The current study involved two experiments that were conducted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde, TX (semi-arid environment) from 2006 to 2008. In experiment one, Bonsmara bulls ( n = 39; 20-24 mo of age) were joined with multiparous Bonsmara and Bonsmara-influenced females (n = 1013) during a 90-day breeding season in 2006, 2007, and 2008 to quantify the effects of a reduction in bull to female ratio on reproductive performance. Bulls were also placed with primiparous beef females ( n = 142). Bulls were allotted by selected physical traits, social rank, serving capacity, and seminal traits to one of two bull to female (BFR) treatments: Low (1:30-1:45; n = 10 pastures) or Conventional (1:16-1:26; n = 12 pastures) BFR. Pregnancy rate (P = 0.36), calving date (P = 0.24), and calving rate (P = 0.25) did not differ between Conventional and Low BFR treatments. The current experiment demonstrates that Low BFR can be utilized in breeding pastures of up to 2,090 ha without negatively affecting reproductive performance. In experiment two, Bonsmara heifers (3/4, 7/8, and full bloods) were exposed to Bonsmara bulls from April 15 to July 15 during each of the two years. Heifers were weighed, rectally palpated for pregnancy, and scored for BCS (1 thin - 9 fat) and frame score (1 short - 9 tall) in December (end of second trimester) during years 1 and 2. Heifers were stratified on expected calving date and randomly allotted to one of two levels of nutrition for the remainder of gestation. In year 1, heifers were allotted to range forage (n=31, low nutrition, LN) or to non-irrigated oat pasture (n=31, high nutrition, HN). In year 2, heifers were placed onto the same range environment as in year 1 (n=31, LN) or onto irrigated ryegrass pasture (n=31,HN). Heifers in the LN groups were supplemented with 20% CP cubes at the rate of 0.9 kg/heifer/day from January 2 until calving while HN heifers were not supplemented. Within 4 hr of birth, calves were weighed, and calf vigor and calving difficulty scores were recorded. Heifers were weighed within 72 hours of parturition. From treatment initiation through calving, HN heifers gained 48.6 kg whereas the LN females lost 15 kg. Twice as many HN heifers required major assistance at calving as compared to LN heifers. Calves born to the HN females weighed 3.7 kg more at birth than those born to LN females. These differences resulted in HN heifers having (P = 0.005) more calving difficulty than LN heifers (mean calving difficutly of 2.3 for HN and 1.6 for LN). The calves of the HN females were also less vigorous (P = 0.005) after birth than the calves from LN females (calf vigor score of 2.2 for HN and 3.3 for LN). Consequently, the level of nutrition during the third trimester of gestation can affect calving difficulty, calf vigor, and female weight.

The goal of this research is to design a low power, high speed, 10-bit, 250 MHz digital-to-analog converter. For high speed application, the DAC is implemented in thermometer-code based segmented DAC. An optimal switching scheme is used in this design. The switching scheme can compensate the gradient error in thermometer-code DAC arrays.This DAC is implemented in a 0.18£gm 1P6M mixed-signal CMOS process provided by TSMC.

The objectives of this study were threefold: (1) to determine a suitable model for defining the farm-retail price spread for two percent and whole milk in seven cities (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Seattle, St. Louis); (2) to discover the determinants that contribute significantly to the price spreads of two percent and whole milk in seven selected cities, and (3) to calculate the elasticity of price transmission for whole and two percent milk in the seven cities. The work of Wohlgenant and Mullen in -Modeling the Farm-Retail Price Spread for Beef" was followed in order to determine a suitable model. The two specifications considered were the markup pricing model and the relative price spread model. Factors considered to affect the farm-to-retail price spread of whole and two percent milk were the retail price for whole and two percent milk, marketing costs such as fuel and labor costs, milk production, seasonality, and structural change. Monthly data were collected over a 106 month period from January 1994 through October 2002 for the selected cities in this investigation. Principal findings from the analysis are the following. The markup pricing model was determined to be the better model for both products throughout the seven cities through the examination of the Schwarz and Akaike criteria of model selection. The driving forces of the farm-to-retail price spread for whole and two percent milk in most cites were retail price and seasonality. In addition, the price spreads in the Northeast were significantly lower before and during the implementation of the Northeast Dairy Compact compared to the period corresponding to the termination of the program. The price spreads of both whole and two percent milk were highest in the third quarter and lowest in the fourth quarter. Elasticities of price transmission, measures of the sensitivity of retail prices to changes in farm prices, were higher in all regions for two percent milk compared to whole milk. The range of the elasticities of transmission for whole milk was from 0.37 (Hartford) to 2.54 (Dallas) and from 0.39 (Hartford) to 3.66 (Dallas) for two percent milk.

The Gas-to-liquids (GTL) processes produce a large fraction of by-products whose disposal or handling ordinarily becomes a cost rather than benefit. As an alternative strategy to market stranded gas reserves, GTL provides middle distillates to an unsaturated global market and offers opportunities to generate power for commercial purposes from waste by-product streams, which normally are associated with increased expenses incurred from additional handling cost. The key concept investigated in this work is the possibility of integrating the GTL process with power generation using conventional waste by-product steam streams. Simulation of the integrated process was conducted with the aim of identifying the critical operating conditions for successful integration of the GTL and power generation processes. About 500 MW of electric power can be generated from 70% of the exit steam streams, with around 20 to 25% steam plant thermal efficiency. A detailed economic analysis on the LNG, stand-alone GTL, and Integrated GTL Power-Generation plants indicates that the integrated system is more profitable than the other options considered. Justifying the technology and economics involved in the use of the by-product streams to generate power could increase the net revenue and overall profitability of GTL projects. This technology may be transferable to GTL projects in the world, wherever a market for generated power exists.

Make-to-order (MTO) systems have been traditionally popular in manufacturing industries that either seek to provide greater variety to their customers or make products that are unique to their customers. More recently, with shrinking product life cycles, there is an increasing interest in operating as MTO systems. With the tremendous success of revenue management techniques in the service industries over the last three decades, there is a growing interest in applying these techniques in MTO manufacturing industries. In the present work, we consider three problems that apply revenue management (RM) to on-date delivery MTO systems. In the first problem, we assume that all orders completed in advance of their due-dates are stored at third party warehouses and apply RM in computing efficient order acceptance and scheduling policies. We develop an optimal solution scheme, and based on the insights gained on the structural properties of the optimal solution, we develop a stochastic approximation scheme for finding efficient solutions. Through computational studies on simulated problems, we illustrate the potential of RM in improving net profits over popular practices. In our second problem, we extend the RM model to consider presence of a certain amount of first party warehousing capacity for storing the orders completed in advance of their due-dates. We study the conditions under which it is desirable to consider the holding cost aspects in the RM model. In our third problem, we develop a scheme for determining an efficient capacity of the first party warehouse that is used for storing the orders completed in advance of their due-dates at an on-date delivery MTO system. This scheme captures the completed orders storage demand resulting from a RM based order acceptance and scheduling policy. We illustrate that when booking horizon is large, considerable amount of savings in the holding costs can be made with an efficiently sized first party warehouse.

There has been a lack of information and research as to the reasons students did not graduate from high school with a diploma, or GED certificate, or certificate of completion, even though they were given the opportunity to attend an alternative drop-out or credit recovery program. This study identified the reasons why some students failed to complete an alternative education program in a K-12 school district in Texas. Of the 29 former PACE students failing to graduate with either a diploma or GED certificate that participated in this research, a little less than half either quit the program or were administratively dropped because they felt that earning money from their job was more important than graduating from high school. Each of the others had this excuse as well as many other excuses for not graduating. Three inter-locking conclusions were reached by the researcher after interviewing 29 of the students that did not complete the PACE program. The first conclusion was that students did not understand the value of a high school diploma at the time they were attending PACE. The second was that money, even in the form of a minimum wage job, was more important than an education. The final conclusion was that each student did not have a plan for their life beyond the coming evening or weekend. All students that failed to graduate or earn a GED had at least one of these misconceptions, while most had two, and a few had all three.

Th. doct.--Anthropology--Goteborg, 2005. / Bibliogr. p. 147-155.

Tesis (abogado)--Colegio del Estado, Puebla.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University at Normal, 1966. / Title from title page screen, viewed Aug. 4, 2004. Dissertation committee: Ben Hubbard (chair), Clayton Thomas, Douglas Poe. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-167). Also available in print.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-203).