Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

American Sign Language Finger Challenge, Jeffrey Cougler

Theses

In current websites and computer assisted learning programs, there are no interactive products that truly present real time fingerspelling in American Sign Language (ASL). At best, a site dislpays an array of illustrated static manual letters, which are displayed side by side like the roman alphabet letters to form a word. Another site flashes sequential photos of manual letters, as in the word, "S-W-E-A-T-E-R" , after which you type what you think you saw. In either case this is not real-time fingerspelling. Using the publication reference "Expressive and Receptive Fingerspelling for Hearing Adults" by Lavera M. Guillory, Macromedia Director MX …

There Is A Frozen Land, Zeeone Kang

Theses

This film is a poetic documentary about the sad relationship between North and South Korea. One day, a South Korean filmmaker encounters North Korean defectors and starts to think about what North Korea means to her. North Korea is the closest country to South Korea in terms of distance, but it is often the farthest thing from the minds of South Koreans. This film takes a journey through the minds of South Koreans and asks what they think and feel about North Korea with the hope to raise awareness of the land to the north before the distance in their …

Legacy, Jamie Callahan

Theses

This thesis is an examination of family in relation to labor, as expressed through photography. My thesis exhibition, Legacy, grew out of a personal financial struggle while pursuing my graduate studies. Finding myself unable to find work to support my education, I began to travel back home to Chicago to work in my family's house painting business. These journeys to home sparked an epiphany creating a realization that the family business, from which I considered my enrollment at RIT an escape, was actually my salvation. The business I felt I had run from was now supporting my photographic ambitions. I …

Image-Based Math Retrieval Using Handwritten Queries, Li Yu

Theses

We present a new technique to locate mathematical expressions in document images using images of handwritten queries, without the use of optical character recognition. In our approach, two types of X-Y cutting are used to construct document region indexes that hold potential matches . Candidates are selected based on a set of tolerance parameters and then are ranked using image similarity, with the top 10 matches being returned to the user. The ranking of candidates relies on decreasing sum-of-squares distance between the upper and lower image contours for the candidate region and query image; Dynamic Time Warping is used to …

Nanophotonic And Nanoplasmonic Couplers: Analysis And Fabrication, Rami Wahsheh

Theses

Mode mismatch between waveguides of different geometries and propagation mechanisms causes radiation and back reflection, which results in significant loss of optical power. This is considered one of the obstacles that prevents multiple applications of the optical integrated circuits. In this dissertation, we design, fabricate, and experimentally demonstrate four novel photonic couplers that achieve mode matching between hybrid waveguides. These hybrid waveguides include conventional optical waveguides, photonic crystal (PC) waveguides, and plasmonic waveguides. First, we propose a novel method to enhance the coupling efficiency between a dielectric waveguide and a planar PC. This method is based on introducing structural imperfections …

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.

Design And Fabrication Of Structured Roughnesses In Microchannels With Integrated Mems Pressure Sensors, Tushara Pasupuleti

Theses

As the demand for cooling is increased for high-density powered electronic devices, researchers have proposed solutions to improve the efficiency of the microchannel liquid cooling system to meet these requirements. Introducing roughness in the microchannels is one of the approaches to enhance the heat transfer. The fluid flow behavior needs experimental investigation before exploring the heat transfer efficiency. A test structure consisting MEMS pressure sensors were fabricated along the length of the microchannel. Smooth microchannels and rough microchannels with structured roughness were fabricated. A fabrication process flow has been developed to fabricate the microchannel and the pressure sensor on the …

The Environmental Concern Of Youth At A Ymca Youth Adventure Camp, Sarah A. Schneider

Theses

This study was conducted to examine and report on the environmental concern of the youth participants of the Teen Adventure program at YMCA Camp Jones Gulch to determine if those ideas altered over the course of the campers' chosen summer camp experience. Campers and their guardians were asked to provide consent and assent to participate. Forty-three participants completed both a pre and posttest survey which included 15 items on a Likert-type scale asking participants to rate their agreement with statements about the environment. Results indicated that neither activity nor age was significant in explaining differences. However, further examination showed a …

Managing The Magic: Technical Direction Of The Secret Garden, Bryce Dale Allen

Theses

BRYCE DALE ALLEN, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater, presented on March 30, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: MANAGING THE MAGIC: TECHNICAL DIRECTION OF THE SECRET GARDEN MAJOR PROFESSOR: Robert Holcombe This project, Managing the Magic: Technical Direction of The Secret Garden, is a detailed description of the process I used as the technical director to help produce the Department of Theater's production of The Secret Garden at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in April 2009. This work is also a study of the artistic collaboration that took place between the design team and me during …

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 …

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 …

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

Theses

No

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 …

Effects Of Internal Fields In Quantum Dots, Sasi Sekaran Sundaresan

Theses

In this work we study the effect of built in electrostatic fields in Quantum Dots. Built-in electrostatic fields in Zincblende quantum dots originate mainly from--(1) the fundamental crystal atomicity and the interfaces between two dissimilar materials, (2) the strain relaxation, and (3) the piezoelectric polarization. We also study the geometric dependence of built in fields on 3 shapes namely Box, Dome and Pyramid. The main objectives are 3 fold they are (1) Explore the nature and the role of crystal atomicity at the interfaces and built-in fields (strain-field, and piezoelectric polarization) in determining the energy spectrum and the wave functions. …

Negotiation Training For Non-Purchasing Staff, Becky Kiely

Theses

With the economic climate as unstable as it is, and will likely remain, everyone who is responsible for Institute funds must manage them with greater care and be able to negotiate for the best interest of the Institute. This project consisted of the creation of a half-day training course (and all related materials) in Negotiation Skills to be offered to non-Purchasing staff, as well as faculty, who are responsible for procuring goods and services on the Institute’s behalf. The results will be faculty and staff members who are better prepared to handles themselves in any negotiation situation, whether it involves …

