Digital Commons Network^™

Art And Persuasion: A Communication Study Of Contemporary Documentary Film, Lauren Elizabeth Freeman

Honors Theses

The focus of this study is defining and determining the area of communication in contemporary documentary films. In examining the structure and aesthetic composition of documentary film, this study will compare the film genre to the areas of journalism. persuasion and propaganda through secondary and primary research defining the elements that constitute these specific areas of communication. Secondary research involved text, newspaper articles, online journals and websites, and the viewing of documentary film. The primary research was conducted through personal interviews with documentary filmmakers. Research findings resulted in a wide range of views on the definition and uses for documentary …

Blood Assays In The Freshwater Turtle, Trachemys Scripta, With Emphasis On Methemoglobin Levels, Erin Melissa Floyd

Honors Theses

Confined Animal Feeding Operations pollute water supplies with excess animal wastes containing different sources of nitrogen. How can we measure the damage being done? Methemoglobin percentages give the degree of toxicity of nitrates and nitrites in the environment. Methemoglobin is a variant of hemoglobin in which the ferrous ion has been oxidized to the ferric state. In this state, oxygen can no longer be transported by hemoglobin which is detrimental to the organism affected. Blood assays were conducted on the freshwater turtle, Trachemys scripta. In addition to methemoglobin analysis other assays including oxyhemoglobin saturation, red and white blood cell counts, …

Growth And Immunocomptence In Parasitized Domestic Turkeys( Meleagris Gallapavo): Is There A Trade-Off?, Virginia Austin Harrison

Honors Theses

Parasitic infection can prove to be detrimental to the condition, reproductive fitness, and survival of the host organism. During infection, an organism experiences trade-offs between functions such as growth, reproduction, and immunological activity as a result of limited resources. When challenged by infection, wild turkeys, adapted for survival, should fight the infection rather than invest in growth. Because domestic turkeys have been artificially selected to grow rapidly, I hypothesized that they would invest in growth rather than immunocompetence. To test this hypothesis, I infected domestic turkeys with coccidia and measured components of growth and immunocompetence. Turkeys were infected with the …

Genetic Variation And Immune Response In The Wolf Spider: Rabidosa Rabida, Patrice Louise Jones

Honors Theses

Genetic variation has been shown to positively correlate with the strength of the immune response, especially in vertebrates. Smaller populations have less genetic diversity than larger populations as a result of random genetic drift. We estimated heterozygosity levels for six populations, which were known to vary significantly in size^ using 15 microsatellite loci. We wished to see if generalized loss of genetic variation, as measured by a random sample of neutral loci, would correlate with levels of immune response to a physical challenge (needle prick). Experiments were performed using the wolf spider species Rabidosa rabida. Immune response was measured as …

The Bonds They Form: An Analysis Of Women's Relationships In Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Cat's Eye, And The Robber Bride, Kimberly Elizabeth Debrock

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Veterans: Short Stories, James George Cajoleas

Honors Theses

Barry Hannah one time told me a story of mine “lacked heart.” I was in Barry’s undergraduate workshop, already scared to death at having Barry Hannah, my living hero Captain Maximus himself, critiquing my work, and he told me my story lacked heart. I can honestly count that as one of the lowest moments of my life. My kindhearted (but stem) advisor Tom Franklin had cautioned me time and time again about letting voice overwhelm my story, about neglecting plot, about a certain tendency to be glib. I took all of those criticisms to heart, and I was making great …

Pov-It: The Pov-Ray Interactive Tutorial, Eleanor O'Rourke

Honors Theses

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, commonly known as POV-Ray, is a computer graphics package that can be used to produce highly sophisticated and photorealistic images and animations. POV-Ray is widely used in the computer graphics community for a diverse variety of applications, including teaching college courses, creating visual music animations, and generating computer art. Although the popularity of POV-Ray is apparent, the teaching materials available for the package are confusing, disorganized, and inaccessible. In this project, I have designed an online system that provides a series of interactive tutorials that teach users how to create images using the POV-Ray …

Gardening Programs In Schools: A Proposed Solution To Reverse The Consequences Of The Current American Food Culture, Charlotte Grace Blessey

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the problems with current food consumption and production practices, and proposes the implementation of school gardening programs as a possible remedy to these problems. Methods and procedures consisted of research on current publications, periodicals, internet sources and scholarly articles concerning these topics. It was found that current diet is a significant factor in widespread health problems facing populations today. This diet is intertwined with an environmentally destructive and vulnerable system of intensive industrial agriculture based on centralization, mass distribution, and standardization. School garden programs target children beginning at a young age and help to counter the culture …

