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Chemostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Significance Of The Pennsylvanian Smithwick Formation, Northern Llano Uplift Region, Texas, Rene Bernabe Ovalle-Rauch Jan 2012

Chemostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Significance Of The Pennsylvanian Smithwick Formation, Northern Llano Uplift Region, Texas, Rene Bernabe Ovalle-Rauch

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The Early Pennsylvanian (Bashkirian-Moscovian) Smithwick Formation of Central Texas has been previously described as a marine transgressive, fairly homogeneous and fine-grained dark shale sequence with varying local depositional lithofacies. The deposition of the Smithwick shale through the southern margin of the Fort Worth Basin (FWB) has shown large variability in thickness and deposition style. Lithological heterogeneity of the bounding units throughout the basin is inferred to be the result of a combination of depositional, tectonic and eustatic variations. Regional structural instability from Late Mississippian to Early Pennsylvanian is linked to the reactivation of the Ouachita geosyncline and thrust front, causing …

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Dynamic System Reduction And Fault Location Identification Using Synchrophasors, Eithar Nashawati Jan 2012

Dynamic System Reduction And Fault Location Identification Using Synchrophasors, Eithar Nashawati

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The advent of the synchronized phasor measurement units' technology allow for new applications to the power systems and improvement of existing applications. This dissertation presents a new method for synchrophasor-assisted fault location. An initial screening of voltage phase angle swing determines the suspect part of the system where the disturbance occurred. The system is then reduced to a limited number of buses. A Positive-sequence voltage-only method is then used to provide a better estimation of the exact location of the fault using particle swarm optimization. This method is applied to a large power system in North Texas. Real-time synchrophasor measurement …

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Multi-Directional Light Coupling Structures For Nanomembrane Photonic Integration, Tapas Kumar Saha Jan 2012

Multi-Directional Light Coupling Structures For Nanomembrane Photonic Integration, Tapas Kumar Saha

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Vertical coupling of light within an in-plane nanophotonic waveguide is an essential step towards the successful future realization of CMOS compatible optical interconnects and photonic integrated circuits. This is especially important, since silicon, though being the material of choice, is an extremely poor emitter of light. Through vertical to in-plane coupling, light can be coupled through any point on the planar on chip and the position is not only confined within the edges of the silicon wafer. Compact wafer scale testing is possible with this approach, without the need for polished edge cleaving. Another important aspect of this research is …

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Accelerated Simulation Of Supercapacitors Using Order Reduction Techniques And Waveform Relaxation Methods, Fatih Cingoz Jan 2012

Accelerated Simulation Of Supercapacitors Using Order Reduction Techniques And Waveform Relaxation Methods, Fatih Cingoz

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Supercapacitors are promising energy storage devices due to their capability to deliver high peak current and to capture a huge amount of energy in a short time with very low internal power loss. They are candidate component to be used in as a secondary energy storage device in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV)). Precise model development and accelerated simulation environments are needed to minimize the design time (and subsequently the product-to-market time) and minimize the hardware redesign and retrofit. Transmission line and RC parallel-branch equivalent models show relatively higher accuracy in predicting the dynamic behavior of the device. They also have …

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Characterization Of Flexible Antennas For Wirelessly Powering Medical Implants, Safwan Ahmed Muneer Jan 2012

Characterization Of Flexible Antennas For Wirelessly Powering Medical Implants, Safwan Ahmed Muneer

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

To minimize the trouble experienced by the patient in undergoing invasive surgeries to replace non rechargeable batteries that are used to power body implants inside, medical experts and engineers are emphasizing on making use of wireless power. Since body implant powering from external wireless power requires a source that can be easily worn outside the body, a special type of integrated antenna was implemented on a flexible substrate that conforms to the shape of the stomach curvature, thus adding increased patient comfort. The antenna bend is concave which adds to increased focus and increases power transfer efficiency to power the …

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Complexity Reduction Of H.264 Using Parallel Programming, Sudeep Prakash Gangavati Jan 2012

Complexity Reduction Of H.264 Using Parallel Programming, Sudeep Prakash Gangavati

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The H.264 encoder provides for adaptive directional intra-prediction, motion-compensated inter-prediction followed by transform, quantization, deblocking filtering and either variable length encoding or arithmetic coding. All these blocks of the H.264 encoder make it highly complex as compared to previous video coding standards. There is a need for measures to reduce the complexity. This thesis aims at reducing the complexity of the .H.264 encoder by reducing the encoding time of the H.264 standard while not sacrificing the video quality, compression efficiency and bitrate by parallel programming. There are several parallel programming models that can be used. The massively parallel Graphics Processing …

