Digital Commons Network^™

Quantification Of Long-Range Power Law Correlations Among Healthy And Pathologic Subjects Using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis And Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, Hardick Raval

Theses

The healthy heartbeat is traditionally thought to be regulated according to the classical principle of homeostasis whereby physiologic systems operate to reduce variability and achieve an equilibrium-like state. However recent studies reveal that under normal conditions, beat-to-beat fluctuation in heart rate display the kind of long-range correlations typically exhibited by the dynamical system far away from equilibrium. In contrast, heart rate time series from patients with severe congestive heart failure show a breakdown of this long-range correlation behavior. Two different non-linear dynamic methods namely Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) and Multifractal (MF) DFA are used for the quantification of this correlation …

Quantification Of Regularity In Rr-Interval Time Series Using Approximate Entropy, Sample Entropy, And Multi-Scale Entropy, Nirvish Shah

Theses

Heart rate variability (HRV) has proven to be a useful noninvasive tool to study the neuronal control of the heart. Recently, nonlinear dynamic methods based on chaos theory and fractal dynamics have been developed to uncover the nonlinear fluctuations in heart rate. Approximate Entropy (ApEn), Sample Entropy (SampEn) and Multi-scale Entropy (MSE) are measures based on chaos theory that quantify the regularity in time series. This study has been designed to examine the ability of these measures to distinguish the RR-interval time series of normal subjects (NSR) from subjects with congestive heart failure (CHF). The study was conducted on the …

Haptic Induced Motor Learning And The Extension Of Its Benefits To Stroke Patients, Adrienne M. Coppa

Theses

In this research, the Haptic Master robotic arm and virtual environments are used to induce motor learning in subjects with no known musculoskeletal or neurological disorders. It is found in this research that both perception and performance of the subject are increased through the haptic and visual feedback delivered through the Haptic Master. These system benefits may be extended to enhance therapies for patients with loss of motor skills due to neurological disease or brain injury.

Force and visual feedback were manipulated within virtual environment scenarios to facilitate learning. In one force feedback condition, the subject is required to maneuver …

An Analytical Model Of Mac Protocol Dependant Power Consumption In Multi-Hop Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks, Komlan Egoh

Theses

Power efficiency is the most constraining requirement for viable operation of battery-powered networked sensors. Conventionally, dynamic power management (DPM) is used to put sensor nodes into different states such as active, idle, and sleep, each consuming a certain level of power. Within the active state, communication operational states, such as receive and transmit consume different levels of nodal power. This thesis shows how DPM states and protocol operational states can be combined into a single stochastic model to finely evaluate the power consumption performance of a medium access control (MAC) protocol. The model is formulated as a semi-Markov decision process …

Enhancing End-To-End Quality Of Service Provisioning In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using Service Vectors, Didem Gozupek

Theses

A cross-layer architecture that achieves significant power savings, while enhancing the end-to-end QoS provisioning and granularity in wireless ad hoc networks is proposed in this thesis. Recently, a new concept called service vector has been introduced, which enables an end host to choose different service classes along its data path. This scheme enhances the user benefits from the network services and network resource utilization, while maintaining the simplicity and scalability of the current Differentiated Services (DiffServ) network architecture. This thesis explores the application of this concept on wireless ad hoc networks and provides a cross-layer architecture based on the combination …

Evaluation Of Coding Scheme For Mimo Radar, Suresh Kumar Harikrishnan

Theses

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna systems have shown a great potential for wireless communication. These systems support high capacity, increased diversity and interference suppression. Recently it has been proposed MIMO constellations for Radar. MIMO Radar is not only a new research field, but also a very promising approach in terms of overcoming Radar Cross Section (RCS) fluctuations with diversity. This thesis explores the potential of coding schemes for MIMO Radar.

The ambiguity functions measures related to MIMO Radar are used to evaluate how much diversity gain can be coherently achieved with certain coding schemes. The results of this analysis …

Multifractal Analysis Of Heart Rate Variability Using Wavelet-Transform Modulus-Maxima Method, Chirag Jani

Theses

Physiological signals are complex and carry information of human health. Recent studies reveal that under normal conditions, the heart rate time series shows multifractal behavior. In contrast, HRV in the pathological state such as congestive heart failure exhibits more monofractal-like structure. Recent advances in the assessment of heart rate variability (HRV) uses a nonlinear dynamics approach. In this study, the main objective is to use the wavelet-transform modulus-maxima method for the multifractal analysis of the heart rate time senes.

The degree of the multifractality is defined by the singularities (a point in time series where a mathematical function is not …

Combined Effects Of Prozac And Hypothalmic Mediated Response On Masseter Muscle Activity In The Cat, Chika P. Nwaorgu

Theses

The present study tested the hypothesis that infusion of Prozac would serve to suppress defensive rage elicited from the medial hypothalamus of the cat. Cats are known to exhibit certain kind of behavior, known as the "defensive rage response" such as unsheathing of the claws, retraction of the ear and vocalization (hissing).

