Digital Commons Network^™

Casinos In Mississippi: A State And Regional Analysis, Norma Katharine Butts

Honors Theses

The aim of this paper is to complete a case study of the casino industiy in Mississippi its three casino regions. Figures on visitation, employment, and population were taken from the U.S. Census, Federal Reserve, Mississippi Gaming Commission. American Gambling Association, and Mississippi Regional Economic Analysis Project. This paper aims to show how the casino industry in Mississippi has fared compared to other states, how its casino regions have developed, and how they var>'. The review of history, economic theory on casinos and tourism, and data shows how resort areas have the best chance for economic development, and one …

Liberal Policy And The Peasant Condition In Garibaldi's Sicily, 1860, Robert Liming Corban

Honors Theses

My thesis was built around my excavations in Sicily during the summer of 2012. I researched a church on a small islet, and some of its findings over the years. Not only did I use my excavation notes, but I also used the notes from the earlier excavation of the same site in the 1960s. I needed expert advice on the building and the lamp that was found, so I contacted a Byzantine architecture specialist, and an ancient lamp specialist to obtain their opinions on the site. In order to understand the findings from 2012,1 researched the basic history of …

The Pilgrimage Of Ibn Jubayr: A Microhistory Of Travel During The Late Twelfth Century, Trevor David Johnson

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on The Travels of Ibn Jubayr. Ibn Jubayr was a Muslim pilgrim from medieval Spain who made a religious pilgrimage to Mecca between 1183 and 1185. Temporally this places him on the eve of the Third Crusade. Ibn Jubayr traveled throughout the Mediterranean world and the Arabian Peninsula. It is his travelogue that provides a template for understanding the conditions of travelling that Ibn Jubayr and his contemporaries would have faced. The primary research question of my study is: what did travel in the late twelfth century entail? The core of this thesis revolves around the aspects …

Analysis Of The Icelandic Oral Hymn Tradition As Seen In The Twentieth-Century Enthnographic Recordings Of "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ Bears His Cross"), Navina M. Dueck-Stefansson

Honors Theses

The Hymns of the passion are a collection of Icelandic poems (1656-1659) that have been important to Icelandic religious life since the seventeenth century. Until an organ was first brought to Iceland in 1840, hymns were unaccompanied both in church and in the home. Though the words of the hymns were reprinted several times, the musical notation seldom accompanied them, allowing for a strong oral tradition to form. I transcribed 31 field recordings of the hymn "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ bears his cross"). I then compared these transcriptions in order to identify rhythmic and melodic variations. The final stage of my …

Revisiting The Oregon Trail In Young Adult Fiction: Researching, Drafting, And Revising Grandpa Jesse's Peculiar Request: An Oregon Trail Adventure, Laurel Beedle

Honors Theses

Grandpa Jesse's peculiar request : an Oregon Trail adventure is a young adult road travel novel. The main character of this creative writing thesis is Erin Weston, a recent high school graduate who travels from Missouri to Portland, Oregon to visit her grandfather of his 80th birthday. Her grandfather encourages Erin to travel by car with her two best friends, Hailey and Midas, and to create a photo album as a present to him. Midas, a history and Oregon trail computer game enthusiast, convinces Erin to take the Oregon Trail route to Portland to see various landmarks such as Alcove …

Investigating Volatility Trends Of Silver Through An Analysis Of Stock Options Prices, Dylan Houston

Honors Theses

Volatility is a statistical measure that describes the amount of fluctuation in prices for a given investment; generally, the higher the volatility for an investment, the riskier it is perceived to be. Traders study volatility history so that they can make informed decisions on how to invest capital. The purpose of this article is to analyze implied volatility values, which are derived from the investment's price and are considered the market's estimate of the investment's actual volatility, for silver electronically traded fund (ETF) options in periods of both high and low price movement. In doing so, we desired to see …

"Tengo Cara De Ladron?" "Do I Have The Face Of A Thief?": An Investigative Study Of Stereotypes And Racism In Ecuador, Caryn Cortez

Honors Theses

Racism and stereotypes are still very apparent in Ecuadorian society, yet time and time again, I have found people who claim racism does not exist in Ecuador. Fascinated by how such an obvious (for an outsider) part of Ecuadorian society could be systematically denied by so many people who were part of that society, I decided to explore the issue of racism further and sought to find out, through the use of in-depth qualitative interviews and ethnographic research, how students at La Universidad Estatal de Cuenca narratively construct racial identity and racism.

