Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Comparison Of The Ecological Integrity Of Headwater Streams Draining Harvested And Un-Harvested Watersheds In The Western Mountains Of Maine, U.S.A., Darlene Siegel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of four headwater streams draining forested watersheds were compared to determine the effectiveness of Riparian Management Zones (RMZs) in protecting aquatic ecological integrity from the effects of forest harvesting. Two of the watersheds were harvested with a 30% sheltenvood cut and a 75 foot buffer was left adjacent to the streams. The other two watersheds were un-harvested and were used as reference conditions for comparison with the harvested watersheds. General environmental conditions in these four headwater streams during the study period were characterized as follows. Each stream was located within a mixed- wood forest dominated …

A Class Of Functions That Are Quasiconvex But Not Polyconvex, Catherine S. Remus

Masters Theses

In 1991 V. Sverak [11] gave an example of a function that was invariant and quasiconvex but not polyconvex. We have generalized this example to a wide class of functions that meet certain ellipticity and growth conditions. Quasiconvexity is one necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of solutions to the minimization problem in elliptic P.D.E. theory. Invariance is frequently a requirement of the stored energy function in Calculus of Variation approaches to elasticity problems.

The Effects Of The 2001-2002 Drought On Maine Surface Water Supplies, Catherine Schmitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Maine lakes and streams serve as significant sources of public water supply, serving 40% of the population. Drought affects surface water resources by reducing water quantity and altering water quality, for example by reducing inputs of materials from the watershed and increasing water residence times. The 2001-2002 drought was the worst in Maine in over thirty years, and it exposed deficiencies in current water resources planning and management. In this study, I evaluated the effects of the 2001-2002 drought on Maine public water systems in order to identify characteristics of systems vulnerable to drought and determine appropriate indicators of drought …

Age, Growth And The Annual Cycles Of Lipogenesis And Reproduction Of Acanthurus Bahianus In Southeastern Florida, Stacy M. Wolfe

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The ocean surgeon, Acanthurus bahianus, is a coral reef fish inhabiting the tropical and subtropical waters of the western Atlantic, including southeastern Florida. This study was a 23-month analysis of the reproductive cycle correlated with the annual build up and depletion of fat reserves in the fish. In addition, an age and growth analysis of this species was conducted. A total of 507 fish were analyzed for length, weight, gonad weight and fat body weight. 478 were aged by microscopic examination of the transverse section of the sagittae otolith. The von Bertalannfy growth equation was used to determine length at …

An Egocentric Spatial Data Model For Intelligent Mobile Geographic Information Systems, Christopher E. Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals in unknown locations, such as utility workers in the field, soldiers on a mission, or sightseeing tourists, share the need for an answer to two basic questions: "Where am I?" and "What is in front of me?Because such information is not readily available in foreign locations, aids in the form of paper maps or mobile GISs, which give individuals an all-inclusive view of the environment, are often used. This panoptic view may hinder the positioning and orienteering process, since people perceive their surroundings perspectively from their current position. In this thesis, I describe a novel framework that resolves this …

Perceptual Sketch Interpretation, Markus Wuersch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sketching is a creative form of describing a spatial scene. People perceive such a scene in a straight forward way and build a mental model of the objects contained in a sketch. Whereas these objects might be regions, a sketch only contains lines and, therefore, developing automated sketch interpretation means outlining a rationale to grouping lines according to the objects they belong to. Automated sketch interpretation allows efficient processing of sketches. Labor intensive manual extraction could be brought to a minimum and, therefore, spatial data in form of sketches and spatial information extracted from sketches would be available more readily. …

Comparison Of Bracket Bond Strength By Total, Self-Etch And Laser Treatment, Kyo Sung Shawn Kim

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Laser etching of enamel surfaces alters the physical and chemical characteristics of the enamel. These changes in characteristics enhance the bonding to enamel. The purpose of this study was to compare the shear and tensile bond strength of Er,Cr:YSGG hydrokinetic laser system (Biolase) with 37% phosphoric acid and self etching primer 30 minutes and 72 hours after bonding. Four different laser power output setting was observed: 1.5W, 2.0W, 2.5W, and 3.0W. Two hundred forty bovine teeth free of defect, caries, and dentin exposure were mounted in acrylic resin and divided into 24 groups of 10 teeth. Sixteen groups of 10 …

