Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dlpconvert: Converting Owl Dlp Statements To Logic Programs, Boris Motik, Denny Vrandecic, Pascal Hitzler, York Sure, Rudi Studer

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

In the past few years, the W3C has been establishing standards for the fundamental building blocks of the Semantic Web. With RDF a common data model has been provided. A major step was the introduction of the ontology definition languages RDFS—offering very basic semantics—and the Web Ontology Language OWL As these standards are still very new, only a limited support of tools for inferencing and querying exists. Still, the availability of such tools will be crucial for the development of the Semantic Web.

Fly Through A Pig's Heart, Thomas Wischgoll

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

This exhibit enables you to go on a fantastic voyage through the blood stream. Based on a scan of a real pig’s heart the arterial blood vessels were modeled allowing you to navigate through the vascular system of this heart and explore the blood and its different particles.

Ceg 461/661-01: Object-Oriented Programming And Design, Thomas C. Hartrum

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Study of object-oriented design and programming. Programming topics emphasize the core concepts of encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and dynamic binding. Additional topics include class organization, software maintenance, and design of reusable components. There is a project to be implemented in a modern object-oriented language such as Java or C++.

Ceg 416-01: Matrix Computations, Daniel C. Lee

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course is a survey of numerical methods in linear algebra for application to problems in engineering and the sciences. Emphasis is on using modern software tools on high performance computing systems. This course covers the mathematics of linear equations, eigenvalue problems, singular value decomposition, and least squares. Material covered will be relevant to application areas such as structural analysis, heat transfer, neural networks, , mechanical vibrations, and image processing in biomedical engineering. A student should familiarize himself/herself with Matlab. All programming assignments will be done in Matlab. A basic knowledge of matrix algebra is required. Prerequisite: MTH 253 or …

Ceg 360/560-01: Digital System Design, Travis E. Doom

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Design of digital systems. Topics include flip-flops, registers, counters, programmable logic devices, memory devices, register-level design, and microcomputer system organization. Students must show competency in the design of digital systems. 3 hours lecture, 2 hours lab. Prerequisite: CEG 260.

Ceg 860-01: Object-Oriented Programming, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course motivates the need for object-oriented programming, and studies, in detail, object-oriented programming techniques, languages, and technology. The lectures will focus on the foundations of OOP, while the student presentations will focus on the applications and extensions of Object Technology.

Executive Summary – Building The Case: Mathematics Specialists

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Active Facilitation: What Do Specialists Need To Know And How Might They Learn It?, D. Schifter, J. B. Lester

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Sustained, innovative professional development is now widely acknowledged as essential to the improvement of mathematics instruction in the nation’s schools. In recent years, this recognition has prompted the production of a variety of materials designed to support new teacher development programs. However, with the availability of such materials, serious concerns arise as to the kinds of knowledge required of professional development providers, often teachers who have been assigned Mathematics Specialist roles, and the means by which this knowledge is to be acquired. The authors of this paper address such questions in the context of one professional development seminar, Developing Mathematical …

Ramping Up Assessment At The Unlv Libraries, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Publications

Purpose – Sets out to describe the development of an assessment program at UNLV Libraries and current assessment activities.

Design/methodology/approach – Assessment activities are first placed in organizational context, distinguishing between assessment initiated by departments, and assessment done library-wide. Common expressions of resistance to assessment are noted, followed by the library and campus context relating to assessment. The impact of technology and of the LibQual+ survey is discussed.

Findings – Assessment activities at UNLV Libraries have strengthened and diversified over the last several years, thanks to several factors including the guidance of its dean, the development of technology and human …

Semantic Web & Semantic Web Services: Applications In Healthcare And Scientific Research, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Ranking Complex Relationships On The Semantic Web, Boanerges Aleman-Meza, Christian Halaschek-Wiener, I. Budak Arpinar, Cartic Ramakrishnan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Industry and academia are both focusing their attention on information retrieval over semantic metadata extracted from the Web, and it is increasingly possible to analyze such metadata to discover interesting relationships. However, just as document ranking is a critical component in today's search engines, the ranking of complex relationships would be an important component in tomorrow's semantic Web engines. This article presents a flexible ranking approach to identify interesting and relevant relationships in the semantic Web. The authors demonstrate the scheme's effectiveness through an empirical evaluation over a real-world data set.

