Digital Commons Network^™

Efficacy Of Communication Interventions For Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Gracie Rhea Rightnowar

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this literature review is to analyze the efficacy of various communication interventions for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The implications of disease presentation and progression are discussed. This research seeks to determine the role of a speech language pathologist in the treatment of an individual with this progressive neurological disease. Various interventions are considered. Methods of service consist primarily of compensatory strategies intended to prolong communication abilities beyond that which requires speech motor capabilities. This research seeks to better understand the associated factors with each treatment plan on the individual’s functionality and quality of life.

Unity And Dissent: Exploring The United States Constitution Ratification Among The States, Luke Wyatt

Honors College Theses

The research presented here, analyzes the states in 1787 and the ratification Convention of five states: Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, New York, and Virginia. There were three states that ratified the United States Constitution unanimously while others had great opposition by anti-federalist. The research analyze why those three states ratified the constitution unanimously while other states had great opposition for it and supported the articles of confederation.

A Showcase Of Digital Design, Grant Hoffman

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

As an artist, my design is heavily inspired by a lifelong passion for creativity and desire to effectively communicate with an audience. My work tends to lean into the realm of swiss design, characterized by simplistic layout and bold san-serif typography. The use of neutral tones and bold hierarchy contribute in building an effective but unique way of communication to the viewer. Oftentimes, my work conveys complex ideas that provoke the viewer to deeper understanding behind a seemingly superficial piece of work. I enjoy exploring the concepts of reliance on technology, false imitation and abstraction within a composition.

I find …

Numerical Investigation To Produce A Fundamental Polygon, Elizabeth Sipes

Honors College Theses

There exist multiple types of geometry, differing in the postulates they are based on, and therefore the theorems and proofs that make up said geometry. Hyperbolic geometry differs from others by allowing there to exist multiple lines through a single point not on a given line, that are parallel to the given line. Every geometry has the idea of distance and isometries, distance preserving maps. By considering special collections of isometries called discrete groups, we can construct interesting surfaces, such as the torus and genus-g surface. The connection between the surface and the discrete group can be understood through …

Drifting Through It All - Caitlyn Cooper, Caitlyn Cooper

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

My body of work combines Graphic Design and UI/UX design to investigate and problem solve how to make well-designed products that are interesting and accessible to the broader public. UI/UX work has allowed me to design with intention, finding purpose in my choices and making the experience easy to navigate for the end-user. Accessibility is not an afterthought but a cornerstone of the creative process. Whether crafting a website, a mobile app, or a digital interface, each project must be approached with a deep understanding of its context, audience, and objectives, ensuring that every design choice aligns seamlessly with overarching …

Drifting Through It All, Cross Berry

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

Mimicry is an important adaptation for survival in the natural world. In nature this comes in varying forms, such as a stick bug that camouflages itself from predators, or how the Myrmarachne camouflages itself as an ant to ambush its prey. Mimicry in our childhood allows us to enhance our creative development. During my childhood, I often tried to mimic the way my cousin would create fantastical creatures. These creations gave me a sense of comfort and confidence in my own imagination, which allowed me to explore design and the way life functions. In my day to day life, I …

A Survey Of The Murray State University Csis Department Of Student And Instructor Attitudes In Relation To Earlier Introduction Of Version Control Systems, Gavin Johnson

Honors College Theses

Over the previous 20 years, the software development industry has overseen an evolution in application of Version Control Systems (VCS) from a Centralized Version Control System (CVCS) format to a Decentralized Version Control Format (DVCS). Examples of the former include Perforce and Subversion whilst the latter of the two include Github and BitBucket. As DVCS models allow software contributors to maintain their respective local repositories of relevant code bases, developers are able to work offline and maintain their work with relative fault tolerance. This contrasts to CVCS models, which require software contributors to be connected online to a main server. …

Self-Ish, Christine Cox

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

Sonder is the realization that every stranger and passerby has a life and experience that is just as complex and vivid as your own. The elderly person beside you on the bus, the couple in the restaurant, the children on the playgrounds, we are all alive for the first time. A concept that seems obvious, but when the time is taken to truly understand it, you also begin to understand humanity as a whole. Every person desires to see the good in the world, and we often turn to grand gestures of hope and stories of human resilience, but we …

Phylum Phantasma, Hannah Robards

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

In my work, I explore how comfort can be found in discomfort and harrowing situations and how we seek shelter in the world around us. My art takes the form of a ceramic world that is devoid of human life and explores the habitats of various unique creatures and species. My work evokes the feeling of searching for a sense of belonging and how this search can be a complicated one, filled with a variety of different relationships, including beneficial, parasitical, and more. These relationships are present in my ceramic creatures and exemplify the complexity of interaction within our species. …

Fabula Mea, Lindsey Duncan, Lindsey Duncan

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

Through digital illustration, I intertwine my personal traumatic experiences with stories from both Greco-Roman and Norse mythology as a means to process and heal. My exhibition, titled Fabula Mea (which is Latin for “my myth”) aims to highlight the effects of abuse, and how I have taken steps to overcome my past experiences.

