Digital Commons Network^™

"They Shall Be A Kosmos:" Alexander Von Humboldt And The Ecopoetics Of Walt Whitman, Benjamin Theyerl

Honors Theses

Places the naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt's proto-ecological ideas in conversation with Walt Whitman's poetry to show how the poet developed an ecopoetics in conversation with the natural sciences of his time, with specific attention to Von Humboldt's theory of the "kosmos" - by which Whitman's poetic persona self-identified. These recognitions are combined with how Whitman's idealized version of the American poet as a “kosmos” creates a political ecology in Whitman’s work, placing his ecopoetics into environmental discourses that resonate from their origin in the nineteenth century to our present ecological moment today.

Assessing A Two-Hit Model Of Schizophrenia: Prenatal Choline Deficiency And Induced Hypofunction Of Nmda Receptors In Male And Female Long Evans Rats, Samuel Gray, Samuel W. Gray

Honors Theses

Choline is an essential dietary nutrient essential to the development and function of the central nervous system. Prenatal choline deficiency alters hippocampal development as well as acetylcholine metabolism, leading to cognitive impairments and attentional and sensory processing deficits into adulthood. MK-801 is an NMDA receptor antagonist frequently used in rodent models of neuropsychiatric conditions, particularly schizophrenia. Acutely and sub- chronically, it causes hyperlocomotion and social withdrawal. One primary goal of the present study were to investigate prenatal choline deficiency induces a biological vulnerability to the motor deficits, anhedonia, and social impairment precipitated by low-dose sub-chronic MK-801 administration in adulthood. Another …

Executive Function Deficit As A Precursor To Memory Impairments In Hapoe4 Transgenic Rats, Kaitlin Mcmanus

Honors Theses

The hApoE4 allele is one of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It underlies amyloid-bdeposits and neurofibrillary tangles, the two hallmarks associated with AD pathology, and is subsequently associated with AD symptomology. Despite its importance, no rat animal studies to date use hApoE4 knock-ins. In addition to this deficit in the field of AD literature, the vast majority of AD studies focus on memory, even though executive function deficits may precede memory impairments in AD, and may be a predictor of AD development. Thus, the present study addressed these gaps in AD research by investigating the behavioral …

Food System Resilience In The Face Of Covid-19: A Study Of Maine’S Food Sovereignty Movement, Hania M. Lincoln Lenderking

Honors Theses

As the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities in the United States’ industrialized food system, the need for a more resilient alternative is stronger than ever. In Maine, food sovereignty - the right of people to determine their own food system - has been enacted at the local level through the adoption of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance (LFCSGO). Using unstructured interviews with leaders of Maine’s food sovereignty movement conducted prior to the pandemic, this study aims to link food sovereignty in Maine to the concept of food system resilience. Participants defined food sovereignty specifically in relation to …

Does Fish Diet Affect Consumer Decisions? A Nutitional And Sensory Study Of Farm-Raised Trout., Sarah Booth

Honors Theses

The focus of this study is twofold: 1) compare the nutritional value of farm-raised rainbow trout obtained from commercial sources, fed different diet regimens with that of wild-caught rainbow trout, and 2) conduct a sensory analysis test on both farm-raised and wild rainbow trout products with a consumer panel understanding their preferences and attitudes to fish consumption.

The data from this study showed a higher PUFA content in fish raised on the Plant based diet. The sensory study results indicate a preference the fish raised on the Conventional diet. While these results are not conclusive because of the known variables, …

The Relationship Between Nature, Media Use And Psychosocial Well Being In A College Population, Eve Gilles

Honors Theses

Time in nature is associated with a variety of mental, physical and emotional health benefits while the effects of media use on psychosocial well being are unclear. Although our society is increasingly urbanized and technology-focused, there is a lack of research examining the relationship between nature, media and psychosocial well-being. The aim of this research was to explore these variables in a college-age population. Method: 82 participants participated in a survey using measures of Psychosocial Well Being, Media Use and Nature Connection and Exposure. Results: Media use partially mediates the relationship between nature relatedness and social anxiety. Conclusions: There is …

The Crowbar Sabotaged The Machine: Effects Of Verb Intentionality And Syntactic Structure On Fixation Times During Reading, Michael Pittman

Honors Theses

Research conducted by linguists has indicated that inanimate entities are incompatible with verbs that connote intentionality because inanimate entities lack the facilities to complete intentional actions. However, there are currently no studies that have analyzed this inappropriate relationship in real-time. To address this gap, the current eye-tracking experiment investigated the infelicitous nature of this relationship, as well as how it may be modulated by different syntactic structures. The experiment implemented a 2 x 2 within-subjects design, in which the independent variables were verb type (neutral versus intentional) and syntactic structure (main clause versus relative clause), and the dependent variables were …

Identification Of Odorant Receptor Genes In The Antennal Transcriptome Of The Common Eastern Fireflies, Photinus Pyralis, Hanh Tran

Honors Theses

The insect odorant receptor, OR, gene family has been hypothesized to play a critical role in reproduction. Odorant receptor proteins, located on the olfactory sensory neuronal dendrites, detect odorant chemicals such as pheromones and then mediate key behaviors such as mate choice. Although olfaction is known to play a predominant role in sexual communication, there are still large numbers of olfactory genes that have not been studied in many insect species including fireflies. In this study, I investigated the sequencing data of one of the common eastern fireflies, Photinus pyralis (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). This firefly species is well known for their …

Sedimentological, Architectural, And Paleoenvironmental Analysis Of The Fluvial Upper Devonian Catskill Formation, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Matylda Zaklicki

Honors Theses

During the Late Devonian time period, sediments eroded from the Acadian mountains were transported westward and deposited in fluvial environments, but the morphology of the rivers, avulsion style, and controls on basin infilling remain unclear. This study assesses the sedimentology, channel geometry, stratigraphic architecture, and avulsion style of the paleochannels and floodplains of the uppermost 80 meters of the Catskill Formation near Blossburg, Pennsylvania, using field-based lithofacies observations, high-resolution panoramic photographs, and terrestrial lidar scanning.

Upper Catskill Formation strata at Blossburg Middle consist of sandy channel and muddy floodplain deposits. Floodplain deposits were categorized into either proximal floodplain deposits or …

On The Question Of Thinking: A Study Of Heidegger's Later Philosophy, Shishir Budha

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the writings of the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger to understand what “thinking” is and how thinking needs to be undertaken. I examine Heidegger’s commitments to phenomenology in his early writings, his revaluation of the meaning of truth in traditional Western metaphysics, his criticism of calculative thinking and scientific rationality, his diagnosis of the human alienation and homelessness, and his evocation of the redemptive power of art and poetry through which we can find our place in the world. By questioning through all these themes, I attempt to trace Heidegger’s path towards a deeper and more original …

The Reluctant Fundamentalist's Depiction Of The Postmodern, Kathryn Nicolai

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine postmodern fiction in the wake of 9/11. Specifically, I investigate initial predictions of how postmodernity would end after 9/11, Jean Baudrillard’s hyperreality, 9/11 as a semiotic-saturated event, 9/11-novels’ representations of hyperreality and postcolonial intersections with postmodern texts. These focuses are analyzed in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The novel chronicles the protagonist, Changez’s life before, during and after 9/11 and how his perspective on America’s capitalist-centered society and his own identity shifts in the wake of the attacks. After 9/11, Changez undergoes a demystification with America’s nostalgia-based regression and returns to Pakistan. Similar …

To Be Human, Layla S. Gordon

Honors Theses

I write in an attempt to convey the way I perceive the world and my place in it. I am not separate from the natural world but, as a human, deeply part of it. I want my readers to feel how, as much as any other species, our history and existence are part of the Earth. Sometimes in the built environment, especially large cities, I lose my connection to my roots and to my own person. In writing, I reclaim that connection and hope to restore it for my audience. Every human behavior is either conditioned or evolutionary. Either we …

Crystalline Architecture And Stratigraphy Of Coral Skeletal Density Banding: A Geobiological Record Of Changing Coral Reef Ecology, Kyle Fouke

Honors Theses

Coral skeletal density banding (CSDB), composed of alternating high density band (HDB) and low density band (LDB) layers that comprise the CaCO₃ (aragonite) skeleton of scleractinian corals, are used as chronometers for global paleoclimatic reconstructions of sea surface temperature (SST). Scleractinian coral skeletons have been intensively studied for centuries with detail analysis of the macro- and microscale skeletal structure to establish taxonomic and evolutionary relationships of coral species, mechanisms of biomineralization, and seafloor physical, chemical and biological alteration (diagenesis) of the skeleton. This study is the first to determine the crystalline architecture of HDBs and CSDB stratigraphic …

Can We All Just Get Along?: Affective Polarization And Its Impact On College Campuses, Sam Rosenblatt

Honors Theses

American politics have become increasingly polarized, but not just in how sharply we disagree on issues. There has also been a rise in affective polarization, or how positively we view members of our own party and how negatively we view those of the opposite party. This behavior manifests on college campuses, where some students struggle to discuss politics with those who disagree with them while others refuse to engage in such conversations at all. While affective polarization is not a new phenomenon, it appears especially pronounced on college campuses following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. My thesis seeks to understand …

