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Historic Period Foodways In The Danish West Indies (1718-1917): The Zooarchaeological Evidence From Cinnamon Bay And The East End, St. John, Virgin Islands, Judith A. Sichler

Doctoral Dissertations

This research concerns the faunal remains from two sites on the former Danish island of St. John, now part of the United States Virgin Islands. The first site, Cinnamon Bay, a small-scale cotton plantation that was later incorporated into a larger sugar plantation, was occupied from 1718 to 1917. The East End, a provisioning estate and later free African community, was occupied from 1725 to 1950. Cinnamon Bay and the East End are significant to historic zooarchaeological research in the Caribbean for two reasons. First, the assemblages represent subsistence choices and procurement in two contrasting occupation types in the 18 …

Domesticity And The Modernist Aesthetic: F.T. Marinetti, Djuna Barnes, And Gertrude Stein, Allison Elise Carey

Doctoral Dissertations

Literary modernism has been presented, in scholarship and critical histories, as a masculinized movement: a literature largely by men and concerned with issues of literary form rather than with everyday life. This critical tunnel vision has inevitably prevented a full accounting of many key aspects of modernist literature. One issue of modernism that has been persistently overlooked by scholars is the central role of domesticity in many modernist texts and the importance to modernists of reclaiming the domestic as a subject of high art. As this study demonstrates, modernist texts often focused on everyday life, and these modernist treatments of …

Optimization Of Bacterial Luciferase For Expression In Mammalian Cells, Stacey Swiger Patterson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study describes the optimization of expression of the bacterial luciferase enzyme in mammalian cells. Previous attempts to express this heterodimeric enzyme complex in mammalian cells have been met with only modest success. In this research effort, several vector formats were evaluated to fully determine the optimal format for the expression of these genes. It was determined that the bacterial luciferase enzyme produced optimal bioluminescence in mammalian cells when the genes were cloned and expressed as a bicistronic transcript fused with an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES). To optimize the enzyme expression further, a novel approach to codon optimize the …

Predicting Academic Success: A Re-Examination Of Broad Versus Narrow Personality Traits, Susan D. Ridgell

Doctoral Dissertations

Personality and cognitive variables were examined to determine relative validity in predicting academic performance. This study investigated whether broad personality variables (in this case, the Big Five: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience) predicted academic success better than narrow personality variables (the construct Work Drive); it also explored the utility of operationalizing academic performance via cumulative grade point average (GPA) versus a single course grade. The highest significant correlates of GPA and course grade were Work Drive (r=.42, p<.01; r=.29, p<.01) and general intelligence, the cognitive variable (r=.40, p<.01; r=.35, p<.01). Regression analysis revealed that Work Drive was the stronger predictor of GPA (17.9% unique variance as step 1, compared to general intelligence’s 15.7% unique variance as step 1); while general intelligence was found to be the stronger predictor of course grade (11.8% unique variance as step 1, compared to Work Drive’s 8.6% unique variance as step 1). Two Big Five variables, Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability, correlated significantly with GPA (r=.15, p<.05; and r=.14, p<.05; respectively). Therefore, this study found that the narrow personality trait predicted better than the broader traits. Conflicting evidence was provided concerning whether GPA and course grade might be used interchangeably as valid criteria.

Prediction Interval Estimation Techniques For Empirical Modeling Strategies And Their Applications To Signal Validation Tasks, Brandon Peter Rasmussen

Doctoral Dissertations

The basis of this work was to evaluate both parametric and non-parametric empirical modeling strategies applied to signal validation or on-line monitoring tasks. On-line monitoring methods assess signal channel performance to aid in making instrument calibration decisions, enabling the use of condition-based calibration schedules. The three non-linear empirical modeling strategies studied were: artificial neural networks (ANN), neural network partial least squares (NNPLS), and local polynomial regression (LPR). These three types are the most common nonlinear models for applications to signal validation tasks. Of the class of local polynomials (for LPR), two were studied in this work: zero-order (kernel regression), and …

“A Study Of The Perceptions Of Occupational Therapy Students After Completing Fieldwork Level Ii Clinical Training In The United States On Supervision Characteristics, Victoria L. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational therapy student perceptions of supervision characteristics during fieldwork level II experiences in the United States. The fieldwork education system for occupational therapy has experienced a great deal of stress due to economic and educational delivery system changes.

