Digital Commons Network^™

Efficacy Of Central Auditory Processing Case History Form Used At The Louisiana Tech University Speech And Hearing Center, Michelle L. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is a deficiency in processing of auditory information. Due to this deficiency, a variety of behaviors can be seen including listening difficulties in background noise, difficulties following oral instruction, and difficulties discriminating and identifying speech sounds. These behaviors result in inattention and academic difficulties. With these characteristics being present in other disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, language/learning deficits, and high functioning autism (i.e., Asperger's syndrome) diagnosis of CAPD becomes complicated.

The Louisiana Tech University Speech and Hearing Center uses a CAPD case history for a child that was adopted from Robert Keith in 2003. …

Unitarily Invariant Norms And Tensor Products Of Maximal Injective Von Neumann Subalgebras, Junsheng Fang

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of four contributions to the study of von Neumann algebras. In the first part, we set up a representation theorem for unitarily invariant norms on finite factor von Neumann algebras. In the second part, we set up a representation theorem for unitarily invariant norms related to infinite factor von Neumann algebras. In the third part, we introduce a notion of completely singular von Neumann subalgebras and characterize the class of completely singular von Neumann subalgebras. In the fourth part, we study a longstanding open question on the tensor product of maximal injective von Neumann subalgebras.

The first …

The Venetian Blind Effect, Binocular Luster, And Binocular Rivalry, Richard S. Hetley

Doctoral Dissertations

When one views a square-wave grating and changes the average luminance or contrast of the monocular images relative to each other, at least three perceptual phenomena occur. These are the Venetian blind effect, or a perceived rotation of the bars around individual vertical axes; binocular luster, or a perceived shimmering; and binocular rivalry, or an alternating perception between the views of the two eyes. In this paper, it is shown that increasing the dichoptic luminance modulation leads to these three phenomena in sequence, while increasing dichoptic contrast modulation generally only leads to perceived rotation.

It is also shown that average …

Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Of Relevance To The Marine Boundary Layer, Xuyi Cai

Doctoral Dissertations

The chlorine atom (Cl) is a potential oxidant of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere and is hypothesized to lead to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation in coastal areas. The purpose of this dissertation is to test this hypothesis and quantify the SOA formation potentials of some representative biogenic and anthropogenic hydrocarbons when oxidized by Cl in laboratory chamber experiments. The chosen model compounds for biogenic and anthropogenic hydrocarbons in this study are three monoterpenes (alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, and d-limonene) and two aromatics (m-xylene and toluene), respectively. Results indicate that the oxidation of these monoterpenes and aromatics generates significant amounts …

Stratified-Drift Aquifers In New Hampshire With Potential To Serve As Future, Large Public Water-Supplies: Status, Circa 2000; Projected Losses, Circa 2025; And Data Accuracy, John Alexander Lough

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the growing national water crisis, this research quantified and refined the states of stratified-drift aquifers with potential to yield 75+ gpm (OSDA75) and 150+ gpm (OSDA150) in New Hampshire for 2000 and 2025. Surface waters, cultural features and groundwater hazards from 13 federal/state datasets were buffered according to desired well yields, and then overlain within a geographic information system onto stratified-drift aquifer (OSDA) layer. Non-buffered, highly-transmissive polygons defined the aquifer areas remaining available with potential to meet 75+gpm or 150+ gpm well yields (RSDA75 or RSDA150). Aquifer losses for 2025 were modeled by principal-components regression as function of aquifer …

Flow Through And Around Fish Farming Nets, Oystein Patursson

Doctoral Dissertations

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, tow tank and field measurements were used to investigate current flow through and around net panels and cages. For the numerical computations a porous media model was used to represent the net allowing efficient computation of both exterior and interior flow fields. The model was calibrated using tow tank measurements on a net panel at different velocities and angles of attack. The CFD method was able to reproduce the drag- and lift coefficients of the net panel and the velocity reduction behind the net panel with satisfactory accuracy.