The Theology Of John Donne's Body Politic, Carolyn P. Marino

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates John Donne’s body/soul dialectic, and discusses how this relationship extends towards both the individuated and communal body. The first chapter grounds Donne’s “Songs and Sonnets” in theology through his facilitation of the Platonic Ladder and the Great Chain of Being. It also gestures towards a shift in Donne’s poetry from subjectivity to intersubjectivity. Finally, it discusses Donne’s commissioned elegies, interrogating Renaissance ideas about the gendered soul, and expounding upon the impact of one person’s death on the communal body. The second chapter historically contextualizes ideas of martyrdom, suicide, and Donne’s term “self-homicide.” It discusses the content of …

Ukraine, L9l8-21 And Spain, 1936-39: A Comparison Of Armed Anarchist Struggles In Europe, Daniel A. Collins

Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparison of armed anarchist uprisings during the Interwar Period. Specifically, this thesis examines the political ideology and manifestations of it shared by the Free Territory of Ukraine (1918-1921), and Revolutionary Catalonia in Spain (1936-1939). This thesis argues that because of a shared political genealogy based on individuals, the revolutions are essential one. These individuals including Kropotkin and Durruti met each other in person and shared advice on their experience, which led to the similar expression of anarchism. This argument follows anarchist discourse of the mid and late 1800s and its direct implementation by way of Nestor …

Profitability And Corporate Social Responsibility, Alexander Kirk

Honors Theses

This project examines the relationship between net margins and measures of corporate social responsibility for the companies in the S&P 500 index. This is conducted through linear regressions of overall, environmental, social, and governance scores on net margin percentages for firms from their annual 10-K reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The corporate social responsibility measures were taken from Sustainalytics via Yahoo Finance and combined with dummy variables for Global Industry Classification Standard sectors. Results indicate very limited role in corporate social responsibility measures for predicting net margins, instead favoring sector specific variables as driving net margins to …

So What: The Justification Of Morality In Christine Korsgaard’S The Sources Of Normativity, Julian Scott

Honors Theses

Phillipa Foot once described the case of a Sudeten farm boy who, in 1944, had to choose between joining the SS and being executed (Foot 2). Perhaps it is clear that he was right to choose death rather than join such an evil organization. But if he disagreed, what are we supposed to say to him? Suppose he said that he knew the SS was evil and that joining would require him to do evil things, but when faced with the alternative of execution, why did he have to do the right thing?

This problem can be generalized: what are …

Fast Medial Axis Sampling For Use In Motion Planning, Hanglin Zhou

Honors Theses

Motion planning is a difficult but important problem in robotics. Research has tended toward approximations and randomized algorithms, like sampling-based planning. Probabilistic RoadMaps (PRMs) are one common sampling-based planning approach, but they lack safety guarantees. One main approach, Medial Axis PRM (MAPRM) addressed this deficiency by generating robot configurations as far away from the obstacles as possible, but it introduced an extensive computational burden. We present two techniques, Medial Axis Bridge and Medial Axis Spherical Step, to reduce the computational cost of sampling in MAPRM and additionally propose recycling previously computed clearance information to reduce the cost of connection in …

Two Makes A Couple: Fictions On Intimacy, Alyssa C. Conner, Jessica Richardson

Honors Theses

This portfolio of fictional short stories was created through the inspiration from constraints drawn from various published short stories. Constraints are a literary technique in which the writer is bound to certain elements or inspires a pattern within a work of writing. Each short story takes place in contemporary society and within the pieces, intimate moments between two individuals are explored throughout. This portfolio, through symbolic language, examines the relationship between our identities and our closest alliances, whether those are our romantic partners, platonic partners, or siblings.

Personal Identity, Psychological Continuity, And Survival, James D. Martin, Dennis Earl

Honors Theses

In this paper, I consider the question of personal identity, namely: in virtue of what is one person the same person at two different points in time? I first raise objections to theories which argue it is in virtue of physical continuity or continuity soul, then argue that an account of psychological continuity is most successful. One might object to psychological continuity on the grounds of reduplication and fusion problems. I argue that strict numerical identity is a bar set too high and rather that survival (construed as the continuation of a first-person perspective) is what matters for personal identity. …

Potential Arm Preference Within Starfish Species Including Asterias Vulgaris And Luidia Clathrata: A Study And Summary, Rebecca Jones, Young Robert

Honors Theses

Foraging arm preference was tested in two species of starfish: Asterias vulgaris and Luidia clathrata. No evidence was found for a species-wide preference or for a preference by individual sea stars, but trials were impacted by illness and resulting low sample size.

Starting Four Businesses My Last Semester Of College, Dimitri J. Bramwell

Honors Theses

E-commerce has been the latest buzz in the entrepreneur’s world. Now it is easier than ever to start your own business and resources are free at our disposal. Entire companies can be run from your laptop or even your smartphone. That being said, in this narrative, I describe my journey creating four online businesses while taking 18 credits in college and working full-time as a staff accountant. I’ll take you through all the steps from start to finish and go through my own trial and errors.

