Digital Commons Network^™

A Methodology For Evaluating The Performance Of Reverse Supply Chains In Consumer Electronics Industry, Srikanth Sastry Yellepeddi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Enterprises around the world are employing reverse supply chain practices to generate profit making opportunities while meeting new regulations. As a result of the rapid progress in technology the product lifecycles are shrinking faster than ever. In the face of global competition, heightened environmental regulations and a wealth of additional profits and improved corporate image opportunities, performing the reverse supply chain operations at a world class level is becoming quintessential. These factors in addition to the inherent complexity of reverse supply chains due to the uncertainties associated with the quantity, quality, and timing of returns make returns management very complicated. …

Titanium Alloyed With Boron, Seshacharyulu Tamirisakandala, Daniel B. Miracle, Raghavan Srinivasan, Jay S. Gunasekera

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Small additions of boron to conventional titanium alloys have been found to produce significant changes to the microstructures and associated properties. Grain refinement and improved strength and stiffness are first-order effects, which lead to possibilities for developing novel and affordable processing methodologies and to enhance performance over conventional titanium alloys. In this article, we introduce this new class of titanium alloys and describe unique formability benefits achieved via engineering microstructures.

Don't Be A Phish: Steps In User Education, Stefan Robila, James W. Ragucci

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Phishing, e-mails sent out by hackers to lure unsuspecting victims into giving up confidential information, has been the cause of countless security breaches and has experienced in the last year an increase in frequency and diversity. While regular phishing attacks are easily thwarted, designing the attack to include user context information could potentially increase the user's vulnerability. To prevent this, phishing education needs to be considered. In this paper we provide an overview of phishing education, focusing on context aware attacks and introduce a new strategy for educating users by combining phishing IQ tests and class discussions. The technique encompasses …

Societal Aspects Of Phishing, James W. Ragucci, Stefan Robila

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The damage caused by phishing does not only apply to monetary property alone. The fragile bonds of trust that organizations build with their constituents are shattered in the process. As people loss faith in the reliability of electronic communication methods, companies loss their customer base. In the case disasters, people can spend billions in preparation, to analyze weaknesses and improve recovery time, only to have thrust shattered by phishing attacks. This in turn causes a significant loss in money, resources and time. In this study we review the main characteristics of phishing attacks and their impact to society. Based on …

Wright State University Regional Economic Report, December 2006, Thomas L. Traynor

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Experimental Comparison Of Dimensional And Strength Characteristics Of American And Chinese Manufactured Fasteners, Michael Bailey Stroup

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the quality and strength characteristics ofboth American and Chinese manufactured fasteners. The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a significant statistical difference between both manufacturers dimensional and tensile strength characteristics as to the American National Standards Institute's specified tolerances. The researcher selected the independent samples t-test to analyze the raw data collected from the experiment. SPSS 13.0 statistical analysis software was used to determine the degree of correlation between the independent variables: fastener dimensions, and ultimate tensile strengths. The researcher involved utilizing a calibrated micrometer that was capable to producing measurements to the …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Fall Field Report, August-November 2006, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

First, I want to say how much I appreciate observers' responses to my requests for additional details on various sightings, not just rarities, but early and late dates. It's important to have these details for the archives to help future readers and researchers feel more comfortable with records from our era.

Patterns that were apparent included a generally quiet fall for waterfowl (they were all at Lake McConaughy), but excellent numbers of the rarer two scoters (but NO White-winged!) and a surprising 16 Red-necked Grebes. On the other hand, numbers of staging Western Grebes were down significantly, apparently due to …

The Nebraska Bird Review Whole Issue December 2006

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

Fall Field Report, Aug.–Nov. 2006 by W. Ross Silcock....................... 110

Fall Field Days at Lincoln, Sept. 15–17, 2006....................... 128

The Art and Artistic Legacy of Louis Agassiz Fuertes by Paul A. Johnsgard ....................... 132

The 2006 Nebraska Nest Report by Wayne J. Mollhoff ....................... 142

Index to Volume 74....................... 148

Subscription and Organization Information....................... 159

2006 Annual Report Of The Regenstrief Center For Healthcare Engineering, Steve Witz

RCHE Presentations

2006 Annual Report of the Regnestrief Center for Healthcare Engineering

Detroit Edison Building Ypsilanti, Michigan Historic Structure Report: Façade, Thomas G. Whitaker

Historic Preservation Final Projects

No abstract provided.

