Digital Commons Network^™

Aladdin's Magic Lamp: Developing Methods For Calibration And Geolocation Accuracy Assessment Of The Dmsp Ols, Benjamin Taylor Tuttle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nighttime satellite imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a unique capability to observe nocturnal light emissions from sources including cities, wild fires, and gas flares. Data from the DMSP OLS is used in a wide range of studies including mapping urban areas, estimating informal economies, and estimating urban populations. Given the extensive and increasing list of applications a repeatable method for assessing geolocation accuracy, performing inter-calibration, and defining the minimum detectable brightness would be beneficial. An array of portable lights was designed and taken to multiple field sites known to have no other …

A Hydrodynamic Method For Measuring Aqueous Nanoparticle Surface Interactions, Kellen John Sorauf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this research dissertation were to develop and present novel analytical methods for the quantification of surface binding interactions between aqueous nanoparticles and water-soluble organic solutes. Quantification of nanoparticle surface interactions are presented in this work as association constants where the solutes have interacted with the surface of the nanoparticles. By understanding these nanoparticle-solute interactions, in part through association constants, the scientific community will better understand how organic drugs and nanomaterials interact in the environment, as well as to understand their eventual environmental fate. The biological community, pharmaceutical, and consumer product industries also have vested interests in nanoparticle-drug …

Species And Habitat Interactions Of The Gopher Tortoise: A Keystone Species?, Christopher Catano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Species-species and species-habitat interactions have been demonstrated to be important in influencing diversity across a variety of ecosystems. Despite generalities in the importance of these interactions, appropriate mechanisms to explain them are absent in many systems. In sandhill systems of the southeast U.S., gopher tortoises have been hypothesized to be a crucial species in the maintenance of diversity and function. However, the mechanisms and magnitude in which they influence their communities and habitats have rarely been empirically quantified. I examined how habitat structure influences tortoise abandonment of burrows and how tortoise densities influence nonvolant vertebrate community diversity. Tortoise burrow abandonment …

Gesture Production, Motor Skills, And Disfluencies Observed In Typically Developing Preschoolers, Christina Beatty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interest in gesture production has considerably increased in recent decades, yet few studies have examined the preschool population. Even fewer studies have examined the intriguing interaction between motor skills and gesture. The original intent of this study was to investigate the relationship of gesture and motor skills in individuals who stutter. However due to recruitment limitations the enrolled sample consists solely of typically developing preschoolers, 3:8 to 6:6 years. Data are presented on gestures and disfluencies during spontaneous speech, a cartoon narration, and a video narration. Additionally, disfluencies were observed during a procedural description task with restricted hand use and …

Another World Entire: The Posthumanism Of Cormac Mccarthy, Margaret Henson Pless

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cormac McCarthy's novels are thought experiments in what it might mean to write posthuman works of fiction. In a close reading of three of his novels, Child of God, The Crossing, and The Road , this project reveals how McCarthy's stories paradoxically unravel the dangerous human desire to make of our world a story. His characters, Lester Ballard, Billy Parham, and the boy, become posthuman as they live increasingly outside of narrative. Their existences extend beyond the page, in a radical intimacy with the world, evident in the haunting and elusive presences, and absences, of wolves, hawks, trout, and even …

King Of The Hill's Souphanousiphones, The New Model Minority, And The Subversive Model Minority, Robert Reece

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though the term "model minority" was only coined in the 1960s to apply to Asian-Americans, in the white imagination, a "model" way to be a minority has always existed. This model has gone through various iterations from the "happy" blacks of the antebellum years to supposedly over-achieving Asian-Americans of the 1960s. I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new model minority that includes not only Asian-Americans but other high-achieving minorities as well. This model minority is characterized by economic success, formal education, American values, and conservative racial politics or a complete silence about race. Because an inability …

Phylogenetic Community Structure Of Aquatic Beetle Assemblages In A Multi-Wetland Experiment, Sandor Lawrence Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Phylogenetic Community Structure (PCS) metrics are becoming more common in community ecology. PCS metrics estimate the phylogenetic relatedness among members of an ecological community or assemblage. If ecological traits are conserved, then phylogenetic clustering (i.e., taxa are more closely related than expected by chance) indicates habitat filtering as the key process in community assembly. On the other hand, a pattern of phylogenetic overdispersion (i.e., taxa are more distantly related than expected by chance) suggests competition is dominant. Most studies to date have used PCS of unmanipulated ecosystems, but the value of PCS metrics will be best revealed in experiments. This …

