The study examined (a) which single technique (cover letter sponsorship, personalization, anonymity, or appeal) is most effective in increasing response rates with mail questionnaires, and (b) which combination of these selected techniques is most effective in increasing such response rates. Questionnaires concerning faculty evaluation were sent to a national sample of professors. The present study found that identification of a university as the sponsor of the survey resulted in a significantly higher response rate than that obtained when the survey was sponsored by a private research institute. There was a significant increase in response rates when the cover letter was personalized, as opposed to an unpersonalized form letter. There were no significant differences in response rates attributable to (a) wether respondents were assured anonymity, and (b) the type of appeal used in the cover letter (personal or professional appeal). No significant interactions were found among any of the four techniques investigated. It was concluded from this study that judicious selection of the survey sponsor and use of cover letter personalization can improve the response rates of a mail questionnaire significantly, at least with the type of population and questionnaire significantly, at least with the type of population and questionnaire topic used in this study.

The purpose of this research was to operate a bluff body flame holder with the objective of stabilizing a flame at elevated pressures over a range of equivalence ratios. The ability to have a ground-based test rig capable of maintaining stable flames at high pressures and temperatures is critical in understanding flames present in modern jet engines and gas turbine technologies. The facility was reconfigured multiple times and the resultant flame was imaged within the optical test section. A converging nozzle was utilized to choke the flow and vary the operating pressures up to 5 atm. By regulating mass flow rates of both the fuel and air, the target range of equivalence ratios was achieved. Jet fuel was successfully ignited on the bluff body and a flame was maintained in the recirculation zone. Visualization of flames during the flights of any aircraft is limited due to material and weight requirements, therefore, performing these studies in ground- based facilities is required. Further analysis was performed to characterize C2* and CH* radicals in fuel lean and rich flames.

Thin film uniform and exponential distributed RC networks were fabricated and the network responses were investigated. It was necessary to take dielectric loss into consideration in the theoretical analysis before a close agreement could be obtained between the theoretical and experimental network responses. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

In this thesis, the effect of the following three aspects related to the generation and efficient transport of vortex rings were studied. They included: 1) the initial boundary condition where the vortex ring is generated. A comparison between previous results and the data obtained in this study showed that vortex rings generated at a tube orifice were both slower in velocity and larger in size than vortex rings generated at a plate orifice under similar conditions. 2) the presence of a stratified layer of fluid in a vessel. Flow visualization experiments showed that after a vortex ring penetrated through the interface of the stratified layer, it was able to mix the fluid inside the ring with the surrounding fluid. The amount of mixing depended on the depth of penetration of the ring into the stratified layer. An empirical relationship was obtained to predict the maximum penetration depth of a vortex ring into a stratified layer. It is: Xp/Rm - -29.7 log10Ri - 22.7 3) the proximity of a wall or another vortex ring to the path of the primary ring. Through numerical simulation, it was shown that the primary ring would slow down and turn away from its original path. Eventually, this ring would either crash into the wall or collide with another ring. In order to prevent this turning of a vortex ring from happening, the centre of the generation orifice should be 7.5 times the radius of the injection orifice (Rm) from the wall or (Rm) between two generation orifices. These results can be used to optimize the design and positioning of vortex ring mixers for various mixing vessel geometries and mixing processes. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

This thesis is concerned with the study on the effect of the swimbbadder on hearing sensitivity in Ameiurus nebulosus nebulosus. The investigation has been performed by means of auditory threshold curves in normal catfish and in catfish in which the resonance of the swim­bladder was eliminated, The results were compared. The thesis consists of an introduction to the investigation, followed by a review of the literature in relation to the problem, a description of the material and technique and of the experimental work, the results obtained with a discussion and a summary. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the short-term and long-term effects of two kinds of advance organizers (AOs), a visual concept map and a text outline. The AOs were administered in a fully Web-based course in health care ethics. The outcome measures are students' knowledge acquisition and application in two posttests. This study was conducted through a post-test only control group design with a random assignment. The population of the study involved 166 college students who participated in this online class in their junior or senior year. The voluntary research participants were randomly assigned into the two treatment groups and one control group. The treatment of AO was administered as an integral part of a one-week-long online module on the topic of patient-physician relationships. Students of the two treatment groups were presented with one of the two AOs, while the control group was instructed to proceed to textbook reading without an AO. Then, students were tested on the subject matter with two parallel posttests. Both posttests were composed of a multiple-choice question quiz and a set of scenario-based essay questions. The students took posttest I at the end of the instructional week, and posttest II four weeks after. A survey and interviews were also conducted to supplement the quantitative results with contextual information. The findings do not demonstrate a statistically significant AO effect among the treatment groups and the control group. However, in agreement with the previous research, this study shows a positive but inconclusive benefit of using AOs for students' short-term knowledge acquisition. The students using a concept map consistently obtained higher learning achievements than individuals using a text outline. More importantly, this study reiterated the proposition that students of lower-learning abilities benefit more from using an AO for online learning than those of higher-learning abilities. The current study extends our knowledge on the use of AOs in fully Web-based educational environments. The results indicated that although AOs more often than not have small facilitative effects for learners, they are not equally effective for all learners in all learning situations. The incorporation of the instructional strategies, such as AOs, in Web-based courses and programs might benefit online learners, especially those students of lower verbal and analytical abilities, or of lower prior knowledge of the material-to-be-learned.

