Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Ssn Ontology Of The W3c Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group, Michael Compton, Payam Barnaghi, Luis Bermudez, Raul Garcia-Castro, Oscar Corcho, Simon Cox, John Graybeal, Manfred Hauswirth, Cory Andrew Henson, Arthur Herzog, Vincent Huang, Krzysztof Janowicz, W. David Kelsey, Danh Le Phuoc, Laurent Lefort, Myriam Leggieri, Holger Neuhaus, Andriy Nikolov, Kevin Page, Alexandre Passant, Amit P. Sheth, Kerry Taylor

Kno.e.sis Publications

The W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator group (the SSN-XG) produced an OWL 2 ontology to describe sensors and observations — the SSN ontology, available at http://purl.oclc.org/NET/ssnx/ssn. The SSN ontology can describe sensors in terms of capabilities, measurement processes, observations and deployments. This article describes the SSN ontology. It further gives an example and describes the use of the ontology in recent research projects.

Three Point Encryption (3pe): Secure Communications In Delay Tolerant Networks, Roy Cabaniss, Vimal Kumar, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are a subset of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) composed of several mobile devices. These dynamic environments make conventional security algorithms unreliable, nodes that are far apart may not have access to the other's public key, making secure message exchange difficult. Other security methods rely on requesting the key from a trusted third party, which can be unavailable in DTN. the purpose of this paper is to introduce two message security algorithms capable of delivering messages securely against either eavesdropping or manipulation. the first algorithm, Chaining, uses multiple midpoints to re-encrypt the message for the destination …

Disordered Bosons In One Dimension: From Weak- To Strong-Randomness Criticality, Fawaz Hrahsheh, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigate the superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition of one-dimensional bosons with off-diagonal disorder by means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. For weak disorder, we find the transition to be in the same universality class as the superfluid-Mott insulator transition of the clean system. The nature of the transition changes for stronger disorder. Beyond a critical disorder strength, we find nonuniversal, disorder-dependent critical behavior. We compare our results to recent perturbative and strong-disorder renormalization group predictions. We also discuss experimental implications as well as extensions of our results to other systems.

Online Optimal Control Of Affine Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems With Unknown Internal Dynamics By Using Time-Based Policy Update, Travis Dierks, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is solved forward-in-time for the optimal control of a class of general affine nonlinear discrete-time systems without using value and policy iterations. the proposed approach, referred to as adaptive dynamic programming, uses two neural networks (NNs), to solve the infinite horizon optimal regulation control of affine nonlinear discrete-time systems in the presence of unknown internal dynamics and a known control coefficient matrix. One NN approximates the cost function and is referred to as the critic NN, while the second NN generates the control input and is referred to as the action NN. the cost …

A Cross Layer Approach To The Novel Distributed Scheduling Protocol And Event-Triggered Controller Design For Cyber Physical Systems, Hao Xu, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), multiple real-time dynamic systems are connected to their corresponding controllers through a shared communication network in contrast with a dedicated line. for such CPS, the existing scheduling schemes for instance Centralized or Distributed Scheduling schemes are unsuitable since the behavior of real-time dynamic systems is ignored during the network protocol design. Therefore, in this paper, a novel distributed scheduling protocol design via cross-layer approach is proposed to optimize the performance of CPS by maximizing the utility function which is generated by using the information collected from both the application and network layers. Subsequently, a novel …

An Evaluation Of Fairness Among Heterogeneous Tcp Variants Over 10gbps High-Speed Networks, Lin Xue, Suman Kumary, Cheng Cui, Seung Jong Park

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Several high-speed TCP variants are adopted by end users and therefore, heterogeneous congestion control has become the characteristic of newly emerging high-speed networks. In contrast to homogeneous TCP flows, fairness among heterogeneous TCP flows now depends on router parameters such as queue management scheme, buffer size, etc. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of fairness among heterogeneous TCP variants over 10Gbps high-speed networks. Our evaluation scenarios for heterogeneous TCP flows consist of TCP variants with substantial presence in current Internet; therefore, TCP-SACK, CUBIC and HSTCP compete for bottleneck bandwidth. Experimental results for fairness are presented …

A Combinatorial Solution For Scheduling Spatial Multiplexing In Mimo-Based Ad Hoc Networks, Maggie Cheng, Quanmin Ye

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In a MIMO-Based ad hoc network, the conflict relation between transmissions is fundamentally changed due to the multiple packet reception capability of MIMO nodes. a MIMO node can receive from multiple data streams at the same time, which significantly increases data throughput. to fully utilize the additional spectrum capacity enabled by the MIMO technology, it is important that transmissions from different nodes are coordinated. the coordination scheme needs to consider both data stream multiplexing and transmission time scheduling for a maximum performance gain. in this paper, we use an optimization framework to jointly consider MIMO link spatial multiplexing and scheduling …

