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Title: MAKING GOOD DECISIONS: THE ROLE OF TEAM PERSONALITY DIVERSITY AND GROUP POLARIZATION
Creator: Watson, Jeremy Beau
Date: 2014, 2014-05
Description: Making high quality decisions is central to organizations in order to remain competitive, increase productivity, quality, and/or remain...
Show moreMaking high quality decisions is central to organizations in order to remain competitive, increase productivity, quality, and/or remain responsive to customers. Most often, teams are responsible for making vital decisions and decision accuracy is key to obtaining desired outcomes. This study examined the role of team personality diversity as it pertains to decision quality. Additionally, a common phenomenon known as group polarization was studied with regard to cooperative and competitive attitudes as a potential important process. Using several decision scenarios and the Lost on the Moon task, 279 individuals in teams of three (n = 93 teams) participated in a laboratory study to investigate the relationship between team personality diversity, group polarization of cooperative/competitive attitudes, and decision quality. Results indicated that team agreeableness diversity was positively related to group polarization, and team openness diversity was negatively related to decision quality. Previous research, implications, and limitations to this study are also discussed.
PH.D in Psychology, May 2014
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Title: ADAPTIVE QUASI-MONTE CARLO CUBATURE
Creator: Jimenez Rugama, Lluis Antoni
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: In some definite integral problems the analytical solution is either unknown or hard to compute. As an alternative, one can approximate the...
Show moreIn some definite integral problems the analytical solution is either unknown or hard to compute. As an alternative, one can approximate the solution with numerical methods that estimate the value of the integral. However, for high dimensional integrals many techniques suffer from the curse of dimensionality. This can be solved if we use quasi-Monte Carlo methods which do not suffer from this phenomenon. Section 2.2 describes digital sequences and rank-1 lattice node sequences, two of the most common points used in quasi-Monte Carlo. If one uses quasi-Monte Carlo, there is still another problem to address: how many points are needed to estimate the integral within a particular absolute error tolerance. In this dissertation, we propose two automatic cubatures based on digital sequences and rank-1 lattice node sequences that estimate high dimensional problems. These new algorithms are constructed in Chapter 3 and the user-specified absolute error tolerance is guaranteed to be satisfied for a specific set of integrands. In Chapter 4 we define a new estimator that satisfies a generalized tolerance function and includes a relative error tolerance option. An important property of quasi-Monte Carlo methods is that they are effective when the function has low effective dimension. In [1], Sobol’ defined the global sensitivity indices, which measure what part of the variance is explained by each dimension. We can use these indices to measure the effective dimensionality of a function. In Chapter 5 we extend our digital sequences cubature to estimate first order and total effect Sobol’ indices.
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, December 2016
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Title: GUARANTEED ADAPTIVE MONTE CARLO METHODS FOR ESTIMATING MEANS OF RANDOM VARIABLES
Creator: Jiang, Lan
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Monte Carlo is a versatile computational method that may be used to approximate the means, μ, of random variables, Y , whose distributions are...
Show moreMonte Carlo is a versatile computational method that may be used to approximate the means, μ, of random variables, Y , whose distributions are not known explicitly. This thesis investigates how to reliably construct fixed width confidence intervals for μ with some prescribed absolute error tolerance, "a, relative error tolerance, "r or some generalized error criterion. To facilitate this, it is assumed that the kurtosis, , of the random variable, Y , does not exceed a user specified bound max. The key idea is to confidently estimate the variance of Y by applying Cantelli’s Inequality. A Berry-Esseen Inequality makes it possible to determine the sample size required to construct such a confidence interval. When relative error is involved, this requires an iterative process. This idea for computing μ = E(Y ) can be used to develop a numerical integration method by writing the integral as μ = E(f(x)) = RRd f(x)⇢(x)dx, where x is a d dimensional random vector with probability density function ⇢. A similar idea is used to develop an algorithm for computing p = E(Y) where Y is a Bernoulli random variable. All of the algorithms have been implemented in the Guaranteed Automatic Integration Library (GAIL).
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, May 2016
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Title: SIMULATION OF CENTERLINE DEFECT CLOSURE IN OPEN DIE FORGING
Creator: Zhou, Jie
Date: 2012-11-11, 2012-12
Description: Open die forging technique is mainly used to achieve desired product shape and refine the product mechanical quality. Large ingots tend to...