The target population for this study was professional level occupational therapy students from accredited bachelors level and master’s level entry programs within the United States that have completed their fieldwork level II clinical education experiences in 1999. The instrument used included 2 sections of the Student Evaluation of Fieldwork Experience (SEFWE).

The research questions …

Analytical Modeling Of High Performance Reconfigurable Computers: Prediction And Analysis Of System Performance., Melissa C. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of a network of shared, heterogeneous workstations each harboring a Reconfigurable Computing (RC) system offers high performance users an inexpensive platform for a wide range of computationally demanding problems. However, effectively using the full potential of these systems can be challenging without the knowledge of the system’s performance characteristics. While some performance models exist for shared, heterogeneous workstations, none thus far account for the addition of Reconfigurable Computing systems. This dissertation develops and validates an analytic performance modeling methodology for a class of fork-join algorithms executing on a High Performance Reconfigurable Computing (HPRC) platform. The model includes the …

Monte Carlo Simulation Of Neutron Detectors, Andrew Curtis Stephan

Doctoral Dissertations

Neutron detectors are simulated using Monte Carlo methods in order to gain insight into how they work and optimize their performance. Simulated results for a Micromegas neutron beam monitor using a custom computer code are compared with published experimental data to verify the accuracy of the simulation. Different designs (e.g. neutron converter material, gas chamber width, gas pressure) are tested to assess their impact on detector performance. It is determined that a ¹⁰B converter foil and 1 mm drift gap width work best for a neutron beam monitor. The Micromegas neutron beam monitor neutronics are evaluated using the computer …

Numerical Simulation Of Separating Flows Using Computational Models Based On The Vorticity Confinement Method, Lesong Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of the present research is to investigate the recent development of the vorticity confinement method. First, a new formulation of the vorticity confinement term is studied. Advantages of the new formulation over the original one include the ability to conserve the momentum, and the ability to preserve the centroid motion of some flow properties such as the vorticity magnitude. Next, new difference schemes, which are simpler and more efficient than the old schemes, are discussed. At last, two computational models based on the vorticity confinement method are investigated. One of the models is devised to simulate inviscid flows …

Transportation Shortest Path Search Area Model, Hui Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Although many studies on shortest-path algorithms have been conducted in the past, few of them have considered the time and effort required to obtain and update the weight property of the network arcs. For transportation-related problems – due to the size and complexity of the network – preparing, updating, and transmitting the network database on which the shortest-path algorithms perform can be a challenge.

This study designed a Transportation Shortest Path Search Area (TSPSA) model to enhance the database preparation and updating step before any shortest-path search algorithm can start processing. Taking advantage of the characteristics of the transportation networks, …

Thermography Detection On The Fatigue Damage, Bing Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

It has always been a great temptation in finding new methods to in-situ “watch” the material fatigue-damage processes so that in-time reparations will be possible, and failures or losses can be minimized to the maximum extent. Realizing that temperature patterns may serve as fingerprints for stress-strain behaviors of materials, a state-of-art infrared (IR) thermography camera has been used to “watch” the temperature evolutions of both crystalline and amorphous materials “cycle by cycle” during fatigue experiments in the current research.

The two-dimensional (2D) thermography technique records the surface-temperature evolutions of materials. Since all plastic deformations are related to heat dissipations, thermography …

Effects Of Environment And Frequency On The Fatigue Behavior Of The Spallation Neutron Source (Sns) Target Container Material - 316 Ln Stainless Steel, Hongbo Tian

Doctoral Dissertations

As the candidate target container material of the new Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) being designed and constructed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), 316 low-carbon nitrogen-added (LN) stainless steel (SS) will operate in an aggressive environment, subjected to intense fluxes of high-energy protons and neutrons while exposed to liquid mercury. The SNS is an accelerator-based neutron source that provides pulsed beams of spallation neutrons by bombarding a mercury target with 1 GeV protons. The function of the SNS is to convert a short pulse (< 1 ms, 60 Hz, 17 kJ/pulse), high-average-power (1 MW), 1-GeV proton beam into 18 lower-energy (< 1eV), short-pulsed (~ tens of ms) neutron beams optimized for use by neutron-scattering instruments.

