Digital Commons Network^™

School Internet Grading Programs, Michael Grossman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of implementing a software program that would allow classroom teachers to post student grades and assignments on the Internet. This study measured the improvement in the grades of the students who used this Internet program. The research was limited to four physical science classes at Camden County Technical Schools (CCTS). Ninety-four students participated in this study. Fifty students were given access to their grades and assignments on the Internet and forty-four students were not given access to their grades and assignments on the Internet. The research data was generated by …

Water Policy And Theoretical Models: Political, Bureaucratic And Class Dynamics In A Growth Economy, Kelly Michelle De Vine

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Water Policy and Theoretical Models: Political, Bureaucratic and Class Dynamics in a Growth Economy explores the three major socio-political theories of the state and public policy: pluralism, elite/managerialism and class-dialecticism using a case study of a series of policy decisions and outcomes during the period from 1989 to 1995 related to the Las Vegas Valley Water District which serves Las Vegas, Nevada. This time period is important due to the unprecedented levels of population growth experienced in the Las Vegas Valley and due to the extreme scarcity of water resources. This case study explores the issues of popular politics, bureaucratic …

A Study To Determine The Impact Of The Picture Exchange Communication System On Challenging Behaviors In Adults With Autism, Stephanie M. Belsanti

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if an increase in communication skills, over an 80 week period, in adults with autism would decrease challenging behaviors. The sample in this study consisted of 3 adult males diagnosed with autism and no verbal communication skills. The participants were between the ages of 24 and 27 and attended a data treatment center, which was used as the training environment in the current study.

The Picture Exchange Communication System was the primary treatment for three adults who have no verbal language and are diagnosed with autism. Treatment sessions were conducted throughout the …

Environmental Economics A Teacher's Guide, Sandra Allmond Bagley

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to incorporate economics into lectures on environmental issues. This guide introduces several environmental issues, discusses the laws and regulations governing these issues, and discusses the economic instruments discussed in this guide are those that have been incorporated into environmental laws. These instruments allow environmental protection goals to be met at the least cost. Economic instruments are more flexible than command and control regulations and allow firms to choose the least cost method of reaching goals. Economic instruments also encourage advances in new technology. Students will be more receptive to the concept of using economics …

Laser Intensity Scaling Through Stimulated Scattering In Optical Fibers, Timothy H. Russell

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of stimulated scattering on laser intensity in fiber optic waveguides is examined. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in long, multimode optical waveguides is found to generate a Stokes beam that propagates in the fiber LP01 mode. Additionally, the same process is found to combine multiple laser beams into a single spatially coherent source. Limitations in beam cleanup and combining are also investigated to identify ways to overcome them. The last portion of the dissertation theoretically examines suppression of stimulated Raman scattering in fibers to eliminate the restriction this imposes on the power of a fiber laser or amplifier. The …

Holston Hills Country Club And The Honors Course: A Case Study In East Tennessee Golf Architecture, Keith Lee Williams

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Transport Study Of Sodium Phosphate Dodecahydrate Pipeline Plugging Mechanisms, Vijay Kumar Raju

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis investigates pipeline plugging mechanisms that have occurred during interim stabilization transfers at Hanford. A laboratory-scale saltwell pumping test loop was designed to evaluate a surrogate of Hanford Tank 241-SX-104 supernate. The effect of surrogate flow rate, cooling water flow rate and phosphate concentrations on plugging mechanisms was investigated. Critical parameters like particle and agglomerate size, velocity and bed growth rate were determined. Theoretical models were used to compare the experimental pressure rise and temperature drop of the surrogate in the channel. An operating region in which a plug would not form was developed, based on the experimental results. …

Evaluation Of An Attached Growth Organic Media Bioreactor For Swine Waste Treatment And Odor Abatement, Allison Paige Kirkpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to determine if an organic media attached growth bioreactor could effectively be used as a means of odor control for swine waste. The pilot-scale attached growth bioreactor system was evaluated against a standard pit recharge system, which served as the control. Performance was based on water quality testing, odor assessments by a human sensory panel, and air phase measurements of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. The affect of aeration on the system was also evaluated, along with various types of organic media (kenaf, hardwood mulch, and corncobs). Overall, the bioreactor systems were effective in reducing …

Measuring The Effects Of Soil Parameters On Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function, Pushkar Shrikant Pradhan

