Digital Commons Network^™

Past Due: A Collection Of Poems, Byron Lee

Theses

"Past Due" is a co1lection of poems written almost entirely in free verse and almost exclusively based on personal experience. I find, at least at this point in my growth as a writer, that when I try to adhere to poetic structure, I feel confined. My style is sparse because I feel that this aesthetic best cuts to the emotion I'm trying to convey. I also love playing with line breaks, since I find that doing so can give several lines in a poem their own statement, like each poem makes its own statement even when bound in a co1Iection …

Through Windows, Sarah E. Jones

Theses

This short story collection focuses on the female perspective and expectations based on a host of influences: familial, cultural, and mythical. Even in extraordinary circumstances decisions are made about how to lives one's life. The collection explores the context in which women put their life experiences and personal relationships, and the space needed to consider these things. Readers familiar with Lorrie Moore's short fiction may find echoes of her solitary souls in these stories.

No Serenade For Spies, Cedric T. Jackson

Theses

The focus and purpose of this thesis has resulted in the culmination of a full-length novel. Since fiction is most often categorized by a specific genre, the actions and motivations in terms of characters and plot development will more than likely place this particular project in the genre of either a spy novel or action thriller. The introductory essay further elaborates on my journey as a writer, and the creative process behind the writing of No Serenade for Spies.

From the outset the goal was to create a plot-driven story with strong as well as interesting and believable characters. …

Seven Hour Education, Amy Recktenwald

Theses

Seven Hour Education is a hybrid of a collection of personal essays, and a short memoir. It chronicles my experience at the death of my son, Nicholas, and the resultant aftermath, some of which has come still years later. At times the material is contradictory in content and emotion, but this is to be expected as grief is a conflicting and fluid state of being. Much of the writing focuses on the "unexpected," situations and considerations most people aren't aware of in the life and perspective of the recently bereaved.

"Seven Hour Education" narrates the even of my son's birth, …

The Woman In Me Is The Woman You See: A Collection Of Poems And Two Essays, Jennifer L. Redd

Theses

This thesis will focus on poetry and two essays that act as bookends to my poems. The focus of the poems is mainly motherhood and how time, like the seasons, changes with every passing day. Winter is also a predominant theme in my thesis, as that was the season surrounding me during my project.

A personal reflective essay opens up my thesis. It summarizes my life of writing and how personal everyday experiences shape my poetry. I speak of the inspiration I am given from my family, friends, and working in a poverty stricken school.

A majority of the poems …

The Trail Of Tears: Cherokees Crossing The Mississippi...Settlers, Cheaters, And The U.S. Government, Eva Annette Rolfe

Theses

The thesis The Trail of Tears: Cherokees Crossing the Mississippi – Settlers, Cheaters, and the U.S. Government – Native Americans Standing in the Way of Progress by Eva Annette Rolfe examines the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It explores U.S. policies toward Native Americans from the American Revolution through Andrew Jackson’s presidency, highlighting the legal and political maneuvers that led to the Trail of Tears. The study delves into the Cherokee Nation’s attempts to assimilate, their resistance through legal battles such as Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia, and …

& Yet, Alexander S. Balogh

Theses

Unavailable.

Smack In The Day Of Distemper, Nancy J. Baumann

Theses

Not available.

Rockwood Revisited: More Exciting Tales From The "Hood", James A. Clay

Theses

The fol lowing essay and two short stories introduce a sequel to the book, The Rockwood Files: Tales from the Hood, which I wrote and published in 2002. The working title of the sequel is Rockwood Revisited. The original work is a collection of inspirational short stories that tell how several courageous inner city residents struggled to rise above obstacles they faced in search of a better life. Set in the fictional neighborhood known as Rockwood Square on Chicago's Westside, the stories chronicle life experiences of several of the neighborhood's past and present residents as seen through the eyes of …

A Journey Up Scotland Road, Jason Cannon

Theses

Not available.

Computing Laboratory Sustainability & Utilization: Initiatives For A Greener Education, Kristian Stokes

Theses

Environmental, social and economic sustainability has been a recent focus of academia and industry to further invest in the future and lower operating costs. In this thesis, various emerging techniques are applied in an academic laboratory environment to record, analyze and project green IT initiatives. Student utilization metrics are evaluated to observe typical computing operation during a normal academic quarter. CPU load, network usage, power consumption, and room temperature are analyzed. Sustainable power and virtualization practices are recommended based on projections and assessments of current and recommended configurations. The findings of this study can be used across an academic environment …

Cube Attacks On Cryptographic Hash Functions, Joel Lathrop

Theses

Cryptographic hash functions are a vital part of our current computer sys- tems. They are a core component of digital signatures, message authentica- tion codes, file checksums, and many other protocols and security schemes. Recent attacks against well-established hash functions have led NIST to start an international competition to develop a new hashing standard to be named SHA-3. In this thesis, we provide cryptanalysis of some of the SHA-3 candidates. We do this using a new cryptanalytical technique introduced a few months ago called cube attacks. In addition to summarizing the technique, we build on it by providing a framework …

Designing A Cell Phone Application To Alert And Report Drinking Water Quality To South Africans, Deana Brown

Theses

Drinking water quality, especially in many parts of South Africa, is far below acceptable standards. With an annual estimate of 43, 000 deaths from diarrheal diseases, 3 million cases of illness and treatment costs of over half a billion US dollars, the impact is critical (Mackintosh & Colvin, 2003). To address this issue the Aquatest project seeks to develop a simplified low-cost water quality test kit and information management solution. This would allow Water Service Providers, especially in rural areas, to monitor water quality and distribute test data to the necessary parties - Water Service Authorities and consumers. This research …

Range Voting Is Resistant To Control, Curtis Menton

Theses

Social choice theory is concerned with developing and evaluating voting systems, both for the use of political and organizational elections and for use as decision making process for multiagent systems. Particularly in the context of multiagent systems, computational resistance to various types of control has become a desired property of a voting system. Though manipulative actions may always be possible, strong computational barriers to efficient control can give us sufficient confidence in the integrity of an election. Range Voting is a natural extension of approval voting that is resistant to a large number of cases of control. In particular, the …

Sampling Edge Covers, William August Rummler

Theses

The random generation or sampling of combinatorial objects has important applications to statistical analyses in various domains, including physics and evolutionary biology. Some objects whose sampling has been well-studied are contingency tables, matchings, and independent sets. Edge covers are related to matchings in graph theory; however, their association does not appear to be of the sort where results for sampling matchings imply results for sampling edge covers. Consequently, we investigate the sampling of edge covers and prove that efficiently sampling so-called (1,2)-edge covers is possible under reasonable restrictions.

Scientific Visualizations, Nick Kochakian

Theses

Visualizations for three different categories of problems are presented: measurements of object parameters as they vary over time, constructing surfaces from unorganized sets of points, and representing the internal structure of volumes using isosurfaces. Problem backgrounds are discussed as well as the operational details of each visualization. Visualizations were written with ease of use in mind for Spiegel, a programmable visualization environment.

Mobile Web Resource Tracking During A Disaster Or Crisis Situation, Phavanhna Douangboupha

Theses

This paper proposes a prototype solution for a mobile web resource tracking system using mobile devices during an emergency situation. The system provides real time data to a decision maker so that he/she can effectively and efficiently monitor resources and assess the situation accordingly. Mobile devices (i.e., smart phones) support the ease of use for any location and at anytime. The Internet technology is selected to enable multiple or cross platform technology solutions for different mobile devices. Resources in the scope of this project are human resources (e.g., a doctor, a police officer) and a chemical list in a room. …

Towards Virtual Machine Integrity Using Introspection, Sammy Lin

Theses

The Integrity Measurements Architecture (IMA) provides attestation and integrity for Linux hosts. But what if an administrator wants to provide IMA functionality to an older (non-IMA capable) or a non Linux-based OS? If the system is deployed on top of a hypervisor, IMA functionality can be provided at the hypervisor level. This paper applies Virtual Machine Introspection (VMI) to provide IMA functionality to virtualized guest OSes. We implement a proof of concept library (using a shallow shadow filesystem) and integrate it with the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor. The modifications provide the Linux host OS the ability to see when …

Reactive Exploration With Self-Reconfigurable Systems, Eric Fabricant

Theses

Modular self-reconfigurable robots (MSR) are robots composed of modules that translate over one another to permit reconfiguration and locomotion. This construction allows them to traverse a broader range of environments than legged or wheeled robots. MSR also posses the ability to split apart to parallelize their efforts or combine with each other to produce a larger robot capable of navigating more diverse terrain. In this paper we discuss a state-based reactive architecture for the distributed control of cooperative MSR teams in unknown environments. The MSR use local sensory data from the environment and a model of the team to select …

Data Center Design & Enterprise Networking, Christian Mahood

Theses

Today’s enterprise networks and data centers have become very complex and have completely integrated themselves into every facet of their represented organization. Organizations require Internet facing services and applications to be available at any part of the day or night. These organizations have realized that with centralized computing and highly available components, their technological presence with customers can be greatly enhanced. The creation of an infrastructure supporting such high availability takes numerous components and resources to function optimally. When an organization makes the decision to design a data center, they utilize resources to provide insight into what components to deploy. …

Website About Chinese Food: Information Design Promoting Culture Identify By Website, Xiaoqiu Shan

Theses

Information design for the web and interactive multimedia integrates content with visual indicators. Legibility and clear communication of information and direction are important to the success of graphical user interface design. This thesis is a systematic introduction about Chinese fish dishes. The information is built into a website. The objective of the thesis is to increase the efficiency of transmitting information to users, making it more easily understandable and less time-consuming to be comprehended. Users can find information on classic Chinese fish dishes conveniently from the website. The project includes five parts, they are: Home page, Introduction, Restaurant, Kitchen and …

