Computer Sciences Commons^™

Image Up-Sampling Using The Discrete Wavelet Transform, Laleh Asgharian

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Image up-sampling is an effective technique, useful in today's digital image processing applications and rendering devices. In image up-sampling, an image is enhanced from a lower resolution to a higher resolution with the degree of enhancement depending upon application requirements. It is known that the traditional interpolation based approaches for up-sampling, such as the Bilinear or Bicubic interpolations, blur the resultant images along edges and image features. Furthermore, in color imagery, these interpolation-based up-sampling methods may have color infringing artifacts in the areas where the images contain sharp edges and fine textures. We present an interesting up-sampling algorithm based on …

Improving Record Linkage Through Pedigrees, Burdette N. Pixton

Theses and Dissertations

Record linkage, in a genealogical context, is the process of identifying individuals from multiple sources which refer to the same real-world entity. Current solutions focus on the individuals in question and on complex rules developed by human experts. Genealogical databases are highly-structured with relationships existing between the individuals and other instances. These relationships can be utilized and human involvement greatly minimized by using a filtered structured neural network. These neural networks, using traditional back-propagation methods, are biased in a way to make the network human readable. The results show an increase in precision and recall when pedigree data is available …

Scalable Approaches For Supporting Mpi-Io Atomicity, Peter Aarestad, George K. Thiruvathukal, Avery Ching, Alok Choudhary

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Scalable atomic and parallel access to noncontiguous regions of a file is essential to exploit high performance I/O as required by large-scale applications. Parallel I/O frameworks such as MPI I/O conceptually allow I/O to be defined on regions of a file using derived datatypes. Access to regions of a file can be automatically computed on a perprocessor basis using the datatype, resulting in a list of (offset, length) pairs. We describe three approaches for implementing lock serving (whole file, region locking, and byterange locking) and compare the various approaches using three noncontiguous I/O benchmarks. We present the details of 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 …

Journey To The Center Of The Core: Computers And The Internet In The Core Curriculum, Jorge Pérez, Meg C. Murray

Faculty Articles

Computers, digitalization and the Internet have transformed modern society. Commerce, education, communication and socialization will never be the same. Surprisingly, many universities do not require a computing course in the core curriculum. Critical information technology (IT) competencies are often taken for granted, to the detriment of students who lack computing and Internet skills. This paper describes an initiative undertaken by a computer science and information systems department to assess and remediate IT skills needed by all university students, regardless of major. The project is evolving along several dimensions: identification of discipline-independent IT competencies, assessment of IT skills among current and …

The Hydra Filesystem: A Distrbuted Storage Famework, Benjamin Gonzalez, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Hydra File System (HFS) is an experimental framework for constructing parallel and distributed filesystems. While parallel and distributed applications requiring scalable and flexible access to storage and retrieval are becoming more commonplace, parallel and distributed filesystems remain difficult to deploy easily and configure for different needs. HFS aims to be different by being true to the tradition of high-performance computing while employing modern design patterns to allow various policies to be configured on a per instance basis (e.g. storage, communication, security, and indexing schemes). We describe a working prototype (available for public download) that has been implemented in the Python …

Improving The Performance Of Nested Loop Algorithm Using Separators, Nachiappan N. Nachiappan

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis studies the properties of distance-based outliers and a better detection method for large multi-dimensional datasets. Outlier detection is an important task to find out the objects that deviate in a high ratio from the rest of the objects. The proposed algorithm breaks the data set into divisions and sets the area of access for each division, thus reducing the unnecessary access for a major set of elements. This algorithm reduces the run time of the existing algorithm by using separators. Datasets of varying sizes have been tested to analyze the empirical values of these procedures. Effective data structures …

An Improvement And A Generalization Of Zippel's Sparse Multivariate Polynomial Interpolation Algorithm, Michael D. Brazier

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The algorithm most often used for the problem of interpolating sparse multivariate polynomials from their values is Zippel's probabilistic algorithm (1988). The algorithm evaluates the function to be interpolated at a significant number of points, and for many problems of interest processing evaluations dominates the running time. This thesis presents an improvement of Zippel's algorithm, which decreases the number of evaluations needed for an interpolation by using transposed Vandermonde systems for the univariate interpolation step of Zippel's algorithm. The technique also allows a more general form of the algorithm: it becomes possible to interpolate more than one variable within a …

