As a racecar negotiates a track, it is subjected to many inputs at both high and low frequencies. These inputs come from the track surface, the motion of the body, and from aerodynamic disturbances. The damper's ability to control these inputs leads to improved grip at the tires, which increases overall handling of the vehicle. Since dampers have always been assumed to be primarily velocity dependent, little work has gone into exploring damper's frequency dependent nature. Therefore, this study evaluates the effect input frequency has on the damper's output force. Utilizing experimental testing, with a state of the art damper dynamometer, and computer simulation with a parametric damper model developed for this study, several inputs and key parameters are tested, and the damper's frequency dependent nature starts to emerge. Constant peak velocity sinusoidal and sinusoidal sweep inputs are used for the experimental testing. The results show that as the input frequency is increased, the damper's output force lissajou transitions from the characteristic shape of a damper's lissajou to a shape characteristic of a spring's lissajou. This change in the lissajou is linked to hysteretic effects, which includes the gas spring effect. Damper parameters that are suspected to contribute to the hysteretic effects are explored with computer simulation and additional experimental testing. The results from this show that fluid preparation, fluid type, initial gas pressure, and friction have a predictable effect on the damper's output force. / Master of Science

This research posed the question "How does racism in the gay community and homophobia in the Black community restrict gay Black male's life chances and life opportunities?" Previous research has uncovered racist attitudes within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community as well as homophobic attitudes within the Black community. Because of conflicting social identifiers (Is it possible for one to be both homosexual and Black?) and the invisibility of a gay Black voice, it is imperative to deconstruct the relationship between gay Black men and the communities they are a part of. I utilized qualitative in-depth interviewing techniques interviewing 15 Black men aged 18 and older who identified themselves as homosexual. The questions revolved around three primary questions designed to center the researcherâ ¦How do gay Black men describe their lives, How do gay Black men describe what their lives ought to be, and What obstacles do gay Black men see effecting their opportunity to live the lives they feel they ought to be living. The gay Black male research participants disclosed that because of Black stereotypes, gay stereotypes, acceptance with stipulations in the gay community and the black community, racism in the gay community, homophobia in the Black community, and perceptions of blackness and masculinity's affect on gay Black menâ ¦gay Black men live their lives with various restrictions. In other words, gay Black men do not appear to be living their lives the way they feel they ought to be living it. This work is important because a majority of the participants stated they wished to live restriction free lives. They are not able to fully be themselves in their daily lives and often have to assimilate to be accepted. / Master of Science

This study tested the hypotheses that perceived risk of victimization had a stronger effect than actual exposure to victimization risk on handgun ownership and that this relationship was stronger for women than men. Perceived and actual risks of victimization have been discussed with respect to handgun ownership, but a general consensus in the literature was lacking and recent empirical research was scarce. Crime rates and respondents' social characteristics were used as proxy measures for victimization risk, while fear of crime measured perceived risk of victimization. Three sets of models were estimated, the first with a pooled sample of men and women, the second and third on samples separated by gender. Binary logistic regression was utilized to compare the predictive power of these two major correlates of handgun ownership and observe how their effects varied by gender. Data were drawn from the National Opinion for Research Center's (NORC) Cumulative General Social Surveys (GSS) for the years 1986 through 2008. Predictors of victimization risk, especially gender and regional crime rate, had strong effects on handgun possession, while perceived risk had no effect on handgun possession. Results also demonstrated that while women were more likely to fear crime, they were not necessarily more or less likely than men to obtain handguns in response to that fear. / Master of Science

India and Pakistan are two of the world's poorest countries, yet each devotes a substantial portion of its resources to defend itself against the other. What drives these expenditures? Are they internally or externally driven? If externally, how do the countries interact with each other? To try to answer these questions, we apply five models widely used in defense spending studies. If the model performs well, we will assume that the underlying driver of defense expenditure or change in defense expenditure is present. If the model does not perform well, we will assume the driver is absent. Our goal is not to find the single "best" model, but to see if a consistent pattern of behavior emerges for each country through the combination of the models. We conclude that existing models do shed light on the defense spending behaviors of the two countries, although they are by no means the final word and have only limited value for forecasting. The patterns that emerge from empirical testing of the models indicate that: India is far more sensitive to Pakistan's spending than Pakistan is to India's. India is concerned with maintaining a certain level of superiority over its rival, but shows little inclination to spend Pakistan into the ground. Pakistan has run up against its resource constraint and Pakistani leaders have opted to spend what they feel they prudently can on defense rather than try to engage India in an arms race that they would assuredly lose. On the other hand, Pakistan' defense spending bureaucracy is stronger than India's, so that Pakistan finds it more difficult to cut defense spending than does India. / Master of Arts

