ENVISIONING QUEER THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA: DEVELOPING A COMMUNITY-BASED WORKSHOP IN MEDIA ANALYSIS FOR LGBTQIA+ YOUTH

This project consists of a proposed curriculum for a semester-long, community-based workshop for LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or ally, "+" indicating other identifications that deviate from heterosexual) youth ages 16-18. The workshop focuses on an exploration of LGBTQIA+ identity and community through discussion and collaborative rhetorical analysis of visual and social media. Informed by queer theory and history, studies on youth work, and visual media studies and incorporating rhetorical criticism as well as liberatory pedagogy and community literacy practices, the participation-based design of the workshop seeks to involve participants in selection of media texts, active analytical viewership, and multimodal response. The workshop is designed to engage participants in reflection on questions of individual and collective responsibility and agency as members and allies of various communities. The goal of the workshop is to strengthen participants' abilities to analyze the complex ways in which television, film, and social media influence their own and others’ perceptions of issues surrounding queer identities. As part of the reflective process, participants are challenged to consider how they can in turn actively and collaboratively respond to and potentially help to shape these perceptions. My project report details the theoretical framework, pedagogical rationale, methods of text selection and critical analysis, and guidelines for conduct that inform and structure the workshop.

LOCAL DIGITAL CONTROL OF POWER ELECTRONIC CONVERTERS IN A DC MICROGRID BASED ON A-PRIORI DERIVATION OF SWITCHING SURFACES

In power electronic basedmicrogrids, the computational requirements needed to implement an optimized online control strategy can be prohibitive. The work presented in this dissertation proposes a generalized method of derivation of geometric manifolds in a dc microgrid that is based on the a-priori computation of the optimal reactions and trajectories for classes of events in a dc microgrid. The proposed states are the stored energies in all the energy storage elements of the dc microgrid and power flowing into them. It is anticipated that calculating a large enough set of dissimilar transient scenarios will also span many scenarios not specifically used to develop the surface. These geometric manifolds will then be used as reference surfaces in any type of controller, such as a sliding mode hysteretic controller. The presence of switched power converters in microgrids involve different control actions for different system events. The control of the switch states of the converters is essential for steady state and transient operations. A digital memory look-up based controller that uses a hysteretic sliding mode control strategy is an effective technique to generate the proper switch states for the converters. An example dcmicrogrid with three dc-dc boost converters and resistive loads is considered for this work. The geometric manifolds are successfully generated for transient events, such as step changes in the loads and the sources. The surfaces corresponding to a specific case of step change in the loads are then used as reference surfaces in an EEPROM for experimentally validating the control strategy. The required switch states corresponding to this specific transient scenario are programmed in the EEPROM as a memory table. This controls the switching of the dc-dc boost converters and drives the system states to the reference manifold. In this work, it is shown that this strategy effectively controls the system for a transient condition such as step changes in the loads for the example case.

Poetry Reading - Poet Laureate of the UP

Russell Thorburn, Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula, is visiting Michigan Tech and presenting a reading, workshop, and slide show to the Michigan Tech community from 7 to 8:30 p.m., on Thursday, April 10, in the East Reading room of the Van Pelt and Opie Library. This exceptional event is open to the public and is sponsored by the Friends of the Van Pelt Library; all are welcome and no preregistration is required.

"Army of One" to "Army Strong" : visual media and U.S. Army recruitment during Bush"s "War on Terror"