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Design, Microfabrication And Characterization Of A Microheater Platform For Studying Dna-Surface Interactions, Annas Javed Jan 2012

Design, Microfabrication And Characterization Of A Microheater Platform For Studying Dna-Surface Interactions, Annas Javed

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The past few decades have witnessed significant research towards developing DNA biosensors and gene chips. These devices obtain sequence-specific DNA information in a faster, simpler and cheaper manner compared to traditional hybridization assays. Miniaturization of DNA handling and processing devices has contributed significantly towards this effort. Despite the large amount of work in this research direction, much more needs to be understood about the fundamental interactions of DNA and other biological macromolecules with their microenvironment, particularly with inorganic surfaces. For example, a basic understanding of thermal interactions of DNA with surfaces may help develop novel strategies for probing, purifying and …

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Design Of Embedded Nios Ii Processor Based System For Implementing Bridging Algorithm Of Profiling Application, Vinay S. Ashi Jan 2012

Design Of Embedded Nios Ii Processor Based System For Implementing Bridging Algorithm Of Profiling Application, Vinay S. Ashi

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) uses multiple instruments for quality assurance of new and existing pavements. These instruments measure the different characteristics of the pavement such as the longitudinal profile, transverse profile, texture, rutting, etc. to determine the smoothness and ride quality of the pavement. These instruments mainly consist of different sensors such as lasers, accelerometers, distance encoders, etc., to calculate the ride quality. Various ride statistics such as International Roughness Index (IRI), Mean Profile Depth (MPD), and Present Serviceability Index (PSI) are then calculated and used to monitor the conditions of the roads.The Roline laser system is used …

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Language, Order And The Problem Of The Other: Inventing A Postmodern Service-Learning Pedagogy, Dianne Pearman Jan 2012

Language, Order And The Problem Of The Other: Inventing A Postmodern Service-Learning Pedagogy, Dianne Pearman

English Dissertations - Archive

My dissertation argues for a different approach to implementing service-learning into composition pedagogy. I argue that because critical pedagogy has long been the primary vehicle for incorporating service-learning initiatives into the composition classroom, and because this pedagogy--despite claims to the contrary-- is still deeply committed to the tenants of modernism, service-learning's potential has also been confined to this narrow world view. I further argue that the confrontational strategies employed by critical educators often work to undermine not only their own pedagogical goals, but also any benefits students might receive from their service experience. In making my argument, I examine closely …

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Vanished Legacies And The Lost Culture Of I.M. Terrell High School In Segregated Fort Worth Texas, Samuel A. Wilson Jan 2012

Vanished Legacies And The Lost Culture Of I.M. Terrell High School In Segregated Fort Worth Texas, Samuel A. Wilson

History Theses - Archive

From 1954 until 1973, the Fort Worth Independent School District worked to adhere to the ruling of Brown v. Board and entered several years of litigation brought about by the NAACP and attorney Clifford L. Davis. The process of this integration, beginning with the crisis over Fort Worth black students attempting to integrate into the Mansfield School System, and ending with the closing of several all-black schools, most notably the century-old school that was I.M. Terrell High School, was a very difficult process not unlike that of other schools across the nation. However, the Fort Worth School District, after seeing …

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"To Get Their Labor For Nothing" Criminal Courts And Jim Crow In Tarrant County, Texas: 1887-1908, Thomas A. Paige Jan 2012

"To Get Their Labor For Nothing" Criminal Courts And Jim Crow In Tarrant County, Texas: 1887-1908, Thomas A. Paige

History Theses - Archive

The county jail records reveal that Tarrant County Jim Crow was a function of custom and thoroughly institutionalized as a matter of public policy by 1890, before the Texas state legislature required separate railroad coaches for blacks and whites in 1891. Chapter 1 explores Tarrant County's founding as a slave jurisdiction, the county's support of the Confederacy, and the county's post Civil War success in segregating blacks. Chapter 2 describes the machinery of county law enforcement and analyzes the county jail records between 1887 and 1890 using modern statistical methods. The analysis demonstrates that whites used the county court system …

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Development Of Magnetic-Based Multi-Layer Microparticles For Stem Cell Isolation, Enrichment And Detachment, Sonia Santimano Jan 2012

Development Of Magnetic-Based Multi-Layer Microparticles For Stem Cell Isolation, Enrichment And Detachment, Sonia Santimano

