Digital Commons Network^™

Youth Mentoring Program : Guiding New American Students To Success, Beatrice Jane Hill

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Remnants: Within An Age Of Digitalism, Marchelo Vera

Theses

21st Century civilization allows a glimpse into the progressive art paradigm that encompasses our constantly transforming technological advancements. These ideas explore the global network of our modern times and the interrelated possibilities within it. My collaborative and interdisciplinary methods give a glimpse into the future of digital/print media, augmented reality, and interactive environments. My artwork explores the hybrid, identity, culture, and an evolving reality within an age of Digitalism.

A Silicon P-I-N Detector For A Hybrid Cmos Imaging System, Christopher Shea

Theses

A fully depleted silicon p-i-n image sensor for a very low noise hybrid CMOS imaging system was simulated, fabricated, and electrically characterized. The image sensor was then bonded to the foundry fabricated CMOS circuitry to create the imaging system. SILVACO Atlas was used to simulate the steady state electrical operation of the device as well as the optical response. Revisions were made to an existing mask set to allow the use of both contact and projection lithography in the fabrication process. Significant process improvements were introduced to eliminate needless complexity and reduce leakage current from the previously reported 1.5x10-6 A/cm2 …

Reconfigurable Framework For High-Bandwidth Stream-Oriented Data Processing, Alexander Mykyta

Theses

Designing a digital system that implements an assortment of specialized high performance algorithms can be costly. Considerable non-recurring engineering costs are required to develop an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Additionally, updating or adding features to a design requires the ASIC to be redesigned and refabricated. An alternative to using an ASIC is the field programmable gate array (FPGA). The modern FPGA's ability to be partially reconfigured at runtime allows for the device to have the flexibility normally associated with a processor, while also being able to implement digital logic like in an ASIC. This capability allows for multiple digital …

Ripple Clock Schemes For Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata Circuits, Prafull Purohit

Theses

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is an emerging technology for building digital circuits at nano-scale. It is considered as an alternative to widely used complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology because of its key features, which include low power operation, high density and high operating frequency. Unlike conventional logic circuits in which information is transferred by electrical current, QCA operates with the help of coulomb interaction between two adjacent QCA cells. A QCA cell is a set of four quantum-dots that are placed near the corners of a square. Due to the fact that clocking provides power and control of data …

Balkan Minds: Transnational Nationalism And The Transformation Of South Slavic Immigrant Identity In Chicago, 1890-1941, Dejan Kralj

Dissertations (1 year embargo)

At the start of the twentieth century, America was inundated with unskilled workers eager to fuel the engines of the new economy. The South Slavs of the Balkans joined countless others from the furthest corners of the European continent during the final years of the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth. Millions of foreign and unfamiliar faces, outlandishly clad, replaced the previous fair-haired and fair-skinned Western Europeans that originally populated the nation. These innumerably diverse peoples of eastern and southern European origin redefined the character of twentieth-century America.

The vast majority of South Slavic immigrants arrived in …

What Is "Good Legal Writing" And Why Does It Matter?, Mark Osbeck

Articles

Law schools face increasing pressure to improve instruction in practice-oriented skills. One of the most important of these skills is legal writing. The existing literature on legal writing contains various rules and suggestions as to how legal writers can improve their writing skills. Yet it lacks an adequate theoretical account of the fundamental nature of good legal writing. As a result, legal writers are left without a solid conceptual framework to ground the individual rules and suggestions. This Article attempts to fill the theoretical void in the literature by offering a systematic analysis of what it is for a legal …

Democrats At Doj: Why Partisan Use Of The Voting Rights Act Might Not Be So Bad After All, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

In notable ways, the ongoing dispute over redistricting in Texas offers a mirror image to one of the major redistricting battles of the last decade, only with Democratic and Republican roles reversed. In both Texas v. United States and Georgia v. Ashcroft, a state attorney general (AG) decided he would not ask the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to approve new redistricting plans enacted in his state. In both cases, the state AGs were well aware that the Voting Rights Act (VRA) required them to obtain federal approval, known as preclearance, before changing any aspect of their state's election …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Membership 2012-2013, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

List of past membership for Faculty Senate including members, substitutes, and presidentially appointed members; names, emails, the year for end of term, college, UMC, and phone number are recorded.

False Convictions, Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Samuel R. Gross

Book Chapters

False convictions have received a lot of attention in recent years. Two-hundred and forty-one prisoners have been released after DNA testing has proved their innocence, and hundreds of others have been released without DNA evidence. We now know quite a bit more about false convictions than we did thirty years ago - but there is much more that we do not know, and may never know.

Protecting Nature, Preserving Life: A Visual Exploration Of Carbon Footprint Calculator, Byungmi Choi

Theses

Vast amounts of complex raw data, which can be overwhelming and difficult to understand, surrounds us. Processing and transforming this data into meaningful information increases its usefulness and subsequently deepens our knowledge. Computer graphics designers explore thoughtful design solutions using methods for organizing, prioritizing, structuring and interacting with content, making it accessible, understandable and eliminating ambiguity.

Carbon Footprint Calculator visually represents the quantity of greenhouse gases individuals generate and quantifies each state's carbon usage. It collects data regarding people's carbon usage as far as transportation and electricity. This project's goal involves using data visualization to make important and complex information …

Characterization And Modeling Of Pneumatic Multi-Material Micro-Extrusion, Tejas Bendarkar

Theses

Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) are characterized by a continuous variation in the composition of parent materials through the work piece volume. This gradual change in material composition is aimed at improving mechanical, thermal and/or electrical properties of the material. FGMs are being increasingly used in a variety of applications including aerospace, biomedical and nuclear.

FGMs have been produced using additive manufacturing processes such as laser engineered net shaping (LENS) and 30 printing. A relatively new process category called direct write (OW) printing has evolved over the past decade. OW techniques such as multi-material micro-extrusion are capable of producing FGMs. To …

Optical And Mechanical Characterization Of Inas/Gaas Quantum Dot Solar Cells, Christopher G. Bailey

Theses

State of the art triple junction solar cells have achieved in excess of 43% efficiency. In order to extend this beyond a multijunction-only design, novel approaches to photon conversion must be sought and realized. Two novel mechanisms, bandgap engineering and absorption from an intermediate state within a semiconductor bandgap show promise in this regard. A single promising approach to both of these novel mechanisms is to exploit the unique properties of nanostructured materials to extend the absorption spectrum for the ultimate improvement of solar energy conversion efficiency. In this work, it is proposed to utilize InAs quantum dot (QD) nanostructures …

Effects Of Binge Alcohol Exposure On Canonical Wnt Signaling During Fracture Repair, Kristen Leigh Lauing

Dissertations

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with increased fracture risk, delayed bone healing and fracture non-union. Binge alcohol consumption has occurred in 25-40% of all orthopaedic trauma cases. The canonical Wnt pathway, through tight regulation of stabilized beta-catenin, plays an essential and pivotal role in the formation of new bone and cartilage to initiate bone repair. We sought to determine the molecular mechanisms behind alcohol-related fracture complications by testing the hypothesis that binge alcohol exposure deregulates canonical Wnt signaling in the fracture callus, leading to impaired healing.

To test this, C57BL/6 or beta-catenin/TCF-reporter male mice were exposed to intraperitoneal alcohol or …