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Imaging And Spectroscopy Of Conducting Polymer-Fullerene Composite Materials, Daeri Tenery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the development and optical study of conjugated (conducting) polymers it has become apparent that chain conformation and aggregation at the molecular scale result in complex heterogeneous nanostructured bulk materials for which a detailed insight into morphological, spectroscopic as well as optoelectronic properties and mechanisms is overwhelmingly difficult to obtain. Nanoparticles composed of the conjugated polymer poly (MEH-PPV) and nanocomposite nanoparticles consisting of MEH-PPV doped with 1-(3-methoxycarbonylpropyl)-1-phenyl-C61 (PCBM) were prepared as model systems to study these materials at the length scale of one to a few domains. The MEH-PPV and PCBM doped nanoparticles were analyzed by single imaging/particle spectroscopy (SPS) …

A Comparison Study Of Florida Middle Schools With Advancement Via Individual Determination (Avid) And Non-Avid Middle Schools, Scott Lifvendahl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools and school districts have come under increased pressure to demonstrate student proficiency and success at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Each state is required to use standardized test data as evidence of student proficiency. The data is collected by each state and reported to the federal government to demonstrate progress. In Florida, the exam used to record proficiency is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). At all three levels, the FCAT is administered annually and the results are used to create school grades ranging from A-F. Florida …

Educational Video Game Effects Upon Mathematics Achievement And Motivation Scores: An Experimental Study Examining Differences B, Wendi Kappers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An experimental research study using a mixed-method analysis to was conducted to examine educational video game effects on mathematics achievement and motivation between sexes. This study examined sex difference in a 7th grade mathematics (Mathematics 2/Mathematics 2 Advanced) classroom (n=60) learning algebra. Attributes and barriers relating to educational video game play, preference, and setting characteristics were explored. To examine achievement and motivation outcomes, a repeated-measure (SPSS v14) test was used. The analysis included ethnographic results from both student and teacher interview and observation sessions for data triangulation. Results revealed a statistically significant academic mathematics achievement score increase (F =21.8, df …

A Preliminary Study Of A Non-Invasive Glucose Sensor Based On A Mercury Sensor, Erin Wood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diabetes mellitus is a potentially lethal disease that affects 7.6 percent of American people. In the US, it is recognized as the 6th leading cause of death. Failure to control blood glucose levels (BGL) in patients with either type of diabetes can lead to other serious complications as well, such as loss of limb, blindness and other health problems. Controlling and monitoring the BGL in post-op and intensive care patients in the hospital is also vital to their health. Currently the most reliable method of monitoring BGL is through an invasive procedure which monitors the amount of glucose in blood …

Dod Acquisition Workforce Education: An Sba Education Case Study, Richard Davenport

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Department of Defense (DoD) M&S education task force is in the process of studying the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) education of the acquisition workforce. Historically, DoD acquisition workforce education is not referred to as education, but rather what the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) refers to as "practitioner training, career management, and services." The DAU is the organization primarily responsible for training the DoD acquisition corps in conjunction with service schools and strategic partners in the civilian sector. DAU programs primarily focus on program management, contracting, and management of logistics across the system life cycle. Further, the examples and cases …

Modeling Scenes And Human Activities In Videos, Arslan Basharat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we address the problem of understanding human activities in videos by developing a two-pronged approach: coarse level modeling of scene activities and fine level modeling of individual activities. At the coarse level, where the resolution of the video is low, we rely on person tracks. At the fine level, richer features are available to identify different parts of the human body, therefore we rely on the body joint tracks. There are three main goals of this dissertation: (1) identify unusual activities at the coarse level, (2) recognize different activities at the fine level, and (3) predict the …

Room Temperature Synthesis And Systematic Characterization Of Ultra-Small Ceria Nanoparticles, Chetak Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cerium oxide (ceria, CeOâ‚‚) is a rare earth oxide that has attracted wide-spread research interest because of its unique properties such as high mechanical strength, oxygen ion conductivity, oxygen storage capacity and autocatalytic property. In recent years, researchers have discovered that ceria nanoparticles (NPs) are capable of protecting cells from free radical induced damage. Interestingly, it was found that nanometer size (~ 5 nm) ceria can scavenge free radicals quite efficiently, thus acting as an anti-oxidant. This phenomenon has been explained based on the autocatalytic property of ceria NPs. Several methods have been developed for the synthesis of ceria NPs …

Formation Of Lyotropic Liquid Crystals Through The Self-Assembly Of Bile Acid Building Blocks, Karan Tamhane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liquid crystalline materials (LCMs) have gained much popularity over the past century. The thermotropic forms of these materials have been extensively studied and employed in a range of innovative applications. The lyotropic liquid crystal systems that have been studied in the past have often been formed by the organization of natural and synthetic small molecules in solutions. In this study, we use self-assembled supramolecular structures as building blocks to fabricate lyotropic liquid crystals. We investigate the self-assembly of a naturally occurring bile acid called lithocholic acid (LCA), to form supramolecular fibrous and tubular structures in basic aqueous solutions. We control …

Determining Emissions From Landfills And Creating Odor Buffer Distances, Nicholas Guarrieloo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With population growing every year, more and more people are looking for places to live. This can lead to construction of houses near and around landfills. As homes get closer to landfills, the odors these landfills produce become more of a problem, and lead to an increase in odor complaints. Modeling these odors and recommending odor buffer distances will help determine limits on how close to landfills new homes should be allowed. This should help reduce future odor complaints. To solve this problem one must accurately estimate odorous gas emissions from the landfill. Often odors can be indicated by methane …

Analyses Of Crash Occurence And Injury Severities On Multi Lane Highways Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Abhishek Das

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reduction of crash occurrence on the various roadway locations (mid-block segments; signalized intersections; un-signalized intersections) and the mitigation of injury severity in the event of a crash are the major concerns of transportation safety engineers. Multi lane arterial roadways (excluding freeways and expressways) account for forty-three percent of fatal crashes in the state of Florida. Significant contributing causes fall under the broad categories of aggressive driver behavior; adverse weather and environmental conditions; and roadway geometric and traffic factors. The objective of this research was the implementation of innovative, state-of-the-art analytical methods to identify the contributing factors for crashes and injury …

Sintering Additives For Nanocrystalline Titania And Processing Of Porous Bone Tissue Engineering Scaffolds, Arun Menon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Titania (Titanium dioxide, TiO2) has been researched as a promising biomaterial due to its excellent biocompatibility. However, the main limitation of titania is its poor mechanical properties which limit its use in many load-bearing applications. In this thesis report, the properties of titania were improved by doping with small quantities of MgO, ZnO and SiO2 as sintering additives. Nanocrystalline powder was selected, as it possesses outstanding properties over conventional coarse-grained powders due to reduced grain size. Nanocrystalline anatase powder of size 5-15 nm was synthesized via a simple sol-gel technique. Small quantities of dopants were introduced into pure titania powder, …

Characterizing Spontaneous Fires In Landfills, Shadi Moqbel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Landfill fires are relatively common incidents that landfill operators encounter which have great impact on landfill structure and the environment. According to a U.S. Fire Administration report in 2001, an average of 8,300 landfill fires occurs each year in the United States, most of them in the spring and summer months. Subsurface spontaneous fires are considered the most dangerous and difficult to detect and extinguish among landfill fires. Few studies have been conducted on spontaneous fires in landfills. Information regarding the thermal behavior of solid waste is not available nor have measurements been made to evaluate spontaneous ignition of solid …

An Integrated Hydrology/Hydraulic And Water Quality Model For Watershed-Scale Simulations, Cheng Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the design of an integrated watershed model, WASH123D version 3.0, a first principle, physics-based watershed-scale model of integrated hydrology/hydraulics and water quality transport. This numerical model is comprised of three modules: (1) a one-dimensional (1-D) simulation module that is capable of simulating separated and coupled fluid flow, sediment transport and reaction-based water quality transport in river/stream/canal networks and through control structures; (2) a two-dimensional (2-D) simulation module, capable of simulating separated and coupled fluid flow, sediment transport, and reactive biogeochemical transport and transformation in two-dimensional overland flow systems; and (3) a three-dimensional (3-D) simulation module, capable of …

Detecting Sexual Assault Perpetration And Victimization : Effect Of Sexual Experiences Survey Item Wording, Elizabeth Diane Kolivas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Explicit Finite Element Modeling Of Knee Mechanics During Simulated Dynamic Activities, Mark A. Baldwin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The natural knee is one of the most commonly injured joints in the body due to relatively high loads and motions that can lead to debilitating degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis. Total knee arthroplasty is a clinically successful method for eliminating pain in the osteoarthritic knee, but is subject to complications that can affect patient satisfaction and long-term implant performance. The work presented in this dissertation is a demonstration of how anatomic three-dimensional (3D) computational knee models can be an effective alternative for investigating knee mechanics when compared to the cost and time prohibitive nature of in-vivo and in-vitro methods. …

Mitigating Risk For Anxiety Among Preschool-Age Children Living In Poverty: Evaluating The Impact Of Adult-Provided Social Support On Autonomic Stress Reactivity, Brian Cory Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poverty increases children's exposure to stress, elevating their risk for developing patterns of heightened sympathetic and parasympathetic stress reactivity. Repeated patterns of high sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal place children at risk for anxiety disorders. This study evaluated whether providing social support to preschool-age children during mildly stressful situations helps reduce reactivity, and whether this effect partly depends on children's previously assessed baseline reactivity patterns. The Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory proposes that highly reactive children may be more sensitive than less reactive children to all environmental influences, including social support. In contrast, conventional physiological reactivity (CPR) theory contends …

The Impact Of Early Childhood Education Upon The Black-White Achievement Gap, Linda Zane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It can be argued that the current Black-White achievement gap provides evidence for a long-standing history of racial inequity within American society, as well as an informative barometer of progress toward educational parity. By all accounts, the measurements registered by this barometer continue to be cause for alarm. The disturbing Black-White achievement gap has been shown to be present in both mathematics and reading at every grade studied, from grades one through twelve (Jacobson, Olsen, Rice, Sweetland, & Ralph, 2001).

Many solutions have been put forth in an effort to reduce or eliminate this gap, but the findings of this …

Sprache Als Be-Wëgen: The Unfolding Of Language And Being In Heidegger's Later Work, 1949-1976, Douglas F. Peduti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much neglected is Heidegger's latter work in favor of the fundamental ontology of Being and Time. Consequentially, conceptions of Heidegger's question of Being are oftentimes misconceived. Currently three main models have been proposed: (1) existential phenomenology, exemplified by Joseph Langan in the 1950s; (2) the popular thought of Being model in the 1960s as developed by William Richardson; (3) and in counter distinction to these unified models Joseph Kockelmans offers in the 1970s the many ways model, touting the end of systems. These misconstruals have spawned much Heideggerian dialogue, and in recent years, has had its effect upon Western continental …

Rethinking Death And Donation: Mediating Death At The End Of Life In The Wake Of Brain Death's Failings, David Scott Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception in 1968, death by whole-brain criteria, or simply brain death, has enjoyed the status of one of the relatively "well settled" issues in bioethics. Indeed, its almost universal acceptance in law and medical practice seems to confirm this depiction. However, over the last fifteen years or so, a growing number of experts in medicine, philosophy, and religion regard brain death as an untenable criterion for human death. Given that the debate about brain death has occupied a relatively small group of professionals, few are aware that brain death fails to correspond to any coherent biological or philosophical …

Some Things About Love, Magic, And Hair, Chris Kammerud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Molecular- Targeted Bioactive Natural Products, Hong Jia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Transitions In The Mental Health Field's System Of Professions From Wwii Until The Present: The Case Of Dubville, Daniel Noam Warner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A case study of one mental health field in a medium-sized, steel-belt city over a 50 year period is presented. Through interviews and archive data, the narrative elucidates the transitions that occurred in regards to which professions are dominant, and which services count as mental health services, in different eras and under different science and governmental regimes. The dissertation focuses on four professional categories in particular: psychoanalytic psychiatrists, neurological psychiatrists, research psychologists, and clinical psychologists. It also focuses, primarily, on three institutions: a large psychiatric research hospital, a university psychology department, and a psychoanalytic institute. Through tracing the dynamics of …

Finally, Your Love Poem, Elizabeth Stephenson Bohlke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of The Tissue Distribution Of A Novel Binding Site For Angiotensins Ii And Iii In The Mouse, Felicia Rabey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pedagogical Re-Mediation In Hybrid Courses: A Case Study Of Five First-Year Composition Instructors, Rebecca Middlebrook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the move to increase availability of composition courses in the online environment continues, it is important to understand the ways in which composition instructors have taken on the challenges associated with moving their teaching online and how they modify, or re-mediate, their pedagogy for the this new teaching and learning environment. This study takes on the task of examining re-mediation as it occurs in the pedagogical practices used by instructors to facilitate peer review activities in hybrid, first-year composition courses. At the same time, it is important to understand the varying factors that may influence the degree to which …

The Bush Administration's Decision To Invade Iraq: Did They Fall Victim To Groupthink?, Joel Nantais

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the George W. Bush administration became victims of groupthink when they made the policy decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Groupthink is a policy-making model which was first put forward by Irving Janis which attempts to explain how experienced and elite policy-makers can make decisions which lead to disastrous outcomes due to conditions which cause defective decision-making. Research was conducted through a qualitative, within case study which was made possible through the inherent process tracing method of the groupthink model. Mainly secondary sources which detailed the historical case of the decision …

Reintroduction Of Bison (Bison Bison) On Reservations In South Dakota: Four Case Studies, Trudy M. Ecoffey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explored and documented issues of sustainability associated with the reintroduction of bison in four different bison herds on Reservations in South Dakota. The four herds were managed by: a tribal family cooperative, an individual tribal member, a tribal university and a tribal fish and wildlife agency. The objectives were to identify management practices associated with the sustainability of bison introduction by American Indians; to explore the role of American Indian culture in the management of bison for sustainability; and to investigate rangeland criteria that could be used to measure sustainability of bison reintroduced by American Indians. This project …

Reelin Signaling Promotes Radial Glia Maturation And Neurogenesis, Serene Keilani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The end of neurogenesis in the human brain is marked by the transformation of the neural progenitors, the radial glial cells, into astrocytes. This event coincides with the reduction of Reelin expression, a glycoprotein that regulates neuronal migration in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. A recent study showed that the dentate gyrus of the adult reeler mice, with homozygous mutation in the RELIN gene, have reduced neurogenesis relative to the wild type. Based on the above findings, our first hypothesis states that Reelin expression is important for the formation of radial glia and the generation of neurons from the neural …

Vesicle Targeting In Plasmodium Falciparum: The Identification And Molecular Characterization Of Plasmodium Falciparum Family Of Of Snare Proteins, Lawrence Sumanjah Ayong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proteins of the SNARE (Soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) super-family have been characterized as playing an essential role in vesicle targeting and fusion in all eukaryotes. The intracellular malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum exhibits an unusual endomembrane system that is characterized by an unstacked Golgi apparatus, a developmentally induced apical complex, and various organellar structures of parasite origin in the infected host cells. How malaria parasites target nuclear-encoded proteins to these novel compartments is a central question in Plasmodium cell biology. Ultrastructural studies elsewhere have implicated the participation of specialized vesicular elements in transport of virulence proteins, including various …

Determining Sex And Ancestry Of The Hyoid From The Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection, Sarah Kindschuh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the basic goals of the physical anthropologist is to create a biological profile, consisting of sex, ancestry, age, and stature, from the skeletal material that they are presented with. This thesis seeks to explore size and shape differences related to sex and ancestry from the hyoid bones of the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection in order to gauge its usefulness in the process of developing a biological profile. A series of measurements were taken from 398 hyoids and analysis was conducted using a number of statistical methods. Independent samples t-tests were used to examine size differences between sexes …