Exploring Compile Time Caching Of Explicit Queries In Programming Codes, Venkata Krishna Suhas Nerella, Sanjay Madria, Thomas Weigert

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Object oriented programming languages raised the level of abstraction by incorporating first class query constructs explicitly in the program codes. These query constructs allow programmers to express operations over collections as object queries and also provide optimal query execution utilizing query optimization strategies from domain of databases. However, when a query is repeated in the program, it is executed afresh. This paper presents an approach to reduce the run time execution of programs involving explicit queries by caching the results of repeated queries and incrementally maintaining the cached results. We propose determination of cache entries at compile time by performing …

Automatic Social Group Organization And Privacy Management, Anna Squicciarini, Dan Lin, Sushama Karumanchi, Nicole Desisto

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the dramatic increase of users on social network websites, the needs to assist users to manage their large number of contacts as well as providing privacy protection become more and more evident. Unfortunately, limited tools are available to address such needs and reduce users' workload on managing their social relationships. to tackle this issue, we propose an approach to facilitate online social network users to group their contacts into social circles with common interests. Further, we leverage the social group practice to automate the privacy setting process for users who add new contacts or upload new data items. We …

Search-Based Refactoring: Towards Semantics Preservation, Ali Ouni, Marouane Kessentini, Houari Sahraoui, Mohamed Salah Hamdi

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Refactoring restructures a program to improve its structure without altering its behavior. However, it is challenging to preserve the domain semantics of a program when refactoring is decided/implemented automatically. Indeed, a program could be syntactically correct, have the right behavior, but model incorrectly the domain semantics. in this paper, we propose a multi-objective optimization approach to find the best sequence of refactorings that maximizes quality improvements (program structure) and minimizes semantic errors. to this end, we use the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to find the best compromise between these two conflicting objectives. We report the results of our experiments …

Anti-Germinants As A New Strategy To Prevent Clostridium Difficile Infections, Amber Janece Howerton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Clostridium difficileinfections (CDI) have emerged as a leading cause of hospital-associated complications. CDI is the major cause of antibiotic-related cases of diarrhea and nearly all cases of pseudomembranous colitis. The infective form of C. difficileis the spore, a dormant and hardy structure that forms under stress. Germination of C. difficile spores into toxin producing bacteria in the GI tract of susceptible patients is the first step in CDI establishment. Patient susceptibility occurs with a disruption of the natural gut microbiota by broad-spectrum antibiotics. Antibiotic treatments usually resolve CDI but refractory cases are on the rise. Of great concern is the …

User Taglines: Alternative Presentations Of Expertise And Interest In Social Media, Hemant Purohit, Alex Dow, Omar Alonso, Lei Duan, Kevin Haas

Kno.e.sis Publications

Web applications are increasingly showing recommended users from social media along with some descriptions, an attempt to show relevancy - why they are being shown. For example, Twitter search for a topical keyword shows expert twitterers on the side for 'whom to follow'. Google+ and Facebook also recommend users to follow or add to friend circle. Popular Internet newspaper- The Huffington Post shows Twitter influencers/ experts on the side of an article for authoritative relevant tweets. The state of the art shows user profile bios as summary for Twitter experts, but it has issues with length constraint imposed by user …

The Morbidity & Mortality Of Prevalent Heart Failure, Jennifer Kwon

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The first study population included 292 unselected consecutive patients from the LLUMC heart failure clinic who were enrolled in the study from January to July 2006 and were followed up through the end of December 2010. The treatment policy at the clinic was to uptitrate dosages of beta-adrenergic blockade (β-blockers), angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) to the most tolerable levels in order to reach target dosages, as recommended by the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA). Patients were classified into systolic heart failure (ejection fraction (EF) < 40%) or diastolic heart failure (EF≥40%). All dosages of β-blockers, ACEi and ARB were extracted through chart reviews and were used as the main predictors of the patients' survival. Results from analyses showed that reaching target dosages of β-blockers and ACEi/ARB may increase survival when compared to not reaching target among the systolic HF population (HR_{β_biockers}= 0.64, 95% CI 0.26-1.56 and HR_ACEi/ARB=0.50, …

Freshwater Phytoplankton Populations Detected Using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (Hplc) Of Taxon-Specific Pigments, Lauren Jeanne Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Phytoplankton are key primary producers in aquatic ecosystems, and the principle food source for primary consumers. Individual phytoplankton species respond to different physical, chemical and biological parameters, so monitoring taxonomic composition of the phytoplankton community is a means to monitor changes in environmental conditions. Phytoplankton community changes have frequently been monitored by estimating biomass (using chlorophyll a, measured fluorometrically), and taxonomic data obtained from cell counts. While such methods are useful, they are time-consuming. I hypothesized that high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods, which have been frequently used in marine systems, would allow separation and identification of key pigments. …