Three adult cats (2 males and 1 female) weighing (2.8 - 3.4 kg) were utilized during the experiments. Cannula-electrodes were implanted into the medial hypothalamus for elicitation of defensive rage behavior. EMG activity was recorded with a bipolar electrode attached to the masseter muscle to establish baseline before …

Emissivity Of Patterned Silicon Wafers In Rapid Thermal Processing, Markus Rabus

Theses

The influence of patterns on emissivity in silicon wafers in rapid thermal processing systems has been investigated. In this study, two experiments with layered and patterned silicon wafers were conducted. The main difference in the experiments is the way in which the temperature was controlled. The first experiment was performed under Open Loop Intensity Control (OLIC). For OLIC, no feedback from the wafer is returned. It is assumed that supplying a certain power level will lead to the desired temperature. The other experiment used the Closed Loop Intensity Control. In this case, a feedback, in the form of temperature deviation …

Snp Auto-Calling Using Artificial Neural Networks, Damien Spivak

Theses

In recent years feedforward artificial neural networks (ANN) and their training algorithms have become an effective methodology for the construction of nonlinear systems that solve the statistical problem of classification. The ability of ANNs to solve this problem is highly germane to making progress in the refinement of DNA microarray analysis and techniques regarding this issue. This study attempts to deal with the classification of microarray data and the comparison and validation of simple feedforward ANNs in partitioning high dimensional data. In doing this the efficacy of using ANNs as a genotyping tool will be proven. Furthermore, it has been …

An Analysis Of Changes In The Magnetic Field Of Active Region 9415 After The 2001 April 6 Solar Flare, Juli Marya Stoltz

Theses

The objective of this study was to further the current understanding of the correlation between solar flares and magnetic flux change. The average gradient of the magnetic flux around the neutral line of Active Region 9415 and the locations of the magnetic flux centers-of-mass in both polarities in AR 9415 were determined. Subsequent to the 2001 April 6 flare, there was a statistically significant mean increase of 0.00208 G/km in the average gradient. Prior to the flare, the magnetic flux centers-of-mass became increasingly sheared along the neutral line. After the flare, this shear suddenly decreased and the magnetic flux centers-of-mass …

Multicodes For Improved Range Resolution In Radar, Rhiya Vitto

Theses

Third generation (3G) wireless systems are required to support a variety of communication services like voice, image, motion picture transmission, etc, each of which requires different transmission rates. Multi-code modulation has been introduced therefore as a means of supporting multi-rate services and operating in multi-cell environments [8, 9, 10]. This multi-rate multi-function capability may be used in Radar related applications, too. For example, a single transmitted waveform consisting of two orthogonal codes can be used to simultaneously track a target and obtain high range resolution. Tracking requires low bandwidth and high resolution needs a high bandwidth signal. Orthogonal codes like …

Njit Highlanders Cross Country 2005 Media Guide, New Jersey Institute Of Technology Athletic Department

Cross Country/Track & Field

No abstract provided.

Njit Highlanders Women's Volleyball 2005 Media Guide, New Jersey Institute Of Technology Athletic Department

Volleyball - Women's

No abstract provided.

Modeling Of Flexible Drug-Like Molecules : Qsar Of Gbr 12909 Analog Dat/Sert Selectivity, Kathleen Mary Gilbert

Dissertations

The dopamine reuptake inhibitor GBR 12909 and related dialkyl piperazine and piperidine analogs have been studied as agonist substitution therapies acting on the dopamine transporter (DAT) to treat cocaine addiction. Undesirable binding to the serotonin transporter (SERT) can vary greatly depending on the specific substituents on the molecule. This study uses Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) and Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices (CoMSIA) techniques to determine a stable and predictive model for DAT/SERT selectivity for a set of flexible GBR 12909 analogs.

Families of analogs were constructed from six pairs of naphthyl-substituted piperazine and piperidine templates identified by hierarchical clustering as …

Influences Of Surfactant On The Breakup Of A Fluid Jet In Viscous Surrounding, Muhammad Irfan Hameed

Dissertations

The effect of insoluble surfactant on the breakup of a fluid jet surrounded by another viscous fluid at low Reynolds number is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Equations governing the evolution of the interface and surfactant concentration are derived using a long wavelength approximation for the case of an inviscid jet and a slightly viscous jet surrounded by a more viscous fluid. These one dimensional partial differential equations governing the evolution of the slender jet are solved numerically for given initial interfacial perturbations and surfactant concentration. It is found that the presence of insoluble surfactant at the interface retards the …

Mechanics Of Biocell Landfill Settlements, Chamil Hiroshan Hettiarachchi

Dissertations

Prediction of landfill gas generation and settlements are of concerns in design and maintenance of biocell landfills. Accurate settlement prediction is essential for design of piping systems used for the delivery of re-circulated leachate and recovery of landfill gas. Landfill settlement is the result of change in overburden stresses and biodegradation of waste. Biodegradation-induced settlement results from the re-arrangement of waste skeleton in response to the decomposition of waste mass.

