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Screencrayons: Using Screen Captures For Annotation And Research, Trent Alan Taufer Dec 2006

Screencrayons: Using Screen Captures For Annotation And Research, Trent Alan Taufer

Theses and Dissertations

In a world full of digital information we should be able to easily collect, organize, annotate, and leverage information from many different sources. This should be easy to do and not interrupt our normal workflow. A system to support information collection and organization should be user-friendly and as unobtrusive as possible, while still allowing for flexible and intelligent annotation. It should also be able to leverage the inherent information content of a collection of annotated information. We present a system that will demonstrate how these ideas can come together to make information collection easier and more productive. The system facilitates …


Analysis Of Near-Infrared Phase Effects On Biometric Iris Data, Brady Roos Stevenson Dec 2006

Analysis Of Near-Infrared Phase Effects On Biometric Iris Data, Brady Roos Stevenson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to ascertain potential iris scan data variations from near infrared waves derived from fluorescent illumination. Prior studies of iris data variances from infrared wave interference of halogen, incandescent, and sunlight with iris cameras suggest that similar changes may exist under near infrared wavelengths from fluorescent light. The concern is that the fluorescent energy emission may interfere with the near infrared detection of an iris camera. An iris camera is used to measure human eye characteristics known as biometrics. If such infrared emission is statistically significant, then it can alter the validity of the iris …


Life Data Analysis Of Repairable Systems: A Case Study On Brigham Young University Media Rooms, Stephen Oluaku Manortey Dec 2006

Life Data Analysis Of Repairable Systems: A Case Study On Brigham Young University Media Rooms, Stephen Oluaku Manortey

Theses and Dissertations

It is an undisputable fact that most systems, upon consistence usage are bound to fail in the performance of their intended functions at a point in time. When this occurs, various strategies are set in place to restore them back to a satisfactory performance. This may include replacing the failed component with a new one, swapping parts, resetting adjustable parts to mention but a few. Any such system is referred to as a repairable system. There is the need to study these systems and use statistical models to predict their failing time and be able to set modalities in place …


Synthesis And Optical Properties Of Four Oligothiophene-Ruthenium Complexes And Synthesis Of A Bidentate Ligand For C-F Bond Activation, Joseph S. Bair Dec 2006

Synthesis And Optical Properties Of Four Oligothiophene-Ruthenium Complexes And Synthesis Of A Bidentate Ligand For C-F Bond Activation, Joseph S. Bair

Theses and Dissertations

Photovoltaic cells and fluorescence sensing are two important areas of research in chemistry. The combination of photon-activated electron donors with electron acceptors provides a strong platform for the study of optical devices. A series of four oligothiophene-ruthenium complexes has been synthesized. Variation in oligothiophene length and bipyridine substitution allowed comparison of these variables on electronic properties. The longer oligothiophenes display lower energy absorption and emission compared to the shorter ones. Aromatic conjugation appears more complete with para-, rather than meta-, substitution. Oligothiophenes and Ru(bpy)32+ are highly fluorescent individually, but fluorescence is quenched when connected. Bonds of carbon to fluorine are …


Development Of Polymer Monoliths For The Analysis Of Peptides And Proteins, Binghe Gu Dec 2006

Development Of Polymer Monoliths For The Analysis Of Peptides And Proteins, Binghe Gu

Theses and Dissertations

Several novel polymer monoliths for the analysis of peptides and proteins were synthesized using polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) as crosslinker. Photo-initiated copolymerization of polyethylene glycol methyl ether acrylate and PEGDA yielded an inert monolith that could be used for size exclusion liquid chromatography of peptides and proteins. This macroscopically uniform monolith did not shrink or swell in either water or tetrahydrofuran. More importantly, it was found to resist adsorption of both acidic and basic proteins in aqueous buffer without any organic solvent additives. A strong cation-exchange polymer monolith was synthesized by copolymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and PEGDA. A ternary …


