Digital Commons Network^™

Repclass: Cluster And Grid Enabled Automatic Classification Of Transposable Elements Identified De Novo In Genome Sequences, Nirmal Ranganathan

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

In the last few years many computer and laboratory improvements in the production and analysis of DNA sequences have made possible the complete sequencing of whole genomes. This provides us with a wealth of raw genomes that needs to be processed and annotated. 5% to 80% of eukaryotic genomes contain repetitive DNA consisting of transposable elements and tandem repeats which needs to be identified, classified and annotated in order to sequence and annotate the entire genome accurately. Existing tools allow us to identify and annotate transposable elements (TE) but no tool exists for their classification. This thesis work introduces REPCLASS …

Application Of Graph-Based Data Mining To Biological Networks, Chang Hun You

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

A huge amount of biological data has been generated by long-term research. It is time to start to focus on a system-level understanding of bio-systems. Biological networks are networks of biochemical reactions, containing various objects and their relationships. Understanding of biological networks is a starting point of systems biology. Multi-relational data mining finds the relational patterns in both the entity attributes and relations in the data. A widely used representation for relational data is a graph consisting of vertices and edges between these vertices. Graph-based data mining, as one approach of multi-relational data mining, finds relational patterns in a graph …

Error-Resilient Image And Video Coding Over Lossy Networks, Yilong Liu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The rapid growth of the Internet and increasing bandwidth in the past decade has heightened the interest in robust transmission of image and video signals over error-prone links. Recent literatures highlight the multiple description (MD) coding as a promising approach to solve this problem. MD coding is a source coding technique that provides a graceful quality degradation in the presence of packet losses during transmission. Topics of interest to construct MD coders with high coding efficiency and robustness are studied in this thesis. First, to minimize the overall distortion of reconstructed image, an edge-adaptive estimation algorithm is employed, which can …

Enhancements To The Sam-Grid Infrastructure, Bimal Balan

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

SAM-Grid is a grid computing infrastructure for high energy physics (HEP) experiments in Fermilab. It is composed of data handling, job management and information management components. There are several challenges when the number of sites participating in the experiment increases. This thesis presents the enhancements made on the SAM-Grid infrastructure. This includes scalability and performance related enhancements. The enhancements mainly affect the batch adapter, monitoring and security layers. As a scalability aspect, Monitoring and Information services required changes to make it easier for monitoring large number of jobs. SAM-Grid is integrated with Sun Grid Engine (SGE) batch system. The batch …

Adaptive Agent Communities For Providing Services In Dynamic Networks, Nayantara Mallesh

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

New network applications are being created everyday to accommodate diverse user needs. Delivering services to the user in a timely manner taking into account network conditions, resources allocated and network load is a challenge. Multiprotocol Label Switching attempts to overcome best-effort service by providing a method for routing traffic around network congestion, resource reservation and quality of service (QoS) capabilities. IntServ and DiffServ are two other QoS models in use today. IntServ provides per-flow guarantee of quality while DiffServ is based on aggregate service classes. Adaptive Network Service (ANS) is a community of adaptive, collaborating agents residing in the network …

Multi-Dimensional Indexing For Xml Data, Do Youn Kim

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is becoming a dominant standard for exchanging and retrieving data over the internet. As XML in data exchanging grows, various XML indexing techniques have been proposed for fast and efficient query processing. A survey of theses techniques [9] categorized them into sequence-based indexes, structural indexes, dimension-based indexes and keyword-based indexes based on their properties. In this thesis, we focus on the multi-dimensional XML indexing; more precisely, it can be categorized as a 2-dimension based indexing, which is used in this paper. We studied the properties of multi-dimensional XML indexing and created an implementation to evaluate …

Adaptive, Multimodal, Application Independent User Interfaces For People With Disabilites Using Computers, Padmapriya Sambath

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The goal of this thesis is to create more adaptive and flexible user interfaces for people with disabilities and presenting information to everyone and on every device at any time. Delivering information at any time leads to situations such as a person walking with a mobile device having a small screen wanting to make a flight reservation. The intention of presenting information to everybody immediately raises the question of how much of the available information reach people with disabilities. We have suggested a content based user interface language that may be used by external services to interact with the user. …

Eigenspace Model Based Error Concealment And Low Bit Rate Coding Of Face Sequences, Xuejun Hu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The emerging multimedia applications address the increasing demand for novel video coding systems to provide higher compression ratio while maintaining the high quality of the reconstruction. This research makes an effort under such context to investigate the application of principal component analysis (PCA) in the video coding area, especially for error concealment and very low bit rate face coding. PCA is a well known optimal linear scheme for dimension reduction in data analysis. The central idea of PCA is to reduce the dimensionality of a data set while retaining as much as possible the variation in the data set. Since …

