Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Learning As A Nonlinear Line Of Attraction For Pattern Association, Classification And Recognition, Ming-Jung Seow

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Development of a mathematical model for learning a nonlinear line of attraction is presented in this dissertation, in contrast to the conventional recurrent neural network model in which the memory is stored in an attractive fixed point at discrete location in state space. A nonlinear line of attraction is the encapsulation of attractive fixed points scattered in state space as an attractive nonlinear line, describing patterns with similar characteristics as a family of patterns.

It is usually of prime imperative to guarantee the convergence of the dynamics of the recurrent network for associative learning and recall. We propose to alter …

Gaussian Mixture Models And Neural Networks For Automatic Speaker Identification, Usha Gayatri Chalkapally

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Automatic Speaker Recognition is the process of automatically recognizing who is speaking on the basis of individual information contained in speech signals. This technique of Automatic Speaker Recognition makes it possible to use the speaker's voice to verify their identity and control access to services such as voice dialing, banking by telephone, telephone shopping, database access services, information services, voice mail, security control for confidential information areas, and remote access to computers.

In this thesis, the techniques of Gaussian Mixture Models and Neural Networks for Automatic Speaker Identification are presented. Algorithms for Speaker Identification using Gaussian Mixture Models were developed, …

Fortnightly Variability At The Transition Between Two Sub-Estuaries, Mayra Lorena Riveron Enzastiga

OES Theses and Dissertations

Profiles of current velocity from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and of water salinity, temperature and density from a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) recorder, were combined with surface salinity, temperature and density from a Conductivity-Temperature (CT) recorder to elucidate the fortnightly variability at the Lafayette River entrance. The Lafayette River connects at its mouth with the Elizabeth River, which is a tributary to the James River in the Chesapeake Bay. Data were collected in four experiments during consecutive spring and neap tides in the autumn of 2000, and in the spring of 2001. Each experiment was carried out for -25 hours …

Substituting Otoliths For Chemical Analyses: Does Sagitta = Lapillus?, Nathan G. Smith, Cynthia M. Jones

OES Faculty Publications

Chemical analysis of fish otoliths has become an important technique in fisheries science with widespread applications. Most research up to this point has focused predominantly on sagittal otoliths, but the underlying assumptions may also apply to lapilli. The goal of this study was to determine whether lapilli and sagittae have the same otolith chemistry and whether one can be substituted for the other for solution-based chemical analysis in wild-captured fish. We compared the stable isotope chemistry (δ13C and δ18O) of paired sagittae and lapilli of juvenile spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus collected from Chesapeake Bay seagrass beds in 2002. …

Biogeochemistry Of Arsenic And Antimony In The North Pacific Ocean, Gregory A. Cutter, Lynda S. Cutter

OES Faculty Publications

The biogeochemical cycles of the metalloid elements arsenic and antimony were examined along a 15,000 km surface water transect and at 9 vertical profile stations in the western North Pacific Ocean as part of the 2002 IOC Contaminant Baseline Survey. Results show that the speciation of dissolved arsenic (As III, As V, and methylated As) was subtly controlled by the arsenate (AsV)/phosphate ratio. An additional fraction of presumed organic arsenic previously reported in coastal waters was also present (~15% of the total As) in oceanic surface waters. Dissolved inorganic antimony displayed mildly scavenged behavior that was confirmed by correlations with …

Abstracts Of Papers, 84th Annual Meeting Of The Virginia Academy Of Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Full abstracts of papers for the 84th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-26, 2006, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA

New Fellow: Robert A. Willis, Jr.

Virginia Journal of Science

Robert A. Willis, Jr. has been named Fellow of the Virginia Academy of Science. He has been an active member of the Virginia Academy of Science and the Association of Departments of Computer, Information Science/Engineering at Minority Institutions (ADMI) for nearly fifteen years.

Correlating Late Pleistocene Deposits On The Coastal Plain Of Virginia With The Glacial-Eustatic Sea-Level Curve, Timothy Wullschleger Scott

OES Theses and Dissertations

Late Pleistocene sediments mapped along Virginia's southeastern coastal plain record deposition by high-frequency cycles during isotope stages 5 to 1. Correlations between several geologic units both south (S) and east (E) of the Chesapeake Bay have proven difficult due to insufficient dating methods. To improve these regional correlations, two members of the Tabb Formation on Virginia's southside and two formations on the southern Delmarva Peninsula were selected for stratigraphic analyses. Ground penetrating radar provided geologic details in areas where samples were collected for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The stratigraphically older units, Sedgefield Member of the Tabb Formation (S) and …

A Comparative Analysis Of Air-To-Ground Engagement Outcomes In The Joint Warfare System (Jwars) And The Jwars-Joint Semi-Automated Forces Federation, Melissa Anne St. Peter

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Multi-resolution modeling is the process by which a single model is created by connecting multiple individual models to describe phenomena at different levels of resolution [1]. "When we change resolutions, replacing a detailed model by a more aggregate one, we must ask whether results are 'consistent'" [2].

