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Ground-Level Atmospheric Neutron Flux Measurements In The 10-170 Mev Range, Renu Saxena

Doctoral Dissertations

We report the results of ground level neutron measurements in the energy range of 10-170 MeV by the neutron double scatter telescope developed at the University of New Hampshire. Measurements were carried out at different altitudes and latitudes for the first time using the same telescope, yielding better correction values for comparison of fluxes measured at different altitudes and latitudes. The measurements were performed at four different locations in the U.S.A.: Leadville (3.1 km) and Boulder (1.66 km), Colorado in the rigidity range of 2.97 to 2.90 GV; Mt. Washington (1.85 km) and Durham (24 m), New Hampshire in the …

Population Ecology And Feeding Biology Of Nudibranchs In Colonies Of The Hydroid Obelia Geniculata, Walter J. Lambert

Doctoral Dissertations

Kelp blades (Laminaria spp.) with colonies of Obelia geniculata were collected over a 28 month period from Cape Neddick, ME to document the epifaunal community and to determine the possible mechanisms allowing four nudibranch species to coexist. Regression analyses correlated the abundances of epifauna with habitat parameters. The feeding biology of nudibranchs was described. Density manipulations of nudibranchs in pair-wise behavioral interactions tested the effects of interference on the location of nudibranchs in the colony.

Obelia geniculata provides habitat and food for many invertebrate epifauna. The hydroid colony acts as the island for most species. Hydrocauli provide structure to motile …

When Dough Is A Female Deer: The Role Of Homophony In Lexical Priming, Kevin Kyle Fleming

Doctoral Dissertations

Several models of printed word recognition claim that phonology mediates lexical access. Four experiments employing lexical decision tasks and naming tasks were conducted to assess this claim. Homonyms such as "mint" were used in Experiment 1 to verify that both meanings of an ambiguous word are activated automatically upon presentation. In a priming paradigm with a 250 millisecond SOA, the homonym "mint" was found to facilitate the recognition of words related to both interpretations such as "candy" and "coin." In the remaining three experiments, homophones such as "dough" and "doe" were used to assess the role of phonology in lexical …

Charisma As Attachment To The Divine: Some Hasidic Principles For Comparison Of Social Movements Of Gandhi, Nasser, Ben-Gurion, And King (Volumes I And Ii), David Henning Fluharty

Doctoral Dissertations

This study provides a comprehensive theory of charismatic relationships which, consistent with the original meaning of the term charisma, emphasizes the followers' belief that their leader is attached to their perception of the divine. In that the process of theory development shows its application to several modern leader-follower relationships, analysts can use the theory to examine such relationships in a variety of social settings.

The theory was developed from an ideal type model based on Hasidism, a significant Jewish religious movement which centers on the zaddik. Literally, zaddik means "righteous" and is applied to an individual who is believed to …

Homicide In Black Families: A Quantitative Analysis Of Trends And Patterns In The United States, Margaret Susan Plass

Doctoral Dissertations

Little homicide research has been done which is both race, and victim/offender relationship specific. This dissertation provides such an analysis, with a quantitative description and analysis of murders which occurred between black family members in the United States between 1976 and 1987.

Data for this project was obtained from the FBI's Supplemental Homicide Report. The first half of this dissertation examines patterns (and time trends) of family, acquaintance, stranger, and spouse, parent, and child homicide rates for blacks in America in terms of variables such as age, gender, weapons and circumstances.

Many of the most interesting descriptive patterns discovered related …

The Impact Of Systemic Family Processes And Structures On Mental Illness And Family Violence, Al A. Shigo

Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship of both family structure and process variables to both mental illness and family violence are examined in this study. A non-clinical sample of 100 university student families and a clinical sample of 100 in-patient families at a psychiatric hospital are utilized. Both non-clinical and clinical samples are utilized with subjects of similar age. Within the broader context of General Systems Theory and family systems theory in particular, the inter-systemic variable of bounding and the intra-systemic variable of linking are tested in their relationships to both mental illness and family violence. Open, random, and closed family system types are …

Stimulus Configuration And The Perceived Rigidity Of Eight-Vertex Polyhedra, John Edward Sparrow

Doctoral Dissertations

In a series of four experiments, subjects examined the perceived rigidity of rotating eight-vertex polyhedra. Four different categories of polyhedra were observed under parallel projection: (1) line drawings where the initial orientation appeared to be a cube (LN), though the depth components of the eight vertices were randomly positioned (upon rotation, it could be seen that the stimuli were not cubes); (2) line drawings where the vertices were randomly placed (LR); (3) vertex-only drawings where the initial orientation appeared to be a cube (VN), though the depth components of the eight vertices were randomly positioned; and (4) vertex-only drawings with …

Metaphors In The Construction Of Theory: Ramus, Peirce And The American Mind, Laurel Warren Trufant

Doctoral Dissertations

This study argues for the mutual impenetration of logical, legal and scientific metaphors and attempts to determine the role played by them in the construction of theory. Specifically it attempts to discover the impact which the metaphors of topical logic may have had on the construction of American ideology.

Chapter 1 offers a brief discussion of logical metaphors and their relation to the social and intellectual settings which generate them. Chapter 2 extends that discussion to principles of positive law and political order as they developed in the unstable atmosphere of 16th Century Europe. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 attempt …

British Romanticism And Composition Theory: The Traditions And Value Of Romantic Rhetoric, Sherrie L. Gradin

Doctoral Dissertations

My study examines, through the philosophies and writings of the British Romantic poets, particularly those of Wordsworth and Coleridge, their beliefs about education, their theories on composing, and their interaction with the political and social climate as they relate to current expressivist rhetorical theories and pedagogies. I explore the ways in which Romantic assumptions surface in subsequent philosophers, educators, and rhetoricians such as Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, and John Dewey, and more recently, Ann Berthoff, Donald Murray, and Peter Elbow. I argue that like the Romantics, current expressivists are interested in cultivating an imaginative intellect in their writing students. …

American Indian Homicide: A Multimethod, Multilevel Analysis, Ronet D. Bachman-Prehn

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the etiology of American Indian homicide. Its triangulated methodology combined both the quantitative multivariate analyses with indepth interview data from American Indian male homicide offenders.

At the national level, a descriptive analysis was performed that compared American Indian, black, and white disaggregated homicide rates. Although black homicide rates are far greater than either American Indian or white rates, American Indian rates are more than double that of the white population. American Indian homicide is more likely to involve knives while both black and white homicide is more likely to involve handguns. However, when handgun and other gun …

The Influence Of Fly Ash On Obtaining Quality Plastic And Hardened Properties Of Portland Cement Concrete, Ashaari Bin Mohamad

Doctoral Dissertations

Coal fly ash produced at the Merrimack Power Station, Bow, New Hampshire was tested for chemical and physical properties. Concretes made with these fly ashes were tested for their plastic and hardened properties and compared to ordinary portland cement concrete.

An experimental test burn substituting coal with Refuse-Derived-Fuel(RDF) consisting mainly of waste paper and plastic with heating value of 6000 to 8000 BTU/lb. was done by Public Service of New Hampshire at the Merrimack Power Station. Five percent and ten percent RDF was substituted, on a BTU basis, for coal in the test burns. Twelve (12) test burn days were …

Ground-Level Atmospheric Gamma-Ray Flux Measurements In The 1-6 Mev Range, Parameswaran Sreekumar

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis deals with the measurement of atmospheric gamma ray flux in the 1-6 MeV range at ground level. These measurements were carried out using a Compton gamma ray telescope, developed at the University of New Hampshire. It utilizes the Compton scattering principle to detect and image gamma ray sources. The telescope was used to measure ground level atmospheric gamma rays at four locations (Leadville (10200 ft), Boulder (5430 ft), Mt. Washington (6072 ft) and Durham (80 ft)) which ranged in atmospheric depth from 720-1033 g/cm$\sp2$ and in local cutoff rigidity from 1.4-2.9 GV. Data was collected over a two …

The Hair Wreath: Mary Wilkins Freeman's Artist Fiction, Norma Johnsen

Doctoral Dissertations

Mary Wilkins Freeman uses an artist protagonist to explore conflicts and issues she herself faced as a woman writing in male-defined culture. Her artists make art in the content of a highly developed, expressive, sometime subversive, and always deeply personal women's art tradition. Their singing, their poems and stories, and their decorative "household arts" speak a complex poetic language.

