Digital Commons Network^™

Examination Of An Aloe Vera Galacturonate Polysaccharide Capable Of In Situ Gelation For The Controlled Release Of Protein Therapeutics, Shawn David Mcconaughy

Dissertations

A therapeutic delivery platform has been investigated with the ultimate goal of designing a sustained protein release matrix utilizing an in-situ gelling, acidic polysaccharide derived from the Aloe vera plant. The Aloe vera polysaccharide (AvP) has been examined in order to determine how chemical composition, structure, molecular weight and solution behavior affect gelation and protein/peptide delivery. Correlations are drawn between structural characteristics and solution behavior in order to determine the impact of polymer conformation and solvation on gel formation under conditions designed to simulate nasal applications. Steady state and dynamic rheology, classic and dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, pulse field …

Dispersion States And Surface Characteristics Of Physically Blended Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane/Polymer Hybrid Nanocomposites, Rahul Misra

Dissertations

Control of dispersion and segregation states of nanostructured additives is one of the biggest challenges in realizing the optimum potential of high-performance hybrid polymer nanocomposites. Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanostructured chemicals, with their hybrid organic-inorganic nature and flexible functionalization with a variety of organic substituents, yield possibilities to control dispersion and tune compatibility in a wide range of polymer systems. The overall goal of this research is to investigate the fundamental parameters that influence the dispersion and segregation states of POSS nanostructured chemicals and to understand chain dynamics and conformations in physically blended POSS hybrid polymer nanocomposites (HPNC's). Multiple structural …

Synthesis, Propagation Kinetics, And Characterization Of D,L-Lactide-Based Polyols And Polyurethanes Therefrom, Scott Joseph Moravek

Dissertations

In order to expand the usefulness of degradable polyesters, degradable polyurethanes were synthesized using a mixed polyol system including poly(D,L-lactideco- glycolide) (PLGA), a well-known degradable polyester. Two isocyanate systems, methyl 2,6-diisocyantocaproate (LDI) and dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'- diisocyanate(Hi2MDI), were studied in order to achieve optimal physical and thermal properties of the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) while maintaining degradablity. The LDI based systems had excellent physical properties as well as thermal properties that may make them suitable for biomedical devices. The H12MDI based TPUs also had excellent physical properties as well as a higher melting temperature. The aforementioned TPUs were synthesized in small batches. Another …

Factors That Contribute To A Successful Secondary Vocational Education Program In The State Of Mississippi, Erin Leigh Parker

Dissertations

This study was designed to assess and identify factors that make a vocational program successful. Using qualitative methods for collection and analysis of data, vocational instructors and students in programs identified to be successful were interviewed to better depict the classroom setting, teachers, methods, etc. of these successful programs. Participants included instructors of and students enrolled in secondary vocational programs in the state of Mississippi identified to be most successful according to C-PAS test scores in each of the following training areas: Building Trades (carpentry), Business and Computer Technology, Marketing Management Technology, and Allied Health. MS-CPAS test scores were analyzed …

Post-Disaster Effects Of Hurricane Katrina On Significantly Affected College Students Compared To Moderately Affected College Students, Charles Thomas Coleman

Dissertations

This quantitative study used independent t tests to explore the level of significance with four dependent variables of educational effects (grades), financial impact (monetary hardship), physiological effects (aches, pains, or injury), and psychological effects (mental stability or illness) related to significantly affected students and moderately affected students of post- Hurricane Katrina. To determine if there was a significant difference between moderately affected students compared to significantly affected students, a questionnaire specific to the dependent variables was administered to The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) students.

Data gathered in this study suggested the greatest significant difference among significantly affected students and …

Factors Related To Nonacademic Adjustment Of Freshmen Students, Nykela Horne Jackson

Dissertations

Student retention remains a major concern of higher education institutions. With decreasing state funding, higher education institutions have implemented creative strategies and methods to recruit students. Once students are recruited it is critical that they be retained. Research has confirmed that student withdrawals can be attributed to the lack of successful transition and adjustment to the college environment. Numerous studies have focused on how demographic factors (socioeconomic status, race, employment, and parental education level) affect retention with the major focus on academic adjustment. Current research has shown that nonacademic adjustment (social adjustment, personal/emotional adjustment, and institutional attachment) plays a significant …

The Influence Of Career-Technical Student Organizations On Non-Traditional And Traditional Community College Students, Suzanne Lee Johnson

Dissertations

Student organizations have been contributing to adult education for years. The need to recruit non-traditional students and retain them is very important to the financial support of the career and technical program. If a career-technical student organization (CTSO) can encourage retention and completion of traditional and non-traditional students in a field of study, the state might realize the need to increase the funding provided to the advisers/instructors of the CTSO and the financial support of the CTSO. This study investigated what motivates a student to become an active member in a CTSO and to what extent the CTSO contributed to …

The Relationship Between The Teacher's Perception Of The Principal's Leadership Style And Personal Motivation, Aletta Marie Price

Dissertations

Educators world wide are shaping the future by the quality of education that they provide to the youth of today. Today's future relies on the impact teachers make on their students. Society, social security, and economic development are all dependent on future generations. Teachers are molding those future generations. It is no secret that if a teacher is motivated to do his/her best at enhancing education, that students have a better chance at being successful. Furthermore, if principals are exhibiting behaviors that improve teacher motivation, the result is not only an increase in student achievement, but a more successful school …

The Perceptions Of Superintendents Regarding The Need For Graduate Business Classes In Educational Leadership, Howard Leland Smith

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the comprehensiveness of educational leadership programs regarding the extent of appropriate business knowledge attained by public school administrators. Portions of the study included a discussion of current licensing practices, academic governance, basic business requirements for leadership and management, and basic financial literacy. A further purpose was to measure the perception of how the inclusion of specific business-oriented graduate education in the certification process might increase the initial success of administrators.

The literature review supported the concept that superintendents understand change management and fiscal responsibility. Survey respondents supported these concepts by indicating the …

Homotopy Perturbation Method And Padé Approximants For Solving Flierl-Petviashivili Equation, Syed T. Mohynd-Din, Muhammad A. Noor

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, we present a reliable combination of homotopy perturbation method and Padé approximants to investigate the Flierl-Petviashivili (FP) equation. The approach introduces a new transformation necessary for the conversion of the Flierl-Petviashivili equation to a first order initial value problem and a reliable framework designed to overcome the difficulty of the singular point at x = 0. The proposed homotopy perturbation method is applied to the reformulated first order initial value problem which leads the solution in terms of transformed variable. The desired series solution is obtained by making use of the inverse transformation. The suggested algorithm may …

Northwest Area Water Supply Project Final Environmental Impact Statement On Water Treatment

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

For many years, residents of northwestern North Dakota have experienced water supply problems. Existing ground water sources are of poor quality and the Souris River is a marginal source from both a quality and quantity standpoint. To resolve these problems, the Northwest Area Water Supply project (Project) is being constructed. This Project is a bulk water supply system that will serve the municipal and rural water needs of the Project area (Figure 1). The planning, design and construction of the Project is a cooperative effort between the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the State of North Dakota. Reclamation provides technical …

Estimating Risk Under Interval Uncertainty: Sequential And Parallel Algorithms, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen, Songsak Sriboonchitta

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In traditional econometrics, the quality of an individual investment -- and of the investment portfolio -- is characterized by its expected return and its risk (variance). For an individual investment or portfolio, we can estimate the future expected return and a future risk by tracing the returns x₁, ..., x_n of this investment (and/or similar investments) over the past years, and computing the statistical characteristics based on these returns. The return (per unit investment) is defined as the selling of the corresponding financial instrument at the ends of, e.g., a one-year period, divided by the buying price …

Mathematical Justification Of Spectral/Covariance Techniques: On The Example Of Arc Detection, Jan Beck, David Nemir, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Detecting arcing faults is an important but difficult-to-solve practical problem. Many existing methods of arc detection are based upon acquiring a signal that is proportional to current and then making an analysis of the signal's power spectrum (or, equivalently, its covariance function). Since the power spectrum, i.e., the absolute values of the Fourier transform, carries only partial information about the signal, a natural question is: why should we restrict ourselves to the use of this partial information? A related question is caused by the fact that even the most efficient methods still miss some arcing faults and/or lead to false …

Computing With Tensors: Potential Applications Of Physics-Motivated Mathematics To Computer Science, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this paper, we explain what are tensors and how tensors can help in computing.

