Goals of this study are to set up the frame-work for analyzing residential buildings using the functional scenarios method and to tests the applicability of the method on large scale projects. The metrics for the analysis are based on guidelines for designing spaces that promote healthy aging. In addition, the study was providing an opportunity to developing and refined the method. The result of the analysis determines that the functional scenarios method is applicable to large scale buildings as effectively as smalls scale buildings; design configurations can be extracted from the results of the analysis to inform future designs. The limitations of the analysis are due to the available resources. Opportunities for continued work include 1) developing standard ways of representing the results of the analysis; and 2) developing a systematic approach for extracting design configurations based on the research questions asked.

Much research has been conducted on the topic of the construct-related validity of assessment centers, however a definitive conclusion has yet to be drawn. The central question of this debate is whether assessment centers are measuring the dimensions they are designed to measure. The present study attempted to provide more evidence toward the improvement of construct-related validity. The first hypothesis involved determining whether opportunity to observe and opportunity to behave influenced discriminant and convergent validity. The second hypothesis addressed the debate over evaluation method and examined which method, within-exercise or within-dimension, yielded more favorable internal construct-related validity evidence. The third hypothesis explored the call for exercise scoring in assessment centers and compared the criterion-related validity of exercise versus dimension scores within the same assessment center. Finally, the fourth objective looked at the relationship of the stability of the dimensions with internal construct-related validity, specifically convergent validity evidence. A developmental assessment center used in two applied settings supplied the data. Two administrations of the assessment center were conducted for low to mid-level managers in a state agency (N = 31). Five administrations were conducted in a professional graduate school of public administration that prepares students for leadership and managerial positions in government and public service (N = 108). The seven administrations yielded a total sample size of 139 participants. Analysis of multi-trait-multi-method (MTMM) matrices revealed that, as hypothesized, a lack of opportunity to behave within exercises, operationalized using behavior counts, yielded poor discriminant validity. Assessor ratings of opportunity to observe and behave did not produce hypothesized results. Consistent with the second hypothesis, secondary assessors, who represented the within-dimension evaluation method, provided ratings that demonstrated better construct-related validity evidence than the ratings provided by primary assessors, who represented the within-exercise method. Correlation and regression analyses of the dimension/performance relationships and the exercise/performance relationships revealed neither dimensions nor exercises to be the better predictor of supervisor ratings of performance. Using MTMM, partial support was found for the fourth objective: those dimensions that were more stable across exercises yielded better convergent validity evidence versus those dimensions that were more situationally specific. However the differences were not statistically significant or large. Overall results of this study suggest that there are some areas of design and implementation that can affect the construct-related validity of assessment centers, and researchers should continue to search for ways to improve assessment center construct-related validity, but should also look for ways other than MTMM to assess validity.

Much research has been conducted on the topic of the construct-related validity of assessment centers, however a definitive conclusion has yet to be drawn. The central question of this debate is whether assessment centers are measuring the dimensions they are designed to measure. The present study attempted to provide more evidence toward the improvement of construct-related validity. The first hypothesis involved determining whether opportunity to observe and opportunity to behave influenced discriminant and convergent validity. The second hypothesis addressed the debate over evaluation method and examined which method, within-exercise or within-dimension, yielded more favorable internal construct-related validity evidence. The third hypothesis explored the call for exercise scoring in assessment centers and compared the criterion-related validity of exercise versus dimension scores within the same assessment center. Finally, the fourth objective looked at the relationship of the stability of the dimensions with internal construct-related validity, specifically convergent validity evidence. A developmental assessment center used in two applied settings supplied the data. Two administrations of the assessment center were conducted for low to mid-level managers in a state agency (N = 31). Five administrations were conducted in a professional graduate school of public administration that prepares students for leadership and managerial positions in government and public service (N = 108). The seven administrations yielded a total sample size of 139 participants. Analysis of multi-trait-multi-method (MTMM) matrices revealed that, as hypothesized, a lack of opportunity to behave within exercises, operationalized using behavior counts, yielded poor discriminant validity. Assessor ratings of opportunity to observe and behave did not produce hypothesized results. Consistent with the second hypothesis, secondary assessors, who represented the within-dimension evaluation method, provided ratings that demonstrated better construct-related validity evidence than the ratings provided by primary assessors, who represented the within-exercise method. Correlation and regression analyses of the dimension/performance relationships and the exercise/performance relationships revealed neither dimensions nor exercises to be the better predictor of supervisor ratings of performance. Using MTMM, partial support was found for the fourth objective: those dimensions that were more stable across exercises yielded better convergent validity evidence versus those dimensions that were more situationally specific. However the differences were not statistically significant or large. Overall results of this study suggest that there are some areas of design and implementation that can affect the construct-related validity of assessment centers, and researchers should continue to search for ways to improve assessment center construct-related validity, but should also look for ways other than MTMM to assess validity.

abstract: Hydropower generation is one of the clean renewable energies which has received great attention in the power industry. Hydropower has been the leading source of renewable energy. It provides more than 86% of all electricity generated by renewable sources worldwide. Generally, the life span of a hydropower plant is considered as 30 to 50 years. Power plants over 30 years old usually conduct a feasibility study of rehabilitation on their entire facilities including infrastructure. By age 35, the forced outage rate increases by 10 percentage points compared to the previous year. Much longer outages occur in power plants older than 20 years. Consequently, the forced outage rate increases exponentially due to these longer outages. Although these long forced outages are not frequent, their impact is immense. If reasonable timing of rehabilitation is missed, an abrupt long-term outage could occur and additional unnecessary repairs and inefficiencies would follow. On the contrary, too early replacement might cause the waste of revenue. The hydropower plants of Korea Water Resources Corporation (hereafter K-water) are utilized for this study. Twenty-four K-water generators comprise the population for quantifying the reliability of each equipment. A facility in a hydropower plant is a repairable system because most failures can be fixed without replacing the entire facility. The fault data of each power plant are collected, within which only forced outage faults are considered as raw data for reliability analyses. The mean cumulative repair functions (MCF) of each facility are determined with the failure data tables, using Nelson's graph method. The power law model, a popular model for a repairable system, can also be obtained to represent representative equipment and system availability. The criterion-based analysis of HydroAmp is used to provide more accurate reliability of each power plant. Two case studies are presented to enhance the understanding of the availability of each power plant and represent economic evaluations for modernization. Also, equipment in a hydropower plant is categorized into two groups based on their reliability for determining modernization timing and their suitable replacement periods are obtained using simulation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2011

Usability inspection methods of user interaction designs have gained importance as an alternative to traditional laboratory-based testing methods because of their cost-effectiveness. However, methods like the heuristic evaluation are ad-hoc, lacking a theoretical foundation. Other, more formal approaches like the cognitive walkthrough are tedious to perform and operate at a high-level, making it difficult to sub-classify problems. This research involves the development and formative evaluation of the Usability Problem Inspection tool — a cost-effective, structured, flexible usability inspection tool that uses the User Action Framework as an underlying knowledge base. This tool offers focused inspections guided by a particular task or a combination of tasks. It is also possible to limit the scope of inspection by applying filters or abstracting lower level details. / Master of Science

The diploma thesis comprehensively presents the South Bohemian landscape, its geography, typology, geology, climate, historical specifics and landscape character and other characteristics. The South Bohemian landscape is briefly compared with the landscape of Austria. The main part of the work is the introduction of landscape of Netolicko and the evaluation of the landscape by the Ecovast method. In exercise of the subject "Landscape ecology and landscape care" the author synthesized the results of students and used for comparation of different landscapes by Ecovast method.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / A crescente preocupaÃÃo em relaÃÃo Ãs questÃes ambientais, somada à necessidade de promover o desenvolvimento sustentÃvel, tornou emergente a discussÃo sobre a avaliaÃÃo e a reduÃÃo dos impactos ambientais relacionados Ãs atividades industriais. Muitos dos mÃtodos de avaliaÃÃo de impactos ambientais aplicados atualmente, para diversos tipos de empreendimentos, contam com um grau considerÃvel de subjetividade. Este trabalho tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento de um mÃtodo quantitativo para a avaliaÃÃo de impactos ambientais, tendo em vista a pouca contribuiÃÃo cientÃfica nesta Ãrea de estudos, especialmente no Estado do CearÃ. O mÃtodo desenvolvido admite a aplicaÃÃo de indicadores ambientais, organizados por categorias. Aos indicadores, associam-se funÃÃes matemÃticas que possibilitam a obtenÃÃo de um valor adimensional, denominado de Ãndice de qualidade ambiental. Esses Ãndices sÃo combinados a partir de mÃdias aritmÃticas atà a determinaÃÃo de um Ãnico valor numÃrico, representante da condiÃÃo ambiental da organizaÃÃo. A aplicaÃÃo prÃtica do mÃtodo foi realizada em uma indÃstria do ramo tÃxtil, a partir da escolha de 18 indicadores, agrupados em trÃs categorias: eficiÃncia de recursos, efluentes e emissÃes gasosas. Os resultados obtidos revelam a boa aderÃncia do mÃtodo Ãs variaÃÃes do processo industrial, possibilitando aos gestores ambientais da organizaÃÃo a tomada de decisÃes baseadas em fatos, com simplicidade e significativa reduÃÃo da subjetividade em relaÃÃo à anÃlise dos impactos ambientais considerados. / The increasing concerning about environmental matters, added to the necessity of promoting sustainable development, transformed the discussion about evaluation and reduction of environmental impacts, related to industrial activities, in an emergent issue. Several methods currently applied to evaluate environmental impacts, for various types of enterprises, have considerable subjectivity. The objective of this work is to achieve the development of a quantitative method for the evaluation of environmental impacts; hence there are few scientific studies in this subject, mainly in Ceara State. The method developed allows the application of environmental indicators, divided in category sets. Mathematical functions are associated to these indicators in order to obtain non-dimensional values called environmental quality indexes. These indexes are combined using arithmetical means until the determination of a unique numerical value, which is representative of the organizationâs environmental performance. Practical application of the method was conducted in a textile industry, in which were elected 18 indicators, grouped in three categories: resources efficiency, effluents and gas emissions. Obtained results show good effectiveness of the method concerning to the industrial intrinsic process variations, giving environmental managers the possibility of making fact based decisions, in a simple way and with significant reduction of the subjectivity related to the analysis of the environmental impacts considered.