This is a qualitative study using ethnographic methods to collect data and critical autoethnography to reflect on my personal history in the light of what I learned about others (Anderson and Glass-Coffin, 2013; Ellis, 2009; Erickson, 2011; Manning and Adams, 2015; Rennel, 2015). My research focuses on race and culture in relation to perceptions in relationships, community, and education before and after urban renewal. I present my work in two-manuscripts: Growing Up White: I Didn't Know What I Didn't Know and Gainsboro: It's Just the Way Things Were. The first portion of the study looks at growing up in a White neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia, during the early years of integration and the Civil Rights Movement, while being unaware of the existence of another world beyond my own. The second manuscript presents findings from interviews in the corresponding Black community and archival research interrogating systemic issues associated with urban renewal. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this study, I examine the effects of urban renewal on race and culture in a mid-sized southern city. My work focuses on individual perceptions about relationships, community, and education. The first portion of the study looks at growing up in a white neighborhood during the early years of integration and the Civil Rights Movement, while being unaware of the existence of another world beyond this one. The following section presents findings from interviews with residents in the corresponding Black community and research on issues associated with urban renewal.

It is the purpose of this study to determine a sound treatment of intercultural differences. The study has as its fundamental thesis the belief that the race and cultural conflicts that are serious threats to the well-being of individuals, of communities, and of the American nation as a whole can be lessened and, in certain instances, eliminated by a carefully planned educational program.

African American Literature in the 20th century engaged many social and racial issues that mainstream white America marginalized during the pre-civil rights era through the use of rhetoric, setting, plot, narrative, and characterization. The use of passing fostered an outlet for many light-skinned men and women for inclusion. This trope also allowed for a closer investigation of the racial division in the United States during the 20th century. These issues included questions of the color line, or more specifically, how light-skinned men and women passed as white to obtain elevated economic and social status. Secondary issues in these earlier passing novels included gender and sexuality, raising questions as to whether these too existed as fixed identities in society. As such, the phenomenon of passing illustrates not just issues associated with the color line, but also social, economic, and gender structure within society. Human beings exist in a matrix, and as such, passing is not plausible if viewed solely as a process occurring within only one of these social constructs, but, rather, insists upon a viewpoint of an intersectional construct of social fluidity itself. This paper will re-theorize passing from a description solely concerning racial movements into a theory that explores passing as an intersectional understanding of gender, sexuality, race, and class. This paper will focus on contemporary cultural products (e.g., novels) of passing that challenge the traditional notion of passing and focus on an intersectional linkage between race, gender, sexuality, and class. / Ph. D. / The concept of passing (the notion of appearing as something, or someone, you are not) has been explored thoroughly in novels, memoirs, biographies, and films. Passing novels tend to look closely at the effects of passing on the passer and the motivation for passing. The motivation for passing differs but does include a desire to cross the color line. However, here, the traditional concept of passing was expanded and an intersectional passing model was constructed, which closely analyzed the stages a person must overcome in order to successfully pass. This model was then applied to a selection of six literary texts. These texts were divided into three separate chapters: gender, sexuality and class. The intersectional passing model illuminated several elements of the passing experience; however, certain stages did present unforeseen issues in the model. These stages were most applicable in Western constructions of gender, sexuality, and class. The stages of the model were intended to give a practical guide to mapping the experience of passing, not only in literary texts, but also for those who are interested in the concept of passing. The intersectional passing model can likewise be used as a teaching tool to illustrate the hurdles one must overcome to pass.

