Digital Commons Network^™

Waterjet Injection Of Powdered Activated Carbon For Sediment Remediation, Chris J. Redell

Masters Theses

"In situ sediment remediation through waterjet-activated carbon amendment delivery is an innovative means to mitigate the dangers posed by hydrophobic organic compounds. Ease of use and applicability to inundated environments makes this technique valuable. This work made feasible low-pressure injections of a 15% (by dry weight) carbon/water slurry through a pulsating piston pump waterjet. The project fabricated nozzle tips and a unique injection apparatus comprising a quantitative system for the evaluation of bench scale models. Based on a series of iterative processes, injections of carbon were analyzed for depth and concentration. Injections varied in duration and they were made into …

Shaker Table Vibration Testing Of A Microsatellite, Tonya Michelle Sanders

Masters Theses

"In the satellite development process, structural testing is a means to gain confidence in analytical models and ultimately support qualification of the spacecraft for flight. Vibration testing, in particular, is motivated by the safety considerations of crew or launch personnel, the survivability of delicate hardware and electronics, and the avoidance of large stresses that cause structural fatigue or failure. The subject of this thesis is concerned with the shaker table vibration testing of a microsatellite pair designed and built by students at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. A finite element model (FEM) used in structural …

A Framework For Transparent Depression Classification In College Settings Via Mining Internet Usage Patterns, Raghavendra Kotikalapudi

Masters Theses

Depression is a serious mental health problem affecting the mind and body of people in our society. As of today, depression affects about 5 to 7% of the American population, which roughly translates to 14 million people! A particularly worrying concern these days is the increasing incidence of depression among college students. The problem is so severe that many US campuses have dedicated centers with mental health professionals catering to students needs. Although there are very effective treatments for depression, studies report that ~80% of depressed students do not seek any help due to the lack of perception of the …

Microcontroller-Based Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Transmitter Systems, Balaji Madapuci Kanday

Masters Theses

"Multiple-Input Multiple_output (MIMO) Systems use multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to increase data throughput and/or system reliability. An MIMO transmitter can be implemented using a variety of approaches. This work describes some of the approaches that can be used to generate the transmitted waveforms, and discuss the features and limitation of each. In particular, it shows haw a microcontroller-based system can be used for applications which require low power consumption. This thesis also describes the high-level design of a microcontroller-based MIMO transmitter. The computational speed of the microcontroller, as compared to Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Digital …

Risk-Sensitive Preventive Maintenance Policies Using Semivariance, Venkata Manojramam Tirumalasetty

Masters Theses

"Preventive maintenance is an important tool that increases the reliability of the production system by reducing downtime due to failures. In the literature, maintenance and replacement policies for productions systems have been widely studied and modeled. Traditionally preventive maintenance has focused only on minimizing expected costs without considering variability in costs. Cost variability is also commonly known as risk. In a 2003 paper, Chen and Jin used variance of costs as a measure of risk for formulating preventive maintenance policies. The variance criterion that they used ignored the probability of costs exceeding monthly or yearly budgets provided to managers. The …

Effect Of Initial Conditions On Molecular Mixing In A High Schmidt-Number Rayleigh-Taylor Mixing Layer, Lakshmi Ayyappa Raghu Mutnuri

Masters Theses

"Characterizing molecular mixing in Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) driven flows where the density and velocity fields are coupled is essential for developing exacting predictive models. Sensitivity of the Rayleigh Taylor mixing layer to initial conditions is a topic that is being explored extensively in interests of accurate turbulent mix model development and its direct consequence in various applications like design of inertial confinement fuel capsule and atmospheric modeling. As part of the current work, an experimental investigation of the effect of initial conditions on molecular mixing in a low Atwood number(~7.5 x 10⁻⁴), high Schmidt number(~1000), RTI driven mixing layer is …

An Incentive Based Approach To Detect Selfish Nodes In Mobile P2p Network, Hemanth Meka

Masters Theses

"The growth of mobile devices led to the wide use of Mobile P2P networks. These networks are used in a wide variety of areas and hence there is lot of research in the field of mobile networks. Detecting selfish nodes is one of the research topics triggered due to the popularity of mobile P2P networks. It is necessary to detect selfish nodes in such networks to improve the efficiency of the network. In this thesis, an incentive based approach to detect selfish nodes is designed and evaluated. This approach differs from the existing work as it (i) can be used …

A Time Series Approach To Electric Load Modelling, Matthias Benjamin Noller

Masters Theses

"With resources becoming more and more scarse [sic] as well as increasing competition caused by the liberalisation of the energy markets electric load modelling becomes ever more important for proper resource allocation.

This work tries to bridge the gap between long-term modelling done mainly via econometric approaches and short-term modelling in which time series models are more commonplace by focussing [sic] on pure time series modelling [sic] and exploring its limits in the process. Due to various seasonalities present in the data the approach chosen starts with a subdivision of the time axis in different time frames: A model for …

"Long" Carbon Fiber Reinforced Concrete For Impact And Blast Resistance, Benjamin Paul Gliha

Masters Theses

"One of the most commonly used materials for protective structures and construction is traditional reinforced concrete. However, in a blast, conventional reinforced concrete (RC) is susceptible to significant spalling (small to medium size chunks of concrete detaching from the original member). The force of the blast turns spalled concrete into projectiles, resulting in secondary fragmentation and the majority of loss of life. Furthermore, the concrete debris makes for difficult and uncertain footing. Both phenomena endanger personnel and complicate post-blast recovery efforts. A very promising but barely explored change to conventional RC construction is the addition of "long" carbon fibers (fibers …

Visual Inspection And Ground Penetrating Radar Investigation Of The Historical Pulaski County Poor Farm Cemetery, Ibrahim E. Ahmed

Masters Theses

"This thesis is a comprehensive summary of the geotechnical investigation of the Historical Pulaski County Poor Farm Cemetery, southeast Waynesville, Missouri. This research demonstrates that unmarked graves in an abandoned historical cemetery can be located using visual site inspection and ground penetrating radar techniques.

During the course of these investigations, multiple visual site inspections of Pulaski County Poor Farm Cemetery were conducted and ground penetrating radar data were acquired. Based on the visual site inspections and the interpretation of ground penetrating radar data, a total of one-hundred and fifty-one (151) graves were identified; eighty-seven (87) of the graves were mapped …

Magnetometer-Only Attitude Determination With Application To The M-Sat Mission, Jason D. Searcy

Masters Theses

"The topic of this thesis focuses on attitude determination for small satellites. The method described uses only a magnetometer to resolve the three-axis attitude of the satellite. The primary challenge is that magnetometers only instantaneously resolve two axes of a satellite's attitude. Typically, magnetometers are used in conjunction with other sensors to resolve all three axes. However, by using a filter over an adequately long orbit arc, the magnetometer data can yield all the information necessary. The magnetic field data are filtered to obtain the magnetic field derivative vector, which are combined with the magnetic field vector to fully resolve …

Educational Robotics: Using The Lego Mindstorms Nxt Platform For Increasing High School Stem Education, Matthew Aaron Strautmann

Masters Theses

"The field of educational robotics (ER) seeks to use the building and programming of robots to engage and educate the next generation of college freshman entering science and engineering majors. To increase the rate of application to science and engineering degree programs as well as the rate of retention, students must be engaged in high school. They must acquire the knowledge and interest to pursue these career choices. This research explores the use of robotics to interest high school students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and to improve their knowledge of these subjects. The case study developed instructional …

Turning The Silver Screen To Gold: An Analysis Of Opening Weekend Box Office Success, Jennifer Muser

Masters Theses

Success at the box office can be difficult to predict. While one combination of stars, budget, or praise produces a blockbuster, the slightest tweaking in a sequel can produce a bomb. The objective of this research is to model the opening weekend box office revenue per screen based on a set of variables parsed from the Internet Movie Database and using a critical review index variable retrieved from Rotten Tomatoes.com. First, the author estimates opening weekend revenue per screen from a sample of 1116 movies as a function of the movies' characteristics, such as genre, MP AA rating, critical rating, …

An Examination Of Implicit And Explicit Attitudes Toward Steroids/Hgh In A Sample Of College Athletes And Nonathletes, Dominic Gray Morais

Masters Theses

Recently, media has placed more attention on the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and human growth hormone (HGH) due to confessions and positive drug tests by professional athletes concerning their use. The idolization of these athletes by younger individuals, especially athletes, incites concern about their attitudes toward such substances. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes toward AAS and HGH in athletes and nonathletes. One hundred forty three male and female intercollegiate athletes (N = 83) and undergraduate and graduate Kinesiology and Sports Studies majors (N=60) at a Division I Midwestern University volunteered for the study. …

An Analysis Of Selected Band Works With Composer Perspective, Christopher Lawrence Mroczek

Masters Theses

Concentration in Conducting

This project contains the detailed study of three works for wind band. Each study includes direct input by the composers whose pieces are represented. The author interviewed all the composers by e-mail.

