Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Reinforcement Learning (Rl) For Plan Generation In Belief-Desire-Intention (Bdi) Agent Systems, Jose L. Feliu

Open Access Master's Theses

The Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agent framework is a reactive agent framework based on the idea of intentionality. A known weaknesses of BDI is its lack of learning capabilities resulting from its dependence on an a-priori library of plans. BDI plans are designed by human experts on the domain to which BDI is being applied and are fixed. Any situation the BDI agent encounters which does not have a matching plan can result in erroneous agent operation and even agent failure.

Researchers have augmented the BDI framework with various learning frameworks including decision trees, self-organizing neural networks, hybrid-architectures using low level learners, …

An Emulsion-Based Route To Generate Magnetic Capsules For Concrete Applications, Lennart Max Kleinfeldt

Open Access Master's Theses

The deterioration of reinforced concrete structures due to corrosion of the reinforcement bars has a major ecological and economical impact worldwide. Increased corrosion inhibition shall be allowed by placing polyurea capsules containing water soluble chemicals that protect the steel such as calcium nitrite. The capsules are modified with iron oxide nanoparticles to generate a magnetic susceptibility of the capsules. The iron oxide particles are introduced to the process in the preliminary step of emulsification of the water phase. The magnetic property can be possibly used to attract the capsules by running current through the steel wires which induces a magnetic …

Attrition From Early Intervention: Associations With Several Child Characteristics, Carla Swanson

Open Access Master's Theses

Objectives. This study tested for associations between attrition from Early Intervention programs and a child’s age at referral, race, home language, referral source, functioning, and insurance status and explored the relative predictive power of these individual child characteristics.

Methods. Data from the Rhode Island Department of Human Service’s Early Intervention Data Management System were examined using t-tests and logistic regression techniques.

Results. Overall, EI non-completers tended to be younger and non-white. They were more likely to have had public insurance and they had significantly higher developmental functioning scores at entry. Non-completers were more likely to come from …

Trophic Ecology Of Oxygen Minimum Zone Zooplankton Revealed By Carbon And Nitrogen Stable Isotopes, Rebecca Williams

Open Access Dissertations

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are areas in which midwater oxygen concentration can be significantly lower than in non OMZ areas at comparable depths. OMZs are of great interest because of the limits oxygen availability places on life. The potential for OMZ expansion with warming of the oceans has refocused attention on the importance of these areas and their potential impacts on the global carbon cycle. The large open ocean OMZs of the Eastern Tropical Pacific and Arabian Sea are notable for their size, thickness, and the intensity of oxygen depletion (

Here, I use measurements of natural abundance carbon and …

Product Market Threat And Stock Price Informativeness, Boubker Drissi

Open Access Dissertations

There are two opposing hypotheses regarding the informative role of stock prices. The first hypothesis argues that the stock market is merely a sideshow where security prices reflect the consequences of managers’ decisions for firms’ cash flows but do not influence them. In other words, trading in secondary markets has no direct impact on firms’ decisions. The second, known as the “active informant hypothesis”, states that security prices influence managers’ real decisions because some investors trade on private information not available to managers, who therefore rely on stock prices as a source of information. There is recent evidence supporting the …

Applying Qbd And Pat In Biological Manufacturing For “Continued Process Verification”, Prakash Bedre

Open Access Dissertations

The objective of this research topic is to show QbD and PAT tools such as multivariate analysis can perform “Continued Process Verification by using a Real-Time Multivariate Process Monitoring (RT-MSPM) system. There are not one but many challenges The pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical manufacturers are facing multiple challenges such as changing regulatory requirements, healthcare reforms, economic pressure and availability of advance manufacturing technology to make better quality products at reduced costs.

