Digital Commons Network^™

Green Roof Plug Germination And Growth With Different Base Media And Treatments, Afton Michelle Caulkins

Theses

The germination rates of four plant species (Allium schoenoprasum L., Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Grandiflorus’ Vill., Sedum kamtschaticum Fisch. & C.A. Mey. Spp. ellacombianum (Praeger) R.T. Clausen, and Talinum calycinum Engelm.) were compared with six fertility treatments (control, fertilizer - once a week, double fertilizer - twice a week, mycorrhizae, vermicompost, and green roof mix) that also evaluated a peat based greenhouse medium verses a lightweight aggregate medium integrated. The greenhouse medium had higher germination rates than the lightweight aggregate medium. The control, fertilizer, and double fertilizer, which were not applied until a month into the study, provided similar germination results. The …

Perceptions And Attitudes Of Recruitment Efforts For Undergraduate Enrollment In Southern Illinois University College Of Agricultural Sciences, Lindsay Jo Francis

Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of and improve the recruitment efforts of The College of Agricultural Sciences at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. This study surveyed a group of freshmen and first-year transfer students enrolled in the College of Agricultural Sciences (COAS) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) in the fall of 2016 on why they chose to attend, and what factors were considered when making their choice. 184 students were sent surveys and a total of 62 students completed the survey, giving a response rate of 34%. The instrument contained a 21 item questionnaire, with …

Effect Of Habitat Management On Dabbling Ducks During Spring Migration In Southwest Indiana, John Michael Lindstrom

Theses

Historically, management for migratory waterfowl was focused around providing hunting opportunity each fall. More recently habitat during spring migration has received attention as a potentially limiting factor for some species of waterfowl, considering the carry-over effects that have been observed in both capital and income breeders. Habitat needs have been compounded by the flashy flood events that now occur in the highly modified landscape. The discovery of carry-over effects has led to an increase in habitat management actions and a diversification of available management strategies. In my study I hoped to identify the best management strategies for spring migratory waterfowl. …

Taking Up One's Cross With Hope: A Christian Approach To Suffering, Linda George Debrecht

Theses

The purpose of this study is to encourage a more contemporary understanding of the traditional Christian approach to suffering — the belief that we can experience great goodness and enrich our lives as a result of taking up our cross as Jesus did. This concept of "redemptive suffering" seems to be losing its viability in contemporary life. Instead, advancing support for the Assisted Suicide movement reflects a growing sense that suffering is a "problem" that can be "solved" even if it means taking one's own life. The author contends that a more contemporary understanding of Jesus' suffering — one that …

Time-Activity And Energy Budgets Of Eared Grebes (Podiceps Nigricollis) At Salton Sea, Samantha San Francisco

Theses

Time-activity budgets have been a widely accepted way of approximating the daily energy expenditure of many species, including waterbirds. For this study, focal animal sampling was used to study Eared Grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) at their post-wintering stopover site, Salton Sea. Daylight time-activity budgets were converted to energy budgets using energy equivalents for diving, preening, swimming, and resting on water developed for Eared Grebes previously by H. I. Ellis (1994). Post-wintering Eared Grebes arrive at Salton Sea in waves at differing times in the spring. As a result, there can be individuals in a variety of physiological states during …

Maybe Somewhere West, Katie Efstathiou

Theses

Maybe Somewhere West is a photographic installation where a playful landscape is used as a stage to questioned how the naming of place relates to stereotypes found within the gender binary. Through found materials, photographs, and projections I am examining the interchangeable nature of virtual and material consumption of nature, while omitting any specific locale. The nameless landscape becomes an escape as well as a barrier, displaying the complexities of ingrained gender language. The term “namelessness” describe the unmarked purity of both the landscape and the androgynous self.

Fundoggy: Using Gamification And Social Network Services To Create A Mobile Fundraising Application For Helping Shelter Dogs, Yu Ri Na

Theses

The proliferation of new media is rapidly changing the world of philanthropy and more effective methods of raising funds and developing donor relationships must be sought. Furthermore, today’s trends indicate that the amount of giving by individuals has increased gradually, but the generation gap in donors is increasing.

