Computer Sciences Commons^™

A Collaborative, Hierarchical, Incremental, And Problem Solving Information Systems Development Model, Timothy Joseph Burns

Dissertations

The "software crisis" has been a much discussed and debated topic in Information Systems research. A core cause of the crisis is often identified as the methodologies and approaches used to develop information systems. Thus, over the years a multitude of methodologies have emerged in support of quality software. While many of these methodologies have been effective, research has shown that system development is a highly circumstantial process, and that no one methodology can be optimal in every context of every project. It is also a fact that system development practitioners have employed ad hoc approaches to modify formal methodologies …

Retaining Information Technology Employees In Higher Education, Mary Holmes

Dissertations

The retention of qualified Information Technology (IT) employees is at an all time low within higher education institutions. IT personnel are essential for higher education institutions to effectively integrate technology into their educational programs. These IT employees contribute to their institution's teaching/learning mission, while simultaneously supporting complex and highly visible administrative operations. Yet, all previous research regarding IT employee retention issues had only been conducted within corporate settings.

To examine factors related to IT employees' retention within public higher education, an internet-based study was sent to IT employees in all four-year public universities throughout Michigan. The survey included questions within …

The Viability Of Is Enhanced Knowledge Sharing In Mission-Critical Command And Control Centers, Sameh A. Sabet

Dissertations

Engineering processes such as the maintenance of mission-critical infrastructures are highly unpredictable processes that are vital for everyday life, as well as for national security goals. These processes are categorized as Emergent Knowledge Processes (EKP), organizational processes that are characterized by a changing set of actors, distributed knowledge bases, and emergent knowledge sharing activities where the process itself has no predetermined structure. The research described here utilizes the telecommunications network fault diagnosis process as a specific example of an EKP. The field site chosen for this research is a global undersea telecommunication network where nodes are staffed by trained personnel …

A Distributed Hierarchical Energy-Efficient Scheme For Large Scale Mobile Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Wasim El Hajj

Dissertations

In recent years, wireless networks have enjoyed tremendous development and popularity due to the technological advances of wireless radio devices. While interest in conventional wireless networks continues to evolve, new types of wireless networks, such as Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) and WirelessSensor Networks (WSN) are evolving fast and receiving much attention from academia, industry, and government.

Scalability and energy-efficiency present two of the most important challenges in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. Scalability in MANETs can be defined as the capability of the network to provide an acceptable throughput when the network size increases. Energy-efficiency can be defined as using …

Facial Analysis In Video : Detection And Recognition, Peichung Shih

Dissertations

Biometric authentication systems automatically identify or verify individuals using physiological (e.g., face, fingerprint, hand geometry, retina scan) or behavioral (e.g., speaking pattern, signature, keystroke dynamics) characteristics. Among these biometrics, facial patterns have the major advantage of being the least intrusive. Automatic face recognition systems thus have great potential in a wide spectrum of application areas. Focusing on facial analysis, this dissertation presents a face detection method and numerous feature extraction methods for face recognition.

Concerning face detection, a video-based frontal face detection method has been developed using motion analysis and color information to derive field of interests, and distribution-based distance …

Enhancing Web Marketing By Using Ontology, Xuan Zhou

Dissertations

The existence of the Web has a major impact on people's life styles. Online shopping, online banking, email, instant messenger services, search engines and bulletin boards have gradually become parts of our daily life. All kinds of information can be found on the Web. Web marketing is one of the ways to make use of online information. By extracting demographic information and interest information from the Web, marketing knowledge can be augmented by applying data mining algorithms. Therefore, this knowledge which connects customers to products can be used for marketing purposes and for targeting existing and potential customers. The Web …

Structural Auditing Methodologies For Controlled Terminologies, Hua Min

Dissertations

Several auditing methodologies for large controlled terminologies are developed. These are applied to the Unified Medical Language System XXXX and the National Cancer Institute Thesaurus (NCIT). Structural auditing methodologies are based on the structural aspects such as IS-A hierarchy relationships groups of concepts assigned to semantic types and groups of relationships defined for concepts. Structurally uniform groups of concepts tend to be semantically uniform. Structural auditing methodologies focus on concepts with unlikely or rare configuration. These concepts have a high likelihood for errors.

One of the methodologies is based on comparing hierarchical relationships between the META and SN, two major …

Localization In Wireless Sensor Networks, Mark Terwilliger

Dissertations

With the proliferation of wireless sensor networks, providing location-aware technology and services to new applications have become important for developers. Localization is the problem of determining the positions of nodes in an ad hoc network. With the constrained resources of network sensors, providing robust localization services remains a fundamental research challenge facing the entire sensor network development community.

