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A Td's Awakening: A Technical Direction Thesis On Spring Awakening, Andrew Julian Armas

Theses

This document, A TD’s Awakening: A Technical Direction Thesis on Spring Awakening, is a detailed description of the technical direction process for Southern Illinois University Department of Theater’s Fall 2017 production of Spring Awakening: A New Musical. Chapter One dives into script analysis and includes a scene breakdown and technical requirements for the production as well as a discussion of the goals I wished to accomplish with this project. Chapter Two details the development of the design for the production and examines the monetary and time budgets for the scenic units. Chapter 3 is a detailed account of the production …

Post Millennium Tension, Dylan Peter Obser

Theses

In order to understand the world we live in, as it is mediated through technology, this process driven artwork Post Millennium Tension uses a machine I created specifically to visualize the inner workings of contemporary technology. The artwork is a large multi-paneled photograph and light-box display, that depicts the intimate everyday moments within a relationship. The relationship seen in the photographs is one that began on a phone where the individuals were matched by the Tinder algorithm. That relationship is documented and archived on a phone. The images act as proof and the artwork as a monument to a relationship …

Learning To Rank Relevant Files For Bug Reports Using Domain Knowledge, Replication And Extension Of A Learning-To-Rank Approach, Nasir Safdari

Theses

Bug localization is one of the most important stages of the bug fixing process. Bad practices make the debugging a tedious task. Investigating bugs can contribute up to a large portion of the aggregate cost for a software project. An automated strategy that can provide a ranked list of source code files with respect to how likely they contain the root cause of the problem would help the development teams to decrease the search space and leads to increase in the productivity. In this work, I have replicated the bug localization approach presented in \cite{ye2014learning} that applies the learning-to-rank technique …

Comparing Cyber Defense Alternatives Using Rare-Event Simulation Techniques To Compute Network Risk, Alexander Leon Krall

Theses

Vulnerabilities inherent in a cyber network can be exploited by individuals with malicious intent. Thus, machines on the network are at risk. Formally, security specialists seek to mitigate the risk of intrusion events through network reconfiguration and defense. Comparison between configuration alternatives may be difficult if an event is sufficiently rare; risk estimates may of be questionable quality making definitive inferences unattainable. Furthermore, that which constitutes a “rare” event can imply different rates of occurrence, depending on network complexity. To measure rare events efficiently without the risk of doing damage to a cyber network, special rare-event simulation techniques can be …

Verification Of Sd/Mmc Controller Ip Using Uvm, Tejas Pravin Warke

Theses

Wide spread IP reuse in SoC Designs has enabled meteoric development of derivative designs. Several hardware block IPs are integrated together to reduce production costs, time-to-fab/timeto- market and achieve higher levels of productivity. These block IPs must be verified independently before shipping to ensure proper working and conformance to protocols that they are implementing. But, since the application of these IPs will vary from SoC to SoC, the verification environment must consider the important features and functions that are critical for that application. This may mean, revamping the entire testbench to verify the application critical features. Verification takes a major …

Evaluation Of The Implementation Of The New York State (Nys) Concussion Management And Awareness Act, Elise Wilcocks

Theses

Since the 1990s, sports-related concussions have become a public health concern in the youth and adolescent athlete population. After some professional athletes revealed that their retirement was connected to concussions, public awareness of concussions and identifying the need to protect these high school athletes emerged. Between 2009 and 2013, all 50 states in the U.S. passed a state concussion management policy modeled after the Lystedt Act. In July 2012, the New York State (NYS) Concussion Management and Awareness Act went into effect for all students in public and charter schools, with most schools applying their policies to interscholastic sports. This …

Recommendations For Redesign: Revising The Rochester Museum And Science Center's "Native Peoples Of The Americas" Exhibit, Jess Andrews

Theses

This thesis proposes methods for redesigning the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit to ensure better representation of the Native cultures it displays. Explorations of these methods include a survey of the current exhibit, focusing on specific areas and design elements that need to be addressed, as well as brief comparative surveys of other Native American and ethnographic exhibits at the RMSC as well as exhibits at Ganondagan State Historic Site and the New York and Washington branches of the National Museum of the American Indian. The literature review considers the history of Native …

Making History Work: Corporate Archives And The Eastman Kodak Company, Emily King

Theses

Over the past seventy years, American businesses have established archival repositories to house their historical records and collections in an effort to preserve—as well as provide access to—their histories. As American corporations expand and mature, more and more businesses are establishing archival repositories to house their historical records and collections. In this thesis, I outline the history of business archives in the United States and discuss the best practices and standards in the field. I apply my findings to a case study of the Kodak Archive, a corporate archives project based at Eastman Kodak Park (Greece, NY). The case study …

Modeling Artist Networks At Artpark, 1974-1978, Angelina Konovitz-Davern

Theses

Located on the Niagara River Gorge in Lewiston, New York, Artpark—a summer venue for arts and entertainment—traces its origins to 1974 when it was established as a park and art venue that served as home to a visual arts program until 1991. The program annually invited a selection of artists to create experimental, site-specific art within the picturesque landscape north of the Niagara Falls. Providing an experimental alternative to traditional art museums and markets, Artpark has been promoted as a nontraditional institution for the participating artists. However, to what extent was Artpark an alternative institution? This thesis investigates the extent …

Market Transformation For Value-Retention Processes As A Strategy For Circular Economy, Jennifer D. Russell

Theses

There is increasing global interest in the application of circular economy as a tool for enabling the decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation. Despite this growing interest, there is a lack of in-depth insight about the quantified potential benefits that value-retention processes (VRPs) – direct reuse, repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing – can contribute to circular economy and improved resource efficiency. In this assessment, product-level production impacts are bridged with economy-level insights about market, regulatory, technological and infrastructure conditions, to demonstrate and quantify the essential role of value-retention processes within circular economies. Three representative products were selected from each of …

Oliver's Rumination: A Short Video Game About Failure, Shaemus Spencer

Theses

Studying and working in a creative field requires designers and artists to produce consistently high-level, novel work. In some cases, taking risks to pursue new concepts, methods, or products is highly valued. At the same time, not all companies, students, or individual artists have the resources to risk should their exploration fail. What remains is a crossroad: creative professionals and students are rewarded for taking risks, but are often unable to do so because the possibility of failure carries too much weight.

Changing the way creators see failure could revolutionize the way they work. By accepting and incorporating failure into …

Emergence Of Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae In Abu Dhabi, 2009-2015, Aqdas Bilal Butt

Theses

The rapid emergence of carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is a global phenomenon that has not spared the United Arab Emirates. However, unlike in most Western countries with similarly developed health care system, very little data have been available locally on the rate and dynamics of antimicrobial resistance in general, and that of CRE, in particular. Our laboratory has been collecting CRE isolates from Abu Dhabi hospitals since 2009. In the current study we subjected 394 such independent strains, representing 34.0% of the total CRE encountered, to a detailed analysis that included the determination of their antibiotic susceptibility profile, of the …

Becoming, Danlin Zhao

Theses

Life itself is suffering. Suffering is caused by desire. Because desire can cause humans to become obsessed and embittered, it has been considered one of the causes of woe for mankind. Starting with our first cries as newborn babies, desires and cravings are increasingly embedded in our growth. People are often trapped by their desire for something they do not have or by regret for something they have lost. With the increase in negative emotions and desires, people are gradually losing their true happiness. During our short and changing lives, many people prefer to dwell on the past or long …

Cmos Integration Of High Performance Quantum Dot Lasers For Silicon Photonics, Zihao Wang

Theses

Integration of III-V components on Si substrates is required for realizing the promise of Silicon Photonic systems. Specifically, the direct bandgap of many III-V materials is required for light sources, efficient modulators and photodetectors. Several different approaches have been taken to integrate III-V lasers into the silicon photonic platform, such as wafer bonding, direct growth, butt coupling, etc. Here, we have devised a novel laser design that overcomes the above limitations. In our approach, we use InAs quantum dot (QD) lasers monolithically integrated with silicon waveguides and other Si photonic passive components. Due to their unique structures, the QD lasers …

Alkali Activated Slag Characterization By Scanning Electron Microscopy And X-Ray Microanalysis, Najat A. Alharbi

Theses

Blast furnace slag is a non-metallic byproduct generated by the production of iron and steel in a blast furnace at temperatures in the range of 1400°-1600° C. The alkali activation of blast furnace slag has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of cementitious materials and to be applied in geographic zones where weather is a factor that negatively affects performance of materials based on Ordinary Portland Cement. Alkali-activated blast furnace slag cements have been studied since the 1930s due to its high compressive strength; they can exceed 100 MPa in 28 days. The low Ca/Si ratio in slag improves …

Eye Diagram Assessment Platform For Fiber-Optic Communications, Anurag Dattu Gaikwad

Theses

The basic idea of this thesis is to provide a simple, easy to use and cost-effective eye-diagram analysis kit for educational lab environment. Mostly eye-diagram analysis is done on high-end oscilloscopes or with LabView as a source-code; this research uses Flashy board (Pluto 3 and ADC) a small FPGA kit from a company called KNJN, for acquiring signals and then gives those signals to python for analysis. The main reason for considering Flashy board was because it was cost-effective, and it operates in our frequency range of operation i.e. between 10MHz to 100MHz. This thesis is developed with python as …

Active Oxygen Scavenging Film For Sliced Bread Packaging, Chayanit Wongpradit

Theses

The primary goal of this study is to develop value added, oxygen scavenging plastic film for extending the shelf life and maintaining the quality of white sliced bread. Such film will benefit society by providing a product with extended shelf life that would match modern lifestyle, and potentially reduce food waste. The effects of the added oxygen scavenger in the packaging film on sliced bread qualities, the shelf life of sliced bread, and also properties of packaging film were investigated. Key findings of the study have demonstrated the development of active oxygen scavenging film, film characterization in chemical, morphological, mechanical, …

Piggy Pennies: An Interactive Piggy Bank To Help Children Learn Money Management, Yao Tong

Theses

Wealth management skill has turned out to be one of the most crucial skills for every young people. A good habit of wealth

management would bene­t people on a larger scale in wealth growth and life quality. In this case, it would be most bene­cial to educate people as early as when they are still children. Children usually do not understand where money comes from and how to spend it by nature. However, multiple challenges arise when parents realize the importance of the education of money management skills and teach their children. These challenges include but are not limited to, …

The Influence Of Tooth Surface Modifications On The Sensitivity Of Involute Cylindrical Gears To Manufacturing Errors, Scott Eisele

Theses

Gear drives, like all mechanical devices, are subject to manufacturing errors and defects. Higher levels of precision in manufacturing to increase the quality of the gears are costly, but sometimes required to attain sufficient performance from a gear drive. However, certain intentional microgeometry modifications to the gear tooth surfaces can be used to reduce the sensitivity of the gear drive to manufacturing errors. These changes in tooth surface design can be simple and cheap to implement, and result in a more robust gear drive which is more indifferent to manufacturing errors. In this thesis, the influence on intentional micro-geometry modifications …

A Conferralist Account Of Individuality, Zachary Auwerda

Theses

The individual is at the center of liberal political theory. Despite this, oppressed groups that are members of liberal societies are not respected as individuals. This paper attempts to explain one way in which this happens. I argue that some people are not treated as individuals, because they are in fact not individuals. In some cases, to be an individual requires recognition as an individual. I attempt to show that certain uses of the term “individual” refer to conferred properties. A conferred property is a property that is given to an object by a subject. Thus, conferred properties are not …

Constraints And Explanation, Alexander Bolano

Theses

For the past 40 years, causal-mechanical approaches to explanation in science have been the received view. In this paper, I will argue that causal-mechanical approaches to explanation are not the whole story; there is a notable class of explanations that I call constraining explanation. Constraining explanation do not work by describing some causal structure; rather they work by highlighting mathematical constraints on what kinds of structure there can be. Constraining explanations are different that causal explanations because they give a kind of modal knowledge that causal-mechanical explanation alone cannot give.

Second Safest City In America, Liam Cassidy

Theses

Second Safest City in America is a collection of short fiction set in Midwestern cities and suburbs, as well as the Gulf Coast. These stories explore the untethered expectations, broken promises, and absurdity of American life. The characters are violent, funny, emotionally unstable, politically wrong-minded, and compassionate. They implore empathy or actively avoid the pain of others. They search out security or take matters into their own hands. They sacrifice and they seek revenge. They are not outliers in this country. They are part of the mainstream weirdness that permeates everything.

