Digital Commons Network^™

The Mind Matters: Yoga And Mindfulness In Preschool And K-12 Schools, Anna E. Hall

Honors Theses

This study uses a systematic literature review to examine the efficacy of preschool and K-12 school based yoga and mindfulness programs. A collection of 47 sources were examined to compare and contrast results and determine best practices. The results of the literature review are divided into three primary categories: implementation methods, student outcomes, and teacher and student opinion. The results suggest that individual and whole school implementation methods are the most effective. The results also suggest that there are positive student outcomes in regards to classroom behavior, child executive functioning, and anxiety. Teacher and student opinion on these programs are …

Dissipation In The 1920s: Disparate Presentations Of Alcohol Consumption In Selected Works Of Hemingway And Fitzgerald, Amanda Wilson

Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis is to explore the ways in which Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald define the 1920s and, in particular, the American expatriate culture in Europe. Each author describes the culture of the “Lost Generation” in large part through alcohol consumption and dissipation. In their literary works, alcohol is portrayed as glamorous as well as destructive, as both curing and exacerbating post-WWI anomie. Through their chronicling of this era in fiction and nonfiction, each author memorializes their own participation in the culture along with their legendary consumption of alcohol. This study will concentrate upon selected short …

Examining Construction And Reproduction Of The Educational Opportunity Gap: The Nation’S School Board Members Respond, Hallet Demouy

Honors Theses

This thesis explores opportunity gaps, often related to achievement gaps, in education via the analysis of school board members’ responses regarding challenges that face future education, students, and the public school system. The perceptions of these school board members serve to address the sources, prevalence, and effects of inequities that exist in widening (perpetuating) this gap between students. After discussing and elaborating upon the perceived challenges and barriers located in the institution of education, school board member responses will again be used to present potential ways and opportunities through which the achievement gaps, relating to the success rates and testing …

Pain Management Approaches & Experiences: A Systematic Review Of Racial & Gender Differentials, Ann Hoover

Honors Theses

Health care disparities and the social determinants of health (SDOH) are beginning to integrate into public and political narratives of systemic inequities. Pain management is a wide-reaching domain of health care, with complexities arising from the subjectivity of pain and the implications for clinical care. In this thesis, I conduct a systematic literature review to explore the effects of race and gender on pain assessment, diagnosis, and treatment through a health equity lens. While much of health care disparity research emphasizes the effects on population health outcomes, these findings redirect attention to the tangible impacts of discriminatory encounters and experiences …

Gay Identity In The Gdr: The Homosexuelle Interessengemeinschaft Berlin Between Self-Expression And State Control, Susanna Cassisa

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the Homosexuelle Interessengemeinschaft Berlin (HIB), the

first gay liberation group in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Specifically, it analyzes the demands and tactics of the HIB alongside London Gay Liberation Front activist Peter Tatchell at the tenth World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) in 1973. This study analyzes four primary sources: 1) the HIB’s banner from the WFYS, 2) the leaflet Tatchell distributed at the WFYS, 3) Tatchell’s placard from the WFYS, and 4) a 1978 letter from the HIB to the People’s Chamber arguing for a socialist information center geared toward a homosexual patronage. I …

‘Con Los Brazos Abiertos’: Venezuelan Migration And The Humanitarian State Under Ecuador's Moreno Administration, Madeline Cook

Honors Theses

In its 2008 Constitution, Ecuador enshrined radically inclusive principles of universal citizenship and legal protections for migrants, written in a moment of historic Ecuadorian emigration. Yet in the wake of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and President Lenin Moreno’s shift towards austerity, how has his administration (2017-2021) responded to the Venezuelan migration in policy and in political discourse? Through an analysis of legal documents including ministerial agreements, legislation, executive decrees, and the VERHU visa, this paper outlines a pattern of legal restrictions levied on Venezuelan migrants. Additionally, this paper employs a qualitative content analysis of the Moreno administration’s political discourse, including …

Social Environment Changes During Covid-19 Quarantine, Aileen Jimenez

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research project is to understand perceptions of the psychological, behavioral, and social impacts of COVID-19. Students at the University of Mississippi were invited to participate in an online questionnaire administered through Qualtrics. The questionnaire was composed of questions concerning health behaviors, including questions from the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale, Fear of Coronavirus-19 Scale, and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring study. 274 students participated in the study. Overall, the results of this study suggested moderate distress across the sample, differences in sleep, exercise, and alcohol consumption during quarantine conditions, …

