Many decisions about the content of an introductory transportation engineering course are complicated by a wide range of topics and skills to be presented in a limited amount of time. The information ...presented in this paper was compiled by a working group of educators who represented universities of varying sizes and geographic areas. This working group was charged with developing core concepts and associated knowledge tables for the introductory transportation course for the following core concept areas: traffic operations, transportation planning, geometric design, transportation finance, transportation economics, traffic safety, and transit and nonmotorized transport. Instructors can weave the knowledge tables together by explaining the ways of being of a transportation professional and the course learning outcomes. A key focus of the working group's efforts was to provide more guidance to instructors on core content versus optional content. The intent of the working group was not to dictate what exactly should be taught in a course. The group therefore created more content than could fit into a typical semester-long course so that instructors would have flexibility. Some content should be viewed as more critical to the transportation profession than other material, and the working group will prioritize it accordingly. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the work that has been completed and to get feedback from industry partners and other academic professionals about the curriculum. The efforts of the pilot studies over the next year will help determine the amount of time needed to cover the information in the knowledge tables.
Studied five factors that can affect the equating of scores from two tests onto a common score scale through the simulation and equating of 4,860 item data sets. Findings indicate three statistically ...significant two-way interactions for common item length and test length, item difficulty standard deviation and item distribution type, and item difficulty standard deviation and test length. (SLD)
A major goal for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) based science is to elucidate structures of biological molecules without the need for crystals. Filament systems may provide some of the first single ...macromolecular structures elucidated by XFEL radiation, since they contain one-dimensional translational symmetry and thereby occupy the diffraction intensity region between the extremes of crystals and single molecules. Here, we demonstrate flow alignment of as few as 100 filaments (Escherichia coli pili, F-actin, and amyloid fibrils), which when intersected by femtosecond X-ray pulses result in diffraction patterns similar to those obtained from classical fiber diffraction studies. We also determine that F-actin can be flow-aligned to a disorientation of approximately 5 degrees. Using this XFEL-based technique, we determine that gelsolin amyloids are comprised of stacked β-strands running perpendicular to the filament axis, and that a range of order from fibrillar to crystalline is discernable for individual α-synuclein amyloids.
Administered measures of overt and covert fear of death to 20 healthy men and 13 men diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Groups did not differ significantly on overt measure; ...AIDS group had higher total scores on covert measure. Findings suggest that one's life trajectory is redefined when the diagnosis of terminal illness is made. (Author/NB)
Automatic speech recognition of real-live broadcast news (BN) data (Hub-4) has become a challenging research topic in recent years. This paper summarizes our key efforts to build a large vocabulary ...continuous speech recognition system for the heterogenous BN task without inducing undesired complexity and computational resources. These key efforts included:
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automatic segmentation of the audio signal into speech utterances;
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efficient one-pass trigram decoding using look-ahead techniques;
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optimal log-linear interpolation of a variety of acoustic and language models using discriminative model combination (DMC);
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handling short-range and weak longer-range correlations in natural speech and language by the use of phrases and of distance-language models;
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improving the acoustic modeling by a robust feature extraction, channel normalization, adaptation techniques as well as automatic script selection and verification.
The starting point of the system development was the Philips 64k-NAB word-internal triphone trigram system. On the speaker-independent but microphone-dependent NAB-task (transcription of read newspaper texts) we obtained a word error rate of about 10%. Now, at the conclusion of the system development, we have arrived at Philips at an DMC-interpolated phrase-based crossword-pentaphone 4-gram system. This system transcribes BN data with an overall word error rate of about 17%.
Die automatische Spracherkennung von aktuellen Nachrichtensendungen (“Hub-4” Aufgabe, Broadcast-News Aufgabe) ist in den vergangenen Jahren zu einem wichtigen Forschungsthema geworden. Diese Publikation faßt die Schwerpunkte unserer Arbeit beim Aufbau eines Systems zur Erkennung kontinuierlicher Sprache mit großem Vokabular für die heterogene Broadcast-News-Aufgabe zusammen, wobei wir versucht haben, die Komplexität und den Rechenaufwand des Systems so gering wie möglich zu halten. Unter anderem haben wir uns auf folgende Ziele fokussiert:
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Automatische Segmentierung des Audio-Signals in sprachliche Äußerungen;
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Effiziente einstufige Trigramm-Suche mit Look-Ahead-Techniken;
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Optimale log-lineare Interpolation einer Anzahl von akustischen Modellen und Sprachmodellen mit Hilfe der Diskriminativen Modellkombination (DMC);
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Behandlung von Kurzzeit- und schwachen Langzeitkorrelationen in natürlicher Sprache durch den Einsatz von Phrasen und von Abstands-Sprachmodellen;
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Verbesserung der akustischen Modellierung durch eine robuste Merkmalsextraktion, Kanalnormierung, Adaptionstechniken, wie auch durch automatische Skriptselektion und Skriptverifikation.
