Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Other

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 18361 - 18390 of 25686

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Comparison Of Dust Generation From Open Cut And Trenchless Technology Methods For Utility Construction, Sahajanand Madhusudan Kamat Jan 2011

Comparison Of Dust Generation From Open Cut And Trenchless Technology Methods For Utility Construction, Sahajanand Madhusudan Kamat

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Construction industry has changed many aspects of human life and is still evolving at a rapid pace. New and better technologies which are environmentally friendly and safe are being introduced in this industry. But with the passage of time, this industry has got riddled with loss of human life and quality due to various scenarios. One of the major contributors to such conditions is dust generated on a construction site. The amount of dust a worker inhales during his whole career is very dangerous. This research has found out that using trenchless technology, this exposure to dust can be reduced …

Go to article

The Effect Of Fiber Corrosion On Shear Capacity Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams And An Initial Investigation On Alkali-Silica Reaction In Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Regina Nyambura Waweru Jan 2011

The Effect Of Fiber Corrosion On Shear Capacity Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams And An Initial Investigation On Alkali-Silica Reaction In Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Regina Nyambura Waweru

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The first part of this research aims to investigate the effect of fiber corrosion on the shear capacity of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete beams. It will also strive to determine at what reduction in minimum diameter of the fiber does the effect of corrosion become most severe on the shear capacity of the beam. Four simply-supported beams with a shear span to depth ratio of 3.3 were subjected to a monotonically increasing load. The targeted concrete compressive strength for all beams was 6000 psi. This however differed from the measured strength due to a number of factors as will be …

Go to article

Development Of A True-Cost Concept For Renewal Of Municipal Underground Pipeline Systems, Dennis Abraham Jan 2011

Development Of A True-Cost Concept For Renewal Of Municipal Underground Pipeline Systems, Dennis Abraham

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Asset management principles for underground pipeline infrastructure (UPI) are used by municipalities for efficient delivery of water, wastewater, and storm sewers. Due to budget constraints and limited resources, municipalities need to improve their operations, utilizing an optimum cost to provide their asset management services. Life cycle costs (LCC) include the total cost of facility ownership taking into account all capital costs, operation and maintenance costs, and renewing or disposing costs. Asset management costs include the maintenance and renewal portion of LCC. The main objective of this research is to develop asset management strategies with consideration of all the cost factors …

Go to article

Local Calibration Of Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide For North Eastern United States, Shariq A. Momin Jan 2011

Local Calibration Of Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide For North Eastern United States, Shariq A. Momin

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 1-37A project is based on mechanistic-empirical analysis of the pavement structure to predict the performance of the pavement under different sets of conditions (traffic, structure and environment). MEPDG takes into account the advanced modeling concepts and pavement performance models in performing the analysis and design of pavement. The mechanistic part of the design concept relies on the application of engineering mechanics to calculate stresses, strains and deformations in the pavement structure induced by the vehicle loads. The empirical part of the concept is based on …

Go to article

Fluorinated And Fluorocarbon Coating Of Tio₂ By Pulsed Plasma Processing: Improved Photocatalytic Oxidation Of Gaseous M-Xylene And Mercury, Sulak Sumitsawan Jan 2011

Fluorinated And Fluorocarbon Coating Of Tio₂ By Pulsed Plasma Processing: Improved Photocatalytic Oxidation Of Gaseous M-Xylene And Mercury, Sulak Sumitsawan

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a preferred catalyst for photocatalytic oxidation of many air pollutants. In an effort to enhance its photocatalytic activity, TiO₂ was modified by pulsed plasma treatment. In this work, TiO₂ nanoparticles, coated on a glass plate, were treated with a plasma discharge of hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) gas. By appropriate adjustment of discharge conditions, it was discovered that the TiO₂ particles can be either directly fluorinated (Ti-F) or coated with thin perfluorocarbon films (C-F). Specifically, under relatively high power input, the plasma deposition process favored direct surface fluorination. The extent of Ti-F formation increased with increasing power input. …

Go to article

Unsaturated Soil Behavior Under Large Deformations Using A Fully Servo/Suction-Controlled Ring Shear Apparatus, Claudia Liliana Velosa Gamboa Jan 2011

Unsaturated Soil Behavior Under Large Deformations Using A Fully Servo/Suction-Controlled Ring Shear Apparatus, Claudia Liliana Velosa Gamboa