Show moreOpen die forging technique is mainly used to achieve desired product shape and refine the product mechanical quality. Large ingots tend to have internal defects such as shrinkage cavities and porosity, which have to be closed during the primary forging stage to ensure sound internal quality of forged parts. In this work, the finite element method was used to simulate the open die forging process, varying different process parameters that affect the void closure behavior profoundly. Numerical models were constructed in FORGE 2011® using practical forging parameters and material rheological data obtained experimentally from Gleeble compression tests. Forging variables including die design, operational practice and boundary conditions were studied thoroughly. Parameters such as die width, die geometry, die overlap, reduction amount per pass were studied with intense attention paid on the specific mechanical properties of H13 steel, so that this study can be applied to solve real world problems. Also, the temperature gradient and friction condition between billet and die were investigated. Physical experiment validation was carried out with a miniature billet sample. The experiment results were compared with the simulations, showing there was good agreement between the two, giving confidence to the simulation results. Based on the simulation results the optimum forging parameters were proposed to ensure full closure of internal defects.
M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, December 2012
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Title: THE EVALUATION OF THERMAL INACTIVATION OF COXIELLA BURNETII NINE MILE PHASE II IN SKIM MILK BY INTEGRATED CELL CULTURE-POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (ICC-PCR) ASSAY
Creator: Zheng, Jiaojie
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) is an obligate intracellular bacterium and replicates exclusively in an acidified, lysosome-like vacuole which...
Show moreCoxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) is an obligate intracellular bacterium and replicates exclusively in an acidified, lysosome-like vacuole which means the analysis of C. burnetii is difficult than other bacterial which can growth on regular liquid medium. An Integrated Cell Culture-Polymerase Chain Reaction (ICC-PCR) assay has been developed as a potential alternative to animal bioassays for evaluating C. burnetii inactivation in milk. This thesis research is to demonstrate the usefulness of this assay for evaluating C. burnetii inactivation in skim milk and comparing the results found for whole milk which was completed by another researcher. Before the thermal studies, the thermal kinetics of heating skim milk in glass vials and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection limit were determined. For thermal treatments, Ultra High Temperature (U.H.T.) skim milk containing C. burnetii at ~7.2 log10 genome equivalents/ml (ge/ml) was treated in submerged vials at 60 °C, 62 °C and 64 °C for various times. After serial dilution of milk to 10-6, triplicate Vero cell monolayers were infected at each level for 48 hours followed by 9 days incubation after inoculum removal and addition of fresh RPMI + 1% FBS media. Infected cells were freeze-thawed followed by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction and real- time PCR (RT-PCR) for the C. burnetii IS1111a gene. C. burnetii in samples was considered as viability if the Day 9 post infection (p.i.) level increased by ≥0.5 log10 C. burnetii ge/ml over the most concentrated Day 0 p.i. sample. The numbers of positive wells from each dilution were used to calculate the remaining viable C. burnetii/ml by MPN method. The thermal kinetics profile for heating the skim milk showed that the come up and cool down time would not adversely affect the thermal x treatment at 60 °C and 62°C. The qPCR could detect the propagation of C. burnetii in skim milk containing as low as 120 C. burnetii ge/ml. The ICC-PCR assay demonstrated that the thermal inactivation of C. burnetii in skim milk was faster than in whole milk at 62 °C and 64 °C. For the 62 °C treatment, the infectious C. burnetii in skim milk was reduced by 1.3 log10 ge/ml at 10 minutes and was no longer infectious after 20 minutes, whereas C. burnetii in whole milk had no obvious reduction after 10 minutes, 3.7 log10 ge/ml after 20 minutes, and was no longer infectious after 26 minutes. After 6 minutes treatment at 64 °C, infectious C. burnetii was reduced by 6.2 log10 ge/ml for skim milk vs. 3.8 log10 ge/ml for whole milk with complete inactivation after 9 minutes for both milk types. This ICC-PCR assay is a specific and sensitive method to detect the inactivation of C. burnetii in skim milk and allows differentiation of the thermal inactivation kinetics of different types of milk, and may be useful for the evaluation of thermal and novel non-thermal processes for C. burnetii inactivation in milk.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, July 2014
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Title: TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF USABILITY GUIDELINES FOR SINGLE-WINDOW WEB INTERFACES
Creator: Maciukenas, James
Date: 2013, 2013-05
Description: Since the early 1990s, usability research has guided development of web interfaces used to interact with content available on the Internet....