Survey Of Health Effects Among Residents Adjacent To A National Priority List Site In Ssouthwest Virginia., Danette Haywood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Saltville Waste Disposal Site is a National Priority List site used during the 77- year operation (1895–1972) of an electrolytic chlorine and caustic soda plant. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine disease prevalence among Saltville Medical Center (SMC) patients. Diseases associated with chronic exposures to mercury, arsenic, and lead were reviewed in patient records and these data were analyzed. Ratios of illness observed at the SMC were compared to health studies of similar environmental exposures and disease prevalence among residents of neighboring communities. Prevalence ratios were calculated for residents and non-residents of Saltville who were SMC patients. Saltville …

Clinical Effectiveness Of A Subperiosteal Anchorage Device, Monica Anne Witte

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of a subperiosteal anchorage device, the palatal OnPlant™, during orthodontic retraction of protruding anterior teeth in cases requiring maxillary premolar extraction. Seven subjects (5 female, 2 male), ages 13 to 55, were selected for the study. The OnPlant was surgically placed in the mid-palatal region through a well-defined subperiosteal tunnel. Following the manufacturer recommended osseointegration period of four months, the OnPlant was uncovered and attached to the first molars by means of a transpalatal bar. Standard orthodontic treatment then commenced to retract the anterior teeth after the first …

A Bond Strength Comparison Of Led And Halogen Light Curing Units, John Richard Kavanagh

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of this research was to compare the tensile bond strength of orthodontic flat based buttons bonded to bovine teeth with four commercial light-emitting diode (LED) curing lights and one conventional quartz tungsten halogen (QTH) curing light.

The dental market has recently been introduced to a number of commercially available light-emitting diode (LED) curing lights. Tensile bond strength was evaluated for LED curing lights (Rembrandt® Allegro^TM, Den-Mat Corp, Santa Maria, CA), (LEDemetron, Kerr/Demetron Corp, Danbury, Conn), (Ortholux LED, 3M^TMESPE^TM, St. Paul, MN),and (FLASH-lite 1001, Discus Dental, Culver City, CA) are compared with one …

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model For Chemical Separation Process, Lijian Sun

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis is concerned with the efforts to develop a general-purpose systems engineering model software TRPSEMPro1 that can be used to improve productivity in the design process. Different features of TRPSEMPro will be presented in this thesis. First, Systems Engineering technology is presented, followed by the exposition of different numerical optimization technologies and DOE (Design of Experiments) study technologies. Second, the detailed software process, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) for the TRPSEMPro is presented. All the design data models are expressed by using Unified Modeling Language (UML).

AMUSESimulator is another software package which has been designed and implemented in order …

Effect Of Heavy Metals On Bacteria, Elena Vratonjic

Theses and Dissertations

Heavy metals have become devastating environmental contaminants due to their widespread use in the manufacture of electronics, plastics, batteries and dyes. The discharge of heavy metals into the environment has caused concern about their effects on the ecosystem. Many metals are essential for growth in small amounts. However, at higher concentrations heavy metals are toxic because they bind to organic compounds. This accounts for their effects on some important parts of the cell structure, like their ability to denature protein molecules. The initial objective of this study was to find out the growth rate of E.coli and M.roseus in the …

An Algorithm For Clearing Combinatorial Markets, Josiane Domgang Nzouonta

Theses and Dissertations

It was recently shown possible to solve single item auctions without revealing any secret except for the solution. Namely, with vMB-share [4], the seller and the buyer only learn each other's identity and the selling price for a chosen M+1 pricing scheme. No trusted party was necessary. In this thesis, we show how vMB-share can be extended for the clearing of combinatorial negotiations with several items, buyers and sellers. We first show how the more general problem can be reduced to a virtual form, relatively similar to the single-item auctions. Then, some modifications in the cryptographic techniques of vMB-share are …

Irradiation Induced Order-Dis Order Transformations In Ni-Mo Alloys, Ovidiu F. Toader

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

How Secondary School Mathematics Teachers Construct An Understanding Of "Appropriate Use" Of Graphing Calculators In The Context Of Collegial Inquiry, Marcia L. Weller Weinhold

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Robust Two-Sample Procedure To Estimate A Shift Parameter, Feridun Tasdan

