Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Blight Resistance In Chestnut F2 Half-Sibling And Full-Sibling Families Via Small Stem Assay, Kevin Gentner

Honors Theses

In 1904, Cryphonectria parasitica, the causal agent for chestnut blight, was imported into North America on chestnut nursery stock from China. Fifty-five years later, nearly all full-grown wild American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) were dead. A century of work has been put into restoring the American chestnut to its rightful place among the forest canopy. Since the 1980s, The American Chestnut Foundation has pursued backcross breeding to introgress blight resistance into C. dentata from the resistant Chinese species (C. mollissima), and has used progeny testing to make predictions about parental resistance in B3F2 chestnuts. We performed a small stem assay …

Examining The Effect Of Perseverative Thinking On Physiological Activation In Response To Stress, Kathleen Kelly

Honors Theses

The current study had two aims: (1) measure changes in heart rate variability from the time of learning about a stressor task to completion of the task and (2) measuring the change in heart rate during and after the stressor task. Thirty participants were recruited from a midwestern university campus as well as surrounding communities. The study utilized a laboratory based stressor to examine the influence of perseverative thinking on stress recovery over a 24-hour period. Participants were involved in the study for a continuous 48 hours that included three lab visits. Participants’ activities and heart rates were measured through …

An Analysis Of Bilateral Tripart Hippocampal Volume And Its Relation To Spatial Processing In A Middle Childhood Sample, Emily Marler

Honors Theses

Throughout the years, animal research has unearthed that certain cells in the hippocampus contribute to spatial processing, which involves an animal’s recognition of its environmental layout and directionality. In order to apply this work to human children, we will identify whether hippocampal volume is related to spatial processing, including identifying which section(s) of the hippocampus seem to be more related to processing layouts versus directionality. Based on previous literature (Goodrich-Hunsaker, Hunsaker, & Kenser, 2005; McHugh, Fillenz, Lowry, Rawlins, & Bannerman, 2010), we predicted there would be a relationship between bilateral posterior and middle hippocampal regions and spatial processing, such that …

Importance Of Vaccinating For Canine Parvovirus: Best Practices For Prevention, Ariel Gorham

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

17Β-Estradiol In Carbondale Treated Wastewater Effluent: A Cross Comparison Study, Evan Mcdermott

Honors Theses

Natural estrogens are endocrine disrupting compounds and common pollutants in municipal wastewater. The concentration of 17β-estradiol was monitored in effluent from both the southeast and northwest Carbondale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their receiving waters for nine weeks. The analysis was performed using gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS) and the internal standard estrone 3-methyl ether. Recoveries were 60.0±3.9%, and significant loss of analyte was found after storage greater than one week. The northwest effluent (NWE) had higher 17β-estradiol levels of 7.1-76.2ng/L than the southeast effluent (SEE) between Below Detection Limits (BDL)-54.0ng/L, which suggests 17β-estradiol was carried with colloidal organic …

It Is Always Worth It To Check It Again: Examining Nematodes Of Rodents From The Konza Prairie, Hailey Penticoff

Honors Theses

The Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) is centered on the 3,487-hectare tallgrass Konza Prairie in eastern Kansas. The area supports 11 common species of rodents, some of which are reservoirs of zoonotic microparasites, including etiological agents for babesiosis and Lyme disease. Furthermore, each of the rodent species harbors an array of helminths. No baseline inventories of helminths or microparasites have yet been performed through the tallgrass prairie ecoregion. We captured rodents using Sherman traps, processed them via standard museum methods, and examined them for nematodes. Necropsies were completed on the same day of capture and nematodes collected were fixed …

Sensory Processing Disorder: A Design Research Report, Ashley Booth

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Geochemistry Of Surface Waters And Groundwater At Eku’S Meadowbrook Farm, Madison County, Kentucky, Reid E. Buskirk

Honors Theses

Agricultural activities often contaminate watersheds with excess nutrients leading to poor water quality and eutrophication. Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) Meadowbrook Farm raises crops and livestock, which contribute dissolved nutrients to the neighboring Muddy Creek watershed. Our goal is to understand Farm water geochemistry to develop methods to sequester phosphorous and limit nutrient contamination.

During the Cindy storm event, concentration of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, and Na⁺ within baseline source waters decreased with increasing discharge through the weir. This behavior represents dilution of Farm groundwater by storm precipitation. However, K⁺ spiked concurrently with increased discharge then progressively …

The Impact Of Transnational Nonprofit Work On The Development Of Becoming A Global Citizen, Penny Bowser

Honors Theses

Global citizens dive into the culture of a country and adopt new ideology, customs, and traditions, while maintaining their own cultural identity. This paper explores how a nonprofit organization has the ability to provide the necessary resources for a volunteer to expand upon their global citizenry. Nonprofits were created for economic, historical, and professional reasons, then are divided into categories depending upon the goal of the organization. Volunteers choose to serve at nonprofits for social, personal, and professional reasons, but will all make an impact on the people they are serving, despite the reason. By volunteering with a transnational nonprofit …

Traditional Art Therapy Techniques Versus Digital Art Therapy Techniques: A Comparison Using Sand Play, Kaitlyn Ralston

Honors Theses

Art Therapy is a growing field that has its basis in tactile experiences, whether those experiences involve paint, clay, sand, paper, or anything else you can imagine. These techniques all focus on the tactile nature of the process to facilitate therapeutic practices. However, many who would benefit greatly from art therapy are unable to utilize the tactile methods due to sensory limitations. Thus, the problem of how to facilitate art therapy with these clients arises. One solution to the problem would be to look to the digital realm. Unfortunately, not many digital applications exist to facilitate these art therapy practices. …

Implementing Early Screening Methods To Detect Resistance To Phytophthora Cinnamomi In Backcross Chinese-American Chestnut Hybrids, Kirsten Hein

Honors Theses

Phytophthora root rot (PRR), caused by the oomycete Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands., is one of the two greatest obstacles to survival of American chestnut (Castanea dentata Borkh.). The other is chestnut blight, caused by the ascomycete Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr. Developing early and reliable PRR screening methods can facilitate the efficient introgression of PRR resistance from Chinese chestnut (C. mollissima Blume.) into the populations of potentially chestnut blight resistant trees currently under development by The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF). This study tests the efficacy of a method for early identification of PRR-resistant hybrid chestnuts in a greenhouse/nursery setting. The chestnut blight …

Effects Of Acorns On Populations Of Aedes Mosquitoes, Rachel Rogers

Honors Theses

Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito) and Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito) are two mosquito species that are non-native to North America and are of medical importance. Both species can be found in aquatic container habitats, such as discarded tires and tree holes. In container habitats, the influx of detritus from the outside environment is essential to mosquito production and can include a variety of plant and animal material. Seeds from oak trees (acorns) can seasonally contribute to the detritus of these container habitats. This study examined the effect of acorns from the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) on the performance …

Who Is The Fairest Of Them All? Disney’S Depiction Of Non-Normative Embodiment In Its Villainesses, Caroline Bradley

Honors Theses

The world of Disney has long been criticized for the lack of empowered princesses, racial representation, and unrealistic body images in its princess films. While steps have been made to provide a fairer representation through the bodies of the princesses, there has not been much progress in the way villains’ bodies are depicted. Most Disney villains exhibit a form of disability or non-normative embodiment including missing limbs, old age, or fatness. This thesis will analyze the bodies of three well-known Disney villainesses from three different eras—The Evil Queen, Ursula, and Mother Gothel—and will demonstrate how their bodies reflect the historical …

Disruption Of Rna Metabolism By Zika Virus, Maggie Lea Dickerson

Honors Theses

Flaviviruses are positive, single-stranded, enveloped RNA viruses that are a part of the family, Flaviviridae. West Nile virus, Dengue, Zika virus and more are a part of this family. Mosquitoes are the vectors for these viruses. In order for the virus to infect mosquitoes, it must evade the RNA interference (RNAi), which is the major antiviral immune mechanism of insects. One study found the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) of the West Nile virus that inhibited the RNAi (GP et al. 2016). The goal of this study is to investigate if the 3’ and 5’ UTR region of the Zika virus …

The Ability Of Students With Dyslexia To Follow Sequential Oral Instructions, Crystal Hermann

Honors Theses

There seems to be differences between children with dyslexia and those without in their ability to follow sequential oral instructions. In this paper this possibility was explored by testing children with and without dyslexia on nine short term memory tasks that represented the different aspects that make up serial instruction. My hypothesis was that those students with dyslexia would have a smaller recall span than the controls for all sequential recall tasks. My hypothesis was not supported by the data; children in the control group only showed a significant advantage on three tasks: memory for items, non-sequential verbal memory span, …

Breastfeeding In Public: Perceptions Of College Students In South Mississippi, Kaitlyn Sierra Kendall

