Digital Commons Network^™

The Varying Implications Of Metaphor Usage In Discourse, Azaria Brown

Student Scholar Showcase

Metaphors are all around us; they are the paintbrush with which our world is created. Though we do not often take heed to the metaphors that are created around us, their presence is guaranteed. Simply put, metaphors are created when we understand one thing in terms of another thing. We use metaphors whenever we need clarity in understanding a concept or idea; in some cases, metaphors are used in different areas of discourse for different purposes. Metaphor use is driven by communication purposes and goals such as the desire to make concepts accessible, to make concepts relatable, in order to …

Effects On Exposure Of Symbols Of Political Affiliation And Race On Perceptions Of White Privilege And Anti-Black Discrimination, Hannah Knechel

Student Scholar Showcase

Research has shown that the race of experimenters can affect perceptions that participants have, but political affiliation has not been studied. It has been found that the higher someone’s denial of white privilege is, the less likely they are to advocate or support moves towards racial equality. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of symbols of political affiliation and race on a perceptions of white privilege and anti-black discrimination. Participants were undergraduate students, age 18 or older. To manipulate the variables, experimenters were either black or white females who wore either a Black Lives Matter shirt, …

Diane Di Prima: A Beat Poet?, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

The Beat Poets were a group of men who wrote counterculture poetry that committed on society. They embraced themes of open sexuality, Buddhism and Eastern religions, and activism. Diane di Prima, called by most literary scholars but not by her contemporaries, was one of those Beat Poets who embraced those themes. Her focus on motherhood and female empowerment is what caused her contemporaries to reject her as an equal. A second focus will the continued rejection of di Prima from the literary canon.

The Importance Of Home Style To Congress Today, Stephen Ruppel

Student Scholar Showcase

In this research I will revisit Richard Fenno's 1970 analysis on the home style of members of the House of Representatives. In "Home Style" Fenno observes members of Congress and how they work in DC as well as in their district and with their constituents and he analyzes how important home style is to each member. In this analysis I will use electoral margin, terms served, distance from DC to district, amount of money spent on franking, and amount of money spent on travel to compare how each member deals with his or her home style. I will be using …

Girl Power: Recovering The Female Stage Voice In Ben Jonson’S The Masque Of Queens, Sara Severens

Student Scholar Showcase

The Masque of Queens by Ben Jonson was written in 1609, and is a play about chaos and order. My research focused on the significance of royal women as lead roles in a play when society did not allow females to be employed as actors, the juxtaposition of royal high class and the witches who open the play in an “anti-masque,” and the role masques played in the greater order of the literary canon.

I chose this topic because masques are a neglected genre of English literature and theatre that could be better utilized in classrooms, as well as in …

Effects On Recovery And Neuroplasticity In Brain Injury Patients, Rebekkah Mclellan

Student Scholar Showcase

Abstract

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.7 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury each year, making the topic of brain plasticity and patient recovery an important area of study. An added element is understanding whether biological, social, and environmental factors can impact the recovery and plasticity of the patient’s brain.The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate if the environment surrounding an individual who has sustained a brain injury affects their recovery and neuroplasticity. The databases used for the scope of this review included LC OneSearch, Medline, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. Keywords included brain injury, …

Effects Of The Environment On Recovery And Neuroplasticity In Brain Injury Patients, Rebekkah Mclellan

Student Scholar Showcase

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.7 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury each year, making the topic of brain plasticity and patient recovery an important area of study. An added element is understanding whether biological, social, and environmental factors can impact the recovery and plasticity of the patient’s brain. The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate if the environment surrounding an individual who has sustained a brain injury affects their recovery and neuroplasticity. The databases used for the scope of this review included LC OneSearch, Medline, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar. Key words included brain …

Effects Of Daily Forced Exercise On Anxiety Of Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) Living In Impoverished Environments, Meagan L. Collins

