Digital Commons Network^™

Expanded-Range Venturi Flow Meter: Development And Testing Of A 3d-Printed Flow Meter And Solid-State Valve Concept, Joseph M. Pomo

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

In this thesis, I document the design, testing and performance of a novel Expanded-Range Venturi Flow Meter (ERVFM) concept. The ERVFM combines two, parallel-configured Venturi Flow Meters (VFM) with a Solid-State Selector Valve (SSSV). The goal was to create a reliable, high-turndown ratio flow meter which directs the fluid to either Venturi tube using the inherent pressure drop of the SSSV, and without moving parts. I constructed a pumped-fluid loop test-setup and quantified the ERVFM’s performance through pressure loss and mass flow rate measurements. In addition, I used python to develop models to assist in prototype design and data-processing. My …

Measuring Language Development In Children With Down Syndrome Who Use Aac, Ji Sun Park

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: This study examined the inter-observer agreement (IOA) and within-observer agreement as well as the clinical potential of newly proposed measures that are designed to monitor language progress of children with Down syndrome who use AAC. Measures were explored based on the Graphic Symbol Utterance and Sentence Development Framework.

Method: Participants included 8 preschoolers with Down syndrome. Four graduate student observers coded 13 measures across 57 intervention sessions. Each session was coded by two observers for IOA, and all sessions were recoded for within-observer agreement. Statistical analyses were completed on utterance level and session level.

Results: Across all observers and …

A Novel Approach For Assessing The Reliability Of Data Contained In A Single Valued Neutrosophic Number And Its Application In Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Florentin Smarandache, Dragisa Stanujkic, Darjan Karabasevic, Gabrijela Popovic

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Multiple criteria decision making is one of the many areas where neutrosophic sets have been applied to solve various problems so far.

Measurement Of Femoral Notch Type Show Low Inter-Rater Reliability, Evan D. Boyd, Michael S. Barnum, James R. Saluterbeck, Pamela M. Vacek

Western Journal of Orthopaedics

Background: Preventing first time anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and the devastating sequela of post-traumatic osteoarthritis in the young athlete has attracted efforts to identify risk factors for development of ACL injury. Femoral notch type has been related to risk of ACL injury in previous studies. However, little data exists to support the reliability of assessing this qualitative measurement amongst independent investigators. Methods: Femoral notch type was measured from magnetic resonance imaging sections of 344 injured ACL and control knees by three investigators with different levels of professional experience. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using Cohen’s kappa statistic. Results: The simple …

Model Building And Security Analysis Of Puf-Based Authentication, Wenjie Che

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In the context of hardware systems, authentication refers to the process of confirming the identity and authenticity of chip, board and system components such as RFID tags, smart cards and remote sensors. The ability of physical unclonable functions (PUF) to provide bitstrings unique to each component can be leveraged as an authentication mechanism to detect tamper, impersonation and substitution of such components. However, authentication requires a strong PUF, i.e., one capable of producing a large, unique set of bits per device, and, unlike secret key generation for encryption, has additional challenges that relate to machine learning attacks, protocol attacks and …

Development Of Metal Matrix Composite Gridlines For Space Photovoltaics, Omar K. Abudayyeh

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Space vehicles today are primarily powered by multi-junction photovoltaic cells due to their high efficiency and high radiation hardness in the space environment. While multi-junction solar cells provide high efficiency, microcracks develop in the crystalline semiconductor due to a variety of reasons, including: growth defects, film stress due to lattice constant mismatch, and external mechanical stresses introduced during shipping, installation, and operation. These microcracks have the tendency to propagate through the different layers of the semiconductor reaching the metal gridlines of the cell, resulting in electrically isolated areas from the busbar region, ultimately lowering the power output of the cell …

Assessing Instructional Leadership In Rural New Mexico: An Exploration Of The Reliability And Validity Of The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (Pimrs), Christiana Sisneros

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This study examined the validity and reliability of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS; Hallinger, 1985) for use among teachers in a rural school district. The problem addressed by this study was the need for a well-substantiated tool, which demonstrated reliable and valid assessments of principal leadership skills among elementary and secondary teachers. Measuring principal leadership behaviors is valuable and necessary for the on-going study of the phenomenon of effective school leadership. This was a study involving one rural, northern New Mexico school district, with an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students and a teacher population of 214. The survey …

Thermo-Mechanical Reliability And Electrical Performance Of Indium Interconnects And Under Bump Metallization, Jon-Claude Leger

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

This thesis presents reliability analysis of indium interconnects and Under Bump Metallization (UBM) in flip chip devices. Flip chip assemblies with the use of bump interconnections are frequently used, especially in high density, three-dimensional electronic devices. Currently there are many methods for interconnect bumping, all of which require UBM. The UBM is required for interconnection, diffusion resistance and quality electrical contact between substrate and device. Bonded silicon test vehicles were comprised of Indium bumps and three UBM compositions: Ti/Ni/Au (200\xc5/1000\xc5/500\xc5), Ti/Ni (200\xc5/1000\xc5), Ni (1000\xc5). UBM and indium were deposited by evaporation and exposed to unbiased accelerated temperature cycling(-55°C to 125°C, …

Keeping Checkpoint/Restart Viable For Exascale Systems, Kurt Ferreira

Computer Science ETDs

Next-generation exascale systems, those capable of performing a quintillion operations per second, are expected to be delivered in the next 8-10 years. These systems, which will be 1,000 times faster than current systems, will be of unprecedented scale. As these systems continue to grow in size, faults will become increasingly common, even over the course of small calculations. Therefore, issues such as fault tolerance and reliability will limit application scalability. Current techniques to ensure progress across faults like checkpoint/restart, the dominant fault tolerance mechanism for the last 25 years, are increasingly problematic at the scales of future systems due to …

Algorithms For Self-Healing Networks, Amitabh Trehan

Computer Science ETDs

Many modern networks are reconfigurable, in the sense that the topology of the network can be changed by the nodes in the network. For example, peer-to-peer, wireless and ad-hoc networks are reconfigurable. More generally, many social networks, such as a company's organizational chart; infrastructure networks, such as an airline's transportation network; and biological networks, such as the human brain, are also reconfigurable. Modern reconfigurable networks have a complexity unprecedented in the history of engineering, resembling more a dynamic and evolving living animal rather than a structure of steel designed from a blueprint. Unfortunately, our mathematical and algorithmic tools have not …

Fusion Of Sources Of Evidence With Different Importances And Reliabilities, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert, J.M. Tacnet

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper presents a new approach for combining sources of evidences with different importances and reliabilities. Usually, the combination of sources of evidences with different reliabilities is done by the classical Shafer’s discounting approach. Therefore, to consider unequal importances of sources, if any, a similar reliability discounting process is generally used, making no difference between the notion of importance and reliability. In fact, in multicriteria decision context, these notions should be clearly distinguished. This paper shows how this can be done and we provide simple examples to show the differences between both solutions for managing importances and reliabilities of sources. …

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (Atspphs) Among Jamaican Americans, Geoffrey J. Palmer

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS) among Jamaican Americans. The psychometric properties of the ATSPPHS were investigated to identify its appropriateness of measuring attitudes toward seeking mental health services of this Caribbean population. Ninety four Jamaican Americans completed the ATSPPHS which was developed by Fischer and Turner in 1970, and a demographic information form. An estimate of Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the overall ATSPPHS, and the four attitudinal factors were calculated to determine reliability. Principal components analysis was utilized to examine the structure …