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Automatic Content Analysis Of Endoscopy Video (Endoscopic Multimedia Information System), Sae K. Hwang May 2007

Automatic Content Analysis Of Endoscopy Video (Endoscopic Multimedia Information System), Sae K. Hwang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Advances in video technology are being incorporated into today's healthcare practice. For example, various types of endoscopes are used for colonoscopy, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, enteroscopy, bronchoscopy, cystoscopy, laparoscopy, and some minimal invasive surgeries (i.e., video endoscopic neurosurgery). These endoscopes come in various sizes, but all have a tiny video camera at the tip of the endoscopes. During an endoscopic procedure, the tiny video camera generates a video signal of the interior of the human organ, for example, the internal mucosa of the colon. The video data are displayed on a monitor for real-time analysis by the physician. Diagnosis, biopsy and …

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Qcd Equation Of State With 2+1 Flavors Of Improved Staggered Quarks, James E. Hetrick, C. Bernard May 2007

Qcd Equation Of State With 2+1 Flavors Of Improved Staggered Quarks, James E. Hetrick, C. Bernard

All Faculty Articles - School of Engineering and Computer Science

We report results for the interaction measure, pressure, and energy density for nonzero-temperature QCD with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks. In our simulations, we use a Symanzik improved gauge action and the Asqtad O (a2) improved staggered quark action for lattices with temporal extent Nt = 4 and 6. The heavy quark mass ms is fixed at approximately the physical strange quark mass and the two degenerate light quarks have masses mud ≈ 0.1ms or 0.2ms. The calculation of the thermodynamic observables employs the integral method where energy density and pressure are obtained by integration over the interaction measure.

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Reproductive Decision Making Among Lesbian Women, Misty Lynn Wall May 2007

Reproductive Decision Making Among Lesbian Women, Misty Lynn Wall

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

A non-experimental, survey design was used to determine which factors influence a lesbian woman's decision to have, or not have, a child. Data was collected via the internet from 373 adult women, who self identify as lesbian. This study was guided by feminist theory and attempts to connect existing empirical literature regarding decision making with the experiences of lesbian women. Review of existing theoretical and empirical literature regarding decision making and lesbian headed families showed that six factors; family of origin support, extrinsic religiosity, perceived ability to parent, internalized homophobia, perceived impact of motherhood, and fear of prejudice and discrimination …

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A Qualitative Study Of A Job Placement System For People With Disabilities: The Role Of The Family, Employer And Employment Agent In Monterrey, Mexico, Maximino Ramos May 2007

A Qualitative Study Of A Job Placement System For People With Disabilities: The Role Of The Family, Employer And Employment Agent In Monterrey, Mexico, Maximino Ramos

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study explored the role of the family, employer and agent of employment as determinant to employment for people with disabilities in Monterey, Mexico. The main purpose of this study was to contribute to the equitable integration of people with disabilities into the labor force. The researcher used a case study approach that employed in-depth interviews of 27 participants and grounded theory procedures for data analysis. The key categories and themes that emerged and characterized each case study were cross-cased; the process contributed to the identification of key categories that formed the central tenets that influenced the job placement system. …

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A Causal Analysis Of Developmental Assets, Behaviors And Delinquency Among Hispanic Youth In Texas, Jackson Nascimento De Carvalho May 2007

A Causal Analysis Of Developmental Assets, Behaviors And Delinquency Among Hispanic Youth In Texas, Jackson Nascimento De Carvalho

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to identify the main predicting developmental assets for the prevention of juvenile delinquency among Hispanic youth in Texas by adopting advanced research methods. According to Benson (1995), and Lerner and Benson (2003), developmental assets are building blocks of development that help young people grow-up to be healthy, caring, and responsible. Grounded in extensive research (Benson, Galbraith, & Espeland, 1994; Benson, Galbraith, Espeland, 1998; Benson, 2001), the framework of developmental assets is a valuable tool to identify predictors for the prevention of juvenile delinquency among Hispanic youth, and serves as benchmark data to gauge community-based …

