Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Multimodal Non-Rigid Registration For Image-Guided Head And Neck Surgery, Michael Lawrence Weissberger

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

"You Have No Boss Here To Work For": Women And Labor In Chesapeake Bay Fishing Communities, Elizabeth Marie O'Grady

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Learning And Cryptography, David Goldenberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Significant links exist between cryptography and computational learning theory. Cryptographic functions are the usual method of demonstrating significant intractability results in computational learning theory as they can demonstrate that certain problems are hard in a representation independent sense. On the other hand, hard learning problems have been used to create efficient cryptographic protocols such as authentication schemes, pseudo-random permutations and functions, and even public key encryption schemes.;Learning theory / coding theory also impacts cryptography in that it enables cryptographic primitives to deal with the issues of noise or bias in their inputs. Several different constructions of "fuzzy" primitives exist, a …

Silver-Polyimide Nanocomposite Films: Single-Stage Synthesis And Analysis Of Metalized Partially-Fluorinated Polyimide Btda/4-Bdaf Prepared From Silver(I) Complexes, Joshua Erold Robert Abelard

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Identification, Development And Application Of Information Culture In The Western Australian Public Sector, Janine Douglas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Information can be found in government departments in many forms. It exists, for example, as performance indicators, statistics, economic analysis, policy advice, political know-how or opinions. Using information is a daily and oft repeated activity in government departments. Information is central to the achievement of outcomes and the delivery of services. It is critical to the government’s success in the information economy. It is central to the development of products and services. It supports policy making and it underpins accountability. Government departments are built on the generation and use of information that is relevant to the largest of all customer …

Analysis Avoidance Techniques Of Malicious Software, Murray Brand

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Anti Virus (AV) software generally employs signature matching and heuristics to detect the presence of malicious software (malware). The generation of signatures and determination of heuristics is dependent upon an AV analyst having successfully determined the nature of the malware, not only for recognition purposes, but also for the determination of infected files and startup mechanisms that need to be removed as part of the disinfection process. If a specimen of malware has not been previously extensively analyzed, it is unlikely to be detected by AV software. In addition, malware is becoming increasingly profit driven and more likely to incorporate …

Theory Of Entropic Security Decay: The Gradual Degradation In Effectiveness Of Commissioned Security Systems, Michael P. Coole

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As a quantitative auditing tool for Physical Protection Systems (PPS) the Estimated Adversary Sequence Interruption (EASI) model has been available for many years. Nevertheless, once a systems macro-state measure has been commissioned (Pi) against its defined threat using EASI, there must be a means of articulating its continued efficacy (steady state) or its degradation over time. The purpose of this multi-phase study was to develop the concept and define the term entropic security decay. Phase one presented documentary benchmarks for security decay. This phase was broken into three stages; stage one presented General Systems Theory (GST) as a systems benchmark …

On The Nature Of Winter Cooling And The Recent Temperature Shift On The Northern Gulf Of Alaska Shelf, Markus A. Janout, Thomas J. Weingartner, Thomas C. Royer, Seth L. Danielson

CCPO Publications

[1] In spring 2006 and 2007, northern Gulf of Alaska (GOA) shelf waters were ∼1.5°C below average throughout the similar to ∼250 m deep shelf and the salinity-dependent winter stratification was anomalously weak due to above (below) average surface (bottom) salinities. Spring 2007 and 2008 temperatures were also similar to ∼-1.5°C below average, but the anomalies were confined to the upper 100 m due to moderate salt stratification. Shelf temperatures in these 2 years were among the lowest observed since the early 1970s, thus interrupting an approximately 30-year warming trend. We examined winter cooling processes using historical conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profiles …

Exchange Across The Shelf Break At High Southern Latitudes, J. M. Klinck, M. S. Dinniman

