Illinois Institute of Technology

About: Illinois Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Electric power system & Wireless network. The organization has 10188 authors who have published 21062 publications receiving 554178 citations. The organization is also known as: IIT & Illinois Tech.

Views of nature of science questionnaire: Toward valid and meaningful assessment of learners' conceptions of nature of science

Abstract: Helping students develop informed views of nature of science (NOS) has been and continues to be a central goal for kindergarten through Grade 12 (K–12) science education. Since the early 1960s, major efforts have been undertaken to enhance K–12 students and science teachers' NOS views. However, the crucial component of assessing learners' NOS views remains an issue in research on NOS. This article aims to (a) trace the development of a new open-ended instrument, the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS), which in conjunction with individual interviews aims to provide meaningful assessments of learners' NOS views; (b) outline the NOS framework that underlies the development of the VNOS; (c) present evidence regarding the validity of the VNOS; (d) elucidate the use of the VNOS and associated interviews, and the range of NOS aspects that it aims to assess; and (e) discuss the usefulness of rich descriptive NOS profiles that the VNOS provides in research related to teaching and learning about NOS. The VNOS comes in response to some calls within the science education community to go back to developing standardized forced-choice paper and pencil NOS assessment instruments designed for mass administrations to large samples. We believe that these calls ignore much of what was learned from research on teaching and learning about NOS over the past 30 years. The present state of this line of research necessitates a focus on individual classroom interventions aimed at enhancing learners' NOS views, rather than on mass assessments aimed at describing or evaluating students' beliefs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 497–521, 2002

A bubbling fluidization model using kinetic theory of granular flow

Abstract: Detailed knowledge of solids circulation, bubble motion, and frequencies of porosity oscillations is needed for a better understanding of tube erosion in fluidized bed combustors. A predictive two-phase flow model was derived starting with the Boltzman equation for velocity distribution of particles. The model is a generalization of the Navier-Stokes equations of the type proposed by R. Jackson, except that the solids viscosities and stresses are computed by simultaneously solving a fluctuating energy equation for the particulate phase. The model predictions agree with time-averaged and instantaneous porosities measured in two-dimensional fluidized beds. Observed flow patterns and bubbles were also predicted.

Battery, Ultracapacitor, Fuel Cell, and Hybrid Energy Storage Systems for Electric, Hybrid Electric, Fuel Cell, and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles: State of the Art

Abstract: The fuel economy and all-electric range (AER) of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are highly dependent on the onboard energy-storage system (ESS) of the vehicle. Energy-storage devices charge during low power demands and discharge during high power demands, acting as catalysts to provide energy boost. Batteries are the primary energy-storage devices in ground vehicles. Increasing the AER of vehicles by 15% almost doubles the incremental cost of the ESS. This is due to the fact that the ESS of HEVs requires higher peak power while preserving high energy density. Ultracapacitors (UCs) are the options with higher power densities in comparison with batteries. A hybrid ESS composed of batteries, UCs, and/or fuel cells (FCs) could be a more appropriate option for advanced hybrid vehicular ESSs. This paper presents state-of-the-art energy-storage topologies for HEVs and plug-in HEVs (PHEVs). Battery, UC, and FC technologies are discussed and compared in this paper. In addition, various hybrid ESSs that combine two or more storage devices are addressed.

Estimating Effect Sizes From Pretest-Posttest-Control Group Designs:

Abstract: Previous research has recommended several measures of effect size for studies with repeated measurements in both treatment and control groups. Three alternate effect size estimates were compared in...

Enabling Public Auditability and Data Dynamics for Storage Security in Cloud Computing

Abstract: Cloud Computing has been envisioned as the next-generation architecture of IT Enterprise. It moves the application software and databases to the centralized large data centers, where the management of the data and services may not be fully trustworthy. This unique paradigm brings about many new security challenges, which have not been well understood. This work studies the problem of ensuring the integrity of data storage in Cloud Computing. In particular, we consider the task of allowing a third party auditor (TPA), on behalf of the cloud client, to verify the integrity of the dynamic data stored in the cloud. The introduction of TPA eliminates the involvement of the client through the auditing of whether his data stored in the cloud are indeed intact, which can be important in achieving economies of scale for Cloud Computing. The support for data dynamics via the most general forms of data operation, such as block modification, insertion, and deletion, is also a significant step toward practicality, since services in Cloud Computing are not limited to archive or backup data only. While prior works on ensuring remote data integrity often lacks the support of either public auditability or dynamic data operations, this paper achieves both. We first identify the difficulties and potential security problems of direct extensions with fully dynamic data updates from prior works and then show how to construct an elegant verification scheme for the seamless integration of these two salient features in our protocol design. In particular, to achieve efficient data dynamics, we improve the existing proof of storage models by manipulating the classic Merkle Hash Tree construction for block tag authentication. To support efficient handling of multiple auditing tasks, we further explore the technique of bilinear aggregate signature to extend our main result into a multiuser setting, where TPA can perform multiple auditing tasks simultaneously. Extensive security and performance analysis show that the proposed schemes are highly efficient and provably secure.