Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis And Recommendations, Admitted Student Survey, Summer 2014, Jonathan S. Coit

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Does The Geographic Information Systems Benefit The Insurance Industry?, Andrew R. Brachear

Masters Theses

This research is intended to determine if the insurance companies are benefiting from Geographic Information System technology in the insurance industry. This is based on the consumers' point of view through the use of research, survey results, and technology at the insurance company's disposal. Today, this technology is used in many different areas including renewable energy, delivery business, and city planning. Insurance companies use this technology in order to determine safe driving habits. Some examples include Progressive's Snapshot and State Farm's In-Drive. These devices are used to collect data on response time, speed, and breaking. This is a possible concern …

Barriers To Communicating Sexual Orientation Identity At Work, Marissa A. Guenzi

Masters Theses

Previous research emphasizes the benefits associated with having open gay and lesbian employees. However, many gay and lesbian employees still remain in the closet. This project examines barriers preventing gay and lesbian individuals from coming out at work. Four lesbian women and three gay men in the early stages of their careers were interviewed about their experiences of being closeted at work. Analysis reveals four barriers preventing gay and lesbian individuals from coming out at work and explores how these barriers are reinforced by informal organizational communication. Theoretical and practical implications for organizational communication research are discussed, and recommendations for …

The State Of The Union: The State Of Applause, John Proffitt

Masters Theses

This research focuses on reactions by members of Congress during the State of the Union address. Quantitative methods are used to examine if changes in overall political conditions, especially the level of partisanship, changes the nature of the responses of political actors. The results find that Congress responds to the speech in two major ways. Responses can represent attempts at partisan unity or alternatively represent attempts to show stronger than normal support for certain issues. This research supports several competing theories of representation and highlights the need to establish proper context when studying political actions. Since multiple theories of representation …

Assessing The Impact Of Pre-Meal To-Go Containers On Consumption And Satiety, Claudia Bueno

Masters Theses

Lack of portion control is one of the main causes of obesity. Restaurants offer portions larger than recommended by the USDA. This can lead to portion distortion among consumers and increased consumption. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of offering a to-go box before a meal on reducing consumption.

In this quasi-experimentally designed study, a convenience sample of diners (N=35) served as subjects. The experimental group (n=18) was offered a to-go box before the meal, and the control group (n=17) was offered a to-go box after the meal. The food was …

The Lyric And The Lathe: Dreams Of Perfect Poetic Efficiency, 1800-1917, Steven A. Nathaniel

Masters Theses

This study examines patterns of efficiency in the poetry and theory of William Wordsworth, Hilda Doolittle, and other figures from the Modernist and Romantic periods. I begin by defining perfect efficiency as occurring when energy transforms, without loss, inside a closed energy system, and I offer perpetual motion machines as hypothetical examples of this impossible state. I then demonstrate the process of efficiency in William Wordsworth's poetry, which begins with circumlocutory poetic cycles but contracts into terse repetitions. Since technical efficiency is calculated by the formula output/input, poetry's subjectivity makes poetic efficiency difficult to measure. However, I suggest that repetitions …

Experimental Study Of Crude Oil Emulsion Stability By Surfactants And Nanoparticles, Zainab Alabdulmohsen

Masters Theses

"Surfactants and nanoparticles are materials being widely used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Surfactants are mainly used to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water which could form a stable film of emulsion between these two immiscible fluids. Also, nanotechnology is a potential candidate to offer another solution to improve oil recovery. Nanoparticles can form a solid layer at the droplet's interface and stand as resistant stabilizer under harsh reservoir conditions.

This research investigates whether the combination of surfactants and nanoparticles can provide a more stable emulsion than surfactants only. Two parts of experimental study have been done in …

Numerical Study Of Upstream And Downstream Regions Of One Dimensional Detonation Wave In A Dusty Gas Medium, Shubhadeep Banik

Masters Theses

"In detonative combustion very high temperatures are attained by the burned gases. As a result, a large amount of thermal energy is produced during the combustion process. This heat can affect the state of the unburned fuel through radiation of heat from the burned gases. In this study a one-dimensional model was deemed appropriate to gain insight into the fundamental structure of the detonation wave. In this model, the detonation wave divides the fluid stream into an upstream region, consisting of fuel and oxidant, and a downstream region, consisting of burned gases. A set of computer programs, some developed during …

Sensor Authentication In Collaborating Sensor Networks, Jake Uriah Bielefeldt

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, we address a new security problem in the realm of collaborating sensor networks. By collaborating sensor networks, we refer to the networks of sensor networks collaborating on a mission, with each sensor network is independently owned and operated by separate entities. Such networks are practical where a number of independent entities can deploy their own sensor networks in multi-national, commercial, and environmental scenarios, and some of these networks will integrate complementary functionalities for a mission. In the scenario, we address an authentication problem wherein the goal is for the Operator Oⁱ of Sensor Network S^{i …}

Experimental And Computational Analysis Of Thermosyphon Based Water Heaters, Siddarth Ashokkumar

Masters Theses

"Storage type electric water heaters are one of the most commonly found type of heaters in households today. Due to energy costs and limited generation capacity, there is a need for improving the efficiency of such water heaters. The efficiency of water heating systems have impact both at the household and at the national level, because of their sheer numbers. Efficient water heaters lead to lower utility bills for the consumer and also reduced demand on the grid supplying electrical power to such households. This leads to a reduction in the amount of fuel used in generating electrical power and …

Argumentation Based Collaborative Software Architecture Design And Intelligent Analysis Of Software Architecture Rationale, Nagaprashanth Chanda

Masters Theses

"A growing model for software architecture defines it as a set of principle design decisions which drive system architects to design the architecture satisfying software requirements and architectural constraints. The design decision making process involves a group of stakeholders exchanging their viewpoints to address various concerns and to reach a consensus collaboratively. These architecture design decisions are usually made based on experiences since there aren't defined methods and models for architecture design. Each design decision yields a set of outcomes which impacts both the system architecture and the final product. As software product systems, tend to be large in size, …

Some Combinatorial Applications Of Sage, An Open Source Program, Jessica Ruth Chowning

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, we consider the usefulness of Sage, an online and open-source program, in analyzing permutation puzzles such as the Rubik's cube and a specific combinatorial structure called the projective plane. Many programs exist to expedite calculations in research and provide previously-unavailable solutions; some require purchase, while others, such as Sage, are available for free online. Sage is asked to handle a small permutation puzzle called Swap, and then we explore how it calculates solutions for a Rubik's cube. We then discuss projective planes, Sage's library of functions for dealing with projective planes, and how they relate to the …

Neutronic Analysis Of Light Water Small Modular Reactor With Flexible Fuel Configurations, Brendan Dsouza

Masters Theses

"The study was focused on the analysis of light water Small Modular Reactor (SMR) with flexible fuel configurations. The core design, based on the Westinghouse UO₂ SMR with less than 5% enrichment was developed using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. Neutronics analyses of a reference core with UO₂ fuel was performed to characterize parameters such as the radial neutron flux profile, the maximum to average flux ratio, the reactivity coefficient and critical boron concentration at beginning of life; which confirmed good performance in comparison to a standard UO₂ based pressurized water reactor.

Using this uranium oxide …

Computer Aided Detection Of Oral Lesions On Ct Images, Shaikat Mahmood Galib

Masters Theses

"Oral lesions are important findings on computed tomography images. They are difficult to detect on CT images because of low contrast, arbitrary orientation of objects, complicated topology and lack of clear lines indicating lesions. In this thesis, a fully automatic method to detect oral lesions from dental CT images is proposed to identify (1) Closed boundary lesions and (2) Bone deformation lesions. Two algorithms were developed to recognize these two types of lesions, which cover most of the lesion types that can be found on CT images. The results were validated using a dataset of 52 patients. Using non training …

Comprehensive Benefits Of Green Roofs, Madison R. Gibler

Masters Theses

"Green infrastructure uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage water and create healthier urban environments, providing traditional roof services and alternative stormwater management technologies. Other benefits and impacts are not yet fully understood or valued. Research conducted assesses specific stormwater benefits of green roofs, providing information on nutrient leaching from media; and analyzes potential energy benefits through side-by-side comparisons of full-scale white, traditional black rubber, and green roofs in the mid-continent Missouri climate. Roofing media selection impacted leaching of nutrients, suspended solids, and organic carbon from the tested green roof media. Thermal properties were investigated at the building level, …

Initial Fuel Possibilities For The Thorium Molten Salt Reactor, Dustin Gage Green

Masters Theses

"The Generation IV International Forum placed six reactors as priority for research and development to compensate for the world's increasing energy demands. Among the six were Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). These reactors utilize the Th/²³³U fuel cycle using molten fluoride or chloride salts as coolants. MSRs also have the possibility to use other fissile fuels especially with the first fleet of reactors given the low amount of Uranium-233 available commercially.

