70 research outputs found

    Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics

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    Usability issues and design principles for visual programming languages

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    This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Despite two decades of empirical studies focusing on programmers and the problems with programming, usability of textual programming languages is still hard to achieve. Its younger relation, visual programming languages (VPLs) also share the same problem of poor usability. This research explores and investigates the usability issues relating to VPLs in order to suggest a set of design principles that emphasise usability. The approach adopted focuses on issues arising from the interaction and communication between the human (programmers), the computer (user interface), and the program. Being exploratory in nature, this PhD reviews the literature as a starting point for stimulating and developing research questions and hypotheses that experimental studies were conducted to investigate. However, the literature alone cannot provide a fully comprehensive list of possible usability problems in VPLs so that design principles can be confidently recommended. A commercial VPL was, therefore, holistically evaluated and a comprehensive list of usability problems was obtained from the research. Six empirical studies employing both quantitative and qualitative methodology were undertaken as dictated by the nature of the research. Five of these were controlled experiments and one was qualitative-naturalistic. The experiments studied the effect of a programming paradigm and of representation of program flow on novices' performances. The results indicated superiority of control-flow programs in relation to data-flow programs; a control-flow preference among novices; and in addition that directional representation does not affect performance while traversal direction does - due to cognitive demands imposed upon programmers. Results of the qualitative study included a list of 145 usability problems and these were further categorised into ten problem areas. These findings were integrated with other analytical work based upon the review of the literature in a structured fashion to form a checklist and a set of design principles for VPLs that are empirically grounded and evaluated against existing research in the literature. Furthermore, an extended framework for Cognitive Dimensions of Notations is also discussed and proposed as an evaluation method for diagrammatic VPLs on the basis of the qualitative study. The above consists of the major findings and deliverables of this research. Nevertheless, there are several other findings identified on the basis of the substantial amount of data obtained in the series of experiments carried out, which have made a novel contribution to knowledge in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology of Programming, and Visual Programming Languages

    Evaluation in late modern English history writing

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    Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Identifikation und der Klassifikation von evaluativer Lexis in den Werken von britischen Geschichtsschreibern der Spätneuzeit. Im Fokus stehen die von den Historikern im Verlauf von 200 Jahren (ca. 1700-1914) verwendeten sprachlichen Mittel, welche zur Bewertung von historischen Ereignissen und Akteuren eingesetzt werden, und die durch die Mittel realisierten Funktionen. Zentral ist die Betrachtung von Evaluation als linguistischem Mittel der Signifikanzherstellung in neuzeitlicher englischer Geschichtsschreibung. Die Arbeit stützt sich in ihren theoretische Ansätzen u.a. auf das Appraisal Framework (Martin & White 2005) und erweitert dieses, um es unter Einsatz von sowohl korpuslinguistisch-quantitativer als auch qualitativer Methoden auf ein großes Korpus historischer Primärwerke aus dem 18.-19. Jahrhundert anzuwenden. Sie verortet sich sowohl in der historischen/diachronen Diskursforschung als auch in der korpusunterstützten Diskursanalyse (Partington et al. 2013) und liefert eine erste linguistische Beschreibung des historiographischen Registers in der wichtigen Periode seiner allmählichen Verwissenschaftlichung und Institutionalisierung. Indem sie eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive einnimmt, vermittelt diese Arbeit zwischen historischer Theoriebildung und linguistischer Theorie und Methodik.This paper is concerned with the identification and classification of evaluative lexis in the works of British historians of the Late Modern period. The focus is on the linguistic resources used by historians over the course of 200 years (c. 1700-1914) to evaluate historical events and actors, and the functions realised through these resources. Central to the study is the consideration of evaluation as a linguistic means of signaling historical significance in Late Modern English historiography. The work draws on the Appraisal Framework (Martin & White 2005) and extends it in order to apply it to a large corpus of primary historical works from the 18th-19th centuries using both corpus-linguistic-quantitative and qualitative methods. Situating itself in both historical/diachronic discourse research and corpus-assisted discourse analysis (Partington et al. 2013), it provides the first linguistic account of the historiographical register in the pivotal period of its gradual scientification and institutionalisation. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this work mediates between historiographic theorising and linguistic theory and methodology

    Proceedings of the International Workshop on Medical Ultrasound Tomography: 1.- 3. Nov. 2017, Speyer, Germany

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    Ultrasound Tomography is an emerging technology for medical imaging that is quickly approaching its clinical utility. Research groups around the globe are engaged in research spanning from theory to practical applications. The International Workshop on Medical Ultrasound Tomography (1.-3. November 2017, Speyer, Germany) brought together scientists to exchange their knowledge and discuss new ideas and results in order to boost the research in Ultrasound Tomography

    Translating Morphological Hapax Legomena: A Corpus-Assisted Study of Filmic Teen Speech

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    This study explores the strategies used by professionals to translate language creativity in dubbed movies, with a focus on new words formed via morphological processes. As a case study, movies targeted at teenagers were selected, as language creativity is the quintessence of teenagers’ identities. For this purpose, a parallel corpus of American movies and their Italian dubbed versions was compiled (TFC, Teen Film Corpus). The analysis consists in a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative investigation, i.e. the manual analysis of the corpus was integrated with the use of the software programs Sketch Engine (www.sketchengine.co.uk) and WMatrix (http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/). Translation strategies were examined with a dual focus: a formal perspective and a socio-cultural perspective. The formal perspective focused on the linguistic strategies used in Italian to reproduce the same creative effects as in the original versions. The socio-cultural perspective focused on sensitive topics encoded in creative words, whose translation can affect the way youth culture is represented (e.g., references to sex, violence and drug consumption). This theoretical analysis was integrated with a viewer perception test, i.e., a survey administered to a sample of viewers to elicit their reactions to the translation solutions used in the movies. The use of a perception test implies that the analysis of language creativity is not limited to the author’s intuitions, but it is also based on empirical data provided by the actual end-users of the movies

    The development of secretarial and administrative support staff: influential factors in the identification of need

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    Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/583 on 27.02.2017 by CS (TIS)Radical advances in microelectronics applications during the 1970's precipitated rapid developments in new office technology which was held to threaten the very existence of the traditional secretarial task role. Many contemporary commentators conceived a correlative link between the emergence of the new technology and the displacement of administrative support staff, whilst others predicted that a form of "Taylorism" was about to invade the office environment with all manner of dehumanising connotations. The reality proved somewhat different and, far from eradicating the role of the secretary or reducing it to assembly-line proportions, the technology helped to facilitate the flattening of organisational structures, thereby exposing secretaries to new opportunities as they asserted control over the new communications. Companies subsequently perceived the benefits of horizontally enlarging secretarial roles to encompass paraprofessional activities such as personnel, finance, sales and marketing, etc., or vertically extending them to undertake supervisory or monitorial tasks that were previously the domain of functional managers. Thus, the training and development of secretarial and administrative support staff became of paramount importance, yet this was frequently left to the vagaries of chance, to the whim of management, or to questionable analytical practices. The following thesis discusses the role of the secretary in its inner and outer context and explores the literature to ascertain weaknesses in contemporary approaches to needs analysis. Moreover, from a survey of Times Top 1,000 Companies, it examines the forces for change that are influencing these organisations and charts the ways that secretarial and administrative support staff are increasingly addressing performance gaps in corporate indices of effectiveness. Equally, in combining a survey of secretaries, it establishes the range of competencies that are considered important in reconciling individual, task and organisational goals and suggests a diagnostic procedure that might effectively accomplish this without the biases and concerns that have resolutely pervaded needs analysis methodologies

    Engineering optical nonlinearities in metal nanoparticle arrays

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    Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityMetal nanostructures supporting localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances are an emerging technology for sensing, optical switching, radiative engineering, and solar energy harvesting, among other applications. The unique property of LSP resonances that enable these technologies is their ability to localize and enhance the optical field near the surface of metal nanoparticles. However, many questions still remain regarding the effects of nanoparticle coupling on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of these structures. In this thesis, I investigate the role of long-range photonic and near-field plasmonic coupling on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of metal nanoparticles in periodic and deterministic aperiodic arrays within a combined experimental and theoretical framework. In particular, I have developed optical characterization techniques to study various properties of planar metal nano-cylinder arrays fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL). These include the effect of Fano-type coupling between structural grating modes and LSP resonances on linear diffraction and second harmonic generation (SHG), the influence of near-field coupling on the efficiency of plasmon enhanced metal photoluminescence (PL), the dependence of two-photon PL (TPPL) on nanoparticle size, and the multi-polar nature of SHG from planar plasmonic arrays. Experimental results are fully supported by linear scattering theory of the near and far-field properties of particle arrays based on a range of analytical, semi-analytical, and fully numerical techniques. The breadth of computational methods used allows the investigation of a wide range of structures including large aperiodic arrays with hundreds of discrete particles and periodic arrays with realistic particle shapes, substrates, and excitation conditions. The technological potential of engineered plasmonic structures is demonstrated by enhanced vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, a novel nonlinear sensing technique. These studies have revealed design principles for engineering the interplay of photonic and plasmonic coupling for future linear and nonlinear plasmonic devices for sensing, switching, and modulation. The optical characterization techniques developed in this thesis may additionally be used across a wide range of devices in photonics and nano-optics

    Manual for Administrative Law Judges

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    MS FT-2-2 7 Orthogonal polynomials and quadrature: Theory, computation, and applications

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    Quadrature rules find many applications in science and engineering. Their analysis is a classical area of applied mathematics and continues to attract considerable attention. This seminar brings together speakers with expertise in a large variety of quadrature rules. It is the aim of the seminar to provide an overview of recent developments in the analysis of quadrature rules. The computation of error estimates and novel applications also are described

    Generalized averaged Gaussian quadrature and applications

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    A simple numerical method for constructing the optimal generalized averaged Gaussian quadrature formulas will be presented. These formulas exist in many cases in which real positive GaussKronrod formulas do not exist, and can be used as an adequate alternative in order to estimate the error of a Gaussian rule. We also investigate the conditions under which the optimal averaged Gaussian quadrature formulas and their truncated variants are internal
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