Master's Theses (before Fall 2009 -- partial holdings)
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The Graduate College deposits all master's theses from a given semester after the official graduation date.
For the time being, this particular UDSpace collection of master's theses from before Fall 2009 is of limited scope. However, University of Delaware master’s theses submitted from 1980 through Summer 2009 are available online at ProQuest/UMI through Dissertations & Theses @ University of Delaware. Use the library catalog, DELCAT, to search for all print or microform copies of master's theses 1980-2009 that are NOT available in Dissertations & Theses @ University of Delaware because Dissertations & Theses @ University of Delaware does NOT contain the complete collection of University of Delaware master's theses.
To see University of Delaware master's theses submitted beginning Fall 2009, go to Master's Theses (Fall 2009 to Present).
Master’s theses in the Longwood Graduate Program in Public Horticulture (now known as the Longwood Fellows Program) submitted between 1970 and 2004 are available online.
More information is available at Dissertations & Theses.
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Browsing Master's Theses (before Fall 2009 -- partial holdings) by Title
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Item A completed project in applied design and painting(University of Delaware, 1965) Dunn, Madeline Dreyer ArnoldItem A synthesis of expressive painting with design(University of Delaware, 1963) Lyon, Stanlie J.Item Above bandgap thermo-optic coefficient measurements for direct bandgap materials(University of Delaware, 2005) Akl, Ramsey;Accurate values of the optical functions of gallium arsenide in the very near infrared region are particularly important for many technological applications. Many different techniques have been used to measure the thermo-optic coefficients, most of which require ad hoc samples, such as those based on prism-shaped specimens or on diffraction grating photonic devices. For bulk crystals, the two-channel spectroscopic polarization modulation ellipsometer has been shown to be quite accurate in the determination of the optical functions at elevated temperatures. This work presents a simple approach to determine the thermo-optic coefficients of gallium arsenide above the bandgap for elevated temperatures. To our knowledge, these measurements have not been pursued, but they do provide important information for optical fiber communications. The method is based on the Fresnel equations, which are used to understand the interaction of light with matter. Numerical results show the method to be both stable and accurate.Item Acoustical investigation of ultrasound contrast agents: theory and experiments(University of Delaware, 2006) Jain, PankajUltrasound contrast agents are micron size bubbles used for medical purposes such as diagnostic ultrasound imaging and targeted drug delivery. These bubbles are encapsulated with a shell and have a sparingly soluble gas inside to prevent them from premature dissolution. When these bubbles are excited by the ultrasound they scatter and absorb energy from the sound field, thus leading to the attenuation of the ultrasound signal. In this thesis, we have developed a viscous and a viscoelastic model for the shell. Attenuation measured in vitro is compared with model predictions to obtain the characteristic model parameters (surface tension, shell elasticity, dilatational viscosity) for commercially available contrast agents. The viscous model predicts unusually high values of surface tension which motivated the viscoelastic model. We have also used both models to predict the scattered response of microbubbles. ☐ Experimentally measured attenuation is also used to study the growth and destruction of contrast microbubble Definity® (Bristol Meyers Squibb, N. Billerica, MA). Critical pressure amplitudes of ultrasound excitation leading to destruction of contrast microbubbles have been identified for different Pulse Repetition Frequencies (PRFs). ☐ We have developed a model for the growth and dissolution of encapsulated microbubbles taking into account the hindered permeability and elasticity of the encapsulation. We investigated the effects of parameters such as mole fraction of the osmotic agent (inside gas), surface tension, shell permeability, and air saturation level in bulk.Item Activating the universal context of racism: consequences for perceived discrimination and emotion(University of Delaware, 2005) Turner, Carl E., Jr.Three experiments were conducted to validate the Universal Context of Racism (UCR) and determine whether this construct influences perceived discrimination and emotions for historical targets of racism. The UCR proposes that racism is an accessible and explanatory construct that has motivational consequences for African-Americans. Experiments 1 and 2 provide evidence that the UCR is not applicable to Caucasians because they are not the targets of the racism represented in photographic stimuli used to activate the UCR. Experiment 3 demonstrates that African-Americans respond differently to stimuli purported to activate the UCR than Caucasians. Specifically, African-Americans exposed to UCR provoking stimuli are more likely to perceive discrimination and highly motivated to self-enhance or self-protect to overcome or avoid threats to self-esteem.Item Ad hoc wireless networks: flooding and statistical understanding of node movement(University of Delaware, 2006) Mancera-Mendez, German AndresMobile ad hoc wireless networks is a research field whose study has been oversimplified due to the lack of realistic simulation models. Since large-scale deployment of citywide ad hoc networks is being planned in major cities, more accurate research is needed in order to evaluate in advance their real performance and eventual pros and cons. This thesis is based on a recently proposed simulation tool that models signal propagation and node movement. In the first part of the document, flooding---the most simplistic form of broadcasting---is considered from a physical layer perspective. The Signal-to-Interference ratio and the capture effect are introduced in this study. How the quality of the receivers affects the broadcasting process is analyzed as well. The second part of this document is devoted to a statistical understanding of node mobility. Several possible cases of node movement and how neighborhoods change over time for different scenarios are considered throughout