With the possibility of diverting from using ²³³U initially, the research presented here will benchmark ²³³U as a main fuel for MSRs using the Thorium Molten …

Characterizing The Influence Of Carbon On The Flowrate And Disinfection Efficacy Of Household Ceramic Water Filters, Jessie Yvonne Hahn

Masters Theses

"Drinking water contamination is a major cause of disease in developing countries. Point of Use (POU) water treatment technologies generally have low initial cost and allow rapid availability of improved water. Ceramic pot filters (CPFs) are a POU water source treatment technology which filter water by gravity through a porous ceramic media. Some filters in use contain carbon remnants left from the fugitive pore former as a dark carbon core. Using disk-shaped experimental ceramic filters produced in the lab to have varying levels of carbon, the percent carbon present was measured and a visual analysis method was developed to determine …

Esd Event Locator, Syed Abrar Ul Huq

Masters Theses

"Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) presents one of the most common threats to electronic systems especially in the cases of high-speed digital systems. ESD event locator systems have been designed to determine the location of the source of the ESD event using different techniques. One such method of determining the origin of the ESD event, is the use of four antennas and a high-speed Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) system to capture the ESD events.

This thesis presents such an implementation which deals with the design of an analog front-end to a fast TI LM97600 ADC and a Virtex-5 Field-Programmable Gated Array …

An Experimental Study Of Fabrication Temperature Effect On Aqueous Extrusion Freeform Fabrication, Jie Li

Masters Theses

"In order to understand the effect of fabrication temperature, a computer controlled 3-D gantry system was used to extrude aqueous alumina paste using Extrusion Freeform Fabrication. The system includes a temperature control subsystem that allows for fabrication of components below the paste's freezing temperature in the range of -10⁰C to -30⁰C and a hot plate with temperature in the range of 20⁰C to 80⁰C inside a room temperature chamber. Comparisons in terms of relative density, mechanical properties, part accuracy and minimum deposition angle were performed by Extrusion Freeform Fabrication at 40⁰C plate temperature inside a room temperature chamber and at …

Model Predictive Current Control Of Switched Reluctance Motor With Inductance Auto-Calibration, Xin Li

Masters Theses

"The thesis is composed of three papers, which investigate the application of Model Predictive Controller (MPC) for current control of Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM). Since the conventional hysteresis current control method is not suitable for high power SRM drive system with low inductance and limited switching frequency, MPC is a promising alternative approach for this application. The proposed MPC can cope with the measurement noise as well as uncertainties within the machine inductance profile. In the first paper, a MPC current control method for Double-Stator Switched Reluctance Motor (DSSRM) drives is presented. A direct adaptive estimator is incorporated to follow …

A Study Into Improving Transformer Loading Capability Beyond Nameplate Rating, Aakanksha Pasricha

Masters Theses

"Utilities are becoming increasingly interested in the prospect of overloading the transformers beyond the nameplate rating to meet the increased demand for power as it may be more economically viable than installing a new transformer. The safety of the transformer has to be ensured while overloading it and hence there is a maximum loading beyond which the transformer should not be overloaded. A study has been performed on 38 transformer units and the factors that limit their overloading capability have been analyzed. Ancillary equipment ratings were found to be the most prominent limiting factor. Several case studies and evaluation results …

Laser Surface And Sub-Surface Repair During Metal Additive Manufacturing, Prudvi Teja Ravi

Masters Theses

"This study examines the use of laser surface treatment to repair surface and subsurface defects. Numerical analysis was performed on laser surface melting using Gaussian heat distribution equations to analyze the depth of the melt pool created by the phenomena. Concurrently, a process map was developed with a planned set of experiments by varying the ranges of laser power and travel speed to determine the dimensions of the melt pool across the gamut. The data generated from both the process studies and the numerical analysis was then used to determine the ideal operating ranges of the process parameters to repair …

Spatial And Temporal Modulation Of Heat Source Using Light Modulator For Advanced Thermography, Arvindvivek Ravichandran

Masters Theses

"Thermography is a Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) method that has found increasing use in industry and research. It has the advantages of being non-contact and be able to interrogate a large surface simultaneously. Active thermography using flash lamps as heat source has been demonstrated for identifying blind holes and delamination in composites. Despite these advancements, active thermographic approach fails to defects like cracks. Under uniform illumination heat flow is predominantly 1D and can easily circumvent a narrow feature. This can be overcome by using a focused light/laser source onto the surface to impose a 3D heat flux. The disadvantage is that …

Computer Aided Diagnosis Of Oral Cancer: Using Time-Step Ct Images, Jonathan T. Scott

