Digital Commons Network^™

Do The Tactics Of Armed Groups Affect Organizational Behavior? The Case Of Kidnap For Ransom, Tyler Young

Theses and Dissertations

N/A

The Palestinian Refugee Regime: Tensions Between The Collective Right Of Return And Individual Rights, Shatha Oqab Abdulsamad

Theses and Dissertations

Since their initial displacement in 1948, the United Nations had devised a special temporary refugee regime for Palestinians, distinct from the international refugee regime. The distinct regime was structured in order to acknowledge Palestinian displacement as a result of a deliberate policy of state building by Israel as a national home for Jewish people in Palestine, as well as the effect of the United Nations Partition Plan. Premised as different from other refugee problems, the distinct regime devised for Palestinians was intended to be temporary, pending a final settlement that ensures their repatriation. The temporality and structure of the distinct …

Nanoengineered Materials For Energy Conversion & Storage Applications: A Density Functional Theory Study, Ahmed Biby

Theses and Dissertations

The conventional approach for the development of novel materials has become long relative to the desired product development cycle. Thus, the sluggish pace of the development of materials within the conventional approach hinders the rapid transformation of the scientific outcomes into useful technological products. To this end, the field of hierarchical materials informatics evolved to bridge this gap. In this field, the multiscale material internal structure is considered the starting point and the core of this approach. This being said, the density functional theory (DFT) was used to generate useful materials data for the advancement of the hierarchical materials data-bases …

Broken Harts: Mourning The Human/Animal Divide In Shakespeare’S As You Like It And Wordsworth’S “Hart-Leap Well”, Jennifer Jourlait

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis compares the deer scenes in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Wordsworth’s “Hart-Leap Well.” Both raise questions about man’s right to hunt animals with impunity. Shakespeare’s Jaques superficially takes up the issue of animal rights whereas Wordsworth’s personification of the stag evokes the reader’s sympathy for the animal.

(Re)Imagining Eminent Domain: The Embodied Imaginaries Of The Atlantic Yards – Barclays Center Project, Gabriel Frey Schuster

Theses and Dissertations

Eminent domain is generally treated by legal geographers as a tool of the state. This thesis applies legal and feminist geographies to the case of the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn so as to reframe eminent domain as a spatio-legal intervention complicating traditional notions of scale and power.

A Timecourse Based Dermatotoxicity Evaluation Of Mechlorethamine On Damage And Repair Related Protein Expression In The Mouse Ear Vesicant Model, Ganming Mao

Theses and Dissertations

Mechlorethamine (HN2) is a type of nitrogen mustard alkylating agent that has been widely applied as an anticancer drug. HN2 is an analog of the corrosive reagent sulfur mustard, which is highly reactive with skin and organisms exposed to HN2 develop significant skin irritation, edema, erythema, and disruption of the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ). These pathological affects lead to tissue damage, activate wound repair mechanisms and, if unresolved, result in necrosis. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the time-dependent effects of HN2 on the expression of three different proteins using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and previously prepared and preserved formalin-fixed …

Leading In Crooked Rooms: Race, Gender, Culture And Black Women's Leadership Skills And Practices, Portia Newman

Theses and Dissertations

The literature on Black women leaders, where it exists, focuses on the barriers to Black women becoming leaders or being fully empowered when in leadership positions. However, to understand the leadership identity of Black women, and perhaps help to explain the absence of Black women in formal leadership spaces, means to examine the influence of race, gender, and culture on leadership behavior, as well as the setting in which leadership exists. This qualitative grounded theory study explored the leadership skills and practices of 15 senior-level cross sector Black women leaders. The data was collected in two phases: 1) a leadership …

Pase Perdido Missing Pass, Larissa M. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

This paper contains the following terms: colonialism, ghost populations, natural occurrences, global positioning, poetic relation, confrontation/vengeance, mapping, graphs, models, warfare, bio warfare, magic, mystery, migration, memory, mutation, ghosts, and esoteric systems

North Dakota's New Frontier: Unmanned Aircraft, Matthew D. Dunlevy

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aircraft, or drones, represent a modern-day frontier, one that is, as yet, neither fully explored nor fully developed. The state of North Dakota has moved into the frontier and is deeply involved in its exploration and development. The state has invested tens of millions of dollars in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry, an investment that has helped to attract tens of millions of additional dollars from military sources and from private business firms. The University of North Dakota’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, long-recognized as among the leading aviation schools in the nation, is at the …

