Digital Commons Network^™

Knowledge-Based Document Retrieval With Application To Texpros, Fang Sheng

Dissertations

Document retrieval in an information system is most often accomplished through keyword search. The common technique behind keyword search is indexing. The major drawback of such a search technique is its lack of effectiveness and accuracy. It is very common in a typical keyword search over the Internet to identify hundreds or even thousands of records as the potentially desired records. However, often few of them are relevant to users' interests.

This dissertation presents knowledge-based document retrieval architecture with application to TEXPROS. The architecture is based on a dual document model that consists of a document type hierarchy and, a …

Efficient Inversion Methods In Underwater Acoustics, Xiaoqun Ma

Dissertations

This dissertation describes efficient methods developed and implemented for source localization and sound speed and bottom depth estimation using sound propagation in the ocean. The proposed inversion techniques are based on the linearization of the generally non-linear inverse problem of parameter estimation in underwater acoustics. These techniques take into account properties of the ocean environment and are accurate in their estimation results without being prohibitively computationally intensive. For the inversion, select ray paths are taken into account: the direct, first surface bounce, and first bottom bounce. Ray travel time derivatives with respect to parameters that affect path arrival times are …

An Experimental Study Of Dry Particle Coating : Devices, Operating Parameters And Applications, Michelle Ramlakhan Mohan

Dissertations

Dry particle coating, which mechanically coats fine guest particles onto the surfaces of larger host particles, without binders or solvents, is investigated. Several systems of host and guest particles are coated in different devices to study various aspects of dry particle coating. The devices used are Magnetically Assisted Impaction Coating (MAIC) device, Mechanofusion, and the Hybridizer.

MAIC is used to coat fine SiO₂ guest particles onto the surface of larger cornstarch and cellulose host particles. This is done to simultaneously improve the flowability of the host particles, as well as reduce their hydrophilicity. Dry particle coating is used to …

Near-Field Imaging With Terahertz Pulses, Oleg Mitrofanov

Dissertations

High spatial resolution imaging is implemented with a novel collection mode near-field terahertz (THz) probe. Exceptional sensitivity of the probe allows imaging with spatial resolution of few microns using THz pulses with spectral content of 120 to 1500 microns. In the present study, the principle of the probe operation as well as the probe design and characteristics are described.

The probe performance is related to effective detection of radiation coupled into the probe aperture. Propagation of short single-cycle electromagnetic pulses through apertures as small as 1/300 of the wavelength is experimentally and numerically studied. Finite-difference time-domain method is used to …

Joint Source Channel Coding For Progressive Image Transmission, Minyi Zhao

Dissertations

Recent wavelet-based image compression algorithms achieve best ever performances with fully embedded bit streams. However, those embedded bit streams are very sensitive to channel noise and protections from channel coding are necessary. Typical error correcting capability of channel codes varies according to different channel conditions. Thus, separate design leads to performance degradation relative to what could be achieved through joint design. In joint source-channel coding schemes, the choice of source coding parameters may vary over time and channel conditions. In this research, we proposed a general approach for the evaluation of such joint source-channel coding scheme. Instead of using the …

Software And Hardware Improvements For Digital Solar Magnetograph System, Shu Yang

Dissertations

Digital solar imaging systems have been widely used in solar observations. Their high resolution, high rate of image acquisition and convenience for off-line image processing have provided significant improvements to solar physics research. In this project, two digital magnetograph systems established at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) have been described. One is used to provide a high frame rate magnetogram system, and the other provides a real-time image alignment, i.e., a correlation tracker system.

The developed correlation tracker system consists of a high-speed 64x64 CCD camera, an EDT image grabbing board, an agile mirror, a D/A board and a Sun …

Performance Analysis And Resource Allocation In Cdma Wireless Networks For Multimedia Services, Sebnem Zorlu

Dissertations

The proliferation of Internet and demand for wireless services necessitate large increases in capacity and data rates in order to support different multimedia services. Wireless systems will be required to support sources with a variety of traffic characteristics and quality of service requirements. This requires algorithms for admission control and resource allocation at the session, burst and packet levels. The purpose of this research is to develop and analyze optimal resource allocation strategies to maximize throughput of wireless systems with integrated services. Given the multimedia user requirements, the problem addressed can be formulated as a constrained optimization problem. The objective …

Nucleus 2001: Hit The Ground Running, New Jersey Institute Of Technology

Yearbooks

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the New Jersey Institute of Technology Nucleus.

