The method proposed in this dissertation addresses the need to relate product features to customer expectations. This is particularly difficult given the variety of consumer perspectives and the uncertainty in their assessments. Current statistical methods may not relate all of the market research information available to customer-oriented product-development approaches. Rough set-based Kansei Engineering (RSBKE) is an approach for reasoning under uncertainty and deals with imperfect information originating from the imprecision of human assessment. This mathematically powerful approach extracts knowledge from customer survey data and develops product design rules based upon single or multiple subjective impressions (Kansei) from single or multiple users. A two-stage user-oriented product development approach generates market segmentation rules and product design rules for either a single or multiple Kansei(s). RSBKE provides an enhanced means of defining primary customer groupings and automatically generating design rules. Several extensions to target marketing, lead-user identification, and Kano model applications are presented. RSBKE can be extended to the decision attributes of functional customer requirements. The approach presented here is compared to statistical methods. A case study involving a website design was used to illustrate this approach. The results identified distinctive classes of users who had the same perception of a set of websites. The system generated a set of strict design rules for each class. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This research is aimed at the development and application of an immersive virtual reality environment (IVE) for performing assembly and maintenance simulations using the Jack® software package. The Flock of Birds™ motion tracking system is used to capture body postures of an immersed human and reproduce it in real-time in the virtual environment. The Cyberglove™ is used to capture finger movements in real-time for realistic grasp interaction. A comprehensive set of voice commands has been developed to provide significant functionality to allow one person to control the virtual environment while immersed in the environment, thereby improving ease of use and productivity. One of the most important applications is a method by which the immersed human can walk and fly through the virtual environment, thereby greatly expanding the envelope of the virtual environment navigable under the constraints imposed by the limited tracking volume. These capabilities have been used to investigate assembly simulation of the windshield deicer of a Cessna aircraft. After accomplishing successful improvement in fine tuning of the capabilities developed for VR, we aimed at employing the applicability of VR in field of ergonomics. Improvements include improving the ease of use of the capabilities developed so far as well as implementing new types of grasping, etc. One topic of research is the fidelity of the virtual environment in capturing and mapping immersed user postures on to digital humanoids. Different sensor configurations were being analyzed and multiple operators were used to arrive at the general conclusions and recommendations to maximize the accuracy of the postures. We are also implementing certain developments to enable an immersed user to experience the reach, visibility and ergonomics that are experienced by operators of different sizes for any given design of tooling and operations. The motions performed by the immersed operator were mapped to humanoids representing standard operators such as 5th, 50th or 95th percentile males and the postures adopted are subjected to ergonomic analysis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Study of the Cauchy problem for Helmholtz equation is motivated by the inverse scattering theory and more generally by remote sensing. In this dissertation the increased stability of the Cauchy problem for Helmholtz equation and the Maxwell's system is investigated with varying frequency. Here it has been shown that the the stability of continuation is improving with the increasing frequency. The continuation is inside the convex hull of the surface where the Cauchy data is given. This has been demonstrated by numerical experiments with simple geometry. When we continue outside of the convex hull, the subspace of stable solutions is growing with frequency. This is also demonstrated by numerical experiments where we reconstruct the density function of the single layer potential. Another problem that is presented here is the electromagnetic obstacle scattering problem, with variable frequency. Here the existence and uniqueness of the solution to the forward problem is presented and the analytic dependence of the solution on the frequency is proved. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics

Person-centered caregiving is a construct that is currently being defined and operationalized in the gerontology literature and in long-term care. The goal of this study was to further define interpersonal person-centered care by developing and pilot testing a training intervention for geriatric nurse aides. The training was developed to incorporate content regarding person-centered behaviors, knowing the residents, and understanding relationships. Specific materials used in the training were videos to model person-centered care, personalized resident videobiographies, and personalized videos of caregiving interactions between the nurse aides and the residents. The pilot testing of this intervention was implemented by using a quasiexperimental, waitlist control design in two nursing homes, Catholic Care and St. Joseph. The outcome measures included two behavioral observation measures for assessing person-centered care: the Person-Centered Care Inventory and the Global Behavioral Scale. Additional outcome measures included: dyadic measures of relational closeness and relationship satisfaction, nurse aide job satisfaction, and resident satisfaction with care. The findings indicate that the training intervention was successful in increasing both the nurse aides’ and residents’ sense of relationship closeness, as well as their relationship satisfaction. However, the nurse aides’ person-centered caregiving behaviors care did not increase reliably. One explanation may be that the sampling of the nurse aides’ caregiving behaviors was too small to provide an adequate test of the hypothesized increase. It is possible that relationship closeness increased as a result of the combination of encouraging the nurse aides and residents to think of themselves as being in a relationship as well as the specific content of the training intervention. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

