Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Selective Mutism And Determining The Best Treatment Options, Austin Arroyo

Honors Theses

Selective mutism is a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak or communicate effectively in certain social situations but ability to communicate in settings where they are comfortable and relaxed. This paper seeks to explain selective mutism including the description of theories of anxiety, history and etiology of selective mutism, and common characteristics associated with selective mutism. It also contains information about treatment options and determines which treatment is considered the most effective. The conclusion is that there is not one treatment that is considered the best for selective mutism. Selective mutism manifests differently from person …

Hollers, Hillbillies, And Higher Education: The Influence Of Dialect And Negative Stereotypes On The Academic Experiences Of Rural Appalachian College Students, Jessica D. Boggs

Honors Theses

Rural Appalachia is presented in popular culture as a region lacking in resources, morals, education, and more. Consequently, Appalachians who speak in the nonstandard language variety representative of the region are often subject to harmful stereotypes. This work examines the impact of negative stereotypes on dialectal Appalachian college students during their pursuit of higher education. This research was conducted via an anonymous survey investigating how students from specified rural Appalachian counties in Kentucky perceived their academic experiences regarding stereotypes, speaking a stigmatized Appalachian dialect, and how these influence others’ perceptions of them when attending any college or university. Hypotheses included …

Legal And Community Input In The Record Of Decision For The Bluegrass Army Depot, Hannah E. Taylor

Honors Theses

The Bluegrass Army Depot of Richmond, Kentucky is owned and operated by the United States Army to demilitarize the chemical weapons stockpile facility. The citizens of Richmond filed a civil suit against the Army for wanting to incinerate the stored chemical weapons. This research compiles an overview of the history of chemical weapons, current laws and legislation regarding the facility, political implications, public opinions surrounding the installation, facility stockpiles and ammunition, chemical weapons dissemination methods, and specific analysis and research dedicated to the Bluegrass Army Depot’s project stages, destruction technologies, and public involvement. The central purpose is to compile a …

Application Of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (Ert) To Wetland Hydrogeology: An Assessment Of The Efficacy Of Array Configurations, Wynter Monjarez

Honors Theses

Abstract — Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) is a geophysical technique used to measure and map the resistivity of the subsurface. Resistivity (expressed in units of Ohm-meters), the inverse of conductivity, is an intrinsic property of earth materials that is a function of their material composition, void space, and water content. ERT is frequently used for mineral and groundwater exploration, but this technique can be used for any study that requires information of the near-surface environment. Resistivity is determined by applying a known direct current on one electrode pair (labeled C1 and C2) and taking measurements of the voltage potential on …

Is Lineage C A Distinct Species?, Shiza Khan

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Othering The Brother: Toward A Sibling-Oriented Ethics Of Care, William Bryant

Honors Theses

This project is an examination of issues of childcare, gendered responsibilities, and family identity informed by feminist and queer theory. As the second oldest in a family of eight, I have always understood myself primarily as a big brother. Rooted in this experience, this project is an exploration of feminist care ethics as they pertain to existing family structures. I review and build upon feminist conversations surrounding the family, especially concerning motherhood. Then, working with more recent queer and trans discourse, I explore how different familial care practices have been limited, reconfigured, or erased under dominant cis-heteronormative notions of care. …

Assistive And Augmentative Communication: Ethics And Possibilities In Music Therapy With Non-Speaking Clients, Amanda Bursch

Honors Theses

Music therapy is a healthcare field wherein music experiences and the myriad relationships formed between client(s), board-certified music therapist(s), and music activates health-oriented changes (Bruscia, 2014). Within this field there are multiple facets that directly impact the client’s experiences; these include: arrangement of the therapy environment, role and function of music experiences, therapeutic relationships, and communication in verbal and non-verbal forms. However, there is a gap in the education and training of music therapists concerning alternatives to verbal communication, and the use of these alternatives in therapy. Through interviews and analysis, this thesis presents findings regarding the experiences of one …

Effect Of Arch Height On Dynamic Balance And Neuromuscular Control In Young Adults, Kale R. Offstein

Honors Theses

The foot, functioning as a lever to support our body weight during movement, can present with structural differences like a smaller arch height resulting in pes planus or flat feet, or a higher arch height which is called pes cavus. Commonly, arch height develops with age, as infants are born with flat feet and, as they grow, their arches develop until the ages of 10-13 years. Dysfunction in the foot from abnormal arches has been shown to impact foot function and ankle stabilization, which can influence sports performance and injury risk. Dynamic balance is an important aspect of many different …

Competition Versus Choice: Evolution Along A Narrow Path In Drosophila Β2 Tubulin, Olivia B. Parson

Honors Theses

The Drosophila melanogaster β2 protein (Dmβ2) has sustained a long evolutionary stasis for the last 60 million years (Nielsen 2006). Even small changes to the protein’s primary amino acid sequence render it non-functional, suggesting its stasis may be due to stringency in the structure/function relationship (Nielsen 2001). This project seeks to understand what has prevented Dmβ2 from evolving, with the two main hypotheses being that Dmβ2 either exists as an ideal protein configuration that competitively bests all alternates or that Dmβ2 is the only possible configuration that will support spermatogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. In order to test these hypotheses, the …

Contesting Human Rights Coherence: Neoliberalism As An Epoch Of Brutality, David Quick Iii

Honors Theses

The end of the Cold War solidified modern human rights’ dependency on neoliberalism. Neoliberal capitalism fosters universal commodification, hyper-individualism, and a standard of excess. A consequence of these developments is that some persons of marginalized populations turn to crime as a means of achieving basic human rights. To particularize, the realization of the self as a rights-holding subject emerges from the brutalization and subsequent de-realization of the other. Furthermore, justifications of such actions may be coherent within the modern human rights discourse. This thesis is contextualized by the historical dynamics and present-day observations of El Salvador, which I take to …

Identifying The Effects Of Anaerobicity And Propionate On Listeria Monocytogenes Metabolism And Central Nervous System Infection, Rebecca Rudd

Honors Theses

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative foodborne pathogen that can enter the bloodstream and invades the central nervous system to cause meningitis. As an intracellular pathogen, L. monocytogenes replicates inside the host cell cytosol and avoids extracellular immune defenses as it disseminates throughout the body. L. monocytogenes can also reach and cross the blood brain barrier, resulting in severe or fatal symptoms in immunocompromised and elderly patients. The overarching goal of my research project is to better understand how different environmental factors, anaerobicity and propionate, in the intestinal lumen alter the ability of L. monocytogenes to cause infections. In the first …

Methods For Exploiting High-Resolution Imagery For Deep Learning-Based Diabetic Retinopathy Detection And Grading, Adam M. Saunders

Honors Theses

Diabetic retinopathy is a disease that affects the eyes of people with diabetes, and it can cause blindness. To diagnose diabetic retinopathy, ophthalmologists image the back surface of the inside of the eye, a process referred to as fundus photography. Ophthalmologists must then diagnose and grade the severity of diabetic retinopathy by analyzing details in the image, which can be difficult and time-consuming. Alternatively, due to the availability of labeled datasets containing fundus images with diabetic retinopathy, AI methods like deep learning can provide automated detection and grading algorithms. We show that the resolution of an image has a large …

Tracking System Effectiveness For Texas Police Departments In Low-Income Communities, Jakob Scarcelli

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Beyond Dna: An Analysis Of A Designer Baby Dystopia And The Genre Of Dystopia, Cassidy Stevens

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Folding Collision Probability In The Nyquist Folding Receiver, Hunter J. D. Miller

Honors Theses

As the radio-frequency spectrum becomes more crowded, there is a growing need for signal processing technology that can instantaneously interpret an ultra-wideband range of frequencies. Existing conventional systems, however, are not the most efficient solution due to the processing capability limitations of current analog-to-digital converter technology. Specifically, with regard to radars, traditional receivers are required to process large amounts of unused data, wasting time and energy. This project highlights a newer analog-to-information receiver that utilizes compressive sensing which is seeking to overcome these challenges. The innovative technology being evaluated allows users to sample far below the standard Nyquist/Shannon sample rates …

