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Honors Theses

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Family Ties: Mainstream Environmentalists' Understanding Of Radical Environmentalism In America, Zachary W. Ezor Jan 2010

Family Ties: Mainstream Environmentalists' Understanding Of Radical Environmentalism In America, Zachary W. Ezor

Honors Theses

Environmentalism in the United States manifests itself in numerous ways. While American environmentalists have been grouped into broad camps over the years, observers have struggled to accurately classify the different components of the movement. Lately, environmentalists have been characterized based on their chosen modus operandi. Environmentalists who employ typical interest group tactics of policy advocacy and accept the notion of political compromise can generally be called 'mainstream.' Alternatively, those environmentalists who employ non-conventional strategies like direct action and take a no-compromise stance on environmental issues are typically described as 'radical.' Despite these distinctions, both radical and mainstream environmentalists are parts …


The Purely Reflected Self, William A. Price Jan 2010

The Purely Reflected Self, William A. Price

Honors Theses

Belief in the concept of the self causes suffering. Unfortunately, although conceptual constructions like this may help to define our goal—the casting off of the belief in the self—this is a much more difficult thing to actualize and attain in daily practice. Our building blocks can form a neat tower, and we can climb to the top and gaze at the horizon, but they will topple, leaving us once again over our heads in the hedgerow. Buddha describes his teachings as a raft to ford the river of suffering in order to reach the far off bank of enlightenment: as …


Revitalizing The Signaling Power Of Class Rank At Colby College, Nicholas Van Niel Jan 2010

Revitalizing The Signaling Power Of Class Rank At Colby College, Nicholas Van Niel

Honors Theses

Consistent with trends at American colleges and universities nationwide, grades have been monotonically increasing at Colby College over the past decade while controlling for student aptitude. A rich data set that describes every Colby student over three cohorts is used to predict student performance. By comparing the mean predicted grade to the mean actual grade in a department, it is seen that some departments award mean grades that are significantly higher than predicted grades warranted by explainable factors. With some departments giving significantly higher grades than other departments, the current grading system is susceptible to awarding unwarranted higher grades to …


No, I’M Really, Really Bad At Math: Competition For Self-Verification, Alexandra E. Wesnousky Jan 2010

No, I’M Really, Really Bad At Math: Competition For Self-Verification, Alexandra E. Wesnousky

Honors Theses

In their theory of self-verification, Swann and Read’s (1981) postulate that people like feedback that is consistent with their self-concept. Researchers have yet to examine what happens when two individuals are both seeking feedback from each other to verify their self-concept on the same domain. When individuals are competing against someone to verify a similarly held self-concept, they should try to seek more polarized feedback, especially when the domain is highly important. In two experiments, participants expected to receive computer feedback on their responses to identity-related questions, either based on their own responses or on how they compared to the …


Continuity Of Fdi: Determinants And Effects On Growth, Loredana Popescu Jan 2010

Continuity Of Fdi: Determinants And Effects On Growth, Loredana Popescu

Honors Theses

The literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) provides evidence on the relation from FDI to growth in the presence of some absorptive qualities such as existing level of development, financial market depth, trade policies and human capital thresholds. The analysis of FDI inflows in the literature so far does not include an investigation of discontinuity, or of lack of steady positive flows. Discontinuities are expected to depend on development levels and risk factors in the host country as they proxy for attractiveness of the target to the foreign investor. This paper investigates the continuity of FDI with its determinants and …


Migration, Food And Cultural Production Across Changing Afro-Ecuadorian Geographies, Amelia J. Swinton Jan 2010

Migration, Food And Cultural Production Across Changing Afro-Ecuadorian Geographies, Amelia J. Swinton

Honors Theses

The human geography of Ecuador is changing. Urban Afro-Ecuadorians now outnumber those living in the two rural regions that have been the ancestral homelands of the population. This physical transformation assaults Ecuador's historically racialized geography, which conflated cities, modernity and white-mestizo identity. Though Afro-Ecuadorians living in the rural north had previously been physically and figuratively located outside of the national project, Ecuador’s new constitution has sought to reverse this institutionalized exclusion. National belonging has been reframed through the concept of interculturality, which recognizes diversity and equality at the same time. I conducted two periods of fieldwork in the north-central Chota …


On Perfect Friendship: An Outline And A Guide To Aristotle's Philosophy Of Friendship, Kristen Psaty Jan 2010