The initial localization problem that we addressed was to design and develop a working system that could locate equipment, such as a laptop or video projector. Ferret, the localization system developed, uses two different ranging techniques to help locate an object to …

Text Mining With Exploitation Of User's Background Knowledge : Discovering Novel Association Rules From Text, Xin Chen

Dissertations

The goal of text mining is to find interesting and non-trivial patterns or knowledge from unstructured documents. Both objective and subjective measures have been proposed in the literature to evaluate the interestingness of discovered patterns. However, objective measures alone are insufficient because such measures do not consider knowledge and interests of the users. Subjective measures require explicit input of user expectations which is difficult or even impossible to obtain in text mining environments.

This study proposes a user-oriented text-mining framework and applies it to the problem of discovering novel association rules from documents. The developed system, uMining, consists of two …

Facial Feature Representation And Recognition, Chao-Fa Chuang

Dissertations

Facial expression provides an important behavioral measure for studies of emotion, cognitive processes, and social interaction. Facial expression representation and recognition have become a promising research area during recent years. Its applications include human-computer interfaces, human emotion analysis, and medical care and cure.

In this dissertation, the fundamental techniques will be first reviewed, and the developments of the novel algorithms and theorems will be presented later. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to provide a reliable, fast, and integrated procedure to recognize either seven prototypical, emotion-specified expressions (e.g., happy, neutral, angry, disgust, fear, sad, and surprise in JAFFE database) …

Color Image Quality Measures And Retrieval, Yan-Yu Fu

Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is mainly on color image, especially on the images with lossy compression. Issues related to color quantization, color correction, color image retrieval and color image quality evaluation are addressed. A no-reference color image quality index is proposed. A novel color correction method applied to low bit-rate JPEG image is developed. A novel method for content-based image retrieval based upon combined feature vectors of shape, texture, and color similarities has been suggested. In addition, an image specific color reduction method has been introduced, which allows a 24-bit JPEG image to be shown in the 8-bit color …

Dynamic Measuring Tools For Online Discourse, Jeffrey S. Saltz

Dissertations

When evaluating participation within an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN), current best practices include counting messages and reviewing participant surveys. To understand the impact of more advanced dynamic measurement tools for use within an ALN, a web-based tool, known as iPET (the integrated Participation Evaluation Tool), was created. iPET, which leverages Social Network Analysis and Information Visualization techniques, was then evaluated via an empirical study. This research demonstrates that using a tool such as iPET increases participation within an ALN without increasing facilitator workload. Due to the fact that active online discussion is a key factor in the success of an …

Bioinformatics Framework For Genotyping Microarray Data Analysis, Kai Zhang

Dissertations

Functional genomics is a flourishing science enabled by recent technological breakthroughs in high-throughput instrumentation and microarray data analysis. Genotyping microarrays establish the genotypes of DNA sequences containing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and can help biologists probe the functions of different genes and/or construct complex gene interaction networks. The enormous amount of data from these experiments makes it infeasible to perform manual processing to obtain accurate and reliable results in daily routines. Advanced algorithms as well as an integrated software toolkit are needed to help perform reliable and fast data analysis.

The author developed a Matlab_TM based software package, called …

Using Content And Process Scaffolds For Collaborative Discourse In Asynchronous Learning Networks, Irene Wong-Bushby

Dissertations

Discourse, a form of collaborative learning, is one of the most widely used methods of teaching and learning in the online environment. Particularly, in large courses, discourse needs to be 'structured' to be effective. Historically, technology-mediated learning (TML) research has been inconclusive with often conflicting results. To address this issue, TML research needs greater breadth and depth in pedagogical grounding. The purpose of this research is to build and test an original, technology-mediated, discourse-centered model called the Asynchronous Learning Network Cognitive Discourse Model (ALNCDM) grounded in pedagogy. Cognitive discourse is defined as discourse on conceptual subject matter. The model is …

Image Segmentation And Pattern Classification Using Support Vector Machines, Shouxian Cheng

Dissertations

Image segmentation and pattern classification have long been important topics in computer science research. Image segmentation is one of the basic and challenging lower-level image processing tasks. Feature extraction, feature reduction, and classifier design based on selected features are the three essential issues for the pattern classification problem.

