Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Control Board For Phased Array Antenna Beam Steering In Adaptive Communication Applications, Mayur Bansal

Master's Theses

The application of adaptive communication techniques for mobile communications has attracted considerable interest in the last decade. One example of these techniques is spatial filtering through planar antenna array beam forming.

This thesis describes the development of a digital system that adaptively controls a phased array antenna. The radiating structure of the phased antenna array is tetrahedral-shaped and contains four antenna elements on each of its three faces. The overall system comprises of a digital control board with an external computer interface, an RF control board, and the phased antenna array. The RF controls the main lobe direction on the …

Women And The Second Estate In 16th Century Zambezia: Gendered Powers, A 'Puppet' African Queen And Succession In Vakaranga Society, 1500–1700, George G. Levin

Master's Theses

Women in vaKaranga society of the 15th to 17th centuries have been portrayed as oppressed by an "extremely patriarchal" system, but the reality, while still fitting the simple classification of a 'patriarchal' monarchy, indicates quite a bit more negotiation of gendered powers than women, as a class, experienced in the Mediterranean or East Asia. The vaKaranga were the architects of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of a growing state, colonizing their cousins of the Zambezi river, which their Kusi-Mashariki Bantu forefathers had traversed southward a millennium before. Civil war had (apparently) split one nation into two states, Mutapa (Monomotapa) and Khami …

Robotic Fingerspelling Hand For The Deaf-Blind, Jerry Vin

Master's Theses

Because communication has always been difficult for people who are deaf-blind, The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI), in conjunction with the California Polytechnic State University Mechanical Engineering department, has commissioned the design, construction, testing, and programming of a robotic hand capable of performing basic fingerspelling to help bridge the communication gap. The hand parts were modeled using SolidWorks and fabricated using an Objet rapid prototyper. Its fingers are actuated by 11 Maxon motors, and its wrist is actuated by 2 Hitec servo motors. The motors are controlled by Texas Instruments L293D motor driver chips, ATtiny2313 slave microcontroller chips programmed to …

Workplace Incivility At The Daily Level: The Effects Of Rumination On Performance And Revenge Motives, Jenna Shapiro

Master's Theses

Ruminating about stressful experiences at work may have negative effects for employees and the organization, but has been widely overlooked in organizational research. In order to address this gap, I examined the process by which incivility affects performance and revenge motives in the workplace. A meditational model was tested, in which stress reactive rumination mediates the relationship between incivility and performance, as well as between incivility and revenge motives. These mediated relationships were examined at the intra-individual level, such that data-points were nested within employees over time. I surveyed 108 healthcare professionals daily over a two-week study period. The data …

A Compact, Reconfigurable Uhf Communication System Design For Use With Polysat's Embedded Linux Platform, Austin Williams

Master's Theses

The beginning of this thesis provides an overview of the heritage UHF Communication System design flown on CP2, CP3, CP4, CP5, and CP6, summarizing previous analysis of its performance, and providing the justification for a complete system re-design. High level requirements for the new UHF System are defined, and a trade study is performed on state-of-the-art single chip transceivers, low noise amplifiers, and transmit power amplifiers. These components are then designed into a functional communication system, with key components analyzed for proper impedance matching and performance characterization compared to expected datasheet values. Next, the system as a whole is characterized …

Exploring The Solution Behavior Of The Translational Gtpase Bipa Using Molecular Dynamics, Gilman L. Dionne

Master's Theses

BipA is a conserved prokaryotic GTPase necessary for securing bacterial survival and successful invasion of the host. Structural and biochemical studies indicate that GTP and ppGpp compete for binding to BipA to promote differential association of BipA to either the 70S or 30S ribosomal species. Exactly how guanine nucleotide binding to BipA prompts a change in the association of this protein with the ribosome is not understood. Crystallographic models show local structural rearrangements occur near the nucleotide-binding pocket but unexpectedly the overall domain arrangement, and therefore intramolecular contacts are similar in the various guanine nucleotide bound states. One explanation is …

Comparative Gene Analysis And Prediction Of Innate Immunity And Apoptosis Machinery In Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworms, Corey M. Bunce

Master's Theses

Siboglinid tubeworms are an emerging model system for symbiosis in extreme conditions. At deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, they harbor a chemoautotrophic symbiont in a specialized organ, the trophosome, where the bacteria carry out primary production via oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds. The trophosome of siboglinid worms is suggested to be tightly regulated, symbiont-responsive, and developmentally homeostatic. The purported mechanism involves a cellular proliferative or apoptotic response to bacterial signals, environmental cues, or nutrition. Though these processes are well understood in more amenable model systems, there has been little work uncovering the tubeworm’s genetic potential for sensing and …

The Forgotten Space: Between Discourse, Document, And The Deck Of A Ship, Talia B. Shabtay

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Distinct Roles Of First Impressions And Physiological Compliance In Establishing Effective Teamwork, Andrea M. Bizarro

Master's Theses

Objective measures of team dynamics would be valuable complementary tools for researchers and practitioners to use along with subjective measures when deciding which individuals work together most effectively as a team, or when designing training or task environments to promote more effective teams and teamwork. Consistent with control theory, the present study investigates how first impressions and physiological compliance early during team formation impact team effectiveness outcomes including: team satisfaction, work-related flow experiences, team processes, and performance outcomes. In a theory-driven attempt to objectively measure the extent of mutual control during teamwork, physiological compliance was calculated as root-mean squared (RMS) …

Implementation And Application Of The Response Eam For Hcp Metals, Matthew J. Stagon

Master's Theses

Atomistic simulations are a powerful tool for the study of materials, especially in the determination of underlying atomistic mechanisms. Molecular dynamics (MD) is an atomistic simulation method that is well suited for a large number of atoms in a system, up to one billion. MD holds sufficient physical rigor while keeping the number of calculations reasonable for modern computational power. In molecular dynamics, a mathematical potential is used to capture the physics of the interaction between two adjacent atoms or molecules. Existing potentials fail to adequately represent the interaction between some materials, such as Magnesium and Titanium, or are based …

Evaluating The Use Of Ipad To Analyze Dental Implant Sites From Cbct Acquisitions: A Comparative Study Between Ipad And 3 Display Systems, Alejandro Carrasco

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Microfluidization And Homogenization On The Composition And Structure Of Liposomal Aggregates From Whey Buttermilk And Commercial Buttermilk, Tracey Mai T. Nguyen

Master's Theses

Milk derived ingredients from the production of cheese and butter can be used as vehicles for nutrients. Buttermilk is a nutritious product of milk that comes from the churning of cream into butter. One of the advantages of buttermilk is that it is enriched in milk fat globule components, such as phospholipids and forms emulsions with fat when treated with high shear. The objective of this work was to explore the effects of shear on regular buttermilk and whey buttermilk in terms of liposomal aggregate size and chemical composition. The effects of microfluidization at 2000 psi and homogenization at 2000 …

Relating Naturalistic Global Positioning System (Gps) Driving Data With Long-Term Safety Performance Of Roadways, James Michael Loy

Master's Theses

This thesis describes a research study relating naturalistic Global Positioning System (GPS) driving data with long-term traffic safety performance for two classes of roadways. These two classes are multilane arterial streets and limited access highways. GPS driving data used for this study was collected from 33 volunteer drivers from July 2012 to March 2013. The GPS devices used were custom GPS data loggers capable of recording speed, position, and other attributes at an average rate of 2.5 hertz.

Linear Referencing in ESRI ArcMAP was performed to assign spatial and other roadway attributes to each GPS data point collected. GPS data …

Design, Fabrication And Test Of An Operationally Responsive Aircraft With Niirs Evaluated Imager, Colin Burt

Master's Theses

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are a growing asset. Currently UAS are on the cutting edge with resources being spent developing the capabilities mostly for military use. This project is intended to create a system for non-defense customers. Specifically, the Operationally Responsive Aircraft (ORA) will appeal to academic institutions, individual consumers, future customers new to the UAS industry, as well as anybody trying to get airtime for custom sensors.

The system developed in this project utilizes dual aluminum external payload bays attached to a ParkZone Radian aircraft. Each external payload bay can contain approximately 500 $\text{cm}^3$, with a height and width …

The Effects Of Variation In Collagen D-Spacing On Compact Bone Viscoelasticity: A Finite Element Analysis, Miguel A. Mendoza

Master's Theses

The D-spacing that is characteristic of collagen and its structural arrangement was previously thought to be a constant value. Much research is revealing that it is actually a distribution of values in biological tissues. Recent ovine experimentation has also shown that the D-spacing distribution is significantly altered following estrogen depletion. While ewes contain some major biological differences between their human counterparts, they are an economical and robust large animal model for postmenopausal osteoporosis. So, the exploration of the possible implications that D-spacing has on the mechanical properties of the whole bone utilizing animal models and computational methods is warranted. Six …

Inconspicuous But Indispensable: Charles Anderson Dana As Assistant Secretary Of War, Aaron Edward Foster

Master's Theses

Charles Anderson Dana's contributions to Union victory during the American Civil War extend far beyond his well-known relationship with General Ulysses S. Grant. Using both his journalistic talents and patriotism, he gained Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton's trust, which was essential for Dana to perform his duties effectively at the War Department in Washington City from 1864 to 1865. His obligations encompassed a broad spectrum of responsibilities from investigating dishonest contractors and federal officials attempting to defraud the government to authorizing the arbitrary arrests of civilians. He simultaneously performed lesser-known activities such as arranging soldiers' furloughs for the 1864 …

The Limitations Of Democratic Peace, Anthony Glenn Jordan

Master's Theses

The theory of Democratic Peace suggests that democracies are unlikely to wage war on one another, yet it spends little time actually defining what democracies are. Research on the theory of Democratic Peace suggests that the theory only applies to mature democracies, but how is maturity determined? The criteria used by multiple scholars is needed to defend the theory from particular challenges such as the Cenepa Valley War, but even with such defenses, the criteria omits how a state treats women and racial minorities. These omissions become clear when one examines how scholars treat the United States of America. This …

Solving The World's Problems: Walker Percy's Cultural Critique In Love In The Ruins, Jeremy Ryan Gibbs

Master's Theses

This thesis examines Walker Percy's manipulation of time in Love in the Ruins as a component of indirectly communicating his solution to problems in twentieth-century Western society: existential authenticity. By examining this often overlooked novel, I clarify the process by which Percy conveys his solution and the difficulties inherent in his attempts to do so. Research shows how Percy perceived such problems stemmed from the tendency of postmodern thought to place human subjective experience within an overarching, objective framework. These problems that Percy exaggerates in the novel are essentially distractions of immediacy that lead the characters away from choosing authentic …

A Study Of The Collisional Evolution Of Orbital Debris In Geopotential Wells And Geo Disposal Orbits, Christina R. Diaz

Master's Theses

This thesis will present the effects of the orbital debris evolution in two key areas: the geosynchronous disposal orbit regime known as “graveyard” and the two geopotential wells found in 105◦ W and 75◦ E longitude bins. After developing a GEO specific orbit propagator for NASA Johnson Space Center’s Orbital Debris Of- fice, collisions were simulated throughout these regimes using a low velocity breakup model. This model considered the effects of perturbations particularly non-spherical Earth effects (specifically sectorial and zonal harmonics), lunar effects, third body effects and solar radiation pressure effects. The results show that CDPROP does well in simulating …

Utilizing Atcs Data To Inform A Dynamic Reassignment System For Muni Metro Light Rail Vehicles Departing Embarcadero Station, April M. Hickey

Master's Theses

This is a report of a professional project intended to act as an informational tool for the evaluation of a dynamic dispatch system at Embarcadero Station for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Systems that operate dispatch algorithms do so in response to on-time performance and reliability. The optimization problem is documented in many transportation contexts including airline networks, bus dispatch, and freight routing. According to the research, optimizing available options and re-routing based on available options can create a more efficient system that would minimize operating costs and improving service reliability for customers.