Current practice of landfill settlement modeling is predominantly empirical, thus most of the available techniques make no attempt to simulate the real mechanisms of waste settlement. Traditionally compressibility index is …

Evaporating Cross Flow Spray Jets In Gas-Solid Circulating Fluidized Bed, Tong Hoon Lee

Dissertations

Three-phase flow of solid-gas suspension with liquid spray is found in many industrial applications, including fluidized catalytic cracking in petroleum refinery process, and wet scrubbing process. This dissertation study is aimed to understand the gas-solid-liquid three-phase flow structure, phase interactions and transport in a gas-solid circulating fluidized bed where an evaporating cross-flow liquid spray jet from a rectangular nozzle with a fan angle is injected. The investigation is based on both numerical and experimental approaches. The numerical study is for detailed field descriptions of the flow structure, phase interaction and distributions whereas the experimental study is for simulation validations. The …

Dynamics Of Filaments, Flares And Coronal Mass Ejections (Cmes), Ju Jing

Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the connection between the dynamics of solar surface phenomena such as filament eruptions, flares, the coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the core of so-called solar activity, and the properties of the associated magnetic field for the development of forecasts of solar activity and space weather. Both statistical and case studies have been carried out.

The topics covered in this dissertation are: the statistical relationship among phenomena of solar activity, in particular, filament eruptions, flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs); the correlation between magnetic reconnection rate and flux rope acceleration of two-ribbon flares; the …

The Effects Of Digital Audio On Social Presence, Motivation And Perceived Learning In Asynchronous Learning Networks, Eunhee Kim

Dissertations

This study explores the possibilities of applying digital audio to the ALN environment, so that students can speak and listen rather than type and read. Two sets of 1x2 field experiments (text vs. digital audio) were conducted with two formats of digital audio -recorded voice messages and narrated Microsoft PowerPoint presentation - used in several NJIT courses conducted via ALN. The perceptions of communication media were measured from two different user perspectives: active use when the subjects created their assignments using prescribed communication media (audio or text) and passive use when the subjects viewed/listened to other students' work.

The perceptions …

Fluid-Phase Thermodynamics From Molecular-Level Properties And Interactions Based In Quantum Theory, Steven G. Arturo

Dissertations

A methodology to predict the thermodynamics of macroscopic fluid systems from quantum chemistry and statistical thermodynamics has been developed. This work extends the group-contribution concepts most utilized in chemical engineering. Computational chemistry software is used to define the geometries and electron density profiles of target molecules. Atoms in Molecules theory and associated software packages are used to calculate rigorous properties of the functional groups within molecules of interest. These properties are incorporated into an intermolecular potential energy function which describes interactions between entire molecules as a set of interactions between functional groups. This information is applied to a lattice-fluid model …

Some Topics On Deterministic Scheduling Problems, Yumei Huo

Dissertations

Sequencing and scheduling problems are motivated by allocation of limited resources over time. The goal is to find an optimal allocation where optimality is defined by some problem specific objectives.

This dissertation considers the scheduling of a set of ri tasks, with precedence constraints, on m >= 1 identical and parallel processors so as to minimize the makespan. Specifically, it considers the situation where tasks, along with their precedence constraints, are released at different times, and the scheduler has to make scheduling decisions without knowledge of future releases. Both preemptive and nonpreemptive schedules are considered. This dissertation shows that optimal …

Direct Numerical Simulations And Experimental Investigation Of Dielectrophoresis, Arun Thankamony John-Kadaksham

Dissertations

This dissertation deals with the numerical and experimental studies of the phenomenon of dielectrophoresis, i.e., the motion of neutral particles in nonuniform electric fields. Dielectrophoresis is the translatory motion of neutral particles suspended in a dielectric medium when they are subjected to an external nonuniform electric field. The translatory motion occurs because a force called the dielectrophoretic force, which depends on the spatial variation of the electric field, acts on the particles. As the generation of force involves no moving parts and the particles can be moved without touching them, dielectrophoresis can be used in many applications, including manipulation and …

Analysis And Characterization Of The Integrated Dielectric Slab Waveguide-Wedge Antenna Using Iterative Mode-Matching Technique, Chairat Pinthong

Dissertations

A rigorous solution for the TB and TM polarization to the dielectric wedge antenna fed by a slab waveguide of the same material is presented. The method of solution involves modeling the wedge as a sequence of step discontinuities and using an iterative procedure to track forward and backward partial wave fields, expressed as modal expansions, to obtain the rigorous field solution. Radiation patterns of directive gain are presented. All patterns smoothly decrease from a maximum in the endfire direction and exhibit very low side lobes. Longer length wedges are shown to produce higher directivity and smaller half-power beamwidths (HPBW). …

