This paper is a report on a project to develop a computer-based technique to optimize two dimensional sail design. Overall, we consider two distinct problems. The first problem deals with an unconstrained optimization of the lift. Then, to develop the second problem, we introduce an integrated form of Stratford's separation criterion as a limiting constraint. Throughout the work, we incorporate a vortex lattice analysis to determine the lift on the sail, and in each case, we use an optimization algorithm called VMCON. In the final chapters, we present the results for a series of test cases and describe the areas of future research and development. / M.S.

A dietary survey of male volunteers, both drinkers, and nondrinkers of alcohol, on free choice diets, was conducted in Blacksburg, Virginia in the spring and summer of 1981. The survey was conducted to assess the relationship between the consumption of alcohol and the intake of selected nutrients on both a mean daily basis and on a per kilogram body weight basis. One hundred seventy-one subjects ages 18 through 56 kept food and beverage intake records for five consecutive days, including Saturday and Sunday. The food and beverage records were hand coded and processed by computer for nutrient analysis. Subjects were grouped, according to the amount of alcohol consumed, into nondrinkers, low, moderate or high drinkers. Regression and correlation analysis revealed that there was little difference among the groups of subjects in the effects of alcohol intake on intake of the traditional energy supplying nutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrate expressed as mean daily intake and expressed on a per kilogram body weight basis. The expression of nutrient intake based on a per kilogram body weight basis made no difference in the significance of results when considering the relationship between the consumption of alcohol and calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin C. The need for further investigation into the relationship between alcohol consumption and nutrient intake of social drinkers has been documented. / M.S.

Manganese(II) and (III) complexes of potentially bidentate and tridentate Schiff base ligands have been prepared. The ligands were prepared from substituted salicylaldehyde or pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde and amines with hydrocarbon or alkylpyridyl substituents. The electrochemistry and the oxygenation kinetics of these and similar tetradentate, pentadentate, and hexadentate complexes have been studied. The electrochemistry of the majority of the complexes involves the Mn(III)/Mn(II) couple. However, varying the solvent shows that electron transfer is often accompanied by slow changes in the number of solvent molecules coordinated to the metal or changes in the actual denticity of the ligand. Activation energies and entropies for the reactions with 0₂ show that a large number of parameters influence the rate of reaction. Primary among these is competition between 0₂, solvent molecules, and donor atoms from the ligands for coordination sites on the metal. However, the reactions were all (with one exception) found to be first order in both complex and 0₂, implying that the slow step is formation of a Mn(III)-superoxo complex. The exception was with complexes of the tetradentate Mn(SALC_n) type, where a simple rate law could not be fitted. This was explained by either steric hindrance or polymerization of the complex due to the flexibility imparted by the long polymethylene chain in the tetradentate ligand. / Ph. D.

The nonverbal messages conveyed by dress are learned earlier by today's children than they have been at any time in the past. Yet, little empirical research has examined the effect of clothing on the behavioral development of the preschool child. Dress is a medium for carrying out the serious roles of life, but it is also a medium for play. Although numerous studies have investigated play, an important element of child development, few have included dress as a factor. Research has shown that not all children participate in all forms of play behavior, particularly dramatic play, which contains the element of make-believe. Furthermore, research has shown that increased associative fluency in preschool children is dependent specifically on the occurrence of make-believe play. A child, deficient in such divergent-thinking skills, would seem somewhat disadvantaged and less able to cope with a problematic environment. The present study asks the question: Can the wearing of specially designed clothing raise levels of observable make-believe behavior for preschool children? Two research hypotheses were formulated to address this question: l) There will be a difference in player/nonplayer imaginativeness scores while wearing control and experimental garments. 2) There will be a difference in player/nonplayer imaginativeness scores while wearing Experimental Garment I or II. / Ph. D.

The development of Infrared Spectrometry as a High Performance Liquid Chromatographic detector is presented. Early work with both a conventional dispersive instrument and a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer is presented coupled via a flow cell to size exclusion chromatography. These were used for the analysis of the non-volatile components produced in the liquefaction of coal. Additional work is presented for the coupling of FTIR to analytical scale normal phase chromatography via a flow cell technique. Analysis of both model mixtures as well as a complex process solvent used in the liquefaction process is discussed. Use of deuterochloroform as an improved IR transparent solvent is demonstrated. Work with microbore (1 mm i.d.) columns coupled with on-line flow cell detection is presented. Modification of the flow cell design for microbore compatability is shown as well as the benefits of microbore columns for fiow cell FTIR. Detection limits as amount injected for both analytical and microbore scale HPLC-FTIR are shown. / Ph. D.

