Institutions of higher learning are currently faced with the crisis of finding appropriate criteria for undergraduate admission. This concern has been sparked by the fact that matriculation grades are no longer seen as an accurate reflection of students' academic potential. As tertiary education is becoming more expensive, it is therefore becoming more and more important to select only students who have a realistic chance of being successful in their studies. The main aim of this study is to validate the Situation Specific Evaluation Expert (SPEEX) as a predictor of academic success of first year students of Mechanical Engineering at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. The design used in this study is a non-experimental correlational design. This design was selected because the investigation of this study is aimed at determining the presence or absence of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables without specific reference to causality. The sample of this study consisted of a total of 140 mechanical engineering student at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. This sample was the total number of students from the Mechanical Engineering department who enrolled for mechanical engineering courses for the year 2000. The sample consisted of 94% males and females 6% females. Subject matter experts from industry as well as those involved in the training of Mechanical Engineering at the Vaal Triangle Technikon selected competencies, which were hypothesised to be indicative of a potentially successful student. Based on the selected competencies the assessment battery was compiled with the selected indices being considered as predictor variables. A multiple regression analysis was performed on data in order to establish the predictive validity of the assessment battery. SPEEX 2502 (Language proficiency) consistently showed a positive correlation on the prediction of academic success. / Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Institutions of higher learning are currently faced with the crisis of finding appropriate criteria for undergraduate admission. This concern has been sparked by the fact that matriculation grades are no longer seen as an accurate reflection of students' academic potential. As tertiary education is becoming more expensive, it is therefore becoming more and more important to select only students who have a realistic chance of being successful in their studies. The main aim of this study is to validate the Situation Specific Evaluation Expert (SPEEX) as a predictor of academic success of first year students of Mechanical Engineering at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. The design used in this study is a non-experimental correlational design. This design was selected because the investigation of this study is aimed at determining the presence or absence of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables without specific reference to causality. The sample of this study consisted of a total of 140 mechanical engineering student at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. This sample was the total number of students from the Mechanical Engineering department who enrolled for mechanical engineering courses for the year 2000. The sample consisted of 94% males and females 6% females. Subject matter experts from industry as well as those involved in the training of Mechanical Engineering at the Vaal Triangle Technikon selected competencies, which were hypothesised to be indicative of a potentially successful student. Based on the selected competencies the assessment battery was compiled with the selected indices being considered as predictor variables. A multiple regression analysis was performed on data in order to establish the predictive validity of the assessment battery. SPEEX 2502 (Language proficiency) consistently showed a positive correlation on the prediction of academic success. / Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:38:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo6843_1.pdf: 6495590 bytes, checksum: 70920d84d99aaea507f54372f16579da (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / O presente trabalho apresenta uma análise comparativa dos codificadores utilizados em comunicações digitais, notadamente em chamadas VoIP, para fonemas da Língua Portuguesa. O foco deste trabalho é a análise da capacidade do processamento se adaptar às variações do trato vocal durante a pronúncia de intervalos contendo fonemas em frases, simulando uma resposta em tempo real durante uma conversação. Para tal, foram extraídas as freqüências fundamental e das três primeiras formantes para cada um dos intervalos para um grupo de homens e mulheres de várias faixas etárias. A criação de tais intervalos e extração das freqüências foram efetuadas através do programa Praat, com a utilização de análise perceptual e espectrogramas. Resultados mostram uma sutil diferença no processamento da freqüência das formantes entre homens e mulheres. Observou-se também um fenômeno de correção da freqüência fundamental em intervalos contendo variantes consonantais tanto para ambos os sexos. Foram analisados os codificadores de voz G.722, G.723.1, G.726, G.728, G.729A, iLBC e Speex