The Living Theatre Of Horror: Examining How Centuries Of Western Theatrical Practice And Theory Inform The Modern-Day Haunted House, Scott Dittman

Theses and Dissertations

This work will discuss the growing modern phenomenon of theme park and regional haunt events in the United States. In it, we will explore the history of how horror has been presented on stage, the themes within horror that creators grapple with, and how by using traditional theatrical elements creators of modern haunt events are able to make the audience a part of the story, transforming them from passive observers of the scenarios presented to complicit participants. How does the history of horror theatre inform the production of modern haunt events (and how has a global pandemic affected them), what …

"Savage And Bloody Footsteps Through The Valley" : The Wyoming Massacre In The American Imagination, William R. Tharp

Theses and Dissertations

Along the banks of the Susquehanna River in early July 1778, a force of about 600 Loyalist and Native American raiders won a lopsided victory against 400 overwhelmed Patriot militiamen and regulars in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. While not well-known today, this battle—the Battle of Wyoming—had profound effects on the Revolutionary War and American culture and politics. Quite familiar to early Americans, this battle’s remembrance influenced the formation of national identity and informed Americans’ perceptions of their past and present over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

From the beginning, however, Americans’ understanding of what occurred in …

Model Minorities: Asian Americans And The White-Black Racial Paradigm, Jason Tom

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the racial wedge driven by Whites between Blacks and Asian Americans during the Cold War on to the present. Model minorities is a term coined by whites in the 1960s to suppress Civil Rights protests and Black demands. By elevating a minority group through success stories, whites constructed a means to suppress Black people’s organizing for change against systemic racism and oppression.

An Examination Of The Sociocultural, Religious, And Racial Adjustment Experiences Of Jamaican Professionals In South Florida, Sharon R. Ritchie-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

An Examination of the Sociocultural, Religious, and Racial Adjustment Experiences of Jamaican Professionals in South Florida. Sharon Ritchie-Brown, 2020: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice. Keywords: immigrants, professional occupations, ethnic groups, culture, social adjustment

This transcendental phenomenological research was designed to advance an understanding of the adjustment experiences of Jamaican immigrant professionals in South Florida, United States. While the majority of present literature examines acculturation and adjustment experiences of other immigrant groups, there is not enough literature regarding the adjustment experiences of Jamaican immigrant professionals who have made significant contributions …

Antimicrobial Peptide Development: From Massively Parallel Peptide Sequencing To Bioinformatic Motif Identification, Alexander K. Erikson

Theses and Dissertations

The isolation, purification, and clinical deployment of antibiotics is one of the major drivers of decrease in morbidity and mortality from infectious bacteria in the 20th century. The rapid, ubiquitous deployment of antibiotics encouraged swift development and distribution of antibiotic resistance. New, novel techniques, technologies, and ultimately therapeutic antimicrobial compounds will be required to counter the rise of antibiotic resistant microbes. Historically, mimicking naturally occurring compounds has been the most fruitful method for discovering new antibiotics; unsurprisingly, many recent efforts have focused on expanding the cultivation and detection of previously unknown microbes and compounds, respectively. Other techniques explore developing compounds …

Optimal Onboard Renewable Energy Charging Method To Improve Micro-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Deployment Life, Brooklynn Dawn Byford

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an investigation of various methods for recharging a micro autonomous underwater vehicle (μAUV) onboard using renewable energy sources while deployed at sea. The goal of this project is to determine the optimal onboard renewable energy design method to be used to prolong the deployment life of a μAUV. This project specifically targeted vehicles specifications and designs similar to the Riptide Autonomous Solutions’ μAUV[1], which was used for this study. Concluding results are based on the following factors: power generation versus time, structural integrity, and design complexity. The three design method categories investigated are as follows: solar energy, …

Thermal And Spectroscopic Investigations On Polymer-Based Nanofibers, Omosola Oriretan

