Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Neural Network Approach To Causal Reasoning With Penalty Logic, Ghada Moussa Abdel Ghany Bahig

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Randomized Motion Planning For Groups Of Nonholonomic Robots, Christopher M. Clark, Stephen M. Rock.

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper presents a technique for motion planning which is capable of planning trajectories for a large number of nonholonomic robots. The robots plan within a two dimensional environment that consists of stationary/moving obstacles, and fixed boundaries. Each robot uses randomized motion planner techniques based on Probabilistic Road Maps (PRM’s) to construct it’s own trajectory that is free of collisions with moving obstacles and other robots. The randomized motion planner allows easy integration of the robots nonholonomic constraint into the planning so that only kinematically consistent plans are constructed. It is important to include this constraint in the planning problem …

Topological Noise Removal, Igor Guskov, Zoë J. Wood

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Meshes obtained from laser scanner data often contain topological noise due to inaccuracies in the scanning and merging process. This topological noise complicates subsequent operations such as remeshing, parameterization and smoothing. We introduce an approach that removes unnecessary nontrivial topology from meshes. Using a local wave front traversal, we discover the local topolo-gies of the mesh and identify features such as small tunnels. We then identify non-separating cuts along which we cut and seal the mesh, reducing the genus and thus the topological complexity of the mesh.

Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems: A Blueprint For ‘Interoperability’, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

For the past 20 years the US military services have suffered under the limitations of stove-piped computer software applications that function as discrete entities within a fragmented data-processing environment. Lack of interoperability has been identified by numerous think tanks, advisory boards, and studies, as the primary information systems problem (e.g., Army Science Board 2000, Air Force SAB 2000 Command and Control Study, and NSB Network-Centric Naval Forces 2000). Yet, despite this level of attention, all attempts to achieve interoperability within the current data-centric information systems environment have proven to be expensive, unreliable, and generally unsuccessful.

Proceedings Of The 2001 Onr Decision-Support Workshop Series: Continuing The Revolution In Military Affairs, Collaborative Agent Design Research Center

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed, collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on these new capabilities such …

Perspective Filters As A Means For Interoperability Among Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

No abstract provided.

Approximation Techniques For Average Completion Time Scheduling, Chandra Chekuri, Rajeev Motwani, Balas Natarajan, Clifford Stein

Dartmouth Scholarship

We consider the problem of nonpreemptive scheduling to minimize average ( weighted) completion time, allowing for release dates, parallel machines, and precedence constraints. Recent work has led to constant-factor approximations for this problem based on solving a preemptive or linear programming relaxation and then using the solution to get an ordering on the jobs. We introduce several new techniques which generalize this basic paradigm. We use these ideas to obtain

improved approximation algorithms for one-machine scheduling to minimize average completion time with release dates. In the process, we obtain an optimal randomized on-line algorithm for the same problem that beats …

Webalps Implementation And Performance Analysis: Using Trusted Co-Servers To Enhance Privacy And Security Of Web Interactions, Shan Jiang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The client-server model of the Web poses a fundamental trust issue: clients are forced to trust in secrecy and correctness of computation occurring at a remote server of unknown credibility. The current solution for this problem is to use a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) system and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) digital certificates to prove the claimed identity of a server and establish an authenticated, encrypted channel between the client and this server. However, this approach does not address the security risks posed by potential malicious server operators or any third parties who may penetrate the server sites. The WebALPS (Web …

Immaccs: A Multi-Agent Decision-Support System, Jens G. Pohl, Mark Porczak, Kym Jason Pohl, Russell Leighton, Hisham Assal, Alan Davis, Lakshmi Vempati, Anthony Wood

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This report describes work performed by the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center for the US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), on the IMMACCS experimental decision-support system. IMMACCS (Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System) incorporates three fundamental concepts that distinguish it from existing (i.e., legacy) command and control applications. First, it is a collaborative system in which computer-based agents assist human operators by monitoring, analyzing, and reasoning about events in near real-time. Second, IMMACCS includes an ontological model of the battlespace that represents the behavioral characteristics and relationships among real world entities such as friendly and enemy assets, infrastructure objects …

Computer Science: A Guide To Selected Resources On The Internet., Michael Knee

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mathematics Memory Verses: Weekly Devotionals For Math Class, Mark Colgan

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

Each Monday during the semester I start class with a short devotional on a verse that relates in some way to mathematics. After three weeks I choose one of the three at random for students to write out on their quiz for a possible bonus point. This encourages students to practice memorizing Scripture and it gives us the opportunity to discuss biblical principles that relate to some of the topics we are studying in the course.

