Engineering, Biomedical

Objective: The objective of this thesis is to develop atotal mechanical lifting equation based on the laws of physics,from which a Recommended Weight Limit and Load Index may bedeveloped.Background: The NIOSH equation is an empirical equationthat is based on expert opinions from the biomechanical,physiological, and psychophysical fields. Applying the NIOSHlifting equation can take place under ideal or non-idealconditions. Under the ideal conditions the load to be lifted is51 lbs, whereas the non...

Geography

A study of the urban heat island (UHI) was conductedusing air temperature data acquired from in-situ temperatureloggers located along a transect that extends ~70 km southwest tonortheast, primarily covering the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area.The period of record extends from June 25, 2002 to June 24, 2003and data were collected at 15-minute intervals. Near-surface airtemperature data from selected sites is examined with respect tothe annual record, seasonal variations, variations within theurban ...

To control the movement of the cursor, a laser isshined onto the projected screen. The user then moves the laserand the mouse cursor will, in real time, follow it. The basicsystem uses a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) programmed tofilter camera data and select the brightest point. This is sentback to the projector controller (labtop, handhelp, tesktop) andutilizing the custom software produces a relevant X, Y positionof the laser, based on previously obtained information about thelocation ...

Urban and Regional Planning

As development flows from the urban core to suburbanlands, some historic buildings, once the centerpiece ofneighborhood focus and gathering, are left in neglect anddisrepair. The unique floor plans and construction of churchesmake them especially vulnerable to decline when congregationsmove to new locations. Nevertheless, some church buildingsnationwide have been adopted by new owners and converted intoevery conceivable use: restaurant, retail, residential, communitycenter, office building. This...

Music

The Jambalaya That is My Brain is a musical collage ofprerecorded music and speech. The sampled material was selectedfrom a variety of sources including Latin Jazz, American PopularMusic of the R-n-B/Funk persuasion, Bosnian folk singing, movieclips, and spoken poetry. The piece was realized in the Centerfor Computer Music at the College-Conservatory of Music (ccm2) atthe University of Cincinnati. This document is to accompany therecorded piece to explain the aesthetic and technical issues ofthe...

Immunology

In order to generate and monitor effective and specific immune responses against tumors, a clear understanding of relevant tumor antigens and their derivative epitopes recognized by T lymphocytes is warranted. The characterization of tumor antigen epitopes recognized by T lymphocytes has been a major focus of study over the past decade. Both CD8+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes contribute to the immune response against tumors, and the determination of the epitopes they recognize is necessary for their in...

organizational behavior , property-rights , forestry co-management , stakeholder , community

In a world of increasing environmental awareness and activism, is it economically advantageous for a forestry resource firm to be proactive in the integration of community stakeholders desires into the business operations? To what degree, and in what form, does the firm include the local community as a stakeholder? What are the economic consequences to the firm from taking various stances in relationship to the community and the resulting allocation of forest resources to the firm? The objective...

rare event simulation , performance analysis method , large deviation

Methods of efficient Monte-Carlo simulation when rare events are involved have been studied for several decades. Rare events are very important in the context of evaluating high quality computer/communication systems. Meanwhile, the efficient simulation of systems involving rare events poses great challenges.A simulation method is said to be efficient if the number of replicas required to get accurate estimates grows slowly, compared to the rate at which the probability of the rare event approac...

intellectual property , Bayer , Monsanto , farming , Saskatchewan , organic , habermas , social movements , genetic engineering

This research investigates the nature of the social project surrounding the lawsuit between the organic farmers of Saskatchewan, Canada, and Monsanto and Bayer, the two largest biotechnology companies in Canada. The thesis also explores the culture of organic farming in an era of high technology and globalization. An ethnographic approach is employed in order to address this research aim from the perspective of study participants. Based on interview data, I detail the difficulties facing farmers...

friction modeling , load simulator , proportional solenoid valve , fault simulator

Proportional Solenoid Valves (PSV) have been successfully used in the hydraulic industry for many years due to the benefits associated with higher accuracy compared to on/off solenoid valves, and the robustness and cost compared to servo valves. Because the PSV plays an important role in the performance of a hydraulic system, a technique commonly referred to as Condition Monitoring Scheme (CMS) has been used extensively to monitor the progress of faults in the PSV. But before any CMS can be impl...

Psychology

The temporal pattern of laughter between social partners has been shown to vary according to the sex and familiarity of the partners. The present study examines the trajectory of antiphonal laughter (i.e., laughter between social partners that occurs in close temporal proximity) in new friendships. Participants were tested in either same- or mixed-sex dyads, with dyads composed of individuals who either were or were not familiar to each other. Testing occurred in three sessions over the course o...

Psychology

This dissertation describes a series of psychophysical investigations of center-surround interactions in visual motion processing. Relying on a variety of experimental methods, the studies in this dissertation demonstrate that center-surround interactions play an important role in human motion perception. Such interactions are characterized by surround suppression at high contrast and spatial summation at low contract. I propose that these results are a perceptual correlate of center-surround in...

Civil Engineering

In this study, activity allocation is analyzed in two stages, by modeling the activity data of household individuals. In the first stage, activity participation patterns of individuals are examined for both out-of-home maintenance and discretionary activities. The influence of socio demographic, trip related, person, household role, role of constraints, and household related information are investigated in this stage using empirical data from the San Francisco Bay Area Travel Survey.In the secon...

Sociology

SOCIOLOGY<p>CHINESE AMERICAN FEMALE IDENTITY<p>JANELLE LEE WOO<p>Dissertation under the direction of Professor Peggy A. Thoits<p>This study examines the racial-ethnic identity formation of Chinese American women and assesses the utility of existing racial-ethnic identity development models and various social-psychological theories of identity formation. The social-psychological literature emphasizes the broader concepts of social self or so...

This article investigates the determinants of entry and exit in the Austrian manufacturing sector based on 1981 to 1994 data. We study the response of entry, exit and other indicators of firm dynamics to changes in average plant size, size heterogeneity, concentration, incentives and vertical integration. By applying Bayesian simulation methods we estimate random coefficient models and study the symmetry of the determinants of entry and exit. Our empirical analysis shows that entry and exit rate...

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Channel impulse responses collected on the Virginia Tech campus show combinations of specular multipath and diffuse scattering at LMDS frequencies. An algorithm is presented that estimates link performance based on the channel impulse response. Presented and analyzed are representative impulse responses (one is primarily specular in nature and one shows significant diffuse scattering) to show that the proposed algorithm is appropriate for analyzing channels exhibiting either of these characteris...

Architecture

When thinking about architecture, I cannot help but think about my life and the things that have affected my life. How does the environment around us effect the daily decisions we make? How do the experiences throughout our life impact who we are and who we become? The people and surroundings we choose will ultimately decide the type of people we become. When we select our surroundings we are in turn selecting our ideal community. Everyone is trying to achieve community in some sense, from indiv...

Accounting and Information Systems

This dissertation explores three current issues relevant to the accounting and business communities by empirically examining the effect these issues have on the bond credit market. The first study examines the effect earnings predictability has on both the initial bond rating and the initial pricing of the issue. Earnings predictability is measured as (1) the annual earnings surprise (actual minus analyst forecast) and (2) the dispersion of initial analyst forecasts. The results indicate a negat...

Science and Technology Studies

In this dissertation, I analyze online environmental anti-toxics activism. Environmental activist groups have created a presence on the World Wide Web to help empower people to become aware of and struggle against pollution. The sites that I explore (http://www.epa.gov/tri/, http://www.epa.gov/enviro/wme/, http://www.rtknet.org/, and http://www.scorecard.org/) serve as devices of this empowerment and by extension recruit people to the political goals of anti-toxics activism.In my analysis, I foc...

Computer Science

License plate recognition/identification (LPR/I) applies image processing and character recognition technology to identify vehicles by automatically reading their license plates. In the United States, however, each state has its own standard-issue plates, plus several optional styles, which are referred to as special license plates or varieties. There is a clear absence of standardization and multi-colored, complex backgrounds are becoming more frequent in license plates. Commercially available ...