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Stem cells have been studied and used in several cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine, 3D tissue-engineered scaffolds, and in vitro models for drug screening and testing. For instance, cell based therapy via the use of stem cells like Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) to treat patients with cardiovascular diseases, including ischemic heart disease, in-stent restenosis, and peripheral arterial occlusive disease. In addition, Circulating Cancer Cells (CSCs) have been used as an indication of cancer progression-free survival and for studying the mechanisms of tumor formation, metastasis, and anti-cancer drug screening. Due to their extensive diagnostic and therapeutic potential, various techniques have been …

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Quantification And Comparisons Of Motion Metrics For Finger Tapping Performed By Children With Cerebral Palsy Before And After Therapy With Two Motion Tracking Camera Systems, Ankita H. Chainani Jan 2012

Quantification And Comparisons Of Motion Metrics For Finger Tapping Performed By Children With Cerebral Palsy Before And After Therapy With Two Motion Tracking Camera Systems, Ankita H. Chainani

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

The quantification of any improvements in the use of a paretic arm after children with cerebral palsy (CP) undergo rehabilitation is currently done by occupational therapists who administer a series of manual ability tests and assign a subjective score for each test task performed. In this work the hypothesis was explored of whether quantification of hand motion metrics by motion tracking while children with CP performed a hand tapping task could be used as a more quantitative surrogate for assessing how well these children control the use of their hand. To that end, two children with CP, both classified as …

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Spectrophotometric Quantification Of Bilirubin In Sclera Of The Eye Using Visible Dlp® Hyperspectral Imaging, Naveen Balaji Balasubramanian Jan 2012

Spectrophotometric Quantification Of Bilirubin In Sclera Of The Eye Using Visible Dlp® Hyperspectral Imaging, Naveen Balaji Balasubramanian

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

In clinical settings doctors strive to give best care to the patients by looking for methods to diagnose the illness early to intervene with the necessary treatment. In the case of patients with liver problems (e.g. cirrhosis, hepatitis) an early indicator of impaired liver function is an increased concentration of bilirubin in the blood circulation. Bilirubin concentration is currently quantified by blood sampling, which is invasive, and it would be desirable to have a technology that quantifies bilirubin non-invasively. The goal of this work was to help address this clinical need and develop a methodology for determining non-invasively a measure …

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Antimicrobial Properties Of Citric Acid Based Polymers, Lee-Chun Su Jan 2012

Antimicrobial Properties Of Citric Acid Based Polymers, Lee-Chun Su

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

A series of citric acid derived polymers synthesized in our lab were investigated and compared for their physiochemical and antimicrobial properties. We selected citric acid based polymers since citric acid is a product of natural metabolism. These polymers are not only biocompatible but also possess an antimicrobial effect. In polymer synthesis, citric acid (CA) provides profound functional groups available for binding and crosslinking to allow the controllable crosslinking degrees of polymers. A number of citric acid based polymers has been synthesized and studied for their chemical, mechanical, and biological characteristics for use in various biomedical applications. Since bacterial infections became …

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Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interfacing Of Sensory Modalities, Nilanjana T. Dutta Jan 2012

Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interfacing Of Sensory Modalities, Nilanjana T. Dutta

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Peripheral neural interfaces (PNI) has proved potential to record motor commands for the control of these prosthetic limbs, together with stimulation of specific sensory axons, so as to transmit specific sensory sub-modalities. Although PNI is hypothesized to provide adequate sensory feedback, realizing this degree of specificity is not fully established. Recently, a regenerative multi-electrode interface (REMI) was reported to be capable of recording peripheral nerve activity from a transected nerve. This study is aimed at interfacing neural activity specific to sensory sub-modalities, such as thermal pain, mechanoception and limb stretching using the REMI, in a freely moving animal. In the …

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Characterization Of Immune Response And Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Of Implanted Regenerative Multi-Electrode Interface Post-Subchronic Amputation, Camilo Andres Sanchez Useche Jan 2012

Characterization Of Immune Response And Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Of Implanted Regenerative Multi-Electrode Interface Post-Subchronic Amputation, Camilo Andres Sanchez Useche

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Interfacing high degree-of-freedom robotic prosthetics directly to the peripheral nervous system aims at improving the quotidian life of amputees. Despite advancements in robotics that have lead to human-like upper limb prosthetics, long-term interfacing has not been accomplished, thus voiding them from clinical use. Interfacing electrodes in the central nervous system fail due to the foreign body reaction and glial scar formation at the site of implantation. Concrete mechanisms for the failure of long-term Interfacing at the peripheral nervous level remain unclear. A regenerative multi-electrode interface (REMI) which allows for action potential recording as early as 7 days and provides support …

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A Comparative Approach To Elucidating The Physiological Response In Symbiodinium To Changes In Temperature, Elizabeth S. Mcginty Jan 2012

