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Adaptive Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy Planning Optimization With Changing Tumor Geometry And Biology Enforcing Both Cumulative And Fraction Size Dose Constraints, Behlul Saka

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is a modern technique of delivering radiation treatments to cancer patients. In IMRT technology, intensities must be chosen for the many small unit grids into which the beams are divided to produce a desired distribution of dose at points throughout the body with the goal of maximizing dose delivered to the tumor while sparing healthy tissues from excessive radiation and keeping dose homogeneous across the tumor. Although IMRT plans are optimized as a single overall treatment plan, they are delivered over 30-50 treatment sessions (fractions) and both cumulative and per-fraction dose constraints apply. The extended …

Crisis Communication Needs Assessment: A Delphi Study To Enhance Instruction For Agricultural Communicators And Other Stakeholders, Allyson Ceary Mcguire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Agricultural communicators and industry stakeholders need to be able to develop, prepare and implement crisis communication plans to help assure the sustainability of the agriculture industry should a crisis event occur. A thorough exploration of possible options and needs for training crisis communicators is a needed study in the agriculture industry. Students learning to prepare for managing crises in real life situations are rarely taught in a hands-on, experiential manner. Students can read and analyze case studies pertaining to crises, but without having an actual crisis; little means exist for preparing students for real world situations. There is a need …

Integrated Planning For Rural Rail Transportation, Jeffrey Cohan Gwaltney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Population growth in rural areas has led to new interest in rail transportation. Planning a passenger rail system involves numerous difficult decisions, most representing a trade-off between customer service and cost. In this work, we attempt to integrate many of these planning decisions. We consider strategic decisions such as station location and vehicle procurement, as well as tactical issues that include vehicle scheduling. Our integrated model exploits the linear network structure that best suits many rural American communities, including Northwest Arkansas. Due to the intractability of the integrated rail planning problem, we have developed a customized heuristic approach to solve …

An Investigation Of The Application Of Phase Change Materials In Practical Thermal Management Systems, David Ewing

All Dissertations

This work investigates the application of alternative cooling techniques to thermal management. In the first section, this work presents models and extensive simulation studies on an alternative cooling strategy based upon phase change materials (PCMs) for the thermal management system of a LED headlight assembly. These studies have shown that properly chosen PCMs, when suspended in metal foam matrices, increased the thermal conductivity of the PCM. The increased thermal conductivity can enhance the cooling characteristics of a practical thermal management system for a LED headlight system. To further enhance the advantages of using PCMs, nanoparticle enhanced fluids (nanofluids) are desirable …

Communication Crossroads: Assertiveness Pedagogy For College Writers With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Dev Bose

All Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the phenomenon of why some adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in communicating in groups at school and work, despite the integration of collaboration within the curricula of college oral and written communication courses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore a sample of college writers' with ADHD perceptions on difficulties with their writing, as well as to evaluate an intervention which utilized communication-based classroom scenarios. The research employed qualitative methods to investigate the phenomenon under study. Participants in the study consisted of a criterion-sampled group of 10 individuals from …

An Examination Of Variables Which Influence High School Students To Enroll In An Undergraduate Engineering Or Physical Science Major, Christopher Porter

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the variables which influence a high school student to enroll in an engineering discipline versus a physical science discipline. Data was collected utilizing the High School Activities, Characteristics, and Influences Survey, which was administered to students who were freshmen in an engineering or physical science major at an institution in the Southeastern United States. A total of 413 students participated in the survey.
Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, two-sample Wilcoxon tests, and binomial logistic regression techniques. A total of 29 variables were deemed significant between the general engineering and physical …

Radio Frequency Micro/Nano-Fluidic Devices For Microwave Dielectric Property Characterizations, Chunrong Song

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, a number of different topics in microwave dielectric property measurements have been covered by a systematic approach to the goals of development of dielectric spectroscopy and study of its high electric field effects with integrated on-chip microwave microfluidic / nanofluidic devices.
A method of parasitic effects cancellation for dielectric property measurement is proposed, analyzed, and experimentally evaluated for microwave characterization of small devices and materials that yield low intensity signals. The method dramatically reduces parasitic effects to uncover the otherwise buried signals. A high-sensitive radio frequency (RF) device is then developed and fabricated to detect small dielectric …

Quantitative Analysis And Structural Characterization Of Carbonaceous Pitches, Sourabh Kulkarni

All Dissertations

Both petroleum pitches and pitches derived from pure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are oligomeric materials that can serve as precursors for a wide variety of advanced carbon materials. The goal of this study was the structural characterization and quantitative analysis of the dominant constituent oligomers and species present in these pitches.
A key requirement for such work is the ability to fractionate these complex mixtures into samples of narrow molecular weight distribution (mol wt; MWD) that can be used as standards. To this end, semicontinuous (or semibatch) dense-gas/supercritical extraction (DGE/SCE) was used to produce monomer, dimer, and trimer fractions of …

A Formal Representation Of Mechanical Functions To Support Physics-Based Computational Reasoning In Early Mechanical Design, Chiradeep Sen

All Dissertations

The lack of computational support to the conceptual phase of mechanical engineering design is well recognized. Function-based modeling and thinking is widely recommended in design texts as useful means for describing design concepts and using them in tasks such as solution search, problem decomposition, and design archival. Graph-based function structure models that describe a product as a network of transformative actions of material, energy, and information, are discussed as a potential tool for this purpose, but in the current state of the art, function structures are not formalized as a computational representation. Consequently, no computer tool exists with which a …

Modeling And Synthesis Of Functionalized Meta-Poly(Phenylene Ethynylene) Helical Structures, Ha Nguyen

All Dissertations

The ability of meta-poly(phenylene ethynylene) (mPPE) materials to undergo random coil to helix conformational changes under select conditions affords many opportunities for their use in sensor, separation, catalysis, and bio-related applications. Thus, to advance the development of these materials, a modeling procedure based on replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulation was developed to reliably assess factors affecting the folding behaviors of functionalized mPPE variants in solution. A combinational modeling study of 20 functionalized mPPEs in five solvent conditions provided insight into how mPPE secondary structure is impacted by the complex relationship between mPPE functional groups and solvent moieties. Further, these …

Probabilistic Approaches To Stability And Deformation Problems In Braced Excavation, Zhe Luo

All Dissertations

This dissertation is aimed at applying probabilistic approaches to evaluating the basal-heave stability and the excavation-induced wall and ground movements for serviceability assessment of excavation in clays. The focuses herein are the influence of spatial variability of soil parameters and small sample size on the results of the probabilistic analysis, and Bayesian updating of soil parameters using field observations in braced excavations.
Simplified approaches for reliability analysis of basal-heave in a braced excavation in clay considering the effect of spatial variability in random fields are presented. The proposed approaches employ the variance reduction technique (or more precisely, equivalent variance method) …

Development Of A Design Method To Reduce Change Propagation Effects, Prabhu Shankar

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
This dissertation presents a design method to reduce engineering changes caused due to change propagation effect. The method helps designers to systematically plan a verification, validation, and test (VV&T) plan. The rationale behind such a method is founded on a well-accepted principle that a robust validation plan can reduce design changes. However, such method has not yet been developed in mechanical engineering domain, so a method from software engineering has been adopted and extended to address the limitations in the existing design evaluation tools.
Tools extensively used in industry, such as FMEA, and in academia have been reviewed to …

Computational Approaches To Understand Phenotypic Structure And Constitutive Mechanics Relationships Of Single Cells, Scott Wood

All Dissertations

The goal of this work is to better understand the relationship between the structure and function of biological cells by simulating their nonlinear mechanical behavior under static and dynamic loading using image structure-based finite element modeling (FEM). Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are chosen for this study due to the strong correlation of the geometric arrangement of their structural components on their mechanical behavior and the implications of that behavior on diseases such as atherosclerosis.
VSMCs are modeled here using a linear elastic material model together with truss elements, which simulate the cytoskeletal fiber network that provides the cells with …

Fluid Mud Underflows In Coastal Dredge Disposal, Mijanur Chowdhury

All Dissertations

This manuscript presents the results of a thorough theoretical and experimental investigation on fluid mud underflows generated in a typical coastal dredge disposal operation. The main goal of this investigation is to understand the propagation dynamics of fluid mud underflows that depends upon a number of factors, including: concentrations, rheological properties and released configurations of fluid mud. Laboratory experiments were conducted with different initial fluid mud concentrations in three different experimental set-ups: rectangular flume for constant volume release, rectangular flume for constant flux release, and a square pool for radial constant flux release of fluid mud. The experiments in the …