Fundamentally, this thesis project seeks effective ways to attract young donors and show how to maintain a continuous connection with them by using today’s trending business and marketing buzzwords, “gamification” and “social network services.” Employing a game’s entertainment, problem-solving challenges, interactive experience, and customer loyalty improvement is expected to create significant synergy …

Mdd, What And How: A Motion Graphics Short Film, Yi Zhou

Theses

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a growing mental health problem these days as it creates more social issues and creates problems for families and individuals. However, people still do not know enough about this mental disorder. The purpose of this short motion film is to provide people with a quick and effective introduction to MDD. This film explores a way to deliver essential information in a short amount of time and in a clear way for the audience to understand. It tells a story through the point-of-view of those who have friends or family members suffering from MDD. This story …

Where They Wander, Kevin T. Gleich

Theses

The stories contained within are all concerned in one way or another with our memory. More specifically, what it means to remember something. With a fictional drug, referred to only as “serum,” the characters in these stories all fall victim to what can be described as an overdose of experience. Our memories are what allow us to develop ideology, our concept of self, and intimacy with others. Each story in “Where They Wander” deals in some way with these basic human traits by exaggerating the characters’ abilities to confront their experiences.

There is another thread that pulls these stories together. …

The Epistemic Status Of Moral Conceptual Truths, Kara D. Boschert

Theses

Evolutionary debunking arguments assume that morality could, conceptually speaking, be about anything. A response to this contention is that there are some moral conceptual truths which counter assertions that we could be in error about basic moral truths. According to proponents of moral conceptual truths, some things, by definition, cannot count as moral. Putative moral conceptual truths, such as “stealing is wrong,” are thought to enjoy a privileged epistemic status because anyone who denies them forfeits their ability to engage in competent moral reasoning. This paper explores whether moral conceptual truths can offer a satisfactory response to the debunkers’ premise …

The Luxury Trap, Zhihui Wu

Theses

Human beings have traveled from prehistory through an agricultural era to the industrial age to modern society today. I think every transition is a luxury trap. Why have there been there so many transitions? Why are transitions are traps?

The human being is a special kind of animal that endlessly strives for a better life. Human beings work hard for a better life that includes more luxury, no matter the material aspect or spiritual aspect. But when they complete a transition, they always fall into another trap that has different problems.

My works illustrate three different transitions of the human …

Performance Study For Capillary Machine-To-Machine Networks, Maisaa Othman Albaghdadi

Theses

Communication technologies witness a wide and rapid pervasiveness of wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. It is emerging to apply for data transfer among devices without human intervention. Capillary M2M networks represent a candidate for providing reliable M2M connectivity. In this thesis, we propose a wireless network architecture that aims at supporting a wide range of M2M applications (either real-time or non-real-time) with an acceptable QoS level. The architecture uses capillary gateways to reduce the number of devices communicating directly with a cellular network such as LTE. Moreover, the proposed architecture reduces the traffic load on the cellular network by providing capillary …

An Immersive Learning Model, Shamsa Abdulla Salem Al Mazrouei

Theses

Our overarching goal is to provide children with immersive game-based learning environments to support Arabic linguistic skills acquisition. We postulate that immersion in- creases learning. To investigate this hypothesis, we developed a model and built an implementation of an educational virtual environment (EVE) that supports immersion and thus, induces effective learning. Experimental results confirm our hypothesis.

Our model integrates learning content, learning activities, immersion and gameplay. Based on our analysis of various curricula, specifically the United Arab Emirates grade one curriculum, we identified the nature of the learning content in order to satisfy the curriculum requirements. This content is conceptually …

Mobile App Of Food Combinations- Medley For Mom, Xun Zhao

Theses

“There were variations in the types of dietary intervention and the effect of specific nutrient components. There was no heterogeneity for dietary intervention components, but considerate heterogeneity for all dietary interventions combined.” With the development of the society and the improvement of living conditions, people’s eating habit has become much more diverse. However, some food combinations could potentially bring discomfort, such as indigestion, constipation and so on.

Due to the individual differences of the human digestive system structures, improper food combinations lead to various harms to different groups of people, among which pregnant women suffer the most.

“There is little …

Artificial Neural Network Based Prediction Mechanism For Wireless Network On Chips Medium Access Control, Ranjith Murugesan

Theses

As per Moore’s law, continuous improvement over silicon process technologies has made the integration of hundreds of cores on to a single chip possible. This has resulted in the paradigm shift towards multicore and many-core chips where, hundreds of cores can be integrated on the same die and interconnected using an on-chip packet-switched network called a Network-on-Chip (NoC). Various tasks running on different cores generate different rates of communication between pairs of cores. This lead to the increase in spatial and temporal variation in the workloads, which impact the long distance data communication over multi-hop wire line paths in conventional …

Effects Of Environmental Diesel Exhaust Particles On Gastric Stem Cells, Heba Ahmed Mazen Al Sadik

Theses

I would like to express my special thanks to the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi Emirate and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for their input and support. Last, but certainly not least, these acknowledgments would be incomplete without expressing my deepest appreciation to my family. Special acknowledgment of this achievement goes to my parents, who not only showed me unconditional love, acceptance, and respect for the person that I am throughout my life, they also showed me the strength of character which has brought me to where I am today. To my wife, for her …

