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Full-Text Articles in Computer Sciences
Use Of A Simulated Directional Social Network To Compare Measures Of User Influence, Jose G. Villarreal Jr.
Use Of A Simulated Directional Social Network To Compare Measures Of User Influence, Jose G. Villarreal Jr.
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
This paper proposes a new method for measuring user influence in directional social networks, derived from the works of Reilly et al. and Cha et al. The method being proposed in this paper considers an element from each of the two works. The first is the ratio of ‘messages forwarded’ over ‘messages posted’. The second element is the size of the audience. The second part of this study entails modeling and simulating an online social network. Using a data sample from the Twitter network to implement the simulation, it is going to allow us to compare the methods that are …
Efficient Query Processing Over Uncertain Road Networks, Bamikole A. Ogundele
Efficient Query Processing Over Uncertain Road Networks, Bamikole A. Ogundele
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
One of the fundamental problems on spatial road networks has been the shortest traveling time query, with applications such as location-based services (LBS) and trip planning. Algorithms have been made for the shortest time queries in deterministic road networks, in which vertices and edges are known with certainty. Emerging technologies are available and make it easier to acquire information about the traffic. In this paper, we consider uncertain road networks, in which speeds of vehicles are imprecise and probabilistic. We will focus on one important query type, continuous probabilistic shortest traveling time query (CPSTTQ), which retrieves sets of objects that …
Gps-Miv: The General Purpose System For Multi-Display Interactive Visualization, Irving A. Gonzalez Garza
Gps-Miv: The General Purpose System For Multi-Display Interactive Visualization, Irving A. Gonzalez Garza
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
The new age of information has created opportunities for inventions like the internet. These inventions allow us access to tremendous quantities of data. But, with the increase in information there is need to make sense of such vast quantities of information by manipulating that information to reveal hidden patterns to aid in making sense of it. Data visualization systems provide the tools to reveal patterns and filter information, aiding the processes of insight and decision making. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a data visualization system, The General Purpose System for Multi-display Interactive Visualization (GPS-MIV). GPS-MIV …
Efficient Evaluation Of Sparql Property Path Queries Over Prov-Dm Provenance Graphs In An Rdbms, Rodolfo E. Roman Velasco
Efficient Evaluation Of Sparql Property Path Queries Over Prov-Dm Provenance Graphs In An Rdbms, Rodolfo E. Roman Velasco
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Millions of useful resources on the Web are enhanced with machine-processable annotations using W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF). It is crucial to design efficient data management techniques to support querying of existing RDF datasets using standard SPARQL queries. To address this challenge, we use a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for efficient and scalable storage and querying backend for RDF data. Our solution requires designing novel algorithms for translating SPARQL queries into equivalent SQL queries, such that the latter can be efficiently executed in an RDBMS. The focus of this work is on the translation of SPARQL property paths queries. …
Creating An Information Systems Security Culture Through An Integrated Model Of Employees Compliance, Mohammad I. Merhi
Creating An Information Systems Security Culture Through An Integrated Model Of Employees Compliance, Mohammad I. Merhi
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Employees’ non-compliance with information systems security policies has been identified as a major threat to organizational data and information systems. This dissertation investigates the process underlying information systems security compliance in organizations with the focus on employees. The process model is complex, comprising many normative, attitudinal, psychological, environmental, and organizational factors. Therefore, the study of information security compliance requires a holistic assessment of all these factors. This dissertation seeks to achieve this objective by offering a comprehensive and integrated model of employee behavior especially focused towards information security compliance. The research framework is influenced by the Reciprocal Determinism Theory which …
Exponential Replication Of Patterns In The Signal Tile Assembly Model And Experimental Non-Deterministic Assembly Of Lines In The Probabilistic Tile Assembly Model, Alexandra B. Keenan
Exponential Replication Of Patterns In The Signal Tile Assembly Model And Experimental Non-Deterministic Assembly Of Lines In The Probabilistic Tile Assembly Model, Alexandra B. Keenan
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