The current project is oriented toward materials studies regarding the effects of test environment …

The Value-Relevance Of Nonfinancial Information: The Biotechnology Industry, Ya-Wen Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines whether nonfinancial patent information is useful to investors in assessing and valuing biotech firm’s long-term financial performance. The biotech industry requires large R&D investments with uncertain payoffs. Current accounting practice expenses (rather than capitalizes) R&D expenditures. As a result, financial variables are often negative or excessively depressed. Because accounting assets do not reflect biotech firms’ valuable intangible assets, this study examines whether nonfinancial patent information supplement the information content of financial information in market valuation. Using six patent variables measuring both quantity and quality aspects of patents, I found evidence consistent with the idea that nonfinancial patent …

Computational Magnetohydrodynamic Investigation Of Flux Compression And Implosion Dynamics In A Z-Pinch Plasma With An Azimuthally Opposed Magnetic Field Configuration, Kyle John Peterson

Doctoral Dissertations

Magnetic flux compression is a well established technique for the generation of ultrahigh magnetic fields, large currents, and large energy densities. It has been suggested as a means for power density amplification on Z-pinch generators such as Decade Quad, at Arnold Engineering Development Center, and it may be especially suitable as a means for producing higher powers of K-shell radiation from high atomic number loads such as titanium. Although many one-dimensional models of flux compression on Z-pinch generators exist, an improvement in understanding is needed about the physics and implosion dynamics on a two-dimensional level. To this end, a two-dimensional …

Directional Solidification, Microstructures And Mechanical Properties Of Cr-Cr3si Eutectic Alloys, Hongbin Bei

Doctoral Dissertations

Alloys based on intermetallics have been considered for high temperature structural applications. However, many of these alloys suffer from intrinsic brittleness and low fracture toughness at ambient temperature. Therefore, ductile-phase-toughened intermetallic composites are being investigated as a means to improve the fracture toughness. A subset of this class of materials is in-situ composites produced by directional solidification of intermetallic eutectics. In this study, the Cr-Cr₃Si eutectic system is selected as a model system to investigate composites by directional solidification, where the strong, but brittle Cr₃Si is combined with a more ductile Cr-rich solid solution.

A series …

“Compelled To Connect: A Phenomenological Study Of The Experience Of Writing, Shannon D. Collins

Doctoral Dissertations

Writing is frequently referred to as a process. Writing, in fact, is a series of complicated acts involving many processes, most of which take place in the writer’s mind and, thus, remain hidden from the lens of the researcher. The purpose of this research was to describe the first-person experience of writing through use of a phenomenological method involving dialogic interviews and hermeneutic interpretation. In the course of this investigation, 10 practicing writers (6 men and 4 women) were engaged in open-ended dialogue in which they described various personal experiences of writing. The participants were a business owner, a physician, …

The Social Construction Of Tourism In Cuba: A Geographic Analysis Of The Representations Of Gender And Race During The Special Period 1995-1997, Michael W. Cornebise

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to critically examine race and gender as they intersect with tourism development in Cuba during the Special Period in a Time of Peace (Special Period), a government imposed austerity program that followed the loss of important Soviet subsidies in 1989.

I hypothesize that tourism development in Cuba during the Special Period betrays the Revolution in that it reconstitutes discriminatory practices along lines of race and gender and hence does not deliver benefits to average Cubans. Indeed, I argue that tourism as presently constructed may subvert the well being of ordinary Cubans.

I draw from …

The Development And Utilization Of A Survey Instrument To Determine The Acceptance Of National Standards For Technological Literacy, Robert Malcolm Donan

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past six years, practitioners in the field of technology education within the State of Tennessee have been mandated with nearly constant curricular change with the latest being the implementation of a revised set of content standards for technology education, a major change in programs within the curriculum framework, and most recently a new name for the state-wide program. These programmatic changes, other than the name change, although they addressed the majority of the national content standards for technological literacy, were not correlated with either the programs or grade level content explicit in the national standards developed and published …

Dating Violence And Psychosocial Problems: Exploratory Findings From A Sample Of Adolescents Facing Unwanted Pregnancy, Gretchen E. Ely

Doctoral Dissertations

Empirical studies of adolescent dating violence have mainly focused on changing attitudes and knowledge levels. These studies are mostly conducted in mixed gender classroom settings. Results from these studies do not provide knowledge of which psychological/social (psychosocial) problems co-occur with dating violence in at-risk adolescent populations. The current study provides exploratory information related to dating violence in adolescent pregnancy termination patients, a subset of the population virtually ignored by the adolescent literature. In this study, 120 adolescent pregnancy termination patients ages 14 through 21 completed the Conflict in Adolescent Relationships Inventory (CADRI) and the Multi-dimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale (MAAS). Linear …

“Design Of Molecular Mechanics Modeling Techniques For Exploring Molecular Recognition Using Cyclodextrins., Shannon Bradley Fox

Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular mechanics modeling techniques have been developed to study the behavior of cyclodextrins (CDs) in capillary electrophoresis (CE) separations. Using the commercial computational package, Sybyl, the mechanisms of molecular recognition between organic analytes and CDs are investigated.

Cyclodextrin-modified capillary electrochromatography (CDCE) experiments were conducted to separate neutral derivitized naphthalene solutes using carboxymethyl-beta-cyclodextrin (CM-b-CD). Grid conformation-searching programs were developed to explore the interaction space between CD and solute and to calculate their interaction energies using molecular mechanics. The interaction energies correlated remarkably well with the separation behavior. It was found that extensive minimization (more than 3000 iterations) was required at each …

Effects Of Urbanization On A Small Perennial Stream: Second Creek In Knoxville, Tennessee, Judith Laing Grable

Doctoral Dissertations

Little is known about the coarse load carried by streams in urban areas or the length of time needed for stream channel adjustments to urban conditions. In this study, I examine the history of urbanization in the basin of Second Creek, the status of the channel, and the sediment load of the creek in recent years.

Second Creek is a small perennial stream whose 18.6 km² drainage basin is almost entirely contained within the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. Almost all of the drainage basin was developed more than 40 years ago, and is now urban and suburban in character. …

Integrated Field Emission Electron Guns With Single Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber Cathodes, Michael Alberto Guillorn

Doctoral Dissertations

Nanostructured carbon-based materials hold great promise as field emission (FE) cathodes for integrated FE devices. These materials display remarkable FE properties as a consequence of their unique chemical and physical properties. Among this class of materials, the vertically aligned carbon nanofiber (VACNF) is exceptional in that its synthesis can be deterministically controlled. This has enabled the characterization of the FE properties of individual VACNF grown on Si substrates. The results of these studies indicate that the VACNF is an excellent candidate for integrated FE electron sources where the generation of a focused electron beam from a microscale structure is required. …

Socio-Cultural Interactions And Esl Graduate Student Enculturation: A Cross Sectional Analysis, Ethan W. Krase

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reports findings from a five-month qualitative study of a group of five ESL students pursuing graduate degrees in disciplines in the humanities. Focusing on disciplinary enculturation processes, the study sets out to answer two primary research questions: 1) What roles do literacy activities play in disciplinary enculturation? 2) What sorts of subject positions do ESL learners occupy as they enculturate into academic discourse communities? Answers to these questions are important because they can lend definition to the obstacles that confront ESL learners as they attempt to move towards professional participation in target discourse communities.

