Computer Sciences Commons^™

Anomalous Moisture Diffusion In Viscoelastic Polymers: Modeling And Testing, S. Roy, W. X. Xu, Seung Jong Park, K. M. Liechti

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

It is now well known that Fick's Law is frequently inadequate for describing moisture diffusion in polymers or polymer composites. Non-Fickian or anomalous diffusion typically occurs when the rates of diffusion and viscoelastic relaxation in a polymer are comparable, and the ambient temperature is below the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer. As a result, it is necessary to take into account the time-dependent response of a polymer, analogous to viscoelastic relaxation of mechanical properties, in constructing such a model. In this paper, a simple yet robust methodology is proposed that would allow characterization of non-Fickian diffusion coefficients from …

Computational Finance Models, Michael Gene Hilgers

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The author discusses his involvement in developing computational finance software. These computational finance models attempt to model the randomness of a stock's price. At a fixed future time, a stock's price is modeled as a random variable with a normal distribution centered about the current price adjusted with a simple growth multiplier. The standard deviation of this normal distribution depends on the length of time into the future one peers and the volatility of the market. As the market becomes more volatile and we look further ahead, the less likely the stock will have a price near the adjusted current …

Analysis Of Intangible Factors In Waste Minimization Projects, Halvard E. Nystrom, William Ralph Kehr

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Continual population growth and rising standards of living that accelerate the consumption of limited resources, are forcing society to encourage conservation of these resources. These resources not only include raw material, but also the areas to dispose of the wastes. As a result, communities are driving industries towards waste minimization by limiting waste generation and landfill availability. Firms'' environmentally friendly strategies can gain competitive advantage by leading in environmental practices. This advantage emanates from the reduction of risk of environmental regulatory overreaction, as well as improved asset utilization and landfill utilization. However, these intangible benefits are difficult to identify and …

Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods In Cash Flow Testing Simulations, Michael Gene Hilgers

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

What actuaries call cash flow testing is a large-scale simulation pitting a company''s current policy obligation against future earnings based on interest rates. While life contingency issues associated with contract payoff are a mainstay of the actuarial sciences, modeling the random fluctuations of US Treasury rates is less studied. Furthermore, applying standard simulation techniques, such as the Monte Carlo method, to actual multi-billion dollar companies produce a simulation that can be computationally prohibitive. In practice, only hundreds of sample paths can be considered, not the usual hundreds of thousands one might expect for a simulation of this complexity. Hence, insurance …

Strategy Planning For Technological Discontinuities In A Changing Regulatory Environment, William Ralph Kehr, Halvard E. Nystrom

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes an approach to the analysis of publicly available financial data for individual industries. These methods enable the analyst to assess past practices and the historical rate of technological diffusion during the transition period of discontinuous technological change. This assessment can provide a basis of comparison for current changes in their industry. These methods are applied to small rural telephone companies during the period of 1960 to 1996. Annual data is presented detailing the change from aerial distribution cable to buried cable by the roughly 600 rural telephone companies financed through loans from the Rural Utilities Services, a …

Optimal Power Allocation In Cdma Forward Link Using Dependency Between Pilot And Traffic Channels, Seung Jong Park, Dongwoo Kim, Chang Yeon Kim

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper shows a new method for minimizing the transmit power on CDMA forward link channels. Different from previous works, the proposed method uses the dependency that exists between the respective signal qualities of the pilot channel and traffic channels. Since present CDMA forward link exploits coherent demodulation with continuously transmitting pilot signals, the stronger the pilot channel is, the less traffic power may be required while the same transmission quality is maintained. With laboratory tests, the dependency is graphed. And then an optimal pilot signal quality is found, which minimizes the total transmit power. Considering various mobile environments, -10 …

Mining Multiple-Level Association Rules In Large Databases, Jiawei Han, Yongjian Fu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

A top-down progressive deepening method is developed for efficient mining of multiple-level association rules from large transaction databases based on the Apriori principle. A group of variant algorithms is proposed based on the ways of sharing intermediate results, with the relative performance tested and analyzed. The enforcement of different interestingness measurements to find more interesting rules, and the relaxation of rule conditions for finding `level-crossing' association rules, are also investigated in the paper. Our study shows that efficient algorithms can be developed from large databases for the discovery of interesting and strong multiple-level association rules.

