Digital Commons Network^™

Does Mutual Knowledge Affect Virtual Team Performance? Theoretical Analysis And Anecdotal Evidence, Alanah Davis, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

This paper describes the concept of mutual knowledge and its potential impact on virtual team performance. Based on an analysis of extant literature, we argue that there is a gap in our understanding of what is known about mutual knowledge as it impacts team dynamics and virtual team performance. Supporting literature, anecdotes, and case studies are used to discuss the importance of mutual knowledge for virtual team performance and the research issues that need to be addressed in the future.

Distribution Of Ultraviolet-Absorbing Sunscreen Compounds Across The Body Surface Of Two Species Of Scaridae, Elizabeth Cerny-Chipman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ultraviolet radiation has far-reaching effects in marine ecosystems, but many marine organisms have UV-absorbing compounds that protect them from sun-induced damage. The mucus of coral reef fish has been found to contain mycosporine-like amino acids that absorb UV light from 309-360 nm. Using UV spectrophotometry, we examined whether fish are able to allocate these MAA sunscreen compounds to areas of the body that receive the most UV radiation. We compared absorbance spectra of mucus from the body surface of dorsal, ventral, caudal and head areas in two species of Scaridae (Scarus schlegeli and Chlorurus sordidus) from Coral Bay, Western Australia. …

Τέχνη And Quest-Oriented Learning, Sarah Matzko

All Dissertations

A new approach for teaching undergraduate computer science courses is presented. A general teaching approach that is its basis is also described. Summaries and guides to several introductory courses are provided. Results from the use of the curriculum are presented, and other applications of the approach are suggested.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2007, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Unlv Magazine, Grace Russell, Gian Galassi, Shane Bevell, Karyn S. Hollingsworth, Jennifer Lawson, Lori Bachand, Cate Weeks, Erin O'Donnell, Peter Starkweather

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

37th Annual Wku Student Research Conference, Student Research Council, Western Kentucky University

Student Research Conference Select Presentations

No abstract provided.

Virtual Classroom Extension For Effective Distance Education, Radu Dondera, Chun Jia, Voicu Popescu, Cristina Nita-Rotaru, Melissa Dark

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Sexual Dimorphism In The Human Face, Ashok Samal, Vanitha Subramani, David B. Marx

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Abstract Human beings can distinguish between a male and a female face without much difficulty. The science of recognizing and differentiating different faces by humans is not completely understood and is still under research. Sexual dimorphism is common in humans and indeed in other species of animals as well. Significant differences between males and females exist in many aspects like size, color, body shapes, and weight. In this research, we characterize and analyze the sexual dimorphism in the human face as a function of age and of face features. Features are grouped into six categories: head, eyes, orbits, nose, lips, …

A Gui For The Deaf-Blind: An Additional Concepts Paper, David Veal

Research outputs pre 2011

People with some residual vision though still classified as blind may be able to read on screen patterns presented via a computer program whereby such a pattern can represent a textual character and a presentation of sequences of such patterns can represent words. These patterns can be adjusted to utilize the user’s remaining vision capacity. Previous research has shown that volunteers who where legally classified as blind could read simple sentences via such a system. This system is known as the Dynamic Pattern System (DPS) and is a test bed for research. Although this research involved a single pattern represented …

An Eye-Opening Approach To Developing And Communicating Integrated Environmental Assessments, Todd R. Lookingbill, William C. Dennison, Tim J.B. Carruthers, Jane M. Hawkey, Shawn L. Carter

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Communication among managers, the public, and scientists is the key to successful ecosystem management; however, the varied perspectives and interests of these groups can make such communication difficult. One way to achieve effective communication is to develop a common knowledge base by combining syntheses of key scientific results with information-rich visual elements. Within a management landscape, integrated environmental assessments provide a useful framework for evaluating resources and directing management efforts. The integrated assessment process involves (1) initial investigation, (2) development of a conceptual framework, (3) data navigation, (4) environmental report cards, and (5) science communication. Each step requires the synthesis …

Inside Unlv, Cate Weeks, Brenda Griego, David Ashley, Mamie Peers, Shane Bevell, Gian Galassi

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Pre-Conference Proceedings Of The Focus Symposium On Advances In Intelligent Software Systems, Collaborative Agent Design Research Center

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

A very powerful new type of information systems technology is rapidly emerging, driven by government and commercial needs for expert decision-support and knowledge management. One very apparent result of this technology is increasingly intelligent software systems. Computer programs with collaborative agents that are capable of automatically reasoning about data and the dynamic changes in data that occur in real world decision-making situations are already in use by the military and are now transitioning to the commercial world.

