Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods For Regression Splines With A Penalized Acceptance Ratio, David Keith Stamps

Dissertations

An increasingly popular method for fitting complex models, particularly with a hierchical structure involvese the use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. Within a Bayesian framework, two major strategies are Gibbs sampling and Metropolis-Hastings methods. Recent research in the area of MCMC methods has witnessed the emergence of modeling efforts which permit the movement of the chain across models of varying dimensions. When properly constructed, such Markov chains converge to the joint posterior distribution of the parameters to be estimated, making Bayesian averaging an attractive option after convergence has occurred. With this transdimensional methodology, the Bayesian averaging process takes place …

Blanding’S Turtle (Emydoidea Blandingii): A Technical Conservation Assessment, Justin D. Congdon, Douglas A. Keinath

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Blanding’s turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) are secure in Nebraska, and they range from being vulnerable to threatened, or endangered throughout most of the rest of their distribution. In Region 2, they have not been reported from Kansas, they are extremely rare in South Dakota, and they occupy wetlands in the northern half of Nebraska. The largest population known within the range of Blanding’s turtles is at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska.

The core habitat of Blanding’s turtles has an aquatic component that consists of a permanent wetland and a suite of other, usually smaller and more temporary, wetlands such …

Optimization Of Active Noise Control For Small Axial Cooling Fans, Brian B. Monson

Theses and Dissertations

Previous work has shown that active noise control is a feasible solution to attenuate tonal noise radiated by small axial cooling fans, such as those found in desktop computers. One such control system reduced noise levels of a baffled 80-mm fan in the free field with four small loudspeakers surrounding the fan. Due to industry specified spatial constraints, a smaller fan and speaker configuration was desirable. The smaller configuration maintains similar control performance, further facilitating practical implementation of the control system. The smaller control system employs a smaller fan running at a higher speed. Different loudspeaker configurations for control exist …

Debris Disks Around White Dwarfs: The Daz Connection, Mukremin Kilic, Ted Von Hippel, Et Al.

Publications

We present near-infrared spectroscopic observations of 20 previously known DAZ white dwarfs obtained at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Two of these white dwarfs (G29-38 and GD 362) are known to display significant K-band excesses due to circumstellar debris disks. Here we report the discovery of excess K-band radiation from another DAZ white dwarf WD0408041 (GD56). Using spectroscopic observations, we show that the excess radiation cannot be explained by a stellar or substellar companion, and is likely to be caused by a warm debris disk. Our observations strengthen the connection between the debris disk phenomena and the observed …

Collaborative Research: Agulhas-South Atlantic Thermohaline Transport Experiment (Asttex), Deirdre A. Byrne

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

A field experiment is proposed, which will provide multi-year time series of salt, heat, and mass transports from the Agulhas retroflection region into the South Atlantic subtropical gyre. The program will deploy inverted echo sounders, both with and without pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters. The in situ data will be complemented with satellite data, both SST and altimetry. Historical data will also be included in the data analysis. The success of the program is based substantially on a new technique, GEM-ETTA, for analyzing IES (inverted echo sounder) and PIES (pressure and inverted echo sounder) data. Analysis of the field …

Temperature Regulation Of Bacterial Production, Respiration, And Growth Efficiency In A Temperate Salt-Marsh Estuary, Jude K. Apple, P. A. Del Giorgio, W. Michael Kemp

Shannon Point Marine Center Faculty Publications

There is consensus that temperature plays a major role in shaping microbial activity, but there are still questions as to how temperature influences different aspects of bacterioplankton carbon metabolism under different environmental conditions. We examined the temperature dependence of bacterioplankton carbon metabolism, whether this temperature dependence changes at different temperatures, and whether the relationship between temperature and carbon metabolism varies among estuarine sub-systems differing in their degree of enrichment. Two years of intensive sampling in a temperate estuary (Monie Bay, Chesapeake Bay, USA) revealed significant differences in the temperature dependence of bacterial production (BP) and respiration (BR), which drove a …

Relative Risk Regression In Medical Research: Models, Contrasts, Estimators, And Algorithms, Thomas Lumley, Richard Kronmal, Shuangge Ma

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

The relative risk or prevalence ratio is a natural and familiar summary of association between a binary outcome and an exposure or intervention. For rare events, the relative risk can be approximately estimated by logistic regression. For common events estimation is more difficult. We review proposed estimation algorithms for relative risk regression. Some of these give inconsistent estimates or invalid standard errors. We show that the methods that give correct inference can be viewed as arising from a family of quasilikelihood estimating functions for the same generalized linear model, differing in their efficiency and in their robustness to outlying values …

Indiana Wildlife Disease News, Volume 1, Issue 3 -- July 2006

Indiana Wildlife Disease News

Special points of interest:
• Special Issue on rabies
• Oral rabies vaccination zone
• Update - avian influenza surveillance in wild birds in Indiana
• Indiana Rabies Task Force
• An update on wildlife disease in Indiana and surrounding states

Inside this issue:
Oral Rabies Vaccination 2
Mechanics of a Rabies Infection 2
Rabies in Indiana 3 Submitting Animals for Testing 4
AI Update Avian Botulism 5
Canine Distemper 5
Indiana Rabies Task Force 6

Accumulation Of Phycotoxins In The Mussel Mytilus Galloprovincialis From The Central Adriatic Sea, Maja Pavela-Vrančić, Ivana Ujević, Živana Ninčević Gladan, Ambrose Furey

Physical Sciences Publications

Surveys of DSP (Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning) toxin profiles in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis from coastal waters of the central Adriatic Sea, over the years 1995 to 2001, demonstrate that incidents of shellfish toxicity in this area are dominated by the occurrence of okadaic acid (OA) and a PTX derivative, 7-epi-pectenotoxin-2-seco acid (7-epi-PTX-2SA). Toxin composition and the relative ratio of toxic components in shellfish is in correlation with the occurrence of DSP producing organisms from the Dinophysis species along with Prorocentrum micans and Lingulodinium polyedrum. The occurrence of D. sacculus shortly before the appearance of OA in shellfish implicates its possible …

Characterizing Dynamic Power And Data Rate Policies For Wirelessusb Networks, Jeffrey L. Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless communication is increasingly ubiquitous. However, mobility depends intrinsically on battery life. Power can be conserved at the Media Access Control (MAC) layer by intelligently adjusting transmission power level and data rate encoding. WirelessUSB is a low-power, low-latency wireless technology developed by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation for human interface devices such as keyboards and mice. WirelessUSB devices conserve power by employing power-efficient hardware, dynamic power level adjustment and dynamic data rate adjustment. We characterize the effects on power consumption of dynamically adjusting node power using two dynamic power negotiation techniques as well as two reactive techniques. We also characterize the effects …

Shape-Persistent Macrocyclic Aromatic Tetrasulfonamides: Molecules With Nanosized Cavities And Their Nanotubular Assemblies In Solid State, Lan He, Yu An, Lihua Yuan, Wen Feng, Minfeng Li, Dechun Zhang, Kazuhiro Yamato, Chong Zheng, Xiao Cheng Zeng, Bing Gong

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

Alkoxy side-chain-flanked diarylsulfonamide serves as a reliable structural motif for constructing macrocyclic aromatic tetrasulfonamides. This 90° structural motif is persistent both in solution and in the solid state, which allows the one-step formation of tetrasulfonamide macrocycles. These macrocycles adopt a cone-shaped conformation in solution and in the solid state. For each molecule, an interior cavity surrounded by the aromatic residues is formed. The cavity sizes of the macrocycles can be tuned by incorporating aromatic residues of proper sizes. Guest (solvent) molecules are found in the cavities and bound by side chains. In solution, ¹H NMR shows that the cone …

