Digital Commons Network^™

The Learned Savant Who Guards The Secrets Of The Great Gods’: Evolution Of The Roles And Titles Of The Seventh Antediluvian Hero In Mesopotamian And Enochic Traditions: Part Ii: Enochic Traditions, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Jini Distributed Key Exchange And File Transfer Service With Digital Signatures, Kevin Ligozio

Theses

This thesis compares security algorithms for the Jini Networking Technology. The first method is to add security at the infrastructure level, and is the method chosen by the Jini Community in Jini version 2.0. The second method is the original research portion of this thesis, and explores adding security in the application layer. In order to explore the application layer security, the thesis includes four components. First, we investigate and implement some cryptographic algorithms. Specifically, we use a Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Provider containing the Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement algorithm and the RSA Digital Signature Algorithm. Second, we perform a novel …

Graph Reconstruction Numbers, Jennifer Baldwin

Theses

One of the most important open questions in graph theory is the graph reconstruction conjecture, first proposed by P. J. Kelly and S. M. Ulam in 1941. The conjecture states that every graph with at least 3 vertices is reconstructible if there exists some multi-subset of vertex-deleted subgraphs that reconstructs G uniquely up to isomorphism. This project computes the existential and universal reconstruction numbers for all graphs of order at most nine. The existential reconstruction number is the number of vertex-deleted subgraphs, or cards, required to reconstruct G uniquely up to isomorphism. The universal reconstruction number is the minimum num- …

Modal Logic In Computer Science, Leigh Lambert

Theses

Modal logic is a widely applicable method of reasoning for many areas of computer science. These areas include artificial intelligence, database theory, distributed systems, program verification, and cryptography theory. Modal logic operators contain propositional logic operators, such as conjunction and negation, and operators that can have the following meanings: "it is necessary that," "after a program has terminated," "an agent knows or believes that," "it is always the case that," etc. Computer scientists have examined the difficulty of problems in modal logic, such as satisfiability. Satisfiability determines whether a formula in a given logic is satisfiable. The complexity of satisfiability …

Genetic Music, Ryan Becker

Theses

Algorithmic music composition has long been an active area of research in computer science, but the need for a human element only recently began to be more widely acknowledged. Interactive Evolutionary Computing (IEC), made popular by Karl Sims, effectively solves many high dimension problems, like music composition, involving creative and subjective elements. This work applies several Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Genetic Programming (GP) approaches, inspired by Karl Sims, to algorithmic music composition. The implementation of these IEC algorithms is described and their effectiveness compared.

Algorithms For Bounding Folkman Numbers, Jonathan Coles

Theses

For an undirected, simple graph G, we write G -> (a_1,...,a_k)^v (G -> (a_1,...,a_k)^e) if for every vertex (edge) k-coloring, a monochromatic K_(a_i) is forced in some color i in {1,...,k}. The vertex (edge) Folkman number is defined as F_v(a_1,...,a_k;p) = min{|V(G)| : G -> (a_1,...,a_k;p)^v, K_p not in G} F_e(a_1,...,a_k;p) = min{|V(G)| : G -> (a_1,...,a_k;p)^e, K_p not in G} for p > max{a_1,...,a_k}. Folkman showed in 1970 that these numbers always exist for valid values of p. This thesis concerns the computation of a new result in Folkman number theory, namely that F_v(2,2,3;4)=14. Previously, the bounds stood at 10 <= F_v(2,2,3;4) <= 14, proven by Nenov in 2000. To achieve this new result, specialized algorithms were executed on the computers of the Computer Science network in a distributed processing effort. We discuss the mathematics and algorithms used in the computation. We also discuss ongoing research into the computation of the value of F_e(3,3;4). The current bounds stand at 16 <= F_e(3,3;4) <= 3e10^9. This number was once the subject of an Erd s prize---claimed by Spencer in 1988.

