Digital Commons Network^™

Income, Trade And Pollution In Central Asia, Russia And China: An Econometric Analysis, Tisorn Songsermsawas

Honors Theses

The study performs a panel estimation of the relationship between per capita income, trade, and airborne pollution in the five Central Asian nations, Russia and China between 1992 and 2008. First, this study uses an environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC)- an inverted-U relationship between the increase in income and the level of environmental degradation - to examine how income and pollution are related. Second, the study uses a gravity model to estimate the effect of a regional trade agreement (Shanghai Cooperation Organization: SCO) on incomes and carbon dioxide emissions in the region. Empirical analysis confirms the existence of the rising …

Semantic Categorization Of Unfamiliar Tunes In Older And Younger Adults, Samantha Ann Deffler

Honors Theses

The process of learning the categories of new tunes in older and younger adults was examined for this study. Tunes were presented either one or three times along with a category name to see if multiple repetitions aid in category memory. Additionally, toexamine if an association may help some listeners, especially older ones, to better remember category information, some tunes were presented with a short associative fact; this fact was either neutral or emotional. Participants were tested on song recognition,fact recognition, and category memory. For all tasks, there was a benefit of three presentations. There were no age differences in …

The Catholic Doctrine Of Transubstantiation: An Exposition And Defense, Pat Selwood

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to offer both an exposition and defense for the Catholic Church's traditional understanding of eucharistic transubstantiation. I hope to show how a belief in such a doctrine is in no way irrational nor is it indefensible; butinstead, the doctrine of transubstantiation makes sense when it is viewed in light of what Catholic Christians believe about who the human being is, what the human desires, and the special way in which God personally works in human history. The method I am following investigates how the doctrine of transubstantiation coheres with and follows the other beliefs …

Tarnishing The Golden Stool, Fenna Maximiliane Wächter

Honors Theses

This thesis deals with the Asante federation (in modern-day Ghana ) in the nineteenth century, within the wider context of a general crisis of authority in African states in the later partof the century. African states were fighting against the external pressures of European imperial expansion while facing internal challenges to their structures of power. Asante was one of these states and this thesis examines why, because of a particular combination of internal and external challenges, Asante was unable to maintain its independence at the end of the nineteenth century.

The Blue Dog Coalition: Impact Of A Single-Issue Caucus From The 104th To The 110th Congress, Andrew James Clarke

Honors Theses

The Blue Dog Coalition is an informal organization of legislators within the House of Representatives that strives to influence policy on fiscal responsibility, attract the attention of the electorate, They are a group that elicits wide range of reactions covering the length of the political spectrum, but despite this, their claims of special defense of fiscal conservatism within the Democratic Party have gone relatively undocumented by the academic community.This project has integrated a party literature with a caucus literature, in the attempt of building a novel framework for research. Work on polarization, the significance of parties, the purpose and history …

Persuasion And Rhetoric In Cable News Commentary: A Philosophical, Zachary Mark Cruthirds

Honors Theses

There is currently a growing cynicism about objectivity in cable news reporting and commentary, and there have been many allegations of pandering and bias on the part of and concerning commentators on 24-hour news outlets. There have been changing trends in how many American citizens acquire information and analysis from these mediums—leading to what has been coined the '‘infotainment*' of certain comedians, extremists, and any network, corporation, or commentator who would give consideration to giving a target audience what they desire or expect. In the following thesis, we will offer definitions for rhetoric and persuasion founded in a type of …

Gridiron Peers: An Analysis Of The Legendary Coaching Careers And Foundations Of Success Of Paul Bear Bryant And John Vaught Through Comparison And Contrast, David Luke Trewolla

Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparison and contrast of the sources of the on-the-field success of Paul Bear” Bryant, head coach at the University of Alabama and John Vaught, head coach at the University of Mississippi, in their respective coaching careers in college football. The first two chapters of the thesis simply give a brief biographical background of the two coaches. In Chapter Three, their respective coaching styles as it pertains to game planning and strategy, practice, and their adjustment to the changing style of the college game in their careers are analyzed and compared and contrasted. Chapter Four is an …

