To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Empirical Evaluation.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Empirical Evaluation'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Empirical Evaluation.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Giménez, Linares Jesús Ángel. "Empirical machine translation and its evaluation." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/6674.
Full textAbstract:
Aquesta tesi estudia l'aplicació de les tecnologies del Processament del Llenguatge Natural disponibles actualment al problema de la Traducció Automàtica basada en Mètodes Empírics i la seva Avaluació.D'una banda, tractem el problema de l'avaluació automàtica. Hem analitzat les principals deficiències dels mètodes d'avaluació actuals, les quals es deuen, al nostre parer, als principis de qualitat superficials en els que es basen. En comptes de limitar-nos al nivell lèxic, proposem una nova direcció cap a avaluacions més heterogènies. El nostre enfocament es basa en el disseny d'un ric conjunt de mesures automàtiques destinades a capturar un ampli ventall d'aspectes de qualitat a diferents nivells lingüístics (lèxic, sintàctic i semàntic). Aquestes mesures lingüístiques han estat avaluades sobre diferents escenaris. El resultat més notable ha estat la constatació de que les mètriques basades en un coneixement lingüístic més profund (sintàctic i semàntic) produeixen avaluacions a nivell de sistema més fiables que les mètriques que es limiten a la dimensió lèxica, especialment quan els sistemes avaluats pertanyen a paradigmes de traducció diferents. Tanmateix, a nivell de frase, el comportament d'algunes d'aquestes mètriques lingüístiques empitjora lleugerament en comparació al comportament de les mètriques lèxiques. Aquest fet és principalment atribuïble als errors comesos pels processadors lingüístics. A fi i efecte de millorar l'avaluació a nivell de frase, a més de recòrrer a la similitud lèxica en absència d'anàlisi lingüística, hem estudiat la possibiliat de combinar les puntuacions atorgades per mètriques a diferents nivells lingüístics en una sola mesura de qualitat. S'han presentat dues estratègies no paramètriques de combinació de mètriques, essent el seu principal avantatge no haver d'ajustar la contribució relativa de cadascuna de les mètriques a la puntuació global. A més, el nostre treball mostra com fer servir el conjunt de mètriques heterogènies per tal d'obtenir detallats informes d'anàlisi d'errors automàticament.
D'altra banda, hem estudiat el problema de la selecció lèxica en Traducció Automàtica Estadística. Amb aquesta finalitat, hem construit un sistema de Traducció Automàtica Estadística Castellà-Anglès basat en -phrases', i hem iterat en el seu cicle de desenvolupament, analitzant diferents maneres de millorar la seva qualitat mitjançant la incorporació de coneixement lingüístic. En primer lloc, hem extès el sistema a partir de la combinació de models de traducció basats en anàlisi sintàctica superficial, obtenint una millora significativa. En segon lloc, hem aplicat models de traducció discriminatius basats en tècniques d'Aprenentatge Automàtic. Aquests models permeten una millor representació del contexte de traducció en el que les -phrases' ocorren, efectivament conduint a una millor selecció lèxica. No obstant, a partir d'avaluacions automàtiques heterogènies i avaluacions manuals, hem observat que les millores en selecció lèxica no comporten necessàriament una millor estructura sintàctica o semàntica. Així doncs, la incorporació d'aquest tipus de prediccions en el marc estadístic requereix, per tant, un estudi més profund.
Com a qüestió complementària, hem estudiat una de les principals crítiques en contra dels sistemes de traducció basats en mètodes empírics, la seva forta dependència del domini, i com els seus efectes negatius poden ésser mitigats combinant adequadament fonts de coneixement externes. En aquest sentit, hem adaptat amb èxit un sistema de traducció estadística Anglès-Castellà entrenat en el domini polític, al domini de definicions de diccionari.
Les dues parts d'aquesta tesi estan íntimament relacionades, donat que el desenvolupament d'un sistema real de Traducció Automàtica ens ha permès viure en primer terme l'important paper dels mètodes d'avaluació en el cicle de desenvolupament dels sistemes de Traducció Automàtica.
In this thesis we have exploited current Natural Language Processing technology for Empirical Machine Translation and its Evaluation.
On the one side, we have studied the problem of automatic MT evaluation. We have analyzed the main deficiencies of current evaluation methods, which arise, in our opinion, from the shallow quality principles upon which they are based. Instead of relying on the lexical dimension alone, we suggest a novel path towards heterogeneous evaluations. Our approach is based on the design of a rich set of automatic metrics devoted to capture a wide variety of translation quality aspects at different linguistic levels (lexical, syntactic and semantic). Linguistic metrics have been evaluated over different scenarios. The most notable finding is that metrics based on deeper linguistic information (syntactic/semantic) are able to produce more reliable system rankings than metrics which limit their scope to the lexical dimension, specially when the systems under evaluation are different in nature. However, at the sentence level, some of these metrics suffer a significant decrease, which is mainly attributable to parsing errors. In order to improve sentence-level evaluation, apart from backing off to lexical similarity in the absence of parsing, we have also studied the possibility of combining the scores conferred by metrics at different linguistic levels into a single measure of quality. Two valid non-parametric strategies for metric combination have been presented. These offer the important advantage of not having to adjust the relative contribution of each metric to the overall score. As a complementary issue, we show how to use the heterogeneous set of metrics to obtain automatic and detailed linguistic error analysis reports.
On the other side, we have studied the problem of lexical selection in Statistical Machine Translation. For that purpose, we have constructed a Spanish-to-English baseline phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation system and iterated across its development cycle, analyzing how to ameliorate its performance through the incorporation of linguistic knowledge. First, we have extended the system by combining shallow-syntactic translation models based on linguistic data views. A significant improvement is reported. This system is further enhanced using dedicated discriminative phrase translation models. These models allow for a better representation of the translation context in which phrases occur, effectively yielding an improved lexical choice. However, based on the proposed heterogeneous evaluation methods and manual evaluations conducted, we have found that improvements in lexical selection do not necessarily imply an improved overall syntactic or semantic structure. The incorporation of dedicated predictions into the statistical framework requires, therefore, further study.
As a side question, we have studied one of the main criticisms against empirical MT systems, i.e., their strong domain dependence, and how its negative effects may be mitigated by properly combining outer knowledge sources when porting a system into a new domain. We have successfully ported an English-to-Spanish phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation system trained on the political domain to the domain of dictionary definitions.
The two parts of this thesis are tightly connected, since the hands-on development of an actual MT system has allowed us to experience in first person the role of the evaluation methodology in the development cycle of MT systems.
2
Fevang, Rune, and Arne Bergene Fossaa. "Empirical evaluation of metric indexing methods." Thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Computer and Information Science, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-8902.
Full textAbstract:
Metric indexing is a branch of search technology that is designed for search non-textual data. Examples of this includes image search (where the search query is an image), document search (finding documents that are roughly equal) to search in high-dimensional Euclidean spaces. Metric indexing is based on the theory of metric spaces, where the only thing known about a set of objects is the distance between them (defined by a metric distance function). A large number of methods have been proposed to solve the metric indexing problem. In this thesis, we have concentrated on new approaches to solving these problems, as well as combining existing methods to create better ones. The methods studied in this thesis include D-Index, GNAT, EMVP-Forest, HC, SA-Tree, SSS-Tree, M-Tree, PM-Tree, M*-Tree and PM*-Tree. These have all been implemented and tested against each other to find strengths and weaknesses. This thesis also studies a group of indexing methods called hybrid methods which combines tree-based methods (like SA-Tree, SSS-tree and M-Tree), with pivoting methods (like AESA and LAESA). The thesis also proposes a method to create hybrid trees from existing trees by using features in the programming language. Hybrid methods have been shown in this thesis to be very promising. While they may have a considerable overhead in construction time,CPU usage and/or memory usage, they show large benefits in reduced number of distance computations. We also propose a new way of calculating the Minimal Spanning Tree of a graph operating on metric objects, and show that it reduces the number of distance computations needed.
