Electrical Engineering

Networks and their applications have been evolving substantially in the last two decades. Network-based control systems, also called Networked Control Systems (NCS), are one of the hottest topics in network-based applications. By networked control system we mean controlling the system through the network, i.e., using networks for remote control and automation.One major concern of using networks in remote control and automation is the Quality of Service (QoS) deterioration effects. These QoS dete...

Mechanical Engineering

Jackson III, Willard B. Heat Transfer Augmentation via Microencapsulated Phase-Change Material. (Under the direction of Dr. Richard D. Gould)Results disclosed in this thesis indicate that a microencapsulated octacosane phase-change material fluid is well suited for large scale electronic cooling applications. The fluid was successfully circulated in a liquid pumped loop heat exchanger system resembling the cooling system of an electric vehicle. Little or no particle breakdown occurred to the pol...

Botany

NIELSEN, KIRSTEN. Antifungal activity of maize (<I>Zea mays</I> L.) ribosome-inactivating protein 1 against <I>Aspergillus</I> species. (Under the direction of Rebecca S. Boston and Gary A. Payne)<br><br>Maize ribosome-inactivating protein 1 (RIP1) is an abundant 32-kDa protein that can depurinate a specific adenine residue on large 28S ribosomal RNA. This irreversible modification of the ribosomal RNA inhibits t...

Horticultural Science

ABSTRACTBRYAN, ADRIENNE DAWN. Impact of Sweet Potato Feathery Mottle Virus and Micropropagation on Yield, Root Quality and Virus Incidence in Commercial Sweetpotato Production Systems. (Under the direction of Dr. J.R. Schultheis and Dr. G.C. Yencho)Reduction in yield and root quality (decline) in sweetpotato has been attributed to the accumulation of viruses and mutations. Three studies were initiated to assess the effects of mutations and viruses in sweetpotato. In the first study, to document ...

Forestry

KANZLER, ARNULF. Genotype x Environment Interaction in Pinus patula and its Implications in South Africa. (Under the direction of Gary R. Hodge).The Genotype x environment interaction was examined using 81 provenance and / or progeny tests of Pinus patula over 54 sites in Southern Africa (South Africa and Swaziland). Type B genetic correlation estimates were calculated for all possible pairs of tests amongst these trials. The mean Type B genetic correlation for all tests across all sites was 0.6...

Statistics

BARBER, JARRETT JAY. Modeling and prediction of nonstationary spatial envi-ronmental processes. (Under the direction of Dr. Montserrat Fuentes.)<br>Spatial data are often collected for the purpose of producing spatial predictions(i.e., maps), the accuracy of which relies on a good estimate of the spatial covariance. Traditional geostatistical methods for spatial interpolation assume covariance stationarity. However, spatial data often exhibit nonstationary covariance, and tradition...

Food Science

Cheese is a popular food due to its diversity in application, nutritional value, convenience, and good taste. Producing high quality cheeses that meet consumer expectations is crucial in order for cheese makers to remain competitive. These expectations include proper end-use functionality (shred, melt, stretch, etc.) and appropriate texture. Currently, there is not a complete understanding of what characteristics govern these aspects. This study seeks to determine what transitions occur during t...

Forestry

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process that returns water to the atmosphere and therefore completes the hydrologic cycle. ET is a major component in the hydrological balance, and therefore is important to understanding forest water yield, sediment and nutrient movement. However, direct measurement of forest ET for a large region is not possible. The objectives of this study were to develop a model to estimate long-term annual actual evapotranspiration (AET) for forested watersheds across the sou...

Entomology

ABSTRACT.The darkling beetle, Alphitobius diaperinus, is a cosmopolitan pest of stored products and commercial poultry facilities. Considered the most important pest in North Carolina poultry production, darkling beetles damage poultry house insulation, affect bird performance when consumed by poultry and have been implicated in the transmission of over thirty avian diseases including turkey coronavirus (TCV). Common litter management practices include the removal of used poultry litter for use ...

Plant Physiology

VILLAVICENCIO, LUCIA ELENA. Physiological aspects of skin adhesion in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.). (Under the direction of Dr. Sylvia M. Blankenship)<br><br>One of the problems in postharvest handling of sweetpotato roots is the loss of the skin from the surface of the roots, referred to as skinning . During skinning, cuticle, epidermis, and a portion of the outer layers of the periderm separates from underlying tissue, resulting in an increased rate of mo...