We introduce the problem of self-replication of rectangular two-dimensional patterns in the practically motivated Signal Tile Assembly Model (STAM), which is an extension of the aTAM. In the first part of this thesis, we construct an exponential pattern replicator that replicates a two-dimensional input pattern over some fixed alphabet of size ϕ with O(ϕ) tile types, O(ϕ) unique glues, and a signal complexity of O(1). In the second part of this thesis, we use a non-deterministic model of tile assembly to significantly reduce the tile complexity of specified-length linear assemblies, which are a particularly important substructure for building more complicated …
Probabilistic Shortest Time Queries Over Uncertain Road Networks, Yaqing Chen
Probabilistic Shortest Time Queries Over Uncertain Road Networks, Yaqing Chen
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In many real applications such as location-based services (LBS), map utilities, trip planning, and transportation systems, it is very useful and important to provide query services over spatial road networks. Nowadays we can easily obtain rich traffic information such as the speeds of vehicles on roads. However, due to the inaccuracy of devices or integration in consistencies, the traffic data (i.e., speeds) are often imprecise and uncertain. In this paper, we model road networks by uncertain graphs, which contain edges that are associated with probabilistic velocities. We formalize the problem of probabilistic shortest time query, and we propose time bound …
The Relational Algebra Toolkit: A User-Friendly Approach To Presenting And Processing Relational Algebra Queries On The Web, Jeremy J. Miller
The Relational Algebra Toolkit: A User-Friendly Approach To Presenting And Processing Relational Algebra Queries On The Web, Jeremy J. Miller
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Relational algebra is the mathematical basis of tools to express and optimize queries on relational data. However, there exists no convenient way to directly use, express, store, render, visualize, and execute relational algebra over the Web. Educators and practitioners are limited to creating relational algebra expressions using TeX or equation editors which cannot execute them. This work presents a solution to this issue: the Relational Algebra Toolkit (RAT). Relational data and queries are represented using purpose-built XML vocabularies, to be both machine-processable and serializable. Encoded relational algebra expressions can be rendered as parenthetical expressions and as syntax trees, translated to …
Algorithms In Abstract Dna Self Assembly, Xingsi Zhong
Algorithms In Abstract Dna Self Assembly, Xingsi Zhong
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
For the past two years, I have always been working on the topic of Abstract DNA Tiles Self-Assembly. This is a very new area, driven by the interest of DNA molecules. The feature that the system composed by DNA molecules can be a highly parallelized system, make it much more powerful when comparing with the traditional methods. This thesis will introduce the concept of abstract DNA self-assembly models as well as some interesting problems and their solutions.
Probabilistic Model And Algorithms Design For Motif Detection, Yuan Xue
Probabilistic Model And Algorithms Design For Motif Detection, Yuan Xue
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In this thesis, a natural probabilistic model has been used to test the quality of motif discovery programs. In this model, there are k background sequences, in which each character is a random character from Σ. Motif is a string G = g1g2 . . . gm. Each background sequence is implanted a probabilistically generated approximate copy of G. For each copy b1b2 . . . bm of G, every character bi is probabilistically generated such that the probability for bi 6= gi is at most α. Based on this model, two randomized algorithms ,one deterministic algorithm and one enumerative …
Understanding User Resistance To Information Technology: Toward A Comprehensive Model In Health Information Technology, Madison N. Ngafeeson
Understanding User Resistance To Information Technology: Toward A Comprehensive Model In Health Information Technology, Madison N. Ngafeeson
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
The successful implementation of health information systems is expected to increase legibility, reduce medical errors, boost the quality of healthcare and shrink costs. Yet, evidence points to the fact that healthcare professionals resist the full use of these systems. Physicians and nurses have been reported to resist the system. Even though resistance to technology has always been identified as key issue in the successful implementation of information technology, the subject remains largely under-theorized and deficient of empirical testing. Only two proposed model have been tested so far. Hence, though user resistance is clearly identified and defined in literature, not very …
Vizlab: The Design And Implementation Of An Immersive Virtual Environment System Using Game Engine Technology And Open Source Software, Moises D. Carrillo
Vizlab: The Design And Implementation Of An Immersive Virtual Environment System Using Game Engine Technology And Open Source Software, Moises D. Carrillo
