Digital Commons Network^™

Fault Protection In Dc Distribution Systems Via Coordinated Control Of Power Supply Converters And Bus Tie Switches, Pietro Cairoli

Theses and Dissertations

A new fault protection method responds to the current needs of emerging dc power distribution systems by coordinating electronic power converters and mechanical contactors to rapidly isolate short circuit faults while maintaining continuity of power to loads. This work is important because the increasing performance, higher efficiency, and decreasing cost of electronic power converters have spurred a rediscovery and proliferation of dc power distribution systems. Although dc distribution offers advantages such as higher transmission efficiency, higher power density, higher reliability, and ease of interfacing asynchronous sources, enthusiasm for adopting dc technologies suffers from widespread concern over the means to protect …

Redeeming The Loss Of Being: Ontology And Possibility In Thomas Pynchon's Later Novels, Andrew Field

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis takes up two novels written by Thomas Pynchon, and attempts gain a better understanding of how these two novels pose, reframe and resolve questions concerning existence in a postmodern era. Characterized by a loss of tangible meaning, uncertainty, and ever-increasing variability, the postmodern period has forced artists to define large philosophical concepts such as being, knowledge, and understanding without the sensibilities which grounded bygone eras. Mason & Dixon and Against the Day, both novels by Thomas Pynchon, take up the question of being in an uncertain time, and offers a reconceptualization of the political responsiblities of the individual …

Motivational Interviewing And School-Based Mentoring To Improve Middle School Students' Academic Performance, John Terry

Theses and Dissertations

The development of effective and feasible interventions that are deliverable within schools are badly needed in order to address high levels of unmet academic and social/emotional need in children and adolescents. In order to address these needs, two interventions were developed, delivered, and tested in this study. One was an eight-session School-based Mentoring (SBM) program based on evidence-based academic enabling activities. The other was a one-session report card coaching program based on Motivational Interviewing (MI). Previous studies of these SBM and MI interventions found mostly small or statistically non-significant effects on academic performance. The current study tests the hypothesis that …

Examining Long-Haul Chinese Outbound Tourists' Shopping Intentions, Pei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines long-haul Chinese outbound tourists' shopping intentions using the planned behavior approach. Attitude of product and store attributes, subjective norms of co-workers are found to significantly predict shopping intentions of respondents during their overseas trips. Further, behavioral beliefs and the corresponding outcome evaluation of product and store attributes lead to the formation of attitude. Normative beliefs of co-workers, motivation to comply with co-workers, and the interaction between them significantly influence respondents' subjective norms on overseas tourism shopping. Control beliefs, power of control beliefs, and the interaction between them predict respondents' perceived behavioral control on overseas tourism shopping. Both …

Investigating The Predictive Validity Of A Domain-Specific Versus Global Measure Of Life Satisfaction In The Context Of School, Rachel Long

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the utility of a global versus a domain-specific measure of life satisfaction in predicting behavioral and achievement outcome variables among a sample of adolescents in the context of school. The sample included 694 middle school students (7th and 8th grade) from a suburban school district located in the Southeastern United States who completed self-report measures of life satisfaction, engagement, behavior, and grades. Actual grade point average (GPA) and standardized MAP test scores were reported by the school. Based on previous research and the guiding principal, specificity matching, this study hypothesized that a measure of school satisfaction would …

Ulysses In The Age Of Digital Remediation, Melissa Hart Higgins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an in-depth study of the implications of digital technologies and information literacy for the reading and scholarly study of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. Because the reading experience of Ulysses depends heavily on both its physicality and the interaction of the reader with the text, the changes in reading practices and scholarly study brought about by digital adaptations and hypermediations of this novel can offer new modes of understanding and characterizing readers relationships with text, as well as how the readers' digital interactions with Ulysses might engender or inhibit potential interpretations.

Each of the three chapters in this …

Silylation-Based Kinetic Resolution Of Α-Hydroxy Carbonyl Compounds And Synthesis Of Chiral Isothiourea Catalysts, Yan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis describes the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds catalyzed by isothiourea catalyst as well as our effort to make novel chiral isothiourea catalyst.

In Chapter 1, general background will be introduced, including chirality, general methods to obtain enantiopure compounds and kinetic resolution. In Chapter 2, the mechanism of the chiral recognition was discussed and a novel isothiourea catalyst was design to investigate the mechanism. The synthesis of the new catalyst was also described in this chapter.