There are many methods of determining if the results of two simulations are 'consistent'. However, they are very entailed and require a detailed understanding of the individual models including their functionality, algorithms, and inner workings. A straight forward and rapid way of assessing potential inconsistencies is through a statistical comparison of the model …

Spectral Shape As An Indicator Of Molecular Weight In Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter, John Robert Helms

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Spectral slope is a term used to parameterize featureless absorbance spectra according to their shape. Spectral slope is obtained by calculating the slope of the log-linearized absorption spectrum over a given range of wavelengths. Past studies have shown that spectral slope is related to molecular size in fulvic acids. A simple method of spectral analysis that compares spectral slopes obtained from two distinct regions of the UV spectra of aquatic dissolved organic matter is demonstrated. The ratio of these slopes (R_S) shows considerable change during photo-oxidation, variation within estuaries, and substantial shifts with depth in the upper 1000 …

Running Coupling Constant And Transition From Low To High Energies In Quantum Chromodynamics, Alexander Babansky

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The remarkable feature of QCD is that the coupling constant (the strength of the interaction) depends on the energy of the interacting particles. At high energies, the coupling constant vanishes and QCD becomes asymptotically free. However, at lower energy, the running coupling constant increases, leading to the confining strong-coupling theory at energies of the order of hadron masses. We study the essential effects of the running coupling constant and analyze the transition from high to low energies in different processes.

An Analysis Of Indicator Organism Suitability For Lower James And York Rivers, Rhonda Ashonti Ford

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The primary objectives of this thesis are (1) determine if the proper indicator organism is being utilized to determine the bacterial water quality in the State of Virginia. (2) If other environmental factors can predict the bacterial water quality. The current indicator organism of choice for bacterial water quality of waters in the State of Virginia is enterococci, for estuarine and brackish waters. E. coli is the indicator organism of choice for fresh waters in Virginia.

The study concluded (1) Enterococci are the best indicator organism for beaches located in the Hampton Roads Harbor and the Lower James River. (2) …

An Implicit Level Set Model For Firespread, Pallop Huabsomboon

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

The level set method is a mathematical and computational, technique for tracking a moving interface over time. It can naturally handle topological changes such as merging or breaking interfaces. Intrinsic geometric properties of the interface, such as curvature and normal direction, are easily determined from the level set function &phis;. There are many applications of the level set method, including kinetic crystal growth, epitaxial growth of thin films, image restoration, vortex dominated flows, and so forth. Most applications described in the growing literature on the applications of level sets advance the level set equation with explicit time integration. Hence, small …

Hessian Matrix-Free Lagrange-Newton-Krylov-Schur-Schwarz Methods For Elliptic Inverse Problems, Widodo Samyono

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on the solution of inverse problems for elliptic systems. The inverse problem is constructed as a PDE-constrained optimization, where the cost function is the L² norm of the difference between the measured data and the predicted state variable, and the constraint is an elliptic PDE. Particular examples of the system considered in this stud, are groundwater flow and radiation transport. The inverse problems are typically ill-posed due to error in measurements of the data. Regularization methods are employed to partially alleviate this problem. The PDE-constrained optimization is formulated as the minimization of a Lagrangian functional, formed …

Thermometric Measurements Of The Molecular Sublayer At The Air-Water Interface, B. Ward

OES Faculty Publications

[1] A series of measurements was conducted in the AirSea Interaction Saltwater Tank (ASIST) to study the response of the air-water interfacial molecular sublayer under various heat flux and wind speed conditions. In-situ gradients were measured with a platinum-plated tungsten wire microthermometer, which resolved the temperature of the thermally conductive sublayer. Air-sea heat flux was controlled by changing the air-water temperature difference (ΔT^AW) and the wind speed, and measurements were made for three ΔT^AW regimes over a range of wind speeds. A function was fitted to the measured temperature profiles as a way of extracting the boundary …

Characterization And Quantum Efficiency Validation Of Ingaas Linear Focal Plane Array, Christopher Salenga Garcia

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A 1x1024 InGaAs linear hybrid focal plane array (FPA) with CMOS readout was characterized at room temperature to analyze its electrical and optical properties and to measure its performance parameters.

