Digital Commons Network^™

Reliability -Aware Optimal Checkpoint /Restart Model In High Performance Computing, Yudan Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

Computational power demand for large challenging problems has increasingly driven the physical size of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. As the system gets larger, it requires more and more components (processor, memory, disk, switch, power supply and so on). Thus, challenges arise in handling reliability of such large-scale systems. In order to minimize the performance loss due to unexpected failures, fault tolerant mechanisms are vital to sustain computational power in such environment. Checkpoint/restart is a common fault tolerant technique which has been widely applied in the single computer system. However, checkpointing in a large-scale HPC environment is much more challenging …

A Finite Difference Method For Studying Thermal Deformation In Two-Dimensional Micro Scale Metal Thin Films Exposed To Ultrashort Pulsed Lasers, Haojie Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Ultrashort-pulsed lasers have been attracting worldwide interest in science and engineering because the lasers with pulse durations on the order of sub-picoseconds to femtoseconds possess capabilities in limiting the undesirable spread of the thermal process zone in a heated sample during material processing at the microscale. Prevention of thermal damage is an important factor for success of ultrashort-pulsed lasers in real applications. The thermal damage induced by ultrashort pulses is intrinsically different from that induced by long-pulse or continuous lasers. It occurs after the heating pulse is over and involves the shattering of thin metal layers (without a clear signature …

Classroom Acoustics And Intervention Strategies To Enhance The Learning Environment, Christal Savage

Doctoral Dissertations

The classroom environment can be an acoustically difficult atmosphere for students to learn effectively, sometimes due in part to poor acoustical properties. Noise and reverberation have a substantial influence on room acoustics and subsequently intelligibility of speech. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, 1995) developed minimal standards for noise and reverberation in a classroom for the purpose of providing an adequate listening environment. A lack of adherence to these standards may have undesirable consequences, which may lead to poor academic performance.

The purpose of this capstone project is to develop a protocol to measure the acoustical properties of reverberation time and …

Code-Level Modeling Of The Hodgkin -Huxley Neuron Model Using An Open Source Version Of Spice, Anthony Stuart Carver

Doctoral Dissertations

There have been numerous studies presented in the literature demonstrating proof of principle neural-electronic circuitry. Some of these studies involve simulations of neural detection using synthetic electronic circuitry, while others involve simulations of neural excitation using external electronics. A common feature of these studies is the simplicity of the overall circuit topology. Some of these studies implement the circuit equations in conventional numerical ordinary differential equation solvers. This process involves the algebraic manipulation of the circuit equations which is a tedious process for all but the simplest circuit topologies. As the overall complexity of the network topology increases, the numerical …

Position And Orientation Correction For Pipe Profiling Robots, Andrew John Dettmer

Doctoral Dissertations

Sewer pipelines are prevalent, important, valuable, unnoticed, and often in a state of disrepair. Pipeline inspection is essential for effective management of wastewater systems and is now mandated for many municipalities complying with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement 34 and EPA regulations. Pipe inspection robots are routinely used to inspect underground pipelines for cracks, deformations, leaks, blockages and other anomalies to prevent catastrophic failure and to ensure cost effective maintenance and renewal. Most existing pipe inspection robots only collect video footage of pipe condition. Pipe profiling technology has recently been introduced to allow for measurement of the internal coordinate …

The Design And Performance Of Pressure Pipe Liners Under Static And Cyclic Loading, Shanhai Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP), is a widely used trenchless technology. Based on the current liner design method, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F2207-02, several aspects are studied for the effect on estimating the long-term performance of the liners.

While estimating the liner burst pressure, the effect from host pipe material properties, liner material properties, defect geometry, liner creep properties and loading condition should be considered. The burst pressure calculated based on the existing method is overestimated and this allows an increased risk of structural failure before the expected design life is reached.

Compared with cast-iron, a PVC host pipe …

Drug Loading And Release From Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms, Yang Zhong

Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptides, linear macromolecules, are formed from amino acid residues by linkage of peptide bonds. Proteins are polypeptides too, with more complex conformations contributing to specific functionalities. Disulfide bonds are very important to maintain the structure and functions of proteins, which will form between two cysteine (Cys) residues under oxidizing circumstance.

Cys containing polypeptides are designed and synthesized by F-moc (9-Fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl) chemistry. The number and position of Cys residues can be controlled by amino acid sequences design and following peptide synthesis, which is important to gain insights on the nature of polyelectrolyte multilayer film assembly and stability.

Both commercial and designed …

Structural Behavior Of Pvc Pipe Liners Subjected To Seasonal Groundwater Loading, Qing Cai

Doctoral Dissertations

Thin-walled polymeric liners are routinely used to rehabilitate deteriorated underground pipe lines that are structurally sound but have lost their hydraulic integrity. These host pipes are said to be "partially deteriorated" since they can support soil and surface loading. For this case, the pipe liners must only be designed to withstand the pressure of the groundwater that seeps through openings in the host pipe and migrates through the small annular gap between the liner and the host pipe. This external pressure will cause the polymeric liner to slowly deform inward toward the center of the pipe, and the compressive hoop …

Moisture Effects On The Mechanical Behavior Of Flexible Pavement Subgrades, Edel Rudilio Cortez

Doctoral Dissertations

All pavement materials contain moisture in various forms and amounts. The effects of moisture on the mechanical behavior of these materials vary from small for some bound materials to very significant for some fine grained soils. Moisture effects become critical particularly during the spring thaw, but also where prolonged exposure to water sources occurs. The pavement design engineer must consider the effect of moisture on the mechanical properties of the constituent materials, and how different pavement layers interact under wet conditions.

This doctoral dissertation focuses on the effect that moisture in the subgrade has on the mechanical response and performance …

Interdisciplinary Middle School Teaming, Donna J. Cronin

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how the substance of interdisciplinary team meetings reflects team members' beliefs regarding the middle school concept and the school practices and cultural characteristics as delineated by the National Middle School Association (NMSA, 2005), which create successful middle schools for young adolescents.

The teachers of three interdisciplinary teams in an evolving middle school in the Northeast were participants in this bounded case study where the team was the unit of analysis.

Individual team member data were collected through individual audio taped interviews and validated by questionnaire responses from each participant. Team meeting discourse …

Understanding Abstract Algebra Concepts, Anna S. Titova

Doctoral Dissertations

This study discusses various theoretical perspectives on abstract concept formation. Students' reasoning about abstract objects is described based on theoretical proposition that abstraction is a shift from abstract to concrete. Existing literature suggested a theoretical framework for the study. The framework describes process of abstraction through its elements: assembling, theoretical generalization into abstract entity, and articulation. The elements of the theoretical framework are identified from students' interpretations of and manipulations with elementary abstract algebra concepts including the concepts of binary operation, identity and inverse element, group, subgroup, cyclic group. To accomplish this, students participating in the abstract algebra class were …

Valence And Structure Relationships In Oligonucleotides, Carrie Ann May

Doctoral Dissertations

There are many models that can be used to estimate the degree of shielding and predict the valence of a nucleic acid. Here, Counter-ion Condensation theory and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations are compared with an experimental approach. Membrane-Confined Electrophoresis was used to measure the effective valence of several nucleic acid oligomers. The Debye-Huckel-Henry equation was then utilized to calculate the valence of these oligomers. The valence was determined to be -17.86 (+/- 1.03) for a 20 base-pair double-stranded DNA oligomer in 93 mM KCl and 10 mM Tris HCl, pH 8. This experimental value agrees well with rigorous Grand …

A Statistical Approach To Understanding Microcosm Methods For Microbially Mediated Dechlorination Of Trichloroethene In Bedrock Aquifers, Stephen J. Druschel

Doctoral Dissertations

Microcosms were evaluated using statistical methods to advance the measurement and characterization abilities for in situ reductive dechlorination of trichloroethene (TCE) in fractured rock aquifers. Microcosms constructed with unincubated crushed rock in groundwater provided the best microcosm model of in situ TCE degradation, when prepared and incubated to simulate the in situ environment. Microcosms constructed with only groundwater were effective at modeling the TCE degradation only when the microcosms were amended with (total) organic carbon (TOC). Incubation of crushed rock core within the residual TCE plume caused a substantial decline in TCE degradation for biotic intrinsic microcosms, suggesting an effect …

