Citizenship and the City

HonorsPolitical ScienceUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162604/1/cnolson.pd

USE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE IN MONITORING GROUNDWATER QUALITY: A CASE STUDY FROM NEBRASKA

Citizen science has a key role in modernizing effective communication between professional scientists and the general public. However, citizen science differs to that of professional science due to equipment and experience and is a topic argued against citizen science. However, technology in water quality testing has developed in simplicity and affordability to a point where high school students, with hands-on training, can collect groundwater samples and test for quality themselves. Nebraska groundwater quality is a critical part of the state and can utilize high school students as citizen scientists for their communities. High school students from rural communities across Nebraska collected and tested groundwater for safe drinking water quality utilizing chemistry test kits. The samples were also sent to a professional laboratory to be tested for the same analytes the students tested and further correlated. High school students had such limitations that come with colorimetric chemistry kits whereas the professional laboratory utilized analytical instruments with trained and experienced staff. For five analytes, nitrate, chloride, calcium hardness, pH and electrical conductivity, similarities and differences were expressed in terms of the coefficient of determination (R2) and the absolute difference in averages (|Δave|). For Nitrate, the R2 was 0.632 ±0.255, and the |Δave| of 3.97 ±5.32. Acomparison of the results between the citizen scientists and the professional scientists show similarities as well as areas for improvement. R2 results for electrical conductivity were favorable where |Δave| results were not so favorable. |Δave| results for pH were favorable where R2 results were not so favorable. Both R2 and |Δave| results for nitrate were not polar opposites like results for pH and electrical conductivity. Advisor: Daniel Sno

Gangstas, Thugs, Vikings, and Drivers: Cinematic Masculine Archetypes and the Demythologization of Violence in the Films of Nicolas Winding Refn

This thesis considers how the depictions of masculinity in the films of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn function as a critique of mainstream Hollywood cinema’s perpetuation of the notion that violent male behavior represents a heroic ideal for men to emulate. In films such as Pusher, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, and Drive, Refn constructs and presents his male characters by drawing upon recurring archetypal figures such as the gangster, the gangsta, the gunslinger, and the samurai. These figures recur throughout popular culture and across genres, and they perpetuate and reinforce a specific version of masculinity that emphasizes individualism, stoicism, and violence. Mainstream Hollywood films in general and male action cinema in particular often present this narrow and rigid vision of masculinity as a heroic manly ideal, and this, in turn, can inform how male viewers construct their own masculine personae. The male characters in Refn’s films serve to critique and destabilize this ideal by demonstrating how an insistence on appropriating or conforming to this sort of violent masculinity results in negative consequences for both the individual and the society around him

Characterization of a Human Powered Nebulizer Compressor for Resource Poor Settings

Background Respiratory disease accounts for three of the ten leading causes of death worldwide. Many of these diseases can be treated and diagnosed using a nebulizer. Nebulizers can also be used to safely and efficiently deliver vaccines. Unfortunately, commercially available nebulizers are not designed for use in regions of the world where lung disease is most prevalent: they are electricity-dependent, cost-prohibitive, and not built to be reliable in harsh operating conditions or under frequent use. To overcome these limitations, the Human Powered Nebulizer compressor (HPN) was developed. The HPN does not require electricity; instead airflow is generated manually through a hand-crank or bicycle-style pedal system. A health care worker or other trained individual operates the device while the patient receives treatment. This study demonstrates functional specifications of the HPN in comparison with a standard commercially available electric jet nebulizer compressor, the DeVilbiss Pulmo-Aide 5650D (Pulmo-Aide). Methods Pressure and flow characteristics were measured with a rotameter and pressure transducer, respectively. Volume nebulized by each compressor was determined by mass, and particle size distribution was determined via laser diffraction. The Hudson RCI Micro Mist nebulizer mouthpiece was used with both compressors. Results The pressure and flow generated by the HPN and Pulmo-Aide were: 15.17 psi and 10.5 L/min; and 14.65 psi and 11.2 L/min, respectively. The volume of liquid delivered by each was equivalent, 1.097 ± 0.107 mL (mean ± s.e.m., n = 13) for the HPN and 1.092 ± 0.116 mL for the Pulmo-Aide. The average particle size was also equivalent, 5.38 ± 0.040 micrometers (mean ± s.e.m., n = 7) and 5.40 ± 0.025 micrometers, respectively. Conclusions Based on these characteristics, the HPN’s performance is equivalent to a popular commercially available electric nebulizer compressor. The findings presented in this paper, combined with the results of two published clinical studies, suggest that the HPN could serve as an important diagnostic and therapeutic tool in the fight against global respiratory health challenges including: tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and lower respiratory infections

