Development of a Personalized Quantitative Faculty Annual Evaluation System

Faculty annual evaluation is critical for faculty career development and department success. Our department developed a quantitative faculty evaluation metrics system that is more objective, consistent, flexible, personalized, transparent, and dynamic scoring system. We have implemented the system for 2 years and the outcomes are very encouraging in promoting faculty and department success.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Unassisted Quantitative Evaluation Of Despeckling Filters

SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imaging plays a central role in Remote Sensing due to, among other important features, its ability to provide high-resolution, day-and-night and almost weather-independent images. SAR images are affected from a granular contamination, speckle, that can be described by a multiplicative model. Many despeckling techniques have been proposed in the literature, as well as measures of the quality of the results they provide. Assuming the multiplicative model, the observed image $Z$ is the product of two independent fields: the backscatter $X$ and the speckle $Y$. The result of any speckle filter is $\widehat X$, an estimator of the backscatter $X$, based solely on the observed data $Z$. An ideal estimator would be the one for which the ratio of the observed image to the filtered one $I=Z/\widehat X$ is only speckle: a collection of independent identically distributed samples from Gamma variates. We, then, assess the quality of a filter by the closeness of $I$ to the hypothesis that it is adherent to the statistical properties of pure speckle. We analyze filters through the ratio image they produce with regards to first- and second-order statistics: the former check marginal properties, while the latter verifies lack of structure. A new quantitative image-quality index is then defined, and applied to state-of-the-art despeckling filters. This new measure provides consistent results with commonly used quality measures (equivalent number of looks, PSNR, MSSIM, $\beta$ edge correlation, and preservation of the mean), and ranks the filters results also in agreement with their visual analysis. We conclude our study showing that the proposed measure can be successfully used to optimize the (often many) parameters that define a speckle filter.Comment: Accepted for publication in Remote Sensing - Open Access Journa

Quantitative Evaluation of Chaotic CBC Mode of Operation

The cipher block chaining (CBC) block cipher mode of operation presents a very popular way of encrypting which is used in various applications. In previous research work, we have mathematically proven that, under some conditions, this mode of operation can admit a chaotic behavior according to Devaney. Proving that CBC mode is chaotic is only the beginning of the study of its security. The next step, which is the purpose of this paper, is to develop the quantitative study of the chaotic CBC mode of operation by evaluating the level of sensibility and expansivity for this mode.Comment: in International Conference on Advanced Technologies for Signal & Images Processing ATSIP'2016 , Mar 2016, Monastir, Tunisi

Seigniorage as a tax: a quantitative evaluation

In this paper we analyze the efficacy of seignorage as a tax associated with various monetary arrangements in a computable general equilibrium model. For the economies examined, we find that seignorage tax is not a good one relative to a tax on labor income. If the after-tax real return is –5 percent, as it was in the 1974–1978 period, welfare is approximately 0.5 percent of consumption lower than it would be if the after-tax return were zero.Fiscal policy ; Taxation

The evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots: three years' evidence: a quantitative evaluation

This is the third report of the longitudinal quantitative evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots and the first since the government announced that EMA is to be rolled out nationally from 2004. The evaluation was commissioned in 1999, by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) from a consortium of research organisations, led by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) and including the National Centre for Social Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC). The statistical evaluation design is a longitudinal cohort study involving large random sample surveys of young people (and their parents) in 10 EMA pilot areas and eleven control areas. Two cohorts of young people were selected from Child Benefit records. The first cohort of young people left compulsory schooling in the summer of 1999 and they, and their parents, were interviewed between October 1999 and April 2000 (Year 12 interview). A second interview was carried out with these young people between October 2000 and April 2001 (Year 13 interview). The second cohort left compulsory education the following summer of 2000 and young people, and their parents, were first interviewed between October 2000 and April 2001. The report uses both propensity score matching (PSM) and descriptive techniques, each of which brings their own particular strengths to the analysis

Fitting the Means to the Ends: One School’s Experience with Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Curriculum Evaluation During Curriculum Change

Curriculum evaluation plays an important role in substantive curriculum change. The experience of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) with evaluation processes developed for the new Integrated Medical Curriculum (IMC) illustrates how evaluation methods may be chosen to match the goals of the curriculum evaluation process. Quantitative data such as ratings of courses or scores on external exams are useful for comparing courses or assessing whether standards have been met. Qualitative data such as students’ comments about aspects of courses are useful for eliciting explanations of observed phenomena and describing relationships between curriculum features and outcomes. The curriculum evaluation process designed for the IMC used both types of evaluation methods in a complementary fashion. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been used for formative evaluation of the new IMC courses. They are now being incorporated into processes to judge the IMC against its goals and objectives

Size Structure of Phytopopulations and Its Quantitative Evaluation

There was elucidated the original approach to the evaluation of phytopopulation size structure. For its characteristics it was offered to use the special index - index diversity of size structure (ІDSS). There are presented methods and algorithm of its determination. There was demonstrated that index diversity of size structure can be used at populational studies of species that belong to the different living forms. Especially phanerophytes (Pinus sylvestris) and hamephytes (Ledum palustre). As to Pinus sylvestris and Ledum palustre with help of index diversity of size structure was objectively proved that its cohorts and ontogenetic groups that growth in composition of forest phytocenoses typical for Ukrainian Polissya are not characterized with high level diversity of size structure. The value of index diversity of size structure is mainly less than 20 %. In phytopopulation the specific and phytocenotic peculiarity is demonstrated by diversity of size structure and also by representation of plants of certain size classes

Quantitative nondestructive evaluation: Requirements for tomorrow's reliability

Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) is the technology of measurement, analysis, and prediction of the state of material/structural systems for safety, reliability, and mission assurance. QNDE has impact on everyday life from the cars we drive, the planes we fly, the buildings we work or live in, literally to the infrastructure of our world. Here, researchers highlight some of the new sciences and technologies that are part of a safer, cost effective tomorrow. Specific technologies that are discussed are thermal QNDE of aircraft structural integrity, ultrasonic QNDE for materials characterization, and technology spinoffs from aerospace to the medical sector. In each case, examples are given of how new requirements result in enabling measurement technologies, which in turn change the boundaries of design/practice