Digital Commons Network^™

Ex Ante Analysis Of Price And Trade Effects For The Rice Sector In The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership, William Lawrence Jacobs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, trade negotiations began between the United States and the European Union to create a free trade agreement with the goal of phasing out tariffs for all but the most sensitive products. To aid negotiators in analyzing potential agriculture agreements, the objective of this study is to quantify policy impacts of a potential trade liberalization of rice. This study will also be a useful analysis for various participants in the rice market to make educated business decisions.

This study utilizes the spatial partial equilibrium model RICEFLOW to project the differences in market prices, production volumes, trade volumes, and consumption …

Inventory Management And Control "For A Cause", John Michael Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Companies today are changing the culture of business and beginning to involve more than just labor and money in overall decisions. Just as sustainability issues and humanitarian logistics are gaining popularity, so is the idea of using business to make a difference on society in addition to making a profit. As companies position themselves across the globe to make an impact, they employ people in third-world environments that create uncertainties on both the supply and demand sides. Also, the idea of strategically planning work with the goal of minimizing costs has been replaced by companies wanting to give more work …

Using The Triple Bottom Line To Select Sustainable Suppliers For A Major Oil And Gas Company, Pandarinath Adarsh Sunkari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Companies have primarily been focusing on the financial bottom line i.e., on increasing profits by increasing revenues and reducing costs. With high energy usage and environmental change posing threats to the environment and business operations, companies are now considering sustainability. Since some global suppliers have low cost labor, Social well-being and human development has also emerged as major goals of a company performing global operations. Focusing on these three goals is termed the "Triple Bottom Line" (TBL). We study and explore the TBL benefits that could be realized by an oil and gas company by focusing on sustainable suppliers. A …

Toolstone Use In Ozark Prehistory: Assessing Adaptations To A Lithic Dichotomy In The Boston Mountains And Springfield Plateau, Luke Allen Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Toolstone use in the Ozark Mountains is a reactionary process reliant on how the landscape provides or constrains chipped stone for prehistoric populations. These technological adaptations are recognized at sites throughout the area, but no regional assessment of lithic assemblages provides answers as to why certain stones are used at a particular location. This thesis employs a five step mass analysis of lithic assemblages, and GIS visualizations to observe how the organization of stone technologies vary based on location within contrasting geologic contexts. The chert-bearing Springfield Plateau, and the Boston Mountains with siltstone, are two neighboring dichotomous landscapes that illustrate …

Novel [3,3]- And [1,3]- Rearrangements Of Azole-Derived N,X-Ketene Acetals, Sefat A. Alwarsh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The formation of carbon-carbon bonds in organic chemistry is fundamentally important. One of the major reactions that chemists have widely investigated is the Claisen rearrangement. Based on the fundamental features of this rearrangement, chemists exploited the capability of the transformation and invented their own variations of Claisen-type rearrangements. Our goal in this project is to develop a novel variation of the Claisen rearrangement using azole compounds, which are common heteroaromatic ring systems that are present extensively in the biomedically important natural products. We propose here novel methodologies of preparing 2-substitution azole derivatives using aza-based Claisen rearrangement, N,X-ketene acetals that requires …

Petrology And Weathering Environment Of Sub-Unconformity Limestone Unit: The Kessler Limestone Member Of The Bloyd Formation, Morrowan (Pennsylvanian) Northwest Arkansas, Thomas Daniels Dolan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In northwest Arkansas the thin, widespread Pennsylvanian Kessler Limestone of the Bloyd Formation is exposed in numerous locations. Comparison of various exposures shows the Kessler is heterogeneous in thickness and lithology. Thickening of the Kessler occurs southward into the Arkoma Basin where the interval has been commonly used as a horizon for natural gas exploration. The Kessler Limestone is underlain by the Dye Shale Member of the Bloyd Formation and overlain by the Trace Creek Shale of the Atoka Formation. The contact between the Kessler Limestone Member and the Trace Creek is a regional unconformity in the midcontinent, marked by …

Geologic Controls On Oil And Gas Accumulation And Production From Missourian Stage Granite Wash Reservoirs In The Western Anadarko Basin, Wheeler County, Texas, Derrell Mathis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Up-to-date regional and local Granite Wash data of any form is either too scarce to reference or highly privatized by exploration and production companies operating in the region. The objective of this research is to correlate horizontal production data with mapped depositional trends from Upper Pennsylvanian (Missourian Stage) Granite Wash reservoirs in the Western Anadarko Basin in northeastern Wheeler County, Texas. The correlation of raster logs to define various trap type and geometries in Missourian Granite Wash reservoirs of Wheeler County, Texas is used to understand the geologic controls on oil and gas accumulation and production. The analysis includes detailed …

Physical Records Of Impacts In The Early And Modern Solar System, Robert Ellis Beauford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study of terrestrial meteorite impact craters and of impacted meteorites expands our understanding of cratered rocky surfaces throughout the solar system. Terrestrial craters uniquely expand upon data from remote imaging and planetary surface exploration by providing analogs for understanding the buried sub-surface portions of impact structures, while impacted meteorites provide examples of a much wider range of surface and subsurface impactite materials than we can directly sample thus far through solar system exploration.

This report examines three facets of the impact record preserved in terrestrial impact craters and in meteorites. First, it looks at the macroscopic structure of the …

Stratigraphic Analysis With Respect To Aggregate Potential In The Duffield Quarry In Gum Log, Arkansas, Brock Evan Langford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The crushed stone mining industry is valued at nearly one billion dollars in Arkansas alone. Physical properties of the rock dictate whether or not an area may be suited for the establishment of an aggregate quarry. The Gum Log quarry located 10 miles northeast of Russellville, Arkansas is geographically well situated near areas in need of aggregate material, as well as physically competent rock. The rock mined in Gum Log is located in the Upper Atoka Formation, a Middle Pennsylvanian aged member of the Arkoma Basin. There are five different lithologic facies identifiable in the quarry (Facies 1-5 respectively): A …

Subsurface Fluid Flow Through The Mississippian Section Of North-Central Oklahoma, Carolyn Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study consisted of using drill stem tests, seismic amplitude data, and well logs to create the parameters needed to construct a groundwater flow model for a portion of Osage County. At the start, a potentiometric map of Osage County, Oklahoma was generated to use as a basis for the initial hydraulic heads and the constant heads in the model. Next, three seismic amplitude images were produced in a seismic interpretation program, OpenDtect, to base the hydraulic conductivity values on. In addition, utilizing Gamma Ray on 12 separate wells east-west across the county, a structural cross-section was created within Petra. …

Analysis Of Paleokarst Sinkholes In The Arkoma Basin Using 3-D Seismic, Michael Kumbalek

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Paleokarst features are important to understand, both with regards to research geologists and to the petroleum industry. In terms of geology, understanding paleokarst features can yield more information about the depositional and surface environments of past times, and how diagenetic alteration affected the environment during the formation of karst features. In the petroleum industry, paleokarst features can have positive or negative consequence resulting in a potential reservoir with enhanced porosity due to the paleokarst features, or as a geo-hazard to prepare for or avoid when drilling.

Inspired by issues faced when drilling in the Ft. Worth basin, this study utilizes …

Population Dynamics In Active Galactic Nuclei, Jon Bessler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to present an approach to understanding the dynamics that govern the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in general, and those associated with spiral galaxies in particular. This approach starts with the continuity equation governing the mass function for a population of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). This approach is then extended to the luminosity function for AGN. Where the dynamical parameters that govern accretion are fairly well known, those values are adopted. The values that are not as well known are constrained by comparing evolved luminosity functions with observed luminosity functions. Boundary conditions for …

Data Integrity Verification In Cloud Computing, Katanosh Morovat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing is an architecture model which provides computing and storage capacity as a service over the internet. Cloud computing should provide secure services for users and owners of data as well. Cloud computing services are a completely internet-based technology where data are stored and maintained in the data center of a cloud provider. Lack of appropriate control over the data might incur several security issues. As a result, some data stored in the cloud must be protected at all times. These types of data are called sensitive data. Sensitive data is defined as data that must be protected against …

Terrestrial Impacts Of The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province On Western Pangea, Todd Kenneth Knobbe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Earth's climate is predominantly controlled by the fluctuation of greenhouse gases, specifically CO2 and CH4, over geologic time. The late Triassic is a period of abrupt climate change that has been associated with a disruption to the global carbon cycle due the emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). Evidence has shown that this global carbon cycle perturbation may be the culprit for the end-Triassic extinction. The Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation is a lacustrine deposit with a disputed age of either late Triassic or early Jurassic and currently no absolute dating techniques can be applied to …

A Pump Monitoring Approach To Irrigation Pumping Plant Performance Testing, William Merritt Mcdougall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditionally, irrigation pumping plants have been tested using an instantaneous appraoch, which tests performance parameters over a very short time interval. Using this method, the tester measures the necessary work and energy use parameters to calculate the desired pumping plant performance values. The primary limitation of this approach is its inability to determine the season long efficiency of an irrigation pumping plant.

A new approach to evaluating irrigation pumping plant performance is the use of pump monitoring systems which use high frequency, real-time data collection and telemetry to relay information directly from the pump to the user. This method of …

Mirror Buckling Transitions In Freestanding Graphene Membranes Induced Through Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, James Kevin Schoelz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graphene has the ability to provide for a technological revolution. First isolated and characterized in 2004, this material shows promise in the field of flexible electronics. The electronic properties of graphene can be tuned by controlling the shape of the membrane. Of particular interest in this endeavor are the thermal ripples in graphene membranes. Years of theoretical work by such luminaries as Lev Landau, Rudolf Peierls, David Mermin and Herbert Wagner have established that 2D crystals should not be thermodynamically stable. Experimental research on thin films has supported this finding. Yet graphene exists, and freestanding graphene films have been grown …

Controls On Dissolution Rate Variation At A Pair Of Underflow-Overflow Springs At The Savoy Experimental Watershed, Kiefer Allen Vaughn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Physical dissolution experiments and numerical modeling have been used in the past to study limestone dissolution rates. Numerical models have typically used constant dissolution rates, whereas rates in nature vary in time. Limestone tablets allow natural estimation of rates over month time scales, but these rates cannot necessarily be extrapolated to geologic timescales and also do not aid our understanding of short term variability. This study characterizes natural variability in these rates and examines potential causes of that variability from first principles. This may enable more accurate projections of dissolution rates within models. This study combines measurement of physical and …

Reliability-Based Design And Acceptance Protocol For Driven Piles, Joseph Jabo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current use of the Arkansas Standard Specifications for Highway Construction Manuals (2003, 2014) for driven pile foundations faces various limitations which result in designs of questionable reliability. These specifications are based on the Allowable Stress Design method (ASD), cover a wide range of uncertainties, do not take into account pile and soil types, and were developed for general use. To overcome these challenges it is deemed necessary to develop a new design and acceptance protocol for driven piles. This new protocol incorporates locally calibrated RLFD resistance factors for accounting for local design and construction experiences and practices, as well …

Modeling Scenarios Of Sea-Level Rise And Human Migration: Rita Village, The Republic Of The Marshall Islands, Donna Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between sea-level rise and human migration from Rita Village in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). As one of only four low-lying atoll countries at the forefront of risks associated with climate change, examining the extent to which sea level will rise and displace residents in the Marshall Islands is of timely importance. The approach to this research is a scenario-based, case study and it examines loss of home, human displacement and subsequent migration in Rita Village as a result of varying levels of sea level rise. The scenario-based approach is based on the …

Development Of A Hydrologic Model For An Urban Headwater Stream: The Influence Of Pervious Surface Properties On Runoff Dynamics, Dawn A. Farver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A hydrologic model was developed for the Mullins Creek (MC) catchment located on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The MC catchment is a small, dynamic urban stream system with a range of land use/land cover (LULC), an extensive and well-developed stormwater drainage network, and extensive urbanization (over 90% developed, and almost 50% impervious surface area (ISA)). Selected datasets provided information on the stormwater drainage network, the physical attributes of the catchment and receiving waterway (i.e. drainage area, slope, etc.), infiltration potential of soil map units, LULC, and percent ISA. These datasets were analyzed to provide input parameters …

Structure, Aboveground Biomass, And Soil Characterization Of Avicennia Marina In Eastern Mangrove Lagoon National Park, Abu Dhabi, Tareefa Alsumaiti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mangrove forests are national treasures of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other arid countries with limited forested areas. Mangroves form a crucial part of the coastal ecosystem and provide numerous benefits to society, economy, and especially the environment. Mangrove trees, specifically Avicennia marina, are studied in their native habitat in order to characterize their population structure, aboveground biomass, and soil properties. This study focused on Eastern Mangrove Lagoon National Park in Abu Dhabi, which was the first mangrove protected area to be designated in UAE. In situ measurements were collected to estimate Avicennia marina status, mortality rate (%), …

Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Switchgrass And Cottonwood Grown As Bioenergy Crops In The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Michele Lea Helton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marginal land of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) has the potential to be utilized for the production of bioenergy feedstocks. Soil respiration is the gaseous emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from microbes and plant roots in the soil, and these emissions play an important role in the global cycling of carbon. Soil respiration can act as a positive feedback affecting climate change, and has been shown to vary depending on soil moisture, temperature, and vegetation. The objectives of this study where to evaluate the effects of land use [switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), cottonwood (Populus deltoides …

A Hazard Assessment And Proposed Risk Index For Art, Architecture, Archive And Artifact Protection: Case Studies For Assorted International Museums, Clara Jeanene Kirk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes a hazard/risk index for environmental, technological, and social hazards that may threaten a museum or other place of cultural storage and accession. This index can be utilized and implemented to measure the risk at the locations of these storage facilities in relationship to their geologic, geographic, environmental, and social settings. A model case study of the 1966 flood of the Arno River and its impact on the city of Florence and the Uffizi Gallery was used as the index focus. From this focus an additional eleven museums and their related risk were assessed. Each index addressed a …

Online Detection Of Outliers And Structural Breaks Using Sequential Monte Carlo Methods, Richard Wanjohi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Outliers and structural breaks occur quite frequently in time series data. Whereas outliers often contain valuable information

about the process under study, they are known to have serious negative impact on statistical data analysis. Most obvious effect is model misspecification and biased parameter estimation which results in wrong conclusions and inaccurate predictions. Structural time series consist of underlying features such as level, slope, cycles or seasonal components. Structural breaks are permanent disruptions of one or more of these components and might be a signal of serious changes in the observed process.

Detecting outliers and estimating the location of structural breaks …

Applications Of A New Geodata Crawler For Landscape Ecology: From Mapping Natural Stream Hydrology To Monitoring Endangered Beetles, Douglas Ryan Leasure

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An investigation of endangered American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) ecology led to development of a Geodata Crawler with applications in eco-hydrology. Geodata Crawler includes a national GIS (geospatial information systems) database with layers that quantify climate, land cover, soils, human development, and other attributes of the biosphere. For user-locations in the continental United States, Geodata Crawler can rapidly tabulate site-specific statistics within automatically delineated sample areas: points, site radii, watersheds, and riparian zones, among others. Geodata Crawler supported a multi-scale analysis of N. americanus habitat at a military installation in western Arkansas to produce a Landsat-based monitoring tool. Royle's N-mixture …

Designing Magnetically Responsive Ultrafiltration Membranes, Robert William Dong

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes developed out of a need for protein separation processes. Currently, they are used in a variety of industries ranging from food manufacturing to pharmaceuticals for two main purposes: concentration, separation, and buffer exchange. UF membrane processes in product streams undergo frequent use and like all membrane processes experience a gradual decline in performance due to fouling phenomena both irreversible and reversible. Ultimately, performance declines to a point where the UF membrane needs to be replaced. Frequent replacement of UF membranes is detrimental to major industries that require high product throughput using UF processes. Thus, it is important …

Incarcerating Exceptional Pupils: Is There A School-To-Prison Pipeline In Eastern Oklahoma?, Brett Alan Fitzgerald

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The school-to-prison pipeline metaphor represents an educational environment that allows public schools to push many at-risk children out of school and into the juvenile justice system or even worse, the adult criminal justice system (Wald and Losen, 2003; Lynn, 2010; Tuzzolo and Hewitt, 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine whether a school-to-prison pipeline exists in eastern Oklahoma, and if so, to better understand the characteristics of the public schools that may be contributing to it. The school-to-prison pipeline metaphor guided three research questions regarding whether certain public schools in eastern Oklahoma referred greater percentages of their students, …

Switchgrass Cultivar, Harvest Frequency, Fertilizer Source, And Irrigation Effects On Near-Surface Soil Properties In West-Central Arkansas, Alayna A. Jacobs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has been identified as a model bioenergy feedstock crop and is expected to become an important feedstock for future renewable fuel generation. Agronomic management combinations that maximize monoculture switchgrass yield are generally well understood; however, little is known about corresponding effects of differing switchgrass management combinations on near-surface soil properties. The objective of this research was to determine the residual near-surface soil property effects of three years (2008 to 2011) of consistent management combinations to maximize switchgrass biomass production, including cultivar (‘Alamo’ and ‘Cave-in-Rock’), harvest frequency (1-cut and 2-cut systems per year), fertilizer source (poultry …

Measuring The Role Of Inhibition In Auditory Discrimination In Mice, Tazima Nur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how inhibitory neurons affect sensory information processing in the cerebral cortex is an ongoing goal of both neuroscience and statistical physics research. In this master's thesis research project, an experimental system has been designed and built for studying how auditory dynamic range depends on inhibitory neurons, based on observations of mouse behavior. In this thesis, firstly, the topic of inhibition and information processing has been introduced. Then two papers related to inhibition and dynamic range has been reviewed in detail. One of the papers is an experimental work that analyzes the affect of inhibition on dynamic range. The other …

Alkaline Hydrolyzable-Nitrogen, Seeding Date, And Clay-Fixed Ammonium As Potential Indicators Of Rice Response To Nitrogen Fertilization In Arkansas, Anthony Michael Fulford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several potential indicators of rice (Oryza sativa L.) response to nitrogen (N) fertilization include the soils alkaline hydrolyzableN (AHN) concentration, seeding date, and the soils clayfixed NH₄N content. Three studies were conducted to: (1) correlate AHN, determined using Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test (ISNT) or Nitrogen Soil Test for Rice (NSTaR), to plant parameters of interest and develop a fertilizer N rate calibration curve capable of predicting the 95% relative grain yield (RGY) fertilizer N rate for rice grown on clayey soils; (2) evaluate the influence of seeding date and N fertilization on rice plant growth and grain …