Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

If And How Many 'Races'? The Application Of Mixture Modeling To World-Wide Human Craniometric Variation, Bridget Frances Beatrice Algee-Hewitt

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies in human cranial variation are extensive and widely discussed. While skeletal biologists continue to focus on questions of biological distance and population history, group-specific knowledge is being increasingly used for human identification in medico-legal contexts. The importance of this research has been often overshadowed by both philosophic and methodological concerns. Many analyses have been constrained in their scope by the limited availability of representative samples and readily criticized for adopting statistical techniques that require user-guidance and a priori information. A multi-part project is presented here that implements model-based clustering as an alternative approach for population studies using craniometric traits. …

Geographic Disparities Associated With Stroke And Myocardial Infarction In East Tennessee, Ashley Pedigo Golden

Doctoral Dissertations

Stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) are serious conditions whose burdens vary by socio-demographic and geographic factors. Although several studies have investigated and identified disparities in burdens of these conditions at the county and state levels, little is known regarding their geographic epidemiology at the neighborhood level. Both conditions require emergency treatments and therefore timely geographic accessibility to appropriate care is critical. Investigation of disparities in geographic accessibility to stroke and MI care and the role of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in reducing treatment delays are vital in improving health outcomes. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to: (i) classify …

Energy Functional For Nuclear Masses, Michael Giovanni Bertolli

Doctoral Dissertations

An energy functional is formulated for mass calculations of nuclei across the nuclear chart with major-shell occupations as the relevant degrees of freedom. The functional is based on Hohenberg-Kohn theory. Motivation for its form comes from both phenomenology and relevant microscopic systems, such as the three-level Lipkin Model. A global fit of the 17-parameter functional to nuclear masses yields a root- mean-square deviation of χ[chi] = 1.31 MeV, on the order of other mass models. The construction of the energy functional includes the development of a systematic method for selecting and testing possible functional terms. Nuclear radii are computed within …

Moderate Deviation Of Intersection Of Ranges Of Random Walks In The Stable Case, Justin Anthony Grieves

Doctoral Dissertations

Given p independent, symmetric random walks on d-dimensional integer lattice that are the domain of attraction for a stable distribution, we calculate the moderate deviation of the intersection of ranges of the random walks in the case where the walks intersect infinitely often as time goes to infinity. That is to say, we establish a weak law convergence of intersection of ranges to intersection local time of stable processes and use this convergence as a link to establish deviation results.

A Geospatial Based Decision Framework For Extending Marssim Regulatory Principles Into The Subsurface, Robert Nathan Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The Multi-Agency Radiological Site Survey Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) is a regulatory guidance document regarding compliance evaluation of radiologically contaminated soils and buildings (USNRC, 2000). Compliance is determined by comparing radiological measurements to established limits using a combination of hypothesis testing and scanning measurements. Scanning allows investigators to identify localized pockets of contamination missed during sampling and allows investigators to assess radiological exposure at different spatial scales. Scale is important in radiological dose assessment as regulatory limits can vary with the size of the contaminated area and sites are often evaluated at more than one scale (USNRC, 2000). Unfortunately, scanning is …

A Study Of Missing Data Imputation And Predictive Modeling Of Strength Properties Of Wood Composites, Yan Zeng

Masters Theses

Problem: Real-time process and destructive test data were collected from a wood composite manufacturer in the U.S. to develop real-time predictive models of two key strength properties (Modulus of Rupture (MOR) and Internal Bound (IB)) of a wood composite manufacturing process. Sensor malfunction and data “send/retrieval” problems lead to null fields in the company’s data warehouse which resulted in information loss. Many manufacturers attempt to build accurate predictive models excluding entire records with null fields or using summary statistics such as mean or median in place of the null field. However, predictive model errors in validation may be higher …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Environmentally Sustainable Practices In Municipal Government: A Case Study Of The City Of Knoxville’S Department Of Parks And Recreation, Anthony Michael Brown

Masters Theses

Sustainability practices produce programs and services that meet current needs while preserving the environment and natural resources for the future. City parks and recreation departments are facing budget shortfalls and increasing expectations from customers. Governments are now embracing sustainability practices to create financial savings while also fostering relations with customers.

The purpose of this single case study was twofold: (1) to examine the effectiveness of one city department’s strategies in outsourcing its environmental sustainability program through a performance contract with Ameresco; and (2) to examine the perceptions of key department employees about the effectiveness of the sustainability initiative. A …

Mixture Model Cluster Analysis Under Different Covariance Structures Using Information Complexity, Bahar Erar

Masters Theses

In this thesis, a mixture-model cluster analysis technique under different covariance structures of the component densities is developed and presented, to capture the compactness, orientation, shape, and the volume of component clusters in one expert system to handle Gaussian high dimensional heterogeneous data sets to achieve flexibility in currently practiced cluster analysis techniques. Two approaches to parameter estimation are considered and compared; one using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and another following a Bayesian framework using the Gibbs sampler. We develop and score several forms of the ICOMP criterion of Bozdogan (1994, 2004) as our fitness function; to choose the number …

An Analysis Of Boosted Regression Trees To Predict The Strength Properties Of Wood Composites, Dillon Matthew Carty

Masters Theses

The forest products industry is a significant contributor to the U.S. economy contributing six percent of the total U.S. manufacturing gross domestic product (GDP), placing it on par with the U.S. automotive and plastics industries. Sustaining business competitiveness by reducing costs and maintaining product quality will be essential in the long term for this industry. Improved production efficiency and business competitiveness is the primary rationale for this work. A challenge facing this industry is to develop better knowledge of the complex nature of process variables and their relationship with final product quality attributes. Quantifying better the relationships between process variables …

Use Of Remote Sensing, Hydrologic Tree-Ring Reconstructions, And Forecasting For Improved Water Resources Planning And Management, Cody Lee Moser

Doctoral Dissertations

Uncertainties were analyzed in three areas (remote sensing, dendroclimatology, and climate modeling) relevant to current water resources management. First, the research investigated the relationships between remotely sensed and in situ Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) datasets in three western U.S. basins. Agreement between SWE products was found to increase in lower elevation areas and later in the snowpack season. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) revealed two distinct snow regions among the datasets and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) was used to link both data products with regional streamflow. Remotely sensed SWE was found to be sufficient to use in statistically based forecast models …