Theses and Dissertations

Remote sensing data acquisition often requires a revisit to the same target. Therefore, it is not always possible to have the same illumination and viewing conditions. Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) is an attempt to predict the reflectance of an object for any given viewing and illumination geometry by explaining the interaction of the incident energy with the target object, the medium lying between the source and the target, and the interaction of the reflected energy with the medium between the target and the sensor. In this study various factors affecting BRDF were explored. Various factors contribute to this characteristic …

Added Cfo Voltages From Fiberglass Poles And Its Electrical Degradation, Xiaoyong Li

Theses and Dissertations

THE CRITICAL FLASHOVER (CFO) VOLTAGE OF AN INSULATION STRUCTURE IS COMMONLY USED TO DESCRIBE THE INSULATION STRUCTURE¡¯S LIGHTNING IMPULSE STRENGTH. THE FIBERGLASS DISTRIBUTION POLE WAS RECENTLY INTRODUCED TO POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS. HOWEVER, VERY LITTLE WORK HAS BEEN DONE ON EITHER THE LIGHTNING IMPULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTRIBUTION LINE STRUCTURES WITH FIBERGLASS POLES OR THE ELECTRICAL DEGRADATION OF FIBERGLASS. THE WORK IN THIS THESIS REPRESENTS THE RESULTS OF A LABORATORY STUDY ON LIGHTNING IMPULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTRIBUTION LINE STRUCTURES WITH FIBERGLASS POLES AND THE ELECTRICAL DEGRADATION OF FIBERGLASS. THE CRITICAL FLASHOVER (CFO) VOLTAGES OF THE FIBERGLASS DISTRIBUTION POLE AS AN INSULATION STRUCTURE …

Automated Design Of A High-Velocity Channel, Jacqueline Pettway Hallberg

Theses and Dissertations

Engineering design is a decision-making process. Optimization techniques can be used to insure that better decisions are made. One design of great interest to engineers is that of high-velocity channels used for routing floodwater out of urban areas. In the design of these channels it is very important to avoid such hydraulic phenomena as standing waves, hydraulic jumps, and shocks. These will require higher wall heights and more expense. These channels can be modeled with physical models, but they are expensive and time consuming. To minimize the cost of building and changing the physical models and the time required to …

Automated Detection Of Features In Cfd Datasets, Satya Sridhar Dusi Venkata

Theses and Dissertations

Typically, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) solutions produce large amounts of data that can be used for analysis. The enormous amount of data produces new challenges for effective exploration. The prototype system EVITA, based on ranked access of application-specific regions of interest, provides an effective tool for this purpose. Automated feature detection techniques are needed to identify the features in the dataset. Automated techniques for detecting shocks, expansion regions, vortices, separation lines, and attachment lines have already been developed. A new approach for identifying the regions of flow separation is proposed. This technique assumes that each pair of separation and attachment …

The Prediction Via A Mathematical Model Of The "Primary" Self-Weight Consolidation Curve Of Silt Particles During Zone Settling, Tian Hee Hoe

Theses and Dissertations

Each year in the United States, large volumes of material are dredged out of lakes and waterways and are dumped in confined disposal facilities so that they can consolidate. A mathematical model is proposed to predict the settling of the dredged material by predicting the ?primary? self-weight consolidation curve of silt particles under zone settling conditions. Using a relatively ?pure? specimen of silt, self-weight consolidation tests were performed at concentrations ranging from 10 to 200 grams per liter. To generate the predicted curve, the model requires the location of the zone interface at 180, 600, and 720 seconds and the …

Evaluation Of Chitosan As A Cell Scaffolding Material For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Dana Lynn Nettles

Theses and Dissertations

Current articular cartilage tissue engineering endeavors, using synthetic polymers as scaffolds, have been somewhat successful. However, the use of these materials has not yielded a satisfactory, functional replacement for articular cartilage. Therefore, this project focuses on an alternative to these materials, chitosan, which is a naturally occurring biopolymer. The first project objective was to fabricate and analyze bulk, porous chitosan scaffolds, based on total porosity, average pore diameter, mechanical integrity, and degradation susceptibility. Secondly, scaffolds were evaluated in terms of their ability to support neochondrogenesis, including assessments of cell attachment and viability, cell morphology, and the biosynthesis of proteoglycan and …

A Distributed Memory Implementation Of Loci, Thomas George

Theses and Dissertations

Distributed memory systems have gained immense popularity due to their favorable price/performance ratios. This study seeks to reduce the complexities, involved in developing parallel applications for distributed memory systems. The Loci system is a coordination framework which was developed to eliminate most of the accidental complexities involved in numerical simulation software development. A distributed memory version of Loci is developed and has been tested and validated using a finite-rate chemically reacting flow solver developed in the sequential Loci framework. The application developed in the original sequential version of Loci was parallelized with minimal changes in its source code. A comparison …

