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The Romance Novel Cover, Jessica D. Spears May 2018

The Romance Novel Cover, Jessica D. Spears

Theses and Dissertations

Romance novel covers dating from the 1980s and 1990s reflect complex and contradictory ideas about gender, power, and sexuality. The covers overflow with stereotypes of what women are attracted to such as enormous pink roses, lush folds of silk, and hair long enough for Rapunzel. To this socially acceptable women’s imagery, the covers add two less reputable aspects: sexual imagery and, occasionally, suggestions of female submission. Since the association of romance and conventional femininity is so strong, the covers make a visual argument that submission and sexuality are things that a conventional woman wants. Readers have to deal with what …


The Effect Of Displacement: Living As A Refugee: An Exploration Of Displaced People In Refugee Camps In Greece, Kim Martin Parrish May 2018

The Effect Of Displacement: Living As A Refugee: An Exploration Of Displaced People In Refugee Camps In Greece, Kim Martin Parrish

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized a phenomenological approach to describe the experience of displaced individuals and families in a condition of statelessness in a refugee camp and their experiences prelight, translight, and postlight. Topics addressed included the conditions that led to flight from the country of origin and the individual and family experiences in the country of origin prior to flight and during flight, the experiences of living as a refugee in a refugee camp in Greece, and the hopes and dreams of the future for the individual and the family. Fourteen individuals, including five children in seven families were interviewed in …


Perceived Spiritual Competency Of Master's-Level Clinical Mental Health Students Enrolled In Cacrep Accredited Counselor Education Programs: An Investigation Of Variables, Anna Marsh Selby May 2018

Perceived Spiritual Competency Of Master's-Level Clinical Mental Health Students Enrolled In Cacrep Accredited Counselor Education Programs: An Investigation Of Variables, Anna Marsh Selby

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship among strength of religious faith, a set of demographic variables, and self-perceived spiritual competence of master’s-level clinical mental health counseling students enrolled in CACREP accredited programs. The study methodology was a quantitative correlational survey research design using multiple linear regression analysis. Data were collected from 178 participants through an online survey comprised of three instruments: the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Scale (Plante & Boccaccini, 1997), and the Revised Spiritual Competency Scale (Dailey, Robertson, & Gill, 2015), and a demographic survey developed by the researcher. Results of the …


Cfd Analysis Of Resistance For Stepless And Stepped Planing Hulls, Bhanu Prakash Valtheru May 2018

Cfd Analysis Of Resistance For Stepless And Stepped Planing Hulls, Bhanu Prakash Valtheru

Theses and Dissertations

It is the endeavour of naval architects to design hull forms with the least amount of power consumption. In this respect, Naval Architects have been obsessed with the design of various hull forms optimized for a particular service requiring the lowest amount of fuel consumption keeping in mind effects on the climate change and sustainability. Regardless of the way that a considerable measure of research has been done around this area, there remains a level of uncertainty in the reasonably accurate resistance prediction of stepped hull forms in the early design stage. Model tests and full-scale tests are still the …


A Natural Pairing: Social Justice And Theatre Education, Danielle Wright May 2018

A Natural Pairing: Social Justice And Theatre Education, Danielle Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Social justice curricula are often solely geared toward middle and high school students. I intend to prove that a social justice curriculum can be creatively paired with a theatre curriculum. I also intend to prove that social justice can be taught as young as pre-kindergarten. I will design a social justice curriculum for various grade levels, beginning with pre-kindergarten. Through research and age-appropriate strategies, I will develop curriculum goals and learning experiences for all grade levels. The curriculum is not an end point for teachers, but rather a starting point for theatre teachers who want to integrate social justice into …


Mortuary Patterns In West-Central Tennessee: Contextualizing Historic Field Data From Nine Mississippian Period Sites, Brooke Adele Wamsley Apr 2018

Mortuary Patterns In West-Central Tennessee: Contextualizing Historic Field Data From Nine Mississippian Period Sites, Brooke Adele Wamsley

Theses and Dissertations

Middle Mississippian is a both a cultural and temporal (1200 CE – 1400 CE) archaeological context of Midwestern North America. This cultural tradition is associated with mound building, specific art motifs, arguably stratified societies, intensive agriculture, and specific ritual/mortuary practices. Burial sites can be very valuable to archaeologists because of the purposeful interaction between the living and the deceased and reconstruct cultural elements such as social identity and group membership. While American archaeology continues to be fieldwork-focused, there are a considerable amount of cultural resources housed in museum collections that could provide data for research into pre-Columbian lifeways in North …


The Relationship Between State Effectiveness And State Legitimacy: A Quantitative Test, Bich Thi Ngoc Tran Apr 2018

The Relationship Between State Effectiveness And State Legitimacy: A Quantitative Test, Bich Thi Ngoc Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Legitimacy is a contested concept in political science. The question of legitimacy has been addressed in various topics, including state formation, state building, and state failure. This research is an attempt to quantitatively test the relationship between state legitimacy and state effectiveness and development in the economy, politics, and society. By examining the literature on legitimacy and its sources, the research tests the following hypothesis: a state with better performance in macro issues, including economic performance, social welfare, and political participation, is more likely to enjoy a higher level of legitimacy. In other words, this study attempts to establish a …


Thin Film Carbon Nanofuses For Permanent Data Storage, Kevin Robert Laughlin Apr 2018

Thin Film Carbon Nanofuses For Permanent Data Storage, Kevin Robert Laughlin

Theses and Dissertations

We have fabricated nanofuses from thin-film, arc-evaporation carbon for use in permanent data storage. Thin film carbon fuses have fewer fabrication barriers and retain the required resistivity and structural stability to work as a data storage medium. Carbon thin films were characterized for their electrical, microstructural, and chemical bonding properties. Annealing the thin-film carbon in an argon environment at 400°C reduced the resistivity from about 4*10-2 Ω cm as deposited down to about 5*10-4 Ω cm, allowing a lower blowing voltage. Nanofuses with widths ranging from 200 nm down to 60 nm were fabricated and tested. They blow …


Mitigating The Effects Of Cyber Attacks And Human Control In An Autonomous Intersection, Karl C. Bentjen Mar 2018

Mitigating The Effects Of Cyber Attacks And Human Control In An Autonomous Intersection, Karl C. Bentjen

Theses and Dissertations

Widespread use of fully autonomous vehicles is near. However, the desire for a human to maintain control, even if limited, of a vehicle will likely never fully subside. Protocols to safely and efficiently manage reservation-based intersections with a mixture of fully autonomous, semi-autonomous, and non-autonomous vehicles exist such as AIM, SemiAIM, and H-AIM. Missing from these protocols is persistent human control of semi-autonomous vehicles in approaching and navigating autonomous intersections without the use of traditional signals. This thesis offers a proof-of-concept of a reservation-based protocol with necessary extensions required for human control in semi-autonomous vehicles. Desired is a protocol that …


Behavior Flexibility For Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems, Taylor B. Bodin Mar 2018

Behavior Flexibility For Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems, Taylor B. Bodin

Theses and Dissertations

Autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could supplement and eventually subsume a substantial portion of the mission set currently executed by remote pilots, making UAS more robust, responsive, and numerous than permitted by teleoperation alone. Unfortunately, the development of robust autonomous systems is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Furthermore, the resulting systems often make little reuse of proven software components and offer limited adaptability for new tasks. This work presents a development platform for UAS which promotes behavioral flexibility. The platform incorporates the Unified Behavior Framework (a modular, extensible autonomy framework), the Robotic Operating System (a RSF), and PX4 (an open- source …


An Exploration Of Error-Correcting Codes For Use In Noise-Prone Satellite Environments, Min W. Kang Mar 2018

An Exploration Of Error-Correcting Codes For Use In Noise-Prone Satellite Environments, Min W. Kang

Theses and Dissertations

Satellites are crucial for the modern world to function properly as they provide Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and global communication. However, the data that is stored on these satellites can be corrupted by the radiation found in space, and its bits can be improperly flipped. In the past, Forward Error Correction (FEC) algorithms were selected based on their strength and implemented to correct these bit flips back to their original values. This thesis seeks to determine if the strength of the FEC algorithms Reed Solomon (RS) code and Reed Solomon Product Code (RSPC) directly translates to their effectiveness. These …


Near Earth Space Object Detection Utilizing Parallax As Multi-Hypothesis Test Criterion, Joseph C. Tompkins Mar 2018

Near Earth Space Object Detection Utilizing Parallax As Multi-Hypothesis Test Criterion, Joseph C. Tompkins

Theses and Dissertations

The US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) operated Space Surveillance Network (SSN) is tasked with Space Situational Awareness (SSA) for the US military. This system is made up of Electro-Optic sensors such as the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) and Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) as well as RADAR based sensors such as the Space Fence. While Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence is very adept at detecting & tracking objects in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) below 3000 Km in height [1], gaps remain in the tracking of Resident Space Objects (RSO’s) in Geosynchronous Orbits (GEO) due to limitations associated with the implementation of …


