Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Study Of The Factors Related To The Successful Merger Of Information Technology Departments Within Local Government, Angela Patton

Student Work

This study focuses on the merger process of Information Technology (IT) departments within local government. The research that exists indicates that local government mergers, in general, have a high rate of failure. In addition, the political, managerial, cultural, and behavioral aspects that impact these mergers are ignored.

The importance of computers to the departments/agencies housed within local government has made the IT departments a critical part of the local government structure. This study looks at the problems faced by the merging IT departments within local government in order to gain a better understanding of this process and to increase the …

Apparatus For Discovering Computing Services Architecture And Developing Patterns Of Computing Services And Method Therefor [Sg 107499], Emarson Victoria, Hui Tseng, Hwee Hwa Pang, Tau Chen Cham, Siew Choo Tay

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An apparatus for discovering computing services architecture and developing patterns of computing services and method therefor are disclosed. The apparatus, according to an embodiment of the invention, provides a graphical user interface for displaying a deployment plan of deployed computing services. Components in the deployment plan are interconnected by links indicating dependency relationships between the components. Each component and link is assigned a confidence value, which is based on a calculated weight of the properties of each component. The apparatus further provides editing tools for manipulating the components in the deployment plan as well as for creating and managing patterns.

Redshift-Distance Survey Of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data, G. Wegner, M. Bernardi, C. N. A. Willmer, L. N. Da Costa

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present central velocity dispersions and Mg₂ line indices for an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984 had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set of homogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of elliptical galaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part of the ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internal properties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeated observations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the data are brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, taken during the many runs …

Groundwater Investigation On Victoria Location 8565, East Binnu, Russell John Speed

Resource management technical reports

Describes a drilling investigation undertaken for the East Binnu area within Victoria location 8565, Western Australia. Groundwater monitoring bores were installed to assess the risk of dryland salinity developing if after clearance of native vegetation, the area is used to grow annual crops and pastures. The investigation confirmed that the risk of further salinity development in this location is extreme.

An Inconsistency Sensitive Arrangement Algorithm For Curve Segments, Victor Milenkovic, Elisha Sacks

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

A Token-Based Model For Fraud Detection And Prevention, Yunhua Lu, Leszek T. Lilien, Bharat Bhargava

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

A Robust Dissolve Detector By Support Vector Machine, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the robust detection and classification of dissolve sequences in videos. Our approach is based on the multi-resolution representation of temporal slices extracted from 3D image volume. At the low-resolution (LR) scale, the problem of dissolve detection is reduced as cut transition detection. At the highresolution (HR) space, Gabor wavelet features are computed for regions that surround the cuts located at LR scale. The computed features are then input to support vector machines for pattern classification. Encouraging results have been obtained through experiments.

Study Of The Electronic Properties Of Some Ytterbium Filled Skutterudites By Magnetic Susceptibility And X-Ray Absorption And Tin-119 Mössbauer Spectroscopy, Fernande Grandjean, Gary J. Long, Bernard M. Mahieu, Ji Hui Yang, Gregory P. Meisner, Donald T. Morelli

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Magnetic susceptibility, ytterbium L_III-edge x-ray absorption and tin-119 Mössbauer spectral measurements have been carried out to probe the electronic structure of ytterbium and tin in the filled or partially filled skutterudite compounds, Yb_yCo₄Sb_12-xSn_x, over a range of x and y values. The ytterbium valence obtained from the magnetic susceptibility and ytterbium L_III-edge x-ray absorption measurements is in excellent agreement and clearly reveals an evolution from intermediate valence ytterbium for x=0 to nearly divalent ytterbium for x=0.8. This evolution parallels an increase in the unit cell volume and hence …

Effect Of External Electric Field On The Bulk And Interfacial Properties Of Weakly Dipolar Fluid In Slab-Shaped And Sphere-Shaped Systems, V.B. Warshavsky, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

The effect of a uniform electric field on the bulk and interfacial properties of a model dipolar fluid is investigated by using a modified mean-field density functional theory. Particular attention is given to the dependence of the vapor-liquid phase coexistence in a slab-shaped system on the direction of the electric field with respect to the slab surfaces, as well as in the sphere-shaped system on the surrounding dielectric permittivity. For planar vapor-liquid interfaces, the interfacial profiles of the orientation order parameters and components of the dielectric-permittivity tensor are calculated. Analytical expressions for these interfacial profiles and their dependence on the …

