Recent statistics suggest that the construction industry continues to experience poor project performance. Specifically, construction productivity has witnessed a meager annual growth of 1% over the past 20 years while the industry constantly records both a high number of fatalities and a high fatality rates relative to other industries. The...
This thesis presents an effective control design methodology using a one-step-ahead prediction adaptive control law and an adaptive control law based on a Lyapunov function. These control law were applied to a highly maneuverable high performance aircraft, in particular, a modified F/A-18. An adaptive controller is developed to maneuver an...
Part of the Y chromosome in humans is detectable as a brightly
fluorescing body in interphase nuclei stained with quinacrine dyes.
This fluorescent body when stained with quinacrine mustard dihydrochloride,
in cells from some 15 human subjects, was seen to manifest
a variable morphology which appeared to be related to...
Ship turnaround time at a marine containerport is an important
measure of the port's efficiency and attractiveness. Both the speed
and quality of load planning affect the length of turnaround time
considerably. Past attempts at computerizing the load planning
function have been unsatisfactory and have not reflected the port's
objective...
This paper uses general equilibrium static and dynamic
models to examine the economic and environmental effect of
capital liberalization policy based on the general
equilibrium static and dynamic models. The first topic
develops a static general equilibrium model of a small open
economy in the presence of unemployment with three...
Technological growth in agriculture increases crop output but it could lower output price in the market. Economic impact assessment in ex-ante analysis usually does not include these indirect supply responses, which can overestimate the economic potential of new technology. This dissertation provides an integrated farm-level ex-ante impact assessment model to...
With the ever-increasing demand for portable devices used in applications
such as wireless communication, mobile computing, consumer electronics, etc.,
the scaling of the CMOS process to deep submicron dimensions becomes more
important to achieve low-cost, low-power and high-performance digital systems.
However, this downscaling also requires similar shrinking of the supply...
The purpose of this study was, first, to investigate whether there
is a vitamin B-6 requirement for carnitine synthesis and, second, to investigate
the effect of fasting on vitamin B-6 metabolism. An experimental
group of 72 rats (6 per group) were fed either a vitamin B-6 deficient
diet (-B6) (ad...
This study examined the relationships among authoritarian
parental attitudes, home environments, parental attitudes
toward the children's freedom, and the cognitive performances
of kindergarten children. Socioeconomic status of the family
and sex of child and parent differences were also examined.
Subjects consisted of 73 pairs of Korean parents and their
children....
This study described how and why a Korean elementary teacher taught mathematics as he did. Specifically, the study sought to describe his beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics and relate them to patterns of classroom interaction and norms.
An ethnographic inquiry guided the study of one third grade...
The primary goal of my studies was to elucidate the mechanisms for the well-recognized interaction between two nutrients, vitamins E and K. The outcomes from my studies assess mechanisms for adverse effects of vitamin E and provide novel information on mechanisms for vitamin K homeostasis. These findings will provide information...
Compounds belonging to the vitamin K family possess anti-hemorrhagic
property, and are used in treating patients suffering
from hypoprothrombinemia and obstructive jaundice. Some of
these compounds also exhibit marked antimicrobial activity toward
various microorganisms. Vitamin K₅, 4-amino-2-methyl-
1-naphthol hydrochloride, a water-soluble analog of vitamin K
has been shown to possess...
The metabolic fate of cholesterol delivered to rat hepatocytes by rat plasma lipoproteins was determined. Binding and degradation of rat low and high density lipoproteins (LDL and HDL) in rat hepatocytes were studied. ¹²⁵I-labelled LDL and HDL were incubated with cells in the presence of varying concentrations of unlabelled lipoproteins...
The effects of various physical parameters on the binding, uptake,
and catabolism of glucose in the marine psychrophilic bacterium,
Vibrio marinus, were studied. It was shown that shortly after
the cell was exposed to labeled glucose, the radioactive label became
rapidly associated with the cell fraction. It was also shown...
In this dissertation, the process of computational modeling of amorphous oxide materials is studied. Amorphous oxides have random atomic arrangements with no long-range structural order which makes it difficult to study structure-property relationships. Despite the difficulties, amorphous oxides have great uses as semiconductors and dielectrics in thin-film transistors. The ability...
