Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Theses and Dissertations

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
File Type

Articles 5791 - 5820 of 8341

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Interactive Football Summarization, Brandon B. Moon Dec 2009

Interactive Football Summarization, Brandon B. Moon

Theses and Dissertations

Football fans do not have the time to watch every game in its entirety and need an effective solution that summarizes them the story of the game. Human-generated summaries are often too short, requiring time and resources to create. We utilize the advantages of Interactive TV to create an automatic football summarization service that is cohesive, provides context, covers the necessary plays, and is concise. First, we construct a degree of interest function that ranks each play based on detailed, play-by-play game events as well as viewing statistics collected from an interactive viewing environment. This allows us to select the …

Go to article

Multidimensional Methods: Applications In Drug-Enzyme Intrinsic Clearance Determination And Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography Peak Volume Determination, Dennis Thekkudan Dec 2009

Multidimensional Methods: Applications In Drug-Enzyme Intrinsic Clearance Determination And Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography Peak Volume Determination, Dennis Thekkudan

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the first project was to evaluate strategies for determining the in vitro intrinsic clearance (CLint) of dextrorphan (DR) as metabolized by the UGT2B7 enzyme to obtain dextrorphan glucuronide (DR-G). A direct injection liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was used to monitor products using the pseudo-first-order (PFO) model. Standard enzymatic incubations were also quantified using LC-MS. These data were fit utilizing both PFO and Michaelis-Menten (MM) models to determine estimates of kinetic parameters. The CLint was determined to be 0.28 (± 0.08) µL/min/mg protein for a baculovirus insect cell-expressed UGT2B7 enzyme. This is the first confirmation that dextrorphan …

Go to article

Noninvasive Estimation Of Pulmonary Artery Pressure Using Heart Sound Analysis, Aaron W. Dennis Dec 2009

Noninvasive Estimation Of Pulmonary Artery Pressure Using Heart Sound Analysis, Aaron W. Dennis

Theses and Dissertations

Right-heart catheterization is the most accurate method for estimating pulmonary artery pressure (PAP). Because it is an invasive procedure it is expensive, exposes patients to the risk of infection, and is not suited for long-term monitoring situations. Medical researchers have shown that PAP influences the characteristics of heart sounds. This suggests that heart sound analysis is a potential noninvasive solution to the PAP estimation problem. This thesis describes the development of a prototype system, called PAPEr, which estimates PAP noninvasively using heart sound analysis. PAPEr uses patient data with machine learning algorithms to build models of how PAP affects heart …

Go to article

An Adaptive Bayesian Approach To Dose-Response Modeling, Thomas J. Leininger Dec 2009

An Adaptive Bayesian Approach To Dose-Response Modeling, Thomas J. Leininger

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical drug trials are costly and time-consuming. Bayesian methods alleviate the inefficiencies in the testing process while providing user-friendly probabilistic inference and predictions from the sampled posterior distributions, saving resources, time, and money. We propose a dynamic linear model to estimate the mean response at each dose level, borrowing strength across dose levels. Our model permits nonmonotonicity of the dose-response relationship, facilitating precise modeling of a wider array of dose-response relationships (including the possibility of toxicity). In addition, we incorporate an adaptive approach to the design of the clinical trial, which allows for interim decisions and assignment to doses based …

Go to article

Open Access Fiber To The Home Networking, Roger E. Timmerman Dec 2009

Open Access Fiber To The Home Networking, Roger E. Timmerman

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of open-access networks appeals to communities that want to invest in and improve their access to modern telecommunications services. By investing in, or building their own open-access telecommunications networks, communities can create an environment where several telecommunications service providers can co-exist on a common open-access infrastructure. This model promotes innovation and competition among several smaller service providers rather than having a monopoly or oligopoly from those companies that can afford the investment of infrastructure in the community. This research provides an analysis of two large open-access fiber-to-the-home networks in Utah to determine a set of recommendations and best-practices …

Go to article

Statistical Tools For Linking Engine-Generated Malware To Its Engine, Edna Chelangat Milgo Dec 2009

Statistical Tools For Linking Engine-Generated Malware To Its Engine, Edna Chelangat Milgo

Theses and Dissertations

Malware-generating engines challenge typical malware analysts by requiring them to quickly extract and upload to their customers' machines, a signature for each of a possi- bly vast number of never-before-seen malware instances that an engine can generate in a short amount of time In this thesis we propose and evaluate two methods for'linking va- riants of engine-generated malware to its engine. The proposed methods use the w-gram frequency vector (NFV) of the opcode mnemonics of an engine-generated malware in- stance as a feature vector for the instance. An NFV is a tuple that maps «-grams with their frequencies. The in-formation …

Go to article

An Isomorphism Theorem For Graphs, Laura Culp Dec 2009

An Isomorphism Theorem For Graphs, Laura Culp

Theses and Dissertations

In the 1970’s, L. Lovász proved that two graphs G and H are isomorphic if and only if for every graph X , the number of homomorphisms from X → G equals the number of homomorphisms from X → H . He used this result to deduce cancellation properties of the direct product of graphs. We develop a result analogous to Lovász’s theorem, but in the class of graphs without loops and with weak homomorphisms. We apply it prove a general cancellation property for the strong product of graphs.

Go to article

Using Operator Teams For Supervisory Control, Jonathan M. Whetten Nov 2009

Using Operator Teams For Supervisory Control, Jonathan M. Whetten

Theses and Dissertations

Robots and other automated systems have potential use in many different fields. As the scope of robot applications that robots are used for increases, there is a growing desire to have human operators manage multiple robots. Typical methods of enabling operators to multi-task in this way involve some combination of user interfaces that support human cognition and advanced robot autonomy. Our research explores a complementary method of managing multiple robots by utilizing operator teams. The evidence suggests that for appropriate task scenarios, two cooperating operators can be more than twice as effective as one operator working alone.

Go to article

Dinosaurian Faunas Of The Cedar Mountain Formation And La-Icp-Ms Detrital Zircon Ages For Three Stratigraphic Sections, Hirotsugu Mori Nov 2009

Dinosaurian Faunas Of The Cedar Mountain Formation And La-Icp-Ms Detrital Zircon Ages For Three Stratigraphic Sections, Hirotsugu Mori

Theses and Dissertations

The Cedar Mountain Formation contains the most diverse record of Early Cretaceous dinosaurs in the western hemisphere. However, analyses of its faunas have been hindered because 1) most taxa are based on incomplete/fragmentary materials or incomplete descriptions, 2) most sites and some horizons preserve few taxa, and 3) the stratigraphy and geochronology are poorly understood. To help resolve these stratigraphic and correlation problems U-Pb LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon ages were obtained at significant sites and horizons. These dates indicate all sites at or near the base of the formation are no older than 122 to 124 Ma, thus all basal stratigraphic …

Go to article

Preparation And Characterization Of Stable Macroporous Titania Nano-Wells, Hema Santhi Aluri Nov 2009

Preparation And Characterization Of Stable Macroporous Titania Nano-Wells, Hema Santhi Aluri

Theses and Dissertations

Silica based sol-gel thin films have been extensively studied because of their advantages that include optical transparency, high biodegradability and low intrinsic fluorescence. However, one concern with silica based sol-gel derived materials is their long term stability in aqueous solutions. Another concern is their limited porosity. These two concerns limit the application of these materials in catalysis and separations. The main objective of this study is to prepare porous, thin films using titanium alkoxides as precursors and evaluate their long term stability in aqueous solutions. Colloidal crystal templating will be used to introduce macrosized pores into the titania network. The …

