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Spike Protein Structural Dynamics Of Sars-Cov-2 Coronaviruses Studied Using Molecular Dynamics, William Strickland

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has overwhelmingly impacted the global population, accounting for millions of confirmed infections and deaths over the last year. The virus’s influence on the health and safety of individuals, the economy, and daily life has been disruptive and devastating. While SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1, two closely related members of the SARS coronaviruses, have shown the ability to cross the species barrier and infect humans, SARS-CoV-2 has predominantly been the virus responsible for the number of infections presently known. SARS-CoV-2 has also proven to be volatile, as many variants have …

The Influence Of Temperature And Body Size On Food Consumption In Prairie Lizards (Sceloporus Consobrinus), Morgan Pelley

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Understanding the effect of temperature on physiological and digestive processes, such as voluntary consumption rate, is critical for assessing the impact of climate change. Food consumption is required for lizard survival and reproduction and its rate is dependent on temperature. For ectotherms, as temperatures increase, the amount of food consumed to meet the energy requirements related to survival and reproduction must also increase. Information on the amount of food voluntarily consumed may aid in determining if lizards can meet energy requirements. Such information could also aid in predicting survival of lizard populations, through construction of predictive climate change models. In …

The Effects Of Time Restricted Feeding On Markers Of Type 2 Diabetes, Brooke Martin

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in the country, comprising 10% of the American population. Obesity rates are at an all-time high and greatly increase risk factors for developing diabetes. Insulin resistance is the main feature of type 2 diabetes and causes management of the disease to be extremely difficult. Currently there are different possible treatments for type 2 diabetes including medication and dieting. However, diets involving fasting, though high in popularity, do not have a lot of evidence regarding their ability to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

Time restricted feeding (TRF) is …

Exploring Nitrogen Fixation In Methanosarcina Acetivorans, Rylee Cook

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

As of 2016, the genomes of over sixty species of methanogenic archaea have been sequenced.4 Research on the genomes of methanogens such as M. acetivorans led to the characterization of numerous genes with unknown functions. Genes similar to those of nitrogenase have been shown to possess functions unrelated to nitrogen fixation, such as F430 biosynthesis genes. 5,6,7 My research focused on the uncharacterized gene clusters ma2032-33 and ma1631-33 (Figure 1). These genes have conserved nitrogenase domains: ma2032 has fused nifH and nifD domains, while ma2033 has a nifD domain. The ma1631-33 gene cluster contains two nitrogenase homologs and one iron …

Effects Of Social And Personal Norms, And Connectedness To Nature, On Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Study Of Western Australian Protected Area Visitors, Joanna Pearce, Songshan (Sam) Huang, Ross K. Dowling, Amanda J. Smith

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Pro-environmental behaviors play a key role in the management and sustainability of parks and protected areas. An understanding of the antecedents of visitors' pro-environmental behaviors is vitally important in advancing knowledge, encouraging sustainability, and bettering management practice. This study developed and tested a behavioral model which integrated personal norms and social norms as normative influences, with connectedness to nature as a personality trait, as antecedents of pro-environmental behaviors. Data were collected through a visitor survey across three protected areas in Western Australia and analyzed via structural equation modelling. Results indicated that personal norms and connectedness to nature had a positive …

Analysis Of Chinese Contemporary Young Females’ Attitudes And Experiences Toward Menstruation And Feminine Products, Du Yi

Honors Theses

Menstruation is not only a biological body practice that influences females' daily lives but also

contains cultural, economic, social, and political meanings that are related to women's gender identity and social status. While traditional Chinese culture examined menstruation as taboo and stigma, modern Chinese society absorbs western feminism and creates a more liberal, open-minded menstrual etiquette. Lived in the rapidly developing modern society, the Chinese young generation's viewpoints were influenced and shaped by traditional Chinese thoughts and the emerging feminist thought. This research draws on in-depth interviews with ten Chinese youth females to explore their knowledge, experience, and attitudes about …

Analysis Of Test Anxiety In Human Anatomy And Physiology I Students At The University Of Mississippi, Anne Piazza

Honors Theses

Student anxiety, specifically test anxiety, is common hindrance to student performance in various courses including Human Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Mississippi. Through a sequence of three surveys we collected demographic information, anxiety data related to the course, and test anxiety in general We researched factors that could potentially influence student anxiety such as at what point in the semester the student is evaluated, when students feel the most stressed, outcomes on previous evaluations, and perceived outcomes of the course. We also examined what effect the anxiety has on the student such as lowered performance, lowered test scores, …

