Digital Commons Network^™

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet: Annual Assessment Of Customer Needs And Satisfaction: Mail Survey, Patsy Anderson, Kris Hockensmith

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, both through its own quality initiative and a statewide "Empower Kentucky" campaign, has a commitment to achieve new levels of quality in the development, construction and maintenance of highways. In order to gage progress, there is a need to establish a baseline of customer satisfaction with the current highway system, and determine needs as, perceived by the users of the highway system. As a result, the University of Kentucky Transportation Center, Technology Exchange Unit, was contracted to conduct a customer needs and satisfaction survey. The objectives of this study are to:

A. Ascertain Kentucky highway users' …

Harnessing User Communities For Website Location And Evaluation, Tim Beal, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The AsiaWeb Project is looking at the problem of accessing quality and relevant information on the Web. It is the product of collaboration between two disciplinary standpoints. Dr Mimi Recker is approaching the problem from a generic, systems viewpoint, seeing the information domain as a case study and Dr Tim Beal has an interest in the computer access and manipulation of information on Japan, and Asia generally. We are taking business information on Asia as the general subject and within this Japan is a priority area. However, it is considered that the techniques developed could be applied to any subject …

Modeling Of Surface Hairline-Crack Detection In Metals Under Coatings Using An Open-Ended Rectangular Waveguide, Christian J. Huber, Habibollah Abiri, Stoyan I. Ganchev, R. Zoughi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A surface-breaking hairline crack or a narrow slot in a metallic specimen when scanned by an open-ended rectangular waveguide probe influences the reflection-coefficient properties of the incident dominant mode. Subsequent recording of a change in the standing-wave pattern while scanning such a surface results in what is known as the crack characteristic signal. Since microwave signals penetrate inside dielectric materials, this methodology is capable of detecting cracks under dielectric coatings of various electrical thicknesses as well. To electromagnetically model the interaction of an open-ended rectangular waveguide with a surface-breaking hairline crack under a dielectric coating, the dielectric-coating layer is modeled …

Searches For Scalar Top And Scalar Bottom Quarks At Lep2, Barate, R.; Et Al., M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Searches for scalar top and bottom quarks have been performed with data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP. The data sample consists of 21.7 pb−1 taken at √ s = 161, 170, and 172 GeV and 5.7 pb−1 taken at √ s = 130 and 136 GeV. No evidence for scalar top quarks or scalar bottom quarks was found in the channels ˜t → cχ, ˜t → bℓν˜, and b˜ → bχ. For the channel ˜t → cχ a limit of 67 GeV/c 2 has been set on the scalar top quark mass, independent of the mixing angle between …

A Hybrid Fem/Mom Technique For Electromagnetic Scattering And Radiation From Dielectric Objects With Attached Wires, Mohammad Wares Ali, Todd H. Hubing, James L. Drewniak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A hybrid formulation is presented, which combines the method of moments (MOM) with the edge-based vector finite element method (FEM) to solve electromagnetic radiation problems from structures consisting of an inhomogeneous dielectric body of arbitrary shape attached to one or more perfectly conducting bodies. While either method alone fails to model these structures efficiently, a combination of both finite element and moment methods provides an excellent way to solve these problems. The FEM is employed to handle the interior domain of inhomogeneous dielectric bodies and the method of moments is used to develop surface integrals that relate the field quantities …

Tennessee Farm Bureau News - November 1997, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation

Tennessee Farm Bureau News

No abstract provided.

Using Compost In Utah Gardens, Kitt Farrell-Poe, Rich Koenig, Bruce Miller, James Barnhill

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Quarterly Meeting, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Quarterly meeting of the WKU Board of Regents. Swearing in of president Gary Ransdell. Discussion of Board of Regents' bylaws; disposition of meeting minutes; Executive Committee report; Finance Committee report; Facilities Oversight Committee report; personnel changes; president's report; University Boulevard crosswalk; and resolutions of appreciation for Fred Mudge, Raymond Preston, faculty receiving grants, Gary Cox and Barbara Burch.

Argentina's Governing Party Suffers Significant Loss In Legislative Elections, Ladb Staff

NotiSur

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Environment For Problem Solving And Program Development, Fadi Pierre Deek

Dissertations

A framework for an integrated problem solving and program development environment that addresses the needs of students learning programming is proposed. Several objectives have been accomplished: defining the tasks required for program development and a literature review to determine the actual difficulties involved in learning those tasks. A comprehensive Study of environments and tools developed to support the learning of problem solving and programming was then performed, covering programming environments, debugging aids, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent programming environments. This was followed by a careful analysis and critique of these systems, which uncovered the limitations that have prevented them from …

Fractionally Sampled Decorrelating Detectors For Time-Varying Rayleigh Fading Cdma Channels, Huaping Liu

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we propose novel decorrelating multiuser detectors in DSCDMA time-varying frequency-nonselective and frequency-selective fading channels and analyze their performance. We address the common shortcomings of existing multiuser detectors in a mobile environment, such as detector complexity and the error floor. An analytical approach is employed almost exclusively and Monte Carlo simulation is used to confirm the theoretical results. Practical channel models, such as Jakes' and Markovian, are adopted in the numerical examples.

The proposed detectors are of the decorrelating type and utilize fractional sampling to simultaneously achieve two goals: (1) the novel realization of a decorrelator with lower …

Analysis Of Safe Separation Distances From Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines, James Stephen Haklar

Dissertations

Accidental rupture of natural gas transmission pipelines with subsequent ignition of the escaping gas can result in the loss of life and property. In the United States, current means of protecting both the pipeline and the public include the establishment of class locations, in which specific pipeline design, construction and operation requirements must be attained. In addition, distances at which the pipelines can be safely set back from the community, called safe separation distances, have been developed in some European countries (e.g., Great Britain, the Netherlands) through use of risk assessment principles. However, to date there has been no simple, …

Automobile Air Bag Inflation System Based On Fast Combustion Reaction, Yacoob Tabani

Dissertations

Current automobile air bag inflator technology is complex, expensive and environmentally unsafe. A new and novel air bag inflator based on fast combustion reactions of methane-oxygen mixtures has been developed and studied. The thermodynamics and mass flow parameters of this new inflator have been modeled and found to be in agreement with experimental results.

The performance of the fast combustion inflator was evaluated in terms of pressure-time relationships inside the inflator and in a receiving tank simulating an air bag as well as the temperature-time relationship in the tank.

In order to develop this fast combustion inflator, several critical issues …

Modeling Study On The Neopentyl+ O2 Reaction System And Experimental And Modeling Study On Mtbe Pyrolysis And Oxidation, Ru Wei

Dissertations

A modeling study on neopentyl radical + O₂ reaction system is conducted in this study. Thermodynamic parameters on all species and important transition states are calculated. A thermochemical kinetic analysis is performed.

Thermodynamic parameters are estimated using group additivity with HBI groups. Transition state energies are evaluated from experimental and theoretical data in the literature, combined with elementary reaction modeling to account for temperature effects. Transition state structures, vibration frequencies and entropies are determined from semi-empirical calculations, MOPAC PM3. Kinetics are analyzed with quantum RRK theory for k(E) coupled with modified strong collision analysis of Gilbert et al for …

Diffusive And Wavelike Phenomena In Thermal Processing Of Materials, John A. Pelesko

Dissertations

Contemporary materials science abounds with novel processing methods. Devices such as lasers, microwave sources, and electron beam guns, provide unprecedented control over the deposition of energy within a material. The modern materials scientist has the ability to deposit energy volumetrically, to precisely control the location of energy deposition within a material, and to deposit energy in extremely short intervals of time. While making possible numerous thermal processing methods, these devices also push the limits of our understanding of the response of materials to energy deposition. In order to optimize and control these processing methods, it becomes necessary to further our …

Electrocatalytic Control Of Exhaust Soot, Victor L. Callahan

Dissertations

The feasibility of combining electrostatic precipitation and use of a catalytic wall in a straight tube reactor as a means of destroying soot particles was investigated. Enhanced particle diffusion to the wall by an applied electric field provided the means of particle capture for subsequent catalytic oxidation at the active surface in a small length tube.

Soot particles flowing in a gas stream are influenced by the following transport mechanisms: convective flux as a result of bulk flow, diffusion flux as a result of particle concentration or number density gradient, and an electrostatic flux from the coulombic attraction as charged …

Volume 33 - Issue 8 - Friday, October 31, 1997, Rose Thorn Staff

The Rose Thorn Archive

The Rose Thorn, Rose-Hulman's independent student newspaper.

Farmer Crushed When Run Over By Tractor And Disc, Kentucky Injury Prevention And Research Center

Fatality Case Reports--Tractors/Logging

A 75-year-old farmer was killed when he was run over by a tractor and disc attachment. The farmer attempted to start the engine on a tractor while he stood on the ground beside it, a practice which was not unusual for him. The transmission had been left in gear and when the ignition was started the tractor lurched forward knocking the victim to the ground. The tractor continued to move forward, running over the victim. His wife went to search for him when she realized he had been gone from the house for quite some time. She found him in …

Mustang Daily, October 31, 1997

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Process For Producing Biodiesel Fuel With Reduced Viscosity And A Cloud Point Below Thirty-Two (32) Degrees Fahrenheit , Hossein Noureddini

Papers in Biomaterials

Triglycerides are reacted in a liquid phase reaction with methanol and a homogeneous basic catalyst. The reaction yields a spatially separated two phase result with an upper located non-polar phase consisting principally of non-polar methyl esters and a lower located phase consisting principally of glycerol and residual methyl esters. The glycerol phase is passed through a strong cationic ion exchanger to remove anions, resulting in a neutral product which is flashed to remove methanol and which is reacted with isobutylene in the presence of a strong acid catalyst to produce glycerol ethers. The glycerol ethers are then added back to …

The Bison, October 31, 1997

The Bison Newspapers

No abstract provided.

