Digital Commons Network^™

Worldview, Ideology, And Ceramic Iconography A Study Of Late Terminal Formative Graywares From The Lower Rio Verde Valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico, Jeffrey S. Brzezinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates worldview and ideology during the late Terminal Formative period (A.D. 100 – 250) in the lower Río Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, through an analysis of iconography found on grayware ceramic serving vessels. The sample includes 457 vessels and sherds from 17 lower Verde sites obtained through excavations and surface collections between 1988 and 2009. Drawing upon theories of semiotics and style, this thesis identifies a suite of icons suggesting that ceramics were a medium for expressing regionally shared beliefs. Chatino potters carved common Formative period Mesoamerican themes into the walls of graywares, such as depictions of …

Matched Optical Waveforms For Detection And Identification Of Biological Pathogens., Peter Delfyett, Geoffrey Burdge, John Desalvo, Bruce Fitzgerald, Andreas Leven

UCF Patents

A method is provided for identifying a contaminant in a gaseous space. The method includes: generating a broadband optical waveform; shaping the optical waveform to match an expected waveform for a known contaminant; and transmitting the shaped optical waveform towards an unknown contaminant. Upon receiving a reflected optical waveform from the unknown contaminant, determining whether the unknown contaminant correlates to the known contaminant based on the reflected waveform.

Sandspur, Vol 116, No 16, February 19, 2010, Rollins College

The Rollins Sandspur

Rollins College student newspaper, written by the students and published at Rollins College. The Sandspur started as a literary journal.

Sandspur, Vol 116, No 15, February 12, 2010, Rollins College

The Rollins Sandspur

Rollins College student newspaper, written by the students and published at Rollins College. The Sandspur started as a literary journal.

Divining The Divine: Pop Mythology And Its Worth, James Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis compares classic mythology of cultures like ancient Greece to the mythology that has risen from the popular culture of contemporary western civilizations like America. While there are some differences, the two use the same archetypes that humanity has used for generations. In my work I use sculpture and photography to show their similarities and differences in form and story.

A Governance Reference Model For Service-Oriented Architecture-Based Common Data Initialization A Case Study Of Military Simulation Federation Systems, Jeremy Thomas Lanman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Military simulation and command and control federations have become large, complex distributed systems that integrate with a variety of legacy and current simulations, and real command and control systems locally as well as globally. As these systems continue to become increasingly more complex so does the data that initializes them. This increased complexity has introduced a major problem in data initialization coordination which has been handled by many organizations in various ways. Serviceoriented architecture (SOA) solutions have been introduced to promote easier data interoperability through the use of standards-based reusable services and common infrastructure. However, current SOA-based solutions do not …

For Home And Country Confederate Nationalism In Western North Carolina, Hunter D. Shaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina during the Civil War. Using secondary sources, newspapers, civilian, and soldiers‟ letters, this study will show that most Appalachians demonstrated a strong loyalty to their new Confederate nation. However, while a majority Appalachian Confederates maintained a strong Confederate nationalism throughout the war; many Western North Carolinians were not loyal to the Confederacy. Critically analyzing Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina will show that conceptions of loyalty and disloyalty are not absolute, in other words, Appalachia was not purely loyal or disloyal.

The English Reformation In Image And Print: Cultural Continuity, Disruptions, And Communications In Tudor Art, Jessica Hoeschen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation generated multiple reform movements and political transformations in Europe. Within this general period of reform, political and cultural changes from the Tudor era (1485-1603) created a separate English Reformation. The English Reformation evolved from the different agendas of the early Tudor monarchs and occurred in two distinct waves: an initial, more moderate Henrician Reformation and a later, more complete Edwardian Reformation. Henry VIII and Edward VI's attempts to redefine monarchy through a new State and Church identity drove English church reform during this period, giving these religious shifts distinct political roots. Cultural …

From A Bird's Eye View: Using Satellite Imagery To Map And Analyze The Forest Islands Of The Llanos De Mojos, Bolivia, Stephanie Boothby

HIM 1990-2015

Recent discoveries about pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon have revolutionized the way researchers think about the environment, and the degree of interaction that humans have with their surroundings. New evidence indicates that ancient Amazonian populations were not only much larger and more complex than previously thought, but they were also modifying their environment and creating artificial landscapes. Although information about pre-Columbian cultures can be gained from archaeological excavations and historical accounts, the advent of new technology allows archaeologists to conduct research remotely.

Earthworks were constructed by pre-Hispanic peoples to create higher ground for occupation and agriculture, as an adaptation to …

Collaborative Problem Solving: The Role Of Team Knowledge Building Processes And External Representations, Michael Rosen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the relationship between five team knowledge building processes (i.e., information exchange, knowledge sharing, option generation, evaluation of alternatives, and regulation), the external representations constructed by a team during a performance episode, and performance outcomes in a problem solving task. In a broad range of domains such as the military, and healthcare, team-based work structures used to solve complex problems; however, the bulk of research on teamwork to date has dealt with behavioral coordination in routine tasks. This leaves a gap in the theory available for developing interventions to support collaborative problem solving, or knowledge-based performance, in teams. …

Simulation For Commercial Driver License Third Party Tester Testing, Henry Truong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advance of technology is thought to help ease the myriad tasks that are usually involved in operating equipment. Training and testing in modern times have been replacing with simulation technologies that mimic the actual live operations and testing. Many successful stories of flight simulation come from military fighter aircraft and commercial pilot programs. The possibilities of safety in saving lives, economic incentive in reducing the operational cost and reducing the carbon footprint via simulation makes simulation worth looking into. These considerations quickly boosted the transfer from live training operations to virtual and simulation, as were easily adopted in the …

What's In A Name? Genocide Early Warning Model For Humanitarian Intervention, Alexandria Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is much debate among genocide scholars as to the causes and even accurate definitions of genocide. Early warning developed to address the increasing need for humanitarian intervention in violent conflicts around the world. As a subset of genocide studies, early warning seeks to go beyond explaining the causes of genocide. The early warning model created here uses six indicator variables - government, leaders/elites, followers, non-followers/bystanders, outsider group, and environment - to detect the likelihood of genocide within a given case study. Four cases were chosen - Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen, and Ethiopia - and analyzed using the indicator variables to …

Nd:Yag-Co2 Double-Pulse Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Of Organic Films, Matthew Weidman, Matthieu Baudelet, Santiago Palanco, Michael Sigmann, Paul J. Dagdigian, Martin Richardson

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) using double-pulse irradiation with Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers was applied to the analysis of a polystyrene film on a silicon substrate. An enhanced emission signal, compared to single-pulse LIBS using a Nd: YAG laser, was observed from atomic carbon, as well as enhanced molecular emission from C-2 and CN. This double-pulse technique was further applied to 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene residues, and enhanced LIBS signals for both atomic carbon and molecular CN emission were observed; however, no molecular C-2 emission was detected.

Reentrant Processing In Intuitive Perception, Phan Luu, Alexandra Geyer, Cali Fidopiastis, Gwendolyn Campbell, Tracey Wheeler, Joseph Cohn, Don M. Tucker

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

The process of perception requires not only the brain's receipt of sensory data but also the meaningful organization of that data in relation to the perceptual experience held in memory. Although it typically results in a conscious percept, the process of perception is not fully conscious. Research on the neural substrates of human visual perception has suggested that regions of limbic cortex, including the medial orbital frontal cortex (mOFC), may contribute to intuitive judgments about perceptual events, such as guessing whether an object might be present in a briefly presented fragmented drawing. Examining dense array measures of cortical electrical activity …

The Highland Soldier In Georgia And Florida: A Case Study Of Scottish Highlanders In British Military Service, 1739-1748, Scott Hilderbrandt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined Scottish Highlanders who defended the southern border of British territory in the North American theater of the War of the Austrian Succession (1739-1748). A framework was established to show how Highlanders were deployed by the English between 1745 and 1815 as a way of eradicating radical Jacobite elements from the Scottish Highlands and utilizing their supposed natural superiority in combat. The case study of these Highlanders who fought in Georgia and Florida demonstrated that the English were already employing Highlanders in a similar fashion in North America during the 1730s and 1740s. British government sources and correspondence …

Understanding Terrorism: Religious & Political Dimensions, Christopher Cusano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism in the twenty-first century has had one of greatest effects on the status quo of international relations, peace and war. It has become the 'specter' of our era and in many instances, it has been referred to as the predominant threat of modern civilization. Furthermore, it has the potential to drastically change the world we live in. For these reasons it has rightfully earned our attention and focus. Many efforts to understand terrorism have fallen short of recognizing the underlying causes. In many cases, acts of terror have either been of purely political motivation or have had socioeconomic conditions …

Empirical Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Eye Tracking-Based Search Performance Diagnosis And Feedback Methods, Meredith Carroll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's complex combat environments, troops are often faced with increasingly challenging tasks different from those experienced in the past. Warfighters must be trained in adaptive perceptual skill sets, such as search strategies that enable them to detect threats across any number of environmental, cultural, and situational conditions. The goal of the present study was to explore how advanced technology, specifically eye tracking, can be used to increase understanding of perceptual processes such as search and detection and provide tools that can be used to train search skills. Experiment 1 examined a method of diagnosing perceptual performance in order to …

The Search For Theatre For Social Change, Britney Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout history people have sought to prompt social change through theatrical experiences. The theatre has moved the masses in ways that have frightened governments and religious establishments into closing down theatres and banning theatrical material. History proves that theatre which causes change exists and works, but it also proves there is no one definition or formula for this type of theatre. Depending on the culture, time period, issue, resources and people involved Theatre for Social Change takes a variety of forms. However, theatre affecting change does tend to maintain two common threads: the creation of a new work and the …

