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Honors Theses

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When Feminism Meets Hip-Hop, Kylie Thompson Apr 2018

When Feminism Meets Hip-Hop, Kylie Thompson

Honors Theses

This paper was conceived from an interest to apply my understanding of race and gender to a genre I love: hip-hop. Hip-hop began as a socio-political genre and as a means of advocacy via its ability to mobilize listeners toward social change. As hip-hop became more popular, its recognizable features were taken and appropriated for mass production and consumption, applying economic pressure to severely obstruct its original purpose and function. Yet, hip-hop continues to lay claim to being an important artistic genre through artists’ innovative adaptation of form and the presence of deeper political critiques. While these social critiques have …


Yellow Jack's Wrath: The 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic And Public Health In Mississippi, Kyle Winston Apr 2018

Yellow Jack's Wrath: The 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic And Public Health In Mississippi, Kyle Winston

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Caffeine Rush! Examining The Effects Of Caffeine On Spatial Working Memory, Alexander Lawriw Apr 2018

Caffeine Rush! Examining The Effects Of Caffeine On Spatial Working Memory, Alexander Lawriw

Honors Theses

Past research concerning caffeine and its effects on memory have yielded varying results. One study found that a 3-mg/kg dose of caffeine decreased reaction time during a selective attention task. However, this improvement was only found during a low display load, with no effect on reaction time occurring within a high display load (Lorist, Snell, Kok, & Mulder,1996). As such, the effects of caffeine may be dependent on a variety of other factors, such as the difficulty of the task at hand (Nehlig, 2004). This present study aimed to explore further the potential memory-enhancing qualities of caffeine with respect to …


If You Build It, They Will Come: A Habitat Mimicry-Based Assessment Tool For Estimating Larval Salamander Density In Temperate Forests Streams, Margaret E. Maloney Apr 2018

If You Build It, They Will Come: A Habitat Mimicry-Based Assessment Tool For Estimating Larval Salamander Density In Temperate Forests Streams, Margaret E. Maloney

Honors Theses

The biology of small, forested streams is critical to the ecology of larger waterways and broader watershed function. Because of their size, these “headwater streams” are strongly influenced by surrounding landscape conditions and their biology is intimately connected to the landscape through material and energy subsidies. In the United States, 50 to 80 percent of streams are primary headwater streams, making them a high priority for conservation. Often, stream salamanders are a useful indicator for biotic integrity of headwater streams due to their longevity, relatively stable populations, small home ranges, and abundance. Assessing stream salamanders is a challenging endeavor and …


Olfaction And Disgust As Predictors Of Elevated Perfectionism, Maia Mclin Apr 2018

Olfaction And Disgust As Predictors Of Elevated Perfectionism, Maia Mclin

Honors Theses

Odor detection and disgust sensitivity were once vital to survival by providing a means to assess if foods were safe for consumption. Along with odor detection and disgust sensitivity, obsessivecompulsive traits, such as checking, may have increased chance of survival by decreasing the likelihood of consuming contaminated foods leading to an evolutionary advantage (Rozin & Fallon, 1987). Current regulations that prevent the distribution of spoiled and contaminated foods in developed societies make these processes less necessary to survival today; as a result, obsessive compulsive traits that may have once been advantageous may now be pathological. Neural connections also suggest a …


Comparative Economic Analysis Of Beef Calf Preconditioning Programs, Breanthony Baker Mar 2018

Comparative Economic Analysis Of Beef Calf Preconditioning Programs, Breanthony Baker

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Development And Assessment Of Interactive Learning Supplement Tools For Engineering Mechanics, Emma Neuweiler Mar 2018

Development And Assessment Of Interactive Learning Supplement Tools For Engineering Mechanics, Emma Neuweiler

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Differences In Enrollment Trends Between Traditional And Nontraditional Animal Related Courses In Secondary Education, Jennifer Lopez Mar 2018

Differences In Enrollment Trends Between Traditional And Nontraditional Animal Related Courses In Secondary Education, Jennifer Lopez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Destruction, Reconstruction, And Remembrance: Exploring 'Memory' And 'Environment' Through Pennsylvania World War I Memorials In France, Amy Collins Jan 2018

