Dissertations / Theses: 'Concurrent mixed methods design'

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Tian, Feng. "A comparison of equating/linking using the Stocking-Lord method and concurrent calibration with mixed-format tests in the non-equivalent groups common-item design under IRT." Thesis, Boston College, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2370.

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Thesis advisor: Larry Ludlow
There has been a steady increase in the use of mixed-format tests, that is, tests consisting of both multiple-choice items and constructed-response items in both classroom and large-scale assessments. This calls for appropriate equating methods for such tests. As Item Response Theory (IRT) has rapidly become mainstream as the theoretical basis for measurement, different equating methods under IRT have also been developed. This study investigated the performances of two IRT equating methods using simulated data: linking following separate calibration (the Stocking-Lord method) and the concurrent calibration. The findings from this study show that the concurrent calibration method generally performs better in recovering the item parameters and more importantly, the concurrent calibration method produces more accurate estimated scores than linking following separate calibration. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation

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Shen, Meigen. "Concurrent chip and package design for radio and mixed-signal systems." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-476.

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David, Adria M. "Supporting statewide systems utilizing external coaches| A concurrent mixed-methods study in a rural community." Thesis, Northwest Nazarene University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3643013.

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Across state lines, budget cuts in education are a reality, especially for those in remote and rural areas. With less financial support, some districts are looking to their state departments to be models of good practice for how to leverage and work within budgetary means, while also keeping up with the advancement in education seen around the world. The history of American schools has defined itself by keeping up globally to ensure its students can be global competitors. In order to continue on the path of educational excellence, there is a need to find innovative ways to continue to be supportive of one another through embedded, professional development and systemic thinking. This concurrent mixed-methods research study looked to one state's coaching project over the last seven years. This state utilized its own coaches as a means to grow and develop leadership capacity for system improvement, even when budget woes were at an all-time high. This study found three key findings: (a) all participants demonstrated positive levels of agreement that the coaches had the skill-set identified by the researcher, engaged in actions that align to effective professional development, and that coaches were perceived to have an impact on leadership; (b) administrators and administrative coaches had the highest levels of agreement with all survey items, and their views were consistently in agreement with no statistical difference; and (c) school staff who were further removed from formal leadership roles were less aware of the skill-set, actions, and effects of the coach, and although they had positive levels of agreement, the levels of agreement were statistically lower than that of the administrators and coaches. Essentially, staff members who served in some type of leadership capacity perceived to benefit from the administration receiving state coaching support, than those who did not. These findings will help this rural state to reexamine its structure not only to strengthen the project, but to be the model for other divisions within the department attempting to utilize state coaches throughout the state. Themes presented will also allow other state agencies to better assess their needs of implementing a statewide coaching project, especially for those from rural states.

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Chalmers, Claire. "Regulatory compliance in Scotland's tattooing and cosmetic body piercing industry : a concurrent mixed methods study." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2011. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4361.

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The objective of any regulation is to realise the goal(s) that justified its intervention. One means of demonstrating this is to determine the extent of regulatory compliance. This study intended to determine the extent of regulatory compliance with the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of skin piercing and tattooing) Order 2006 in Scotland's tattooing and cosmetic body piercing industry. Implemented in Scotland in 2006, its aim was to minimise risk to health from skin piercing and tattooing. Philosophically underpinned by pragmatism, a concurrent mixed methods study was undertaken. All 220 practitioners and 78 enforcers engaging with this regulation across Scotland were invited to participate. Through analysis and interpretation of data from semi-structured questionnaires (n=107, 36%), qualitative focused interviews (n=35) and non-participant observations (n=8), users' experiences of regulatory implementation were explored and explained, to more fully understand regulatory compliance. Integrative analysis and interpretation of this study's mixed methods data determined neither substantive compliance (compliance with the collective goals of regulation) nor rule compliance (compliance with the regulatory standards) had been achieved following implementation of this new regulation. The existence of a significant level of shared activity between practitioners and enforcers during regulatory implementation was however established, where partnership working had derived from the ‘specialist' nature of industry practice. Consequently, it was deduced that ‘compliance' (defined in this context as ‘doing what was asked to conform to the law') poorly reflected the events of regulatory implementation. Instead, ‘concordance' has been discerned as the primary activity. The concept of concordance as ‘working towards agreement' more accurately depicted the experiences of practitioners and enforcers during the process of regulatory implementation. Subsequently, the extent of ‘concordance' was determined: The divergent attitudes/ experiences on the consistency of regulatory implementation and its ability to achieve its aim, coupled with the ambiguous understanding of ‘risk to health' and converse working perspectives of practitioners and enforcers led to the conclusion that goal concordance (agreement on the collective goal(s) of the regulation) had not been achieved. On the other hand, despite evidence of apparent inadequacies and omissions in industry practices, practitioner and enforcer confidence in industry infection control practices led to the conclusion that rule concordance (agreement on the regulatory standards to be met) had been achieved. From these collective findings, a ‘Specialist Industry Concordance-Compliance Model' was developed to explain the achievements of practitioners and enforcers as a result of implementing new regulation/ meeting regulatory requirements within a specialist industry. Complementing rather than conflicting with existing literature, this study offers ‘concordance' as an alternative and/or intermediate output of regulatory implementation, explaining the process by which practitioners and enforcers implement new regulation/meet regulatory requirements within a specialist industry. Moreover, the study findings provide a framework to support better understanding of the potential output from implementation, monitoring and review of regulatory interventions, frequently associated with sub-optimal compliance. In turn, through combined understanding of concordance and compliance, the design of good regulation can be promoted, thereby facilitating maximum reduction in risk/ risk to health through regulatory intervention.

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Burrows, Timothy. "A Preliminary Rubric Design to Evaluate Mixed Methods Research." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/19324.

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With the increase in frequency of the use of mixed methods, both in research publications and in externally funded grants there are increasing calls for a set of standards to assess the quality of mixed methods research. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to conduct a multi-phase analysis to create a preliminary rubric to evaluate mixed methods research articles. This study included four research questions:
1. What are the common evaluation criteria found in the contemporary methodological literature pertaining to the design of mixed methods research?
2. What evaluation criteria do experts in the field of mixed methods research perceive as the most important when distinguishing top-quality research in mixed methods?
3. What differences are there in the outcome of the rubric for evaluating mixed methods research identified from the literature compared to those advocated most uniformly by a panel of mixed methods research experts?
4. What are disciplinary differences between the use of mixed methods and views about evaluating it, including the role of paradigms in mixed methods research?
In the first phase of this multi-phase mixed methods study I used an inductive qualitative process to identify the quality criteria endorsed by 12 methodologists with a long-term involvement in mixed methods research. In the second phase of this study I conducted a quantitative analysis to pilot test a set of criteria identified in the qualitative phases. The sample for both phases of this study was comprised of the same eight males
and four females from multiple nationalities. Respondents to the on-line survey rated all 14 items as being important, with 11 of the 14 items being rated as very important or higher.
When considered together, findings from the two phases of this study provide a interesting view of attitudes about the use and application of quality standards to the mixed methods literature. While there was agreement about what elements were important to evaluate, there was not an agreement about the idea that one set of standards could be applied to all mixed methods studies.

Ph. D.

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Liu, Tingyang. "Concurrent substrate coupling noise modeling and active noise reduction methodology for mixed-signal physical design." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284133.

