Digital Commons Network^™

Sanitation Celebrations: Mierle Laderman Ukeles’S Performative Monument With/For/By Sanmen, Diya Vij

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s work teaches us something new about what monument-making can be when it is socially engaged. The durational process and motivating desire to elicit gratitude for the DSNY labor force of Ukeles’s residency in the Sanitation Department raises pressing questions about the conventional nature of how monuments are typically conceived and executed and to whom these works are directed. Analysis of her three-part performance Sanitation Celebrations: Grand Finale of New York City’s First Art Parade, just one engagement within her long-term performative monument, explicates the intricacies of Ukeles’s process-based performative practice in terms …

Exploring Data Mining Techniques For Tree Species Classification Using Co-Registered Lidar And Hyperspectral Data, Julia K. Marrs

Theses and Dissertations

NASA Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal imager provides co-registered remote sensing data on experimental forests. Data mining methods were used to achieve a final tree species classification accuracy of 68% using a combined LiDAR and hyperspectral dataset, and show promise for addressing deforestation and carbon sequestration on a species-specific level.

Quantifying Transit Access In New York City: Formulating An Accessibility Index For Analyzing Spatial And Social Patterns Of Public Transportation, Maxwell S. Siegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to analyze accessibility within New York City’s transportation system through creating unique accessibility indices. Indices are detailed and implemented using GIS, analyzing the distribution of transit need and access. Regression analyses are performed highlighting relationships between demographics and accessibility and recommendations for transit expansion are presented.

Geospatial Modeling Of Vietnamese Fdi, Cuong Nguyen Tien

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis sets a goal to analyze and project geographically disaggregated measures of FDI using aggregate data. We regress the country level FDI with aggregate, fine geospatial data on GDP, urban extent, and risk. By disaggregating the model, we will predict the FDI flow in every 1000 square kilometer area.

Exploring The Effects Of Calorie Labeling Laws, Carmen Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the effects of Calorie labeling laws implemented in some counties in the United States on several health related variables. The findings show a small significant decreasing effect of the law on Limited activity and Poor health of 0.083 and 0.047 at 95% significant level respectively.

The Role Of Professional Advising In The Liberal Arts, Kimberly Rose Poolos

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of professional academic advising in the liberal arts. This study focused on the impact of professional academic advising in the liberal arts. This study also focused on the extent to which professional administrators are involved in supporting the professional academic advisors. This was a Total Population Study since all five College of Humanities and Social Sciences embedded advisors participated in this study and the four administrators participated in this study. Qualitative research, through the use of 30 minute individual interviews, was used to collect data. Interview questions focused on demographic …

An Inventory Of Terrestrial Vertebrates In Aldesa Valley And Estimating Factors That Affect Avian Species Richness And Occurrence, Abdulaziz Subhi Alatawi

Theses and Dissertations

Conducting species inventories is important to provide baseline information essential for management and conservation. Furthermore, understanding the effects of anthropogenic and environmental factors on species richness and occurrence are crucial to conserve species. Aldesa Valley lies in the Tabuk Region of Saudi Arabia, and because of the presence of permanent water and vegetation, is thought to contain high biodiversity. I estimated avian species richness and occurrence in Aldesa Valley during May 10–August 10 in 2014 and 2015 to detect bird species richness and occurrence. I used generalized linear models and occupancy models for six commonly detected bird species. I recorded …

U.S. Population Change: The Roles Of Amenities And Transportation, Xuan Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Studying the spatial distribution and redistribution of population has long been a major concern of demography, because population changes can reflect deep and massive social changes. For decades, the major population change was the moving of people from rural to urban regions. However, with the advancement of transportation and information technology, many new regions have become more attractive to people, such as small and new metropolitan, nonmetropolitan, suburban, and rural areas. Traditional migration and population redistribution studies emphasize economic and social factors. Relatively little attention is paid to how natural amenities and transportation affect changes of population size and net …

A Comparison Of Mixed Integer Programming And A Heuristic Approach For Harvest Blocking In Australia, Ronald Gordon Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of harvest scheduling is to produce a practical operations schedule that can be implemented in the field by operational foresters and maximizes all values. The resulting harvest units need to represent a close approximation to what will be done operationally and while emulating natural disturbance regimes and topographic boundaries. using flow direction surfaces. Two methods of meeting spatially acceptable harvest units through a heuristic algorithm and a mixed integer programming method. A factor analysis was conducted on both to determine the statistical significance between 3 forest characterizations and mean financial and shape index indicators. Mixed integer programming had …

Administrator Perceptions Of The Community College Mission In The State Of Mississippi And How It May Be Influenced By The Addition Of Community College Baccalaureate Programs, Scharvin S. Grizzell

Theses and Dissertations

For many years, community colleges that chose to offer community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs were looked upon in a negative light (Rice, 2015). However, as the need for specialized baccalaureates within specific fields and job markets have continued to grow (McKee, 2005), CCB programs are becoming more widely accepted throughout the United States. In spite of this paradigm shift, Mississippi is one of the remaining states that have not embraced the idea of CCB programs, in spite of its statistical deficiency in regards to baccalaureate degree holding citizens (Williams, 2010). The focus of this study was to explore the perceptions …

The Effect Of Hose Type And Cleanout Procedure On Crop Injury Due To Herbicide Residues, Gary Thomas Cundiff

Theses and Dissertations

Field and greenhouse experiments were conducted to determine the effect of auxin injury on soybean and cotton due to spray hose material, formulation and cleanout procedures on auxin equipment cleanout. Visual estimations of injury (VEOI) in wheat, height reduction, and yield reduction due to rimsulfuron and glyphosate titration was higher when compared to rimsulfuron only treatments with respect to 1/2X through the 1/256X treatments. Sequestration of 2,4-D within agricultural hose types did differ due to hose type and is confirmed by analytical testing, but field observation of wheat did not show differences among treatments due to VEOI, height reduction or …

The Irish Republican Army Through Film, (1935-2014), Colleen B. Gottfried

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore the evolving relationship between terrorism and its visual representations and what these representations say about the reception of terrorism by audiences all over the world. This study examines thirty movies produced in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland between 1935 and 2014. These films portray different versions of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), an association founded in 1917 with the intent to end British control in Ireland and establish the Republic of Ireland. This thesis examines how concurrent events may have shaped the way filmmakers chose to portray the organization. For instance, if earlier …

Analysis And Simulation Of A Social Network, Twitter: A Case Study, Jonatan Reyes

Theses and Dissertations

The use of online social networks empowers its users to efficiently disseminate information across traditional social networks. Typically, the weight and value of messages are relative to its readers’ culture and interests. Nevertheless, in some instances, messages take the form of viral phenomenon, which circulates around the world in very short periods of time. Therefore, despite the actual content of the message spread over the network, the determination of the effectiveness of message dissemination across the social network becomes an attractive opportunity for scientific study. Since a meticulous analysis of a complete online social network would require the acquisition of …

Characterizing Benthic Invertebrate Communities At Five South Texas Banks, Maria T. Cooksey

Theses and Dissertations

On the continental shelf off the coast of South Texas lie a series of hardbottom structures known as the South Texas Banks, which provide critical habitat for benthic organisms and pelagic fish species. The depth of the banks, a persistent nepheloid layer, and strong currents have hindered efforts to collect quantitative data on what inhabits the rocky outcrops and relic coral-algal reefs. Using a remotely operated vehicle, video data from five of the banks were collected in order to characterize the benthic communities. Southern and North Hospital Banks were found to be the most diverse of the studied South Texas …

Understanding Long-Term English Language Learners In The Developmental Classroom Of A Community College, Stanley S. Snelson

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, phenomenological study is focused on 13 identified LTELLs currently enrolled in a community college classroom near the Texas-Mexico border. Both male and female students were identified and invited for participation based on an initial questionnaire Through an emic, qualitative lens, this research explores the beliefs that LTELLs hold with regard to language, educational supports, and gender in college. Second, the research looks to understand how these beliefs may impact the education of LTELLs currently enrolled in developmental classes of a community college. The driving overarching questions were: (1.) How do LTELLs perceive their own use of language? (2.) …

Mapping Borderlands Horror: Tales In Terror, Trauma, And Latinx Immigrant Experiences In Recent Fiction, Cynthia Saldivar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Chicana/o cultural producers redeploy conventions of horror in order to explore the lived experiences of Latinx, particularly in South Texas. To do so, I will examine texts such as Sandra Cisneros's classic 1992 short story "Woman Hollering Creek," Terri de la Peña’s 1996 short story “Refugio” and Christopher Carmona's award-winning 2015 short story "Strange Leaves" and Josefina Lopez’s 2011 play “Detained in the Desert” through the lens of domestic horror. This thesis will demonstrate how the horrific is "differential," that is, how what we consider horrific is thoroughly racialized, gendered, classed, and sexualized. The thesis will …

Beyond The Millennium Development Goals: An Evaluation Of The War On Hiv / Aids In Kenya, Robert G. Nyaga

Theses and Dissertations

HIV/AIDS remains a threat to Kenya and other developing nations. This thesis aimed at assessing the HIV/AIDS situation in Kenya by examining the knowledge of Kenyans towards infection and spread HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS, involvement of community opinion leaders in the HIV/AIDS campaigns, sharing of HIV/AIDS information, and government efforts to control HIV/AIDS. A sample of Kenyans (N= 103) was surveyed and asked to respond to several scales assessing each of the above items. Quantitative and qualitative methods reveal the knowledge and attitudes portrayed by Kenyans and show that, although much has been achieved, there is need …

Reducing Nitrate Pollution By Redirecting Farm Runoff Into The Subsurface Of An Herbaceous Riparian Buffer Zone., Tamru Girma Taye

Theses and Dissertations

In areas dominated by agricultural land use, excess nitrate is one of the leading contributors to water pollution. Tile drains, installed to drain crop root zones for maximum yield, fast track the introduction of nitrate-laden water into a nearby stream. Due to the risks elevated levels of nitrate pose to an ecosystem and its inhabitants, the following project explores a method of reducing nitrate pollution. One that can do it as close to the source of the pollution as possible.

A tile draining a 60acre farm in central Illinois was redirected to discharge its contents through subsurface flow into an …

Narratives And Evidence: Struggles Over Mohamed Mahmoud, Manar Hazzaa

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the construction of competing narratives of the events of November 2011 in Mohamed Mahmoud Street, popularly named as the Mohamed Mahmoud events. Since the making, naming and categorization of the "event" has not been limited to the happenings of November 2011, my research thus asked how is an event made into a narrative, what are its temporal boundaries, and what evidence is used to construct it as an event and as a historical narrative that is recognized. Since each narrative/story is presented with its own evidence; I analyzed the production of different stories by different participants, …

Analysis And Modeling Of U.S. Army Recruiting Markets, Joshua L. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) is charged with finding, engaging, and ultimately enlisting young Americans for service as Soldiers in the U.S. Army. USAREC must decide how to allocate monthly enlistment goals, by aptitude and education level, across its 38 subordinate recruiting battalions in order to maximize the number of enlistment contracts produced each year. In our research, we model the production of enlistment contracts as a function of recruiting supply and demand factors which vary over the recruiting battalion areas of responsibility. Using county-level data for the period of recruiting year RY2010 through RY2013 mapped to recruiting …

Cyberspace And Organizational Structure: An Analysis Of The Critical Infrastructure Environment, Michael D. Quigg Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Now more than ever, organizations are being created to protect the cyberspace environment. The capability of cyber organizations tasked to defend critical infrastructure has been called into question by numerous cybersecurity experts. Organizational theory states that organizations should be constructed to fit their operating environment properly. Little research in this area links existing organizational theory to cyber organizational structure. Because of the cyberspace connection to critical infrastructure assets, the factors that influence the structure of cyber organizations designed to protect these assets warrant analysis to identify opportunities for improvement.

This thesis analyzes the cyber‐connected critical infrastructure environment using the dominant …

An Openeaagles Framework Extension For Hardware-In-The-Loop Swarm Simulation, Derek B. Worth

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarm applications, algorithms, and control strategies have experienced steady growth and development over the past 15 years. Yet, to this day, most swarm development efforts have gone untested and thus unimplemented. Cost of aircraft systems, government imposed airspace restrictions, and the lack of adequate modeling and simulation tools are some of the major inhibitors to successful swarm implementation. This thesis examines how the OpenEaagles simulation framework can be extended to bridge this gap. This research aims to utilize Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation to provide developers a functional capability to develop and test the behaviors of scalable and …

Simulation Of Modeling Sortie Generation Process In Turaf, Bahadir Aykiri

Theses and Dissertations

Simulation is a useful technique for engineers and operations researchers. One of the primary advantages of simulation models is that they are able to provide users with practical feedback when analyzing real-world systems. This thesis builds a discrete event simulation of the sortıe generatıon process, to help decision makers in performing analyses regarding quantity of manpower, bottlenecks in supply and maintenance activities; as well as utilization of maintenance manpower, cost and number of sorties produced in a specific time. We only model one aircraft system with four Line Replacement Units (LRU), but any system and its LRUs can be included …

Using Multiple Objective Decision Analysis To Position Federal Product And Service Codes Within The Kraljic Portfolio Matrix, Robert T. Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the best efforts of the Federal Government to implement strategic sourcing, recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports highlight major procurement deficiencies and encourage the use of commercial best practices to identify and reap substantial savings. The Kraljic Portfolio Matrix (KPM) is considered the premier tool for purchasing organizations to determine which commercial best practices to utilize for different categories of spend. However, critics of the KPM point to its lack of analytical rigor and the absence of a simplistic quantitative methodology for implementation. The Air Force Installation Contracting Agency (AFICA), the centralized procurement arm for 79 USAF installations worldwide, …

A Logistic Regression And Markov Chain Model For The Prediction Of Nation-State Violent Conflicts And Transitions, Nicholas Shallcross

Theses and Dissertations

Using open source data, this research formulates and constructs a suite of statistical models that predict future transitions into and out of violent conflict and forecasts the regional and global incidences of violent conflict over a ten-year time horizon. A total of thirty predictor variables are tested and evaluated for inclusion in twelve conditional logistic regression models, which calculate the probability that a nation will transition from its current conflict state, either In Conflict or Not in Conflict, to a new state in the following year. These probabilities are then used to construct a series of nation-specific Markov chain models …

Radial Basis Function Based Quadrature Over Smooth Surfaces, Maloupu L. Watts

Theses and Dissertations

The numerical approximation of denite integrals, or quadrature, often involves the construction of an interpolant of the integrand and subsequent integration of the interpolant. It is natural to rely on polynomial interpolants in the case ofone dimension; however, extension of integration of polynomial interpolants to two or more dimensions can be costly andunstable. A method for computing surface integrals on the sphere is detailed in the literature (Reeger and Fornberg,Studies in Applied Mathematics, 2016). The method uses local radial basis function (RBF) interpolation to reducecomputational complexity when generating quadrature weights for the particular node set. This thesis expands upon thesame …

Forensic Schedule Analysis Of Construction Delay In Military Projects In The Middle East, James W. Forbes

Theses and Dissertations

This research performs forensic schedule analysis of delay factors that impacted recent large-scale military construction projects in the Middle East. The purpose of this study is to understand the most significant causes of project delay and how AFCEC might improve schedule management performance. The methodologies for analysis are adapted from the Professional Practice Guide to Forensic Schedule Analysis, particularly Method 3.7 Modeled/Additive/Multiple Base, or Time Impacted Analysis—Adjusted. The data is gathered from USACE and AFCEC, consisting of Primavera project schedules and project documents from the Resident Management System database. The project delays from two large-scale projects are apportioned as compensable, …

Forecasting Sea Breeze Enhanced Thunderstorms At Eglin Air Force Base: A Comparison Between Empirical Methods And The High Resolution Rapid Refresh Model, Matthew P. King

Theses and Dissertations

Summer thunderstorms pose the greatest forecast challenge for the United States Air Force's 96th Weather Flight (96WF) which provides weather support for Eglin Air Force Base (AFB). Located on Florida's panhandle, Eglin AFB encompasses the Department of Defense's largest range complex which covers 134,000 sq mi (347,000 sq km) of water and 724 sq mi (1875 sq km) of land. Due to the base's coastal location and unique coastline geometry, sea breeze is a dominant forecast consideration for thunderstorms. The 96 WF currently utilizes an empirical method, called WINNDEX, developed by former staff meteorologist Roger Winn to aid in thunderstorm …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Us Military Humanitarian Construction Projects Through Geospatial Analysis Of Public Opinion In Belize, Arthur Z. Dietrich

Theses and Dissertations

As part of broader US foreign policy efforts the Department of Defense (DoD) increasingly conducts complex operations which focus on efforts to influence local populations. These \hearts and minds" operations often include humanitarian and development construction projects. The wider impact on US foreign policy effort from the US military's participation in projects traditionally conducted by civilian agencies is not well understood. This research examined the effects on local public opinion from two US Air Force led \Operation New Horizons" Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA) missions conducted in the nation of Belize in 2013 and 2014. The study specifically looked for …

The 1622 Powhatan Uprising And Its Impact On Anglo-Indian Relations, Michael Jude Kramer

Theses and Dissertations

On March 22, 1622, Native Americans under the Powhatan war-leader Opechancanough launched surprise attacks on English settlements in Virginia. The attacks wiped out between one-quarter and one-third of the colony's European population and hastened the collapse of the Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company to which England's King James I had granted the right to establish settlements in the New World. Most significantly, the 1622 Powhatan attacks in Virginia marked a critical turning point in Anglo-Indian relations.

Following the famous 1614 marriage of the Native American Pocahontas to Virginia colonist John Rolfe and her conversion to Christianity, English …