Για περιοχές με μικρή ή καθόλου επίγεια τηλεπικοινωνιακή υποδομή η επικοινωνία μέσω δορυφορικής σύνδεσης είναι μία αποτελεσματική και λογικού κόστους λύση. Το DVB-RCS (Digital Video Broadcast - Return Channel System) standard επιτρέπει την αμφίδρομη μετάδοση IP κίνησης πάνω από δορυφορικό κανάλι κάνοντας έτσι δυνατή την VoIP επικοινωνία μέσω δορυφόρου. Η μετάδοση VoIP μέσω μιας δορυφορικής σύνδεσης όμως, μπορεί προκαλέσει ορισμένα προβλήματα τόσο στην ίδια την ποιότητα της VoIP συνδιάλεξης, όσο και σε άλλες υπηρεσίες που ενδεχομένως μοιράζονται με τις VoIP ροές το διαθέσιμο εύρος ζώνης του δορυφορικού καναλιού. Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία επικεντρώνεται στη μελέτη και ανάπτυξη end to end μηχανισμών ελέγχου του ρυθμού κωδικοποίησης και μετάδοσης στα VoIP τερματικά τηλέφωνα ανάλογα με τον βαθμό συμφόρησης του καναλιού, ώστε να αξιοποιείται πιο αποτελεσματικά το διαθέσιμο εύρος ζώνης του καναλιού μετάδοσης (δορυφορικού ή μη), να αντιμετωπίζεται ενδεχόμενη συμφόρησή του, να βελτιώνεται η ποιότητα της συνδιάλεξης, να αυξάνεται ο μέγιστος αριθμός των ταυτόχρονων συνδιαλέξεων για ένα δεδομένο εύρος ζώνης και να εξασφαλίζεται ο δίκαιος διαμοιρασμός του διαθέσιμου εύρους ζώνης ανάμεσα στις TCP και VoIP ροές. Σε αυτά τα πλαίσια αρχικά εξετάζονται οι παράγοντες που επιδρούν στην ποιότητα της VoIP υπηρεσίας, παρουσιάζονται ορισμένοι τρόποι για την αξιολόγηση της και γίνεται μελέτη της χρήσης του TFRC (TCP- Friendly Rate Control) μηχανισμού σε VoIP εφαρμογές. Προτείνεται ένας νέος, πολύ απλός στην υλοποίηση, μηχανισμός ελέγχου μετάδοσης για VoIP ροές, που αντιθέτως με τους υπάρχοντες μηχανισμούς, στοχεύει ταυτόχρονα στην βελτίωση της ποιότητας της συνδιάλεξης και στην φιλικότητα προς τις TCP ροές. Αναλύονται επίσης η δομή, η λειτουργία και ορισμένα θέματα υλοποίησης του VoIP τερματικού συστήματος που αναπτύχθηκε (σε μορφή λογισμικού) στα πλαίσια αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας και που υλοποιεί τον προτεινόμενο μηχανισμό ελέγχου μετάδοσης. / For areas with limited or no terrestrial telecommunication infrastructure, communication via satellite is a cost effective alternative. The DVB-RCS (Digital Video Broadcast - Return Channel System) standard supports the bidirectional transmission of IP data, making VoIP communication via satellite possible. However, the transmission of VoIP through a satellite link raises some serious issues concerning the VoIP quality of service and the plain functionality of other applications that might share the same link with the VoIP flows. This thesis focuses in the study and the development of end to end rate control mechanisms in VoIP terminal phones, which mechanisms can enhance the utilization of the available channel (satellite or not) bandwidth, tackle potential congestion, enhance the conversational quality, increase the maximum number of simultaneous VoIP conversations for a given bandwidth, and ensure that bandwidth is being fairly shared between TCP and VoIP flows. The factors that affect the VoIP quality of service, the ways this quality can be evaluated and the use of TFRC (TCP- Friendly Rate Control) mechanism in VoIP are discussed. A new, easy-to-implement rate control mechanism which, in contrast to the existing mechanisms, targets on both conversational quality enhancement and TCP friendliness is proposed. Finally, some implementation issues, regarding the VoIP terminal software system that it has been developed as part of this thesis and implements the proposed rate control mechanism, are discussed.

The study is a quantitative analysis into the selection process of the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programme at the Tshwane University Technology (TUT). The selection battery used at TUT to select the MBA applicants is comprised of the Situation Specific Evaluation Expert (SpEEx), the English Literacy Skills Assessment (ELSA), and the 15 Factor Questionnaire (15FQ+). This test battery aims to obtain information on an applicant with regards to his/her cognitive potential (verbal and non-verbal ability), language proficiency, and personality. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the selection battery and the academic performance of those students selected into the MBA programme at TUT by examining the differences between the scores of the psychometric selection batteries and the academic performance of those students selected. Upon analyses and interpretation of the data it was determined that there were no statistically significant differences between the scores of the different components of the selection batteries used and the academic performance of those selected. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted