Digital Commons Network^™

Close-Range, Noncontact Distance Measurement By Controlled Image Irradiance, Jaeho Kim

Dissertations

Dimensional measurement or check is a major part of the inspection and quality control in manufacturing. Most of the measurement applications are based on contact methods. While a number of non-contact methods are available, they are limited in accuracy, in flexibility, or in the range of application areas. An optical, close-range, non-contact distance measurement method has been developed for manufacturing and other applications. Based on a simple imaging principle, the method derives the distance information from the power response of a small axial image area, the irradiance of which is controlled by an active controlled illumination of the corresponding object …

Isoparametric Finite Elements For Linear Isotropic Micropolar Plate Bending, Vallanore K. Suresh

Dissertations

Finite element analysis programs for bending of linear isotropic micropolar elasticity are developed in this thesis. Isoparametric two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements are used to solve plate bending problems. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional finite element formulations are developed. Corresponding finite element programs are then developed. Patch tests are performed on the two-dimensional elements. Convergence studies are undertaken for the elements. Several plates are considered to evaluate the finite element scheme. The effects of the coupling factor N and characteristic length 1 are studied. A post processor with graphical display of displacements is developed.

Numerical results obtained for various plates are in good …

Permeability And Volume Change Characeristics Of Bentonite-Sand Mixes In A Contaminant Environment, Yuan-Hsun Wu

Dissertations

This research was conducted to study the characteristics of permeability and volume change of bentonite-sand mixes due to contaminants. The soil specimens consisted of clean sand, bentonite, and fly ash. Test liquids included seven diluted organic and inorganic chemicals and a landfill leachate.

Index tests included liquid limit, expansion, cracking, and sedimentation tests. Expansion tests proved to be the most useful for permeability evaluation in a contaminant environment.

The conventional consolidometer permeameter and flexible wall permeameter proved to be not completely satisfactory for testing soft bentonite mixes. A triple ring permeameter was developed to compensate for the limitations of these …

Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polyesters Based On The Monomer Of Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate), Satish Baliga

Dissertations

A series of thermotropic liquid crystalline polyesters were synthesized, based on Bis-hydroxyethyl terephthalate (BHET), para-acetoxybenzoic acid (PAB) and terephthalic acid (TA). Structural studies of these aromatic polyesters using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) and X-ray diffraction techniques indicated the existence of substantial amounts of rigid -PAB-PAB- linkages within the mesogenic backbone. Optical study of their melts using Polarizing Microscopy indicated a "threaded" microstructure typical of a nematic mesophase. Morphological rearrangements were found to occur at higher temperatures as was evident from a two-phase structure, one phase speculated to be rich in flexible Poly(ethylene Terephthalate) (PET) segments and the …

Kinetic Study On Pyrolysis Of C6h5cl And M-C6h4cl2 Diluted In H2 : Detailed Reaction Kinetics And Thermodynamic Property Estimation Techniques, Edward Robert Ritter

Dissertations

Thermal reaction studies of dilute mixtures (0.37%) of C6H5Cl in hydrogen and m-C6H4C12 (0.4%) in hydrogen have been performed in tubular flow reactors at various surface to volume ratios, and 1 atm total pressure. Residence times range from 0.02 to 2.5 seconds,with temperatures between 1050 to 1275 K. HCl, C₆H₅Cl, C₆H₆, and carbon solids (C(s)) are observed as the major products; minor products include methane, cyclopentadiene, toluene, naphthalene and biphenyls. Pyrolysis in helium yields significantly less conversion, but more C(s) for similar residence times.

A detailed chemical mechanism is developed to describe …

A Study Of The Impact Of A Quality Circle On A Public Secondary School In Southern California, Ronald E. Williams Edd

Dissertations

The goal of this research was to establish a quality circle at a Southern California public high school and to determine what effect the quality circle process would have on problem resolution and communication at that specific institution. The circle was composed of eight faculty members who volunteered plus an administrator who served as the facilitator. The circle met weekly for one school year. The objectives of this study were twofold. The first was to utilize the quality circle as a process to identify, analyze, and solve specific school concerns selected by quality circle members. The second objective was to …

The Impact Of Oppressive Military-Political Governments On School Effectiveness In Uganda, 1971 To 1986, Daniel M. Babigumira Edd