Show moreSince the early 1990s, usability research has guided development of web interfaces used to interact with content available on the Internet. Following these guidelines has resulted in web pages that in many characteristics are quite similar and are identified here as Conventional Web Interfaces (CWIs). An emergent genre of web interface, the Single Window Interface (SWI), differs in many ways from CWIs. Most importantly, SWIs differ from CWIs in the type of tasks expected of their users and in the visual strategies used to facilitate these tasks. Namely, SWIs facilitate open-ended discovery tasks by using strong visual cues to convey meta-information to the user and encourage both the exploration and perusal of content. This dissertation will demonstrate that the differences between SWIs and CWIs require revisiting current usability guidelines in order to determine how to guide future development of SWIs. If SWI visual strategies can be shown to be effective in conveying meta-information qualities to users, the groundwork will be prepared for future research investigating the effectiveness of these strategies in facilitating open-ended exploration and discovery within SWIs. These efforts will lead to more useful experiences for users of SWIs and inform the fields of technical communication as well as human-computer interaction and usability research, to name just a few of the affected fields of study.
PH.D in Technical Communication, May 2013
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Title: Machine hour rate method of distribution of factory indirect expense
Creator: Wetzel, G. F.
Date: 2009, 1918
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/machinehourratem00wetz
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: The Morkrum system of printing telegraphy
Creator: Earle, Ralph H.
Date: 2009, 1917
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/morkrumsystemofp00earl
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1917 B.S. in Electrical Engineering, 1917

Title: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENACTMENT OF COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS-MATHEMATICS, STUDENT MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING NEGATIVE SIGNS, DISTRIBUTION, AND DIAGRAMS, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, AND TEACHER VARIABLES
Creator: Morrissey, Glenda
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: The relationship between enactment of Common Core State Standards – Mathematics (CCSSM), student misconceptions, student achievement and...
Show moreThe relationship between enactment of Common Core State Standards – Mathematics (CCSSM), student misconceptions, student achievement and teacher variables was investigated. After providing professional development on CCSSM enactment, observations were conducted to determine the degree of enactment of CCSSM content and Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) in 22 classrooms of nine teachers in an urban charter school network consisting of three high schools. Students were all boys, 98% African American, and predominantly of low socio-economic status. Data included quarterly assessments, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test scores, and a teacher survey. Results indicated experienced teachers with high efficacy who expected students to discuss their work were related to higher levels of CCSSM enactment in teacher actions, fewer misconceptions and higher test scores. Newer teachers were most concerned about availability of CCSSM materials and had higher levels of enactment of CCSSM in classroom materials. A strong belief in student ability was related to student enactment of SMP. Implications for teacher education, teacher practice, and future research are discussed.
Ph.D. in Mathematics and Science Education, July 2017
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Title: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF WEATHER ON THE MOOD AND ENERGY OF PEOPLE WITH WINTER DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS: AN EXPERIENCE SAMPLING METHOD
Creator: Mosqueda, Andrea I.
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a depressive disorder characterized by recurrent episodes most often beginning in the fall and remitting...
Show moreSeasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a depressive disorder characterized by recurrent episodes most often beginning in the fall and remitting in spring and summer. Individuals with SAD experience both vegetative symptoms (e.g., fatigue, increased appetite and weight gain, and an increased need for sleep) and psychological symptoms (e.g., sadness, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness. In addition to the seasonal variations in vegetative and psychological functioning in SAD, daily weather also can potentially affect these phenomena. Symptoms such as mood, cognition, and energy can vary between and within days as a function of weather variables in a population experiencing seasonal symptoms. Using experience sampling method (ESM), which allows for less reliance on participant memory, we examined the impact of weather on day-to-day variability of mood and fatigue, and specifically in individuals with seasonal symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use ESM to examine the impact of weather on this symptomatology. Results failed to find evidence of a relationship between variability in daily weather and either daily mood or fatigue in this sample of seasonal individuals. This was the case for both same day weather and weather aggregated over the previous six days. Future studies would benefit from a longer data collection period in order to determine if there are long-term effects of weather variables on mood or fatigue. ESM would be useful in studying the effect of various time-varying variables on a variety of time-related aspects of SAD symptomatology.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2016
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Title: Paving the business section of Tama, Iowa with vitrified brick
Creator: Collins, Charles W
Date: 2009, 1915
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/pavingbusinessse00coll
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: EXPLORING BODY IMAGE DISSATISFACTION IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETES
Creator: Perelman, Hayley
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: Research on body dissatisfaction in college athletes is largely mixed regarding its prevalence and occurrence. Most of the current literature...