From Page To Panel: Navigating Intertextuality And Multimodality In A Neil Gaiman Graphic Adaptation, Kassandra Whitehurst

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of The University Of Southern Mississippi's Marketing And Branding Efforts Among Prospective Students, Amy Clevenger

Honors Theses

With enrollment rates expected to surge over the next decade, the competition

between institutions of higher learning will also increase. Because of this, marketing

material produced by all institutions will need to adjust to become more effective at

establishing brand identity to attract the attention of prospective students. Using Aaker’s

brand identity model as a framework to understand branding methods, this research aims

to identify marketing communication strategies that are more effective in a prospective

student’s decision-making process. The thesis also investigates prospective students’

recall and perception of marketing material produced by USM to determine its overall

effectiveness and differences …

Gender And Sexuality In Desperate Housewives, Berkley Smith

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Making Good Doctors: The Ama’S Code Of Ethics And A Culture Of Virtue, John Howard Hassmann

Honors Theses

The American Medical Association’s (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics consists of principles that ensure the legal sanctity and professional conduct of practicing physicians. These principles outline imperatives for physicians “primarily for the benefit of the patient. But a physician can be terrible without violating the AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics. Although the AMA’s code ought not be forsaken or replaced, any code of ethics cannot make its adherents good. Physicians cannot become good following a code that neglects to address the delicacy of good habits. Further, a topical, crisis-management approach to ethical training stifles physicians whose ethical goals transcend lawfulness …

The Cost Benefit Analysis Of College Dropouts Pursuing A Different Career Vs. Students That Graduated From College, Brittany Jackson

Honors Theses

For my thesis project, I will be analyzing two sets of data pertaining to these different groups; one group will be college dropouts that chose to pursue a career without earning a college degree and the other group will be students who graduated from a four-year college degree program. I will be paying close attention to the financial success of individuals in both groups based on their career path. Also, focusing on the amount of money one group makes versus the other group various careers. Some careers include, being a YouTuber, Social Media influencer, Financial Analyst, Accountant, Entrepreneur, Entertainer, and …

City Flags And The Politics Of Urban Revitalization: The Case Of Syracuse, Ny, Grace Risinger

Honors Theses

People tend to care about flags, but are not aware that their city has a flag. A recent wave of flag redesigns has been happening in the United States since a 2015 TED Talk was posted widely criticizing city flags. This subject prompted my professor, Daniel Alvord, to ask for a research assistant for his project to understand this phenomenon. For my thesis, I focus on a specific flag redesign initiative in Syracuse, NY, through an ethnographic case study. By applying previous urban sociological literature to my focus on flag redesigns, I can connect the Syracuse community member’s increased civic …

Stereotype Threat In Older Adults’ Episodic Memory Tests: Susceptibility And Protection, Talia Barrett

Honors Theses

The objective of the present study was to investigate whether prior task success would protect older adults against stereotype threat in an episodic memory test. Previous experiments have established that, whereas stereotype threat negatively impacts older participants’ episodic memory performance, prior task success benefits it. However, up until this point, researchers had yet to combine the two manipulations to test their joint effect on episodic memory. Participants were randomly assigned to read a stereotype threat or neutral passage, after which they were placed in the success or no success group. Participants next received a stereotype condition reminder, and they then …

Does Tssh Deletion In Paraburkholderia Bonniea Affect Its Symbiosis With Dictyostellum Discoideum?, Anna Chen

Honors Theses

Paraburkholderia are amoeba resistant, gram negative bacteria that form facultative symbiotic relationships with D. discoideum, a soil dwelling amoeba host. Three species of Paraburkholderia, P. agricolaris, P. hayleyella, and P. bonniea are able to persistently infect nonnative, or symbiont free, D. discoideum. These three species share a type III secretion system (T3SS) and type VI secretion system (T6SS) that is absent in other close relatives We hypothesized that the ability to persistently infect D. discoideum may be partially attributed to the T3SS and T6SS shared across the three species of Paraburkholderia.

