Digital Commons Network^™

Determining The Photometric Capabilities Of The Ctio 0.9-M Telescope, Cameron Clarke

Honors Theses

Exoplanet detections are becoming more and more frequent as our ability to detect transits and Doppler shifted stellar spectra improves. Here, we report on eight observing nights at the SMARTS 0.9m telescope in Chile at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), covering 13 nearby stars in the range of 11th to 14th visual magnitude. We used the defocus method to spread the point spread function (PSF) of the star across a larger portion of the CCD to achieve longer exposure times yielding a higher signal to noise ratio and a higher amount of data every night as less time was …

Root Cover Pebbling On Graphs, Claire A. Sonneborn

Honors Theses

Consider a graph, G, with pebbles on its vertices. A pebbling move is defined to be the removal of two pebbles from one vertex and the addition of one pebble to an adjacent vertex. The cover pebbling number of a graph, γ(G), is the minimum number of pebbles such that, given any configuration of γ(G) pebbles on the vertices of G, pebbling moves can be used to place one pebble on each vertex of G. We define the root vertex of a graph and fix an initial configuration of pebbles on G where we place all pebbles on the root …

Mostly True: An Exploration Of My Family History, Jessica Urban

Honors Theses

Family histories are tricky things, especially when the people in the stories don't necessarily want to talk about their pasts. My family immigrated to the US in the early 1800's, many to escape the anti-Semitism that was rampant in their countries. Through a series of personal interviews, family stories passed down from generation to generation, and my own imagination to fill in the gaps, I have compiled a series of short stories about my family and their lives in America from their arrival here in the 1800's to the present day. Although each family has a different story to tell, …

Cocoa And Chocolate: Deconstructing The Development Paradigm In Cameroon, Chelsea Vanhook

Honors Theses

This project focuses specifically on the neo-liberal economic iteration of international development. Neo-liberalism is the idea that the deregulation of the private sector and expansion of free trade will lead to growth in undeveloped countries, which will effectively end poverty and increase the standard of living. My ethnography in Southwest Cameroon, however, shows that the experience and embodiment of development takes on a new understanding at the local, daily level. Exploring the paradox of cocoa and chocolate in Cameroon, I find that while the average Cameroonian is able to grow cocoa, he/she is unable to afford chocolate. This context calls …

Archivum Plena: The Quest For A Fulfilling Past, Madeline Mcdermott

Honors Theses

Lyons Township High School, founded in 1888 in a suburb of Chicago, celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014. For seven years, a project researching and preserving the history of the school has been maintained. Over the summer of 2014, an archive was established for the school so that they could continue to keep safe all the historical items that had been kept, found, or donated. In addition to recounting the history of the high school and its relationship with the local area, this thesis also follows the process of creating the school’s archive and compares the experience there to related …

Multi-Segment Foot Joint Kinematics With Varying Midfoot Orthotic Postings, Hilary F. Feskanin

Honors Theses

Foot orthoses are often prescribed to prevent and treat lower limb disorders. While the success of these devices is well documented, the mechanisms behind them are unclear. Due to methodological limitations, many studies have focused on the rearfoot. This is the first study to assess the effects of midfoot-targeted orthotic strategies on midfoot and rearfoot kinematics. Gait mechanics were recorded for 19 healthy females walking in four orthotic conditions: valgus midfoot post, varus midfoot post, heel lift and standard/control. The midtarsal and ankle joint 3D kinematics for the three experimental conditions were compared to the control condition. Variables of interest …

Exploration Of Protein-Protein Interactions Involving Deinococcus Radiodurans Pria, Dnab And Ssb, Christopher S. Morrow

Honors Theses

Deinococcus radiodurans is a species of bacteria that has sparked a lot of interest since its discovery due to its incredible resistance to ionizing radiation. When exposed to ionizing radiation the genome of D. radiodurans will sustain over one hundred double stranded breaks. D. radiodurans demonstrates the ability to repair its genome and restart replication after sustaining, typically lethal, DNA damage. This project examined the mechanism of replication restart in D. radiodurans by investigating primosome protein PriA interacting with replicative helicase DnaB and single stranded binding protein. Many different types of gel electrophoresis were employed to investigate potential protein complex …

School-Books On Tape: The Tensile And Adhesive Strength Of Duct Tape In A College Backpack, Robin Elizabeth Ker

Honors Theses

Two categories were used to assess the strength of duct tape constructions: adhesive strength and tensile strength. Previously made duct tape backpacks frequently suffered from adhesive failure around shoulder straps. When a backpack is lifted, it experiences a force which is greater than the resting weight. The hypothesis states that there is an area of application between two pieces of duct tape such that they will behave as a uniform piece and experience tensile failure, that two sufficiently overlapped pieces can hold within 5% of the load carried by a single piece, and that there is a relationship between the …

Sherlock Holmes And James Moriarty: Victorian Genius In A Millennial World, Allison K. Carey

Honors Theses

In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first novel regarding the detective Sherlock Holmes. He would go on to publish another three novels and 56 short stories detailing the great detective’s endeavors. Today, 128 years later, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is as popular, as relevant, and as alive as ever. Adaptations continue to be made and achieve success, including the BBC’s mini-series, Sherlock. This modern adaptation and its interpretation of Conan Doyle’s characters, novels, stories, plots, and themes allow for a unique combination of Victorian and Modern England. It highlights the similarities and differences of a Victorian Holmes and …

Black White And In-Between: Race And Ethnicity In The Criminal Justice System 1885-1915, Elizabeth M. Wilhelm

Honors Theses

Events in the past year have brought racial and ethnic discrimination in the criminal justice system to the forefront of American consciousness. In reality, race has been used to create stereotypes for centuries, often supported by “scientific” and “statistical” evidence to support the idea that certain races are more likely to commit crimes than others. In my research, I trace the development of these ideas as well as the evidence used to support these racial notions primarily by drawing upon conference transcripts from two professional organizations: The National Prison Association and the National Conference of Charities and Corrections covering the …

An Operational Performance And Safety Comparison Of Roundabouts Vs. Traditional Intersections, Vincent Spahr

Honors Theses

As the modern roundabout becomes a more popular intersection alternative in the United States, the ability of the roundabout to effectively manage traffic and to do so safely is on the forefront of engineering concerns. Despite decades of international success and credibility, regions throughout the U.S. have been hesitant to implement roundabouts in place of more traditional intersections. This case study of a series of intersections in Dublin, OH assesses the operational performance of roundabouts as it compares to that of their stop-controlled and signalized counterparts and analyzes historical crash data to evaluate the safety of the various intersection types. …

Practical Cosmopolitans: The Diversity Of A Changing Indian Ocean, 1500-1750, Jordan Seitz

Honors Theses

The Indian Ocean has served as a catalyst for trade throughout history, connecting multiple cultural and geographical spheres. My goal was to dissect the ways in which social and cultural norms were impacted by the large amount of diversity found within Indian Ocean port cities between 1500 and 1800. Specifically, I chose to investigate the possibility of the creation of a virtue of diversity, similar to the concept of Cosmopolitanism. In this case, this would mean a variety of people who differ in cultural, ethnicity, and religion sharing mutual respect within a particular space. Among the factors which shaped these …

Chitinozoan Biodiversity In The Ordovician Of Gondwana: An Interval-Free Approach Using The Quantitative Stratigraphic Correlation Program Conop9, Rachel Sales

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the biodiversity patterns of a group of fossil organisms called chitinozoans. Chitinozoans are organic-walled, planktonic microfossils that first appear in the Early Ordovician Period (488 million years ago) and diversify rapidly through the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician Period was a time of great global climate change, and by studying this group of fossil plankton, we hope to better understand how modern plankton, which are the base of the marine food chain, might respond to climate change. We used a method called constrained optimization (CONOP9) to construct a composite range chart of 152 …

Suspension Electrospinning Carbon Nanotube Doped Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Nanowires, Ryan Hensleigh

Honors Theses

The synthesis, characterization and application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received substantial attention in recent years, particularly in the field of polymer nanomaterial composites (PNCs). CNTs possess impressive thermal, electrical and mechanical properties, and PNCs incorporating them have shown multitude increases in these same properties with relatively low percolation thresholds [1]. Electrospinning is an effective and tunable materials synthesis platform for the manufacture of micro and nanofibers that has shown particular promise in the fields of carbon nanotube PNC processing due to the favorable isotropic alignment CNTs undergo due to the electrospinning process [2]. CNT alignment has been shown to …

Horses: How Saddle Style Defines A Culture And The Skeletal System, Brandy Morgan

Honors Theses

This paper examines the way in which various parameters affect injury type and prevalence in horse eventing. The human-horse relationship has a long history that has continued to evolve, and their relationship is still strong today, especially in the role of sports and entertainment. In equestrian sports, horseback riding has been found to be extremely dangerous in terms of prevalence and severity of injury. This paper evaluates how saddle style, the sex of the rider, rider experience, and nature of event impacts injury patterns specifically within horse eventing which utilizes an English styled saddle.