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Case Studies Of The Circular Restricted Three Body Problem, William Jason Eberle May 2007

Case Studies Of The Circular Restricted Three Body Problem, William Jason Eberle

Physics Theses - Archive

In this thesis, the onset of instability for a planet which is part of a stellar binary system is investigated by running numerical simulations of the circular restricted three body problem. This study also makes use of a rotating (synodic) coordinate system keeping both binary stars at rest. This allows the definition of a constant of motion (Jacobi's constant), which in turn sets a permissible region of motion for the planet. As the initial conditions are varied, the boundary of the permissible region of motion passes through each of the three collinear equilibrium points with significant changes to the orbit …

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H-Infinity Output Feedback Control: Application To Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Jyotirmay Gadewadikar May 2007

H-Infinity Output Feedback Control: Application To Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Jyotirmay Gadewadikar

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation presents new necessary and sufficient conditions for static output-feedback control of linear time-invariant systems using the H-Infinity approach. Simplified conditions are derived which only require the solution of two coupled matrix design equations. It is shown that the static output-feedback H-Infinity solution does not generally yield a well-defined saddle point for the zero sum differential game; conditions are given under which it does. This work presents a simplified parameterization of all H-Infinity static state-feedback controllers in terms of a single algebraic Riccati equation and a free parameter matrix. As a special case, necessary and sufficient conditions for the …

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Ccbdi Readout Circuit For Ybacuo Micromachined Microbolometers, Sandeep Kumar May 2007

Ccbdi Readout Circuit For Ybacuo Micromachined Microbolometers, Sandeep Kumar

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Semiconducting YBaCuO (Yttrium-Barium-Copper-Oxide) as a new uncooled microbolometer material is evaluated for CMOS compatibility. By not requiring cryogenic cooling, the self-supporting semiconducting YBaCuO micromachined microbolometers have found an attractive application for thermal detection with substantial reduction in system cost, size, weight and power consumption as compared to cooled photon detectors. The lower thermal conductance of the microbolometers to the substrate provides good sensitivity for infrared detection. The CCBDI (Constant Current Buffered Direct Injection) readout circuit is designed to work with a traditional frame rate of 30Hz and as a novel approach improves the performance of uncooled IR cameras by a …

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Information Theoretic, Probabilistic And Maximum Partial Substructure Algorithms For Discovering Graph-Based Anomalies, William Fred Eberle May 2007

Information Theoretic, Probabilistic And Maximum Partial Substructure Algorithms For Discovering Graph-Based Anomalies, William Fred Eberle

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The ability to mine data represented as a graph has become important in several domains for detecting various structural patterns. One important area of data mining is anomaly detection, particularly for fraud. However, less work has been done in terms of detecting anomalies in graph-based data. While there has been some previous work that has used statistical metrics and conditional entropy measurements, the results have been limited to certain types of anomalies and specific domains. In this work we present graph-based approaches to uncovering anomalies in domains where the anomalies consist of unexpected entity/relationship alterations that closely resemble non-anomalous behavior. …

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Flash Crowd Mitigation System, Dongchul Kim May 2007

Flash Crowd Mitigation System, Dongchul Kim

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Flash crowd means that a web server suffers a sudden surge of traffic since a large number of Internet users access the web server simultaneously. Once a flash crowd occurs in a web server, the response rate for the HTTP requests decreases rapidly, or the web server may even crash. To protect the web server from such flash crowds, in this paper, we propose the Flash Crowd Mitigation System (FCMS) which is based on the cooperation of the web servers and the redirection of the HTTP request. In FCMS, when a flash crowd is predicted by the traffic monitoring module …

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Wildcat: An Integrated Stealth Environment For Dynamic Malware Analysis, Amit Vasudevan May 2007

Wildcat: An Integrated Stealth Environment For Dynamic Malware Analysis, Amit Vasudevan

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Malware -- a term that refers to viruses, trojans, worms, spyware or any form of malicious code -- is widespread today. Given the devastating effects that malware have on the computing world, detecting and countering malware is an important goal. Malware analysis is a challenging and multi-step process providing insight into malware structure and functionality, facilitating the development of an antidote. To successfully detect and counter malware, malware analysts must be able to analyze them in binary, in both a coarse- (behavioral) and fine-grained (structural) fashion. However, current research in coarse- and fine-grained code analysis (categorized into static and dynamic) …

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New Equilibria For Noncooperative Games, Phantipa Insuwan May 2007

New Equilibria For Noncooperative Games, Phantipa Insuwan

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation we present an alternative to the Nash Equilibrium (NE), which is regarded as the fundamental solution concept in game theory. An NE provides a solution in which no player can improve his payoff by unilaterally changing strategies. However, the NE has weaknesses as exemplified by the paradoxical Prisoner's Dilemma game, where the unique NE is dominated by another possible outcome. Moreover, an NE assumes all players select their strategies according to the same NE so equilibrium holds. For multiple NE's, no standard approach exists for selecting a single one, though various refinements such as perfect Nash equilibria …

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Design, Fabrication And Assembly Of 3-D Microstructures, Ping Zhang May 2007

Design, Fabrication And Assembly Of 3-D Microstructures, Ping Zhang

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The primary goal of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) is to integrate electronics, sensors and actuators into a tiny system, which can be easily fabricated and packaged. Currently there is no standard process for manufacturing all the sub-components since a lot of them are made from different materials and fabrication technologies. Therefore, there is a great interest to develop a reliable manufacturing approach that allows for the integration of multiple micro devices on a single chip. This work describes two approaches to achieve this heterogeneous integration: (1) hybrid material integration by introducing new materials into a well-known self-assembly platform (PolyMUMPs) to …

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Heros: A Patient-Centered Goal-Directed Electronic Medical Record System For The Homeless, Kallol Silas Mahata May 2007

Heros: A Patient-Centered Goal-Directed Electronic Medical Record System For The Homeless, Kallol Silas Mahata

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Homelessness is a growing problem in the United States. Numerous barriers keep the street homeless from obtaining healthcare. Medical Street Outreach (MSO) programs are designed to reach out to the homeless. Gathering relevant clinical information on the streets is difficult, and carrying paper records in MSO is cumbersome and inefficient. Several complex healthcare record systems have been developed for hospitals, but no such system exists for collecting health data on the streets. In this thesis, we describe a light weight Electronic Medical Record (EMR), called HEROS (Homeless Electronic RecOrd System) that we have built to address the process of healthcare …

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Medical Decision Support System Using Augmentable Guideline Engine, Adetayo Afolabi Aiyedun May 2007

Medical Decision Support System Using Augmentable Guideline Engine, Adetayo Afolabi Aiyedun

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Increasing life expectancy accompanied by existing growth of wireless infrastructure and ubiquitous computing technologies has given healthcare providers access to vital information within their healthcare networks. Medical decision support systems (MDSS) play an increasingly important role in medical practice by assisting physicians with making clinical decisions. MDSS are interactive computer programs, which are designed to assist physicians and other health professionals with decision making. Currently, the strategies for providing MDSS has failed, in part, because they have not provided a secure, timely access to information that is current, ability to modify their knowledge base without hard coding them in their …

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Efficient Multi-View Video Coding Scheme Based On Dynamic Video Object Segmentation, Xiaohui Wei May 2007

Efficient Multi-View Video Coding Scheme Based On Dynamic Video Object Segmentation, Xiaohui Wei

