Digital Commons Network^™

Children’S Advertisements In The Youth’S Companion From 1890 To 1910, Maya Noonan

Honors College Theses

This paper shall demonstrate that at the turn of the 19th century, the advertising strategies used in children's advertisements published in The Youth’s Companion reflected the rise of childhood consumerism and formation of the ideology of childhood innocence. The years 1890 to 1910 were characterized as years of reform and the period is most often recognized for its role in the rise of consumerism in part due to the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution worked as a catalyst to force children into a new role in society. The mass availability of disposable income led to a decrease in the need …

Barriers To Client Compliance And Understanding Of Heartworm Prevention In The Canine Patient, Emily Fischels

Honors College Theses

Dirofilaria immitis is a common and largely preventable mosquito-borne parasite that causes dirofilariasis, or heartworm disease, in a number of animal species. The necessity of heartworm prevention in the canine patient is undisputed and well-known among veterinary professionals, yet there are still many dogs not protected from this fatal parasite. Heartworm prevention traditionally requires a once-a-month administration of medication; therefore, its efficacy relies on owner compliance. The barriers to canines receiving heartworm prevention were assessed using a survey targeted at pet owners whose dogs have seen the veterinarian in the past year. The main barriers identified were inadequate client communication …

The Use Of Hallucinogens In The Treatment Of Mental Health Disorders, Brianna Gagen

Honors College Theses

The percent of people with mental health disorders in the United States have skyrocketed over the past decade. With stigma surrounding the discussion of mental health and the symptoms associated with it, often those that are suffering do not receive sufficient treatment, as they might with a physical illness. The current, common treatment options for common psychological disorders, like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, are sometimes not effective in patients, due to resistance or poor response outcomes. Consequently, in order to research alternative therapeutic approaches for mental health disorders, scientists are researching the effects of several hallucinogenic drugs in …

Sangaku In Multiple Geometries: Examining Japanese Temple Geometry Beyond Euclid, Nathan Hartmann

Honors College Theses

When the country of Japan was closed from the rest of the world from 1603 until
1867 during the Edo period, the field of mathematics developed in a different way
from how it developed in the rest of the world. One way we see this development
is through the sangaku, the thousands of geometric problems hung in various Shinto and Buddhist temples throughout the country. Written on wooden tablets by people from numerous walks of life, all these problems hold true within Euclidean geometry. During the 1800s, while Japan was still closed, non-Euclidean geometries began to develop across the …

Proceed With Caution: Safety, Peace, And Collective Responsibility, Rebecca Potts

Honors College Theses

Throughout my childhood, my parents often took me out into nature to go hiking, camping, and just explore. Now when I am in nature, I am reminded of my childhood and reflect on the memories of safety and comfort that I experienced, but through the lens of the person that I am today. As I have learned about and engaged with people in my community, I realized that their experiences and views of being outdoors and in the environments that I grew up feeling comfortable in are much different than mine. These different experiences are based on factors such as …

Quantum Dimension Polynomials: A Networked-Numbers Game Approach, Nicholas Gaubatz

Honors College Theses

The Networked-Numbers Game--a mathematical "game'' played on a simple graph--is incredibly accessible and yet surprisingly rich in content. The Game is known to contain deep connections to the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over the complex numbers. On the other hand, Quantum Dimension Polynomials (QDPs)--enumerative expressions traditionally understood through root systems--corresponding to the above Lie algebras are complicated to derive and often inaccessible to undergraduates. In this thesis, the Networked-Numbers Game is defined and some known properties are presented. Next, the significance of the QDPs as a method to count combinatorially interesting structures is relayed. Ultimately, a novel closed-form expression of …

The Contradiction Of The Welfare Dictatorship: The Stasi’S Role In Preserving And Undermining East German Human Rights, Mallory Wooldridge

Honors College Theses

Constructed four years after WWII in a kind of pendulum swing response to the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was an experiment in socialism. Under the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED) no East German was to go hungry, unemployment would be eradicated, housing guaranteed, women treated as equals, and human rights interwoven into the fabric of this socialist society. However, SED socialism in practice did not conform to this original vision and would eventually represent the disillusionment with the socialist project as a whole.