Layering, Aimee Pickett

Theses

It is my belief that furniture has the potential to store worlds. It can protect the china inherited from a grandmother. It can display porcelain bowls collected on a trip through Asia. It can bear the scratches from a pet, or carry the hallmarks of its previous owner. These are merely a few examples of how furniture can store personal history. In the same vein, I believe that a piece of furniture has the potential to become a metaphor of oneself through daily interaction. Ideally what is chosen for a home reflects one self, and as a result each home …

Gain Enhancement Of Microstrip Patch Antenna Using Dielectric Dng Superstrate, Abdulbaset M. Ali

Theses

As the trend continues towards miniaturizing integrated electronic circuits, the need to reduce the size of the antenna continues to be a challenge particularly for the microstrip antenna. Several techniques that have been successfully implemented for size reduction up to 75%, by a variety of methods such as cutting slots in the patch or reconfiguring its size using MEMS, etc. in conjunction with optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms or particle swarm. However, antenna size reduction comes at the expense of a reduced gain by a few dBs. Recently, materials engineered to have negative permittivity and permeability (DNG) or left …

Assessing The Occurrence And Value Of Interactive Features On Admissions Web Sites: What Students And Admissions Professionals Say Is Most Important, Katherine Robert

Theses

This study assessed the importance of interactive features on admissions Web sites by surveying admissions professionals and Rochester Institute of Technology students. The presence of these features on admissions’ Web sites was content analyzed. Admissions professionals rated a prospective student link, an online application, internal links, an online tour/visit registration, and active e-mail addresses as most important. Students rated application status, requesting information by a mailing address and e-mail, internal links, and a consistent main menu as most important. The most present features were links within the admissions site, graphics, links outside of the admissions site, active e-mail, and cookies. …

How To Use Computer Graphics To Promote Virtual Idols Based On 3d, Chuanshi Qin

Theses

Computer Graphics is developing rapidly day by day and 3D technology is becoming a more and more important part of art and design. 2D animation has its own beauty that I really appreciate. However, I believe that 3D cartoon characters can be the virtual idols mainly produced in the future. My thesis project is a combination of many kinds of design. The essential one is character design for sure because it is something that all the other kinds of design in this project come from. The motion graphics design and website deisgn are the key part of this project because …

Guidelines To Developing A Corporate Packaging Group For The Medical Device Industry, Michael Piazza

Theses

The purpose of this study was to reveal and assess improvements that can be made to the candidate selection process when developing a Corporate Packaging Group in the Medical Device Industry.

Shear Stress Distribution And Hemolysis Measurements In A Centrifugal Blood Pump, Matthew Nicholson Giarra

Theses

The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFO) to predict red blood cell trauma (hemolysis) in blood pumps based on their exposure to turbulent stresses has increased in recent years. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated a project to determine the fidelity with which modern CFO can accurately predict hemolysis in such devices. The project involves the collection of experimental data against which externally-conducted CFO simulations may be compared. Because the data will be used to judge the ability of CFO to predict hemolysis, the pump was designed to cause more turbulence and blood damage than would be …

A Comparative Study Of Package Orientation In The Overnight Distribution Environment Utilizing Different Shapes Of Shipping Containers, Ritesh A. Rao

Theses

Package orientation is an important aspect to consider during the transit of packages worldwide.

As orientation of a package can influence the manual handling and compressible load performance, it becomes important parameter to consider in an overnight distribution environment. Significantly, less amount of research completed in the area of package orientation. Current study involves three different types of packages (Rectangular, Cubic & Flat) and with the help of SENSR™ instrument impact orientations measured at defined time interval. Packages shipped along with measuring instrument to record the data, and collected data analyzed further to understand the orientations percentages for each type …

Implementing Qr Code Technology In Medical Device Pacakage, Manu Chakravarthy Kittanakere Naagaraj

Theses

The medical device industry strives to improve the delivery of key device information

through the package to patients, doctors and end users. To achieve this goal Indications For Use (IFU) and user manuals have been major tools and are necessary components required in Medical Device Package according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

Historically there have been challenges caused by packaging information materials aspects

such as manufacturing, transportation and translation. The need for extensive packaging and labelling has ultimately contributed to increased cost of manufacturing for devices. It is also important to know what information a customer needs and …

The Effects Of High Vibration On The Steam Turbo-Generator Machine Of The Unit B1 339 Mw In Thermal Power Plant “Kosovo B” : [Presented August 2009], Jonuz Saraci

Theses

This Capstone Project will address the analysis and diagnosis of the Steam Turbo-Generator (STG) vibration problems in the “Kosovo B” Thermal Power Plant (TPP) that are degrading the normal operations of the unit B1 339 MW. This Steam Turbo-Generator is a steam turbine directly connected to an electric generator for the generation of electric power and where unplanned shut downs can have catastrophic consequences for the production of electricity. The purpose of my analysis of the high level of vibrations in the STG-B1 machine is to extend the life of the machine and preventing any catastrophic failures. This implies not …