Digital Commons Network^™

Big Crank Country: Methamphetamine In Montana, Dawn Perkins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Coastal Ocean Morphodynamics And The Resulting Erosion And Deposition: An Analytical Approach, Shejun Fan

OES Theses and Dissertations

Coastal ocean morphodynamics is the study of the morphological change of the coastal ocean system. Environmental conditions, such as climatic and geological controls, are exogenous inputs of the system, which are responsible for geographic variation among coastal oceans. In the coastal ocean system, coastal morphological changes are the results of a series of morphodynamical processes. In this treatise, quantitative, dynamical sedimentary models are developed to provide an analytical understanding of morphodynamical processes in coastal ocean environments. These dynamical sedimentary models numerically simulate the sedimentary processes over a range of time scales from an event time scale, based on the fundamental …

Fair Use Infrastructure For Rights Management Systems, Dan L. Burk, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, we consider whether rights management systems can be supported by legal and institutional infrastructures that enable appropriate public access to the works secured by these technologies. We focus primarily on the design challenges posed by the fair use doctrine, which historically has played a central role in preserving such access. Throughout the paper, however, we also use the term "fair use" to refer more generally to the variety of limiting doctrines within copyright law that serve this goal. We begin in Part II by reviewing the contours of the fair use doctrine and the legal and policy …

Reduced Parts-Count Multi-Level Rectifiers, Keith Corzine, J. Yuen, J. R. Baker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multi-level power converters have gained much attention due to their high power quality, low switching losses, and high-voltage capability. These advantages make the multi-level converter a candidate topology for the next generation of naval ship propulsion systems. The primary disadvantage of these systems is the large number of semiconductors involved. This paper presents a reduced parts-count rectifier which is well suited for naval rectifier applications where bi-directional power flow is not required. The proposed converter is analyzed and experimentally verified on an 18 kW four-level rectifier/inverter system.

Reducing Power Bus Impedance At Resonance With Lossy Components, Todd H. Hubing, Theodore M. Zeeff

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power bus structures in printed circuit boards with solid power and ground planes exhibit resonances. When the power bus is resonant, the power bus impedance can increase dramatically. This paper explores the effect of component equivalent series resistance (ESR) on power bus resonances. General guidelines for selecting an optimum ESR are provided and are supported by laboratory measurements and numerical simulations

A Statistical Solution To A Text Decoding Challenge Problem, Xindi Cai, Rui Xu, Donald C. Wunsch, V. A. Samaranayake

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Given an encoded unknown text message in the form of a three dimensional spatial series generated by the use of four smooth nonlinear functions, we use a method based on simple statistical reasoning to pick up samples for rebuilding the four functions. The estimated functions are then used to decode the sequence. The experimental results show that our method gives a nearly perfect decoding, enabling us to submit a 100% accurate solution to the IJCNN challenge problem

Evaluation Of Accounting Software Tailored For Farming Operations, Chad Peder Lee

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Transition To Democracy In Chile | Two Factors, Sam D. Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Excitation And Turbine Neurocontrol With Derivative Adaptive Critics Of Multiple Generators On The Power Grid, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Donald C. Wunsch, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Based on derivative adaptive critics, neurocontrollers for excitation and turbine control of multiple generators on the electric power grid are presented. The feedback variables are completely based on local measurements. Simulations on a three-machine power system demonstrate that the neurocontrollers are much more effective than conventional PID controllers, the automatic voltage regulators and the governors, for improving the dynamic performance and stability under small and large disturbances

Experimental Studies With Continually Online Trained Artificial Neural Network Identifiers For Multiple Turbogenerators On The Electric Power Grid, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Donald C. Wunsch, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The increasing complexity of a modern power grid highlights the need for advanced system identification techniques for effective control of power systems. This paper provides a new method for nonlinear identification of turbogenerators in a 3-machine 6-bus power system using online trained feedforward neural networks. Each turbogenerator in the power system is equipped with a neuro-identifier, which is able to identify its particular turbogenerator and the rest of the network to which it is connected from moment to moment, based on only local measurements. Each neuro-identifier can then be used in the design of a nonlinear neurocontroller for each turbogenerator …

Phoenix Suites| [Poems], Miles Waggener

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Privacy And Power, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Something has gone wrong in modem America, argues Jeffrey Rosen in The Unwanted Gaze. Our medical records are bought and sold by health care providers, drug companies, and the insurance industry. Our e-mails are intercepted and read by our employers. Amazon.com knows everything there is to know about our reading and web-browsing habits. Poor Monica Lewinsky's draft love letters to President Bill Clinton were seized by the villainous Ken Starr, and ultimately plastered all over the nation's newspapers.