A Comparative Approach To Elucidating The Physiological Response In Symbiodinium To Changes In Temperature, Elizabeth S. Mcginty

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems, and play a large role in the functioning of oceanic and coastal ecosystems. They are currently declining around the world, largely due to the effects of climate change and local anthropogenic issues. Temperature stress in particular has been associated with significant coral mortality over the last 30 years due to adverse effects on the relationship between reef-building corals and their algal endosymbionts from the genus Symbiodinium. Periods of elevated temperature have led to the phenomenon of coral bleaching, a disruption of the symbiosis that is characterized by the loss of the …

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The Effects Of Mine Land Reclamation Of Herpetofaunal Communities, Jayme L. Walton Jan 2012

The Effects Of Mine Land Reclamation Of Herpetofaunal Communities, Jayme L. Walton

Biology Theses - Archive

Succession describes the process of community change over time after a disturbance. Understanding these processes allows ecological restoration projects to take advantage of natural community trajectories. Reclamation efforts often "jump-start" succession to restore anthropogenically disturbed land and water features to their former state. This is often accomplished by seeding for desired species or planting tree seedlings. One way of gauging whether reclamation was successful is to compare floral and faunal communities of reclaimed land with that of nearby land that was not disturbed. Most such studies have focused on plant and bird species while few have looked at the effects …

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Using An Ahp/Anp Hybrid Methodology For Freight Transport Networks Selection Towards Sustainable Transportation, Andrea M. Graham Jan 2012

Using An Ahp/Anp Hybrid Methodology For Freight Transport Networks Selection Towards Sustainable Transportation, Andrea M. Graham

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The selection of an effective transportation network for the transport of container freight is one of the most important factors in supply chain and logistics planning. The current transport networks, hub-and-spoke and point-to-point, although optimal in many aspects are still plagued with issues in route optimization, empty travel, and bad intermodal synchronization. The trucking industry, the most utilized of all modes, offers unsustainable components in its current state that continually introduce negative impacts to an ever evolving supply chain network. This research investigates a third potentially more sustainable distributed multi-segment transportation network. This network will be compared to the traditional …

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Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (Costs) For Linear Programming, Goh Saito Jan 2012

Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (Costs) For Linear Programming, Goh Saito

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Simplex pivoting algorithms remain the dominant approach to solve linear programming (LP) because they have advantages over interior-point methods. However, current simplex algorithms are often inadequate for solving a large-scale LPs because of their insufficient computational speeds. This dissertation develops the significantly faster simplex-based, active-set approaches called Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (COSTs). COSTs specify a constraint-ordering rule based on constraints' likelihood of being binding at optimality, as well as a rule for adding constraints. In particular, new techniques for adding multiple constraints in an active-set framework, and an efficient constraint-ordering rule for LP are proposed. These innovations greatly reduce computation …

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Sustainability In The Private And Public Sectors: A Comparison Of Motivators, Actions, Barriers And Reporting Of Results, Lisa London Jan 2012

Sustainability In The Private And Public Sectors: A Comparison Of Motivators, Actions, Barriers And Reporting Of Results, Lisa London

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The concept of sustainability has developed over the past 40 years and continues to advance as organizations implement sustainable practices, quantify sustainability results, and communicate their accomplishments to key stakeholders. Despite these advances, sustainability remains an emerging field in need of clear definitions and goals; development of best practices; and effective tools for measuring, reporting, and benchmarking results. The literature suggests that the private sector is more advanced than the public sector in addressing these challenges. The purpose of this study was to discover if the public sector lags in pursuing sustainability, and if so, to identify some of the …

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Emerging Adulthood As A Unique Stage In Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory: Incarnation V. Impudence, Alicia Victoria Patterson Jan 2012

Emerging Adulthood As A Unique Stage In Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory: Incarnation V. Impudence, Alicia Victoria Patterson

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation adds to Erikson's theory of psychosocial development by adding a stage between adolescence and young adulthood called emerging adulthood. It was theorized that the crisis of emerging adulthood, incarnation versus impudence, is resolved through experimental sexuality, temporal and spatial social and intimate relationships, interdependence and self-sufficiency and dependence and helplessness, and relativist and absolutist ideological experimentation. Research on transitions to adulthood and a sociological phenomenon of emerging adulthood, boomerang children, provide the background for study of Eriksonian emerging adulthood. An online questionnaire was created to collect data to determine if the theorized dimensions of emerging adulthood contribute to …

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Design, Calibration And Testing Of A Force Balance For A Hypersonic Shock Tunnel, Pravin Vadassery Jan 2012

Design, Calibration And Testing Of A Force Balance For A Hypersonic Shock Tunnel, Pravin Vadassery

