Digital Commons Network^™

Reclaiming Indigenous Narratives Through Critical Discourses And The Autonomy Of The Trickster, Robert D. Hunter

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

How do prevailing narratives about Native Americans, particularly in the medium of film, conspire to promote the perspective of the dominant culture? What makes the appropriation of Indigenous images so metaphorically popular? In the past hundred years, little has changed in the forms of representation favored by Hollywood. The introductory chapter elucidates the problem and outlines the scope of this study. As each subsequent chapter makes clear, the problem is as relevant today as it has been throughout the entire course of filmic history.

Chapter Two analyzes representational trends and defines each decade according to its favorite stereotype. The binary …

Factors Influencing Material Loss During Iron Ore Pellet Handling, Joseph A. Halt

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Iron ore concentrate pellets have the potential to fracture and abrade during transportation and handling, which produces unwanted fine particulates and dust. Consequently, pellet producers characterize the abrasion resistance of their pellets, using an Abrasion Index (AI), to indicate whether their products will produce unacceptable levels of fines. However, no one has ever investigated whether the AI correlates to pellet dustiness.

During the course of this research, we investigated the relationship between AI and iron ore concentrate pellet dustiness using a wide range of industrial and laboratory pellet samples. The results showed that, in general, AI can be used to …

Using Probabilistic Graphical Models To Draw Inferences In Sensor Networks With Tracking Applications, Lufeng Shi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Sensor networks have been an active research area in the past decade due to the variety of their applications. Many research studies have been conducted to solve the problems underlying the middleware services of sensor networks, such as self-deployment, self-localization, and synchronization. With the provided middleware services, sensor networks have grown into a mature technology to be used as a detection and surveillance paradigm for many real-world applications.

The individual sensors are small in size. Thus, they can be deployed in areas with limited space to make unobstructed measurements in locations where the traditional centralized systems would have trouble to …

Real Time Fuzzy Controller For Quadrotor Stability Control, Pranav S. Bhatkhande

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In this report, we develop an intelligent adaptive neuro-fuzzy controller by using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) techniques. We begin by starting with a standard proportional-derivative (PD) controller and use the PD controller data to train the ANFIS system to develop a fuzzy controller. We then propose and validate a method to implement this control strategy on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware.

An analysis is made into the choice of filters for attitude estimation. These choices are limited by the complexity of the filter and the computing ability and memory constraints of the micro-controller. Simplified Kalman filters are found to …

Design And Implementation Of Home Use Portable Smart Electronics, Liqiang Du

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The widespread of low cost embedded electronics makes it easier to implement the smart devices that can understand either the environment or the user behaviors. The main object of this project is to design and implement home use portable smart electronics, including the portable monitoring device for home and office security and the portable 3D mouse for convenient use. Both devices in this project use the MPU6050 which contains a 3 axis accelerometer and a 3 axis gyroscope to sense the inertial motion of the door or the human hands movement.

For the portable monitoring device for home and office …

Investigation Of Strategies To Promote Effective Teacher Professional Development Experiences In Earth Science, Carol A. Engelmann

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This dissertation serves as a call to geoscientists to share responsibility with K-12 educators for increasing Earth science literacy. When partnerships are created among K-12 educators and geoscientists, the synergy created can promote Earth science literacy in students, teachers, and the broader community. The research described here resulted in development of tools that can support effective professional development for teachers. One tool is used during the planning stages to structure a professional development program, another set of tools supports measurement of the effectiveness of a development program, and the third tool supports sustainability of professional development programs. The Michigan Teacher …

A Study Of Passenger Car Acoustic Cavity Boom Simulation Methods, Shreerang Dhabe

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The project objective is the study of acoustic boom phenomenon at 40 Hz in Chevrolet Cruze LTZ and recommend modeling techniques to improve accuracy of model prediction. Acoustic boom is caused by solid-fluid interaction between car structure and air inside the car cavity.

In this report, finite element analysis software Abaqus 6.12-3 is used to simulate the acoustic-structural coupling. The structural and acoustic mesh for the Chevrolet Cruze LTZ are fully coupled and solved using Abaqus ‘strongly coupled’ solution. In order to understand the physics of acoustic boom in a car simple car box models were designed. Simple box car …

Stability Analysis Of The Slope Along Us-2 Between Epoufette Bay And The Cut River Bridge, Stephanie Watts-Garcia

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Recently, water was observed flowing from a section of steep slope along US-2 near St. Ignace, Michigan in addition to soil sloughing in the area where the water is flowing from the slope. An inspection of the area also showed the presence of sinkholes. The original construction drawing for US-2 also indicated that sinkholes were present in this area prior to road construction in 1948. An investigation was conducted to determine the overall stability of the slope. The slope consists primarily of aeolian sand deposits. Laboratory testing determined the shear strength of the slope material to have a friction angle …

Integration Of Instrumentation And Processing Software Of A Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging System, Jacob James Carrick

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) has the potential to be a powerful tool in medicine, but more research in the field is required so it can be used properly. To help in the progression of Michigan Tech's research in the field, a graphical user interface (GUI) was designed in Matlab to control the instrumentation of the experiments as well as process the raw speckle images into contrast images while they are being acquired. The design of the system was successful and is currently being used by Michigan Tech's Biomedical Engineering department. This thesis describes the development of the LSCI GUI …

Doing More With Short Period Data: Determining Magnitudes From Clipped And Over-Run Seismic Data At Mount St. Helens, John J. Wellik Ii

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

How can we calculate earthquake magnitudes when the signal is clipped and over-run? When a volcano is very active, the seismic record may saturate (i.e., the full amplitude of the signal is not recorded) or be over-run (i.e., the end of one event is covered by the start of a new event). The duration, and sometimes the amplitude, of an earthquake signal are necessary for determining event magnitudes; thus, it may be impossible to calculate earthquake magnitudes when a volcano is very active. This problem is most likely to occur at volcanoes with limited networks of short period seismometers. This …

On The Digital-Political Topography Of Music, Daniel William Lawrence

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The persuasive power of music is often relegated to the dimension of pathos: that which moves us emotionally. Yet, the music commodity is now situated in and around the liminal spaces of digitality. To think about how music functions, how it argues across media, and how it moves us, we must examine its material and immaterial realities as they present themselves to us and as we so create them. This dissertation rethinks the relationship between rhetoric and music by examining the creation, performance, and distribution of music in its material and immaterial forms to demonstrate its persuasive power. While …

A Firewall Model Of File System Security, Lihui Hu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

File system security is fundamental to the security of UNIX and Linux systems since in these systems almost everything is in the form of a file. To protect the system files and other sensitive user files from unauthorized accesses, certain security schemes are chosen and used by different organizations in their computer systems. A file system security model provides a formal description of a protection system. Each security model is associated with specified security policies which focus on one or more of the security principles: confidentiality, integrity and availability. The security policy is not only about “who” can access an …

Static And Dynamic Stress Change At 27 Volcanoes Of The Central American Volcanic Arc After The Mw. 7.6 Costa Rica Earthquake Of 5 September 2012, Lorenzo Gratton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Large earthquakes may strongly influence the activity of volcanoes through static and dynamic processes. In this study, we quantify the static and dynamic stress change on 27 volcanoes in Central America, after the M_w 7.6 Costa Rica earthquake of 5 September 2012. Following this event, 8 volcanoes showed signs of activity. We calculated the static stress change due to the earthquake on hypothetical faults under these volcanoes with Coulomb 3.3. For the dynamic stress change, we computed synthetic seismograms to simulate the waveforms at these volcanoes. We then calculated the Peak Dynamic Stress (PDS) from the modeled peak ground …

Multidimensional Optimal Droop Control For Wind Resources In Dc Microgrids, Kaitlyn J. Bunker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Two important and upcoming technologies, microgrids and electricity generation from wind resources, are increasingly being combined. Various control strategies can be implemented, and droop control provides a simple option without requiring communication between microgrid components. Eliminating the single source of potential failure around the communication system is especially important in remote, islanded microgrids, which are considered in this work. However, traditional droop control does not allow the microgrid to utilize much of the power available from the wind. This dissertation presents a novel droop control strategy, which implements a droop surface in higher dimension than the traditional strategy. The droop …

Remediation Of Tetracycline From Water Sources Using Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon Zizanioides L. Nash) And Tetracycline-Tolerant Root-Associated Bacteria, Aparupa Sengupta

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Antibiotics are emerging contaminants worldwide. Due to insufficient policy regulations, public awareness, and the constant exposure of the environment to antibiotic sources has created a major environmental concern. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are not equipped to filter-out these compounds before the discharge of the disinfected effluent into water sources (e.g., lakes and streams) and current available technologies are not equipped to remediate these compounds from environmental sources. Hence, the challenge remains to establish a biological system to remove these antibiotics from wastewater. An invitro hydroponic remediation system was developed using vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides L. Nash) to remediate tetracycline …

Development And Validation Of The Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury-Risk-Estimation Quiz (Acl-Iq), Erich J. Petushek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Over 2 million Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries occur annually worldwide resulting in considerable economic and health burdens (e.g., suffering, surgery, loss of function, risk for re-injury, and osteoarthritis). Current screening methods are effective but they generally rely on expensive and time-consuming biomechanical movement analysis, and thus are impractical solutions. In this dissertation, I report on a series of studies that begins to investigate one potentially efficient alternative to biomechanical screening, namely skilled observational risk assessment (e.g., having experts estimate risk based on observations of athletes movements). Specifically, in Study 1 I discovered that ACL injury risk can be accurately …