Short-Term Bilateral Adrenalectomy: Biochemical And Morphological Alterations In The Rat Hippocampus, Ahlam Said Abi Issa

Theses

Several studies showed the effects of glucocorticoid hormones on the hippocampus. It has been reported that the chronic administration of high dose glucocorticoids (GC) results in the degeneration of pyramidal neurons. However, bilateral adrenalectomy has been shown to damage the hippocampal neurons. Although the effects of long-term adrenalectomy have been studied extensively, there are few publications on the effects of short-term bilateral adrenalectomy (ADX). We aimed to investigate the effects of ADX on levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interkeukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α); levels of growth factors, response of microglia and astrocytes to neuronal death, and oxidative …

A Passionate Journey: Info-Motion Graphics Video Exploring Why And How To Find Work You Love., Jia Zhou

Theses

Benjamin Disraeli, a 19th century British Prime Minister, once said, “Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.” Passion is the fuel that can power you toward the realization of your dreams. To live a truly satisfying and purposeful life, it is important for every individual to know what their passions are so life will be fulfilling.

Teenagers choose their career after they graduate from high school. They begin to wonder what they will become and what contributions they can make in the future. It is important for people to …

Plasma Metabolites Reveal Changes In Physiological State Of Eared Grebes (Podiceps Nigricollis) During Three Non-Migratory Periods, Allison A. Yoshida

Theses

Energy storage and use during the annual cycle of migratory birds is dynamic especially during migration. However, considerable amounts of the annual cycle are spent not migrating, and the physiological state of birds during these non-migratory periods is not well understood. We compared plasma metabolites (TRIG, BUTY, URIC, GLY) in Eared Grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) residing at three important areas when they are not migrating: fall staging (postbreeding at Mono Lake, California), spring staging (pre-breeding at Great Salt Lake, Utah), and an extended stopover prior to spring staging (Salton Sea, California). Plasma metabolites were also measured in resting and active grebes …

Interactive Dynasty: An Effective Way To Learn About The Tang Dynasty History, Xiangyin Li

Theses

Today, interaction design is applied to multiple areas of visual communication and instructional design. Interactive elements can be found in websites, apps, and kiosk terminal equipment. Through the integration of interactive content such as step-by-step tutorials, the user can acquire a variety of different types of information efficiently and effectively to learn about historical events.

China has one of the longest and continuous cultures today. Its own unique charisma attracts many history buffs to learn more about important historical events. Kiosk terminals in history museums have successfully provided a learning environment for users to learn about China through interaction design. …

Denoising Techniques Reveal Neural Correlates Of Modulation Masking Release In Auditory Cortex, Sahil Chaubal

Theses

Hearing aids allow hearing impaired (HI) individuals to regain auditory perception in quiet settings. However, despite advances in hearing aid technology, HI individuals do not perform as well in situations with background sound as normally hearing (NH) listeners. An extensive literature demonstrates that when comparing tone detection performance in background noise, NH listeners have better thresholds when that noise is temporally modulated as compared to temporally unmodulated. However, this perceptual benefit, called Modulation Masking Release (MMR), is much reduced in HI listeners, and this is thought to be a reason for why HI listeners struggle in the presence of background …

Otolith Morphologies In The Genus Sinocyclocheilus, Iqra Iqbal

Theses

Sinocyclocheilus is a genus of Cyprinid fish found in southern China. This genus contains 68 species of which 40 species have adaptations for life in cave habitats. A common adaptation seen in fish that live in caves with no light is the loss of vision. Such cavefish must therefore rely on other sensory modalities to capture prey, communicate between conspecifics, and potentially avoid predators. Previous studies have identified sensory adaptations in cavefish, including the increase in size and number of mechanoreceptors. Sinocyclocheilus are hearing specialists, and it is possible that cave species of this genus have increased reliance on hearing …

Changes In Morphology During The Development Of The Horn And Hump Of The Chinese Cavefish Sinocyclocheillus Furcodorsalis, Michelle Pluviose

Theses

The genus Sinocyclocheilus endemic to southern China and contains many cavefish species. There are approximately sixty species, of which roughly forty are cave-adapted. Cave Sinocyclocheilus are characterized not only by lack of pigmentation and eyes depending on the species, but also by a unique prominent horn on the top of the skull and dorsal hump rostral under the dorsal fin. The horn and the hump are generally considered troglomorphic characteristics, although their functions are still elusive. Here, the development of these distinctive structures in the species, S. furcodorsalis, was examined by using micro CT scans. The horn of the …

