by Glenn D. Bartkowski., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001., Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69).

At present, there is a global driving towards the concept of universities as protagonists of production of knowledge and generation of technological innovation for the society. To meet that new reality, universities have been challenged to change traditional structures and…

Humans recognize optical reflectance properties of surfaces such as metal, plastic, or paper from a single image without knowledge of illumination. We develop a machine vision system to perform similar recognition tasks automatically. Reflectance estimation under unknown, arbitrary illumination proves…

Flow Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) is the most prevalent material degradation mechanism for low carbon steel in steam-water flow systems. The band of uncertainty in predictions of wear rate due to FAC spans one to two orders of magnitude. Such a…

The bivalve Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker, 1857), also called golden mussel, is native to Asia but becoming dispersed around the world. The golden mussel resembles the invasive dreissenid bivalves in many respects, and although much less studied it evidently has broader…

The Sami people have struggled for centuries to maintain their culture in spite of pressures against it from colonialism. The formal education systems of Norway and Finland have acted in discord with Sami decision-making since their inception. In response to…

Research in decision making has identified the importance of prior knowledge and heuristics on decision making behaviour. These develop with experience in a fashion similar to how domain experts develop specialized knowledge structures and heuristic reasoning patterns. This research is…

The aim of this study is to test the assumption that the depictions of ancient boxing found on Attic Black and Red Figure pottery are accurate. Due to the scarcity of ancient written material and physical evidence, most of our…

This study examines Christian experientialist epistemology as articulated of late by Alvin Plantinga especially and also William Alston. It situates their approach to the epistemic status of Christian belief claims within the overall outlook they have respectively developed on what…

Mysticism can be examined from various viewpoints: historical, theological, sociological, and psychological. This study primarily examines the philosophical status and implications of mysticism, an issue investigated many times, particularly over the last four decades. Walter T. Stace's work in the…