Age-Related Differences In Food-Specific Inhibitory Control: Electrophysiological And Behavioral Evidence In Healthy Aging, Whitney D. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

The number of older adults is estimated to double from 52 million to 95 million by 2060. Approximately 80-85% of older adults are diagnosed with a chronic health condition. Many of these chronic health conditions are influenced by diet and exercise, suggesting improved diet and eating behaviors could improve health-related outcomes. One factor that might improve dietary habits in older adults is food-related inhibitory control. We tested whether food-related inhibitory control, using behavioral (response time, error rate) and scalp-recorded event-related potential (ERP; N2 and P3 components) measures of food-related inhibitory control differed between younger and older adults over age 55. …

Factors Associated With Racial Differences In Health Care Access, Memory Manda

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this study examined racial group differences in health care access, including measures for usual place of sick or preventative care and delayed or forgone care and the mechanisms that explain those differences. This study integrated the Fundamental Cause Theory and Anderson’s Behavioral model to understand the causal mechanism responsible for racial disparities in health care access. Results showed that Hispanics were more likely to have no usual place for sick or preventative care and more likely to delay care than other racial groups. Blacks were more likely to use other …

Wrongful Conviction Compensation In The United States, Brenda I. Morel

Honors College Theses

Although the United States has signed a United Nations agreement that stipulates that all wrongfully convicted individuals have a right to compensation, not all states have compensation laws. In addition, it is not guaranteed that exonerees living in states with compensation statutes will be compensated. This thesis examines the scope of wrongful conviction compensation statutes across states. Furthermore, it examines whether exoneree characteristics, as identified by the National Exoneree Registry, map onto state-level differences in laws and effectiveness in compensating exonerees. I compile two sources of data to link individual exonerees with their state of conviction.

The Relationship Between Circadian Rhythms And Neurodegenerative Disease, Christopher Simpson

Honors Projects

Neurodegenerative disease is a pervasive and insidious disease affecting a large proportion of the elderly population. Leading to the degeneration of neural tissue throughout the nervous system, it is a slow and progressive disorder. Because of its nature, it is possible that it has a connection to circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are the endogenous approximately 24-hour rhythms of the body commonly associated with the sleep-wake cycle, but they account for much more. This review aims to ascertain the relationship between the two by covering several facets of research pursued in the past five years. Beginning with establishing a basic understanding …

Emerging Viral Diseases: Generation Z'S Outlook, Ian Mcwhorter

Honors Projects

Generation Z differs notably from previous generations like Baby Boomers or Generation X. In recent years, young adults have been persisting through the COVID-19 pandemic, though not unscathed. This paper seeks to answer the following question: How does Generation Z differ in its outlook on Viral diseases compared to previous generations? Using a series of three surveys conducted on three seperate Viral diseases (HIV, Zika, and COVID 19), it was found that while Generation Z has improved in its ability to combat Viral outbreaks due to factors like high digital literacy, other factors such as poorer mental health show that …

Outside The Box: Gender Roles, Gender Incongruence, And Psychological Wellbeing, Ashton Boffa

Honors Projects

My project explores the impacts of gender roles and gender identity on psychological wellbeing. Previous research has shown that gender roles are negatively associated with psychological wellbeing, and transgender individuals have lower psychological wellbeing than the cisgender population. Since transgender individuals have had unique experiences with gender roles, it leads to a question of how these individuals have been affected by gender roles. Participants responded to a confidential questionnaire about their experiences with gender roles as they were growing up, their gender incongruence, and their psychological wellbeing. The results were consistent with previous research. Furthermore, my results suggest that transgender …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: The Social Issue, Vol. 97, No. 7, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period March 21 - April 25, 2022.

