This dissertation presents a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design methodology that can be used to shorten the FPGA design-and-debug cycle, especially as gate counts increase to many millions. Core-based incremental placement algorithms, in conjunction with fast interactive routing, are investigated to reduce the design processing time by distinguishing the changes between design iterations and reprocessing only the changed blocks without affecting the remaining part of the design. Different from other incremental placement algorithms, this tool provides the function not only to handle small modifications; it can also incrementally place a large design from scratch at a rapid rate. Incremental approaches are inherently greedy techniques, but when combined with a background refinement thread, the incremental approach offers the instant gratification that designers expect, while preserving the fidelity attained through batch-oriented programs. An incremental FPGA design tool has been developed, based on the incremental placement algorithm and its background refiner. Design applications with logical gate sizes varying from tens of thousands to approximately one million are built to evaluate the execution of the algorithms and the design tool. The results show that this incremental design tool is two orders of magnitude faster than the competing approaches such as the Xilinx M3 tools without sacrificing much quality. The tool presented places designs at the speed of 700,000 system gates per second. The fast processing speed and user-interactive property make the incremental design tool potentially useful for prototype developing, system debugging and modular testing in million-gate FPGA designs. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to understand the teaching practices of the Agriculture Faculty at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). This study is at the intersection of the critical assessment and examination of assumption and exploring options and plans stages of transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 2000) and the environment factor of Astin's I-E-O model. Previous studies showed that tertiary education of Bangladesh fails to develop critical thinking abilities among the students. Higher order teaching practices help to develop critical thinking abilities among the students. Thus, it is important to explore the level of teaching practices at the Agriculture Faculty of BAU to understand how it supports critical thinking abilities among the students. Graduates being able to use critical thinking skills to solve agricultural issues will increase total food production and reduce national poverty. This study was an instrumental single case study. Faculty of Agriculture of BAU was the unit of analysis for this study. The findings of this study were only generalizable to the Agriculture Faculty at BAU and only relevant for Summer 2020. The phenomenon of this study was teaching practices at the Agriculture Faculty of BAU. Data sources included a census survey of active faculty members and content analysis of course syllabi. Findings from this study suggested that both teaching methods and course learning outcomes of the courses of the Agriculture Faculty at BAU were related the lower order of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RevBT). Moreover, faculty members from biological science and engineering used more teaching practices from evaluating level of RevBT than social science disciplines. Evaluating level is considered as higher level of RevBT. Male faculty members also used more teaching practices related to analyzing level than female faculty members. Analyzing level is also considered as higher level of RevBT. Faculty members identified that they have lack of training, standard teaching resources to use higher order teaching practices. Moreover, they also said that students of the Agriculture Faculty at BAU are more interested in job preparation than classroom education. However, faculty members also felt that higher order teaching practices can improve the creativity and critical thinking abilities for students and brings enthusiasms in teaching. Faculty members recommended that BAU revise its curriculum, syllabi, and assessment strategies to create higher order teaching practices in classrooms. As a result of this study, there is opportunity for faculty to increase their use of higher order teaching practices and develop course outcomes that support higher order learning. In addition, the university should revise their existing curricula and assessment techniques and give more freedom to the faculty members to choose their teaching and assessment methods. Finally, training should be organized to support higher order teaching by female faculty members. / Doctor of Philosophy / The purpose of this case study was to understand the teaching practices of the Agriculture Faculty at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). Conceptually, this study was coupled up with transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 2000) and the Astin's I-E-O model. The unit of analysis of this study was the educational environment provided by Agriculture faculty of BAU that offers a single under-graduate degree program called B.Sc. Ag. (Hons.). A structured survey questionnaire was used to collect data from the faculty members of the Agriculture Faculty of BAU based on Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RevBT). Additionally, all course syllabi were analyzed to identify the level of intended teaching practices based on RevBT. RevBT is the benchmark standard to evaluate the cognitive orders of the teaching-learning process, curriculum planning, instruction, and test tasks. Findings from this study suggested that faculty members slightly more preferred teaching practices from the lower levels of RevBT for the classroom teaching at BAU. Findings also suggested that teaching practices connected to the higher cognitive levels of RevBT were significantly varied based on academic disciplines and gender of the faculty members. Faculty members mentioned that lack of students' interest in classroom lessons, the rigid curricula and existing examination system of BAU, large numbers of students in classes, and lack of training of the faculty members are the main limiting factors for them to use higher order teaching practices in classrooms. However, faculty members also wanted to use the higher order teaching practices in classrooms as higher order teaching practices enhances students' creativity, problem solving skills, and critical thinking skills. Faculty members suggested to update course curricula, syllabi, and the exam system to support higher-order teaching practices at BAU. Findings from the course syllabi analysis supported that most of the action verbs of course learning outcomes of the course syllabi were connected to the lower cognitive levels of RevBT. As a result of this study, there is opportunity for faculty to increase their use of higher order teaching practices and develop courses that support higher order learning. In addition, the university should revise their existing curricula and assessment techniques and give more freedom to the faculty members to choose their teaching and assessment methods. Finally, training should be organized to support higher order teaching by female faculty members.

