Computer Engineering Commons^™

Some Skepticism About Search Neutrality, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

In the last few years, some search-engine critics have suggested that dominant search engines (i.e. Google) should be subject to “search neutrality” regulations. By analogy to network neutrality, search neutrality would require even-handed treatment in search results: It would prevent search engines from playing favorites among websites. Academics, Google competitors, and public-interest groups have all embraced search neutrality.

Despite this sudden interest, the case for search neutrality is too muddled to be convincing. While “neutrality” is an appealing-sounding principle, it lacks a clear definition. This essay explores no fewer than eight different meanings that search-neutrality advocates have given the term. …

Using Simulation Systems For Decision Support, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

This chapter describes the use of simulation systems for decision support in support of real operations, which is the most challenging application domain in the discipline of modeling and simulation. To this end, the systems must be integrated as services into the operational infrastructure. To support discovery, selection, and composition of services, they need to be annotated regarding technical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, dynamic, and conceptual categories. The systems themselves must be complete and validated. The data must be obtainable, preferably via common protocols shared with the operational infrastructure. Agents and automated forces must produce situation adequate behavior. If these requirements …

M&S Body Of Knowledge: Progress Report And Look Ahead, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Challenges For Human, Social, Cultural, And Behavioral Modeling, S. K. Numrich, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Today's military focus has moved away from the force-on-force battlefield of the past century and into the domain of irregular warfare and its companion security, stability, transition and reconstruction missions. With that change in focus has come a need to examine the operational environment from a wider perspective, one that includes the whole range of human experiences and circumstances. As the set of factors and list of players expands, the need for reliable modeling and simulation increases, if for no other reason than to help the human decision maker make sense of this expanded decision space. However, to do this, …

Runtime Assertion Checking For Jml On The Eclipse Platform Using Ast Merging, Amritam Sarcar

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The Java Modeling Language (JML) is a formal behavioral interface specification language for Java. It is used for detailed design documentation of Java program modules such as classes and interfaces. JML has been used extensively by many researchers across various projects and has a large and varied spectrum of tool support. It extends from runtime assertion checking (RAC) to theorem proving.

Amongst these tools, RAC and ESC/Java has been used as a common tool for many research projects. RAC for JML is a tool that checks at runtime for possible violations of any specifications. However, lately there has been a …

Estimating Information Amount Under Uncertainty: Algorithmic Solvability And Computational Complexity, Vladik Kreinovich, Gang Xiang

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Measurement results (and, more generally, estimates) are never absolutely accurate: there is always an uncertainty, the actual value x is, in general, different from the estimate X. Sometimes, we know the probability of different values of the estimation error dx=X-x, sometimes, we only know the interval of possible values of dx, sometimes, we have interval bounds on the cdf of dx. To compare different measuring instruments, it is desirable to know which of them brings more information - i.e., it is desirable to gauge the amount of information. For probabilistic uncertainty, this amount of information is described by Shannon's entropy; …

Mining Frequent Generalized Patterns For Web Personalization In The Presence Of Taxonomies, P. Giannikopoulos, I. Varlamis, Magdalini Eirinaki

Faculty Publications

The Web is a continuously evolving environment, since its content is updated on a regular basis. As a result, the traditional usage-based approach to generate recommendations that takes as input the navigation paths recorded on the Web page level, is not as effective. Moreover, most of the content available online is either explicitly or implicitly characterized by a set of categories organized in a taxonomy, allowing the page-level navigation patterns to be generalized to a higher, aggregate level. In this direction, the authors present the Frequent Generalized Pattern (FGP) algorithm. FGP takes as input the transaction data and a hierarchy …

A Signal Processing Method To Explore Similarity In Protein Flexibility, Simina Vasilache, Nazanin Mirshahi, Soo-Yeon Ji, James Mottonen, Donald J. Jacobs, Kayvan Najarian

Computer Science Publications

Understanding mechanisms of protein flexibility is of great importance to structural biology. The ability to detect similarities between proteins and their patterns is vital in discovering new information about unknown protein functions. A Distance Constraint Model (DCM) provides a means to generate a variety of flexibility measures based on a given protein structure. Although information about mechanical properties of flexibility is critical for understanding protein function for a given protein, the question of whether certain characteristics are shared across homologous proteins is difficult to assess. For a proper assessment, a quantified measure of similarity is necessary. This paper begins to …

Task Analysis, Modeling, And Automatic Identification Of Elemental Tasks In Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery, Lavie Pinchas Golenberg

Wayne State University Dissertations

Robotic microsurgery provides many advantages for surgical operations, including tremor filtration, an increase in dexterity, and smaller incisions. There is a growing need for a task analyses on robotic laparoscopic operations to understand better the tasks involved in robotic microsurgery cases. A few research groups have conducted task observations to help systems automatically identify surgeon skill based on task execution. Their gesture analyses, however, lacked depth and their class libraries were composed of ambiguous groupings of gestures that did not share contextual similarities.