From Bush’s September 20, 2001 “War on Terror” speech to Congress to President-Elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on November 4, 2008, the U.S. Army produced visual recruitment material that addressed the concerns of falling enlistment numbers—due to the prolonged and difficult war in Iraq—with quickly-evolving and compelling rhetorical appeals: from the introduction of an “Army of One” (2001) to “Army Strong” (2006); from messages focused on education and individual identity to high-energy adventure and simulated combat scenarios, distributed through everything from printed posters and music videos to first-person tactical-shooter video games. These highly polished, professional visual appeals introduced to the American public during a time of an unpopular war fought by volunteers provide rich subject matter for research and analysis. This dissertation takes a multidisciplinary approach to the visual media utilized as part of the Army’s recruitment efforts during the War on Terror, focusing on American myths—as defined by Barthes—and how these myths are both revealed and reinforced through design across media platforms. Placing each selection in its historical context, this dissertation analyzes how printed materials changed as the War on Terror continued. It examines the television ad that introduced “Army Strong” to the American public, considering how the combination of moving image, text, and music structure the message and the way we receive it. This dissertation also analyzes the video game America’s Army, focusing on how the interaction of the human player and the computer-generated player combine to enhance the persuasive qualities of the recruitment message. Each chapter discusses how the design of the particular medium facilitates engagement/interactivity of the viewer. The conclusion considers what recruitment material produced during this time period suggests about the persuasive strategies of different media and how they create distinct relationships with their spectators. It also addresses how theoretical frameworks and critical concepts used by a variety of disciplines can be combined to analyze recruitment media utilizing a Selber inspired three literacy framework (functional, critical, rhetorical) and how this framework can contribute to the multimodal classroom by allowing instructors and students to do a comparative analysis of multiple forms of visual media with similar content.

Post-project assessment and follow-up support for community managed rural water systems in Panama

The Environmental Health (EH) program of Peace Corps (PC) Panama and a non-governmental organization (NGO) Waterlines have been assisting rural communities in Panama gain access to improved water sources through the practice of community management (CM) model and participatory development. Unfortunately, there is little information available on how a water system is functioning once the construction is complete and the volunteer leaves the community. This is a concern when the recent literature suggests that most communities are not able to indefinitely maintain a rural water system (RWS) without some form of external assistance (Sara and Katz, 1997; Newman et al, 2002; Lockwood, 2002, 2003, 2004; IRC, 2003; Schweitzer, 2009). Recognizing this concern, the EH program director encouraged the author to complete a postproject assessment of the past EH water projects. In order to carry out the investigation, an easy to use monitoring and evaluation tool was developed based on literature review and the author’s three years of field experience in rural Panama. The study methodology consists of benchmark scoring systems to rate the following ten indicators: watershed, source capture, transmission line, storage tank, distribution system, system reliability, willingness to pay, accounting/transparency, maintenance, and active water committee members. The assessment of 28 communities across the country revealed that the current state of physical infrastructure, as well as the financial, managerial and technical capabilities of water committees varied significantly depending on the community. While some communities are enjoying continued service and their water committee completing all of its responsibilities, others have seen their water systems fall apart and be abandoned. Overall, the higher score were more prevalent for all ten indicators. However, even the communities with the highest scores requested some form of additional assistance. The conclusion from the assessment suggests that the EH program should incorporate an institutional support mechanism (ISM) to its sector policy in order to systematically provide follow-up support to rural communities in Panama. A full-time circuit rider with flexible funding would be able to provide additional technical support, training and encouragement to those communities in need.