Intrinsic Complexity Of Learning Geometrical Concepts From Positive Data, Sanjay Jain, Efim Kinber

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Intrinsic complexity is used to measure the complexity of learning areas limited by broken-straight lines (called open semi-hulls) and intersections of such areas. Any strategy learning such geometrical concepts can be viewed as a sequence of primitive basic strategies. Thus, the length of such a sequence together with the complexities of the primitive strategies used can be regarded as the complexity of learning the concepts in question. We obtained the best possible lower and upper bounds on learning open semi-hulls, as well as matching upper and lower bounds on the complexity of learning intersections of such areas. Surprisingly, upper …

Field-Scale Estimation Of Volumetric Water Content Using Ground-Penetrating Radar Ground Wave Techniques, Katherine R. Grote, Susan Sharpless Hubbard, Yoram N. Rubin

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) ground wave techniques were applied to estimate soil water content in the uppermost ∼10 cm of a 3 acre California vineyard several times over 1 year. We collected densely spaced GPR travel time measurements using 900 and 450 MHz antennas and analyzed these data to estimate water content. The spatial distribution of water content across the vineyard did not change significantly with time, although the absolute water content values varied seasonally and with irrigation. The GPR estimates of water content were compared to gravimetric water content, time domain reflectometry, and soil texture measurements. The comparisons of GPR-derived …

Computer-Controlled In-Class Feedback System For Interactive Lectures, Thomas J. Bensky

Physics

Instructors who wish to implement an interactive lecture style, such as peer instruction, have the need to collect feedback from students in a lecture environment. We present a computer-controlled electronic circuit that allows for quick, rigorous, and accurate measurement and reporting of student feedback in the lecture environment.

Time Dependent Seafloor Acoustic Backscatter (10-100khz), Daniel D. Sternlicht, Christian De Moustier

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

A time-dependent model of the acoustic intensity backscattered by the seafloor is described and compared with data from a calibrated, vertically oriented, echo-sounder operating at 33 and 93 kHz. The model incorporates the characteristics of the echo-sounder and transmitted pulse, and the water column spreading and absorption losses. Scattering from the water–sediment interface is predicted using Helmholtz–Kirchhoff theory, parametrized by the mean grain size, the coherent reflection coefficient, and the strength and exponent of a power-law roughness spectrum. The composite roughness approach of Jackson et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 1410–1422 (1986)], modified for the finite duration of …

Remote Sensing Of Sediment Characteristics By Optimized Echo-Envelope Matching, Daniel D. Sternlicht, Christian De Moustier

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

A sediment geoacoustic parameter estimation technique is described which compares bottom returns, measured by a calibrated monostatic sonar oriented within 15° of vertical and having a 10°–21° beamwidth, with an echo envelope model based on high-frequency (10–100 kHz) incoherent backscattertheory and sediment properties such as: mean grain size, strength, and exponent of the power law characterizing the interface roughness energy density spectrum, and volume scattering coefficient. An average echo envelope matching procedure iterates on the reflection coefficient to match the peak echo amplitude and separate coarse from fine-grain sediments, followed by a global optimization using a combination of simulated annealing …

Hypsometry, Volume And Physiography Of The Arctic Ocean And Their Paleoceanographic Implications, Martin Jakobsson, Ron Macnab, Arthur Grantz, Yngue Kristoffersen

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Recent analyses of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) grid model include: Hypsometry (the distribution of surface area at various depths); ocean volume distribution; and physiographic provinces [Jakobsson 2002; Jakobsson et al., in press]. The present paper summarizes the main results from these recent studies and expands on the paleoceanographic implications for the Arctic Ocean, which in this work is defined as the broad continental shelves of the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi Seas, the White Sea and the narrow continental shelves of the Beaufort Sea, the Arctic continental margins off the Canadian Arctic Archipelago …

Melanoma And Seborrheic Keratosis Differentiation Using Texture Features, Srinivas V. Deshabhoina, Scott E. Umbaugh, William V. Stoecker, Randy Hays Moss, Subhashini K. Srinivasan

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Purpose: To explore texture features in two-dimensional images to differentiate seborrheic keratosis from melanoma.