Student Scholar Showcase

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of daily forced exercise on the anxiety of zebrafish (Danio rerio) living in structurally-impoverished and structurally-enriched environments. Previous research shows that environmental enrichment decreases anxiety whereas living in an impoverished environment increases anxiety. Zebrafish were randomly assigned to the following aquarium tank environments: Group 1 lived with brown gravel and 3 green plastic plants (enriched environment), and Group 2 lived in a barren tank (impoverished environment). Twenty days later, fish received daily exercise or no exercise (control group) for another 14 days. Fish in the exercise group were …

Perceived Stress And Perceived Empathy Reported By Athletic Training Students, Lauren Harris

Student Scholar Showcase

Context: Previous research has been conducted on perceived stress related to perceived empathy within the medical field. About 40% of nurses have self reported occupational burnout, 25% of physicians have multiple factors related to burnout, and over half of psychologists have admitted that they practiced while being distressed to the point of affecting their clinical practice.1,1316 However, there is limited research on how perceived stress affects empathy within athletic training students.

Objective: To examine the perception of stress and the level of empathy towards patients by athletic training students.

Design: Case report.

Setting: Online survey.

Participants: Seventeen professional level athletic …

A Socioeconomic Valuation Of Urban Wetland Ecosystems And Policy Recommendation For College Lake, Michael Dunmyer

Student Scholar Showcase

The current dilemma of College Lake offers a unique case study for how urban ecosystems can not only subsist within cities but provide pivotal functions for them as well. With the potential for a dam-breaching storm event increasing in possibility with each passing year, concerns regarding the structural integrity of the College Lake dam in Lynchburg, VA have arisen. Such concerns have led the City of Lynchburg to consider reinforcement or removal of the dam in order to mitigate flood risks along the Blackwater Creek floodplain. Since its formation following the installation of the Depression-era dam, however, College Lake has …

No Such Thing As A Slave Narrative: Abba, Coobah, And Sally, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Within history, there is a push to combine and generalize individual experiences into a single narrative. However, individual slaves lived massively different lives even when they lived on the same planation. My presentation will focus on three specific slaves from Thomas Thistlewood’s sugar cane plantation in Jamaica. These three women lived in the same place, experienced the same brutality, and yet all responded differently to their trauma. I will agree that historians cannot create a comprehensive slave narrative because of these varying and greatly contrasting lives.

Summer Of Sidewalks: Accessing Lynchburg's Walkability And Planning Within Community Development In Lynchburg, Virginia, Lauren Fishbein

Student Scholar Showcase

For an urban community to be sustainable, it must also be accessible to community members across all socio-economic groups. Due to the current trends in development, communities are beginning to re-evaluate their transportation options. Urban planners are beginning to discourage ‘single family vehicular' reliance and explore other facets such as; public transportation, safe bike lanes and safe sidewalks. Safe, connected and maintained sidewalks can have many benefits including public health, environmental and economic advantages. I interned with City Planning, a department within Community Development in Downtown Lynchburg, and aided their goals to edit the zoning ordinances to make sidewalks a …

Adding Fuel To The Fire: Sexual Harassment And Male Chauvinism On Tinder, Sarah E. Irby

Student Scholar Showcase

Abstract

Since its inception in 2012, the dating app Tinder has become notorious for its hookup culture. It has also garnered much attention for instances of sexual harassment and inappropriate male behavior toward women, with the rise of Instagram pages that exploit this behavior. With an increasing number of people using this platform to meet potential partners, it is important to understand why people communicate in the ways they do. This paper explores patterns among male interactions with women on Tinder in regard to sexual harassment and male chauvinism. To conduct this study, I examined screenshots of Tinder conversations that …

Not All Art Belongs In The Living Room: The Tale Of Robert Mapplethorpe, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Following the death of Robert Mapplethorpe in 1989, a group of scholars put together a retrospective exhibition of his life’s work with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The subject matter, namely those in Mapplethorpe’s X and Z portfolios that included male nudes and depictions of sadomasochism, caused major controversy across the country. The presentation will cover Helms Amendment of 1990 and the obscenity trial that took place in Cincinnati in 1990 with a specific focus on the lasting impacts that these events have had on the NEA and the art world.