English

ABSTRACTPORTER, HEIDI ANNETTE. Discourse Means of Jointly Produced Asymmetry and Symmetry in Physician-Patient Conversation. (Under the direction of Dr. David Herman.)Studies have found that during medical interview physicians tend to dominate the conversation through questioning, controlling topic and topic development, and interrupting and disregarding patients contributions to the conversation (Hyden and Mishler 1999). Other studies have demonstrated how important a thorough knowledge of pati...

Horticultural Science

Phosphomannose isomerase (PMI) [E.C. 5.3.1.8] is a key enzyme required for Manmetabolism in plants, and PMI activity is important in both mannitol metabolizing andmannitol non-metabolizing plants. In this manuscript, two studies are presented; one thatdescribes PMI activity in a mannitol non-metabolizing plant, <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i> L. NT1cell suspension cultures, and one that describes the partial purification of PMI from amannitol metabolizing plant, <i&am...

Immunology

DIL, NYLA. Molecular regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase gene in chicken macrophages. (Under the direction of Muquarrab Ahmed Qureshi).<br>Inducible nitric oxide synthase serves as an important mediator of macrophage immunobiology by regulating the biosynthesis of nitric oxide that in turn mediates several immunological and physiological functions. Previous studies have demonstrated that macrophages from Cornell K-strain chickens (B<sup>15</sup&gt...

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Garrell, Monika Gerda. Mechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Nd-Fe-B TypePermanent Magnets. (Under the direction of Dr. Albert Shih)<br><br>The goal of this research was to investigate the mechanical properties of injection molded Nylon and PPS-based Nd-Fe-B type magnets. The development of new Nd-Fe-B type magnetic materials and the advancement of near-net shape injection molding processes for magnetic component manufacturing have driven the needs to evaluate the...

Statistics

CHU, TZU-MING. STATISTICAL NONPARAMETRIC AND LINEAR MIXED MODEL ANALYSES OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDE DNA CHIPS DATA. (Under the directions of Professors Bruce Weir and Russ Wolfinger)<br>Scientists investigate the dynamic relationships among genes and the associated phenotypes through gene expression array (microarray) studies. An essential step in the tasks is to identify the genes that actually interact with the phenotypic outcomes. This dissertation focuses on the selection of informativ...

Physics

AGVAANLUVSAN, UNDRAA. Level Density Analysis ofNuclear Resonances. (Under the direction of Dr. G. E. Mitchell andDr. J. F. Shriner, Jr.)Direct counting of nuclear resonances is the most straightforwardway to obtain detailed information about nuclear level densities.In order to test recently developed theories more accurateexperimental results for level densities are needed.Because of experimental limitations some fraction of the resonancesis not observed. Therefore theobserved level density must...

Entomology

Five volatile synthetic chemicals (dimethyl disulfide, indole, 4-methylphenol, 3-methylindole, and trimethylamine) were tested as potential oviposition attractants of <i>Aedes albopictus</i> (Skuse) in laboratory and field experiments. In addition, the oviposition responses of <i>Ae. albopictus</i> to bacterially-enriched substrates were evaluated in behavioral and electrophysiological bioassays as sources of attractants and stimulants.None...

Textile Technology Management

Many characteristics of plain woven fabrics, such as permeability, filtration, thermal conductivity and resin transfer, that lead them to industrial applications depend upon interyarn pore size and its distribution. In this research, pore size and its distribution were measured and modeled in a number of plain woven fabrics. Pore size models showed that structural parameters, namely the yarn diameter, yarn spacing, yarn unit cell length and fabric thickness, were major variables which determined...

Industrial Engineering

ABSTRACTGOKCE, MAHMUT ALI. Optimization of Sourcing Decisions in Supply Chains. (Under the direction of Dr. Russell E. King, Dr. Jeffery A. Joines, and Dr. Michael G. Kay.)Sourcing decisions in supply chains traditionally are made solely based on cost considerations. Typically sourcing models or decision-making procedures are either ad hoc or proprietary. In this dissertation a meta-heuristic-based optimization approach is developed and applied to sourcing decisions in several different apparel ...

Soil Science

The Madagascar rainforests display some of the richest biodiversity found anywhere on earth. This unique biodiversity is imperiled by deforestation resulting mainly from the accumulated impacts of small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture (<I>tavy</I>), practiced by subsistence farmers. The Ranomafana National Park (RNP), created to conserve an especially species-rich rainforest region, essentially depends upon developing sustainable agriculture and forestry alternatives...

