Digital Commons Network^™

Resource Allocation And Efficient Routing In Wireless Networks, Jianjun Yang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In wireless networks, devices (nodes) are connected by wireless links. An important issue is to set up high quality (high bandwidth) and efficient routing paths when one node wants to send packets to other nodes. Resource allocation is the foundation to guarantee high quality connections. In addition, it is critical to handle void areas in order to set up detour-free paths. Moreover, fast message broadcasting is essential in mobile wireless networks. Thus, my research includes dynamic channel allocation in wireless mesh networks, geographic routing in Ad Hoc networks, and message broadcasting in vehicular networks.

The quality of connections in a …

Three Dimensional Modeling And Animation Of Facial Expressions, Alice J. Lin

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Facial expression and animation are important aspects of the 3D environment featuring human characters. These animations are frequently used in many kinds of applications and there have been many efforts to increase the realism. Three aspects are still stimulating active research: the detailed subtle facial expressions, the process of rigging a face, and the transfer of an expression from one person to another. This dissertation focuses on the above three aspects.

A system for freely designing and creating detailed, dynamic, and animated facial expressions is developed. The presented pattern functions produce detailed and animated facial expressions. The system produces realistic …

Three Essays Evaluating Choices Of Teachers And Administrators In Kentucky Public Schools, Nathan Barrett

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Public K-12 education is a large enterprise in the United States. Through local, state and federal sources, the U.S. allocated over $610 billion to K-12 public education in 2009 (NCES). Not only is the commitment of public funds for education substantial, the provision of K-12 education is primarily administered by the government in non-market settings through local school districts. It is this institutional environment that generates the impetus for evaluating how those in education make choices in the absence of markets.

Like traditional markets, non-market solutions often fail because the incentives facing individuals and agencies elicit choices which produce outcomes …

The Effects Of Three Concept Mapping Strategies On Seventh-Grade Students' Science Achievement At An Urban Middle School, Navdeep Dosanjh

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

Modeling And Analysis Of Repeated Ordinal Data Using Copula Based Likelihoods And Estimating Equation Methods, Raghavendra Rao Kurada

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

Repeated or longitudinal ordinal data occur in many fields such as biology, epidemiology, and finance. These data normally are analyzed using both likelihood and non-likelihood methods. The first part of this dissertation discusses the multivariate ordered probit model which is a likelihood method based on latent variables. We show that this latent variable model belong to a very general class of Copula models. We use the copula representation for the multivariate ordered probit model to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters. We apply the methodology in the analysis of real life data examples.

Though likelihood methods are preferable, there …

A Qualitative Investigation Of The Use Of An Art-Based Technique In Counselor Group Supervision, Cheryl Shiflett

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

While the counseling community embraces the use of creative approaches in counseling and supervision, few researchers have attempted to empirically describe the process of including an art-based technique into counselor group supervision. A grounded theory design guided the exploration of the factors and processes of including one art-based technique into six counselor supervision groups. Six doctoral-level supervisors who were trained in an art-based technique known as the visual case processing method introduced the method to their group supervisees who were completing a semester-long practicum or internship. Data collection methods included individual and focus group interviews, observations of visual case presentations, …

Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Nanostructured Tandem Solar Cells: Simulation And Fabrication Methods, Patrick Michael Boland Jr.

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organic solar cell technologies continue to be an extremely active area of scientific research. With their promise of providing low-cost, easily-processable, multi-application photovoltaics, these devices could very possibly be the most viable and practical form of renewable energy among many being explored. However, significant technological obstacles remain that must be overcome if this technology is to successfully realize the goal of providing abundant energy while simultaneously reducing dependence on fossil fuel-based sources. Compared with inorganic solar photovoltaics, power conversion efficiencies in organics are still too low to compete economically.

