Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On The Use Of Randomness In Computing To Perform Intelligent Tasks, Ryan Scott Regensburger

Theses and Dissertations

The study of Artificial Intelligence attempts to simulate the processes of human intelligence in a set of computable algorithms. The purpose of Random Algorithms in this field is to provide a best-guess approach at identifying the unknown. In this thesis, research shows that random algorithms are able to break down many intelligent processes into a set of solvable problems. For example, solving puzzles and playing games involve the same estimating ability shown in standard problems such as the Coupon Collector problem or the Monty Hall problem. This thesis shows Random Algorithmic applications in two overlapping categories of intelligent behavior: Pattern …

Modeling The Spread And Prevention Of Malicious Mobile Code Via Simulation Cs-2004-15, Christopher Brian Shirey

Theses and Dissertations

Malicious mobile code causes billions of dollars every year in damages, and that cost keeps increasing. Traditional signature-based anti-virus software is a reactive solution that can not detect fast spreading malicious code quickly enough to prevent widespread infection. If we hope to prevent widespread infection of future malicious mobile code, new prevention techniques must be developed that either stop a new infection completely, or at least limit the spread until signature-based anti-virus software can be updated. Simulators exist that model the spread of malicious mobile code, but none currently exists that can efficiently model host-based and network-based spread prevention techniques …

The Kinetics Following Photolysis Of Nitrosyl Bromide, Lori A. Mahoney

Theses and Dissertations

One candidate for the development of a tunable laser in the mid-infrared for use as a defensive countermeasure against passive sensors exploits the nitric oxide (NO) transition at 5.4 μm. However, the difficulty with this mechanism is that when bromine (Br₂) and NO are present in a mixture, nitrosyl bromide (BrNO) is also created. The absorption bands present in BrNO complicate the design of such a laser. This thesis determines the forward and reverse rate constants of the reaction of Br₂ and NO to form BrNO following the photolysis of BrNO using Fourier Transform Infrared absorption spectroscopy. …

Hydrogeologic Model Of A Leachate Plume In An Unconfined Coastal Plain Aquifer And Chemical Transport Mechanisms Of Metals And Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids, Thomas Lindblad

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater contamination is of increasing environmental concern as many aquifers across the globe have experienced a decrease in water quality in recent time. The growth of the world's population over the last couple of decades has caused a dramatic increase in the rate of groundwater use. One potential source of groundwater contamination is waste material in landfills. The 1 st Division Road Sanitary landfill at Fort Benning Military Reservation was studied to evaluate the potential effect on local groundwater and a leachate plume was recognized using data from 16 groundwater monitoring wells located around the facility. The study site is …

Ip Algorithm Applied To Proteomics Data, Christopher Lee Green

Theses and Dissertations

Mass spectrometry has been used extensively in recent years as a valuable tool in the study of proteomics. However, the data thus produced exhibits hyper-dimensionality. Reducing the dimensionality of the data often requires the imposition of many assumptions which can be harmful to subsequent analysis. The IP algorithm is a dimension reduction algorithm, similar in purpose to latent variable analysis. It is based on the principle of maximum entropy and therefore imposes a minimum number of assumptions on the data. Partial Least Squares (PLS) is an algorithm commonly used with proteomics data from mass spectrometry in order to reduce the …

Pluton Zonation Unveiled By Gamma-Ray Spectrometry And Magnetic Susceptibility; A Case Study Of The Sheeprock Granite, Western, Utah, Paul D. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

A radiometric survey of the zoned 21 Ma, A-type Sheeprock granite, western Utah, combined with measurements of magnetic susceptibility and field observations were analyzed using a geographic information system. The intrusion spans 25 square km and is roughly eliptical in shape with its long axis trending northwest. Concentration maps (composed of more than 500 survey stations) of eU, eTh, texture, magnetic susceptibility, color, and joint density help to constrain magmatic and post-magmatic processes related to its chemical and physical zonation. Uranium ranges from 3.9 to 26.9 ppm (mean 12.7) and thorium from 1.7 to 125.7 ppm (mean 45.5). Similarities in …

Automating The Extraction Of Domain-Specific Information From The Web-A Case Study For The Genealogical Domain, Troy L. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Current ways of finding genealogical information within the millions of pages on the Web are inadequate. In an effort to help genealogical researchers find desired information more quickly, we have developed GeneTIQS, a Genealogy Target-based Information Query System. GeneTIQS builds on ontology-based methods of data extraction to allow database-style queries on the Web. This thesis makes two main contributions to GeneTIQS. (1) It builds a framework to do generic ontology-based data extraction. (2) It develops a hybrid record separator based on Vector Space Modeling that uses both formatting clues and data clues to split pages into component records. The record …