Due to the recent technological developments, significant opportunities exist for improving pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and quality assurance through innovation in product and process development, process analysis, and process controls. The …

On Performance Of Gpu And Dsp Architectures For Computationally Intensive Applications, John Faella

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the implementations of a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm on digital signal processor (DSP), graphics processor unit (GPU), and a common Intel i7 core architecture. The purpose of this work is to identify which of the three is most suitable for SVM implementation. The performance is measured by looking at the time required by each of the architectures per prediction. This work also provides an analysis of possible alternatives to existing implementations of computationally intensive algorithms, such as SVM. Some performance improving methods were proposed and examined for the given DSP and GPU architectures

The 4-class …

Eigenvalue Pairing For Direction Finding With Vector Sensor Arrays, Kyle T. Martin

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis introduces a novel sorting pairing method for the azimuth-elevation estimates obtained from the Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational In- variance Techniques (ESPRIT) based closed-form source localization algorithm. The ESPRIT algorithm estimates Direction of Arrival (DOA) angles from a given source using arbitrarily spaced three-dimensional arrays of vector sensors, whose locations need not be known. In estimating the DOAs there can be miss-pairings of DOA azimuth and elevation direction cosines in certain cases. In such cases, the incident angles calculated can be permuted which produces miss matching of angles or misses. The sorting pairing method presented exploits the …

Integrating Movement And Science To Promote Physical Activity And Academic Performance In Middle School Children, Kevin E. Finn, Kyle Mcinnis

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Recommendations from leading U.S. health agencies concerned with reducing childhood obesity call for increased physical activity during school and afterschool environments. Methods: We developed the Active Science curriculum, which is a variety of activity-based lessons (e.g., nature hike, dance class, walk at local park, treadmill at local YMCA) and incorporated them into traditional science classes and after school programs for middle school children in a low-income, ethnically diverse community. Following the activity experiments, students and teachers uploaded data from devices to an interactive website that provided inquiry-based exploratory learning of science content. Results: Physical activity results showed that the …

Origin Of The Low Frequency Radiation Emitted By Radiative Polaritons Excited By Infrared Radiation In Planar La2o3 Films, Anita J. Vincent-Johnson, Yosep Schwab, Harkirat S. Mann, Mathieu Francoeur, James S. Hammonds Jr., Giovanna Scarel

Department of Physics and Astronomy - Faculty Scholarship

Upon excitation in thin oxide films by infrared radiation, radiative polaritons are formed with complex angular frequency ω, according to the theory of Kliewer and Fuchs (1966 Phys. Rev. 150 573). We show that radiative polaritons leak radiation with frequency ωi to the space surrounding the oxide film. The frequency ωi is the imaginary part of ω. The effects of the presence of the radiation leaked out at frequency ωi are observed experimentally and numerically in the infrared spectra of La2O3 films on silicon upon excitation by infrared radiation of the 0TH type radiative polariton. The frequency ωi is found …

Optical Emission Properties Of Band Structure Tailored Semiconductor Nanostructures, Nicola Pavarelli

Theses

In the past decades, with the development of low-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures, research has been focused on studying novel materials and proposing new solutions for the improvement and optimization of numerous optoelectronic applications. Examples of these applications include optical data storage, displays and medical diagnostics in the ultraviolet and visible spectral range, or telecommunication networks, solar cells, gas sensing and imaging systems in the near- and mid-infrared. In this thesis, the optical characterization of a number of promising semiconductor nanostructures for the realization of next-generation optoelectronic devices is reported. The optical emission properties of each structure, measured by means of power-dependent …

A Swarm Of Salesmen: Algorithmic Approaches To Multiagent Modeling, Alexandre Amlie-Wolf

Honors Papers

This honors thesis describes the algorithmic abstraction of a problem modeling a swarm of Mars rovers, where many "agents" must together achieve a goal. The algorithmic formulation of this problem is based on the traveling salesman problem (TSP), and so in this thesis I offer a review of the mathematical technique of linear programming in the context of its application to the TSP, an overview of some variations of the TSP and algorithms for approximating and solving them, and formulations without solutions of two novel TSP variations which are useful for modeling the original problem.

Medicaid And Education: The Impact Of Medicaid Coverage On Children's Educational Trajectory, Melissa Atlas

Honors Papers

This paper examines the impact of Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) on children's educational progress, namely whether they are on track with their expected educational trajectory. It also examines cross-state variation in Medicaid policies and whether these different policies lead to different effects on the educational variable. With individual-level data from the Current Population Survey from years 1995 through 2006, along with information regarding each state's Medicaid policies, I seek to test the hypotheses that Medicaid/CHIP coverage will improve the likelihood of an individual being on track with his/her education and that states with qualitatively "better" …

Two-Coloring Cycles In Complete Graphs, Claire Djang

Honors Papers

Inspired by an investigation of Ramsey theory, this paper aims to clarify in further detail a number of results regarding the existence of monochromatic cycles in complete graphs whose edges are colored red or blue. The second half focuses on a proof given by Gyula Károlyi and Vera Rosta for the solution of all R(Cn,Ck).

