This thesis identifies six distinctive Mormon naming types and investigates the relationship between distinctive Mormon naming and other aspects of Mormon culture. It also examines Mormon group identity through the lens of distinctive naming. This thesis draws conclusions based on the author's personal interviews with Mormon parents who used distinctive names for their offspring, the Social Security Administration's website, and existing literature on naming and folklore. Utah houses a distinct Mormon subculture in which distinctive Mormon naming types are often found. Informants were reluctant to identify as Mormon namers, though they often pointed to certain factors particular to Mormons that influenced their name choices such as the emphasis the LDS Church places on genealogy, family, missionary work, serving a mission, and intense religious devotion. This thesis argues that distinctive Mormon naming types have emerged out of a need to distinguish oneself when belonging to and being surrounded by a culturally homogenous group. Contrary to existing literature, Mormon personal names do not contribute to a shared group identity among Mormons. Because the LDS Church restricts many usual venues for expression, names are one of very few areas open to creativity. Therefore, names have become a popular avenue for personal self-expression. Members of the group take advantage of the lack of restrictions on naming without recognizing that other members do the same thing, thus contradicting the original purpose of expressing individuality through this avenue. By interviewing Mormons who practice distinctive Mormon naming patterns, we gain insights into how these naming patterns function for the group.

This thesis examines food in African American literature, specifically investigating the relationship between food and Black women identity.

Frontal alpha asymmetry is often used as a metric to compare activation between homologous frontal brain sites. A positive asymmetry refers to greater activation in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere, while the opposite is true of negative asymmetries. Two expansive but largely separate bodies of research have examined the relationships between (1) frontal asymmetry scores and mood, and (2) mood and emotional memory performance. Specifically, one body of research has found that positive moods are associated with positive asymmetries while negative moods are associated with negative asymmetries. A second body of literature has examined the effects of mood on affective memory performance found that individuals tend to preferentially recall stimuli whose valence (positivity or negativity) is consistent with their current moods, often at the expense of stimuli whose valence is inconsistent with their current moods. Researchers in this area report that individuals in positive moods tend to recall more positive than negative words while those in negative moods recall more negative than positive words in memory tasks. This effect has been termed mood-congruent memory. As frontal asymmetry appears to underlie mood, and mood differentially affects performance on emotional memory tasks, it is surprising that no research has focused on a possible direct relationship between frontal asymmetry and emotional memory performance. The present study attempted to replicate previously described relationships between (1) frontal asymmetry and mood, and (2) mood and emotional memory performance. The main goal of the study, however, was to bridge the gap between frontal asymmetry and selective recall of emotional words by attempting to correlate frontal asymmetry indices with emotional memory performance. Results supported the expected mood-congruent memory effects and a significant relationship between asymmetry and mood in the expected direction. While a correlation between asymmetry and affective memory performance was not found, groups based on asymmetry scores found that the positive asymmetry group showed increased memory performance for positive words and total words, while the negative asymmetry group showed impaired memory for positive words and total words. Further examination of links between alpha asymmetry and affective memory could corroborate the present asymmetry group differences in memory. Future findings would provide the first neuropsychological underpinning of mood-congruent memory effects. Additionally, support for a relationship between asymmetry and affective memory could lead to the formation of a unifying theory of asymmetry and memory that draws on current models of brain activation, executive function, emotion, and memory.

A method of creating real-time height fields using available gridded altimetry data combined with extrapolated values computed using linear predictive coding for use in the Ocean Surface Currents Analysis, Real-time (OSCAR) is developed and tested. This method is implemented by Earth and Space Research (ESR) to produce operational height fields that are in turn used to calculate the geostrophic component velocity of OSCAR. The gridded altimetry product used in OSCAR is evaluated against sea level measured by tide gauges while the operational total near-surface velocity from OSCAR (geostrophic plus Ekman component velocity) is evaluated using ocean velocities from moored and shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements. The evaluation is focused in the Intra-American Sea (IAS), having complex currents due its topography and bathymetry, and proves to be a challenging place for OSCAR to accurately reproduce ocean velocity. Issues are related to the upper limit in frequency that altimetry can capture, accuracy of altimetry near to land, the scale of the spatial smoothing across relatively narrow currents and geographical differences in the effective smoothing of the gridded altimetry used for OSCAR. These problems highlight the need for more and better ocean observing and modeling systems to provide data that can supplement the use of gridded satellite-derived products, especially in the IAS.