A Method For The Investigation Of The Aeroelastic Behavior Of Very High Aspect Ratio Cylinders, Bryan Louis Gassaway

Theses and Dissertations

This document details the investigation of the aeroelastic behavior of very high aspect ratio cylinders. The difficulty in this investigation lies in the fact that there are two important length scales: the aspect ratio and the Reynolds number. The primary goal is to develop a method that properly represents both length scales during testing. The secondary goal is to develop a method that quantifies the cylinder motion. This paper describes a wind tunnel technique designed to account for the aspect ratio and the Reynolds number of a very high aspect ratio cylinder. This paper also describes the data acquisition and …

A Study On The Effect Of Protective Capacity On Cycle Time In Serial Production Lines, Wendy Ann Sloan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the interactions of several characteristics of serial production lines that contribute to production line performance. A full factorial experimental design of computerized simulations is conducted with three levels of downtime, four levels of variability, three levels of line length, three levels of constraint location, three levels of work-in-process, and six levels of protective capacity. This study enlarges upon recent four-workstation investigations and extends the knowledge to longer production lines. Some generalizations for the amount and location of protective capacity are drawn from the results, as a guide for process improvements and new production line design. An approximating …

Accurate Local Time Stepping Schemes For Non-Linear Partial Differential Equations, Kiran Kumar V Adhikarala

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to reduce the cost of numerically solving non-linear partial differential equations by reducing the number of computations without compromising accuracy. This was done by using accurate local time stepping. This algorithm uses local time stepping but compensates for the inconsistencies in the temporal dimension by interpolations and/or extrapolations. Reduction in computations are obtained by time-stepping only a particular region with small time steps. A shock tube problem and a detonation wave were the two test cases considered. The performance of the solution using this algorithm was compared with an algorithm that does not use accurate local time …

Airs: A Resource Limited Artificial Immune Classifier, Andrew B. Watkins

Theses and Dissertations

The natural immune system embodies a wealth of information processing capabilities that can be exploited as a metaphor for the development of artificial immune systems. Chief among these features is the ability to recognize previously encountered substances and to generalize beyond recognition in order to provide appropriate responses to pathogens not seen before. This thesis presents a new supervised learning paradigm, resource limited artificial immune classifiers, inspired by mechanisms exhibited in natural and artificial immune systems. The key abstractions gleaned from these immune systems include resource competition, clonal selection, affinity maturation, and memory cell retention. A discussion of the progenitors …

Implementation And Analysis Of The Ip Measurement Protocol (Ipmp), Steven Michael Carter

Theses and Dissertations

The increased size and complexity of the Internet necessitates a more substantial measurement protocol than is currently available. This work explores the IP Measurement Protocol, providing background information, covering the development of a reference implementation, and finally comparing its accuracy, overhead, and ease of implementation to the current generation of protocols used in network measurement. Vmware, a hardware simulation application, was used to simulate a network on which to test IPMP, as well as compare it to current generation tools. Ipmp_ping, a tool written to test IPMP, was pitted against ping and traceroute in order to attain round trip time, …

Versatile Automated Semiconductor Testing And Characterization, Danny Loren Parker

Theses and Dissertations

High-voltage SiC Schottky barrier diodes have been fabricated with 1mm square contacts. The SBD?s were fabricated using both an argon implant and a field plate overlap for edge termination. The Versatile Automated Semiconductor Testing and Characterization system was designed to fully test and characterize these devices with as little human interaction as possible. The focus of this thesis is to discuss the usefulness of the VASTAC system. Emphasis is placed on it?s versatility derived from a modular design allowing the system to perform a variety of tests. Specifically, the testing and characterization of silicon carbide Schottky Barrier Diodes will be …

Development Of A Cycloidal Propulsion Computer Model And Comparison With Experiment, Michael Lynn Mcnabb

Theses and Dissertations

Simplified unsteady aerodynamic and inertial force models were developed for a cycloidal propeller system operating at small forward speeds. These models were used to support the development of a VTOL concept demonstrator vehicle. The nature of the blade motion showed that interactions between the blades could be neglected to first order. The downwash through the rotor could not be neglected because of the induced angle of attack caused by the downwash. The total force was compared with wind tunnel data produced by Wheatley in the 30's and a ground test system developed for this project. It was found that the …

