Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Improvement Of Oss Usability: An Empirical Evaluation From Developers Perspective, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Arif Raza, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Urban Development Under Extreme Hydrologic And Weather Conditions For El Paso-Juárez: Recommendations Resulting From Hydrologic Modeling, Gis, And Remote Sensing Analyses, Alberto Barud-Zubillaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During the 2006 El Paso-Juárez flood there were many concerns regarding the capability of the existing stormwater system to handle 50- and 100-year flood events in El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico area. Moreover in 2008, a considerable wet year from the normal 223 mm of annual precipitation for El Paso demonstrated that the area could very well received large amounts of precipitation at localized areas in short periods of time, representing a great flood threat to residents living in areas prone to flood. Some climate change projections for the area are exactly what had occurred over the last two …

Probability Models For Blackjack Poker, Charlie H. Cooke

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

For simplicity in calculation, previous analyses of blackjack poker have employed models which employ sampling with replacement. in order to assess what degree of error this may induce, the purpose here is to calculate results for a typical hand where sampling without replacement is employed. It is seen that significant error can result when long runs are required to complete the hand. The hand examined is itself of particular interest, as regards both its outstanding expectations of high yield and certain implications for pair splitting of two nines against the dealer's seven. Theoretical and experimental methods are used in order …

Conditional Confidence Intervals Of Process Capability Indices Following Rejection Of Preliminary Tests, Jianchun Zhang

Mathematics Dissertations

Finding an ordinary confidence interval of an unknown parameter is well known, but finding a conditional confidence interval following rejection of a preliminary test is not so noted, especially for finding a conditional confidence interval of the process capability indices Cp or Cpk following rejection of some preliminary tests. This dissertation will provide some basic theories and computational methods for finding such conditional confidence intervals of the two process capability indices. The most basic method used in this dissertation is the general method for finding a confidence interval of an unknown parameter. Numerical methods are also used for finding the …

The Fibonacci Sequence, Arik Avagyan

A with Honors Projects

A review was made of the Fibonacci sequence, its characteristics and applications.

Canonical Correlation Analysis For Longitudinal Data, Raymond Mccollum

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

Data (multivariate data) on two sets of vectors commonly occur in applications. Statistical analysis of these data is usually done using a canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Occurrence of these data at multiple occasions or conditions leads to longitudinal multivariate data for a CCA. We address the problem of canonical correlation analysis on longitudinal data when the data have a Kronecker product covariance structure. Using structured correlation matrices we model the dependency of repeatedly observed data. Recent work of Srivastava, Nahtman, and von Rosen (2008) developed an iterative algorithm to determine the maximum likelihood estimate of the Kronecker product covariance structure …

Concentrations, Distributions And Chemical Speciation Of Zinc And Cadmium In The Equatorial And South Atlantic Ocean, Gonzalo G. Carrasco

OES Theses and Dissertations

Certain trace metals are important cofactors in enzymatic systems and are thus, essential for life in the world's oceans. Two of these metals, Zn and Cd, are required by phytoplankton for enzymes that facilitate carbon uptake (Morel and Price, 2003). In seawater the total dissolved concentration of a metal (MTD) is distributed among different chemical species and this chemical speciation dictates a metal's bioavailability. Strong organic metal-binding ligands greatly affect the metal's chemical speciation in the ocean, potentially limiting phytoplankton growth by reducing the concentrations of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺, the bioavailable forms of these two metals to …

Trace Metal Biogeochemistry In The Western North Pacific, Peter Lynn Morton

OES Theses and Dissertations

Dissolved and suspended particulate samples collected during the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission 2002 Contaminant Baseline Survey were analyzed to determine the surface and vertical distributions of Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni Zn and Pb across the western and central North Pacific.

Dissolved trace metal concentrations were measured using a novel isotope dilution-ICP-MS method after extraction over an 8-hydroxyquinoline resin column and validated through the use of the SAFe consensus reference materials. Filtered suspended particulate matter was digested using an HCl/HNO3/HF mixture and analyzed by HR-ICP-MS to obtain total particulate concentrations for the trace metals and other tracer elements such as Al, …

Dielectrophoretic Choking Phenomenon In A Converging-Diverging Microchannel, Ye Ai, Shizhi Qian, Sheng Liu, Sang W. Joo

