Browsing Duke Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 3653
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3D Microwave Imaging through Full Wave Methods for Heterogenous Media
(2011)In this thesis, a 3D microwave imaging method is developed for a microwave imaging system with an arbitrary background medium. In the previous study on the breast cancer detection of our research group, a full wave inverrse ... -
A "Trinitarian" Theology of Religions? An Augustinian Assessment of Several Recent Proposals
(2007-05-04)Contemporary theology is driven by a quest to make the doctrine of the Trinity “relevant” to a wide variety of concerns. Books and articles abound on the Trinity and personhood, the Trinity and ecclesiology, the Trinitty ... -
A 3D Active Microwave Imaging System for Breast Cancer Screening
(2008-12-11)A 3D microwave imaging system suitable for clinical trials has been developed. The anatomy, histology, and pathology of breast cancer were all carefully considered in the development of this system. The central componeent ... -
A Bayesian Model of Cognitive Control
(2014)"Cognitive control" describes endogenous guidance of behavior in situations where routine stimulus-response associations are suboptimal for achieving a desired goal. The computational and neural mechanisms underlying thiis ... -
A Beautiful Noise: A History of Contemporary Worship Music in Modern America
(2015)How did rock and roll, the best music for worshipping the devil, become the finest music for worshipping God? This study narrates the import of rock music into church sanctuaries across America via the rise of contemporaary ... -
A Biopsychosocial Study of the Mammography Pain Experiences of Breast Cancer Survivors
(2009)Based on a biopsychosocial model of mammography pain, the current study assessed if specific biological and psychosocial factors were associated with higher reported mammography pain in early stage breast cancer survivorrs. ... -
A CG-FFT Based Fast Full Wave Imaging Method and its Potential Industrial Applications
(2015)This dissertation focuses on a FFT based forward EM solver and its application in inverse problems. The main contributions of this work are two folded. On the one hand, it presents the first scaled lab experiment system ... -
A Clonal Analysis of Zebrafish Heart Morphogenesis and Regeneration
(2014)As vertebrate embryos grow and develop into adults, their organs must acquire mass and mature tissue architecture to maintain proper homeostasis. While juvenile growth encompasses a significant portion of life, relativelly ... -
A Comparative Study of Habitat Complexity, Neuroanatomy, and Cognitive Behavior in Anolis Lizards
(2012)Changing environmental conditions may present substantial challenges to organisms experiencing them. In animals, the fastest way to respond to these changes is often by altering behavior. This ability, called behavioral ... -
A comparison of reported experiences associated with different styles of hypnosis
(1981)Reported experiences were compared for subjects undergoing a traditional style of hypnosis, a cognitive behavioral style of hypnosis, and a "waking imagination" procedure similar to hypnosis but explicitly labeled "non- ... -
A Computational Synthesis of Genes, Behavior, and Evolution Provides Insights into the Molecular Basis of Vocal Learning
(2012)Vocal learning is the ability modify vocal output based on auditory input and is the basis of human speech acquisition. It is shared by few distantly related bird and mammal orders, and is thus very likely to be an exampple ... -
A Covalent Modification Technique for Protein-Ligand Binding Analysis Using Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics Platforms
(2009)Currently there is a dearth of analytical techniques for studying protein-ligand interactions on the proteomic scale. Existing techniques, which rely on various calorimetry or spectroscopy methods, are limited ... -
A Dangerous Undertaking: Appropriation Art, Intellectual Property, and Fair Use Since the 1990s
(2017)This dissertation is a historical examination of the broad and multifaceted role of appropriation in twentieth and twenty-first century American art. It argues for the complementarity of research in legal and art theory ... -
A Dialogical Approach to Human Rights: Institutions, Culture and Legitimacy
(2009)In this study I address the moral and cultural disagreement and conflict regarding the interpretation of human rights norms that threatens the legitimacy of the human rights enterprise. Such disagreements present an oppportunity ... -
A Discrete Monolayer Cardiac Tissue Model for Tissue Preparation Specific Modeling
(2010)Engineered monolayers created by using microabrasion and micropatterning methods have provided a simplified in vitro system to study the effects of anisotropy and fiber direction on electrical propagation. Interpreting tthe ... -
A Distributed Optimal Control Approach for Multi-agent Trajectory Optimization
(2013)This dissertation presents a novel distributed optimal control (DOC) problem formulation that is applicable to multiscale dynamical systems comprised of numerous interacting systems, or agents, that together give rise too ... -
A Dynamical Nephrovascular Model of Renal Autoregulation
(2014)The main functions of the kidney take place in the nephrons. For their proper operation, nephrons need to be supplied with a stable blood flow that remains constant despite fluctuations of arterial pressure. Such stabiliity ... -
A Formal Framework for Designing Verifiable Protocols
(2017)Protocols play critical roles in computer systems today, including managing resources, facilitating communication, and coordinating actions of components. It is highly desirable to formally verify protocols, to provide aa ... -
A Framework for Dissecting and Applying Bacterial Antibiotic Responses
(2017)An essential property of microbial communities is the ability to survive a disturbance. This is readily observed in bacteria, which have developed the ability to survive every antibiotic treatment at an alarminng ... -
A Friend in Need: The Influence of Friendship on the Psychosocial Adjustment of Youth with Chronic Health Conditions
(2015)Friendship has consistently been found to act as a buffer against psychological maladjustment for healthy youth and youth experiencing difficulties including parental divorce and natural disasters. Less known is the rolee ...
