Digital Commons Network^™

The End Of The Means: Using The Arab Spring Revolutions As A Case Study For Machiavelli’S The Prince, Conor Sullivan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study sets out to examine if Machiavellian, realpolitik, style repression of unrest by autocratic regimes is still a viable tactic. To accomplish this, the Arab Spring revolutions in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria will be used as a case study. As the revolts were for similar economic and political reasons in a similar population, they present excellent case studies. The Prince itself will be used to develop a “Machiavellian regime,” encompassing a summary of Machiavelli’s prescriptions for rulers. This is done to avoid propagating clichéd or incorrect generalizations of Machiavelli’s work. The result of the study was not …

“A More Stainless And Splendid Name?” Contrasting The Wartime And Peacetime Strategies Of William Pitt, Earl Of Chatham, 1757-1778, Lori Ann Holmes

History Theses

In 1757, a global struggle ensued between Great Britain and France. Britain had faltered in the early stages of the Seven Years’ War until William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, became the Southern Secretary of State. During his tenure, he shifted the focus away from Europe, instead focusing on North America. It was the strategy he employed that destroyed the French Empire in the New World and created the large and powerful British Empire. It was his success that elevated him to popularity in both Britain and the Thirteen American Colonies. His success would cause King George III to grant him …

On The Psalms As A Primary Source For The Old English Exodus, Ricky L. Nolen

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

An argument for the biblical Psalms as a primary source for the Old English poem "Exodus".

The Paleoepidemiology Of Malaria In The Ancient Near East, Nicole Elizabeth Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The end of the Late Bronze Age in the Near East (1300 - 1200 BCE) saw the widespread collapse of several large cultural centers, the reasons for which are a subject of continued debate. Evidence from events leading up to this cultural collapse suggest epidemic disease may have factored into the eventual downfall of these early civilizations. Recent DNA analysis from Egyptian mummies who lived during the period leading up to the Late Bronze Age collapse identified malaria in several elite individuals, suggesting the widespread prevalence of this infectious disease in Egypt. However, the exact prevalence, antiquity, and dynamics of …

Effects Of Gamification On Speed And Accuracy On An Interdependent Paper Sorting Task, Davis Tinkle

HIM 1990-2015

This study examined the effects of gamification, i.e. (what makes games challenging, engaging and fun), and its effects on speed and accuracy on an interdependent paper sorting task. Undergraduate students (N=42) at the University of Central Florida participated by working interdependently in groups to sort numbered pieces of paper into piles before and after either playing video games or doing back-to-back drawing(basic team building exercises). It was hypothesized that participants who played video games would sort pieces of paper into the piles faster and more accurate than those who did back-to-back team exercises. Results showed that playing video games was …

The Roman Conquest Of Britain, Jason Delaney

HIM 1990-2015

In 43 CE, Britain became part of the Roman Empire and was systematically conquered for nearly half a century. The province had valuable natural resources to plunder, but the decision to invade was based upon more than its material wealth. Prestige through warfare was paramount in Roman society, and that is just what Claudius sought to achieve when he launched his invasion of the island. The Romans pushed all the way into Caledonia before stopping and securing the frontier with the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. Britain had become just another component in the colossal machine that was the Roman Empire.

Book Review: Will The Real Henry Kissinger Please Stand Up?, Leonid Heretz

Bridgewater Review

Book review of:

• Henry Kissinger, World Order (New York: Penguin Press, 2014).

U.S. Airspace Integration: Perspectives Of The Faa Uas Test Site Program, Marian Laura Courtney

Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system, congress mandated action by the Federal Aviation Administration under the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. It required the formation of six test sites that would conduct unmanned aircraft operations in an effort to assist the FAA in its task to form safety regulations regarding unmanned aircraft. The FAA has been heavily criticized for its slow movement and inability to meet deadlines. The purpose of this study is to gather perceptions of the FAA’s unmanned aircraft systems test site program. Using a qualitative approach, interviews …

Female Integration In Terrorist Groups, Ayana Lilllian Gray

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

his thesis examines levels of female integration in nine terrorist groups.

