Digital Commons Network^™

Set-Based Cascading Approaches For Magnetic Resonance (Mr) Image Segmentation (Scamis), Jiang Liu, Tze-Yun Leong, Kin Ban Chee, Boon Pin Tan, Borys Shuter, Shih Chang Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper introduces Set-based Cascading Approach for Medical Image Segmentation (SCAMIS), a new methodology for segmentation of medical imaging by integrating a number of algorithms. Existing approaches typically adopt the pipeline methodology. Although these methods provide promising results, the results generated are still susceptible to over-segmentation and leaking. In our methodology, we describe how set operations can be utilized to better overcome these problems. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, Magnetic Resonance Images taken from a teaching hospital research programme have been utilised, to reflect the real world quality needed for testing in patient datasets. A comparison between the …

Towards Effective Content-Based Music Retrieval With Multiple Acoustic Feature Combination, Jialie Shen, John Shepherd, Ann H. H. Ngu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present a new approach to constructing music descriptors to support efficient content-based music retrieval and classification. The system applies multiple musical properties combined with a hybrid architecture based on principal component analysis (PCA) and a multilayer perceptron neural network. This architecture enables straightforward incorporation of multiple musical feature vectors, based on properties such as timbral texture, pitch, and rhythm structure, into a single low-dimensioned vector that is more effective for classification than the larger individual feature vectors. The use of supervised training enables incorporation of human musical perception that further enhances the classification process. We compare …

Measuring Qualities Of Articles Contributed By Online Communities, Ee Peng Lim, Ba-Quy Vuong, Hady W. Lauw, Aixin Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Using open source Web editing software (e.g., wiki), online community users can now easily edit, review and publish articles collaboratively. While much useful knowledge can be derived from these articles, content users and critics are often concerned about their qualities. In this paper, we develop two models, namely basic model and peer review model, for measuring the qualities of these articles and the authorities of their contributors. We represent collaboratively edited articles and their contributors in a bipartite graph. While the basic model measures an article's quality using both the authorities of contributors and the amount of contribution from each …

Supply Chain Information Sharing In A Macro Prediction Market, Zhiling Guo, Fang Fang, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper aims to address supply chain partners' incentives for information sharing from an information systems design perspective. Specifically, we consider a supply chain characterized by N geographically distributed retailers who order a homogeneous product from one manufacturer. Each retailer's demand risk consists of two parts: a systematic risk part that affects all retailers and an idiosyncratic risk part that only has a local effect. We propose a macro prediction market to effectively elicit and aggregate useful information about systematic demand risk. We show that such information can be used to achieve accurate demand forecast sharing and better channel coordination …

Rapid Identification Of Column Heterogeneity, Bing Tian Dai, Nick Koudas, Beng Chin Ooi, Divesh Srivastava, Suresh Venkatasubramanian

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Online Advertising By The Comparison Challenge Approach, Jae Wong Lee, Jae Kyu Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To enhance the effectiveness of online comparisons from a manufacturer's point of view, we develop a framework for the comparison challenge approach. To develop the comparison challenge framework, we analyze 12 factors that determine the characteristics of comparison and propose models of valuable comparison challenges using the CompareMe and CompareThem strategies. We demonstrate the approaches with the example of PC selection. To help plan the comparison challenges, we formulate a mathematical programming model that maximizes the total value of comparison under the constraints of comparison opportunity and budgetary limitation. The model is applied to eight comparison scenarios, and its performance …

An Experimental Study On U-Commerce Adoption: Impact Of Personalization And Privacy Concerns, H. Sheng, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ubiquitous commerce (u-commerce) represents "anytime, anywhere" commerce. U-commerce can provide a high level of personalization, which can bring significant benefits to customers. However, privacy is a major concern to customers and an obstacle to the adoption of u-commerce. This research examines how personalization and context can impact customers' privacy concerns as well as intention to adopt u-commerce applications. As u-commerce is new and emerging, we used the scenario-based approach to operationalize personalization and context in an experimental study. The experimental results show that the effects of personalization on customers' privacy concerns and adoption intention are situation dependent.

Identifying Difficulties In Learning Uml, Keng Siau, Poi-Peng Loo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite its recognition as a standard object-oriented modeling language, Unified Modeling Language (UML) has been criticized for such deficiencies as semantic inconsistencies, vagueness, and conflicting notations. the relationship between these deficiencies and the difficulties in the learning process is the focus of this study. A concept mapping technique is used to unveil the learning difficulties and suggestions for alleviating them are provided.

Job Tasks Performed By Career Preparation System Administrators: Implications For Leadership Development, Julia K. Vandermolen

Dissertations

This study represents the results of a quantitative survey measuring the importance and frequency of job tasks performed by Michigan's Career Preparation System (CPS) administrators. The census consisted of 120 (n = 120) CPS administrators. Eighty-six (n = 86) or 72% of CPS administrators participated in the study. A mailed survey was used to collect data to determine the importance and frequency of 51 job tasks performed by career and technical education (CTE)administrators identified by a previous DACUM study for a leadership development program. Quantitative methods were used to seek an improved understanding of the job tasks performed …

States Of Grace. Directed By Richard Dutcher., Kent R. Bean

BYU Studies

States of Grace. Directed by Richard Dutcher. Provo, Utah: Zion Films, 2005.

How To Survive A Terrorist Attack: The Constitution's Majority Quorum Requirement And The Continuity Of Congress, John Bryan Williams

William & Mary Law Review

Since their realization that United Airlines Flight 93 was headed toward the U.S. Capitol on the morning of September 11, 2001, legislators and policymakers have been debating how the legislative branch would continue functioning in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that killed or incapacitated large numbers of sehators or representatives. This Article reviews the current House and Senate "Continuity of Congress"plans, and argues they are both practically and constitutionally inadequate. Focusing particularly on the Constitution's majority quorum requirement in Article I, Section Five, Clause One, this Article argues that a House or Senate operating in accordance with the current …

Thelma Fenster: A Reflection On Scholarship And Friendship, Lara Farina, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Clare A. Lees

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Moritz Busch's Die Mormonen And The Conversion Of Karl G. Maeser, A. Legrand Richards

BYU Studies

Karl G. Maeser’s contributions to the education of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints had a profound impact on the history of Mormonism, an impact that has reverberated to today. The narrative surrounding Maeser’s conversion has been told and retold for over a century now in the enculturation of students into Brigham Young University’s heritage. This essay seeks to better understand and contextualize the events surrounding Maeser’s conversion and, more specifically, to discuss the text that was most influential in his conversion—the less-than-friendly Die Mormonen by Moritz Busch (1821–99).

Building Bridges Of Understanding: The Church And The World Of Islam, Boyd K. Packer, Alwi Shihab

BYU Studies

President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave this introduction of Dr. Alwi Shihab prior to Dr. Shihab’s forum address given at Brigham Young University on October 10, 2006.

Secularism In Turkey: The Perpetual Tipping Point: Key To The Future Or Prelude To Collapse, Peter R. Catalono

Student Work

During the Cold War, the strategic significance of Turkey to the United States was clear: limit the expansion of the Soviet Union and maintain control of the Dardanelles. For the past decade and a half Western policymakers (US and European) have sent mixed signals to the Turks as to the importance of Turkey in the region, as a bridge between East and West, and in the World. Through eight decades of secular rule Turkey has shown that a democratic and secular state can exist within an almost entirely Muslim population. This thesis is made up of five main parts that …

The Political Career Of Robert B. Crosby, Nebraska Governor, 1953-1955, Theodore J. Wehrbein

Student Work

This thesis examines the political career of Robert B. Crosby, Nebraska's twenty-seventh governor, whose early popularity ended with his efforts to comply with a State Supreme Court mandate to equalize state-wide property tax assessments. Elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1940 and re-elected in 1942, Crosby was chosen at the age of 31 as the Speaker of the Legislature in 1943, the youngest person ever to hold that position. After serving two years in the United States Navy, he successfully ran as a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1946, and then, in a landslide victory, was elected Governor in …

A Spatial Analysis Of The Foreign-Born Population In Douglas Sarpy County, Nebraska – 2000, Leigh Anne L. Opitz

Student Work

For a city that was initially settled mostly by Europeans, the recent immigrants largely from non-European countries, arriving in a changed urban and societal setting, have altered the settlement geography of Omaha, Nebraska. Due to the economic attainment of many newcomers to the country, many immigrant groups are able to settle in more prosperous areas than previous immigrants, and therefore live further away from the inner city. The transportation infrastructure throughout the city has also improved since the beginning of the century, so immigrants are able widen their geographic mobility. The resulting settlement pattern of these new immigrants is therefore …

December 2006 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Art And Environmental Education: The Centro De Educación Creativa In Monteverde, Costa Rica, December 2006, Veronica Harried

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Population growth and deforestation are negatively affecting biodiversity in the Tropics, necessitating environmental education for local populations. Arts education increases the ability to comprehend complex information, enhance creativity and provide problem solving skills (Longley 1999, Siegesmund 1998). Together, environmental education and Arts education can enhance ecological processes and conservation themes in students’ minds so they are retained well into their adulthood. This increases the likelihood that these individuals will make environmentally informed decisions throughout their lives (Gurevitz 2000). In this project, I incorporate current Arts curriculum guidelines from the United States into the Costa Rican environmental curriculum used at the …

Oviposition Preference And Larval Growth Rates Of Caligo Memnon (Nymphalidae: Brassolinae), December 2006, Emily Webb

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Caligo memnon caterpillars specialize on plants in three families, Heliconiaceae, Marantaceae, and Musaceea. These families are in the Order Zingiberales. Heliconiaceae and Marantaceae are native to the Neotropics, but Musaceae is an introduced family. I studied oviposition preference and larval performance of C. memnon on four host plants: Heliconia latispatha and Heliconia stricta (Heliconiacea), Calathea insignis (Marantaceae), and Musa acuminata (Musacea). Results showed that preferred host plants for oviposition did not correspond to the host plant that provided the fastest growth rate for caterpillars. Females preferred to oviposit on M. acuminata even though larval growth was lowest on this species, …

