Data collection is one of the important components of public health systems. Decision makers, policy makers and health service providers need accurate and timely data in order to improve the quality of their services. The rapidly growing use of mobile technologies has increased pressure on the demand for mobile-based data collection solutions to bridge the information gaps in the health sector of the developing world. This study reviews existing health data collection systems and the available open source tools that can be used to improve these systems. We further propose a prototype using open source data collection frameworks to test their feasibility in improving the health data collection in the developing world context. We focused on the statistical health data, which are reported to secondary health facilities from primary health facilities. The proposed prototype offers ways of collecting health data through mobile phones and visualizes the collected data in a web application. Finally, we conducted a qualitative study to assess challenges in remote health data collection and evaluate usability and functionality of the proposed prototype. The evaluation of the prototype seems to show the feasibility of mobile technologies, particularly open source technologies, in improving the health data collection and reporting systems for the developing world.

Vi lever i ett datadrivet samhälle där individer och tjänster ständigt loggar, spårar och behandlar information om sina egna eller andras beteenden. Informationsteknologi för datadriven beteendeförändring är centralt inom områdena Personal Informatics, en klass verktyg som hjälper individer att samla och undersöka personligt relevant information i självreflekterande syfte, samt Persuasive Design, som handlar om att känna till de bakomliggande orsakerna om vad som motiverar användare att agera och designa för att uppnå detta. Trots denna gemensamma huvudfokus bedrivs forskning kring områdena delvis separat. På grund av det stora överlappet mellan de två områdena behövs en översikt över vad som anses särskilt viktigt inom både Personal Informatics och Persuasive Design. Därför har vi genomfört en litteraturstudie för att på ett samlat sätt presentera den forskning som finns samt vilka generella lärdomar som belyses av forskare inom området. Resultatet visar mönster och skillnader i den gemensamma basen av litteratur, vilket möjliggör för djupare insikt i området. Vi diskuterar dessa mönster och möjligheter för vidare forskning av de resultat vi fått in samt vilka aspekter som anses särskilt viktiga. / We live in a world where products and services constantly try to affect our behavior. Data driven information technology for achieving behavior change is a central concept in Personal Informatics, a class of tools for assisting individuals in collecting and reviewing personally relevant information in self-reflective purposes, as well as Persuasive Design, which concerns the underlying factors behind motivating users into action and designing to achieve this. Despite these similarities in focus, these areas are partly researched as different fields. Because of the common grounds between the research areas, we believe an overview of the research literature concerning both Personal Informatics and Persuasive Design is important. For this reason we have performed a literature study so that we, in an organized manner, can present the aspects which are studied as well as insights highlighted by scientists in the area. We discuss patterns and possibilities for future research by the results we have collected as well as which aspects are considered especially important.

Rapid urbanization brings an increasing pressure on current waste collection and transportation methods to cope with ever-increasing waste streams in urban environments. Pneumatic Waste Conveyance Systems or PWCS is often seen as an alternative for replacing open-handling of waste in narrow and congested town environments.  This research intends to find out when, where and why such systems would be implemented, and the entirety of stationary PWCS implementation and usage is being investigated, from government, experts, developers, suppliers, system owners/ operators, users to the general public. The findings are reported and analyzed using a variety of methods including but not limiting to a case study for public- housing retrofit-projects in Singapore.  Results affirm that PWCS is useful for waste collection in densely populated urban areas while offering both advantages and disadvantages as noted in this study. That which is remarkable is however spotting more concerns than opportunities and some of these concerns are highlighted and discussed in this paper. Although some parts of the study proved to be challenging and thus inconclusive, strong consensus are found regarding the need for long-term planning and strategic conception to reap the intended benefits that PWCS can offer. / Den fortlöpande urbaniseringen bidrar till att dagens metoder för hämtning och transport av avfallsmängder blir allt mer utmanande och svårhanterlig i förorter och stadsbebyggelse. Sopsugssystem betraktas därför allmänt som en alternativ lösning i urbana miljöer eftersom tekniken tillåter att byta ut rådande öppen sophantering i skrymmande och trafikerade stadsmiljöer.  Denna forskningsinsats avser att få bättre visshet om när, var samt varför sopsugssystem bör användas utifrån ett vidvinkelsperspektiv som försöker belysa och klarlägga helheten kring implementeringen och användandet av dylika system. För att uppnå detta syfte har statliga myndigheter, experter, bostadsbyggare, entreprenörer, ägare/ operatörer för system samt användarna kontaktats och hörsammats. De viktigaste inläggen har därefter rapporterats och analyserats med underlag av ett flertal metodologier som även innefattat en fallstudie för allmännyttiga fastigheter där sopsug installeras i en befintlig stadsarkitektur i Singapore.  Resultaten verifierar att sopsugssystem är användbara för avfallshantering och transport i tätbebyggda stadsområden samt att systemen offererar både fördelar och nackdelar. Det som är anmärkningsvärt är att fler aktsamhetsområden än möjligheter har upptäckts för vilka ett urval av dessa har tagits upp samt diskuterats mer ingående i denna rapport. Trots att delar av studien inbjöd till diverse utmaningar, vilket har föranlett till att resultatbilden inte kan ge klara och tydliga svar, så fanns fortfarande stor samstämmighet beträffande behovet av långsiktig planering och strategisk insiktsfullhet för att säkerställa de åtråvärda nyttor som sopsugssystem i stort kan erbjuda.