Web-Based 3-D Theatre Seating Charts And Ticket Reservation Application, Patrick Henstebeck

Theses

Seating charts for theatres and stadia have always been an important part of buying tickets to a staged event, despite offering little information about the view from any particular seat. While the internet has increased the potential to provide this information, most official arena websites and online ticket brokers still only provide the standard two-dimensional diagram whose detail is limited to the approximate location of each section and which offers no guidance as to the height or slope of the section, nor any warning of any obstructing objects that would depreciate a seat s true value. The few three-dimensional models …

Efficient Encryption On Limited Devices, Roderic Campbell

Theses

Encryption algorithms have been used since the dawn of time to ensure secure communication over insecure communication channels. Once a secret encryption key is established and as long as the key remains secret, two parties can communicate freely over open channels. The question of how to obtain such a secret key is a large dilemma. Many methods of obtaining such keys have been tried from the most basic form of a one-on-one encounter to more advanced techniques like Diffie-Hellman. This paper compares three versions of the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol -- using arithmetic in the field of integers modulo a …

Study Of Visualizations For N-Body Stellar Models, Christian Gray

Theses

The visualization of large datasets is invaluable to the advancement of scientific knowledge. N-Body problems produced large dataset that present several challenges to visualization. These challenges include over-plotting and self-obscuring data. Using the general visualization framework, Spiegel, five different visualization techniques are explored to solve these problems: slicing, projection, 3D projection, 3D density shells, and direct volume rendering. Each visualization looks to solve the problem in a slightly different manner while all have kernel density estimation as their starting point. While none of the visualization is ground breaking or perfectly solves the problems they do provide new insight allowing for …

The Effects Of Focused Deterrence On Gang Homicide: An Evaluation Of Rochester's Ceasefire Program, Christopher Delaney

Theses

In the late 1990’s, a problem-oriented policing initiative in Boston, “Operation: Ceasefire”, achieved significant reductions in youth homicide by focusing on gang behavior. The program was driven by a concept known as “Focused Deterrence”. Gang members are typically frequent offenders for whom general deterrence mechanisms have little effect. Additionally, the social norms of gangs often encourage offending behavior, making typical attempts to deter futile. Focused deterrence attempts to modify individual behavior and group norms with a credible and severe threat of collective punishment for an individual offending behavior. In “Operation Ceasefire”, when a gang member committed a homicide, his gang …

Evaluating Surface Area-Basin Volume Relationships For Prairie Potholes, Mike A. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Establishing a relationship between surface area and volume of prairie potholes provides a simple method to estimate changes in water storage across the landscape. Applications include better prediction of floods and improved design for wetland restoration. Length, width, depth, surface area, and volumes were surveyed for eighty two potholes within the upper Turtle River watershed which lies sixty kilometers west of Grand Forks, ND. These data were used to determine the relationship and uncertainty between pothole surface and volume. Chi squared tests defined distributions of each variable. F and T statistical tests resolved similarities in variance and mean. The eighty …

Wellbore Stability In Water-Sensitive Shales, Qingfeng Tao

Theses and Dissertations

Wellbore instability is a widespread problem, especially when drilling in deep, low strength shale formations at high temperature and pressure. The instability can be caused by the high compressive effective stress or tensile stress due to the stress concentration and pore pressure increase while drilling. In addition to the in-situ stress and shale strength, shale instability is affected by drilling mud properties including mud weight, temperature and salinity. To assess wellbore stability in these situations, Diek and Ghassemi (2004) developed a non-linear coupled chemo-poro-thermoelasticity theory. The linearized version of the theory allows one to analytically investigate the coupled impacts of …

The Story Of Diamond V. Chakrabarty: Technological Change And The Subject Matter Boundaries Of The Patent System, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

Technological change often exposes unstated assumptions lurking in the law and makes them problematic, and patent law is no exception. Although the core mission of the patent system is to promote technological progress, path-breaking new technologies have not always been easily assimilated within its boundaries. The first wave of patent applications on advances in biotechnology in the 1970s illustrate some of the difficulties. Before that time, living organisms had generally been assumed to fall outside the range of patent-eligible subject matter under a timehonored exclusion for "products of nature." But genetically engineered organisms, although derived from naturally occurring life forms, …

An Investigation Of Physics Instructors' Beliefs And Students' Beliefs, Goals And Motivation For Studying Physics In Thai Rajabhat Universities, Anusak Hongsa-Ngiam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Students' interest in physics seems to be decreasing at all levels of education in most countries including Thailand. This problem is likely to be influenced by physics teaching and learning processes. Instructors' beliefs influence teaching strategies whereas students' beliefs, goals and motivation influence learning strategies. The investigation of factors influencing teaching and learning will provide useful information for improving the teaching and learning of physics. This research aims to explore physics instructors' beliefs about teaching and learning physics, students' beliefs, goals and motivation for studying physics in Thai Rajabhat universities. A questionnaire was administered to instructors who teach introductory physics …

Critical Literacy In A Global Context: Reading Harry Potter, Jill Reading

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Millions of adolescents across the globe eagerly await and read each new Harry Potter fictional novel. As a series, the novels can be assumed to participate influentially in the production of adolescent literacies and subjectivities. Situated in politically conservative times, however, the texts may support readings in simple accord with culturally pervasive conservative views which favour conventionally masculinist, martial views of the individual and of society. Such readings potentially confirm ancient prejudices built out of differences which themselves may be associated with the socio-cultural reproduction of violent conflicts. Nevertheless, contemporary conditions such as planetary climate change and globalised political fear …

The Role Of Metacognitive Strategies In Promoting Learning English As A Foreign Language Independently, Chayada Danuwong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

One of the challenges facing universities in Thailand is that of equipping graduates with the capacity for independent analytical thinking and learning which will enable them to operate in a global context while also contributing constructively to the changing needs of the local scene. The ability to think analytically and to learn independently calls for learners to be purposeful, strategic, and persistent in learning as well as to have more adaptive cognitive processes and the willingness to take charge of their learning. This is the role of metacognition in learning autonomy across domains. This thesis reports on research which has …

The Lived Experience Of God And Its Evolution In Children And Adolescents, Anne P. Devenish

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Children's and adolescents' spirituality is important, especially to those entrusted with their education. To effectively nurture children's spirituality, parents, teachers, and ministers would benefit in knowing how young people experience God, what they think about God and how they relate to God: in effect, their lived experience of God. Learning about these phenomena could help greatly in communicating with children and adolescents about God. This study aims to build on the work of those who have investigated elements of the spirituality of children and adolescents in a qualitative way.

Methods For The Estimation Of Missing Values In Time Series, David S. Fung

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Time Series is a sequential set of data measured over time. Examples of time series arise in a variety of areas, ranging from engineering to economics. The analysis of time series data constitutes an important area of statistics. Since, the data are records taken through time, missing observations in time series data are very common. This occurs because an observation may not be made at a particular time owing to faulty equipment, lost records, or a mistake, which cannot be rectified until later. When one or more observations are missing it may be necessary to estimate the model and also …

Sources Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus In Stormwater Drainage From Established Residential Areas And Options For Improved Management, Surasithe Khwanboonbumpen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

From early April 2002 to June 2003, a study was conducted at Wanneroo and Bannister Creek in Perth's metropolitan area (Western Australia), aiming to quantify major sources of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) entering urban residential catchments on two of the major dunal systems. The export of N and P from these catchments in stormwater discharge was measured, allowing investigation of some of the key pathways through which N and P enter the drainage network from the catchment. This information was then used to recommend catchment management approaches to reduce nutrient discharge into stormwater.

The Sustainment Of Early Childhood Teachers In The Classroom, Pamela A. Kilgallon

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The changing nature of teaching has led to an increased focus on the retention and productive engagement of teachers in the classrooms. The ongoing implementation of educational change, accompanied by an ageing trend amongst teachers and rising incidences of teacher attrition, stress and burnout, highlights the importance of teachers being sustained in their profession. Furthermore, recognition of the value of early childhood education has drawn attention to early childhood teachers' abilities to be sustained in their teaching practice, effectively engaging students in the learning process. Acknowledging these issues, this study examined factors that influence early childhood classroom teachers' sustainment in …

Soil Community Structure And Litter Decomposition Under Irrigated Eucalyptus Globulus In South Western Australia, Derek J. Swarts

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Plantations provide a range of benefits, including the potential to ameliorate salinity and soil erosion, enhance biodiversity, and provide timber and wood chips. They are increasingly important because of their role in carbon sequestration (Adolphson, 2000; Anonymous, 2005; Jones et al. , 2005; Kozlowski, 2002; Paul and Polglase, 2004). Recent research has highlighted the connection between plantation health and soil fertility (Johnston and Crossley Jr, 2002). Within an Australian context there is little published data on the composition of the soil and litter fauna and their contribution to litter decomposition under plantation systems (Adolphson, 2000). The Albany Effluent Irrigated Tree …

Classical And Quantum Algorithms For Finding Cycles, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Quantum computing—so weird, so wonderful—inspires much speculation about the line between the possible and the impossible. (Of course, there is still unclarity about how “impossible” intractable problems are and about how “possible” quantum computers are.) This thesis takes a slightly different tack: instead of focusing on how to make the impossible possible, it focuses on how to make the possible easier.

