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SMU Law Review

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Characterization Of Tensile Deformation In Az91 Mg Alloy Castings, Ogun Unal

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tensile deformation characteristics of cast aluminum alloys have been investigated extensively. Cast Mg alloys have remained mostly neglected by researchers, despite their potential for weight savings. This present study is motivated by this gap in the literature and consists of two stages; in Stage 1, analysis of tensile data gathered from literature were reanalyzed, and in Stage 2, data generated from tensile testing of 60 specimens of AZ91 Mg alloy castings in both T4 and T6 conditions were analyzed to characterize work hardening behavior.

In Stage 1, more than 1600 data were collected from the literature for various Mg alloy …

Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Perspectives, Tyrome Clark

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses primary concepts in the humanitarian intervention debates. I argue that humanitarian intervention is a perfect duty. The global community has a moral obligation to act decisively in the face of extreme human rights abuses. There are two contrasting theoretical perspectives regarding international relations and humanitarian intervention: statism and cosmopolitanism. These contrasting perspectives contest the relative value of state sovereignty and human rights. Some of the most prominent ethicists in the debate have determined states have a “right” to intervene militarily in the internal affairs of other states to halt severe human rights abuses but there is no …

The Ultimate Irony: An Information Age Without Librarians, Dawn S. Ady

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the continuing relevance of the profession of librarianship in the digital age is explored and assessed. After defining the library as information itself, the thesis establishes that electronic formats replacing printed matter is not an indication of libraries becoming extinct. Further, various aspects of the profession of librarianship—including library ethics, information extraction skills, and information literacy instruction—are discussed. Additionally, the potential for librarians to play an important role in a largely “jobless” society (as forecast by some experts and scholars as well as in a recent Oxford University study) is evaluated. Finally, a proposal is made for …

Voices Of The First Women Leaders In The Federal Bureau Of Investigation, Ellen Glasser

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study utilized elite, semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of the first women who became Special Agents and supervisors in the highly gendered Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The historical context for their experiences is significant in light of social and legal mandates for equal opportunity and the increased interest in gender-specific research that took place during the 1970s. Literature relating to feminist perspectives, the integration of women into nontraditional occupations, and the gendered nature of bureaucracy supported the conceptual framework. Guided by educational criticism, four strategies were used recursively: typological analysis was used to define categories of …

The Impact Of Multiple Opportunities For Aggression On Aggressive Thoughts, Behaviors, And Motivations, Kristen Nicole Hull

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Opportunities for aggression occur frequently and unpredictably, but little research to our knowledge has investigated the impact of the mere presence of multiple opportunities on aggression over time. Two studies, one with a Canadian sample (163 participants) and one with an American sample (103 participants) were conducted to analyze the impact of the number of opportunities for aggression on justified and unjustified aggressive thoughts, behaviors, and motivations. Individually, these studies yielded the result that justified aggression remains stable over time, but that unjustified aggression decreases when an individual is given multiple opportunities. Combined, they indicated that justified aggression increased when …

The Mechanics And Fixed Operations Of Human Experience, James Dominick Di Netta

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper will use the natural laws of the universe and amassed evidence to support a dynamic systems theory approach to explain the mechanics and fixed operations of the human experience taking place inside a causally determined universe without the possibility of free will. By reductionary methods, the universe and all its’ contents, including human agents, will be exemplified as complex dynamic systems. In so doing, the human experience is reduced to being comprised of information acting and reacting with other information existing in the universe, specifically ideas. Allowing ideas to take on a physical manifestation shows how the feedback …

Vulnerabililty Analysis Of Multi-Factor Authentication Protocols, Keith Garrett

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the author hypothesizes that the use of computationally intensive mathematical operations in password authentication protocols can lead to security vulnerabilities in those protocols. In order to test this hypothesis: 1. A generalized algorithm for cryptanalysis was formulated to perform a clogging attack (a formof denial of service) on protocols that use computationally intensive modular exponentiation to guarantee security. 2. This technique was then applied to cryptanalyze four recent password authentication protocols, to determine their susceptibility to the clogging attack. The protocols analyzed in this thesis differ in their usage of factors (smart cards, memory drives, etc.) or …