Generating Paraphrases With Greater Variation Using Syntactic Phrases, Rebecca Diane Madsen Dec 2006

Generating Paraphrases With Greater Variation Using Syntactic Phrases, Rebecca Diane Madsen

Theses and Dissertations

Given a sentence, a paraphrase generation system produces a sentence that says the same thing but usually in a different way. The paraphrase generation problem can be formulated in the machine translation paradigm; instead of translation of English to a foreign language, the system translates an English sentence (for example) to another English sentence. Quirk et al. (2004) demonstrated this approach to generate almost 90% acceptable paraphrases. However, most of the sentences had little variation from the original input sentence. Leveraging syntactic information, this thesis project presents an approach that successfully generated more varied paraphrase sentences than the approach of …


The Relationship Between The Minimal Rank Of A Tree And The Rank-Spreads Of The Vertices And Edges, John Henry Sinkovic Dec 2006

The Relationship Between The Minimal Rank Of A Tree And The Rank-Spreads Of The Vertices And Edges, John Henry Sinkovic

Theses and Dissertations

Let F be a field, G = (V,E) be an undirected graph on n vertices, and let S(F,G) be the set of all symmetric n × n matrices whose nonzero off-diagonal entries occur in exactly the positions corresponding to the edges of G. Let mr(F,G)be the minimum rank over all matrices in S(F,G). We give a field independent proof of a well-known result that for a tree the sum of its path cover number and minimal rank is equal to the number of vertices in the tree. The rank-spread of a vertex v of G is the difference between the …


A Statistical Analysis Of Wide Binary Evolution, Kyle Burton Johnston Dec 2006

A Statistical Analysis Of Wide Binary Evolution, Kyle Burton Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Post main sequence (MS) mass loss causes orbital separation amplification in fragile (i.e. common proper motion) binary star systems. Components typically have separations around -1000 a.u. Such wide pairs experience negligible tidal interactions and mass transfer between companions; they evolve as two separate but coeval stars. In this paper we will attempt to model how post-MS mass loss statistically distorts a frequency distribution of fragile binary separations. Understanding this process provides a robust test of current theories of stellar evolution and sets constraints on the dynamics of the Galactic disk.


Development Of Methods For The Study Of Phosphoproteins, Zhaoyuan Chen Dec 2006

Development Of Methods For The Study Of Phosphoproteins, Zhaoyuan Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Characterization of phosphoproteins-including detection, identification of phosphoproteins and identification of phosphorylation sites-is mostly done with radiolabeling and proteomic techniques. Three main topics related to phosphoprotein characterization are included in this dissertation. First, large-scale characterization of the CHO (Chinese hamster ovary) cell phosphoproteome was done using two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) separation, visualization of phosphoproteins by radiolabeling or a phosphoprotein specific dye, followed by MALDI-TOF identification. Because radiolabeling of phosphoproteins is very sensitive and straightforward to quantify, such analysis can give a clear picture of the relative phosphosphorylation of proteins present in a sample. But there are also limitations to this …


Computationally Modeling The Effects Of Surface Roughness On Soft X-Ray Multilayer Reflectors, Jedediah Edward Jensen Johnson Dec 2006

Computationally Modeling The Effects Of Surface Roughness On Soft X-Ray Multilayer Reflectors, Jedediah Edward Jensen Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Electromagnetic scattering from a rough two dimensional homogeneous scatterer has been computationally modeled. The scatterer is intended to simulate reflection from a two interface multilayer. The rough scatterer was created from Gaussian random points centered about an ideal interface. The points were connected with a third order spline interpolant which accounts for correlation between neighboring surface atoms. The scalar electric field integral equation (EFIE) and magnetic field integral equation (MFIE) were solved using the Nystrom method to obtain the reflected intensity as a function of observation angle. Verification of the accuracy of the code was obtained by means of comparison …