3
Sebastian, Shalin. "Empirical evaluation of Monte Carlo sampling /." Available to subscribers only, 2005. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1075709431&sid=9&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
Full text
4
Ligon, Walter Batchelor III. "An empirical evaluation of architectural reconfigurability." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/8204.
Full text
5
Joosep, Henno. "Empirical Evaluation of Approaches for Digit Recognition." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap (DV), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-46676.
Full textAbstract:
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a well studied subject involving variousapplication areas. OCR results in various limited problem areas are promising,however building highly accurate OCR application is still problematic in practice.This thesis discusses the problem of recognizing and confirming Bingo lottery numbersfrom a real lottery field, and a prototype for Android phone is implementedand evaluated. An OCR library Tesseract and two Artificial Neural Network (ANN)approaches are compared in an experiment and discussed. The results show thattraining a neural network for each number gives slightly higher results than Tesseract.
6
Ramasamy, Ambigaibalan. "ASEAN free trade area : an empirical evaluation." Thesis, University of Leicester, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/35518.
Full textAbstract:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprising six nations - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - covers an area of more than 3 million sq. km. with a combined population of about 310 million. These countries have experienced significant economic growth in the last decade and this growth is expected to continue into the next century. ASEAN was established in 1967 with the objective of accelerating the economic growth, social progress and cultural development of the region. However, during the first decade after inception, regional security was of primary importance, especially with the escalating political and ideological struggle in Indo-China. Serious economic co-operation came into place only in 1976 with a range of co-operative schemes suggested by a UN-team of experts. These schemes, on the whole, were unsuccessful. Calls for greater political will and action in economic co-operation from the academic and business sectors culminated in the signing of the Singapore Declaration in 1992 which gave birth to the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the extent to which intra-regional imports and exports will change as a result of such integration. Two main effects are evaluated - the static and the dynamic. The static effects are limited to trade creation and trade diversion effects. The methodology primarily uses the price elasticities of import demand and export demand, which are the author's own estimates, to measure the expected changes. While there are various components of dynamic effects, we have emphasised one, namely, the increase in intra-industry trade. Results of this study show that only Singapore would receive a net gain as a result of the integration, i.e. its trade creation effects would outweigh trade diversion, while Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand would face a welfare loss. These are however, optimistic results based on the assumptions which we have used. As a whole, AFTA would face a 10 percent increase in intra-ASEAN trade. With regards to intra-industry trade, the study finds that the potential for a larger proportion of intra-ASEAN trade to be of the intra-industry type is greater for Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippine compared to Malaysia and Singapore. However, comparing the level of intra-industry trade of the members with the Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) and Developed Countries (DCs), there are indications that large gains would be accrued by all member countries as economies of scales and the benefits of greater efficiency through greater competition are realised when the free trade area is fully operational.
7
Ponangi, Preethi Vinayak. "Cognitive Cyber Weapon Selection Tool Empirical Evaluation." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1303229011.
Full text
8
Moattar, Haleh. "Empirical evaluation of subject-orientated business process modelling." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101341/1/Haleh_Moattar_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This study is a comparative evaluation of Subject-oriented Business Process Modeling (S-BPM). It examined modeling effectiveness and efficiency of S-BPM, from the novice modeler perspective, in comparison to the current industry standard process modeling language; Business Process Modeling Notations (BPMN). A laboratory experiment were set up in which participants were trained in S-BPM and BPMN and asked to model with each of these process modeling languages accordingly.Overall, participants in the S-BPM group created models faster than those using BPMN and models in S-BPM had more accuracy than the ones using BPMN. However, there was no significant evidence to confirm that participants perceived modeling with S-BPM to be easier than modeling with BMPN.
9
OLIVEIRA, KLEINNER SILVA FARIAS DE. "EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF EFFORT ON COMPOSING DESIGN MODELS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2012. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=28757@1.
Full textAbstract:
PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
PROGRAMA DE EXCELENCIA ACADEMICA
Composição de modelos desempenha um papel fundamental em muitas atividades de engenharia de software como, por exemplo, evolução e reconciliação de modelos conflitantes desenvolvido em paralelo por diferentes times de desenvolvimento. Porém, os desenvolvedores têm dificuldades de realizar análises de custos e benefícios, bem como entender o real esforço de composição. Sendo assim, eles são deixados sem qualquer conhecimento prático sobre quanto é investido; além das estimativas de evangelistas que frequentemente divergem. Se o esforço de composição é alto, então os potenciais benefícios tais como aumento de produtividade podem ser comprometidos. Esta incapacidade de avaliar esforço de composição é motivada por três problemas: (i) as abordagens de avaliação atuais são inadequadas para mensurar os conceitos encontrados em composição, por exemplo, esforço e conflito; (ii) pesquisadores não sabem quais fatores podem influenciar o esforço de composição na prática. Exemplos de tais fatores seriam linguagem de modelagem e técnicas de composição que são responsáveis para manipular os modelos; (iii) a falta de conhecimento sobre como tais fatores desconhecidos afetam o esforço de composição. Esta tese, portanto, apresenta uma abordagem de avaliação de esforço de composição de modelos derivada de um conjunto de estudos experimentais. As principais contribuições são: (i) um modelo de qualidade para auxiliar a avaliação de esforço em composição de modelos; (ii) conhecimento prático sobre o esforço de composição e o impacto de fatores que afetam tal esforço; e (iii) diretivas sobre como avaliar esforço de composição, minimizar a propensão a erros, e reduzir os efeitos negativos dos fatores na prática de composição de modelos.
Model composition plays a central role in many software engineering activities such as evolving models to add new features and reconciling conflicting design models developed in parallel by different development teams. As model composition is usually an error-prone and effort-consuming task, its potential benefits, such as gains in productivity can be compromised. However, there is no empirical knowledge nowadays about the effort required to compose design models. Only feedbacks of model composition evangelists are available, and they often diverge. Consequently, developers are unable to conduct any cost-effectiveness analysis as well as identify, predict, or reduce composition effort. The inability of evaluating composition effort is due to three key problems. First, the current evaluation frameworks do not consider fundamental concepts in model composition such as conflicts and inconsistencies. Second, researchers and developers do not know what factors can influence the composition effort in practice. Third, practical knowledge about how such influential factors may affect the developers effort is severely lacking. In this context, the contributions of this thesis are threefold: (i) a quality model for supporting the evaluation of model composition effort, (ii) practical knowledge, derived from a family of quantitative and qualitative empirical studies, about model composition effort and its influential factors, and (iii) insight about how to evaluate model composition efforts and tame the side effects of such influential factors.
10
McCreary, Faith. "Empirical Evaluation of a Technology-rich Learning Environment." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28948.
Full textAbstract:
In the fall of 1996, the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech initiated a joint project with a local school district, to determine how ready access to networked computing in the fifth grade would affect students. Called the PCs for Families (PCF) project, its goal was to learn what could be achieved if technology access, support, and curriculum integration could be eliminated as obstacles or constraints in the classroom and at home. A technology-rich classroom was created, with the classroom teacher trained in constructivist teaching practices and technology integration by a master teacher. Network computers were found on every desktop, with scanners, digital cameras, and other technologies scattered throughout the room. A computer was sent home with each child and teacher, and as much support as necessary was provided to all program participants, including parents. As part of this research, a yearlong field experiment was undertaken to explore the effects of the PCF intervention on the third cohort of students participating in the project. Macroergonomics served as the theoretical framework for the experiment, which focused on the in-depth, systematic assessment of those quantitative changes that resulted from exposure to the PCF fifth-grade network classroom. Students participating in the field research were randomly selected from the larger pool of students eligible for the PCF project at the school. Selected students were randomly assigned to either to the PCF fifth-grade classroom or the standard fifth-grade classroom, which served as a control group.
To first-time visitors walking into the PCF network classroom, the classroom bore little resemblance to its more traditional counterparts. However, the functioning of the PCF classroom was in many ways indistinguishable from that of its traditional counterparts. The yearly average for computer use in the PCF classroom was 4.275 hours, with computer use in the PCF classroom exceeding the three hours of computer laboratory time allotted to the control class only during the last 12 weeks of school. When used, the technology functioned as an electronic replacement for materials commonly found in traditional settings. Observers reported the pedagogy remained steadfastly teacher-centered and didactic. Despite limited utilization of the computer during classroom hours, analysis of individual, academic measures indicated PCF students made significantly greater gains than control students only on standardized writing tests. PCF students also performed significantly better than control students on measures related to technology skills. Boys in the PCF classroom also made greater improvements in their attitudes towards school than boys in the control classroom. At home, PCF students were found to interact with computer technology more often than their control counterparts. Despite lower overall home use, control students reported spending more time playing computer games than PCF students.
Correlational analyses indicated significant linear relationships between changes in student performance, student entry characteristics, and home computer use variables. Student previous achievement was by far the strongest predictor of student SOL test performance, with computer use only linked to student standardized test performance on the writing and mathematics sections. As the number of email messages sent by the student increased, their writing performance increased with email usage accounting for almost ten percent of the total variance in the writing score. The only other computer use measure significantly associated with test performance was student self-reports of computer use, which accounted for less than four percent of the total variance in mathematics test performance. Computer use was associated more strongly with changes in student motivation. Student self-reports of home computer use accounted for fully 30 percent of the variance in changes on the school motivation survey.
Analyses of data from the PCF proxy server suggest that student web browsing overshadows other home Internet activities, with email taking precedence over chat. Further, unlike chat or email, family web usage was sustained long after students left the PCF classroom. Over 68 percent of family web usage each week was attributable to student, not family, characteristics suggesting students play a large role in determining family usage. Academic information finding provides a plausible explanation for these results, with family web usage declining somewhat during summer months when students were not in school. Stability of both web and email use was relatively high among students. In keeping with critical mass theory, student email use increased when other students used email. However, social variables were not found to have a significant effect on web usage. Girls were found to make greater use of email than boys, with this research suggesting highly visual students used email more often.
The field research also found a significant increase in student self-reports of musculoskeletal problems among the PCF students. A year-end examination of workstation fit found seat and monitor heights an average of two inches higher than the corresponding student dimensions. A participatory design study was used to elicit conceptions of computer workstations from PCF students, teachers, and parents. Children were interested in gaining greater control over the workstation, both in terms of individual technology and adjustability of furniture. Parents, however, focused on improving the richness of an individual student's workspace and de-emphasized collaborative work. Teacher opinions diverged more than other groups with designs strongly influenced by pedagogic beliefs.
Results from the field study provide evidence that macroergonomic methodologies for analysis and design of work systems are extensible to classroom systems, and provide a systematic framework for examining issues related to the introduction of classroom computing technology. A critical element of any successful effort to integrate technology into the curriculum is access to adequate classroom technology and support; however, as this research illustrates, they are not sufficient to ensure successful integration. This research demonstrates other forces are at work, and in keeping with macroergonomic theory, key to the success of such an effort is the "fit" between the new technology and the characteristics of the classroom system, especially those of the teacher who effectively functions as the gatekeeper for the technology.Ph. D.
11
Mweli, Peter Vusi. "Empirical evaluation of South African share analysts’ performance." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25261.
Full textAbstract:
This paper sets out to evaluate whether investment recommendations of South African share analysts provide any value to an investor in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study focuses on the creation of a portfolio based on the recommendations by analysts between December 2002 and July 2010. The monthly returns and respective risk-adjusted returns of this portfolio are compared to those of the SATRIX Top 40 over the same period of time. The paper also evaluates the effectiveness of the SATRIX Top 40 as a performance benchmark by comparing it to a portfolio for shares of family-controlled or owner-managed companies listed on the JSE. The study utilises analyst consensus recommendations, with focus on buy and sell recommendations, to create a buy and hold portfolio that is compared to the SATRIX Top 40. The SATRIX Top 40 is further compared to ten-share portfolio of family-owned or owner-managed companies. The study finds that analysts’ recommendations lead to higher risk-adjusted returns for an investor when compared to the SATRIX Top 40. The returns are even better in a bear market environment when compared the benchmark SATRIX Top 40. It is also found that a portfolio of shares of family-controlled or owner-managed companies performs better than the SATRIX Top 40 and thus provides a better benchmark for an investor. CopyrightDissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted
12
Murray, Douglas W. Ayoun Baker Mahmoud. "Home brewing and serious leisure an empirical evaluation /." Auburn, Ala, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10415/1759.
Full text
13
Handley, Sean M. "The Evaluation, Analysis, and Management of the Business Outsourcing Process." The Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1217602296.
Full text
14
Nguyen, Mai. "Empirical Evaluation of a Universal Requirements Engineering Process Maturity Model." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för datavetenskap och kommunikation, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-4011.
Full textAbstract:
Context. Software products are usually developed for either a specific customer (bespoke) or a broader market (market-driven). Due to their characteristics, bespoke and market-driven development face different problems, especially in the requirements engineering areas. Moreover, many of these problems are caused by an inadequate requirements engineering process. Hence, in order to improve the process and subsequently the software quality, the maturity of the RE process must be evaluated. Although there are many process assessment initiatives done in bespoke development, there is a need for models covering both approaches. Uni-REPM, which can assess the RE process maturity in all environments, is such a model. Objectives. This study presents an academic and industrial evaluation of the Uni-REPM model before transferring it to industry. Methods. The first validation was conducted in the form of interviews with seven academic experts in which the model was scrutinized for its correctness and completeness. Subsequently, the model and the assessment method were applied and validated in 4 industrial organizations locating in Denmark, Spain and Singapore. Results. Based on the feedback obtained in the validation, refinements were made to the model to improve its quality. In addition, the evaluation result analysis of each industrial project is useful in indentifying weak areas in the process and suggesting possible improvement practices. Conclusions. The study shows that Uni-REPM is a quick, simple and cost-effective solution to assess the maturity level of the Requirements Engineering process of projects. Moreover, the assessment method using checklist is highly usable and applicable in various international development environments.
15
Akram, Muhammad Shakaib. "E-government adoption : an empirical evaluation of citizens perspective." Thesis, Aix-Marseille 3, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011AIX32083.
Full textAbstract:
Cette étude fournit un aperçu des tendances qui existent dans la littérature concernant le gouvernement électronique et le potentiel que ces systèmes ont pour les gouvernements, les entreprises, les employés et les citoyens dans la perspective des pays en développement. Pour comprendre la nature multidimensionnelle des systèmes de gouvernement électronique, cette étude présente un cadre de l'adoption par les citoyens de services du gouvernement électronique en intégrant la littérature sur l'acceptation de technologies et sur le succès du système d'information ainsi que les croyances d'attitude et de la société. Le modèle a été testé par une étude empirique au moyen de deux enquêtes, un questionnaire papier et une autre enquête sur internet. La modélisation d’équation structurelle a été utilisée pour tester les hypothèses.Les résultats de la recherche ont montré que par la capacité perçue à utiliser, le bénéfice fonctionnel, la confiance dans l'internet, la confiance dans le gouvernement et la satisfaction des utilisateurs sont de forts prédicteurs de l'intention des citoyens d’adopter des services de gouvernement électroniques. Nous trouvons également que l'effet de la qualité de l'information et la qualité du système sur l'adoption de l’e-gouvernement est totalement médiée par la capacité perçue à utiliser, le bénéfice fonctionnel, la confiance dans l'internet, la confiance dans le gouvernement et la satisfaction des utilisateurs. La capacité perçue à utiliser et la confiance dans le gouvernement s'avèrent être de significatifs médiateurs de la relation entre la qualité de service et l'adoption des services gouvernementaux en ligne. Nous ne trouvons pas d'effet direct significatif de risque perçu de terrorisme sur l'adoption des services gouvernementaux en ligne, cependant, nous trouvons un effet indirect par le bénéfice fonctionnel. Par ailleurs, nous trouvons un effet significatif du sexe, niveau d'éducation et du niveau d'expérience (avec Internet et avec les sites web du gouvernement) sur l'adoption des services gouvernementaux en ligne par les citoyens. On a constaté que l’âge n'avait pas d'effet significatif sur l'adoption des services gouvernementaux en ligne.En outre, la recherche fournit certaines suggestions utiles et implications pour les milieux académiques et les professionnels des services gouvernementaux en ligne. Cela permettra également de réduire les confusions dans l'esprit des citoyens, au sujet de l’adoption de l'e-gouvernementGlobalization has increased the importance of internet as a medium of communication almost in all aspects of our lives. The current exploratory research provides an insight into the trends that exist within literature concerning the area of Electronic Government (e-government) and the potential these have for the governments, businesses, employees and citizens in perspective of the developing countries. Globally the pace of implementing e-government services is rapidly increasing; however, despite high levels of investment, a broad range of applications, and various methods of access citizens have shown relatively low levels of usage of e-government services making it an interesting area of research. To encompass the multi-dimensional nature of e-government systems the current study presents a framework of citizens’ adoption of e-government services by integrating technology acceptance and information systems (IS) success literature along with citizens’ attitudinal and societal beliefs. In the proposed framework, the qualities of e-government websites such as perceived information quality (PIQ), perceived system quality (PSYQ) and perceived service quality (PSQ) along with social influence (SI), perceived risk of terrorism (PRT) are posited to influence citizens’ adoption of e-government services (ADP) directly and indirectly through perceived ability to use (PATU), perceived functional benefit (PFB), trust in the medium (TM), trust in the government (TG) and user satisfaction (SAT). The research uses a citizen-centric approach to determine citizens’ overall acceptability/adoptability of e-government services. Although we may generalize the results to other countries, yet the primary intention of this research is to shed light on how to approach, manage and implement such projects in developing countries. The model has been examined through an empirical study using paper-based along with a web-based survey. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results of the research show that perceived ability to use, perceived functional benefit, trust in medium, trust in government and user satisfaction are strong predictors of citizens’ adoption of e-government services. We also find evidence that the effect of perceived information quality and perceived system quality on adoption of e-government services is totally mediated by perceived ability to use, perceived functional benefit, trust in medium, trust in government and user satisfaction. Perceived ability to use and trust in government are found to be significant mediators on the relationship between perceived service quality and adoption of e-government services. We do not find any significant direct effect of perceived risk of terrorism on adoption of e-government services rather we find an indirect effect through perceived functional benefit. We also find that perceived ability to use, trust in medium and trust in government partially mediate the relationship between social influence and adoption of e-government services. Moreover, we find significant effect of gender, education level, experience with internet and with e-government websites on citizens’ adoption of e-government services. Age is found to have no significant effect on citizens’ adoption of e-government services. Further, the research provides some useful suggestions and implications for the academician and practitioners of e-government services assisting them in designing and implementing policies and strategies to increase the adoption of e-government services. This will also help reduce confusions in the minds of citizens, regarding e-government adoption
16
Cardin, Sylvie. "Empirical evaluation of small area estimators in community health." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=28702.
Full textAbstract:
Data required for the surveillance of the population of small areas and the implementation and evaluation of health preventive programmes are usually obtained from surveys conducted within each relevant small area. The substantial cost of local surveys has encouraged the search for other methods of obtaining the required information. One alternative consists of using small area estimators. Despite extensive applications of these procedures in diverse fields, guidelines concerning their use for the prediction of health variables are still lacking. In an effort to explore the applicability of small area estimators to the prediction of health parameters of Quebec's health areas, we conducted two empirical evaluations of these methods. Using data from Canadian surveys, estimates of health variables were produced for several Quebec's areas according to different techniques of small area estimation. The estimates were compared to a "standard" for each area and health variable, on the basis of average mean square error percents and Spearman correlations. Synthetic, regression-sample, and empirical Bayes estimators were evaluated. We observed that the more variable a health characteristic was among areas, the more difficult it was to predict accurately. While no small area estimator performed uniformly well for all the variables considered, the linear regression-sample estimators were generally at advantage according to the different criteria of evaluation. In the studied context, no gain was obtained by using more sophisticated procedures like the empirical Bayes estimators.
17
Mamaril, Cezar Brian C. "Funding Defined Benefit State Pension Plans: An Empirical Evaluation." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/msppa_etds/3.
Full textAbstract:
Defined Benefit (DB) state pension trust funds are an integral component of state finances and play a major role in the country’s labor and capital markets. The last decade though has seen a substantial growth in unfunded pension obligations and a seeming inability by states to make the contributions needed to cover funding shortfalls. When coupled with even larger unfunded retirement health benefits, the looming threat of insolvent state retirement systems pose both current and long-term fiscal challenges to state governments already struggling with the ongoing economic downturn and billions of dollars in budget deficits. The convergence of these factors have led states to undertake various reform strategies in an attempt to move their respective public pension plans towards a more sustainable funding path.
Using an asset-liability framework to describe the DB plan funding structure and process, this dissertation advances the discussion over major pension reform efforts currently implemented or considered by states. I show analytically the link between various pension reform categories and specific DB plan funding components, and how this in turn, affects DB plan funding outcomes. From this analytical framework, I derive the study’s hypotheses on the relationship between DB plan reform-linked funding components and outcomes of interest.
This study looks at three DB-plan reform-linked funding components: (1) plan member employee contributions, (2) plan employer contributions, and (3) retirement benefit payments. Four major funding outcomes are evaluated: (1) the employer contribution rate, (2) flow funding ratio, and (3) stock funding ratio, and (4) relative size of plan unfunded liability.
Utilizing a unique panel dataset of 100 DB state retirement systems from 50 states covering a nine-year period of FY 2002 to 2010, I empirically test the following hypothesized funding relationships: (1) States as DB plan sponsors have underfunded their plans as indicated by their failure to meet annual employer funding requirements; and (2) Increasing the employee and employer contribution rate and reducing the cost of retirement benefits are associated with higher plan stock funding ratios and lower unfunded pension liabilities.
Results from my fixed-effects (FE) panel regression analyses provide the clearest empirical evidence to date that state DB pension plan sponsors underfunded their required annual employer contributions. The financial condition of a state’s budget is also shown to have a significant effect on the amount states are able to contribute into their pension funds. I find empirical support for the crucial function of employer contributions in determining the overall funded status of state pension plans. This finding is further reinforced when I estimate plan stock funding ratios using a dynamic system GMM (sGMM) panel regression model. The results from static FE and dynamic sGMM models suggest no significant effect on overall plan funding levels from changes in the employee contribution rate or the average retirement benefit cost. Lastly, the results lend evidence to the significant influence of past funding levels on current funding levels. It is recommended that future empirical research account for the dynamic nature of public pension funding and related endogeneity issues. This dissertation concludes by discussing the implications of the empirical findings for policy makers seeking to improve the funded status of their respective state DB retirement systems.
18
McCreary, D. R. "An empirical evaluation of gender role development in adulthood." Thesis, University of Kent, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234421.
Full text
19
El-Gharib, Georges. "Evaluation of the Empirical Deck Design for Vehicular Bridges." UNF Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/489.
Full textAbstract:
This research evaluated the feasibility of the empirical design method for reinforced concrete bridge decks for the Florida Department of Transportation [FDOT]. There are currently three methods used for deck design: empirical method, traditional method and finite element method. This research investigated and compared the steel reinforcement ratios and the stress developed in the reinforcing steel for the three different methods of deck design. This study included analysis of 15 bridge models that met the FDOT standards. The main beams were designed and load rated using commercial software to obtain live load deflections. The bridges were checked to verify that they met the empirical method conditions based on the FDOT Structures Design Guidelines – January 2009. The reinforced concrete decks were designed using the traditional design method. Then the bridges were analyzed using three-dimensional linear finite element models with moving live loads. The reinforced concrete decks were designed using dead load moment, live load moment, and future wearing surface moment obtained from the finite element models. The required reinforcing steel ratio obtained from the finite element method was compared to the required reinforcing steel ratio obtained from traditional design method and the empirical design method. Based on the type of beams, deck thicknesses, method of analysis, and other assumptions used in this study, in most cases the required reinforcing steel obtained from the finite element design is closer to that obtained from the empirical design method than that obtained from the traditional design method. It is recommended that the reinforcing steel ratio obtained from the empirical design method be used with increased deck thicknesses to control cracking in the bridge decks interior bays.
20
Gibson, George Anthony. "Theoretical and empirical evaluation of phakic and pseudophakic accommodation." Thesis, Aston University, 2008. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/15308/.
Full textAbstract:
The binding theme of this thesis is the examination of both phakic and pseudophakic accommodation by means of theoretical modelling and the application of a new biometric measuring technique. Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography (AS-OCT) was used to assess phakic accommodative changes in 30 young subjects (19.4 2.0 years; range, 18 to 25 years). A new method of assessing curvature change with this technique was employed with limited success. Changes in axial accommodative spacing, however, proved to be very similar to those of the Scheimpflug-based data. A unique biphasic trend in the position of the posterior crystalline lens surface during accommodation was discovered, which has not been alluded to in the literature. All axial changes with accommodation were statistically significant (p < 0.01) with the exception of corneal thickness (p = 0.81). A two-year follow-up study was undertaken for a cohort of subjects previously implanted with a new accommodating intraocular lens (AIOL) (Lenstec Tetraflex KH3500). All measures of best corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA; +0.04 0.24 logMAR), distance corrected near visual acuity (DCNVA; +0.61 0.17 logMAR) and contrast sensitivity (+1.35 0.21 log units) were good. The subjective accommodation response quantified with the push-up technique (1.53 0.64 D) and defocus curves (0.77 0.29 D) was greater than the objective stimulus response (0.21 0.19 D). AS-OCT measures with accommodation stimulus revealed a small mean posterior movement of the AIOLs (0.02 0.03 mm for a 4.0 D stimulus); this is contrary to proposed mechanism of the anterior focus-shift principle.
21
Wei, Zhenghong. "Empirical likelihood based evaluation for value at risk models." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2007. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/896.
Full text
22
Bush, David B., and William E. Martin. "An Empirical Evaluation of the Costs of Groundwater Overdraft." Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/296385.
Full textAbstract:
From the Proceedings of the 1985 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Association and the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 27, 1985, Las Vegas, NevadaEstimates of the variable costs for groundwater pumping and overdraft in Central Arizona are compared to the price of water delivered via the Central Arizona Project (CAP). The respective marginal costs of supplying irrigation water through each of the two alternative sources are compared to the marginal demand for water by farmers. Finally, the relative cost competitiveness of groundwater versus CAP water is evaluated against a number of alternative rates of energy cost escalation and groundwater decline.
23
Difino, Davide Marco <1993>. "The "80 Euro" policy: a theoretical and empirical evaluation." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/13831.
Full textAbstract:
This work will examine, from a theoretical and empirical perspective, the policy adopted by the Italian Government on April 24, 2014 and known as the "Eighty Euro Tax Rebate". It provided for an automatic tax rebate of € 80 for employees, freelancers, independent contractors and project-based workers with gross incomes between € 8,125 and euro 26,000. This policy affected over 10 million workers and entailed a transfer of euro € 5.823 billion, equivalent to 0.4 percent of the Italian GDP.
The first part will present a general overview of the policy, with a focus on the empirical analysis by Neri et Al. It will also look at the results of the questionnaire issued alongside Italian Central Bank’s Survey of Households Income and Wealth in order to assess the perception and the impact of the policy. The second part will present a brief overview of the economic theory upon which the policy was predicated - according to the transcript of the parliamentary debate. In the last section, a model will be provided to explain the results.
24
Bautista, Jeanette Lyn. "PVIT: A task-based approach for design and evaluation of interactive visualizations for preferential choice." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/740.
Full textAbstract:
In decision theory the process of selecting the best option is called preferential
choice. Many personal, business, and professional preferential choice decisions
are made every day. In these situations, a decision maker must select the optimal option among multiple alternatives. In order to do this, she must be able
to analyze a model of her preferences with respect to the objectives that are important to her. Prescriptive decision theory suggests several ways to effectively
develop a decision model. However, these methods often end up too tedious
and complicated to apply to complex decisions that involve many objectives
and alternatives.
In order to help people make better decisions, an easier, more intuitive way
to develop interactive models for analysis of decision contexts is needed. The
application of interactive visualization techniques to this problem is an opportune solution. A visualization tool to help in preferential choice must take into
account important aspects from both fields of Information Visualization and
Decision Theory. There exists some proposals that claim to aid preferential
choice, but some key tasks and steps from at least one of these areas are often
overlooked. An added missing element in these proposals is an adequate user
evaluation. In fact, the concept of a good evaluation in the field of information
visualization is a topic of debate, since the goals of such systems stretch beyond
what can be concluded from traditional usability testing. In our research we
investigate ways to overcome some of the challenges faced in the design and
evaluation of visualization systems for preferential choice.
In previous work, Carenini and Lloyd proposed ValueCharts, a set of visualizations and interactive techniques to support the inspection of linear models
of preferences. We now identify the need to consider the decision process in its
entirety, and to redesign ValueCharts in order to support all phases of preferential choice. We present our task-based approach to the redesign of ValueCharts
grounded in recent findings from both Decision Analysis and Information Visualization. We propose a set of domain-independent tasks for the design and
evaluation of interactive visualizations for preferential choice. We then use the
resulting framework as a basis for an analytical evaluation of our tool and alternative approaches. Finally, we use an application of the task model in conjunction with a new blend of evaluation methods to assess the utility of ValueCharts.
25
Dolan, Claire Cummings. "Preparing employees for performance appraisal : an empirical analysis of a training model /." Full-text version available from OU Domain via ProQuest Digital Dissertations, 1986.
Find full text
26
Tang, Yuan Emily. "Essays in empirical microeconomics." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2007. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3284312.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 14, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110).
27
Hagerlind, Simon. "Empirical evaluation of a stochastic model for order book dynamics." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Matematiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-181603.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract A stochastic model for orderbook dynamics is proposed in Cont et al.(2010) and empirically evaluated in thisthesis. Arrival rates of limit, marketand cancellation orders are described interms of a Markov chain where thearrival rates are exponentiallydistributed. The model not onlyconsiders the best bid and ask queuesbut also additional price levels of theorder book. Methods for computingseveral quantities important to highfrequency trading are proposed usingLaplace transforms and continuedfractions. These quantities includeconditional probabilities such as theprobability of a price increasedepending on the profile of the orderbook. Computing these probabilities aresupposed to be easy enough to computeanalytically. However this was not thecase. We failed in the inversion of theLaplace transform methods and the mainreason is that the instructions in Contet al. (2010) are not adequate when itcomes to perform the inversion. Hence wedraw the conclusion that the method isno good for predicting short termbehavior of limit order books. For longterm applications the model can be usedto simulate the order book with goodresults.
28
Hoeft, Robert, and Agnieszka Nieznanska. "Empirical evaluation of procedural level generators for 2D platform games." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för datalogi och datorsystemteknik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-4001.
Full textAbstract:
Context. Procedural content generation (PCG) refers to algorithmical creation of game content (e.g. levels, maps, characters). Since PCG generators are able to produce huge amounts of game content, it becomes impractical for humans to evaluate them manually. Thus it is desirable to automate the process of evaluation. Objectives. This work presents an automatic method for evaluation of procedural level generators for 2D platform games. The method was used for comparative evaluation of four procedural level generators developed within the research community. Methods. The evaluation method relies on simulation of the human player's behaviour in a 2D platform game environment. It is made up of three components: (1) a 2D platform game Infinite Mario Bros with levels generated by the compared generators, (2) a human-like bot and (3) quantitative models of player experience. The bot plays the levels and collects the data which are input to the models. The generators are evaluated based on the values output by the models. A method based on the simple moving average (SMA) is suggested for testing if the number of performed simulations is sufficient. Results. The bot played all 6000 evaluated levels in less than ten minutes. The method based on the SMA showed that the number of simulations was sufficiently large. Conclusions. It has been shown that the automatic method is much more efficient than the traditional evaluation made by humans while being consistent with human assessments.
