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2010

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Defining Fear And Aggression: Typological Emotive Responses To Perceptions Of Textual Symbols, Donna Lynn Salazar Jan 2010

Defining Fear And Aggression: Typological Emotive Responses To Perceptions Of Textual Symbols, Donna Lynn Salazar

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses

Millennial technology has shed new light on early biological theories of crime. Recent evidence supports a new paradigm in criminological research designed to embrace an integration of neuro-scientific, psychological, and sociological theories in order to understand the multi-dimensional characteristics of causality involved in criminal behavior. The current study explores the value of an integrated approach to define typological fear and aggression emotive responses utilizing symbolic interaction as the mechanism by which the various disciplines interact. Through perceptions of emotionally charged textual symbols, typological representations of fear and aggression, and a 3-Part electronic survey instrument, the study reveals support for an …

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Community Oriented Policing Post September 11, 2001, Shahrzad Pakbin Jan 2010

Community Oriented Policing Post September 11, 2001, Shahrzad Pakbin

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses

The events of September 11 2001, affected many in the United States, among them the local police. Not only did it impact the way the police operate, but also how they interacted with the general populace. This study identified patterns in the literature as it pertained to Community Oriented Policing post September 11, 2001. It examined the development of law enforcement agencies around Community Oriented Policing and how specifically Middle Eastern communities were impacted. This study was conducted by analyzing the content material of publications post September 11, 2001. Data for this study was collected through a qualitative content analysis, …

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Perceptions Of Police Officers Towards Law Enforcement Hiring Practices As They Pertain To Minority Candidates While Controlling For Gender, Angela Nicole Shaw Jan 2010

Perceptions Of Police Officers Towards Law Enforcement Hiring Practices As They Pertain To Minority Candidates While Controlling For Gender, Angela Nicole Shaw

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of police officers towards law enforcement hiring practices as they pertain to minority candidates while controlling for gender. A survey instrument was devised and implemented to measure perceptions of hiring practices as they pertain to minorities and females at a police department in northern Texas. Once the data were collected, it was analyzed and examined for any statistically significance.

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Children Of Israel: Jacob Figures And Themes In The Novels Of Chaim Potok, Alan Morris Cochrum Jan 2010

Children Of Israel: Jacob Figures And Themes In The Novels Of Chaim Potok, Alan Morris Cochrum

English Theses

The twentieth-century novelist Chaim Potok made central to his fiction what he called “culture war,” juxtaposing his Jewish-American characters' inner spiritual lives with key elements of Western secularism. In five of his novels -The Promise (1969), My Name Is Asher Lev (1972), The Book of Lights (1981), Davita's Harp (1985), and The Gift of Asher Lev (1990) - the protagonist comes under the influence of a character who can be styled “the Jacob figure.” This thesis argues that these characters not only echo various aspects of the biblical narratives about the Hebrew patriarch, thereby turning him into a meta-character in …

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From Eve To Eve: Women's Dreaming In The Middle Ages And Renaissance, Rebecca Dark Jan 2010

From Eve To Eve: Women's Dreaming In The Middle Ages And Renaissance, Rebecca Dark

English Dissertations

This project examines reports of the dreams of women in fictionalized as well as historical, biographical, and hagiographical accounts from the English Middle Ages and Renaissance. Because an unstable body/spirit dualism forms the basis for both dream theory and anti-feminism during these periods, in texts where women's dreams are reported the instabilities of the two discourses are magnified, resulting in discursive discontinuities that reveal the presence of multiple cultural languages. My argument, based in part on the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia, is that these texts are characterized by the generally accepted misogynistic ideas of the period but also demonstrate the …

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The Evolution Of The Rag: An Analysis Of The Social, Political And Technological Influences On The Birth Of One Underground Newspaper In The 1960s, Marti G. Harvey Jan 2010

The Evolution Of The Rag: An Analysis Of The Social, Political And Technological Influences On The Birth Of One Underground Newspaper In The 1960s, Marti G. Harvey

Communication Theses

This research examines the influences which led to the beginnings of The Rag, an underground newspaper in Austin, TX, that would last for 11 years and give voice to a generation of young adults that were intent on changing society. Students and young adults were seeking ways to voice their frustrations with government policies and newspapers were a major source of information for most of the American public. However, the large city dailies failed to adequately cover issues important to the youth culture. This historical analysis delves into big-picture influences such as the counterculture, the Students for a Democratic Society …

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(Re)Using Women: The Image Debate In Early Modern Allegory, Sandi J. Hubnik Jan 2010