Ground-Water Quality Of The Northern High Plains Aquifer, 1997, 2002–04, Jennifer S. Stanton, Sharon L. Qi

United States Geological Survey: Publications

An assessment of ground-water quality in the northern High Plains aquifer was completed during 1997 and 2002–04. Ground-water samples were collected at 192 low-capacity, primarily domestic wells in four major hydrogeologic units of the northern High Plains aquifer—Ogallala Formation, Eastern Nebraska, Sand Hills, and Platte River Valley. Each well was sampled once, and water samples were analyzed for physical properties and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, pesticides and pesticide degradates, dissolved solids, major ions, trace elements, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), radon, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Tritium and microbiology were analyzed at selected sites. The results of this assessment …

Ground-Water Quality Beneath Irrigated Cropland Of The Northern And Southern High Plains Aquifer, Nebraska And Texas, 2003–04, Jennifer S. Stanton, Lynne Fahlquist

United States Geological Survey: Publications

A study of the quality of ground water beneath irrigated cropland was completed for the northern and southern High Plains aquifer. Ground-water samples were collected from 30 water-table monitoring wells in the northern agricultural land-use (NAL) study area in Nebraska in 2004 and 29 water-table monitoring wells in the southern agricultural land-use (SAL) study area in Texas in 2003. The two study areas represented different agricultural and hydrogeologic settings. The primary crops grown in the NAL study area were corn and soybeans, and the primary crop in the SAL study area was cotton. Overall, pesticide and fertilizer application rates were …

Image Segmentation By Energy And Related Functional Minimization Methods, Eric Hudson Mason

Dissertations

Effective and efficient methods for partitioning a digital image into image segments, called ¿image segmentation,¿ have a wide range of applications that include pattern recognition, classification, editing, rendering, and compressed data for image search. In general, image segments are described by their geometry and similarity measures that identify them. For example, the well-known optimization model proposed and studied in depth by David Mumford and Jayant Shah is based on an L₂ total energy functional that consists of three terms that govern the geometry of the image segments, the image fidelity (or closeness to the observed image), and the prior …

The Effect Of Protein Dielectric Coefficient On The Ionic Selectivity Of A Calcium Channel, Douglas Henderson, Dezso Boda, Monika Valisko, Bob Eisenberg, Wolfgang Nonner, Dirk Gillespie

Faculty Publications

Calcium-selective ion channels are known to have carboxylate-rich selectivity filters, a common motif that is primarily responsible for their high Ca2+ affinity. Different Ca2+ affinities ranging from micromolar (the L-type Ca channel) to millimolar (the ryanodine receptor channel) are closely related to the different physiological functions of these channels. To understand the physical mechanism for this range of affinities given similar amino acids in their selectivity filters, we use grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations to assess the binding of monovalent and divalent ions in the selectivity filter of a model Ca channel. We use a reduced model where the electrolyte …

Collaborative Research: Biogeochemical Modeling Of Carbon Partitioning In The Pacific: The Role Of Si And Fe In Regulating Production By Siliceous And Calcifying Phytoplankton, Fei Chai

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Physical and biological interactions play a complex role in the partitioning of carbon between the atmosphere, upper ocean, deep ocean and sediments. At present, interdisciplinary models offer the best means to test hypotheses about how carbon partitioning is regulated in various oceanic regions on time scales of years to centuries. A new interdisciplinary model will integrate advances in several areas to test two related hypotheses: 1) that switches in community and productivity dominance between diatoms and other phytoplankton groups (e.g. non?siliceous picoplankton and calcifying phytoplankton) significantly affect carbon partitioning, vary spatially and temporally and are regulated by a combination of …

Specialization Of Java Generic Types, Elena Machkasova, Sam Bevier

Faculty Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Polyvinylidene Fluoride–Trifluoroethylene As A Reservoir For Absorbed Water, P.A. Jacobson, Luis G. Rosa, Kristin Kraemer, Stephen Ducharme, Peter A. Dowben

Peter Dowben Publications

The absorption of water in Langmuir–Blodgett films of ferroelectric copolymers of polyvinylidene fluoride with trifluoroethylene is shown to depend upon the film thickness. This water absorption can have a profound effect on the dielectric properties of the copolymer films.