Fiction And Politics: Karl May And The American West In Nineteenth Century German Sociopolitical Consciousness, Emily Scott

Theses

This thesis seeks to answer the following question: Why did the nineteenth century novels and short stories of Karl May, which take place in the American West, find such great commercial success in Germany? Through the examination of the novels themselves, in addition to various primary and secondary sources related to the life of May and the historical context in which this phenomenon took place, this question is answered. Though the novels take place in an American landscape, they are full of references to various cultural and political phenomena which took place throughout the course of May’s life in Germany. …

Knock-Knock! Whose Peer? The Epistemic Significance Of Humor, Kaci Harrison

Theses

Debates about the epistemic significance of peer disagreement are highly idealized. Some have even suggested that genuine cases of epistemic peer disagreement never in fact obtain, since even seemingly trivial differences in experience and attitudes can bias evidential processing. This thesis defends the view that these criticisms are overstated: the problem is not that epistemic peer disagreements do not exist, but rather that we lack an account of how it is possible to identify our epistemic peers. I argue that attention to the sense of humor provides one important source of evidence regarding the experiences and attitudes of others that …

Share Food With Love, Bowen Liu

Theses

The home experience of serving food for friends and family, and sharing food is a significant event in my life. Furnishings play a prominent role in this circumstance. For my thesis, I created works that enhance the conditions and ambiance of the residential dining and living experience.

When sharing with friends, happiness is my primary objective. I love to create works containing peacefulness and coziness that could help people calm down and relax. For my thesis body of work, I incorporated gentle curvilinear lines and symmetric shapes to suggest peaceful and harmonious feelings. My material choice was wood as the …

Efficient Reduced Bias Genetic Algorithm For Generic Community Detection Objectives, Aditya Karnam Gururaj Rao

Theses

The problem of community structure identification has been an extensively investigated area for biology, physics, social sciences, and computer science in recent years for studying the properties of networks representing complex relationships. Most traditional methods, such as K-means and hierarchical clustering, are based on the assumption that communities have spherical configurations. Lately, Genetic Algorithms (GA) are being utilized for efficient community detection without imposing sphericity. GAs are machine learning methods which mimic natural selection and scale with the complexity of the network. However, traditional GA approaches employ a representation method that dramatically increases the solution space to be searched by …

Social Media: On Tech-Caves, Virtual Panopticism, And The Science Fiction-Like State In Which We Unwittingly Find Ourselves, Michael Major

Theses

Making use of three historic philosophical thought experiments, this paper blends psychological perspectives with philosophical reasoning to show how social media is corrupting our perception of reality, the result of which is ultimately detrimental to society as a whole. This is accomplished by first using Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to analyze and discuss the ways in which social media is limiting humanity’s access to real knowledge. Next, Michel Foucault’s analysis of punishment in its social context, Discipline and Punish, is used to discuss the ways in which social media is adversely affecting our behavior. Finally, Robert Nozick’s “Experience …

In Sheep’S Clothing: Reflections On The Trickery Of Nature, Moneerah Alayar

Theses

In the realm of nature as well as in human society, things are often not what they seem. Animals, plants, and humans use endless tricks and stratagems to hide their vulnerable parts, camouflage their true strength, and survive despite hazards and predators at every turn. To exist in this world as a woman is to be a student of these protective devices, to learn and adopt the techniques and behaviors that best ensure her survival against the forces of patriarchy and institutionalized oppression. She must use whatever means she can to protect herself and secure her place in the world. …

Re-Embodying Our Discipline, Chelsea Dryer

Theses

This Master's Thesis uses personal narrative and scholarly works to examine the benefits of embodiment in literary studies. Special attention is given to how lived experience can provide legitimate sources of academic evidence when examining texts and that texts can be used to integrate, examine, and reframe lived experiences.

Driving Forces In Disclosure: Self-Disclosure Goals And Intimacy At The Podium, Layne Paubel

Theses

This study examined six underlying motivations (expression, self-clarification, social validation, relationship development, social control, and information sharing) for self-disclosure in a public speaking setting and a dyadic relationship setting. Five of these goals come from Derlega and Grzelak’s (1979) functional approach to self-disclosure and one is an additional goal examined by Bazarova and Choi (2014). This study found that the relative salience of self-disclosure goals in the public speaking classroom was identity clarification, information sharing, self-expression/relief of distress, social validation, relationship development, and social control. Findings indicate that the relative salience of goals in the dyadic relationship setting was self-expression/relief …