Emergence Of Zoos In The U.S. And A Search For The Exotic, Austin M. Hutchinson

Student Scholar Showcase

The emergence of zoos in twentieth century America had many factors that contributed to their mission, success, and overall exotic nature. Zoos have been a part of human civilization for centuries, but it would not be until 1876 when the first zoo would appear in the United States. Individuals craved excitement and the use of exotic animals from all over the world became an important component of what zoos would become. This era coincides with the European colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa, known as the Scramble for Africa. Animals were brought from the so-called “Dark Continent” to be put on display, …

Examining Manganese Oxidation In Bacteria Through Bioinformatics And Environmental Sampling, T'Onna Collins

Student Scholar Showcase

The study’s focus is the manganese oxidation mechanism. This mechanism is crucial, especially in bacteria, because manganese is very active and is abundant in most of these organisms’ environments.Pseudomonas putida is the positive control that will be used to compare the DNA and amino sequences of specific genes in other organisms to see similarity and conservation of the mechanism. The top five organisms that is not part of the Pseudomonas genus and are similar to P. putida in each specific loci of the genes for manganese oxidation were found by a microbial database. These organisms were sequenced and aligned to …

Sirna Knock-Down Of Vav1 In Breast Cancer Cells: Effects On Pi3kinase And Akt, Tajai Sion-Milligan

Student Scholar Showcase

One in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Approximately 25-30% of these breast tumors will overexpress Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2), associated with a worse prognosis and decreased survival rate. Stimulation of HER2 results in activation and production of many signaling molecules, ultimately resulting in increased cell division. Two of the downstream molecules activated are PI₃Kinase and, further downstream, the molecule Akt. Typically, overproduction and/or overactivation of PI₃Kinase can lead to oncogenesis. A molecule that may have a significant role in PI₃Kinase formation is VAV1. VAV1 …

The Effects Of Core Stabilization Training On The Performance Of Functional Tasks In Firefighters, Emily Maxwell

Student Scholar Showcase

The purpose of this study was to observe if core stabilization training plays a significant role in firefighter time-to-completion during a functional performance test. A within subjects study design was used in which subjects (n=13, mean ± SD age and body fat 33.7 ± 7.4 years, 25.79 ± 6.55 percent, respectively) completed two performance tests (pre and post core training), comprised of 7 firefighter-specific exercises performed while wearing a 22.68 kg weight vest to mimic typical firefighter equipment. Between testing sessions, subjects were prescribed specific core stabilization exercises to perform on their own 3+ days a week for a total …

Anesthesia "Hand Off" Process For Patients At High Risk For Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Terry Yeager

Student Scholar Showcase

No abstract provided.

Creating A Predictive Model For Flowering Of Virginia Orchid, Cypripedium Pubescens, Emily Horton

Student Scholar Showcase

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Functional Movement Screening Tests To Determine Injury Risks In Collegiate Soccer Athletes, Hannah Olds

Student Scholar Showcase

The Functional Movement Screening (FMS) was designed as a tool to identify compensatory movement patterns, often used with athletes. The purpose of this study was to find the relationship between FMS scores and injuries throughout the course of a Division III men’s and women’s Varsity soccer season. The effect of intervention with corrective exercises in improving total composite scores was also assessed. A pretest-posttest randomized control group design was used in which subjects (n=28, 50% male) completed the FMS Tests. FMS testing was performed 8 weeks apart. During the 8 weeks, subjects tracked injury occurrences and treatment subjects completed exercises …

The Influence Of Musical Theater And How To Incorporate It In The Classroom, Chris Young

Student Scholar Showcase

Over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, musical theater experienced many advancements and changes from its origins such as Show Boat (1927), Into the Woods (1986), and Hamilton (2016). Teachers can use themes from Hamilton and other Broadway shows today to create a lesson plan that utilizes simple melody and rhyme scheme to teach students about musical theater.

With the intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to teach methods of Musical Theater into the classroom. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) trace the creation of American Broadway Theatre; (2) explore …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

Making Music With Maria Montessori, Zerai Thornton, Renee Banks, Sarah Young, Leray Wingo

Student Scholar Showcase

Although Montessori’s methods may not be universally accepted in common school system, her basic ideology in regards to successful childhood development which is encouraged in the classroom can be applied to any classroom environment. With the intent of improving music pedagogy and child classroom environments, the purpose of this research was to inspect Montessori’s theory and analysis here experiences that impacted her research discovery. The particular problems of this study were to (1) analyze Montessori theory and teaching methods; (2) examine Montessori’s techniques; and (3) and create a series of lesson plans utilizing Montessori techniques.

Montessori’s methods benefit young children …

Evaluating Effects Of Gene Mutation And Light Intensity On Arabidopsis Thaliana Development, Carolanne Bekus

Student Scholar Showcase

The completion of sequencing Arabidopsis thaliana’s genome has led to the next crucial challenge of determining gene function in these plants. A. thaliana is a model organism often compared to commercial crops. The discovery of gene function within these plants will aid in giving insight on how gene function can affect commercial crop production. Presented here is an analysis comparing wild-type Columbia (Col-O), to single gene mutants when knocking-out transcriptional factors VPI/ABI3-like 1 (val1) and basic region/leucine zipper motif (bZIP). These single gene mutations may affect several traits that in turn can result in morphological changes and/or …

Analysis Of Downstream Signaling Of Tlrs After U0126 Inhibition, Brandy Frazier

Student Scholar Showcase

Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) is a pathogenic bacterium which causes the disease tularemia. F. tularensis is thought to be able to enter and multiply inside of liver cells because it interacts with toll-like receptors (TLRs). Examining the signaling pathway downstream of the TLRs will allow for better understanding of how this disease works and possible treatment strategies. In this study I propose to examine how molecular inhibitors affect signaling downstream of TLRs in HepG2 cells treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from E. coli. Mitogen-activated protein kinase is a cellular molecule in signaling cascades that directs cellular response mechanisms. MAPK can be …

Physical Therapy Service-Learning In A Second World Country: What Are The Benefits?, Molly L. Koeneman, Katie B. Palmer, Jessie Bass

Student Scholar Showcase

Social responsibility and service are key initiatives within the physical therapy profession and within the Lynchburg College Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program. Service-learning opportunities are offered in the DPT program within the country of St. Lucia on a yearly basis. The primary focus of this presentation is to evaluate the impact of this type of experiential learning on both students and the local community. During the 2018 service trip, the Minister of Special Education of St. Lucia provided special insight to our contribution to the special education schools in St. Lucia, which indicates the trip provides beneficial and sustaining …

Lc Dpt Service Trip To St. Lucia: Following The Progress Of A 7 Y/O Boy Over 3 Years From Non-Ambulatory To Running With Peers, Brooke Panfil, Ainsley Reed

Student Scholar Showcase

In January of 2016, the Lynchburg College Doctor of Physical Therapy program formed the first group of 10 students and 2 professors that traveled to the island of St. Lucia to provide much-needed physical therapy services to the children in special education schools. During the initial visit, several students had the opportunity to work with a 5-year-old boy named Mark who had just learned to stand and presented with behavioral issues and lacked fine-motor skills. After spending only a couple hours with Mark, the students came up with a plan and some recommendations for Mark’s teachers with hopes to improve …

Characterization Of Magnetic Thin Films Using The Magneto Optic Kerr Effect, Nicholas J. Savino

Student Scholar Showcase

Understanding magnetic properties of materials allows for advances in applications such as data storage. The Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) displays the reflective response a magnetic material has to a magnetic field. When polarized light reflects off of a magnetic material, the polarization orientation can change. The application of an external magnetic field can affect how much this polarization changes in a non-linear manner. Hysteresis loops are created when examining the relationship between intensity of the reflected light to the applied magnetic field provide information about magnetic properties of that material, such as the coercive field and field retention. Preliminary measurements …