Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Field Test For Total Suspended Solids Analysis, Jessica Branigan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Total suspended solids (TSS) are all particles in water that will not pass through a glass fiber filter with a pore size less than 2 μm, including sediments, algae, nutrients, and metals. TSS is an important water quality parameter because of its adverse effects on aquatic species and wildlife. The EPA has proposed a regulation for turbidity, a related water quality parameter, which has been stayed pending further testing. TSS is regulated through the EPA via the NPDES in many states. Since there are no accepted field tests for TSS, projects with TSS regulations must send samples to a laboratory …

Behaviorism's Impact On Advertising: Then And Now, Abigail Bartholomew

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Behaviorism as defined in 1913 by John B. Watson was a science that used repeated, observable human activity to develop hypotheses that would eventually predict and control responses. Through repeated experiments, Watson developed a thorough knowledge of what he defined as base human reactions. Stanley Resor, then president of J. Walter Thompson Agency, hired Watson to promote a partnership between advertising and science, and the subsequent 15 years of Watson’s career included some notable scientific contributions. This study shows that though these outcomes may not have provided many measurable positive results, they set into motion industry-wide change that continued to …

Planning For Student Veteran And Military Member Support Programs At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Daniel D. Moseman

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) has recognized the importance of its student veteran and military member population and is undertaking a planning process to develop or improve its student veteran programs. The goal of this professional project is to present UNL with options and alternatives that could be used to develop these student veteran programs. The research associated with this project is timely and prudent, given the current reduction in military force size and the anticipated return of many thousand service members into post-secondary education.

This professional project provides information on three topics. First, research from credible sources determines the …

Analysis Of Feasibility Of Lincoln's West O Area For Redevelopment, Adam E. Brown

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

This project assessed the feasibility of redevelopment of the area around the West O Street & Sun Valley Boulevard Intersection. The project provides information about the area, including specifics about its location, the zoning currently in use, the population of the area and the surrounding areas, housing characteristics, as well as information about mixed use development pertinent to this project and the study areas relation to the City of Lincoln’s Comprehensive Plan, known as LPlan 2040.

The project’s goal was to research and compile relevant information for review by the Lincoln / Lancaster County Planning Department in regards to the …

Tcap Scores And Per Pupil Expenditures: Statewide Changes Before And After Tennessee’S First To The Top Act, Martha Ely Cantrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the changes in Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores and the changes in Per Pupil Expenditures (PPE) after the enactment of First to the Top Act of 2010 and the receipt of $501,000,000 in federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant monies. Half of that money was retained by Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) for education reform initiatives. The other half was awarded to each Local Education Agency (LEA) according to the Title I formula after TDOE approval of individual Scopes of Work. Reform initiatives included transition to Common …

Broadband Access For Students At East Tennessee State University, Thomas Scott Sawyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the availability of Internet access for students attending East Tennessee State University during the fall semester 2013. It has been unknown to what degree broadband access is available in the East Tennessee State University service area that includes counties in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina.

The research was conducted during the fall semester 2013 including the months of August, September, and October of 2011. Data were gathered by surveying currently enrolled students of the university. Seven hundred eighty-four students responded to the survey. The survey instrument covered areas of …

Identification And Characterization Of Genetic Factors Involved In Candida-Bacterial Interactions, Sean J. Fox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout existence, fungi and bacteria have long shared ecological niches and thus engage in numerous interactions to mutually enhance survival or antagonistically gain competitive advantages. Of importance to human health are those interactions that involve bacteria with the opportunistic fungi, Candida albicans. An important virulence factor of C. albicans is the ability to control morphology, which allows the transition between yeast, pseudohyphal, and hyphal phenotypes. Morphological control in C. albicans is governed by quorum sensing and the secreted autoregulatory molecule farnesol. Quorum sensing allows individual cells to sense the environment and respond as a group. Bacteria also use quorum …

Instructor And Student Perceptions Of Online Courses: Implications Of Positioning Theory, Miriam S. Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increase in online course delivery in higher education has implications for students and instructors. In fall 2002, 1.6 million students took at least one online course and this number increased by the fall of 2012 to 6.7 million. The increase in the rate of enrollment in online courses in higher education provides an opportunity to examine the strategies and technologies used in course design and delivery and student engagement in the online culture. Two of the key factors in creating student engagement are the instructor's interaction with students and the course design and delivery itself. An examination of students’ …

Co2 Capture On Porous Adsorbents Containing Surface Amino Groups, Odette Amana Esam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The potential impact of carbon dioxide as a major source of global warming has led to extensive research in order to mitigate the greenhouse effect. In this work, four adsorbents were synthesized and studied. The adsorbents were obtained by grafting and sol-gel of amino-containing molecules such as bis[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]amine as monoamine and [3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyl]- trimethoxysilane as diamine on the surface of silica gel. CO2 passed through adsorbents at room temperature for its capture, then desorbed at moderate heating, and stored in the form of insoluble BaCO3. The adsorbent synthesized by sol-gel synthesis was found to be more efficient due to its high …

Analysis Of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar And Passive Visible Light Polarimetric Imaging Data Fusion For Remote Sensing Applications, Sanjit Maitra

Theses

The recent launch of spaceborne (TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT-2, ALOS-PALSAR, RISAT) and airborne (SIRC, AIRSAR, UAVSAR, PISAR) polarimetric radar sensors, with capability of imaging through day and night in almost all weather conditions, has made polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image interpretation and analysis an active area of research. PolSAR image classification is sensitive to object orientation and scattering properties. In recent years, significant work has been done in many areas including agriculture, forestry, oceanography, geology, terrain analysis. Visible light passive polarimetric imaging has also emerged as a powerful tool in remote sensing for enhanced information extraction. The intensity image provides information …

Approachi Significans, Luke Shaw

Theses

Approachi Significans is a demonstration of the interference patterns created by scientific and artistic logics. It promotes immersion in the everyday world through experimentation and a search for novel experience, as such efforts prime the mind for novel thought. It is loosely based in a search for constellations of experiences that prompt Eureka moments and an effort to illustrate the organic nature of the scientific process. The title is derived from the phrase `approaching significance,' which is used to indicate that experimental data is moving towards the confirmation of a hypothesis.

Implementation Of Performance-Based Bridge Deck Protective Systems, Robert J. Frosch, Michael E. Kreger, Brad V. Strandquist

JTRP Technical Reports

When considering the durability of a bridge, the concrete deck is often the most vulnerable component and can be the limiting factor affecting service life. To enhance the durability of both new and existing bridge decks, a protective system is often provided to prevent or delay the ingress of chlorides and moisture to the reinforcing steel. In the state of Indiana, this protective system typically comes in the form of a concrete overlay or a thin polymer overlay. Another protective system widely used in the United States and in many countries internationally consists of a waterproofing membrane overlaid with asphaltic …

An Economic Analysis Methodology For Project Evaluation And Programming, Yi Jiang, Guangyuan Zhao, Shuo Li

JTRP Technical Reports

Economic analysis is a critical component of a comprehensive project or program evaluation methodology that considers all key quantitative and qualitative impacts of highway investments. It allows highway agencies to identify, quantify, and value the economic benefits and costs of highway projects and programs over a multiyear timeframe. This research was conducted to provide the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) with a uniform economic analysis methodology. The developed economic evaluation model applies the methodology of life-cycle benefit cost analysis to perform economic analysis for proposed highway projects. As a result of this research, an Excel based computer program, the Indiana …

Best Practices For Roundabouts On State Highways, Christopher M. Day, Alexander M. Hainen, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

This report presents a series of research findings from an investigation into roundabout operations. This includes a comparison of several analysis tools for estimating roundabout performance (the Highway Capacity Manual, SIDRA, ARCADY, VISSIM, and SimTraffic); a measurement of rejected headways for the purpose of analyzing critical headway; a review of roundabout lighting practices; and a review of considerations for roundabout site selection. It was found that VISSIM and SIDRA provided the most reliable predictions of roundabout performance for the test site analyzed herein. Additionally, the critical headways measured at this site were significantly lower (at a median value of 2.2 …

Performance Of Portland Limestone Cements: Cements Designed To Be More Sustainable That Include Up To 15% Limestone Addition, Timothy J. Barrett, Hongfang Sun, W. Jason Weiss

JTRP Technical Reports

In 2009, ASTM and AASHTO permitted the use of up to 5% interground limestone in ordinary portland cement (OPC) as a part of ASTM C150/AASHTO M85. When this project was initiated a new proposal was being discussed that would enable up to 15% interground limestone to be considered in ASTM C595/AASHTO M234 cement. This project was initiated to provide rapid feedback to INDOT for use in discussions regarding these specifications (this has become ASTM C595/AASHTO M240). PLC is designed to enable more sustainable construction which may significantly reduce the CO2 that is embodied in the built infrastructure while extending the …

Updated Methods For Traffic Impact Analysis, Including Evaluation Of Innovative Intersection Designs: Volume I—Technical Report, Gerald T. Bollinger, Jon D. Fricker

JTRP Technical Reports

In 1992, an Applicant’s Guide and a Reviewer’s Guide to Traffic Impact Analyses to standardize the methodologies for conducting traffic impact analyses (TIAs) in Indiana were developed for the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The methodologies were meant to help streamline the process of preparing and reviewing TIAs. The methodology is applicable for other transportation and government entities as well. Because 20 years have passed since the publication of the guides, INDOT wished to evaluate how effective the guides have been, determine what in the guides has worked well, revise parts of the guides that have not worked well, and …

