Digital Commons Network^™

Form-Blindness And Its Implications: A Verification Study, Meredith G. Moody

Honors Theses

Form-blindness is not an eye problem. It is a perceptual inability to distinguish the small differences between shapes, colors, and patterns. This research examines this phenomenon by using a previously-established exam to study form-blindness and its implications. Demographic variables such as age, major, GPA, and sex are also looked at to see what potential impact they might have on a person’s performance on the exam. The form-blindness tests administered during this study were graded and then analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. In the end, no statistical significance was found for the demographic variables of age, GPA, major, …

Extended Gamut Printing In Flexographic Packaging And The Impact Of Brand Management, Andrew Bogan

Honors Theses

Flexography is the dominant print process in regards to the reproduction of packaging products. Packaging, particular the color and graphics, is an essential tangible element for brand owners striving for brand management. Extended gamut printing is a printing technique that can produce high color saturations on packaging samples, which can have positive implications for brand management. Currently, most information on extended gamut printing is proprietary, making it very difficult for non-print industry members to obtain and utilize information relating to the benefits of extended gamut printing. The aim of this study was to provide evidence that packaging samples with extended …

An Assessment Of Home Energy Efficiency In Kalamazoo, Alexis Coutts

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to assess the status of home energy efficiency in Kalamazoo as well as the reasons why (or why not) a homeowner adopts energy efficiency and what their incentives and barriers are. In order to address these questions this study first relies on a literature review to offer insight on this complex topic and reveal the main incentives and barriers to energy efficiency already found by homeowners. Next a survey is completed by a total of thirty participants, fifteen homeowners from two separate neighborhoods of Kalamazoo, using socioeconomics as a variable. Where Milwood neighborhood acts …

Family Factors And School, Michael Pierce

Honors Theses

One of the most overwhelming issues at Eastern Kentucky University is academic retention. In 2013, Eastern had a four-year graduation rate of 23.5%. Each university has a goal to keep academic retention as high as possible. EKU has one of the highest rates of enrollment from students of the Appalachian region, an area of Kentucky that is diverse both ecologically and culturally than other regions of the state. EKU is also known among its students for being a “suitcase school,” a college or university that is active Monday through Friday, but is quiet on Saturday and Sunday due to students …

E-Commerce’S Impact On Big-Box Retailers, Brian Bates

Honors Theses

The history of retail has been an evolutionary process of new innovations and transformations. Previous changes include: the development of catalogue based retail, and the recent innovation of super stores, known as big-box retailers. It is possible that we are dawning upon a new revolution of the retail environment as electronic commerce (e-commerce) continues to grow. This paper will analyze the impact of e-commerce on retail markets, specifically big-box stores (warehouse style retailers with over 750 million in sales). Using financial and real estate data from Bloomberg^TM, and e-commerce data from eMarketerTM and the US Census Bureau two …

Biodiversity, Ecosystem Function And The Pollination Ecology Of Urban Gardens In Dayton, Ohio, Angela Nicole Giaquinto

Honors Theses

Urban agriculture is an ancient concept that is gaining momentum in the United States in connection with urban renewal projects and efforts to mediate urban food deserts. These agriculture efforts represent a potential habitat for pollinator communities within the urban hardscape. Pollinator communities are threatened by urban landscape transformation, and bee species, in particular, are in a state of global decline due to various stressors. Urban agriculture has the potential to sustain both human and ecological communities, and the pollinators that visit gardens may provide pollination to plant species in the surrounding area. We investigated the influence of urban land …

Poetry And The Post-Apocalyptic Paradox: North American Indigenous Disruptions To The Westernized Self, Joseph Benjamin Ziegler Ferber

Honors Theses

This three-chapter project explores the work of three poets, each identifying with different North American indigenous tribes. Their work challenges western poetic conventions and notions of individualism to offer alternative worldviews and complicate mainstream oversimplifications of American Indian identity. Brandi MacDougall investigates assumptions of the Western Self represented by the "I" Perspective common in Western thought; Sherman Alexie revises the sonnet form to portray the complexity of how contemporary American Indians navigate the blending of capitalist institutions and native traditions; Kristi Leora offers readers an enlightened conception of self-hood by balancing processes of western socialization with native cosmology. Ultimately, this …

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall, Travis W. Reynolds

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …

Global Reach, Local Markets: The Challenges Of Leading Global Innovation, Sarah Higgins

Honors Theses

This Global Studies honors thesis addresses how managers and leaders of global firms manage innovation across multiple markets. Current research on multinational corporations provides an understanding of different kinds of innovation and the ways to attend to multiple markets. However, there is less documentation of how these innovation strategies are actually implemented on the ground and the tensions that these efforts might produce. Therefore, my research focuses in particular on the challenges and tensions faced by leaders of global firms as they implement transnational innovation strategies. This study is based upon in-depth interviews with 20 participants who held positions in …

Arts And Elite Schooling: The Accumulation Of Advantaging Forms Of Cultural Capital, Hannah R. Macquarrie

Honors Theses

Very little attention has been given to how schools provide students with opportunities to accumulate advantaging forms of cultural capital through the arts. This project explores the arts as valuable forms of cultural capital and the role the arts play in the production of elites. Because it is widely acknowledged that when researching elites access may be limited, the research for this project was conducted online through publically accessible documents, like curricula, mission statements, facilities, extra-curricular offerings, and additional arts programming on school websites. The eight schools in this study reside in four different, elite towns, and there are both …

The Roles Of Introduced Eucalyptus In The Conservation And Expansion Of Ethiopian Orthodox Church Forests In The Northern Ethiopian Highlands, Janice Liang

Honors Theses

Species of the genus Eucalyptus (common name eucalyptus) are widely planted all across Ethiopia – including on large areas of land previously allocated to food production. In recent decades eucalyptus has also increasingly been planted on lands around and within “church forests,” sacred groves of old-aged Afromontane trees surrounding Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido churches. These revered holy sites have long been recognized for their cultural values and also for their ecosystem services – including their potential to support species conservation and restoration, as church forests are some of the only remaining sanctuaries for many of Ethiopia’s indigenous and endemic plant and …

Beautiful Minds : Exploring The Healing Potentional Of Self-Refexive Art In Facing A Campus Mental Health Crisis, Molly Chapman Rossi

Honors Theses

This interdisciplinary study of mental health seeks to do three things:

1. Identify and investigate the issue of mental health among students within the University of Richmond campus community, through both statistical and ethnographic data,

2. Apply trauma theory to redefine the crisis as a community trauma with unique aspects, and

3. Make a case for hope by proposing a plan that uses self-reflexive art, specifically theatre, to address the individualized community trauma and second-wave trauma.

I explicate new theories in this work, among them the notions of “individualized community trauma,” “second-wave trauma,” and “traumatic fusion.” Another critical concept is …

The Effects Of Oral Probiotic Supplements On The Human Gut Microbiome, Erin Hudnall

Honors Theses

A diverse bacterial community makes up the human gut microbiome and is essential not only to digestion, but also to other physiological processes. This bacterial community is subject to change due to external factors including, but not limited to, age, diet, and lifestyle. This study observed the effects of oral probiotic supplements on this bacterial community. Fecal samples were collected from a single subject once each week during alternating two- to six-week cycles of taking and abstaining from the probiotic supplement. The samples were purified, the bacterial cells within lysed, and the enclosed DNA was collected. A portion of the …

The History Of The Presbyterian Church In Oxford Mississippi, Hugh Stephens

Honors Theses

A history of College Hill Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church, and Christ Presbyterian Church of Oxford Mississippi. Research included interviews of the current pastors, old members, and founding members of the churches. Old church minutes, articles, and histories were also very helpful. It became apparent that there were geological, social, and theological issues that created a need for the three churches within the community.

Hospitality, Hunting, And The Home In Garden And Gun: Deconstructing Southern Identity Based On Representations Of Gender, Race, And Class, Alexa E. Willcoxon

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I have studied how Southern identity is formed through Southern leisure magazines, specifically Garden & Gun. I chose to narrow my focus by choosing to look only at the 2014 editions of the magazine, and I also looked primarily at the food, alcohol, homes, and hunting sections in order to be concise. Through my research, I have discovered that the magazine, although trying to be inclusive for race and gender, struggles to accurately depict the South. Instead, the magazine focuses on the primarily white, upper classes of the region, which creates and imagined reality for the reader. …

A Background And Chronological Take On High Frequency Trading, Quinn H. Murray

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze, in context of high frequency trading, potential market manipulation techniques (i.e. market making arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, market structure arbitrage, and directional strategies), and to review the subject from a chronological perspective from the 1960s onward, covering topics not limited to Regulation National Market System, the flash crash of May 6, 2010, and the August 24, 2015 market crash. To date, high frequency trading's effects on the United States market place have been well documented. This thesis will speculate about the true nature—whether adverse or beneficial-- of this fascinating, evolutionary, highly scrutinized topic.

The Entrepreneurship Center At The Mississippi Development Authority: An Assessment Of The State's Small Business Engine, Ryan Snow

Honors Theses

The importance of a strong entrepreneurial environment for overall economic development is well established. Mississippi, this Mississippi Development Authority's Entrepreneur Center is the state's leading authority on small business development. However, there has been little to no analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Entrepreneur Center. Two surveys were conducted. The Mississippi Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Survey (MEES) was administered by the University of Mississippi's McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement last fall to a population of 4214 business and community leaders with a responsive sample of n= 573. This survey is used to contextualize the business ecosystem of …

Barriers To Access Under The Affordable Care Act: An Analysis Of Marketplace Enrollment, Jessica Ann Johnson

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to understand how the Affordable Care Act impacted certain groups who had faced barriers to accessing health insurance prior to the passage of the act. It provides a fundamental understanding of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act and discusses dis- parities amongst, and challenges incurred, by different groups in the current health insurance sys- tem, Research focused specifically on demographic factors of income, gender, primary language spoken, ethnicity, education and age as Ill as looked at the effect that urban setting and sufficient internet access had on enrollment rates. In order to understand the impact …

Harbor Magazine: Preaching The Gospel Of Philanthropy Through The Analysis Of Benefit Corporations, Caroline Hughes

Honors Theses

Harbor magazine is a philanthropic, fashion magazine that advocates the use of sustainable goods in an industry of business moguls simply seeking monetary gain. The brands and philanthropists interviewed and highlighted in the publication have made a difference in some way to the community and the world, developing revolutionary companies that are radically altering the way business is conducted. The brands included in Harbor magazine are recognized as Certified Benefit CorporationsTM, promising to align their business intentions around a public good. Businesses, along with consumers, have an equal responsibility to the planet, and Harbor magazine seeks to make these powerful, …

The Effect Of State Capacity On Civil Conflict In India, Rimen Brar Singh

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to study the relationship between state capacity and civil conflict in India. This thesis provides insight on concepts such as state capacity, intrastate rebellious conflict, and greed and grievance, but the main focus of this thesis is on sub-national differences. The thesis attempts to demonstrate how sub-national differences may affect state capacity and influence intrastate conflict. Two aspects of sub-national differences are investigated: topography and roads. Specifically, data for topography and roads are confined within India. India is chosen to be a case study due to its diverseness in people and geography. The methods used to record …

Brains In Motion: How To Utilize The Connection Between Movement And Learning In The Classroom, Keely Kennedy

Honors Theses

Recent research reveals that the state of Mississippi ranks among other states as the highest in obesity and ADHD and among the lowest in education. These rankings negatively affect the state as a whole by associating Mississippi with an image of being unhealthy and unintelligent. Studies show that physical activity is related to the brain and its processes, so there is obviously a connection between Mississippi's high obesity and ADHD rates and inferior education. However, teachers are unaware of the relevance of the connection between movement, high levels of obesity, low education rates, and high levels of ADHD; thus, they …

Evaluation Of The Prevalence And Treatment Trends Of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Among Patients With Diabetes In A Rural Population, Lauren Daigle

Honors Theses

Evidence for adherence to the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) screening and treatment guidelines for various health complications of diabetes in rural populations is limited. The ADA recommends annual foot and eye exams and supports the use of the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament (SWM) to detect signs of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). This study evaluated the prevalence and treatment trends of DPN among patients with diabetes in a rural population. Fifty-two individuals over the age of 18, with known Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes mellitus, were recruited to participate. Participants were asked to respond to a 29-item, multiple choice and freeform question …

