Digital Commons Network^™

A Perception Based, Domain Specific Expert System For Question-Answering Support, Raheel Ahmad, Shahram Rahimi

Computer Science Publications

The current search engine technologies mostly use a keyword based searching mechanism, which does not have any deductive abilities. There is an urgent need for a more intelligent question-answering system that will provide a more intuitive, natural language interface, and more accurate and direct search results. The introduction of Computing with Words (CwW) provides a new theoretical base for developing frameworks with support for dealing with information in natural language. This paper proposes a domain specific question-answering system based on Fuzzy Expert Systems using CwW. In order to perform the translation of natural language based information into a standard format …

Tragent: A Multi-Agent System For Stock Exchange, Raju Tatikunta, Shahram Rahimi, Pranav Shrestha, Johan Bjursel

Computer Science Publications

TrAgent is a software-agent based model for a stock exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange and the procedure of trading securities on the trading floor. The model comprises the complete process from the initiation of a trading order until its execution. The software agent paradigm is the framework for implementing the proposed model. The properties of intelligent software agents meet the characteristics of the actors on the trading floor and provide capabilities for efficient distributed computing. Because of the space restriction, the main focus of this paper is on stock broker agent, one of the most important agents …

Southern Alumni, Siu Alumni Association

SIU Alumni Magazine

No abstract provided.

Explicit Symmetries Of Strict Feedforward Control Systems, Issa Amadou Tall, Witold Respondek

Miscellaneous (presentations, translations, interviews, etc)

We show that any symmetry of a smooth strict feedforward system is conjugated to a scaling translation and any 1-parameter family of symmetries to a family of scaling translations along the first variable. We compute explicitly those symmetries by finding the conjugating diffeomorphism. We deduce, in accordance with our previous work, that a smooth system is feedback equivalent to a strict feedforward form if and only if it gives rise to a sequence of systems, such that each element of the sequence, firstly, possesses an infinitesimal symmetry whose flow is conjugated to a 1- parameter families of scaling translations and, …

Green Leaves For Diarrhoeal Diseases Used By The Tribals Of Kenojhar And Mayurbhanj District Of Orissa, India, Kambaska Kumar Behera, Purandra Mandal, Dayanidhi Mahapatra

Ethnobotanical Leaflets

The present paper reports with 49 plant species belonging to 30 families, mostly used by the tribal people of Kenojhar and Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. The tribal population of the region primarily depends upon these plants for curing diarrhea. They are enumerated with binomial, family, local name, parts used and ethno medicinal uses. Further studies on chemical and pharmacological actions are suggested to validate the claims.

Broadcast Technology As Diversity Opportunity: Exchanging Market Power For Multiplexed Signal Set- Asides, Michael M. Epstein

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article proposes an access system based on a theory of quid pro quo: a bargained.for-exchange in which broadcasters would trade media access for market power. Under this quid pro quo approach, the FCC would administer a scaled metric whereby the greater a media company's audience reach, the more access that company must provide to citizens with diverse and local content. Since digital technology permits broadcasters to "multiplex" their television signal bandwidth into multiple signal programming streams, an opportunity exists for the government to require public access to one or more of these programming streams in return for relaxing caps …

Down To The Wire: Assessing The Constitutionality Of The National Security Agency's Warrantless Wiretapping Program: Exit The Rule Of Law, Fletcher N. Baldwin Jr., Robert B. Shaw

UF Law Faculty Publications

The article discusses the constitutionality of warrantless wiretapping surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) on U.S. citizens. The wiretapping program existed weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks, on the justification that Congress authorized the president to wiretap U.S. citizens without a warrant, and that the president had inherent authority as commander-in-chief. But it is argued that Congress did not expressly authorize the president to conduct warrantless wiretapping and that he does not have such inherent authority.

We intend this Article to be a commentary on the constitutionality of the NSA wiretapping program solely as it relates to the …

Boffin's Books And Darwin's Finches: Victorian Cultures Of Collecting, Michael W. Hancock '89

Doctoral Dissertations

Although wealthy continental virtuosos had passionately and selectively accumulated a variety of natural and artificial objects from the Renaissance onwards, not until the nineteenth century did collecting become a conspicuous national pastime among all classes in Britain. As industry and empire made available many new and exotic goods for acquisition and display, the collection as a cultural form offered the Victorians a popular strategy of self-fashioning that was often represented in the literature of the age as a source of prestige and social legitimation. Through interdisciplinary readings of Victorian fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry, my study examines how textual representations …

Oncolog Volume 51, Number 12, December 2006, Sunni Hosemann

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues) Archives

• Curable But Not Conquered: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Today
• House Call: Big Benefits for Smokers Who Quit

Contingency Management Techniques And Smoking Cessation In College Students, Laurie Athey

