Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Recursive Decomposition Of Progress Graphs, David A. Cape, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Benjamin W. Passer, Mayur Thakur

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Search of a state transition system is traditionally how deadlock detection for concurrent programs has been accomplished. This paper examines an approach to deadlock detection that uses geometric semantics involving the topo-logical notion of dihomotopy to partition the state space into components; after that the reduced state space is exhaustively searched. Prior work partitioned the state space inductively. in this paper we show that a recursive technique provides greater reduction of the size of the state transition system and therefore more efficient deadlock detection. If the preprocessing can be done efficiently, then for large problems we expect to see more …

Directed Coverage In Wireless Sensor Networks: Concept And Quality, Xiaole Bai, Lei Ding, Jin Teng, Sriram Chellappan, Changqing Xu, Dong Xuan

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we introduce a new type of coverage for wireless sensor networks, called Directed Coverage (D-Coverage). Basically, D-Coverage is the coverage provided by a sensor network monitoring an area between two boundaries, through which the intruder attempts to penetrates the area. We also study how to measure the quality of D-Coverage. Our first evaluation approach is a projection-Based simple approach, while our second approach is a more comprehensive Markov chain-based approach. Our evaluation approaches can accurately evaluate the quality and provide good guidelines for sensor network deployment and run-time repair. ©2009 IEEE.

Protein Secondary Structure Prediction Using Parallelized Rule Induction From Coverings, Leong Lee, Cyriac Kandoth, Jennifer Leopold, Ronald L. Frank

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Protein 3D structure prediction has always been an important research area in bioinformatics. In particular, the prediction of secondary structure has been a well-studied research topic. Despite the recent breakthrough of combining multiple sequence alignment information and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict protein secondary structure, the Q3 accuracy of various computational prediction algorithms rarely has exceeded 75%. In a previous paper [1], this research team presented a rule-based method called RT-RICO (Relaxed Threshold Rule Induction from Coverings) to predict protein secondary structure. The average Q3 accuracy on the sample datasets using RT-RICO was 80.3%, an improvement over comparable computational methods. …

A Contrast Pattern Based Clustering Quality Index For Categorical Data, Qingbao Liu, Guozhu Dong

Kno.e.sis Publications

Since clustering is unsupervised and highly explorative, clustering validation (i.e. assessing the quality of clustering solutions) has been an important and long standing research problem. Existing validity measures have significant shortcomings. This paper proposes a novel contrast pattern based clustering quality index (CPCQ) for categorical data, by utilizing the quality and diversity of the contrast patterns (CPs) which contrast the clusters in clusterings. High quality CPs can characterize clusters and discriminate them against each other. Experiments show that the CPCQ index (1) can recognize that expert-determined classes are the best clusters for many datasets from the UCI repository; (2) does …

Metabolic Network Alignments And Their Applications, Qiong Cheng

Computer Science Dissertations

The accumulation of high-throughput genomic and proteomic data allows for the reconstruction of the increasingly large and complex metabolic networks. In order to analyze the accumulated data and reconstructed networks, it is critical to identify network patterns and evolutionary relations between metabolic networks. But even finding similar networks becomes computationally challenging. The dissertation addresses these challenges with discrete optimization and the corresponding algorithmic techniques. Based on the property of the gene duplication and function sharing in biological network,we have formulated the network alignment problem which asks the optimal vertex-to-vertex mapping allowing path contraction, vertex deletion, and vertex insertions. We have …

Structured P2p Technologies For Distributed Command And Control, Daniel R. Karrels, Gilbert L. Peterson, Barry E. Mullins

Faculty Publications

The utility of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems extends far beyond traditional file sharing. This paper provides an overview of how P2P systems are capable of providing robust command and control for Distributed Multi-Agent Systems (DMASs). Specifically, this article presents the evolution of P2P architectures to date by discussing supporting technologies and applicability of each generation of P2P systems. It provides a detailed survey of fundamental design approaches found in modern large-scale P2P systems highlighting design considerations for building and deploying scalable P2P applications. The survey includes unstructured P2P systems, content retrieval systems, communications structured P2P systems, flat structured P2P systems and …

Reactor R&D: Synthesis And Optimization Of Metallic Nitride Fullerenes And The Introduction Of Two New Classes Of Endohedral Metallofullerenes, Metallic Nitride Azafullerenes And Oxo-Metallic Fullerenes, Curtis Earl Coumbe

