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An Argument Against The Buddhist Concept Of Dependent Origination Through William Lane Craig’S Kalam Cosmological Argument, James David Lynch

Masters Theses

The concept of dependent origination is essential in understanding Buddhist thought, for it is central to everything that they teach and believe. Without a first cause, or God, man is left with neither sense of hope nor purpose. The central aims of this thesis are to establish that the universe has a beginning and to demonstrate that this beginning is the result of a first cause. In proving these claims to be true, William Lane Craig's kalam cosmological argument is considered. Through this argument Craig points to philosophical arguments such as the problem of actual infinites and the impossibility of …

Writing A Chemistry Textbook That Supports Inquiry Based Learning, Sarah Jean Henning Toman

Masters Theses

The National Science Education Standards promote inquiry instruction. As teachers change how they teach, will textbooks follow suit? Is it even possible to have an inquiry-based chemistry textbook and if so, what would it look like and would students find it useful? This study conducted as part of the Target Inquiry Program at Grand Valley State University explored these questions by comparing student reactions to excerpts from a standard high school chemistry text to those of an inquiry-based chemistry text developed by the researcher. Reactions recorded in student interviews and achievement outcomes were analyzed to address the research questions. Results …

Separate But Equal?: The Experiences Of African American Female Graduate Students In A College Student Affairs Program, Leah Reeves

Masters Theses

Little research has been done exploring the experiences of African American women in graduate studies. Because of this, the purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of African American, female, graduate students in a College Student Affairs program. The participants were two African American, graduate students currently enrolled in a College Student Affairs program at a liberal arts, comprehensive institution in the Midwest. Data collection techniques included an in-depth interview in which participants responded to questions about their experiences in the program with regards to their interactions with classmates, professors, and other professionals in the field. The researcher …

Oral Reading Fluency And Maze Selection For Predicting 5th And 6th Grade Students' Reading And Math Achievement On The Illinois Standards Achievement Test, Samuel Whitley

Masters Theses

This study sought to examine the relationship between two reading curriculum based measures ( oral reading fluency and MAZE) and the reading and mathematics subsections of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISA T) at the 5th and 6th grades. It was predicted that MAZE would be better at predicting who would pass the ISAT than oral reading fluency. Bivariate correlations were conducted between each curriculum based measure and each subsection of the ISA T. Simple linear regression analyses were also conducted to derive cut scores for predicting ISAT performance. The ability of each curriculum based measure to predict student performance …

Facial Recognition System Screening Evaluation Methodology For Complexion Biases, Harold Harris

Masters Theses

Over the years, facial recognition systems (FRS) have come under scrutiny from watchdog groups who voice their complaints concerning the potential existence of FRS biases towards certain cultures of people when deployed in security screening situations. Psychology has used the term "other-race effect" to describe this occurrence in humans. Researchers of FRS have used the theory behind the other-race effect to describe the occurrence of bias associated with algorithms tested during the Face Recognition Vendor Test of 2006. In this thesis, we develop a scientific methodology based on the factors of illumination, distance, and angle to evaluate whether or not …

The Lived Experience: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension And Intravenous Prostaglandin Therapy, Phyllis D. Boone

Masters Theses

A descriptive phenomenological study was proposed to obtain a subjective description of the experience of living with intravenous prostaglandin treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. It was intended to determine what kinds of elements are common to the experience with study participants, to develop an aggregate structure of the experience from the individual descriptions of it, and add to what is now known about this phenomenon. It was anticipated that the stories told by the participants could help to determine how nurses can assist future patients to live optimally within the confines of a palliative treatment for this incurable illness.

Unfortunately, …

Fpga Implementation Of Pso Algorithm And Neural Networks, Parviz Palangpour

Masters Theses

"This thesis describes the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementations of two powerful techniques of Computational Intelligence (CI), the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) and the Neural Network (NN). Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a popular population-based optimization algorithm. While PSO has been shown to perform well in a large variety of problems, PSO is typically implemented in software. Population-based optimization algorithms such as PSO are well suited for execution in parallel stages. This allows PSO to be implemented directly in hardware and achieve much faster execution times than possible in software. In this thesis, a pipelined architecture for hardware …

Synergy Between Biology And Systems Resilience, Ashik Chandra

Masters Theses

"Resilient systems have the ability to endure and successfully recover from disturbances by identifying problems and mobilizing the available resources to cope with the disturbance. Resiliency lets a system recover from disruptions, variations, and a degradation of expected working conditions. Biological systems are resilient. Immune systems are highly adaptive and scalable, with the ability to cope with multiple data sources, fuse information together, makes decisions, have multiple interacting agents, operate in a distributed manner over a multiple scales, and have a memory structure to facilitate learning. Ecosystems are resilient since they have the capacity to absorb disturbance and are able …

The Role Of Skeletal Development In Body Size Evolution Of Two North American Frogs, Sarah Beth Havens

Masters Theses

"In order to better understand the evolution of miniaturization in Acris blanchardi, a North American Hylid with a unique life history and of ecological interest in the United States. The development and ossification sequences of 48 larvae, 5 juveniles and 5 adult A. blanchardi were examined. The adult was described by Maglia et al. (2007) to be a miniature and to display morphological novelties. In addition, 44 larvae, 2 juvenile and 5 adults of Pseudacris crucifer a closely related frog that has been suggested to be a miniature, were examined. The cranial and postcranial adult elements of this species, as …

Fraternity Member's Perceptions Of The Benefits And Limitations Of On-Campus, University-Owned Fraternity Housing And Off-Campus, Chapter-Owned Fraternity Housing, Erin Therese Morettes

Masters Theses

This purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of fraternity members in relation to their experience living in off-campus, chapter-owned fraternity housing and on-campus, university-owned fraternity housing. The fraternity resided in an off-campus chapter house for several decades and recently relocated to a housing facility provided by the university. General theme emerging from participants' responses were critically evaluated based on prior research. The findings of this study suggested that the participant's perceived on-campus housing to be an overall better living environment than off-campus housing in the areas of academic success, residential community, and student persistence and engagement. …

Triad Fantasy: Score And Analysis, Wayne A. Buck

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Computer-Assisted And Peer-Partner Practice In Treble-Staff Note Recognition, Pammala K. Goodenough

Masters Theses

This study compared the effectiveness of computer-assisted practice and peer-partner practice in treble-staff note recognition. Six 3rd-grade classes participated in 3 sessions, each including a 2-minute pre-test, a lesson on treble staff notes, a 10-minute practice drill, and a 2-minute post-test. During practice, half the students used the online Note Trainer from Ricci Adams ' Musictheory. net to practice identifying notes, while the other half practiced with a partner using flashcards of the notes of the treble staff. Results showed the computer students averaged over twice as many correct answers as the peer practice group at the end of the …

Degradation Of Organic Matter In Water In The Presence Of Catalyst And Uv Radiation, Bimali Bandaranayake

Masters Theses

Organic contaminants specially dyes, presents in water is a major environmental problem. Organic compounds can be degraded completely in the presence of photocatalysts and UV radiation. The kinetics of degradation of three dyes was studied using a variety of UV photocatalytic materials. The dyes (methylene blue, malachite green, chrysodoine R) were chosen based on their polarity differences. Catalysts consisting of pure TiO2, mixed oxides of TiO2 containing SiO2, and others containing SiO2 and iron oxide, SiO2/ ZrO2/ CeO2, and CeO2/SiO2 were studied. The TiO2/ SiO2 and SiO2/ZrO2/CeO2 catalysts exhibited the highest degradation rates for methylene blue. The more hydrophobic pure …

Nanoporous High Surface Area Silicas With Chelating Groups For Heavy Metal Ion Adsorption From Aqueous Solution, Kothalawalage Nuwan Kothalawala

Masters Theses

Nanoporous high surface area silicas are an ideal substrate for the design of materials with useful properties via chemical surface modification. The adsorption of heavy metals for contaminated water detoxification is one potential application. In this work we have used three different kinds of silica substrates with varying pore structures; commercially available narrow pore and wide pore silica gels, as well as surfactant templated mesoporous SBA-15 exhibiting a relatively narrow pore size distribution. These silicas have each been subjected to post-synthesis modification with an organosilane consisting of ethylenediamine triacetic acid functionalities for chelation/adsorption of metal ions from aqueous solution. The …

Ditopic Dithiophosphonates And Their Related Rotaxanes, Robert Ray Baum Jr.

Masters Theses

Grafting dithiophosphonate groups onto a naphthalenediimide core yields anionic axles, which in conjunction with the 15DN38C10 crown ether and cationic metallic systems generate neutral bimetallic rotaxanes. The association constant for the rotaxane system was calculated by the single-point method using 1H NMR spectroscopy. Metallic systems reacted with our anionic axles were SnMe3, SnPh3, Cu(PPH3)i, SnMe2, and SnPh2. The structures of several axle-metal complexes and one rotaxane were obtained by X-ray crystallography.