On Perfect Friendship: An Outline And A Guide To Aristotle's Philosophy Of Friendship, Kristen Psaty

Honors Theses

Providing insight into such timeless questions as: What is friendship? Are the best friends similar or dissimilar? and Does having friends make you a better person?, the paper addresses the importance of friendship for Aristotle, but also for the modern reader as well. A topic of special philosophical concern, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) considered friendship to be necessary in achieving a virtuous and fulfilling life. Consequently, he wrote more about friendship than any other virtue he presented. This paper lays the foundation for understanding Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship as well as its position within his larger moral schema. The image of …


The Emerging Civil Society In China And Its Impact On Democratization, Haolu Wang Jan 2010

The Emerging Civil Society In China And Its Impact On Democratization, Haolu Wang

Honors Theses

Recent years have seen an emerging civil society in an authoritarian China. The authoritarian embrace of civil society challenges the conventional wisdom that civil society is closely linked to democracy. In Beijing, the rhetoric of civil society linked less to democracy than to modernization. However, does civil society development have any impact on democratization in authoritarian regimes? The thesis tries to provide a tentative answer by studying civil society and democratization in post-Mao China. As a result of economic development and political reforms, gradual political liberalization has marked a shift of state-society relations that gives rise to a certain degree …


The “Lunatic Fringe” -- Barry Goldwater And The Conservative Revolution Of The 1960s --, Nicholas L. Bromley Jan 2010

The “Lunatic Fringe” -- Barry Goldwater And The Conservative Revolution Of The 1960s --, Nicholas L. Bromley

Honors Theses

How did conservatives, who had become effectively ostracized by their party following the Great Depression and the societal reforms of the New Deal, regain leverage within the GOP during the 1960s? My hypothesis is two-fold. First, I contend that a small group of conservative activists led by F. Clifton White, in spite of a dearth of resources and manpower, managed to infiltrate Republican infrastructure and “hijack” the delegate- selection process. The distinctly conservative and recalcitrant disposition of the Goldwater delegates demonstrates that these activists succeeded. Second, I argue that in addition to temporarily overpowering the national convention in 1964, conservatives …


Race & Rock & Roll: A Visual Analysis Of Rolling Stone Cover Photography, Erica D. Block Jan 2010

Race & Rock & Roll: A Visual Analysis Of Rolling Stone Cover Photography, Erica D. Block

Honors Theses

If African Americans heavily influenced the development of rock & roll as a musical genre, why do we picture rock stars as white men with guitars? In this project I examine, with a particular focus on race, how the the visual culture surrounding rock music evolved to where it is today. To do this, I performed a close visual analysis of Rolling Stone Magazine covers from 1967-1980. In this presentation I illustrate Rolling Stone's trend of featuring 'white negroes' on their covers, which allowed the magazine to use the selling power of a white person's face while retaining the attractiveness, …


Soviet Education: Communism In The Classroom, Alison W. Berryman Jan 2010

Soviet Education: Communism In The Classroom, Alison W. Berryman

Honors Theses

My thesis examines the Soviet Union’s educational system during Stalin’s rule. It proves that the goal of the Soviet educational system in the 1920s and 1930s was to instill strong Communist loyalty from a very early age and to expedite the process of industrialization by educating future workers in “socially useful” labor.


A Disappearing Boundary?: The Changing Distinction Between Combatants And Civilians From The First World War To The Present Day, Aimee Kidder Jan 2010

A Disappearing Boundary?: The Changing Distinction Between Combatants And Civilians From The First World War To The Present Day, Aimee Kidder

Honors Theses

The issue of terrorism has stimulated intellectual debate regarding the rights and protections that should be afforded to civilians. However, the practice of targeting noncombatants in warfare extends far beyond terrorism and has roots deep in the historical past. This study looks at violence against civilians over a series of case studies from the First and Second World Wars as well as the French-Algerian War of the 1950s and 1960s. By looking at the changing legal distinctions between combatants and noncombatants, the study first establishes a trend in international law toward increasing protection of civilians. Yet, these legal advances are …


Understanding Rejection Across Ingroups And Outgroups, Prasant Dubey Jan 2010

Understanding Rejection Across Ingroups And Outgroups, Prasant Dubey

Honors Theses

Black and White male undergraduates from the University of Richmond participated in a study addressing rejection. The purpose was to discover how responses to rejection vary amongst individuals who are rejected by their in-group versus their out-group. In other words, is a white male more likely to be impacted by rejection from another white male (a member of the in- group) or a black male (a member of the out-group)? Likewise, it was interesting to note how black individuals respond differently to rejection by the in-group and out-group. Responses to rejection feedback, regarding self-esteem, attributions to rejection, cognitive capacity, and …