Novel Experimental Method For The Determination Of The Minimum Agitation Speed For Solids Suspension In Flat-Bottomed Stirred Tank Reactors, Shriarjun Shastry

Theses

Knowledge of the minimum agitation speed, Njs, required to suspend finely divided solids in vessels stirred by an impeller is a critical parameter to properly operate industrial tanks in a large number of industrial operations. The most common experimental approach to measure N_js is that of Zwietering’s (Chem. Eng. Sci., 1958, 8, 244-253), consisting of visually inspecting the tank bottom and visually determining the impeller agitation speed at which the solids are observed to rest on the tank bottom for no more than 1-2 seconds before being swept away. This method is quite reliable, but a method …

Eis Analysis Of Shear Enhanced Microfluidic Lab-On-A-Chip Device, Mehnaz Mursalat

Theses

Electrochemical sensors and biosensors have received much attention owing to the feasibility demonstrated regarding instrumental simplicity, decent cost, and portability during the detection of a wide range of biological and pharmaceutical macromolecules. Carbon-based nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes, have garnered tremendous interest for their unique thermal, mechanical, electronic and catalytic properties while designing these sensors. Whenever the macromolecules interact with a bio-recognition element on the electrode transducer surface, a measurable change in the electrical current or potential takes place. To achieve lower limits of detection, the use of sensor surfaces modified with nanostructured materials such as nanotubes, or nanoparticles is becoming …

Selfie Usage In Marketing Between Companies And Consumers, Qinjin Yang

Theses

This case study analysis focuses on the use of selfies by both companies and consumers in relation to certain products. By using uses and gratifications theory, this case study analysis investigates four major companies and their products, as well as their implementation of user-generated selfies. Selfie-posting and other related interactions between consumers and companies suggest effective marketing of both consumers’ self-images, (i.e., consumers’ intentions of obtaining social capital by posting selfies) and companies’ products. Finally, this case study analysis also suggests a healthy and productive marketing result between consumers and products with the use of selfies.

Revising A Habitat Suitability Model For Spotted Turtles (Clemmys Guttata) In Upstate New York, Caitlin Dailey

Theses

In order to protect threatened and endangered species, their habitat needs to be adequately documented and assessed for conservation planning. The utilization of mapping programs such as ArcGIS can help researchers in determining the most optimal sites for a particular species in a given area. This research revises a previous habitat suitability model by Correa-Berger (2007) for the spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata) in nine counties of upstate New York. Using the same initial parameters for the creation of the seed sites and habitat requirements for spotted turtles that Correa-Berger used in his 2007 analysis, the model utilized updated Land Use/Land …

Low Cost, Multi-Purpose Genotyping Panels For Dairy And Beef Cattle, Michelle Judge

Theses

rhe selection of animals based on DNA has revolutionised animal breeding, but the associated high cost of obtaining genotypes has limited its uptake. The objective of this thesis was to develop a low-cost, low-density, multi-purpose genotyping panel for the procurement of reliable genotype information, and to quantify the long-term consequences of using such low-density genotype panels in breeding programs. The objectives were achieved through a combination of real-life cattle genotype data and simulations to mimic a cattle population. The in-silico development of genotype panels was based on actual genotypes from up to 58,705 beef cattle. Alternative novel strategies were used …

Farm Deaths And Injuries: Changing Farmer Attitudes And Behaviour On Farm Safety, Kieran O'Connell

Theses

While the Irish agricultural sector accounts for just 6% of the working population of Ireland, it consistently has the highest proportion of fatal incidents of any sector - generally ranging from between 35% and 45% of all workplace fatalities in any given year (Health and Safety Authority, 2015). This was again evident in 2014 where 55% (30 of the 56) of the fatal workplace incidents were in the agricultural sector (Health and Safety Authority, 2015). Agriculture has an ageing workforce with the average age of an Irish farmer now standing at fifty-seven and farmers are eight times more likely to …

Boundless Intemperance : Macbeth, Moderation, And Social Norms In The Early Modern Era, Kathleen M. Padilla

Theses

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth insists, “Th’expedition of my violent love / Outran the pauser, reason” (2.3.107-108). These lines can be attributed to Macbeth’s penchant for excess that overpowers his ability to reason. Reason allows men to live harmoniously within a community, and the early modern era constructed safeguards to ensure men acted within prescribed conventions to prevent the collapse of the government. In this thesis, I will address Macbeth’s inability to reason due to his immoderacy and the resulting consequences to the state. Thus, this paper argues that the behavioral extremes depicted by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are detrimental …