Digital Commons Network^™

Using Quantitative Functional Models To Develop Product Architectures, Robert B. Stone, Kristin L. Wood, Richard H. Crawford

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Developing product architectures is a key phase in design and development processes. It encompasses the transformation from functional model to alternative product layouts. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for representing a functional model of a product in a quantitative manner. In addition to describing product functionality, the quantitative functional model also incorporates customer need ratings. Product design knowledge can be archived and transmitted in databases using this novel representation. Numerical manipulations of such a database assist in developing product architectures. In particular, product families and customer need ratings for modules are easily computed. Prior to the methodology, a …

Best Practices In Workforce Development: A Chamber Of Commerce Perspective, Patricia Burgess

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Changes in the economy--at the local, regional, state, and national levels--as well as technological advances have altered how and where people work, which has brought attention to the issue of workforce development. Many public and private entities, Chambers of Commerce among them, now engage in some form of workforce development. This report examines a number of such efforts to determine the “best practices” of workforce development for Chambers of Commerce. This report first considers the complex world of workforce development. The workforce consists of several distinct sub-populations: existing workers, new entrants, the unemployed, and the underemployed. Each has its own …

Whatever Happened To Anti-Semitism? How Social Science Theories Identify Discrimination And Promote Coalitions Between "Different" Minorities, Clark Freshman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Morphology And Photocatalysis Of Titanium Dioxide Aerogels, Sean Kelly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pollution of our environment has become one of the most serious problems of this century. Titanium dioxide aerogels is composed of nanocrystallites of TiO2 close-packed in roughly spherical mesospheres, which are agglomerated to form a highly-porous sponge. Aerogel morphology produces porosities of around 80% and surface area that can be as large as 1000 m2/g. The aerogels efficiently adsorb organic materials from the environment and when illuminated with UV light, decompose or oxidize the organic pollutants, ultimately to safe by-products such as CO2 and H 2O.

In this work we modify the synthetic conditions to produce aerogels with different morphologies …

Wittgenstein And The Grammar Of Physics: A Study Of Ludwig Wittgenstein's 1929-1930 Manuscripts And The Roots Of His Later Philosophy, Anton Alterman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1929 Wittgenstein began to work on the first philosophical manuscripts he had kept since completing the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP) in 1918. The impetus for this was his conviction that the logic of the TLP was flawed: it was unable to account for the fact that a proposition that assigns a single value on a continuum to a simple object thereby excludes all assignments of different values to the object (the "color exclusion" problem). Consequently Wittgenstein's "atomic propositions" could not be logically independent of one another.

Initially he thought he could replace the "logically perfect language" of the TLP with …

Mortar Estimates Independent Of Number Of Subdomains, Jay Gopalakrishnan

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The stability and error estimates for the mortar finite element method are well established. This work examines the dependence of constants in these estimates on shape and number of subdomains. By means of a Poincar´e inequality and some scaling arguments, these estimates are found not to deteriorate with increase in number of subdomains.

Examining The Reliability And Validity Of The Hrd Student Evaluation Instrument, Dory Marken

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Automatic Generation Control (Agc) In A Deregulated Environment, Liying Wang

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Parents' Perceptions Of Methods Used By Schools To Report Grades, Leslie A. Wiegandt

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Photodecomposition Of Crystal Violet Dye In Water Solution And Suspensions Of Metal Oxides, Tatiana Yurievna Zakharian

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Photodecomposition and photodecolorization of crystal violet dye were studied in water solution, hydrogen peroxide solution and suspensions of metal oxides. Spectroscopic evidence for the formation of methylated pararosanilines and demethylated derivatives of Michler's ketone as the reaction intermediates was obtained for the photodecomposition of crystal violet in water solution. The mechanism of formation of the intermediates was discussed in terms of charges of individual atoms calculated using Spartan software.

Photooxidation of crystal violet was shown to occur faster in hydrogen peroxide solution due to the higher oxidation potential of hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals. A mechanism similar to photooxidation in …

A Model For Production Scheduling And Sequencing Using Constraints Management And Genetic Algorithm, Ahmad Nadeem Choudhry

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Production planning and control (PP&C) are among the most critical activities in manufacturing. Proper use of PP&C methods can give organizations a competitive advantage in the global economy. The expected results of this research will allow manufacturing organizations to maximize the effectiveness of PP&C methods, thereby improving their competitive position in the global economy.