This project seeks to understand human rights in the …

No Such Thing As A New “Normal”: The Future Of Teaching In A Pandemic World, Victoria Benard

Honors College Theses

Due to the many changes wrought on our society by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers in high schools have had to dramatically alter their methods of teaching in order to comply with new rules and regulations. These guidelines, deemed safe by the CDC, have completely upended traditional high school classrooms and left teachers scrambling to effectively teach their content and assess student learning. The purpose of this research is to determine the successes and/or failures of high school teachers’ teaching strategies that have undergone dramatic adaptations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. One goal of this research is to produce a concise understanding …

Data-Driven Models For Remaining Useful Life Estimation Of Aircraft Engines And Hard Disk Drives, Austin Coursey

Honors College Theses

Failure of physical devices can cause inconvenience, loss of money, and sometimes even deaths. To improve the reliability of these devices, we need to know the remaining useful life (RUL) of a device at a given point in time. Data-driven approaches use data from a physical device to build a model that can estimate the RUL. They have shown great performance and are often simpler than traditional model-based approaches. Typical statistical and machine learning approaches are often not suited for sequential data prediction. Recurrent Neural Networks are designed to work with sequential data but suffer from the vanishing gradient problem …

Funhouse, Kathryn Huttunen, Kathryn Rebekka Huttunen

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

Kate Huttunen Artist Statement

Am I black enough to question this? Am I valid, are my opinions valid?

Do I sound like that? Do I look like that?

Will my partner like me for me – not for an exotic kink?

My work is informed by personal memories and self-reflections about both black and white culture as an adopted woman of color. I often find myself contemplating how society views me and how I view society. As I grow as an artist I find myself questioning my identity in my artwork. What is gender in the black community? What is …

Advocate, Lauren Morgan

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

From an early age, I was exposed to the detrimental effects cancer can have on individuals as well as their families. One after another, I experienced the passing of family and friends. The heartbreak that I endured during these times inspired me to push for more advocacy and change in the cancer world. Through my design work, I am exploring the human connection, how humans interact with each other, and how art and design can influence the way we see challenging situations. This connection is explored in my senior BFA show, driven by my passion for fundraising and advocacy in …

I Love You; I'M Glad I Exist, Ashlynn Eve Mcintyre

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Artist Statement

Ash Eve McIntyre

I create figural work exploring themes of object-human relationships in the context of childhood trauma and its aftermath. The works are made using a variety of media, including wood, ceramic, paint, and even found objects such as stuffed animals. The same craft techniques that are used to create comfort within domestic settings, I utilize to give care to the figures.

In the work, there is an emphasis on comfort and platonic love in my work. Stuffed animals are used in my sculptures to relate back to both domesticity and physical comfort. While the works represent …

Kansas City Beasts, Lauren Powderly

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Sports design is marked by the ability to unite people behind a communal message. Growing up, athletics and art became anchors in my family. Most of my time was spent playing outside with my dad and brothers, while my mom taught me how to stretch my creativity and make art, seeing things for the end result and finding the beauty in the process of creating. Later on, I witnessed sports and art build community and cultivate creativity, functioning as something more than just entertainment, but a key part in bringing people together. This project entwines the energy and unity of …

Industreality, Gracilou Ackerman

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Days go by, rain comes and goes; buildings are built, occupied, and abandoned. Walls that were once so vibrant with life are eventually silenced. Generations upon generations witness the same subject with different eyes, perspective, and time. Minds are stimulated with excitement through the curiosity of our senses. Restorilazation and revitalization are a necessity to honor the enchantment that has once taken place. Constructing an infinite memory out of what was once a fleeting location is the goal to be achieved throughout the artwork.