Western News, May 31, 2001, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Heinigs to lead centennial celebration efforts; awareness campaign to be launched this summer, Three WMU students capture prestigious Down Beat awards, Firm partnering with University to train pilots for European airlines, Borish chosen for committee; to present three papers abroad, Delene tapped for position as vice provost, International convention draws horn players from around the world, On Campus with Barb Wygant, Gershon examines telecom industry in book, Speaker to discuss his personal struggle with little-known disorder, HUD grant funding multilevel project to improve quality of life in city of Benton Harbor.

Um Graduate Listed Among Nation's Top Scholars, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Professional Development Workshop: "Infusing Technology Into The Language Arts Curriculum" – Gateway To The 21st Century, Joy D. Carey

Theses and Dissertations

This technology action research project provided teachers with the opportunity to learn how to navigate the Internet and to enhance the Language Arts curriculum. This project was conducted in a Camden, NJ elementary, urban, Abbott school setting. This sample population was chosen from responses to a cross-sectional self-report pre-workshop interest questionnaire. Thirty-six staff members agreed to participate in the training sessions. The intern scored the results of the Likert surveys using Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint computer software. Seventy percent of the respondents to the pre-workshop interest questionnaire indicated they had inadequate knowledge of the Internet.

The post-workshop Likert questionnaire results …

A Comparison Of Risks From New Jersey Chemical Facilities And The Benefits Of Risk Communication, Heather R. Dobbs

Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if the amount of toxic chemicals a facility stores on-site is a valid indicator for determining a facility's risk potential and need to communicate risk information to the public. This study analyzes New Jersey chemical facilities regulated under the CAA's Risk Management Plan (section 112(r)) and their toxic chemical releases and other risk factors to determine if there is a relationship between the amount of toxic chemicals stored on-site and the potential risk from a toxic release. The analysis of data suggests that no relationship exists; therefore, one could assume that all …

A Cad-Mlca Interface For Next-Generation Dfe Tools, Jun He

Theses

Environmental concerns and rising product disposal costs have pressed manufactures to make more environmentally friendly products and customers to use and dispose of them in an environmental responsive way. Thus the practice of Design for Environment (DFE) is becoming essential in today's industrial environment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides different ways for the environmental assessment of products. One critical step in performing lifecycle assessment of any product design is to collect design-related data. The common way based on manual input for traditional DFE tools is not only cumbersome and time-consuming but also error-prone.

This thesis presents the characteristics of a …

A Laboratory And Field Study Of The Attenuation Of Sound Intensity Using A Whistle As The Sonic Generator, Navneet Kumar

Theses

This study investigated the attenuation of sound intensity using a whistle as the sonic generator along with the detailed analysis of all the previous studies. Attenuation of sound in air studies were performed in Otto H. York Center for Environmental Engineering and Science at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Sound attenuation through air was measured by doubling the distance for each of five whistles. It was concluded that Whistle No.5 gives the highest sound intensity of 140.54 dB at a distance of 0.75 ft , the closest distance used for measurement, at a air flow rate of 7.5 SCFM. These …

Silicon Based Ir Filters, Prakash Mokashi

Theses

The design and fabrication of silicon based IR (Infrared) filters for high-speed optical communication systems are the topic of this thesis. Its novelty is in two aspects: 1) Use of silicon wafers as an optical guiding medium; 2) Use of wafer bonding technique to attach two optical elements together.

The structure consists of two optical waveguides, the bus waveguide and the drop channel waveguide. A ring on top of these waveguides couples them in such a way that only one narrow spectral line is removed from the bus waveguides which propagates in the dropchannel waveguide. The assembly is fabricated using …

Factors And State Electric Utility Deregulation Policy Influences On Green Power Marketers, Richard Orlusky

Theses

The electric power industry has been restructuring over the last several years to allow market competition in purchasing electric power. Power generation that was traditionally provided by the local electric utility has been deregulated in order to introduce customer choice. The renewable energy sector of the power industry will have to compete with conventional fossil fuel power generators in this market. This research focused on factors and state deregulation policies that are of importance to Green Power Marketers in a retail power market. Green Power Marketers providing service in California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey retail power markets were surveyed to …

Optical Properties Of Photonic Crystals, Anand G. Shenoy

Theses

The ability to confine light in three dimensions has important implications for quantum optics and quantum-optical devices. Photonic crystals, the optical analog of electronic crystals, provide us a means of achieving this goal. This analogy has motivated a whole new series of experimental and theoretical searches for elusive photonic band-gap structures. Combinations of metallic and dielectric materials can be used to obtain the required three-dimensional (3D) periodic variation in the dielectric constant. This could pave the way for photonic crystal structures that have widespread applications.