Der Startpunkt unserer Systementwicklung war das Philips 64k-NAB wortinterne Triphon-Trigramm-System. Auf der sprecherunabhängigen aber mikrophonabhängigen NAB-Aufgabe (Transkription von vorgelesenen Zeitungstexten) erreichten wir eine Wortfehlerrate von ca. 10%. Die Entwicklungsarbeit wurde mit dem Aufbau eines DMC-interpolierten phrasenbasierten wortübergreifenden Pentaphon-Viergramm-Systems abgeschlossen. Dieses System transkribiert Nachrichtensendungen mit einer Gesamtfehlerrate von ca. 17%.
La transcription automatique d'émissions parlées d'informations radio-télévisées (tâche désignée par “Hub-4”) a été l'objet d'intenses travaux de recherche ces dernières années. Ce papier présente les lignes principales de nos efforts d'élaboration d'un système de reconnaissance de parole continue qui soit à même de traiter le signal hétérogène provenant d'émissions d'information sans entraı̂ner une trop grande complexité ou le recours à des ressources de calculs excessives. L'essentiel de nos efforts a porté sur les points suivants:
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La segmentation automatique du signal audio en une suite de passages parlés;
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Le décodage rapide en une passe intégrant un modèle de trigrammes avec une technique d'anticipation;
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L'interpolation log-linéaire optimale d'une variété de modèles acoustiques et grammaticaux au moyen d'une technique de combinaison discriminative de modèles (DMC);
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La prise en compte de corrélations linguistiques à court terme et, plus faiblement, à long terme au moyen de groupements de mots (phrases) et de modèles de languages dits “à distance”;
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L'amélioration de la modélisation acoustique à l'aide d'une extraction robuste du contenu du signal combinée à la normalisation des canaux, l'adaptation des modèles phonétiques ainsi que la sélection et la vérification des scripts du corpus d'entraînement.
Notre point de départ fut le système Philips “NAB-64k” fondé sur l'emploi de triphones intra-mots et de modèles de trigrammes. Pour la tâche “NAB” impliquant la transcription d'articles lus à l'aide d'un microphone connu, ce système indépendant du locuteur atteint un taux d'erreur moyen de 10% au niveau du mot. Au terme de ce travail, nous avons développé un système qui combine par DMC des modèles phonétique intra-mots et inter-mots, des pentaphones, des groupements de mots ainsi que des modèles de langage jusqu'à l'ordre 4. Ce système produit une transcription d'émissions parlées d'information avec un taux d'erreur global d'environ 17%.
A measure of the frequency of employees' use of ingratiatory behavior at work was tested with a sample of employees (
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= 716) working in a wide variety of organizations and jobs. Pilot testing ...reduced a 65-item pool to a 24-item instrument with four factors: Other Enhancement, Opinion Conformity, Self-Presentation, and Favor-Rendering. Internal consistency reliability was .92; test-retest reliability over one month was .73. Evidence for content, convergent, and discriminant validity was substantial. The Measure of Ingratiatory Behaviors in Organizational Settings (MIBOS) should enable researchers to focus on the empirical study of ingratiatory behaviors in organizations.
Engineering education continues to hear calls for significant change. National leaders and policy makers argue that students graduating from engineering programs must be able to contribute in the ...ever-changing work environment of a highly competitive global market (National Academy of Engineering, 2004, 2005; Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2008; Vest, 2006). Nontechnical skills, often referred to as professional skills-such as communication, ability to work in teams, professional responsibility, and lifelong learning-are the kinds of competencies needed to address major engineering challenges of the future. The National Academy of Engineering (2008) has identified challenges in the broad realms of sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living that require engineers to apply the rules of reason, the findings of science, the aesthetics of art, and the spark of creative imagination to forge useful solutions for the future. Reflection and metacognition are essential for drawing upon and integrating these cognitive abilities for productive engineering problem solving.
Assessment of student performance in capstone engineering design is vital to student learning and to program accreditation and improvement. Performances important to capstone design courses include ...studentspsila growth in personal capacity for design, development of teamwork, development of design processes, and delivery of solution assets. The Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education (TIDEE) consortium is creating and testing a capstone design assessment system to measure these student performances and provide rapid personalized feedback. Broad adoption of this assessment system requires ease of use by both students and instructors. This paper describes design features of a Web-based implementation of the TIDEE capstone design assessment system.
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