Extending An Implicit Theories Approach To The Examination Of Empathy And Forgiveness, Jennifer Cecilione

Honors Theses

Empathy and forgiveness are two key constructs involved in effective conflict-resolution. Empathy has been defined in terms of its cognitive aspects (i.e. the ability to understand another’s emotional reactions to situations without actually feeling the other’s emotions) and its affective components (i.e. the ability to vicariously feel the emotions of another without directly experiencing the other’s situation). On the other hand, forgiveness has been described as the ability to act in a prosocial manner towards a transgressor. Past research has repeatedly shown links between empathy and forgiveness, such that empathy is a precursor to forgiveness. More recent research has suggested …

Exposure To Narratives And Social Reasoning, Cassandra Chlevin

Honors Theses

This study drew predominantly from previous work on the relationships of narrative and non-narrative texts with empathy and social reasoning. It has been posited that fiction -- due to the parallels between narrative texts and the social world -- may help readers maintain if not cultivate their social skills, whereas readers of non-narrative material may not have this benefit. This project attempted to both replicate and extend this pattern in a Seventh-day Adventist Christian sample by using instruments employed in previous research as well as a set of Bible-based instruments. Correlational analysis and nested linear regression were used to examine …

The Story Which He Never Stops Telling Himself: Autobiography, Narrative Community, And The Deconstruction Of Selfhood In Virginia Woolf's The Waves, Melodie Roschman

Honors Theses

This paper examines narrative, biography, and selfhood in Virginia Woolf's The Waves (1931). The novel, a "play-poem," follows six friends' monologues from childhood to death. I analyze aspiring writer Bernard from his childhood of telling stories about companions to his inability to narrate his autobiography, arguing that he fails because he has no self to narrate. Referencing Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology's (1974) theory of the deconstructed self identifiable only in conversation, I argue that Bernard destroys his identity by silencing his friends and becoming the sole speaker; Woolf's biographical theory thereby establishes the communal self, prefiguring tenets of postmodern philosophy.

Discourse And Narrative: Creating Gender Control In Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Charles Lee

Honors Theses

Junot Diaz's Pulitzer-Prize-Winning 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao explores Dominican masculinity through narrator Yunior de Las Casas's portrayal of protagonist Oscar de Leon's family history. Yunior's perceived virility shapes his understanding of masculinity, which he stresses through the novel's plot and structure. This analysis considers how Yunior constructs Dominican masculinity through his narrative by marginalizing and emasculating passive character such as Oscar. I argue that Yunior's narrative closely links definition of masculinity and power as he strives to dominate passive characters in order to assert his virility as the "best" method for being a Dominican man.

The Transgenerational Effect Of Substance Abuse, Subira Brown

Honors Theses

Using a survey conducted among college students at Andrews University, this study focused on substance use and sexual behaviors of students and the presence of familial substance use problems. Analysis indicated a significant association between substance use problems of fathers and their children's substance use. There was a stronger statistical association between father's substance use problems and male children's alcohol use. In addition there was a significant relationship between grandparents substance use and youth sexual behavior for both genders. There is a need for further analysis of this study.

Changing Attitudes Towards Sexual Orientation And The Effect Of Documentary Film, Michael Jon Vanderwaal

Honors Theses

Attitudes towards LGBT people are shifting rapidly, with over half (51%) of the US population now favoring same-sex marriage. LGBT issues are also being hotly debated in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church. The purpose of this research is to examine how the film, Seventh-Gay Adventist (SGA) influences SDA college students' attitudes regarding homosexuality. My study compares attitude scores of students (N=46) using an experimental design with random assignment. Both the experimental group and the control group completed a commonly used Homosexuality Attitude Scale and modified version of Fulton's Adventists and LGB's survey at pretest and posttest. Results show that the …

Construction And Optimization Of A Tapered Amplifier System For Applications In Ultra-Cold Plasma Research, Ryan Cole

Honors Theses

The number density of cold atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) is critically dependent on the intensity of the lasers used to cool the sample. To generate large optical powers while retaining the practicality of homemade external cavity diode lasers (ECDLs), a tapered amplifier (TA) system was designed and constructed to amplify the output of an existing 780 nm, continuous-wave ECDL. The amplifier’s performance is discussed in terms of its gain and power output. Under standard operating conditions, optical amplification of 12 dB is achieved, with a maximum power output of 0.75 W. The completed amplifier is installed into …

An Investigation Of Bag3 Knockdown And Its Effects On The Cytotoxicity Of Laromustine, Colin Sheehan

Honors Theses

Laromustine is a sulfonylhydrazine anticancer prodrug whose main cytotoxic arises from its ability to interfere with DNA replication of dividing cells. Multiple studies have suggested that Laromustine induces a form of cell death known as apoptosis. In a previous study investigating the mechanism of apoptosis, bcl2-associated athanogene 3 (BAG3) demonstrated significant upregulation in the presence of Laromustine. Given its anticancer ability, we selected BAG3 as a target for further investigation. BAG3 knockdown through transient shRNA transfections was performed in U138 glioblastoma multiforme cells and verified using qRT-PCR analysis. Finally, cell death assays were used to assess Laromustine’s cytotoxic effect on …