The most important parameter of an FPA is the gain constant K, which allows conversion of the FPA output measurement unit from digital counts into the number of generated signal electrons. For FPAs with CMOS readout, the commonly used meanvariance method for determining K often underestimates its value. A more reliable method for finding K is the photon transfer technique, which is developed for FPAs with CCD readout. This …

A Multilane Pipelined Architecture For Real Time Enhancement Of Color Video Streams, Adam Redd Livingston

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Video stream enhancement is a key fixture in a wide variety of applications from video surveillance, automatic navigation, medical imagery, to facial/object recognition systems. When a video stream contains non-uniform lighting it can be difficult to obtain what is in the darker regions without over enhancing brighter regions. The Adaptive and Integrated Neighborhood Dependant Approach for Nonlinear Enhancement (AINDANE) algorithm combines a tunable nonlinear transfer function, convolution by a multi-scale Gaussian kernel, and tunable contrast enhancement to address this problem for a single image. Luminance values are tuned based on the global cumulative distribution function (CDF) of an image. Contrast …

Mobius: An Omnidirectional Robotic Platform And Software Architecture For Network Teleoperation, Samuel Aaron Miller

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The following thesis presents the results of a project to develop and test an omnidirectional robotic system (hardware and software) at NASA Langley Research Center's Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab. The impetus for the project was the unique capabilities of omnidirectional systems. Some of the many potential benefits these systems have include improved material-handling capabilities in constrained environments (such as might be found in extraterrestrial manned habitats), efficient camera-based vehicle teleoperation, and simplified route planning for autonomous robot operations.

The project's focus was to design, build, and test a system that used Mecanum wheels to achieve omnidirectional motion. In addition …

Tuqr: A Topology Unaware Qos Routing Protocol For Manets, Ibrahim Zagli

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, the main purpose is to design a new Quality of Service (QoS) Routing Protocol for Mobile ad-hoc Networks that improves packet delivery ratio in QoS constrained communication in comparison to current well known protocols by using distributed multi-path routing. To accomplish that, a new approach to the QoS routing in Mobile ad hoc Networks (MANET) is developed to reduce the effects of the distrustful environment of MANET by keeping a number of suitable paths as high as possible and distributing the decision mechanism among the nodes on the path.

In most current protocols that mainly evaluate and …

Reversing Ticket Based Probing (Rtbp) Routing For Manet, Turgut Yucel

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The delay-constrained maximum-bandwidth routing problem in MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Networks) is to find the maximum bandwidth path which satisfies a given delay constraint. The research challenge for this problem is that the networking information used for routing may be imprecise. The Ticket-Based Probing (TBP) routing algorithm provides a heuristic approach by using two types of ticket. In this thesis a Reversing Ticket-based Probing (RTBP) routing algorithm is proposed. The RTBP has two novel features compared to the original ticket based probing algorithms. The first feature is using just one type ticket, instead of two types of ticket. RTBP generates …

Whole Word Phonetic Displays For Speech Articulation Training, Fansheng Meng

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to investigate and develop speech recognition technologies for speech training for people with hearing impairments. During the course of this work, a computer aided speech training system for articulation speech training was also designed and implemented. The speech training system places emphasis on displays to improve children's pronunciation of isolated Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words, with displays at both the phonetic level and whole word level. This dissertation presents two hybrid methods for combining Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and Neural Networks (NNs) for speech recognition. The first method uses NN outputs as posterior probability estimators …

A Non-Linear Technique For The Enhancement Of Extremely Non-Uniform Lighting Images, Ender Oguslu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

At night scenes, either the low intensity areas that are under poor light or the high intensity areas that are overexposed cannot be clearly seen. Various image processing techniques have been developed to recover the meaningful information under extremely low lighting conditions. Among these, the algorithms based on integrated neighborhood dependency of pixel characteristics and based on the illuminance reflectance model perform well for improving the visual quality of digital images captured under nonuniform and extremely low lighting conditions. Although these techniques perform well in low lighting conditions, they cannot perform well in overexposed regions under dark environments such as …

The Reliability Of The Computer Communication Networks Including Mobile Nodes, Sahin Yasar

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The wireless computer networks have an uncertainty in their structures aside from their big advantages for the users. The environmental conditions, changing locations of the mobile hosts and the changing components in the system can easily affect their reliability. In order to know a system capability performing its functions, keep the reliability at a certain level and/or detect the deficiency of the system, it is necessary to analyze the reliability of a computer communication network including the wired and wireless parts. But the above reasons also make the analysis and a unique solution difficult so a set of algorithms is …

Hydrographic Observations During The 2002 Ioc Contaminant Baseline Survey In The Western Pacific Ocean, C. I. Measures, Greg A. Cutter, W. M. Landing, R. T. Powell

OES Faculty Publications

The 2002 IOC Contaminant Baseline Survey in the western Pacific Ocean was the fourth in a series of cruises intended to establish the contemporary concentrations of trace elements and other materials in the major water masses of the ocean and to illuminate the pathways by which materials delivered to the surface ocean are incorporated in the subsurface waters. The expedition occupied 9 vertical profile stations encompassing the subtropical and subarctic gyre of the western North Pacific. In addition, underway surface water samples were collected during transits between the stations. This paper uses the temperature, salinity, nutrient, oxygen, and chlorophyll data …

A Temporal Approximate Deconvolution Model For Large-Eddy Simulation, C. D. Pruett, B. C. Thomas, C. E. Grosch, T. B. Gatski

CCPO Publications

A temporal approximate deconvolution model (TADM) is developed for large-eddy simulation and is demonstrated for plane-channel flow at Re-tau=590. The TADM combines explicit causal time-domain filtering with linear deconvolution (defiltering) to approximate unfiltered fields and residual stress to arbitrarily high order. The TADM methodology appears to lead to a robust family of residual-stress models that should provide a viable alternative to conventional (spatial) filtering for applications in which spatial filtering is problematic, e.g., for problems requiring unstructured or highly stretched grids. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Trap Loss In A Dual-Species Rb-Ar* Magneto-Optical Trap, H. C. Busch, M. K. Shaffer, E. M. Ahmed, C. I. Sukenik

Physics Faculty Publications

We have investigated trap loss in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) comprised of 85Rb and metastable 40Ar. We measure the trap loss rate coefficients for each species due to the presence of the other as a function of trap light intensity. We clearly identify both Penning ionization of Rb by Ar* and associative ionization to form the molecular ion RbAr+ as two of the trap loss channels. We have also measured the trap loss rate coefficient for the Ar* MOT alone and observe production of Ar+ and Ar2+ ions.

Loop Current Warming By Hurricane Wilma, Lie-Yauw Oey, Tal Ezer, Dong-Ping Wang, S. J. Fan, Xun-Qiang Yin

CCPO Publications

Hurricanes mix and cool the upper ocean, as shown here in observations and modeling of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico during the passage of hurricane Wilma. Curiously, the upper ocean around the Loop Current warmed prior to Wilma's entrance into the Gulf. The major cause was increased volume and heat transports through the Yucatan Channel produced by storm-induced convergences in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Such oceanic variability may have important impacts on hurricane predictions.

Topographic Influence On Overflow Dynamics: Idealized Numerical Simulations And The Faroe Bank Channel Overflow, Tal Ezer

CCPO Publications

Properties of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) depend on mixing that occurs in the Denmark Strait (DS) and the Faroe Bank Channel (FBC) overflow regions. How the sill's topography in those regions may affect mixing processes and downstream variability is thus investigated using a high-resolution terrain-following ocean model. Model results agree with observations that show enhanced mixing and entrainment downstream from the sill; however, mixing seems to occur over a longer distance downstream from the FBC sill and more abruptly downstream from the DS sill. Sensitivity experiments with various FBC sill widths demonstrate that the narrow sill is responsible …

Circulation, Vol. 13, No. 1, Center For Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, John M. Klinck

CCPO Circulation

Winter 2006 issue of CCPO Circulation featuring article "Biological Processes in Bivalves as Revealed by Numerical Models" by Dr. John Klinck

A Comparison Of Global Estimates Of Marine Primary Production From Ocean Color, Mary-Elena Carr, Marjorie A. M. Friedrichs, Marjorie Schmeltz, Maki Noguchi Aita, David Antoine, Kevin R. Arrigo, Ichio Asanuma, Oliver Aumont, Richard Barber, Michael Behrenfeld

CCPO Publications

The third primary production algorithm round robin (PPARR3) compares output from 24 models that estimate depth-integrated primary production from satellite measurements of ocean color, as well as seven general circulation models (GCMs) coupled with ecosystem or biogeochemical models. Here we compare the global primary production fields corresponding to eight months of 1998 and 1999 as estimated from common input fields of photosynthetically-available radiation (PAR), sea-surface temperature (SST), mixed-layer depth, and chlorophyll concentration. We also quantify the sensitivity of the ocean-color-based models to perturbations in their input variables. The pair-wise correlation between ocean-color models was used to cluster them into groups …