Digital Commons Network^™

Authoritarianism Both In Venezuela And Turkey, Furkan Burcu Yildiz

Masters Theses

In this paper, I undertake a comparative analysis of the authoritarian process in Venezuela and Turkey. In both countries, there are signs of political and economic instabilities. Therefore, I examine Turkey's and Venezuela's politics and economy to understand the reasons for authoritarian regimes. The comparison reveals that both countries are en route of authoritarianism; however, the motives are different. As for Venezuela. comparison grounds the argument that their authoritativeness relies on economic instability. On the contrary, Turkey has a stable economy while it has been struggling with political upheavals.

The result of this study pinpoints different ways for authoritarian regimes. …

A Journey Of Cross-Cultural Adaptation: An Autoethnography Of A Vietnamese Graduate Student In The American Classroom, Tram Nguyen

Masters Theses

Cross-cultural adaptation is not a new area of study, however, there is very little research focusing on the cross-cultural adaptation of Vietnamese students studying in America. The process of cross-cultural adaptation occurs naturally and necessarily regardless of the intentions of the individuals as long as they continuously engage in communication with the host environment and are functionally dependent on it. This research examines on the difference, the challenge and the way Vietnamese students have undergone throughout the process of adaptation from the original Asian culture to American culture, especially in the classroom context. The theoretical construct to guide the study …

Students Reception Of Ethnic Diversity Topics From White And Non-White Faculty, Cobi Christiansen

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study is to investigate the phenomenon of the student population being more ethnically diverse than the teacher population as well as examining student perceptions of ethnic diversity topics based on their perceptions of faculty ethnicity. A quantitative using a survey method was designed to investigate students' reception of ethnic diversity topics from White and Non-white faculty. From three different institutions in Central Illinois, 141 undergraduate education students, which included students who are majoring in early childhood, elementary, or secondary education as well as students who are receiving teaching certificates with their majors, participated in this study. …

Middle School Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions Of Opportunities And Challenges, Shelby Eversole

Masters Theses

This study investigates the perspectives of opportunities and challenges of middle school mathematics’ teachers. To gain these perspectives, an ethnographic study was conducted by interviewing four middle school mathematics teachers in central Illinois. The results of this study imply that teachers of different backgrounds and teaching environments have varying perspectives about challenges and opportunities in the classroom. Limitations of this study include but are not limited to, the researcher having one year to conduct the research, only four teachers from two schools being interviewed, interviewees teaching different grade levels, no rural setting involvement, one educator having little teaching experience, teachers’ …

The Influences Of Social Media: Depression, Anxiety, And Self-Concept, Emily Baker

Masters Theses

The current study examined correlations between social media use and its effects on depression, anxiety, and changes in self-concept through quantitative and qualitative data. Variables included in the analysis of Study 1 were depression, anxiety, time spent using social media, number of platforms used, perception of addiction, and type of use. Study 1 showed no significant correlations between social media used and depression or anxiety, however observational analyses of correlation tables revealed a relationship between time spent using and number of platforms used; time spent using and perception of addiction; time spent using and perception of addiction; time spent using …

Workers, Athletes And Artists: The Historical Continuity Of White Control Of Black America, Courtney Walton

Masters Theses

From the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, black Americans have been subject to different forms of control. This subjection of blacks to societal demands arose in part because black people are viewed as inferior to white people. Because of this misconstrued perception, black people are forced to present an acceptable level of blackness to prevent punishment. Richard Wright's "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch" (1938), Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928), and Langston Hughes's "The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain" (1926) detail their lives at the tum of the …

Identifying Priority Conservation Areas And Strategies For Myotis Sodalis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) Via Habitat And Connectivity Modeling, Ashleigh B. Cable

Masters Theses

Myotis sodalis, the Indiana bat, is a federally endangered bat species in the United States of America (USA). Conservation efforts are typically focused at identified maternity sites at local scales, however, the species is a regional migrant that interacts with its environment at multiple spatial scales. We are limited in our knowledge of landscape-level requirements of this species, especially in large areas such as Illinois, USA, where a wide range of environmental and landscape conditions exist. Many previous M. sodalis habitat studies have limited their focus to smaller spatial scales. Due to limitations in funding, personnel, and time, it …

Mary Mcgovern: Adapting A Life In Three Genres, Kelly M. Pierce

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Women's Empowerment And Its Impact On Reproductive Health Outcomes: Evidence From Nepal, Samyukta Ghimire

