Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of The Implementation Of Small Learning Communities On Student Test Outcomes And School Attendance In An Urban School District, Walter I. Campbell

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Reconfigurable End Effector Allowing For In-Hand Manipulation Without Finger Gaiting Or Regrasping, Jacob Ames Ziesmer

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The goal of this thesis is to move a step towards the solution of the bin picking problem. A novel metamorphic end effector is proposed, tested for proof of concept and analyzed using standard techniques of degrees of freedom and graph theory as well as a classical dynamic analysis. Once proof of concept was achieved, the results from the analysis were formed into an optimization program with the hope of finding a more stable, predictable mechanism.

Development Of A Velocity Metric For Rigid-Body Planar Motion, Luis Ernesto Criales Escobar

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Two motions of motion quality have been developed for planar motion. They are the "best motion measure" and the "velocity metric". The "best motion measure" identifies the best motion for a given displacement. The "velocity metric" quantifies the discrepancy between two planar motions for the same rigid body.

The best motion measure compares the motion of each particle on the body to an "ideal", but usually unobtainable, motion. This ideal motion moves each particle from its current position to its desired position on a straight-line path. Although the ideal motion is not a valid rigid body motion, this does not …

Capillary Perfusion Kinematics In Lungs Of Oxygen-Tolerant Rats, Madhavi Ramakrishna

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Motivation:

Prolonged exposure to oxygen at high concentrations (hyperoxia), a common treatment for hypoxemia, is toxic to the lungs. Rats exposed to 85% O₂ for 5-7 days develop tolerance to the otherwise lethal effects of 100% O₂. Elucidating the factors that contribute to this tolerance could further our understanding of the mechanisms of lung O₂ toxicity. Since vascular remodeling involving loss of capillary volume and endothelial surface area has been reported in lungs from rats exposed to 85% O₂ for 7 days, we were interested in evaluating the effect of this hyperoxia model on lung …

Characterization Of The Electromagnetic Fields Inside A Wire Mesh Cage For Biotelemetry, Johnny Bernard Lienau

Master's Theses (2009 -)

A wire mesh cage composed of thin conductive wires will influence the behavior of electromagnetic fields within it. Theory suggests that the cage will behave like a low Q cavity. Many researchers have investigated electromagnetic field behavior in solid walled cavities and waveguides, but little of this work has probed into the effects of a wire mesh. Additionally, few studies have investigated RF communication in these types of environments. The primary goal of this work is to research wireless communication inside a low Q wire mesh cavity in the 200-700 MHz range. Through simulated and experimental results, ideal antenna locations …

Systems Identification Of Sensorimotor Control For Visually Guided Wrist Movements, Chintan Poladia

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The sensorimotor control system is a complicated system in which the neural controller uses the feedback information from sensory modalities (visual, proprioceptive, vestibular, auditory, etc.) to actuate the musculo-skeletal system in order to execute intended movements. It has been an ongoing research to decode this sensorimotor integration. The current study utilized a systems identification approach in conjunction with a one-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulandum to quantify (delays, noises, wrist dynamics and controller parameters) a simplified (linear time-invariant) model of sensorimotor control for visually guided wrist stabilization movements.

Four sensorimotor tasks were used to characterize the parameters of the sensorimotor control model. Open …

Isolation And Dependency Resolution Of Presentation, Processing And Persistence, Mehrab Monjur

Master's Theses (2009 -)

For business application development it is important to isolate programming efforts of the concerns: Presentation, Processing and Persistence. Development of each of these concerns has an independent thinking process and requires somewhat different programming languages and development tools. In order to isolate the concerns, we provide passages between the concerns and control the flow of execution by following essentially three rules: 1. Presentation and Processing are coroutines, 2. Processing is finished before Presentation can begin to show output, and 3. Persistence is a subsystem of Processing. We explain how these rules come to existence, and what the implications are in …

The Relationship Of Electronic-Grade Book Access To Student Achievement, Student Attendance, And Parent-Teacher Communication, Mark S. Mathern

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Design, Synthesis And Study Of The Bridged And Cofacially-Arrayed Poly-P-Phenylene Molecular Wires, Matthew J. Modjewski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Two novel series of bridged and cofacially-arrayed poly-p-phenylenes have been designed synthesized and studied. The bridged poly-p-phenylenes have been synthesized from a readily available diacetylenic precursor utilizing three high yielding steps, and their structures were determined by 1H/13C NMR spectroscopy as well as X-ray crystallography. The racemization barrier between the two atropoisomers was found to be ~12 Kcal mol-1; the versatility of the synthesis employed was extended to synthesis a triply bridged tetra-p-phenylene and a quadruply bridged penta-p-phenylene.

The cofacially-arrayed poly-p-phenylenes have shown that the X-ray crystal structures of the neutral compounds are largely dominated by C-H--π-interactions interactions while the …

Computational Techniques For Reducing Spectra Of The Giant Planets In Our Solar System, Holly L. Grimes

Dissertations and Theses

The dynamic atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune provide a rich source of meteorological phenomena for scientists to study. To investigate these planets, scientists obtain spectral images of these bodies using various instruments including the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) at the Subaru Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. These spectral images are two-dimensional arrays of double precision floating point values that have been read from a detector array. Such images must be reduced before the information they contain can be analyzed. The reduction process for spectral images from COMICS involves several steps:

1. Sky subtraction: the …

The Nature Of People's Perceptions Of Wolves, Laura Briana Nobel

Dissertations and Theses

European immigrants once regarded wolves as the "devil in disguise" (Lopez, 1978, p.40). With our growing awareness of other cultural perspectives and flourishing body of scientific knowledge with regard to wolves' behavior, our perceptions of wolves have become more complicated and nuanced. Our collective awareness of the environment in which we live also gathers complexity. I examine these issues in this study. Wolves are returning to Oregon. The arrival of wolf B-45 in 1999 heralded the beginning of the return of wild wolves to Oregon. More wolves are expected to cross the border as young sub-adults disperse from the growing …

Communication Strategies For Dprca And Other Non-Profit Arts Organizations, Sarah Jane Smith Warren

Communication

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the sojourn, or overseas travel, and the development of traveler intercultural communication self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, an individual's perception of his or her own ability to accomplish tasks (Bandura, 1997), originates from the psychology discipline and has rarely been applied to communication. The study examines and extends the work of Milstein (2005), a communication scholar who investigated the relationship between the sojourn and intercultural communication self-efficacy and found a positive relationship between the two. This study investigated how the experience of the sojourn affects traveler perceptions of their own intercultural communication …

Diastereoselective Conjugate Radical Additions To ~-Pyrones, Arvin Zillion Yu

Chemistry and Biochemistry

A convenient protocol for functionalization of ~-pyrones has been developed. Conjugate radical addition and tandem addition-trapping protocols allowed accessing highly substituted pyrones in a single operation with high selectivity. Different radical sources were utilized in the reaction. nOe experiments were performed to confirm the relative stereochemistry of the substituents in the conjugate addition products. Initial studies on the enantioselectivity of the reaction were carried out. Unfortunately, the catalysts chosen for the initial studies did not show any promise regarding enantioselectivity.

A Stochastic Simulation Of The North Dakota Ethanol Production Incentive, Andrew Hamilton Kurth

Agribusiness and Applied Economics

The objective of this research is to determine the effect the North Dakota Ethanol Production Incentive has on ethanol plant survivability. This thesis uses a stochastic simulation to show the financial performance of an ethanol plant with and without subsidy support. Historical corn and ethanol prices are used to simulate market conditions a typical ethanol might face. Using the forecast prices, an ethanol plant balance sheet was created to show how a plant would perform in normal market conditions, as well as how the plant would perform with the Ethanol Production Incentive and also with alternative subsidy structures that were …

Dc'sign Of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting And Supercnpacitor Charging Circuits Using Optimized Duty-Cycle Of Buck Converter, Zhou Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Energy harvesting has been proved to be an innovative solution to replace the batteries in remote power supply applications. Unfortunately, the limited capacity aucl low efficiency of power conversion restrict the practical applications of energy harvesting in daily-life. After a systematic review of research on energy harvesting iu power management perspective, a circuit design, which targets low-frequency mechanical vibrations, is presented. With the classical piezoelectric cantilever setup, the maximum charging current of a supercapacitor can be obtained by optimizing the duty-cycle of a buck converter through software implemented pulse width modulation. The results of experiments prove the capacitive electric model …

Neutron Structure Functions Measured With Spectator Tagging, Svyatoslav Tkachenko

