An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of subjective culture on the usability of computerized systems. The results of the experiment did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that any of the tested cultural dimensions affected the usability of the product. Analysis of the results indicated that the differences in scores could have been attributable to variables other than those tested and controlled for. This indicated a need to build a more detailed conceptual model of usability before empirical research of this nature can be effectively conducted. Consequently, further work needed to be done to identify the variables that influence usability, and the strategies for controlling for these variables under experimental conditions. Through a literature investigation, the validity of some of the proposed variables was established, and some additional variables were identified. The valid variables were then incorporated into a conceptual model of usability for use in future research endeavors. / Information systems / M. Sc.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents the FATKID Finite Automata Toolkit. While a lot of toolkits currently exist which can manipulate and process nite state automata, this toolkit was designed to e ectively and e ciently generate, manipulate and process large numbers of nite automata by distributing the work ow across machines and running the computations in parallel. Other toolkits do not currently provide this functionality. We show that this framework is user-friendly and extremely extensible. Furthermore we show that the system e ectively distributes the work to reduce computation time. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis bespreek ons die FATKID Eindige Automaat Toestel. Al- hoewel daar reeds toestelle bestaan wat automate kan genereer, manupileer, en bewerkings daarmee kan uitvoer, is daar egter geen toestelle wat dit op die skaal kan doen wat ons vereis deur die proses te versprei na 'n aantal nodes nie. Ons vereis 'n stelsel wat mew baie groot aantalle automate werk. Die stelsel moet dan die gewensde prosesse in 'n verspreide omgewing, en in parallel uitvoer om verwerkingstyd te verminder. Ons sal wys dat ons stelsel nie net hierdie doel bereik nie, maar ook dat dit gebruikers-vriendelik is en maklik om uit te brei.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The effective application of the requirements of customer interface design is critical for the success of business-to-consumer electronic commerce ventures. The challenging environment experienced by South African-based business-to-consumer electronic commerce compounds the importance of offering Web sites with high usability and a conventional shopping experience. The first main objective of this study is to determine the requirements of customer interface design in business-to-consumer electronic commerce and is achieved through the review of the relevant literature. The second main objective is to measure the application of customer interface design within South African business-to-consumer electronic commerce. A thematic model (or framework) that represents the thirteen main requirements is developed. The model identifies the themes as transmission speed, page layout and structure, navigation, writing style, multimedia, customer support, customisation and personalisation, community, information, perceptions, trust and security, commerce, and the absence of errors. The model is used to subjectively measure the effective application of customer interface design in a test group of fifty South African-based Web sites. The third main objective is to present the results. Requirements that are effectively applied by most of the Web sites include the themes of transmission speed, page layout and structure, writing style, multimedia, trust and security and the absence of errors. The themes of navigation, customisation and personalisation, information, perceptions and commerce are evident, but applied less effectively. Although some sites do provide the theme of customer support, the overall result shows that it is generally not effectively applied. Community is the least effectively applied of all the requirements presented in the thematic model. Possible reasons for the results are offered, but further research is necessary to determine the underlying reasons for lack of the community theme. The relevance and the value of the study lies in the conceptualisation of customer interface design in South African business-to-consumer electronic commerce and the foundation presented for future research. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die effektiewe toepassing van klant-koppelvlak ontwerp vereistes is noodsaaklik om die sukses van besigheid-tot-verbruiker elektroniese handel ondememings te verseker. Die uitdagende omgewing vir besigheid-tot-verbruiker elektroniese handel in Suid-Afrika beklemtoon die belangrikheid van webtuistes om gebruikersvriendelik te wees en 'n konvensionele inkopie-ervaring te bied. Die studieprojek se eerste doelwit is om die vereistes van klant-koppelvlak ontwerp in besigheid-tot-verbruiker elektroniese handel te bepaal. Hierdie doelwit word bereik deur 'n oorsig van die relevante literatuur. Die tweede doelwit is om die toepassing van klant-koppelvlak ontwerp in SuidAfrikaanse besigheid-tot-verbruiker elektroniese handel te meet. 'n Tematiese model, wat dertien hoofvereistes saamvat, is ontwerp om meting te fasiliteer. Die model identifiseer die temas van deursendingspoed, bladuitleg en -struktuur, navigasie, skryfstyl, multimedia, klantediens, aanpassing en verpersoonliking, gemeenskap, informasie, persepsies, vertroue en sekerheid, handel, en foutloosheid. Die model is gebruik om die effektiewe toepassing van klant-koppelvlak ontwerp ten opsigte van vyftig Suid-Afrikaanse webtuistes te meet. Die derde doelwit is om die resultate te analiseer en te interpreteer. Vereistes wat meestal effektief toegepas word, is die temas van deursendingspoed, bladuitleg en - struktuur, skryfstyl, multimedia, vertroue en sekerheid, en foutloosheid. Die temas van navigasie, aanpassing en verpersoonliking, informasie, persepsies en handel is teenwoordig, maar minder effektief toegepas. Alhoewel sommige webtuistes die tema van klantediens bied, dui die verwerkte resultate daarop dat dit in die algemeen nie effektief toegepas word nie. Van al die vereistes, soos in die tematiese model saamgevat, is gemeenskap die swakste toegepas. Moontlike redes vir die resultaat word aangebied, maar verdere navorsing is nodig om die onderliggende redes vas te stel. Die toepaslikheid en waarde van die navorsing is gelee in die konseptualisering van klant-koppelvlak ontwerp in die Suid-Afrikaanse besigheid-tot-verbruiker elektroniese handel, sowel as die grondslag wat dit vir verdere navorsing bied.

