Digital Commons Network^™

Heat Absorption Analysis By Falling Particles At High Temperatures For Concentrating Solar Power Systems, Arturo Sepulveda Fernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High temperature Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) for the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology can provide a large and relatively cheaper storage option, as opposed to limited and expensive electrical battery storage with PV technology, and hence, it has potential to maintain a constant production when no sunlight is available. Research of material like aluminum, silicon, graphite could be potential candidates to work as thermal energy storage. Currently, nitrate and chloride molten salts are widely used as the TES medium for a CSP plant. However, molten salt, especially chlorides, must be handled carefully at high temperature …

The New Dynamics Of El Paso's Post Industrial Development: An Analysis Of The El Paso Chihuahua's Ballpark Controversy, Alan Matthew Serna

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis has sought to highlight a controversial event that occurred in El Paso, Texas when a wealthy group of local business interests, entered into a public/ private agreement with the City of El Paso to bring Triple-A baseball to the city. In doing so, the partnership drew large amounts opposition to their plan, when it was revealed that the city hall building would be demolished to make way for a new stadium, and that the issue would not be put to a vote. After analyzing all of the behaviors utilized by both opponents and proponents of the ballpark during …

Using The Wrf Model To Simulate The Playa Breeze Over Dugway Proving Ground, Daniela Maria Spade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this model and observation based study is to investigate the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting Model's (WRF-ARW, although WRF from hereout) ability to simulate the three-dimensional structure of playa breezes and drainage flows occurring in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah using sub-km nesting in addition to improved land use and terrain datasets (as compared to the default datasets provided with WRF), in addition to studying the diurnal cycle and interactions between the playa breeze and drainage flows. A playa breeze is a thermally forced air circulation system that develops near the edge of playas, which have properties …

The Effects Of Task Demands And Word Frequency On Language Source Encoding, Elva Natalia Strobach Oronoz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Source memory effects have been relatively unexplored in bilingual memory. Bilinguals have to perform certain source encoding operations to successfully determine the appropriate language from context. These operations have not been examined from a long-term memory perspective, and are not incorporated into models of source monitoring. Further, language source information is not incorporated into the major models of bilingual language processing. Five experiments examined bilingualsâ?? language source monitoring for low- and high-frequency words in English and Spanish. Each experiment placed different processing demands on participants. In Experiment 1, participants studied a mixed-language word list, then were subsequently tested for language …

Contributions To The Solution Of Large Nonlinear Systems Via Model-Order Reduction And Interval Constraint Solving Techniques, Leobardo Valera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Many engineering problems boil down to solving partial differential equations (PDEs) that describe real-life phenomena. Nevertheless, efficiently and reliably solving such problems constitutes a major challenge in computational sciences and in engineering in general.

PDE-based systems can reach sizes so large after they are discretized. The large size in these problems generate several issues, among them we can mention: large space of storing, computing time, and the most important, lost of accuracy. A popular approach to solving such problems is assume that the PDE's solution is in a subspace, and the solution is sought there. This assumption and later searching …

The Impact Of Accented English On Speech Comprehension, Benigno Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

In the context of shifting demographics in the United States and with an increasing multicultural workforce, the verbal exchange of information is vital especially between health care providers and patients. Although English is the official language in the United States, many individuals from different national origins speak English with some degree of accent. Before we can address health care provider/patient communication, it is necessary to investigate the potential impact of accented English on speech comprehension and its implications on basic communicative interactions. The verbal exchange of information between health care providers and patients is important in diagnostics, treatment, patient …

Effective Number Of Parties And Mass Political Behavior In Europe, Jakub Pawel Zajakala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Participation is perhaps the most essential component of democracy, as its humane facet, people, is indispensable for it to occur. However, some aspects of this phenomenon have been disregarded in the existing literature. A discernible decrease in the quality and quantity of democratic participation is deemed to endanger the representative capacity of democracy, and consequently, stability of parliamentary and presidential regimes. Using Prais-Winsten regression, the condition of democratic institutions, with an emphasis on the number of parties, is examined by looking at all the European democracies between 1946 and 2014. This Thesis posits that the number of effective actors on …

A Heterogeneous Multiscale Method For Poroelasticity, Paul M. Delgado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this Thesis, we develop and analyze a heterogeneous multiscale model for coupled fluid flow and solid deformation in porous media based on operator splitting and finite volume method. The splitting method results in two elliptic multiscale PDE's in the form of a reaction diffusion equation and a linear elasticity equation. We extend our previous multiscale method from 1D to higher dimensions and develop new approaches for the inclusion of mixed boundary conditions and source terms. We derive an error estimate for our multiscale method and analyze the stability of our splitting method. We also test the effectiveness of our …