Destruction, Reconstruction, And Remembrance: Exploring 'Memory' And 'Environment' Through Pennsylvania World War I Memorials In France, Amy Collins

Honors Theses

After examining the substantial efforts at land reclamation and environmental mitigation accompanying the State of Pennsylvania’s construction of memorials after World War I in France, I discovered a strong relationship between post-war memorialization and environmental mitigation in the areas in which the environmental consequences of WWI continue to affect humans and wildlife. My research illuminates how cultural impulses to build memorials that acknowledged the vast losses, acts of valor, and victories heavily influenced mitigation of France’s ecologically damaged Western Front. Many of France’s former battlefields, particularly in the devastated area known as the Red Zone, weren’t accessible to visitors before …


Presence And Potential Sources Of Pharmaceutical And Personal Care Product Chemicals In Messalonskee Lake, Alyssa T. Kullberg Jan 2018

Presence And Potential Sources Of Pharmaceutical And Personal Care Product Chemicals In Messalonskee Lake, Alyssa T. Kullberg

Honors Theses

Pharmaceuticals and personal care product chemicals (PPCPs) represent a large group of contaminants that are mostly not regulated in surface or drinking water and whose presence and environmental and health impacts are poorly understood. We investigated the presence and potential sources of 18 PPCPs in Messalonskee Lake. We collected samples four times over the summer of 2017 at 13 sites around the lake. Samples were tested for PPCPs using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We detected five out of the 18 PPCPs we tested for at the ng/L level: caffeine, 1,7-dimethylxanthine, acetaminophen, sulfachloropyridazine, and amphetamine. PPCPs showed a significant positive correlation …


Compositional Craft And Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart Jan 2018

Compositional Craft And Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart

Honors Theses

This paper accompanies Liam Butchart's senior honors voice recital and his composition for the Colby Symphony Orchestra, Genevan Overture. The essay examines how form and cadence, two integral components of compositional craft, have been utilized by composers who either were included in the voice recital or were major influences on the composition. Specifically, the paper analyzes how different composers end their musical sentences similarly and differently through the lens of structurally-relevant cadences.


Haloferax Volcanii For Carotenoid Production, Erika Smith Jan 2018

Haloferax Volcanii For Carotenoid Production, Erika Smith

Honors Theses

Carotenoids are used as natural colorants and have been shown to have numerous health benefits, making these molecules highly desirable in the aquaculture, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical markets. There is increasing consumer demand for the natural synthesis of carotenoids, but current methods are limited by the cost and difficulty of extraction from organisms. The halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii is amenable to extraction and has an endogenous carotenoid biosynthetic pathway that culminates in the accumulation of the carotenoid bacterioruberin; however, H. volcanii also synthesizes important precursors that can be converted into more highly-desired carotenoids, such as β-carotene and astaxanthin, in the presence …


From Forced To Voluntary Participation: The History Of Biomedical Human Experimentation In The United States After The Second World War, Haley L. Andonian Jan 2018

From Forced To Voluntary Participation: The History Of Biomedical Human Experimentation In The United States After The Second World War, Haley L. Andonian

Honors Theses

For as long as medicine and medical practices have been around, so has the need for testing treatments in or procedures on the human body. Over the course of history, however, the nature, structure, and prominence of human biomedical experimentation has changed drastically both on an international and national level. My thesis focuses on revealing the driving forces behind these changes in administrative, legal and social factors related to human experimentation in an effort to connect the dots from the manipulative, forceful and unethical experimentation of early medical practitioners to the safe, voluntary and highly regulated experimentation characteristic of clinical …


The Identification And Application Of Generalizable Spatial Patterns Of Human-Wildlife Conflict, Vivian F. Hawkinson Jan 2018

The Identification And Application Of Generalizable Spatial Patterns Of Human-Wildlife Conflict, Vivian F. Hawkinson

Honors Theses

Many human-wildlife conflict studies focus on one location or one individual species or taxonomic group; fewer comparative studies analyze patterns of conflict across species and regions. As a result, numerous studies report similar conclusions across diverse cases of human-wildlife conflict. I found 133 scholarly articles published between 1975 and 2017 referencing distance from a protected area boundary as a variable associated with human-wildlife conflict. I identified three generalizable patterns of human-wildlife conflict that appear across taxonomic groups and geographic locations. The family Felidae had the highest maximum average conflict distance and furthest distance from a protected area that conflict was …