Contour Encoded Compression And Transmission, Christopher B. Nelson Nov 2006

Contour Encoded Compression And Transmission, Christopher B. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

As the need for digital libraries, especially genealogical libraries, continues to rise, the need for efficient document image compression is becoming more and more apparent. In addition, because many digital library users access them from dial-up Internet connections, efficient strategies for compression and progressive transmission become essential to facilitate browsing operations. To meet this need, we developed a novel method for representing document images in a parametric form. Like other “hybrid" image compression operations, the Contour Encoded Compression and Transmission (CECAT) system first divides images into foreground and background layers. The emphasis of this thesis revolves around improving the compression …


Petrogenesis Of Eocene-Oligocene Magmatism Of The Sulphur Springs Range, Central Nevada: The Role Of Magma Mixing, Elizabeth Balls Ryskamp Nov 2006

Petrogenesis Of Eocene-Oligocene Magmatism Of The Sulphur Springs Range, Central Nevada: The Role Of Magma Mixing, Elizabeth Balls Ryskamp

Theses and Dissertations

Widespread base- and precious-metal anomalies, altered porphyry intrusions and oxidized veins occur in a portion of the Sulphur Springs Range, Nevada (adjacent to the Au-producing Carlin Trend). Some of the Eocene-Oligocene intrusions and cogenetic volcanic rocks in the range exhibit evidence of magma mixing and invite comparisons with other mineralized, Eocene mixed magma systems like the Bingham porphyry Cu deposit 300 km farther to the east. The Sulphur Springs igneous suite ranges compositionally through rhyolite, dacite, andesite and basaltic andesite but is less alkaline than the Bingham volcanic suite. However, the alkali content of the Sulphur Springs suite is similar …


A Comparison Of Microarray Analyses: A Mixed Models Approach Versus The Significance Analysis Of Microarrays, Nathan Wallace Stephens Nov 2006

A Comparison Of Microarray Analyses: A Mixed Models Approach Versus The Significance Analysis Of Microarrays, Nathan Wallace Stephens

Theses and Dissertations

DNA microarrays are a relatively new technology for assessing the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously. Researchers hope to find genes that are differentially expressed by hybridizing cDNA from known treatment sources with various genes spotted on the microarrays. The large number of tests involved in analyzing microarrays has raised new questions in multiple testing. Several approaches for identifying differentially expressed genes have been proposed. This paper considers two: (1) a mixed models approach, and (2) the Signiffcance Analysis of Microarrays.


A Performance Evaluation Of Dynamic Transport Switching For Multi-Transport Devices, Lei Wang Nov 2006

A Performance Evaluation Of Dynamic Transport Switching For Multi-Transport Devices, Lei Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Multi-transport devices are becoming more common, but sophisticated software is needed to fully realize the advantages of these devices. In this paper, we examine the performance of dynamic transport switching, which selects the best available transport for communication between two devices. We simulate transport switching within the Quality of Transport (QoT) architecture and show that it can effectively mitigate the effects of congestion and interference for connections between two multi-transport devices. We then evaluate dynamic transport switching overhead to characterize its effect on application throughput. Based on these insights, we identify several limitations of the QoT architecture and present solutions …


Garnetites Of The Cardigan Pluton - Evidence For Restite And Implications For Source Rock Compositions., Teresa K. Pett Nov 2006

Garnetites Of The Cardigan Pluton - Evidence For Restite And Implications For Source Rock Compositions., Teresa K. Pett

Theses and Dissertations

The Cardigan pluton, located in the southern half of New Hampshire, is a strongly peraluminous, S-type granite which is granodioritic in composition. It is inferred to have been emplaced rapidly, thrust up along west-verging nappes during the Acadian orogeny. Distinctive pods, consisting of 50 to 70 percent modal garnet, are found throughout the pluton in assemblages of garnet + sillimanite + biotite + plagioclase + quartz. These garnetite rocks present an intriguing case for restite. Textural features of the garnetite rocks, such as fibrolitic sillimanite mats and flat, unzoned major and trace-element garnet grain profiles, provide evidence for biotite dehydration …