Anchored in the language-related …

Interfirm Demand Integration: The Role Of Marketing In Bridging The Gap Between Demand And Supply Chain Management, Teresa M. Mccarthy

Doctoral Dissertations

As firms increasingly outsource functions to focus on core competencies, access to resources from trading partners to accomplish goals becomes more important. As such, supply chain management is recognized as critical to creating and sustaining competitive advantage by integrating activities across trading partners that can produce a unique and valuable offering. This dissertation suggests the role of marketing is well positioned to oversee and manage integration of supply and demand activities that have traditionally been practiced separately both within and across firms in a supply chain. The research fills a gap in the literature by presenting a comprehensive model of …

Transgenic Approaches To Study Nodulation In The Model Legume, Lotus Japonicus, Crystal Bickley Mcalvin

Doctoral Dissertations

The soybean apyrase, GS52, characterized as an early nodulin, was further investigated for its possible role in nodulation. GS52 is expressed in roots and localized to the plasma membrane. In addition, it is rapidly induced upon rhizobial inoculation. Treatment of soybean roots with anti-GS52 antibodies blocked nodulation by Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Transgenic Lotus japonicus plants were generated expressing gs52 and showed enhanced nodulation and infection thread formation upon inoculation with Mesorhizobium loti that correlated with expression of the transgene. Surprisingly, expression of GS52 allowed L. japonicus plants to be infected but not nodulated by B. japonicum, the natural symbiont of soybean. …

A High Shear-Rate Optical Rheometer For Complex Fluids, Khaled S. Mriziq

Doctoral Dissertations

A parallel-plate optical rheometer in a magnetic-disc drive configuration has been designed and constructed of optically transparent materials and operating with a very small gap to obtain rheological and structural measurements at very high shear rates.

The friction force at the disk-slider interface has been measured as a function of sliding speed while the film thickness was monitored in situ using a capacitance technique. The shear rate is calculated from the film thickness and the sliding speed. A thin film can be applied on the disk, which allows very high-shear-rate measurements at low sliding speeds with negligible viscous heating.

Both …

Production In Au-Au Collisions, Robert Jason Newby

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis presents the first J/ Ψ production analysis of Au+Au reactions at forward rapidity at p √sNN = 200 GeV. In the second year of RHIC running, design energy was achieved in the collisions of both Au+Au ions and proton+proton reactions. The production of the J/Ψ is measured by the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions as well as in proton-proton collisions. The scientific goal is to investigate the nature of hot, dense nuclear matter capitalizing on the unique properties of the J/ Ψ as a probe of this matter. Recent experimental results by the NA50 collaboration at CERN …

Critical Thinking As A Predictor Of Test Performance And As An Outcome Measure In A Large Undergraduate Human Development Course, Carrie Sara Booher

Doctoral Dissertations

Either generic or subject-specific measures (a total of three measures) of critical thinking were given to students in nine sections of an undergraduate educational psychology course. Generic measures were the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) developed by Facione and Facione (1994) and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Forms (WGCTA) by Watson and Glaser (1994). The subject-specific measure was the Psychological Critical Thinking instrument developed by Lawson (1999). The critical thinking measures were used to address questions relating to the predictive potential of critical thinking and to assess changes in critical thinking during the course. Specific questions included the following: …

The Role Of Marital Quality And Social Support In Pregnancy Adaptation In An Internet Sample Of Pregnant Women, Alicia R. Baird-Fassardi

Doctoral Dissertations

There is growing evidence that women who experience depression, anxiety, and obstetric complications during pregnancy have significantly higher rates of adverse birth outcomes and postpartum depression. The present study examined hypotheses about the possible roles of marital quality and social support in measures of pregnancy adaptation. Marital quality was measured using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and social support using the Social Provisions Scale (Cutrona & Russell, 1987). Pregnancy adaptation was measured in terms of self-reported levels of depressive symptomatolgy, state anxiety, pregnancy-specific anxiety and number of pregnancy complications. The participants were 808 pregnant women in the third trimester …

Caregivers' Perceptions About Their Children Identified As Having Atypical Behavior, Catherine Swanson Cain

Doctoral Dissertations

Past research on atypical behavior in young children has primarily forused on the caregiver and/or child, isolating characteristics such as the caregiver's parenting or the child's temperament (Deater-Deckard & O'Connor, 2000; Thomas & Clark, 1998). Current research has moved toward trying to build a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of caregiver-child relationships (Bugental, 2000). One way of trying to understand caregiver-child relationships is to look at perceptions the caregiver has of the relationship (Stem & Smith, 1999). Caregiver perceptions include conscious reflections, what the caregiver knows and thinks about, and what the caregiver chooses to talk about (Bugental, 2000). Differences …