Digital Commons Network^™

Estimating Direction Of Arrival For Multi-Arm Spiral Antennas Using Machine Learning, Samuel Pearson

Honors Theses

Military systems require monitoring a wide frequency range of the RF spectrum to detect and monitor enemy targets. A vital component of that is calculating the direction of arrival of enemy radars. The use of compressive sensing architectures like the Nyquist Folding Receiver (NyFR) allow for computationally cheap capturing of wideband signals; however, these techniques make traditional direction of arrival (DOA) estimation techniques difficult. Given the advantages of compressive sensing, this research aims to apply machine learning (ML) techniques to multi-arm spiral antennas to estimate the incoming DOA. Software like MATLAB was used to simulate the multi-arm spiral antenna and …

A Phenomenological Investigation Into The Lived Experiences Of Service Dog Utilizing Undergraduate Students, Shay Barrett

Honors Theses

The transition from high school to college can be a difficult time for students. Utilizing a service dog can make that experience more complex (Hadley, 2018). College is an important time in a young adult’s life as they develop independence and their identity (Chickering, 1969). This study recognizes the role that universities and colleges play in the development of students who utilize service dogs, as such the purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of service dog utilizing undergraduate students who attend in-person classes on campus at Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMUC) and to examine how these experiences have …

Toward Cyber-Attack Detection For Industrial Internet Of Things Systems Using Machine Learning, Cayden Cather

Honors Theses

In recent years, the way we interact with daily life and industrial environments has changed dramatically due to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), from smart homes to industrial control systems. In particular, industry devices, sensors, and actuators can be connected to form various Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks and controlled using operational technologies, such as ICS and SCADA. However, the vulnerabilities and limited security features pose significant challenges in preserving IIoT systems' security as cyber-attacks increase and become more frequent, dynamic, and complex. Additionally, the lack of IIoT testbeds has made it more difficult to find …

Features Selection In Regression Models Using Variance-Based Sensitivity Analysis, Jakob Spiller

Honors Theses

Variance-based sensitivity analysis serves as a crucial tool for assessing the variability of inputs on the output of complex mathematical models. In this thesis, we study Sobol indices, a class of variance-based sensitivity analysis, to quantify the importance of each input variable on the overall variability of the model output. We initially discuss Sobol’s first and total order indices. This includes a brief demonstration through two examples: the Sobol G-function and a polynomial function each with six input variables. These examples serve to highlight the theoretical foundations and practical applications of Sobol’s indices in analyzing model sensitivities. Mainly, we apply …

Differences In Dynamic Knee Valgus Using Kinesiology Tape In Female Athletes, Riley J. Williams

Honors Theses

Excessive dynamic knee valgus (DKV) is commonly known as improper alignment in the frontal plane combined with excessive hip adduction, internal rotation, and tibia external rotation (Besier, Gold, Delp, Fredericson, & Beaupré, 2008; Maykut, Taylor-Haas, Paterno, DiCesare & Ford, 2015). More specifically, DKV is a medial collapse of the knee resulting in a hip adduction and internal rotation, tibial abduction and medial knee displacement, which increases the ACL strain (Llurda-Almuzara et al., 2020). Namata et al. (2018), using a three-dimensional kinematic analysis, reported female athletes are more commonly known to obtain a greater knee valgus angle when participating in landing …

Autoethnography For Professional Growth In Science And Social Studies Pedagogy, Grace E. White

Honors Theses

A large body of research shows that reading and math instruction receive significantly more time, attention, and instructional minutes than science and social studies instruction in elementary classrooms(VanFossen, 2005; Wilkens, 2009; Blank, 2013; Rosenshine, 2015). In this study, I use an autoethnographic reflective research framework to combat the challenges of science and social studies professional growth while student teaching at a rural texas elementary school that has chosen to require only math and reading instruction from their teachers. It was found that science and social studies is most easily incorporated through the existing reading and math curriculum. The autoethnographic process …

Personality Linked To Tv Genres, Kinsey P. Skinner

Honors Theses

The goal of this study was to consider the relationship between people’s personalities and their television preferences. One model for this study was the work of Samuel Gosling from UT- Austin. Gosling has explored connections to personality from the mundane, such as music. To do this research in relation to television, students at Texas A&M University-Commerce completed the Big Five personality inventory as well as rating their interest in different genres of television, reporting on their favorite shows, and providing basic demographic variables. From this, correlations were found between certain personality traits and what television shows they are associated with. …

The Pussification Of Man: Evangelical Pastor Mark Driscoll And The Construction Of An “Ideal” Evangelical Masculinity, Phillip E. Cicero

Honors Theses

Scandals involving evangelical churches seem to appear daily in the news. Whether the scandals involve a church leader engaging in bullying, sexual harassment, sexual abuse or something else there seems to be no end in sight. One might imagine that people would flee the churches where these leaders have or continue to serve. But, in general, they do not. A good question to ask is why. Why do people continue to follow someone who has been proven through their discourse that they are aggressive, sexist, and sometimes even violent?