Myths and folklore have been a special interest of mine for as long as I can remember, specifically of those I have a cultural connection to. These mythologies are laden with tales of struggle with a paternal figure, which is another reason I resonated with these stories. …

Through All Of It, Thomas Townsend Jr

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

My art is about feelings and thoughts that can’t be expressed with words. I want to make art so that my audience can understand the importance of the places I have been and their significance to me. The drawing I recently made, Self-portrait, is about how I am dealing emotionally with familial loss. In my piece Family Museum, the background was made to have a museum or memorial feel, displaying two rooms for my passed family members. In addition, the value of contrast helps elevate the understanding of depth and space, giving it a more authentic look.

Listening to music …

"Drifting Through It All", Jayson Coley

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

In my exploration of abstract and portrait photography, I aim to transcend the confines of traditional visual representation, delving into the realm of the intangible and the unseen. Through a careful interplay of light, shadow, form, and color, I strive to capture the essence of emotions, concepts, and fleeting moments that elude direct description.

Abstract photography allows me to break free from the constraints of literal interpretation, inviting viewers to embark on a journey of subjective interpretation and personal connection. By distilling the familiar into the unfamiliar, I create compositions that challenge preconceived notions and encourage a contemplative engagement with …

Teresa Hill Ba/Bs Drifting Through It All Exhibition Spring 2024, Teresa Hill

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

Among other themes, the idea of nature reclaiming what it had lost to humanity is what has been driving my work recently. The evidence of it appears all around us; wandering past run-down homes with choking vines and knee-high weeds, traveling past old gas stations with rust-covered pillars, even old gardens left in disrepair for the wilderness to take back. I’ve been surrounded by older buildings and lived in places filled with greenery, and the interaction the buildings and plant-life have is so interesting to me. In my eyes, it makes the buildings have a new purpose outside of keeping …

The Pop Culture Classroom: Advocating Education For The Digital Adolescent, T'Khiyah Trice-Wilford

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to analyze visual mass media and its effects on adolescents' identity and their psychological, cognitive, socio-emotional, and moral development within educational settings. A particular emphasis is on how mass media has influenced adolescents since the turn of the century. Emphasis will also be placed on how ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identification are represented in these types of media. Furthermore, strategies and recommendations will be proposed as a response to this critical need during these formative years of adolescent development.

Examination Of The Top 10 Stocks In The S&P500, Isaac Fulton

Honors College Theses

The major goal of this research was to investigate how the returns of a portfolio containing only the 10 largest stocks in the S&P500 index, based on market cap, would compare to the overall index’s return and volatility over multiple time frames. This project investigated whether a portfolio of the 10 largest stocks in the S&P500, at the beginning of each year, would be considered superior in terms of returns while not unproportionately increasing volatility. First, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, or SPY, was selected as the S&P500 index measure and was used to evaluate the index’s returns. Second, …

Art 399, Jayson Coley

Professional Practices (ART 399)

In my exploration of abstract and portrait photography, I aim to transcend the confines of traditional visual representation, delving into the realm of the intangible and the unseen. Through a careful interplay of light, shadow, form, and color, I strive to capture the essence of emotions, concepts, and fleeting moments that elude direct description. Abstract photography allows me to break free from the constraints of literal interpretation, inviting viewers to embark on a journey of subjective interpretation and personal connection. By distilling the familiar into the unfamiliar, I create compositions that challenge preconceived notions and encourage a contemplative engagement with …

Educating Boldly: Enhancing The Social Studies Classroom With Real-World Examples And Safeguarding From Negative Indoctrination, Micah Brown

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this research is to describe the tradeoffs teachers face using current events and politics as examples in middle school history, government, and civics classrooms. It will discuss strategies to implement current events into the classroom and the careful balance we face in guarding against indoctrination, while also having students learn potentially politically-charged topics from a professional instead of through media or peers who might not be as well informed.

Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome In Canine Patients, Morgan Powell

Honors College Theses

Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS) is a perplexing and debilitating ocular condition that affects canine patients primarily in the form of the sudden onset of total vision loss. Veterinary literature will be reviewed to discuss the basic anatomy of the canine eye and retina, as well as to investigate various diagnostic techniques to evaluate ophthalmic function and hypotheses of the pathogenesis of SARDS. The complexity of this disease and the absence of research leads to veterinarians and clients grappling with unanswered questions. This research surveys veterinarians to gain a perspective of the rareness of the disease, the most frequent …

The Next Threat Landscape: Securing America’S Cyber-Physical Systems, Grayson Thomas

Honors College Theses

The goal of this research is to explore, identify, and enumerate the security threats that exist to industry current industrial controls systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA). A scale lab similar to industry standard will be built and developed for research purposes. The Purdue Model for ICS and the Cyber Kill Chain will be referenced as frameworks for attack sequences, and the MITRE ATT&CK framework will be referenced for attack types. Attempts will be made to compromise the various pieces of our built SCADA system via configuration errors, software vulnerabilities, and deployment mistakes common with industrial …