Theses and Dissertations

Nanofibers of Poly (ethylene oxide), PEO, Poly (vinylpyrrolidone) PVP, Co-nanofiber of PEO-PVP and PEO nanocomposite of various Fullerene compositions were prepared by dissolving PEO, PVP and Fullerene in water. The Fullerene nanoparticles were added to the PEO solutions, the mixtures were homogenized under high power sonication. The PEO solutions, PVP solutions, the co-polymer solutions of PEO-PVP and the PEO -Fullerene solutions were centrifugally spun using Force spinning™ machine. The obtained nanofibers and the nanocomposites were subjected to FTIR analysis, Raman analysis and various heating and cooling cycles with heating and cooling rates ranging from 10C/min to 600C/min using differential scanning …

Battle Royale Video Games And Their Impact On First-Year Writing Students: Comparing The Writing Process Of Gamers To Non-Gamers, Jacob L. Molina

Theses and Dissertations

This study will examine the ways in which Battle Royale (BR) video games impact the writing process of first-year writing students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley by comparing the students that play video games recreationally to the non-gaming group. The study will focus on how the recreational use of video games impacts writing by exploring the ways that gamers engage in these video games. By comparing BR gamers to non-gaming students, these differences will be highlighted through the evaluation of surveys and information gathered through research.

Some of the areas of the writing process that stand out …

Electromagnetic Interference Estimation Via Conditional Neural Processing, Edgar E. Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to determine the efficacy of employing Machine Learning (ML) to solve Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON) CC-0575, which aims to develop a Common Operating Picture (COP) of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) environment. With the growing popularity of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), ML solutions are quickly gaining traction in businesses, academia and government. This in turn allows for problem solutions that were previously inconceivable using the classical programming paradigm. This thesis proposes a method to develop a COP of the battlefield via ANN ingestion of multiple-source signals and sensors. We conduct …

A Study Of Student Experiences Of Racial Microaggressions At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Alexandra E. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine college students’ experiences of racial microaggressions at a Hispanic serving institution. The participants were undergraduate and graduate students from a large higher education research institution in South Texas. The study had a qualitative approach with a two-step process of Phase 1 and Phase 2. Phase 1 of the study consisted of a participant selection survey sent to students via e-mail to obtain their experiences of racial microaggressions. In Phase 2, three focus groups were the means used to collect data. The findings suggested that there were experiences of racial microaggressions at the …

Specifying Space Defense Operator Interfaces Through The Application Of Cognitive Systems Engineering And Prototyping, Justin E. Oryschak

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense needs better tools to support its operators as they strive to defend its space assets. The growing sophistication of anti-satellite weapons increasingly challenges the nation’s orbital communications and surveillance infrastructure. Operators face difficulties gathering useful information and dealing with the complexity of potential enemy actions. This research applied cognitive systems engineering and ecological interface design (EID) methodologies to create a prototype space mission management tool that enhances operator situation awareness and decision-making ability. Applied cognitive task analysis interviews were used to document space operator decision-making in their domain. Model-based systems engineering was applied to integrate work …

Regulating Demographics Through Regulating Marriage: Israel's Millet-Based Approach To Personal Status Law And Its Ramifications On The Social Hierarchy, Briana Nirenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Identity, though deeply personal, has often been exploited by the ruling class in order to gain power over their subjects. The preservation of social cleavages—be they national, ethnic, racial, religious, et cetera—is thus a matter of public policy. To ensure the propagation of a certain identity, the state must rely on its current citizens to reproduce the social structures that give their identities value. In order to maintain boundaries between the factions, groups must remain “pure” lest these structures be challenged. While prohibitions on whom an individual can marry exist across systems, they take on different, more subtle forms in …

Development And Characterization Of Robust Methods For Field Investigations With Portable Mass Spectrometry, Ashley Rose Stelmack

Theses and Dissertations

Portable mass spectrometry (MS) has become an area of interest due to the ability to conduct chemical analyses in native environments. These instruments have the potential to increase efficiency and analytical throughput via real-time experimentation, minimizing the need for sample transportation. One drive towards the development of fieldable mass spectrometers is the potential for coupling to novel ambient ionization methods (or “ambient MS”), which can generate spectral data at ambient conditions from unprepared or minimally prepared samples of interest. Since the first introduction of the desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) technique in 2004, a myriad of novel techniques have been reported …

Privacy And The Digital Divide: Investigating Strategies For Digital Safety By People Of Color, Denavious Hoover

Theses and Dissertations

People of color are becoming increasingly concerned with digital privacy. They are concerned about the obfuscated data collection and sharing practices of major social media plat- forms and the strong entitlement of other users in the online space to their content. This study examines how people of color conceptualize and behave to produce safety in the online space, or, in other words, digital privacy. This study challenges notions that people are not purposeful about privacy in the online space and highlights the voices of people of color, whom are not of- ten included in theorizing or decision making about the …

For The Love Of Existence, Paul Joseph Vogeler

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, artist Paul Joseph Vogeler discusses his influences and current art practice. He covers topics like Catholicism and mortality, BDSM and erotic art, Tarot, spirits and the afterlife, photography and painting, and bones and relics.

