Digital Commons Network^™

Damage Detection And Analysis In Cfrps Using Acoustic Emission Technique, Travis Laron Whitlow

Dissertations

Real time monitoring of damage is an important aspect of life management of critical structures. Acoustic emission (AE) techniques allow for measurement and assessment of damage in real time. Acoustic emission parameters such as signal amplitude and duration were monitored during the loading sequences. Criteria that can indicate the onset of critical damage to the structure were developed. Tracking the damage as it happens gives a better analysis of the failure evolution that will allow for a more accurate determination of structural life. The main challenge is distinguishing between legitimate damage signals and "false positives" which are unrelated to damage …

Quantitative Analyses Of Acceptable Noise Level For Air Conduction Listening, Bankole K. Fasanya

Dissertations

This study was conducted to develop quantitative models for Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) under air conduction (AC) listening conditions. Experimental results on the effects of frequency bandwidths on ANL under two listening conditions involving earphones and loudspeaker (sound field) with high and low frequencies and babble noise and white noise revealed: (a) there are statistically significant interactions among the background noise types, the background noise frequency bandwidths and signal source; (b) background noise and noise frequency bandwidths have effects on listener discriminability bias toward the noise and the signal intensity; (c) different listening conditions had different ANL thresholds; and (d) …

An Augmented Interaction Strategy For Designing Human-Machine Interfaces For Hydraulic Excavators, Joseph Akyeampong

Dissertations

Lack of adequate information feedback and work visibility, and fatigue due to repetition have been identified as the major usability gaps in the human-machine interface (HMI) design of modern hydraulic excavators that subject operators to undue mental and physical workload, resulting in poor performance. To address these gaps, this work proposed an innovative interaction strategy, termed “augmented interaction”, for enhancing the usability of the hydraulic excavator. Augmented interaction involves the embodiment of heads-up display and coordinated control schemes into an efficient, effective and safe HMI. Augmented interaction was demonstrated using a framework consisting of three phases: Design, Implementation/Visualization, and Evaluation …

Understanding The Behavior And Attitude Of Professional Athletes In Saudi Arabia Toward Dietary Supplements, Sulaiman O. Aljaloud

Dissertations

A dietary supplement is defined as a product taken orally that contains a "dietary ingredient" (vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, enzymes, etc.), and is intended to supplement one's diet. Dietary supplements include plant extracts and concentrates from foods. Supplements help provide required nutrients to fulfill nutritional levels for daily training or competitive performance, and can help remedy nutritional deficiencies. Therefore, it is important that sports professionals have a thorough knowledge of these supplement products. However, athletes need to be informed about the use and possible benefits, side effects, and risks associated with the use of dietary supplements. Four objectives guided …

Fitness Proportionate Niching: Harnessing The Power Of Evolutionary Algorithms For Evolving Cooperative Populations And Dynamic Clustering, Abrham Tibebu Workineh

Dissertations

Evolutionary algorithms work on the notion of "best fit will survive" criteria. This makes evolving a cooperative and diverse population in a competing environment via evolutionary algorithms a challenging task. Analogies to species interactions in natural ecological systems have been used to develop methods for maintaining diversity in a population. One such area that mimics species interactions in natural systems is the use of niching. Niching methods extend the application of EAs to areas that seeks to embrace multiple solutions to a given problem. The conventional fitness sharing technique has limitations when the multimodal fitness landscape has unequal peaks. Higher …

A Novel Approach To Intelligent Navigation Of A Mobile Robot In A Dynamic And Cluttered Indoor Environment, Daniel Opoku

Dissertations

The need and rationale for improved solutions to indoor robot navigation is increasingly driven by the influx of domestic and industrial mobile robots into the market. This research has developed and implemented a novel navigation technique for a mobile robot operating in a cluttered and dynamic indoor environment. It divides the indoor navigation problem into three distinct but interrelated parts, namely, localization, mapping and path planning. The localization part has been addressed using dead-reckoning (odometry). A least squares numerical approach has been used to calibrate the odometer parameters to minimize the effect of systematic errors on the performance, and an …

Inter-Agency Coordination: The Key To Successfully Transition Juvenile Offenders Back Into The Educational Mainstream, Robyn Beth Gordon

Dissertations

The focus of this study was to determine the characteristics of successful re-entry programs for youth as they transition back into the educational mainstream. The study was also used to determine the implementation needed for effective inter-agency coordination of social service systems for students to successfully transition into the educational setting. The NCLB accountability measures were reviewed to discover how the measures influenced educators and created a reluctance to accept delinquent youth when they re-enter public school. The three overarching questions addressed in this study were: What inter-agency involvement is necessary in implementing a successful re-entry program? What are the …

Applying Data Visualisations To Open New Perspectives In Birdwatching, Frank Kendlin

Dissertations

Advances in data analytics for big data have affected many different domains and are providing new insights from these data for their respective communities. One such community is conservation science. A part of section of this community, ornithologists and bird conservationists has at its disposal millions of volunteers willing to contribute to a new ‘big’ data set. This can be achieved by means of new technology and the use of citizen science. This is already underway in North America through the excellent work of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO). This institute has harnessed the technology and the people and …

Building Trip Generation Models From National Database For Medium Sized Communities, Mary Catherine Dondapati

Dissertations

Freight data is propreitery and it involves high cost to acquire relevant freight data. Due to this reason freight was often excluded in travel demand modeling or included implicitly. The changing preference in the mode of transportation of freight to trucks, puts more truck traffic on the roadways. The implicit inclusion of freight in travel demant models does not do justice to the freight trips accounted for truck. The knowledge of freight data has led to exclusive freight demand modeling. The national freight database like TRANSEARCH is propreitery but is available at both aggregated and disaggregated level. On the other …

Energy Efficient Distributed Wearable Physiological Monitoring : Framework And Implementations, Mladen MilošEvić

Dissertations

Recent technological advances in sensors, wireless networking, mobile and cloud computing promise to fundamentally change the way health care services are delivered and used. The development and proliferation of the wearable physiological monitors enable a shift in healthcare services from centralized hospitals and medical centers to individuals and their homes. Continuous wearable health monitoring has the potential to engage users, improve wellness management, prevent disease by early detection, and assist rehabilitation and treatments. This dissertation presents a general framework and a practical implementation of computing infrastructure (both hardware and software aspects) to support mobile health and wellness monitoring applications as …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Result Variables And Contract Transitions In The Department Of Energy's National Laboratories And Production Sites, Harold T. Conner Jr.

Dissertations

Contract reform and improvement initiatives were mandated by Congress after the Inspector General's (IG) assertion that the DOE was guilty of waste, fraud, and abuse. As part of this contract reform process, the Department of Energy (DOE) undergoes contract transitions each year. This study examines these transitions in more detail to determine which factors are critical to successful contract change. In general, employees and contract management personnel have viewed contract transitions as costly, time consuming, and disruptive. It is widely felt that, in its contract transition process, the DOE creates morale and motivation problems within the research and production community …

Retaining The People Who Know Your Business Exploring Knowledge Sharing As A Tool To Improve Employee Retention In The Hotel Sector, Vincent Mckenna

Dissertations

The retention of core workers in the hotel/hospitality sector is a key challenge for human resource management, organisational strategies and operational effectiveness. The purpose of this research was to investigate and evaluate the impact of the introduction of knowledge sharing tools/techniques and change in work practice on the retention attitudes of knowledge workers in two context specific environments. Problems relating to the retention of knowledge workers are not confined to Ireland and are shown in this project to be a global phenomenon.

This research project is based on a knowledge audit of core knowledge workers/assets in two context specific environments …

The Student's Perspective: Exploring Ethnic Group Variances In Bullying Behavior Using Mixed Methods Research, Stephanie Grunewald

Dissertations

Although bullying is a widely recognized problem among school-aged youth, current research has failed to adequately consider whether ethnicity impacts students' involvement in, and perceptions of, bullying behaviors. This study employed a mixed methodology to examine how an ethnically diverse sample of students in seventh and eighth grade described and perceived bullying within their school. Initially, the Student Comprehensive Assessment of Bullying Behavior-Revised (SCABB-R) (Varjas, Henrich & Meyers, 2008a) was administered to students attending a suburban middle school in the Midwest (N = 750; 391 males, 359 females). Individual interviews were then conducted to further explore students' perspectives of bullying …

Synthesis And Assembly Of Dihydroindolizines On Gold Surfaces For Light Induced Work Function Alterations, Matthew Alan Bartucci

Dissertations

Taking advantage of surfaces' response to interfacial dipoles, a class of photochromophores (dihydroindolizine) is demonstrated to alter the work function of the underlying substrate (170 meV). This same molecule also provides spectroscopic signatures for correlating the change in molecular structure to the induced change in the surfaces' electronic properties. Polarization modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) allows analysis of the characteristic dihydroindolizine C=C (1559 cm-1) and pyridinium (1643 cm-1) stretch as a function of photoexcitation. Structural assignments of this photochromophore are corroborated to density function theory calculations. Conformational changes in the monolayers appear in parallel with work function changes and …

Risk Perception In Cardiovascular Disease, Michelle Ellen Block

Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains among the leading causes of death in the United States despite widespread knowledge about risk factors as well as effective primary prevention strategies. Risk perception is a complex phenomenon that plays an important role in how persons view disease and ultimately how they make health behavior choices. This study is supported by the knowledge that few studies have examined how persons perceive cardiovascular risk or the variables thought to contribute to the formation of risk perception.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how accurately persons perceive personal risk for cardiovascular disease and identify …

Characteristics Of And Strategies Used By Principals Who Promote Academic Success In Title I Classified Schools, Kimberly Kay Cohen

Dissertations

This research is an attempt to explore the various strategies employed by the principals of Title I schools in order to foster an environment of student progress and achievement. Since the inception of the NCLB Act, pressures have been increasing on the schools, especially on Title I Schools, and on their principals to increase academic performance. The researcher selected four Title I Schools and used questionnaires for teachers and interviews for principals to explore the answer to the research questions. The research philosophy acknowledges both the mainstream approaches of positivism and interpretivism and follows a mixed methods approach. The sample …

Early Identification Of At-Risk Lpn-To-Rn Students, Lisa K. Hawthorne Phd, Msn, Rn, Phn, Cne,

Dissertations

Nurse education programs are implementing standardized assessments without evaluating their effectiveness. Graduates of associate degree nursing programs continue to be unsuccessful with licensure examinations, despite standardized testing and stronger admission criteria. This problem is also prevalent for LPN-to-RN education programs due to a lack of research on this group of graduates, who by all accounts should be successful in nursing education based on their work experience and prior nursing education. Findings of this quantitative, non-experimental descriptive correlational study are presented to determine the effectiveness of standardized testing from Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) as it relates to identifying at-risk LPN-RN students …

Visual Analysis Of E-Textbooks For Senior High School In Indonesia, Ouda Ena

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the visual images used as illustrations in the English electronic textbooks for grades ten, eleven, and twelve in Indonesia. Qualitative visual content analysis was employed as the methodology of the research. The analysis focused on whether these e-textbooks accommodated the religious, gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the students. These four aspects of cultural diversity that influenced students learning in Indonesian contexts were crucial to examine because the students were so diverse as results of the geographical conditions and historical background of Indonesia. Eight English e-textbooks were examined. First, the result showed …

Effects Of Electrical Stimulation And Testosterone In Translational Models Of Peripheral Nerve Injury, Gina Monaco

Dissertations

As functional recovery following peripheral nerve injury is dependent upon successful regeneration and target reconnection, combinatorial treatments that enhance different regeneration events may be required for recovery from severe injuries. The neurotherapeutic effects of electrical stimulation (ES) and gonadal steroids have been demonstrated independently and in combination in extratemporal and intratemporal facial nerve injuries. The goals of the first aim were to develop a reliable intracranial facial nerve crush model and to investigate the therapeutic potential of combining ES with testosterone propionate (TP) in this most proximal injury model. Adult male rats were divided into intracranial sham-operated, intracranial crush, and …

Acculturative Stress And Coping Strategies Used By Asian Indians Living In The United States: A Quantitative And Qualitative Inquiry, Ritu V. Thaker

Dissertations

The present research addressed acculturative stress experiences and coping strategies used by Asian Indians residing in the United States. The organizing research question was "What are the acculturative stress experiences and coping strategies used by first generation Asian Indians living in the United States?" The research question was explored through fourteen hypotheses.

A mixed method approach was employed. For the first phase, 54 first-generation Asian Indians were recruited from four sites using a purposive convenience sampling method, the SAFE-R standardized questionnaire was used to measure acculturative stress, the COPE scale to measure coping strategies, and a culturally grounded Socio-Demographic Information …

Particulates Initiate Immune Response Via Inducing Oxidative Stress-Mediated Nlrp3 Inflammasome Activation, Zhenyu Zhong

Dissertations

Liposomes are lipid particles formed by self-aggregated phospholipids. They are clinically used both as delivery vectors and immune adjuvants to treat many human infectious and cancerous diseases. However, how liposomes interact with host immune system remains poorly understood. Particularly, little is known about whether an innate immune receptor exists to sense liposomes. I hypothesize that liposomes activate NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages, which results in the release of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), a proinflammatory cytokine that plays a key role in innate and adaptive immune responses.

To test my hypothesis, I determined the ability of inducing IL-1β secretion from macrophages by differentially …

Comprehensive Investigation Of The Transcription Profiles Of Solanum Lycopersicum Treated With Two Cerato-Platanins From Botrytis Cinerea, Talitha Caudle

Dissertations

Botrytis cinerea is a severe plant pathogen that destroys more than 200 crop species worldwide. During early infection, B. cinerea secretes a large store of proteins onto the host surface, many of which cause acute necrosis, senescence, and the loss of cell wall integrity. Recently, cerato-platanin (CP) family member BCSNOD1 was found among fungal secretory products. A subsequent expression profile of B. cinerea-infected strawberry showed the early induction of BCSNOD1 and the CP homologue BCSNOD2. The function of CPs is poorly understood, although evidence suggests a role in plant-pathogen interactions. To characterize CP during B. cinerea infection, the interactions of …

Phytochemical Investigation Of Lonchocarpus Species : A Search For Antioxidant Compounds, Caitlin E. Deskins

Dissertations

Natural product research plays a crucial role in the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of human diseases. One plant genus that has been shown to contain a variety of compounds with many different activities but has yet to be thoroughly investigated is the genus Lonchocarpus (Fabaceae, Papilionoideae). In this work, three species of Lonchocarpus from Monteverde, Costa Rica were investigated. Each of the species underwent antioxidant-guided fractionation to isolate compounds that are responsible for the extracts' antioxidant activity. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using two antioxidant assays, the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical assay and the ferric reducing ability of plasma …

A Quantitative Model Of Relative Ethical Violation For Use In Military Decision-Making, Gregory S. Reed

Dissertations

As the embodiment of rational cause-and-effect, game and decision theory methods dominated the second half of the 20th century and continue to flourish today. Machine ethics, a very nascent field, involves developing machines (either as tangible hardware or as mathematical or logical models) with ethics codified as principles and procedures, in turn allowing them to consider ethical "cause-and-effect" of potential actions. A model known as the Metric of Evil (the "Metric") was first conceived by a branch of the United States Army, primarily intended for use by the Army itself. The Metric was inspired by a perceived gap in military …

Dynamic Management Of Coexistence In Ieee 802.15.4-Based Health Monitoring Wireless Body Area Networks, Mohammad Deylami

Dissertations

Health monitoring Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are systems with stringent demands regarding various performance metrics. The information collected and processed by WBANs is used in the diagnosis of health conditions; therefore, reliability of communication is a critical issue. The overlap of transmission ranges between wireless networks as a result of mobility, known as dynamic coexistence, is a major source of interference that may significantly affect the operation of WBANs in medical environments. In this dissertation, we study the effects of dynamic coexistence on the operation of IEEE 802.15.4-based health monitoring WBANs. We investigate the candidate wireless technologies for WBAN …

Analysis Of Dna Methylation And Copy Number Variation In Renal Cell Carcinoma, Brittany N. Lasseigne

Dissertations

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and its incidence is increasing. It is difficult to detect early and is relatively non-responsive to traditional radiation and chemotherapies. Previous work demonstrates the value of measuring copy number variation (CNV) and DNA methylation changes in RCC, but diagnostic biomarkers and additional treatment options in the clinic are still needed. This study examined genome-wide DNA methylation and CNV in RCC tumor and benign adjacent kidney tissues from 101 clinically-annotated patients. Analyses revealed widespread DNA methylation and copy number differences between tumor and benign tissues, particularly …

On Stretch Factors Of Greedy Routing Algorithms, Omkar U. Kulkarni

Dissertations

Routing aims to find a path to deliver the information from a source to the destination in the network. Routing is one of the most important algorithmic problems in networking. Our research focuses primarily on greedy routing algorithms. The greedy routing algorithms always compute a routing path by forwarding a message to a neighbor closer to the destination than itself. The closeness to the destination can be measured differently via different notions of distances. Greedy routing algorithms keep forwarding the message to a neighbor closer to the destination than itself until the distance to the destination reduces to zero. When …

A Content Analysis To Investigate The Evidence Of 21st Century Knowledge And Skills Within Elementary Teacher Education Programs In The United States, Mary Margaret Ruettgers

Dissertations

Are graduates of teacher preparation programs adequately prepared with the skills and knowledge to teach in the 21st century classroom? This study consisted of a quantitative content analysis to investigate the presence of 21st century knowledge and skills within a stratified random sample of teacher preparation programs in the United States as measured by the 21st Century Learning Framework. Based on the current literature, the researcher identified 21st century competencies: global awareness; digital competencies; critical thinking; collaboration; cross-cultural; communication; and problem solving. For null hypothesis numbers two through eight, the researcher determined how closely the institution’s mission statements, course descriptions, …

Structure And Mission Effectiveness: A Study Focused On Seventh-Day Adventist Mission To Unreached People Groups Between 1980 And 2010, Abraham Guerrero

Dissertations

The present study examines the impact of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's structure on mission effectiveness in taking the gospel to unreached people groups between 1980 and 2010. A historical descriptive study, this dissertation's theory base includes structure from an anthropological perspective; structure, mission, and effectiveness from an organizational perspective; and church structure and mission effectiveness in Christian history.

The impact of structure on mission effectivenessis evaluated in the present work by looking for patterns in history in which the structure has been either a facilitator or a hindrance for establishing churches among those who have not been reached with the …

The Influence Of K-12 Christian Education On Leadership Development, Jeffrey S. Mcmaster

Dissertations

Problem. Christian schools are an environment that intentionally works to bring coherence to a student’s moral and ethical development, which is a critical component of leadership development. It is then important to understand how the effect of that educational experience has carried over into the later development of leadership. However, there is very little study on the influence of Christian Kindergarten through 12th-grade education, let alone the influence of Christian education on leadership. Therefore the purpose of this study is to explore the influence of Christian education on leadership development as perceived by people in leadership positions.

Research Design. This …