Over the past decade, Islam has come of age in America. Despite Islam being a controversial subject, its presence in America is obvious, becoming the fastest growing religion in the United States. While Americans are selecting Islam as a religion and way of life, the number of converts of women outnumber men by about four times, raising the question of why women more than men have converted to Islam. The process and reasons for American and European women’s conversion to Islam have been studied by scholars of American Muslims and especially American converts to Islam. My thesis reveals that women converts in Wichita offer similar reasons for conversion to those discovered by these other scholars. As with their studies, I found through ethnographic interviews that American women experienced problems with the Christian concept of the trinity, were attracted to the Islamic notion of women’s rights, and found satisfaction in the comprehensiveness of Islam. I also explored what converts think Islamic beliefs are regarding women covering, since while covering is a widespread cultural practice in countries that are Muslim-majority, the hijab stands out as a minority practice in countries where the vast majority of the population is not Muslim. The approach used in this study was to use a snowball sampling technique to find subjects for face-to-face interviews in which I asked a series of questions. A total of 20 female conversion narratives were examined in hopes of answering the question of what motivated these women to convert as well as what the converts thought about hijab. My research reveals that because my informants are American Muslims, their conformity to Quranic rules concerning modesty in dress is expressed in terms of their rights as women to personal dignity and freedom. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Liberal Studies

Documentation has a become part of everyday life for individuals in the corporate world. With the increase in required documentation, the size of the data is also growing, which requires maintenance and storage facilities. Due to the growth in data, metadata, data about data, has been created. Metadata helps users recover relevant data easily and is used throughout the industry. Though it may take up less space, metadata is also increasing to keep up with the needs of companies, which means additional costs are accumulating. Data can be classified into two types: active data and archived data. Active data is the data which is frequently used while archived data is the data which is used irregularly or infrequently. In order to improve database space management, this thesis proposes a mechanism where the metadata associated with low priority data is stored in a compressed format using Burrows-Wheeler’s transform compression algorithm. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Depositional patterns and stratal relationships in the Middle Jurassic Gypsum Spring and lower Sundance Formations were influenced by a combination of paleotopographic highs and eustatic changes in the eastern Bighorn Basin. Most of these highs are of tectonic origin related to an island arc collision to the west and assumed to be reactivations of crustal weaknesses from earlier western North American orogenies. Although overall basin geometry was affected by the encroaching tectonic load, the study area is far enough away from the orogenic front that it behaves like a passive margin in a ramp setting in response to relative sea level changes. The Middle Jurassic section in the Bighorn Basin records three major transgressive regressive cycles. Many of these contain high-order cycles identifiable by evidence of subaerial exposure in outcrop or by a geophysical log signature showing cyclic alternating peaks and troughs within a given lithologic unit. Chert pebble lag deposits have been used by previous workers to locate regional unconformities in the Bighorn Basin and throughout the Western Cordillera. One of these unconformities, the J-2 surface, is particularly enigmatic. If these lag deposits do in fact mark the J-2 unconformity the surface in the Bighorn Basin is localized and only present in the vicinity of paleotopographic highs, the Black Mountain High being the most prominent. The chert pebbles were shed off of this high and deposited locally and sporadically across two lithofacies units. The combination of paleotopography, tectonics and eustatic changes all contributed to the stratigraphy of the Middle Jurassic section. A sequence stratigraphic model was developed to gain insight into the timing of these tectonic and eustatic events in relation to deposition. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Geology

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between student participation in instrumental music class and academic achievement, specifically in low socioeconomic status (SES) students. The hypothesis was that students who participate in an instrumental music program will display increased levels of achievement, and that this relationship will be more pronounced among students who receive free and reduced lunches. Participants in this study were 320 students in grades 5 and 6 from an intermediate school in a rural south central Kansas school district. Students ranged in age from 10-12 years. A total of 172 fifth grade students and 148 sixth grade students participated. The Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was the main analytical method employed in this study. Separate ANOVAs were conducted for each of the two dependent measures, reading and mathematics, subscales of the Kansas State Assessment, for both grade levels with music status and lunch status as factors. Some of the findings from this study are consistent with previous research. Results show were no significant interactions found between instrumental music status and lunch status in any of the four ANOVAs. A statistically significant relationship was found between sixth grade instrumental music participation and reading scores, as well as sixth grade instrumental music participation and math scores. These results suggest that duration (i.e., months of instruction) in instrumental music class may be important to increases in academic achievement. Also consistent with previous research, fifth grade results showed a statistically significant relationship between lunch status and reading scores as well as lunch status and mathematics scores; free and reduced lunch students scored significantly lower than their peers. / Thesis (MED)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology

In many industries, the use of articulated robots has proven to be an efficient and beneficial way in which to reduce manufacturing costs, e.g., by increasing productivity through automating repetitive processes. However, because of their limited payload capacity, articulated robotic arms have found limited use in processes like friction stir welding (FSW), which require precise position control under relatively high process loads. This limitation in payload has restricted the use of robots to low-loading operations in manufacturing. One way to increase the usefulness of robots for FSW is to reduce the process forces to which they are required to react. One potential area of robotic application is friction stir spot welding (FSSW), a variant of FSW. FSSW is typically used to join two overlapped sheet metal workpieces. A significant portion of the process cycle of FSSW is the plunge cycle. The axial (z) load generated in the process can be substantial depending on selection of the weld tool and process parameters. This study is a continuation of the work performed in the first phase on a gantry-style FSW machine to analyze the process feedback forces, mainly the axial force. In the first phase of this project, the level of the axial force required to produce FSSW in an AA2024-T3 bare aluminum sheet, was significantly lowered by reducing the weld tool shoulder diameter from 0.4 inches (10.2 mm) to 0.3 inches (7.6 mm). Results from the second phase of this project included the influence of three weld tool shoulder geometries, namely concave, convex scrolls, and flat scrolls, on the axial force, mechanical strength (shear strength), and macrostructural properties produced between AA7075-T6 (typical of stringers) and AA2024-T3 (typical of an aircraft skin). The effects of process parameters were analyzed using the design of experiments (DOE) approach. The results of this research suggest that basic and swept FSSW of dissimilar aerospace alloys can be successfully performed at an axial force that is suitable for robotic applications. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

Alfred Schnittke and Thomas Mann were both fascinated by the legend of Doctor Faustus, a Germanic myth based upon the life of a real man who lived in the early sixteenth century. Doctor Faustus was a transgressive figure from the perspective of the Lutheranism that swept Germany during the sixteenth century. His exploits were exaggerated to the point of fantasy and eventually became the basis for a 1587 chapbook by Johann Spies. The Spies chapbook functioned as a morality play censuring the acts of witchcraft and divination and exhorting would be-readers to consign themselves to the grace of God. The chapbook quickly spread throughout Europe and was translated into several languages within a few years. In the twentieth century Thomas Mann wrote the novel Doctor Faustus in which he employed biographical elements from such luminaries as Freidrich Nietzsche and Arnold Schoenberg and combined them with the musical knowledge of Theodore Adorno to create the fictional musician and composer Adrian Leverkühn. Leverkühn is the Doctor Faust for a new century and after reading the novel in 1947 Alfred Schnittke, a Russian composer of German descent, decided to compose a musical work based on the fictional descriptions of music. The resulting work Seid Nuchtern und Wachet became one of Schnittke's most well-known compositions. There is a complex web of interrelated material in these two works of art and this thesis document reveals the dialectical position of Thomas Mann's novel and Alfred Schnittke's work to previous versions of the legend specifically that of Wolfgang Von Goethe. / Thesis (M.M.)--Wichita State University, College of Fine Arts, Dept. of Music