In Chapter 3, the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds will be discussed. Since silylation-based kinetic resolution have already been …

Acoustic Emission Source Characterization Of Fatigue Crack Extension In Steel Bridge Material, Md Mozahid Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

The probability of Acoustic Emission (AE) detection associated with fatigue crack extension in steel bridge components is a difficult problem due to the complexity of the AE sources. AE is a very promising technique for structural health monitoring and automated micro-crack detection as it is generated by the material itself, unlike other nondestructive testing techniques (for example impact echo and ultrasonics), which require external input sources. Characterizing the source of AE is an ongoing challenge because AE sensors are not only sensitive to the AE signals but also to mechanical noise and reflections. It is therefore difficult to interpret the …

Going Hard, Going Easy, Going Home: Death And Dying In 20th Century African American Literature, Chayah Amayala Stoneberg-Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation answers the question: How can art represent the essential human experience of death, particularly when the creative context is one of extreme violence? And, what can be learned about the risks and rewards of the living's relationship with the dead by way of these artistic representations? Further, how do these aesthetic renderings of death construct the ethics of life for survivors? In the case of African America, discussion of, and responses to, these questions have been primarily explored in novelist and creative writing. This dissertation examines these novelistic treatments of death-tropes, or thanatropes in eight novels written by …

An Essay On Musical Narrative Theory And Its Role In Interpretation, With Analyses Of Works For Saxophone By Alfred Desenclos And John Harbison, Ian Macdonald Jeffress

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the field of semiotics has increasingly been applied to musicology, with particular attention paid to the area of narrative theory. This study will provide an introduction to the essential concepts of semiotics and narrative theory, the development of a methodology of narrative analysis with examples from the saxophone repertoire, and the application of that analytical approach to Alfred Desenclos' Prélude, Cadence, et Finale and John Harbison's San Antonio. The goal of this study will be the demonstration of narrative theory's applicability to a variety of styles pertinent to the concert saxophone repertoire. It is hoped that this …

Liquefaction Potential Of South Carolina Coastal Plain Soils Using Dilatometer Data, Joseph Ronald Williamson

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years much research has been focused on developing the flat plate dilatometer (DMT) as a tool to estimate the liquefaction potential of soils. Currently the DMT is over shadowed by the more accepted methods of estimating liquefaction potential which utilize test data from either the standard penetration test (SPT), cone penetration test (CPT), or shear wave velocity test (Vs). The SPT, CPT, and V_s tests are all well-developed methods of estimating liquefaction potential and are supported by extensive databases; however, the DMT is believed by many researchers to be the superior alternative. Due to the DMT's minimal …

Plant Virus Based Materials For Cell Alignment And Differentiation, Elizabeth Balizan

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on developing and using plant virus based scaffolds to understand substrate control over cell alignment and differentiation. The first part of this work centered on development of virus based patterns that were then used to align and elongate aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Virus patterns were generated in capillary tubes via a simple drying method. Three experimental parameters were used to control pattern formation: (1) protein concentration, (2) salt concentration, and (3) hydrophobicity of the pre-deposition surface. By controlling these parameters several aspects of the final virus patterns were controlled. First, virus orientation was controlled. Patterns were …

A Silylation Based Kinetic Resolution Of Secondary Alcohols And The Synthesis And Structural Characterization Of Pyridyl-Oxazolidine Compounds, Cody Ian Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations

Described herein is the first enantioselective silylation based kinetic resolution of monofunctional secondary alcohols to achieve useful levels of enantioselectivity. Using commercially available reagents, the reaction conditions were optimized and found to successfully resolve several secondary alcohols with high enantioselectivity. It was discovered that the nucleophilic isothiourea compound (-)-tetramisole, with Ph3SiCl as the silyl source, gave superior results to other nucleophilic catalysts and was capable of performing the kinetic resolution in as little as 45 minutes using mild reaction conditions. The structural and electronic characteristics of successful and less successful substrates are also discussed.

Chapter three discusses mechanistic investigations and …

The Role Of The Trickster Figure And Four Afro-Caribbean Meta-Tropes In The Realization Of Agency By Three Slave Protagonists, David Sebastian Cross

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I aim to demonstrate that the figure of the trickster is a key trope for the achievement of agency by the narrators of the three slave narratives Autobiografia de un esclavo, "Routes in North Africa by Abu Bekr es siddik" [sic], and Biografia de un cimarron. I also intend to show how both the realization of the trickster's role and the achievement of agency to which such a role is oriented are dependent on the use of the four Afro-Caribbean meta-tropes ndoki, nkisi, nganga, and simbi. To demonstrate this, I plan to analyze these four meta-tropes; their …

Putting Place Back Into Displacement: Reevaluating Diaspora In The Contemporary Literature Of Migration, Christiane Brigitte Steckenbiller

Theses and Dissertations

In order to improve the engineering properties of soft soils, materials, such as cement and fiber, can be introduced to the soil mass. Currently, design criterion for a cement-soil mixture requires only the measurement of unconfined compressive strength. This simple measurement may not be adequate to describe the behavior that results from differing field loading conditions. A series of consolidation tests and unconfined compression tests were conducted with special attention being paid to the effects of curing time and vertical curing stress. It is shown that the introduction of cement into soft soils results in decreased compressibility and increased unconfined …

An Analysis Of Constructive Network Formation Models, Gary Fredericks

Theses and Dissertations

We study a family of network formation models to determine how payment rules affect the final network topologies that emerge. In our model a set of nodes starts out without any edges and the nodes must pay for the creation of edges using one of several different payment mechanisms. Example payment mechanisms include one node paying for the whole edge, and the cost being shared equally between the two nodes. We show how the set of networks formed by some payment rules are subsets of those formed by other rules. We also perform extensive empirical tests on networks of up …

Plc Code Vulnerabilities Through Scada Systems, Sidney E. Valentine, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are widely used in automated manufacturing and in all areas of our nation's infrastructure. Applications range from chemical processes and water treatment facilities to oil and gas production and electric power generation and distribution. Current research on SCADA system security focuses on the primary SCADA components and targets network centric attacks. Security risks via attacks against the peripheral devices such as the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have not been sufficiently addressed.

Our research results address the need to develop PLC applications that are correct, safe and secure. This research provides an analysis of …

An Analysis Of And Conductor's Guide To Eleanor Daley's Requiem, Andrew James Robinette

Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a thorough analysis of and conductor's guide to Eleanor Daley's Requiem. It includes a theoretical analysis, a textual analysis, an analysis of performance and conducting considerations, a list of compositions by the composer, and a discography. Additionally, it includes score corrections, the composer's biography, a brief history of the Requiem Mass and Christian funeral music, and historical connections to other Requiems, including a chapter dedicated to the Requiem of Herbert Howells.

The study was informed by numerous correspondences and multiple interviews with the composer, as well as singing under her direction. It is the author's hope that …

Grammar In Context And Isolated Units: The Impact Of Dichotomized Teaching Methods In A Rural Southern High School, Amy Kae Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use qualitative research methods to identify which methods a group of language arts teachers from a suburban high school use to teach grammar and why. Specific research questions included:

1. How do teachers who were educated with grammar as an isolated curricular unit perceive the current debate on language instruction? How do their perceptions impact their classroom instructional practice?

2. How do teachers who were educated with grammar as a whole language curricular unit perceive the current debate on language instruction? How do their perceptions impact their classroom instructional practice?

This study examined …

Identifying Values And Benefits Of Congaree National Park, Maka Bitsadze

Theses and Dissertations

Protected areas are important tools for the conservation of biological diversity. They also support a wide range of ecosystem services and provide economic, cultural and social values and benefits. Many values and benefits of protected areas are poorly understood and greatly under-valued by decision-makers, the business sector, and the general public. Accordingly, identification and assessment of values and benefits of protected areas has been increasingly promoted during recent years.

This research investigates values and benefits of Congaree National Park and provides guidance for the further economic valuation of identified values and benefits. While the ecological significance of Congaree National Park …

Impact Of The Child Development Program On Reading Achievement Of Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade Students In An Urban School District, Tai Elizabeth Lynch

Theses and Dissertations

Educational leaders are charged with making informed decisions regarding various aspects of schooling that affect the overall achievement of students. Numerous legislative ideas, funding initiatives, programming standards, and practicing guidelines for early childhood education programs have been introduced (Buyssee & Wesley, 2006). Early care and education have become significant components of social policy due to the increase in the number of individuals in the workplace and the increasing roles of government in education and reform, as well as the continued concern for school readiness and achievement (Urban Institute, 2009). Americans often state that children are “our most precious natural resource” …

Assessing The Social Effects Of A Therapeutic Recreation Summer Camp For Adolescents With Chronic Illness, Jared Allsop, Jim Sibthorp

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Reading At Camp: Outcomes Of A Summer Reading Program At Sherwood Forest Camp, Lauren Arend, Mary Rogers

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Positioning Camp As A Context For Expanded Learning Through Meta-Analytic Review Of Camp Research, Laurie Browne, Ann Gillard

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior Of Camp Staff: The Effect Of Job Diagnostic Dimensions, Margaret Braun

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Cognitive Style On Camp Counselor Team Functionality, Sarah Bush

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Exploring 4-H Camp Counseling As A Context For Developing Responsibility, Theresa M. Ferrari, Leslie Risch

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Think Outside The ‘Black Box’: Applying Implementation Evaluation To A Structured Camp Curriculum, Tracy Mainieri

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Safe Camp Environments Build Self-Efficacy, Goal Setting, And Environmental Ethics, Kimberly Maravilla

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Teens Learning Teamwork: Active Development Processes At Camp, S. Cole Perry

ACA National Camp Research Forum Abstracts

No abstract provided.