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The Demise Of Industrial Education For African Americans: | |Revisiting The Industrial Curriculum In Higher Education, William L. Allen

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The purpose of this study was to examine the causes that led African Americans to resist industrial education higher education, which ended industrial training programs in predominantly Black colleges and universities during the 1920s.

Three key factors helped create this reform movement: 1) the death of Booker T. Washington; 2) the improved educational levels of African Americans; and 3) the rise in aspirations of African Americans to expand the benefits of higher education. The loss of the Civil War caused a reorientation of southern and economic conditions.

Newly freed slaves had to be granted citizenship. Southern Whites were more concerned …

Seasonal Variation In The Redox Zones And Biogeochemical Processes Within The Constructed Wetland, Yussuf Mohamud

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This research investigation focuses on the vertical distribution of dissolved inorganic species in the pore-water affected by redox processes and seasonal changes within a small constructed wetland located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This is a follow up study to an earlier investigation (Lach, 2004) at this site in 2003. Water samples were collected from influent, effluent and three layers of the constructed wetland through a network of nested piezometers in the vertical flow wetland from June 2005 to June 2006. Onsite analysis of temperature, pH and conductivity were carried out onsite. Major anions and cations were measured by …

A Gnu Radio Based Software-Defined Radar, Lee K. Patton

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GNU Radio is an open source software-defined radio project, and the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) is hardware designed specifically for use with GNU Radio. Together, these two technologies have been used to implement very sophisticated, yet low cost, software-defined radios. Since software-defined radio and software-defined radar are really one in the same technologies, it stands to reason that GNU Radio and the USRP could be utilized to form a low cost radar sensor. In this thesis, we discuss the design of a prototype software-defined radar, built using the open source GNU Radio and open specification USRP projects. The prototype …

Last Monday, Ken Haponek

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Last Monday is the first half of a novel-in-progress. The conception, rationale, and structural framework of the novel are explored further in the introductory essay. The work begins in a suburb of Indianapolis, with the story centering on a family of four whose oldest son is killed while serving in the Army during the Iraq War. The characters' experiences are told through a series of brief vignettes, currently ranging anywhere from one to twelve pages in length, in order to tell the events from the perspective of the four main characters from the Brennan family. The point-of-view of each section …

Tree Seedling Establishment Under The Native Shrub, Asimina Triloba, Marilyn Cabrini Baumer

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Species that form forest understory layers affect canopy tree seedling establishment worldwide. In the Eastern United States, shrub understories like Rhododendrom maximum, a native evergreen species, and Lonicera maackii, an exotic, invasive species, diminish tree seedling survival. I compared the density and survival of canopy tree seedlings under and outside patches of the native shrub, Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal (Annonaceae) (pawpaw). I also conducted a manipulative experiment to determine whether above ground or below ground competition was more important in seedling growth and survival. Above ground competition was manipulated by tying back the leaves of the pawpaw and below ground …

Work-Nonwork Goal Conflict: A Self-Regulatory Expansion Of Work Life Conflict, John Michael Mckee

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Current conceptualizations of work-life conflict (WLC) fail to account for additional life domains beyond that already measured for by traditional work-family conflict (WFC) measures. When conceptualized from a self-regulatory perspective, WFC can be thought of as a person's work goals conflicting with his or her family goals. This goal-based conceptualization of WLC was used within the current study in order to explore the relationship between work-nonwork goal conflict and worker well-being. Participants were guided through an on-line personal project analysis, in which they elicited goals within work and nonwork domains and then provided ratings of conflict between all work and …

Modulation Of The 3'Igh Regulatory Region (3'Igh Rr), A Prospective In Vitro Screening Tool For Identifying Potential Immunotoxicants, Rebecca Anne Henseler

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The immune system is critical to human survival. However, assessing alterations of immune function by potential immunotoxicants is complicated by the diffuse nature of the immune system, which is composed of various effector cells each with differing effector functions. Current immunotoxicity testing is limited to animal studies. We have developed a model, which may provide an in vitro alternative to animal studies in identifying immunotoxicants that specifically target B cell function (i.e., alteration of immunoglobulin (Ig) or expression and antibody secretion). This model consists of a well-characterized B cell line, CH12.LX, which appears to appropriately model primary B cell function. …

Fuel Flow Control Issue In Jet Engines: An Evolvable Hardware Approach, Kshitij S. Deshpande

