped together by a common reading passage, figure, or graph. The other two types were based upon common content and common process. as outlined in the NELS test specification.

EVALUATION OF PARAGLIDING THEORY TEST ITEMS FOR PILOT LICENSE APPLICANTS Objectives: The aim of this work is to evaluate and optimize a set of paragliding the theoretical items appropriate for testing pilot license applicants of LAA ČR. Methods: This aim is realized by means of the theory of testing. Basic methods of testing form the background research of this work. The items were de- signed as multiple-choice, to select one correct answer. These items were assigned to the applicants for pilot licenses and were evaluated by the apparatus of testing. Microsoft Excel 2003 was used for collecting data and results evaluation. The computation according to the formulas in the theoretical part was performed in Matlab 2007b. Based on this analysis, the results were presented and optimization of these items was proposed. Results: Three hypotheses were examined in this work. The first dealt with a rela- tion between evaluated difficulty of test items and their points value, which was assigned by the LAA ČR. The second hypothesis concerned the number of used distractors. The third hypothesis was focused on the sensitivity of the items. The evaluated difficulty of test items matched items point value in 26 % of the number of items. 92 % of the alterna- tives were used and sufficient sensitivity had 78 % of...

ANOTATION Diploma thesis name: Team roles in the youth team at the FK Motorlet Praha, s.r.o. football club. . Objectives: First goal of the thesis is to find within the youth team at the FK Motorlet Praha, s.r.o. football club particular team roles and assess their importance for the team and find out which role holds each player. Second goal is to examine common relations between particular team members and on the basis of such an examination to find out if there is any way how to increase and improve the efficiency of the team's cooperation. Method: Structured non-participant observation was used to observe the team under examination. All team members were asked to answer questions from the Belbin test. Relations between team members were detected by sociometric test. By using a non-standardised interview with head coach, results of the previous observation and interview were used. Results: Observation results indicate how particular team members behave in certain situations. Interview results show how team members assess themselves while fulfiling certain tasks. Finally sociometric test result indicates common relations between particular members of the team under review. Key words: Team, team role, team-building, Belbin test, sociometric test.