Digital Commons Network^™

Instructional Coaching: An Essential Element For Building And Maintaining Instructional Capacity, Alison Hawley

Dissertations

The focus of this study is to explore the role of the school leader, specifically the principal, in leading instructional change and supporting teachers throughout the change process. Building instructional capacity across a school building is an essential role for a school leader, but also requires ownership and agency on the part of teachers to be active partners in realizing change. The process of full-scale change impacts members of the school community in different ways. Identifying the predictable patterns of adult responses often associated with change can help the instructional leader anticipate the supports necessary to keep the change moving …

A Study On Access Scores And Map Data, Deborah Lynn Pearson

Dissertations

English Language Learners (ELLs) are no longer a part of specific areas of America. They have crossed all classroom boundaries of the United States. This means as ELLs have integrated into the classrooms, educators are becoming versed in methods and strategies to help ELLs learn and achieve proficiency on standardized assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine if ELLs learned enough to be proficient in English to do well on a standardized test as their non-ELL peers. The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State (ACCESS) were the two exams …

Secondary Administrators' Perceptions Of The Blended Coaching Model On Their Development As Transformational Leaders, Janine Ezaki

Dissertations

School principals are expected to lead the major changes and intense curricular work of implementing Common Core State Standards at their school sites. In addition to existing administrative duties and instructional responsibilities, this calls for site administrators to possess transformational leadership skills and attributes in order to lead effectively and purposefully through change in the 21st century. Since education has begun to value leadership coaching for school administrators, this study examined the coaching model as a viable means of support for novice administrators in their development as transformational leaders. The purpose of this ethnographic research was to study the culture …

Synthetic Approaches To The Understanding Of Dna Nucleobase Methylation, Jagruti Rana

Dissertations

DNA methylation is a major source of genetic variation and cancer. Methylation occurs when nucleophilic DNA bases react with methylating agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), dimethyl sulfate (DMS), N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU), N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), etc. N7-methyl-2'-deoxyguanosine (N7-methyl-dG, or ^7MedG) adduct is the most abundant DNA methylation products for most methylating agents. DNA polymerase actions on ^7MedG are difficult to study due to its instability against ring- opening hydrolysis and deglycosyl ati on. Oligonucleotides containing a single chemical adduct of ^7MedG cannot be chemically synthesized. In addition, ^7MedG is unstable in vivo …

Location Reliability And Gamification Mechanisms For Mobile Crowd Sensing, Manoop Talasila

Dissertations

People-centric sensing with smart phones can be used for large scale sensing of the physical world by leveraging the sensors on the phones. This new type of sensing can be a scalable and cost-effective alternative to deploying static wireless sensor networks for dense sensing coverage across large areas. However, mobile people-centric sensing has two main issues: 1) Data reliability in sensed data and 2) Incentives for participants. To study these issues, this dissertation designs and develops McSense, a mobile crowd sensing system which provides monetary and social incentives to users.

This dissertation proposes and evaluates two protocols for location reliability …

Electronic, Optical, Mechanical And Thermoelectric Properties Of Graphene, Sarang Vilas Muley

Dissertations

Graphene, a two-dimensional allotrope of graphite with sp² bonded carbon atoms, is arranged in honeycomb structure. Its quasi one-dimensional form is graphene nanoribbon (GNR). Graphene related materials have been found to display excellent electronic, chemical, mechanical properties along with uniquely high thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and high optical transparency. With excellent electrical characteristics such as high carrier transport properties, quantum Hall effect at room temperature and unusual magnetic properties, graphene has applications in optoelectronic devices.

