Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Crime Pattern Detection Using Online Social Media, Raja Ashok Bolla

Masters Theses

"In this research, we show online social networks can be used to study crime detection problems. Crime is defined as an act harmful not only to the individual involved, but also to the community as a whole. It is also a forbidden act that is punishable by law. Crimes are social nuisances that place heavy financial burdens on society. Here we look at use of data mining followed by sentiment analysis on online social networks, to help detect the crime patterns. Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to post brief text updates, also referred …

Characterization Of A Plant Gene Family Expanded In Glycine Max, Lisa Snoderly-Foster

Masters Theses

"Glycine max, commonly named the cultivated soybean, is one of the oldest and most important food crops in the world. The study of the G. max genome provides valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern its reproduction and environmental responsiveness, key factors in maximizing crop yield. Since the complete sequencing of the genome in 2010, the analysis has become faster and easier, especially with the development of numerous web-based, publically accessible bioinformatics tools.

This research effort utilizes these tools to characterize a small, unannotated G. max gene family. Although no definitive evidence was uncovered for the production of a …

Thermobarometry And Geochronology In The Dulan Region, North Qaidam Ultrahigh-Pressure Terrane: Resolving Spatial Variation Of Ages, Temperatures, And Pressures, Megan Eileen Regel

All Master's Theses

The Dulan ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane exposes 449-422 Ma eclogites in the east and 449-418 Ma high-pressure granulites to the west, but the relationship between the units is poorly understood. Zirconium-in-rutile temperatures show an east-west 3- 5°C/km gradient in four UHP eclogites: 662-716±10°C; garnet-omphacite-phengite thermobarometry of peak conditions yields 659-730±82°C, 25.3-27.1±3.2 kbars. Zircon U-Pb ages of four eclogites are the same within uncertainty, averaging 434±2.9 Ma. Tiin- zircon thermometry and rare earth element patterns indicate these ages represent eclogite facies metamorphism. One high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) granulite yields a minimum rutile temperature of 773±4°C. Previous thermobarometry of highpressure granulites yields ≥800°C and 14-17 …

A Cloud Brokerage Architecture For Efficient Cloud Service Selection, Venkata Nagarjuna Dondapati

Masters Theses

"The expanding cloud computing services offer great opportunities for consumers to find the best service and best pricing, which however raises new challenges on how to select the best service out of a huge pool. It is obvious time-consuming for consumers to collect the necessary information and analyze all service providers to make the decision. It is also a highly demanding task from a computational perspective, because the same computations may be conducted repeatedly by multiple consumers who have similar requirements. In this paper, we propose a novel brokerage-based architecture in the cloud, where the cloud brokers is responsible for …

An Investigation Of Contaminant Metal Distribution And Mineral Speciation In The Soil Near The Buick Recycling Division Smelter, Iron County, Missouri, Krista Nicole Rybacki

Masters Theses

"Trace metal contamination studies were conducted near the Buick Resource Recycling Division. This study used sequential extraction, total digestion, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to study trace metals in two soil cores. Sequential extraction analysis of the soil cores revealed that lead was associated with either iron or manganese oxides. Zinc and copper were bound to soil components, extracted mainly from organics, sulfides, and clays. Total digestion results compared favorably to the sum of the sequential extraction results for lead, thus validating the sequential extraction methodology. The highest concentration observed for lead was 4,743 parts …

Automated Identification Of Cell Type Specific Genes In The Mouse Brain By Image Computing Of Expression Patterns, Rongjian Li, Wenlu Zhang, Shuiwang Ji

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background: Differential gene expression patterns in cells of the mammalian brain result in the morphological, connectional, and functional diversity of cells. A wide variety of studies have shown that certain genes are expressed only in specific cell-types. Analysis of cell-type-specific gene expression patterns can provide insights into the relationship between genes, connectivity, brain regions, and cell-types. However, automated methods for identifying cell-type-specific genes are lacking to date.

Results: Here, we describe a set of computational methods for identifying cell-type-specific genes in the mouse brain by automated image computing of in situ hybridization (ISH) expression patterns. We applied invariant image feature …

Moved But Not Gone: An Evaluation Of Real-Time Methods For Discovering Replacement Web Pages, Martin Klein, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Inaccessible Web pages and 404 “Page Not Found” responses are a common Web phenomenon and a detriment to the user’s browsing experience. The rediscovery of missing Web pages is, therefore, a relevant research topic in the digital preservation as well as in the Information Retrieval realm. In this article, we bring these two areas together by analyzing four content- and link-based methods to rediscover missing Web pages. We investigate the retrieval performance of the methods individually as well as their combinations and give an insight into how effective these methods are over time. As the main result of this work, …

Calculating Risk Change With Management Actions Using Bayesian Networks For The South River, Virginia, Usa, Annie F. (Annie Franklin) Johns