Modeling And Feedback Control Of Mems Devices, Bruno Borovic

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

As MEMS actuators reach maturity and emerge from the research lab into commercial applications, their increased reliability, speed, and performance accuracy is needed. MEMS are typically driven directly in an open-loop fashion by applying simple actuating signals. The requirements for better dynamical behavior, however, have resulted in the gradual introduction of improved actuation approaches, such as pre-shaped open-loop driving and closed-loop control. Unlike macro mechanical systems where the implementation of the feedback is relatively simple, it is quite problematic in the MEMS case. The presence of fast system dynamics, and physical area efficiency requirements have introduced additional challenges for feedback …

Service Discovery By Automated Structural And Semantic Matching, Alan Walker

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Pervasive computing systems need to locate and use services dynamically. Current models of service location and interaction rely on a fixed contract, or service description, located by name and/or a combination of keywords. This implies a priori agreement on the service description, leading to fragility and the inability for systems to interoperate unless they were built to match an existing standard. This thesis implements a technique for relaxing the fixed contract assumption, so that the nearest match amongst a set of services can be located. The system takes into account structural, data type and naming differences. The naming differences are …

Optimization Of H.264 High Profile Decoder For Pentium 4 Processor, Tarun Bhatia

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

H.264 is an emerging video coding standard, which aims at compressing high-quality video content at low-bit rates. While the basic idea behind the encoding and decoding process still remains the same as in the previous standards, many new and innovative tools have been added to provide higher compression capabilities with high perceptual quality. These capabilities have also contributed to the increase in complexity of implementation of H.264 significantly compared to the previous generation of video coding standards. In this thesis, the performance analysis of the H.264 decoder for decoding of high profile high definition data is done for the Pentium …

Supramolecular Nanostructures Based On Calixarenes, Heng Xu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation describes a systematic approach towards the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of calixarene-based supramolecular nanostructures. Chapter 1 briefly overviews the field of supramolecular chemistry and highlights its horizons. Chapter 2 introduces a modular strategy towards synthesis of nanoscale receptor macromolecules--calix-peptide conjugates. This strategy combines the unique host-guest capabilities of calixarene chemistry with synthetically flexible peptide synthesis. A series of calixarene amino acids was prepared and further utilized to synthesize calixarene dipeptides. Through this approach, calixarene amino acids are now available to be incorporated into peptide networks and nanostructured biologically relevant materials. Chapter 3 demonstrates supramolecular applications of calixarene-peptide …

The Incidence And Management Of Footrot In Dairy Cattle In Monteverde, Costa Rica, November 2005, Allison Brown

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

This study investigates the frequency of, and factors leading to or preventing, footrot in diary cattle in the Monteverde area of Costa Rica. Owners of 23 farms were interviewed about their property characteristics, management practices, and incidence of footrot. Then the farms were visually inspected. Ten farms were found to currently have infected cattle and 18 had infected cattle this year. The percent of currently infected cattle had a significant positive correlation with both herd size and hours spent in daily milking rotation. Larger herds showed a greater incidence of infection. The combined presence of rocks and mud in the …

Endosperm Loss, Seed Germination, And Early Seedling Growth In Large-Seeded Tropical Trees, November 2005, Audrey L. Quinn

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Endosperm damage was studied in Monteverde, Costa Rica to determine its frequency, extent, and effect on seed germination and early seedling growth. Endosperm damage was found to occur in 72% of seeds from Chione sylvicola (Rubiaceae) and 94% of seeds from Quercus costaricensis (Fagaceae). The extent of endosperm damage in Q. costaricensis was not related to the root and shoot weight of germinated seeds. Experimental endosperm removal was carried out in Persea americana and Cinnamomum paratriplinerve (both Lauraceae) seeds. The three week time period of the study was inadequate to yield significant C. paratriplinerve germination, but seeds with intact endosperm …

Effects Of Trail Traffic On Egg-Predation By Mammal Populations In The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, November 2005, Karmen Scott

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The effects of human traffic within trails on egg predation and predatory mammal compositions between heavily trafficked trails and secluded trails were studied at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. This study was able to find differences in egg-predatory mammal compositions between these two trail types by looking at teeth impressions in eggs made of plasticine. The main predator was found to be Nasura narica (common coati) who was involved in the majority of the egg predation events and the vast majority of the nests preyed upon were on the highly trafficked trail. There were only a few predation events from …

A Lesson Plan On Fungi Diversity For The Centro De Educación Creativa, November 2005, Rachel Deliz

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Fungi are integral components of a forest environment, but they are often overlooked in elementary education, despite their crucial role in nutrient cycles. Concepts pertaining to fungi diversity were researched and compiled to be part of the 5th grade curriculum of Centro de Educación Creativa. The result of this project was three PowerPoint presentations, each coupled with 2-3 visual aids, experiments and/or activities. I expect these presentations to aid in the environmental education curriculum at the C.E.C and to promote an appreciation of the Kingdom Fungi.

The Role Of Primary Forest On Tropical Avian Communities In A Mixed Agricultural Landscape, November 2005, Matt Warner

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The conversion of tropical forest to agricultural systems is both widespread and increasing. As a result, much of tropical biodiversity may depend on altered landscapes for their long-term survival. The purpose of this study was to compare the avifauna of dairy cattle pastures and forested coffee plantations to assess their capacity to maintain avian biodiversity in San Luis, Costa Rica. Bird assemblages were examined for three sites of each landscape type along a distance gradient (100m, 250m, and 500m) from primary forest. Bird diversity decreased significantly with distance from forest in both landscapes (between 100m and 250m; pasture: t = …

Legal Education In Malaysia: Some Reflections, L.T. Khaw

Research Publications (2000 to 2005)

No abstract provided.

Cave Research Foundation Newsletter, Volume 33, No. 4, November 2005, William Payne

Cave Research Foundation Newsletter

Contents: Notes from the Content Editor -- Annual CRF Meeting, November 10-13 in Cape Girardeau -- Structural Geology Research, July 20th through 27th, 2005 -- Regional Expedition Reports -- Book Review -- 2005 Expedition Calendar -- Cave Books

General Education Subcommittee Minutes, November 1, 2005, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Course Approvals

Election of Chairman of General Education Committee

ENG 2010/1010 and coding in Banner

Proposed AP Changes in 2007

Common Course Numbering Update

Associate Degree Articulation

Southern Virginia University Articulation

Other Business

• EPC’s Curriculum Sub-committee
• Common placement exam for math
• Regents Diploma

Mapping The Road To Proficiency, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

A table of specifications provides a travel guide to help teachers move students toward mastery of standards

Stock Options: To Expense Or Not To Expense. A Comparison Of Economic Determinants, Firm Payoffs, And Pay-Performance Sensitivity Of Executive Stock Option Compensation, Barbara Wood

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

Until June 2005, firms had a choice in accounting for stock option compensation. The majority of firms elected to disclose option compensation expense in the footnotes of their financial statements. However, after the accounting scandals in the early 2000s, many firms moved from disclosing the expense to recognizing the expense as a charge against earnings. This research examines the reasons that firms would voluntarily elect to adopt option recognition prior to regulatory requirement. The decision to recognize option pay is examined with respect to efficient contracting, earnings management, and information signaling. Firms that elect to expense option pay do so …

Connections: Library News For Library Staff Vol. 2, Issue 10, University Of Texas At Arlington Library

Connections: Library News for Library Staff

The purpose of Connections was to build community within UTA Library staff by reminding people of upcoming events and dates, introducing new staff members, celebrating a department's achievements, and writing about other items of interest.

Are Middle Years Teacher Education Courses Justifiable?, Terry De Jong, Rod Chadbourne

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The recent growth of separate middle schools for young adolescents raises the question – do we now need separate teacher education programs in middle schooling? Or, can the staffing requirements of middle schools be met adequately by existing primary and secondary teacher education programs? This paper provides a contribution to answering these questions by discussing the rationale underlying a new graduate diploma in the middle years of schooling offered at Edith Cowan University. In doing so, the paper draws attention to the contested nature of innovations in teacher education and some uncertainty about what the future holds for them.

Book Review: Jonathan Steinberg, Why Switzerland?, Jurg K. Siegenthaler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

"Any decent biography," a New York Times book reviewer recently remarked, "is a work of drama." Jonathan Steinberg's Why Switzerland? is truly a biography of Switzerland, and the story often has the substance of drama. Since the book has no subtitle, the author explains the three ways in which he is intending to answer the question "why." Why has a place such as Switzerland come about? Why should readers abroad care? And why should Switzerland continue to exist? "No country is more frequently visited but less known" (p. 4). What Steinberg manages to do very well is to provide answers …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 22, Number 3, November 2005, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

A ten page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Inside Unlv, Suzan Dibella, Gian Galassi, Carol C. Harter, Mamie Peers, Holly Ivy De Vore, Regina Bacolas, Cate Weeks

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Mustang Daily, November 1, 2005

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

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

Designing State Aid To Education In The Presence Of Property Tax Exemptions Part 1, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Poem No. 94, November 2005, Huntsville Literary Association (Huntsvile, Ala.)

POEM

The Huntsville Literary Association was founded in 1967 to provide a community for writers, readers, and artists through workshops, readings, and educational programs. One of their key contributions is the literary magazine titled POEM which showcases original writings from both established and emerging writers. This issue features poems from various writers.