Digital Commons Network^™

Future And Past Anxieties : A Look At The Origins Of The British Welfare State Through Wwii, Emily Maanum

Honors Theses

The scope of this project focuses particularly on how members of Parliament and the media, specifically newspapers, understood the establishment of the welfare state. My use of the term “Britons” reflects political rhetoric used by MPs to illustrate unity within the public sphere and to shape the terms of debate. Their instrumentalist rhetoric was meant to unify the community, stop fascism and honor citizens. It is important to study the political rhetoric because these discussions within Parliament led to social policies and the eventual establishment of a welfare system. How MPs started early debates affected the structure of later debates …

The Effectiveness Of Promotions In Minor League Baseball : A Study Of The Eastern League, Collin R. Zucker

Honors Theses

Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is comprised of 247 teams playing in 17 leagues at six different levels. Every team in these leagues is an affiliate of a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, but many are privately owned and are therefore financially independent. While MiLB primarily serves as a development environment for future MLB players, profit maximization is still a goal of various front offices. Minor League Baseball has existed for over a century but only recently have teams been regarded as profitable investments. In Forbes’ “Most Valuable Minor League Teams” list published in 2016, the average value of the top …

Family Composition And Outcomes Following Parental Bereavement In Childhood, Ari M. Kagan

Honors Theses

The primary aim of this study is to compare the grief and stress related growth of individuals who have siblings and those who do not have siblings in the context of parental loss that occurred during childhood (before the age of 16). Adult participants provided self-report for the Traumatic Grief Inventory, Stress Related Growth Scale, and other related measures. We hypothesized only children who were bereaved during childhood would report higher levels of grief and lower levels of stress related growth compared to those with siblings who were bereaved during childhood. Multivariate analyses focus on grief and stress related growth …

An Analysis Of Skill-Biased Technical Change Across Demographic Groups, Madison Lindsay

Honors Theses

I adopt a measure of task-based routineness from Autor and Dorn (2013) to investigate the effects of routineness on various demographic groups. I analyze data from the Current Population Surveys between 1976 and 2017 to determine which groups, separated by race, gender, and age, are most strongly affected by routine-biased technological change. My findings suggest that women are most negatively affected by occupational routineness. Further, both women’s concentration in highly routine occupations and women’s educational attainment trends from 1976 to 2017 could explain women’s increasing susceptibility to changes in routineness.

Un Crime Contre L'Humanité : Une Analyse De Quelques Journaux Algériens Et Français, La Mémoire Collective Et Les Relations Franco-Algériennes, Olivia Gustafson

Honors Theses

Cette thèse fait une étude de l’histoire des relations franco-algériennes et et de la façon dont cette histoire influence les relations présentement. Avec l’élection d’Emmanuel Macron en 2017, quelques journaux ont dit que cette présidence commencera une nouvelle ère pour les relations franco-algériennes. Ainsi, cette étude pose-t-elle la question de comment les médias français et algériens représentent ces relations et cette histoire, et comment les tragédies qui se sont passées pendant la colonisation vont être réparées par l’État français. Brièvement, j’affirme que ces articles représentent une tension entre Macron, qui veut réparer les blessures du passé en passant à l’avenir, …

Analysis Of A Custom Support Vector Machine For Photometric Redshift Estimation And The Inclusion Of Galaxy Shape Information, Evan Jones, J. Singal

Honors Theses

Aims. We present a custom support vector machine classification package for photometric redshift estimation, including comparisons with other methods. We also explore the efficacy of including galaxy shape information in redshift estimation. Support vector machines, a type of machine learning, utilize optimization theory and supervised learning algorithms to construct predictive models based on the information content of data in a way that can treat different input features symmetrically, which can be a useful estimator of the information contained in additional features beyond photometry, such as those describing the morphology of galaxies.

Methods. The custom support vector machine package we have …

The Effect Of Bike Lane Infrastructure On Urban Housing Markets, Bracken Woolley

Honors Theses

Across the United States, cities are increasing their level of investment in bicycle infrastructure. The environmental and health benefits of this infrastructure are clear, but less research has been conducted on its economic impacts. This study examines the effect of bicycle infrastructure, specifically bike lanes, on New York City housing markets. Specifically, I look at the impact of bike lane length on median rent and percent vacancy in a given census tract. In addition to the independent variable of focus, bike lane length, census-based data was used to control for other economic and demographic factors that could impact property values. …

Mussolini, Hitler, And Perón : Economic Conditions And The Emergence Of Illiberal Leadership, Patrick David Hughes

Honors Theses

This research seeks to understand the relationship between economic conditions and the emergence of illiberal leadership. The work includes historical case studies of Italy, Germany, and Argentina in the periods preceding the respective emergences of Mussolini, Hitler, and Perón. Research analysis focuses on economic conditions and attempts to provide illumination of the contexts within which each of these leaders rose to power.

Preferring Positivity : Age Differences In Judgments Of Learning And Memory For Emotionally-Valenced Words, Edie Sanders

Honors Theses

Many changes occur with age, including changes in emotion regulation and memory. The Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 2006) posits that older adults tend to be more concerned with emotionally meaningful goals and therefore experience what is called the “positivity effect” with age. The positivity effect results in a bias in attention and memory towards positive stimuli over neutral and negative stimuli. Age-related changes also arise in memory monitoring, specifically in Judgments of Learning (JOLs), when individuals learn emotional words. We examined the presence of the positivity effect in memory and JOLs for positive, negative, and neutral words. Younger and older …

Attitude Change Intervention For Victim Blaming Of Sexual Assault, Catharine Sciolla

Honors Theses

This research explores the possibility of an Attitude Change based intervention for victim blaming following and surrounding incidents of sexual assault and sexual violence. The study aimed at creating an intervention to successfully decrease and minimize victim blaming attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and tendencies through a combination of internalization strategies, self-reference effects, and empirically supported attitude change methods. There were 149 participants who completed the study. Participants were tasked to complete a series questionnaires measuring Hostile sexism, Benevolent sexism, Just World Bias, Robbery Victim Blame, then complete the intervention, a brief educational reading and a self-generated response to a fictional rape …

Acute Illness And Job Lock, Lauren Passero

Honors Theses

This paper assesses if the experience of an acute illness generates decreased job mobility among workers with employer-sponsored health insurance. An acute illness may increase the perceived value of health insurance and “lock” workers into jobs that provide health insurance as compensation. Using difference-in-difference tests, I evaluate the presence of job lock among workers impacted by acute health problems in Panel 19 of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The results provide inconclusive evidence of job lock related to the experience of an acute illness. Further research on acute illness-related job lock can explore the potential long-term impact of job lock …

La Vie En Périphérie : Une Comparaison Critique De La Représentation Des Populations Marginalisées Et Le Racisme Systématique Aux Etats-Unis Et À La Banlieue Du Paris, Milan Essex

Honors Theses

Les populations marginalisées sont toujours examinées à la loupe : les médias, les nouvelles, les films et la littérature. D’une part, elles sont utilisées en tant d’artistes, d’innovateurs, de modèles. D’autre part, elles sont stigmatisées comme des criminels, des paresseux, des instigateurs. La violence est toujours attachée à la figure où la peau est enrichie avec de la mélanine, et les droits humains sont menacés pour les personnes avec la peau de plus en plus brune, et les yeux de plus en plus «exotiques». Les épreuves de la peau noire se fixent dans la manière dont elles ne sont pas …

Bartonella And Y. Pestis Screening In Ctenophyllus Armatus Terribilis For Conservation Application For The America Pika (Ochotona Princeps) In The Rocky Mountain Front Range, Hilary Rinsland

Honors Theses

As temperatures continue to disproportionally increase in alpine regions due to climate change, parasite spillover from increased pika-rodent contact could bring new diseases to a susceptible alpine specialist, the American pika (Ochotona princeps). Fleas collected from pika at four alpine and subalpine study sites in Boulder County, Colorado from 2011-2017 were screened for Y. pestis and Bartonella using conventional PCR methods. This is the first study to detect Bartonella in the American Pika flea Ctenophyllus armatus terribilis and to propose the presence of B. grahmii in the alpine region of the Rocky Mountains.

