Book reviews for: Foster, Morris W. Being Comanche: A Social History of an American Indian Community. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991. xvi + 230 pp. including references, bibliography, and index. $29.95 cloth, $14.95 paper. Nugent, Daniel. Spent Cartridges of Revolution: An Anthropological History of Namiquipa, Chihuahua. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. xvi + 225 pp. including references, bibliography, and index. $39.95 cloth, $15.95 paper.

This thesis explores the novels of Rose Macaulay from the early works onward.

M.A. (Communication Studies) / The purpose of this study is to investigate the relatively undeveloped field of art journalism in South Africa through in depth research focusing on one aspect within this field namely the art review. In researching this topic attention was initially given to the entertainment sections of popular publications in general in order to determine which sub sections occur in these entertainment sections} as well as the amount of space given to each sub section. Hereby a rich field of future research in art journalism has been established. The focus was then moved to the art review as a critical evaluative report of the arts. Although not much space is generally given to the art review in the entertainment section, it is still an indispensable part of this section of art journalism. A theoretical study has been conducted on the nature, function and requirements of the art review as (1) a report on the arts, (2) as a component of journalism and therefore subject to the general principles of the functioning of the press, (3) as a message subject to semantic and semiotic processes within the communications model...

The first dendrochronolcgical investigation in the USSR was carried out at the end of the past century. Systematic study of tree rings for the purpose of dating different events and reconstruction of natural conditions began in 1950-1960's. Tree-ring analysis is most intensively used in the studies of forest ecosystem dynamics, timing and frequency assessment of catastrophic phenomena, reconstruction of radiocarbon content in the Earth atmosphere, and dating of historical wood. Much attention is given to the development of long-term prognoses of tree growth and forest environments.

With the advent of technology in recent years, people depend more on online reviews to purchase a product. It is hard to determine whether the product is good or bad from hundreds of mixed reviews. Also, it is very time-consuming to read many reviews. So, opinion mining of reviews is necessary. The main aim of this project is to convert the reviews of a product into a rating and to evaluate the ratings using machine learning algorithms such as Naïve Bayes and Support Vector Machine. In the process of converting the reviews to a rating, score words are created using SentiWordNet and transformed into seven categories from highly positive to highly negative.

Existing software engineering tools have proved useful in automating some aspects of the code review process, from uncovering defects to refactoring code. However, given that software teams still spend large amounts of time performing code reviews despite the use of such tools, much more research remains to be carried out in this area. This dissertation present two major contributions to this field. First, we perform a text classification experiment over thirty thousand GitHub review comments to understand what code reviewers typically discuss in reviews. Next, in an attempt to offer an innovative, data-driven approach to automating code reviews, we leverage probabilistic models of source code and graph embedding techniques to perform human-like code inspections. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is able to emulate human-like code inspection behaviour in code reviews with a macro f1-score of 62%, representing an impressive contribution towards the relatively unexplored research domain of automated code reviewing tools. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

An increased demand by consumers for more prescription drug information has resulted in many consumer-oriented books on the subject. Fourteen such books were identified and assessed for readability, completeness, and accuracy. Ten drugs were randomly selected for review from among the 225 most frequently prescribed brand name and generic drugs for 1980. The Caylor formula was selected to evaluate readability. The thirteen points from ASHP's "Statement on Pharmacist-Conducted Patient Counseling" served as the basis by which completeness was measured. The United States Pharmacopeia Dispensing Information (USP DI) served as the standard professional reference for counseling patients about their medicines. It was used to test the completeness and accuracy of each book. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were selected for the readability and completeness sections. Readability means ranged from ninth grade to college level. The intrabook readability range width ranged from less than one grade level to over four grade levels. Completeness ranged from less than 30% to over 75% of the information provided by the USP DI. All test books achieved a minimum accepatble level of accuracy relative to the USP DI. Finally, the books were rated and ranked by various factors related to their readability and completeness.

Consumers rely on sources of information to learn about products and make informed purchasing decisions. In fact, one of the first factors consumer consider when evaluating product information, is the source of that information. Yet despite the importance of the source, research on this topic is sporadic, leaving my unanswered questions. This dissertation advances our understanding of how three different sources of information influence consumers' perceptions and decision making. In the first study, we examine two sources (consumer originated and third party) to determine which one dominates in a persuasion episode. We find consumers overwhelmingly prefer consumer originated versus third party sources because they believe fellow consumers convey information that is diagnostic of future product experiences. In our second study, we show how a subtle firm-dominated characteristic, firm size, influences manufacturing assumptions and purchase behavior. We find consumers prefer small to large firms for unique products, because they assume small firms have a high degree of human intervention in the manufacturing process. / Doctor of Philosophy / Consumers rely on sources of information to learn about products and make informed purchasing decisions. In fact, one of the first factors consumer consider when evaluating product information, is the source of that information. Yet despite the importance of the source, research on this topic is sporadic, leaving my unanswered questions. This dissertation advances our understanding of how three different sources of information influence consumers' perceptions and decision making. In the first study, we examine two sources (consumer originated and third party) to determine which one dominates in a persuasion episode. We find consumers overwhelmingly prefer consumer originated versus third party sources because they believe fellow consumers convey information that is diagnostic of future product experiences. In our second study, we show how a subtle firm-dominated characteristic, firm size, influences manufacturing assumptions and purchase behavior. We find consumers prefer small to large firms for unique products, because they assume small firms have a high degree of human intervention in the manufacturing process.

This thesis consisted of three major components: 1. A sample of randomized controlled trials of herbal medicines was collected and assessed with a recently developed extension of the CONSORT statement for herbal medicine trials. 2. A methodological review of proposed methods of assessing clinical heterogeneity in meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, 3. The application of permutation based resampling in meta-regression of multiple covariates. An analysis of 406 RCTs of herbal medicine interventions revealed that these trials are regularly under reporting important aspects of the intervention. Next, the second project showed that there are many resources providing suggestions for investigating clinical heterogeneity in systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials and though there is minimal consensus some recommendations are common across sources. Finally, the third project found that permutation tests result in more conservative, larger, p-values potentially reducing the rate of false positive findings when exploring multiple covariates.

This thesis consisted of three major components: 1. A sample of randomized controlled trials of herbal medicines was collected and assessed with a recently developed extension of the CONSORT statement for herbal medicine trials. 2. A methodological review of proposed methods of assessing clinical heterogeneity in meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, 3. The application of permutation based resampling in meta-regression of multiple covariates. An analysis of 406 RCTs of herbal medicine interventions revealed that these trials are regularly under reporting important aspects of the intervention. Next, the second project showed that there are many resources providing suggestions for investigating clinical heterogeneity in systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials and though there is minimal consensus some recommendations are common across sources. Finally, the third project found that permutation tests result in more conservative, larger, p-values potentially reducing the rate of false positive findings when exploring multiple covariates.