Browsing by Subject "Theory"
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Item A unified theory of engineering design(Texas A&M University, 2007-04-25) Dyas, Scott PatrickA theoretical model of design, that is universal and has a scientific basis, was developed. By doing so, it is believed that the practice of engineering design can be significantly improved. A better system of modeling designs is the missing ingredient that needs to be developed in order to improve the practice of design in the manner suggested above. Existing methodologies were reviewed to examine the current state of engineering design. This helped in developing a set of requirements for a new methodology. The potential for a scientific methodology to improve the practice of engineering design is also discussed. Developing a scientific theory of design, and showing that it meets these requirements was done to satisfy the objective. The theory takes the form of a conceptual model of design, which relates important aspects of the problem and the solution to facilitate a truly top-down hierarchical approach. A few examples are given to show how the methodology can be applied to real world design problems. As a result, a theoretical framework for design was created as a part of this research project. The new methodology, termed UTED (Unified Theory of Engineering Design), addresses many important aspects of design which are overlooked by other methodologies. A set of rules was developed, to guide the designer through the design, and allow a more scientific process to be used. Making design more scientific increases the likelihood of achieving a successful design. The primary conclusions are that the development of a scientific theory of design can be created that makes design processes faster and more efficient, and improves the quality of designs produced, meaning there is a strong potential for such a methodology to have a positive impact on the field of engineering design.Item Analysis of the Distributed Leadership Model in Public Education: A Mixed Methods Study(2011-05) Molina, Ricardo; Klinker, JoAnn F.; Hartmeister, Fred; Price, Margaret A.This research analyzed the Distributed Leadership Model (DLM) application in four public schools. The research problem links up to three research questions. The premise of the research lies on the assumption that the DLM when applied in concert with other leadership may provide educational leaders and researchers with pathways for enhancing leadership problem solving and decision making, and student performance. The DLM from MIT contains four interrelated competencies, three lenses, and a component for individual generated change. This research analyzed the DLM’s application to principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders that coalesce into distributed leadership praxes. Via a mixed methods and the embedded design, the quantitative data supported the qualitative data. The findings revealed that the DLM potentially is a conceptual tool to assess a school’s propensity for distributed leadership. Additionally, a possible benefit of the DLM is enhancing the leadership capacity of public school leaders.Item Archival landscapes: crossings of theory and practice in institutional repositories(2015-12) Varner, Alana Victoria; Guidotti-Hernández, Nicole Marie; Roy, LorieneInformation Studies and the humanities have different theories of the archive, causing these two fields to talk past one another. These gaps in discourse have the potential to further silence histories that have been traditionally left out of the archival record. Using recipe materials in collections as a point of interrogation, I address the theory-practice gap, and propose feminist ways of reading the archive that can be useful for those left out on the basis of gender, race, class, gender, and sexuality. I focus on two case studies from the University of Texas Austin’s libraries. The first examines the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas materials in the Harry Ransom Center, whose mediated inclusion in the archive speaks to both the failures of descriptive practices to sufficiently incorporate LGBTQ materials, and the further exclusion of racialized queer bodies in prestigious institutions. The second case study analyzes Gloria Anzaldúa’s papers in the LLILAS Benson Latin American Collections. I argue that these papers reflect histories of racism and oppressive practices in archives in general, and hegemonic power structures more broadly. Recipe materials in Anzaldúa’s papers provide liberatory approaches to reading the archive that exceed the strict parameters of the institution. My thesis argues that reading the gaps between theoretical and practical understandings of the archive offers a more socially conscientious approach to the archive for those who were never meant to be included.Item How information asymmetry affects contract design : paying for private firms with IOU's(2016-05) Jansen, Mark; Parrino, Robert, 1957-; Fracassi, Cesare; Almazan, Andres; Hartzell, Jay; Starks, Laura; Abrevaya, JasonThis dissertation examines a financing mechanism that is common in the acquisition