Digital Commons Network^™

An Experimental Study Of Incompressible Axisymmetric Cavity Flow With Swirl, Lee Charles Wendell

Masters Theses

A systematic study was performed of the flow phenomena in an axisymmetric cavity. Axial flow Reynolds numbers ranged from 100,000 to 530,000 for cavity L/D range of 0.25 to 1.65. Working medium for this study was water reflecting that only incompressible domain of cavity flow was covered in this study. Previous results of axisymmetric flow investigations were reproduced and extended to lower L/D values, with the modified test article. Introduction of swirl in the cavity flow was studied in detail for its effects on the enhancement or suppression of cavity modes that have been measured.

The axial apparatus tested here …

Terminal Velocity Determinations For Component Separation Biomas, Sarah Elizabeth Klasek

Masters Theses

Biomass processors require a technology that will separate node and internode segments to enhance the end product or to reduce production cost. Separation techniques that segregate by particle density and aerodynamic differences use terminal velocity properties as exemplified by classifiers and cyclones.

A fabricated vertical wind tunnel for determining terminal velocity had a velocity range from 3.0 to 9.5 m/s. Velocity variations between highest and lowest readings across the outlet was a maximum of about 20% at a given air velocity. Comparisons of measured terminal velocity to values calculated using Mohsenin (Mohsenin, N.N. 1970. Physical Properties of Plant and Animal …

Developing A Model To Evaluate Maintenance Operations, Soundararajan Kannan

Masters Theses

Maintenance has become a prominent function in today's manufacturing environment. Tremendous efforts have been put into in developing different types of maintenance strategies for enhancing the performance of the equipment but very little has been done in actually streamlining maintenance activities. This refers to systematically evaluating and analyzing the non-value added activities within the maintenance function. One of the primary lean tools that can provide a different dimension in identifying and analyzing non-value added activities is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). However, the traditional VSM cannot be utilized "as is" because the maintenance activities do not completely correspond with VSM terminology. …

Ethics In Architecture: The Application Of An Ethic Of Care In The Design Of A Cancer Treatment Center, Emily Lynn Hardin

Masters Theses

The project chosen for this thesis is a healthcare facility, specifically a Cancer Treatment Center, as it is a paradigmatic project for application of an ethic of care. Moreover, healthcare facilities are not given due attention in architectural discourse and education despite the importance of their role in society. While healthcare specific organizations have begun to recognize and research the effects of built environment on health, this newfound concern seems to be generally limited to those organizations. Broader discourse involving other related professions, i.e. architecture, philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc., could benefit research as healthcare entails not only the treatment of …

Controlling The Dispersion Of Nanoparticles In Polymer Matrices, Chang-Uk Lee

Masters Theses

The dispersion of nanoparticles in a polymer matrix is a critical parameter to design and realize targeted morphologies and properties of a final polymer-based nanocomposite. This thesis presents experimental studies to investigate the dispersion of nanoparticles is polymer matrices using specific intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the nanoparticles and polymer matrices under two main topics.

The first topic is the impact of sample preparation processes on the properties of polymer carbon nanotube nanocomposites. Polymer nanocomposites composed of poly(styrene-co-vinyl phenol) (PSVPh) copolymers and 5 wt % multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were prepared from three different methods, including melt-mixing and solution casting. The …

Increasing The Reliability Of General Purpose Bomb Fuzing In Precision Strike Warfare, Mitchell Ralph Conover

Masters Theses

The advent of modern high-precision guided airborne weapons has increased the need for extremely reliable bomb fuzing systems. An electro-mechanical bomb fuzing system is currently used in U.S. Navy and Air Force General Purpose bomb based-weapons to include Joint Direct Attack Munition and Laser Guided Bombs. The demonstrated reliability of that fuzing system in combat operations on average has been less than perfect. The operational commanders have expressed that this is unacceptable since any dud results in coalition forces being held at additional risk because a duded bomb could be utilized as an Improvised Explosive Device by enemy forces. Just …

