Digital Commons Network^™

Success And The Balance Of Commitment And Time: Effects Of Perceived Time Management Control On College Student Performance, Ashley Twehues

Honors Theses

This study explores how time management and the perception of control over time contribute to undergraduates success in college. Although students have good grades in college, they may not be able to achieve the desirable combination of a high GPA, extracurricular involvement and a career-related employment history. Students often become overwhelmed with the pressure to achieve this success, but lack the time management skills to balance everything. This paper explores how students best use their time in order to gain college success. Extant literature suggests that students who are more involved on-campus with academics, extracurricular activities and employment opportunities achieve …

Physician Assistants: The Rise Of A Career From A Missed Opportunity In Nursing, Madeline Jary

Honors Theses

The implementation of the concept of mid-level providers in healthcare has undoubtedly contributed greatly to the solution of the physician shortage. This shortage of physicians had posed a problem in the delivery of health care for decades, particularly in rural areas. Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants as we know them today may not have existed without previous groundwork and inspiration. The introduction of the nurse clinician concept by Frances Reiter in 1943 led to the later development of a masters nurse clinician program at Duke University by Dr. Eugene Stead and Thelma Ingles. Despite the denial of accreditation of the …

Differences Between Healthcare Systems In Costa Rica & The United States And How Those Differences Affect The Overall Quality Of Healthcare, Carlie Decker

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the similarities and differences between the healthcare system employed in Costa Rica and the healthcare system employed in the United States through a series of interviews and web-based research. Four healthcare system components will be examined in order to determine the success of each system. These components include health insurance coverage, access to pharmaceuticals, medical licensing requirements, and medical research.

Following the completion of the interviews and research, I found that United States citizens pay nearly four times the amount Costa Rican citizens do for health insurance coverage. This dramatic increase in price can be …

Comparison Of Odonata Populations In Natural And Constructed Emergent Wetlands In The Bluegrass Region Of Kentucky, Brittany Ann Brookshire Miss

Honors Theses

With the degradation and destruction of many natural wetlands in Kentucky, there are high incentives to look at the remaining natural wetlands and the new artificial wetlands that are beginning to become prevalent among biologists. Wetlands are important to dragonfly populations just as dragonflies are vital to wetland function. In my study I looked at the fluctuation in Odonata (dragonfly and damselfly) populations at ten artificial wetlands and ten natural wetlands in the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky. In my study the dragonfly populations were monitored based on Shannon and Simpson's diversity, Species richness, and number of individual and species …

Entertainment News Production: A Case Study, Ashley Derthick

Honors Theses

This study reviews literature on the construction of celebrities and the production of entertainment news, including how celebrities and coverage is deemed appropriate and relevant to cover. First, a brief overview of the entertainment news industry and the early stages of “celebrities” as historically referenced will be discussed along with the current significance of entertainment news. The phenomenon of stardom and the ways and procedures to which a celebrity becomes relevant will be detailed using mainly the work of Richard Dyer and the processes and theories he has outlined. The social impact of stardom including why the public is fascinated …

Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden

Honors Theses

This thesis sought to examine how biracial identity is portrayed in the literature read by students in secondary education. Unfortunately, the findings indicated that biracialism is not being adequately portrayed in this literature. Students rarely encounter biracial characters, when they do these characters are usually peripheral, and sometimes the biracialism of these characters is presented as an obstacle to be overcome. Furthermore, teachers (at least in this researcher’s local area) seem to be extremely apathetic towards even discussing this issue. The impact which all of this can have on secondary students with a biracial background is discussed. However, there are …

The Effect Of Classroom Environment On Student Learning, Ryan Hannah

Honors Theses

There are three main components that create a classroom. There are the students who are learning, the content that is being taught, and the environment in which all of this is happening. Many people focus on studying how students learn and how to make the curriculum exciting, but many teachers overlook how they can adapt their classroom environment to achieve greater focus and learning from their students. This paper aims to look at the various modifications a teacher can use in their classroom to help students stay engaged and gain higher critical thinking.