Honors Theses

Breastfeeding rates have increased and declined throughout time. Perceptions of breastfeeding are mixed, with those finding it to be inappropriate and others finding it to be natural. The purpose in this study is to gain a better understanding of how college students in south Mississippi perceive breastfeeding. The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitudes Scale (IIFAS), a 17-item questionnaire aimed to explore an individual’s attitudes toward infant feeding. The Breastfeeding Behavior Questionnaire (BBQ) presented 12 scenarios of breastfeeding in public as a means to explore how participants would react to those encounters. Data was collected from 151 college students through an online …

The Gold Metalist: An Examination Of French Horn Mouthpieces Used By College Horn Players, Brittany Ann White

Honors Theses

College horn players struggle to find the “perfect” mouthpiece. Students spend time and money in their pursuit of mouthpiece perfection. Unfortunately, the perfect mouthpiece does not exist, but this study is designed to find ideal mouthpiece characteristics. It is the goal of this experiment to give college horn players a better understanding of mouthpieces. Participants were asked to try and score eight experimental mouthpieces in addition to their primary mouthpiece. It was determined that comfort was one of the most important aspects of a mouthpiece. If participants found the mouthpiece uncomfortable, all scores for that mouthpiece would suffer. While the …

Interactions Of Fire And Herbivory On The Management Of Ilex Glabra In Longleaf Pine Forests, Courtney R. Filliben

Honors Theses

The longleaf pine forest is characterized by the high levels of biodiversity and species richness that give it both ecological and economical importance. Decades of clear-cutting, habitat fragmentation, and natural fire restriction have reduced this once great forest system to a mere fraction of its original range. One of the specific causes of the decline of the longleaf pine is understory domination by woody shrubs. These shrubs limit the growth of characteristic grasses and forbs that are responsible for the majority of the biodiversity. The overall purpose of this study was to identify a new longleaf pine reforestation technique that …

Sibship Reconstruction For Inferring The Number Of Breeders Of Gulf Sturgeon In The Apalachicola River, Robbilyn Verges

Honors Theses

The Gulf sturgeon is an anadromous fish that inhabits the Gulf of Mexico and its neighboring river drainages. The species is currently listed as threatened due to habitat alterations and overfishing. In this study, we focused on the Apalachicola River in Florida, which has had several historic spawning locations of the sturgeon blocked by the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam. Age-1 juvenile sturgeon from the year 2013 (n=31) and 2014 (n=131) were genotyped using fourteen microsatellite loci. Sibship reconstruction and parentage assignment was performed in order to determine the effective number of breeders (Nb) and the total number of spawning …

From Perfect Daughter To Feminist: How Culture Disguises Disney’S Recycled Formula In Mulan And Moana, Aricelia Arcadia

Honors Theses

Film is a relatively young art form and industry compared to others, such as music and dance. Its origins go back no more than 150 years, yet criticism surrounds film over the lack of originality. The Walt Disney Company, or Disney, is one of the most well-known companies in the industry, and it too is accused of recycling some of the same narrative elements and images in its films. This recycling of themes, characters, animation, plot points, and more are known as formulas that Disney uses to ensure financial success. In recent years, the film industry, but more specifically Hollywood, …

Parental Care, Offspring Abandonment, And Filial Cannibalism, Mackenzie Davenport

Honors Theses

Parental care is a fundamental life-history trait that is found in many animals (reviewed in Royle et al. 2012). Parental care can include behaviors such as egg cleaning (Knouft et al. 2003), egg guarding (Royle et al. 2012, pg. 4), egg provisioning (Simmons & Parker 1989; Hilker & Meiners 2002; Royle et al. 2012, pg. 2), and oviposition-site selection (Refsnider & Janzen 2010). Such forms of parental care typically result in the spatial clumping of parents and their offspring. This often leads to density effects on within-clutch egg mortality, meaning that when within-clutch egg density increases, egg mortality also increases. …

An Analysis Of Prosocial Behavior In Customers, Erik Swanson

Honors Theses

Despite all that is known about the good entrepreneurship can do for communities, there is still a gap in the research on how entrepreneurship can directly better communities and the people that live in them through passing on prosocial benefits. This paper proposes “prosocial entrepreneurship” as a means to address this gap. It will address the gap through examining how prosocial entrepreneurship builds communities to pass on a positive impact on these communities. Businesses have both encouraged prosocial behaviors in employees and promoted cooperation and community building for some time. Research was also completed on prosocial behaviors to build a …