A Hierarchical Task Analysis was performed on a four-throw suturing task using a robotic microsurgical platform. Three …

Discrete Coordinate Transformation For Designing All-Dielectric Flat Antennas, Wenxuan Tang, Christos Argyropoulos, Efthymios Kallos, Wei Song, Yang Hao

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Transformation electromagnetics provides a practical approach to control electromagnetic fields at will. Based on this principle, novel devices such as the invisible cloak have been proposed. Here we examine the extension of this technique as applied to the design of flat devices in antenna systems. A method using discrete coordinate transformation is proposed, which allows the conversion of conventional devices with curved shapes into flat systems, while preserving their non-dispersive, isotropic, broadband, and lossless properties. Two specific design examples, a flat reflector and a flat lens embedded in free space, are presented. To avoid the loss and narrow bandwidth issues …

Clustering Of Protein Families Into Functional Subtypes Using Relative Complexity Measure With Reduced Amino Acid Alphabets, Aydin Albayrak, Hasan H. Otu, Ugur O. Sezerman

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Phylogenetic analysis can be used to divide a protein family into subfamilies in the absence of experimental information. Most phylogenetic analysis methods utilize multiple alignment of sequences and are based on an evolutionary model. However, multiple alignment is not an automated procedure and requires human intervention to maintain alignment integrity and to produce phylogenies consistent with the functional splits in underlying sequences. To address this problem, we propose to use the alignment-free Relative Complexity Measure (RCM) combined with reduced amino acid alphabets to cluster protein families into functional subtypes purely on sequence criteria. Comparison with an alignment-based approach was …

Bioinformatic Identification And Characterization Of Human Endothelial Cell-Restricted Genes, Manoj Bhasin, Lei Yuan, Derin B. Keskin, Hasan H. Otu, Towia A. Libermann, Peter Oettgen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: In this study, we used a systematic bioinformatics analysis approach to elucidate genes that exhibit an endothelial cell (EC) restricted expression pattern, and began to define their regulation, tissue distribution, and potential biological role.

Results:Using a high throughput microarray platform, a primary set of 1,191 transcripts that are enriched in different primary ECs compared to non-ECs was identified (LCB >3, FDR

Conclusion: The study provides an initial catalogue of EC-restricted genes most of which are ubiquitously expressed in different endothelial cells.

Non-Destructiveapproachto Ellipsometric Monitoring Of A Film Coating On The Inner Surface Of A Tube Shaped Sample, Gregory K. Prilbil, John A. Woollam, Martin M. Liphardt, James D. Welch

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Disclosed is the use of a focused electromagnetic beam which is caused to impinge on the top surface of a tube shaped sample, to investigate a film coating on inner surface during fabrication thereof and/or thereafter.

On The Applications Of Deterministic Chaos For Encrypting Data On The Cloud, Jonathan Blackledge, Nikolai Ptitsyn

Conference papers

Cloud computing is expected to grow considerably in the future because it has so many advantages with regard to sale and cost, change management, next generation architectures, choice and agility. However, one of the principal concerns for users of the Cloud is lack of control and above all, data security. This paper considers an approach to encrypting information before it is ‘place’ on the Cloud where each user has access to their own encryption algorithm, an algorithm that is based on a set of Iterative Function Systems that outputs a chaotic number stream, designed to produce a cryptographically secure cipher. …

Generating System Requirements For A Mobile Digital Evidence Collection System: A Preliminary Step Towards Enhancing The Forensic Collection Of Digital Devices, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Collecting digital devices in a forensically sound manner is becoming more critical since 80% of all cases have some sort of digital evidence involved in them (Rogers, 2006, p. 1) .The process of documenting and tagging digital devices is cumbersome and involves details that might not apply to other types of evidence, since each evidence item has unique physical characteristics (Hesitis & Wilbon, 2005, p. 17). The process becomes less manageable when a large number of digital devices are seized. This paper examines the information and issues investigators should be aware of when collecting digital devices at crime scenes. Furthermore, …

