Digital Commons Network^™

The Acquisition Of The Nongeneric Uses Of The English Definite Article The By Arabic Speakers Of English, Aied M. Alenizi

Theses

This study aimed to investigate the acquisition of the four non-generic uses of the English definite article the by Arabic learners of English in Saudi Arabia. These non-generic uses included textual, situational, cultural and structural. This study had three goals: (1) to determine whether these uses are acquired in a certain sequence; (2) to explore which one of these uses is the most difficult and the easiest in learning; (3) to investigate whether one or two of the uses are overused.

The instrument consisted of 59 sentences adopted from Liu and Gleason (2002). There were 40 instances for required uses …

Anti-Propaganda Propaganda Animation, Ruban Tamrakar

Theses

This motion graphics project tries to shed light on how a few media conglomerates controls most of the information we get as citizens. This is done to manipulate and control the public. For this project, I picked one of the theories relating to media-society relationship. This theory says that the media has a big influence on society. Here I present the current media-ownership scenario and their motive for information manipulation. Then, I talk about how these companies are able to control the public by controlling the media. At last, I urge the viewers to break the illusion, question every thing …

A Study Of The Deer Herd On The Rit Campus And The Relationship Of Herd Activity And Habitat To The Incidence Of Deer-Vehicle Collisions, Philip Nau

Theses

This research project is designed to provide RIT with preliminary information on the possible impacts of campus landscape management and development on the resident deer herd. The project characterizes habitat variables, field observations, and movement patterns, and correlating that information with the incidence of deer-vehicle collisions on the roadways of campus and the surrounding area. The project utilizes geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques, coupled with traditional ground-based observations, to estimate the distribution of the deer herd that make use of the RIT property and to establish a database and map of deer trails and high-use "hot spot" …

Something Other Than I Had Planned, Kristy Carpenter

Theses

Something Other Than I Had Planned is an extended portrait of my mother, exploring themes of representation, familial roles, the archive, and personal narrative. Curating existing images from our family archive as well as creating my own visual documentation, the series examines both the current life and past history of my mother in an attempt to understand her as an individual and our evolving relationship as mother and daughter. Rooted in research of historical representations and understandings of the mother figure, as well as photography's history as a tool for preserving and examining the past, I explore ideas around nostalgia, …

Go!Polo-Discovering The "Sport Of Kings", Shelley Kornatz

Theses

GO!Polo is an instructional application designed to help people interested in equestrian polo save time and money by allowing the user to review basic information about the sport on their own time before even getting on a horse. Thus, the user arrives to their first lesson with several lessons’ worth of foundational knowledge, allowing them to focus on things that cannot be taught without being in the saddle—horsemanship and riding. This structure allows users to begin playing much more quickly than those without prior exposure to the application. The Adobe Flash-based application strives to accomplish four main goals: (1) Provide …

Extreme Weather, Jeff Turof

Theses

Extreme Weather is an instructional website that provides a solution for people who have an interest in the weather to learn more about the topic of extreme weather. Extreme Weather events covered include Supercell Thunderstorms, Downbursts, Lake Effect Snow and Hurricanes. Each topic includes multiple pages of information presented through various methods including animated diagrams, photography with callouts and a variety of interactive exercises, all supported by an audio narrative.

The Electronic Medical Record: Designing With The Patient In Mind, Alyssa Costino

Theses

The transition from paper charts to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is intended to create a more efficient health care industry. The use of EMRs eliminates paper waste and allows doctors and other medical staff to communicate with others conveniently wherever they happen to be located. Currently, the focus is on working through functionality and design issues in the hospital EMRs and getting doctors acquainted with how the EMR works. The patient focus has not been addressed at this time in terms of how they use and interact with their personal medical history. Based on my own personal experiences suffering from …

The Impact Of Daycare And Child Temperament On Parent-Child Interactions, Kyle Bersted

Theses

This study explored the potential impact of child temperament and daycare on behavior problems and parental sensitivity. It was expected that children with more "difficult" temperaments would exhibit more behavior problems and have less sensitive parents when experiencing high amounts of daycare. Measures from 60 families involved in the Southern Illinois Twins and Siblings Study (SITSS) were examined. Results indicated that highly active children exhibited more externalizing behaviors when experiencing less daycare. Shy children experiencing more daycare had more sensitive parents. Additionally, a temperamental difference between co-twins was related to differential parental sensitivity. Lastly, DZ co-twins were more temperamentally different …