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In recent years, the key hypotheses of most elasto-plastic constitutive frameworks postulated for unsaturated soils have been validated via suction-controlled oedometer, triaxial, and direct shear testing. These techniques, however, allow for the application of loads along limited modes and levels of soil deformation. Today, it is well known that most geotechnical infrastructure resting on unsaturated ground involves a wide range of deformations. Calculation of foundation settlement, for instance, requires a good estimation of soil stiffness at relatively small strains. Analysis of slopes, embankments, and soil bearing capacity, on the other hand, requires an adequate estimation of shear strength, from peak …

Go to article

An Investigation Of Support Vector Machine Classifier In Detecting Nocturnal Airway Obstruction From Spontaneous Heart Rate Combined With Ecg Morphology Changes, Harshan Ravi Jan 2011

An Investigation Of Support Vector Machine Classifier In Detecting Nocturnal Airway Obstruction From Spontaneous Heart Rate Combined With Ecg Morphology Changes, Harshan Ravi

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Sleep apnea is a sleep disordered breathing resulting from limitation or cessation to breathing for 10 or more seconds. The prevalence of sleep apnea has increased exponentially in the past decade. The increase in epidemic in sleep apnea is associated with increase in the cases of obesity. It is estimated that 12-18 million of American adults suffer from sleep apnea, which is a sizable sector of the adult population. Sleep apnea is risk factor for hypertension, type II diabetes, and congestive heart failure. Sleep apnea may go undiagnosed for a long period of time after its onset due to complexity …

Go to article

Critical Analysis Of Fear Of Crime On College Campuses, Hannah Deason Jan 2011

Critical Analysis Of Fear Of Crime On College Campuses, Hannah Deason

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

The purpose of this research study is to examine the perception of fear of crime among undergraduate college students who are enrolled in courses in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. Surveys were administered to 160 undergraduate students enrolled in courses in the Criminology and Criminal Justice department at the University of Texas at Arlington. Survey responses of female undergraduate students were then compared male undergraduate students to determine knowledge and perception differences relating to sexual assault. In regards to the survey questionnaire administered to the undergraduate students, there were statistically significant differences …

Go to article

Evaluation Of Step Detection Of Piecewise Constant Signals Using Phase Congruency, Real Footprints And Complex Footprints, Srikanteswara Sachidananda Jan 2011

Evaluation Of Step Detection Of Piecewise Constant Signals Using Phase Congruency, Real Footprints And Complex Footprints, Srikanteswara Sachidananda

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Several applications involve the use of signals that are piecewise constant. Often, their measurements or observations are contaminated with noise. Detecting the steps and recovering the true signal from its noisy measurements is an important problem.There are a number of methods in the literature that address this issue. We use two different approaches. First, we use the idea of phase congruency in detecting singularities in a 1-dimensional piecewise constant signal. Phase congruency has been previously used in feature detection from images. It is a dimensionless quantity that gives an absolute measure in finding the edges or discontinuity in a signal. …

Go to article

God Is Dead... Now There Danceth A God In Me. Bringing Modernist Darkness To Light Through The Apollonian And Dionysian Dichotomy, Kendall Stephenson Jan 2011

God Is Dead... Now There Danceth A God In Me. Bringing Modernist Darkness To Light Through The Apollonian And Dionysian Dichotomy, Kendall Stephenson

English Theses - Archive

Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy can be seen at work in the texts of canonical modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf, Hermann Hesse, Albert Camus, Rainer Maria Rilke, William B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, and it is in the balance of these two Greek deities that modernist literary characters affirm life, thus reversing the typically negative interpretations of modernist literature. My aim is to show how the primordial, divergent elements of the Apollonian and Dionysian reveal themselves across the field of modernist literature and synthesize to create moments of truth, mental equilibrium, and life-affirmation amongst its …

Go to article

Multiplexing/De-Multiplexing Dirac Video With Aac Audio Bit Stream, Ashwini Urs Jan 2011

Multiplexing/De-Multiplexing Dirac Video With Aac Audio Bit Stream, Ashwini Urs

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

With the inception of High Definition Television (HDTV) for broadcasting digital multimedia, enormous demand for video streaming over internet and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) applications, the choice of a good compression scheme is vital. A good compression scheme assists in exploiting the limited storage capacity and efficient use of bandwidth required for broadcasting. Dirac [31] is a state-of-the-art video codec aimed at applications from HDTV to web streaming [1]. Dirac was developed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and is an open technology which does not involve any licensing fees. Studies have shown that the performance of Dirac compares well …

Go to article

Neptune: Mobile Manipulator With Advanced Human Robot Interaction, Pavan Kanajar Jan 2011