Investigating Capability Development Management For The Air Force Strategic Development Planning And Experimentation (Spde) Office, Sarah M. Pak Mar 2018

Investigating Capability Development Management For The Air Force Strategic Development Planning And Experimentation (Spde) Office, Sarah M. Pak

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force provides unique capabilities for the defense of our nation. Capabilities do not come to fruition instantly; they must go through a development process. Managing the development of a capability is a difficult but necessary task. In 2016, a report from the Air Force Studies Board prompted the Air Force to focus on the Capability Development Process and its improvement. In response to the report, the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (SDPE) Office was formed. The SDPE Office is tasked to support Enterprise Capability Collaboration Teams (ECCTs), which are, in turn, tasked to research and solve prominent issues …


Stabilized Rpa Flight In Building Proximity Operations, Michael M. Kaniut Mar 2018

Stabilized Rpa Flight In Building Proximity Operations, Michael M. Kaniut

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis seeks a solution to the requirement for a highly reliable and capable Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to support a wide array of missions and applications that require close proximity flight to structures. The scope of the project includes the drafting of a concept of operations (CONOPs) describing how the mission requirements might be met using the sensor, operators, and air vehicle described here in. The demonstration of the wall-following section of that CONOPs is performed by cart testing a custom algorithm and evaluating its ability to react to its environment. Finally, a flight test was performed to characterize …


Analysis Of Influences Of Separation Decisions In The Financial Management Career Field, Shauna Young Mar 2018

Analysis Of Influences Of Separation Decisions In The Financial Management Career Field, Shauna Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze influences on separation decisions of active duty Air Force financial management officers. Researchers tested nine variables to determine their separation implications. The tested variables were major command, age, prior enlisted service, spouse, commissioning source, AFIT cost analysis master’s degrees, engagement, crystallization of job alternatives, and exhaustion. Results proved that age, prior enlisted service, having a spouse, and being an Air Force Academy or AFIT graduate correlates to whether a financial management officer will separate from the Air Force. In addition, the engagement level or having a defined list of job alternatives readily …


Outlier Classification Criterion For Multivariate Cyber Anomaly Detection, Alexander M. Trigo Mar 2018

Outlier Classification Criterion For Multivariate Cyber Anomaly Detection, Alexander M. Trigo

Theses and Dissertations

Every day, intrusion detection systems catalogue millions of unsupervised data entries. This represents a “big data” problem for research sponsors within the Department of Defense. In a first response to this issue, raw data capture was transformed into usable vectors and an array of multivariate techniques implemented to detect potential outliers. This research expands and refines these techniques by implementing a Chi-Square Q-Q plot-based classification criteria for outlier detection. This methodology has been implemented into an R-based programming solution that allows for a refined and semi-automated user experience for intelligence analysts. Moreover, two case analyses are performed that illustrate how …


Air Force Officer Attrition: An Ecconometric Analysis, Jacob T. Elliot Mar 2018

Air Force Officer Attrition: An Ecconometric Analysis, Jacob T. Elliot

Theses and Dissertations

Many organizations are concerned, and struggle, with personnel management. Training personnel is expensive, so there is a high emphasis on understanding why and anticipating when individuals leave an organization. The military is no exception. Moreover, the military is strictly hierarchical and must grow all its leaders, making retention all the more vital. Intuition holds that there is a relationship between the economic environment and personnel attrition rates in the military (e.g. when the economy is bad, attrition is low). This study investigates that relationship in a more formal manner. Specifically, this study conducts an econometric analysis of U.S. Air Force …


Human Optimization And Performance Enhancement In Flight Via Real-Time Biofeedback (Project Have Hope), Michael S. Fritts Mar 2018

Human Optimization And Performance Enhancement In Flight Via Real-Time Biofeedback (Project Have Hope), Michael S. Fritts

Theses and Dissertations

A four-phase, chronological, and build-up approach was implemented that commenced with basic hardware testing in a centrifuge and culminated in flights augmented by real-time biofeedback displays. A prototype Portable Electrocardiogram Unit (PECGU) was designed and proven to accurately measure heart rate (HR) and display percent heart rate reserve (%HRR). Results showed that %HRR was not a sole predictor of cognitive state. Cognitive responses indicated some correlation with %HRR, but were influenced by environment (centrifuge vs. flight). Subjective perceived exertion levels did not show statistically significant changes during test with biofeedback. A G-tracking task was evaluated during centrifuge and flight tests. …


