Digital Commons Network^™

Applying User-Centered Design In The Development Of A Software Application For The Treatment Of A Mental Health Disorder, Stacey L. Meacham

Theses

The research that follows will provide a process for applying a user-centered design methodology to the development of a virtual environment software application for the treatment of a mental health disorder, specifically post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal is to create a screen-based virtual environment product that focuses on the end user rather than the technological aspects of the system. Moreover, past and present treatments in the mental health and healthcare fields and their effectiveness will be analyzed through an extensive literature review.

Using Organic Modeling Techniques To Create Scientific Models For Flow Analysis In Biomechanical Research: Exploring 3-D Software Typically Used In Creative Media For Model Creation., Jessica L. Weisman

Theses

Biomedical Engineering research utilizes digital three-dimensional models of human anatomical systems that are used as components in specific types of simulation. The data collected from the simulations provide quantifiable information that has a physical basis. The use of the digital models allows engineers the freedom of experimentation that may not be possible in the real world and allows them to quickly change the parameters. Although these models can provide reliable information, the models represent a mechanical ideal and therefore do not accurately represent organic matter. The consequence of using an ideal model to represent tissue may give flawed data, since …

Images In Electronic Performance Support Systems (Epss): An Eye Tracking Study, Niyati N. Bedekar

Theses

Current forms of online help are increasingly making use of images (graphical illustrations or photographs), along with textual instructions to effectively assist users in performing a specific task. Users typically want to accomplish tasks quickly and devote limited attention to help systems. Hence, it is essential that these images facilitate efficient understanding of the task at hand and complement the instructions well. The first goal of the project was to create quick and inexpensive images that work better than or as well as existing graphical illustrations. The second goal was to conduct a usability test with eye tracking to compare …

Loss Prevention In Retail: Evaluation Of Time Delay Shelf System, Pavan V. Raja

Theses

This thesis studies the effectiveness in theft detterence of an asset control system, called "Time Delay Shelf," in a case study in several CVS/Pharmacy stores

Untitled, Shawn Kosmala

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between society and its depiction as art. The research will require a look into my own personal everyday life and that of my family and close friends. It will further deal with the emotional connection that is created between the viewer and the image. In art it is not only the subject matter that is important, but the materials and techniques that are used. Through the research of other artists such as Chuck Close, John Singer Sargent, Meriseo Lanzanski, Charles White, Billy Andrews, Philip Pearlstein, Rodin, Egon Schiele it is …

Sift The Rabble, Stephanie Benvenuto

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a short 2-D hand-drawn (with some digital effects) animated film featuring the adventures of a young boy as he discovers objects in a junkyard that lead to flights of his imagination. Includes original thesis proposal, storyboard, and screen shots.

The Past, Chun-Hsiang Huang

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a computer-animated film depicting an epic battle between a primeval human, a devil, and a god who comes from space, when the Earth is still young. Includes original thesis proposal, complete storyboard, and production stills.

Effects Of Freezing And Thawing On The Structures Of Porous Gas Diffusion Media In Pem Fuel Cells, Joaquin A. Pelaez

Theses

Fuel cells are a very promising technology for transportation applications in the future. Many companies are performing research in order to make the implementation of fuel cell- powered vehicles more feasible. One issue that needs to be addressed is the fact that fuel cell vehicles will be used in sub-freezing climates. Vehicles undergo frequent shut-down and startup events, and as such, freezing and thawing effects on fuel cell components become important when the vehicle is shut off and left standing in cold climates. When shut off, fuel cells will maintain water in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and gas diffusion …

Conservation Of The Brca1 Gene, Matthew Gary Wronkowski

Theses

Most research has been conducted on the structure and function of many individual genes as well as complementary proteins. Many of these studies look at specific population groups' country of origin, geographic location, or ethnicity but do not correlate findings between these groups. In this project I attempted to associate the structural and functional consequences of individual mutations in Human BRCA1 to other organisms. My findings suggest a strong correlation between human geographical isolation and mutation exclusivity. Furthermore strong sequence and mutation conservation as well as structural homology exist between many species.