An Examination Of The Perceptions Of Elementary School Principals, General Education Teachers, And Special Education Teachers About Supportive Inclusion Practices And Processes, Ahmed Afia Laroussi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the perceptions of the school principals, general education teachers, and special education teachers about practices and processes that support the inclusion program. High stake holders in schools and parents of students with disabilities are advocating for the improvement of the quality of the inclusion as an academic service delivery model. This study is significant because the number of students with disabilities being placed in the general education classroom continues to increase, and the federal and the state mandates are holding school districts and schools accountable for all students’ academic performance, including students with disabilities. A …

Memory Traces: Analyzing Sacred Space At Five Mesoamerican Sites, Yumi Park Huntington

Art Inquiries

Book review of Memory Traces: Analyzing Sacred Space at Five Mesoamerican Sites, edited by Cynthia Kristan-Graham and Laura M. Amrhein.

Dancing My Adoptive Identity : An Autoethnographic Analysis Of Adoption Narratives And Performance Of Identity, Montana Jean Smith

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Family storytelling helps individuals make sense of the world around them. Stories not only help people understand their familial relationships, but understand the development of their identity. For adoptive children, family narratives are crucial to the creation of the child’s adoptive identity and how it intersects with the many other identities the child holds. This study considers the construction of identity from the adoptee’s point of view by use of autoethnographic and performance methods.

Using a multi-methodological approach, this thesis uses interactive interviews, autoethnography, and performance methods as a way to assess what narratives are told within an adoptive family …

Corn Stover Biochar In Gypsum Board: Empirical Analysis Of Thermal Conductivity And Flexural Strength, Albena Yordanova

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Gypsum board, an economical and durable finish material for wall and ceiling construction in the United States and worldwide, is the component with the lowest thermal performance in a typical exterior wall assembly. It also constitutes a substantial portion of construction waste in landfills, potentially creating harmful environmental effects and dangerous gases. To minimize the negative effects of fast growing construction waste of gypsum in landfills and meet higher standards for energy efficiency in construction, there is a need to explore sustainable ways of improving thermal properties of gypsum board and recycling the material. Gypsum can be recycled and used …

A Follow-Up Of Patient Reported Outcomes In Chronic Plantar Heel Pain Participants Treated With Graston Technique: A Mixed Methods Approach, Troy Richard Garrett

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Chronic Plantar Heel Pain (CPHP), commonly known as “plantar fasciitis,” is a condition that is estimated to affect 10% of the American population. A treatment for CPHP and other soft tissue overuse conditions that is increasing in popularity is the use of metal instruments for deep tissue massage for 10 minutes, twice a week for six weeks, called the Graston Technique.

The purpose of this study is to longitudinally examine the foot pain and function of participants who received Graston Technique treatment approximately two years before this study. A mixed methods design where quantitatively, three self-reported survey instruments were utilized, …

Virtue, Freedom, And The First Amendment, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

The modern First Amendment embodies the idea of freedom as a fundamental good of con- temporary American society. The First Amendment protects and promotes everybody's freedom of thought, belief speech, and religious exercise as basic goods-as given ends of American political and moral life. It does not protect these freedoms for the sake of promoting any particular vision of the virtuous society. It is neutral on that score, setting limits only in those rare cases when the exercise of a First Amendment freedom exacts an intolerable social cost.

Something like this collection of views constitutes the conventional account of the …

Public Enforcement Of Patent Law, Megan M. La Belle

Scholarly Articles

Law enforcement in the modern regulatory state is largely a joint enterprise. In areas such as securities, antitrust, civil rights, and environmental law, enforcement responsibilities are allocated between public and private actors. Patent law, on the other hand, is enforced almost exclusively through private lawsuits. Considering patent law's constitutionally mandated public purpose--“to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”-- this privatization of patent enforcement is troubling.

In recent years, there has been some movement away from this purely private enforcement scheme for patent law. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, for example, have involved themselves in …

Information Technology And Computer Science Education At St. Patrick’S College In The Republic Of Vanuatu, Timothy R. Ward

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report examines the role of an Information Technology and Computer Science Education Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in the Republic of Vanuatu at St. Patrick’s College. Various methods of developing curriculum, training teachers, and teaching classes were used and the results are analyzed. Primarily cultural and logistical challenges and their associated newly discovered approaches are discussed. Some approaches were found to improve Information Technology and Computer Science Education at St. Patrick’s College.

A Wireless Sensor System With Digitally Controlled Signal Conditioning Circuit For Force Monitoring At Bone Fixation Plates, Govindan Suresh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Post-rehabilitation of orthopedic surgery is critical for bone fracture treatments. Current protocols are not based on quantitative assessments of the patient condition but they are conservative estimations mostly based on prior experience and physician’s opinions. While there are quantitative methods for assessing the recovery of orthopedic surgery, they are typically very expensive and provide only snapshots during the healing process. A standalone, reconfigurable, embedded wireless sensor system with digitally controlled signal conditioning system capable of providing continuous monitoring of bone healing is developed. Strain sensor measurements were validated against a commercial mechanical loading instrument for relevant loads that an animal …

Nonlinear Inversion Strategies Applied To Source Characterization And 3d Earthquake Tomography In Volcanic Environments: A Case Study At Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala, Federica Lanza

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Full-waveform moment tensor inversion of volcanic seismic signals and travel-time 3D tomography of local earthquakes have been widely used to explore source processes related to magma transport as well as to image the location and size of magma storage systems. However, the inversion solutions and the associated reliability estimates are non-unique and bear intrinsic uncertainties due to simplifying assumptions about the source, inaccuracies in the velocity models, dependence on network configuration, and other a priori constraints imposed by the modeler.

This work addresses the non-uniqueness and uncertainties of the model results by introducing non-linear inversion techniques that allow sampling the …

Multisensory Cue Congruency In Lane Change Test, Yuanjing Sun

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Nowadays, a driver interacts with multiple systems while driving. Multimodal in-vehicle technologies (e.g., Personal Navigation Devices) intend to facilitate multitasking while driving. Multimodality enables to reduce cognitive effort in information processing, but not always. The present study aims to investigate how/when auditory cues could improve driver responses to a visual target. We manipulated three dimensions (spatial, semantic, and temporal) of verbal and nonverbal cues to interact with visual spatial instructions. Multimodal displays were compared with unimodal (visual-only) displays to see whether they would facilitate or degrade a vehicle control task. Twenty-six drivers participated in the Auditory-Spatial Stroop experiment using a …

Comparative Analysis Of Locally Available Materials For Treadle Pump Seals In Senegal, West Africa, Brennan Tymrak

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For rural farmers in Senegal, West Africa, pulling water for irrigation can be a laborious but necessary task during the dry season to earn income from vegetable gardening. Traditional water pulling methods are inexpensive but require great physical effort, while modern machines decrease the labor burden but at a high financial cost. This study looked at an intermediate water pulling technology, the treadle pump, and how it could be improved to become more desirable for use in agricultural irrigation. A treadle pump was built and tested during field work in a rural Senegalese village. Observations from field testing prompted a …

The Miller Revolution, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

In a series of cases culminating in Miller v. Alabama, the United States Supreme Court has limited the extent to which juveniles may be exposed to the harshest criminal sentences. Scholars have addressed discrete components of these recent Court decisions, from their Eighth Amendment methodology to their effect upon state legislation. In this Article, I draw upon that scholarship to make a broader claim: the Miller trilogy has revolutionized juvenile justice. While we have begun to see only the most inchoate signs of this revolution in practice, this Article endeavors to describe what this revolution may look like both in …

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Of Northern White Cedar (Thuja Occidentalis L.): Habitat Effects On Fungal Communities And Inoculum Effects On Plant Growth On Acid Peat Soils, Guswarni Anwar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The relationship of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi with northern white cedar (NWC) was examined from the perspective of both fundamental questions about habitat specificity in the root fungal community, as well as applied questions regarding AM fungal efficacy in NWC restoration in peat soils. I performed two experiments testing the effects of AM fungi on survival, growth, and nutrition of NWC seedlings; and one molecular study to determine the habitat effects on community composition of NWC root-associated fungi. First, a greenhouse AM inoculation experiment was conducted in factorial combination with fertilization and liming to examine conditional effectiveness of AM fungal …

Engaging Practice In Communication Education: Institutional Politics, Knowledge Economy, And State Power, Wincharles Coker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A grave concern in communication education scholarship is that research in practice plays second fiddle to theory. Little is known about the phenomenology of practice in communication pedagogy, and how it shapes and is shaped by programmatic assessment in particular. This dissertation attempts to explore the complexity of practice in communication education in a non-Western culture. The project demonstrates that the organizational culture that gives rise to the work of communication program administrators is always filtered and enacted through the interplay of institutional politics, the global knowledge economy, and state power. Using two public universities in Ghana, I argue, based …