Physics Theses & Dissertations

We know much less about the neutron than the proton due to the absence of free neutron targets. Neutron information has to be extracted from data on nuclear targets like deuterium. This requires corrections for off-shell and binding effects which are not known from first principles and therefore are model-dependent. As a consequence, the same data can be interpreted in different ways, leading to different conclusions about important questions such as the value of the d/u quark ratio at large momentum fraction x. The Barely Off-shell NUcleon Structure (BONUS) experiment at Jefferson Lab addressed this problem by tagging spectator protons …

A Model Of Responses To Race-Based And Gender-Based Stereotype Threat In Computer Science, Lara Tedrow

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The perception of stereotype threat among computer science students was examined at two universities. A model of stereotype threat was developed and tested among students enrolled in three undergraduate computer science courses at two universities. The goal of this model was to provide an understanding of the underlying mechanisms through which stereotype threat works.

The study tested relationships among the following variables: race-based stereotype threat, gender-based stereotype threat, goal orientation, CS self-efficacy, active coping, behavioral disengagement, effort, and performance. Structural equation modeling was used to test the measurement model and a series of nested structural models. Findings supported the proposed …

Middle School Parents' Perceptions Of Career And Technical Education, Virginia R. Powers Jones

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study explored middle school parents' perceptions of the contributions career and technical education could make to their child's educational or workforce plans. It also examined what actions parents undertake to influence their child's plans, specifically the impact of the career exploration tool, Coin Career Community©, on their actions. Last, the study explored the correlation between the course choices students made in ninth grade relative to their parents' perceptions.

This study took place at Halifax County Middle School, located in South Boston, Virginia, in spring 2009. This school was the only middle school in the county with a student population …

A Meta-Analysis Of Supplemental Educational Services (Ses) Provider Effects On Student Achievement, Shanan L. Chappell

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The 2001 renewal of the United States' Title I program, which provides federal funds to schools with large populations of low-income students, instituted the Supplemental Educational Services (SES) program in which schools in their third year of failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are required to offer after-school tutoring in core subjects to low-income students, provided by public or private tutoring agencies. States are responsible for implementing, overseeing, and evaluating the SES programs; currently, several states and large local school districts have performed evaluations, with many more in the process of publishing results from statewide SES studies. Although state …

Emerging Workforce Trends And Issues Impacting The Virginia Community College System, Mary Greer Landon

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The mission of the Virginia Community College workforce development leaders is to expand their training and development services to new and emerging high growth occupational areas in support of Virginia's economic growth and changing workforce needs in each of their regions. This research was designed to identify: high demand occupational skill needs; current training services; the shifting and changing trends based on technology, competition, and workforce composition; and the need for partnerships. A survey, based on current and emerging trends and their impact on workforce development training services, was sent to the 22 Virginia Community College workforce development leaders. This …

Efficacy Of Dual Enrollment In Rural Southwest Virginia, Karen Glass Carter

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation was to determine if enrollment into a career and technical education dual enrollment program encouraged students to continue their education into postsecondary education and if workplace readiness skills were increased. This study completed a factorial analysis of student demographic and factorial data as associated with the enrollment of career and technical education dual enrollment in rural, southwest Virginia. Specifically, the study explored secondary students (N = 221) currently enrolled during the academic school year 2008-2009 within a Virginia approved career and technical education dual enrollment course. These students attended one of four career and …

Spin Structure Of The Deuteron, Nevzat Guler

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Double spin asymmetries for the proton and the deuteron have been measured in the EG1b experiment using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. Longitudinally polarized electrons at energies 1.6, 2.5, 4.2 and 5.7 GeV were scattered from longitudinally polarized NH3 and ND3 targets. The double spin asymmetry A|| for the proton and the deuteron has been extracted from these data as a function of W and Q² with unprecedented precision. The virtual photon asymmetry A₁ and the spin structure function g1 can be calculated from these measurements by using parametrization to the world data for the virtual …

Sotl In Chemistry: How To Make The Learning Meaningful, Liberato Cardellini

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

No abstract provided.

