Digital Commons Network^™

Biometric Analysis And Aversive Conditioning Of Black Bears In Southern West Virginia, Harley Wayne Weaver

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

During 2003, 11 male and 1 female black bear (Ursus americanus) were captured and fitted with radio collars. Individuals were randomly assigned to receive either treatment (n = 6) or control (n = 6). Upon release, treatment individuals received a conditional regimen comprised of rubber buckshot to the flank and a succession of shell crackers. Physical and auditory conditioning techniques we used did not appear to be an effective means of reducing repeat nuisance behavior.;West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) captured 179 (151 males, 28 females) nuisance and 156 (77 males, 79 females) non-nuisance individuals from 1996 to 2003.;We …

Three Essays On Public Economics And Public Finance, Yousam Choi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the first essay, we examine the conditions under which the regulatory process leads to collusion, and if there is collusion, whether it will be observed in the political or bureaucratic sector. The political cost disciplines the politician, while monitoring intensity limits the bureaucrat's discretion. According to our model, high political pressure is critical to achieve a state with no collusion between agents. If the political cost is relatively small, higher penalties on the bureaucrat will just open the possibility of political corruption. In a politician's initiative regime, if the transfer offered to the politician in exchange for legislative effort …

Caregiver Factors Related To Unintentional Burn Injuries In Young Children, Karen E. Joseph

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The main purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of caregiver behavioral versus demographic factors to the prediction of a child burn injury and caregiver safety behavior using a sample of primary caregivers of children (aged 0--5 years) with a burn injury (case participants) or without one (comparison participants). Case participants (n = 30) were recruited from a burn center in the Northeastern United States, whereas comparison participants (n = 30) were recruited from pediatric facilities, balanced to cases by child age, gender, race, and geography, and caregiver socioeconomic and marital status. Measures of demographic and burn information, …

Structure And Dynamics Of Interfaces In The Epitaxial Growth And Erosion On (110) And (100) Crystal Surfaces, Artem Levandovsky

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

We present unified theory of the far-from-equilibrium interfacial phenomena occurring in the multilayer homoepitaxial growth and erosion on (110) and (100) crystal surfaces. Within a unified model, here we elucidate the multitude of novel states on (110) and (100) surfaces as well as the transitions between them. In particular, by analytic arguments and numerical simulations, we address experimentally observed transitions between two types of rippled states on (110) surfaces. We discuss several intermediary interface states intervening, via consecutive transitions, between the two rippled states. One of the intermediary interface states, the Rhomboidal Pyramid State, was theoretically anticipated by us and …

Intraindividual Variability And Relations Between Daily Affect And Physical Activity Among Community -Dwelling Older Women, Jenessa C. Steele

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The current study investigated individual and group-level daily relations between affect and physical activity among 37 non-sedentary community-dwelling older women. The study expected that (a) positive affect would hold a significant, positive synchronous relation with physical activity and (b) negative affect would hold a significant, negative synchronous relation with physical activity over six consecutive days. Women over age 55 (M = 71.5, SD = 9.4) participated by completing four daily assessments (8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm) of positive and negative affect and physical activity on a hand-held computer Monday through Saturday. Affect was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule …

Load-Based Energy Savings In Three-Phase Squirrel Cage Induction Motors, Subodh Chaudhari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Energy is an extremely valuable resource which should be used carefully. After realizing this in the 1990's DOE started various energy efficiency measures in order to reduce the energy consumed by US industry. Motors use almost 50 percent of the electricity in the United States. If motor efficiency could be increased then energy consumption could be reduced. There have been efforts to increase motor efficiency over past decade which lead to development of premium efficiency motors. Designed motor efficiency is normally above 90 percent so motors do not waste energy. However, motor efficiency decreases when load factor is less than …

Effectiveness Of Electrical Demand Reduction Strategies, Chandra Gopalakrishnan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A common notion in the industry is that energy is an overhead and not related directly to the product. Measures that reduce electric demand are usually considered in isolation and their effect on the other costs related to the product is ignored. This is especially true for multi-product operations where the demand for various products is not constant and it is hard to track the costs associated with each product. This research takes a software based approach to analyze how a demand reduction measure affects the carrying cost, stockout cost, labor cost, electric usage cost and electric demand cost. This …

Visual Basic Time-Space Query Modeling For Geovisualization Of Life Paths, Ryan Heaslip

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The origins and incidence of many health problems are related to geographical circumstances. To be able understanding the underlying contributing factors requires conceptualizing the problem in geographical terms. A temporal dataset of individuals' locations was acquired from an annual census taken in Sweden. A space-time query model was constructed to explore associations between an individual's residential locations for given periods of time to those of other individuals with similar heath, or health related factors. The space-time query model was created in the Visual Basic extension of ArcGIS 8.3. Results were in the form of selections that could be exported into …

Constraint-Based Facilities Planning, Tafazzul Ahmed Khan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In recent years a large variation of production volume for the mass-production products happens frequently due to the changes in technology and market. Those changes cause introduction of new products having shorter life cycles, thus enforcing modification and renewal of production facilities much earlier than their lifetime. A model was built to assess the impact of manufacturing parameters on the effectiveness of the layout and the material handling system. A relationship was developed between variations in production oriented parameters and its impact on the facility size and final cost of the product being manufactured exclusively in terms of machine time, …

Evaluation Of The Ductility Of Composite Steel I-Girders In Positive Bending, Nicholas R. Roberts

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Current AASHTO bridge specifications limit the allowable maximum strength of simple spans and positive bending regions with adjacent compact pier sections to a value between the full plastic moment and the hypothetical yield moment of the cross section. The equation used for this strength prediction is given as a linear function, related to the depth of web in compression. However, this method of strength prediction is based on a series of parametric studies from which the data did not suggest the values close to the yield moment that may be computed using the associated strength equations.;Recent experimental tests by others …

Women And Social Services In Saudi Arabia, Khadija Nasseef

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This master thesis talks about social services for women that provided by social welfare agencies in Saudi Arabia. This thesis is a descriptive study that uses the content analysis as a method to investigate social services agencies that provides special services for women. This thesis also had special interest in social services that improve women's lives in Saudi Arabia. The content analysis is made on documents and brochures of 4 main social services agencies that offer services for women. The content analysis was made in term of these agencies main aim and target, their main massage, their programs for women, …

The Creation Of A Distance Learning Graduate Level Course In Legal And Ethical Aspects Of Technology, Wade M. Chumney

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

This goal of this project is to provide a quality graduate level distance learning course administered via WebCT that can be administered by a professor possessing a Juris Doctor. To accomplish this goal, two primary texts were selected: Ethics in Information Technology, by Reynolds, George (2003), published by Thomson Course Technology., ISBN: 0-619-06277-0 and CyberLaw: Text and Cases, 2nd edition, Ferrera, Gerald and Stephen Lichtenstein, and Margo Reder, and Robert Bird, and William Schiano (2004), published by Thomson (West Legal Studies in Business), ISBN: 0-324-16488-2. Additionally, a number of papers were written on issues pertinent to the class, several PowerPoint …

A Web-Based Model Management System For Managing Biocomplexity, Kanchana Tandekar

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Biocomplexity systems are quite complex in nature and involve nonlinear, chaotic and unpredictable behavior thus requiring highly innovative quantitative techniques in order to model their behavior. Such models are a national resource to be managed in an effort similar to the existing one for Biocomplexity data. In effect, the multidisciplinary nature of Biocomplexity research results in a need to integrate models from various disciplines and a need to exchange data and models among wide variety of users over time and space. The aim of this project is to explore a relatively new and integrated approach to managing Biocomplexity models. This …

E-Commerce Implementation For Dutch Precision Inc., Daniel C. Mortenson

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

The MSIS project at Dakota State University, "E-commerce implementation for Dutch Precision, Inc." began in May 2004 and was completed in December of the same year. The target company, Dutch Precision, Inc. (DPI), remanufactures brake calipers for automotive applications, regionally based near Tampa, Florida, and sells predominately to independent auto parts stores. The DPI company website was established on a new static IP address using the DutchPrecision.com domain name. Three interrelated open-source code software applications were used; Apache web server, MySQL database, and PHP, a server-side scripting language. Virus and networking difficulties initially impaired and refocused the project goals, but …

A Department Of Transportation Motor Carrier Web-Based Application, Martin D. Wray

