Digital Commons Network^™

Lean Erp Systems: Existence And Viability In Today's Manufacturing Industry, Miroslav Djuric

Master's Theses

This thesis evaluates the existence and viability of lean ERP systems in today’s manufacturing industry. Results from the research show that current practitioners of lean – who also utilize ERP systems – do not have a strong enough link between the two to consider their ERP systems, and overall organizations, as being truly lean.

Few articles and research papers in today’s body of knowledge contain information on the concept of lean ERP. A survey, sent to numerous industry professionals and posted on lean manufacturing websites, provided the results necessary for statistical analysis. The conclusions obtained from this survey analysis provided …

Programming And Conceptual Design Using Building Information Modeling, Mary-Alice Avila

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the benefits of using Building Information Modeling (BIM) during the programming and conceptual design phase of a project. The research was based on a case study undertaken dealing with the decisions and assumptions made during the design phases of the Center for Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The project team used a traditional approach to project plan development. The finding of this study was that the project process would have greatly benefited utilizing BIM tools and a collaborative team approach in the programming and conceptual design phase. Because decisions made early in the project have …

A Unified Resource Platform For The Rapid Development Of Scalable Web Applications, Russell Palmiter

Master's Theses

This thesis presents Web Utility Kit (WUT): a platform that helps to simplify the process of creating modern web applications. It addresses the need to simplify the web development process through the creation of a hosted service that provides access to a unified set of resources. The resources are made available through a variety of protocols and formats to help simplify their consumption. It also provides a uniform model across all of its resources making multi-resource development an easier and more familiar task. WUT saves the time and cost associated with deployment, maintenance, and hosting of the hardware and software …

Are We All Together? : A Study Of Evacuation And Sheltering Of Public Safety Special Needs Populations In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Anna M. Mcray

Master's Theses

Events thousands of miles away from Virginia have led to enhancements of the existing evacuation and emergency sheltering planning, highlighting the need to consider more than traditional special needs populations. Updated state-level plans specifically address the medical needs of evacuation populations. Pets were taken into consideration and inclusion of dogs, cats, and birds in traditional sheltering planning has begun. Planning began to address those with social needs such as low-income families who may not be able to evacuate until the final hours of an active evacuation. It became clear that there were specific populations that had not been included in …

Local Law Enforcement's Initial Role In Response To A Radiological Dispersion Device Attack, Andrew Robert Hoehl

Master's Theses

Today the potential exists for a terrorist organization to use a Radiological Dispersion Device or a dirty bomb within the United States. The results of such an attack could be catastrophic to the affected population. The response by law enforcement must be calculated and planned.

To properly analyze the law enforcement's role in a radioactive incident a qualitative approach was taken. A determination must be made prior to an attack to discern what kind of training will be necessary, what equipment will be required, and what response procedures need to be in place to ensure a safe and efficient response. …

P.I.: Poetry And The Imagination, Higino Francisco V. Penones Jr.

Master's Theses

The idea of a nation, a political concept spread during the Enlightenment with the invention of printing technology, has long been expressed through various representations. As a concept showing racial commonality and filiation, the notion of nation has been represented in various media, like printing and painting. Long before my country, the Philippines, became a sovereign state, it had been imagined and represented in various ways by early sea explorers, adventurers, writers, artists, cartographers, anthropologists, and its subsequent colonizers.

These representations, consistent with Benedict Anderson's definition of nation as an "imagined community," underlies this creative thesis project. My poems attempt …

Transition And Upheaval: Readers Switch From Newspapers To Web News Sites., James Detar

Master's Theses

This thesis provides an examination of the impact of the switch by news readers from print newspapers to news Web sites and other digital news media. The method is qualitative research in the form of a series of in-person interviews with top level editors at nine large national and regional U.S. newspapers. The consensus of the editors interviewed is that the rise of online news is a primary cause of the shrinkage of print news readership. Further, they agreed that print newspaper readership will continue to decline. Finally, most of the editors concluded that---although it presents opportunities---the impact of the …

Comparing Generation X To Generation Y On Work-Related Beliefs., Susana Fernandez

Master's Theses

A new generation of employees with new expectations is entering the workplace. They are known by many names, but most will recognize them as the Millennials or Generation Y (Gen Y). With many Gen Y members already in the workforce, managers are likely to be required to deal with the generational differences that appear to exist among employees. Given that Gen Y members are likely to work closely with Gen X members, the present study explored possible differences between Gen X and Gen Y on their work-related beliefs.