Go to article

An Empirical Study Of Instance Hardness, Michael Reed Smith Nov 2009

An Empirical Study Of Instance Hardness, Michael Reed Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Most widely accepted measures of performance for learning algorithms, such as accuracy and area under the ROC curve, provide information about behavior at the data set level. They say nothing about which instances are misclassified, whether two learning algorithms with the same classification accuracy on a data set misclassify the same instances, or whether there are instances misclassified by all learning algorithms. These questions about behavior at the instance level motivate our empirical analysis of instance hardness, a measure of expected classification accuracy for an instance. We analyze the classification of 57 data sets using 9 learning algorithms. Of …

Go to article

Hokua – A Wavelet Method For Audio Fingerprinting, Steven S. Lutz Nov 2009

Hokua – A Wavelet Method For Audio Fingerprinting, Steven S. Lutz

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, multimedia identification has become important as the volume of digital media has dramatically increased. With music files, one method of identification is audio fingerprinting. The underlying method for most algorithms is the Fourier transform. However, due to a lack of temporal resolution, these algorithms rely on the short-time Fourier transform. We propose an audio fingerprinting algorithm that uses a wavelet transform, which has good temporal resolution. In this thesis, we examine the basics of certain topics that are needed in understanding audio fingerprinting techniques. We also look at a brief history of work done in this field. …

Go to article

Growth And Geodesics Of Thompson's Group F, Jennifer L. Schofield Nov 2009

Growth And Geodesics Of Thompson's Group F, Jennifer L. Schofield

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper our goal is to describe how to find the growth of Thompson's group F with generators a and b. Also, by studying elements through pipe systems, we describe how adding a third generator c affects geodesic length. We model the growth of Thompson's group F by producing a grammar for reduced pairs of trees based on Blake Fordham's tree structure. Then we change this grammar into a system of equations that describes the growth of Thompson's group F and simplify. To complete our second goal, we present and discuss a computer program that has led to some …

Go to article

Synthesis And Evaluation Of N6,5'-Bis-Ureido-5'-Amino-5'-Deoxyadenosine Derivatives: Novel Nucleosides With Antiproliferative And Protein Kinase Binding Activities, Marcelio Oliveira Nov 2009

Synthesis And Evaluation Of N6,5'-Bis-Ureido-5'-Amino-5'-Deoxyadenosine Derivatives: Novel Nucleosides With Antiproliferative And Protein Kinase Binding Activities, Marcelio Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations

A new series of N6,5'-bis-ureido-5'-amino-5'-deoxyadenosine derivatives was prepared and evaluated for anticancer activities using the NCI 60 panel of human cancers. Certain of the derivatives showed promising activities (low micromolar GI50's) against several of the representative cancers. These included cell lines from the following general cell types in the NCI 60: Leukemia, Breast, Central Nervous System, Non-Small Cell Lung, Ovarian, Prostate, Renal, and Colon cancers. Select compounds were also screened for their affinities for protein kinases. The synthesis of the compounds was straightforward and involved N6 acylation with arylisocyanates, preceded by activation and nucleophilic substitution of the 5'-position to give …

Go to article

Feature-Based Interactive Terrain Sketching, Daniel B. Adams Nov 2009

Feature-Based Interactive Terrain Sketching, Daniel B. Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Procedural generation techniques are able to quickly and cheaply produce large areas of terrain. However, these techniques produce results that are not easily directable and often require artists to edit the results by hand to achieve the desired layout. This paper proposes a sketch-based system for controlling fractal terrain that allows for a wide variety of terrain feature types. Artists sketch features rather than constrained points or elevations. The system is interactive, provides quick on-demand previews of the terrain, and allows for iterative design modifications. Interaction between features is handled in a realistic fashion. An arbitrary vertex insertion order midpoint …

Go to article

Nonlinear Models In Multivariate Population Bioequivalence Testing, Bassam Dahman Nov 2009

Nonlinear Models In Multivariate Population Bioequivalence Testing, Bassam Dahman

