Automatic test paper design is critical in education to reduce workloads for educators and facilitate an efficient teaching process. However, current designs fail to satisfy the realistic teaching ...requirements of educators, including the consideration of both test quality and efficiency. This is the main reason why teachers still manually construct tests in most teaching environments. In this paper, the quality of tests is quantitatively defined while considering multiple objectives, including a flexible coverage of knowledge points, cognitive levels, and question difficulty. Then, a model based on the technique of linear programming is delicately designed to explore the optimal results for this newly defined problem. However, this technique is not efficient enough, which cannot obtain results in polynomial time. With the consideration of both test quality and generation efficiency, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) based method, named dynamic programming guided genetic algorithm with adaptive selection (DPGA-AS). In this method, a dynamic programming method is proposed in the population initialization part to improve the efficiency of the genetic algorithm. An adaptive selection method for the GA is designed to avoid prematurely falling into the local optimal for better test quality. The question bank used in our experiments is assembled based on college-level calculus questions from well-known textbooks. The experimental results show that the proposed techniques can construct test papers with both high effectiveness and efficiency. The computation time of the test assembly problem is reduced from 3 hours to 2 seconds for a 5000-size question bank as compared to a linear programming model with similar test quality. The test quality of the proposed method is better than the other baselines.
Large proportions of spoilt ballots may lead to a distortion of election results. While invalid votes are sometimes meaningful political acts, reflecting political protest, spoilt ballot papers may ...also be a consequence of voter error, which can be attributed to the poor design of a ballot paper. In this study, we focus on the widely publicized case of the Polish local elections of 2014. These elections saw unprecedentedly large proportions of spoilt votes, and ballot paper format was often mentioned as a potential culprit. Yet it remains largely unclear whether or not there indeed does exist a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot card format and the tendency of voters to cast invalid votes. We argue that what we deliver here is the first methodologically refined test of the aforementioned hypothesis. We apply the generalized synthetic control comparative method, proposed by Yiquing Xu (in 2017), and show that the implementation of a complex or ambiguous ballot design can result in a substantial increase in the rate of spoilt votes. We thus demonstrate that ballot paper design matters. Specifically, the results of this study corroborate the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between ballot paper format and the fraction of invalid votes in the 2014 municipal elections in Poland.
The overriding principle of ballot design is that it should not confer any a priori advantage to one candidate over another. Ballot format should not determine or condition an election outcome. Yet, ...there is a sizeable body of evidence which demonstrates that in many circumstances the design of ballot papers and voting machines contravenes the normative assumption of electoral neutrality. In this article, we look at the impact of ballot paper design at local elections in the Republic of Ireland (hereafter Ireland). The article uses data from an experimental election study conducted at the local elections in Ireland in 2009. Overall the study finds some evidence of a primacy effect and it also demonstrates that candidates located in the middle of the ballot face a challenge as they receive the lowest vote shares of all candidates across the four replica ballots. This mid-table obscurity remains even when party affiliation is known. Thus, it can be argued that candidates placed in such positions incur a disadvantage. To neutralise this effect, the article concludes with a recommendation that a system of random ordering of ballot positions across ballot papers should be implemented so as to ensure that each candidate appears at each ballot position on an equal number of times.
This paper presents a design of gift wrapping paper which delivers givers’ message with a surprise and for it we use the name Alt Message Paper (AMP). The surprise is based on a visual illusion and ...origami (paper folding) which is associated with Japanese culture. The message is hidden in the pattern of the wrapping paper using the visual illusion so that the receivers do not find it till completing the folding. We discuss folding models which are suitable for AMP and evaluate the validity of the design based on questionnaire. We also design and implement a message editor which is called AMP editor using a modeling language so that givers can change the message depending on the receivers and the context. The experimental results show that the proposed wrapping paper is favorably received especially by women and possible to be used in a variety of situations including gifts for lover and for mother.
In power electronics design, the selection of power semiconductors mainly considers the voltage and current ratings, power loss, and operating frequency capability. However, in the paper design ...stage, the impacts of switching speed and busbar or PCB layouts related geometries design on the converter system are not considered comprehensively, which may introduce a trial-and-error procedure of selecting the gate resistance in the implementations due to overvoltage and cooling capability issues. To shrink the design gaps between the paper design and implementations, with advanced modeling methods and design automation programs, this paper proposes a systematic design approach for power semiconductors selection and cooling system design considering the impacts of switching speed and power-loop layout. The discrete-time switching behavior model for the switching speed prediction and automatic geometry creation program for the power-loop layout are developed to determine the gate resistance in the paper design stage, and the partial element equivalent circuits (PEEC) numerical modeling method is adopted to extract the parasitic inductance for the created geometries. After the determination of gate resistances for the selected device and topology, a multi-variable switching loss scaling method with the discrete-time switching behavior model is used to get the more accurate device losses for the cooling design. A complete design iteration and related verifications are also given in this paper.
Electoral Ergonomics Harrison, Sarah; Bruter, Michael
Inside the Mind of a Voter,
05/2020
Book Chapter
This chapter focuses on electoral ergonomics, defined as the interface between every aspect of electoral organization and the psychology of the voters. It argues that every small detail in the ...organization of the vote (electoral ergonomics) matters not only mechanically, but also because of the way it may trigger different psychological mechanisms and emotional reactions, and that as a result, the ergonomic interface will have different effects on different types of voter, such as ‘referees’ or ‘supporters’. Indeed, electoral ergonomics affects the way citizens experience the vote, their attitudes, their likeliness to vote in elections, and their actual electoral choice. The chapter then unpacks the theoretical and empirical logic behind the influence of electoral ergonomics, both in general and through specific case studies. These case studies include the impact of the use of remote voting on electoral experience in the general population, its influence on the electoral choice of young voters, and the effect of ballot-paper design (including paper vs electronic ballots) on the electoral experience.
Generation of question papers through a question bank is an important activity in learning management systems and educational institutions. The quality of question paper is based on various design ...constraints such as whether a question paper assesses different problem solving skills as per Bloom's taxonomy, whether it covers all units from the syllabus of a course and whether it covers various difficulty levels. In this paper, we present the design of an algorithm to generate question paper template which satisfies the above mentioned constraints. The algorithm is illustrated in the paper by using four constraints namely question paper format, coverage of syllabus, coverage of difficulty levels and coverage of cognitive levels according to Bloom's taxonomy. The algorithm presented is extensible to support any number of user defined constraints.
In consideration of the limit of artificial assessment of GMDSS electronic technology skills, with the development of standardized network GMDSS evaluation system, a Web-based GMDSS automatic ...examination and evaluation system is designed to realize the long-range automatic assessment. The system realizes the intelligent test paper combination based on genetic algorithm. It can make the statistical analysis of the normal distribution, record and playback the evaluation process and thus effectively improve the accuracy of evaluation.
This paper is concerned with issues of solving actual problems of research paper design for graduate students in radioelectronics and computer science.
