Cervical Cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women worldwide (500,000 cases/year) and one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality in women in developing countries (230,000 cases/year). The Spectrx LightTouch™ device uses light to detect chemical and structural changes in cervical tissue. Light responds differently when exposed to normal cells and cancerous cells. The purpose of this research is to find the best model that can be used to diagnose the early cervical cancerous conditions. To achieve this goal, we first tried to reduce the number of variables. We use statistical and non-statistical methods to search for useful explanatory variables. Partial Least Square, Logistic Regression, CART, MARS, SVM have been used to build models. Bootstrap was adopted to estimate the threshold of PLS model. Comparison of the results indicates that PLS produces relatively better model in terms of the performances and to control over model threshold.

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This paper mainly focuses on one of the new specifications of Phillips curve family, the threshold Phillips curve. By estimating the threshold model using G7 plus Australia countries quarterly data, the threshold effect is confirmed only by U.S. and Canadian Phillips curves. No strong evidence for the threshold effect was found among other countries. Moreover, the estimation results for both standard and threshold Phillips curve model indicate weak trade-o relations between inflation and unemployment. Policy makers should review Phillips curve as a forecasting tool with extra caution. Future studies can focus on specific country's threshold effect testing with detailed explanation.

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The current design procedure for cantilever structures on spread footings in the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is based on horizontal pressure that is calculated by using Rankine's and Coulomb's theory. These are classical Geotechnical Engineering methods. Horizontal earth pressure due to moisture and volume change in high plasticity soil is not determined by these classical methods. However, horizontal pressure on most of the cantilever retaining structures in Texas is determined by following the classical methods. In recent years, a number of consultants have considered the horizontal pressure due to swelling on cantilever retaining structures in Texas. However, the proposed horizontal pressure by consultants is 10-20 times higher than the classical horizontal pressure. This method of cantilever retaining structure design without knowing the real pressure and stress pattern increases the thickness of the wall, and raises the cost of construction. This study focuses on providing adequate patterns of lateral earth pressure distribution on cantilever retaining structures in expansive soil. These retaining wall structures are subject to swelling pressures which cause horizontal pressures that are larger than the classical especially near the ground surface. Beside the prediction of lateral earth pressure distribution, the relations between water content, volume change and suction change are determined. Based on the laboratory testing program conducted, Soil Water Characteristic Curves (SWCC) are determined for a site located at the intersection of I-35 and Walters Street in San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, relations between volume change with confining pressure curve, water content change with the change of confining pressure curve, water content change with change of matric suction and volume change with change of matric suction curves are generated based on laboratory tests. There are a number of available mass volume measurement methods that use mostly mercury or paraffin to obtain volume measurements. Although these methods are reported in the literature, they are not used in practice due to application limitations like safety, time, and cost. In order to overcome these limitations, a new method was developed to measure the volume of soil mass by using sand displacement. This new method is an inexpensive, safe, and simple way to measure mass volume by Ottawa sand.

The concept of economic development has broadened to include environmental quality and population health. Interactions between income and pollution, income and health, and pollution and health have been studied separately by researchers from various disciplines. This study attempts to unify several different research strands and analyze simultaneous interactions between population health, measured by the infant mortality rate, pollution, and income in one endogenous system. Socioeconomic, racial, and rural urban disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are analyzed. The simultaneous equation system, estimated using the two-stage least squares method, tests whether pollution effects on infant mortality are outweighed by income effects. The study finds that income is a stronger determinant of infant mortality than pollution. Evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve is ambiguous. Disparities in infant mortality, pollution, and income are correlated with counties rural-urban status, income inequality, and ethnic diversity. Regional patterns identify wide geographical differences in levels of pollution, income, and infant mortality. The Southeast region stands out as a region with the highest infant mortality rate, relatively high levels of air pollution and chemical releases, and low per capita incomes.

Some animals have adapted to hypoxia by increasing their haemoglobin affinity for oxygen, but in vitro studies have not shown any change of haemoglobin affinity for oxygen in human high altitude natives or lowlanders acutely acclimatized to high altitude. We conducted the first in vivo study of the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve by progressively reducing arterial PO2 while maintaining normocapnia in lowlanders at sea level, lowlanders sojourning at 3600m for two weeks and native Andeans at the same altitude. We found that the in vivo PO2 at which haemoglobin is half-saturated (P50) is higher in lowlanders at sea level (32 mmHg) than that measured in vitro (27 mmHg) and that lowlanders and highlanders do significantly increase the in vivo affinity of their haemoglobin for oxygen with exposure to high altitude. These results indicate the value of an in vivo approach for studying the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve.

Some animals have adapted to hypoxia by increasing their haemoglobin affinity for oxygen, but in vitro studies have not shown any change of haemoglobin affinity for oxygen in human high altitude natives or lowlanders acutely acclimatized to high altitude. We conducted the first in vivo study of the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve by progressively reducing arterial PO2 while maintaining normocapnia in lowlanders at sea level, lowlanders sojourning at 3600m for two weeks and native Andeans at the same altitude. We found that the in vivo PO2 at which haemoglobin is half-saturated (P50) is higher in lowlanders at sea level (32 mmHg) than that measured in vitro (27 mmHg) and that lowlanders and highlanders do significantly increase the in vivo affinity of their haemoglobin for oxygen with exposure to high altitude. These results indicate the value of an in vivo approach for studying the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve.

In elliptic curve cryptography, cryptosystems are based on an additive subgroup of an elliptic curve defined over a finite field, and the hardness of the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem is dependent on the order of this subgroup. In particular, we often want to find a subgroup with large prime order. Hence when finding a suitable curve for cryptography, counting the number of points on the curve is an essential step in determining its security. In 1985, René Schoof proposed the first deterministic polynomial-time algorithm for point counting on elliptic curves over finite fields. The algorithm was improved by Noam Elkies and Oliver Atkin, resulting in an algorithm which is sufficiently fast for practical purposes. The enhancements leveraged the arithmetic properties of the l-th classical modular polynomial, where l- is either an Elkies or Atkin prime. As the Match-Sort algorithm relating to Atkin primes runs in exponential time, it is eschewed in common practice. In this thesis, I will discuss my implementation of the Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm in C++, which makes use of the NTL package. The implementation also supports the computation of classical modular polynomials via isogeny volcanoes, based on the methods proposed recently by Bröker, Lauter and Sutherland. Existing complexity analysis of the Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm focuses on its asymptotic performance. As such, there is no estimate of the actual impact of the Match-Sort algorithm on the running time of the Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm for elliptic curves defined over prime fields of cryptographic sizes. I will provide rudimentary estimates for the largest Elkies or Atkin prime used, and discuss the variants of the Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm using their run-time performances. The running times of the SEA variants supports the use Atkin primes for prime fields of sizes up to 256 bits. At this size, the selective use of Atkin primes runs in half the time of the Elkies-only variant on average. This suggests that Atkin primes should be used in point counting on elliptic curves of cryptographic sizes.