The notion of learner autonomy is one of the major theoretical constructs studied in L2 learning. Drawing on Deci and Ryan's (1985) Self-Determination Theory (SDT), I sought to investigate and describe L2 learner autonomy and how an educational intervention influences it. The SDT conceptualizing human motivation for learning as existing on a continuum from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation provides ways of measuring learner autonomy and a rationale for educational interventions for developing it. First, Japanese adult EFL learners' characteristics were described in terms of learner autonomy-related psychological constructs (motivation, affect, and strategy use) according to levels of learner autonomy based on SDT. Second, the adapted VSS yielded significant effects on the participants' vocabulary learning and L2 learning anxiety (for the high and low autonomous motivation groups) and social strategy use (for the low autonomous motivation group). Third, the implementation of the adapted VSS into the adult L2 English classes was considered in terms of the development of linguistic and autonomous forms of learning quoting from the participants' quantitative and qualitative responses for this approach. / CITE/Language Arts

<p> In this thesis we mainly give a characterization of dual frames of Gabor subspace frames. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and the uniqueness of a function h (called window) in the closed linear span of a Gabor subspace frame {EmbTnak}m,n∈Z such that the Bessel collection {EmbTnah}m,n∈Z serves as the dual frame of the original frame {EmbTnag}m,n∈Z. We solve the problem for three cases, first ab = 1, second ab = p ∈ N, and third ab = p/q, gcd(p, q) = 1. In each case, we first find the conditions for upper frame bound (known as Bessel collection). Secondly, we characterize the functions which are orthogonal to {EmbTnag}m,n∈Z in terms of the Zak transform, and then obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for lower frame bound. Here we state obtained conditions for normalized tight frame as a corollary. Finally, using all this information we solve the duality problem.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

GENERAL ABSTRACT The Laurentian Great Lake wetlands are highly productive and complex systems. The net loss of wetlands since European settlement has been dramatic. The remaining coastal wetlands continue to be threatened with obliteration or severe environmental degradation. Therefore, the overall objective of this study was to provide information on the ecology of the remaining coastal wetlands within the lower Great Lakes. This study describes a coastal wetland fish community along the north shore of Lake Erie within Long Point Marsh complex over a 24-h period and catch characteristics of three common fishing techniques. The fish community was sampled at two hour intervals over a 24-h period in June, and used three types of gear to determine possible sampling biases from the different collection techniques. A total of 497 fish encompassing 11 taxa were collected. A 2-h interval, four hours prior to sunset, netted the largest number of taxa (including 3 functional feeding groups: ornmvores, planktivores, and piscivores ), as well as highest abundance and biomass values. Seine netting demonstrated a biased towards sampling the smaller planktivores, while fyke nets were biased towards larger omnivorous fish, and boat electrofishing was biased towards the large piscivores. These results will assist scientists and lake managers to develop standardized fish sampling protocol in order to accurately assess differences in wetland fish communities. Seven coastal wetlands within Lake Erie and Ontario along both the Canadian and United States shorelines were studied to verify predicted relationships from the literature and determine the relative influences of various habitat features on zooplankton community structure. Water quality, aquatic macrophyte, zooplankton, and fish community information were collected from the wetlands between July 4th and August 2nd of 2001. The predicted relationships from the literature concerning water quality and macrophyte species richness were verified by the results of this work. Water quality and macrophyte species richness were the most accurate predictors of wetland zooplankton community structure. Identifying the wetland characteristics that play primary roles in structuring zooplankton communities will also assist lake managers to make informed decisions of how to most effectively improve zooplankton habitat, to foster larger-bodied zooplankton populations, making the habitat more suitable for larger populations of larval and juvenile fish. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

No description available.

A framework that presents a new methodology for design-evaluation of active solar collection systems was developed. Although this methodology emphasizes the importance of detailed modeling for accurate prediction of building performance, it also presents a process through which the detailed modeling results can be reused in a simplified iterative procedure allowing the designer the flexibility of revising and improving the preliminary design. For demonstration purposes, the framework was used to design and evaluate two case studies located in Blacksburg (VA) and Minneapolis (MN). These locations were selected because they both represent a cold weather region; presenting a need for using solar energy for heating and hot water requirements. Moreover, the cold weather in Blacksburg is not as severe as in Minneapolis. Therefore, the two cases will result in different thermal loading structures enabling the framework validation process. The solar collection system supplying both case studies consisted of a low temperature flat plate solar collector and storage system. Thermal performance of the case study located in Blacksburg was conducted using detailed modeling evaluation techniques; while thermal performance of the case study located in Minneapolis was conducted using a simplified modeling evaluation technique. In the first case study, hourly evaluation of the thermal performance of the solar collection system was accomplished using finite element (FE) analysis, while hourly evaluation of the building thermal performance was made using Energy Plus software. The results of the finite element analysis were used to develop a statistical predictive design equation. The energy consumption for the second case study was calculated using the heating design day method and the energy collection for that case study was calculated using the predictive design equation developed from the first case study results. Results showed that, in the case of the building located in Blacksburg, the solar collection system can supply an average of 85% of the building's heating and hot water requirements through out the year. In the case of the building located in Minneapolis, the solar collection system can supply an average of 56% of the building's heating and hot water requirements through out the year given no night time window insulation and using similar insulation thicknesses for both cases. / Ph. D.

This on-road field investigation employed, for the first time, a completely automated, trigger-based data collection system capable of evaluating driver performance in an extended duration real-world commercial motor vehicle environment. The complexities associated with the development of the system, both technological and logistical and the necessary modifications to the plan of research are presented herein This study, performed in conjunction with an on-going three year contract with the Federal Highway Administration, examined the use of self-rating of alertness and temporal separation (minimum time-to-collision, minimum headway, and mean headway) as indicators of driver fatigue. Without exception, the regression analyses for both the self-rating of alertness and temporal separation yielded models low in predictive ability; neither metric was found to be a valid indicator of driver fatigue. Various reasons for the failure of self-rating of fatigue as a valid measure are discussed. Dispersion in the data, likely due to extraneous (non-fatigue related) factors (e.g., other drivers) are credited with reducing the sensitivity of the temporal separation indicators. Overall fatigue levels for all temporal separation incidents (those with a time-to-collision equal to or less than four seconds) were found to be significantly higher than for those randomly triggered incidents. On this basis, it is surmised that temporal separation may be a sensitive indicator for time-to-collision values greater than the 4-second criterion employed in this study. Two unexpected relationships in the data are also discussed. A "wall" effect was found to exist for minimum time-to-collision values at 1.9 seconds. That is, none of the participants who participated in this research effort exhibited following behaviors with less than a 1.9-second time-to-collision criterion. In addition, based upon the data collected for this research, anecdotal evidence suggests that commercial motor vehicle operators do not appear to follow the standard progression of events associated with the onset of fatigue. / Ph. D.

The dramatic increase in the amount of content available in digital forms gives rise to large-scale digital libraries, targeted to support millions of users and terabytes of data. Retrieving information from a system of this scale in an efficient manner is a challenging task due to the size of the collection as well as the index. This research deals with the design and implementation of an inverted index that supports searching for information in a large-scale digital library, implemented atop a massively parallel storage system. Inverted index partitioning is studied in a simulation environment, aiming at a terabyte of text. As a result, a high performance partitioning scheme is proposed. It combines the best qualities of the term and document partitioning approaches in a new Hybrid Partitioning Scheme. Simulation experiments show that this organization provides good performance over a wide range of conditions. Further, the issues of creation and incremental updates of the index are considered. A disk-based inversion algorithm and an extensible inverted index architecture are described, and experimental results with actual collections are presented. Finally, distributed algorithms to create a parallel inverted index partitioned according to the hybrid scheme are proposed, and performance is measured on a portion of the equipment that normally makes up the 100 node Virginia Tech PetaPlex™ system. NOTE: (02/2007) An updated copy of this ETD was added after there were patron reports of problems with the file. / Ph. D.