The pieces analyzed are:

• At Morning's First Light by David Gillingham
• Hebrides Suite by Clare Grundman
• Undertow by John Mackey

Questions asked in the interviews were unique to the particular musical elements present in the works. Each piece was analyzed with the same criteria using the following elements:

1. Composer Information
2. Composition Background Information
3. Score Description / Instrumentation
4. Form Analysis
5. Melodic Analysis
6. Harmonic Analysis
7. Meter/Tempo/Rhythm
8. Texture/Dynamics …

Undergraduate Leadership Development Perceptions, Jordan Baumgardner

Masters Theses

Since the founding of America's first institution of higher education in 1636, one of our primary purposes has been to develop leaders. There is a plethora of literature focused on leadership, yet there is a dearth of literature from the perspectives of student. The purpose of the present study was to understand how undergraduate student leaders defined leadership, their perceptions of how they experience this phenomenon, and how they perceive their development ofleadership skills and abilities. Through a mixedmethod approach, this study sought to understand leadership from the students' perspectives. Findings from the present study suggest that a single definition …

Nonliteral Language Used By Teachers In The Classroom, Jenna K. Szybowicz

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research project was to determine ifregular education and special education classroom teachers used a varying amount of idioms in the classroom. Two groups of subjects were involved in the study; 12 regular education classroom teachers (four first grade; four second grade; and four third grade) and 12 primary crosscategorical classroom teachers. The teachers were observed for one to two hours via naturalistic observation methods during math and language arts lessons. The sample was transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcriptions (SALT). The transcriptions were coded for the following criteria: nonliteral idioms[n] (e.g.,just a minute); …

Interactions Of Diet And Behavior In A Death-Feigning Snake (Heterodon Nasicus), Andrew Michael Durso

Masters Theses

Studies of animal behavior in captivity are limited in their ability to explain the influence of a natural environment on behavioral ecology. Defensive behaviors vary among individual animals, between sexes and with age, as well as with other less well-known factors. The toxin-rich diet of many toad-eating snakes might enable or cause their passive terminal defensive behavior of death-feigning. I videotaped death-feigning behavior in wild Plains Hog-Nosed Snakes (Heterodon nasicus) subjected to standardized harassment. Using stable isotopes, I also described the diet of the same individuals subjected to behavioral analysis (n = 40). Heterodon had broader diets than other snakes …

The Effects Of Teaching Styles On Student Knowledge, Ryan Devries

Masters Theses

This study analyzed the effects that the instructor has in determining if student knowledge of a given subject is significantly impacted when teaching styles differ. The study examined the effects of the independent variable (learning through instruction style) on the one dependent variable: knowledge (gained and retained).

Traditional educational methods often vary between instructors, even when those instructors teach the same course. Teachers' objectives are to present the course information in a way that will be the most beneficial to the student. The teachers have to consider situational factors, goals for the course, learning styles, and level of learning. "In …

Increasing Male Volunteering One Motivation At A Time, Matthew C. Nance

Masters Theses

Much research had shown that men volunteer at a lesser rate than women do. Additionally, research had shown that the motivations to volunteer differ for each gender. Two samples of college students who participated in single day service projects were surveyed using the Volunteer Functions Inventory-an instrument that assesses the importance of six possible motivations that range from a focus on others to a focus on gains for one's self-by the Student Community Service office. The data from the VFI was divided along gender lines to see to which motivations millennial males adhered. In an effort to further understand the …

A Functional Genomics Approach To Analyze Two Methionine-[Gamma]-Lyase Orthologs In "Ferroplasma Acidarmanus" Using In Vitro Enzyme Assays, Md. A. Wadud Khan

Masters Theses

Functional genomics predicts that ferl genome has two candidate genes for the production of two methionine-y-lyase (MGL) orthologs, which are thought to be pivotal for the production of methanethiol. These orthologs show a high level of protein sequence identity ( ~ 3 5%) and similarity (~60%) when compared to known MGLs. In addition, ClustalW2 alignment of ferl MGL orthologs and other known MG Ls showed a high level of similarity in amino acid residues, which are involved for the stabilization of 3D structure of MGL and in forming active site for the substrates. To confirm the predictive functions of these …

The Effectiveness Of Errorless Learning For Teaching Concepts And Comments To Children With Autism, Marissa L. Ulm

Masters Theses

Research has indicated that errorless learning has been an effective teaching strategy for teaching discrete skills to both typically developing children and children with a learning disability (Schimek, 1983; Storm & Robinson, 1973). Errorless learning differs from other common teaching strategies in that it only presents correct responses, eliminating the possibility of participants responding incorrectly. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of errorless learning for improving symbol acquisition in children with autism who used a high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Four children previously diagnosed with autism participated in this study; subjects were required to …

A Mother's Consumer Socialization: The Relationship With Her Daughter's Compulsive Buying Behavior, Autumn L. Berbaum

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between a daughter's perception of her mother's consumer socialization (both overt and covert) and the development of compulsive buying behavior of that child as an adult. Previous studies suggest that mothers socialize their children into the consumers that they become as adults. The participants in this study were female students at a Midwestern university, ranging in age from 17 to 25, who designated themselves as those who "love to shop." Data were collected via a multi-part questionnaire. The results of this study suggested that mothers' buying behaviors have an influence …

Synthesis Of Molecular Containers Based On Modifications Of Resorcin(4)Arene And Calix(4)Arene, Anupama Makineni

Masters Theses

This research work was mainly focused on the synthesis of molecular containers based on modifications ofresorcin[4]arene and calix[4]arene.

