Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2014

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 21271 - 21300 of 21749

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Supporting Learning By Tracing Personal Knowledge Formation, Witold Thaul Jan 2014

Supporting Learning By Tracing Personal Knowledge Formation, Witold Thaul

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Internet-based and mobile technologies enable new ways of learning. They offer us new possibilities to access an enormous amount of knowledge at any time and everywhere. Among many advantages, the adaptations require a rethinking of our previous learning behaviour patterns and processes. The challenge for students is no longer to get access to information and knowledge, but to select the right one and to deal with the information and knowledge overflow. The aim of this research is to define, design and validate an advanced concept to support the contemporary learning processes. Therefore, the requirements for a new approach have been …

Go to article

Gpu Computing For Cognitive Robotics, Martin Peniak Jan 2014

Gpu Computing For Cognitive Robotics, Martin Peniak

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis presents the first investigation of the impact of GPU computing on cognitive robotics by providing a series of novel experiments in the area of action and language acquisition in humanoid robots and computer vision. Cognitive robotics is concerned with endowing robots with high-level cognitive capabilities to enable the achievement of complex goals in complex environments. Reaching the ultimate goal of developing cognitive robots will require tremendous amounts of computational power, which was until recently provided mostly by standard CPU processors. CPU cores are optimised for serial code execution at the expense of parallel execution, which renders them relatively …

Go to article

Non-Linear Model Predictive Control Strategies For Process Plants Using Soft Computing Approaches, Kayode Olayemi Owa Jan 2014

Non-Linear Model Predictive Control Strategies For Process Plants Using Soft Computing Approaches, Kayode Olayemi Owa

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The developments of advanced non-linear control strategies have attracted a considerable research interests over the past decades especially in process control. Rather than an absolute reliance on mathematical models of process plants which often brings discrepancies especially owing to design errors and equipment degradation, non-linear models are however required because they provide improved prediction capabilities but they are very difficult to derive. In addition, the derivation of the global optimal solution gets more difficult especially when multivariable and non-linear systems are involved. Hence, this research investigates soft computing techniques for the implementation of a novel real time constrained non-linear model …

Go to article

A Novel Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase (Pi3k) Inhibitor Directs A Potent Foxo-Dependent, P53-Independent Cell Cycle Arrest Phenotype Characterized By The Differential Induction Of A Subset Of Foxo-Regulated Genes, Richard Hill, Ravi Kiran Reddy Kalathur, Sergio Callejas, Laura Colaço, Ricardo Brandão, Beatriz Serelde, Antonio Cebriá, Carmen Blanco-Aparicio, Joaquín Pastor, Matthias Futschik, Ana Dopazo, Wolfgang Link Jan 2014

A Novel Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase (Pi3k) Inhibitor Directs A Potent Foxo-Dependent, P53-Independent Cell Cycle Arrest Phenotype Characterized By The Differential Induction Of A Subset Of Foxo-Regulated Genes, Richard Hill, Ravi Kiran Reddy Kalathur, Sergio Callejas, Laura Colaço, Ricardo Brandão, Beatriz Serelde, Antonio Cebriá, Carmen Blanco-Aparicio, Joaquín Pastor, Matthias Futschik, Ana Dopazo, Wolfgang Link

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Go to article

A Review Of Virtualisation And Cloud Computing In Higher Education, Eileen O'Donnell Jan 2014

A Review Of Virtualisation And Cloud Computing In Higher Education, Eileen O'Donnell

Books/Book Chapters

Virtualisation in the classroom provides students with the impression that they are interacting with applications, services, and files which are stored locally, when in fact the applications, services, and files may be stored on a server off site, or at an alternative location on site. “Virtualization is a technology that permits the abstraction of the software from one computer and its easy deployment in another one, which may house additional virtualized machines” (Martín, Marrero, Urbano, Barra, & Moreiro, 2011, p. 349). Server virtualisation is when an Information Technology manager or computer administrator partitions a server to create several instances of …

Go to article

Service Composition Based On Sip Peer-To-Peer Networks, Armin Lehmann Jan 2014

Service Composition Based On Sip Peer-To-Peer Networks, Armin Lehmann

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Today the telecommunication market is faced with the situation that customers are requesting for new telecommunication services, especially value added services. The concept of Next Generation Networks (NGN) seems to be a solution for this, so this concept finds its way into the telecommunication area. These customer expectations have emerged in the context of NGN and the associated migration of the telecommunication networks from traditional circuit-switched towards packet-switched networks. One fundamental aspect of the NGN concept is to outsource the intelligence of services from the switching plane onto separated Service Delivery Platforms using SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to provide the …