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Dealing with unexpected dynamic loads in Jet and Turbine engines have always been a matter of concern and an active area of research. This thesis is an initial attempt to apply Evolvable Hardware methods for augmenting classical control methods in a generic turbine engine model. In this work, the Air Force Research Laboratory Generic Turbine Engine Model was converted into C and interfaced with a simulation of a EH VLSI control chip currently under development. The simulated EH device was allowed to evolve to augment the simulated engine's standard FADEC controller so that the whole system could tolerate unexpected, large …

Black Hole: The Role Of Black Aesthetics In Science Fiction, Thomas Leo Johnson

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The main purpose of this thesis is to answer the question of why the genre of science fiction permits African-American authors to expand their themes beyond African-American concerns and characters. This thesis puts forward the argument that science fiction provides African-American writers with the capacity to craft their works' central conflicts to include or exclude issues that affect the Black community. This thesis answers the question in four points, the first being a brief historical overview of the debate within the Black literary community on the prevalence of Black aesthetics. The overview also gives a summary of the debate over …

Modeling And Simulation Of A Microturbine Generator To Be Coupled With A Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell For Distributed Generation, Karleine M. Justice

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Distributed generation is desired when the individual energy requirements ranging from 25-75 kW of office buildings, restaurants, hospitals and apartments can not be met by the current electric utility grid. Microturbine generators as stand alone power generation systems have been designed to meet these requirements. For power requirements up to 50 MW, hybrid fuel cell systems offer higher efficiency and lower levels of pollutant emissions with more advanced fuel energy savings than non-hybrid systems. The objective of this project is to develop a simulation of a microturbine generator as a stand alone power generation system to validate a microturbine generator …

Religious Pluralism In Mauritius And Turkey, Morgan J. O'Brien Iii

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This thesis examines the treatment and facilitation of religious pluralism in Mauritius and Turkey. The thesis utilizes a most-different comparative case study, and argues for the existence of a tipping point that ultimately compels the elected leadership to act. The two states were chosen as most different cases due to their marked difference in religious diversity within each state, as Turkey is almost universally Muslim and Mauritius is very diverse, with large percentages of Christian, Muslim and Buddhist followers on the island state.

Change Detection Methods For Hyperspectral Imagery, Karmon Marie Vongsy

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This thesis studies the detection of changes using hyperspectral images. Change Detection (CD) is the process of identifying and examining temporal and spectral changes in signals. Detection and analysis of change provide valuable information of possible transformations in a scene. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensors are capable of collecting data at hundreds of narrow spectral bands. Such sensors provide high-resolution spatial and spectrally rich information that can be exploited for CD. This work develops and implements various CD algorithms for detection of changes using Hyperspectral images. The main objectives are to study and develop different HSI change detection algorithms. The explored …

Computational Methods For The Objective Review Of Forensic Dna Testing Results, Jason R. Gilder

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Since the advent of criminal investigations, investigators have sought a "gold standard" for the evaluation of forensic evidence. Currently, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology is the most reliable method of identification. Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA genotyping has the potential for impressive match statistics, but the methodology not infallible. The condition of an evidentiary sample and potential issues with the handling and testing of a sample can lead to significant issues with the interpretation of DNA testing results. Forensic DNA interpretation standards are determined by laboratory validation studies that often involve small sample sizes. This dissertation presents novel methodologies to address …

Neurodegeneration And Neuroinflammation In A Mouse Model Of Sarin Exposure, Molly Elizabeth Davidson

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Sarin is an organophosphorus (OP) ester chemical warfare agent (CWA) that has been used in past terrorist attacks. It remains a threat today because of its ease of manufacture and dispersal. Sarin acts by irreversibly inactivating acetylcholinesterase and interfering with neurotransmission by allowing acetylcholine to build up at neuro-effector junctions, where it continuously elicits a response. Symptoms of sarin toxicity include seizures, hypersecretions, respiratory distress and death in extreme cases. Previous studies on OP poisoning indicate that sarin exposure causes neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in conjunction with seizure activity. In order to determine the mode of neuronal death and the extent …

Development Of An Intelligent Autonomous Coffee Maker, Nicholas J. Vanderpool

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Using Intelligent Control Methodology Home coffee machines have improved over time with the addition of features such as self-activating timers and crude temperature controlled heating elements. However, home coffee brewer development has stagnated and has yet to achieve full automation status. Present coffee machines leave the user burdened with the mundane and messy task of preparing the coffee maker every time. Also, should the user decide to prepare less than an entire pot, he/she must estimate the correct amount of water and coffee to add. This can lead to a weak or strong brew, giving undesirable results. In order to …

