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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Comprehensive Understanding, Needs Assessment, And Development Of Intervention, Jacquelyn Jean Lee

Honors Theses

The portrait of the traditional American family is changing. The emergence of single parent households and families built on two careers instead of one mark the more typical reminders of the developing family sphere. However, another broad trend has taken shape over the past twenty years as the result of a wide realm of societal shifts. The role of the grandparent in many modem families has been transformed from distant relative to primary caregiver, from grandparent to parent. Intergenerational households more than the once thought temporary needs, but rather, more often speak of long term commitments. The following thesis investigates …

Institutionalized Hypocrisy: Divorce And Politics In Chile, 1884-2004, Amanda Faye Mitchell

Honors Theses

Chile is a country of many contradictions, and these contradictions lead to a great chasm between the needs of the people and the way in which the government tries to provide for those needs. Many of the policies and laws are in line with the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and these policies play an interesting role in the social landscape of the country. They create an environment in which the general population does not live in a manner that corresponds to the way that the Church claims they do. Therefore, the law based on Catholic doctrine often creates a …

Spatial Variability Of Soil Electrical Conductivity And Its Response To Soil Physical Properties, Matthew David Sleep

Honors Theses

The Soil Moisture Observatory (SMO) at the University of Mississippi (UM) is a 5 acre tract of a former agricultural field at the UM Biological Field Station. Preliminary investigations of this site included 60 continuous soil cores using the Geoprobe sampling technique. These soil cores were taken to a depth of 1.5 meters to correspond to the approximate depth of penetration for a Geonics EM38. The Geonics EM38 uses electromagnetic induction to measure apparent electrical conductivity of the soil. After three weekly measurement episodes using the EM38, the soil samples were taken. These samples were analyzed for particle size distribution, …

Feeding Behaviour And Niche Overlap Of Two Species Of Wolf Spiders, Winter Lee Williams

Honors Theses

The diets of two species of spiders in the genus Rabidosa, Rabidosa punctulata and R. rabida, were intensively studied. These two species generally inhabit the same fields, but display very different life histories. This study has three major objectives. (1) Quantitatively address the commonly held belief that these spiders are opportunistic predators (Le., predators that take prey in the abundances in which they occur in the environment). (2) Measure the degree of niche overlap in diet for the two species (as a measure of the potential for competition). (3) Speculate on whether the overlap in diet or other factors may …

The Emergence Of A Middle Class Among Turks In Germany: A Move Toward Cultural Pluralism, Eden Blythe Hegwood

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the recent development of a middle class among the current Turkish community in Gemiany. By following the generations of individuals of Turkish descent from the original guest-workers arriving in Germany in the early 1960s on to the third and fourth generations of German Turks, the process of middle class establishment over time becomes apparent. Paralleling the emergence of Turkish middle class, increased acculturation or cultural assimilation has occurred, which is also described herein in terms of generational accomplishment. Finally, this work seeks to determine the relationship between middle class status and integration among this migrant group in …

Sedimentological And Geochemical Characterization Of East Pond, Belgrade Lakes Watershed, Central Maine, Robin H. Nesbeda

Honors Theses

The present study focuses on East Pond, the head of the lake-chain system. East Pond is roughly oval in shape with several coves along the margins; it has an average 3 depth of 4.5 m, a maximum depth of 7.3 m, and a total volume of 26.35 x 10 6 m . The lake is surrounded by North temperate hardwood forest and a marshy outlet to the other lakes exists in the northwest comer. East Pond has suffered severe yearly algal blooms during the late summer and into the fall since 1993. This project aims to develop a baseline for …

Estimating The Impact Of State Policy Incentives On Wind Power Development, Kellie K. Phelan

Honors Theses

Wind power has recently become a viable alternative to conventional fossil fuels for electricity generation because of decreasing costs and the presence of various supportive policy incentives. Pressing environmental issues and concerns about energy security have also prompted interest in wind power as an alternative fuel source. Though less than one percent of the United States electricity supply currently comes from wind power, state policy incentives have the potential to promote the development of the significant wind resources found throughout the United States (American Wind Energy Association 2003). Using a large data set that combines information on installed wind capacity …

Visual Expectations: Using Machine Learning To Identify Patterns In Psychological Data, Skyler Place

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to utilize the tools of machine learning to evaluate the data obtained through experiments in psychology. Advanced pattern finding algorithms are an effective approach to analyzing large sets of data, from any domain of science. Consequently, we have a psychological question and hypothesis, and a separate machine learning technique to assess these claims. The realm of psychology that I focused on is visual cognition, and how an individual's knowledge affects how they see the world. This alteration of visual data is a part of perception -when the brain enhances the data coming in from …

Designing And Implementing A User-Focused Web-Based Database System, Rachel Noiseux

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to combine two different fields within computer science to produce a system that would be beneficial to a wide variety of people. The first area, user-centered design, studies how users interact with an interface and the motivation behind the decisions they make when interacting with the interface. The second area, databases, explores different techniques for storing and retrieving large amounts of data.

Pyaguapy Ita: Silencing The Singing Stone: The Impact Of Modern Technology On Indigenous People In Brazil, Caitlin Cassis

Honors Theses

The name of the world's largest hydroelectric dam, Brazil's Itaipu Binacional, comes from an Ava-Guarani word meaning "singing stone." Before Itaipu became affiliated with dams it represented a smaller, but no less significant monument: a large rock formation in the middle of the Parana River that produced song when struck by water.₂ Today, neither the rock nor the Ava-Guarani tribe remain. In their place is a gargantuan hydroelectric dam that produces sounds more like a thunderous engine than song. When the Brazilian government, in conjunction with Itaipu Binacional officials, constructed the power plant, it not only silenced the singing stone, …

Networking Is Not Everything: The Factors That Led To The Eventual Decline Of The Brigate Rosse, Courtney Janos Geraci

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns the Brigate Rosse, an Italian terrorist organization that was active from the late-1960s to the mid-1980s, the networks through which the Brigate Rosse chose to work, how these networks helped/hindered the success of the Brigate Rosse, and how the murder of Aldo Moro marked the turning point in the BR s success. To gather data, T looked at primary sources, such as communications that were sent by the BR and government documents, as well as secondary sources which examined the actions of the Brigate Rosse, the networks they maintained, and the social and political circumstances of Italy …

Battling From The Bottom Up: The Alleviation Of Violence Against Women By The Non-Governmental Sector In South Africa, Shane Julia Richardson

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the work of the Non-Governmental sector in alleviating violence against women in South Africa. The first chapter analyzes VAW in two time periods—1948-1994 and the post-Apartheid era, 1994-2002. The second chapter provides an overview of the roles and methodology of NGOs in post-Apartheid South Africa and presents a list of strategies that an effective NGO must employ. Finally, Chapter 3 is a case study of POWA (People Opposing Women Abuse), a Johannesburg-based VAW NGO. The case study uses the strategies and typology laid out in Chapter 2 to evaluate the work of POWA. The researcher …

The Daughter’S Struggle For Definition Both With And Against The Mother In Achieving Selfhood In Five Contemporary American Novels, Camille Leigh Comer

Honors Theses

The following thesis analyzes the mother-daughter relationships in Rebecca Wells’ Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya~Ya Sisterhood, Janet Fitch’s White Oleander and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Attempting to illustrate the central significance of relations between mothers and daughters in everyday life, I chose the four novels based on their recent popularity in mainstream society. For instance, both Divine Secrets and White Oleander have been made into films within the past few years. In gathering data for my thesis, I focused on information explaining why the relationships between mothers and daughters are especially potent …

Spatial Variability Of Soil Electrical Conductivity And Its Response To Soil Physical Properties, Matthew David Sleep

Honors Theses

The Soil Moisture Observatory (SMO) at the University of Mississippi (UM) is a 5 acre tract of a former agricultural field at the UM Biological Field Station. Preliminary investigations of this site included 60 continuous soil cores using the Geoprobe sampling technique. These soil cores were taken to a depth of 1.5 meters to correspond to the approximate depth of penetration for a Geonics EM38. The Geonis EM38 uses electromagnetic induction to measure apparent electrical conductivity of the soil. After three weekly measurement episodes using the Em38, the soil samples were taken. These samples were analyzed for particle size distribution, …

European Lingua Franca? Germany's Relationship With English In The Late Twentieth Century, Anna Elise Fleming

Honors Theses

The following thesis analyses the maintenance of national education, business, and social infrastructures (such as popular media and advertisement) for the English language within German borders. This linguistic situation in Germany, combined with the pressure of English as a global language, signifies the possibility of English becoming the lingua franca (common language) for Europe (both European Union and non-European Union countries), especially in the areas of higher education, business, and media.

From Being To Doing : The Impact Of Modernization On Cultural Values, Cultural Conceptions Of Time, And Effective Leadership, Ryan S. Babiuch

Honors Theses

The foundational constructs of modernization and time conceptions are interdependent. First, I will illustrate and argue that an important relationship exists between modernization, cultural values shifts, and societal conceptions of time. In basic terms, the process of modernization and the motivations for development stimulate shifts in both cultural values and societal understandings·oftime. Second, expounding upon the relationship between modernization, cultural values, and societal conceptions of time, this project will create two different types of interpersonal cultural ethics: an "ethic of being" and an "ethic of doing." The implications of the differences between these two cultural ethics will be explored.

Foremost …

Are Stock Prices Related To New York's Climatic Conditions?, Matthew M. Cullen

Honors Theses

The past five years has shown tremendous growth in a new wave and style of investing strategy. This new style, known as behavioral investing, attempts to analyze financial markets through the eye of a social scientist rather than a financial professional. Its followers try to see market movements as affected not necessarily by the business or economy but by the cognition and mood of buyers and seller. This paper analyzes the effect of climatic conditions on mood and the effect that has on market movements and volume. For the most part, it was found that there is no significant relationship …

The Importance Of Understanding How The Underlying Principles Of Decompression Theory Apply Differently To Dive Computers Than To Dive Tables, Matthew R. Taitt

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Extending Csp To Disambiguate Linda Predicate Operations, Kyle Burke

Honors Theses

The Tuple Space communication environment is plagued by the apparent ambiguity present in the predicate operations of Linda, the programming extension used to implement Tuple Space. It bas been shown that by using a method of reasoning which describes only sequentialized traces of events, it is unclear what a failed predicate operation actually means. Using an operational semantics model of Tuple Space, an analysis of the predicate operations using a description of events occurring simultaneously has disambiguated the meanings of the failure cases. Here an algebraic model is provided, using the Communicating Sequential Process (CSP) process algebra as a base. …

Coolest Mud Ever, Kevin Radloff

Honors Theses

MUDs, or Multi-User Dungeons, are text-based online multiplayer roleplaying games. Players type commands that allow them to interact with other players in a virtual world, and also interact with the world itself, for example, picking up objects or casting spells. The goal of The Coolest MUD Ever (CME) was to build the basis of an event driven and completely extensible MUD engine with unheard of levels of environmental realism. Whereas other MUDs are organized as a set of distinct nodes in which gameplay occurs exclusively of each other node, my MUD will blur the lines between nodes. While players still …

Women's Diaries In An Online Era, Emily Ostendorf

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Salvation Of The Kindertransport: A Ray Of Hope For Nearly Ten Thousand Jewish Children, Cheryl Holder

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Saint Patrick's Battalion Of The Mexican-American War: Why They Deserted Just To Fight On, Jeffrey L. Hanson

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Free Creative Outlets In Communities, Tracy Bochnak

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

A Telecommuter Program For Second To None, Inc., Michael J. Postma

Honors Theses

Telecommuting, or working from a remote location, is a very popular idea that has gained growing support from employees and companies over the past decade. The opportunity to stay home and do work appeals to employees, and the ability to reduce overhead costs appeals to the company. Developing a program that outlines how this arrangement would take place is vital. Outlined are a few of the components that should be included in this type of arrangement.

First, the telecommuter situation will be on a trial basis for a predetermined amount of time. The company or the employee has the right …

From Expression To Interpersonal: A History Of The Wmu Department Of Communication, Mercedes L. Varasteh

Honors Theses

As the Western Michigan University community celebrates its Centennial year, it is intriguing to consider not only how much the university has grown in the number of buildings or its student population, but to also recognize how the many academic disciplines have developed over the years.

Treatment And Prevention Of Overuse Hand Injuries Related To Rock Climbing In Chattanooga And Its Surrounding Areas, Johnathan Gannaway

Honors Theses

In any physical exercise, the risk of injury is always present and cannot be eliminated. Specifically, rock climbing subjects climbers to the dangers of cuts, abrasions, strains, and fractures in the least serious of injuries. Although rock climbers must be conscious of more serious injuries, such as death, they tend to ignore less minor injuries like overuse hand injuries. During rock climbing, the upper extremities are required to support unnatural weight loads for extended periods of time; therefore, they are the primary area for overuse injuries. The hands and fingers in particular are stressed and contorted more forcefully than any …

Simazine Mineralization In Wetland Soils Of William's Island, Elise Chapman

Honors Theses

Wetlands are an interface between terrestrial and aquatic environments. As anthropogenic impacts on the environment increase it puts these sensitive areas at the forefront of change. Farming on William's Island has not occurred since 2001 but before that it was farmed to provide cost-free upkeep of the island. Simazine is a triazine herbicide, the most commonly used group of herbicides in modem agricultural practices. The fields on William's Island were most likely exposed because they were farmed for numerous years prior to 2001. Because of this the wetland that drains the fields, separating them from the Tennessee River, may have …

The Unfinished Woman: Images Of Single Women In Wharton, Parker, And Paley, Erin Wolverton

Honors Theses

Is the life of a single woman really worth living? The question permeates the culture of the post-feminist era. Women without children and without a committed relationship in their lives can be categorized in two ways: those who deliberately dismiss the idea of a spouse and those who have not found an acceptable one yet. Both categories carry their own social stigmas: a woman who can't trap a man is a failure, a woman who doesn't want one is unnatural. These prejudices have been a part of women's unconscious behavior since the earliest days of feminism.

Auto-Ethnography As A Communicative And Therapeutic Means Of Addressing Eating Disorders, Julie Irvin

Honors Theses

Under the premise that human beings are natural storytellers, narratives are an essential part of our lives and the way we shape and form our stories impacts our daily activities. When life struggles transpire, we typically make sense of our world through narratives, which is why therapists sometimes draw upon narrative therapy. By exploring different types of narratives-the basic genre of a life-story, testimonio, literary narrative, ethnography, and auto-ethnography-the mode that presents itself as a viable means of intrapersonal communication, possibly producing change, is auto-ethnography. Examining the need for narrative within the conditions of eating disorders, the question arises as …