An Evaluation Of Rural Access To Education, Caroline Ackerman, Kera B. Ackerman

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

In Kentucky, educators serve over 100,000 students who qualify for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Given Kentucky's topography, and the designation of 86 of the Commonwealth's 120 counties as rural, it's essential to understand how the socioeconomic and geographic qualities of the state impact the students being served. Previous research has indicated that nearly a quarter of children in Kentucky live in poverty, with the highest rates existing in rural Eastern Kentucky counties. This statistic, compacted with the knowledge that high-need children in poverty are more likely than their peers to have a disability …

Lessons Learned: Considerations For Enhancing Principal Preparation Programs With Inclusive Special Education Practices, Ellen G. Casale, Stacy Leggett

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Western Kentucky University has a long-standing history in preparing principals. Recognizing the ever-growing importance of explicit training in supporting students with disabilities, we applied for and received a minigrant from the Kentucky Excellence in Educator Preparation to enhance our curriculum to address this need. In this article, we provide an overview of the context for this need and provide considerations for principal preparation programs considering enhancing their own curricula. Implications are provided.

Correlates Of Anti-Asexual Bias In The Bible Belt, Lauren Robinson

Honors College Theses

Many studies focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals in the United States, but there are fewer studies about asexuality, especially in the Bible Belt: a collection of states in the Southeast with populations having increased rates of conservatism, religiosity, and expectations of traditional gender and sexuality norms (Baunach et al, 2009). The purpose of the study was to examine anti-asexual bias and its relation to different variables in college-age students who attended college and/or lived in the Bible Belt. It was hypothesized political positioning, ethnic and racial background, religiosity/spirituality, adherence to social norms, traditional vs egalitarian gender roles, and pathologizing of asexual …

Type 2 Diabetes Health Beliefs Of College Students, Emily Spindler

Honors College Theses

College students of health-related majors are sometimes assumed to have greater health literacy. The belief can be attributed to the students taking classes discussing health problems, diseases, risk factors, medical management, nutrition, and exercise. How often the health classes discuss type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains undetermined; therefore, the amount of knowledge and beliefs health students have of T2D is unknown. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between students' majors, health beliefs about T2D, and engagement in behavioral risk factors at a mid-size regional public university. A quantitative, non-experimental, survey design was chosen, and responses were obtained …

Interwar Patriotism: From Military Bands To Marching Bands, 1920s And 1930s, Elise Eaton

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

High school bands have evolved greatly since the first band boom in the early 1920s. Beyond the performance responsibilities and commitments to football and sporting events, bands have their own cultural elements that only band members, band staffs, and families of band students truly understand. This thesis will demonstrate that high school band culture since the 1920s developed alongside the changing fortunes of the U.S. military. Accordingly, U.S. military history shaped the evolving culture of high school marching bands and other youth performing arts groups while these civilian youth groups in turn embedded and reinforced elements of U.S. militarism in …

The Mart Of 8th Ave, Jacob Zhao

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

1. Identity is extremely valuable but can be a broad category; and it never comes in a box but also with labels, addresses, materials, care, shapes, and sizes. Graphic design is everywhere and I believe its purpose is to create an identity and message but not all messages are for the greater good. Packaging in common food and other products includes labels of misleading or false information. The rules that enforce these labels and most of the time it’s pointless to label on. Words like “Natural” make some foods sound better than what the label implies. People are tricked into buying …

It Builds Character, Harlene Simmons

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

In the depths of our minds, we carry fragments of our past, pieces of childhood experiences that shape our future selves. Memories, whether warm and joyful, unbearably bad, or insignificant, serve as the building blocks of our character. It is the give and take between these memories and the vices we often keep hidden. My work brings to light the vices that quietly shadow our journey from innocence to adulthood—through methods of printmaking, primarily lithography, I set my childlike self in an empty space to emphasize the idea of memory, however clear or faint it may be. Central to my …

Springlot, Usa, Benson Greenwell

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

Utilizing digital media, I design work that embraces the humor and playfulness found even in the darkest of situations and environments. The humor expresses liveliness and absurdity — reminiscent of my childhood — but is reinforced by a mature perspective. It is through designing art that I can explore my witty and sensitive side. My artistic purpose is to put a smile on people’s faces.

This exhibition introduces the fictional town of Springlot, USA, The town acts as a central melting pot for many different tourist traps. The exhibition is inspired by a trip to South Dakota I took with …

Camp Create, Lyle Smith

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

In life, there are certain feelings and emotions that are better conveyed through art than words alone. Using media such as graphic design and photography, I strive to organize information in a unique and thought-provoking way, and convey emotion through the elements of art and design. In art, I draw from my own experiences and create a time and place where I can ask questions without being interrupted. In design, I combine form and function, and organize elements in a way that is simultaneously logical and visually appealing. I am creating cohesion between photography and graphic design. In short, if …

Promoting The Use For Sugammadex In Robotic- Assisted Surgeries:, Amr Ali

Scholars Week

No abstract provided.

How To Become A Teacher, Linsey Riggins

Scholars Week

A list on how to become a teacher in an easy eight step program using inspiration from education students and current teachers.