As the most developed renewable energy source, wind energy attracts the most research attentions. Wind energy is easily captured far away from the places where wind energy is used. Because of this unique characteristic of the wind, the generation and delivery systems of the wind energy need to be well controlled. The objective of this dissertation work is modeling and control of wind generation and its High Voltage Direct-Current (HVDC) delivery system. First of all, modeling of the Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG)-based wind farm is presented including dynamic models of the wind turbine, shaft system and DFIG. Detailed models of the rectifier and inverter of HVDC are given as well. Furthermore, a control scheme for rotor-side converter (RSC) and grid-side converter (GSC) is studied. A control method for the HVDC delivery system is also presented. Secondly, wind farms are prone to faults due to the remote locations. Unbalanced fault is the most frequent. Therefore, fault-ride through (FRT) of an ac connected DFIG-based wind farm is discussed in this dissertation. Dynamic responses of the wind farm under unbalanced grid conditions are analyzed including rotor current harmonics, torque pulsation and dc-link voltage ripples. Coordinated control strategy is proposed for DFIG under unbalanced fault. Thirdly, when a wind farm is connected to remote ac grids through HVDC, active power balance between DFIG-based wind farm and HVDC delivery needs to be obtained. In other words, the power delivered through HVDC should balance the varying wind power extracted from the wind farm. Therefore, control methods of DFIG and HVDC are modified. A coordinated control scheme is proposed to keep the power balance. The transmitted power through HVDC is regulated by adjusting the firing angle of the converter under different wind speeds. Both average and detailed models of the wind farm and HVDC delivery are built in Matlab/Simulink and Matlab/SimPowerSystems. Case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method. Fourthly, the fast power routing capability of line-commutated converter (LCC)-HVDC is investigated when the wind energy is delivered through LCC-HVDC transmission. Such capability is most desired in future grids with high penetration of wind energy. The proposed technology replaces the traditional LCC-HVDC rectifier power order control by an ac voltage order control. This technology enables the HVDC rectifier ac bus to act as an infinite bus and absorb fluctuating wind power. A study system consisting of an ac system, an LCC-HVDC, and a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind farm is built in Matlab/SimPowersystems. Simulation experiments are carried out to demonstrate the proposed HVDC rectifier control in routing fluctuating wind power and load change. Parameters of the proposed voltage order control are also investigated to show their impact on HVDC power routing and ac fault recovery. Finally, for the wind farm with LCC-HVDC delivery, reactive power needs to be provided for the HVDC. Hence, reactive power capability of the DFIG is discussed because DFIG is capable of providing reactive power to the LCC-HVDC. Since the reactive power is directly related to the voltage, the upper and lower limits of the rectifier ac bus voltage are investigated. Case studies are carried out in Matlab/Simulink to verify the system dynamics when the ac bus voltage is within and out of the limits.

Prior research has demonstrated both the efficacy of behavioral parent training in effectively teaching parent skill implementation; and of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based training program in improving perceived parenting abilities. The purpose of the present study was to assess the efficacy of an ACT based training component, following a behavioral parent training, in increasing participant integrity of skill implementation. Targeted dependent measures included: (1) participant integrity of skill implementation (analog & in vivo), (2) score on Parental Locus of Control Scale (PLOCS), (3) frequency of participant child problem behavior, and (4) frequency of coercive caregiver interactions. Although the effects of intervention on reducing child problem behavior were limited, the overall effects of intervention were determined to have been successful in their primary objectives of altering caregiver covert verbal behavior in regards to parenting abilities and increasing integrity of implementation.

Stable isotopic analysis of the major biochemically important elements is an increasingly utilized tool in the study of ecology. Patterns of isotopic fractionation in carbon and nitrogen are used to determine trophic linkages, nutrient pathways, and sources of primary production in numerous contexts. Traditional techniques rely on measurements made of bulk samples such as tissue, but emerging methods using individual chemical compounds provide a means of achieving deeper understanding in a variety of inquiries. Amino acids, as the building blocks of proteins, are the dominant nitrogen-bearing biomolecules and are a major constituent of all life. Patterns of isotopic fractionation during synthesis and transformations of these compounds record a variety of information about their environmental history. The purpose of this study was to utilize amino acid-specific isotopic analysis to address a variety of questions in paleoecology and trophic ecology, with an eye towards overcoming limitations inherent in bulk analyses applied to these fields. Organic matter preserved in shells provides an archive of compounds that are typically lost quickly from the environment, such as proteins. It can be used as an analog of the soft body parts typically used isotope-based environmental measures and therefore provide a window on past environmental conditions, if it can be demonstrated that the two are chemically equivalent. Compositional differences between tissue and shell organic matter can obscure this relationship in bulk analyses, so a compound-specific approach is needed to accurately test this idea. Comparison of amino acid δ13C values between hinge muscle tissue and shell organic matter in Crassostrea virginica sampled along an estuarine salinity gradient in Rookery Bay, Florida, demonstrated functional equivalency between them. While minor isotopic offsets were observed between them, likely due to differences in turnover time between tissues, the ability to resolve location within the estuary was identical between them. This suggests that amino acid-specific isotopic measurements from shell organic matter can be effectively used in paleoreconstructions. A complicating factor in using shell organic matter as a surrogate for body tissues arises from interspecies differences in organic matrix composition. This manifests itself as species-specific isotopic offsets in bulk analyses, making meaningful comparisons across species difficult. Amino acid nitrogen isotope analysis of a suite of mollusks from St Joe Bay, Florida, was used to infer trophic positions from shell organics and the results obtained were compared to equivalent tests using body tissue. Despite the inability to reconstruct trophic position from bulk isotopic compositions, shell organic extracts produced an identical description of trophic levels to that obtained using body tissues. CSIA, therefore, can be used to eliminate compositional biases in interspecies comparisons using organic matter preserved in biominerals. Trophic level determinations derived from measurements of amino acid δ15N benefit from that fact that a subset of these compounds directly record ecosystem isotopic baseline values. It is therefore possible to parse the source of observed changes in bulk isotopic compositions into contributions from both baseline variation and trophic shifts. By correcting for the possibility of baseline changes, unambiguous assignments of trophic position can therefore be made. Application this technique to a collection of Bairdiella chrysoura spanning multiple year classes was used to demonstrate the timing of ontogenetic diet shifts in this species. Juveniles (<80 mm standard length) were found to consistently occupy a lower trophic level than adults (>80 mm) based upon ∆15N glutamic acid-glycine. Results obtained were compatible with previous estimates of ontogenetic effects on prey preferences derived from gut-content analysis. Amino acid 15N-based trophic determinations assume near-constant trophic fractionation in each compound, regardless of an organism's health or nutritional status. The fact that this fractionation is influenced by internal nitrogen processing within the organism argues against such consistency, however. Effects of condition on the magnitude of compound-specific fractionation and resulting trophic estimates were tested by comparing dry season and wet season samples of Anchoa mitchilli subject to seasonal starvation in the latter period from the Alafia River, Florida. Despite significantly lower measures of condition (as measured by length:weight ratios) in the wet season fish, no differences in amino acid fractionation were detectable between them. This suggests that amino acid-specific fractionation factors are in fact robust to changes in organism health, although more rigorous assessment of this in culture is required.

