Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fast Fourier Transforms Over Prime Fields Of Large Characteristic And Their Implementation On Graphics Processing Units, Davood Mohajerani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Prime field arithmetic plays a central role in computer algebra and supports computation in Galois fields which are essential to coding theory and cryptography algorithms. The prime fields that are used in computer algebra systems, in particular in the implementation of modular methods, are often of small characteristic, that is, based on prime numbers that fit on a machine word. Increasing precision beyond the machine word size can be done via the Chinese Remaindering Theorem or Hensel Lemma. In this thesis, we consider prime fields of large characteristic, typically fitting on n machine words, where n is a power of …

Analysis Of 3d Cone-Beam Ct Image Reconstruction Performance On A Fpga, Devin Held

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Efficient and accurate tomographic image reconstruction has been an intensive topic of research due to the increasing everyday usage in areas such as radiology, biology, and materials science. Computed tomography (CT) scans are used to analyze internal structures through capture of x-ray images. Cone-beam CT scans project a cone-shaped x-ray to capture 2D image data from a single focal point, rotating around the object. CT scans are prone to multiple artifacts, including motion blur, streaks, and pixel irregularities, therefore must be run through image reconstruction software to reduce visual artifacts. The most common algorithm used is the Feldkamp, Davis, and …

Regulatory Compliance-Oriented Impediments And Associated Effort Estimation Metrics In Requirements Engineering For Contractual Systems Engineering Projects, Md Rashed I. Nekvi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Large-scale contractual systems engineering projects often need to comply with a myriad of government regulations and standards as part of contractual fulfillment. A key activity in the requirements engineering (RE) process for such a project is to elicit appropriate requirements from the regulations and standards that apply to the target system. However, there are impediments in achieving compliance due to such factors as: the voluminous contract and its high-level specifications, large number of regulatory documents, and multiple domains of the system. Little empirical research has been conducted on developing a shared understanding of the compliance-oriented complexities involved in such projects, …

Color Separation For Background Subtraction, Jiaqi Zhou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background subtraction is a vital step in many computer vision systems. In background subtraction, one is given two (or more) frames of a video sequence taken with a still camera. Due to the stationarity of the camera, any color change in the scene is mainly due to the presence of moving objects. The goal of background subtraction is to separate the moving objects (also called the foreground) from the stationary background. Many background subtraction approaches have been proposed over the years. They are usually composed of two distinct stages, background modeling and foreground detection.

Most of the standard background subtraction …

Cultural Diversity In Artificial Societies: Case Studies Of The Maya Peoples, Roberto Ulloa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The existence of cultural diversity in a connected world is paradoxical given that all individuals constantly interact and share information, and that individuals are all part of one giant network of connections. In the long term, it seems logical to assume that everybody should hold the same cultural information and, therefore, the same culture. Yet cultural diversity is still manifest around the globe. Cultural diversity as a phenomenon becomes even more puzzling when we take into account how it survives catastrophic events which regularly befall societies, such as invasions, natural disasters, and civil wars. In this thesis, agent-based computer simulations …

Towards Comprehensive Parametric Code Generation Targeting Graphics Processing Units In Support Of Scientific Computation, Ning Xie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The most popular multithreaded languages based on the fork-join concurrency model (CIlkPlus, OpenMP) are currently being extended to support other forms of parallelism (vectorization, pipelining and single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD)). In the SIMD case, the objective is to execute the corresponding code on a many-core device, like a GPGPU, for which the CUDA language is a natural choice. Since the programming concepts of CilkPlus and OpenMP are very different from those of CUDA, it is desirable to automatically generate optimized CUDA-like code from CilkPlus or OpenMP.

In this thesis, we propose an accelerator model for annotated C/C++ code together with an implementation …

On The Promotion Of The Social Web Intelligence, Taraneh Khazaei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Given the ever-growing information generated through various online social outlets, analytical research on social media has intensified in the past few years from all walks of life. In particular, works on social Web intelligence foster and benefit from the wisdom of the crowds and attempt to derive actionable information from such data. In the form of collective intelligence, crowds gather together and contribute to solving problems that may be difficult or impossible to solve by individuals and single computers. In addition, the consumer insight revealed from social footprints can be leveraged to build powerful business intelligence tools, enabling efficient and …

Neural Network Models For Software Development Effort Estimation: A Comparative Study, Ali Bou Nassif, Mohammad Azzeh, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software development effort estimation (SDEE) is one of the main tasks in software project management. It is crucial for a project manager to efficiently predict the effort or cost of a software project in a bidding process, since overestimation will lead to bidding loss and underestimation will cause the company to lose money. Several SDEE models exist; machine learning models, especially neural network models, are among the most prominent in the field. In this study, four different neural network models – Multilayer Perceptron, General Regression Neural Network, Radial Basis Function Neural Network, and Cascade Correlation Neural Network – are compared …

Game Development Software Engineering Process Life Cycle: A Systematic Review, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software game is a kind of application that is used not only for entertainment, but also for serious purposes that can be applicable to different domains such as education, business, and health care. Multidisciplinary nature of the game development processes that combine sound, art, control systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and human factors, makes the software game development practice different from traditional software development. However, the underline software engineering techniques help game development to achieve maintainability, flexibility, lower effort and cost, and better design. The purpose of this study is to assesses the state of the art research on the game …

Automatic Fracture Orientation Extraction From Sfm Point Clouds, Jon Kissi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Geology seeks to understand the history of the Earth and its surface processes through charac- terisation of surface formations and rock units. Chief among the geologists’ tools are rock unit orientation measurements, such as Strike, Dip and Dip Direction. These allow an understanding of both surface and sub-structure on both the local and macro scale.

Although the way these techniques can be used to characterise geology are well understood, the need to collect these measurements by hand adds time and expense to the work of the geologist, precludes spontaneity in field work, and coverage is limited to where the geologist …

Development Of Anatomical And Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measures Of Alzheimer Disease, Samaneh Kazemifar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer disease is considered to be a progressive neurodegenerative condition, clinically characterized by cognitive dysfunction and memory impairments. Incorporating imaging biomarkers in the early diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression is increasingly important in the evaluation of novel treatments. The purpose of the work in this thesis was to develop and evaluate novel structural and functional biomarkers of disease to improve Alzheimer disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Our overarching hypothesis is that magnetic resonance imaging methods that sensitively measure brain structure and functional impairment have the potential to identify people with Alzheimer’s disease prior to the onset of cognitive decline. …

Neurosurgical Ultrasound Pose Estimation Using Image-Based Registration And Sensor Fusion - A Feasibility Study, Utsav Pardasani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Modern neurosurgical procedures often rely on computer-assisted real-time guidance using multiple medical imaging modalities. State-of-the-art commercial products enable the fusion of pre-operative with intra-operative images (e.g., magnetic resonance [MR] with ultrasound [US] images), as well as the on-screen visualization of procedures in progress. In so doing, US images can be employed as a template to which pre-operative images can be registered, to correct for anatomical changes, to provide live-image feedback, and consequently to improve confidence when making resection margin decisions near eloquent regions during tumour surgery.

In spite of the potential for tracked ultrasound to improve many neurosurgical procedures, it …

Using A Real-Time Object Detection Application To Illustrate Effectiveness Of Offloading And Prefetching In Cloudlet Architecture, Xutong Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, we designed and implemented two versions of a real-time object de- tection application: A stand alone version and a cloud version. Through applying the application to a cloudlet environment, we are able to perform experiments and uses the results to illustrate the potential improvement that a cloudlet architecture can bring to mobile applications that require access to large amounts of cloud data or intensive com- putation. Potential improvements include data access speed, reduced CPU and memory usages as well as reduced battery consumption on mobile devices.

Identifying Individual Driver Behaviour Using In-Vehicle Can-Bus Signals Of Pre-Turning Maneuvers, Mahboubeh Zardosht

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

All drivers have their own driving style while performing different driving maneuvers. They vary in using vehicle’s control devices such as the steering wheel, pedals, gears etc. In this thesis, we analyze driving behavior in different timeframes prior to turns. We employ data obtained from actual driving behavior in an urban environment collected from the CAN-Bus of an instrumented vehicle. Five CAN-Bus signals, vehicle speed, gas pedal pressure, brake pedal pressure, steering wheel angle, and acceleration, is collected for 5, 10, and 15 seconds of driving prior to each turn. We consider all turns for each driver as well as …

