published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1953. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33). Also available via the Internet.

Timber harvesting is an important activity in the state of Kentucky; however, there is still a lack of information about the procedure used by the local loggers. The stump to landing transport of logs with skidders is often the most expensive and time-consuming task in timber harvesting operations. This thesis evaluated the feasibility of using a multi-camera system for time and motion studies of timber harvesting operations. It was installed in 5 skidders in 3 different harvesting sites in Kentucky. The time stamped video provided accurate time consumption data for each work phase of the skidders, which was used to fit linear regressions and find the influence of skidding distance, skid-trail gradient, and load size on skidding time. The multi-camera systems were found to be a reliable tool for time and motion studies in timber harvesting sites. Six different time equations and two speed equations were fitted for skidding cycles and sections of skid-trails, for skidders that are both loaded and unloaded. Skid-trail gradient and load size did not have an influence on skidding time. There is a need for future studies of different variables that could affect skidding time and, consequently, cost.

Over a fourth of the cotton produced in the US since 2002 has been produced in Texas, with most coming from the High Plains. In recent years, Texas has accounted for almost half of all US cotton production (USDA-NASS, 2008b). Most cotton on the High Plains is of more storm-proof varieties that have traditionally been harvested using stripper harvesters. However, improvements in irrigation technology and shifting markets for US cotton have increased interest in picker harvesters in the region. A holistic comparison of picker and stripper harvesters in irrigated cotton on the High Plains of Texas was conducted focusing on differences in system efficiencies, the costs of ginning, fiber and yarn quality, and potential economic returns under comparable crop yields and conditions. Harvester performance was evaluated based on harvest efficiency, time-inmotion, and fuel consumption. Stripper harvesters left less cotton in the field, but most of the cotton left by the picker was of low quality. While the time spent in each operation of harvest was highly dependent on the operator and support equipment available, in general, picker harvesters were able to harvest a unit area of high-yielding cotton more quickly than stripper harvesters. The cost of ginning picked and stripped cotton was evaluated considering current fee schedules from gins on the High Plains. On average, it cost a producer $4.76 more per bale to gin stripped-and-field-cleaned cotton than picked cotton. Fiber quality parameters were compared between harvest treatments based on results from High Volume Instrument (HVI) and Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) tests. Samples were ring-spun into carded and carded-and-combed yarns. Differences in fiber quality between harvest treatments were more pronounced when growing conditions were less favorable. Few differences were detected in carded yarn quality between harvest treatments, while more pronounced differences favoring picked cotton were seen in carded-and-combed yarns. A cost-benefit analysis was conducted to determine the production scenarios in which picker and stripper harvesters were most appropriate. Results indicate that, if a producer has sufficient yields coupled with sufficient area to harvest per machine, picker harvesting is a more profitable alternative to producers of on the High Plains.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 470-483)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 470-483)

The work of contemporary Atlantic Canadian filmmaker William O. MacGillivray is a set of confrontations. His five fiction feature films investigate, perhaps even recalibrate, conventionally understood ideas of centre and margin, time and space, and most pointedly, traditional and modern. What MacGillivray presents in his work is not, in the manner of George Grant, a lament for a traditional or old and noble world locked inexorably in the processes of technological erasure. Instead, echoing the actively ambivalent response to technology-induced change advanced by Harold Innis and others, what the films reveal is a range of possible alternative critical positions within the experience of modern lite in contemporary Atlantic Canada. As Carlos Fuentes reminds us, this does not necessarily entail 'sacrificing the past in favour of the new,' as much of the rhetoric surrounding notions of the modern insists, but rather the 'maintaining, comparing, and remembering values we have created, making them modern so as not lose the value of the modern.' ln a sense, this process is about remembering time. Fundamentally, in creating rich, complex narratives about a part of Canada facing considerable and rapid change, MacGillivray is making his own cinematic 'plea for time' in his confrontations with notions of what constitutes a modern existence. It is also a plea for space, to remember that as there are 'different modern times' there are also 'different modern spaces.'

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1944.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-198).

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1944.