Digital Commons Network^™

Organizational Development Consulting: A Study Of Expert Consultants' Key Strategies, Mona Vosoughi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study was conducted to capture the collective voice of expert organizational development consultants. Until now, very few studies have been conducted that take into account the collective voices of organizational development consultants. More specifically, the purpose of the present study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the approaches expert organizational development consultants use throughout their engagement with their clients in an attempt to add value to and enhance organizational capacity. To understand the process used by this distinct group of leaders, phenomenological qualitative inquiry was the methodology used to conduct this study. Data were collected …

Predicting Pressure Distribution Between Transfemoral Prosthetic Socket And Residual Limb Using Finite Element Analysis, Rajesh Surapureddy

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, a non-linear Finite Element (FE) model was created and analyzed to determine the pressure distribution between the residual limb and the prosthetic socket of a transfemoral amputee. This analysis was performed in an attempt to develop a process allowing healthcare providers and engineers to simulate the fit and comfort of transfemoral prosthetics to reduce the number of re-fittings needed for the amputees. The analysis considered the effects of interference due to insertion of the limb into the prosthesis, referred to as donning, and also the effects due to the body weight of the amputee. A non-linear finite …

Shear Strength Parameters Of Sand Fly Ash Cement Mixtures, Oksana Nikolayevna Spears

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to a 2012 American Coal Ash Association Coal production Survey Report, US coal fired power plants produced more than 109 million tons of waste that year. Approximately half of this waste is the valuable by-product fly ash. There are three classes of fly ash: cementitious class C and non-cementitious classes F and N. Over half of the fly ash produced is used in the geotechnical/construction industries. Most geotechnical soil stabilization studies using fly ash are focused on controlling shrink-swell potential of clays. This study utilized the less desirable class F fly ash to assess the improvement of shear strength …

Evaluation Of Upper Extremity Movement Characteristics During Standardized Pediatric Functional Assessment With A Kinect®-Based Markerless Motion Analysis System, Jacob R. Rammer, Joseph J. Krzak, Susan A. Riedel, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A recently developed and evaluated upper extremity (UE) markerless motion analysis system based on the Microsoft® Kinect® has potential for improving functional assessment of patients with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. 12 typically-developing adolescents ages 12-17 were evaluated using both the Kinect-based system and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), a validated measure of UE motion. The study established population means of UE kinematic parameters for each activity. Statistical correlation analysis was used to identify key kinematic metrics used to develop automatic scoring algorithms. The Kinect motion analysis platform is technically sound and can be applied to standardized task-based …

Virtual Capstone Design Teams: Preparing For Global Innovation (Conference Proceeding), Jay R. Goldberg, Susannah Howe

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Global innovation requires collaboration between groups of people located in different parts of the world, and is a growing trend in industry. Virtual teams are often used to manage new product development projects. These teams are similar to traditional teams but are geographically separated and rely heavily on virtual methods of communication (email, Skype, teleconferencing, etc.) instead of regular face-to-face meetings. Experience working as a member of a virtual capstone design team can help prepare students for this growing trend. To begin preparing students for work on virtual teams in industry, we co-advised two virtual capstone design projects with students …

Bone Material Properties In Osteogenesis Imperfecta: A Matter Of Quantity Over Quality, Carolyne Albert, John Jameson, Gerald F. Harris, Peter Smith

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

A North American Consortium On Rehabilitation Engineering And Technology For The Individual, Barbara Silver-Thorn, Jessica Lothman, Terence Miller

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The availability and accessibility of appropriate rehabilitative healthcare, medical technology and treatment is an important national and international issue of particular relevance due to recent national healthcare reform initiatives. The focus of this project was to increase global competencies and awareness among biomedical engineers of the differing rehabilitative healthcare needs in North America via student exchange with consortium institutions in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The aim was to increase understanding of alternative healthcare delivery systems with respect to technology and interaction with diverse client populations in a clinical setting and to enhance the development and technology transfer of new …

Developing An At-Home System For Evaluating Manual Wheelchair Propulsion And Directing Rehabilitative Training To Optimize Biomechanical Efficiency, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

An Enhanced Pulse Position Modulation (Ppm) In Ultra-Wideband (Uwb) Systems, Lingxiu Chen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Simplicity, transmission rate, and bit error rate (BER) performance are three major concerns for ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. The main advantage of existing pulse-position modulation (PPM) schemes is simplicity, but their BER performance is poorer than that of an on-off-keying (OOK) modulation scheme, and their transmission rate is lower than that of an OOK scheme. In this research project, I will explore a novel PPM scheme, which can maintain the simplicity of the PPM schemes as well as achieve a BER performance and a transmission rate similar to the OOK scheme. During the research, I will thoroughly investigate the relationship between …

The Environmental Performance Of Biobased Resin Within Phenolic-Urethane Nobake Binders: A Feasibility Study, Ian David Morgan Williams

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The objectives of this research were to investigate the discovery and development of a biobased nobake binder resin for use within the foundry industry toward improved energy efficiency and environmental performance. The performance of polysaccharides within biobased resins was evaluated using industry-accepted methods and standards such as cure rate, tensile-strength development, and casting performance based upon step cone core results. Biobased nobake resins comprised of polysaccharide raw materials cure at a rate that is comparable to conventional nobake sand binders. Upon reaching stripping time, the development of biobased resin reveals a rapid increase in tensile strength, reaching 80% of its …

Solitary, Anita Ellen Schuck

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This novella explores the themes of isolation and captivity. Millie Canfield feels isolated and held captive by her family. She dreams of freedom and beauty, only to see her attempts to achieve it repeatedly undone. She flees from family to marriage, only to experience isolation and captivity in a different form. She wants to be rescued, but she is oblivious to outside attempts to help. Millie also holds herself captive, torn between her perceived wants and obligations. She feels isolated, but she has isolated herself. When she at last achieves a measure of freedom, it is more a case of …

Teaching Patrons To Fish: The Educational Value Of Cancelling Requests For Locally Available Materials, Ruth S. Connell, Tschera H. Connell

Library Faculty Publications

Expansive document delivery service for locally available materials is becoming increasingly popular, but is a learning component lost with the implementation of this service? In this study, the authors compare data from two institutions, one that provides an unadvertised document delivery service without instruction, and another that cancels requests for locally available materials with an instructional component. The behavior of each institution's patrons over a 4-year period is analyzed and found to differ at statistically significant levels. These findings will be useful for interlibrary loan policy makers who are considering whether to implement document delivery for locally available items.

Usft 2014 Usf Libraries Annual Report, Usf Libraries

Library Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

A Unified Bond Theory, Probabilistic Meso-Scale Modeling, And Experimental Validation Of Deformed Steel Rebar In Normal Strength Concrete, Chenglin Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Bond between deformed rebar and concrete is affected by rebar deformation pattern, concrete properties, concrete confinement, and rebar-concrete interfacial properties. Two distinct groups of bond models were traditionally developed based on the dominant effects of concrete splitting and near-interface shear-off failures. Their accuracy highly depended upon the test data sets selected in analysis and calibration. In this study, a unified bond model is proposed and developed based on an analogy to the indentation problem around the rib front of deformed rebar. This mechanics-based model can take into account the combined effect of concrete splitting and interface shear-off failures, resulting in …

Biomineralization Of Carbonates In Modern Microbial Sediments And Its Implications For Co₂ Sequestration, Varun Gnanaprian Paul

Doctoral Dissertations

"Several bacterial species influence carbonate mineral precipitation by modifying pH, alkalinity, Ca²⁺ activity and by providing nucleation sites for mineralization. Two studies have been undertaken to explore microbial influence in the mineralization of carbonates. In the first study, the ability of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to induce carbonate mineralization was investigated as a means to enhance mineral sequestration of CO₂. Sulfate-reducing bacteria enriched from hypersaline Storr's Lake, The Bahamas; Lake Estancia, New Mexico; and Great Salt Plains Lake, Oklahoma, were tested in reactors under varying CO₂ concentrations. Carbonate mineral precipitation was achieved only in reactors with Lake Estancia SRB community and …

Cerium-Based Conversion Coatings On Magnesium Alloys, Carlos E. Castaño

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research is primarily focused on gaining a better understanding of the deposition and corrosion behavior of cerium-based conversion coatings (CeCCs) on AZ31B and AZ91D Mg alloys. Deposition of homogenous and protective CeCCs was highly dependent on the surface preparation steps. The best results were obtained when Mg samples underwent grinding, acid cleaning, and alkaline cleaning processes. This reduced the number of active cathodic sites and promoted the formation of a protective Al-rich Mg oxide/hydroxide layer. Electrochemical properties of the CeCCs were also strongly correlated with morphological, microstructural, and chemical characteristics. Protective CeCCs were deposited on both AZ31 and AZ91 …