ú`ÒIng: From Globalization To Glocalization---What The Impacts Of Globalization On Chinese Document Design Tell Us About International Professional Communication (Note: The First Two Chinese Characters Are Not Displayed Correctly. Please See The Actual Document.), Xiaoli Li

All Dissertations

How people from different cultural backgrounds represent themselves and communicate with each other is an intriguing topic in the age of globalization. Using a grounded theory approach, this work investigates how Chinese individuals and companies introduce themselves to a global audience via resumes and annual reports.
To better understand the features of professional communication practices in China today, this work compares and contrasts current resume writing and annual report writing with those in the past, especially before Chinafs entry into the WTO, in order to understand the changes as well as the cultural contexts and cultural motives of these features. …

Spectral Engineering Of Optical Fiber Through Active Nanoparticle Doping, Tiffany Lindstrom-James

All Dissertations

The spectral engineering of optical fiber is a method of intentional doping of the core region in order to absorb/emit specific wavelengths of light therby providing enhanced performance over current fibers. Efforts here focused on developing an understanding of optically active nanoparticles based on alkaline earth fluorides that could be easily and homogeneously incorporated into the core of a silica based optical fiber preform and result in efficient and tailorable spectral emissions.
Doped and undoped calcium, strontium and barium fluoride nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and characterized for their physical, chemical, and optical behavior. Distinct spectroscopic differences as a result of …

Development Of Novel Organic Nitrogen Nutrient Solutions With Unique Bioreactors For Precision Nutrient Fertigation, Brian Ward

All Dissertations

A fertility study conducted comparing organic nitrogen versus synthetic nitrogen on yield, quality, mineral and phyto-nutrient content of sweet corn under conventional cultural practices.

Mechanical And Modular Verification Condition Generation For Object-Based Software, Heather Harton

All Dissertations

The foundational goal of this work is the development of mechanizable proof rules and a verification condition generator based on those rules for modern software. The verification system will be modular so that it is possible to verify the implementation of a component relying upon only the specifications of underlying components that are reused. The system must enable full behavioral verification. The proof rules used to generate verification conditions (VCs) of correctness must be amenable to automation. While automation requires software developers to annotate implementations with assertions, it should not require assistance in the proofs. This research has led to …

Characterizing Mechanical Heterogeneity In Cardiovascular Cells, Sandra Deitch

All Dissertations

Most tissue-level mechanical models assume homogeneous mechanical properties within a single cell type. However, measurements of cellular mechanical properties show large variability in whole-cell mechanical properties between cells from a single population. This heterogeneity has been observed in many cell populations and with several measurement techniques but the sources are not yet fully understood. Cell mechanical properties are directly related to the composition and organization of the cytoskeleton, which is physically coupled to neighboring cells through adherens junctions and to underlying matrix scaffolds through focal adhesion complexes. As such, we believe that this high level of heterogeneity can be attributed …

Pitch-Based Activated Carbon Fibers: The Effect Of Precursor Composition On Pore Structure, Halil Tekinalp

All Dissertations

Although researchers have previously investigated the effect of precursor differences on the final properties of activated carbon fibers (ACFs), those precursors were not well-characterized. In particular, detailed information about their molecular composition and anisotropy was not available.
In this study, seven oligomeric fractions, each of well-defined composition and molecular weight (mol wt) distribution, were isolated from a commercially produced isotropic petroleum pitch (i.e., Marathon M–50) and used for the production of ACFs. Four of these precursors of varying oligomeric composition were fully isotropic and three contained different levels of mesophase, so that the effects of molecular composition and molecular order …

Evaluating The Use Of Functional Representations For Ideation In Conceptual Design, Benjamin Caldwell

All Dissertations

Functional representations are often used in the conceptual stages of design because they encourage the designer to focus on the intended use and purpose of a system rather than the physical solution. Function models have been proposed by many researchers as a tool to expand the solution search space and guide concept generation, and many design tools have been created to support function-based design. These tools require designers to create function models of new or existing artifacts, but there is limited published research describing what types of functions should be included in a model or the appropriate level of abstraction …

Accelerating Pattern Recognition Algorithms On Parallel Computing Architectures, Kenneth Rice

All Dissertations

The move to more parallel computing architectures places more responsibility on the programmer to achieve greater performance. The programmer must now have a greater understanding of the underlying architecture and the inherent algorithmic parallelism. Using parallel computing architectures for exploiting algorithmic parallelism can be a complex task. This dissertation demonstrates various techniques for using parallel computing architectures to exploit algorithmic parallelism. Specifically, three pattern recognition (PR) approaches are examined for acceleration across multiple parallel computing architectures, namely field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and general purpose graphical processing units (GPGPUs).
Phase-only filter correlation for fingerprint identification was studied as the first …

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Social Class On Career Expectations And Likelihood Of Compromise In An Adolescent Sample, Sarah Wilson

Dissertations

The current study investigated the application of classic attainment models, both direct and indirect effects, in the predication of career expectations and likelihood of compromise. The results indicated that among high school students (N=200) in grades 10-12 there is no direct effect of socio economic status (SES; as measured by parent education and occupation) on career compromise (aspirations exceeding expectations). Similarly, educational expectations are not directly related to the compromise of occupational expectations. Results of exploratory analysis suggest that career compromise is best explained by academic achievement and parent expectations. In an analysis of the process by which social class …

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The Development Of Medical Malpractice Litigation In Brazil, Eduardo Dantas

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper aims to demonstrate how medical malpractice litigation is developing in Brazil, and how the Brazilian legal system is dealing with the increase of demands against health care professionals. A brief overlook on the legal structure is provided, highlighting the most important issues being discussed today in Brazilian courts, regarding autonomy, consent, choice, the definition of moral damages, and the influence of the Consumer's Defense Code in litigation regarding health law.

The Complete Ac/Ds Transposon Family Of Maize, Chunguang Du, Andrew Hoffman, Limei He, Jason Caronna, Hugo K. Dooner

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background: The nonautonomous maize Ds transposons can only move in the presence of the autonomous element Ac. They comprise a heterogeneous group that share 11-bp terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and some subterminal repeats, but vary greatly in size and composition. Three classes of Ds elements can cause mutations: Ds-del, internal deletions of the 4.6-kb Ac element; Ds1, ~400-bp in size and sharing little homology with Ac, and Ds2, variably-sized elements containing about 0.5 kb from the Ac termini and unrelated internal sequences. Here, we analyze the entire complement of Ds-related sequences in the genome of the inbred B73 and ask …

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, December 1, 2011, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences

• New Course
• Credit Hour Change
• Title Change, Course Description Change
• Credit Hour Change, Course Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Course Description Change
• Inactivate Course
• Delete Course

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

• Credit Hour Change

School of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education

• Title Change, Prerequisite Change, Description Change
• Title Change, Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Prerequisite Change, Description Change
• Title Change

Department of Art and Design

• University Studies Request

Department of Theatre Arts

• Prerequisite Change
• Title Change, Prerequisite Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description …

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, December 1, 2011, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Looping Mathematics Instruction At The High School Level: An Examination Of Success Indicators, John M. Lachance Jr.

Dissertations

Success in high school and high school mathematics has long-term implications for students‟ college and career readiness and achievement. As the United States and many other nations examine ways to enhance the high school experience for young people and increase student achievement in mathematics every aspect of instruction needs close examination to determine best practices. This study helped determine the outcomes of looped instruction for high school students in the content area of mathematics and a comprehensive examination of success indicators for students in high school mathematics including standardized test scores, grades, common assessment scores, and attendance, discipline, as well …

Plcs: Student Outcomes Evaluation In Midwest High School, Kelly E. Dickinson

Dissertations

This study was an evaluation of student outcomes following a five year implementation of PLCs at Midwest High School in the U.S. Three research questions were addressed: (1) Has student achievement increased during the course of implementing PLCs? If so, is there evidence that this is a result of a contribution from PLC implementation from 2006-2011? (2) Have teacher attitudes toward curriculum rigor, public image, quality of education, and post-high school preparedness changed during the implementation of PLCs from 2006-2011? (3) Is the staff, in April 2011, a mature PLC? For research question one, eight hypotheses resulted in the evaluation …

Nesting By Common Ground-Dove At Fort Hood Military Reservation, David A. Cimprich

Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society

No abstract provided.