Porous silicon technology for integrated microsystems

With the development of micro systems, there is an increasing demand for integrable porous materials. In addition to those conventional applications, such as filtration, wicking, and insulating, many new micro devices, including micro reactors, sensors, actuators, and optical components, can benefit from porous materials. Conventional porous materials, such as ceramics and polymers, however, cannot meet the challenges posed by micro systems, due to their incompatibility with standard micro-fabrication processes. In an effort to produce porous materials that can be used in micro systems, porous silicon (PS) generated by anodization of single crystalline silicon has been investigated. In this work, the PS formation process has been extensively studied and characterized as a function of substrate type, crystal orientation, doping concentration, current density and surfactant concentration and type. Anodization conditions have been optimized for producing very thick porous silicon layers with uniform pore size, and for obtaining ideal pore morphologies. Three different types of porous silicon materials: meso porous silicon, macro porous silicon with straight pores, and macro porous silicon with tortuous pores, have been successfully produced. Regular pore arrays with controllable pore size in the range of 2µm to 6µm have been demonstrated as well. Localized PS formation has been achieved by using oxide/nitride/polysilicon stack as masking materials, which can withstand anodization in hydrofluoric acid up to twenty hours. A special etching cell with electrolytic liquid backside contact along with two process flows has been developed to enable the fabrication of thick macro porous silicon membranes with though wafer pores. For device assembly, Si-Au and In-Au bonding technologies have been developed. Very low bonding temperature (~200 degrees C) and thick/soft bonding layers (~6µm) have been achieved by In-Au bondi ng technology, which is able to compensate the potentially rough surface on the porous silicon sample without introducing significant thermal stress. The application of the porous silicon material in micro systems has been demonstrated in a micro gas chromatograph system by two indispensable components: an integrated vapor source and an inlet filter, wherein porous silicon performs the basic functions of porous media: wicking and filtration. By utilizing a macro porous silicon wick, the calibration vapor source was able to produce a uniform and repeatable vapor generation for n-decane with less than a 0.1% variation in 9 hours, and less than a 0.5% variation in rate over 7 days. With engineered porous silicon membranes the inlet filter was able to show a depth filtration with nearly 100% collection efficiency for particles larger than 0.3µm in diameter, a low pressure-drop of 523Pa at 20sccm flow rate, and a filter capacity of 500µg/cm2.

New media reading strategy

This dissertation addresses the need for a strategy that will help readers new to new media texts interpret such texts. While scholars in multimodal and new media theory posit rubrics that offer ways to understand how designers use the materialities and media found in overtly designed, new media texts (see, e.g,, Wysocki, 2004a), these strategies do not account for how readers have to make meaning from those texts. In this dissertation, I discuss how these theories, such as Lev Manovich’s (2001) five principles for determining the new media potential of texts and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s (2001) four strata of designing multimodal texts, are inadequate to the job of helping readers understand new media from a rhetorical perspective. I also explore how literary theory, specifically Wolfgang Iser’s (1978) description of acts of interpretation, can help audiences understand why readers are often unable to interpret the multiple, unexpected modes of communication used in new media texts. Rhetorical theory, explored in a discussion of Sonja Foss’s (2004) units of analysis, is helpful in bringing the reader into a situated context with a new media text, although these units of analysis, like Iser’s process, suggests that a reader has some prior experience interpreting a text-as-artifact. Because of this assumption of knowledge put forth by all of the theories explored within, I argue that none alone is useful to help readers engage with and interpret new media texts. However, I argue that a heuristic which combines elements from each of these theories, as well as additional ones, is more useful for readers who are new to interpreting the multiple modes of communication that are often used in unconventional ways in new media texts. I describe that heuristic in the final chapter and discuss how it can be useful to a range of texts besides those labelled new media.

Uptake and fate of hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine by Chrysopogon zizanioides

Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) is a nitramine compound that has been used heavily by the military as an explosive. Manufacturing, use, and disposal of RDX have led to several contamination sites across the United States. RDX is both persistent in the environment and a threat to human health, making its remediation vital. The use of plants to extract RDX from the soil and metabolize it once it is in the plant tissue, is being considered as a possible solution. In the present study, the tropical grass Chrysopogon zizanioides was grown hydroponically in the presence RDX at 3 different concentration levels: 0.3, 1.1, and 2.26 ppm. The uptake of RDX was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of media samples taken every 6 hr during the first 24 hr and then daily over a 30-day experimental period. A rapid decrease in RDX concentration in the media of both controls and plant treatments was seen within the first 18 hours of the experiment with the greatest loss in RDX over time occurring within the first 6 hours of exposure. The loss was similar in both controls and plant exposures and possibly attributed to rapid uptake by the containers. A plant from one treatment at each of the three concentrations was harvested at Day 10, 20 and 30 throughout the experiment and extracted to determine the localization of RDX within the tissue and potentially identify any metabolites on the basis of differing retention times. Of the treatments containing 0.3, 1.1, and 2.26 ppm RDX, 13.1%, 18.3%, and 24.2% respectively, was quantified in vetiver extracts, with the majority of the RDX being localized to the roots. All plants not yet harvested were harvested on Day 30 of the experiment. A total of three plants exposed to each concentration level as well as the control, were extracted and analyzed with HPLC to determine amount of RDX taken up, localization of RDX within the plant tissue, and potentially identify any metabolites. Phytotoxicity of RDX to vetiver was also monitored. While a loss in biomass was observed in plants exposed to all the different concentrations of RDX, control plants grown in media not exposed to RDX showed the greatest biomass loss of all the treatments. There was also little variation in chlorophyll content between the different concentration treatments with RDX. This preliminary greenhouse study of RDX uptake 10 by Chrysopogon zizanioides will help indicate the potential ability of vetiver to serve as a plant system in the phytoremediation of RDX.

Analysis of spring break-up and its effects on a biomass feedstock supply chain in northern Michigan

Demand for bio-fuels is expected to increase, due to rising prices of fossil fuels and concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and energy security. The overall cost of biomass energy generation is primarily related to biomass harvesting activity, transportation, and storage. With a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol processing facility in Kinross Township of Chippewa County, Michigan about to be built, models including a simulation model and an optimization model have been developed to provide decision support for the facility. Both models track cost, emissions and energy consumption. While the optimization model provides guidance for a long-term strategic plan, the simulation model aims to present detailed output for specified operational scenarios over an annual period. Most importantly, the simulation model considers the uncertainty of spring break-up timing, i.e., seasonal road restrictions. Spring break-up timing is important because it will impact the feasibility of harvesting activity and the time duration of transportation restrictions, which significantly changes the availability of feedstock for the processing facility. This thesis focuses on the statistical model of spring break-up used in the simulation model. Spring break-up timing depends on various factors, including temperature, road conditions and soil type, as well as individual decision making processes at the county level. The spring break-up model, based on the historical spring break-up data from 27 counties over the period of 2002-2010, starts by specifying the probability distribution of a particular county’s spring break-up start day and end day, and then relates the spring break-up timing of the other counties in the harvesting zone to the first county. In order to estimate the dependence relationship between counties, regression analyses, including standard linear regression and reduced major axis regression, are conducted. Using realizations (scenarios) of spring break-up generated by the statistical spring breakup model, the simulation model is able to probabilistically evaluate different harvesting and transportation plans to help the bio-fuel facility select the most effective strategy. For early spring break-up, which usually indicates a longer than average break-up period, more log storage is required, total cost increases, and the probability of plant closure increases. The risk of plant closure may be partially offset through increased use of rail transportation, which is not subject to spring break-up restrictions. However, rail availability and rail yard storage may then become limiting factors in the supply chain. Rail use will impact total cost, energy consumption, system-wide CO2 emissions, and the reliability of providing feedstock to the bio-fuel processing facility.

Optimal beam forming for laser beam propagation through random media

Focusing optical beams on a target through random propagation media is very important in many applications such as free space optical communica- tions and laser weapons. Random media effects such as beam spread and scintillation can degrade the optical system's performance severely. Compensation schemes are needed in these applications to overcome these random media effcts. In this research, we investigated the optimal beams for two different optimization criteria: one is to maximize the concentrated received intensity and the other is to minimize the scintillation index at the target plane. In the study of the optimal beam to maximize the weighted integrated intensity, we derive a similarity relationship between pupil-plane phase screen and extended Huygens-Fresnel model, and demonstrate the limited utility of maximizing the average integrated intensity. In the study ofthe optimal beam to minimize the scintillation index, we derive the first- and second-order moments for the integrated intensity of multiple coherent modes. Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian modes are used as the coherent modes to synthesize an optimal partially coherent beam. The optimal beams demonstrate evident reduction of scintillation index, and prove to be insensitive to the aperture averaging effect.

Two dimensional Lattice Boltzmann simulation of fluid flow through an idealized micro-structure of disordered media

This technical report discusses the application of Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) in the fluid flow simulation through porous filter-wall of disordered media. The diesel particulate filter (DPF) is an example of disordered media. DPF is developed as a cutting edge technology to reduce harmful particulate matter in the engine exhaust. Porous filter-wall of DPF traps these soot particles in the after-treatment of the exhaust gas. To examine the phenomena inside the DPF, researchers are looking forward to use the Lattice Boltzmann Method as a promising alternative simulation tool. The lattice Boltzmann method is comparatively a newer numerical scheme and can be used to simulate fluid flow for single-component single-phase, single-component multi-phase. It is also an excellent method for modelling flow through disordered media. The current work focuses on a single-phase fluid flow simulation inside the porous micro-structure using LBM. Firstly, the theory concerning the development of LBM is discussed. LBM evolution is always related to Lattice gas Cellular Automata (LGCA), but it is also shown that this method is a special discretized form of the continuous Boltzmann equation. Since all the simulations are conducted in two-dimensions, the equations developed are in reference with D2Q9 (two-dimensional 9-velocity) model. The artificially created porous micro-structure is used in this study. The flow simulations are conducted by considering air and CO2 gas as fluids. The numerical model used in this study is explained with a flowchart and the coding steps. The numerical code is constructed in MATLAB. Different types of boundary conditions and their importance is discussed separately. Also the equations specific to boundary conditions are derived. The pressure and velocity contours over the porous domain are studied and recorded. The results are compared with the published work. The permeability values obtained in this study can be fitted to the relation proposed by Nabovati [8], and the results are in excellent agreement within porosity range of 0.4 to 0.8.

EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF ELECTROMAGNETIC CLOAKING AT MICROWAVES

An invisibility cloak is a device that can hide the target by enclosing it from the incident radiation. This intriguing device has attracted a lot of attention since it was first implemented at a microwave frequency in 2006. However, the problems of existing cloak designs prevent them from being widely applied in practice. In this dissertation, we try to remove or alleviate the three constraints for practical applications imposed by loosy cloaking media, high implementation complexity, and small size of hidden objects compared to the incident wavelength. To facilitate cloaking design and experimental characterization, several devices and relevant techniques for measuring the complex permittivity of dielectric materials at microwave frequencies are developed. In particular, a unique parallel plate waveguide chamber has been set up to automatically map the electromagnetic (EM) field distribution for wave propagation through the resonator arrays and cloaking structures. The total scattering cross section of the cloaking structures was derived based on the measured scattering field by using this apparatus. To overcome the adverse effects of lossy cloaking media, microwave cloaks composed of identical dielectric resonators made of low loss ceramic materials are designed and implemented. The effective permeability dispersion was provided by tailoring dielectric resonator filling fractions. The cloak performances had been verified by full-wave simulation of true multi-resonator structures and experimental measurements of the fabricated prototypes. With the aim to reduce the implementation complexity caused by metamaterials employment for cloaking, we proposed to design 2-D cylindrical cloaks and 3-D spherical cloaks by using multi-layer ordinary dielectric material (εr>1) coating. Genetic algorithm was employed to optimize the dielectric profiles of the cloaking shells to provide the minimum scattering cross sections of the cloaked targets. The designed cloaks can be easily scaled to various operating frequencies. The simulation results show that the multi-layer cylindrical cloak essentially outperforms the similarly sized metamaterials-based cloak designed by using the transformation optics-based reduced parameters. For the designed spherical cloak, the simulated scattering pattern shows that the total scattering cross section is greatly reduced. In addition, the scattering in specific directions could be significantly reduced. It is shown that the cloaking efficiency for larger targets could be improved by employing lossy materials in the shell. At last, we propose to hide a target inside a waveguide structure filled with only epsilon near zero materials, which are easy to implement in practice. The cloaking efficiency of this method, which was found to increase for large targets, has been confirmed both theoretically and by simulations.