Health Care Informatics Support Of A Simulated Study, Zeinab Salari Far

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project is to assess the value of REDCap (Harris, 2009) by conducting a simulated breast cancer clinical trial and demonstration. REDCap is a free, secure, web-based application designed to support data capture for research studies. To assess REDCap's value, we conducted a simulation of a clinical trial study designed to compare the use of two new technologies for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment with current best practice breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. We call the trial, "Real-Time Operating Room BC Diagnostic Treatment (RORBCDT)". The RORBCDT clinical trial is designed to assess the value of a new …

Part 1. Design And Synthesis Of Cysteine/Cystine Prodrugs And Bioisosteres Including Symmetrical And Unsymmetrical Disulfides Designed To Increase Cystine Levels In The Cns In Order To Drive The Cystine/Glutamate Antiporter: A Novel Treatment For Schizophrenia And Drug Addiction. Part 2. Design And Synthesis Of Subtype Selective Ester Bioisosteres Of Bzr Ligands For Gabaa/Benzodiazepine Receptors To Enhance Metabolic Stability, Edward Merle Johnson Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Part 1. Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder that affects almost 1% of the world's population; pharmacotherapy expenditures for this disorder exceed $10 billion dollars even though existing medications exhibit a poor safety/efficacy profile. It is estimated that 75% of patients discontinue drug treatment, in part due to poor safety/efficacy. The current data set demonstrates that cysteine prodrug NAC reverse the behavioral and neurochemical effects of PCP used to model schizophrenia.

As a result cysteine prodrugs represent a highly novel approach to treating schizophrenia; indeed, these compounds may ultimately be more effective than existing medications because these drugs target the pathology …

The Class Equation Of Gl2(Fq), Lindsey Mathewson

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we discuss the conjugacy classes of the general linear group of 2 x 2 matrices over a prime field. We find the number of conjugacy classes and the class equation for GL_2 (F_q) for general prime q. We then look at some applications of the class equation, which includes finding the number of orbits when GL_2 (F_q) acts on (GL_2 (F_q))^s by conjugation. Included in this thesis is the Maple Code for generating the class equation for any prime.

Pricing Of American Lookback Options Using Linear Programming, Michael Alexander Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

We will introduce the American lookback option in the Black-Scholes model. Afterwards

we will examine the process it inherits and derive and formulate the linear

program needed to price it.

As an approximation, we will apply a time-discretization and a truncation of the

innite space. The requirements for a solution are weakened and the optimization

problem is reduced to base functions,being linear functions.

In the end we study the numerical results following from the above computations.

On Numerical Solution For Optimal Allocation Of Investment Funds In Portfolio Selection Problem, Yahaya Abubakar

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

In this article, we present a procedure for obtaining an optimal solution to the Markowitz’s mean-variance portfolio selection problem based on the analytical solution developed in a previous research that lead to the emergence of an important model known as the Black Model. The procedure is well presented, illustrated and validated by a numerical example from real stocks dataset obtainable from a popular European stock market.

Insights From Characterizing Extinct Human Gut Microbiomes, Raul Y. Tito, Dan Knights, Jessica Metcalf, Alexandra J. Obregon-Tito, Lauren Cleeland, Fares Najar, Bruce Roe, Karl Reinhard, Kristin Sobolik, Samuel Belknap, Morris Foster, Paul Spicer, Rob Knight, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites). To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P.) in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P.) in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.). Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to …

Radiative Double Electron Capture In Collisions Of Fully-Stripped Fluorine Ions With Thin Carbon Foils, Tamer Mohammad Samy Elkafrawy

Dissertations

Radiative double electron capture (RDEC) is a one-step process in ion-atom collisions occurring when two target electrons are captured to a bound state of the projectile simultaneously with the emission of a single photon. The emitted photon has approximately double the energy of the photon emitted due to radiative electron capture (REC), which occurs when a target electron is captured to a projectile bound state with simultaneous emission of a photon. REC and RDEC can be treated as timereversed photoionization (PI) and double photoionization (DPI), respectively, if loosely-bound target electrons are captured. This concept can be formulated with the principle …

Finding Unpredictable Behaviors Of Periodic Bouncing For Forced Nonlinear Spring Systems When Oscillating Time Is Large, Yanyue Ning