Disc1 Knockout Rats Reveal Sexually Dimorphic Patterns Of Impairment Across Development, Stephanie S. Desrochers Jan 2018

Disc1 Knockout Rats Reveal Sexually Dimorphic Patterns Of Impairment Across Development, Stephanie S. Desrochers

Honors Theses

Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder characterized by three symptom categories: positive (hallucinations, delusions), negative (anhedonia, anxiety), and cognitive (sensory processing and memory deficits). We worked with a biallelic deletion of the Disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) gene in Sprague-Dawley rats to facilitate our understanding of the biological bases of schizophrenia. Mutations of DISC1 are associated with a higher prevalence of schizophrenia. Adult DISC1 knockout, compared to wildtype, rats display features of schizophrenia-like outcomes in rodent models. The present study investigated the progression of the cognitive symptom deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI), assessing animals at postnatal days 17 (pre-weaning), 26 (post-weaning), 39 (adolescent), and …


Characterizing Borrelia Burgdorferi In Virginia : Lyme Disease Prevalence As A Matter Of Bacterial Genetic Variation, Hannah Cornman Jan 2018

Characterizing Borrelia Burgdorferi In Virginia : Lyme Disease Prevalence As A Matter Of Bacterial Genetic Variation, Hannah Cornman

Honors Theses

yme Disease (LD) incidence and spatial distribution has grown dramatically in the past 20 years. In Virginia, the growth has been especially drastic, primarily in the Western part of the state. This research project investigates how genetic variability of the Lyme Disease causing bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, might be contributing to this increase in LD incidence in western Virginia. To do this, B. burgdorferi samples were isolated from ticks found across the state and were characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Phylogenetic and minimum spanning tree analyses were also performed. It was hypothesized that the increasing number of Lyme disease infections …


French Colonialism In Algeria: War, Legacy, And Memory, Haley Brown Jan 2018

French Colonialism In Algeria: War, Legacy, And Memory, Haley Brown

Honors Theses

Over the course of my research for my honors thesis project, I sought to better understand the history of French colonialism in Algeria in addition to how it is remembered today. I theorized that the legacy of this history impacts issues of immigration exclusion, islamophobia, racism, and social discrimination faced by Algerians in modern day France. These issues have become important topics of discussion and investigation in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks carried out by descendants of North African immigrants in the heart of hexagonal France. Through the study of primary and secondary sources, as well as a …


Listening To An/Other Voice: Gender, Creativity, And The Divine In The Works Of Female Christian Mystics And Women Surrealists, Stephanie Garboski Jan 2018

Listening To An/Other Voice: Gender, Creativity, And The Divine In The Works Of Female Christian Mystics And Women Surrealists, Stephanie Garboski

Honors Theses

This thesis will compare two groups, Christian women mystics and women surrealists, by analyzing select works by Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Leonora Carrington, and Dorothea Tanning. This analysis will involve a comparative, theoretical approach that draws connections between the way in which both groups utilize varying literary and artistic forms, symbols, and polyglottery. I will utilize Bourdieu’s terms of cultural production as a framework in which to better understand how women of both fields are used for their creativity and supposed connection to an/other, which is the source of inspiration native to each field, God and the unconscious. …


Waters Of Labor, Waters Of Leisure: An Environmental History Of Lake Memphremagog, Katherine Tucker Jan 2018

Waters Of Labor, Waters Of Leisure: An Environmental History Of Lake Memphremagog, Katherine Tucker

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the transition from traditional resource extractive industry to seasonal tourism industry around Lake Memphremagog, a mid-sized freshwater lake that is situated across the USA/ Canada border in northern Vermont and southern Quebec. Reading sources primarily from the decades 1860-1890, this research examines changing conceptualizations of nature that link to specific land use trends. Northern Vermont was left with a decimated landscape following the decline of the logging and agricultural industries by the mid-nineteenth century. Meanwhile, nature centered tourism began to emerge in the same area. The new tourism economy catered to the wealthy urban elite, …


