This dissertation describes a new version of the Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM), which is well suited for problems set in domains with a large number of internal features (e.g. voids, inclusions, etc.), which are practically impossible to solve using the standard FEM. The main idea is to employ the mesh-based handbook functions which are solutions of boundary value problems in domains extracted from vertex patches of the employed mesh and are pasted into the global approximation by the Partition of Unity Method (PUM). It is shown that the p-version of the Generalized FEM using mesh-based handbook functions is capable of achieving very high accuracy. It is also analyzed that the effect of the main factors affecting the accuracy of the method namely: (a) The data and the buffer included in the handbook domains, and (b) The accuracy of the numerical construction of the handbook functions. The robustness of the method is illustrated by several model problems defined in domains with a large number of closely spaced voids and/or inclusions with various shapes, including the heat conduction problem defined on domains with porous media and/or a real composite material.

The purpose of this study was to explore the issues that are typically encountered when using personality instruments for personnel selection. Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was used in the study to predict job performance in a small team-based manufacturing organization. Issues including the utility of the 16PF in this setting, the bandwidth fidelity argument (to use narrow or broad traits), and whether job-specific versus company-wide profiles provide better prediction success were addressed. The usefulness of the organization's current selection process of using the 16PF to generate interview questions was also investigated. Results indicate that the 16PF can be a useful tool for personnel selection in this setting and that the 16PF was able to correctly classify if an applicant was going to be successful over 86% of the time. Evidence for using narrow factors instead of broad factors was also presented, and the benefits of using job specific profiles were discussed. The limitations of this study were addressed, which included conducting this type of research with relatively small sample sizes. Additionally, this study provides suggestions for additional research in the future.

As technology has advanced, corporations, government entities, and institutions of higher education have all begun experimenting with online classes and training. In colleges and universities around the world, everything from individual online classes to entire online degree programs are now offered. While many researchers and educators support this trend, many are concerned with whether online education is truly comparable to traditional, live instruction. The goal of this study was to evaluate an online version of a floral design course in comparison to the traditional version of the class. There were 140 students in the sample, including both the online and traditional classes. All were students at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. During the spring semester of 2003, the experimental group was enrolled in the online version of the course, while the control group was enrolled in the traditional version of the course. Students in both groups were asked to fill out surveys at the beginning and end of the semester to collect background information and to evaluate the course. Their floral designs were evaluated at the beginning and end of the class in order to measure design skill, and grades earned in the class were also collected at the end of the semester for comparison purposes. Statistically significant differences were noted in class grades, with traditional students outperforming the Web-based students in lecture points, lab points, and overall course grades. No statistically significant differences were noted in terms of student course satisfaction. In addition, students in the traditional class outperformed Web-based students in design skills. Besides class differences in performance, variables such as gender and distance course preparedness seemed to affect the outcome of some measures. Overall, females outperformed males in both classes. In the Web-based class, students found to be more prepared for distance learning courses fared better than students who were not as prepared. These results may indicate that certain students may do better in an online course than others, and it may be possible to screen these students in advance in order to maximize success in the online classroom.

The development of the Internet and the technological advancements in multimedia are some of the breakthroughs the 21st century has witnessed. Innovative ways are being sought for the application of technologies such as the Internet and multimedia, for the development of effective learning methods. The potential for using the Internet in combination with multimedia for teaching and learning is great; we are only beginning to understand and use the advantages it can offer. Web-Based safety training is an innovative self-paced learning aid which provides distinctive advantages over the traditional, instructor-led classroom training. This study provides an in-depth evaluation of Web-based safety training against instructor-led classroom training. The Web-based safety training uses multimedia such as power point slides with text, images and video clips. This study is designed as an experiment to determine the relative improvement in knowledge of woodshop safety when Web-based safety training is used against instructor-led classroom training. An opinion survey is conducted to determine participant’s attitude towards the training methods.

