Digital Commons Network^™

Drug Use Among Female High School Senior Students In Michigan: An Application Of Social Bond Theory, Halime Unal

Masters Theses

Drug use is a serious problem affecting the American adolescents today. The focus of this study was the relationship between the elements of social bond and drug use among female high school senior students. The elements of social bond were peer pressure, commitment to school, and the importance of religious belief. Drugs investigated in this study were cigarette, alcohol and marijuana. This study included the total population of female senior students during the 1994-95 academic year in Michigan who participated in the Michigan Alcohol and'Other Drugs School Survey (MAOD).

In order to test the relationship between the elements of social …

Introduction Of Iowa System Of Curves To Reliability Engineers, Alamgir Alvi

Masters Theses

The reliability engineers have been using different techniques and a good number of theoretical models to analyze and predict the performance of the designed systems and products. While, most of the engineers working in the area of life analysis, have been using the empirical model named Iowa systems of curves to analyze and forecast the service life of industrial properties. Two different groups of experts have obviously been working toward almost the same objective but using different techniques and tools. The purpose of this study is to introduce to reliability engineers the Iowa systems of curves and compare this empirical …

Parental Involvement In Education, Linda Louise Fletke

Masters Theses

Research has shown that parental involvement is essential to a child’s educational success. This thesis document addresses the important role that parents play in their child’s educational experience.

This paper includes a thorough review of the existing literature regarding parental involvement in education as well as original research conducted by the author. Three questionnaires - one for parents, one for teachers, and one for students - were created and then an average of 100 parents, teachers, and students responded to each respective survey. All of the data were then analyzed and recommendations were made.

There are numerous strategies for teachers …

Modification Of Aph(3')-Iiia, An Aminoglycoside Antibiotic 3'-Phosphotranferase, To Characterize Its Active Site Residues, Ayça Akal

Masters Theses

Bacterial resistance to antibiotic drugs is posing a medical crisis situation to public health. Infections caused by the gram-positive genera represent the most important ones due to the fact that they are responsible for a wide variety of hospital-acquired infections. Treatment of staphylococcal and enterococcal infections most often require the administration of aminoglycoside/aminocyclitol group of antibiotics, which target the bacterial 308 ribosomal subunit, thereby interfering with the normal protein translation processes and ultimately leading to cell death. However, bacteria have responded to the pressure brought about by the use of these antibiotics by developing a number of mechanisms. One of …

Application Of Historical Precipitation Data To Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts For Reservoir System Operations, Bill C. Arnwine

Masters Theses

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) operates an integrated multi-use reservoir system. Accurate and reliable forecasts of expected precipitation are a critical segment of the decision-making process in the scheduling of daily reservoir operations and for long-term decision-making. TVA receives daily quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) for the current day plus the nine following days from a weather forecast vendor. Application of TVA historical precipitation data in conjunction with the vendor forecast could increase the effectiveness of the precipitation forecasts in the long-term (6-10 day period in this context) portion of the forecasts.

Available historical precipitation data consists of 107 years of …

Use Of Ground Penetrating Radar To Map Soil Features That Influence Water Content, James Denton Bouldin

Masters Theses

Vadose zone studies are being conducted in the loessial soils at Ames Plantation, which is located near Memphis, Tennessee. The vadose zone beneath two agricultural production fields at this site (one a tilled field and the other a no-tilled field) is heterogeneous. The soil profile consists of two or more parent materials, varying soil textures, and lamella formations. These nonhomogeneous soils can govern solute migration throughout the vadose zone, having an impact on the offsite transport of agrochemicals.

To assist the ongoing vadose zone monitoring studies at Ames Plantation, an interdisciplinary team of scientists from The University of Tennessee is …

Experimental Study Of Static Mixers And Temperature Distortion Attenuation, Jon Wade Burfitt

Masters Theses

Turbine engine altitude test facilities strive to accurately simulate conditions experienced in flight. Simulation of subsonic, high altitude flight requires very cold inlet air temperatures. Unfortunately, the process of creating these extreme temperatures can sometimes produce unacceptable temperature distortion. Non uniformity of the inlet flow temperature adversely affects turbine engine performance. One is then faced with either testing at warmer, non-standard temperatures or accepting additional uncertainty in the results. An effort was therefore undertaken to investigate the use of static mixers as a means of eliminating temperature distortion. Static mixers are non-moving mechanical devices inserted into conduits in order to …

Planning For Sustainable Communities : A Comparative Study Of Indicators Of Sustainability In Six U.S. Communities, Leonida S. Corcuera

Masters Theses

Cities play a dynamic role in economic and social development and in managing the built and natural environment. Increasing awareness of the consequences of development in the environment and concern about a sustainable future has led many communities to plan for sustainability. Crucial to planning for a sustainable community is determining whether an urban area is moving towards or away from sustainability, which is gauged by various community indicators.

Sustainability indicators are quantitative and qualitative information, which assist a community in identifying its priorities and assess the community’s long-term vitality. Indicators that show trends describe the impacts of human actions …

The Rationality And Spirituality Of Architecture Embodied In The Architecture Of Astronomy, Gary Dennis Conway

Masters Theses

In this thesis a public observatory and planetarium is designed as an astronomical monument to test the theory that the rational and spiritual sides of architecture are united in the architecture of astronomy. First, the conditions of the project are established. The site at Norris Dam State Park is described and analyzed, and then the astronomical "site"- the celestial events the observatory has to responded to- are similarly described and analyzed. The programmatic requirements of the project are listed, with diagrams and a detailed discussion of the spiritual meanings of the project following. Finally, the design of the project itself …

An Investigation Of Catalyst Characteristics In The Slurry-Phase Decarbonylation Of Furfural To Furan, Frederic C. Doll

Masters Theses

Various palladium catalysts were evaluated for their ability to catalyze the slurry-phase decarbonylation of furfural to furan. The catalysts were evaluated in a solvent system utilizing dibutyl phthalate.

Physical and chemical parameters of the catalysts were also determined. These parameters included palladium concentration, particle size distribution, palladium surface area, percent water and single point surface area.

The physical and chemical parameters were then correlated against the ability of each catalyst to catalyze the decarbonylation of furfural to furan. It was found that an optimum particle size distribution existed. It was also found that palladium concentration could be decreased to 2.5% …

An Analysis Of The Differential Impact The Camp Koinonia Experience Had On University Of Tennessee Students Who Served As Counselors And Activity Staff : 1995-1997, Melissa Ann Edwards

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perceived impact persons with multiple disabilities had on university students who served as camp counselors and activity staff at Camp Koinonia during the camp sessions of 1995, 1996, and 1997. A total of 348 student final papers were analyzed in this study which addressed question number six, ‘Describe the experience which happened during the week of camp that had the most impact on you.” Six hypotheses were investigated to determine similarities or differences between the following; (1)1995 and 1996 camp programs; (2) 1995 and 1997 camp programs; (3) 1996 and 1997 …

Effect Of Cultural Practices On Incidence And Severity Of Sudden Death Syndrome And Yield Of Soybean, And Soybean Cyst Nematode Population Density And Fungal Infection, Jay Edward Follis

Masters Theses

Sudden death syndrome (SDS) is a root and lower stem disease of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merril) caused by the fungus Fusarium solani f.sp. glycines.

Incidence and severity of foliar symptoms of SDS were assessed in 1996 and 1997 on a susceptible and a moderately resistant cultivar grown in no-till and conventional-till soils with rows spaced 19 cm and 76 cm apart. Root rot severity and yield of soybean were determined also. Cysts of Heterodera glycines were counted from root-associated soil for each treatment to determine cultural effects on population densities and the relationship of SCN with SDS. …

Connecting Boundaries : Creating A Dialog Between Interior And Exterior Identities-A Nautical Museum In Figueira Da Foz, Scot William Frontis

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses boundaries as they relate to critical regionalism, For the purposes of this thesis the central issue of critical regionalism revolves around the question of how does one become or remain modern in a global, universal world while still maintaining a coherency of place, so that one's roots and traditions may be acknowledged, The thesis will focus on this boundary between the particulars of a place and its global context. Boundaries have the dual capacity to isolate and connect places and artifacts to make them distinguishable. Additionally, bounded situations address interior conditions as well as exterior conditions. Boundaries …

Quasi-Newton Iterations, Preconditioning, And Numerical Diffusion For A 4th-Order Operator Compact Compressible Navier-Stokes Solver, Joseph René Sylvain Graveline

Masters Theses

This thesis deals with improvements to a Compressible Navier Stokes (N-S) solver. These code modifications will result in time performance and accuracy gain. The improvements are geared towards performance in the incompressible regime. Typical compressible N-S solvers converge very slowly in incompressible flow regimes. This leads to long run times for compressible problems with embedded low speed flows such as near stagnation points and boundary layers. In fact, separate incompressible codes are written for low speed problems which have faster convergence properties. The goal of the modifications is to provide a single N-S code which will not only have improved …

Pathway To Professionalism : The Development Of Professionalism In The United States Marine Corps Between The World Wars, John Creigh Hendrickson

Masters Theses

This thesis is concerned with professional development within the officer corps of the United States Marine Corps during the period between the two World Wars. The primary sources were the Marine Corps Lineal Lists for 1924, 1931, 1935, and 1939, from which statistical information on professional education, sea service, expeditionary service, pre-commissioning background, and age-in-grade were derived. Biographies, memoirs, and oral histories provided much other useful information on Marine officers. During the period covered in this thesis, the percentage of officers who had received professional education rose from eighteen percent to seventy percent and a new system for promotions brought …

The Reduction Of Scale Force Uncertainty In Low Thrust Regions, Gregory Darin Hollis

Masters Theses

Minimal scale force uncertainty in low thrust regions of an engine’s operating envelope is critical to meet flight test specifications as Air Force requirements become more stringent. In these low thrust regions, scale force accounts for over 90% of the total thrust uncertainty. Through experiments and experience, the elemental errors associated with scale force uncertainty have proven to be reducible. The primary contributors to scale force uncertainty in low thrust regions include such errors as thrust stand/load cell hysteresis and pre- to post-test zero shifts. Cell heating effects are also very important because they affect the test cell environment where …

Development Of A Hybrid Probe For Gas Turbine Combustor Measurements, Paul Armand Jalbert

Masters Theses

An innovative approach has been used to provide optical access to a combustor exhaust flow for nonintrusive measurements in the high temperature flow. This hybrid probe system combines a line-of-sight optical measurement system with an intrusive, high temperature - capable probe for emission, absorption, or transmission spectral measurements in the high temperature flow. A single 0.94 inch diameter probe concept was selected to be compatible with existing pitot / emission combustor exit rakes and to avoid the significant design challenge of maintaining optical alignment across long path lengths. The optical components were positioned at the top and bottom of a …

Using Latent Semantic Indexing For Data Mining, Jingqian Jiang

Masters Theses

Data Mining is the application of algorithms for extracting valuable informa-tion from large databases in order to make important business decisions. This study explores a new technique for data mining - Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). LSI is an efficient information retrieval method for textual documents. By determining the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a large sparse term-by-document matrix, LSI constructs an approximate vector space model which rep-resents important associative relationships between terms and documents that are not evident in individual documents. This thesis explores the applicability of the LSI model to numerical databases, especially consumer product data. By properly chosing …

Infill Housing : A Case Study On Residential Development In Inner City Neighborhoods, Nedra Lucille Jones

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify and explain those factors that have either contibuted to or impeded the implementation of infill housing in Knoxville’s inner city neighborhoods. A chronological report of the city’s efforts to institute projects and programs documents successes and failures with infill housing since the late 1970s. The experiences of several local non-profit and for-profit developers were considered in the assessment of conditions that affect new housing construction on vacant lots in the inner city. An evaluation of three neighborhoods - Parkridge, Five Points, and Mechanicsville - is based on previous research that identified characteristics …

Improved Process Procedures For Upgrading And Repair Of High Alloy And Stainless Castings, Gang Luther Lu

Masters Theses

The program was designed to provide a data base and a greater depth of understanding of the behavior of cast high alloy austenitic stainless steels, CK-3MCuN, CN-3MN, and CN-7M, and the Ni-base alloy, CW-6MC, in regard to corrosion response and weldability characteristics. Wrought counterpart materials, 254 SMO@reg;, AL-6XN®, Alloy 20® and Inconel Alloy 625®, were also included for comparison. The data base developed is significant and the conclusions reflect a higher degree of understanding of the performance of the cast materials.

Extensive pitting corrosion testing per ASTM G 48 - 92 and intergranular corrosion testing per ASTM G 28 - …

The Effect Of Different Ph Values And Temperatures On The Denaturation Of Red And White Myofibrils From Pork And Poultry As Incubated At Different Concentrations Of Atp, James L. Lane

Masters Theses

The susceptibility to denaturation of myofibrils from pork and chicken red and white muscles was investigated. The M. pectoralis (white muscle) and the M. pubio-ishio (red muscle) of 6 Arboracre chickens, and the M. semimembranosus (white muscle) and M. psoas major (red muscle) of 3 Yorkshire x Landrace x Duroc cross and 3 Yorkshire x Landrace hogs were used. The myofibrils were purified and incubated at 25°C or 40°C, at pH 6.5 or 5.4. To simulate the conditions of a live, early postmortem and a rigor muscle, ATP (0 mM, 0.68 mM, and 3.4 mM) was added to the incubation. …

Case Study : Statistical Testing Of The Material Safety Datasheet System, Michael Patrick Muir

Masters Theses

This thesis is a case study of statistical usage testing. Usage testing is a method in which the software usage is modeled and test cases are generated based on this model. As demonstrated by the Adams [1][4] data, and Mills’ analysis of this data [2], usage testing has a 30 to 1 advantage over code coverage testing in reducing mean time to failure. Model-based testing also produces many statistics based on the model and test results, one of which is an estimate of reliability, something impossible to achieve with code-coverage testing. Model-based testing relies on the development of a specification-based …

Production And Characterization Of Two Single Tryptophan Mutants Of R67 Dihydrofolate Reductase, Freddie Wayne West

Masters Theses

One of the fundamental unanswered questions in biochemistry today is; how do proteins fold? R67 dihydrofolate reductase (R67 DHFR) is a well-characterized enzyme that is an excellent model for studying the structural and functional properties of proteins. R67 DHFR is a novel protein that provides clinical resistance to the antibacterial drug trimethoprim (TMP). R67 DHFR is active as a homotetramer with a molecular weight of 34,000. The monomer is 78 amino acids long and has no sequence or structural homology to chromosomal DHFRs. R67 DHFR contains two tryptophan residues per monomer. W45 and W145 as well as the symmetry related …

An Exploration Into The Role Of Women In Japanese Advertising, John Thomas Worth

Masters Theses

This study was an attempt to gain focus on how women are portrayed in Japanese advertising. As the primary movers of culture in society, it is important to understand what images society is being fed about women. This study focused on television commercials. Japanese advertising shows women in dual roles. Most of the commercials depicted women as independent from their homes and families while still maintaining domestic ties. However, work as a location was hardly ever associated with women; rather, women shown away from home were largely in an outdoor setting. This study also discovered that a large number of …

The African American Male Student-Athletes' Perceptions Of Their Academic Support Systems From Middle/High School Through Their Collegiate Experience, Kimberly L. Wester