Replacement Of The Cro Repressor In A Negative Feedback Circuit With A Slow Dimerizing Variant, Lauren Michelle Rowe

Honors Theses

The Cro protein is a transcriptional regulator that plays an active role in the switch between the lysogenic and lytic viral cycles of bacteriophage lambda. Functional Cro proteins exist as dimers composed of two identical Cro subunits. It is suspected that the dimerization rate and the affinity of Cro’s subunits play a part in determining the activity of the protein in living cells. Synthetic genetic circuits have been constructed in order to determine the repression dynamics of Cro in vivo. These circuits are used to observe the ability of wild-type Cro and a pre-dimerized variant named scCro to modulate the …

The Boy Who Lived: An Examination Of The Hero's Journey In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series, Victoria Laine Applewhite

Honors Theses

The prevalence of the mythic hero’s journey in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was investigated in order to determine how an archaic mythic form manifests itself in a contemporary literary series. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces was consulted for a detailed account of the mythic hero’s journey, and several scholarly analyses were consulted for a closer examination of Rowling’s series. The journey of Harry Potter closely correlated with the majority of the components of Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey: unusual birth, call to adventure, crossing of the threshold, aid from a protective figure, a series of tests, …

Creation And Application Of Mississippi Tort Reform Law, Lauren Elizabeth Delap

Honors Theses

This study is an investigation of the power of the tort reform issue to drive the Mississippi legislature to create new tort reform statutes and drive the court to determine their proper application. It explores the issue’s influence through the channels of interest groups and the media prior to the passage of tort reform legislation. The study also looks at how the issue continues to drive debate through the state judiciary. In the study of interest groups, this investigation analyzes campaign contributions through PACs and by the individual and national organizations, as well as examining non-flnancial tactics used by these …

Communicative Development Through A Comparative Lens: A Snapshot Of Foreign Language Education In The United States And France, Halley Anne Hargrave

Honors Theses

This thesis is an examination of external influences on the foreign language classroom. I evaluate national policy and legislature, textbooks, and national tests as possible determinants of foreign language teaching methods used in the United States and France. I chose to compare the American system to the French system as a result of the relative success of foreign language education in France and my ability to read policy and curriculum in French. By comparing the foreign language education systems in the two countries, I hope to determine what types of weaknesses in American foreign language instruction practices hinder language acquisition. …

On The Ethics Of Human Genetic Engineering, John Ryan Speights

Honors Theses

In this paper I propose a guideline that we may use to determine when it is ethical to take advantage of the technology that we call human genetic engineering. I first clarify the purpose of the paper by explaining the science behind the technology, defining much of the debate in the process. In short, manufactured DNA is introduced into the human genome for the purpose of modifying the expression of the genes and the person that they produce. I indicate that this is a value theory paper rather than a detailed policy paper. This is significant because it merely addresses …

Harold Burson: A Legend In Public Relations In The 20th Century, Megan Heather Smith

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Profitable Post Admission Attractions For The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter: Turning Magic Into Money, Amber Lynn Strange

Honors Theses

This thesis will explain the ways in which Universal Studios can maximize post admission profits for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, to be located inside Islands of Adventures. When looking at the background information for Harry Potter, I studied the history, the reasons it became so successful, the marketing strategies used by the company to ensure that success, the decision to create the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the competitive environment that this park will be entering, and additional post admission attractions that could increase revenue. To create post admission attraction ideas that visitors would like to see added …

Investigation Of Mutations Affecting Axon Guidance At The Midline In Drosophila, Laura Frances Bennett

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Student Engagement At The University Of Mississippi, Vanessa Lynn Alsobrooks

