Essential Learning Objectives For Graphic Designers, Post Secondary

Graphic designers today need to possess a wide variety of skill sets in order to adequately perform their duties. The skill sets include areas of study in Art, Design, Computer Technology, and Print Technology. My goal is to find what learning objectives in these areas and others are essential for a person to become a graphic designe

Comparison of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity using Geospatial Analysis of Field and SSURGO data for septic tank suitability assessment

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) is a soil property linked to ecosystem services and it is often used in septic tank suitability determination at various scales. Field and laboratory measurements of Ksat and septic tank suitability are time-consuming and expensive. Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) data are available for the United States, but limitations of using SSURGO data for Ksat and septic suitability determination are not fully understood. The objectives of this study were to quantify and compare depth to limiting layer, thickness of limiting layer, and Ksat values for a 147-hectare Cornell University Willsboro Research Farm, located in upstate New York based on the following procedures: a) using values reported by SSURGO for each soil map unit (SMU) within the farm and applying that value across each SMU; b) averaging the values of soil cores collected within a specific SMU boundary and applying the averaged value across each SMU; and c) interpolating values across the farm based on the individual soil cores. SSURGO overestimated the depth to the limiting layer and the thickness of the limiting layer when compared to field measured values. Average soil core values representing limiting layer, thickness of limiting layer, and Ksat values were not significantly correlated with SSURGO reported values. Similarly, interpolated soil core values of limiting layer, thickness of limiting layer, and Ksat values were not significantly correlated with SSURGO reported values. Both SSURGO data and field measurements are necessary for proper septic tank suitability determination due to the uncertainties, which often arise from field, laboratory and geospatial variability in data necessary for such determinations. Application of technological advances may reduce the uncertainty in data collection

Predicting Employee Performance Using Text Data from Resumes

Text analytics using term frequency was proposed as an extension of biodata for predicting job performance and addressing criticisms of biodata and predictor methods—that they do not identify the constructs they are measuring or their predictive elements. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software was used to analyze and sort text into validated categories. Prolific Academic was used to recruit full-time workers who provided a copy of their resume and were assessed on impression management (IM), cognitive ability, and job performance. Predictive analyses used resumes with 100+ words (n = 667), whereas correlational analyses used the full sample (N = 809). Third-person plural pronouns, impersonal pronouns, sadness words, certainty words, non-fluencies, and colons emerged as significant predictors of job performance (χ2 = 26.01 (10), p = .006). As hypothesized, impersonal pronouns were positively correlated with self-oriented IM (r = .07, p \u3c .05), and first-person singular pronouns were positively correlated with other-oriented IM (r = .07, p \u3c .05), however, first-person plural pronouns were negatively correlated (r = -.07, p \u3c .05). Pronouns and verbs were not predictive of job performance. Positive and negative emotion words did not show hypothesized relationships to OCBs, CWBs, or job performance. Finally, differentiation words (r = .09, p \u3c .01), conjunctions (r = .28, p \u3c .01), words longer than six characters (r = .29, p \u3c .01), prepositions (r = .20, p \u3c .01), cognitive process words (r = .19, p \u3c .01), causal words (r = .20, p \u3c .01), and insight words (r = .06, p \u3c .05) correlated with cognitive ability, but did not predict job performance. An exploratory regression analysis in which cognitive ability as measured by the Spot-The-Word Test (β = .10, p \u3c .05) and a composite of cognitive ability created from text analytics (β = .15, p \u3c .05) both uniquely and significantly predicted job performance (F(1,805) = 18.79, p \u3c .001), demonstrating that word categories can serve as a proxy for cognitive ability. Overall, the method of text analytics sidesteps some of the limitations of biodata predictor methods, while demonstrating the potential to automate resume reviews and mitigate unconscious bias inherent in human judgment

Evaluation of Biological Thatch Control on Golf Greens

Thatch is a layer of living and dead plant material (stems and roots) between turfgrass leaf tissue and the soil surface and if excessive, it can decrease playability of turf surfaces, increase mower scalping and disease pressure, reduce pesticide efficacy and water infiltration, plus harbor insects. In golf greens, mechanical, thus, disruptive practices such as vertical mowing, core cultivation, grooming, and topdressing are traditional agronomic methods for managing thatch/organic matter. Greenhouse and field experiments were conducted for two years to evaluate two commercial biostimulant products, Worm Power and Earth MAX, and their impact on thatch and rooting depth. Earth MAX had two rates, and was named Earth MAX (1) and Earth MAX (2). In addition to the biostimulants, two industry standards were included: blackstrap molasses and sand topdressing. Greenhouse studies yielded results showing Earth MAX (1), and sand topdressing provided an average of 16% greater root length than untreated control in year 1. However, in year 2, Worm Power provided 16% greater root length than untreated control. Earth MAX (1) provided 117% greater root mass than untreated control in year 2. No treatments provided greater root mass in Year 1. For both years, blackstrap molasses, Earth MAX (1), and Earth MAX (2) reduced thatch thickness by 30%, 24%, and 18% respectively, versus the untreated; however, no decrease in thatch weight by treatments was observed. Whereas, results from the two-year field trials, showed that all treatments, with the exception of blackstrap molasses, provided an average of 18% greater root length than untreated control. However, blackstrap molasses provided 146% greater root mass, and 9% less thatch weight over the two-year study when compared to the untreated control. For both years, blackstrap molasses, Earth MAX (1), and Earth MAX (2), and Worm Power reduced thatch thickness an average of 26% versus the untreated

Wearable health monitor to aid Parkinson's disease treatment

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31).by Joshua A. Weaver.S.M

An automated system to detect flash floods and alert at-risk communities

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 25).This thesis describes an automated monitoring station designed to detect flash floods occurring in the Rio Aguan river basin, Honduras. An Atmel microcontroller polls a series of sensors in the river, logging all data for later hydrological analysis and modeling. A high-power APRS radio is used to alert a central monitoring facility of impending floods. Careful component choices and power management allows the system to run for 100 days on a single deep-cycle marine battery or practically indefinitely using a supplemental solar panel.by Joshua A. Weaver.M.Eng

The Effect of Compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Small Cap Technology Company\u27s Stock Prices

This paper analyzes the effect of compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also referred to as SOX, on small market cap technology firms using a comparable company analysis model. The comparable company analysis model is used to calculate and compare the average intrinsic values of 45 small and 45 large cap technology companies from the periods of January 1, 1999 to January 1, 2001 (Pre SOX era) and January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2009 (Post SOX era). The purpose of looking at large cap technology firms as a benchmark is to compare how different sized firms within the same industry fair after implementation and compliance of SOX. The stated objective of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was to improve the quality of financial reporting and to ultimately increase investor confidence again due to the major corporate accounting scandals with companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco International. According the SEC, Section 404 procedures are intended to help companies detect fraudulent reporting early and deter financial fraud, directly improving the reliability of financial statements. The intentions of Sarbanes-Oxley were in favor of improving investor confidence; however, it had an adverse effect on small cap technology firm’s stock prices. This hypothesis is supported and analyzed by the data derived from the comparable company model results

Porosity and permeability development in evolving fragmental volcanic systems

The capacity for fluid percolation in volcanic environments may be considered a double-edged sword. On the one hand, high permeabilities offer both a pressure release valve to mitigate the explosive potential of a magma, and access to valuable clean energy in geothermal reservoirs. Conversely, low permeabilities are associated with dangerous, highly pressurised magma which have a propensity to violently erupt. In geothermal systems, impervious rocks may prohibit resource utilisation, or provide the necessary cap rock to seal-in and maintain the desired high temperature fluids. In both active volcanic environments and hydrothermal systems, fluid flow is heavily concentrated through fracture networks and fragmental systems, such that they play a central role in determining the style of volcanism and the potential for geothermal energy production. In this thesis, I investigate how the evolution of several fragmental systems may impact their porosity and permeability development. Specifically, I analyse how dehydration affects juvenile fragmental melts which remain in viscous environments and how altered fragmental deposits respond to thermal stress. Before exploring the evolution of the aggregate fragmental systems, I first assess individual melt fragments which are dehydrating in an open system, such that volatiles may escape the melt into vesicles, via vesiculation, or into the surrounding atmosphere, via diffusion out of the sample. Where volatiles move into vesicles, the isolated bubble growth expands the fragment volume, whereas volatiles released from the fragment do not directly impart a geometry change. I demonstrate that in pyroclasts, vesiculation will strive towards equilibrium with the closed system conditions, and so it is a fragment size independent process; volatiles continually diffuse into vesicles until the water content of the melt drops to the melt solubility limit, such that the closed-system vesicularity of fragments can be assessed using bubble growth models. On the other hand, diffusive outgassing equilibrates the melt with the conditions of the open, surrounding gas, and so the effectiveness of diffusive volatile loss is determined by the surface area of the melt-atmosphere interface. I observe that dehydration caused by diffusive outgassing progressively impacts deeper into the fragment, where it causes exsolved volatiles to resorb and the vesicles to shrink and be lost. Accordingly, a dense and dehydrated rind forms at the sample margin, which thickens with the lengthscale of diffusion. I show that where vesiculation and diffusive outgassing occur in a melt fragment concomitantly, the processes compete to expand and densify the fragment. Because the rate of diffusive outgassing is determined by the melt surface area, the size of pyroclasts controls this competition, such that, as fragment size decreases, the vesicularity moves increasingly away from the closed-system bubble growth models. I find that smaller fragments attain lower vesicularity profiles than larger fragments, and that over time, fragments of all sizes will densify and eventually lose all vesicularity. In fragmental aggregate systems, this evolution in individual melt fragments is likely inversed in the volume of the inter-fragment pore space, leading to implications for the porosity and permeability of the system. I monitor the evolution of vesicularity, connected porosity, and permeability in open fragmental melts with various grain sizes, to assess how the concurrent processes of vesiculation, diffusive outgassing, and sintering interact. I find that as melt vesiculates, the expansion of fragments causes a commensurate loss in the inter-fragment pore space, which causes a reduction in permeability. However, this process is transient whilst the system remains open to the atmosphere, as diffusive outgassing causes fragment contraction, which reverses the porosity and permeability impact of vesiculation. Overprinting these processes, sintering continues to densify the melt and will ultimately close the permeable network. From the complex fragment size controls for these processes, I establish regimes which determine the general evolution of porosity and permeability during sintering of hydrous melts. Finally, I assess the impact of dehydration in hydrothermally altered volcaniclastic reservoir rocks. I explore the thermal stability of hydrous minerals in hyaloclastites and investigate how the dehydration and dissolution of matrix constituents influences the porosity, permeability, and mechanical behaviour of the bulk rock. I find that at relatively low temperatures, which are applicable for geothermal resources, smectite dehydrates, causing the mineral lattices to densify and ultimately, collapse. This dissolution creates pore volume, which is increasingly connected, such that thermal stress increases permeability without necessitating the formation of fractures. The increase in porosity reduces the compressive and tensile strength of the hyaloclastites. I show that rocks containing phyllosilicate minerals may be susceptible to thermal fluctuations, and that this enhances porosity and permeability and reduces strength, which may then facilitate mechanical compaction at lower stresses, with significant implications for geothermal reservoir rocks and magmatic host rocks. Through these studies I highlight that dehydration in fragmental volcanic systems can produce complex porosity and permeability evolution. If these systems are to be well understood, a careful assessment of their compositions (particle size distributions and mineralogies) is required and their thermal, chemical, and physical environmental conditions should be well constrained

Electron self exchange reactions of electroactive ionic liquid and nanoparticle materials

Chapter One is a basic introduction to the background and basic chemistry of both ionic liquid and gold nanoparticle materials. This chapter sets in place many concepts that are expanded upon in greater detail in later chapters. Chapter Two contains the synthesis and electrochemical analysis of a series of redox functionalized phosphonium ionic liquid materials. These materials were synthesized and characterized using NMR (1H, 13C, and 31P) and mass spectroscopy by Paul Ragogna's laboratory at the University of Western Ontario. Solution and neat melt electrochemistry (including cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and AC Impedance) was carried out to characterize the electrochemical behavior of these compounds and compare them to previous studies of other similar molecules. Chapter Three contains the successful synthesis of redox functionalized dendritic ionic liquids base on tris(2-aminoethyl)amine, poly(propylene imine) (PPI), and polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers. These redox functionalized dendritic ionic liquid materials were analyzed using NMR, mass spectroscopy, and solution and solid state electrochemistry. Despite the high melting points of these materials, electrochemical data was obtained for some neat materials at elevated temperatures and some were obtained using a special CO2 plasticization method. Chapter Four contains the use of the updated Au25(SCH2CH2Ph)18 synthesis, ligand exchange of Au25(L)18 nanoparticles, and the ligand effects on electron self exchange kinetics in solid state mixed valency films. The updated synthetic method has proven to be of great consequence by significantly increasing nanoparticle yield, purity, and ease of synthesis. MALDI data is presented to show purity of the materials and also to accurately show the extent of ligand exchange achieved. Linear sweep voltammetry was used to measure conductivity in solid state films of nanoparticles over the temperature range -10 degrees C to 30 degrees C with various para-substituted (electron withdrawing, donating, or neutral) mercaptobenzene ligands. The results of the solid state linear sweep measurements are also compared to a short study of the same ligand effect measured using AC impedance data. The results of this study indicate that nanoparticle film conductivity may be tuned by careful ligand selection

Gameplay, Interactive Drama, and Training: Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP)

This paper describes initial efforts at providing some of the technological advances of the videogame genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators. By providing these capabilities inside an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games may eventually be realized. Sections 1 and 2 postulate three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 3 and 4 present progress on those tools and an in-depth case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create a large interactive drama. We close with lessons learned to date and a look at the remaining challenges: the unpleasant reality that state-of-the-art tools are not yet able to boost the productivity of edutainment authors