Forestry

Intensively managed forests of the Southern United States are among the most important sources of wood fiber and timber in this country. There is a great deal of concern that disturbances associated with trafficking by heavy machinery might diminish long-term soil-site productivity. However, determining the effect of harvesting disturbance and silvicultural treatments on the long-term productivity of pine plantations is difficult because, in addition to harvesting effects, growth distributions a...

Geosciences

The New River crosses the core of the ancient, tectonically quiescent Appalachian orogen as it follows its course through North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is ideally situated to record the changes in geomorphic process rates that occur in the Appalachians as a response to late Cenozoic climate variations. Active erosion features on resistant bedrock that floors the river at prominent knickpoints demonstrate that the river is currently incising toward base level. However, large pac...

Mathematics

Let K be a field and Q a finite directed multi-graph. In this paper I classify all path algebras KQand admissible orders with the property that all of their finitely generated ideals have finite Groebner bases.

Political Science

This thesis seeks to determine if there is a relationship between a vice president of the United States governing influence and his involvement in a presidential reelection campaign. The period for this thesis will begin with Richard Nixons vice presidency and end with Al Gores. To find a connection I will create factors that will examine both governing influence and reelection campaign involvement.

Biology

The Malacothamnus alliance consists of three genera, Iliamna, Malacothamnus, and Phymosia. The genera are considered taxonomically complex since hybridization freely occurs, polyploidy levels vary, and there is a lack of distinct morphological characters to delineate taxa. Several taxonomic treatments have been prepared for each genus, but relationships within the genera and the relationship of the Malacothamnus alliance to others in the Malvaceae remains unknown. This multifaceted study aimed t...

Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

MOLECULAR MAPPING OF ASOYBEAN MOSAIC VIRUS (SMV)RESISTANCE GENE IN SOYBEAN (Glycine max)Sesha Sai V. KristipatiAbstractSoybean mosaic virus (SMV) is the major virus disease reported all over the world in soybean crop. This disease causes reduction in the yield and quality of soybean crop. Three independent genes Rsv1, Rsv3, and Rsv4, were found to provide host resistance in soybean. Rsv1 confers resistance to all but most virulant strains of SMV. Rsv1 has been mapped to soybean molecular linkage...

Career and Technical Education

iiiAgricultural education has changed its curriculum, its focus, and its mission. Theearly days of agricultural education prepared pupils to enter the workforce by training forspecific jobs. The emphasis in agricultural education has shifted to the integration ofacademics with career and technical education. This paradigm shift is called agriscience.The concept of agriscience is delivered utilizing classroom teaching, supervisedagricultural experiences, and laboratory learning.Facilities are the...

Electrical and Computer Engineering

This dissertation focuses on downlink multi-antenna transmission with packet scheduling in a wireless packet data network. The topic is viewed as a critical system design problem for future high-speed packet networks requiring extremely high spectral efficiency. Our aim is to illustrate the interaction between transmission schemes at the physical layer and scheduling algorithms at the medium access control (MAC) layer from a sum-capacity perspective. Various roles of multiple antennas are studie...

Mechanical Engineering

Lean premixed combustors have been designed to lower NOx and other pollutant levels in land based gas turbines. These combustors are often susceptible to thermo-acoustic instabilities, whichmanifest as pressure and heat release oscillations in the combustor. To be able to predictand control these instabilities, it is required that both the acoustics of the system, anda frequency-resolved response of the combustion process to incoming perturbations be understood.Currently, a system-level approach...

Philosophy

A distinctive feature that separates pragmatism from traditional epistemological positions is its turns to a community of inquirers. The community, as understood by pragmatists, is not merely a collection of individuals, though this is certainly part of the story. Rather, community refers to a much more refined philosophical notion. The community is a framework of rules and standards for proper inference, judgments, and conduct that are determined by inquirers who share membership in a group. In...

