Digital Commons Network^™

On The Evolutionary Co-Adaptation Of Morphology And Distributed Neural Controllers In Adaptive Agents, Mariagiovanna Mazzapioda

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The attempt to evolve complete embodied and situated artificial creatures in which both morphological and control characteristics are adapted during the evolutionary process has been and still represents a long term goal key for the artificial life and the evolutionary robotics community. Loosely inspired by ancient biological organisms which are not provided with a central nervous system and by simple organisms such as stick insects, this thesis proposes a new genotype encoding which allows development and evolution of mor- phology and neural controller in artificial agents provided with a distributed neural network. In order to understand if this kind of …

Tectonic And Climatic Controls On Knickpoint Retreat Rates And Landscape Response Times, Alexander C. Whittaker, Sarah J. Boulton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Household Livelihood Security In Poor Urban Settlements In Bangladesh, S Rahman, S Akter

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The paper applies a quantitative approach to measure and identify the determinants of household livelihood security (HLS) status in poor urban settlements of two cities in Bangladesh. Indices were computed for five HLS areas (economic, food, health, education and empowerment) using a large set of socio-economic characteristics of the households. Results reveal that economic security is the dominant component of the overall livelihood security status followed by food security. Irrespective of regional differences in opportunities, people in poor urban settlements appear equally insecure. Development programs focusing on improvements in access to assets, education and livestock/fisheries based livelihoods programs are suggested.

Modeling Volatility And Interdependencies Of Thai Rubber Spot Price Return With Climatic Factors, Exchange Rate And Crude Oil Markets, Wc Sang, S Sriboonchitta, S Rahman, Wt Huang, A Wiboonpongse

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Thailand is a leading producer and exporter of rubber in the world market. The interdependencies and volatility of Thai rubber price return with climatic factors (precipitation and temperature), exchange rate, and crude oil market returns are determined in this paper. Vector autoregressive moving average process with generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (VARMA-GARCH), VARMA with generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (VARMA-AGARCH), and copula-based GARCH models were employed for the analyses. The results demonstrated the interdependencies of Thai rubber price return with dollar and crude oil returns as well as with crude oil return and climatic factors in the VARMA-AGARCH and the copula-based GARCH …

Performance Analysis Of A Two Stage Pad Cooling System In Broiler Houses, Meti̇n Petek, Serdal Di̇kmen, Mehmet Mustafa Oğan

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The cooling performance of a traditional (control) and two stage evaporative pad cooling system (experiment), including pad and fan with tunnel ventilation, for poultry houses and the growth performance of broilers reared in these systems was compared in a study performed during extreme summer temperatures. The experimental unit had a two stage pad cooling system, which consisted of underground tubes and a box, followed by a pad cooling system with tunnel ventilation. The control unit had a traditional evaporative cooling system, including pad and fan with tunnel ventilation. Air temperature, relative humidity, and saturation efficiency were used to determine the …

Probiotic Properties, Sensory Qualities, And Storage Stability Of Probiotic Banana Yogurts, Songül Çakmakçi, Bülent Çeti̇n, Tamer Turgut, Mustafa Gürses, Ahmet Erdoğan

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The quality properties of probiotic yogurt samples made with banana marmalade (BM), which can be a probiotic product, were examined. Yogurt samples were produced from cow milk inoculated with yogurt cultures and probiotic cultures (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and an equal mixture of the 2 strains), and then 15% BM was added to each yogurt sample. Acidity, pH, bacteria counts, and sensory analysis of the yogurt samples were investigated on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 during storage at 4 °C. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, L. acidophilus, and B. bifidum counts generally decreased during the storage …

Pcc Properties To Support W/C Determination For Durability, Yohannes Yohannes, Jan Olek

JTRP Technical Reports

The fresh concrete water-cement ratio (w/c) determination tool is urgently needed for use in the QC/QA process at the job site. Various techniques have been used in the past to determine this parameter. However, many of these techniques can be complicated and time consuming. Furthermore, extensive calibration is often needed to correlate the properties measured by these techniques with w/c. During the course of the present study, the method for the use of the unit weight for the determination of w/c of fresh concrete has been developed and evaluated on both laboratory and field concretes. Additionally, the accuracy of using …

Optimization Of Mixture Proportions For Concrete Pavements—Influence Of Supplementary Cementitious Materials, Paste Content And Aggregate Gradation, Adam Rudy, Jan Olek

JTRP Technical Reports

The ultimate goals of this study included investigation of the optimal ranges for paste content, amount of cementations materials and aggregate gradation for concrete paving mixtures. In general, the optimum concrete mixtures developed in this study contained low paste content (below 23%), and were characterized by low scaling and sorptivity. In addition, it was also possible to achieve high cement replacement levels for these mixtures. Finally, for optimized fly ash mixtures, the selection of well graded aggregate gradation with high packing density increased the most desired paste content for those mixtures, thus indicating that combined aggregate gradation has strong influence …

Contextualizing Regimes: Institutionalization As A Response To The Limits Of Interpretation And Policy Engineering, Charles F. Sabel, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

When legal language and the effects of public intervention are indeterminate, generalist lawmakers (legislatures, courts, top-level administrators) often rely on the normative output of contextualizing regimes – institutions that structure deliberative engagement by stakeholders and articulate the resulting understanding. Examples include the familiar practices of delegation and deference to administrative agencies in public law and to trade associations in private law. We argue that resorting to contextualizing regimes is becoming increasingly common across a broad range of issues and that the structure of emerging regimes is evolving away from the wellstudied agency and trade association examples. The newer regimes mix …

Stock Unloading And Banker Incentives, Robert J. Jackson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Congress has directed federal regulators to oversee banker pay. For the first time, these regulators are now scrutinizing the incentives of risk-takers beyond the bank's top executives. Like most public company managers, these bankers are increasingly paid in stock rather than cash. The ostensible reason is that stock-based pay aligns manager and shareholder interests. But portfolio theory predicts that managers will diversify away, or "unload," stock-based pay unless they are restricted from doing so. One way to deter unloading may be to require managers to disclose it, as investors and colleagues will assume that managers are unloading because they are …

Evaluation Of Pavement Surface Friction Treatments, Shuo Li, Samy Noureldin, Yi Jiang, Yanna Sun

JTRP Technical Reports

The implementation of a pavement preservation program involves a learning curve with not only a determination to succeed, but also the courage to fail. Also, successful implementation of pavement preservation program requires knowledge of the performance of preservation surface treatments over time, which is critical to the select of candidate projects and the development of performance models for pavement management analysis. In addition, preservation surface treatments, such as chip seal, fog seal, microsurfacing, 4.75 mm thin or ultra-thin overlay, can not only repair certain pavement surface defects, but also change the surface characteristics of pavement and therefore affect pavement surface …

Curriculum Circus: Juggling Curriculum, Science, And The Arts, Domenica Devine

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Education should open the door to better lives and better jobs. The fact is that it does not. In part, there are many causes including rigidity, political interference, and the separation between disciplines that we teach without context and without dialogue with our students. Specifically, I think that we should use education as a way to help students make better choices and have a better life. One way we can do it is by reconciling science with the other disciplines. And that is what is at the heart of curriculum studies.

There is a pervasive belief that the Western ideology …

Social Emotional Competence And Teacher Stress, Leslie Carole Forcina

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Teacher stress and continuing high attrition rates for the teaching profession have significant multiple impacts, although arguably the most important is student achievement. Research indicates that as teacher stress increases to high levels, teacher effectiveness decreases. Attempts to reduce stress have historically focused on organizational or systemic change with minimal success. There remains a clear and distinct call to pursue individual factors that may influence teachers’ abilities to moderate stress. Social emotional competence (SEC) is a set of skills that allows individuals to understand themselves, their emotions, the social context as well as relationships and decision making. Existing research has …

Infeasible Full-Newton-Step Interior-Point Method For The Linear Complementarity Problems, Antré Marquel Drummer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this tesis, we present a new Infeasible Interior-Point Method (IPM) for monotone Linear Complementarity Problem (LPC). The advantage of the method is that it uses full Newton-steps, thus, avoiding the calculation of the step size at each iteration. However, by suitable choice of parameters the iterates are forced to stay in the neighborhood of the central path, hence, still guaranteeing the global convergence of the method under strict feasibility assumption. The number of iterations necessary to find -approximate solution of the problem matches the best known iteration bounds for these types of methods. The preliminary implementation of the method …

