Optimizing queries in a distributed database is quite difficult. This work proposes defining new generalized quantifiers which operate on sets rather than tuples. These quantifiers would allow for easier optimization in a horizontally distributed...
The objective of this thesis is to develop computer programs for the dynamic analysis of structures. For a shear building two computer programs were developed: (1) Dynamic Analysis of a Shear Building within the Elastic Range and (2) the Dynamic...
Marginal inference for waiting times in multi-stage time-to-event models is complicated by right censoring of observations as well as the prior history of events in the model. In general, complications arise due to the evolution of the censoring...
Heart--Hypertrophy; Heart--Physiology; Sugar in the body; Metabolism; Diabetes--Research
Heart failure is recognized as a major cause of death among diabetics. In type I and II diabetes, glucose uptake, glycolysis and pyruvate oxidation are impaired, and fatty acid utilization increases. These alterations in metabolism contribute...
Heart failure is the most frequent cause of mortality in western countries. Currently, there is no cure treatment for heart failure and the long term survival rate following heart failure is poor, with one third of patients dying within a year of...
Standard regularity assumptions for regression models are not satisfied in segmented regression models with an unknown change point, and consequently standard asymptotic results and inferential methods for confidence estimation are not applicable....
A k-term quasi-progression of diameter d is a sequence {Xl,... ,xk} for which there exists a positive integer l such that l < Xi-Xi-1 < l+d, for all i = 2, ... ,k. Quasi-progressions may be thought of as arithmetic progressions with a certain...
Nuclear Factor of Activated T-cells (NFAT) is a calcium-responsive transcription factor that orchestrates immune response and cardiovascular development. NFAT is also present in neurons and glia from the Central Nervous System (CNS) where it...
The Louisville Leader was an African-American newspaper published from 1917 to 1950 by I. Willis Cole in Louisville, Kentucky. Page seven of this issue is very faded.
Dimorphism is a highly conserved process in fungi in which a transition between a unicellular, yeast-like growth form and either a unicellular or multicellular, filamentous growth form occurs in response to several different environmental cues. The...
We formulate an integro-difference model to predict the growth and spatial
spread of a perennial plant population with an age-structured seed bank. We allow
the seeds in the bank to be of any age, producing an infinite system of equations.
The...
In this dissertation research, we aim to solve problems of two types of survival data, clustered survival data with potentially informative cluster size and sojourn time data. The methods for these two types of data are different. However, both...
Pattern recognition systems; Cluster analysis; Data mining
Despite the large number of existing clustering methods, clustering remains a challenging task especially when the structure of the data does not correspond to easily separable categories, and when clusters vary in size, density and shape. Existing...
Regression analysis is a statistical method used to relate a variable of interest, typically y (the dependent variable), to a set of independent variables, usually, X1, X2,...,Xn . The goal is to build a model that assists statisticians in...
Swarm Intelligence (SI) techniques were inspired by bee swarms, ant colonies, and most
recently, bird flocks. Flock-based Swarm Intelligence (FSI) has several unique features, namely
decentralized control, collaborative learning, high exploration...
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...
Images, Photographic--Databases; Image processing--Digital techniques; Data mining; Cluster analysis
The performance of content-based image retrieval systems has proved to be inherently constrained by the used low level features, and cannot give satisfactory results when the user's high level concepts cannot be expressed by low level features. In...
The immune system is of profound importance for host survival due to its ability to clear many acquired diseases. In case of infections and cancer, disease arises due to under-performance of immune system. Whereas in autoimmunity and...
The current study examined how Disclosure, Stereotype Disconfirming Information, and Stereotype Disconfirming Information and Disclosure Combined) influences an individual's stigma (stereotype endorsement, emotional reactions, and discrimination)...
Aluminum fiber metal laminates (AFMLs) are a promising new type of fiber metal laminate that consists of aluminum foils interleaved with layers of a graphite fiber-polymer matrix composite (PMC) material. AFMLs combine the attractive features of...