Case Study: Enhancing The Customers Product Experience Through Package Revision, Keith J. Vent

Theses

This thesis is a case study to illustrate the importance of a products packaging related to the customers and consumers overall product experience. A company launched a new contact lens product in Europe a year after the product was introduced ... in North America. The lens was manufactured using the company's low-cost, daily disposable lens platform to enable a 10 to 20% cost benefit over the competition. However the new lens was not as well received in Europe as it was in the United States. To identify potential impacts to market acceptance, a third party marketing research firm conducted focus …

Sustainable Shoe Design With A Single Material, Jungyun Lee

Theses

People tend to throw away a shoe rather than repair it for further use. This means more and more shoes are thrown away, and since a shoe is made out of many kinds of materials that are all glued or stitched together, it is difficult to recycle or reuse the shoe. Additionally, there is a symbolic relation between the land and shoe; a shoe is the product that connects people to the ground. It is ironic that a shoe, which provides the connection, has a negative effect on the land. If we wear a shoe longer, we can reduce the …

Environmental Health & Safety Management In The Wake Of Sarbanes-Oxley: A Focus On The Benchmark Alcohol Beverage Industry, Diana V. Vesosky

Theses

In a post-Enron world, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act holds the highest corporate officers of publicly held corporations personally accountable with regard to financial reporting. This project examines the requirements of the law, risks of not complying the law, how Sarbanes-Oxley has impacted environmental health and safety (EHS) management, and what EHS professionals and companies should be doing to comply with the law.

Effect Of Die Cutting On Polymeric Materials, Pushpak Jain

Theses

Concavity is a major concern of manufacturers in every region. Concavity occurs as a process of die cutting foam. During die cutting, hydraulic pressure is applied. The compression from die causes concavity in foam sheets. The experiment was conducted using eight different dies and 2different materials polyethylene and polyurethane with 2 different densities and 2 different thicknesses. The experiment will evaluate the factors contributing toward the concavity.

Language Integrated Query In Java For Xml And Relational Database, Anurag Naidu

Theses

XML and relational databases are the most commonly used data-sources for numerous Java-based enterprise applications. The ever-growing dependence of Java-based applications on these technologies calls for developing a uniform means of querying these data-sources in the Java layer such that queries written for any of these technologies look similar and are in fact governed by a single grammar. This thesis implements a new backend system encapsulating querying capabilities over XML and JDBC based relational databases which would complement the translation of queries written using QuEL [1], a language extension to the Java programming language. The QuEL language extension to Java …

Energy- And Area-Efficient Dc-Dc Converters Fabricated In Low Temperature Crystalline Silicon-On-Glass Technology, Hans Christian Rotmann

Theses

The display industry is moving toward the development of system-on-panel (SOP) architectures to make increasingly compact small-format displays and reduce manufacturing cost. Presently, the voltages required by pixel drivers, row scan logic, and timing circuitry, are generated from a single supply voltage using charge pumps fabricated on a high voltage, monolithic integrated circuit mounted off the glass panel.

In this work, a new high-efficiency charge pump architecture for fabrication on display glass substrates is presented. The distinguishing feature of this work is the nestedclock timing scheme used to improve power efficiency and reduce output voltage noise without the use of …

Landscapes Of Beethoven's Signature "From The Heart, May It Go To The Heart", Virginia L. Martin

Theses

"Landscapes of Beethoven's Signature, an exhibit consisting of twenty-two works of art in a variety of media, is a tribute to the revolutionary composer Ludwig van Beethoven [...]. Landscapes of Beethoven's Signature comprises a body of visual works showing the hand of Beethoven the Creative Artist. Literal landscapes, which also incorporate Beethoven's calligraphy, have been interpreted in the two larger oil paintings, 'In Moonlight' and 'Look Through These Trees.' Figurative depiction of 'landscape' and 'signature' is represented in a variety of ways within the sculptures, prints, books and calligraphy. For several of the pieces, visual material was derived from Beethoven's …

The Integration Of Graphic Communication And Educational Tools For Children With Dyslexia, Amar Abdulla Behbehani

Theses

Design for education is an important approach in the graphic design field. The intention of this thesis is to conduct further research that can help educators and designers build healthier learning environments for children with learning disabilities. Learning environments are not limited to physical environments such as classroom designs or school architecture; they are extended to cognitive environments that are greatly affected by external influences such as sensory stimulation and learning methods. Children with special educational needs could benefit from effective design solutions for better information processing. This designer attempts to develop typographic solutions to facilitate the reading process of …

Maybe, Kara Canal

Theses

Maybe consists of an installation space embracing three video projections, each presenting the viewer with a series of distilled moments. Every connected element in the installation provides an opportunity for engagement with the intangible memories of adolescence. The video pieces present fragments of narratives and invite viewers to fill in the gaps with their own memories, reflections and experiences. The point of view of the camera in each video positions the viewer as a voyeur—and as such the viewers are granted the opportunity to pause, consider and reflect, and hopefully realize something new about themselves while participating in the actions …

Special Project+ Privacy, Melody R. Barron

Vanderbilt Law Review

Privacy has long been a matter of particular concern in the minds of Americans. Indeed, privacy concerns were at the crux of the American Revolution. The earliest days of colonial life saw creation of laws protecting the individual against eavesdropping, and the sanctity of one's home. The Bill of Rights also reflects privacy interests. As America grew, technological advances in the dissemination of information caused public demands for protection of privacy rights; I Each year, the Vanderbilt Law Review publishes one issue with notes devoted solely to a topic of current interest. These notes collectively constitute the Special Project.