Algebraic Poetry, Julian Deville

Honors Theses

Although content has evolved in poetry at a steady pace throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the form in which this content is presented has seen little change. In response to this apparent stagnation of form in poetry, this presentation aims to combat the enforced linearity of writing, embracing Cubist ideals, to make way for a new form of poetry- algebraic poetry. This new form may then provide new inspiration within the literary community, and a new form with which writers may move forward, as opposed to adhering to the same form for centuries. This project then uses modern algebra …

Exploration Of The United States’ Cultural Legacy In Panama Through Analysis Of American Foreign Policy And Public Opinion, Katherine A. Boss

Honors Theses

The study of a culture is nearly too difficult to accomplish academically, therefore the consilience of data, personal experience, and public opinion offers the most comprehensive approach. The Panama Canal has just celebrated its centennial and remains to this day one of the most important geopolitical and global economic hubs in the world. Nearly every country that participates in maritime trade utilizes the canal. Panama has ambitious plans for the canal’s future, as it nears completion of a multibillion dollar expansion project; however predicting how Panama handles this growth and new responsibility as a major world power is directly related …

Creando Las Estrellas: Determining The Quality Of The Dominican And Cuban Player Development Systems, Samuel C. Hearn

Honors Theses

Recently, there has been a huge rise in the number of Cuban ballplayers, or peloteros, as the baseball playing Latinos are known. Why do Major League Baseball (MLB) teams go to such lengths to sign Cubans, when a heavy presence already exists in Cuba’s Caribbean neighbor, the Dominican Republic? Through the comparison educational systems, statistics of each country’s elite players, and comparative accounts of the Dominican and Cuban player development systems, the contrast between the two systems is evident. Though the Dominican system creates a large return in the investment MLB teams make in the country, the socialized sport system …

You Are What You Eat: Gastronomy And Geography Of Southern Spain, Katherine F. Perry

Honors Theses

Using empirical and numeric data, this study explores the use of food as a proxy to understand the cultural-historical geography of southern Spain. After spending three months in Granada, Spain, I compiled the most commonly used thirty-five ingredients from a selection of Spanish cookbooks and contextualized them within the broader history of Spain. The elements of traditional Andalucían cooking fit into three primary chapters of Iberian history: Roman occupation, the Moorish invasion beginning in the 8^th century, and the Columbian exchange, or the exchange of goods that took place between the Americas and Old World following European discovery of …

The Imagined Southern Setting Of Cormac Mccarthy's The Road, John Emory Hooks

Honors Theses

The Road by Cormac McCarthy hardly seems like a work of southern literature at a first glance. The novel is post-apocalyptic. A man and his son, neither of whom are ever named, trek south as they struggle to survive in a world darkened by ash-filled skies. The setting surrounding them is not recognizable as the southern US anymore. The cities are burnt and everything is covered with ash. If we rely on the geography portrayed by a work of literature to identify that literature as southern or not, then The Road cannot be classified as southern based solely on the …

Soft Power And Cultural Exchange: The Obama Administration And The Impact Of U.S. Public Diplomacy On The Beliefs Of Estonians, Kadri Lutter

Honors Theses

America's engagement with the world in the years following 9/11 is often criticized for being arrogant, conducted in a top-down fashion, and paying too little attention to listening and creating meaningful human interactions. Since 2009, President Obama has emphasized his belief in people-to-people contacts and soft power: the idea that a country can achieve what it wants in world politics by the power of attraction. Public diplomacy programs such as cultural and educational exchanges are believed to be valuable in creating lifelong friends for the United States, but there is little empirical evidence of their effectiveness as a foreign policy …

Species Delimitation And Phylogenetic Relationships Of The Wild Yams (Dioscorea) Native To Eastern North America, Tori A. Collins

Honors Theses

Most taxonomic treatments currently recognize two to three species of native yams in eastern North America: Dioscorea villosa, D. floridana, and sometimes D. quaternata, a segregate of D. villosa. Earlier authors (e.g., J. K. Small) had recognized as many as five species (with D. hirticaulis and D. glauca also as segregates of D. villosa). Key morphological features in distinguishing these putative species are rhizome morphology (long and cord-like vs. thick and contorted), number of first leaves (1–3 vs. 4–7), and habitat (sandy, rocky, swampy). Unfortunately, these critical features are rarely collected and preserved on herbarium …