Updated Methods For Traffic Impact Analysis, Including Evaluation Of Innovative Intersection Designs: Volume Iii—Reviewer’S Guide, Gerald T. Bollinger, Jon D. Fricker

JTRP Technical Reports

The INDOT Reviewer’s Guide to Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) is a product of SPR-3605 Updated Methods for Traffic Impact Analysis. It is intended to provide guidance to individuals who are charged with the responsibility to evaluate the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) reports submitted to INDOT (or other public agencies). This guide replaces the 1992 Reviewer's Guide for Traffic Impact Studies. The 1992 Guide was essentially an extended version of the 1992 Applicant's Guide to Traffic Impact Studies. This time, the Reviewer’s Guide is written with the knowledge that the Applicant’s Guide is available to both applicants and …

Updated Methods For Traffic Impact Analysis, Including Evaluation Of Innovative Intersection Designs: Volume Ii—Applicant’S Guide, Gerald T. Bollinger, Jon D. Fricker

JTRP Technical Reports

The INDOT Applicant’s Guide to Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) is a product of SPR-3605 "Updated Methods for Traffic Impact Analysis". The purpose of this study was to review the Applicant’s and Reviewer’s Guides that were published in 1992 and make changes that would bring them in line with the methods and conditions that have emerged since then. This guide is intended to establish a standard framework for traffic impact analysis within Indiana, increasing consistency in study requests, preparation and review. A standardized procedure will enable the TIA study preparer to present the study findings and recommendations in a systematic manner …

Quantum Dot Enhanced Epitaxial Lift-Off Solar Cells, Mitchell F. Bennett

Theses

Embedded nanostructures such as quantum dots (QDs) have been studied for many applications in solar cells including enhanced mini-band absorption in intermediate-band solar cells and current matching in multi junction cells. The major drawbacks of using such techniques to decrease intrinsic solar cell loss mechanisms are twofold: first, it is difficult to maintain partially populated states using QDs due to a quick thermal extraction of carriers; second, QDs have a weak absorption which necessitates a near-perfect control of QD growth mechanisms to carefully ensure a balance between dot size and density. One avenue for improving absorption into QDs is to …

Group Selection And Key Management Strategies For Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption, Russell F. Martin

Theses

Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CPABE) was introduced by Bethencourt, Sahai, and Waters, as an improvement of Identity Based Encryption, allowing fine grained control of access to encrypted files by restricting access to only users whose attributes match that of the monotonic access tree of the encrypted file. Through these modifications, encrypted files can be placed securely on an unsecure server, without fear of malicious users being able to access the files, while allowing each user to have a unique key, reducing the vulnerabilites associated with sharing a key between multiple users.

However, due to the fact that CPABE was designed for …

Freshman Academy At One School In East Tennessee: A Mixed Method Study, Yvonne L. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the student achievement prior to and after the implementation of a freshman academy at one school in East Tennessee. The researcher used student data from the end of course exam scores for Algebra I and English I. The failure rate of freshman prior to and after the implementation of the Freshman Academy was examined. The data were analyzed using a chi square statistical analysis. A significant difference was observed in the end of course exam scores for Algebra I and English I after the implementation of the Freshman Academy. Qualitative data examined …

Gendered Hate Speech And Political Discourse In Recent U.S. Elections And In Postsocialist Hungary, Louise O. Vasvári

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Gendered Hate Speech and Political Discourse in Recent U.S. Elections and in Postsocialist Hungary" Louise O. Vasvári illustrates gendered political discourse in the U.S. through a case study of the 2008 presidential campaign. While the campaign turned into a plebiscite on gender and sexual politics with Hillary Clinton and other female political figures depicted in the most traditionally misogynist terms, Barack Obama has in some leftist circles been seen as an empathetic figure who transcends both race and gender, although from the political right he has been attacked with racist and feminizing stereotyped invectives. In turn, in …

Aerodynamic Performance And Particle Image Velocimetery Of Piezo Actuated Biomimetic Manduca Sexta Engineered Wings Towards The Design And Application Of A Flapping Wing Flight Vehicle, Anthony M. Deluca

Theses and Dissertations

Considerable research and investigation has been conducted on the aerodynamic performance, and the predominate flow physics of the Manduca sexta size of biomimetically designed and fabricated wings as part of the AFIT FWMAV design project. Despite a burgeoning interest and research into the diverse field of flapping wing flight and biomimicry, the aerodynamics of flapping wing flight remains a nebulous field of science with considerable variance into the theoretical abstractions surrounding aerodynamic mechanisms responsible for aerial performance. Traditional FWMAV flight models assume a form of a quasi-steady approximation of wing aerodynamics based on an infinite wing element model (BEM). An …