A Collection Of Analyses Regarding Financial Accounting Through Case Studies, Wes Duffield

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of case studies that cover and analyze a multitude of topics within the world of accounting. The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College offers two classes to accounting majors during their junior year with Dr. Victoria Dickinson. This class consists of twelve separate case studies covering from the analysis of public financial statements, to the completion of a Microsoft Excel certification course, to even the dissection and research of living conditions of cities. The completion of this thesis was undertaken over the course of the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters. Each case contains its own …

Film Festivals And The Covid-19 Pandemic: How A Global Health Crisis Changed The United States Film Festival Circuit, Treviso M. Davis

Honors Theses

An essential step in the life cycle of a film, film festivals provide an organized opportunity for filmmakers to present a film to an audience, gain feedback on their work, develop a reputation in the film industry, network with other individuals in the field, and attract the attention of distributors. Fulfilling these purposes became drastically more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its effects will bring about lasting changes to the independent film landscape once the virus is not an immediate threat to the success of a festival. This thesis outlines strategies taken among film festival organizers in response …

Refugees Not Welcome Here: An Analysis Of Human Rights Transgressions Under The Migrant Protection Protocols, Claire Haxton

Honors Theses

On December 20, 2018 the Trump administration released a statement announcing the signing of an executive order implementing a new asylum program called the Migrant Protection Protocols. Under this legislation, third party nationals arriving at the United States’ southwestern border seeking asylum would be forced to remain in Mexico throughout the processing of their asylum application. This new protocol promised to limit false asylum cases and streamline meritorious applications while preventing migrants from exploiting loopholes in the former asylum system. However, critics argue that the Migrant Protection Protocols further endanger refugees and infringe on their human rights. This study aims …

Assimilation, Association, And Modernism In The Urbanism Of The French Third Republic, Thomas Bleeker

Honors Theses

The regime of settler-colonialism present in Algeria during the French Third Republic (1870-1940) facilitated a certain mythos of Republican French renewal. Given the value French culture places on aesthetics, the colonial architecture and urban forms in French colonies was treated quite seriously. the intense political conflict and directed acculturation which characterised European imperialism, the colonial city brings many of the interactions between culture and politics into sharp relief. This thesis adds to the previous literature concerning colonial urbanism by examining the colonial ideologies embedded within Le Corbusier's master plans for Algiers. His work remains influential and controversial within architecture and …

Black Imposterism: Naming & Combating Imposter Syndrome In Student Government Associations Across The South, Joshua Mannery

Honors Theses

Beginning in 1978 with its coining by Clance and Imes, imposter syndrome (IP) has been used to describe feelings of unfounded fraudulence, low self-esteem, and low self-efficacy in women, minority groups, and underrepresented populations. The phenomenon of imposterism persists not only in academic spaces, but in professional, medical, and any other areas where a feeling of competition can exist. Many empirical studies have observed the factors that contribute to university students and their development of the physiological effect, but one concentration that has received little to no application is how it develops within a student government, and methods in which …

Rome Joins The Belt And Road Initiative: Implications For The Development Of Trieste And Italy’S Position In Chinese Foreign Policy, Colin Durkin

Honors Theses

In March of 2019, during a visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Rome, Italy became the first G7 country to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), generating an intense reaction from allies. The non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) included 29 deals, a number of which were signed between private Italian and Chinese companies on the sidelines of Xi’s visit. One of the most important of these deals was between the Chinese SOE China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and the Trieste Port Authority. The deal promised increased cooperation and investment in a number of areas. Optimists on …

How To Defend Those Who Defend: An Examination Of The Underfunding Of The Public Defender System, Selma M. Newbill

Honors Theses

The public defender system in the United States is in an indigent defense crisis because it is often unable to provide adequate representation to the citizens that the United States Constitution requires them to give. The growing attention on the system today is shedding light on public defenders’ stifling caseloads and on the people who are failing to receive the legal representation to which they are entitled by the constitution. The lack of political prioritization, the systemic inequities throughout the criminal justice system, and the underfunding of the public defender system has often rendered public defenders unable to provide their …

College Students’ Use Of Social Media And Its Effects On Well-Being During Covid-19, Virginia Pressly

Honors Theses

Beginning in the late 2000s, social media began its ascent into mainstream media. Today, it has become a part of our daily routines. Due to its prevalence and nature, social media has been directly linked to deteriorating mental health in teens and young adults for some time. Many of the studies previously conducted studied Millennials. However, today’s generation of young people, Gen-Z, has a very different relationship with social media and the internet. In 2020, when the world was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic and most work and school went virtual, social media became that much more prevalent in our …

