At the Edge of Monstrosity: Melville, Shelley, and Crane’s Monsters in 19th-Century Literature

What is a monster? For contemporary readers, monsters conjure images of things from horror films. My capstone addresses the question of whether monsters, the monstrous, and monstrosity are inside the human or elsewhere. I argue that monsters, when compared side-by-side in literature, are fundamentally the same with some exceptions: evil behind a human body. Through close-reading and theoretical analyses of 19th-century texts, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Stephen Crane’s The Monster, I examine how their authors create monsters as a response to societal anxieties and fears. My capstone expands on passages where human characters surrender to their internal monsters to prove an authorial need to mirror a monstrous society. By exploring themes of obsession and knowledge, I claim that textual monsters are mere manifestations of who we are in reality. I have divided my capstone into chapters that take turns surveying what it takes to become a monster. I conclude with a brief, but broader discussion of contemporary monsters to bridge 19th-century literature to its modern-day counterpart. In the end, I ultimately posit that we are no less monstrous than monsters on the page

The Plan Put into Practice: USAAF Bombing Doctrine and the Ploesti Campaign

This thesis is a contribution to the continuing study of the development of American daylight precision strategic bombing doctrine. Using the multiple USAAF bombing attacks on the oil targets of Ploesti, Romania, it concludes that the USAAF entered the war with preconceived, untested notions regarding the effects of bombing and, because of bureaucratic inertia, failed to adjust to German passive and active defenses. The new technology of bombardment aviation therefore did not result in the desired destruction of the industrial targets, but only inflicted damage at high costs to the attackers. Resting on extensive archival research, the study brings to light several previously unrecognized aspects of the Ploesti campaign and also calls into question the fundamental assumptions which underlay American strategic bombing missions in World War Two

Strategic training in the use of causal diagrams: Facilitation of superior mental models

This study focused on the influence of strategic learning on the construction of causal diagrams and their role in text learning. A causal diagram is an instructional adjunct designed to enhance text comprehension by providing a visual representation integrating elements of cause and effect. The Integrated Model of Text and Picture Comprehension (IMTPC) (Schnotz & Bannert, 1999) suggests that diagrams improve learning because they facilitate the construction of mental models via simultaneous comprehension of visual and text elements. However, there is no information on how to achieve this benefit consistently. Scevak, Moore, and Kirby (1993) have demonstrated that this benefit is enhanced by strategic training. The present research examined the effects of strategic training on causal diagrams to improve text learning. It was predicted that individuals who received training would perform better on measures of factual and conceptual learning than those with no training. These results supported the IMTPC model

“Troll! Troll in the Living Room! Thought You Ought To Know.”: Opening the Door for Extensive Copyright Litigation Under 17 U.S.C. § 120

For many, the day of a real estate closing is filled with excitement and relief. The process of finding a family home or a building to begin a business is often arduous. On average, the search for a home lasts at least six months. There are long days of showings, stressful negotiations with loan officers, and difficult decisions when purchasing a piece of property. Most buyers and sellers look forward to the day when the paperwork is signed and title, along with all the rights and privileges it affords, passes to the new owners. After closing, the new owners typically assume they are free to enjoy their new property as they see fit. They take pictures of and remodel their home, hire builders or real estate agents to assess or view the land, or even make plans to eventually sell the property. Many of these actions may require sketches of rudimental floor plans or drawings of a home’s layout. However, the Eighth Circuit recently created a barrier for homeowners to use these plans by opening them up to potential copyright infringement lawsuits. In doing so, the Eighth Circuit infringed upon the general ability to enjoy one’s property and made many common uses of private property vulnerable to legal challenges

Predictive Analytics to Increase Roster Robustness in an Inbound Call Center

Staff rostering is a crucial task in inbound call centers, as personnel costs usually account for the largest share of operating costs. Uncertainty of capacity, such as the presence of agents is often disregarded during rostering. This paper addresses the problem of uncertainty by using predictive analytics to predict agent absences and thus increase roster robustness. Operational data from four years of a call center serves as a basis for our use case. Predictors include characteristics of the service agents such as attendance history and regular working hours as well as other factors such as the weekday. Of the prediction algorithms tested, decision trees outperform other predictive modeling approaches. Evaluation based on an expected value framework shows that the predictive analytics approach performs best compared to the planned, unchanged roster and a general staff surcharge of 10%

The incorporation of Jamaica into the western design

The Incorporation of Jamaica into the Western Design is essentially an analysis of the Western Design as manifested by English interest in Jamaica

On the presence of the Ponto-Caspian hydrozoan Cordylophora caspia (Pallas, 1771) in an Iberian estuary: highlights on the introduction vectors and invasion routes

Several non-native invertebrate and vertebrate species have been detected in the Guadiana Estuary (SW-Iberian Peninsula, Europe) during the 21st century. In June 2015, the non-native hydroid Cordylophora caspia (Pallas, 1771) was detected for the first time in this estuary, which motivated an assessment of its distribution during late Spring and Summer 2016. The main goals of this paper were to: i) report the presence of Cordylophora caspia and its distribution in the Guadiana Estuary, ii) record the substrates colonized, salinity, and water temperatures at locations where the species was detected, iii) evaluate possible introduction vectors and invasion routes; and iv) discuss the potential impacts and management options. Cordylophora caspia occupied a 25-km stretch of the estuary with salinities between 0.2 and 13.8 and occupied a variety of human-made substrates. Shipping was the most likely introduction vector of C. caspia, which might have originated from populations in the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea. Currently, the potential ecological impacts are likely low since the population size is small due to an apparent shortage of suitable habitat. Economic effects are minimal at present because there are no major industries along the basin extracting water from the estuary. An integrated ecohydrological approach-i.e. freshets released from dams to control the populations of Cnidaria-was proposed to minimize or mitigate the potential negative effects of this species in the Guadiana Estuary.Delta Stewardship Council; Delta Science Program [1167]; Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) through the Jellyfisheries project [PTDC/MAR-BIO/0440/2014]; European Regional Development Fund (COMPETE program-Operational Competitiveness Programme); FCT [SFRH/BPD/108949/2015]; [UID/Multi/04326/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Statistical Analysis of Instantaneous Velocities in Turbulent Flow of Dilute Viscoelastic Solutions

An experimental study, based on streak photograph determination of instantaneous velocities, was directed at determining the structure of turbulence within the boundary layer and core regions of circular pipes. The measurements lend support to the ejection phenomenon as the mechanism controlling drag reduction. A correlation factor, defined as the ratio of the observed number of positive instantaneous radial velocities, to the observed number of negative instantaneous radial velocities, suggests acceleration in the radial direction as the elements of fluid move through the sublayer. The correlation factor also provides information about the thickening of the boundary layer for drag reducers relative to the Newtonian case. Radial turbulent intensity data for 0.01% aqueous solutions of Separan AP-30 were found to be markedly lower, at all radial positions, than the intensities for Newtonian fluids. The lowering of the radial intensities being ordered according to the amount of drag reduction