I would like to share some of the Bible verses and weekly devotionals I have used in my mathematics classes. These can be organized …

Parables For Mathematicians: With Good News For Curved Beings, Ashley Reiter Ahlin

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

Because we often lack the language for talking about such deep matters, the things of God can be hard to understand or talk about. The things that we do see and know were made by the same God of whom we speak. Thus, they are reflections of His nature, purposes, and ways and can help us to think and take about Him. This presentation expresses a parable using the language of math.

Three Problems From Number Theory, Robert Brabenec

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

This paper discusses the experiences of Wheaton College mathematics and computer science department colloquium as they explored open-ended problems.

Theism & Mathematical Realism, John Byl

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

This paper examines connections between theism and mathematical realism. Mathematical realism, which offers the best account of mathematics, strongly supports theism. Theism, in turn, supports mathematical realism. Theism readily explains the intricate relations between mathematics, matter, and mind. The attributes of the biblical God provide justification for classical mathematics.

What Mathematical Paradoxes Teach Us About Paradoxes In Christianity, Paul Bialek

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

In Christian academic circles, we talk about the integration of our faith and learning. That is, we seek to discover and develop connections between our Christian faith and our particular discipline. This is notoriously difficult when the discipline is mathematics. I have found that asking myself these three questions has helped me to integrate my Christian faith with mathematics, although they could be applied to any discipline: (1) How does the fact that I am a Christian affect the way I view mathematics? (2) How does the fact that I am a mathematician affect the way I view Christianity? (3) …

Why Natural Selection Can't Design Anything, William A. Dembski

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

In The Fifth Miracle Paul Davies suggests that any laws capable of explaining the origin of life must be radically different from scientific laws known to date? The problem, as he sees it, with currently known scientific laws, like the laws of chemistry and physics, is that they cannot explain the key feature of life that needs to be explained. That feature is specified complexity. Life is both complex and specified. The basic institution here is straightforward. Davies rightly notes, laws (that is, necessities of nature) can explain specification but not complexity. Once life (or more generally some self-replicator) …

The Soviet Concept Of The Correlation Of Forces, James Bradley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

This paper takes a look at the Soviet Union’s accumulation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War and what mathematical strategy they employed to make their choices.

Query Processing With An Fpga Coprocessor Board, Jack S. Jean, Guozhu Dong, Hwa Zhang, Xinzhong Guo, Baifeng Zhang

Kno.e.sis Publications

In this paper, a commercial FPGA coprocessor board is used to accelerate the processing of queries on a relational database that contains texts and images. FPGA designs for text searching and image matching are described and their performances summarized. A potential design for a database JOIN operator is then studied. A query optimization preprocessor is then proposed.

Mathematics As Worship, David J. Stucki

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

In keeping with the mission of this organization to explore the relationship of faith to our discipline, I would like to take this opportunity to investigate the relationship, if any, between mathematics and worship. There have been throughout history, at least since Pythagoras, connections made between the mathematical and the theological. Many of these such efforts have followed the Pythagorean cult in deifying number, thus making mathematics the object of worship. Othes have effectively situated theology in subservience to mathematical reason. However, these are not the only alternatives.

Once we admit the possibility of a connection between mathematics and theology, …

On Periodic Points On Maps Of Trees And The Expansive Property, Fred Worth

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

In this paper, we consider the expansive property (A homeomorphism, f, of a metric space, X, onto itself is called expansive if there is a positive number, ε, such that if x and y are distinct points of X, then there exists an integer, n = n(x,y), such that d(f n(x), f n(y)) > ε. It should be noted that n may be negative.) and how it relates to shift homeomorphisms of a tree with a single, surjective bonding map. We also consider some results regarding the periodicity of points in self-maps of trees.

Thml: Theological Markup Language For The Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Harry Plantinga

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

This document describes the Theological Markup Language (ThML), an XML markup language for theological texts. ThML was developed for use in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), but it is hoped that the language will serve as a royalty-free format for theological texts in other applications. Key design goals are that the language should be (1) rich enough to represent information needed for digital libraries and for theological study involving multiple, related texts, including cross-reference, synchronization, indexing, and scripture references, (2) based on XML and usable with World Wide Web tools, (3) automatically convertible to other common formats, and (4) …

Gravitational Acceleration In Hades, Andrew Simoson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2001

Does acceleration due to gravity increase or decrease upon descending from Earth’s surface? The answer—as we show—depends on one’s model for Earth’s density. For our Earth, gravity increases before it collapses to zero at Earth center.

