In many countries, motorcycle crashes constitutes a significant proportion of all road crash fatalities and injuries and safety measures can be successful only if much more attention is devoted to this issue. Several Roadside guard systems such as concrete barriers, wire rope barriers and steel guard rails are used to protect occupants of four wheels and heavy trucks. Yet motorcycle riders are vulnerable to any crash scenario, resulting in major injuries. Also the climatic conditions have a major impact on motorcyclists. Thousands of motorcyclists are killed or injured in road accidents. The need to provide and improve crash survival programs in collision environment is the subject matter of interest and research. In this research, simulation of full scale crash tests of a motorcycle with rider driven in an upright position and sliding on the road surface impacting on steel barriers and concrete barriers are carried out by DEKRA Accident Research, to analyze real-world crashes. It is most important to evaluate head injury risks as it causes a serious threat to life. The motorcycle model with a rider are developed in MADYMO 6.3 and validated using the real time barrier tests. Under normal road conditions, the motorcycle driven in an upright position is assumed to have a pre-crash velocity of 60km/h impacting at 12° on a concrete barrier. The validation criteria used are: motorcycle kinematics, rider kinematics and the rider injury criteria. The results obtained in this research are found to be in a reasonable correlation with the experimental data. A parametric study is then conducted to investigate the crash for various impact speeds (40 km/h, 60 km/h and 80 km/h) under different impact scenarios (6° impact, 8° impact, 12° impact, 24° impact, 45° impact, 60° impact and 90° impact). An icy road condition is then studied. A study of kinematics and injury parameters for a motorcycle rider is proven to be different under various impact speeds (40 km/h, 60 km/h and 80 km/h) under different impact scenarios (6° impact, 8° impact, 12° impact, 24° impact, 45° impact, 60° impact and 90° impact). Design of Experiments is conducted to study the contribution of the road condition, impact angles, speed and the interaction of these factors. The result from this study helps in understanding the factors affecting the crash and rider injuries. Design of Experiment also provides a valuable knowledge about the contribution of factors chosen (road type, angle of collision and speed) towards accidents. / Thesis (M.S)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering / "December 2007."

Sound propagation through porous media such as foams and fibers is governed by five parameters that describe the geometry of the porous frame: porosity, tortuosity, flow resistivity, viscous characteristic length, and thermal characteristic length. The conventional laboratory methods for measuring these geometric properties are prone to errors and can be highly cumbersome. In this work, an alternative method of determining the geometric properties of porous materials, based on an inverse acoustical technique, was investigated for materials used in aircraft noise-control applications. This technique is incorporated in commercial software codes, such as FOAM-X (ESI Group) and Comet TrimTM (Comet Acoustics), which require the absorption coefficient and/or transmission loss (TL) to be measured in Brüel and Kjær (or equivalent) standing wave tubes as inputs. The estimated geometric properties are required to define the porous material for complex vibroacoustic analysis in commercial code such as AutoSEA2 (ESI Group). One of the goals of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of the estimated geometric properties. A closed-loop validation technique was previously developed where the absorption coefficient and transmission loss were predicted using AutoSEA2 and compared with the standing wave tube measurements. Good agreement between the measured and predicted absorption coefficient was observed for both foams and fibers. However, in the case of transmission loss, good agreement was observed for fibers but not for foams. In order to eliminate inconsistencies, the existing validation loop was modified by incorporating Comet TrimTM inverse characterization software that took both the normal incidence absorption coefficient and transmission loss as sequential inputs to estimate the geometric properties. To complete the modified loop, sound absorption and transmission loss of porous materials was predicted using the performance analysis module in Comet TrimTM and compared with the test results. In general, the absorption coefficient of most of the foams and fibers, prediction using both validation loops was in good correlation with the measured data. On the other hand, the correlation in normal incidence transmission loss was better using the modified loop. In the process of investigating the repeatability of estimating the physical properties, previously measured porous material samples were re-measured for their absorption coefficient and transmission loss. A possible effect of sample aging was discovered and reported. As an alternate method to the forward TL calculation, a finite element model of the standing wave tube was also developed. This could be used to study the effect of boundary conditions on acoustic properties. Finally, individually validated samples were combined to develop optimized multilayer aircraft noise-control treatments and were experimentally demonstrated to produce excellent acoustical performance. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering / "December 2007."

It is shown in this research paper that, with the appropriate control system, a storage energy unit connected to a distribution system near the primary load, can completely level the load on a distribution feeder for any primary load profile. By doing simulations using an Excel spreadsheet, graphs were generated that show how the control system is able to achieve this objective in addition to quantifying the storage energy system to the primary load profile. Steps needed for future research projects to make the energy storage system economically viable are suggested. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."

The United States Supreme Court was at the center of criticism in the 1960s. Unpopular Court decisions, such as expanding the rights of the criminally accused, brought the Court a lot of attention. The Court is the most removed body of government in the United States, being that members are appointed, not elected. Thus this separation from the Court created the need to explain its behavior, i.e. why it produced the opinions it did. This paper explores three Court decisions, Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Escobedo v. Illinois (1964), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966) and argues that the decisions in each case were due to the individual Justices experience with communism, than with any other of the theories behind the Court’s action. / Thesis (M.A)-- Wichita State University, College of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History / "December 2007."