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Delivering the high levels of reliability and availability required of business-to-business Web sites requires not only advanced technology, but also great operational processes. Building a scalable, highly available application is a necessary process in becoming functional as an e-commerce entity. As the Project Manager for the development of a Motor Carrier Web-based Application developing the modules required in an online system, using IBM's WebSphere Java-based tools that have allowed me and the developers that I manage to create a sophisticated Web-based application. The central WebSphere tool is the WebSphere Application Server (WAS), an application server that will be used to …

A Centralized Storage System For Catering Information, Matthew D. Johnson

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Hy-Vee has always prided itself at being the best around in customer service. It has been the cornerstone of our company for the last 75 years and guides the way that we conduct every part of our business. With the incredible expansion of our catering business over the last decade, it became evident that we were not providing the level of service that our clients had come to expect of us. This lack of service came in several ways but all were traced back to a simple lack of adequate recordkeeping. A review of the company's method for storing catering …

Where In The Hell Is Dorothy Parker?, Thomas J. Fuschetto Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The famous members of The Algonquin Round Table once got together to write and produce a play called No, Sirree! Since very little is known about the production, questions remain of how the members decided to do such a production, what was the production, and what they later thought about the production. Since such information is missing, then I filled in the gaps with my imagination of writing and producing an original play that represents my research and my imagination of how the members of The Algonquin Round Table decided to do a play production, how they prepared for the …

Analysis Of English And Spanish Academic Proficiency Of Pre-Service Bilingual Teachers At A University In South Texas, Matthew E. Meyers

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this research was to examine the English and Spanish academic writing proficiency of pre-service bilingual teachers at a university in south Texas and attempt to establish factors that have influenced that proficiency or lack of proficiency. Ninety-four participants who volunteered to take part in the study completed a 50-question survey that solicited demographic information and perceived proficiencies in English and Spanish. After collecting the data from the survey, participants wrote essays on four separate themes. Two of the essays were written in Spanish, and two were written in English. The compositions purported to elicit the participants' written …

The Effect Of Scaffolding On Children's Oral Language Development, Ana Villaurrutia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This was a quasi experimental nonequivalent control group design used with 71 subjects in two Head Start center settings. LAP-D assessment results were also taken in account for the purpose of comparison regarding the dependent variable. The subjects were children 4 and 5 years old who were attending classes in two different Head Start centers. These subjects were students from 2 classrooms from Center One and 2 classrooms from Center Two. In Center One, teachers were trained in the use of scaffolding techniques, whereas in Center Two teachers had no training on scaffolding techniques. An analysis of variance procedure was …

Use Of Pedometers To Promote Improvement In Selected Physiological Measurements In An Older Female Mexican American Population, Zasha Romero

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The problem of this study was to determine if pedometers promoted daily walking exercise reflected by changes on selected physiological measurements in older Mexican American females. Significance in the study was determined at the 95% level of confidence. The researcher offered the null hypothesis of no difference in results from the pretest to the posttest in both the control and treatment groups for the selected physiological measurements. The subjects of this study were 55 Mexican-American females ages 60 to 75. The subjects were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) method was used to …

Structural Conformation And Leaching From In Vitro Aged And Retrieved Invisalign Appliances, Susan Schuster, George Eliades, Spiros Zinelis, Theodore Eliades, T. Gerard Bradley

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

The objectives of this study were to investigate the structure of Invisalign appliances (Align Technology, Santa Clara, Calif) after intraoral exposure, and to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize the substances leached from the aligners after accelerated in vitro aging. Samples of Invisalign appliances were randomly selected from 10 patients before intraoral placement and after retrieval, and the prepared specimens were subjected to (1) bright-field optical reflection microscopy to study the surface morphology; (2) Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy to characterize the in vivo changes in molecular composition induced on appliance surfaces, (3) scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis to identify …

Pursuing A Return On Technology, Mary Wise

Library Scholarship

This article discusses a few emerging technologies and how they could benefit libraries and library users.

Missouri S&T Magazine Winter 2004, Missouri S&T Marketing And Communications Department, Miner Alumni Association

Missouri S&T Magazine

No abstract provided.

