Psychometrics in Practice at RCEC

A broad range of topics is dealt with in this volume: from combining the psychometric generalizability and item response theories to the ideas for an integrated formative use of data-driven decision making, assessment for learning and diagnostic testing. A number of chapters pay attention to computerized (adaptive) and classification testing. Other chapters treat the quality of testing in a general sense, but for topics like maintaining standards or the testing of writing ability, the quality of testing is dealt with more specifically.\ud All authors are connected to RCEC as researchers. They present one of their current research topics and provide some insight into the focus of RCEC. The selection of the topics and the editing intends that the book should be of special interest to educational researchers, psychometricians and practitioners in educational assessment

Open collaboration on hybrid video quality models - VQEG joint effort group hybrid

International audienceSeveral factors limit the advances on automatizing video quality measurement. Modelling the human visual system requires multi- and interdisciplinary efforts. A joint effort may bridge the large gap between the knowledge required in conducting a psychophysical experiment on isolated visual stimuli to engineering a universal model for video quality estimation under real-time constraints. The verification and validation requires input reaching from professional content production to innovative machine learning algorithms. Our paper aims at highlighting the complex interactions and the multitude of open questions as well as industrial requirements that led to the creation of the Joint Effort Group in the Video Quality Experts Group. The paper will zoom in on the first activity, the creation of a hybrid video quality model

Sciduction: Combining Induction, Deduction, and Structure for Verification and Synthesis

Even with impressive advances in automated formal methods, certain problems in system verification and synthesis remain challenging. Examples include the verification of quantitative properties of software involving constraints on timing and energy consumption, and the automatic synthesis of systems from specifications. The major challenges include environment modeling, incompleteness in specifications, and the complexity of underlying decision problems. This position paper proposes sciduction, an approach to tackle these challenges by integrating inductive inference, deductive reasoning, and structure hypotheses. Deductive reasoning, which leads from general rules or concepts to conclusions about specific problem instances, includes techniques such as logical inference and constraint solving. Inductive inference, which generalizes from specific instances to yield a concept, includes algorithmic learning from examples. Structure hypotheses are used to define the class of artifacts, such as invariants or program fragments, generated during verification or synthesis. Sciduction constrains inductive and deductive reasoning using structure hypotheses, and actively combines inductive and deductive reasoning: for instance, deductive techniques generate examples for learning, and inductive reasoning is used to guide the deductive engines. We illustrate this approach with three applications: (i) timing analysis of software; (ii) synthesis of loop-free programs, and (iii) controller synthesis for hybrid systems. Some future applications are also discussed

Fifty years of Hoare's Logic

We present a history of Hoare's logic.Comment: 79 pages. To appear in Formal Aspects of Computin

Formal verification of exact computations using Newton's method

International audienceWe are interested in the certification of Newton's method. We use a formalization of the convergence and stability of the method done with the axiomatic real numbers of Coq's Standard Library in order to validate the computation with Newton's method done with a library of exact real arithmetic based on co-inductive streams. The contribution of this work is twofold. Firstly, based on Newton's method, we design and prove correct an algorithm on streams for computing the root of a real function in a lazy manner. Secondly, we prove that rounding at each step in Newton's method still yields a convergent process with an accurate correlation between the precision of the input and that of the result. An algorithm including rounding turns out to be much more efficient

Research in Applied Mathematics, Fluid Mechanics and Computer Science

This report summarizes research conducted at the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering in applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, and computer science during the period October 1, 1998 through March 31, 1999

A 3-Dimensional In Silico Test Bed for Radiofrequency Ablation Catheter Design Evaluation and Optimization

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the disordered activation of the atrial myocardium, which is a major cause of stroke. Currently, the most effective, minimally traumatic treatment for AF is percutaneous catheter ablation to isolate arrhythmogenic areas from the rest of the atrium. The standard in vitro evaluation of ablation catheters through lesion studies is a resource intensive effort due to tissue variability and visual measurement methods, necessitating large sample sizes and multiple prototype builds. A computational test bed for ablation catheter evaluation was built in SolidWorks® using the morphology and dimensions of the left atrium adjacent structures. From this geometry, the physical model was built in COMSOL Multiphysics®, where a combination of the laminar fluid flow, electrical currents, and bioheat transfer was used to simulate radiofrequency (RF) tissue ablation. Simulations in simplified 3D geometries led to lesions sizes within the reported ranges from an in-vivo ablation study. However, though the ellipsoid lesion morphologies in the full atrial model were consistent with past lesion studies, perpendicularly oriented catheter tips were associated with decreases of -91.3% and -70.0% in lesion depth and maximum diameter. On the other hand, tangentially oriented catheter tips produced lesions that were only off by -28.4% and +7.9% for max depth and max diameter. Preliminary investigation into the causes of the discrepancy were performed for fluid velocities, contact area, and other factors. Finally, suggestions for further investigation are provided to aid in determining the root cause of the discrepancy, such that the test bed may be used for other ablation catheter evaluations