Campus Architecture And Student Culture In American Higher Education, Alexandra R. Troxell Jan 2010

Campus Architecture And Student Culture In American Higher Education, Alexandra R. Troxell

Honors Theses

Human-environment interaction theory, as it specifically relates to architectural determinism, has an indispensible impact on student culture on college campuses. Under the assumptions of architectural determinism, this thesis examines the relationship between architecture and student culture on 30 American college campuses. Specifically, this thesis looks at uniformity of architectural style and color and the prevalence of traditional styles of architecture in relation to the institutions' campus cultures. The results of the study found that a significant relationship exists between student culture and uniformity of building color, but not between student culture and uniformity of style or the prevalence of traditional …


Geophysical Analysis Of Seasonal Montandon Gravel Ridge Water Table Fluctuation And Moisture Gradient Variation Due To Storm Events, Annie Strader Jan 2010

Geophysical Analysis Of Seasonal Montandon Gravel Ridge Water Table Fluctuation And Moisture Gradient Variation Due To Storm Events, Annie Strader

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research project is to continue exploring the Montandon Long-Term Hydrologic Research Site(LTHR) by using multiple geophysical methods to obtain more accurate and precise information regarding subsurface hydrologic properties of a local gravel ridge,which are important to both the health of surrounding ecosystems and local agriculture. Through using non-invasive geophysical methods such as seismic refraction, Direct Current resistivity and ground penetrating radar (GPR) instead of invasive methods such as boreholedrilling which displace sediment and may alter water flow, data collection is less likely to bias the data itself. In addition to imaging the gravel ridge subsurface, another …


Aristotle And The Importance Of Virtue In The Context Of The Politics And The Nicomachean Ethics And Its Relation To Today, Kyle Brandon Anthony Jan 2010

Aristotle And The Importance Of Virtue In The Context Of The Politics And The Nicomachean Ethics And Its Relation To Today, Kyle Brandon Anthony

Honors Theses

While much of Aristotle's works are preserved in various volumes, two of his famous works are the Nichmachean Ethics and the Politics, both of which contain a rich compilation of ethical and political thought. In the Ethics, Aristotle describes a thorough understanding of ethical and intellectual virtue. By pursuing these virtues, Aristotle argues that a person can achieve a life of fulfilling happiness. The ideal polis as described in the Politics serves as a place where the virtuous life is attained in the best manner.Citizens who pursue virtue make the polis better, and the rulers that guide the polis ensure …


Subcellular Localization Of The Non-Structural Proteins 3c And 3cd Of The Honeybee Virus Deformed Wing Virus, Cierra Nichole Danko Jan 2010

Subcellular Localization Of The Non-Structural Proteins 3c And 3cd Of The Honeybee Virus Deformed Wing Virus, Cierra Nichole Danko

Honors Theses

Apis mellifera L., the European honeybee, is a crucial pollinator of many important agricultural crops in the United States. Recently, honeybee colonies have been affected by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a disorder in which the colony fails due to the disappearance of a key functional group of worker bees. Though no direct causalrelationship has been confirmed, hives that experience CCD have been shown to have a high incidence of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), a common honeybee virus. While the genome sequence and gene-order of DWV has been analyzed fairly recently, few other studies have been performed to understand the molecular …


Impact Of Various Insurance Types On Level And Appropriateness Of Health Care Consumption, Allison Mary Janda Jan 2010

Impact Of Various Insurance Types On Level And Appropriateness Of Health Care Consumption, Allison Mary Janda

Honors Theses

The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which insurance type, or method of care management, impact the appropriate delivery of health care. Previous studies indicate a relationship between insurance type and patterns of consumption but do not directly link the incentives or disincentives inherent in each plan with trends inconsumption of health care. This study explores how different types of health insurance coverage affect the location, the degree, and the frequency of health care consumption in order to gain insight into which plans promote appropriate delivery and consumption ofcare.


