Digital Commons Network^™

The Electroanalytical Performance Of Sonogel Carbon Titanium (Iv) Oxide Electrodes Versus Conducting Polymer Electrodes In The Electrochemical Detection Of Biological Molecules, Jelynn A. Stinson

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The electrochemical performance of a newly developed sonogel carbon titanium (IV) oxide (SGC/TiO2 ) electrode against poly(3-methylthiophene) (P3MT) and poly(2,2'-bithiophene) (PBTP) modified electrodes in the electrochemical detection of biological molecules is reported. The stability of the Titanium (IV) Oxide coating on the sonogel carbon electrode was shown to be greater than the P3MT coating on the conventional size glassy carbon electrode. After 10 consecutive scans, there was a 21% loss of the initial signal at the P3MT modified electrode and a 5% loss of the initial signal at the SGC/TiO2 electrode. The influence of NAD+ on NADH response was tested. …

Laser Initiated Chain Reactions: The Kinetics Of The Chlorine/Cyclohexane/Oxygen Chain System, Robert Alan Forlines

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The combination of laser photolysis with infrared chemiluminescence detection has proven an effective technique for determining the propagation rate coefficients of halogen + RH chain reactions. This thesis will extend the technique to cyclic alkanes by determining the propagation rate coefficients of the Cl₂/ cyclohexane chain system as well as the rate coefficient for the primary chain termination mechanism, R + O₂ → RO₂. The following reaction scheme is supported by the kinetic analysis: Cl₂ → 2Cl Laser Photolysis Cl + RH → HCl(v) + R First Propagation Step (k₁) R + …

Modeling And Simulation Of A Microturbine Generator To Be Coupled With A Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell For Distributed Generation, Karleine M. Justice

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Distributed generation is desired when the individual energy requirements ranging from 25-75 kW of office buildings, restaurants, hospitals and apartments can not be met by the current electric utility grid. Microturbine generators as stand alone power generation systems have been designed to meet these requirements. For power requirements up to 50 MW, hybrid fuel cell systems offer higher efficiency and lower levels of pollutant emissions with more advanced fuel energy savings than non-hybrid systems. The objective of this project is to develop a simulation of a microturbine generator as a stand alone power generation system to validate a microturbine generator …

On Optimal Survivability Design In Wdm Optical Networks Under Scheduled Traffic Models, Tianjian Li

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Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks are widely viewed as the most appropriate choice for future Internet backbone with the potential to fulfill the ever-growing demands for bandwidth. WDM divides the enormous bandwidth of an optical fiber into many non-overlapping wavelength channels, each of which may operate at the rate of 10 Gigabit per second or higher. A failure in a network such as a cable cut may result in a tremendous loss of data. Therefore, survivability is a very important issue in WDM optical networks. The objective of this dissertation is to address the survivability provisioning problem in WDM …

Designing Computer Agents With Personality To Improve Human-Machine Collaboration In Complex Systems, Sasanka V. Prabhala

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The dynamic nature of complex systems and the overwhelming amount of data that must be handled by human operators requires the development of smart systems that augment human capabilities. For these systems human-agent collaboration is part of the system dynamic. Unfortunately the computer agent is not typically perceived by the human operator as a collaborative team member. This research addressed the key question of how to develop and evaluate computer agents with personality to enhance human-machine collaboration. To move towards this goal three research objectives were established: (1) develop agents with personality, (2) validate that humans perceive these agents as …

Transformation Of Formally Defined Post-Conditions Into Target Language Statements, Swetha Padma Parvathaneni

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For years software engineering researchers have been trying to come up with a software synthesis system that can transform a formal specification model into a design model from which executable code can be generated. AFIT Wide Spectrum Object Modeling Environment (AWSOME) is one such formal based software synthesis system. In this system formal specifications written in AWL are parsed into an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree). The intent of this thesis is to demonstrate the transformation of the postconditions of a method into target language statements. The methods in the classes are specified using pre-conditions and post-conditions. Transforms are developed to …

Role-Based Access Control For The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access And Integration (Ogsa-Dai), Anil L. Pereira

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Grid has emerged recently as an integration infrastructure for the sharing and coordinated use of diverse resources in dynamic, distributed virtual organizations (VOs). A Data Grid is an architecture for the access, exchange, and sharing of data in the Grid environment. In this dissertation, role-based access control (RBAC) systems for heterogeneous data resources in Data Grid systems are proposed. The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI) is a widely used framework for the integration of heterogeneous data resources in Grid systems.

However, in the OGSA-DAI system, access control causes substantial administration overhead for resource providers in …

Optimal Eeg Channels And Rhythm Selection For Task Classification, Vikramvarun Kannan Adikarapatti

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The Primary Objective of this research is to implement an automatic method for selecting the most optimal EEG channels for task classification purposes. The secondary objective of this research is to choose the most optimal EEG rhythm from which the optimal EEG channels would be selected automatically. The automatic selection of the optimal channels is enabled by implementing the Common Spatial Patterns algorithm (CSP). Common spatial analysis is performed on the data recorded. By choosing the channels with high spatial pattern values the optimal channels are chosen. The optimal frequency bands are chosen by splitting the data from a single …

Low African-American Student Enrollment In The Post Secondary Vocational Education Step Ii Program: A Study Of Motivational Factors, Victor Goldstein

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A purposive literature review was used in this study to develop a knowledge base on motivational factors impacting enrollment of African-American students in postsecondary vocational education program specifically in the STEP II program. This study examined books, articles, reports, and data from student interviews to understand what motivational factors influence decisions. It was found that low enrollment of African- American students in post-secondary vocational education is not only dependent on motivational factors emanating from the students themselves, but also stem from the institutions that offer training programs.

Algan/Gan Hemt Topology Investigation Using Measured Data And Device Modeling, Derrick Langley

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Investigation has been done on procedure, development, and verification of transistor topology for Aluminum-Gallium Nitride/Gallium Nitride (AlGaN/GaN) High-Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMTs). To date various models have been published that address modeling issues dealing with AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Many models rely on analytic parameter solutions to help define model behavior. In order to find an optimum transistor at X-band frequency, 8-12 Gigahertz (GHz), layout, testing, modeling and simulation was conducted on various transistor topologies. Theoretical and experimental analysis has been completed for device operating point selection in measurement and modeling to account for self-heating and radio frequency (RF) dispersion effects. The model …

Data Mining And Analysis On Multiple Time Series Object Data, Chunyu Jiang

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Huge amount of data is available in our society and the need for turning such data into useful information and knowledge is urgent. Data mining is an important field addressing that need and significant progress has been achieved in the last decade. In several important application areas, data arises in the format of Multiple Time Series Object (MTSO) data, where each data object is an array of time series over a large set of features and each has an associated class or state. Very little research has been conducted towards this kind of data. Examples include computational toxicology, where each …

Xml Integrated Environment For Service-Oriented Data Management, Marwan Younes Maarouf

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The proliferation of XML as a family of related standards including a markup language (XML), formatting semantics (XSL style sheets), a linking syntax (XLINK), and appropriate data schema standards have emerged as a de facto standard for encoding and sharing data between various applications. XML is designed to be simple, easily parsed and self-describing. XML is based on and support the idea of separation of concerns: information content is separated from information rendering, and relationships between data elements are provided via simple nesting and references. As the XML content grows, the ability to handle schemaless XML documents becomes more critical …

High Performance Text Document Clustering, Yanjun Li

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Data mining, also known as knowledge discovery in database (KDD), is the process to discover interesting unknown knowledge from a large amount of data. Text mining is to apply data mining techniques to extract interesting and nontrivial information and knowledge from unstructured text. Text clustering is one of important techniques of text mining, which is the unsupervised classification of similar documents into different groups.

This research focuses on improving the performance of text clustering. We investigated the text clustering algorithms in four aspects: document representation, documents closeness measurement, high dimension reduction and parallelization. We propose a group of high performance …

Molecular Identification Of Chironomid Species Based On Its-1 And Its-2 Regions Of Rdna, Monita Sharma

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Of all major aquatic invertebrate groups, members of family Chironomidae are most abundant and show a wide range of habitat preferences. The importance of correct identification of Chironomids has been realized in many bioassessment studies mainly because of their worldwide distribution, substrate specificities and predictable responses to various pollutants in the water sources. This study establishes that the sequence data from the Intergenic Spacer Regions (ITS) of ribosomal DNA could be used as molecular markers to distinguish between different Chironomidae species and also to identify them. The need to use molecular approaches, to identify various Chironomidae species, comes from the …

Estimates In The Generalized Morrey Space For Linear Parabolic Systems, Matthew Scott Mcbride

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The purpose of the this paper is to study the parabolic system u_t^{i} - D_α(a_ij^{αβ}D_βu^j) = -div f^i in the generalized Morrey Space L_φ^{2,λ} . We would like to understand the regularity of the solutions of this system. It will be shown that 1: if a_ij^{αβ} in C(Q_T) then Du in L_φ^{2,λ}, and 2: if a_ij^{αβ} in VMO(Q_T) then Du in L_φ^{2,λ}. Moreover we will be able to obtain estimates on the gradient of the solutions to the system, which will tell us about the regularity of the solutions.

Fabrication And Study Of Zno Micro- And Nanostructures, Monica Morales-Masis

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ZnO micro-structures and nano-structures have been grown on two types of substrate by reacting condensed Zn vapor with oxygen. The source material was either pure zinc powder or zinc acetate which was either evaporated or decomposed. This was done in the temperature range 500 C to 650 C, in a flowing Ar plus oxygen ambient at atmospheric pressure. Variations in the carrier gas composition, gas flow rate and the position of the substrate in the furnace were found to control the formation and the morphology of the nanostructures. Scanning electron microscopy images of samples grown from a Zn powder source …

An Analysis Of Neutral Drift's Effect On The Evolution Of A Ctrnn Locomotion Controller With Noisy Fitness Evaluation, Gregory Robert Kramer

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This dissertation focuses on the evolution of Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) as controllers for control systems. Existing research suggests that the process of neutral drift can greatly benefit evolution for problems whose fitness landscapes contain large-scale neutral networks. CTRNNs are known to be highly degenerate, providing a possible source of large-scale landscape neutrality, and existing research suggests that neutral drift benefits the evolution of simple CTRNNs. However, there has been no in-depth examination of the effects of neutral drift on complex CTRNN controllers, especially in the presence of noisy fitness evaluation. To address this problem, this dissertation presents …

Core Content Teachers' Prepardeness And Perception Of Inclusive Education In Central Ohio Schools, Christine Ann Crumbacher

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The purpose of this study was to survey core content teachers' (CCTs) perceptions of working with children with disabilities in the subject areas of English, math, science and social studies in two school districts (referred to as school district 1 and 2). The survey consisted of 3 subscales: internal, external and social and were formatted in a Likert-type scale. The research questions in this study are: 1.) Do CCTs feel prepared to teach students with disabilities across districts and buildings based on the internal subscale? 2.) Do schools prepare CCTs to teach students with disabilities across districts and buildings based …

Effect Of Variable Feedback Delay On Visual Target-Acquisition Performance, Julio Christian Mateo

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Traditionally, private communication channels with stable characteristics have been used in teleoperation situations. However, recently there have been a few attempts at using public communication channels such as the Internet. In spite of their convenience, very little is known about the effect of the variable delays inherent in this type of channel on motor performance. In this thesis, we provide empirical data on the impact of variable feedback delays on a 3D visual target-acquisition task performed in a virtual environment. Target size, distance between targets, mean feedback delay, and feedback-delay variability were manipulated and the number of errors and movement …

Synthetic Approach To Epibatidine From 1-(Phenylsulfonyl)Pyrrole, Brandon G. Vanness

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The goal of this research was to synthesize the natural product epibatidine, a non-opiate analgesic and nicotinic acetylcholine agonist isolated from Epipedobates tricolor. A synthetic pathway utilizing a Diels-Alder cycloaddition of a 3-pyridyl substituted pyrrole and tosylacetylene was conceived based upon the original mass spectral fragmentation pathway of epibatidine determined by Daly. Although this pathway had been previously attempted using 1-(triisopropyl)-3-[5-(2-chloropyridyl)]pyrrole in the key Diels-Alder step, the lack of cycloadduct suggested that a pyrrole with a more electron withdrawing protecting group was required for this step. Therefore, synthesis of 1-(phenylsulfonyl)-3-[5-(2-chloropyridyl)]pyrrole via a palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of 1-(phenylsulfonyl)-3-pyrroline and …

Improved Thresholding Technique For The Monobit Receiver, Jonathan Gordon Buck

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Wideband digital receivers typically use a very high sampling rate to capture a signal for near real-time processing. Very robust digital techniques, like the Monobit FFT technique, have been developed to provide near real-time processing of captured timedomain signals. Most of these techniques trade accuracy for processing speed by approximating computationally complex mathematical operations. The approximation sometimes makes it difficult to detect multiple signals if the difference between their amplitudes is more than a few dB. This thesis presents a dynamic thresholding technique for multi-tone signal detection. The technique is based on setting an allowable ratio between the magnitude of …

Parameterizable Channelized Wideband Digital Receiver For High Update Rate, Peter E. Buxa

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Wideband digital receivers are important components used prevalently by the United States Air Force for many modern electronic warfare systems. Currently, many digital receiver architectures are designed for a specific mission requirement and are not parameterizable, modular, or reusable for varying mission requirements. Also, many designs are technology, platform, and vendor dependent which make upgrading existing fielded systems costly and difficult. Additionally, current wideband FFT-based digital receivers must wait until a number of samples equal to the size of the FFT are collected before spectral information can be updated. Achieving a high spectral update rate is important for the accurate …

Synthesis And Electrical Properties Of Fluorenyl Polyesters Incorporating Diamond Fragments, Kevin John Wiacek

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Based on the paradigm of diamond as a wide band-gap electrical insulator, molecular counterparts to crystalline diamond (cyclohexane, adamantane, and diamantane) were incorporated into a high-temperature fluorenyl polyester (FPE) with the intent of increasing the breakdown strength. The effect of incorporating a CycloteneTM thermoset as a crosslinking agent to increase the dielectric strength and the self-healing phenomena of these polymers were also investigated. Polymers were synthesized using 9,9-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)fluorene and the diacid chloride of cyclohexane, adamantane, and diamantane. Thin films of the polymers were cast from chloroform and the electrical properties were investigated. The polyester incorporating the largest diamond fragment had …

The Value Of Deliberative Democratic Practices To Civic Education, Brooke M. Shannon

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The causal relationship between measures of deliberative democratic practices and quality of citizen participation were examined using selected variables from the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement's (IEA) 1999 Civic Education Study (CivEd). Logit regression for survey data was used to analyze whether a causal relationship existed between two indicators of deliberative democratic practices and a total of four measures of both current and expected student participation using data from three countries, the United States, England, and Australia. One independent variable, the degree to which students believed their teachers encouraged discussion of controversial political or social issues, had …

Rolling Mill Optimization Using An Accurate And Rapid New Model For Mill Deflection And Strip Thickness Profile, Arif Sultan Malik

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This work presents improved technology for attaining high-quality rolled metal strip. The new technology is based on an innovative method to model both the static and dynamic characteristics of rolling mill deflection, and it applies equally to both cluster-type and non cluster-type rolling mill configurations. By effectively combining numerical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with analytical solid mechanics, the devised approach delivers a rapid, accurate, flexible, high-fidelity model useful for optimizing many important rolling parameters. The associated static deflection model enables computation of the thickness profile and corresponding flatness of the rolled strip. Accurate methods of predicting the strip thickness profile …

Evidence Of A Pre-Mount Simon, Half-Graben In Greene County, Ohio By Reprocessing A Wright State University Seismic Line, John Sink

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The reprocessing of the WSU2002 seismic line indicates the presence of a Precambrian half-graben. Also observed through this reprocessing is the possible presence of Paleozoic structures. Although Paleozoic features have been interpreted, variations in glacial drift thickness evidenced by glacial drift maps also may have contributed to a lower quality of stacked section in comparison to other seismic lines. WSU2002 was originally processed by Lauren Geophysical. The Lauren processing resulted in an image that was of much lower quality than corresponding seismic lines. The Lauren Geophysical processed section revealed many horizontal Paleozoic reflections, with no prominent reflectors beneath the Paleozoic. …

Change Detection Methods For Hyperspectral Imagery, Karmon Marie Vongsy

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This thesis studies the detection of changes using hyperspectral images. Change Detection (CD) is the process of identifying and examining temporal and spectral changes in signals. Detection and analysis of change provide valuable information of possible transformations in a scene. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) sensors are capable of collecting data at hundreds of narrow spectral bands. Such sensors provide high-resolution spatial and spectrally rich information that can be exploited for CD. This work develops and implements various CD algorithms for detection of changes using Hyperspectral images. The main objectives are to study and develop different HSI change detection algorithms. The explored …

Computational Methods For The Objective Review Of Forensic Dna Testing Results, Jason R. Gilder

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Since the advent of criminal investigations, investigators have sought a "gold standard" for the evaluation of forensic evidence. Currently, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology is the most reliable method of identification. Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA genotyping has the potential for impressive match statistics, but the methodology not infallible. The condition of an evidentiary sample and potential issues with the handling and testing of a sample can lead to significant issues with the interpretation of DNA testing results. Forensic DNA interpretation standards are determined by laboratory validation studies that often involve small sample sizes. This dissertation presents novel methodologies to address …

Synthetic Routes To A Fused-Ring Sydnoquinazoline, Gregory Edmond Storer

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In this research, 5-methylsydno-[3,4-a]quinazoline was synthesized via multiple methodologies, the best of which yielded the target compound in 50 % overall yield for the six steps. Synthesis of this compound in reasonable yields and exploration of its chemical behavior is of particular interest as a putative NO-prodrug. As an initial approach to the synthesis and accumulation of the compound of interest, attempts were made to optimize the existing synthetic pathway to its precursors. The starting material, 3-(2-acetylphenyl)sydnone, was prepared in 3 steps from commercially available starting material in good yields. This sydnone compound was then converted to the versatile intermediate, …

Mutually Orthogonal Latin Squares Based On Z3X Z9, James Michael Carter

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This paper will investigate the number of mutually orthogonal latin squares, MOLS, that can be constructed using elements from the group G = Z₃x Z₉. In calculating this number, it is necessary to consider the group under the action of the homomorphism f : G → K defined by f ((g₁, g₂))=(g₁mod 3, g₂mod 3) so that K ≅ Im(G) is isomorphic to Z₃x Z₃, so that the action of f is to create the quotient group K = G/<(0, 3)>. …