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Spatially Varying Threshold Models For The Automated Segmentation Of Radiodense Tissue In Digitized Mammograms, Richard Edson Eckert Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The percentage of radiodense (bright) tissue in a mammogram has been correlated to an increased risk of breast cancer. This thesis presents an automated method to quantify the amount of radiodense tissue found in a digitized mammogram. The algorithm employs a radial basis function neural network in order to segment the breast tissue region from the remainder of the X-ray. A spatially varying Neyman-Pearson threshold is used to calculate the percentage of radiodense tissue and compensate for the effects of tissue compression that occurs during a mammography procedure. Results demonstrating the efficacy of the technique are demonstrated by exercising the …

Minerva 2003, The Honors College

Minerva

This inaugural issue of Minerva includes an article on the inauguration of the University of Maine Honors College; a discussion of Honors Living-Learning communities, Colvin and Balentine Halls; and an article on the introduction of the Honors Read tutorial course. Other highlights include an article on Honors travel to Washington D.C. and Chicago.

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Katrina Hudak, Carol C. Harter, Eric Sandgren, Tom Hagge

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1alpha/Cxcr4 Ligand-Receptor Axis Is Critical For Progenitor Survival And Migration In The Pancreas., Ayse G. Kayali, Kurt Van Gunst, Iain L. Campbell, Aleksandr Stotland, Marcie Kritzik, Guoxun Liu, Malin Flodström-Tullberg, You-Qing Zhang, Nora Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Regenerative Medicine

The SDF-1alpha/CXCR4 ligand/chemokine receptor pair is required for appropriate patterning during ontogeny and stimulates the growth and differentiation of critical cell types. Here, we demonstrate SDF-1alpha and CXCR4 expression in fetal pancreas. We have found that SDF-1alpha and its receptor CXCR4 are expressed in islets, also CXCR4 is expressed in and around the proliferating duct epithelium of the regenerating pancreas of the interferon (IFN) gamma-nonobese diabetic mouse. We show that SDF-1alpha stimulates the phosphorylation of Akt, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and Src in pancreatic duct cells. Furthermore, migration assays indicate a stimulatory effect of SDF-1alpha on ductal cell migration. Importantly, blocking …

The Effects Of Semantic And Syntactic Instruction On User Performance And Satisfaction In Search User Interface Design, Jennifer M. Bandos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The design of interfaces to facilitate user search has become critical for search engines, ecommerce
sites, and intranets. This study investigated the use of targeted instructional hints to improve search by measuring the quantitative effects of users' performance and satisfaction.

The effects of syntactic, semantic and exemplar search hints on user behavior were evaluated in an empirical investigation using naturalistic scenarios. Combining the three search hint components, each with two levels of intensity, in a factorial design generated eight search engine interfaces. Eighty participants participated in the study and each completed six realistic search tasks.

Results revealed that the inclusion …

The Effects Of Nationality In The Intercultural Relationship In A Maquila Environment, Cultural Dimensions A Practical Approach, Daniel Martin Reynoso Ortiz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Maquiladora Industry has enhanced economic development in the U.S. and Mexico border region. Initially, investors came to set up assembly lines requiring a small amount of technical skill; however, increases in the technological level of products have created the need for companies to require more technical expertise from their staff. Today, the requirement is for the design or redesign of some of their products and the manufacturing processes required to make these products. This brings managerial problems in dealing with technical people in cross cultural environments. These problems deal with staffing issues such as getting the right people and …

Nebraska Blueprint – Fall 2003

Nebraska Blueprint (Student Publication)

Table of Contents:

From the Editor

The Big Room Where They Smash Stuff – A closer look at the Structures Lab

Interactive Innovation – Students and professionals create interactive engineering exhibit

Making Their Way: Women Find Their Place in Engineering

More Than Meets the Eye – Getting to know Dr. Jennifer Brand

What We Wish We Had Known – At the close of their first semester, freshmen look back

Taking Out the Garbage in Style – Computer Engineering students embark on new research

A Conversation with Jeremy Befort – Student reaches out to others

Book Review: Skunk Works: A Personal …

2003 Scholars And Artists Bibliography, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Friends Of The Michael Schwartz Library

Scholars and Artists Bibliographies

This bibliography was created for the annual Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library Scholars and Artists Reception, recognizing scholarly and creative achievements of Cleveland State University faculty, staff and emeriti

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 45 Number 2, Fall 2003, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

12 - 'A FAVORITE ABODE OF SCIENCE' By Elizabeth Kelley Gillogly '93. A new exhibit of Santa Clara University's scientific equipment from 1851-1900 reveals the Jesuits' early dedication to scientific inquiry, and the ways in which the University contributed to the history of science.

14 - COMING HOME By Mitch Finley '73. More than 60 million Americans are Catholic, but millions of them are estranged from the Church. More often than you might think, however, "lapsed Catholics" decide to come home to the Church. Why did they leave? And what brings them back?