Algorithms For Glycan Structure Identification With Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Weiping Sun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Glycosylation is a frequently observed post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins. It has been estimated over half of eukaryotic proteins in nature are glycoproteins. Glycoprotein analysis plays a vital role in drug preparation. Thus, characterization of glycans that are linked to proteins has become necessary in glycoproteomics. Mass spectrometry has become an effective analytical technique for glycoproteomics analysis because of its high throughput and sensitivity. The large amount of spectral data collected in a mass spectrometry experiment makes manual interpretation impossible and requires effective computational approaches for automated analysis. Different algorithmic solutions have been proposed to address the challenges in glycoproteomics …

Critical Success Factors To Improve The Game Development Process From A Developer's Perspective, Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The growth of the software game development industry is enormous and is gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. Game development is a complex process, and one important game development choice is to consider the developer’s perspective to produce good-quality software games by improving the game development process. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the developer’s dimension as a factor in software game success. It focuses mainly on an empirical investigation of the effect of key developer’s factors on …

The Innovative Behaviour Of Software Engineers: Findings From A Pilot Case Study, Cleviton Monteiro, Fabio Q.B. Silva Dr., Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Context: In the workplace, some individuals engage in the voluntary and intentional generation, promotion, and realization of new ideas for the benefit of individual performance, group effectiveness, or the organization. The literature classifies this phenomenon as innovative behaviour. Despite its importance to the development of innovation, innovative behaviour has not been fully investigated in software engineering. Objective: To understand the factors that support or inhibit innovative behaviour in software engineering practice. Method: We conducted a pilot case study in a Canadian software company using interviews and observations as data collection techniques. Using qualitative analysis, we identified relevant …

How Software Development Group Leaders Influence Team Members’ Behavior, Fabio Queda Silva, Cleviton Monteiro, Igor Ebrahim Santos, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Evidence in the literature from several business sectors shows that exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies are complementarily important for competitiveness. Our empirical findings reinforced those evidences in the context of software development companies. The innovative behaviour of individuals is an essential ingredient to success in both types of innovations strategies and leaders can have a big influence on this behaviour. Adopting a leadership style that combines transactional and transformational practices is more likely to produce effective results in supporting innovative behaviour. In software development, project managers and other group leaders should be stimulated and supported in adopting such practices to …

A Pilot Case Study On Innovative Behaviour: Lessons Learned And Directions For Future Work, Cleviton Monteiro, Fabio Q. B. Silva Dr., Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Context: A case study is a powerful research strategy for investigating complex social-technical and managerial phenomena in real life settings. However, when the phenomenon has not been fully discovered or understood, pilot case studies are important to refine the research problem, the research variables, and the case study design before launching a full-scale investigation. The role of pilot case studies has not been fully addressed in empirical software engineering research literature. Objective: To explore the use of pilot case studies in the design of full-scale case studies, and to report the main lessons learned from an industrial pilot …

Complex Event Processing As A Service In Multi-Cloud Environments, Wilson A. Higashino

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The rise of mobile technologies and the Internet of Things, combined with advances in Web technologies, have created a new Big Data world in which the volume and velocity of data generation have achieved an unprecedented scale. As a technology created to process continuous streams of data, Complex Event Processing (CEP) has been often related to Big Data and used as a tool to obtain real-time insights. However, despite this recent surge of interest, the CEP market is still dominated by solutions that are costly and inflexible or too low-level and hard to operate.

To address these problems, this research …

Molecular Distance Maps: An Alignment-Free Computational Tool For Analyzing And Visualizing Dna Sequences' Interrelationships, Rallis Karamichalis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In an attempt to identify and classify species based on genetic evidence, we propose a novel combination of methods to quantify and visualize the interrelationships between thousand of species. This is possible by using Chaos Game Representation (CGR) of DNA sequences to compute genomic signatures which we then compare by computing pairwise distances. In the last step, the original DNA sequences are embedded in a high dimensional space using Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) before everything is projected on a Euclidean 3D space.

To start with, we apply this method to a mitochondrial DNA dataset from NCBI containing over 3,000 species. The …

A Data Fusion Approach To Automated Decision Making In Intelligent Vehicles, Besat Zardosht

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goal of an intelligent transportation system is to increase safety, convenience and efficiency in driving. Besides these obvious advantages, the integration of intelligent features and autonomous functionalities on vehicles will lead to major economic benefits from reduced fuel consumption to efficient exploitation of the road network.