(Re)Using Women: The Image Debate In Early Modern Allegory, Sandi J. Hubnik

English Dissertations

This project is concerned with how, during the reign of Elizabeth I, early modern writers use the representations of certain allegorical women characters to discuss the issues central to the image debate and the need for proper interpretation. The relationship between women and images makes such a movement possible. The well-established misogynistic discourse on women lends itself well to the reconstruction of the discourse concerning images; both express a certain amount of anxiety over the outward sign - the body - and its unreliability as a conduit for moral or spiritual purity. Early modern Protestant and Catholic writers often use …

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Chicken And Dumplings: The Motif Of Food In Appalachian Literature, Cynthia L. Sibley Thayer Jan 2010

Chicken And Dumplings: The Motif Of Food In Appalachian Literature, Cynthia L. Sibley Thayer

English Dissertations

Food is an important element of literature. It can help to establish setting, conflicts, a hero and heroine, relationships with nature and other humans, comfort to readers as well as characters in fictional texts, class structure, and survival of a culture. For the reader, Appalachian literature invokes a sense of home, memories, and family. Appalachian food is also a catalyst for infamous stereotyping of the culture in the United States. The names of Hawthorne and Thoreau represent New England; Twain and Faulkner represent the South; and authors like Robert Morgan, Silas House, and Charles Frazier represent Appalachia putting it on …

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Students' Opinions Toward Carrying Concealed Handguns On Campus, Melissa Van Winkle Jan 2010

Students' Opinions Toward Carrying Concealed Handguns On Campus, Melissa Van Winkle

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses

Since the massacre at Virginia Tech, there has been much attention regarding the idea of students carrying guns on campus. The purpose of this paper is to determine the opinions of graduate and undergraduate students who attend the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) regarding policies for carrying guns on campus while differentiating between criminal justice and non-criminal justice majors. The researcher conducted a survey with the target population being students who attend classes on the UTA campus. Students were asked to specify their level of studies (graduate or undergraduate), and their major of studies and provide their opinion as …

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Real Time Hardware And Software Systems For Micro Air Vehicle Flight Control Testing, Christopher Dale Mcmurrough Jan 2010

Real Time Hardware And Software Systems For Micro Air Vehicle Flight Control Testing, Christopher Dale Mcmurrough

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

The trend of increasing capabilities of micro scale electrical, mechanical, and computing systems is opening up the possibilities of new unmanned vehicle platforms. Both unmanned aerial and ground vehicles have traditionally been created from large conventional platforms such as automobiles, rotorcraft, and fixed wing aircraft. These conventional chassis designs are durable and proven, but the benefits of automating these types of platforms are limited by their inherent human-centric design. Many real-world applications would benefit greatly from vehicle classes designed with unconventional means such as biologically inspired locomotion. Micro air vehicles are a class of vehicles that have recently began moving …

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Building Bayesian Network Based Expert Systems From Rules, Saravanan Thirumuruganathan Jan 2010

Building Bayesian Network Based Expert Systems From Rules, Saravanan Thirumuruganathan

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Combining expert knowledge and user explanation with automated reasoning in domains with uncertain information poses significant challenges in terms of representation and reasoning mechanisms. In particular, reasoning structures understandable and usable by humans are often different from the ones for automated reasoning and data mining systems.Rules are a convenient and human understandable way to express domain knowledge and build expert systems. Adding certainty factors to these rules presents one way to deal with uncertainty in rule based expert systems. However such systems have limitations in accurately modeling the domain. Bayesian Network, on the other hand, is a probabilistic graphical model …

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Distributed Services In Pervasive Systems, Sagar A. Tamhane Jan 2010

Distributed Services In Pervasive Systems, Sagar A. Tamhane

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Devices in pervasive systems are generally resource constrained, heterogeneous, personal, and mobile. These constraints limit the services and quality of service offered by the devices. For example, execution of such tasks as video and audio processing might not be possible or successful on cell phones, PDAs and sensors. Hence interactions between devices are exploited to perform collaborative task execution. Devices with better resource levels perform tasks on behalf of other devices. This dissertation provides algorithms for cooperative service executions in pervasive environments. The major contributions of this dissertation are: (1) Cluster Based Scheduling (CBS) algorithm that performs service scheduling in …

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Reinforcement Learning Based Strategies For Adaptive Wireless Sensor Network Management, Kunalbhai Shah Jan 2010

Reinforcement Learning Based Strategies For Adaptive Wireless Sensor Network Management, Kunalbhai Shah