of privately-held firms. Using a novel database of transactions in which the target firm is private, this paper shows that sellers receive a debt claim as a contingent payment for the firm that is being sold. The debt claim, which takes the form of seller financing, is secured by the assets of the target firm. I show that proxies for information asymmetry are correlated with the presence of seller financing as payment in the transaction. I also find that when the firm is more likely to have received a financial audit, the transaction is less likely to include seller financing. Since financial audits improve firm transparency, I interpret this as evidence that a reduction in information asymmetries between the parties of a acquisition affect the deal structure. A complementary explanation for the use of seller financing is related to capital constraints faced by buyers in the financing of the transaction. I present evidence that contract structures are affected by cross-sectional and time-series changes in the supply of local investment capital for buyouts. I find that seller financing is less common in areas in which locally informed capital is more abundant. I also find that transactions contain a lower percentage of seller financing in city-years in which Small Business Administration provides loan guarantees for the acquisition and expansion of firm’s loan guarantees are higher. The evidence suggests that seller financing is solving a contracting problem because it is unaffected by controls for local banking activity.Item How the hashtag revolutionizes the way we collectively contend for our interests(2013-08) Borja, Eric Enrique; Young, Michael P.Political contention has entered a new age. Over the past three years unprecedented large-scale movements have challenged states across the globe, and social media has been an important component in their development and articulation. With the advent of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, ordinary people have the technological ability to instantaneously transcend space, time and resources (Aouraugh and Alexander 2011; Castells 2012; Earl and Kimport 2009, 2011; Eltantawy, Nahed and Wiest 2011; Gerbaudo 2012; Hands 2011; Holmes 2012; Mason 2012). Are we currently living in a historical moment where a new repertoire of contention is emerging? If so, how is social media changing the way we collectively contest for our interests? The theoretical framework I propose in this paper advances and elaborates a social geographic approach in the framing of political contention that emphasizes the importance of the spatiality and temporality created by the hashtag (#) in the development and articulation of today's social movements. In addition to secondary sources about the protests in Brazil (#VemPraRua), I draw on participant observations to analyze a new modular form of protest I call the "hashtag movement." I claim that the hashtag (#) creates a new space/time (Massey 1992, 2007; Soja 1996) that fundamentally shifts the process of nation-ness (Anderson 2006) and marks a new phase in the mediazation of modern culture (Thompson 1991); two fundamental shifts that I argue are comparable to the structural and cultural shifts that formed the modern repertoire of contention (Anderson 2006; Della Porta and Diani 1999; McAdam 1999; McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly 2001; Sewell 1990, 1996; Swidler 1986; Tarrow 1993, 1994; Tilly 1986, 1995a, 1995b; Young 2002).Item The Leo Castelli Gallery in Metro magazine : American approaches to post-abstract figuration in an Italian context(2012-08) McKetta, Dorothy Jean; Shiff, RichardBetween the years 1960 and 1970, New York gallerist Leo Castelli was closely involved with Milanese editor and publisher Bruno Alfieri's Metro magazine--an international review of contemporary art. By placing his artists in Metro, Castelli inserted them into the world of Italian art criticism and theory. This recontextualization familiarized the American artists of Castelli's gallery to a European audience and positioned them at the end of a succession of modern European styles. Specifically, Castelli's artists, each of whom engaged in a form of pictorial figuration, were seen as ending the dominance of the "pure" abstraction of the French informel style. This thesis uses the archive of correspondence between Bruno Alfieri and Leo Castelli to examine Castelli's contribution to Metro during the 1960s. Departing from this chronology, it also seeks to understand the unique brand of figuration that each of Castelli's artists brought to Metro, given cues from contemporary Italian theory and criticism--particularly that of Gillo Dorfles, who wrote on several of Castelli's artists.Item Occupying memory : rhetorical studies for the 99%(2013-05) Hoag, Trevor Lee; Davis, D. Diane (Debra Diane), 1963-"Occupying Memory: Rhetorical Studies for the 99%" revitalizes rhetorical memory by emphasizing memory's rhetorical production and non-declinable relationship to forgetting, the persuasive force of local genealogy, and the capacity of memory to spur invention and civic intervention. "Occupying Memory" performs its revival