Property and Contract Rights in Autocracies and Democracies

We present and test empirically a new theory of property and contract rights. Any incentive an autocrat has to respect such rights comes from his interest in future tax collections and national income and increases with his planning horizon. We find a compelling empirical relationship between property and contract rights and an autocrat's time in power. In lasting -- but not in new -- democracies, the same rule of law and individual rights that ensure continued free elections entail extensive property and contract rights. We show that the age of a democratic system is strongly correlated with property and contract rights.property rights, contract rights, autocracy, democracy

FROM CREATOR TO CURATOR TO AUTHOR AS CONTENT: NICOLAS WINDING REFN, TRANSDISCURSIVE AUTHORSHIP, AND SELF-BRANDING IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY MEDIA

This dissertation traces Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s development from creator and curator to author as content within an evolving media ecology driven by capitalist ideology. A close critical study of Refn’s career from 1996 to 2019 offers insight into contemporary techniques of creating, collecting, and curating media texts, as well as the phenomenon of presenting oneself as content via discursive branding. Given that Refn’s career coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rise of digital platforms, he thus emblematizes what it means to be a creator working within an increasingly interconnected media ecology. Refn initially established himself as a traditional auteur as defined by scholars such as Peter Wollen. During this time, he took the first steps toward developing his mediated persona, which consists mainly of discourse fragments generated by critics, scholars, fans, and Refn himself. Eventually, however, Refn emerged as a transmedia auteur whose works span various media and platforms while still retaining his signature stylistic and narratological tendencies. Around the same time, Refn gained a reputation as a collector and fan curator through projects such as the coffee table book The Act of Seeing and the branded streaming platform byNWR.com, both of which position him as a cultural intermediary who shapes the tastes of others. Eventually Refn’s likeness was used by game developer Hideo Kojima in the video game Death Stranding, which demonstrates how a creator’s brand can be appropriated and used ludically by other creators in their own works. Refn’s brand becomes a significant text, as he uses it to discursively reject corporate cinema and celebrate regional exploitation cinema even as he frequently replicates aspects of corporate cinema in his own films. Drawing on the theories of polymediation and transdiscursivity, the analysis considers how late-stage capitalism shapes Refn’s career trajectory, which points toward potentially new forms of commodification and exploitation as authors become yet another form of branded content

Convergence Rates for the Central Limit Theorem for Random Sums

Let (Xi} be a sequence of independent, identically-distributed random variables with EX2i \u3c ꝏ and E(Xi - EXi)2 = 1

Designing Active Granular Squares

The goal of this thesis has been to find a means of i) designing an active square particle, and ii) continuously varying its degree of activity with the objective of understanding the effects of activity on the various phases of granular matter. The motivations, results and limitations of our methods of creating active particles are discussed in this thesis. The applicability of a stochastic model based on the Langevin equation in 2D as well as implications for future experiments are also discussed

Contract Intensive Money

This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, it introduces a new, easily accessed and objective measure of the enforceability of contracts and the security of property rights. Second, it uses this measure to provide additional and more direct evidence about the importance of secure property and contract rights for economic growth and investment. In the analysis below, we briefly review the arguments that link the quality of third-party contract enforcement to growth and investment. We then show how the new measure, which we call “contract-intensive money” or CIM, relates to the subjective measures employed in the literature. We test empirically the proposition that this variable, as a measure of the security of contract and property rights, is positively related to income, growth and investment.contract enforcement, property rights, governance, growth