"Firing The Pigskin Real Right": Media Representations Of Simpson And Romo., Lindsey M. Eliopulos

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to examine the media's representations of sport-celebrity couple singer-actress, Jessica Simpson and Dallas Cowboys Quarterback, Tony Romo. One hundred magazine and 100 newspaper articles published between December 17, 200, that coincided with the first publicized notion of the "Jessica Simpson jinx" and April 15, 2009, were qualitatively analyzed. The investigation revealed the prevailing dominant ideologies of patriarchal structures, traditional gender roles, hegemonic masculinity and deviance, while underscoring the mass media's ubiquitous characteristics. The literature emphasized the mass media's representation of the celebrity and the media's habitual employment of gossip and rumor linguistics to frame …

Relations Between Language And Executive Function In Spanish-Speaking Children., Ana Luz Portillo

Master's Theses

The literature on the development of executive function (EF) has been largely limited to studies of middle-class English-speaking children. This study extended executive function research to a primarily low socioeconomic status (SES) sample of Spanish-speaking preschool children living in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine a variety of language measures (vocabulary, grammar, and comprehensive language) in relation to a variety of executive function measures (working memory, inhibitory control, and attention-shifting). Results revealed that Spanish speakers performed on some, but not all, EF measures comparably to higher SES English-speaking peers, in concurrence with previously reported findings. …

Determinants Of Job Satisfaction And Turnover Among Physicians., Dustin Kaplan

Master's Theses

This study examined the determinants of job satisfaction and turnover among physicians at the University of California, San Diego. The relationship between eight predictor variables (administrative requirements, autonomy, ability to provide quality patient care, workload, work/private life conflict, pay, satisfaction with community, locus of control) and two dependent variables (job satisfaction, turnover intentions) was studied. Results indicated physicians' satisfaction with their current position was related to their perceptions of their autonomy, workload, work/private life conflict, pay, and community satisfaction. In addition, all predictors except workload had an impact on physicians' satisfaction with the current career. The only predictor that influenced …

Intrusion Detection And Prevention System: Cgi Attacks., Tejinder Aulakh

Master's Theses

Over the past decade, the popularity of the Internet has been on the rise. The Internet is being used by its clients to access both static and dynamic data residing on remote servers. In the client-server interaction, the client asks the server to provide information, and, in addition, the server may also request that clients provide information such as in "web forms." Therefore, the Internet is being used for many different purposes which also include the web servers collecting the information from the clients. Consequently, attacks on the web servers have been increasing over the years. Due to the fact …

Literary Prose And Poetry In San Francisco's Black Newspapers, 1862--1885., Jan Batiste Adkins

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the topic of literature of poetry, short stories, travel narratives, and didactic narratives published in the Pacific Appeal and the Elevator newspapers of San Francisco during 1862--1885. Many of the literary writings published in these newspapers were written by residents of San Francisco's African American communities and also residents of other communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. This research not only documents the imaginative writings by African American writers and others interested in the issues facing African American citizens, but it analyzes the trends, structure, tone, themes, imagery, language, and issues during the initial year of …

Whitefly Fauna Of Clark County, Nevada., John W. Dooley Iii

Master's Theses

The research presented here documents the whitefly fauna within the Las Vegas area in Clark County, Nevada, with information on the geology, host and plant communities in the area where the whiteflies were collected. Only specimens of the immature fourth stage (puparium) were observed and collected at Red Rock Canyon, Mount Charleston, and the Mojave Desert surrounding Las Vegas.

Offshoring Effectiveness: Measurement And Improvement With Optimization Approach., Dip Biswas

Master's Theses

This study takes a refreshing look at IT outsourcing from a vendor's perspective and discusses best practices required to effectively manage offshore business needs and offshoring effectiveness. We have conducted a detailed investigation to learn why outsourcing ventures fail, how to effectively measure up to service provider capability, and how to deliver strategic value to the end customer. Extant literature does not talk about the vendor's issues and problems in outsourcing, and our investigation emphasized the vendor's perspective on offshoring strategy and offshore resource effectiveness as the two important differentiators in a make-or-buy decision. Measurement metrics for each of the …

Seafood Labeling And Consumer Behavior: A Fishwise Case Study, Sonoma County, Ca., Alicia Ushijima Elsholz

Master's Theses

Decades of unsustainable commercial fishing have resulted in depletion of fish stocks, destruction of ocean habitats, and unintended capture and death of fish and marine mammals. In addition, unsustainable aquaculture practices threaten wild species and pollute surrounding natural habitats. In an attempt to combat these adverse impacts, FishWise, a seafood labeling program, was created to encourage consumers at health food stores and gourmet markets in the US to purchase seafood caught or farm raised in a sustainable manner. This study evaluates FishWise to determine its effectiveness in educating consumers about sustainable fishery issues and in influencing purchases of sustainable seafood …

Alfred Of Wessex A Study In Accidental Greatness., Maureen Elizabeth Searing

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the application of the epithet "great" to King Alfred of Wessex (r. 871--899). It sets a standard for greatness within the context of early medieval Christian kingship, applies it to Alfred, and then compares Alfred to Charlemagne and Charles the Bald. It traces the development of the cult of Alfred from his own lifetime to the early twentieth century. It examines the mythical achievements of Alfred and how they developed, then summarizes his actual accomplishments, and compares them to the standard for greatness developed in the thesis.

Examination Of The Factors That Predict Job Satisfaction., Amani Shoman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of job satisfaction among three departments within an organization. The study used five predictors: leadership/top management communication with subordinates, feedback received from one's supervisor, training opportunities for employees, career opportunities within the company, and teamwork or cooperation among employees. Using data from 608 participants, the present study examined the relationships between each of these five predictors and job satisfaction. Consistent with hypotheses, each of these predictors was significantly related to job satisfaction. Moreover, leadership/top management communication with subordinates (except for one department surveyed), career opportunities within the company, and teamwork …

Enhancing Spammer Detection In Online Social Networks With Trust-Based Metrics., Alexander J. Murmann

Master's Theses

As online social networks acquire larger user bases, they also become more interesting targets for spammers. Spam can take very different forms on social Web sites and cannot always be detected by analyzing textual content. However, the platform's social nature also offers new ways of approaching the spam problem. In this work the possibilities of analyzing a user's direct neighbors in the social graph to improve spammer detection are explored. Special features of social Web sites and their implicit trust relations are utilized to create an enhanced attribute set that categorizes users on the Twitter microblogging platform as spammers or …

Women In Sports Journalism., Sara Ellen Swanson

Master's Theses

This thesis is an exploration of women in sports journalism and the challenges they face when entering the locker room. It begins with an introduction focused on the history of women in sports journalism. Following the introduction, there will be a discussion in literature review format of the various challenges the women have faced.

Portrayals Of Motherhood In Four Women's Magazines: 1985 And 2009., Kristen A. Sato

Master's Theses

This thesis concerns representations of women as mothers in women's magazines during 1985 and 2009. It analyzes the images, symbols, and textual messages within the advertisements of these magazines. Gender roles and gender scripts for women during the respective years are then considered with the collected data, in order to contrast portrayals of mothers in the advertisements against aspects of actual motherhood.

