2008 MU theses - Access restricted to MU
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Item Development of a large-scale traffic simulation model for hurricane evacuation : a case study of Virginia's Hampton Roads region(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008) Sharma, Siddharth, 1983-; Edara, Praveen K. (Praveen Kumar)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Hurricanes are one of the most catastrophic events resulting in severe consequences including loss of life and property damage. Emergency management teams play a huge role in safeguarding the lives of people in endangered areas by evacuating them to safer locations as efficiently as possible. This study was undertaken to evaluate the traffic control plan (TCP), for the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, and the performance of the designated evacuation routes using large-scale traffic simulation models. Road network was coded in a state-of the- art microscopic simulation program, VISSIM. The emergency evacuation plan for the study area was evaluated by simulating the various evacuation scenarios as described in the abbreviated transportation model (ATM) for Hampton Roads region. The study area comprised of the following nine evacuation areas - cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, and York. The following objectives were achieved in this research - 1) estimated the traffic performance of evacuation routes and other major arterial streets, 2) located the major bottlenecks, congestion, or other operational difficulties in the areas covered by the network, 3) estimated the total network evacuation time, 4) conducted what-if scenarios (e.g., incident occurrences), and 5) recommended amendments to the TCP to improve the traffic performance.Item Agenda-setting effects of television news coverage on perceptions of corporate reputation(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008) Jin, Yi.; Wanta, Wayne[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This thesis applies agenda setting as a general theory of mass communication in a TV business news setting and is an empirical investigation of the agenda setting effects of TV business news coverage on the public perceptions of corporate reputation. The study uses the Annual Reputation Quotient SM study, a public opinion poll on corporate reputations, for selecting 20 companies each year from 2002 to 2004. The study analyzes effects on corporate reputation produced by the appearance of those companies in three main evening newscasts: NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, ABC World News (previously known as World News Tonight) from 2002 to 2004 for the ten-month time period from January 1 to October 15 of each year. In the study, it is hypothesized that three media coverage related variables, the amount,the tone, and the dimensions of the media coverage, are associated with different magnitudes of changes in corporate reputation. Findings provide support of the first-level agenda setting and second-level affective attribute agenda setting effects of TV business news.Item Media framing and conflict : a content analysis of the South Korean hostage case(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008) Oh, Hyun Jee; Wanta, Wayne[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study aims to explore how the media frames conflicts by analyzing specific elements in the news coverage of the South Korean hostage case in Afghanistan in 2007. The elements include nature of conflict, sub-issues of conflict, involved parties in conflict, and attributes of the parties. Content analysis of two Korean newspapers showed that they used particular frames more than other frames within each element of the conflict. The two newspapers with distinct ideologies were also compared, and their different usage of frames under the four elements was detected. Stages according to the time development of the event were compared with each other, and the overall conflict attribute that determines the news stories' level of constructiveness and destructiveness was analyzed. Both stage and conflict attribute had a significant relationship with the four elements, although there was no difference between the two newspapers on their use of conflict attributes.Item The effect of brand name congruity and product category on consumers' attitudes toward brand names(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008) Hoang, Dung Tuan; Frisby, Cynthia M.[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The purpose of this research paper is to examine the attitudes that are associated with brand name congruity and product categories. More specifically, attitudes will be evaluated according to brand names that are congruent, moderately incongruent, and extremely incongruent from both functional and symbolic product categories. A list of 50 fictitious brand names of perfume (symbolic product) and detergent (functional product) with alternative levels of congruity was created for the purpose of this study. 38 participants completed a questionnaire to rate how much the names reminded them of a product category and how much they like them as members of that category. Results showed that for detergent, name congruity and liking are positively correlated. The more congruent the names the more they are liked. For perfume, the relationship is more complicated. Congruity is not a guarantee for liking, even moderate. Names, to be liked for perfume, have not only to be congruent with perfume but also incongruent with detergent. Implications of the findings on future naming strategy as well as future research directions are discussed.Item Horizontal zinc oxide nanomaterials growth and their application for surface enhanced raman scattering(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008) Shi, Jian; Li, Hao, 1975-[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Nanonecklace (NNs) or nanochains (NCs), aligned nanoparticles (NPs) in straight or curled shape, have been demonstrated using metals, silicon, silicides, and oxides. The most common methods for fabricating NCs structure are solution process, which typically can not provide good control of their alignment and positions. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been used to achieve one-dimensional nanostructures, including both single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and NWs, with relatively good structural control. For example, sapphire substrates have been used to align SWNT or zinc oxide NWs. In this thesis, a novel ZnO NNs structure growth along ZnO c-axis on r-plane sapphire substrates with alignment along [211] sapphire direction is presented. Also, the application of NNs into surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is showed. The rationale behind the SERS application is that metal coated ZnO NPs with nanosized spacing in a ZnO NN have "hot-spots" with significantly enhanced magnetic field that enhances the surface plasmons resonances and Raman signals. It is hoped that the ZnO NN can not only provide a viable solution for the SERS application but also be applied in electronics fields.