of memory through theorization of the contemporary Occupy Movement. The first chapter, "Becoming Activist," argues that memories are rhetorically produced, and supports this supposition by analyzing various activist practices, icons, and experiences. I consider the discursive production of memory through Occupy's practice of the "human microphone," and the imagistic production of memory through images such as the Guy Fawkes Mask. I also consider forgetting in the production of memory, and analyze how subjects are compelled to action through "forgotten" affects and traumas that drive one to compose self-narratives. "Giving an Account of One's Wealth," strives to develop a strategy for teaching writing called "im-personal writing," and employs Percentile Narratives from the Occupy Movement throughout its implementation. I analyze existing narratives from multiple theoretical perspectives, and focus on how students can consider the rhetorical production of their memories while avoiding the pitfalls associated with "personal writing" such as the quest for authenticity. "The Infinite Archive," considers how the binary opposition between so-called "live" and "technological" memory deconstructs, and avers that the digitization of memory is an instance of "hyper-extension" rather than "externalization." I consider multiple cases of such extension in the form of social media archives including Twitter, live streaming video, and viral memes. The problem of digital forgetting and networked multitudes is likewise engaged. "Stiller than Still" contends that (singular) bodies and specific living structures can function as monuments oriented toward the future. I argue that the type of memory such monuments produce is a "common" rather than "public" memory, one that entails resistance to state control, participatory democracy, and the preservation of difference. I also consider the nature of "common" forgetting in relation to affirmation. The text culminates with "Beginning(s)," as I consider how rhetorical memory and the Occupy Movement open onto the future, as well as the relation between memory, social movements, nostalgia, and hope.Item Participants and Information Outcomes in Planning Organizations(2012-10-19) Bierling, DavidThis research presents empirical evidence and interpretation about the effects of planning participants and contextual factors on information selection in public organizations. The study addresses important research questions and gaps in the literature about applicability of planning theory to practice, about effects of planning participants and participant diversity on information selection, and about community and organizational factors that influence information selection in the planning process. The research informs emergency planning, practice, and guidance, as well as planning theory and practice in general. The research sample consists of survey data from 183 local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) about their conduct of hazardous materials commodity flow studies (HMCFS), along with data from other secondary sources. HMCFS projects collect information about hazardous materials (HazMat) transport that can be used in a wide range of local emergency planning and community planning applications. This study takes the perspective that socio-cultural frameworks, such as organizational norms and values, influence information behaviors of planning participants. Controlling for organizational and community factors, the participation of community planners in HMCFS projects has a significant positive effect on selection of communicative information sources. Participation of HazMat responders in HMCFS projects does not have a significant negative effect on selection of communicative information sources. The diversity of HMCFS participants has a significant positive effect on information selection diversity. Other organizational and community factors, such as vicarious experience, 'know-how' and direct experience, financial resources, and knowledge/perception of hazards and risks are also important influences on information selection behavior. Results of this study are applicable to planning entities that are likely to use planning information: proactive LEPCs, planning agencies, and planning consortiums. The results are also applicable to community planners in local planning agencies and emergency responders in local emergency response agencies, and public planning organizations in general. In addition to providing evidence about the applicability of communicative rationality in planning practice, this research suggests that institutional/contextual, bounded, instrumental, and political rationalities may also in influence conduct of planning projects. Four corresponding prescriptive recommendations are made for planning theory and practice.Item A rhetoric of instrumentality : documentary film in the landscape of public memory(2012-12) Ross, Leah Michelle; Brummett, Barry, 1951-; Arens, Katherine, 1953-We are at a particular moment in history where new technologies are changing the way films are made, distributed, and screened, as well as how audiences interact with documentary texts and discourses. This dissertation project questions documentary's instrumentality in the public sphere in two parts. Using the response to Ken Burns' The War, as a point of departure, it first addresses the lacuna of theory and scholarship on documentary films, owed largely to its nascent arrival in academia as a dedicated field of study. Using the films and the public response around the films, I point out the problems with how documentary has been understood in both public and academic thought, with particular emphasis on truth claims, subjectivity narratives, and audience identification, as well as production techniques as rhetoric. Secondly the project takes two cases studies to examine these issues in documentary discourse and to exemplify the ways technology is changing documentary as we know it, one a reality television show focused on teenage mothers and the other Michael Moore's well known film Fahrenheit 9/11. Ultimately I argue that we are in a new era of documentary production that may be characterized by its interactivity between films, publics, and discourses. It is my hope that by combining my practical knowledge of documentary production for film and television with academic scholarship I will provide a valuable text for documentary theorists and rhetoricians alike.Item Software fault localization with theory of evidence(2010-12) Jordan, Adam L.; Hewett, Rattikorn; Shin, Michael; Zhang, YuanlinSoftware development is a worldwide business that affects almost all aspects of our lives. In the cycle of software development, software debugging is the most time consuming phase and in debugging, the process of locating software faults takes the majority of the time. The process of automating fault localization is a valuable asset to any development of large scale software. The larger an application scales, the more complex it becomes, and the more difficult it becomes to manage and locate faults within the software. Automated software fault localization is used to try to locate a fault with little or no human intervention. In the past, this has been accomplished by analyzing test cases, execution sequences, logical predicates, memory states, and various other methods. This thesis presents a new technique of automated software fault localization that is based on theory of evidence for uncertainty reasoning to estimate likelihoods of faulty locations. The proposed technique is evaluated and compared to the three best-performing methods presently available using a set of benchmark programs in an empirical study. The study compares the methods‟ abilities to reduce the amount of code that needs to be viewed to locate a fault. The results show that the proposed technique performed no worse than these top techniques in 100% of all the program versions in the benchmark set with an average of over 85% of effectiveness measure.Item Toward an understanding of the large scale structure of the universe with galaxy surveys(2011-12) Shoji, Masatoshi; Komatsu, Eiichiro; Gebhardt, Karl; Hill, Gary; Hui, Lam; Shapiro, PaulLarge-scale structures we see in the universe, such as galaxies, galaxy clusters and structures beyond the scale of clusters, result from gravitational instability of almost isotropic and homogeneous density distribution in the early universe. The degree of the initial anisotropy of the universe and the subsequent growth of gravitational instability, coupled with the expansion rate of the universe, determine the scale and abundance of the structures formed in the universe at later times. A galaxy survey directly observes a distribution of structures in the sky using galaxies as a tracer of the underlying density distribution, and yields constraints on cosmological models when compared to a physical theory of structure formation based on a given cosmological model. Among many cosmological and astronomical phenomena to be understood from a galaxy survey, the nature of the observed accelerated expansion of the universe is the most profound problem in the modern physics. Motivated by various planned and on-going galaxy surveys, including our own Hobby-Ebery Telescope Dark Energy eXperiment (HETDEX), we show the way to fully exploit the data from a galaxy survey. We improve a model of structure formation to include the effect of baryonic pressure and the free-streaming of massive neutrinos at a mildly non-linear regime. Future galaxy surveys are to reach the level of accuracy, where the effect of massive neutrinos on the observed power spectrum is no longer negligible. Proper understanding of these effects gives a way to measure the absolute masses of neutrinos: one of the most fundamental particles, which, by itself, will be a major development in the field of particle physics. Yet, most of the space (~80%) observed by galaxy surveys is occupied by voids. An ellipticity probability distribution function of voids offers yet another way of probing cosmology. Especially, a distribution of ellipticities in the redshift space provides a unique way to measure a growth rate of the structure in the universe apart from other cosmological parameters when combined with the galaxy power spectrum.