The goal was to test the phenotypic effect of …

Pluralistic Ethical Personalism, Qifan Hu

Honors Theses

In the thesis, I sketch out a general outline for a pluralistic, personalist theory of ethics. This theory intends to capture the phenomenon that our life experience is saturated with ethical and other kinds of values; and it also emphasizes the idea that each ethical agent, or human being, has a unique ethical project that is understandable in light of various ethical values.

The Lie-Brary Of Congress: Misinformation’S Grip On The American Legislative Process, Caleb Bitting

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the influence of misinformation on the policy-making pro- cess by examining its temporal relationship with congressional speech on the floor of Congress. Through the application of Granger causality tests, I aim to determine the extent to which misinformation permeates political discourse and affects representatives from both political parties. My findings reveal that misinformation drives congressional speech on certain issues, and it appears to have an asymmetrical impact on Republicans and Democrats. While not set up to answer the question about a false dichotomy, my thesis hints that Republicans spread significantly more systems-based misinformation than their Democratic counterparts.

Finding The Common Denominator: Understanding The Shared Experiences Of Female Math Majors, Abigail R. Rosenbaum

Honors Theses

Despite efforts to increase gender diversity in STEM fields, women remain underrepresented in mathematics, especially in advanced academic and research positions. This study aimed to explore the experiences of female math majors as they attempt to navigate this male-dominated space. Through qualitative interviews with seven female math majors, two female math professors, and a focus group with education majors at Woodbridge College, small liberal arts college in the United States, several common themes were identified that define the experiences of female math majors. The findings suggest that math is held at an elevated status in society and that there is …

From Schleswig To Anschluss: The Plebiscites And Referendums Of Interwar Germany, Matthew J. Rocha

Honors Theses

This paper aims to bridge the gap between the plebiscites following the First World War and the referendums of the Third Reich. To this point, the literatures on these sets of votes have remained completely separate. No scholars have considered the NSDAP’s votes in the context of the postwar votes. By comparing and contrasting these groups of plebiscites for the first time, this paper will shed light on the democratic backsliding of interwar Germany.

This paper argues that when planning their referendums, the leaders of the Third Reich had the immediate postwar plebiscites in mind and were, in some cases, …

Portraits Of Practice: A Case Study On Elementary Schools Successfully Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support, Catherine "Cat" Merkle

Honors Theses

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) is an educational framework that aims to make the general education classroom more inclusive to all students and types of learners. MTSS has been found to improve student growth and achievement and decrease special education referrals through the use of layered supports that allow students to stay in the classroom as much as possible. There is a direct focus on progress monitoring, universal screening, and data-based decision making in order to ensure that all students are getting the support they need, whether it be universal, group-based, or individualized. This study aimed to understand what factors …

Tracing North Atlantic Continental Erosion Events During The Mid-Pleistocene Transition, Cecilia T. Bowe

Honors Theses

The Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), which occurred between 1.2 and 0.7 Mya, is characterized by changes in the periodicity and intensity of glacial-interglacial cycles. Early research into this event found that it was not triggered by changes in orbital forcing, but rather by internal climate processes. Previous studies have constrained a probable two-step mechanism, in which erosion of regolith under ice sheets increased glacial volumes and contributed to increased carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean. Additional research has built on this, suggesting that increased glacial erosion of cratons surrounding the North Atlantic preceded a major weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning …

Biomechanics Of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor

Honors Theses

Mantis species have a variety of different morphologies, so do the extreme forms of mantis limbs trade prey catching capability for camouflage? We hypothesize that some extreme forms of mantis limbs that are associated with cryptic species may be associated with a tradeoff of the capability of those limbs. Previous research has developed 2D morphologies of several hundred species of mantises. We are creating a 3D morphology by using micro dissection, micro CT imaging to construct our 3D biomechanical model. We found the attachment points of the ligaments and muscles from a Tenodera forearm and have constructed a 2D biomechanical …