Dissertations

This study estimates the location shift parameter in the two-sample problem. The classical method, Least Square(LS), obtains the shift parameter estimate under the normality assumption. A departure from normality assumption makes the estimate inefficient and unreliable. One alternative to the least square estimate is Hodges-Lehmann (HL) estimate which uses Wilcoxon ranks to estimate the shift parameter. This estimate is robust against contaminations and large outliers. The proposed method in this study combines two samples and uses convolution technique to find a density function for the combined sample. This new density function is later used in the construction of the log …

Monte Carlo Simulations And Analysis Of Single-Molecule Detection And Imaging, Peter Williams

Masters Theses

Computer modeling and analysis methods are developed for two modes of operation of an instrument for sensitive fluorescence detection of individual dye-labeled molecules in solution. First, Monte Carlo simulations of experiments for single-molecule imaging (SMI) are extended to include effects of sample flow, sticking of molecules to surfaces, and the finite depth-of-focus of the optics. The results have a bearing on a patented method for high-speed single-molecule DNA sequencing. They indicate that the imaging of freely moving fluorescent labels within a microfluidic flowcell will be considerably more involved than that of immobilized molecules at a surface, which is the usual …

Itera- Tive Reconstruction Framework For High-Resolution X-Ray Ct Data, Thomas Matthew Benson

Masters Theses

Small animal medical imaging has become an important tool for researchers as it allows noninvasively screening animal models for pathologies as well as monitoring dis- ease progression and therapy response. Currently, clinical CT scanners typically use a Filtered Backprojection (FBP) based method for image reconstruction. This algorithm is fast and generally produces acceptable results, but has several drawbacks. Firstly, it is based upon line integrals, which do not accurately describe the process of X-ray attenuation. Secondly, noise in the projection data is not properly modeled with FBP. On the other hand, iterative algorithms allow the integration of more complicated sys- …

3d Visualization Modules For Chemical Engineering – A Web-Based Approach Using Java And Opengl, Sharad Anant Gupta

Masters Theses

The main objective of this work is to implement web-based educational modules for chemical engineering students. Phase behavior is a topic with which the students seem to struggle with, particularly for mixtures, where a 2-D representation of the phase diagram falls far short of the understanding a 3-D model can provide. Using the platform-independence of Java and the graphics capability of OpenGL, three phase diagram Java applets have been developed. Users can view these web-based 3D applets by installing a plug-in. These modules provide users with an ability to rotate the 3D models, slice through them, zoom into them and …

Evaluation Of 2,2'-Bipyridylpyridinetricarbonylrhenium (I) Triflate Complex As A Luminescent Probe For The Study Of Macromolecular Solution Dynamics, Richard Allen Allston

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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A Longitudinal Metric Study Of Postgresql Software Archeology In Open Source, Terry Franklin Byrum

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Open source software development is credited as the basic fuel powering much of the Internet, especially the Web. While many organizations rely heavily on open source, few studies have focused on the dynamics of development methodology. This document contains the results of a longitudinal metric study of the open source database PostgreSQL representing an 8 year period of community development. This study is software archeology, excavating bits of an Internet community, a cultural group, for understanding. Longitudinally, McCabe's cyclomatic complexity and Halstead's software science change tempo in accordance with PostgreSQL's maturity, though meritocracy practices of open source might suggest greater …

Data Analysis In The Antes System, Yavuz Tor

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Acanthosis nigricans is a skin condition that can be used as an indicator for the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. Border Health Office, in University of Texas - Pan American, organizes screenings in schools for acanthosis nigricans. Screening results are, then, collected and evaluated in the Border Health Office. The ANTES System is a computer system that stores and manages the data collected in those screenings.

This study is on the analysis of those collected data to track the progress of data entry, to evaluate the progress on obesity and related problems, and to discover the …

On The Complexity Of Implementing Certain Classes Of Shared Objects, King Yang Tan

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

We consider shared memory systems in which asynchronous processes cooperate with each other by communicating via shared data objects, such as counters, queues, stacks, and priority queues. The common approach to implementing such shared objects is based on locking: To perform an operation on a shared object, a process obtains a lock, accesses the object, and then releases the lock. Locking, however, has several drawbacks, including convoying, priority inversion, and deadlocks. Furthermore, lock-based implementations are not fault-tolerant: if a process crashes while holding a lock, other processes can end up waiting forever for the lock.

Wait-free linearizable implementations were conceived …

A Study Of The Factors Related To The Successful Merger Of Information Technology Departments Within Local Government, Angela Patton

Student Work

This study focuses on the merger process of Information Technology (IT) departments within local government. The research that exists indicates that local government mergers, in general, have a high rate of failure. In addition, the political, managerial, cultural, and behavioral aspects that impact these mergers are ignored.

