Digital Commons Network^™

Abnormal Group Velocities Of Ultrasonic Pulses In Aqueous Suspensions Of Polymer Microspheres, Robert Evans Heithaus

Honors Theses

In this project acoustic waves were employed to measure dispersion properties of two suspensions of polymer microspheres that were believed to support superluminal group velocities. Broadband ultrasonic pulses were first used to study a suspension of microspheres with a mean diameter of 160 microns. The validity of the data was verified using Kramers-Kronig relations, and the attenuation, phase, and group velocity spectra During the second phase of the project a pulse consisting of broadband and narrowband components were propagated through the same 160 micron sample. The data are depicted in the Results section. Phase II studied several different bandwidths for …

The Politics Of Memory: A Study Of The Formation And Influence Of Public Memory Of The Military Regime In Argentina, Alexandra Azema Rodriguez

Honors Theses

[This study investigated the influence of various political and non-political factors public memory of the period of military regime rule in Argentina from 1976 through 1983. The sources utilized in the study mainly include scholarly works, in addition to several news articles, poll data, and a series of films concerning the subject. The study found that the development of public memory of this particular political event has been influenced by a complex array of interest groups. Each group utilized a unique set of methods and mediums to convey its preferred account of the period of regime rule. The interest groups …

Nouveau: A Feminist Magazine Launch, Meghan Cori Blalock

Honors Theses

The following thesis is a combination of research on the history of feminism and magazines in America and a business plan with accompanying prototype for the launch of a feminist magazine called Nouveau. The research took several months to complete with the business plan and prototype requiring approximately one additional academic year to finish. Based on research and general knowledge of the magazine publishing industry, I found that there is a niche in feminist publications waiting to be filled; Nouveau, which aims to redefine feminism for young professional women, will fill that niche by presenting women with the option of …

Phylogeny And Population Genetics Of Allotheuthis (Loliginidae) And Discovery Of A Cryptic Species, Adria Pilsits

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of An Internship And What Makes Quicken Loans An Extraordinary Place To Intern, Frank C. Salinger

Honors Theses

Records the author's experiences interning for Quicken Loans as a student studying Business at Western Michigan University, and what benefits were found from the internship process.

Process Color Profiling: Syncing A Digital Printer With An Offset Press, Kate Blout, Laura Kraft

Honors Theses

PowerPoint presentation discussing color as it applies to ink and printing devices. Part of the project involved creating a color management system to allow the WMU print lab to print color roofs on its digital printer that would match the output of the Shinohara offset press.

Figuring The Refugee, Genevieve Goulding

Honors Theses

''Figuring the Refugee" explores humanitarian relief for refugees as a discourse; a system of communication and identity-making which creates a subhuman refugee and perpetuates the problems of assistance. Through an auto-ethnographic narrative of my experience in the camp, I consider how the space itself creates exploitative binaries between aid workers and refugees. In an analysis of the United Nations 2006 film appeal, I argue that the discourse is normalized by images of the dehumanized refugee. The rhetoric of the film appeal limits the response of the western viewer to an uncritical sympathy, and allows for ineffective models of refugee assistance …

A Critical Comparison Of The Church-State Jurisprudence Of Chief Justice William Rehnquist And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Christy Harrison

Honors Theses

The relationship between government and religion is a difficult one. The question of how religious beliefs and practices should be treated by the government remains at the forefront of constitutional debate. There are concerns about religious freedom and the extent to which it conflicts with public duty. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court's interpretation of the religion clauses has been unclear, inconsistent, and, therefore, extremely controversial. In fact, it has not become less controversial over time, but quite …

Framing Femininity: Media Coverage Of A Tennessee Mayoral Campaign, Katie Broderick

Honors Theses

In recent years, more women have emerged from both major parties and across all regions and disciplines to make their voices heard in the political arena. Slowly, the number of women in Senate seats and governor's mansions has inched higher, and there is a strong possibility that we will have a female presidential candidate in the next election. In 2007, 87 women are serving in the United States Congress. They hold 16, or 16%, of the 100 Senate seats, and 71, or 16.4%, of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. In state positions, percentages are slightly higher: in …

Marginalized Literature In The English Classroom Working With Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed, Noelle Carpenter