Role Of Nest Site Microclimate And Food Availability In Chick Development And Reproductive Success In Black-Legged Kittiwakes (Rissa Tridactyla), Lindsay Mae Lacey Jan 2018

Role Of Nest Site Microclimate And Food Availability In Chick Development And Reproductive Success In Black-Legged Kittiwakes (Rissa Tridactyla), Lindsay Mae Lacey

Honors Theses

Seabirds are marine top predators, and as such are often studied as bioindicators of climate shifts (Oswald and Arnold 2012). Though many studies have analyzed the effect of macroclimatic variation on marine prey species availability and thus seabirds, few have analyzed effects of microclimate - fine spatial patterns of climate (Mantua and Hare 2002; Hatch 2013; Kim and Monaghan 2005a). I tested the hypothesis that localized temperature and humidity at nest sites interact with food availability to alter black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) nest site quality, chick body condition during growth and development, and reproductive parameters including Julian lay …


Virunga: Guns, Gorillas, And The Construction Of Transnational Natures, Adriana Disilvestro Jan 2018

Virunga: Guns, Gorillas, And The Construction Of Transnational Natures, Adriana Disilvestro

Honors Theses

The recent western media attention surrounding Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has brought up significant scholarly questions about the discursive portrayal of “ideal” Natures. In this thesis, I undertake a discursive analysis of western media materials about Virunga National Park in order to understand how ideas of Nature are transnationally constructed. In order to do this, undertake an analysis of the western oriented discursive material associated with three socio-political processes within the park: green militarization, gorilla trekking, and the ecotourist industry. Ultimately, I conclude that the discursive material portrays a highly spectacularized and commodified “ideal” nature, …


A Philosophical Analysis Of Otherness In Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Max W. Fathauer Jan 2018

A Philosophical Analysis Of Otherness In Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Max W. Fathauer

Honors Theses

Bertrand Russell infamously characterizes Nietzsche as a philosopher concerned solely with the flourishing individual. Several crucial passages of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, however, outline rich encounters Zarathustra has with the Other. In this paper, I argue that Russell’s characterization of Nietzsche is egregiously reductive. In order to demonstrate this, I offer an in-depth analysis of otherness in Thus Spoke Zarathustra by examining the many different kinds of relationships the individual can have with the Other. I then turn towards other works of Nietzsche to furnish the compelling, yet imprecise insight concerning otherness that Zarathustra gives us. Finally, I compare my …


Little Trees, Maxwell Kane Jan 2018

Little Trees, Maxwell Kane

Honors Theses

I believe in the power of film as a medium of storytelling. My desire to head a year-long production as well as create a moving story that underlined my interest in sibling relationships motivated me to create a short film as my honors thesis. My film, Little Trees, emphasizes themes such as alienation and growth within a broken household. My ultimate goal is to become an artist who creates meaningful cinema by telling deeply personal stories, and creating Little Trees was a successful first step in that process.


Interactions Between Two Key Amphibian Defenses To Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis In Panamanian Glass Frogs (Espadarana Prosoblepon), Andi Levorse Jan 2018

Interactions Between Two Key Amphibian Defenses To Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis In Panamanian Glass Frogs (Espadarana Prosoblepon), Andi Levorse

Honors Theses

Research on the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the causative agent of the lethal disease chytridiomycosis, has advanced from assessments of pathogenicity and species susceptibility to more specialized questions concerning the complex interactions between the pathogen, species-specific immune responses, and the environment. Our work examines the potential for interactions between the two most important innate immune defenses of frogs against Bd: secretions of antimicrobial peptides and communities of commensal cutaneous bacteria. While both defenses have been studied individually, little data are available to examine interactions between these defenses. We conducted our study with field captured Panamanian glass frogs …


Bartonella And Y. Pestis Screening In Ctenophyllus Armatus Terribilis For Conservation Application For The America Pika (Ochotona Princeps) In The Rocky Mountain Front Range, Hilary Rinsland Jan 2018

Bartonella And Y. Pestis Screening In Ctenophyllus Armatus Terribilis For Conservation Application For The America Pika (Ochotona Princeps) In The Rocky Mountain Front Range, Hilary Rinsland

Honors Theses

As temperatures continue to disproportionally increase in alpine regions due to climate change, parasite spillover from increased pika-rodent contact could bring new diseases to a susceptible alpine specialist, the American pika (Ochotona princeps). Fleas collected from pika at four alpine and subalpine study sites in Boulder County, Colorado from 2011-2017 were screened for Y. pestis and Bartonella using conventional PCR methods. This is the first study to detect Bartonella in the American Pika flea Ctenophyllus armatus terribilis and to propose the presence of B. grahmii in the alpine region of the Rocky Mountains.