The dissertation examines the effect of two separate yet significant individual level factors—physical and cognitive traits—on entrepreneurial outcomes. The physical factor on which the dissertation focuses is the entrepreneur’s vocal cues and the cognitive traits that the dissertation investigates are the entrepreneur’s goal orientation and his/her ability to take perspectives....
In this three-essay dissertation I explore how CEOs’ self-serving motivation, specifically driven by their relative pay standing and celebrity status, is useful for advancing the understanding of executive behavior and strategic decision-making. In the first essay, focusing on CEOs’ motivation to reduce the dissonance caused by pay inequity, I examine...
Innovation is critical for firm growth and survival. Thus, how much value firms create and capture from their innovative activities has been an interest of scholars. This dissertation explores three important questions on this topic to which extant literature has paid little attention. First, I examine how the external threat...
This dissertation was a qualitative case study focused on part-time faculty teachingdevelopmental mathematics courses in one large Pacific Northwest community college. Thecollege was selected for its size and maturity; the topic was selected for three related reasons:part-time faculty have been widely relied upon to teach these courses nationwide; students indevelopmental...
DNA damage, if not repaired, can become a mutation. Mutation
accumulation is associated with initiation and progression of tumorigenesis. DNA
mismatch repair (MMR) is required for maintaining genetic stability by repairing
replication errors. Biochemical studies have shown that MMR also recognizes
mismatch-causing DNA lesions, suggesting the role of MMR in...
An open area of research in complex systems is to move reliability and failure assessments earlier in the engineering design process. When compared to later design, early decisions are cost effective and have a large impact on the system. Standard methods are limited by the availability of data and often...
This dissertation consists of three essays that provide comprehensive insights into the complex dynamics shaping entrepreneurial and organizational outcomes. In the first essay I incorporate the Biophilia Hypothesis and the Challenge Hindrance Stressor framework to study entrepreneurial creativity. The findings emphasize the importance of more frequent nature visits for entrepreneurs...
A rapid nuclear isolation technique was adapted in
order to examine the question of DNA precursor
compartmentation in mammalian cells. By using this method
a reproducible proportion of the cellular nucleotides
remained associated with the isolated nuclei.
Examination, at several different cell densities, of
exponentially growing HeLa cells showed that...
Biological organisms, phenomena and strategies, herein referred to as biological systems, provide a rich set of analogies that can be used to inspire engineering innovation. Biologically-inspired, or biomimetic, designs are publicly viewed as creative and novel solutions to human problems. Moreover, some biomimetic designs have become so commonplace that it...
Dearomatization reactions exist broadly in biosynthesis and chemical synthesis. The highly functionalized atoms of arenes can be masked by it aromaticity, and upon dearomatization, those reactive atoms can be readily applied to bond formation and further manipulation. The total synthesis of (–)-cephalotaxine and (–)- homoharringtonine is described via an oxidative...
A synthetic approach toward the two major fragments of cathedulin K-19,
euonyminol (4) and dimethyl cathate (69), was investigated. Synthesis of
dimethyl cathate was accomplished in 3 steps starting from 73. Efforts directed
towards the synthesis of euonyminol, a highly oxygenated dihydroagarofuran
sesquiterpene, was advanced to a stage in which...
A number of Antarctic marine psychrophilic bacteria were
isolated having the ability to grow and accumulate ¹⁴ C-TMG only at
temperatures below 20 C. It was shown that galactose rather than
lactose was the primary inducer and utilizable substrate for the
permease system. Further studies with a Vibrio species (Ant-12),...
Since its discovery, the anomalous dielectric behavior of CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO)
has drawn a great deal of attention for many possible applications in electronic
devices. The origin of the giant dielectric constant in CCTO was explained via an
internal barrier layer capacitor model, and it has been reported that the dielectric...
Detection technique that proposed utilizing electrochemically controlled, reversible ion extraction into polymeric membrane in an alternating galvanostatic/ potentiostatic mode was introduced. This method is studied in detail to comprehend the advantages of the novel sensor (pulstrode) compared to the potentiometric ion selective electrode (ISE), studies included possible applications and limitations....
