Digital Commons Network^™

Assisted Living: Internal Communication To Align Identity And Image, Katherine Pittman Govito

Theses and Dissertations

Accomplishment of the mission of any organization relies on relationships developed. Key to these relationships is an internal communication program. As a function of public relations, the value of an internal communication program must be recognized as a requirement and implemented to achieve objectives set forth in an organization's mission statement.

This case study established the core elements of the mission statement of Meadow Glen, an assisted-living facility. The researcher evaluated its internal communication program by conducting surveys of Meadow Glen's three central internal relationships to measure alignment of its identity with its image. The three groups surveyed were: employees, …

Large Eddy Simulation Based Turbulent Flow-Induced Vibration Of Fully Developed Pipe Flow, Matthew Thurlow Pittard

Theses and Dissertations

Flow-induced vibration caused by fully developed pipe flow has been recognized, but not fully investigated under turbulent conditions. This thesis focuses on the development of a numerical Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) model that will help define the relationship between pipe wall vibration and the physical characteristics of turbulent flow. Commercial FSI software packages are based on Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) fluid models, which do not compute the instantaneous fluctuations in turbulent flow. This thesis presents an FSI approach based on Large Eddy Simulation (LES) flow models, which do compute the instantaneous fluctuations in turbulent flow. The results based on the LES …

How Safe Do Individuals Feel In Clayton County?, Scott M. Clemens

Theses and Dissertations

To determine if individuals feel safe in their communities, a self- administered questionnaire was distributed to six hundred residents of Clayton County, Georgia. In addition to overall safety, the survey sought to measure how being a victim of a burglary or rape and the level of income impacts the individuals' feeling of safety. The survey also sought to measure how safe those same individuals believed the community was for their children and how likely a terrorist attack was in the county. Non- probability sampling, specifically the accidental sample, was used for conducting the research. The results of the survey show …

Compliant Centrifugal Clutches: Design, Analysis, And Testing, Nathan B. Crane

Theses and Dissertations

Existing classes of centrifugal clutch concepts were reviewed. The pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM), rigid-body replacement synthesis, force-deflection analysis, compliance potential evaluation, and compliant concept evaluation were used to develop effective new centrifugal clutch concepts. These methods helped develop and model four novel compliant centrifugal clutch designs, model two existing designs, and identify a concept with excellent potential for low-cost centrifugal clutch applications. This concept, the floating opposing arm (FOA) clutch, doubles the torque capacity metric relative to existing compliant designs. Torque and engagement speed models for this clutch were developed and verified against four prototype clutches. Additional novel designs devel-oped through …

Fabrication Of And Transport Studies On Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide/Praseodymium Barium Copper Oxide-Type Multilayers., Udom Tipparach

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation described herein includes the fabrication of and experimental studies on the family of insulators PrBa2(Cu1−xM x)3O7−δ (PBCMO), with M = Al, Fe, Ni, Zn, Co, Ga, and x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20. The samples were grown by the solid state reaction technique. The purposes was to find a better buffer layer material for fabricating superconducting devices from an YBa2Cu 3O7−δ (YBCO) superconductor. An ideal buffer layer must have the same crystal structure as YBCO, with well-matched lattice parameters, and must also provide adequate electrical resistivity to serve as an insulating layer for YBCO/PBCMO multilayers. If …

A Five-Zone Model For Direct Injection Diesel Combustion, Rich Asay

Theses and Dissertations

Recent imaging studies have provided a new conceptual model of the internal structure of direct injection diesel fuel jets as well as empirical correlations predicting jet development and structure. This information was used to create a diesel cycle simulation model using C language including compression, fuel injection and combustion, and expansion processes. Empirical relationships were used to create a new mixing-limited zero-dimensional model of the diesel combustion process. During fuel injection five zones were created to model the reacting fuel jet: 1) liquid phase fuel 2) vapor phase fuel 3) rich premixed products 4) diffusion flame sheath 5) surrounding bulk …

Theory, Design, And Fabrication Of Diffractive Grating Coupler For Slab Waveguide, Kevin Randolph Harper

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the theory design and fabrication of a diffractive grating coupler. The first part of the design process is to choose the period of the grating coupler based on the desired coupling angle. The second part of the design process is to choose the geometry of the grating that gives maximum coupling efficiency based on rigorous analyses.

