Digital Commons Network^™

Web Personalization Using Neuro-Fuzzy Clustering Algorithms, Kartik Menon, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Different users have different needs from the same web page and hence it is necessary to develop a system which understands the needs and demands of the users. Web server logs have abundant information about the nature of users accessing it. In this paper we discussed how to mine these web server logs for a given period of time using unsupervised and competitive learning algorithm like Kohonen''s self organizing maps (SOM) and interpreting those results using Unified distance Matrix (U-matrix). These algorithms help us in efficiently clustering users based on similar web access patterns and each cluster having users with …

Best Practices For Integration Of Iso 14001 Environmental Management Systems Into Small To Medium Size Businesses, Najib Hakim

Theses

Small to Medium size Businesses (SMBs) are now confronted with a new challenge; "Would it be appropriate to implement and incorporate a strategic Environmental Management System (EMS) into their business?" SMBs have to live up to certain environmental responsibilities similar to large corporations. Major corporations are starting to favor suppliers that have a certified ISO 14001 environmental management system, so the question for many SMBs is, "Is it feasible to incorporate such a system?" Industries currently face a certain degree of challenge when it comes to the environment, environmental performance, and demands by society for cleaner, more efficient processes. In …

Ip Telephony: The Total Solution Guide, Todd Wilson

Theses

Voice and telephony services have been viewed as constants for over the past hundred+ years. Picking up the telephone and hearing "dial tone" is something we don't think about, a simple thing in the life that households and organizations' all over the world take for granted. Over the past several decades, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) technology has proved its existence with great staying power. The phrase "five 9s" reliability has been a subject of many conversations pertaining to voice, and as time passes on, the PBX still gams more valuable trust and respect from its' users. It wasn't until approximately …

Manifestations Of Desire, Angela Duron

Theses

Bisexuality is not the exclusion of heterosexuality or homosexuality. In fact, on the surface it may seem like a combination of both. Although it may be comforting to see ourselves as having fixed gender identities, preferring the same or opposite sex and performing according to expectations associated with these preferences in our culture, bisexuality transcends the contemporary hetero-homo bipolarization and expresses a distinct and separate reality. It is proposed that this thesis project will examine the phenomenon of the bisexual female through the scripting, filming and editing of a short 16mm experimental documentary film. This documentary will work with notions …

Workplace Violence Prevention And Systems Management, Megan Ahn

Theses

Violence in the workplace has become a major concern to labor, business, and government. In the past ten years, between 600 and 1000 work related deaths have been attributed to homicide. The repercussions of non-fatal aggression and violence in the workplace are not yet clear. What is clear is that all organizations are at some degree of risk and that regulatory and legal requirements dictate that preventive action be taken to protect employees, other stakeholders and the public from workplace violence. This thesis posits that by using a systems management approach along with the techniques of quality management, instances of …

Understanding "Photograph A", Jun Ku Yoon

Theses

Not provided.

A Search Into Time, History, And Relevance: Clay/ Steel/ Fiberglass, Brad Spencer

Theses

Not provided.

Hygiene Factors Contributing To Alumni Satisfaction In Attending Rochester Institute Of Technology's Service And Hospitality Management Masters Of Science Degrees From 1988 To 1997, Charles Iv Farran

Theses

Prior to this study there have been no alumni satisfaction studies of the Department of Food, Hotel and Tourism Management Masters Degree Programs from Rochester Institute of Technology. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of satisfaction of alumni and the impact hygiene factors have on alumni satisfaction. The initial element of the procedures was to conduct research. This research was accomplished through a review of pertinent literature. The review of literature was followed by the establishment of goals and parameters for this study. A survey was mailed to all the graduates of the F.H.T.M. masters programs. …

Interpersonal Communication Training At The Cia, Jerry Fischetti

Theses

The purpose of this research is to present and evaluate an educational intervention strategy developed at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to enhance the interpersonal communication skills of Associate Degree students. Specifically, a class in interpersonal communications with unique behavioral objectives was introduced into the Associate Degree programs in January 2001 to improve the preparation of these students as managers and facilitators in the industry. Utilizing some core concepts of learning theory and the theory of cognitive dissonance, as well as theories of organizational change and resistance to change, an ethnographic study was conducted to assess the extent to …

