White-collar crime is explained from an economist’s perspective. Economic models typically begin by assuming individuals behave rationally. By extension, economic models of crime suggest that white-collar criminals may be acting more rationally than a casual observer may assume. This thesis will identify the benefits and drawbacks of different regulations and laws by exploring several case studies of white-collar events.

Extant literature on White Nationalism illustrate the myriad of social issues members of this racialist extremist group presently recognize as threatening the continuation of the white race and the preservation of white heritage (Swain 2002). One of these threats includes the high incidences of black-on-white violent crime within the United States. The March 2008 murder of UNC student body president Eve Carson, a 22 year-old white woman, by two young black males elicited heated discussion among White Nationalists. This paper analyzes, via content analysis, the thematic discourse surrounding Carson's homicide among White Nationalists on two popular White Nationalist websites. Functionalist theory guides this investigation in the attempt to illustrate how White Nationalists use scientific theories of criminality and government crime statistics as tools for justifying their racist beliefs. Also, this study intended to answer whether or not Carson's murder prompted an increase in online membership on the two websites used for the analysis. Moreover, this study sought to unearth thematic discourse which involved attacking whites who do not subscribe to White Nationalism; Eve Carson as either a sacred or profane symbol of whiteness; criticism of government policies, media, and the criminal justice system; evoking fear within the White Nationalist community; and calls for white solidarity and action. This analysis suggests that White Nationalists primarily used Carson's death as an opportunity to attack whites who do not subscribe to White Nationalist beliefs. / Master of Science

E-commerce is a growing market for selling gods and digital images are often used to display the product. However, there is a problem when the color of the object does not match the reality. This can lead to a dissatisfaction of the customer and a return of the product. Returned goods causes a significant loss in revenue for the suppliers. One reason for untruthful rendering of colors in images is due to different temperatures, or colors, of the illumination sources lighting the scene and the object. This effect can be reduced by a method called white balance. In this thesis, an algorithm based on the technique in Hsu et al. was implemented for a more truthful rendering of images of clothes and toys used in e-commerce. The algorithm removes unwanted color casts induced in the image from two different illumination sources. The thesis also marks important details missing in aforementioned paper as well as some drawbacks of the proposed technique, such as high processing time.

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