The importance of computers to the departments/agencies housed within local government has made the IT departments a critical part of the local government structure. This study looks at the problems faced by the merging IT departments within local government in order to gain a better understanding of this process and to increase the …

Northwood School: The Survival Story Of An Educational Jewel In The Adirondacks, Perry Babcock

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

Northwood School is an example of a secondary boarding institution whose history mirrors the many changes in private education over the last one hundred years. As was the case with many of these private institutions, Northwood had to contend with the issue of isolation. The school's remote location caused it to evolve its own regional character. The school struggled financially as a not-for-profit institution that relied on tuition revenues and donations to maintain its stature in the competitive boarding school world. Northwood School also found itself challenged to sustain an educational philosophy when its market share dwindled and athletics became …

Some Combinatorial Design In Vlsi Architectures And Statistics., Soumen Maity Dr.

Doctoral Theses

In this dissertation, we consider the following combinatorial problems: some character- ization, enumeration, construction and optimization problems in both VLSI linear and VLSI two-dimensional arrays; and construction of two combinatorial designs as used by statisticians: nearly strongly balanced uniform repeated measurements designs (NSBUR- MDs) and balanced near uniform repeated measurements designs (BNURMDS). We give below, chapter-wise, the problems considered and a brief outline of the solutions.1.1 Enumerating Catastrophic Fault Patterns in VLSI Linear Arrays with Bidirectional or Unidirectional LinksSystolic systems consist, of a large mimber of identical and elementary processing element locally conuccted in a regular fashion. Each element receives …

On Textured Image Analysis Using Wavelets., Mausumi Acharyya Dr.

Doctoral Theses

In image processing and computer vision research, we aim to derive better tools that give us different perspectives on the same image, allowing us to understand not only its content, but also its meaning and significance. Image processing can not compete with the human eye in terms of accuracy but it can outperform the latter easily on observational consistency, and ability to carry out detailed mathematical estimations. With time, image processing research has broadened from the basic pixel-based low- level operations to high-level analysis, that now includes the use of artificially intelligent techniques for image interpretation and understanding. These new …

Generalized Residual Multiple Model Adaptive Estimation Of Parameters And States, Charles D. Ormsby

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops a modification to the standard Multiple Model Adaptive Estimator (MMAE) which allows the use of a new "generalized residual" in the hypothesis conditional probability calculation. The generalized residual is a linear combination of traditional Kalman filter residuals and "post-fit" Kalman filter residuals which are calculated after measurement incorporation. This modified MMAE is termed a Generalized Residual Multiple Model Adaptive Estimator (GRMMAE). The dissertation provides a derivation of the hypothesis conditional probability formula which the GRMMAE uses to calculate probabilities that each elemental filter in the GRMMAE contains the correct parameter value. Through appropriate choice of a single …

Modeling Of The Inverse Heat -Conduction Problem With Application To Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition And Bioheat Transfer, Peng Zhen

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two parts. Part one deals with three-dimensional laser induced chemical vapor deposition (3D-LCVD), whereas part two deals with a Pennes model of a 3D skin structure. LCVD is an important technique in manufacturing complex micro-structures with high aspect ratio. In part one, a numerical model was developed for simulating kinetically-limited growth of an axisymmetric cylindrical rod by pre-specifying the surface temperature distribution required for growing the rod and then by obtaining optimized laser power that gives rise to the pre-specified temperature distribution. The temperature distribution at the surface of the rod was assumed to be at …

Dissolved Humic Substances: Characterization Of Their Sorption Onto Iron Hydroxide Aluminum Hydroxide Kaolinite And Smectite, Sarah E. Diebel

OES Theses and Dissertations

Humic (HA) and fulvic (FA) acids participate in many geochemical processes and the mechanisms of their sorption to colloidal surfaces are numerous, indicating these substances are complex and heterogeneous. The current study focuses on the interactions of the Fe hydroxide (FE), Al hydroxide, Kaolinite (KA) and Smectite (SM) and these naturally occurring organic acids using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and DOC analysis at pH 4. FTIR was used for the initial functional group characterization, as well as the comparison of before and after adsorption spectra of the HA and FA. DOC examined the amounts of HA and FA adsorbed …