Taxaminer: An Experimentation Framework For Automated Taxonomy Bootstrapping, Vipul Kashyap, Cartic Ramakrishnan, Christopher Thomas, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Construction of domain ontologies on the semantic web is a human and resource intensive process, efforts to reduce which are crucial for the Semantic Web to scale. We present a framework for automated taxonomy construction, that involves: (a) generation of a cluster hierarchy from a document corpus using statistical clustering and NLP techniques; (b) extraction of a topic hierarchy from this cluster hierarchy; and (c) assignment of labels to nodes in the topic hierarchy. Metrics for estimating topic hierarchy quality and parameters of an experimentation framework are identified. MEDLINE was the document corpus and MeSH thesaurus was the gold standard.

Tontogen: A Synthetic Data Set Generator For Semantic Web Applications, Matthew Perry

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Dissociative Recombination On The Composition Of Planetary Atmospheres, Jane L. Fox

Physics Faculty Publications

Because dissociative recombination (DR) reactions of molecular ions are often highly exothermic, in the thermospheres of the Earth and planets DR may be a source of translationally and internally excited fragments. DR is important, therefore, for thermospheric neutral heating; if the excited fragments radiate to space, however, DR may be also a source of thermospheric cooling. DR may produce metastable fragments, which may live long enough to participate in reactions that are not available to ground state species. It is rare, however, for DR to be a significant source of minor species in their ground states. An exception appears to …

Computational Technique For Improvement Of The Position-Weight Matrices For The Dna/Protein Binding Sites, Naum I. Gershenzon, Gary D. Stormo, Ilya P. Ioshikhes

Physics Faculty Publications

Position-weight matrices (PWMs) are broadly used to locate transcription factor binding sites in DNA sequences. The majority of existing PWMs provide a low level of both sensitivity and specificity. We present a new computational algorithm, a modification of the Staden–Bucher approach, that improves the PWM. We applied the proposed technique on the PWM of the GC-box, binding site for Sp1. The comparison of old and new PWMs shows that the latter increase both sensitivity and specificity. The statistical parameters of GC-box distribution in promoter regions and in the human genome, as well as in each chromosome, are presented. The majority …

C And C+ In The Venusian Thermosphere/Ionosphere, Jane L. Fox, L. J. Paxton

Physics Faculty Publications

We have constructed standard low and high solar activity models of the Venus thermosphere, which take into account revised rate coefficients for production and loss processes for C and C⁺, high-resolution cross sections for photodissociation of CO, and recent solar fluxes from the Solar 2000 v1.24 and v2.22 models of Tobiska [2004]. Among the most important changes is the inclusion of the branching ratio for the channel of dissociative recombination of CO₂⁺ that produces C + O₂, which has been measured recently by Seiersen et al. [2003]. We find that unlike Mars, where the …

Application Of Statistical Methods In Risk And Reliability, Astrid Heard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation considers construction of confidence intervals for a cumulative distribution function F(z) and its inverse at some fixed points z and u on the basis of an i.i.d. sample where the sample size is relatively small. The sample is modeled as having the flexible Generalized Gamma distribution with all three parameters being unknown. This approach can be viewed as an alternative to nonparametric techniques which do not specify distribution of X and lead to less efficient procedures. The confidence intervals are constructed by objective Bayesian methods and use the Jeffreys noninformative prior. Performance of the resulting confidence intervals is …