Numerical Simulation Of Natural Convection In Rectangular Enclosures Of Varying Aspect Ratios And Its Feasibility In Environmental Impact Management Studies, Charles R. Walker

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: Numerical simulation was used to investigate natural convection in horizontal and vertical enclosures with and without an internal heat source. Natural convection in rectangular enclosures is found in many real-world applications. Included in these applications are the energy efficient design of buildings, operation and safety of nuclear reactors, solar collector design, passive energy storage, heat transfer across multi-pane windows, thermo-electric refrigeration and heating devices, and the design-for-mitigation of optical distortion in large-scale laser systems. Considering all these applications, especially controlling heat transfer in nuclear power plants, knowledge and research results of natural convection in enclosure play a vital …

Development And Validation Of Probabilistic Fatigue Models Containing Out-Life Suspensions, Noel S. Murray

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: In the area of reliability engineering it is necessary to be confident that a component or system of components will not fail under use for safety and cost reasons. One major mechanism of failure to a mechanical component is fatigue. This is the repetitious motion of loading and unloading of the material, typically below the ultimate tensile strength of the material, which ultimately leads to a catastrophic failure. To ensure this does not happen, engineers design components based on tests to determine the life of these components. These tests are typically conducted on a bench type tester in …

Temperature Mapping Study Of United States Distribution Systems, Ken Silverman

Theses

The purpose of this one-year temperature mapping study was to determine the extreme temperatures and respective durations commercial pharmaceutical products are expected to be exposed to during routine ambient distribution within the continental United States. Extreme temperature conditions may affect the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products during distribution. Knowing the value and duration of the extreme temperatures that products are likely to experience in the ambient (uncontrolled) distribution environment allows for improved product degradation testing, optimized thermal package design and scientifically based determination as to when logistical and environmental controls should be used. Before this study, testing was performed …

Perception Of Leadership Issues Involved In The Implementation Of Total Quality Management By Leaders Of Business And Academe In Saudi Arabia, Ali Aljodea

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The importance of implementing quality management in education and industry is of growing importance in today's world. There is a growing concern in Saudi Arabia with quality and only a few institutions have begun to implement TQM. This study examined two of the major institutions in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), and King Saud University (KSU), where TQM principles had been implemented. The study sought to determine the perceptions of upper and middle managers of the two institutions concerning the implementation of TQM and the factors related to those perceptions.;Little has been done in Saudi Arabia to compare …

A Guide To Selected Resources On Memorization Techniques For Pianists: An Annotated Bibliography, Silvia A. Atmadja

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research project provides reviews of resources for pianists, performers, teachers and students, striving to deepen their knowledge of memorization techniques and explore different methods of memorizing piano music, and for scholars pursuing further research on this important topic. Readers will find resources that discuss the topic from the musical and psychological standpoints, but not a scientific approach to brain and memorization. Resources include books, journal articles, and theses/dissertations that are written in English from the 1890s through the first decade of the 21st century.

Oxide Thermoelectric Materials For High Temperature Power Generation, Xueqin Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Power plants, turbine engines, automobiles and air conditioning, among others, release enormous amounts of heat into the environment, thereby wasting vast amounts of thermal energy. The typical U.S. power plant is only about 33% efficient, using three units of fuel to produce one unit of electricity. The rest is released as waste heat into the atmosphere. In standard diesel-powered vehicles, up to 65% of the fuel is lost as waste heat, which is rejected through the cooling and exhaust systems at temperatures up to 900°C. A potential way to improve the sustainability of our energy infrastructure and electricity base is …

Nanostructure And Chemistry Evolution Of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Upon Cell Operation, Song Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are clean and efficient alternatives to conventional power generation technology. In SOFC, electrochemical reactions take place on the triple-phase boundaries (TPBs) between the electrolyte, the electrode and the gaseous fuel. Small changes in TPB structure or chemistry, and the interface between electrode and electrolyte can drastically affect SOFC performance and lifetime. However, very limited experimental work has been reported on the nanostructure and chemistry evolution of interface and TPBs in the SOFC upon cell operation.;The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the nanostructure and chemistry of the grain boundaries and interfaces including TPB …

Between Frontier And Factory: Growth And Development In Washington, Pennsylvania, 1810--1870, Eric D. Duchess