Much research has been accomplished over the past three decades in …

The Money Blind: How To Stop Industry Bias In Biomedical Science, Without Violating The First Amendment, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

The pharmaceutical and medical device industries use billions of dollars to support the biomedical science that physicians, regulators, and patients use to make healthcare decisions—the decisions that drive an increasingly large portion of the American economy. Compelling evidence suggests that this industry money buys favorable results, biasing the outcomes of scientific research. Current efforts to manage the problem, including disclosure mandates and peer reviews, are ineffective. A blinding mechanism, operating through an intermediary such as the National Institutes of Health, could instead be developed to allow industry support of science without allowing undue influence. If the editors of biomedical journals …

Testing As Commodification, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, the author addresses criticism of the testing movement by education experts such as Jonathan Kozol. She explores the similarities in the discourses of philosophical discussions of commodification and behavioural economic discussions of intrinsic motivations. One conclusion that the author draws is that the comparison between the testing movement and commodification literature is not perfect, but they have both been counted, compared and measured, and flattened or thinned out of values.

Why Is An Einstein Ring Blue?, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of `Einstein rings' as a consequence of his general theory of relativity. The phenomenon is a direct result of the idea that if a mass warps space-time then light (and other electromagnetic waves) will be `lensed' by the strong gravitational field produced by a large cosmological body such as a galaxy. Since 1998, when the first complete Einstein ring was observed, many more complete or partially complete Einstein rings have been observed in the radio and infrared spectra, for example, and by the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical spectrum. However, in the latter case, …

A Generalized Nonlinear Model For The Evolution Of Low Frequency Freak Waves, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

This paper presents a generalized model for simulating wave fields associated with the sea surface. This includes the case when `freak waves' may occur through an effect compounded in the nonlinear (cubic) Schrodinger equation. After providing brief introductions to linear sea wave models, `freak waves' and the linear and nonlinear Schrodinger equations, we present a unified model that provides for a piecewise continuous transition from a linear to a nonlinear state. This is based on introducing a fractional time derivative to develop a fractional nonlinear partial differential equation with a stochastic source function. In order to explore the characteristics of …

Cryptography Using Steganography: New Algorithms And Applications, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Developing methods for ensuring the secure exchange of information is one of the oldest occupations in history. With the revolution in Information Technology, the need for securing information and the variety of methods that have been developed to do it has expanded rapidly. Much of the technology that forms the basis for many of the techniques used today was originally conceived for use in military communications and has since found a place in a wide range of industrial and commercial sectors. This has led to the development of certain industry standards that are compounded in specific data processing algorithms together …

Application Of Stochastic Diffusion For Hiding High Fidelity Encrypted Images, Jonathan Blackledge, Abdulrahman Al-Rawi

Articles

Cryptography coupled with information hiding has received increased attention in recent years and has become a major research theme because of the importance of protecting encrypted information in any Electronic Data Interchange system in a way that is both discrete and covert. One of the essential limitations in any cryptography system is that the encrypted data provides an indication on its importance which arouses suspicion and makes it vulnerable to attack. Information hiding of Steganography provides a potential solution to this issue by making the data imperceptible, the security of the hidden information being a threat only if its existence …

Non-Gaussian Analysis Of Wind Velocity Data For The Determination Of Power Quality Control, Jonathan Blackledge, Eugene Coyle, Derek Kearney

Articles

The quality of power (i.e. the sustainable power output as a function time) of any wind dependent energy converter (including wind turbines and wave energy converters) is determined by many design and environmental factors but timedependent variations in the wind speed are arguably the most important. In this paper we consider a non-Gaussian model for analysing and then simulating wind velocity data. In particular, we consider a Lévy distribution for the statistical characteristics of wind velocity and show how this distribution can be used to derive a stochastic fractional diffusion equation for the wind velocity as a function of time …

Risk Management Trends: Currency Trading Using The Fractal Market Hypothesis, Jonathan Blackledge, Kieran Murphy

