<p>  </p> <p>My dissertation seeks ways that data systems can be constructed differently in order to focus on improving outcomes for marginalized and vulnerable populations. The cases I study in my dissertation all represent different stakeholders in and types of engagement with crime, violence, and policing in the United States. The three cases are the FBI's crime data system and especially their newer NIBRS and CDE (National Incident Based Reporting System and Crime Data Explorer, respectively) interfaces, the <em>Washington Post</em>'s Fatal Force police brutality database project, and the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI)'s <em>Our Bodies, Our Stories</em> reports on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis. The three cases scaffold onto one another to create a deeply contextual, well-rounded picture of crime data rhetorics. Each case is unique and distinct, but also overlaps onto the other two cases; the UIHI reports, for instance, are an example of community-focused data activism like Fatal Force, but they also co-opt institutional data systems similar to the FBI's database. Similarly, the Fatal Force database explicitly engages issues of social justice and names a gap in institutional reporting; in so doing, Fatal Force includes community reporting and allows private citizens to submit tips, but it also draws on official institutional data as part of its sources. And as a case of institutional data practices that collect crime data from across the country, the FBI's NIBRS case sets up standards that Fatal Force and the UIHI reports look to work both with and against.</p> <p>I describe the methodology I pilot in this study: unblackboxing. I first put unblackboxing in context with current conversations in science and technology studies, information studies, critical data studies, and rhetoric and technical communication. I emphasize the importance of narratives, whether explicit, implicit, or cultural, to unblackboxing, especially when data is the object of study. Then, I enumerate key principles of unblackboxing and offer a heuristic for adapting unblackboxing to studying data systems. This approach helps researchers meet a system on its own terms and work with it rhetorically rather than trying a one-size-fits-all approach. Finally, I describe how I applied unblackboxing in my dissertation research and adapted my preliminary work on unblackboxing in order to study each system fairly and responsibly.</p> <p>Ultimately, I find that each data system is responsive to unique needs and challenges of that system. Strategies that work to make data easier for users to understand in cases like Fatal Force aren’t options in cases like FBI crime data, where the sheer scale of data means relying on automated data visualization that introduces error and uncertainty. But by keeping ethical principles of user-centered design and data justice in mind, I argue, designers and technical communicators can continue to make strides in using data to communicate ethically and effectively.</p>

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / A system was developed using capabilities from the Range Applications Joint Program Office (RAJPO) GPS tracking system and the ACMI Interface System (ACINTS) to provide tracking data and visual cues to experimenters. The Mobile Advanced Range Data System (ARDS) Control System (MACS) outputs are used to provide research data in support of advanced project studies. Enhanced from a previous system, the MACS expands system capabilities to allow researchers to locate where Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) is available for incorporation into a reference data base. The System Integration Group at Veda Incorporated has been supporting Wright Laboratories in the ground-based tracking and targeting arena since 1989 with the design, development, and integration of four generations of real-time, telemetry-based tracking aids. Commencing in Q3 1995, Veda began developing a mobile, transportable system based on the RAJPO GPS tracking system. The resulting system architecture takes advantage of the front end processor (FEP) used in the three previous generations of interface systems built for Wright Laboratories, thus maximizing hardware and software reuse. The FEP provides a computational interface between the GPS tracking system and the display (operator) system. The end product is a powerful, flexible, fully mobile testbed supporting RDT&E requirements for Wright Laboratories, as well as to other U.S. and foreign research organizations. The system is rapidly reconfigurable to accommodate ground-based tracking systems as well as GPS-based systems, and its capabilities can be extended to include support for mission planning tools, insertion of virtual participants such as DIS entities, and detailed post-mission analysis.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, page: 3556. Adviser: Irwin B. Horwitz. Includes bibliographical references.

The development of high quality software the first time, greatly depends upon the ability to judge the potential quality of the software early in the life cycle. The Software Engineering Research Center design metrics research team at Ball State University has developed a metrics approach for analyzing software designs. Given a design, these metrics highlight stress points and determine overall design quality.The purpose of this study is to analyze multiple software releases of the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) using design metrics. The focus is on examining the transformations of design metrics at each of three releases of AFATDS to determine the relationship of design metrics to the complexity and quality of a maturing system. The software selected as a test case for this research is the Human Interface code from Concept Evaluation Phase releases 2, 3, and 4 of AFATDS. To automate the metric collection process, a metric tool called the Design Metric Analyzer was developed.Further analysis of design metrics data indicated that the standard deviation and mean for the metric was higher for release 2, relatively lower for release 3, and again higher for release 4. Interpreting this means that there was a decrease in complexity and an improvement in the quality of the software from release 2 to release 3 and an increase in complexity in release 4. Dialog with project personnel regarding design metrics confirmed most of these observations. / Department of Computer Science

ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / Telemetry data are usually collected for analysis at some later time and can be monitored to follow the progress of a test. In the case of an Air Data System the signals from the sensors are sent to a computer that calculates the air data parameters for use on multiple LabView-generated displays, as well as to the Data Acquisition System. The readouts on the multiple displays need to be real-time so they are useful to the flight crew. Equations that control the different air data values are determined by what telemetry data are available and the preference of those doing the test planning. These systems need to display the information in a format useful to the flight crew and be reliable.

This thesis presents the calibration processes of the pitot-static system, which is a part of the air data system of a military transport aircraft through flight tests. Tower fly-by method is used for air data system calibration. Altitude error caused by the position of the static port on the aircraft is determined by analyzing the data collected during four sorties with different weight, flap and landing gear configurations. The same data has been used to determine the airspeed measurement error. It has been shown that both the altitude and airspeed errors are within the allowable limits specified by FAR 25. Same method is also used for trailing cone calibration that is used for high altitude test flights for RVSM certification.

Today, ocean modeling is fast developing as a versatile tool for the study of earth’s climate, local marine ecosystems and coastal engineering applications. Though the field of ocean modeling began in the early 1950s along with the development of climate models and primitive computers, even today, the state-of-the-art ocean models have their own limitations. Many issues still remain such as the uncertainity in the parameterisation of essential processes that occur on spatial and temporal scales smaller than that can be resolved in model calculations, atmospheric forcing of the ocean and the boundary and initial conditions. The advent of data assimilation into ocean modeling has heralded a new era in the field of ocean modeling and oceanic sciences. “Data assimilation” is a methodology in which observations are used to improve the forecasting skill of operational meteorological models. The study in the present thesis mainly focuses on obtaining a four dimensional realization (the spatial description coupled with the time evolution) of the oceanic flow that is simultaneously consistent with the observational evidence and with the dynamical equations of motion and to provide initial conditions for predictions of oceanic circulation and tracer distribution. A good implementation of data assimilation can be achieved with the availability of large number of good quality observations of the oceanic fields as both synoptic and in-situ data. With the technology in satellite oceanography and insitu measurements advancing by leaps over the past two decades, good synoptic and insitu observations of oceanic fields have been achieved. The current and expected explosion in remotely sensed and insitu measured oceanographic data is ushering a new age of ocean modeling and data assimilation. The thesis presents results of analysis of the impact of data assimilation in an ocean general circulation model of the North Indian Ocean. In this thesis we have studied the impact of assimilation of temperature and salinity profiles from Argo floats and Sea Surface height anomalies from satellite altimeters in a Sigma-coordinate Indian Ocean model. An ocean data assimilation system based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) for the Indian Ocean is used. This model is implemented, validated and applied in a climatological simulation experiment to study the circulation in the Indian Ocean. The validated model is then used for the implementation of the data assimilation system for the Indian Ocean region. This dissertation presents the qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the model simulations with and without subsurface temperature and salinity profiles and sea surface height anamoly data assimilation for the Indian Ocean region. This is the first ever reported data assimilation studies of the Argo subsurface temperature and salinity profile data with ROMS in the Indian Ocean region.

The purpose of this work was realization and implementation of two applications for the management of Radio Data System (RDS) messages. These applications will be subsequently used in the Czech Radio Ostrava to support two RDS services, namely the Traffic - Announcement Identification and Radiotext. Both applications are secured against unauthorized use by incompetent users through a password - protected access, access rights and encryption of passwords in initialization files. The text of this work is divided into three parts. The first describes the system RDS and services provided by it and implementation of RDS in the Czech Radio Ostrava. The second part deals with the realization of both applications and the last part describes the implementation itself. The work shows all applications windows. Work also includes all the flow charts. The list of all broken down by subroutines is given in the appendix.

La sclérose en plaques (SEP) est une maladie neurologique chronique du jeune adulte affectant environ 100 000 personnes en France. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, les stratégies thérapeutiques ont fortement évolué avec l’apparition de nouvelles molécules dont les premières formes orales. Le parcours de soins dans la SEP implique plusieurs professionnels de santé médicaux (généralistes, neurologues) et paramédicaux (kinésithérapeutes, infirmiers). Actuellement, aucune recommandation sur ces parcours n’a été définie, et peu de données existent sur le recours aux soins des individus ayant une SEP et l’utilisation des traitements spécifiques à la SEP en France. L’utilisation des données du Système National des Données de Santé (SNDS), c’est-à-dire les bases de l'Assurance Maladie, couplée avec les méthodes d’analyse de séquences donne l’opportunité d’étudier ces parcours de soins. L’objectif principal de cette thèse était d’étudier les parcours de soins des personnes ayant une SEP en France, à partir du SNDS, afin de décrire les consommations de soins et de mettre en évidence une typologie de parcours. Les objectifs secondaires étaient d’étudier l’utilisation des traitements de fond de la SEP en France (fréquence et place dans la séquence thérapeutique), et d’étudier la faisabilité de mesurer le niveau de handicap moteur dans ces bases. Au total sur la période de suivi de 2010 à 2015, 112 745 patients ont été identifiés, dont 47,4% avaient reçu au moins une délivrance d’un traitement de fond spécifique à la SEP. Une typologie a été obtenue identifiant cinq groupes cliniquement distincts. En parallèle, un indicateur de quantification du niveau de handicap moteur, pouvant être répliqué dans d’autres études, a été proposé afin d’enrichir les données du SNDS. Au travers des différentes analyses réalisées et des questions méthodologiques soulevées, des éléments clés permettant l’utilisation des méthodes d’analyse de séquences en santé, notamment la multichannel sequence analysis, ont pu être mis en évidence. / Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease starting in young adulthood and affecting about 100,000 persons in France. During the last two decades, therapeutic practices have evolved with the release of new substances, especially oral disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). Care pathways in MS involve both medical (general practitioners, neurologists) and paramedical (physiotherapists and nurses) health care professionals. However, no recommendation on care pathways in MS exists so far in France. Moreover, few data are available on care-seeking of persons with MS (PwMS) and the utilization of DMTs in France. The use of state sequence analysis (SSA) on data issued from the French National Health Data System (SNDS, i.e. databases from the French Health Insurance System) offers the opportunity to study care pathways. The main objective of this PhD thesis was to study the care pathways of PwMS in France using data from SNDS, in order to describe care-seeking and to create a typology of pathways. The secondary objectives were to study MS DMTs utilization in France (frequency and therapeutic sequences), and the feasibility to measure the level of motor disability in SNDS. Over the 2010-2015 study period, 112,745 PwMS were identified. Amongst them, 47.4% had at least one delivery of a MS-specific DMT. A typology was obtained allowing the identification of five clinically distinct groups of patients. In parallel, a parameter quantifying the level of motor disability in SNDS, which could be replicated in other studies, was defined. Thanks to the different analyses and raised methodological questions, key-elements allowing the use of SSA in health field, especially multichannel sequence analysis, were highlighted.

Under the George W. Bush U.S. presidential administration, the federal government pushed for greater accountability among institutions of higher education for educational outcomes. Graduation rate is a key performance indicator of institutional accountability. Previous researchers of student attrition focused primarily on the effects of student level factors on student persistence/withdrawal behavior. Recently, researchers put more focus on the effects of institutional characteristics on graduation rates, but most of these studies were exploratory and based on multiple regression models. No institutional model has existed to synthesize their results within a theoretical framework. Such an institutional model is needed to explain the process of student persistence at the institutional level. The purpose of this study was to develop a model of institutional performance in graduation rate for four-year, public and private not-for-profit, Title IV institutions in the United States. This study validated the institutional model based on the IPEDS dataset using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Further group comparison analyses are conducted by fitting the same SEM model to several subgroup datasets based on grouping variables such as control, geographical region and state. Benchmarking analyses were conducted to demonstrate how administrators and policy-makers can use the institutional model to compare the performance of an institution with its peers and what policy changes can they pursue to improve graduation rates.