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine smoking cessation using different criteria for delivery of monetary reinforcement for college students from Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. Participants participated in a 4 week study using a single subject reversal design (ABAC) in which baseline phases were alternated with either fixed criterion or shaping using an escalating schedule of reinforcement. The order of administration of intervention phases was determined randomly. Each intervention phase lasted 5 days (Monday-Friday). Results showed that contingent reinforcement for reduced carbon monoxide levels was effective in reducing smoking. However, additional studies need to be completed for longer periods …

The Information Quality Act: The Little Statute That Could (Or Couldn't?) Applying The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments Of 1996 To The Federal Communications Commission, Kellen Ressmeyer

Federal Communications Law Journal

In December 2000, Congress passed the Information Quality Act - a two sentence rider to a 712-page Appropriations Bill. The Information Quality Act, which seeks to ensure the quality of government-disseminated information, places the White House Office of Management and Budget in a supervisory role. The Office of Management and Budget subsequently finalized a set of mandatory Guidelines applicable to all federal agencies. Among other things, the Guidelines require adherence to the scientific standard articulated in the 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act where such agencies engage in risk analysis to human health, safety, and the environment. As …

Sometimes Close Is Good Enough: The Value Of Nearby Environmental Amenities, Lucie Schmidt, Paul N. Courant

Economics: Faculty Publications

An extensive empirical literature exists, showing that variations in region-specific amenities can account for persistent differences in real wages across regions. However, this literature has considered only amenities in the same location as the household. This paper argues that environmental amenities at some distance from but accessible to urban areas may lead to negative compensating wage differentials. We use a general equilibrium framework and data from the 1995 Current Population Survey to calculate implicit amenity prices based on measures of distance to environmental amenities. Our results suggest that amenities outside the metropolitan area do generate compensating wage differentials, as workers …

Voices Raised, Issue 14, University Of Dayton. Women's Center

Women’s Center Newsletter

Included in this issue: Upholding Marianist Values; Revised AA/EEO policy includes sexual orientation; Spread the Holiday Spirit to Local Neighborhoods; Mentoring Program; Students empower women in Africa; Main identity of professor is engineer, not female; Minimize Your Holiday Pitfalls; Giving Thanks to Women In Your Life.

Hopewell Archeology: Volume 7, Number 1, December 2006, Mark J. Lynott, Ann Bauermeister, Christel M. Baldia

United States National Park Service: Publications

1. Excavation of the East Embankment Wall, Hopewell Mound Group: A Preliminary Report

There are many famous and well known earthen enclosure sites in southern Ohio, but none has greater name recognition than the Hopewell site itself. With at least 40 mounds, the site is impressive enough, but the presence of more than 4 km of earth and stone embankment walls forming one large enclosure and several smaller ones makes this site clearly worthy of being the type site for this famous epoch in the archaeological record. The site has been greatly modified by nearly two hundred years of cultivation …

Relational Leadership Theory: Exploring The Social Processes Of Leadership And Organizing, Mary Uhl-Bien

Leadership Institute: Faculty Publications

Relational leadership is a relatively new term in the leadership literature, and because of this, its meaning is open to interpretation. In the present article I describe two perspectives of relational leadership: an entity perspective that focuses on identifying attributes of individuals as they engage in interpersonal relationships, and a relational perspective that views leadership as a process of social construction through which certain understandings of leadership come about and are given privileged ontology. These approaches can be complementary, but their implications for study and practice are quite different. After reviewing leadership research relative to these two perspectives I offer …

Presentation Of The 2006 Asp Distinguished Service Award To Lillian Mayberry, Robin M. Overstreet

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Presentation of the 2006 American Society of Parasitologists Distinguished Service Award to Lillian Mayberry, of the University of Texas at El Paso, at the 11th International Congress of Parasitology in Glasgow, Scotland.

A Handheld Neutron-Detection Sensor System Utilizing A New Class Of Boron Carbide Diode, Kevin Osberg, Nathan Schemm, M. Susan Hallbeck, Sina Balkir, Peter A. Dowben, Jennifer I. Brand, Michael W. Hoffman

Peter Dowben Publications

A handheld neutron-detection sensor application is described in this paper. The sensor system utilizes a new class of boron carbide diode that interacts with incoming neutrons. To interface with the boron carbide diode, an integrated front end is designed in a 1.5-μm standard CMOS technology. With the diode and front-end microchip, a handheld neutron-detection system was realized with an embedded microcontroller for real-time processing. The handheld detector operation was then tested with a plutonium–beryllium neutron source. Test and measurement results confirm the validity of the approach and the functionality of the design.

Table Of Contents (V. 15, No. 2)

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Reaffirming The Right To Pretrial Assistance: The Surprising Little Case Of Fellers V. United States, James K. Tomkovicz

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Are Credit Card Late Fees Unconstitutional?, Seana Valentine Shiffrin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell articulated serious and specific constitutional constraints upon the imposition of punitive damages. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion announced that, apart from exceptional cases, punitive damages should not exceed nine times the amount of the actual losses sustained by the plaintiff and should usually be far lower. Indeed, the opinion observed, they typically should be much lower, citing double, treble, and quadruple multipliers as "instructive" examples. Some commentators have worried that the decision could adversely affect consumer interests by offering insulation for tortious behavior that is difficult to detect or litigate. This Article will …

E-Lawyering, The Aba's Current Choice Of Ethics Law Rule & The Dormant Commerce Clause Invalidates Model Rule 8.5(B)(2) When Applied To Attorney Internet Representations Of Clients, Michael W. Loudenslager

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Internet is becoming the primary manner in which some attorneys serve clients. States have already taken differing views on whether it is acceptable for an attorney to engage in electronic representations of clients. Thus, determining what jurisdiction's law applies to such attorney conduct can be very important in deciding whether this activity constitutes the unauthorized practice of law and, if not, determining the exact duties of an attorney in such representations. This Article argues that the current version of Model Rule of Professional Responsibility 8.5(b), which governs choice of ethics law, can be interpreted to apply the legal ethics …

Labeling “Genocide” In Sudan: A Constructionist Analysis Of Darfur, William F.S. Miles

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Labeling is critical for the framing, perception, and political implications of social problems, genocide being a critical but overlooked example. For half a century social-science theory has developed increasingly sophisticated paradigms for understanding the process by which problems are recognized and addressed: social constructionism, labeling theory, politico-linguistics, problem definition, and tipping points. Yet rarely have these theoretical frameworks been applied to genocide studies. When reconsidered in light of Sudan, these general frameworks validate the constructionist argument that the recognized severity of political problems—including government-organized or -sanctioned mass killings—is a function of the socio-linguistic processing and naming of them. Anti-genocide advocates, …

Book Review: Naomi Baumslag. Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, And Typhus , Myma Goldenberg

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus, Naomi Baumslag proposes an agenda for research on the connections among medicine, war, and genocide. Building on the groundbreaking work of Robert Jay Lifton, John J. Michalczyk, Howard Fertig, Arthur Caplan, Henry Friedlander, and others, Baumslag sets out to prove that the Nazis rewarded physicians who helped implement the Final Solution, specifically by encouraging the spread of typhus as a means of murdering Jews. By imposing and then neglecting deplorable conditions in the ghettos and camps, Baumslag argues, Nazi doctors ‘‘promoted typhus . . . because ‘natural death’ was cheaper than …

Author Biographies

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Insider Trading And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We hypothesize that insiders strategically choose disclosure policies and the timing of their equity trades to maximize trading profits, subject to the litigation costs associated with disclosure and insider trading. Accounting for endogeneity between disclosures and trading, we find that when managers plan to purchase shares, they increase the number of bad news forecasts to reduce the purchase price. In addition, this relation is stronger for trades initiated by chief executive officers than for those initiated by other executives. Confirming this strategic behavior, we find that managers successfully time their trades around bad news forecasts, buying fewer shares beforehand and …

Implication Of Comprehensive Income Disclosure For Future Earnings And Analysts' Forecasts, Jong-Hag Choi, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the association of comprehensive income with subsequent period net income as well as analysts’ earnings forecasts. Our results support the notion that comprehensive income is incrementally useful in predicting subsequent period changes in net income. We also document that comprehensive income is associated with analysts’ earnings forecast revisions and forecast errors. The evidence is consistent with analysts’ failure to fully utilize the information disclosed in comprehensive income. The result suggests that analysts revise their year t+1’s forecast downward when comprehensive income is smaller than net income but they do not revise the forecast upward when comprehensive income …

Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From An Approach-Avoidance Process Model, Gary Pan, Shan Ling Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We view escalation and de-escalation of commitment as processes involving recurring instances of approach-avoidance conflict. This paper outlines an approach-avoidance process model for describing and analyzing escalation and de-escalation of commitment in information systems projects. In the model, the sequential mapping of project events is integrated with a model of approach-avoidance conflict that identifies periods of gradual evolution at two separate levels of social analysis (project and work) that are punctuated by sudden, revolutionary periods of rapid change. By conceiving the processes of commitment escalation and de-escalation as sequences of events involving approach-avoidance conflicts, researchers may develop a deeper understanding …

Clique Percolation For Finding Naturally Cohesive And Overlapping Document Clusters, Wei Gao, Kam-Fai Wong, Yunqing Xia, Ruifeng Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Techniques for find document clusters mostly depend on models that impose strong explicit and/or implicit priori assumptions. As a consequence, the clustering effects tend to be unnatural and stray away from the intrinsic grouping natures of a document collection. We apply a novel graph-theoretic technique called Clique Percolation Method (CPM) for document clustering. In this method, a process of enumerating highly cohesive maximal document cliques is performed in a random graph, where those strongly adjacent cliques are mingled to form naturally overlapping clusters. Our clustering results can unveil the inherent structural connections of the underlying data. Experiments show that CPM …

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 …

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 …