Computer security visualization has gained much attention in the research community in the past few years. However, the advancement in security visualization research has been hampered by the lack of standardization in visualization design, centralized datasets, and evaluation methods. We propose a new heuristic model for evaluating the complexity of computer security visualizations. This complexity evaluation method is designed to evaluate the efficiency of performing visual search in security visualizations in terms of measuring critical memory capacity load needed to perform such tasks. Our method is based on research in cognitive psychology along with characteristics found in a majority of the security visualizations. The main goal for developing this complexity evaluation method is to guide computer security visualization design and compare different visualization designs. Finally, we compare several well known computer security visualization systems. The proposed method has the potential to be extended to other areas of information visualization.

No description available.

With the development and evolution of technology and aviation safety management, the aviation accident rate of the world has been reducing year by year, and the aviation safety situation appears to be improving. Nevertheless, in the analysis of the causes of aviation accidents of local and foreign civil aircrafts happened in recent years, the proportion of the cause being human factors of pilot is as high as 90%. And the two major accidents happened to the Navy in the past 10 years were also related to the human error of pilot. In other words, human factors are is the greatest threats to aviation safety, and should be taken as the core work of aviation safety management in aviation field. The study refers to the literature about the related human factors of the local and foreign civil aircraft and naval aircraft accidents, and takes the SHELL model as the classification criterion of the course structure. As a result, the study has screened and summarized 7 constructs, including ¡§brief introduction of human factors of aviation accidents,¡¨ ¡§aviation physiology of pilot,¡¨ ¡§aviation psychology of pilot,¡¨ ¡§interaction between pilot and other people,¡¨ ¡§relationship between pilot and equipment,¡¨ ¡§relationship between pilot and software,¡¨ and ¡§relationship betweel pilot and environment.¡¨ Under these 7 constructs, the paper designs 60 training subjects. The research approach of the paper adopts two-stage questionnaire survey. In the first stage, aviation experts screened out 7 constructs with 50 more important subjects. After that, survey is made on the helicopter pilots of the Navy and National Airborne Service Corps. Verbal evaluation function is adopted to analyze different constructs as well as the relative weights and sequence of different courses in these constructs. Furthermore, the study develops for the Navy three courses, namely initial training, specialized training and recurrent training, which are applicable to different training targets. Finally, the study refers to the related literature about human factors of civil aviation, and proposes some improvement strategies for the human factors management of naval pilot in order to ensure success of the training of the study. The study sets a 35-hour initial training course, a 26-hour specialized training course, and a 15-hour recurrent training course. Recurrent training course has to be taken regularly every half year. The skill practices of both specialized training and recurrent training can be implemented by the Line Oriented flight training or by the way of role playing so as to let pilots experience their practice in crew resource management. In addition, the study proposes to the Navy some improvement strategies in the aspects of human factors operation doctrine, organization, training and supervision. These improvement strategies and the training courses of the study can be provided to the Navy as a reference for future use in achieving the goal of great improvement on aviation safety.