On Static And Dynamic Partitioning Behavior Of Large-Scale Networks, Derek Leonard, Zhongmei Yao, Xiaoming Wang, Dmitri Loguinov

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper, we analyze the problem of network disconnection in the context of large-scale P2P networks and understand how both static and dynamic patterns of node failure affect the resilience of such graphs. We start by applying classical results from random graph theory to show that a large variety of deterministic and random P2P graphs almost surely (i.e., with probability 1-o(1)) remain connected under random failure if and only if they have no isolated nodes. This simple, yet powerful, result subsequently allows us to derive in closed-form the probability that a P2P network develops isolated nodes, and therefore partitions, …

Course Development For A College Java Programming Class, Nathan Dodge

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This project documents the development of college-level curriculum for an Object Oriented Programming with Java course. The curriculum includes a set of lessons that students work through interactively. The lessons teach the fundamentals of object orientation. A goal of the project is to have students work with the same problem example throughout the entire set of lessons. Most texts on object orientation use several abstract examples which are used in a chapter or two of the text and are often not fully implemented. Each lesson of the project's curriculum presents an iteration of an evolving shape drawing application. Each lesson …

Entropy-Based 2d Image Dissimilarity Measure, Meng-Hung Wu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Traditional histogram or statistics based 2D image similarity/dissimilarity metrics fail to handle conjugate pair of black and white images, due to the lack of spatial information in the measurement. Recently proposed Compression-based Dissimilarity Measure (CDM) [1] based on the concept of Kolmogorov complexity has provided a different paradise for similarity measurement. However, without a clear definition how to “concatenate” two 2D images, CDM has difficulties to directly apply with 2D images. In this thesis, an entropy -based 2D image dissimilarity measure is proposed within the same Kolmogorov complexity paradise. The spatial relationship between images is embedded in our metric, and …

Naboh System: Gathering Intelligence From Traffic Patterns, Angelica M. Delgado

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Network traffic anomalies are important indicators of problematic traffic over a network. Network activity has patterns associated with it depending on the applications running on the local hosts connected to the network. There are traffic parameters into which network traffic of a local host can be divided: bandwidth usage, number of remote hosts that a local host is connecting to and vice versa, and number of ports used by the local host. This thesis develops a system for detecting and profiling network anomalies by analyzing traffic parameters using intelligent computational techniques. The developed system gathers intelligence by examining only the …

Compensation For Automatic White Balance Correction With Histogram Equalization, David D. Kirtley

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Histogram equalization rather than hard scaling can be used as an effective technique to counter automatic white balance correction in video processing to facilitate motion detection in video sequences. Benefits of this method are less user interaction needed by not needing to preview the image to select a scaling area and reduction of the non-focused changes in the video caused by using a scaling area. Reduced interaction lends itself to data mining of video.

Empirical Performance Analysis Of Two Algorithms For Mining Intentional Knowledge Of Distance-Based Outliers, Enbamoorthy Prasanthi

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis studies the empirical analysis of two algorithms, Uplattice and Jumplattice for mining intentional knowledge of distance-based outliers [19]. These algorithms detect strongest and weak outliers among them. Finding outliers is an important task required in major applications such as credit-card fraud detection, and the NHL statistical studies. Datasets of varying sizes have been tested to analyze the empirical values of these two algorithms. Effective data structures have been used to gain efficiency in memory-performance. The two algorithms provide intentional knowledge of the detected outliers which determines as to why an identified outlier is exceptional. This knowledge helps the …

Developing A B -Tagging Algorithm Using Soft Muons At Level-3 For The Dø Detector At Fermilab, Mayukh Das

Doctoral Dissertations

The current data-taking phase of the DØ detector at Fermilab, called Run II, is designed to aid the search for the Higgs Boson. The neutral Higgs is postulated to have a mass of 117 GeV. One of the channels promising the presence of this hypothetical particle is through the decay of b-quark into a muon. The process of identifying a b-quark in a jet using muon as a reference is b-tagging with a muon tag.