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In mixed-signal ICs that integrate complex digital circuits together with high-performance analog circuits, signal contamination caused by substrate coupling noise is a critical issue. Fast digital transients can produce noise harmful to the sensitive analog circuits. The noise can be coupled from noisy devices and interconnects into the common substrate and coupled into analog devices. This noise coupling mechanism poses serious challenges toward the signal integrity of the mixed-signal design. The final performance of the ICs signal integrity is heavily dependent on layout schemes and the effectiveness of using noise reduction techniques. A hierarchical substrate coupling noise modeling technique that uses a gate-level lumped parasitic circuit model (for digital circuit layout) and concurrent real-time stimulating waveforms has been developed. This hierarchical approach make the concurrent substrate coupling noise analysis feasible under the current computational resource limitation. The gate-level parasitic extraction can avoid the intensive computation needed by detailed source/drain level modeling technique while keeping a reasonable accuracy with respect to parasitics. The parasitic extraction is also a separate process from the substrate three-dimensional mesh generation process. Therefore, this modeling technique can be easily used for evaluation of different physical design schemes. An innovate active noise reduction method, using the noise cancellation mechanism during the physical design phase to reduce the substrate coupling noise contamination, has also been developed. The fundamental idea of this method is to use the reversely amplified noise to achieve a "virtual" ground for the substrate. The noise is sampled from the substrate and reversely amplified and then re-injected into the substrate, by this method, up to 90% of the original noise can be eliminated. The active substrate coupling noise reduction method has the merit that it can be used together with traditional noise reduction methods such as guard ring deployment. Several test chips have been designed and fabricated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the substrate modeling and reduction methods. In the results section of this dissertation, results from both SPICE-based simulation and measurement from MOSIS 1.2 micron test chips are presented and analyzed.

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Ingalls, Stephen A. "Application of concurrent engineering methods to the design of an autonomous aerial robot." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/12222.

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Eaglin, Gerald. "Concurrent Design of Path Planning Methods and Input Shaping for Flexible Mobile Robots." Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10842690.

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Path planning is a common research topic and has applications in various fields and industries, such as AI, industrial automation, and mobile robotics. When applied to mobile systems, path planning algorithms are required to plan safe and feasible paths for a system from an initial state to a desired final state. While most path planning algorithms have been designed for rigid systems, little work has focused on path planning algorithms for flexible systems. Motion planning for flexible systems has typically involved sequential methods that plan trajectories for a system, then apply vibration control techniques for trajectory tracking. This thesis proposes new algorithms that concurrently plan a path for a flexible system while limiting the induced vibration.

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Richens, Yana. "Investigation into Fear of Birth using a mixed methods design." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2018. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/investigation-into-fear-of-birth-using-a-mixed-methods-design(a1a508d0-e87a-4db9-9495-41e45f537e91).html.

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Background: Fear of birth (FOB) is becoming increasingly recognised as a clinical issue that can have profound effects on the mother and her experience of pregnancy and birth. Failure to identify women with FOB could potentially lead to them feeling isolated and unsupported, and impact on their psychological health and the health of their baby. Aim: The main aim of this study was to gain an understanding of FOB and the associated impact on health professional practice, clinical outcomes and women's experiences of birth. The objectives were to: identify the most effective way of measuring FOB in clinical practice; investigate the most appropriate antenatal intervention to support women who fear childbirth; inform the study design for an RCT to assess the effectiveness of the intervention; and assess the most meaningful outcomes to include in future work. Methods: An explanatory mixed-methods study design was used. The first phase was a two-part online survey sent to Heads of Midwifery at 202 maternity units in the UK via Survey Monkey. Respondents were asked to give details of their unit in part 1 and service provision and evaluation for women with FOB in part 2. The second phase was a prospective cohort study of 148 women who had not experienced childbirth who were consecutively attending the Elisabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital, London or St Mary's Hospital, Manchester. Demographic data and details of sources of information on pregnancy were collected from participants in the first trimester along with their score on the tool chosen to measure FOB, the Fear Of Birth Scale (FOBS), and a saliva sample to measure cortisol level. In the third trimester, a second FOBS score and saliva sample were collected, and the Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) were administered to measure depression and anxiety respectively. Birth outcomes for the participants were collected from clinical records. In the third phase, 15 women participating in the second phase were purposively selected to reflect a range of FOBS scores and interviewed by telephone using a semi-structured interview to find out their experiences of pregnancy, being part of the study and service provision. Results: Response rates for the online survey were 63% for part 1 and 54% for part 2. Consultant obstetricians 25% had the most involvement in the care of women with FOB, followed by consultant midwives 21% and 30% had a designated midwife for dealing with FOB and only 32% provided specialist midwifery-led services for women with FOB, with 16% referring to a consultant obstetrician and 47% providing no specialist provision. No unit provided an evaluation of their services, although 19% had undertaken local audits. In the cohort study, using a cut-off of 54 for the FOBS, 30/148 (20%) had a FOB in the first trimester while 21/80 (26%) had a FOB in the third trimester. Compared with the first trimester, 51/80 women showed an increase in FOBS score, with 14 gaining and 7 losing a FOB. FOBS scores were not correlated with salivary cortisol in either trimester but they were correlated with PQH-9 and GAD-7 scores in the third trimester. They were also associated with a previous history of depression but only in the first trimester (p=0.011). FOBS scores showed considerable variability and a high measurement error, indicating a need for further refinement and psychometric testing. The qualitative interviews identified three themes underlying FOB: fearing the worst (pain, fear for the baby and fear of the unknown and complications), pathways to fear (friend-induced fear, mother-induced fear or reassurance and media-induced fear) and igniting or reducing fear (sources of information, support and communication). Conclusions: The FOBS is a potentially effective way of measuring FOB in clinical practice and research, but it requires enhancement informed by the themes identified by this study and psychometric testing in all three trimesters. An enhanced version of the FOBS could be used as the primary outcome to measure FOB during pregnancy in an RCT assessing the effectiveness of a suitable intervention, with the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 as secondary outcomes to measure depression and anxiety during pregnancy. An intervention to support primiparous women with FOB should be developed informed by the findings of this study, including components such as psychological education, relaxation, social support, reliable information sources and continuity of carer.

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Bharadwaj, Aditya. "Mixed-Initiative Methods for Following Design Guidelines in Creative Tasks." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99857.

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Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, guidelines may conflict with each other, creating a need for slow and time-consuming expert intervention. Second, guidelines may be hard to check programmatically, requiring experts to manually use multipage style guides that suffer from drawbacks related to searchability, navigation, conflict, and obsolescence. In my dissertation, I focus on exploring mixed-initiative methods as a solution to these challenges in two complex tasks: biological network visualization where guidelines may conflict, and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. For biological network visualization, I explore the use of crowdsourcing to scale up time-consuming manual layout tasks. To support the network-based collaboration required for crowdsourcing, I first implemented a system called GraphSpace. It fosters online collaboration by allowing users to store, organize, explore, lay out, and share networks on a web platform. I then used GraphSpace as the infrastructure to support a novel mixed-initiative crowd-algorithm approach for creating high-quality, biological meaningful network visualizations. I also designed and implemented Flud, a system that gamifies the graph visualization task and uses flow theory concepts to make algorithmically generated suggestions more readily accessible to non-expert crowds. Then, I proposed DeepLayout, a novel learning-based approach as an alternative to the non-machine learning-based method used in Flud. It has the ability to learn how to balance complex conflicting guidelines from a layout process. Finally, in the domain of web design, I present a real-world iterative deployment of a system called Critter. Critter augments traditional quality assurance techniques used in structured domains, such as checklists and expert feedback, using mixed-initiative interactions. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods.
Doctor of Philosophy
Practitioners in creative domains such as web design, data visualization, and software development face many challenges while trying to create novel solutions that satisfy the guidelines around practical constraints and quality considerations. My dissertation work addresses two of these challenges. First, sometimes the guidelines may conflict with each other under a certain scenario. In this situation, tasks require expert opinion to prioritize one guideline over the other. This dependence on expertise makes the design process slow and time-consuming. Second, sometimes it is difficult to determine which guidelines have been fulfilled. In this scenario, experts have to manually go through a list of guidelines and make sure applicable guidelines have been successfully applied to the final product. However, using a list of guidelines has its own drawbacks. Not all guidelines are applicable to a project, and finding a relevant guideline can be strenuous for experts. Moreover, a design process is not as simple as following a list of guidelines. Design processes are dynamic, non-linear, and iterative. Due to these reasons, a simple list of guidelines does not align with the designers' workflow. My dissertation focuses on exploring mixed-initiative methods where computers and humans collaborate in a tight feedback loop to help follow guidelines. To this end, I present solutions for two complex creative tasks: biological network visualization where we can compute how well a design adheres to the guidelines but guidelines may conflict and web design where task requirements are hard to check programmatically. I hope this dissertation can serve to accelerate research on leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and computers in the context of creative processes that are generally considered out of bounds for automated methods.

