2199 research outputs found
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The Use of Reality Television and Social Media by Mormon Fundamentalist Groups: Changing Representations, Minds, and Laws
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/asir/vol5/iss1/4/thumbnail.jpgWhile the genre of reality television may not be considered as a new medium of communication, the way that some religious minorities found some innovative ways to use this kind of programming in the last 5 years is certainly of interest. In that regard, beginning in 2010 the members of various fundamentalist Mormon communities have chosen to open their lives to the cameras of reality television in an effort to spread a message close to their hearts : that polygamous families are in almost every way completely normal and share the struggles of the typical American family, and that since the scandals of Warren Jeffs, Tom Green and the Lafferty brothers made the news, the media depiction of plural marriage and those who practice it is not representative of the reality of the majority of practicing fundamentalists. The main message of these pro-polygamy activists is to convince the public of their inherent normalcy and they seem to work towards changing the minds of the American people by proving that most women enter freely and willingly into polygamous marriages and find great happiness living in plural families. In addition to disseminating their message through reality shows like Sister Wives (TLC 2010-), My Five Wives (TLC 2014) and Polygamy USA (National Geographic 2013), the families at the center the movement for decriminalization of plural marriage also use blogs to provide information about their unique lifestyle, and some turn to live tweeting during episodes as a way to interact directly with the public. This article describes the interactions between religious fundamentalisms, in this case in the form of polygamous Mormon culture, and information technology. Is also discussed the manner in which the various information transmission strategies used by advocates of plural marriage can lead to effective changes in laws and public policies.</p
Shaping Policy and Practice in Intercollegiate Athletics: A Study of Student Perceptions of Resource Allocation for Athletics and its Effect on Affordability of Higher Education
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/9951/8843-thumbnail.jpgIntercollegiate athletics is an increasingly expensive venture in American higher education. Noted athletic powers have budgets exceeding $100 million, and schools with lesser reputations increase athletic budgets despite lacking the ability to generate large sums of revenue through ticket sales and other sources. Higher education is faced with declining amounts of non-student support for academic and non-academic programs (Vedder & Denhart, 2010). Public institutions increasingly rely on funds provided by institutional subsidies and student activity fees (Vedder & Denhart, 2010; Chapman, Ridpath, & Denhart, 2014). This mixed-methods study addresses, using Asymmetrical Information Theory (Akerlof, 1970), student perceptions of student activity fees. The population is represented by students (n=3,282) enrolled during the 2012-13 academic year at institutions in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Findings suggest students are aware of the fees, but not aware of the amount or purpose. Many expressed concern about transparency and affordability of education because of the amount of subsidies to fund athletic programs.</p
Christianity in Antioch, Corinth and Ephesus
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/starkstudentconference/2015/Program/14/thumbnail.jpgThe development of Christianity in the first century did not occur in a vacuum, but was shaped by previously existing political, religious, and social conditions found in every city throughout the Roman Empire. To demonstrate the importance of these influences on Christianity’s development, I have conducted a comparative study of the political, religious, and social backgrounds and the first century Christian communities found in three different cities: Antioch, Corinth, and Ephesus. By placing three distinct spaces side by side, I will show that each environment produced a Christianity that differed in some ways from other “Christianities” found in the other two cities.</p
Empowerment of Women through the Grange
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/starkstudentconference/2015/Program/18/thumbnail.jpgBy looking at the organizational structure of the Patrons of Husbandry or the Grange, it can be seen that women played a major role in the organization. From day one women were permitted full membership as well as offices in the organization that only women could hold. After looking at the organizational structure, one can see that the organization propelled women to do more than others of the time, as seen through specific examples such as Dora Stockman and others. This was a research paper for the History of Women in the U.S. class that has been reworked to focus more on the impact of the Grange on the women that within the organization, rather than the original purpose of comparison of rural and urban women. Research for this project looked at both primary and secondary sources as well as conducting interviews with a historian and leaders of local Granges and women that have been in the Grange for many years and seeing how it has affected their lives.</p
WOODWIND QUINTET: New Music for a Woodwind Quintet
No full textWind quintet (consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) has been a favored ensemble of composers for centuries. Throughout the semester, these four students have been working on pieces for such an ensemble. During this session the presenters’ compositions will be performed live.</p
Sustainability of Bamboo-steel Composite Structures
No full textSeven billion people living on the earth face a challenge of sustainability development. Construction sector, a huge source of carbon emission and energy consumption, should be handled responsively to the natural environment and human society. Sustainable construction material and intelligent design are required to achieve sustainable development. Bamboo is renewable, biodegradable, and available locally in many parts of the world. It grows fast and has a high strength to weight ratio. Bamboo has a great potential to be used as a sustainable construction material. The bamboo plywood fabricated through the process of crushing, hot-pressing, adhesive spreading and gluing, cold-pressing, and curing, has stable dimensions and it is hydrophobic, and resistant to fungi and bacteria attack. It can be bonded with thin-walled steel sheet by structural adhesive and strengthened by screws to form various composite structural members e.g. slabs, walls, columns, and beams. This study evaluates sustainability of these bamboo-steel composite structures. Lab testing has revealed excellent performances of the structural members. The case study performed in this study indicates the composite structures have lower cost, lower greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumptions than other traditional construction materials.</p
