This study is intended to explore the spirituality of Gustav Mahler through his emphasis on Catholicism in his Eighth Symphony by relating those themes to other parts of Mahler's life, focusing on his use of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust as a basis for Part II of the "Symphony of A Thousand." Surprisingly, the conclusions on Mahler's spiritual beliefs do not come from his religious practices, but arise from exploring his personal relationships, testimony from his colleagues, and interpretations of Goethe's poetry. The first concern is Mahler's conversion from Judaism to Christianity in 1897, and how a majority of his biographers determine the motivation to be political rather than spiritual in order to obtain the post of Vienna Opera director. However, through research it is shown how both a sentimental appreciation and belief in Catholicism are held by Mahler and subsequently reflected in his compositions. Three main categories of Christianity are then discussed: the Catholic view of Woman and her three roles of mother, virgin, and queen; suffering and purification; and mysticism. Each part of Catholicism is then related to Mahler and Part II of his Eighth Symphony through some part of this life. The three roles of Woman are related to his relationship with his own mother, sister, and wife. His thoughts on suffering are compared to that of one of his favorite author, Fydor Dostoyevsky's, life and best known works, Crime and Punishment, specifically the comparison of Raskolnikov and Sonia's respective suffering. Finally, his fascination with mysticism is highlighted through man's transformation from natural to spiritual as it is recorded in the New Testament and how that is symbolic of Faust's evolving perspective. Supplemental topics discussed in this study are Mahler's earlier symphonies, his meeting with Sigmund Freud in 1910, Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of the übermensch, the writings of C.S Lewis on mysticism, the Gospel of John, and Deryck Cooke's relation of Part I and Part II of the Eighth Symphony to Christianity's meaning of the Word and the Deed. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--Wichita State University, College of Fine Arts, School of Music / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 59-62)

This research presents two methods for a group of Garcia robots to collaboratively decide which task to attend to, and to move to their respective locations. One method allows for a needed flexibility and dynamic analysis in this distributed system of any number of robots coupled with any number of target locations, but is tied too closely to distance measurements. The other method is the implementation of Peter Molnar’s approach, which is free from any specificity for determining preferences, but is shown to have some other limitations. The packet loss problem inherent of broadcast communications is addressed, as well. The robots make decisions interdependently with the other robots after the initial setup from a host computer of common environment variables such as a map, robot and target locations. A distributed network was established first for the robots so that information could be shared. Beacon messages were broadcasted at random intervals, while the robots handled TCP and UDP messages in separate threads. Once the needed data was acquired, each robot began their task scheduling decision-making process. If additional information was required from another robot still, a robot requested it. Our algorithm for task scheduling converged to an agreement rapidly, and resolved any possible gridlocks that occurred when two robots are exactly the same distance and with the highest preference for a single target. This method is found to be too closely tied into distance measures being used for preferences. Changes in the environment, such as new robots or targets, are handled during subsequent calls to decide for both methods. The result of this thesis shows two flexible and quick methods for task scheduling and assignment. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 56-57)

Composite materials together with adhesive-bonding have been increasingly used in the aviation industry. Delamination is among the critical failure modes in fiber-reinforced laminated composite structures including adhesive-bonded assemblies. This thesis presents an analytical approach by taking into account the first-ply failure in adhesive-bonded composite joints subjected to axial tension. The ASTM D3165 standard test specimen geometry is followed for model development derivations. The field equations, in terms of displacements within the joint, are formulated by using the first-order, shear-deformable, laminated plate theory together with kinematics relations and force equilibrium conditions. The stress distributions for the adherends and adhesive are determined after the appropriate boundary and loading conditions are applied and the equations for the field displacements are solved. The equivalent forces at the tip of the prescribed interlaminar crack are obtained based on interlaminar stress distributions. The strain energy release rate of the crack is then determined by using the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). The system of second-order differential field equations is solved to provide the adherend and adhesive stresses using the symbolic computation tool, Maple 9.52. Finite element analyses using the J-integral as well as the VCCT are performed to verify the developed analytical model. Finite element analyses are conducted using the commercial finite element analysis software ABAQUS 6.5-1. Results determined using the analytical method are shown to correlate well with the results from the finite element analyses. / Thesis [M.S] - Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering

The aim of the present study was to determine differences in reaction time resulting from the ingestion of three caffeine containing beverages. Six low-caffeine consuming college students (25.2 + 7.0 years) were recruited to participate in this study. The participants were tested for simple and choice reaction time prior to consuming Red Bull Energy Drink, Sugar-free Energy Drink, Mountain Dew soft drink or no drink and 60 minutes following the consumption of the product. Participants participated in all four conditions and were tested over a two week period with at least 48 hours between sessions. The order of drink administration was randomly selected for each subject. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found in choice reaction time for the Red Bull and Sugar-free Red Bull conditions, with no significant differences witnessed in the simple reaction time test. An improvement of 321.0 to 302.9 milliseconds and 335.4 to 303.0 milliseconds were found for Red Bull and Sugar-free Red Bull, respectively. The Mountain Dew soft drink (325.4 to 319.0 milliseconds) and the no drink condition (315.8 to 312.03) showed no significant improvements. These results suggest that caffeine and taurine have some combined effect on improvement of reaction time or high levels of glucose negatively affect the cognitive improvements of caffeine in non-fasted individuals. Further research is warranted to determine the exact interaction between caffeine, glucose and taurine. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Human Performance Studies / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-46).

Transmission and Distribution Electric Utilities have a vast amount of assets distributed over their system in the form of various equipment. As part of an asset management program, electric utilities keep focusing on the inspection and maintenance activities of these assets to improve system performance, reliability, and to ensure cost-effective expenditures. Therefore methodology that will reflect these inspection and maintenance efforts in terms of overall condition of the equipment is needed. Also techniques are needed to assess the impact of inspection and maintenance activities on the overall reliability of systems performance. To achieve this, a methodology for the assessment of equipment condition and the estimation of the health index for transformers and circuit breakers was developed. After that, a technique to estimate the failure rate from the equipment health index was used. Then an IEEE test case was selected to demonstrate its impact on system reliability indices with the help of a predictive reliability assessment software tool, Milsoft Utility Solution. As part of equipment condition assessment method for transformer and circuit breaker, failure modes and maintenance practices for these equipment was reviewed. Based on this review, parameters were selected for condition assessment which will provide significant information about the equipment condition and will also justify the cost and efforts. For each of the parameters, a score and weight were defined, and guidelines were developed to assign them. Also, ways in which online monitoring systems can contribute to equipment condition assessment were presented briefly. A technique was used to convert the equipment health index into its failure rate. Then an IEEE reliability test case was modeled using the Milsoft software, incorporating this estimated failure rate and studied system’s behavior in terms of reliability indices. It was observed that developing such models will provide more realistic information about the system’s actual performance and will demonstrate the way in which impact of the inspection and maintenance efforts can be accounted. / Thesis (M.S) - Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Science Engineering

In this current era of change and revolutionary development every technology has passed on its successor and so has the barcodes. Barcodes have been there for decades and have been used in various products and these can be found in our daily life. The extensive use of barcodes is there in everyday life but the issues faced by them led to the invention of RFID-Radio Frequency Identification Tags. RFID were commercialized not before the early 1990s when the industrialists requested for its availability to the general public so that they can utilize so as to ease their tasks. One of the most important use of RFID came into play in supply chain and warehousing. These were the areas where the object was in a constant motion and there was also a dire need to quantize and track such objects. Like every technology introduced has its setbacks, so does the RFID Tags. The RFID Tags being a baby technology and still in a phase of reformation RFID is facing a major security issue, as it works in a open wireless environment and the current security features have been poor with respect to energy conservation, scalability, time and money. For a place where electronic flow of information is the order of the day, there always has been a sense of security so as to protect the information, while containing time to nano of seconds. This paper similarly focuses on securing RFID communication, and our paper suggests a method that would not only secure the information but would also conserve time and energy. Various methods have been proposed but all are complex and require processing at the Tag, whereas our method takes the calculation and the complexity and sets it at the RFID Access Point. / Thesis [M.S] - Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Science Engineering

Led by competition, companies strive for competitive advantage. Accepting the value based holistic concept of the supply chain, organizations realize the importance of increased communication flow and availability of information at any time and at any point of the supply network. Toward this end, companies are becoming more interested in automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) technology, such as radio frequency identification (RFID), which can greatly increase supply chain visibility. This thesis presents the identified issues in identification and presents the method for decision analysis for companies considering the most appropriate technology for their warehousing operations. / Thesis [M.S.] - Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This thesis deals with composite joints with single shear tensile loading for a single piece specimen. The bearing response data from single shear test using a single piece specimen has been extensively used in the development of design allowable data. The first objective of the work was to test three different displacement gage position configurations for determining the bearing chord modulus and the 2% offset strength of composite coupons. Testing was done according to ASTM D5961: Procedure ‘C’- the standard test procedure fir finding the bearing response for polymer matrix composite laminates. The Procedure ‘C’ testing method is not yet standardized by the ASTM and there is a great deal of confusion in the extensometer position. Hence, an attempt has been made to study the variability in the chord modulus, and more importantly the 2% offset bearing strength depending on the different reference positions of the displacement gage placement. The second objective of thesis was to build a finite element (FE) model for a quasi isotropic material, to validate the FE results with experimental results, and then to conduct a set of parametric studies to study the stiffness behavior in all the three positions. The statistical analysis using Design of Experiments (DOE) of the parametric study data, identified significant factors affecting the results. / Thesis [M.S.] - Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

For centuries, artists have used their works as a means of communication. Such communication can, at times, connect artist and audience in a unique experience which defies barriers of both language and culture. Although artists have written about this experience--referred to here as “artistic transcendence” or “artistic transport”--since classical times, no word seemed able to encompass its meaning until Longinus used the word “sublime” to describe it. The concept has since undergone several reinterpretations, beginning with the additions by Joseph Addison in the eighteenth century, and continuing to the present day in which the word remains subjective and its uses diverse. Consequently, the notion of artistic transport now requires a new definition--one which embraces both the classical and eighteenth-century notions, yet also incorporates a contemporary understanding of the concept. This thesis submits that the Spanish word duende not only fulfills, but exceeds these requirements. Both the sublime and duende contain elements of a struggle between artist and art, an ability to elevate both artist and audience to a higher realm, and shared roots in the classical notion of artistic transport. Using primary texts from Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” to Lorca’s “Play and Theory of the Duende,” this thesis establishes a connection between the classical notion of artistic transport, the eighteenth-century understanding of the sublime, and the twentieth-century concept of duende. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates how duende, which contains both historical and contemporary connotations, represents the modern sublime both in works of art as well as in the artistic process itself. / Thesis [M.A.] - Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Dept. of English

This research examines the role of parenting magazines and popular texts about motherhood in the social construction of the “mommy wars,” or the cultural tug-of-war between women who work for pay and women who stay home to care for their children. A critical discourse analytic method was used to examine a constructed 10-year sample of Parents magazine, as well as the three best-selling mainstream motherhood texts from 1990 to 2000. Two predominant themes were identified, as well as a number of salient sub themes, all of which contribute to a socially constructed ideology of motherhood. This analysis suggests that these texts perpetuate the “mommy wars” by reinforcing the views working and at-home mothers have of themselves, promoting the ideology of intensive mothering, and discouraging discussion of the ambivalence many women feel about motherhood. / Thesis (M.A.) - Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Elliott School of Communication