Digital Commons Network^™

Targeting Cell Nuclei For The Automation Of Raman Spectroscopy In Cytology, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitri Dubovitskiy, Fiona Lyng

Conference papers

Biological cell analysis has, and is still, an important aspect in medical research and clinical diagnosis. Although cytologists routinely undertake a diagnosis using optical mi-croscopy, human factors make this routine unreliable especially when it involves many consecutive tasks that are monotonous, time consuming and focus on pattern matching tasks where the patterns concerned are not always entirely clear and/or do not necessarily belong to a well defined class. Raman Spectroscopy provides the potential to generate a fundamental representation on the status of cellular conditions through the characteristics of a Raman spectrum generated by the back-scatter of a laser pulse incident …

Distributed Formal Concept Analysis Algorithms Based On An Iterative Mapreduce Framework, Ruairí De Fréin, Biao Xu, Eric Robson, Mícheál Ó Fóghlú

Conference papers

While many existing formal concept analysis algorithms are efficient, they are typically unsuitable for distributed implementation. Taking the MapReduce (MR) framework as our inspiration we introduce a distributed approach for performing formal concept mining. Our method has its novelty in that we use a light-weight MapReduce runtime called Twister which is better suited to iterative algorithms than recent distributed approaches. First, we describe the theoretical foundations underpinning our distributed formal concept analysis approach. Second, we provide a representative exemplar of how a classic centralized algorithm can be implemented in a distributed fashion using our methodology: we modify Ganter’s classic algorithm …

Improved Speech Intelligibility With A Chimaera Hearing Aid Algorithm, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

It is recognised that current hearing aid fitting algorithms can corrupt fine timing cues in speech. This paper presents a fitting algorithm that aims to improve speech intelligibility, while preserving the temporal fine structure. The algorithm combines the signal envelope amplification from a standard hearing aid fitting algorithm with the fine timing information available to unaided listeners. The proposed “chimaera aid” is evaluated with computer simulated listener tests to measure its speech intelligibility for 3 sample hearing losses. In addition, the experiment demonstrates the potential application of auditory nerve models in the development of new hearing aid algorithm designs using …

Improving Discourse Structure Identification, Jamie Allison Guidry

LSU Master's Theses

Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann et al. 1988), a popular approach for analyzing discourse coherence, suggests that coherent text can be placed into a hierarchical organization of clauses. Identification of a text’s rhetorical structure through automatic discourse analysis is a crucial element for many of today’s Natural Language Processing tasks, but no sufficient tool is available. The current state-of -the-art discourse parser, SPADE (Soricut et al. 2003), is limited to parsing discourse within a single sentence. HILDA (Hernault et al. 2010) extends the parsing abilities of SPADE to the document level, but with a decrease in performance. This study achieved document-level …

Efficacy Of Multifunctionalized Saccharide Constructs For The Attenuation Of Amyloid-Beta Toxicity, Dhruva Dilip Dhavale

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There is evidence that amyloid-beta (Aβ) toxicity is mediated through interactions and binding with neuronal surface sialic acids in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The binding affinity is higher if the sialic acids are clustered and toxicity of Aβ was attenuated by removal of neuronal sialic acids. Thus, interfering with cell membrane-Aβ binding using biomimetics that could reproduce the clustered sialic acid structure could present us with a potential target for therapeutic intervention in AD. Based on this hypothesis, we developed several multifunctionalized sialic acid labeled chitosan compounds of different valency, or number of sialic acid per chitosan molecule, to attenuate Aβ …

Speech Intelligibility Prediction Using A Neurogram Similarity Index Measure, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Articles

Performance Intensity functions can be used to provide additional information over measurement of speech reception threshold and maximum phoneme recognition by plotting a test subject's recognition probability over a range of sound intensities. A computational model of the auditory periphery was used to replace the human subject and develop a methodology that simulates a real listener test. The newly developed NSIM is used to evaluate the model outputs in response to Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word lists and produce phoneme discrimination scores.