Buses and coaches form a vital part of the national as well as city public transportation network. Buses are still one of the safest modes of transportation. Nevertheless, bus accidents resulting in passenger injuries and fatalities do occur. According to the Traffic Safety Facts statistical reports from 1999 to 2003, an average of 40 fatalities and 18,430 injuries of bus occupants occurred per year. These accidents involved normal vehicle impacts, such as head-on or rear-end collisions. In this thesis the crashworthiness of the passenger compartment in a mass transit bus is evaluated and interior design guidelines that will mitigate the fatalities and injuries of the occupants during a crash event are recommended. Computational modeling and crash sled testing are used to analyze the frontal, side and rear accident scenarios in the passenger compartment. This report includes the evaluation of occupant injury during three accident scenarios by validating numerical models through MADYMO and LSDYNA codes versus experimental sled tests using Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) 208 injury criteria. Interior components are evaluated against crashworthiness requirements from the FMVSS and the Standard Bus Procurement Guidelines (SBPG). The sled pulses were generated from validated bus model finite element (FE) simulations of critical real-crash scenarios for frontal, rear and side conditions. The validated numerical model was then subjected to parametric studies to analyze the influence of the current vehicle interior design parameters, e.g., Seat spacing, seat height, location etc. on passenger kinematics and biomechanical performance. This study was carried out through a Design of Experiments (DOE). Optimization studies were carried out to define new bus interior designs that would reduce or mitigate passenger injuries. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering / "December 2007."

With the advent of wireless devices, such as PDA, palmtops, the demand for staying connected to the internet have steadily increased. The traditional TCP/IP stack does not have support for mobility. In order to address these demands, Mobile IP protocol was proposed, which has support for mobility. With Mobile IP protocol, one can stay connected to the internet while they are moving. As the mobile node moves from one network to another, it undergoes handoff in order to register with new network. The traditional Mobile IP protocol does have built in support for security. Hence external security mechanisms such as IPSEC, AAA are used in order to address the security issues during handoff in Mobile IP. These security mechanisms introduce further delay during the handoff. This thesis focuses on addressing the delay introduced due to security mechanism during handoff in Mobile IP. This research is based on development of algorithm for securing the communication between the mobile node and the home network and also by reducing the delay associated during handoff. The main idea behind this algorithm is to use the key exchange server at the home agent and generate the subset of keys which are then used by different foreign agents to register the mobile node with the home network. In the proposed algorithm, wireless sensor networks are used to detect the movement of mobile node and inform to the respective mobility agents. Then the mobility agents and home network exchange the information and when the mobile node moves to the new network, it registers using the key generated previously. In this research, the effects of various parameters such as burst in traffic, different security mechanism have been studied. All the simulation in this research work was carried out using MATLAB and different parameters such as registration cost, handoff cost and movement cost have been studied and compared to that of previous proposed schemes. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is set to become the standard in identification and tracking of items worldwide with projected numbers in tens of billions in a few years. With the reducing size and cost of RFID equipment, the use of RFIDs is being pushed well beyond just replacement of barcodes. Even though the deployment of RFIDs is growing at an exponential rate, the only global standard that currently exists for RFID networks is the EPCglobal Network proposed by EPCglobal, Inc. This thesis reviews the EPCglobal Network Architecture and provides a detailed explanation and critique of the proposed framework. Although this architecture has been designed as a very robust and scalable architecture, there are some limitations related to delay and reliability. The thesis proposes an enhancement to the EPCglobal Architecture to mitigate these issues. The new architecture suggests that RFID users maintain a local database that synchronizes with the Master database, so that under certain conditions, data can be retrieved locally instead of going over the network for identification of every single item. The thesis compares the two architectures using a cost function analysis. Also, as a means to showcase the advantages of the proposed enhancement as well as to enable future users and researchers to have access to a RFID test environment, a complete, scalable RFID simulator has been built from the ground up. The results show that the proposed solution demonstrates distinct performance improvements over the original architecture and also increases the reliability of the system. / Thesis (M.S)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."

The effects of a secondary cure cycle on the mechanical and physical properties of a carbon fiber epoxy composite were evaluated. The secondary cure cycle represents one of several possible scenarios such as secondary bonding operation, repairs using a higher temperature adhesive or any other elevated temperature exposure. The subject material was Cytec's HMF7740/T650-35-3K-PW-195-HM. This material consisted of HMF7740 epoxy impregnated into plain weave T-650 carbon fiber. Two sets of test laminates were prepared using a 250°F cure cycle. The first set was cured using the designated cure cycle. The second set was also cured using the same cure cycle but was then exposed to the same cure cycle again. Using the AGATE-based methodology contained in report DOT/FAA/AR-03/19 [1], mechanical and physical test data was generated for comparison. Tests were conducted to evaluate the effects on 90° Tensile, 90° Compressive, In-Plane Shear, Interlaminar Shear, Open-Hole Compression, Resin, Fiber and Void Contents and the Glass Transition Temperature. While slight differences were detected in some of the tests results, overall, there was minimal difference between the two sets of laminates. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / "December 2007."

As global business landscape becomes more competitive, new and innovative methods to stay ahead of the competition are imperative. Profits being the bottom line of every business, margins are shrinking in the face of extreme competition. Overbooking is a revenue management concept that is used by the airlines to increase operating revenues. This study focuses on the application of this technique to the warehousing operation of a third party logistics firm with the objective of maximizing profit. It proposes a mathematical model to identify the overbooking limit to maximize profit. It shows the additional revenue generation potential of overbooking concept, in the warehousing operation of a third party logistics business. A discussion of the competition between different third party logistics businesses is also initiated. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. / "December 2007."

LDPC codes have many applications in channel and source coding. In this thesis, we apply LDPC-like belief propagation algorithm to address distributed detection problem in Wireless Sensor Network. The objective is to achieve convergence to a weighted average and to make decision at all sensor nodes. We also consider the design of WSN structure, which achieves convergence asymptotically, and guarantees the consensus of all sensor nodes. We study the network structures that can achieve the fastest convergence. The results show analogy to the performance of LDPC codes in channel coding. Introducing certain range of irregularity results in an improvement in the network performance in terms of the rate of convergence. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."