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Virtual Reality (VR) is a term used to describe computer-simulated environments that can immerse users in a real or unreal world. Immersive systems are an essential component when experiencing virtual environments. Developing VR applications is time-consuming, and developers use many resources in creating VR applications. The separate components require integration, and the challenges in using public domain open source software present complex software development. The VizLab Virtual Reality System was created to meet these challenges and provide an integrated suite of tools for VR system development. VizLab supports the development of VR applications by using game engine and CAVE system …
Nascent Nanocomputers: Dna Self-Assembly In O(1) Stages, Michael C. Barnes
Nascent Nanocomputers: Dna Self-Assembly In O(1) Stages, Michael C. Barnes
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
DNA self-assembly offers a potential for nanoscale microcircuits and computers. To make that potential possible requires the development of reliable and efficient tile assembly models. Efficiency is often achieved by minimizing tile complexity, as well as by evaluating the cost and reliability of the specific elements of each tile assembly model. We consider a 2D tile assembly model at temperature 1. The standard 2D tile assembly model at temperature 1 has a tile complexity of O(n) for the construction of exact, complete n x n squares. However, previous research found a staged tile assembly model achieved a tile complexity of …
Document Collection Visualization And Clustering Using An Atom Metaphor For Display And Interaction, Khanh V. Nghi
Document Collection Visualization And Clustering Using An Atom Metaphor For Display And Interaction, Khanh V. Nghi
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Visual Data Mining have proven to be of high value in exploratory data analysis and data mining because it provides an intuitive feedback on data analysis and support decision-making activities. Several visualization techniques have been developed for cluster discovery such as Grand Tour, HD-Eye, Star Coordinates, etc. They are very useful tool which are visualized in 2D or 3D; however, they have not simple for users who are not trained. This thesis proposes a new approach to build a 3D clustering visualization system for document clustering by using k-mean algorithm. A cluster will be represented by a neutron (centroid) and …
Evolution Of Complex Features In Digital Organisms, Javier A. Magana
Evolution Of Complex Features In Digital Organisms, Javier A. Magana
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
This thesis examines how complex features evolve in digital organisms, and how capabilities that evolved earlier provide a scaffold for evolving new features. I wanted to see how the organisms used previous adaptations to succeed in new environments, and how significant are these previous adaptations. The system used is the Avida platform, which is software that implements Darwinian evolution on self-replicating digital organisms. First, the system is seeded with ancestors that can only replicate, which gave a baseline for the quality of the task at the end of evolution. Second, the system used ancestors from a simpler environment as seeds. …
Generalizing Agent Plans And Behaviors With Automated Staged Observation In The Real-Time Strategy Game Starcraft, Zackary A. Gill
Generalizing Agent Plans And Behaviors With Automated Staged Observation In The Real-Time Strategy Game Starcraft, Zackary A. Gill
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In this thesis we investigate the processes involved in learning to play a game. It was inspired by two observations about how human players learn to play. First, learning the domain is intertwined with goal pursuit. Second, games are designed to ramp up in complexity, walking players through a gradual cycle of acquiring, refining, and generalizing knowledge about the domain. This approach does not rely on traces of expert play. We created an integrated planning, learning and execution system that uses StarCraft as its domain. The planning module creates command/event groupings based on the data received. Observations of unit behavior …
A Comparison Of Display Techniques For Large Graphs, Ana Rocio Pena
A Comparison Of Display Techniques For Large Graphs, Ana Rocio Pena
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Visualizing information focuses on the display of data in order to provide the user a representation that provides understanding of the data. Information visualization systems typically couple interaction mechanisms for providing overviews of the data with more detailed information through a zooming interface. This thesis compares three different techniques for displaying graphs provided by the prefuse visualization system: force-directed node positioning, radial node positioning, and a tree view of graphs. Using a large, real world data set from the South Texas College’s Distance Education department, the three visualization techniques are compared for a set of tasks that users routinely need …
Measuring The Impact Of Narrative On Player's Presence And Immersion In A First Person Game Environment, Raul Huerta
Measuring The Impact Of Narrative On Player's Presence And Immersion In A First Person Game Environment, Raul Huerta
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In the virtual environments (VE) literature, presence has been described as the feeling whereby an individual feels as if he or she is actually in the VE. In the videogame literature, the related concept of immersion is viewed as an effect facilitating player engagement. This thesis examines how narrative and graphics quality influence presence and immersion in a first person game. Three levels of narrative and graphics quality are used in an empirical study: text narrative with high quality graphics, no text narrative with high quality graphics, and no text narrative with low quality graphics. Results showed that there is …
A New Algorithm For Dna Motif Detection, Ran Ding
A New Algorithm For Dna Motif Detection, Ran Ding
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Nowadays, people are more and more concentrated on the research of deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA). And a very important problem is how to identify the DNA performance. A DNA sequence contains lots of genes, and every gene has a regulatory region. This regulatory region contains the transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) which is also known as motif. How to identify this motif becomes a very important problem. There are many efficient methods and tools are dedicated to the research of DNA motif detection. In this paper, we will introduce a new method of DNA motif detection which basically is an advanced approximate …
K-Nearest Keyword Search In Rdf Graphs, Eugenio De Hoyos
K-Nearest Keyword Search In Rdf Graphs, Eugenio De Hoyos
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
We formulate and tackle a flexible and useful query, namely k-nearest keyword (k-NK) query, which can identify the relationship between vertices (or keywords) in an RDF graph, where users are only required to specify two query keywords q and w (without knowing the domain knowledge). In particular, a k-NK query returns k closest pairs of vertices (ui; vi) in the RDF graph such that vertices ui and vi contain keywords q and w, respectively, and vi has the smallest (shortest path) distance to ui (i.e., vi is the nearest neighbor of ui). In order to efficiently answer k-NK queries, in …
Utpb: A Benchmark For Scientific Workflow Provenance Storage And Querying Systems, Carlos F. Gomez
Utpb: A Benchmark For Scientific Workflow Provenance Storage And Querying Systems, Carlos F. Gomez
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
A crucial challenge for scientific workflow management systems is to support the efficient and scalable storage and querying of large provenance datasets that record the history of in silico experiments. As new provenance management systems are being developed, it is important to have benchmarks that can evaluate these systems and provide an unbiased comparison. In this paper, based on the requirements for scientific workflow provenance systems, we design an extensible benchmark that features a collection of techniques and tools for workload generation, query selection, performance measurement, and experimental result interpretation.
Benchmarking Bottom-Up And Top-Down Strategies To Sparql-To-Sql Query Translation, Andrii Kashliev
Benchmarking Bottom-Up And Top-Down Strategies To Sparql-To-Sql Query Translation, Andrii Kashliev
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Many researchers have proposed using conventional relational databases to store and query large Semantic Web datasets. The most complex component of this approach is SPARQL-to-SQL query translation. Existing algorithms perform this translation using either bottom-up or top-down strategy and result in semantically equivalent but syntactically different relational queries. Do relational query optimizers always produce identical query execution plans for semantically equivalent bottom-up and top-down queries? Which of the two strategies yields faster SQL queries? To address these questions, this work studies bottom-up and top-down translations of SPARQL queries with nested optional graph patterns. This work presents: (1) A basic graph …
Intractability Of Integration And Derivative For Multivariate Polynomial And Trigonometric Function, Liang Ding
Intractability Of Integration And Derivative For Multivariate Polynomial And Trigonometric Function, Liang Ding
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
We study the hardness of some basic linear operators which involve high dimension integration or derivative. For a multivariate polynomial ��(��1, ⋯ , ����) which has format ∏ ∑ ��1, we show that there is no any factor polynomial time approximation for the integration of ��(��1, ⋯ , ����) in the unit cube [0,1] �� unless P = NP. In addition to polynomials, we extend the discussion to nonlinear function. For a trigonometric function ��(��1, ⋯ , ����) of format ∏ ∑ �������� ∗ , we show that it is #P-hard to compute derivative ����(��) (��1,⋯,����) ����1⋯������ at the origin …
Partition A 3-Colorable Graph Into A Small Bipartite Subgraph And A Large Independent Set, Qing Wang
Partition A 3-Colorable Graph Into A Small Bipartite Subgraph And A Large Independent Set, Qing Wang
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Exact algorithms have made a little progress for the 3-coloring problem: improved from to since 1976. The best exact algorithm for the 3-coloring problem is by Beigel and Eppstein, and its analysis is very complicated. We study the parameterized 3-coloring problem: partitioning a 3-colorable graph into a bipartite subgraph and an independent set. Taking the size of the bipartite subgraph as the parameter k, we propose the first parameter algorithm of complexity . Our algorithm can solve the 3-coloring problem faster than the best exact algorithm for graphs with k ≤ 0.527n where n is the graph size. Our study …