An Open Source Approach To Social Media Data Gathering, Anthony J. Kallhoff Mar 2018

An Open Source Approach To Social Media Data Gathering, Anthony J. Kallhoff

Theses and Dissertations

Modern usage of social media affords the military intelligence and analytic communities novel approaches to gather information. However, the tools and resources to develop these methodologies are still maturing. Furthermore, current data acquisition tools are not available to the DoD for all social media platforms. This thesis addresses a small subset of this problem by developing an open source methodological approach to collect and manage data from a popular social media site that has previously been inaccessible to defense intelligence organizations. This approach was operationalized via the R package called instaExtract, and an exemplar analysis was performed to demonstrate its …


The Effect Of Ammonia On The Germination And Outgrowth Of Bacillius Globigii, Joseph B. Kunicki Mar 2018

The Effect Of Ammonia On The Germination And Outgrowth Of Bacillius Globigii, Joseph B. Kunicki

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the germination and outgrowth of Bacillus globigii in the presence of ammonia in laboratory scale experiments. Germination was measured by monitoring the release of dipicolinic acid, an organic compound present in bacterial spores, while outgrowth was measured using phase-bright microscopy and semi-automated counting procedures. The ammonia-N concentrations investigated generally did not cause statistically significant differences in the initial 1-hr germination rates or the average 3-hr outgrowth rates of Bacillus globigii spores in batch style experiments. The average 1-hr germination rates observed in the absence of ammonia-N was 0.0258 hr-1 for the water and buffer controls and …


Radiological Decontamination In The Urban Environment Utilizing An Irreversible Wash-Aid Recovery System, Keith A. Sanders Mar 2018

Radiological Decontamination In The Urban Environment Utilizing An Irreversible Wash-Aid Recovery System, Keith A. Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors accident and the ongoing threat of nuclear or radioactive terrorism have forced the need for urban radiological decontamination into the forefront. Many of the established decontamination techniques are not ideally suited for the urban milieu. One of the keys to maximize the effectiveness of long-term remediation and recovery in the urban environment is immediate mitigation within a few days of the incident and before a rain event. The Integrated Wash-Aid, Treatment, and Emergency Reuse System (IWATERS) provides a potentially safe and effective method for early responders and remediation teams to perform …


Expected Coverage (Excov): A Proposal To Compare Fuzz Test Coverage Within An Infinite Input Space, Evan V. Swihart Mar 2018

Expected Coverage (Excov): A Proposal To Compare Fuzz Test Coverage Within An Infinite Input Space, Evan V. Swihart

Theses and Dissertations

A Fuzz test is an approach used to discover vulnerabilities by intentionally sending invalid inputs to a system for the purpose of triggering some type of fault or unintended effect that renders the system vulnerable to an exploit. Fuzz testing is an important cyber-testing technique used to find and fix vulnerabilities before they are exploited. The fuzzing of military data links presents a particular challenge because existing fuzzing tools cannot be easily applied to these systems. As a result, the tools and techniques used to fuzz these links vary widely in sophistication and effectiveness. Because of the infinite, or nearly …


Evaluating Contingency Construction Methods: A Delphi Study, William E. Bentley Mar 2018

Evaluating Contingency Construction Methods: A Delphi Study, William E. Bentley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate which existing RED HORSE vertical construction system was “best” suited for contingency operations and the relative pros/cons/challenges associated with each. RED HORSE units, having existed for over 50 years, currently have 4 active duty squadrons currently employed overseas in multiple military contingency environments. Based on site visits, it was established that the Ultimate Building Machine (UBM)/K-Span, Professionally Engineered Buildings (PEB), and the FrameCAD system are the three most prevalent vertical construction systems/methods in use by RED HORSE. Fourteen Subject Matter Experts (SME) from across the Air Force participated in a Delphi study …


The Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, Joseph E. Schoenbeck Mar 2018

The Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, Joseph E. Schoenbeck

Theses and Dissertations

Developmental testing of aircraft systems in the United States Air Force requires a complex set of resources for each test. The optimal scheduling of those resources is the job of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. With more than 20 different Combined Task Forces requesting resources for roughly 300 flying missions each week, manual scheduling is a difficult task. The current process takes a team of schedulers several days to get a workable result from which they can start tailoring the final schedule. While concepts and techniques can be taken from industry scheduling problems, the body of …


Effects Of Competition In Violent And Nonviolent Video Games On Aggressive/Prosocial Behavior, Christopher Edward Hawk Mar 2018

Effects Of Competition In Violent And Nonviolent Video Games On Aggressive/Prosocial Behavior, Christopher Edward Hawk

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research shows that playing violent video games leads to increases in aggressive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. However, recent research has questioned the reliability of these findings. Two important variables associated with aggressive outcomes that have yet to be fully explored in the violent video game literature are the competitive aspects of the games and the outcomes of that competition (e.g., winning or losing). The present study was a two (gameplay: violent vs. nonviolent) by two (difficulty: easy vs. hard) by three (competition: no competition vs. competition win vs. competition lose) between-subjects factorial design, with aggressive/prosocial behavior measured as the …


Studying Online Deviant Groups (Odgs): A Socio-Technical Approach Leveraging Social Network Analysis (Sna) & Social Cyber Forensics (Scf) Techniques, Samer Al-Khateeb Feb 2018

Studying Online Deviant Groups (Odgs): A Socio-Technical Approach Leveraging Social Network Analysis (Sna) & Social Cyber Forensics (Scf) Techniques, Samer Al-Khateeb

Theses and Dissertations

In today’s information technology age our thinking and behaviors are highly influenced by what we see on the Internet and our smartphones screens, e.g., watching a fake or photo-shopped image of a well-known individual makes some of us think it is true. But in many cases, it is not. The initial use of social media for benign purposes, e.g., to socialize with friends or browse pictures has increasingly transitioned to include malicious activities, e.g., cyber-terrorism and cyber-warfare. These nefarious uses of Online Social Networks (OSNs) pose a significant threat to society and are under-studied, thus requires research attention. Online Deviant …


The Politics Of Burden-Sharing In The Refugee Regime: The Refugee As Point Of Reference, Mark Van De Fliert Feb 2018

The Politics Of Burden-Sharing In The Refugee Regime: The Refugee As Point Of Reference, Mark Van De Fliert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies international relations theory to better understand the political maneuvering of states in refugee affairs. It argues that previous contributions to this debate have used a wrong paradigm to describe burden-sharing politics in the refugee regime, resulting in models which are too static to capture the high-politics of refugee affairs. In particular, the thesis criticizes the "North vs. South" model proposed by Betts (2009), which argues that the burden-sharing politics in the refugee regime can be understood as an opposition between states in the global "North" and global "South". Where Betts uses the geographic position of the state …


Incentives Of Violence Dynamics And Duration Of The Syrian Civil War, Mennatallah Fouad Youssef Feb 2018

Incentives Of Violence Dynamics And Duration Of The Syrian Civil War, Mennatallah Fouad Youssef

Theses and Dissertations

For centuries the world has been plagued with conflict and violence that cause destruction, population displacement, famine, hunger and outright chaos. As the image of warfare has continually changed, internal conflict or civil wars became a more common site. With the end of the cold war, the world has witnessed an increasing number of civil strife enticing debates in the study of civil war on "new" and "old" wars and the encouraging theories on civil war onset and duration. The Middle East region is no stranger to the phenomena of civil war with the area itself home to several conflicts. …


Duality And Dissolution In The Post-Apocalypse: Nietzsche's Cycle Of Morality In Amc's The Walking Dead, Roy John Gonzales Jan 2018

Duality And Dissolution In The Post-Apocalypse: Nietzsche's Cycle Of Morality In Amc's The Walking Dead, Roy John Gonzales

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout his body of work, especially in Beyond Good and Evil (1886), On the Genealogy of Morality (1887), and Twilight of the Idols (1889), German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche details Western civilization’s slow movement towards nihilism. Nietzsche explains that this nihilism is the result of a so-called “slave morality,” a system of inhibitive values that suppress egoistic desires for the sake of the collective. Democracy, Christian charity, and even mass consumerism are all indicative of slave morality. But because this value system relies on absolute morals supported by a “true world” (God, a heavenly afterlife, etc.), the collapse of these systems …


Developing A Cyberterrorism Policy: Incorporating Individual Values, Osama Bassam J. Rabie Jan 2018

Developing A Cyberterrorism Policy: Incorporating Individual Values, Osama Bassam J. Rabie

Theses and Dissertations

Preventing cyberterrorism is becoming a necessity for individuals, organizations, and governments. However, current policies focus on technical and managerial aspects without asking for experts and non-experts values and preferences for preventing cyberterrorism. This study employs value focused thinking and public value forum to bare strategic measures and alternatives for complex policy decisions for preventing cyberterrorism. The strategic measures and alternatives are per socio-technical process.