This dissertation is sequestered till May 2014 / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

This thesis is sequestered till May 2014 / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology

This thesis is sequestered till May 2014 / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology

Woody plant expansion into grasslands and savannas is a globally occurring process which can cause loss of biodiversity and alter biogeochemical cycles. The Chautauqua Hills, in southeast Kansas, is the northernmost extent of the Cross Timbers vegetation type, Quercus stellata and Quercus marilandica are the dominant tree species. Government Land Office records from the 1860’s indicate sparse tree cover in much of this region, which is now characterized by dense oak woodlands. I use a multi-site, dendrochronological approach to address four research questions: 1) when did oak expansion occur? 2) from what landscape position did oaks expand?, 3) how have physiological differences between members of the Erythrobalanus (Q. marilandica) and leucobalanus (Q. stellata) subgenera influenced recruitment patterns?, and 4) which drivers of woody plant encroachment coincide with oak expansion in the Chautauqua Hills? Quercus stellata comprised a greater proportion of ancient (>100 years) trees than Q. marilandica at all sites. Quercus stellata age structures differed from both the normal and negative exponential distributions at all sites, while Quercus marilandica did not differ significantly from the normal distribution at three sites, and did not differ from the negative exponential distribution at two site. Three of the four study sites likely were savanna prior to Euro-American settlement, indicated by the over-representation of older age classes compared to the negative exponential distribution. Drought during the 1930’s, favorable attitudes towards trees following the dustbowl, livestock grazing, and changes in fire frequency all likely contributed to oak expansion in the Chautauqua Hills. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biological Sciences

Dengue virus (DENV) is a major health threat that affects 2.5 billion people, or 40% of the world’s population. However, there are no approved antiviral drugs or vaccines to treat Dengue infection. This thesis describes the design, synthesis and discovery of a new class of inhibitors of DENV NS3 protease. Structure-activity relationship studies have been carried out in order to delineate the structural elements responsible for the activity of this series of compounds. A lead compound suitable for further development has been identified. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry.

In this study, published information on nonprocess energy use, which includes lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation, humidity control, and particulate control, for industrial buildings has been analyzed and compiled and then represented in power intensity (W/ft2). More than thirty different sources of data related to industrial building energy use (covering about 82 buildings) were identified and analyzed. The overall objective of this research is to establish benchmark representative ranges (minimum, mean, medium, maximum) of nonprocess energy consumed by an industrial facility. That information will be used in life cycles of industrial products. The industrial manufacturing buildings were classified into six categories according to nonprocess energy use. This research also investigated the climate zones influence on nonprocess energy use in industrial buildings. The hypothesis tested in this research is: if an industrial building has a characteristic nonprocess energy related to physical dimensions and desired comfort level, then using cooling degrees day (CDD) and heating degrees day (HDD) factors can normalize the measured nonprocess temperature control data for the climate zone differences. The mean, median, standard deviation and total nonprocess energies for current and zone-adjusted nonprocess energy for each facility in this study were calculated. Finally, five industrial facilities were visited and the energy data for these facilities were collected. The nonprocess power intensity for the various nonprocess energy uses was calculated for each facility, based on the actual facility energy bills and measurements. Four separate analysis techniques were used to estimate the nonprocess energy for these facilities as a means to critically understand this information. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study details the life stories of three former juvenile delinquents currently living in Sedgwick County, Kansas. The participants who are now adults reported extensive criminality and involvement in the juvenile justice system as juveniles. The study utilizes a qualitative collective case study methodology. A corollary purpose of the study was to determine if findings could be couched in Robert Agnew's (1992) General Strain Theory. Data analysis subsequently revealed six common themes among participants that presented challenges for their desistance from criminality as juveniles. These themes are: (1) lack of parental control, (2) living in a high crime community, (3) experiencing school failure, (4) displaying early signs of delinquency through aggression, (5) substance abuse, (6) and having a desire to obtain money. Moreover, the results suggest that these themes taken in constellation with one another seemed to be salient in their criminality as juveniles. Finally, the results demonstrated several sources of strain in participants' lives at the time of their offending. Therefore, the results of this study in part can be explained by General Strain Theory. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Criminal Justice

Because of economic impact that results from downtime, aircraft maintenance is an important issue in the aerospace industry. In-service structures will decay over time. Compared to low-cycle loading structures, aerospace structures experience extreme loading conditions, resulting in rapid crack propagation. The research involved in this dissertation concerns development of the initial stages of structural health monitoring (SHM) system that includes a network of ultrasonic testing sensors with artificial intelligence capable of detecting damage before structure failure. A series of experiments examining the feasibility of ultrasonic sensors to detect the initial onset of damage on a composite laminate, similar in structure to that used in aerospace components, was conducted. An artificial neural network (ANN) with the best accuracy was found to be a hybrid of a self-organizing map (SOM) with a feed-forward hidden and output layer. This was used for the single actuator-to-sensor scans on a composite laminate with simulated damage. It was concluded that a decentralized network of sensors was appropriate for such a system. The small four-sensor system was proven to be capable of predicting the presence of damage within a scanning area on a composite laminate, as well as predict the location once damage was detected. The main experimentation for this dissertation involved four ultrasonic sensors operated in a pitch-catch configuration. Simulated damage, verified through experimentation, was placed at various locations in the scanning area of interest. Signals obtained from the ultrasonic sensors were analyzed by a multi-agent system in which each agent describes an ANN. The system was trained to determine damage size. A second multi-agent system was constructed to determine the location of the detected damage. The architecture was similar to the damage-sizing system. Results demonstrated that with the artificial intelligence post-processing of ultrasonic sensors, 95% confidence can be obtained for detecting and locating damage that is 0.375 in. in diameter, which was verified through a bootstrap method. This dissertation validated the initial stages of constructing such a network of ultrasonic sensors. Future research in this area could involve combining the four-sensor network into a larger network of sensors by means of multi-agent processing (i.e., developing scanning regions). The novel method presented here provides the basis for the development of the SHM system for typical aerospace structures. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering.

A fiducial volume is crucial in particle physics when trying to choose the shape and size of a particle detector. The fiducial volume is defined as the volume at which a specified number of energy events are to be accepted. Fiducial volumes are impacted by aspects such as size and geometry. The fiducial volume in this study is optimized to contain the highest number of events generated from geo-neutrinos for the Hawaii Anti-Neutrino Observatory Project (HANOHANO). Geo-neutrinos are defined as anti-neutrinos coming from the earth either through radioactive decay or from a hypothetical nuclear reactor (geo-reactor). Five different volume types were tested and each type was able to contain at least 98% of anti-neutrino events. This study will demonstrate that an elliptical-cylinder is the best fiducial volume geometry for the HANOHANO project. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Geology

An ever-present achievement gap has been found among students and their peers. Educational research and literature have found that the growing gap is due in part to a lack of parent involvement in their students' education and academic performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate how parent involvement affects student achievement and academic success in Pre-Kindergarten. It is hypothesized that parents who display higher levels of involvement will have children that perform better academically. The participants in this study included 38 preschool children and their parents. The researcher utilized a curriculum based measurement, AIMSweb, and IGDI's (Indicators of Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Toddlers), a pre-k assessment measure used to monitor and assess early literacy development in preschool children. A modified version of the Parent Involvement Project Questionnaire (PIPQ) was also used to determine if there is a positive correlation between parent involvement and student achievement. Results of the study indicate that student achievement is not statistically correlated with any of the scales from the parental involvement survey. Because the results were based on self-report and included a relatively small sample size, the outcomes of the study may not align with the majority of published studies pertaining to parent involvement and student achievement, due to its subjective nature. Or, perhaps for some students, there may be other factors that are more influential than parent involvement. Implications and further research are discussed. / Thesis (M.A.T.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction