Digital Commons Network^™

Gender Recognition And Appearance Description In Unconstrained Images Of Human Body, Qin Wu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gender recognition has many useful applications, ranging from business intelligence, through to image search and social activity analysis. Traditional research on gender recognition focuses on face images in a constrained environment. In this work, we propose a novel problem of gender recognition in articulated human body images acquired from an unconstrained environment in the real world. Our empirical study answers the question of whether gender recognition can be performed in articulated body images, and discovers important issues such as which body parts are informative, how many body parts are needed to combine together, and what representations are good for articulated …

Paul Verkuil's Projects For The Administrative Conference Of The U.S. 1974-1992, Jeffrey Lubbers

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

I am really happy to be part of this tribute to Paul Verkuil. It may surprise those in the audience to learn that I am bringing some needed diversity to today's proceedings - I am the only other Dutch American on the program! But perhaps my twenty years at the "Administrative Conference" also qualifies me to say a few words about how thrilled I am that we have it back - "ACUS 2.0" we can call it, complete with a website this time- and that Paul is at its helm. And I want to thank Paul for bringing me back …

Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Patent law - and innovation policy more generally - has traditionally been conceptualized as antithetical to secrecy. Not only does the patent system require inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in order to receive a patent, but various patent doctrines are designed to encourage inventors to forego trade secrecy. This Article offers a critique of the law’s preference for patents. In particular, this Article examines whether and under what circumstances the law should prefer patents over secrets, and vice versa.

As an initial step towards a theoretically-supported system of inventor incentives, this Article constructs a framework that attempts to balance …

Legal Education And Civility, Mark Niles

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Interpretation Of Well Test Data From Two Hydraulically Communicating Reservoirs, Bander Ibrahim Al Quaimi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) have been receiving more attention than ever since the beginning of the last decade due to various reasons. The current understanding is not sufficient to achieve a favorable recovery factor due to the complexity associated with the fracture characterization and the dynamic behavior of the fractured system. The majority of the fractured reservoirs are developed. Therefore, before proceeding into secondary or possibly tertiary recovery processes a thorough understanding must be reached to avoid undesirable results. The huge reserve volume present in fractured oil and gas reservoirs motivate engineers, researchers, and geoscientists to exert additional efforts to …

Impact Of Gas Desorption On Production From Multiply Fractured Horizontal Well In Shale, Abdallah O. Arwishad

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In recent years, the exploitation of unconventional gas reservoirs has become increasingly important to North American energy supply. Unconventional gas development depends on effective stimulation of low permeability reservoir by creating multiple hydraulic fractures which connects massive reservoir area to the wellbore. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling are primary techniques to obtain economical production from the shale gas reservoir. In addition to that, gas desorption can be a significant source of gas production in shale gas reservoirs.;This research will illustrate the impact of gas desorption on production from multiply fractured horizontal well in shale by using a reservoir model. This …

Merger Simulation In An Administrative Context, Jonathan Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article addresses the application of the economic literature on merger simulation to the practical context of antitrust enforcement. It highlights the value of simple simulations as a basis for creating screens and presumptions – particularly the gross upward pricing pressure index for the preliminary review of unilateral effects among sellers of branded consumer products and a presumption based on identifying mavericks for the analysis of coordinated effects – in order to provide guidance to merging firms and judges, who may not have specialized competition policy expertise. The article explains why antitrust agencies should rely on these approaches to identify …

Economic Analysis Of Packaging Systems, Vaibhav Mahadev Biradar

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Packaging has a significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain, where improvement can be achieved through the development and selection of an appropriate packaging system. One way to explore this is through the development and use of mathematical models that facilitate economic analysis of packaging systems. Recently, one of the most remarkable trends in logistics is the extensive use of returnable or reusable containers. Returnable container systems have increasingly been introduced in various industries to take advantages of cost savings, but it is very crucial to ensure that a reusable packaging system is an economical packaging …

Integration Of Simulation And Dea To Determine The Most Efficient Patient Appointment Scheduling Model For A Specific Clinic Setting, Nazanin Aslani

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study develops a method to determine the most efficient scheduling model for a specific clinic setting. The appointment scheduling system assigns clinics' timeslots to incoming requests. There are three major scheduling models: centralized scheduling model (CSM), decentralized scheduling model (DSM) and hybrid scheduling model (HSM). In order to schedule multiple appointments, CSM involves one scheduler, DSM involves all the schedulers of individual clinics and HSM combines CSM and DSM. Clinic settings are different in terms of important factors such as randomness of appointment arrival and proportion of multiple appointments. Scheduling systems operate inefficiently if there is not an appropriate …

