Digital Commons Network^™

Routine Activities Theory: An Empirical Test In A Rural Setting, Eric Heiple

Theses

Crime is a problem that many Americans would undoubtedly want to curtail. Routine activities theory provides a rather straightforward way of conceptualizing and then predicting criminal activity at the macro and micro levels. Cohen and Felson (1979), the original authors of routine activities theory, suggested that crime occurs during the simultaneous convergence of a motivated offender, suitable target, and a lack of capable guardians. Thus, as the authors alluded to, all three of the components are required in order for a criminal act to take place. Therefore, it is easy to see that citizens can take proactive steps to decrease …

An Analysis Of Current Intersection Support And Falls In United States Coal Mines And Recommendations To Improve Safety, Allen Robert Mueller

Theses

Background: The support of intersections in coal mines is an important safety issue in the U.S., as intersections are by far the most common area for unplanned falls of ground. A relatively comprehensive, nation-wide study of falls of ground is coupled with a national survey to mines about their support methods to determine common characteristics of failure and recommend changes to improve stability, and recommendations for future research. Methods: Over 600 fall of ground reports were collected from nine of the 11 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) District offices, and data was compiled to determine common characteristics of these …

Female Reaction To Male Urine Scents As Potential Indicator Of Mate Choice In Captive Cheetahs (Acinonyx Jubatus), Regina Helen Mossotti

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF REGINA HELEN MOSSOTTI, for the Master of Science degree in ZOOLOGY, presented 23 October 2009, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: FEMALE REACTION TO MALE URINE SCENTS AS POTENTIAL INDICATOR OF MATE CHOICE IN CAPTIVE CHEETAHS (ACINONYX JUBATUS) MAJOR PROFESSOR: GEORGE A. FELDHAMER Genetic variation in the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has become dangerously low because of dramatic population decline and fragmentation. Zoos throughout the world manage captive cheetahs with breeding programs to maximize genetic heterozygosity. Unfortunately, the zoo community has not accomplished consistent breeding success with cheetahs, possibly because of a general lack of …

Transformations, Tanvi Asher-Jones

Theses

As a designer, my life experiences have influenced my design practice. Over the past decade I have moved from one culture to another and lived through cultural and language adaptations. These transitions have interested me in the issue of transience and how it relates to the role of identity, belonging, and living in a society of global and technological developments. For the past few years I have been working with the idea of fabrics merged with architecture and exploring concerns in relation to the body, memory, temporal, mobility and most recently the environment. This thesis project evolves around the idea …

Impacts Of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid On Tsuga Canadensis Forest Communities In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Usa, Kurt J. Krapfl

Theses

Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. (eastern hemlock), a long lived and shade tolerant coniferous tree species native to eastern North America, is currently threatened by the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand, HWA). This exotic, invasive insect poses a serious threat to T. canadensis stands throughout their native range. The loss of this unique tree species is often coupled with numerous ecological consequences. HWA-induced mortality has exceeded 95% in some forest types, and will likely continue to decimate T. canadensis populations in the coming years. Shortly after HWA was found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), long-term monitoring plots …

Evaluation Of The Tab-Simco Acid Mine Drainage Treatment System: Water Chemistry, Performance And Treatment Processes, Yosief Teklehaimanot Segid

Theses

No

Static Synapse, Jessica Jane Julius

Theses

Art/Science represents a new domain of communication born from the integration of the arts and the sciences. It combines more than two million years of creative tendencies, inventions, languages, and explorations. Art/Science explores and recombines concepts, theories, models, and interpretations of our environments to influence the evolution and heredity of ideas that are crucial to human development and survival. Art/Science is slowly transforming the physical, mental, and behavioral traits of the organism of art.

Print Media Paper Consumption Patterns Through A System Dynamics Approach, Alicia Tejada Abreu

Theses

As awareness of the current unsustainable state of our society increases, it has become evident that immediate action is needed to change this state. Many of the ecological changes that threaten the long-term survival of humans and of other species have anthropogenic origins. Industry's impact and its role in mitigating these impacts is the focus of much discussion and debate. Two industries that are working to deal with these issues are the printing and paper industries. The environmental impacts associated with the entire life-cycle of paper are significant, yet the socially redeeming value of the content printed can be equally …

Demonstrating Landsat's New Potential To Monitor Coastal And Inland Waters, Aaron Gerace

Theses

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is a new Landsat sensor being developed by the joint USGS-NASA Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) that exhibits the potential to be a state-of-the-art instrument for studying inland and coastal waters. With upgrades such as a new Coastal Aerosol band, 12 bit quantization, and improved signal-to-noise, OLI will be spectrally and radiometrically superior to its predecessors. When considering Landsat's already high 30 meter spatial resolution, coupled with the fact that its data is free to the community, the OLI sensor may prove to be more valuable than any other environmental imaging satellite to date. The …

Wireless Security Proportional To County Development, Guillermo M. Martinez

Theses

This paper verify the hypothesis "developed counties have a higher wireless security level than undeveloped counties", this is performed by doing a quantitative study to a group of 50 samples gathered from a war drive database. In further sections of the paper will be explained the importance of wireless security and how companies like RSA have performed studies to determinate the wireless security level of several major cities around the world.

