Digital Commons Network^™

Untangling The Debate: The Ethics Of Human Enhancement, Patrick Lin, Fritz Allhoff

Philosophy

Human enhancement, in which nanotechnology is expected to play a major role, continues to be a highly contentious ethical debate, with experts on both sides calling it the single most important issue facing science and society in this brave, new century. This paper is a broad introduction to the symposium herein that explores a range of perspectives related to that debate. We will discuss what human enhancement is and its apparent contrast to therapy; and we will begin to tease apart the myriad intertwined issues that arise in the debate: (1) freedom & autonomy, (2) health & safety, (3) fairness …

The Endangered Representation Of Sexual Violence In Sarah Kane's Blasted, Dina Zhurba

Master's Theses

In Blasted, Kane represents how incidents of rape highlight, exacerbate and solidify the unevenness of power distribution between men and women in the modern world and provides a new perspective at what we might call “rape in general” – a transhistorical phenomenon of rape as a practice of violence towards the female victim. Through a detailed analysis of the unique representational circumstances of the multiple scenes of rape, such as Cate’s meaningful absence in Ian’s scene of rape, the author of the essay comes to a conclusion that rape is and remains an engendered practice. However, along with reaffirming …

Concerned Philosophers For Peace, Vol. 28, Concerned Philosophers For Peace

Concerned Philosophers for Peace

No abstract provided.

Abraham In Arms: War And Gender In Colonial New England, Kyle F. Zelner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching Creativity In Technical Communication Curricula, Curtis Robert Newbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis addresses the need to claim creativity as an essential component to our technical communication curricula as we prepare students for what their managers want. While many technical communication programs at universities across the country have recognized a need to teach skills beyond "writing technically," few, if any, have addressed or "claimed" a concept such as creativity that helps build these skills. I argue that creativity is what managers are looking for and what technical communication programs are already implementing. Claiming this concept will help us further define a discipline that is becoming much richer and help students develop …

Homefront, Stacy Elaine Pratt

Dissertations

This collection of poetry and essays explores the nature of marriage, time, and human experience. Many of the pieces center on the author's experience as the wife of a soldier deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Others use scientific and mathematical imagery to illustrate spiritual concepts.

Micro Radio And The Internet: Dissent Network Formation In Media Based Collective Action, Ted Coopman

Faculty Publications

The movement to establish a grassroots community radio system in the U.S. in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the internet. The impact of internet on media based collective action highlighted shortcomings in existing theory. To address this, I develop a dissent network approach. Utilizing participant observation I apply my measures of consensus on system failure, relational density, process and resource sharing, and the centrality of digital networks to the case of micro radio.

China Hax!1!

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chinese hackers may (we should stress, may) have struck again. Just two weeks after Newsweek reported (in the juicy campaign expose published in last week’s issue) that last summer both the Obama and McCain campaign computers were infiltrated by hackers who copied documents on policy issues (speculated to be either Chinese or Russian), yesterday Fox News announced that the Pentagon was banning the use of external computing hardware after a worm was found to bespreading through its computing network.

There do not seem to be any online reports linking the new regulation specifically to Chinese hackers, but Fox News anchors …

A Time For The Humanities: Futurity And The Limits Of Autonomy, James J. Bono, Tim Dean, Ewa P. Ziarek

Education

This book brings together an international roster of renowned scholars from disciplines including philosophy, political theory, intellectual history, and literary studies to address the conceptual foundations of the humanities and the question of their future. What notions of the future, of the human, and of finitude underlie recurring anxieties about the humanities in our current geopolitical situation? How can we think about the unpredictable and unthought dimensions of praxis implicit in the very notion of futurity?

The essays here argue that the uncertainty of the future represents both an opportunity for critical engagement and a matrix for invention. Broadly conceived, …

Crusader, November, 14, 2008, College Of The Holy Cross

Student Newspapers

The student newspaper for the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Articles include coverage of campus events and issues, sports, editorials and special features.

Blank Power: The Social And Political Criticism Of Blank Fiction And Cinema, Ashley Minix Donnelly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores a style of literature known as "blank" fiction that became popular in the United States in the mid-1980s, focusing on its stark, limited form, its minimal plots, its focus on commodification, and its scenes of graphic violence. The author presents the argument that filmmakers were producing pieces of cinema during the same time period that are similar in both form and content to the works of blank fiction. These films are a part of a style she labels "blank" cinema.

Blank fiction and cinema are politically charged and highly critical of the social and political situation in …

Discrete Linear Constrained Multivariate Optimization For Power Sources Of Mobile Systems, Stelios G. Ioannou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned ground and aerial vehicles (UGVs and UAVs) have strict payload limitations, limited free space affecting on board power availability resulting in limited endurance and operational range. This limitation is exacerbated by the addition of sensors, actuators and other related equipment needed to accomplish mission objectives in diverse applications.

Two energy sources are mainly available for mobile applications; batteries and fuel cells. Batteries are a relatively cheap, tested technology with good performance under varying loads. On the other hand, fuel cells offer fast and easy refueling solutions. Furthermore, preliminary studies have shown that a hybrid system can combine the advantages …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

The Battle Of Morgarten In 1315: An Essential Incident In The Founding Of The Swiss State, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Political realities in the German Empire at the beginning of the fourteenth century were harsh, and communities that wanted to gain or maintain their autonomy had to deal with serious external threats. Most frequently, this meant that military success was essential for survival. Many forces vied for authority, influence, and domination over the regions that formed the Swiss Confederation, which later developed into the modem state of Switzerland. The largest threat to Swiss sovereignty in this period was factions of nobles, most importantly the house of Habsburg, which were expanding their control over the region. By the early fourteenth century, …

The Battle Of Morgarten In 1315: An Essential Incident In The Founding Of The Swiss State, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

In 1315 Leopold I of the Habsburg family led an army invaded the early Swiss states of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. Leopold’s army was typical feudal force and included many knights on horseback. The Swiss states were largely free peasants who were developing infantry tactics, and the conflict with the Habsburgs was in part a social conflict. In one of the most stunning and lopsided military victories in history, the Swiss overwhelmed and routed Leopold’s army at the Pass at Morgarten. Within days, the victorious Swiss states concluded the Pact of Brunnen which was a major step in cooperation between …

I Love New York: Does New York Love Me?, Shannon B. Campbell, Steven S. Giannino, Chrystal R. China, Christopher S. Harris

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article seeks to highlight reality television’s most popular re-articulation of the Jezebel and the Sapphire stereotypes while assessing its implications for African American women. Nearly eight decades after their inception in mass mediated culture, the Jezebel and Sapphire stereotypes have been reborn in the form of Tiffany Pollard, better known as “New York,” and her mother “Sister Patterson” (respectively). Television acts as a powerful socialization agent, and thus plays a significant role in how audiences shape their racially stratified and gendered world. Researchers employed discourse analysis to provide the rich contextual data necessary to capture the effects of I …

Resting Oxygen Consumption Rates In Divers Using Diver Propulsion Devices, Adam J. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Marine Corps Systems Command documented mission requirements that cannot be met by current rebreathers. They need to extend dive times without compromising the stealth and compact design of existing devices. This can be accomplished by reducing the fresh gas flow rate. The current flow rate is adequate to support a diver in heavy work. However, the diver will be utilizing a Diver Propulsion Device (DPD) during a large portion of the mission in question. The assumption, then, is that this portion of the mission will not require "hard work". Thus, a new fresh gas flow rate can be established …

Larry "Bobby" Lee, Sr.

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Crusader, October 24, 2008, College Of The Holy Cross

Student Newspapers

The student newspaper for the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Articles include coverage of campus events and issues, sports, editorials and special features.

Lanthorn, Vol. 43, No. 18, October 20, 2008, Grand Valley State University

Volume 43, July 10, 2008 - June 7, 2009

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present. The Lanthorn, Vol. 43 No. 19 is missing.

The Modulation By Anthrax Toxins Of Dendritic Cell Activation, Ping-Jen Chou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacillus anthracis produces lethal toxin (LT) and edema toxin (ET) and they suppress the function of LPS-stimulated dendritic cells (DC). Because DCs respond differently to various microbial stimuli, we compared toxin effects in bone marrow DCs stimulated with either LPS or Legionella pneumophila (Lp). DCs were enriched with GM-CSF for 9 days, purified by positive selection, and treated with toxins for 6h; cells were then stimulated with either LPS or Lp-infection for 24h. DC cytokine production and maturation marker expression varied depending upon cell stimulus and the mouse strain used. LT but not ET was more toxic for cells from …

Lanthorn, Vol. 43, No. 13, October 2, 2008, Grand Valley State University

Volume 43, July 10, 2008 - June 7, 2009

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale

History Faculty Research

This paper and accompanying historical argument builds upon the presentation I made at last year’s Ohio Valley History Conference held at Western Kentucky University. In that presentation, I argued that preindustrial Appalachia was a complex and dynamic borderland region in which disparate Amerindian groups and Euroamericans engaged in a wide-range of cultural, political, economic, and familial interactions. I challenged the Turnerian frontier model that characterized the North American backcountry as a steadily retreating “fall line” separating the savagery of Amerindian existence and the epidemic civility of Anglo-America. On the Turnerian frontier, Anglo-American culture washed over the Appalachian and Native American …

“Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration And The Making Of The Modern World”, Charles R. Foy

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This anthology of essay provides a persuasive basis for widening our geographic Emma Christopher et. al. (eds.), “Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World,” Journal of the Early Republic 28:3 (Fall 2008): 474-477. lens when considering coerced voyages across the Atlantic. It offers as a useful framing tool to consider the social and cultural transformations of a variety of people coercively transported that middle passages were ‘‘the structuring link between expropriation in one geographic setting and exploitation in another.” Additionally, the editors consider a variety of ‘‘prisons’’ central to these middle passages, and claim that …

Kahn Chronicle: Fall 2008, Smith College, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute

Kahn Chronicle

Table of Contents:

Looking Back: Ten Years at the Kahn
Student Fellowships for 2008-2009
Announcements
Short-Term Projects for 2008-2009
Proposing a Kahn Institute Project
Long-Term Projects for 2009-2010
Undergrounds Underworlds Final Report
Sustainable Houses, Homes, and Communities Final Report
A Note From the Director

Proxemics, Homogenization And Diversity In Mexico´S Road Movies: Por La Libre (2000), Sin Dejar Huella (2000) And Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Salvador Oropesa

Publications

No abstract provided.

Pathos, Fall 2008, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Nataliya Pirumova

Issue 7

The Missouri Compromise And Its Aftermath: Slavery And The Meaning Of America, By Robert Pierce Forbes, Lacy K. Ford, Jr.

Faculty Publications

A review of The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America, by Robert Pierce Forbes

Nigeria: The Dominance Of Rape, Chineze J. Onyejekwe

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite decades of feminist activism, men continue to rape women at appalling rates. This paper evaluates the failure of the Nigerian state to enforce laws to protect women against rape. Rape is also shown to be a global problem. The flaws in the Law’s definition of rape are examined. Women’s action-oriented responses and initiatives against these abuses are highlighted.

Bill Dark, Michael A. Davis

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.