Integrating Alternative Energy Production Into The Public School Science Curriculum, Benjamin Overbeek

Honors Theses

In the next few years, many teachers will be challenged in new ways. Student engagement will be at a premium and state standards will be more specific, shifting their focus towards college readiness, integration of curriculum, and developing sound reasoning and critical thinking skills. While the education field is accustomed to adapting and adjusting “on the go”, it may be ill-prepared for this fresh round of changes. Teachers and curriculum directors need resources to help them adapt the classrooms to reflect the more comprehensive design implied by the new standards (Next Generation Science Standards, 2012). This paper promotes a spiral …

Using Gis And Remote Sensing Applications To Determine Recovery From Disaster: Seven Years Post-Katrina In Residential Communities Of Hancock County, Carlton P. Anderson

Honors Theses

Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast states of Louisiana and Mississippi on August 29th, 2005. The communities of Shoreline Park and Waveland in Hancock County, Mississippi were used in this study to analyze land use change post-Hurricane Katrina using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing. These two communities are experiencing slower recovery than their counterparts along the coast. By examining high-resolution aerial imagery from 2007 and 2012, there can be comparisons that show the timeline of recovery for these two communities post-Katrina. Shoreline Park has seen 30% of its total parcels change their structural footprints from 2007 – 2012 …

English Identity In The Writings Of John Milton, Hannah E. Ryan

Honors Theses

John Milton is an essential writer to the English canon. Understanding his life and thought is necessary to understanding his corpus. This thesis will examine Milton’s nationalism in several major and minor poems as well as in some of Milton’s prose. It will argue that Milton’s nationalism is difficult to trace chronologically, but that education is always essential to Milton’s national vision of England.

Pilgrimage To The Birthplace Of Elvis Presley, Joseph Samuel Miller

Honors Theses

At the Elvis Presley birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi, a sacred, secular pilgrimage is taking place. This study used the categories of myths, symbols, and experiences to understand the perceptions of the pilgrims at the birthplace. Using a combination of interviews and mapping, the themes and data presented show that the area has a clear distinction of sacred space, which was defined by the relics in the spaces that Elvis physically interacted with. The pilgrim related to these symbols through strong, varied mythological content. A mapping component illustrated the international spatial distribution of pilgrims to the birthplace and confirms that it …

Variations In Myth: How Manipulations Of Topos Create Morality, Joel Huber

Honors Theses

The Homeric epics have inspired the Western world for three thousand years. The Iliad especially is complex and compelling, while the author himself is enigmatic. Both poem and poet have sparked several libraries worth of scholarship. The poem is traditionally considered to be transmitted orally with numerous extant variations within the text itself. In the 6th century BC, by tradition, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus redacted the poem into a standard performance so that it could be performed in order from A to Omega. The Alexandrian scholars such as Aristarchus and Zenodotus published numerous works in the 2nd and 3rd centuries …

Libertarian Acceptance Among The Students Of The University Of Southern Mississippi, Joseph Lebeau

Honors Theses

How can a potential libertarian portion of USM students be differentiated from the conservative and liberal segments? The most obvious method is to classify students by their respective demographic factors. Demographic categories such as gender, race, age, religion, field of study, etc. could prove to be extremely useful when attempting to identify patterns in populations. The connections between these variables and political ideology are further examined in the literature review. The demographics of a potential libertarian faction have yet to be defined, specifically at the University of Southern Mississippi. Therefore, the goal of my research will be to first locate …

Behavioral Economics And Physician Behavior, Allyssa S. Ward

Honors Theses

This study seeks to answer whether the availability heuristic leads physicians to utilize more medical care than is economically efficient. Do rare, salient events alter physicians' perceptions about the probability of patient harm? Do these events lead physicians to overutilize certain medical procedures? This study uses Pennsylvania inpatient hospital admissions data from 2009 aggregated at the physician level to investigate these questions. The data come from the 2009 Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).