Dissertations

Metallic nitride fullerenes (MNFs) were discovered in 1999. This class of endohedral fullerenes show promise in a new diverse range of useful applications. Since then, focus has shifted to the selective synthesis of these molecules with yields that would accommodate adequate sample distribution. Using the electric arc method, the traditional yield of these molecules has been very low (i.e. < 5 mg), and only a small percentage of the fullerene products (i.e. < 5%). This dissertation introduces the novel CAPTEAR (Chemically Adjusting Plasma Temperature, Energy, And Reactivity) method that allows the targeted synthesis of MNFs in high purity and yield. This method utilizes a nontraditional oxidizing method for fullerene synthesis that has not only provided optimization of MNFs, but also resulted in the discovery of two new classes of fullerenes: metallic nitride azafullerenes (MNAFs) and oxo-metallic fullerenes (OMFs). Evidence suggests that the nitrogen of the MNAF cage provides stability for the trimetallic nitride clusters, while the OMFs are the first fullerenes to encapsulate oxygen and incorporate a seven atom cluster inside a Cgo cage.

Other efforts to increase yields resulted from scaling up production of fullerenes by using larger quantities of starting materials. These larger quantities required energy (electrical current) beyond the capacity of the traditional electric arc generator. Therefore, a new electric arc generator …

Application Of Molecular Modeling In The Noncovalent Dispersion Of Carbon Nanomaterials, Praveen Kumar Madasu

Dissertations

Molecular modeling is a powerful tool to better understand the intermolecular interactions of carbon nanostructures. It provides structures and energies not easily obtainable from experiments and predicts properties that can be tested experimentally. Intermolecular interactions play an important role in the aggregation of various carbon nanomaterials. Three molecular modeling studies of carbon nanomaterial dispersions are presented in this dissertation, with an emphasis on illustrating how effective these theoretical techniques are in providing insight on the selection of dispersion additives. To achieve our goals, we employed molecular mechanics based methods, along with semi-empirical methods, and quantum mechanical methods, such as density …

Anomaly Detection Techniques For Ad Hoc Networks, Chaoli Cai

Dissertations

Anomaly detection is an important and indispensable aspect of any computer security mechanism. Ad hoc and mobile networks consist of a number of peer mobile nodes that are capable of communicating with each other absent a fixed infrastructure. Arbitrary node movements and lack of centralized control make them vulnerable to a wide variety of unknown and known attacks from inside as well as from outside. In this dissertation we propose two efficient statistical techniques for anomaly detection for these networks.

In order to take into account incomplete testing samples and the interaction among multiple features, we present BANBAD •- a …

Kendall's Tau And Spearman's Rho For Zero-Inflated Data, Ronald Silva Pimentel

Dissertations

Zero-inflated continuous distributions have positive probability mass at zero in addition to a continuous distribution. Such type of data can be encountered, for example, in medical, environmental and financial research. The main focus of this research is to study the association of nonnegative random variables, both having a positive probability mass at zero. New estimators of the classical measures of association, Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho, appropriate for the zero-inflated distributions, are proposed and their asymptotic distributions are derived. Performance of the estimators is assessed by a Monte Carlo simulation study. New ideas are illustrated by a real data example.

Object Oriented Program Correctness With Oosiml, José M. Garrido

Faculty Articles

Software reliability depends on program correctness and robustness and these are extremely important in developing high-quality software. Correctness is also essential when considering aspects of software security. However, experience applying these concepts, associated methods, and supporting software with Eiffel and Java have shown that students find some diffculty learning program correctness and in learning the software tools provided. We have developed an experimental language, OOSimL, that includes an assertion notation similar to that of Eiffel but which has much more flexibility, and that provides the same semantics as Java.

The first part of this paper provides an overview of concepts …

A Graph Theoretic Summation Of The Cubes Of The First N Integers, Joseph Demaio, Andy Lightcap

Faculty Articles

In this Math Bite we provide a combinatorial proof of the sum of the cubes of the first n integers by counting edges in complete bipartite graphs.

Metaevaluation Of Hiv/Aids Prevention Intervention Evaluations In Sub Saharan Africa With A Specific Emphasis On Implications For Women And Girls, Tererai Mafukidze Trent

Dissertations

Despite numerous attempts by international agencies to halt the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), nowhere has the impact of HIV/AIDS been felt more acutely than among women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). SSA women account for 59% of adults over the age of 15 living with HIV/AIDS and 76% of those 15-24 who are infected (United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], 2007).