The Interplay Between History And Religious Ambivalence In John Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy, Kathryn Sewell Gillen

Honors Theses

The protagonist of John Updike’s Rabbit Tetralogy, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, is examined and explained in terms of his ambivalence and spiritual concerns. Rabbit is commonly accepted as a socio-historical symbol - an “American Everyman” - but this explanation alone fails to account for his inclination towards the unknown. Combining Rabbit the symbol with Rabbit the individual allows for a more complete understanding of Updike’s intent to make a statement that is both political and theological. Rabbit’s continual movement between extremes (his ambivalence) is considered foremost. Rabbit’s indecision is a constant throughout the four novels, his most defining characteristic. Once this …

Gifts And Curses: Prometheus' Theft Of Fire In The Works Of Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, And Lord Byron, Natalie Nicole Hopper

Honors Theses

The myth of Prometheus and his theft of fire is a popular theme in Romantic literature; however, each Romantic author has a different story to tell about the ancient Titan. This thesis examines three Romantic authors and their distinct approaches to the Promethean myth. Percy Shelley portrays Prometheus as a hero worthy of adoration, Mary Shelley depicts him as inconsiderate and power hungry, and Lord Byron paints the picture of a noble—yet troubled—figure. The diverse ideologies and personal experiences of these three writers cause them to view the motives and consequences of Prometheus in drastically different lights.

Influence Of Carrageenan-Induced Nociception On Separation-Induced Distress Vocalizations And Hyperthermia In Domestic Fowl Chicks, Erin Kathleen Johnson

Honors Theses

While there is extensive research on the effects of stress on pain perception, very few studies have been conducted on how vary ing pain intensities affect stress levels. This study was conducted to simulate this relationship by using carrageenan-induced inflammatory nociception to quantify its effect on the stress measures of social separation stress devocaJizations (dVocs) and body temperature in 6-7 day old domestic fowl chicks. Nociception was induced 2 hours prior to the stress test, via intraplantar injection of carrageenan at either 0 %, 0.125%, 0.25%, or 0.5%, and was measured directly after the stress test by both foot withdrawal …

Bailey Junior High And The Desegregation Of Jackson Public Schools, Marcial Davidson Forester Iii

Honors Theses

This thesis details the history of Jackson, Mississippi through the eyes of education, specifically through the public schools, and in particular Bailey Junior High (present day Bailey Magnet School). Newspaper articles from Jackson’s primary media suppliers, along with personal interviews and academic essays, were used to gather information on the subject. Chapter One explores the early years of segregated public education in Jackson, as well as the beginning of Bailey Junior High and the community investment in Jackson Public Schools in the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II, the city’s growing population brought greater demands for classroom space, and …

Bowen Family Systems Theory In The Life And Works Of Ernest Hemingway, Allison Brooke Morgan

Honors Theses

For my thesis I researched Bowen Family Systems Theory, a psychological theory that concentrates, not on the individual, but rather on the system within which an individual is involved as a means of explaining behavior. After further explaining this theory in terms of its eight concepts, I looked at the life of Ernest Hemingway, his relationships, his writing style and central theme, his success, and his hardships. For his works, I concentrated on Hemingway’s collection of orgamc short stories entitled In Our Time for the application of Bowen Theory. My research has led me to conclude that Hemingway managed anxiety …

The Effects Of Habituation On Separation-Distress Vocalizations In The Anxiety-Depression Continuum, Lindsey M. Louviere

Honors Theses

The chick model ofthe anxiety-depression continuum has been used to examine the disorder’s pathology and treatment outcomes. However, little is known about how habituation to different stressors affects the behavior ofthe animal. In this study, different groups ofsocially-raised chicks received habituation to the experimenter via handling, acclimation to the apparatus with a social companion, or acclimation to the apparatus under an isolated condition for 4 days prior to a 60 min isolation test in which the animal’s latency to vocalize and number of distress vocalizations were recorded. The latency to vocalize decreased and the number ofdistress vocalizations increased as a …

A Youth In Upheaval!, Christine E. Nagel

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Hip-Hop Theatre: From Roots To Performance, Jessica Dee Bocade

Honors Theses

Hip Hop theatre has the potential to be an extremely useful art form with the ability to bring younger audiences back to the realm of live theatre. However, several challenges have prevented it from becoming such a powerful influence in the theatrical world. These problems continue to stifle the potential power of hip-hop theatre to reach a greater audience, as well as the ability to be seen in the theatrical world as a legitimate, effective, and stable genre of theatre - not just a "fad."