Zoology

Recent worldwide amphibian declines have highlighted a need for more extensive, rigorous monitoring programs. Investigators must make decisions about which state variable to monitor based on the monitoring programs scientific or management objectives, while considering economic and logistical constraints. Two sources of variation; spatial variation and variation in detection probability constrain the inferences drawn from these monitoring programs. Our research focused on estimating detection pr...

Horticultural Science

Plants are frequently exposed to a variety of environmental stresses that occur separately or in combination. The independent, additive, and interactive effects of these stresses, and the ability of a plant to resist these stresses, can be important factors in plant growth, distribution, and survival.Cercis canadensis L. (eastern redbud) has a broad range that includes diverse ecotypes. In this study eastern redbud and Cercis canadensis var. mexicana (Rose) M. Hopkins (mexican redbud) were exami...

Zoology

Escalation is enemy-driven evolution. This top-down view of a predator-prey evolutionary arms race downplays the role of prey in driving the predators evolution. In the related process of coevolution, species change reciprocally in response to one another; prey are thought to drive the evolution of their predator, and vice versa. In the fossil record, the two processes are distinguished most reliably when the predator-prey system is viewed within the context of other species that may influence t...

Chemistry

The template synthesis of core / shell particles is described. One template employed as the core is a gold particle. Polymers employed as the shell are polypyrrole, poly(N-methylpyrrole), and poly(3-methylthiophene). The gold core of the composite particle is removed to yield a hollow polymer capsule, the core dimensions of which are determined by the dimensions of the template. Shell thickness is also controlled easily. Permeability of the shell is varied according to shell composition, oxidati...

Computer Networking

<PRE><font size=4 name="times"><b>ABSTRACT</b></font></PRE><font size=3><p>ARUNACHALAM, CHIDAMBARAM. Implementation and Validation of Network Policy Services. (Underthe direction of Dr. Mladen A.Vouk and Dr. Ioannis Viniotis)</p><p>The widespread use of Internet Protocol to deliver voice, video and data to end users has made the deployment of some ...

Curriculum and Instruction, Reading

This study explores the strategy applications,perceptions, and emotions that good readers whoare poor writers experience when writing narrativetext on-demand (given a prompt in a timed session).Eleven fifth grade student(approximately 12 years old) were identified as good readers who are poor writers based upon their academic history of passing the state-required End-Of-Grade Reading Test when they were in the third and fourth grades but failing the state-required Fourth Grade Narrative Writing ...

Microbiology

ABSTRACTAYLOR, WILLIAM WESLEY II. Geminivirus movement protein interactions with host proteins in the yeast two-hybrid system. (Under the direction of Dr. I.T.D. Petty.)Geminiviruses utilize two movement proteins in cell to cell movement within their plant hosts. The proteins, BR1 and BL1, enable the virus to move from the host nucleus into the cytoplasm and then through the plasmodesmata into a neighboring cell. The BR1 protein attaches to the viral DNA in the nucleus and moves the complex into...

Math, Science and Technology Education

ABSTRACTSANDERS, CRAIG SIDNEY. Integrating Multimedia in Technology Education toImprove College Student Comprehension, Problem-solving Skills, and Attitudes TowardInstructional Effectiveness. (Under the direction of Dr. V. William DeLuca.)To determine the effects of a multimedia lecture on selected technology educationstudents comprehension, performance, and attitudes toward instructional effectiveness,the researcher used a variation of the nonequivalent control group design. Theexperimentally a...

Electrical Engineering

SAHIN, IBRAHIM. A Compilation Tool for Automated Mapping of Algorithms onto FPGA-Based Custom Computing Machines. (Under the directions of Dr. Clay S. Gloster and Dr. Winser E. Alexander).<br><br><br>Adaptive computing, also known as Reconfigurable Computing (RC), is a field that combines hardware and software data processing platforms. RC systems combine the flexibility of General Purpose Processors (GPP) with the speed of application specific processor...

Sociology

The state of North Carolina has proven to be a popular destination for Hispanic immigrants, especially in the 1990s. The 2000 Census indicates a rapid increase in Hispanic population nationwide, with North Carolina among the top ten states for increase from 1990 to 2000. While previous studies have focused on the effects of such immigration on employment, little research has been done in the area of housing. This thesis is a first step toward describing and evaluating the experiences in housing ...