In this dissertation, an automatic Seeded Region Growing (SRG) algorithm for color image segmentation is developed. In the SRG algorithm, the initial seeds are automatically determined. An adaptive morphological edge-linking algorithm to fill in the gaps between edge segments is designed. Broken edges are extended along their slope directions by using the …

Automatic Solar Feature Detection Using Image Processing And Pattern Recognition Techniques, Ming Qu

Dissertations

The objective of the research in this dissertation is to develop a software system to automatically detect and characterize solar flares, filaments and Corona Mass Ejections (CMEs), the core of so-called solar activity. These tools will assist us to predict space weather caused by violent solar activity. Image processing and pattern recognition techniques are applied to this system.

For automatic flare detection, the advanced pattern recognition techniques such as Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used. By tracking the entire process of flares, the motion properties of two-ribbon flares are derived automatically. In …

Quantifying Software Architecture Attributes, Bo Yu

Dissertations

Software architecture holds the promise of advancing the state of the art in software engineering. The architecture is emerging as the focal point of many modem reuse/evolutionary paradigms, such as Product Line Engineering, Component Based Software Engineering, and COTS-based software development.

The author focuses his research work on characterizing some properties of a software architecture. He tries to use software metrics to represent the error propagation probabilities, change propagation probabilities, and requirements change propagation probabilities of a software architecture. Error propagation probability reflects the probability that an error that arises in one component of the architecture will propagate to other …

Online Support For Multivariate Integration, Shujun Li

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we present an online problem solving environment for multivariate numerical integration. To build an environment for users with various backgrounds, we address issues of Web interface support for end-users, remote application programming interfaces for distributed system programmers, visualization of multivariate integrand functions for problem analysis, and highly efficient integration methods. Compared to previous implementations, our new load balancing schemes increase the scalability of parallel integration and hence are suitable for large scale computations. A parallel integration service, called PI service, was implemented based on Web services technologies to support both remote integration and remote visualization. The multivariate …

An Automata-Based Automatic Verification Environment, Yi Meng

Dissertations

With the continuing growth of computer systems including safety-critical computer control systems, the need for reliable tools to help construct, analyze, and verify such systems also continues to grow. The basic motivation of this work is to build such a formal verification environment for computer-based systems.

An example of such a tool is the Design Oriented Verification and Evaluation (DOVE) created by Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization. One of the advantages of DOVE is that it combines ease of use provided by a graphical user interface for describing specifications in the form of extended state machines with the rigor …

Supporting Individual Time Management Through The Capture And Display Of Temporal Structures, Dezhi Wu

Dissertations

This thesis work examines the time management strategies of individuals in an academic institution and gathers information on the complex temporal structures they experience and manage. Its focus is on understanding the relationship between the quality of individual time management and an individual's understanding and use of temporal structures. This work consists of an exploratory field study to gather data on how people use temporal structures with electronic tools. It is followed by a survey that is given to a larger group of respondents in the same subject population examined with the field study. The survey examines the hypotheses developed …

Rna Structure Analysis : Algorithms And Applications, Jianghui Liu

Dissertations

In this doctoral thesis, efficient algorithms for aligning RNA secondary structures and mining unknown RNA motifs are presented. As the major contribution, a structure alignment algorithm, which combines both primary and secondary structure information, can find the optimal alignment between two given structures where one of them could be either a pattern structure of a known motif or a real query structure and the other be a subject structure.

Motivated by widely used algorithms for RNA folding, the proposed algorithm decomposes an RNA secondary structure into a set of atomic structural components that can be further organized in a tree …

Electronic Capture And Analysis Of Fraudulent Behavioral Patterns : An Application To Identity Fraud, Benjamin Ngugi

Dissertations

The objective of this research was to find a transparent and secure solution for mitigating identity fraud and to find the critical factors that determine the solution's acceptance. Identity fraud is identified as a key problem with total losses exceeding fifty two billion dollars (Javelin Strategy and Research 2005). A common denominator in most identity-fraud-prone transactions is the use of a keypad; hence this research focuses on keypad data entry and proposes a biometric solution. Three studies develop, evaluate and investigate the feasibility of this solution.

The first study was done in three stages. Stage one investigated the technical feasibility …

The Effects Of Digital Audio On Social Presence, Motivation And Perceived Learning In Asynchronous Learning Networks, Eunhee Kim

Dissertations

This study explores the possibilities of applying digital audio to the ALN environment, so that students can speak and listen rather than type and read. Two sets of 1x2 field experiments (text vs. digital audio) were conducted with two formats of digital audio -recorded voice messages and narrated Microsoft PowerPoint presentation - used in several NJIT courses conducted via ALN. The perceptions of communication media were measured from two different user perspectives: active use when the subjects created their assignments using prescribed communication media (audio or text) and passive use when the subjects viewed/listened to other students' work.

