Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ill-defined'

The purpose of this study is to investigate how resources are controlled in environments with ill-defined technology and output. Of interest is whether such profit and nonprofit organizations have similar control structures and processes. Organizations in three different industries were investigated: child care, information services, and fire protection. The study provides a basis to develop and understand control processes in the specific environments studied.

This study was carried out in response to the policy attention directed at older people discharged from hospital with ill-defined conditions, or signs and symptoms related disease. In England there has been an increase in incidence of this type of hospital admission and policy suggests that patients with these codes have fewer medical/physiological and more ‘social’ conditions that could be better managed in community settings. Currently however, this population has not been characterised. Description of the functional and physiological status of these patients is essential for the planning of future health and social care services. Patients with ill-defined conditions were described via a cross-sectional study of 80 patients aged over 70 years admitted to hospital with collapse/falls. Number of chronic diseases and prescribed medications were obtained from the medical records. Routine blood tests were taken and serum cytokine concentrations (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ) were measured. Deprivation score, functional status, depression and the prevalence of frailty were ascertained. 35 patients received ill-defined condition codes, 45 received other codes. Patients with ‘illdefined conditions’ had normal routine blood results but very high serum concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines which did not correlate with number of chronic diseases indicating considerable medical problems. As the policy had suggested, they also had prevalent functional impairment (65.7%), high rates of frailty (77.1%) and pre-frailty (14.3%), and depression (42.9%). Patients with ill-defined conditions had poor outcomes evident in the high readmission (60%) and mortality (20%) rates. Patients were hospitalised for a statistically significantly shorter period than patients with other codes (p<.05) and functional limitations and depression were associated with a longer length of stay. Increasing deprivation and TNF-α concentration were associated with an increase in the odds of an illdefined condition diagnosis at discharge. The association between functional limitations, frailty, chronic disease and depression add considerable complexity to the health of older people with ill-defined conditions. However, the prevalence of multiple morbidity, high serum concentrations of inflammatory markers and poor outcomes indicate that they also have considerable medical problems that may be largely unmet. These medical problems may result from chronic disease symptom crises and manifest as geriatric conditions for which there are no appropriate International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes. The results of this study indicate a need for reevaluation of the ICD-10 system to incorporate the health problems faced by older people and further research into the effect of a more comprehensive community-based chronic disease management that aims to enable frail older people to maintain health and independence at home and prevent readmission in patients with ill-defined conditions.

This experiment was designed to compare the before and after ratings of solutions generated by individuals using two problem solving scaffolds, brainstorming and the hierarchical technique. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions which varied by type of scaffold (procedures to guide thinking), type of tool used to assist solution generation (random word list or thesaurus), and type of technology utilized (computer versus paper and pencil). Using a personal problem, participants generated solutions on paper until they could no longer add to their list. Then participants were taught to use a scaffold, either brainstorming or the hierarchical technique , and allowed to continue generating solutions either on paper or on a computer with one of two tools to stimulate ideas, a random word list or a thesaurus.Results indicated that participants trained on brainstorming generated solutions that were more original than participants trained on the hierarchical technique. The mean number of solutions generated was highest when participants used the computer recording tool paired with a thesaurus. Finally, participants rated solutions higher on practicality when they used a random word list instead of a thesaurus.
Department of Psychological Science

This body of research focuses on supporting problem-stakeholders, decision-makers and problem-solvers faced with an ill-defined and complex real world problem. An ill-defined problem has a characteristic trait of continual refinement. That is, the definition of the problem changes throughout the problem investigation and resolution process. The central theme of this research is that a support system should provide problem stakeholders with a problem definition model for constructing and manipulating a representation of the definition of the problem as they understand it. The approach adopted herein is to first develop a problem definition model for ill-defined problems— the 6-Component problem definition model. With this model, it is then possible to move on to identifying the types of changes or modifications to the problem definition that problem stakeholders, decision makers and problem solvers may wish to explore. Importantly, there must be a connection between the surface representation of the problem and the underlying implementation of the support system. This research argues that by focusing the support system around the problem definition, it is possible to reduce the mismatch between the problem objectives and the representation of the problem that the support system offers. This research uses the Unified Modelling Language to record and explore the requirements that problem stakeholders, faced with an evolving problem definition, place on a support system. The 6-Component problem definition model is then embedded within a design for an evolutionary support system. This embedding, supported by collaboration diagrams, shows how a system using the 6-Component problem definition model will support stakeholders in their exploration, evaluation and resolution of an ill-defined and complex real-world problem. A case study provides validation of the effectiveness of the 6-Component problem definition model proposed and developed in this work. The case study uses the 6-Component problem definition model as a basis for implementing the Integration Workbench, an evolutionary support system for land-use planning. Stakeholders explore, communicate, evaluate and resolve the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement problem with assistance from the Integration Workbench.