By following the binomial test and median comparison, the reader will understand why in this paper the hypothesis was rejected. All the results indicate that no relation existed between …

Motivating Change: An Interactive Journey In Sustainability In Environmental Concerns, Brittany Lamb

Theses

Despite the grave environmental issues facing the world, little is being done to educate our future generation of "consumers" on resource consumption and waste generation. There is a need for major change in the approach to education about sustainability. In the classroom, environmental education has been presented statically through traditional teaching methods. Environmental education is evolving to include information on how a person's efforts and behavior can affect global change. However, changes in education are not happening as rapidly as the deterioration of the environment. The sustainability of the environment requires action and reaction, therefore it requires a more interactive …

Investing In The Millennials: A Comparison Of Financial Services Web Pages, Maureen Elizabeth Hergenroether

Theses

A current opportunity exists for financial services companies to find new customers in the "Millennial Generation." This requires incorporating persuasion techniques that are effective on this generation into marketing strategies, particularly with the mass media outlet of choice for Millennials, the Internet. This research explored tenets of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to consider how Millennials' characteristics as a generation, as well as individual traits such as Need for Cognition (NfC), might influence their perceptions of a company's credibility. Students were shown one of two Internet home pages for a fictional financial services company that varied in information quantity and …

Reading, Color, And Coherent Motion, Teresa Narayan

Theses

Dyslexia is surrounded by much uncertainty over its cause and its treatment. While many view dyslexia as a purely phonological deficit, some have proposed a visual deficit as a cause in at least some poor readers. Several treatments have been have used to increase visual processing as a means of overcoming such visual deficits. Using a blue colored filter to increase magnocellular processing has seen the most successful outcomes. Tests of coherent motion under different background color conditions were completed on a group of 16 highly educated subjects who also underwent several tests of reading ability. There were no significant …

Simplifying Complex Information Structures: The Application Of Archiving And Mapping Strategies In The Design Of Prescription Drug Labeling, Sheetal Alreja

Theses

Information Design involves finding meaningful solutions to raw and complex data that is difficult to understand. Archiving and Mapping are approached as means of information design during the course of this thesis study. The process of Archiving involves collection, documentation and organization of data. Traditional Archiving methods are studied along with analyzing organization of large amounts of information in the form of web sites, publications, annual reports and reference books. The approach towards Mapping is not limited to just geographic contexts. Maps can be visualized in the form of an idea, metaphor or process. Graphic Design elements such as color, …

Natural Synthesis, Karrie Swanson

Theses

The intention of this thesis is to chronicle my journey within the ever expanding and fascinating realm of non-toxic printmaking. This document will showcase the 'Howard Four Color Inversion Intaglio-Type Printmaking Technique' and at the same time bring the reader's attention the plight of one of humankind's oldest and arguably most vulnerable companions trees. "Always in the big woods, when you leave familiar ground and step off into a place, there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the unknown, and it is your first bond …

Internet Television Use: Motivations And Preferences For Watching Television Online Among College Students, Christen Steinkamp

Theses

The present study examined the television viewing habits of college students to determine differences between motivations and preferences for watching television online versus on a broadcast receiver. A convenience sample of 136 RIT students responded to an online survey. The study found that like the TV viewers of the 1980s, television viewers today are still motivated by relaxation, escape, and the desire to pass the time and to socially interact with companions-- no matter which medium. The ability to control the television experience, to choose when to watch programming, and the convenience that Internet television offers are reasons why college …

Vegetation Characterization For The Lake Ontario Stopover Project, Erin E. Strobl

Theses

Avian conservation is imperative because birds provide many beneficial ecosystem services. Bird mortality is highest during the migratory period due to habitat loss from anthropogenic land cover change. On the way to and from breeding grounds, migrants make many stopovers to refuel and rest for the next leg of their journey. The abundance, distribution, and quality of the stopover habitat are important for a successful migration. The southern shore of Lake Ontario in Western New York has received attention for conservation, because it provides critical stopover habitats for migrants. Performing vegetation and bird surveys, at specific stopover locations, provides useful …

City Bike Program In Taiwan, Chia-Hung Hsu

Theses

"This design project was inspired by Danish city bike program. I studied furniture design in Denmark; during my stay I experienced the joy and the convenience of public city bike. Cycling is a life style and the expression of naturalism in Denmark. It is also considered as the main mode of transportation among the Danish people. The implementation of the city bike program is not only prosperous in Denmark but also in other Europe countries. This cycling spate (rush) is affecting countries where environment consciousness appear to be of much concern. On the contrary, Taiwan, which happens to own the …

Stiffness Of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells From Aged Primates Measured Using Reconstituted Tissue Model, Shilpa Nagendra

Theses

Increased stiffness of the aorta is an important detrimental change that occurs with aging. Most previous research has implicated stiffening of the extracellular collagen matrix with age. The study reported in this thesis focused instead on the potential contribution from stiffening of the vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) with age.

VSMCs previously obtained from young and old monkeys (macaca fascicularis) were seeded into a collagen gel to form a reconstituted tissue. The aim of this study was to quantitatively characterize the mechanical properties of this reconstituted tissue model via uniaxially stretching each ring to defined levels of strain. The total …

A Comparative Analysis Of Haptic And Eeg Devices For Evaluation And Training Of Post-Stroke Patients Within A Virtual Environment, Gregory Nicholas Ranky

Theses

Virtual Rehabilitation benefits from the usage of interfaces other than the mouse and keyboard, but also possess disadvantages: haptic peripherals can utilize the subject's hand to provide position information or joint angles, and allow direct training for specific movements; but can also place unneeded strain on the limbs; brain-machine interfaces (BMI) can provide direct connections from the user to external hardware or software, but are currently inaccurate for the full diversity of user movements in daily life and require invasive surgery to implement. A compromise between these two extremes is a BMI that can be adapted to specific users, can …

Poisonous Heritage: Pesticides In Museum Collections, Leslie Omstein

Theses

No abstract provided.

A Different Mind: Developing Museum Programs For Children With Autism, Elise A. Freed-Brown

Theses

No abstract provided.

A Beautiful Reprieve: Engaging And Relevant Educational Programming For Museum Visitors With Alzheimer's Disease And Other Dementias, Kathleen Henry

Theses

No abstract provided.

Transgressing The Boundaries Of Holiness: Sexual Deviance In The Early Medieval Penitential Handbooks Of Ireland, England And France 500-1000., Christine A. Mccann

Theses

No abstract provided.

" One Day In The World's Press: How Is The Story Being Told?" A Thorough Study Of The International News Coverage On Barack Hussein Obama's Election Day, Ivonne J. Beltran

Theses

No abstract provided.

Cyber Crime And Telecommunications Law, Robert Imhof

Theses

Cyber crime is a new and emerging area of concern for technology professionals, business leaders, and heads of government. This research takes a look at the individuals behind these crimes in order to develop a profile and determine emerging trends. Classical Sociological theory is detailed and its ability to apply to modern cyber crime is explained. Interviews were conducted with five professionals in the field in order to gain a wide range of differing experiences and emerging trends. The most important cyber crime laws in the United States Code were broken down into their elements and explained in a way …

Identifying A Weak Link In The Network Chain: Determining How Prepared Dominican It Administrators Are To Confront Today’S Security Issues, Héctor Henríquez Badía

Theses

Enterprises in Dominican Republic are growing in size; this means that sooner or later these enterprises will have the necessity to create an IT department to manage their systems and networks. This research studied how secure an enterprise can be with Network administrators from the mentioned country. This study used mixed methods to get more deep results about the mentioned problem. This research discovered that Dominican IT administrators are well versed in network security theory, but when it comes to apply this knowledge at work, according to the qualitative part of this research they are slothful, and take things lightly; …

Pci Dss Case Study: Impact In Network Design And Security, Yudit María

Theses

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of twelve security requirements applicable to all institutions and systems handling, storing or transmitting cardholder information. It was created by the main card brands in a united effort to respond to the increasing number of attacks and data breaches cases targeted and linked to card and cardholder data. The standard considers points such as policies design, data security, network architecture, software design, application security, transmission encryption requirements and so on. Being compliant with the standard can be both expensive and traumatic for any business willing to do it. This research …

Are Low Cost Accountability, Communications, And Management Systems For Emergency First Responders Using 3g And 4g Cellular Technologies Feasible?, Kenneth Coleman

Theses

Reliable, easily deployed communication networks are a necessity for emergency responders as the coordination of their efforts and their safety depend on it. As a volunteer firefighter, this researcher is aware of the shortcomings of the current communication technologies presently deployed, and the risks it poses to firefighters. Some studies have proposed deployment of sophisticated hybrid, mesh networks and mobile ad hoc networks that allow for location tracking, environment and personnel vital signs monitoring, and data communications. Unfortunately the cost of these systems and required training in use of the equipment inhibits their adoption and wide scale deployment across the …

Towards Scale-Invariant Aboveground Biomass Estimation In Savanna Ecosystems Using Small-Footprint Waveform Lidar, Dave Kelbe

Theses

Land degradation is becoming an issue of increasing concern in the savanna ecosystems of southern Africa. As a result, there is a growing need to map structural changes at the fine scale, while retaining the ability to aggregate up to landscape level for analysis across land use gradients. Aboveground biomass (AGB) is an important indicator of vegetation structure and therefore is the ideal variable for estimation from light detection and ranging (lidar) data. To avoid the effects of scale, this paper takes a tree-delineation approach for segmentation of the structurally heterogeneous savanna environment. Diameter at breast height (DBH) measurements collected …