Controlling Factors On Bedrock River Sinuosity In The Eastern Tibetan Plateau, Lydia Curliss

Honors Papers

Average sinuosity of bedrock rivers across the eastern Tibetan Plateau (including the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, and Tsang Po) ranges from 1.20-1.41. From 25°-30°N, sinuosity marginally increases east to west; over the entire distance of each river, sinuosity increases north to south. Increases in sinuosity parallel a regional tectonic gradient in an area with a marginal climate gradient. Several past studies correlate sinuous bedrock rivers in mountainous regions with gradients in climate, arguing that landslides are the main mechanism by which bedrock rivers increase sinuosity. Other studies find correlations between tectonics and increasing landslide frequency. To investigate the role of …

Intersection Number Of Plane Curves, Margaret E. Nichols

Honors Papers

In algebraic geometry, seemingly geometric problems can be solved using algebraic techniques. Some of the most basic geometric objects we can study are polynomial curves in the plane. In this paper we focus on the intersections of two curves. We address both the number of times two curves intersect at a given point, counting multiplicity (whatever that means), and the total number of intersections of the curves, again counting multiplicity. The former is known as the intersection number of the curves at the point. This concept, although geometrically motivated, can be described in algebraic terms; it is this relationship which …

Building The Post-Industrial Community: New Urbanist Development In Pittsburgh, Pa, Steven Alexander Niedbala

Honors Papers

The first part will explain the concept of community in the context of postindustrial theory. I will analyze the narrative of postindustrialism to argue that this concept of community constitutes not a reaction to a unique set of historical circumstances but rather a strategical shift in capitalist development. In the second part, I will describe how the perceived failure of architectural modemism inspired the theorization of the city as a phenomenological entity. I will describe how this conception of the city inspired efforts to systematize urban diversity through the development of a visual linguistics. The urban planning movement known as …

The School And Society: Secondary School Social Studies Education From 1945-1970, Kevin John Owens

Honors Papers

This thesis explores the ways in which changes to citizenship are tied to changes in the secondary school social studies curriculum from 1945 through 1970. During this time, social and political changes forced alterations to the meaning of citizenship. Schools must inherently educate for the future, and are a good measure of what a society views as the values and skills most necessary for the future. As a central inculcator of common values, the social studies class reflected these changes more so than any other school subject.

Doppler-Free Saturated Fluorescence Spectroscopy Of Lithium Using A Stabilized Frequency Comb, Michael E. Rowan

Honors Papers

The lineshapes of the D1 (22S1/2 → 22P1/2 ) and D2 (22S3/2 → 22P1/2) transitions in lithium were measured using a diode laser that was frequency-stabilized to a Ti:Sapphire 1 GHz optical frequency comb. The excitation was achieved by retroreflecting the diode laser, in effect producing the Doppler-free profiles for the center frequencies of transitions. The observed spectra were compared to density matrix calculations to gain insight into systematic effects including the dependence of Doppler-free profiles on power and polarization angle of the diode. For certain transitions, the method of saturated fluorescence spectroscopy inevitably leads to the presence of extra …

The Jormungand Climate Model, Christopher V. Rackauckas

Honors Papers

The geological and paleomagnetic record indicate that around 750 million and 580 millions years ago glaciers grew near the equator, though as of yet we do not fully understand the nature of these glaciations. The well-known Snowball Earth Hypothesis states that the Earth was covered entirely by glaciers. However, it is hard for this hypothesis to account for certain aspects of the biological evidence such as the survival of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Thus the Jormungand Hypothesis was developed as an alternative to the Snowball Earth Hypothesis. In this paper we investigate previous models of the Jormungand state and look at the …

Thermobarometric Modeling Of The Catalina Amphibolite Unit: Implications For Tectonic And Metasomatic Models, Henry W. Towbin

Honors Papers

On Santa Catalina Island, Ca high-grade amphibolite units overlie progressively lower- grade blueschist units in an inverted stack structure. This juxtaposition of high grade and low-grade metamorphic units has long been the subject of much debate as to the tectonic origins of the formation and how it relates to California's tectonic evolution. Previous petrography and thermobaromety of blocks in the amphibolite unit estimate pressures and temperatures of ~8-11 kbar and ~640-750 °C (Platt, 1975; Sorensen and Barton 1987). These estimates were calculated before many of the computational advances in modern thermobarometry. Using Equilibrium Assemblage Diagrams (EAD) calculated with Theriak Domino, …

Getting Beyond Intuition In The Probable Cause Inquiry, Erica R. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Courts are proudly resigned to the fact that the probable cause inquiry is “nontechnical.” In order to conduct a search or make an arrest, police need to satisfy the probable cause standard, which the Supreme Court has deemed “incapable of precise definition or quantification into percentages.” The flexibility of this standard enables courts to defer to police officers’ reasonable judgments and expert intuitions in unique situations. However, police officers are increasingly using investigative techniques that replace their own observational skills with test results from some other source, such as drug sniffing dogs, facial recognition technology, and DNA matching. The reliability …

Can Partial Offshoring Contribute Growth Of Multinational Electronic Manufacturing Service Companies In The United States?, Harjit S. Naru, Tim Truitt

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

With the increasing trend of offshoring, leaders of many companies prefer to offshore projects to reduce product cost and be competitive in the global market. This phenomenon creates fewer jobs in the United States as compared to low-cost foreign countries such as China. To address this problem, this quantitative correlational study reviewed the extent to which partial offshoring impacted the business growth of multinational electronic manufacturing service (EMS) companies in the United States. Results showed that partial offshoring does not have a significant relationship with business growth. Although statistically not significant, partial offshoring was found to be positively related to …

George C. Wright: A Decade Of Dedication, Prairie View A&M University

President Emeritus George C. Wright Speeches

No abstract provided.

Intrusive History And Petrogenesis Of The Ash Mountain Complex, Sierra Nevada Batholith, California (Usa), Julie E. Holland, Benjamin E. Surpless, Diane R. Smith, S. L. Loewy, J. S. Lackey

Earth and Environmental Geosciences Faculty Research

The Ash Mountain Complex (AMC) in the western Sierra Nevada batholith (SNB; California, USA) is an exposure of six compositionally diverse intrusive lithologies with clear crosscutting relationships that permit a focused investigation of magma source characteristics and the relative roles of petrogenetic processes on the evolution of the system. We use new field observations, zircon U-Pb dates, major and trace element data, and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data to develop a model that can be applied to similar SNB intrusive suites. Stage 1 units, emplaced ca. 105 Ma, consist of two gabbros, a gabbrodiorite, and a granite. Stage 2 and stage 3 …

Coercion By The Numbers: Conditional Spending Doctrine And The Future Of Federal Education Spending, Patrick Haney

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mind And Heart 2013, Whitworth University

Mind and Heart Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Commencement Program 2013, Whitworth University

Commencement Programs

Undergraduate Commencement exercises of Whitworth University in May 2013.

Brust-Schiffrin Synthesis Of Catalytic Bipodal Pdpt Nanoparticles With Some Mechanistic Insights, Sangbum Han, Vara P. Sheela, Wei Cao, Balasubramanian Ramjee

Applied Research Center Publications

Brust–Schiffrin reduction of Pd and Pt precursors in the presence of resorcinarene amine surfactant led to the formation of substantially Pt rich, PdPt bimetallic nanoparticles of a V-shape or variants on the V-shape. New insights into this reaction are provided on the basis of reversed Brust–Schiffrin syntheses, DLS, UV-vis, and NMR analysis. Based on our experiments we conclude that the resorcinarene amine surfactant is part of the inverse micelle formed from TOABr and it also selectively complexes with the Pd salts prior to their reduction. Remarkably, the composition of the bipodal nanoparticles could be varied substantially by varying the reaction …

Group Developed Weighing Matrices, K. T. Arasu, Jeffrey R. Hollon

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

A weighing matrix is a square matrix whose entries are 1, 0 or −1, such that the matrix times its transpose is some integer multiple of the identity matrix. We examine the case where these matrices are said to be devel- oped by an abelian group. Through a combination of extending previous results and by giving explicit constructions we will answer the question of existence for 318 such matrices of order and weight both below 100. At the end, we are left with 98 open cases out of a possible 1,022. Further, some of the new results provide insight into …