WWU Graduate School Collection

Ecological managers often implement one or more management options to manage risk without the direct integration of a quantitative risk assessment and evaluation of management alternatives. Throughout the decision making process a manager should consider multiple stressors as well as stressor interactions and the resulting effects. In my study, I used Bayesian networks in a relative risk assessment model framework (BN-RRM) to integrate two management options into existing risk assessment models for biotic endpoints and water quality endpoints in the mercury contaminated site, South River, VA. The two management options assessed were agricultural best management practices (BMPs) and bank stabilization. …

High-Resolution Lidar Mapping And Analysis To Quantify Surface Movement Of Swift Creek Landslide, Whatcom County, Wa, Benjamin R. Ferreira

WWU Graduate School Collection

I investigated the applicability of using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to quantify surface displacement of the Swift Creek landslide, an active earth flow in the foothills of northwest Washington State. Five surveys were completed from October, 2009-April, 2011 to identify and measure spatial and temporal changes in the movement of the landslide. The seasonally variable movement patterns at the site provide an ideal environment to test the effectiveness of newly emerging methods to measure surface displacement. Iterative closest point (ICP) analysis and image cross-correlation via particle image velocimetry (PIV) were applied to sequential TLS datasets to identify and match features …

Eccentricity, Space Bending, Dimension, Florentin Smarandache, Marian Nitu, Mircea Eugen Selariu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The main goal of this paper is to present new transformations, previously non-existent in traditional mathematics, that we call centric mathematics (CM) but that became possible due to the new born eccentric mathematics, and, implicitly, to the supermathematics (SM).

As shown in this work, the new geometric transformations, namely conversion or transfiguration, wipe the boundaries between discrete and continuous geometric forms, showing that the first ones are also continuous, being just apparently discontinuous.

New Operations On Interval Neutrosophic Sets, Said Broumi, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

An interval neutrosophic set is an instance of a neutrosophic set, which can be used in real scientific and engineering applications. In this paper, three new operations based on the arithmetic mean, geometrical mean, and respectively harmonic mean are defined on interval neutrosophic sets.

Neutrosophic Crisp Open Set And Neutrosophic Crisp Continuity Via Neutrosophic Crisp Ideals, A. A. Salama, Said Broumi, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The focus of this paper is to propose a new notion of neutrosophic crisp sets via neutrosophic crisp ideals and to study some basic operations and results in neutrosophic crisp topological spaces. Also, neutrosophic crisp L-openness and neutrosophic crisp L- continuity are considered as a generalizations for a crisp and fuzzy concepts. Relationships between the above new neutrosophic crisp notions and the other relevant classes are investigated. Finally, we define and study two different types of neutrosophic crisp functions.

Intuitionistic Neutrosophic Soft Set Over Rings, Florentin Smarandache, Said Broumi, Pabitra Kumar Maji

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

S.Broumi and F.Smarandache introduced the concept of intuitionistic neutrosophic soft set as an extension of the soft set theory. In this paper we have applied the concept of intuitionistic neutrosophic soft set to rings theory .The notion of intuitionistic neutrosophic soft set over ring (INSSOR for short ) is introduced and their basic properties have been investigated.The definitions of intersection, union, AND, and OR operations over ring (INSSOR) have also been defined. Finally, we have defined the product of two intuitionistic neutrosophic soft set over ring.

Toward A Real Time Multi-Tissue Adaptive Physics Based Non-Rigid Registration Framework For Brain Tumor Resection, Fotis Drakopoulos, Panagiotis Foteinos, Yixun Liu, Nikos Chrisochoides

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper presents an adaptive non-rigid registration method for aligning pre-operative MRI with intra-operative MRI (iMRI) to compensate for brain deformation during brain tumor resection. This method extends a successful existing Physics-Based Non-Rigid Registration (PBNRR) technique implemented in ITKv4.5. The new method relies on a parallel adaptive heterogeneous biomechanical Finite Element (FE) model for tissue/tumor removal depicted in the iMRI. In contrast the existing PBNRR in ITK relies on homogeneous static FE model designed for brain shift only (i.e., it is not designed to handle brain tumor resection). As a result, the new method (1) accurately captures the intra-operative deformations …

Automatic Curvilinear Quality Mesh Generation Driven By Smooth Boundary And Guaranteed Fidelity, Jing Xu, Andrey N. Chernikov

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The development of robust high-order finite element methods requires the construction of valid high-order meshes for complex geometries without user intervention. This paper presents a novel approach for automatically generating a high-order mesh with two main features: first, the boundary of the mesh is globally smooth; second, the mesh boundary satisfies a required fidelity tolerance. Invalid elements are eliminated. Example meshes demonstrate the features of the algorithm.