Identifying Environment Of Origin Of Illinois River Asian Carp Via Otolith Microchemistry And Stable Isotope Analyses, Jacob Dylan Norman

Theses

Asian carp have rapidly expanded their range through much of the Mississippi River Drainage over the past 10 to 15 years. Silver and bighead carp are now the dominant fish species present along several reaches of the Illinois River. The upper Illinois River and shipping canals entering Lake Michigan are of great concern as pathways for Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes. Knowledge of reproductive habitats and dispersal pathways for these species may be valuable for ongoing and future efforts to control these exotic invasives. Previous studies have successfully identified spawning areas of native riverine species via otolith microchemistry, …

Anaerobic Codigestion Of Dairy Manure And Food Manufacturing Waste For Renewable Energy Generation In New York State, Matthew Rankin

Theses

Anaerobic digestion is a microbiological process that converts biodegradable organic material into biogas, consisting primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic digestion technologies have been integrated into wastewater treatment facilities nationwide for many decades to increase the economic viability of the treatment process by converting a waste stream into two valuable products: biogas and fertilizer. Thus, anaerobic digestion offers potential economic and environmental benefits of organic waste diversion and renewable energy generation. The use of biogas has many applications, including cogeneration, direct combustion, upgrading for conversion to feed a fuel cell, and compression for injection into the natural gas grid …

Trade Liberalization And Agricultural Growth In Haiti, Elsie Despeignes

Theses

Liberalization has been, for the past three decades, one of the most prominent strategies used in the developing world to promote growth and foster development. Haiti, as many other least developed countries, has implemented the liberalization policies over the past two decades. The poor socioeconomic conditions of the Haitians, today, have pushed to question the effectiveness of the neoliberal plan. Agriculture being a pivotal sector of the Haitian economy, the study goal is the evaluation of liberalization on the agricultural production. The findings are that trade liberalization is detrimental to agriculture in Haiti. The food crops production, a major component …

Estimation Of Optimal Protein To Energy Ratio And Percent Soybean Meal Replacement Of Fish Meal In Juvenile Scaphirhynchus Sturgeon Diets, Elliott C. Kittel

Theses

Research developing artificial propagation, husbandry, and nutrition of sturgeon species has developed greatly since the collapse of the Caspian Sea fisheries in the 1980s. Sturgeon species are commercially prized for their unfertilized roe which is marketed as the delicacy, caviar. Sturgeon production units commonly utilize commercial salmonid feeds, which contain large proportions of fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO). Concerns regarding economics and sustainability have put pressure on aquafeed manufactures to efficiently utilize FM and FO, and to incorporate alternative protein sources, such as soybean meal (SBM). Therefore, the present studies estimated the optimal protein:energy ratio of juvenile Pallid …

Country Women: Back-To-The-Land Feminism And Radical Feminist Praxis In The Women's Liberation Movement, Jessica Louise Lynn

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF JESSICA LOUISE LYNN, for the Master of Arts degree in HISTORY, presented on March 25, 2013, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: COUNTRY WOMEN: BACK-TO-THE-LAND FEMINISM AND RADICAL FEMINIST PRAXIS IN THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Robbie Lieberman Historians of American History, cultural movements, the 60s-era, and even the counterculture frequently categorize second-wave feminism as a monolithic movement, its complexity minimized, its successes devalued. While there are a handful of feminist historians who have offered in depth, corrective histories to the popular narrative of the 60s-era, still missing from the historiography of …

The Effects Of Propagule Source, Soil Amendment, And Stock Type On The Survival And Growth Of Giant Cane (Arundinaria Gigantea (Walt.) Muhl.) Established As A Low Maintenance Nursery, David Dalzotto

Theses

Giant cane [Arundinaria gigantea (Walter) Muhl.] is a native bamboo species that was once widely distributed within bottomland forests and as extensive monotypic stands (canebrakes) along waterways of the southeastern United States. Land conversion to agriculture greatly decreased the distribution of canebrakes. Limited to less than two percent of its historic range, canebrakes are now considered an endangered ecosystem. A 0.24 hectare low maintenance experimental nursery of giant cane was established at Southern Illinois University to examine the effect of planting stock type, soil amendments, and four collection sources on cane survival and growth (number of culms, height and diameter …

Forage Quality Of Andropogon Gerardii Across A Precipitation Gradient, Juliette Donatelli