The diffraction gratings are fabricated by recording the interference between two waves in photoresist. The waveguide is fabricated from silicon nitride that is deposited by chemical vapor deposition. The diffraction grating recording assembly is described along with the grating coupler fabrication …

Schema Matching And Data Extraction Over Html Tables, Cui Tao

Theses and Dissertations

Data on the Web in HTML tables is mostly structured, but we usually do not know the structure in advance. Thus, we cannot directly query for data of interest. We propose a solution to this problem for the case of mostly structured data in the form of HTML tables, based on document-independent extraction ontologies. The solution entails elements of table location and table understanding, data integration, and wrapper creation. Table location and understanding allows us to locate the table of interest, recognize attributes and values, pair attributes with values, and form records. Data-integration techniques allow us to match source records …

A Descriptive Performance Model Of Small, Low Cost, Diskless Beowulf Clusters, Curtis R. Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

Commodity supercomputing clusters known as Beowulf clusters, have become a low cost alternative to traditional supercomputers. Beowulf clusters combine inexpensive computers and specialized software to achieve supercomputing power. The processing nodes in a diskless Beowulf cluster do not have a local hard disk unlike the nodes in most commodity clusters. Research has provided performance information for diskless clusters built with expensive, high performance equipment. Beowulf clusters use commodity off-the-shell hardware, and little information is available about their performance. This research includes the construction of several diskless Beowulf clusters. Using the NAS Parallel Benchmarks, the performance of these clusters was measured. …

Prehistoric Timberline Adaptations In The Eastern Uinta Mountains, Utah, Michelle Knoll

Theses and Dissertations

Excavations at a high altitude archaeological site (3350 m) in the eastern Uinta Mountains, Utah, uncovered at least three ephemeral brush structures. These temporary timberline dwellings are the highest structures excavated in Utah to date. The periods of occupation range from the early Fremont period to the post-contact era. It is believed that the Fremont occupations are logistical in nature, possibly representing male hunting parties. Logistical camps imply a departure from, and return to, a residential camp. Ethnographic studies show that most residential camps are located within proximity to culinary plants to facilitate collection by women. In the Uinta Mountains, …

A Study Of Radiofrequency Cardiac Ablation Using Analytical And Numerical Techniques, Ryan Todd Roper

Theses and Dissertations

Studies on radiofrequency (RF) ablation are often aimed at accurately predicting tissue temperature distributions by numerical solution of the bioheat equation. This thesis describes the development of an analytical solution to serve as a benchmark for subsequent numerical solutions. The solution, which was obtained using integral transforms, has the form of a surface integral nested within another surface integral. An integration routine capable of evaluating such integrals was developed and a C program was written to implement this routine. The surface integration routine was validated using a surface integral with a known analytical solution. The routine was, then, used to …

Social Studies And The Internet, Kristen Heider

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to address two primary questions: (1) to determine if students' attitudes towards using the Internet as a resource changed as a result of their applying a web evaluation guide, and (2) to determine if the quality of students' research products improved as a result of web evaluation lessons. The ninth grade, world history students' familiarity and prior use of the Internet with research projects was assessed through a pre-survey as well as the review of their prior research papers and projects. Finally, taking into consideration progress and curriculum, research projects were assigned individually, allowing class time in …

Toys And Cartoons: The Correlation Between Animated Properties And Toy Products, John Diego Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract available.

Epidemiology Of Ustilago Bullata Berk. On Bromus Tectorum L. And Implication For Biological Control, Toupta Boguena

Theses and Dissertations

The seedling-infecting pathogen Ustilago bullata Berk. is a naturally occurring biological control agent for cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.). The effects of temperature and nutrients on pathogen teliospore germination behavior and the effects of temperature on host seed germination were examined. The effects of temperature on sporidial proliferation, host infection in a temperature-controlled environment and in a field setting for eight populations were investigated. The infection success of Ustilago bullata on Bromus tectorum in cultivated fields as a function of seeding date, inoculation method, inoculum density, supplemental watering, and litter was also investigated. Teliospores germinated faster on potato dextrose agar than …

Bullying In College And Relation To Self-Esteem And Parenting Styles, Steven Russell

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates bullying in college and the relationship of bullying and self-esteem in the victims of bullying, as well as the relationship of parenting styles to bullying behavior. The study utilized N = 85 undergraduate students from a midsize northeastern university. The participants were administered a demographic questionnaire, a bullying questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Frequency percentages were used to report incidence and types of bullying behavior. A correlation matrix was employed to ascertain the relationships between bullying and self-esteem, as well as between parenting style and bullying behavior, and a multiple regression analysis …

Incorporating Functionally Graded Materials And Precipitation Hardening Into Microstructure Sensitive Design, Mark Edward Lyon

Theses and Dissertations

The methods of MSD are applied to the design of functionally graded materials. Analysis models are presented to allow the design of compliant derailleur for a case study and constraints are placed on the design. Several methods are presented for relating elements of the microstructure to the properties of the material, including Taylor yield theory, Hill elastic bounds, and precipitation hardening.