The evidence on gender disparities in infection rates is indisputable; there is an urgent need to identify what is missing in HIV/AIDS prevention interventions: What is the evidence based upon …

Theoretical Study Of Localized Surface Plasmons Of Metal Nanoparticles, Clusters And Embedded Metal Nanoparticles In Matrices, Masoud Shabani Nezhad Navrood

Dissertations

Localized surface plasmons resonances (LSPRs) in metallic nanoparticles (NPs) arise from the interactions between incident light and conduction electrons and have attracted enormous research interest in recent years both for their fundamental nature as well as applications in interdisciplinary areas of sciences such as biological imaging, plasmonic photo-thermal therapy, photovoltaics, and plasmonic sensors. LSPRs are strongly localized and depend on the shape, size, the composition of the NPs, the polarization direction of the incident light, refractive index (RI) of the surrounding medium as well as on the chemical environment that surrounded NPs. Although significant research has progressed both theoretically and …

A Local Qualitative Approach To Referral And Functional Trust, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Dharan Althuru, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Trust and confidence are becoming key issues in diverse applications such as ecommerce, social networks, semantic sensor web, semantic web information retrieval systems, etc. Both humans and machines use some form of trust to make informed and reliable decisions before acting. In this work, we briefly review existing work on trust networks, pointing out some of its drawbacks. We then propose a local framework to explore two different kinds of trust among agents called referral trust and functional trust, that are modelled using local partial orders, to enable qualitative trust personalization. The proposed approach formalizes reasoning with trust, distinguishing between …

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 …

Pair Creation Rates For One-Dimensional Fermionic And Bosonic Vacua, T Cheng, M R. Ware, Q Su, Rainer Grobe

Faculty publications – Physics

We compare the creation rates for particle-antiparticle pairs produced by a supercritical force field for fermionic and bosonic model systems. The rates obtained from the Dirac and Klein-Gordon equations can be computed directly from the quantum-mechanical transmission coefficients describing the scattering of an incoming particle with the supercritical potential barrier. We provide a unified framework that shows that the bosonic rates can exceed the fermionic ones, as one could expect from the Pauli-exclusion principle for the fermion system. This imbalance for small but supercritical forces is associated with the occurrence of negative bosonic transmission coefficients of arbitrary size for the …

Rainsford Island Shoreline Evolution Study (Rises), Christopher V. Maio

Graduate Masters Theses

RISES conducted a shoreline change study in order to accurately map, quantify, and predict trends in shoreline evolution on Rainsford Island occurring from 1890-2008. It employed geographic information systems (GIS) and analytical statistical techniques to identify coastal hazard zones vulnerable to coastal erosion, rising sea-levels, and storm surges. The 11-acre Rainsford Island, located in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, consists of two eroded drumlins connected by a low-lying spit. Settled by Europeans in 1636, the Island was later used as the Harbor’s main quarantine station. Previous archeological surveys have identified numerous historically sensitive sites dating to before the Revolutionary War period, including …

Remarks On The Stability Of Some Size-Structured Population Models Iv: The General Case Of Juveniles And Adults, M. El-Doma

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The stability of some size-structured population dynamics models is investigated when the population is divided into adults and juveniles. We determine the steady states and study their stability. We also give examples that illustrate the stability results. The results in this paper generalize previous results, for example, see Calsina, et al. (2003), El-Doma (2006), Farkas, et al. (2008), and El-Doma (2008 a).

Pulsatile Flow Of Blood In A Constricted Artery With Body Acceleration, Devajyoti Biswas, Uday Shankar Chakraborty

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Pulsatile flow of blood through a uniform artery in the presence of a mild stenosis has been investigated in this paper. Blood has been represented by a Newtonian fluid. This model has been used to study the influence of body acceleration and a velocity slip at wall, in blood flow through stenosed arteries. By employing a perturbation analysis, analytic expressions for the velocity profile, flow rate, wall shear stress and effective viscosity, are derived. The variations of flow variables with different parameters are shown diagrammatically and discussed. It is noticed that velocity and flow rate increase but effective viscosity decreases, …

Beyond The Chemistry Web, Bob Buchanan

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

The Distribution And Reproductive Success Of The Western Snowy Plover Along The Oregon Coast - 2009, David J. Lauten, Kathleen J. Castelein, J. Daniel Farrar, Hendrik G. Herlyn, Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

From 3 April – 23 September 2009 we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) along the Oregon coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North Tahkenitch Creek, Tenmile Creek, Coos Bay North Spit, Bandon Beach, New River, and Floras Lake. Our objectives for the Oregon coastal population in 2009 were to: 1) estimate the size of the adult Snowy Plover population, 2) locate plover nests, 3) continue selective use of mini-exclosures (MEs) to protect nests …

Copper(I) Complexes Of Heterocyclic Thiourea Ligands, Aakarsh Saxena, Emily C. Dugan, Jeffrey Liaw, Matthew D. Dembo, Robert D. Pike