Show moreResearch on body dissatisfaction in college athletes is largely mixed regarding its prevalence and occurrence. Most of the current literature indicates that athletes in lean-promoting sports, regardless of sex, experience greater body dissatisfaction than athletes in non-lean-promoting sports. Division I athletes as compared to Division III athletes report significantly more body dissatisfaction. This study sought to further investigate group differences between sport type, sex, and division level for the following constructs: body dissatisfaction, sport competitiveness, mindfulness, perfectionism, self-esteem, and sport confidence. A sample of 191 males and females completed self-report questionnaires. A series of six 2x2x2 factorial analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine the data: sex (males vs. females), sport type (lean-promoting and non-lean-promoting), and division level (Division I vs. Division III). Results revealed a significant main effect for sex and body dissatisfaction, such that females reported high levels of body dissatisfaction regardless of division level and sport type. A significant interaction (sex vs. sport type) for body dissatisfaction was also found, indicating that males in lean-promoting sports reported greater body dissatisfaction than males in non-lean-promoting sports. Body dissatisfaction did not differ significantly by division level, but Division I as compared to Division III athletes reported significantly greater sport competitiveness, trait mindfulness, self-esteem, and sport confidence. As body dissatisfaction is related to disordered eating, future research should aim to examine the longitudinal trajectory of body dissatisfaction in college athletes and how it relates to the development of eating disorders.
M.S. in Psychology, July 2017
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Title: BIOPHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF TYROSINE (B10) AND PROLINE (E8) MUTANT FORMS OF VITREOSCILLA HEMOGLOBIN
Creator: Pei, Yumeng
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Vitreoscilla spp. is an aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium that produces a dimeric hemoglobin, designated as Vitreoscilla hemoglobin(VHb). The...
Show moreVitreoscilla spp. is an aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium that produces a dimeric hemoglobin, designated as Vitreoscilla hemoglobin(VHb). The distal site of VHb has a unique structure, which has becomes quite a hot spot for study. The first crystallographic structure of wild type VHb indicated that Tyr29 might play an important role in the ligand-binding properties. In an earlier study of a Tyr29Ala mutant, the oxygen-binding properties were shown to be unaffected relative to the wild-type, possibly because the space occupied by the aromatic ring of Tyr 29 in the wild-type is occupied by the aliphatic ring of Pro 54. However, there is no crystal structure that can validate this hypothesis. This project aims to determine the structural changes of VHb when both Tyr29 and Pro54 are mutated to Ala, and the crystal structure of VHb when Tyr29 is mutated to Ala. We added a hexahistidine tag on the C terminus of both the mutants in order to simplify the process of protein purification. The protein was obtained by precipitation and then purified over a HisPur Spin Column. For further purification, the protein was purified by ion exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The circular dichroism spectrum data of both mutants showed that the basic structure of VHb remains similar, and the thermal denaturation ability is also similar to that of wild-type VHb.
M.S. in Biology, May 2016
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Title: Performance and efficiency test of a Harrington chain grate stoker
Creator: Regensburger, R., Stone, J. M., Erickson, W. N., Adam, P. J., Bready, I. J.
Date: 2009, 1920
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/performanceeffic00rege
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaf 36

Title: Influence of suction pressure on the capacity and economy of a six-cylinder packard engine
Creator: Cooban, Frank G., Palmer, Roger C., Stepanek, Emil
Date: 2009, 1915
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/influenceofsucti00coob
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1915 B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 1915

Title: Plans, specifications, and estimate of cost for pavements for the Wassel and Bramberg Austin Subdivision of Chicago Illinois
Creator: Brower, R. B., Edelstein, E., Foy, E. A., Hemple, H. W.