Utilization Of Total Mass As A Control In Diffusion Processes, Mohamed Salman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As motivation for the mathematical problems considered in this work, consider a chamber in the form of a long linear transparent tube. We allow for the introduction or removal of material in a gaseous state at the ends of the tube. The material diffuses throughout the tube with or without reaction with other materials. By illuminating the tube on one side with a light source with a frequency range spanning the absorption range for the material and collecting the residual light that passes through the tube with photo-reception equipment, we can obtain a measurement of the total mass of material …

Deriving The Density Of States For Granular Contact Forces, Philip Metzger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The density of single grain states in static granular packings is derived from first principles for an idealized yet fundamental case. This produces the distribution of contact forces P_f(f) in the packing. Because there has been some controversy in the published literature over the exact form of the distribution, this dissertation begins by reviewing the existing empirical observations to resolve those controversies. A method is then developed to analyze Edwards' granular contact force probability functional from first principles. The derivation assumes Edwards' flat measure -- a density of states (DOS) that is uniform within the metastable regions of phase space. …

Monte Carlo Simulation Of Hole Transport And Terahertz Amplification In Multilayer Delta Doped Semiconductor Structures, Maxim Dolguikh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monte Carlo method for the simulation of hole dynamics in degenerate valence subbands of cubic semiconductors is developed. All possible intra- and inter-subband scattering rates are theoretically calculated for Ge, Si, and GaAs. A far-infrared laser concept based on intersubband transitions of holes in p-type periodically delta-doped semiconductor films is studied using numerical Monte-Carlo simulation of hot hole dynamics. The considered device consists of monocrystalline pure Ge layers periodically interleaved with delta-doped layers and operates with vertical or in-plane hole transport in the presence of a perpendicular in-plane magnetic field. Inversion population on intersubband transitions arises due to light hole …

In Situ Remediation Of Heavy Metal Contaminated Sediments Using Emulsified Zero-Valent Metal Particles, Kristen Marie Milum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sediments can act as both a sink for pollutants and a source for aquatic contaminants. Natural and human disturbances of the sediments can release the contaminants to the overlying water where bottom dwelling, or benthic, organisms may be exposed through direct contact, ingestion of sediment particles, or uptake of dissolved contaminants present in the water. Dredging, the most common remediation technology for heavy metals, exacerbates this process. The in situ use of emulsified metal has been studied for its ability to pull heavy metals from aqueous solution and from saturated soils. It has proven successful in the laboratory with removal …

The Use And Development Of Laser Microdissection To Separate Spermatozoa From Epithelial Cells For Str Analysis, Christine Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Short Tandem Repeat (STR) analysis has become a valuable tool in identifying the source of biological stains, particularly from the investigation of sexual assault crimes. Difficulties in analysis arise primarily in the interpretation of mixed genotypes when cell separation of the sexual assailant's sperm from the victim's cells is incomplete. The forensic community continues to seek improvements in cell separation methods from mixtures for DNA typing. This report describes the use of laser microdissection (LMD) for the separation of pure populations of spermatozoa from two-donor cell mixtures. In this study, cell separation was demonstrated by microscopic identification of histologically stained …

Synthesis, Characterizations, And Evaluation Of New Reactive Two-Photon Absorbing Dyes For Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence Imaging Applications, Katherine J. Hales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent, cooperative advances in chemistry, biology, computing, photophysics, optics, and microelectronics have resulted in extraordinary developments in the biological sciences, resulting in the emergence of a novel area termed 'biophotonics'. The integrative and interdisciplinary nature of biophotonics cuts across virtually all disciplines, extending the frontiers of basic cellular, molecular, and biology research through the clinical and pharmaceutical industries. This holds true for the development and application of the novel imaging modality utilizing multiphoton absorption and its extraordinary contribution to recent advances in bioimaging. Intimately involved in the revolution of nonlinear bioimaging has been the development of optical probes for probing …