Le présent travail a pour objectif de mesurer les effets du sevrage précoce des porcelets sur la taille de portée suivante d'une truie dans le but de tenir compte de cet effet environnemental dans les évaluations génétiques à l'aide d'un modèle animal-BLUP. Les effets de la longueur de lactation et de l'intervalle sevrage-saillie fécondante (ISSF) sur la taille de portée subséquente d'une truie ont d'abord été estimés en utilisant un modèle animal à partir de données provenant de deux troupeaux de sélection de Génétiporc pratiquant simultanément deux types de sevrage : le MMEW (lactation de moins de 14 jours, habituellement pas d'accouplement avant le deuxième œstrus) ou le sevrage conventionnel (truies sevrées après au moins 14 jours de lactation, habituellement accouplement au premier œstrus). Ces effets ont été estimés séparément pour les races Landrace et Yorkshire. Des effets linéaire, quadratique et logarithmique de la longueur de lactation sur la taille de portée suivante ont été examinés. L'effet de l'ISSF sur la taille de portée suivante a été étudié en utilisant une méthode basée sur des variables à seuil et une approche utilisant des polynômes segmentés. Dans le but de valider si les effets du type de sevrage pouvaient être généralisés à un ensemble de troupeaux ayant des techniques d'élevage différentes, les mêmes types d'analyses ont été faits, cette fois-ci en considérant des portées provenant d'une centaine de troupeaux québécois du programme PEG (Programme d'Évaluation Génétique). L'analyse des données de deux troupeaux de Génétiporc a montré des effets importants de la longueur de la lactation et de l'ISSF sur la taille de portée suivante. Ces effets, allant jusqu'à 0,8 porcelet/portée pour la longueur de la lactation et jusqu'à 1 porcelet/portée pour l'ISSF, étaient beaucoup plus prononcés chez les Landrace que chez les Yorkshire. Les effets estimés pour la longueur de la lactation et l'ISSF sur la taille de portée suivante étaient similaires à ceux obtenus dans l'analyse des données de plus de 100 troupeaux québécois. La longueur de la lactation et l'ISSF devraient donc être considérés dans les modèles d'évaluation génétique des tailles de portée des porcs afin d'augmenter la précision des valeurs génétiques prédites par le modèle. La méthode des polynômes segmentés peut être utilisée pour prédire la taille de portée suivante comme une fonction continue de l'ISSF ou pour déduire des facteurs d'ajustement pour corriger la taille de portée pour l'ISSF précédent.

Public housing authorities (PHAs) have enforced banishment since the late 1980s by granting police the authority to ban non-residents from public housing neighborhoods and arresting them for trespassing upon violating the ban. PHAs justify banishment by stating that issuing bans and arrests for trespassing aid in crime prevention by removing non-residents who may commit criminal acts if left unguarded. Nonetheless, there has been no scientific evidence to suggest that banishment works to reduce crime. Similarly, the role community policing can play in enforcing banishment is unclear and scarce research has considered the effects of banishment on racial and ethnic minorities at neighborhood and individual levels. To address these issues this three-part study examined the enforcement of banishment on Kings Housing Authority (KHA; Southeast, US) public housing property from 2004-2012. Collectively these studies address the following overarching research questions: Does banishment reduce crime in public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment disproportionately target racial and ethnic public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment prevent banned individuals from re-offending in public housing? Does banishment disproportionately ban racial and ethnic individuals? What are the residential perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? How does race and ethnicity affect perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? Results suggest that banishment is better at reducing property crime than violent crime, though the reductions are modest at best. Increases in bans predicted decreases in drug arrests the following year and predicted that drug offenders can be deterred. Despite these crime control benefits results also suggested that the enforcement of banishment comes at a cost. First, a significant amount of banned individuals are not deterred. Second, while trespass enforcement is used in communities other than public housing, the issuing of bans is concentrated only within public housing communities and bans are predominantly issued to African-American males. Finally, results found that residents are not likely to find them effective if they think they are policing too much or policing too little. Future directions and implications are discussed given the dynamic between the crime control benefits of banishment and its social consequences. / Ph. D.

Repeatabilities (t) and heritabilities (h²) for racing time were estimated from data on 7206 2- and 3-year-old standardbred racehorses competing in charted races at six tracks between 1975 and 1976. There were a total of 38,487 records from 2367 sire progeny groups. The data were divided according to gait into two subsets. Trotters only were used to test alternative models proposed to characterize horse’s racing time. Initially, class of race was recognized as a subjective categorization reflective of non-random assignment of horses to races. After extensive investigation, it was concluded that adjustment of horse’s time should include regression on pace (time of the winner). Data were analyzed within track-age-gait subclasses. Intra-horse regression coefficients of time on pace (sec/sec) ranged from .61 ± .08 to .79 ± .05. When records were adjusted for pace, repeatability and heritability estimates ranged from .32 ± .08 to .55 ± .04 and from -.25 ± .22 to .66 ± .15, respectively. Pooled estimates of t and h² were .44 ± .01 and .29 ± .03, respectively. When records were not adjusted for pace, sire, horse and error variance components were inflated by environmental bias (t_pooled = .62: h² pooled = .36). When records were pre-adjusted for pace, the permanent environmental variance appeared smaller compared with the total phenotypic variance than if there was no preadjustrnent for pace. Since genetic progress is based on selection of genetically superior sires and dams, time adjusted for pace should be used for estimation of breeding values and for objective evaluation of an individual horse's real ability to compete against horses having similar abilities. Thus, resulting breeding values should be more accurate dnd biased to a lesser degree than if unadjusted racing times were utilized. / Ph. D.