More specifically, this paper discusses quantum algorithms for finding cycles in graphs, a problem for which polynomial-time classical algorithms already exist. It explains and compares the classical and quantum algorithms, and it introduces a few new algorithms and observations. …

An Exploratory Study Of: Designers' Finishing Knowledge And The Communication Flow Between Designers And Finishing Professionals, Melissa A. Lyon

Theses

Several fundamental questions about graphic designers' print finishing knowledge motivated this thesis. Is there a gap in knowledge between the fields of finishing and design? What do designers actually know about finishing? Is this knowledge enough to enable them to communicate well with printers/finishers and design printed pieces efficiently so finishing runs smoothly? What happens when mistakes are made due to a lack of education and communication? If designers do need to know more information about finishing, what are the most important concepts? Are there any resources now that designers can use to learn more about finishing? Do printers/finishers have …

Preparation For Radiological Disasters: A Radiation Effects Epidemiological Database, Martha S. Raj

Theses

Not Included

Graph Reconstruction Numbers, Brian Mcmullen

Theses

The Reconstruction Conjecture is one of the most important open problems in graph theory today. Proposed in 1942, the conjecture posits that every simple, finite, undirected graph with more than three vertices can be uniquely reconstructed up to isomorphism given the multiset of subgraphs produced by deleting each vertex of the original graph. Related to the Reconstruction Conjecture, reconstruction numbers concern the minimum number of vertex deleted subgraphs required to uniquely identify a graph up to isomorphism. During the summer of 2004, Jennifer Baldwin completed an MS project regarding reconstruction numbers. In it, she calculated reconstruction numbers for all graphs …

Plane Elasticity Using Airy Stress Functions, Matthew David Roman

Theses

Given a three dimensional solid element in a state of plane stress or plane strain with conservative body forces, the stress components are equal to the appropriate second order partial derivatives of a bi-harmonic function, ϕ , called an Airy Stress Function. It follows that the stress components automatically satisfy the equilibrium conditions.

The function ϕ depends on both the geometry of the body and the loading, which leaves infinite possible stress functions to be developed. As thesis work, I have researched and collected currently existing Airy Stress Functions, made plots of thier stress fields in order to gain a …

Health Monitoring Of Lav Planet Gear Bushings Using Signature Analysis Techniques, Victoria L. Parnell

Theses

The Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies (CIMS) is studying the improvement of military Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs) for the United States Department of Defense. A focus of this study is the Marine Corps LAVs that are experiencing failures in the planetary assembly which serves as the vehicle's final drive system. The primary failure source is the bushings that provide the interface between the planet gears and their respective pins.

Currently, to detect a bushing failure, vehicle occupants must exit the LAV and place their hand on the wheel hub cover to check for excessive heat. If the hub "feels too …

Development Of A Universal Mosfet Gate Impedance Model, Sripriya Das

Theses

Scaling of CMOS technology to 100 nm & below and the endless pursuit of higher operating frequencies drive the need to accurately model effects that dominate at those feature sizes and frequencies. Current modeling techniques are frequency limited and require different models for different frequency ranges in order to achieve accuracy goals. In the foundry world, high frequency models are typically empirical in nature and significantly lag their low frequency counterparts in terms of availability. This tends to slow the adoption of new foundry technologies for high performance applications such as extremely high data rate serializer/deserializer transceiver cores. However, design …

Development Of An Automated Template Selection And Alignment Tool For Protein Structure Homology Modeling, David R. Riley

Theses

DNA and protein sequence data sets have exploded in size over the past several years and have stimulated the development of new methods for closing the sequence/structure gap. Bench laboratory methods, while being the most accurate, are still far too time consuming and limited to breech this gap. Thus computational methods have become the standard. The work described here details the development of a system to automatically select a structural template, align the template and query sequence and model the query. The system was implemented fully for antibodies but maintains a modular design that can accommodate a wider variety of …

Dynamics And Control Of Tethered Satellite System, Royce L. Abel

Theses

Tethered Satellite Systems (TSS) has been an ongoing project around the world for many decades. This study examined the dynamics an dcontrols of tethered satellites. The equations of motion were developed and simulated with no control and small eccentric orbits. A control law was derived by associating the Hamiltonian of the system to a Lyapunov Function. This control law was then simulated to demonstrate ability and robustness. The tethered system can be retrieved and deployed in a small number of orbits, and return from a perturbation quickly. Examination of a non thruster controlled system resulted in asymptotic convergence in retrieval …