Honors Scholar Theses

The model of nonlinear spring systems can be applied to deal with different aspect of mechanical problems, such as oscillations in periodic flexing in bridges and ships. The concentration of this research is the bouncing behaviors of nonlinear spring system when the processing time is large, therefore nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE) are suitable since researchers can add different variables into the models and solve them by computational methods. Benefit from this, it is easy to check the oscillations or bouncing behaviors that each variable contributes to the model and find the relationship between some important factors: vibrating frequency, external …

Technical Feasibility Of Small-Scale Oilseed And On-Farm Biodiesel Production: A Vermont Case Study, Emily J. Stebbins-Wheelock, Robert Parsons, Qingbin Wang, Heather Darby, Vernon Grubinger

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This article investigates the technical feasibility of small-scale oilseed production and on-farm processing of biodiesel and livestock feed using primary data from two Vermont farms. Results indicate that small-scale production of sunflowers, canola, and soybeans, and on-farm processing of livestock feed and biodiesel are technically feasible, but yields depend on many factors. Increased local expertise, information-sharing among the farm and Extension communities, and improved access to harvesting and processing equipment can improve productivity and efficiency. Additional experience in seed drying and expeller pressing techniques should reduce fat content in the seed meal, improve meal value, and improve oil production efficiency. …

Discrete-State Stochastic Models Of Calcium-Regulated Calcium Influx And Subspace Dynamics Are Not Well-Approximated By Odes That Neglect Concentration Fluctuations, Seth H. Weinberg, Gregory D. Smith

Arts & Sciences Articles

Cardiac myocyte calcium signaling is often modeled using deterministic ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and mass-action kinetics. However, spatially restricted “domains” associated with calcium influx are small enough (e.g., 10−17 liters) that local signaling may involve 1–100 calcium ions. Is it appropriate to model the dynamics of subspace calcium using deterministic ODEs or, alternatively, do we require stochastic descriptions that account for the fundamentally discrete nature of these local calcium signals? To address this question, we constructed a minimal Markov model of a calcium-regulated calcium channel and associated subspace. We compared the expected value of fluctuating subspace calcium concentration (a result …

Climate Change And The Spread Of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Courtney B. Reed

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Oscillation Results For Fourth-Order Nonlinear Dynamic Equations, Chenghui Zhang, Tongxing Li, Ravi P. Agarwal, Martin Bohner

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work is concerned with the oscillation of a certain class of fourth-order nonlinear dynamic equations on time scales. a new oscillation result and an example are included. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Jensen's Functionals On Time Scales, Matloob Anwar, Rabia Bibi, Martin Bohner, Josip Pečarić

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We consider Jensen's functionals on time scales and discuss its properties and applications. Further, we define weighted generalized and power means on time scales. by applying the properties of Jensen's functionals on these means, we obtain several refinements and converses of Hölder's inequality on time scales. Copyright © 2012 Matloob Anwar et al.

Engaging The Community Through An Undergraduate Biomedical Physics Course, Grace Van Ness, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report on the development of an undergraduate biomedical physics course at Portland State University, motivated by both student interest and the desire of the university?s Physics Department to provide an interdisciplinary intermediate-level physics course. The course was developed through the community engagement of physicians, clinical researchers, and basic science researchers. Class meetings were a combination of regular and guest lectures, hands-on exercises, web-based activities, class discussions, and a student poster information session for patrons at a local science museum. The course inspired students to engage in research projects in biomedical physics that enhance their understanding of science and education …

Required Features Of A Virtual Classroom Tool For Use In Higher Education, Arnold Hensman

Articles

The integration of virtual-classroom systems into the arsenal of e-learning tools represents a major evolution in the landscape of modern distance education. For many courses, standard virtual learning environments (VLEs) provide only a foundation upon which to base a distance learning programme. However, synchronous live online-teaching software such as Microsoft Office Communicator and Adobe Connect allow educators to simulate a real-time classroom environment over the internet like never before. Since these tools are being used more and more within higher education, questions must be asked about how effective they ultimately can be in meeting student learning requirements. More importantly, what …

A Service Oriented Architecture For Spatial And Business Data Applications: An Ecampus Case Study, James Carswell, Thanh Thoa Pham Thi, Linh Truong- Hong, Junjun Yin

Conference papers

Location-dependent queries of geospatial data are indispensable for users in today's era of "Smart" environments. At general scales, Google Maps and Google Earth with satellite and street views have provided some utilities for users to query specific locations. However, at local scales, where detailed 3D geometries and linked business data are needed, there is a general lack of related information for in depth exploration of an area. For instance, the following kinds of questions cannot be answered when interacting with Google Maps/Earth on a typical university campus: what classes are scheduled in that room over there? Whose office window is …