Managing Uic Medical Center Policies Using Dspace, Julia Hendry

Library Publications

The University of Illinois at Chicago’s University Archives found that using the DSpace institutional repository software is an effective, if not elegant, solution for the submission, search, and retrieval of a set of vital university records. This case study discusses the process of using the institutional repository to manage the University of Illinois Medical Center’s electronic policies and procedures documents.

Department Of Biological Systems Engineering Newsletter, Volume 4, Number 2, December 2008

BSE Department Magazine

Environmental Management Research
From the Department Head
Meet the Faculty
Alumni News
Comings and Goings
Alumna Profile
In Memoriam
Museum Hand-picked for HELP
Urban Water Quality
Summer Graduates
Distinguished Fellowship Awards
Partners in Pollution Prevention Interns
Quarter-scale Tractor Competition
Scholarships and Ice Cream
BSE faculty develop Odor Footprint Tool By Crystal Powers
Ethanol Co-product Storage and Utilization Conference, by John Hay
Biological Systems Engineering Department Hall of Fame: Don Eret and Ned Meier
International Symposium
Faculty and Staff News
University Service Awards
ASABE Annual Meeting

Why Catastrophic Organizational Failures Happen, Michael A. Roberto

Management Department Faculty Journal Articles

Excerpt from the introduction:

"The purpose of this chapter is to examine the major streams of research about catastrophic failures, describing what we have learned about why these failures occur as well as how they can be prevented. The chapter begins by describing the most prominent sociological school of thought with regard to catastrophic failures, namely normal accident theory. That body of thought examines the structure of organizational systems that are most susceptible to catastrophic failures. Then, we turn to several behavioral perspectives on catastrophic failures, assessing a stream of research that has attempted to understand the cognitive, group and …

12/01/2008 Obituary Records, Hawaii Obituaries

Obituaries

List of Obituaries for individuals who passed away on 12/01/2008. Scroll down to see the names and obituary description.

Academia To Industry Technology Transfer: An Alternative To The Bayh-Dole System For Both Developed And Developing Nations, Dov Greenbaum

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Renewed efforts to bring science and technology to the center of economic revival in developing nations recognize the centrality of the university in the creation and promotion of science and innovation. Many developed nations, following the paradigmatic U.S. technology transfer system, transfer their academic innovations to industry—through licensing intellectual property—for eventual commercialization. While conventional wisdom places the Carter era Bayh-Dole legislation at the center of that successful American system, this Article argues that the U.S. biotechnology and high tech booms are more likely attributable to the confluence of unique and propitious conditions, and that Bayh-Dole played a marginal role in …

New Live Chat; Pubmed Advaced Search, Vol.6 (6) November - December 2008, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

The Insider (2003-2008)

No abstract provided.

Load Sharing Characteristic Of Single Phase Pv Inverter Connected To Grid, M. Imram Hamid, Makbul Anwari, Z. Salam, Taufik

Electrical Engineering

This paper describes model and simulation of single phase PV inverters that work independently to supply three phase system as a part of renewable distributed generation. Load sharing characteristic of PV inverter and grid during supplying local load with current control method and relation of PV power level and current control performance to load sharing are simulated and analyzed. Furthermore, power quality behavior during connection/disconnection of PV plant, grid harmonics, voltage and current unbalance are simulated and analyzed. Model and simulation are implemented using MATLAB/Simulink.

