Both Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda wanted to create epic works that would distinguish American literature from the literary traditions of Europe, works that would grow organically from the native landscapes and peoples of the Americas. Part of their projects included creating works that would act as political sourcebooks for their cultures. Whitman wanted to foster a democratic culture in the United States through writing a grand poetic work, while Neruda wanted to create a communist culture in Latin America through an epic work. Soon into the project Whitman realized that the traditional epic was not a suitable form for his task, so in attempting to construct a new form, he created the lyric-epic in his Leaves of Grass. Since Neruda believed that Whitman was the first authentic literary voice of the Americas and that the lyric-epic was a native form, he used Leaves of Grass as a paradigm when writing his Canto general. In separate discussions of each work, this study examines the politics of both writers and why they wanted to write political sourcebooks; their use of camaraderie/fraternity to tie readers together for democratic or communist governments; their rewriting of history as redemption and as the progression of democracy or communism; and lastly, their endeavors to teach readers to read as democrats or communists. Ultimately, the study argues that Neruda and Whitman were the foundations and the peaks of their literary traditions and that studying Whitman's and Neruda's lyric-epics reveals a common form for poetic epic attempts in the Americas after Whitman; moreover, it argues that even while Neruda used Leaves of Grass as a paradigm, he wrote a work of equal standing to it in Canto general.

Spatial analysis has long been a valuable tool used within the criminal investigative process. This is especially true for serial offence cases where criminologists apply geographic profiling to model offender mobility and crime distribution patterns in order to estimate a criminals likely residence. Yet, traditional analytical methodologies have avoided the utilization of functional distance measures when modeling an offenders journey-to-crime within an anisotropic landscape. By substituting straight-line Euclidean distances with travel path functional distance measures, the predictive utility and technological prerequisites associated with geographically profiling a localized serial offender was assessed using mathematically calibrated distance decay models. Both the travel-path and temporally optimized functional distance measures were calculated based on the impedance attributes stored within a linearly referenced transportation data layer of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Journey-to-crime distance decay algorithms were mathematically calibrated for best fit, based on the distribution of incidents obtained from a calibration sample of thirty-one simulated offenders. Functional distances measured for a series of incident locations attributed to a sample of four simulated serial offenders. Using the calibrated distance decay function measured from the calibration sample, geographic profiles were created for each of the four simulated serial offenders. A probability score was calculated for every point within the study area to indicate the likelihood that it contained the offenders residence. Score surfaces estimating the likely residence of the sample offenders were calculated and compared to the actual, known residences in order to determine predictive value and procedural validity of functional distance metrics. Analyzed results revealed that the functional distance measures can serve as a substitute for traditional Euclidian distances when estimating the likely residence of a localized serial offender.

This research focuses on the use of historical freeway traffic data for comparison of the precursory traffic conditions to that accident occurrence by using 15-minute traffic speed contour maps. The second order statistics measures, namely angular second moment (ASM), contrast and entropy were used as the traffic performance measures in order to compare the two situations. The data used is from I-4 freeway traffic condition database, stored in a SQL server and 1999 year accident database for the same I-4 freeway. The study section is located in Orlando, Florida. The approach shows an approach to understand the performance of the freeways in an efficient and easy way.

Louisiana Gulf Coast oysters (Crassostrea virginica) were subjected to thermal shucking treatments to effect adductor muscle release from both left and right valves. The oysters were instrumented with thermocouples to monitor and record process temperatures in the oysters and on the shell. Following treatment, the oysters were evaluated for relaxation and release of the adductor muscle, meat quality and texture, and for the effect of the treatments on the storage life of the oysters as measured by total microbial plate counts. The treatments of many oysters resulted in a complete release of the adductor muscle from the shell while maintaining a quality raw product. One of the most promising treatments was a 60 second steam injection followed by a 60 second hold time and 120 seconds of ice water bath. This treatment proved exceptional overall with shelf stability over 14 days, an overall Average Release Value of 1.18 and an overall Quality of 1.86, both of which are good. A second treatment consisting of a 15 second pre-heat followed by a 45 second steam injection, no hold time and 4 minutes of ice water bath resulted in an overall Average Release Value of 0.33, which is excellent, and an overall Quality of 2.10 which is very close to acceptable. Sixty-seven percent of the oysters subjected to this treatment were considered successfully shucked based on degree of release and quality. Processing did affect the texture of the oysters but seemed to have little overall effect on storage life. This low-pressure steam process shows promise as an effective, low-cost alternative to current, high pressure commercial oyster shucking processes.

The German blitzkrieg across France during May 1940 was the culmination of three years of daring political and military moves that had brought most of Europe under German control. It was the German dictator Adolf Hitler who had outguessed his advisors. Yet, Hitler's bold moves in Western Europe ended with his army's dash across France, and the failure to strike Great Britain that summer when the British were at one of the weakest points in their entire history. After Germany defeated France, Hitler began a fruitless period of waiting for Great Britain to sue for peace. Unlike Hitler, some in the German High Command believed that Great Britain would fight and that a coherent strategy was needed to defeat that island nation. During late June 1940, two strategies emerged for defeating Great Britain. The first, code-named Operation SEA LION, called for an invasion of southern England. This plan was the surest way to bring about a decisive outcome, but also the riskiest. Hitler nonetheless ordered that planning and training for the operation go forward, a process halted by the Luftwaffe's inability to defeat the RAF as the necessary prelude to the invasion. The strategic option less risky than an invasion of the British Isles called for an attack on the important colony of Gibraltar. German planners believed that seizure of "the Rock" would place immense stress on the British Empire and possibly force a negotiated peace. In November, German military units were task-organized and trained for the operation, now code-named Operation FELIX. Hitler understood the importance of Gibraltar, but wanted the approval of Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator, before ordering an attack. Hitler waited. By the spring of 1941, Hitler had failed to act and had lost his opportunity to strike Great Britain when it was most vulnerable. He did not have the will to make the difficult decision and implement either strategy. After December 1940, Great Britain would never again be in danger of an invasion of either the island home or of its valuable colony.

The surrogation of Caliban from Shakespeares The Tempest to Césaires A Tempest has always been related to colonialism. In Shakespeares time, Caliban, depicted as half animal, served to represent the Other in an emerging colonial discourse. As opposed to Shakespeares character, Césaires Caliban is blatantly black and racially oppressed. Césaire indicates that A Tempest is an adaptation of Shakespeares The Tempest for black theater. As an adaptation, the play reinterprets the figure of Caliban to express postcolonial attitudes of the time. This thesis addresses the questions of how the figure of Caliban in Shakespeares play fits into the discourse of colonialism and how the figure of the black Caliban in Césaires play reinterprets Caliban in a postcolonial context. To answer the questions, this thesis employs postcolonial theory as advanced by, among others, Aimé Césaire, Leopold Senghor, Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha. The discussion indicates that each figuration of Caliban, both on stage and in critical theory, always functions as a surrogate for another reinterpretation of the figure within a given political context. Césaires Caliban, as a refiguring of Shakespeares Caliban, however, also invites another surrogation, one that relates to the later wave of postcolonial theory emphasizing hybridity, which views Caliban as one who blends borders and identities in a hybrid formation.

Guided written conversations were studied from English speakers at four different proficiency levels. They were analyzed according to their speech act realization, speech event realization, and conversation management (as reflected by three levels of speech acts: primary, secondary, and complementary). All four proficiency levels were found to be capable in the formulation of speech acts and events, demonstrating access to certain discourse principles at all levels. Language proficiency was found to effect the way in which a speech event was realized to a greater degree than the level of formality was found to effect the way in which the speech events were realized.

This dissertation reports a research effort to microfabricate an electromagnetic relay for power applications using a multilayer UV-LIGA process. A mechanically wrapped coil was used and very simple design for the magnetic circuit was adopted to increase the design flexibility and performances. The broad material selection and the capability of making high aspect ratio microstructures of the UV-LIGA make the technology best suited for fabricating microelectromechanical power relays. Fabrication of the device required significant advances in the optical lithography of SU-8 negative photoresist. Research proved that aspect-ratios up to 40:1 in isolated open field structures of thickness between 1 and 1.5 mm can be obtained a standard broadband UV source. The principal factor in this achievement is the reduction of internal stress during the post-exposure bake process that eliminates large plastic deformations present during standard bake procedures. Another challenging issue associated with producing high aspect ratio microstructures is the development narrow groves and deep holes in SU-8 lithography. To overcome this obstacle, megasonic agitation was applied to the developer bath, which resulted in faster development rates, more uniform development, and the ability to produce structures with higher aspect ratios. To date, this process has been used to achieve 100:1 aspect ratio open field features and 45:1 intact cylinder arrays. A multi-layer SU-8 optical lithography and metal electrodeposition process was developed to fabricate the relay. The design required implementation of high aspect ratio lithographic processing techniques to produce a tall nickel magnetic core and insulated magnetic cup in which a pre-wrapped solenoid would be placed for electromagnetic driving. After insertion of the solenoid a Ni-Fe actuator was bonded to the relay base to complete the device. To better understand the fatigue life of electroplated microstructures, a theoretical model was developed determine the possible fracture mechanics properties and fatigue life of LIGA fabricated nickel and nickel-iron alloys for use in microsystems applications. The prototype micro-relays were tested for the dynamic characteristics and power capacity. The experimental results have confirmed that reasonably large current capacity and fast response speed can be achieved using electromagnetic actuation and the multi-layer UV-LIGA fabrication process developed.

Construction industry accounts for the largest number of occupational injuries and fatalities every year. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an organization responsible for regulating and enforcing standards for various occupations to ensure safe working conditions including construction industry. As an OSHA requirement, every construction employer should employ a safety program that involves both training of the employees and frequent site inspections. OSHA has provided an online construction eTool as a training tool which also aids in the development of safety inspection procedures. Traditionally, safety inspections are paper based and usually designed to address a specific work area or procedure. The inspection reports did not include any detailed visual data which may increase the cost of maintenance and data mining for problem areas. This project explains the possibility of using Tablet PCs as tool for performing safety inspections at a construction site to identify occupational hazards. As a part of the project, a Tablet PC application, Hazard Prevention Tool (HPT), is developed that concentrates on the four prime hazard areas, Electrical, Falls, Struck By, and Trenching and Excavation, hazards. The application makes it possible to capture the image of the worksite and marking the problem areas on the image. After each site inspection, a report is generated which includes the worksite image with problem areas marked and possible solutions for each problem area based on the OSHA recommendations. A usability test is also conducted as a part of the project using three sample work sites.

Diamondlike carbon (DLC) films have been explored extensively in the past due to their highly attractive properties. However, the high level of internal stress developed during growth prevents deposition of thick films. Synthesis of DLC/DLC multilayers (DDM) presents a venue to overcome this drawback. In the present study, DLC films and DDM were deposited on Si substrate using dc plasma of CH₄ and Ar gas mixture. FTIR was used to analyze the structure of the DLC films. Mechanical properties of the films were characterized by microhardness testing and nanoindentation. The tribological properties were studied by conducting pin-on-disc experiments in the laboratory environment (relative humidity 40-60%). Optical profilometry was used to analyze Intrinsic stress in the films and the wear profiles. A preliminary study was conducted utilizing different processing parameter (bias voltage, chamber pressure and ratio of Ar to CH₄) to select the constituents of the DDM. Subsequently, DDM were synthesized consisting of alternating nanolayers of soft (high sp²content) and hard (low sp² content) DLC by varying: (i) individual layer thickness while keeping the thickness ratio of soft/ hard DLC film, λ = 1 and; (ii) λ. The multilayered films found to exhibit low intrinsic stress ranging mostly below the average values of the two individual components. Nanoindentation behavior of DDM was comparable to the parent films and no significant variation was observed in different DDM films. DDM films with λ=1 exhibited better tribological properties compared to the films with λ other than unity. The 50 nm/50 nm DDM film exhibited the best tribological properties. It combined the low friction coefficient of the soft DLC component and low wear rate of the harder DLC component. The stress was found to be the average of the parent DLC films; hence it possesses the promise to be deposited as a thick coating, while maintaining desirable mechanical and tribological properties.