Theses

This study focused on the ecotypic variation in forage quality of Andropogon gerardii Vitman, a dominant C4 grass in North American grasslands and an important forage grass for native and introduced grazers. Ecotypes are genetic variations of a plant species adapted to local environmental conditions. Andropogon gerardii is represented by many local ecotypes across its range. Forage quality analyses quantify digestibility and nutrition of a plant sample and allow an assessment of nutritional value for grazers. The variability in forage quality among A. gerardii ecotypes is unknown. This study aimed to quantify variation in forage quality of A. gerardii collected …

Recreating East Asia Creatures That Exist In Mythology As Rpg Fantasy Characters, Woosang Kim

Theses

Today, MMORPG Games (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) are one of the most popular games in the PC online game genre because users can enjoy the game with other players. They can also choose their own characters and control the character`s avatar. Wide selection of characters available is one of the most important elements in the game. These characters have to be well-designed to draw the user`s attention. These characters, which appear in fantasy MMORPG (World of War craft), and their special features originate from Western myths and ancient stories. Likewise, East Asian has a long history with many myths …

Virtual 3d Environments: Implementations Of 3d Environments For Virtual Tours And Online Communication, Scott Bessey

Theses

Virtual tours can be found over the web in many different scenarios: touring a campus, displaying consumer products, documenting a trip. These tours provide information using images, movies and sound to provide users with navigation in such a way that they user feels they are experiencing the information in real time. These tours are usually driven by mouse clicks, whether it is clicking on an image gallery, movie gallery or panning around a panoramic image. While virtual tours are interactive in those examples, there is a lack of interaction be tween the users viewing the tour. Online communication has become …

Expect Resistance, Shane Burley

Theses

The documentary process is one that puts experimentation above structure, almost to the antithesis of conventional narrative storytelling. With the documentary thesis project Expect Resistance, Shane Burley took on a complex set of political ideas and experiences and attempted to thread them together into a common narrative. This made the project evolve over time, taking on new forms, and adapting to the conditions of the actual filmmaking process. Here he discusses the changes in the project, the challenges that were implicit with this type of film, and how the final film attempted to challenge perception about political involvement and the …

This Is The Best I Can Do, Amy Renee Milton

Theses

“This Is the Best I Can Do” is a collection of short stories and poems that explores the psychology of lost ideals. The characters in these stories hold convictions about how the world is and how people should be that are altered when they are placed in situations that prove reality is far more complex. With shaken faith comes the necessity of building a new understanding not only of the world around them as a whole but of their own lives and identities. These revisions are not necessarily improvements, but they are necessary. Whether the faith is in a deity, …

Within The Walls, Nina Ramadan

Theses

Within the Walls looks at the way in which nature is collected and represented within the domestic space. The images employ a quiet and introspective gaze, carefully examining our relationship to these environments. As the home expanded from a simple shelter to escape the elements into a farther removed, more complex and personalized space, we continuously found methods to stay connected to nature. The work explores this connection, as well as the relationship between written and visual language, by using photography and text gleaned from travel postcards.

Advanced Statistical Analysis Of The Pupil Project Program, Erin Marie Brooks

Theses

Objective: Early visual processing integrity is correlated with word reading. In previous reports, duration of fixation when reading sight-words has been established as an early sensory correlate of single word decoding ability. In attempts to model the direct and indirect predictive value between duration of fixation, number of fixations, orthographic processing, phonological processing, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) to word decoding ability, we compared Visagraph duration of fixation and number of fixations data to results of the Processing and Learning Test-Reading and Writing (PAL-RW) and dyslexia screening test (DST) in a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Methods: Seventy-four students with …

Concepts, Universals, And The Abstract, David Keith Mcgraw

Theses

Through a historical investigation into the medieval problem of universals, I come to an understanding of the philosophical notion of ‘concept’ that is compatible with the contemporary discussion of concepts within cognitive science. Contra Edouard Machery (2009), I argue that the philosophical and psychological notions of ‘concept’ are compatible by developing the Aristotelian solution to the problem of universals into a conceptualist position. This will then be used to subsume the various paradigms of concepts countenanced by contemporary psychologists. I emphasize a conceptual scheme of reality that is embraced by both ancient and contemporary thinkers: what I call the tetrafurcation …

Using Multimedia To Promote Environmental Protection, Min-Wan Chiu

Theses

This interactive project allows users to explore what causes and affects environmental problems on Earth using papervision 3D. The purpose of this project is to provide a simple platform for users to be aware of the environmental issues and know how to improve the environment. Moreover, these environmental issues are discussed by scientists and environmental protection agencies. The environmental issues discussed are global warming, acid rain, and air pollution, which impact the quality of human life. Reading helps us learn so much truth that we may not be aware of. The traditional pop-up books give readers a deeper impression of …