Implementation And Performance Evaluation Of Telemip, Kaushik Chakraborty, Archan Misra, Subir Das, Anthony J. Mcauley, Ashutosh Dutta, Sajal K. Das

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present our implementation of TeleMIP a two-level architecture for IP based mobility management TeleMIP essentially uses an Intra-Domain Mobility Management Protocol IDMP for managing mobility within a domain and Mobile IP for supporting inter-domain global mobility. Unlike other proposed schemes for intra-domain mobility management IDMP uses two care of addresses for mobility management The global care of address is relatively stable and identifies the mobile nodes current domain[1] while the local care of address changes every time the mobile changes subnets and identifies the mobiles current point of attachment. The paper describes our TeleMIP implementation based …

Summarizing Data Sets For Classification, Christopher W. Kinzig, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Gary B. Lamont, Robert E. Marmelstein

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper describes our approach and experiences with implementing a data mining system using genetic algorithms in C++. In contrast with earlier classification algorithms that tended to “tile” the data sets using some pre-specified “shapes”, the proposed system is based on Marmelstein’s work on determining natural boundaries for class homogeneous regions. These boundaries are further refined to construct a compact set of simple data mining rules for classification.

Smartreminder: A Case Study On Context-Sensitive Applications, Arun Mathias

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Designing context-sensitive applications is challenging. We design and implement SmartReminder to explore designing context-sensitive applications and to demonstrate how the SOLAR system can be used in developing such applications. SmartReminder is an application that reminds the user based on contextual information. Current appointment-reminder applications remind the user about their appointments at an arbitrarily specified time. For instance, they might remind the user ten minutes before each appointment. SmartReminder, on the other hand, uses contextual information, like location, to better estimate the appropriate reminder time for each appointment. It reminds the user based on where they are, where they need to …

Implementing A Database Information System For An Electronic Baseball Scorecard, Tiffany M. Wong

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

We present our design and implementation of a database system of information storage and retrieval for an electronic baseball scorecard. The program uses the relational MySQL database to hold information and a Tcl API to handle interactions between the database and the user interface code. This paper discusses the inner workings of how information storage was broken down inside the database, how queries were internally constructed in accordance with the user's input, and how statistics for players and teams were calculated and returned to the user. Finally, we discuss some limitations attached to our current implementation of the program and …

Efficient Compression Of Generic Function Dispatch Tables, Eric Kidd

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

A generic function is similar to an overloaded operator, but provides a way to select an appropriate behavior at run-time instead of compile-time. Dujardin and colleagues have proposed an algorithm for building and compressing generic function dispatch tables. We present several modifications to their algorithm, including an improvement to Pseudo-Closest-Poles and two new algorithms for compressing pole tables. The two new compression algorithms are simple and fast, and one produces smaller output than the original.

An Armored Data Vault, Alex Iliev

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

We consider the problem of secure long-term archiving of network traffic, an instance of the problem of storing data securely. We approach the problem using secure hardware, which enables the enforcement of flexible access policy. The policy cannot be circumvented by anyone, even insiders, and so we are assured that access to the data is as originally intended. The policy can be expressed as any feasible computation, as it will be checked inside the secure hardware without possibility of interference. We discuss our design of a device to perform such network data archiving and have implemented a prototpe device. We …

Ecomrisk.Org : A Site To Classify And Organize The Risks Of Performing Business On The Internet, Aidan Stanley Marcuss

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

As the use of the Internet and other computer networks to transact business grows, there is an ever increasing need for those taking part in those transactions to understand the risks of doing so. While there are many web sites that have created valuable databases of specific vulnerabilities for certain types of hardware and software, there is a lack of focus on attempting to analyze the interaction of businesses, their systems, computer networks, and their customers and the risks that are created by either intended or unattended interactions. EcomRISK.org is a web site that presents a clear taxonomy to classify …

An Empirical Study Of Training And Testing Error In Boosting, David D. Latham

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Bounds have been proven for both training and testing error for the boosting algorithm AdaBoost, but in practice neither seem to produce a particularly tight bound. In this paper we share some observations of these bounds from empirical results, and then explore some properties of the algorithm with an eye towards finding an improved bound for the performance of AdaBoost. Based on our empirical evidence, the error of a hypothesis which labels examples probabilistically based upon the confidence of the vote of the weak hypotheses forms a tighter bound for the training error.