Intelligent Energy Management And Demand-Response Control For A Photovoltaic-Battery System, Yang Liu

Masters Theses

"The work shown in this thesis is to develop an intelligent energy management and demand-response controller (IEMDC) for a photovoltaic-battery (PVB) system with a programmable load. Specifically, the research work related to this issue focuses on the modeling and real-time simulation of a microgrid with an emphasis on photovoltaic, battery and programmable load and the development of an energy management controller for optimally dispatching the power from the PVB system to the loads. The IEMDC is used for daytime grid-independent operation. The energy management controller is based on fuzzy logic controller (FLC) whose membership functions are optimized using mean-variance optimization …

The Risk Mitigation Strategy Taxonomy And Generated Risk Event Effect Neutralization Method, Daniel A. Krus

Doctoral Dissertations

"In the design of new products and systems, the mitigation of potential failures is very important. The sooner in a product's design mitigation can be performed, the lower the cost and easier to implement those mitigations become. However, currently, most mitigations strategies rely on the expertise of the engineers designing a product, and while models and for failure modes do exist to help, there are no guidelines for performing product changes to reduce risk. To help alleviate this, the risk mitigation strategy taxonomy is created from an empirical collection of mitigation strategies used in industry for failure mitigation, creating a …

A Comparative Evaluation Of An Educational Program Designed To Enable Mechanical Engineering Students To Develop Global Competence, Aaron Gerald Ball

Theses and Dissertations

The 'flattening of the world', using Thomas Friedman's phraseology, is driving corporations to increasingly use collaborative engineering processes and global teams to operate on a global scale. Globalization of the traditional university engineering curriculum is necessary to help students prepare to work in a global environment. More scalable and economically sustainable program types are needed to enable the majority of students to obtain a globalized education. The purpose of this research was to determine how effectively a global team- and project-based computer aided engineering course provided learning opportunities that enabled students to develop elements of global competence in comparison to …

Cross Media Hyperlinking For Search Topic Browsing, Song Tan, Chong-Wah Ngo, Hung-Khoon Tan, Lei Pang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid growth of social media, there are plenty of information sources freely available online for use. Nevertheless, how to synchronize and leverage these diverse forms of information for multimedia applications remains a problem yet to be seriously studied. This paper investigates the synchronization of multiple media content in the physical form of hyperlinking them. The ultimate goal is to develop browsing systems that author search results with rich media information mined from various knowledge sources. The authoring enables the vivid visualization and exploration of different information landscapes inherent in search results. Several key techniques are studied in this …

Analysis Of Contrast Enhancement Methods For Infrared Images, Sprinkle Christian

Master's Theses

Contrast enhancement techniques are used widely to improve the visual quality of images. The difference in luminance reflected from two adjacent surfaces creates contrast between the surfaces in the image. The greater the contrast, the easier it is to recognize and differentiate objects in an image. Thus object contrast is an important factor in the perception of the visual quality of an image and in its usefulness for object recognition and image analysis applications.

The focus of this thesis is on studying how well different contrast enhancement techniques developed for visible spectrum photographic images work on infrared images; to determine …

Towards Failure Free Design: An Analysis Of Risk Mitigation Communication, Daniel Krus, Katie Grantham

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In order to ensure that risk mitigation strategies are properly communicated to and understood by those who would use them in future designs, a common language of risk mitigation should exist. This paper focuses on a set of elements for describing risk mitigation strategies based on a linguistic analysis of the information such strategies must communicate to the design team. Sample strategies are then decomposed into these attributes and evaluated using the Gricean cooperation principle, relevance theory, and functional analysis theories from the pragmatics sub-field of linguistics. using the deficiencies found from this analysis, a format for risk mitigation strategies …

Investigating The Role Of The Internet In Women And Minority Stem Participation: A Case Study Of Two Florida Engineering Programs, Arland Nguema Ndong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite our awareness of the fascination modern humans have with the Internet, little is known about how and why colleges and universities create and maintain Websites. At the most general level, in this case study, I hypothesize that university Websites serve as communication and marketing tools in attracting students. At the most specific level, I postulate that civil engineering programs with Web pages depicting images of women and minorities would be more successful in recruiting and retaining women and students of color than civil engineering programs with Web pages displaying fewer or no images of women and minorities. The primary …

Signquote: A Remote Testing Facility For Eliciting Signed Qualitative Feedback, Jerry Schnepp, Rosalee Wolfe, Brent Shiver, John Mcdonald, Jorge Toro

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Sign synthesis is still an evolving technology and improving it requires the elicitation of qualitative feedback from users. Current options for acquiring qualitative feedback are limited. Face-toface tests conducted in sign language are expensive. On the other hand, remote tests do not use the preferred language of the test participants. A new tool, SignQUOTE, (Signed Qualitative Usability Online Testing Environment) is a configurable, cross platform remote testing system based entirely on sign language. It includes an innovative method for capturing qualitative feedback in sign language via webcam. In a comparison study, participants viewed animations of American Sign Language and gave …

Long-Term Predictive Value Interval With The Fuzzy Time Series, Ming-Tao Chou

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents a new mathematical method to construct a fuzzy time series model of a system where the fuzzy support and interval values are used. This paper further presents an improved fuzzy time series model with a long-term predictive value interval and shows that the proposed definition can be used for long-term forecasting. The enrollment data of the University of Alabama (adopted by Song and Chissom, 1993) are used to demonstrate the proposed forecast model.

An Integrated Quantitative Risk Analysis Method For Major Construction Accidents Using Fuzzy Concepts And Influence Diagram, Yong-Huang Lin, Chen-Chung Lin, Yaw-Yauan Tyan

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

The accident factor identification and risk assessment is an essential requirement for prevention of major construction accidents in the construction project process. An integrated quantitative risk assessment (IQRA) method has been proposed in this paper to overcome the problems of difficult to quantify accident probability for construction industry. The proposed approach employs influence diagram and fuzzy theory to estimate accident probability and to deal with the imprecision inherent to the process of subjective judgment. A case study that evaluates accident probability of diaphragm wall collapse is presented to illustrate the use of this methodology and to demonstrate its capability.

Artificial Intelligence – I: A Preliminary Framework For Human-Agent Communication In Electronic Negotiations, Moez Ur Rehman, Nosheen Riaz

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Electronic negotiations are business negotiations conducted via electronic means using information and communications technologies (ICT). Two dominant types of electronic negotiation systems are automated negotiation systems for software agents and negotiation support systems (NSSs) for humans. However, the integration of two types for human-agent negotiations is an important task. In this paper, an extended communication model for human-agent business negotiations is presented. For this purpose, the underlying communication models of automated negotiations and NSSs are analyzed. The extended communication model is based on a common negotiation ontology which captures the negotiation agenda and paves the way for such hybrid communication, …

Stereoscopic Vision's Impact On Spatial Ability Testing, George Takahashi

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

A look into spatial ability testing tools and the variations that past researchers made to focus on key factors that affect test scores, will demonstrate the need for tuning traditional testing methods to accommodate a wider demographic and provide more accurate results. Due to technological limitations of the time, a large variety of past spatial tests were developed by hand-drawings. Within this research, the addition of stereoscopic vision is analyzed to determine the value of said changes on human perception of spatial entities.

A Study On Facility Planning Using Discrete Event Simulation: Case Study Of A Grain Delivery Terminal, Sarah M. Asio

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The application of traditional approaches to the design of efficient facilities can be tedious and time consuming when uncertainty and a number of constraints exist. Queuing models and mathematical programming techniques are not able to capture the complex interaction between resources, the environment and space constraints for dynamic stochastic processes. In the following study discrete event simulation is applied to the facility planning process for a grain delivery terminal. The discrete event simulation approach has been applied to studies such as capacity planning and facility layout for a gasoline station and evaluating the resource requirements for a manufacturing facility. To …

Towards A Unified Definition Of Supply Chain Management, Edward Sweeney

Articles

A wide range of definitions of supply chain management (SCM) have been developed over the last three decades. The philosophy of SCM is based firmly on a recognition that it is only by working in a more integrated manner that competitive advantage can be maximised. However, for this to become a reality the development of common definitions and understandings between supply chain partners is a critical success factor. The corollary of this is that a lack of definitional consistency and a common understanding is an inhibitor to the successful adoption of SCM thinking in practice. This paper reviews a number …

Why Fuzzy Transform Is Efficient In Large-Scale Prediction Problems: A Theoretical Explanation, Irina Perfilieva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The Canonical Decomposition Fuzzy Comparative Methodology For Assessing Architectures, Jason P. Dauby, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The challenge for system architects is to perform a realistic assessment of an inherently ambiguous system concept. Many existing assessment methods are available, but these are often subjective and unrepeatable. Repeatability, objectivity, and increased fidelity are desired. an architecture assessment methodology capable of achieving these objectives is possible by drawing on the strengths of existing approaches while addressing their collective weaknesses. the proposed methodology is the Canonical Decomposition Fuzzy Comparative approach. the theoretical foundations of this methodology are developed herein and tested through the assessment of three physical architectures for a peer-to-peer wireless network. an extensible modeling framework is established …

Fuzzy Robot Controller Tuning With Biogeography-Based Optimization, George Thomas, Paul Lozovyy, Daniel J. Simon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is an evolutionary algorithm (EA) based upon the models of biogeography, which describe the relationship between habitat suitability and the migration of species across habitats. In this work, we apply BBO to the problem of tuning the fuzzy tracking controller of mobile robots. This is an extension of previous work, in which we used BBO to tune a proportional-derivative (PD) controller for these robots. We show that BBO can successfully tune the shape of membership functions for a fuzzy controller with both simulation and real world experimental results.