Esta dissertação trata das características próprias dos problemas de projeto de desenvolvimento de produtos. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram revisar parte da literatura publicada sobre a natureza dos problemas de projeto; confirmar, na prática, a mudança na definição dos componentes do problema ao longo da sua resolução; e propor uma estrutura que auxilie a escolha de ferramentas de geração de alternativas. São apresentados os resultados de uma observação do processo projetual realizado por estudantes de graduação da Engenharia e do Design, trabalhando conjuntamente. A dissertação é estruturada na forma de três artigos encadeados. Os resultados da revisão bibliográfica conformam o primeiro artigo, referente ao capítulo dois deste documento. A observação dos grupos de estudantes está no segundo artigo, referente ao capítulo três. A contribuição busca facilitar a tradução dos requisitos de um projeto em conceitos de um produto, através da proposição de uma matriz que cruza as dimensões dos problemas de projeto de produtos manufaturados industrialmente e algumas ferramentas conhecidas para a geração de alternativas. Essa matriz se encontra no terceiro artigo, referente ao capítulo quatro do documento. No quinto e último capítulo são elaboradas as conclusões do estudo, que apontam para a recursividade da atividade de definir um problema paralelamente ao seu processo de resolução.
This study is about the nature of design problems. Its objectives are: to review part of the literature about the topic; to confirm, with empirical basis, the changes in the components of design problem through the resolution process; and present a framework that helps choosing concept generating tools. The empirical data were obtained from observation and verbal protocols of graduation students from Engineering and Design courses working together. This research is presented in three linked articles, setting chapters two, three and four of this document. Chapter two represents the literature review. The observation of the students corresponds to chapter three. The contribution appears in chapter four, where the design problem dimensions are crossed with tools for concept generation. Lastly, in the fifth chapter, the conclusions pointed out to the recursiveness in the problem definition and solution generation process.

This thesis is an inquiry that documents, identifies and assesses the effectiveness, circumstances, and potential resources related to addressing the gap between social needs and higher education as stated in the National Development Strategy 2011-2016. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the response of the students on the collaborative, human-centered, result-oriented aspects of design thinking while addressing the eating experience topic, an articulated theme from the wicked problem of obesity. The eating experience theme provided students from design, business and engineering majors a contextualized topic to test design thinking in a series of workshops conducted in three different universities. Quantitative research methods were used to test the students’ feedback on design thinking, map their reactions during the process and rate the workshops. The later served as a recruitment channel to bring interested students from design, business and engineering majors in a last workshop. Participants develop one of the previously generated seed concepts and reflect on the multi-disciplinary experience. Results have shown that students successfully articulated the method, focused on the user-needs, collaborated with each other and generated tangible seed concepts to address the social topic. The interior design students assessed the method with an average rating. They were the least comfortable with the ambiguity level of the topic and with the user-centered approach of design thinking. Whereas the engineering and business students rated the method with high scores and were comfortable in the workshops. Furthermore, 22% of the students involved in the study were interested to enroll in the last multi-disciplinary workshop yet 5% participated due to their workload and the lack of incentives. In conclusion, the inquiry engaged students in a transformative academic experience that impacted their cognitive and ethical capacity. It also revealed new opportunities that can bridge the gap between higher education and social needs.

BACKGROUND:Heart failure is sometimes incorrectly listed as the underlying cause of death (UCD) on death certificates, thus compromising the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics. Statistical redistribution of the UCD has been used to examine the effect of misclassification of the UCD attributed to heart failure, but sex- and race-specific redistribution of deaths on coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the United States has not been examined.METHODS:We used coarsened exact matching to infer the UCD of vital records with heart failure as the UCD from 1999 to 2010 for decedents 55years old and older from states encompassing regions under surveillance by the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, and North Carolina). Records with heart failure as the UCD were matched on decedent characteristics (five-year age groups, sex, race, education, year of death, and state) to records with heart failure listed among the multiple causes of death. Each heart failure death was then redistributed to plausible UCDs proportional to the frequency among matched records.RESULTS:After redistribution the proportion of deaths increased for CHD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertensive heart disease, and cardiomyopathy, P<0.001. The percent increase in CHD mortality after redistribution was the highest in Mississippi (12%) and lowest in Maryland (1.6%), with variations by year, race, and sex. Redistribution proportions for CHD were similar to CHD death classification by a panel of expert reviewers in the ARIC study.CONCLUSIONS:Redistribution of ill-defined UCD would improve the accuracy and comparability of mortality statistics used to allocate public health resources and monitor mortality trends.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-04T19:14:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-02-17
Repensar estratégias efetivas para o controle e prevenção das doenças crônicas não transmissíveis (DCNT) tem sido um desafio para os sistemas de saúde. Segundo a OMS, as DCNT respondem por 73% dos óbitos no mundo, com destaque para doenças cardiovasculares (31,3%). No Brasil, as doenças cardiovasculares (DCV) constituem a primeira causa de morte em todas as regiões brasileiras. O presente estudo teve como campo de pesquisa o município de Praia Grande-SP, com objetivo de avaliar o desempenho da rede de atenção à saúde ao paciente portador de DCV. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas fases. A primeira, de caráter quantitativo, buscou identificar a evolução das taxas de mortalidade por doenças do aparelho circulatório (doenças isquêmicas do coração, doenças cerebrovasculares e doenças hipertensivas) no período entre 1996 e 2012, antes e após a criação do Serviço de Verificação de Óbitos regional no município de Praia Grande. A segunda parte do estudo, de caráter qualitativo, buscou conhecer, por meio de coleta de informações orais, o circuito do atendimento em rede à pessoa que procura os serviços de saúde do município de Praia Grande na perspectiva do usuário com doença cardiovascular, desde o diagnóstico até a ocorrência do óbito, com o objetivo de reconstruir as formas de acesso aos serviços de saúde e continuidade do cuidado. Com essa finalidade realizamos uma seleção aleatória de 17 óbitos por DCV de residentes na Praia Grande ocorridos no período de janeiro a maio de 2013. Os prontuários foram localizados nas Unidades de Saúde da Família e usados para coleta de dados, realizada por meio de questionário semiestruturado. Os familiares e profissionais dos serviços de saúde acessados para o atendimento do evento que levou ao óbito foram entrevistados para recompor a rede de assistência Resultados: Verificamos uma forte correlação positiva entre aumento da mortalidade proporcional por doenças cardiovasculares e número de óbitos investigados por necropsia no Serviço de Verificação de Óbito sugerindo que a investigação da causa de morte e o preenchimento correto da declaração de óbito pode ter sido um fator importante na modificação do perfil de mortalidade do município de Praia Grande no período 2006-2012. A observação do comportamento em espelho das tendências das mortalidades proporcionais por causas mal definidas e doenças cardiovasculares permite supor que o aumento de participação das últimas no obituário se deu à custa do declínio das primeiras. No ano de 2013, este estudo indicou que apenas o aumento quantitativo de equipes da Estratégia de Saúde da Família não se mostrou suficiente para o enfrentamento da DCV de forma efetiva e contínua, embora a rede de atenção básica do município de Praia Grande contasse com uma cobertura de mais de 56 % da população local com a Estratégia de Saúde da Família. Os nós dificultadores identificados neste circuito de serviços de saúde no município de Praia Grande são constituídos pelo desafio de trabalhar em rede, com comunicação entre os pares e transpondo barreiras locais, além do protagonismo fundamental do agente comunitário de saúde na questão do conhecimento, do monitoramento e da vigilância da população moradora em seu território, seja ela usuária do SUS ou da rede de saúde suplementar. À época da pesquisa, as unidades da atenção básica não pareciam ser uma porta aberta quando da agudização da sua condição crônica de saúde, o que leva o usuário a procurar primeiramente por serviços de urgência e emergência, continuando o fluxo para os serviços de internação, cujos procedimentos de alta complexidade também são dificultadores para uma boa evolução antes da ocorrência do óbito por DCV.
Rethinking effective strategies for prevention and control of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD) has been a challenge for health care systems. According to the WHO, NCDs account for 73% of deaths worldwide, especially cardiovascular diseases (31.3%). In Brazil, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in all Brazilian regions. This study’s research field was the municipality of Praia Grande -São Paulo, and its goal was to evaluate the performance of the health care network for the patient with CVD. The survey was conducted in two phases. The first, of quantitative character, sought to identify the evolution of mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases (ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive disease) in the period between 1996 and 2012, before and after the creation of Regional Coroner's Service in Praia Grande’s municipality. The second part of the study, qualitative, sought to know, through collecting oral information, the path along the service network of the person seeking health services on the Praia Grande’s municipality in the perspective of the patient with cardiovascular disease until death occurred, in order to reconstruct the forms of access to health services and the continuity of care. The authors conducted a random selection of 17 CVD deaths of residents in Praia Grande that occurred in the period from January to May 2013. The records were located on the Family Health Units and used for data collection, carried out through semi-structured questionnaire. Family members and health services’ professionals that had been accessed during the event that led to the death were interviewed to recompose the service network. Results: We found a strong positive correlation between increased proportional cardiovascular mortality and number of deaths investigated by necropsy in the Coroner's Service suggesting that the investigation of the cause of death and the correct completion of death certificates may have been an important factor in mortality profile modification of Praia Grande municipality in the period 2006-2012. The behavioral observation using mirror of the trends of proportional mortality from ill-defined causes and cardiovascular disease suggests that the increase in participation in recent obituary occurred at the expense of the decline of the first. In the year 2013, this study indicated that the quantitative increase of teams of the Family Health Strategy alone was not enough to manage effectively and continuously the CVDs, although the primary care network of Praia Grande municipality had more than 56% of the local population covered with the Family Health Strategy. The knots within the health care circuit in the city of Praia Grande are the challenge to network, to communicate between peers, to transpose local walls and the fundamental role of the Community Health Agent in the matter of knowledge, monitoring and surveillance of the population living in his territory, whether SUS user or of the private healthcare services. At the time of the survey, the primary care units did not seem to be an open door at the moment that their chronic health condition worsens. This lead the user to look first for urgency and emergency services, continuing the flow for inpatient services, whose highly complex procedures are also hindering for a good outcome instead the occurrence of death from CVD.
BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

A elevada frequência de óbitos por causas mal definidas e por diagnósticos incompletos compromete a validade de indicadores de mortalidade por causas, constituindo obstáculo para a alocação racional dos recursos de saúde com base em perfil epidemiológico. O presente trabalho avalia a qualidade da informação da causa básica de morte na região do Médio Paraíba, estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, nos anos de 2005 a 2009 para toda a população. Os dados provieram do Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade (SIM) disponibilizados pelo DATASUS/MS. A análise baseou-se em dois indicadores de mortalidade proporcional, por causas mal definidas (CMD - todos os óbitos cuja causa básica esteja incluída no capítulo XVIII da CID-10) e por diagnósticos incompletos (DI), segundo classificação apresentada no Projeto Carga de Doença do Brasil, 2002. As associações entre a qualidade da informação e variáveis demográficas, socioeconômicas e relacionadas à ocorrência do óbito foram investigadas por meio do cálculo das razões de chances de mortes por CMD e por DI, em relação às demais causas de morte. Observou-se na região do Médio Paraíba uma proporção de CMD de 4,54% no período de 2005 a 2009. A proporção de diagnósticos incompletos na região do Médio Paraíba no mesmo período mostrou-se elevada (20,59%). Somados os óbitos por CMD e DI na região do Médio Paraíba no quinquênio avaliado, chega-se a uma proporção de causas inadequadamente definidas (25,13%) bem acima do valor mediano de 12% estimado para a população mundial. As chances de CMD e DI decrescem quanto maior o grau de instrução. Quanto à variável raça, os óbitos de indivíduos da raça negra apresentaram maiores chances de ter CMD. Entre os óbitos de indivíduos de cor branca observaram-se maiores chances de constar um DI como causa básica. Nos óbitos sem assistência médica as chances de CMD e DI foram superiores em relação aos óbitos com assistência. Os óbitos em unidade hospitalar apresentaram menores chances de CMD e maiores chances de DI. As variáveis ignoradas ou não informadas apresentaram-se associadas a maiores chances de CMD e DI. Os resultados sugerem que na região do Médio Paraíba a qualidade dos dados de mortalidade no que concerne CMD está bem superior à nacional, assemelhando-se aos valores dos países desenvolvidos. Ainda assim, a proporção de causas residuais encontra-se bastante elevada, evidenciando que não obstante a expressiva melhora do SIM, persistem limitações que restringem a utilização mais ampla do sistema e impedem que os avanços nas políticas e programas na área da saúde sejam maiores.
A high frequency of deaths due to ill-defined causes and incomplete diagnoses compromise the validity of cause specific mortality indicators, constituting an obstacle to the rational allocation of health resources based on epidemiological profile. This study evaluates the quality of information regarding the underlying cause of death in the Médio Paraíba region, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the years 2005 to 2009 for the entire population. Data were obtained from the Mortality Information System (SIM) provided by DATASUS / MS. The analysis was based on two indicators of proportional mortality, the proportion of deaths due to ill-defined causes (IDC - Chapter XVIII, ICD-10) and incomplete diagnosis (ID) according to the classification presented in the Burden of Disease Project in Brazil, 2002. The association between quality of information of the underlying cause of death and demographic, socioeconomic and related to the occurrence of deaths covariates was assessed by calculating odds ratios of deaths due to IDC and ID in relation to the remaining causes of death. Proportional mortality due to IDC in the Médio Paraíba was found to be 4.54% in the period 2005-2009, values similar to those expected in developed countries. However, following a national trend, the proportion of incomplete diagnosis in the Médio Paraíba region, in the same period was high (20.59%). Together, the proportions of deaths from IDC and ID in the Médio Paraíba region in the quinquenium from 2005 to 2009, reached 25.13%, above the median value of 12% estimated for the world population. The odds of deaths due to IDC and ID decreased at higher levels of education. As for the variable race, the deaths of the black subjects had higher odds of having IDC. Deaths of white individuals were more likely to be listed as the underlying cause ID. Among deaths without medical assistance chances of IDC and ID were higher in relation to deaths with assistance. The deaths in hospital had lower odds of IDC and greater chances of ID. The variables had ignored or not reported were associated with higher odds of IDC and ID. The results suggest that in the Médio Paraíba quality of mortality data regarding IDC is well above the national level, resembling the values of developed countries. Still, the proportion of residual causes is quite high, showing that despite the significant improvement of SIM persist limitations that restrict the wider use of the system and prevent that advances policies and programs in health are greater.

