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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

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Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy As A Diagnostic Tool For Coal Fines, I. Andrew Aurelio Dec 2005

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy As A Diagnostic Tool For Coal Fines, I. Andrew Aurelio

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a technique that uses a laser, to focus down and atomize a sample of desired material. Focusing of the laser onto the material causes a plasma formation, which the material is broken down into excited ionic and atomic states. The atoms then emit characteristic optical radiation. Collection of the emitted light can be used to provide information on the elemental composition of the material. This research investigates a fundamental study of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) applied to coal samples, coal fines, and fly ash. During this research, apparatus and methodology were developed to quantify …


Actin Nanokinematics Under The Influence Of Dc Electric Fields, Raghu Chilakamarri Dec 2005

Actin Nanokinematics Under The Influence Of Dc Electric Fields, Raghu Chilakamarri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Molecular shuttles are nanometer-sized machines capable of transporting single molecules over small distances under user control. Actin-myosin system is a motor protein system, which naturally evolved within the cell for the nanoscale transport. The Acto-Myosin system is fuelled by ATP, converting chemical energy into linear motion. The gliding geometry movement of actin wherein the tails of the motors are adsorbed to the surface and the heads of the motors move the actin filaments across the surface can be exploited to achieve the directional control. The motion of actin in a specific direction and the surface of travel can be modified …


Characterization And Investigation Of Molybdenum Carbides On Activated Carbon As Hydrogenation Catalysts, Christopher H. Clark Dec 2005

Characterization And Investigation Of Molybdenum Carbides On Activated Carbon As Hydrogenation Catalysts, Christopher H. Clark

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The formation of Mo2C and MoC supported on activated carbon was investigated in three different flowing reaction gas environments: H2, He, and CO. Additionally, benzene hydrogenation activity was studied for the catalysts reduced in each of these three different gas environments.;It was found through in-situ x-ray diffraction (XRD) that reducing in H2, ammonium heptamolybdate impregnated on activated carbon yielded 1-3 nm Mo2C particles. When the same material was calcinced in inert, 9 nm Mo2C particles were formed. If the reduction gas were CO, MoC particles having size less than 3 nm were formed. In all three reduction environments, the in-situ …


Image Quality Assessment For Iris Biometric, Nathan D. Kalka Dec 2005

Image Quality Assessment For Iris Biometric, Nathan D. Kalka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Iris recognition, the ability to recognize and distinguish individuals by their iris pattern, is the most reliable biometric in terms of recognition and identification performance. However, performance of these systems is affected by poor quality imaging. In this work, we extend previous research efforts on iris quality assessment by analyzing the effect of seven quality factors: defocus blur, motion blur, off-angle, occlusion, specular reflection, lighting, and pixel-counts on the performance of traditional iris recognition system. We have concluded that defocus blur, motion blur, and off-angle are the factors that affect recognition performance the most. We further designed a fully automated …


Investigation Of Moisture Sensitivity Of Hot Mix Asphalt Concrete, Anu Ganesan Viswanathan Dec 2005

Investigation Of Moisture Sensitivity Of Hot Mix Asphalt Concrete, Anu Ganesan Viswanathan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this research project is to evaluate impact of change in AASHTO T 283 test method on Superpave mix designs in West Virginia. The Lottman test method and Tunnicliff and Root test method were combined into Modified Lottman test procedure and published as AASHTO T 283 in 1985 and revised in 1989. Research was done to establish how the Superpave compaction and conditioning method affect the test results. As a result of this research, AASHTO T 283 test method was revised in 2003. In the 2003 version, use of gyratory compactor was allowed and changes were made to …


Multiagent Autonomous Energy Management, Shilpa B. Ganesh Dec 2005

Multiagent Autonomous Energy Management, Shilpa B. Ganesh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this thesis is to design distributed software agents for reliable operation of integrated electric power systems of modern electric warships. The automatic reconfiguration of electric shipboard power systems is an important step toward improved fight-through and self-healing capabilities of naval warships. The improvements are conceptualized by redesigning the electric power system and its controls. This research focuses on a new scheme for an energy management system in the form of distributed control/software agents. Multiagent systems provide an ideal level of abstraction for modeling complex applications where distributed and heterogeneous entities need to cooperate to achieve a common …


Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Decks For Military Applications, Srikanth Mantri Dec 2005

Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Decks For Military Applications, Srikanth Mantri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The U.S. Marine Corps is aiming to replace the M105 cargo trailers, M149 water tank trailers, and the M353 utility trailers with a new trailer platform known as the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement Trailers (MTVR-T). This project focused on developing a MTVR-T type trailer using Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer composite decks. Systems & Electronics Inc. (SEI) provided the initial design for the prototype trailer. Prodeck 4 was chosen as the decking material for the prototype trailer.;A detailed FE model of the FRP deck and steel support assembly was built. Four operational and transportation load conditions as identified by SEI were …


Development Of A Vehicle Road Load Model For Ecu Broadcast Power Verification In On-Road Emissions Testing, Nathan A. Moynahan Dec 2005

Development Of A Vehicle Road Load Model For Ecu Broadcast Power Verification In On-Road Emissions Testing, Nathan A. Moynahan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

West Virginia University (WVU) has become an industry leader in heavy-duty emissions testing and is continuously improving and updating their testing goals, procedures, and quality. As emissions testing is conducted at WVU in a real-world, on-road environment, engine parameter values are read through the test vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU) and recorded for use in data reductions. One significant value that is recorded by the WVU emissions measurement system is the ECU engine power output. Theses values are recorded and used to report vehicle's brake specific emissions values over a prescribed open-road test route. Because of the fact that the …


Ensemble Learning For Ranking Interesting Attributes, Erik W. Sinsel Dec 2005

Ensemble Learning For Ranking Interesting Attributes, Erik W. Sinsel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Machine learning knowledge representations, such as decision trees; are often incomprehensible to humans. They can also contain errors specific to the representation type and the data used to generate them. By combining larger; less comprehensible decision trees, it is possible to increase their accuracy as an ensemble compared to the best individual tree. The thesis examines an ensemble learning technique and presents a unique knowledge elicitation technique which produces an ordered ranking of attributes by their importance in leading to more desirable classifications. The technique compares full branches of decision trees, finding the set difference of shared attributes. The combination …


Reconstruction Of Fingerprints From Minutiae Points, Jidnya A. Shah Dec 2005

Reconstruction Of Fingerprints From Minutiae Points, Jidnya A. Shah

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Most fingerprint authentication systems utilize minutiae information to compare fingerprint images. During enrollment, the minutiae template of a user's fingerprint is extracted and stored in the database. In this work, we concern ourselves with the amount of fingerprint information that can be elicited from the minutiae template of a user's fingerprint. We demonstrate that minutiae information can reveal substantial details such as the orientation field and class of the (unseen) parent fingerprint that can potentially be used to reconstruct the original fingerprint image.;Given a minutiae template, the proposed method first estimates the orientation map of the parent fingerprint by constructing …


Investigation Of Internal Fluid Pressure In Cells, Jayendran Srinivasan Dec 2005

Investigation Of Internal Fluid Pressure In Cells, Jayendran Srinivasan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Articular cartilage is a connective tissue that covers the ends of bones in joints, providing a nearly frictionless bearing surface for efficiently transmitting loads to the underlying joint. It is made up of specialized cells called chondrocytes that are responsible for its growth and maintenance. Studies indicate that cells remodel the tissue in response to mechanical loading. However the mechanism by which cells sense and respond to mechanical signals is poorly understood.;Studies also suggest the presence of internal fluid pressure in cells and change in this fluid pressure is believed to play a role in cellular mechanical signal transduction. This …


Empirical Study Of Error Behavior In Web Servers, Ajay Deep Singh Dec 2005

Empirical Study Of Error Behavior In Web Servers, Ajay Deep Singh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The World Wide Web has been a huge success, bringing the Internet to widespread popularity. For Web based systems to deal effectively with increasing number of Web clients, it is very important to understand the basic fundamentals of Web workload and error characteristics. In this thesis we focus on detailed empirical analysis of Web server error characteristics and reliability based on the data extracted from eleven different web servers. First, we address the data collection process and describe the methods for extraction of workload and error data from Web logs. Then, we analyze the Web error characteristics which include unique …


Graphical User Interface For Three-Dimensional Fe Modeling Of Composite Steel Bridges, Aditya Vuchi Dec 2005

Graphical User Interface For Three-Dimensional Fe Modeling Of Composite Steel Bridges, Aditya Vuchi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The goal of bridge engineers has always been to design economical structures that are safe, serviceable and durable. In order to assess the performance and safety of these bridges, one of the analytical methods employed is finite-element (FE) modeling. This method involves breaking down the bridge structure into an assembly of finite-sized elements. The behavior of the elements and the overall structure can be obtained by formulating a series of constitutive relationships and algebraic equations that can be readily solved with computer processors.;Extensive research is being carried out to develop efficient finite element programs for bridge design. As a part …