One substantial vision of maintaining agricultural productivity and sustainability is to improve farmers' and communities' well-being and quality of life. Offering disability-inclusive programs can ideally improve agricultural producers' social, environmental, and economic conditions. In turn, it has the potential to accelerate efforts to achieve social justice across varied environments and contexts. Thus, the study explored AgrAbility as an agricultural assistance program serving people with disabilities. A mixed-method approach (survey and interview) was employed to (1) explore and aggregate frameworks used by different State and Regional AgrAbility Projects (SRAP) for planning assistance programs, (2) examine the common types of evaluations used for assessing AgrAbility program impact, and (3) identify good practices for maximizing self-report tools' usability in program evaluation. Sixteen AgrAbility states were included in this study (Iowa, West Virginia, Alaska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin). Two states (Iowa and West Virginia) represent affiliated projects; the other states represent state/national projects. The planning survey was completed by 16 respondents, followed by interviews with 7 of them. The evaluation survey was completed by 11 respondents, followed by interviews with 7 AgrAbility participants (i.e., clients). Three integrated planning models (the Targeting Outcomes of Programs [TOP] model, Sork's planning domains, and Cervero and Wilson's planning model) were used as a conceptual framework to guide the study questions. The study findings offered a framework that could serve as a guideline to answer the following question: "To what extent is the ethical and social-political domain (i.e., power, interests, negotiation, and responsibilities) addressed or enacted within planning programs serving people with disabilities?" Also, the study findings revealed that self-report tools are very frequently used in evaluating AgrAbility outcomes. Ten recommendations were shared by AgrAbility evaluators and program participants with disabilities to improve self-report tools' usability and response rates, specifically in the disability context. / Doctor of Philosophy / Disability has profound effects on farm households. Agricultural workers with disabilities need adequate assistance programs to help them be productive and motivated and feel safe and independent while performing their work. Also, establishing disability-inclusive assistance programs can improve social, environmental, and economic conditions. In turn, these programs have the potential to accelerate efforts to achieve social justice. I explored AgrAbility as an agricultural assistance program serving people with disabilities. I sought to understand AgrAbility's practical implications for enhancing rural well-being and, in turn, seeking social justice. Sixteen AgrAbility states were included in this study (Iowa, West Virginia, Alaska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin). They completed a survey asking questions about technical approaches to program planning, followed by interviews with 7. However, only 11 AgrAbility states completed the survey focused on some evaluation questions, followed by interviews with 7 AgrAbility participants with disabilities (i.e., clients). The purpose of the study was to (1) explore and aggregate frameworks used by different State and Regional AgrAbility Projects (SRAP) for planning assistance programs, (2) examine the common types of evaluations used for assessing AgrAbility program impact, and (3) identify good practices for maximizing self-report tools' usability in program evaluation. I came up with a framework that could serve as a guideline to answer the following question "To what extent is the ethical and social-political domain (i.e., power, interests, negotiation, and responsibilities) addressed or enacted within planning programs serving people with disabilities?" Also, the study findings showed that self-report tools are very frequently used in evaluating AgrAbility outcomes. Ten recommendations were shared by AgrAbility evaluators and program participants with disabilities to improve self-report tools' usability and response rates, specifically in the disability context.

Climate services, often refers as decision support tools, are developed to provide information with a view to aid in decision making and policy planning for adaptation due to climate variability and change. This study investigated different publicly available climate services and decision support tools based on previously proposed evaluation framework. This evaluation framework originally consists of four design elements which are divided into nine evaluation metrics for this study. These evaluation metrics are: identification of decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, discussion of non-climatic factors, uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and evaluation of the tool through survey, modeling or contingent valuation method. Tools were then given "High", "Medium", and "Low" score for each of the criterion. A total of 19 tools were evaluation for this study. Tools performed relatively well in "characteristics, tailoring, and communication of the climate information" and "governance, process, and structure of the climate service" whereas they got average scores in "problem identification and the decision-making context" and "value of the service provided". Additionally, four case study evaluation of tools showed detail evaluation of how the tools performed against each of the criterion. The results of this study showed the relative strengths and weakness of the evaluated tools which can be used to improve existing climate services to aid in adaptation decision needs for climate change. This will also help in better decision making and policy planning for different sectors impacted by the changing climate. / Master of Science / Climate services, often refers as decision support tools, are developed to provide information with a view to aid in decision making and policy planning for adaptation due to the adverse impacts caused by climate variability and change. This study investigated a total of 19 publicly available climate services and decision support tools based on previously proposed evaluation framework. This evaluation framework originally consists of four design elements which further classified into nine evaluation metrics and each of tools were given "High", "Medium", and "Low" score against these criteria. These metrics are: identification of decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, discussion of non-climatic factors, uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and evaluation of the tool through survey, modeling or contingent valuation method. Evaluated tools performed better than average in terms of uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and feedback/ evaluation criteria whereas they performed below average in problem identification and decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, and discussion of non-climatic factors. Four case study evaluation were also presented in this study for better understanding of how the evaluation process works for the tools. The results of this study provide an insight about the relative strengths and weakness of the evaluated tools and these can be used to improve existing climate services tools. This will also help in better decision making and policy planning for different sectors that are being impacted by the changing climate.