Target-Dominant Chinese-English Machine Translation, Dan Su

Theses and Dissertations

Information exchange is increasing rapidly with the advent of globalization. As the language spoken by the most people in today's world, Chinese will play an important role in information exchange in the future. Therefore, we need an efficient and practical means to access the increasingly large volume of Chinese data. This thesis describes a target-dominant Chinese-English machine translation system, which can translate a given Chinese news sentence into English. We conjecture that we can improve the state of the art of MT using a TDMT approach. This system has participated in the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) 2004 …

Does The Halting Necessary For Hardware Trace Collection Inordinately Perturb The Results?, Myles G. Watson

Theses and Dissertations

Processor address traces are invaluable for characterizing workloads and testing proposed memory hierarchies. Long traces are needed to exercise modern cache designs and produce meaningful results, but are difficult to collect with hardware monitors because microprocessors access memory too frequently for disks or other large storage to keep up. The small, fast buffers of the monitors fill quickly; in order to obtain long contiguous traces, the processor must be stopped while the buffer is emptied. This halting may perturb the traces collected, but this cannot be measured directly, since long uninterrupted traces cannot be collected. We make the case that …

Real-Time Image Enhancement Using Texture Synthesis, Matthew J. Sorensen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an approach to real-time image enhancement using texture synthesis. Traditional image enhancement techniques are typically time consuming, lack realistic detail, or do not scale well for large magnification factors.

Real-time Enhancement using Texture Synthesis (RETS) combines interpolation, classification, and patch-based texture synthesis to enhance low-resolution imagery, particularly aerial imagery. RETS uses as input a low-resolution source image and several high-resolution sample textures. The output of RETS is a high-resolution image with the structure of the source image, but with detail consistent with the high-resolution sample textures. We show that RETS can enhance large amounts of imagery in …

Geometric Acoustic Modeling Of The Lds Conference Center, Heather Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the process of modeling a 21,000 seat fan-shaped auditorium using methods of geometric acoustics. Two commercial geometric acoustics software packages were used in the research: CATT-Acoustic™ 8.0 and EASE™ 4.1. The process first included creating preliminary models of the hall using published absorption coefficients for its surfaces and approximate scattering coefficients based on current best-known techniques. A detailed analysis determined the minimum numbers of rays needed in both packages to produce reliable results with these coefficient values. It was found that 100,000 rays were needed for CATT™ and 500,000 rays were needed for EASE™. Analysis was also …

Improved Signal Integrity In Ieee 1149.1 Boundary Scan Designs, Efren De Jesus Rangel Taboada

Theses and Dissertations

This work is an analysis of solutions to problems derived from inherent timing and signal integrity issues in the use and application of the IEEE 1149.1 Standard at the board level in conjunction with its test system. Setup or hold times violations may occur in a boundary scan chain using IEEE 1149.1 compliant devices. A practical study of the TDI-TDO scan data path has been conducted to show where problems may arise in relationship to a particular board topology and test system. This work points to differences between passing and failing scan path tests for problem characterization. Serial data flow …

Disk Based Model Checking, Tonglaga Bao

Theses and Dissertations

Disk based model checking does not receive much attention in the model checking field becasue of its costly time overhead. In this thesis, we present a new disk based algorithm that can get close to or faster verification speed than a RAM based algorithm that has enough memory to complete its verification. This algorithm also outperforms Stern and Dill's original disk based algorithm. The algorithm partitions the state space to several files, and swaps files into and out of memory during verification. Compared with the RAM only algorithm, the new algoritm reduces hash table insertion time by reducing the cost …

Vision-Based Human Directed Robot Guidance, Richard B. Arthur

Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes methods to track a user-defined point in the vision of a robot as it drives forward. This tracking allows a robot to keep itself directed at that point while driving so that it can get to that user-defined point. I develop and present two new multi-scale algorithms for tracking arbitrary points between two frames of video, as well as through a video sequence. The multi-scale algorithms do not use the traditional pyramid image, but instead use a data structure called an integral image (also known as a summed area table). The first algorithm uses edge-detection to track …

Analysis And Comparison Of Three Acoustic Energy Density Probes, Lance Lester Locey

