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The Essentialism Of Music In Human Life And Its Roots In Nature, Katricia D. F. Stewart

Senior Theses

The connections between our emotions, music, and the natural world have only been examined in dualities, rather than as an interwoven triangle of elements that are innate and stem from our evolutionary history as a species. Our emotions are profoundly tied to musical sounds, while we also have a deeply rooted emotional connection with nature. The music of the natural world provided the foundation for crucial aspects of our human evolution, making our connections with both music and nature innate. Composers, musicians, poets, and storytellers have recognized this for centuries, exploiting these inherent connections in order to convey emotion and …

A Pedestal Of Power: Analyzing Consciousness In Nonhuman Animals, Conner Lee Varnell

Senior Theses

Humans have an understanding of a concept called consciousness. This idea of consciousness has been the main separating factor between animals and humans regarding humankind's purported superiority of intelligence: humans are conscious and other animals are not. Specifically, it is self-consciousness, awareness of oneself as oneself, that is. Yet extensive research throughout the last few decades shows that this may not be the case. Animals and humans alike show a variety of forms of consciousness and self-consciousness based on the structure of their bodies, brains, habitats and other contributing factors of survival. Hence, I will argue that humans are not …

Forget The Dreamer And Remember The Dream: A Study Of Sylvia Plath's Fiction, Summer Yasoni

Senior Theses

Sylvia Plath’s life and writing has generated endless amounts of controversy since her suicide in 1963. A common tendency among critics is to read her life and writing as parallels to each other, because of this prominent controversy. This reductive reading is problematic for many reasons. In addition to the gender anxieties she writes about at length in her journals, Plath also writes about her lack of experience hindering her writing, and ways to combat her lack of novel topics to write about. Plath wants to use events and aspects of her life to strengthen the stories she writes, instead …

Islamic Feminism: A Discourse Of Gender Justice And Equality, Breanna Ribeiro

Senior Theses

This paper examines Islamic feminism using structural methodology and the phenomenological approach to examine the component of Muslim feminists' activism that utilizes ijtihad and tafsir to reinterpret patriarchal rhetoric and highlight Islamic discourses that validate gender equality. These scholars and activists critically analyze Islamic theology by employing hermeneutics in order to produce Islamic exegeses that affirm social justice, gender equality, and liberation. Religion plays a critical role in building collective cultural identities; therefore, examining sacred texts' representation and prescription of gender roles and mores generates an understanding of the gender order in the community of believers, while simultaneously exposing contextual …

Mix Tape, Michael Davis

Senior Theses

This creative writing thesis contains short stories, a piece of memoir writing, and a screenplay by Michael Davis.

• Grey Giants
• Purple Jasmines
• The Cameraman
• Bubby Rose

Does Protein Folding Exhibit Self-Organized Criticality?, Addison Wisthoff

Senior Theses

Proteins are known to fold into tertiary structures that determine their functionality in living organisms. By understanding the general features of this folding process, that are independent of specific proteins, folding can be better understood. Self-organized critical systems exhibit behavior that scales with system size. In this project, I wrote a simulation of a simplistic three-dimensional cubic lattice protein model. The model consisted of only two different types of amino acids, one being hydrophobic and the other hydrophilic, known as the HP model. To identify self-organized criticality in proteins, there must be clear signs of power law behavior in the …

Optimization Of Chemical Vapor Deposition Grown Graphene, Andrew Tan

Senior Theses

Graphene can be used as the active film in a gas sensor. To provide the best possible electrical properties, it is important that graphene films be single-layered and single-crystalline. A low vacuum chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber was constructed to grow graphene with these properties. The effect of growth parameters, such as annealing times and methane partial pressure, on the quality of graphene was investigated. Raman spectra of graphene were used to quantify the characteristics of the synthesized graphene. Graphene synthesized through CVD has two major peaks, the G (~1570cm^-1) and the 2D peak (~2700 cm^-1). …

Line Defects In Single Crystal Ceb6 Electron Emitters, Nicholas Fairhart

Senior Theses

Electron emitters are essential components in many microscopy systems, including scanning electron microscopes, transmission electron microscopes, and scanning Auger microprobes. One feature of good electron emitter materials is a low surface work function. CeB₆ is one such material. Line defects seen in CeB₆ affect the work function of the emitting surface, causing the emitted electrons to have a wider spread of energies. This causes chromatic aberration, reducing the resolution of the microscope systems. The purpose of this research is to find the source of these line defects in the CeB₆ emitter fabrication process. It was suspected that …

Comparison Of The Performance Of Metal And Wood Baseball Bats, Kramer Lindell

Senior Theses

In baseball, bats made of metal are designed to perform like bats made of wood. To test how similarly they actually perform, both types of bats were used by hitters in a batting cage off of a pitching machine. The pitching machine's velocity could be adjusted as needed. A radar gun was used to measure the velocity of a batted baseball. The exiting velocities of balls hit with metal and wood bats were compared. The natural bending modes were also analyzed to compare the size of each sweet spot. It was discovered that when missing the sweet spot the bats …

A Reinterpretation Of The Dao De Jing, Tianyue Luo

Senior Theses

Next to the Bible, the Dao De Jing is the most translated work in world literature. Its popularity certainly shows the power of traditional Chinese thoughts. Late western modern philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre have been influenced by the thoughts of Dao De Jing. As a foundation of traditional Chinese spirit, the Dao De Jing certainly played a key role. In the new global temporality, it may also help people to eliminate the philosophical, ideological, and eventually the cultural gap as a cultural bridge between the east and west. Compared to the original source, most English references …