Digital Commons Network^™

Redesigning Nasogastric Feeding Tubes To Prevent Dislodgement, Sydney Ruth Rester, Shelby Lynn Berry

Honors Theses

Seniors at the University of Mississippi studying biomedical engineering complete a senior project that seeks to solve a problem in healthcare. Our team, composed of Sydney Rester, Shelby Berry, Andrew Ulmer, and Alex Bromley, sought to improve care associated with nasogastric feeding tubes. We identified two major problems: clogging and tube dislodgement. To address the problem of dislodgement, the team crafted a new feeding tube design with a balloon attachment. The attachment prevents a patient from pulling the feeding tube out and keeps the tube from dislodging due to normal patient movement. We further determined that our tube should be …

Redesigning Nasogastric Feeding Tubes To Prevent Dislodgement, Shelby Lynn Berry, Sydney Ruth Rester

Honors Theses

Seniors at the University of Mississippi studying biomedical engineering complete a senior project that seeks to solve a problem in healthcare. Our team, composed of Sydney Rester, Shelby Berry, Andrew Ulmer, and Alex Bromley, sought to improve care associated with nasogastric feeding tubes. We identified two major problems: clogging and tube dislodgement. To address the problem of dislodgement, the team crafted a new feeding tube design with a balloon attachment. The attachment prevents a patient from pulling the feeding tube out and keeps the tube from dislodging due to normal patient movement. We further determined that our tube should be …

Investigating The Impact Of Student-Teacher Relationships On Teacher Retention And Recruitment, Kylie Scott

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the impact of positive student teacher relationships on teacher retention and recruitment. The overarching research question this thesis project aims to address is how do teachers describe the impact of student-teacher relationships on their decisions to become a teacher and stay in teaching? Verbal data collected through semi-structured interviews with my former teachers have been analyzed and reviewed for common or emergent themes. These themes will be discussed along with other commentary from a literature review, results, and a conclusion.

Queer Representation In The Horror Genre: An Analysis Of Queer Stereotypes, Makenna N. Lambert

Honors Theses

Queer representation has been present across all genres of film since the dawn of filmmaking. Much of the early representation of queer identities originated in the horror genre, specifically during the time of the Motion Picture Production Code (1934-1968). However, many negative stereotypes and tropes still common in media today originated in this time period. Films like Dracula’s Daughter and Bride of Frankenstein included stereotypes like the overly effeminate, weak gay man, the aggressive, ugly lesbian, and the concept that queer people are predatory. Modern-day horror films have started to stray away from these harmful tropes, including more well-rounded and …

A Realistic Path Towards A More Affordable Healthcare System For The United States, James Loome

Honors Theses

This study was performed in order to try to discover ways in which the American healthcare system can improve and become more affordable for its citizens. The main focus was to see how implementing a universal healthcare system could benefit the United States. I analyzed aspects of many different universal healthcare system structures and chose aspects that I think should or should not be included in a revised version of the US healthcare system. There was a strong focus on the aspects of Japan and Costa Rica’s healthcare systems. I also pointed out weaknesses in the US healthcare system that …

Buy The Rumor; Sell The News: Predicting Growth In The Shanghai Stock Exchange Resulting From The 2020 Foreign Investment Law, Jonathan Dwyer

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to prove that China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange responds to relevant policy changes, and, as a result, the new 2020 Foreign Investment Law will result in market growth. This is done by establishing a historical precedent, analyzing the significant changes brought about by the new law, and finally using three economic models to provide a mathematical basis.

The Measurement And Treatment Of Overt Stuttering In Handwriting, Preston Dubberly

Honors Theses

While stuttering continues to be considered a speech disorder, other linguistic expressive modalities are reported as having stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) as well. With research now defining the stuttering phenomenon as a medical disease, the modern stuttering research paradigm is now better equipped to account for SLDs in multiple expressive modalities, including handwriting. As our appreciation of stuttering crosses expressive modalities, the purpose of this manuscript is to document, describe, and define SLDs in handwriting, as well as to investigate fluency enhancement strategies for those who stutter in handwriting. The participant in this case study self-referred himself for an evaluation and …

Examining Relationships Between Covid-19, Investor Personality Traits, And Investor Risk Tolerance., Joshua Turner

Honors Theses

In 2020, financial markets around the globe sharply declined as the threat of Covid-19 became severe. The financial market reactions were precedented. Due to the unprecedented reaction, conversations arose describing the influences that impacted investor behavior. Among these influences are behavioral influences such as personality traits and financial risk tolerance. The following research evaluates the relationships between Covid-19, Dark Triad Personality Traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy), financial feelings, preference for consistency, long-term orientation, and the need to evaluate. A survey gauging individuals’ economic perception, personality traits, and risk behavior was distributed to 116 individuals. Quantitative analysis was done using t-tests …

Lgbtq+ In A Rural Kentucky Town, Caroline A. Kinsman

Honors Theses

This interview series aims to understand the perspectives of LGBTQ+ community members in relation to local government in a small rural town in Kentucky. The purpose is to ascertain the correlation between the LGBTQ+ community's level of feeling accepted and the efforts and attitudes of non-LGBTQ+ officials. In total, six LGBTQ+ individuals were interviewed, and two elected government officials. Themes found within the interview series include reputation, safety, mental health, urgent change, blindness, and lack of responsibility.

Play That Funky Music: A Study Of Bacterial Contamination Of Wind Instruments, Ashley Clark

Honors Theses

Should there be standards to routinely clean instruments and what methods are available for that? It has been found that the bacteria and other microorganisms inside of musical instruments may be the culprit of respiratory infections in musicians (King et al. 2016). This project was divided into two experiments. First, clarinet reeds were introduced to three different species of bacteria. Then mouthpieces of trombonists and clarinetists of Eastern Kentucky University were swabbed and analyzed using a Colony Forming Unit assay. Bacteria was found to live on unused reeds for up to 30 days. Mouthpieces house millions of bacteria, determined by …

Impacts Of Personal Cultural Orientations On College Students’ Psychological Health And Preventive Behaviors During The Covid-19 Period, Joanna Ouyang

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic life changes to individuals across the world. Personal cultural orientations of these individuals alter the way individuals respond to the pandemic and their mental wellness. This research investigates how personal cultural orientations impact college students’ mental health primarily anxiety, prevention behaviors and intentions to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and active coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n=155) completed measures of independence, ambiguity intolerance, masculinity, gender equality, mental health, prevention behaviors to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and active coping strategies to protect themselves during the pandemic. Results revealed that people with higher …

Oxalic Acid Leaf Disk Soak Assay Is A New Possibility In Screening For Blight Resistance In Castanea Species, Kaitlyn Harden

Honors Theses

Chestnut blight is a disease caused by the ascomycete fungus Cryphonectria parasitica in the Castanea species. The fungus uses oxalic acid (OA) to attack the tree’s cells. Castanea dentata, the American chestnut, was wiped out by chestnut blight in the early to mid-20th century, but several East Asian Castanea species appear highly resistant to the fungus. To breed resistant American type trees, screening methods are used to enable selection of interspecific hybrids. The alternative small stem assay (aSSA) is a method of screening container-grown hybrid seedlings during their first growing season by directly infecting them with C. parasitica. Some plant …

Viability Of Equine Assisted Activities And Therapies For Individuals With Developmental Disorders: A Systematic Review, Faith Pinson

Honors Theses

The objective of this review is to determine whether Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) are a viable form of therapy for people with various developmental disorders. A viable form of therapy is one that is more beneficial than traditional forms of therapy that already exist, as traditional therapies may be generally less expensive and have plentiful research to support their use). In order to be beneficial, EAAT would need to yield improved results when either compared side by side with traditional therapy or used as a complementary therapy with traditional therapy. In this systematic review, the included studies examined the …

Cared For Ed Non-Emergency Care: College Student Acceptance, Ranking, And Economic Deterrents Of Ed Non-Emergency Care, Evan Britt

Honors Theses

There has been increasing concern from hospitals and insurance policyholders over the rise of Emergency Department (ED) visits, as it is linked with overcrowding and longer waiting times; an increasingly large proportion of these ED visits are described as non-urgent or clinically unnecessary (O’Keefe, 2017; Pierce, 2009). The purpose of this project is to understand how college students’ perceptions of Emergency Departments influence their decisions on where to seek medical care. Methods: I developed a three-part scenario-based survey using Qualtrics that included the following sections: Consent and General Demographics, Pre-Price Scenarios, and Price Included Scenarios. Participants were asked to rank …

Iran's Involvement In The Syrian Civil War Before And After Jcpoa, Kaitlin Coulter

Honors Theses

The Syrian civil war has been going on for over a decade and has caused the death of over 500,000 people and the displacement of thirteen million more. Ending the war has been difficult for policy makers worldwide due to the number of outside actors involved in the conflict. The most prominent actor that has made this task so difficult is Iran. Syria and Iran have been staunch allies since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Despite religious differences, their support for each other through the decades has proven extremely beneficial for both countries. When the Syrian civil …

Perceptions Of Stress: A Gendered Comparison Of Undergraduates In Stem, Molly Martin

Honors Theses

Students enrolled in undergraduate universities face numerous stressors every day. Outside of stress from their academic studies (i.e., homework, studying for exams, writing papers), they also encounter daily life stressors relating to self-sufficiency, career choices, families, housing, and many other areas. While every student deals with stress coming from multiple areas of their life, women tend to place more stress on themselves than men due to social pressure to perform well and the feeling of societal expectation to have a high stress load from which to derive personal value. Within the field of Science, Technology and Math (STEM), —a field …