Syntheses Of Aza Analogs Of Kainoids, Mingping Di

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The kainoids are a class of non-proteinogenic pyrrolidine dicarboxylates that exhibit both excitatory and excitotoxic activities. These activities are a result of the ability of the kainoids to act as glutamate receptor agonists by activating ionotropic glutamate receptors. The parent of this group of compounds is x-kainic acid. Kainic acid is isolated from the seaweed Diginea simplex and has been used in Asian countries as a treatment for intestinal worms in children. In addition it is used extensively by neuropharmacologists for the study of glutamate receptors. Several years ago, the world's sole supplier of kainic acid discontinued this product. Since …

Geophysical Investigations And Groundwater Modeling Of The Hydrologic Conditions At Masaya Caldera, Nicaragua, Richard Eric Macneil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Masaya volcano, Nicaragua, has been the site of tremendous Plinian basaltic eruptions. Two eruptions ~6,500 and 2,250 BP formed the 6 kilometer (km) x 11 km, northwest trending Masaya caldera. The present day active Santiago Crater within the caldera is the site of persistent volcano degassing and occasional phreatic explosions. While the mechanism responsible for these phreatic explosions is unclear, one possible explanation is the interaction of groundwater with the shallow magma chamber beneath Masaya. This interaction with meteoric water is supported by the substantial steam discharge from the vent, which is significantly larger than other similar volcanoes in the …

A Genetic Algorithm Approach To Solve For Multiple Solutions Of Inverse Kinematics Using Adaptive Niching And Clustering, Saleh Tabandeh, Christopher M. Clark, William Melek

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Inverse kinematics is a nonlinear problem that may have multiple solutions. A Genetic Algorithm(GA) for solving the inverse kinematics of a serial robotic manipulator is presented. The algorithm is capable of finding multiple solutions of the inverse kinematics through niching methods. Despite the fact that the number and position of solutions in the search space depends on the the position and orientation of the end-effector as well as the configuration of the robot, the number of GA parameters that must be set by a user are limited to a minimum through the use of an adaptive niching method. The only …

A Gender Recognition System Using Shunting Inhibitory Convolutional Neural Networks, Fok Hing Chi Tivive, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

In this paper, we employ shunting inhibitory convolutional neural networks to develop an automatic gender recognition system. The system comprises two modules: a face detector and a gender classifier. The human faces are first detected and localized in the input image. Each detected face is then passed to the gender classifier to determine whether it is a male or female. Both the face detection and gender classification modules employ the same neural network architecture; however, the two modules are trained separately to extract different features for face detection and gender classification. Tested on two different databases, Web and BioID database, …

Evolution Of Protection Technologies In Metro Core Optical Networks, S. Chen

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

The market of metro optical networking has increased rapidly over the last few years. Traditional telecommunication infrastructure has an emphasis on long-haul optical transmission with ultra broadband capacity, relying mostly on large pure Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems. Today, however, metro core optical networks take the major role in provisioning local access services and interconnecting service points of presences (POPs) with long-haul transmission. This represents a pivotal point in business operations of data communication services for service providers and large enterprises. In addition, the upper layer data services completely leans upon the substrate wavelength communication, and hence the survivability …

Particle Swarm Optimization In Dynamic Pricing, Christopher K. Monson, Patrick B. Mullen, Kevin Seppi, Sean C. Warnick

Faculty Publications

Dynamic pricing is a real-time machine learning problem with scarce prior data and a concrete learning cost. While the Kalman Filter can be employed to track hidden demand parameters and extensions to it can facilitate exploration for faster learning, the exploratory nature of Particle Swarm Optimization makes it a natural choice for the dynamic pricing problem. We compare both the Kalman Filter and existing particle swarm adaptations for dynamic and/or noisy environments with a novel approach that time-decays each particle's previous best value; this new strategy provides more graceful and effective transitions between exploitation and exploration, a necessity in the …

Cooperation-Based Clustering For Profit-Maximizing Organizational Design, Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier, Kevin Seppi, Nghia Tran, Sean C. Warnick

Faculty Publications

This paper shows how the notion of value of cooperation, a measure of the percentage of a firm’s profits due strictly to the cooperative effects among the goods it sells, can be used to analyze the relative economic advantage afforded by various organizational structures. The value of cooperation is computed from transactions data by solving a regression problem to fit the parameters of the consumer demand function, and then simulating the resulting profit-maximizing dynamic system under various organizational structures. A hierarchical agglomerative clustering algorithm can be applied to reveal the optimal organizational substructure.

10,10′-Dinitro-10,10′-(Butane-1,4-Di­Yl)Dianthracen-9(10h)-One, Mustafa Arslan, Erol Asker, John Masnovi, Ronald J. Baker

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The title compound, C₃₂H₂₄N₂O₆, was obtained as the decomposition product of (E,E)-1,4-bis­[9,10-dihydro-9-nitro-10-(trinitro­meth­yl)-9-anthr­yl]butane, which was synthesized via a photochemical reaction of 1,4-bis­(9-anthr­yl)butane with tetra­nitro­methane. The asymmetric unit contains one half-mol­ecule; the complete mol­ecule is generated by a center of inversion. The crystal packing is determined mainly by inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions.

Factors Contributing To Dust Emissions In Clark County, Nevada Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 15, 2006, Margaret N. Rees

Dust Emissions from Public Lands

• Hiring of post-doctoral scholar is currently being finalized.

• Modification to task agreement has been processed.

Collaborative Research: Globec-01: Tidal Front Mixing And Exchange On Georges Bank: Controls On The Production Of Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, And Larval Fishes, David W. Townsend, Robert Houghton

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Georges Bank supports a rich fishery because: (1) large portions of the bank are shallow enough that light-limitation of phytoplankton is usually not important; (2) deep waters rich in inorganic nutrients are available for mixing onto the bank; and (3) the Bank's clockwise circulation can retain the planktonic stages of important fish species. The tidally mixed front (TMF) is central to the productivity of Georges Bank through the processes of nutrient injection in the north and retention of larvae on the south flank. These two regions are connected by a circulation pathway along the front in which nutrients lead to …

Collaborative Research: A Glaciochemical Record Of Natural And Anthropengic Environmental Change In The Northwestern North American Arctic, Karl J. Kreutz

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This is a collaborative proposal between the Universities of New Hampshire and Maine and the Geological Survey of Canada. This Office of International Science and Engineering is contributing to this award. The Principal Investigators will recover two ice cores the Eclipse Icefield (3100 meters) in the St. Elias
Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada in cooperation with the Geological Survey of Canada in 2002. The core will be analyzed for stable isotopes, major ions, trace elements, rare earth elements and persistent organic pollutants. The Eclipse record will provide, for the first time, detailed depositional histories of a wide variety of pollutants during …

A Framework For Transforming, Analyzing, And Realizing Software Designs In Unified Modeling Language, Zhijiang Dong

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the most comprehensive and widely accepted object-oriented modeling language due to its multi-paradigm modeling capabilities and easy to use graphical notations, with strong international organizational support and industrial production quality tool support. However, there is a lack of precise definition of the semantics of individual UML notations as well as the relationships among multiple UML models, which often introduces incomplete and inconsistent problems for software designs in UML, especially for complex systems. Furthermore, there is a lack of methodologies to ensure a correct implementation from a given UML design. The purpose of this investigation is …