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Smith, Pieter R. "A computerized search methodology for the design of mixed model assembly systems." Master's thesis, This resource online, 1990. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-02162010-020023/.

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Bowman, Roxanne K. "THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DURATION OF EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING: A MIXED METHODS DESIGN." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/nursing_etds/9.

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Breastfeeding is the gold standard of infant feeding and its benefits extend beyond the mother and child. Multiple organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant’s life. Exclusive breastfeeding rates nationally and in the state of Kentucky fall below the Healthy People 2020 goals. A mother’s intention to breastfeed has been shown to impact actual breastfeeding behavior. The current state of the measurement of intention was explored through a literature review. A majority of the measures were single item scales. The reliability and validity of the scales should be further tested in diverse populations. The purposes of this dissertation were to: a) explore the role of breastfeeding intention on duration of exclusive breastfeeding, and b) determine the common modifiable factors among women who breastfeed exclusively for at least four months. English speaking mothers 18 years of age and older were asked to participate if they had delivered a healthy infant in the last 72 hours and if they intended to feed their baby some amount of breast milk (n = 84). Mothers were followed for 16 weeks or until they weaned their infant, whichever came first. Social support, breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding intention were measured at baseline. Breastfeeding support and breastfeeding self-efficacy were measured at four and 16 weeks. Results indicated that mothers with stronger intention to breastfeed were more likely to breastfeed exclusively for a longer period of time. Mothers who breastfed their infant exclusively for 16 weeks were asked to participate in one of two focus group meetings (n = 15). The following five themes emerged from the data: 1) knowledge, 2) peer experience, 3) support, 4) perseverance, and 5) the public.

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Cate, Heidi. "A mixed methods investigation of trial design for measuring glaucoma medication adherence." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2016. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/63211/.

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Sub-optimal adherence to glaucoma therapy has negative health and financial implications. The Norwich Adherence Glaucoma Study (NAGS) adopted gold-standard methods including randomisation and objective outcome measurement to investigate an adherence intervention. Patients were randomised to standard care alone (control group) or additional glaucoma and medication related information provision using Behaviour Change Counselling. A Travalert Dosing Aid® (TDA) was used to collect 8 months of adherence data. For the 208 patients randomised, adherence was higher than expected in the control group and there was no significant difference in adherence between intervention and control. Two qualitative studies collected user experiences from NAGS and established patient experiences of administering eye drops using the TDA. Potential NAGS experimental design errors were identified that might have inadvertently introduced changes in patient behaviour, causing bias in the observed study outcomes; a phenomenon known as a reactivity effect. Thus, the React study was designed to quantify the magnitude of reactivity effects on observed adherence behaviour, but the study required the use of a modified consent method. Focus groups informed the content of a questionnaire that was piloted using cognitive interviewing methods. The subsequent questionnaire was distributed to 400 members of the public attending an out-patient NHS hospital. From the 208 questionnaires returned, the majority of respondents felt that the proposed React study used an acceptable consent method in order to investigate reactivity effects. Work continues with the React study to recruit the target sample size. Participants with lower measured adherence were less likely to participate and this self-selecting bias compromised estimates of the true magnitude of reactivity effects. However, the evidence collected to date confirmed the presence of reactivity effects. This research suggests that objective measures coupled with modified consent procedures may be an appropriate methodological strategy to minimise reactivity effects in trials designed to change behaviour.

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Alnssyan, Badr Suliman. "Proposed Methods for the Nondecreasing Order-Restricted Alternative in a Mixed Design." Diss., North Dakota State University, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31774.

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Nonparametric statistics are commonly used in the field of statistics due to their robustness when the underlying assumptions are violated for the usual parametric statistics. In this dissertation, we proposed eight nonparametric methods to test for nondecreasing ordered alternative for a mixed design consisting of a combination of completely randomized design (CRD) and randomized complete block design (RCBD). There were four nonparametric tests, based on the Jonckheere-Terpstra test and modifications of it, employed to propose these nonparametric methods. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted using SAS program to investigate the performance of the proposed tests under a variety of nondecreasing location shifts among three, four and five populations and then compare these powers to each other and with the powers of the test statistics introduced by Magel et al. (2009). Three underlying distributions are used in the study including the standard normal distribution, the standard exponential distribution and student's t-distribution (3 degrees of freedom). We considered three scenarios of proportions of the number of blocks in the RCBD portion to the sample size in the CRD portion, namely, assuming that the portion of the number of blocks in RCBD is larger, equal, and smaller than the portion of the sample size in the CRD. Moreover, equal and unequal sample sizes were both considered for the CRD portion. The results of the simulation study indicate that all the proposed methods maintain their type one error and also indicate that at least one of the proposed methods did better compared to the tests of Magel et al. (2009) in terms of the estimated powers. In general, situations are found in which the proposed methods have higher powers and situations are found in which tests in Magel et al. (2009) have higher powers.

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Aganovic, Dario. "On Manufacturing System Development in the Context of Concurrent Engineering." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-3807.

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Thomas, Rita M. "Student Perceptions of Quality in Fully Online Courses| A Mixed Methods Study." Thesis, Frostburg State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10598972.

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Online learning has become a significant component of the long-term strategy for leading universities into the future. The rapid growth of online learning forces the need for academic accountability. The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine factors affecting student perceptions of online course quality using benchmarks in the design principles of Teaching/Learning, Course Structure, and Student Support in online courses. Furthermore, the study aimed to discover whether the interaction of a social presence was perceived as important to the quality of the student’s online learning experience. The elements of benchmark categories, social presence, and student perceptions provide a great perspective of the educational experiences in fully online courses. Two hundred forty-five students were surveyed and eleven students participated in follow-up interviews. Results indicated that interaction between students and the instructor was a key element in their perceptions of a quality learning experience. Teaching presence was identified as very important to the quality of online courses. Benchmark standards measured in this study are important components to the design of online courses. These measurements act as an indicator to administrators, faculty, and instructional designers about the importance of designing courses that include the benchmark standards, especially instructor interactions as well as student-to-student interactions and social presence.

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Cevik, Mert. "Desifn And Optimization Of A Mixed Flow Compressor Impeller Using Robust Design Methods." Master's thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611105/index.pdf.

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This is a study that is focused on developing an individual design methodology for a centrifugal impeller and generating a mixed flow impeller for a small turbojet engine by using this methodology. The structure of the methodology is based on the design, modeling and the optimization processes, which are operated sequentially. The design process consists of engine design and compressor design codes operated together with a commercial design code. Design of Experiment methods and an in-house Neural Network code is used for the modeling phase. The optimization is based on an in-house code which is generated based on multidirectional search algorithm. The optimization problem is constructed by using the inhouse parametric design codes of the engine and the compressor. The goal of the optimization problem is to reach an optimum design which gives the best possible combination of the thrust and the fuel consumption for a small turbojet engine. The final combination of the design parameters obtained from the optimization study are used in order to generate the final design with the commercial design code. On the last part of the thesis a comparison of the final design and a standard radial flow impeller is made in order to clarify the benefit of the study. The results have been showed that a mixed flow compressor design is superior to a standard radial flow compressor in a small turbojet application.

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Olson, Erik Davin. "Conceptual Design and Technical Risk Analysis of Quiet Commercial Aircraft Using Physics-Based Noise Analysis Methods." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/11486.

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An approach was developed which allows for design studies of commercial aircraft using physics-based noise analysis methods while retaining the ability to perform the rapid tradeoff and risk analysis studies needed at the conceptual design stage. A prototype integrated analysis process was created for computing the total aircraft EPNL at the Federal Aviation Regulations Part 36 certification measurement locations using physics-based methods for fan rotor-stator interaction tones and jet mixing noise. The analysis process was then used in combination with design of experiments to create response surface equations (RSEs) for the engine and aircraft performance metrics, geometric constraints and takeoff and landing noise levels. In addition, Monte Carlo analysis was used to assess the expected variability of the metrics under the influence of uncertainty, and to determine how the variability is affected by the choice of engine cycle. Finally, the RSEs were used to conduct a series of proof-of-concept conceptual-level design studies demonstrating the utility of the approach. The study found that a key advantage to using physics-based analysis during conceptual design lies in the ability to assess the benefits of new technologies as a function of the design to which they are applied. The greatest difficulty in implementing the physics-based analysis proved to be the generation of design geometry at a sufficient level of detail for high-fidelity analysis.

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Rudolf, Robert. "Design methods to mitigate the effects of variation in analogue and mixed-signal circuits." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2014. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374300/.

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The continued scaling of CMOS process features enables ever-faster and denser circuits, which comes at the cost of increased device parameter variation. The performance of analogue and mixed-signal circuits in particular degrades in such a high variation environment, which poses an extraordinary challenge in the design and fabrication of such circuits. This thesis develops a set of tools and methodologies for a post-fabrication calibration system called the Configurable Analogue Transistor (CAT). The principle of the CAT technique is to replace certain transistors in a circuit with calibration devices, which allow adjustment of circuit performance after fabrication to compensate the effects of device parameter variation. Building on initial research on the CAT, this thesis develops a methodology to identify the most suitable calibration devices in their circuit and determine their optimal sizes. Furthermore, the applicability of CAT is extended beyond parameter variation to also include direct compensation of temperature. A complementary technique to post-fabrication calibration is robust design, where a circuit is designed to be inherently robust against variation in device parameters. In this thesis, a novel closed-loop pick-off circuit for force-balanced MEMS accelerometers is presented. It is comparable in performance to other state-of-the-art techniques, but provides vastly improved robustness against parameter variation and a more intuitive design process.

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Newhart, Daniel W. "“Smart” Mixed Methods: The Interaction of Philosophy and Research Design in Higher Education Inquiry." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1306863023.

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Mahoney, Catherine M. "An investigation into maintaining naso-gastric feeding for stroke patients : a mixed methods design." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2009. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2744.

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Background: Dysphagia is common after stroke, so feeding through a naso-gastric (NG) tube may be necessary. NG tubes are frequently dislodged, potentially causing feed or fluids to enter the lungs. Interventions to prevent this include taping NG tubes to the face, hand mittens and nasal bridles. Overall Aim The aim of this study was to explore the opinions of staff, patients and relatives about the maintenance of NG tube feeding for stroke patients while investigating current clinical practice. Research Design and Methods: A three-phased mixed method design was used. Phase 1 involved focus groups with multidisciplinary stroke unit staff (n=17); one-to-one interviews, with stroke patients (n=4) and relatives (n=6). Phase 2 incorporated a postal survey sent to a convenience sample (n=528) registered nurses working in the field of stroke across the UK. Phase 3 involved interviews with nurses (n=5) outside the speciality of stroke. Findings: Phase 1 highlighted many categories, including: lack of protocols; ethical and legal concerns; training to insert NG tubes; patient dignity; patient autonomy and potential harms and benefits of interventions used. There were variations in the opinions of staff, patients and relatives concerning the effectiveness and acceptability of methods for securing NG tubes. Phase 2 achieved a response rate of 59% (n=314/528); 22% (n=68/312) of nurses used hand mittens, only 11% (n=34/312) used a protocol; 56% (n=176/314) of nurses had received formal training to insert an NG feeding tube, more senior nurses had been formally trained than junior nurses (p<0.005). Acceptability and effectiveness ratings for tube securing interventions varied: 50% (n=158/312) considered hand mittens to be unacceptable. However, from a total of n=92 responses about their effectiveness, 66% (n=61/92) felt they were effective. Phase 3 produced more detailed results about fear associated with NG feeding; inconsistent approaches to training and ethical and legal issues of patient restraint. Conclusions: Overall this study demonstrates differences in opinion about what constitutes acceptable, effective and legal practice when maintaining NG feeding for stroke patients. It also suggests that the lack of consistent nurse training affects the standards of care patients receive. Furthermore, there is a need for more robust evidence to inform clinical practice. This study culminates in a model of nursing related to the insertion and maintenance of NG feeding for stroke patients.

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Hatta, Taichi. "Crossover Mixed Analysis in a Convergent Mixed Methods Design Used to Investigate Clinical Dialogues About Cancer Treatment in the Japanese Context." Kyoto University, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/236596.

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Roberts, Jennifer M. "A mixed methods study of secondary distance-learning students: Exploring learning styles." ScholarWorks, 2009. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/672.

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Public education in the United States has experienced an increase in distance-learning (DL) opportunities. Because research has focused on student achievement in post-secondary DL programs, little is known about secondary students' experiences. The purpose of the current study was to explore DL applicability within secondary education. Specific research questions addressed by the concurrent mixed methods nested study included examining students' opinions and experiences in a secondary DL course and determining whether individual learning styles were addressed. Structured interviews, group discussions, and a survey were used to gather data over 2 months from 14 students in grades 9 through 12 participating in a state wide Alabama DL program. Surveys were used to assess and match DL activities to Gardner's 8 learning styles. Interviews and discussions explored students' opinions about activities and components and perceptions of their academic achievement. Quantitative data indicated that students reported some activities related to all learning styles with the greatest coverage observed for linguistic methods. Qualitative data were open and axial coded within each research question and the coded data was analyzed to define common DL practices used to meet specific styles and emergent themes related to student perceptions. Triangulation of results showed DL students felt successful based on their participation in a spectrum of activities including interactive video, e-mail, online discussion boards and tutoring sessions, and self-directed learning. The study contributes to positive social change by documenting a variety of strategies employed to successfully engage secondary DL students who present a variety learning styles and challenges related to DL curricular content and modes of delivery.

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Walmsley, Steven. "Development of the Salford rheumatoid arthritis foot evaluation instrument : a sequential exploratory mixed methods design." Thesis, University of Salford, 2011. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/26956/.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease that commonly manifests in the feet as pain, swelling and deformity. These symptoms often have extensive and severe mutlidimensional consequences for people's lives and can be evaluated using a class of subjective outcome measures known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs have been advocated by the Darzi report and are central to reforms in the NHS. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop a new and novel PROM, the Salford Rheumatoid Arthritis Foot Evaluation Instrument (SAFE), using a clinimetric approach and featuring an adequately pre-tested nomothetic (fixed scale) and idiographic (patient-specific scale) assessment strategy. A mixed methods approach was employed to develop the SAFE, with the formulation and implementation of a four phase sequential exploratory fully mixed methods design (SEMMD) that featured equal priority between the qualitative and quantitative components. The four phase SEMMD enabled the strategic and effective combination of methods to produce a PROM that is firmly rooted in the views and experiences of people with feet affected by RA. The nomothetic scale of the SAFE has evidence for face, content and convergent validity (Spearman-Rank co-efficients: 0.62 - 0.80) and excellent one week test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficients: 0.86 - 1.00 ). The idiographic scale has evidence for face and content validity. The SAFE is a tool for both clinical practice and clinical research. In order to realise the full potential of the SAFE, further research will be undertaken to refine, develop the PROM and integrate it into clinical practice. Initially, it will be necessary to demonstrate additional measurement properties for the nomothetic scale, including clinical interpretability and responsiveness and also necessary to demonstrate quantitative measurement properties for the idiographic scale. Long term, the SAFE will be redeveloped using item response theory and implemented as a computerised adaptive test.

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Thompson-Sellers, Ingrid N. "What Informs Practice and What is Valued in Corporate Instructional Design? A Mixed Methods Study." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/msit_diss/89.