Wi-Fi Localization Using Rssi Fingerprinting, Michael Quan, Eduardo Navarro, Benjamin Peuker

Computer Engineering

Wireless Local Area Networks using Wi-Fi is becoming more and more ubiquitous. As such, they provide a potential pre-built infrastructure for small area localization. This project serves as a proof of concept for a playground child tracking system to be deployed at Cal Poly's Child Development Playground Lab. The two main options for doing Wi-Fi localization are triangulation and fingerprinting. Triangulation involves mapping signal strength as a function of distance while fingerprinting creates a probability distribution of signal strengths at a given location and uses a map of these distributions to predict a location given signal strength samples. The triangulation …

Novel Approaches In Structured Light Illumination, Yongchang Wang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Among the various approaches to 3-D imaging, structured light illumination (SLI) is widely spread. SLI employs a pair of digital projector and digital camera such that the correspondences can be found based upon the projecting and capturing of a group of designed light patterns. As an active sensing method, SLI is known for its robustness and high accuracy. In this dissertation, I study the phase shifting method (PSM), which is one of the most employed strategy in SLI. And, three novel approaches in PSM have been proposed in this dissertation. First, by regarding the design of patterns as placing points …

Higate (High Grade Anti-Tamper Equipment) Prototype And Application To E-Discovery, Yui Sakurai, Yuki Ashino, Tetsutaro Uehara, Hiroshi Yoshiura, Ryoichi Sasaki

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

These days, most data is digitized and processed in various ways by computers. In the past, computer owners were free to process data as desired and to observe the inputted data as well as the interim results. However, the unrestricted processing of data and accessing of interim results even by computer users is associated with an increasing number of adverse events. These adverse events often occur when sensitive data such as personal or confidential business information must be handled by two or more parties, such as in the case of e-Discovery, used in legal proceedings, or epidemiologic studies. To solve …

An Empirical Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Jml Assertions As Test Oracles, Kavir Shrestha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Test oracles remain one of the least understood aspects of the modern testing process. An oracle is a mechanism used by software testers and software engineers for determining whether a test has passed or failed. One widely-supported approach to oracles is the use of runtime assertion checking during the testing activity. Method invariants,pre- and postconditions help detect bugs during runtime. While assertions are supported by virtually all programming environments, are used widely in practice, and are often assumed to be effective as test oracles, there are few empirical studies of their efficacy in this role. In this thesis, we present …

When Discrete Meets Differential: Assessing The Stability Of Structure From Small Motion, Wen-Yan Lin, Geok-Choo Tan, Loong-Fah Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We provide a theoretical proof showing that under a proportional noise model, the discrete eight point algorithm behaves similarly to the differential eight point algorithm when the motion is small. This implies that the discrete algorithm can handle arbitrarily small motion for a general scene, as long as the noise decreases proportionally with the amount of image motion and the proportionality constant is small enough. This stability result extends to all normalized variants of the eight point algorithm. Using simulations, we show that given arbitrarily small motions and proportional noise regime, the normalized eight point algorithms outperform their differential counterparts …

Safety Data Dissemination Framework For Vehicular Networks, Martin Koubek

Theses

An effective transportation system is essential to modern societies with transportation having a significant influence on economic growth, social development and the environment. But this dependence on road mobility has had serious consequences in terms of rising crash costs that include deaths, injuries, lost productivity, material damage and congestion. The European Union and many other governments worldwide support active safety as being the next logical step in diminishing crash costs after passive safety (safety belt, ABS etc.) where drivers will be warned prior to reaching hazardous situations enabling them to react appropriately. While improving road safety is unanimously considered the …

State Variable Distributed-Parameter Representation Of Transmission Line For Transient Simulations, Mehmet Sali̇h Mami̇ş, Asim Kaygusuz, Muhammet Köksal

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a distributed-parameter state variable approach is used to calculate transients on transmission lines based on the concept of travelling waves. The method of characteristics for lossless line is used and the state equations are derived for the system. These equations are converted to a set of difference equations using the trapezoidal rule of integration and solved in time domain using LU decomposition. Single- and multi-phase transmission lines with various linear and non-linear terminations are considered in the illustrative examples. State-space modeling of transposed lines using modal decomposition is introduced and the effects caused by lumped parameter approximation …

On Coalgebras Over Algebras, Adriana Balan, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We extend Barr’s well-known characterization of the final coalgebra of a Set-endofunctor as the completion of its initial algebra to the Eilenberg-Moore category of algebras for a Set-monad M for functors arising as liftings. As an application we introduce the notion of commuting pair of endofunctors with respect to the monad M and show that under reasonable assumptions, the final coalgebra of one of the endofunctors involved can be obtained as the free algebra generated by the initial algebra of the other endofunctor.