CCPO Publications

Exchange of water across the Antarctic shelf break has considerable scientific and societal importance due to its effects on circulation and biology of the region, conversion of water masses as part of the global overturning circulation and basal melt of glacial ice and the consequent effect on sea level rise. The focus in this paper is the onshore transport of warm, oceanic Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW); export of dense water from these shelves is equally important, but has been the focus of other recent papers and will not be considered here. A variety of physical mechanisms are described which could …

Acoustics Of Anthropogenic Habitats: The Impact Of Noise Pollution On Eastern Bluebirds, Caitlin Rebecca Kight

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

An increasing number of habitats are affected by anthropogenic noise pollution, which is often louder, has a different frequency emphasis, and may occur over a different temporal scale, than natural noise. An increasing number of studies indicate that acoustically-communicating animals in such areas can modify their vocalizations in order to make themselves heard over the noise, but many questions still remain, including: How taxonomically widespread is vocal flexibility in response to anthropogenic noise, and do all vocally flexible species employ the same mechanisms to escape acoustic masking? Are there fitness repercussions for living, communicating, and breeding in noisy habitats? and, …

A Framework For Active Learning: Revisited, Yue Chen

Master's Projects

Over the past decade, algorithm visualization tools have been researched and developed to be used by Computer Science instructors to ease students’ learning curve for new concepts. However, limitations such as rigid animation frameworks, lack of user interaction with the visualization created, and learning a new language and environment, have severely reduced instructors’ desire to use such a tool. The purpose of this project is to create a tool that overcomes these limitations. Instructors do not have to get familiar with a new framework and learn another language. The API used to create algorithm animation for this project is through …

Automatic Grading Of Programming Assignments, Ashlesha Patil

Master's Projects

Solving practical problems is one of the important aspects of learning programming languages. But the assessment of programming problems is not straightforward. It involves time consuming and tedious steps required to compile and test the solution. In this project, I have developed a online tool, Javabrat that allows the students and language learners to practice Java and Scala problems. Javabrat automatically assesses the user's program and provides the instant feedback to the user. The users can also contribute their own programming problems to the existing problem set. I have also developed a plugin for a learning management system, Moodle. This …

Bookmarklet Builder For Offline Data Retrieval, Sheetal Naidu

Master's Projects

Bookmarklet Builder for Offline Data Retrieval is a computer application which will allow users to view websites even when they are offline. It can be stored as a URL of a bookmark in the browser. Bookmarklets exist for storing single web pages in hand-held devices and these web pages are stored as PDF files. In this project we have developed a tool that can save entire web page applications as bookmarklets. This will enable users to use these applications even when they are not connected to the Internet. The main technology beyond Javascript used to achieve this is the data: …

The Activelecture System, Sanuja Dabade

Master's Projects

For an instructor, it has always been a challenging task to keep students engaged during the lecture and assess them in real time. Instructors use different methodologies to address the challenge of keeping students engaged during the class and increase their participation. Widely used methodologies for active learning include clickers and Tablet PCs. Clickers are small handheld devices which are used to collect student responses and present these responses graphically. Tablet PCs provide a functionality to use natural handwriting to provide feedback. Web browsers are a cost effective approaches. I have used a web based technology to create active learning …

Clustering And Validation Of Microarray Data Using Consensus Clustering, Sarbinder Kallar

Master's Projects

Clustering is a popular method to glean useful information from microarray data. Unfortunately the results obtained from the common clustering algorithms are not consistent and even with multiple runs of different algorithms a further validation step is required. Due to absence of well defined class labels, and unknown number of clusters, the unsupervised learning problem of finding optimal clustering is hard. Obtaining a consensus of judiciously obtained clusterings not only provides stable results but also lends a high level of confidence in the quality of results. Several base algorithm runs are used to generate clusterings and a co-association matrix of …

