Digital Commons Network^™

2016-12-09, Board Of Regents, Murray State University

Board of Regents Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

The Murray Ledger And Times, December 9, 2016, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Three Approaches For Enhancing Teaching Knowledge Of Dyslexia, Kayla Steltenkamp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Teachers are the foundational component of the education system. Annually, they are required to engage in professional development opportunities to expand their knowledge. Since 1985 there has been a profusion of legislative attention to the reading disability dyslexia. Included in legislation is the mandate for teacher training, but there is a lack of research on effective professional development to increase teacher knowledge of dyslexia. This study compared three models of professional development to assess their efficacy in increasing declarative knowledge of dyslexia for elementary general education teachers. The results indicated that the use of simulation training alone was less effective …

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Hybrid Fuel With Radially Azimuthally Partitioned Paraffin Cells, Joseph F. St Columbia

Theses and Dissertations

Additively manufactured fuels are becoming more common in the area of hybrid rockets due to the enhanced possibilities provided by computer aided design and improved additive material technology. When integrated with a highly compliant yet energetic paraffin wax, the additive manufactured material can help support the paraffin wax during the burn, and improve overall performance. This study investigates thin-walled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene structures that separate paraffin wax into azimuthally partitioned cells. The fuel grains are tested using a vertical test stand, custom nitrous system, and data acquisition system. The computer program Chemical Equilibrium with Applications is used to compare common …

Optimal Supply Chain Configuration For The Additive Manufacturing Of Biomedical Implants, Adindu Ahurueze Emelogu

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study two important problems related to additive manufacturing (AM). In the first part, we investigate the economic feasibility of using AM to fabricate biomedical implants at the sites of hospitals AM versus traditional manufacturing (TM). We propose a cost model to quantify the supply-chain level costs associated with the production of biomedical implants using AM technology, and formulate the problem as a two-stage stochastic programming model, which determines the number of AM facilities to be established and volume of product flow between manufacturing facilities and hospitals at a minimum cost. We use the sample average approximation …

Gaskinetic Modeling On Dilute Gaseous Plume Impingement Flows, Chunpei Cai

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This paper briefly reviews recent work on gaseous plume impingement flows. As the major part of this paper, also included are new comprehensive studies on high-speed, collisionless, gaseous, circular jet impinging on a three-dimensional, inclined, diffuse or specular flat plate. Gaskinetic theories are adopted to study the problems, and several crucial geometry-location and velocity-direction relations are used. The final complete results include impingement surface properties such as pressure, shear stress, and heat flux. From these surface properties, averaged coefficients of pressure, friction, heat flux, moment over the entire flat plate, and the distance from the moment center to the flat …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Transition Metal Oxide Catalysts For Environmental And Energy Storage Applications, Wenqiao Song

Doctoral Dissertations

Nowadays, environmental concerns and the global energy crisis have become two of our greatest challenges. The main purpose of this dissertation research is to design highly active mesoporous materials that can efficiently catalyze environmental and energy related reactions. Surface properties can be easily tuned by thermal treatment and cation doping, resulting in improved catalytic activities. Synthesis and characterization of the materials, catalytic activities for carbon monoxide oxidation, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, and mechanistic studies are covered in this thesis.

The first part describes the synthesis of mesoporous cobalt oxides through an inverse micelle route for low temperature carbon …

Potential Of Unmanned Aerial Systems Imagery Relative To Landsat 8 Imagery In The Lower Pearl River Basin, John William Van Horn

Theses and Dissertations

Hurricane Isaac’s landfall on the coast of Louisiana spawned a hydrological research project between Mississippi State University (MSU), the Northern Gulf Institute (NGI), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Lower Pearl River Basin (LPRB). Unmanned aerial systems data collection missions were scheduled every two months in the LPRB. This research provides a comparison between Landsat-8 imagery and corresponding UAS imagery with regards to the four remote sensing resolutions: spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal. Near-infrared (NIR) imagery from each platform was compared by land-water masks and statistical comparisons. A classification method known as natural breaks with Jenks …

Environmental Management System Optimization Focusing On The Waste Environmental Media In The Chemical Industry, Mesha Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The first part of this project focused on evaluating aspects of the environmental management practices of Texas chemical industries, particularly waste generation and management of the data related to these processes. The waste generation data included Texas notifications required to track wastes. The next phase consisted of characterizing industrial waste disposal methods, waste container management, and transportation including an overview of required documentation for each activity. This led to identification of issues encountered from inefficient recordkeeping, ineffective internal communication, or inadequate environmental management systems. The result of an ineffective hazardous waste data management program can be fines, damage to the …

