Browsing by Subject "identification"
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Item An examination of a local fingerprint identification system for a large sized police department(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2005) Cole, GlennItem Detection of bacterial endospores by means of ultrafast coherent raman spectroscopy(Texas A&M University, 2008-10-10) Pestov, Dmitry SergeyevichThis work is devoted to formulation and development of a laser spectroscopic technique for rapid detection of biohazards, such as Bacillus anthracis spores. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is used as an underlying process for active retrieval of species-specific characteristics of an analyte. Vibrational modes of constituent molecules are Raman-excited by a pair of ultrashort, femtosecond laser pulses, and then probed through inelastic scattering of a third, time-delayed laser field. We first employ the already known time-resolved CARS technique. We apply it to the spectroscopy of easy-to-handle methanol-water mixtures, and then continue building our expertise on solutions of dipicolinic acid (DPA) and its salts, which happen to be marker molecules for bacterial spores. Various acquisition schemes are evaluated, and the preference is given to multi-channel frequency-resolved detection, when the whole CARS spectrum is recorded as a function of the probe pulse delay. We demonstrate a simple detection algorithm that manages to differentiate DPA solution from common interferents. We investigate experimentally the advantages and disadvantages of near-resonant probing of the excited molecular coherence, and finally observe the indicative backscattered CARS signal from DPA and NaDPA powders. The possibility of selective Raman excitation via pulse shaping of the preparation pulses is also demonstrated. The analysis of time-resolved CARS experiments on powders and B. subtilis spores, a harmless surrogate for B. anthracis, facilitates the formulation of a new approach, where we take full advantage of the multi-channel frequency-resolved acquisition and spectrally discriminate the Raman-resonant CARS signal from the background due to other instantaneous four-wave mixing (FWM) processes. Using narrowband probing, we decrease the magnitude of the nonresonant FWM, which is further suppressed by the timing of the laser pulses. The devised technique, referred to as hybrid CARS, leads to a single-shot detection of as few as 104 bacterial spores, bringing CARS spectroscopy to the forefront of potential candidates for real-time biohazard detection. It also gives promise to many other applications of CARS, hindered so far by the presence of the overwhelming nonresonant FWM background, mentioned above.Item Identification of powered parafoil-vehicle dynamics from modelling and flight test data(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Hur, Gi-BongDuring the final approach and landing phase of the X-38/Crew Return Vehicle, a steerable parafoil is used to maneuver and land at a targeted ground base under autonomous control. To simulate and verify performance of the onboard Parafoil Guidance, Navigation and Control system (PGNC), a commercial powered parafoil- vehicle, called the Buckeye consisting of a parafoil and vehicle two-body system like the X-38/CRV was modified to accommodate the avionics and scale-downed parafoil for aerodynamic similarity and a series of flight tests were conducted. Dynamic modelling and system identification results for the Buckeye are de- scribed in this dissertation. The vehicle dynamics are modelled as all 8 degrees-of- freedom system comprising 6 states for the parafoil and 2 states for the relative pitch and yaw motion of the vehicle with respect to the parafoil. Modal analysis for the linearized model from the nonlinear model shows the number and order of dynamic modes as well as the system is controllable and observable. For system identifica- tion, the overparameterized Observer/Kalman Filter Identification (OKID) method is applied to identify a linear model of the Buckeye two-body system from the flight data assuming that disturbances at a calm day are represented as periodic distur- bances. The identification results show that the overparameterized OKID works well for powered parafoil-vehicle two-body system identification under calm day condi- tions using flight data. For the data with possible discrete gusts the OKID shows limitation to identify a linearized model properly. Several sensor packages including airdata and Inertial Measurement Unit are designed and installed for the parameters for identification. The sensor packages successfully supply data of the parameters for identification and suggest a feasible, low cost method for the parafoil-vehicle two-body dynamic parameters.Item Psychometric validation of the Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument (HBGSI)(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Fultz, Monica V.There is an evident under-representation of Hispanic students in Gifted and Talented (GT) programs. This is due to several reasons including lack of valid instruments, biased standardized tools, biased teacher perceptions, and misinterpretation of tests scores among others. The need to develop and/or validate instruments that reflect students?? cultural backgrounds has become a priority in the U.S. today. The purpose of this study was to analyze the reliability and validity facets of the Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument (HBGSI) developed by Irby and Lara-Alecio (1996), more specifically, the split-half reliability and the concurrent validity when correlated to the Bilingual Verbal Abilities Test (BVAT). Participants were 527 students from two elementary schools in Texas. Students were administered the HBGSI in May 2003 and a reduced sample was administered the BVAT in the latter part of 2003 and the beginning of 2004. Results were analyzed, interpreted and discussed. The researcher found that the HBGSI has evidence of high reliability coefficients using Guttman, Spearman-Brown and Cronbach??s alpha ranging from .93 to .97. Concurrent validity was computed using Pearson correlation coefficient r =.39. Additionally, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted and revealed the existence of 5 factors. Among the primary limitations is the generalizability of the findings. Readers should use caution in applying the findings of this study to other settings and populations. Further research is recommended to establish the concurrent validity of the HBGSI with other achievement measures. In conclusion, there has been a contemporary move to the incorporation of inclusive screening instruments for use with language minority students. This movement suggests the inclusion of portfolio and performance assessment, checklists, and teacher observations in addition to standardized measures. The HBGSI has shown promising results in the arena of Hispanic gifted identification. This instrument is recommended to be used at the first stage of the screening process of potential Hispanic GT students. This study provided insight into the improvement of practices and identification of Hispanic bilingual students.Item The Mystery of the Situated Body: Finding Stability through Narratives of Disability in the Detective Genre(2013-07-15) Foreman, Adrienne CThe appearance, use, and philosophy of the disabled detective are latent even in early detective texts, such as in Arthur Conan Doyle?s canonical Sherlock Holmes series. By philosophy, I am referring to both why the detective feels compelled to detect as well as the system of detection the detective uses and on which the text relies. Because the detective feels incompatible with the world around him (all of the detectives I analyze in this dissertation are men), he is driven to either fix himself, the world, or both. His systematic approach includes diagnosing problems through symptomatology and removing the deficient aspect. While the detective narrative?s original framework assimilates bodies to medical and scientific discourses and norms in order to represent a stable social order, I argue that contemporary detective subgenres, including classical disability detective texts, hardboiled disability detective texts and postmodern disability detective texts, respond to this framework by making the portrayal of disability explicit by allocating it to the detective. The texts present disability as both a literary mechanism that uses disability to represent abstract metaphors (of hardship, of pity, of heroism) and a cultural construct in and of itself. I contend that the texts use disability to investigate what it means to be an individual and a member of society. Thus, I trace disability in detective fiction as it parallels the cultural move away from the autonomous individual and his participation in a stable social order and move towards the socially located agent and shifting situational values.Item The rhetoric of Southern identity: debating the shift from division to identification in the turn-of-the-century South(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Watts, Rebecca BridgesRecent debates as to the place of Old South symbols and institutions in the South of the new millennium are evidence of a changing order in the South. I examine -- from a rhetorical perspective informed by Kenneth Burke's theory of identification and division -- four debates that have taken place in the South and/or about the South over roughly the past decade, 1995 to the present. In this decade, Southerners and interested others have debated such issues as 1) admitting women to the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel; 2) integrating displays of public art in Richmond to feature Confederates and African Americans side by side; 3) continuing to fly the Confederate battle flag in public spaces such as the South Carolina Capitol or including it in the designs of state flags such as those of Georgia and Mississippi; and 4) allowing Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who seemed to speak out in support of the South's segregated past, to continue in his position of Senate leadership. Looking at each of these debates, it is clear that at issue in each is whether the ruling order of the South should continue to be one of division or whether that order should be supplanted by identification. Judging from the outcomes of the four debates analyzed here, the order of division seems to be waning just as the order of identification seems to be waxing in influence over the turn-of-the-millennium South. But a changing South is no less a distinctive, continuing South. I argue that a distinctive Southern culture based on a sense of order has existed and continues to exist amidst the larger American culture. If some form of "Southernism" is to continue as a distinctive mindset and way of life in the twenty-first century, Southerners will need to learn to strike a balance between their past, with its ruling order of division, and the present, with its ruling order of identification.