This thesis contributes to modeling the dynamics of forest community response to environmental gradients and disturbances over a mountain landscape. A gap model (FACET) was parameterized for species of various forest types (Tabonuco, Colorado, Dwarf and Palm), for many terrain conditions and was modified and extended to include species response to excess soil moisture and hurricanes. Landscape cover types were defined by dominance of species of each forest type and canopy height. Parameters of the landscape model (MOSAIC) were calculated from multiple runs of FACET. These runs were determined by combining terrain variables (elevation and soil) and hurricane risk. MOSAIC runs were analyzed for distribution patterns. Geographic Information Systems software was used to process terrain variables, hurricane risk and MOSAIC model output.

This study analyzes the activities of the organized crime groups involved in the drug business, as well as examining national and international efforts to control these groups. Specifically, this study addresses the following questions: How is organized crime connected to the international drug business?; What are the major transnational organized crime groups involved in the international drug business?; What is the nature of the drug problem as it relates to organized crime internationally?; What international cooperative law enforcement efforts currently exist to deal with organized crime and the drug business? Findings indicate that efforts to create an effective international law enforcement network are needed to meet the challenges of drug trafficking and globalized crime. To date, such efforts have largely been unsuccessful.

Many tools have been developed to assess global, national or regional sustainable development policies. However, as governments develop sustainable policies, individuals must also feel empowered to affect their personal impact on the planet. This thesis integrates three sustainability concepts that lend themselves to individual sustainability: The natural step, life cycle assessment, and the ecological footprint. TNS serves to provide the meaning and substance toward sustainable development. LCA helps provide the framework for assessing sustainability. The EF calculator determines the driving components and measures the qualitative decisions made through TNS and LCA. From the analysis of the household footprint calculator a simplified footprint calculator was developed to assist individuals and communities in setting benchmarks and goals as they move away from over-consumption and towards a sustainable lifestyle.

Euclid's geometry is well-known for its theorems concerning triangles and circles. Less popular are the contents of the tenth book, in which geometry is a means to study quantity in general. Commensurability and rational quantities are first principles, and from them are derived at least eight species of irrationals. A recently republished work by Johannes Kepler contains examples using polygons to illustrate these species. In addition, figures having these quantities in their construction form solid shapes (polyhedra) having origins though Platonic philosophy and Archimedean works. Kepler gives two additional polyhedra, and a simple means for constructing the “divine” proportion is given.

Like its enteric counterpart, aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) from Pseudomonas putida is a dodecamer of two different polypeptides. Unlike the enterics, the Pseudomonas ATCase lacks regulatory polypeptides but employs instead inactive dihydroorotases for an active dodecamer. Previous work showed that PyrB contains not only the active site but also the effector binding sites for ATP, UTP and CTP at its N-terminus. In this work, 11 amino acids were deleted from the N-terminus of PyrB and the ATCase with the truncated protein was expressed in E. coli pyrB- and purified. The wild type enzyme was similarly treated. Velocity-substrate plots without effectors gave Michaelis-Menten kinetics in all cases. Deleting 11 amino acids did not affect dodecameric assembly but altered effector responses. When carbamoylphosphate was varied, the mutant enzyme was inhibited by UTP while the wild type enzyme was activated 2-fold. When the aspartate was varied, CTP had no effect on the mutant enzyme but strongly inhibited the wild type enzyme.

This thesis is an examination of the printed media in France (1955-1963), as represented by two mainstream newspapers: Le Monde (left-centrist) and Le Figaro (right-centrist). Using these newspapers, as well as Gallup polls recorded at the time, this study explores correlations of what was reported in newspapers and how French public opinion evolved during the course of the war. These two major sources of information are shown to have given contradictory information, thus accounting for some of the paradoxes found in public opinion polls. Specifically, the paradoxes analyzed in the study concern the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the Pieds-Noirs (the European population of North Africa).

Streaming multimedia content with UDP has become popular over distributed systems such as an Internet. This may encounter many losses due to dropped packets or late arrivals at destination since UDP can only provide best effort delivery. Even UDP doesn't have any self-recovery mechanism from congestion collapse or bursty loss to inform sender of the data to adjust future transmission rate of data like in TCP. So there is a need to incorporate various control schemes like forward error control, interleaving, and congestion control and error concealment into real-time transmission to prevent from effect of losses. Loss can be repaired by retransmission if roundtrip delay is allowed, otherwise error concealment techniques will be used based on the type and amount of loss. This paper implements the interleaving technique with packet spacing of varying interleaver block size for protecting real-time data from loss and its effect during transformation across the Internet. The packets are interleaved and maintain some time gap between two consecutive packets before being transmitted into the Internet. Thus loss of packets can be reduced from congestion and preventing loss of consecutive packets of information when a burst of several packets are lost. Several experiments have been conducted with …

This Thesis collection contains a critical preface and five stories. The preface, “Reflejos y Reflexiones” (translated: Images and Thoughts), addresses the issues of writing the cultural or gendered Other; these issues include methodology, literary colonialism, a dialogue between works, and creating distance through defamiliarizing the self. “Perennials” is the story of Noemi Tellez, an immigrant to the U.S. who must choose between working and taking care of her family. In “Load Bearing” Luis, the eldest child, faces his family and friends on one of his last days before moving away to college. “La Monarca” deals with Lily's, the youngest daughter, struggle to mediate a place between her friends and her family. In “Reflections in the River,” Arabela, the second youngest, faces the ghost of an unwanted pregnancy and La Llorona. “La Cocina de Su Madre” is the story of Magda, the oldest daughter, and her own teenage girl, Natalia, as they attempt to find themselves in a new town after moving a thousand miles from home.