A Self-Organizing Hybrid Sensor System With Distributed Data Fusion For Intruder Tracking And Surveillance, Ravishankar Palaniappan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wireless sensor network is a network of distributed nodes each equipped with its own sensors, computational resources and transceivers. These sensors are designed to be able to sense specific phenomenon over a large geographic area and communicate this information to the user. Most sensor networks are designed to be stand-alone systems that can operate without user intervention for long periods of time. While the use of wireless sensor networks have been demonstrated in various military and commercial applications, their full potential has not been realized primarily due to the lack of efficient methods to self organize and cover the …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 92, December 3, 2009

Central Florida Future

Fla. population migrates for jobs; Uncover Thursdays; Need to know?; Plus: Saturday brings Taking Back Sunday; The best breakups ever; Three new programs launch at media center; Professor's book shows the history from FTU to UCF; Group raises money, hopes to help Haiti.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 86, November 9, 2009

Central Florida Future

Service Day kicks off Homecoming; UCF Homecoming 2009; Events; Let the games begin; New IM fields coming soon; Veteran memorial underway on Mall; Former judge backs weed legalization; Legal states.

Sandspur, Vol 116, No 07, October 30, 2009, Rollins College

The Rollins Sandspur

Rollins College student newspaper, written by the students and published at Rollins College. The Sandspur started as a literary journal.

End The Nfl Blackout!, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past week there has been some comment on the NFL television blackout policy that prohibits the televising of home games in the home market unless there has been a sellout 72 hours in advance of kickoff. Some, including Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, have suggested that in this time of economic crisis, when it appears that the number of sellouts of NFL games will be dropping, that Commissioner Goodell should end or suspend the blackout policy. This is a reasonable sentiment, although one might question if offering more blood and circuses offers a viable solution to …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 40, April 17, 2009

Central Florida Future

Panelists discuss the first 100 days; UnCover Fridays; History comes alive; Plus: Maher talks politics in Real Time; Care for some brains, Mr. Darcy?; Democrat victories motivates GOP club; Professor researches covenant laws; Covenant Marriage.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 21, February 23, 2009

Central Florida Future

Candidates hug it out before runoff; Talking points; UCF admins decline bonus; Phase two construction nears; User terms of use takes about-face.

Of Gods, Beasts And Men: Digital Sculpture, Brian Salisbury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My most recent body of work explores the synthesis of my influences, interests and life experiences into imagery of common themes: The expression of dynamic figures and forms and colors in digital 3d space, cinematic composition, and vibrant color, expressed through a semblance of Aztec culture and wildlife. My sculptures of nature and ancient culture are created using contemporary digital art creation technologies and techniques. I examine the art and religion of the Aztecs and the universal search for understanding and purpose in the world and the forces around and beyond us.

Robust Estimation And Adaptive Guidance For Multiple Uavs' Cooperation, Randal Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, an innovative cooperative navigation method is proposed for multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) based on online target position measurements. These noisy position measurement signals are used to estimate the target's velocity for non-maneuvering targets or the target's velocity and acceleration for maneuvering targets. The estimator's tracking capability is physically constrained due to the target's kinematic limitations and therefore is potentially improvable by designing a higher performance estimator. An H-infinity filter is implemented to increase the robustness of the estimation accuracy. The performance of the robust estimator is compared to a Kalman filter and the results illustrate more …

Direct Manipulation Of Virtual Objects, Long Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interacting with a Virtual Environment (VE) generally requires the user to correctly perceive the relative position and orientation of virtual objects. For applications requiring interaction in personal space, the user may also need to accurately judge the position of the virtual object relative to that of a real object, for example, a virtual button and the user's real hand. This is difficult since VEs generally only provide a subset of the cues experienced in the real world. Complicating matters further, VEs presented by currently available visual displays may be inaccurate or distorted due to technological limitations. Fundamental physiological and psychological …

Working Hard And Barely Making It: Ideological Contradictions And The Working Poor, Wendi Kane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The existence of large, relatively comfortable, middle and working classes is what has set the advanced capitalist societies apart from most societies throughout history. These classes, while not quite "privileged," offer the hope of opportunity and upward social mobility for those who work hard. Yet in the last 30 years a growing class of "working poor" has emerged who invest many hours working but at wages that keep upward social mobility beyond their grasp. The existence of the working poor, it seems, dispels a key element in the ideology of individualism; they work hard yet do not "get ahead." This …

Effective Timing Of Feedback During Scenario Based Team Training Within A Simulated Environment, Randolph Astwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scenario based training (SBT) allows organizations to train the competencies necessary for effective performance in an environment that replicates critical aspects of the transfer or operational setting. One of the most salient training features that can be delivered during SBT is feedback. Task feedback may be provided to trainees either during a training scenario (immediately following actions) or between training scenarios (after action review). However, little is known regarding the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback given to teams. Prior research on training individuals suggests that immediate feedback improves performance as assessed immediately after training (acquisition performance), however delayed feedback …