Digital Commons Network^™

The Representation Of Blacks And Hispanics In Media Depictions Of The Catholic Church, Sven Smith, Naseer Malik

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

Fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI promulgated the Decree on Means of Social Communication at the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council.2 In this document, the Council outlined the responsibilities of the media in the rapidly-changing post WWII global society. Here, Smith and Malik present the results of an empirical study of the media’s approach to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis I. They show that the media reinforces stereotypes of the U.S. Catholic Church as a white institution by choosing to over-represent Catholic membership as well as leadership as …

Cinema In The Digital Age: A Rebuttal To Lev Manovich, Barbara Cail

Philosophy

In his book The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich claims the index is an ontological condition of cinema. Manovich asserts digital cinema can never be indexical and therefore has fundamentally altered the very nature of cinema, reducing it to a form of animation. This paper offers a refutation of Manovich’s redefinition of cinema, showing that digital cinema can be indexical, but indexicality is not an ontological condition of cinema.

Differential Habitat Use By Common Watersnakes (Nerodia Sipedon), Lorin A. Neuman-Lee, Andrew M. Durso, Nicholas M. Kiriazis, Melanie J. Olds, Stephen J. Mullin

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Understanding intraspecific variation in habitat use is important for the management of any species. In many studies of reptiles, habitat use by juveniles is poorly understood when compared to their adult conspecifics because of capture biases and logistical constraints. We compared habitat use between sexes and age classes of Common Watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) at a reservoir in central Illinois. Juvenile N. sipedon occurred more frequently in habitat with high canopy cover, whereas adult N. sipedon, especially reproductive females, were found exclusively in habitat with no canopy cover. Adult males used both locations equally. We emphasize the need to investigate ontogenetic …

Practical Handling Skills During Road Transport Of Fattening Pigs From Farm To Slaughterhouse: A Brief Review, Bert Driessen, Ester Peeters, Jos Van Thielen, Sanne Van Beirendonck

Transport of Farm Animals Collection

The transport of fattening pigs is characterized by a strong human-animal interaction. Consequent handling is important because of animal welfare, meat quality and matching economic consequences. During road transport, human impact can be divided in different steps: 1) driving pigs from the pens via an alley to the trailer, 2) loading, 3) actual transport, 4) unloading to the lairage, and 5) the final phase driving pigs to the stunning. An inadequate design and a poor condition of the facilities will negatively affect the ease of handling pigs. Because of the consequences, acute stress during transport and slaughter should be minimized …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Chicken Industry

Agribusiness Reports

More than 8.5 billion chickens are slaughtered for meat production in the United States every year. Raised in industrial production systems, these animals experience crowded indoor confinement, unnatural lighting regimes, poor air quality, stressful handling and transportation, and inadequate stunning and slaughter procedures. Because they are selectively bred for rapid growth, broiler chickens are prone to a variety of severe skeletal and metabolic disorders that can cause suffering, pain, and even death. Broiler breeders, the parent birds of chickens raised for meat, are subjected to severe feed restriction, and males may undergo painful toe and beak amputations, performed without pain …

Longevity And Mortality Of Owned Dogs In England, D. G. O'Neill, D. B. Church, P. D. Mcgreevy, P. C. Thomson, D. C. Brodbelt

Epidemiology Collection

Improved understanding of longevity represents a significant welfare opportunity for the domestic dog, given its unparalleled morphological diversity. Epidemiological research using electronic patient records (EPRs) collected from primary veterinary practices overcomes many inherent limitations of referral clinic, owner questionnaire and pet insurance data. Clinical health data from 102,609 owned dogs attending first opinion veterinary practices (n = 86) in central and southeast England were analysed, focusing on 5095 confirmed deaths.

