The current cross sectional quantitative study examined the structural and historical trends of social and economic effects on grandparents who raised grandchildren before and after the Great Recession of 2008. The study focused on the time period of 2007 and 2011 and analyzed the American Community Survey, which was made available for public use on the IPUMS website. The variables analyzed were individual, familial, and structural. The economic variation in income for the 2007 and 2011 time period is the main focus of this study, while age, citizenship employment status, education, gender, marital status, race, family size, relationship to head of the house, and location are the other variables that were analyzed as well. After running the multivariate test the analysis revealed the variables with the most variation from 2007 to 2011 were employment status, gender, and education. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Sociology

This thesis is sequestered till May 2015. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biological Sciences

A simulation is a computer program that helps in creating a real time abstract model of a process. Using simulations the costs of conducting experiments have come down and this has achieved flexibility in terms of optimizing parameters and durations. Electrodeposition is a process that uses electrical current to reduce dissolved metal cations from anode so that they form a metal coating on cathode. Electrodeposition is widely used for many applications varying from anti-corrosion coatings, decorative purposes to high precision nanotechnology cloaking devices. The objective of this research was to predict the electrodeposition of copper on cobalt chrome enabling an efficient optimization of the deposition. The main governing equation used for this model was mass species conservation. COMSOL, finite element software was used to solve the governing equations. The model was simulated to predict coating thickness under different conditions such as, varying current density, concentration and deposition durations. Experiments were conducted to validate the results from the simulation. Electrodeposition was carried in an electrochemical cell with Co- Cr as cathode and Cu as anode with CuSO4 as an electrolyte. Coating thickness was determined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thickness gauge. There was an increasing trend in thickness in the both model and experiment when there was increase in current density. Decreasing trend was observed in the thickness in both model and experiment when there was reduction in the conductivity of the electrolyte. Model predicted results of the experiment at lower durations, at higher durations the experimental values deviated from the predicted values. These variations in the results were due to the limitations in the model and experimental verification methods, which could be worked in the future to reduce the variability. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Dynamic testing is required in structural engineering applications to characterize material properties over a wide range of strain rates and temperatures. One of the major concerns to obtain accurate data during dynamic testing is the oscillations in the test apparatus. If the frequencies of the system were increased to a point where the acceptable bandwidth of measured signal is within the first natural frequency, accuracy of the measured data could be improved by minimizing the effects of fixture vibrations. Since frequency is directly proportional to stiffness and inversely proportional to mass, this work presents several cases where structural modifications were applied to the test fixture based on the stiffness and mass to increase the bandwidth. V-notched Rail Shear test apparatus is widely used for characterizing laminated composite materials because of its advantages over other shear test methods. Present work uses numerical modeling of test apparatus as it gives a flexibility to modify any component and to isolate the source of vibrations. With a series of structural modifications to the test fixture which are primarily based on either changing its stiffness or mass, the apparatus is analyzed for a range of loading rates. The results are later analyzed in the frequency domain and an increase in the bandwidth is observed. As discussed, significant increment was observed in one of the methods presented in this work which deals with a reduction in mass of the apparatus by half. An analysis to check the effect of fixture bending on the specimen loading was carried out and it was observed that the specimen was undergoing a combined loading effect at very high loading rates. This suggests the physical limitation of the test apparatus. Also, a simple demonstration of variations encountered in the test data, as a result of filtering data using low-pass and band-stop filters is also presented in this work. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

The automotive industry is repeatedly tasked with improving vehicles structural strength, optimizing active and passive safety features, reducing occupant injury potential, and hitting lean manufacturing goals. The challenge is to find solutions to reduce production and research costs, and to maximize the vehicle's capability in protecting its occupants in the event of an accident. The influence of impact loading on the dynamic responses of vehicle structures and occupants require special consideration in the field of vehicle crashworthiness. The main goal of this study is to address the fundamental aspect on the impact injury biomechanics of vehicle occupants and safety performance of vehicle structures, and the development of various new technologies aimed at enhancing the passive safety of road vehicles in side-impact accidents. Four case studies related to the dissipation of crash energy, impact injury biomechanics, injury prediction model and pre-crash sensing algorithm form the basis of this thesis. The application examples include the investigation of pre-deploying airbags as a potential solution in reducing occupants' injuries at higher speed side-impact crashes; examination of the vehicle structural responses with the inclusion of high-energy absorbing cellular materials within the door panels in side-impact accidents; development of injury prediction model to out-of-position occupants from frontal- and side- airbags using Design-of-Experiment methodologies; and the estimation of the relative driver fatality risks of two colliding vehicles using some quantitative measurements. A detailed methodology is developed for each application, and the results present several new technologies that can be implemented to enhance the safety performance of road vehicles. These goals are achieved through the use of finite element approaches, multi-body dynamic analyses and Design-of-Experiment statistical methods. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

This historical research explores two political issues, the silver movement and political regionalism, in select newspapers of the Cripple Creek Mining District in Colorado from 1896-1904. These two topics are not suitably studied in prior research on Colorado journalism, which has tended to explore minor press environments and has largely neglected press operations and editorialism during the Gilded Age. This research is grounded in concepts such as sectionalism, which is used to guide the study's investigation of silver and political regionalism. Primary research utilizes the Cripple Creek Citizen, Morning Times, Morning Times-Citizen, Times (weekly and daily), Evening Star, Mail, and Daily Press and the Victor Daily Record newspapers. Those sources are analyzed to better understand how Cripple Creek Mining District editors manipulated the battle for free silver and bimetallism in the 1890s and identified political boundaries to direct voters in elections surrounding the turn to the twentieth century. Such analysis expands media historian's understanding of Colorado journalism, explores the significant but poorly-researched influence of bimetallism on Gilded Age presses, and applies the critical concepts of political regionalism and sectionalism to mine camp and Colorado journalism. This research concludes with a number of observations intended to generate further study in related concepts by media historians and offers a potential gateway towards the development of cultural theory pertaining to sectionalism during the 1890s in the American West. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Communication

Tension or compression fracture behavior studies are normally initiated with open hole tension or compression tests performed at the laminate level. While these test data serve as an excellent starting point in residual strength studies in small notch sizes, the need to evaluate and verify the residual strength for larger structures and at larger notch sizes region is still there. An experimental study was performed with the focus on large notch sizes of circular hole and narrow slit flaw configurations on laminates fabricated with a carbon/epoxy oven-cure capable prepreg material system. The current part of the study focused on uniaxial tension loading with a constant width and height to flaw dimension ratio. Experimental test data were then combined with lamina and laminate level data for residual strength curves generation and the curves were validated against Whitney-Nuismer and Mar-Lin fracture mechanics models. The effects of flaw sizes and the flaw type towards the residual strength capability of a laminate turn out to be substantial as the notch size gets larger than one inch. Test results showed that a narrow slit or saw cut damage is far more critical than a circular hole cut-out. The notch sensitivity order of a saw cut flaw is also roughly three times more than that of a circular hole. Analytical studies were also performed to evaluate several finite element method variable effects on residual strength prediction and to discover the best practice in stress analyses of notched composite laminates. Point Stress failure criterion was used in the analyses and predicted failure loads were compared to the experimental data. Good agreements and correlations were found between the analytical predictions and the experimental data. It can be concluded that the residual strength of a notched laminated composite can be reasonably predicted from finite element analyses. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

This thesis is sequestered till May 2015. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) is a subjective clinical balance assessment frequently used by various healthcare providers. The test consists of three different stances (feet together, tandem, and single leg) that are each 20 seconds long. An administrator carefully observes and records the number of pre-defined balance or stability errors committed by the test subject. However, it is unclear if test administrators are able to observe all errors committed by the subject in real-time. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the difference in scoring a balance assessment with the assistance of video playback and slow-motion playback to identify if errors were all noted. METHODS: 66 NCAA Division I athletes ages 19.68 plus/minus 1.27 years old were scored in person and recorded on video for slow-motion access while performing two series of BESS trials by an experienced BESS rater. Age, sex, orthopedic injuries, past concussions, height, and weight were also recorded. Errors were recorded using the BESS Error Criteria (BEC) with a maximum score of 10 errors and Total Errors Scored (TES) the accumulative errors scored in 20 seconds. RESULTS: Significant differences between means in both measures scored in real-time and slow-motion playback (TES: 6.0 plus/minus 4.3 and 6.8 plus/minus 5.2; BEC: 6.0 plus/minus 4.3 and 6.7 plus/minus 4.9 errors, respectively) were reported. CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that experienced BESS raters capture more balance errors when viewed in slow-motion. However, Cohen's d effect size (TES: 0.2 and BEC: 0.1) suggests that clinically this is not meaningful, therefore; healthcare providers should still score BESS in real time. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Human Performance Studies

Univ., Diss.--Louvain-la-Neuve, 2007.