Classification Of Microarray Data To Predict Toxic Exposure, Tarek A. Seleem

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This thesis presents a software system for the analysis of microarray data. Microarrays are a relatively new technology that can be used to examine the state of the genome of an organism at some instant in time. The challenge is the amount of natural variation in biological systems limits our ability to identify specific genes that may be sensitive to changes in an organism's physiology or its environment. The analysis software consists of three modules. The first module filters microarray data to reduce the complexity of the problem. The second module selects subsets of genes for evaluation using a genetic …

Phase-Locked Piv Investigation Of The Effects Of The Blowing Ratio Of A Pulsed Vortex Generator Jet In A Low-Pressure Turbine, Nathan Michael Woods

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At very high altitudes the Reynolds number flow through the low pressure turbine section of the gas turbine engine can drop below 25,000. At these low Reynolds numbers the flow is laminar and extremely susceptible to separation which can lead to increased losses and reduced lift. Small jets of air injected through the suction surface of the airfoil, called Vortex Generator Jets (VGJs), have been shown successful in suppressing separation and maintaining attached flow. Pulsing of these jets has been shown to be as effective as steady jets while reducing the amount of mass flow needed. An experiment using Particle …

High Spurious-Free Dynamic Range Digital Wideband Receiver For Multiple Signal Detection And Tracking, Vivek Sarathy

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The advent of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) has provided an excellent platform to market prototyping of full receiver-on-chip designs in a short time. The design of multi-tone wideband receiver has always been a challenge because of the difficulty to detect weak signals in the presence of noise in the frequency spectrum and also the presence of general spurs generated by the receiver. In this research, architecture for a FPGA-based 2.56-GSPS digital wideband receiver with multi-tone signal detection and tracking is designed to demonstrate the capability of replacing more expensive analog components into their cheaper digital design counterparts. Novel hardware implementations …

Designing Computer Agents With Personality To Improve Human-Machine Collaboration In Complex Systems, Sasanka V. Prabhala

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The dynamic nature of complex systems and the overwhelming amount of data that must be handled by human operators requires the development of smart systems that augment human capabilities. For these systems human-agent collaboration is part of the system dynamic. Unfortunately the computer agent is not typically perceived by the human operator as a collaborative team member. This research addressed the key question of how to develop and evaluate computer agents with personality to enhance human-machine collaboration. To move towards this goal three research objectives were established: (1) develop agents with personality, (2) validate that humans perceive these agents as …

Implementation For A Coherent Keyword-Based Xml Query Language, Venkatakalyan Potturi

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Due to the increasing pervasiveness of data sets using the XML data format, numerous query languages have been proposed that exploit the structure inherent in XML. Many such query languages, supported by specialized XML search engines, are complex and not suitable for naive users. A simple keyword based query language is described which not only exploits the structure of XML documents to extract relevant fragments, but can also fall back on retrieval through plain text search. This thesis focuses on developing a prototype implementation for a Coherent Keyword Based XML Query Language. It analyzes the typical challenges posed by the …

Visual Search Performance In A Dynamic Environment With 3d Auditory Cues, John Paul Mcintire

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Previous research on aurally-aided visual search has repeatedly shown a significant reduction in response times when displaying 3D auditory cues. However, the vast majority of this research has only examined searches for static (non-moving) targets in static visual environments. In the present study, visual search performance in both static and dynamic (moving) visual environments is examined with and without virtual 3D auditory cues. In both static and dynamic environments, and for all observers, visual search times were significantly reduced when auditory spatial cues were displayed. Auditory cues provided the largest benefits when the target initially appeared at farther eccentricities and …

Loss Of Hdmx Leads To Alterations In Gene Expression And Inhibition Of Cell Growth In Tumor Cells With Wild-Type P53, Katherine Ann Heminger

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Mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene are among the most prevalent molecular abnormalities in human cancer. While half of all human tumors possess p53 mutations, inactivation of wild-type p53 can also occur through a variety of mechanisms that do not involve p53 gene mutation or deletion. This dissertation focuses on human tumor cell lines harboring wild-type p53 protein and elevated levels of HdmX and/or Hdm2, two critical negative regulators of p53 function. My hypothesis is that loss of HdmX in tumor cells with wild-type p53 and over-expressed HdmX, will activate p53 and induce p53 target genes leading to growth …

Transformation Of Formally Defined Post-Conditions Into Target Language Statements, Swetha Padma Parvathaneni

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For years software engineering researchers have been trying to come up with a software synthesis system that can transform a formal specification model into a design model from which executable code can be generated. AFIT Wide Spectrum Object Modeling Environment (AWSOME) is one such formal based software synthesis system. In this system formal specifications written in AWL are parsed into an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree). The intent of this thesis is to demonstrate the transformation of the postconditions of a method into target language statements. The methods in the classes are specified using pre-conditions and post-conditions. Transforms are developed to …