Of deceased dogs with information available, 3961 (77.9%) were purebred, 2386 (47.0%) were female, 2528 (49.8%) were neutered and 1105 (21.7%) were insured. The overall median longevity was 12.0 years …

Dech2013, Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly Manuscripts

From December 2013 Robert Kelly Archives

Weddings And Sustainability: A Case Study Examining Green Practices At Green With Envy Events, Jessica Roth

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Green with Envy Events is a sustainable event planning company based out of San Diego, California. This company was used when conducting a case study examining sustainable wedding practices. The research was gathered using internet research, academic journals, and information from the Green with Envy Events website. The company demographics were examined and the company’s sustainable practices were analyzed by comparing various aspects to a complete checklist. It was found that there are numerous sustainable materials and services that can be used, that sustainable materials and services are a better option than non-sustainable materials and services, and that the company …

Geoelectrical Detection Of Water Table Depth At Two Locations In The Los Osos Groundwater Basin, Hallie A. Douglas

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The city of Los Osos sits on top of a coastal groundwater aquifer which is the sole supplier of all its residential, agricultural, and industrial water needs. Lacking a sewer system, the upper aquifer became progressively contaminated with nitrates over several decades. Groundwater pumping eventually shifted to the lower aquifer, however seawater intrusion of the lower aquifer caused by over-pumping has further degraded water quality. The Los Osos groundwater basin provides an excellent field region to examine the utility of geophysical methods for characterizing aquifer structure. In this study shallow (<20 >m) electrical resistivity imaging methods were performed at two …

Equipment Maintenance And Replacement Decision Making Processes, Michael W. Gage

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project contains recommendations for the decision making processes for support and production equipment maintenance and replacement for a large defense contractor. Recent literature has been reviewed to provide perspective on current trends in the field. A complete evaluation of their current processes and systems is included with recommendations on areas for improvement. A decision support system is also proposed to supplement their existing decision making.

Fixture For Carbon Fiber Spar Of Human Powered Helicopter, David John Ikeda, Luis Gonzalez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The following report describes our contribution to Cal Poly Human Powered Helicopter for the 2012 competition for the Sikorsky Prize offered by the American Helicopter Society. In order to win this prize the team needs to build and fly a human powered helicopter for more than 60 seconds reaching and altitude of 3 meters while staying in a 10 meter square box. Our team was created to support the integration of Carbon Fiber parts, specifically the carbon fiber spars with rotor and landing gears. Precise cutting and accurate drilling was needed and our team was tasked with creating a fixture …

Information Systems To Support “Door-Step Banking”: Enabling Scalability Of Microfinance To Serve More Of The Poor At The Bottom Of The Pyramid, Lakshmi Mohan, Devendra Potnis, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Microfinance provides financial services to the extremely poor who are not served by banks. At the heart of microfinance is microcredit which provides small loans to the unbanked poor to seed small local businesses. Microfinance may help alleviate poverty because access to finance has a positive impact on economic development. The unmet need of the poor for financial services spawned over 11,000 microfinance institutions (MFIs) by 2010, but 90 percent of these MFIs are small with fewer than 10,000 clients. This article presents three case examples of MFIs in India that deployed information systems (IS) to increase the scale of …

Immobilization Of Lead In Contaminated Firing Range Soil Using Biochar, Deok Hyun Moon, Jae-Woo Park, Yoon-Young Chang, Yong Sik Ok, Sang Soo Lee, Mahtab Ahmad, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Jeong Hun Park, Kitae Baek

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Soybean stover-derived biochar was used to immobilize lead (Pb) in military firing range soil at a mass application rate of 0 to 20 wt.% and a curing period of 7 days. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment. The mechanism responsible for Pb immobilization in military firing range soil was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy analyses. The treatment results showed that TCLP Pb leachability decreased with increasing biochar content. A reduction of over 90 % in Pb leachability was achieved upon …

Huntsman Alumni Magazine, Fall 2013, Usu Jon M. Huntsman School Of Business

Huntsman Business Magazine

Alumni magazine for the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.

Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The government is not the only player in copyright reform, and perhaps not even the most important. Left to free market negotiation, risk averse licensors and licensees are contracting around the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content, and achieving greater efficiency via private ordering. This emerging phenomenon, herein termed “private copyright reform,” presents both adverse selection and distributive justice concerns: first, circumvention of the statutory license goes against legislative intent by allowing for the reduction, and even elimination, of statutorily mandated royalties owed to non-parties. In addition, when presented without full term disclosure, privately determined royalty rates can …

Interactive Methods And Collaborative Performance: A New Future For Indirect Infringement, Josh Rychlinski

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

An individual is liable for patent infringement if he infringes one or more patented claims either directly under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) or indirectly under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b) or § 271(c). In 2012, the Federal Circuit clarified its interpretation of § 271(b) and § 271(c) in the case of Akamai v. Limelight. However, the court failed to address issues of “divided” direct infringement, where two or more entities combine and together complete each and every step of a method claim, but no single entity does all of the steps. This Note walks through the history of the judicial interpretation …

An Automated, Track-Based Climatology Of Rossby Wave Packets, Matthew Souders

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This research produces an objective, track-based climatology of Rossby wave packets (RWPs) and tests the sensitivity of the results to changes in the methods used in filtering the raw data and in tracking. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis wind and geopotential height data at 300 hPa every 6 hours were spectrally filtered using a Hilbert transform technique under the assumption that RWPs propagate along a waveguide defined by the 14-day running average of the 300 hPa wind. After some spatial smoothing, the local maxima in RWP envelope amplitude (WPA) were tracked using two objective techniques: a point-based cost optimization routine and a hybrid …

Prey Plasticity Responses To A Native And Nonnative Predator, Alexandra Hooks

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental stimuli is exceedingly common across systems and taxa. For instance, predation risk in many gastropods can induce a variety of defenses including growing thicker shells, growing shells of different shapes, and developing apertural teeth. However, the role of coevolution between species that produce these defense responses and their consumers is not well known. This thesis examines the responses of an ovoviviparous gastropod (Littorina saxatilis) with low dispersal from three different habitats (marsh habitat, rocky habitat, and cobble stone habitat) to the presence of chemical cues from a native (Dyspanopeus sayi) and nonnative (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) …

The Chinese Equity Risk Factor Model Based On Heavy Tailed Distributions, And Its Application In Risk Management And Portfolio Optimization, Tianyu Lu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In financial risk and portfolio management, the heavy tailed distributions of one-dimensional asset returns and complex dependence structure among multi-dimensional asset returns are two widely discussed problems. Various distributions, which share the desired properties, such as heavy tails, skewness and kurtosis, have been introduced and applied into practice. On the other hand, factor modeling as a technique of dimension reduction, has been used in multivariate statistical analysis and econometric model building, especially in high-dimensional world of financial risk management In this dissertation, we study these two popular problems in risk and portfolio management. The findings are empirically examined through their …

Aspects Of Supersymmetric Field Theories And Complex Geometry, Patricio Marcos Crichigno

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this dissertation we study various aspects of Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theory and Complex Geometry. We focus on three main aspects. The first is general N=(2,2) gauged linear sigma models involving semichiral fields. We show that integrating out the semichiral vector multiplet leads to the generalized potential for a hyperkahler manifold, providing a formulation of the hyperkahler quotient in a generalized setting. We then discuss a new quotient construction which leads to non-Kahler manifolds. The second problem we study is motivated by recent developments in the study of the Coulomb branch of supersymmetric theories with a hyperkahler moduli space. A …

Quantum Computation And Quantum Measurements With Mesoscopic Superconducting Structures, Qiang Deng

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Systems of mesoscopic Josephson junctions are at present among the leading candidates for development of practical qubits for quantum information devices. Although different qubit structures have been realized with Josephson junctions, their common feature is the design that is optimized to overcome the problem of decoherence by the low-frequency noise that exists in all solid-state structures. In the presented dissertation research, we propose and study an alternative approach of direct suppression of noise by a feedback loop based on the low-frequency quantum measurements. The minimal noise induced in the qubit by such a feedback loop is calculated under the conditions …

Low Momentum Direct Photons As A Probe Of Heavy Ion Collisions, Richard Michael Petti

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Relativistic heavy ion collisions have been a major research interest in the field of nuclear physics for the past few decades. Large collider facilities have been constructed to study the exotic matter produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions, one of which is the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY. Essential to the study of heavy ion collisions are probes that are produced in the collision itself. Photons are a very useful probe of the collisions, since they escape the fireball virtually unmodified and carry with them information about the environment in which it was …

Entanglement In Low Dimensional Systems, Raul Santos

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In the ground state of gapped systems, the entanglement entropy of a subsystem A scales with the length of the boundary of A. This observation suggests that the entanglement properties of the sub- system can be described in terms of degrees of freedom living in the boundary of A. We will discuss the the connection between en- tanglement properties and effective boundary descriptions in spin systems in one and two dimensions. In one dimension we present analytic results for the spin S = 1, Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) ground state entanglement, characterized by negativity and entanglement spectrum. We also discuss a generalization …

A Hydrodynamic Analysis Of Collective Flow In Heavy-Ion Collisions, Li Yan

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Recent progress in the hydrodynamic simulation of heavy-ion collisions have characterized the fluctuating initial state and the viscous corrections to the corresponding collective flow. These fluctuations naturally explain the " ridge" and " shoulder" structure of the measured two-particle correlation functions at RHIC and the LHC. We introduce a cumulant expansion for analyzing the azimuthal fluctuations in the initial state. The cumulant definitions systematically describe the azimuthal anisotropy order by order. In particular, the dipole asymmetry $\epsilon_1$ appears at third order in the expansion, and the response to this initial fluctuation produces a radipity even dipole flow $v_1$, which has …

The Dynamical Basis Of The Decanalization Of Gene Expression In Kr Uppel Mutant Embryos, Lena Panok

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Canalization is the ability of an organism's phenotype to remain stable under a perturbation in their genotype or the environment. It has been noted that there is no canalization or canalization is to a much smaller degree in mutants than in wild type. Waddington's idea was to understand canalization through studying gene interactions. We investigate the mechanisms of canalization of gap gene patterns in D.melanogaster through dynamical analysis of the gene circuit. To carry out this investigation we construct a dynamical model of the evolution of the concentration of protein products of the gap genes in time. Our model, which …

The Dynamical Basis Of The Decanalization Of Gene Expression In Kr Uppel Mutant Embryos, Lena Panok

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Canalization is the ability of an organism's phenotype to remain stable under a perturbation in their genotype or the environment. It has been noted that there is no canalization or canalization is to a much smaller degree in mutants than in wild type. Waddington's idea was to understand canalization through studying gene interactions. We investigate the mechanisms of canalization of gap gene patterns in D.melanogaster through dynamical analysis of the gene circuit. To carry out this investigation we construct a dynamical model of the evolution of the concentration of protein products of the gap genes in time. Our model, which …

High-Order Surface Reconstruction And Its Applications To Surface Integrals And Surface Remeshing, Navamita Ray

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

High-order surface reconstruction is a numerical technique to obtain high-order approximations of both geometry and its differential quantities such as normals, curvatures, etc. | over a discrete surface mesh. Its computational framework is based on local polynomial fittings using a weighted least squares approach. In this dissertation, we complete the scope of this framework to compute high-order approximations of surface integrals and demonstrate the application of the complete framework to various mesh-based numerical computations for high-order numerical methods. The computational framework relies on an efficient underlying mesh data structure for various traversal queries. For this purpose, an array-based mesh data …

Preparation And Investigation Of Multi-Alkali Photocathode, Xue Liang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Multialikali antimonide photocathodes exhibit high quantum efficiency in visible light range, so this kind of cathodes is attractive for use in high average current photoinjectors to generate high quality electron beams. We have grown multi-alkali photocathodes on silicon (100) substrates, simultaneously acquiring in-situ X-ray reflection (XRR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data throughout the growth process. Correlations between cathode structure and growth parameters and the resulting quantum efficiency (QE) have been explored. | 40 pages

The Ricci Flow On Manifolds With Boundary, Panagiotis Gianniotis

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this thesis, we investigate issues related to boundary value problems for the Ricci flow. First, we focus on a compact manifold with boundary and show the short-time existence, regularity and uniqueness of the flow. To obtain these results we impose the boundary conditions proposed by Anderson for the Einstein equations, namely the mean curvature and the conformal class of the boundary. We also show that a certain continuation principle holds. Our methods still apply when the manifold is not compact, as long as it has compact boundary and an appropriate control of the geometry at infinity. Secondly, motivated by …

Characterization Of Magnesium Silicide Processed With Thermal Spray For Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting, Chao Nie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Mg2Si has long been recognized as one of the promising thermoelectric materials; the fabrication methods are hot press, spark plasma sintering, high temperature sintering, etc. however, application of thermoelectric materials requires large scale manufacturing but traditional manufacturing process cannot reach this goal by its nature; thus we employed thermal spray technology to fabricate such thermoelectric material. In collaboration with Thermal Spray Center in Stony Brook University, we manufactured Mg¬2¬Si coatings on titanium substrate by plasma thermal spray technology. Samples were further characterized in various methods: scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibits the micro structures of sprayed Mg2Si coatings; X-ray spectroscopy (XRD) …