Computationally Modeling The Effects Of Surface Roughness On Soft X-Ray Multilayer Reflectors, Jedediah Edward Jensen Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Electromagnetic scattering from a rough two dimensional homogeneous scatterer has been computationally modeled. The scatterer is intended to simulate reflection from a two interface multilayer. The rough scatterer was created from Gaussian random points centered about an ideal interface. The points were connected with a third order spline interpolant which accounts for correlation between neighboring surface atoms. The scalar electric field integral equation (EFIE) and magnetic field integral equation (MFIE) were solved using the Nystrom method to obtain the reflected intensity as a function of observation angle. Verification of the accuracy of the code was obtained by means of comparison …

An Airline Ab Initio Flight Training Program In The United Arab Emirates (Uae): An Analytical Approach Toward Emiratization, Shareef A. K. Al-Romaithi

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The continuous establishment and expansion of UAE airlines has led to a demand for qualified pilots in the region of the Persian Gulf. The shortage of UAE national pilots has compelled the local airlines to employ pilots with foreign nationalities. Though the UAE government has implemented a program within the Emirates to increase the number of nationals in the work force (referred to as Emiratization), there has been little headway within the aviation sector. As a result, this thesis was undertaken to develop an ab initio training program that would increase the percentage of UAE nationals among the UAE airline …

Reversing The Reversal Rate: Using Real Property Principles To Guide Federal Circuit Patent Jurisprudence, Paul M. Schoenhard

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Transparent Coating Materials Based On Inorganic/Organic Composites, K Srikulkit, N Rojtinnakorn, R Charoensak

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

A siloxyl group functionalized copolymer of low molecular weight was synthesized, aiming at preparing transparent inorganic/organic coating composites. Two types of coating systems were investigated: two-component system (based on functionalized copolymer-HMMM) a three-component system (based on functionalized copolymer-HMMM-TEOS). Their properties were investigated and compared. Coating films obtained from these systems exhibited good optical clarity, which was largely dependent on the content of indicated Materials. For instance, to prevent phase separation in the 3- component system, TEOS was "effectively" linked to pendent siloxyl groups on the organic moiety Hence, coating formulations containing a high degree of pendent siloxyl groups exhibited better …

Ph Dependant Coating For Microfluidics Devices, L Limsavarn, C Panithipongwut, P Thongkorn, S T. Dubas

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The layer-by-layer technique was used to coat the channels of PDMS microfluidics devices. The coating was based on the sequential deposition of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) with a copolymer of polystyrene sulfonate and maleic acid (CoPSS-Maleic) into polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM). The possible deposition of PEM coating on PDMS was confirm by contact angle which showed the clear transformation of the PDMS surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. The later deposition of the PEM coating inside the micro-channels was confirmed by change in electroosmotic flow direction (EOF) and intensity as a function of the number of deposited layers. The EOF measurements revealed that …

Development, Evaluation, And Selection Of Advanced Transit Signal Priority Concept Directions, Amer Shalaby, Jinwoo Lee, John Greenough, Stanley Hung, Michael D. Bowie

Journal of Public Transportation

This article presents a process to define the framework for an advanced Transit Signal Priority (TSP) algorithm. For this study, traffic and transit agencies from a broad range of municipalities in Ontario, Canada, provided their views and expertise on various TSP-related issues, including practical needs, design implementation, performance measures, and challenges in developing effective TSP control systems. Based on their inputs as well as the objectives of the project, a set of TSP control concept directions was developed that are characterized with different methodologies and technologies. A listing of selection criteria was also established to evaluate the proposed TSP concept …

Full Issue 9(5)

Journal of Public Transportation

No abstract provided.

Probabilistic Localization Of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Rui Huang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The mobile ad hoc network localization problem deals with estimating the physical location of the nodes that do not have a direct way (e.g., GPS) to determine their own locations. Being an enabling technology that is considered essential to the success of the future implementation of ad hoc networks in the real world, localization is a fundamental problem that needs to be solved with the best possible accuracy and efficiency. For this research, we study the localization problem in its various incarnations such as localization through static beacons, mobile beacons, dynamically deployed beacons and link longevity estimation based on relative …

Runtime Optimization And Load Shedding In Mavstream: Design And Implementation, Balakumar Kendai

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

In data stream processing systems Quality of Service (or QoS) is extremely important. The system should try its best to meet the QoS requirements specified by a user. On account of this difference, unlike in a database management system, a query cannot be optimized once and executed. It has been shown that different scheduling strategies are useful in trading tuple latency requirements with memory and throughput requirements. In addition, data stream processing systems may experience significant fluctuations in input rates. In order to meet the QoS requirements of data stream processing, a runtime optimizer equipped with several scheduling and load …

Neural Network Solution For Fixed-Final Time Optimal Control Of Nonlinear Systems, Tao Cheng

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this research, practical methods for the design of H2 and H-Infinity optimal state feedback controllers for unconstrained and constrained input systems are proposed. The dynamic programming principle is used along with special quasi-norms to derive the structure of both the saturated and optimal controllers in feedback strategy form. The resulting Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) and Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs (HJI) equations are derived respectively. Neural networks are used along with the least-squares method to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi differential equations in the H2 case, and the cost and disturbance in the H-Infinity case. The result is a neural network unconstrained or constrained feedback controller that …

Compensation Of Photobleached Images For A Cell Dynamics System, Sowmya Gopinath

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Progress in the field of medicine attributes to the discoveries in biology that require an extensive knowledge of cell dynamics. Intracellular Cell Dynamics Analysis System (ICellDAS) is a web based tool aimed at automating sub cellular particle motion estimation, tracking and mobility analysis. The purpose of this tool is to develop a better understanding of specific biology problems by visualizing biological data. For reliable analysis as well as visualization of cell dynamics, it is essential that the acquired images reflect the exact information of the specimen. The goal of the thesis is to design an interface for the ICellDAS project …

Analyzing Differences In Color Variation Sensitivity Between Experts And Novices To Find A Differentiating Process In Pigmented Skin Lesion Diagnosis, Yu-Chin Chai

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Fatal skin lesions such as melanomas appear as having high color variation to experts but often as having low variation to novices. This thesis investigated if it is possible to find a function representing an expert's color variation sensitivity to skin lesions without explicitly requiring them to provide a diagnosis. Various pigmented skin images with either normal pigmentation or with diseased lesions were evaluated by experts and novices. To determine the best color space for lesion differentiation, an optimization process based on parametric color dimensions in a RGB color space was used to find the parameters of a color transformation …

Performance Analysis And Design Of Space-Time Codes, Chen Liao

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation, performance and design of space-time codes have been studied. The main objective of this dissertation has been to improve the performance of space-time codes. This dissertation covers a wide range of topics in space-time codes. It involves theoretical analysis, design, and implementation for space-time trellis codes, space-time turbo codes, and orthogonal space-time codes. We begin with the study of performance analysis of upper bound of pair-wise error probability (PEP) and exact PEP. The exact PEP is derived using a straightforward method. The exact PEP provides a better understanding of the performance behavior to the other range of …

Using Part Of Speech Structure Of Text In The Prediction Of Its Readability, Jagadeesh Kondru

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Readability formulas predict the reading difficulty associated with text. They typically output a U.S. school grade level that indicates the reading ability required of a person in order for him to comprehend that text. Ability to predict text readability is useful because it helps educators select appropriate texts for students and authors write texts accessible to the audience they target. Existing readability formulas are based on countable aspects of the text such as average sentence length and average word length. We propose a new readability formula, the Readability Index, which is based on the part-of-speech structure of sentences in a …

Scalar Equilibria For N-Person Games, Narakorn Engsuwan

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation we develop a scalarization approach for one-shot, n-person games by defining the notion of Scalar Equilibria. We first show that existing solution concepts can be represented as Scalar Equlibria. For example, Regret, Disappointment, and Joint Equilibrium can be determined by defining Regret, Disappointment, and Joint Scalar Equilibria. These scalar equilibria are useful for finding pure strategies when pure Regret, Disappointment, and Joint Equilibria do not exist. Next, we present the Maximin Scalarization Equilibrium to yield maximin solution concept. In addition, we propose other Scalar Equilibria for various notions of rationality. The Aspiration Scalar Equilibrium is developed for …

Dynamic Stability Analysis Of Large-Scale Power Systems Using A Fast Investigation Method, Ming-Tse Kuo

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Following power market deregulation and the proposed standard market design, the activities of cross boundary power transactions are increased significantly. Traditional company based stability analysis can not satisfy today's operating environment. However, simulating the entire interconnection power system may exceed the capacity of existing commercial stability analysis software. Fortunately, most of the stability problems are started from the local level. One will be able to avoid most of the system wide stability issues by mitigating the problems in the early stage. Based on eigenvector decompositions of the Jacobian, this dissertation proposes a new algorithm for performing the dynamic stability problem …

Complementing Current Active Queue Management Schemes With Rechoke And Receiver-Window Modification (Rwm), Visvasuresh Govindaswamy

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) and Active Queue Management (AQM) schemes have been proposed for present-day TCP/IP networks to better manage network congestion. ECN enabled AQMs were shown to have a promising advantage over existing drop-tail queues. However, when implemented, they were susceptible to the following problems: 1) the timeout mechanism or the duration of the reception of three duplicate acknowledgements (ACKs), due to early-dropped packets by these AQMs, delays the response time of TCP (in reducing the offered rate) 2) using ECN with these AQMs has its downsides: i) its messages may get delayed or dropped due to congestion in …

Ca-Ole- A Collaborative And Adaptive Online Learning Environment, Paola Gomez

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Demand for online learning environments has grown in the past few years, and schools have been offering more distance courses to their students. Designing adequate online learning environments is considerably more challenging than conventional Face-To-Face courses; therefore traditional methods can not be used. This thesis proposes the creation of a Collaborative and Adaptive Online Learning Environment (CA-OLE) that provides a structure where instructors can combine their lesson materials with an adaptive system and collaborative tools. CA-OLE innovative approach consists of an adaptive framework that changes the way the learning materials prepared by instructors are presented to the students depending on …

Personalizing (Re-Ranking) Web Search Results Using Information Present On A Social Network, Sushruth Puttaswamy

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

We describe a social search engine paradigm which can be built on top of a classic search engine (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) and a social information network (such as FriendSter). In this thesis, the objective was to design algorithms and develop methods to efficiently combine information available in the underlying systems (Search Engine & Social Information Network) to better satisfy the search needs of a user. We are interested on how to efficiently employ social information to re-order a list of URLs retrieved by querying a search engine. The objective was to re-order the list of URLs in a way …