Digital Commons Network^™

Sexual Conflict And Density Dependence In The Western Mosquitofish, Gambusia Affinis (Poeciliidae), Chad Smith

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Sexual conflict occurs when individuals of one sex express traits that reduce the fitness of their mates. Males of many species harass females to gain copulations, which benefits males by increasing the number of offspring they sire but imposes energetic and opportunity costs on the females they harass. This thesis examined the fitness costs of sexual harassment to females, the energetic costs of mating to males, and the factors influencing the intensity of male competition for mates in the western mosquitofish Gambusia affinis. I quantified male and female behavior, four female fitness components (number of offspring per female, embryo number, …

Predicting The Location And Duration Of Transient Induced Low Or Negative Pressures Within A Large Water Distribution System, Richard C. Svindland

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Surge modeling is a tool used by engineers and utility owners in determining the surge pressures or transients that may result from routine pump and valve operations. Recent surge modeling work has focused on low and/or negative pressures within water distribution systems and how those occurrences could lead to intrusions. Effective surge modeling is needed in order to determine if the intrusion potential exists and what mitigation is needed to prevent intrusions. This work focuses on the generally unexplored area of using surge models to predict the location and duration of transient induced low and/or negative pressures within large complex …

A Comparison Between Masticatory Muscle And Temporomandibular Joint Pain Patients With Regard To The Prevalence And Impact Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, Elizangela Bertoli

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate masticatory muscle (MM) and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain patients regarding the prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and evaluate the level of psychological dysfunction and its relationship to PTSD symptoms in these patients. This study included 445 adult patients (male = 42, female = 403). Psychological questionnaires included the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Multidimensional Pain Inventory, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the PTSD Check List Civilian. The total sample of patients was divided into two major groups: The MM group (n=242) and TMJ group (n=203). Each group was divided …

New Readings, Gi Dong Lee

Theses

This thesis explores the search for a creative process for my photographic studies over the past two years at Rochester Institute of Technology. It explains the thought behind the artwork such as why I am interested in the genre of still life, inspiration, process, and my future artistic goals.

The subject matter of my thesis exhibition motivated me to explore the world of still life. By painting on an object, my imagery has evolved into a new reading that led to a new interpretation of the still life both physically and psychologically. My thesis images emphasize a new aesthetic experience …

An Evaluation Of A Multigrid Algorithm Error Spike Correction Method, Erika L. Mcmichael

Theses

This study is an evaluation of a method of improving the multigrid process by cor recting error spikes which are generated when moving from a coarser to finer level. The correction method was tested on nine one-dimensional problems governed by second order differential equations. Tests were performed with an accomodative, full approximation scheme, full multi-grid algorithm.

Results indicate that appropriate implementation of the correction can increase so lution accuracy. Accuracy was increased in 75% of cases in which a single correction was applied to a point in the central portion of the grid. Single corrections performed on points with error …

Effects Of Pace And Stress On Upper-Extremity Biomechanical Responses In Sign Language Interpreters, Jin Qin

Theses

Repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) are disorders of the soft tissues due to repeated exertion and excessive movement of the body. Sign language interpreters who have to move their fingers, hands, wrists and arms repeatedly are susceptible to RMIs. One of the major research voids in the studies of RMIs in sign language interpreters is the lack of quantification of biomechanical exposures. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of pace and psychosocial stress of sign language interpreting on the biomechanical responses in a quantitative manner and compare the results with the industrial high risk benchmarks.

Twelve professional …

Compact Realizations Of Embedded Filters In Organic Substrates, William Lambert

Theses

Making communication devices smaller, lighter, and cheaper has been the driving force behind the development of new technologies which have made the cellular phones and wireless networks we now take for granted possible. The frequent emphasis on miniaturization particularly has required the development of a variety of new approaches to creating communications circuits. One such technology that has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years is passives that are embedded into the package of communications integrated circuits. Using these devices reduces the amount of surface area required to implement a communications device, in addition to potentially improving performance …

Development Of Control Algorithm And A Simulation Tool For Self-Assembly Of Microsystems Based On Swarm Technology, Siddharth Mestry

Theses

"Chunxel" Technology is a novel concept of constructing 3-dimensional structures using a group of intelligent, autonomous, and cooperating micro robots. Chunxels are small robotic modules, cubical in shape, which are immersed in a tank containing a viscous fluid. The chunxels are propelled by the electromagnetic forces created by passing direct current through a set of large coils placed on each face of the tank and small coils embedded in the micro device. The chunxels follow a set of rules which mimic a swarm behavior and selfassemble in the liquid to form a 3-D structure. Swarm behavior is a dynamic problem …

Polarimetric Remote Sensing In The Visible To Near Infrared, James R. Shell Ii

Theses

Polarization adds another dimension to the spatial intensity and spectral information typ ically acquired in remote sensing. Polarization imparted by surface reflections contains unique and discriminatory signatures which may augment spectral target-detection tech niques. Benefits such as improving man-made object detection are often touted, as well as possible improvements to spectral algorithms used for detection and identification. How ever, virtually all efforts fail to cast polarimetric remote sensing within a cohesive framework in which a priori predictions of polarized radiance are made, as is done with spectral remote sensing techniques. This is due, in part, to the challenges of measuring …

Effect Of Flexing On The Barrier Properties Of Metallized Films, Anjum Parkar

Theses

One of the major concerns with respect to metallized films is the effect of flexing on their barrier properties. Films encounter a series of mechanical stress situations during manufacturing, processing, handling, and distribution. These mechanical stresses often result in flexing of the packaging film, which is more prominent with metallized films. The first part of my study evaluates the effect of real stresses of flex by using packages already manufactured and that have been through the distribution cycle. Metallized film samples from these packages were tested to see the effect of real stress on their barrier properties. The results showed …

Designing Medical Legal Exhibits: A Guide To Creating Successful Presentations, Sara M. Krause

Theses

This thesis provides design instruction for medical illustrators, including ideas and facts about design, literacy, attention, retention, and recall. It is designed to help illustrators create persuasive printed exhibits to serve as demonstrative evidence in court cases.

An Investigation Of Verbal Versus Visual Persuasive Elements In Travel And Gambling Pop-Up Advertisements, Elizabeth Karras

Theses

Although pop-up advertisements generate ill will, these ads, have an above average clickthrough rate compared to other forms of Internet advertising such as the banner ad, illustrating the significance this form has in modern day advertising. Travel and gambling ads are analyzed in the following study. Previous literature includes studies on factors that play an integral role in the success or failure of an online advertisement, the effectiveness of internet marketing on internet users, persuasive appeals used in advertising, and experiential consumption. Research on pop-up advertisements has focused primarily on tactics, their effects on the consumer, and their failures and …

Novel Vlsi Architecture For Quantization And Variable Length Coding For H-264/Avc Video Compression Standard, Suneetha Kosaraju

Theses

Integrated multimedia systems process text, graphics, and other discrete media such as digital audio and video streams. In an uncompressed state, graphics, audio and video data, especially moving pictures, require large transmission and storage capacities which can be very expensive. Hence video compression has become a key component of any multimedia system or application. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) have combined efforts to put together the next generation of video compression standard, the H.264/MPEG-4 PartlO/AVC, which was finalized in 2003. The H.264/AVC uses significantly improved and computationally intensive compression techniques to maximize performance. H.264/AVC …

Data Aggregation And Cross-Layer Design In Wsns, Carter May

Theses

Over the past few years, advances in electrical engineering have allowed electronic devices to shrink in both size and cost. It has become possible to incorporate environmental sensors into a single device with a microprocessor and memory to interpret the data and wireless transceivers to communicate the data. These "sensor nodes" have become small and cheap enough that they can be distributed in very large numbers into the area to be monitored and can be considered disposable. Once deployed, these sensor nodes should be able to self-organize themselves into a usable network. These "wireless sensor networks," or WSNs, differ from …

The Development And Performance Evaluation Of Pif Logic Functional Blocks, Sheetal Suresh Sonar-Pardeshi

Theses

In the deep submicron range of integrated circuit design, interconnects and not the logical gates are causing the performance bottleneck. The number of available transistors increase by a factor of 2 every technology node but interconnects do not scale with devices, devices scale down faster and thus the present designs need to be scalable and reusable. Pipeline interconnect free (PIF) logic methodology has a potential to solve these current design problems. In PIF logic methodology the global interconnects are replaced by a chain of logical gates. PIF logic uses only one type of gate which can be connected only to …

Breeding Contempt, Amanda C. Lee

Theses

The thesis describes the artist's sculptural exhibition, Breeding Contempt, a body of work that explores the artist's struggle for individuation and creative empowerment, against the restrictions of a dysfunctional environment. The author details how she incorporates her life experiences into the thematic basis of this artwork, as well as the techniques used in the making of the sculptures.