The Mary Wilkins artist defines self through her art. In "A New England Nun" the artist preserves her artistic identity by retreating to her solitary pleasures of household arranging, sewing, and distilling. Other household artists or architects assert their identity by …

Regulation Of Magnetosome Biogenesis By Oxygen And Nitrogen, Yuri Alan Gorby

Doctoral Dissertations

Magnetosomes were purified from broken cells of Aquaspirillum magnetotacticum by a magnetic separation technique. Electron microscopic and chemical analyses revealed they consisted of crystalline magnetite (Fe$\sb3$O$\sb4$) cores enclosed by a lipid bilayer membrane containing numerous proteins. Two membrane proteins were absent from the nonmagnetic (membrane or soluble) cell fractions and were absent from cells of non-magnetic mutant strains. Knowledge of their partial sequence is expected to lead to construction of hybridization probes to identify magnetosome-specific DNA sequences.

Cells of this organism in laboratory culture typically achieved low cell yields and were variably magnetic or non-magnetic. Therefore better understanding of physiological …

The Effect Of Reagent Rotation On Gas Phase Reactions, Judith Agnes Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effect of reagent rotation in elementary gas phase reactions. Historically, the effect of rotational excitation of the reagents of a chemical reaction on the reactive cross section has been poorly understood. One of the major reasons for this was the lack of a simple model in which the dynamics could be visualized. In this work, such a model is developed and utilized in order to elucidate trends in reactivity observed upon rotational excitation. Within the context of this model, exact quantum mechanical scattering calculations are performed for a simple atom-diatom system. These exact quantum mechanical probabilities …

Development Of A Glucose Sensor Based On Competitive Binding And Laser-Excited Fluorescence, Richard William Bauer

Doctoral Dissertations

An optical glucose sensor has been developed using competitive binding in conjunction with energy transfer. Sensor response is based on competition between glucose and dextran for a limited number of binding sites on the protein concanavalin A (conA). The system is optically monitored using fluorescent donor-acceptor dye pairs labeled to concanavalin A and dextran. When the dyes are sufficiently close, on the order of 50 A, energy is transferred from the donor emission band to the overlapping excitation band of the acceptor. This nonradiative, singlet-singlet transfer of energy enhances the acceptor emission at the expense of donor emission.

In absence …

Temporal Variations Of Cosmic Rays In The Heliosphere, Ping Ping Chih

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis investigates temporal variations of cosmic rays in the heliosphere analytically. A perturbation approach is presented to solve the diffusion equation for energetic particle transport in the solar wind. A linear response of the cosmic ray number density to variations in the spatial diffusion coefficient is computed based on the convection-diffusion equation. As the simplest cases to study, the 11-year variation and a Forbush decrease, the assumptions are made (1) that the solar-cycle variation arises from an 11-year sinusoidal variation of the diffusion coefficient at the Sun which propagates out through the heliosphere and (2) a Forbush decrease arises …

Development Of An Analytical Method For The Determination Of Extractable Nitroaromatics And Nitramines In Soils, Thomas F. Jenkins

Doctoral Dissertations

An analytical method was developed to determine the concentrations of HMX, RDX, TNB, DNB, tetryl, TNT and 2,4-DNT in soil. The method relies on solvent extraction with analysis by reversed-phase liquid chromatography.