Masters Theses

"In medical imaging it is a very common practice to use a technique known as Time-Step imaging in patients who might develop cancer. Time-Step imaging it a very powerful technique, however it can lead to unmanageable amounts of image data. Previously the only way to search all of this data was to manually look through all of the files. This had to be done by trained professionals who knew what to look for within the images and make a judgment about the patient based on the images. This paper discusses the development of an algorithm to have a computer search …

Hybrid Manufacturing Process Of SicF/Sic Composite Using Preceramic Polymer, Robert Raymond Meinders

Masters Theses

"Continuous fiber-reinforced silicon carbide (SiC_f/SiC) ceramic composites have been increasingly used due to their high temperature strength and graceful failure mechanisms. A disadvantage is the high cost and lengthy production processes that are required to develop these materials. Polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) is one of the most attractive fabrication processes for composites due to shape flexibility, mass production and relatively low cost; however, the quality of material obtained by this method has been considered insufficient due to the microstructure defects of the material obtained. This study investigated a hybrid of multiple polymer manufacturing processes to maximize quality …

Estimation Of Tip-Sample Force In Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy Using Neural-Network And Repetitive Control Approaches, Alireza Toghraee

Masters Theses

"Atomic Force Microscopy is one of the most powerful tools for imaging, measuring and manipulating materials at nanometer scale. Among different modes of AFM, tapping mode, in which the oscillating tip touches the sample periodically, is most common mode. During the tip approach and retract, the tip interacts with sample and experiences different force regimes. This tip-sample interaction force contains information about the sample topology, material properties and tip geometry. However, quantitative measurement of the time-varying tip-sample interaction forcing function is challenging in the tapping mode because of the combined dynamic complexities of the cantilever and nonlinear complexity of the …

Factors Affecting The Heat Transfer During The Dip Testing Of Potential Third Generation Advanced High Strength Steels, Kramer Michael Pursell

Masters Theses

"A dip tester was designed and built at Missouri University of Science and Technology to test the effects of the primary alloying elements (Mn, Si, and Al) of Fe-Mn-Al-Si-C type 3rd generation advanced high strength steel (AHSS) alloys, dipping superheat, and dipping speed on the heat transfer during rapid solidification. The difficulties associated with casting 3rd generation AHSS were compiled as well to serve as a best-practices guide. An extensive list of potential 3rd generation AHSS alloys was developed and tested, and the effects of various dip testing parameters were examined.

Manganese was found to increase the heat flux by …

Aerial Vehicle Trajectory Design For Spatio-Temporal Task Satisfaction And Aggregation Based On Utility Metric, Amarender Reddy Mekala

Masters Theses

"Flight trajectories are mainly designed in order to make sure that the aerial vehicle reaches the destination point from the start point. In addition to that, the flight path is designed in such a way that the flight avoids dangerous zones and the maneuvers required for the path are practically feasible for the flight.

This thesis focuses on the aerial vehicle trajectory generation passing through a set of pre-defined way points while satisfying the task points sent by the ground base station in between the way points. Each specified waypoint is reached exactly at the specified location and time. Intermediate …

In Vitro Study Of Wound-Healing Capabilities Of Bioactive Glass Fibers Under Various Culture Conditions, Sisi Chen

Masters Theses

"Bioactive borate glass has been recognized to have both hard and soft tissue repair and regeneration capabilities through stimulating both osteogenesis and angiogenesis. However, the underlying physiological and cellular mechanism behind this function remains unclear. In this study, in vitro dynamic flow modules were designed to mimic the micro-environment near the vascular depletion and hyperplasia area in wound-healing regions, and were used to investigate the biocompatibility and functionality of borate glass nano-/micro-fibers. Glass-cell interactions were investigated either by dosing fibers to the upstream of or co-cultured with cells, and two types of borate glasses (with or without CuO/ZnO doped were …

Damage Detection Through Acoustic Emission Of Fracture Processes In Concrete Masonry Units, John Alexander Cain

Masters Theses

"Masonry structures are vulnerable to earthquakes; their brittleness and discontinuous formation make them susceptible to collapse. In the event of an emergency, this could be detrimental and perhaps fatal. The area of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is focused on understanding the behavior of structures for the sake of safety and predicting their longevity. One applicable technique to monitor this behavior is Acoustic Emission (AE). Acoustic Emissions are transient elastic waves released as microcracks nucleate from stress intensities, coalesce into cracks and then accumulate as damage. AE monitoring is a favorable method because it is capable of detecting cracking from within …