Evaluating Rhizodegradation Of Petroleum Hydrocarbons And Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Wetland Sediments Containing Spartina Patens, Robert J. Lippencott

Dissertations

Biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds was evaluated in sediments from a stormwater basin that was a former salt marsh at an active oil refinery. Spartina patens were grown in basin sediments during a field study and a greenhouse study over three consecutive growing seasons. Ninety percent (90%) survival was observed in field study plots containing sediments with <12% PHC. In the greenhouse study, planted and bulk sediments were monitored for PHC, PAH, microbial density, nutrients, pH, redox and root biomass at 2.5 and 7.5 cm in sediments with <12% PHC. The sediments contained on average 6.5% to 9.5% PHC and 56 to 124 parts per million (ppm) total PAH. The plants exhibited a 95% survival rate and added from 1% to 2% root biomass to the sediment. Microbial densities in planted sediments were significantly higher than in bulk sediments (p<0.05). Oxidizing conditions were prevalent in all treatments at both depths; however, reducing conditions developed in the planted sediments at 7.5 cm. PHC was 35% to 37% lower in the planted sediments vs. bulk sediment at the end of the study. Planted sediment PAH concentrations were generally lower than in bulk sediments. Low MW PAHs (2 and 3-Rings) were either absent or at relatively low concentrations in all treatments. Phenanthrene concentrations in bulk sediments did not change, but were reduced by 95% in planted sediments (p<0.01), with half-life estimates of 141 to 165 days at 2.5 cm. Temporal changes in high MW PAHs ( 4-Rings) were not observed over the greenhouse study period. Differences in PAH concentrations between planted and bulk sediments exhibited a decreasing trend with PAH molecular weight. Evaluation of differences in planted and bulk sediment PAH concentrations suggests that lower MW PAHs degrade better under oxidizing conditions, and higher MW PAHs under reducing conditions in the planted sediments. Comparison of planted and bulk sediment PAH concentrations links depth and redox conditions to decreases in PAH as a function of PAH MW. Therefore, it was concluded that spatio-temporal variations and cycling of redox conditions should be considered to properly evaluate biodegradation of PAH.

Theory And Algorithms For Swept Manifold Intersections, Yuriy Mileyko

Dissertations

Recent developments in such fields as computer aided geometric design, geometric modeling, and computational topology have generated a spate of interest towards geometric objects called swept volumes. Besides their great applicability in various practical areas, the mere geometry and topology of these entities make them a perfect testbed for novel approaches aimed at analyzing and representing geometric objects. The structure of swept volumes reveals that it is also important to focus on a little simpler, although a very similar type of objects - swept manifolds. In particular, effective computability of swept manifold intersections is of major concern.

The main goal …

Simulation Of Creep In Nickel Based Single Crystal Superalloys, Yunhong Pang

Dissertations

Nickel based single crystal Superalloys are finding wide spread use in high temperature gas turbines and other similar applications because of their superior high-temperature strength and creep properties as compared to the other materials. This is due to two factors: solid solution and precipitation strengthening of the gamma (γ) and gamma prime (γ') phases, and the elimination of grain boundaries. Creep of Nickel based single crystal Superalloys are caused by two primary mechanisms, dislocation creep and diffusion creep. Several factors that affect the creep life of Nickel based single crystal Superalloys are the specific microstructure, stress, temperature and rafting. Also, …

Scheduling Policies For Disks And Disk Arrays, Chang Liu

Dissertations

Recent rapid advances of magnetic recording technology have enabled substantial increases in disk capacity. There has been less than 10% improvement annually in the random access time to small data blocks on the disk. Such accesses are very common in OLTP applications, which tend to have stringent response time requirements. Scheduling of disk requests is intended to improve their response time, reduce disk service time, and increase disk access bandwidth with respect to the default FCFS scheduling policy.

Shortest Access Time First policy has been shown to outperform other classical disk scheduling policies in numerous studies. Before verifying this conclusion, …

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 …

Collaborative Examinations In Asyncronous Learning Networks : Field Experiments On Collaborative Learning Through Online Assessments, Jia Shen

Dissertations

With the proliferation of computer networks and the emergence of virtual teams, learning and knowledge sharing in the online environment has become an increasingly important topic. Applying constructivism and collaborative learning theories to assessment, the collaborative online exam is designed featuring students' active participation in various phases of the exam process through small group activities online. A participatory online exam process is designed featuring similar procedures except that students' involvement in each phase of the exam is individual. The collaborative online exam and the participatory online exam are investigated regarding student exam study strategies, group process, exam outcomes, faculty satisfaction, …