The extraction step was studied in terms of process kinetics and recovery. Two solvents (acetonitrile and methanol) and four extraction techniques (Soxhlet, ultrasonic bath, mechanical shaker and homogenizer-sonicator) were compared. Ultrasonic bath extraction with acetonitrile was selected based on extraction kinetics, overall analyte recovery, sample throughput, and instability of analytes at elevated temperature. The rate of extraction of analytes from field-contaminated soil was shown to be much slower …

High Resolution Inelastic Electron Scattering From Lead-208, James Patrick Connelly

Doctoral Dissertations

Inclusive electron scattering differential cross sections from $\sp{208}$Pb have been measured with energy resolutions better than 20 keV for over 120 discrete states with excitation energies less than 7.3 MeV. The momentum-transfer dependence of these cross sections has been mapped over a range of 0.5 to 2.8 $fm\sp{-1}$ in the forward direction and 1.0 to 2.9 $fm\sp{-1}$ in the backward scattering direction. Over fifty excitations have been analyzed in the Distorted Wave Born Approximation to yield transition charge, current and magnetization densities. The nuclear structure of discrete excitations are interpreted in the framework of 1p-1h transition. The nuclear structure of …

Rustic Warriors: Warfare And The Provincial Soldier On The Northern Frontier, 1689-1748, Steven Charles Eames

Doctoral Dissertations

Utilizing the period of the early French wars as a whole, this study examines the experience of war on the northern frontier and its impact on the provincial soldier. Part One explores the warfare itself, with chapters on the initiation of war and the New England military system, garrison houses and community defense, provincial forts, patrols and raids, expeditions, and logistical problems associated with weapons and ammunition. The second part discusses the provincial soldiers themselves, including recruiting, officers, training and fighting spirit, the physical experience of combat and the tactical response to Indian warfare, wounds and medical care, and the …

The Dynamics Of A Nudibranch-Hydroid Predator-Prey Association: Cuthona Nana And Hydractinia Echinata, Nadine C. Folino

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to document the biological interactions in a predator-prey relationship involving a nudibranch and hydroid, respectively. The predator is a hermaphroditic opisthobranch mollusc with direct development, Cuthona nana. Cuthona nana feeds specifically on the colonial hydroid Hydractinia echinata.

Population patterns of predator and prey were documented by collecting hermit crabs with hydroid-covered shells. Results indicate a subannual life cycle for C. nana with juveniles and egg masses present throughout the year. Hydractinia echinata colonies reproduce in the spring and are more abundant in late summer and early fall.

Field and laboratory observations indicate that adult …

Persuasion Via Audiovisual Transmission: Is The Persuasiveness Of A Message Affected By Whether The Audience Believes The Message Presentation Is A Videotaped Recording Or Is An Unrehearsed Live Telecast?, Charles Laurier Dufour

Doctoral Dissertations

One hundred and fifty-nine university students participated in a study examining the effect on persuasion of believing that an audiovisual message presentation was a videotaped recording or was an unrehearsed live telecast from an adjacent room. Participants were also assigned to one of two other groups, one instructed to focus its attention on the information being presented (i.e., a centrally focused group), the other instructed to focus on the message source's physical appearance (i.e., a peripherally focused group).

A 2 (Believed Live vs. Believed Recorded) x 2 (Centrally Focused vs. Peripherally Focused) Analysis of Variance was performed on the data. …

The Concept Of Conscious Pleasure In The History Of Modern American Psychology, David C. Devonis

Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of pleasure is acknowledged by historians of psychology as one of psychology's principles. Because the details of the concept's development are not well known, however, diverse views of pleasure's place in the history of psychology arise. Some historians see pleasure or hedonism as issues which were important only in psychology's distant past. Others believe that pleasure, understood as a conscious and valuable personal experience, vanished from psychology's conceptual vocabulary during the behaviorist period. Some have equated pleasure only with behavioristic theories and with psychoanalysis, two systems which have characterized pleasure as unconscious. These views, along with tendencies within …

Priming Access To Natural-Object And Trait Category Hierarchies On Pronunciation, Lexical Decision, And Category Verification Tasks, John F. Calabrese

Doctoral Dissertations

Lexical decision, pronunciation, and category verification response times (RTs) to natural object and trait hierarchies were measured. Prime and target words consisted of both superordinate and subordinate object and trait category members. Trait words were categorized as desirable and undesirable (Hampson, et al., 1986). Subjects' RTs to object and undesirable trait words displayed similar patterns. In all experiments, RTs to natural-object subordinate target words were significantly more rapid compared to superordinate words. This same pattern was also true for the undesirable traits, but reached significance in only the lexical decision task. The facilitation effect of the prime reached significance for …

Ethnicity And Nationality: Towards A Class-Based Theoretical Framework (Volumes I And Ii), Ashley Wood Doane

Doctoral Dissertations

This work is an attempt to develop a theoretical model useful for explaining the historical evolution of ethnic and national identities. Central to this framework are the following assertions: (1) that ethnic and national identities are dynamic affiliations which undergo change through intergroup resource competition; (2) that given their material base, a complete theory of ethnicity and nationality must consider these ties in relation to class; (3) that the evolution of group identities can ultimately only be understood in the context of global capitalist development; and (4) that the uneven nature of capitalist development (i.e., the core-periphery division) can be …

The Effect Of A Readiness Year On Children's School Achievement, Self-Concept, And Teacher Expectations, Maria White Mckenna

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a readiness year on children's later school performance and self-concept. An examination of teachers' attitudes towards readiness and expectations for students' performance was also included.

School records of fourth graders in two New Hampshire school districts were examined. Classroom grades, standardized test scores, Gesell School Readiness Test results, age, and sex were recorded for each participating student. A self-perception scale was administered to the students near the end of the third grade.

Teachers in the two districts completed a questionnaire composed of a series of vignettes. Five variables …

The Influence Of Sulfate In Aluminum Coagulation Of Water, Sekou Toure

Doctoral Dissertations

Aluminum salts are the most common coagulants used in water treatment to remove contaminants. The objectives of this research was to provide an understanding of some aspects of the influence of sulfate in aluminum coagulation chemistry of natural water. Al(III) solutions were titrated with base to study the role of sulfate in the hydrolysis/precipitation of aluminum. Jar tests were conducted to treat water samples containing varying concentrations of aquatic humic substances (AHS), sulfate and pH. The kinetics and adsorption isotherms of sulfate and aquatic humic substances on aluminum precipitate were developed in adsorption experiments using aluminum precipitate adsorbents. The application …

Graph Coloring Algorithms On Random Graphs, Shi-Jen Lin

Doctoral Dissertations

"The graph coloring problem, which is to color the vertices of a simple undirected graph with the minimum number of colors such that no adjacent vertices are assigned the same color, arises in a variety of scheduling problems. This dissertation focuses attention on vertex sequential coloring. Two basic approaches, backtracking and branch-and-bound, serve as a foundation for the developed algorithms. The various algorithms have been programmed and applied to random graphs. This dissertation will present several variations of the Korman algorithm, Korw2, Pactual, and Pactmaxw2, which produce exact colorings quicker than the Korman algorithm in the average for some classes …

Solvatochromic Indicators For Fiber Optic Chemical Sensors, Ziad Munib Shakhsher

Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this thesis was to develop and evaluate solvatochromic indicators for fiber optic chemical sensors. Interaction with analyte modifies the polarity of the immobilized indicator environment leading to a shift in their fluorescence spectra. Three systems were studied.

In the first study a cationic fluorescent probe, 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulfonamidoethyltrimethylammonium ion (DA$\sp+$), was equilibrated with unmodified- and hydrocarbon bonded-silicas. In solution and unmodified silica, maximum DA$\sp+$ fluorescence shifts to longer wavelengths with increasing percentages of methanol, tetrahydrofuran and acetonitrile in water. On hydrocarbon bonded silicas, however, DA$\sp+$ emission maxima in water occur at shorter wavelengths indicating a very nonpolar environment. This …

The Directed Steiner Problem On Graphs: A Simulated Annealing Approach, Lawrence Joseph Osborne

Doctoral Dissertations

"The well-known Steiner Problem on Graphs is an NP-complete problem for which there are many heuristic and exact algorithms that are deterministic. In this dissertation a new approach to the directed version of this problem is made by applying the ideas of statistical mechanics through the use of the method of simulated annealing. A version of annealing is developed for the Directed Steiner Problem and compared with one of the best general annealing schemes. Then a comparison is made between simulated annealing and the traditional branch and bound technique. The dual ascent algorithm of Richard T. Wong is used to …