Each year millions of dogs enter animal shelters across the U.S.; subsequently well over a million are euthanized (American Humane, 2010). Only a limited number of independent studies have investigated reasons for relinquishment of dogs to animal shelters; empirical literature on predictors of adoption versus euthanasia is even scarcer. The primary aim of this study was to use a data-driven approach to identify dog characteristics that contribute to adoption. In turn, the results can be used in subsequent theory building on owner--dog attraction. Data were comprised of all the dogs entering and exiting a Midwestern shelter in 2007. The variable contributing the most variance (17%) to whether a dog was adopted or euthanized was owner’s reason for relinquishment. Having too many animals (18%) was the most frequently cited reason, followed by moving (12%). A discriminant analysis revealed that purebred status had the biggest influence relative to six other variables used to predict whether dogs were adopted or euthanized; it accounted for 29% of the variance of the discriminant function, which in turn accounted for 7.8% of the variance. In descending order of importance, the other predictors of adoption were smallness, being a stray, youth, not having a primarily black coat, medium hair, and being female. Additional findings and implications for shelter and community policy are presented. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

School safety and security continues to be a concern in schools throughout the world as it is not a matter of if, but when a crisis will occur. There is a large segment of the population that attends schools in rural settings making preparedness in rural schools a timely topic. The purpose of this study was to examine a Midwestern rural school district to learn the perceptions of how prepared the school‘s staff felt they were for a crisis situation and to compare their perceptions with local emergency responders. A theoretical framework of protection-motivation theory (PMT) was used throughout the study. PMT postulates when sufficient fear exists and a reasonable probability a catastrophic event could occur, then one is motivated toward protection. It was concluded that the school district was well prepared for crisis situations they have faced, but was not prepared for disasters the school district has not faced. The rural school district has an ―it won‘t happen here‖ attitude regarding safety and security and as a result, has not kept crisis plans, training, and drills updated. The last thorough update took place shortly after the Columbine school shooting and subsequently, fear of a similar attack motivated the district to update their comprehensive crisis plan at that time. As that fear has waned, so has the preparedness of the district. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

Platinum(II) biphenyl diimine complexes have been synthesized and characterized. Single crystal X-ray structures from seven complexes show two types of configurations about the platinum coordination sphere in the solid state: X and B (butterfly). The two configurations give different circular dichroism spectra (CD) based on their C2 or Cs symmetry. The metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) bands which occur at ~440 nm are transitions from d orbitals on the platinum metal center to * orbitals of the diimine ligands. This agrees with the time dependant density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations where the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMO) are located on diimine ligands. Emission spectra of the complexes can be divided into three groups according to different emission excited states: group I, ligand centered transitions (LC); group II, ligand field transitions (LF) and group III, metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT). Emission profiles from the groups are different from one another: LC transitions have vibronic structures; LF transitions have sharp peaks without vibronic structure and MLCT transitions have a broad peak without vibronic structure. Linear free energy correlations were found between emission maxims, reduction potentials and emission lifetimes with Hammett sp values. The diimine with electron donating substituents have the higher energy emission maxima and the longer emission life time. The diimine with electron withdrawing substituents has the lower energy emission maxima and the shorter emission life time. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry

While the cultural landscape of society is becoming more diverse, the teaching population continues to remain largely white and female. Teacher preparation programs must prepare future teachers for the diversity with which they will work and training in culturally relevant pedagogy provides teachers with skills necessary for working with diverse student populations. This qualitative case study investigated how two cohorts of students from Bethel College, a small, liberal arts college on the plains of Kansas, implemented the constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy in their classrooms. The constructs investigated included: reflective practice, cultural literacy, building a community of learners, respect for diversity culturally relevant instructional methodology, and high expectations. Six graduates, including elementary and secondary teachers, and their mentors/principals were interviewed. The teachers were additionally observed. All other graduates of the program from the same time frame were invited to participate in an open-ended online survey. The findings indicated that although graduates saw some success in their use of culturally relevant pedagogy, some changes in their teacher education program could enhance graduate effectiveness. One such finding was that “Generation Y” teachers’ views of diversity are different than preceding generations and generational differences must be taken into consideration in teacher training programs. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

Electrospun nanocomposite fibers were produced using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 (NiZn ferrites) nanoparticles, and their physical properties, such as electrical, dielectrical, thermal, acoustic, and magnetic were determined. In this dissertation, various system parameters (e.g., polymers, solvents, and viscosity) and process parameters (e.g., electrical potential, pump speed, concentration, and distance) of the electrospinning process were studied in order to obtain the optimum properties of the nanocomposite fibers. MWCNTs are conductors, and NiZn-ferrite nanoparticles are semi-conductor materials; therefore, they alter the physical properties of electrospun fibers in a different way. A comparison was made between MWCNT-based fibers and NiZn ferrite-based fibers in terms of physical properties. As far as magnetic properties are concerned, only NiZn ferrite-based fibers have been used because MWCNT-based fibers do not exhibit magnetic properties. This dissertation determined to what extent the physical properties change when nanoscale inclusions are encapsulated in nanocomposite fibers. This study may open up new possibilities of using these products in various industrial applications (e.g., filtration and separation, high frequency antennas, magnetic storage, environmental sensors, biosensors, etc.) in the near future. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

We derive Carleman estimates with two large parameters for a general partial di erential operator of second order under explicit su cient global conditions of pseudo-convexity on the weight function. We use these estimates to derive the most natural Carleman type estimates for the anisotropic system of elasticity with residual stress. Also, we give applications to uniqueness and stability of the continuation, observability, and identi cation of the residual stress from boundary measurements. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics