Search results

Title: Hydro-electric power station design
Creator: Badger, Ralph H., Grant, Roy G., Nichols, Harold W.
Date: 2009, 1908
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/hydroelectricpow00badg
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: PREDICTING CORTICAL RESPONSE DURING TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION IN HUMANS
Creator: Krieg, Todd
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is capable of noninvasively activating neurons in the brain. TMS can induce persistent effects and is...
Show moreTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is capable of noninvasively activating neurons in the brain. TMS can induce persistent effects and is being increasingly used in both clinical and research applications. Despite this growing interest, the relationship between TMS-generated electric fields (E-fields) and specific cortical electrophysiological responses is not well understood. Most analytical approaches focus on applied magnetic field strength in the target region as the primary factor, placing activation on the gyral crowns. However, imaging studies show cortical targets are typically located in the sulcal banks. To study this causal relationship, we combined subject-specific detailed finite element modeling (FEM) to calculate induced E-field information and employed concurrent TMS-PET data as a measure of cortical response. The research presented in this work is divided into three main parts, each one building on the results of the previous: (1) We determined that neocortical surface orientation was a critical determinant of regional activation by studying the locations of activation during TMS on the cortical surface. Results indicated that brain activations were primarily sulcal for both the TMS and task activations. This study provided further evidence that a major factor in cortical activation during TMS is the orientation of the cortical surface with respect to the induced E-fields. This was demonstrated by the fact that the sulcal bank of the primary motor cortex had larger cerebral blood flow (CBF) responses during TMS despite the gyral crown of the cortex being subjected to a larger magnetic field magnitude. (2) We sought to determine the E-field characteristics that lead to cortical activation. We found that decomposing the E-field into orthogonal vector components based on the cortical surface geometry (and hence, cortical neuron directions) led to significant differences between the regions of cortex that were active and non-active. Specifically, active regions had significantly higher E-field components in the normal orthodromic direction (i.e., parallel to pyramidal neurons in the dendrite-to-axon orientation) and in the tangential direction (i.e., parallel to interneurons) at high spatial gradient. In contrast, nonactive regions had higher E-field vectors in the antidromic normal direction. This provides important new understanding of the factors by which TMS induces cortical activation necessary for predictive and repeatable use of this noninvasive stimulation modality. (3) Finally, two different but related algorithms were formulated using different optimization approaches that provide a means for predicting topographical maps of cortical activation in humans. This is the first study to produce an algorithm for predicting the electrophysiological responses of neurons in the cortex based on both gross and microscopic brain anatomy correlated to relevant experimental recordings. This new innovation could provide an invaluable tool for predicting regions of cortical activation that may permit, among other benefits, improved prescriptive TMS protocols to optimize therapeutic response to TMS treatment.
Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, July 2014
Show less

Title: ANANALYSIS OF ZOO AND AQUARIUM PROVIDED TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Creator: Kubarek-sandor, Joy
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: Informal science institutions are a significant provider of science teacher professional development. As pressure continues to critically...
Show moreInformal science institutions are a significant provider of science teacher professional development. As pressure continues to critically analyze the work of teachers and their effectiveness in the classroom, it is important to understand how informal science institutions contribute to effective change in teacher science content knowledge and pedagogy. This research study analyzed zoo and aquarium provided teacher professional development to respond to the research questions: How do zoos and aquaria determine and assess their goals for teacher professional development? How do these goals align with effective teacher change for science content knowledge and pedagogy? Theoretical frameworks for high quality teacher professional development, effective evaluation of teacher professional development, and learning in informal science settings guided the research. The sample for the study was AZA accredited zoos and aquariums providing teacher professional development (N=107). Data collection consisted of an online questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and content analysis of teacher professional development artifacts. Analysis revealed that by and large zoos and aquariums are lacking in their provision of science teacher professional development. Most professional development focuses on content or resources, neglecting pedagogy. Assessments mismatch the goals and rely heavily on self-report and satisfaction measures. The results demonstrate a marked difference between those zoos and aquariums that are larger in capacity versus those that are medium to small in size. This may be an area of research for the future, as well as analyzing the education resources produced by zoos and aquariums as these were emphasized heavily as a way they serve teachers.
Ph.D. in Mathematics and Science Education, December 2014
Show less

Title: ASSESSING THE CULTURAL SENSITIVITY OF THE BOSTON NAMING TEST-2: IS THERE EVIDENCE FOR DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND CAUCASIAN ADULTS AND BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN?
Creator: Benson, Laura M.
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: The Boston Naming Test – 2 (BNT-2) is one of the most widely used neuropsychological measures for the detection of naming deficits. However,...
Show moreThe Boston Naming Test – 2 (BNT-2) is one of the most widely used neuropsychological measures for the detection of naming deficits. However, there are few studies that have investigated its item-level psychometric properties, particularly in ethnic minorities, including African Americans. The present study examined the BNT-2 for the presence of ethnicity and genderbased differential item functioning (DIF) in a cognitively diverse sample of 744 African American and Caucasian adults recruited from a neuropsychology outpatient clinic in Chicago, Illinois. Using a two-parameter Item Response Theory (IRT) framework, all 60 items of the BNT-2 were analyzed, with difficulty and discriminability estimates generated for items 16 through 60 for ethnicity, and for items 11 through 60 for gender. Ethnicity-based DIF was detected for 10 items (i.e., “globe,” “beaver,” “dominoes,” “unicorn,” “accordion,” “latch,” “tripod,” “yoke,” “trellis,” and “palette”) and genderbased DIF for 6 items (i.e., “stethoscope,” “pyramid,” “latch,” “sphinx,” “yoke,” and “palette”), indicating that these items do not function equivalently between groups, despite being matched on naming ability. Post hoc hierarchical logistic regression analyses examined age, years of completed education, and literacy (measured as word reading ability) as potential explanatory factors for the observed DIF. Results indicated that the three variables provided partial explanations for the DIF detected in the 16 ethnicity and gender items, though none could entirely account for the observed findings. IRT-estimated difficulty parameters also allowed for the examination of item ranking on the BNT-2. For both ethnicity and gender, the IRT-estimated rank ordering of items between groups was similar, as well as being comparable (though not identical) to those initially assigned by Kaplan, Goodglass, and Weintraub (2001). Results further indicated that correlations between BNT-2 scale scores and IRT-based scale scores were very high, suggesting that the overall scoring of the BNT-2 was not subtantially biased by ethnicity or gender, despite the identified DIF and small fluctuations in item rankings. Overall, this implies that the BNT-2 is still a valid measure for use in African Americans, although future consideration should be given to revision or omission of those items identified as having DIF.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2014
Show less

Title: HYBRID METHODS FOR SIMULATION OF MUON IONIZATION COOLING CHANNELS
Creator: Kunz, Josiah D.
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: COSY Infinity is an arbitrary-order beam dynamics simulation and analysis code. It can determine high-order transfer maps of combinations of...
Show moreCOSY Infinity is an arbitrary-order beam dynamics simulation and analysis code. It can determine high-order transfer maps of combinations of particle optical elements of arbitrary field configurations. For precision modeling, design, and optimization of next-generation muon beam facilities, its features make it a very attractive code. New features are being developed for inclusion in COSY to follow the distribution of charged particles through matter. To study in detail some of the properties of muons passing through material, the transfer map approach alone is not sufficient. The interplay of beam optics and atomic processes must be studied by a hybrid transfer map–Monte Carlo approach in which transfer map methods describe the average behavior of the particles in the accelerator channel including energy loss, and Monte Carlo methods are used to provide small corrections to the predictions of the transfer map accounting for the stochastic nature of scattering and straggling of particles. The advantage of the new approach is that it is very efficient in that the vast majority of the dynamics is represented by fast application of the high-order transfer map of an entire element and accumulated stochastic effects as well as possible particle decay. The gains in speed shown in this work are expected to simplify the optimization of muon cooling channels which are usually very computationally demanding due to the need to repeatedly run large numbers of particles through large numbers of configurations. This work describes the development of the required algorithms and their application to the simulation of muon ionization cooling channels. The code is benchmarked against other codes, validated with experimental results, and predicts results for current muon ionization cooling efforts.
Ph.D. in Physics, May 2017
Show less

