The first two chapters of this thesis investigate a possibly fundamental aspect of technological progress. If knowledge accumulates as technology progresses, then successive generations of innovators may face an increasing educational burden, forcing them to spend longer periods in education…

The climate of the reception of immigrants to the United States has soured, and circumstances are becoming increasingly difficult for persons seeking to gain residency. Reasons often given for the reversal in this practice are that immigrants are poor, uneducated,…

A real-time motion engine for interactive synthetic characters, either virtual or physical, needs to allow expressivity and interactivity of motion in order to maintain the illusion of life. Canned animation examples from an animator or motion capture device are expressive,…

Characterization of defect is one of the important objectives of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) for condition assessment of structures. Among many other NDE techniques, ultrasonic methods play a prominent role in the both quantitative and qualitative assessment of discontinuities in reinforced…

This dissertation investigates how rapid learning occurs in high technology industries, many of which operate in what Bourgeois and Eisenhardt (1988) term "high velocity environments." The dissertation consists of three empirical studies, which follow the method of extended case study…

Understanding the biological signals encoded in a genome is a key challenge of computational biology. These signals are encoded in the four-nucleotide alphabet of DNA and are responsible for all molecular processes in the cell. In particular, the genome contains…

Introduction: Towards a knowledge-based society, Case study: Mobilizing OER to educational practice, Sharing: Publication of academic content through OER, Selection: Documentation and evaluation of academic content, Dissemination: Communication and reference of academic content, Mobilization: Transference of academic content, Lessons learned…

This thesis explores how doctors and nurses use documents to share their knowledge within and across healthcare settings. In addressing this question I draw on a 15-month, multi-sited ethnographic study in several pediatric health care settings, following patients from primary…

Previous research on corporate household and corporate householding has presented
examples, literature review, and working definitions. In this paper, we first improve our
understanding of the area by developing a typology of corporate householding tasks
and knowledge…

OBJECTIVE: To assess school teachers' level of knowledge on prevention of viral hepatitis (VH). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities of Brazil, from August to November of 1999. The sample was composed of 360 subjects:…