Masters Theses

The percentage of women utilizing maternal health care services in Nepal is relatively less than women in other South Asian countries. Moreover, large socio-economic and regional disparities have been the root causes for lower utilization of health care leading to increasing maternal mortality. Using a national representative sample of 9,475 women (2011) and 9,875 women (2016) from Nepal, I examine the impact of women empowerment in relation to prenatal care, place of delivery and postnatal care (3Ps) outcomes. A composite Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) based upon responses is also constructed to include three empowerment domains namely, attitude toward violence, social …

I Am A Citizen: An Examination Of The Civic Lives Of Adults With Cognitive Disabilities, Jihed Ncib

Masters Theses

This project lays down a foundation to study the civic lives of people with cognitive limitations. Considering the lack of research on the issue, the findings lean more toward theory building. Drawing on in-person interviews conducted with institutionalized individuals with intellectual disability (ID), this work attempts to clarify the impact of their disability on their civic lives. The questions that will be answered relate to their issue preferences, voting behavior, partisanship and mobilization, political awareness, and the influence of their circle on their citizen participation. Getting input directly from people with ID, instead of their proxies, will improve our understanding …

Relationship Of Self-Construal To Perceived Availability And Seeking Of Social Support By International Students Studying Abroad In The United States, Yue Zhang

Masters Theses

This study was created to examine the relationship between different self-construals and the behavior of seeking social support or the perceived availability of social support. We recruited 84 international students who currently study abroad in the United States. Participants completed the Singelis Self-construal Scale (SCS; Singelis,1994) and a Social Support Scale created for the current study. The SCS measured the degree to which participants’ self-construals are Independent (IND) or Interdependent (INT). The Social Support Scale presented five different scenarios and asked participants to rate activities responding to two types of social support (tangible support and emotional support). I predicted that …

Xylan Metabolism By Caulobacter Crescentus, Viet Bui

Masters Theses

Bacteria present unique opportunities to explore the molecular mechanisms of nutrient acquisition processes at single cell level under various experimental conditions. Caulobacter crescentus is a gram-negative oligotrophic environmental bacterium with adaptive physiological responses, such as slow growth or complete arrest of cell cycle, presence of sessile and motile progenies with the sessile cells growing stalk to enhance nutrient uptake for growth in low-nutrient conditions. Details of plant polysaccharide-derived carbon compound, such as cellobiose, maltose, and xylose utilization by C. crescentus can be found but molecular details or mechanisms of polysaccharide utilization, such as xylan, has not been reported. Database analyses …

Routing Algorithm For The Ground Team In Transmission Line Inspection Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Yu Li

Masters Theses

"With the rapid development of robotics technology, robots are increasingly used to conduct various tasks by utility companies. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an efficient robot that can be used to inspect high-voltage transmission lines. UAVs need to stay within a data transmission range from the ground station and periodically land to replace the battery in order to ensure that the power system can support its operation. A routing algorithm must be used in order to guide the motion and deployment of the ground station while using UAV in transmission line inspection. Most existing routing algorithms are dedicated to …

Radiation Immunity In Cable Harnesses And Differential P/N Skew In Pcb, David Nozadze

Masters Theses

"We develop an efficient method to model RF immunity of multiwire cable harnesses and study differential P/N skew effects on channels, channel performance and specifically on the eye diagrams at the SerDes receiver.

External radiation can induce unwanted signals in transmission lines. For example, external radiation from an antenna induces common-mode currents on the outer surface of cable shields. This common-mode signal makes its way through the shied due to its imperfections, inducing the inner common mode. When twisted pairs inside the cable are not balanced, inner common mode is in turn converted to the differential mode, which might compromise …

Program Management For Concurrent University Satellite Programs, Including Propellant Feed System Design Elements, Shannah Withrow-Maser

Masters Theses

"Propulsion options for CubeSats are limited but are necessary for the CubeSat industry to continue future growth. Challenges to CubeSat propulsion include volume/mass constraints, availability of sufficiently small and certified hardware, secondary payload status, and power requirements. A multi-mode (chemical and electric) thruster was developed by at the Missouri University of Science and Technology to enable CubeSat propulsion missions. Two satellite buses, a 3U and 6U, are under development to demonstrate the multi-mode thruster's capabilities. Two key challenges related to these missions are the development of the feed system to support the thruster and management of the two bus programs' …

Impact Of Framing And Base Size Of Computer Security Risk Information On User Behavior, Xinhui Zhan