Elements Of Human Decision-Making, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to present some understandings of the human problem-solving activity that we have gained in the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) over the past two decades. Since we feel strongly that the human decision-maker should be an integral component of any computer-based decision-support system, it follows that we would have endeavored to incorporate many of the elements that appear to be important to the user in the design of these systems. The complexity of the human cognitive system is evidenced by the large body of literature that describes problem-solving behavior and the relatively fewer …

Information Content Of Coyote Barks Howls, Brian R. Mitchell, Maja M. Makagon, Michael M. Jaeger, Reginald H. Barrett

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The information content of coyote (Canis latrans) vocalizations is poorly understood, but has important implications for understanding coyote behavior. Coyotes probably use information present in barks or howls to recognize individuals, but the presence of individually-specific information has not bean demonstrated. We found that coyote barks and howls contained individually specific characteristics: discriminant analysis correctly classified barks of five coyotes 69% of the time and howls of six coyotes 83% of the time. We also investigated the stability of vocalization characteristics at multiple distances from the source. Recordings were played back and re-recorded at 10 m, 600m, and …

Semantic Analytics Visualization, Leonidas Deligiannidis, Amit P. Sheth, Boanerges Aleman-Meza

Kno.e.sis Publications

In this paper we present a new tool for semantic analytics through 3D visualization called “Semantic Analytics Visualization” (SAV). It has the capability for visualizing ontologies and meta-data including annotated web-documents, images, and digital media such as audio and video clips in a synthetic three-dimensional semi-immersive environment. More importantly, SAV supports visual semantic analytics, whereby an analyst can interactively investigate complex relationships between heterogeneous information. The tool is built using Virtual Reality technology which makes SAV a highly interactive system. The backend of SAV consists of a Semantic Analytics system that supports query processing and semantic association discovery. Using a …

Designing A Data Warehouse For Cyber Crimes, Il-Yeol Song, John D. Maguire, Ki Jung Lee, Namyoun Choi, Xiaohua Hu, Peter Chen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

One of the greatest challenges facing modern society is the rising tide of cyber crimes. These crimes, since they rarely fit the model of conventional crimes, are difficult to investigate, hard to analyze, and difficult to prosecute. Collecting data in a unified framework is a mandatory step that will assist the investigator in sorting through the mountains of data. In this paper, we explore designing a dimensional model for a data warehouse that can be used in analyzing cyber crime data. We also present some interesting queries and the types of cyber crime analyses that can be performed based on …

Wmxml: A System For Watermarking Xml Data, Xuan Zhou, Hwee Hwa Pang, Kian-Lee Tan, Dhruv Mangla

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As increasing amount of data is published in the form of XML, copyright protection of XML data is becoming an important requirement for many applications. While digital watermarking is a widely used measure to protect digital data from copyright offences, the complex and flexible construction of XML data poses a number of challenges to digital watermarking, such as re-organization and alteration attacks. To overcome these challenges, the watermarking scheme has to be based on the usability of data and the underlying semantics like key attributes and functional dependencies. In this paper, we describe WmXML, a system for watermarking XML documents. …

How Much You Watch, How Much You Pay, Yongdong Wu, Hwee Hwa Pang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents a pay-video scheme that manages video stream, key stream and payment stream efficiently. In our scheme, the owner segments a video into fragments and encrypts them with independent keys. The keys are generated with a novel concept called as hash interval, where each hash interval discloses a range of numbers without disclosing any information on numbers outside of the range. The video fragments are then broadcast on one or more channels. A buyer can purchase the keys to decrypt any fragments and, within each fragment, any desired quality level. The accompanying payment protocol is integrated with the …

Image Watermarking, Steganography, And Morphological Processing, Yi-Ta Wu

Dissertations

With the fast development of computer technology, research in the fields of multimedia security, image processing, and robot vision have recently become popular. Image watermarking, steganogrphic system, morphological processing and shortest path planning are important subjects among them. In this dissertation, the fundamental techniques are reviewed first followed by the presentation of novel algorithms and theorems for these three subjects.

The research on multimedia security consists of two parts, image watermarking and steganographic system. In image watermarking, several algorithms are developed to achieve different goals as shown below. In order to embed more watermarks and to minimize distortion of watermarked …

Wild Bactrian Camel Conservation, Richard P. Reading, Evan S. Blumer, Henry Mix, Jadamsuren Adiya

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The wild Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus) is critically endangered throughout its range in China and Mongolia. Yet, wild camels remain poorly understood, with knowledge derived primarily from a few short studies and anecdotal information. We initiated a wild camel conservation project to determine the reasons for camel decline and to develop a program to address those problems.

We are employing satellite telemetry to gather data on wild camel movement patterns, home ranges, habitat use, and sources of mortality. We are also collecting feces from camels and wolves to determine important forage plants and to begin to assess …

Hiring Practices For Graphic Designers In Utah County, Utah, Landon T. Densley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to show how hiring standards of evidence for graphic designers in Utah County compared with the national standards of evidence. The four major national standards of evidence for hiring graphic designers, identified by American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Goldfarb, in order of importance are portfolio, recommendations, personality, and education. The data from this study revealed that Utah County employer's standards of evidence matched up closely to national standards of evidence, but the order of importance was slightly different because personality was ranked ahead of recommendations and education.