When analyzing the environment of a classroom …

Cattle Smuggling From India To Bangladesh, Elyse Malnekoff

Honors Theses

This essay examines the current trend of rustling and transporting cattle from throughout India for trade at the cattle corridors that lie along the border between India’s West Bengal and Bangladesh. An analysis of historical and cultural factors seeks to explain how this trade possibly began and increased. These motivators include the effects of the Mad Cow disease outbreak in the 1980s on international beef trade and the many economic uses for bovines and their by-products in Bangladesh. This research also looks at cattle-specific legislation in India that prohibits many of the practices employed by smugglers and details some possible …

The Heart Of The Lower Story: Thesis Exhibition, Cassandra Stagner

Honors Theses

The Heart of the Lower Story: Thesis Exhibition is established around a study-internship in Scotland. The works consist of landscape and architecture photography, as well as hand drawn portraits and charcoal pieces. The style of the work and exhibition is comprised of simple elements such as barn wood framing and work created on OSB board to involve experimentation. “The Heart of the Lower Story” has been exhibited at the Lee Honors College with an opening reception for supporters and friends to attend that also introduced a video compilation of interviews taken while in Scotland. The questions being addressed were: What …

Vive Le Proletariat: The 1968 Revolt Of French Workers And Students, John Duhan

Honors Theses

1968 was a watershed year in terms of social change across the world. While countries behind the iron curtain like Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary were fighting for more reasonable government, western countries such as Germany, Italy, the United States, and France all dealt with uprisings from communist student groups. The unique aspect of the French Revolt of 1968, versus similar revolts in places such as The United States, or Germany, was the relationship between college students and members of the French working class.

For this essay I split the French working class into two separate groups: the immigrant workers, and …

Identity And Gender Constructs In "Written On The Body", Paige Van De Winkle

Honors Theses

In Jeanette Winterson's novel Written on the Body, the ungendered narrator leads the reader through his/her love story with Louise. At moments, the narrator appears to reveal his/her gender, but these moments only reveal the reader's own assumptions about gender and identity which prove to be social constructions, and inconclusive evidence about the narator's gender. The novel shows that gender is not an inherent part of identity, and emphasizes themes that are universal and more important than gender differences, such as biology and the body. The body proves to be beautiful and universal, and gender is an insignificant part …

Rapid Test For Determining The Presence Of Oleic Acid, Serena Chambers

Honors Theses

Food allergies have a large impact on the lives of millions of people worldwide. More recently, the allergic reaction to peanuts and peanut-related products has become a popular issue since the reaction they cause is one of the most severe. Food related allergies claim roughly 250 lives each year in the United States alone, with peanut related allergies accounting for almost 60% percent of those deaths. This research is designed to produce a rapid test effective in determining the presence of oleic acid, an allergen found in peanut oil. Oleic acid makes up over 50% percent of the peanut oil …

Effective Teaching Practices To Strengthen Outcomes For Students With Emotional Behavior Disorders, Brittnae Cole

Honors Theses

Teachers of students with emotional and/or behavior disorders (E/BD) must use a variety of methodologies and interventions to address the varied academic and behavioral needs of their students (Walker & Gresham, 2013). Students identified as needing E/BD services require specific strategies that are researched based and have been proven to be successful in improving student outcomes (Kauffman & Landrum, 2009; Evans, Harden, & Thomas, 2004). After an extensive literature review from the past 10 years this paper presents some of the most frequently discussed research-based themes and subsequent interventions within the theme areas. The three most cited research-based themes presented …

"Ovar" Come The Silence For Ovarian Cancer Awareness, Amanda Klage

Honors Theses

Growing up, most of us consider our parents to be invincible or untouchable. I know that I did. Sadly, my life took a dramatic turn at the age of 19. That’s when my dear mom, Maureen Klage--the one who was always there for me, passed away from ovarian cancer. She was just 48 years old.

At the time, I didn’t know much about ovarian cancer. I had learned only a little bit of information from my mom while she was battling the disease. But, realizing that I, too, might be at risk for this cancer, I decided to find out …

"Effects Of A Specific Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist In A Rat Glaucoma Model", Maha Alfaidi

Honors Theses

PURPOSE: This study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effects of a specific nicotinic ACh agonist, PNU-282987, on the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in a rat glaucoma model. A time-dependent study using 2 mM PNU-282987 was performed to determine the neuroprotective effect in the vertebrate retina.