As a community we cannot let the walls be silenced or forgotten. The sounds heard, textures …

Consuming Fashions, Malcolm Fife

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

We live lives that revolve around consumption and buying more than we need. Past fashion preys upon our laziness and encourages our rather prodigal spending. Why repair something when you can just buy a new one? We have become disconnected from how the clothes we wear are made and distanced from the people who make them. Fast fashion companies are more concerned with profit than creating durable products, paying their workers a living wage, or protecting the environment.

I want to contrast current fast fashion trends with older and more thoughtful practices, some of which are coming back. A century …

The Political Pandemic: The Relationship Between Political Leanings, Covid-19, And The Economy In 2020, Garrett Clark

Honors College Theses

The effect of political leanings on the pandemic outcomes, both in terms of the COVID-19 cases and death totals and the extent that the pandemic affected the economy, is the analysis of interest. The literature indicates a relationship between political leanings and the COVID-19 response. Data is gathered from a variety of sources, and a series of regressions are performed to analyze several control variables and determine their significance. The results indicate a relationship between political leanings and COVID-19 outcomes. However, results regarding the effects of politics on the economy are less clear. Possible explanations are provided for the results.

Celebrity Memes, Audioshop, And Participatory Fan Culture: A Case Study On Keanu Reeves Memes, Danielle Nielsen, Diane Sabenacio Nititham

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Contemporary meme culture keeps Keanu Reeves’ image at the forefront of our imagination. Numerous Keanu-related memes circulate on the internet, featuring images of him from on and off screen. In this article, we argue that the rise of user-generated content, such as memes and social media, requires us to reconsider how audiences and fans consume, adapt, and circulate Keanu’s stardom. Specifically, we contend that memes and their attending participatory culture make Keanu familiar by placing him in knowable spaces and perpetuating his extraordinary ordinariness. To do so, we examine the 2019 ‘Keanu Reeves Walking in Slow Motion’ video clip from …

Efflorescence, Cassandra Carroll

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Curiosity is an innate human drive that is often lost in childhood, but easy to find if one looks. I find a strange beauty in examining the broken wings of a dying butterfly. Within my work I hone in on these beautiful moments, and have found textiles to be the most diverse medium to show what I see. Within textiles, I’m able to emphasize the glimmer with glitter and the soft textures with felt and silks. When taking a road trip in Kentucky, we often pass by hills that’ve been blown to pieces, exposing the layers of rocks and opening …

Sonder, Keleigh Mabry

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Sonder- the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. -John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

I find comfort in realizing everyone’s lives are as terrible and fascinating as my own. Dealing with stigma about mania and depression has affected me throughout my interpersonal relationships- I have felt and often still feel isolated. I’ve learned a lot about myself through my research in clinical psychology and by creating art about my bipolar disorder. I’ve set myself the goal to make other mentally ill people feel less misunderstood and isolated.

In my …

All-Consuming, Maddie Ortt

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

My work focuses on themes of identity and personal history, the things that make us who we are. Whether that is what kind of

childhood we had, the trauma we have endured over the years, the thoughts about ourselves that we believe to be true, or just simply the environment we grew up in. I’m interested in the psychology of metacognition and how we can become so analytical and aware of our own thoughts or the thoughts others have of us. This internal investigation of why myself and others are so critical of ourselves has been one of the driving …

Richmond Apparitions, Shannon Riley

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

I’m constantly surrounded by sports. Between playing sports and attending many sporting

events, sports became a part of my identity. The sport that quickly formed a central part of my identity as a sports fan was hockey. My father introduced me to hockey after I had already begun my own athletic career; like any sports fan, watching games together, cheering on our favorite teams, and experiencing the excitement was an invaluable experience. I found the speed, agility, and tenacity exhibited by hockey players on ice to be an absorbing display.

