Digital Commons Network^™

Implementing Askme3 Approach To Adult Learning Through The Kalamazoo Literacy Council, Hailey Beyer

Honors Theses

Background: Ask Me 3 was developed as a tool to help individuals successfully communicate with their healthcare providers (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, n.d.). This was designed to study the effectiveness of this tool in educating adult learners of Kalamazoo, MI, through the Kalamazoo Literacy Council (KLC) Virtual Learning Center.

Objective: The objective was to determine whether learners of the Kalamazoo Literacy Council gained confidence communicating with a healthcare provider through the implementation of a distance education Ask Me 3 program.

Methods: Learners associated with the KLC were sent a pre-lesson survey asking them to assess their confidence levels with using …

Health Insurance And The Undocumented Immigrant, Anja Diercks

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to perform a comparative analysis on how seven different countries (USA, South Africa, Germany, England, Canada, France and Singapore) organize their healthcare system to cope with the issue of undocumented immigrants and whether or not these systems in place were “fair.” The thesis will also explore the possible ways the United States could change to be more inclusive and fairer in the world of healthcare and health insurance for the undocumented immigrant. A study on what fairness means both in ethical and economical terms is done to suggest a new basis of a fair …

Soft Power And Human Development In Central Asia, Cheryl White

Honors Theses

Due to the wealth of natural resources and the strategic geographic location of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, these two countries have attracted a significant amount of soft power investments, including foreign direct investment, non-government organizations, and infrastructure development. This paper compares the fluctuations in the soft power measurements to the levels of human development in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The findings show highly similar changes in the amount soft power investments to the level of human development indicators, suggesting a strong correlation between the two measures. A methodological analysis and further data sets would be necessary to determine the connection though.

Providing A Safe Space For Children Who Have Experienced Trauma, Alexis Garcia

Honors Theses

Health care professionals are continuing to learn about childhood trauma and the implications on health and development. With time, there has become a better understanding of how to determine and provide the resources needed for families and children who have experienced childhood trauma. Additionally, information about childhood trauma is slowly being understood throughout public school districts. This allows teachers to better understand children and accommodate their needs. This honors thesis will discuss childhood trauma and the development of a resource that can be used to provide elementary school-aged students with a place to go when they need assistance with regulation. …

“Space For All?”: An Analysis Of Race, Gender, And Society In The Cult Classic Doctor Who., Liron Sussman

Honors Theses

Much like the Doctor, people are constantly growing and evolving, and it is out of a desire for human connection that people strive, always, to improve and as a long-running television program, Doctor Who reflects that desire for connection. This analysis explores race, gender, and society as portrayed in the modern series of Doctor Who (2005-).

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: A Guide For Caregivers, Camryn Keane

Honors Theses

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) is a condition that affects infants who have faced exposure to certain drugs in utero. The incidence of NAS is dramatically rising in the United States. This increase is primarily due to the growth in opioid prescribing to pregnant women. NAS has an immediate effect on four primary areas of occupation: activities of daily living (ADLs), sleep, social participation, and play. This paper aims to review the background of NAS, then describe how this condition impacts an infant’s occupational performance. Moreover, this paper identifies models of occupational therapy intervention that can guide the treatment of NAS. …

The Effect Of Closeness On Belief In Innocence, Kerri Kingsley

Honors Theses

Many people question how family and friends can stay loyal to convicted criminals or lie to throw off a police investigation; this study proposes that this belief in an accused criminal’s innocence has to do with how close a person is to the offender. Using the Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale (URCS) and a series of scenarios, this study compares how participants’ closeness to someone interacts with the participant’s belief in that person’s innocence when faced with a hypothetical criminal accusation. The study was administered as an online survey using the URCS and a series of questions about participants relationships to …

Westbound, Genevieve Nicolow

Honors Theses

Westbound is a twenty-five chapter novella that aims to demonstrate ways in which creative writers can use climate fiction to overcome psychological barriers to act on climate change. The narrative follows Cassie, a character loosely based on a relative of its author, living in a future version of the United States that has been ravaged by climate change and its indirect consequences.

In the novella, Cassie and her mother Nia set out on a cross-country road trip as a climate disaster looms. The narrative explores their relationship and that with Cassie’s estranged father, the implications of projected ecological changes under …

Housing Pre-Fabrication And Resource Optimization, Emma Dubensky

Honors Theses

Enclosure during construction is often time-consuming, expensive, and at the mercy of the weather. By introducing methods for manufacturing prefabricated enclosure components such as wall panels and roof sections, the impact of the three major variables is reduced. Designs for trusses, roof sections, wall sections, and foundations were developed and selected using civil engineering principles; and manufacturing and logistical processes were optimized using engineering and project management skill sets. These multi-disciplinary efforts were combined to create an accessible and versatile set of designs and instructions that can improve the effectiveness of both a skilled and non-skilled volunteer workforce. By creating …

School District Boundaries Map, Nick Huffman

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to provide a school district boundary mapping feature to a product sold by Level Data called SDVS, which is a plugin used by districts inside of PowerSchool. Using primarily the features offered by Mapbox, We have implemented a React component that is capable of plotting useful data points related to a student and their school district on a map. The tool is designed to be used primarily by school administrators to determine whether or not a student lives within their district boundaries. The application uses a dataset that is provided by the NCES to …

The Textile Industry: A Deep Look Into The Environmental Impacts Of Fast Fashion, Jordan Miller

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research was to understand the detrimental effects the textile industry has had on global environments and ecosystems across the globe. The textile industry for many years has continued to disregard the current acceleration of global warming and other environmental crises, and it is time the fashion industry holds itself accountable for these actions and takes a change in a new, more sustainable future. With proper education of the environmental pollution the textile industry has made, young consumers will be able to make the change necessary for businesses to develop more sustainable habits for the future production. …

An Examination Of Barriers And Determinates Impacting The Healthcare Of Kalamazoo County's Transgender And Non-Binary Young Adult Population, Tyler Signorella

Honors Theses

Historically non-binary and transgender individuals have faced and continue to face a unique set of obstacles and challenges in seeking and receiving general healthcare. Within the US this is well documented on a national level. In this exploratory study we will seek to understand the experience of young adults in Kalamazoo County comparing their perspectives to the already established pool of information. This will be accomplished through surveying emergent adults identifying as either transgender or gender non-binary within Kalamazoo County and then synthesizing this data into an analyzable collective format.

Out Of Mind: Undergraduate Predictors Of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms, Michael S. Lanzaro

Honors Theses

Demographic factors associated with anxiety have been studied extensively and are often characterized by interconnected relationships. These associations between variables provide insight into the predictive ability of anxiety in undergraduate populations. However, few studies if any have investigated the relationships between class level, sex, honors status, and undergraduate specialization as predictors of anxiety among an undergraduate American university sample. The results of this study provide key insight into the psychopathological development of undergraduate students and anxiety levels as it pertains to academic and demographic variables. By using a multiple linear regression analysis, demographic variables of American undergraduate students are compared …

Housing Prefabrication And Resource Optimization, Megan Scherpereel

Honors Theses

Enclosure during construction is often time-consuming, expensive, and at the mercy of the weather. By introducing methods for manufacturing prefabricated enclosure components such as wall panels and roof sections, the impact of the three major variables is reduced. Designs for trusses, roof sections, wall sections, and foundations were developed and selected using civil engineering principles; and manufacturing and logistical processes were optimized using engineering and project management skill sets. These multi-disciplinary efforts were combined to create an accessible and versatile set of designs and instructions that can improve the effectiveness of both a skilled and non-skilled volunteer workforce. By creating …

Diabolus Ex Machina? A Comparative Case Study To Test Whether Automatic Weapons Can Disproportionately Benefit Irregular Forces, Harrison Durland

Honors Theses

Researchers in the field of irregular conflict have observed that irregular forces such as insurgents and guerrillas have been victorious or forced draws in a greater percentage of conflicts over the past century compared with the century prior. More generally, researchers and practitioners have sought to better understand why seemingly weaker, irregular forces are able to win some wars against enemies who have significant material and other conventional advantages. This thesis engages with some of the literature in this field and focuses on what appears to be a particularly understudied issue: the potential role of shifts/innovations in military technology. Specifically, …

"Foreign" Language: Examining Systemic Attitudes, Xenophobia, And Foreign Language Anxiety, Olivia Jennings

Honors Theses

With the focus on the systemic attitudes, this study examines previous background in foreign language, attitudes about language in general, and the relation of language to identity. This study stresses the defining process in the making of American as a national and cultural identity, and how it has changed over the years. It examines the role of xenophobia and xenoglossophobia in the context of American identity, and through its evolution in past and current sociopolitical believes impacting an overall disinterest in foreign language. The disinterest in foreign language is investigated to discover the reasons why foreign language programs are being …

Using Agile Methodology To Create A Working Software Application, Aaron Cuadras

Honors Theses

This thesis explains the importance of Agile in the process of writing a web application. A team of three developers worked for sixteen weeks to create a booking site able to hold important information related to customers and hotel owners. The framework used for the project is Ruby on Rails and we stress the importance of the Models-View-Controller pattern and its relation with the Agile methodology, the problem of creating a new application is the pace in which everything should be written as well as the ability to write features independent from one another. The results that we expect are …

Racial Threat, Economic Resources, And Politics: How Local Structural Conditions Influence The Adoption Of Restrictionist Immigration Policy, Mario Marset Ehrle

Honors Theses

ICE has used their 287(g) program to target immigration enforcement at the county level. This program authorizes local police officers to carry out federal immigration work to meet arrest and deportation quotas. This has eroded civil rights and led to the criminalization of minorities, particularly Latinos. While previous research has examined the theories behind local anti-immigration work and the social factors affecting anti-immigrant policy adoption more generally, no large-scale quantitative analyses have been conducted as to why some counties adopted 287(g) while others chose not to do so. Addressing this gap in the literature, the following study uses a newly …

A Look Into The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status And Health, Hunter L. Howell

Honors Theses

Disparities in health have always been present, and major steps have been made to narrow this gap in healthcare. With that said, socioeconomic status still plays a significant role in access to healthcare. This study looks into how socioeconomic factors such as age, race, and income affect access to healthcare while also studying avenues as to why these disparities exist.

Documenting A Personal And National History: Echoes Of The Urban-Rural Divide In The Works Of Helga Gamboa, Sonja Gelin

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes a series of vessels created by artist Helga Gamboa from 2003-2008. Gamboa, an Angolan artist, based in the United Kingdom, uses her work to recount the experiences of rural women during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) and her own experience growing up in the capital during the final years of the Salazar-Caetano regime. Gamboa’s syncretic approach incorporates European tin-glazing and indigenous African hand-building techniques. Early Modern Portuguese and traditional Southern Angolan material culture also guide the artist. The resulting works document a lasting urban-rural divide among Angolan women, dating back to colonial policy, liberation struggles, and civil …

Global Privacy Concerns Of Facial Recognition Big Data, Myranda Westbrook

Honors Theses

Facial recognition technology is a system of automatic acknowledgement that recognizes individuals by categorizing specific features of their facial structure to link the scanned information to stored data. Within the past few decades facial recognition technology has been implemented on a large scale to increase the security measures needed to access personal information. This has been specifically used in surveillance systems, social media platforms, and mobile device access control. The extensive use of facial recognition systems has created challenges as it relates to biometric information control and privacy concerns. This concern raises the cost and benefit analysis of an individual’s …

Politicized Prayer: How Thoughts And Prayers Hinder Gun Legislation, Hope Cody

Honors Theses

Thoughts and prayers are a strategic rhetorical tool, rather than a religious sentiment, when it comes to gun reform in the US. I confirm my three hypotheses: that the rhetorical use of thoughts and prayers do rise sharply after a mass shooting, that the use is centered in the gun rights coalition, and the use of thoughts and prayers is intentional. This establishes a direct link between the sending of thoughts and prayers and the lack of measurable gun reform laws in the United States.

Envisioning Success: A Naturalistic Investigation Into Prospective Memory Performance, Reminder Use, And Memory Strategies In An Academic Context, John Whittemore

Honors Theses

Prospective memory encompasses the ability to remember to carry out future intentions. Prospective memory performance is essential for students. College students are expected to remember and complete a variety of assignments on a daily basis. In these naturalistic experiments taking place before and after COVID-19, college students were required to set academic goals for themselves for three consecutive days following specific guidelines. Each day, the participant identified a time specific academic goal and a non-time specific academic goal. Participants were randomizing assigned experimental or control condition. The experimental group performed an episodic future thinking exercise during encoding. Additionally, each time …

Starting A Residential Real Estate Business, Caelan Shurina

Honors Theses

Hello fellow entrepreneur! It seems you have set your heart on residential real estate. Great! This guide explores the steps you will need to take to turn this interest into a profitable business in real estate investing. By laying out the discoveries I made while creating my own real estate management business in downtown Chattanooga, I’ve created a step by step guide to help you streamline the process from evaluating the market before you buy to selling the property after renovations are complete.

The Design And Validation Of A Qpcr-Based Approach To Cell Quantification Of Fungal-Algal Symbioses, Isabelle Katherine Garlotte

Honors Theses

Symbiotic relationships are extremely common in virtually all species. These relationships between organisms, particularly mutualistic symbioses, can have an incredibly large impact and can greatly affect the evolution of the species involved. Of particular interest is the suspected mutualistic relationship between green algae and fungi that may hold key evidence of how terrestrial plants evolved. In this experiment we established a method of quantifying the cells of each species involved in these symbioses through qPCR analysis to determine if the relationships are truly mutualistic. We developed a system for using DNA copies as a proxy for cell count in co-cultures …

A Nuclear Option: An Assessment Of U.S. Preparedness For Modern Nuclear Conflict, Carter P. Stovall

Honors Theses

This paper serves to explore the current state of preparedness for nuclear war that is held by the United States. This research project seeks to answer two main questions: what preparedness for nuclear war is, as well as if the United States is prepared. This case study considered preparedness to be a combination of multiple factors: the state of the nuclear arsenals of the U.S> and potential adversaries, the attitude towards the use of nuclear weapons, the global threat environment, nuclear conflict theory, and the defensive capabilities of the United States to detect and intercept nuclear projectiles targeting their assets …

Rethinking Rural Homelessness: A Comparison Of The Causes, Solutions, And Services For Persons Experiencing Homelessness In Appalachia Versus Urban Areas In The United States, Casey Frommeyer

Honors Theses

Although homelessness in urban areas has been analyzed extensively, there is little research and data on homelessness in rural areas, specifically in Appalachia. The goal of this research is to shed some light on rural homeless experiences by comparing them to their urban counterparts. Four people from organizations that work with persons experiencing homelessness were interviewed using a snowball sample and asked questions which compare the causes, services, and solutions for homelessness in rural and urban areas. Based on these interviews, it can be concluded that the issues people experiencing homelessness go through, such as mental health problems and stigma, …

Working As A Healthcare Professional On The Frontlines During A Pandemic, Lauren Hodlick

Honors Theses

The changes associated with the pandemic affected healthcare delivery, patient experiences in the healthcare system, and workflow for frontline workers. Pathophysiology, transmission, and infection control practices are reviewed connecting how the unique characteristics of COVID-19 influenced healthcare changes. This paper represents the basis for a video presentation on the lived experience in a Midwest U.S. hospital of a frontline healthcare worker during the summer of 2020. This lived experience video was developed to reinforce good infection control practices of first year nursing students.

An Analysis Of Natural Courts: How Vacancies And Replacements On The Supreme Court Best Determine The Ideological Shifts Of The Court And What Effect Longevity Has On Ideology., Lauren Moses

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to explore natural courts and ideology among members of the Supreme Court. Most studies of the Supreme Court allocate focus to the chief justice such that the justice and his ideology determines whether the Court will be described as liberal or conservative for the chief's tenure. However, this thesis questions this model of distinction for the highest court in the land. An analysis of natural courts from Marshall through Roberts specifically targets the highest and lowest ideological shifts between natural courts to understand how vacancies and replacements manipulate the ideology of the Court. In addition to the …

Lyme Disease In Kentucky: Prevalence, Awareness, And Diagnosis In A Conventionally Low-Endemic Area, Rachel L. Carden Ots

Honors Theses

Lyme Disease is the fastest-growing vector-borne illness in the United States – including in low-endemic states, such as Kentucky; given Kentucky’s low Lyme disease incidence in prior decades, it has since experienced an increase of cases despite a lack of discussion on the condition and its implications on patient health and wellbeing. To measure current levels of knowledge and awareness of Lyme disease in Kentucky residents, a survey was distributed to Microbiology and Honors Program students at Eastern Kentucky University, and its results were discussed. While Lyme disease cases do continue to rise, the general public of Kentucky lacks in …