Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Expert Inference Engine For Generation Of Nursing Diagnoses, Tom Edgar

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Expert computer systems for use in the nursing profession are emerging as a potentially viable alternative to manual procedures. As nursing science continues to develop, the intellectual requirements of assessment and diagnosis are demanding that the professional nurse draw on an ever increasing bank of knowledge to interact effectively with clients. An expert system appears a promising tool to assist the nurse in storing and accessing some of the knowledge necessary to perform the assessment and diagnostic functions.

Problems and opportunities In applying artificial intelligence techniques to nursing science are documented and the current state of expert systems for nursing …

Reducing Computational Expense Of Ray-Tracing Using Surface Oriented Pre-Computation, Robert E. Rinker

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The technique of rendering a scene using the method of ray-tracing is known to produce excellent graphic quality, but is also generally computationally expensive. Most of this computation involves determining intersections between objects in the scene and ray projections. Previous work to reduce this expense has been directed towards ray oriented optimization techniques. This paper presents a different approach, one that bases pre-computation on the characteristics of the scene itself, making the results independent of the position of the observer. This means that the results of one pre-computation run can be applied to renderings of the scene from multiple view …

A Study Of The Survival Rate Of The Hepatitis B Virus, James Abraham Houck Iii

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of many viruses transmitted through the blood or body fluids. This paper concentrates on a mathematical study of the survival rate of HBV. Using data which includes the survival time for individuals who were diagnosed as being affected by HBV and those who died from HBV, we fit non-linear models to study the survival time for people affected by the virus. Survival probabilities suggest an exponential curve for the survival time. We also consider a pure death process which is a stochastic model for the survival time of the individuals affected. Our results show …