A Systolic Algorithm To Process Compressed Binary Images, Fikret Erçal, Mark Allen, Hao Feng

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new systolic algorithm which computes image differences in run-length encoded (RLE) format is described. The binary image difference operation is commonly used in many image processing applications including automated inspection systems, character recognition, fingerprint analysis, and motion detection. The efficiency of these operations can be improved significantly with the availability of a fast systolic system that computes the image difference as described in this paper It is shown that for images with a high similarity measure, the time complexity of the systolic algorithm is small and in some cases constant with respect to the image size. The time for …

Join Index Hierarchy: An Indexing Structure For Efficient Navigation In Object-Oriented Databases, Jiawei Han, Zhaohui Xie, Yongjian Fu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel indexing structure - join index hierarchy - is proposed to handle the 'gotos on disk' problem in object-oriented query processing. The method constructs a hierarchy of join indices and transforms a sequence of pointer chasing operations into a simple search in an appropriate join index file, and thus accelerates navigation in object-oriented databases. The method extends the join index structure studied in relational and spatial databases, supports both forward and backward navigations among objects and classes, and localizes update propagations in the hierarchy. Our performance study shows that partial join index hierarchy outperforms several other indexing mechanisms in …

A Model-Based Approach For Compression Of Fingerprint Images, Fikret Erçal, M. Gokmen, Ilker Ersoy

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

We propose a new fingerprint image compression scheme based on the hybrid model of an image. Our scheme uses the essential steps of a typical automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) such as enhancement, binarization and thinning to encode fingerprint images. The decoding process is based on reconstructing a hybrid surface by using the gray values on ridges and valleys. In this compression scheme, the ridge skeleton is coded efficiently by using differential chain codes. The valley skeleton is derived from the ridge skeleton and the gray values along the ridge and valley skeletons are encoded using the discrete cosine transform. …

Pi-Web Join In A Web Warehouse, Sanjay Kumar Madria, Wee Keong Ng, Ee-Peng Lim, Sourav S. Bhowmick

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the enormous amount of data stored in the World Wide Web, it is increasingly important to design and develop powerful web warehousing tools. The key objective of our web warehousing project, called WHOWEDA (Warehouse of Web Data), is to design and implement a web warehouse that materializes and manages useful information from the web. We introduce the concept of Π-web join in the context of WHOWEDA. Pi-web join operator is a web information manipulation operator to combine relevant web information residing in two web tables. Informally, it is the combination of web join and web project operators which filter …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Web Bag In A Web Warehouse, Sanjay Kumar Madria, Wee Keong Ng, Ee-Peng Lim, Sourav S. Bhowmick

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sets and bags are closely related structures and have been studied in relational databases. A bag is different from a set in that it is sensitive to the number of times an element occurs, while a set is not. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a Web bag in the context of a World Wide Web warehouse called WHOWEDA (WareHouse Of WEb DAta) which we are currently building. Informally, a Web bag is a Web table which allows multiple occurrences of identical Web types. A Web bag helps one to discover useful knowledge from a Web table, such …

A Www Based Software Metrics Environment For Software Process Management And Software Product Quality Improvement, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Ravi Viswanathan

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The software process needs to be continuously improved to develop high quality software. However, with increasing specialization in the workforce and decentralization in the workplace, software process planning, monitoring, analysis and dynamic tuning in a heterogeneous distributed environment becomes a challenge. We describe a tool which takes advantage of emerging Internet technology to implement a software metrics environment for software process management and software quality improvement. The tool uses a dimensional analytic model to visualize the software development process. The system offers facilities to monitor the status and quality attributes of projects being developed at multiple sites and on multiple …

Adaptive Information Filtering: Improvement Of The Matching Technique And Derivation Of The Evolutionary Algorithm, Daniel R. Tauritz, Ida G. Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Adaptive Information Filtering is concerned with filtering information streams in changing environments. The changes may occur both on the transmission side (the nature of the streams can change) and on the reception side (the interests of a user can change). The research described in this report details the progress made in a prototype Adaptive Information Filtering system based on weighted trigram analysis and evolutionary computation. The main improvements of the algorithms employed by the system concern the computation of the distance between weighted trigram vectors and a further analysis of the two-pool evolutionary algorithm. We tested our new prototype system …

Automated Highway Systems, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Kristen L. Sanford

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Intelligent transportation systems (ATS) have received much attention in the transportation community and by the government in the past decade. The technology is an extension of intelligent vehicle highway systems to include transportation modes beyond highways. Major elements of ITS include: advanced traffic management systems; advanced traveller information systems; automated highway systems; the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative; and advanced commercial vehicle systems. ITS initiatives are proposed for both urban and rural areas to increase transportation system capacity by more fully utilizing the existing transportation system and improve transportation system safety. The feasibility of realizing a fully automated highway system is discussed.

Fuzzy Requirements, Xiaoqing Frank Liu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Requirement analysis and specification is the first major step in software development. The goal is to develop a requirements specification that contains all the customers' true needs. The analysis describes quality requirements and their constraints, such as cost and resources. Functional requirements are analyzed in terms of inputs, outputs and their relationships. Hence, requirements analysis enables software engineers to specify software function and establish software design and implementation constraints. The paper discusses the specification of individual fuzzy requirements using fuzzy sets.

Parallel Genetic Algorithm To Solve The Satisfiability Problem, Nicole Nemer-Preece, Ralph W. Wilkerson

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Offers a Parallel Genetic Algorithm Solution to the Satisfiability Problem. It Combines Components of the Davis-Putnam Method and Genetic Algorithms for the Solution. This Solution is Useful in the Areas of Theorem Proving, Constraint Satisfaction Programming, and VLSI Design. the Algorithm is Implemented and Run on a Paragon. the Results Show Performance Improvement by Increasing the Number of Nodes. Two Parallel Methods Are Compared: One that Implements Interprocessor Communication and One that Does Not. the Results Show Performance Improvement with the Method that Uses Interprocessor Communication.

Systolic Algorithm For Processing Rle Images, Hao Feng, Fikret Erçal, Filiz Bunyak

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Image difference operation is commonly used in on-line automated printed circuit board (PCB) inspection systems as well as many other image processing applications. In this paper, we describe a new systolic algorithm and its system architecture which computes image differences in run-length encoded (RLE) format. The efficiency of this operation greatly affects the overall performance of the inspection system. It is shown that, for images with a high similarity measure, the time complexity of the systolic algorithm is a small constant. A formal proof of correctness for the algorithm is also given in the paper.

Segmentation Of Printed Circuit Board Images Into Basic Patterns, Madhav Moganti, Fikret Ercal

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Segmentation is the first and foremost step in the inspection of the printed circuit boards. In this paper a new technique for the segmentation of printed circuit board (PCB) images is presented. The technique basically segments a given PCB into small windows containing primitive PCB subpatterns. The technique proposed exploits the simplicity and the homogeneity of the PCB images and is inherently parallel. A detailed discussion of the experiments and the results obtained is also presented. © 1993 Academic Press.

Java, Java, Java, Chaman Sabharwal

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Everyone is talking about Java. The driving force for this chatter is Java''s simplicity and potential power. Java is programming language, and a language for the intranet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Java is a Write On one platform and Run on Many platforms (WORM) language. For network-friendly, platform-independent applications, Java (originally Oak) is an object oriented programming language. Java source code is compiled into a virtual machine code or bytecode. This makes the Java platform independent. It can be placed on a Web site, and executed on the client side on a PC-Intel, Mac, Motorola or UNIX-Solaris machine …

A Transaction Model For Mobile Computing, Sanjay Kumar Madria, Bharat Bhargava

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

We introduce a prewrite operation before a write operation in a mobile transaction to improve data availability. A prewrite operation does not update the state of a data object but only makes visible the value that the data object will have after the commit of the transaction. Once the transaction has read all the values and declares all the prewrites, it can precommit at a mobile host. The remaining transaction's execution is shifted to the stationary host. Writes on a database consume both time and resources at the stationary host and are therefore delayed. A pre-committed transaction's prewrite values are …

An Efficient Library For Parallel Ray Tracing And Animation, John Edward Stone

Masters Theses

"A parallel ray tracing library is presented for rendering high detail images of three dimensional geometry and computational fields. The library has been developed for use on distributed memory and shared memory parallel computers and can also run on sequential computers. Parallelism is achieved through the use of message passing and threads. It is shown that the library achieves almost linear scalability when run on large distributed memory parallel computers as well as large shared memory parallel computers.

Several applications of parallel rendering are explored including rendering of CAD models, animation, magnetic resonance imaging, and visualization of volumetric flow fields. …

Data Mining, Yongjian Fu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Data mining is the process of identifying interesting patterns from large databases. It is the core part of the knowledge discovery in database (KDD) process. Tasks in data mining are classified into summarization, classification, clustering, association and trend analysis. Data mining techniques are adopted from many research areas including statistics, machine learning, database systems, neural networks, rough sets and visualization. The techniques have been applied successfully in many areas from business to science to sports.

Information Retrieval On The World Wide Web, Venkat N. Gudivada, Vijay V. Raghavan, William I. Grosky, Rajesh Kasanagottu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Effective search and retrieval are enabling technologies for realizing the full potential of the Web. The authors examine relevant issues, including methods for representing document content. They also compare available search tools and suggest methods for improving retrieval effectiveness.

Time-Efficient Maze Routing Algorithms On Reconfigurable Mesh Architectures, Fikret Ercal, H. C. Lee

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The routing problem is one of the most widely studied problems in VLSI design. Maze-routing algorithms are used in VLSI routing and robot path planning. Efficiency of the parallel maze routing algorithms which were mostly based on C. Y. Lee's algorithm8is poor. In this paper, we propose time-efficient algorithms to solve the maze-routing problem on a reconfigurable mesh architecture. The constant-time algorithms presented include: (i) testing the existence of specific types of paths between two terminals, and (ii) finding an absolute shortest path (ASP) and a shortest duplex-path (SDP). In addition, a fast algorithm to find the single shortest path …

An Introduction To Algorithmic Information Theory: Its History And Some Examples, George Markowsky

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The goal of this paper is to provide a simple introduction to Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT) that will highlight some of the main ideas without presenting too many details. More technical treatments of these ideas can be found in References [1], [2], [3] and [4], which are listed at the end of the paper. The main ideas of Algorithmic Information Theory will be presented using English as the underlying programming language. The presentation illustrates the fact that the same arguments can be expressed in any other reasonable language and that the main results have a robust universality across all reasonable …

Rmesh Algorithms For Parallel String Matching, Hsi-Chieh Lee, Fikret Erçal

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

String matching problem received much attention over the years due to its importance in various applications such as text/file comparison, DNA sequencing, search engines, and spelling correction. Especially with the introduction of search engines dealing with tremendous amount of textual information presented on the world wide web and the research on DNA sequencing, this problem deserves special attention and any algorithmic or hardware improvements to speed up the process will benefit these important applications. In this paper, we present three algorithms for string matching on reconfigurable mesh architectures. Given a text T of length n and a pattern P of …

High-Order Object Model Based Software Analysis, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Hungwen Lin

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The integration of object oriented modeling and structured analysis (SA) for developing a well structured object oriented software system is a challenge for requirements analysts and software designers. Some of the existing object oriented modeling techniques adopt approaches that are very different from SA, and others have clumsily stayed with SA after a few modifications. Our High Order Object Modeling Technique (HOOMT) however, attempts to strike a mean between both extremes while at the same time provides an effective modeling method. HOOMT consists of two models, the High Order Object Model and the Object Information Flow Model. By using the …

Keyboardless Visual Programming Using Voice, Handwriting, And Gesture, Jennifer Leopold, A. Ambler

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Visual programming languages have facilitated the application development process, improving our ability to express programs, as well as our ability to view, edit and interact with them. Yet even in programming environments, productivity is restricted by the primary input sources: the mouse and the keyboard. As an alternative, we investigate a program development interface which responds to the most natural human communication technologies: voice, handwriting and gesture. Speech- and pen-based systems have yet to find broad acceptance in everyday life because they are insufficiently advantageous to overcome problems with reliability. However, we believe that a visual programming environment with a …

An Efficient Algorithm For Direct Computation Of Adjacent Block Coefficients In The Transformed Domain, Chaman Sabharwal, Brian Quandt

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The current research in many areas of image processing involves operations performed in the compressed domain [Smith and Rowe 1993, Chang 93]. Compressed domain may be DCT, Wavelet, JPEG or MPEG etc. The algorithms for .these transformations may be used for information filtering such as feature extraction and edge detection. The image transformations such as compositing, occluding, and scaling may also be performed in the compressed domain. It is desirable to perform these operations on compressed data directly because the smaller size of data involves less computational complexity. The computation in the compressed domain eliminates the overhead of decoding the …