Real-Time Measurements Of Space Potential In Magnetized Plasma Using A Baffled Langmuir Probe, Sean M. Finnegan Dec 2005

Real-Time Measurements Of Space Potential In Magnetized Plasma Using A Baffled Langmuir Probe, Sean M. Finnegan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An electrostatic probe for real-time measurements of space potential in magnetized plasma is tested in fully ionized, barium, Q-machine plasma. The tungsten wire probe tip, oriented perpendicular to the magnetic field, is partially shielded by ceramic baffles (masks). Rotation of the probe about its cylindrical axis, changes the fraction of electrons that can reach the probe tip along the magnetic field, enabling the ratio between the electron and ion saturation currents to be adjusted without changing the probe bias. When optimally shielded, accurate, real-time measurements of space potential can be acquired.


Culvert Inventory And Effects On Fish Assemblages In A Central Appalachian Watershed, Ira O. Poplar-Jeffers Dec 2005

Culvert Inventory And Effects On Fish Assemblages In A Central Appalachian Watershed, Ira O. Poplar-Jeffers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

We surveyed 120 state-owned culverts within the upper Cheat River basin, West Virginia, and used a fish passage evaluation filter to quantify passage barriers. We quantified the length of stream and weighted potential brook trout recruitment area isolated by each culvert. We also sampled fish communities upstream and downstream of 24 culverts to quantify the impacts of culvert-related isolation on fish assemblages. We found 69% of culverts to be completely impassable. We determined that 17% of the stream length and 23% of weighted potential recruitment area in the study area were isolated by impassable culverts. We found that impassable culverts …


Size, Age Composition, And Upstream Migration Of American Eels At The Millville Dam Eel Ladder, Shenandoah River, West Virginia, Heather Hildebrand Dec 2005

Size, Age Composition, And Upstream Migration Of American Eels At The Millville Dam Eel Ladder, Shenandoah River, West Virginia, Heather Hildebrand

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abundances of American eel (Anguilla rostrata) are declining along the east coast of the United States and Canada, possibly due to habitat loss and barriers to migration. In Atlantic coast watersheds, dams detain upstream migration of juveniles, and little is known about age class composition, age-length relationships, or environmental cues to upstream migration of yellow-phase eels. An eel ladder was installed on the Millville hydroelectric dam, lower Shenandoah River, WV, to facilitate and monitor the upstream movement of yellow phase eels. Daily length measurements (TL cm) and weights (g) were taken on eels using the ladder during three sampling periods; …


Efficacy Of Compost Amendments And Extracts In The Control Of Foliar Disease In Organic Tomato Production, William Kraft Murray Dec 2005

Efficacy Of Compost Amendments And Extracts In The Control Of Foliar Disease In Organic Tomato Production, William Kraft Murray

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Aerated and nonaerated compost tea extracts (CT) prepared from seven composts were applied to two tomato cultivars in greenhouse experiments. CT from hay compost significantly decreased early blight disease severity compared to the control in one experiment. Mushroom CT increased disease severity in most experiments. The cultivar 'Brandywine' had significantly higher disease severity (P=0.0001) than 'WV '63'.;In a compost rate field experiment, disease severity was lower in the control and compost at 10 and 20 tons/acre treatments than at 2.5 and 5 tons/acre.;In a second field experiment, yield and early blight disease severity varied significantly among composts from varied feedstocks …


Properties And Acid Risk Assessment Of Soils In Two Parts Of The Cherry River Watershed, West Virginia, Cara L. Sponaugle Dec 2005

Properties And Acid Risk Assessment Of Soils In Two Parts Of The Cherry River Watershed, West Virginia, Cara L. Sponaugle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Cherry River watershed project area is underlain by acid-forming geology. The objectives of this study were to determine the physical and chemical properties of the soils, classify the soils, and to assess the acid risk to the forests. Sixty-seven soil pedons were sampled by horizon across six landscape positions and the soil samples were analyzed. The soils of the watershed were all acid. The east area soils were more acid than the west area soils. The shoulder soils showed the highest risk and the floodplain soils showed the lowest risk of forest productivity decline. While both areas showed high …


Parents' Perceptions Of The Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet For Their Children With Autism, Annette Puglisi Dec 2005

Parents' Perceptions Of The Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet For Their Children With Autism, Annette Puglisi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the factors that affected parent's decision for putting their autistic children on a gluten free casein free diet (gfcf diet). Parents completed a fifteen question survey relating to multiple factors affecting their lives while having their children on a gfcf diet. In addition, parents were asked to fill out a three day diet history for their child for a nutrient analysis.;Fifty three surveys (21%) and ten diet histories were returned. The majority of parents first heard of the gfcf diet either on the Internet (28%) or from Parent Magazine (32%). Desperation (25%) was the main reason parents …


Thermal Stresses In The Superstructure Of Integral Abutment Bridges, Kevyn C. Mcbride Dec 2005

Thermal Stresses In The Superstructure Of Integral Abutment Bridges, Kevyn C. Mcbride

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Integral abutment bridges (IAB) have become a popular alternative to expansion joint bridges mainly due to their lower maintenance and repair costs. Although no specific guidelines exist for integral abutment bridge design, standards primarily used assume the volumetric changes of IAB under thermal loading occur free of constraint. This study examines the validity of this assumption and determines the effect of changing temperature on the state of stress in the superstructure of an IAB. The effect of changing thermal conditions on the Evansville Bridge in Preston County, West Virginia is investigated using an extensive bridge instrumentation system along with a …


Unconstrained Face Recognition For Law Enforcement Applications, Richa Singh Dec 2005

Unconstrained Face Recognition For Law Enforcement Applications, Richa Singh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research work simulates the human visual cortex by using 2D log polar Gabor wavelet to extract the facial features. Scale and orientation independent convolution of face image with Gabor wavelet gives the features in the form of amplitude and phase. The proposed face recognition algorithm is invariant to frequency, scale, filter orientation, illumination, and contrast. We evaluated the recognition algorithm on four face databases namely FERET, CMU AMP, CMU PIE and Notre Dame Face databases. Experimental results show that using single image for training, phase feature based face recognition performs approximately 5% better than amplitude feature based face recognition.;Another …


Reducing False Rejection Rate In Iris Recognition By Quality Enhancement And Information Fusion, Mayank Vatsa Dec 2005

Reducing False Rejection Rate In Iris Recognition By Quality Enhancement And Information Fusion, Mayank Vatsa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this thesis we propose a set of algorithms to reduce the false rejection rate of iris recognition. Even though high recognition accuracy is claimed for iris recognition algorithms, high false rejection rates cause the impediment in worldwide use of iris biometrics.;A novel iris segmentation algorithm for non-ideal iris images treating iris as an elliptical object is proposed. Further, quality of the extracted iris image is improved using SVM based enhancement algorithm. In this algorithm, selected enhancement algorithms globally enhance the iris image and the learning algorithm synergistically fuses local information from these intermediate enhanced images. 1D log polar Gabor …


Evaluating Medication Utilization Patterns And Healthcare Outcomes In Patients Receiving Antipsychotics, Mariam K. Hassan Dec 2005

Evaluating Medication Utilization Patterns And Healthcare Outcomes In Patients Receiving Antipsychotics, Mariam K. Hassan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Several atypical antipsychotics have entered the market since the last decade. Evaluating the utilization patterns and overall cost savings generated by these expensive agents is becoming more important as their use continues to expand. Phase 1 of this study describes the patterns of antipsychotic utilization and its impact on total and mental health-related costs for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients in a state Medicaid program. Phase 2 of this study compares typical antipsychotics, risperidone, olanzapine, and quetiapine in terms of direct costs and utilization of healthcare services such as hospitalizations, emergency room visits, outpatient visits, psychiatric prescription use and antipsychotic …


Functional Evaluation Of Cytochrome P450 2d6 Allelic Isoforms, Weiyan Zhang Dec 2005

Functional Evaluation Of Cytochrome P450 2d6 Allelic Isoforms, Weiyan Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human CYP2D6 is one of the most important human P450s based on the number of its drug substrates. It shows an extensive genetic polymorphism that influences its expression and function. There are more than 80 different CYP2D6 alleles and allelic variants that have been identified in human. However, only a part of alleles have been characterized with respect to enzyme activity and substrate specificity. In the first project, three alleles CYP2D6*24 (1297L), CYP2D6*27 (E410K) and CYP2D6*26 (I369T) were constructed and expressed. The enzymatic activities were evaluated by the metabolic rates for dextromethorphan O-demethylation and N-demethylation; codeine O-demethylation and N-demethylation. For …


Factors Affecting Reproductive Efficiency Of Cattle, Melanie J. Starbuck Dec 2005

