Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Reputation-Based Trust Systems, John Folkerts

Theses

Recent literature contains many examples of reputation systems which are constructed in an ad hoc way or rely upon some heuristic which has been found to be useful. However, comparisons between these reputation systems has been impossible because there are no established methods of comparing performance. This paper introduces a simulation framework which can be used to perform comparison analysis between reputation models. Two reputation models, one from Abdul-Rahman and Hailes (ARH) [1], and one from Mui, Mohtashemi, and Halberstadt (MMH) [17] are implemented and compared with regard to accuracy, performance and resistance to deception. In order to improve performance …

Detection Of Deformable Objects In A Non-Stationary Scene, Sherif Azary

Theses

Image registration is the process of determining a mapping between points of interest on separate images to achieve a correspondence. This is a fundamental area of many problems in computer vision including object recognition and motion tracking. This research focuses on applying image registration to identify differences between frames in non-stationary video scenes for the purpose of motion tracking. The major stages for the image registration process include point detection, image correspondence, and an affine transformation. After applying image registration to spatially align the image frames and detect areas of motion segmentation is applied to segment the moving deformable objects …

Confidentiality In Mediation: Is It Encouraging Good Mediation Or Bad Conduct, Sarah Williams

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Mediation has long been used in the judicial system of the United States to offer an alternative to litigation which can save time and money. Not only have its cost-effective and time efficient attributes contributed to its use, but the judiciary and legislature have often encouraged its use in order to mitigate the number of cases in the court system. In some states, the legislature has enacted statutes to make mediation mandatory before certain adjudications will even take place. Furthermore, to encourage these mediations to settle, many legislatures and jurisdictions have enacted statutes to protect the confidentiality of the mediation. …

Automated Extraction Of Disease-Gene Relationships From Medline, Jennifer R. Paine

Theses

The increasing amount of scientific information available to researchers in the form of biomedical literature is beginning to bring about a need for the development of tools to extract information automatically from these sources. One segment of information of particular interest to researchers is the linkage information between genes and diseases. These linkages can help researchers interpret large-scale genomics studies as well as make logical connections between gene expression levels and certain phenotypes. To make the finding and collecting of this information practical, automated methods of information extraction are required. In this paper, I propose a method for the automated …

Effect Of Flexing On The Barrier Properties Of Metallized Films, Anjum Parkar

Theses

One of the major concerns with respect to metallized films is the effect of flexing on their barrier properties. Films encounter a series of mechanical stress situations during manufacturing, processing, handling, and distribution. These mechanical stresses often result in flexing of the packaging film, which is more prominent with metallized films. The first part of my study evaluates the effect of real stresses of flex by using packages already manufactured and that have been through the distribution cycle. Metallized film samples from these packages were tested to see the effect of real stress on their barrier properties. The results showed …

New Readings, Gi Dong Lee

Theses

This thesis explores the search for a creative process for my photographic studies over the past two years at Rochester Institute of Technology. It explains the thought behind the artwork such as why I am interested in the genre of still life, inspiration, process, and my future artistic goals.

The subject matter of my thesis exhibition motivated me to explore the world of still life. By painting on an object, my imagery has evolved into a new reading that led to a new interpretation of the still life both physically and psychologically. My thesis images emphasize a new aesthetic experience …

Designing Medical Legal Exhibits: A Guide To Creating Successful Presentations, Sara M. Krause

Theses

This thesis provides design instruction for medical illustrators, including ideas and facts about design, literacy, attention, retention, and recall. It is designed to help illustrators create persuasive printed exhibits to serve as demonstrative evidence in court cases.

An Investigation Of Verbal Versus Visual Persuasive Elements In Travel And Gambling Pop-Up Advertisements, Elizabeth Karras

Theses

Although pop-up advertisements generate ill will, these ads, have an above average clickthrough rate compared to other forms of Internet advertising such as the banner ad, illustrating the significance this form has in modern day advertising. Travel and gambling ads are analyzed in the following study. Previous literature includes studies on factors that play an integral role in the success or failure of an online advertisement, the effectiveness of internet marketing on internet users, persuasive appeals used in advertising, and experiential consumption. Research on pop-up advertisements has focused primarily on tactics, their effects on the consumer, and their failures and …

The Relationship Between Young Women's Large And Small Friendship Networks, Self-Reported Preferences And The Influence Of Popular Fashion Magazine Readership, Meghann E. Connor

Theses

Friendship networks impact self-perceived body images, appearance, popularity, attractiveness, style, pressure, and self-consciousness. This study examines both large and small friendship networks and young women's popular fashion magazine readership. Eighty-seven senior high school young women completed a 22-question survey to determine placement in large or small networks. The survey was used to determine questions later discussed in the report. Significant differences were found between females in large and small networks with regard to attractiveness and style after reading fashion magazines. No other variables were found to be significant.

An Investigation Of The Dynamics Of Human Metamorphosis Triggered By Perception And Environment, Stacey Parker

Theses

This thesis describes the artist's sculptural work, a body of sculpture which explores the interactions between humans and their environment, and how they undergo metamorphoses triggered by internal and external forces.

Women In The Printing Industry: The Challenges Of Women Press Operators, Margaret Przelski

Theses

There appear to be very few women press operators in the printing industry. Unfortunately, the reasons for this situation are not clearly understood. To investigate this phenomenon, three different questionnaires were administered to the following groups:

• human resource managers selected from the top local Rochester commercial printing companies listed in the Rochester Business Journal,

• alumni from RIT's School of Print Media, and

• women with press operation experience.

The main purpose of the first survey was to determine how many women were actually employed as press operators in Rochester, New York. If women weren't working as press operators, what positions did …

Asthma Brochure And Logo For Rochester General Hospital's Camp Bronchopower And Pediatric Associates, Christine Marie Curtiss

Theses

This thesis describes the creation of a lay public educational brochure for Rochester General Hospital, showing asthmatic children how to use a spacer device with a metered dose inhaler. The thesis was created using the author's original artwork and was translated and adapted for a Spanish version. The second part of the thesis describes the revision of the logo for Camp Bronchopower, a children's asthma camp run by Rochester General Hospital.

Modification Of A Single-Solvent-Based Gravure Ink For Enhance Wettability And Substrate Adhesion, Wiphut Janjomsuke

Theses

In this research, the effect of solvent types and pigment types on C-type ester-based gravure inks were studied. Three of the widely used solvent types and two of the pigment types were used in this study. The characteristics of the modified inks were investigated by measuring the most important physical properties of the inks: (i) surface energy, (ii) contact angle, (iii) viscosity and (iv) substrate adhesion. The experiment results showed that the ink properties changed significantly depending on the solvent type, while pigment type variation had a negligible effect on the ink properties. From this experiment, the most improved properties …

Hardware And Software Multi-Precision Implementations Of Cryptographic Algorithms, Muhammad A. Janjua

Theses

The software implementations of cryptographic algorithms are considered to be very slow, when there are requirements of multi-precision arithmetic operations on very long integers. These arithmetic operations may include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation. Several research papers have been published providing different solutions to make these operations faster. Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) is a cryptographic application that requires multi-precision arithmetic operations. These arithmetic operations are mostly based upon modular multiplication and exponentiation on integers of the size of 1024 bits. The use of such numbers is an essential part of providing high security against the cryptanalytic attacks on the …

Real-Time Control System Framework, Nishant Thakkar

Theses

Computer based controllers are being used increasingly in every aspect of modern life and have been integrated into everything from simple thermostats to the most complicated fighter jets. Multiple methodologies can be used within these controllers including differential equations, discrete difference equations, and fuzzy logic. Also, they can run on platforms ranging from scaled down versions of consumer operating systems to directly on embedded processors. What's missing is a low cost framework that links the variety of methodologies used in controllers and the variety of platforms that controllers can run on. My thesis is that it is possible to create …

Realm Of Possibilities: The Portrayal Of Women In Futuristic Science Fiction Movies, Aru Basu

Theses

This study examines the portrayal of women in 50 science-fiction films produced in the U.S. The method was content analysis and the unit of analysis was the film scene. Presentations of women were analyzed by examining demographic variables and behavioral traits. For a further insight, comparisons have been made between older women (40 years and above) and younger women (below 40 years) and between "human" women and "other" women. This study reveals that there are few differences with previous studies undertaken on portrayal of women. Overall, women in the sciencefiction future have not been portrayed in a significantly different way …