<p> An experimental study of the flow phenomena occurring in jet-driven vortex flows was undertaken. Two vortex chambers were constructed, one using compressed air, the other using water as the working fluid. Temperatures and total and static pressures were measured at several locations in the air-driven vortex chamber, and the wall static pressure, temperature and Mach number distributions for the vortex were presented for different exit geometries and mass flow rates. A comparison of some indicative experimental results was made with the present vortex theory. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

No / Observers were given brief presentations of pairs of simultaneous stimuli consisting of a visual and a spoken letter. In the visual focused-attention condition, only the visual letter should be reported; in the auditory focused-attention condition, only the spoken letter should be reported; in the divided-attention condition, both letters, as well as their respective modalities, should be reported (forced choice). The proportions of correct reports were nearly the same in the three conditions (no significant divided-attention decrement), and in the divided-attention condition, the probability that the visual letter was correctly reported was independent of whether the auditory letter Was correctly reported. However, with a probability much higher than chance, the observers reportedihearing the visual stimulus letter or seeing the spoken stimulus letter (modality confusions). The strength of the effect was nearly the same with focused as with divided attention. We also discovered a crossmodal congruity effect: Performance was better when the two letters in a stimulus pair were the same than when they differed in type.

No / Background Hair is degraded by the action of both dermatophytic and nondermatophytic microorganisms. The importance of understanding hair sample condition in archaeological and forensic investigation highlights the need for a detailed knowledge of the sequence of degradation in samples that have been either buried or left exposed at the ground surface. Objectives To investigate the sequence of biodegradative change to human terminal scalp hair from archaeological and forensic contexts. Methods Cut modern scalp hair from three individuals with caucasoid-type hair was inoculated with soil microorganisms through soil burial in the field and under laboratory conditions to produce experimentally degraded samples. The degraded hair fibres were subjected to detailed histological examination using a combination of high-resolution light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy to investigate the nature and sequence of degradative change to hair structural components. Results/discussion Degradation was found to occur first within the least structurally robust components that afford the least resistance to microbial/chemical attack. The sequence of degradation (most to least-reflecting degree of vulnerability) in the hair cuticle was as follows: (1) intercellular 6-layer (cell membrane complex); (2) endocuticle; (3) cell membrane ß-layers; (4) exocuticle; (5) epicuticle; and (6) A-layer. In the hair cortex this was as follows: (I) intercellular 6-layer (cell membrane complex); (II) cell membrane ß-layers; (III) intermacrofibrillar matrix/nuclear remnants; (IV) microfibrils; (V) intermicrofibrillar matrix; and (VI) pigment granules (the hair fibre component that was the least vulnerable to degradation). Conclusions The selective progress of degradation in the hair shaft has been charted and this provides a basis for further histological work in better understanding the condition of hair fibres derived from archaeological or forensic contexts as well as being relevant to investigation of diseased hair, in particular hair infected by dermatophytes and hair weakened by genetic hair shaft abnormalities.

Contemporary dance and modern ballet often focus on conveying emotions through patterns of movement which may be abstract, obvious, or anywhere in between, as supported by music, sound, or spoken words that set the mood. Scenography is typically sparse or confined to the available space, leaving the dancers as the main instrument of communication. This work explores choreography and costume design, with a focus on how garments can inform and direct movement, choreography, and performance, and in turn how movement may inform and contribute to the development of dynamic garments. Through a series of live experiments, ranging from self-instigated performance/video work in collaboration with choreographers and dancers to performances of garment interaction associated with everyday life, the performative, spatial, and interactive properties of garments are explored. The results of these live experiments relate to various aspects of choreography, scenography, and performance space, and offer wide-ranging creative potential. The work shows how designers and choreographers can collaborate on performance scenarios within the context of modern ballet and contemporary dance productions, thus creating conceptual garments that influence the design, choreography, and manipulation of conceptual garments. In relation to the act of dressing and undressing, previously unseen types of garment and ways of wearing and performing were found. New models of collaborative interaction are proposed. This work has demonstrated how the agency of garments can function as a manuscript in modern dance, and how performance itself redefines the notion of wearing and the concept of garments.