The gender pay-gap in the government sector was investigated in this paper using the March 2006 Current Population Survey (CPS), Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASES). The data was analyzed using statistical techniques of a comparison of group means using a 2-tailed t-test, an analysis of variance, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, and partitioning of variance. The main findings from this study are that individual’s income increases with age, education, working in occupations with high prestige, and working at the federal level. The findings also showed that women are sorted into lower paying occupations and earn less income than men. It was concluded that women are not financial equals to men at any level of the government: federal, state, or local. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Sociology / "December 2006."

Polymer matrix composites were coated with metals, alloys and intermetallic compounds using the thermal spray coating technology. Air plasma spraying and flame spraying were the two spraying techniques primarily used during this entire study. Coatings were sprayed with two configuration; coatings with bond coating and coating without bond coating. Pilot runs were conducted to develop thermal spray process parameters for a two factor study, namely torch power and torch-substrate standoff distance, with other process parameters kept constant. Eventually a process window was established to carry out the final coating runs. Scanning electron microscopy was carried out to determine coating porosity and evaluate the microstructures and mechanical testing was performed to determine the bond strength and the erosion resistance of the coatings due to sand blasting. It is seen that the nickel aluminum intermetallic compound has better erosion resistance and bond strength than the nickel aluminum alloy. It is also seen that the process parameters, torch power and torch-substrate standoff distance do not significantly affect the coating properties. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering / "December 2006."

This study was designed to examine the rates of employment among displaced workers. The model used for this study looked at individual, structural, and gender segment variables that affect employment. The data came from the 2000 Displaced Worker Survey, a supplement of the Current Population Survey. This study found that displaced workers with a college degree were more likely to be employed net of other factors at the individual level. At the structural level, it was found that net of other factors those displaced from a whitecollar high-skill position were almost 60% more likely to be employed than those displaced from blue-collar low-skill position. Women, net of other factors, were found to be less likely compared men to find employment post-displacement. Overall, this study shows a need for increased education and job training among workers. Also, the difference in the rate of employment between men and women show possible discrimination in hiring practices. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Sociology. / "December 2005."

This research attempts to develop and validate a model of High Back Booster seat used for child safety in automobiles. The cost of actual testing and the secrecy maintained by the manufacturers make research process difficult and increase the importance of computer simulations. To boost the research, a need for validated computer models is felt. Two types of booster seat models a simplified ellipsoidal model and a facet model are developed and validated using computational tool MADYMO. The method used for modeling was developed by Dr. Rajiv Menon from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A reversible engineering process was developed to model the seat. The seat was CT-scanned to obtain the geometric details and was then converted to a facet model using digitizing tools such as MIMICS and further simplified using Hypermesh. These models are being validated at three different speeds and their performance at each speed is compared with each other. Further certain applications of these models have been explained. The validation is carried out on basis of the comparison of kinematics in the simulations and actual sled test. To ensure the validity of the model the results are tested using certain statistical tests. These tests are used to compare various acceleration profiles and force/moments experienced by the occupant under the test conditions. Further the injury levels, sustained by the occupant, in the actual sled test and the simulations are compared. Thus a reversible engineering process is utilized to obtain a booster seat model and the model is further validated for its practical applications. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical engineering. / "December 2005."

Drilling is one of the most common machining operations. An Aircraft skin consists of hundreds of different-sized holes distributed over a large area. Automated drilling/riveting machines are used today to perform the drilling/riveting process on large aircraft skins. These machines are capital intensive and their maximum utilization is vital to their economic viability. An issue that affects the utilization of these machines is the drilling sequence because usually there is ’n’ number of holes that has to be visited. Determination of drilling sequence is similar to a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and exhibits characteristics of an NP-hard problem. Two types of setups complicate this process further. Depending on the size of the holes, different-sized drills are selected, each size requiring a different setup for changing the tool. Also, as holes are drilled, the drill bits wear out and need to be replaced at the end of their tool life. This thesis presents an Ant-algorithm meta-heuristic to solve this sequencing problem. Results indicate that the procedure is effective in arriving at good solutions. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. / "December 2005."

A high-temperature argon-hydrogen plasma jet issuing into ambient air and impinging on a flat circular steel substrate was modeled using a commercial CFD software. Plasma was represented as an ideal gas with temperature-dependent thermodynamic and transport properties. The flow was governed by steady-state compressible Navier-Stokes equations with axisymmetry. Turbulence was modeled using the k -[varepsilon] model. Chemical reactions and electromagnetic fields were not considered in this study. Two different cases were carried out: adiabatic and isothermal substrates. The recovery temperature and Nusselt number along the radial distance on the substrate were obtained for various Reynolds numbers. It is seen that radiation and air entrainment are equally important phenomena affecting the temperature distribution in a plasma jet issuing into ambient air and the subsequent heat transfer to the substrate. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / "December 2005."

This work is focused on the finite element study of the energy absorbing behavior of aluminum (corrugated webs). The aim is to study the mechanism of energy absorption in specific metallic structures by understanding these mechanisms. The sine wave web (or corrugated web) structural component constructed of aluminum has been chosen as the specific structural element for this study. The sine wave exhibits similar energy-absorption trend as tubes, but it represents a more realistic and efficient configuration directly usable in design when compared to tube elements. The principal objectives are, (1) to perform an eigen value analysis of the sine wave web, a parametric study of the corrugated beam is done by varying the wavelength, amplitude and young’s modulus of the corrugated web and calculate the buckling load, and (2) comparison of the buckling load from the finite element analysis with that of the eigen value analysis and the energy absorption predicted from the finite element study. The static energy absorption behavior of the sine wave webs loaded in axial compression is investigated experimentally in the experimental study of Crash-Impact Behavior of Aluminum Sine Wave Webs. Tests are conducted to study the effect of geometric parameter i.e. the included angle on the energy absorption of the corrugated web as reported in the experimental study of Crash-Impact Behavior of Aluminum Sine Wave Webs. A finite element model for the energy absorption in the sine wave web is developed by assigning aluminum properties to the sine wave web model. The included angle of the web is varied and the energy absorption is observed for the different included angles. The crash-impact behavior of the sine wave web is studied by calculating the energy absorption analytically from the finite element study. Some important conclusions are pointed out as a result of this investigation. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / "December 2005."

Wichita State University (WSU) and Raytheon Aircraft Company are working toward the development of a flight control system to reduce the workload for a pilot under normal as well as deteriorated flight conditions. An ’easy fly system’ for a Bonanza Raytheon NASA test-bed has been used by WSU to develop a neural network-based adaptive flight control system. In this thesis an online technique for aerodynamic parameter estimation is presented, which is developed to improve the adaptation. The neural-based adaptive flight controller uses an artificial neural network for immediate adaptation in dynamic inverse control to compensate for modeling error or control failure. Long-term adaptation to modeling error requires a permanent correction of the aerodynamic parameters used in the inverse controller. This method is designed to update parameters inside the controller and to provide slow and long-term adaptation to compliment the existing immediate adaptation provided by neural networks. The method employs gradient descent optimization, guided by the modeling error for updating each parameter. It also uses the linearized equations of motion where the aerodynamic forces are represented by their coefficients and derivatives. Some convergence enhancement techniques are also used to reduce the time required for parameter identification. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering. / "December 2005."

Wireless sensor networks have received immense attention in recent years due to their possible applications in various fields like battery-field surveillance, disaster recovery etc. Since these networks are mostly resource-constrained there is a need for efficient algorithms in maximizing the network resources. In this thesis, energy and bandwidth-efficient detection and fusion algorithms for such resource constrained wireless sensor systems are developed. A Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) based detection algorithms for an energy-constrained sensor network is proposed. Performance is evaluated in terms of number of nodes required to achieve a given probability of detection. Simulation results show that a network implementing the SPRT based model outperforms a network having a parallel fusion detector. To implement distributed detection and fusion in energy and bandwidth constrained networks, non-orthogonal communication is considered to be one of the possible solutions. An optimal Bayesian data fusion receiver for a DS-CDMA based distributed wireless sensor network having a parallel architecture is proposed. It is shown that the optimal Bayesian receiver outperforms the partitioned receivers in terms of probability of error. But the complexity of this optimal receiver is exponential in the number of nodes. In order to reduce the complexity, partitioned receivers that perform detection and fusion in two stages are proposed. Several well-known multi-user detectors namely, JML, matched filter, Decorrelator and linear MMSE detectors are considered for the first stage detection and performance is evaluated in terms of probability of error at the fusion center. Conventional detector based fusion receiver has a performance close to that of optimal fusion receiver with quite less complexity under specific channel conditions. Performance and complexity trade-offs should be considered while designing the network. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering. / "December 2005."

Research examining women’s personal epistemology found two beliefs that tend to be gender related, connected knowing and separate knowing. Connected knowing is characterized by empathizing and placing oneself within another person’s situation to see from the inside out. Separate knowing, while not the opposite of connected knowing, is characterized by detaching oneself from a situation to analyze and be objective in an argument. Both ways of knowing have been hypothesized to support higher order thinking. The purpose of this study is to test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between ways of knowing and the established epistemological beliefs, as well as, the relationship between ways of knowing and need for cognition. The participants for this study were 457 undergraduate and graduate college students who completed questionnaires assessing their epistemological beliefs, (i.e. Certainty of Knowledge, Structure of Knowledge, Source of Knowledge, Control of Knowledge Acquisition, and Speed of Knowledge Acquisition), ways of knowing (separate and connected) and need for cognition. The relationships among these variables were examined. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Wichita State University, College of Education. / "December 2005."