Outside of the game itself; the personality, appearance, and history …

Accumulation, John Gee

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

My photography explores the tension between the self-consciously constructed image of the world and the fleeting accidental moment of a snapshot. Portraiture allows me to document people and experience a moment with them while I make an image that is my interpretation of reality. Part of my work takes the form of editorial photography and often features subjects that take on a sculptural appearance, as if they are precious, immovable objects. When not making editorial style images, I enjoy capturing the aspects of life that others may not notice. This stems from my sentimental personality as I get emotionally attached …

Roots To Ridges, Amanda Cohoon

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

We all want a place to call home where we get to put our roots down. For some, this place is the state they were born in, and for others, it is a place they stumble upon along the journey of life. Some of us are lucky enough to live in such unbelievably special places, however, we don’t always seem to notice or appreciate this. The seemingly endless nature of our bustling society seems too often keep our focus shifted away from the natural beauty around us. This thought prompted me to begin this series of paintings and prints that …

Obsessively Compulsive, Macie Kane

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

When I was 7 I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder that affects men, women, and children. But, most people often use it as an adjective to describe when a person is organized or a perfectionist. My designs attempt to inform and demonstrate to viewers who do not have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder what it is like to have OCD. Through package, product, and layout design, I have created boxes and informational materials that not only raise awareness about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but also demonstrate the repetition and overwhelming, chaotic nature that is associated …

The Connection Between Body Modification And Personality, Taylor Shoemaker

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

Previous research has been inconsistent in its findings regarding the associations between body modifications (e.g., piercings, tattoos, augmentation, scarification, split tongue) and the Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). All traits have been found to be significantly correlated with body modification in at least one study, but their significance differed from study to study. The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between body modification and each domain of personality concurrently to add to the literature surrounding differences between modified and unmodified individuals. To participate in this study, participants were asked …

Memories From The Great War: An Analysis Of Jackson Purchase Veterans' Changes In Perspective Since 1914, David Wallace

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

The First World War affected the lives of millions, creating collective memories of hardships, uncertainty, political tension, and animosity toward foreign enemies. In the United States, World War I was a turning point in the nation’s growth and development, but on a smaller scale it was a critical historical moment in the individual lives of the veterans who served. This research project showcases the experiences of the Jackson Purchase’s WWI veterans with an emphasis on their perceptions during the war, their reasons for enlisting, the countless once-in-a-lifetime experiences they had along the way, the hardships they faced, and the remarkable …

Using Modern Portfolio Theory To Create Efficient Portfolios From The S&P Index, Dylan Rhoads

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) serves as a proxy for the U.S. equity market and is among the most widely cited financial instruments in the world. Its risk and return can be accepted as the market’s, leading it to be the benchmark for performance in many investment settings. Modern portfolio theory helps to quantify performance by explaining the relationship between risk and return. Every portfolio has its own return and risk level, with the optimal allocations falling on the “Efficient Frontier”, that is the line on a graph that connects the portfolios that have the maximum return …

Suicide Risk And School Related Stressors In Veterinary Students, Deanna Arnold

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

Compared to the general population of the United States, veterinarians are at an increasingly higher risk for suicide. This is commonly associated with stressful work environments, long work hours, poor work-life balance, client demands and complaints, and large amounts of euthanasia procedures. While many studies have been performed to confirm the above statements, few to no studies have been done on students currently enrolled in veterinary school to assess their mental health. This study will survey graduate school students in this field and will evaluate their mental health state and risk factors towards suicide. Through comparing the results of this …

School Violence And Its Impact On Student Academic Achievement, Kewanis Kennedy

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

This study explores the occurrence of school violence and its impact on academic success and attendance. This study will encompass K-12 academic institutions in the state of Kentucky during the 2018-2019 academic school year, with an in-depth analysis of data submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education by the 171 participating school districts. The participating schools shared data in the form of disciplinary actions, attendance, graduation rates, academic achievement, and other relevant demographics. The collected data was analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference among attendance rate, graduation rate, math ACT benchmark scores, and English ACT benchmark …

Letter From The Editor, Caroline Winnenberg

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

Welcome to Volume 5, issue 2 of Steeplechase. We're very excited to present the hard work of our students to you all. I hope you enjoy.