Visual Debugging Of Object-Oriented Systems With The Unified Modeling Language, Wendell E. Fox

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) is developing a Joint Battlespace Infosphere, linking a large number of data sources and user applications. Debugging and analysis tools are required to aid in this process. Debugging of large object-oriented systems is a difficult cognitive process that requires understanding of both the overall and detailed behavior of the application. In addition, many such applications linked through a distributed system add to this complexity. Standard debuggers do not utilize visualization techniques, focusing mainly on information extracted directly from the source code. To overcome this deficiency, this research designs and implements a methodology that enables developers …

Virtual Teams Combining Mobile Devices With Web-Based Communication On Group Decision Making, Hyo-Joo Han

Dissertations

Organizations have moved from a face-to-face team environment to a virtual team environment using communication technology during the last decade. More and more workers use asynchronous tools (including email, discussion groups, information sharing tools, and group calendaring systems), and synchronous tools, such as instant messaging and web-based chatting features, to coordinate and share information with people within and outside of organizations. This empirical study on how virtual teams work, integrating mobile devices with web-based group communication for decision-making tasks, examines which technologies and communication modes are the best for distributed group teamwork, and, mainly, what are the predictive characteristics making …

Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic System, Chaomei Liu

Theses Digitization Project

The Chinese Medical Clinic System is designed to help acupuncturists and assistants record and store information. This system can maintain and schedule appointments and view patient diagnoses effectively. The system will be implemented on a desktop PC connected to the internet to facilitate the acupuncturists record of information.

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Animated Instructional Software For Mechanics Of Materials, Timothy A. Philpot, Richard H. Hall

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

During the past three years, the Basic Engineering Department at the University of Missouri--Rolla has been developing a second-generation suite of instructional software called MecMovies for the mechanics of materials course. In the Fall 2003 semester, MecMovies was integrated into assignments throughout the entire semester for one of the six UMR mechanics of materials sections. This paper presents a comparison of student performance in the experimental section with student performance in five control sections along with discussion of student qualitative ratings and comments.

Content-Aware Authentication Of Motion Jpeg2000 Stream In Lossy Networks, Yongdong Wu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stream authentication schemes (SAS) aim to achieve effective authentication of multicast streams over lossy networks. Almost all the existing SASs is designed for stream data integrity protection only. In this paper, we argue that content integrity protection is more important than data integrity to human users. We present a content-aware SAS in motion JPEG2000 streaming. In our scheme, a chunk of JPEG2000 codestreams is encapsulated into a block of packets using multiple description coding (MDC). Our MDC exploits the inherent structure of motion JPEG2000 codestreams and is used to preserve the semanteme/content of the stream over lossy networks. To achieve …

Just-In-Time Browsing For Digitized Microfilm And Other Similar Image Collections, William A. Barrett, Douglas J. Kennard

Faculty Publications

This paper describes “Just-In-Time Browsing” (JITB), a method for image browsing (at modem-like speed) in which image data is transmitted and presented to the user progressively, in prioritized order, based on image content and user interaction. Spatial resolution and grayscale or color fidelity is increased first for the portions of the image that are immediately of most interest to the user. JITB is specifically geared toward digitized microfilm and other similar document image collections, although it can also be used for other types of images. A series of common browsing tasks performed by multiple users demonstrates that JITB compares favorably …

Adaptive Live Video Streaming By Priority Drop, Jie Huang, Charles Krasic, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we explore the use of Priority-progress streaming (PPS) for video surveillance applications. PPS is an adaptive streaming technique for the delivery of continuous media over variable bit-rate channels. It is based on the simple idea of reordering media components within a time window into priority order before transmission. The main concern when using PPS for live video streaming is the time delay introduced by reordering. In this paper we describe how PPS can be extended to support live streaming and show that the delay inherent in the approach can be tuned to satisfy a wide range of …

Resources Related To Mathematics, Art And Nature, Vicki Beitler

Sabbaticals

The purpose of my sabbatical work was to learn about resources related to mathematics and art, nature, music and architecture. These subjects appeal to a wide audience, yet their mathematical connections are often on the periphery of a mathematics student's studies. In this way I planned to increase my knowledge of mathematics but at the same time broaden my understanding of cross-disciplinary subjects.

Rate-Based End-To-End Congestion Control Of Multimedia Traffic In Packet Switched Networks, Mingsheng Peng, S. R. Subramanya, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes an explicit rate-based end-to-end congestion control mechanism to alleviate congestion of multimedia traffic in packet switched networks such as the Internet. The congestion is controlled by adjusting the transmission rates of the sources in response to the feedback information from destination such as the buffer occupancy, packet arrival rate and service rate at the outgoing link, so that a desired quality of service (QoS) can be met. The QoS is defined in terms of packet loss ratio, transmission delay, power, and network utilization. Comparison studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme over New-Reno TCP (a variant …