Usability evaluation results in several usability problems and the non-UE developer is often not a part of the evaluation as it might deter the participant from reporting all the errors and also, conducting usability evaluation is a usability engineer's responsibility. Thus the evaluator needs to create unambiguous usability problem reports, which will help the developer fix the usability problems. This research involves the development and evaluation of the Usability Problem Diagnosis tool, which supports problem diagnosis through analysis and storage in a common database shared between the evaluation and the development team. This tool uses the User Action Framework as an underlying knowledge base to support problem diagnosis. / Master of Science

Due to changes which are occurring in the information technology sector, the way businesses are being carried out and also the development of the Internet. I have set out in this dissertation to identify the perception of customers regarding Internet as a promotional medium. Primarily, I set out to give an overview of marketing issues related to promotion, issues including the customer's perception, buying influences and the decision process, placing a highlight on the marketing mix influences particularly on promotion. I proceeded by giving an outline of the e- commerce and e-business, identifying the different categories within e-commerce, the steps involved in developing e-business within an organisation. The study identified a number of findings related to the perception of customers regarding the Internet as a promotional medium. Some of the most relative findings indicate that customers still perceived the traditional method of advertising as the best type. A positive feedback has been received regarding the Internet as a marketing tool but there seems to be a lack of trust, which has to be dealt with by companies to make customers overcome this obstacle. Finally customers feel that the human interaction is an important element which has to be made present on website.Companies have to do their best to make utmost use of latest technologies and developments, such as the Internet, so as to maximise organisations goals. To do this the whole organisation has to be committed and the implementation has to be a comprehensive one. Furthermore companies have to ensure that such a development should be used not only to communicate to the customers, but with the customers, benefiting from their feedback.

In this thesis, I argue that at least some animals have the sort of intentionality philosophers traditionally have only ascribed to humans. I argue for this through the examination of tool-use among New Caledonian crows and Bottlenose dolphins. New Caledonian crows demonstrate advanced tool-manufacture and standardization, while Bottlenose dolphins use social learning to a much greater degree than other animals. These two case studies fit nicely with many of the non-linguistic accounts of intentionality employed by philosophers. This thesis is aimed at showing that our basic philosophical concept of intentionality leaves room for intentional behavior on the part of non-human animals. Descriptions of human behavior are often contrasted with that of "lower" animals. Many have taken rationality as the characteristic that separates us from animals, and our notions about the superiority of humans have been passed down through theology and philosophy. From Plato onward, philosophers have created divisions that put humanity in a special position relative to all other creatures. Neglecting a careful analysis of animal behavior in making these divisions does a disservice not only to the animals themselves, but also to humans. This thesis is an attempt to start pulling a thread of the discussion about the specialness of humans out for examination. Specifically, I examine the case of intentionality in the framework of the tool-related behaviors of crows and dolphins. / Master of Arts

Usability inspection methods of user interaction designs have gained importance as an alternative to traditional laboratory-based testing methods because of their cost-effectiveness. However, methods like the heuristic evaluation are ad-hoc, lacking a theoretical foundation. Other, more formal approaches like the cognitive walkthrough are tedious to perform and operate at a high-level, making it difficult to sub-classify problems. This research involves the development and formative evaluation of the Usability Problem Inspection tool — a cost-effective, structured, flexible usability inspection tool that uses the User Action Framework as an underlying knowledge base. This tool offers focused inspections guided by a particular task or a combination of tasks. It is also possible to limit the scope of inspection by applying filters or abstracting lower level details. / Master of Science

This thesis describes a performance measurement tool that allows a user to measure network performance using a handheld device. The measurement tool consists of a client program that runs on a Microsoft Pocket PC device and a server program that runs on a regular Microsoft Windows computer. Both programs are Windows applications implemented in C/C++ using the Microsoft Embedded Visual Tool and Microsoft Visual Studio. The use of a Pocket PC device provides mobility to users, which can save time and energy when performing experiments. The thesis describes the design of the performance measurement application, implementation issues, and tests conducted using the tool. / Master of Science

A two-part project was used to study the idea of demonstration in architecture. The first was the design and fabrication of cycloidal drawing tools. The second was the design of another studio building for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. First, the study of cycloidal lines became the catalyst for designing and fabricating cycloidal drawing tools. Drawing a cylcoid is a demonstration of its construction. There are no specialized tools available for drawing these types of lines, so several iterative generations of design were needed to refine the form of the tool and reach adequate accuracy. Second, an additional studio building for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech was designed. It was designed to be a place for the demonstration of craftsmanship. The building was placed adjacent to Cowgill Hall. The form of the building was explored through traditional tools of architectural design, namely drawings of plans, sections, elevations and details. For the best representation of this thesis, please refer to the book found in the Art and Architecture library. / Master of Architecture