Narrative Analysis And Computational Model To Predict Interestingness Of Narratives, Laxman Thapa
Narrative Analysis And Computational Model To Predict Interestingness Of Narratives, Laxman Thapa
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In this research, I present results demonstrating the classification of the specially generated narratives by a machine agent by listening to human subject describing the same sets of the events. These classifications are based on human ratings of interestingness for many different recountings of the same stories. The classification is performed on various features selected after analyzing the different possible feature that affect on the interestingness of narratives. The features were extracted from the surface text as well as from annotations of how each narration relates to the content of the known story. I present the annotation process and resulting …
Distributed Storage And Queryng Techniques For A Semantic Web Of Scientific Workflow Provenance, Jaime Alberto Navarro
Distributed Storage And Queryng Techniques For A Semantic Web Of Scientific Workflow Provenance, Jaime Alberto Navarro
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
In scientific workflow environments, scientists depend on provenance, which records the history of an experiment. Resource Description Framework is frequently used to represent provenance based on vocabularies such as the Open Provenance Model. For complex scientific workflows that generate large amounts of RDF triples, single-machine provenance management becomes inadequate over time. In this thesis, we research how HBase capabilities can be leveraged for distributed storage and querying of provenance data represented in RDF. We architect the ProvBase system that incorporates an HBase/Hadoop backend, propose a storage schema to hold provenance triples, and design querying algorithms to evaluate SPARQL queries in …
New Algorithms For Protein Structure Comparison And Protein Structure Prediction, Zaixin Lu
New Algorithms For Protein Structure Comparison And Protein Structure Prediction, Zaixin Lu
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Proteins show a great variety of 3D conformations, which can be used to infer their evolutionary relationship and to classify them into more general groups; therefore algorithms of protein structure alignment, protein similarity search and protein structure prediction are very helpful for protein biologists. We developed new algorithms for the problems in this field. The algorithms are tested with structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and SCOP, a Structure Classification of Protein Database. The experimental results show that our tools are more efficient than some well known systems for finding similar protein structures and predicting protein structures.
Algorithmic Temperature 1 Self-Assembly, Yunhui Fu
Algorithmic Temperature 1 Self-Assembly, Yunhui Fu
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
We investigate the power of the Wang tile self-assembly model at temperature 1, a threshold value that permits attachment between any two tiles that share even a single bond. When restricted to deterministic assembly in the plane, no temperature 1 assembly system has been shown to build a shape with a tile complexity smaller than the diameter of the shape. Our work shows a sharp contrast in achievable tile complexity at temperature 1 if either growth into the third dimension or a small probability of error are permitted. Motivated by applications in nanotechnology and molecular computing, and the plausibility of …
Parameterized Algorithm For 3-Sat, Yi Gao
Parameterized Algorithm For 3-Sat, Yi Gao
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
The SAT problem is the classical NP-complete problem. In the past, many methods have been proposed for solving this problem. We investigated a new method for 3-SAT problem, which is a fixed parameterized algorithm proposed in this paper first. This method uses a fixed parameter k, where k is the number of true values in an assignment for checking whether the formula is satisfied or not. The complexity of our algorithm is O(3k ), which is exponentially independent of the number of variables. Theoretical analysis shows that when k is small, this method has smaller search space and higher speed.
S2st: A Relational Rdf Database Management System, Anthony T. Piazza
S2st: A Relational Rdf Database Management System, Anthony T. Piazza
Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
The explosive growth of RDF data on the Semantic Web drives the need for novel database systems that can efficiently store and query large RDF datasets. To achieve good performance and scalability of query processing, most existing RDF storage systems use a relational database management system as a backend to manage RDF data. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a Relational RDF Database Management System. Our main research contributions are: (1) We propose a formal model of a Relational RDF Database Management System (RRDBMS), (2) We propose generic algorithms for schema, data and query mapping, (3) …