The perceptions …

Some Topics On Deterministic Scheduling Problems, Yumei Huo

Dissertations

Sequencing and scheduling problems are motivated by allocation of limited resources over time. The goal is to find an optimal allocation where optimality is defined by some problem specific objectives.

This dissertation considers the scheduling of a set of ri tasks, with precedence constraints, on m >= 1 identical and parallel processors so as to minimize the makespan. Specifically, it considers the situation where tasks, along with their precedence constraints, are released at different times, and the scheduler has to make scheduling decisions without knowledge of future releases. Both preemptive and nonpreemptive schedules are considered. This dissertation shows that optimal …

Scheduling Policies For Disks And Disk Arrays, Chang Liu

Dissertations

Recent rapid advances of magnetic recording technology have enabled substantial increases in disk capacity. There has been less than 10% improvement annually in the random access time to small data blocks on the disk. Such accesses are very common in OLTP applications, which tend to have stringent response time requirements. Scheduling of disk requests is intended to improve their response time, reduce disk service time, and increase disk access bandwidth with respect to the default FCFS scheduling policy.

Shortest Access Time First policy has been shown to outperform other classical disk scheduling policies in numerous studies. Before verifying this conclusion, …

Image Watermarking, Steganography, And Morphological Processing, Yi-Ta Wu

Dissertations

With the fast development of computer technology, research in the fields of multimedia security, image processing, and robot vision have recently become popular. Image watermarking, steganogrphic system, morphological processing and shortest path planning are important subjects among them. In this dissertation, the fundamental techniques are reviewed first followed by the presentation of novel algorithms and theorems for these three subjects.

The research on multimedia security consists of two parts, image watermarking and steganographic system. In image watermarking, several algorithms are developed to achieve different goals as shown below. In order to embed more watermarks and to minimize distortion of watermarked …

Collaborative Examinations In Asyncronous Learning Networks : Field Experiments On Collaborative Learning Through Online Assessments, Jia Shen

Dissertations

With the proliferation of computer networks and the emergence of virtual teams, learning and knowledge sharing in the online environment has become an increasingly important topic. Applying constructivism and collaborative learning theories to assessment, the collaborative online exam is designed featuring students' active participation in various phases of the exam process through small group activities online. A participatory online exam process is designed featuring similar procedures except that students' involvement in each phase of the exam is individual. The collaborative online exam and the participatory online exam are investigated regarding student exam study strategies, group process, exam outcomes, faculty satisfaction, …

Algorithms And Complexity Analyses For Some Combinational Optimization Problems, Hairong Zhao

Dissertations

The main focus of this dissertation is on classical combinatorial optimization problems in two important areas: scheduling and network design.

In the area of scheduling, the main interest is in problems in the master-slave model. In this model, each machine is either a master machine or a slave machine. Each job is associated with a preprocessing task, a slave task and a postprocessing task that must be executed in this order. Each slave task has a dedicated slave machine. All the preprocessing and postprocessing tasks share a single master machine or the same set of master machines. A job may …

Just-In-Time Hypermedia, Li Zhang

Dissertations

Many analytical applications, especially legacy systems, create documents and display screens in response to user queries "dynamically" or in real time . These documents and displays do not exist in advance, and thus hypermedia must be generated 'just in time" -automatically and dynamically.

This dissertation details the idea of 'just-in-time" hypermedia and discusses challenges encountered in this research area. A fully detailed literature review about the research issues and related research work is given. A framework for the 'just-in-time" hypermedia compares virtual documents with static documents, as well as dynamic with static hypermedia functionality. Conceptual 'just-in-time" hypermedia architecture is proposed …

High-Dimensional Indexing Methods Utilizing Clustering And Dimensionality Reduction, Lijuan Zhang

Dissertations

The emergence of novel database applications has resulted in the prevalence of a new paradigm for similarity search. These applications include multimedia databases, medical imaging databases, time series databases, DNA and protein sequence databases, and many others. Features of data objects are extracted and transformed into high-dimensional data points. Searching for objects becomes a search on points in the high-dimensional feature space. The dissimilarity between two objects is determined by the distance between two feature vectors. Similarity search is usually implemented as nearest neighbor search in feature vector spaces. The cost of processing k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) queries via a sequential …