Design Of A 5-V Compatible Rail-To-Rail Input/Output Operational Amplifier In 3.3-V Soi Cmos For Wide Temperature Range Operation, Robert Lee Greenwell

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a 5-V compatible operational amplifier in a 3.3-V technology capable of accepting rail-to-rail inputs, providing a rail-to-rail output swing and wide temperature range operation. The major system components consist of a fully-differential input (gain) stage and an output (driver) stage, with protection and bias circuitry components. The op amp is biased by a constant inversion coefficient current reference to optimize its performance over temperature. Measured results demonstrate the functionality of the design, which has been fabricated in a 0.35-µm, partially-depleted silicon-on-insulator (PDSOI) CMOS process.

An Evaluation Of The Ah-64 Night Vision Systems For Use In 21st Century Urban Combat, John Kevin Heinecke

Masters Theses

Currently one of the most arduous and dangerous aviation missions for the military attack helicopter pilot is the night combat mission. The mission entails flight at close proximity to the ground and obstacles such as wires, trees, and buildings in an effort to avoid detection by enemy air defense and insurgent small arms fire. Night flight requires the use of augmented vision systems and enhanced aircraft stability and control systems to allow pilots to effectively see and negotiate those hazards that would otherwise be visible during daylight.

The U.S. Army currently fields two variants of augmented visionics, the Aviator Night …

System Identification And Parameter Estimation Of The Piper Pa32-301 Saratoga, Catherine Anne Kelly

Masters Theses

The purpose of this project was to estimate the longitudinal stability derivatives of the Piper Saratoga (tail number N22UT), one of the aircraft owned and operated by the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), using the System Identification Programs for Aircraft, SIDPCAC. After the instrumentation error was reduced by means of a data compatibility analysis, the stability derivatives were estimated using both an output error and an equation error parameter estimation technique.

Following a discussion of the test aircraft and instrumentation and a brief overview of stability derivatives and parameter estimation, the flight test is discussed in detail along with …

Established Predators Of Fiorinia Externa Ferris (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) On Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis (L.) Carriere) In Urban And Forest Sites, Christine Ann Lynch

Masters Theses

A project was initiated in September 2004 to determine the indigenous predators of Fiorinia externa Ferris, the elongate hemlock scale (EHS), on eastern hemlock and their impact on the pest populations. Branch samples were taken monthly from four sites (two forest and two urban) in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina to assess predator damage from October 2004 to April 2006. Predators of this exotic pest were collected from beat sheet samples from September 2004 to May 2006. Laboratory tests were conducted from field-collected predators to assess food consumption, feeding behavior, and intraguild competition among predators of EHS. From field …

"Green In The Mulberry Bush": Quentin, Lancelot, And The Long Shadow Of The Lost Cause, Amy Renee Covington

Masters Theses

The purpose of this project is to examine the immensely popular post-Civil War "Myth of the Lost Cause" which developed in the Southern states after the Confederate defeat. Its primary tenet was the belief in a chivalric antebellum Southern society, complete with genteel plantation owners, faithful slaves, and an Edenic landscape. The myth also exalted the bravery of the Confederate soldier and the quiet heroism of the belles left behind. This carefully crafted fantasy was the product of an organized, sophisticated public relations campaign which originated in the former Confederacy and was quickly adopted by other parts of the country. …

Microprocessor Implementation Of Autoregressive Analysis Of Process Sensor Signals, Swetha Priyanka Pakala

Masters Theses

Automated signal analysis can help for effective system surveillance and also to analyze the dynamic behavior of the system such as impulse response, step response etc. Autoregressive analysis is a parametric technique widely used for system surveillance and diagnosis. The main aim objective of this research work is to develop an embedded system for autoregressive analysis of sensor signals in an online fashion for monitoring system parameters. This thesis presents the algorithm, data representation and performance of the optimized microprocessor implementation of autoregressive analysis.