Morita Equivalence For Group -Theoretical Categories, Deepak Naidu

Doctoral Dissertations

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for two pointed categories to be dual to each other with respect to a module category. Whenever the dual of a pointed category with respect to a module category is pointed, we give explicit formulas for the Grothendieck ring and for the associator of the dual. This leads to the definition of categorical Morita equivalence on the set of all finite groups and on the set of all pairs ( G, o), where G is a finite group and o ∈ H3(G, kx). A group-theoretical and cohomological interpretation of this relation is given. As …

Smart Machining System Platform For Cnc Milling With The Integration Of A Power Sensor And Cutting Model, Min Xu

Doctoral Dissertations

Novel techniques and strategies are investigated for dynamically measuring the process capability of machine tools and using this information for Smart Machine System (SMS) research. Several aspects of the system are explored including system integration, data acquisition, force and power model calibration, feedrate scheduling and tool condition monitoring.

A key aspect of a SMS is its ability to provide synchronization between process measurements and model estimates. It permits real time feedback regarding the current machine tool process. This information can be used to accurately determine and keep track of model coefficients for the actual tooling and materials in use, providing …

Urban Middle School Teachers' Efficacy Change Resulting From Project Adventure's Year -Long Respect Curricular Intervention: A Quasi -Experimental Design With Corroborating Data, M Brooke Moran

Doctoral Dissertations

Over 30 years of research highlight the effect teachers' beliefs about their teaching abilities (i.e., teacher efficacy) have on their professional actions (i.e., teachers' effectiveness). Yet the literature addressing this connection lacks extensive insight into how to raise teachers' efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Project Adventure's RESPECT Program in raising middle school teachers' efficacy in four northeastern urban public schools.

This pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study tracked 68 teachers' efficacy change over the course of one school year. Teacher Efficacy (TE) change was measured using the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale's (TSES) following subscales: Student …

Probing Regioselectivity In The Diels -Alder Cycloadditions Between *[60]Fullerene And Aryl Substituted Acenes, James Eric Rainbolt

Doctoral Dissertations

The formation and reactivity of previously unknown 4,7-diphenylisobenzofuran, 5, is reported. The Diels-Alder reaction between 5 and p-benzoquinone in boiling glacial acetic acid yields an unprecedented exo,exo anti dual cycloaddition product, 16b, in excellent yield and with 100% diastereoselectivity. Differences between the reactivity of 5 and the more common 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran are highlighted. Reactive 5 is utilized to form the anthracene 11, tetracene 15, and pentacene 22. The latter two compounds are reacted with [60]fullerene to explore the potential role of CH/pi interactions in the cycloaddition of [60]fullerene across phenyl substituted acenes. [60]Fullerene shows an unusual propensity for cycloaddition across the …

Error Propagation In Pattern Recognition Systems: Impact Of Quality On Fingerprint Categorization, Jakub Mocny

Doctoral Dissertations

The aspect of quality in pattern classification has recently been explored in the context of biometric identification and authentication systems. The results presented in the literature indicate that incorporating information about quality of the input pattern leads to improved classification performance. The quality itself, however, can be defined in a number of ways, and its role in the various stages of pattern classification is often ambiguous or ad hoc.

In this dissertation a more systematic approach to the incorporation of localized quality metrics into the pattern recognition process is developed for the specific task of fingerprint categorization. Quality is defined …

Understanding Standing, Christopher Storey

Doctoral Dissertations

Research objectives. Psychophysical acceleration threshold is a tool for detecting deficits in dynamic postural control. Our lab has shown differences in the acceleration threshold among young adults, elderly adults, and elderly adults with diabetes. Electromyography, Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments, and hearing tests investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms for the detriments in postural control. Due to peri-sway perturbations, the motion of a person's sway affects the signal to noise ratio for perturbed stance. Since increases in sway range accompany postural instabilities, sway entrainment will allow us to investigate changes in acceleration threshold at different points in sway. The center of pressure, observed …