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional methods for the investigation of sound fields generally rely on a microphone to convert sound pressure into an electrical signal which can be recorded, displayed, and so forth. The squared sound pressure is directly related to potential energy density. Consequently, the measurement of sound pressure alone does not inherently provide insight into the total energy density of the sound field. Specifically, no information about the kinetic energy density of the sound field is available from this measurement alone. However, it is possible to use two microphones to estimate particle velocity. The squared particle velocity magnitude is directly related to …

Network-Layer Selective Security, Casey T. Deccio

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet and other large computer networks have become an integral part of numerous daily processes. Security at the network layer is necessary to maintain infrastructure survivability in the case of cyber attacks aimed at routing protocols. In order to minimize undesired overhead associated with added security at this level, the notion of selective security is proposed. This thesis identifies elements in network topologies that are most important to the survivability of the network. The results show that the strategic placement of network security at critical elements will improve overall network survivability without the necessity of universal deployment.

Pattern Search Ranking And Selection Algorithms For Mixed-Variable Optimization Of Stochastic Systems, Todd A. Sriver

Theses and Dissertations

A new class of algorithms is introduced and analyzed for bound and linearly constrained optimization problems with stochastic objective functions and a mixture of design variable types. The generalized pattern search (GPS) class of algorithms is extended to a new problem setting in which objective function evaluations require sampling from a model of a stochastic system. The approach combines GPS with ranking and selection (R&S) statistical procedures to select new iterates. The derivative-free algorithms require only black-box simulation responses and are applicable over domains with mixed variables (continuous, discrete numeric, and discrete categorical) to include bound and linear constraints on …

Quantifying Initial Condition And Parametric Uncertainties In A Nonlinear Aeroelastic System With An Efficient Stochastic Algorithm, Daniel R. Millman

Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing interest in understanding how uncertainties in flight conditions and structural parameters affect the character of a limit cycle oscillation (LCO) response, leading to failure of an aeroelastic system. Uncertainty quantification of a stochastic system (parametric uncertainty) with stochastic inputs (initial condition uncertainty) has traditionally been analyzed with Monte Carlo simulations (MCS). Probability density functions (PDF) of the LCO response are obtained from the MCS to estimate the probability of failure. A candidate approach to efficiently estimate the PDF of an LCO response is the stochastic projection method. The objective of this research is to extend the …

Visual Unified Modeling Language For The Composition Of Scenarios In Modeling And Simulation Systems, Daniel E. Swayne

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense uses modeling and simulation systems in many various roles, from research and training to modeling likely outcomes of command decisions. Simulation systems have been increasing in complexity with the increased capability of low-cost computer systems to support these DOD requirements. The demand for scenarios is also increasing, but the complexity of the simulation systems has caused a bottleneck in scenario development due to the limited number of individuals with knowledge of the arcane simulator languages in which these scenarios are written. This research combines the results of previous AFIT efforts in visual modeling languages to create …

An Ecological Display For Robot Teleoperation, Robert W. Ricks

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an interface for effectively teleoperating robots that combines an ecological display of range and video information with quickening based on dead-reckoning prediction. This display is built by viewing range and video information from a virtual camera trailing the robot. This is rendered in 3-D by using standard hardware acceleration and 3-D graphics software. Our studies demonstrate that this interface improves performance for most people, including those that do not have much previous experience with robotics. These studies involved 32 test subjects in a simulated environment and 8 in the real world. Subjects were required to drive the …

A Qualitative Method For Dynamic Transport Selection In Heterogeneous Wireless Environments, Heidi R. Duffin

Theses and Dissertations

Computing devices are commonly equipped with multiple transport technologies such as IrDA, Bluetooth and WiFi. Transport switching technologies, such as Quality of Transport (QoT), take advantage of this heterogeneity to keep network sessions active as users move in and out of range of various transports or as the networking environment changes. During an active session, the goal is to keep the device connected over the best transport currently available. To accomplish that, this thesis introduces a two-phase decision making protocol. In phase one, intra-device prioritization, users indicate the relative importance of criteria such as speed, power, service charge, or signal …

Instructing Teachers Of Children With Disabilities Within The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Katie E. Sampson

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates benefits of in-service training on LDS primary teachers' ability to state an objective, obtain and keep attention, use wait time, incorporate active participation, teach to the multiple intelligences, and employ positive behavior management techniques. Two groups of 30 viewed either a video-tape or read a handout. Pre and post surveys were used to determine mean gain.
Using an ANCOVA, comparisons were made of overall mean gain for each group. Results showed participants made a gain of approximately 1/2 point per question on a 4-point scale on the video and the handout (video gain = .6032 p<.01; handout gain = .6264 p<.01). The results of this study support the hypothesis that teachers receiving one in-service will increase their perception of their ability to teach students with special needs.