The working of 3D photonic crystals into the wavelength regimes where most optoelectronic devices operate, …

Data Mining Using Neural Networks For Large Credit Card Record Sites, Wei Wei

Theses

Data mining using neural networks has been applied in various financial fields such as risk mitigation, missing data filling, fraud detection, and customer profile classification etc. This master thesis work aims to develop methodologies to mine large sets of records and in particular to fill missing data in these records. The steps include data cleansing, data selection, data preprocessing, data representation, data clustering and finally the missing data filling. Furthermore, this work designs algorithms to evaluate the supervised neural networks' performance, which is helpful for the future research on data prediction and classification. A case study based on a large …

Propagation And Scattering Of Collimated Beam Wave In Vegetation Using Scalar Transport Theory, Michael Yu-Chi Wu

Theses

The scalar time-dependent equation of radiative transfer is used to develop a theory of pulse beamwave propagation and scattering in a medium character ized by many random discrete scatterers which scatter energy strongly in the forward scattering direction. Applications include the scattering of highly collimated millimeter waves in vegetation and optical beams in the atmosphere. The specific problem analyzed is that of a periodic sequence of Gaussian shaped pulses normally incident from free space onto the planar boundary surface of a random medium half-space, such as a forest, that possesses a power scatter (phase) function consisting of a strong, narrow …

Observer, Central Washington University

Student Newspaper

Student newspaper for Central Washington University for May 31, 2001

The Murray Ledger And Times, May 31, 2001, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

The First Sale Doctrine And Digital Phonorecords, Bob Hyde

Duke Law & Technology Review

This iBrief follows various phonorecord formats to illustrate the specifics of the First Sale doctrine as it applies to digital phonorecords. The author argues that the disposal of a digital phonorecord by means of distribution infringes an author's exclusive right to reproduce the underlying musical work and this distribution is not subject to First Sale protection.

Supporting Adaptive Ubiquitous Applications With The Solar System, Guanling Chen, David Kotz

Computer Science Technical Reports

As we embed more computers into our daily environment, ubiquitous computing promises to make them less noticeable and help to prevent information overload. We see, however, few ubiquitous applications that are able to adapt to the dynamics of user, physical, and computational context. We believe that there are two challenges causing this lack of ubiquitous applications: there is no flexible and scalable way to support information collection and dissemination in a ubiquitous and mobile environment, and there is no general approach to building adaptive applications given heterogeneous contextual information. We propose a system infrastructure, Solar, to meet these challenges. Solar …

Administration Official Fired In Clash Over Human Rights, Ladb Staff

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

May 31, 2001, The Daily Mississippian

Daily Mississippian (all digitized issues)

No abstract provided.

Mustang Daily, May 30, 2001

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Timess Values In A New Millennium Or Timeless Values In Changing, Turbulent Times, C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In this shortened version of a speech at the 2001 Windsor Conference (see Timeless Values in Turbulent Times [Windsor]), Pollard reflects on the integration of business and faith in light of the rapid economic changes witnessed at the turn of the century.

Independent- May 30, 2001, Scott Plencner

The Independent (1988-present)

No abstract provided.

The Murray Ledger And Times, May 30, 2001, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

The Implications Of The Financial Services Modernization Act On Life Insurance Industry Communications, Michael A. Weinberg

Theses and Dissertations

This study's purpose was to assess the effects of legislation known as The Financial Services Modernization Act on life insurance industry communicators. The November, 1999 legislation effectively broke down the barriers separating the major financial services industries in the U.S. - life insurance, banking, and securities.

An email survey of a random sample of the Life Communicators Association (LCA) U.S. membership was conducted. The LCA is a professional organization of marketing communications, advertising, and public relations professionals working for life insurance and other financial services firms. 242 surveys were emailed.

The results indicated that most of the LCA members were …