Fracture Behavior Of Wood Plastic Composite (Wpc), Gi Young Jeong

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, the effect of notch length on impact strength and fracture toughness was examined to exploit the use of wood plastic composite (WPC) as structural materials. Impact and fracture toughness test methods and estimation procedures were carried out. To evaluate the impact strength of WPC, five different notch sizes with two different fiber orientations on the load head were prepared. In terms of fracture mechanics, notch length was converted to stress concentration factor and the relationship between stress concentration factor and impact strength was determined. Fracture surface of impact specimens was investigated to evaluate the fracture mechanism of …

Analytical And Synthetic Methods For Anatoxins., Janet Crowley

Theses

This thesis is focused on the potent cyanobacterial neurotoxins anatoxin-a (AN), its methyl analogue homoanatoxin-a (HMAN) and their non-toxic dihydro- and epoxydegradation products. In commencing the investigation into this area a literature review was performed in order to identify areas where more research and method development was required (Chapter 1). The review highlighted the fact that although a number of analytical methods had been developed for the analysis of AN, there were few methods for the determination of its potent homologue HMAN and their non-toxic degradation products. As these neurotoxins degrade quickly it is important to monitor their degradation products, …

Building A Declarative Workflow Engine, Patrick Rushe

Theses

In the last two decades, technology has become available that not only allows certain activities of a business process to be automated, but also allows a business process itself to be automatically managed. A Workflow Management System assigns the work, passes it on, and tracks its progress. This technology is called Workflow. Workflow is the automation and formal management of a business process.

Many commercial and open-source Workflow Management Systems are available. However, the cost and technical difficulty in implementing either can be excessively high. The primary contribution of this work is to prove that building a workflow engine is …

Elucidation Of The Mass Spectral Fragmentation Pathways Of Cyclic Hepatopeptides Microcystins, Paloma Muniz Ortea

Theses

The most frequently found cyanobacterial toxins in blooms from fresh and brackish waters are the cyclic peptide microcystins (MCs) and nodularin family. These toxins cause fatal poisonings of agricultural livestock, wild animals, birds and fish on a worldwide basis. The involvement of these toxins in human health problems has also been inferred in several countries and their presence in drinking water sources is of interest to the drinking water industry.

One of the biggest problems in the analysis of MCs is the lack of commercially available standards to be used for the identification and characterisation of these cyanobacterial toxins. One …

Numerical Modelling Of Sediments In Cork Harbour, Jérémy Pingon

Theses

In recent years there have been considerable developments in the new and emerging field of hydroinformatics. This relatively new discipline is concerned with the application of computer and networking technology for the planning, management and protection of water bodies.

Environmental issues in estuaries require accurate and detailed knowledge of cohesive sediment transport processes to assess different issues including water quality, pollutant dispersion, and dredging and maintenance of navigation channels.

This thesis presents a review of the main sediment properties and processes required for modelling the behaviour and transport of sediments. It also introduces a new approach to sediment properties using …

Incompressible Finite Elements Via Hybridization. Part Ii: The Stokes System In Three Space Dimensions, Bernardo Cockburn, Jay Gopalakrishnan

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We introduce a method that gives exactly incompressible velocity approximations to Stokes ow in three space dimensions. The method is designed by extending the ideas in Part I (http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/10914) of this series, where the Stokes system in two space dimensions was considered. Thus we hybridize a vorticity-velocity formulation to obtain a new mixed method coupling approximations of tangential velocity and pressure on mesh faces. Once this relatively small tangential velocity-pressure system is solved, it is possible to recover a globally divergence-free numerical approximation of the fluid velocity, an approximation of the vorticity whose tangential component is continuous across …

Curvature Of The Weinhold Metric For Thermodynamical Systems With 2 Degrees Of Freedom, Manuel Santoro, Serge Preston

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this work the curvature of Weinhold (thermodynamical) metric is studied in the case of systems with two thermodynamical degrees of freedom. Conditions for the Gauss curvature R to be zero, positive or negative are worked out. Signature change of the Weinhold metric and the corresponding singular behavior of the curvature at the phase boundaries are studied. Cases of systems with the constant C_v, including Ideal and Van der Waals gases, and that of Berthelot gas are discussed in detail.