METHODS: Hypertonic saline solution (2M NaCl) was injected into the episcleral vein of the rat’s eye to reduce the numbers of RGCs and mimic the effect of glaucoma. In one set of studies, PNU-282987 was applied to the right eye of each experimental animal as eye drops in combination with the NaCl …

Transgender Representation In The Media, Jessica N. Jobe

Honors Theses

The media is pervasive in American society – more people have television sets than college degrees. For this reason, media is crucial in the spread of information. The way groups of people are represented in the media can be both reflective of and influential on society's (possibly stereotypical) perceptions of these groups. The transgender community often gets misrepresented in the media. As a whole, the transgender community faces a lot of prejudice in American society, and current transgender representation in the media has the power to reinforce negative stereotypes. Twelve examples of news, television, and movies from as early as …

Secondary Analysis Of Adolescent And Young Adult Sexual Health In Kalamazoo And Jackson Counties, Kayla Bolter

Honors Theses

Based off of the Healthy People 2020 goals regarding sexual health behaviors and reduction in the proportion of gonorrhea infections among males and females ages 15-44, the purpose of this thesis to provide the necessary evidence that a sexual health education intervention needs to be implemented into the campus of Western Michigan University in order to reduce the rates of gonorrhea among college students aged 20-24 in Kalamazoo County. This is a secondary analysis that compared the reported gonorrhea rates in Kalamazoo County, Michigan to the reported rates of gonorrhea in Jackson County, Michigan. Several components were compared within each …

Secondary Analysis Of Adolescent And Young Adult Sexual Health In Kalamazoo And Jackson Counties, Jenna Moreau

Honors Theses

This secondary analysis is a comparison of two Counties, Kalamazoo and Jackson, to see if the presence of a university has impact on reported Chlamydia cases. Nationally, 20-24 year olds account for the highest number of reported Chlamydia infections. This age group also accounts for the large majority of college students that attend Western Michigan University found in Kalamazoo County. It is believed that by collecting this data, there will be an obvious need for implementation of an education intervention for students at Western Michigan University regarding sexual health.

It was proposed that there would be a higher prevalence of …

The Role Of El Cid In Medieval Spanish Culture And Epic Literature, Emily Chaney

Honors Theses

This research looks at the medieval Spanish epic poem, the Poema de Mio Cid, and how it reflects the world of Spanish culture and literature, its place in the landscape of epic poetry on the European continent, and the noble virtues of the hero, el Cid. The Poema is an anonymous cantar de gesta, or "song of heroic deeds," likely composed around the early thirteenth century by a person (or persons) very familiar with Castilian noble society and law in effect during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, as well as the area of northern Spain around …

Racial Differences In Self-Efficacy Expectations For Exercise, Selena P. Smith

Honors Theses

This project examined the link between race and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy pertains to an individual’s confidence in ability to complete or engage in a particular task or activity (Bandura, 1986). Prior research shows that self-efficacy has a great influence on exercise initiation and adherence (Bandura, 1986; Dishman, 1982; Rodgers and Sullivan, 2001). Research also supports that Caucasians are more likely to participate in exercise than African Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000).

Participants included 51 females, 31 Caucasians and 20 African Americans, between the ages of 18 and 50 years old. The women were recruited from local fitness gyms, …

Damage Control: How Scrutinized Professional Athletes Use Twitter To Combat Negative Press, Jeffrey K. Haeger

Honors Theses

In recent years many elite professional athletes have been criticized in the media for questionable on and off the field behavior. How these athletes use social media to reframe or repair their public images was the focus of this research. Research on social media has grown in recent years, but still remains relatively shallow, making the strong correlation between social media and sport the ideal breeding ground for this exploratory research. This study confined social media use to the way in which two purposefully selected professional athletes - Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong - use Twitter to self-present and directly …

Like A Boss: Presidential Prerogative As A Means For National Security, Joshua E. Darichuk

Honors Theses

Executive power in America is outlined by the U.S. Constitution, but presidents have made decisions which questionably violate the rights American citizens are guaranteed by the same document. How are we able to maintain sovereignty as “we the people,” if our most powerful elected official is able to overstep the rules during a national security threat? The answer is because the constitution would not exist without a state, therefore the union must always be preserved. Niccolo Machiavelli, John Locke, Alexander Hamilton, and Carl Schmitt share very different views on democracy, but their insistence on national security is universally present. The …