Operations Research

Optical networks consisting of optical cross-connects(OXCs) arranged in somearbitrary topology are emerging as an integral part of the Internetinfrastructure. The main functionality of these networks will be to providereliable end-to-end lightpath connections to large numbers of electronic labelswitched routers (LSRs). We consider two problems that arise in building suchnetworks. The first problem is related to the topology design of optical networksthat can grow to Internet scales, while the se...

Chemical Engineering

Dynamic scaling of surface roughness evolution during plasma deposition of amorphous silicon is utilized to characterize surface transport mechanisms. Different surface transport mechanisms leave distinct imprints in the surface that can be distinguished through fractal analysis. Surface roughness is characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the static and dynamic scaling coefficients a and b and the lateral correlation length Lc are extracted from the evolution of surface roughness ...

Electrical Engineering

MEHROTRA, PRONITA. Memory Intensive Architectures for DSP and Data Communication. (Under the direction of Paul D. Franzon)<br><br>We focus on the design of systems where memory performance is the principal bottleneck. Two kinds of systems have been considered, an FFT engine for use in high performance DSP systems and forwarding engines used in high-speed routers.<br><br>The FFT engine was designed using Seamless High Off-Chip Connectivity (...

Computer Science

An asynchronous message-passing program consists of concurrentprocesses that interact with each other by the exchange ofmessages. Many network protocols and distributed applications areasynchronous message-passing programs. This dissertation investigatestechniques to ensure correctness of asynchronous message-passingprograms.<br>Reachability analysis has been a successful approach to verifyingconcurrent programs. Existing reachability analysis techniques forasynchronous message-pas...

Electrical and Computing Engineering

May, Elebeoba Eni. Analysis of Coding Theory Based Models for Initiating Protein Translation in Prokaryotic Organisms (Under the direction of Dr. Mladen Vouk and Dr. Donald Bitzer).<br><br>Rapid advances in both genomic data acquisition and computational technology have encouraged the development and use of engineering methods in the field of bioinformatics and computational genomics. Several researchers are encouraging the use of error-correction coding in analyzing ...

Botany

Modulation of cytosolic calcium levels in both plants and animals is achieved by a system of Ca2+ -transport and storage pathways that include Ca2+ buffering proteins in the lumen of intracellular compartments. We used a transgenic approach to modulate calcium stores in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum in plants. We were able to use the low affinity, high capacity Ca2+ binding characteristics of the C-domain of calreticulin (CRT) to selectively increase Ca2+ storage in the endoplasmic reti...

Comparative Biomedical Sciences

<p>Over the last decade, heightened awareness about the consequences of foodborne illnesses has fomented the application of quantitative risk assessment to food safety issues. A four-step paradigm - hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard characterization, and risk characterization - is commonly followed. Hazard characterization is meant to consider the multifaceted interaction between pathogen, host, and food matrix, but it is reduced in practice to a mathematical funct...

Computer Science

In the minimum linear arrangement problem one is given a graph, andwishes to assign distinctintegers to the vertices of the graph so that the sum of the differences(in absolute value) across the edges of the graph is minimized. Thisproblem is known to be NP-complete for the class of all graphs, butpolynomial for special classes of graphs, one of which is the class oftrees. For trees on <i>n</i> vertices, algorithms of time complexity<i>O</i&gt...

Horticultural Science

AbstractCOOK, SANDRA M. Runner plant production and the effect of light intensity on flower andfruit development in day-neutral strawberries. (Under the direction of James R. Ballington)The development of an economical system for the production of disease-free nurseryplants of day-neutral strawberry cultivars is vital for large-scale production in thesoutheastern United States. This study investigated the effects of plastic mulches, runner harvest method, and deblossoming on runner formation in ...

Computer Science

In recent years, Java has been making tremendous inroads into the world of embedded devices and systems. Thus, it is increasingly important to study the performance characteristics of the Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), and different optimization strategies that can help boost application performance.Usually, embedded systems are very constrained in memory and processor speed, and hence it is imperative to extract maximum performance without having to incur a high memory cost. Just-in-time (JIT) c...

