Offers a simple classification of problems and seeks to explore the many factors that may be important in the successful solving of problems. Considers the place of procedures and algorithms. Solving open-ended problems is extremely important in education and offering learners experience with this in a group work context is a helpful way forward.…

"The Handbook of Latent Semantic Analysis" is the authoritative reference for the theory behind Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a burgeoning mathematical method used to analyze how words make meaning, with the desired outcome to program machines to understand human commands via natural language rather than strict programming protocols.…

Some of the test questions for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards deal with the site, including drainage, regrading, and the like. Some questions are most easily scored by examining contours, but others, such as water flow questions, are best scored from a grid in which each element is assigned its average elevation. This…

P. Rousseeuw and A. Leroy (1987) proposed a very robust alternative to classical estimates of mean vectors and covariance matrices, the Minimum Volume Ellipsoid (MVE). This paper describes the MVE technique and presents a BASIC program to implement it. The MVE is a "high breakdown" estimator, one that can cope with samples in which as…

This discussion of new methods for calibrating item response theory (IRT) models looks into new optimization procedures, such as the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to improve on the use of the Newton-Raphson procedure. The advantages of using a global optimization procedure like GA is that this kind of procedure is not easily affected by local optima and…

A brief, general discussion of the application of algorithms to instruction. (HB)

A procedure for item analysis using distance clustering is described. Items are grouped according to the predominant factors measured, regardless of what they are. The procedure provides an efficient method of treating unanswered items. (Author/RC)

Algorithms for computation of fundamental properties of seawater, based on the practicality salinity scale (PSS-78) and the international equation of state for seawater (EOS-80), are compiled in the present report for implementing and standardizing computer programs for oceanographic data processing. Sample FORTRAN subprograms and tables are given…

The widespread availability of computational graphics for personal computers has greatly increased the potential for visual display of research data. The correlation between two variables can be represented graphically by using circles to represent the variance associated with each circle, and by letting the overlap between the circles be…

This Monte Carlo investigation provides some possible solutions to problems related to choosing multiple-comparison methods that maximize true rejections and minimize false ones. It has been argued that the traditional Bonferroni approach to multiple comparisons, which satisfies the statistician's family-wise Type I error concerns, could be…

This report discusses some of the problems and limitations in existing internetwork design for the connection of packet-switching networks of different technologies and presents an algorithm that has been shown to be suitable for internetworks of unbounded size. Using a new form of address and a flat routing mechanism called Cartesian routing,…

Heuristic methods for the construction of term classes are presented and experimental results are obtained to illustrate the usefulness of the method. (Author/PF)

An automatic classification technique using patterns formed by citations in document bibliographies was found to give 62 percent precision and 45 percent recall in a sample file of physics documents. (PF)

An algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of sequential indexing which does not use any grammatical or semantic analysis, but follows the principle of emulating human judgement by evaluation of machine-recognizable attributes of structured word assemblies. (Author)

An English translation of a paper entitled "Problems of Programmed Instruction" given at first Soviet-French seminar on programmed instruction in Moscow, 1972. (Author/HB)