The New Hampshire, Vol. 88, No. 15 (Oct. 31, 1997), The New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Print Edition

An independent student produced newspaper from the University of New Hampshire.

Flyer News, Vol. 45, No. 13 (Oct. 31, 1997), University Of Dayton

Flyer News

Student-run newspaper of the University of Dayton

Mule Deer And Pronghorn Use Of Wastewater Ponds In A Cold Desert, Karen L. Cieminski, Lester D. Flake

Great Basin Naturalist

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) were counted at wastewater ponds at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in southeastern Idaho 4 to 8 times per month from August 1989 through July 1991. Mule deer used wastewater ponds (n = 15) from June through December and were most commonly observed August through November. Pronghorn frequented wastewater ponds from May through November and were most common from July through September, the driest and warmest months; ponds were also used heavily in November 1990. Diel activity was studied from July through October. Mule …

Panther- October 1997 - Vol. Lxxv, No.2, Prairie View A&M University

PV Panther Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Mixed Metal Removal And Recovery By Hollow Fiber Membrane-Based Extractive Adsorber, Ramprakash Chilukuri

Theses

The feasibility and efficiency of simultaneous removal of multiple cations as well as anionic heavy metals from wastewater into a mixed extractant kept stagnant on the shell side of a 2-fiber-set hollow fiber membrane extractor operated as a fixed bed adsorber was explored. The novel extracting solvent was a mixture of an acidic or chelating extracting agent for one or more cations and a basic extracting agent, e.g., trioctylamine (TOA) for extracting anions; both were dissolved in the same diluent kerosene for simultaneous and synergistic extraction of cations and anions. In the stripping part of the fixed bed operation, alkaline …

Using Heart Variability To Measure The Effects Of Manual Medicine On Autonomic Activity, Michael Zullow

Theses

A pilot study was performed to test the theory that manual medicine techniques known as the CV4 (compression of fourth cerebral ventricle) maneuver and a sacral hold/iliac bridge hold combination increase parasympathetic activity. Manual medicine techniques are widely practiced by Doctors of Osteopathy and Chiropractors to treat physical and mental health problems. Those who have received manual therapy have reported to experience less pain, better mobility, and a greater feeling of relaxation. To help us learn about the effects of manual therapy, autonomic activity was measured scientifically rather than subjectively in this study by monitoring respiration rate and heart rate, …

A Decision Support System For The Equipment Selection Of Robotic Manufacturing Cells, Lars Johan Resare

Theses

Considering the principles of concurrent engineering, a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed to aid in the equipment selection of robotic manufacturing cells. The objective is to synchronously and simultaneously select proper equipment for the cell to provide efficient performance, subject to operational and budgetary constraints.

The DSS consists of several modules, including a data base that houses the specifications of equipment available in the market place, a first cut selection module, and an optimization engine. In its development, the optimization scheme utilizes analytical models and algorithms that capture different sources of variability in production, such as tolerances, clearances and …

Development Of Aqueous Scrubber To Oxidize And Absorb Nitric Oxide, Wanna Lolertpiphop

Theses

The use of sodium chlorite (NaClO₂) and alkaline aqueous cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) as oxidizing agents to promote the absorption of nitric oxide from flue gases was investigated in a semicontinuous bubbling scrubber. The efficiency of the scrubbing solutions to remove nitric oxide was evaluated as a function of operating conditions such as pH, concentration of the oxidants, residence time, temperature, flue gas compositions.

Under acid conditions, sodium chlorite can stoichiometrically react and absorb 99.5% NO and 80% SO₂ in the same scrubber with 0,672 M NaClO₂ in buffered solution at pH 6, and 0.3 M NaOH. …

Pervaporation-Assisted Esterification Of Salicylic Acid, Chaiya Chandavasu

Theses

The coupling of a pervaporation membrane unit with a reactor has been investigated as a means of improving the overall process efficiency. As model system, the esterification of salicylic acid with methanol in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst was studied in a unit consisting of a batch reactor externally coupled with a pervaporation module containing a composite poly(vinyl alcohol) membrane. The reaction was carried out at temperatures between 336 and 345 K. The catalyst was sulfuric acid at concentrations varying from 0.5 to 2.0 molar. Various initial molar ratios (Θ_B) of methanol and salicylic acid, ranging from …