Five Year Study Of The Effectiveness Of Safety Incentive Programs Instituted At Bj's Wholesale Club, Peter D. Van Derlyke

Theses

Safety incentive programs have been employed for many years as a means of keeping employee injuries under control. There are many ways incentives can be implemented and little is known about which are the most effective. This thesis project reports on a study conducted over five (5) years at some of BJ's Wholesale Club's highest accident frequency rate locations. Each year several locations with high accident frequency rates were chosen to be on what was called the Safety Task Force. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if safety incentives would aid in the reduction of workplace accidents. This …

An Investigation Of The Dynamics Of Human Metamorphosis Triggered By Perception And Environment, Stacey Parker

Theses

This thesis describes the artist's sculptural work, a body of sculpture which explores the interactions between humans and their environment, and how they undergo metamorphoses triggered by internal and external forces.

Interview, Stacy Finkelstein

Theses

By means of digital imaging tools, specifically Adobe Photoshop, my art work uses painterly references to explore diverse themes. Using painting as a filter, my work explores the tradition of landscape in painting and photography, panorama suburbia through a photographic lens and surrealist art. The convergence of these ideas is captured in the constructed digital images that comprise my thesis work.

The interview format is the beginning of my progression into performance art, where I am exploring more avant-garde avenues of artistic representation that seeks to eliminate the viewer.

The Relationship Between Young Women's Large And Small Friendship Networks, Self-Reported Preferences And The Influence Of Popular Fashion Magazine Readership, Meghann E. Connor

Theses

Friendship networks impact self-perceived body images, appearance, popularity, attractiveness, style, pressure, and self-consciousness. This study examines both large and small friendship networks and young women's popular fashion magazine readership. Eighty-seven senior high school young women completed a 22-question survey to determine placement in large or small networks. The survey was used to determine questions later discussed in the report. Significant differences were found between females in large and small networks with regard to attractiveness and style after reading fashion magazines. No other variables were found to be significant.

Women In The Printing Industry: The Challenges Of Women Press Operators, Margaret Przelski

Theses

There appear to be very few women press operators in the printing industry. Unfortunately, the reasons for this situation are not clearly understood. To investigate this phenomenon, three different questionnaires were administered to the following groups:

• human resource managers selected from the top local Rochester commercial printing companies listed in the Rochester Business Journal,

• alumni from RIT's School of Print Media, and

• women with press operation experience.

The main purpose of the first survey was to determine how many women were actually employed as press operators in Rochester, New York. If women weren't working as press operators, what positions did …

Total Synthesis Of Montiporyne E, Jian Chen

Theses

Montiporyne A-F is a family of new diacetylenic natural products recently isolated from stony coral Montipora sp. Biological study shows that these compounds exhibit bioactivity against certain solid tumor cells. Of particular interest is Montiporyne E, whose molecular structure is comprised of an interesting seven-membered lactam ring and a diacetylenic sidechain, which is a common structural feature among the Montiporyne family members.

An efficient synthesis of Montiporyne E is described in this paper. The seven-membered lactam ring was constructed using a Beckmann rearrangement. The desired natural product was synthesized using a Sonograshira coupling of the seven-membered lactam vinyl triflate with …

Coexisting, Hyun Jung Lee

Theses

This thesis describes the artist's sculpture and jewelry/wall composition, which uses figurative forms representing simplified and exaggerated parts of the human body. The author describes how this artwork expresses the themes of community and coexistence in the human condition.