Biogenic Tracers Through The Holocene On The Alaskan Shelf, Carie A. Curry

OES Theses and Dissertations

Dramatic environmental changes in the Arctic Ocean have been observed for the last two decades including changing the amount of sea ice thickness and extent, and increased river discharge. In order to put these and other current day observations into historical context and perhaps reveal mechanisms controlling them, a suite of paleo-proxies were used to analyze two high resolution cores collected on the 2005 HOTRAX expedition. The goals of this research were: (1) develop an analytical method for determining biogenic calcite, (2) identify the major sources of biogenic matter into the system over the Holocene, and (3) assemble the history …

Modeling And Simulation Of Coaxial Helicopter Rotor Aerodynamics, Murat Gecgel

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A framework is developed for the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses of a series of helicopter rotor flowfields in hover and in forward flight. The methodology is based on the unsteady solutions of the three-dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations recast in a rotating frame of reference. The simulations are carried out by solving the developed mathematical model on hybrid meshes that aim to optimally exploit the benefits of both the structured and the unstructured grids around complex configurations. The computer code is prepared for parallel processing with distributed memory utilization in order to significantly reduce the computational time and the memory …

Transformation Paradox: A Framework For The Analysis Of Politics In Enterprise Transformations, Cindy S. Miller

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of politics in enterprise transformations using a dialectical analysis approach (Hegel, 1989; Heraclitus, 1979; Pinkard, 1988; Skinner, 1978a, 1978b) and conduct an evaluation of the framework validity. The framework is constructed using a dialectical analysis of concepts stemming from the work of Alford and Friedland (1992) and considers four theoretical perspectives: autocratic, bureaucratic, pluralistic, and cognitive. The framework is then validated by means of qualitative metrics and adherence to critical ideology.

This research addresses the problem that there is no holistic theoretical framework for the analysis …

Pidoplitchkoviella Terricola – An Interesting Fungus From The Domica Cave (Slovakia), Alena Nováková

International Journal of Speleology

The microfungus Pidoplitchkoviella terricola – until now it was known only as Kirilenko´s specimen isolated from Quercus robur rhizosphere in Ukraine - was found in earthworm casts in the Domica Cave, NP Slovak Karst, Slovakia. A description and microphotographs of this strain are provided in this article.

Exploring The Secrets Of The Three-Dimensional Architecture Of Phototrophic Biofilms In Caves, Mònica Roldán, Mariona Hernández-Mariné

International Journal of Speleology

Caves with dim natural light, and lighted hypogean environments, have been found to host phototrophic microorganisms from various taxonomic groups. These microorganisms group themselves into assemblies known as communities or biofilms, which are associated with rock surfaces. In this work, the phototrophic biofilms that colonise speleothems, walls and floors in three tourist caves (Spain) were studied. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study these organisms and acquire three-dimensional data on their biofilm structure. CLSM was used in a multi-channel mode whereby the different channels map individual biofilm components. Cyanobacteria, green microalgae, diatoms, mosses …

Guanophilic Fungi In Three Caves Of Southwestern Puerto Rico, Ángel M. Nieves-Rivera, Carlos J. Santos-Flores, Frank M. Dugan, Thomas E. Miller

International Journal of Speleology

Fifty species of guanophilic (bat guano-loving) fungi were isolated from field-collected samples within three caves in southwestern Puerto Rico; most were mitosporic fungi (23 species). The caves studied were Cueva La Tuna (Cabo Rojo), Cueva de Malano (Sistema de Los Chorros, San Germán), and Cueva Viento (El Convento Cave-Spring System, Guayanilla-Peñuelas). The most conspicuous fungus by far was the zygomycete Circinella umbellata (Mucorales). Circinella umbellata dominated the bat guano incubation chambers (Petri dishes lined with sterile filter paper moistened with sterile water) at ambient laboratory conditions. Nineteen species of basidiomycetes (e.g., Ganoderma cf. resinaceum, Geastrum cf. minimum, Lepiota …

A Terminological Matter: Paragenesis, Antigravitative Erosion Or Antigravitational Erosion?, Giancarlo Pasini

International Journal of Speleology

In the speleological literature three terms are utilized to designate the “ascending erosion”: paragenesis (= paragénésis, coined in 1968), antigravitative erosion (= erosione antigravitativa, coined in 1966) and antigravitational erosion (wrong English translation of the Italian term erosione antigravitativa, utilized later on). The term paragenesis should be abandoned because of the priority of the term erosione antigravitativa - on the ground of the “law of priority” – and because of its ambiguous etimology. On the other hand, the term antigravitational erosion should be forsaken in favour of the term antigravitative erosion, given the meaning that the terms gravitation and gravity …