To Rosen, the nature of the problem is clear: These examples are all part of a troubling "phenomenon that affects all …

Environmental Law Slogans For The New Millenium, Michael Allan Wolf

University of Richmond Law Review

Contrary to the bleakest predictions offered by environmental fatalists during the latter half of the 1900s, humanity and much of the plant and animal kingdom survived New Year's Eve 1999. Similarly, contrary to the dire warnings of industrial organizations and lobbyists that overburdening environmental regulations would spell the end of profitable, American capitalism, the year 2000 dawned in the United States with the world's most extensive array of anti-pollution and pro-conservation measures regulating the globe's most impressive economic engines.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Environmental Law, Kevin J. Finto, Christopher R. Graham, Brooks M. Smith, Penny A. Shamblin

University of Richmond Law Review

Recent developments in environmental law in Virginia continue to reflect several trends. These trends may be grouped into six general categories: (1) the growing tension between federal environmental mandates and their practical implementation through delegated state programs; (2) the continuing debate over the exact definition of "interstate commerce" and the scope of state authority to regulate in the gray area; (3) the impending deregulation of the electrical energy market; (4) the promotion of sustainable development; (5) the developing schism between state and local land use control; and (6) the evolving nature of administrative law in the environmental context. The following …

Privacy, Ideology, And Technology: A Response To Jeffrey Rosen, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews Jeffrey Rosen’s The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America (2000).

Rosen offers a compelling (and often hair-raising) account of the pervasive dissolution of the boundary between public and private information. This dissolution is both legal and social; neither the law nor any other social institution seems to recognize many limits on the sorts of information that can be subjected to public scrutiny. The book also provides a rich, evocative characterization of the dignitary harms caused by privacy invasion. Rosen’s description of the sheer unfairness of being “judged out of context” rings instantly true. Privacy, Rosen …

A Novel Morphological Operator To Calculate Euler Number, Zhao Zhang, Randy Hays Moss, William V. Stoecker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper introduces a novel morphological operator to calculate the Euler number for binary images. The operator is based on the condition of eight-connectedness for foreground and four-connectedness for background. It is significantly faster than the previous operators. The morphological operations used in border detection are discussed

A Parallel Computer-Go Player, Using Hdp Method, Donald C. Wunsch, Xindi Cai

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The game of Go has simple rules to learn but requires complex strategies to play well, and, the conventional tree search algorithm for computer games is not suited for Go program. Thus, the game of Go is an ideal problem domain for machine learning algorithms. This paper examines the performance of a 19x19 computer Go player, using heuristic dynamic programming (HDP) and parallel alpha-beta search. The neural network based Go player learns good Go evaluation functions and wins about 30% of the games in a test series on 19x19 board

Volume Management In San Environment, Chang-Soo Kim, Gyoung-Bae Kim, Bum-Joo Shin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Logical volume managers have long been key components of a storage system. Their key features are creation of logical or virtual views of physical storage devices and support for various software RAID levels. These make it possible to overcome the limits to capacity, availability and performance of a physical storage device. Most logical volume managers are operated in a single system environment. They are not adequate for SAN (storage area network) environments where several hosts share and access a logical volume at the same time. Some recent logical volume managers are run in a multi-host environment. However, they cannot support …

Law As Culture, Naomi Mezey

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Essay is an attempt to theorize the relationship of law to culture and culture to law beyond the intuitive, commonplace sense that law partakes of culture - by reflecting it as well as by reacting against it - and that culture refracts law. It proposes a theory of law as culture that, in detailing the mutually constitutive nature of the relationship, distinguishes itself from the way law and culture have been conceived by realist and critical legal scholars, as well as by social norms writers. The Essay concludes by speculating about one possible method by which this theorizing might …

High-Power Microwave Wideband Random Signal Measurement And Narrowband Signal Detection Against The Noise Background, Marina Koledintseva, Alexander A. Kitaytsev, V. A. Konkin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A method of both measurement of power parameters of a microwave wideband intense random signal and detection of a narrow-band signal with unknown frequency and power against a background of this wideband signal is presented. This method is based on nonheterodyne frequency and power conversion using a gyromagnetic converter that operates in two regimes: resonance detection and cross-multiplication. The wideband spectrum envelope of a random signal is visualized, and by switching two regimes and using correspondent filtration of the converted RF signal, the narrowband signals can be detected and measured. The block-scheme and operation of a two-channel measuring device combining …

Patent Scope And Innovation In The Software Industry, Julie E. Cohen, Mark A. Lemley