Date: 2009, 1916
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/plansspecificati00brow
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology;Includes folded leaves in back pocket...
Show morehttp://www.archive.org/details/plansspecificati00brow
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology;Includes folded leaves in back pocket Bibliography: leaves 130-157
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Title: Pitot tube as a steam meter
Creator: Carlson, H. W
Date: 2009, 1910
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/pitottubeassteam00carl
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1910 B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 1910

Title: Power consumption tests of double deck bascule bridge
Creator: Crown, V. M, Bush, L. C.
Date: 2009, 1918
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/powerconsumption00crow
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1918 B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1918

Title: AN APPLICATION OF PARETO-OPTIMALITY TO PUB"LIC SAFETY SELECTION DATA: ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF OPTIMAL COMPOSITE WEIGHTING
Creator: Porter, Maxwell G.
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: This study examined the application of Pareto-optimal weighting schemes to real selection data from the public safety sector. Of particular...
Show moreThis study examined the application of Pareto-optimal weighting schemes to real selection data from the public safety sector. Of particular interest was the evaluation of how well Pareto-optimal weighting estimates approximate observed validity and adverse impact statistics when applied to selection data. Pareto-optimal methodology was applied to entry-level selection data from two U.S. municipalities in the public safety sector. Results indicate that Pareto-optimal estimates maintain robustness when compared to real selection outcomes. Specifically, near identically-shaped Pareto fronts were obtained when inputting both raw and corrected validity estimates, suggesting suitable sensitivity to varying input parameters. Practical challenges of implementing Pareto-optimal methods as well as the implications for adopting Pareto-optimal weights are discussed.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2016
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Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF ASXL2 AS AN INTRINSICALLY DISORDERED PROTEIN
Creator: Chen, Po-tao
Date: 2013, 2013-12
Description: During development and differentiation, the transcription regulation plays an important rule. The Polycomb Group (PcG) and the Trithorax Group...
Show moreDuring development and differentiation, the transcription regulation plays an important rule. The Polycomb Group (PcG) and the Trithorax Group (TrxG) proteins are two protein families; they act by forming multiprotein complexes that regulate transcription by modifying chromatin configurations through histone methylation. The establishment or the maintenance mistakes of the correct chromatin configuration have been connected to several diseases, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy. The activities of PcG and TrxG proteins are regulated by a special group of proteins known as Enhancers of trithorax and Polycomb (ETP). The Additional sex combs-like 2 (Asxl2) protein, which is expressed from the gene called additional sex combs like 2 (Drosophila) (Asxl2), belongs to the Enhancer of trithorax and Polycomb group (ETP). The Asxl2 protein is highly expressed in heart during both development and in adult life. In a genetic study, the Asxl2-/- mice either died as neonates with congenital heart abnormalities or displayed progressive deterioration of ventricular function. Although Asxl2 protein is important, there have been no significant studies of the Asxl2 protein’s structure. Protein functions are determined to a considerable degree by structure, so the structural studies will provide valuable information on Asxl2. Failures of protein folding into native structure generally produce inactive or toxic proteins. Misfolded proteins are believed to be the causes of some neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's diseases. ix Through investigation in silico, it is known that the Asxl2 protein contains a large native unstructured region, and this result might indicate the Asxl2 is an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP). Most IDPs are known to have regulatory roles. Owing to their lack of folded structure, the intrinsically disordered proteins display a flexible and random-coil-like conformation under physiological conditions, and have several unique features. This suggests that distinctive methods will be required to characterize their structure. In order to understand the structure of Asxl2, we have expressed and purified an Asxl2 N-terminal truncation that contains a large native unstructured region of two important domains: the HARE-HTH domain and the Asx homology domain (ASXH). We have then used Circular Dichroism (CD) as a means of investigating the structure of Asxl2. The CD spectra have been measured over a wavelength range from 250 nm to 190 nm at various temperatures, with and without Asxl2’s physiological binding partner, the ubiquity carboxyl-terminal hydrolase BAP1 (Bap1) protein in order to test the hypothesis that Asxl2 is an IDP.
M.S. in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics, December 2013
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