Geotechnical Properties Of Very High Moisture Content Dredged Soil Lightly Cemented With Ordinary Or Portland-Limestone Cement, Mohammed Bazne

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable geotechnics warrants exploring beneficial reuse of the large volume of fine grained soils which are produced annually in various forms such as dredged soils and mine tailings. Often these soils are at very high moisture content, and are therefore referred to herein as VHMS for Very High Moisture Soils. These soils exhibit poor engineering properties such as low shear strength and high compressibility. This dissertation presents results from experiments conducted primarily to assess geotechnical properties over time of lightly cemented VHMS (referred to as LC-VHMS and defined as 5% or less cement by slurry mass). The main objectives of …

Holding Performance Measures Accountablefor Social Equity: A Polycentric Approach To Evaluating American Higher Education, Tracey L Norden Baham

Theses and Dissertations

America’s founding fathers identified education as the key for sustaining democracy and economic growth. When determining how the new country would organize education, they decided not to centralize higher education institutions under a national university, thus creating a federalist system unique from the European model. This format allowed for diversity in educational missions, which many theorists suggest allows the country to serve its heterogeneous population. Many institutions that focus on social equity do not perform as high as institutions with selective admissions criteria. As governments begin enforcing accountability policies that encourage performance, institutions with social equity missions may be adversely …

Adaptive Environments For Enabling Senior Citizens: An Holistic Assessment Tool For Housing Design And Iot-Based Technologies, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry, Niccolò Casiddu

Conference papers

The population of older adults will continuously increase over the coming decades. As they get older, people will require assistance and regular monitoring, with higher costs for welfare system and families. Two vital aspects of a healthy lifestyle, are domestic autonomy and maintenance of relationships within the neighborhood. This leads to an interesting research issue: “Could houses and appliances have the potential to improve autonomy and quality of life of citizens? Which methods and tools could enhance wellbeing and healthy conditions? The house has the potential to be a safe, adaptive environment, integrated with technologies for life support. This work …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Georgia Southern University donfers 1,700 graduate and undergraduate degrees during Fall 2016 Commencement
• Local school applies for STEM grant: University FabLab inspired need
• Third time's the Charm: Triple Eagle walks in December

A Study Of Wheat Flour Tortillas, Combustion, Selected Gaseous And Nuclear Surrogate Samples Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (Libs), Charles Tarshi Ghany

Theses and Dissertations

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an efficient tool for identification of elemental composition and characterization of materials. The concept of this technique is to focus a laser pulse of sufficiently high power on to a sample to create a plasma plume of atoms, ions, and molecules. The measurement of the resulting optical emission from these species provides the basis of the spectral analysis. Spectroscopic analysis of the plasma generated by Nd:YAG laser irradiation of wheat flour tortillas was carried out. A careful selection of spectral lines of Ca, Na and K which do not suffer from spectral interference was made. …

America Reads-Mississippi/Americorps Reading Program's Impact On Mississippi Community College Attendance, Charity Yarbrough

Theses and Dissertations

Since the inception of AmeriCorps programs, reading, education and civic engagement has been emphasized in a large portion of the United States. Members enlist to serve schools and communities for 1 year, possibly 2. Upon completion of a member’s year(s) of service an education award is given which can be used to attend a community college, university or repay student loans. This study showed how AmeriCorps/America Reads programs partnered with community colleges and universities which recruited members to volunteer at school sites and community centers tutoring students in classrooms to improve reading, grades, engage in community service activities, use education …

An Investigation Of The Formability Of Zek100 Mg Alloy Using Pneumatic Bulge Formability Testing Methods, John Briou Bourgeois

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates the formability of ZEK100, a rare-earth containing magnesium alloy, using an in-house developed technique of pneumatic bulge forming. The thesis pursued innovation of sample preparation, testing, and experimental data analysis in order to create several forming limit diagrams (FLDs) of critical importance for determining a methodology for Mg formability. Samples were bulged through elliptical and circular dies at room temperature, 150 C, and 250 C, in two orientations, rolling direction (RD) and transverse direction (TD), in order to determine temperature dependence and orientation characteristics. The current research concluded ZEK100 is not a suitable alloy for room …

The Influence Of A Graphing Calculator Program Policy Change On The Algebra I High Stakes Assessment In Mississippi, Elizabeth Anderson Repsher

