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Optimization Of Hydrogel System For Complex Wound Healing, Nikhil Vilas Aphale Jan 2011

Optimization Of Hydrogel System For Complex Wound Healing, Nikhil Vilas Aphale

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Various conventional therapies and preventive measures have been developed and used for treating complex wounds; however, patients with complex wounds still develop wound infection and consist of delayed wound healing. These limitations necessitate the development of a novel therapeutic system, which is cost effective, easily apply onto the complex wounds, and consists of an efficient therapeutic nature. An in situ forming hydrogel system, made up of a novel biodegradable elastomer poly (ethylene glycol) maleate citrate (PEGMC), was designed and optimized for complex wound healing. Biocompatibility of this hydrogel system was studied by determining the toxicity of both the formation factors, …

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Addressing Prey Selection And Predator Fitness: Ingestion By, And Growth Of Ochromonas Danica On Multiple Bacterial Prey, Briony L. Foster Jan 2011

Addressing Prey Selection And Predator Fitness: Ingestion By, And Growth Of Ochromonas Danica On Multiple Bacterial Prey, Briony L. Foster

Biology Theses - Archive

Nanoflagellates provide an important link in aquatic food webs by consuming bacterial biomass and subsequently providing nutrients to higher trophic levels by becoming prey themselves and regenerating nutrients consumed in excess of metabolic needs. Nanoflagellate predation has typically been addressed by examining one or two aspects of a seemingly complex prey identification process, and rarely has the subsequent fitness of the predator been quantified. In this work we examine how bacterial prey size, growth state, growth rate, nutritional composition, and phylogenetic class effect ingestion rate by, and growth rate of, the mixotrophic flagellate Ochromonas danica. A phylogenetically diverse group of …

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Molecular Systematics Of The Coffee Snakes, Genus Ninia (Colubridae: Dipsadinae), Matthew John Ingrasci Jan 2011

Molecular Systematics Of The Coffee Snakes, Genus Ninia (Colubridae: Dipsadinae), Matthew John Ingrasci

Biology Theses - Archive

Although previous studies have addressed issues relating to the systematics and taxonomy in the snake genus Ninia, the evolutionary history of the group remains largely unknown. Preliminary morphological studies have been unable to resolve many of the relationships within the genus and have not thoroughly tested the relationship between Ninia and other dipsadine snakes. To address these gaps in our knowledge of Ninia, I used molecular techniques to infer phylogenetic relationships. I obtained tissue samples for all species of Ninia and sequenced two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and one nuclear DNA (nucDNA) locus. In total, this dataset included 2453 base pairs …

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Process Modeling System For Press Cure, Closed-Cavity Tooled Thick Composites, Arven H. Saunders Jan 2011

Process Modeling System For Press Cure, Closed-Cavity Tooled Thick Composites, Arven H. Saunders

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Thick structural composite parts often use press curing with closed-cavity tooling for achieving dimensional tolerances. A commonly encountered defect for these parts is fiber waviness, whick limits its structural strength. The yield for such parts often suffers due to trial and error methods used to develop successful cure processes. In addition, yield for these parts suffers due to material variation. The objectives of this research were to: develop and validate a simplified yet practical cure process model for press cured thick composite parts, utilize the model in order to seek time-efficient optimized cure processes, investigate the effects of material variation …

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The Role Of Abstraction For Creative Idea Generation, Ajeeta Deuja Jan 2011

The Role Of Abstraction For Creative Idea Generation, Ajeeta Deuja

Psychology Theses - Archive

The present study examined the role of categories during a brainstorming task. Participants were asked to generate abstract categories before they brainstormed either in groups or individually in Study 1. It was expected that generating categories would be beneficial before ideation. However, it was found that category generation harmed the group ideation process. It was also found that they were not clustering as much to their ideas, which might have led to a decrease in productivity. Study 2 aimed to examine whether groups would benefit by brainstorming sequentially because of high clustering. It was found that sequential brainstorming helped increase …

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Conditioned Place Preference In The Male Wistar-Kyoto Rat, Torry Scott Dennis Jan 2011

Conditioned Place Preference In The Male Wistar-Kyoto Rat, Torry Scott Dennis

Psychology Theses - Archive

The current set of experiments examined the role of trait anxiety, using the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat, on cocaine- and morphine-induced conditioned place preference. Both four and six pairings of 10mg/kg cocaine during conditioning yielded no significant preference at acquisition, yet a preference at reinstatement was observed after a protracted period of abstinence. The three pairings of 10mg/kg morphine yielded no significant preference for either of the outer choice chambers at any time point, however an increasing preference for the neutral chamber in which no injection was given was observed as extinction continued. Taken together, the data collected from these experiments …

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Law And Politics In Public-Private Partnerships: Transparency, Conflict Of Interest, And Renegotiation In Concession Arrangements, Samuel A. Roach Jan 2011

Law And Politics In Public-Private Partnerships: Transparency, Conflict Of Interest, And Renegotiation In Concession Arrangements, Samuel A. Roach

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

Many states and local governments have begun to use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) vehicle as a policy tool in the area of highway transportation infrastructure development. A particular type of PPP, sometimes referred to as a "concession," can involve a state or local government's grant of concession rights, which typically includes the right to collect toll revenues on a roadway, to a private entity in exchange for the private entity's development and management of the roadway. As highway concession practice in the U.S. is a recent phenomenon, policymakers and other interested observers can benefit from a greater understanding of these …

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The Validation Of The Trauma Assessment For Young Children, Heidi Lynne Strickler Jan 2011

The Validation Of The Trauma Assessment For Young Children, Heidi Lynne Strickler

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

Young children experience a variety of traumatic experiences ranging from divorce and witnessing family violence, to living with parents who have addictive behaviors, to experiencing severe illness and injury, to experiencing population wide traumas, to experiencing physical or sexual abuse or other forms of child maltreatment. Young children between the ages of 3 and 7 are in the preoperational stage of cognitive development and consequently process these experiences in a different manner than adults. As a result, assessment measures need to take this cognitive processing into account and look at the children's views of their experiences. Psychosocial development is equally …

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Factors Associated With High School Completion Among Foster Youth Leaving Care, Elizabeth Garza-Higgens Jan 2011

Factors Associated With High School Completion Among Foster Youth Leaving Care, Elizabeth Garza-Higgens

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study explores factors associated with high school completion among foster youth leaving care. Educational outcomes for youth leaving care are examined based on an integrative model of ecological theory and attachment theory. The study utilized a cross-sectional, non-experimental design for exploring factors associated with high school completion among foster youth leaving care. A survey instrument was utilized for extracting data from a child welfare agency database. The data was collected one one point in time comparing the differences between youth who completed high school to those who dropped out. Chi-square analysis were utilized for comparing differences between groups and …

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Control Of Airship Motion In The Presence Of Wind, Jatuporn Nakpiam Jan 2011

Control Of Airship Motion In The Presence Of Wind, Jatuporn Nakpiam

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This research effort develops a guidance and control system for a small airship to fly through assigned waypoints in the three dimensional space with a desired speed in the presence of wind and wind gust. In the control system development and validation, a simulation environment based on the nonlinear 6-DOF model of an airship, including the effect of the wind, is used. The airship has five control variables, the main thrust, the main thrust angle, the tail thrust, elevator and rudder deflections. The effectiveness of the elevator and rudder degrades as the speed of the airship decreases. The controller design …

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Developing Structural Maps Of Sales Research Knowledge: Three Essays, Chien-Chung Chen Jan 2011

Developing Structural Maps Of Sales Research Knowledge: Three Essays, Chien-Chung Chen

Marketing Dissertations - Archive

The overall goal of the dissertation is to analyze the accumulated knowledge and explore research gaps in empirical sales research. Therefore, applying a structural map derived from a comprehensive synthesis of empirical studies, researchers can efficiently and effectively identify constructs' positions in nomological networks and then explore new research directions. The dissertation includes three complementary essays. Essay 1 creates a structural map of constructs in a nomological network generated by meta-analysis and analyzed by social network analysis. Key constructs, bivariate relationships, missing links, and constructs' positions in nomological networks are identified. Essay 2 then detects moderator effects among constructs and …

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Development Of Multimodal Imaging System Combined With Laser Microbeam For Nanoscale Manipulation And Characterization., Ninad Ingle Jan 2011

Development Of Multimodal Imaging System Combined With Laser Microbeam For Nanoscale Manipulation And Characterization., Ninad Ingle