Role Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Exoenzymes S, T, And Y In The Modulation Of Intrinsic Apoptosis In Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells, Andrea M. Vavrinek

Honors Theses

P. aeruginosa is the most common cause of ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients. P. aeruginosa uses a type III secretion system to inject exoenzymes S, T, U, and Y into host cells, exhibiting unique effects. Pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) are used to evaluate cellular changes caused by exoenzymes. ExoY infection of PMVECs leads to cell rounding but does not lead to cell death, unlike ExoS/T. The current study evaluated the exoenzyme-induced modulation of intrinsic apoptosis in endothelial cells. Strain PAK, producing ExoS, T, and Y, was compared to isogenic strains expressing either S, SY, T, TY, Y, or none …

Dissolved Copper Distributions In The Western Mississippi Sound: Characterizing An Unrecognized Endmember, Megan Hansen

Honors Theses

This study examined the distribution of dissolved copper (Cu) in the western Mississippi Sound, as the element can be beneficial or harmful to organisms depending on its concentration and its chemical form. A mixing experiment eliminated flocculation as a control on Cu distributions during estuarine mixing in both dissolved and colloidal fractions. Field sampling of the western Mississippi Sound occurred during a low river discharge period, and distributions of Cu indicated conservative mixing between fresh ([Cu] ≈ 17 nM) and saline ([Cu] ≈ 2 nM) sources in mid-to-high salinities. Storm outfalls were sampled after rain events to evaluate the impact …

Breaking The Cycle Of Stigma: The Role Of Majority Group Stigmatization In Contributing To Internalized Stigma Among Racial Minorities, Camryn Harris

Honors Theses

This study investigates whether individuals hold more stigma against minority group members with mental health issues based on race. Individuals are more susceptible to the negligence of treatment and further assistance due to increased stigmatization associated with mental health. Internalized stigma is more prominent within marginalized communities due to various co-existing factors such as socioeconomic status, inadequate resources, aversive health experiences, and low education levels infiltrated by systemic discrimination and structural inequality. In addition, minority group members are also more at risk for mental health disorders due to these factors. Past research has shown that stigmatization against individuals with mental …

We Salute You: Student Servicemembers' And Veterans' Perspective Of The University Of Southern Mississippi's Support Of Military Students, Dianna Couch

Honors Theses

There has been an increasing number of veterans and servicemembers attending colleges and universities in the past several years. However, these veterans and servicemembers oftentimes struggle to readjust to civilian life and academia after their years of service. With the increasing number of veterans and servicemembers attending colleges and universities, schools are in a prime position to offer support for this population. However, there has been a lack of research conducted on this growing student population and how to best serve them.

A survey was sent via email by the USM’s Center for Military Veterans, Service Members and Families to …

The Effects Of Social Media On Mental Health And Career Planning, Spencer A. Rowan

Honors Theses

Social media use is prevalent and necessary in society—nearly anything can be accomplished with a mobile device or smartphone. Among the US population, two thirds of American adults admit to using social media (Perrin, 2015) and in 2022, Georgiev (2023) found Americans spent an average of two and a half hours daily on social media. Furthermore, social media use is tied to mental well-being, work confidence levels, and feelings of being an imposter (Johnson et al., 2020; Uram & Skalski, 2022; Hernandez & Chalk, 2021; Myers, 2021; Ramm, 2019).

This project examined the role of social media use among college …

Post-Covid-19 Employee Satisfaction: An Examination Of Flexible Work Arrangements, Joshua Cooper

Honors Theses

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses had to switch their strategy to stay afloat in such unprecedented times. One way that businesses, as well as entire industries, pivoted was by using flexible work arrangements to alleviate the stress and potential danger of employees gathering at work. The addition of flexible working arrangements into industries has created an entirely different world of work that challenges the traditional form of working in a face-to-face format. Moving forward, after the pandemic, industries have to accommodate for these more present working conditions that impact how employees view their satisfaction with their job. This research …

Gender Role Conflict Experienced By Baccalaureate Level Male Nursing Students At The University Of Southern Mississippi, Brantley Snowden

Honors Theses

This study aims to determine the presence of gender role conflict experienced by male nursing students at the University of Southern Mississippi. Thirty-one male nursing students participated in this study. A 55-question survey was distributed via email to men in the baccalaureate nursing program at the University of Southern Mississippi. The survey contained a brief demographic section and a 53-question Likert scale section. The Likert scale questions were adopted from two validated surveys; the Inventory of Male Friendliness in Nursing Programs (IMFNP), and the Gender Role Conflict Scale – Short Form (GRCS-SF). Thirty questions were derived from the IMFNP and …

Validity Of The Loadsol Pro Insole For Pedal Reaction Force Measurements During Stationary Cycling, Anabelle Vallecillo Bustos

Honors Theses

Advancements in wearable technology have allowed clinicians, coaches, and researchers the ability to observe and quantify human movement outside the laboratory. Instrumented insoles are an example of novel technology that can be worn in the shoes and measure vertical reaction force wirelessly. The use of such insoles will prove to be beneficial for athletes as they train, patients as they progress through rehabilitation, and researchers as they experiment in their respective fields. The Loadsol Pro (Novel Inc., St Paul., MN, USA) has been shown to produce accurate and reliable measures of ground reaction forces (GRF) in various dynamic activities including …

Uptake And Localization Of Poly(2-Vinyl-4,4-Dimethyl Azlactone) Modified With Rhodamine- And Coumarin-Based Molecules In Human Embryonic Kidney (Hek293) Cells, Garrett Tassin

Honors Theses

Fluorescence microscopy is a bioimaging technology that utilizes the excitation and emission of fluorophores to identify cellular structures, processes, and interactive events. Natural and synthetic organic dyes are frequently used in fluorescence microscopy techniques for imaging, therapeutic, and biomedical applications. It is also employed in the development of novel organic dyes for innovative methods of drug delivery and labelling. In this study, we investigate the behavior of an organic dye consisting of the post-polymerization modification of poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyl azlactone) (PVDMA) with tetramethyl rhodamine cadaverine (TMR) and a coumarin-based molecule (DBAC). Using cultured HEK293 cells and fluorescence confocal microscopy, we show the …

The Beast Lives Here, Kelli Kirkland

Honors Theses

A staple of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age, genre is a loss of innocence, often through trauma, so it is only natural for our protagonist to grasp at whatever coping mechanism may offer them comfort. As a coming-of-age novel, The Beast Lives Here asks: How does folklore and the supernatural interact with young, impressionable protagonists who are desperate to find explanations for their pain? The Beast Lives Here follows teenage narrator August (Aggie) Cain as she and her best friend move from junior to senior year of high school. Her excitement, however, is cut short by her best friend's lengthy trip …

Questioning The Use Of Race And Sex-Based Statistics In Economic Loss Valuations In Tort Litigation: A Comparison Of Mississippi To New York, Caitlin Phillips

Honors Theses

In tort litigation, specifically catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, forensic economists are employed to determine a plaintiff’s projected worklife and life expectancy, which is then presented to a jury as lost income. Often, projections of life expectancy and worklife use race and sex-based statistics. For example, a white female, on average, may live a significantly longer life than a black male. Additionally, said white female may, on average, work for fewer years than her male counterparts. In this research, case law of Mississippi and New York were read closely for mentions of race and sex-based statistics in forensic economics …

Perceptions Of Prenatal Care From Mississippi Mothers: The Role Of Race And Insurance Coverage, Brittney Clayborn

Honors Theses

Giving birth in America as an African American woman is a daunting and risky undertaking. African American women are three to four times more likely to die from giving birth and two times more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity than their White counterparts (Wang, Glazer, Sofaer, Balbierz, & Howell, 2020). The disparity seen in maternal health and mortality can partially be linked to other chronic health and medical factors; however, there are even disparities seen in those as well. Attention must be brought to the impact of race and socioeconomic status on the likelihood of survival after giving birth, …

Formulation And Optimization Of Algae-Filled Polylactic Acid Thermoplastic Compounds For Improved Biodegradation, Sydney A. Cole

Honors Theses

Conventional plastics derived from non-renewable petrochemicals – especially from fossil reserves – have become an integral part of human life because their structure can be chemically manipulated to obtain a wide range of properties and geometries necessary in nearly all industries. The volume and rate at which petroleum plastics are produced, used, and discarded has incited several significant issues related to human health, environmental conservation, and ecological biodiversity. To address these issues, many institutions have begun investigating solutions in both the development and end-oflife phases of plastic production and waste. In this thesis, a Chlorella-dominated algae mixture is dried and …

Legitimate And Deceptive Media: An Analysis Of Sources Used In Conjunction With #Defundingthepolice Using Twitter Api, Isabel Tilford

Honors Theses

The idea of defunding the police has been circulating on social media for the past few years. This thesis seeks to analyze what types of sources people use in conjunction with the #DefundthePolice hashtag to define their understanding of defunding the police. Using Twitter API to search for #DefundthePolice, Tweets were analyzed and rated based on the credibility of links embedded within each post. Each link was assigned a credibility rating of one through three, one meaning not credible, two meaning somewhat credible, and three meaning credible. Each link was classified into one of eight categories: news, statements, advertisements, advertisements/propaganda, …