Changes In Bird Species Distribution In Four Altitudinal Zones In Monteverde, Costa Rica, December 2006, Grant Connette

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The impact of climate change on ecosystems has been demonstrated by studies of upper elevation amphibians (Pounds 1997). In spite of this, the degree to which climate change affects birds is not as clear. Two previous studies have found the upward movement of many species of birds in the Monteverde area (Donnelly 1998, Palm 2003). I surveyed birds in four altitudinal zones on the less studied Atlantic slope of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and compared my findings to the bird distributions reported by Michael Fogden in 1993. I found significant upward movement of bird species (sign test, p < 0.05) as well as a general decline in the abundances of certain bird species (x2 = 27.65, df = 3, p < 0.001). The majority of these declines are probably linked to the reforestation of the Peñas Blancas valley but climate change is likely responsible for the upslope movement and increased abundance of higher elevation birds.

Independent Invention As A Defense To Patent Infringement, Samson Vermont

Michigan Law Review

Under current law, independent invention is no defense to patent infringement. This Article argues that independent invention should be a defense, provided the independent inventor creates the invention before receiving actual or constructive notice that someone else already created it. The defense reduces wasteful duplication of effort and enhances dissemination of inventions without lowering the incentive to invent below the necessary minimum. To be sure, the defense lowers the incentive for inventions that face significant odds of being invented by more than one inventor By enabling a second inventor to compete with a first inventor the defense essentially breaks up …

Ethiopian Language Policy And Health Promotion In Oromia, Begna Dugassa

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the time of HIV/AIDS, epidemics for which we have no vaccination or cure, public health is bound entirely to depend on the traditional health education strategies to stop or contain this disease. This reality demands that we travel extra miles and thoroughly employ every health promotion tool at our disposal. The Ottawa Charter for health promotion stressed the need for public policy to create supportive social conditions for health. This necessitates a commitment to enduring social conditions for health and raises topics that have been neglected by the traditional public health scholars. A close examination of the colonial language …

Portrayal Of Mathematicians In Fictional Works, Daniel Dotson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Portrayal of Mathematicians in Fictional Works," Daniel Dotson explores how people with mathematical abilities -- including mathematicians, mathematics teachers, mathematically-inclined youths, cryptographers, and more -- are portrayed in novels, films, television programs, and a play. A summary table of the characters gives a short description of each of them, the title of the work in which they appeared, and the format of the work. Characters were analyzed to see if they possessed any of ten personality traits: obsessive, having major mental health problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, arrogant, uses math to escape reality, out of touch, …

The Politics Of Recognition And Comparative Literature: New Works By Dale And Yu, Bol, Owen, And Peterson, Alexander C.Y. Huang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Generating Paraphrases With Greater Variation Using Syntactic Phrases, Rebecca Diane Madsen

Theses and Dissertations

Given a sentence, a paraphrase generation system produces a sentence that says the same thing but usually in a different way. The paraphrase generation problem can be formulated in the machine translation paradigm; instead of translation of English to a foreign language, the system translates an English sentence (for example) to another English sentence. Quirk et al. (2004) demonstrated this approach to generate almost 90% acceptable paraphrases. However, most of the sentences had little variation from the original input sentence. Leveraging syntactic information, this thesis project presents an approach that successfully generated more varied paraphrase sentences than the approach of …

Against Individually Signed Judicial Opinions, James Markham

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"A Lean Accounting Curriculum", Jake Lewis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper is written as a part of my honors thesis. My objective for my thesis was to develop a curriculum to be used in the classroom here at Utah State University, on the subject of lean accounting. This curriculum includes a set of lecture slides, selection of an assigned textbook, a case study assignment, and a DVD. Also compiled were several other optional materials that may be used as supplements to the aforementioned set of materials or as a means to briefly cover lean accounting in another course if so desired. This paper contains a brief summary of lean …

Hearing Nothing, Brittany Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Utah State prides itself in its services for students, but recently those services have made negative headlines. Deaf students have filed a lawsuit against the university complaining about the lack of sign language interpreters. But some complain that they are still hearing or seeing no response.

For my Thesis Project, I produced a documentary highlighting the problem both here on our campus, and on a statewide and even nationwide level. I researched the issues, conducted interviews, wrote the script, taped all video and edited the video. The 20 minute documentary was shown publicly on campus in an effort to make …

Handel's Messiah:A Heaven On Earth, Erin Hurd

Verbum

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

"George Frideric Handel’s Messiah has been an oratorio that has attracted me to its music since the beginning of high school. Every year in December my high school performs selections from Messiah as a community event. In my sophomore year of high school my chorus class studied Messiah and its origins. [I feel that] Handel’s work is attractive to me because it gives life to Biblical events. I have never read the Holy Bible straight through, but I have learned that Handel took the exact words from the Holy …