College Students’ Personal Appearance Management: Variance among Different Majors
No full textThis study’s main focus was on the following research question: Does the major of undergraduate students, fashion versus non-fashion, add pressure to the student’s appearance management? We received 147 responses from 55 fashion majors and 91 non-fashion majors. We employed a quantitative research method for the present study. The data was collected through an online survey through Qualtrics. When we examined the levels of pressure felt by the different majors, we found that the fashion students feel added pressure to maintain a certain appearance, more so than the students who are majoring in different fields. Not only do the fashion students feel pressure due to their major, but also from the other students who surround them. The results proved that this added pressure affects the amount of time and money put into managing one’s appearance. By comparing the feelings of judgment and the effort put towards personal appearance between fashion majors and non-fashion majors, this paper offers an insight into why undergraduate students of a specific major dress and present themselves a certain way. Keywords: Fashion students, Non-fashion students, pressure, judgment, appearance management, personal appearance Article Type: Research paper</p
Sudoku Solver Program Utilizing Logical Solving Techniques and Recursive Backtracking
No full textSudoku is the simple looking puzzle game that is sweeping newspapers across the country. Although the grid puzzle game appears easy, some of the challenging puzzles require advanced solving techniques that rely on the candidate values for a particular arrangement of cells. We have coded a computer program, written in C++, to utilize several of these techniques in solving Sudoku puzzles. The program operates on a 2-dimentional array of classes, which contain the given or assigned values for each cell, as well as the candidates of possible numbers for these cells. With this structure the program can operate on and update the cell’s candidate values, allowing it to utilize the more advanced solving techniques such as ‘Linked Doubles’ and ‘Swordfish’. In addition to these solving techniques the program also contains a function that demonstrates a recursive backtracking solution. The recursive backtracking function tests possible candidates for a cell and continues to check values for subsequent cells until it either finds the solution or runs into unresolvable problems and backtracks to a previous cell to try another number. This solution can be slow for certain puzzles due to the number of branches that the function has to check, but we believe that using the traditional techniques on the puzzle first can greatly reduce the branches that this function has to check. Primary tests seem to confirm this, further testing and calculations should reveal how much it can be sped up by.</p
Development of a Small Autonomous Airship Using Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components
No full textThe majority of research and development in the unmanned aerial vehicle field has focused on fixed-wing and rotor-craft configurations, while lighter-than-air configurations have received less attention. This is due to common challenges facing airships, such as limited payload capacity and lack of rigidity in an airship airframe. The objective of this project is the design, construction and test flight of a small unmanned airship capable of navigating an area autonomously. This objective was inspired by research undertaken at NASA Langley Research Center, during which a small fixed-wing vehicle was developed to fulfill certain mission objectives using commercially available components. A small, commercially-manufactured blimp kit was chosen as a platform for the unmanned airship. The airship was controlled using two vectored motors for forward propulsion and altitude control, and an aft motor controlling yaw motion. The blimp kit was successfully tested under manual control. The results of the flight test determined that the flight control characteristics of the vehicle were stable and capable of being modelled for autonomy. Based on these observations, the airship will be modified with a microcontroller to allow for autonomous control. Control regimes will be written for the microcontroller to specify paths for the airship to fly. The airship\u27s ability to fly these flight paths and stay within a designated boundary will be evaluated. Preliminary results of this research demonstrate the feasibility of small autonomous airships, and suggest that the addition of sensors will allow airships to become as useful as other configurations of unmanned aerial vehicles.</p
The Journey to Increase Awareness and Participation of Kent State University’s National Student Exchange Program
No full textKent State’s National Student Exchange (NSE) is a study away program available for any undergraduate student enrolled at the university who has sophomore status or higher. NSE gives students the ability to study away for a semester or one academic year at any of the program’s schools. Primary and secondary research revealed NSE faces a lack of awareness, excitement and participation among the Kent State student and faculty population. During interviews with freshman psychology, biology and business management students, these key audiences expressed interest in the program. However, the students said certain obstacles would keep them from participating. We created a two year plan that includes objectives, strategies and tactics filled with print and digital media, along with small and large scale face-to-face tactics. Through print and digital media, we planned to encourage these students to participate and create awareness of the program. We advised a partnership with groups associated with specific majors to help promote NSE events and build a relationship with each key audience. Finally, to include the entire campus and show any student is a good fit for the program, we drafted larger scale events that will encourage students to participate in fun activities and inform them about NSE. If implemented, the two year plan will increase the annual average of Kent State NSE participants to 30 by February 2016, and to 55 by February 2017.</p