At some point during a creative action something clicks, suddenly the prospective problem solver just knows the solution to a problem, and a feeling of joy and relief arises. This phenomenon, called Eureka experience, insight, Aha moment, hunch, epiphany, illumination, or serendipity, has been part of human narrations for thousands of years. It is the moment of a subjective experience, a surprising, and sometimes a life-changing event. In this thesis, I narrow down this moment 1. conceptually, 2. experientially, and 3. temporally. The concept of emerging solutions has a multidisciplinary background in Cognitive Science, Arts, Design, and Engineering. Through the discussion of previous terminology and comparative reviews of historical literature, I identify sources of ambiguity surrounding this phenomenon and suggest unifying terms as the basis for interdisciplinary exploration. Tracking the experience based on qualitative data from 11 creative practitioners, I identify conflicting aspects of existing models of creative production. To bridge this theoretical and disciplinary divide between iterative design thinking and sequential models of creativity, I suggest a novel multi-layered model. Empirical support for this proposal comes from Dira, a computer-based open-ended experimental paradigm. As part of this thesis I developed the task and 40 unique sets of stimuli and response items to collect dynamic measures of the creative process and evade known problems of insightful tasks. Using Dira, I identify the moment when solutions emerge from the number and duration of mouse-interactions with the on-screen elements and the 124 participants' self-reports. I provide an argument for the multi-layered model to explain a discrepancy between the timing observed in Dira and existing sequential models. Furthermore, I suggest that Eureka moments can be assessed on more than a dichotomous scale, as the empirical data from interviews and Dira demonstrates for this rich human experience. I conclude that the research on insight benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and suggest Dira as an instrument for future studies.

Phase behaviour information is essential for the development and optimization of hydrocarbon resource production, transport and refining technologies. Experimental data sets for mixtures containing heavy oil and bitumen are sparse as phase behaviour data are difficult to obtain and cost remains prohibitive for most applications. A computational tool that predicts phase behaviours reliably for mixtures containing such ill-defined components, over broad temperature, pressure and composition ranges would play a central role in the advancement of bitumen production and refining process knowledge and would have favourable impacts on the economics and environmental effects linked to the exploitation of such ill-defined hydrocarbon resources. Prior to this work, predictive computational methods were reliable for dilute mixtures of ill-defined constituents. To include a much wider range of conditions, three major challenges were addressed. The challenges include: creation of a robust and accurate numerical approach, implementation of a reliable thermodynamic model, and speciation of ill-defined constituents like Athabasca Bitumen Vacuum Residue (AVR). The first challenge was addressed by creating a novel computational approach based on a global minimization method for phase equilibrium calculations. The second challenge was tackled by proposing a thermodynamic model that combines the Peng-Robinson equation of state with group contribution and related parameter prediction methods. The speciation challenge was addressed by another research group at the University of Alberta. Pseudo components they proposed were used to assign groups and estimate thermodynamic properties. The new phase equilibrium computational tool was validated by comparing simulated phase diagrams with experimental data for mixtures containing AVR and n-alkanes. There is good qualitative and quantitative agreement between computed and experimental phase diagrams over industrially relevant ranges of compositions, pressures and temperatures. Mismatch was only observed over a limited range of compositions, temperatures and pressures. This computational breakthrough provides, for the first time, a platform for reliable phase behaviour computations with broad potential for application in the hydrocarbon resource sector. The specific computational results can be applied directly to solvent assisted recovery, paraffinic deasphalting, and distillation and refining processes for Athabasca bitumen a strategic resource for Canada.
Chemical Engineering

碩士
國立清華大學
工業工程與工程管理學系碩士在職專班
106
The main purpose of this research is to help improve the problems faced by the participative P company. This research integrated KT (Kepner & Tregoe) method and TRIZ tools for problem solving. The process includes six steps: (0) Situation Appraisal; (1) Problem Definition; (2) Problem Analysis; (3) Solution Generations; (4) Solution Selection and Integration; and (5) Solution Verification. This structured process can help problem solvers convert murky surface problems to the failure points, and then to critical key disadvantage(s) effectively. To make up the front-end process for solving murky, complex problems. The process modifies “Situation Appraisal” of the KT method with backward process reviews and added failure hypothesis to identify the failure point(s). The process further adopted “Is, Is not” method to clarify problem and “Risk Analysis” to select solutions. The contributions of this research include: 1) Integrating KT method into an existing TRIZ process to help analyze a company’s real-world murky, complex problems more effectively; 2) Proposed KT subjective scoring decision; 3)Applying parameter manipulation methods on the murky problem to greatly enhance the solution quantity and quality.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of partial exemplar experience on category formation and use. Participants had either complete or limited access to the three dimensions that defined categories by dimensions within different modalities. The concept of "crucial dimension" was introduced and the role it plays in category definition was explained. It was hypothesized that the effects of partial experience are not explained by a shifting of attention between dimensions (Taylor & Ross, 2009) but rather by an increased reliance on prototypical values used to fill in missing information during incomplete experiences. Results indicated that participants (1) do not fill in missing information with prototypical values, (2) integrate information less efficiently between different modalities than within a single modality, and (3) have difficulty learning only when partial experience prevents access to diagnostic information.
Dissertation/Thesis
M.S. Psychology 2011