Landscaping Perceptions And Behaviors: Socio-Ecological Drivers Of Nitrogen In The Residential Landscape, Leesa Souto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Driven by individual influences such as beliefs, attitudes, personal norms, and abilities, as well as by social influences like community norms, mandates, and the market, suburban homeowners are motivated to select and maintain a turf grass landscape. In many areas of Florida, effective suburban lawn maintenance requires regular inputs of nitrogenous fertilizer, some of which is lost to the environment, contributing to water quality degradation and ecosystem dysfunction. Reducing nitrogen inputs to aquatic systems requires a better understanding of the links between residential landscape management and the potential for fertilizer loss. This dissertation examines the linkages between the human behaviors …

Infection Control And Health Care Associated Infection (Hcai) In The Nursing Home: A Study To Determine The Impact Of An Educational Video And Pamphlet About Infection Control On Knowledge And Perception Of Hand Hygiene In Certified Nurse Assistants, Kathe Hypes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The impact of an education program on perception, knowledge, and infection rate was evaluated in this study. The educational intervention consisted of a video on infection control and a World Health Organization (WHO) pamphlet for hand hygiene. The study was conducted in one nursing home in the Southeastern United States. The survey sample consisted of 66 certified nurse assistants (CNAs). A pre- and post-intervention design was employed using the WHO’s Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire and the WHO Perception Survey. Friedman’s test and central tendencies showed no statistical relationship between the educational intervention and the overall knowledge scores of the sample. …

Is It Choice Or Is It Interest?: The Effect Of Choice And Interest On The Cognitive And Affective Engagement Of Elementary Students Performing A Reading Task, Jerilyn Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author replicated and extended a study by Flowerday, Schraw, & Stevens (2004) that examined the effects of choice, topic interest, and situational interest on reading engagement, attitude, and learning in college-age students. The study was replicated using fourth and fifth graders as subjects. The study was extended to examine the effects of gender and reading ability cohort on the outcome measures. Participants randomly assigned to the choice condition made a blind choice of Packet A or B containing a non-fiction essay to read; participants assigned to the no choice condition were given one of the packets without being offered …

Theological And Liturgical Dimensions Of Ecclesial Authorization For U.S. Catholic Lay Ecclesial Ministers, Mary Beth Yount

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work provides steps toward a practical understanding of the changing ministerial relationships in the U.S. Catholic Church given the rapid increase in lay ecclesial ministers ("LEMs") and decline in ordained priests. New ecclesial relationships develop through shifts in ecclesial ministry; formalizing these new relationships, the study argues, will allow for smoother transitions in parishes and a deeper theological understanding of the Church as a whole.

After outlining and exploring the Church's theological understandings of LEMs as called, having a particular vocation, and able to provide us with unique contributions, the author posits that liturgical celebrations for installing LEMs can …

Novelty-Assisted Interactive Evolution Of Control Behaviors, Brian G. Woolley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of evolutionary computation is inspired by the achievements of natural evolution, in which there is no final objective. Yet the pursuit of objectives is ubiquitous in simulated evolution because evolutionary algorithms that can consistently achieve established benchmarks are lauded as successful, thus reinforcing this paradigm. A significant problem is that such objective approaches assume that intermediate stepping stones will increasingly resemble the final objective when in fact they often do not. The consequence is that while solutions may exist, searching for such objectives may not discover them. This problem with objectives is demonstrated through an experiment in this …

Evolution Through The Search For Novelty, Joel Lehman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I present a new approach to evolutionary search called novelty search, wherein only behavioral novelty is rewarded, thereby abstracting evolution as a search for novel forms. This new approach contrasts with the traditional approach of rewarding progress towards the objective through an objective function. Although they are designed to light a path to the objective, objective functions can instead deceive search into converging to dead ends called local optima. As a significant problem in evolutionary computation, deception has inspired many techniques designed to mitigate it. However, nearly all such methods are still ultimately susceptible to deceptive local optima because they …

Virtual Motion Camouflage Based Nonlinear Constrained Optimal Trajectory Design Method, Gareth Basset