• Murray, Debra. How Social Media Shapes Creative Lives – Alexis Mueller, Andre Swai, Gatlin Milam
• West, Christina. The Bottomless Pit of Social Media
• Anderson, Alexandria. Campus Organizations Utilize Social Media to Improve Outreach to Students
• Rutherford, Lucy. WKU Freshman Showcases Passion for Photography with Instagram Challenge – Brett Phelps

Stress And Social Support Of Foster Parents During Covid-19, Carlie Mcniff

21st Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2022)

Foster parents provide crucial care to hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S., and with their role comes a variety of challenges. They face a great amount of stress which is why the turnover rate is high, and there is a critical need for more foster parents. Uncertainty is a large component of the foster care system, and the COVID-19 pandemic heightened this. It is unknown how stress that foster parents have experienced during this time was affected, and this study seeks to explore that. Additionally, this study focuses on types and sources of social support of foster parents …

Young Children’S Tv Show Preferences And Perceptions Of Women In Stem, Lauren Berck

Undergraduate Theses

Women are joining STEM fields at higher rates, yet the stereotype of math and science being for men is still reinforced to children by their parents, their teachers, and especially what they watch. Children tend to trust characters of their same gender and are more likely to retain the lessons from the characters they trust. Since most of the shows children watch tend to display gender stereotypes, especially the stereotype of men being good in STEM, children are likely to enforce these stereotypes. The increase of women in STEM has increased interest in STEM for girls, but boys still tend …

Change Of Air Quality Knowledge, Perceptions, Attitudes, And Practices During And Post-Wildfires In The United States, Alessandro Del Ponte, Lina Ang, Lianjun Li, Noah Lim, Wilson Tam Wai San, Wei Jie Seow

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Amid worsening climate change, the recurrent wildfires have substantially worsened air quality in the Western United States (U.S.). Understanding the knowledge, attitudes, perception, and practices (KAPP) over time in response to natural disasters such as wildfires is crucial for public health interventions and disaster preparedness. This is the first study to investigate the change in air quality KAPP over time in response to natural disasters. Previous studies have only assessed KAPP at a fixed time point. Using a two-wave panel survey (during and post-wildfires), we assessed the association between KAPP and respiratory health indicators as well as the changes over …

Volume 13, Payton Davenport, Audrey Lemons, Jacob Shope, Haley Smith, Cassandra Poole, Rachel Cannon, Rachel Boch, Suzanne Stetson

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Roger A. Byrne, Dean

From the Editor Dr. Larissa “Kat” Tracy

From the Designers Rachel English, Rachel Hanson

The Effect of Compliment Type on the Estimated Value of the Compliment by Payton Davenport, Audrey Lemons, and Jacob Shope

The Imperial Japanese Military: A New Identity in the Twentieth Century, 1853–1922 by Haley Smith

Longwood University’s campus: Human-cultivated Soil has Higher Microbial Diversity than Soil Collected from Wild Sites by Cassandra Poole

Reminiscent Modernism: Poetry Magazine’s Modernist Nostalgia for the Past by Rachel Cannon

Challenges Faced by Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Preliminary Study of Age and …

Same-Gender Pathways To Parenthood, Sydney T. Inger

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

LGBTQ+ individuals and couples who want children negotiate systemic inequalities in the United States of America. This literature review surveys America’s confusing legal map and the gaps in its enduring scholarly theories. The paper then examines the challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals and couples confront in working through the common pathways—same-gender adoption and fostering, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy—to become parents. Dispersing information on the pathways will be a positive step towards breaking down the inequities for those in the LGBTQ+ community who want to start a family.

The Ethics Of Care And The U.S. Covid-19 Pandemic Response, Samantha Treveline Barrett

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Throughout the pandemic, many conservatives like President Donald Trump lacked emotional sensitivity in regards to the millions of lives affected by COVID-19. They believed themselves to be too strong for the virus to take them down, and viewed those who wore masks as weak and afraid. Unlike Democrats, Republican governors entrusted their constituents to take necessary safety precautions and avoided statewide mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and lockdowns. Their policies and rhetoric demonstrated the overlap in harmful masculine traits and the conservative values of self-sufficiency and independence. Using a case study method, this paper analyzes the role of gender in a …

Identity Documents For Transgender Texans: A Proposal For A Uniform System For Correcting Gender Markers In Texas, Lydia R. Harris

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Texas’s lack of a codified gender correction process is unjust, illegal, and against public policy. This comment highlights the injustice faced by transgender Texans without gender concordant identity documents. These injustices include discrimination based on gender stereotypes, violation of the transgender individual’s right to privacy, and violations of public policy. This comment explores possible solutions to the injustices faced by transgender Texans due to the lack of a codified uniform way to correct gender markers in Texas modeled on other jurisdictions’ approaches to this problem.

First, this comment traces the history of the recognition of transgender people and transgender rights …

The 1994 Federal Crime Bill: An Evaluation Of The Past, Present, And Future Of Its Impact On The Criminal Justice System, Jade R. Philpot

Honors College Theses

The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was signed into law in response to the crack cocaine and crime epidemic of the 1980s. In this thesis I address the major elements of this bill, the racial, financial, and ethical conflicts that arose thereafter, and the reforms that should be implemented today to correct said conflicts.

Orienting Pacha: Value As Action In The Late Horizon Xauxa-Pachacamac Axis, Ridge C. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The Andean Late Horizon (ca. AD 1438–1532) was a period of exceptionally rapid and far-reaching cultural change. Over this short span of only a few generations, the Inka ethnic group established an empire that was greater in size than any other pre-colonial American polity. The Inka accomplished their expansion without the use of certain institutions (i.e., a standing army, formal writing system, monetary system, or price-setting markets) that the received anthropological wisdom has long held as being necessary preconditions to imperial expansion. Standard explanations of Late Horizon culture change tend to overemphasize the roles of environmental constraints, social evolution, and …

Parental Incarceration As A Predictor Of Legal Cynicism, Mackenzie Joy Heim

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have established that legal cynicism is linked to violence, deviant behavior, and crime. In response to the potentially dangerous implications of a legally cynical society, research in recent years has attempted to identify experiences and conditions that play a role in the development of legal attitudes. Given that youths' familial and social conditions appear to be influential predictors, this study tests the relationship between parental incarceration and legal cynicism. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were used for this analysis. Results from three OLS regression models indicate that parental incarceration is not a significant predictor of …

Scavenger Hunts & Photo Essays: Helping Students See Inequality In The World Around Them Through Project-Based Learning, Emily Cabaniss, Kylie Parrotta

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper outlines two scavenger hunt project-based learning approaches we have used with our students to help them see gender inequality around them and to think sociologically about it. The first assignment asks students to dig deeply into one-gender related issue or inequality that interests them in their immediate surroundings and to create a photo essay that says something about the nature, experience, consequences of, or reaction to that issue or inequality. The second assignment asks students to look broadly at the culture around them and to identify everyday examples of gender inequality by participating in a gender scavenger hunt. …

Commercially Geneticizing Race, Ethnicity, And Nation: The Implications Of The Discourse Surrounding Commercialized Genetic Tests On Identity, Kiara Jacoby

The Compass

No abstract provided.

Emotional Geographies: Head, Heart, Time, And Place, Grace C. Conroy

Montserrat Annual Writing Prize

This paper is modelled on a study and paper by Kamila Klingorová and Banu Gökarıksel which used auto-photography to examine examined emotional geographies. The author takes the position of an independent participant by selecting and describing photos of seemingly non-descript places and then offering reflections on reasons why these photos elicited strong emotions.

Physical Aspects Of Sexuality, Attachment, And Sexual Satisfaction, Chelsea Zollinger Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Healthy sexuality includes relational, emotional, and physical elements (Busby et al., 2021). However, there are gaps in what is known about the physical aspects of sexual relationships. Genital acceptance and physical sexual knowledge are two areas of physical relationships that may have an effect on the satisfaction of sexual relationships. Attachment, namely levels of anxious and avoidant attachment, is another factor that has been related to sexual relationships (Allsop et al., 2021; Bennett et al., 2019; Busby et al., 2020). Results from a dyadic sample of 515 couples who had been in a relationship for at least two years were …

Sources And Types Of Social Supports And Their Association With Mental Health Symptoms And Life Satisfaction Among Young Adults With A History Of Out-Of-Home Care, Rhiannon Evans, Colleen C. Katz, Anthony Fulginiti, Heather N. Taussig

Graduate School of Social Work: Faculty Scholarship

Young adults with a history of out-of-home care report poorer mental health and life satisfaction compared to non-care-experienced peers. Social support is a known protective factor for mental health. There is limited evidence, however, on the relationship between sources (e.g., family members) and types (e.g., information) of social support and mental health symptoms and life satisfaction in this population. Reporting cross-sectional survey data from 215 young adults aged 18–22 years with a history of out-of-home care, the current study conducted descriptive, bivariate, and linear regression analysis to examine the different sources and types of support young adults receive and their …

Victim To Abuser, Elizabeth Wilson

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper evaluates the ideology that children who are abused and molested may one day become the abuser.