This research deals with automated, knowledge-based tuning of servo motors. Conventional adaptive techniques can perform unsatisfactorily when the controlled system is complex and incompletely known. Furthermore, they cannot directly capture and utilize the knowledge of experienced human operators, in tuning a servo system. The tuning technique developed and implemented in this work can overcome these shortcomings. To integrate the controller of a high speed servo-motor with the tuning knowledge of experienced system operators, a hierarchical control structure is developed in this research. Specifically, the programmable hard controller of a servo-motor is tuned automatically in the lowest level. In the highest level, tuning knowledge expressed as a set of linguistic rules is generated and mathematically formulated using fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. This leads to the development of an off-line decision table in which tuning actions are matched with the servo-motor performance. A computer implementation of a servo expert is used in the intermediate level to update the controller parameters so that the actual response would meet a set of predefined performance specifications expressed in terms of the performance of a reference model. Learning and self-organization, as well as automated specification updating, if necessary, are used to improve the performance accuracy and system robustness. The intelligent tuner is implemented on a commercially available servo-motor system, and experiments are carried out to demonstrate its performance when implemented on the physical system. Furthermore, simulation results are used to evaluate the performance of the intelligent tuner when implemented on an ill-defined process.

碩士
淡江大學
教育科技學系碩士班
96
Cultivating student’ problem-solving ability become an important goal on education. But the ill-defined problem-solving knowledge domain is very hard to teach, especially in the e-learning materials. The purpose of this study is to investigate of e-learning content design principles in the ill-defined problem-solving knowledge domain. This study first reviewed literature and then synthesized the e-learning content design principles, the ill-defined problem-solving factor, problem types, problem-solving process, problem-solving strategies and instructional strategies of e-learning content design in the ill-defined problem-solving learning. Then, the study interviewed five experts and conducted an experiment to assure the validity of the principles. The content of the treatment is teaching “Analysis Steps of ADDIE model”. The e-learning materials were designed according to “e-learning content design principles in the ill-defined problem-solving knowledge domain”. The one-group pretest-posttest design was used with 16 first-year graduate students of Executive Master’s Program in education technology, Tamkang University. The experimental research results were listed as follows: 1.There was a significant difference on students’ pretest and posttest of knowledge test. The result indicated that students had progress in the posttest scores than the pretest in the knowledge test towards “Analysis Steps of ADDIE model”. 2.There was a significant difference on students’ pretest and posttest of problem-solving ability test. The result indicated that students had progress in the posttest scores than the pretest in the problem-solving ability test towards “Analysis Steps of ADDIE model”. 3.Students had positive attitudes toward this e-learning content, and they thougnt this e-learning content was helpful as well. In order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of “e-learning content design principles in the ill-defined problem-solving knowledge domain”. Afterwards, the researcher interviewed the students and revised the principles accordingly. The study is important because it provide the specific guideline and evidence for instructional designer to design e-learning materials in the ill-defined problem-solving knowledge domain.

This represents a proof-of-concept study of the appropriateness of vibrational and NMR spectroscopy for predicting the molecular structure of large molecules on the basis of a library of small molecules. Density Functional Theory (DFT) B3LYP/6-311G was used generate all spectra. 20 model compounds comprising two multiple-ringed polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) connected by varying aliphatic chain-lengths were investigated. A least squares optimization algorithm was developed to determine the contribution of molecular subunits in the model compounds. 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy failed to identify subunits unambiguously even with a constrained library. By contrast, IR and Raman results independently identified 40% and 65% respectively and jointly more than 80 % of the aromatic groups present; however, the aliphatic chain-length was poorly defined in general. IR and Raman spectroscopy are a suitable basis for spectral decomposition and should play a greater role in the identification of ringed subunits present in ill-defined hydrocarbons
Chemical Engineering