Modeling Of The Response Of A Memcapacitor For An Impulse, Step, Ramp, And Sinusiodal Inputs, Ghassan Khalil Kachmar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, is a technology of very small scale devices. The dimensions of MEMS can vary from below one micron to several millimeters. MEMS have some mechanical functionalities such as the moving plate of a parallel plate capacitor (memcapacitor). MEMS researchers and developers have demonstrated an extremely large number of microsensors for almost every possible sensing modality including temperature, pressure, inertial forces, and chemical species. The equation of motion of the moving plate of a memcapacitor is governed by a non-linear differential equation with no known exact solution. Most research into determining the theoretical response of a memcapacitor …

The Economic Worth Of Cloud Computing Adoption: A Financial Analysis, Aurelia Nicholas-Donald

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Using resource based view theory and efficient market hypotheses as a basis, this study examined the impact of cloud computing adoption on the market value of the firm using an event study perspective and firm performance perspective. The study's population was chosen based on their participation on a US stock exchange. Using a sample of 139 cloud computing adoption

announcements, I found that the announcement of cloud computing adoption is associated with negative abnormal market returns however the effect is not statistically significant. The trading volume showed a significant increase but this increase was not statistically significant. The risk, â, …

Low Power Design Techniques For Data Acquisition, Praveen Kumar Palakurthi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Semiconductor technology advancement continues to lead to smaller device geometries. Digital circuits have benefited from the technology scaling whereas analog circuits often suffer in terms of performance and noise immunity. As functionality continues to be integrated onto systems-on-chips, analog circuits consume increasingly more power than digital circuits and the objective of this Dissertation is to explore low power techniques in the context of both digital and analog circuits residing on the same silicon real estate.

As natural signals are in analog form, a necessity exists to convert these into digital form and then back again in order to exploit the …

The Effects Of Baby Sign Training On Child Development, Bethany Iris Urquidi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Baby sign has gained the attention of many researchers and parents. Relatively little is known about the use of baby sign and the impact it has on the development of children. As the use of baby sign increases in popularity, research studies have had limited and inconsistent results regarding its influence. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of baby sign training on the overall development of normally hearing children while improving on the limitations of current studies (between group study). Methods: Participants in the study included 22 children, ages 6 months to 2 years; …

Progress On A Compact Accelerator Design For A Compton Light Source, K. Deitrick, J. R. Delayen, B.R.P. Gamage, Geoffrey A. Krafft, T. Satogata

Physics Faculty Publications

A compact Compton light source using an electron linear accelerator is in design at the Center for Accelerator Science at Old Dominion University and Jefferson Lab. We report on the current design, including beam properties through the entire system based on a full end-to-end simulation, compare current specifications to design goals, and target areas for improvement.

Precision Measurements Of Aⁿ1 In The Deep Inelastic Regime, D. S. Parno, D. Flay, M. Posik, M. Canan, C. Hyde, The Jefferson Lab Hall A Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

We have performed precision measurements of the double-spin virtual-photon asymmetry A₁ on the neutron in the deep inelastic scattering regime, using an open-geometry, large-acceptance spectrometer and a longitudinally and transversely polarized ³He target. Our data cover a wide kinematic range 0.277 <= x <= 0.548 at an average Q² value of 3.078(GeV/c)², doubling the available high-precision neutron data in this xrange. We have combined our results with world data on proton targets to make a leading-order extraction of the ratio of polarized-to-unpolarized parton distribution functions for up quarks and for down quarks in the same kinematic range. Our data are consistent with …

Spectroscopy Of Li-9 (Lambda) By Electroproduction, G. M. Urciuoli, D. Hayes, C. E. Hyde, H. F. Ibrahim, P.E. Ulmer, Jefferson Lab Hall A Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

Background: In the absence of accurate data on the free two-body hyperon-nucleon interaction, the spectra of hypernuclei provides information on the details of the effective hyperon-nucleon interaction.

Purpose: To obtain a high-resolution binding-energy spectrum for the ⁹Be(e, e' K⁺)⁹_ΛLi reaction.