Applying n-point statistics to the MSD framework is also discussed. Some results are presented for the information content of the 2-point correlation statistics that follow from the methods used to integrate functionally graded materials into MSD.

For the compliant …

Design And Analysis Of End-Effector Systems For Scribing On Silicon, Bennion Rhead Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates end-effector systems used in a chemomechanical scribing process. Chemomechanical scribing is a method of patterning silicon to selectively deposit a monolayer of material on the surface of the silicon. This thesis details the development of a unique end-effector for chemomechanical scribing using a compliant mechanism solution. The end-effector is developed to scribe lines that have uniform geometry and produce less chipping on the surface of the silicon. The resulting scribing mechanism is passively controlled, has high lateral stiffness, and low axial stiffness. The mechanism is analyzed using the pseudo-rigid-body model and linear-elastic beam method to determine the …

Influence Of Aluminum Ion On The Anaerobic Treatment Of A Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater, Julio Alberto Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of Al 3+ on the anaerobic treatment of a poultry slaughterhouse wastewater was studied in this work. The soluble COD (SCOD), volatile acid (VA) concentrations, and methane yield values were measured and compared for zero, 15, and 40 ppm Al 3+ runs. Methane yields of 55.4, 144.2, and 215.4 ml CH4/g. COD for zero, 15, and 40 ppm Al 3+ concentrations, respectively, were observed. Furthermore, SCOD and VAs were not detectable in the reactor that was seeded with 40 ppm Al 3+. It was concluded that inhibitory effects of long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) on aceticlastic methanogens were …

Estimation Of Soil Moisture Using Active Microwave Remote Sensing, Vinod Ramnath

Theses and Dissertations

The method for developing a soil moisture inversion algorithm using Radar data can be approached in two ways: the multiple-incident angle approach and the change detection method. This thesis discusses how these two methods can be used to predict surface soil moisture. In the multiple incident angle approach, surface roughness can be mapped, if multiple incident angle viewing is possible and if the surface roughness is assumed constant during data acquisitions. A backpropagation neural network (NN) is trained with the data set generated by the Integral Equation Method (IEM) model. The training data set includes possible combinations of backscatter obtained …

Solubility Studies On The Na - F - Po4 System In Sodium Nitrate And In Sodium Hydroxide Solutions, Dinesh Kumar Selvaraj

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis investigates the solubility of various sodium salts present in the waste tanks at the Hanford nuclear site. The experiments were conducted in different concentrations of caustic and in water at 25°C and 50°C. The results obtained from these studies will be used to improve existing databases for the Environmental Simulation Program (ESP, available from OLI Systems, Inc.), thereby increasing its accuracy in predicting waste behavior under high ionic strength conditions. Experiments were performed on the following systems: 1) NaF - NaNO3 - NaOH, 2) Na3PO4 - NaNO3 - NaOH, 3) NaF - Na3PO4 - 1m NaNO3 - NaOH, …

A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Neural Networks For Elemental Concentration From Libs Spectra, Prasanthi Inakollu

Theses and Dissertations

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an advanced data analysis technique for spectral analysis based on the direct measurement of the spectrum of optical emission from a laser-induced plasma. Assignment of different atomic and ionic lines, which are signatures of a particular element, is the basis of a qualitative identification of the species present in plasma. The relative intensities of these atomic and ionic lines can be used for the quantitative determination of the corresponding elements present in different samples. Calibration curve based on absolute intensity is the statistical method of determining concentrations of elements in different samples. Since we need …

The Evaluation Of Type-M Forager® Sponge Technology To Recycle Soil-Washing Amendments, Rhonda Spiess Fetters

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to determine if two commonly used soil-washing extracting agents, namely EDTA and nitric acid, could be recycled and reused in subsequent soil-washing processes. This research focuses on the removal of lead from three real-world soils collected from military installations and the evaluation of a chelating polymer termed Type-M Forager® Sponge to recycle the soil-washing effluent. The results of this experiment indicate that the EDTA soil-washing effluent was as effective at removing lead from soil after two recycle processes as it was during the initial simulated soil-washing process. The nitric acid extracting agent solution, however, …

A Global Preconditioning Method For The Euler Equations, B. Gazi Yildirim

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to validate a recently introduced global preconditioning technique for the Euler equations. Energy and enthalpy equations are nondimensionalized by means of a reference enthalpy, resulting in increased numerical accuracy for low-speed flows. A cellbased, finite volume formulation is used, with Roe flux difference splitting and both explicit and implicit time integration schemes. A Newton-linearized iterative implicit algorithm is implemented, with Symmetric Gauss-Seidel (LU/SGS) nested sub-iterations. This choice allows one to retain time accuracy, and eliminates approximate factorization errors, which become dominant at low speed flows. The linearized flux Jacobians are evaluated by numerical differentiation. Higher-order discretization is …

Effects Of Communication Protocol Stack Offload On Parallel Performance In Clusters, Boris Vladimirovich Protopopov

Theses and Dissertations

The primary research objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the effects of communication protocol stack offload (CPSO) on application execution time can be attributed to the following two complementary sources. First, the application-specific computation may be executed concurrently with the asynchronous communication performed by the communication protocol stack offload engine. Second, the protocol stack processing can be accelerated or decelerated by the offload engine. These two types of performance effects can be quantified with the use of the degree of overlapping Do and degree of acceleration Daccs. The composite communication speedup metrics S_comm(Do, Daccs) can be used in …

Combined Ozone And Ultraviolet Inactivation Of Escherichia Coli, Gaurav Savant

Theses and Dissertations

The kinetics of Escherichia coli inactivation were studied using ultraviolet (UV) radiation, ozone, and UV and ozone (UVO) in combination in a batch reactor at varying pH levels (6, 7, and 8) and at a constant temperature of 25°C. The inactivation kinetics for all three treatment processes was pseudo first order, and the reaction rate constants were considered to be additive such that a combined reaction rate could be obtained by adding the kinetic rates of the processes applied and numerically small rates could be neglected in the computation of the combined rate. Statistical tests (ANOVA and student's t-test) performed …

A Physico-Chemical Characterization Of Salt Cake Dissolution And Study Of Sodium Phosphate Dodechydrate Plug Remediation, Tushar Subhash Durve

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is divided into two projects. The first project investigates the dissolution of the Hanford salt cakes, the chemical properties of the effluent and the physical properties such as viscosity of the effluent, the porosity and the permeability of the salt cake bed as the dissolution proceeds. The chemical results are compared to predictions using a thermodynamic model. Physical properties are important because they govern the rate at which the Hanford tanks can be emptied thus facilitating the remediation process. Two simulants were investigated for the dissolution process. The chemical analysis matched with the model predictions for both the …

From Challenge To Triumph: The Voices Of African American Male Students At Mid-Atlantic University, Ted Nicholas Ingram

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes among African American men concerning issues of retention at a predominantly white college. This study explains issues attendant to the problem of the low numbers of African American males in higher education. Furthermore, this study seeks to identify factors that are successful with keeping African American males in college. The methodology consisted of quantitative (surveys) and qualitative analyses (focus group interviews) that focused on the factors associated with the experiences of African American male college students (N=123). From this exploratory investigation, students identified advisors and counselors, faculty instructors, mentors, and …

The Rise And Fall Of Programmed Instruction: Informing Instructional Technologists Through A Study Of The Past, Jason K. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

Instructional technologists have recently been called upon to examine the assumptions they hold about teaching and learning, and to consider how those assumptions can affect their practice of the discipline. This thesis is an examination of how the assumptions instructional technologists hold can result in instructional materials that do not accomplish the original goals the developers set out to achieve. I explored this issue by examining the case study of programmed instruction, an educational movement from the mid-20th century that promised to revolutionize education but never lived up to its potential. Programmed instruction was heavily influenced by the assumptions of …

Latter-Day Saints In Popular National Periodicals 1970-1981, Adam H. Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

The public image of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the product of several factors. This thesis investigates that image as presented in national periodicals from 1970 to 1981. During this time "Mormons" and "Mormonism" was a popular topic as the religion gained notoriety, and as an awareness of its peculiar beliefs and practices increased.

The rationale for using national magazines to assess public image is the assumption that they "reflect prevailing points of view" and help "formulate public opinion." Since popular attitudes are one of the factors that influence how the Church is accepted in the …

Student Perceptions Of Hybrid Classes At A Notebook University, Dawn M. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate whether students at Valley City State University perceive that hybrid classes, as compared to the traditional face-to-face classes, improve their learning experience through the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education by Chickering and Gamson. The objectives were to identify how students perceive hybrid classes, determine whether differences exist between male and female students in the perception of hybrid classes, determine if there is a relationship between the number of hybrid courses taken and perception of hybrid classes, and determine if differences exist between academic standing and perceptions of hybrid …