Capillary Liquid Chromatography Using Micro Size Particles, Yanqiao Xiang

Theses and Dissertations

High speed and/or high efficiency separations can be realized using small particles (~ 1 µm) in liquid chromatography (LC). However, due to the large pressure drop caused by small particles, conventional LC pumping systems cannot satisfy the pressure requirements needed to drive the mobile phase through the column. Use of ultrahigh pressure, elevated temperature, or both can overcome these pressure limitations and allow the use of very small particles for high speed and/or high efficiency separations.

In this dissertation, the use of ultrahigh pressures with and without elevated temperatures in capillary LC is described. Very fast separations of various samples …

Probabilistic Methodology For Record Linkage Determining Robustness Of Weights, Krista Peine Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Record linkage is the process that joins separately recorded pieces of information for a particular individual from one or more sources. To facilitate record linkage, a reliable computer based approach is ideal. In genealogical research computerized record linkage is useful in combing information for an individual across multiple censuses.

In creating a computerized method for linking censuse records it needs to be determined if weights calculated from one geographical area, can be used to link records from another geographical area. Research performed by Marcie Francis calculates field weights using census records from 1910 and 1920 for Ascension Parish Louisiana. These …

On The Variability Of The Fine Structure Constant, Jason Lott Evans

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the issue of the time variability of the fine structure constant, alpha. Recent claims of a varying alpha are set against the established standards of quantum electrodynamical theory and experiments. A study of the feasibility of extracting data on the time dependence of alpha using particles in Penning traps is compared to the results obtained by existing methods, including those using astrophysical data and those obtained in atomic clock experiments. Suggestions are made on the nature of trapped particles and the trapping fields.

Preserving Trust Across Multiple Sessions In Open Systems, Fuk-Wing Thomas Chan

Theses and Dissertations

Trust negotiation, a new authentication paradigm, enables strangers on the Internet to establish trust through the gradual disclosure of digital credentials and access control policies. Previous research in trust negotiation does not address issues in preserving trust across multiple sessions. This thesis discusses issues in preserving trust between parties who were previously considered strangers. It also describes the design and implementation of trust preservation in TrustBuilder, a prototype trust negotiation system. Preserving trust information can reduce the frequency and cost of renegotiation. A scenario is presented that demonstrates that a server supporting trust preservation can recoup the cost of the …

Hiring Practices For Graphic Designers In Utah County, Utah, Landon T. Densley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to show how hiring standards of evidence for graphic designers in Utah County compared with the national standards of evidence. The four major national standards of evidence for hiring graphic designers, identified by American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Goldfarb, in order of importance are portfolio, recommendations, personality, and education. The data from this study revealed that Utah County employer's standards of evidence matched up closely to national standards of evidence, but the order of importance was slightly different because personality was ranked ahead of recommendations and education.

A Numerical Scheme For Mullins-Sekerka Flow In Three Space Dimensions, Sarah Marie Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The Mullins-Sekerka problem, also called two-sided Hele-Shaw flow, arises in modeling a binary material with two stable concentration phases. A coarsening process occurs, and large particles grow while smaller particles eventually dissolve. Single particles become spherical. This process is described by evolving harmonic functions within the two phases with the moving interface driven by the jump in the normal derivatives of the harmonic functions at the interface. The harmonic functions are continuous across the interface, taking on values equal to the mean curvature of the interface. This dissertation reformulates the three-dimensional problem as one on the two-dimensional interface by using …

Grouping Search-Engine Returned Citations For Person-Name Queries, Reema Al-Kamha

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we present a technique to group search-engine returned citations for person-name queries, such that the search-engine returned citations in each group belong to the same person. To group the returned citations we use a multi-faceted approach that considers evidence from three facets: (1) attributes, (2) links, and (3) page similarity. For each facet we generate a confidence matrix. Then we construct a final confidence matrix for all facets. Using a threshold, we apply a grouping algorithm on the final confidence matrix. The output is a group of search-engine returned citations, such that the citations in each group …

Psl(2,7)-Extensions With Certain Ramification At Two Primes, Glen E. Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

We conduct a parallel Hunter search in order to find a degree 7 number field K ramified at primes q and p with discriminant d(K)=q^6 p^2 where q=11 and 2