Arts & Sciences Articles

The coordination of heterocyclic thiourea ligands (L = N-(2-pyridyl)-N′-phenylthiourea (1), N-(2-pyridyl)-N′-methylthiourea (2), N-(3-pyridyl)-N′-phenylthiourea (3), N-(3-pyridyl)-N′-methylthiourea (4), N-(4-pyridyl)-N′-phenylthiourea (5), N-(2-pyrimidyl)-N′-phenylthiourea (6), N-(2-pyrimidyl)-N′-methylthiourea (7), N-(2-thiazolyl)-N′-methylthiourea (8), N-(2-benzothiazolyl)-N′-methylthiourea (9), N,N′-bis(2-pyridyl)thiourea (10) and N,N′-bis(3-pyridyl)thiourea (11)) with CuX (X = Cl, Br, I, NO3) has been investigated. CuX:L product stoichiometries of 1:1–1:5 were found, with 1:1 being most common. X-ray structures of four 3-coordinate mononuclear CuXL2 complexes (CuCl(6)2, CuCl(7)2, CuBr(6)2, and CuBr(9)2) …

Quaternary Deformation Along The Wharekauhau Fault System, North Island, New Zealand: Implications For An Unstable Linkage Between Active Strike-Slip And Thrust Faults, Elizabeth R. Schermer, Timothy A. Little, Uwe Rieser

Geology Faculty Publications

The southern Wairarapa region of the North Island of New Zealand preserves a variably deformed late Quaternary stratigraphic sequence that provides insight into the temporal variability in the partitioning of contraction onto faults in the upper plate of an obliquely convergent margin. Detailed mapping, stratigraphic data, and new radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence ages from Quaternary units reveal the interaction between tectonics and sedimentation from ∼125 ka to(i.e., Wharekauhau fault system) at the southern end of the Wairarapa fault zone, a major oblique-slip fault in the upper plate of the Hikurangi Margin. The Wharekauhau thrust accommodated a minimum of 280 …

Analysis Of Gan/Alxga1?Xn Heterojunction Dual-Band Photodetectors Using Capacitance Profiling Techniques, Laura E. Byrum

Physics and Astronomy Theses

Capacitance-voltage-frequency measurements on n+-GaN/AlxGa1−xN UV/IR dual-band detectors are reported. The presence of shallow Si-donor, deep Si-donor, and C-donor/N-vacancy defect states were found to significantly alter the electrical characteristics of the detectors. The barrier Al fraction was found to change the position of the interface defect states relative to the Fermi level. The sample with Al fraction of 0.1 shows a distinct capacitance-step and hysteresis, which is attributed to C-donor/N-vacancy electron trap states located above the Fermi level (200 meV) at the heterointerface; whereas, the sample with Al fraction of 0.026 shows negative capacitance and dispersion, indicating C-donor/N-vacancy and deep Si-donor …

Random Walks With Elastic And Reflective Lower Boundaries, Lucas Clay Devore

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

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 …

The White Dwarfs Within 20 Parsecs Of The Sun: Kinematics And Statistics, Edward M. Sion, Jay B. Holberg, Terry D. Oswalt, George P. Mccook, Richard Wasatonic

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

We present the kinematical properties, distribution of spectroscopic subtypes, and stellar population subcomponents of the white dwarfs within 20 pc of the Sun. We find no convincing evidence of halo white dwarfs in the total 20 pc sample of 129 white dwarfs nor is there convincing evidence of genuine thick disk subcomponent members within 20 parsecs. Virtually, the entire 20 pc sample likely belongs to the thin disk. The total DA to non-DA ratio of the 20 pc sample is 1.6, a manifestation of deepening envelope convection which transforms DA stars with sufficiently thin H surface layers into non-DAs. The …

Investigation Of Novel Thiol "Click" Reactions, Justin William Chan

Dissertations

The thio-Michael addition reaction is traditionally considered a base catalyzed reaction which involves high catalyst concentrations and long reaction times. This reaction utilizes potent, simple nucleophiles to catalyze the reaction, decreases the catalyst concentration and greatly increases the reaction times. The free radical mediated thiol-ene click reaction uses light or heat and an initiator to catalyze the rapid and quantitative addition of thiols to most electron rich enes without the formation of side products and in the absence of solvent. Recently, the thiol-ene click reaction has been exploited for these reasons in materials science and organic synthesis. The research herein …

Investigation Of The Relationship Between Polymer Structures And Thermal, Mechanical, Viscoelastic Properties, Ethem Kaya

Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation involves four distinct areas: physical crosslinking systems, UV curable coatings for enhanced oxygen and carbon dioxide barrier properties, synthesis, and investigation of melting behavior/crystallinity relations of linear polyamides with long alkyl chains, and synthesis and characterization of cyclic diamides as precursors to linear polyamides 6 4.

The physical crosslinking section involves synthesis of monomers and polymers bearing cyclodextrin and adamantane pendent groups, and investigation of non-covalent interactions between these polymers (Chapter II). Two methacrylate monomers bearing cyclodextrin and adamantane were synthesized, and copolymerized with poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate. The specific interaction between copolymers …