Theses and Dissertations

Graphing calculator programs have been used on high-stakes tests and teacher-created assessments at the secondary and college level for many years. These programs- are even used on college-placement tests such as the ACT. Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) made the decision to no longer allow the use of graphing calculator applications and/or programs on the Subject Area Testing Program (SATP2) for Algebra I. Currently, limited research exists to address the influence of graphing calculator program use on high-stakes assessments. The programming capabilities of graphing calculators should not be ignored. Because of the 2011-2012 …

Effect Of Small Steps On The Receptivity And Transition In High Speed Boundary Layer, Sofia Yassir

Theses and Dissertations

The research on transition in supersonic and hypersonic boundary layers has been reinvigorated in the last decades because of the increased interest in high-speed flight. The receptivity to environmental disturbances of high-speed boundary layers developing over flat plates or curved surfaces is a very important problem because the transition process is directly impacted by it. The main objective of the research is to determine the effect of small steps on laminar high-speed boundary-layers that are excited by freestream disturbances in the form of vorticity and acoustic waves. Both supesonic and hypersonic regimes are analyzed using a high-order compressible Navier-Stokes numerical …

Effects Of Fabric Cover Elastic Property On Cushion Stiffness In Upholstered Furniture Seating, Xiaoling Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated effects of fabric and foam elastic properties on the behavior of load-deformation properties of upholstered furniture cushions. A 3×3×3×2 experiment design experiment was designed to study effects of fabric cover type (less stiff, stiff, and stiffer), foam thicknesses (5 inch, 5.5 inch, and 6 inch), human weight level (105 lb., 140 lb., and 190 lb.), and seat foundation type (panel and spring) on cushion stiffness. Experimental results indicated that the increase of cushion stiffness was significant as fabric cover stiffness, foam thickness, and human weight level increased. There was no significant difference between two types of seat …

A Detailed Look Into The Aerodynamic Forces Due To The Drag-Reducing Aerospike, Philip Douglas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to simulate previous wind tunnel experiments on the drag-reducing aerospike in order to help validate the accuracy of CFD analysis. Multiple grids were created with the Pointwise grid generation software. The CFD analysis software used was Ansys Fluent, with both planar and axisymmetric cases being tested for the primary rocket in order to compare the differences. The tests with the primary rocket followed how a spike of set length reacted at various speeds. Two additional experiments were duplicated. These helped confirm that the results obtained via Fluent were accurate. One case was a simple transonic spike model, …

Canine Pure Platelet-Rich Plasma For Regenerative Medicine And Platelet Research: Protocol Optimization, Marina Mitie Monobe

Theses and Dissertations

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) can be widely used in veterinary medicine in different areas. Studies using PRP frequently use different methodologies making for difficult comparison. The objective of this study was to evaluate the purity and platelet activation of a PRP protocol. A total of 18 blood samples were drawn from six dogs, collected once per week over a total of three weeks. Blood samples were centrifuged six times at 300g for 5 min. Ultra-pure PRP (OP) was obtained by adding PRP a Optiprep 1.063g/mL density barrier and centrifuged at 350g for 15 min. Mean platelet recovery from whole blood was …

Chronology And Acculturation In The Choctaw Homeland, 1650-1850, Marcus Hayes

Theses and Dissertations

A chronology of Choctaw archaeological assemblages is presented in the form of six seriations. The assemblages come from sites in a contiguous region that includes the North American Coal survey area in Kemper and Lauderdale counties. The results are combined with other archaeological evidence to examine how Choctaw material culture changed. Acculturation began in the mid-18th century, as indicated by small numbers of European gunflints, beads, and glass scrapers found at Choctaw sites. The three divisions of the Choctaw confederacy used different decorations in the 17th and 18th centuries; combing became the main decorative treatment everywhere in the Choctaw homeland …

Conversion Of Industrial Waste And Wastewaters Into Lipids Suitable For Biodiesel Production, Marta Amirsadeghi

Theses and Dissertations

The potential of oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula glutinis for the sustainable production of biodiesel feedstock via fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass in pulp and paper wastewater as a fermentation media was investigated. The overall objective was to increase the levels of lipid feedstock in oleaginous yeast in order to reduce biodiesel production cost. To meet sustainable production of biodiesel, industrial wastewater and waste lignocellulose biomass were used as cultivation media and carbon source, respectively. Pulp and paper wastewater effluent was selected as a source of water and nutrients for the production of microbial lipids due to its environmental pollution as it creates …

Coupled And Uncoupled Earth Pressure Profiles In Unsaturated Soils Under Transient Flow, Syed Gous Andrabi

Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this research is to evaluate the behavior of earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under transient flow. In the first part, an empirical correlation is proposed to obtain the fitting parameters of Brooks and Corey’s soil-water retention model from Fredlund and Xing’s model. The retention models and the proposed equivalency between the models were assessed for 601 soil samples from the unsaturated soils hydraulic database (UNSODA). In the second part, a coupled one-dimensional hydro-mechanical model is introduced and is implemented into Rankine’s earth-pressure model to represent active and passive earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under …

Dimensionality Reduction Of Hyperspectral Imagery Using Random Projections, Vineetha Menon

Theses and Dissertations

Hyperspectral imagery is often associated with high storage and transmission costs. Dimensionality reduction aims to reduce the time and space complexity of hyperspectral imagery by projecting data into a low-dimensional space such that all the important information in the data is preserved. Dimensionality-reduction methods based on transforms are widely used and give a data-dependent representation that is unfortunately costly to compute. Recently, there has been a growing interest in data-independent representations for dimensionality reduction; of particular prominence are random projections which are attractive due to their computational efficiency and simplicity of implementation. This dissertation concentrates on exploring the realm of …

Effect Of Microstructure On The Fatigue Behavior Of Type 304l Stainless Steel Including Mean Strain And Cyclic Rate Effects, Jonathan W. Pegues

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, the effects of stress and strain rate on cyclic deformation, secondary hardening, martensitic phase transformation, crack initiation, and fatigue behavior of type 304L stainless steel are examined. A series of load and strain controlled uniaxial zero and non-zero mean strain fatigue tests were conducted with varying frequencies in order to investigate the effect of loading rate on fatigue behavior. The volume fraction of martensite was quantified for several tests using x-ray diffraction and electron backscatter diffraction. The loading rates were found to have a direct effect on the microstructure and fatigue behavior of the alloy investigated. Adiabatic …

Development Of Oscillating Heat Pipe For Waste Heat Recovery, Govinda Mahajan

Theses and Dissertations

The development and implementation of technologies that improves Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) system efficiency, including unique waste heat recovery methods, are sought while considering financial constraints and benefits. Recent studies have found that through the use of advanced waste heat recovery systems, it is possible to reduce building’s energy consumption by 30%. Oscillating heat pipes (OHP) exists as a serpentine-arranged capillary tube, possesses a desirable aerodynamic form factor, and provides for relatively high heat transfer rates via cyclic evaporation and condensation of an encapsulated working fluid with no internal wicking structure required. In last two decade, it has …

Droplet Impact On Dry, Superhydrophobic Surfaces With Micro-Scale Roughness Elements, Nadine Boufous

Theses and Dissertations

Most aircraft accidents are caused by technical problems or weather-related issues. One cause of weather-related incidents is inlight icing, which can induce negative performance characteristics and endanger the operation of an airplane. Various researchers investigating the problem of inlight icing have proposed ice-phobic coatings as one viable solution. For this purpose, it is critical to study the behavior of a droplet impact on different types of surfaces. As an alternative to physical testing, three-dimensional numerical simulation using computational fluid dynamics offers a promising strategy for evaluating the effects of surface characteristics. Using the volume of fluid method, three simulations of …

Governing The Rurals: Food Security And Governance In The 21st Century, Gina Paola Rico Mendez

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops a theory about the consolidation of state legitimacy given transformations in food security. Food security has moved from a national food maximization effort to the provision of food to households and individuals, regardless of the production source. This definitional change was triggered by urbanization, industrialization of agriculture and liberalization of trade. These dynamics altered the formula for balance and control of a country’s territory; as agricultural output moved into a global context, urban centers became less reliant on its periphery for sustenance and thus governments have fewer incentives to provide governance of any quality to rural areas. …

Impact Of Simulated Corn Earworm Damage On Field Corn Yield And The Influence Of Chlorantraniliprole And Flubendiamide On Fall Armyworm And Agronomic Characteristics Of Field Corn, Bryan Michael Olivi

Theses and Dissertations

The introduction of pyramided Bacillus thuringinesiss (Bt) in field corn, Zea mays L. has helped reduce kernel and foliar damage from caterpillar pests including fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) and corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie). These pests can also be controlled with diamide insecticides. No compensation for manual kernel damage occurred at any section of the ear for Bt or Non-Bt corn. No consistent impacts on corn growth or yield were observed following foliar applications of diamide insecticides at various growth stages. The diamides exhibit longer residual efficacy than other insecticides available for fall armyworm management in field corn. …