Cultural Differences And Organizational Leadership: Cultural Difference As Barriers To The Trans-Cultural Application Of The Concept Of Organizational Leadership, Jennifer Matic

Theses

This study examined the impact of cultural differences on the trans-cultural application of the concept of organizational leadership. The significance of four cultural dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity) (Hofstede, G., 1980) towards the concept of organizational leadership (Rost, J.C, 1991) was discussed and a survey as created to test for cultural differences from a leadership perspective. American and Croatian college students then completed the survey. Results showed cultural similarities for all cultural dimensions with the exception of uncertainty avoidance, which was found to be higher for the American sample than the Croatian. Consequently, it can be said …

Multispectral Texture Synthesis, J. Alexander Tyrrell

Theses

Synthesizing texture involves the ordering of pixels in a 2D arrangement so as to display certain known spatial correlations, generally as described by a sample texture. In an abstract sense, these pixels could be gray-scale values, RGB color values, or entire spectral curves. The focus of this work is to develop a practical synthesis framework that maintains this abstract view while synthesizing texture with high spectral dimension, effectively achieving spectral invariance. The principle idea is to use a single monochrome texture synthesis step to capture the spatial information in a multispectral texture. The first step is to use a global …

Web-Based Distributed Ejb Bugstracker: An Integration Of Struts Framework At Web Server, Ejbs At Application Server, And A Relational Database, San Htun Aung

Theses

This "Web-based Distributed EJB BugsTracker" is an integration effort of the 4-tier Enterprise Java Bean -- EJB component architecture where it uses a web browser, a web server, an application sever, and a relational database server. The application is designed and built for software managers, engineers and quality assurance staffs that keep track of the software defects which are produced during the software development life cycle. It allows independent user login in multi-project environments. This project makes use of all the benefits of the J2EE technologies: maintainability, portability, and scalability. In addition, Container Managed Persistence (CMP 2.0) greatly simplifies the …

Solid-Phase Combinatorial Synthesis: Wittig Reaction For C=C Formation In Tamoxifen Derivatives, David Yu-Chung Lee

Theses

Tamoxifen has a backbone structure of triphenylethylene and is a drug that has been used for over 20 years to treat patients with breast cancer. It has been discussed in the literature that the C=C formation would be the desired synthetic approach because of its flexibility in the introduction of suitable functional groups using readily available reagents. Solid-phase combinatorial approach is adopted for the purpose of product diversity and simplicity in product analysis. This research focused on optimization of each reaction step in the Wittig mechanism to overcome low yield caused by employing solid-state chemistry and the steric hindrance of …

Thermal Optimization Of A Polyimide V-Groove Actuator For A Walking Micro-Robot, Ritesh Arun Khire

Theses

The objective of this thesis was to develop a Finite Element Model for the Polyimide V-groove actuator (fabricated by T. Ebefors, Sweden). Extensive FEM simulations for this MEMS actuator were performed using ANSYS 5.6. An optimization module was used to improve the performance of the existing design. A substantial improvement in the performance was observed for the proposed design. In short, this research established a methodology that can be extended for modeling and simulation of other MEMS devices. A computer simulated FEM model for heat and deflection analysis was validated for two configurations of the Polyimide V-groove Actuator (i.e. a …

Development Of A Technique To Measure The Mtf Of A Transducer Used In An Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanner, Laura Blair

Theses

Beam characteristics of a transducer play a major role in defining the resolution of any ultrasound imaging system. Direct experimental estimation of the beam profile is often desirable, however, one has to carefully correct for effects that are attributed to the measurement process itself. We report here our experience of using a measurement technique developed for circular disk focused transducers. When the anticipated beam size is much smaller than 0.5 mm the use of a hydrophone to scan the monochromatic beam is not adequate. A more suitable approach is to make a measurement in pulse-echo mode using a thin (125 …

Nanocomposites Based On Carbon Nanotubes And Poly (3-Alkylthiophenes) For Sensor And Charge Storage Applications, Rajiv N. Sangoi

Theses

Novel nanocomposites of poly (3-alkylthiophenes) with functionalized MWCNT were prepared. These nanocomposites were synthesized by in-situ polymerization of the polymer in presence of the nanotubes. Nanocomposites with poly (3-MT) were synthesized by using different weight percentages of functionalized nanotubes during synthesis while those with other polymers were prepared using 30 mg of nanotubes. A nanocomposite of poly (3-MT) with nonfunctionalized nanotubes and a physical mixture of poly (3-MT) and functionalized nanotubes was also prepared. The above nanocomposites were characterized by using techniques such as FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy and TGA. These techniques were used to show the difference between the nanocomposites …

Java Software For Libr-Water Absorption Refrigeration System Evaluation, Indraneel Samanta

Theses

The energy consumption per capita per year throughout the world is increasing. With an increase in standard of living and world population, the demand for total energy is increasing rapidly and it is anticipated that the existing fossil fuels will be exhausted before the end of this century. More attention is being focused by the scientists and engineers throughout the world to develop potential methods that would use waste heat. A significant amount of low temperature (between 60° C and 99° C) heat is wasted annually in industrial process [1]. This waste heat could be used to drive absorption chillers, …

Carbon Nanotube Catalysts: An Approach Toward Nanodimensional Reactions, Mindy Gordon

Theses

The oxidations of aromatic and aliphatic amines have been investigated to evaluate the catalytic effect of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Aniline oxidation by hydrogen peroxide produces very low yields of azoxybenzene; similarly, p-toluidine oxidation produces azoxytoluene after long time periods. When functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes are present in these reactions, the above oxidations produced unique products such as azobenzene or azotoluene within a short period. The course of the reaction has been followed by GC/MS that showed a mass number of 198 corresponding to azoxybenzene (without carbon nanotubes) or 182 corresponding to azobenzene (with the nanotubes). The first stage of …

Loathing, Jessica Rose Monsour

Theses

This thesis project explores an artist's struggle with self in relationship to environment and society. Specifically, the artist examines loathing, as a shadow that is representative of one's unacceptable attributes that are labeled by society's expectations, through the combination of three processes: photography, sculpture and installations.

Dynamics Of Bulk And Adsorbed Poly(Vinyl Acetate), Frank D. Blum, Robert D. O'Connor

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We have recently completed a series of experiments on methyl-labeled poly(vinyl acetate)-d3, (PVAc-d3)1 and poly(methyl acrylate)-d3 (PMA-d3).234 the systems have been studied as a function of the adsorbed amount, molecular weight, and presence of a protonated overlayer. Using deuterium line shape analysis, we have found that around the glass transition temperature, the adsorbed polymers show the presence of a motional gradient. Polymer segments near the silica-polymer interface have less mobility than the bulk polymer and those near the polymer-air interface are more mobile than those of the bulk polymer. A schematic representation of the motional gradient is shown in Figure …

Concept, Design, Simulation, And Fabrication Of An Ultra-Scalable Vertical Mosfet, Keith H. Tabakman

Theses

A new orientation to the conventional MOSFET is proposed. Processing issues, as well as short channel effects have been making planar MOSFET scaling increasingly difficult. It is predicted by the 2001 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) that non-planar devices will be needed for production as early as 2007. The device proposed in this thesis is similar in operation to the planar MOSFET, however the current transport from source to drain, normally in the same plane as the wafer surface, is oriented perpendicular to the die surface. The proposed device has successfully been simulated, showing a proof of concept. Fabrication …

Estimation Of Illuminants From Color Signals Of Illuminated Objects, Xiaoyun Jiang