Mining And Verification Of Temporal Events With Applications In Computer Micro-Architecture Research, Hui Meen Nyew

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Computer simulation programs are essential tools for scientists and engineers to understand a particular system of interest. As expected, the complexity of the software increases with the depth of the model used. In addition to the exigent demands of software engineering, verification of simulation programs is especially challenging because the models represented are complex and ridden with unknowns that will be discovered by developers in an iterative process. To manage such complexity, advanced verification techniques for continually matching the intended model to the implemented model are necessary. Therefore, the main goal of this research work is to design a useful …

Tuning, Avo, And Flat-Spot Effects In A Seismic Analysis Of North Sea Block F3, Qiang Guo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Reflection seismic data from the F3 block in the Dutch North Sea exhibits many large-amplitude reflections at shallow horizons, typically categorized as “brightspots ” (Schroot and Schuttenhelm, 2003), mainly because of their bright appearance. In most cases, these bright reflections show a significant “flatness” contrasting with local structural trends.

While flatspots are often easily identified in thick reservoirs, we have often occasionally observed apparent flatspot tuning effects at fluid contacts near reservoir edges and in thin reservoir beds, while only poorly understanding them. We conclude that many of the shallow large-amplitude reflections in block F3 are dominated by flatspots, and …

Automatic Labeling Of Rss Articles Using Online Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Zhe Lu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The amount of information contained within the Internet has exploded in recent decades. As more and more news, blogs, and many other kinds of articles that are published on the Internet, categorization of articles and documents are increasingly desired. Among the approaches to categorize articles, labeling is one of the most common method; it provides a relatively intuitive and effective way to separate articles into different categories. However, manual labeling is limited by its efficiency, even thought the labels selected manually have relatively high quality. This report explores the topic modeling approach of Online Latent Dirichlet Allocation (Online-LDA). Additionally, a …

Maximal Arcs, Above And Beyond, Diego Domenzain-Gonzale

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This report explores combinatorial structures in Finite Geometries by giving known constructions of maximal arcs; using maximal arcs to construct two-weight codes, partial geometries, strongly regular graphs and LDPC codes; a review on how to generalize maximal arcs to higher dimensions through Perp-Systems; and an effort in finding constructions of new Perp-Systems.

Incorporating Stimulating Quick-Write Prompts Within A Secondary Science Classroom: A Case Study In Lesotho, Eduardo J. Cabret

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The use of intriguing open-ended quick-write prompts within the Basotho science classroom could potentially provide a way for secondary teachers in Lesotho to have a time-efficient alternative to stimulate student thinking and increase critical thinking or application of scientific principles. Writing can be used as a powerful means to improve the achievement of students across many subject areas, including the sciences (Moore, 1993; Rivard, 1994; Rillero, Zambo, Cleland, and Ryan, 1996; Greenstein, 2013). This study focuses on the use of a non-traditional nor extensively studied writing method that could potentially support learning in science.

A quasi-experimental research design, with a …

Application Of An Imputation Method For Geospatial Inventory Of Forest Structural Attributes Across Multiple Spatial Scales In The Lake States, U.S.A., Ram K. Deo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Credible spatial information characterizing the structure and site quality of forests is critical to sustainable forest management and planning, especially given the increasing demands and threats to forest products and services. Forest managers and planners are required to evaluate forest conditions over a broad range of scales, contingent on operational or reporting requirements. Traditionally, forest inventory estimates are generated via a design-based approach that involves generalizing sample plot measurements to characterize an unknown population across a larger area of interest. However, field plot measurements are costly and as a consequence spatial coverage is limited. Remote sensing technologies have shown remarkable …

A Phenomenology Of Mimetic Learning And Multimodal Cognition: Integrating Experiential Knowledge Into Programs In Rhetoric, Composition, And Technical Communication, Kevin R. Cassell

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

My dissertation emphasizes a cognitive account of multimodality that explicitly integrates experiential knowledge work into the rhetorical pedagogy that informs so many composition and technical communication programs. In these disciplines, multimodality is widely conceived in terms of what Gunther Kress calls “socialsemiotic” modes of communication shaped primarily by culture. In the cognitive and neurolinguistic theories of Vittorio Gallese and George Lakoff, however, multimodality is described as a key characteristic of our bodies’ sensory-motor systems which link perception to action and action to meaning, grounding all communicative acts in knowledge shaped through body-engaged experience. I argue that this “situated” account of …

A Theoretical Study Of Interaction Of Nanoparticles With Biomolecule, Chunhui Liu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Many types of materials at nanoscale are currently being used in everyday life. The production and use of such products based on engineered nanomaterials have raised concerns of the possible risks and hazards associated with these nanomaterials. In order to evaluate and gain a better understanding of their effects on living organisms, we have performed first-principles quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. Specifically, we will investigate the interaction of nanomaterials including semiconducting quantum dots and metallic nanoparticles with various biological molecules, such as dopamine, DNA nucleobases and lipid membranes.

Firstly, interactions of semiconducting CdSe/CdS quantum dots (QDs) with the …

Fault Morphology Within The Southern Kenyan Portion Of The East African Rift Valley, Justin B. Wargelin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Faults form quickly, geologically speaking, with sharp, crisp step-like profiles. Logic dictates that erosion wears away this "sharpness" or angularity creating more rounded features. As erosion occurs, debris accumulates at the base of the scarp slope. The stable end point of this process is when the scarp slope approaches an ideal sigmoid shape.

This theory of fault end process, in combination with a new method developed in this report for fault profile delineation, has the potential to enable observation and categorization of fault profiles over large, diverse swaths of fault formation-- in remote areas such as the Southern Kenyan Rift …

High Performance, Low Cost Subspace Decomposition And Polynomial Rooting For Real Time Direction Of Arrival Estimation: Analysis And Implementation, Mrudula V. Athi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This thesis develops high performance real-time signal processing modules for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for localization systems. It proposes highly parallel algorithms for performing subspace decomposition and polynomial rooting, which are otherwise traditionally implemented using sequential algorithms. The proposed algorithms address the emerging need for real-time localization for a wide range of applications. As the antenna array size increases, the complexity of signal processing algorithms increases, making it increasingly difficult to satisfy the real-time constraints. This thesis addresses real-time implementation by proposing parallel algorithms, that maintain considerable improvement over traditional algorithms, especially for systems with larger number of antenna …

Life Cycle Assessments (Lcas) Of Pyrolysis-Based Gasoline And Diesel From Different Regional Feedstocks: Corn Stover, Switchgrass, Sugar Cane Bagasse, Waste Wood, Guinea Grass, Algae, And Albizia, Matthew J. Mihalek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Renewable hydrocarbon biofuels are being investigated as possible alternatives to conventional liquid transportation fossil fuels like gasoline, kerosene (aviation fuel), and diesel. A diverse range of biomass feedstocks such as corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, switchgrass, waste wood, and algae, are being evaluated as candidates for pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading to produce drop-in hydrocarbon fuels. This research has developed preliminary life cycle assessments (LCA) for each feedstock-specific pathway and compared the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the hydrocarbon biofuels to current fossil fuels. As a comprehensive study, this analysis attempts to account for all of the GHG emissions associated with each …

Proof Of Concept Prototype For A Railroad Pedestrian Warning System Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Puneeth Ramesh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Wireless sensor network is an emerging research topic due to its vast and ever-growing applications. Wireless sensor networks are made up of small nodes whose main goal is to monitor, compute and transmit data. The nodes are basically made up of low powered microcontrollers, wireless transceiver chips, sensors to monitor their environment and a power source. The applications of wireless sensor networks range from basic household applications, such as health monitoring, appliance control and security to military application, such as intruder detection.

The wide spread application of wireless sensor networks has brought to light many research issues such as battery …

Measuring Head Impact Contact Pressure In Collegiate Football Games To Correlate Head Kinematics To Brain Kinetics Elucidating Brain Injury Dynamics, Chandrika S. Abhang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Does a brain store thoughts and memories the way a computer saves its files? How can a single hit or a fall erase all those memories? Brain Mapping and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have become widely researched fields today. Many researchers have been studying TBIs caused to adult American football players however youth athletes have been rarely considered for these studies, contradicting to the fact that American football enrolls highest number of collegiate and high-school children than adults. This research is an attempt to contribute to the field of youth TBIs.

Earlier studies have related head kinematics (linear and angular …

From Mill Gates To Magic City: U.S. Steel And Welfare Capitalism In Gary, Indiana, 1906-1930, Carol D. Griskavich

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Gary, Indiana is a city with indelible ties to industrial paternalism. Founded in 1906 by United States Steel Corporation to house workers of the trust’s showpiece mill, the emergence of this model company town was both the culmination of lessons learned from its predecessors’ mistakes and innovative corporate planning. U.S. Steel’s Progressive Era adaptation of welfare capitalism characterized the young city through a combination of direct community involvement and laissez-faire social control. This thesis examines the reactionary implementation of paternalist policies in Gary between 1906 and 1930 through the purviews of three elements under corporate influence: housing, education, and social …