Methods: A systematic approach to consistent classification of skin tumors is described. Texture features, based on the second-order histogram, were used to identify the features or a combination of features that could consistently differentiate a malignant skin tumor (melanoma) from a benign one (seborrheic keratosis). Two hundred and seventy-one skin tumor images were separated into training and test sets for accuracy and consistency. Automatic induction was applied to generate classification rules. Data analysis and modeling tools were used to gain further insight into the feature space. …

Mantle Layering Across Central South America, Kelly H. Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Paul G. Silver, Yongkai K. Zhang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Imaging of seismic velocity discontinuities along a 3000 km profile across central South America at 20°S suggests that the depth variations of the 410-km (d410) and 660-km (d660) discontinuities are closely associated with the high-velocity Nazca slab and juxtaposed low-velocity oceanic mantle beneath the slab. The mantle transition zone thickness ranges from 220 km in the oceanic mantle to 270 km in a 600-km-wide area occupied by the deflected Nazca slab. The slab deflection has also been suggested by previous studies of seismic tomography and seismicity. This 50 km difference in the thickness corresponds to a lateral temperature variation of …

On-Road Remote Sensing Of Automobile Emissions In The Phoenix Area: Year 4, November 2002, Gary A. Bishop, Daniel A. Burgard, Mitchell J. Williams, Donald H. Stedman

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Statistics Of Transmission In One-Dimensional Disordered Systems: Universal Characteristics Of States In The Fluctuation Tails, Lev I. Deych, Mikhail V. Erementchouk, Alexander A. Lisyansky, Alexey Yamilov, Hui Cao

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We numerically study the distribution function of the conductance (transmission) in the one-dimensional tight-binding Anderson and periodic-on-average superlattice models in the region of fluctuation states where single parameter scaling is not valid. We show that the scaling properties of the distribution function depend upon the relation between the system's length L and the length l_s determined by the integral density of states. For long enough systems, L ≫ l_s, the distribution can still be described within a new scaling approach based upon the ratio of the localization length l_loc and l_s. In an intermediate …

The Spectra Of Type Ii Cepheids. Ii. The Hα Line In Intermediate-Period Stars, Edward G. Schmidt, Shawn Langan, Kevin M. Lee, Dale Johnston, Peter R. Newman, Stephanie A. Snedden

Edward Schmidt Publications

We present 98 Hα profiles for 21 pulsating variable stars with periods from 3 to 8 days. The strength, depth, and shape of Hα vary throughout the cycles of the stars in a way consistent with the temperature changes. Otherwise, they are quite uniform among all the stars, with a single exception. In FM Del, Hα is weaker and has a smaller central depth than in the other stars. This and the wavelength shifts of the core are attributed to incipient emission. The differential velocity of Hα relative to the metal lines is less than 25 km s^-1 for …

Middleware Infrastructure For Parallel And Distributed Programming Models In Heterogeneous Systems, Jameela Al-Jaroodi, Nader Mohamed, Hong Jiang, David Swanson

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we introduce a middleware infrastructure that provides software services for developing and deploying high-performance parallel programming models and distributed applications on clusters and networked heterogeneous systems. This middleware infrastructure utilizes distributed agents residing on the participating machines and communicating with one another to perform the required functions. An intensive study of the parallel programming models in Java has helped identify the common requirements for a runtime support environment, which we used to define the middleware functionality. A Java-based prototype, based on this architecture, has been developed along with a Java Object-Passing Interface (JOPI) class library. Since this …

Content-Aware Authentication Of Motion Jpeg2000 Stream In Lossy Networks, Yongdong Wu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stream authentication schemes (SAS) aim to achieve effective authentication of multicast streams over lossy networks. Almost all the existing SASs is designed for stream data integrity protection only. In this paper, we argue that content integrity protection is more important than data integrity to human users. We present a content-aware SAS in motion JPEG2000 streaming. In our scheme, a chunk of JPEG2000 codestreams is encapsulated into a block of packets using multiple description coding (MDC). Our MDC exploits the inherent structure of motion JPEG2000 codestreams and is used to preserve the semanteme/content of the stream over lossy networks. To achieve …

Pricing And Qos Of Information Services In A Competitive Market, Zhen Liu, Laura Wynter, Cathy Xia