Some have claimed that John Dewey was one of few thinkers that developed an educational theory that is comparable to Plato.1 Dewey did something that William James and Charles Sanders Peirce did not do; he applied Pragmatism and the Pragmatic method to the study of education. The main tasks of this dissertation are as follows: (1) Argues that habit is the most important and unifying element in John Dewey's philosophy of education, (2) Critically investigates habit's fundamental role in his democratic project of reconstructing culture toward establishing and sustaining the democratic way of life. In addition to the latter points, this project shows how and why the critique of habits and cultural values is central to Dewey's philosophy of education and reveals how important the process of unlearning is to the continual development of human possibilities. The latter tasks will be carried out by first reviewing the historical influences on Dewey's thinking with regard to habit and surveying secondary literature that has dealt with his position on habit. Second, the Deweyan conception of the nature of habit and the formation of habit in immediate experience will be explored. Third, Dewey's educational philosophy will be examined. Education, which Dewey asserts to be Democracy's midwife, should produce growth that is characterized by perpetual reconstruction of habits of thought and practical conduct. Fourth, in investigating habit, individuality, and community, a close reading of Dewey's position on habit highlights that the political enterprise of education and the transactional process of learning are cultural projects that demand ongoing re-evaluation and refinement community values. The conclusion will argue how important the ongoing improvement of a cultural instrumentalism, through schooling, is to sustaining a steady path of cultural self-correction. For Dewey, schooling, in cultivating the requisite habits, serves the crucial social function of developing and recasting new forms of the Democratic way of life toward creating a "Great Community." Dewey had a persistent concern for the ethos of the Democratic way of life but feared that the stultification of an individual's plasticity of habit will inevitably bring on the "social arterial sclerosis" of the public. Like his pragmatism, experimentalism, and instrumentalism, the Democratic way of life, for Dewey, is an attitude. This attitude, like any attitude, is shaped and channeled by a force as powerful as gravity, habit.

Speaker Recognition is the art of recognizing a speaker from a given database using speech as the only input. In this thesis we will be discussing a novel approach to detect speakers. Here we will introduce the concept of shifted MFCC to add improvement over the performance from previous work which has shown quite a decent amount of accuracy of about 95% at best. We will be talking about adding different parameters which also contributed in improving the efficiency of speaker recognition. Also we will be testing our algorithm on Text dependent speech data and Text Independent speech data. Our technique was evaluated on TIDIGIT - database. In order to further increase the speaker recognition rate at lower FARs, we combined accent information added with pitch and higher order formants. The possible application areas for the work done here is in any access control entry system or now a day's a lot of smart phones, laptops, operating systems etc have Also, in homeland security applications; speaker accent will play a critical role in the evaluation of biometric systems since users will be international in nature. So incorporating accent information into the speaker recognition/verification system is a key component that our study focused on. The accent incorporation method and Shifted MFCC techniques discussed in this work can also be applied to any other speaker recognition systems.

Porous metal-organic frameworks are a new type of functional materials with potential applications for gas storage, gas separation, catalysis, biomedical and chemical sensors. This thesis describes several porous metal-metalloporphyrin frameworks (MMPFs), which were synthesized with a series of transition metals and 5,15-bis(3,5-dicarboxyphenyl)-10,20-bis(2,6-dibromophenyl)porphine. Among these MMPFs, the cobalt MMPF (CoBrPTC) has a fcu structure, which represents the first porphyrin-based MOF with this topology. CoBrPTC was evaluated as heterogeneous catalyst and demonstrated interesting catalytic performances.