Eigenvectors Of Interpoint Distance Matrices, Michelle F. Craft

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

In this paper, the eigenvectors of interpoint distance matrices will be discussed. When plotted against each other, the eigenvectors of the distance matrix of evenly spaced points in one dimension produce some interesting patterns. An explanation and description of the patterns will be discussed. After examining many aspects of the general Euclidean interpoint distance matrix of order N, D, as well as characteristics of the eigenvectors themselves,some conclusions can be made. Furthermore, research revealed a similarity between our matrices, D, and the Discrete Cosine Transform Matrix, DCT-2. This research led to additional conclusion about our matrices D and allowed for …

A Most Fateful Encounter: How Scipio Africanus Defeated Hannibal Barca At The Battle Of Zama, Harry C. Rol

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This thesis addresses the question of why Hannibal Barca suffered such a decisive defeat at the hands of Scipio Africanus in the Battle of Zama. I begin by conducting a thorough analysis of the two ancient sources that have provided us with the bulk of what is known about the battle and the events leading up to it. My analysis of them primarily concerns itself with determining how objective and trustworthy these accounts are, and as such how much faith can be placed in the details they provide. Using these sources, I then proceed to examine the events leading up …

Fixing The Failed: An Investigation Of Terrorist Organizations And State Building Capabilities, Joshua Adam Freeman

Master's Theses

This study examines the role of terrorist organizations in failed states. In particular, their ability to perform positive state-building activities that result in stability is investigated. Both terrorism and state failure present unique and serious threats to international security. However, there is very little literature concerning the positive effect terrorist organizations can have in failed states. Presented is not only an investigation of the linkages between state failure and terrorism, but also a new classification of terrorist organizations based upon their ability to state-build in failed states. These organizations are classified by their ability to provide goods and services within …

Musical Portrayals Of Death In Mussorgsky’S Songs And Dances Of Death, Graham Michael Anduri

Dissertations

Musorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death presents a set of unique portrayals of death in art song literature. Aside from the obvious challenge of the Russian language and Cyrillic alphabet which are unfamiliar to most Western performers, the unique musical style, historical context, and complex psychological implications of Songs and Dances of Death require a good deal of study before one can fully grasp the profundity and importance of this cycle.

Musorgsky’s views on music and life, the Zeitgeist in which these songs were composed, a historical analysis of the medieval Dance of Death tradition and its influence on the …

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: The Failure Of Japan's "Monroe Doctrine" For Asia, Nathaniel W. Giles

Undergraduate Honors Theses

By 1942, the Japanese occupied nearly all of East and Southeast Asia and their influence even spread as far as British controlled India. This occupation, known as The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, was an ideological unity of Asia under the facade of mutual benefit and welfare of Japan and the other nations within the Sphere. However, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere failed because of the inability of the Japanese to form this mutual benefit between the nations within the Sphere. This work evaluates the events that led to The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, life within the Sphere, …

Moving The Plague: The Movement Of People And The Spread Of Bubonic Plague In Fourteenth Century Through Eighteenth Century Europe, Gillian R. Fowler

Honors Theses

Research regarding the Yersinia Pestis (bubonic plague) in later medieval and early modern Europe has focused mainly on rat fleas and their role in transmitting the bacteria. This research focuses on people and their day to day movements and how that relates to the spread of bubonic plague across the following three areas of Europe, England, France and northern Italy during the time period between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. The changing belief system regarding the cause of these outbreaks emerges within these medieval Europeans which helps to facilitate the growing response to plague outbreaks and the affirmative actions taken …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Former Us Army Personnel And Their Perspectives On Toxic Leadership, Joseph Asbery

Education Doctoral

Toxic leadership is defined in the Army as a combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that adversely affect others (US Army, 2012). Toxic leadership is currently a phenomenon that is problematic for the U.S. Army and its consequences it has on solider morale (Ellie, 2012). Moreover, the US Army’s recognition of this problem and movement to eradicate it has been a slow process with limited resolutions. The present research yields participant agreement on the negative impact that toxic leadership has on solider morale. In order to determine the impact that toxic leadership has on the morale of its personnel, …

The Repressive Role Of Technology In American And British Dystopian Novels Of The Cold War, Gabriela Wolk

HIM 1990-2015

The Cold War was a time of extreme conformity, with an equally extreme reaction against forced conformity. Representations of such reactions were not to be omitted in the literature of the time. Throughout the novels, the characters and society itself are repressed into an alternate state of being. This investigation analyzes the role that technology plays in this process in Fahrenheit 451, Sirens of Titan, 1984, Lord of the Flies, and A Clockwork Orange. The novels were all written during the Cold War and follow a dystopian society. Society is controlled and maintained in its respective disarray through the utilization …

Operation Judicial Review: A Comparative Analysis Of The Role Of The Judiciary In Domestic And Foreign Detention And Material Support Cases During The War On Terror, Tyler Mitchell

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Bush and Obama administrations have pursued a military campaign during the War on Terror in which “the world is a battlefield.” The globalized nature of contemporary warfare has tested the limits of constitutional protections for individuals under the control of the United States government. My distinction thesis focuses on the extension of constitutional rights and, in turn, the maintenance of the separation of powers during the War on Terror. I provide a comparative analysis of the role of the judiciary to reconcile constitutional First Amendment free speech & association and habeus corpus rights with federal executive & legislative counterterrorism …

Gold, Blood, And Power: Finance And War Through The Ages, James Lacey Mr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

This monograph presents a survey of the crucial link between state (national) power and finance from the ancient era through to the present day. Cicero once said that the true sinew of war was “endless streams of money.” His observation remains as accurate today as it was when Rome first began constructing its Empire. Unfortunately, too many historical works leave this crucial underpinning link out of their narratives. Even those that do discuss economic and financial concerns typically miss the fact that the size of a state’s economy often has little to do with its capacity to wield influence on …

Toward A Buddhist Theory Of Structural Peace: Lessons From Myanmar In Transition, Tatsushi Arai

Peace and Conflict Studies

This essay analyzes the result of in-depth interviews that the author conducted with Burmese Buddhist leaders, with a view toward building Buddhist theories of social conflict, reconciliation, and structural peace. Findings include their shared understanding of the deeply spiritual, inner-directed nature of conflict and reconciliation, and their highly divergent, contested understandings of the structural roots of human suffering in today’s globalized and interconnected world. To meet these structural challenges, this essay introduces the concept of structural awareness, which it defines as educated, enlightened consciousness to appreciate and act responsibly on the complex chains of causal relations in which well-intended action …

Success, Failure, And Obedience In Georgics Book Iv, Julie Kinsella Gavin

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper explores the concepts of success, failure, and obedience as seen in the Orpheus-Aristaeus story in Vergil's Georgics IV. Through their contrast, along with the juxtaposition of bees, Vergil's Georgics IV demonstrates that obedience in pre- Augustan Rome truly enables success, instead of the widely held notion that hard work does so. It is through the examination of love, toil, obedience, and the separate paths Orpheus, the bees, and Aristaeus take to achieve their goals, that the reader is able to understand Vergil's message in this last book of his masterpiece.

Investigations Into The Molecular Mechanisms Of Bacterial Pathogen–Host Interactions: Construction Of A Dual Plasmid System For Incorporation Of Unnatural Amino Acids Into Pseudomonas Syringae Pv. Tomato Dc3000, Scotty D. Raber

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A dual plasmid system for the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000, has been designed. This invention is expected to allow (a) mutations of proteins synthesized by the bacterium, P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000, that can capture molecular targets, especially for such modified proteins secreted by the phytopathogen into the host plant cells of A. thaliana and S. lycopersicum, (b) expression of biological probes in the bacterial species to monitor changes in redox, nutritional, and other small molecule states over pre-, post- and in situ disease stages, and secretion of such biological …

Designing, Building, And Modeling Maneuverable Applications Within Shared Computing Resources, William Clay Moody

All Dissertations

Extending the military principle of maneuver into war-fighting domain of cyberspace, academic and military researchers have produced many theoretical and strategic works, though few have focused on researching actual applications and systems that apply this principle. We present our research in designing, building and modeling maneuverable applications in order to gain the system advantages of resource provisioning, application optimization, and cybersecurity improvement. We have coined the phrase “Maneuverable Applications” to be defined as distributed and parallel application that take advantage of the modification, relocation, addition or removal of computing resources, giving the perception of movement. Our work with maneuverable applications …

Gal: A Stepwise Model For Automated Cloud Shadow Detection In Hico Oceanic Imagery Utilizing Guided Filter, Pixel Assignment, And Geometric Linking, Jennerpher Renee Meyers

Dissertations

Detection of cloud shadow pixels is an important step in image processing in several remote sensing ocean-color application domains, such as obtaining chlorophyll content. While shadow detection algorithms do exist, the vast majority are for over land which leaves few options for detection over water.

The detection of cloud shadow over water in HICO imagery is a unique problem. As its name implies, HICO (Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean) imagery is produced for coastal and oceanic regions. Since land based algorithms remove water before processing, these approaches would not be applicable. The only currently published HICO shadow pixel detection …

Polyethylene Glycol Diacrylate (Pegda) Resin Development For 3d-Printed Microfluidic Devices, Kamran Qaderi

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the successful fabrication of 3D-printed microfluidic devices will be discussed. Fabrication is performed with a low-cost commercially available stereolithographic 3D printer utilizing a custom PEGDA resin formulation tailored for low non-specific protein adsorption based on my colleagues' work [Rogers et al., Anal. Chem. 83, 6418 (2011)]. Horizontal microfluidic channels with designed rectangular cross sectional dimensions as small as 300 um wide and 150 um tall are printed with 100% yield, as are cylindrical vertical microfluidic channels with 300 um designed (334 um actual) diameters. Moreover, two different resins developed by our group are utilized in the process …

Beyond The Right To Counsel: Increasing Notice Of Collateral Consequences, Brian M. Murray

University of Richmond Law Review

This article responds to these questions by focusing on the primary roots of this justice issue, namely the prevalence of guiltypleas and the continued efforts of legislatures to increase the life- long price of a conviction. Part I begins with a discussion of these practical realities within the criminal justice system. Part II then examines the law of guilty pleas under the Fifth Amendment, including constitutional standards for valid pleas, and how current jurisprudence fails to account for the collateral consequences mentioned in Part I. Part II also discusses the right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment, …

Administrative Relationships, Agency Theory, And The Summer Work Travel Program: 2012-2013, Mark Reardon

All Dissertations

This study discusses the ability of the Summer Work Travel Program (SWTP) to meet the objectives outlined in its authorizing legislation, the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961. These goals include educational exchange between participants and the U.S. community, cultural exchange between participants and the U.S. community, and the promotion of peace exemplified by SWTP operators and the U.S. community. The study adopts agency and transaction cost theory to guide its discussion of the administrative relationship between the U.S. State Department and those designated as Summer Work Travel Sponsors. This study's findings include instances of informational and preference …

"So We Drove On Towards Death": Release And Mechanized Violence In The Great Gatsby, Clayton Lawrence Powers

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Eric J. Leed postulates a theory of restraint and release as formative forces in the trenches of the European fronts. I examine F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby for its portrayal of release that is tied to the presence of automobile “accidents.” These events emblematize the suppressed memory of mechanized violence. My first chapter addresses Gatsby and his fantasy of release in pursuing Daisy and the implications of release for morality in the post-war world. My second chapter is concerned with Tom Buchanan, whose traditional ideas about “civilization” are juxtaposed with the mechanistic violence of his defense of …

Discovering Rock Features With Geophysical Exploration And Archaeological Testing At The Mississippian Pile Mound Site, Upper Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee, Jeremy G. Menzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Pile Mound survey includes magnetometry paired with targeted ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) surveys of the mound and testing of associated features over the ca. 6.5 ha site. The GPR survey discovered six rock features (five large rock features within the mound and one marking the outside of the mound). Knowledge of mounds in the Upper Cumberland Plateau (UCP) is lacking—the closest other studied sites are at the Corbin Site, Croley-Evans, Bell Site, and Beasley Mounds, approximately 75 – 100 km away. However, the most similar mound construction is found at Corbin and Cherokee sites, some 175 …

All I Really Need To Know About Antitrust I Learned In 1912, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

Herbert Hovenkamp has indisputably earned the deanship of contemporary antitrust scholarship. One could point to many different attributes by which he has earned his laurels: fantastic scholarly productivity; clarity and precision in the craft of writing; analytical depth in both law and economics; moderation in a field apt to polarization; and custodianship of the influential Areeda treatise. In this Essay, I hope to honor another quality that has contributed significantly to Herb’s tremendous success as an antitrust scholar—his engagement with history. Much contemporary antitrust scholarship bursts with excitement at the discovery of new phenomena or theories that in all actuality …