Open Source Analysis Of Biomedical Figures, David Shao

Master's Projects

With a selection of biomedical literature available for open access, a natural pairing seems to be the use of open source software to automatically analyze content, in particular, the content of gures. Considering the large number of possible tools and approaches, we choose to focus on the recognition of printed characters. As the problem of optical character recognition (OCR) under rea- sonable conditions is considered to be solved, and as open source software is fully capable of isolating the location of characters and identifying most of them accurately, we instead use OCR as an application area for the relatively recent …

Parallel Programming Recipes, Thuy C. Nguyenphuc

Master's Projects

Parallel programming has become vital for the success of commercial applications since Moore’s Law will now be used to double the processors (or cores) per chip every technology generation. The performance of applications depends on how software executions can be mapped on the multi-core chip, and how efficiently they run the cores. Currently, the increase of parallelism in software development is necessary, not only for taking advantage of multi-core capability, but also for adapting and surviving in the new silicon implementation. This project will provide the performance characteristics of parallelism for some common algorithms or computations using different parallel languages. …

Women In Glaciology, An Historical Perspective, Christina L. Hulbe, Weili Wang, Simon Ommanney

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Women's history in glaciology extends as far back in time as the discipline itself, although their contributions to the scientific discourse have for all of that history been constrained by the sociopolitical contexts of the times. The first Journal of Glaciology paper authored by a woman appeared in 1948, within a year of the founding of the Journal, but it was not until the 1980s that women produced more than a few percent of Journal and Annals of Glaciology papers. Here international perspectives on women's participation in the sciences are presented in order to establish an economic and sociopolitical context …

Grounding-Line Basal Melt Rates Determined Using Radar-Derived Internal Stratigraphy, Ginny Catania, Christina L. Hulbe, Howard Conway

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We use ice-penetrating radar data across grounding lines of Siple Dome and Roosevelt Island, Antarctica, to measure the spatial pattern, magnitude and duration of sub-ice-shelf melting at these locations. Stratigraphic layers across the grounding line show, in places, a large-amplitude downwarp at, or slightly downstream of, the grounding line due to sub-ice-shelf basal melting. Localized downwarping indicates that melting is transient; melt rates, or the grounding line position, have changed within a few hundred years in order to produce the observed stratigraphy. Elsewhere, no meltrelated stratigraphic signature is preserved. In part, heterogeneity in the amount of sub-ice-shelf melt is due …

Paleotsunami Inundation Of A Beach Ridge Plain: Cobble Ridge Overtopping And Interridge Valley Flooding In Seaside, Oregon, Usa, Curt D. Peterson, Harry M. Jol, Thomas Horning, Kenneth M. Cruikshank

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Seaside beach ridge plain was inundated by six paleotsunamis during the last ∼2500 years. Large runups (adjusted >10m in height) overtopped seawardmost cobble beach ridges (7m elevation) at ∼1.3 and ∼2.6 ka before present. Smaller paleotsunami (6−8m in height) likely entered the beach plain interior (4-5m elevation) through the paleo-Necanicum bay mouth. The AD 1700 Cascadia paleotsunami had a modest runup (6-7mheight), yet it locally inundated to 1.5 km landward distance. Bed shear stresses (100−3,300 dyne cm−2) are estimated for paleotsunami surges (0.5−2m depths) that flowed down slopes (0.002−0.017 gradient) on the landward side of the cobble beach ridges. …

Landscape Assessment Of A Stable Aspen Community In Southern Utah, Usa, Paul C. Rogers, A. Joshua Leffler, R. Ryel

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Recent reports of rapid die-off of aspen (Populus tremuloides), coupled with vigorous debate over longterm reduction of aspen cover in western North America, has prompted considerable research given the importance of this forest type for economic and non-economic interests. Despite this interest, indicators of aspen conditions are poorly understood, and there is a lack of systematic monitoring of stable aspen landscapes. Stable aspen are defined here as being predominantly aspen overstorey (>80% basal area) with little or no conifer regeneration. We examined a putative stable aspen landscape in southern Utah and addressed (1) stand structure and (2) indicators of …

The Transition Zone: Impact Of Riverbanks On Emergent Dragonfly Nymphs. Implications For Riverbank Restoration And Management, Kirsten Hope Martin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The use of riprap in the restoration and stabilization of riverine landscapes is an issue of concern for many ecologists. While current methods of bank stabilization, especially those involving the placement of rocks (riprap) along the waterline, are effective in controlling erosion their presence changes habitat components (slope, substrate composition, near-shore river velocity) at the river-land interface. The additional impacts of river current, water temperature, soil composition, slope, and water level fluctuation, may further imperil emerging nymphs. The purpose of this research is to document the effects of riprap, location (upriver or downriver of hydroelectric intake/outtake facilities), water level fluctuation, …

Forest Edge Effects On The Behavioral Ecology Of L'Hoest's Monkey (Cercopithecus Lhoesti) In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, Tharcisse Ukizintambara

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Forest edges are associated with forest edge effects that result from changes in physical features of the habitat, predator species and number, and prominence of human activities and other disturbances that can have direct or indirect impact on the distribution, ecology, and fitness of forest plant and animal species. I conducted a literature review on edge effects on primate species and came up with a classification of primate species in three general categories " thriving, sensitive and resilient species to edge effects " based on behavioral and demographic responses.

In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, edge effects followed non-monotonic patterns (wave-like) …

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program Annual Report 2009, John A. Lucy, Lewis Gillingham

Reports

Through 2009, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program has maintained a 15-year database for tagged and recaptured fish. The program is a cooperative project of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament (under the Virginia Marine Resources Commission/VMRC) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) of the College of William and Mary (under VIMS Sea Grant Marine Extension Program).

Trying To Beat The Brome: Understanding Establishment Thresholds And Choosing Competitive Native Species At Parashant National Monument, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Desert fires fueled by exotic grasses like the omnipresent red brome (Bromus rubens) can be intense and cause widespread mortality of native vegetation. Native desert scrub communities such as those dominated by blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) do not readily reestablish after fire (Abella 2009) and may even become more abundant in the post-burn landscape initiating a fire cycle that occurs at a greater frequency than the recovery time of the long-lived desert perennial community.

Undergraduate And Graduate Programs In Environmental Science At Unlv, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

The School of Environmental and Public Affairs at UNLV houses B.A. and B.S. degrees in Environmental Studies and M.S. and PhD degrees in Environmental Science. These degrees are flexible, multi-purpose, interdisciplinary programs that can be tailored for both breadth and depth.

Image Analysis For Water Surface & Subsurface Feature Detection In Shallow Waters, Charles R. Bostater Jr., James Jones, Heather Frystacky, Mate Kovacs, Oszkar Jozsa

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Carefully collected airborne imagery demonstrates the ability to see water surface features as well as shallow bottom features such as submerged vegetation and manmade targets. Traditional photogrammetric imagery and airborne digital imagery both suffer from a loss in image clarity due to a number of factors, including capillary and small gravity waves, the water column or in-situ constituents. The use of submerged as well as surface man-made calibration targets deployed during airborne or in-situ subsurface image acquisitions forms a preliminary basis for correcting imagery in order to improve subsurface and surface features and their detection. Methods presented as well as …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2010, J. T. Korus, M. E. Burbach, L. M. Howard, R. M. Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Holdrege: Nebraska's State Soil

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Scalable Event Tracking On High-End Parallel Systems, Kathryn Marie Mohror

Dissertations and Theses

Accurate performance analysis of high end systems requires event-based traces to correctly identify the root cause of a number of the complex performance problems that arise on these highly parallel systems. These high-end architectures contain tens to hundreds of thousands of processors, pushing application scalability challenges to new heights. Unfortunately, the collection of event-based data presents scalability challenges itself: the large volume of collected data increases tool overhead, and results in data files that are difficult to store and analyze. Our solution to these problems is a new measurement technique called trace profiling that collects the information needed to diagnose …