Over the last 15 years, researchers have explored the use of piezoresistive microcantilevers/resonators as gas sensors because of their relative ease in fabrication, low production cost, and their ability to detect changes in mass or surface stress...
For persons with disabilities, access to transportation is necessary for integration into society. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been instrumental in assuring transportation access to individuals with disabilities for purposes of...
Item response theory; Goodness-of-fit tests; Monte Carlo method
Item response theory (IRT) is expanding to diverse research settings, without accompanying access to easily implemented model fit methods. One simple model fit approach involves x2/df ratios. However, its utility is not known across several...
Persons living with chronic pain encounter a host of physical and psychosocial problems resulting in a loss of quality of life and increased disability. The construct of avoidance has been proposed as a mechanism by which these changes in...
Influenza--United States--Management; Epidemics--Management; Health services administration; Mathematical optimization
Pandemic influenza has been an important public health concern. During the 20th century, three major pandemics of influenza occurred in 1918, 1957, and 1968. The pandemic of 1918 caused 40 to 50 million deaths worldwide and more than 500,000 deaths...
Emergency medicine--Diagnosis; Emergency medical services
A retrospective study involving the secondary analysis of public health surveillance records was undertaken to characterize the reliability and validity of an EMS dispatch data-based scheme for assigning emergency patients to surveillance syndromes...
When observers view a naturalistic (l/f) broadband image, the various spatial components present in the image stimulate many detecting-mechanisms that suppress each other. This suppression is anisotropic, being relatively greater for mechanisms...
This dissertation describes new procedures for synthesizing and purifying Au and Au/Ag nanoplates directly on surfaces as well as controlled binding of proteins to their surface. It also describes fundamental changes in the optical properties of Au...
Background: Dental caries is the most common childhood ailment and one of the most prevalent chronic diseases of people worldwide. Approximately 91% of dentate adults 20 years or older have experienced dental caries. Carious lesions on proximal...
Drug resistance in microorganisms--Mathematical models; Intensive care units
Antibiotic resistance is a problem causing growing concern in the medical community, leading some to speculate that a return to the preantibiotic era is imminent. The problem of antibiotic resistance is particularly significant in the intensive...
The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the feasibility of interhospital patient transfers (within a hospital corporation referred to as NESW Hospital Co.) as a means of reducing emergency department overcrowding. Customer satisfaction...
The discovery of carbon nanotubes and subsequently graphene has led to an interest in carbon materials as sensing elements due to their unique properties. Graphene is a 2-dimensional material that has a large surface area that can be exposed to...
Background: Emerging circulatory support devices that operate in counterpulsation to the native heart require synchronized timing of device ejection and filling on a beat-to-beat basis with the native heart using a patient's ECG. Surface leads are...
Accelerated life testing; Reliability (Engineering); Service life (Engineering)
This dissertation is focused on finding lower confidence limits for the reliability of systems consisting of Wei bull components when the reliability demonstration testing (RDT) is conducted with zero failures. The usual methods for the parameter...
From a computerized image analysis prospective, early diagnosis of lung cancer involves detection of doubtful nodules and classification into different pathologies. The detection stage involves a detection approach, usually by template matching,...
Coronary heart disease--Treatment--Cost effectiveness; Angioplasty; Medical laws and legislation--Kentucky
A myocardial infarction (MI) occurs when blood supply to the heart is cut off by a blockage in one of the coronary arteries. Most hospitals treat a patient with thrombolysis or a percutaneous coronary intervention (PC I). The latter has been...
Nanoparticles; Imaging systems in medicine; Imaging systems in biology
Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown beneficial properties for biomedical use, e.g., their non-toxic nature and surface properties for easy modification. Upon receiving light, they generate a strong surface plasmon field, which can alter the...
Symmetric piezoresistive microcantilever beams have been demonstrated in previous research to be capable of sensing the presence of surrounding gas. This occurs as the damping effect of the gas changes the beam resonance behavior. Device...
Acetone--Analysis; Air quality monitoring stations
Zinc oxide (ZnO) based gas sensors with sliver ion exchanged ZSM-5 (Ag+ZSM-5) zeolite overlayer were created and tested for detection of acetone vapor in air. The ZnO and Ag+ZSM-5 films were deposisted on 400µm by 400µm platinum interdigitated...
A new procedure has been developed for determining
the location of the source of certain EEG discharges
given the measured surface potentials. The
source is modeled as a single current dipole with arbitrary
position and orientation, while the head...