In this study, computer human interaction factors are examined as a possible source of information to aid in the operation and management of local area computer networks. Users' perceptions of computer performance and response time are evaluated in relation to specific modifications in the information organization of a file server in a local area network configuration running in Novell 3.11.

With the exponential increase of Internet usage and the embedding of multimedia content on the Web, some of the Internet resources remain inaccessible for people with disabilities. Particularly, people who are deaf or Hard of Hearing (HOH) experience inaccessible Web sites due to a lack of Closed Captioning (CC) for multimedia content on the Web, no sign language equivalents for the content on the Web, and an insufficient evaluation framework for determining if a Web page is accessible to the Hearing Impaired community. Several opportunities for accessing content needed to be rectified in order for the Hearing Impaired community to access the full benefits of the information repository on the Internet. The research contributions of this thesis are to resolve some of the Web accessibility problems being faced by the Hearing Impaired community. These objectives are to create an automated CC for the Web for multimedia content, to embed sign language equivalent for content available on the Web, to create a framework to evaluate Web accessibility for the Hearing Impaired community, and to create a social network for the Deaf community. To demonstrate the feasibility of fulfilling the above listed objectives several prototypes were implemented. These prototypes have been used in real life scenarios in order to have an objective evaluation of the proposed framework. Further, the implemented prototypes have had an impact to both the academic community and to the industry. / by Simone Pasmore. / Signature page unsigned. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Scene understanding attempts to produce a textual description of visible and latent concepts in an image to describe the real meaning of the scene. Concepts are either objects, events or relations depicted in an image. To recognize concepts, the decision of object detection algorithm must be further enhanced from visual similarity to semantical compatibility. Semantically relevant concepts convey the most consistent meaning of the scene. Object detectors analyze visual properties (e.g., pixel intensities, texture, color gradient) of sub-regions of an image to identify objects. The initially assigned objects names must be further examined to ensure they are compatible with each other and the scene. By enforcing inter-object dependencies (e.g., co-occurrence, spatial and semantical priors) and object to scene constraints as background information, a concept classifier predicts the most semantically consistent set of names for discovered objects. The additional background information that describes concepts is called context. In this dissertation, a framework for building context-based concept detection is presented that uses a combination of multiple contextual relationships to refine the result of underlying feature-based object detectors to produce most semantically compatible concepts. In addition to the lack of ability to capture semantical dependencies, object detectors suffer from high dimensionality of feature space that impairs them. Variances in the image (i.e., quality, pose, articulation, illumination, and occlusion) can also result in low-quality visual features that impact the accuracy of detected concepts. The object detectors used to build context-based framework experiments in this study are based on the state-of-the-art generative and discriminative graphical models. The relationships between model variables can be easily described using graphical models and the dependencies and precisely characterized using these representations. The generative context-based implementations are extensions of Latent Dirichlet Allocation, a leading topic modeling approach that is very effective in reduction of the dimensionality of the data. The discriminative contextbased approach extends Conditional Random Fields which allows efficient and precise construction of model by specifying and including only cases that are related and influence it. The dataset used for training and evaluation is MIT SUN397. The result of the experiments shows overall 15% increase in accuracy in annotation and 31% improvement in semantical saliency of the annotated concepts. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The novel Animalia is the representation of not just human relationships, but also, of human beings’ relationships to other animals. While the story revolves around a family, the narrative as a whole is meant to bring the reader into a microcosmic ecosystem. Essentially, I am examining an ecosystem. An ecosystem, not in the traditional sense, but an ecosystem nonetheless, because the narrative is a study of how varying species of heterotrophs interact with one another for both physical and emotional sustenance. Russell Water’s story is paramount, but the animals’ affect on one another is what lies below the peak and forms the mountain (an unintentional Hemingway reference). “It has often been observed that an object in a story does not derive its density of existence from the number and length of descriptions devoted to it, but from the complexity of its connections with the different characters” (Sartre 1210). Essentially, through complex and multiple connections between the human species and other species within Kingdom Animalia, I am attempting to develop an “ecosystem” that allows for narrative progression and the interconnection of relationships and thematic elements which range from the capitalistic class system to natural selection. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

by Siu Hing Kee Stanley. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-88). / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1-1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1-1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background --- p.1-2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Organization --- p.1-4 / Chapter 2 --- Synthesis of Common Structures in a Microcontroller --- p.2-1 / Chapter 2.1 --- Limitation of Synthesis Tools --- p.2-1 / Chapter 2.2 --- Synthesizable VHDL for Common Structures --- p.2-2 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Counter --- p.2-3 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Set-Reset Latch --- p.2-6 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- D Latch --- p.2-9 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- D Flip-flop --- p.2-12 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Multiplexor --- p.2-13 / Chapter 2.2.6 --- Shift Register --- p.2-15 / Chapter 2.2.7 --- Signal Affected by Two Signal Edges --- p.2-18 / Chapter 2.2.8 --- Combinational Feedback --- p.2-19 / Chapter 2.2.9 --- Short Pulses --- p.2-21 / Chapter 2.2.10 --- Register Transfer Logic --- p.2-22 / Chapter 2.2.11 --- Status Flag --- p.2-26 / Chapter 2.2.12 --- Register Access --- p.2-30 / Chapter 2.2.13 --- Clock Divider --- p.2-34 / Chapter 2.2.14 --- Communication among Processes --- p.2-36 / Chapter 3 --- Synthesis of Components of a Microcontroller --- p.3-1 / Chapter 3.1 --- Timer --- p.3-1 / Chapter 3.2 --- Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) --- p.3-9 / Chapter 3.3 --- Serial Communication Interface (SCI) --- p.3-16 / Chapter 3.4 --- Parallel I/O Port --- p.3-21 / Chapter 3.5 --- 6805CPU --- p.3-22 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- State Counter --- p.3-23 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Instruction Decoding and Execution Unit --- p.3-24 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Interrupt Logic --- p.3-25 / Chapter 3.5.4 --- Instruction Register --- p.3-27 / Chapter 4 --- VHDL Coding and Synthesis --- p.4-1 / Chapter 4.1 --- Controlling Synthesis by VHDL Coding --- p.4-1 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Structure Control --- p.4-2 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Feedback Path Control --- p.4-2 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Control of Use of Storage --- p.4-2 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- Timing Control --- p.4-3 / Chapter 4.2 --- Consequences of the Writing Guidelines --- p.4-5 / Chapter 5 --- Interface Tool for Generation of VHDL for a Microcontroller --- p.5-1 / Chapter 5.1 --- Features --- p.5-1 / Chapter 5.2 --- Construction --- p.5-1 / Chapter 5.3 --- Illustration --- p.5-3 / Chapter 5.4 --- Data Structure --- p.5-5 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Design List --- p.5-6 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Instance Data --- p.5-6 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Instance List --- p.5-8 / Chapter 5.4.4 --- Register Data --- p.5-9 / Chapter 5.4.5 --- Dialogs and Functions --- p.5-10 / Chapter 5.5 --- VHDL Generator for Individual Component --- p.5-11 / Chapter 5.6 --- VHDL Generator for the Whole Microcontroller --- p.5-14 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.6-1 / Bibliography --- p.B-1 / Appendix --- p.A-1

Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Aerospace Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This paper examines the results of a usability study for finding aids from the Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University. In 2005, the Special Collections Research Center reformatted its finding aids so that the container information, typically located on the left-hand side of the document, moved to the right-hand side of the document. The study tested the effectiveness of this change, and determined that traditional finding aids performed better. The analysis of the study’s results is followed by a discussion about Web usability guidelines for online finding aids.