Clinicians’ personal epistemology about stuttering and knowledge may directly affect their clinical decision-making process. The purpose of the current study was to obtain a better understanding of the relationship between clinicians’ epistemological beliefs and their selection of stuttering treatment – fluency shaping or stuttering modification. This study (a) examines the clinicians’ beliefs about the structure and complexity of knowledge and (b) investigates whether clinicians adapt a particular form of epistemological beliefs specific to their treatment preference with persons who stutter (PWS). Participants were 174 certified speech-language pathologists who responded to questionnaires that included a stuttering-specific epistemological beliefs scale and predominant ways of knowing. Results indicate that persons who have higher levels of separate knowing have a preference for the fluency shaping approach with PWS. People who believe knowledge is more complex and is always changing have a preference for the stuttering modification approach. The findings of the current study suggest that clinicians’ personal epistemology (rather than the tenets of evidence-based practice) may be playing a significant role in some clinical decisions. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders

In wireless sensor networks, data preservation has become a key challenging problem. Data generated by some sensor nodes is huge and due to limited storage space in a sensor node, the data generating nodes have to offload the data to nodes with available storage space and high battery power. The data needs to be preserved in these nodes until the base station collect it. In this thesis, data preservation problem in sensor networks is modeled as network flow problems and it is solved by using network flow algorithms while considering the specific sensor network parameters such as battery power and storage capacity of sensor nodes. The load‐balancing data preservation algorithm maximizes the minimum energy left among the nodes that store data and minimizes the total cost for data redistribution. We also formulated the data‐preserving problem, with limited battery power in each node and minimized the total energy consumption of data preservation. In addition, we also studied and analyzed the feasibility of data preservation when each node has limited battery power. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The orthotropic nature of composites provides excellent performance in the fiber direction, but it is susceptible to failure in the orthogonal direction. Failure due to the delamination is limited to composites, and has an adverse consequence on its mechanical properties. The interlaminar tensile (ILT) strength of a composite part is compromised by delamination failure caused mainly by the applied loads and environmental factors. This phenomenon creates a challenge in design and manufacturing of composite parts for the aerospace industry. This study is focused on improving the ILT strength of a curved composite laminate by suppressing failure modes associated with free edge effects and to evaluate the ILT strength of a curved section with various porosities. Composite panels were built on an angle bend tool using the fiber reinforced carbon/epoxy tape pre-pregs. The manufactured panels were machined using a water jet to produce test coupons as required by ASTM 6415. The curved sections of the test coupons were reinforced with metal clamps manufactured from aluminum 7075-O alloy and another pre-preg material (glass fiber reinforced pre-preg). The observed ILT strength of the reinforced coupons was found to be much higher than the baseline because the reinforcement reduces the effects of the stresses induced by the free edge of the composite specimen. There was a 25% increase in the interlaminar tensile strength for the coupons reinforced by the metal clamps and a 21% increase in strength for the coupons reinforced with the glass pre-preg material. We also observed that with various percentages of porosity, the ILT strength varied significantly, which needs to be addressed in the future studies. The failure of the coupons occurred due to the delaminations caused by the interlaminar stresses under the applied loads. This study may open up new possibilities to reinforce the various fiber reinforced composites used in many manufacturing industries in the field. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

MapReduce is a framework for processing highly distributable tasks across huge datasets using a large number of compute nodes. As an implementation of MapReduce, Hadoop is widely used in the industry. Hadoop is a software platform that utilizes the distributed processing of big data across a cluster of servers. Virtualization of Hadoop Cluster shows great potential as it is easy to configure and economical to use. With some of the advantages like rapid provisioning, security and efficient resource utilization, Virtualization can be a great tool to increase efficiency of a Hadoop Cluster. However, the data redundancy which is a critical part of the Hadoop architecture can be compromised using traditional Hadoop data allocation methods. MapReduce which is known for its I/O intensive applications faces a problem with the decrease in data redundancy and unbalanced load in the virtual Hadoop cluster. In this research, the authors consider a Hadoop cluster where multiple virtual machines (VMs) co-exist on several physical machines to analyze the data allocation problem in a virtual environment. The authors also design a strategy for file block allocation which is compatible with the native Hadoop data allocation method. This research shows the serious implications of the native Hadoop data redundancy method and proposes a new algorithm that can correct the data placement in the nodes and maintain the redundancy in Hadoop cluster. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science