2007 WSU Annual CGRS Abstracts
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Modified PM Generator for Low RPM Wind Turbine(2007-03-12) Basnet, Saurav Man Singh; Sharma, R.; Ghimire, Pramod; Freere, P.; Jewell, Ward T.A modified tractor alternator is designed and constructed to suit a 300 Watt low speed, high altitude wind turbine. The tractor alternator does not produce the required power output for the given speed of the turbine. A modification was thus required, and this report discusses the redesign and construction techniques. The primary issue with small wind turbines is the cogging torque, especially when permanent magnet alternators are used. It is very useful to have a wide range of operations for the small wind machines, and hereby the reduced cogging torque will allow the turbine to generate power for low wind speeds. Some techniques such as skewed and multiple stator stacks were implemented. Various connection techniques for better power extraction are discussed and compared. The report discusses design aspects, topologies, modeling and testing of the alternator. Final results are not up to initial expectations; nevertheless, promising results were obtained. All major results are presented and further modification prospects are discussed as well.Item No "white" child left behind: The academic achievement gap between blacks and whites(2007-03-12) Rowley, Rochelle; Wright, David W.The issue of racial inequality in education has consistently been addressed through government policy in an attempt to solve the problem of discrimination rampant in the American school system. The latest government stab at establishing equal education in America is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This study examines the relationship between race and composite reading and math test scores with secondary data analysis from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) with composite model consisting of four segments: student role performance (SRP) measured with variables such as sex, race, and disabilities; schools measured with variables such as student/teacher ratio and number of school rules; families measured with variables such as family structure and socioeconomic status; and peers measured with variables such as peer influence and number of peer dropouts. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses are used to examine the independent effects on test scores. Mean composite test scores show an 82.8% gap in test scores between black (44.42) and white (53.64) non-Hispanic 10th grade students. The examination of each model segment and path analysis shows student role performance factors and family factors explain more of the variance on test scores and have more of an effect on test scores than other model segments. This suggests that racial discrimination within the school setting contributes to the academic achievement gap between blacks and whites.Item Improving assessments for Spanish-speaking children with communication disorders in Kansas(2007-03-12) Prezas, Raúl Francisco; Hodson, Barbara Williams, 1937-A critical need exists for unbiased speech/language assessment instruments for all children, but especially for children who speak a language other than English (e.g., Spanish). According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs, the number of English Language Learners (ELL) in U.S. schools has more than doubled from 2,030,451 in 1990 to 5,119,561 in 2005. Kansas is no exception. The growth of ELL students in Kansas was greater than 200% from 1993-2004. Of the total ELL population, 80% are reported as being Spanish speakers. This has created a demand for Spanish speech/language services. Currently, published phonological assessment instruments in Spanish are sparse. A major issue pertains to the selection of optimal words for eliciting speech samples. Sixty stimuli were presented to 20 typically developing Spanish-speaking 3- and 4-year-old children of Mexican descent in Wichita, Kansas to determine which Spanish words are known best by young Spanish-speaking children. The results indicate that body parts and food/drink items were identified most readily by participants. Colors and numbers were named first in English more often than in Spanish. Results will be used for the selection of optimal words for future Spanish phonological assessment protocols.Item Harvesting solar energy via artificial photosynthesis(2007-03-12) Chitta, Raghu; Gadde, Suresh; Zandler, Melvin E.; Schumacher, Amy Lea; D’Souza, FrancisPhotosynthesis is nature’s efficient way of converting available solar energy into usable chemical energy. In photosynthesis, cascades of short-range energy transfer, between well-organized pigments, followed by electron transfer to the photosynthetic reaction center containing non-covalently linked donor acceptor systems take place with an efficiency of unity. Owing to the importance of natural photosynthesis, design and synthesis of artificial systems that can trap solar energy and mimic the natural processes with high efficiency are of major importance in the field of photovoltaics. In this regard, porphyrins appended with benzo-[18-crown-6] moieties and fullerenes with alkyl ammonium cations and a pyridine or phenyl entities were synthesized and donor-acceptor dyads, with well-defined distance and orientation, were formed via crown ether-ammonium cation complexation and zinc pyridine coordination or pi-pi interactions. These complexes were characterized by 1H NMR and evidence for these interactions was obtained from UV-Visible, fluorescence, and electrochemical studies.Item “Hitch your wagon to a star:” The Kansas Boom of 1887(2007-03-12) Chennell, Charles Luke; Miner, H. CraigKansas experienced a major boom in the late 1880s that touched nearly every aspect of life in the state. Wichita, for instance, was the fastest growing city in the nation barring none. Other Kansas towns across the state entertained grandiose notions of growth including industrial developments and agricultural bounty beyond compare. By late 1888 and early 1889, the boom had largely collapsed, setting the stage for the growth of Populism and other economic reforms. Studying the rhetoric of boomers primarily through newspapers, memoirs and other written accounts, this study has focused on the boom as it was experienced in central and south-central Kansas during the late months of 1887, when it became apparent that the boom could not go on forever. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of boom institutions and boomer rhetoric have been combined in the paper to produce a picture of booming communities in the central part of the state. Much boomer rhetoric contained a sort of fervor in much the same vein that was exhibited during the Kansas Free State movement. By the end of the boom many were left with a feeling that approximated, as Rea Woodman of Wichita put it, “a giant hangover.” The end of the boom also brought on the Populist movement particularly in Kansas, which later became a national political force.