Honors Theses

Literature in the English classroom should give students the opportunity to explore the voices of a diverse range of people, especially in a school system that is becoming increasingly diverse itself. By exposing students to literature that engages them in important social issues, students become aware of a world beyond their own. Marginalized literature shows students different perspectives that exist in the world in which they live. Ehrenreich's autoethnography Nickel and Dimed is a window into the lives of the working poor based on her own personal experiences and research during a time when the views surrounding those in poverty …

Photojournalistic Manipulations Of Reality: The Power Over Knowledge, Valerie Friedman

Honors Theses

This project is an anthropological study on how students at Colby College interpret photojournalistic images and news media. Using extensive literature, I strove to find a better understanding of how news agencies and the media control the flow and availability of information. Through fieldwork and numerous research methods, I wanted to understand how students formed relationships with images and news stories they encountered. This paper shows how the media and images people see in the news controls the minds and ideas of the public. Newspapers, magazines, the radio, internet sites, television broadcasts, and other forms of news media are primary …

Collective Moral Responsibility, Allyson Rudolph

Honors Theses

What is collective moral responsibility? And why should you care? The answer to the former, like any good philosophical question, is largely unresolved. Although writing on collective responsibility has flourished, particularly in the wake of the Holocaust, and despite the existence of an increasingly consistent bibliography of essential writings in the field, there is no definitive authority on the subject. Unlike individual moral responsibility, however, there is little consensus among the ranks. Many theories disclaim the existence or the possibility of collective moral responsibility—a group is just not the sort of thing that can ever be considered a morally responsible …

Detailed Mechanistic And Optimization Of The Photochemical Production Method Of Superoxide, Ta-Chung Ong

Honors Theses

The highly reactive nature of superoxide anion presents an analytical challenge to prepare stable standards for instrument calibration. McDowell et al. (1983) developed a convenient method of superoxide production based on continuous photolysis of benzophenone and acetone in oxygen saturated, alkaline, 2-propanol solution. In the McDowell reaction, ketones are photolyzed to their triplet state, and then reacted with alcohol to produce ketyl radicals that react with oxygen to produce superoxide. This study investigated the mechanism and rate of these reactions by Laser Flash Photolysis (LFP). Reaction rate constants for the reaction between the benzophenone triplet and ethanol was 5.5 x …

Gauguin : Generating Art Using Genetic Algorithms & User Input Naturally, Thomas E. Cook

Honors Theses

This paper outlines an undergraduate research project demonstrating an application of evolutionary computation in the context of computer art. The project, named GAUGUIN, combines the visual impact of modern computer graphics with the computational power of genetic algorithms. GAUGUIN allows the user to become a creator of art, without requiring any technical or artistic training. By using an intuitive and easily comprehensible process like evolution to create the composition, the user simply needs to evaluate a sequence of compositions. Mimicking the biological process of evolution, the system will evolve the works in order to achieve images that are more visually …

Obstacles And Stepping Stones To The Hero’S Pedestal: Reunified Germany’S Selective Commemoration Of Resisters To National Socialism, Suzanne J. Swartz

Honors Theses

Bombs, propaganda, graffiti, espionage, murder. Normally these words carry a negative connotation, unless used with regard to German resistance to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The resistance, which included groups and individuals from all areas of German society but failed to produce a single mass anti-Hitler movement, has gained little recognition outside of Germany but much within, particularly during the past thirty years. Germany has taken the one positive light from that dark time period and used it as a tool of legitimization for the government and other institutions, and as a source for heroic figures of whom Germans can …

The Effects Of Stereotype Activation On Women's Reactions To Leadership Situations, Or, How Reading Cosmo Might Prevent You From Becoming Ceo, Stefanie L. Simon

Honors Theses

The present experimental study investigated the effect of stereotype activation on women's responses to a leadership situation. Participants were exposed to either gender-stereotypic or gender-counterstereotypic magazine advertisements picturing women and then performed a leadership task involving two confederate s. Results supported the prediction that participants exposed to stereotypic advertisements would exhibit more negative reactions to the leadership situation than those exposed to counterstereotypic advertisements such that they reported lower perceived performance, self-esteem, and well-being. Sex-role orientation moderated this effect such that' advertisements had a stronger effect on feminine-oriented participants' domain identification, intent to lead in the future, and experienced cognitive …

World Bank -Cpa Conflict: The Struggle To Define Human Rights And Development In The Philippines, Adam B. Robbins

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the interactions between the World Bank (hereafter, the Bank) and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), an indigenous and environmental advocacy group based in the Cordillera region of Luzon, in the Philippines. Using data gathered through both text-based and participatory research methods, I analyze the discursive relationship and violent confrontations between the two organizations. Conflicting development and human rights values cause the majority of these conflicts. I focus on how each organization enacts development and human rights, and how this leads to conflict. Ultimately, I intend for this thesis to offer practical guidance for the reader involved in …

Refiguring History : The Works Of Faith Ringgold And Kara Walker, Amy Bradshaw

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I seek to investigate various elements that the works of Faith

Ringgo ld (b 1930) and Kara Walker (b 1969) have in common as well as explore the

differences. My method is to begin with an examination of the work of Ringgold on its

own and follow with an analy sis of the work of Walker. While dealing with Walker, I

continue an examination of Ringgold so that the work of both artist s and the connections

and differences between the two become clearer.

Constructing Muammar Al-Gaddafi, Kristin Kushlan

Honors Theses

Rhetoricians such as Robert Ivie and George Lakoffhave examined the use of language of opposition to create and control various enemies during the War on Terror, but they have also ignored or overlooked numerous cases. This paper will examine one such case, that of Muammar al-Gaddafi, whose reciprocal violence eventually succumbed to the oppressor's global economic power. This case study will explore how the U.S. government rhetorically constructed Gaddafi in order to control both his identity within American society (as either an enemy or an ally), as well as the counter-violence that Gaddafi supposedly enacted against Western systems of power. …

The Art Of War : Deconstructing The Monolith Of The World War Ii Poster, Sean Williams

Honors Theses

For most Americans, the introduction to World War II posters, or even the entire field of posters during wartime in general, comes in the form of an elderly, yet bold looking man wearing red, white and blue. He wears a striped hat, and stands with his finger pointed outwards. The message he gives is clear --"I want YOU!" This image has been faithfully reproduced in social studies and history textbooks for years. (Indeed, both generations of my family saw such an image in their school books).

Uncle Sam, though, dapper as he may be, is merely one example of hundreds …

The War On Inequality : Subtleties In The Perceptions Of Women Leaders, Adrienne Supino

Honors Theses

We studied whether the incongruity between the female gender role and stereotypically masculine leadership roles can lead people, particularly men and sex-typed individuals, to negatively perceive women in this type of leadership role. A study was designed to investigate whether the gender of a potential appointee to the historically masculine leadership role of Secretary of Defense, in either a time of peace or terror, affected people's perceptions of this person. Fifty-three participants read one of four articles containing biographical information about either a male or female candidate for the post, in either a peace context or a terror context. We …

The Rise And Fall Of America's Education President : George W. Bush's Political Leadership And The Passage Of The No Child Left Behind Act, Ethan L. Mcwilliams

Honors Theses

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush proudly signed the "No Child Left Behind Act," thus ensuring that H.R. 1 became Public Law 107-110. During the signing ceremony, the President triumphantly proclaimed that, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results."1 The legislation, which totaled more than six hundred pages, was intended to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and expand its aim according to four central principles: accountability for results; state and local flexibility; focusing resources on successful methods; and expanding choice? Although substantively notable …

The Thou Shalts Of Journalism: A Study Of The Significance Of Ethics Codes As They Correlate To The Journalistic Values Of Objectivity And Detachment And The Practice Of Public Journalism By Mississippi Newspapers, Kimberly Anne Breaux

Honors Theses

Ethics arguably are a nexus to good journalism; thus, without a clearly-mandated ethics code that helps one differentiate between objectivity and bias as well as detachment and empathy, media practitioners fail in their basic journalistic obligation to providing readers with the information that they need to live well-informed, free, and self-governing lives. Furthermore, objectivity and detachment are two journalistic elements under constant public scrutiny for their surfeit of related ethical faux pas committed regularly by American journalists. Particularly in the practice of public journalism- a method for framing stories that is based on increased community input and unconventional techniques to …