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2009.
Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Dec. 30, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Materials Engineering, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Deaths among the pediatric population encompass a small percentage of the total number of fatalities across the United States. Since the deaths of infants, children, and adolescents are rare, there is little forensic literature concerning this age group. Autopsies, if performed completely, can reveal additional information surrounding circumstances of a case and leads to a determination of a cause of death or a diagnosis of exclusion. Yet studies report that nationwide autopsy rates are low, despite an increase of drugs in the environment and the prevalence of ill-defined causes of death. With the use of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) internet database Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER), all deaths of individuals 19 years old and under were analyzed for years 2000, 2005, and 2010. The three main areas that were examined through the WONDER database were poisoning deaths for all ages, ill-defined causes of death for the infant age group, and overall autopsy rates for the three age groups with the highest crude rate of death. The crude death rate for all pediatric age groups have decreased within the examined decade. The infant age group comprised the majority of all pediatric fatalities and had the highest crude death rate. Individuals in the 15 to 19 year age group had the second highest crude death rate of the pediatric population. With a low number of total pediatric poisoning deaths, there has been a steady increase in crude death rate over the decade. The 15-19 age group encompassed the majority of these types of fatalities, with a total of 942 in 2010. It was also discovered that not every pediatric victim was autopsied when a death was diagnosed as a poisoning death when examined by a forensic pathologist. Infant ill-defined causes of death consisted of just over 12% nationwide for all years studied. However approximately 70% of all infant ill-defined causes of death were diagnosed as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 2000 and 2010. When examining autopsy rates for the year 2010, autopsies were performed for 32.9% of infant deaths, 55.1% of child deaths between 1-4 years of age, and 59.8% of teenage deaths between 15-19 years of age. In 2010, implementation of autopsies is uncertain for 2,454 deaths under 1 year, 255 deaths between 1 and 4 years, and 666 between 15 and 19 years. Measures need to be put in place nationwide to increase the rate of autopsies for the pediatric population and there needs to be strict accountability when it is not reported on a death certificate whether or not an autopsy was performed. Standard operating procedures should be applied for all autopsies of pediatric victims, with a toxicology examination always being included in an investigation.

In modern educational technology we have the ability to capture click-stream interaction data from a student as they work on educational problems within an online environment. This provides us with an opportunity to identify student behaviours within the data (captured by the online environment) that are predictive of student success or failure. The constraints that exist within an educational setting provide the ability to associate these student behaviours to specific educational outcomes. This information could be then used to inform environments that support student learning while improving a student’s metacognitive skills. In this dissertation, we describe how reading behaviour clusters were extracted in an experiment in which students were embedded in a learning environment where they read documents and answered questions. We tracked their keystroke level behaviour and then applied clustering techniques to find pedagogically meaningful clusters. The key to finding these clusters were categorizing the questions as to their level in Bloom’s educational taxonomy: different behaviour patterns predicted success and failure in answering questions at various levels of Bloom. The clusters found in the first experiment were confirmed through two further experiments that explored variations in the number, type, and length of documents and the kinds of questions asked. In the final experiment, we also went beyond the actual keystrokes and explored how the pauses between keystrokes as a student answers a question can be utilized in the process of determining student success. This research suggests that it should be possible to diagnose learner behaviour even in “ill-defined” domains like reading. It also suggests that Bloom’s taxonomy can be an important (even necessary) input to such diagnosis.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
科學教育研究所
104
Recently, the collaborative problem solving (CPS) has been becoming more and more important. Our research aimed to discuss how students performed their CPS skills and peer-interaction processes when solving an ill-defined problem. Thus, the research purpose was specified as understanding the difference of students' CPS skills, the communication behaviors and the peer-interaction patterns in collaboratively problem-solving processes before and after the teaching activities of CPS. In the research, we selected one class of senior high school students (totally, 13 students) in Taipei as a case when we utilized the methodology of case study. The research period was one month. The data included videotaping and audiorecording of the team discussions, and the log files of CWISE (an e-learning platform called the “Collaborative Web-based Inquiry Science Environment”). After applying the method of analytic induction, we found that more team comminocations focuseed on task-related communications in the posttest (about or more than 52% of total conversation). The students’ solving-problem processes appeared as nonlinear and non-sequence modes. More students performed better CPS skills in the posttest than those in the pretest. In addition, the CPS skills of the teams appeared a similar trend in both prte- and post- tests; that is, those who had better CPS skills preformed the high-level ability in earlier period of their problem-solving process, and those who had poor CPS skills performed the high-level ability in its later period. For the students’ interaction patterns, there was no unresponsive interaction in both pre and post- tests because of the number of the group member. The frequency of the procedural communicatios decreased in both pre- and post- tests and more task-related communications appeared in the posttest, but the frequencies of the social communications were different across groups. When teamates’ CPS skills were similar, the interaction patterns tended as the type of the ideal interaction. When teamates’ CPS skills were different, the interaction patterns tended as the type of the broken interaction. Every group had reduced the frequency of the procedural communication behaviors in the post-test. Therefore, the collaboratively problem-solving instruction designed by this study could promote students’ CPS skills under teachers’ timely guidance. It is suggested to use the heterogeneous grouping according to student prior knowledge when a teacher is not familiar with students’ CPS skills. In the future, more studies are needed to explore the aspects of problem solving and the types of interaction patterns, and focus more on how CPS skills are influenced by students’ characteristics or teachers’ teaching styles.

