Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of Non-Americans Towards American Tv Series, Thaarika Charumathy Seetharaman

Theses

Television drama is one of the most entertaining genre of the media industry, and it serves as a socialization platform (Greenberg, 1982). American TV series have gained audience and fans from all around the world which opens up the scope for examining the effects of American media on the secondary audience. Drawing on the framework of cultivation theory, this study examined the effect of American TV series on non-American population. The results suggested that the cultivation effects are dependent on age and gender of the respondents, in connection with the genre of the series influencing the audience’s framing of the …

#Metoo: Personal Accounts Of Sexual Violence On Facebook Analyzing Individual Stories To Reveal Themes About Gender, Power, And Intersectional Factors, Lauren Depoint

Theses

This study examines the types of narratives constructed about experiences with sexual violence shared in Facebook posts using the hashtag #MeToo. Feminist and intersectional theories were used to contextualize a textual analysis of 61 public posts to explore how individuals were presenting their experiences for a mass audience online in the absence of traditional gatekeepers. Most of the posts featured graphic details, strong emotion, and patterns of internalized misogyny. Stories shared revealed troubling power dynamics involving disability, race, and gender. Intersectional groups are underrepresented in online spaces, indicating a problematic absence of these individuals within online movements like #MeToo that …

Design For Motorcycle Safety, David Villarreal

Theses

The following presents a holistic approach for the design of safer interactions between motorcyclists and car drivers operating public roads. Several factors appear to influence the way motorcycles are perceived which has played a significant role for their development. Although motorcycles themselves are mechanically stable machines their use in mixed traffic environments can be highly dangerous as a motorcyclist’s inherent degree of conspicuity leaves them unseen by Other Vehicle operators. There are many factors that can have implications on a motorcyclist’s safety; those being a rider’s conspicuity on public roadways, the rider’s ability and confidence level, the size of the …

The Embrace - Design For Elderly, Meng Liu

Theses

The elderly requires special care, especially those who live in China and living alone. This age group faces physical, mental and emotional challenges, one of which is loneliness. This paper explores the help people age 65-75 in China need to reduce their loneliness due to their children living away from them. The proposed solution is to encourage them to meet new people and keep them busy; then reducing their isolation. One such solution, a bench, is designed to curb the loneliness of elders by providing a platform to connect with each other and promoting their health through physical exercise, comfort, …

Tree Based Modeling Techniques Applied To Hospital Length Of Stay, Rupansh Goantiya

Theses

Patient length of stay (LOS) is frequently used by researchers in the field of hospital management as a performance measuring criterion (McDermott & Stock, 2007). Patient LOS is found to be related to the quality of care (Thomas, et al., 1997) and prolonged LOS increases the probability of patients acquiring infections at the hospital. Hence, hospitals provide significant importance to patient LOS to maximize superior performance related rewards and minimize poor care related penalties by the public and private insurance providers. In addition, understanding patient LOS is also necessary for hospitals to meticulously manage their resources. In this research, predictive …

Tear Film Model Formulation: A 1-D Exploration, Emily Kiesel

Theses

The study of the tear film of the eye is important for understanding the causes of dye eye syndrome, a disease causing damage to the ocular surface resulting in discomfort for many people. A popular mathematical model describing the evolution of the tear film thickness over time is a fourth-order nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE). This model has been formulated two different ways to facilitate numerical approximations. The first way is just one PDE including a fourth derivative along with the boundary and initial conditions that is solved for the tear film thickness. The second is a system of coupled …

Système, Trupti Pomaje

Theses

In today’s throwaway world, the rate at which and the amount of goods that are getting discarded has developed an alarming situation. Electronic industry has evolved rapidly since the invention of transistors in 1947. From these days onwards, efforts have been taken to make the products more efficient in terms of their performance, reduce design and production cost and have higher profit margins. However, this has led to products being designed in a way which makes people want to dispose them early, in turn making them part of waste after usage. Electronic products contain certain materials and components which are …

Bubble Stream Production By Belugas (Delphinapterus Leucas), Megan Slack

Theses

Bubble stream production in belugas has been poorly characterized and its function is not well understood. I examined behavioral states when producing bubble streams (“bubbling”), and when bubbling calls, to determine whether bubbling was significantly associated with a particular call category or behavioral state. Using 19 hours of video and audio recordings collected over a two-day period, I quantified bubble streams of a 4-month old calf and an unrelated adult female housed together. Based on the overall activity budgets and pool of vocalizations for both animals, I calculated the expected counts of bubble streams with and without vocalizations, assuming that …

Methods For The Detection Of Subterranean Methane Leakage, Margot Accettura

Theses

The development of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) has led to a plethora of industry applications. One such application for a sUAS is detecting subterranean methane leakage. The rapid detection of methane will streamline work in industries such as construction and utilities. However, prior to flying a sUAS, the optimal way to detect methane must be determined so that unknown levels of subterranean methane leakage can be detected accurately and efficiently. In this thesis, two methods were used in conjunction to optimize a sUAS method for methane detection. The primary objective was to use hyperspectral data to locate the optimal …

Investigating The Effect Of Lower Back Fatigue On Human Gait And The Propensity For Slip And Fall, Maya S. Luster

Theses

Slips, trips, and falls (STF) remain among the most important causes of occupational injuries. Most of the previous studies focused on the impact of lower extremity muscle fatigue on increased risk of STFs. The purpose of our study was to assess how the low back muscle fatigue (LBMF) changed the individuals’ gait and whether that increased the risk of STF. It was hypothesized that LBMF would affect kinematic and kinetic-related measures associated with the human gait and lead to a higher propensity for slips and trips.

Convenience sample of 11 healthy adults participated in this study, (6 M, 5 F). …

Novel Detection And Analysis Using Deep Variational Autoencoders, Tucker B. Graydon

Theses

This paper presents a Novel Identification System which uses generative modeling techniques and Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) to identify the main process variables involved in a novel event from multivariate data. Features are generated and subsequently dimensionally reduced by using a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) supplemented by a denoising criterion and a β disentangling method. The GMM parameters are learned using the Expectation Maximization(EM) algorithm on features collected from only normal operating conditions. A one-class classification is achieved by thresholding the likelihoods by a statistically derived value. The Novel Identification method is verified as a detection method on existing Radio Frequency …

Characterization Of Shear-Induced Hemolysis In Rotational Medical Devices, James A. Krisher

Theses

The implantation of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) is a rapidly growing means of treatment for a large variety of heart ailments. These blood pumps necessarily exert some degree of shear stress on blood passing through them, which, over time, may cause the rupture of red blood cells, coagulation, thromboses, and bleeding. This limits their use as long term treatment and therapy. While the relationship of fluid shear to blood damage has been demonstrated previously, there is significant variance in the reported levels of damage. Were these stresses and subsequent damage to be well understood and related, existing and …

Succession Of An Upland Oak/Hickory Forest In The Central Hardwood Region, Nathan Hoover

Theses

For the last 9,000-10,000 years the Central Hardwood Region (CHR) has been primarily composed of a mosaic of mesophytic communities in climax and communities of successional forest types dominated by oak (Quercus Linnaeus) and hickory (Carya Nuttall). Shade intolerant oak/hickory dominated forest types have been maintained by natural disturbance processes in synergy with anthropogenic causes, resulting in a large composition of communities which are neither at climatic nor edaphic climax. Reduction in fire events, thinning, forest grazing, and other disturbance processes over the last 80-100 years have coincided with decreased regeneration of shade intolerant species due to lack of adequate …

Adaptive Water Governance And Community Resilience: Assessing The Impact Of The Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture Partnership On Communities In The Cache River Watershed Of Southern Illinois, Rachel Emeline Boucher

Theses

Resilience is a concept that is becoming heavily researched in the sustainability and resource management literature. For rural resource-dependent communities, community resilience is the ability to adapt to various drivers of change while maintaining or enhancing community well-being. In recent decades, the field of water resource governance has been transitioning from a reliance on command-and-control institutional structures toward adaptive multi-level institutions, such as adaptive co-management and adaptive governance. These transitions offer potential opportunities for enhancing the resilience and sustainability of resource-dependent communities. However, the relationship between these emerging governance approaches and community resilience is not fully understood. The Cache River …

Delineating Capture Zones Using A Systematic Sensitivity Analysis That Varies Recharge, Hydraulic Conductivity And Conductance, Nick C. Lamkey

Theses

The Saline Valley Conservancy District (SVCD) formed in 1980 to provide groundwater to communities in Saline and Gallatin, Counties, Illinois. Sulfate contamination from a nearby coal mine threatens the SVCD’s current well field. Three of the wells are reaching the end of their service and have elevated levels of sulfate. This study investigated multiple well configurations on three different parcels of land to find possible new well locations that do not recharge water directly from the mine site over a 50-year period. A steady-state finite difference groundwater flow model was created using Graphic Groundwater GIS (Krienert and Esling, 2016), a …

