In this thesis, we describe various experiments on the ranking function of the Google Search Appliance to improve search quality. An evolutionary computation framework is implemented and applied to optimize various parameter settings of the ranking function. We evaluate the importance of IDF in the ranking function and achieve small improvements in performance. We also examine many ways to comb...

Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date 1 MARKED IN LIFE AND DEATH: IDENTIFYING BIOLOGICAL MARKERS OF SOCIAL DIFFEREN...

Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date 1 THE ROLE OF ANTICIPATION AND AN ADAPTIVE MONITORING SYSTEM IN STUTTERING: A...

Approved: ___________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Title and Department ___________________________________ Date ___________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ___________________________________ Title and Department ___________________________________ Date TOXIC INTERMEDIATES AND PROTEIN QUALITY CONTROL IN THE POLYGLUTAMINE DISEASE, SCA3 ...

Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date 1 IMPROVING BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN ESTIMATES OF CARBON FLUXES IN THE MIDWESTE...

Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date 1 RISK VERSUS RESILIENCE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DEV...