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear constrained optimal trajectory control is an important and fundamental area of research that continues to advance in numerous fields. Many attempts have been made to present new methods that can solve for optimal trajectories more efficiently or to improve the overall performance of existing techniques. This research presents a recently developed bio-inspired method called the Virtual Motion Camouflage (VMC) method that offers a means of quickly finding, within a defined but varying search space, the optimal trajectory that is equal or close to the optimal solution. The research starts with the polynomial-based VMC method, which works within a search …

Study Of Human Activity In Video Data With An Emphasis On View-Invariance, Nazim Ashraf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The perception and understanding of human motion and action is an important area of research in computer vision that plays a crucial role in various applications such as surveillance, HCI, ergonomics, etc. In this thesis, we focus on the recognition of actions in the case of varying viewpoints and different and unknown camera intrinsic parameters. The challenges to be addressed include perspective distortions, differences in viewpoints, anthropometric variations, and the large degrees of freedom of articulated bodies. In addition, we are interested in methods that require little or no training. The current solutions to action recognition usually assume that there …

Behind The Mask Of Time: Memory And Loss As Evolutionary Forces Upon Memory, Tommy Bartolillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past decade, I've been developing a body of work based on the concept of time, in all of its various forms. My medium varies, but my work maintains its steady, overarching philosophies and core aesthetics. The ideas of entropy, growth, decay, evolution, arrested development, fragmented memories, and fugue states; all are considered through a personal filter that borders upon the dark and macabre.

The Immaculate Condemnation, Corey Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My work is a continuously evolving self portrait formulated by a combination of past experiences and influences. The Immaculate Condemnation body of work is a cathartic reaction that confronts Catholic Sin and rebels against gender conformity. As both a confirmed Catholic and transgender woman, I speak from an authentic voice that seeks open conversation regarding these topics. I also hope to demystify the transsexual body for the non-transgendered viewer. Additionally, I use allegoric imagery to communicate my interpretation of beauty, power, horror, and sex. I combine performance, photography, sculpture, video, audio, and graphic design to execute my installations. I intentionally …

A Blue Flower: The Development Of A Personal Documentary, Nils Taranger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Blue Flower is a feature-length documentary film by Nils Taranger, made as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. The film focuses on the director’s journey to find healing, both physically and emotionally. Following the guidelines of UCF’s program, Nils produced the film on a microbudget (under $50,000) level. The majority of filming took place in Florida with only a one or two person crew. This thesis is a record of the film’s progression from development to picture lock, in preparation for distribution

Experiencing The World Of Franklin: The Making Of An Immersive And Interactive Historical Exhibit, Daniel Joseph Webster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis involves the creation of a historically-themed museum element. The element, titled “Improving Community,” is a virtual interactive game that allows players to explore certain realities of colonial American life. Within the game, players are presented with a number of civic-related issues that existed throughout the eighteenth century, and they are then given options to improve the situation. Interactivity and immersion are key features of the game, and they have been incorporated so that players may engage with the past and assume a more active role in the process of historical reconstruction. Research for the games draws mostly upon …

Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 …

The Amish Farm In Transition: The Amish Response To Modernization In Northern Indiana, 1900-1920, Amy Grover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the responses of Amish agrarians in northern Indiana to the mechanization and modernization of rural life in the early twentieth century. This period was marked by a shift towards agribusiness as well as the increased usage of farm machines. In addition to the increased emphasis on farm efficiency, reformers sought to modernize or update rural life. Within the context of these transformations, the Amish maintained their identity by exploring the necessity and the consequences of adapting to life in the modern world. Their responses to modernization defined not only their cultural boundaries in the modern world but …

Physiological Reactions To Uncanny Stimuli: Substantiation Of Self-Assessment And Individual Perception, Tatiana Ballion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori’s initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user’s experience of uncanniness, …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Visual Effects And Object Identification Using Eye-Tracking, Jonathan Rosch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The visual content represented on information displays used in training environments prescribe display attributes as brightness, color, contrast, and motion blur, but considerations regarding cognitive processes corresponding to these visual features require further attention in order to optimize the display for training applications. This dissertation describes an empirical study with which information display features, specifically color and motion blur reduction, were investigated to assess their impact in a training scenario involving visual search and threat detection. Presented in this document is a review of the theory and literature describing display technology, its applications to training, and how eye-tracking systems can …

Use Of An Activated Magnesium/Cosolvent System For The Desorption And Degradation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons And Their Oxygenated Derivatives In Contaminated Soils, Marc Elie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The contamination of soils, with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), remains a widespread environmental concern. In the past two decades, many physical, chemical and biological methods have been developed and evaluated for the degradation of PAHs. However, due to their low aqueous solubility, high sorption affinity, hydrophobicity and recalcitrance, the environmental remediation of PAHs in soil continues to be economically challenging. In addition to PAH contamination, the presence of oxygenated derivatives of PAHs (OPAHs), in soils, has increasingly become a concern due to their greater toxic properties compared to parent PAH compounds. To date, no investigations on OPAH-remediation methods have been …

The Sacrament Of Violence: Myth And War In C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, Tanya Engelhardt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My primary aim for this study is to illuminate the Ransom trilogy's inherent psychological and spiritual themes, as well as demonstrate how these themes clarify Lewis's philosophical and political goals for the text. Specifically, by investigating Lewis's mythic imagery and suffering motifs in light of psychoanalytic and theological literary criticisms, I elucidate the reasoning behind Lewis's unique—and at times, horrific—portrayal of fear, violence, and death. I also investigate how Lewis integrates his theology with the horrors of personal and intrapersonal suffering, as well as how he utilizes imagination and myth to explicate the practical (or political) implications of his theodicy. …

Antimicrobial Activity, Cytotoxicity And Phytochemical Analyses Of Rhus Aromatica, Rhus Glabra And Sanguinaria Canadensis Native To South Dakota, Gitanjali Nandakafle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A total of twenty five South Dakota native medicinal plants were screened against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli using a disk diffusion assay. Out of these 25 plants, three plants Rhus aromatica, Rhus glabra and Sanguinaria canadensis demonstrated the highest bacterial inhibition. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of these plant extracts were determined using a bacterial enumeration assay. Alamar Blue in vitro cytotoxicity test showed that all extracts have some toxic effect to porcine intestinal epithelial cell lines. Phytochemical analysis of these plant extracts indicated the presence high concentration of flavonoids and condensed tannins in R. aromatica and that R. glabra contained …

Optimization And Development Of In Vitro Bioassays To Determine Structure-Activity Relationships For Cannabinoid Receptor 1 And Cannabinoid Receptor 2, Afeef Husni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cannabis has been around for thousands of years and has been used recreationally, medicinally, and for fiber. Over 400 compounds have been isolated from Cannabis sativa with approximately 100 being cannabinoids. Of those 100 compounds, Δ9-THC has been determined as the primary constituent, which is also responsible for the psychoactivity associated with Cannabis. Along with Δ9-THC, cannabidiol has been studied in depth for its therapeutic effects. This has currently been the focus of many researchers since cannabidiol does not cause psychotropic effects.

Cannabinoid receptors belong to the large superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Approximately 30% of marketed drugs target …

We Didn't Get Famous: The Story Of The Southern Music Underground, 1978-1990, Camilla Ann Aikin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the emergence of the Southern indie music scene in the 1980s as both a rejection of the broader punk scene that had swept America and the UK in the 1970s and the blues and country inflected Southern Rock that preceded it in the 1970s. I first had the idea of doing a project on this musical era while I was living in New York City. I had loved the jangly sounds of 1980s Southern indie bands for a very long time, and I had just begun to develop a very deep interest and love of the South, …

Comparison Of Apple's Ios 5 And Android For Mobile Applications Development: A Developer's Perspective, Estela Pochintesta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Body composition, or the proportion of fat, muscle, and bone of an individual's body, is an important indication of health status. Numerous techniques can be used to assess body composition, producing varied results and measurements. For individuals with insufficient or excessive amounts of body fat, accurate assessment of body composition is crucial. Two commonly used techniques for measuring body composition are air displacement plethysmography (adp) and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (dxa). Past research has been conducted, comparing adp and dxa, but the results are inconsistent. The majority of past studies found that, when compared to dxa, adp underestimated body fat percentage, …

Clamor: Malefica, Protest, And The Occult Economy In Early Modern England, Charles Mock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to figure witchcraft practices within a larger economic context whereby cursing and maleficent acts in general might be read as a means of political protest against the political and economic destabilization of comrights. By reading cursing and prophecy as epistemological weaponry, the thesis establishes a theory of early modern terror that corresponds to the effects of these tactics on local and national levels. Readings of traditional witchcraft literature and Shakespeare's Macbeth will hopefully allow for an understanding of witchcraft that is heavily concerned over the nature of agency within the period, particularly with regard to the ways …