Articles

We report on a research and development programme in financial modelling and economic security undertaken in the Information and Communications Security Research Group (ICSRG, 2011) which has led to the launch of a new company - Currency Traders Ireland Limited - funded by Enterprise Ireland. Currency Traders Ireland Limited (CTI, 2011) has a fifty year exclusive license to develop a new set of indicators for analysing currency exchange rates (Forex trading). We consider the background to the approach taken and present examples of the results obtained to date. In this ‘Introduction’, we provide a background to and brief overview of …

Steganography Using Stochastic Diffusion For The Covert Communication Of Digital Images, Jonathan Blackledge, Abdulrahman Al-Rawi

Articles

This paper is devoted to the study of a method called Stochastic Diffusion for encrypting digital images and embedding the information in another host image or image set. We introduce the theoretical background to the method and the mathematical models upon which it is based. This includes a comprehensive study of the diffusion equation and its properties leading to a convolution model for encrypting data with a stochastic field that is fundamental to the approach considered. Two methods of implementing the approach are then considered. The first method introduces a lossy algorithm for hiding an image in a single host …

Using Virtual Reality To Enhance Electrical Safety And Design In The Built Environment, Martin Barrett, Jonathan Blackledge, Eugene Coyle

Articles

— Electricity and the inherent risks associated with its use in the built environment have long since been a priority for the electrical services industry and also the general public who must live and work in this environment. By its nature virtual reality has the advantage of being safe for both the user and equipment. In addition, it offers the user an opportunity to be exposed to a range of scenarios and conditions that either occur infrequently or are hazardous to replicate. This paper presents a prototype desktop virtual reality model, to enhance electrical safety and design in the built …

The Synchronized Short-Time-Fourier-Transform: Properties And Definitions For Multichannel Source Separation., Ruairí De Fréin, Scott Rickard

Articles

This paper proposes the use of a synchronized linear transform, the synchronized short-time-Fourier-transform (sSTFT), for time-frequency analysis of anechoic mixtures. We address the short comings of the commonly used time-frequency linear transform in multichannel settings, namely the classical short-time-Fourier-transform (cSTFT). We propose a series of desirable properties for the linear transform used in a multichannel source separation scenario: stationary invertibility, relative delay, relative attenuation, and finally delay invariant relative windowed-disjoint orthogonality (DIRWDO). Multisensor source separation techniques which operate in the time-frequency domain, have an inherent error unless consideration is given to the multichannel properties proposed in this paper. The sSTFT …

Friction: How Radicalization Happens To Them And Us. By Clark Mccauley And Sophia Moskalenko (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Robin L. Thompson

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Four Lessons From The Study Of Fundamentalism And Psychology Of Religion, Sara Savage

Journal of Strategic Security

What lessons can the study of fundamentalism and the psychology of religion teach the newer field of Radicalization and Involvement in Violent Extremism (RIVE)? Four lessons and an intervention are offered in this article: (1) Religion is a robust human experience and cultural product that adopts a defensive shape when its worldview is threatened. (2) This does not mean that all "fundamentalisms" or radical versions of religion are somehow linked or perform similar functions; rather, they reflect the limited human repertoire to threat, yet within different cultural and historical contexts. (3) Causal explanations on the level of the individual are …

Grb071028b, A Burst Behind Large Amounts Of Dust In An Unabsorbed Galaxy, C. Clemens, J. Greiner, T. Krühler, D. Pierini, S. Savaglio, S. Klose, P.M.J. Afonso, R. Filgas, F.E. Olivares, A. Rau, P. Schady, A. Rossi, A. Küpcü Yoldas, Adria Updike, A. Yoldas

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grb 091127: The Cooling Break Race On Magnetic Fuel, R. Filgas, J. Greiner, P. Schady, T. Krühler, Adria Updike, S. Klose, M. Nardini, D.A. Kann, A. Rossi, V. Sudilovsky, P.M.J. Afonso, C. Clemens, J. Elliott, A. Nicuesa Guelbenzu, F. Olivares E., A. Rau

