When exposed to principal components analysis for the first time, students can sometimes miss the primary purpose of the analysis. Often the focus is solely on data reduction and what to do after the dimensions of the data have been reduced is ignored. The datasets discussed here can be used as an in-class example, a homework assignment, or a…

This article discusses the internationalization capacity building project at the Karaganda Technical University ('KTU') in Kazakhstan. The project, entitled "Capacity building for the internationalization of a technical university by means of digital learning technologies," was supported by the fund "Scientific foundations…

Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. Running a PCA results in two main elements, the score plot and the loading plot; the score plot provides the location of the samples, and the loading plot indicates correlations among variables, the trends in…

The article addresses the issue of generic competences across different cultural contexts in the world. Using the Tuning projects data collected in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Russia, and focusing on graduates´ perspective, the authors aim to classify and compare the list of generic competences throughout all geographic regions covered by…

Equivalence of marginal likelihood of the two-parameter normal ogive model in item response theory and factor analysis of dichotomized variables was formally proved. Ordered and unordered categorical data and paired comparisons data were discussed, and a taxonomy of data for the models was suggested. (Author/GDC)

An operational definition for "rural area" is pivotal if proposals, policies and decisions aimed at optimising the distribution of resources, closing the gap on inequity between areas and raising standards of living for the least advantaged populations are to be put in place. The concept of rurality, however, is often based on…

Engineering Design is rightfully regarded as a key element within all university Engineering courses and most laboratory assignments and project work seek to optimise the student's acquisition of knowledge and understanding of this process. Within this paper Engineering Design has been classified into a new "hierarchy of task level" each…

A new methodology is proposed for the simultaneous reduction of units, variables, and occasions of a three-mode data set. Units are partitioned into a reduced number of classes, while, simultaneously, components for variables and occasions accounting for the largest common information for the classification are identified. The model is a…

Reviews visualization techniques for scientific disciplines and information retrieval and classification. Highlights include historical background of scientometrics, bibliometrics, and citation analysis; map generation; process flow of visualizing knowledge domains; measures and similarity calculations; vector space model; factor analysis;…

Suggests the use of principal components analysis as an alternative solution to the problem of grouping speakers by sociological characteristics prior to quantitative analysis. An example is presented of its application to vowel variation data collected as part of a sociolinguistic survey of English in Sydney, Australia. (Author/CB)