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Experiments show that particles smaller than the throat size of converging-diverging microchannels can sometimes be trapped near the throat. This critical phenomenon is associated with the negative dc dielectrophoresis arising from nonuniform electric fields in the microchannels. A finite-element model, accounting for the particle-fluid-electric field interactions, is employed to investigate the conditions for this dielectrophoretic (DEP) choking in a converging-diverging microchannel for the first time. It is shown quantitatively that the DEP choking occurs for high nonuniformity of electric fields, high ratio of particle size to throat size, and high ratio of particle's zeta potential to that of microchannel. © …

Impacts Of The Spotted Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Guttatus) On The Long-Spined Sea Urchin (Diadema Antillarum) And Patch Reef Communities In The Florida Keys, Meredith D. Kintzing

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Caribbean coral reefs have undergone a phase shift from a system dominated by corals to one where algae are pervasive. This shift was precipitated by the loss of herbivores, including the mass mortality of the long spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum), coupled with disease and the recruitment failure of hermatypic corals. Diadema populations have recovered in some areas of the Caribbean, but are still below historical levels in the Florida Keys, likely due to low larval supply coupled with predation on juveniles. Lobsters are sea urchin predators in other systems and the spotted spiny lobster (Panulirus guttatus …

Development In The Gulf Of Maine: Avoiding Geohazards And Embracing Opportunities, Laura L. Brothers, Joseph T. Kelley, Melissa Landon Maynard, Daniel F. Belknap, Stephen M. Dickson

Maine Policy Review

Mapping for marine-spatial planning is crucial if Maine is to safely develop its offshore resources, espe­cially wind and tidal energy. The authors focus on shallow natural gas (methane) deposits, an important and widespread geohazard in Maine’s seafloor. They describe the origin, occur­rence, and identification of natural gas in Maine’s seafloor; explain the hazards associated with these deposits and how to map them; and discuss what Maine can learn from European nations that have already developed their offshore wind resources. Because the U.S. gives states a central role in coastal management, Maine has the chance to be proactive in delineating coastal …

Land Use Planning On A Grand Scale: A Decision Maker’S Perspective, E. Bart Harvey Iii

Maine Policy Review

The author of this commentary, who served as a commissioner on the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LURC) discusses the ground-breaking 400,000-acre concept plan by Plum Creek Corporation for development of the Moosehead Lake region in Maine. The highly-contested plan approved by LURC involves rezoning for hundreds of acres to allow for single family homes and resorts, and sets aside significant acreage in conservation.

Tunepal: The Traditional Musician's Toolbox, Bryan Duggan

Conference papers

In this paper we present Tunepal, a search engine and music retrieval tool for traditional musicians that runs on an iPhone/iPod Touch (2nd generation)/iPad. Tunepal connects musicians the scores and metadata of 13,290 traditional Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Breton dance tunes. These tunes are drawn from community sources, such as the website thesession.org and “standard” references including O’Neills Dance Music of Ireland and Brendan Breathneach’s Ceol Rince Na hÉireann series. Tunes can be retrieved by typing in a title or by playing a twelve second extract from the tune on a traditional instrument. Tunepal can be used in sitiu in …

Svm Based Active Learning With Exploration, Patrick Lindstrom, Rong Hu, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Off To A Good Start: Using Clustering To Select The Initial Training Set In Active Learning, Rong Hu, Brian Mac Namee, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

Active learning (AL) is used in textual classification to alleviate the cost of labelling documents for training. An important issue in AL is the selection of a representative sample of documents to label for the initial training set that seeds the process, and clustering techniques have been successfully used in this regard. However, the clustering techniques used are nondeterministic which causes inconsistent behaviour in the AL process. In this paper we first illustrate the problems associated with using non-deterministic clustering for initial training set selection in AL. We then examine the performance of three deterministic clustering techniques for this task …

An Empirically-Based Model For Perspective Selection In Route-Finding Dialogues, Robert J. Ross, Kavita E. Thomas

Conference papers

In this work we aim to computationally model the extent to which certain empirical factors affect spatial perspective selection as used in route-finding dialogues. In such dialogues, both interlocutors need to adopt a spatial perspective in which to describe movement direction. In map-based tasks such as the one we are concerned with, two perspective choices are typically available, i.e., route perspective, where projective terms are defined with respect to the perspective of the route follower themselves, e.g., ``go to your right'', or survey perspective, where projective terms are defined with respect to a global or allocentric perspective, e.g., ``go down'', …

Heterometallic Beta-Diketonates And Oxo-Diketonates As Single Source Precursors For The Synthesis Of Oxide Materials, Haitao Zhang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The focus of this investigation was to develop a simple, high-yield synthetic approach to heterometallic diketonates using the same construction principles as for their polynuclear homometallic analogs. Several low-temperature solid-state synthetic routes were suggested that appear to be general for the preparation of heterometallic diketonates incorporating a wide range of s-, p-, d-, and f-metals. Using this investigative approach, two families of bimetallic homoleptic diketonates that contain heavy main group (BiIII, PbII) and the first row divalent transition metals (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) have been obtained. The heterometallic molecules that are held together by strong Lewis acid-base …

Software Test Automation, Phillip Laplante, Fevzi Belli, Jerry Gao, Greg Kapfhammer, Keith Miller, W. Wong, Dianxiang Xu

Education Sciences and Professional Programs Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Unidirectional Nonlinear Pt-Symmetric Optical Structures, Hamidreza Ramezani, Tsampikos Kottos

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that nonlinear optical structures involving a balanced gain-loss profile can act as unidirectional optical valves. This is made possible by exploiting the interplay between the fundamental symmetries of parity (P) and time (T), with optical nonlinear effects. This unidirectional dynamics is specifically demonstrated for the case of an integrable PT-symmetric nonlinear system.

Particle Swarm Optimization And Gravitational Wave Data Analysis: Performance On A Binary Inspiral Testbed, Yan Wang, Soumya Mohanty

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The detection and estimation of gravitational wave signals belonging to a parameterized family of waveforms requires, in general, the numerical maximization of a data-dependent function of the signal parameters. Because of noise in the data, the function to be maximized is often highly multimodal with numerous local maxima. Searching for the global maximum then becomes computationally expensive, which in turn can limit the scientific scope of the search. Stochastic optimization is one possible approach to reducing computational costs in such applications. We report results from a first investigation of the particle swarm optimization method in this context. The method is …

Analysis Of Fluvial Suspended Sediment Load Contribution Through Anthropocene History To The South Atlantic Bight Coastal Zone, U.S.A., K Mccarney-Castle, George Voulgaris, A J. Kettner

Faculty Publications

Discerning the effects of anthropogenic activities (i.e., reservoir construction, land use change), as opposed to those of natural processes (i.e., climate variability), on suspended sediment flux has become an increasingly difficult challenge. This contribution presents water and suspended sediment flux from five major watersheds that discharge into the southeastern U.S. Atlantic, a region that is currently considered sediment starved. Three periods of Anthropocenetime were defined and evaluated: (1) “pre-European conditions” (1680–1700), (2) “pre-dam conditions" (1905-1925), and (3) "post-dam conditions" (1985-2005). Physical and hydrologic watershed data were used to run a climate-driven hydrological transport numerical model (HydroTrend) to estimate …

Internal Magnetic Structure Of Magnetite Nanoparticles At Low Temperature, Kathryn L. Krycka, Julie A. Borchers, R.A. Booth, C.R. Hogg, Yumi Ijiri, W.C. Chen, S.M. Watson, M. Laver, T.R. Gentile, S. Harris

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Small-angle neutron scattering with polarization analysis reveals that Fe3O4 nanoparticles with 90 Å diameters have ferrimagnetic moments significantly reduced from that of bulk Fe3O4 at 10 K, nominal saturation. Combined with previous results for an equivalent applied field at 200 K, a core-disordered shell picture of a spatially reduced ferrimagnetic core emerges, even well below the bulk blocking temperature. Zero-field cooling suggests that this magnetic morphology may be intrinsic to the nanoparticle, rather than field induced, at 10 K.

Review: Pythagoras’ Revenge: A Mathematical Mystery; The Housekeeper And The Professor, Susan Jane Colley

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Solving Continuous Linear Least-Squares Problems By Iterated Projection, Ralf Juengling

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

I present a new divide-and-conquer algorithm for solving continuous linear least-squares problems. The method is applicable when the column space of the linear system relating data to model parameters is “translation invariant”. The central operation is a matrix- vector product, which makes the method very easy to implement. Secondly, the structure of the computation suggests a straightforward parallel implementation.