Dissertations

How and why did the Ugandan educational system survive the political and economic instability of the dictatorial governments between 1971 and 1986? What did the school administrators do to make sure that the nation's schools survive the political turmoil? The purpose of this researcher was to determine the impact of oppressive military and political governments on schools. Secondly, the researcher wanted to determine the extent to which the school administrators acted as instructional leaders in ensuring that the school effectiveness survived the enormous political constraints during this period. Four research questions explored qualitative interview data from the school administrators, reputationally …

Genetic Mapping And Characterization Of Acc, The Agrocinopine-Agrocin 84 Region, On Ptic58, The Nopaline-Type Ti Plasmid Of Agrobacterium Tumefaciens Strain C58, G. Thomas Hayman

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Principal As An Effective Instructional Leader: Relative Role Behaviors, Characteristics, Perceptions Of The Principalship Necessary For Effectiveness, As Instructional Leader, Supervisor, Jeanene Yule

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Satisfaction And Motivation Of High School Coaches, James Edward Riordan

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A State At War: The Home Front In Illinois During The Second World War, John F. Zwicky

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Adsorption Of Organic Compounds By Microbial Biomass, Ariamalar Selvakumar

Dissertations

The adsorption of hazardous organic compounds such as phenol, 2-chlorophenol, 2-nitrophenol, chlorobenzene, and ethylbenzene onto two types of inactive microbial biomass (activated sludge and nitrifying bacteria) was studied. The adsorption isotherms could be expressed by the Freundlich adsorption isotherm and were found to be nearly linear over the range of concentrations (50 - 200 mg/1) studied. Desorption studies showed that the adsorption process was partially reversible. Heat of sorption was estimated and indicate that the biosorption process involves a physical rather than a chemical mechanism. The adsorptive capacity of biomass is about two to three orders of magnitude less than …

Effect Of Computer Graphics Use On Student Understanding Of Calculus Concepts, Charlene E. Beckmann

Dissertations

Student understanding of selected calculus concepts as developed through use of a Cartesian coordinate graphical representation system were investigated. Subjects (N = 163) enrolled in first-semester calculus sections at Western Michigan University participated in one of four treatment conditions: Graphics (G), exposure to a computer-graphically-developed conceptual course; Graphics Plus (G+), exposure to the same course as G subjects plus provision of computer graphics software and related supplemental assignments; Standard 1 (S1), exposure to a graphically-developed, conceptual course; and Standard 2 (S2), exposure to a traditional skill-oriented course.

Two investigations were undertaken. In Investigation 1, comparisons were made between G and …

An Analogue Of Science, Michael Albert Minervini

Dissertations

There is no science of human behavior, not even an incipient one. The popular conception of applied behavior analysis as a genuine principle-driven technology is mostly an illusion. Two sorts of evidence support this conclusion. The first is an ever widening split between the field's basic and applied realms. The second, thus far unacknowledged, is that when the concepts of operant and respondent conditioning are extended to human behavior, they are often rendered as no more than metaphors. These metaphors are not confined to casual discourse or even to interpretation. In fact, they are the prevailing form of extension in …

Applied Thermoplastic Screw Plastication Theory: Industry Acceptance And Implications For Plastics Processing Education, Paul V. Engelmann

Dissertations

Rapid expansion of the thermoplastics processing industry has increased the need for plastics education and training. Screw plastication is the major method of melting plastics in order to mold or extrude them into useful products. Thus, information about the role of plastication is needed to provide guidance for plastics education and training.

This study sought confirmation of suspected differences existing in the amount of knowledge personnel have about thermoplastic screw plastication, dependent upon: (a) the type of plastics process used, and (b) their job classifications. Furthermore, the study collected data in three additional areas: (1) the extent to which persons …

Effectiveness Of Employee Participation Groups In A Manufacturing Company, John F. Blamy

Dissertations

This case study investigated the short term effectiveness of Quality of Work Life participation groups in a Midwest manufacturing division of a major worldwide automotive corporation. Six traditional procedural measures were used to evaluate performance. These measures of performance were: employee attendance, written grievances, scrap produced, quality audits, customer complaints, and productivity.

Six hypotheses were formulated for this study: (1) Employees in departments with employee participation groups will improve their attendance more than employees in departments that do not have employee participation groups. (2) Employees in departments with employee participation groups will decrease the number of formal grievances more than …

Gas-Phase Reactions Of Methylene Chloride And Methylene Chloride-Trichloroethylene Mixture With Methane In Tubular Flow Reactor And Atmospheric Pressure, Javad Tavakoli-Attar

Dissertations

Reactions of methylene chloride diluted in methane and Argon and a mixture of methylene chloride + trichloroethylene diluted in methane and argon are studied in three flow reactors of different surface to volume ratios 4, 10.5, and 16 mm ID , atmospheric pressure and over a temperature range of 750-1000 °C. Experiments were conducted isothermally, ±5 °C over central 80% of oven length using a three zone oven. Argon was added as a diluent in order to limit carbon (s) formation. The concentration ratios of methylene chloride/methane/argon and methylene chloride/trichloroethylene/methane/argon was held constant at 1:4:10 and 1:1:40:40 respectively, throughout the …

Psychotherapists' Responses To Anger Manifested By Female Clients, Lisa L. Morshead

Dissertations

The responses of therapists to anger directed at them by female clients was the topic under investigation. Sixty-nine professional therapists were engaged as subjects, with each therapist reading two fictitious transcripts depicting the first portion of a therapy session. The two transcripts portrayed an angry client and a nonangry client, with client sex varied in each condition for a total of four transcripts. Each subject read both an angry and nonangry transcript of either two male or two female clients. Subjects were then asked to rate the client on competence, and interpersonal functioning, along with providing diagnostic impressions. A four …

The Relationship Between Life Stressors And Stress Related Medical Problems Of Middle School Administrators, Marjorie Patton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify relationships among reported medical problems and life stressors perceived by a selected group of middle school administrators. The subjects were 110 members of the Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE). Instruments used to collect data were the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) and the Medical Problems Checklist (MPC).

A single primary research question was investigated. Is there a correlation between stressful life events and reported medical probems of middle school administrators? Correlations were computed from data collected by administration of the two research instruments. The chi-square method was used for investigation. …

A Study Of Factors Correlated With Career Persistence Of Male Pastors In The Free Methodist Church In Michigan, Robert Q. Bailey

Dissertations

The research objective was to create a descriptive profile of clergypersons who are persisting in career roles as pastors of the Free Methodist Church in Michigan.

An original instrument was administered to 113 male pastors, soliciting biographical data (age, pastoral tenure, educational background, statistical growth of churches served, family background, health and influences in career decisions) and responses to fifty value statements about the pastors' careers. The value statements were applications of ideas from the "Motivation-Hygiene" theory of career satisfaction and more individualized concepts as reinforcers of personal needs.

Attempts to describe the persisting pastors by correlating tenure to their …

Relationship Of Quality Circles In Nursing To Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Patient Care, And Cost Containment, Shirley A. Weiglein

Dissertations

The use of quality circles in nursing has been widely espoused in nursing literature as a concept that enhances participatory leadership, promotes job satisfaction, improves the quality of patient care and contributes to cost containment. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the use of quality circles in nursing units and leadership, job satisfaction, the quality of patient care and cost containment.

Quality circle and non-quality circle units in two midwest hospitals were used for data collection. Staff nurses only were asked to complete the survey. A total of 126 of the possible 295 staff nurses in the …

Reactor Design For Hazardous Waste Treatment Using A White Rot Fungus, Daewon Pak

Dissertations

Various nutrient media and reactor configurations have been explored in order to grow the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium, induce its active enzyme, develop kinetic data for the degradation of 2-chlorophenol, and use chemical engineering analysis to design an efficient reactor.

Preliminary experiments indicated that the biodegradation rate was improved by two to three orders of magnitude when the fungus was immobilized. As a result, emphasis shifted to two types of reactor design: a packed-bed reactor employing a silica-based porous support, and a fluidized-bed reactor employing alginate beads. Both were very effective in degrading 2 chlorophenol at inlet concentrations up …

Assessment Of Autonomic Regulation Of Heart Rate Variability, Shaw-Jyh Shin

Dissertations

Complex demodulation, accompanied by the techniques of interpolation, detrending and zero-phase-shift lowpass filtering were used to examine the effect of both divisions of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) on heart rate by analyzing the heart rate variability signal from dogs under two different classical conditionings: CS+ and CS-, which cause different dynamic pattern changes in the autonomic nervous system to regulate the heart rate.

Unlike power spectral analysis, complex demodulation gives results in the time domain and shows the variation of amplitude and phase over time at a given frequency. The variation of phase indicates the frequency deviation …

Multiyear Drought Simulation With Periodic-Stochastic Hydrologic Processes, Lankeswara Hemal Wijayaratne

Dissertations

Previous studies on multiyear droughts are often limited to the analysis of historic annual flow series. A major problem in these studies is the unavailability of long historic flow records, on which to perform the analysis. To overcome this difficulty, the present study has used synthetically generated mean annual flow series to suppliment the historic flows. For the purpose of generating flows, a general methodology was developed to propose a mathematical model based on the harmonic and stochastic analyses of the historic flow series. The main objective was to derive a large population of multiyear drought events from the generated …

Sorption And Desorption Of Organic Compounds By Flyash, Kashinath Banerjee

Dissertations

A sorbent treatment process has been developed which uses flyash as sorbent in the treatment of highly toxic and hazardous chemicals; these include: Alcohols, Aldehydes, Ketones and Aromatics. Batch, as well as dynamic, studies were performed, in different phases, during the investigation. Single and multiple solute systems were examined separately. The samples were analyzed using a Flame Ionization Detector Gas Chromatograph.

The result of this study demonstrates that isolation/ immobilization of the organic pollutants is technologically feasible by adsorbing the contaminants onto flyash. The residual carbon content of the flyash plays a very significant role during the treatment process. The …

An Investigation Of The Traditional And Non-Traditional College Students' Perceived Benefits Regarding Participation In The Cooperative Education Program, Beatrice C. Ullrich

Dissertations

Cooperative education has become an important component of education. The basis for cooperative education is that learning occurs outside the classroom as well as in the classroom. The shift in employment patterns from an industrial society to a knowledge and information based society means that many of the existing types of jobs will disappear. The value of cooperative education exists in its ability to provide a transition from school to work and its flexibility to respond to industries' needs and individuals' training needs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences of the traditional cooperative education student and …

A Feasible Direction Procedure For General Multiple Objective Optimization, Wen-Tsia Liu

Dissertations

The Feasible Direction Finding Problem (DFP) of Zoutendijk is adapted to create a general Mathematical Programming (MP) algorithm for treating optimization problems with multiple objective functions. Classically such problems are reduced to standard MP form by converting them to single objective function problems by the use of weighting functions. Unfortunately not all practical problems can be so reduced. Consider the problem of maximizing the strength of a structure. Typically there are several, or even many, failure modes. All active failure modes must be included in the optimal search in such a way that resistance to one active mode can not …

Naturalistic Inquiry: An Appropriate Method For Evaluating Customer Training A Case Study Of A Computer System Value-Added Reseller, Barbara Coulter Broderick Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the use of naturalistic inquiry as an appropriate method for evaluating customer training. The study's scope was limited to computer system value-added-resellers (VARs). Four research questions were identified, each addressing the use of naturalistic inquiry in this setting. Case study methodology was selected as the most effective approach to demonstrate use of this type of evaluation. In order to limit the focus of the case study, the researcher identified three propositions. These propositions addressed the following: (1) the evolution of computer system VAR's customer training programs; (2) the merit and worth of …

Attributes Of Undergraduates Majoring In Scientific And Technological Disciplines: Perseverance And Commitments, Judith Watlington Edwin Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was first to determine the characteristics that distinguished persisters from nonpersisters in the fields of science and technology; second, to determine the effects of sex, college choice, parental income, parental educational background, GPA, and academic and social integration factors on persistence; and third, to suggest program implementation for assisting students in the science and technology disciplines to make choices in "fit" of characteristics to college environment. Subjects for this study were randomly selected from a group of 256 juniors at the University of California, San Diego who had initially selected science or technology as an …

Educational Outcomes Of Children With Two Working Parents, Michael B. Dib

Dissertations

In this study five measures of ability or achievement (I.Q., reading comprehension, vocabulary, math concepts, and math computation) for each of four grade levels (third, fourth, fifth, and sixth) were analyzed to determine whether there were significant differences for students from traditional working parent families and students from two-working-parent families. An ex post facto design was used.

Subjects were 335 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students from a single public school district in the state of Michigan. These students were identified by teachers or principals as being from either a traditional or a two-working-parent family. All ability and achievement …