Information Management Professionals And Programs In U.S. Architecture Firms., Lynne M. Kemmer

Master's Theses

This research study identifies an active population of librarians and information management (IM) professionals and describes library and IM programs in architectural design firm offices in the United States. The levels of education, job titles, and duties of the professionals managing and assisting with the libraries and IM programs are clarified. Designated spaces, budgets, resources, systems, services, evaluation, and communication methods for the libraries and IM programs, are determined. The information needs of management and employees in the architecture firms are specified. The support materials the librarians and IM professionals utilize to administer their library and IM program's resources and …

"I'M Korean, Living In The United States", Youngmin Seo

Master's Theses

This study explores the acculturation process of generation 1.5 Korean immigrants in the United States with special attention to their construction of ethnic identity as it influences their adjustment to the new culture. The researcher defines generation 1.5 Korean as those who were born in Korea and immigrated to the United States between age 5 and 16. For the purpose of this study, the researcher conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews on the participants' immigration experiences, focusing on how they have developed their ethnic identities over time. Twenty Korean immigrants were recruited and interviewed in the area of San Jose, California.

Barriers To Mitigation: Incentives And The Influence Of Social Networks., Crystal Paul

Master's Theses

This study is an expansion of previous research and a pilot study conducted on the barriers to hazard mitigation. Using a sample of 235 American Red Cross staff members and volunteers, factors such as the barriers and incentives around earthquake mitigation were assessed. Demographic characteristics and threat perceptions were also measured and compared to respondents' mitigation activities. While few demographic characteristics could be related to mitigation activity overall, findings were consistent with information found in the literature review and the pilot study. Barriers to mitigation were generally cost, time required, lack of information, and a feeling that it was unnecessary …

Host Majority Group Members' Acculturation Attitudes Towards Immigrant Groups., Kanako Miwa

Master's Theses

One out of every four individuals residing in the U.S. lived in another country before moving to the U.S. Such an individual has to face acculturation. Research has consistently shown that immigrants differ in how they go about their acculturation. However, little is known about what acculturation strategies the majority group members believe immigrants should adopt in the host country. Therefore, the present study examines the host majority group members' (Euro-Americans) acculturation orientations toward two immigrant groups (Mexican and Japanese) on different life domains and identifies individual difference factors (e.g., social dominance orientation, social distance, and self-efficacy) that are related …

Negotiating Multicultural Identities Within The Classroom., Teresa Lee Teng

Master's Theses

This thesis explores cultural identity negotiation among American born Chinese (ABC) college students. Specifically analyzing their communication patterns within the classroom, the author illuminates how ABC students negotiate their multicultural identities through emergent dialectical tensions and patterns of praxis.

Robot Assisted Herding, Pinky Thakkar

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses issues relating to the development of a robotic capability to assist a human in performing a complex task. It describes research and experiments involving a robot that assists a human to herd an animal. The novel focus of this work is that the robot is able to perceive the human's intentions by interpreting the human's movements without any explicit communication from the human. Furthermore, the robot is able to detect if the human is absent or unable to herd, and in that case, it herds the animal autonomously. A herding framework is developed based on low-stress herding …

Implications Of Social Support And Culture In The Context Of Work-Related Stress, Maria Amren

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Framing Analysis Of Al-Jazeera's Coverage Of The Palestinian Fatah-Hamas Conflict., Mohammed Z. Abou Ramadan

Master's Theses

By utilizing both framing and descriptive analysis, this study examined how an Arab media outlet, Al-Jazeera, with an increasingly global reach framed the Palestinian-Palestinian conflict. The 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and the 2007 fall-of-Gaza under the control of Hamas were two critical Palestinian events that warranted an examination of how coverage of these two periods was framed. Thirty frames were found in Al-Jazeera's coverage of the two mentioned critical events. These frames were categorized into seven major sets of frames. The civil war and the politics' sets of frames dominated Al-Jazeera's coverage in the fall-of-Gaza period, and the elections and …

Effects Of Telepresence Light Height And Ambient Light On Glare And Appearance, James P. Beno

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.