The methodology presented here uses …

Effects Of Perceived Individualism-Collectivism And Self-Consciousness On The Self-Disclosure In Social Networking Sites, Hongliang Chen

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Genetic Monitoring Program For Stock Enhancement Of Mississippi Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion Nebulosus), Carly Renee Somerset

Master's Theses

The spotted seatrout is a coastal sciaenid fish that is intensively exploited in the northcentral Gulf of Mexico. A stock enhancement research program was initiated in 2004 to develop methods to culture juveniles and release them in natural habitats to increase recruitment in the fishery. The goal of this study was to initiate a genetic monitoring program for stock enhancement activities. Assays for 15 microsatellite loci were optimized. Simulations indicated that this panel of molecular markers was sufficient to identify recaptured hatchery fish with high confidence assuming genetic data on broodfish spawned to produce released fish were available. Stock structure …

Analysis Of Post-Cranial Traits For The Assessment Of Biological Distance Among Temporally Distinct New World Populations Of African Descent, Claire Marie Dansereau

Master's Theses

This investigation examines change in post-cranial osteometric markers in temporally distinct New World populations of African ancestry: Newton Plantation series (17th-19th century Barbados; N = 16); two subsamples from the Hamann-Todd (HT) series (U.S.) based on birth year, 1865-1900 (N = 66) and 1901-1915 (N = 62); and the Forensic Databank Collection (FDB) (20th century U.S.; N = 137). It was anticipated that individuals from Newton would exhibit less admixture than those from H-T or FDB. They were also predicted to demonstrate greater skeletal robusticity due to mechanical loading. Additionally, it was expected that stature would increase over time due …

The Effect Of Social Networking On Grief, Heather Margaret Gianatassio

Master's Theses

Death and loss are complicated issues. They are further complicated by the Internet and the increased usage of social media; however, there is little research on the effects of social media on grief. This project's goal was to gather information about grieving via online social networking sites. Data was collected from 20 in memoriam profile webpages on Facebook and MySpace. The deceased were between the ages of six months and 32 years. Results indicate that society is using social media as a form of support and comfort in times of loss.

Evaluation Of Linear Measurements Of Implant Sites Based On Head Orientation During Image Acquisition: A Comparative In Vitro Study Using Cone Beam Ct, Hanadi M. Sabban

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Robot-Child Interactions On The Bilateral Coordination Skills Of Typically Developing Children Between 4 And 11 Years Of Age, Maninderjit Kaur

Master's Theses

Background: Coordination develops gradually over development with younger children showing more unstable coordination patterns compared to older children and adults. In the present study, we examined whether robot-child interactions could improve bilateral coordination skills of typically developing (TD) children through imitation of whole body actions. Methods: Twenty four TD children between 4 and 11 years of age were non-randomly assigned to training and control group. Training group children received twelve training sessions across six weeks in a robot imitation context involving whole body and drumming actions. Children were assessed pre- and post-training on standardized tests of motor performance, and …

Design, Fabrication And Function Validation Of A Myoelectric-Activated Torque-Controlled Robotic Rehabilitation Device, Marek Wartenberg

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Classification And Volumetric Analysis Of Temporal Bone Pneumatization Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography, Aniket B. Jadhav

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Post-Residency Treatment Protocol Changes: A Web-Based Survey, John B. Gilbreth

Master's Theses

Clinical decision making in dentistry is multifactorial. Few studies have evaluated the influence of residency training on clinical treatment practices in dentistry. This study sought to explore the impact of resident training on post-graduate clinical protocol and the practitioner's rationale when making these decisions. Following IRB approval, a survey of 87 graduates from the Division of Endodontology at the University of Connecticut Health Center from 1978 to 2012 was administered. The method of temporization following nonsurgical endodontic therapy, dilution of sodium hypochlorite, instrumentation, treatment planning and endodontic sealer choice were evaluated and compared to the respondent’s residency training. The results …

An Analysis Of The Association Between Ependymal Integrity And Ventriculomegaly, Meredith Halling

Master's Theses

The ventricles of the brain are lined by a monolayer of ciliated ependymal cells that act as an interface between the circulating cerebrospinal fluid and the underlying tissue. Along the lateral walls of the lateral ventricles, the ependymal cells have additional significance as they are considered one of the cell types that comprise the subventricular zone (SVZ) neurogenic niche. Since lateral ventricle expansion is a well documented occurrence in not only a variety of neurological disorders but also with normal aging, it is important to consider the effect of this expansion on the ependyma. By combining MRI-based 3-D reconstructions of …