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the African American male student-athlete was properly prepared in middle/high school by their mentors to take their ACT/SAT exams, and to also to find out if they had made a successful transition into intercollegiate life. Subjects were comprised of 24 football athletes and 6 track and field athletes which ranged in age from 18-22. The Pearson Chi Square test, crosstabulations, and the independent t-test were used to determine the statistical data for each survey question. The survey used was developed by the researcher. The Questionnaire consisted of 20 items which respondents …

Checkpoint Placement Strategies For Fault Tolerance On Networks Of Workstations, Darryl V. Pace

Masters Theses

Checkpointing is a functionality that enables users of distributed systems to perform job swapping, process migration and fault-tolerance. While checkpointers typically provide job swapping and process migration with reasonable overhead, the overhead for fault-tolerance is often too high. The reason for this is not inherent in the act of checkpointing, but instead stems from how the checkpoints are placed on stable storage.

This thesis explores two placement strategies for checkpointing in distributed systems. These are called Single Processor Fault Tolerance, and Reed-Solomon coding. Both strategies are adaptations of RAID techniques [16, 41] for check- pointing systems, and aim to improve …

Neutrino-Nucleon Interactions In The Tohoku 1.4-Meter Bubble Chamber, Michael Dwayne Pugh

Masters Theses

This dissertation describes a study of the weak interactions of neutrinos with freon in the Tohoku 1.4-Meter Bubble Chamber, with emphasis on those interactions that produce slow protons emerging in the final state. The bubble chamber was exposed in 1985 and 1987 to the Fermilab wide-band neutrino beam generated by 800 GeV protons at the Tevatron. Holographic photography was used in order to improve the sensitivity to protons with very short ranges. A total of 364,000 frames were taken using normal optics. Of those, 63,000 also employed holography. These frames, along with the downstream hybrid data, yielded, after cuts, approximately …

An Examination Of Methodologies To Assess High-Resolution Noninvasive Sensing Of Near-Surface Perched Water, Joseph Cole Reagan

Masters Theses

Previous studies have proven the rate that pollutants move through the soil is directly related to the rate that water moves through the soil. The rate that water moves through the soil increases under saturated conditions due to increased macropore flow. When an impermeable layer exists in a soil, the downward movement of water is restricted. If a saturated layer of soil exists above an unsaturated layer, a perched water table forms. A perched water table creates saturated conditions and increased macropore flow above the impermeable layer in the soil profile. Therefore, a perched water table may provide a rapid …

Nutritional Stress And Femoral Cortical Thickness Among Central And Northern Plains Indians From The Prehistoric To The Historic Period, Rebecca St James Redmond

Masters Theses

This study investigates the effects of changing nutritional status on femoral cortical bone among Plains Indians affiliated with sites in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota from the Plains village period to the Reservation period. Previous studies have examined the relationship of nutritional stress and loss of cortical bone for Plains Indians but this study uses a larger sample and expands the number of groups.

Cortical bone thickness measurements, medullary cavity width and total subperiosteal diameter, were taken directly from radiographs of femora. The general linear models analysis of variance statistic was used for evaluation of both the primary and …

Effects Of Manganese Proteinate Or Chromium Picolinate Supplementation On Performance, Carcass Composition And Plasma Metabolites In Broilers Reared Under Thermoneutral Or Chronic Heat Stress Conditions, Jason Shervago Sands

Masters Theses

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplemental chromium picolinate (CrPic) or manganese proteinate (MnPro) on heat-distressed broiler chickens. In a completely randomized design, dietary levels of supplemental Chromium (Cr) at 200 and 400 µg/kg or Manganese (Mn) at 0, 60 and 240 mg/kg were fed under heat stress (HS) or thermoneutral (TN) conditions. Commercial broilers were reared in brooder pens and fed the experimental diets from day one to 21 and then assigned the same dietary treatments in one of two environmentally controlled chambers. Each treatment consisted of 4 replicates 5 chicks in each chamber. The first …