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in how parents of ADHD children and non-ADHD parents attribute undesirable and prosocial child behavior, and to determine if attributions about undesirable child behavior influence parents' perceived levels of parenting stress. Parent attributions from 69 parent-child dyads, half with a child ADHD diagnosis, were measured coding videotaped interactions. Results indicated that parents of ADHD children do not make significantly more stable attributions about undesirable child behavior than non-ADHD parents. Additionally, compared to non-ADHD parents, parents of ADHD children did not make significantly more unstable attributions about their children's prosocial behaviors. Regarding parenting stress, individuals who generated higher frequencies of stable attributions also appeared to maintain more negative views of their children's behaviors in comparison to other children.

Development of a college level freshman biology course was undertaken in response to government reports that American students have fallen behind students of other countries in the area of the sciences. Teaching strategies were investigated to accomplish two objectives, to define essential academic material to include in the course and to investigate teaching techniques that would increase deep processing of the information. An active process that consisted of applying the cognitive information to solving problems or developing answers to questions was defined as critical thinking. Critical thinking was incorporated into the course by the use of case studies.

A life history and productivity study of Enallagma civile was conducted in a playa that was located in the southern High Plains of Texas. Other odonates were also studies to identify their contributions to the habitat.

The purpose of this study was to determine the construct validity of self-reported historical walking, running, and jogging (WRJ) activity. The criterion measure was concurrent performance on a maximal treadmill test. Subjects completed a medical exam and treadmill test between the years 1976 and 1985, and completed a follow-up questionnaire in 1986. Questionnaire included an item that assessed WRJ for each year from 1976 through 1985. Data analysis included Spearman correlations, partial correlations, ANOVA, and ANCOVA. Results indicated self-reported historical WRJ can be assessed with reasonable validity when compared with concurrently measured treadmill performance, and there is no decay in the accuracy of this reporting for up to ten years in the past.

This study examined the relationship between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication and auditory measures in clinically depressed women. Experimental subjects were tested in both a medicated and unmedicated condition. Experimental subjects were compared to a normal control group; additionally intrasubject comparison was made within the experimental group. Test measures included: audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions, uncomfortable loudness level, masking level difference, SCAN-A, Synthetic Sentence Identification (SSI), and the low predictability section of the Revised Speech in noise (RSPIN). The unmedicated group scored significantly less favorably than the control group on the following tests; SCAN-A (composite, filtered words, and auditory figure ground), R-SPIN (0MCR condition in both the right and left ears). Additionally, the unmedicated group scored significantly less favorably than the medicated group on the SSI (-20MCR condition right ear only) and of the R-SPIN (0MCR condition right ear only). Other test measures indicated consistent trends but did reach significance.

The relationship between perceived leader behavior and work group behavior was examined. Archival survey data was used in the analyses. The company that developed the survey randomly selected 595 employees to complete the survey. Results suggest there is a strong and significant relationship between leader and subordinate behavior. Group members who report that their leader demonstrates a particular behavior also report that their work group demonstrates the same or similar behavior, suggesting that subordinates may be modeling the behavior of their leader. Leadership behaviors related to trust, availability, respect, conflict, and support seem to be the best predictors of work group behavior. Furthermore, whether or not group members have received team training appears to have an effect on their perceptions of their leader and work group. The challenge for leaders is to understand modeling principles so that they can facilitate the modeling of functional rather than dysfunctional behaviors.

This paper documents the execution and exhibition of a group of oil paintings exploring themes of spectacle and the construction of reality in contemporary American society. The paintings are composed of figures and fragments of text originating in stills taken from television news and reality TV. This paper describes and assesses the paintings according to a set of questions developed by the artist at the inception of the project. Various strategies employed in the execution of the work are analyzed and compared. The contribution of this project to the field of contemporary visual art is evaluated via comparison with other art, past and present, expressing similar concerns.

The modern consumer expects a consumption experience with both hedonic and utilitarian rewards during a single visit to the mall. The orchestrating of both hedonic and utilitarian benefits in one visit challenges mall management and retailers to deliver the maximum shopping experience. This study seeks to reveal relationships among six variables: demographic characteristics, mall shopping orientation, mall perception, hedonic satisfaction, utilitarian satisfaction, and mall consumption. The intercept survey was conducted at a major entertainment-themed mall in north Texas. Multiple regression analyses (N = 202) indicate that demographic characteristics and mall shopping orientation were significant predictors of mall perception. Also, two mall perception factors (Sensation and Physical Environment) were predictors of hedonic and utilitarian mall shopping satisfaction. However, hedonic and utilitarian mall shopping satisfaction were found not to predict mall consumption in terms of cross-shopping, money spent, and time spent.