Electronically, graphene is a zero bandgap semiconductor making it essential to tailor its structure for obtaining specific band structure. Narrow GNRs are known to …

Electronic, Thermoelectric And Optical Properties Of Vanadium Oxides: Vo2, V2o3 And V2o5, Chiranjivi Lamsal

Dissertations

Correlated electrons in vanadium oxides are responsible for their extreme sensitivity to external stimuli such as pressure, temperature or doping. As a result, several vanadium oxides undergo insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) accompanied by structural change. Unlike vanadium pentoxide (V₃O₃), vanadium dioxide (VO₃) and vanadium sesquioxide (V₃O₃) show I MT in their bulk phases. In this study, we have performed one electron Kohn-Sham electronic band-structure calculations of VO₃, V₃O₃ and V₂O₅ in both metallic and insulating phases, implementing a full ab-initio simulation package …

A Comprehensive Study Of Evolution Of Photospheric Magnetic Field And Flows Associated With Solar Eruptions, Shuo Wang

Dissertations

The rapid, irreversible change of the photospheric magnetic field has been recognized as an important element of the solar flare process. Recent theoretical work has shown that such a change would imply Lorentz force perturbations acting on both the outer solar atmosphere and the solar surface. This research uses vector magnetograms obtained with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory to study a number of flares, which range from GOES-class C4 to X5 and occur in four active regions. In all the events, a permanent and rapid change of photospheric magnetic field closely associated with the …

Adaptive Global Optimization Algorithms, William Phillips

Dissertations

Global optimization is concerned with finding the minimum value of a function where many local minima may exist. The development of a global optimization algorithm may involve using information about the target function (e.g., differentiability) and functions based on statistical models to better the worst case time complexity and expected error of similar deterministic algorithms.

Recent algorithms are investigated, new ones proposed and their performance is analyzed. Minimum, maximum and average case error bounds for the algorithms presented are derived. Software architecture implemented with MATLAB and Java is presented and experimental results for the algorithms are displayed.

The graphical capabilities …

Enabling Virtualization Technologies For Enhanced Cloud Computing, Kashifuddin Qazi

Dissertations

Cloud Computing is a ubiquitous technology that offers various services for individual users, small businesses, as well as large scale organizations. Data-center owners maintain clusters of thousands of machines and lease out resources like CPU, memory, network bandwidth, and storage to clients. For organizations, cloud computing provides the means to offload server infrastructure and obtain resources on demand, which reduces setup costs as well as maintenance overheads. For individuals, cloud computing offers platforms, resources and services that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

At the core of cloud computing are various virtualization technologies and the resulting Virtual Machines (VMs). Virtualization …

Local Selection Of Features And Its Applications To Image Search And Annotation, Jichao Sun

Dissertations

In multimedia applications, direct representations of data objects typically involve hundreds or thousands of features. Given a query object, the similarity between the query object and a database object can be computed as the distance between their feature vectors. The neighborhood of the query object consists of those database objects that are close to the query object. The semantic quality of the neighborhood, which can be measured as the proportion of neighboring objects that share the same class label as the query object, is crucial for many applications, such as content-based image retrieval and automated image annotation. However, due to …

Design And Analysis Of Algorithms For Similarity Search Based On Intrinsic Dimension, Xiguo Ma

Dissertations

One of the most fundamental operations employed in data mining tasks such as classification, cluster analysis, and anomaly detection, is that of similarity search. It has been used in numerous fields of application such as multimedia, information retrieval, recommender systems and pattern recognition. Specifically, a similarity query aims to retrieve from the database the most similar objects to a query object, where the underlying similarity measure is usually expressed as a distance function.

The cost of processing similarity queries has been typically assessed in terms of the representational dimension of the data involved, that is, the number of features used …

Mueller Matrix Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Of Multiferroics, Roman Basistyy

Dissertations

Multiferroics, materials which possess several ferroic orders, are the focus of research in recent years. Among these materials are oxide crystals, such as, for example, RMnO₃, RMn₂O₅, R₃Fe₅O₁₂, where R stands for rare earth ions. The most fascinating physics occurs when magnon-lattice coupling reveals itself in the far-IR spectra of multiferroics. The expected optical behavior puts multiferroics into a more general category of bi-anisotropic materials, the properties of which could be only described using anisotropic dielectric ε(ω), magnetic μ(ω), and …

Galapagos Seabirds' Lice Community: Host Hetero-Specific Interactions And Parasite Evolution, Jose Luis Rivera

Dissertations

My dissertation focused on understanding the factors behind host-parasite specificity and parasite diversification, using Galapagos seabirds and their ectoparasites as the study system. This system comprised the seabird hosts (magnificent and great frigatebirds, Nazca, blue-footed and red-footed boobies) and nine species of ectoparasitic lice (one Pectinopygus ischnoceran louse species infecting each host, two species of Colpocephalum amblyceran lice, one on each frigatebird species, and two shared amblyceran lice, Eidmanniella albescens found on Nazca and blue-footed boobies and Fregatiella aurifasciata found on the two frigatebirds). Using as focal species Eidmanniella albescens and Fregatiella aurifasciata, which infect multiple hosts, I analyzed how …

An Analysis Of The Predictive Capability Of C5.0 And Chaid Decision Trees And Bayes Net In The Classification Of Fatal Traffic Accidents In The Uk, Aiden O'Connor

Dissertations

Road traffic accidents are a significant cause of deaths worldwide and there is a global focus on understanding accident contributory factors and implementing prevention strategies. Although accident statistics are steadily improving, effective prevention must be persistent, evidence based and properly resourced. This research aimed to extract fatal traffic accident prediction from UK STATS19 accident data using C5.0 and Chaid decision trees and Bayes net classification models. Data was grouped as either fatal or non-fatal. The class imbalance due to fatal accident infrequency was considered and data transformation and sampling techniques were applied to increase prediction likelihood. Chaid was used for …

A Study Of Margin Setting In Pattern Recognition :Algorithm, Performance And Application, Yi Wang

Dissertations

Margin setting is a novel supervised learning algorithm for pattern recognition. In this research, we studied margin setting in terms of its algorithm, performance, and application. The algorithm and performance were studied from a new perspective: margin. Margin measures the associated distance from the data to the classification boundaries. Margin is an important design parameter that has a direct impact on the performances of margin setting. The performance impact of margin was comprehensively analyzed in two aspects. First, given the fact that margin setting generates a spherical decision boundary in pattern recognition, we proposed a novel approach that combines margin …

Quantitative Analysis Of Interaction Between The Free Troposphere And Planetary Boundary Layer Using Multiple Measurements And Large Eddy Simulation Model, Guanyu Huang

Dissertations

We investigate the interaction between the free troposphere (FT) and planetary boundary layer (PBL) using multiple measurements and Dutch Atmospheric Large Eddy Simulation (DALES) coupled with a chemical module. A residual layer (RL) storing high ozone concentrations can significantly influence ground ozone concentration through the entrainment process whereby the RL aloft is incorporated into the growing convective boundary layer (CBL) during the morning transition. We use DALES model coupled with a chemical module to simultaneously study the dynamical and chemical impacts of a RL (200-1200 m above ground level (AGL)) on ground-level (0-200 m AGL) ozone concentrations. Four numerical experiments …

Vertical Variability Of The Raindrop Size Distribution And Its Effects On Decal-Polarimetric Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimation, Patrick N. Gatlin

Dissertations

The accurate measurement of precipitation is vital to efficiently manage our water resources. Although dual-polarimetric radar technology has greatly improved radar rainfall estimation, there exist inherent sampling factors and uncertainties that must be addressed. One key factor is the height of the radar beam as it samples precipitation. Typically radar beam heights and associated pulse measurement volumes used to estimate rainfall at the ground, increase with distance from the radar and thus may not be representative of the amount of rainfall impacting the ground. The main goal of this study was to determine the effect of the vertical profile of …