Cross-Age And Peer Tutoring In The Music Classroom, Christopher B. Gelb

Masters Theses

This is a study on the effects of a Cross-age Tutoring program implemented into a beginning band classroom. High school students worked with small groups of beginning band students. The tutoring sessions were 45-minute sessions on an every-other-day rotation. Supervising teachers provided articles and demonstrations to assist the high school-aged tutors in working with different techniques unique to each instrument. Resources for the tutoring sessions included the Essential Elements 2000 band method book and the Music Ace computer program. The high school and middle school band directors supervised the tutoring sessions and were available to answer questions and develop lesson …

The Eligibility Practices For The Category Of Specific Learning Disability In A Rural Special Education Cooperative In Illinois, Jennifer L. Hauptly

Masters Theses

This study investigated the trends in assessment for specific learning disability in a rural special education cooperative in Illinois. The sample included assessment records for 135 students who graduated from high school with special education services under the category of specific learning disability. The assessment procedures were recorded and compared to trends in practice at the time. Results revealed that the use of traditional assessment practices, such as the IQ-achievement discrepancy, was less likely to be used once the alternative Flexible Service Delivery Model was initiated. To further investigate the impact of the Flexible Service Delivery Model, data were gathered …

Detection And Estimation Of Image Blur, Harish Narayanan Ramakrishnan

Masters Theses

"The airborne imagery consisting of infrared (IR) and multispectral (MSI) images collected in 2009 under airborne mine and minefield detection program by Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) was found to be severely blurred due to relative motion between the camera and the object and some of them with defocus blurs due to various reasons. Automated detection of blur due to motion and defocus blurs and the estimation of blur like point spread function for severely degraded images is an important task for processing and detection in such airborne imagery. Although several full reference and reduced reference methods are …

Energy-Efficient Task-Scheduling And Networking Protocols For Secure Wireless Networks, Sandeep Kolli

Masters Theses

"The performance of wireless networks is dependent on a number of factors including the available energy, energy-efficiency, data processing delay, transmission delay, routing decisions, security overhead, etc. Traditionally, due to limited resources, nodes were tasked with only collecting measurements and sending them to a base station or central unit for processing. With increased capabilities of microprocessors the data processing is pushed more toward network and its more capable nodes. This thesis focuses to virtualize the processing resources of the entire network and dynamically distribute processing steps along the routing path while optimizing performance. Additionally, a new multi-key encryption (MKE) scheme …

Performance Evaluation Of A Novel Diesel Fuel Air Separation And Filtration System For An Indirect Injection Diesel Engine, Michael Ray Hess

Masters Theses

"The objective of this research was to evaluate an air/fuel separation system known as a Fuel Preporator. The device's efficacy was determined by studying the effect of air entrainment on engine performance and fuel consumption of a General Motors 6.5 L naturally aspirated indirect injection (IDI) diesel engine. A test bed was developed to accommodate the test engine and test methods were adapted from federal regulations for steady-state engine testing (40 CFR 89 Subpart E). Cases of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 20% volumetric air entrainment were investigated for engine operation with and without the Fuel Preporator. Key measured engine performance …

Event Detection From Click-Through Data Via Query Clustering, Prabhu Kumar Angajala

Masters Theses

"The web is an index of real-world events and lot of knowledge can be mined from the web resources and their derivatives. Event detection is one recent research topic triggered from the domain of web data mining with the increasing popularity of search engines. In the visitor-centric approach, the click-through data generated by the web search engines is the start up resource with the intuition: often such data is event-driven. In this thesis, a retrospective algorithm is proposed to detect such real-world events from the click-through data. This approach differs from the existing work as it: (i) considers the click-through …

Contribution-Based Priority Assessment In A Web-Based Intelligent Argumentation Network For Collaborative Software Development, Maithili Satyavolu

Masters Theses

"Decision making is an important aspect of the collaborative software development process which usually involves complex process of conflict resolution. Stakeholders approach decision making process from multiple perspectives and their priorities play a vital role in it. The priority assessment methods used in the argumentation process so far are usually static. Priorities remain constant throughout the decision making process. In order to make the collaborative system more closely replicate real-world scenarios, this work incorporates dynamic priority assessment into a web-based collaborative system which is based on intelligent computational argumentation. It evaluates priorities dynamically for each cycle of decision process based …

