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Analysis Of Intraguild Predation With A Consideration Of Adaptive Foraging, Toshinori Okuyama

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Identification of interactive units in food webs is particularly important in population and community ecology. Intraguild predation has gained much attention recently with the recognition of its prevalence in the field, although its significance has not been fully studied. Nature contains much more complex interactions than a simple food chain. Yet, much theory still focuses on the trophic levels connected in a single linear chain. In this thesis, I study intraguild predation including the consideration of animal behavior whose importance is also often neglected in population and community ecology.

First, the concepts of intraguild predation and animal behavior are introduced. …

The Relationship Of Disease Severity, Health Beliefs, And Medication Adherence Among Hiv Patients, Xin Gao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Purpose. To investigate the relationship of disease severity, health beliefs, and medication adherence among HIV/AIDS patients.;Results. Seventy-two HIV patients were enrolled. There were no significant differences in patients' perceived severity of HIV/AIDS and perceptions of benefits and barriers of the treatment across three disease stages. However, patients who had greater experience with the disease (stage C) perceived a higher risk to develop complications if they were not adherent compared to asymptomatic patients (stage A). Results also revealed that patients in stage B and C were more adherent to their medications compared to patients in stage A when regimen complexity was …

Offerings For Jahilia, Stephen Vincent Martonis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

These words represent the ideas invested in my paintings. They are progressive and fluctuating thoughts occurring at an interval in time. They are given honestly and freely, as ignorance and change are understood.

Design Considerations For Variable Power Split Hydraulic Drives For Industrial Applications, Michael Jan Christian Shellenberger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) offer some advantages over conventional transmissions in industrial applications. During discrete shifts, conventional transmissions suffer from momentary power transmission lapses, which may produce undesirable effects in the system. Currently, the types of CVTs utilized in industry are hydrostatic drives and hydrodynamic couplings. However, these drives are heavy, presenting an obstacle in applications where weight is a concern. In a power split continuously variable transmission (PS-CVT) the power that flows through the hydraulic element is reduced. This allows the overall size and weight of the transmission to be reduced.;The objective of this thesis is to develop a …

Development Of A Decision Support System For Assessment Of Mobile Bridges, Vikram Ramamoorthy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The development of a prototype Decision Support System (DSS) for the condition assessment of the Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB) has been demonstrated in the current work. AVLB is a mobile bridge that has been used by the US Army for tank and assault vehicle crossing. It is employed for spanning short gaps of 50 feet or less in the terrain. The condition assessment of such bridges, to ensure safety of personnel and tank, is of strategic importance. The methodology of the prototype DSS is based on a refined visual inspection procedure and a previously established vibration measurement technique.;Conforming to …

Numerical Analysis Of Direct-Chill Casting Of Aluminum Ingot, Yaping Wu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Direct chill (DC) semi-continuous casting is the most efficient way to produce large aluminum ingots. This process consists of three main stages; transient stage, steady-state stage, and post-drop stage. During transient stage, the ingot is subjected to rapid cooling rate and thus resulted in the build-up of high thermal stresses that can often lead to ingot cracking failure.;Based on a fully coupled heat-transfer and thermal-stress analysis model, which has been developed using a commercial finite element (FE) package ABAQUS(TM) with a user subroutine developed in-house, the temperature and stress fields were obtained for various casting conditions. Three post-processing programs were …

Mission Planning And Remote Operated Vehicle Simulation In A Virtual Reality Interface, Christopher Samuel Allport

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Virtual reality simulations are finding applications in a wide range of disciplines such as surgical simulation, electronics training, and crime scene investigation. During the Mars Pathfinder Mission, in summer 1997, NASA scientists unveiled a new application of virtual reality for the visualization of a planetary surface. The success of this application led to a more concentrated effort for using virtual reality visualization tools during future missions. The thrust of this effort was to develop a new interface which would allow scientists to interactively plan experiments to be performed by the mission robots. This thesis covers two of the primary aspects …

Head Impact Characterization Of Generic A-Pillar Of An Automobile, Subramani Balasubramanyam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The need to provide enhanced occupant protection for all impact conditions experienced in automobile crashes poses a great challenge. Several safety features such as seatbelts and airbags have been developed to reduce occupant injuries in the event of a crash. However, new studies have indicated that even with these safety features, head impact with the upper interior components have resulted in many injuries leading to fatalities in certain impact conditions such as side collision and rollover. Recent regulations imposed by NHTSA concerning head impact scenarios in automotive crashes are designed to provide maximum head impact protection against several locations on …

Dynamic Stability Of An Elliptical Pendulum With Unilateral Simple Supports, Heins Naim Karam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The study of rollover stability of partially filled tanker trucks often requires the use of mechanical pendulums to substitute the sloshing dynamics of the fluid. Cylindrical tanks have been effectively characterized by simple pendulums combined with some fixed masses. Just recently, a WVU team proposed the use of an elliptical pendulum to substitute the sloshing dynamics in partially filled elliptical tankers.;In this research, a trammel mechanism is configured as an elliptical pendulum with a unilaterally supported base. That is, the supports on either side can lift off the ground to allow for rollover under certain critical lateral accelerations. Two generalized …

Simulation Study Of A Kanban-Controlled Production System, Arvind R. Krishnappa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Just-In-Time (JIT) has become one of the most popular production control philosophies in the last three decades. JIT did not find acceptance in the American companies until after the oil crisis. To be more flexible and to adapt quickly to changes in the market, many American companies took to the recourse of JIT and have been extremely successful. JIT systems typically employ kanbans as a means of inventory control. A JIT system operating under kanban control is commonly termed as a "pull system" due to the way in which succeeding stages trigger production at preceding stages. Owing to this close …

A New Economic Theory Of Regulation: Rent Extraction Rather Than Rent Creation, Douglas Ginsburg

Michigan Law Review

Once upon a time, people believed that the government regulated various indus tries in "the public interest." The idea was that certain conditions, such as "natural monopoly" or the ability to externalize significant costs, caus ed markets to fail and governments to step in to correct that failure. Econmnic regulation predicated upon market failure can be dated conveniently to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, in which the Congress established the Inters tate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads in the interests of shippers, principally farmers and small businesses. The legal notion of "affectation with the public interest" dates back much …

Which Queue?, Robert J. Sternberg, Elena L. Grigorenko

Michigan Law Review

It is annoying when one is in a long line - at a ticket counter, at a supermarket, at a bank - and someone "jumps the queue," taking a position in line ahead of other people who lined up first. The title of Mark Kelman and Gillian Lester's book, Jumping the Queue, gives the reader advance warning of the authors' position on people who edge ahead in line. But the topic of their book is not ticket, supermarket, or bank lines, but rather the line to enjoy the benefits of society. And the focus of the analysis of queue-jumpers is …

Mean Value Modeling And Control Of A Diesel Engine Using Neural Networks, Yasser Yacoub

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increasingly stringent emissions legislation and demands for improved fuel economy have mandated the need for advanced control algorithms and complicated the diesel engine calibration procedure. To this end, a neural network-based mean value model of a modern turbocharged direct injection diesel engine has been developed and validated. For a pre-specified engine speed schedule and control vector trajectory, the engine model was shown to produce accurate predictions of the turbocharger manifold charging dynamics and combustion efficiency through engine brake torque predictions. The mean value model was coupled with several sub-models to predict exhaust gaseous and particulate emissions and satisfactory predictions were …

Domains Of Organizational Effectiveness Of Gerontology Centers In Higher Education, Allison Hale Nichols

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This is an exploratory study that focuses on organizational effectiveness of gerontology centers and institutes at American universities. The study was modeled after studies of organizational effectiveness in higher education by Kim Cameron of Brigham Young University. The study identifies six domains of effectiveness that are important to gerontology centers and the structural and functional models and characteristics of gerontology centers that may predict the domain in which it is effective. The target population of the study was dominant coalition members of 87 gerontology centers, namely, administrators and faculty members who have the most influence on policy, direction, and performance. …