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Nature Of The Extremely Fast Optical Rebrightening Of The Afterglow Of Grb 081029, M. Nardini, J. Greiner, T. Krühler, R. Filgas, S. Klose, P. Afonso, C. Clemens, A. N. Guelbenzu, F. Olivares E., A. Rau, A. Rossi, Adria Updike, A. Küpcü Yoldas, A. Yoldas, D. Burlon, J. Elliott, D. A. Kann

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Context. After the launch of the Swift satellite, the gamma-ray burst (GRB) optical light-curve smoothness paradigm has been questioned thanks to the faster and better sampled optical follow-up, which has unveiled a very complex behaviour. This complexity is triggering the interest of the whole GRB community. The GROND multi-channel imager is used to study optical and near-infrared (NIR) afterglows of GRBs with unprecedented optical and near-infrared temporal and spectral resolution. The GRB 081029 has a very prominent optical rebrightening event and is an outstanding example of the application of the multi-channel imager to GRB afterglows. Aims. Here we exploit the …

Photometric Redshifts For Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows From Grond And Swift/Uvot, T. Krühler, P. Schady, J. Greiner, P. Afonso, E. Bottacini, C. Clemens, R. Filgas, S. Klose, T. S. Koch, A. Küpcü-Yoldas, S. R. Oates, F. Olivares E., M. J. Page, S. Mcbreen, M. Nardini, A. Nicuesa Guelbenzu, A. Rau, P. W.A. Roming, A. Rossi, Adria Updike, A. Yoldas

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Seds And Host Galaxies Of The Dustiest Grb Afterglows, T. Krühler, J. Greiner, P. Schady, S. Savaglio, P. M.J. Afonso, C. Clemens, J. Elliott, R. Filgas, D. Gruber, D. A. Kann, S. Klose, A. Küpcü-Yoldas, S. Mcbreen, F. Olivares, D. Pierini, A. Rau, A. Rossi, M. Nardini, A. Nicuesa Guelbenzu, V. Sudilovsky, Adria Updike

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Spitzer 24Μm Survey For Dust Disks Around Hot White Dwarfs, You-Hua Chu, Kate Y.L. Su, Jana Bilikova, Robert A. Gruendl, Orsola De Marco, Martin A. Guerrero, Adria Updike, Kevin Volk, Thomas Rauch

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Neural Mechanisms Of Interference And Storage In Vibrotactile Working Memory, Tyler D. Bancroft

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Vibrotactile working memory has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Substantial research into the neural correlates has been conducted, especially using single-cell paradigms in non-human primates (Romo & Salinas, 2003). The vibrotactile working memory system uses a relatively simple neural code for the representation of stimuli, making it possible to determine when stimulus information is present in the various cortical areas thought to be involved. In humans, vibrotactile working memory displays properties (such as overwriting mechanisms of interference) that make it an ideal system for testing general theories of working memory. In the present study, we demonstrate that vibrotactile working …

The Internalization Of Mathematics Stereotypes In Elementary School Children, Amanda Schell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated mathematics-related gender stereotypes, internalization of these stereotypes in 2nd and 5th grade children, and whether there is a relationship between internalization and the underperformance of girls in mathematics. There is evidence that gender stereotype internalization occurs throughout elementary school with an increasing impact on girls’ mathematical competence and performance (e.g., Muzzatti & Agnoli, 2007). However, there has been no definite determination with respect to the point at which this process begins. Parents and teachers have displayed gender stereotypical beliefs concerning children as young as three years of age (Lee & Schell, under review). This factor can influence …

Integrated Computational Intelligence And Japanese Candlestick Method For Short-Term Financial Forecasting, Takenori Kamo

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research presents a study of intelligent stock price forecasting systems using interval type-2 fuzzy logic for analyzing Japanese candlestick techniques. Many intelligent financial forecasting models have been developed to predict stock prices, but many of them do not perform well under unstable market conditions. One reason for poor performance is that stock price forecasting is very complex, and many factors are involved in stock price movement. In this environment, two kinds of information exist, including quantitative data, such as actual stock prices, and qualitative data, such as stock traders' opinions and expertise. Japanese candlestick techniques have been proven to …