Reliability-Based Optimization Of Anisotropic Cylinders With Response Surface Approximation Of Axial Buckling Load, Bin Su

Theses and Dissertations

The reliability analysis and reliability-based optimization of laminated circular cylinders under axial buckling instability are studied. Structural reliability is measured in terms of Hasofer-Lind reliability index. The response surface models are used in both the calculation of the reliability index and the reliability-based optimization. In reliability analysis, both deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity factors are investigated; the results show that the reliability index is most sensitive to the applied load and Young's modulus of the material. Two cases are considered in the optimization study. In the first case, the cylinder weight is minimized subject to a reliability constraint whereas in the …

Computational Studies Of Fully Submerged Bodies, Propulsors, And Body/Propulsor Interactions, Allison Nicole Cash

Theses and Dissertations

Difficulties exist with designing and testing on a model scale. The purpose of this study is to examine variations in the flow field of a submarine due to hull/propulsor interaction and Reynolds scaling. The scope of this study includes the simulation of the flow past a 1) five-bladed marine propeller with 0° skew, 2) unappended submarine hull, 3) forward propelled submarine with asymmetrical stern appendages, and 4) submarine in crashback with asymmetrical stern appendages. The bare hull simulations are conducted for three different length scales: small model scale, large model scale, and full scale. The isolated propeller and appended submarine …

Global Synchronization Of Asynchronous Computing Systems, Richard Neil Barnes

Theses and Dissertations

The MSU ERC UltraScope system consists of a distributed computing system, custom PCI cards, GPS receivers, and a re-radiation system. The UltraScope system allows precision timestamping of events in a distributed application on a system where the CPU and PCI clocks are phase-locked. The goal of this research is to expand the UltraScope system, using software routines and minimal hardware modifications, to allow precision timestamping of events on an asynchronous distributed system. The timestamp process is similar to the Network Time Protocol (NTP) in that it uses a series of timestamps to improve precision. As expected, the precision is less …

Constraint-Based Supply Chain Inventory Deployment Strategies, David Jay Stremler

Theses and Dissertations

The development of Supply Chain Management has occurred gradually over the latter half of the last century, and in this century will continue to evolve in response to the continual changes in the business environment. As organizations exhaust opportunities for internal breakthrough improvements, they will increasingly turn toward the supply chain for an additional source of untapped improvements. Manufacturers in particular can benefit from this increased focus on the chain, but the gains realized will vary by the type of supply chain. By applying basic production control principles to the chain, and effectively using tools already common at the production …

Use Of Self Organized Maps For Feature Extraction Of Hyperspectral Data, Thomas C. Null

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, the problem of analyzing hyperspectral data is presented. The complexity of multi-dimensional data leads to the need for computer assisted data compression and labeling of important features. A brief overview of Self-Organizing Maps and their variants is given and then two possible methods of data analysis are examined. These methods are incorporated into a program derived from som_toolbox2. In this program, ASD data (data collected by an Analytical Spectral Device sensor) is read into a variable, relevant bands for discrimination between classes are extracted, and several different methods of analyzing the results are employed. A GUI was …

Immunology And Pathogenesis Of Pulmonary Mycobacteria Tuberculosis Infections, Gregory Neil Dunn

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Air Vehicle Path Planning, Jeffrey M. Hebert

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores optimal path planning for air vehicles. An air vehicle exposed to illumination by a tracking radar is considered and the problem of determining an optimal planar trajectory connecting two prespecified points is addressed. An analytic solution yielding the trajectory minimizing the received radar energy reflected from the target is derived using the Calculus of Variations. Additionally, the related problem of an air vehicle tracked by a passive sensor is also solved. Using the insights gained from the single air vehicle radar exposure minimization problem, a hierarchical cooperative control law is formulated to determine the optimal trajectories that …

Nonlinear Suppression Of Range Ambiguity In Pulse Doppler Radar, Jon M. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Coherent pulse train processing is most commonly used in airborne pulse Doppler radar, achieving adequate transmitter/receiver isolation and excellent resolution properties while inherently inducing ambiguities in Doppler and range. First introduced by Palermo in 1962 using two conjugate LFM pulses, the primary nonlinear suppression objective involves reducing range ambiguity, given the waveform is nominally unambiguous in Doppler, by using interpulse and intrapulse coding (pulse compression) to discriminate received ambiguous pulse responses. By introducing a nonlinear operation on compressed (undesired) pulse responses within individual channels, ambiguous energy levels are reduced in channel outputs. This research expands the NLS concept using discrete …