Title: ACOUSTIC LOCALIZATION OF BREAKDOWN IN RADIO FREQUENCY ACCELERATING CAVITIES
Creator: Lane, Peter
Date: 2016, 2016-07
Description: Current designs for muon accelerators require high-gradient radio frequency (RF) cavities to be placed in solenoidal magnetic fields. These...
Show moreCurrent designs for muon accelerators require high-gradient radio frequency (RF) cavities to be placed in solenoidal magnetic fields. These fields help contain and efficiently reduce the phase space volume of source muons in order to create a usable muon beam for collider and neutrino experiments. In this context and in general, the use of RF cavities in strong magnetic fields has its challenges. It has been found that placing normal conducting RF cavities in strong magnetic fields reduces the threshold at which RF cavity breakdown occurs. To aid the effort to study RF cavity breakdown in magnetic fields, it would be helpful to have a diagnostic tool which can localize the source of breakdown sparks inside the cavity. These sparks generate thermal shocks to small regions of the inner cavity wall that can be detected and localized using microphones attached to the outer cavity surface. Details on RF cavity sound sources as well as the hardware, software, and algorithms used to localize the source of sound emitted from breakdown thermal shocks are presented. In addition, results from simulations and experiments on three RF cavities, namely the Aluminum Mock Cavity, the High-Pressure Cavity, and the Modular Cavity, are also given. These results demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the described technique for acoustic localization of breakdown.
Ph.D. in Physics, July 2016
Show less

Title: NEW SOLID AND LIQUID ELECTROLYTES FOR LITHIUM RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES
Creator: Mei, Xinyi
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Currently, rechargeable lithium batteries are widely used in our consumer electronic products, including cell phones, laptop computers, and...
Show moreCurrently, rechargeable lithium batteries are widely used in our consumer electronic products, including cell phones, laptop computers, and cameras and so on. They have extraordinary potential for application in electric and hybrid electric vehicles by their high energy and power density[1]; however, the major challenges include the higher cost, safety issues related to the solvents and conductibility at lower temperatures are still waiting to be fixed. In this Ph.D. thesis, two types of rechargeable lithium batteries: lithium-ion batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries are discussed. Two different approaches are presented, in the direction of achieving an enhanced electrolyte system for rechargeable lithium batteries. One approach is based on the conventional poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) system. The key feature of this approach is the preparation of nanoparticle lithium salts (NPLS) and low lattice energy fluorinated di-lithium salts. The ionic conductivities of these PEO-based SPEs were markedly improved, due to a decrease in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer. For lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, the polysulfide shuttle (PSS), caused by the dissolution of cathode polysulfide intermediates into the electrolyte, has delivered a mortal blow to nearly every attempt at obtaining a viable Li-S battery. So, another approach involved the strategic design and synthesis of a series of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) to prevent PSS: i) Three series of di-cationic ionic liquids (DILs) are synthesis and characterized. DILs-based electrolytes displayed excellent properties, such as non-flammability, high electrochemical stability and thermal stability. ii) Twelve new asymmetric fluorinated RTILs (FRTILs) were also introduced. The FRTILs based electrolytes showed even better properties than DILs-based electrolytes.
Ph.D. in Chemistry, December 2016
Show less

Title: IMPLICIT ATTITUDES TOWARD SEASONAL VEGETATIVE SYMPTOMS
Creator: Meyers, Katherine
Date: 2011-11-28, 2011-12
Description: In contrast to self-report measures, implicit measures do not require introspection and are less likely to be influenced by factors such as...
Show moreIn contrast to self-report measures, implicit measures do not require introspection and are less likely to be influenced by factors such as insight (e.g. Asendorpf, Banse, & Mucke, 2002) or social desirability (e.g. Greenwald, Poehlman, Uhlmann, & Banaji, 2009; Kim, 2003). According to the dual vulnerability model (Young, Watel, Laymeyer, and Eastman, 1991), seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is the result of the tendency to negatively appraise physiological changes that occur in the wintertime, which leads to an increase in cognitive and mood symptoms. Although empirical support for the dual vulnerability model is growing (e.g. Rohan, Roecklein, Tierney, Johnson, Lippy, Lacy, & Barton, 2007; Young, Reardon, & Azam, 2008), implicit tests have yet to be used to evaluate the relationship between vegetative and cognitive symptoms. This study developed a method to assess the appraisal of vegetative changes as indicating illness using the Go/No Go Association Task (GNAT; Nosek & Banaji, 2001). We hypothesized that implicit attitudes would interact with vegetative symptoms to predict the severity of cognitive symptoms. Results showed that attitudes toward fatigue, but not hunger, moderated the relationship between vegetative and cognitive symptoms. Furthermore, based on response style theory (Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991), we examined whether rumination would predict stronger illness-related attitudes in general, and would interact with vegetative symptoms to predict illness-related attitudes. Rumination predicted illness-related implicit attitudes towards fatigue, but not hunger, and acted as a moderator between vegetative symptoms and attitudes. This study helped to increase our understanding of how illness attributions exacerbate seasonal symptoms of depression.
M.S. in Psychology, December 2011
Show less

Title: A mechanical course for high schools
Creator: Perkins, Robert Augustus
Date: 2009, 1917
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/mechanicalcourse00perk
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: The methods used by public utility commissions in arriving at the proper depreciation and valuation of electric light, power, and railway companies and their effect on rate regulation
Creator: Schmidt, Emil J., Detar, Delos
Date: 2009, 1911
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/methodsusedbypub00schm
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: PEDESTRIAN DETECTION AND TRACKING FOR ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS
Creator: Mesmakhosroshahi, Maral
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: In an effort to reduce driver errors in being the major cause of traffic accidents, there is a lot of research being conducted into the...
Show moreIn an effort to reduce driver errors in being the major cause of traffic accidents, there is a lot of research being conducted into the development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). ADAS is a system aimed at helping the driver in tasks such as pedestrian and vehicle detection, traffic sign recognition and lane detection. Pedestrian detection is one of the major tasks in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Most of the stereo based pedestrian detection algorithms include three major steps: 1. Ground plane estimation 2. Region of interest (ROI) generation 3. Pedestrian classification In this thesis, we present a stereo-based pedestrian detection framework for advanced driver assistance systems by exploiting both color and depth information obtained from a stereo camera installed in a vehicle. In our proposed framework, we first use the vertical gradient of the dense depth map to estimate and discard the ground plane. The boundaries of the ground plane are then searched to detect the pedestrians and the depth values of the boundaries are used to compute the size of the detection windows for detecting pedestrians at different scales. In addition, a depth-based multi-scale ROI extraction method has been proposed to reduce the computation time of ROI extraction. For classifying ROIs to pedestrian and non-pedestrian classes, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG)/Linear support vector machine (SVM) and Integral Channel Features (ICF)/Adaboost are used. To recover the missed pedestrians and improve the detection rate, an ROI tracking algorithm is proposed which incorporates the ROIs extracted from the current frame with theROIs tracked from a reference frame. For additional reduction in search space, we propose a novel algorithm to reduce the number of candidate windows extracted as ROI by taking advantage of the temporal correlation between the adjacent frames. We also propose a method to improve the accuracy of the pedestrian classifi- cation using the aggregated channel features. In this approach, we use the aggregated channel features as our baseline detector and improve it's accuracy using the tanh normalization and Gabor filter. After classification using Adaboost, we use a posi- tive subset of the bounding boxes to classify them again using Convlutional Neural Network to finalize the detection.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, May 2017
Show less

