Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Wave Diffraction And Refraction Problem And A Block-Wise Band Matrix Solver, Changqing Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

An Electronic Storage And Access System For Special Education Legislation, Courtney Siler Frantz

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In the field of education, instructional leaders must know the regulations governing the assessment, curriculum, and instruction of all students. An area of special concern is the regulations governing programs for students with disabilities. Although the average population of students with disabilities may represent less than 10% of the total student body, the school administrator is responsible for maintaining access to the most current regulations, for accurately interpreting, and effectively implementing federal and state mandates to ensure that the due process rights of the students with disabilities are upheld. Yet the laws and regulations governing special education programs are continually …

The Characterization Of The Radiative Energy Transfer Process Among Holmium(3+) Ions In Yttrium(3) Aluminum(5) Oxygen(12), Terri Lynn Lazarus

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This research comprises a comprehensive spectroscopic study of the characteristics of the solid state crystal YAG (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) singly doped with Ho (Holmium) ions. An important area of solid state laser crystal research is the determination and optimization of the processes within these laser crystals which lead to efficient laser action. In most laser crystals, there is a donor ion such as Tm (Thulium) and an acceptor ion such as Ho. The donor ion generally has greater absorption than that of the acceptor at the wavelength of the pump source. The donor ion can transfer this absorbed energy to …

Constrained Least-Squares Digital Image Restoration, Rajeeb Hazra

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The design of a digital image restoration filter must address four concerns: the completeness of the underlying imaging system model, the validity of the restoration metric used to derive the filter, the computational efficiency of the algorithm for computing the filter values and the ability to apply the filter in the spatial domain. Consistent with these four concerns, this dissertation presents a constrained least-squares (CLS) restoration filter for digital image restoration. The CLS restoration filter is based on a comprehensive, continuous-input/discrete- processing/continuous-output (c/d/c) imaging system model that accounts for acquisition blur, spatial sampling, additive noise and imperfect image reconstruction. The …

Mechanisms Of Poly(Vinyl Chloride) Fire Retardance And Smoke Suppression Induced By Copper Additives, Jong Paul Jeng

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms of PVC fire retardance and smoke suppression induced by copper additives.;The experimental approaches involved: (1) the use of activated copper (Cu{dollar}\sp0{dollar}) to study PVC model-compound reactions and the crosslinking of PVC and (2) the pyrolysis of PVC model compounds in the presence of several copper additives in order to examine all of the possible chemical reactions involved in the formation of heavy products.;The results obtained from experiments with activated copper and allylic chloride model compounds suggest that the reductive coupling mechanism is a viable process in PVC. The Cu{dollar}\sp0{dollar} that …

Beam Dynamics In The Cebaf Superconducting Cavities, Zenghai Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This work is a study of beam dynamics in the CEBAF superconducting cavities under the influence of the fields generated by externally applied RF and beam particles.;A full 3-D modeling of the CEBAF 5-cell superconducting cavity is carried out. Details of the modeling with MAFIA are discussed. Multipole fields due to the asymmetric couplers are studied by means of 3-D Fourier transforms. The cavity steering and focusing of the multipole fields are studied. Experimental measurements of these effects are performed to validate the modeling. Evaluation of the cavity misalignment is discussed. The emittance degradation effects in the CEBAF superconducting linacs …

Search For Metastability Of 2s Muonic Neon, Bernard Wilhelm Bach

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

An experiment was performed at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) to establish the conditions for the metastability of the 2S-state of muonic neon. The muonic atoms were formed by stopping negative muons in the neon-filled target chamber of the PSI cyclotron trap. A pair of intrinsic germanium detectors were used in coincidence to search for the two photon decay of the 2S-state. Both energy and time information from two photon events were written to disk for off-line analysis. Data were accumulated for neon pressures of 40 and 400 Torr. The data were then searched for evidence of two photon transitions …

Calculations Of The Interactions Of Energetic Ions With Materials For Protection Of Computer Memory And Biological Systems, Myung-Hee Y. Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Theoretical calculations were performed for the propagation and interactions of particles having high atomic numbers and energy through diverse shield materials including polymeric materials and epoxy-bound lunar regolith by using transport codes for laboratory ion beams and the cosmic ray spectrum. Heavy ions fragment and lose energy upon interactions with shielding materials of specified elemental composition, density, and thickness. A fragmenting heavy iron ion produces hundreds of isotopes during nuclear reactions, which are treated in the solution of the transport problem used here. A reduced set of 80 isotopes is sufficient to represent the charge distribution, but a minimum of …

First Principles Linear Response Calculations Of Lattice Dynamics, Cheng-Zhang Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

First principles calculations, using the density-functional theory and particularly the local density approximation (LDA), have achieved remarkable success in studying the properties of solid state systems. Although the basic results of these calculations are the electronic structures (eigenvalues, eigenfunctions, etc.) and the total energy of ground state, many other related physical properties can be deduced from them by investigating their response under external perturbations. Using the linear response method with linearized-augmented-plane-wave (LAPW) basis, we have calculated lattice dynamical properties of important semiconductors CuCl, SiC and ferroelectric KNbO{dollar}\sb3.{dollar} CuCl is known to exhibit large anharmonic effects and possibly a complicated multi-well …

Blends Of Reactive Diluents With Phenylethynyl-Terminated Arylene Ether Oligomers, Rachel Louise Knudsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Metallization Of Polyimide Films To Enhance Dimensional Stability And To Achieve Reflective And Conductive Surfaces, David Scott Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of Nylon-11 Degradation, Leslie Christian Mccullough

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of Pr500 For Use In Resin Transfer Molding, Rhonda Michelle Barksdale

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Environmental Disclosure By Australian Listed Mineral Mining Companies : An Application Of Stakeholder Theory, Y. B. Hutomo

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of voluntary environmental disclosure in relation to firm-specific characteristics of listed mineral mining firms within the stakeholder theory framework developed by Ullmann (1985). Three indices, word index, unweighted index and weighted index, were applied to measure the extent of total environmental disclosure and categories of total disclosure, which were environmental policy and strategy, public recognition of environmental activities, prevention or repair of environmental damage and environmental liabilities. A sample of 104 mineral firms was selected from the Australian Graduate . School of Management Annual Report Microfiche File for 1993. The• …

Calibration Of A Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff Model Using Simulated Annealing, Neil R. Sumner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Simulated annealing (Kirkpatrick et al, 1983) is used to estimate the parameters of a mathematical model that predicts the water yield from a catchment. The calibration problem involves finding the global minimum of a multivariate function that has many extraneous local minima, a situation in which conventional optimisation methods are ineffective. The objective function which quantifies discrepancies between the computed and observed streamflows must be carefully selected to satisfy the least square assumptions. Several published simulated annealing algorithms have been implemented, tested and evaluated using standard test functions. Appropriate cooling schedules are found for each algorithm and test function investigated. …

A Proposal For A Development Platform For Microcontroller-Based Devices, Michael L. Wetton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is concerned with designing, implementing and testing a miniaturised temperature data logging device. Investigations demonstrated that a microcontroller could provide a low-cost single-chip solution to this problem and after a detailed review of 8-bit microcontrollers, the MC68HCll was chosen for this task. This document also includes discussion on an environment that was developed for creating and testing MC68HC11 software and the use of Motorola's evaluation boards. To ensure that the device was designed to software engineering standards an investigation into software engineering analysis techniques took place. This resulted in the Jackson Structured Programming (JSP) methodology being adapted to …

Some Issues In The Sliding Mode Control Of Rigid Robotic Manipulators, Sanjay Rao

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates the problem of robust adaptive sliding mode control for nonlinear rigid robotic manipulators. A number of robustness and convergence results are presented for sliding mode control of robotic manipulators with bounded unknown disturbances, nonlinearities, dynamical couplings and parameter uncertainties. The highlights of the research work are summarized below : • A robust adaptive tracking control for rigid robotic manipulators is proposed. In this scheme, the parameters of the upper bound of system uncertainty are adaptively estimated. The controller estimates are then used as controller parameters to eliminate the effects of system uncertainty and guarantee asymptotic error convergence. …

On The Relationship Between A Graph And The Cycle Graph Of Its Complement, Christian P. Lopez

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

From an arbitrary graph G, another graph called the cycle graph of G and denoted by C(G) can be derived. The cycle graph C(G) of G has as its vertices the chordless cycles of G and two vertices in C(G) are adjacent if and only if the corresponding chordless cycles have at least one edge in common.