Theses

Color constancy is the ability of the human visual systems to discount the effect of the illumination and to assign approximate constant color descriptions to objects. This ability has long been studied and widely applied to many areas such as color reproduction and machine vision, especially with the development of digital color processing. This thesis work makes some improvements in illuminant estimation and computational color constancy based on the study and testing of existing algorithms. During recent years, it has been noticed that illuminant estimation based on gamut comparison is efficient and simple to implement. Although numerous investigations have been …

Steady State And Transient Analysis Of Thermoelectric Devices Using Finite Element Method, Gurjinder Singh

Theses

Thermoelectric devices offer noiseless and environment friendly operation, which makes them the most suitable devices of the future in their category. However, the performance of these devices is still way below its competitor thermal and electrical systems. The major factor that decides the performance of these devices is the thermoelectric material. Although the use of Silicon as a thermoelectric material greatly improved the performance of new thermoelectric devices over the metal based thermoelectric devices, it is still not close to the performance level of heat engines or refrigerators. With a limit on the material properties, these devices must be optimized …

Comparative Performance Analysis Of Texture Characterization Models In Dirsig, Neil W. Scanlan

Theses

The analysis and quantitative measurement of image texture is a complex and intriguing problem that has recently received a considerable amount of attention from the diverse fields of computer graphics, human vision, biomedical imaging, computer science, and remote sensing. In particular, textural feature quantification and extraction are crucial tasks for each of these disciplines, and as such numerous techniques have been developed in order to effectively segment or classify images based on textures, as well as for synthesizing textures. However, validation and performance analysis of these texture characterization models has been largely qualitative in nature based on conducting visual inspections …

The Integration Of Si-Based Resonant Interband, Stephen Sudirgo

Theses

eports the first demonstration of the integration of CMOS and Si/SiGe resonant interband tunnel diode (RITD). In Si-based material, recent breakthrough in Si/SiGe RITD grown using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) made the integration with CMOS possible. The resultant devices enabled the realization of RITD CMOS circuitry, and a NMOS-RITD MOBILE latch was demonstrated in Si, all enabling digital and ternary circuit design for density storage

Character Education Program : An Evaluation Description, Hou Chun Kuong

Graduate Research Papers

In today 's world, all children face great uncertainties in a complex and sometimes troubled society. These traits are not always readily apparent and easy to grasp or learn. Today, schools face the challenge of providing youth with the self-esteem, stamina, and support they need to survive, be successful, and develop into strong, competent, caring, and responsible citizens. To meet the challenge schools have either developed or adopted character education programs.

This paper focused on three elements common to most character education programs: (]) the school program must include parent and community outreach, planning and structure, school climate, curriculum, and …

Center For Creative Education Appendix, 2003, Eliza Barton, Jill Baty, Anne Elrod, Ryan Fitzsimmons, Christopher Grahmm, Laura Hernandez

Monteverde Institute: Sustainable Design, Planning and Community Development

Maps, technical drawings and other schematic diagrams for the Creative Education Center.

Risk Communication: What Is Your Experience In Communication About Risk? [Powerpoint], 2003, Monteverde Institute

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

PowerPoint summarizing the differences between workplace hazards and risks, how to communicate these issues to all of the stakeholders, and how to minimize the potential for workplace hazards and risks through effective communication among the stakeholders.

Estudio Sobre Manejo De Agua Y Salud En El Hogar En Tres Comunidades De La Cuenca Del Río Guacimal Utilizando Metodos De Investigación Rápida, 2003, Humberto Brenes Cambronero, Saray Garita Salas, Sophia Klempner, Francisco Urruela Baudry

Monteverde Institute: Sustainable Design, Planning and Community Development

Results of a study of the relationship between human health and water at the individual, home and community levels in the communities of Santa Elena, Guacimal, and San Luis.

Bullring-Cerro Plano Escuela Project [Powerpoint], 2003, Adam Linton, Hannah Robinson, Kathleen Wilson, Tim Wilson, Anne Elrod, Ryan Fitzsimmons

Monteverde Institute: Sustainable Design, Planning and Community Development

No abstract provided.