In this work an autoregressive (AR) model is generated as a solution to a linear system …

Outside The Fence,' The Threat To The U.S. Aviation Industry, David Thomas Ramsey

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the threat to the Aviation Industry from within the United States. The overall investigation starts with one assumption “that there will at some time in the near future be a covert operative group that desires to attack or engage the United States in war on its home land.” The principles of war will be analyzed resulting in covert cell guidance specifically; “economy of force” will require the covert units to be as small as possible to affect as many nodes as possible. Endurance will require the covert team to restrict any tactics …

Occupancy Of Small Mammals On Private Lands In The Emory/ Obed Watershed, Tennessee, Carrie Hedio Salyers

Masters Theses

The Emory/Obed watershed of the Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee is an important area for wildlife conservation and has recently been subjected to land-use changes. This study was conducted to determine if occupancy of selected mammalian species was affected by land-use and habitat characteristics, and to provide baseline data before further land-use changes occur in the region. Small mammal trapping was conducted in a total of 132 sample sites from June through August in 2002, 2003, and 2004 using live traps. A total of 11 mammalian species was trapped. Three species were trapped in sufficient numbers to evaluate occupancy and …

Applications Of Mass Spectrometry To Synthetic Copolymers, Elizabeth Angela Stewart

Masters Theses

Over the last decade, application of mass spectrometry has grown immensely especially in polymer characterization. The focus of this thesis is to assess and extend the applicability of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) in the analysis of synthetic copolymers.

Characterization of a non-ionic copolymer was attempted. The copolymer was styrene-co-maleic anhydride, which is in a class of copolymers that are used for commercial applications where low viscosity, high polarity and/or high reactivity are needed. MALDI-TOF MS was employed to obtain weight and number average molecular weight values (M_w and …

Nabataean And Roman Survey Pottery From The Karak Plateau, Jordan, Meagan Kelley Ayer

Masters Theses

The Karak Plateau lies at the foot of the Dead Sea in central Jordan. It has been occupied continuously from the Paleolithic and has been the sit of several cultures including the Moabite, Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine. It is thus uniquely suited to the investigation of land use and resource exploitation over time. During the Roman period, the plateau was densely populated by a variety of settlements among them small farms, large agriculture villages and military posts as well as nomadic pastoralists; thus the use of land and resources in the plateau encompassed great variability (Green 2002: 48).

This study …

Rebound Ace Tennis Court Surface: The Effect Of Temperature On The Coefficient Of Friction, Denise Helen Bauer

Masters Theses

The study was conducted to determine if temperature affects the safety of Rebound Ace™ surface. The objective of this study is to determine how the COF changes as the Rebound Ace™ tennis court surface temperature increases. The lack of literature on this subject leads to the question of the surface’s safety at higher temperatures. A sample of Rebound Ace™ tennis court surface was tested at eight temperatures related to the climate of Melbourne in January with four different shoes to determine how the COF changes with an increase in temperature.

Temperature and shoe brand were both found to be significant …

A Reconfigurable Supercomputing Library For Accelerated Parallel Lagged-Fibonacci Pseudorandom Number Generation, Yu Bi

Masters Theses

To help promote more widespread adoption of hardware acceleration in parallel scientific computing, we present portable, flexible design components for pseudorandom number generation. Due to the success of the Scalable Parallel Random Number Generators (SPRNG) software library in stochastic computations (e.g., Monte Carlo simulations), we developed an efficient and portable hardware architecture fully compatible with SPRNG’s Parallel Additive Lagged Fibonacci Generator (PALFG). Our general design produces identical results for all the parameter sets that SPRNG supports and yields high performance parallel random number generators which can each generate 162 million 31-bit uniform random integers per second on Xilinx Virtex II …

An Analysis Of Bayesian Methods In Determining The Viability Of Perinatal Remains, Tiffanie Sue Cave

Masters Theses

Bayes’ theorem is a conditional probability formula with the potential for aiding in the development of more accurate age-at-death estimations in perinatal remains. This investigation tested the validity of a Bayesian method for aging by applying the formula to 495 sets of historical Native American remains from several Arikara sites in South Dakota. The dates for these sites range from the 1600’s to the 1830’s. Dr. Oystein E. Olsen generously provided the reference sample data of 348 sets of perinatal remains from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway collected between January 1988 and December 1998. The goal of this analysis …

Consumer Perceptions Of Branded Beef Products, Leslie Erin Williams

Masters Theses

This study examined consumer perceptions of branded beef products. Research was conducted to determine what motivates consumers to purchase branded beef products. In addition, this study focused on consumer perceptions of quality, risk, added value, credibility and loyalty toward both branded beef products in general and branded beef products when compared to non-branded beef products.

A self-developed question guide was used as a guide for the focus group and the in-depth interviews. This study entailed one focus group with nine participants and nine one-on-one in-depth interviews.

The majority of participants in this study held a positive impression of branded beef …

Probing Precursor Interactions With The Chloroplast Import Apparatus, Sarah Jean Wright

Masters Theses

The majority of plastid proteins are nuclear-encoded and imported post-translationally. A cleavable N-terminal extension, the transit peptide, targets these preproteins to the plastid. Transit peptides show very little primary sequence homology, yet are able to direct the precursor protein to interact with the protein components of the translocation complexes located within the inner and outer membranes of the chloroplast. In this study, a semi-conserved motif of the transit peptide, (F/W)(P/G)h(R/K) has been targeted for deletion in order to probe its importance. Two corresponding regions were deleted in the transit peptide of the precursor to the small subunit of Rubisco (prSSU) …

Mathematical Modeling Of High Temperature And High Pressure Dense Membrane For Separation Of Hydrogen From Gasification, Ifeyinwa J. Iwuchukwu

Masters Theses

There is an increasing interest in the use of inorganic membranes as a means of separating gas mixtures at high temperatures and pressures. The most important membrane properties are high permeability and selectivity, and good mechanical, thermal and chemical stability. Dense Pd-based composite membranes are suitable for hydrogen separation and use in catalytic membrane reactors because of their high permeability, good surface properties and high selectivity for hydrogen transport. At UTSI, Pd/AlO23 membranes were prepared by a special method of laser based thermal deposition of the thin film Pd on a ceramic substrate by Nd-YAG laser irradiation of PdCl2 coating …

Changes In Perceptions Of Social Support, Constructive Communication And Marital Satisfaction In Couples Participating In A Marital Enrichment Program, Nikki N. Frousakis

Masters Theses

Marital enrichment programs have been gaining considerable recognition in the past several decades. Thousands of individuals participate in these programs yearly. However, the particular effects of enrichment programs are still under investigation, and many remain empirically unanalyzed and their effectiveness undetermined. Also, many dyadic interventions focus on helping couples improve their communication skills and become more socially supportive of their partner. This study explored changes in levels of perceived social support, constructive communication, and marital satisfaction in couples participating in a marital enrichment program, Marriage Alive. Couples who completed all 3 phases of the study (i.e., pre-seminar, post-seminar, 2 month …

The Effects Of Processing On Hydrophilic Antioxidant Capacity Of Black Beans, Elizabeth Roberson Mcgee

Masters Theses

Dry, uncooked black beans have been found to contain a significantly high amount of antioxidants compared to many other foods. There is little information available on the influence of thermal processing on antioxidant capacity of foods. The antioxidant capacity, reported in μmol Trolox Equivalents per gram of uncooked, blanched, or retorted black beans was evaluated using the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay. A boiling water blanch of black beans for 30, 60 or 90 sec resulted in a 33% reduction in antioxidant capacity compared to uncooked beans. There was no significant difference among antioxidant capacity of beans blanched for …

Mothers’ Attitudes About Childhood Nutrition Coverage In Magazines And Newspapers, Carrie Suzanne Baker

Masters Theses

This study explores mothers’ attitudes toward magazine and newspaper coverage of childhood nutrition issues. The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased in recent years along with media coverage of obesity and obesity issues. This growing concern has posed a problem for society and parents.

Focus group interviews and individual interviews were conducted with mothers who read magazines and newspapers. These interviews explored mothers’ nutrition habits, knowledge of obesity and, overall, their attitudes about childhood nutrition topics, such a childhood obesity, as they are presented in magazines and newspapers.

Training Parents To Treat Noncompliance In Children With Developmental Disabilities Using Guided Compliance, Christine Bennett

Masters Theses

Noncompliance with parental directions is a critical target for children with developmental disabilities for several reasons, including the frequency of the problem and its impact on caregivers. Three decades of research have shown the effectiveness of guided compliance with children with developmental disabilities; however, only a few studies have examined the effects of parent-implemented guided compliance with this population (Handen, Parrish, McClung, Kerwin, & Evans, 1992; Smith & Lerman, 1999; Tarbox, Wallace, & Penrod, 2003). Three children with developmental disabilities and one primary caregiver for each participated in the present study. Parents were trained in three-step guided compliance (i.e., command, …

The Analysis Of Ceramic Symbolism From The First Street Site In Barbados, Aya Hashimoto

Masters Theses

The expression of race and racism in material culture is of increasing interest in historical archaeology ( e.g., Epperson 1990, 1999, 2000; Mullins 1996, 1999). This study investigates 6 ceramic sherds from one vessel associated with a white urban domestic site on First Street, in Holetown Barbados. This vessel conveys a racist message. A black slave in a loincloth serving tea to a white person is transfer printed on the ceramic. The ceramic seems to be an annular designed pearlware from England in the first half of the 19^th century.

By interpreting the meanings of the ceramic decoration, this …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Inosamines, Sing Raj Gurung

Masters Theses

This project is concerned with the preparation of scyllo-inosarnine hydrochloride 6, a biologically active compound, which bears six successive stereogenic centers. The synthesis of this compound would help elucidate the involvement of inosamines in biological nitrogen fixation. myo-Inositol served as the starting material to synthesize target compound 6. Regioselective protection and deprotection of myo-inositol provided azide 43 as key intermediate. In the final steps deprotection of five benzyl groups and reduction of azido group was achieved by catalytic hydrogenation. scyllo-Inosamine hydrochloride 6 was fully characterized by m.p., ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, IR, EA and via …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Morphological Changes In Specific Laminae Of The Olfactory Bulb Of Adult Zebrafish Following Peripheral Sensory Deafferentation, Travis L. Devlin

Masters Theses

Permanent removal of the olfactory organ in adult zebrafish has been shown to result in a significant reduction in the total volume of the ipsilateral olfactory bulb. The overall objective of the current project was to investigate the hypothesis that contact between the axons of the olfactory sensory neurons and the olfactory bulb is necessary for the maintenance of the normal post-synaptic organization of the olfactory bulb by quantifying the morphological changes that take place within specific laminae of the olfactory bulb following peripheral deafferentation. Complete, unilateral ablation of the olfactory organ resulted in permanent deafferentation of the ipsilateral olfactory …

Metabolic And Phenotypic Characterization Of Aerobic Pcb Degrading Bacteria Isolated From Kalamazoo River Sediments, Brenton K. Lehmkuhl

Masters Theses

The Kalamazoo River is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) which are neurotoxins and suspected carcinogens. The goal of this study was to isolate, identify, and metabolically characterize PCB degrading strains of aerobic bacteria. Biphenyl enrichments resulted in the isolation of putative PCB degrading strains from different locations along the river. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis the isolated strains were identified as belonging to the genera of Achromobacter, Acidovorax, Cellulosimicrobium, Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas, and Rhodococcus. These strains were screened for their PCB degrading ability and congener specificity. All of the isolated strains degraded PCBs via the 2,3-dioxygenase pathway. The range …