Bhabha's Hybridity And Kenyan Development: A Close Look At Banking, Land And Health, Hannah F. Tuttle, Hannah Tuttle

Honors Theses

What happens when two distinct cultures come into contact? During colonialism, this resulted in the practice of "othering," or the separation of colonial identity, portrayed as positive, modern and good, from colonized identity, illustrated as backward, barbaric and sinful. In this paper, I discuss the ways that Homi K. Bhabha's concept of "hybridity," or the ways that the intersection of these two spheres caused a third "hybrid" culture to arise, manifests in contemporary development practice. Based on a month of field research in Kisumu, Kenya this past January, I discuss the ways that these "hybrids" have formed at the intersection …

Demographics As Destiny: Modeling Population Change And Party Strategies On The Electoral Map, 2016-2040, Sam Parker

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways demographic change will affect presidential elections over the next 25 years. It utilizes a detailed, interactive model to project the electoral effects of demographic growth in every presidential election from 2016 to 2040; the model allows me to simulate how voting rates by demographic groups might be altered by changes in party strategies. The two alternative Republican strategies this model simulates are a "doubling down" on white voters and a "diversified coalition" approach, where Republicans would reach out to minorities to build a coalition better suited to America's growing diversity.

The model's results indicate that, …

Acl Injuries In Female Athletes: Are Prevention Programs The Answer?, Brooke Chandor

Honors Theses

Around 400,000 people tear their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs) every year in the United States. The majority of these injuries occur during athletics, and most commonly to females. Their neuromuscular abilities, anatomies, and hormones put female athletes at a much higher risk of ACL injury than male athletes. The current gold standard of treatment, ACL reconstruction, is an imperfect technique at best. It leaves patients with much higher risk of both ACL reinjury and early onset of osteoarthritis. Prevention programs, aimed at reducing the neuromuscular risk factors in female athletes, have proved to effectively reduce the number of noncontact ACL …

Mathematical Modeling Of Emiliania Huxleyi And A Host-Specific Virus, Julia Middleton

Honors Theses

The world’s oceans provide the basis for life on the planet. One microscopic algae, the coccolithophores, and Emiliania huxleyi in particular, is a major source of carbon drawdown in the context of the global carbon cycle and account for a significant amount of the primary production in oceanic ecosystems. We know that the oceans are packed with marine viruses and they have an important role in the rise and fall of plankton populations but current mathematical models do not accurately account for virus-host interactions when predicting plankton blooms. Therefore I am using model optimization and comparison techniques to evaluate current …

Market Microstructure And Abnormal Returns: An Analysis Of Nyse And Sgx Securities, Alex Ng

Honors Theses

This paper investigates the differences in the abnormal returns of securities in the context of the earnings announcement in both the United States (NYSE) and Singapore (SGX) markets[1]. Despite the similarities between both exchanges, there exist two key market microstructure differences: the free float factor (i.e. the portion of listed share capital that is freely traded on the market) and lot size (i.e. the minimum number of shares that an investor can trade in a single transaction). While the difference in the lot size can be attributed to the intrinsic institutional differences between both exchanges, the involvement of …

Generation Of 2-Adamantylidenecarbene From A Phenanthrene-Based Precursor, Christine E. Wamsley

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the generation of 2-adamantylidenecarbene from a phenanthrene-based precursor. A three-step synthetic procedure was used to generate the 2-adamantylidenecarbene precursor, which subsequently underwent photolysis to produce 2-adamantylidenecarbene. This product was trapped with cyclohexene. No evidence of a ring expansion to 4-homoadamantyne was observed. It was also noted that the target precursor underwent rearrangement during photolysis, leading to the formation of an isomer containing a seven-membered ring. This isomer did not photolyze. Additionally, computational studies were performed using Gaussian 09. Geometries were initially optimized and then, the single point energies of the singlet and triplet carbene states were calculated. …

The Influence Of Normative Feedback On Stigma Of Mental Health, Carly A. Taylor

Honors Theses

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI; 2012) reports that the greatest barrier preventing college students from seeking help for a mental illness is stigma. Previous research has yet to develop an effective stigma reduction intervention targeting college students.Therefore, the purpose of the following research was to examine whether the administration of personalized normative feedback (PNF) could reduce personal stigma and correct the perception that others stigmatize mental illness. It was hypothesized that participants at baseline would expect others to hold more stigmatizing views compared to themselves. In order to correct this misperception and reduce stigma, half of the participants …