Development Of A Semi-Field System For Contained Field Trials With Aedes Aegypti In Southern Mexico, L. Facchinelli, L. Valerio, J. G. Bond, Megan R. Wise De Valdez, L. C. Harrington, J. M. Ramsey, M. Casas-Martinez, T. W. Scott

Biology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Development of new genetic approaches to either interfere with the ability of mosquitoes to transmit dengue virus or to reduce vector population density requires progressive evaluation from the laboratory to contained field trials, before open field release. Trials in contained outdoor facilities are an important part of this process because they can be used to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of modified strains in settings that include natural environmental variations without releasing mosquitoes into the open field. We describe a simple and cost-effective semi-field system designed to study Aedes aegypti carrying a dominant lethal gene (fsRIDL) in semi-field conditions. We …

Genetic Elimination Of Dengue Vector Mosquitoes, Megan R. Wise De Valdez, D. Nimmo, J. Betz, H.-F. Gong, A. A. James, L. Alphey, W. C. Black Iv

Biology Faculty Publications (Archived)

An approach based on mosquitoes carrying a conditional dominant lethal gene (release of insects carrying a dominant lethal, RIDL) is being developed to control the transmission of dengue viruses by vector population suppression. A transgenic strain, designated OX3604C, of the major dengue vector, Aedes aegypti, was engineered to have a repressible female-specific flightless phenotype. This strain circumvents the need for radiation-induced sterilization, allows genetic sexing resulting in male-only releases, and permits the release of eggs instead of adult mosquitoes. OX3604C males introduced weekly into large laboratory cages containing stable target mosquito populations at initial ratios of 8.5-10:1 OX3604C:target eliminated the …

Activities And Trends In Testing Graphical User Interfaces Automatically, Izzat M. Alsmadi

Computer Science Faculty Publications (Archived)

This study introduced some new approaches for software test automation in general and testing graphical user interfaces in particular. The study presented ideas in the different stages of the test automation framework. Test automation framework main activities include test case generation, execution and verification. Other umbrella activities include modeling, critical paths selection and some others. In modeling, a methodology is presented to transform the user interface of applications into XML (i.e., extensible Markup Language) files. The purpose of this intermediate transformation is to enable producing test automation components in a format that is easier to deal with (in terms of …

Getting Around When You’Re Just Getting By: The Travel Behavior And Transportation Expenditures Of Low-Income Adults, Mti Report 10-02, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Evelyn A. Blumenberg, Sarah Abel, Gregory Pierce, Charles N. Darrah

Mineta Transportation Institute

How much do people with limited resources pay for cars, public transit, and other means of travel? How does their transportation behavior change during periods of falling employment and rising fuel prices? This research uses in-depth interviews with 73 adults to examine how rising transportation costs impact low-income families. The interviews examine four general areas of interest: travel behavior and transportation spending patterns; the costs and benefits of alternative modes of travel; cost management strategies; and opinions about the effect of changing transportation prices on travel behavior. Key findings include: Most low-income household are concerned about their transportation costs. Low-income …

Armstrong Atlantic State University 2011 Fact Book, Armstrong State University

Armstrong Office of Institutional Research: Armstrong Fact Books (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Stress-Function Variational Method And Its Applications In The Strength Analysis Of Bonded Joints And Hard Coatings, Robert Allen Jenson

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

High concentrations of interfacial stress near the adherend ends are primarily responsible for the debonding failure of bonded joints, such as those structured extensively in civil and structural engineering; aeronautical, ground, and marine vehicles; and flexible electronics and microelectronic packaging. Accurate determination of these interfacial stresses is crucial to improved structural design and optimization as well as health monitoring of the structures in which such joints are found. A variety of joint models have been available in the literature for joint strength analysis and structural design. Yet, a few deficiencies still exist in most of these models in accurate prediction …

Numerical Methods For Fractional Optimal Control And Parametric Problems, Md. Mehedi Hasan

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Fractional derivatives (FDs) or derivatives of arbitrary order have attracted considerable interest in the past few decades, and almost every field of science and engineering has applications of fractional derivatives. Since fractional derivatives have such property as being non-local, it can be extremely challenging to find analytical solutions for fractional optimization problems, and in many cases, analytical solutions may not exist. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop approximate or numerical solutions for such problems. The primary focus of this thesis is to develop numerical schemes to solve optimization problems in fractional orders. Numerical methods for integer order problems …

Modeling Pavement Performance And Preservation, Pan Lu

Transportation Logistics and Finance

The number of highway lane-miles in the United States increased by 7% from 1980 to 2007, while vehicle-miles of travel almost doubled. During the same period, the Federal Highway Trust Fund (the major source of funding for highways) grew by only 40% in constant 1980 dollars. With growth in trade and commerce, truck traffic levels are expected to increase significantly in the future. Highway agencies throughout the United States are facing complex decisions about maintaining, repairing, and renewing existing pavements in the most cost-effective ways. Decision makers need to learn: to what degrees different pavement preservation treatments will improve a …

Developing Input To “Best-Value” Vehicle Procurement Practice: An Analysis Of Supplier Evaluation And Selection In The U.S. Public Transportation Industry, Marc Angus Scott

Transportation Logistics and Finance

Collectively, US public transportation systems operated 137,047 vehicles per peak period in 2008 (American Public Transportation Association 2010). Buses accounted for the largest segment among these vehicles, and the passenger van segment was second. Together, they accounted for 78% of the vehicles operated per peak period (American Public Transportation Association 2010). Due to their pervasive use in the public transportation industry, buses and vans have been the focus in various academic research studies. However, very few studies have focused on vehicle procurement. Further, none have focused on the specific vehicle procurement function of supplier evaluation and selection. The over-arching objective …

The Potential For Indicators In The Management Of Climate Change Impacts On Cultural Heritage, Caithleen Daly

Conference papers

The global scale and unpredictable nature of climate change impacts on cultural heritage poses a challenge for conservation management. This article explores the potential of indicators as an aid for decision makers in the heritage sector. The author proposes a new indicator tool for addressing long-term stone recession impacts that may be related to climate change. The indicator is being installed at two World Heritage sites in Ireland but no results are available. The prototype was developed during doctoral research at the Technological University of Dublin.

Advancing The Use Of Bim Through A Government Funded Construction Industry Competency Centre In Ireland, Alan V. Hore, Ken Thomas

Conference papers

The main aim of this paper is to develop the early case for a new Competence Centre dedicated to industry led research in the Irish construction industry. It incorporates the results of a survey carried out by the Construction IT Aliance (CITA) and also identifies similiar centres carrying out industry led research around the world. Results from the survey show a clear support for the establishment of such a centre in Ireland and, in particular, a strong interest in Building Information Modelling (BIM) as a immediate priority research area. BIM is having a profound effect worldwide on the construction industry. …

Activated Sludge And Other Aerobic Suspended Culture Processes, Charles J. Moretti, Dipesh Das, Brian T. Kistner, Harvey Gullicks, Yung Tse Hung

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

© 2011 by the authors. A review of the literature published in 2008, 2009 and 2010 relating to activated sludge treatment of wastewater is presented. The review considers information on the topics of modeling and kinetics; process microbiology; nitrogen and phosphorus removal; treatment and effects of xenobiotics; oxygen transfer; and solids separation.

Biofilm Fixed Film Systems, Harvey Gullicks, Hasibul Hasan, Dipesh Das, Charles Moretti, Yung Tse Hung

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

© 2011 by the authors. The work reviewed here was published between 2008 and 2010 and describes research that involved aerobic and anoxic biofilm treatment of water pollutants. Biofilm denitrification systems are covered when appropriate. References catalogued here are divided on the basis of fundamental research area or reactor types. Fundamental research into biofilms is presented in two sections, Biofilm Measurement and Characterization and Growth and Modeling. The reactor types covered are: trickling filters, rotating biological contactors, fluidized bed bioreactors, submerged bed biofilm reactors, biological granular activated carbon, membrane bioreactors, and immobilized cell reactors. Innovative reactors, not easily classified, are …

Chemicals And Allied Products Waste Treatment, Yung Tse Hung, Erick Butler, Ruth Yu-Li Yeh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

© 2011 by the authors. A review of the literature published from 2008 to 2010 on topics related to chemicals and allied products is presented. The review considered several sections such as waste management, physicochemical treatment, aerobic treatment, anaerobic treatment, air emissions, soils and groundwater, and reuse.

Dye Waste Treatment, Siew Teng Ong, Pei Sin Keng, Weng Nam Lee, Sie Tiong Ha, Yung Tse Hung

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

© 2011 by the authors. Dye wastes represent one of the most problematic groups of pollutants because they can be easily identified by the human eye and are not easily biodegradable. This literature review paper highlights and provides an overview of dye waste treatments performed over the three years period from 2008-2010. Noteworthy processes for the treatment of dye waste include biological treatment, catalytic oxidation, filtration, sorption process and combination treatments.