While giving this information to the driver can be useful, there is also the possibility of overloading the driver with too much information. Existing vehicles already have some mechanisms to take certain actions if the driver fails to act. Future vehicles will need more complex decision making modules which receive the raw data …

Collective Contextual Anomaly Detection For Building Energy Consumption, Daniel Berhane Araya

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Commercial and residential buildings are responsible for a substantial portion of total global energy consumption and as a result make a significant contribution to global carbon emissions. Hence, energy-saving goals that target buildings can have a major impact in reducing environmental damage. During building operation, a significant amount of energy is wasted due to equipment and human-related faults. To reduce waste, today's smart buildings monitor energy usage with the aim of identifying abnormal consumption behaviour and notifying the building manager to implement appropriate energy-saving procedures. To this end, this research proposes the \textit{ensemble anomaly detection} (EAD) framework. The EAD is …

Agora: A Knowledge Marketplace For Machine Learning, Mauro Ribeiro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

More and more data are becoming part of people's lives. With the popularization of technologies like sensors, and the Internet of Things, data gathering is becoming possible and accessible for users. With these data in hand, users should be able to extract insights from them, and they want results as soon as possible. Average users have little or no experience in data analytics and machine learning and are not great observers who can collect enough data to build their own machine learning models. With large quantities of similar data being generated around the world and many machine learning models being …

Using Physical And Social Sensors In Real-Time Data Streaming For Natural Hazard Monitoring And Response, Yelena Kropivnitskaya

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Technological breakthroughs in computing over the last few decades have resulted in important advances in natural hazards analysis. In particular, integration of a wide variety of information sources, including observations from spatially-referenced physical sensors and new social media sources, enables better estimates of real-time hazard. The main goal of this work is to utilize innovative streaming algorithms for improved real-time seismic hazard analysis by integrating different data sources and processing tools into cloud applications. In streaming algorithms, a sequence of items from physical and social sensors can be processed in as little as one pass with no need to store …

A Digital Game Maturity Model (Dgmm), Saiqa Alemm, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Game development is an interdisciplinary concept that embraces artistic, software engineering, management, and business disciplines. This research facilitates a better understanding of important dimensions of digital game development methodology. Game development is considered as one of the most complex tasks in software engineering. The increased popularity of digital games, the challenges faced by game development organizations in developing quality games, and high competition in the digital game industry demand a game development maturity assessment. Consequently, this study presents a Digital Game Maturity Model to evaluate the current development methodology in an organization. The framework of this model consists of assessment …

Climbing Up Cloud Nine: Performance Enhancement Techniques For Cloud Computing Environments, Mohamed Abusharkh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

With the transformation of cloud computing technologies from an attractive trend to a business reality, the need is more pressing than ever for efficient cloud service management tools and techniques. As cloud technologies continue to mature, the service model, resource allocation methodologies, energy efficiency models and general service management schemes are not yet saturated. The burden of making this all tick perfectly falls on cloud providers. Surely, economy of scale revenues and leveraging existing infrastructure and giant workforce are there as positives, but it is far from straightforward operation from that point. Performance and service delivery will still depend on …

Energy Consumption Prediction With Big Data: Balancing Prediction Accuracy And Computational Resources, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In recent years, advances in sensor technologies and expansion of smart meters have resulted in massive growth of energy data sets. These Big Data have created new opportunities for energy prediction, but at the same time, they impose new challenges for traditional technologies. On the other hand, new approaches for handling and processing these Big Data have emerged, such as MapReduce, Spark, Storm, and Oxdata H2O. This paper explores how findings from machine learning with Big Data can benefit energy consumption prediction. An approach based on local learning with support vector regression (SVR) is presented. Although local learning itself is …

Why A Testing Career Is Not The First Choice Of Engineers, Pradeep Kashinath Waychal, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

The Contributions Of Anatol Rapoport To Game Theory, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

Game theory is used to rationally and dispassionately examine the strategic behaviour of nations, especially superpower behaviour. This article explains how basic game theory - at its simplest level - was used by Anatol Rapoport to generate ideas about how to enhance world peace. Rapoport was at the forefront of the game theoreticians who sought to conceptualize strategies that could promote international cooperation. Accordingly, the basic logic of game theory is explained using the game models of ‘Chicken’ and ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’. These models were used by Rapoport in his books and lectures in simple and complex ways. Then Rapoport’s revolutionary …