Application Of Linear Sequences To Cryptography, Amanda C. Yeates

Honors Theses

Cryptography is the study of a centuries–old technique of secretly transferring information between parties. Linear recurrences were the chosen method of encryption and decryption in the thesis. The Fibonacci sequence, with its Zeckendorf representation, allows for the flexibility of encoding any number desired based on a particular encoding technique used in the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The main goal is to find other linear recurrences that possess characteristics similar to the Fibonacci sequence to use as suitable substitutes for encoding. Different sequences were analyzed based on a number of criteria. In order for a sequence to be …

The Separate And Combined Effects Of Heredity And Environment Predicting Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms And Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms, Jaylee R. Gill

Honors Theses

The current study examined genetic and environmental influences in relation to alcohol use pathology. The 756 participants (378 adoptive, 378 non-adoptive) came from the 2001-2002 NESARC conducted by the NIAAA. A factorial ANOVA was used to measure the effects that the three grouping variables had on each dependent variable for a total of seven datasets. Results showed that biological parents’ drinking did pose a risk in participants for Loss of Control (p = .000) and Dangerous Behavior (p = .00). Adoption status was correlated with Conduct Disorder (p = .007) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (p = .014). This suggests that …

Technology Expectations Of Cpa Firms: Hiring And The Accounting Curriculum, Kristy N. Wilson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the technology expectations of Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms and to evaluate whether or not accounting curriculums adequately prepare students to meet the firms’ hiring expectations. A total of 28 participants - 19 sole practitioners and 9 CPA firms - completed an online survey designed to determine the technological skills CPA firms require of new hires, the extent to which recent new hires have met the firms’ expectations, and the accounting software and programs that firms typically use. The researcher also analyzed the accounting curriculums of 22 four-year public universities to gather …

An Analysis Of Peer-To-Peer Distributed Hash Algorithms In Improving Fault Tolerance In The Hadoop Running Environment, Benjamin R. Knaus

Honors Theses

Cloud computing is a “new frontier” in the world of computing. One of the cloud architectures widely used is the Hadoop running environment. Hadoop consists of many parts—including MapReduce, TaskTrackers, and JobTrackers. Right now, there is no fault-tolerance for JobTrackers in Hadoop. This paper analyzes four different distributed hash algorithms (Pastry, Tapestry, CAN, and Chord) that could be implemented inside Hadoop to improve JobTracker fault-tolerance. We recommend Chord as the best suited for integration and improvement of Hadoop.

After The Split: An Analysis Of Sino-Soviet Military Poster Propaganda, Hannah C. Berman

Honors Theses

My research argues that commonalities in Soviet and Chinese military posters show that these communist superpowers shared deeply embedded cultural connections that persisted even after the Sino-Soviet Split, an acrimonious diplomatic breakdown between these states that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. I argue against other historians' interpretations of the Sino-Soviet Split period by comparing Soviet and Chinese Communist military poster propaganda within a historical context that explains their complicated and unexpected political and cultural interrelationship. I argue that the Soviet Union and Communist China, on a cultural level, continued their close interaction under the divisive rhetorical surface of the …

A Comparison Of Prostatic Acid Phosphatase With Testosterone And Prostate Specific Antigen For The Serodiagnosis Of Prostate Cancer In Adult Males, Hannah R. Rice

Honors Theses

Cancer is a hyperplastic cellular malignancy that affected 1,436,000 people (newly diagnosed cases) in the United States last year. The top three most frequent forms of cancer were lung, prostate, and breast. Oncogenesis is associated with both genetic predisposition and environmental onslaught, with a mixture of the two being required for the malignancy to progress. Tumor markers, circulating serum factors, are used in the diagnosis of cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent forms of this malignancy, affecting 230,110 men in 2004 alone. Diagnosis of prostate cancer is currently performed using results of an assay for prostate specific …

Effects Of A Professional Sports Lockout On A Regional Economy, Brandyn Hinnrichs

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

A Discussion Of Ethics In Relation To Business And Non-Business Students, Casey Mejeur

Honors Theses

In recent years, society has seen a major shift when it comes to the importance of ethical behavior, and also in what constitutes ethical behavior. One of the biggest reasons for this shift is because of scandals in the last couple of decades (ex. Enron). As the public loses trust in upper management because of these scandals, a greater emphasis is placed on the importance of ethics. This paper discusses ethics in relation to business majors and how their behaviors carry over into the workforce.

The thesis begins by determining different sources of ethical behavior, and what may drive people …