“Culture Of Life” Politics At The Bedside: The Case Of Terri Schiavo, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

For the first time in the history of the United States, Congress met in a special emergency session on Sunday, March 20, to pass legislation aimed at the medical care of one patient — Terri Schiavo. President George W. Bush encouraged the legislation and flew back to Washington, D.C., from his vacation in Crawford, Texas, so that he could be on hand to sign it immediately. In a statement issued three days earlier, he said: “The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. . . . Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. …

Turning From Damage Caps To Information Disclosure: An Alternative To Tort Reform, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

Medical malpractice damage caps are among the most popular instruments of tort reform at the state level. Recently the Bush administration proposed a federal damage cap on non-economic damages to quell the rise of medical malpractice insurance premiums despite the paucity of empirical evidence demonstrating that damage caps actually decrease premiums. This Case Study argues that imposing statutory caps on medical malpractice damages is not an effective method of remedying the medical malpractice insurance crisis: therefore, policymakers should consider alternatives to damage caps. In particular, evidence suggests that implementing mandatory disclosure of the contract terms between managed care organizations and …

I Want To Live: Medicine Betrayed By Ideology In The Political Debate Over Terri Schaivo, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The public's view of the political intrusion into the medical care of Theresa Marie Schiavo is well illustrated by two political cartoons. The first, by Tony Auth, reprinted in the Boston Globe shortly after Congress passed a law authorizing intervention by the federal courts, pictures a horde of congressmen charging mindlessly out of the Capitol, all dressed as physicians-one carrying a saw, another an I.V. pole-with the caption, "Coming Soon to a Sickbed Near You . .. [tihe United States Congress." The second, by Tom Toles, published in the Washington Post shortly after the results of the autopsy report were …

The Scopes Trope, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

In his book, Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America, journalist Larry Witham introduces the reader to the various characters involved in the ongoing controversy over evolution and creationism. His account is subtle and nuanced, and he demonstrates that the controversy is more complicated than many believe. Far from caricatures of godless scientists seeking to discard religion in thedustbin of history and reactionary religious fundamentalists decrying Darwinism as the downfall of mankind, Witham gives us the real stories of real people who dwell in shades far more gray than usually recognized. This book review builds upon Witham's …

Pharmaceutical Arbitrage: Balancing Access And Innovation In International Prescription Drug Markets, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

While neoclassical economic theory suggests that arbitrage will undermine global differential pricing of pharmaceuticals, the empirical results are more complex. Pharmaceutical regulation, IP laws, global trade agreements, and company policies support differential pricing despite the pressure of arbitrage. For essential access programs in particular, the theoretical threat of pharmaceutical arbitrage is shown to be rarely observed empirically. Counterfeiting is demonstrated to be the more serious threat. These conclusions call for changes in the U.S. PEPFAR program for AIDS and in the implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement.

A more fundamental question, however, is whether pharmaceutical differential pricing is appropriate for …

The Vanishing Public Domain: Antibiotic Resistance, Pharmaceutical Innovation And Global Public Health, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Penicillin and other antibiotics were the original wonder drugs and laid the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry. Human health significantly improved with the introduction of antibiotics. By 1967, the US Surgeon General declared victory over infectious diseases in the US. But pride goes before a fall. The evolutionary pressure of antibiotic use selects for resistant strains with the least fitness cost. Effective drugs should be used. But when they are used, no matter how carefully, evolutionary pressure for resistance is created. The problem is not limited to antibiotics. Variants of the human immunodeficiency (AIDS) virus develop resistance to anti-retroviral …

American Disillusionment And The Search For Self-Fulfillment In The 1970'S: A Cultural History Of Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, And Saturday Night Fever, Joshua Elliot Lubin

LSU Master's Theses

Three popular and critically acclaimed films of the post-Watergate era illustrated and criticized the period’s disillusionment. Likewise, a series of political and economic crises spawned a shift in American culture. The Sixties’ mass social movements dissolved into the Seventies and launched a trend in which Americans became preoccupied with themselves more than the state of the nation. Controlling one’s own destiny became a collective obsession when confronted with the period’s various political and economic ailments. The “Me” decade turned inward rather than concern itself with public issues. Therefore, American culture earned dubious labels such as narcissistic and decadent from critics …

Study Of The Effects Of Magnetic Field On The Properties Of Combustion Synthesized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles, Nagaraju Komuravelli

LSU Master's Theses

Nanosized chain-like aggregates were developed in an iron pentacarbonyl-carbon monoxide (Fe(CO) 5 ¨C CO) air diffusion flame system. Magnetic field was applied around the diffusion flame using an electromagnet with an intensity of 0.4 Tesla. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis was performed to observe the behavior of the chains formed and to study the effect of magnetic field on these chains. These chain aggregates consist mainly of Fe2O3, which play a vital role in magnetic storage devices. Diffraction pattern analysis and X-ray Photon Spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out to confirm that the chain aggregates consist of mainly ¦Ã-Fe2O3. The effect …

Physical Model Experiments Of The Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage Process, Amit P. Sharma

LSU Master's Theses

The displacement of oil by gas injection in oil reservoirs is an attractive method of improved oil recovery. Commercial gravity-stable gas injection projects have demonstrated excellent recoveries; however, their application has been limited to dipping reservoirs and pinnacle reefs. Horizontal gas floods and the water alternating gas (WAG) processes, practiced in horizontal type reservoirs, have yielded less than satisfactory recoveries of 5-10%. The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) Process being developed at LSU extends the concept of gravity-stable gas floods to horizontal type reservoirs to improve volumetric sweep and oil recovery. This experimental study consists of a series of visual …

Happy Cake Meltdown, Joshua Spahr

LSU Master's Theses

This group of work addresses the complexities that come as a result of stimulation overload. The breakdown of singular focus triggers the demand that everything in your reality be considered simultaneously. The result is a Happy Cake Meltdown, a visual and auditory coping mechanism with no beginning, no middle and no end. It’s about fragmentation and choosing flexibility over specialization. It’s about everything.

An Assessment Of Consumer Preferences For Louisiana Strawberries, Michael Neil Bruchhaus

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana strawberry production has decreased over a period of years while national production has increased, leading to concern that Louisiana's strawberry industry might disappear. California, the leading producer state, has exploited its production advantages and marketing efficiency to increase production. The objectives of the study were (1) to identify strawberry attributes preferred by consumers in the selected market area, (2) to analyze key demographic factors that influence the decision about sources of and preferences for strawberries, and (3) to identify key steps that the Louisiana strawberry industry might take to improve marketability of product and profitability of its production. Conjoint …

Virtual Property, Joshua Fairfield

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article explores three new concepts in property law. First, the article defines an emerging property form - virtual property - that is not intellectual property, but that more efficiently governs rivalrous, persistent, and interconnected online resources. Second, the article demonstrates that the threat to high-value uses of internet resources is not the traditional tragedy of the commons that results in overuse. Rather, the naturally layered nature of the internet leads to overlapping rights of exclusion that cause underuse of internet resources: a tragedy of the anticommons. And finally, the article shows that the common law of property can act …

Photobiological And Thermal Effects Of Uva Light On Cell Culture, Julianne Forman

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this study is to characterize the photobiological and thermal effects of UVA light on cell cultures. While near-ultraviolet light has been widely used to photoactivate fluorophores and caged compounds in cells, little is known of the long-term biological effects of this light. UVA (320-400nm) photoactivating light has been used for studying fast kinetic processes and is now being employed in higher doses to target longer duration phenomena (e.g. gene expression and silencing). Photoexposure experiments using 365nm light will examine how longer duration and increased UV doses affect photoactivation cell studies. Apoptotic and cellular injury assays have been …

Integrating Horticulture Biology And Coastal Environmental Issues Into The Middle School Science Curriculum, Kathryn Lauren Karsh

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana is losing nearly 34 square miles of coastal land each year. Scientists predict by 2050 one-third of Louisiana’s coast land will disappear (LaCoast, 2004). Many restoration projects have begun to counteract the severe land loss. Scientists use restoration methods such as vegetative plantings, sedimentary and freshwater diversions, and hydrologic projects to prevent land loss. Coastal Roots, a school-based nursery stewardship project for upper elementary to high school students coordinated by Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and LSU AgCenter, helps students understand the land loss crisis and gives them a constructive way to help restore the damaged coastal habitats by …