Evaluation Of Arsenic And Selenium Quantitation In Marcellus Shales And Flowback Saline Waters Using Thiol Cotton Fibre-Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy And Diffusive Gradient In Thin Film Techniques, Ronald S. Balaba

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Trace levels of arsenic and selenium can be toxic to living organisms yet their quantitation in high ionic strength or high salinity aqueous media is difficult due to the matrix interferences which can either suppress or enhance the analyte signal. The objective of this proposed study has been to apply and/or modify inexpensive, simple, and interference-free analytical methods for the sub-ppb to ppb quantification of both inorganic and bioavailable arsenic and selenium fractions in highly saline/salty waters such as flowback wastewater produced from natural gas well drilling sites in the Marcellus shale and/or simulated or artificial high-salinity prepared from deionized …

Numerical And Experimental Study On The Ability Of Dynamic Roughness To Alter The Development Of A Leading Edge Vortex, Christopher D. Griffin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Dynamic stall is an unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon garnering much research interest because it occurs in a variety of applications. For example, dynamic stall is known to occur on helicopter rotor blades, wind turbines, high maneuvering military aircraft, and flapping wings. Dynamic stall occurs when an aerodynamic lifting device, such as an airfoil, wing, or turbomachine blade, undergoes a rapid pitching motion. It also occurs on lifting devices that are impulsively started at high angles of attack. Dynamic stall can "delay" aerodynamic stall to angles of attack that are significantly beyond the static stall angle of attack.;During dynamic stall a large …

Development Of A 16s Rrna Gene Sequence As A Biomarker Specific To The Gastrointestinal Tract And Feces Of Swine Based On Suppressive Subtractive Hybridization, Autumn Sayre

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Fecal contamination of water bodies causes environmental issues and human health risks. Swine are a major contributor of fecal inputs to environmental waters due to their importance in American agriculture. Water quality currently is regulated using fecal coliforms, which have natural reservoirs in the environment and may not correlate with pathogens. In recent years there has been a shift towards microbial source tracking (MST). MST employs microbiological, genotypic, phenotypic and chemical methods to determine the source of fecal pollution in water bodies. Previous studies aimed at developing swine fecal biomarkers have had limited success. The overall objective of this research …

Correlation Of Photocatalytic Activity With Band Structure Of Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Nanostructures, Fanke Meng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Photocatalytic hydrogen generation by water splitting is a promising technique to produce clean and renewable solar fuel. The development of effective semiconductor photocatalysts to obtain efficient photocatalytic activity is the key objective. However, two critical reasons prevent wide applications of semiconductor photocatalysts: low light usage efficiency and high rates of charge recombination. In this dissertation, several low-dimensional semiconductors were synthesized with hydrothermal, hydrolysis, and chemical impregnation methods. The band structures of the low-dimensional semiconductor materials were engineered to overcome the above mentioned two shortcomings. In addition, the correlation between the photocatalytic activity of the low-dimensional semiconductor materials and their band …

Modeling And Recognizing Binary Human Interactions, Ke Feng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recognizing human activities from video is an important step forward towards the long-term goal of performing scene understanding fully automatically. Applications in this domain include, but are not limited to, the automated analysis of video surveillance footage for public and private monitoring, remote patient and elderly home monitoring, video archiving, search and retrieval, human-computer interaction, and robotics. While recent years have seen a concentration of works focusing on modeling and recognizing either group activities, or actions performed by people in isolation, modeling and recognizing binary human-human interactions is a fundamental building block that only recently has started to catalyze the …

Human Action Recognition In Still Images, Biyun Lai

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recently still image-based human action recognition has become an active research topic in computer vision and pattern recognition. It focuses on identifying a person's action or behavior from a single image. Unlike the traditional action recognition approaches where videos or image sequences are used, a still image contains no temporal information for action characterization. It is more challenging to perform still image-based action recognition than the video-based, given the limited source of information as well as the cluttered background for images collected from the Internet.;Based on the emerging research in recent years, we dig into all possible cues from a …

Sliding Mode Control Of Mimo Non-Square Systems Via Squaring Matrix Transforms, Tim Marvin

Theses

In this thesis, a novel method for control of over- or under-actuated dynamic systems is developed. The primary control method considered here is Sliding Mode Control which requires an inversion of the control input influence matrix. However on many systems this matrix is non-square, requiring alternate methods in order to the control solution. Some existing solutions for this class of problems include pseudo-inversion such as the Moore-Penrose (which does not allow the design engineer to select the desired state to controlled), dynamic extension (which is difficult to implement on large systems), and pseudo-inverse squaring transform methods. While the squaring transform …