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Multi-view video, which simultaneously acquires multiple video sequences from multiple viewpoints or view directions, is poised to become the next generation video technology. Exploiting redundancy is the hallmark of traditional video coding but is even more essential in multi-view video coding (MVC) where the data size is extremely large. The exploitation of additional redundancies, however, incurs extra computational overhead, thereby counteracting the benefits gained from coding efficiency. This dissertation proposes an efficient MVC scheme that provides a complete encoding solution with low complexity. This includes exploitation of inter- and intra-view redundancies for achieving high coding efficiency, and exploitation of inter-view …

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Efficient Visualization Of Streaming Sensor Network Data Using Approximation Technique, Sunil Pai May 2007

Efficient Visualization Of Streaming Sensor Network Data Using Approximation Technique, Sunil Pai

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

By commanding a large number of wireless sensor nodes capable of sensing, communicating, and computing, wireless sensor networks have revealed their vast potential in a plethora of applications. However, due to the stringent resources limitations on each sensor node ranging from energy and computation to network bandwidth and storage, efficient and light weight systems must be designed in order to accommodate the resource limited environment. Furthermore, due to the potentially large number of sensor nodes deployed, the amount of sensory data gathered therein can be overwhelming for processing and visualizing in a resource limited central controller, such as mobile devices. …

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Hiearchical Overlay For Service Composition In Pervasive Environments, Aparna Kailas May 2007

Hiearchical Overlay For Service Composition In Pervasive Environments, Aparna Kailas

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The objective of pervasive computing is to allow users to perform their tasks in a transparent way regardless of device features. Resources on devices should be exploited to provide services in order to perform user tasks. When there is no exact match for the user task in the environment, the capabilities of available devices should be combined to perform the user task. Seamless Service Composition (SeSCo) abstracts device capabilities as services and leverages existing work on graph algorithms to perform service composition. A lightweight framework, PerSON (Service Overlay Network for Pervasive Environments) was developed to provide a service overlay network …

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A Dynamic Framework For Testing The Synchronization Behavior Of Java Monitors, Andres Yanes May 2007

A Dynamic Framework For Testing The Synchronization Behavior Of Java Monitors, Andres Yanes

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

A Java monitor is a specialized class that is used to synchronize the behavior of threads in a Java program. The monitors in a Java program must be adequately tested to ensure the correctness of the program. In this thesis we propose a dynamic framework in which a Java monitor is tested by exploring its state space in a depth-first manner. The state exploration procedure consists of dynamically creating method sequences to exercise the possible synchronization behavior of the monitor. During exploration, new threads will be created on the fly to simulate different scenarios that result from threads reaching the …

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The Effects Of Pulsed Shortwave Diathermy And Stretch On The Torque-Angle Relation Of The Calf (Plantar Flexor) Muscles Association With Passive Stretch Both During And After Treatment, Megan J. Schorr May 2007

The Effects Of Pulsed Shortwave Diathermy And Stretch On The Torque-Angle Relation Of The Calf (Plantar Flexor) Muscles Association With Passive Stretch Both During And After Treatment, Megan J. Schorr

Kinesiology Theses - Archive

Our objective was to assess the short-term effects of PSWD and stretch on the torque-angle relation of the calf both during and after PSWD treatment. We used a 3 X 4 and a 2 X 4 (Time X Treatment) crossover repeated measures design. The independent variables were condition (stretching during diathermy, stretching after diathermy, and stretching during and after diathermy treatment) and time (pre, post, 15-minutes post treatment). Sixteen males participated in the study. Dependent variables were energy absorbed, energy returned, peak torque, average stiffness, intramuscular temperature, and average range of motion (ROM). There was a greater increase in tissue …

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Effects Of Concentric And Eccentric Contractions Of The Knee Extensors On Mechanical Work, Lactate Concentration, And Surface Emg, Jeremiah Cedric Campbell May 2007

Effects Of Concentric And Eccentric Contractions Of The Knee Extensors On Mechanical Work, Lactate Concentration, And Surface Emg, Jeremiah Cedric Campbell