Gpu Accelerated Long-Term Simulations Of Beam-Beam Effects In Colliders, B. Terzić, V. Morozov, Y. Roblin, F. Lin, H. Zhang, M. Aturban, D. Ranjan, M. Zubair

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present an update on the development of the new code for long-term simulation of beam-beam effects in particle colliders. The underlying physical model relies on a matrix-based arbitrary-order particle tracking (including a symplectic option) for beam transport and the generalized Bassetti-Erskine approximation for beam-beam interaction. The computations are accelerated through a parallel implementation on a hybrid GPU/CPU platform. With the new code, previously computationally prohibitive long-term simulations become tractable. The new code will be used to model the proposed Medium-energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) at Jefferson Lab.

Tracing Beta Strands Using Strandtwister From Cryo-Em Density Maps At Medium Resolutions, Dong Si, Jing He

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Major secondary structure elements such as α helices and β sheets can be computationally detected from cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) density maps with medium resolutions of 5–10 A˚ . However, a critical piece of information for modeling atomic structures is missing, because there are no tools to detect β strands from cryo-EM maps at medium resolutions. We propose a method, StrandTwister, to detect the traces of β strands through the analysis of twist, an intrinsic nature of a β sheet. StrandTwister has been tested using 100 β sheets simulated at 10 A˚ resolution and 39 β sheets computationally detected from cryo-EM …

A Nonrigid Registration Method For Correcting Brain Deformation Induced By Tumor Resection, Yixun Liu, Chengjun Yao, Fotis Drakopoulos, Jinsong Wu, Liangfu Zhou, Nikos Chrisochoides

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: This paper presents a nonrigid registration method to align preoperative MRI with intraoperative MRI to compensate for brain deformation during tumor resection. This method extends traditional point-based nonrigid registration in two aspects: (1) allow the input data to be incomplete and (2) simulate the underlying deformation with a heterogeneous biomechanical model.

Methods: The method formulates the registration as a three-variable (point correspondence, deformation field, and resection region) functional minimization problem, in which point correspondence is represented by a fuzzy assign matrix; Deformation field is represented by a piecewise linear function regularized by the strain energy of a heterogeneous biomechanical …

An Exploratory Examination Of Families Engaged In An Adventure Running Kids Program, Heather Isnor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Academics and practitioners have only just begun to delve into the health benefits of outdoor activities in the last few years. In general, the forested settings of these activities have been documented to decrease stress levels, increase recovery rates from disease, and lessen the symptoms of mental illnesses (Kuo & Faber Taylor, 2004). It is believed that the natural environment acts as a setting where humans can engage in physical activity, aesthetic experiences, and social interactions that, in turn, release stress and lead to improved well-being (Bird, 2012). Currently, however, children are experiencing limited exposure to nature and which has …

Decrease In Free Computer Science Papers Found Through Google Scholar, Lee A. Pedersen, Julie Arendt

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose - Google Scholar was used to locate free full-text versions of computer science research papers to determine what proportion could be freely accessed.
Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 1967 conference papers and periodical articles from 2003-2010, indexed in the ACM Guide to Computing Literature, was searched for manually in Google Scholar, using the paper or article title and the first author’s surname and supplementary searches as needed.
Findings - Free full-text versions were found for 52% of the conference papers and 55% of the periodical articles. Documents with older publication dates were more likely to be freely accessible than …

Physiological Stress And Post-Release Mortality Of White Marlin (Kajikia Albida) Caught In The U.S Recreational Fishery, Lela Sylvia Schlenker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

White Marlin (Kajikia albida) is a highly migratory species that occurs throughout temperate and tropical regions of the Atlantic Ocean and is the basis of a large sport fishery along the United States Atlantic coast. The single, Atlantic-wide stock is considered to be overfished, with less than one-third the spawning biomass estimated to be necessary for maximum sustainable yield. Billfish management measures adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and implemented in the U.S. by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), as well as increasing angler awareness of conservation, have resulted in the vast majority …

An Evaluation Of A Reduced Bar Spacing Turtle Excluder Device In The U.S Gulf Of Mexico Offshore Shrimp Trawl Fishery, Michel Anthony Nalovic

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Shrimp are the most economically valuable internationally-traded seafood commodity, and wild-caught, trawled shrimp make up almost half of the ~6.6 million metric tons of annual global production. Shrimp trawling is responsible for one-third of the world’s total fisheries bycatch, leading many to consider shrimp trawling to be the single most destructive fishing practice in the world. Though the bycatch of large marine animals can be significantly reduced by use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) on shrimp trawls, current TED designs are ineffective at reducing the capture of smaller organisms which represent a large portion of the total bycatch. To further …

The Roles Of Dispersal And Predation In Determining The Seedling Recruitment Patterns Of A Zostera Marina System, Stephen R. Manley