To answer this question, this project focuses on the rhetoric utilized …

Beyond Technology: Social Predictors Of Energy Efficiency In Industrial Facilities, Garret B. Cowdery

Honors Theses

Energy is the lifeblood of the industrialized world with electrical energy expected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to increase 25% between 2016 to 2050 in the United States. Combined with the ever-present climate crisis, energy-efficient buildings are becoming increasingly important to conserve resources and alleviate strain on aging energy systems. The Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program through the US Department of Energy aims to reduce the consumption of large, single-site energy users, industrial and commercial buildings, through comprehensive energy audits. Such investigations find that energy-efficient structures are a technological challenge as much as social. The mentality of building …

The Effect Of Floor Stiffness On Acl And Meniscus Tear And Chondromalacia Susceptibility In Dancers, Kate J. Moreira

Honors Theses

Dance is a physically demanding art form, placing repeated strain on the joints and muscles of the body. Western dance technique emphasizes use of the lower extremity, resulting in a high volume of injury to the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Dance companies attempt to combat injury by installing low- stiffness floors in studios and performance spaces. These floors exert less pressure on dancers’ joints during intense movement sequences. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of floor stiffness on dancers’ susceptibility to ACL and meniscus injuries and chondromalacia, specifically. Participants were asked about past and present …

The Effects Of Fatigue On Landing Forces In Competitive Female Irish Dancers, Anna G. Robinson

Honors Theses

Lower extremity injuries are highly prevalent within the Irish dance population, yet research surrounding potential determinants is scarce. Many movements, particularly jumps, in Irish dance are constituted by a one-foot landing with the ankle in a plantarflexed position and the knee fully extended. This unique landing technique is contrary to other forms of dance, such as ballet, where landings typically allow for some knee flexion in a plie-like position. Subsequently, this aesthetic constraint requires large amounts of strength and balance, in addition to forcing the structures of the foot and ankle to absorb the entire shock of the landing. This …

Unhappy Endings: Queer Time In Evelyn Waugh’S Brideshead Revisited, Caitlin G. Spicer

Honors Theses

This thesis examines Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 Catholic novel, Brideshead Revisited, through the lens of queer theory. My work focuses on reproductive heteronormativity and queer time and how these concepts can be used to analyze Waugh’s text. I argue that Charles and Sebastian, among other characters, step out of the traditional—or heterosexual—timeline in a way that queers temporality. I examine Sebastian, Charles, and Julia to understand how their lonely yet holy lives contribute to a larger tradition of unhappy endings in queer and Catholic fiction. In this thesis, I define reproductive heteronormativity as the assumption that people will follow a heterosexual …

Far From First Kill: Sapphic Fan Campaigns + The Fight For Queer Television, Lake Best

Honors Theses

Over the decades, LGBTQ+ media has had a long history of, despite getting better, more popular, more powerful each time, being canceled, delayed, even simply never seen again. This has led to justified anger, sorrow, + distress from the queer fandom communities, who, already inspired by the sense of activism that their community is founded on, have created over 8 years of online fan campaigning to fight back, maybe even bring the shows from the grave to a new life. This case study will examine 6 of those campaigns, ranging from the birth of modern queer fandom in We Deserve …

Policy Brief: Decreasing Unintended Pregnancy Rates In Mississippi, Jaycee S. Pilcher

Honors Theses

On June 24th, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade marked a pivotal moment, eliminating the federal right to pregnancy termination. This thesis examines the challenges of restricted abortion access and emphasizes preventative strategies for unintended pregnancies. Analyzing both pre- and post-pregnancy interventions, such as enhanced sex education, hormonal contraceptives, insurance coverage, prescribers, and post-pregnancy policies, this thesis urges Mississippi residents and legislators to consider policy adjustments for reducing the occurrence of unintended pregnancies.

This research includes an analysis of literature, legislative records, and statistical data. It takes a comparative approach to evaluate the effectiveness of …

Senior Recital, Concetta Brehmer

Honors Theses

My honors thesis was presented in the form of my senior clarinet recital. It was performed on Sunday, February 4th at 3pm. The music in this program consisted of unaccompanied solo repertoire such as Blush by Jean Ahn, and a Bach Cello Suite on bass clarinet. There will be accompanied works such as the Mozart Clarinet Concerto 1st movement, and Premiere Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy. Lastly, the recital will also contain chamber music, such as my clarinet quartet playing Histoire Du Tango by Astor Piazzola, and a vibraphone/clarinet duo called Oil & Water by Josh Gottry. This recital encompasses works …