Kinesiology Theses - Archive

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of eccentric and concentric muscle contractions on the frequency and amplitude of EMG, torque, blood lactate, and the amount of work done. Ten college-aged males performed either four sets of twenty eccentric or concentric maximal contractions to induce muscle fatigue. Pre- and post-fatigues measurements of torque, EMG, blood lactate and work done were recorded. A 2 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA was used to test for differences in condition (concentric, eccentric) and time (pre, post) for the following dependent variables: total work done, average torque, change in lactate concentrations VL …

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The Effects Of Bench Height And Step Cadence In Aerobic Step Dance On Force Impact And Metabolic Cost, Dianna H. Putman May 2007

The Effects Of Bench Height And Step Cadence In Aerobic Step Dance On Force Impact And Metabolic Cost, Dianna H. Putman

Kinesiology Theses - Archive

The purpose of this investigation was threefold: to (1) determine the acute metabolic responses of simple bench step aerobics at two cadences (128 and 134 beats per minute) and two bench heights (6 and 10 inches), (2) calculate the average vertical ground reaction force and time to peak with each condition, and (3) attempt to create a regression equation to predict force impact and caloric cost based upon physiological height, weight, step cadence, and bench height. Twelve subjects reported to the exercise physiology lab for maximal treadmill testing and the four testing conditions. There were significant differences between bench height …

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Comparing The Melanin-Concentrating Hormone -1 Receptor Expression In The Brains Of Mice And Rats, Sidney Clayborn Williams May 2007

Comparing The Melanin-Concentrating Hormone -1 Receptor Expression In The Brains Of Mice And Rats, Sidney Clayborn Williams

Biology Theses - Archive

The melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) family of neuropeptides is believed to be important in controlling certain feeding behaviors. Recently, the distribution of melanin-concentrating-1 receptor (MCH-1R) in rat brains was published revealing that it is expressed throughout the rat brain. Mice lacking MCH and MCH-1R have been generated and have been found to be leaner and hyperactive. Consequently, MCH-1R has become a possible site for pharmacologically controlling obesity. However, areas expressing MCH-1R in the mouse brain still remain unknown. Therefore, in situ hybridization was performed on both mouse and rat brains to compare the MCH-1R expression between these animals. This comparison study …

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Salinity, Ph, Temperature, Desiccation And Hypoxia Tolerance In The Invasive Freshwater Apple Snail Pomacea Insularum, Veena Ramakrishnan May 2007

Salinity, Ph, Temperature, Desiccation And Hypoxia Tolerance In The Invasive Freshwater Apple Snail Pomacea Insularum, Veena Ramakrishnan

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations - Archive

Pomacea insularum is a tropical and subtropical, ampullariid, freshwater prosobranch snail that is native to slow-flowing rivers and canals in South America. It is a member of the genus, Pomacea, and, like other species in this genus, can be a severe agricultural pest in wetland rice and taro agriculture systems. It has been introduced to the United States, establishing populations in the rice belt region of southeastern Texas. The resistance adaptations of P. insularum were investigated with respect to important physico-chemical parameters including temperature, salinity, pH, emersion, desiccation and progressive hypoxia in order to predict its potential distribution in North …

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New Applications Of The Pauson-Khand Reaction And Studies Towards The Synthesis Of The Hamigerans, Christian Emeka Madu May 2007

New Applications Of The Pauson-Khand Reaction And Studies Towards The Synthesis Of The Hamigerans, Christian Emeka Madu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part describes the dicobalt octacarbonyl mediated synthesis of medium sized rings via intramolecular Pauson-Khand (IMPK) reaction. The cyclization of 1,8-enynes has proved to be difficult via the IMPK reaction due to entropy reasons. To overcome thid limitation we attempted this cyclization in the presence of an ortho- buttressing group (t-butyl group) on the aromatic ring so as to reduce the conformationally allowed volume of the alkene arm of the substrate. The construction of the substrates started with O-alkenylation of the commercially available 3,5 di-tert-butyl-2-hydroxylbenzaldehyde and then the O-alkenylation products were alkynylated …

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Differentiation Of Gene Expression In Behaviorally Isolated Black And Brown Morphs Of Drosophila Elegans, Daiju Hoshino May 2007

Differentiation Of Gene Expression In Behaviorally Isolated Black And Brown Morphs Of Drosophila Elegans, Daiju Hoshino

Biology Theses - Archive

Pre-zygotic isolation has been recognized as the primary form of incipient speciation, with behavioral isolation as one of its most significant manifestations. In spite of intensive research on behavioral isolation, its molecular mechanism is still poorly understood. We present microarray data from two morphs, black (OH) and brown (HK), of Drosophila elegans. Since only OH females show strong preference to mate with same type of males, these two morphs provide a model system for investigations into the incipient stage of speciation. We analyzed the expression profiles from heads of mated OH females and non-mated females of both morphs. Subsequent analysis …

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Down And Back Again: A Swimmer's Body Moves Through Feminism, Young Adult Sport Literature And Film, Michelle Renee Sanders May 2007

Down And Back Again: A Swimmer's Body Moves Through Feminism, Young Adult Sport Literature And Film, Michelle Renee Sanders

English Dissertations - Archive

Contemporary material feminism is interested in finding new ways of writing and liberating women's bodies in literature, and some of these feminists are looking at sport literature to do so. Down and Back Again: A Swimmer's Body Moves Through Feminism, Young Adult Sport Literature and Film analyzes the ways in which women are represented and/or embodied in feminist theoretical texts, sport photographs, young adult sport fiction and film. By examining these texts in relation to each other and in relation to my own experience in sport, this dissertation creates a circular and recursive story, much like swimming laps, as I …

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The Market Return To Pharmaceutical Product Approval, Imtiaz Ahmed May 2007

The Market Return To Pharmaceutical Product Approval, Imtiaz Ahmed

Economics Theses - Archive

Does the public announcement of approval of New Drugs affect the market valuation of the sponsoring pharmaceutical company? This study will try to find out the technically and intuitively acceptable answer of this question using event study methodology. Relatively smaller number of previous studies on this issue found the mixed answers of this question using well-tested methodology of event study. Basing on the notion that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is in effect in the pharmaceutical industry, stock and securities market should ideally react quickly (i.e., efficiently) in response to the public announcement of approval of new drug by the …

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Runway Incursion Mitigation, Capacity Enhancement, And Safety Improvements With Perimeter Taxiway Operations At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Satyamangalam D. Satyamurti May 2007

Runway Incursion Mitigation, Capacity Enhancement, And Safety Improvements With Perimeter Taxiway Operations At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Satyamangalam D. Satyamurti

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

A perimeter taxiway (PT) or end-around taxiway (EAT) operation is a new concept being developed at several airports around the country to eliminate active departure runway incursions during peak periods. PTs will enhance capacity by permitting uninterrupted, safe, continuous takeoffs and landings within the operations framework and guidelines established by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). For this research, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's (DFW) proposed PT operations are considered for analysis and evaluation. This concept is tested using actual historical flight data at DFW for simulation and analytical modeling based on the FAA safety factors available in the Visual SIMMOD …

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Assessment Of Manufacturing Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Angela Janette Benbarka May 2007

Assessment Of Manufacturing Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Angela Janette Benbarka

Information Systems & Operations Management Theses - Archive

In today's global and highly competitive economy, organizations are constantly monitoring their performance and the performance of their competitors. With technological advancements and increased expectations from consumers, time becomes a critical factor in an organizations' ability to sustain their advantage over competitors. By understanding the multiple components which compose their performance and quickly identifying and addressing inefficiencies within the systems, an organization can maintain and possibly increase their share of the marketplace. This research will assess the feasibility of data envelopement analysis (DEA) as a tool for organizations to measure their performance over time. DEA has been widely used and …

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