Use Of Wavelet-Packet Transforms To Develop An Engineering Model For Multifractal Characterization Of Mutation Dynamics In Pathological And Nonpathological Gene Sequences, David Lee Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study uses dynamical analysis to examine in a quantitative fashion the information coding mechanism in DNA sequences. This exceeds the simple dichotomy of either modeling the mechanism by comparing DNA sequence walks as Fractal Brownian Motion (fbm) processes. The 2-D mappings of the DNA sequences for this research are from Iterated Function System (IFS) (Also known as the "Chaos Game Representation" (CGR)) mappings of the DNA sequences. This technique converts a 1-D sequence into a 2-D representation that preserves subsequence structure and provides a visual representation. The second step of this analysis involves the application of Wavelet Packet Transforms, …

Alterations In Intrinsic Heart Rate In Endotoxemia, Peter Drew Wearden

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

After much early debate, it is now well recognized that the origin of the heart beat is myogenic, or intrinsic, to the heart. It has been felt that the intrinsic heart rate (IHR) is constant and that the observed heart rate is controlled by tonal alterations in the activity of the autonomic nervous system in response to various stimuli. Some investigators have recognized, however, that the intrinsic heart rate (IHR) can be altered in certain conditions. Sepsis, or the host response to bacterial infection, is recognized as a stress to the host that results in decreased myocardial contractility and tachycardia. …

The Effects Of Varying Concentration And Duration Of Cfc-113 Exposure On End-Exhaled Breath Cfc-113 Concentration, Demetra Grace Dalamagas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Subjects were exposed to different concentrations of CFC-113 for variable duration while conducting 30-minute exercise regiments. End-exhaled breath samples were collected 25, 30 and 35 minutes after the exercise regiment and quantified using gas chromatography. Three comparative studies were conducted.;A short duration administration delivered at the beginning or at the end of the regiment was compared to a long duration administration delivered at the beginning or at the end of the exercise regiment. The second study compared breath samples when 500 ppm of CFC-113 was administered at the beginning or end six minutes of the regiment. The third compared continuous …

The Evaluation Of Research For Promotion And Tenure: An Organizational Perspective, Elsa G. Nadler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The literature on promotion and tenure in institutions of higher education includes a substantial amount of research on various aspects of faculty productivity. Yet other research concentrates on the organizational structure of higher education. In his 1986 book, Burton Clark called for research that would examine how what he called the enterprise (the local university as opposed to the statewide system) and departments within it interact in important arenas.;This dissertation takes up Clark's challenge to examine the interaction of enterprise and department in promotion and tenure in three areas: goals, structure and operations. Content analysis of faculty handbooks from 25 …

Asymptotic Behavior Of The Height In A Digital Search Tree And The Longest Phrase Of The Lempel-Ziv Scheme, Charles Knessl, Wojciech Szpankowski

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

An Agent-Based Design For Problem Solving Environments, Dan C. Marinescu

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Integrated Detection And Estimation Using Multisensor And Distributed Processing, Rangasami L. Kashyap

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

This research deals with the solution of detection and estimation problems encountered in a variety of target tracking problems encountered in a Ballistic Missile Defense environment. We propose five broad classes of problems. The first problem deals with the guidance for interceptors tracking maneuverable targets. We need to forecast the time of intersection and the bearing angle of the target, and have to update them continuously. The second problem is the robust tracking of moving targets, especially with the tracks close to one another. Our approach avoids the data association lacunae of the existing methods. Next we deal with targets …

Evaluation Of Heuristics In A Distributed Data Staging Network, Noah B. Beck, Mitchell D. Theys, Howard Jay Siegel, Michael Jurczykt

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

Providing up-to-date input to users' applications is an important data management problem for a distributed computing environment, where each data storage location and intermediate node may have specific data available, storage limitations, and communication links available. Sites in the network request data items and each request has an associated deadline and priority. In a military situation, the data staging problem involves positioning data for facilitating a faster access time when it is needed by programs that will aid in decision making. This work concentrates on solving a basic version of the data staging problem in which all parameter values for …

Parallel Algorithms For Large Sparse Generalized Elgin Problems (Ph.D. Thesis), Zhanye Tong

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Biological Metaphors In He Design Of Complex Software Systems, Dan C. Marinescu, Ladislau Bölöni

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Planarity Of Para Hexaphenyl, Suchismita Guha, Wilhelm Graupner, Roland Resel, Meera Chandrasekhar, H. R. Chandrasekhar, Rainer Glaser, Günther Leising

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present experimental and theoretical findings on the geometry of polycrystalline para hexaphenyl via Raman scattering. The planarity of the molecule is affected by hydrostatic pressure and temperature. Our studies indicate that the potential energy curve which governs the torsional motion between neighboring phenyl rings is "W" shaped. We determine the activation energy to promote the molecule from a nonplanar to a planar state to be 0.04 eV, in good agreement with our quantum chemical calculations. From the relative intensities of the 1280cm^-1 to the 1220cm^-1 Raman modes we show that high pressure planarizes the molecules, modifying the …

Liquid Reaction Apparatus For Surface Analysis, Charles C. Chusuei, T. S. Murrell, J. S. Corneille, M. G. Nooney, S. M. Vesecky, L. R. Hossner, D. W. Goodman

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

A design for a liquid reaction apparatus is described which allows surfaces prepared in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) to be reacted with solutions of a wide pH range under dry nitrogen atmosphere and subsequently returned to UHV for surface analysis.

Evaluating Snowmelt Runoff, Infiltration, And Erosion In A Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystem, Eric K. Duffin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Production of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) has created a need for safe storage facilities. These facilities must be capable of isolating radioactive waste and preventing contamination from physical or biological intrusion until the waste material is isotopically stable. At the present time, managers of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) have a substantial database characterizing rainfall events and the subsequent impact on integrity of shallow land burial sites used for storage of LLRW. Little information has been gathered describing the processes of snow accumulation/ablation and the resulting impact on storage facilities. This study examines snowmelt runoff, infiltration, and …

The Multiage Classroom, Charlene M. Wolner

Digitized Theses and Dissertations (prior to 2008)

A portfolio submitted fulfilling the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Early Childhood in the Departnent of Education in Bagwell College of Education of Kennesaw State University

Full-Scale Operation Of A Tubular Ultrafiltration System In The Treatment Of Oily Waste, Michael Christopher Malak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An aluminum company in West Virginia uses an oil-water (metal working fluid) in their rolling mill process for lubrication. In the past, the company collected the oily-waste into two lined waste ponds with a combined holding capacity of 5 million gallons. Separation of the oil-water mixture occurred as emulsifiers in the metal working fluid broke down. Free oil was skimmed resulting in a pond effluent, which contained 0.2 to 1.0% oil. Pond effluent was sprayed on a treatment field and the remaining oil was degraded naturally. The daily flow to the spray fields averaged 80,000 gallons. In 1993, concerns about …

Tropisetron Inhibits Neurogenic (Stress-Induced) Hypertension But Not Genetic Hypertension, Deanna L. Sockwell

Theses (Pre-2016)

Synaptic plasticity in the form of long-term potentiation (LTP) exists in sympathetic ganglia. This project examines the possibility that in sympathetic ganglia which regulate and control blood pressure, LTP may be involved in the expression of some forms of hypertension. Long lasting enhancement of the basal tone of ganglionic transmission ( as with LTP) results in sustained constriction of blood vessels which leads to elevated blood pressure. Results from this laboratory presented compelling evidence that LTP in the superior cervical ganglion is dependent on activation of serotonin 5-HT3 receptors. Long lasting (hours) LTP in sympathetic ganglia is induced by subjecting …