Go to article

Personalising Information Security Education, Shuhaili Talib Jan 2014

Personalising Information Security Education, Shuhaili Talib

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Whilst technological solutions go a long way in providing protection for users online, it has been long understood that the individual also plays a pivotal role. Even with the best of protection, an ill-informed person can effectively remove any protection the control might provide. Information security awareness is therefore imperative to ensure a population is well educated with respect to the threats that exist to one’s electronic information, and how to better protect oneself. Current information security awareness strategies are arguably lacking in their ability to provide a robust and personalised approach to educating users, opting for a blanket, one-size-fits-all …

Go to article

Simplifying Authoring Of Adaptive Hypermedia Structures In An Elearning Context, Oliver Schneider Jan 2014

Simplifying Authoring Of Adaptive Hypermedia Structures In An Elearning Context, Oliver Schneider

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In an eLearning context, Adaptive Hypermedia Systems have been developed to improve learning success by increasing learner satisfaction, learning speed, and educational effectiveness. However, creating adaptive eLearning content and structures is still a time consuming and complicated task, in particular if individual lecturers are the intended authors. The way of thinking that is needed to create adaptive structures as well as the workflows is one that lecturers are unaccustomed to. The aim of this research project is to develop a concept that helps authors create adaptive eLearning content and structures, which focuses on its applicability for lecturers as intended authors. …

Go to article

An Empirical Estimation Of Statistical Inferences For System Dynamics Model Parameters, Mohammed Mesabbah, Wael Rashwan, Amr Arisha Jan 2014

An Empirical Estimation Of Statistical Inferences For System Dynamics Model Parameters, Mohammed Mesabbah, Wael Rashwan, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

For system dynamics simulation (SD) models, an estimation of statistical distributions for uncertain parameters is crucial. These distributions could be used for testing models sensitivity, quality of policies, and/or estimating confidence intervals for these parameters. Assumptions related to normality, independence and constant variation are often misapplied in dynamic simulation. Bootstrapping holds a considerable theoretical advantage when used with non-Gaussian data for estimating empirical distributions for unknown parameters. Although it is a widely acceptable approach, it has had only limited use in system dynamics applications. This paper introduces an application of Direct Residual Bootstrapping (DRBS) for statistical inference in system dynamic …

Go to article

Peripersonal Space In The Humanoid Robot Icub, Salomón Ramírez Contla Jan 2014

Peripersonal Space In The Humanoid Robot Icub, Salomón Ramírez Contla

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Developing behaviours for interaction with objects close to the body is a primary goal for any organism to survive in the world. Being able to develop such behaviours will be an essential feature in autonomous humanoid robots in order to improve their integration into human environments. Adaptable spatial abilities will make robots safer and improve their social skills, human-robot and robot-robot collaboration abilities. This work investigated how a humanoid robot can explore and create action-based representations of its peripersonal space, the region immediately surrounding the body where reaching is possible without location displacement. It presents three empirical studies based on …

Go to article

Continuous User Authentication Using Multi-Modal Biometrics, Hataichanok Saevanee Jan 2014

Continuous User Authentication Using Multi-Modal Biometrics, Hataichanok Saevanee

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

It is commonly acknowledged that mobile devices now form an integral part of an individual’s everyday life. The modern mobile handheld devices are capable to provide a wide range of services and applications over multiple networks. With the increasing capability and accessibility, they introduce additional demands in term of security. This thesis explores the need for authentication on mobile devices and proposes a novel mechanism to improve the current techniques. The research begins with an intensive review of mobile technologies and the current security challenges that mobile devices experience to illustrate the imperative of authentication on mobile devices. The research …

Go to article

Breast Cancer Detection Using Interferometric Music: Experimental And Numerical Assessment, Giuseppe Ruvio, Raffaele Solimene, Antonio Cuccaro, Domenico Gaetano, Jacinta Browne, Max Ammann Jan 2014

Breast Cancer Detection Using Interferometric Music: Experimental And Numerical Assessment, Giuseppe Ruvio, Raffaele Solimene, Antonio Cuccaro, Domenico Gaetano, Jacinta Browne, Max Ammann

Articles

Purpose: In microwave breast cancer detection it is often beneficial to arrange sensors in close proximity to the breast. The resulting coupling generally changes the antenna response. As an a priori characterization of the radio-frequency system becomes difficult, this can lead to severe degradation of the detection efficacy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate advantages of adopting an Interferometric Multiple Signal Classification (I-MUSIC) approach due to its limited dependence 25 from a priori information on the antenna. The performance of I-MUSIC detection was measured in terms of Signal-to-Clutter Ratio (SCR), Signal-to-Mean Ratio (SMR) and Spatial Displacement (SD) and …

Go to article

A Silence That Wants To Be Heard: Suburban Korean American Students In Dialogue With Invisibility, Dawan Coombs, Hye-Young Park, Bob Fecho Jan 2014

A Silence That Wants To Be Heard: Suburban Korean American Students In Dialogue With Invisibility, Dawan Coombs, Hye-Young Park, Bob Fecho

Faculty Publications

Korean American students experience invisibility and silence as their culture and presence remain outwardly invisible in the mainstream culture of US high schools. This is further exacerbated by the silent response of the dominant population of the school towards these issues. Yet, to an extent, Korean American students find a sense of comfort within that invisibility; less visibility allows more silence and thus more privacy. This qualitative in-depth interview study focuses on developing understandings of Korean American students’ perceptions and negotiations of education in suburban American schools, specifically through the perceptions of two Korean American female students. When viewed through …

Go to article

Diagnostics Of An O2–He Rf Atmospheric Plasma Discharge By Spectral Emission, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Mick Donegan, Patrick J. Cullen, Denis Dowling Jan 2014

Diagnostics Of An O2–He Rf Atmospheric Plasma Discharge By Spectral Emission, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Mick Donegan, Patrick J. Cullen, Denis Dowling

Articles

In this paper optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is used as a Diagnostic technique for the measurement of atomic and molecular spectral emissions generated using a helium rf industrial atmospheric plasma jet system. The OES of neutral atomic spectral lines and molecular bands are investigated over a range of plasma process parameters.
/="/">Wavelength resolve optical emission profiles suggest that the emission of helium’s spectral lines shows that the high energy electrons have a larger influence than helium metastables on the overall spectral emission. Furthermore, the experimental data indicates that the use of high helium flow rates, in any confined open …

Go to article

Play Hard, Work Harder. Alternative Reality Game And Scenario Based Assessments For Learning., Barry Ryan Jan 2014

Play Hard, Work Harder. Alternative Reality Game And Scenario Based Assessments For Learning., Barry Ryan

Articles

In this paper, an evaluative case study is detailed as an example of alternative reality game and scenario based assessments for learning. This pedagogic approach is evaluated and recommendations for practice offered. Integrating technology into the assessment process, and final student product, influenced the chosen pedagogy. The use of technology permitted this assessment approach to be adopted for a medium sized (n=40) student cohort. The use of wikis, eportfolios and digital reflective diaries were central to creating a learning environment that centralised the student and allowed them to construct and create their knowledge through scaffolded alternative reality games and scenarios. …

Go to article

Fully Inert Subgroups Of Abelian P-Groups, Brendan Goldsmith, Luigi Salce, Paolo Zanardo Jan 2014

Fully Inert Subgroups Of Abelian P-Groups, Brendan Goldsmith, Luigi Salce, Paolo Zanardo

Articles

A subgroup H of an Abelian group G is said to be fully inert in G, if for every endomorphism ϕ of G, the factor group (H+ϕ(H))/H" role="presentation"> is finite. This notion arises in the study of the dynamical properties of endomorphisms (entropy). The principal result of this work is that fully inert subgroups of direct sums of cyclic p-groups are commensurable with fully invariant subgroups of the direct sum.

Go to article

Zakharov-Shabat System With Constant Boundary Conditions. Reflectionless Potentials And End Point Singularities, Tihomir Valchev, Rossen Ivanov, Vladimir Gerdjikov Jan 2014

Zakharov-Shabat System With Constant Boundary Conditions. Reflectionless Potentials And End Point Singularities, Tihomir Valchev, Rossen Ivanov, Vladimir Gerdjikov

Conference papers

We consider scalar defocusing nonlinear Schroedinger equation with constant boundary conditions. We aim here to provide a self contained pedagogical exposition of the most important facts regarding integrability of that classical evolution equation. It comprises the following topics: direct and inverse scattering problem and the dressing method.

Go to article

Exploring Customer Specific Kpi Selection Strategies For An Adaptive Time Critical User Interface, Ingo Keck, Robert J. Ross Jan 2014

Exploring Customer Specific Kpi Selection Strategies For An Adaptive Time Critical User Interface, Ingo Keck, Robert J. Ross

Conference papers

Rapid growth in the number of measures available to describe customer-organization relationships has presented a serious challenge for Business Intelligence (BI) interface developers as they attempt to provide business users with key customer information without requiring users to painstakingly sift through many interface windows and layers. In this paper we introduce a prototype Intelligent User Interface that we have deployed to partially address this issue. The interface builds on machine learning techniques to construct a ranking model of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are used to select and present the most important customer metrics that can be made available to …

Go to article

Robustness And Prediction Accuracy Of Machine Learning For Objective Visual Quality Assessment, Andrew Hines, Paul Kendrick, Adriaan Barri, Manish Narwaria, Judith A. Redi Jan 2014

Robustness And Prediction Accuracy Of Machine Learning For Objective Visual Quality Assessment, Andrew Hines, Paul Kendrick, Adriaan Barri, Manish Narwaria, Judith A. Redi

Conference papers

Machine Learning (ML) is a powerful tool to support the development of objective visual quality assessment metrics, serving as a substitute model for the perceptual mechanisms acting in visual quality appreciation. Nevertheless, the reliability of ML-based techniques within objective quality assessment metrics is often questioned. In this study, the robustness of ML in supporting objective quality assessment is investigated, specifically when the feature set adopted for prediction is suboptimal. A Principal Component Regression based algorithm and a Feed Forward Neural Network are compared when pooling the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) features perturbed with noise. The neural network adapts better with …

Go to article

Computing Trust As A Form Of Presumptive Reasoning, Pierpaolo Dondio, Luca Longo Jan 2014

Computing Trust As A Form Of Presumptive Reasoning, Pierpaolo Dondio, Luca Longo

Conference papers

This study describes and evaluates a novel trust model for a range of collaborative applications. The model assumes that humans routinely chose to trust their peers by relying on few recurrent presumptions, which are domain independent and that form a recognisable trust expertise. We refer to these presumptions as trust schemes, the specialised version of Walton’s argumentation schemes. Experimental evidence is provided about trust schemes efficacy with a detailed experiment over an online community of 80.000 members. Results show how proposed trust schemes are more effective in trust computation when they are combined together and when their plausibility in the …

Go to article

Learning To Pronounce First Words In Three Languages: An Investigation Of Caregiver And Infant Behavior Using A Computational Model Of An Infant., Ian S. Howard, Piers Messum Jan 2014

Learning To Pronounce First Words In Three Languages: An Investigation Of Caregiver And Infant Behavior Using A Computational Model Of An Infant., Ian S. Howard, Piers Messum

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Words are made up of speech sounds. Almost all accounts of child speech development assume that children learn the pronunciation of first language (L1) speech sounds by imitation, most claiming that the child performs some kind of auditory matching to the elements of ambient speech. However, there is evidence to support an alternative account and we investigate the non-imitative child behavior and well-attested caregiver behavior that this account posits using Elija, a computational model of an infant. Through unsupervised active learning, Elija began by discovering motor patterns, which produced sounds. In separate interaction experiments, native speakers of English, French and …

Go to article

On Quaternion Based Parametrization Of Orientation In Computer Vision And Robotics, G. Terzakis, P. Culverhouse, G. Bugmann, S. Sharma, R. Sutton Jan 2014

On Quaternion Based Parametrization Of Orientation In Computer Vision And Robotics, G. Terzakis, P. Culverhouse, G. Bugmann, S. Sharma, R. Sutton

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Techniques For Production Of Large Area Graphene For Electronic And Sensor Device Applications, B Li, G Pan, Sa Awan, N Avent Jan 2014

Techniques For Production Of Large Area Graphene For Electronic And Sensor Device Applications, B Li, G Pan, Sa Awan, N Avent

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

AbstractHere we review commonly used techniques for the production of large area and high quality graphene to meet the requirements of industrial applications, including epitaxial growth on SiC, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) on transition metals and growth from solid carbon source. The review makes a comparison of the growth mechanisms, quality (such as mobility and homogeneity) and properties of the resultant graphene, limitations and the prospect of each production method. A particular focus of the review is on direct (transfer free) growth on dielectric substrate as this is potentially one of the promising techniques for graphene production which can readily …

Go to article

Crystallization In Nano-Confinement Seeded By A Nanocrystal -- A Molecular Dynamics Study, Heng Pan, Costas Grigoropoulos Jan 2014

Crystallization In Nano-Confinement Seeded By A Nanocrystal -- A Molecular Dynamics Study, Heng Pan, Costas Grigoropoulos

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Seeded crystallization and solidification in nanoscale confinement volumes have become an important and complex topic. Due to the complexity and limitations in observing nanoscale crystallization, computer simulation can provide valuable details for supporting and interpreting experimental observations. In this article, seeded crystallization from nano-confined liquid, as represented by the crystallization of a suspended gold nano-droplet seeded by a pre-existing gold nanocrystal seed, was investigated using molecular dynamics simulations in canonical (NVT) ensemble. We found that the crystallization temperature depends on nano-confinement volume, crystal orientation, and seed size as explained by classical two-sphere model and Gibbs-Thomson effect.

Go to article

Creative Heartland: Creative Capital And Knowledge Economy In Micropolitan Midwest, Philip A. Cavin Jan 2014

Creative Heartland: Creative Capital And Knowledge Economy In Micropolitan Midwest, Philip A. Cavin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Recent regional development studies increasingly focus on creative economies that provide an alternative perspective to regional development in a globalizing world-economy. However, most research in economic geography of creativity and innovation is exclusively concerned with larger metropolitan areas. The lack of attention does not make knowledge-based economy less relevant or creative capital less important in smaller urban regions, where it acts as an agent of economic development and revitalization. This study is the first attempt to use creative capital metrics and a combination of qualitative and qualitative analyses to investigate the creative capital and its economic implications in micropolitan areas …

Go to article

Developing Rating Curves In A Small Iowa Watershed To Evaluate Nutrient Loading In Streams, Jennifer Mary Shepeck Jan 2014

Developing Rating Curves In A Small Iowa Watershed To Evaluate Nutrient Loading In Streams, Jennifer Mary Shepeck

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Dry Run Creek, a tributary to the Cedar River in northeast Iowa, is a watershed under high pressure from the surrounding region. With its headwaters located in farm fields and urban drainage ditches, it is subject to flash flooding and erosion and is on the DNR’s list of impaired waters. Dry Run Creek is similar to other small watersheds across eastern Iowa. As tributaries to the larger rivers that eventually flow into the Mississippi River and then to the Gulf of Mexico, they are significant contributors to the nutrient loading causing the hypoxia in the Gulf. The purpose of this …

Go to article

Investigating The Effectiveness Of A Professional Development Program For Secondary Physics Teachers, Meghan Reynolds Jan 2014

Investigating The Effectiveness Of A Professional Development Program For Secondary Physics Teachers, Meghan Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

National studies have exposed a shortage of highly-qualified high school physics teachers, with over 25% of physics teaching vacancies in Iowa being very difficult to fill or unable to be filled. In an effort to improve the nation’s education system, there have been broad changes in the framework of what constitutes high-quality teaching which supports a trend away from traditional, lecture-based teaching methods and towards interactive, student-centered methods. This study analyzed the impact of a professional development program that aimed to prepare more high-quality high school physics teachers by building physics content knowledge through the use of reformed teaching techniques …

Go to article

Gender Differences In Self-Concept Consistency And Career Choices Under Stereotype Threat, Asha Ganesan Jan 2014

Gender Differences In Self-Concept Consistency And Career Choices Under Stereotype Threat, Asha Ganesan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Associating careers with a specific gender can lead to women and men turning away from jobs atypical of their gender (e.g., math-related for women and care-related for men). The effects of stereotype threat, defined as the negative impact associated with the fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one’s social group (Steele & Aronson, 1995) on women and men’s working self-concept (a dynamic view of oneself) may provide some insight as to whether genderization of careers can affect women and men at the individual level. The current research examined the role played by gender-related stereotype threat cues in self-concept consistency (SCC). …

Go to article

Education At Its Corp, Steven Michael Pals Jan 2014

Education At Its Corp, Steven Michael Pals

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Great Depression brought about a trial the likes of which the United States had never seen. People from all walks of life found themselves out of work, money, and hope. The depression effected all peoples but each group differently. The working class underwent deeper hardships then most. The New Deal was the brainchild of President Franklin Roosevelt designed to assist the country in getting out of the Great Depression. The New Deal programs included a number of public works programs, which created jobs for the unemployed, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was designed to employ unemployed …

Go to article

A Master's Recital In Flute, Tara Lynn Meade Jan 2014

A Master's Recital In Flute, Tara Lynn Meade

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Tara Lynn Meade performed a graduate flute recital at eight o’clock in the evening on Friday, March 7, 2014 in Davis Hall at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Collaborating with Ms. Meade on selected works were pianists Polina Khatsko and Brittany Lensing and flutists Mara Miller and Natalie Neshyba. The recital was presented in partial fulfillment of a Master of Music in flute performance. The program opened with a set of contrasting fantasies — Telemann’s Fantasia No. 3 in B Minor, a baroque work for solo flute, followed by François Borne’s virtuosic Fantasie brillante on themes from Bizet’s Carmen. …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last