MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

In mass production, customization has been employed by device providers to allow customers to design products that they desire. By accommodating customer's needs and wants, brands are supported and emotional bonds between customers and products are enhanced. Products that customer's perceive as unique to their personal needs, create strong bonds with customers and instill brand loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to examine a strategy to help reduce this problem by extending the life of cellular phones in particular through the strategy of customization. This paper proposes specific principles for customization of cellular devices and then attempts to test those through a survey to determine viability of those principles.

Committee: Dale Murray MA (Committee Chair); Gerald Michaud MA (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

MDes, University of Cincinnati, 2004, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Design

This thesis explores the sustainability of media by using a scenario model. It focuses on current practices within traditional and new media to determine how sustainable each of these is in terms of the economic, social, and ecological aspects that constitute sustainability. Chapter One, an overview, defines traditional and new media, traditional and new media designers, sustainability, and describes the scenario model. Chapters Two through Five discuss the sustainability of a representative technology for each quadrant of the scenario model. These chapters all use a standard format and vocabulary for comparison and for highlighting potential trends within each quadrant. Chapter Six analyzes the two previously discussed traditional and new media. Comparisons between the current and potential sustainability trends of each technology are covered. The research concludes that sustainable growth requires evolving guidelines and ongoing educational development, to enable businesses and consumers to make increasingly sustainable choices.

Committee: Dr. J. Chewning (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Film (Fine Arts)

This work observes representations of telephony in film, examining the shifts occurring in such representations since the advent of mobile telephony. The text will argue that the most important change between past images of land-line telephony and new images of mobile telephony is the shift from impotence to agency. Where once the land-line telephone caused narrative impotence in which a character was unable to affect the outcome of events occurring on the other end of their telephonic connection, new representations of mobile telephony provide agency for the user to accomplish this and other tasks. In addition, it will be theorized that future cinematic characters will inherently possess greater agency than their past counterparts thanks to the mobile phones they will be expected to carry.

Committee: Adam Knee (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications

Doctor of Engineering, Cleveland State University, 2011, Fenn College of Engineering

Rapid advances in wireless technology have increased the number of users of mobile devices. As of 2011, the number of cell phone subscribers have reached 5.3 billion worldwide. Mobile devices have saturated our environment with radio frequency (RF) signals. This situation has created public concern over the effect of such signals on human health. This dissertation focuses on the correlation of RF signals emitted by cell phones with male infertility. A thorough discussion is provided on the effects of RF signals on the development of central nervous system (CNS) neoplasm, the design of these mobile devices, the range of the RF frequencies they emit, the power with which they operate, their specific absorption rate (SAR), the distance between the user and the device while in use, how and where the devices are used, the duration of usage, and the accumulated exposure associated with the use of multiple RF devices. The results of our reviews and experimental in vitro studies show a significant correlation between the usage of mobile phones and human semen parameters, with a decrease in motility and viability, and an increase in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) score. However, in daily usage, a cell phone kept in proximity to the groin is separated from the testes by multiple layers of tissue. To explore this effect, a computational model of scrotal tissues was designed. Our results show that during in vitro experimentation, an effect equivalent to real-life conditions can be obtained by placing the cell phone a few centimeters farther away from the semen sample. The results of our study can be used to calculate the equivalent distance between a radiation source and a semen sample, and to set up in vitro experiments that mimic real-life conditions.

Committee: Daniel Simon (Advisor); Fuqin Xiong (Committee Member); Rama Gorla (Committee Member); Mekki Bayachou (Committee Member); Taysir Nayfeh (Committee Member) Subjects: Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical Research; Electrical Engineering; Electromagnetics; Electromagnetism; Engineering; Health; Public Health; Radiation

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2011, Sociology

This study focuses on parents' cell phone usage and family quality. I use cross- sectional data from the Networked Families Survey (N=417), a subcomponent from a larger study, the Pew Internet & American Life Project. I examine whether frequency of parents' cell phone usage (i.e., phoning and texting) to children and spouses affects their degree of satisfaction with time spent with the family, which is an important indicator of quality of family life. The integration of technology into personal and professional communication has become an important topic of scholarship in academia. Technology is changing social interactions. Currently 78% of Americans without children under the age of 18 own a cell phone, and that percentage increases to 91% when children under the age of 18 are present in the home. As cell phone use becomes integrated into Americans' daily lives, it is important to understand its effects on family relationships and satisfaction with family life. I find that cell phone use has no significant relationship to satisfaction with time spent with family. Having dinner with the family and satisfaction with time spent with family was significantly associated, which follows the previous literature. Previous research does suggest that being distracted during this time of connection can detract from any positive effects of eating dinner together, and this might explain the lack of significant effect of technology on family life. Future research should evaluate when cell phones are used to stay in contact and when cell phones are used when with the family to distract.

Committee: Monica Longmore (Committee Chair); Gary Oates (Committee Member); Raymond Swisher (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Psychology/Clinical

Over the past several years, text messaging has dramatically increased among youth, but there is limited research on how compulsive texting relates to children's adjustment. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relation of compulsive texting to adjustment indices drawn from literature on internet addiction (e.g., academic adjustment, aggression, internalizing symptoms) and, based on the Uses and Gratifications Model, examine how motivations for texting (e.g., efficiency, escapism, intimacy, perceived control over social interactions) moderated the relation between compulsive texting and the adjustment variables. For exploratory purposes, sex was examined as an additional moderator. Survey data were collected from 403 students in the 8th and 11th grades in a rural Midwestern community. Correlational analyses supported the hypothesis that higher levels of compulsive texting would relate to higher levels of aggression and internalizing symptoms and lower levels of academic adjustment. Sex differences were found on the relation between compulsive texting and internalizing symptoms and on the relation between compulsive texting and academic adjustment. For these relations, significant correlations were found only for females. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses supported the hypotheses that the escapism motivation for texting and the perceived control over social interactions motivation for texting moderated the relation between compulsive texting and internalizing symptoms, for both males and females. These motivations strengthened the relation between compulsive texting and internalizing symptoms, suggesting that they could serve as vulnerability factors. Although the study is correlational and causality cannot be determined, the findings have implications for theory and practice. For example, it could be that deficits in coping skills (escapism motivation) or discomfort in face-to-face social interactions (perceived control over social interaction (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eric Dubow PhD (Committee Chair); Carolyn Tompsett PhD (Committee Member); Anne Gordon PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology