Engineering Commons^™

Smart Underground Antenna Arrays: A Soil Moisture Adaptive Beamforming Approach, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran

School of Computing: Technical Reports

In this paper, a novel framework for underground beamforming using adaptive antenna arrays is presented. Based on the analysis of propagation in wireless underground channel, a theoretical model is developed which uses soil moisture information and feedback mechanism to improve performance wireless underground communications. Array element in soil has been analyzed empirically and impacts of soil type and soil moisture on return loss and resonant frequency are investigated. Beam patterns are investigated to communicate with both underground and above ground devices. Depending on the incident angle, refraction from soil-air interface has the adverse effects in the UG communications. It is …

Wireless Underground Channel Diversity Reception With Multiple Antennas For Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Internet of underground things (IOUT) is an emerging paradigm which consists of sensors and communication devices, partly or completely buried underground for real-time soil sensing and monitoring. In this paper, the performance of different modulation schemes in IOUT communications is studied through simulations and experiments. The spatial modularity of direct, lateral, and reflected components of the UG channel is exploited by using multiple antennas. First, it has been shown that bit error rates of $10^{-3}$ can be achieved with normalized delay spreads ($\tau_d$) lower than $0.05$. Evaluations are conducted through the first software-defined radio-based field experiments for UG channel. Moreover, …

Towards Internet Of Underground Things In Smart Lighting: A Statistical Model Of Wireless Underground Channel, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran, Suat Irmak

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

The Internet of Underground Things (IOUT) has many applications in the area of smart lighting. IOUT enables communications in smart lighting through underground (UG) and aboveground (AG) communication channels. In IOUT communications, an in-depth analysis of the wireless underground channel is important to design smart lighting solutions. In this paper, based on the empirical and the statistical analysis, a statistical channel model for the UG channel has been developed. The parameters for the statistical tapped-delay-line model are extracted from the measured power delay profiles (PDP). The PDP of the UG channel is represented by the exponential decay of the lateral, …

Smart Underground Antenna Arrays: A Soil Moisture Adaptive Beamforming Approach, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Current wireless underground (UG) communication techniques are limited by their achievable distance. In this paper, a novel framework for underground beamforming using adaptive antenna arrays is presented to extend communication distances for practical applications. Based on the analysis of propagation in wireless underground channel, a theoretical model is developed which uses soil moisture information to improve wireless underground communications performance. Array element in soil is analyzed empirically and impacts of soil type and soil moisture on return loss (RL) and resonant frequency are investigated. Accordingly, beam patterns are analyzed to communicate with underground and above ground devices. Depending on the …

Biosimp: Using Software Testing Techniques For Sampling And Inference In Biological Organisms, Mikaela Cashman, Jennie L. Catlett, Myra B. Cohen, Nicole R. Buan, Zahmeeth Sakkaff, Massimiliano Pierobon, Christine A. Kelley

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Years of research in software engineering have given us novel ways to reason about, test, and predict the behavior of complex software systems that contain hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Many of these techniques have been inspired by nature such as genetic algorithms, swarm intelligence, and ant colony optimization. In this paper we reverse the direction and present BioSIMP, a process that models and predicts the behavior of biological organisms to aid in the emerging field of systems biology. It utilizes techniques from testing and modeling of highly-configurable software systems. Using both experimental and simulation data we show …

Decision Process In Mcdm With Large Number Of Criteria And Heterogeneous Risk Preferences, Jian Liu, Hong Kuan Zhao, Zhao Bin Li, Si Feng Liu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new decision process is proposed to address the challenge that a large number of criteria in the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem and the decision makers with heterogeneous risk preferences. First, from the perspective of objective data, the effective criteria are extracted based on the similarity relations between criterion values and the criteria are weighted, respectively. Second, the corresponding types of theoretic model of risk preferences expectations will be built, based on the possibility and similarity between criterion values to solve the problem for different interval numbers with the same expectation. Then, the risk preferences (Risk-seeking, risk-neutral and risk-aversion) …

Evaluating Intention To Use Remote Robotics Experimentation In Programming Courses, Pericles Leng Cheng

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Digital Agenda for Europe (2015) states that there will be 825,000 unfilled vacancies for Information and Communications Technology by 2020. This lack of IT professionals stems from the small number of students graduating in computer science. To retain more students in the field, teachers can use remote robotic experiments to explain difficult concepts. This correlational study used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to examine if performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions can predict the intention of high school computer science teachers in Cyprus, to use remote robotic experiments in their classes. …

An Operational View In Computational Construction Of Information, Florentin Smarandache, Stefan Vladutescu, Constantin Dima, Valeriu Voinea

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The paper aims to explain the technology of emergence of information. Our research proves that information as communicational product is the result of processing within some operations, actions, mechanisms and strategies of informational material meanings. Are determined eight computational-communicative operations of building information. Information occurs in two communication phases, syncretic and the segregation-synthetic. The syncretic phase consists of four operations: referral of significant field, primary delimitation of information, detection-looking information and an anticipative-draft constitution (feedforward). The segregation-synthetic phase also includes four operations: discrimination, identification, interpretation and confrontation (feedback). In the future we will investigate informational actions, mechanisms and strategies.

Collaboration In Virtual Worlds: Impact Of Task Complexity On Team Trust And Satisfaction, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Shu Schiller, Brian E. Mennecke, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Virtual worlds are three-dimensional, computer-generated worlds in which team collaboration can be facilitated through the use of shared virtual space and mediated using avatars. This article examines the effect of task complexity on team collaboration. A puzzle game in Second Life was used as the collaborative task and task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of pieces in the puzzle. The hypotheses are that task complexity influences team trust, and team trust influences team process satisfaction in virtual team collaboration. The experimental results indicate that task complexity has significant effects on team trust and team process satisfaction, and team …

Discrete Ordinates Ct Organ Dose Simulator (Doctors), Edward T. Norris

Doctoral Dissertations

"Computed tomography (CT) has become pervasive in medical diagnostics as improved imaging techniques and processing algorithms provide higher quality information to doctors. However, the exponentially increasing usage of CT has raised concerns regarding long term low-dose radiological risks.

Currently, the dose to patients is computed using Monte Carlo methods and experimental tests. In other areas of radiation transport, deterministic codes have been shown to be much faster than Monte Carlo codes.

Currently, no deterministic methodology exists to automatically generate a spatially distributed dose profile from a CT voxel phantom. This work proposes a new code, Discrete Ordinate CT Organ Dose …

Cognition-Based Approaches For High-Precision Text Mining, George John Shannon

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research improves the precision of information extraction from free-form text via the use of cognitive-based approaches to natural language processing (NLP). Cognitive-based approaches are an important, and relatively new, area of research in NLP and search, as well as linguistics. Cognitive approaches enable significant improvements in both the breadth and depth of knowledge extracted from text. This research has made contributions in the areas of a cognitive approach to automated concept recognition in.

Cognitive approaches to search, also called concept-based search, have been shown to improve search precision. Given the tremendous amount of electronic text generated in our digital …

Application Of Nearly Linear Solvers To Electric Power System Computation, Lisa L. Grant

Doctoral Dissertations

"To meet the future needs of the electric power system, improvements need to be made in the areas of power system algorithms, simulation, and modeling, specifically to achieve a time frame that is useful to industry. If power system time-domain simulations could run in real-time, then system operators would have situational awareness to implement and avoid cascading failures, significantly improving power system reliability. Several power system applications rely on the solution of a very large linear system. As the demands on power systems continue to grow, there is a greater computational complexity involved in solving these large linear systems within …

Overview Of Metrics, Models, And Simulation For Cyber-Physical Systems, Barry C. Ezell, Luanne Burns Chamberland

VMASC Publications

The metric, models, and simulation for Cyber-Physical Systems focuses on the different frameworks that have been operationalized so that cyber-physical systems can be baselined in security. In addition, the minitrack is interest in innovations in decision support such as cost effective means to decide what metrics should be addressed to get the best value in cybersecurity. There are many challenges to overcome in cyber-physical systems. We ask: How should frameworks be operationalized? What methodologies are available to quantify cybersecurity frameworks while accounting for cyber-physical interactions into account.

The Impact Of Sha-1 File Hash Collisions On Digital Forensic Imaging: A Follow-Up Experiment, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A previous paper described an experiment showing that Message Digest 5 (MD5) hash collisions of files have no impact on integrity verification in the forensic imaging process. This paper describes a similar experiment applied when two files have a Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) collision.

The 2016 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Computer Hard Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market In The Uae, Thomas Martin, Andy Jones, Mohammed Alzaabi

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This research describes our survey of data remaining on computer hard disks sold on the second hand market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is a repetition of the first survey conducted in 2012 (Jones, Martin, & Alzaabi, 2012). Similar studies have been carried over the last ten years in the United Kingdom, Australia, USA, Germany and France: (Jones, Mee, Meyler, & Gooch, 2005), (Jones, Valli, Sutherland, & Thomas, 2006), (Jones, Valli, Dardick, & Sutherland, 2008), (Jones, Valli, Dardick, & Sutherland, 2009). This research was undertaken to gain insight into the volumes of data found on second-hand disks purchased …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Bloom Filters Optimized Wu-Manber For Intrusion Detection, Monther Aldwairi, Koloud Al-Khamaiseh, Fatima Alharbi, Babar Shah

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

With increasing number and severity of attacks, monitoring ingress and egress network traffic is becoming essential everyday task. Intrusion detection systems are the main tools for capturing and searching network traffic for potential harm. Signature-based intrusion detection systems are the most widely used, and they simply use a pattern matching algorithms to locate attack signatures in intercepted network traffic. Pattern matching algorithms are very expensive in terms of running time and memory usage, leaving intrusion detection systems unable to detect attacks in real-time. We propose a Bloom filters optimized Wu-Manber pattern matching algorithm to speed up intrusion detection. The Bloom …

Leveraging The Windows Amcache.Hve File In Forensic Investigations, Bhupendra Singh, Upasna Singh

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Amcache.hve is a registry hive file that is created by Microsoft® Windows® to store the information related to execution of programs. This paper highlights the evidential potential of Amcache.hve file and its application in the area of user activity analysis. The study uncovers numerous artifacts retained in Amcache.hve file when a user performs certain actions such as running host-based applications, installation of new applications, or running portable applications from external devices. The results of experiments demonstrate that Amcache.hve file stores intriguing artifacts related to applications such as timestamps of creation and last modification of any application; name, description, publisher …

The Impact Of Md5 File Hash Collisions On Digital Forensic Imaging, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Message Digest 5 (MD5) hash is commonly used as for integrity verification in the forensic imaging process. The ability to force MD5 hash collisions has been a reality for more than a decade, although there is a general consensus that hash collisions are of minimal impact to the practice of computer forensics. This paper describes an experiment to determine the results of imaging two disks that are identical except for one file, the two versions of which have different content but otherwise occupy the same byte positions on the disk, are the same size, and have the same hash …

A New Distributed Chinese Wall Security Policy Model, Saad Fehis, Omar Nouali, Mohand-Tahar Kechadi

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The application of the Chinese wall security policy model (CWSPM) to control the information flows between two or more competing and/or conflicting companies in cloud computing (Multi-tenancy) or in the social network, is a very interesting solution. The main goal of the Chinese Wall Security Policy is to build a wall between the datasets of competing companies, and among the system subjects. This is done by the applying to the subjects mandatory rules, in order to control the information flow caused between them. This problem is one of the hottest topics in the area of cloud computing (as a distributed …

A Survey Of Social Network Forensics, Umit Karabiyik, Muhammed Abdullah Canbaz, Ahmet Aksoy, Tayfun Tuna, Esra Akbas, Bilal Gonen, Ramazan S. Aygun

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Social networks in any form, specifically online social networks (OSNs), are becoming a part of our everyday life in this new millennium especially with the advanced and simple communication technologies through easily accessible devices such as smartphones and tablets. The data generated through the use of these technologies need to be analyzed for forensic purposes when criminal and terrorist activities are involved. In order to deal with the forensic implications of social networks, current research on both digital forensics and social networks need to be incorporated and understood. This will help digital forensics investigators to predict, detect and even prevent …

Computer Network Design For Universities In Developing Countries, Rafid Salih Sarhan Alsarhan

Information Technology Capstone Research Project Reports

The purpose of this project is to design a suitable network system for universities in developing countries. The aim was to design a network with high-quality security and low cost, in such a way that network devices of universities in developing countries, will meet standards associated with the universities in developed countries. This project will help to enhance education in developing countries. There are many devices that were used in designing the network, such as routers, switches, backup, firewall, and servers. All devices were connected to each other to make integration network system and configured by putting IP addresses to …

Distributed All-Ip Mobility Management Architecture Supported By The Ndn Overlay, Zhiwei Yan, Guanggang Geng, Sherali Zeadally, Yong-Jin Park

Information Science Faculty Publications

Two of the most promising candidate solutions for realizing the next-generation all-IP mobile networks are Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6), which is the host-based and global mobility supporting protocol, and Proxy MIPv6 (PMIPv6), which is the network-based and localized mobility supporting protocol. However, the unprecedented growth of mobile Internet traffic has resulted in the development of distributed mobility management (DMM) architecture by the Internet engineering task force DMM working group. The extension of the basic MIPv6 and PMIPv6 to support their distributed and scalable deployment in the future is one of the major goals of the DMM working group. We propose an …

Algorithm For Premature Ventricular Contraction Detection From A Subcutaneous Electrocardiogram Signal, Iris Lynn Shelly

Dissertations and Theses

Cardiac arrhythmias occur when the normal pattern of electrical signals in the heart breaks down. A premature ventricular contraction (PVC) is a common type of arrhythmia that occurs when a heartbeat originates from an ectopic focus within the ventricles rather than from the sinus node in the right atrium. This and other arrhythmias are often diagnosed with the help of an electrocardiogram, or ECG, which records the electrical activity of the heart using electrodes placed on the skin. In an ECG signal, a PVC is characterized by both timing and morphological differences from a normal sinus beat.

An implantable cardiac …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2016, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Investigating The Impact Of Unsupervised Feature-Extraction From Multi-Wavelength Image Data For Photometric Classification Of Stars, Galaxies And Qsos, Annika Lindh

Conference papers

Accurate classification of astronomical objects currently relies on spectroscopic data. Acquiring this data is time-consuming and expensive compared to photometric data. Hence, improving the accuracy of photometric classification could lead to far better coverage and faster classification pipelines. This paper investigates the benefit of using unsupervised feature-extraction from multi-wavelength image data for photometric classification of stars, galaxies and QSOs. An unsupervised Deep Belief Network is used, giving the model a higher level of interpretability thanks to its generative nature and layer-wise training. A Random Forest classifier is used to measure the contribution of the novel features compared to a set …

Students' Explanations In Complex Learning Of Disciplinary Programming, Camilo Vieira

Open Access Dissertations

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) has been denominated as the third pillar of science and as a set of important skills to solve the problems of a global society. Along with the theoretical and the experimental approaches, computation offers a third alternative to solve complex problems that require processing large amounts of data, or representing complex phenomena that are not easy to experiment with. Despite the relevance of CSE, current professionals and scientists are not well prepared to take advantage of this set of tools and methods. Computation is usually taught in an isolated way from engineering disciplines, and therefore, …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Is Key To Better Flying Aircraft, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Android Drone: Remote Quadcopter Control With A Phone, Aubrey John Russell

Computer Engineering

The purpose of the “Android Drone” project was to create a quadcopter that can be controlled by user input sent over the phone’s Wi-Fi connection or 4G internet connection. Furthermore, the purpose was also to be able to receive live video feedback over the internet connection, thus making the drone an inexpensive option compared to other, equivalent drones that might cost thousands of dollars. Not only that, but the Android phone also has a host of other useful features that could be utilized by the drone: this includes GPS, pathing, picture taking, data storage, networking and TCP/IP, a Java software …

Applying Ahp And Clustering Approaches For Public Transportation Decisionmaking: A Case Study Of Isfahan City, Alireza Salavati, Hossein Haghshenas, Bahador Ghadirifaraz, Jamshid Laghaei, Ghodrat Eftekhari

Journal of Public Transportation

The main purpose of this paper is to define appropriate criteria for the systematic approach to evaluate and prioritize multiple candidate corridors for public transport investment simultaneously to serve travel demand, regarding supply of current public transportation system and road network conditions of Isfahan, Iran. To optimize resource allocation, policymakers need to identify proper corridors to implement a public transportation system. In fact, the main question is to adopt the best public transportation system for each main corridor of Isfahan. In this regard, 137 questionnaires were completed by experts, directors, and policymakers of Isfahan to identify goals and objectives in …