Art And Persuasion: A Communication Study Of Contemporary Documentary Film, Lauren Elizabeth Freeman

Honors Theses

The focus of this study is defining and determining the area of communication in contemporary documentary films. In examining the structure and aesthetic composition of documentary film, this study will compare the film genre to the areas of journalism. persuasion and propaganda through secondary and primary research defining the elements that constitute these specific areas of communication. Secondary research involved text, newspaper articles, online journals and websites, and the viewing of documentary film. The primary research was conducted through personal interviews with documentary filmmakers. Research findings resulted in a wide range of views on the definition and uses for documentary …

The Limits Of Laïcité: Islam And The Headscarf Issue In France, Lindsay Blaire Beeman

Honors Theses

Laicite is the term given to France’s complex policy of separation between church and state. Developing out of a long and tumultuous religious history, laicite set out to resolve the problems that the French state had with religion by eliminating its presence in the public sphere. At its inception, the policy did not have clearly stated objectives. As a result, it was not equally applied and many problems ensued. The most recent debacle involving the application of laicite was Vaffaire dii foulard, or headscarf affair. Citing the principle of laicite, numerous teachers and principals in French schools required Muslim students …

The Post-Cold War Security Dialogue, Melanie Collins

Honors Theses

This paper attempts to explore the relevance of new security concerns in the post Cold War security dialogue. This project is split in to two parts. The first part is a brief summary of what have been termed new security concerns. The second part is an empirical analysis of whether these security concerns have made it out of academic discussion and in to the mass media and political dialogue. This was determined via two sources: The New York Times and Presidential State of the Union Addresses from 1949 - 2007. Using The New York Times, the time periods 1980-1985, 1990-1995, …

Stopping The Flood Of Denglish: The Difficult Dilemma Faced By German Language Organizations In Modern-Day Germany, Julianne Kay Lofton

Honors Theses

In this study I examined the reactions of official and independent German language organizations to the influx of Denglish, which is a hybrid mix of German and English, and Anglicisms. The independent language organizations tend to be more open in opposing these linguistic influences, and often want strict language protection laws like those in France and Poland. I hypothesized that Germany’s Nazi past has led to a general lack of patriotism and nationalism in Germany, which has affected their language policy and allowed Germany to be overrun by Denglish and Anglicized words and phrases. Germany is experiencing a renewal of …

Human Rights And United States Foreign Policy: Morality Vs. Self-Interest, Christopher Franklin Tatum

Honors Theses

This thesis has set out to explore the role that human rights considerations play in United States foreign policy, if any. Has this role changed over time, as new circumstances arise, or has it been consistent throughout the twentieth (and twenty-first, to this point) century? What are the inherent tensions in policy formation that compete when discussing human rights? In answering this question, three main areas of influence on foreign policy were consulted: domestic political factors, geopolitical factors, and economic factors. In researching this thesis, I have consulted several different kinds of sources, including scholarly articles, books, primary documents in …

Rage, Remembrance, Redemption: The Poetic Response To Aids, Samuel Douglas Ray

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the works of three poets whose works offer a response to the AIDS epidemic: Thom Gunn, Paul Monette, and Mark Doty. With chapters dedicated to each poefs work individually, the thesis examines the works in terms of thematic content, formal characteristics, and sociopolitical relevance. The three central chapters are framed by personal essays that also explore general characteristics of AIDS poetry In the great tradition of the elegy and the lyric. While all three poets offer narratives alternative to the political discourse surrounding the disease, each poet's response is unique - just as each poet's relationship to …

Surviving Hurricane Katrina: A Family Chronicle, Matthew Samuel Sharpe

Honors Theses

On August 29, 2005, southern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast experienced what was possibly the worst natural disaster in American history. The only home 1 ever knew, the house my parents built, was inundated with nearly 12 feet of water and crude oil for almost two weeks. Our lives were changed forever. But our reaction to the disaster would serve as the guide for the rest of our lives. This thesis is the story of the disaster and its aftermath through the eyes of my parents and I. The bulk of information comes from three main sources: my own …