An Approach To Finding Good Anchor Nodes In Ontologies, Zhiqiang Wu

Dissertations

When matching different semantically tagged web service interfaces in the semantic web, it is often necessary to map one ontology to another ontology at runtime, on the fly. In many cases, knowing which nodes are the best nodes to start the matching process before the process begins (which are called anchor nodes) can make the ontology matching much easier. Traditionally, anchor node selection has been performed by humans. However, this is not practical for on-the-fly situations, occurring at runtime. Here we validate a methodology for determining anchor nodes automatically. Our results are shown to be successful, meaning that we were …

Control Of Fuel Cell Based Electric Power Systems Using Adaptive Sliding Mode Control And Observation Techniques, Roshini Sukanya Ashok Kumar

Dissertations

The main contribution of this dissertation is in robust decentralized control of the fuel cell (FC)-based electric power systems conditioned by boost DC/DC power converters in single modular and multiple modular configurations, specifically with shared and individual loads, including controlling servomechanisms powered by the considered FC-based electric power systems. Relative degree approach is applied for direct control of the output load voltage for the boost DC-DC converters in single modular and multiple modular configurations. The adaptive gain second order (2-SM) super-twisting sliding mode controller is proposed for controlling the current in PEMFC. The conventional Sliding Mode Controllers (SMC) is designed …

Aspect Angle Estimation Of Roll Symmetric Ballistic Missile Objects Using Low-Range Resolution Radar Returns, David C. Moody

Dissertations

This dissertation presents a new method of estimating the orientation (relative to a sensing radar) of a ballistic missile object using low range-resolution Radar Cross Section (RCS) estimates. The estimation is accomplished by combining a multi-aspect feature based Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with a low fidelity RCS model of the missile object. The RCS model of the object links the true RCS to a particular orientation or aspect angle. Utilizing this relationship with the state estimation capability of a HMM, the sequence of RCS estimates made by a radar can be decoded to estimate the orientation of the missile object. …

Wavelet Estimators In Nonparametric Regression Model And Simulation Study, Yunzhu He

Dissertations

Nonparametric regression is a fundamental tool in data analysis. Wavelet analysis has been proved to be a powerful statistical technique in the nonparametric regression. Wavelet’s appealing advantages make this approach very popular in a wide range of practical applications in many fields. In this dissertation, we consider the nonparametric regression model with correlated noise by using wavelet methods. One of the main purposes of this dissertation is to perform an extensive simulation study to some wavelet methods for the univariate nonparametric regression model with long- range and short-range dependent noise and to make comparisons to performance of the wavelet approaches. …

Simplified Population Growth Modeling For Low Earth Orbit, Thomas Percy

Dissertations

The accumulation of 50 years’ worth of man-made space objects has increased the risk of catastrophic collisions. Continuing to operate in a business-as-usual manner will one day render regions of LEO unusable. The landscape of future LEO satellite operations is complicated by the evolving nature of space policy and the emergence of the CubeSat which has the potential to radically shift the current LEO satellite market. Long-term population modeling is required to predict population growth, support policy decisions, and inform industry best practices. Many space agencies around the world have high-fidelity analysis codes to serve this function but they are …

High Frequency Combustion Instability Control Through Acoustic Modulation At The Inlet Boundary For Liquid Rocket Engine Applications, John William Bennewitz

Dissertations

This research investigation encompasses experimental tests demonstrating the control of a high-frequency combustion instability by acoustically modulating the propellant flow. A model rocket combustor burned gaseous oxygen and methane using a single-element, pentad-style injector. Flow conditions were established that spontaneously excited a 2430 Hz first longitudinal combustion oscillation at an amplitude up to p'/p_c = 6%. An acoustic speaker was placed at the base of the oxidizer supply to modulate the flow and alter the oscillatory behavior of the combustor. Two speaker modulation approaches were investigated: (1) Bands of white noise and (2) Pure sinusoidal tones. The first approach adjusted …

Temporal Mammogram Segmentation For Improving Early Breast Cancer Detection, Huda Al-Ghaib

