Software projects face a common problem that time is always not enough, and only a few projects can be finished on schedule and within budget. Projects often need to accelerate the progress to compensate the laggard portion, or to compress schedule to accommodate to the market competition. Opposite to the generality of the problem, researchers didn¡¦t focus on this field, and the quantitative studies had low degree of explanation. To study the issue, this thesis used the qualitative case study to interview four development teams. It is to understand how the compression methods of the teams work, and induce to three dimensions, including management, development process, and team structure. These teams have fundamentally different characters in order to find the most representative cases in limited samples. Finally, this thesis comprehends how the compression methods work, and how the teams use compression methods under which project characters. In addition to comparing the results with prior literature, new compression methods are also discovered. The final results of this research could serve as guidelines to the development teams that face the problem of schedule compression.

With the increasing acceptance of wireless technology, mechanisms to efficiently transmit information to wireless clients are of interest. The environment under consideration is asymmetric in that the information server has much more bandwidth available, as compared to the clients. It has been proposed that in such systems, the server should broadcast the information periodically. Acharya et al. have proposed the use of a periodic dissemination architecture in the context of mobile systems, called Broadcast Disks. Using Broadcast Disks can construct a memory hierarchy in which the highest level contains a few items and broadcasts them with high frequency while subsequent levels contain more and more items and broadcast them with less and less frequency. In this way, one can establish a trade-off between access time for high-priority data and that of the low-priority items, where access time means that the time elapsed from the moment a client submits a query to the receipt of data of his (her) interest on the broadcast channel. A broadcast schedule specifies when and where each data page is to be transmitted. (Note that the smallest logical unit of the broadcast data is called a data page which is made up by data items. The time required to broadcast a data page is referred to as a time slot.) However, based on Acharya et al.'s algorithm, some broadcast slots may be unused, which resulting in the waste of bandwidth and the increase of access time, if it is not possible to evenly divide the number of broadcast pages assigned on a disk into the required number of chunks. (Note that each disk is split into a sequence of smaller units called chunks.) Therefore, in this thesis, we propose two efficient broadcast programs in which no empty slots is wasted. The first one is the binary-number-based approach and the second one is the complementary approach. In the binary-number-based approach, the broadcast frequency must be restricted to a value of 2^n , n¡Ù0, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8..., etc; while in the complementary approach, there is no restriction on the broadcast frequency. From our performance analysis and simulation, we show that both of our proposed two approaches generate a small number of slots in one broadcast cycle (i.e., a shorter broadcast cycle) and shorter mean access time than Acharya et al. algorithm. Moreover, our first approach (the binary-number-based approach) requires a smaller number of slots in one broadcast cycle and shorter mean access time than the second approach (the complementary approach); however, there is some restriction on the chosen frequency in the first approach. Therefore, each of our proposed approaches has its own advantages and applicable domains, and both of them can avoid the wasteness of bandwidth and reduce the waiting time of clients.

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This study intends to explore the effects of two drying schedules with options of conditioning and post-drying storage on the drying speed and quality of western hemlock timbers. Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), the species of interest in this study, is one of British Columbia's most abundant tree species that accounts for 75 to 80% of British Columbia's exports to Japan. It is usually combined with amabilis fir (Abies amabilis) for processing and economical purposes. Hemlock is difficult to dry due to its compression wood, wetpockets and large spread of initial moisture content and basic density. Consequently, it seems practical to dry hemlock by itself. In this study, hemlock was dried using two different schedules with optional conditioning and optional seven day post-drying storage in a covered and climatized space. These eight experimental runs were compared to a control run, which utilized an established drying schedule. To assess the kiln dried timber quality, twist, diamonding, and checks were evaluated using pre-drying and post-drying and/or post-storage measurements. Drying times and casehardening were also considered. Data analysis and evaluation illustrated that conditioning and the harsher schedule reduced casehardening, while the milder schedule developed less twist and diamonding. Even though it appears that the control run developed less shape distortions than the treatment runs, the control run required longer drying times. When using the harsher schedule the kiln was immediately available for the next run, and the dried timber could be stored in a covered area in order to level out the moisture gradients and alleviate casehardening. As a subsequent step, the timber could be planed to reduce twist, diamonding and superficial checks.

Past research has shown that preference for a stimulus is correlated positively with reinforcer efficacy – more preferred stimuli tend to be more potent reinforcers. Researchers have recently examined the use of progressive ratio (PR) reinforcement schedules to evaluate preference. However, research on the concordance between preference and performance under a progressive ratio schedule is limited. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to extend this research. In Experiment 1 I compared the relative reinforcing efficacy of six stimuli obtained under a PR schedule to the mean preference hierarchy obtained through paired-stimulus preference assessments conducted before and after PR reinforcement sessions. In Experiment 2 I evaluated the PR schedule for quantifying the reinforcing value of three stimuli from Experiment 1 (i.e., one high, one medium, and one low preference stimulus). The results of Experiment 1 indicated that items that yielded higher breaking points and responses per minute were also more preferred. However, concordance between percent preference and breaking points and response rates for less preferred items was more variable. The results of Experiment 2 showed that high preference stimuli increased responding over baseline for all participants. However, low preference reinforcers also increased responding over baseline for some participants.

Past research has shown that preference for a stimulus is correlated positively with reinforcer efficacy – more preferred stimuli tend to be more potent reinforcers. Researchers have recently examined the use of progressive ratio (PR) reinforcement schedules to evaluate preference. However, research on the concordance between preference and performance under a progressive ratio schedule is limited. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to extend this research. In Experiment 1 I compared the relative reinforcing efficacy of six stimuli obtained under a PR schedule to the mean preference hierarchy obtained through paired-stimulus preference assessments conducted before and after PR reinforcement sessions. In Experiment 2 I evaluated the PR schedule for quantifying the reinforcing value of three stimuli from Experiment 1 (i.e., one high, one medium, and one low preference stimulus). The results of Experiment 1 indicated that items that yielded higher breaking points and responses per minute were also more preferred. However, concordance between percent preference and breaking points and response rates for less preferred items was more variable. The results of Experiment 2 showed that high preference stimuli increased responding over baseline for all participants. However, low preference reinforcers also increased responding over baseline for some participants.

No description available.

A pocket schedule for the Dukes 1954-55 basketball season.

This study intends to explore the effects of two drying schedules with options of conditioning and post-drying storage on the drying speed and quality of western hemlock timbers. Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), the species of interest in this study, is one of British Columbia's most abundant tree species that accounts for 75 to 80% of British Columbia's exports to Japan. It is usually combined with amabilis fir (Abies amabilis) for processing and economical purposes. Hemlock is difficult to dry due to its compression wood, wetpockets and large spread of initial moisture content and basic density. Consequently, it seems practical to dry hemlock by itself. In this study, hemlock was dried using two different schedules with optional conditioning and optional seven day post-drying storage in a covered and climatized space. These eight experimental runs were compared to a control run, which utilized an established drying schedule. To assess the kiln dried timber quality, twist, diamonding, and checks were evaluated using pre-drying and post-drying and/or post-storage measurements. Drying times and casehardening were also considered. Data analysis and evaluation illustrated that conditioning and the harsher schedule reduced casehardening, while the milder schedule developed less twist and diamonding. Even though it appears that the control run developed less shape distortions than the treatment runs, the control run required longer drying times. When using the harsher schedule the kiln was immediately available for the next run, and the dried timber could be stored in a covered area in order to level out the moisture gradients and alleviate casehardening. As a subsequent step, the timber could be planed to reduce twist, diamonding and superficial checks.

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Département de Neurologie et Neurochirurgie. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2009/09/07). Includes bibliographical references.