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...
Nosocomial infections; Catheterization--Complications; Drug resistance in microorganisms
Catheters represent an essential part of the management of critically and chronically ill patients. However, their use is often plagued by catheter related blood stream infections (CRBSIs), which are associated with increased morbidity, hospital...
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that is subdivided into Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and indeterminate colitis (IC). Epidemiological studies have proven that genetic variation increases...
Research suggests that a gap exists between scholarly findings and practitioner knowledge, beliefs, and practices in the Human Resource field, particularly in the area of employee selection (Deadrick & Gibson, 2007; Rynes, Giluk, & Brown,...
Three-dimensional imaging in medicine; Diagnostic imaging; Dental care
CBCT in endodontics demonstrates anatomic features in 3D that intraoral, panoramic, and cephalometric images cannot. CBCT units reconstruct the projection data to provide interrelational images in three orthogonal planes (axial, sagittal, and...
Pattern perception--Data processing; Pattern recognition systems; Land mines--Detection; Data mining
For complex detection and classification problems, involving data with large intra-class variations and noisy inputs, no single source of information can provide a satisfactory solution. As a result, combination of multiple classifiers is playing...
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fibrotic lung disease with poor prognosis.
To address this disease broadly, the candidate engaged in clinical work, literature
analysis, database analysis, and laboratory work. The clinical work culminated...
Historically in the area of pediatric heart failure, few options have been available that are specifically designed to provide pediatric circulatory support. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) was the traditional method of choice, providing...
Due to the overwhelming increase in open source code, off-the-shelf software packages, third party and vendor codes, along with the ease of getting information about hacking network security systems and attacking the well known holes in security...
College students; College attendance; Educational attainment; Prediction of scholastic success
This dissertation explored the four-year college experience of first-generation and continuing-generation students at a small private institution. Using Astin's I-E-O model (1970), the following variables in the student experience were considered:...
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...
Wit and humor--Therapeutic use; Behavior therapy; Wit and humor--Psychological aspects
Objective: To evaluate the influence of positive affect inductions on daily and weekly Positive and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS) in a community setting. Methods: Humor messages were distributed to participants four times per day during a...
The design of this thesis is to re-engineer the Enigma cipher to make it a viable, secure cipher for use on current computers. The goal is to create a cipher based on an antiquated mechanical cryptography device, the Enigma Machine, in software and...
A combination of three techniques – high resolution micro computed tomography (micro CT) scanning, Archimedes-based volume fraction measurement and serial sectioning or milling – were used to determine the volume fraction, trabecular thickness,...
Brief Overview of the Problem: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a government funded agency, provides both legislative and judicial powers for emissions monitoring in the United States. The agency crafts laws based on self-made regulations...
In today's world of private information and mass communication, there is an ever increasing need for new methods of maintaining and protecting privacy and integrity of information. This thesis attempts to combine the chaotic world of cellular...
Student counselors; Problem youth--Education; Academic achievement
"If this generation of youth is lost, much of the hope for an economically, socially and technologically strong nation will also be lost." - Kuykendall, 1992 When youths become convinced that they will not be able to make it in mainstream...
The Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be used to solve certain problems in combinatorics. However, one of the major complications in using the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz is ensuring that there exists a nonzero monomial. This dissertation looks...
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...