this work. Node mobility is deeply examined in order to establish the basis that will be used in future work for the development of an efficient broadcasting algorithm whose decision will be locally made based on a better understanding of the neighborhood dynamics. This approach will alleviate problems like network congestion and transmission collisions that are well-known to happen during broadcasting.Item Adult attachment, conflict style, and relationship satisfaction: a comprehensive model(University of Delaware, 2005) Steuber, Keli RyanThe purpose of this study was to create a comprehensive model integrating adult attachment style, conflict style, and relationship satisfaction. The research sought to determine if adult attachment acted as a predictor of conflict style and if attachment style, mediated by conflict style, influenced relationship satisfaction. ☐ Three hundred and twenty one undergraduate students in romantic relationships (n = 321) completed questionnaires measuring attachment style, relational conflict style, and relationship satisfaction. Results indicated that highly avoidant individuals are more likely to engage in hostile relational conflict with their partners and feel significantly less satisfaction from their adult romantic relationships than their non-avoidant counterparts. Data also suggested that avoidance and hostility may be more influential on relationship satisfaction levels than anxiety and validation ☐ The model in the current study compliments romantic conflict research by offering a predictor for conflict styles in dating relationships and illustrating the influence of both attachment style and conflict style on romantic relationship satisfaction.Item Affectionate remembrances: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lucy Truman Aldrich, and a case for cooperative collecting(University of Delaware, 2001) Denbar, Cheryl IreneThe thesis explores the human connection created by the consumption and exchange of objects. Examining the ceramics and glass at Bassett Hall, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Williamsburg, Virginia residence, the paper considers public versus private collecting motivations and performances. Reintroducing the well-established multi-dimensional persona of Mrs. Rockefeller in the private sphere, the paper explores her relationship to her sister Lucy Truman Aldrich. Using artifactual and written evidence, primarily between 1919–1947, the paper argues for Lucy Aldrich's role as an agent of taste. The thesis explores their interests and value systems as reflected at Bassett Hall. Acknowledging that most of the objects held private and emotional meanings and were signals of a sisterly bond, the paper explores Mrs. Rockefeller's exhibited value system in the context of the contemporary social norms. Surveying methods of acquisition, transfer, management, and display, the paper validates the disparate group of objects as a coherent collection.Item "An air of originality and great richness": the professional and private papers of silver designer Charles Osborne, 1871-1920(University of Delaware, 2001) John, Katharine AnnMystery surrounds most silver designers of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. As large, mechanized manufactures replaced small, independent silversmiths, firms rendered individual designers nameless as it promoted its name, not its designers' names. Charles Osborne designed silver for Whiting Manufacturing Company (1871-1878, 1888-1915) and Tiffany & Company (1879-1887). His papers, in the Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Museum, provide a crucial opportunity to individualize the anonymous role of Amercan silver designers at this point in history. When considered with the history of silver production, design, and innovation, Osborne's story affords another means of understanding artists and the design process. Osborne's papers provide insight into design and production, and they reveal the individuality of each design. This paper utilizes Osborne papers, patent records and information from Tiffany and Company archives to situate Osborne historically and to evaluate the importance of silver, and silver designers, in America.Item Alexander Anderson and American wood engraving(University of Delaware, 1973) Smith, Malcolm S.Item Alexander Calder: the formative years(University of Delaware, 1974) Marter, Joan M.Item "All that a genteel family need require": the Church family's frontier experience at Belvidere, Allegany County, New York(University of Delaware, 2000) Naulin, Melissa CarrieImages of crude log cabins and primitive living conditions dominate Americans’ inherited understanding of life on the western frontier. The survival of Belvidere, a grand neoclassical-style stone and brick mansion built on the western New York frontier in 1808 therefore comes as surprise. Belvidere’s atypicality begs interpretation. Who built this home, and why? Were its occupants able to live the genteel lifestyle that Belvidere was designed for, despite its frontier location? ☐ Using Belvidere’s surviving material evidence in conjunction with documentary sources, this thesis explores the ideals and experience of the Church family, who built and lived at Belvidere for over eighty years. I trace the Churches’ elite family background, the circumstances behind Philip Church’s acquisition of the 100,000-acre tract of land in western New York where he built Belvidere, and his settlement tactics. I conclude that Belvidere was built both to serve as a sufficiently genteel home for a wealthy, fashionable family asserting their position of power within the community, and as an advertisement to help Church sell his land to wealthy prospective settlers. ☐ In constructing an expensive home in the latest transatlantic style on the frontier, the Churches expressed their faith in their ability to maintain a comfortable, elite lifestyle despite their frontier location. The Churches were able to import the necessary material goods and furnishings to pursue this ideal, defying traditional notions that fashionable consumer goods were not available on the frontier in early years. Their project to recreate the elite urban lifestyle they were accustomed to before moving to Allegany County ultimately failed though because they were unable to attract genteel people to settle there. Because they refused to socialize with people they felt were beneath them, the Church family suffered from loneliness in their remote home. Owning expensive and fashionable goods had no purpose when the “right” people did not see and appreciate them.Item Allegory and the American mind: a survey of the use of women as allegorical representations of America, 1765-1815(University of Delaware, 2000) Schaaf, Jennifer ElizabethImages of women have been used as allegorical representations of America since the sixteenth century. Initially, a savage Indian Queen symbolized the alien and mythic New World. But as European colonization became entrenched, the allegory of America was transformed into an Anglicized woman with which the colonizers could more easily identify. The process of Anglicization that transformed the Indian Queen into a Europeanized woman inspired printmakers to unconsciously project their notions of proper womanhood onto what they intended to be political symbols. Allegorical representations of America, whether produced by European or American limners, pictorially represented a tension between societal expectations for submissive feminine behavior and the reality that women, in fact, exercised considerable power in both the public and private spheres.Item The almanacs of Michael Gratz: time, community, and Jewish identity in eighteenth-century Philadelphia(University of Delaware, 1999) Guston, Judith MarlaThere is a paucity of scholarship addressing the material life of eighteenth-century American Jews, in part because there is little extant material from this period that can be identified as specifically Jewish. Many of the objects that do survive appear to be similar to those owned and used within the broader culture. Some scholars have described Jewish identity in the period as either wholly assimilative or as divided into privately expressed and publicly hidden Jewishness. ☐ This thesis examines two pocket almanacs, one for the year 1777 and the other for 1779, that contain the annotations of Michael Gratz (1740-1811), a Jewish merchant in Philadelphia. Prominent among the inscriptions in the 1777 almanac is a Hebrew calendar. The 1779 almanac, absent a Hebrew calendar, invokes the question of assimilation. ☐ The thesis finds that the almanacs provide a means of interpreting identity through material culture. The discussion traces the nexus of relationships, both material and historic, implied by the almanacs and their annotations to address the relationship of the calendar to Gratz's expression of Jewish identity. The almanacs and their calendars can also be contextualized in the broader culture of the period. Based on such an examination, the thesis describes Gratz's expression of identity as one that is porous, or simultaneously expressive of two cultures. It also finds that this porosity was not a construct unique to Jews in the eighteenth century, but, as other American calendars of the period suggest, was a temporal and cultural experience familiar to nearly all Americans. The expression of Jewish identity through a temporal construct manifest materially in the calendar was, therefore, a declaration of identity that could be understood by Jews and non-Jews alike.Item Ambition in brick: the William Brown House, 1758-1785(University of Delaware, 1984) Brown, Margaret AnnThe William Brown House, a two story, all header bond brick structure, was an extraordinary building for its time and place. The house was built between 1758 and 1764 in the tobacco region of Anne Arundel County, Maryland by a cabinetmaker William Brown. This study concentrates on William Brown the builder and first tenant of the house, exploring his original architectural message and what the concrete form of the building tells about him and the patterns at work in shaping his choices. It is the aim of this paper to combine the analysis of information actually contained in the physical structure of the building with the analysis of primary documentary evidence and a wide variety of secondary sources to examine the implications of the William Brown House as a specific, concrete, embodiment of a number of cultural options expressed through architecture.Item American decorative arts collecting in New England, 1840-1920(University of Delaware, 1973) Saunders, Richard HenryItem American factory-made parlor suites, 1871-1901(University of Delaware, 1982) Dennis, Gail LoreneItem American finger rings representing bonds of relationships(University of Delaware, 1990) Monfredo, Rachel JeanThis thesis presents the cultural and historical background for five types of American rings: (1) wedding, and related engagement and friendship rings, (2) mourning rings, (3) fraternal rings, (4) class rings, and (5) sports rings. Nineteenth-century etiquette literature and trade catalogues were investigated to establish ring use. A typology of ring designs is provided through illustrations. ☐ Comparative interpretations of the rings' forms are explored. The plain "wedding" band is shown to represent significant relationships between individuals. The signet ring is shown to have represented group membership since the early nineteenth century. ☐ Theories adapted from sociology and psychology provide methods for interpreting the significance of rings. Rings serve as forms of verbal and nonverbal communication by disclosing aspects of an individual's identity. The ring substantiates its wearer's personal and social identity which can be interpreted at public and personal levels.Item The American sketchbook of Benjamin West(University of Delaware, 1973) Oedel, William TownsendItem An analysis of distribution channel parity and yield management practices in United States hotels(University of Delaware, 2007) Demirciftci, TevfikThe Internet has altered the business environment completely. It has dramatically affected the distribution of hotel rooms creating both opportunities and challenges for the lodging industry. Revenue Management is used by the hoteliers as a demand forecasting tool to manage their room inventory effectively for greater financial gain. This study investigates whether hotels in the U.S. utilize the basics of revenue management and offer consistent rates among all distribution channels. The results of this study have shown that the room rates on hotel's direct distribution channels are not significantly different than room rates that are on indirect distribution channels. Only 31% of the hotels in the U.S. set their prices according to market trends. Only 16% of the hotels in this study avoided using third parties as the booking date approached. Most of the hotels' rates were consistent across indirect distribution channels. ☐ Keywords: Online Distribution Channel, Revenue Management, Internet