Shipbreaking In Bangladesh: Perspectives From Industrial Ecology, Political Ecology And Environmental Policy, S.M. Mizanur Rahman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The international shipbreaking industry connects developed and developing countries through the spatial and temporal flow of resources, both transported by the ships and by the recycling of the ships themselves. Much of the research on this industry to date focuses on a natural science perspective, particularly related to local pollution when the ships are recycled. However, many products for the public (such as documentaries and magazine articles) focus on the workers who dismantle these ships, often with minimal protection; the appalling images of shipbreaking yard workers and their polluted surrounds have garnered immense global attention and calls for better regulations. …

Petrophysical And Empirical And Theoretical Rock Physics Modeling For The Moki Formation In Two Fields In The Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Deniz Yener

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This work consists of conventional petrophysical analysis and sonic response determination from empirical relations, rock physics modelling, and fluid substitution for six wells in the Moki formation of New Zealand’s Taranaki Basin. The project composed of three parts encompassing conventional log analysis, rock-physics modeling using empirical and theoretical approaches, and finally rock-physics modeling for shaley sands using semi-empirical adaptations to Gassmann fluid substitution. Finally, comparisons are made between results for the different wells, based on their depths and mineralogy.

The first part of this study is presented as a petrophysical analysis, including crossplot analysis, conventional 3-mineral identification approach, and determination …

Maia And Mandos: Tools For Integrity Protection On Arbitrary Files, Paul J. Bonamy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

We present the results of our dissertation research, which focuses on practical means of protecting system data integrity. In particular, we present Maia, a language for describing integrity constraints on arbitrary file types, and Mandos, a Linux Security Module which uses verify-on-close to enforce mandatory integrity guarantees. We also provide details of a Maia-based verifier generator, demonstrate that Maia and Mandos introduce minimal delay in performing their tasks, and include a selection of sample Maia specifications.

Clusivity In Presidential Discourse: A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis Of State-Of-The-Nation Addresses In Ghana And The United States, Stephen K. Dadugblor

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis examines the ways in which rhetors in presidential discourse simultaneously associate with and dissociate from their audiences in an attempt to consolidate power while subtly masking their actions. Drawing on comparative rhetoric and Andrus’ (2013) Rhetorical Discourse Analysis (RDA) that combines rhetoric and (critical) discourse analysis, I analyze the expressive values of selected lexical items, and the inclusive and exclusive uses of “we” in selected State of the Nation/Union Addresses in Ghana and the United States. I argue that presidents’ unique position during these speeches as both heads of nations and heads of their political parties presents a …

"Unblackboxing" Technology Through The Rhetoric Of Technical Communication: Biometric Technology And Ghana's 2012 Election, Isidore Dorpenyo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this project, I seek to “unblackbox” technology; by which I mean, I seek to, in the words of Latour, “open up” or “debug” the biometric technology used by Ghana for its 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. Through the process of “unblackboxing,” I demonstrate the value of technical communicators to technology studies by analyzing technical documents that accompanied the biometric verification device which was adopted and used by Ghana to conduct its 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. I argue in this dissertation that technical documentation does not merely accommodate users to technologies, but also it provides avenues to articulate broader …

Investigating The Social Habitat Of Deer Hunters In Michigan, Christopher Henderson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

State wildlife management agencies are funded primarily by revenue from hunting and angling license sales as well as federal excise taxes on equipment. These agencies are also responsible for managing wildlife populations and providing recreational resources to the public. Declines in hunting participation across much of the United States throughout the last two decades have prompted researchers and wildlife professionals to search for explanations and solutions that will ensure a level of funding for state agencies that allows continued management of wildlife within biological and social carrying capacities, engagement in conservation initiatives, and development of recreational opportunities. Most of the …

Finite Element Modeling Of Active And Passive Behavior Of The Human Tibialis Anterior: A Preliminary Approach, David Joda

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research project serves as exploratory work in the field of computational human biomechanics. A connection between muscular force and intramuscular pressure (IMP) has been uncovered that could prove invaluable in medical diagnostics as a method to circumvent the use of electromyography.

Preliminary finite element simulations were conducted to model the human tibialis anterior muscle in passive lengthening and active contraction. These simulations, totaling over 50 unique runs, utilized a novel constitutive model developed within the IMP research group. Volumetric strain, reaction forces, and pressure gradients were compared to data acquired from ongoing in vivo human experiments. A mechanism for …