We investigate the issues in making a delay-based protocol adaptive to heterogeneous environments. We assess and address the problems a delay-based protocol faces when competing with a loss-based protocol such as TCP. We investigate if noise and variability in delay measurements in environments such as cable and ADSL access networks impact the delay-based protocol behavior significantly. We investigate these issues in the context of incremental deployment of a new delay-based protocol, PERT. We propose design modifications to PERT to compete with the TCP flavor SACK. We show through simulations and real network experiments that, with the proposed changes, PERT experiences lower drop rates than SACK and leads to lower overall drop rates with different mixes of PERT and SACK protocols. Delay-based protocols, being less aggressive, have problems in fully utilizing a highspeed link while operating alone. We show that a single PERT flow can fully utilize a high-speed, high-delay link. We performed several experiments with diverse parameters and simulated numerous scenarios using ns-2. The results from simulations indicate that PERT can adapt to heterogeneous networks and can operate well in an environment of heterogeneous protocols and other miscellaneous scenarios like wireless networks (in the presence of channel errors). We also show that proposed changes retain the desirable properties of PERT such as low loss rates and fairness when operating alone. To see how the protocol performs with the real-world traffic, the protocol has also been implemented in the Linux kernel and tested through experiments on live networks, by measuring the throughput and losses between nodes in our lab at TAMU and different machines at diverse location across the globe on the planet-lab. The results from simulations indicate that PERT can compete with TCP in diverse environments and provides benefits as it is incrementally deployed. Results from real-network experiments strengthen this claim as PERT shows similar behavior with the real-world traffic.

I propose a particle-based technique for simulating incompressible uid that includes adaptive re nement of particle sampling. Each particle represents a mass of uid in its local region. Particles are split into several particles for ner sampling in regions of complex ow. In regions of smooth ow, neghboring particles can be merged. Depth below the surface and Reynolds number are exploited as our criteria for determining whether splitting or merging should take place. For the uid dynamics calculations, I use the hybrid FLIP method, which is computationally simple and e cient. Since the uid is incompressible, each particle has a volume proportional to its mass. A kernel function, whose e ective range is based on this volume, is used for transferring and updating the particle's physical properties such as mass and velocity. In addition, the particle sampling technique is extended to a fully adaptive approach, supporting adaptive splitting and merging of uid particles and adaptive spatial sampling for the reconstruction of the velocity and pressure elds. Particle splitting allows a detailed sampling of uid momentum in regions of complex ow. Particle merging, in regions of smooth ow, reduces memory and computational overhead. An octree structure is used to compute inter-particle interactions and to compute the pressure eld. The octree supporting eld-based calculations is adapted to provide a ne spatial reconstruction where particles are small and a coarse reconstruction where particles are large. This scheme places computational resources where they are most needed, to handle both ow and surface complexity. Thus, incompressibility can be enforced even in very small, but highly turbulent areas. Simultaneously, the level of detail is very high in these areas, allowing the direct support of tiny splashes and small-scale surface tension e ects. This produces a nely detailed and realistic representation of surface motion.

Data of various marine environmental factors collected and integrated by the National Center of Ocean Research (NCOR) were used to search for possible statistics relationship with chlorophyll concentration of the Kuroshio and its adjacent waters off eastern Taiwan. The seaWiFS chlorophyll concentration in natural logarithm were used as dependent variable in General Linear Model¡]GLM¡^analysis, followed by least square means (lsmeans) and cluster analysis. Study area ranged from 21.5¡CN and 121¡CE to 26.5¡CN and 125¡CE eastern Taiwan. Data were first assembled, screened, transformed to natural logarithm and reorganized into monthly averages for individual geographical grid points of 10¡¦X 10¡¦. The result of GLM analysis shows that all factors have significant relationship with chlorophyll concentration, more than 20 regression formulae were found with different combination of variable. Results of standard regression analysis show their order of importance as: latitude, depth, longitude, light, sst, east and west current on upper 20 meter(c20EW), north and south current on upper 20 meter(c20NS) and eddy kinetic energy(EKE), respectively. Results of lsmeans listing by latitude and by longitude showed that area with higher chlorophyll concentration are on high-latitude and low-longitude area but not between and area near east Taiwan tend to have high concentration and decreased eastward. Results of cluster analysis indicated that chlorophyll concentration of western longitude, and northern as well as southern latitude are different from other area.

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Software testing is a vital part of the software development process and is used for the purposes of quality assurance, reliability estimation and verification and validation. However, software testing is extremely costly and time consuming. For instance, prior research indicated that more than 50% of the software development cost is devoted to testing. Due to the increased use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and model driven architecture approach in systems analysis and design, Model-Based Testing has been discussed as a prominent solution for software testing to address the above problems. This study presents a methodology for determining the test path which can then be further used to determine the test case for Model-Based Testing. Three real-world cases are used to test the usability (including the concepts, application, and advantages) of the proposed methodology. With this approach, software errors can be found at the systems analysis and design stage and thereby reduce the cost of software testing and enhance the efficiency of system development.