Material Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Optical microscopy has fascinated biologists for probing and observing cellular structure while performing scientific research. While numerous wide-field and scanning microscopic techniques are being developed for probing cellular structure and function with high spatial and temporal resolution, mapping of complete biochemical, material and structural properties of the cell in three dimensions requires integration of multiple microscopic imaging techniques. In this thesis, conventional phase contrast microscopy and epifluorescence microscopy techniques were combined with other imaging methods such as digital holography microscopy (DHM) also known as quantitative phase microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), total internal reflection fluorescence …

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High Order Compact Scheme For Discontinuous Differential Equations, James Louis Thompson Jan 2011

High Order Compact Scheme For Discontinuous Differential Equations, James Louis Thompson

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

A high order implicit second derivative compact method is given which is similar the Adams-Moulton method, but requiring only two steps for sixth order. This method is used in both predictor-corrector and Newton's method formulations, and although the compact scheme is not A-stable or stiffly stable, it's region of stability is over six times greater than the Sixth order Adams-Moulton method. This compact method has a small truncation error coefficient, and is more accurate than Enright's method within the region of stability. Fourth and sixth order explicit compact methods are derived as well, and the three step sixth order explicit …

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Reading Fluency Measurements In Efa Fti Partner Countries : Outcomes And Improvement Prospects, Helen Abadzi Jan 2011

Reading Fluency Measurements In Efa Fti Partner Countries : Outcomes And Improvement Prospects, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Students in lower-income countries often acquire limited literacy in school and often drop out illiterate. For those who stay, the problem is not detected until it is too late to intervene. Oral reading fluency tests given in the early grades can quickly and inexpensively assess student literacy. For this reason, one-minute reading studies have been popular. A search carried out in early 2010 showed that over 50 fluency studies have been conducted in various countries, and that norms have been established in the U.S., Mexico, and Chile. The studies often reported data in ways that were not easily comparable, and …

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Law Enforcement`S Perception On Whether Or Not Criminal Street Gangs Are A Potential Terrorist Threat, Pamela Renee Mcintire Jan 2011

Law Enforcement`S Perception On Whether Or Not Criminal Street Gangs Are A Potential Terrorist Threat, Pamela Renee Mcintire

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

Over time gangs have evolved and formed a new era. The relationships today of these gangs are one of a convoluted nature. With technological advances like cell phones and the internet, they are not just a problem for an inner city area. The area is becoming worldwide. Because of the worldwide connections of these gangs another player is coming into the game with another agenda, terrorism.Local police officers are the front line defense when dealing with gangs. Their perception is crucial to the security of our neighborhoods. The current study explores the possible threat of terrorism through gang involvement by …

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Comparing Risk Reducing And Incentive Based Reporting Strategies In A Small Business, William Howell Jan 2011

Comparing Risk Reducing And Incentive Based Reporting Strategies In A Small Business, William Howell

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

The effects of employee theft can become detrimental when small businesses are their target. Small businesses are prone to employee theft through limitations solely defined by being a small business. The purpose of this research project was to present information that could be valuable in the elimination of employee theft. The research presented a questionnaire to examine the employees' attitudes of reporting employee theft of the selected small business. The research compared two common strategies used for reporting employee theft. Through analysis of these strategies, the more effective reporting strategy would be determined.

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An Innovative Model For Police Leaders And Managers: From An Ancient Source "The Art Of War" By Sun Tzu, Melissa Pena Jan 2011

An Innovative Model For Police Leaders And Managers: From An Ancient Source "The Art Of War" By Sun Tzu, Melissa Pena

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

Crime has been perceived as a battle that has yet to be won within the United States, as in other countries as well. However, an ancient text over 2,500 years old has been used to achieve victory in many battles throughout history. The innovative leader, Sun Tzu created the thirteen chapter document called The Art of War which identifies principles and strategies that can be used to defeat and overcome one's enemy. The purpose of this study is to identify if strategies advocated by military leader Sun Tzu in his seminal work The Art of War, are applicable to modern …

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Evaluation Of Resistivity Imaging (Ri) Method For Determining Unknown Deep Foundation Depth, Mohammad Sadik Khan Jan 2011

Evaluation Of Resistivity Imaging (Ri) Method For Determining Unknown Deep Foundation Depth, Mohammad Sadik Khan

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

There are approximately 580,000 highway bridges in the National Bridge inventory and 104,000 of these bridges are estimated to have unknown foundations type and/or depth. Determining unknown foundation length and type of bridge foundation is becoming an important issue for State DOTs to ensure the safety of the bridge. There are several methods available to determine unknown foundation depth based on specific site conditions and type of foundation to be tested. Resistivity Imaging (RI) is a non destructive method to investigate the subsurface condition. The objective of current study was to determine unknown bridge foundation depth of three bridges at …