Biology

Stream ecosystems are influenced by the surrounding landscape, and agriculture within their catchments has changed many characteristics of streams. Agriculture has been a prominent land use activity in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States for over 500 years. However, recent socioeconomic changes in the region have caused many farmers to abandon agriculture leading to widespread reforestation of historical farmland. I investigated the influence of agriculture on the phy...

Teaching and Learning

This study focused on the University of Wisconsin Stouts (UW Stout) implementation of the Malcolm Baldridge Award (MBNQA) Criteria for Educational Performance Excellence. The study had two objectives: (1) to determine administrator, faculty, and staff/support staff perceptions and compare those perceptions; and, (2) to identify the positive and negative views each of the three groups held regarding the implementation process. The study design was a mixed method approach which used both qualitati...

Computer Science

<p>In recent years, the requirements engineering community has proposed a number of models for the generation of a well-formulated, complete set of requirements. However, these models are often highly abstract or narrowly focused, providing only pieces of structure and parts of guidance to the requirements generation process. Furthermore, many of the models fail to identify methods that can be employed to achieve the activity objectives. As a consequence of these problems, the requ...

Entomology

A study was undertaken to obtain information on farmers knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding pesticide usage and to determine the amount of pesticide in soil and water samples collected at four cotton producing areas of Mali. The results from a survey of 24 farmers identified various concerns regarding personal and environmental safety. Despite their training, sometimes growers did not use pesticides in an appropriate manner. Highly toxic pesticides are used by farmers with insufficient ...

Geosciences

Results from two-station surface-wave inversions across the Archean Kaapvaal craton of southern Africa are compared with seismic velocities estimated from approximately 100 mantle xenoliths brought to the surface in kimberlite pipes. As the xenoliths represent a snapshot of the mantle at the time of their eruption, comparison with recently recorded seismic data provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the independently gained results. These cratonic xenoliths from the southern Kaapvaal, a...

Mathematics

We study the behavior of numerical stabilization schemes in thecontext of linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control problems forconvection diffusion equations. The motivation for this effortcomes from the observation that when linearization is applied tofluid flow control problems the resulting equations have the formof a convection diffusion equation. This effort is focused on thespecific problem of computing the feedback functional gains thatare the kernels of the feedback operators defined by ...

Adult Learning and Human Resource Development

<html><head><title>Alice McAndrew s Abstract</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body><p>Every year in the United States, cancer accounts for one in four deaths. As the pool of those who have received diagnoses increases, more individuals can be encountered who have survived a terminal diagnosis or exceeded expected...

Political Science

A distinct feature of contemporary politics is the involvement of international forces in a states domestic politics, and vice versa. Despite the plethora of literature on the international system and comparative state politics, relatively little addresses the interpenetration of international and domestic systems in intermestic issues. This thesis explores intermestic processes. It argues that states domestic policies are increasingly formed in an intermestic context and such intermesticity has...

Industrial and Systems Engineering

The demand for in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) has been increasing through the years. There are numerous systems that can be incorporated into vehicles and various ways in which the information can and should be presented to the driver. The way the information is presented to the drivers is extremely important in terms of increasing safety and decreasing driver distraction. The expected outcomes of this research included the development of human factors guidelines for the design and use of...

Computer Science , texture mapping , cache , sparse texture

Hardware texture mapping is essential for real-time rendering. Unfortunately the memory bandwidth and latency often bounds performance in current graphics architectures. Bandwidth consumption can be reduced by compressing the texture map or by using a cache. However, the way a texture map occupies memory and how it is accessed affects the pattern of memory accesses, which in turn affects cache performance. Thus texture compression schemes and cache architectures must be designed in conjunction w...

electrodes , eletrodos , erosão , erosion , plasma torch , tocha de plasma

Plasmas térmicos vêm sendo utilizados em um crescente número de aplicações industriais. Na maioria dessas aplicações, as tochas de plasmas (o equipamento utilizado para gerar o plasma) necessitam ser utilizadas por várias centenas de horas antes de qualquer manutenção, a fim de permitir um contínuo processo industrial. Os eletrodos da tocha de plasma, particularmente o catodo, eventualmente ir&...

III-V , GaN , persistent photoconductivity

dislocation walls