Rethinking Cannabis Legislation: Insights From Advocacy Groups, Christopher Hunter Tramel Jan 2018

Rethinking Cannabis Legislation: Insights From Advocacy Groups, Christopher Hunter Tramel

Honors Theses

Prohibition and regulation of substances in the United States transformed throughout the 20th century namely through the Pure Food and Drug Act, the prohibition of alcohol, the Marihuana Tax Stamp Act, and the Controlled Substances Act, with each further expanding the number of substances regulated and the consequences of breaking the regulations. The first chapter will briefly outline major events and legislation from 1937 to the present day and how such events and legislation set the stage for grassroots initiatives on the state level seeking to take advantage of the medicinal properties of Cannabis sativa and its impact on relative …


The Effects Of Acute Exercise And Learning Strategy Implementation On Episodic Memory Performance, Faith A. Harris Jan 2018

The Effects Of Acute Exercise And Learning Strategy Implementation On Episodic Memory Performance, Faith A. Harris

Honors Theses

Over the years, a growing body of research has shown that exercise has beneficial impacts on various types of memory function. However, most of these studies have focused on children or older adults, with less research conducted among young adults, despite research demonstrating that memory function may start to decline in early adulthood. This thesis provides background information regarding the effects of exercise on memory function, as well as different learning-based strategies to help facilitate learning and memory retention. Furthermore, the research I completed for this thesis specifically evaluated the experimental effects of acute exercise, a specific learning strategy (3-R …


A Comparative Study Of American And French Fashion Conspicuous Consumption Habits On Instagram, Hannah J. Corson Jan 2018

A Comparative Study Of American And French Fashion Conspicuous Consumption Habits On Instagram, Hannah J. Corson

Honors Theses

As social media has become an integral part of every day communications, consumers have begun to conspicuously consume through the Internet. One social media platform, Instagram, puts a central focus on media sharing and allows its users to post photos and videos to their profiles. This makes Instagram an ideal place for Internet users to put their belongings on display. However, a user's nationality and cultural upbringing could influence how one utilizes this platform to conspicuously consume. To determine if this were true, Instagram photos from American and French users were analyzed to find any potential discrepancies. Fashion items were …


Targeting Metastatic Breast Cancer With Statin Drugs And Coq10, Jacob Thrasher Jan 2018

Targeting Metastatic Breast Cancer With Statin Drugs And Coq10, Jacob Thrasher

Honors Theses

Statin drugs are commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol levels in patients, but recently statins have been under investigation as a potential anti-cancer drug. Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and subsequently inhibit the mevalonate pathway and cholesterol synthesis. Since cholesterol trafficking is vital in the growth and metastasis of cancer, statin drugs are being studied to explore their effects on cancer cells. CoQ10, one of the products from the mevalonate pathway, also has shown some potential anti-cancer properties, but its use to combat cancer is controversial. While some studies have shown that CoQ10 supplements can be synergistic with other cancer treatment …


Tales As Old As Time: The Origins Of Selected Fairy Tales And Their Legacies In Popular Culture, Ann Louise Jackson Jan 2018

Tales As Old As Time: The Origins Of Selected Fairy Tales And Their Legacies In Popular Culture, Ann Louise Jackson

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to analyze a selection of fairy tales and their film adaptations. The research centers on the origins of these selected stories and their cinematic derivatives, with particular focus given to authorial and cultural influences as well as audience perceptions of these works. The evolution of character through these fairy tales is an area of interest in this thesis, with an emphasis on agency and the depiction of the heroines through the stories and their adaptations. Including two well-known fairy tales and one that is more obscure, this thesis aims to understand how each variation is conceived and …