Statistics

There are numerous methods for modeling space-time covariances.One commonly used class of models are separable covariances, where thejoint space-time covariance factors into the product of a covariance functionthat depends only on space and a covariancefunction that depends only on time. This greatly reduces the number of parameters,and thus makes estimation much easier. This structure is very convenient, but therehas been very little written in the literature about how to formally test for it.W...

Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management

ABSTRACTNECMEDDIN BENER DOGUC, Influence of Fiber Types on Fiberweb Properties in High-Speed Carding. (Under the direction of Dr. William Oxenham and Dr. Abdelfattah M. Seyam)Among all nonwoven manufacturing techniques, carding presents high flexibility in different aspects. Being regarded as the conventional way of web forming, this method is trying to meet todays high production needs. Therefore, the productivity of the nonwoven card is more critical then ever. The fact that some fibers cannot...

Mathematics

COFFEY, TODD STIRLING. Temporal and Pseudo-Temporal Numerical IntegrationMethods. (Under the direction of C. T. Kelley).  <br><br>Numerical methods for integrating partial differential equations are usedin nearly every scientific field. In this dissertation we study two typesof numerical integration methods, transient methods and pseudo-transientmethods. Transient methods for partial differential equations look for time-accuratesolutions that explain th...

Forestry

ABSTRACTJorge Vásquez-Kool. Gene family evolution of monolignol biosynthetic genes inloblolly pine ( Pinus taeda L.) (Under the direction of David M. O Malley).Gene family organization in a genome is an important area in the study ofgenomics because it provides an structured basis to approach larger, more complex problems like gene expression, biochemical pathways and metabolism. Genes control and mediate many of the biological activities of the cell. Although some genes are single copy...

Electrical Engineering

UPPATHIL, SATISH VIJAYAN. Layout Oriented Design Practice for Capturing Distributed Effects in High-Speed Circuits. (Under the direction of Michael B. Steer.)An integrated environment for layout-oriented design of circuits for spatial power combining system is aimed in this study. The simulation environment would include a full-wave electromagnetic simulator and a circuit simulator, TRANSIM, with a front engine, which is the major emphasis in this document. Also, the controlled and independent s...

Entomology

ABSTRACTKELLER, JENNIFER JUNE. Testing effects of alternative diets on reproduction rates of the small hive beetle, <i>Aethina tumida</i>. (Under the direction of John T. Ambrose.)The small hive beetle, <i>Aethina tumida</i> was exposed to several alternative food sources to test their ability of producing successive generations while exposed to these diets. Once it was determined that they could successfully produce successive generations ...

Nuclear Engineering

Using the MCMIS (Monte Carlo for Mammography Image Simulation) code, several possible scenarios of microcalcification images were simulated for the Fischer SenoscanTM digital mammography system, which has been approved for clinical use by the F.D.A. The cases simulated included detectors that have 100 Ým x 100 Ým, 50 Ým x 50 Ým, and 25 Ým x 25 Ým pixels in order to determine how much improvement can be obtained through decreased pixel size in...

Entomology

ABSTRACTJACKSON, RYAN EVERETT. The Influence of Transgenic Cottons Expressing One or Two Bacillus thuringiensis Proteins Against Helicoverpa zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Factors Affecting B. t. Resistance in H. zea. (Under the direction of J. R. Bradley, Jr. and J. W. Van Duyn)Because control of bollworm with transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki cottons that express the Cry1Ac protein has not been absolute compared to that of tobacco budworm, transgenic cottons expressing two B. t...

Materials Science and Engineering

ABSTRACTMCGREGOR, JR., DAVID ROSS. Growth Optimization and Characterization of Reactively Sputtered Zirconium Nitride Thin Films for III-V Buffer Layer Applications(Under the direction of Jerome J. Cuomo)Zirconium nitride (ZrN) thin films were deposited by reactive dc magnetron sputtering to assess the effects of processing conditions upon film properties. Processing conditions and parameters were optimized to generate films of completely oriented (111) ZrN on silicon to be used as buffer layers...

Nuclear Engineering

ROBERTS, AMY NICOLE. Thermosyphon Targets Designed for the Production of <sup>18</sup>F for use in Positron Emission Tomography. (Under the direction of Dr. Joseph M. Doster and Dr. Bruce W. Wieland.)<br><br><sup>18</sup>F is a radioisotope commonly used in Positron Emission Tomography. One way to produce <sup>18</sup>F is to bombard <sup>18</sup>O enriched ...