Neptune: Mobile Manipulator With Advanced Human Robot Interaction, Pavan Kanajar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis describes Neptune, a mobile manipulator designed as an assistive device for task-related activities and rehabilitation of children with special needs. Neptune consists of a mobile robot base and a 6DOF robotic arm, and it is interfaced to users via Wii Remote, iPad, Neuro headset, a camera, and pressure sensors. These interfaces allow patients, therapists and operators to interact with the robot in multiple ways, as may be appropriate in assistive scenarios such as: direct physical interaction with the iPad, arm positioning exercises through Wii remote, remote navigation and object retrieval through the environment via the Neuro headset, etc. …

Go to article

Fingerprint Enhancement By Directional Filtering, Sreya Chakraborty Jan 2011

Fingerprint Enhancement By Directional Filtering, Sreya Chakraborty

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Although inkless methods for taking fingerprint impressions are now available, these methods still suffer from the positional shifting caused by the skin elasticity. The non cooperative attitude of suspects or criminals also leads to smearing in parts of the fingerprint impressions. Thus a substantial amount of research reported in the literature on fingerprint identification is devoted to image enhancement techniques.The important step in fingerprint matching is the reliable fingerprint recognition. Automatic Fingerprint Recognition System relies on the input fingerprint for feature extraction. Hence, the effectiveness of feature extraction relies heavily on the quality of input fingerprint images. In this thesis …

Go to article

One Foot In The Grave: The Zombie's Consumption Of American Film, Ronni M. Davis Jan 2011

One Foot In The Grave: The Zombie's Consumption Of American Film, Ronni M. Davis

English Theses - Archive

American film has chronicled the evolution of the zombie mythos for nearly eight decades. Originally constructed as a projection of the plight of the enslaved population of Haiti, the zombie as introduced to American film remains a symbol of societal anxieties. I argue that, to reflect the changing zeitgeist, the zombie shifts into three general forms. The Haitian Zombi is generally a passive creature subject to the will of its creator; it reveals desire to control people that either pose a threat or that have something that the creator covets and is otherwise unable to attain. The Extraterrestrial Zombie represents …

Go to article

Resisting Commodification (With Friends!): Facebook And Consumer Culture, Wilton S. Wright Jan 2011

Resisting Commodification (With Friends!): Facebook And Consumer Culture, Wilton S. Wright

English Theses - Archive

Is participating in the Facebook phenomenon (or can it become) politically resistant - even revolutionary? Or are social networking websites merely another form of commodified capitalist consumerism? In this thesis, I investigate the commodified/commodifying aspects of Facebook, as well as its political potential. In order to establish a common understanding of the problems created by contemporary capitalism, in the first chapter I use Guy Debord's theory of the Society of the Spectacle to provide a framework for evaluating the incessant commodification of contemporary culture. I then examine previous attempts to overturn the capitalist system and discuss possible reasons for their …

Go to article

Digitalism: Towards A Theory Of Digital Rhetoric And Composition, Jared Chambers Jan 2011

Digitalism: Towards A Theory Of Digital Rhetoric And Composition, Jared Chambers

English Theses - Archive

In this thesis, I argue that the text and the textual are inherently digital and, thus, have properties that are information theoretic in origin. From that premise, I use an interdisciplinary approach to construct a theory for the reading and deconstruction of digital works and their viewers, which I then use to form a method for the analysis, composition, and reading of texts "digitally."The first two chapters introduce the relation of digital philosophy and information theory to textual works, which leads into the third chapter's ontology of digital works and their audience. Chapters four introduces the power of simulacrum in …

Go to article

Real-Time Dynamic Hand Shape Gesture Controller, Rajesh Radhakrishnan Jan 2011

Real-Time Dynamic Hand Shape Gesture Controller, Rajesh Radhakrishnan

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The main objective of this thesis is to build a real time gesture recognition system which can spot and recognize specific gestures from continuous stream of input video. We address the recognition of single handed dynamic gestures. We have considered gestures which are sequences of distinct hand poses. Gestures are classified based on their hand poses and its nature of motion. The recognition strategy uses a combination of spatial hand shape recognition using chamfer distance measure and temporal characteristics through dynamic programming. The system is fairly robust to background clutter and uses skin color for tracking. Gestures are an important …

Go to article

Development And Applications Of Laser Micromachined Inter-Digitated Capacitive Strain Sensors, Shreyas Kiran Thakar Jan 2011

