Digital Commons Network^™

Disposable Versus Reusable Ware: Cost Evaluation Model Development, Ravi Pandit

Theses

The ever growing problem of solid waste, stricter environmental regulations, diminishing landfill space and escalating recycling costs have forced the foodservice operations using disposable ware to find economical alternatives to the solid waste generated. A computerized model was developed that enables foodservice operators to evaluate the cost differences between the use of disposable ware and reusable ware and further make a decision as to which ware is suitable, economically and environmentally, for their operation. The cost evaluation model was based on the 1969 Laventhol & Horwath model developed for the Permanent Ware Institute Chicago, Illinois. The model consists of three …

A Comparison Of High-End Color System Halftones And Postscript-Generated Halftones, Mary Lee Schneider

Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of PostScriptgenerated four-color halftones to halftones produced by traditional high-end color systems. The quality issue is one that must be addressed before a decision can be made to move magazine production onto a complete desktop publishing platform. In moving layout and design functions onto a desktop publishing platform, publishers can take advantage of PostScript as a page-description language to electronically create complete pages. Electronic assembly would eliminate the mechanical stripping step, allowing great reductions in prepress manufacturing costs. There are two routes that can be taken to output these electronic …

The Abstract Of The Lindenwood College Volunteer Survey, Glenda Dawn Raef Schaefer

Theses

Lindenwood College needed more volunteers to help in the alumni and development departments. When this project began in 1988, alumni volunteers helped with the phonathon, mailings, networking for fund raising, and scholarship fund raising, as well as planning the annual Alumni Reunion. There were many more tasks than volunteers. Those who were faithful to their duties often "burned out" in a short time. As an active alumna, I felt the need for more help. We knew there were alumni willing to help, but we did not know who they were. When the development staff person who was to have developed …

The Effects Of Spousal Career Status On The Decision To Offer Promotion, Gregory B. Holder

Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between the career status of a female employee's spouse and her promotability. Previous research has suggested managerial bias against dual-career marriages based on assumptions regarding geographic mobility and commitment to career (Rosen, Jerdee, and Prestwich, 1975; LeLouam and Decotiis, 1983). Expanding on this premise, 60 managers from a large, regional corporation were enlisted. Each manager was given a brief series of personnel decisions to rate on a four-point scale ranging from 1 (certain denial) to 4 (certain approval). One of these decisions concerned whether or not to offer a …

The Valuation Of Minority Interests In A Closely Held Corporation, Richard Houlihan

Theses

According to the 1990 Statistical Abstract of the United States, approximately 17 million businesses exist in the U.S. They are comprised of over 3.4 million corporations, 1.7 million partnerships, and more than 12 million sole proprietorships. Furthermore, the United Shareholders Association reports that there are approximately 47 million minority shareholders in approximately 10,000 U.S. public companies. It is logical to infer from this data that millions of minority shareholders also exist in closely held companies - that is, non-publicly traded companies.

A minority interest is an interest which has no meaningful control over the day-to-day operations of a business, as …

Genroute: A Genetic Algorithm Printed Wire Board (Printed Wire Board (Pwb) Router), Bob Coward

Theses

The major effort of this thesis was to develop an electronic circuit routing system that utilizes genetic algorithms to perform Printed Wire Board (PWB) routing rather than brute force exhaustive searching methods. This problem can be classified as an NP-Hard optimization problem searching a large solution space. Some desirable characteristics of an electronic routing system are that it: Minimize the number of potential solutions Minimize the number of board layers and tap holes Minimize trace lengths and the number of "jogs" Minimize trace cross-talk and the board capacitance.

Management Decision Making And Political Viability Criteria In Large Corporate Organizations, Kalman J. Kovach

Theses

This thesis focuses on the magnitude of political viability in managerial decision making in large corporate organizations . Political viability ls defined as perpetuating shrewdness to flourish one's career within an organization.

Recent economic conditions and global competitiveness have forced corporations to examine their traditional managerial roles. As a result, many corporations have totally revamped goals and objectives in an attempt to present a clear and unobstructed vision of their mission.

Over the last decade research done by organizational psychologists, consultants, independent ·think· tanks, and decision experts have bombasted corporations with many management philosophies . Decision making is an integral …

An Expert System To Generate Musical Variations In The Style Of Telemann, Kathy Johnson Merck

Theses

Musical performance practice during the Baroque period (approximately 1600 - 1750) required that a solo performer be adept at adding extemporaneous variations on the composer's original melody during performance. Atypically, George Phillip Telemann, in his "Methodical Sonatas", provided, along with the original melody line, a written-out variation of that line. Using knowledge of the Baroque style in general and that gleaned from an analysis of Telemann's variations in particular, this expert system models a Baroque musician's (expert's) process of creating such variations. The variation process (programmed in Prolog) involves transformations to a list structure which represents the piece. The system …

Thermal Evaluation Of An Integrated Circuit Chip Using Infrared Imaging And Finite Element Techniques, Terence Lerch

Theses

Thermal Analysis of a prototype IC chip was performed with the use of an Agema Infrared Thermal Imaging System and the Algor Thermal Supersap Heat Transfer finite elements software package. A preliminary calibration of the Agema Thermal Imaging system demonstrated its accuracy to be within ± 0.5 °C of the actual surface temperature being measured. Computed emissivities were within 6.0% of actual emissivity values of a surface. Qualitative comparison of the IC chip's temperature profiles measured by the Agema system and computed by the Algor finite elements package revealed agreement between the two techniques. Quantitative comparison between the two resulted …

An Investigation Of The Effect Of A Reverse Engineering Tool On The Software Maintenance Effort, Leonie Menco Fernandes

Theses

In order to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of software engineering aids in software program maintenance, productivity improvements as measured by the time to task completion -- for a representative sample of Software Engineers were assessed, with and without the use of a commercially available CASE tool. These improvements were also measured in relation to the level of experience of the Software Engineer and the complexity level of the program maintained. Results show that the CASE tool appeared to have a significant impact on the productivity of the Software Engineers included in the study. The effect of the tool in …

Computational Methods For Contact Stress Problems With Normal And Tangential Loading, Christopher R. Mcgoldrick

Theses

This investigation contains an historical overview of contact stresses including various classifications of the problem and their associated solutions. The solution for the normal loading elliptical contact problem is reviewed, as formulated using classic methods of linear elasticity theory. An efficient computational method is developed to evaluate the elliptic integrals that arise. The limitations of this solution are investigated in detail and it is shown how the method could be extended to the sliding elliptical contact problem. Practical applications of contact stresses are included with an emphasis on mechanical design. Differences between the continuum model and the behavior of real …

An Object-Oriented Drawing Package In Smalltalk/V, Sigrid E. Mortensen

Theses

Graphics creation applications tend to fall into two categories: bit-mapped paint packages, and object-oriented drawing packages. Although each interface has its own unique advantages, few vendors have attempted to integrate the two into a single package. Those who have tried have, in fact, poor integration both from the user's perspective and in the underlying mathematical model. In this thesis, I have addressed the issue of integrating bit-mapped and object-oriented interfaces by creating an object-oriented graphics package which provides the user with a consistent interface for creating and manipulating both graphical objects and bit-mapped graphics. The consistency of the interface was …

An Experiment In The Complexity Of Load Balancing Algorithms, Charles Carlino

Theses

Not provided.

Transition Through Resonance In Linear And Nonlinear Systems, Mantrala Anand

Theses

In this work an asymptotic method known as the Krylov- Bogol iubov-Mit ropolsky (KBM) method is used to analyze linear and nonlinear systems. A system of first order equations for amplitude and phase is deduced. Using these first order equations the amplitude-response is approximated. The amplitude-response is then compared with the displacement response obtained by the Runge-Kutta method. Also, a comparative study is made between the stationary and nonstat ionary resonances in linear and nonlinear systems. The effect of linear variation of forcing frequency on the amplitude of the systems is closely examined. The consequence of different sweep rates on …

A Vibrational Study Of Gear Pumps And Gear Pump Drives, Matthew Kulpa

Theses

Process equipment used for lamination was evaluated to determine the causes for variance of the thickness of the laminated material applied to the plastic sheathing. This study selected one area, specifically the pumping system, for further evaluation. The pumping system being evaluated to determine the dynamic characteristics of the flow and to determine if any vibrations from the gear drive unit were being transmitted through the pump to perturb the flow. The natural frequencies were determined analytically and experimentally for shafts in bending and angular modes. The excitation frequencies (frequencies actually generated through the actual running of the gear drive …

Nonlinear Dynamics Of A Magnetoelastic System, Chetan O. Modi

Theses

A dynamically buckled elastic beam is a physically realizable system exhibiting both periodic and chaotic behavior. The equations of motion are developed as a finite dimensional Galerkin approximation of an infinite degree of freedom system. Generalized eigenvalues or Lyapunov exponents are introduced as a quantitative characterization of chaos, i.e. unstable but bounded motion. A semi-discrete method for the estimation of the Lyapunov spectrum is used to investigate the influence of the forcing parameters on the system response. The equations of motion are then integrated numerically to correlate the steady state response with the value of the associated largest Lyapunov exponent.

Ms. Pacrat: A Feeling, Thinking Machine, Lorraine D'Ortona

Theses

Since before the time of the first digital computers, the workings of the mind have been compared to that of a machine. With the onset of the discipline of Artificial Intelligence a truly organized attempt has been made to build intelligent machines that model the mind. Many interesting programs have been built, but the legitimacy of their success is a matter of great controversy. None of the AI programs developed so far have come close to the true power and intelligence of the brain. Expert systems, for example, are the most success ful commercial AI programs, and even they have …

Fast Multiplication Of Multiple-Precision Integers, Sonja Benz

Theses

Multiple-precision multiplication algorithms are of fundamental interest for both theoretical and practical reasons. The conventional method requires 0(n2) bit operations whereas the fastest known multiplication algorithm is of order 0(n log n log log n). The price that has to be paid for the increase in speed is a much more sophisticated theory and programming code. This work presents an extensive study of the best known multiple-precision multiplication algorithms. Different algorithms are implemented in C, their performance is analyzed in detail and compared to each other. The break even points, which are essential for the selection of the fastest algorithm …

Determination Of The Thermal Properties Of Thin Polymer Films, Duane A. Swanson

Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze heat transfer characteristics of cavitated-core polymer films. The effects of thickness and composition on the insulative properties of thin polymer films were studied. Two experimental tests were developed to measure the heat transfer rate through a variety of thin films. One test apparatus was used to study convective and radiative effects while the second was used to study the conductive effects. A finite element model of a frozen food commodity wrapped in an insulative thin film was developed. Transient simulations were performed for the dynamic characterization of thermal wave propagation across the …

Vowel Recognition Using Kohonen's Self-Organizing Feature Maps, Anand R. K. Sundaram

Theses

An important organizing principle observed in the sensory pathways in the brain is the orderly placement of neurons. Although the neurons are structurally identical, the specialized role played by each unit is determined by its internal parameters that are made to change during early learning processes. In the human auditory system, the nerve cells and fibres are arranged in a manner that would elicit maximum response from the neurons when they are activated. Although most of this organization is genetically determined, some of the high level organization is created due to algorithms that promote self-organization. Kohonen's self-organizing feature map is …

Optimal Linearization Of Anharmonic Oscillators, Jungkun Lee

Theses

This investigation is based on the geometric analysis of phase trajectories and incurred vector fields associated with nonlinear oscillators. Optimal curve fitting techniques are applied in the phase plane, in an effort to generate a so-called "geometric averaging". The results are then compared with those generated by classical techniques such as harmonic balance and equivalent linearization, as well as by numerical integration. The investigation is extended to nonlinear mult iple-degree-of -freedom systems. Frequencies of oscillations and mode shapes are derived based on the optimal equivalent linearization process. The results are also compared with numerical integration for justification. It is shown …

Algorithm Animation And Its Application To Artificial Neural Network Learning, Walter Bubie C.

Theses

Algorithm animation is a means of exploring the dynamic behavior of algorithms using computer-generated graphics to represent algorithm data and operations. Research in this field has focused on the architecture of flexible environments for exploring small, complex algorithms for data structure manipulation. This thesis describes a project examining two relatively unexplored aspects of algorithm animation: issues of view design effectiveness and its application to a different type of algorithm, namely back-propagation artificial neural network learning. The work entailed developing a framework for profiling views according to attributes such as symmetry, regularity, complexity, etc. This framework was based on current research …

Integrated Component-Based Computer Design Modeling System : The Implications Of The Representation Of Control Parameters On The Design Process, Allen D. Jablonski

Theses

The design process is dependent on a clear order of integrating and managing all of the control parameters that impact on a building's design. All component elements of a building must be defined by their: Physical and functional relations; Quantitative and calculable properties; Component and/or system functions. This requires a means of representation to depict a model of a building that can be viewed and interpreted by a variety of interested parties. These parties need different types of representation to address their individual control parameters, as each component instance has specific implications on all of the control parameters.

Representations are …

Adaptive Stack Filtering By Lms And Perceptron Learning, Yu-Chou Huang

Theses

Stack filters are a class of sliding?window nonlinear digital filters that possess the weak superposition property(threshold decomposition) and the ordering property known as the stacking property. They have been demonstrated to be robust in suppressing noise. Two methods are introduced in this thesis to adaptively configure a stack filter. One is by employing the Least Mean Square(LMS) algorithm and the other is based on Perceptron learning.

Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods to noise suppression.

Implementation Of Object Oriented University Database Using Vodak/Vml-0 Prototype, Abhay V. Bhave

Theses

In recent years object - oriented programming has gained a tremendous popularity in the design and implementation of emerging data - intensive application systems. Object oriented knowledge based approaches have proved to be very powerful vehicle when developing, integrating complex systems.

Using a University database demonstrated here is an object oriented model. This model uses VODAK/VML-0 prototype which was developed by GMD - IPSI, Darmstadt FRG. The Conceptual Schema of this database was done using The Dual Model, but as the current VODAK/VML version does not support dual model, the schema was modified before use. There are 167 classes defined …

A Transistor Delay Model Based On Charge Conservation, Bharatsingh K. Bisen

Theses

Delay information of a circuit is often used in the areas of timing verification, timing analysis, race detection and circuit optimization. Given a circuit its delay can be estimated by various simulation techniques. SPICE is one of the simulation techniques, but it is seen that with the increase in the complexity of the circuit the SPICE circuit simulation technique to obtain delay information become cumbersome and computationally too expensive. So as to overcome the above disadvantages of the circuit simulation technique to obtain delay information various timing delay models were developed. However general survey of most of these timing delay …

A Pc Based Computer Model With A Postprocessor For The Movement Of Groundwater, Joseph Byra

Theses

Currently available computer programs that model groundwater flow are inherently limited in their capabilities, in one way or another. Additionally, many of these computer programs are relatively inaccessible to the general user because they operate off of mainframe computers and sophisticated plotters. As a result, a simple to use computer program called 2DFLOW has been modified so it can be run on a personal IBM compatible computer. It models steady-state fluid flow through saturated porous media. In addition, a postprocessor called 2DPLOT has been developed. The postprocessor generates the equipotential contours and the flux vectors that describe the physics of …

A Study Of Machining Parameters To Optimize Surface Finish In Metal Cutting Through Cnc, S. Waseem H. Zaidi

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to find the relationship between surface finish and machining parameters. A series of experiments have been performed at shop floor of NJIT, on MAZAK(CNC turning center), using two different cutting tool materials(high speed steel and cemented carbide) and a workpiece of Aluminium. The results have been then evaluated and analyzed to see the effects of various combinations of cutting conditions, that is, feed, speed, and depth of cut. Recommendations have been made on the basis of analysis to estimate the minimum and maximum values of surface roughness with respect to the cutting conditions for …

An Investigation Of Optoelectronic Integrated Circuit Receiver, Dinar S. Gupte

Theses

This thesis report presents an investigation of an OptoElectronic Integrated receiver Circuit (OEIC). An OEIC on Silicon (Si) substrate is analyzed and simulated as part of this investigation. The OEIC is based on GaAs technology. The advantages of this are its compactness, high speed, low noise and high reliability in light wave communication systems. A higher output signal is required to make such devices suitable for practical applications. This is achieved by the use of a cascode stage. The fabrication techniques of the relevant semiconductor devices have also been discussed.

In light wave communication systems, the region of minimum losses …

Analysis Of Field Distribution Of A Dielectric Resonator And Its Applications, Manohar R. Kamath

Theses

Dielectric resonators (DR) are suitably shaped objects made of high dielectric constant materials like TiO₂, BaO, ZnO, and accessory ingredients, which can function as electrical resonators covering a very wide frequency range upto 40GHz. The physical dimensions of dielectric resonators are in mm range. High dielectric constant material resonators seem to be ideally suited for microwave applications because of their miniature size, low loss, insensitivity to magnetic dc biasing fields, and ability to concentrate large RF magnetic fields in small volumes. However temperature stabilization of dielectric resonators is an important consideration as the center frequency is a function …