Method: Electroproduction of the hypernucleus ⁹_ΛLi has been studied for the first time with sub-MeV energy resolution in Hall A at Jefferson Lab on a ⁹Be target. In order to increase the counting rate and to provide unambiguous kaon identification, two superconducting septum magnets and a ring imaging Cherenkov detector were …

Evaluation Of Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Mobility Using Advanced Biomechanical Methods, Brooke A. Slavens, Alyssa J. Schnorenberg, Christine M. Aurit, Adam Graf, Joseph J. Krzak, Kathryn Reiners, Lawrence C. Vogel, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

There is minimal research of upper extremity joint dynamics during pediatric wheelchair mobility despite the large number of children using manual wheelchairs. Special concern arises with the pediatric population, particularly in regard to the longer duration of wheelchair use, joint integrity, participation and community integration, and transitional care into adulthood. This study seeks to provide evaluation methods for characterizing the biomechanics of wheelchair use by children with spinal cord injury (SCI). Twelve subjects with SCI underwent motion analysis while they propelled their wheelchair at a self-selected speed and propulsion pattern. Upper extremity joint kinematics, forces, and moments were computed using …

Hollywood Deals: Soft Contracts For Hard Markets, Jonathan M. Barnett

Duke Law Journal

Hollywood film projects involving significant capital investments regularly proceed on the basis of unsigned "deal memos" and draft agreements with uncertain legal enforceability. These "soft contracts" constitute a hybrid instrument adapted to the transactional hazards of an environment in which neither formal contract nor reputation effects can adequately specify and enforce parties' commitments at any reasonable cost. Uncertainly enforceable contracts embed an implicit termination-and-renegotiation option that provides flexibility to respond to changed circumstances while maintaining a threat of legal liability that provides some transactional security. Evidence collected from litigation records, trade-press coverage, and field interviews shows that parties select "softer" …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Laboratories For Inequality: State Experimentation And Educational Access For English-Language Learners, Matthew P. O'Sullivan

Duke Law Journal

Given increased state hostility to minority-language use and states' ever-changing, though at times inadequate, methods of accommodating English-language learners, federal intervention is necessary to protect vulnerable linguistic minorities. But, fueled by the Supreme Court and Congress since the early 2000s, the federal government has increasingly accorded greater deference to state legislatures and local school districts in the area of English-language learner (ELL) education. This growing acceptance of "deference not deserved" ignores evidence of state failure in education of ELLs and irresponsible state experimentation with the rights of students with limited English proficiency. It also marks a decided departure from historical …

Territorial Annexation As A “Great Power”, Daniel Rice

Duke Law Journal

The Roberts Court has recently begun reviving a long-latent structural constitutional principle—that some unenumerated powers are too important to be inferred through the Necessary and Proper Clause. Under this abstractly sensible theory, some powers are too "great" to have been conferred by implication alone. This structural logic seems poised to command majority holdings in the Supreme Court. But it is largely unclear what results so undertheorized a concept might dictate. Now is the time to survey the domain of "great powers" in service of developing an appropriately modest and judicially enforceable great-powers doctrine.

This Note argues that a power to …

Rumination: Cognitive Consequences Of Training To Inhibit The Negative, Shimrit Daches, Nilly Mor, Paula T. Hertel

Psychology Faculty Research

Background and Objectives: To explore cognitive factors in ruminative thinking, we assessed the effect of a single-session of inhibition training on subsequent biases in attention and interpretation.

Methods: We randomly assigned participants to either inhibit or attend to negative stimuli. Inhibition was assessed by using assessment trials embedded throughout the training, and interpretation bias was assessed following the training.

Results: Trait rumination moderated training effects on both measures. Low ruminators in the inhibition-training condition maintained their level of inhibition of negative stimuli, but those in the attention-training condition showed a non-significant trend for decreased inhibition. Participants also …

When People Evaluate Others, The Level Of Others’ Narcissism Matters Less To Evaluators Who Are Narcissistic, Harry M. Wallace, Andrew Grotzinger, Tyler J. Howard, Nousha Parkhill

Psychology Faculty Research

Prior studies have documented how people in general respond to others’ narcissism, but existing research offers few clues about whether and how evaluator narcissism influences judgments of traits associated with narcissism. Participants completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and then evaluated hypothetical target persons. Target narcissism was conveyed through a single trait description (Study 1), a list of traits (Study 2), or Facebook content (Study 3). Narcissistic qualities were reliably viewed unfavorably, but narcissistic participants were comparatively less bothered by target narcissism and less positive in their judgments of targets without narcissistic qualities. In each study, symptoms of the presence or …

Cross Sections For The Exclusive Photon Electroproduction On The Proton And Generalized Parton Distributions, H. S. Jo, D. Adikaram, M. J. Amaryan, L. El Fassi, N. Guler, A. Klein, S E. Kuhn, Y. Prok, L. B. Weinstein, J. Zhang, Z. W. Zhao

Physics Faculty Publications

Unpolarized and beam-polarized fourfold cross sections (d⁴σ/dQ²dx_Bdtdϕ) for the ep → e'p'γ reaction were measured using the CLAS detector and the 5.75-GeV polarized electron beam of the Jefferson Lab accelerator, for 110 (Q²;x_B;t) bins over the widest phase space ever explored in the valence-quark region. Several models of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) describe the data well at most of our kinematics. This increases our confidence that we understand the GPD H, expected to be the dominant contributor to these observables. Through a leading-twist …