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation a methodology is proposed for simultaneously evaluating the population bioequivalence (PBE) of a generic drug to a pre-licensed drug, or the bioequivalence of two formulations of a drug using multiple correlated pharmacokinetic metrics. The univariate criterion that is accepted by the food and drug administration (FDA) for testing population bioequivalence is generalized. Very few approaches for testing multivariate extensions of PBE have appeared in the literature. One method uses the trace of the covariance matrix as a measure of total variability, and another uses a pooled variance instead of the reference variance. The former ignores the correlation …

Go to article

A La-Icpms Sr Isotope And Trace Element Study Of Plagioclase And Clinopyroxene Of The Higganum Dike, Connecticut: Determining The Magma Source Of The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, Caprise Steadman Harper Nov 2009

A La-Icpms Sr Isotope And Trace Element Study Of Plagioclase And Clinopyroxene Of The Higganum Dike, Connecticut: Determining The Magma Source Of The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, Caprise Steadman Harper

Theses and Dissertations

The Higganum dike of Connecticut is one of the earliest basaltic dikes of the Central Atlantic Magmatic province and is geochemically representative of the widespread low-Ti basaltic lavas (~1 wt % TiO2) that make up the majority of the province in North America. Liquid compositions calculated from Cr-rich clinopyroxene cores from the Higganum dike are significantly more primitive than the bulk rock with average Mg# s of 0.63 compared to the Higganum dike which has Mg #'s ~ 0.55. However, the negative Nb and positive Pb anomalies that are seen in trace element patterns of the low-Ti group are also …

Go to article

Parameter Estimation For The Lognormal Distribution, Brenda Faith Ginos Nov 2009

Parameter Estimation For The Lognormal Distribution, Brenda Faith Ginos

Theses and Dissertations

The lognormal distribution is useful in modeling continuous random variables which are greater than or equal to zero. Example scenarios in which the lognormal distribution is used include, among many others: in medicine, latent periods of infectious diseases; in environmental science, the distribution of particles, chemicals, and organisms in the environment; in linguistics, the number of letters per word and the number of words per sentence; and in economics, age of marriage, farm size, and income. The lognormal distribution is also useful in modeling data which would be considered normally distributed except for the fact that it may be more …

Go to article

Joint Mixed-Effects Models For Longitudinal Data Analysis: An Application For The Metabolic Syndrome, John Thorp Iii Nov 2009

Joint Mixed-Effects Models For Longitudinal Data Analysis: An Application For The Metabolic Syndrome, John Thorp Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Mixed-effects models are commonly used to model longitudinal data as they can appropriately account for within and between subject sources of variability. Univariate mixed effect modeling strategies are well developed for a single outcome (response) variable that may be continuous (e.g. Gaussian) or categorical (e.g. binary, Poisson) in nature. Only recently have extensions been discussed for jointly modeling multiple outcome variables measures longitudinally. Many diseases processes are a function of several factors that are correlated. For example, the metabolic syndrome, a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, is often …

Go to article

Isotopic Evaluation Of Carbon Dioxide In Soil Gas In Utah For A More Accurate Input Variable In Groundwater Age Determining Models, Rachelle Hart Oct 2009

Isotopic Evaluation Of Carbon Dioxide In Soil Gas In Utah For A More Accurate Input Variable In Groundwater Age Determining Models, Rachelle Hart

Theses and Dissertations

In order to achieve a more accurate input value for groundwater age determining models, δ13CVPDB values for soil gas were evaluated at 50 cm depths in locations throughout Utah in order to define correlations between δ13C and environmental parameters. 16 sites were chosen that exploited large changes in elevation and latitude which provided variations in climate, precipitation, plant community, etc. Gas samples were collected over 1-1½ years, and soil samples were collected at depth during installations. Field and laboratory studies were also used to evaluate CO2 and δ13C change with depth. It was discovered that in mountainous recharge areas, the …