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Software patents have received a great deal of attention in the academic literature. Unfortunately, most of that attention has been devoted to the problem of whether software is or should be patentable subject matter. With roughly eighty thousand software patents already issued, and the Federal Circuit endorsing patentability without qualification, those questions are for the history books. The more pressing questions now concern the scope to be accorded software patents. In this Article, we examine the implications of some traditional patent law doctrines for innovation in the software industry. We argue that patent law needs some refinement if it is …

History Of Barbed Wire| [Poems], Chris Dombrowski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Measurement And Monitoring Of Microwave Reflection And Transmission Properties Of Cement-Based Specimens, Sergey Kharkovsky, M. F. Akay, U. C. Hasar, C. D. Atis

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The results of measurement and monitoring of reflection and transmission properties of cement-based specimens (blocks of mortar, concrete) during long time of their service lives, including hydration process, and different curing conditions at microwave frequencies (X-band) are presented. A simple and inexpensive measurement system that utilizes the nondestructive and contactless free space method is used. Dependencies of the reflection and transmission coefficients on water-to-cement ratio, preparing and curing conditions of the specimens are demonstrated. It is shown that the reflection coefficient is approximately stable after hydration process while the transmission coefficient changes during long time of the specimen''s service life. …

Measurement And Monitoring Of Microwave Reflection And Transmission Properties Of Cement-Based Materials For Propagation Modeling, Sergey Kharkovsky, U. C. Hasar, M. F. Akay, C. D. Atis

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A non-destructive, contactless, free-space method is used for measuring and monitoring the properties of cement-based materials. We analyse the propagation factor, penetration depth and reflection and transmission coefficients of the plane wave interacting with the highly lossy specimen. Results are presented of the measurement and monitoring of the properties of cement-based materials during all stages of their lives and different curing conditions The expected applications of the results for propagation modelling are discussed.

Seeking Sunlight In Santa Fe's Shadow: The Sec's Pursuit Of Managerial Accountability, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

My aim in this paper is not to justify at length an expansive "new corporation law" perspective, though I do believe in it. Nor do I want to try to resolve a controversial question that the new learning admittedly leaves open: which jurisdictional body should set the disclosure and antifraud standards insofar as they are designed to promote better corporate governance? To say that corporate and securities law are largely unitary does not necessarily mean that centralization of authority in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) is the right choice. Perhaps the states, foreign countries, or stock exchanges …

Fishing With Silas | An Angler's Guide To The Lewis And Clark Trail, Nick J. Winterer Gevock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Detection And Classification Of Impact-Induced Damage In Composite Plates Using Neural Networks, Rohit Dua, Steve Eugene Watkins, Donald C. Wunsch, K. Chandrashekhara, Farhad Akhavan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Artificial neutral networks (ANN) can be used as an online health monitoring systems (involving damage assessment, fatigue monitoring and delamination detection) for composite structures owing to their inherent fast computing speeds, parallel processing and ability to learn and adapt to the experimental data. The amount of impact-induced strain on a composite structure can be found using strain sensors attached to composite structures. Prior work has shown that strain-based ANN can characterize impact energy on composite plates and that strain signatures can be associated with damage types and severity. This paper reports the extension of this approach for damage classification using …

Aha? Is Creativity Possible In Legal Problem Solving And Teachable In Legal Education?, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article continues and expands on my earlier project of seeking to describe how legal negotiation should be understood conceptually and undertaken behaviorally to produce better solutions to legal problems. As structured problem solving requires interests, needs and objectives identification, so too must creative solution seeking have its structure and elements in order to be effectively taught. Because research and teaching about creativity and how we think has expanded greatly since modern legal negotiation theory has been developed, it is now especially appropriate to examine how we might harness this new learning to how we might examine and teach legal …

What Courts Can Do In The Face Of The Never-Ending Asbestos Crisis, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this article is not to argue that claimants suffering from serious asbestos-related diseases should not be compensated. To the contrary, one of the points of this article is that absent some change in the way asbestos claims are resolved, claimants who become truly sick in the future may not receive adequate compensation. Changing the current asbestos compensation system would be pro-claimant. Also, the purpose of this article is not to ascribe blame. Rather, it is to fix a problem. The judges cannot be blamed for their good intentions. Neither can the plaintiffs' attorneys be blamed for zealously …

Dynamic Resource Allocation For Network Echo Cancellation, T. Gansler, J. Benesty, M. Mohan Sondhi, Steven L. Grant

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Network echo canceler chips are designed to handle several channels simultaneously. With the processing speeds now available, a single chip might handle several hundred channels. In current implementations, however, the adaptation algorithm is designed for a single channel, and the computations are replicated N c times, where N c is the number of channels. With such an implementation, the computational requirement is N c times the peak load for a single channel. The number of computations required in each channel, however, varies widely over time. Therefore, a considerable reduction in computational load can be achieved by designing the system for …