Digital Commons Network^™

Virginia Geographic Information System (Gis) Programs And Resources For Libraries, Stuart Frazer

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Over the last ten years geographic information systems (GIS) have drawn increasing attention from the library community. In Virginia the way has been led by the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech library systems, both members of the Association of Research Libraries' GIS Literacy Project (http://www.arl.org/info/gis/index.html) begun in 1992. Many of the Commonwealth's other college and university libraries are now offering GIS services at varying levels of complexity. As library interest in GIS grows, the time seems right for a roundup of resources available from higher education and public sector organizations across the Commonwealth.

Performance Modeling And Prediction For The Scalable Solution Of Partial Differential Equations On Unstructured Grids, Dinesh Kumar Kaushik

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies the sources of poor performance in scientific computing codes based on partial differential equations (PDEs), which typically perform at a computational rate well below other scientific simulations (e.g., those with dense linear algebra or N-body kernels) on modern architectures with deep memory hierarchies. We identify that the primary factors responsible for this relatively poor performance are: insufficient available memory bandwidth, low ratio of work to data size (good algorithmic efficiency), and nonscaling cost of synchronization and gather/scatter operations (for a fixed problem size scaling). This dissertation also illustrates how to reuse the legacy scientific and engineering software …

Fast Inner Product Computation On Short Buses, R. Lin, S. Olariu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We propose a VLSI inner product processor architecture involving broadcasting only over short buses (containing less than 64 switches). The architecture leads to an efficient algorithm for the inner product computation. Specifically, it takes 13 broadcasts, each over less than 64 switches, plus 2 carry-save additions (t_csa) and 2 carry-lookahead additions (t_cla) to compute the inner product of two arrays of N = 2⁹ elements, each consisting of m = 64 bits. Using the same order of VLSI area, our algorithm runs faster than the best known fast inner product algorithm of Smith and Torng …

New Student Record, 2002, Old Dominion University

University Yearbooks

2002 issue of the New Student Record of Old Dominion University

Laureate, 2002, Old Dominion University

University Yearbooks

2002 yearbook of Old Dominion University

A Follow-Up Study Of Old Dominion University Bachelors Of Science Graduates Of The Technology Program 1997-2001, Pei-Wen Lo

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

Through this follow-up study, data were collected toward fulfilling the following objectives: 1. To determine whether graduates of Old Dominion University's Technology Education undergraduate program were adequately prepared to assume teaching positions; 2. To determine what improvements can be made to the undergraduate curriculum at ODU based upon graduate's feedback; 3. To determine whether the goals established in the college's conceptual framework were being attained.

Determining Effective, Cost-Efficient Marketing Efforts For Old Dominion University's Teletechnet Program, Douglas Brown

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The goals of this research study were: 1. To document marketing efforts currently in use at Old Dominion University distance sites; 2. To determine which marketing methods have brought students to Old Dominion University's Teletechnet programs; 3. To recommend system-wide methods to be employed in marketing Old Dominion University's Teletechnet program.

A Comparative Study Of Employment Offers Made To Pre-Employment Trainees, Charles Bartocci

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The problem of this study was to determine whether changes made to the MeadWestvaco pre-employment screening process has improved employability of potential job applicants. To guide the answering of this research problem, the following hypotheses were established: 1. Did the changes in the type of training given to potential job applicants improve their chances of gaining employment? 2. What are the pass rates of the new program compared to the original program?

Factors That Influence Students To Enroll Into Teletechnet Programs, Elaine Ward

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

Some of the areas considered in this study include: 1. Identify the factors that influence student enrollment at the Southwest Virginia Community College Teletechnet site; 2. Identify the population of students enrolling at the Teletechnet program in regards to age and occupation; 3. Project the graduation rate of those students enrolling at the Teletechnet site located at Southwest Virginia Community College during spring 2002.

A Comparative Analysis Of Two Course Delivery Models Through The Telequiz Protocol, A Study Of Web-Based Distance Assessment Modalities, Patrick Michael O'Shea

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

Distance education and distance assessment have become the focus of many institutions of higher learning, and there is a need to know how these tools compare with those used in the traditional classroom setting. This study was designed to compare online and traditional students utilizing a mixture of quantitative and qualitative strategies in a quasi experimental model. This research was conducted at Old Dominion University using a sample of online and traditional students enrolled in an Introduction to Education course (ECI 300). Both versions of this course utilize an online quizzing protocol known as Telequiz. Quiz scores, final exam scores …

Finite Element Modal Formulation For Panel Flutter At Hypersonic Speeds And Elevated Temperatures, Guangfeng Cheng

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A finite element time domain modal formulation for analyzing flutter behavior of aircraft surface panels in hypersonic airflow has been developed and presented for the first time. Von Karman large deflection plate theory is used for description of the structural nonlinearity and third order piston theory is employed to account for the aerodynamic nonlinearity. The thermal loadings of uniformly distributed temperature and temperature gradients across the panel thickness are incorporated into the finite element formulation. By applying the modal reduction technique, the number of governing equations of motion is reduced dramatically so that the computational time of direct numerical integration …

Active And Adaptive Flow Control Of Twin-Tail Buffet And Applications, Zhi Yang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modern fighter aircraft with dual vertical tails are operated at high angles of attack. The vortex generated by leading edge extension (LEX) breaks down before reaching the two vertical tails. The wake of highly unsteady, turbulent flow causes unbalanced broadband aerodynamic loading on the tails and may produce severe buffet on the tails and lead to tail fatigue failure.

Flow suction along the vortex cores (FSVC) is investigated as an active control method for tail-buffet alleviation. Suction tubes have been tilted at different angles to study the control effectiveness of suction tubes orientation. Flow field response, aerodynamic loading and aeroelastic …

Federating Heterogeneous Digital Libraries By Metadata Harvesting, Xiaoming Liu

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies the challenges and issues faced in federating heterogeneous digital libraries (DLs) by metadata harvesting. The objective of federation is to provide high-level services (e.g. transparent search across all DLs) on the collective metadata from different digital libraries. There are two main approaches to federate DLs: distributed searching approach and harvesting approach. As the distributed searching approach replies on executing queries to digital libraries in real time, it has problems with scalability. The difficulty of creating a distributed searching service for a large federation is the motivation behind Open Archives Initiatives Protocols for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). OAI-PMH supports …

Mass Transfer Reactions And Decay Sinks For Disinfectants In Water Distribution Systems, Jeremy B. Jones

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Treatment plants utilize chlorine and chloramine both as a primary disinfectant for water purification and a secondary disinfectant for distribution system protection. The treatment goal is that the disinfectant residual be present throughout the distribution system until it reaches the customer's tap. Maintaining a residual throughout the system is critical for providing pathogen-free water and protecting human health. Therefore, water utility authorities are very interested in how disinfectants such as chlorine and chloramine decay as they travel through a water distribution system.

Current mathematical models typically divide the decay into two distinct phases. There is (1) decay occurring in the …

Video Indexing And Retrieval Techniques Using Novel Approaches To Video Segmentation, Characterization, And Similarity Matching, Waleed Ezzat Farag

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Multimedia applications are rapidly spread at an ever-increasing rate introducing a number of challenging problems at the hands of the research community, The most significant and influential problem, among them, is the effective access to stored data. In spite of the popularity of keyword-based search technique in alphanumeric databases, it is inadequate for use with multimedia data due to their unstructured nature. On the other hand, a number of content-based access techniques have been developed in the context of image indexing and retrieval; meanwhile video retrieval systems start to gain wide attention, This work proposes a number of techniques constituting …

A Study To Compare The Effectiveness Of Teletechnet Distance Education With Traditional Classroom Education Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology Graduates 1998-2000, Robert J. Cartwright

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The following hypothesis guided this research: 1. Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology majors, there was no significant difference in academic achievement between those students who had been taught by conventional means and those that had used Teletechnet distance education.

Project Update-Technology Education-And The Impacts On Virginia Standards Of Learning Achievement, Doyle L. James

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The problem of this study was to compare the Virginia SOL scores of a group of fourth grade students at Cooper Elementary School who had project UPDATE education in design and technology compared to fourth grade students who did not receive the education.

Long Term Goals And Program Choices Of New Students Entering Yavapai College - Verde Valley Campus, Alexandra Helm-Correa

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The goals of this study were to answer the following questions: 1. What were the reasons new students entered Yavapai College-Verde Valley Campus in Spring 2002? 2. What were the primary reasons new students took courses in Spring 2002 and what were their long-term goals? 3. What were the academic degree, vocational degree or vocational certification program choices for new students entering Yavapai College? 4. What was the composition of new students entering Yavapai College in terms of whether they were primarily traditional or non-traditional students? 5. What relationship existed between traditional and non-traditional students at Yavapai College and their …

A Study Of Women In Professional Organizations, Deborah Norris

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The objectives that were established to answer this problem were: 1. Identify how members of this organization perceive their job requirements and performance; 2. Identify what overall factors within the Society of Women Engineers organization led them to obtain membership; 3. Determine what types of specific skills these members obtained from this organization to assist them in their professional growth and development; 4. Determine whether these specific skills had any professional impacts by evaluating the current job status of these members in relationship to their job status before membership.

Beginning A Cooperative Office Education Program For The Career And Technical Education Students At Essex High School, Teresa P. Fallin

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

With the purpose of examining the feasibility of beginning a cooperative education program at Essex High School, the research objectives were to: 1. Identify what a cooperative office education program entails; 2. Identify the level of internal and external interest of (a) the students, (b) the administration, and (c) the community at large; 3. Determine the practices of other COE programs in Virginia in order to gain insight from experienced coordinators; 4. Determine the implementation possibilities of beginning a feasible cooperative education program with emphasis on cooperative office education.

121.6 Nm Radiation Source For Advanced Lithography, Jianxun Yan, Ashraf El-Dakrouri, Mounir Laroussi, Mool C. Gupta

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source based on a high-pressure cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been developed. Intense and spectrally clean Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm was obtained by operating a DBD discharge in neon with a small admixture of hydrogen. The spectrum, optical power, stability, and efficiency of the source were measured. The influence of the gas mixture and total gas pressure on the VUV intensity has been investigated. Maximum optical power of 3.2 W and spectral width 0.03 nm was achieved. Power stability of 2% for 100 h of operation has also been obtained. The newly developed …

Electron Pulse Broadening Due To Space Charge Effects In A Photoelectron Gun For Electron Diffraction And Streak Camera Systems, Bao-Liang Qian, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The electron pulse broadening and energy spread, caused by space charge effects, in a photoelectron gun are studied analytically using a fluid model. The model is applicable in both the photocathode-to-mesh region and the postanode electron drift region. It is found that space charge effects in the photocathode-to-mesh region are generally unimportant even for subpicosecond pulses. However, because of the long drift distance, electron pulse broadening due to space charge effects in the drift region is usually significant and could be much larger than the initial electron pulse duration for a subpicosecond electron pulse. Space charge effects can also lead …

Comment On "Ultrafast Electron Optics: Propagation Dynamics Of Femtosecond Electron Packets" J. Appl. Phys. 92, 1643 (2002), Bao-Liang Qian, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In a recent article 关J. Appl. Phys. 92, 1643 共2002兲兴 Siwick et al. investigated the space-charge-limited electron pulse propagation in a photoelectron gun using an analytical approach, referred to as mean-field theory, and a numerical N-body simulation. The results were compared with a one-dimensional fluid model 关J. Appl. Phys. 91, 462 共2002兲兴, and a conclusion was made that the fluid model overestimates the pulse duration after a certain propagation time. Although the mean-field theory and N-body simulation give exactly the same results for all examples studied, we point out that the expression for the on-axis potential in their mean-field model …

An Instrument For Assessing Knowledge Gain In A First Course In Circuit Theory, Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Stephen A. Zahorian, Oscar R. González, Amit Kumar H., James Leathrum

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Although there has been considerable research on the development and use of assessment instruments to measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches to teaching introductory physics classes (Hestenes et al. 1, Hestenes et al 2, Hake 3, Saul et al. 4) and other science courses (for example, see Vosniadou 5), there is relatively little similar work that has been done to develop assessment instruments for the first circuit theory course that is taught in electrical and computer engineering. Given the large numbers of students nationwide who take such a course, the challenge this course presents to beginning engineering students, and …

Geek Culture: An Annotated Interdisciplinary Bibliography, William L. Svitavsky

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In recent years, there have been numerous studies on science fiction fans, role-playing games, comic book fans, and the culture of those strongly interested in computers. When a study profiles a group engaged in one of these activities, it is not unusual for the group's participation in the other activities to be mentioned as well. In popular culture (as opposed to studies of popular culture), this overlap has been recognized all along. Each of these groups has been ridiculed as geeks or nerds, and each has subverted those terms into proud self-identification. In his work on media fandom, …

The Invisible Can Or, Gendering Corporate Globalization Trouble: Technological Utopianism And The Language Of Erasure, Marleen S. Barr

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

I turn to Judith Butler to clarify my term corporate globalization trouble as well as to explain why this trouble should be situated in gendered terms regarding power, visibility, and subjectivity inequities. [1] Butler describes deviant gender identities failing to coincide with the matrix of intelligibility: precisely because certain kinds of 'gender identities' fail to conform to those norms of cultural intelligibility, they appear only as developmental failures or logical impossibilities from within that domain. Their persistence and proliferation, however, provide critical opportunities to expose the limits and regulatory aims of that domain of intelligibility and, …

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum: The Construction Of Memories And The Sanitation Of Threats, Stewart Varner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

After numerous visits to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, I have found that the best place to start a tour is with the two films on the ground floor. Both films serve to set up narratives that run throughout the rest of the exhibits. The first film, Mystery Train, tells a traditional history of rock music's development beginning with the merging of blues, gospel and country music in large, urban centers like Chicago and encourages visitors to think of rock in terms of its continuing development through self-referencing. Kick Out the …

Determination Of The Impact Of A Human Capital Decision Cost Model On The Economic Performance Measures Of A Technical Services Company, Jeffery A. Temple

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Human Capital has a major impact on cash flow management decisions in a Technical Services company. Decisions to hire or terminate employees to meet contract requirements affect the company's economic value. The objective of this research is to develop a model that assists management in establishing a starting point in making, as efficiently as possible, those decisions that impact employees' lives. To understand that impact, the operations and economic parameters of a Technical Services company are compared with those of a manufacturing company. This analysis establishes two · essential points for Technical Services organizations; first, that the capital investment decision …

Investigation Of Dual-Mode Combustion With Large Upstream Interaction, Melanic Olynciw-Mills

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Dual-mode scramjet combustor configuration with significant upstream interaction is investigated numerically. The possibility of scaling the domain to accelerate the convergence an3 reduce the computational time is explored. The supersonic combustor configuration was selected to provide an understanding of key features of upstream interaction and to identify physical and numerical issues relating to modeling of dual-mode configurations. The numerical analysis was performed with vitiated air at freestream Mach number of 2.5 using hydrogen as the sonic injectant. Results are presented for two-dimensional models and a three-dimensional jet-to-jet symmetric geometry. Comparisons are made with experimental results. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional results show …

Human Research Participant Protections: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Two Key Documents, Lisa R. Ballance

English Theses & Dissertations

This case study explores the historical progress of written policy in the field of human research participant protections, leading up to the recent case of several influential suspensions of clinical research at several prestigious academic medical institutions. The IRB process is discussed, including the importance of documentation in the process of managing the board, and the case of suspension at Virginia Commonwealth University is reviewed with attention paid to the drafting of two key documents written for the purpose of reinstating the human subject research charter; (I) the Corrective Action Plan and (2) the Written Policies and Procedures. Each document …