Investigation Of The Reflective Properties Of A Left-Handed Metamaterial, Amanda Durham

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The purpose of this project is to investigate the reflective properties of a left-handed metamaterial (LHM) through the use of a finite element analysis software called FEMLAB. In the 1960's, V. Veselago theorized that a material with negative permeability and negative permittivity has a negative index of refraction. In 2000, such a metamaterial was built and demonstrated at microwave frequencies. Previous work had focused on the transmission properties of the metamaterial. In our work, the reflected wave was examined for a LHM subject to an incident transverse electric wave. The different generalizations, first proposed by Veselago, of the Fresnel and …

Role-Based Access Control For The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access And Integration (Ogsa-Dai), Anil L. Pereira

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Grid has emerged recently as an integration infrastructure for the sharing and coordinated use of diverse resources in dynamic, distributed virtual organizations (VOs). A Data Grid is an architecture for the access, exchange, and sharing of data in the Grid environment. In this dissertation, role-based access control (RBAC) systems for heterogeneous data resources in Data Grid systems are proposed. The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI) is a widely used framework for the integration of heterogeneous data resources in Grid systems.

However, in the OGSA-DAI system, access control causes substantial administration overhead for resource providers in …

Structural And Signaling Elements Important For The Efficient Degradation Of Bhmt Through Macroautophagy, Carol A. Mercer

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Healthy cells maintain a dynamic and responsive intracellular environment that is marked by the synthesis and degradation of proteins, complex macromolecules and organelles. Autophagy, literally "self-eating," is a mechanism that delivers cellular cargo to the lytic compartment for digestion. Defects in the regulation of autophagy have been implicated in pathologies such as cancer and neurodegenerative disease, making the study of its regulation compelling. However, few studies have looked at the regulation of mammalian autophagy as a function of a specific cargo protein. Previous studies had indicated that the metabolic enzyme betaine homocysteine methyltransferase (BHMT) is degraded through an autophagic mechanism. …

Optimal Eeg Channels And Rhythm Selection For Task Classification, Vikramvarun Kannan Adikarapatti

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The Primary Objective of this research is to implement an automatic method for selecting the most optimal EEG channels for task classification purposes. The secondary objective of this research is to choose the most optimal EEG rhythm from which the optimal EEG channels would be selected automatically. The automatic selection of the optimal channels is enabled by implementing the Common Spatial Patterns algorithm (CSP). Common spatial analysis is performed on the data recorded. By choosing the channels with high spatial pattern values the optimal channels are chosen. The optimal frequency bands are chosen by splitting the data from a single …

Processing Nano Graphene Plates (Ngps) And Ngp Nanocomposite, Yena Li

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In recent years numerous efforts worldwide are addressing all aspects of the rapid developing field of nanocomposites. However, the most important fillers-- carbon nanotube and carbon nanofiber - are expensive. In this study, our efforts are aimed at bridging the gap in cost and properties by providing a systematic study of alternative nano materials -- nano graphene plate (NGP) and related composites. We fabricated nano graphene plates through the detailed study of raw materials, chemical treatment methods and nano particle dispersion methods. A series of thermal expansion experiments were conducted to investigate the best condition to expand acid treated graphite …

Comparative Characterization Of Superconducting Thin Films Fabricated By Different Techniques, Padma Prasuna S. Vemulakonda

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The goal of this thesis is to compare the chemical and compositional profiles, grain structure and critical current densities of superconducting Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide(Y1Ba2Cu3O7-x or YBCO) layers grown by different competing techniques on a variety of substrates and buffer layers. The idea is to check if there can be variation of cationic ratios, impurities, possible diffusion of substrate/buffer layer atoms into the YBCO for different processing methods and microstructures. Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), Metal Organic Deposition (MOD) and Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) films on Ion Beam Assisted Deposited (IBAD)-textured buffer layers and, Rolling Assisted Biaxial textured substrate …

Low African-American Student Enrollment In The Post Secondary Vocational Education Step Ii Program: A Study Of Motivational Factors, Victor Goldstein

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A purposive literature review was used in this study to develop a knowledge base on motivational factors impacting enrollment of African-American students in postsecondary vocational education program specifically in the STEP II program. This study examined books, articles, reports, and data from student interviews to understand what motivational factors influence decisions. It was found that low enrollment of African- American students in post-secondary vocational education is not only dependent on motivational factors emanating from the students themselves, but also stem from the institutions that offer training programs.