Masters Theses

"This research examines the impact of framing and base size of computer security risk information on users' risk perceptions and behavior (i.e., download intention and download decision). It also examines individual differences (i.e., demographic factors, computer security awareness, Internet structural assurance, self-efficacy, and general risk-taking tendencies) associated with users' computer security risk perceptions. This research draws on Prospect Theory, which is a theory in behavioral economics that addresses risky decision-making, to generate hypotheses related to users' decision-making in the computer security context. A 2 x 3 mixed factorial experimental design (N = 178) was conducted to assess the effect of …

Modeling Impact Of Glass Weave On Differential Phase Skew By Design Of Experiments Method, Feng Zhang

Masters Theses

"The glass weave structure of a manufactured Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is scanned under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), with top-down and cross-sectional views. Previously, analytical methods were used to investigate the glass-weave effect on transition properties in a PCB. Based on the SEM observation, this study was conducted to build full-wave models using various glass-weave types and different relative positions between differential traces and glass-weave bundles. This study aims to obtain the relationship between the glass weave and trace geometry, and the phase skew of the differential trace by using Design of Experiment (DoE) method and simulation results"--Abstract, page …

Design And Implementation Of Applications Over Delay Tolerant Networks For Disaster And Battlefield Environment, Karthikeyan Sachidanandam

Masters Theses

"In disaster/battlefield applications, there may not be any centralized network that provides a mechanism for different nodes to connect with each other to share important data. In such cases, we can take advantage of an opportunistic network involving a substantial number of mobile devices that can communicate with each other using Bluetooth and Google Nearby Connections API(it uses Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Wi-Fi hotspots) when they are close to each other. These devices referred to as nodes form a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN), also known as an opportunistic network. As suggested by its name, DTN can tolerate delays …

Near-Field Scanning Based Shielding Effectiveness Extraction For Board Level Shielding Cans, Harsh Shrivastav

Masters Theses

"The conventional definition of shielding effectiveness is well suited for calculating electromagnetic shielding in the far-field. However, in the near field, shielding effectiveness calculation is not so straight forward. In radio frequency interference problems, most of the field coupling occurs in near field. Having a well-defined method to calculate near-field shielding effectiveness is important for estimating the suppression of radio frequency interference using the shield cans. In this research, a method to extract the shielding effectiveness of board level shielding cans using near field scanning is developed. Shielding effectiveness is defined by modelling the shielded noise source as equivalent dipole …

The Ancient-Future Of Worship Education: The Evangelical-Sacramental Movement's Effect On Modern Worship Education, Jordan Miles Covarelli

Masters Theses

This thesis looks at developments in evangelical/Pentecostal contemporary Christian worship music (CWM) in response to its theological critiques and analyzes the effects they are having on what training worship leaders will need. CWM has grown into a global phenomenon that largely either disregards or is ignorant of its theological critics. The rapid rate of churches adopting CWM practices in their services has led to numerous universities creating post-secondary degrees in Worship Leadership focused specifically on modern expressions of worship. This thesis uses a convergent parallel mixed methods research model to analyze how worship practices are changing in key evangelical-turned-sacramental churches …

Light Touch Based Virtual Cane For Balance Assistance During Standing, Sindhu Reddy Alluri

Masters Theses

"Can additional information about one's body kinematics provided through hands improve human balance? Light-Touch (LT) through hands helps improve balance in a wide range of populations, both healthy and impaired. The force is too small to provide any meaningful mechanical assistance -- rather, it is suggested that the additional sensory information through hands helps the body improve balance.

To investigate the potential for improving human balance through biofeedback through hands, we developed a Virtual Cane (VC) for balance assistance during standing. The VC mimics the physical cane's function of providing information about one's body in space. Balance experiments on 10 …

Student Perceptions And Attitudes Towards A Technical Writing Service Course At Missouri S&T, Hannah Claire Coffman

Masters Theses

"In order to learn how STEM students perceive Missouri S&T's English 3560 Technical Writing class, I designed a research study to investigate how a sample population of 90 students viewed the class. Due to the nature of qualitative research, the results of this study cannot be generalized to a larger population. However, the results can and do provide insight into the situation of these Missouri S&T students in English 3560 classes and contribute to our collective understanding of the technical writing service course at Missouri S&T and other US universities. The study investigated whether the sample population of students who …

Effects Of Uncertainty Refinement On Satellite Collision Probability, Bruce Thomas Morrison