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the small town of Washington, Pennsylvania from its post-frontier period to the eve of industrialization. Two primary areas are covered in the study: the Market Revolution's growing influence on the local economy and society, and the Civil War's local impact. This study contributed to the field of urban and town history by providing a case study from a relatively under-examined region, the Upper Ohio Valley and southwestern Pennsylvania, by studying the relationship between its economic development and its social and political characteristics.;Washington was in many ways a typical small western Pennsylvania town, surrounded by farmland and serving …

Planform Characterization Of A High Lift, Low Speed, Ground Effect Glider, Meagan L. Hubbell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The main objective of this research was to design and develop a planform shape for a single passenger, unpowered, subsonic glider that relies on gravitational forces for momentum. The wing structure and aerodynamic shape optimized the benefits of near-ground flight (i.e. the increased lift and decreased induced drag), and as a result reduced the overall aircraft weight and wingspan, and enhanced the maneuverability of the craft.;The design faced many challenges as a result of flight in the ground effect regime. There were natural instabilities, primarily in the longitudinal direction that caused the glider to pitch up. In addition, the wing …

Simplified Interior Ballistics Analysis Of A Tube Launched Uav Prototype, Edward R. Jackson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Structural analysis is a critical aspect in the successful design of tube launched projectiles, such as mortar rounds. Ongoing research conducted at West Virginia University has focused on a tube-launched, folding-wing UAV design inspired by mortars. This has driven the necessity of a structural analysis of the prototype design to provide vital feedback to designers to ensure that the UAV is likely to survive the act of launching. Due to the extreme accelerations during the launching phase, a typical mortar round experiences dramatic impulse loads for an extremely brief duration of time. Such loads are the result of the propellant …

Mathematical Modeling And Simulation Of A One-Dimensional Transient Entrained-Flow Gee/Texaco Coal Gasifier, Job S. Kasule

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Numerous gasifier models of varying complexity have been developed to study the various aspects of gasifier performance. These range from simple one-dimensional (1D) models to rigorous higher order 3D models based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Even though high-fidelity CFD models can accurately predict many key aspects of gasifier performance, they are computationally expensive and typically take hours to days to execute even on high-performance computers. Therefore, faster 1D partial differential equation (PDE)-based models are required for use in dynamic simulation studies, control system analysis, and training applications.;In the current study, a 1D transient model of a single-stage downward-firing entrained …

Chirality Sorted Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes For Random Network Thin Film Applications, Volkan Ozyar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are comprised entirely of carbon atoms which lie in a graphitic plane rolled into a seamless cylinder. The direction in which the graphic plane is rolled affects the subsequent chiralities of the SWNTs. This direction is called the chiral vector. This chiral vector, Ch =na1+ma2, is described in terms of a pair of integers (n,m) and a pair of lattice vectors (a1,a2) associated with each carbon atom in the graphene sheet. The magnitude of the chiral vector determines the diameter of the nanotubes as d= Ch/pi. SWNTs with integers n-m =3i, where i = 0, 1, …

Discrete Damage Mechanics Applied To Transverse Matrix Cracking, Fernando A. Cosso

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A constitutive model to predict the stiffness and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) reduction due to transverse matrix cracking in laminated composite structures is implemented as a user subroutine in Abaqus. The assumptions of the model are a symmetric laminate under in-plane loads and linear distribution of intralaminar shear stresses. The model was latter validated using 3D finite element analysis (FEA) in a repetitive unit volume for a wide interval of crack densities and for several laminates, and the difference was found to be within 3%. The FEA, the model and classical laminate theory all converged to the same values …

Civil Liability Theories For Insufficient Security Authentication In Online Banking, Paul Rice

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Learning From The Master: Things Betty Thompson Taught Me, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

A Study On The Impact Of Patient Centered Medical Home (Pcmh) Implementation On Nursing Work Practice, Nikhil Vijay Shinde

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Primary care and nursing are important components of the U.S. healthcare system and are facing challenges of quality, access, cost, time spent and inefficiencies of clinical activities. Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a newly developed care model which has the potential to overcome these challenges. The present study uses a questionnaire approach to find the impact PCMH implementation may have on nursing practice and subsequently primary care. Analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire revealed some surprising results about the nursing practice. For example nurses spend less time on direct care and more time on indirect care and …