Thesis (Ph. D.) -- California Institute of Technology, 2010. / Title from home page (viewed 03/02/2010). Advisor and committee chair names found in the thesis' metadata record in the digital repository. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Bielefeld, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Judith A. Duffield.

<p> The following is a quantitative study of the effects of hybrid course offerings on student sense of belonging and satisfaction at a commuter campus. The study employed the following independent variables: gender, age, race, class standing, GPA (which was self-reported), marital status, number of children, employment status, number of hours worked per week, number of hybrid courses taken, and 2 dependent variables (sense of belonging and satisfaction). The study found no significant difference in sense of belonging and satisfaction among students in either the hybrid or face-to-face modalities. Other findings found that students with children exhibited a negative relationship between number of children and perceived faculty support/comfort as well as a negative relationship was between number of children and perceived classroom comfort in both hybrid and face-to-face modalities. This study also includes recommendations for additional studies to explore possible interventions to increase students sense of belonging and satisfaction.</p>

Triggered by the rapid development of information technology, the global teaching and learning environment is facing a revolutionary change in terms of the modes of communication. Since the advent of the first schools, verbal presentation and written text have been the dominant modes of teaching. However, as information technology becomes increasingly integrated in education—with the development of social network communication acting as a catalyst—students are communicating beyond the text mode to incorporate other visual elements, experiencing ‘multimodal communication’. New modes of communication between teachers and students are emerging to replace the once unique textual mode, both within and beyond school. Audio, pictures, symbols and gestures are widely used in the multimodal communication of meaning. Literacy, which is about ability in reading and writing, has gradually shifted towards the emerging multiliteracies. Given this growing use—supported by information technology—of multimodal communication among students, more research is needed to enhance our understanding of the learning processes involved. The objective of my thesis is to explore what and how students learn through multimodal meaning representation on community issues. The research focused in particular on 2007, a transitional year in the curriculum reform of Hong Kong’s secondary schools. During this time, the global social communication network was well used by youth in a local context, and it was found that students were able to create video artefacts including multimodal meaning representation of issues beyond the subject disciplines included in the curriculum reform. This research involved a multiple-case study of six Grade 10 students creating multimodal meaning representation of community issues in 2007, in preparation for a new core subject, “Liberal Studies”, prior to its implementation in the new Hong Kong senior secondary school curriculum in 2009. The Hong Kong Education Bureau introduced a new school-based assessment in the new curriculum, along with the written examination. It specified that each student must make an enquiry on community issues and submit an Independent Enquiry Study (IES) report, in either written or non-written mode such as a video artefact. By conducting participant observations of and in-depth interviews with the students and teachers involved, and applying multimodal analysis to the student video artefacts, the research found that students had learnt through multimodal meaning representation. The findings have helped to conceptualise a new learning framework beyond traditional literacy learning at school. The results have implications for further understanding of how students learn with multimodal meaning representation, and add value to the curriculum reform by incorporating innovative pedagogy in engaging student learning through creating video artefacts on community issues beyond the traditional subject-based curriculum. It is argued that traditional literacy might not be the only condition for the development of multiliteracies, and that the use of multimodal representation will facilitate the development of multiliteracies. Overall, students will learn about topics related to community issues by creating video artefacts with multimodal meaning representation to explain the issues, and at the same time they will develop important thinking skills related to the 21st century. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Modern imaging modalities can generate three-dimensional datasets with a very high detail level. To transfer all the information to the user in an efficient way there is a need for three-dimensional visualization. In order to enhance the diagnostic capabilities the utilized methods must supply the user with fast renderings that are easy to interpret correctly. It can thus be a challenge to visualize a three-dimensional dataset in a way that allows the user to perceive depth and shapes. A number of stereoscopic solutions are available on the market but it is in many situations more practical and less expensive to use ordinary two-dimensional displays. Incorporation of advanced illumination can, however, improve the perception of depth in a rendering of a volume. Cast shadows provide the user with clues of distances and object hierarchy. Simulating realistic light conditions is, however, complex and it can be difficult to reach interactive frame rates. Approximations and clever implementations are consequently required. This thesis presents efficient methods for calculation of illumination with the objective of providing the user with high spatial and shape perception. Two main types of light conditions, a single point light source and omni-directional illumination, are considered. Global transport of light is efficiently estimated using local piecewise integration which allows a graceful speed up compared to brute force techniques. Ambient light conditions are calculated by integrating the incident light along rays within a local neighborhood around each point in the volume. Furthermore, an approach that allows the user to highlight different tissues, using luminous materials, is also available in this thesis. A multiresolution data structure is employed in all the presented methods in order to support evaluation of illumination for large scale data at interactive frame rates.

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<p> According to Gartner Inc., $3.7 trillion dollars was spent in the United States alone in 2013 on IT services. The continued anticipated growth of United States IT spending will reach as high as $3.9 trillion in 2014, representing an average increase in spending of 4.1% between 2013 and 2014. A significant percentage of those investments were lost to waste and failed projects. The combination of rising costs and losses has driven a considerable amount of research on the impact of successful project management on the value that IT creates within an organization. The results of a recent study confirmed a significant relationship between the success of an IT project and the quality of the IT department&rsquo;s technical efficiencies and processes. Recent studies have also demonstrated a link between enterprise architectural planning and an organizations ability to manage IT investments. This study on IT managers&rsquo; perceptions of the business value of IT and the effectiveness of enterprise architectural planning as moderated by age, gender, and education, used a non-experimental quantitative design and a random sample provided by the SurveyMonkey contribute panel to obtain 109 survey responses. The use of a random sample and the size of the study were intended to allow for the generalizability of the results within the geographic region of the United States. A bootstrapped hierarchical linear regression statistical methodology was employed using SPSS as the data were not normally distributed. Ethical considerations were mediated according to the requirements outlined in the Belmont Report (2014). This study found a statistically significant relationship between IT managers&rsquo; perceptions of the business value of IT and the effectiveness of enterprise architectural planning as moderated by age, gender, and education. The results of the study support existing research on the topic of the perceived business value of IT and enterprise architectural planning.</p>

This work deals with innovative energy efficient fluid power systems for mobile applications. The subjects taken up concern to what extent and how energy losses can be reduced in mobile working hydraulics systems. Various measures are available for increasing energy efficiency in these kinds of systems. Examples include: Flow controlled systems The pump controller is switched from a load sensing toa displacement controlled one. The displacement is controlled in an open loopfashion directly from the operator’s demand signals. This reduces energy consumptionat the same time as dynamic issues that are attached to LS systemscan be avoided. Individual metering valve systems Flexibility is increased by removing the mechanicalcoupling between the meter-in and meter-out orifices in directionalvalves. An overview of this kind of system is given in the thesis. A designproposal that has been implemented is also presented. Initial test results areshown. Patents for this particular system have been applied for. Displacement control Metering losses are reduced by removing the directional valves.One pump is used for each load in such systems. This hardware layout involvesconsiderable changes compared to conventional systems. Displacementcontrolled systems are not studied in this work. In mobile applications, overall efficiency is often poor and losses are substantial. The measures listed above can help improve this significantly in such applications. A flow dividing system can decrease energy consumption by about 10% and an individual metering system by about 20%. Losses in pump controlled systems are difficult to give a figure for; the losses are rather attached to the pumps and motors and not to the system layout. However, the losses for these systems are presumably even lower than for individual metering systems. The main focus in this work is on individual metering systems but questions about which components and so on are also treated. For example, the Valvistor valve concept has been studied as part of this work.