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Carbon Footprint Analysis Of A Large Diameter Water Transmission Pipeline Installation, Lalit Chilana Jan 2011

Carbon Footprint Analysis Of A Large Diameter Water Transmission Pipeline Installation, Lalit Chilana

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The term pipeline refers to a long line of connected segments of pipe, with pumps, valves, control devices, and other equipment or facilities needed for operating the system. Water transmission pipelines are generally large diameter (more than 12 in.) pipes which transport the water from one place to another. Installation of these pipes is a complex process due to variability of ground conditions over long distance installations. Sometimes, it is difficult to relate pipelines to the environment because of the out of sight nature. But it follows a close relationship with our environment due to various energy consuming activities involved …

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Experimental Investigation Of The Behavior Of The Steel Reinforced High Density Polyethylene And Corrugated Metal Pipe, Safa Sadat Masajedian Jan 2011

Experimental Investigation Of The Behavior Of The Steel Reinforced High Density Polyethylene And Corrugated Metal Pipe, Safa Sadat Masajedian

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Steel reinforced high density polyethylene pipes are gaining popularity these days because of their good performance and advantages of them in comparison to the other pipe materials. By inverting the steel ribs vertically in to the HDPE materials, strength of steel and flexibility and light weight of HDPE materials have been combined. However due the limited study in this area, the failure modes and design parameters are not classified.This study investigates the behavior and failure modes of SR-HDPE pipes under the simulated soil load and compares the results with the data obtained from the test on corrugated metal pipe under …

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Evaluation Of Building Information Modeling Applications For Small Construction Companies, Agustin Villafana Jan 2011

Evaluation Of Building Information Modeling Applications For Small Construction Companies, Agustin Villafana

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis concerns developing recommendations to help small construction company's transition from traditional two dimensional plans to a Building Information Modeling (BIM) management process. Due to the cost of implementing BIM, the primary focus of the thesis is onthe transitioning state of these two management areas in an effort to facilitate full integration of smaller contractors into BIM technologies at a future time.Three case studies are used to assess and evaluate the effects of building information modeling on the schedule, material procurement, and information modeling aspects of a project. The intent of the case studies is to demonstrate a net …

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An Overview Of Mitigation Strategies For Settlements Under Bridge Approach Slabs, Raja Veerendra Yenigalla Jan 2011

An Overview Of Mitigation Strategies For Settlements Under Bridge Approach Slabs, Raja Veerendra Yenigalla

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Settlement and heave related movements of bridge approach slabs relative to bridge decks create a bump in the roadway causing inconvenience to the travelling public and at times so large as to make travelling unsafe. Hence, it is important to adopt suitable remedial methods to mitigate the approach settlements so as to ensure safe traveling conditions and also to decrease the repair/maintenance costs. This thesis presents an overview of a few case studies on different mitigation techniques applied on bridge approach settlement problems at various locations in the state of Texas. The methods employed to mitigate the settlement including Polyurethane …

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Use Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete In Structural Members With Highly Complex Stress Fields, Tarun Pareek Jan 2011

Use Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete In Structural Members With Highly Complex Stress Fields, Tarun Pareek

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Reinforced concrete (RC) members with significant geometric discontinuities and complex stress distributions under loading require considerable analyses and usually complicated reinforcement detailing. RC members with large openings are one of the examples. These large openings may interrupt the load transfer by direct concrete struts and cause substantial decrease in strength and unpredictable failure modes. The reinforcement detailing of these concrete members based on strut-and-tie models (STMs) is generally complicated and very often, these models cannot predict the failure mechanism due to localized damages. The actual stress fields in such members are typically very different from that predicated by STMs, as …

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Fundamental Signals, Future Earnings And Security Analysts' Efficient Use Of Fundamental Signals During 1991 Through 2008, Sherwood Lane Lambert Jan 2011

Fundamental Signals, Future Earnings And Security Analysts' Efficient Use Of Fundamental Signals During 1991 Through 2008, Sherwood Lane Lambert

Accounting Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation builds upon one of the foundation articles in Fundamental Analysis, written by Abarbanell and Bushee [1997] (AB-97), that studied the relationship of fundamental signals (combinations of items reported in the financial statements) to future accounting earnings during 1983-1990. Guided by fundamental financial and managerial/cost accounting concepts, this study adds fundamental signals to the AB-97 earning-signals model. The added fundamental signals include proxies for operating leverage, market share, markup, and total manufacturing costs. A revised ("Experimental") long-term growth variable is introduced that allows for negative EPS (loss) values in the geometric mean growth rate computation. The expanded model is …

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An Analysis Of School Principals' Perceptions Of Change And The Implications For Dual Language Program Success, Marisa Hellawell Jan 2011

An Analysis Of School Principals' Perceptions Of Change And The Implications For Dual Language Program Success, Marisa Hellawell

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between principals' view of Dual Language program implementation as a First-Order or Second-Order Change and variables of administration experience, Dual Language program experience, language ability, view of Dual Language program as similar to previous bilingual education programming, and their perception of their district Dual Language program's success. Other purposes included determining if principals' certification coursework relating to bilingual education prepared them to lead Dual Language programs and to determine if parity exists between the number of Hispanic male and female principals heading Dual Language programs. Finally, this …

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Moving Beyond This Moment: Employing Deleuze And Guattari's Rhizome In Postcolonialism, Robert Larue Jan 2011

Moving Beyond This Moment: Employing Deleuze And Guattari's Rhizome In Postcolonialism, Robert Larue

English Theses - Archive

The aim of this project is two-fold: to discuss the limits of Frantz Fanon's postcolonial theories, and to then present a possible model for turning "the `thing' colonized [into] a new man" (Wretched 2) by liberating "him" from Fanon's desire for inclusion. Or, to put this in other terms, this investigation seeks to highlight one of the most limiting factors in Fanonian postcolonial theory: Fanon's grounding in European humanism. The goal is not to criticize Fanon's theories, but to point out the limits of them so that these limits can be addressed in order to further the theories' effectiveness. By …

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A Computational Framework For Human-Centered Multimodal Data Analysis, Vangelis Metsis Jan 2011

A Computational Framework For Human-Centered Multimodal Data Analysis, Vangelis Metsis

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Human-Centered computing defines a field of study in which computational processes affect the human being, either through ubiquitous and pervasive use of devices or any effect that improves the human condition. Human-Centered Computing applications face serious challenges in the handling of data collection, modeling, and analysis. Traditionally, the analysis of different aspects of human well-being derives from a variety of non-interrelated methods which has made it difficult to correlate and compare the different experimental findings for an accurate assessment of the contributing factors.This dissertation describes new algorithms that enable more accurate and efficient multimodal data analysis of Human-Centered computing applications …

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A Holistic, Similarity-Based Approach For Personalized Ranking In Web Databases, Aditya Telang Jan 2011

A Holistic, Similarity-Based Approach For Personalized Ranking In Web Databases, Aditya Telang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

With the advent of the Web, the notion of ``information retrieval'' has acquired a completely new connotation and currently encompasses several disciplines ranging from traditional forms of text and data retrieval in unstructured and structured repositories to retrieval of static and dynamic information from the contents of the surface and deep Web. From the point of view of the end user, a common thread that binds all these areas is to support appropriate alternatives for allowing users to specify their intent (i.e., the user input) and displaying the resulting output ranked in an order relevant to the users. In the …

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Efficient Exploration Techniques On Large Databases, Senjuti Basu Roy Jan 2011

Efficient Exploration Techniques On Large Databases, Senjuti Basu Roy

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Search, retrieval, and exploration of information have become some of the most intense and principal research challenges in many enterprize and e-commerce applications off late. The mainstay of this dissertation is to analyze and investigate different aspects of online data exploration, and propose techniques to accomplish them efficiently. In particular, the results in this dissertation widen the scope of existing faceted search and recommendation systems - two upcoming fields in data exploration which are still in their infancy. Faceted search, the de facto standard for e-commerce applications, is an interface framework with the primary design goal of allowing users to …

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Behavioural Profiling In Mobile Networks, Ibrahim Zincir Jan 2011

Behavioural Profiling In Mobile Networks, Ibrahim Zincir

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

In the last 20 years mobile devices gained an important role in daily life and became must have items for everyone. As mobile devices give us the much needed flexibility and mobility, they also represent one major concern; security. As the information is transmitted from node to node via radio frequencies, an imposter can gain access into a mobile network without the need to gain physical access to firewalls and gateways. Also, as they are light and small, mobile devices are easily lost and often used without any PIN or password protection enabled. Hence, it is not difficult for someone …

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