29
Tran, Qui Can Cuong. "Empirical evaluation of defect identification indicators and defect prediction models." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för datavetenskap och kommunikation, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-2553.
Full textAbstract:
Context. Quality assurance plays a vital role in the software engineering development process. It can be considered as one of the activities, to observe the execution of software project to validate if it behaves as expected or not. Quality assurance activities contribute to the success of software project by reducing the risks of software’s quality. Accurate planning, launching and controlling quality assurance activities on time can help to improve the performance of software projects. However, quality assurance activities also consume time and cost. One of the reasons is that they may not focus on the potential defect-prone area. In some of the latest and more accurate findings, researchers suggested that quality assurance activities should focus on the scope that may have the potential of defect; and defect predictors should be used to support them in order to save time and cost. Many available models recommend that the project’s history information be used as defect indicator to predict the number of defects in the software project. Objectives. In this thesis, new models are defined to predict the number of defects in the classes of single software systems. In addition, the new models are built based on the combination of product metrics as defect predictors. Methods. In the systematic review a number of article sources are used, including IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Springer Link, in order to find the existing models related to the topic. In this context, open source projects are used as training sets to extract information about occurred defects and the system evolution. The training data is then used for the definition of the prediction models. Afterwards, the defined models are applied on other systems that provide test data, so information that was not used for the training of the models; to validate the accuracy and correctness of the models Results. Two models are built. One model is built to predict the number of defects of one class. One model is built to predict whether one class contains bug or no bug.. Conclusions. The proposed models are the combination of product metrics as defect predictors that can be used either to predict the number of defects of one class or to predict if one class contains bugs or no bugs. This combination of product metrics as defect predictors can improve the accuracy of defect prediction and quality assurance activities; by giving hints on potential defect prone classes before defect search activities will be performed. Therefore, it can improve the software development and quality assurance in terms of time and cost
30
Shaheen, Rozina. "An empirical evaluation of monetary and fiscal policy in Pakistan." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12319.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis studies the relative roles of monetary and fiscal policies to achieve the basic macroeconomic objectives of stable prices with sustainable growth in Pakistan. Using data from December 1981 till June 2008, the changes in the monetary policy stance are shown to be capable of affecting the domestic price level and output growth. This thesis also tests the fiscal theory of price determination using quarterly data for the sample period 1977q1-2009q4, by investigating the relationship between the fiscal deficit, debt accumulation and inflation dynamics. The estimates reveal that there exists a fiscal dominant regime for most of the sample period since the fiscal authority is insensitive to monetary policy in the sense that neither taxes nor expenditure react (now or in the future) to the changes in the stock of outstanding government debt. It is also found that changes in the primary deficit exert an effect on aggregate demand which is also evidence of an active fiscal policy regime. This study also explores the indirect channels of fiscal regime by including a monetary, real sector, exchange rate and the consolidated budget deficit variables in three different specifications of vector error correction models and finds the monetary and fiscal variables as the key determinants of inflation in Pakistan. It also suggests a positive and significant relationship between the budget deficit and seigniorage revenues, confirming the monetisation of the fiscal deficit and indirect evidence of the fiscal dominance in the economy. In addition, this thesis employs a SVAR specification of exogenous fiscal policy shocks to observe the relative effectiveness of fiscal multipliers and finds their significant role to affect inflation and output in the economy. Finally this study develops and estimates a small macro-econometric model and then it is used to assess the relative performance of the monetary and fiscal policies in Pakistan. Policy simulations suggest that if Pakistan follows a rule based regime then macroeconomic stability can be improved in terms of the stability of output and inflation.
31
Christensen, M. "Theoretical and empirical evaluation of credibility and reputation in macroeconomics." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.382781.
Full text
32
Saeed, Awat Abdulla. "Empirical evaluation of semi-supervised naïve Bayes for active learning." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2018. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/67655/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis describes an empirical evaluation of semi-supervised and active learning individually, and in combination for the naïve Bayes classifier. Active learning aims to minimise the amount of labelled data required to train the classifier by using the model to direct the labelling of the most informative unlabelled examples. The key difficulty with active learning is that the initial model often gives a poor direction for labelling the unlabelled data in the early stages. However, using both labelled and unlabelled data with semi-supervised learning might be achieve a better initial model because the limited labelled data are augmented by the information in the unlabelled data. In this thesis, a suite of benchmark datasets is used to evaluate the benefit of semi-supervised learning and presents the learning curves for experiments to compare the performance of each approach. First, we will show that the semi-supervised naïve Bayes does not significantly improve the performance of the naïve Bayes classifier. Subsequently, a down-weighting technique is used to control the influence of the unlabelled data, but again this does not improve performance. In the next experiment, a novel algorithm is proposed by using a sigmoid transformation to recalibrate the overly confident naïve Bayes classifier. This algorithm does not significantly improve on the naïve Bayes classifier, but at least does improve the semi-supervised naïve Bayes classifier. In the final experiment we investigate the effectiveness of the combination of active and semi-supervised learning and empirically illustrate when the combination does work, and when does not.
33
Neu, Jens Carsten. "An empirical evaluation of logistical concepts for supply chain collaboration." Thesis, Leeds Beckett University, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678947.
Full text
34
Delaume, Raluca. "Evaluation of cognitive biases in procurement decisions : an empirical analysis." Thesis, Paris 2, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019PA020053.
Full textAbstract:
La fonction Achats a évolué au cours des dernières décennies et ouvre une voie nouvelle pour la recherche visant à mieux comprendre comment les responsables Achats peuvent contribuer à la compétitivité de l’entreprise et à sa stratégie. Pour cela, nous utilisons la théorie de la rationalité limitée afin d’analyser le processus de décision des Acheteurs. La présente étude s’inscrit dans la tradition de la recherche comportementale appliquée aux sciences de gestion, en se focalisant sur les heuristiques et les biais cognitifs qu’elles produisent. Nous fondons notre recherche sur les progrès enregistrés dans le domaine de l’économie comportementale afin de comprendre les effets des facteurs psychologiques, sociaux, cognitifs et émotionnels sur les décisions des Acheteurs. En cela, nous visons à expliquer pourquoi et comment les décisions des Acheteurs divergent des prédictions des modèles économiques.Notre recherche examine de manière empirique les décisions liées aux différentes étapes du cycle d’Achat, sur la base des données à la fois qualitatives et quantitatives. Trois études composent notre recherche. Nous commençons par identifier les biais cognitifs les plus marquants dans le processus de décision des Acheteurs. Nous effectuons ensuite une analyse qui vise à déterminer s’il y a une différence statistiquement significative entre les Acheteurs de Biens et les Acheteurs de Services, par rapport aux biais cognitifs auxquels ils sont sujets. Enfin, la troisième phase traite d’une étude de cas pour illustrer comment les biais cognitifs apparaissent dans les décisions des Acheteurs et quelles parties prenantes de l’entreprise influencent ces biais. L’ambition de cette dissertation est de démontrer que la prise en compte des aspects cognitifs et psychologiques lors de la prise de décision des Acheteurs contribue à réduire potentiellement les erreurs de décision et augmenter la compétitivité de l’entrepriseThe evolution of Procurement function over the past decades requires to take a new perspective to understand how Procurement managers can contribute to the firm’s competitiveness and support the strategy of the organisation. For this, we use the bounded rationality theory to examine the decision-making process in Procurement. Our study follows the tradition of Behavioural research in Management field by considering the heuristics and the consequent cognitive biases. We use advances from Behavioural Economics in order to understand the effects of psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the decisions of Procurement managers and we aim to explain why and how their behaviour does not follow the predictions of economic models. For these purposes, this study takes empirical examinations of the decisions in the various steps of the Procurement cycle using qualitative and quantitative data. Three main studies have been performed. First, we identify and depict the main cognitive biases affecting the decisions of Buyers. Second, we aim to understand if there is a statistically significant difference between the Buyers of goods and Buyers of services with regard to the main cognitive biases they are prone to exhibiting. Third, a case study illustrates how the main cognitive biases emerge in the Procurement decisions and how stakeholders from other departments influence the decisions in Procurement space.This dissertation ultimately seeks to demonstrate that increasing the realism of the psychological underpinnings of the decisions in the Procurement space will help the organisations to recognise and potentially avoid decision errors and thus contribute to an increase the organisation’s competitiveness
35
Demetriou, Eleni Andrea. "An empirical evaluation of executive function in Autism Spectrum Disorder." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/20827.
Full textAbstract:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by social impairment and restricted/repetitive behaviours. It is associated with significant disability and poor life outcomes with increasing interest in the factors that contribute to this disability. A significant body of research has focused on investigating the role of executive function (EF) in ASD. This thesis presents a series of studies that aim to advance the knowledge of EF in ASD. The studies considered factors that may moderate EF and investigated the role of EF in diagnosis and predicting disability. The research cohort comprised of youth and adults with ASD. Comparisons were made with clinical groups diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder and Early Psychosis. The first empirical study presented a meta-analysis of the extant literature on EF in ASD across the lifespan. Empirical studies 2 and 3, explored the role of moderators on EF including sex differences and affective states. Empirical study 4, examined the role of EF in differential diagnosis and in predicting disability. The final study utilised a machine learning paradigm and examined whether EF discriminated the ASD cohort from the comparison groups. The research results point to broad executive dysfunction in ASD not influenced by moderator variables or sex differences. Affective states moderated EF across all comparison groups, suggesting a transdiagnostic influence. EF differentiated the ASD cohort from comparison groups and was a unique predictor of disability for the ASD group only. The studies presented in this thesis highlight the importance of a multifaceted evaluation of EF in ASD. This will allow evaluation of unique and shared factors influencing disability outcomes, acknowledge the contribution of mental health factors to EF and facilitate targeted intervention and remediation programmes. Importantly, the cross diagnostic relevance of these factors could facilitate resource allocation and social inclusion.
36
Black, Tracy L. "Home Visiting for Children with Developmental Delays: An Empirical Evaluation." DigitalCommons@USU, 1996. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/6073.
Full textAbstract:
Home visiting services have become an important and common component of early intervention for children with developmental delays. Currently, this group of children is the most frequent target of home visiting programs throughout the nation, although research evaluating the effectiveness of these programs is less pervasive. For this reason, a comprehensive analysis of studies within the home visiting literature that specifically focused on children with developmental delays and their families has been conducted. This effort has been accomplished through the process of meta-analysis. In addition to the computation of standardized mean difference effect sizes, emphasis was also placed on identifying the salient sample, intervention, and outcome characteristics of this group of studies.
Results are discussed in terms of ecological validity or how well the findings of the study generalize to the world of practice, policy, additional research, and training in the field of home visiting. Overall, much of what we are observing in the research is applicable to current practice, specifically in regard to the home visiting procedure. However, discrepancies between research and practice have been found in regard to the target of the intervention and the training of the home visitor.
37
Deval, Niharika. "Empirical Evaluation of Cloud IAAS Platforms using System-level Benchmarks." UNF Digital Commons, 2017. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/765.
Full textAbstract:
Cloud Computing is an emerging paradigm in the field of computing where scalable IT enabled capabilities are delivered ‘as-a-service’ using Internet technology. The Cloud industry adopted three basic types of computing service models based on software level abstraction: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Infrastructure-as-a-Service allows customers to outsource fundamental computing resources such as servers, networking, storage, as well as services where the provider owns and manages the entire infrastructure. This allows customers to only pay for the resources they consume. In a fast-growing IaaS market with multiple cloud platforms offering IaaS services, the user's decision on the selection of the best IaaS platform is quite challenging. Therefore, it is very important for organizations to evaluate and compare the performance of different IaaS cloud platforms in order to minimize cost and maximize performance.
Using a vendor-neutral approach, this research focused on four of the top IaaS cloud platforms- Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, and Rackspace cloud services. This research compared the performance of IaaS cloud platforms using system-level parameters including server, file I/O, and network. System-level benchmarking provides an objective comparison of the IaaS cloud platforms from performance perspective. Unixbench, Dbench, and Iperf are the system-level benchmarks chosen to test the performance of the server, file I/O, and network respectively. In order to capture the performance variability, the benchmark tests were performed at different time periods on weekdays and weekends. Each IaaS platform's performance was also tested using various parameters. The benchmark tests conducted on different virtual machine (VM) configurations should help cloud users select the best IaaS platform for their needs. Also, based on their applications' requirements, cloud users should get a clearer picture of which VM configuration they should choose. In addition to the performance evaluation, the price-per-performance value of all the IaaS cloud platforms was also examined.
38
Adorno, Valentina <1978>. "Program evaluation with continuous treatment: theoretical considerations and empirical application." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2007. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/379/1/PhdThesis_Adorno.pdf.
Full text
39
Adorno, Valentina <1978>. "Program evaluation with continuous treatment: theoretical considerations and empirical application." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2007. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/379/.
Full text
40
Fallman, David. "An empirical evaluation of risk management : Comparison study of volatility models." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statistiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-156128.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate five different volatility forecasting models that are used to calculate financial market risk. The models are used on both daily exchange rates and high-frequency intraday data from four different series. The results show that time series models fitted to high-frequency intraday data together with a critical value taken from the empirical distribution displayed the best forecasts overall.
41
Mahato, Seema. "An Empirical Study of the Process of Evaluation Capacity Building in Higher Education." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1591272680024272.
Full text
42
Xiao, Jun. "Empirical Studies on Embodied Conversational Agents." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/14080.
Full textAbstract:
A great deal of effort has been put into developing Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) systems that provide a human-like assistant in the user interface. However, little is known whether improvements to ECA interfaces made by such efforts can ever be significant from the users point of view. I studied user experiences with ECA interfaces and evaluated the ECA style of interaction with respect to user expectation, perception, behavior and performance. I introduce a conceptual framework that offers a holistic view of the design space of ECA systems. I also have created a middleware toolkit that facilitates rapid development of application content across different speech and animation platforms. A series of user studies has been carried out to investigate the similarities and differences between human-computer interaction and human-ECA interaction and between human-ECA interaction and human-human interaction. Results from these studies provide strong evidence that people are consciously aware of the capabilities and limitations of ECAs. Traditional GUI design heuristics should be carefully followed when designing ECA interfaces. Furthermore, the results soundly suggest that designers of ECA interfaces take extra care to accommodate individual differences and preferences. Social norms that guide human-human interaction greatly affect individuals expectation and perception of ECA characteristics. The findings support the argument that drawing from both human-computer interaction and human-human interaction can be significantly advantageous to the design of both effective and affective human-ECA interaction.
43
Chang, Ya-Hui Elegance. "An Empirical Study of Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Model in the Hospitality Industry." FIU Digital Commons, 2010. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/325.
Full textAbstract:
This study examined Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006) by assessing a sales training program conducted at an organization in the hospitality industry. The study assessed the employees’ training outcomes of knowledge and skills, job performance, and the impact of the training upon the organization. By assessing these training outcomes and their relationships, the study demonstrated whether Kirkpatrick’s theories are supported and the lower evaluation levels can be used to predict organizational impact. The population for this study was a group of reservations sales agents from a leading luxury hotel chain’s reservations center. During the study period from January 2005 to May 2007, there were 335 reservations sales agents employed in this Global Reservations Center (GRC). The number of reservations sales agents who had completed a sales training program/intervention during this period and had data available for at least two months pre and post training composed the sample for this study. The number of agents was 69 (N = 69). Four hypotheses were tested through paired-samples t tests, correlation, and hierarchical regression analytic procedures. Results from the analyses supported the hypotheses in this study. The significant improvement in the call score supported hypothesis one that the reservations sales agents who completed the training improved their knowledge of content and required skills in handling calls (Level 2). Hypothesis two was accepted in part as there was significant improvement in call conversion, but there was no significant improvement of time usage. The significant improvement in the sales per call supported hypothesis three that the reservations agents who completed the training contributed to increased organizational impact (Level 4), i.e., made significantly more sales. Last, findings supported hypothesis four that Level 2 and Level 3 variables can be used for predicting Level 4 organizational impact. The findings supported the theory of Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model that in order to expect organizational results, a positive change in behavior (job performance) and learning must occur. The examinations of Levels 2 and 3 helped to partially explain and predict Level 4 results.