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Seed dispersal and seed predation are two important processes in the early life history of plants. The interaction between these two processes influences the population recruitment from a parent plant. These mechanisms have been studied extensively in terrestrial plants and have resulted in various models to describe plant recruitment (e.g. Janzen-Connell, Hubbell, McCanny). However, seed dispersal and predation may also influence the population recruitment of marine angiosperms, such as Zostera marina (eelgrass). The objectives of this study were to determine: 1.) the patterns of seed dispersal as a function of distance from the seed source, 2.) the predation pressure on …

Sediment Deposition And Reworking: A Modeling Study Using Isotopically Tagged Sediment Classes, Justin J. Birchler

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

A sediment transport model within the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) was used to examine how repeated cycles of deposition, erosion, and bioturbation influence flood and storm event bed character offshore of a significant fluvial source. Short-lived radioisotopes Beryllium-7 (7Be) and Thorium-234 (234Th) can be used as tracers of deposition and reworking on the continental shelf, and modeled profiles of these radioisotopes, along with simulated profiles of sediment bed grain size distributions, were analyzed for various model runs.The presence of an atmospherically derived radionuclide,7Be, in seafloor sedimentindicates terrestrial (riverine derived) sediment deposition offshore of a fluvial source.In contrast,234Th naturally occurs …

High-Resolution Sediment Records Of Seismicity And Seasonal Sedimentation From Prince William Sound, Alaska, Using Xrf Core Scanning, Eric J. Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The southern coast of Alaska is a climatically sensitive and tectonically active region, however due to its remoteness and harsh climate there are limited long-term historical records of environmental conditions such as storm frequency, river discharge, and earthquakes. In order to determine the potential for Prince William Sound sediments to contain high-resolution paleorecords of these conditions, a suite of 11 gravity cores was collected within the Sound in order to determine the modern day sediment depositional trends and to develop elemental proxies for earthquakes and seasonal sedimentation. 210Pb/137Cs-derived sedimentation rates and grain size trends indicate that there are two distinct …

Gis Data: James City County And City Of Williamsburg, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, Kory Angstadt, Alexandra Procopi, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline or by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions:

1) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes.

The 2014 Inventory for James City …

Gis Data: Northumberland County, Virginia Tidal Marsh Inventory, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, David Stanhope, Kory Angstadt, Christine Tombleson, Alexandra Procopi, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The 2014 Tidal Marsh Inventory update for Northumberland County, Virginia was generated using on-screen digitizing techniques in the most recent version of ArcGIS® - ArcMap while viewing conditions observed in the most recent imagery from the Virginia Base Mapping Program (VBMP). Dominant plant community types were primarily determined during field surveys from shallow-draft boats moving along the shoreline. Land-based surveys were performed in some locations. One shapefile is developed that portrays tidal marsh areas represented as polygons. A metadata file accompanies the shapefile to define attribute accuracy, data development, and any use restrictions that pertain to the data.

Quantification Of Nursery Habitats For Blue Crabs In Chesapeake Bay, Gina M. Ralph

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The blue crab is an iconic species in Chesapeake Bay, supporting important commercial and recreational fisheries and functioning as a critical link in the food web. Structurally complex habitats are often cited as nurseries for the blue crab, and other commercially important fish and crustacean species, by providing enhanced growth and survival for juveniles. I quantified the value of shallow habitats as nurseries for blue crabs through field studies and a demographic model. In Chapter 2, I utilized a two-year juvenile survey in vegetated habitats of the lower Bay to examine the effect of habitat complexity on the density of …

An Investigation Of Nurbs-Based Deformable Image Registration, Travis J. Jacobson

Theses and Dissertations

Deformable image registration (DIR) is an essential tool in medical image processing. It provides a means to combine image datasets, allowing for intra-subject, inter-subject, multi-modality, and multi-instance analysis, as well as motion detection and compensation. One of the most popular DIR algorithms models the displacement vector field (DVF) as B-splines, a sum of piecewise polynomials with coefficients that enable local shape control. B-splines have many advantageous properties in the context of DIR, but they often struggle to adequately model steep local gradients and discontinuities. This dissertation addresses that limitation by proposing the replacement of conventional B-splines with a generalized formulation …

Quantitative Mass Spectrometric Investigations Of Protein Biomarkers: Serum Thymidine Kinase 1 And Human Osteopontin, Morse Faria

Theses and Dissertations

Mass spectrometry is being increasingly used in biomarker research mainly due to its ability to achieve high selectivity coupled with high sensitivity. This dissertation focuses on quantitative mass spectrometric investigations of two protein biomarkers i.e. serum thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) and human osteopontin (OPN).

First part of this research was focused on developing a liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for measuring the activity of TK1 in serum by monitoring the conversion of a TK1 specific exogenous substrate, 3’-deoxy-3’-fluorothymidine (FLT), to its mono-phosphorylated form 3’-deoxy-3’-fluorothymidine monophosphate (FLT-MP). A method to quantify FLT-MP on LC-MS/MS was developed and …