Eye movement on a web page is determined by the layout of the page presented to the user (Nielsen, 2006; Shrestha et al., 2007, 2008). A typical search engine results page layout suffers from a hierarchical bias with higher fixations on the top and lower fixations on the bottom areas of interest (Granka et al., 2004; Joachims et al., 2005; Dumais et al., 2010; Curtell et al., 2007; Guan et al., 2007). This study compared the usability and eye movement data of participants searching a traditional SERP layout and two alternative layouts, grid and tabular. Results showed that while participants indicated a higher preference for the traditional layout, no differences in success, satisfaction, mental workload, or perceived difficulty were found across the 3 layouts for either informational or navigational tasks. Participants were found to look at the page more times and for longer when completing informational tasks compared to navigational tasks regardless of the layout presented to them. Participants looked at the top portion of the page more than the bottom when presented with the traditional or the tabular layout in both the task conditions. For the informational task condition, the top portion of the page was viewed for longer and for the navigational task condition, the bottom portion of the page was view for longer for both the traditional and the tabular layouts. When presented with the grid layout, participants were found to view the content vertically by column starting on the left column, then to the right: the left column was viewed more than the right column but the right column was viewed for longer than the left column regardless of the task condition. Moreover, it was found that participants fixated on the right column of the grid layout more than twice as much as they fixated on the bottom portion of the traditional layout. Compared to the bottom portion of the tabular layout, participants fixated 50% more on the right column of the grid layout. This, along with its scroll-less interface, shows the advantage of the grid layout over both the traditional and the tabular layouts. In terms of layout preference, participants equally preferred the traditional and the grid layout. It was found that the tabular layout was the easiest for the participants to parse out what element of the search results they wanted to fixate to effectively complete the given task: this meant that participants could fixate on the title and the text snippet portion of the search result and ignore the URL portion while completing informational tasks and in the same manner participants could fixate on the URL and the title and ignore the text snippet more effectively than on the traditional or the grid layouts when completing navigational tasks. This shows the advantage of the tabular layout when the user is interested in a specific type of information. The advantage of the uniqueness of their layouts may have potential with their application in proper contexts. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

This thesis is a study of the properties and relationships between isothermal, harmonic and characteristic coordinate systems. The proof of the existence of isothermal and characteristic coordinates on a manifold which is a graph is given using the Uniformization theorem. Equations of prescribed mean curvature are discussed and the relationship between equations of minimal surface type and mean curvature type are shown. It is also proven that the map from a domain parameterized by characteristic coordinates to the domain parameterized by isothermal coordinates is quasiconformal. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics.

This thesis is embargoed till December 2013 / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders

This dissertation is embargoed till December 2013 / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

This thesis is embargoed till December 2013 / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology

This thesis is embargoed till December 2013 / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational & School Psychology

Thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties of a polymer composite cured at different one-stage and two-stage cure cycles were studied in this dissertation. A commercial carbon-fiber prepreg, Cycom 977-2 UD, was used. This curing-toughened epoxy resin prepreg is formulated for autoclave or press molding. An encapsulated sample rheometer (ESR) was used to obtain its viscoelastic properties, including complex viscosity, gel time, and minimum viscosity time, as well as glass transition temperature (Tg) and pressure window time for onestage and two-stage cure cycles. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was used to obtain the degree of cure (DOC) for one-stage and two-stage cure cycles. The mechanical properties of interest for specimens cured at one-stage cure cycles were short beam shear (SBS) strength, combined loading compression (CLC) strength, CLC modulus, CLC Poisson’s ratio, open-hole compression (OHC) strength, and OHC modulus. The SBS, CLC, and OHC tests were performed at room temperature to obtain the mechanical properties. For the one-stage cure cycles studied, it was observed that the mechanical properties, except SBS strength, did not vary significantly; therefore, no correlation with the viscoelastic properties or the DOC was found for them. Moreover, the failure mode for OHC specimens cured at different one-stage cure cycles was similar. Likewise, the failure mode for CLC specimens cured at different one-stage cure cycles was the same. However, the failure mode for the least-cured SBS specimens was different from that of other SBS specimens. Also, the SBS strength of the least-cured specimens was significantly less than that of other specimens. The complex viscosity of the specimens cured at one-stage cure cycles in the ESR showed a similar drop-off trend for the least-cured specimens. As such, SBS strength showed a good correlation with the complex viscosity. SBS strength showed a weaker correlation with the Tg and DOC for vii the same cure cycles. The Tg had a strong correlation with the DOC for all one-stage cure cycles. No correlation between gel time and other material properties was found. A considerable improvement in SBS strength, final complex viscosity, Tg, and DOC of the least-cured specimens was observed after the dwell time was increased enough to ensure that no further curing occurred. It was also observed that for the two-stage cure cycles, faster heat-up rates and higher first-stage dwell temperatures resulted in faster curing. The DOC for the entire cure cycle was modeled using the Springer-Loos cure kinetics model for one-stage and two-stage cure cycles. The complex viscosity up to the gel time was modeled using the Kenny viscosity model for one-stage and two-stage cure cycles. The modeling results agreed well with the experimental data. The results presented in this dissertation suggest that the ESR can be used as an ex-situ cure-monitoring instrument to mimic autoclave/oven curing and, hence, eliminate the need for multiple measurement instruments. The cure time-temperature data, provided by thermocouples attached to the composite part in the autoclave/oven would be the only input to the rheometer for cure monitoring. The complex viscosity as measured by the ESR was shown to be the best viscoelastic property for monitoring the state of the material during cure for the following reasons: (a) it could be precisely measured throughout the cure and post-cure cycles using the rheometer, (b) it could reveal the important changes in the material state during cure, (c) it could be modeled by sophisticated viscosity models, and (d) it could be correlated to the mechanical properties of the composite material. Utilizing the ESR as the main ex-situ cure-monitoring instrument makes it possible to offer a new approach to curing composites. In this new approach, called Material State Management (MSM), the acceptance of cured composite materials is based on the materials’ viscoelastic properties as measured by the ESR during cure and post-cure monitoring. Moreover, knowledge of the material’s viscoelastic properties during cure can be used to improve the current cure specifications. In the MSM approach, cure process confidence limits can be prescribed based on the viscoelastic properties of the material, thus addressing the shortcomings of the current time-temperature approach to curing. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English

Construction of a mosaic image using a set of low resolution images taken at different zoom settings and at different angles was investigated in this thesis. The proposed reconstruction algorithm uses the zoom based super resolution technique, based on maximum likelihood estimate. A computationally less intensive point matching algorithm was introduced based on a known algorithm. The simulation results show that the implemented algorithm can find point correspondences of images successfully, even they are differently zoomed, that helps for image registration. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2006." / Kansas National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCOR Program, First Award Grant KUCR #NSF32241

This thesis is sequestered till August 2014. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.