18 - STUDENTS TO THE RESCUE By …

2003 (Fall) Ensi Informer Magazine, Morehead State University. Engineering Sciences Department

ENSI Informer Magazine Archive

The ENSI Informer Magazine published in the fall of 2003.

Variations In Control And Display Gain In A First Control Order Compensatory Manual Tracking Task, Micah N. Morris

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

There exist many factors that contribute to the optimal manual control of a system by a human operator (HO). Two such variables include control gain and display gain. Of particular interest to the following experiment is the contribution of these two variables to the manual tracking performance of any HO conducting a compensatory tracking task while using a first control-order tracking system. Since the optimal level of control gain required for maximal manual control of a tracking device is system dependent, it may be expected that the same holds true of display gain. Regardless, it is the purpose of the …

Toward Building Conversational Spoken-Language Interfaces: Acknowledgment Use In American English And Mexican Spanish, Karen Ward, Tasha Hollingsed, Javier A. Aldaz Salmon

Graduate Student Papers (CS)

Should spoken-language interfaces incorporate human discourse phenomena? Acknowledgments, for example, are ubiquitous in human conversation but are rare in human-computer interaction. Are people unwilling to use this human convention when talking to a machine, or is their scarcity due to the design of current spoken-language interfaces? We found that, given a simple spoken-language interface that responded to acknowledgments, over two thirds of subjects used acknowledgments at least once, about the same number that used more traditional commands to control the interface. These results were consistent for both Mexican Spanish and American English versions of the interface, and they suggest that …

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Jennifer Vaughan, Carol C. Harter, Stephen Rosenbaum

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Exercise On Oxygen Uptake In Mild Hypertension, Matthew Joseph Herban

Theses

The amount of oxygen used by muscle cells increase with exercise. The two body systems that influence the amount of oxygen delivered are the cardiovascular system and the pulmonary system. Two groups of patients were studied, those that were mildly hypertensive (but are not taking prescription medication for hypertension) and the control or normal group. The two groups exercised on a bicycle ergometer. Work rate was increased in steps (multiples of thirty watts) until anaerobic threshold (as measured by an ear oximeter) was reached. Heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide production were measured during exercise. Their data …

Evaluation Of Kentucky’S “Buckle Up Kentucky: It’S The Law & It’S Enforced” Campaign, Kenneth R. Agent, Eric R. Green, Ronald E. Langley

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objective of this report was to document the results of the “Buckle Up Kentucky: It’s the Law & It’s Enforced” campaign in Kentucky. The campaign involved a combination of earned media, paid media, and enforcement. The earned media started about three weeks prior to Memorial Day 2003 and continued through the enforcement period. The paid media started about two weeks prior to Memorial Day. The enforcement period was a two-week period including the week before and the week of Memorial Day.

The evaluation of the campaign included documenting the activities associated with the program (publicity and enforcement) and evaluating …

Evaluation Of Working Capacity For Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (Dbe) For Highway Construction In Kentucky, Fy 2004 Update, Brad W. Rister, Raymond F. Werkmeister, Paul E. Toussaint

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Center gathered the appropriate information, performed a series of computations and analyses, prepared the attached documentation, and makes the following recommendations to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for their DBE goal for Federal Fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2004).

KTC recommends an overall DBE goal of 9.26%, of which 1.931% is anticipated to be satisfied by race/gender neutral prime contracts, and the resultant 7.33% should established as race/gender conscious subcontracts. The overall DBE goal figures stated here addresses an adjustment of 1.326% for the positive historical goal variance observed for the past eight years.

Flight Physician - August, 2003, Civil Aviation Medical Association

Browse all Civil Aviation Medical Association Newsletters

A twenty page newsletter of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. The newsletter provided news about civil aviation medicine and information related to the organization.

Speaker Recognition Using Multiple Parametric Self-Organizing Maps, Pablo Gomez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Speaker Recognition is the process of automatically recognizing a person who is speaking on the basis of individual parameters included in his/her voice. This technology allows systems to automatically verify identify in applications such as banking by telephone or forensic science.

A Speaker Recognition system has the following main modules: Feature Extraction and Classification.

For feature extraction the most commonly used techniques are MEL-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) and Linear Predictive Coding (LPC). For classification and verification, technologies such as Vector Quantization (VQ), Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Neural Networks have been used.