A Study Of The Histozoic Oyster Parasite, Perkinsus Marinus: I. Disease Processes In American Oysters (Crassostrea Virginica). Ii. Biochemistry Of Perkinsus Marinus, Aswani K. Volety

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Numerous studies have investigated the disease processes of Perkinsus marinus in the oyster, Crassostrea virginica. However, the transmission dynamics and factors affecting P. marinus infection are still unclear. The objectives of this study were to investigate: (1) the principal and most effective lifestage of P. marinus, (2) the synergistic effects of temperature, salinity and P. marinus dose on disease prevalence, (3) suppression of host reactive oxygen intermediates by P. marinus, (4) the localization of acid phosphatase in the parasite, (5) the effects of temperature and salinity on acid phosphatase secretion, and (6) the P. marinus lipid and fatty acid composition. …

Modelling And Risk Analysis Of The Western Rock Lobster (Panulirus Cygnus) Fishery Of Western Australia, C. S. Yap

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The predictive power for short-term forecasting of selected biomass dynamic models was examined using the standardised catch and effort data from the 1944/45 to 1990/91 season of the western rock lobster. Risk analysis of the fishery based on the predicted fishing efforts with the Deriso-Schnute delay-difference model indicates a high probability of recruitment failure. Some hypothetical management strategies of reducing fishing effort were evaluated by taking into consideration the total catch and biological risk to the fishery.

Regulating The Blue Crab, Callinectes Sapidus, Fishery In Virginia : Biological And Economic Concerns, James E. Kirkley, William D. Dupaul, Michael J. Oesterling

Reports

The blue crab, Callinectes sapiclus, fishery has been one of the most important fisheries of Virginia. The importance of the fishery in terms of commercial activities has substantially increased in recent years in response to declining resource levels of American Oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and a growing international and domestic demand for soft crabs, female hard crabs, and crab meat.

The actual economic importance of the fishery, however, is not well known. For example, what are the employment and earning levels generated by the fishery? What portion of a waterman's household income is derived from crabbing? How much does crabbing contribute …

Monomeric And Polymeric Fluoroalkyl Sulfonyl Fluorides, Sulfonate Salts And Sulfonic Acids For Use As Electrolytes And Coatings, Nicolas Noel Hamel

Dissertations and Theses

Monomeric and polymeric fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acids have qualities desirable for use as electrolytes in alternative energy sources such as fuel cells and solid polymer electrolyte lithium batteries. Since the nature of the fluoroalkyl group affects the properties of these compounds, new monomeric and polymeric fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acids were prepared in this work. Simple compounds prepared in this work were: the fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acid CHF (OCF₂CF2SO₂ F)₂ CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO₂F) ₂ CH₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3Na) ₂ CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3 ) ₂Ca , CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3H) ₂ prepared by means of electrochemical fluorination; FC (CF3 ) …

Self-Study Report 1995

Conservation and Survey Division

This Self-Study Report for the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) is a profile of the unit at this point in time. It is presented in three major sections: (1) Background; (2) Current Programs and Achievements; and (3) A Vision of the Future. All sections draw heavily upon documents, staff input, and committee activities going on within the division.

Resource Notes-Academic Year 1994-95

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Resource News-Winter 1995

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Resource News-Spring 1995

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Resource News-Summer 1995

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Guidelines For Decommissioning Water Wells, How To Plug Water Wells, Duane A. Eversoll, Delynn R. Hay, Rod J. Tremblay

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Annual Outflow And Annual Inflow Of Water From/To Nebraska, 1950-1994, Conservation And Survey Division

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Structural Contour Map On Top Of The Lansing Group, R. R. Burchett

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.