This study describes the biostratigrapaic distribution of Meramecian conodonts from three measured sections of the Greenbrier Limestone (Meramecian-Lower Chesterian), located in the Greendale and Hurricane Ridge Synclines of southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. The Little Valley Formation, Hillsdale Limestone and lower portions of the "Denmar-Gasper" and "Ste. Genevieve" Formations, consisting of rocks deposited in a variety of shallow carbonate-ramp environments, were investigated. Two new multielement conodont apparatuses were recognized: Kladognathus sp. A and Hindeognathus ("Apatognathus") laevipostica. Elements of Kladognathus sp. A are morphologically distinct from homologous elements of the K. levis-K. tenuis group. Evolutionary change from K. levis to K. tenuis is marked by slight Sa and Sb element changes, and the addition of an X element, DE Lambdagnathus fragilidens. Species of Kladognathus are promising Meramecian biostratigraphic markers. Also recognized in this study are species of: Cavusgqnathus, Gnathodus, Hindeodus, Idioprioniodus, Lochriea, Rhachistognathus, “Spathognathodus," Synprioniodina? and Taphrognathus. Meramecian formations in the study area can be correlated with the Mississippian stratotype (Illinois Basin) based on the following zones: Taphrognathus varians - "Apatognathus," "A." scalenus - Cavusgnathus aad Gnathodus bilineatus - Cavusgnathus charactus. Southward thickening of the "A." scalenus zone from the Hurricane Ridge Syncline (11 m) to the Greendale Syncline (180-200 m) reflects higher rates of sedimentation and subsidence in the depositional area of the latter. In addition, thinness of the zone in the Hurricane Ridge Syncline may be due to a hiatus between this zone and the younger G. bilineatus zone. This hiatus is not indicated by conodont faunas from the Greendale Syncline, which preserves a more complete Meramecian biostratigraphic record. Conodont and litahologic evidence for a coeval hiatus exists in other areas of eastern North America: the Illinois Basin stratotype, eastern Kentucky, Southern Ohio and eastern Tennessee. / Master of Science

The purpose of the study was to develop a methodology for evaluating the livability of single-family houses and to test it on conventional and prototypical house types. The House Plan Evaluation Checklist and the Housing Satisfaction Scale were developed and analyzed for content validity using the responses of randomly selected housing professionals. Once the instrumsnts were revised they were used to evaluate the Benchmark house type (FmHA plan no. H5-41) and the Solar Attic house type (Cooperative Extension Plan Service experimental plan no. 7220). A randomly selected sample of 32 housing professionals evaluated the plans of these houses using the Hause Plan Evaluation Checklist. They rated the Solar Attic plan significantly higher on five of ten subscales. All of the subscales of the House Plan Evaluation Checklist had high inter-rater reliability when used by the housing professionals to rate the Benchmark house and the majority of the subscales also had high inter-rater reliability when used to rate the Solar Attic plan. The Housing Satisfaction Scale and an interview schedule were used with samples of 15 Benchmark and 15 Solar Attic residents to obtain information about their housing satisfaction and demographic, housing, and energy characteristics. The Solar Attic residents rated their satisfaction with their housing significantly higher than the Benchmark residents on five of 13 Housing Satisfaction subscales. The Benchmark residents had significantly more female heads of households, less educated heads of households, and lower income households. Their housing was older, smaller and the residents had lived there longer. They used more electrical energy, although their housing had many of the same energy-saving features as the Solar Attic houses. The subscales of the Housing Satisfaction Scale had inconsistent inter-rater reliability when used by the residents of both house types to rate their satisfaction, but they had high internal consistency reliability ratings on all but the Cost subscale. / Ph. D.

It has been alleged that the major producers of refined copper in the United States have sufficient market power to enable them to"administer" their own prices. From the early 1960s until about mid-1978, the differences between producer prices and those determined in the auction markets have often been significant, but since then producer prices have followed auction prices closely. The thesis adopts another view of producer pricing behavior; instead, it hypothesizes that the producers behave as"price takers" and trade copper at or near auction prices, either by design or because they do not have sufficient market power to do otherwise, and that they did this also in times when producer prices were significantly different from auction prices prior to mid-1978. To test this hypothesis, an econometric disequilibrium model, based on the"short-side" methods of estimating supply and demand schedules, is formulated to explain producer behavior for the subperiod from July 1978 to December 1981 assuming that the producers traded refined copper at auction prices. The model is then applied to the subperiod from January 1975 to June 1978 assuming that the producers traded refined copper at auction prices during this subperiod also. The coefficients of the equations in the model are then tested for equivalence between the two subperiods by means of the Chow test and a dummy variable technique in order to provide evidence in support of the hypothesis. Different behavior for the two subperiods is discovered, however, implying that producers may have been acting in response to administered prices instead of auction prices during the first subperiod. / Master of Arts

Six adult male volunteers of similar body composition and physical fitness were tested to determine plasma immunoreactive β-endorphin (Piβ-EN) response under three conditions of exercise thermoregulatory stress. The experimental protocol consisted of 120 min of stationary upright cycling at 50% Vo₂max under conditions of neutral (24ºC, 50% RH)/euhydration (NE), hot (35°C, 50% RH)/euhydration (HE), and hot/dehydration (HD). Piβ-EN was measured by radioimmunoassay at -30 min, 0 min, and at 15 min intervals thereafter. Change in plasma volume (ΔPV) was measured to determine its effect on Piβ-EN concentration. Preexercise Piβ-EN levels averaged 23.7 ± 2.6 pg•ml⁻¹ in all conditions. The greatest Piβ-EN response occurred at 105 min in HD conditions when levels rose to 43.2 ± 6.9 pg•ml⁻¹. Exercise in HD and HE conditions resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) elevated Piβ-EN above levels observed in NE. ΔPV did not account for more than 10% of Piβ-EN changes at any interval. The Piβ-EN response pattern closely resembled rectal temperature changes in all conditions. These data suggest that conditions of increasing exercise thermoregulatory stress are associated with increasing peripheral β-endorphin concentration. / Master of Science

A new way of looking at scheduling and lot sizing is proposed by embedding material handling considerations in the determination of optimum delivery policies for a single stage, uniform demand assembly system in a finite horizon. Unit loads are used in place of lots; material handling and container costs are charged; and area and material handling constraints are imposed. A solution procedure based on a delivery period matrix is used to solve the minimization problem. Computational experience is provided. A special case of uniform delivery intervals is taken up and a discussion is given on variance penalty. / M.S.