I investigate the impact of feeling financially constrained over the preference for defined tasks. I hypothesized that inducing these feelings would lead to a preference for well-defined job tasks to compensate for the perceived lack of personal control that these constraints generate. I tested this hypothesis in a lab experiment. Building upon prior literature, I found that even though feeling financially constrained induces a perceived lack of personal control, no effect over job preference was observed.

Building technology to support students who must learn ethics and social issues is a difficult problem. In fact ethics and social issues is an example of an ill-defined domains, which typically are resistant to standard intelligent tutoring systems techniques. An analysis of current pedagogical tools for teaching Computer Science ethics and social issues using Bloom’s Taxonomy shows that the task needs tools for achieving Application, Evaluation and Creation educational goals. One promising approach which has the potential to achieve such goals is educational games. This paper explores a proof of concept educational game called Conundrum. This serious game provides three ways for learners to interact with it, each supporting a level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. An experiment was run in a Computer Science ethics and social issues class showing promising results that the design of Conundrum led to students achieving Application, Evaluation and Creation goals. A multidimensional student model was also developed to aid instructors and learners understand their progress. The experiment showed that the design of Conundrum did have some good aspects but leaves a lot of future work to maximize its potential.

Intelligent tutoring systems and computer-supported collaborative environments have been designed to enhance human learning in various domains. While a number of solid techniques have been developed in the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) field to foster human learning in fundamental science domains, there is still a lack of evidence about how to support learning in so-called ill-defined domains that are characterized by the absence of formal domain theories, uncertainty about best solution strategies and teaching practices, and learners' answers represented through text and argumentation. This dissertation investigates how to support students' learning in the ill-defined domain of professional ethics through a computer-based learning system. More specifically, it examines how to support students in the analysis of case studies, which is a common pedagogical practice in the ethics domain. This dissertation describes our design considerations and a resulting system called Umka. In Umka learners analyze case studies individually and collaboratively that pose some ethical or professional dilemmas. Umka provides various types of support to learners in the analysis task. In the individual analysis it provides various kinds of feedback to arguments of learners based on predefined system knowledge. In the collaborative analysis Umka fosters learners' interactions and self-reflection through system suggestions and a specifically designed visualization. The system suggestions offer learners the chance to consider certain helpful arguments of their peers, or to interact with certain helpful peers. The visualization highlights similarities and differences between the learners' positions, and illustrates the learners' level of acceptance of each other's positions. This dissertation reports on a series of experiments in which we evaluated the effectiveness of Umka's support features, and suggests several research contributions. Through this work, it is shown that despite the ill-definedness of the ethics domain, and the consequent complications of text processing and domain modelling, it is possible to build effective tutoring systems for supporting students' learning in this domain. Moreover, the techniques developed through this research for the ethics domain can be readily expanded to other ill-defined domains, where argument, qualitative analysis, metacognition and interaction over case studies are key pedagogical practices.

This dissertation presents a novel effort to develop ITS technologies that adapt by observing student behavior. In particular, we define an evolving expert knowledge base (EEKB) that structures a domain's information as a set of nodes and the relationships that exist between those nodes. The structure of this model is not the particularly novel aspect of this work, but rather the model's evolving behavior. Past efforts have shown that this model, once created, is useful for providing students with expert feedback as they work within our ITS called Rashi. We present an algorithm that observes groups of students as they work within Rashi, and collects student contributions to form an accurate domain level EEKB. We then present experimentation that simulates more than 15,000 data points of real student interaction and analyzes the quality of the EEKB models that are produced. We discover that EEKB models can be constructed accurately, and with significant efficiency compared to human constructed models of the same form. We are able to make this judgment by comparing our automatically constructed models with similar models that were hand crafted by a small team of domain experts. We also explore several tertiary effects. We focus on the impact that gaming and game mechanics have on various aspects of this model acquisition process. We discuss explicit game mechanics that were implemented in the source ITS from which our data was collected. Students who are given our system with game mechanics contribute higher amounts of data, while also performing higher quality work. Additionally, we define a novel type of game called a knowledge-refinement game (KRG), which motivates subject matter experts (SMEs) to contribute to an already constructed EEKB, but for the purpose of refining the model in areas in which confidence is low. Experimental work with the KRG provides strong evidence that: 1) the quality of the original EEKB was indeed strong, as validated by KRG players, and 2) both the quality and breadth of knowledge within the EEKB are increased when players use the KRG.