Moving Beyond Hastiness and Superficiality: Being an Ethical Technical Communicator via Digital Communication Technologies in Health Care

This thesis examines digital technologies used by technical communicators in healthcare settings. I show that technical communicators, who function as users, advocators and evaluators, need a useable framework for ethical engagement with digital technologies, which integrally affect the physician-patient relationship. Therefore, I apply rhetorical methodology by producing useable knowledge and phenomenological methodology by examining lived experiences of technical communicators. Substantiation comes from theories spanning technical communication, philosophy, and composition studies. Evidence also emerges from qualitative interviews with communication professionals working in healthcare; my concerns arise from personal experiences with electronic recordkeeping in the exam room. This thesis anticipates challenging the presumed theory-practice divide while encouraging greater disciplinary reciprocity. Because technical communication infuses theory into productive capacity, this thesis presents the tripartite summons of the ethical technical communicator: to exercise critically-reflective action that safeguards the physician-patient relationship by ways of using digital technologies, advocating for audiences, and evaluating digital technologies.

Characterization Of Porous Media In Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Based on Percolation Studies

Water management in the porous media of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, catalyst layer and porous transport layers (PTL) is confronted by two issues, flooding and dry out, both of which result in improper functioning of the fuel cell and lead to poor performance and degradation. The data that has been reported about water percolation and wettability within a fuel cell catalyst layer is limited to porosimetry. A new method and apparatus for measuring the percolation pressure in the catalyst layer has been developed. The experimental setup is similar to a Hele-Shaw experiment where samples are compressed and a fluid is injected into the sample. Pressure-Wetted Volume plots as well as Permeability plots for the catalyst layers were generated from the percolation testing. PTL samples were also characterizes using a Hele-Shaw method. Characterization for the PTLs was completed for the three states: new, conditioned and aged. This is represented in a Ce-t* plots, which show a large offset between new and aged samples.

ON THE DIGITAL-POLITICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF MUSIC

The persuasive power of music is often relegated to the dimension of pathos: that which moves us emotionally. Yet, the music commodity is now situated in and around the liminal spaces of digitality. To think about how music functions, how it argues across media, and how it moves us, we must examine its material and immaterial realities as they present themselves to us and as we so create them. This dissertation rethinks the relationship between rhetoric and music by examining the creation, performance, and distribution of music in its material and immaterial forms to demonstrate its persuasive power. While both Plato and Aristotle understood music as a means to move men toward virtue, Aristotle tells us in his Laws, through the Athenian Stranger, that the very best kinds of music can help guide us to truth. From this starting point, I assess the historical problem of understanding the rhetorical potential of music as merely that which directs or imitates the emotions: that which “Soothes the savage breast,” as William Congreve writes. By furthering work by Vickers and Farnsworth, who suggest that the Baroque fascination with applying rhetorical figures to musical figures is an insufficient framework for assessing the rhetorical potential of music, I demonstrate the gravity of musical persuasion in its political weight, in its violence—the subjective violence of musical torture at Guantanamo and the objective, ideological violence of music—and in what Jacques Attali calls the prophetic nature of music. I argue that music has a significant function, and as a non-discursive form of argumentation, works on us beyond affect. Moreover, with the emergence of digital music distribution and domestic digital recording technologies, the digital music commodity in its material and immaterial forms allows for ruptures in the former methods of musical composition, production, and distribution and in the political potential of music which Jacques Attali describes as being able to foresee new political realities. I thus suggest a new theoretical framework for thinking about rhetoric and music by expanding on Lloyd Bitzer’s rhetorical situation, by offering the idea of “openings” to the existing exigence, audience, and constraints. The prophetic and rhetorical power of music in the aleatoric moment can help provide openings from which new exigencies can be conceived. We must, therefore, reconsider the role of rhetorical-musical composition for the citizen, not merely as a tool for entertainment or emotional persuasion, but as an arena for engaging with the political.