Capillary Electrophoresis Of Proteins With Selective On-Line Affinity Monoliths, Jenny Marcela Armenta Blanco Nov 2006

Capillary Electrophoresis Of Proteins With Selective On-Line Affinity Monoliths, Jenny Marcela Armenta Blanco

Theses and Dissertations

The analysis of proteins in biological fluids by capillary electrophoresis (CE) is of interest in clinical chemistry. However, due to low analyte concentrations and poor concentration limits of detection (CLOD), protein analysis by this technique is frequently challenging. Coupling preconcentration techniques with CE greatly improves the CLOD. An on-line preconcentration-CE method that can selectively preconcentrate any protein for which an antibody is available would be very useful for the analysis of low abundance proteins and would establish CE as a major tool in biomarker discovery. To accomplish this, an on-line protein G monolithic preconcentrator CE system for enrichment and separation …


Digital Receipts: A System To Detect The Compromise Of Digital Certificates, Nathaniel Allen Seeley Nov 2006

Digital Receipts: A System To Detect The Compromise Of Digital Certificates, Nathaniel Allen Seeley

Theses and Dissertations

The ease of copying digital materials creates difficulty in detecting the theft of digital certificates. Uneducated users frequently fail to protect their digital certificate keys by not encrypting them, storing them in insecure places, and using them unwisely. In addition, there is no way to prove that protocols involving certificates are completely secure. This thesis introduces a system to ameliorate these problems by detecting the compromise of digital certificates. It leverages dual logging messages sent via side channels to a trusted third party. This third party correlates these messages and automatically detects when an imposter presents a certificate based on …


On-Line Electronic Document Collaboration And Annotation, Trev R. Harmon Nov 2006

On-Line Electronic Document Collaboration And Annotation, Trev R. Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet provides a powerful medium for communication and collaboration. The ability one has to connect and interact with web-based tools from anywhere in the world makes the Internet ideal for such tasks. However, the lack of native tools can be a hindrance when deploying collaborative initiatives, as many current projects require specialized software in order to operate. This thesis demonstrates, with the comparably recent advances in browser technology and Document Object Model (DOM) implementation, a web-based collaborative annotation system can be developed that can be accessed by a user through a standards-compliant web browser. Such a system, demonstrated to …


Learning In Short-Time Horizons With Measurable Costs, Patrick Bowen Mullen Nov 2006

Learning In Short-Time Horizons With Measurable Costs, Patrick Bowen Mullen

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic pricing is a difficult problem for machine learning. The environment is noisy, dynamic and has a measurable cost associated with exploration that necessitates that learning be done in short-time horizons. These short-time horizons force the learning algorithms to make pricing decisions based on scarce data. In this work, various machine learning algorithms are compared in the context of dynamic pricing. These algorithms include the Kalman filter, artificial neural networks, particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms. The majority of these algorithms have been modified to handle the pricing problem. The results show that these adaptations allow the learning algorithms to …


Biochemical Investigations Of Macular Degeneration: The Significance Of Protein Oxidation Including Novel Methods For Its Study, Sarah Warburton Nov 2006

Biochemical Investigations Of Macular Degeneration: The Significance Of Protein Oxidation Including Novel Methods For Its Study, Sarah Warburton

Theses and Dissertations

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a monolayer of cells located directly behind the photoreceptor cells in the retina. These cells are involved in a variety of functions that support the visual process in the eye, namely 1) they form a blood-retina barrier which separates the neural retina from the choroid's blood supply, 2) the apical processes of RPE cells diurnally phagocytose the outer segments of photoreceptor cells, and 3) they participate in the renewal of the photopigment 11-cis retinal. Age-related macular degneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 50 years in North …