Energy Efficient Security And Privacy Management In Sensor Clouds, Vimal Kumar

Doctoral Dissertations

"Sensor Cloud is a new model of computing for Wireless Sensor Networks, which facilitates resource sharing and enables large scale sensor networks. A multi-user distributed system, however, where resources are shared, has inherent challenges in security and privacy. The data being generated by the wireless sensors in a sensor cloud need to be protected against adversaries, which may be outsiders as well as insiders. Similarly the code which is disseminated to the sensors by the sensor cloud needs to be protected against inside and outside adversaries. Moreover, since the wireless sensors cannot support complex, energy intensive measures, the security and …

Hardware Integration Of Ultracapacitor Based Energy Storage To Provide Grid Support And To Improve Power Quality Of The Distribution Grid, Deepak Somayajula

Doctoral Dissertations

"Grid integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) is increasing rapidly. Integration of various types of energy storage technologies like batteries, ultracapacitors (UCAPs), superconducting magnets and flywheels to support intermittent DERs, such as solar and wind, in order to improve their reliability is becoming necessary. Of all the energy storage technologies UCAPs have low energy density, high power density and fast charge/discharge characteristics. They also have more charge/discharge cycles and higher terminal voltage per module when compared to batteries. All these characteristics make UCAPs ideal choice for providing support to events on the distribution grid which require high power for short …

Investigation Of Fluids Flow Behavior In Nano-Scale Channels By Using Optic Imaging System, Qihua Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Tight gas and shale gas reservoirs are characterized to have small pores with diameters in nanometer (nm) range. The physics of fluid flow in nanopores is poorly understood. Knowing the fluid flow behavior in the nano-range channels is of major importance for stimulation design, gas production optimization and calculations of the relative permeability of gas in tight shale gas systems. In this work, a lab-on-chip approach for direct visualization of the fluid flow behavior in nano-scale channels was developed using an advanced epi-fluorescence microscopy method combined with a nano-fluidic chip. The nanofluidic chips with different dimensions were designed and fabricated. …

Impedance Control And Internal Model Formation When Reaching In A Randomly Varying Dynamical Environment, C. D. Takahashi, Robert A. Scheidt, D. J. Reikensmeyer

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We investigated the effects of trial-to-trial, random variation in environmental forces on the motor adaptation of human subjects during reaching. Novel sequences of dynamic environments were applied to subjects' hands by a robot. Subjects reached first in a “mean field” having a constant gain relating force and velocity, then in a “noise field,” having a gain that varied randomly between reaches according to a normal distribution with a mean identical to that of the mean field. The unpredictable nature of the noise field did not degrade adaptation as quantified by final kinematic error and rate of adaptation. To achieve this …

The Arm Motion (Amd) Detection Test, Maria C. Bengston, Leigh A. Mrotek, Tina M. Stoeckmann, Claude Ghez, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Stroke can lead to sensory deficits that impair functional control of arm movements. Here we describe a simple test of arm motion detection (AMD) that provides an objective, quantitative measure of movement perception related proprioceptive capabilities in the arm. Seven stroke survivors and thirteen neurologically intact control subjects performed the AMD test. In a series of ten trials that took less than 15 minutes to complete, participants used a two-button user interface to adjust the magnitude of hand displacements produced by a horizontal planar robot until the motions were just perceptible (i.e. on the threshold of detection). The standard deviation …

A Modular Low-Clearance Wrist Orthosis For Improving Wrist Motion In Children With Cerebral Palsy, Devon Holley, Michelle Johnson, Gerald F. Harris, Scott A. Beardsley

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) often exhibit impairments in the coordination of the grip and lift phases of arm movements that directly impact their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). The application of assistive robotic therapy to children with spastic hemiplegic CP has shown that augmented movement training can lead to improved functional outcomes and improved arm kinematics. Assistive robotic therapy of the wrist has been shown to help improve motor skills in stroke patients, but the devices employed are often large and obtrusive, focusing on a repeated motion rather than a task-based itinerary. Here, we propose a …

Emerging Optical Techniques For Detection Of Oral, Cervical And Anal Cancer In Low-Resource Settings, Bing Yu, Daron G. Ferris, Yang Liu, Vivek K. Nagarajan