This research was an extension of a previous unpublished study, which investigated the PP&C methods being used at a midwestern manufacturer of agricultural equipment (MMAE). The current research study identified the constraints inherent in the production planning and control system and then developed and validated a …

An Analysis Of Manufacturing Facility Characteristics And Four-Year Manufacturing Engineering Technology Competencies For Abet Accredited Programs In North Carolina, Richard Eugene Temple

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of correlation between four-year ABET/MET competencies and company demographics of plant location and plant size and usage of manufacturing technologies, and to determine the overall rating per SIC classification of validated MET competencies. This purpose is reflective of the literature, which indicated that there is a need for further development of manufacturing engineering technology competencies to meet the industry needs of a region or state.

A questionnaire was used to collect data. It was mailed to 440 randomly selected practicing manufacturing engineers in North Carolina. The sample size was 50. …

An Evaluation Of Two Different Data Modeling Techniques For Data Warehousing, Litao Fu

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The database community is devoting increasing attention to the research themes concerning data warehouses. After having invested a lot of time and resources to build huge and complex information systems, managers ask for support in obtaining quickly summary information to help in planning and decision making. Data warehousing systems address this issue by enabling managers to acquire and integrate information from different sources and to query efficiently very large databases. Building a data warehouse requires adopting design and implementation techniques completely different from those underlying information. Multidimensional data structures used for decision support applications in data warehouses have rather different …

Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching And Learning, Helga M. Gudenschwager

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Research shows that knowing what preservice teachers believe about teaching and learning helps their instructors to reinforce those beliefs that are compatible with current approaches in education and challenge those that promote the perpetuation of antiquated and ineffective teaching practices. Four main research questions guided this study: 1. To what extent the beliefs expressed by participants aligned with traditional or constructivist perspectives? 2. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their preference for practices aligned with these perspectives? 3. Do elementary and secondary majors differ in terms of their beliefs about the goals of education and effective strategies …

Gender, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, Experience, And The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition, Short Form (Wais-Iii), Laura Jean Blalock

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender, self-efficacy, anxiety, experience and the WAIS-III, short form. This study investigated the hypotheses that gender differences occur on select subtests of the WAISIII, short form, that math self-efficacy, math attitudes, and math experience affect Arithmetic scores, and that motor speed affects performance on the Digit Symbol subtest. The sample consisted of 93 undergraduate students from the University of Northern Iowa (36 males, 57 females). Students completed questionnaires and were administered the WAIS-III short form individually. Males scored higher on the Arithmetic, Information, and Digit Span subtests and …

The Effects Of Computer Animations On Secondary Students’ Understanding Of The Crushing Can Chemical Demonstration, Resa Marie Kelly

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Understanding chemistry requires the ability to think at three different levels: submicrochemistry, macrochemistry, and representational chemistry. Students often have difficulty making connections among these three areas due to the abstract nature of many chemistry concepts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how computer animations affected secondary students' understanding of the Crushing Can Demonstration. This investigation compared two groups of chemistry students at a large, suburban high school. The treatment group viewed the animation after seeing and discussing the crushing can demonstration, while the control group received the same instruction as the treatment group but did not see the …

Perceived Personal And Societal Control Of Events And Millennial Irrationalism, Angela Nicole Dennis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among millennial irrationalism and the degree to which people believe they have control over the events in their lives as reflected by performance on a locus of control scale. This belief is referred to in this study as internal or external locus of control. It was hypothesized that individuals who feel that they have considerable control over the things that happen to them would express less irrationalism than those who tend to ascribe the course of their lives more to external factors. It was also predicted that there would …

Small-Scale Variability Of Groundwater-Lake Interaction At Shingobee Lake, Minnesota, Hans F. Kishel

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater discharge is an important contributor to the water budget of a lake. The variability of hydraulic parameters of lake and groundwater systems causes difficulties in estimating the contribution of groundwater to a lake water budget. This study attempts to show that amount of variability for a small portion of the lake and shore (8 x 15 meter section, starting approximately five meters from shore and extending nine meters into the lake).

Piezometers were installed at a depth of one half and one meter in nests at 70 locations in the rectangular study site. Water levels were collected from the …

Guardians Of Literary Excellence : An Invitation To Adventure, Helen Ann Risan

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Wavelet Analysis Of X-Ray Galaxy Clusters, Dean Smith

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Economic Base Of Ortonville, Minnesota, Nick Alan Hegge

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Wave-Transported Boulders Imbricated Near Marquette, Michigan, As Indicators Of Past Lake Superior Storm Activity, Christopher J. Atkinson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Semantically Rich Logging Protocol For Complete Damage Assessment And Recovery Of A Database, Rumman Sobhan

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Super-Resolution Enhancement Of Mpeg Compressed Video, Kyle J. Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Variable Level Variable Type Reflective Autonomy Model (Vlvtram) For Autonomy Derivation And Deliberation, David W. D Giese

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Fuzzy Identification And Control Of Buck Converters, Jun Huang

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.