Characterization Of Cucurbituril Complex Ions In The Gas Phase Using Electrospray Ionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Haizhen Zhang Nov 2006

Characterization Of Cucurbituril Complex Ions In The Gas Phase Using Electrospray Ionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Haizhen Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Host-guest interactions have been well studied in the new century to obtain fundamental insights into supramolecular chemistry. Most of the pioneering works have been done using techniques such as NMR, X-ray crystallography, IR spectroscopy and so on. However, none of these techniques is universal for the investigation of all types of supramolecules, and usually they have one or more limiting factors such as relatively large sample consumption, matrix effects from solvents, etc. Electrospray mass spectrometry has been widely used to investigate host-guest interactions in the gas phase. A particular advantage of gas phase host-guest research is that the experimental results …


A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Utah Colleges Exit Poll Response Rates Using Sas Software, Clint W. Stevenson Oct 2006

A Logistic Regression Analysis Of Utah Colleges Exit Poll Response Rates Using Sas Software, Clint W. Stevenson

Theses and Dissertations

In this study I examine voter response at an interview level using a dataset of 7562 voter contacts (including responses and nonresponses) in the 2004 Utah Colleges Exit Poll. In 2004, 4908 of the 7562 voters approached responded to the exit poll for an overall response rate of 65 percent. Logistic regression is used to estimate factors that contribute to a success or failure of each interview attempt. This logistic regression model uses interviewer characteristics, voter characteristics (both respondents and nonrespondents), and exogenous factors as independent variables. Voter characteristics such as race, gender, and age are strongly associated with response. …


Microfabrication And Evaluation Of Planar Thin-Film Microfluidic Devices, Bridget Ann Peeni Oct 2006

Microfabrication And Evaluation Of Planar Thin-Film Microfluidic Devices, Bridget Ann Peeni

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 15 years, research in the field of microfluidics has rapidly gained popularity. By seeking to miniaturize and automate separation-based analysis, microfluidic research seeks to improve current methods through decreased cost, analysis time, and sources of contamination. My work has focused on developing a novel fabrication method, based on standard microfabrication techniques, to create thin-film microfluidic devices. This microfabrication format makes it possible to generate devices that provide high efficiencies, enable mass fabrication, and provide a platform capable of integrating the microfluidic and electronic components necessary for a micro-total analysis system (μ-TAS). Device fabrication combines the processes of …


Studies On Cyclooxygenase-1, Its Structure And Splice Variants, And Modulation Of Cyclooxygenase-2 By Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase And Novel Phytochemicals., Yibing Xu Sep 2006

Studies On Cyclooxygenase-1, Its Structure And Splice Variants, And Modulation Of Cyclooxygenase-2 By Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase And Novel Phytochemicals., Yibing Xu

Theses and Dissertations

Cyclooxygenases (COXs) are of important therapeutic value as they are the target site of aspirin-like drugs. Here I report nine new COX-1 splice variants in chapter 1, which I characterized with regard to heme-binding and other properties. Inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) are co-inducible in many tissues following mitogenic and proinflammatory stimulation. In chapter 2, I investigate the physical and enzymatic properties of human COX-2 and iNOS and demonstrate that, despite reports to the contrary by another laboratory, they do not interact. The only reported COX-1 splice variant to exhibit cyclooxygenase activity has been isolated from …


Theory Of Effectiveness Measurement, Richard K. Bullock Sep 2006

Theory Of Effectiveness Measurement, Richard K. Bullock

Theses and Dissertations

Effectiveness measures provide decision makers feedback on the impact of deliberate actions and affect critical issues such as allocation of scarce resources, as well as whether to maintain or change existing strategy. Currently, however, there is no formal foundation for formulating effectiveness measures. This research presents a new framework for effectiveness measurement from both a theoretical and practical view. First, accepted effects-based principles, as well as fundamental measurement concepts are combined into a general, domain independent, effectiveness measurement methodology. This is accomplished by defining effectiveness measurement as the difference, or conceptual distance from a given system state to some reference …