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Cancers of the oral and anogenital regions are a growing global health problem that disproportionately impact women and men living in developing countries. The high death rate in developing countries is largely due to the fact that these countries do not have the appropriate medical infrastructure and resources to support the organized screening and diagnostic programs that are available in the developed world. Emerging optical diagnostics techniques, such as optical spectroscopy, reflectance imaging, and fluorescence imaging, are noninvasive techniques that are sensitive to multiple cancer biomarkers and have shown the potential as a cost–effective and fast tool for diagnosis of …

A Clustering Based Matrix For Selecting Optimal Tools And Techniques In Quality Management, Hassan A. Alsultan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this research was to explore a systematic pattern for selecting quality tools and techniques in the manufacturing and service industries. This study asked, “What are the best DMAIC tools and techniques concerning circumstances of quality dimensions of products and services?” To answer this question, this research developed innovative, diagnostic matrices by mimicking the contradiction matrix of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). These innovative matrices are intended to help non-expert users to select the best sets of quality tools and techniques for solving different quality problems. By conducting a cluster analysis, the researcher uncovered homogeneous patterns …

Development Of A Multi-Mode Self-Adaptive Algorithm To Create An Efficient Wireless Network On A University Campus, Melanie L. Abbas

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The expanding use of ubiquitous computing has created a significant demand on existing network infrastructures. The demands of voice, video, and data on the same medium require a quality of service (QoS) at a level acceptable to users. Many network providers simply scale their networks to increase bandwidth and hardware to deal with the increasing demands. However, a network may still reach its design limits with peak traffic or malicious overuse of resources. In addition, with technology changing at a rapid pace, it is difficult to provide sufficient staffing to monitor and adjust the network settings to avoid issues during …

The Impact Of Digital Organization On Retention In College Algebra, Mary Benac Staniger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined the impact of digital organization for developmental mathematics students using technologically mediated tools in Beginning Algebra to increase retention for successful completion of College Algebra. The focus of the digital organization was student improvement in study skills and academic self-confidence throughout Beginning Algebra. These are two non-academic factors literature suggests are related to college students’ retention and performance. Study skills were measured by how students felt they could assess a mathematics problem, organize a solution and successfully complete assignments. Academic self-confidence was measured by student belief of the ability to perform well in mathematics. Mixed methods were …

Big Banks And Business Method Patents, Megan M. La Belle, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

The banking industry and the patent system are longstanding American institutions whose histories date back to the founding of this country. Historically, however, the paths of these two institutions rarely crossed. Although financial firms have been increasing their innovative output for decades now, until recently they relied on trade secrecy, first mover advantages, and other business mechanisms to protect and monetize their intellectual property — not patents.

Through a convergence of circumstances over the past several years, that pattern has changed. The shift began when the Federal Circuit decided that business methods — banks’ primary mode of innovation — are …

Sowing The Seeds Of Protection, Elizabeth I. Winston

Scholarly Articles

Seeds are chattel. As such, seeds are protectable by the same tapestry of public and private ordering as other forms of chattel. However, the distinguishing characteristic of seeds, their method of propagation, and the history of seeds-traditionally viewed as a public good rather than chatteldistort that tapestry. The model of seed distribution thus needs to be refrained in light of the often disparate interests of innovators, producers, and consumers. As with all chattel, there is no single, correct model for distributing seeds, but law and contract may be woven together to strike a balance.

Precambrian Evolution Of The Salalah Crystalline Basement From Structural Analysis And 40Ar/39Ar Geochronology, Hanadi Abulateef Al-Doukhi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The Salalah Crystalline Basement (SCB) is the largest Precambrian exposure in Oman located on the southern margin of the Arabian Plate at the Arabian Sea shore. This work used remote sensing, detailed structural analysis and the analysis of ten samples using ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age dating to establish the Precambrian evolution of the SCB by focusing on its central and southwestern parts. This work found that the SCB evolved through four deformational events that shaped its final architecture: (1) Folding and thrusting event that resulted in the emplacement of the Sadh complex atop the Juffa complex. This event resulted …

Preformed Particle Gel Transport Through Fractures, Hao Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Polymer gel treatment is one of the most cost-effective methods to control water production in mature oil fields. The main objective of gel treatments is to reduce water or gas flow through high-permeability channels or fractures without damaging productive zones. Preformed particle gels (PPGs) have been applied for conformance control because they can overcome some potential drawbacks inherent in an in-situ gelation system.

In this study, lab experiments were performed to quantify PPG propagation through fractures and fracture-like channels by using screen models and open fracture models. The main findings in these experiments can guide the selection of best particle …