An efficient test generation algorithm for behavioral descriptions is discussed. It generates tests for behavioral dataflow descriptions of digital circuits written in VHDL. The algorithm accepts input descriptions containing multiple process statements and concurrent signal assignment statements. The fault model based on previous research includes micro-operation and control faults. The test generation algorithm uses artificial intelligence techniques of goal trees and rule databases and it can make use of human understanding of the device model to generate more efficient tests. An improved timing model helps detect conflicts more quickly and improves the speed performance of the algorithm. The test generation algorithm has been used to generate tests for complex circuits. Results of fault coverage experiments for some of these circuits is presented. / Master of Science

Through the use of regional planning, then, it may be stated that man could be protected against the depopulation or the land and the overcrowding of cities, which has been shown in history to have been the cause or decay or civilization. Through this new freedom and hope for the future, man will be able to produce and develop creatively. / Master of Science

Realistic scenarios were evaluated to determine whether participants would make ethical/ unethical decisions in the face of various dilemmas. 3 factors were systematically varied throughout 32 different scenarios: accountability, deception, and profitability. A personality variable, locus of control was also explored for its relationship to ethical decision making. Subjects were 25 managers from a national car rental company as well as 21 undergraduate students. In a policy-capturing analysis of the ethical reasoning process., we found neither managers nor students used consistent policies in their decision making. Regression analyses revealed that locus of control orientation did not influence number of ethical decisions made. Implications for the study of ethical decision making are discussed. / Master of Science

Ph. D.

The highway related revenues for the Commonwealth of Virginia from three major tax sources; fuel tax, registration fee, and sales and use tax are estimated under three scenarios. Each scenario assumes different economic conditions for the future. The base case expects normal or moderate situations for future economy, where the optimistic case expects lower inflation rates and the pessimistic case assumes higher inflation rates. Two modeling approaches have been used in forecasting the fuel tax revenue. One is based on travel, and the other is based on gasoline demand. The sales and use tax revenue has also been forecasted using two different approaches. One method depends on the demand for vehicle, and the other on the historical amount of revenues generated. Registration fee revenue for five types of vehicles are forecasted using number of registered vehicles and the average registration fees. A comparison of the developed model with other existing state revenue forecasting models are also presented. / Master of Science

The purpose of this research was to determine if levels of field dependence affects a student’s ability to profit from either imposed visuals or instructions to form visual images to aid immediate recall of concrete paired-axociate nouns. Also of interest are possible changes in the relationship between field dependence and visual strategy as students move from upper elementary to high school. It was hypothesized that the field-dependent individual is less able to profit from the use of interactive imagery required in a memory task of this nature due to the inability to impose structure in a non-structured situation. Participants in this study were 197 fourth, seventh and tenth grade students from a moderately affluent, suburban community in southwestern Virginia.The Group Embedded Figures Test was used to determine cognitive style. Within each grade level, an equal number of students classified as field dependent, neutral and field independent were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. The dependent measure of memory was a written test of immediate recall of 24 paired-associate, concrete nouns. The three treatment groups were: Control, who received only instructions to remember the words; Imposed Visual, who viewed line drawings of the two words; and Imagery, who received instructions to form interactive visual images of the two words. Data was analyzed using three-way Analysis ofVariance. All three main effects (grade level, cognitive style and visual strategy) were significant. There was no interaction, however. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether selected environmental variables could be used to differentiate public two-year colleges on the basis of collective-bargaining status and bargaining-agent affiliation. The following null hypotheses were tested: 1. There are no differences between states with collective bargaining in community colleges and those without collective bargaining, as measured by the set of environmental variables selected for this study. 2. There are no differences between states with enabling legislation for collective bargaining in community colleges and those without legislation, as measured by the set of environmental variables selected for this study. 3. There are no differences between community colleges which are unionized and those which are not unionized, as measured by the set of environmental variables selected for this study. 4. There are no differences among community colleges affiliated with, respectively, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and with no union, as measured by the set of environmental variables selected for this study. Hypotheses Three and Four represented the principal analyses. A population of 556 colleges, 239 of which were unionized, was used. Data were collected on 29 environmental variables and analyzed by stepwise discriminant analysis procedures from the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Each principal analysis was performed twice: once with nonunion colleges selected from all states, and once with nonunion colleges restricted to unionized states. Each null hypothesis was rejected at a level of significance of 0.05 of less. Although each analysis produced its own linear combination of discriminating variables, seven variables were common to all principal analyses. The environmental influences represented by these variables were: (a) the level of control over the college, (b) whether the college is part of a system, (c) whether the state has enabling legislation, (d) the proportion of the reference area population living in urban areas, (e) value added by manufacture in the reference area, (f) real per capita income in the state, and (g) union membership as a percent of the state's nonagricultural labor force. / Ed. D.