Scratch recovery is a desirable property of many polymer systems. The reason why some materials have demonstrated excellent scratch recovery while others do not has been a mystery. Explaining the scratch resistance based upon the hardness of a material or its crosslink density is incorrect. In this thesis, novel polymers were tested in an attempt to discover materials that show excellent scratch recovery - one of the most important parameters in determining the wear of a material. Several hypotheses were developed in an attempt to give an accurate picture of how the chemical structure of a polymer affects its scratch recovery. The results show that high scratch recovery is a complex phenomenon not solely dependent upon the presence of electronegative atoms such as fluorine.

This paper analyzes stock index reactions to interest rate actions by the FOMC. Unlike previous analyses this study utilizes macro-economic indicators and accounts for pre-decision market expectations. Results indicate significant reaction of the stock market to the actions of the FOMC regardless of interest rate actions matching pre-decision market expectations. Binary dummy variables representing the five days following an FOMC meeting indicate a significant reaction for days one; two and three of the Dow Jones model and for day five of the NASDAQ model. The magnitude of the coefficients are 0.17%, 0.09%, -0.07% and -.15% respectively. These findings may be sensitive to a priori choices regarding the definition of the market expectation variable.

This study is designed both as a case study and a literature-based policy analysis to assist interested parties in gaining a better understanding of controversial “narco-terrorism” phenomenon. The objectives of this study are to show the existing connection between some terrorist organizations and drug trafficking to provide academic information about and explanations for terrorism and drug trafficking, to critically analyze the biases of many current narco-terrorism doctrines and to offer a comprehensive and neutral typology that elucidates all types of narco-terrorism. This thesis is presented in four parts. The first part includes an introduction to narco-terrorism and provides a historical background of drug dilemma and terrorism. A number of definitional and conceptual arguments constituting the backbone of the study are laid out in the second part of the study. Third part consists of case studies of three different insurgent groups. An analysis of the information uncovered and presented in previous chapters and a typology of narco-terrorism are provided in the last part. Thesis is concluded with recommendations in an attempt to inspire useful policies for individuals or institutions operating on the field.

It is assumed that democratic policing will help to improve the respect of human rights and democracy in a given country. Using secondary data, this study explores cross-nationally the interrelation between democratic policing practices (e.g., community policing) and democracy and human rights.The results show significant positive correlation between the practice of democratic policing and indicators of democracy and respect for human rights. The analysis strongly implies that scholars have underestimated the power of policing institutions in democratic societies.

This thesis reviews the literature on “new terrorism,” to be differentiated from the “old terrorism.” The study tests two hypotheses. First, has an increase in religiously inspired terrorist groups led to an increase in terrorism's lethality? Second, does suicide bombing as a tactic explain the increased lethality of “new terrorism”? The study demonstrates three findings. First, it was found that religiously inspired terrorist groups are more lethal, though not more indiscriminate. Second, that suicide bombing has had a significant effect on the number of terrorist related fatalities. And, third, that non-religious suicide bombing is more lethal than its religious counterpart. To test these hypotheses I used Ordinary Least Squares Regression and data provided by The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

This project is an examination of the Hong Kong film industry, focusing on the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong to communist China. The influence of classical Chinese culture on gender representation in martial arts films is examined in order to formulate an understanding of how these films use gender issues to negotiate a sense of cultural identity in the face of unprecedented political change. In particular, the films of Hong Kong action stars Michelle Yeoh and Brigitte Lin are studied within a feminist and cultural studies framework for indications of identity formation through the highlighting of gender issues.

Electrodeposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films was studied on different substrates using two different electrochemical methods. The first electrochemical method using a three-electrode system was studied to successfully deposit hydrogenated DLC films on Nickel, Copper and Brass substrates. The as-deposited films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). A variety of experimental parameters were shown to affect the deposition process. The second electrochemical method was developed for the first time to deposit hydrogen free DLC films on Ni substrates through a two-electrode system. The as-deposited films were characterized by Raman spectroscopy and FTIR. According to Raman spectra, a high fraction of diamond nanocrystals were found to form in the films. Several possible mechanisms were discussed for each deposition method. An electrochemical method was proposed to deposit boron-doped diamond films for future work.

The transmission of voice data over Internet Protocol (IP) networks is rapidly gaining acceptance in the field of networking. The major voice transmissions in the IP networks are involved in Internet telephony, which is also known as IP telephony or Voice Over IP (VoIP). VoIP is undergoing many enhancements to provide the end users with same quality as in the public switched telephone networks (PSTN). These enhancements are mostly required in quality of service (QoS) for the transmission of voice data over the IP networks. As with recent developments in the networking field, various protocols came into market to provide the QoS in IP networks - of them, multi protocol label switching (MPLS) is the most reliable and upcoming protocol for working on QoS. The problem of the thesis is to develop an IP-based virtual network, with end hosts and routers, implement MPLS on the network, and analyze its QoS for voice data transmission.