The modifications of resorcin[ 4 ]arene include the attempts to attach a phthalimide featured linker onto the phenol hydroxyl groups of resorcin[4]arene. A few halogen leaving groups were used, including fluorine, chlorine, and bromine. The substitution with tetraflorophthalimide resulted in a mixture of regio-isomeric products, whereas for 4,5-dichloro- and 4,5-dibromophthalimides, no desired substitution product was formed. It was, however, discovered that both 4,5-dichloro- and 4,5-dibromophthalimides forms monoclinic crystals. The second modification of resorcin[4]arene focused on functionalizations of both upper and lower rims …

A Between Subjects Analysis Of The Additive Interspersal Technique For Multiplication Assignments, Lindsay A. Nash

Masters Theses

Adding easy problems to an assignment with more difficult target problems, known as additive interspersal, has demonstrated the potential to enhance students' perceptions of assignments and also seem to be preferred over non-interspersal assignments. The purpose of this study is to examine the additive interspersal method accomplished by using assignment types (3 x 2 multiplication) that are relevant to the participants (fifth grade students) as well as using a between-subjects design. Specifically, this study examined student's ratings of difficulty, time to complete, and effort required to complete mathematics assignments. In addition, the effects of the different pairs of math assignments …

Using Alternating Treatment Design To Determine Math Interventions For Linear Equations, Bridget Mckenna

Masters Theses

Although algebraic skills are vital to continuing success in higher order mathematics, few studies have examined the effectiveness of mathematics interventions with high school students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of four mathematics interventions, contingent reinforcement, repeated practice, mathematic problem previewing, and immediate corrective feedback, with six students working on linear equations. Three participants were performing instructional level and four at frustration level. After a curriculum based assessment and baseline, an alternating treatment design examined the effectiveness of each intervention across participants. The distance between the data and the x axis was analyzed to determine …

School Attachment And The Use Of Alcohol Among Rural High School Students, Michelle L. Weiler

Masters Theses

The present study examined the relationship between school attachment and alcohol use in rural communities to determine if students with high levels of school attachment were less likely to participate in alcohol use. Participants included 4,768 high schools students in the largest rural geographic educational region in the state of Illinois. The students participated in a program called I Sing the Body Electric and completed a survey which asked questions including how well students are attached to their school and alcohol use. Chi square goodness of fit tests were used to analyze student's reporting of school attachment, how old they …

Experimental Study Of The Interaction Between Surfactants And Preformed Particle Gels, Farag Awadh Muhammed

Masters Theses

"Gel and surfactant treatment are two principle methods to reduce water production and enhance oil recovery (EOR). However, either method by itself has limitations that can be avoided by combining the two. Gel treatment can improve sweep efficiency but has little effect on micro-displacement efficiency. Surfactants are mainly used to improve displacement efficiency but have little effect on sweep efficiency. This research sought to investigate whether the combination of gel and surfactant treatments can be used to significantly enhance oil recovery while reducing water production for extremely heterogeneous mature reservoirs. A newer trend in gel treatments is preformed particle gels …

Relaxation Imaging To Characterize Lightweight Polymer-Crosslinked Aerogels, Emmalou T. Satterfield

Masters Theses

"Silica aerogels are three-dimensional assemblies of silica nanoparticles with extremely low densities. In some instances, the internal void volume is more than 90% of the total volume. The highly porous structure of the aerogels leads to attractive properties for thermal and noise insulation, due to very low thermal conductivity and very high acoustic impedance. The strength of silica aerogels has been substantially improved by casting a thin conformal polymer coating over the entire internal porous surfaces of the nanostructure. The coating reinforces the interparticle connections without significantly compromising the internal void space. To analyze and compare the properties of several …

Bi-Harmonic Atomic Force Microscopy, Santosh R. Kodandarama

Masters Theses

"In tapping mode atomic force microscopy, surface features are measured indirectly via the amplitude of the tapping cantilever. A change in surface profile is detectable only if it results in an amplitude change that is significant enough to be measured by the optics. Previous works have focused on improving sensitivity through the system's Q-factor, either by changing physical cantilever properties or using feedback control, but those approaches undesirably slow down the dynamic response. In this work we take a novel approach to sensitivity amplification by reshaping the tapping trajectory. By shaping the trajectory so that the probe spends a greater …