Proving Character and Fitness in Illinois Bar Admissions: An Introduction to the Substantive Requirements and the Applicable Procedures

Although every applicant for admission to the Illinois bar is required to demonstrate good moral character and general fitness to be licensed to practice law, few lawyers and would-be lawyers are familiar with what constitutes proof of character and fitness or the procedures by which such proof is to be made. This Article offers a general introduction to the procedural form and substantive elements of determinations of character and fitness under Illinois Supreme Court Rules. The subjects discussed are: the character and fitness process as a litigated proceeding; the relevant matters to be proved; the four levels of evidentiary review, and how the procedures at each level affect substance and the burden of proof; the formal Rule 9 hearing and the role of counsel appointed to present matters adverse to the applicant; posthearing matters, including review by the Illinois Supreme Court; and the special problem of considering disability when determining character and fitness. The Article concludes with a discussion of the 2000 decision, In re Krule, the Supreme Court’s last opinion on character and fitness

Book Review of The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World

This book review examines the impact a leader has once they set a tone of positivity. It examines the importance of a leader\u27s mindset, as it will be the determination of success for an organization. A single individual has the power to change the culture of an organization to allow for improvement within the organization. This book shows the strategy of positive leadership and how it can create a transformative workplace

Where Do I Belong? What Should I Call Home?

Employing autoethnography, this reflection explores the contestations of home-place for queer racialized identities. Tony Adams asserts the vitality of such an embodied investigation when speaking about intersectionally assembled marginalized communities and identities through stating, “I turned to writing stories that others could use in times of relational distress […] by doing and living autoethnography” (Jones et al., 2013, p. 21). In this piece, I delve into my lived experiences, chartering conceptions of belonging while integrating personal stories and theoretical discourses. Such an embodiment, as expressed by Ellingson (2017), considers the body as “simultaneously physical and affective, social and individual, produced and producing, reproductive and innovative” (p. 2). Through utilizing such an embodied self, I explore the contestations made by queer racialized individuals in finding home, a place to belong

REDUCING TRANSISTOR COUNT IN CMOS LOGIC DESIGN THROUGH CLUSTERING, SUPERCLUSTERING, AND SOP SPLITTING

Transistor-level synthesis is crucial for designing digital circuits because it allows for precise control over the behavior and performance of the circuit at the most fundamental level. This detailed design approach enables optimization of power consumption, speed, and area, leading to highly efficient and compact circuits. By directly manipulating the transistors, designers can achieve tailored solutions that meet specific performance requirements and constraints, which is essential for advanced applications such as high-speed processors, low-power devices, and complex integrated systems. Moreover, transistor-level synthesis helps identify and mitigate potential issues like signal integrity problems and parasitic effects early in the design process, ensuring robust and reliable circuit operation. The first contribution of this dissertation, presented in Chapter 2, is the proposal of a novel transistor-level synthesis method designed to minimize the number of transistors needed to implement a digital circuit. In contrast with traditional standard cell design methods or transistor-level synthesis methods based on “complex” gates or “super” gates, our method considers multioutput clusters as the basic resynthesis unit. Our tool takes any gate-level circuit netlist as input and divides it into several clusters of user-controlled size. For each output of a cluster, a simplified sum of product (SOP) expression is obtained, and all such expressions are jointly minimized for the cluster using the MOTO-X multi-output transistor-level synthesis tool. Since the polarity of the cluster outputs affects the number of transistors required for the multi-output transistor network, we obtain a minimized transistor count for each output polarity combination (“opc”) of the cluster outputs. By choosing the lowest transistor count implementation of each cluster, we identify a suitable transistor cost implementation for the complete circuit. Experimental results indicate average transistor count reductions compared to the ABC synthesis tool of 7.39%, 0.27%, 6.15%, and 4.24% for the ISCAS’85, LGSynth’89, LGSynth’91 and ITC’99 benchmark suites, respectively. The second contribution of this dissertation, presented in Chapter 3, introduces the concept of ‘superclusters.’ This approach moves beyond optimizing the opc implementation of individual clusters, by considering groups of related clusters. By minimizing input-output inversion costs and selecting optimal output polarity combinations for each cluster within the supercluster, the method achieves a significantly reduced overall transistor count for the circuit implementation. Experimental results demonstrate average transistor count reductions of 9.95%, 6.57%, 10.50%, 9.76%, and 13.09% compared to the ABC synthesis tool for the ISCAS’85, LGSynth’89, LGSynth’91, ITC’99, and EPFL’15 benchmark suites, respectively. The final contribution of this dissertation, presented in Chapter 4, proposes a novel transistor-level synthesis method based on SOP splitting to minimize the number of transistors required for digital circuit implementation. Unlike traditional boolean function factoring heuristics, our approach treats multi-output clusters as the fundamental units for resynthesis, then splits the SOP function of the output with user-defined constraints. These expressions are then collectively minimized for each cluster using the MOTO-X multi-output transistor-level synthesis tool. Additionally, we use superclustering technique of Chapter 3 to optimize groups of related clusters together to reduce transistor count further. Experimental results show that our method achieves average transistor count reductions of 8.59%, 1.93%, 6.22%, and 7.76% compared to the ABC synthesis tool for the ISCAS’85, LGSynth’89, LGSynth’91, and ITC’99 benchmark suites, respectively. Additionally in Chapter 5, we demonstrate the power and delay analysis results of circuit clusters obtained by our proposed method versus ABC synthesis tool’s optimized circuits. Highlighting the potential of our methodology for optimizing integrated circuits at the transistor-level while concurrently delivering enhancements in both power efficiency and delay

Tell It Slant: Leaning Into the Aesthetic Possibilities of Performative Writing

This creative dissertation explores the aesthetic potential of the practice of performative writing. While most performative writing texts in the field of performance studies feature traditionally published formats, this project offers three arts-based excursions into performative writing that push the aesthetic limits of the tradition through visual poetry, comics, and collage. Chapter two uses visual poetry to create an evocative, colorful zine with two performative exemplars. Specifically, this chapter asks and answers what can happen when we embrace the visuality of the language in performative writing texts. Chapter three takes the form of a comic. It takes the complex relationships between images, texts, and words in comics and graphic novels to explore the dynamic written performances possible in an extended exemplar about living through the pandemic. Finally, the collage chapter features thirty-eight performative pages embedded with theoretical writing. This chapter adds materiality to the performative writing toolbox. Themes explored in the creative sections of the chapter include LGBTQ identity, feminism, trauma, performance pedagogy, and mental health

Accelerating Spatial Query Operations

Polygon overlay operations are used for various purposes such as GIS searches and queries, VLSI and basic geometric operations of intersection, union and difference. There have been recent research articles presenting algorithms using the GPU to perform line segment intersection for geometric operations. This paper presents two parallel algorithms implemented on the GPU that focus on the active list portion of the traditional serial plane sweep algorithm. The first algorithm uses a single block of threads to simulate the active list data structure in hardware; this algorithm is slow due to GPU thread block size limitations and synchronization points, but demonstrates favorable time complexity. The second algorithm uses dynamic parallelism to remove synchronization and scales to utilize available GPU hardware (single GPU). Experiments on both synthetic and real world data sets are performed. The results show improvement in execution time with respect to recent algorithms, and low memory usage compared to recent algorithms. Speedups of up to 38.8 over the serial sweep line algorithm on real world data are achieved

PREDICTION OF HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL COMPONENTS OF EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE SPECTRUM USING SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to create ground motion models for the prediction of Horizontal component, vertical component and V/H ratio using 11,546 ground motion records obtained from the “Next Generation and the duration of Ground-Motion Attenuation Models” project. The predictor set considered in this research consists of the moment magnitude, dip angle, rake angle, depth to the top of fault rupture, Joyner Boore distance, closest distance to the ruptured fault area, and the shear wave velocity in the top 30 m of the site. SVM employs a kernel function to convert the data into a high-dimensional feature space, where linear modeling is carried out to address the difficulty associated with high nonlinear datasets. SVM was reasonably capable for prediction of both the horizontal and vertical component. However, prediction of V/H ratio was not accurate. The results illustrate SVM’s potential as a viable alternative to traditional ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs)

Water as a Natural Souvenir

This research note explores the significance of natural souvenirs in tourism, emphasizing their contribution to cultural and environmental sustainability. Through a mixed-methods approach including a literature review and oral histories, the study examines how natural souvenirs, particularly water-based ones, foster souvenir-person-place bonding, enhance destination branding, and promote sustainable tourism practices. The findings highlight the unique and authentic nature of water souvenirs, which serve as powerful reminders of travel experiences and strengthen emotional connection to destinations. Additionally, the study discusses the role of natural souvenirs in differentiating destinations, leveraging unique attributes for branding, and stimulating interest through word-of-mouth marketing. Also addressed are concerns about environmental impact, advocating for responsible collection practices that support conservation and local economies. Overall, this study underscores the ability of water souvenirs to enhance the tourism experience while promoting the preservation of cultural and natural heritage

Electrochemical Charge Storage of Biochar-Based Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitors (EDLCs)

This dissertation explores the electrochemical performance of highly porous BiocharPolymer Composites. Biochar, derived from biomass, is an attractive alternative to conventional carbon materials due to its renewable nature, affordability, and environmental benefits. Biochar materials with two different physical morphologies, namely flakes as well as granular form were used for synthesizing these composites. Composites with several different Biochar weight ratios in the polymer matrix were tested for their viability as electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC or supercapacitor) electrode materials. Two different electrolyte types, such as aqueous 6 Molar Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) as well as 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium tris (pentafluoroethyl) (BMP-FAP) a Room-Temperature Ionic Liquid (RTIL) was used. Several state of the art electrochemical tools along with other physical characterization tools, which includes, Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X Ray Spectroscopy (EDAX), were utilized in order to understand the physical nature as well as the electrochemical response of these composites. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Galvanostatic Charge-Discharge (GCD), and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were performed in order to analyze the charge storage capabilities of these composites. Few core observations could be made from our experimental results. The specific capacitances of the i electrodes increased with increasing biochar content and seems to reach a saturation value after a certain point. Our results show that Flake Biochar-Polymer Composite (FBC) in KOH exhibits stable capacitive behavior, with a specific capacitance of 123 F/g at a 2:1 biochar-to-polymer ratio at scan rates of ~ 0.1 mv/s, dominated by double-layer capacitance mechanism. From the EIS measurements, a systematic decrease of the equivalent series resistances (ESR) with increasing Biochar content were seen for all the electrodes. In RTIL (BMP-FAP),a specific capacitance value of ~206 F/g at 0.1 mV/s was obtained using the same FBC ratio. Further, we saw that an energy density of 19.4 Wh/kg, and a power density of 280 W/kg was obtained from electrode with a 2:1 biochar-to-polymer ratio. This increase in the specific capacitances, energy and power density stems from the fact that RTILs have a higher operating voltage window. Some minor ion diffusion limitations was observed in case of RTIL. The Granular Biochar Polymer Composite (GBC), with its higher specific surface area, showed even better performance in some cases. In KOH, GBC, with 15% biochar achieved 53 F/g, significantly outperforming FBC with a similar biochar content (16% in FBC reached only ~27 F/g). In RTIL, GBC with just 3% biochar reached 57 F/g at 0.1 mV/s, demonstrating efficient charge storage. These findings highlight the potential of biochar-polymer composites as a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to conventional supercapacitor materials. Future work should focus on optimizing biochar content, polymer selection, and electrolyte composition to enhance conductivity, stability, and overall performance

Gender Knobs

Gender Knobs is a performance art piece that tells the histories of both the technology surrounding pitch shifting devices like the vocoder as well as well as the personal history of the voice of the performer, Jordan, regarding their queer identity as non-binary trans woman. The performance is a combination of lecture, personal storytelling, and sound performance within a theatrical setting with musical accompaniment and projected visuals