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), resource-constrained nodes are expected to operate in highly dynamic and often unattended environments. WSN applications need to cope with such dynamicity and uncertainty intrinsic in sensor networks, while simultaneously trying to achieve efficient resource utilization. A middleware framework with support for autonomous, adaptive and distributed sensor management, can simplify development of such WSN applications. We present a reinforcement learning based WSN middleware framework to enable autonomous and adaptive applications with support for efficient resource management. The uniqueness of our framework lies in using a bottom-up approach where each sensor node is responsible for its resource …

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Investigation Of The Lower Bound Compressive And Flexural Strengths Of Conventional Concrete And Clay Masonry, Benchmark Henry Harris Jan 2010

Investigation Of The Lower Bound Compressive And Flexural Strengths Of Conventional Concrete And Clay Masonry, Benchmark Henry Harris

Civil Engineering Theses

Conventional masonry is a handcrafted product in which units are placed by hand in a mortar bedding that is prepared during construction. TMS 402 Building Code Requirements for Masonry Structures (also referred to by the industry as the Masonry Standards Joint Committee or MSJC) and referenced standards consequently permit a range of various field conditions so as to allow practical construction (1). The primary objective of the testing program was to measure a statistically significant number of test results to investigate the lower bound compressive and flexural strengths of conventional concrete and clay masonry under simulated field conditions.96 compression tests …

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Modeling Studies To Assess Long Term Settlement Of Light Weight Aggregate Embankment, Seema Kalla Jan 2010

Modeling Studies To Assess Long Term Settlement Of Light Weight Aggregate Embankment, Seema Kalla

Civil Engineering Theses

Expanded clay and shale (ECS) is a low weight material derived from clay and shale, and has been used in large quantities throughout the world. Very few studies have been performed to investigate the behavior of ECS and how it can reduce the settlements of embankments when used as a fill material. This thesis presents research findings of numerical modeling to assess the long term settlements of ECS embankment on a soft clay deposit and supports both pavement and traffic loading. Observed settlements near the pavement of a light weight ECS embankment built on soft clay indicated that this material …

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Attenuation Based Quantification Of Interstitial Lung Disease Using High Resolution Computed Tomography And Correlation With Pulmonary Function Tests, Snehal S. Watharkar Jan 2010

Attenuation Based Quantification Of Interstitial Lung Disease Using High Resolution Computed Tomography And Correlation With Pulmonary Function Tests, Snehal S. Watharkar

Bioengineering Theses

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a chronic and progressive pulmonary disease of the lung parenchyma resulting in fibrotic scar formation of the pulmonary alveoli. The pathologic changes in the lung result in restrictive impairment of lung function. High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest has become an essential technique in diagnosing and assessing the extent of ILD. Clinical evaluation by HRCT is usually qualitative, leading to inter-observer variability particularly in detecting early disease. We propose a quantitative attenuation-based analysis to standardize the assessment of regional lung disease. We hypothesize that early ILD is associated with greater regional heterogeneity than …

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Post-Operative Renal Function Analysis Using Visible Dlp® Hyperspectral Imaging System, Abhas Thapa Jan 2010

Post-Operative Renal Function Analysis Using Visible Dlp® Hyperspectral Imaging System, Abhas Thapa

Bioengineering Theses

Surgical and clinical settings in medical hospitals strive to keep up with technological innovations in order to improve the current healthcare scenario. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a novel technology that addresses this problem. HSI is a non-invasive imaging technique that can provide information on both structural and functional conditions of tissue. This information is very useful particularly in live surgical procedures wherein the surgeons can get real-time feedback of the anatomical and functional changes of tissue, as they perform the operation. Currently available HSI systems are extremely slow and thus impractical for time restricted surgical or clinical uses. Hence, DLP® …

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Measuring Named Entity Similarity Through Wikipedia Category Hierarchies, Jared M. Ashman Jan 2010

Measuring Named Entity Similarity Through Wikipedia Category Hierarchies, Jared M. Ashman

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Identifying the semantic similarity between named entities has many applications in NLP, including information extraction and retrieval, word sense disambiguation, text summarization and type classification. Similarity between named entities or terms is commonly determined using a taxonomy based approach, but the limited scalability of existing taxonomies has led recent research to use Wikipedia's encyclopedic knowledge base to find similarity or relatedness. These existing methods using Wikipedia have so far focused on relatedness, but are not as well suited to finding similarity. In this thesis, we evaluate methods for determining the semantic similarity between named entities by associating each named entity …

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Towards Modeling The Behavior Of Physical Intruders In A Region Monitored By A Wireless Sensor Network, Pranav Krishnamoorthy Jan 2010

