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2014

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A Restful Architecture For Multiuser Virtual Environments And Simulations, Matti Kariluoma Jan 2014

A Restful Architecture For Multiuser Virtual Environments And Simulations, Matti Kariluoma

Computer Science

JavaMOO is an architecture for creating multiuser virtual environments using the MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) and MOO (MUD Object Oriented) design patterns (rooms and objects in the rooms, including \exit" objects that lead to other rooms). The MOO design pattern traces it roots back to the rst multiuser virtual environments in the early 1980s. The focus of this thesis is joining the MOO design pattern with a distributed architecture. A distributed architecture is pursued to reduce the per-server computational load, compared to a traditional single-server approach. The e ect of transferring computational load to the client software is also investigated, with …

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Implementation Of A Clonal Selection Algorithm, Srikanth Valluru Jan 2014

Implementation Of A Clonal Selection Algorithm, Srikanth Valluru

Computer Science

Some of the best optimization solutions were inspired by nature. Clonal selection algorithm is a technique that was inspired from genetic behavior of the immune system, and is widely implemented in the scientific and engineering fields. The clonal selection algorithm is a population-based search algorithm describing the immune response to antibodies by generating more cells that identify these antibodies, increasing its affinity when subjected to some internal process. In this paper, we have implemented the artificial immune network using the clonal selection principle within the optimal lab system. The basic working of the algorithm is to consider the individuals of …

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Improved Genetic Programming Techniques For Data Classification, Naila Shikri Al-Madi Jan 2014

Improved Genetic Programming Techniques For Data Classification, Naila Shikri Al-Madi

Computer Science

Evolutionary algorithms are one category of optimization techniques that are inspired by processes of biological evolution. Evolutionary computation is applied to many domains and one of the most important is data mining. Data mining is a relatively broad field that deals with the automatic knowledge discovery from databases and it is one of the most developed fields in the area of artificial intelligence. Classification is a data mining method that assigns items in a collection to target classes with the goal to accurately predict the target class for each item in the data. Genetic programming (GP) is one of the …

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Implementation Of A Medical Decision Making Tool, Sudheer Gadiparthi Jan 2014

Implementation Of A Medical Decision Making Tool, Sudheer Gadiparthi

Computer Science

Nowadays timely medical assistance is necessary for physicians/medical practitioners for decision making. Sometimes it is necessary for physicians to make decisions to diagnose the disease of a patient promptly. ‘Implementation of a Medical Decision Making Tool’, is a software tool was developed by implementing and incorporating efficient data mining techniques. In this project, with the help of WEKA software, which is a collection of classification algorithms for data analysis and feature selection, the decision making tool was implemented for the data preprocessing and classification on collected data sets of patients. Dataset for three kinds of diseases, heart disease, dermatology, and …

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Evaluation Of A New Bio-Inspired Algorithm: Krill Herd, Devi Madamanchi Jan 2014

Evaluation Of A New Bio-Inspired Algorithm: Krill Herd, Devi Madamanchi

Computer Science

Number of nature inspired algorithms is proposed to solve complex optimization problems. The Krill Herd algorithm is one such biologically-inspired algorithm, proposed to solve optimization problems in response to biological and environmental processes. It is mainly based on the simulation technique of the herding behavior of the krill swarms. The objective function is defined as the combination of minimum distance of the krill individual from food and from the highest density of the swarm. The position of the krill individual is mainly influenced by three important factors, (i) movement induced by other krill individuals, (ii) foraging activity, and (iii) random …

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An Artificial Immune System Heuristic In A Smart Electrical Grid, Md. Minhaz Chowdhury Jan 2014

An Artificial Immune System Heuristic In A Smart Electrical Grid, Md. Minhaz Chowdhury

Computer Science

The immune system of the human body follows a process that is adaptive and learns via experience. Some algorithms are designed to take advantage of this process to determine solutions for complex problem domains. The collection of these algorithms is known as Artificial Immune Systems. Among this collection, one important algorithm is "The Danger Theory." In this thesis, an application of the algorithm has been implemented to solve an electrical grid problem. This problem of interest is the automatic detection of faulty and failure conditions in the electrical grid. A novel application of the Artificial Immune System algorithm is presented …

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Protein-Function Prediction Using A Graph-Matching Algorithm, Sarjan Shrestha Jan 2014

Protein-Function Prediction Using A Graph-Matching Algorithm, Sarjan Shrestha

Computer Science

Proteins are the basic building blocks for biological life. Proteins interact with other proteins or molecules to carry out various functions. The active region in the protein molecule is the functional site. Today, most research work has been done to establish sequence-based, structure-based, and machine-learning approaches for prediction of protein’s functional site. This paper describes a tool for identifying the functional site of protein using a graph-based approach. Each protein structure is represented as a graph. Each protein residue represents a vertex, and the relationship between residues represents the edges of the graph. The tool compares proteins to identify the …

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Mapreduce-Enabled Scalable Nature-Inspired Approaches For Clustering, Ibrahim Mithgal Aljarah Jan 2014

Mapreduce-Enabled Scalable Nature-Inspired Approaches For Clustering, Ibrahim Mithgal Aljarah

Computer Science

The increasing volume of data to be analyzed imposes new challenges to the data mining methodologies. Traditional data mining such as clustering methods do not scale well with larger data sizes and are computationally expensive in terms of memory and time. Clustering large data sets has received attention in the last few years in several application areas such as document categorization, which is in urgent need of scalable approaches. Swarm intelligence algorithms have self-organizing features, which are used to share knowledge among swarm members to locate the best solution. These algorithms have been successfully applied to clustering, however, they suffer …

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Using Learning Modules For Instructor Neutrality In Ethical Quagmires: A Cross-Curricular Study In Academic Debate, Robert Lester Walsh Jan 2014

Using Learning Modules For Instructor Neutrality In Ethical Quagmires: A Cross-Curricular Study In Academic Debate, Robert Lester Walsh

Education

The purpose of this disquisition is to add to the body of educational research through practitioner, quantitative, and qualitative inquiry on the topic of academic debate. In a three-tiered study, the author conducted research for this dissertation with the intent to examine argumentation and debate in higher education. The settings for this research were a comprehensive regional university and a research-intensive university. Debate was implemented to introduce topics of controversy with the intent to spur discourse on such topics. The author examined the use of academic debate in undergraduate and graduate education. The results are reported in three articles. The …

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Counselors' Perceptions Of The Mental Health Aspects Of Infertility For Heterosexual Women, Michelle Ann Westbrock Jan 2014

Counselors' Perceptions Of The Mental Health Aspects Of Infertility For Heterosexual Women, Michelle Ann Westbrock

Education

This qualitative study explores counselors' perceptions of the mental health aspects of infertility for heterosexual women by addressing the following five guiding questions: (1) How do licensed mental health counselors understand the infertility experience for the heterosexual woman client? (2) What is the counselors' experience of working with heterosexual women clients with infertility? (3) What do licensed mental health counselors ascribe as the goal of mental health treatment of infertility? (4) What are licensed mental health counselors' perceptions of appropriate mental health interventions for infertility? (5) What are licensed mental health counselors' perceptions of harmful mental health interventions for infertility? …

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A Study Of The Effect The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Self-Efficacy, Donald Christian Kenna Jan 2014

A Study Of The Effect The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Self-Efficacy, Donald Christian Kenna

Education

The learning model known as the flipped classroom is one of the developing ideas of educating students. Bergmann and Sams (2012) using a flipped classroom in 2007 when they recorded lecture for students to view at home and allowing students to work on “homework” in the classroom. This research was conducted to identify the effect of the flipped classroom on student self-efficacy and the difference in self-efficacy between genders using this model. This study was conducted with 22 physics students in two classes, a traditional and a flipped classroom. The student’s self-efficacy was scored with the Self-Efficacy Survey. The results …

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The Impact Of Management Decisions And Their Effect On Reproductive Performance Of Beef Cattle, Mellissa Renee Schook Jan 2014

The Impact Of Management Decisions And Their Effect On Reproductive Performance Of Beef Cattle, Mellissa Renee Schook

Animal Sciences

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate two management decisions made by beef cattle producers and their impacts on reproduction. In experiment 1, growth, attainment of puberty, and pregnancy rates were evaluated in crossbred heifers originating from two different breeding systems: 1) cows only exposed to natural service herd bulls (NS), or 2) cows exposed to ovulation synchronization and fixed-time AI followed by natural-service bulls (TAI, fixed-time artificial insemination). Artificial insemination did not influence growth rate during the development phase, attainment of puberty, or pregnancy rates in heifer progeny. In experiment 2, pregnancy attainment and calving distribution of beef females administered …

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Remediation Of Feedlot Nutrients Runoff By Hydroponic Treatment And Electrolysis Process, Arjun Thapa Jan 2014

Remediation Of Feedlot Nutrients Runoff By Hydroponic Treatment And Electrolysis Process, Arjun Thapa

Agribusiness and Biosystems Engineering

Intensive livestock farming in feedlot producing large amounts of manure and wastewater. Hydroponic and electrolysis treatments were studied for the remediation of nutrients from feedlot runoff. Water hyacinth, water lettuce, and sorghum were hydroponically grown in 10 L of feedlot runoff and Hoagland solution individually in plastic bucket in batches in a greenhouse. All three plants performed well in uptaking NH3-N (more than 90%) in feedlot runoff. From the feedlot runoff, TP reduction by sorghum, water hyacinth, and water lettuce ranged from 70% to 100% , 61% to 74%, and 49% to 93%, respectively. With electrolysis process, 500 mL of …

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Ph Responsive Capsules Containing Composite Coatings For Corrosion Inhibition In Metal Alloys, Kiran Bhat Kashi Jan 2014

Ph Responsive Capsules Containing Composite Coatings For Corrosion Inhibition In Metal Alloys, Kiran Bhat Kashi

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Hexavalent chromes have be used as effective corrosion inhibitors due to their high inhibitor efficiency and low cost for the protection of several metal alloys. However, owing to their toxicity federal legislations restrict the use and distribution of these highly toxic materials. The need for an environmentally friendly yet effective alternative to the chrome based corrosion inhibitors has led to the investigation of rare earth metals as potential candidates. Cerium is one such rare earth metal that has received considerable attention as an alternative to hexavalent chromes. However, the high water solubility of some of the cerium salts makes it …

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Responsive Polymer-Based Colliods For Drug Delivery And Bioconversion, Olena Kudina Jan 2014

Responsive Polymer-Based Colliods For Drug Delivery And Bioconversion, Olena Kudina

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Responsive polymer-based colloids (RPBC) are the colloidal structures containing responsive polymeric component which is able to adapt its physico-chemical properties to the environment by undergoing chemical and/or conformational changes. The goal of the dissertation is to develop and characterize several groups of RPBC with different morphological complexity and explore their potential in drug delivery and bioconversion. The role of RPBC morphology for these specific applications is discussed in details. Three groups of RPBC were fabricated: i. polymeric micelles; ii. mixed polymeric micelles; iii. hybrid polymer-inorganic particles. All fabricated RPBCs contain polymeric component in their structure. The dissertation investigates how the …

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Mainstreaming Critical Disability Studies Towards Undoing The Last Prejudice, Colleen Ann Mcdonald-Morken Jan 2014

Mainstreaming Critical Disability Studies Towards Undoing The Last Prejudice, Colleen Ann Mcdonald-Morken

Education

According to critical disability studies scholars, disablism may be the fundamental system of unearned advantaging and disadvantaging upon which all other notions of difference-as-deviance are constructed. If so, a deeply critical and intersectional investigation of enabled privilege/disablism prepares a grounding from which seeds of novel and effective approaches to social and educational justice may be cultivated. Whether or not disablism holds this pivotal position, the costs to us all in terms of personal, ethical, professional, and financial losses are too steep, have always been too steep. In this disquisition I begin by arguing for the prioritizing and centering of a …

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Exploring Effects Of Weed Management In Agroecosystems: Arthropods, Soil Properties And Soybean Production, Ashton Anne Hansen Jan 2014

Exploring Effects Of Weed Management In Agroecosystems: Arthropods, Soil Properties And Soybean Production, Ashton Anne Hansen

Entomology

Soil-dwelling arthropods contribute to agroecosystems, but it’s unclear how specific taxa respond to weed management practices. Objectives were to explore 1) response of Collembola to weed management in a glyphosate-tolerant soybean system and 2) impacts of weed management and soil arthropod reduction (via insecticide) on soil and plant parameters. Weed management had variable effects on Collembola, whereas location had a consistent effect on diversity and density. Increased weed pressure decreased soil nitrate and reduced soybean yield. Reduction of soil arthropods didn’t impact soil nitrate or yield, but increased the number of soybean root nodules. This could be due to decreased …

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A Faunal Survey Of Coleoptera, Hemiptera (Heteroptera), And Lepidoptera Associated With Fraxinus Pennsylvanica Marshall (Oleaceae) In The Red River Valley Of Eastern North Dakota, James Samuel Walker Jan 2014

A Faunal Survey Of Coleoptera, Hemiptera (Heteroptera), And Lepidoptera Associated With Fraxinus Pennsylvanica Marshall (Oleaceae) In The Red River Valley Of Eastern North Dakota, James Samuel Walker

Entomology

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis; EAB) is an invasive wood-boring beetle causing mortality of ash trees in North America. This project was initiated because of the threat of EAB moving into North Dakota. The main objective was to establish a baseline of insects associated with ash (Fraxinus) in the Red River Valley of North Dakota before EAB arrives. Taxonomic groups focused on include: Coleoptera, Hemiptera (Heteroptera), and Lepidoptera. Ten sites were surveyed regularly. Sites were chosen due to their ash content: nine sites contained green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and one site contained black ash (F. nigra). Surveying was performed …

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