Analysis Of Eurycea Hybrid Zone In Eastern Missouri, Bonnie Jean Beasley

Masters Theses

"Evolutionary mechanisms are often difficult to observe in action because evolution generally works slowly over time. Hybrid zones provide a unique opportunity to observe many evolutionary processes, such as reinforcement, because of the rapid changes that tend to occur in these zones. Salamanders provide an ideal model for examining the rapid changes in populations that result from hybridization because many closely-related species lack reproductive barriers. In Missouri, a well-documented hybridization zone exists among the two subspecies Eurycea longicauda longicauda (long-tailed salamander) and E. L. melanopleura (dark-sided salamander). These salamanders inhabit caves, limestone creek beds, and abandoned mine shafts. A closely …

Analysis Of The Theta-D Filter As Applied To Hit-To-Kill Interceptors And Satellite Orbit Determination, Michael W. Dancer

Masters Theses

"When designing feedback control systems, there is often a need for estimation methods that provide system information that is not readily available via sensors placed within the system. In many cases a sensor that measures a particular system state either does not exist or is prohibitively expensive. In addition, all realistic systems contain some degree of nonlinearity. This thesis focuses on two such cases: missile guidance with bearings-only measurements and GPS satellite orbit determination. In each case, a new nonlinear filter, the [theta]-D method, is used and evaluated for its performance in providing the necessary estimation. To aid the filter …

Representation And Validation Of Domain And Range Restrictions In A Relational Database Driven Ontology Maintenance System, Patrick Garrett. Edgett

Masters Theses

"An ontology can be used to represent and organize the objects, properties, events, processes, and relations that embody an area of reality [1]. These knowledge bases may be created manually (by individuals or groups), and/or automatically using software tools, such as those developed for information retrieval and data mining. Recently, the National Science Foundation funded a large collaborative development project for the semi-automated construction of an ontology of amphibian anatomy (AmphibAnat [2]). To satisfy the extensive community curation requirements of that project, a generic, Web-based, multi-user, relational database ontology management system (RDBOM [3]) was constructed, based upon a novel theoretical …

The Mitigation Effects Of A Barrier Wall On Blast Wave Pressures, Nathan Thomas Rouse

Masters Theses

"The study examined the mitigating effects of a blast barrier wall. This area of blast mitigation is of interest due to the many different applications involved in protecting a specific target from an explosive attack. The research follows a 1:50 scale layout using 73 gram, hemisphere-shaped, Composition-4 charges detonated at combinations of three standoff distances from a blast barrier wall set at three different heights. This project used 45 data points for each combination of standoff distance and wall height. This project expanded prior research conducted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) by increasing the database of …

Dynamic Ant Colony Optimization For Globally Optimizing Consumer Preferences, Pavitra Dhruvanarayana

Masters Theses

"Consumer preference for any product or product feature can be expressed in the form of a utility function. Many such utility functions form a part of a preference map, where each of these are expressed in terms of the attributes defining the product or the product feature. In order to optimize the design, it is required to optimize the overall utility function obtained by a mathematical combination of individual utility functions defined in the preference map. The objective of this research is to devise and implement an algorithm to optimize all the individual utility functions comprised in a preference map …

Development Of Novel Backscatter Communication Systems Using A Multi-Hop Framework And Distributed Beamforming, Vikram Reddy Surendra

Masters Theses

"The goal of this thesis it to develop a wireless networking framework for battery-free devices based on passive, backscatter communication. In contrast to traditional, active communication systems, where the radio signal has to be generated using large amount of energy from batteries, the passive systems reflect the RF signal. The information is encoded by modulating the reflected signal, which consumes significantly less energy than active transmission. The existing passive, backscatter systems have limited communication capabilities. For example, the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems support short-distance, direct communication between active reader and passive tags. The communication range is limited due to …

Neural Mrac Based On Modified State Observer, Yang Yang

Masters Theses

"A new model reference adaptive control design method with guaranteed transient performance using neural networks is proposed in this thesis. With this method, stable tracking of a desired trajectory is realized for nonlinear system with uncertainty, and modified state observer structure is designed to enable desired transient performance with large adaptive gain and at the same time avoid high frequency oscillation. The neural network adaption rule is derived using Lyapunov theory, which guarantees stability of error dynamics and boundedness of neural network weights, and a soft switching sliding mode modification is added in order to adjust tracking error. The proposed …

Reverberation Reduction In A Room For Multiple Positions, Raghavendra Ravikumar

Masters Theses

"Reverberation in a room occurs when the direct path sound from a sound source undergoes multiple reflections from the walls of the room before reaching the listener. An impulse response of the room can be measured called the room impulse response (RIR) which captures the effects of the room. This can be represented digitally on a computer. A filter is designed to cancel the effects of the room using the information in the room impulse response. This filter is called an equalization filter and is usually placed between the source signal and loudspeaker to perform the equalization. The RIR changes …