Go to article

Development And Comparison Of Methods For Measuring Directional Sound Arrivals In Rooms, Brian Trevor Thornock Oct 2009

Development And Comparison Of Methods For Measuring Directional Sound Arrivals In Rooms, Brian Trevor Thornock

Theses and Dissertations

In room acoustics, the directional information of sound arrivals at a listening location can be used to diagnose the origins of problematic reflections so offending surfaces or other features can be properly treated. It can also be used for other purposes, including the study of psychoacoustic indicators. Many methods have been developed in the past to derive directional information, but despite their benefits, each has had significant drawbacks that have necessitated further research into their properties and development of an improved method. This thesis presents a review of past methods, their benefits and shortcomings. It discusses many theoretical and practical …

Go to article

Pore Size Characterization Of Monolithic Capillary Columns Using Capillary Flow Porometry, Yan Fang Sep 2009

Pore Size Characterization Of Monolithic Capillary Columns Using Capillary Flow Porometry, Yan Fang

Theses and Dissertations

A simple capillary flow porometer (CFP) was assembled for pore structure characterization of monolithic capillary liquid chromatography columns based on ASTM standard F316-86. Determination of differential pressures and flow rates through dry and wet samples provided the necessary information to determine the through-pore throat diameter, bubble point pore diameter, mean flow pore diameter, and pore distribution. Unlike measurements in bulk using traditional techniques to provide indirect information about the pore properties of monolithic columns, monoliths can be characterized in their original chromatographic forms with this system. The performance of the new CFP was first evaluated by characterizing the pore size …

Go to article

Gas Phase Chiral Recognition, Characterization Of Porous Polymer Monolith Nanospray Ionization, And The Negative Mode Crafti Method Using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Nannan Fang Sep 2009

Gas Phase Chiral Recognition, Characterization Of Porous Polymer Monolith Nanospray Ionization, And The Negative Mode Crafti Method Using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Nannan Fang

Theses and Dissertations

Our group has been studying chiral recognition in gas phase using mass spectrometry for more than 10 years. We are interested in gas phase studies of fundamental interactions because the gas phase avoids complications and masking effects that may arise upon solvation. Therefore, the results of gas phase experiments can be directly compared with those of high-level computational studies. In chapter 2, I studied the roles of hydrogen bonding and pi stacking in gas phase chiral recognition between aromatic crown molecules and aromatic amines. High affinity between host and guest doesn't necessarily result in better recognition. If the affinity is …

Go to article

Guided Testing For Automatic Error Discovery In Concurrent Software, Neha Shyam Rungta Sep 2009

Guided Testing For Automatic Error Discovery In Concurrent Software, Neha Shyam Rungta

Theses and Dissertations

The quality and reliability of software systems, in terms of their functional correctness, critically relies on the effectiveness of the testing tools and techniques to detect errors in the system before deployment. A lack of testing tools for concurrent programs that systematically control thread scheduling choices has not allowed concurrent software development to keep abreast with hardware trends of multi-core and multi-processor technologies. This motivates a need for the development of systematic testing techniques that detect errors in concurrent programs. The work in this dissertation presents a potentially scalable technique that can be used to detect concurrency errors in production …

Go to article

Deriving Optimal Composite Scores: Relating Observational/Longitudinal Data With A Primary Endpoint, Rhonda Ellis Sep 2009

Deriving Optimal Composite Scores: Relating Observational/Longitudinal Data With A Primary Endpoint, Rhonda Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

In numerous clinical/experimental studies, multiple endpoints are measured on each subject. It is often not clear which of these endpoints should be designated as of primary importance. The desirability function approach is a way of combining multiple responses into a single unitless composite score. The response variables may include multiple types of data: binary, ordinal, count, interval data. Each response variable is transformed to a 0 to1 unitless scale with zero representing a completely undesirable response and one representing the ideal value. In desirability function methodology, weights on individual components can be incorporated to allow different levels of importance to …