Qualified Immunity: How Mississippi’S District Courts Have Shown Why The Doctrine Should Be Done Away With, Hannah E. Sawyer

Honors Theses

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine created by the Supreme Court that has allowed police officers to violate people’s rights without fear of consequences. This doctrine protects all but the completely incompetent or those who violate people’s rights knowingly. The original intent of the Supreme Court was to prevent overdeterrence of police officers because of insubstantial lawsuits from being brought against them. This has backfired and now it seems that officers are under deterred because they are often simply placed on administrative leave with little to no consequences. The United States has seen numerous protests in just the last year …

Effects Of Patient’S Race On Pain Perception And Treatment In Nursing Students, Christian J. Phillips

Honors Theses

This study investigates whether a patients’ race affects how nursing students evaluate the patient’s pain. Undergraduate and graduate nursing students (N = 117) recruited from the University of Southern Mississippi School of Nursing were presented with a clinical vignette detailing a 35-year-old man in the emergency department presenting with extreme left shoulder pain. They were randomly assigned to either a Black or a White patient condition. The patient’s race was revealed through an attached photograph, with each condition represented by one of eight unique photographs. Participants evaluated the patient’s current pain level and time to be triaged; the patient’s …

The Impact Of Graduate School Ranking On An Economics Professor’S Annual Earnings, Shailee Manandhar

Honors Theses

What are the economic returns to attending a more selective college? This thesis adds to the growing literature on college choices and economic returns by analyzing the effects of graduate school ranking on the annual earnings of economics professors in the United States. In order to answer this question, the author collected an original data set using publicly available salary information from a number of US-based institutions. The data in this paper uses McPherson’s ranking of US Economics Departments, h-index, and other factors collected from the individuals’ CVs to estimate the economic returns. The results from Ordinary Least Squares regression …

Perceived Support And Connectedness In Greek-Letter Organizations During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Julia Bishop

Honors Theses

The goal of this project is to assess whether or not students involved in the fraternity and sorority life community at The University of Southern Mississippi feel supported and connected in their respective chapters. To understand students’ perspectives in this area, a survey was developed. The survey included questions pertaining to the experiences of Greek-letter organization members with the chapter environment, efforts of chapter leadership, and personal feelings of connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was sent out to all 26 fraternity and sorority chapter presidents at The University of Southern Mississippi, including the College Panhellenic Council, National Pan-Hellenic …

The Role Of Parenting Practices In Adolescent Aggression And Impulsivity, Elizabeth G. Payne

Honors Theses

Parents have an influential role in adolescent development. Previous findings have found a relationship between parenting practices and adolescent behavioral problems. The purpose of this study was to analyze different parenting practices’ influence on impulsive and aggressive behaviors in adolescents. This study uses data gathered from a unique population of at-risk adolescents from a military-style bootcamp who were asked about their parents’ behaviors and their own behaviors. Findings from this study expand upon previous research on parenting practices by analyzing a specific population of at-risk youth and looking at specific forms of impulsive and aggressive behaviors. Data was collected through …

Identity For Development: India’S Biometric Id Program And Access To Public And Private Services, Meher Kaur

Honors Theses

Since its rollout in 2009, Aadhaar, India’s biometric identification system, has generated unique IDs for nearly 95% of India’s population. Since 2009, a variety of public and private services in India have been linked to Aadhaar. This linkage is intended to improve access to public welfare and private services for marginalized groups, such as third gender individuals and rurally located groups, who were historically left out of public welfare programs due to the absence of formal identification. However, there is a general lack of research on how effective Aadhaar is in linking individuals to state and private services and how …

Exploring The Intracellular Functions Of Matrix Metalloproteinases In Neuronal And Glial Cells, Jewellian V. Welcher

Honors Theses

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of highly regulated zinc and calcium dependent endopeptidases that have a crucial role in a multitude of biological processes. While the extracellular function of MMPs as effectors of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and their role in cell surface signaling regulation has been well studied, their intracellular function and role in central nervous system (CNS) still tends to be elusive. While the intimidating task of analyzing the 23 different human MMPs with sometimes overlapping function remains an obstacle, models such as Drosophila melanogaster with only two MMPs, dMMP1 and dMMP2, provide an ideal start. To …