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This study used a two-phased explanatory mixed-methods design to explore in-depth what factors are perceived by Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) professionals as impacting instructional design practice, how these factors are valued in the field, and what differences in perspectives exist between IDT managers and non-managers. For phase 1 of the study, one hundred and sixteen corporate IDT professionals (managers and non-managers) responded to a web-based survey that was designed and developed from: (a) The results of an exploratory study of the practices of corporate instructional designers, (b) the results of an extensive literature review into the theory and practice in the field of IDT, and (c) other survey instruments developed, validated and used in prior studies. Analysis of the data collected in phase 1 of the study resulted in the development of an Evaluation Model for IDT Practice that was used as a framework to answer the research questions. Quantitative analysis included the use of Hotelling’s T2 inferential statistic to test for mean differences between managers and non-managers perceptions of formal and informally trained groups of IDT personnel. Chi squared analysis test of independence, and correlation analysis was used to determine the nature and extent of the relationship between the type of training and the professional status of the participants. For phase 2 of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected participants and analyzed using the constant comparative method in order to help validate the findings from phase 1. Ensuing analysis of the survey data determined that, both managers and non-managers generally agreed that both formal and on the job training was valuable, and that their peers who were formally and informally trained were competent instructional designers. The qualitative phase of the study and a closer examination of effect sizes suggested the potential for some variation in perceptions. In addition, a statistically significant correlation showed that IDT managers who completed the survey were more likely to be formally trained. Recommendations based on the results included future studies with a larger, more diverse population; future studies to refine the Evaluation Model for ID practice; and that academic ID programs work more closely with practitioners when designing and delivering their curricula.

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Spencer, Rose. "A new shift? : explicit and implicit mentalizing in parent-infant psychotherapy : a mixed methods design." Thesis, University of East London, 2017. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/7309/.

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Mentalizing refers to a capacity to think about others or oneself in terms of intentional mental states (e.g. beliefs, desires, feelings). Mentalizing is particularly important in the early parent- infant relationship as it is thought to be the process underlying sensitive parenting and the foundation for healthy Mentalizing refers to a capacity to think about others or oneself in terms of intentional mental states (e.g. beliefs, desires, feelings). Mentalizing is particularly important in the early parent- infant relationship as it is thought to be the process underlying sensitive parenting and the foundation for healthy sychotherapy at enhancing PEM; 2) examine PEM and its associations with parental representations, infant attachment, maternal mental health, infant development and parent-infant interactions; and 3) conduct Thematic Analysis (TA) to investigate the elements of change in implicit and explicit parental mentalizing during early caregiving. This research intended to produce findings that could contribute to advancing clinical interventions aimed at fostering positive relationships with parents and their infants. In the current study, PEM was coded on data from a study in which mothers with mental health problems and their young infants (< 12 months) had been randomly allocated to parent-infant psychotherapy (n = 34) or treatment as usual (n = 31 ). The current project's quantitative findings revealed that PEM ignificantly improved over a 12-month period in both conditions (parent-infant psychotherapy and treatment as usual). PEM was significantly associated with maternal mental health, and parent-infant interactions, but was not associated with parental representations, infant attachment or infant development. TA investigated the processes of change in implicit and explicit mentalizing over the course of a year and produced two main themes: "From Turbulence to Synchronicity" and "The Outside World and Transformations". Analysis revealed that when change occurred, the relationship between parent and infant was transformed towards synchronicity within the dyad and towards resolution and re-engaging with the world outside the dyad. Findings suggest that clinical interventions could benefit from integrating embodied and reflective processes into the therapeutic process to increase parental mentalizing and enhance the wellbeing of infants and their families.

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Kågedal, Matts. "Nonlinear Mixed Effects Methods for Improved Estimation of Receptor Occupancy in PET Studies." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för farmaceutisk biovetenskap, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-222498.

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Receptor occupancy assessed by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) can provide important translational information to help bridge information from one drug to another or from animal to man. The aim of this thesis was to develop nonlinear mixed effects methods for estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy for the two mGluR5 antagonists AZD9272 and AZD2066 and for the 5HT1B receptor antagonist AZD3783. Also the optimal design for improved estimation of the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy as well as for improved dose finding in neuropathic pain treatment, was investigated. Different modeling approaches were applied. For AZD9272, the radioligand kinetics and receptor occupancy was simultaneously estimated using arterial concentrations as input function and including two brain regions of interest. For AZD2066, a model was developed where brain/plasma partition coefficients from ten different brain regions were included simultaneously as observations. For AZD3783, the simplified reference tissue model was extended to allow different non-specific binding in the reference region and brain regions of interest and the possibility of using white matter as reference was also evaluated. The optimal dose-selection for improved precision of receptor occupancy as well as for improved precision of the minimum effective dose of a neuropathic pain treatment was assessed, using the D-optimal as well as the Ds-optimal criteria. Simultaneous modelling of radioligand and occupancy provided a means to avoid simplifications or approximations and provided the possibility to tests or to relax assumptions. Inclusion of several brain regions of different receptor density simultaneously in the analysis, markedly improved the precision of the affinity parameter. Higher precision was achieved in relevant parameters with designs based on the Ds compared to the D-optimal criterion. The optimal design for improved precision of the relationship between dose and receptor occupancy depended on the number of brain regions and the receptor density of these regions. In conclusion, this thesis presents novel non-linear mixed effects models estimating the relationship between drug exposure and receptor occupancy, providing useful translational information, allowing for a better informed drug-development.

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Smith-Forbes, Enrique V. "EXPLORATION OF FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PATIENT ADHERENCE IN UPPER EXTREMITY REHABILITATION: A MIXED-METHODS EMBEDDED DESIGN." UKnowledge, 2015. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/rehabsci_etds/27.

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Adherence is considered a prerequisite for the success of exercise programs for musculoskeletal disorders. The negative effects of non-adherence to exercise recommendations impact the cost of care, and also treatment effectiveness, treatment duration, the therapeutic relationship, waiting times, the efficiency of personnel and use of equipment. Adherence to therapeutic exercise intervention is a multifaceted problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) established the multidimensional adherence model (MAM). The MAM describes five interactive dimensions (socioeconomic, healthcare team and system, condition-related, therapy-related, and patient-related factors) that have an effect on patient adherence. The first purpose of this dissertation was to explore the MAM dimension of condition-related factors to determine the Quick Disabilities of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (QDASH) minimal clinical important difference (MCID) for three distal upper extremity conditions. The second purpose was to explore the MAM dimension of personal factors to learn from individuals who expressed incongruence between their QDASH and GROC scores; how they described their perceived change in therapy. The third purpose was to explore the MAM dimension of therapy-related factors to examine the effect of patient-therapist collaborative goal setting on patient adherence to treatment and QDASH outcomes. Results demonstrated in the first study that diagnosis specific MCID’s differed from the global MCID using multiple diagnoses. In the second study results demonstrated that patients expect to have a dedicated therapist who they can trust to work collaboratively with them to establish goals and spend time with them to achieve these goals. In the third study, our first hypothesis was not supported for all three measures of adherence. The median for home exercise program diary adherence was found to trend towards significance by 8.7 percent favoring the experimental group Mann-Whitney U (p < .100). Our second hypothesis was not supported. The experimental group receiving collaborative goal setting intervention had similar QDASH mean change scores 45.9±27.6 compared to the control group 46.1±23.8, Mann-Whitney U (p < .859).

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Redfearn, Brady Edwin. "Rapid Design and Prototyping Methods for Mobile Head-Worn Mixed Reality (MR) Interface and Interaction Systems." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82056.

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As Mixed Reality (MR) technologies become more prevalent, it is important for researchers to design and prototype the kinds of user interface and user interactions that are most effective for end-user consumers. Creating these standards now will aid in technology development and adoption in MR overall. In the current climate of this domain, however, the interface elements and user interaction styles are unique to each hardware and software vendor and are generally proprietary in nature. This results in confusion for consumers. To explore the MR interface and interaction space, this research employed a series of standard user-centered design (UCD) methods to rapidly prototype 3D head-worn display (HWD) systems in the first responder domain. These methods were performed across a series of 13 experiments, resulting in an in-depth analysis of the most effective methods experienced herein and providing suggested paths forward for future researchers in 3D MR HWD systems. Lessons learned from each individual method and across all of the experiments are shared. Several characteristics are defined and described as they relate to each experiment, including interface, interaction, and cost.
Ph. D.

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Ueckert, Sebastian. "Novel Pharmacometric Methods for Design and Analysis of Disease Progression Studies." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för farmaceutisk biovetenskap, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-216537.

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With societies aging all around the world, the global burden of degenerative diseases is expected to increase exponentially. From the perspective drug development, degenerative diseases represent an especially challenging class. Clinical trials, in this context often termed disease progression studies, are long, costly, require many individuals, and have low success rates. Therefore, it is crucial to use informative study designs and to analyze efficiently the obtained trial data. The development of novel approaches intended towards facilitating both the design and the analysis of disease progression studies was the aim of this thesis. This aim was pursued in three stages (i) the characterization and extension of pharmacometric software, (ii) the development of new methodology around statistical power, and (iii) the demonstration of application benefits. The optimal design software PopED was extended to simplify the application of optimal design methodology when planning a disease progression study. The performance of non-linear mixed effect estimation algorithms for trial data analysis was evaluated in terms of bias, precision, robustness with respect to initial estimates, and runtime. A novel statistic allowing for explicit optimization of study design for statistical power was derived and found to perform superior to existing methods. Monte-Carlo power studies were accelerated through application of parametric power estimation, delivering full power versus sample size curves from a few hundred Monte-Carlo samples. Optimal design and an explicit optimization for statistical power were applied to the planning of a study in Alzheimer's disease, resulting in a 30% smaller study size when targeting 80% power. The analysis of ADAS-cog score data was improved through application of item response theory, yielding a more exact description of the assessment score, an increased statistical power and an enhanced insight in the assessment properties. In conclusion, this thesis presents novel pharmacometric methods that can help addressing the challenges of designing and planning disease progression studies.

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Hu, Li. "CORPORATE TRAINING PROFESSIONALS' PERCEPTIONS REGARDING THE USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN IN CHINA: A MIXED METHODS STUDY." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/443.

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Yin, Kitty Kwan Pui. "Use of different services by parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder - A mixed methods design." Thesis, University of Essex, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601382.

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The overall objective of this study was to understand the use of services by parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder in an inner London area. Children for this study were aged between four to eight years. A concurrent mixed method design was adopted. The primary investigation involved a quantitative approach to identify factors that were associated with and predictive of service use. Child factors (of neuropsychiatric symptoms, behavioural disturbances, autism symptomatology, and IQ), parental factors (ofparenting stress and depression), and socioeconomic factors were included in the quantitative investigation. Five support types from different services were included. Individual interviews with a small number of purposiveJy selected parents also took place to explore their views and beliefs that might be related to service use decisions. As predicted, ASD children of this sample were reported to have a high level of neuropsychiatric symptoms and behavioural disturbances. The level c;f parenting stress and risk of depression were clinically significant in a majority of this parent sample. IQ was not related to any child and parental factors. As also expected, a high level of service use was found in this parent sample, in that a majority of parents reported use of multiple services. Users and non-users of CAMHS and Social Care were analysed. Of all associated factors, the level of behavioural disturbances was the only factor found to be significantly predictive of CAi\1HS use. Predictive factors for Social Care use included parenting stress, intellectual impairment, and speaking English at home. Information from individual interviews with parents revealed high level of demands and challenges faced by parents. Issues related to service use decision were highlighted, including I 1 1 1 I j USE OF SERV1CES BY PARENTS OF ASD CHlLDREN J J difficulties finding out services thal were available and equality of access. Implications for clinical practice, future research directions and service development were discussed.

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Flanagan, E. "The effectiveness and acceptability of a computerised guided self-help programme for vaginismus : a mixed methods design." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2014. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1448569/.

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Overview This volume is separated into three parts: • Part 1: Literature review. A systematic review and meta-analysis of twelve randomised controlled trials that examined the efficacy of psychological treatment for vaginal pain. The aim was to understand whether efficacy of treatment differed for vaginal pain defined as medical or psychiatric in aetiology. Differences and similarities in efficacy were examined on outcomes of pain and sexual function. Effectiveness of psychological treatment was found to be comparable regardless of aetiology, indicating that this distinction may not be helpful for informing treatment decisions. • Part 2: Empirical paper. A mixed methods study evaluated a new computerised programme for six women with vaginismus. Change in pain-related fear, penetration behaviour and pain intensity was quantitatively assessed. Interviews were used to qualitatively explore acceptability and change. Pain-related fear and pain intensity reduced over the course of the programme; successful penetration increased. The programme was experienced as convenient, gradual, and supportive, with moments of frustration at progress. The programme also had a positive influence on self-awareness, confidence, normalisation, and approach behaviours, with exposure attributed as the most difficult but important aspect of change. • Part 3: Critical appraisal. An appraisal of methodology used in the empirical study, discussing the potential biases encountered with research allegiance.

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St, Clair Donald Philip. "MIXED METHODS STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) SALES PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF DESIGN ATTITUDE." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1522852069581315.

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Terrell, LaTrenda. "Head Start Teacher Professional Development on Language Modeling and Children's Language Development: A Sequential Mixed Methods Design." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/590.

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Poverty is known to affect many areas of life for poor children, particularly young children’s language development. To address language development issues as well as other educational needs, the Head Start Program was created. The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to describe the professional development experiences of Head Start teachers on language modeling. In addition, this study sought to explore teachers’ views on language modeling and the activities they find most effective to support student learning. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers wanted more training and workshops, to be paired with a mentor/coach, pay raises for achieving higher education, strategies for working with children, and encouragement from administration to effectively achieve their professional development plans and goals. Additionally, teachers demonstrated an understanding of the importance of language modeling for children to build vocabulary, to improve school readiness goals, and to communicate and express their needs. Finally, teachers felt very strongly that they use frequent conversations, wait for student responses during conversations, use back and forth conversations, encourage peer conversations, use more than one word as well as a variety of words to support children’s language development. Findings from this study may be utilized to provide the necessary support teachers need to improve their language modeling skills and to help programs in their planning and evaluation of an ongoing professional development model. This study adds to the literature on bridging the gap between learning about practices and using them in the classroom to improve children’s language development by including teacher voices into their professional development and how to effectively implement coaching practices to promote teacher knowledge and skills.

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Askarova, Samira H. "Managing Successful Strategic Turnarounds: A Mixed Methods Study of Knowledge-Based Dynamic Capabilities." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case162636803542875.

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Hayes, Suzanne. "A mixed methods study of shared epistemic agency in team projects in an online baccalaureate nursing course." Thesis, State University of New York at Albany, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3667396.

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This study explores the role of instructional design in the development of shared epistemic agency (SEA) when RN to BSN nursing students collaborate to complete a team project in an online course. Paavola & Hakkarainen's (2005) trialogical model of learning is used to design a learning activity where teams create a shared knowledge object, a co-authored patient interprofessional care plan to support group knowledge creation. The study addresses the following research questions: 1. What patterns of SEA are evident at the team level as manifest through epistemic and regulative actions in online student discourse? 2a. How did each team's epistemic and regulative decisions contribute to their shared knowledge object? 2b. How did the instructor's online interaction enhance or constrain each team's epistemic and regulative decisions? 2c. How did each team's use of project technology tools affect the development of their shared knowledge object? 3. What contributed to supporting or suppressing SEA in each team? These questions examine SEA in relationship to research in shared knowledge construction pedagogies and instructional design within nursing education.

This study uses a convergent parallel mixed methods design, in which both quantitative and qualitative data are collected, analyzed separately, and then merged (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Quantitative content analysis is used to examine student discourse for evidence of student epistemic and regulative actions. This is combined with two forms of qualitative analysis. Thematic analysis is used to examine student artifacts and interviews with team members and their instructor to gain deeper insight into the meanings of their epistemic and regulative experiences within this six week collaborative activity. Case analysis is used to describe and synthesize differences among teams that supported or constrained the development of SEA.

The quantitative strand of research found higher levels of regulative actions compared to epistemic actions in both teams. The qualitative strand of research identified two areas which constrained each team's development of SEA overall. The first related to a series of uncertainties related to apprehensions about working with team members for the first time, concerns about the project and the instructor's expectations, and doubts about using technology for collaboration. The second related to a series of disjunctures associated with students' discordent beliefs about collaboration; contradictory views of conflict; and, discrepent views of leadership.

Synthesis of these results resulted in six factors that contributed to supporting or suppressing SEA in each team: team contracts, the team wiki, propensity for regulative over epistemic actions, narrow views of conflict, misconceptions about collaborative learning, and the instructor's role. In light of these findings, theoretical and practical implications and recommendations are detailed.