The contribution of this thesis is a new …

The Effect Of An Unconscious Auditory Stimulus On Pilot Performance Under Varying Instrument Flying Conditions, Christina Eleni Christakou

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Human error remains a significant contributing factor with respect to accidents in civil air transportation. It is therefore crucial to establish avenues by which performance on the flightdeck can be enhanced under conditions of distress. The purpose of this study was to examine whether an unconscious auditory stimulus (UAS) could enhance pilot performance under varying instrument flight (IFR) conditions on the aircraft flightdeck. Forty IFR student pilots underwent two eight-minute simulated flights, whereupon they were presented with different IFR weather conditions. During the trial, the experimental group listened to a UAS, whereas the control group listened to white noise (WN). …

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Carol C. Harter, Gene Hall

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Effects Of The Mission Status Graphics Polar Star Display On Failure Detection Time And Situation Awareness For Mission And System Monitoring In General Aviation Aircraft, Anthony P. Bartolone

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

For years, the aviation industry has been under severe scrutiny over the safety of flight when cockpit automation is over relied on and when it is under utilized. This double-edged sword raises the question of situation awareness in aviation. With the recent boom in cockpit automation and advanced avionics some fear that the pilots are being put outside "the loop". Unfortunately, humans are notoriously poor monitors of reliable systems over time. However, research is currently being conducted into a new form of display that has the ability to group a myriad of aircraft mission and system status information onto one …

Flight Physician - June, 2003, Civil Aviation Medical Association

Browse all Civil Aviation Medical Association Newsletters

A twenty page newsletter of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. The newsletter provided news about civil aviation medicine and information related to the organization.

Application Of Time-Scale And Frequency-Scale Modification Alogrithms To Voice-Gender Conversion, Elmar Jung

Masters

Voice conversion is an active new branch of speech processing and deals with the transformation of natural speech, focusing on changing the characteristics of the speaker’s voice. As a result of voice conversion, the speaker’s identity can be changed to make the converted speech sound as if it were uttered by a different speaker, or certain characteristics of the voice can be modified while maintaining the speaker’s identity. Voice-gender conversion (VGC) is a subset of voice conversion and focuses on the transformation of gender-specific voice characteristics. As a result of a voice-gender conversation, male speech is converted into female-sounding speech …

Inside Unlv, Kevin Force, Gian Galassi, Carol C. Harter, Stuart Mann

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Multivariate Logistic Model To Predict Bicycle Route Safety In Urban Areas, Cheryl Allen-Munley

Dissertations

In response to the renewed appreciation of the benefits of bicycling to the environment and public health, public officials across the nation are working to establish new bicycle routes. During the past two decades, a number of methods have been endorsed for the selection of "suitable" bicycle routes. These methods are limited in that they do not explicitly address bicycle safety nor do they reflect urban conditions.

The purpose of this research is to develop an objective bicycle route safety rating model based on injury severity. The model development was conducted using a logistic transformation of Jersey City's bicycle crash …

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Richard Morgan, Carol C. Harter

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Lifting Performance Capacity Through An Integrated Learning Curve Model, Jose Roel Flores

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Physical fitness specific to job demands is necessary for jobs that require moderate or heavy effort. Fitness training is needed not just when a new job is learned but also when an individual has been away from the job for a few weeks and returns to perform the task. The basic problem is to have a good understanding of the dynamics of performance capacities to establish training and retraining regimes to prevent overexertion. To obtain this, a better understanding of the behavior of performance capacity over time is necessary. A performance capacity training regimen was designed for tasks that required …

Analysis Of Performance Capacity Of Hand Grip Through An Integrated Learning Curve Model, Miguel Torres

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

There are few activities or work task in the manufacturing industry that does not involve grip strength. That is why it is in the best interest of the manufacturing industry to have an understanding of the optimum grip strength gain capacity over time that would lead to better performance, accuracy and most of all prevent hand grip related injuries. For that reason, this thesis was concentrated in discovering a possible basic working model for estimating grip strength over time for a specific grip strength activity. The first step was to observe the trend characteristics of the strength gain data over …

Human Reliability Analysis In The Performance Of Advanced Cardiac Life Support Tasks, Lucia Veronica Rosas

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Error reduction in the performance of medical emergency situations is an area of great concern in today's society. This is specially the case when the situation involves a cardiac arrhythmia. These situations are generally categorized as Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) events. The American Heart Association provides the proper procedures that practitioners of ACLS should follow to provide care to patients presenting heart arrhythmia problems. These situations occur inside and outside the hospital, outside the hospital being the most critical ones considering the limitation of equipment and availability of qualified care. Errors made by the practitioners of ACLS in this …

Risk Perception Regarding Energy Production: Factor Structure In A French Sample, Etienne Mullet, Anne Bertrand, Cécilia Lazreg, Sheila Rivière Shafighi

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Considering that energy production is a key factor in the development of nations, it is important to have detailed information on the risks attributed by lay people to the different types of energy as well as the different stages of energy production. This study reports on the structure of risk perception with regard to energy production found among French participants. There have already been many investigations of risk perception related to energy production. . . .

The present study is a direct extension of the Mullet study. A similar, although more complete, set of items was used. These items …