Go to article

Application Of Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transforms To Burst Detection And Rf Fingerprint Classification, Randall W. Klein Aug 2009

Application Of Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transforms To Burst Detection And Rf Fingerprint Classification, Randall W. Klein

Theses and Dissertations

This work addresses various Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Physical (PHY) layer mechanisms to extract and exploit RF waveform features (”fingerprints”) that are inherently unique to specific devices and that may be used to provide hardware specific identification (manufacturer, model, and/or serial number). This is addressed by applying a Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DT-CWT) to improve burst detection and RF fingerprint classification. A ”Denoised VT” technique is introduced to improve performance at lower SNRs, with denoising implemented using a DT-CWT decomposition prior to Traditional VT processing. A newly developed Wavelet Domain (WD) fingerprinting technique is presented using statistical WD fingerprints with …

Go to article

Total Synthesis Of (-)-Acutumine, Fang Li Aug 2009

Total Synthesis Of (-)-Acutumine, Fang Li

Theses and Dissertations

Acutumine is a tetracyclic alkaloid isolated from the Asian vine Menispermum dauricum with selective T-cell cytotoxicity and antiamnestic properties. We have developed a total synthetic route to this congested alkaloid, during which we also found a novel, stereoselective radical-crossover reaction that combines an intramolecular radical conjugate addition with a subsequent enolate hydroxylation. Key features of this synthesis also include a reagent-controlled diastereoselective ketone allylation, an anionic oxy-Cope rearrangement to form a congested quaternary sterocenter, a pyridine-mediated selective ozonolysis, and a Lewis acid promoted Michael-type cyclization.

Go to article

Kiwivault: Encryption Software For Portable Storage Devices, Trevor Bradshaw Florence Aug 2009

Kiwivault: Encryption Software For Portable Storage Devices, Trevor Bradshaw Florence

Theses and Dissertations

While many people use USB flash drives, most do not protect their stored documents. Solutions for protecting flash drives exist but inherently limit functionality found in unprotected drives such as portability, usability, and the ability to share documents between multiple people. In addition, other drawbacks are introduced such as the possibility of losing access to protected documents if a password is lost. Assuming protecting portable documents is important, in order for people to be willing to protect their documents they should be required to make as few sacrifices in functionality as possible. We introduce KiwiVault, a USB flash drive encryption …

Go to article

Scan-Based Near-Field Acoustical Holography On Partially Correlated Sources, Michael D. Gardner Aug 2009

Scan-Based Near-Field Acoustical Holography On Partially Correlated Sources, Michael D. Gardner

Theses and Dissertations

Scan-based near-field acoustical holography (NAH) is applied to partially correlated sources. Partial field decomposition via the virtual coherence method is used to implement the scan-based NAH. The background and theory of these methods are developed. Multiple stationary reference microphones are required for the partial field decomposition. Guidelines for reference microphone placement in the literature thus far have been limited. Improved guidelines for reference microphones are given after the results of two sets of experiments. The first set involves discrete, partially correlated sources, both physical and numerical. The second set of experiments is strictly numerical and involves continuous sources. Fewer microphones …

Go to article

Development Of Biocompatible Polymer Monoliths For The Analysis Of Proteins And Peptides, Yun Li Aug 2009

Development Of Biocompatible Polymer Monoliths For The Analysis Of Proteins And Peptides, Yun Li

Theses and Dissertations

Biocompatibility is an important issue for the development of chromatographic stationary phases for the analysis of biomolecules (including proteins and peptides). A biocompatible stationary phase material is a material that resists nonspecific adsorption of biomolecules and does not interact with them in a way that would alter or destroy their structures or biochemical functions. The monolithic column format is a good alternative to typical spherical particle packed columns for capillary liquid chromatography of biomacromolecules. Several novel anion-exchange polymer monoliths for the analysis of proteins were synthesized for improved biocompatibility. Two novel polymeric monoliths were prepared in a single step by …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last