Team On Teams: A Collaborative Inquiry, Jennifer Sa Leigh, Joy E. Beatty, Paul S. Szwed

Organization Management Journal

Over the course of an academic year, we collaborated to adopt a new instructional design for teams in our classes. We recount the story of our collaboration, outlining our process of inquiry, reflection, and support. Our simple search for better techniques shifted as our colleagues helped us reveal hidden assumptions about our roles as teachers. Our critical reflection allowed us to increase our self-awareness, specifically considering the following: how power influences our classroom interactions, how we contribute to and reinforce elements of the system that are not in our best interest, and the evolving stages of our own development as …

A Small Scale Static Var Compensator For Laboratory Experiment, Taufik, Bryan Paet

Electrical Engineering

This paper presents a small scale static VAR compensator (SVC) circuit that could be used as either a laboratory demonstration or a laboratory experiment. The small scale SVC lab experiment effectively demonstrates SVCpsilas function in correcting power factor through the use of power thyristors in a phase-controlled circuit. The laboratory setup of the SVC circuit using a thyristor controlled reactor in parallel with a capacitor will discussed in this paper. Results from the lab setup to exhibit firing angle adjustment to inject or absorb VARs into the system will also be described.

Impact Of Multiple Adjustable Speed Drive System To Power System Harmonics, Taufik, Erin Matsumoto, Makbul Anwari

Electrical Engineering

This paper presents harmonic analysis in a multiple adjustable speed drive system. In a system where multiple drives are fed from the same bus, harmonic currents produced by the various drives can reflect back to the power source and to the other drives causing distortion of the voltage waveform. If these harmonic currents are significant, they can potentially cause problems for the given system. Therefore studying the harmonics at various points in the system and comparing the values of total harmonic distortion can provide guidance in choosing appropriate filtering solutions. A two AC drive system was setup in a laboratory …

Power Quality Behavior Of Single Phase Fed Adjustable Speed Drive Supplied From Grid Of Pv Generation, Makbul Anwari, M. Imran Hamid, Taufik

Electrical Engineering

Power quality behavior on connecting single phase fed adjustable speed drives to a grid which photovoltaic as the power generation is studied in this paper. A MATLAB/Simulink simulations are performed to investigate the existence of power quality parameter and the system problems that may be resulted from operation of this type of load. The results indicate a potential serious power quality problem with the connected adjustable speed drives, which requires consideration during operation of PV generation which a number of this dynamic load.

Economic Effects Of Smoking Bans On Restaurants And Pubs, Barrie Craven, Michael L. Marlow

Economics

The United Kingdom has recently enacted smoking bans in public places such as restaurants and pubs. Public health advocates argue that bans are necessary because non-smokers need protection from second-hand smoke. Advocates also claim that bans do not exert harm on owners because of a vast empirical literature showing that restaurants and bars in the United States never suffer harm following bans. This paper examines whether these claims are true by developing a model within the Coasian framework whereby owners of businesses have incentives to deal with smoking disputes between smokers and non-smokers. Our model demonstrates that it is incorrect …

The Two Princesses Of Bamarre By Gail Carson Levine, Harpercollins 2003, Jonathan Sorenson

LAS Faculty Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Untangling The Debate: The Ethics Of Human Enhancement, Patrick Lin, Fritz Allhoff

Philosophy

Human enhancement, in which nanotechnology is expected to play a major role, continues to be a highly contentious ethical debate, with experts on both sides calling it the single most important issue facing science and society in this brave, new century. This paper is a broad introduction to the symposium herein that explores a range of perspectives related to that debate. We will discuss what human enhancement is and its apparent contrast to therapy; and we will begin to tease apart the myriad intertwined issues that arise in the debate: (1) freedom & autonomy, (2) health & safety, (3) fairness …

Tribal Nation Economics: Rebuilding Commercial Prosperity In Spite Of U.S. Trade Restraints - Recommendations For Economic Revitalization In Indian Country, Angelique A. Eaglewoman

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Country In The Northeast, Dale T. White

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.