Honors Theses

This thesis describes student engagement patterns for the University of Mississippi and analyzes those patterns to identify possible positive and negative educational trends at the University. A review of scholarly literature addressing student engagement and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) survey provides additional context for understanding the importance of this work and analyzing the findings. The review of scholarly literature seeks to define student engagement and discusses the importance of student engagement. The review of scholarly literature also seeks to explain NSSE and its attempt to measure levels of student engagement at institutions of higher education. The review …

Five Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know, Ann K. Vaught

Honors Theses

Operating under the assumption that the average college student knows little to nothing about the Supreme Court and significant cases in the field of American constitutional law, the author hypothesizes that this ignorance is due not to an inability to understand the material, but an unwillingness on the part of the average student to expend the effort necessary to decipher the "legalese" of an average Supreme Court opinion. The author also hypothesizes that it is the high and lofty language of the opinions that generally disenchants the reader, and not the information itself. Therefore, as a means of testing this …

The Divine Dilemma: The Development Of Puritan Thought Concerning Church And State In New England, 1630-1780., John Tyler Clemons

Honors Theses

As devout Calvinists, the Puritans’ first loyalty to their interpretation of the Bible put them at odds with the English Crown and the Anglican Church, which demanded obedience to religious and secular authority above all else. Unwilling to recant, the Puritans found themselves in a “divine dilemma” with two equally unacceptable options: continued persecution or open rebellion. The flight to New England temporarily solved the Puritans’ dilemma by removing them from the immediate reach of the king and his bishops. Upon their amval in Massachusetts, the Puritans began constructing a “City on a Hill,” a religiously homogenous society based upon …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Policing Methods With Regard To Chinese Crime Groups In The United States, Jessica P. Moeller

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

From Degenerate Monsters To Revenge Of The Big Mac: A Study Of French Anti-Americanism, Jill Peets

Honors Theses

Jill Peets: From Degenerate Monsters to Revenge of the Big Mac: A Study of French anti-Americanism (Under the direction of Dr. Anne Quinney)

Franco-American relations date back to the eighteenth century and are a topic that historians have studied for years. France has never been to war with the United States, yet the French are ardently anti-American. The phenomenon of French anti-Americanism is what this thesis seeks to understand and explain. Through various secondary sources, historical data, and public opinion polls, the thesis examines events throughout time, from the American Revolution in 1776 until the Haitian earthquake in 2010. By …

The Ties That Bind: Social Bonds In Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice, Lillian Nicole Rogers

Honors Theses

This thesis studies The Merchant of Venice with particular regards to the role of social bonds in the community of the play and in the actions of the characters. These bonds serve as ties that connect the characters to each other and also to the dominant social structure of their world—a structure that is patriarchal, class-based, and ostensibly Christian. The following chapters focus on four types of bonds that are especially vital to the play: those relating to law, gender, classes, and religion. These bonds manifest themselves in different areas of life, but they are all rooted in the workings …

Fitgerald's American Dream: It Happens To One, Not The Ninety-Nine, Cara Kathleen Troiani

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream in his fiction and how he establishes the inequality of the class system as the force which ruins the American Dream. Since we normally perceive America to be a land of opportunity and a land of equality, we often overlook the hierarchy of social classes in America. By describing the American elite’s aristocratic-like beliefs and behaviors and, in some works, transporting the wealthy Americans to Europe, Fitzgerald compares the social system in America to the rigid class structures of Europe. It is the European-like view of class in Fitzgerald’s …

Tennesse Williams' Web Of Deception In The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire And Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Holly Nicole Henning

Honors Theses

While many themes appear in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the theme of deception emerges as one of the most prominent. To determine exactly how deceit impacts the lives of the characters in each play, an analysis of deception from both a psychological and philosophical standpoint is given. Based on the findings of this analysis, Williams effectively employs three general categories of deception in his plays, including deception with self-awareness, deception of others requiring deception of the self and self-deception regardless of another’s presence. Williams also implements one of …

A Hidden Wwii History: How New Media Reporting By Cnn.Com Changed A Legacy, Elizabeth Claire Vowell

Honors Theses

This project retells the hidden history of 350 American POWs who were forced to serve as slave laborers in Germany during WWII, and how these men received recognition in 2009 through the online reporting and reader audience participation of CNN.com. Though traditional platforms produced information on the subject, it took an age of instant communication to fully break the story to the American public. This project looks at why and how online and participatory journalism created an impact that changed a legacy. Information on the history of the soldiers was gathered using books and a documentary published on the subject …

I'M Not A Math Person: An Examination Of How Parents And Peers Affect The Ways In Which Students Engage With Mathematics, Samantha Jean Grey

Honors Theses

Culture plays an important role in influencing the ways in which students engage '^ith mathematics. This study sought to examine the ways in which the culture of the home influences the mathematics identities that students bring to the classroom. The researcher recruited participants from a college algebra class taught at a public university. The researcher interviewed four participants from the sample to collect their narratives for analysis. The results of this study indicate that parents and peers influence students’ mathematics identities in powerful and unexpected ways, especially when there is disagreement between the explicit and implicit messages that they communicate …

An Analysis Of Sixteenth Section Land In Public School Funding: A Search For Equality For Chickasaw School Districts, Jr. Dennis Pickens

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns the current public actionof Dr. Rick Eiam) schooi funding mechanisms in Mississippi that reiate to sixteenth s and. As a resuit of the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785, the surveyed and divided i townships, each with 36 square mile sections, used for the upkeep of the pubiic schoois within a township. Since Mississippi’s founding, sixteenth section iand has served as a source of revenue for the upkeep of public most schools in the state have sixteenth section land country has been The sixteenth section of each township has historically been schools in Mississippi. While as a source …

Effects Of Estrogen On Recovery Of Spatial Function After Cerebellar Lesion, Gerald William Stinson Jr.

Honors Theses

The traditional view of cerebellar processing has been that it plays a role in motor planning and function, now the cerebellum is also believed to be involved in spatial learning and cognition. Like the cerebellum’s involvement in cognition the role of estrogen in cerebellar functioning has only recently been investigated. The cerebellum normally has low levels of estrogen but aromatase activity is upregulated after brain injury, increasing estrogen levels. This upregulation after injury suggests that estrogen could be involved in neuroprotection. This study uses male zebra finches to investigate the role of the cerebellum in spatial function and the possible …

The Polarizing Effects Of Inflammatory Language In Political Blogs, Holly Sarah Hosford

Honors Theses

The Internet, as an unregulated and anonymous outlet, sometimes fosters uncivil political interaction, in which political debates escalate to hate speech or attacks on a social group. There is much debate on whether the political blogosphere will foster a purer democracy or create a more politically polarized society. In order to make conclusions about the societal effects of uncivil political dialogue, I examined the effects of Inflammatory political language on readers of weblogs and other online posts. I created and distributed five versions of an online survey, with each survey containing a different version of mock political blog comments. Each …

“¡Que Se Vayan Todos!” :Opportunity Structures, Social Movement Mobilization, And The Argentine Piquetero Movement, Daniel Palmer Hester

Honors Theses

The emergence of the Piquetero Movement in Argentina during the 1990s and early 2000s is the result of changing economic, political, and social processes at both the macro (national) and micro (local) levels. With Carlos Menem’s election to the presidency, Argentina began a state-led project for national economic development and modernization. The opening of the economy to foreign investment and the reductions of state interference in the national economy transformed the national economy. However, the long-term economic and social costs of these reforms saw the growth of widespread unemployment among the working class, a dismantling of state assistance networks, and …

Attitudes Toward Gay Marriage: A Comparison Of Competing Explanatory Models, Khyshboo Bharat Patel

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I conducted a study to investigate the nature of attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Throughout this work, I will cover the relevant information on the past and present of same-sex marriage, as well as a review of research done in the area of polling about it. The main focus of my research was to find out the underlying factors of opinions on homosexual marriage. Using polling data fi’om the 2009 General Social Survey, I was able to put together a series of regression analyses that tested the dependent variable, opinions about allowing same-sex marriage, with various independent variable, …