http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/103 Electronic Theses and Dissertations by graduates of The George Washington University http://dspace.wrlc.org/retrieve/14416 http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/103 Search the Channel search http://dspace.wrlc.org/simple-search http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4381 Title: The importance of being English: anxiety of Englishness in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea <br/> <br/>Authors: Whittemore, Sarah <br/> <br/>Description: Undergraduate thesis http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4344 Title: Impacts of the 9/11 Attacks on the Financial Performance of the Business Continuity Industry in the United States <br/> <br/>Authors: Kim, Youn Hee <br/> <br/>Abstract: The 9/11 attacks made profound impacts on corporate America. This thesis focuses on the strategy changes of information technology systems in private corporations, and the economic impacts on the information technology industry as a result of the changes of the private corporations after the 9/11 attacks. A two-chase research design is presented. In research phase one, a series of interviews were conducted with the chief information officers and the information technology decision makers from large private corporations, in order to investigate the common success factors and lessons learned from recovery activities after the 9/11 attacks. Research phase two aims to test the hypothesis that the awareness of the importance of the business continuity and its efforts to ensure the critical business functions in large private corporations after the 9/11 attacks resulted in positive economic impacts on the Business Continuity Industry (BCI). A definition of the BCI is presented and a total of five business growth indicators are used to determine the BCI's economic performance compared to the overall IT industry after the 9/11 attacks. Data was collected through the DataStream application to retrieve the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) information. <br/> <br/>Description: A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the George Washington University in Partial Satisfaction of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Science http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4343 Title: Avon collectors: middlebrow aesthetic expression of the Twentieth-Century self <br/> <br/>Authors: Fackel, Kelly <br/> <br/>Abstract: In the United States there is a fairly large group of people who collection Avon bottles and other Avon memorabilia as a hobby. For some of these people this hobby is much more than a means of recreation; their collections are deeply entangled with their identities and affect their perceptions of the world. The act of collecting and the resultant, ever growing collection, or physical manifestation of the collecting process, allows Avon collectors to express themselves aesthetically. <br/> <br/>Description: A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of the George Washington University in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts within American Studies and Folklore. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4317 Title: Methods of measuring animal drives <br/> <br/>Authors: Moss, Fred A. <br/> <br/>Abstract: Basic thesis: the behavior of any animal is the result of his drives to action and the opposing resistance. <br/> <br/>Description: Ph.D. Thesis, 33 l. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4313 Title: White males in transition: describing the experience of a stalled career <br/> <br/>Authors: Kormanik, Martin B. <br/> <br/>Abstract: Conditions of the contemporary United States workplace have created a social phenomenon in which some middle age white males perceive they are experiencing a stalled career; they perceive they have plateaued in their career progression while at the same time perceive that women and minorities in their professional cohort continue advancing. This study uses phenomenological research methods to investigate the phenomenon by asking individuals who have experienced a stalled career to describe the experience and its impact. The primary finding from the phenomenological reduction is the description of the essence of the stalled career experience. Five conclusions emerge from the analysis. First, the contemporary environment plays a substantial role in precipitating the stalled career. Second, the stalled career is about some white males comparing their situation to women and minorities, while not blaming women and minorities for the situation. Third, the stalled career experience includes a substantial shift toward externality, both from the perceived lack of control over the situation and the white male’s choice to relinquish control as a coping strategy. Fourth, the undiscussable nature of the experience impedes making sense of the situation. Fifth, the experience has a negative impact on the organization, as well as the white male having the experience. Secondary evidence to enhance understanding of the stalled career experience comes from analysis of the data using transitions theory. Three conclusions emerge. First, the data confirms that the nature of the stalled career is a non-event work transition. Second, while support systems are used as a coping resource, the primary form of support is other white males whose support tends to reinforce being in the transition rather than encouraging successful navigation through the transition. Third, the stalled career provides an example of a transition in which the duration may be sustained or the outcome uncertain due to the balance in coping assets and liabilities being in a state of equilibrium. The discussion includes implications for theory, practice, and further research. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4312 Title: China's participation in the United Nations peacekeeping regime <br/> <br/>Authors: Staehle, Stefan <br/> <br/>Abstract: In the past, China analysts have accused Beijing of playing an overly conservative and cost-evading role in the U.N. peacekeeping regime. They complained that China would defend the concept of traditional peacekeeping against a more robust and intrusive way of keeping the peace and that it would send only a minimal number of Chinese peacekeepers abroad. Recently, however, Beijing has increased its contribution to U.N. peacekeeping operations despite the fact that their mandates authorized the use of force and interfered in the internal affairs of the host countries. By analyzing China’s voting behavior in the U.N. Security Council and the Chinese participation rate in certain missions, this study explores how and why China has become more involved in the U.N. peacekeeping regime in the past few years. It will argue that two interrelated developments of a socialization process have contributed significantly to China’s increasing participation in U.N. peacekeeping since 2000. On the one hand, Beijing has managed to adapt its normative position to the international standard during the 1990s and learned from its own experience in U.N. peacekeeping operations. On the other hand, the way U.N. peacekeeping missions are conducted has changed after the Brahimi Report in 2000, which made U.N. peacekeeping more agreeable to the Chinese leadership. Other important factors for China’s new engagement in U.N. peacekeeping were changes in its foreign and security policy: Beijing’s drive to shape its image as a responsible and peaceful great power, to balance against U.S. hegemony, to prevent emerging security threats from failing states, and to isolate Taipei diplomatically. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4311 Title: From chaotic cone pulsation to ion evaporation in electrosprays <br/> <br/>Authors: Marginean, Ioan <br/> <br/>Abstract: Spraying of electrified liquids, originally fascinating for its phenomenological richness, has recently offered a new arsenal of tools in diverse applications. As in numerous other cases, these applications emerged before a deep understanding of the involved phenomena. The investigations in this dissertation are primarily concerned with two fundamental aspects of electrospray ionization: the electrohydrodynamic pulsation of liquid menisci and the ion formation mechanism. Chapter 1 reviews the main milestones in electrospray research, including a brief historical background and notes on application developments. The presentation accounts for current theories and experimental results, but due to the large amount of literature in the field, it is by no means exhaustive. The pulsating Taylor cone regime is thoroughly characterized in Chapter 2. Fast imaging was used to capture an entire pulsation cycle and to prove that standing waves on the meniscus are responsible for the liquid pulsation. A rigorous demonstration is given that this pulsation is responsible for the oscillations observed in the spray current measurements. Electrospray is one of the main methods to obtain charged liquid droplets. Despite the interest in the amount of charge carried by these droplets, no method had been described to measure the net charge on a Taylor cone. Chapter 3 presents a simple method to estimate the charge on a pulsating liquid cone based on its pulsation frequency. The chaotic pulsation of the Taylor cone during its transition between dripping and pulsating cone regimes is described in Chapter 4. To my knowledge, this is the first report on extending the nonlinear dynamics of dripping faucets to electrosprays. Chapter 5 describes the morphology, structure and dynamics of charged water nanodroplets modeled by molecular dynamics simulations. Even a relatively short simulation time allowed us to observe the ion evaporation from nanodroplets charged close to the Rayleigh limit and the Coulomb explosion of excessively charged nanodroplets. Protrusions formed due to surface thermal fluctuations enhanced by the presence of ions were instrumental in the mechanism of ion evaporation. The evolution of charged nanojets hypothetically formed by the charge reduction of larger nanodroplets is explored in Chapter 6. Surface fluctuations are shown to affect the nanojet breakup, accelerating the charge reduction process compared to what is expected from macroscopic theories alone. Chapter 7 reviews the most significant applications of electrosprays that drive the research and establish the current trends in the related fields. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/4310 Title: March-ing Forward by Leaps and Boundary Spanning: Coevolutionary Dynamics of the Adaptive Tension Between Exploration and Exploitation <br/> <br/>Authors: Tivnan, Brian Francis <br/> <br/>Abstract: Due to the turbulence of these times and to the embeddedness of an interdependent, global economy, many organizations attempt to enhance their competitive advantage by actively exploring their external environment. Building on earlier research to explore organization-environment interaction via boundary-spanning activity, this study investigates such interactions via tests of analytical adequacy to observe the emergence of the adaptive tension between exploration and exploitation of organizations in a coevolutionary context. After replicating March’s (1991) seminal research, this study extends the March model to investigate a coevolutionary, competitive context. Results from computational experiments confirmed the analytical adequacy of the extensions to the original March model. Future research should address further investigation of the extended model’s analytical adequacy and ontological adequacy. In so doing, this study provides support for a model-centered organization science and the application of complexity theory to organization science research. * In addition to the personal acknowledgments below, I am grateful for discussions of a technical nature with the following: Robert Axtell, Michael Cohen, Stephen Guerin, Matthew Koehler, James March, John Miller, Melanie Mitchell, Michael Prietula and Stephen Upton. I would also like to thank participants at the 3rd Lake Arrowhead Conference on Human Complex Systems, the 2006 Organization Science Winter Conference, and the 2006 Santa Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School where many aspects of this research were developed and presented.