Development And Applications Of Laser Micromachined Inter-Digitated Capacitive Strain Sensors, Shreyas Kiran Thakar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Reliable strain measurement plays a very important role in the damage detection of the mechanical and civil structures. It can also have a significant contribution in assisting the proper functioning of human body and organs. The current strain sensors and measurement systems have significant drawbacks in terms of high sensitivity to temperature, low gauge factor, low biocompatibility and bulky data acquisition/conditioning circuitry. These factors make the strain measurement unreliable and expensive. In this work, we have developed a laser micro-machined inter-digitated capacitive strain sensor which allowed us to overcome the limitations of existing strain sensing technologies. The structural health monitoring …

Go to article

Design Of A Novel Electrostatic Micro Energy Harvester, Madhumita Ambokar Jan 2011

Design Of A Novel Electrostatic Micro Energy Harvester, Madhumita Ambokar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The batteries have been a major source of energy for the electronic devices. However, the exhaustible nature of the batteries has encouraged the researchers to exploit the renewable energy sources for powering the electronics. Over the years, the researchers have tried to tap the stray energy provided by the ambient sources such as sun, wind, RF energy, vibration energy, etc. In the work presented here, an effort has been made to design a micro energy harvester, which would harness electric energy from the vibrations provided by the machine such as aircrafts, cars, engines, etc. A variable capacitive device was designed …

Go to article

Experimental Study Of Through-Wall Human Being Detection Using Ultra-Wideband Radar, Ashith Kumar Jan 2011

Experimental Study Of Through-Wall Human Being Detection Using Ultra-Wideband Radar, Ashith Kumar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Ultra-wideband radars are used for several applications such as subsurface sensing, classification of aircrafts and collision avoidance. The detection of humans hidden by walls or rubble, trapped in buildings on fire or avalanche victims are of interest for rescue, surveillance and security operations. Ultra-wideband technology is favored for these applications due to its inherent property of ultra-high resolution and the ability to penetrate most of the non-metallic building materials such as bricks, wood, dry walls, concrete and reinforced concrete. Detection of human beings with radars is based on movement detection - respiratory motions and movement of body parts. These motions …

Go to article

Self-Assembled Synthesis Of Microfluidic Channels In Pdms, Jeyantt Srinivas Sankaran Jan 2011

Self-Assembled Synthesis Of Microfluidic Channels In Pdms, Jeyantt Srinivas Sankaran

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The field of microfluidics is expanding rapidly finding applications in diverse areas ranging from solid state devices and semiconductors to bio- applications in cell culture and DNA assays and micro- arrays. PDMS has been a commonly used material for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Apart from traditional lithographic techniques, soft lithography has also been prevalent in fabrication of micro channels in polymers like PDMS. We propose a novel technique for fabrication of micro/nanochannels in PDMS using hydrophilic- hydrophobic interactions. Several hydrophilic materials have been tried for the fabrication of such channels. This research revolves around the science behind the phenomenon, …

Go to article

Low Complexity H.264 Encoder Using Machine Learning For Streaming Applications, Suchethan Swaroop Vaidyanath Jan 2011

Low Complexity H.264 Encoder Using Machine Learning For Streaming Applications, Suchethan Swaroop Vaidyanath

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

H.264, MPEG-4 part-10 or AVC, is the latest digital video codec standard which has proven to be superior than earlier standards in terms of compression ratio, quality,bit rates and error resilience [1]. Joint model (JM) reference software is used for academic reference and it was developed by the Joint Video Team (JVT) of ISO/IECMPEG and ITU-T VCEG (Video coding experts group). The Intel IPP H.264 (Integrated Performance Primitives) is a product of Intel which uses Intel IPP libraries and SIMD instructions available on modern processors. The Intel IPP H.264 is multithreaded and uses CPU optimized IPP routines. These two softwares …

Go to article

Needle Detection And Localization In Simulated In-Vivo Ultrasound Image For Use In Breast Biopsy, Nidhi Khullar Jan 2011

Needle Detection And Localization In Simulated In-Vivo Ultrasound Image For Use In Breast Biopsy, Nidhi Khullar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis addresses needle segmentation in ultrasound images for breast cancer biopsy. The thesis reviews the state-of-the-art in object localization using ultrasound (US) imagery. In particular, principal component analysis, projection based methods (Hough Transform, Radon Transform and Parallel Integral Projection) and model fitting method using RANSAC and work in the field of diffusion filters are reviewed for potential use in a real breast biopsy environment, wherein the US imagery does not have much contrast and the speckle noise content is high. Other image artifacts in these images also mask the needle image.A new needle localization method called ANDSUI algorithm has …

Go to article

Physical Layer Test Trials And Analysis Of Call Drops And Real Time Throughput Versus Channel Capacity Of The Long Term Evolution (4g) Technology, Sanil Fulani Jan 2011