The Effects Of Perceived Quality On Tuition And Net Tuition, Isabella Xianxin Thomas

Honors Theses

This paper examines the effects of perceived quality on tuition and net tuition utilizing both direct and indirect measures to account for quality and the U.S News and World Ranking to measure perceived quality. Tuition is the sticker price, whereas net tuition is the sticker price less discounts. Judgments of quality will be more apparent in tuition, therefore perceived quality and tuition should have a larger relationship than net tuition and perceived quality. When regressed with quality variables held constant on tuition and net tuition, effect of reputation on prices is captured. The coefficient for perceived quality on tuition had …

Manifest Destiny, American Domesticity, And The Role Of The Immigrant In Ruiz De Burton's Novels, Madison Rose Martinez

Honors Theses

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s novels Who Would Have Thought It?And The Squatter And the Donare important works of literature due to their representation of the MexicanExperience in the redefined expanding United States of the nineteenth century. The novelsprovide two perspectives of the time period by delving into the lives of Americans and Mexicans on both sides of the country.

A Different Kind Of Learning For A Different Kind Of Learner : Justification Of And Best Practices For The Use Of Performing Arts Education For Autistic Students, Jacob Anthony Litt

Honors Theses

In our culture, our history, and our society, the arts play a vital role. However, despite maintaining such a fundamental place in our shared experiences, the arts’ role in education is in constant need of clarification and defense. In addition, the presence of individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities has become increasingly common in society, and yet special educational programs for these individuals, especially in their early years, have proven unable to find total success. These two fields of education – arts education and special education – thus share a common struggle: a need to find an established place in …

Interactions Between Two Key Amphibian Defenses To Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis In Panamanian Glass Frogs (Espadarana Prosoblepon), Andi Levorse

Honors Theses

Research on the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the causative agent of the lethal disease chytridiomycosis, has advanced from assessments of pathogenicity and species susceptibility to more specialized questions concerning the complex interactions between the pathogen, species-specific immune responses, and the environment. Our work examines the potential for interactions between the two most important innate immune defenses of frogs against Bd: secretions of antimicrobial peptides and communities of commensal cutaneous bacteria. While both defenses have been studied individually, little data are available to examine interactions between these defenses. We conducted our study with field captured Panamanian glass frogs …

Understanding The Structural Basis Of Sike Interactions, Alice Catalano

Honors Theses

Tank Binding Kinase 1 (TBK1) acts as a catalytic hub in the regulation of numerous immune signaling pathways. Suppressor of IκB Kinase ε (SIKE) was recently characterized as a substrate of TBK1 whose binding properties are modulated by phosphorylation state, but very little is currently known about its function. However, because SIKE is known to form a dimer with itself, previous work generated a list of potential SIKE partners based on other proteins that contain sequences homologous to SIKE. Here, computational models of four potential SIKE partners, Heavy Chain myosin, tubulin, Beta Catenin and Ezrin, were generated and docked with …

Characterizing Borrelia Burgdorferi In Virginia : Lyme Disease Prevalence As A Matter Of Bacterial Genetic Variation, Hannah Cornman

Honors Theses

yme Disease (LD) incidence and spatial distribution has grown dramatically in the past 20 years. In Virginia, the growth has been especially drastic, primarily in the Western part of the state. This research project investigates how genetic variability of the Lyme Disease causing bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, might be contributing to this increase in LD incidence in western Virginia. To do this, B. burgdorferi samples were isolated from ticks found across the state and were characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Phylogenetic and minimum spanning tree analyses were also performed. It was hypothesized that the increasing number of Lyme disease infections …

Community Structure Of The Microbiome Of Ixodes Scapularis In Relation To Sex, Stage, Lineage, And Geography, Christopher Lee Clark

Honors Theses

This study sought to fill these gaps of knowledge ticks as a model species. Based on the known information on the microbiome of vectors, and ticks more specifically, I sought to answer two prominent questions: are there relationships between the microbiome of individual ticks and do ticks from different sexes or life stages have variance in their microbiomes? In reference to my first question, I hypothesized that ticks coming from the same lineage, being the males, 7 Community Structure of the Microbiome of Ixodes scapularis females, and resulting eggs, would have a more similar microbiome to each other than to …

Distance In Diocese : Annual Appeal Giving In The Catholic Church, Elaine Wissuchek

Honors Theses

The distance between a donor and a charity is hypothesized to affect charitable giving for self-regarding and altruistic reasons. Distance increases transaction costs, reducing the potential extrinsic benefits received by donors; it decreases social pressure for giving, and limits the ability of donors to monitor the charity’s management. Donors also have intrinsic preferences for proximity. This study does not find the hypothesized negative correlation between distance (measured as driving time) and donations to annual appeals for Catholic dioceses.