Special Issue On Plenary And Invited Papers From Icops 2010, Ravi P. Joshi, Xinpei Lu, Yukinori Sakiyama

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

HE 37th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) was held in Norfolk, VA, from June 20 to June 24, 2010. The technical program combined seven technical-related areas of plasma science and a range of diverse topics. A total of 562 abstracts from 37 countries were accepted, and the technical program included four plenary talks. There were 217 oral and 345 poster presentations. The plenary talks were given by Prof. L. Boufendi on Dusty Plasmas, Prof. E. Kunhardt on Non-Equilibrium Plasma Sources, Dr. K. S. Budil on High Energy Density Physics, and Dr. M. Thumm on the use of gyrotrons …

Coupled Photonic Crystal Micro-Cavities With Ultra-Low Threshold Power For Stiumulated Raman Scattering, Qiang Liu, Zhengbiao Ouyang, Sacharia Albin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We propose coupled cavities to realize a strong enhancement of the Raman scattering. Five sub cavities are embedded in the photonic crystals. Simulations through finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method demonstrate that one cavity, which is used to propagate the pump beam at the optical-communication wavelength, has a Q factor as high as 1.254 × 10⁸ and modal volume as small as 0.03μm³ (0.3192(λ/n)³). These parameters result in ultra-small threshold lasing power ~17.7nW and 2.58nW for Stokes and anti-Stokes respectively. The cavities are designed to support the required Stokes and anti-Stokes modal spacing in silicon. The proposed structure …

Imbalanced Learning For Functional State Assessment, Feng Li, Frederick Mckenzie, Jiang Li, Guanfan Zhang, Roger Xu, Carl Richey, Tom Schnell, Thomas E. Pinelli (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents results of several imbalanced learning techniques applied to operator functional state assessment where the data is highly imbalanced, i.e., some function states (majority classes) have much more training samples than other states (minority classes). Conventional machine learning techniques usually tend to classify all data samples into majority classis and perform poorly for minority classes. In this study, we implemented five imbalanced learning techniques, including random under-sampling, random over-sampling, synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE), borderline-SMOTE and adaptive synthetic sampling (ADASYN) to solve this problem. Experimental results on a benchmark driving test dataset show that accuracies for minority classes …

Bcc Skin Cancer Diagnosis Based On Texture Analysis Techniques, Shao-Hui Chuang, Xiaoyan Sun, Wen-Yu Chang, Gwo-Shing Chen, Adam Huang, Jiang Li, Frederic D. Mckenzie

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a texture analysis based method for diagnosing the Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) skin cancer using optical images taken from the suspicious skin regions. We first extracted the Run Length Matrix and Haralick texture features from the images and used a feature selection algorithm to identify the most effective feature set for the diagnosis. We then utilized a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classifier to classify the images to BCC or normal cases. Experiments showed that detecting BCC cancer based on optical images is feasible. The best sensitivity and specificity we achieved on our data set were 94% …

Histogram Analysis Of Adc In Brain Tumor Patients, Debrup Banerjee, Jihong Wang, Jiang Li, Norbert J. Pelc (Ed.), Ehsan Samei (Ed.), Robert M. Nishikawa (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

At various stage of progression, most brain tumors are not homogenous. In this presentation, we retrospectively studied the distribution of ADC values inside tumor volume during the course of tumor treatment and progression for a selective group of patients who underwent an anti-VEGF trial. Complete MRI studies were obtained for this selected group of patients including pre- and multiple follow-up, post-treatment imaging studies. In each MRI imaging study, multiple scan series were obtained as a standard protocol which includes T1, T2, T1-post contrast, FLAIR and DTI derived images (ADC, FA etc.) for each visit. All scan series (T1, T2, FLAIR, …

On The Visual Quality Enhancement Of Super-Resolution Images, Amr Hussein Yousef, Jiang Li, Mohammad Karim, Andrew G. Tescher (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Super-resolution (SR) is the process of obtaining a higher resolution image from a set of lower resolution (LR) blurred and noisy images. One may, then, envision a scenario where a set of LR images is acquired with a sensor on a moving platform. In such a case, an SR image can be reconstructed in an area of sufficient overlap between the LR images which generally have a relative shift with respect to each other by subpixel amounts. The visual quality of the SR image is affected by many factors such as the optics blur, the inherent signalto- noise ratio of …