Digital Commons Network^™

Utility Based Resource Aware Framework For Information Caching And Sharing In Mobile And Distributed Systems, Huaping Shen

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Along with the technology advancements in mobile and wireless networks, ubiquitous information service is becoming a reality in which users can access the information anytime anywhere. However, the user mobility, network heterogeneity and resource constraints impose significant challenges to provide ubiquitous information services. In this dissertation, a utility based resource aware framework is proposed to enhance ubiquitous information availability to mobile users through data caching and peer-to-peer sharing. The framework considers the constrained resources of mobile and distributed environments and provides flexible, efficient and scalable data access services to the mobile users. The major contributions of this framework are as …

Efficient And Adaptive Schemes For Consistent Information Sharing In Wireless Mobile And Peer-To-Peer Networks, Zhijun Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

With the tremendous growth of applications in wireless mobile and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks, significant research efforts have been made to improve the quality of sevice. Caching and replicating frequently used data objects or files in user's local buffers are popular mechanisms to effectively reduce the communication bandwidth requirement and thus improve the overall system performance. However, the frequent disconnections of users make data consistency a difficult task in wireless mobile and P2P networks. In this dissertation, we design and analyze a Scalable Asynchronous Cache Consistency Scheme (SACCS) for single cell wireless cellular networks. SACCS is a highly scalable, efficient, and …

Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Modeling the geographical distributions of wildlife species is important for ecology and conservation biology. Spatial autocorrelation in species distributions poses a problem for distribution modeling because it invalidates the assumption of independence among sample locations. I explored the prevalence and causes of spatial autocorrelation in data from the Breeding Bird Survey, covering the conterminous United States, using Regression Trees, Conditional Autoregressive Regressions (CAR), and the partitioning of variance. I also constructed a simulation model to investigate dispersal as a process contributing to spatial autocorrelation, and attempted to verify the connection between dispersal and spatial autocorrelation in species’ distributions in empirical …

Introduction And Recovery Of Point Defects In Electron-Irradiated Zno, F. Tuomisto, K. Saarinen, David C. Look, Gary C. Farlow

Physics Faculty Publications

We have used positron annihilation spectroscopy to study the introduction and recovery of point defects in electron-irradiated n -type ZnO. The irradiation ( E_el=2MeV , fluence 6×10¹⁷cm^-2 ) was performed at room temperature, and isochronal annealings were performed from 300 to 600 K. In addition, monochromatic illumination of the samples during low-temperature positron measurements was used in identification of the defects. We distinguish two kinds of vacancy defects: the Zn and O vacancies, which are either isolated or belong to defect complexes. In addition, we observe negative-ion-type defects, which are attributed to O interstitials or …

Integrating First-Order Logic Programs And Connectionist Systems - A Constructive Approach, Sebastian Bader, Andreas Witzel, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Significant advances have recently been made concerning the integration of symbolic knowledge representation with artificial neural networks (also called connectionist systems). However, while the integration with propositional paradigms has resulted in applicable systems, the case of first-order knowledge representation has so far hardly proceeded beyond theoretical studies which prove the existence of connectionist systems for approximating first-order logic programs up to any chosen precision. Advances were hindered severely by the lack of concrete algorithms for obtaining the approximating networks which were known to exist: the corresponding proofs are not constructive in that they do not yield concrete methods for building …

Investigation Of The Anisotropy Of Dissipation Processes In Single Crystal Of Yba2cu3o7-D System, J Chigvinadze, A. Lashvili, Juana Acrivos, T. Machaidze, T. Wolf

Faculty Publications, Chemistry

By means of contactless mechanical method of the measurement of energy losses in superconductors, the anisotropy of dissipation processes has been studied in single crystal high-temperature layered superconductors of Yba2Cu3O7-d system, being in mixed state. The observed anisotropy of energy losses indicates the possibility of the existence of the symmetry of order parameter of dx2-y2 type in these single crystals.

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

Volleyball - Women's

No abstract provided.

Efficiently Implementing A Large Number Of Ll/Sc Objects, Prasad Jayanti, Srdjan Petrovic

Computer Science Technical Reports

Over the past decade, a pair of instructions called load-linked (LL) and store-conditional (SC) have emerged as the most suitable synchronization instructions for the design of lock-free algorithms. However, current architectures do not support these instructions; instead, they support either CAS (e.g., UltraSPARC, Itanium) or restricted versions of LL/SC (e.g., POWER4, MIPS, Alpha). Thus, there is a gap between what algorithm designers want (namely, LL/SC) and what multiprocessors actually support (namely, CAS or RLL/RSC). To bridge this gap, a flurry of algorithms that implement LL/SC from CAS have appeared in the literature. The two most recent algorithms are due to …

Edge Inference For Image Interpolation, Bryan S. Morse, Neil Toronto, Dan A. Ventura

Faculty Publications

Image interpolation algorithms try to fit a function to a matrix of samples in a "natural-looking" way. This paper presents edge inference, an algorithm that does this by mixing neural network regression with standard image interpolation techniques. Results on gray level images are presented, and it is demonstrated that edge inference is capable of producing sharp, natural-looking results. A technique for reintroducing noise is given, and it is shown that, with noise added using a bicubic interpolant, edge inference can be regarded as a generalization of bicubic interpolation. Extension into RGB color space and additional applications of the algorithm are …

Making Statements And Approval Voting, Enriqueta Aragones, Itzhak Gilboa, Andrew Weiss

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We assume that people have a need to make statements, and construct a model in which this need is the sole determinant of voting behavior. In this model, an individual selects a ballot that makes as close a statement as possible to her ideal point, where abstaining from voting is a possible (null) statement. We show that in such a model, a political system that adopts approval voting may be expected to enjoy a significantly higher rate of participation in elections than a comparable system with plurality rule.

A Geodetic Investigation Of Ground Deformation At Yucca Mountain, Southern Nevada, Emma Mccaughey

Publications (YM)

The data from 28 continuous BARGEN GPS stations in the Yucca Mountain region were processed for January 2000 to June 2004. The data have been processed independently using both the GIPSY and GAMIT software packages for quality assurance purposes, yielding an RMS of velocity differences between the solutions of 0.06 mm/yr for the east and 0.10 mm/yr for the north. The velocity solution for the local Yucca Mountain network has a relatively smooth signal showing NW-trending rightlateral shear. The magnitude of the velocity contrast across the local network, from east to west, is 0.95 ± 0.04 mm/yr. The GPS results …

The Coming Rise Of Disparate Impact Theory, Robert A. Kearney

Penn State Law Review (2003 - Present)

No abstract provided.

The Structure Of Equivalent 3-Separations In A 3-Connected Matroid, Rhiannon Hall, James Oxley, Charles Semple

Faculty Publications

Let M be a matroid. When M is 2-connected, Cunningham and Edmonds gave a tree decomposition of M that displays all of its 2-separations. This result was extended by Oxley, Semple, and Whittle, who showed that, when M is 3-connected, there is a corresponding tree decomposition that displays all non-trivial 3-separations of M up to a certain natural equivalence. This equivalence is based on the notion of the full closure fcl(Y) of a set Y in M, which is obtained by beginning with Y and alternately applying the closure operators of M and M* until no new elements can be …

Gauss-Manin Connections For Arrangements, Iii Formal Connections, Daniel C. Cohen, Peter Orlik

Faculty Publications

We study the Gauss-Manin connection for the moduli space of an arrangement of complex hyperplanes in the cohomology of a complex rank one local system. We define formal Gauss-Manin connection matrices in the Aomoto complex and prove that, for all arrangements and all local systems, these formal connection matrices specialize to Gauss-Manin connection matrices. © 2004 American Mathematical Society.

A Motivational Strategy That Accommodates Middle School Special Education Students: Achieving Academic Success, Susan J. Koempel

All Graduate Projects

The project provides middle school teachers with a handbook for clarifying academic targets in the general education U. S. history classroom. This strategy clearly defines, in a pictorial manner, the interconnectedness that exists between report cards, progress reports, and quarterly curriculum assignments. The intervention of this organizational strategy will assist students in decisions, regarding the timely completion and turn in of assignments, by creating an overall awareness of the progress of time and assignment due dates during the quarter. Originally, the production of the intervention was done by the special education staff so that there would be minimal time energy …

Service Quality From The Other Side: Information Systems Management At Duquesne Light, Pratyush Bharati, Daniel Berg

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

Service organizations are continuously endeavoring to improve their quality of service as it is of paramount importance to them. Despite the importance of understanding the relationship of service quality and information systems, this research has not been pursued extensively. This study has addressed this gap in the research literature and studied how information systems impacts service quality. A research model is developed based on IS success model. System quality, information quality, user IT characteristics, employee IT performance and technical support are identified as important elements that influence service quality. An in-depth case study from the electric utility industry is used …

Cheetah: Circuit-Switched High-Speed End-To-End Transport Architecture Testbed, Xuan Zheng, Malathi Veeraraghavan, Nageswara S. V. Rao, Qishi Wu, Mengxia Zhu

Computer Science Publications

We propose a circuit-switched high-speed end-to-end transport architecture (CHEETAH) as a networking solution to provide high-speed end-to-end circuit connectivity to end hosts on a dynamic call-by-call basis. Not only is it envisioned as a complementary service to the basic connectionless service provided by today’s Internet; it also relies on and leverages the presence of this service. Noting the dominance of Ethernet in LANs and SONET/SDH in WANs, CHEETAH circuits will consist of Ethernet segments at the ends and Ethernet-over-SONET segments in the wide area. In this article we explain the CHEETAH concept and describe a wide-area experimental network testbed we …

Haiti : Entre Capitalisme Et Socialisme, Nadine Bernard

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This work explores the complexities of Haiti’s embattled destiny, and shows how the particular political, social, economic and culural history of Haiti has led the nation into an existential dead end. As a matter of fact, Haiti seems to be hampered by a deep historical divide, which finds its origin in the colonial history of the country, especially during slavery and later during the colonial period under France. Although mulattoes and blacks rebelled against slavery and fought together for their independence in 1804, they remained divided on the basis of race, culture and socioeconomic status for a long time to …

Benthic Biological Monitoring Program Of The Elizabeth River Watershed (2004), Daniel M. Dauer

Elizabeth River Reports

Executive Summary

Macrobenthic communities of the Elizabeth River watershed have been quantitatively sampled since summer 1999. This report presents the data from the sixth year of sampling in 2004. The three objectives of the Benthic Biological Monitoring Program of the Elizabeth River watershed are: (1) To characterize the health of the tidal waters of the Elizabeth River watershed as indicated by the structure of the benthic communities. ( 2) To conduct trend analyses on long-term data at 14 fixed-point stations to relate temporal trends in the benthic communities to changes in water and/or sediment quality. Trend analyses will be updated …

Time-Series Analysis Of Clusters In City Size Distributions, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, K. Michael Bessey

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Complex systems, such as urban systems, emerge unpredictably without the influence of central control as a result of adaptive behavior by their component, interacting agents. This paper analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-western region of the United States for the years 1890–1990. It determines if the distributions were clustered and documents changes in the pattern of clusters over time. Clusters were determined utilizing a kernel density estimator and cluster analysis. The data were clustered as determined by both methods. The analyses identified 4–7 clusters of cities in each of the decades analysed. Cities cluster into size classes, …

Age And Quality Of Ground Water And Sources Of Nitrogen In The Surficial Aquifers In Pumpkin Creek Valley, Western Nebraska, 2000, G. V. Steele, J. C. Cannia, S. S. Sibray, V. L. Mcguire

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Ground water is the source of drinking water for the residents of Pumpkin Creek Valley, western Nebraska. In this largely agricultural area, shallow aquifers potentially are susceptible to nitrate contamination. During the last 10 years, ground-water levels in the North Platte Natural Resources District have declined and contamination has become a major problem for the district. In 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey and the North Platte Natural Resources District began a cooperative study to determine the age and quality of the ground water and the sources of nitrogen in the aquifers in Pumpkin Creek Valley.

Water samples were collected from …

Impact On Open Source Software Performance: A View From Social Structure, Y. Long, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Open source software (OSS) has drawn increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers in recent years. However, few empirical studies have investigated the interaction process of OSS teams during OSS development. This research has two primary objectives. The first is to study the social structure of OSS teams. The second is to investigate the factors impacting the social structure of OSS teams as well as the effects of the social structure on OSS performance. Based on the social structure and social network theory, and group-related theories, this paper first presented a general research framework, then discussed research methodology, and finally …

Introduction: Human-Computer Interaction Studies In Management Information Systems, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, P. Zhang, S. Mccoy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a critical area of research and practice that spans several disciplines, including industrial engineering, management information systems (MIS), computer science, information science, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. HCI research within the MIS discipline has distinct features shaped by the evolution and current state of MIS. Originating as applied computer science in the 1970s, MIS gradually transformed into a more social science–oriented discipline (Baskerville & Myers, 2002). MIS is broadly defined as “the effective design, delivery, and use of information systems in organizations” (Keen, 1980, p. 14). The two distinguishing features of MIS compared to other "homes" of …

Information Search Patterns In E-Commerce Product Comparison Services, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Hong-Hee Lee, Liqiang Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The presentation of product information is very important in e-commerce websites. In this research, we study how disposition styles can influence users‟ search patterns in product comparison services of e-commerce websites. Our results show that people are inclined to use feature information paths in vertical disposition style and product information paths in horizontal disposition style. The results also indicate that there are more feature paths than product paths in the earlier stage of product comparison, and more product paths than feature paths in the latter stage of product comparison. Based on Gensch‟s two-stage choice model and the results of our …

Privacy Issues In The Era Of Ubiquitous Commerce, Holtjona Galanxhi, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The vision of ubiquitous commerce (u-commerce) is realized through the convergence of electronic, mobile, television, voice and silent commerce applications. The ubiquity, universality, uniqueness, and unison of u-commerce will provide two principal benefits for individual users and companies: increased convenience as well as more personalized and customized services. However, u-commerce will also bring new issues such as a greater degree of privacy concerns that will impact individual users, companies, and the society at large. This paper proposes and elaborates on a conceptual framework for privacy in the u-commerce era. It combines Lessig’s macro-level perspective – the four-factor model of privacy …

Dispatching Vehicles In A Mega Container Terminal, Ebru K. Bish, Frank Y. Chen, Thin Yin Leong, Barry L. Nelson, Jonathan W. C. Ng, David Simchi-Levi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We consider a container terminal discharging and uploading containers to and from ships. The discharged containers are stored at prespecified storage locations in the terminal yard. Containers are moved between the ship area and the yard using a fleet of vehicles, each of which can carry one container at a time. The problem is to dispatch vehicles to the containers so as to minimize the total time it takes to serve a ship, which is the total time it takes to discharge all containers from the ship and upload new containers onto the ship. We develop easily implementable heuristic algorithms …

Towards A Theoretical Framework Of Information Systems Development Success, Y. Long, Keng Siau, M. Ling

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information systems development (ISD) is a complicated process involving interconnected resources, objects, and outcomes. The importance of ISD has attracted long-term interests from both researchers and practitioners. Based on the input-process-output model, this paper developed a conceptual framework of ISD success through a systematic literature review. The paper argues that ISD is a comprehensive and interactive process among individuals, teams, and organization. These factors impact ISD process, and further affect ISD success.

Design, Synthesis And Characterization Of Nanosensors For Nerve Gas Agents, Thushara Gunasinghe

Masters Theses

This research is focused on the design synthesis and characterization of nanosensors to detect the nerve gas agents such as sarin at very low concentration levels (parts per billion and lower) which is very important to combat terrorism. Nanosensors constructed by the bottom up approach could provide the low sensitivity levels and high selectivity required for nerve gas detection. The sensing mechanism exploits the inherent properties of nanomaterials and signal amplification by signal transduction. The components of a nanoparticle-fluorescent monomer-nanomolecule-receptor (NMNR) sensor have been designed, synthesized, and characterized successfully. Interaction of the components of NMNR sensor with a model nerve …

Model Checking For E-Business Control And Assurance, Bonnie B. Anderson, James V. Hansen, Paul B. Lowry, Scott L. Summers

Faculty Publications

Model checking is a promising technique for the verification of complex software systems. As the use of the Internet for conducting e-business extends the reach of many organizations, well-designed software becomes the foundation of reliable implementation of e-business processes. These distributed, electronic methods of conducting transactions place reliance on the control structures embedded in the transaction processes. Deficiencies in control structures of processes that support e-business can lead to loss of physical assets, digital assets, money, and consumer confidence. Yet, assessing the reliability of e-business processes is complex and time-consuming. This paper explicates how model-checking technology can aid in the …

Extracting Reduced Logic Programs From Artificial Neural Networks, Jens Lehmann, Sebastian Bader, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Artificial neural networks can be trained to perform excellently in many application areas. While they can learn from raw data to solve sophisticated recognition and analysis problems, the acquired knowledge remains hidden within the network architecture and is not readily accessible for analysis or further use: Trained networks are black boxes. Recent research efforts therefore investigate the possibility to extract symbolic knowledge from trained networks, in order to analyze, validate, and reuse the structural insights gained implicitly during the training process. In this paper, we will study how knowledge in form of propositional logic programs can be obtained in such …