Accessibility In Asl Through Dance, Jocelyn Supanich

Honors Theses

My honors thesis project was a dance for camera or a dance film that I created as my senior capstone project for my BA dance degree. I wanted to create a film that increased awareness surrounding the accessibility of American Sign Language (ASL) for dancers and through dance. I wanted to show how dance and ASL can be seen as similar through the lense of them both being languages and ways of communicating using movement of the body. This idea is where the title stems from: “Expression in Motion”. Both ASL and dance are forms of expressing oneself, and they …

The Power Of Polish: Exploring The Impact Of Nail Adornments On Perceptions Of Attraction, Sara Demichele

Honors Theses

Understanding the significance of nail adornments in shaping perceptions of attractiveness and mate value provides insights into human behavior and preferences. In the current investigation, participants rated human nail length and color on physical attractiveness and partner desirability measures. Results revealed significant effects of nail length and color across different demographic groups. Medium-length nails consistently received higher ratings for physical attractiveness, cuteness, and partner desirability compared to short and long nails. White-colored nails were generally rated most attractive, while blue and black nails received the lowest ratings. Additionally, participants reported a moderate association between having manicured nails and feelings of …

Modeling The Opioid Crisis In Virginia: A Differential Equations Model Assessing The Impact Of Medication-Assisted Treatment On The Addicted Population, Maniha Zehra Akram

Honors Theses

The opioid epidemic is prevalent in countless communities throughout the United States and has yet to be mitigated. Treatments for OUD (opioid use disorder) include Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and treatment without medication (non-MAT), with the former being judged as more effective in terms of lower relapse rates, death rates, and criminal activity (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 2023; SAMHSA, 2024). Motivated by the promising research on MAT, this paper models the relationship

between the treatment and addicted populations using a system of ordinary differential equations. In addition to producing closed-form equilibrium solutions, the model leads to the conclusion that expanding …

Multiple Lithologies In Camel Donga 003 (Ck3): Implications For The Cv Parent Body, Elana Alevy

Honors Theses

Carbonaceous chondrites record primitive physical and chemical conditions of the solar nebula. In addition, samples of these meteorites provide information about secondary processing due to thermal metamorphism or aqueous alteration on the meteorite’s parent asteroid. Currently, there is debate regarding the number of parent asteroids that the Vigarano-like (CV) and the Karoonda-like (CK) chondrites originate from, which can be addressed through detailed mineralogical and petrographic analysis of samples from these groups.

In this work, we analyzed a thin section of Camel Donga 003, which is currently classified as a CK3 chondrite. Using scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis, we …

Gratuity's Role In Final Cost: An Economic Assessment Of Tipping, Haley Wims

Honors Theses

Despite tipping being an extremely common economic decision for today’s consumers, little is known about how tip amounts are incorporated into conceptions of final cost. I explore how consumers think about tipping as a component of overall cost in a counter-service restaurant (CSR) setting in which tips are not based on the quality of service received. Results of an online survey indicate that even when participants are aware that they will have to tip on an item, less than half of them (47%) actually implement this knowledge into their expectation of the final cost of their purchase. Furthermore, individual differences …

Comparing Generative Ai, Keyword Searchers, And Hiring Committees In Selecting Semi-Finalist Job Candidates In Academia, Sarah Snyder

Honors Theses

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools and keyword searchers in candidate evaluation. The first study examined the use of ChatGPT-4 and a traditional hiring committee in selecting a semifinalist pool for an Assistant Professor of Economics position. It was found that ChatGPT-4's selections were non-replicable, producing different semifinalist lists with each run, indicating significant variability and lack of reliability compared to human committees. The second study focused on predicting self-reported conscientiousness from resumes using both keyword searchers and ChatGPT-4. The results showed that neither method could accurately predict conscientiousness. Similarly, ChatGPT-4's selections were non-replicable, producing …

Baseball: A Vehicle For Exchange Between Two Complicated Global Powers, Cole W. Tully

Honors Theses

Baseball, America’s “national pastime,” has a similarly prominent role in Japanese culture and the nation’s history. Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, baseball at professional, collegiate, high school, and youth levels has become increasingly prominent within each nation. As baseball became increasingly central to each nation's social and cultural identities, it also began to play a critical role in furthering the nations’ bilateral relationship.