Asthma Brochure And Logo For Rochester General Hospital's Camp Bronchopower And Pediatric Associates, Christine Marie Curtiss

Theses

This thesis describes the creation of a lay public educational brochure for Rochester General Hospital, showing asthmatic children how to use a spacer device with a metered dose inhaler. The thesis was created using the author's original artwork and was translated and adapted for a Spanish version. The second part of the thesis describes the revision of the logo for Camp Bronchopower, a children's asthma camp run by Rochester General Hospital.

Expanding Deictic Shift Theory: Person Deixis In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, Anna Laura Bennett

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Deictic shift theory (DST) was developed as a model of the construction and comprehension of all types of fictional narrative. With respect to the participant structures of texts, however, DST researchers have focused their attention on deictic shifts in third-person narratives, leaving first-person narratives unanalyzed from this theoretical perspective. As a result, DST in its present form does not adequately account for the variety of manipulations of a range of perspectives that may be achieved in first-person narratives. Nor has DST been systematically applied to texts whose participant structures undergo extensive reorganization as the result of a surprise ending or …

Role Of Weak Zone Geometry And Rheology In The Generation Of Intraplate Seismicity, Abhishek Joshi

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

In intraplate seismic zones (e.g. the New Madrid Seismic Zone, NMSZ, in the southcentral United States), the source of stress that drives earthquake is very complex. Data from the NMSZ indicate 3 earthquake of magnitude M~7, occurring at an approximate interval of 500 years during the last 2000 years. One hypothesis that satisfies these conditions proposes that short-lived bursts of earthquakes may result from perturbations in the local or regional stress field. This causes relaxation of a lower crustal weak zone which drive repeated earthquakes. The number of earthquakes is dependent on the geometry and rheology of the weak zone. …

Quantification Of Surface Defects Using Primary Highlight In Diffuse Angle Gray Scale Images, Subburengan Ganapathiraman

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The thesis presented is an effort to gather all possible information of one particular type of common paint defect the seed defect, from gray scale images of highly specular painted surface. The proposed approach in the thesis utilizes a white light source to illuminate the surface and utilizes a camera to capture its gray scale image at different diffused angles. While attempting to explain the physics of highlight formation in terms of location on the surface of a seed defect, the thesis also extends to utilize this information from gray scale images to accurately predict the parameters of seed defects …

Experimental And Analytical Study Of Friction Stir Processing, Basil M. Darras

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Friction stir processing (FSP) has recently become an effective microstructural modifications technique. Reported results showed that for different alloys, FSP produces very fine equiaxed and homogeneous grain structure. FSP is considered to be a new processing technique and more experimental and analytical investigations are needed to advance the industrial utilization of FSP. Most of the work that has been done in the friction stir processing field is experimental and limited modeling activities have been conducted. Attempts to develop a predictive model to correlate the resulting microstructure with process parameters are scarce. In this work, commercial 5052 Aluminum alloy sheets are …

Modeling And Optimization Of Machining Performance Measures In Face Milling Of Automotive Aluminum Alloy A380 Under Different Lubrication/Cooling Conditions For Sustainable Manufacturing, Abhijit Dilip Kardekar

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The use of cutting fluids in machining process is very essential for achieving desired machining performance. Due to the strict environmental protection laws now in effect, there is a wide-scale evaluation of the use of cutting fluids in machining. Consequently, minimal quantity lubrication (MQL), which uses very small quantity of cutting fluids and still offers the same functionality as flood cooling, can be considered as an alternative solution. This thesis presents an experimental study of face milling of automotive aluminum alloy A380 under four different lubrication/cooling conditions: dry cutting, flood cooling, MQL (Oil), and MQL (Water). Experiments were design using …

Polyaniline Nanotubes: Catalysis And Their Conversion To Carbon Nanotubes, Stephen Paquette

Theses

Polyaniline nanotubes, first synthesized by Parasarathy and Martin in 1994, have been studied extensively in recent years.[1] The study of these nanodimensional particles has been oriented mostly toward an attempt to understand the electrical and magnetic properties surrounding these semi-one dimensional objects and also toward applications for their utilization.[2] The ability to produce these nano-particles chemically but, without a template was first discovered by Wan in 1999.[3] The use of chemical oxidants often produces undesirable byproducts during the reaction. Therefore, we have used this as a launching point in order to first mirror this template-less synthesis in our lab and …