Misalliance Scenic Design, Joseph W. Shoup

Honors Theses

As scenic designer for George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance, put on by the WMU department of theatre, I feel ready to graduate. I have gained deeper insight into the design process, and through a large quantity of research, preparation, and hard work, have accomplished a set that I can be proud of. I have also been awakened to a fashion of architecture that has become my favorite style.

Social Hierarchy In Leaderless Groups, Angie B. White

Honors Theses

The idea of social rank-ordering (indicative of status. dominance. or potential leadership capacity) was first extensively researched by Robert F. Bales in the early I 950's. Bales shaped group communication around the principle that groups inevitably evolve into unequal power structures and develop a hierarchy of participation and status (Bales et. al, 1951 ). This hierarchy is evident in many different areas of life, such as social interactions, socio-economic status, and task-related rank, and the idea of dominance is established early on in life. From 1961, when Gellert observed dyads of 4- to 6- year-old children and found that a …

League Of Their Own: The Competition For Jewish-American Identity In The Novels Of Philip Roth, Rebeccah Amendola

Honors Theses

In his insightful and sometimes troubled contemporary writings, Philip Roth demonstrates a nuanced understanding of how the development of Jewish-American identity is a painful and often hilariously paradoxical journey of discovery as Jewish traditions intersect (and often collide) with the American ideal of vertical advancement. Since the successful fulfillment of the American Dream requires some measure of assimilation into the majority American culture known as Americanization, Roth's Jewish-American characters are continually and precariously ill-balanced between retaining and abandoning their Jewish heritage in favor of a new American identity. Thus, if Americanization necessitates Anglo-conformity and the abandonment of immigrant mores, the …

A Broad-Spectrum Mer Operon In A Multi-Drug Resistant Strain Of The Fish Pathogen, Aeromonas Salmonicida, Erin Parry

Honors Theses

Aeromonas salmonicida AS03, a potential fish pathogen, was isolated from Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in 2003. This strain was found to be resistant to ≥1000 mM HgCl2 and ≥32 mM phenylmercuric acetate as well as multiple antimicrobials. Mercury (Hg) and antibiotic resistance genes are often located on the same mobile genetic elements, so the genetic determinants of both resistances and the possibility of horizontal gene transfer were examined. Specific PCR primers were used to amplify and sequence distinctive regions of the mer operon. A. salmonicida AS03 was found to have a pDU1358-like broad-spectrum mer operon, containing merB as well as …

The Travel Imagination And The Hybrid Reality In The Wake Of Colonialism, James Mclaughlin

Honors Theses

The “traveling imagination,” is of paramount importance to both western and postcolonial travelers. Since both groups create “travel imaginations” by extensive reading, the nature of the books that inform them must directly affect their travels. A westerner, for example, who reads only colonial-era accounts has the “travel imagination” of a different generation. If all perspectives were represented equally in libraries, the “travel imagination” of a given person would be entirely his/her own. But usually the “traveler’s imagination” is biased by prevailing opinion. Libraries are not democracies, and sometimes extensive reading only indoctrinates the reader with the biases of the canon. …

Non-Adherence: A Symptom Of The Current Health Care Model, Margaret Duggan

Honors Theses

This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the discourse surrounding patient adherence in an effort to illustrate the extent of the problem, how it is framed, and how intervention is currently approached. The paper begins with a general review of adherence, to ground the reader in the current discourse. The next section of the paper will focus specifically on adherence through the lens of HIV/AIDS. Since HIV/AIDS treatment and adherence to antiretroviral drugs is pertinent to adherence issues due to the complexity and lifelong duration of treatment. Furthermore, adherence with HIV/AIDS medications is particularly important due to the …

The Presence, Prevalence And Antibiotic Resistance Of Microbes In The Pamunkey River Basin, Christina Mcdowell

Honors Theses

This project examined the presence, prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Coliforms (mainly Escherichia coli), Staph/occocus aureus, fecal Streptococcus, andEnterobacteriacae found in the water samples taken from three selected sites on the North Anna, South Anna, and Little Rivers of the Pamunkey River Basin. The diversity and concentration of the microbes isolated from these sites was evaluated in late January and late March allowing for a comparison of the occurrence of microbes at different times and between the different sites. Over the course of two months the concentration of colonies increased based on colony counts from Nutrient agar. The rate of …

