Enzymatic hydrolysis is the most common method of producing fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. Limitations to this step include the high cost of enzymes, and the time required to process the biomass. To increase the throughput and...
Funeral rites and ceremonies--United States; Undertakers and undertaking--Social aspects
Within a cultural context of postmodernism and individualization, funerals in America have taken on a new appearance amidst increased freedom of expression and diminished adherence to tradition. This thesis examines how the funeral industry has...
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,...
Scheduling--Computer programs; Social work administration--Data processing; Public welfare administration--Data processing
The client flow of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services is a complex process that deals with a high volume of clients on any given beginning half of the month. A simulation model of an average busy day in the system was built using...
Web search engines; Automatic abstracting; Graph theory--Data processing
After a user types in a search query on a major search engine, they are presented with a number of search results. Each search result is made up of a title, brief text summary and a URL. It is then the user's job to select documents for...
Estimating and analysis of deformation, either rigid or non-rigid, is an active area of research in various medical imaging and computer vision applications. Its importance stems from the inherent inter- and intra-variability in biological and...
Visual learning; Animated films--Japan; Motion pictures in education; Audio-visual education
Our contemporary culture is laden with a glut of visual stimuli: advertising, packaging, television, film, the internet, digital-camera-wireless-web-access-mobile-phones. In a world filled with visually rhetorical media, it is imperative that the...
Phase II clinical trial are generally single arm trial where a homogeneity assumption is placed on the response. In practice, this assumption may be violated resulting in a heterogeneous response. This heterogeneous or overdispersed response can be...
Aortic Valve Bypass surgery has found renewed interest to researchers due to its application in high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis. This therapy consists of construction of a conduit containing a bioprosthetic or mechanical valve from...
This dissertation examines the competing views of multilingualism that shape U.S. and Canadian post-secondary literacy education. Drawing on education, English studies, globalization theory, applied linguistics, translation studies,...
High dynamic range imaging involves imaging at a bit depth higher than the typical 8-12 bits offered by standard video equipment. We propose a method of imaging a scene at high dynamic range, 14+ bits, to detect motion correlated with changes in...
Motivation (Psychology); Psychology and religion; Faith--Psychology
Religious motivation is a construct that has been the focus of decades of research. The "Religious Orientation Scale" (ROS) and variations of it, including the "Age Universal Intrinsic-Extrinsic Scale-12" (AUIES-12), are the...
Tick-borne diseases; Health behavior; Health attitudes; Health education--Social aspects
Human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), a tick-borne disease that has recently surfaced in
the United States, exists in regions where the tick vector population is established. This
study utilizes methods that look beyond identifying high-risk regions,...
Speech intelligibility has been found to improve with prior exposure to a reverberant room environment. It is believed that perceptual mechanisms help maintain accurate speech perception under these adverse conditions. Potential factors underlying...
This thesis deals with the events and issues which were connected with the 1935 gubernatorial election. There is first a brief sketch of Kentucky politics prior to the 1935 election. Particular interest is given to the history of the Democratic...
Pro-life movement--United States--Case studies; Rhetoric--United States; Abortion--United States
The purpose of this study is to consider the significance of rhetoric used by pro-life social movement organizations to frame the experience of abortion and to label those women who have participated in that experience. The study explores how...
Heart--Diseases--Patients--Rehabilitation; Data mining
The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of text mining and using the results to show the possible benefits of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. The 555 patients enrolled in the study were receiving inpatient cardiopulmonary...
How do words represent emotional states, and how closely are they clustered to an actual emotion? Opinions vary as to how many emotions there are, and whether (or which) emotions are basic. Generally, many agree that basic emotions include fear,...
The game of Snake has been selected to provide a unique application of the
TD( ) algorithm as proposed by Sutton. A reinforcement learning technique for
producing computer controlled players is documented. Using value function
approximation with...