A complexity analysis for sequential implementation shows that the method has the same asymptotic complexity as well-known algorithms for discrete linear least-squares. For illustration we work out the details for the problem of fitting quadratic bivariate polyno- mials to a piecewise …

Xpu: A Distributed Architecture For Metaverses, Francis Chang, C. Mic Bowman, Wu-Chi Feng

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A significant problem of designing 3D virtual worlds (such as metaverses) is developing a scalable architecture that can manage millions of simultaneous users in an interactive 3D environment. This paper presents XPU (Extremely Partitioned Universe), a hierarchical client-server architecture for developing highly scalable metaverses. This design addresses the problem of dynamically partitioning the world to manage network and computing resources.

Pvw: Designing Virtual World Server Infrastructure, Francis Chang, C. Mic Bowman, Wu-Chi Feng

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a high level overview of PVW (Partitioned Virtual Worlds), a distributed system architecture for the management of virtual worlds. PVW is designed to support arbitrarily large and complex virtual worlds while accommodating dynamic and highly variable user population and content distribution density. The PVW approach enables the task of simulating and managing the virtual world to be distributed over many servers by spatially partitioning the environment into a hierarchical structure. This structure is useful both for balancing the simulation load across many nodes, as well as features such as geometric simplification and distribution of dynamic content.

Authentication Of Biometric Features Using Texture Coding For Id Cards, Jonathan Blackledge, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

The use of image based information exchange has grown rapidly over the years in terms of both e-to-e image storage and transmission and in terms of maintaining paper documents in electronic form. Further, with the dramatic improvements in the quality of COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) printing and scanning devices, the ability to counterfeit electronic and printed documents has become a widespread problem. Consequently, there has been an increasing demand to develop digital watermarking techniques which can be applied to both electronic and printed images (and documents) that can be authenticated, prevent unauthorized copying of their content and, in the case of printed …

Developing The Techniques For Raman, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers), And Fluorescence Spectroscopies Of Organic Molecules In Isolation, Jonathan Wolfe

Honors Theses

The nature of matter and light has been a subject of philosophical debate since antiquity. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, much of the scientific community believed that most of the significant principles that govern the natural world had been discovered. Classical physics was able to explain complex phenomena such as planetary motions, elasticity, and hydrodynamics. The field of thermodynamics had been developed nearly to completion by James Joule, Sadi Carnot, Josiah Gibbs, et al. The magnetic and electronic nature of light had been demonstrated by James Clerk Maxwell's famous equations. In the neighboring field of chemistry, a …

On The Applications Of Deterministic Chaos For Encrypting Data On The Cloud, Jonathan Blackledge, Nikolai Ptitsyn

Conference papers

Cloud computing is expected to grow considerably in the future because it has so many advantages with regard to sale and cost, change management, next generation architectures, choice and agility. However, one of the principal concerns for users of the Cloud is lack of control and above all, data security. This paper considers an approach to encrypting information before it is ‘place’ on the Cloud where each user has access to their own encryption algorithm, an algorithm that is based on a set of Iterative Function Systems that outputs a chaotic number stream, designed to produce a cryptographically secure cipher. …

Development Of Metal-Based Luminescent Probes For Applications In Biomolecular Structure And Dynamics, Ayesha Sharmin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

New transition-metal complexes containing luminescent properties have been designed and synthesized for application as structural probes for biomolecules. Potential DNA intercalators, 2- amino-anthracene substituted triosmium clusters, were synthesized by the reactions of 2-aminoanthracene with [Os3(CO)10(CH3CN)2]. The products [Os3(CO)10(μ-η2-(N-C(1))-NH2C14H8)(μ- H)], [Os3(CO)10(μ-η2-(N-C(3))-NHC14H9)(μ-H)], [Os3(CO)9(μ-η2-(N-C(3))-NHC14H8)(μ-H)2] and [Os3(CO)9(μ3-η2-(N-C(3))-NHC10H9)(μ-H)] obtained from this reaction have been structurally characterized by spectroscopic, photophysical and electrochemical techniques. Solid state structures are also reported for the complexes [Os3(CO)10(μ-η2-(N-C(3))-NHC14H9)(μ-H)] and [Os3(CO)9(μ-η2-(N-C(3))-NHC14H8)(μ-H)2]. To investigate bio-macromolecular dynamics on the sub-microsecond-to-microsecond timescale, a series of ruthenium based mono-nuclear metalligand charge-transfer complexes (MLCs) of formula [XRu(CO)(L–L)(L′)2][PF6] (X = H, TFA, Cl; L–L = 2,2′-bipyridyl, 1,10-phenanthroline, 5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline …