Digital Commons Network^™

The Intersection Of Art History And Graphic Design, Caitlin Anessa Childers

Honors Theses

A study of Graphic Design provides an excellent opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary field, particularly when paired with a degree in Art History. Over the course of my time at Coastal I have had a challenging time trying to unite the two parts of my degree, as well as finding a project that best suits my style of design. Both parts have inspired the other, but only now has the project been entirely focused on uniting the two. In considering my capstone I decided to create an art museum exhibition for a graphic designer.

The Lgbtq Health Disparities Gap: Access To Healthcare For Lgbtq Individuals In The United States And The Impact It Has On Their Health, Clarissa E. Dennis

Honors Theses

Within the United States, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals statistically face a higher health disparity rate than heterosexuals. Studies show that LGBTQ individuals are often hesitant to seek care, or do not return for follow up care because they experience unwelcoming environments or uncomfortable encounters with healthcare providers. The advancement of medical education in order to create more culturally competent healthcare providers, as well as a more welcoming healthcare environment, could begin the process of closing this health disparities gap. Not only do negative encounters affect the physical health of LGBTQ individuals, but there is also adverse …

It’S All About The Ferns: A Literature Review Of Species Concepts Referenced In New Pteridophyte Species Described Since 1989, Nicholas A. Koenig

Honors Theses

Taxonomy is the field of science responsible for giving names to all living organisms. These names are given based on the data available or discovered, and the foundational knowledge about related organisms. All fields of science are theory-laden with testable hypotheses made atop, and taxonomy is no exception. However, trends in descriptions of new species point towards an implicit citation of the underlying theories (species concepts) and hypotheses (proposed species) rather than explicit statements that are common for other fields of science. Therefore, to assess the status of pteridophyte taxonomy, we conducted a literature review of all new pteridophyte species …

Meat, Masks, And Medicine: Covid-19'S Impact On Supply Chains, Autumn Robinson

Honors Theses

Over the past year, the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted every aspect of our lives. The entire world saw mass shortages and shutdowns all through 2020. While 2021 has seen an exponential increase in vaccine distribution, the new variants of COVID have been running rampant through the United Kingdom and the United States. How does all of this impact our supply chains across all industries? This thesis will explore the basic foundations of supply chain management and the year-long history of COVID-19. Additionally, this thesis will discuss the current scholarly opinions regarding COVID-19’s impact on supply chains for products such …

Making The Comeback From Combat: An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Occupational Therapy For Combat Veterans, Julia A. Hickey

Honors Theses

Combat veterans have been found to experience difficulties with community reintegration after coming back from their deployments. Many of them experience physical and mental injuries from their deployment, such as mild traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and amputations. Combat veterans not having effective treatment for these injuries can contribute to issues with community reintegration. These issues can consist of marital and financial problems, problems with alcohol or substance abuse, homelessness, and motor vehicle accidents. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States military have put forth efforts with improving community reintegration for combat veterans; one of those efforts …

Mental Health Related Benefits And Barriers Of Exercise Among College Students, Madison Hamilton

Honors Theses

It is very clear that college can be a very stressful time. These high levels of stress can lead to negative coping mechanisms. However, there is a positive coping mechanism: exercise. The purpose of this study is to examine mental health related benefits of exercise and discuss any differences between males and females. This study examined raw data from a previously done study with a large sample size of college students (n=629). The data included their answers to the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale (EBBS), along with other measures of fitness. The EBBS consists of forty three statements that the participants rated …

Associations Among Academic Motivational Styles, Purpose In Life, And Depressive Symptoms In College Students, Linnea V. Anderson

Honors Theses

Students vary in three motivational styles when pursuing academic attainment: (1) amotivational style (lack of motivation), (2) extrinsic style (contingent upon external influences), and (3) intrinsic style (dependent upon internal influences) (Froiland, 2018). Research has demonstrated that individuals who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to report higher rates of meaning and purpose in life (Chalofsky & Krishna, 2009) and higher rates of psychological well-being (Huang & Wu, 2016). While this relationship between intrinsic motivation, purpose in life, and psychological well-being has been supported, research has yet to explore the relationship between extrinsic motivation, purpose in life, and psychological well-being …

Healing Hands: J. R. R. Tolkien’S Germanic Understanding Of Medicine And Monarchy, Elizabeth Lucas

Honors Theses

In The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien uses Aragorn’s healing abilities to solidify his identity as the rightful king. While it is made clear that this ability to heal is a sign of kingship, it is never clarified from where this belief arose. There is no other lore in The Lord of the Rings, The Appendices, or in The Silmarillion to suggest that healing hands were at all common among the kings of Númenor, Arnor, or Gondor, so the rhyme remembered by the old wife in the House of Healing may be surprising. Aragorn’s abilities, however, do …

Development Of A Novel Chemical Timer, Mitchell Harvey

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to develop a chemical timer for Chem-E Car (Chemical Engineering Car), that is as inherently safe as possible. Chem-E Car is an undergraduate competition held at the regional and national conferences of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers that, “increases awareness of the chemical engineering discipline among the public, industry leaders, educators, and other students” (“Chem-E-Car Competition,” 2020). Students are tasked to build a shoebox sized car powered and stopped by chemical reactions and this car must travel a distance between fifteen and thirty meters in under two minutes. Teams are scored on traveling …

Transit-Oriented Inclusionary Mixed-Use Development, Sarah Hoing

Honors Theses

The focus of this project is to resolve several lacking aspects that currently plague the city of Jackson. First and foremost, the city needs more affordable housing so that life and cash flow are infused back into the city. Secondly, downtown Jackson is a food desert. Current residents must travel miles in order to acquire basic necessities because there are no in-city grocers. And lastly, the lack of inner-city residents has made the current public transit system an underutilized financial burden. Through the creation of inclusionary housing units and an accessible grocery market, sited in close proximity to Jackson’s Union …

Is It Harder To Run For Office As A Republican Woman? Attitudes Among Republican Voters Towards Women Candidates, Georgiana Swan

Honors Theses

The 2018 and 2020 elections saw large gains in women running for political office and winning. In general, there is an upward trend of more women being elected to political office, regardless of party. Yet, there still seem to be disparities between Democratic and Republican women. This raises an important question: Are women in the GOP disadvantaged when they run for office, and does this disadvantage come from Republican attitudes? More specifically, are there differences between Republican men and women in how they view female GOP candidates? I analyzed a unique survey of 500 registered Republicans before and after the …

Designing An Urban Funeral Home In Downton Jackson, Matthew Murphy

Honors Theses

Humans have been dealing with death since the beginning of time. More specifically, architects, artisans, designers, and engineers throughout the ages have had to create structures to handle the practical and emotional processes associated with saying goodbye to members of their societies. While not always a welcome subject to discuss, death and mourning are very real in everyone’s lives, and these facts must be addressed thoughtfully by a new generation of designers to accommodate the needs of today’s society more fully and appropriately. This programming document seeks to look at a wide array of practices, projects, and people that will …

Neurodiversity And Online Communities: Why They Matter, Laura Ingouf

Honors Theses

Neurodiversity is an approach that accepts and embraces neurological differences as a natural variation, and neurodivergent people are those whose brains work differently from what is considered the norm by society. This thesis examines the impact of online neurodivergent communities on the neurodivergent people that participate in them through the use of a qualitative online survey distributed via Twitter and Mastodon, a decentralized Twitter alternative. It is informed by the researcher’s experience as a neurodivergent person in these online communities and analyzes the functions that these online communities serve for the neurodivergent people who participate in them and how this …

Potential Of Biochar For The Removal Of Waterborne Microbial Contaminants, Shankia Musser

Honors Theses

A Guadua chacoensis bamboo biochar, which has shown efficacy for heavy metal, organic and inorganic compound remediation, was tested for its capacity to remove Escherichia coli, heterotrophic bacteria, and total coliform bacteria to determine if the biochar is a viable option for removal of pathogenic microbes in drinking water applications. Two distinct approaches were used to perform this assessment. In the first approach, an axenic culture of E. coli was treated using varying amounts of biochar and E. coli survival was assessed. In the second approach, environmental water samples taken from surface water at the Mississippi State University campus were …