The Effects Of P53 Status And Egf On Timp-2 And Other Proteins Related To Migration In Human Glioblastoma Cell Cultures, Lisa M. Lint

Honors Theses

The effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on proteins that have been implicated in the migration of the Grade IV brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, were investigated in this study. Differential expression levels of TIMP-2, MMP-2, and MT1-MMP in response to EGF treatment were compared by immunoprecipitation, and immunoblotting. This study involved two different cultured glioma cell lines, U87, which expresses wild-type p53, and T98, which has a mutation in the p53 gene, in order to determine if the status of the p53 tumor suppression gene is a factor in the regulation of proteins involved in this migration pathway. It was …

Political Differentiation In Consumer Preferences For Underdog Businesses : Does Everybody Love A Winner?, Kelly O'Connor

Honors Theses

In an exploratory study of the intersection between the worlds of social behavior and personal economics, this experiment will examine the links between political ideology and consumer preference for an ''underdog" business. The stereotypical image of the Mom and Pop comer store is romantic, but when we juxtapose this sentiment with the convenience and predictability of shopping at a giant retailer, it is unclear which store consumers will prefer, and why. This study tested the hypothesis that individuals with more liberal political orientations will be more likely to exhibit a preference for underdog businesses than individuals with conservative political leanings, …

Putting The Pieces Together: The Mystery Surrounding An Attic Pyxis From The University Of Mississippi Robinson Collection, Heather Ryanne Carrillo

Honors Theses

The study of Greek painted pottery has the ability to explain many mysteries surrounding ancient Athens. The University of Mississippi is home to a large collection of these archaeological jewels, many of which have not been thoroughly studied. An Attic white ground pyxis is one unpublished vessel, which before now, has never been carefully examined. The purpose of this study was to examine all aspects of this piece, which include the shape, artists, and iconography. Such attributes were studied through the analysis of ancient texts, previous scholarship on shape and iconography, and a close comparison of two artists’ hands. A …

Media & Literature: American Cinema And C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Laura B. Rigby

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the characters and Christian spiritual themes in C. S. Lewis’s work The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and examines the disparity between Lewis’s original work and the 2005 Walt Disney Productions film adaptation of the text. Through the examination of the differences between the two works, this study assesses the degree of theme shift and provides possible explanations for the changes.

Etruscan Fiesole, Kathryn Virginia Cannada

Honors Theses

This paper is an examination of the Etruscan people and their inhabitation of the of Fiesole, outside of Florence, Italy. After living in Florence, Italy during 2004 and 2005,1 became interested in the beginnings of the area. Learning that Fiesole was conversations town populated earlier than Florence, I began researching about Fiesole. From with local archaeologists and from examining the visible, ancient remnants of Fiesole in the Archaeology Museum of Fiesole and in the town itself, my interest and knowledge about this interesting area grew. When 1 began to read about Fiesole, 1 discovered that little material has been written …

Myths, Stereotypes And Truths: A Critical Look At The Relationship Between Africans And African-Americans., Jennifer Olufemi Salu

Honors Theses

This study focuses on the relationship between Africans and African-Americans and examines the w ay many members of each group perceive the other. In examining the relationship between each group, the study focuses on looking at some of the myths and stereotypes many Africans, especially African students and immigrants in the United States, have of African-Americans and vice-versa and the impact these myths and stereotypes have on the way members of both groups view each other. This study also focuses on understanding and some of the unique challenges members of each group face in trying to correct mistaken assumptions about …

The Effect Of Carrageenan-Induced Inflammatory Nociception On Distress Vocalizations And The Anxiolytic Efficacy Of Drugs In The Chick Separation Stress Paradigm, Ralph Brooks Vance Jr.

Honors Theses

RALPH BROOKS VANCE, JR: The Effect of Carrageenan-Induced Inflammatory Nociception on Distress Vocalizations and the Anxiolytic Efficacy ofDrugs in the Chick Separation Stress Paradigm. (Under the direction ofKenneth J. Sufka)

The effects ofstress on pain perception have been well studied, but only limited research has been conducted on the opposite relationship, the effect ofpain on stress level. Femandez-Guasti (2005) found that nociception caused by uric acid injections, attenuated the anxiety-like behavior ofrats in both the elevated plus maze and in the burying behavior test. Additionally, they discovered that the anxiolytic effectiveness of buspirone and diazepam were weakened by the mild …