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The forces acting on a flight vehicle are critical for determining its performance. Of particular interest is the hypersonic regime. Force measurements are much more complex in hypersonic flows, where those speeds are simulated in shock tunnels. A force balance for such facilities contains sensitive gages that measure stress waves and ultimately determine the different components of force acting on the model. An external force balance was designed and fabricated for the UTA Hypersonic shock tunnel to measure drag at Mach 10. Static and dynamic calibrations were performed to find the transfer function of the system. Forces were recovered using …

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Guidance And Control Of Unmanned Airships For Waypoint Navigation In The Presence Of Wind, Ghassan M. Atmeh Jan 2012

Guidance And Control Of Unmanned Airships For Waypoint Navigation In The Presence Of Wind, Ghassan M. Atmeh

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Airships are a specific class of Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) vehicles. These vehicles achieve lift mainly through buoyancy; the usually ellipsoidal shaped hull contains a lifting gas such as helium, which produces the required lift though air displacement. Due to this method of operation an airship has the ability to conduct low-power hover, which makes it ideal for applications requiring hovering over long periods of time such as surveillance, terrain mapping, meteorology and GPS. In such applications the conventional fixed wing unmanned aircraft is less suitable. The work presented in this thesis deals with designing a controller that is capable of navigating …

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Heat Transfer Enhancement In A Rectangular Channel Using Vortex Generator In A Laminar Flow, Ninad C. Maniar Jan 2012

Heat Transfer Enhancement In A Rectangular Channel Using Vortex Generator In A Laminar Flow, Ninad C. Maniar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Enhancement of heat transfer through various means has been an intense area of research for many years. There are numerous applications where high performance heat exchange is desired. The cooling of electronics, such as microprocessors, is one example. The recent rise in the studies of heat exchange enhancement techniques has also lead to efficient and compact heat exchangers. This research involves the numerical analysis of heat exchange enhancement in a rectangular channel using different types of longitudinal vortex generators (LVG) for a laminar flow. A computational fluid dynamics software package was used to compute the 3-D steady viscous flows with …

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Cfd Analysis Of Direct Evaporative Cooling Zone Of Air-Side Economizer For Containerized Data Center, Niket Shah Jan 2012

Cfd Analysis Of Direct Evaporative Cooling Zone Of Air-Side Economizer For Containerized Data Center, Niket Shah

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Conventional data centers are extremely large buildings that have complex power distribution and cooling systems. These traditional brick and mortar data centers employ relatively expensive cooling systems and are inefficient. It has in turn led to an increase in construction and operational costs. Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D. of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that worldwide data center power consumption was 152.5 Billion kWh in 2005. In 2007, the US EPA estimated that servers and data centers, “consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about $4.5 billion. These …

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Subgrouping Of Nisoic (Yi) Languages: A Study From The Perspectives Of Shared Innovation And Phylogenetic Estimation, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan Lama Jan 2012

Subgrouping Of Nisoic (Yi) Languages: A Study From The Perspectives Of Shared Innovation And Phylogenetic Estimation, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan Lama

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

In southwest China and neighboring countries, including Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, there live over 100 ethnic groups who speak languages known as Nuosu, Naxi, Hani, Lisu, Lahu, etc. These languages belong to the Nisoic Branch or the Loloish Branch of Tibeto-Burman (TB) subfamily of Sino-Tibetan. Though the Nisoic affiliation to TB is unquestionable, its internal subgrouping has not been settled. This dissertation aims to study the internal relationship of 34 Nisoic and three Burmic languages from two perspectives shared innovation and phylogenetic estimation. Shared innovation has been regarded as the most reliable criterion in determining subgroups of language descent …

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Repair Negotiation By English L2 Learners, Yujeong Choi Jan 2012

Repair Negotiation By English L2 Learners, Yujeong Choi

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

It is widely accepted that L2 learners often face communication problems due to lack of competency in the target language and familiarity with its culture of origin. One way to resolve miscommunication problems is to seek clarification of the utterance; this process is called repair negotiation (Nakahama et al. 2001). Repair negotiation has been studied as a subset of Long's (1996) Interaction Hypothesis in second language acquisition (SLA). Existing research has solely focused on repair negotiation which is initiated by the native speaker or teacher rather than the L2 learner, thus resulting in other-initiated repair (OIR). However, it has also …

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Binding Accessibility And Online Anaphora Processing, Michael P. Mansbridge, Jeffrey Witzel Jan 2012

Binding Accessibility And Online Anaphora Processing, Michael P. Mansbridge, Jeffrey Witzel

Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive

No abstract provided.

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