Evaluation Of Dna From Blood And Saliva Overtime, Janine Smalling

Honors Theses

In this research, we will examine the quantity of DNA over time. In John M. Butlers, "Fundamentals of Forensic DNA Typing", he charts out the average amount of DNA extracted from different bodily fluid samples. Examples include blood, semen, saliva, urine, etc. Though valuable, the values presented are in the cases of a fresh extraction of the sample. It is important to note that in most cases when DNA is being extracted from crime scene evidence, the samples are not fresh and have been degraded to some extent. On a crime scene, time is only one of the factors affecting …

Mosquito-Borne Illnesses And Their Disproportionate Impact On Variant Infrastructures: A Gis Map Comparison Of Three Regions., Jenna N. Price

Honors Theses

Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth and they spread diseases through their bites. Chikungunya, Dengue, Malaria, Yellow Fever, West Nile Virus, and Zika are six diseases of concern that are transmitted by mosquitoes. This honors thesis will attempt to provide relevant information and a critical analysis of current literature. Disease descriptions of the aforementioned illnesses and country evaluations for Niger, South Sudan, and the United States of America are included for comparison and evaluation. A Geographic Information System was used to create several maps comparing the three regions of the earth specified. The models are used to show country …

Funding The Field: A Literature Review Of The Kentucky Agrability Program’S Financial Need To Assist Agricultural Workers Across The Commonwealth, Leah D. Goodman

Honors Theses

This thesis combines the disciplines of occupational science, occupational therapy, and agriculture in order to outline a need for additional financial funding for the Kentucky AgrAbility Program. The Program has made a phenomenal impact on the lives of many individuals who have suffered from farm-related injuries; however, the scope and quality of its services are limited due to constricted access to funds. Through examining and exploring literature available on the topic, a need and argument for additional funding is constructed. Current partnerships are explored and methods of improvement, including an employee training course, are proposed. A new partnership with the …

Homo Sum: The Metaphysical Anthropology Of Liberalism, Arthur Martin

Honors Theses

This study takes a critical look at the work of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in relation to Patrick Deneen’s first anthropological assumption of Liberalism, presented in his book, Why Liberalism Failed. Deneen claims that Liberalism conceives of human persons as naturally separate and non-relational. Man is not a ζῷον πολιτικόν (Politikon Zoon or Political animal) in Liberalism. Human persons are not the kinds of being that thrive in interpersonal relationships but are by nature isolated and come together for limited self-interested purposes. The main work of this paper includes an attempt to flesh out Hobbes’, …

The Macroevolution Of Diadromous And Non-Diadromous Clupeiformes., Lindsey Dehaan

Honors Theses

Migration is a common life history strategy across the animal tree of life. This behavior is energetically demanding and may trigger strong selection for the evolution of an optimal ecomorphology to lessen energetic costs, yet the ecomorphology of migratory aquatic species remains poorly understood. Previous studies have demonstrated that migratory fishes exhibit predictable phenotypic patterns in body size evolution in response to evolving migration: migratory fishes are larger than non-migratory fishes. Migratory fishes may also have functional traits (e.g. fin shape) associated with locomotion that have experienced similar selective forces and exhibit predictable evolutionary patterns, resulting in migratory lineages sharing …

Rain Gardens: The Return Of Ecosystem Services, Katie Dehaan

Honors Theses

In the modern world impervious surfaces, especially in urban areas, abound. These include roads, highways, sidewalks, parking lots, and roofs that have replaced permeable surfaces, mainly open land, forests, and wetlands. Rainwater runs off of these surfaces collecting pollutants on its way to permeable areas. Rain gardens collect and process rainwater. Native plants with deep root systems process large volumes of rainwater and the microorganisms living in the soils and roots can process pollutants. The purpose of my research was to find out what variables affect species presence or absence in rain gardens. Species presence or absence at the time …

Is Natural Selection Shaping Florida Manatees? : An Investigation Into The Body Shapes Between The Subspecies Of The West Indian Manatee, Juliane Johnson

Honors Theses

The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) is currently divided into two subspecies: the Antillean (T. m. manatus) and Florida manatee (T. m. latirostris). Florida manatees are found at the northern extreme of the species range, primarily inhabiting the waters around the Florida peninsula, while the Antillean manatee inhabits the remaining range from the Caribbean islands to eastern Brazil. Only in the range of the Florida manatee does water temperature drop below 20°C during the winter, and these manatees have to seek warm water refuge for thermal regulation. Allen's rule predicts that in colder climates animals will adapt to have smaller …