Physical Layer Test Trials And Analysis Of Call Drops And Real Time Throughput Versus Channel Capacity Of The Long Term Evolution (4g) Technology, Sanil Fulani

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Wireless communication has evolved rapidly in recent years and demand for mobile devices with new and higher services is increasing. The 3G standard, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is already upgraded with High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) to meet current demands, but this is not sufficient considering the current needs of high speed services. Considering the demand for high speed service, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has come up with a technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology called as 4G with an objective of a radio access technology with higher data rates, lower latencies and packet services such as …

Go to article

Rethinking The Usefulness Of Mandatory Rights Of Withdrawal In Consumer Contract Law: The Right To Change Your Mind?, Jan Smits Jan 2011

Rethinking The Usefulness Of Mandatory Rights Of Withdrawal In Consumer Contract Law: The Right To Change Your Mind?, Jan Smits

Penn State International Law Review (1982 - 2011)

No abstract provided.

Go to article

The Segments And Tones Of Soyaltepec Mazatec, Heather D. Beal Jan 2011

The Segments And Tones Of Soyaltepec Mazatec, Heather D. Beal

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation describes the segments and tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec, an Oto-Manguean language of southern Mexico virtually undescribed in the literature with the exception of Pike (1956). The preliminary work done by Pike and subsequent analyses by Goldsmith (1990) and Pizer (1994) are reviewed giving evidence that the system is complex and not easily explained. Documentation of the segments of the language as well as a more complete documentation of the tonal system has significance for language preservation, comparative Oto-Manguean studies, and for phonological theories of tone. This paper presents original field data gathered by the author during visits to …

Go to article

No Good Whistle Goes Unpunished: Can We Protect European Antitrust Leniency Applications From Discovery?, Constanza Nicolosi Jan 2011

No Good Whistle Goes Unpunished: Can We Protect European Antitrust Leniency Applications From Discovery?, Constanza Nicolosi

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In recent years, the most successful tool in the antitrust arsenal of the European Commission and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has proven to be leniency programs, which provide full immunity from fines to the first cartel-member that confesses its participation in the conspiracy. Even though European and U.S. leniency programs are fairly similar to one another, procedural differences may undermine their effectiveness. It has long been argued that potential discovery of corporate statements accompanying the leniency application before the Commission in subsequent proceedings in the United States would put the firms that cooperated with the …

Go to article

Efficient Contracting Between Foreign Investors And Host States: Evidence From Stabilization Clauses, Sam Foster Halabi Jan 2011

Efficient Contracting Between Foreign Investors And Host States: Evidence From Stabilization Clauses, Sam Foster Halabi

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Bilateral investment treaties are agreements between sovereign states that give broad protections to investors and investments made within the jurisdiction of the other state. The prevailing view in the academy and practice is that developing countries sign bilateral investment treaties in order to reassure investors from developed states that their investments will be safe from changes in domestic law. Without these "credible commitments," investors would be deterred from making investments, depriving developing countries of foreign capital. This Article disputes that view by demonstrating that foreign investors and host states effectively contract around the risk of changes in the law. This …

Go to article

The International Anti-Money Laundering And Combating The Financing Of Terrorism Regulatory Strategy: A Critical Analysis Of Compliance Determinants In International Law, Navin Beekarry Jan 2011

The International Anti-Money Laundering And Combating The Financing Of Terrorism Regulatory Strategy: A Critical Analysis Of Compliance Determinants In International Law, Navin Beekarry

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Concerns about the risks money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) present to the stability of the international financial system have resurfaced in the context of the liquidity problems faced by financial institutions as a result of the recent credit crisis (2008). Because ML and TF evolve with new criminal activities and methodologies, ML and TF present systemic threats to the stability of the financial system. Addressing new developments in ML/TF and their associated risks requires a sufficiently flexible and adaptable international regulatory strategy. In this paper, I examine the international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) …

Go to article

Making Wto Sps Dispute Settlement Work: Challenges And Practical Solutions, Eric Gillman Jan 2011

Making Wto Sps Dispute Settlement Work: Challenges And Practical Solutions, Eric Gillman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) represents an effort by the Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to balance competing interests in liberalizing trade, on one hand, and protecting human, animal, and plant life from risks posed by the free flow of goods on the other. SPS disputes center around a core question: Does the imported product at issue present a sufficiently serious threat to national health to warrant the imposition of trade-restrictive measures? Over twelve years and six disputes, panels and the Appellate Body (AB) have addressed this question by evaluating respondents' risk assessments. The …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last