First Amendment Protection For The Publication Of Private Information, Jared Lenow

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over one hundred years ago, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis wrote, "Of the desirability-indeed of the necessity-of some protection [of the right of privacy], there can, it is believed, be no doubt. The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and decency." This observation rings even more true today than it did when it was made in 1890. In the past hundred years, members of the media have drastically revised the unwritten rules regarding what topics are fair game. While media outlets uniformly declined to publish photographs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a wheelchair while he …

Jack, Han-Yi Tseng

Theses

Not Included

Physicians And Torture: Lessons From The Nazi Doctors, Michael Grodin, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

How is it possible? What are the personal, professional and political contexts that allow physicians to use their skills to torture and kill rather than heal? What are the psychological characteristics and the social, cultural and political factors that predispose physicians to participate in human rights abuses? What can be done to recognize at-risk situations and attempt to provide corrective or preventive strategies? This article examines case studies from Nazi Germany in an attempt to answer these questions. Subjects discussed include the psychology of the individual perpetrator, dehumanization, numbing, splitting, omnipotence, medicalization, group dynamics, obedience to authority, diffusion of responsibility, …

Court Of Law And Court Of Public Opinion: Symbiotic Regulation Of The Corporate Management Duty Of Care, Tamar S. Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

In In re Walt Disney Co. Derivative Litigation the Delaware court exonerated the defendants for their handling of the Ovitz Affair, and yet condemned them. It is a classic example of how a court of law can make law without making law. By an obiter dictum, the Chancellor established the facts of the case and footnoted the sources much like a treatise or a casebook, recounted the general principles of the law, used strong words to describe the defendants' behavior, delved into the moral and business judgment of the defendants, and assisted the market in judging and enforcing its best …

There’S Just One Hitch, Will Smith: Examining Title Vii, Race, Casting, And Discrimination On The Fortieth Anniversary Of Loving V. Virginia, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

In this Symposium Essay, I use Loving v. Virginia as a backdrop for exploring why our society allows, without legal challenge, customer preference or discrimination to unduly influence casting decisions for actors paired in romantic couples in movies and television. In so doing, I examine how existing anti-discrimination law in employment can and should be used to address these improper influences within the entertainment industry. In Part I of the Essay, I first survey the growing practice of casting intraminority couples casting in films and television and examine how such casting, despite its appeal on the surface, may work to …

The Bush Administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program And The Fourth Amendment's Warrant Requirement: Lessons From Justice Powell And The Keith Case, Tracey D. Maclin

Faculty Scholarship

This article was written for a symposium issue of the University of California at Davis Law Review on the fortieth anniversary of Katz v. United States. The article analyzes the Bush Administration's claim that the President has the authority to order warrant less electronic surveillance of communications between American citizens and persons abroad suspected of having connections with foreign terrorists groups. When evaluating this claim, my article focuses on a case that could be characterized as more constitutionally robust and stronger Katz. That case is United States v. United States District Court, also known as Keith. The Keith ruling held …

Love, Marriage, And The Baby Carriage: Revisiting The Channelling Function Of Family Law, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This Article revisits a significant idea at the core of contemporary debates in family law: the channeling function of family law. This idea is that a basic purpose of family law is to support fundamental social institutions, like marriage and parenthood, and to steer people into participating in them. Family law scholar Carl Schneider helpfully invited attention to this familiar idea in an essay published fifteen years ago. Challenges to the conventional sequence (expressed in the childhood rhyme) of love-marriage-baby carriage posed by changing social practices, rights claims made by various groups within society that lead to legislative change and …

The Road Also Taken: Lessons From Organic Agriculture For Market- And Risk-Based Regulation, Donald Thomas Hornstein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Debtor-Patient Revisited, Melissa B. Jacoby

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Duke Lacrosse Case, Innocence, And False Identifications: A Fundamental Failure To "Do Justice", Robert P. Mosteller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The "Visions Of Pele" Competition And Exhibit At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Jeremy Spoon

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article provides an overview of the "Visions of Pele" competition and exhibit at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.