Masters Theses

"Due to the drastic increase in orbital debris about the Earth, the likelihood for new and current mission satellites to collide with other objects grows. When a mission satellite is placed in a highly populated orbit in the vicinity of other satellites or debris, it is necessary to consider the probability of collision to assess any possible conjunctions. The computation of the collision probability is heavily dependent on the relative position and velocity of the objects during conjunction, as well as the combined covariance. There are two main types of analytic collision probability computations; the first assumes that the objects …

Coupling Path Visualization Based On Reciprocity Theorem, Yang Zhong

Masters Theses

"A new method to visualize coupling path is proposed to help solve EMI problems. Based on the reciprocity theorem and the concept of reaction, coupling coefficient (CC) is defined to characterize coupling power density. For two-port networks, surface integral of CC can represent coupled voltage on the open-circuited port or coupled power on the loaded port. For dipole-moment based systems, surface integral of CC can represent coupled field components. The calculated CC should be a complex scalar at each point. By properly adjusting the excitation phases, the imaginary part of surface integral of CC will be zero and thus can …

Small Satellite Earth-To-Moon Direct Transfer Trajectories Using The Cr3bp, Garrett Levi Mcmillan

Masters Theses

"The CubeSat/small satellite field is one of the fastest growing means of space exploration, with applications continuing to expand for component development, communication, and scientific research. This thesis study focuses on establishing suitable small satellite Earth-to-Moon direct-transfer trajectories, providing a baseline understanding of their propulsive demands, determining currently available off-the-shelf propulsive technology capable of meeting these demands, as well as demonstrating the effectiveness of the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem (CR3BP) for preliminary mission design. Using the CR3BP and derived requirements from NASA's Cube Quest Challenge, five different trajectory scenarios were analyzed for their propulsive requirements. Results indicate that the …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Higher Education, Yizhi Ma

Masters Theses

"A perfect storm is hitting higher education. Decreased funding from traditional funding sources, such as State Governments, and transformative changes caused by artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize higher education. Higher education needs to change and evolve quickly and continuously to prepare students for the upheavals in the job market caused by AI, machine learning, and automation.

As AI continues to make inroads into our world and our lives, its impact and effects can no longer be ignored. What kinds of organizational changes in higher education are necessary? How can higher education continue to prepare students for the AI evolution and …

Soy- Based Flexographic Ink For Linerboard Printing, Rahul Ramchandra Pingale

Masters Theses

Many printing inks use volatile solvents in the formulation, which are hazardous to the environment from emission of VOC’s and at the same time, synthetic resins in these inks are not biodegradable. These problems with the fluctuating and rising price of petroleum are main reasons to look for new resources for making more environmentally friendly printing inks. The majority of the commercially available water based inks are formulated based on using acrylic resins, synthetic colorants, solvents/water and additives, which are the common main components for formulating printing inks. In this research, soy proteins were tested for their suitability to partially …

Church Life Cycle, Benjamin Boatman

Masters Theses

With thousands of American churches permanently closing their doors each year, it is important to take a closer look at the churches that are in desperate need for renewal. The Body of Christ is eternal, but each church will individually display the life cycle that is observed in the human body. With so many churches in desperate need, all attempts must be made to provide suggestions that may result in their ability to continue on with the mission of Christ. The purpose of this research study is to examine the body of Christ as to its scriptural background, compare the …

Variable Reluctance Virtual Torque Sensor For Automotive Applications, Vivek Iddum

Masters Theses

Torque sensing has been realized as one of the critical aspects in improving the dynamic vehicle performance in automotive systems. This thesis mainly presents the work on the development of a novel torque measurement method based on the estimation of nth-order flywheel angular acceleration from the variable reluctance flywheel speed sensor pulses. The number of firings in the engine determine the order of the harmonic to be used for torque estimation. The nth-order flywheel angular acceleration is computed using a micro-controller with built in timer counter and an associated signal conditioning circuit. The pulses obtained from the flywheel speed sensor …

Regional Sulfur Isotope Study Of The Vms Deposits In The Penokean Volcanic Belt, Nicholas M. Moleski

Masters Theses

The Penokean Volcanic Belt (PVB), located in northern Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula, Michigan hosts several volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits (VMS) including the well-known deposits of Flambeau and Crandon. The host rocks of the VMS deposits are Paleoproterozoic in age overlying Archean age basement rocks. This study provides δ³⁴S (VCDT) values for the following deposits within the PVB; (1) Eisenbrey, (2) Schoolhouse, (3) Bend, (4) Flambeau, (5) Reef, (6) Horseshoe, and (7) Back Forty, and explains the distribution of δ³⁴S values in the region.

The study reveals tight ranges of δ³⁴S values for each deposit …