Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Universal Basic Income Proposals: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Established Studies., Zachary Paul Baker

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The development of welfare within western cultures has become incredibly polarized over the last decades. Propositions for ideas such as Universal Basic Income (UBI) has reemerged into the mainstream conversation, with some lofty promises. What is the credibility of UBI as a welfare policy platform? Do the results of the studies on the effects of cash-transfers show the possibility of UBI as a new national program, or do they reveal issues that highlight major structural problems with UBI? This thesis examines over twenty different studies within various categories of cash-transfers to see the positives and negatives revealed by previous researchers. …

Host Community Diversity Interacts With Soil Biota And Water Availability To Predict Foliar Pathogen Damage And Diversity On Tallgrass Prairie Plants., Aspen J. Workman

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The provisioning of ecosystem services in tallgrass prairies is mediated by interactions between the plants, their associated above- and belowground microbiota, and the abiotic environment, but global change alters these interactions through a variety of pathways. This study investigates the interactions between belowground microbiota, foliar pathogens, and their host plants in order to better understand how ecosystem functioning may change in a tallgrass prairie system under an altered watering regime. The project focuses on North American tallgrass prairie ecosystems and asks whether host plant diversity and abundance, soil biota, and water availability interactively affect plant susceptibility to damage by a …

Oriented External Electric Field (Oeef) Tuning Of Unsubstituted Azoheteroarene Photoswitching Performance., Irma Avdic

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Azoheteroarenes are relatively new photoswitchable compounds, where one of the phenyl rings of an azobenzene molecule is replaced by a heteroaromatic five-membered ring. Although few studies have been performed, recent findings on methylated azoheteroarenes show that these photoswitches have great potential in various optically addressable applications. Thermal stability of molecular switches is one of the primary factors considered in the design process. For the purposes of quick information transmission in materials science, the thermal (Z – E) relaxation process should be as short as possible. On the other hand, molecular memory storage devices prefer long Z - E relaxation times. …

The Effect Of Parent Interaction On Pre-Reaching Infants’ Visual Attention During An Object Manipulation Task., Jalena N. Slaton

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Infants do not begin intentionally reaching for and grasping objects until around 5 months of age. The sticky mittens paradigm (SM) provides infants the opportunity to manipulate and explore objects on their own. Active SM experience has been shown to lead to positive cognitive outcomes (Libertus & Needham, 2010), including facilitating causal perception (Rakison & Krogh, 2012). While some aspects of SM that contribute to positive outcomes are well understood (e.g., active vs. passive experience), the role of parent interactions has received little attention. In this study, SM training was used to investigate the role that parents play in their …

The Relationship Between Mothers’ Negative Emotional Symptoms And Mother-Infant Interactions During The Covid-19 Pandemic., Kolbie A Vincent

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between mothers' negative emotional symptoms (depression, anxiety, and stress) and mother-infant interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected in the early months of the pandemic, when daycares were closed, through an online survey of parents and infants. Participants included 54 mothers of infants 3-34 months of age living in Kentucky. Well-being was measured with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale – 21 (DASS 21). Questions related to parent-infant interactions included time spent interacting with the infants by reading, singing, playing freely with no set goal, engaging in a meaningful …

The Relations Between Maternal Language Input And Language Development For Children With Williams Syndrome., Katarina L. Mayer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

For typically developing (TD) children, maternal language input (MLI) is an important contributor to early language development. Until now, possible relations between MLI and language development for children with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with language delay and intellectual disability, have not been addressed. The aim of the present study was two-fold: to examine concurrent relations between MLI and child language abilities at 24 months and to determine if individual differences in MLI and children’s lexical and cognitive abilities at 24 months make significant unique contributions to the variance in child language abilities at 48 months for …

Early Communication Abilities Of 24-Month-Old Children With Williams Syndrome As Measured By The Communication Complexity Scale., Sean B. Woods

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intellectual disability accompanied by a distinct cognitive profile. Despite their socially outgoing nature, children with WS exhibit delayed communication development and specific deficits across various functions of communication. The purpose of this study was to describe the range of communication complexity observed in 24-month-olds with WS and determine relations between communication complexity and other areas of cognitive development. The communication complexity of 17 24-month-old children with WS was measured using the Communication Complexity Scale (CCS), which quantifies optimal and typical communication complexity, as well as optimal communication for Joint Attention (JA) …

The Influence Of Gender On Interruptions In The U.S. Courts Of Appeals., Molly Grace Baldock

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Law has historically been a male-dominated profession. The number of women earning law degrees is now close to parity with men (Moyer and Haire 2015). So, does this mean that women no longer face disadvantages in the legal profession? Unfortunately, systemic disadvantage persists. For instance, previous work on the United States Supreme Court shows that female judges and attorneys are more likely to be interrupted than men—a finding consistent with research on interruption in other contexts, like legislative bodies. This frequency of interruption can have lasting consequences on the ways in which women speak and present questions, as well as …

Colombia's Judicial Reform: What Now?, Maya Smith

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

A current body of research examines Colombia’s judicial institutions and focuses on the successes and failures of past reforms. While the literature is overwhelmingly negative, scholars have managed to put forward pieces of a potential solution. I draw on these analyses to answer the question, “what is the best possible course of action for Colombia’s future judicial reform projects?” Throughout this paper, I draw on Colombian newspapers, think-tank reports, survey research, and academic studies to formulate a cohesive answer. This existing literature identifies that Colombia’s weak judiciary stems from Spanish colonialism’s lasting influence, the reactive and defensive nature of judges, …

Software Validation And Data Quality Monitoring Of The Klm Detector At Belle Ii., Dustyn Hofer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The Belle II Experiment at the SuperKEKB collider in Tsukuba, Japan is the latest of a new generation of B-factory experiments, designed to produce B meson particles in abundance. The aim of the Belle II experiment is to "discover new physics in the decay of the bottom quark (b), charm quark (c) and tau lepton (τ) and explore the dark sector." The SuperKEKB collider aims to produce instantaneous luminosities of upwards of 8 × 1035 cm−2 s−1, nearly an order of magnitude higher than previous B- factory experiments Belle and BABAR. Software packages, such as physics modules for the popular …

Functionality Of Red Blood Cells After Cryo-Preservation., Charles Andrew Elder

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

One of the most common medical procedures performed in US hospitals is blood transfusions. Unfortunately, the red blood cells (RBCs) for transfusion have a limited shelf life after donation due to detrimental storage effects on morphological and biochemical properties. Inspired by nature, I am developing a biomimetics approach to preserve RBCs for long-term storage using compounds that occur in animals that have developed a natural propensity to survive in a frozen or desiccated state for decades. Trehalose was employed as a cryoprotective agent when added to the extracellular freezing solution. The highest percent of RBCs with intact membranes after freezing …

Land Lines: Modes Of Communication In Kentucky's Queer Past And Present., Emma R. Johansen

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

As the queer historical discipline grows in reach, prominence, and scholarship, southern queer histories are on the tail end of this growing academic attention. Academic historians, digital humanists, and public historians alike have neglected Kentucky’s rich queer history in academic circles. This thesis aims to mend this gap in historic interpretation through research in Kentucky gay press, television, radio, and their effect on Kentucky’s queer organizing. Through extensive primary research in the Williams-Nichols archive, and secondary sources on the women in print movement, queer rurality, and gay media studies, this thesis measures the ways Kentucky queer communities have correlated with …

"At The Peril Of Our Lives": Race, Citizenship, And Philadelphia's 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic., Abigail Posey

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The late-eighteenth century was a crucial time for determining the social role of black people in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania at large. In 1780, the state legislature began a gradual abolition process that contributed to a growing free Black population in the city, while many other Black Philadelphians remained in bondage. Their livelihoods remained restricted by anti-Black laws that contributed to the overall poor health of Black Philadelphians. As the yellow fever epidemic began in 1793, Philadelphia’s medical community supported racist scientific myths that Black people possessed a natural immunity to yellow fever. In an agreement with the city and Dr. …

A Network Investigation Of Eating Disorder Symptoms And Risk Factors Before And After A Prevention Program In Adolescent Girls., Jordan E. Drake

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Eating disorders (EDs) are psychological disorders characterized by disturbances in eating that commonly develop during adolescence and may be influenced by risk factors, both ED-specific (i.e., factors linked to future ED symptoms) and transdiagnostic (i.e., factors underlying multiple psychological disorders). Network analysis allows for the study of the connections between ED symptoms and risk factors by identifying central symptoms (i.e., the most interconnected symptoms) and bridge symptoms (i.e., symptoms which strongly connect across the symptom and risk factor clusters). Examining networks of ED symptoms and risk factors in adolescence can inform how risk factors influence ED development, as well as …

Positive Rhetoric, Prejudiced Policy: The Contradiction Of Islamophobia In American Government After 9-11., Molly Bilz

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Following the tragic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, local and national leaders responded to the security crisis by uniting the country under the American ideals of freedom and democracy while condemning the Islamic terrorist group responsible. With beliefs rooted in historical American and European prejudice, Western scholarship promoted a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West wherein the cultures’ supposed irreconcilable differences would inevitably lead to warfare. Simultaneously, many Americans grew suspicious of Muslims after the attacks, including government officials. As hate crimes against Muslim and Middle Eastern Americans soared in the U.S., government leaders used positive rhetoric …

Madwomen And Mad Women: An Analysis Of The Use Of Female Insanity And Anger In Narrative Fiction, From Vilification To Validation., Lindsay Haralu

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This project examines the use of female insanity and anger in narrative fiction, as demonstrated by the character of the madwoman. Madness is a concept that has long been gendered female throughout Western history, in medicine, language, religion, and culture. Socially and culturally constructed madness can be used to determine the boundaries of society, the norms and values from which “madness” deviates, while the character of the madwoman can be used to demonstrate how women have challenged these boundaries and how the roles of women and definitions of femininity have changed over time. This study analyzes the madwoman trope from …

The Idea Of Wilderness And United States Land Use Policy: American Transcendentalism, Preservation, And Conservation, 1835-1914., Arabella A Paulovich

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Early American environmental groups— Romantic Transcendentalists, Preservationists, and Conservationists— interpreted wilderness. The paper argues nineteenth-century Romantic-Transcendental Preservationists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and later John Muir understood American Wilderness as an Eden that ought to be preserved and left untouched. In the early twentieth century, Forester Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt argued against preservationist attitudes toward wilderness, arguing wilderness ought to be wisely used in order to generate prosperity for current and future generations. The thesis illustrates how two different approaches to land use emerged as the United States responded to the impacts of …

The Dangers Posed By Open-Flame Cooking: The Case Of Chiapas, Mexico., Holly Renee Zoeller

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Open-flame cooking, the central cooking approach used by some three billion individuals across the globe, primarily in developing countries, poses serious health and environmental risks. While some countries have begun to transition to cleaner stoves, this effort has confronted widespread resistance. People who have been using this ancient cooking method and whose culinary traditions rely on this cooking approach have remained recalcitrant in their efforts to continue cooking the traditional way. This study focuses on Chiapas, the southernmost and the poorest state in Mexico, which skirts the Guatemalan border. This study provides ample evidence of the health risks associated with …

Implementing Crispr-Cas9 Gene Editing System In Microbotryum., Stevana Reese Schauer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Microbotryum dianthorum is a species of smut fungus which causes infection in plants in the Dianthus genus. The infection process is aided by small-secreted proteins known as effectors. Effectors may aid in the infection process because they are secreted by the fungus and can enter plant tissue, possibly to facilitate infection and/or manipulate the host. Thus, it is of interest to investigate the genes for these effectors to determine their role in the infection process. One method to study genes is through gene disruption, via the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system, but this has not yet been implemented in Microbotryum dianthorum …

"I Love Judges, And I Love Courts:" Chief Justice William H. Taft And Reform In The Federal Judiciary., Alexandra M. Michalak

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

As the only former president to ever serve as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, William Howard Taft’s legacy is best exemplified through his impact on the federal judiciary. Taft proved in time that the judiciary was his one true passion, undertaking revolutionary federal court reform that expanded the federal district courts, introduced the Judicial Conference, strengthened the chief justiceship, expanded the Supreme Court’s discretionary jurisdiction, and established a freestanding Supreme Court building. Following the reform trends of the period, Taft accomplished his reforms with the help of his political connections and experience, his colleagues on his …

The Impact Of Religion On Gender, Sexuality, And Abortion Politics: A Comparative Study Of Northern Ireland And The Republic Of Ireland., Sabrina L. Collins

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Over time, organized religion has impacted many aspects of societies across the globe. In this study, I focus on the island of Ireland – a clear case study with a history of sectarian religious divides that play out in a democratic society. Through my analysis I find that religion has operated quite differently on both sides of the Irish border as it relates to public opinion on abortion, sexuality, and gender roles. Specifically, there are striking cross-national differences regarding the importance of religious group identity compared to levels of personal religiosity in shaping public opinion on the issues studied.

To …

Þorn: A Novel Excerpt Exploring Giantesses, Their Relation To Women's Bodily Expectations, And Patriarchal Control In The Literature Of Early Modern Britain And Contemporary America., Brady P Alexander

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will analyze examples of women of size in the literature of the British Isles throughout history, focusing predominantly upon the Early Modern Period, and will create a fiction piece in response to such attitudes. I argue that one of the most clear ways to dissect contemporary cultural attitudes about powerful women and women who occupy more space than men is to examine giantesses and other examples of women of size within this period of literature. From this, a novel excerpt will be written from the perspective of a time-traveling woman of size who engages with these texts and …

Nonprofit Social Media Internships: A Handbook, Allison Laroy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines how nonprofits can best prepare their interns and how interns can best prepare themselves for a role in engaging audiences through social media. Through a literature review on nonprofit social media and internships, a series of qualitative interviews with interns and supervisors, and my own lived experiences as a social media intern, I develop a handbook for nonprofit social media internships. This guide is relevant to the specific experiences of nonprofit social media internships, includes advice on training, mentorship, and best practices, and finally, it incorporates further resources on nonprofit social media that interns and supervisors can …

“Attracted By The Light But Repelled By The Heat”: The Final Years Of The Southern Conference Educational Fund (Scef) And The Turn To The New Communist Movement In The South., Hannah C. White

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the final years of the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), including the organization’s split in 1973. During the late sixties and early seventies, SCEF operated, with its headquarters in Louisville, as an interracial southern civil rights organization that focused on organizing whites in the struggle against racism, oppression, and exploitation. This thesis unpacks SCEF’s relationship with Louisville’s Black Panther Party and examines the ways in which interracial organizing grew to be more problematic during the turn of the decade with the rise of nationalism, Black Power, and a new attention to the intransigent racism that continued …