At the current data taking and analysis rate, it will take long to reach the process of identifying valid events. The triggering mechanism of the …

Sense -Based Text Classification By Semantic Hierarchy Representation, Xiaogang Peng

Doctoral Dissertations

Automatic classification of web pages is an effective way to facilitate the process of retrieving information from the Internet. Currently, two major classification methods are used in this area: keyword-based classification and sense-based classification. For keyword-based classification, keywords often have different semantic meanings, and the correct keyword matching is largely based on using exactly the same keywords. Thus, the classification results of keyword-based classification are not always satisfying. Many sense-based classification algorithms and systems have been presented, but they pay little attention to the relationship between senses. In this dissertation, we present a method to automatically classify documents based on …

Query Rewriting For Extracting Data Behind Html Forms, Xueqi Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Much of the information on the Web is stored in specialized searchable databases and can only be accessed by interacting with a form or a series of forms. As a result, enabling automated agents and Web crawlers to interact with form-based interfaces designed primarily for humans is of great value. This thesis describes a system that can fill out Web forms automatically according to a given user query against a global schema for an application domain and, to the extent possible, extract just the relevant data behind these Web forms. Experimental results on two application domains show that the approach …

Natural Xml For Data Binding, Processing, And Persistence, George K. Thiruvathukal, Konstantin Läufer

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The article explains what you need to do to incorporate XML directly into your computational science application. The exploration involves the use of a standard parser to automatically build object trees entirely from application-specific classes. This discussion very much focuses on object-oriented programming languages such as Java and Python, but it can work for non-object-oriented languages as well. The ideas in the article provide a glimpse into the Natural XML research project.

Move To Component Based Architectures: Introducing Microsoft's .Net Platform Into The College Classroom, Meg C. Murray

Faculty Articles

A transformation has been occurring in the architectural model for computer-based application intense software systems. This new model, software-as-a-service, will have a profound impact on the design and development of software for many years to come and as such college level computing curriculums will need to incorporate the concepts and methodologies associated with this new architecture. The platform is built upon a view of interrelated, distributed peer-level software modules and components that work in tandem to achieve specified functional goals. From Microsoft's viewpoint, migration to the new platform requires a radical shift in the software development lifecycle. It is becoming …

A Key Management Scheme For Wireless Sensor Networks Using Deployment Knowledge, Wenliang Du, Jing Deng, Yunghsiang S. Han, Shigang Chen

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

To achieve security in wireless sensor networks, it is important to be able to encrypt messages sent among sensor nodes. Keys for encryption purposes must be agreed upon by communicating nodes. Due to resource constraints, achieving such key agreement in wireless sensor networks is non-trivial. Many key agreement schemes used in general networks, such as Diffie-Hellman and public-key based schemes, are not suitable for wireless sensor networks. Pre-distribution of secret keys for all pairs of nodes is not viable due to the large amount of memory used when the network size is large. Recently, a random key predistribution scheme and …

A Generalised Feedforward Neural Network Architecture And Its Applications To Classification And Regression, Ganesh Arulampalam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Shunting inhibition is a powerful computational mechanism that plays an important role in sensory neural information processing systems. It has been extensively used to model some important visual and cognitive functions. It equips neurons with a gain control mechanism that allows them to operate as adaptive non-linear filters. Shunting Inhibitory Artificial Neural Networks (SIANNs) are biologically inspired networks where the basic synaptic computations are based on shunting inhibition. SIANNs were designed to solve difficult machine learning problems by exploiting the inherent non-linearity mediated by shunting inhibition. The aim was to develop powerful, trainable networks, with non-linear decision surfaces, for classification …

Contrast Enhancement Of Ultrasound Images Using Shunting Inhibitory Cellular Neural Networks, Murali M. Gogineni

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Evolving from neuro-biological insights, neural network technology gives a computer system an amazing capacity to actually generate decisions dynamically. However, as the amount of data to be processed increases, there is a demand for developing new types of networks such as Cellular Neural Networks (CNN), to ease the computational burden without compromising the outcomes. The objective of this thesis is to research the capability of Shunting Inhibitory Cellular Neural Networks (SICNN) to solve the clarity problems in ultrasound imaging. In this thesis, we begin by reviewing a number of traditional enhancement techniques and measures. Since the entire work of this …

Xml In Computational Science, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this first article in a series about XML in computational science, I present some background and lightweight examples of XML usage, describe some XML component frameworksalong with their purpose and applicability to computational science, and discuss some technical obstacles to overcome for the language to be taken seriously in computational science.