Environmental Virtue, Callicott And The Land Ethic, John Charles Simpson

Theses

Callicott’s interpretation of Leopold’s land ethic has been criticized as ecofascist and misanthropic. In addition, it has been argued that his principle precept upon which his land ethic rests is vague if not incoherent. In light of these challenges, I suggest a better way to arrive at a land ethic, which deals not with obligations or duties to the land as Callicott’s does but instead with the application of virtues to nature. In this paper, I provide a brief overview of Callicott’s land ethic and then include a few criticisms of the land ethic. Next, I argue for why a …

Matter, Spirit, And Cosmogony: The Context And Meaning Of Thomas Vaughan’S Alchemical Vitalism, Adam Heinrich Borrego

Theses

During the seventeenth century in Europe, three major theories of matter were in contention for the dominant natural philosophy: the hylomorphism of the Aristotelian-Scholastic philosophy, the mechanism of the Cartesians and other mechanical philosophers, and the vitalism of the Hermeticists and alchemists. The debate over matter between these three views of the physical world, as well as the argument over their associated epistemologies, fueled the scientific revolution. The fact that alchemy was a viable contender for the dominant natural philosophy of the time—an era that is supposed to be marked by strides forward to a more “rational” and “scientific” view …

Pattern Changing Clothing, Yong Kwon

Theses

People's styles and characters are changed by their environment and their relationship throughout their lifetime. However, the garment that we wear has just one look without accessories because once we wear clothing its appearance doesn't change, even though it is an essential medium to express ourselves. This thesis project's main goal is to make a piece of responsive clothing and to provide users the pleasure of creating their own style. When the clothing is an active medium through interactive communication between a wearer and a garment, it will be a responsive living object for a user. By the use of …

Joint Optimization Of Manifold Learning And Sparse Representations For Face And Gesture Analysis, Raymond Ptucha

Theses

Face and gesture understanding algorithms are powerful enablers in intelligent vision systems for surveillance, security, entertainment, and smart spaces. In the future, complex networks of sensors and cameras may disperse directions to lost tourists, perform directory lookups in the office lobby, or contact the proper authorities in case of an emergency. To be effective, these systems will need to embrace human subtleties while interacting with people in their natural conditions. Computer vision and machine learning techniques have recently become adept at solving face and gesture tasks using posed datasets in controlled conditions. However, spontaneous human behavior under unconstrained conditions, or …

Accommodating Species Evolution: Aristotle’S Essentialism Revisited, Yin Zhang

Theses

In this paper I argue that Aristotelian essentialism is compatible with species evolution. My argument has two premises: (1) Aristotelian essentialism can describe what is going on with species evolution; (2) If Aristotelian essentialism can describe what is going on with species evolution, Aristotelian essentialism is compatible with species evolution. To support my first premise, I suspend “property essentialism” and develop a teleological conception of Aristotelian essentialism in terms of matter and form as potentiality and actuality. I propose and explicate my “multiple-potentiality strategy” that matter has multiple potentialities. I apply this strategy to describe what is going on with …

Abscond, Jessyka Lee Dsouza

Theses

This collection of short stories is heavy with the overwhelming sense to escape something. Whether it be an emotional or physical escape, an attempt to forget one’s past, to forgive a loved one of their mistakes, or even in some cases, an escape from oneself—the characters in these stories all find themselves in positions to move on in new directions—to abscond from their current situations and to change their perspectives into an alternate way of seeing and feeling. These stories are realist and literary, unified in their theme of observing ordinary persons in unordinary circumstances; the emotional dilemmas and the …

Development Of Value Added Products From Spent Kluyveromyces Marxianus Yeast, Rahul Sharma

Theses

Biochemical analysis of spent Kluyveromyces marxianus yeast confirmed the following composition on a dry matter basis: 43.16 % crude protein, 34.56 % total carbohydrate, 7.02 % RNA, and 13.12 % ash content. Carbohydrate components were shown to consist of 20.97 % β-glucan, 9.76 % mannan and 1.21 % chitin while protein characterisation confirmed this yeast’s protein to be a good source of essential amino acids. Total nitrogen, α-amino nitrogen, and descriptive sensory analysis was carried out on yeast extracts derived from yeast autolysis processes carried out at different pH and temperature values. Yeast extract obtained at 50ºC, pH 7.0 was …