Modeling Core Generation And Transport Phenomena Of Microcapsules, Xiaoshuo Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

Microcapsules play an important role in chemical, biomedical, and medical research. Of importance is their potential use as bio-sensors, as microreactors, and for drug delivery. In this dissertation, Computational Fluid Dynamics methodology is used to model the generation of droplets or cores (using alginate and oil) and to determine from the model process parameters needed for generating cores of homogeneous size for the manufacturing of microcapsules. Also, material diffusion through a microcapsule for controlled release is modeled based on finite difference methodology. The model was applied to experimental data on dextran release from microcapsules in order to estimate the diffusion …

The Quest For Tenure-Track Faculty Positions By Community College Adjunct Faculty, Leandra Powell Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

A Meta-Analysis Of Functional Behavioral Assessments Of Students With High-Incidence Disabilities In Public Education Settings, Jeff Gabrielson

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Advanced Controller Design Using Neural Networks For Nonlinear Dynamic Systems With Application To Micro/Nano Robotics, Qinmin Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation focuses on neural network (NN) control designs for nonlinear systems with application to micro/nano robotic. Critical problems in nano scale including thermal drift are also addressed"--Abstract, page iv.

Nonlinear Optimization Approach For Upfc Power Flow Control And Voltage Security: Sufficient System Constraints For Optimality, Radha P. Kalyani

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation provides a nonlinear optimization algorithm for the long term control of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) to remove overloads and voltage violations by optimized control of power flows and voltages in the power network. It provides a control strategy for finding the long term control settings of one or more UPFCs by considering all the possible settings and all the (N-1) topologies of a power network. Also, a simple evolutionary algorithm (EA) has been proposed for the placement of more than one UPFC in large power systems"--Abstract, page iv.

Fighting The Freeloader Effect : Cooperation, Attitude, And Achievement In A Jesuit Secondary Math Classroom, Kevin Quattrin

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Touching The Spirit As A Motivating Factor For African American Students To Achieve Academic Excellence, E'Leva D.H. Gibson

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Espoused Curriculum And Philosophy And Curriculum And Philosophy-In-Use In A K-12 Public Charter School System, Elizabeth G. Polito

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Data Fusion Techniques For Health Monitoring Of Aging Aircraft And Skin Cancer Detection, Kapil Gupta

Doctoral Dissertations

"Data fusion is generally practiced to enhance decision or inference making capability. Sensor and information source data may often be corrupted by noise or other factors. Data fusion can be used to improve sensor and/or information source data quality and reliability and improve detection accuracy. There are several types of data fusion, including raw data level, feature level, and decision level.

This work presents the investigation and development of image and signal processing, computational intelligence, fuzzy logic, and statistical techniques for different types of data fusion for a varied range of applications. Raw data and decision level fusion approaches are …

Mechanical Integrity And Behavior Of Thin Films And Their Applications In Mems, Gang Duan

Doctoral Dissertations

"Electric actuated thin films are widely used in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) such as radio frequency switches (RF-switches), micro-pumps and valves, and electrostatic actuators. This dissertation will focus on the operation of a MEMS-RF-switch. In a typical MEMS-RF-switch, a mechanically suspended 1-D rectangular or 2-D axisymmetric thin film is pulled by an electrostatic voltage (V₀) applied to an electrode-pad directly underneath. When V₀ exceeds a certain "pull-in" threshold, V₀*, the thin film makes direct contact with the pad so that either an "on" or "off" signal is induced, and when the voltage is removed, the thin film resumes its original undeformed …

Quantum Dot Photolithography, Raghuveer Reddy Gadipalli

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation presents a simple method for the photolithographic patterning of silica hydrogel monoliths and planar substrates with quantum dots and inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles. We developed a method for surface patterning and bulk (3D) patterning of silica hydrogel monoliths and surface patterning of planar substrates with CdS, CdSe, PbS and PbSe quantum dots using infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and multi-photon ionization radiation. Precursor combinations were prepared which can readily dissociate with IR, UV, X-rays, and multi-photon ionization radiation. Different capping agents were used for improving quantum dot size distribution. The luminescence quantum yield of the composites can be increased …