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Walsh, Susan. "A mixed methods case study of early childhood professionals' perception and motivations of choosing self-directed learning." Thesis, University of La Verne, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3648371.

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Purpose. The purpose of this sequential, mixed-methods exploratory case study of early childhood professionals was threefold. First, determine if a relationship exists between a learner’s readiness toward directed (DL) and self-directed learning (SDL) style and the perception of their inclination toward directed or self-directed learning, when given a choice of the two. Second, examine how self-selection of DL or SDL relates to learning achievement. Third, detect motivation of individual’s selection in directed or self-directed learning.

Methodology. Quantitative methods in the form of survey assessment were employed to determine 52 participants’ perceived inclination for SDL compared to their diagnosed readiness for SDL using the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS). A pretest/posttest assessment determined achievement of skill in identifying content presented in training. Qualitative data were gathered through semistructured interviews of 24 participants representing all directed and a purposeful sample of self-directed learners.

Findings. Quantitative data showed that most participants could positively identify if they were ready for SDL, when looking at the readiness level for SDLRS. However, there was no significant relationship between their readiness for SDL and content growth of the training material. Content growth was measured using pretests/posttests. Qualitative data showed that those choosing SDL were motivated by convenience, desire for schedule autonomy, and confidence in ability to complete training independently.

Conclusions. The study data support the conclusion that adult learners are capable of identifying their readiness for SDL. SDL can be situational, and perceived barriers will motivate choosing DL versus SDL when given a choice. When barriers are mitigated, directed learners’ behavior may change and parallel self-directed learner behavior.

Recommendations. Further research is advised: (a) in applying quantitative survey to larger populations to determine more confidently the relationship between SDL and training growth; (b) in applying the research study to a more demographic diverse population that is better representative of the population; (c) applying the research study in various situations, as SDL is situational; (d) in seeking qualitative data from all participants including those not completing the study to discover the motivation and barriers to continue or withdraw from the learning experience.

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Sun, Rong. "Using Outcome-Based Instructional Design Approach to Enhance E-Learning with Social Software: A Mixed Methods Case Study." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30959.

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This mixed-methods single case study explored how outcome-based instructional design can be used to incorporate social software into an existing e-learning course. Pre-service teachers enrolled in a teacher education program at a Canadian university volunteered to participate in a study where social software was incorporated into a foundations course to facilitate digital literacy development, social objects production, and reflection on how these experiences connect to future teaching practice. The instructional design process was guided by a conceptual framework and informed by W(e)Learn, a well-tested e-learning design and evaluation framework. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the instructional designer’s journal, participant surveys, course records and interviews. Findings provided a comprehensive view of the effectiveness of outcome-based instructional design. In general, participants achieved the expected learning outcomes for this study. There were also unexpected outcomes. For example, some learners created a virtual community of practice. Some learners had an influence on their in-service teacher’s use of social software in teaching and learning. The findings supported the literature that states an outcome-based instructional design approach can facilitate learning. The findings also revealed why participants used social software in their teaching (e.g. awareness, usefulness, and school environment). In addition, these findings can inform school board policy with regard to supporting the use of social software in teaching and learning. The integration of qualitative and quantitative findings revealed convergence and divergence between the two types of data. In addition the findings informed directions for further research, including the relationship between learners’ satisfaction and learning experiences as well as the achievement of learning outcomes. The corroboration of data also identified specific effective and iii imperfect areas of the instructional design strategies, which, in turn, informed the revision of the conceptual framework for outcome-based instructional design. This study found W(e)learn to be effective in guiding outcome-based instructional design and analyzing the achievement of expected learning outcomes. The study also contributes to theory by recommending the inclusion of two new elements into W(e)learn. Painstakingly recording the instructional design process in a journal resulted in documented practical information and lessons learned that may guide and benefit instructional designers and educators who want to incorporate software into their learning activities.

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Arpin, Rachel Ann. "The Effectiveness of Digital Escape Rooms to Deliver Leadership Training: A Mixed-Methods Study." Franklin University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1620315747289854.

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Pihlgren, Pontus. "Design of Class Structures and Inter Class Communication Interface : Computer Methods used in Non-linear Mixed Effects Modeling." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Information Technology, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-89279.

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The field of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics describes the interactionbetween drugs and the human body from the time the drug is absorbed in the blood stream, distributed in the body, metabolized and finally excreted. The behavior can be described with nonlinear mixed effects models. NONMEM is a software for estimating parameters of such models and simulation of data. This thesis describes the design of Perl-speaks-NONMEM (PsN) which is a software framework for control of different aspects of NONMEM such as creating input, performing execution and output interpretation and presentation. The framework aims to simplify implementation of a range of statistical tools not featured in NONMEM. PsN includes the Bootstrap for measuring statistical accuracy and precision, the Case Deletion Diagnostics (CDD) for identifying influential individuals in medical studies and the Log Likelihood Profiling (LLP) for estimating asymmetrical confidence intervals for parameter estimates. PsN interfaces with various GRID systems: Sun Grid Engine, Plattform LSF and openMosix to enable parallel execution of NONMEM instances. The implementation of PsN was aided with custom built tools for generating class definitions, constructors and from UML diagrams. PsN also provides a set of command line interface tools that simplify usage for researchers without programming experience.

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Lovekin, Sarah. "Exploring The Utility OfA Video Based Parent Training ProgrammeWith Mothers With Mild Learning Disabilities : A Mixed Methods Design." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.505170.

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Dare, Fadeke Taiye. "A novel methodology for e-learning space design in HEI campuses." Thesis, University of Wolverhampton, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/209931.

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The Higher Education Institution and the Construction Industry are yet to define the most appropriate and effective design parameters for E-learning spaces. Those which exist, focus mainly on cost, budget and timely delivery i.e. the process only not the product. An effective approach to E-learning space design is needed to address the problems of space efficiency, effectiveness, quality, innovativeness, performance and client satisfaction. This study aimed to develop a novel methodology for e-learning space design, by investigating: the impact of e-learning on facilities and design; the impact of e-learning on the design of future spaces; the impact of blended learning on space design; designing for the learn anytime, anywhere paradigm; security issues of e-learning and e-learning space design, the levels of design risk in an e-learning infrastructure and inclusive design issues. A Grounded theory approach was used during initial desk studies, synchronized with a three part forum and pilot survey of 33participants. From this process, two hypotheses emerged; firstly, e-learning space design could affect users‘ learning outcomes and secondly that; user‘s learning requirements were different and varied. To investigate further, site based analyses of 11 HEI‘s, 10 interviews and subsequently a questionnaire survey was administered. Users‘ and stakeholders requirements and good examples of e-learning space design were identified. Data were analysed using a mixed-method research design approach. Three main constructs, Space design, Technology and the E-learning Space Design research focus (ELSD focus), emerged as significant components in the development of a novel framework for the design of e-learning spaces. The relationship between the components is such that the design of spaces with consideration of the ELSD research focus would ensure the effective identification, interpretation and delivery of users‘ requirement while maximising the benefits of the adoption of appropriate technology within HEI facilities. This was therefore proposed as the realistic framework/model for future design of E- learning Spaces in HEI campuses. The framework was adapted into a conceptual design guide to provide guidance for future space design. It is expected the study will support the HEI sector globally as it moves towards achieving best practice solutions to future E-learning space design in HEI campuses.

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Heikkinen, Tim, and Jakob Müller. "Multidisciplinary analysis of jet engine components : Development of methods and tools for design automatisation in a multidisciplinary context." Thesis, Tekniska Högskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, JTH, Maskinteknik, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-27784.

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This thesis report presents the work of analysing current challenges in Multidisciplinary Analysis systems. Exemplary the system of an aerospace supplier, GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, is examined and several suggestions for improve- ment are implemented. The Multidisciplinary Analysis system, with company internal name Engineering Workbench, employs a set-based approach in exploring the design-space for jet engine components. A number of design cases with varied geometrical and environmental parameters is generated using Design of Experiment sampling methods. Each design case is then subjected to a set of analyses. Using the analyses results, a surrogate model of the parts behaviour in relation to the input parameters is created. This enables the product developer to get a general view of the model’s behaviour and also to react to changes in product requirements. Design research methodology is applied to further develop the Engineering Workbench into a versatile design support system and expand the functionality to include producibility assessment. In its original state, the execution of a study requires explicit domain knowledge and programming skills in several disciplines. The execution of a study is often halted by minor process errors. Several methods to improve this status are suggested and tested. Among those are the introduction of an interface to improve the usability and expand the range of possible users. Further the integration of a four level system architecture supporting a modular structure. Producibility assessment is enabled by developing an expert system where geometrical and simulation results can be caught, analysed and evaluated to produce producibility metrics. Evaluation of the implemented solutions indicate a step in the right direction. Further development towards Multidisciplinary Optimisation, involving experts in information technologies as well as case- based reasoning techniques is suggested and discussed.

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Tunningley, Joan M. "Self-Regulated Learning and Reflective Journaling in an Online Interprofessional Course: A Mixed Methods Study." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1511799445626182.

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Moberg, Kajsa. "The use and non-use of sports supplements : A mixed methods study among people exercising at gyms." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-17802.

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Sports supplements include nutritional supplements and ergogenic aids and are widely used in the gym culture. Previous research has examined predictors for supplement use, but lacks an insight into why these patterns appear. The objective was to examine predictors for sports supplement use among people exercising at gyms and explore how sports supplements are used, perceived and viewed upon among a group of regular gym users. A mixed methods explanatory sequential design was used. In phase 1, an online cross-sectional survey was conducted. Phase 2 consisted of six semi-structured interviews exploring why sports supplements are used and not used, as well as expectations and beliefs regarding sports supplements among training individuals. 85 individuals participated in the survey. 68 percent used sports supplements regularly, but no predictors from previous research could be confirmed. The interviews showed that supplements were used for convenience and to ensure a sufficient nutrition intake, while non-users expressed a lack of knowledge and believed supplements to be inefficient and unnecessary. No predictors for use of sports supplements were confirmed, but both users and non-users highly value health responsibility in their decision of supplement use. To users, sports supplements are efficient and convenient dietary complements and replacements. Non-supplement users regard sports supplements to be unnecessary, inefficient and less enjoyable than food. Due to the small sample size, more studies are needed within the field in order to fully understand the role of sports supplements in the target group.
Träningstillskott inkluderar tillskott av enskilda näringsämnen och prestationshöjande medel och används flitigt i gymvärlden. Tidigare forskning har undersökt vilka faktorer som spelar roll för användning av tillskott, men saknar en djupare insikt om varför dessa mönster uppstår.Syftet var att undersöka avgörande faktorer för användning av träningstillskott bland individer som tränar på gym samt undersöka hur en grupp gymtränande individer använder, uppfattar och ser på träningstillskott. En mixed methods explanatory sequential design användes. Fas 1 bestod av en onlineenkät. Fas 2 utgjordes av sex semistrukturerade intervjuer som undersökte varför träningstillskott används respektive inte används samt förväntningar och uppfattningar gällande träningstillskott bland tränande individer. 85 individer deltog i enkäten. 68 procent använde träningstillskott regelbundet, men inga av de faktorer för användning som identifierats i tidigare forskning kunde bekräftas. Intervjuerna visade att tillskott användes av bekvämlighetsskäl och för att försäkra individen om ett tillräckligt näringsintag, medan icke-användare uttryckte otillräcklig kunskap och uppfattade tillskott som ineffektiva och onödiga. Inga prediktorer för användning av träningstillskott kunde bekräftas, men både användare och icke-användare värderar hälsoansvar högt i sitt beslut gällande användning av träningstillskott. Användare anser tillskott vara effektiva och bekväma komplement och ersättare i kosten. Icke-tillskottsanvändare uppfattar tillskott som onödiga, ineffektiva och mindre njutningsfulla än mat. På grund av ett litet urval behövs fler studier inom området för att få en tydligare bild av hur träningstillskott används av målgruppen.

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Butler, William M. "The Impact of Simulation-Based Learning in Aircraft Design on Aerospace Student Preparedness for Engineering Practice: A Mixed Methods Approach." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27601.

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It has been said that engineers create that which never was. The university experience is a key component in preparing engineers who support the creation of products and systems that improve the world we live in. The way in which engineers have been trained in universities has changed throughout history in America, moving from an apprentice-like approach to the still-used engineer scientist. Some in industry and academia feel that this model of engineer preparation needs to change in order to better address the complexities of engineering in the 21st century, and help fill a perceived gap between academic preparation and 21st century industrial necessity. A new model for student preparation centering on engineering design called the Live Simulation Based Learning (LSBL) approach is proposed based upon the theories of situated learning, game-based learning, epistemic frames, and accidental competencies. This dissertation discusses the results of a study of the application of LSBL in a two term capstone design class in aerospace engineering aircraft design at Virginia Tech. It includes LSBLâ s impact on student professional and technical skills in relation to aerospace engineering design practice. Results indicate that the participants found the LSBL experience to be more engaging than the traditional lecture approach and does help students respond and think more like aerospace engineering practicing professionals and thus begin to address the â gapâ between academia and industry.
Ph. D.

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Wium, Anna-Marie, and Brenda Louw. "Mixed-Methods Research: A Tutorial for Speech-Language Therapists and Audiologists in South Africa." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2593.

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Background: Mixed-methods research (MMR) offers much to healthcare professions on clinical and research levels. Speech-language therapists and audiologists work in both educational and health settings where they deal with real-world problems. Through the nature of their work, they are confronted with multifaceted questions arising from their efforts to provide evidence-based services to individuals of all ages with communication disorders. MMR methods research is eminently suited to addressing such questions. Objective: The aim of this tutorial is to increase awareness of the value of MMR, especially for readers less familiar with this research approach. Method: A literature review was conducted to provide an overview of the key issues in MMR. The tutorial discusses the various issues to be considered in the critical appraisal of MMR, followed by an explanation of the process of conducting MMR. A critical review describes the strengths and challenges in MMR. Results: MMR is less commonly used or published in the fields of speech-language therapy and audiology. Conclusion: Researchers working in teams can draw on the strengths of different disciples and their research approaches. Such collaborative enterprises will contribute to capacity building. Researchers, SLTs and audiologists are encouraged to make use of MMR to address the complex research issues in the multicultural, multifaceted South African context. MMR makes an important contribution to the understanding of individuals with communication disorders, and in turn, researchers in the two disciplinary fields of speech-language therapy and audiology can contribute to the development of this research approach. MMR is well suited to the complexity of South African contexts and its populations, as it can provide multiple perspectives of a topic.

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Freeman, Laura J. "Statistical Methods for Reliability Data from Designed Experiments." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/37729.

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Product reliability is an important characteristic for all manufacturers, engineers and consumers. Industrial statisticians have been planning experiments for years to improve product quality and reliability. However, rarely do experts in the field of reliability have expertise in design of experiments (DOE) and the implications that experimental protocol have on data analysis. Additionally, statisticians who focus on DOE rarely work with reliability data. As a result, analysis methods for lifetime data for experimental designs that are more complex than a completely randomized design are extremely limited. This dissertation provides two new analysis methods for reliability data from life tests. We focus on data from a sub-sampling experimental design. The new analysis methods are illustrated on a popular reliability data set, which contains sub-sampling. Monte Carlo simulation studies evaluate the capabilities of the new modeling methods. Additionally, Monte Carlo simulation studies highlight the principles of experimental design in a reliability context. The dissertation provides multiple methods for statistical inference for the new analysis methods. Finally, implications for the reliability field are discussed, especially in future applications of the new analysis methods.
Ph. D.

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Hoxha, Linda [Verfasser], and Rudolf [Akademischer Betreuer] Tippelt. "Conceptions of Kosovar employees on transformational/creative leadership : an exploratory design with mixed methods / Linda Hoxha ; Betreuer: Rudolf Tippelt." München : Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 2017. http://d-nb.info/1128594145/34.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Concurrent mixed methods design'

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