Buddhist Environmentalism: How Buddhist Values And Practices Offer Hope For Escaping The Climate Crisis, Alexa Rae Rohrkasse

Honors Theses

The 2015 United Nations' Paris Climate Agreement signed by 191 parties and the 1997

The Kyoto Protocol currently agreed to by 192 international parties, state that the fate of

humanity depends on its ability to recognize its self-destructive actions and act rapidly to reverse

their effects (UNFCC, 1). Throughout our time on earth, the same internal struggles and external

battles have persisted and continue to repeat. It is only recently that these battles have begun

impacting everyone and everything on earth in way that must be urgently addressed for survival.

These events have always been detrimental to our internal struggles …

College Football Recruiting And The Correlation To Success, Bryce Mclaughlin

Honors Theses

This research paper will explore the recruiting aspect of college football and its importance regarding the overall success of the team. The introduction will inform the reader of the recruiting aspect of college football and the basics of the recruiting world. Following this will be a section discussing schools within the Power Five conferences (more specifically the Big Twelve, Pacific-12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference) including their recruiting budgets that lead to fruitful results based on the talented recruits that they pull in. After an examination of these schools, the following section will discuss schools in the Group of Five …

Cultivation Effects From Television Crime Dramas To Forensic Practices, Stephanie P. Mobley

Honors Theses

Television and its effects have been frequently studied due to the prevalence of television in today’s society. Cultivation theory examines these effects by claiming that people’s perceptions of the real world are shaped by the social reality portrayed on television. This paper used this theory to examine a link between college student’s viewership of television crime dramas and their opinions about forensic practices. It used quantitative survey questions and previous research to come to conclusions for the research questions. The three research questions asked whether frequent viewing of crime dramas cultivated false beliefs about three forensic practices, (fingerprint analysis, polygraph …

Dijkstra’S Pathfinder, Taylor F. Malamut

Honors Theses

Dijkstra’s algorithm has been widely studied and applied since it was first published in 1959. This research shows that Dijkstra’s algorithm can be used to find the shortest path between two stations on the Washington D.C. Metro. After exploring different types of research and applying Dijkstra’s algorithm, it was found that the algorithm will always yield the shortest path, even if visually a shorter path was initially expected.

Ez-Translate, Mason D. Beattie

Honors Theses

This report describes the EZ-Translate Software that was designed and developed by Mason Beattie for the CSCI495-D1 Honors Capstone Project and Course at Coastal Carolina University. This project is built from Java and is designed for the Windows 10 operating system. While running it displays or hides a translation menu when the designated key binds are pressed. Translations supported include select phrases from English, German, and Russian. The application also provides localization support for these three languages. The overall goal of this project to provide translation services while within another application was successfully achieved. The application utilizes an open-source Java …

How Music Therapy Affects The Development Of Children With Autism, Bailey C. Sweet

Honors Theses

How does music therapy affect students with Autism and their development? Music therapy is not a very popular field of work, often times people forget or do not acknowledge its existence as a professional career and underappreciate the value it holds. Music therapy helps patients with all different disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of music therapy on children with autism. There are so many positive effects and numerous proven strategies that improve social skills and alleviate impairments that allow for people with Autism to gain knowledge and abilities to allow them to live more …

How Power Creates Alteration Among Communication For Members Within A Greek Letter Sorority, Kelsey M. Kopec

Honors Theses

This study aims to address whether or not communication is altered due to hierarchical or seniority status within an all-female base organization such as a sorority. Prior to doing this research, I predicted that the outcome would result in negative alterations within communication. Using a survey method, I was able to obtain 90 participants within female based, National Panhellenic sororities nationwide. Overall, I found that there was more of a positive shift in communication between members who are in power positions, to those that are not.