Improving Error Discovery Using Guided Model Checking, Neha Shyam Rungta Sep 2006

Improving Error Discovery Using Guided Model Checking, Neha Shyam Rungta

Theses and Dissertations

State exploration in directed software model checking is guided using a heuristic function to move states near errors to the front of the search queue. Distance heuristic functions rank states based on the number of transitions needed to move the current program state into an error location. Lack of calling context information causes the heuristic function to underestimate the true distance to the error; however, inlining functions at call sites in the control flow graph to capture calling context leads to exponential growth in the computation. This paper presents a new algorithm that implicitly inlines functions at call sites to …


Detection Of A Landslide Glide Plane Using Seismic Reflection Methods: Investigation At Little Valley Landslide In Draper, Utah, Brady E. Tingey Sep 2006

Detection Of A Landslide Glide Plane Using Seismic Reflection Methods: Investigation At Little Valley Landslide In Draper, Utah, Brady E. Tingey

Theses and Dissertations

An integration of geological and geophysical techniques has been used to characterize the internal structure of the Little Valley Landslide in Draper, Utah, USA. The Little Valley Landslide is a pre-historic landslide as old as 13ka B.P. It is found to consist of chaotic and disturbed weathered volcanic units derived from Tertiary age volcanics that comprise a great portion of the Wasatch Range. Geotechnical investigations that were integrated with the geophysical results included excavation of trenches and drilling of boreholes. Geophysical methods, in particular high-resolution seismic data, were used to provide a framework for interpreting the geotechnical observations. High-resolution seismic …


Optimizing The Replication Of Multi-Quality Web Applications Using Aco And Wolf, Judson C. Dressler Sep 2006

Optimizing The Replication Of Multi-Quality Web Applications Using Aco And Wolf, Judson C. Dressler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the adaptation of Ant Colony Optimization to a new NP-hard problem involving the replication of multi-quality database-driven web applications (DAs) by a large application service provider (ASP). The ASP must assign DA replicas to its network of heterogeneous servers so that user demand is satisfied and replica update loads are minimized. The algorithm proposed, AntDA, for solving this problem is novel in several respects: ants traverse a bipartite graph in both directions as they construct solutions, pheromone is used for traversing from one side of the bipartite graph to the other and back again, heuristic edge values …


A New Application Of The Channel Packet Method For Low Energy 1-D Elastic Scattering, Clint M. Zeringue Sep 2006

A New Application Of The Channel Packet Method For Low Energy 1-D Elastic Scattering, Clint M. Zeringue

Theses and Dissertations

An algorithm is presented which uses the channel packet method (CPM) to simulate low-energy, wave-packet propagation and compute S-matrix elements. A four-by-four matrix containing the momentum, expansion coefficients of the reactants and products is introduced to account for initial and final states having both positive and negative momentum. The approach does not consider scattering from one side or the other, rather it considers both incoming and outgoing wave packets from the left and right simultaneously. Therefore, during one simulation all four S-matrix elements, and elements, S+k,-K, S-k, +k, S+k, +k and S-k,-k are computed. …


New Tracking Filter Algorithm Using Input Parameter Estimation, Corey M. Broussard Sep 2006

New Tracking Filter Algorithm Using Input Parameter Estimation, Corey M. Broussard

Theses and Dissertations

A new method for the design of tracking filters for maneuvering targets, based on kinematic models and input signals estimation, is developed. The input signal's level, u is considered a continuous variable and consequently the input estimation problem is posed as a purely parameter estimation problem. Moreover, the application of the new tracking filter algorithm is not contingent on distinguishing maneuvering and non-maneuvering targets, and does not require the detection of maneuver onset. The filter will automatically detect the onset of a maneuver. Furthermore, an estimate of the target's acceleration is also obtained with reasonable precision. This opens the door …