Art And Aids: Viral Strategies For Visibility, Stephen Baylor Pillow

Honors Theses

“Art & AIDS: Viral Strategies for Visibility” examines the complex relationships between social stigma, healthcare, homophobia, and mortality, and how these impacted the lives of Western artists and manifested in their works. Most of the art discussed in this thesis was produced during the height of the AIDS crisis (late-1980s to mid-1990s). During this period, gay artists and their allies employed new strategies in their work to inspire activism, and convey intense emotions –– predominantly frustration, grief, and anxiety –– associated with HIV/AIDS. In the U.S., the inaction of the Reagan administration was largely due to widespread homophobia kindled by …

A Survey Of Accounting Case Studies, Maddie Dyess

Honors Theses

The following document contains work done over the span of a year under the direction of Dr. Victoria Dickinson at the University of Mississippi in the Honors Accy 420 class. For the thesis requrement in accordance with the standards set by the Patterson School of Accountancy and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, I was able to complete a set of case studies pertaining to accounting. The purpose of this research program is to help equip students pursuing a career in the accounting field through a variety of accounting topics. Some cases focus on accounting principles in accordance with GAAP, …

How Does This Benefit Me?: A Case Study Of The Impact Of Long Term Circle Of Friends Participation, Casey Webb

Honors Theses

This thesis examines Circle of Friends and the impacts of long term participation (greater than 2 years) in the program. Participants were selected from a Circle of Friends group that met weekly from 2012-2017 in the lower Midwest. There were 5 white female participants ranging in ages of 21-22 at the time of the interviews. Participants completed interview questions focusing on friendship, the COF program, and the impacts it had on them. Interviews were then transcribed and coded. Many of the participants discussed what it means to be a friend, including the specific activities of friendship, such as eating meals …

Senior Design Capstone: Using An Engineering Design Process To Create A Sawzall Wobble Fixture For Milwaukee Tools, Tyler Moore

Honors Theses

The overall objective of this design project was to successfully design a fixture to expedite the repairs of Sawzalls at the Milwaukee Tools repairs facility in Greenwood, Mississippi. This project was executed in accordance with guidelines set forth by the Senior Capstone Design class at the University of Mississippi as well as the quality engineers sponsoring the project at Milwaukee Tools. The fixture was created utilizing an engineering design process with the goal of allowing technicians to press two Sawzall wobbles onto an angled Sawzall wobble shaft using an arbor press with just one press. By beginning with a straightforward …

Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty And The Cultural Construction Of The American Woman, Ameliea Rose Dulaney

Honors Theses

My research project “Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty and the Cultural Construction of the American Woman” explores the cultural and political climate of American society over the last four centuries, analyzing how ideal beauty standards have worked in the lives of American women over the years, examining (1) how they have been negotiated by women at different times of cultural and political flux, (2) how, although beauty has long been an integral aspect of feminine identity, it has become even more so with the introduction of new technologies (advertising, tv, makeup, etc.), and (3) how as a result, the definition of …

To Care When There Is No Cure: Chronic Illness And Medicine, Skylar Nash

Honors Theses

Millions of people worldwide are suffering from chronic illness at this very moment. Just in the United States, a little less than half of the entire population has been diagnosed with a chronic illness, and a large portion of those patients have been diagnosed with multiple chronic diseases. Those stricken by incurable illness are forced to face and manage their unique illness experience along with the side-effects of the disease itself. For this subset of the population, everyday normal activity can become relatively impossible to work through. There are financial, psychological, social, and physical obstacles to overcome every day that …

Observation And Detection Of Adhd Malingering In College Students, Zoe Tenner

Honors Theses

The rate of college students attempting to obtain Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses in order to gain access to prescription stimulant medications has shown a large increase over the past 20 years. Research has also shown that college students are frequently able to convincingly present themselves as meeting clinical criteria for ADHD with relative ease, meaning that the barrier to false presentation for the purpose of obtaining inappropriately prescribed medication is minimal. There is a need for more concise, accurate tools to detect these efforts in clinical settings, which is an area of research pursued by members of the University of …

Diabetes Self-Management Training In Rural Mississippi, Nathan Foxworth

Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to evaluate participants’ attitudes towards and readiness to participate in an online Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) program in rural Mississippi, in light of the rapid shift to telemedicine necessitated by the CoVid19 pandemic. Semi- structured in-depth interviews were conducted with patients over 18 that live in areas considered rural in Mississippi. The findings of the study conclude that patients in rural settings are willing and ready to participate in DSMES online. Of the 12 participants in the study, 11 had access to the internet and had adequate infrastructure in order to participate …