Terrorists Or Freedom Fighters : An Analysis Of The Irish Republican Army In Northern Ireland With Respect To The Idea Of Just War, Allison Jean Fritz

Honors Theses

For more than two decades, Northern Ireland has suffered the high social cost of a violent political conflict. Debates over the nature of this conflict have been wide-ranging, but the dominant view is that the conflict is criminal rather than political in nature. This view holds that the violence is widespread terrorism, with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) seen as the chief protagonist. But while this view is dominant, it is not ubiquitous. It is held neither by those who challenge the foundations of the Northern Irish state nor by those communities which are tolerant if not supportive of those …

An Exploration Of Case Studies Surrounding The Accounting Environment, Kaitlin Elizabeth Haines

Honors Theses

I formulated my thesis throughout my yearlong Accounting 420 and 421 class, an exclusive class for accounting majors in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Throughout the year we were assigned eleven different cases to complete, ranging from interviews, certifications, and in-depth case competitions.

Each case was selected to teach us a new accounting topic for the week. Our knowledge expanded by using real companies and financial statements, to prepare us for the future.

Instead of defending my thesis to the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, the class competed in two case competitions with Big 4 accounting firms. This unique …

Partisan Cues, Emotion, And The Efficacy Of Corrections To Misinformation About Democratic Norms, Julia Ruth James

Honors Theses

Political misinformation and threats to democratic norms are major problems for American democracy. This thesis examines belief in misinformation about democratic norms and the efficacy of corrective information (fact-checking) in multiple circumstances, specifically analyzing the effects of emotions, partisan cues, and conspiracy thinking on the efficacy of the corrective information. To measure these effects, a survey of 45 questions was fielded through Lucid. Approximately 2000 respondents answered questions about their demographics, political beliefs/participation, and media habits. These respondents were subsequently randomly sorted into 1 of 8 experimental groups and received an emotional priming activity and a simulated news article containing …

A Rhetorical History Of Black Studies: Black Power & Epistemology, Kayla Corbin

Honors Theses

In this thesis, using my own experiences and research, I will map out a rhetorical history of Black studies and its relationship with the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s. Using Foucault’s method of genealogy, I will highlight the distinct epistemological assumptions that inform Black studies as a discipline by looking at the material conditions and moment in which the discipline was created. In order to do this, my thesis will interrogate three interrelated discourses of Black studies at the university level: first, the larger history of student activism and its relation to Black studies; second, my own approach …

Defining And Addressing The Intersection Of Sports, Media, And Social Activism, Kaylee Layne Crafton

Honors Theses

Athletes have used their sports platforms and the elevated statuses of fame to share their political views and seek change for centuries. However, our society is now at a time in which athlete activism seems to be at its peak due to constant societal shifts and the quick, widespread dissemination of news through various forms of media. This study sought to answer one primary question: When can athletes share their views about racial equality and social justice? For Americans, the “when” in which athletes can speak up is often a divisive issue. This study analyzed how major sports leagues and …

An Exploration Of Elementary Teacher Perceptions Of Student-Centered And Teacher-Centered Instruction, Adeline Shastid

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Modeling Of Covid-19 Utilizing Various Compartmental Models To Predict Infection Rates Throughout Michigan, Colleen M. Staniszewski

Honors Theses

Compartmental modeling is a method of employing math to create a visual representation of a disease interacting with a select population, typically used in epidemiology analyses. This project applies compartmental modeling equations to data collected on the various aspects of COVID-19 in Michigan. Comparing current data to past predictive models, as well as the visual representations that were developed through the various compartmental modeling methods, allows an assessment of the effects of the preventative measures taken by the state, the various rates at which the infection is able to spread, as well as the potential path and spread of the …

The Impact Of Covid - 19 On The Student Experience: A Wmu Student Survey And Study, Henry Thiry

Honors Theses

Over the past year it has become clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed college students’ everyday lives. Students are less likely to be employed or rely less on wage income and are also less likely to get very ill and die because of COVID-19. Moreover, courses moving online, loss of social connection, and drastic changes in the lives of students’ parents and other family has negatively impacted many students' ability to thrive. In order to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the student experience at Western Michigan University, I conducted a survey of students based on a survey …

Exploring The Effects Of Racial Trauma From Slavery And The Treatment Practices Of African American College Students, Amanda Davis

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.