Survey Of Airflow Around A Heated Manikin As A Simulated Aeromedical Evacuation Patient On A Litter With Computational Fluid Dynamics Models, George P. Lemmer

Theses and Dissertations

Aeromedical Evacuations remain the predominant method used to transport patients from forward deployed areas of operations to secure locations with more robust medical infrastructure. Transportation of chemical warfare casualties and infectious patients require additional attention to prevent cross contamination. Specific airflow characteristics paired with environmental control system settings are a gap in scholarly literature. Based on the available literature computational fluid dynamics models were created to simulate the airflow around a patient represented by human geometry using commercially available software. In order to compare simulated and experimental results a heated manikin was placed in the MURPHEE aerosol exposure chamber and …

Agility Measurement For Large Organizations, Jeremy R. Geiger

Theses and Dissertations

There is an ongoing demand for organizations to become more agile in order to prosper amongst their competitors. Many organizations, including the United States Department of Defense (DoD), have declared a renewed focus towards organizational agility. This research begins by providing a suitable and formal definition of organizational agility (OA) by exploring and analyzing relevant scholarly literature on the subject. Existing methods to measure OA are examined and summarized, and their current limitations are highlighted. Previous studies to find characteristics associated with organizational agility are examined and the Q-sort method was employed to discover, analyze and eliminate redundant items from …

Development Of A Semi-Quantitative Methodology For Evaluation Of Whole-Body Chemical, Biological, Radiological, And Nuclear Decontamination Using An Ultraviolet Fluorescent Aerosol, Emily M. Titus

Theses and Dissertations

This work describes a literature review which was conducted on publicly available literature on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) decontamination to understand the body of knowledge and gaps in this body of knowledge, including the assumption that disrobing after a CBRN incident will remove 90% of contamination. Also included is a description of the design and characterization of an aerosol test chamber which was constructed for use in this research. Finally, the bulk of this work describes the development of a semi-quantitative methodology for visualizing contamination. This method uses an ultraviolet fluorescent aerosol (to simulate contamination by a chemical …

Direct Digital Synthesis: A Flexible Architecture For Advanced Signals Research For Future Satellite Navigation Payloads, Pranav R. Patel

Theses and Dissertations

In legacy Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellite Navigation (SatNav) payloads, the architecture does not provide the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and environments. GPS SatNav payloads have largely remained unchanged since the system became fully operational in April 1995. Since then, the use of GPS has become ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. GPS availability is now a basic assumption for distributed infrastructure; it has become inextricably tied to our national power grids, cellular networks, and global financial systems. Emerging advancements of easy to use radio technologies, such as software-defined radios (SDRs), have greatly lowered the difficulty of discovery and …

A Woman’S Portion: 5000 Years A Slave, Ann R. Glickman

Theses and Dissertations

Slavery has existed for all of recorded history. The evidence is conclusive that slave systems have almost always been majority female. I suggest that slavery originated as an attempt to control female reproductive capacity, and that this attempt to control was not limited to enslaved women.

Prediction Of Requirements Engineering Using A Multi Scale Probabilistic Approach: Case Study Ffg(X) Combat Ship, Mahdi Boucetta

Theses and Dissertations

Requirements engineering in a system-engineering project is a key factor in the success of a project. In the current state, stand-alone research has been conducted tackling this area, however, few studies addressed the requirements based on a probabilistic approach. In this thesis, a multi-scale probabilistic approach has been developed, named Bayesian Network, to evaluate the requirements engineering of a complex systems In order to pursue the aim of this paper, the FFG(X) navy ship is chosen to serve as a case study and to validate the proposed model. Results indicate the sub-requirements that highly affect the FFG capability/performance. These sub-requirements …