The paper explores various periods where baseball has influenced diplomatic relations, especially “soft diplomacy” and cultural exchange between each nation’s citizens. This includes baseball’s institutionalization into Japan’s education systems during the Meiji Restoration, as …

Analysis Of Speech Recognition Systems And Error Correction Approaches, Saki Imai

Honors Theses

Despite significant advances in automatic speech recognition (ASR) accuracy, challenges remain. Naturally occurring conversation often involves multiple overlapping speakers, of different ages, accents and genders, as well as noisy environments and suboptimal audio recording equipment, all of which reduce ASR accuracy. In this study, we evaluate the accuracy of state of the art open source ASR systems across diverse conversational speech datasets, examining the impact of audio and speaker characteristics on WER. We then explore the potential of ASR ensembling plus post-ASR correction methods to improve transcription accuracy. Our findings underscore the need for robust error correction techniques and of …

Map Or Graph? Investigating The Structure Of Spatial Representations, Ainsley K. Bonin

Honors Theses

The present study investigated the structure of spatial representations using a novel computer-based navigation task in concert with computational modeling, specifically with the Successor Representation (SR) model. In particular, we examined whether participant’s knowledge of a virtual environment fit in better with either the cognitive map or labeled graph hypothesis for spatial representation. Twenty-four participants aged 18-22 learned the positions of 25 objects within a 5x5 grid of virtual rooms through disparate routes. Participants then made relative and absolute distance judgments, generated novel shortcuts, and drew a map of the environment to test their knowledge about the spatial locations of …

Felling For Photovoltaics: Remote Sensing For The Detection Of Solar Facilities In Maine, James A. Lane

Honors Theses

Solar power is an area with increasing development in the State of Maine. Photovoltaic solar, which uses large arrays of panels constructed on facilities of several hectares, is an ideal renewable energy source for Maine, because of its low population density and small proportion of conserved lands. Since most of the state of Maine is forested, the development of photovoltaic solar will require increasing amounts of deforestation. Environmental impacts of this deforestation include loss of carbon sequestration, erosion, damage to habitat, and inhibition of other forest benefits. This study uses Landsat data and remote sensing to analyze a large portion …

Not In My Zoning Code: Understanding The Mechanisms Of Policy Diffusion Of Deregulatory Zoning Reform Across U.S. Cities, Fiona F. Nash

Honors Theses

Do we need local government? Cities maintain representative institutions of government, hold elections, and host public hearings, but does that mean they can tackle city-specific problems? This project seeks to understand how deregulatory zoning policies, a supply-side tool to increase housing supply of affordable homes, spread across the 300 largest U.S. cities, or not. Cities might implement a zoning reform because they learn from another city, desire to increase housing supply for economic conditions, imitate another city, are forced too by a higher level of government, or are ideologically motivated to do so. I test each hypothesis of diffusion through …

Interactional Queerscapes: Representations Of Men Attracted To Men In South Korea, Tegh Khosla

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the representations of men attracted to men (MAM) in South Korean media through the theoretical lens of queerscapes. Queerscapes refer to the physical and metaphorical spaces alternative queer existences occupy amidst dominant heteronormative environments. By analyzing a queer independent film, a bestselling novel, and a subversive boys’ love (BL) drama, this study examines how characters in these media actively carve out alternative spaces of existence. The first chapter delves into the concept of queerscaping as a verb to articulate direct conflict with intolerant institutions and dominant ideologies that seek to suppress non-normative sexualities. This precarious balancing act …

Monetary Policy Across The Urban Rural Divide, Grace Hillis

Honors Theses

This paper measures the effect of monetary policy on the consumption of Urban versus Rural Households. I utilize the Consumer Expenditures Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and St. Louis Federal Reserve Economic Data for information on important macroeconomic variables. My empirical strategy examines how total consumption, housing consumption, health, food, and transportation consumption are impacted by the federal funds rate for urban relative to rural households. My research provides evidence that when the Federal Reserve increases rates, the consumption of rural households falls more relative to urban households. This result is statistically significant when examining consumption related …

The Impact Of Signing Bonuses, Age, And Country On Mlb Success: Evaluating Investment Returns In The Mlb International Amateur Free Agent Market, Elliot Wolf

Honors Theses

MLB’s International Amateur Free Agent Market provides teenagers across the world opportunities to sign, develop, and potentially fulfill their dreams of playing in the MLB. It also allows teams to sign players at young ages, increasing the amount of time players can develop within a team’s minor league system. While signing bonus decision-making is backed up by a team’s scouts and data, the signing bonus a player receives is rarely a reflection of their future value. I argue that teams are not spending this money optimally. However, in an environment where players have low acquisition costs and volatile performance outcomes, …

The Effect Of Postpartum Depression On New Mothers' Return To Work Decisions, Nicole Walutes

Honors Theses

Postpartum depression rates in the United States have doubled since 2010, with potentially significant economic consequences. In this study, I examine the relationship between postpartum depression and new mothers’ labor force participation using a national longitudinal dataset of 738 new mothers. I examine two labor force participation outcomes: whether or not a new mother returned to work postpartum, and the number of days it took for her to do so if she returned. I include a detailed set of demographic and social control factors. I find that conditional on these controls, having postpartum depression relates to a statistically insignificant 4.73 …