Dissertations

Screening mammography often incorporates a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) scheme in its procedure to increase the accuracy of detecting gradual changes in breast tissues. One method for detecting gradual changes in temporal mammograms is through registration algorithms. Most registration algorithms require segmented mammograms as their inputs. The performance of registration algorithms and, hence, the performance of the CADs, are directly proportional to the quality of the segmented mammograms. Segmented mammograms include breast landmarks such as the nipple, the breast boundary, and the pectoral muscle. In this research, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a new segmentation algorithm for pectoral muscle detection. …

Computational Investigation Of The Influence Of Heating Modes And Moisture Content On Pyrolysis And Ignition Of Live Fuels, Bangalore Lingaraj Yashwanth

Dissertations

The burning of an isolated leaf-like element was computationally investigated in a series of studies, motivated by recent burning experiments performed on live leaves of manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa). In this study, the relative impor- tance of heating modes, effect of fuel moisture content on pyrolysis and combustion of live fuels is explored in stages. A preliminary study was conducted on a simpli- fied one-dimensional configuration, using Gpyro. The heating sources were modeled through convection and/or radiation as boundary conditions. Results showed that the increase in radiative source temperature substantially affects ignition time; how- ever, it has marginal influence on mass …

Investigation Of Numerical Viscosities And Dissipation Rates Of Shock-Capturing Schemes For Implicit Large-Eddy Simulation, Shreyas Bidadi

Dissertations

In recent times, the limitations of popular subgrid-scale models for Large-Eddy Simulation have led to the development of a number of sophisticated modeling approaches. An approach that utilizes the numerical viscosity arising from the non-linear discretization of convective fluxes to model the smaller more isotropic eddies has received considerable attention. This method is referred to as Implicit Large-Eddy Simulation (ILES). The goal of this dissertation is to advance current understanding of a class of ILES techniques based on shock-capturing schemes. This is achieved through intricate quantitative insights into the stability and diffusive characteristics of Roe-MUSCL-based shock-capturing scheme. The first step …

Reduced Order Models For Turbulent Wall-Pressure Fluctuations And For Acoustic Wave Propagation In Sensor Ports, Man Zhang

Dissertations

Several important engineering problems have been tackled in this dissertation: a. the spectral characteristics of turbulent wall-pressure fluctuations, b. wave propagation in sensor ports and c. effect of the airfoil leading edge waviness on flow structure and noise. Significant contributions have been in all three areas. a. In the wall-pressure fluctuation study, an in-depth review of the literature is presented and the most notable existing semi-empirical models are evaluated against experimental data and observations. Based on this scrutiny of the experimental data and the different models, a framework is proposed for the development of a new semiempirical model. The proposed …

The Transport Of Turbulence In Large-Scale In Homogeneous Flows With Application To The Solar Wind, Laxman Adhikari

Dissertations

Turbulence is an ubiquitous process in the magnetized solar wind plasma, and is thought to be integral to multiple important phenomena in the solar wind, such as coronal and solar wind heating, acceleration of the solar wind, the transport of energetic particles, and so forth. To explain these phenomena, it is necessary to understand the transport of low-frequency turbulence in the solar wind. This thesis investigates several sets of turbulence transport model equations in the context of turbulence in different regions of the heliosphere. This includes investigating turbulence in sub-Alfvenic and super-Alfvenic flows. Solar wind properties vary with solar cycle, …

The Random Fiber Test For Absolute Measurement Of Cylindrical Optics, Ayshah Alatawi

Dissertations

Cylindrical optics of high quality are coming more and more into use. With the advances of cylindrical optics manufacture, interferometric testing of such optics is difficult and continues to be a challenge. The main reason of this challenge is the lack of a well characterized cylindrical reference surface. This dissertation work was motived by the need of finding efficient, convenient and economical techniques to improve the measurement accuracy of cylindrical optics. A new approach, the Random Fiber Test (RFT) for absolute interferometric testing of cylindrical optics, is presented. The RFT is a method to obtain the cylindrical interferometric testing system …