The Effectiveness Of Milestone Versus Duration Projects In A University Environment, Nicholas James Mehas

Master's Theses

The Critical Path and Critical Chain project management methodologies have different and unique characteristics; both methods are used by project managers to manage projects. This research develops and implements two methodologies, milestones (critical path) versus duration (modified critical chain), in a university environment. The implementation of the two methods allows for the comparison of the effectiveness of both styles. The intent is to determine if there is a significant difference in the project management methodologies in a university setting. The design of both projects allows for easy implementation and the ability to easily record determined measureable statistics.

An Optimization Approach To Employee Scheduling Using Fuzzy Logic, William G. Spence

Master's Theses

An Optimization Approach to Employee Scheduling Using Fuzzy Logic

William G. Spence

Selection of sales employees is critical because the sales employees represent the company’s image, competitive advantage, technology, and values. In many service systems the majority of consumer contact is with the sales department. Since there are different types of customers, scheduling quality salespersons who can adequately help consumers may affect revenue.

This thesis proposes a new methodology for the scheduling of employees in a service system. The methodology uses Fuzzy Logic to calculate possible sales and Linear Programming to create an optimal schedule. This approach enables the rating …

Creating Realistic Corpora For Security And Forensic Education, Kam Woods, Christopher A. Lee, Simson Garfinkel, David Dittrich, Adam Russell, Kris Kearton

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

We present work on the design, implementation, distribution, and use of realistic forensic datasets to support digital forensics and security education. We describe in particular the “M57-Patents” scenario, a multi-modal corpus consisting of hard drive images, RAM images, network captures, and images from other devices typically found in forensics investigations such as USB drives and cellphones. Corpus creation has been performed as part of a scripted scenario; subsequently it is less “noisy” than real-world data but retains the complexity necessary to support a wide variety of forensic education activities. Realistic forensic corpora allow direct comparison of approaches and tools across …

Development Of A Distributed Print‐Out Monitoring System For Efficient Forensic Investigation, Satoshi Kai, Tetsutaro Uehara

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

If information leakage occurs, an investigator is instructed to specify what documents were leaked and who leaked them. In the present work, a distributed print-out monitoring system—which consists of a virtual printer driver and print-out policy/log management servers—was developed. For easily matching the discovered (i.e., leaked) paper document with the print-out log, the virtual printer driver acquires full-text of printed-out documents by DDI hooking technique to check the content, transforms a spool file to a picture file and creates both a thumbnail and text log for forensic investigation afterwards. The log size is as only about 0.04 times bigger than …

Software Piracy Forensics: Impact And Implications Of Post‐Piracy Modifications, Vinod Bhattathiripad, S. Santhosh Baboo

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Piracy is potentially possible at any stage of the lifetime of the software. In a post-piracy situation, however, the growth of the respective versions of the software (both the original and pirated) is expected to be in different directions as a result of expectedly different implementation strategies. This paper shows how such post-piracy modifications are of special interest to a cyber crime expert investigating software piracy and suggests that the present software piracy forensic (or software copyright infringement investigation) approaches require amendments to take in such modifications. For this purpose, the paper also presents a format that is jargon-free, so …

Connective Complexity Methods For Analysis And Prediction In Engineering Design, James Mathieson

All Theses

Complexity is an aspect of engineering design that is often addressed directly with the principle that 'designs should be simple'. However, such a principle fails to offer an effective means of quantifying the complexity of a given design for comparison and decision making. The measurement of complexity within a specific representations and domains has been well established. However, such measurements are inherently limited in their applicability and not always clear in their implications. This research presents a method of measuring complexity from different engineering representations in a consistent manner and explores the application of these measures.
The development of a …

Using Textual Features To Predict Popular Content On Digg, Paul H. Miller

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the past few years, collaborative rating sites, such as Netflix, Digg and Stumble, have become increasingly prevalent sites for users to find trending content.  I used various data mining techniques to study Digg, a social news site, to examine the influence of content on popularity.  What influence does content have on popularity, and what influence does content have on users’ decisions?  Overwhelmingly, prior studies have consistently shown that predicting popularity based on content is difficult and maybe even inherently impossible.  The same submission can have multiple outcomes and content neither determines popularity, nor individual user decisions.  My results show …