The study is divided into two parts. In Part I, we examine whether bad outcomes during childbirth (defined as maternal mortality, an obstetric fistula or …

Incorporating Hispanic Culture Into A Secondary Instrumental Classroom, Alexander Armstead

Honors Theses

For much of history, there has been a long-standing belief of the superiority of Western art music; that it is more natural, complex, expressive, and meaningful than other musics. This standpoint is being challenged more than ever as advances in musicology, ethnomusicolgy, global communication and media bring musics of other nations and cultures to the doorstep of the American people. There are many benefits to teaching cultural music in the instrumental classroom, including social and musical components. These components have the ability to open the minds of students to a higher sense of community as they enter the "world village" …

Graeco-Roman Bioi And The Gospels, Matthew L. Hillman

Honors Theses

This paper explores the genre of ancient biography and its connection to the gospels. The work is also a case study that examines Suetonius’s and Plutarch’s biographies of Julius Caesar in comparison to Mark’s and Luke’s lives of Jesus. Suetonius’s, Plutarch’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s biographies have many similarities and may be considered in the same sub-categories of political biography, philosophical biography, and holy man biography. In What are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography, Richard Burridge writes about the characteristics and features that determine genre. Burridge was the first person to publish a thorough, systematic analysis of the genre …

Golden Rice: The Need, The Science, And Public Reception Of Gmos, Elizabeth A. Quemada

Honors Theses

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) affects people all over the world. The most severely affected individuals are those in countries where access to Vitamin A rich foods such as dark leafy greens and dark red or orange vegetables, along with liver, eggs, and cheeses are not readily available. Vitamin A deficiency most harmfully affects young children, where it is needed for correct development, and pregnant women, where Vitamin A stores are depleted. Several methods have been put into action over the years in severely affected countries to help combat VAD. There are programs to increase the availability of Vitamin A in …

The Effects Of Interstate Speed Limit Increases: Fatality Rates And Traffic Diversion Versus Speed Spillover, Daniel L. Dillon

Honors Theses

This thesis examines two panel data sets of 48 states from 1981 to 2009 and utilizes ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects models to explore the relationship between rural Interstate speed limits and fatality rates and whether rural Interstate speed limits affect non-Interstate safety. Models provide evidence that rural Interstate speed limits higher than 55 MPH lead to higher fatality rates on rural Interstates though this effect is somewhat tempered by reductions in fatality rates for roads other than rural Interstates. These results provide some but not unanimous support for the traffic diversion hypothesis that rural Interstate speed limit …

Quantifying Urbanization In Grand Traverse County, Mi, Benjamin T. Roush

Honors Theses

Grand Traverse County, MI has witnessed population growth in the past thirty years, largely because of its popularity as a tourist destination and “wilderness” area in Michigan and around the Great Lakes basin in general. Accordingly, there has been human development and urbanization in the county, particularly around its major community, Traverse City. This paper seeks to quantify that urbanization. This will be done by classification of Landsat 5 – TM imagery collected in 1984 and 2010, utilizing the Gaussian maximum likelihood supervised classification method. After this process, changes in proportions of the various land use types in the county …

Evaluating Bucknell's Waste Stream, Hallie S. Kennan

Honors Theses

This thesis examines three questions regarding the content of Bucknell University‟s waste stream and the contributors to campus recycling and solid waste disposal. The first asks, “What does Bucknell‟s waste stream consist of?” To answer this question, I designed a campus-wide waste audit procedure that sampled one dumpster from each of the eleven „activity‟ types on campus in order to better understand Bucknell‟s waste composition. The audit was implemented during the Fall semester of the 2011-2012 school year. The waste from each dumpster was sorted into several recyclable and non-recyclable categories and then weighed individually. Results showed the Bison and …

Black Bahamas : Political Constructions Of Bahamian National Identity, Maria A. Lee

Honors Theses

On Tuesday, 27 April 1965, in the House of Assembly an event known as “Black Tuesday” struck the capital city of Nassau, New Providence in The Bahamas. A political furor arose in response to the failure of the ruling government to accurately determine voter distribution and boundaries. In frustration, the leader of the opposition motioned towards the mace, shouting, “This is the symbol of authority, and authority in this island belongs to the people.” With a burgeoning crowd below, he then lifted the mace in front of the Speaker, and threw it down from the window of the House. “Yes, …

Revolving Green Loan Funds And Implementation At Siuc, Carly Freiwald

Honors Theses

Over the past few years revolving green loan funds have been implemented at about fifty schools all across the country to help fund sustainability projects on their campus. These green revolving funds are used to invest in sustainability projects that lower operating expenses, for example, energy bills. The savings that these projects produce then get sent back to the fund and are reinvested in additional projects. These loan funds have been incredibly helpful in furthering the sustainability goals of colleges, while also helping to save the universities money. My research included looking into how other universities are implementing these revolving …

An Analysis Of The Hurricane Insurance Markets In The Southeastern United States, Stephanie Jeanette Jabaley

Honors Theses

As hurricanes are some of the most devastating natural catastrophes in the United States, property insurance for coastal home and business owners is a consistently evolving market. The southeast, specifically the Gulf of Mexico region, is where most hurricanes are concentrated and has accumulated a large amount of losses over the past few decades. After Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, less private insurers have offered windstorm coverage for coastal property owners and the state wind pools have increased their amounts of risk exposure. This thesis analyzes the use of wind pools in the Gulf of Mexico, specifically Mississippi, and other …

A Higher Duty:' The Sectionalization Of American Institutions Of Higher Education, Patricia Grace Ethel Gauthier

Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparative study of the rise of sectionalism in northern and southern antebellum American institutions of higher education. The West Point Military Academy, which maintained a roughly equal number of southern and northern cadets. presents a case-study of how faculty, staff, and students dealt with sectionalism in a mixed group. Information was gathered from numerous sources including college histories, archival material from the University of Mississippi, and southern military school studies. Several general trends were discovered from this data. 1) Southern academia actively encouraged the development of sectionalism because it provided public funding and enrollment for southern …

Anything New Under The Sun?: Walker Percy And The Search For A Third Way And Place, Matthew Jordan Griesbeck

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Walker Percy, through fiction, explores the various inadequacies of place, ontology, and religious belief through his representation of his characters* engagement with these three areas in their attempt to live a meaningful life. 1 analyze three of Percy's novels. The Moviegoer (1961), The Last Gentleman (1966). and The Second Cowmg (1980), as well as Percy's non-fiction essays and Percy criticism. I find that the novels are continuous with Percy's non-fiction, and that Percy critics too often simply restate the author's beliefs instead of undergoing a thorough examination of what the author …

Healthcare Reform In Context Of The Unique Case Of Mississippi's Diabetic Population, Alley Estelle Ronaldi

Honors Theses

Healthcare reform in the United States is a highly complex issue that is influenced by a number of economic, social, and political factors. These factors have converged in Mississippi to exacerbate reliance on acute care and the high costs associated with tertiary-level diabetes treatment. It has been thoroughly researched that continuous primary care is most the cost effective and convenient treatment for diabetes, yet such treatment centers are scarce in Mississippi due to healthcare payment structures. It is for these reasons that Mississippi is used as an excellent test case for reform proposals. Two of the most polar and popular …

Celebratory Activism: A Media Portrayal Of Southern Identity, Elizabeth Myhr Lynch

Honors Theses

Celebratory Activism: A Media Portrayal of Southern Identity (Under the Direction of Dr. Mark Dolan)

The objective ofthis paper is to investigate the media's role in portraying southern identity and to determine the media's effect on the surrounding communities. It specifically addresses the three media institutions of Thacker Mountain Radio, The Oxford American, and The Southern Foodways Alliance and determines how they represent and celebrate southern culture. The methodology of the paper consists of the assessment of existing literature in the field of the media's depiction of the South followed by case studies on Thacker Mountain Radio, The Oxford American, …

Uneven-Ing, Samantha Taylor Ivy

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Inter-Group Communication During Hurricane Katrina: How Organizational Culture Defeats Coordination, Johanna Nielsen

Honors Theses

Interaction between groups can be understood as regulated by two communication theories: Adaptive Structuration theory which describes how a group's resources affect how it solves problems, and Functional Group Decision Making theory which describes the steps groups take to make decisions. When combined into a model, these theories provide a framework for examining how groups use resources in their interaction with each other. Research into both secondary and primary sources identified ten resources groups used to interact with other groups during the crisis response. Careful analysis determined that the Federal, State, and Private agencies' organizational cultures and social identities were …

Investigating The Role Of Online Social Media In Consumer-Firm Relationships, Janna Cole

Honors Theses

Regarding the role of Web 2.0 in business activities, three primary areas of interest are under discussion: (1) how Web 2.0 tools should be integrated into firms' marketing strategies, (2) how Web 2.0 tools should be used to build or retain brand equity and create value with consumers, and (3) how the participation of brands in Web 2.0 influences consumers attitudes and behaviors, if at all. There are some overlaps between these subjects, particularly involving the role of consumers in appreciating or diminishing brands' reputations, as well as information gaps to be filled by further research as these technologies continue …