Factors Affecting Reproductive Efficiency Of Cattle, Melanie J. Starbuck

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Four experiments were conducted to evaluate two measures of reproductive efficiency in cattle, conception rate and retention of pregnancy. In experiment I, the relationship between concentrations of progesterone and retention of pregnancy was examined. The corpus luteum (CL) was removed on day 29 of pregnancy in 40 suckled, beef cows, and pregnancy was supported with exogenous progesterone to day 53. Concentrations of progesterone (1.8 +/- 0.1 ng/mL between days 30 and 38), were below those normally recorded for pregnant cows. Retention of pregnancy (77%) was monitored frequently using ultrasonography until day 53 and was negatively associated with age of cow, …


Psychological Readiness: Is This Assessment Valuable To Athletic Trainers In Understanding Athletes' Adherence And Compliance, Damien Clement Dec 2005

Psychological Readiness: Is This Assessment Valuable To Athletic Trainers In Understanding Athletes' Adherence And Compliance, Damien Clement

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Despite the many documented psychological reactions athletes experiences as a result of athletic injuries, very little, if any psychological assessment is being done to evaluate their readiness to embark on their rehabilitation. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine if psychological readiness influences athletes' adherence and compliance to their rehabilitation programs. A secondary purpose was to determine the impact psychological readiness had on perceived versus actual completion rates of rehabilitation programs. Injured college student athletes' (N=70) psychological readiness were assessed (using the transtheoretical model of behavior change 10) to determine its effect on compliance, adherence rates and perceived …


The Behavioral Functions Of Stimuli Signaling Transitions Across Rich And Lean Schedules Of Reinforcement, Jessica B. Long Dec 2005

The Behavioral Functions Of Stimuli Signaling Transitions Across Rich And Lean Schedules Of Reinforcement, Jessica B. Long

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The present experiment was designed to assess whether stimuli correlated with rich and lean fixed-ratio schedule components would function as conditioned reinforcers and conditioned punishers, respectively. Pigeons responded on a mixed schedule with fixed-ratio components leading to large or small food reinforcers. Pecks on either of two observing keys converted the mixed schedule to a multiple schedule by turning on a color associated with the current component. The stimulus consequences of the observing responses were manipulated across conditions. Pecks on one observing key produced the rich stimulus and the lean stimulus whereas pecks on the other observing key produced only …


Properties Of Chain Programs Over Difference Constraints, John E. Argentieri Dec 2005

Properties Of Chain Programs Over Difference Constraints, John E. Argentieri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chain Programming is a restricted form of linear programming in which there exists a total ordering over the program variables. In other words, the constraints x1 ≤ x 2 ≤ ... ≤ xn are either implicitly or explicitly part of the constraint system. At the present juncture, it is not clear whether an arbitrary Chain Program is easier to solve than a linear program, either asymptotically or computationally. This thesis presents a variety of interesting properties pertaining to the case in which a Chain Program is constituted entirely of difference constraints. Deciding the feasibility of a system of difference constraints …


The Influence Of Beaver Impoundments On Vegetative Composition, And Modeling Habitat Suitability As A Tool For Wildlife Management And Conservation, Jerry Leanne Bonner Dec 2005

The Influence Of Beaver Impoundments On Vegetative Composition, And Modeling Habitat Suitability As A Tool For Wildlife Management And Conservation, Jerry Leanne Bonner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Beavers (Castor canadensis) can have dramatic effects on vegetative communities through impounding streams and wetlands. These alterations may influence rare plant species where beaver create ponds. We found that the youngest and oldest beaver ponds in Canaan Valley, West Virginia, USA had similar species richness. Rare plant species occurred most in oldest ponds, although no significant differences were detected. Species composition around ponds was found to be different between areas influenced by ponds versus those not affected, creating more obligate wetland communities when influenced by beaver. This information should be incorporated into management decisions when rare plant species conservation is …


Adoption Of Resource -Conserving Agricultural Technologies: An Economic And *Policy Analysis For South Africa, Daniel Vusanani Dlamini Dec 2005

Adoption Of Resource -Conserving Agricultural Technologies: An Economic And *Policy Analysis For South Africa, Daniel Vusanani Dlamini

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Land degradation continues to be a threat to the agricultural sector of South Africa. Land degradation induced by agricultural production activities is considered to be among the major factors responsible for a decline in land productivity. Conservation efforts through government intervention and voluntary efforts have produced minimal success compared to the desired targets. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that influence the adoption decisions of resource conserving technologies in the context of commercial farmers in South Africa.;Adoption of conservation-oriented agricultural technologies in South Africa is influenced by a wide range of economic and social factors, and …