Rise up and call us blessed : from farm to factory in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee-Virginia, 1900-1950

This dissertation is a case study of socio-economic development in the area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia dominated by the Tri-Cities, I Tennessee-Virginia. Bounded by natural barriers to trade, the Tri-Cities area fell behind other areas of the nation in the early nineteenth century. When tardiness and lack of local capital kept the Tri-Cities area from benefiting fully from the industrialization that swept Appalachia in the latter nineteenth century, business and civic leaders in the Tri-Cities turned to the recruitment of manufacturing firms. Other than an abundant supply of labor, subsidies, and an hospitable business climate, the area had little to offer prospective plants. As a result, the firms lured to the Tri-Cities tended to find a cost advantage in the low labor costs available in the area. As residents of the Tri-Cities area moved from farm to factory in ever increasing numbers, business and civic leaders in the Tri-Cities worked to maintain a precarious control over the discordant forces that threatened to undermine the low-wage, lowskill plants upon which their own fortunes depended. By the Second World War, however, labor market pressures and national and international competition were eroding the advantages that once appealed to prospective industrial recruits. Once dependent on the availability of low-wage employers, workers and business leaders alike found that the plants on which they had come to depend no longer found the Tri- Cities area enticing. What was worse, decades of bowing to low-wage, low-skill manufacturing left the people of the Tri-Cities area poorly prepared to adjust to a new path of economic development

Novel Design of a Portosystemic Shunt Occluder

In some breeds of dog, specifically the Yorkshire Terrier, a genetic defect exists that causes a hepatic portosystemic shunt to form. A hepatic portosystemic shunt is a vessel that when present cause blood to bypass the liver, which is responsible for filtering waste from the digestive system and moving it out of the body. An implantable polymeric device was constructed that would slowly occlude the hepatic portosystemic shunt and force the blood to stop flowing through the bypassing vessel and flow through the vessel to the liver over 3-4 months time. The portosystemic shunt occluder device consist of three polyoxymethylene components, a swelling hydrogel (poly (acrylic acid)), and a degrading copolymer – (Poly (lactide-co-caprolactone)). The poly (acrylic acid) was used to move the piston component of the device upward to constrict the portosystemic shunt placed inside the device. Eight milligrams of poly (acrylic acid) had a swelling ratio of 20.10 ± 1.63, a swelling rate of 0.071 mm/s2, and generated 25mN of force. Eight milli-Newtons is the amount of force that is produced by blood flowing in a four milli-meter diameter vessel. The degradation properties of two compositions of poly (lactide-co-caprolactone) (40 percent lactide and 60 percent caprolactone; 86 percent lactide and 14 percent caprolactone) were analyzed and relationships were developed that would aid in determining the degradation rate of the copolymers in respect to the copolymer composition and the environmental temperature. The poly (lactide-co-caprolactone) controlled the rate that the piston moved by providing a counter force to the poly (acrylic acid). The poly (lactide-co-caprolactone) (40:60), when loaded into the device, degraded in 86 days in a phosphate buffered saline solution at a temperature of 37oC

The influence of stratigraphy and landscape position on the genesis of upland loess-derived soils of southern Iowa

This study was concerned with the genesis of loess-derived soils in southern Iowa. Field sites were selected on flat and sloping primary divides along two linear traverses oriented to represent loess distributional patterns. Field measurements for each site included loess thickness and the vertical extent of a zone of groundwater saturation perched above the slowly permeable paleosolic surface immediately subjacent to the loess. Physical and chemical properties of the genetically related soils were evaluated with relation to horizon differentiation, natural drainage, and their potential as indices of soil development in loess-derived soils;Loess thickness on the flat and sloping primary divides decreased systematically with distance from the major source area (the Missouri River Valley). Internal drainage of the soils became poorer as loess thickness decreased and distance from the source area increased. Maximum clay content in the solum and B/A clay ratio were found to increase with distance from the source area as loess thickness decreased and as the internal drainage became poorer on the flat and sloping divides. As the loess decreased in thickness from west to east, the depth to the Yarmouth-Sangamon surface decreased as well as the depth to the water table perched above this slowly permeable paleosolic surface. Negative correlations were found between the depth to the perched water table and distance from the loess source, capillary porosity of the B and C horizons, total porosity of the B horizon, and rainfall on the flat and sloping divides. Positive correlations were found between the depth to the perched water table and total porosity of the C horizon and temperature on the flat and sloping divides;Mathematical prediction equations were formulated that adequately predict the monthly depth to the perched water table on the flat and sloping divides. The higher water tables on the eastern end of the traverses were attributed to the stratigraphic and geomorphic conditions of the divides. This high water table provided an environment conducive to accelerated weathering. This weathering was reflected in the increase in \u3c2 micron clay with distance from the source area, higher B/A clay ratios, the depth distribution of total, inorganic, and available phosphorus and organic carbon in the loess-derived profiles;Total, inorganic, and available phosphorus values showed distinct eluvial and illuvial zones in their depth distribution. The zones were found to be more pronounced from west to east along the traverses. Organic phosphorus and organic carbon decreased vertically with increasing depth in all profiles studied. The weighted average total and organic phosphorus and organic carbon in the 10-40 inch section and the solum decreased as horizon differentiation increased and as the internal drainage of the soils became poorer

Prosedur Layanan Komplain Pelanggan oleh CRC (Customer Relation Coordinator) pada PT. Nasmoco Gombel Semarang

Along with the development of the times and rapid economic growth in the business world in the modern era is accompanied by the increasing needs of consumers, making the growth of new ventures that seem to compete to offer their products is a superior product. The rapid growth of this economy, it also develops goals and objectives to be achieved for business actors who operate to produce them, both service products and goods. This study aims to find out how the management of CRC service (Customer Relation Coordinator) at PT. Nasmoco Gombel Semarang, how the implementation of service management in handling customer complaints by CRC (Customer Relation Coordinator) PT. Nasmoco Gombel Semarang. This final project uses research methodology with descriptive type and analytical technique using descriptive qualitative. This type of research data using primary data and secondary data with data collection techniques through interviews or interviews, through observation and literature study. Management of CRC service (Customer Relation Coordinator) at PT. Nasmoco Gombel Semarang is a process of applying science and arts to plan, implement plans, coordinate and complete service activities for the achievement of service objectives based on SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) which has been established by the main dealer of TAM (Toyota Astra Motor). Based on the results of the research, it is known that CRC service management (Customer Relation Coordinator) has been implemented in accordance with SOP (Standard Operational Procedure) made and established by CR (Customer Relation) depart. Starting from helping the Branch Manager formulate company policy, responsible and supervise all employees running CSI (Customer Service Index), compile and report to Toyota Astra Motor twice a month, and become facilitator and coordinator handling complaint in branch and make a report and also Analyze complaints that occur for future improvements

Specific unknowns: A case study of epistemic indefinites in Cantonese

This paper concerns how languages bundle an existential claim and>an ignorance inference in a nominal expression. I present a case study on epistemic indefinites (EIs) in Cantonese and show that Cantonese EIs have a different morphological makeup (m + zi + WH ‘not + know + WH’), when compared to other more discussed EIs. I suggest that the ignorance component associated with mzi-WH is a conventional implicature and that m-zi obtains an adnominal usage via grammaticalization. It denotes a choice function that comes with an ignorance component that is inherited from the predicative meaning of m-zi

Improved Bounds on Information Dissemination by Manhattan Random Waypoint Model

With the popularity of portable wireless devices it is important to model and predict how information or contagions spread by natural human mobility -- for understanding the spreading of deadly infectious diseases and for improving delay tolerant communication schemes. Formally, we model this problem by considering $M$ moving agents, where each agent initially carries a \emph{distinct} bit of information. When two agents are at the same location or in close proximity to one another, they share all their information with each other. We would like to know the time it takes until all bits of information reach all agents, called the \textit{flood time}, and how it depends on the way agents move, the size and shape of the network and the number of agents moving in the network. We provide rigorous analysis for the \MRWP model (which takes paths with minimum number of turns), a convenient model used previously to analyze mobile agents, and find that with high probability the flood time is bounded by $O\big(N\log M\lceil(N/M) \log(NM)\rceil\big)$, where $M$ agents move on an $N\times N$ grid. In addition to extensive simulations, we use a data set of taxi trajectories to show that our method can successfully predict flood times in both experimental settings and the real world.Comment: 10 pages, ACM SIGSPATIAL 2018, Seattle, U

Efficient Pavement Thickness Design for Indiana

Over the past several decades, a dramatic increase in traffic volume, axle loads, and tire pressure has led to rapidly deteriorated pavements in the United States. Several types of pavement surface distresses have been noted by many state agencies across the country. Among these distresses, permanent deformation, also known as rutting, is one of the most serious forms of flexible pavement distress. This research investigates the fundamentals of rutting behavior for full-depth flexible pavements. The scope incorporates an experimental study using full-scale accelerated pavement tests (APTs) to monitor the evolution of the transverse profiles of each pavement structural layer. The findings were then employed to improve the rutting model that is embedded in the current pavement design method, the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). Four APT sections were constructed using two typical pavement structures and two types of surface course material. A mid-depth rut monitoring and automated laser profile system was designed to reconstruct the transverse profiles at each pavement layer interface throughout the process of accelerated pavement deterioration that is produced during the APT. The contributions of each pavement structural layer to rutting and the evolution of layer deformation were derived. This study found that the permanent deformation within asphalt concrete does not increase with an increase in pavement thickness once the pavement is sufficiently thick. Additionally, most pavement rutting is caused by the deformation of the asphalt concrete, with about half the amount of rutting observed within the top four inches of the pavement layers and only around ten percent of rutting observed in the subgrade. A guideline was developed to calibrate the MEPDG prediction models using a database that contains both APT sections and field roadway segments and accounts for the rutting in individual pavement layers. A procedure was developed to provide the most faithful simulations of the APT conditions using virtual weather station generation, special traffic configuration, and falling weight deflectometer evaluation. The accuracy of the MEPDG’s prediction models was improved after the calibration process. The sum of squared error and the standard error of estimates between the predicted and actual measurements were reduced. No significant difference was found between the predicted and actual total asphalt concrete layer rutting and subgrade rutting at the 95 percent confidence level. Model validation using a jack-knife resampling technique confirmed that the calibrated models are able to provide accurate and statistically sound performance predictions. New calibration factors of the MPEGD rutting model from this study have been successfully implemented by the INDOT pavement design team since 2017