Changes In Ant Biodiversity Across An Urban Gradient, Hao Brooks

Honors Theses

There are two aims to this study: compare diversity across an urban gradient and across seasons. We deployed traps and identified the collected 12 ant species at nine different sites centered at Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the purpose of relating levels of urbanization to the diversity of ant species at each site. We successfully sampled in the summer (June 27, 2017) and spring (March 31, 2018), and unsuccessfully sampled in winter (Feb. 16, 2018) when we collected zero ants, likely due to cold soil temperatures. To quantify “urbanization” we divided the sites into “Urban” core verses surrounding “Suburban” area using a …

On The Maintained Significance Of Botanical Illustration In Modern Plant Identification Guides, Andi Kur

Honors Theses

This project began over 2.5 years ago when I, an artist by hobby, contacted Dr. Joey Shaw, the director of the Herbarium at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, with a request to sketch from specimens in the UCHT collection. Dr. Shaw, fortuitously in need of an illustrator, prompted me with the opportunity to collaborate with him in the creation of illustrations for the second edition of the Guide to the Vascular Plants of Tennessee. From here, this project has grown as we have attempted to determine the most effective way to illustrate the guide, our questions manifesting in a myriad …

Conservation And Collection Of Castanea Dentata Germplasm In The South, Trent Deason

Honors Theses

The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, has been devastated by the exotic invasive pathogens Cryphonectria parasitica and Phytophthora cinnamomi to which it has no resistance. The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has developed an interspecific backcross breeding program to introgress disease resistance from Asian chestnut species, primarily Castanea mollissima, into C. dentata hybrid populations. The genetic base of this program can be expanded by utilizing vegetative propagation through grafting in order to collect and conserve American chestnut individuals not amenable to traditional breeding. As the majority of the surviving American chestnuts are confined to the understory, they are shaded out by the …

Ghostbusting Black Women And Media Representation: A Qualitative Content Analysis On Leslie Jones And Twitter, Ebonee Jackson

Honors Theses

Media representation plays a huge role in how people form their views about certain groups of people. Even when one has particular personal experiences with said group, images in the media can reinforce those views or help to shape new ones. Social media are more recent when compared to other forms of media such as television, magazines and even music videos. Social media are fast paced and always advancing, and therefore, provide more opportunities to analyze a certain group’s media representation. In this thesis, I will discuss the media representation of Black women on Twitter. Specifically, I will look at …

Assessing Speech-Language Pathologists’ Knowledge And Use Of Language Acquisition Through Motor Planning, Mary Catherine Cazalas

Honors Theses

Many individuals who are nonverbal require augmentative and alternative communication devices to communicate. The purpose of this research was to assess speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of a particular method of implementing augmentative and alternative communication devices known as language acquisition through motor planning (LAMP). Further, this research was designed to determine the percentage of speech pathologists who have used LAMP during their careers as well as the perceived level of success speech pathologists have found with LAMP. Mississippi speech-language pathologists were used as the sample for this study. A survey was created electronically via the online survey development software, “Survey Monkey,” …

Genetic Estimates Of The Number Of Breeding Adults In Alligator Gar From The Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas, E. Blayne Newsome

Honors Theses

Alligator gar were historically found across the coastal drainages of the Gulf of Mexico and up into the Mississippi River basin. However, their populations are experiencing decline in many portions of their range. Texas seems to have large populations of alligator gar, but state resource officers are seeking to better understand its biology so as to provide appropriate management recommendations to maintain the recreational fishery. In this study, I used genetic techniques to examine a cohort of 144 juvenile alligator gar collected in 2016 in the Choke Canyon Reservoir. By estimating the effective number of breeders and number of spawning …

Internship On A Sustainable Sheep Farm, Cassaundra Jaegers

Honors Theses

This paper looks at an internship occurring on a sheep farm in rural Iowa. A setup of the farm as well as the goals of the farm are outlined in this paper. A list of daily duties as well as duties that occurred rarely are also listed in the paper. The internship at a sheep farm wanted to create a sustainable source of food by selling the sheep once they became adults. In the three years it has been in existence, the operation has growth substantially and a profit has finally been made. The farm continues to expand to open …

The Rhetoric Of Landscape: Through Oil And Water, Alexandrea Davis

Honors Theses

“The Rhetoric of Landscape: Through Oil and Water” analyzes five water resources—Lake Erie, Lake Powell, the Aral Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Barrier Reef—and uses the visual rhetoric introduced by an accompanying series of oil pastel illustrations to compare how the beauty of the landscapes equates to their true states. This project discusses the harmful effects of human activities on water bodies, first through direct pollution and ultimately through anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, a final summary covering the history of environmental initiatives in the United States and the idea of “wicked problems” offers an overview of reasons …