Families Of Symmetries As Efficient Models Of Resource Binding, Vincenzo Ciancia, Alexander Kurz, Ugo Montanari

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Calculi that feature resource-allocating constructs (e.g. the pi-calculus or the fusion calculus) require special kinds of models. The best-known ones are presheaves and nominal sets. But named sets have the advantage of being finite in a wide range of cases where the other two are infinite. The three models are equivalent. Finiteness of named sets is strictly related to the notion of finite support in nominal sets and the corresponding presheaves. We show that named sets are generalisd by the categorical model of families, that is, free coproduct completions, indexed by symmetries, and explain how locality of interfaces gives good …

Algebraic Theories Over Nominal Sets, Alexander Kurz, Daniela Petrişan, Jiří Velebil

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We investigate the foundations of a theory of algebraic data types with variable binding inside classical universal algebra. In the first part, a category-theoretic study of monads over the nominal sets of Gabbay and Pitts leads us to introduce new notions of finitary based monads and uniform monads. In a second part we spell out these notions in the language of universal algebra, show how to recover the logics of Gabbay-Mathijssen and Clouston-Pitts, and apply classical results from universal algebra.

E-Fraud Prevention Based On The Self-Authentication Of E-Documents, Jonathan Blackledge, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

We consider a method for preventing e-Fraud in which a binary image is encrypted with a floating point cipher using a convolution operation and the output quantized into a 1-bit array generating a binary image ciphertext. The output is then ‘embedded’ in a host image to hide the encrypted information. Embedding is undertaken either in the lowest 1-bit layer or multiple 1-bit layers. Decryption is accomplished by: (i) extracting the binary image from the host image; (ii) correlating the result with the original cipher. In principle, any cipher generator can be used for this purpose and the method has been …

Authentication Of Biometric Features Using Texture Coding For Id Cards, Jonathan Blackledge, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

The use of image based information exchange has grown rapidly over the years in terms of both e-to-e image storage and transmission and in terms of maintaining paper documents in electronic form. Further, with the dramatic improvements in the quality of COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) printing and scanning devices, the ability to counterfeit electronic and printed documents has become a widespread problem. Consequently, there has been an increasing demand to develop digital watermarking techniques which can be applied to both electronic and printed images (and documents) that can be authenticated, prevent unauthorized copying of their content and, in the case of printed …

Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution And Conflict In The Twenty-First Century, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

Pity the librarian who receives a copy of P.W. Singer's Wired for War and must decide where to put it. Since the book wrestles with the changing nature of warfare, it could fit in with other books on war and military affairs. It may also belong in the science fiction section, since it is largely a tribute to the vision of science fiction writers such as Isaac Asimov. Perhaps Wired for War should go alongside works by other futurist thinkers such as George Orwell and Freeman Dyson. Is it really an ethics book? A science text? Strong arguments could be …

A Subthreshold Reconfigurable Architecture For Harsh Environments, Ameet Chavan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Energy harvesting and functional reconfigurability are necessary features in order to simultaneously achieve longer operating lifetimes and versatility in application for many next generation electronic systems. The presented research incorporates capabilities that not only enable applications to self-power from ambience but also permit change in functionality based on real-time application requirements. Currently, many applications are battery powered with custom hardware, which severely confines the application platform. Moreover, maintenance and upgrades are prohibitively expensive, particularly in the case of remote locations with limited accessibility. For harsh environments like Space or the battlefield, apart from features such as low power and reconfigurability, …

An Investigation Of Semantic Links To Archetypes In An External Clinical Terminology Through The Construction Of Terminological "Shadows", Sheng Yu, Damon Berry, Jesús Bisbal

Conference Papers

The two-level model based specifications for electronic health record communication EHRcom (ISO 13606) and openEHR both support the embedding of terminological references in Archetypes. This terminological binding can be created manually by a health terminology expert during Archetype design, and the binding is assessed during Archetype evaluation. There has also been some recent work on using lexical queries to generate term sets to represent concepts in Archetypes. This work created an information construct which we call a Terminological Shadow that links Archetype nodes to sets of candidate concepts from a terminology system. The coding scheme used for this work is …