The approach was validated for a small …

Dynamics Of Phytoplankton Community Composition In The Western Gulf Of Maine, Timothy S. Moore

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is founded on the importance of phytoplankton community composition to marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes and motivated by the need to understand their distributions on regional to global scales. The ultimate goal was to predict surface phytoplankton communities using satellite remote sensing by relating marine habitats--defined through a statistical description of environmental properties--to different phytoplankton communities. While phytoplankton community composition is governed by the interplay of abiotic and biotic interactions, the strategy adopted here was to focus on the physical abiotic factors. This allowed for the detection of habitats from ocean satellites based on abiotic factors that were …

Evaluation Of In Vitro Methods To Estimate Digestibility Of Amino Acids In The Rumen Undegraded Protein Fraction Of Feedstuffs, Sarah Boucher

Doctoral Dissertations

Soybean meal, SoyPlusRTM, dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), and fish meal samples were used in the evaluation of the modified three-step, the immobilized digestive enzyme assay ( IDEA), the guanidination, and the furosine in vitro procedures to estimate intestinal digestibility of amino acids in rumen undegraded protein ( RUP-AA). Identifying an in vitro method to estimate RUP-AA digestibility will allow for routine analysis of feeds for this parameter, which can lead to more accurate formulation of dairy rations. To determine the adequacy of these procedures, in vivo RUP-AA digestibility estimates were obtained using the precision-fed cecectomized rooster assay. Rumen …

Planar Algebra Of Families Of Subfactors, Paramita Das

Doctoral Dissertations

The standard invariant is an object that classifies a fairly general class of subfactors and was reformulated by Vaughan Jones as 'planar algebras'. We compute the planar algebra of two families of subfactors arising out of actions of finitely generated groups on a II 1 factor in an attempt to see whether this class can be enlarged. This is a joint work with Dietmar Bisch and Shamindra Ghosh.

Biologically Inspired Composite Image Sensor For Deep Field Target Tracking, Pavlo Melnyk

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of nonuniform image sensors in mobile based computer vision applications can be an effective solution when computational burden is problematic. Nonuniform image sensors are still in their infancy and as such have not been fully investigated for their unique qualities nor have they been extensively applied in practice. In this dissertation a system has been developed that can perform vision tasks in both the far field and the near field. In order to accomplish this, a new and novel image sensor system has been developed. Inspired by the biological aspects of the visual systems found in both falcons …

The Effect Of Component Recognition On Flexibility And Speech Recognition Performance In A Spoken Question Answering System, Mike Dalton

Doctoral Dissertations

A spoken question answering system that recognizes questions as full sentences performs well when users ask one of the questions defined. A system that recognizes component words and finds an equivalent defined question might be more flexible, but is likely to have decreased speech recognition performance, leading to a loss in overall system success. The research described in this document compares the advantage in flexibility to the loss in recognition performance when using component recognition.

Questions posed by participants were processed by a system of each type. As expected, the component system made frequent recognition errors while detecting words (word …

Improved Estimation Of Fourier Coefficients For Ill-Posed Inverse Problems, Mikhail V. Shubov

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation we present and solve an ill-posed inverse problem which involves reproducing a function f(x) or its Fourier coefficients from the observed values of the function. The observations of the f(x) are made at n equidistant points on the unit interval with p observations being made at each point. The observations are effected by a random error with a known distribution.

First of all we present a very simple estimator for the Fourier coefficients of f(x). Then we present an iteration algorithm for improving the estimator for the Fourier coefficients. We show that the improved estimator we use …

The Social Production Of Community Garden Space: Case Studies Of Boston, Massachusetts And Havana, Cuba, Charles A. French

Doctoral Dissertations

This research incorporates 'production of space' theory to explore how individual and societal characteristics influence community gardening practices and outcomes for individuals and neighborhoods in Havana, Cuba and Boston, Massachusetts. Methods used for this research include demographic analysis, interviews, surveys, field mapping, photo documentation and direct observation. The hope is that this research will bring to light certain policies and actions that will help ensure access to community garden space by diverse individuals. The following describes the main findings of this research.