Towards Modeling The Behavior Of Physical Intruders In A Region Monitored By A Wireless Sensor Network, Pranav Krishnamoorthy

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

A priority task for homeland security is the coverage of large spans of open border that cannot be continuously physically monitored for intrusion. Low-cost monitoring solutions based on wireless sensor networks have been identified as an effective means to perform perimeter monitoring. An ad-hoc wireless sensor network scattered near a border could be used to perform surveillance over a large area with relatively little human intervention. Determining the effectiveness of such an autonomous network in detecting and thwarting an intelligent intruder is a difficult task. We propose a model for an intelligent attacker that attempts to find a detection-free path …

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Effect Of Frame Shape And Geometry On The Global Behavior Of Rigid And Hybrid Frame Under Earthquake Excitations, S.M. Ashfaqul Hoq Jan 2010

Effect Of Frame Shape And Geometry On The Global Behavior Of Rigid And Hybrid Frame Under Earthquake Excitations, S.M. Ashfaqul Hoq

Civil Engineering Theses

The primary focus of this study is to present a shape which will improve building performance in earthquake excitations. The investigation started with 3-, 9-, 12- and 20-story rectangular frame. The seismic performance is observed for different earthquake data with different frequency content. Then, the Rhombus shape is introduced to compare with the Rectangular shape frames, keeping the height-to-width ratio and loading same. For the first part of the investigation, deflection and member forces are compared between rhombus and rectangular shape considering all connections rigid. In the second part of the study partially restrained connections are introduced in mid levels …

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Enhancing Personalized Search And Improving Accuracy And Performance For Keyword-Based Xml Queries, Kamal Taha Jan 2010

Enhancing Personalized Search And Improving Accuracy And Performance For Keyword-Based Xml Queries, Kamal Taha

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

This dissertation research focuses on three aspects related to querying of XML data. The three focus areas are: (1) Improving accuracy of XML keyword queries by modeling the contexts of XML elements; (2) Enhancing XML-based personalized search by using group profiling to determine individual preferences; and (3) Improving performance of distributed XML querying by caching of frequently-used query results. For each of these three focus areas, we developed formal concepts and algorithms that lead to the improved accuracy and performance. Our contributions are as follows:1. Improving the accuracy of XML keyword queries:We improve search accuracy by utilizing nodes' contexts in …

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Mimic: An Active Covert Channel That Evades Regularity-Based Detection, Kush Kothari Jan 2010

Mimic: An Active Covert Channel That Evades Regularity-Based Detection, Kush Kothari

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

A covert timing channel is a hidden communication channel based on network timing that an attacker can use to sneak secrets out of a secure system. Active covert channels, in which the attacker uses a program to automatically generate innocuous traffic to use as a medium for embedding the covert channel, are especially problematic, as they allow the attacker to output large amounts of secret data. A promising technique for detecting covert timing channels focuses on using entropy-based tests. This technique can reliably detect known covert timing channels by using a combination of entropy (EN) and conditional entropy (CE) to …

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A Novel Architecture For Mobility Enabled Video Conferencing In Next Generation Wireless Networks, Avinash Narayan Jan 2010

A Novel Architecture For Mobility Enabled Video Conferencing In Next Generation Wireless Networks, Avinash Narayan

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

The Heterogeneous nature of next generation networks requires architecture and technologies that have an intrinsic support for diversity. The plethora of existing wireless access technologies will soon be connected to Internet in the wave of "Internet of Things". We have learnt from many endeavors that no single technology exists that is ubiquitous and connects everything. In Cellular service, aside from the geographic coverage limitation, the major deficiency is lack of complete coverage inside buildings (offices, healthcare facilities, malls, and the like). Once we are inside many public buildings, cellular coverage is blocked by RF opaque walls, but may have strong …

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Development Of Magnetic-Based Core-Shell Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery Applications In Melanoma Skin Cancer, Zarna A. Bhavsar Jan 2010

Development Of Magnetic-Based Core-Shell Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery Applications In Melanoma Skin Cancer, Zarna A. Bhavsar

Bioengineering Theses

Melanoma skin cancer is the most dangerous form of skin cancer and the major cause of deaths related to skin cancer worldwide. Conventional chemotherapeutic treatment is not very effective and faces many problems such as low response rate, development of multidrug resistance, and severe side effects. In order to address these limitations and improve melanoma treatment efficacy, development of a multifunctional nanoparticulate drug delivery system is desired. Thus, we aimed towards the development of magnetic-based core-shell nanoparticles (MBCS NPs) for dual drug release and dual targeting of melanoma tumors. The synthesized nanoparticles were composed of Poly (Lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) particle …

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Evaluation Of Project Delivery Methods For Trenchless Construction, Sahar W. Hasan Jan 2010

Evaluation Of Project Delivery Methods For Trenchless Construction, Sahar W. Hasan

Civil Engineering Theses

The need of today's construction whether it be residential, commercial or infrastructure is to cut costs while maintaining schedule, scope, and delivering the expected quality. This realization has brought to light the importance of project delivery methods. Project delivery methods are no longer seen only as procedures to follow for a construction project; they have become instruments that are being used to save money, deliver projects ahead of schedule and come up with innovative design solutions by utilizing the contractor's expertise. This thesis evaluates the pros and cons of project delivery methods with respect to trenchless construction. Trenchless technology methods …

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Fast Jamming Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks, Kartik Siddhabathula Jan 2010

Fast Jamming Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks, Kartik Siddhabathula

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Non-dedicated medium of communication for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) makes them vulnerable to jamming attack where an adversary injects strong signal or noises to interfere with the transmission and thus block the channel. In applications such as border security, people are particularly interested in the areas where the channel is currently jammed. It is therefore crucial to be able to detect the jamming attacks as fast as possible. Existing studies have shown that the most effective indicator of jamming attacks is the packet delivery ratio (PDR). However, current PDR-based schemes use end-to-end packet delivery ratio, which requires one to observe …

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Incorporation Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor And Pleiotrophin Into A Multiluminal Biosynthetic Nerve Implant For The Repair Of Peripheral Nerve Long Gap Defects, An Hai Nguyen Jan 2010

Incorporation Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor And Pleiotrophin Into A Multiluminal Biosynthetic Nerve Implant For The Repair Of Peripheral Nerve Long Gap Defects, An Hai Nguyen

Bioengineering Theses

To repair a fully transected nerve without putting undue tension on the nerve stumps, and too circumvent many of the obvious problems of using harvested nerve grafts synthetic nerve guides have been used in the clinical setting. Thus far this strategy has met with minimal success for the repair of short defects (i.e. 1 - 2.5 cm) while any defect larger than 3 cm have failed. We hypothesize that neurotorphic support, early vascularization, and contact guidance are needed to successfully regenerate a nerve across a long-gap defect. To this end we proposed a biosynthetic nerve implant (BNI) with a multiluminal …

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Development Of An Accident Model For Construction Industry, Hoda Alavi Jan 2010

Development Of An Accident Model For Construction Industry, Hoda Alavi

Civil Engineering Theses

Safety has always been a persistent problem in the construction industry. Construction accidents are a major concern for the construction industry and the researchers. In spite of the role of many construction accident causation models in understanding the accident process, none adequately explain the underlying reasons for construction accidents because of their dynamic nature.To overcome this restriction a new advancement in understanding construction accidents has been proposed by Howell et al (2002) based on the work of Rasmussen (1997). The model recognizes that organizational and individual forces push workers in to hazardous conditions. These forces overcome efforts to impose safe …

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Wide Field Of View Imaging Of Premotor And Sensorimotor Cortex Activation Patterns By Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Pankaj Chand Jan 2010

Wide Field Of View Imaging Of Premotor And Sensorimotor Cortex Activation Patterns By Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Pankaj Chand

Bioengineering Theses

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive optical technique which can measure concentration changes of oxygenated (HbO), deoxygenated (HbR), and total hemoglobin (HbT) in brain tissue that are induced by neuronal activation. A major hindrance at present for brain optical imaging research is the limited field of view (FOV) size, which is restricted due to the limited number of source-detector pairs that current fNIRS hardware technology and cost considerations allow. As a result it is challenging to simultaneously capture hemodynamic changes in the premotor, motor and sensory cortex as some of these activations can occur outside the available FOV. …

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Advanced Software Testing Techniques Based On Combinatorial Design, Wenhua Wang Jan 2010

Advanced Software Testing Techniques Based On Combinatorial Design, Wenhua Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Combinatorial testing refers to a testing strategy that applies the principles of combinatorial design to the domain of software test generation. Given a system with k parameters, combinatorial testing requires all the combinations involving t out of k parameters be covered at least once, where t is typically much smaller than k. The key insight behind combinatorial testing is that while the behavior of a system may be affected by many parameters, most faults are caused by interactions involving only a small number of parameters. Empirical studies have shown that combinatorial testing can dramatically reduce the number of tests while …

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