44
Bergemann, Annette. "Labor market dynamics and policy evaluation empirical evidence from micro data /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2004. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB11675445.
Full text
45
Paulsson, Felix, and Issa Bitar. "An evaluation of coverage models for LoRa." Thesis, Jönköping University, JTH, Avdelningen för datateknik och informatik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-54152.
Full textAbstract:
LoRaWAN is a wireless network technology based on the LoRa modulation technology. When planning such a network, it is important to estimate the network’s coverage, which can be done by calculating path loss. To do this, one can utilize empirical models of radio wave propagation. Previous research has investigated the accuracy of such empirical models for LoRa inside cities. However, as the accuracy of these models is heavily dependent on the exact characteristics of the environment, it is of interest to validate these results. In addition, the effect of base station elevation on the models’ accuracy has yet to be researched. Following the problems stated above, the purpose of this study is to investigate the accuracy of empirical models of radio wave propagation for LoRa in an urban environment. More specifically, we investigate the accuracy of the models and the effect of base station elevation on the models’ accuracy. The latter is the main contribution of this study. To perform these investigations, a quantitative experiment was conducted in the city of Jönköping, Sweden. In the experiment a base station was positioned at elevations of 30, 23, and 15m. The path loss was measured from 20 locations around the base station for each level of elevation. The measured path loss was then compared to predictions from three popular empirical models: the Okumura-Hata model, the COST 231-Walfisch-Ikegami model, and the 3GPP UMa NLOS model. Our analysis showed a clear underestimation of the path loss for all models. We conclude that for an environment and setup similar to ours, models underestimate the path loss by approximately 20dB. They can be improved by adding a constant correction value, resulting in a mean absolute error of at least 3,7-5,6dB. We also conclude that the effect of base station elevation varies greatly between different models. The 3GPP model underestimated the path loss equally for all elevations and could therefore easily be improved by a constant correction value. This resulted in a mean absolute error of approximately 4dB for all elevations.
46
Bhattrai, Gopendra R. "An empirical study of software design balance dynamics." Virtual Press, 1995. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/958786.
Full textAbstract:
The Design Metrics Research Team in the Computer Science Department at Ball State University has been engaged in developing and validating quality design metrics since 1987. Since then a number of design metrics have been developed and validated. One of the design metrics developed by the research team is design balance (DB). This thesis is an attempt to validate the metric DB. In this thesis, results of the analysis of five systems are presented. The main objective of this research is to examine if DB can be used to evaluate the complexity of a software design and hence the quality of the resulting software. Two of the five systems analyzed were student projects and the remaining three were from industry. The five systems analyzed were written in different languages, had different sizes and exhibited different error rates.Department of Computer Science
47
Wan, Runqing. "Three essays on empirical asset pricing." Thesis, Cergy-Pontoise, Ecole supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019ESEC0003.
Full textAbstract:
Cette thèse de doctorat comprend trois essais en valorisation des actifs financiers, avec une attention particulière sur la prévisibilité du rendement des bons du Trésor Américain. Dans le premier essai, nous étudions la preuve statistique et économique de la prévisibilité du rendement des bons en temp réel pour un investisseur bayésien qui se familiarise avec les paramètres, les états et les modèles au fil du temps. Dans le deuxième essai, j’étudie les primes de risque obligataire dans le cadre de systèmes prédictifs. Dans le troisième essai, j’étudie le pouvoir du sentiment des investisseurs boursiers pour prédire les rendements des obligationsThis doctoral thesis investigates several topics in empirical asset pricing, with a focus on Treasury bond return predictability. In the first essay, “Real-Time Bayesian Learning and Bond Return Predictability”, co-authored with Andras Fulop and Junye Li, we study realtime statistical and economic evidence of bond return predictability. In the second essay, “Predictive Systems, Real Economy, and Bond Risk Premia”, I study bond risk premia in the framework of predictive systems. In the third essay, “Investor Sentiment and Bond Return Predictability”, I study the power of stock market investor sentiment in predicting Treasury bond returns
48
Do, Hoang-Phuong. "A Retrospective View of the Phillips Curve and Its Empirical Validity since the 1950s." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/103230.
Full textAbstract:
Since the 1960s, the Phillips curve has survived various significant changes (Kuhnian paradigm shifts) in macroeconomic theory and generated endless controversies. This dissertation revisits several important, representative papers throughout the curve's four historical, formative periods: Phillips' foundational paper in 1958, the wage determination literature in the 1960s, the expectations-augmented Phillips curve in the 1970s, and the latest New Keynesian iteration. The purpose is to provide a retrospective evaluation of the curve's empirical evidence. In each period, the preeminent role of the theoretical considerations over statistical learning from the data is first explored. To further appraise the trustworthiness of empirical evidence, a few key empirical models are then selected and evaluated for their statistical adequacy, which refers to the validity of the probabilistic assumptions comprising the statistical models. The evaluation results, using the historical (vintage) data in the first three periods and the modern data in the final one, show that nearly all of the models in the appraisal are misspecified - at least one probabilistic assumption is not valid. The statistically adequate models produced from the respecification with the same data suggest new understandings of the main variables' behaviors. The dissertations' findings from the representative papers cast doubt on the traditional narrative of the Phillips curve, which the representative papers play a crucial role in establishing.Doctor of Philosophy
The empirical regularity of the Phillips curve, which captures the inverse relationship between the inflation and unemployment rates, has been widely debated in academic economic research and between policymakers in the last 60 years. To shed light on the debate, this dissertation examines a selected list of influential, representative studies from the Phillips curves' empirical history through its four formative periods. The examinations of these papers are conducted as a blend between a discussion on the methodology of econometrics (the primary quantitative method in economics), the role of theory vs. statistical learning from the observed data, and evaluations of the validity of the probabilistic assumptions assumed behind the empirical models. The main contention is that any departure of probabilistic assumptions produces unreliable statistical inference, rendering the empirical analysis untrustworthy. The evaluation results show that nearly all of the models in the appraisal are untrustworthy - at least one assumption is not valid. Then, an attempt to produce improved empirical models is made to produce new understandings. Overall, the dissertation's findings cast doubt on the traditional narrative of the Phillips curve, which the representative papers play a crucial role in establishing.
49
Raja, G. R. Karthik. "Exhaustion dominated performance : an empirical evaluation (using real life simulation software)." Thesis, University West, Department of Economics and IT, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-461.
Full textAbstract:
This paper aims at implementing (or) extending the evaluation of Exhaustion Dominated Performance, a method used to compute the impact of the available memory and bandwidth over the execution time of a simulation software. This method has already been performed and tested using High Performance Linpack (a de facto for bench marking process) [1]. But in this paper, the experiment is repeated using the real world simulation software so as to prove that the method is applicable in practical. The thesis was conducted using the same experimental conditions and the results obtained proved that the method works find for real world applications also.
50
Patrick, Hugh Alton Jr. "An Empirical Evaluation of Human Figure Tracking Using Switching Linear Models." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/4838.
Full textAbstract:
One of the difficulties of human figure tracking is that humans move their bodies in complex, non-linear ways. An effective computational model of human motion could therefore be of great benefit in figure tracking. We are interested in the use of a class of dynamic models called switching linear dynamic systems for figure tracking.
This thesis makes two contributions. First, we present an empirical analysis of some of the technical issues involved with applying linear dynamic systems to figure tracking. The lack of high-level theory in this area makes this type of empirical study valuable and necessary. We show that sensitivity of these models to perturbations in input is a central issue in their application to figure tracking. We also compare different types of LDS models and identification algorithms.
Second, we describe 2-DAFT, a flexible software framework we have created for figure tracking. 2-DAFT encapsulates data and code involved in different parts of the tracking problem in a number of modules. This architecture leads to flexibility and makes it easy to implement new tracking algorithms.