Digital Commons Network^™

Defining Place Image, Candi Clouse, Ashutosh Dixit

Business Faculty Publications

The image of a place is important as it has implications for investments made in cities, workforce locations, and tourism. Place image incorporates concepts including brand, visual image, reputation, the sense of place, and the identity of the place - all of which create an overall image of a place and can lead to investment or abandonment. Place image has ramifications for decisions made about the place, including where businesses locate, where workers live, and where tourists visit (Smith, 2006). Place image has serious ramifications for decisions made about the place as people choose to stay, work, visit, and invest. …

Strengthened Knights: Masculinity In Sir Isumbras And El Libro Del Caballero Zifar, Ruth Mary Gripentrog

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I examine the masculinities of the titular characters in Sir Isumbras and El Libro del Caballero Zifar [The Book of the Knight Zifar] through a lens of power in which masculinity is proven through the dominance over other men. Zifar and Isumbras must construct and prove their masculinities in a variety of circumstances; however, they differ significantly in their treatment of masculinity: Sir Isumbras extolls a compound masculinity, which the Zifar aims for one of consistency. I have chosen to focus on two of medieval Europe’s main Christian powers, and through a comparative analysis, their distinct masculinities …

Redefining Islamic Identity: Cosmopolitanism In The Theater Of Tawfiq Al-Hakim And Akbar Ahmed, Gaber Abdelghaffar Abdelrahman Hasaneen

Theses and Dissertations

The question whether Islam is compatible with American, or generally “Western,” values has now imposed itself on public debates, gaining more urgency and traction with every tragic act of terrorism committed in the name of Islam. In these debates Islamic identity is usually defined in Orientalist terms. Fundamentalist Muslims reiterate Orientalist concepts of who a Muslim is. Orientalist observers on the one hand, and on the other fundamentalist Muslims have defined Islam as the West’s inimical Other, which has made the so-called clash of civilizations sound inevitable.

I argue that cosmopolitan observers challenge these misrepresentations. Representation, particularly self-representation, of the …

Paul Scott's "The Jewel In The Crown": A Novelist's Philosophy Of History And The End Of The British Raj, Kathryn Ann Hughes Nedegaard

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of Paul Scott’s best-known novel The Jewel in the Crown,

published in 1966. Scott noted that much of the research and writing on the British

Raj that ended in 1947, lacked an adequate understanding of the union that had

endured for more than three centuries. Scott believed too that many interpretations

of why the Raj ended relied too heavily on monolithic categories of “us and them”

and that they over-emphasized the socio-political and economic influences of

empire. He also believed that many scholars of the Raj ignored the love that existed

among all the people …

Bicycle Transit And The Journey To Work: An Exploration Of Bicycle Accessiblity In 10 Large U.S. Cities, Brandon Lee Andreasen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the access to bicycle infrastructure from home locations and the locations of employment opportunities. The accessibility of bicycle infrastructure to employment is calculated using distance thresholds of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 kilometers and compared using the road network, all bicycle infrastructure, and only bicycle paths for 10 United States cities. Findings indicate that on average, 71 percent of jobs in a city have access to bicycle infrastructure, which is found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level in relation to the bicycle commute mode share, as opposed to 66 percent of residents which was …

Major League Baseball Draft Pick Compensation: How To Evaluate The Marginal Revenue Product Of Labor Of Drafted Players, Matthew Peã±A

Theses and Dissertations

The Major League Baseball draft is virtually the only means by which US and US territory born players have access to becoming major league baseball players. As a condition of their initial contracts, players are subjected to initial contract terms, that limit their traditional free market ability to earn a salary commensurate with their actual worth. This research attempts to quantify the difference between what players would earn on the open market, as free agents, and what they earn by being controlled by baseball’s reserve clause, by analyzing the current compensation system established by Major League Baseball, how drafted players …

Britain's First War With Kandy: Landscape, Violence, And Conquest In Colonial Sri Lanka, Elizabeth Anne Mjelde

Theses and Dissertations

Accounts of travel to Sri Lanka published during the period of British conquest (1796 through 1818) reveal a consistent yet problematic tendency: despite ongoing military conflict, visual artists constructed representations of the island as a peaceful and orderly place. The contradiction is heightened when travelers’ uniformly tranquil images of Sri Lanka are juxtaposed with documented acts of destruction to land and property, undertaken by troops during Britain’s first war with the inland kingdom of Kandy, a conflict which eventually led to the island’s complete colonization. The present study reconciles this contradiction through analysis of publications by each of five artists …

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog, 2016-2017, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 2016-2017 undergraduate and/or graduate course catalog published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

Model Lessons For Math And Geography Activities, Karen Adams, Tyler Sexton, Shawnti Peachey

Instructional Materials

Model Lessons for Math and Geography Activities to use with The Student Atlas of Oregon.

What Is (And Isn't) Healthism?, Jessica L. Roberts, Elizabeth W. Leonard

Georgia Law Review

What does it mean to discriminateon the basis of health status? Health can, of course, speak to a number of things, such as the length of our lives, our ability to perform mentally and physically, our need for health care, and our risk of injury and incapacity. But the mere relevance of a particular attribute does not mean that considering it should be legally permissible. This Article explores when differentiating on the basis of health is acceptable- perhaps even desirable-and, by contrast, when it is normatively problematic. While we acknowledge that differentiations on the basis of health status can be …

Vaccination Rates Are Associated With Functional Proximity But Not Base Proximity Of Vaccination Clinics, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David I. Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Gwendolyn I. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Background: Routine annual influenza vaccinations are recommended for persons 6 months of age and older, but less than half of US adults get vaccinated. Many employers offer employees free influenza vaccinations at workplace clinics, but even then take-up is low.

Objective: To determine whether employees are significantly more likely to get vaccinated if they have a higher probability of walking by the clinic for reasons other than vaccination.

Method: We obtained data from an employer with a free workplace influenza vaccination clinic. Using each employee’s building entry/ exit swipe card data, we test whether functional proximity—the likelihood that the employee …

#Thyghgapp: Instagram Content Moderation And Lexical Variation In Pro-Eating Disorder Communities, Stevie Chancellor, Jessica Pater, Trustin Clear, Eric Gilbert, Munmun De Choudhury

Health Services and Informatics Research

CSCW '16, FEBRUARY 27–MARCH2, 2016, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA

In Proceedings of the 19th ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work & social computing.

Pro-eating disorder (pro-ED) communities on social media encourage the adoption and maintenance of disordered eating habits as acceptable alternative lifestyles rather than threats to health. In particular, the social networking site Instagram has reacted by banning searches on several proED tags and issuing content advisories on others. We present the first large-scale quantitative study investigating pro-ED communities on Instagram in the aftermath of moderation – our dataset contains 2.5M posts between 2011 and 2014. We find that …

Evidence Of The Excitation Of A Ring-Like Gravity Wave In The Mesosphere Over The Andes Lidar Observatory, Fabio Vargas, Gary Swenson,, Alan Liu, Dominique Pautet

Publications

On 23 March 2012, our all-sky imager recorded a concentric, ring-like gravity wave pattern. The wave arose within the area covered by images of both OH and O(1S) nightglow emissions taken at the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO), Chile (30.3°S, 70.7°W). We have estimated the observed and intrinsic parameters of the event and located the wave source within the lower mesosphere altitude range using a reverse ray tracing method. By the analysis of GOES and LIS satellite images, we have not found evidence of neither convective nor lightning activity nearby ALO, indicating that the source of the ring-like wave …

Is Entrepreneurship A Discipline?, Cassidy L. Croci

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Angel Groups: Developing A Regional Economic Development Strategy For Robust Seed Capital Ecosystems For Entrepreneurs, Kendre Esme Rodriguez

Honors Theses and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to identify the link between the success of angel organizational structures and the economic footprint within which angel groups operate; ultimately suggesting a novel approach of assisting traditional angel group structures in their operations and entrepreneurs in the process of securing early stage financing. Given the varied angel group structures that exist, some angel portals may be more appropriate for certain regions than others. In-depth field research was developed and analyzed by creating the first undergraduate student-run angel investment fund, to co-invest with investors in the informal venture capital market, in the United States. …

Spectral And Chromatographic Characterisation Of The Onoceroid, Ambrane: A Potential Novel Biological Marker, Paul A. Sutton, Steven J. Rowland

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) characteristics, including GC retention indices and mass spectra, of isomers of the tricyclic onoceroid C30 hydrocarbon, ambrane (1,1,4a,6-tetramethyl-5-{4-methyl-6-[2,2,6-trimethylcyclohexyl]hexyl}decahydronaphthalene) are reported. Ambrane is yet to be reported in sediments or petroleum: other biochemically-related onoceroids, such as onoceranes and serratanes, have been. Now that GC–MS data are available, a search for ambranes in geochemical samples may be both feasible and warranted.

Petrophysical Analysis And Sequence Stratigraphy Of The Middle Ordovician Point Pleasant From A Cored Interval In Morgan County, Ohio, Erica Schubert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Middle Ordovician Point Pleasant Formation has become a major focus in the United States for unconventional, horizontal drilling. It stretches throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia and is estimated to contain upwards of 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 940 million barrels of oil. Due to its low porosity, low permeability, and great burial depth, the Point Pleasant was not considered an economically feasible option until recent advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. In order to increase production and drill more profitable wells, the geology of the Point Pleasant Formation needs to …

Enhancing Scalability And Performance In Software-Defined Networks: An Opendaylight (Odl) Case Study, Priyanka Neelakrishnan

Master's Theses

One of the main attributes of software-defined networking (SDN) is the ability to make networks programmable and virtualizable. The SDN controller is the brain that sends instructions to the data plane and can be programmed via application APIs. The scalability and performance of the controller is of paramount importance to support large networks, such as the ones found in modern settings. This research work focused on exploring the ways in which the controller design could be scaled while maintaining sustainable performance using the OpenDaylight (ODL) SDN controller as a case study. This thesis shed light on a method of modifying …

Pretty Maps: Evaluating Gis Adoption Of Cartographic Design Standards And Best Practices In Professional Publications, David Medeiros

Master's Theses

The nature of GIS maps, as tools designed for visual communication, puts them in the realm of art that is in many ways unique among scientific tools. As a visual form of communication, maps are responsive to methods of visual design, affecting the map’s appeal and function. Through cartography, a well established body of standards and best-practices exists to help GIS users avoid common design errors and create effective and meaningful maps that support their work. This research examines the adoption rate of those standards amongst professionals using GIS software for creating maps for journal publications. A selection of 80 …

Women Business Leaders In Biotech And Hi-Tech, And Related Industry Cluster Factors, Jessica White

Master's Theses

Women entrepreneurs are on the rise and their numbers have grown at one and a half times the rate of small enterprises generally over the last 15 years. In spite of this, women are underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Women face additional barriers when forging careers within these fields and obtaining startup capital. This study examines female business ownership within the fields of hi-tech and biotech, and the factors that support startups by women throughout the state of California. As both of these industry sectors are known to cluster geographically around sources of venture …

Religious Identity And The Provision Of Public Goods: Evidence From The Indian Princely States, Latika Chaudhary, Jared Rubin

ESI Publications

This paper describes a simple model of how a ruler’s religious identity affects public goods provision. Our primary insight is that rulers reduce public goods expenditures to a greater degree when there are privately-provided substitutes excludable by religion.The basic idea is that if the good is provided privately to the ruler’s co-religionists, the ruler faces weaker incentives to provide this public good because his co-religionists receive lower marginal utility from its provision. Testing such a conjecture is an empirical challenge, however, since the religious identity of rulers rarely varies over time and place. We address this problem by exploiting …

A Formative Evaluation Of The Bloomington-Normal Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Emily Rego

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

This study serves as a formative evaluation of the Bloomington-Normal-McLean County, IL region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which the development thereof is a tactical strategy outlined in the recently created Bloomington-Normal economic development plan (also known as BN Advantage). An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a network comprising of entrepreneurs, supporting organizations and entities such as investors, governments, universities and various other organizations with a focus on economic development. Vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems strengthen local entrepreneurial capacity, which then spurs economic development through job creation and growth, economic diversity and increasing a region’s competitive advantage. The methodology of this study involved combining qualitative and quantitative …

Annual Security Report For Calendar Year 2015, Illinois State University Police Department

Clery Act Annual Security Report

Illinois State University Police Department Annual Security Report

The Sage Encyclopedia Of Quality And The Service Economy, Leticia Camacho

Faculty Publications

The two-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Quality and the Service Economy provides more than 230 entries in nearly 1,000 pages, with a 54-page bibliography and an index. Editor Dahlgaard-Park (Lund Univ'., Sweden) has assembled essays signed by more than 200 experts worldwide who specialize in the quality and service sciences. The intended audience includes researchers, educators, and people working in organizations who are interested in attaining knowledge and competencies in the field.

Language, Thought, And Social Awareness: A Preliminary Anthropological Linguistic Investigation Of Time And Space In The Bima Language, Kamaludin Yusra

Antropologi Indonesia

This article discusses the connection between language and thought processes and its implication towards social consciousness and attitudes. The framework is developed from various concepts of linguistic relativity particularly temporal and spatial deictic systems. Data were introspectively collected from the Bima native speakers selected based on dialectal variation, topography, and political geography and descriptively analyzed by identifying, classifying, describing and explaining the connection between various linguistic forms and spatio-temporal dimensions and social consciousness. The study finds that the concept of time in the language is not only semantically realized in adverbs of time but also morphologically represented in linguistic markers …

Book Review: The Strategic Constitution: Understanding Canadian Power In The World By Irvin Studin, Stephen Paul Haigh

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This is a book review of The Strategic Constitution: Understanding Canadian Power in the World by Irvin Studin

Estimating Freeway Travel Times Using The General Motors Model, Shu Yang, Yaojan Wu, Zhaozheng Yin, Yiheng Feng

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Travel time is a key transportation performance measure because of its diverse applications. Various modeling approaches to estimating freeway travel time have been well developed due to widespread installation of intelligent transportation system sensors. However, estimating accurate travel time using existing freeway travel time models is still challenging under congested conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an innovative freeway travel time estimation model based on the General Motors (GM) car-following model. Since the GM model is usually used in a microsimulation environment, the concepts of virtual leading and virtual following vehicles are proposed to allow the GM model to …

Defining A Medium: The Educational Aspirations For Early Radio, Amanda R. Keeler

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This essay examines the attempts by many writers to steer the burgeoning U.S. radio industry towards educational uses and programming in the 1920s. At the same time that commercial radio began to take shape, several competing and seemingly incompatible visions of the airwaves emerged—one of which privileged the use of radio for educational purposes. Using discourse from trade journals, general interest magazines, and newspapers, this article explores the calls for educational programming amid the rapidly expanding and consolidating commercial radio industry.

Desalination: An Additional Water Source For Southern California's Water Crisis And An Unsustainable 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty, Hala Alskaf

Law Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rare As Hens' Teeth: The New Geography Of The American Death Penalty, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

Today, only a few dozen scattered counties actually impose death sentences, supporting the death penalty’s arbitrariness.