Galapagos Hawk: Demographic And Social Effects In A Changing Environment, Jose Luis Rivera

Theses

The Galapagos Hawk (Buteo galapagoensis) is endemic to the Galapagos Islands, where it is the top predator and only resident diurnal raptor. On most islands, Galapagos hawks form polyandrous breeding groups with one female with up to eight males. Before entering a breeding group, individuals spend 3-4 years as non-breeding floaters. I studied the hawks on Santiago Island, where introduced goats had been recently eradicated, leading to drastic changes in the ecology of the island. Using mark-recapture procedures, we assessed the size of the juvenile component of the population over time. In addition, using software MARK with a 12-year demographic …

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 …

Rational Action: Reasons, Causes, And Choices, David James Redmond

Theses

I argue that agents, by exercising their wills, cause action-results and that volitions or willings are uncaused basic actions. I motivate the existence of volitions by highlighting the important role they play in providing an answer to Wittgenstein's famous question, “What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?” That volitions do not have action-results is central to my argument. This has as a consequence that volitions are causally basic actions, i.e., actions which do not have results that are caused by more basic actions. That is, …

Votre Polka, Robert Joseph Betz Ii

Theses

This is a collection of poems from my time in the MFA program. Divided into two sections, the first deals mainly with narrative poems and are newer, the second deals mainly with lyric poems and are more personal.

An Attempt At Understanding Nietzsche's "On Truth And Lying In An Extra-Moral Sense", John David Lee

Theses

This thesis is a reflection upon and evaluation of Nietzsche’s conception of language as presented in his early and posthumously published essay On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense. I take Nietzsche in On Truth and Lying to be launching a full scale attack on traditional accounts of language and truth. He counters such conceptions by presenting what he takes to be the “forgotten” origin of language, which he presents as consisting of a threefold process of metaphor formation. This conception of the origin of language is rather technical and, as I will try to show, is doing quite …

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 …

A Virtue Theoretic Solution To The Problem Of Moral Luck, Jonathan Trevor Spelman

Theses

At the beginning of his famous paper “Moral Luck,” Thomas Nagel notes that it is intuitively plausible that people cannot be morally assessed for what is beyond their control. He then argues that most, if not all, of what people do is beyond their control. Thus, Nagel concludes that individuals must deny that people cannot be morally assessed for what is beyond their control, alter the way they think about morality, or abandon the belief that moral assessment is possible. I contend that one’s best option is to alter the way one thinks about morality and therefore draw from the …

The Effect Of Economic Conditions, Gender Equality, And Women’S Empowerment On Cross-National Trends In Rape, Meghan Lynn Rogers

Theses

The purpose of the study is to examine changes in rape over time in the United States and Europe. Little previous research examines changes in rape trends over time, or compares rape trends across nations. I propose that economic conditions, gender equality, and empowerment of women can explain the changes in rape over time in the United States and Europe. To test this research question, a GLS cross-sectional time-series analysis was conducted of rape rates in the United States and thirteen European nations from 1990 to 2003. Results show that consumer confidence, unemployment, gender development, human development, and gender empowerment …

Irrelevance And Evaluation: Two Arguments Against Gauthier's Contractarianism, Micah William Svejda

Theses

This paper provides two arguments against David Gauthier’s version of contractarianism, presented to weaken the cumulative case for this view. Gauthier provides a test for which moral claims are justified: a hypothetical agreement. This agreement consists of those constraints that rational persons would accept. A good many of our moral claims actually fail this test. But despite this fact, complying with justified moral claims makes us better off. By doing so, we are able to gain the benefits of cooperation, available only to those who cooperate. Gauthier thus provides us with a theory of morals by agreement. The first argument …

Carbon Monoxide In Disks Around Two T Tauri Stars: Ry Tau & Dg Tau, Sammanani Shakya Premachandra

Theses

I present high-resolution, near infrared NIRSPEC spectra of carbon monoxide for two classical T Tauri stars: RY Tau and DG Tau. The purpose of the study is to further test whether there is a correlation between gas and dust with inclination to constrain models of dust settling and turbulence in disks. 12CO overtone and fundamental absorption lines in the 2.3 and 4.7 µm spectral region were measured, respectively. 13CO was detected for DG Tau. Rotational temperatures and column densities were calculated for each source. The ratio ~ NCO/AV was measured as a function of inclination and compared to the results …

Categorial Intentions, James Leo Virtel

Theses

Hypothetical intentionalism splits artistic intentions into two types: semantic intentions—which are concerned with the meaning of an artwork—and categorial intentions—which are concerned with how an artwork should be classified. Categorial intentions are a necessary condition for properly interpreting an artwork; without them, an artwork can have an infinite number of interpretations. Jerrold Levinson argues that categorial intentions are extrinsic to the artwork while Mark Rollins argues that microintentions—small scale representations that are intrinsic to paintings and other visual forms of art—are intrinsic to the artwork and sufficient to determine the artwork’s category. I argue against Rollins by showing that microintentions …

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 …

Interactive Wiiart, Naichieh Yu

Theses

This interactive project allows users to explore modern graphics and traditional Chinese ink painting by using a Nintendo WiiRemote control. The purpose of this project is to provide an effortless platform for users to create an artwork with simple control. Moreover, the default patterns let users have multiple choices to paint the scene, and even though users do not have any art, design background, or experience, they can still create their own masterpiece easily.