Methods for conditional Poisson sampling (CP-sampling) and Sampford sampling are compared and the focus is on the efficiency of the methods. The efficiency is investigated by simulation in different sampling situations. It was of interest to compare methods since new methods for both CP-sampling and Sampford sampling were introduced by Bondesson, Traat & Lundqvist in 2004. The new methods are acceptance rejection methods that use the efficient Pareto sampling method. They are found to be very efficient and useful in all situations. The list sequential methods for both CP-sampling and Sampford sampling are other methods that are found to be efficient, especially if many samples are to be generated.

180 students from the University of Canterbury were randomly assigned to reading and evaluating 4 counterbalanced abstracts under the cover story of a departmental journal submission procedure. This study tested whether the number of authors assigned to a journal submission is an influential factor on the acceptance rate of a submission regardless of the quality of the abstract. Also, it assessed whether the influence of a number of authors on the chance of acceptance interacts with the acceptance rate of the journal. In other words, the study investigated not only the extent to which number of authors influences acceptance regardless of quality, but how much of an influence this has for which kind of journals (in terms of the journal’s acceptance rate). The study also measured how much individual personality variables such as guilt-proneness and tendency to adhere to descriptive norms influences a reviewer’s willingness to accept a journal submission. Results found that number of authors had a significant effect on evaluation. Possible reasons and study limitations were discussed.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-06T17:07:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Wust.pdf: 379454 bytes, checksum: 0de08273cb40c15eab82875af50619e9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aimed to analyze the influence of different models of shoes in tibial acceleration, in a uniaxial accelerometer. Twenty subjects participated in the study, gender female, no history of musculo-skeletal injuries in lower limbs and spine in the last year. In this study also found the strength of soil reaction, through a platform of force under the same conditions of acquisition of tibial accelerometry (with 4 different types of footwear and barefoot). This study aimed at analyzing: peak tibial acceleration, the rate of acceptance of weight and rate of damping in the 5 cases of study, the statistical treatment was descriptive statistics, performed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to verify the normal distribution of data for the comparison between the conditions we used the One-Way ANOVA test for normal distribution of data (parametric test) with post hoc test of Tukey (p <0.05). The results showed that the situation barefoot had higher rates of tibial acceleration than with the use of tennis shoes and salto anabela, tennis shoes showed significant differences between all the other conditions examined. For the rate of acceptance of the weight we found significant differences between the situation barefoot for other situation and variable damping rate, the use of tennis shoes had a greater damping than the other shoes. / O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a influência de diferentes modelos de calçados na aceleração tibial, através de um acelerômetro uniaxial. Participaram do estudo 20 sujeitos, do gênero feminino, sem histórico de lesão músculo-esquelética nos membros inferiores e na coluna vertebral no último ano. Nesse estudo foi verificada também a força de reação do solo, através de uma plataforma de força, nas mesmas condições das aquisições da acelerometria tibial (com 4 diferentes tipos de calçado e descalço). Foram analisadas as variáveis: picos de aceleração tibial, a taxa de aceitação do peso e o índice de amortecimento durante as diferentes situações de estudo. A análise estatística foi composta de estatística descritiva, realizando se o teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov para verificar a distribuição normal dos dados, já para a comparação entre as condições foi utilizado o teste One-Way ANOVA para distribuição normal dos dados (teste paramétrico), seguido do teste de Post Hoc de Tukey, optou-se um valor de p<0,05. Os resultados mostraram que a situação descalça apresentou maiores índices de aceleração tibial em relação ao uso do tênis e do salto anabela, o tênis apresentou, ainda, diferenças significativas entre todas as demais condições analisadas. Para a taxa de aceitação do peso foi encontrado diferenças significativas entre a condição descalça e todos os calçados utilizados, na variável em que se considerou o índice de amortecimento, o uso do tênis apresentou o melhor resultado se comparado com os demais calçados, sendo o calçado que teve um amortecimento maior em relação aos demais calçados.

The New Macroeconometrics may succinctly be described as the application of Bayesian analysis to the class of macroeconomic models called Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models. A prominent local example from this research area is the development and estimation of the RAMSES model, the main macroeconomic model in use at Sveriges Riksbank.   Bayesian estimation of DSGE models is often computationally demanding. In this thesis fast algorithms for Bayesian inference are developed and tested in the context of the state space model framework implied by DSGE models. The algorithms discussed in the thesis deal with evaluation of the DSGE model likelihood function and sampling from the posterior distribution. Block Kalman filter algorithms are suggested for likelihood evaluation in large linearised DSGE models. Parallel particle filter algorithms are presented for likelihood evaluation in nonlinearly approximated DSGE models. Prefetching random walk Metropolis algorithms and adaptive hybrid sampling algorithms are suggested for posterior sampling. The generality of the algorithms, however, suggest that they should be of interest also outside the realm of macroeconometrics.

M. Tech. (Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Computer based assessments have become one of the largest growing sectors in both nonacademic and academic establishments. Successful computer based assessments require security against impersonation and fraud and many researchers have proposed the use of Biometric technologies to overcome this issue. Biometric technologies are defined as a computerised method of authenticating an individual (character) based on behavioural and physiological characteristic features. Basic biometric based computer based assessment systems are prone to security threats in the form of fraud and impersonations. In a bid to combat these security problems, keystroke dynamic technique and facial biometric recognition was introduced into the computer based assessment biometric system so as to enhance the authentication ability of the computer based assessment system. The keystroke dynamic technique was measured using latency and pressure while the facial biometrics was measured using principal component analysis (PCA). Experimental performance was carried out quantitatively using MATLAB for simulation and Excel application package for data analysis. System performance was measured using the following evaluation schemes: False Acceptance Rate (FAR), False Rejection Rate (FRR), Equal Error Rate (EER) and Accuracy (AC), for a comparison between the biometric computer based assessment system with and without the keystroke and face recognition alongside other biometric computer based assessment techniques proposed in the literature. Successful implementation of the proposed technique would improve computer based assessment’s reliability, efficiency and effectiveness and if deployed into the society would improve authentication and security whilst reducing fraud and impersonation in our society.