Social Ministry, Congregations, And The Faith Based Initiative, Ruth L. Reimer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for this exploratory research was to find out to what extent Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) church members from a midsize Midwest City perceive social ministry programs as a priority within their church and to identify priority populations with whom they would like to see their church serve. Priority areas of service listed by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (at risk youth, ex-offenders, homeless, hungry, substance abusers, people with HIV/AIDS, welfare to work families) were used as a framework in developing categories and used for comparisons.

A survey was distributed to a total …

Survival Of Patients Treated With Intra-Aortic Balloon Counterpulsation At A Tertiary Care Center In Pakistan - Patient Characteristics And Predictors Of In-Hospital Mortality., Fahim H. Jafary, Sohail A. Khan, Haresh Kumar, Numaan F. Malik, K. Kazmi, Sajid Dhakam, Azam Shafquat, Aamir Hameed, Javed Tai, Najaf Nadeem

Department of Medicine

BACKGROUND: Intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABC) has an established role in the treatment of patients presenting with critical cardiac illnesses, including cardiogenic shock, refractory ischemia and for prophylaxis and treatment of complications of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Patients requiring IABC represent a high-risk subset with an expected high mortality. There are virtually no data on usage patterns as well as outcomes of patients in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent who require IABC. This is the first report on a sizeable experience with IABC from Pakistan.

METHODS: Hospital charts of 95 patients (mean age 58.8 (+/- 10.4) years; 78.9% male) undergoing IABC between 2000-2002 …

Manufacturing And Evaluation Of Structural Products With Recycled Polymers, Raghuram Phani Aditham

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The rapid growth of Wastes from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) can be attributed to the rapid developments in technology, leading to reduction in service life to less than 2 years in certain products. Thermoplastics such as Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) and Polycarbonate (PC) form a significant percent of the Electronic Shredder Residue (ESR) that were used in this research to manufacture and evaluate structural products with recycled polymers.;In this research, offset blocks for highway and bridge guardrail systems were developed using recycled polymers reinforced with glass fabric as shell and discarded tire strips/wood as core materials. Optimum compression molding process parameters …

Limiting Dns Covert Channels And Network Validated Dns, Rex D. Mccracken

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Despite the variety and number of network security devices and policies available, sensitive data, such as intellectual property and business data, can still be surreptitiously sent via the Internet to unscrupulous receivers. Furthermore, few security mechanisms address securing or limiting covert channels. This study defines a framework for determining a rule set to minimize covert channel capacity on the DNS protocol specifically. The information and techniques used in this study may be useful in aiding security professionals and developers with enforcing security policies on DNS and other Internet protocols.;This research resulted in the development of a rudimentary tool, referred to …

Architectural Level Risk Assessment, Ahmed E. Hassan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Many companies develop and maintain large-scale software systems for public and financial institutions. Should a failure occur in one of these systems, the impact would be enormous. It is therefore essential, in maintaining a system's quality, to identify any defects early on in the development process in order to prevent the occurrence of failures. However, testing all modules of these systems to identify defects can be very expensive. There is therefore a need for methodologies and tools that support software engineers in identifying the defected and complex software components early on in the development process.;Risk assessment is an essential process …

Hematotoxicity Of Heptachlor, Sarah Vanessa Meads Dodson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Hematotoxicity has been documented in adults exposed to high levels of organochlorine pesticides. Our studies revealed that prenatal exposure to the organochlorine pesticide heptachlor resulted in alteration of lymphocyte development, while myeloid cell development was spared. To further investigate effects of heptachlor on lymphoid cells, we evaluated direct exposure of this compound on pro-B and pre-B cells. In these studies, the pro-B cell line C1.92 and the pre-B cell line 70Z/3 demonstrated concentration-dependent decreases in proliferation following heptachlor exposure. Pro-B cell viability decreased significantly; however, pre-B cell viability was not altered. Further investigation into mechanisms of diminished cell proliferation revealed …

Three Essays On The Profitability, Risk, And Viability Of Family Firms In A Developing Economy, Kamol Khaemasunun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this dissertation is to examine the family firms in term of profit, risk and the probability of their survival in developing countries. The first chapter gives an introduction to this study. The second chapter provides an analysis of family businesses in regard to their performance, since there have been claims in the popular press that family-centered "crony capitalism" significantly contributed to the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Small, tightly focused firms can, however, be well managed by family hierarchies. As firms grow and diversify, family management is often displaced by diffuse ownership and independent managers. Between these …