In Boston, some neighborhoods experiencing rapidly escalating rents are also experiencing an outmigration of ethnic minorities, particularly Hispanic-Latinos …

The Fallacy Of Endless Growth: Exposing Capitalism's Insustainability, William S. Strauss

Doctoral Dissertations

What if we were to have 100 years of no growth? What if conditions were such that there is no future scenario under which growth will ever occur again? We might characterize this as impossible, as a vision that violates the outcome that we as innovative people must realize.

In the document that follows I will show you our world as it must be sometime in the future. I will describe a world in which the real growth of the world economy is zero and remains zero. I will tell a story of a world that is so different from …

Free Entropy Dimensions And Approximate Liftings, Weihua Li

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first chapter of the dissertation, we give a very elementary proof of a more detailed version of one of D. Voiculescu's results, which was a key ingredient in Voiculescu's proof that his free entropy is additive when the variables are free.

In the second chapter of the dissertation, based on the notion of upper free orbit-dimension introduced by D. Hadwin and J. Shen, we introduce a new invariant on finite von Neumann algebras that do not necessarily act on separable Hilbert space. We show that this invariant is independent of the generating set, and we obtain a number …

Unsteady Flow And Heat Transfer In Periodic Complex Geometries For The Transitional Flow Regime, Li-Kwen Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

"Diesel engines are facing significant challenges with upcoming changes in emissions standards. In general, meeting the increased emission standards will require a larger fraction of the engine heat rejection to occur in the vehicle cooling system. For certain applications, the surface geometry must also be such that it resists particulate fouling, precluding common interrupted surfaces such as louvered fins. Although acceptable continuous surface geometries such as bumped fin geometries are in use, the impacts of changing the parameters of this geometry are unknown. This study investigates the transport characteristics of bumped fins in the transitional flow regime using unsteady multi-dimensional …

A Bayesian Stormwater Quality Model And Its Application To Water Quality Monitoring, Pedro M. Avellaneda

Doctoral Dissertations

Stormwater runoff is a topic of research that over the years has increasingly grown due to its impact on our water resources. Treatment systems have been developed to mitigate this impact by preserving the pre-development hydrologic and water quality characteristics of the drainage areas. Understanding of the systems' treatment capabilities is required for stormwater management. The goal of this research was to study the application of a decay treatment model as a conceptual tool for understanding the pollutant removal characteristics of stormwater systems. Three systems were studied in this research: a sand filter, a gravel wetland, and a retention pond. …

The Relationship Among Working Memory, Mathematics Anxiety, And Mathematics Achievement In Developmental Mathematics Courses In Community College, Janet Marie Spybrook

Doctoral Dissertations

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Modeling And Simulations Of Diphasic Composites For Development Of High Energy Density Dielectrics, Sandeep K. Patil

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research is focused on diphasic dielectric composites for high energy density storage applications in pulsed power and power distribution systems. Composite materials are particularly attractive because they can synergistically combine high permittivity with high breakdown strength of the individual phases. Energy density, which captures permittivity and dielectric breakdown strength as vital material parameters, dominates this research challenge. Avenues for increasing the effective permittivity and breakdown strength may be found by gaining fundamental understanding of the response of diphasic dielectrics to an applied electric field. Improved understanding of these characteristics will ultimately lead to dielectrics with increased energy storage densities. …

Stochastic Dynamic Equations, Suman Sanyal

Doctoral Dissertations

"We propose a new area of mathematics, namely stochastic dynamic equations, which unifies and extends the theories of stochastic differential equations and stochastic difference equations. After giving a brief introduction to the theory of dynamic equations on time scales, we construct Brownian motion on isolated time scales and prove some of its properties. Then we define stochastic integrals on isolated time scales. The main contribution of this dissertation is to give explicit solutions of linear stochastic dynamic equations on isolated time scales. We illustrate the theoretical results for dynamic stock prices and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck dynamic equations. Finally we study almost sure …

An Exploration Of Primary Level (K-2) Special Education Practices In The Catholic Elementary School, Anna Teruel Mcdonald

Doctoral Dissertations

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Instructional Strategies And Teacher-Student Interaction In The Classrooms Of A Chinese Immersion School, Tsueylin Tracy Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Refiguring Technology : Emerging Understandings In Adult Learning, Scott M. Rosen

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Imagining And Creating New Possibilities For Self And Society : Narratives Of Nepalese University Students Gone Abroad, Kristine Nelson

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Educators As Adult Learners Creating Sustainable Community Development Through Solicitude And Care For The Other : Critical Inquiry In Northern California And North East Thailand, Patricia G. Perez

Doctoral Dissertations

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Inverse Limits Of Permutation Maps, Robbie A. Beane

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this paper we study the topological properties of continua which arise as inverse limits on [0; 1] with bonding maps chosen from the permutation family of Markov maps. For such inverse limits, we examine the occurrence of indecomposability, the number of end points in the continuum, and the types of subcontinua present in the continuum. We provide a process for determining the topological structure of the inverse limit generated by a single permutation map, or by the composition of several such maps. Additionally, we show that all such inverse limits are Kelley continua. We will apply these results to …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Vegetable (Soybean) Oil Based Epoxy Resin For Beverage Can Coating And Enzymatic Synthesis And Characterization Of Tailored N&C End Protected Oligopeptides, Ying Gao

Doctoral Dissertations

"Research described in this dissertation covers two topics. Part-I is related to the development of a soybean oil based epoxy resin and its application in beverage can coatings. Interior surfaces of beverage can are invariably coated with polymer coating. The most commonly used coatings at present are derived from bisphenol A (BPA) based epoxy reins. However, due to perceived endocrine disrupting nature of BPA and consequential adverse effects on humans and wildlife concerns for the use of BPA based coatings and its leaching into beverages have been expressed. The research in the first part describes the synthesis and evaluation of …

Addressing Nonlinear Combustion Instabilities In Highly Dilute Spark Ignition Engine Operation, Brian C. Kaul

Doctoral Dissertations

"Dilute operation is a promising approach for increasing spark-ignition engine efficiency, in the form of either lean burn (air dilution) or EGR (inert dilution). High levels of charge dilution, however, lead to cyclic variability that is largely deterministic in nature. The determinism and nonlinear nature of the system indicate that it should be possible to reduce the cycle-to-cycle variations by implementing an electronic controller. Several needs arise when considering the development of such a controller. Three topics of interest are covered herein. First, a method of analysis for nonlinear dynamical systems is applied to engine data in order to estimate …

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Wireless Communications With Imperfect Channel Knowledge, Christopher Potter

Doctoral Dissertations

"In the first work a recurrent neural network (RNN) is employed for MIMO channel prediction. A novel PSO-EA-DEPSO off-line training algorithm is presented and is shown to outperform PSO, PSO-EA, and DEPSO. This predictor is shown to be robust to varying channel scenarios. New expressions for the received SNR, array gain, average probability of error, and diversity gain are derived. Next, a new expression for the outage capacity of a MIMO system with no CSI at the transmitter and an estimate at the receiver is presented. Since the outage capacity is a function of the first and second moments of …

Business-Oriented Software Process Improvement Based On Cmm And Cmmi Using Qfd, Yan Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

"Software Process Improvement (SPI) has become the key to the survival of many software development organizations. Many international SPI models/standards are developed for SPI. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI)) from the Software Engineering Institute are two SPI models. In this study, several existing SPI models and approaches are reviewed, their advantages are identified, and their drawbacks are discussed. A set of new SPI frameworks integrating Quality Function Deployment (QFD) with both CMM and CMMI are developed by combining the best features of previous approaches and addressing their limitations"--Abstract, page iii.