Previous research had identified four serogroups of Rhizobium trifolii
indigenous to Abiqua soil (fine, mixed, mesic, Cumulic Ultic Haploxerolls).
Nodulation of subterranean clover (Trifolium, subterraneum L.) by two of the
serogroups, 6 and 36, was influenced by the application of CaC0₃ to the soil.
The studies described in this thesis...
Although the synthesis of DNA precursors is
closely coordinated with DNA replication, it is still
not clear whether deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates
(dNTPs) influence DNA replication independently of
their interactions with DNA polymerase catalytic sites.
In an effort to understand the extent to which rate and
fidelity of DNA replication are regulated...
The differential cross section for the reaction k⁻+p[forward arrow] k⁰+[uppercase xi]⁰ was measured in a spark chamber experiment for an incident k⁻ momentum of 1.8 GeV/c. The target was liquid hydrogen confronted
by an anti-coincidence counter to insure neutral particle production.
A 60 element hodoscope signalled the presence of four...
The work presented here is the culmination of efforts in describing complex chemical systems with statistical methods, thereby providing relatively simple quantitative models and easily comprehensible qualitative insights. The following investigations have various goals, such as development of new methods, fundamental understanding, molecular control of chemical species, and advancement of...
This work proposes a framework of concept generation and evaluation that takes into consideration the benefit of creativity and innovation in current market trends. By educating engineers in how to increase creativity in concept design and assess it quantitatively, the next generation of designers will be a step ahead of...
As computation power continues to grow, the demand for data transfer bandwidth is also rising. This is reflected in the increasing data-rate of high-speed links. However, the increase in data-rate is sustainable only if the I/O energy efficiency improves as well. This dissertation explores several techniques to enable high-speed links...
My work has focused on investigating synthetic organic reactions using applied computational methods. Non-covalent interactions are critical to catalysis, mechanism, and stereoselectivity, with the most prominent interaction for isothioureas being the S···O contact between the catalyst sulfur atom and the oxygen of the acyl group. A comprehensive joint experimental and...
Some enzymes of the citric acid cycle and glycolytic pathway
in cell-free extracts of Vibrio marinus MP-1 were compared for
thermal lability. After one hour of moderate temperature exposure,
enzymes of both pathways rapidly lost catalytic activity. For all
but one enzyme, 50 percent remaining activity occurred near an
averaged...
While many organizations claim to "put safety first," safety is rarely considered early in the design process when system-level architectural decisions are made. Instead, system design follows an abstraction-to-detail process to first meet functional and then performance requirements. Following this process, safety assurance occurs in the later stages of design...
Ultra-high-speed (>10GS/s), medium-resolution (5~6bit), low-power (<50mW) analog-to-digital converter can find it application in the areas of digital oscilloscopes and next-generation serial link receivers. There are several challenges to enable a successful design, however. First, the time-interleaved architecture is required in order to achieve over 10GS/s sampling rate, with the trade-off...
With the evolving popularity of new computing platforms such as Ultrabooks, Tablets, and Smart Phones, and the shift to multi-core computing, power is now the key performance limiter, a departure from the traditional frequency limitation. As such, increasingly low-power design solutions feature prominently in early architectural and design space exploration...
The starvation-survival patterns of 16 freshly isolated open
ocean bacteria and in a psychrophilic Vibrio sp., Ant-300, were
determined. These isolates displayed three survival patterns as
determined by viable cell count. These were (a) a rapid increase
followed by a decrease to a constant value (pattern of Ant-300 and
7...
In this study the relationship between salinity and temperature
changes on microbial growth, enzyme induction and substrate uptake
were investigated. The obligately psychrophilic bacterium, V.
marinus MP-1 was grown for 48 hours at 15 C in a glucose-ammonium
medium (GAM) containing 0.4 M NaCl. Log-phase cells were harvested
and shifted...
As modern systems continue to increase in size and complexity, they pose significant safety and risk management challenges. System engineers and much of the government research efforts are focused on understanding the attributes and characteristics that emerge from the interactions of components and subsystems. As a result, the objective of...