Prediction Of Clinical Symptoms And Psychological Flexibility Using A Novel Values Card Sort Activity, Ryan S. Kimball

Theses

Values are directly relevant in a number of theoretical orientations in psychology, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In ACT, clarification of one’s personal values is paramount. The present study examined the ability to predict clinical symptoms and psychological flexibility using variables derived from one’s performance on the ACT Values Card Sort (ACT-VCS), a novel values clarification exercise. The independent variables, obtained from the ACT-VCS, included 1) the number of values endorsed as very important in the initial sort (i.e., valuing propensity), 2) the number of values domains represented in the final sort (i.e., values diversity), and 3) the extent …

Migration Patterns, Habitat Use, Prey Items, And Hunter Harvest Of Long-Tailed Ducks (Clangula Hyemalis) That Overwinter On Lake Michigan, Luke J. Fara

Theses

The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis; hereafter LTDU) breeds on the arctic tundra across Alaska and Canada and winters south of the ice edge along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as on the Great Lakes. Data suggest that LTDU populations are in decline and, as a result, efforts have been made to better understand their population distributions through satellite telemetry studies. Radio-marked LTDUs from previous studies have shown very little use of Lake Michigan, even though aerial surveys indicate that large concentrations of this species overwinter there. LTDUs using Lake Michigan face a host of conservation issues, such as …

Changes In Antisocial Attitudes And Recidivist Outcomes, Maranda Rose Quillen

Theses

This purpose of this study is to examine whether changes in offender antisocial attitudes predict recidivism, violent reoffense, and severity of reoffending among completers of the community based, Counter-Point treatment program. While offender antisocial attitudes changed following treatment completion, these changes did not significantly predict violent recidivism and general recidivism. However, violent offenders, upon entering the program, were more likely to recidivate violently, and a decrease in antisocial attitudes following treatment completion increased the severity of reoffending. These findings highlight that change takes time and treatment dosage may serve as an important component of maintaining attitudinal change in treatment and …

Evaluation Of Perennial Plant Success On A Green Roof, Chris White

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF: CHRISTOPHER M. WHITE, for the Master of Science degree in PLANT, SOIL AND AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, presented in 2017 at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. TITLE: EVALUATION OF PERENNIAL PLANT SUCCESS ON A GREEN ROOF MAJOR PROFESSORS: Karen Stoelzle Midden, S. Alan Walters A two-year study (2011-2012) was conducted on a section of an extensive green roof of the Agriculture Building at Southern Illinois University to evaluate the adaptability of four plant species to green roof culture. Extensive green roof survival, growth, and general success of four plant species (Allium schoenoprasum L., Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Grandiflorus’ Vill., …

Statistics Anxiety Towards Learning New Statistical Software, Shahd Saad Alnofaie

Theses

Based on previous research, statistics anxiety towards statistics were discussed. There is a study about anxiety and attitude of graduate students in on-campus vs. online statistics courses, and student attitude toward statistics. To date, no one has seemed to examine anxiety toward statistics with regard to use of coding vs. noncoding software. The purpose of this study was to know the level of anxiety towards learning new statistical software. Responses from seventy-nine graduate students who have or had classes in the Applied Statistics Division were collected. The survey made for this study had a Likert scale that included three categories …

Lvad Occlusion Condition Monitoring Using State Augmented Acoustic Spectral Images, Ian Richard Prechtl

Theses

Each year, thousands of people die from heart disease and related illnesses due to the lack of available donor organs. Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) aim to mitigate that occurrence, serving as a bridge-to-surgery option. While short term survival rates of LVAD patients near that of orthotopic surgery they are not viable long term options due to varied reasons. This work examines one cause, outlet graft thrombosis, and develops an algorithm for increasingly robust classification of device condition as it pertains to thrombosis or more generally occlusion. In order to do so an in vitro heart simulator is developed so …

24 Jie Qi Journey: Learning Jie Qi Culture And Living A Healthy Life, Yuqi Xiao

Theses

This project aims to explore new ways to spread traditional culture of Jie Qi and to teach a healthy lifestyle according the theory of Jie Qi. The project provides comprehensive design solutions through a website to remedy the problem of ineffective learning of complex knowledge from books and lack of communication. The website creates a virtual visual environment through interactive design that offer users a playful journey through an introduction of Jie Qi.

Jie Qi is a historic and significant invention. Based on observations of the sun’s movement integrated with natural phenomenon, starting about 3000 years ago, the ancient Chinese …

Wrought, Tim Grayson

Theses

This body of work was my investigation into why I have been so fascinated with armor and protection. I wanted to go beyond the desire for physical protection and discover why I felt fixated upon it. This led me to look at the strength one finds when acknowledging the underlying vulnerability rather than trying to hide it and seeing the positive outcomes that can result from times of struggle.

“Hoilet System”— A Way To Improve Experience In High Traffic Female Public Restrooms In The U.S, Kaining Qiu

Theses

This paper focuses on improving the experience of women using high traffic public restrooms in the U.S. By looking into the past studies on the insufficient numbers of ladies’ rooms provided under building codes and the lack of accommodations for multi-tasking, with further research on public restroom cleanliness and personal privacy, this paper proposes that all four of those contribute to an unpleasant experience. At the same time, little has been done to address these problems nationwide and most of the relevant research is out of date. To further understand the overall experience women go through, a survey was conducted …

The Impact Of Perceived Leadership Styles On Hotel Employee Job Engagement, Abutaleb Zarban

Theses

Engaged employees have a positive impact on organizational outcomes. In fact, employees who are highly committed to their jobs tend to perform better, and such employees are less likely to quit. Leaders in the workplace have the potential to influence employee work engagement. Different leadership styles might drive employee engagement to different extents. The purposes of this study are twofold: to identify the leadership styles and drivers that lead to engaged employees, and to contribute to the literature of employee engagement in the context of hospitality and tourism. This study used a quantitative method, specifically survey that was distributed to …

Efficient Inventory Management Of Hospital Supply Chains Using A Sim-Heuristic Approach, Siddharth Garg

Theses

Inventory management is a vital section of a supply chain system. In a hospital setting, where delivering high quality patient care is a prime concern, inventory management is often overlooked. With the ever increasing demand for products, it becomes challenging to manage inventory in a dynamic facility such as a hospital. Although there is abundant research in supply chain, seldom have the proposed methods found their way into execution in actual hospital settings. Additionally, much of the literature focuses on particular aspects of the supply chain. Current methods used in practice lead to system performance that is suboptimal, resulting in …

Implementing A Database To Intervene In And Reduce Gun Violence In Rochester, Ny, Audrey Dipoala

Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the issue of gun violence, specifically urban gun violence in the city of Rochester, New York. The goal was to gain an understanding of the circumstances surrounding these shootings and to learn how to potentially reduce these types of incidents. In order to do this, we created a database containing over 200 different variables covering incident information, victim/suspect information, weapons information, circumstances, and outcome of the investigation. All fatal and non-fatal shootings in the City of Rochester between years 2010 and 2012 were entered into this database. These three years’ worth of …

Heymoe: Leveraging Virtual Robot And Game Mechanics In Mobile Prototype Application Design For Chinese Language Learning, Boxiao Gong

Theses

With the growth of internet technology, individuals currently have a better experience in using interactive systems like desktop computer software or mobile device applications than ever before. Moreover, using mobile phones in learning activities is becoming increasingly popular. However, the learning applications today do not fully meet the learner’s needs, especially for young adults who have some interest but lack fundamental knowledge in their study subjects. Combining mobile phone technology and game elements could make it possible to solve this problem. In this way, the limitations of location and the sometimes boring nature of the learning activities could be efficiently …

Transcriptomics Of Learning, Pablo Iturralde

Theses

Learning is a basic and important component of behavior yet we have very little empirical information about the interaction between mechanisms of learning and evolution. In our work, we are testing hypotheses about the neurogenetic mechanisms through which animal learning abilities evolve. We are able to test this directly by using experimentally evolved populations of flies, which differ in learning ability. These populations were previously evolved within the lab by creating worlds with different patterns of change following theoretically predicted effects on which enhanced learning will evolve. How has evolution acted to modulate genes and gene expression in the brain …

An Assessment Of Competencies Of Clinical Instructors In Teaching And Guidance For Nursing Students In Clinical Areas: A Cross-Sectional Study In Tanzania, Rehema L. Mligo

Theses

Nursing student's clinical competence including psychomotor skills, attitude, values, and beliefs of professional practices depend on the quality of clinical instruction given by their preceptors in clinical settings. The main objective was to assess the Tanzanian clinical instructors' teaching abilities and attitude towards the clinical teaching and guidance of nurse students at clinical areas. It was a cross-sectional study design with quantitative approach.