Title: Methods for the oxidation of potassium manganate
Creator: Johnson, F. R., Pearson, A.
Date: 2009, 1918
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/methodsforoxidat00john
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: Mechanical filtration for municipal water supply
Creator: Spalding, R. S.
Date: 2009, 1906
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/mechanicalfiltra00spal
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: CELL SHRINKAGE STRATEGY FOR SALMONELLA DURING DESICCATION
Creator: Megalis, Christina
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: Salmonella is a growi ng concern in low-moisture foods. The objective of this project is to further unlock the mechanism for Salmonella...
Show moreSalmonella is a growi ng concern in low-moisture foods. The objective of this project is to further unlock the mechanism for Salmonella desiccation survival. Salmonella Tennessee and Typhimurium LT2 were used in this study, each demonstrating a strong and weak resistance to desiccation , respectively. Exponential phase cells were desiccated (RH= II %) for 5 days on steri le paper discs and were reduce d by 4 and 7-logs CFU/mL, respectively. This study examined the role of rod/cocci conversion in Salmonella stress res istance using an SEM. The typical rod-shape of Salmonella was altered upon a 5-day desiccation treatment (aw=O. l l), produ cing a cocci shape and significantly more so in the case of S. Tennessee. S. Tennessee fresh and desiccated cell lengths were 1.32 ± 0.12 and 1.14 ± 0.07 urn, respectively, compared to S. LT2 fresh and desiccated that were 1.55 ± 0. 19 and 1.42 ± 0.14 urn, respectively. Scatter plot analysis showed that the convers ion from rod shape to cocci occurred at greate r extent in S. Tennessee than S. Typhimurium LT2 responding to the 5-day desiccation treatment Cytoskeletal genes involved in cell elongation (rodA, rodZ, mrdB, mreB, mrdA, mrcA, and mrcB) were anal yzed for expression using qRT-PCR. The gene expression profile for the two strain s significantly differed with S. Tennessee virtually having no change in expression after 24-hour desiccation while S. LT2 exp ression ranged from 38 to 91-fold up-regulated . This thesis provided additiona l understanding of Salmonella desiccation resistant strategy; however, to fully understand the expression change of those genes, study of gene expression at different time point is needed in future.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, July 2013
Show less

Title: Method of measuring earth pressures on vertical and inclined retaining walls
Creator: Fainstein, Morris
Date: 2009, 1920
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/methodofmeasurin00fain
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: A history of the development of the suspension bridge
Creator: Mann, Herbert A
Date: 2009, 1921
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/historyofdevelop00mann
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaves 86-98

Title: DEGUELIN ACTION IS THROUGH REGULATION OF ERK-MAPK PATHWAY IN TRIPLE- NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER CELLS
Creator: Katta, Harshadadevi
Date: 2012-11-21, 2012-12
Description: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer related deaths amongst women in the United States. In 15-20% of...
Show moreBreast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer related deaths amongst women in the United States. In 15-20% of patients with breast cancer, patients do not express steroid receptors(ER/PR) and do not have amplification of HER2. This condition is called triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Patients with TNBC have poor prognosis. No molecular targeted therapies are available to treat TNBC. Anthracyclines and taxane based therapies are effective with limited success, and are often toxic. As TNBC cells overexpress Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), it provides an attractive molecular tool for the targeted therapy. Deguelin, a rotenoid isolated from an African plant, Mundulea sericea has been shown to inhibit growth of various experimental cancers. Deguelin is a well known inhibitor of pAKT, a downstream target of EGFR. In this study we evaluated the effect of deguelin and its mechanism of anticancer action in triple negative human breast cancer cell lines. Deguelin inhibited cell proliferation of MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, BT-549, and BT- 20 in a dose and time-dependent manner. Western blots and immunofluorescence analyses suggested that the effect of Deguelin is mediated through inhibition of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (EGFR, c-Met) and its downstream molecular targets, Our results show that deguelin treatment reduces the expression of pERK (p44/42) (Thr202/Tyr204), pAKT (ser473), c-Myc, pSTAT3 (Tyr705) and survivin in a dose and time dependent manner in MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468 human breast cancer cells. In conclusion, results from this study suggest that Deguelin may be of potential therapeutic value in treatment of triple negative breast cancers.
M.S. in Biology, December 2012
Show less

Title: Investigation of high-tension switching equipments
Creator: Clarke, Fred, Sturgess, Fred M.
Date: 2009, 1907
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/investigationofh00clar
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaves 80-90

Title: Investigation of pitot's tubes as a watermeter
Creator: Yoshida, H. T.
Date: 2009, 1912
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/investigationofp00yosh
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: An investigation of the flow of liquid fuel through orifices
Creator: Marks, Milton, Clausen, Harold F., Wong, Yak M
Date: 2009, 1920
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/investigationoff00mark
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

repository.iit

Search the repository

Pages

Pages