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Background: Providing examinee performance data is a common procedural modification in modified-Angoff standard setting exercises. Results of research examining the impact of the practice are mixed, and despite the frequency with which this procedural modification is done, the overall impact on the outcomes is not well understood. This research presents a large-scale evaluation of the impact of providing performance data in the context of operational standard setting exercises for a medical licensing examination program. Methods: Data from a total of 18 independent standard setting panels across three different examinations were analyzed to evaluate whether and how the provision of performance information impacted the resulting cut scores. Results: Significant cut-score changes were found between initial and final judgments for all panels. A decrease in standard deviation between initial and final judgments for all panels was indicative of the convergence of judgments following the provision of data, and a lack of systematic changes in final cut scores suggested that judges were not simply changing their content-based judgments to align with the normative data. Both findings provide important procedural validity evidence for the standard setting process. Implications: The current data set (replications of the procedure within a single cycle, across cycles for an individual examination, and across multiple examinations) allowed for the most comprehensive evaluation of this topic that has been described to date and provides valuable insight into an issue that is relevant to many testing contexts. / Educational Psychology

From the case studies presented, one could conclude that for large values of n the standard deviation of r, the usual estimator of the correlation coefficient, and its transform z are only negligibly affected by variation in skewness or variation in kurtosis, the effect being slightly greater for variation in kurtosis. When the variations are in both skewness and kurtosis, the standard deviation of r and of Z are more affected by non-normality, a few significantly so. In small samples (n=10, n=5) the standard deviations of r and,z are quite visibly larger for variations in skewness and variations in kurtosis. The effect is greater for the simultaneous variation of the two. However, all of the values fall within a 95% confidence interval. It would appear then that the increase in the standard deviation of rand z is due more to the natural rise of the standard deviation in small samples rather than to non-normality. Viewing the studies made in totality we may in final conclusion state that the effect of non-normality on the standard deviation of r for samples of any size is not significant enough for concern; i.e., from this Monte Carlo study we will state that the standard deviation of the sample correlation coefficient is robust to the assumption of normality. / Master of Science

Hardware devices implementing cryptographic algorithms are finding their way into many applications. As this happens, the ability to keep the data being processed or stored on the device secure grows more important. Power analysis attacks involve cryptographic hardware leaking information during encryption because power consumption is correlated to the key used for encryption. Power analysis attacks have proven successful against public and private key cryptosystems in a variety of form factors. The majority of the countermeasures that have been proposed for this attack are intended for software implementations on a microcontroller. This project focuses on the development of a VHDL tool for investigating power analysis attacks on FPGAs and exploring countermeasures that might be used. The tool developed here counted the transitions of CLB output signals to estimate power and was used to explore the impact of possible gate-level countermeasures to differential power analysis. Using this tool, it was found that only a few nodes in the circuit have a high correlation to bits of the key. This means that modifying only a small portion of the circuit could dramatically increase the difficulty of mounting a differential power analysis attack on the hardware. Further investigation of the correlation between CLB outputs and the key showed that a tradeoff exists between the amount of space required for decorrelation versus the amount of decorrelation that is desired, allowing a designer to determine the amount of correlation that can be removed for available space. Filtering of glitches on CLB output signals slightly reduced the amount of correlation each CLB had. Finally, a decorrelation circuit was proposed and shown capable of decorrelating flip-flop outputs of a CLB, which account for less than 10% of the CLB outputs signals. / Master of Science

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), an international organization of national space agencies, is branching out to provide new standards to enhanced reuse of onboard spacecraft equipment and software. These Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF) standards will be based on the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by describing three orthogonal views: the Services View that describes data communications services, the Interoperability view shows how to exchange data and messages between different spacecraft elements, and the Protocol view, that describes the SOIF protocols and services. This paper will give the reader an excellent introduction to the work of the international SOIF team.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG) introduced the Telemetry Attributes Transfer Standard (TMATS) in IRIG 106-93. This long needed standardization was designed to provide a common thread through which test programs could move from one test range to another without significant re-work in the setup environment. TMATS provides the definition of telemetry attributes and specifies the media and data format necessary to permit the ready transfer of the information required to setup telemetry receiving/processing functions at a test range. These attributes are defined as those parameters required by the receiving/processing system to acquire, process and display telemetry data received from a test item or source. As the telemetry vendor community develops more and more board level products designed to be integrated into various platforms such as Personal Computer (PC), VME, and VXI, the necessity of providing a setup environment, which is independent of a specific vendor product, becomes essential. An significant advantage of TMATS lies in its ability to provide a mechanism for setup of "multiple vendor systems" without the necessity of restructuring telemetry attribute information for each unique vendor's product. This paper describes the use of TMATS for the setup of a VXI based telemetry acquisition system containing board level products (including Antenna Control Units, RF Receivers, Combiners, Bit Synchronizers, PCM Decommutators, and PCM Simulators) from multiple vendors.

Denna studie handlar om fastighetsvärdering och hur faktorerna taxerad standard, byggnadens faktiska skick och fastighetsägarens innehavstid påverkar småhusfastigheters värde och skrivs på uppdrag av Lantmäteriet. Syftet är att få bredare kunskap om värdefaktorn standard och dess samband med byggnadens skick och ägarens innehavstid samt standardens, skickets och innehavstidens påverkan på småhusfastigheters värde. Vid fastighetstaxering bestäms byggnadens värde utifrån värdefaktorerna som anges i 8 kap 3 § fastighetstaxeringslagen (SFS 1979:1152) som är storlek, ålder, standard, byggnadskategori, fastighetsrättsliga förhållanden och värdeordning. Enligt fastighetstaxeringslagen bestäms värdefaktorn standard utifrån småhusets byggnadsmaterial och utrustning. Det finns begränsad forskning kring värdefaktorn standard och dess påverkan på småhusfastigheters värde, detta tyder på att denna studie behövs och kan fylla luckor i kunskapen kring ämnet.  För att undersöka detta har en representativ delmarknad i Gävle valts ut. Med representativ delmarknad menas ett delområde som kan representera ett generellt resultat som kan antas vara desamma oavsett lokalisering. Data har samlats in om fastigheterna i den valda delmarknaden (insamlingsmetoden), analyser har genomförts (analysmetoden) samt enkäter och intervjuer. Studien visar att det finns ett samband mellan fastigheters värde och fastighetsägares innehavstid. Fastigheter som har längre innehavstid har lägre kvadratmeterpris och de som har kortare innehavstid har högre värden. Det går inte att utläsa något samband mellan standardpoängen och värdet eller standardpoängen och ägarens innehavstid. Undersökningarna kring hur skicket påverkar värdet och dess samband med innehavstiden tyder på att skicket är som bäst i början på innehavstiden. Detta förklaras genom att fastighetsägarna i stor utsträckning väljer att utföra renoveringsåtgärder i inledningen av sin innehavstid. Analysen av sambandet mellan antal utförda åtgärder(skicket) och värdet visar inget samband eller mönster. Fastighetsmäklarna anser dock att det finns ett samband mellan antal utförda renoveringsåtgärder och fastigheternas slutpris. Det anses även att kvalitén på hur åtgärderna är utförda är avgörande för hur mycket åtgärden påverkar värdet samt vilka specifika åtgärder fastighetsägarna valt att utföra. Även material- och trendval kan påverka hur mycket en åtgärd påverkar fastighetens värde. / This study is about property valuation and how the factors taxed standard, the actual condition of the building and the real estate owner's holding time affect the value of small houses and are written on behalf of Lantmäteriet. The aim is to get broader knowledge of the value factor standard and its relation to the condition of the building and the owner's holding time as well as the standard, condition and holding times impact on the value of small houses. In the case of property taxation valuation, the value of the building is determined on the basis of the value factors listed in chapter 8, section 3, of the Property Taxation Act (SFS 1979: 1152), size, age, standard, building category, property rights and value order. According to the Real Estate Tax Act, the value factor is determined by the building materials and equipment of the housing. There is limited research on the value factor standard and its impact on the value of small houses, this suggests that this study is needed and can fill gaps in knowledge about the subject. To investigate this, a representative submarket in Gävle has been selected. "Representative submarketing" means a subset that can represent a general result that can be assumed to be the same regardless of location. Data has been collected about the properties in the selected submarket (collection method), analyzes have been carried out (analysis method), and questionnaires and interviews. The study shows that there is a connection between the value of the property and the ownership owners' holding time. Real estate that has a longer holding time has lower square meterprise, and those with a shorter holding time have higher values. There is no connection between standard points and the value or owner's holding time and standard points. The surveys on how the condition affects the value and its relation to the holding time indicates that the condition is the best at the start of the holding period. This is explained by the fact that property owners often choose to carry out renovation measures at the beginning of their holding time. The analysis of the relationship between the number of improvments performed (the condition) and the value shows no relationship or pattern. However, real estate agents consider that there is a correlation between the number of renovation measures and the real estate prices. It is also considered that the quality of the actions taken affects the value as well as what specific actions property owners have chosen to perform and that material and trend choices can affect how much a measure affects the property's final price.