Towards A Resolution Of The Proton Form Factor Problem: New Electron And Positron Scattering Data, Clas Collaboration, D. Adikaram, L. B. Weinstein, R. P. Bennett, K. P, Adhikari, M. J. Amaryan, S. Careccia, L. El Fassi, C. E. Hyde, A. Klein, S E. Kuhn, M. Mayer, Z. W. Zhao

Physics Faculty Publications

There is a significant discrepancy between the values of the proton electric form factor, G^p_E, extracted using unpolarized and polarized electron scattering. Calculations predict that small two-photon exchange (TPE) contributions can significantly affect the extraction of G^p_Efrom the unpolarized electron-proton cross sections. We determined the TPE contribution by measuring the ratio of positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross sections using a simultaneous, tertiary electron-positron beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target and detecting the scattered particles in the Jefferson Lab CLAS detector. This novel technique allowed us to cover a wide range in virtual …

A Facility For Magnetic Field Penetration Measurements On Multilayer S-I-S Structures, Oleg B. Malyshev, Lewis Gurran, Shrikant Pattalwar, Ninad Pattalwar, Keith D. Dumbell, Reza Valizadeh, Alex Gurevich

Physics Faculty Publications

Superconducting RF cavities made of bulk Nb has reached a breakdown field of about 200 mT which is close to the superheating field for Nb. As it was theoretically shown a multilayer coating can be used to enhance the breakdown field of SRF cavities. The simple example is a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (S-I-S), for example bulk niobium (S) coated with a thin film of insulator (I) followed by a thin layer of a superconductor (S) which could be a dirty niobium. To verify such an enhancement in a presence of a DC magnetic field at 4.2 K a simple experimental facility was …

Possibilities For Advanced Practice Nursing Through The Eyes Of Physicians: A Descriptive Qualitative Study In Enugu State, Nigeria, Gabriella Tayo Adjapon-Yamoah

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Nigeria’s critical health care needs and shortage of physicians have led to the independent practice of experienced registered nurses (RNs). These nurses practice without having studied a curriculum specifically geared toward this advanced level, which is not optimal for health outcomes. However, given that Nigeria has not adopted an official advanced practice nurse (APN) role, such training is currently not available.

APNs could provide a skilled, competent choice for Nigerian primary care, but the views of stakeholders like Nigerian physicians may impact official adoption of this role. This paper describes a sample of 12 physicians’ knowledge and attitudes toward the …

Evolution Of A 90-Day Model Of Care For Bundled Episodic Payments For Congestive Heart Failure In Home Care, April Feld

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

CMMI’s Episode Based Payment initiatives propose a large opportunity to reduce cost from waste and variation and stand to align hospitals, physicians and post acute providers in the redesign of care that achieves savings and improve quality. Community-based organizations are at the forefront of this care redesign through innovative models of care aimed at bridging gaps in care coordination and reducing hospital readmissions. This article describes a community-based provider’s approach to participation under the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative and a 90-day model of care for Congestive Heart Failure in home care.

Reducing Barriers In The Adult Ambulatory Surgery Setting By Implementing Lean Methods, Leonid Gorelik

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Process impediments and patient flow interruptions in the preoperative setting affect patient care quality and increase organizational costs through inefficient use of operating room time. Lean methodology was successfully applied to improve efficiencies, patient privacy, and quality of care in a hospital-based high-volume adult ambulatory surgery unit. Process improvement strategies were identified and carried out during a rapid process improvement workshop (RPIW), and significant process changes were made to the preoperative work areas.

Validation Of An Emr Prioritization Tool For Diabetes Population Health, Caroline Ruth Piselli

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

The goal of evidence based population health aligned with financial outcomes is to effectively and efficiently manage a defined population to promote wellness, prevent disease progression and manage chronic conditions and acute events. A prerequisite to this model, which is in its early stages of evolution, is an electronic trace of patient information across continuum of care (COC) providers spanning hospitals, physician offices, home health programs, skilled nursing facilities, retailers, payers and new entrants. The information captured along the information trace can be mined from a data repository to analyze cohort specific evidence based care models. A newly formed, large …

Task Shifting To Nursing For A Sustainable Staffing Model Of School-Based Health Center In Under-Resourced Areas, Laura Lee Setliff Whittaker

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Background: There is a well-established link between health and education (Bundy and Guyatt 1996). An efficient and cost effective way to increase access to care is through school-based services.

Methods: The purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable staffing model of a school-based health center in a country with limited health care resources. Two specific steps towards developing such a model are: (1) to critically review and analyze the evidence in the literature supporting an expanded nursing care practice model for the school-based health center, and (2) to merge the literature review findings with participatory field notes taken …