Enhancing The Cs Curriculum With With Aspect-Oriented Software Development (Aosd) And Early Experience, Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal, Tzilla Elrad

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is evolving as an important step beyond existing software development approaches such as object-oriented development. An aspect is a module that captures a crosscutting concern, behavior that cuts across different units of abstraction in a software application; expressed as a module, such behavior can be enabled and disabled transparently and non-invasively, without changing the application code itself. Increasing industry demand for expertise in AOSD gives rise to the pedagogical challenge of covering this methodology and its foundations in the computer science curriculum. We present our curricular initiative to incorporate a novel course in AOSD in the …

Programming Language Trends : An Empirical Study, Yaofei Chen

Dissertations

Predicting the evolution of software engineering technology trends is a dubious proposition. The recent evolution of software technology is a prime example; it is fast paced and affected by many factors, which are themselves driven by a wide range of sources. This dissertation is part of a long term project intended to analyze software engineering technology trends and how they evolve. Basically, the following questions will be answered: How to watch, predict, adapt to, and affect software engineering trends?

In this dissertation, one field of software engineering, programming languages, will be discussed. After reviewing the history of a group of …

A Multi-Platform Application Suite For Enhancing South Asian Language Pedagogy, Tao Bai, Christopher K. Chung, Konstantin Läufer, Daisy Rockwell, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This interdisciplinary project explores the potential for handheld/wireless (H/W) technology in the context of language education within and beyond the classroom. Specifically, we have designed and implemented a suite of multi-platform (desktop/laptop, handheld, and browser) applications to enhance the teaching of South Asian languages such as Hindi-Urdu. Such languages are very difficult to learn, let alone write, and H/W devices (with their handwriting/drawing capabilities) can play a significant role in overcoming the learning curve. The initial application suite includes a character/word tracer, a word splitter/joiner, a smart flashcard with audio, contextual augmented stories for reading comprehension, and a poetic metronome. …

The Extreme Software Development Series: An Open Curricular Framework For Applied Capstone Courses, Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We describe an open, flexible curricular framework for offering a collection of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in software development. The courses offered within this framework are further unified by combining solid foundations with current technology and play the role of capstone courses in a modern software development track. Our initiative has been very successful with all stakeholders involved.

Scalable Implementations Of Mpi Atomicity For Concurrent Overlapping I/O, Wei-Keng Liao, Alok Choudhary, Kenin Coloma, George K. Thiruvathukal, Lee Ward, Eric Russell, Neil Pundit

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

For concurrent I/O operations, atomicity defines the results in the overlapping file regions simultaneously read/written by requesting processes. Atomicity has been well studied at the file system level, such as POSIX standard. In this paper, we investigate the problems arising from the implementation of MPI atomicity for concurrent overlapping write access and provide a few programming solutions. Since the MPI definition of atomicity differs from the POSIX one, an implementation that simply relies on the POSIX file systems does not guarantee correct MPI semantics. To have a correct implementation of atomic I/O in MPI, we examine the efficiency of three …

[Introduction To] Data Structures With Java: A Laboratory Approach, Joe Kent, Lewis Barnett Iii

Bookshelf

This book is designed to present the key topics in the second course for computer science students using the Java programming language. For convenience, we cover exceptions and file operations in Java, although this may have been covered in the first course. We also cover material on the binary representation of data and Java's bitwise operations, with applications.These are topics needed for computer organization an operating systems courses.

Java At Middle Age: Enabling Java For Computational Science, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Not long after the Mosaic Web browser appeared and Netscape communications formed, Sun Microsystems launched Java in a way that will be forever known as a marketing success story. All across the US, there were many Java Day events. I still have my t-shirts as proof of having been there.