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Design of e-commerce services that are competitive in a quickly responding market requires the analyses of prices and price structures. We develop a general model of an e-commerce market that allows us to analyze optimal price structures, both flat and usage-based. Based on the price structure of a major web hosting provider, we consider single-tier and two-tier (burst-rate) pricing, and our result suggests that the more complex two-tier structure may not be worth the marketing effort, as the firm's equilibrium profits will not increase through the use of this structure. An essential feature of our approach is that we model …

Synchronization Of Lecture Videos And Electronic Slides By Video Text Analysis, Feng Wang, Chong-Wah Ngo, Ting-Chuen Pong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An essential goal of structuring lecture videos captured in live presentation is to provide a synchronized view of video clips and electronic slides. This paper presents an automatic approach to match video clips and slides based on the analysis of text embedded in lecture videos. We describe a method to reconstruct high-resolution video texts from multiple keyframes for robust OCRrecognition. A two-stage matching algorithm based on the title and content similarity measures between video clips and slides is also proposed.

Web Unit Mining: Finding And Classifying Subgraphs Of Web Pages, Aixin Sun, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In web classification, most researchers assume that the objects to classify are individual web pages from one or more web sites. In practice, the assumption is too restrictive since a web page itself may not always correspond to a concept instance of some semantic concept (or category) given to the classification task. In this paper, we want to relax this assumption and allow a concept instance to be represented by a subgraph of web pages or a set of web pages. We identify several new issues to be addressed when the assumption is removed, and formulate the web unit mining …

Aa Flexible And Scalable Authentication Scheme For Jpeg 2000 Image Codestreams, Cheng Peng, Robert H. Deng, Yongdong Wu, Weizhong Shao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

JPEG2000 is an emerging standard for still image compression and is becoming the solution of choice for many digital imaging fields and applications. An important aspect of JPEG2000 is its "compress once, decompress many ways" property [1], i. e., it allows extraction of various sub-images (e.g., images with various resolutions, pixel fidelities, tiles and components) all from a single compressed image codestream. In this paper, we present a flexible and scalable authentication scheme for JPEG2000 images based on the Merkle hash tree and digital signature. Our scheme is fully compatible with JPEG2000 and possesses a "sign once, verify many ways" …

Task Allocation Via Multi-Agent Coalition Formation: Taxonomy, Algorithms And Complexity, Hoong Chuin Lau, L. Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Coalition formation has become a key topic in multiagent research. In this paper, we propose a preliminary classification for the coalition formation problem based on three driving factors (demands, resources and profit objectives). We divide our analysis into 5 cases. For each case, we present algorithms and complexity results. We anticipate that with future research, this classification can be extended in similar fashion to the comprehensive classification for the job scheduling problem.

Timber Damage By Black Bears, Dale L. Nolte, Kimberly K. Wagner, Andy Trent

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Consequences of Bear Damage
Damage Management
Bear Removal
Silvicultural Practices
Alternative Food Sources
Alternative Approaches

Sorption Of Phosphorus By Soils : How It Is Measured In Western Australia, Michael D A Bolland, D G. Allen, N J. Barrow

Bulletins 4000 -

Most soils used for agriculture in Western Australia had insufficient indigenous native phosphorus P for the introduced agricultural plant species used in the region so fertiliser P had to be applied. This bulletin covers how water-soluble P WSP fertilisers are made, and how the P in the fertilisers dissolves and reacts with soil in the year of application and in the years after application, how soils sorb P and procedures and soil tests used to estimate the capacity of soils to sorb P.

Net Charge Fluctuations In Au+Au Collisions At √SNn=130 Gev, Star Collaboration, T.D. Gutierrez

Physics

We present the results of charged particle fluctuations measurements in Au+Au collisions at √s_NN=130 GeV using the STAR detector. Dynamical fluctuations measurements are presented for inclusive charged particle multiplicities as well as for identified charged pions, kaons, and protons. The net charge dynamical fluctuations are found to be large and negative providing clear evidence that positive and negative charged particle production is correlated within the pseudorapidity range investigated. Correlations are smaller than expected based on model-dependent predictions for a resonance gas or a quark-gluon gas which undergoes fast hadronization and freeze-out. Qualitative agreement is found with comparable scaled …