Investigating The Effects Of Various Crowd Characteristics On The Dynamic Properties Of An Occupied Structure, Robert Joseph Firman Iii Jan 2010

Investigating The Effects Of Various Crowd Characteristics On The Dynamic Properties Of An Occupied Structure, Robert Joseph Firman Iii

Honors Theses

One of the challenges for structural engineers during design is considering how the structure will respond to crowd-induced dynamic loading. It has been shown that human occupants of a structure do not simply add mass to the system when considering the overall dynamic response of the system, but interact with it and may induce changes of the dynamic properties from those of the empty structure. This study presents an investigation into the human-structure interaction based on several crowd characteristics and their effect on the dynamic properties of an empty structure. The dynamic properties including frequency, damping, and mode shapes were …


An Argument For The Moral Obligation Of Physicians To Practice Healthy Behaviors, Kathryn A. Skimming Jan 2010

An Argument For The Moral Obligation Of Physicians To Practice Healthy Behaviors, Kathryn A. Skimming

Honors Theses

Obligations of physicians to practice healthy behaviors are analyzed through three ethical frameworks. Physicians can be considered public benefactors and are able to influence patients to adopt healthier habits and increase total utility. Society creates a moral obligation for physicians to follow the norms regarding a physician's appearance. Kant's categorical imperative also shows physicians have a moral obligation to practice healthy behaviors. Finally, a healthy lifestyle can be considered a mean between extreme behaviors. The medical community should try to promote an environment in which physicians are better able to practice healthy behaviors, because a situation can influence our behaviors.


Hurricane Katrina : An Act Of God?, Juliette M. Jeanfreau Jan 2010

Hurricane Katrina : An Act Of God?, Juliette M. Jeanfreau

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I plan to present a framework of four theodicies which organizes various responses to and attempted explanations of the suffering experienced during Hurricane Katrina; to examine several post-Katrina sermons in which pastors and priests address suffering within each theological framework; and to discuss the important leadership implications that the ideas expressed on the pulpit carry for how citizens understand the rebuilding of New Orleans. Although the city is home to citizens from a diversity of faith traditions including Judaism and Islam, this thesis will focus on responses expressed within Christian contexts. In the following pages, I will …


Investigation Of The Design Of A Bistable Micro-Chemical-Mechanical Device Utilizing Lateral Buckling, Susan Lyn Barnes Jan 2010

Investigation Of The Design Of A Bistable Micro-Chemical-Mechanical Device Utilizing Lateral Buckling, Susan Lyn Barnes

Honors Theses

The Gracias Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University has developed microgrippers which utilize chemically-actuated joints to be used in micro-surgery. These grippers, however, take up to thirty minutes to close fully when activated biochemicals in the human body. This is very problematic and could limit the use of the devices in surgery. It is the goal of this research to develop a gripper that uses theGracias Laboratory's existing joints in conjunction with mechanical components to decrease the closing time. The purpose of including the mechanical components is to induce a state of instability at which time a small perturbation would cause …


A Dynamic Approach To Stakeholder Theory: A Case Study Of Labor - Management Relations At General Motors, Lee Elizabeth Markison Jan 2010

A Dynamic Approach To Stakeholder Theory: A Case Study Of Labor - Management Relations At General Motors, Lee Elizabeth Markison

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to identify areas for improvement in the current stakeholder management literature. The current stakeholder management theories were analyzed to determine their benefits and detriments. To determine how these theories work in a corporation, General Motors was selected as a single-case study to determine the patterns of stakeholder management over time. These patterns demonstrated the need for dynamic stakeholder management over time, with an emphasis on collaboration and the necessity of recognizing the greater stakeholder network surrounding the corporation. Proper stakeholder management in the early years of General Motors would have prevented its failure, while …


Surviving The Holocaust: A Life History Study, Greg Jones Jan 2010

Surviving The Holocaust: A Life History Study, Greg Jones

Honors Theses

The aim of this thesis was to attempt to explain the inexplicable, thus coming to some concrete rationale as to why Murray was able to persevere unlike so many unfortunate victims who perished. The findings of this research attribute Murray's survival to three distinct categories; (1) Murray's geographical location and relationship to his hometown of Wierchomla, Poland (2) rare level of low anti-Semitic activity encountered and (3) a number of miscellaneous personal factors that included but are not limited to his diet, gender, age, psychological composition, family connections, agency, etc.


Audience Effects In Cognitive Task Performance In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella), Sean Patrick Coyne Jan 2010

Audience Effects In Cognitive Task Performance In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella), Sean Patrick Coyne

Honors Theses

Primates as a taxonomic Order have the largest brains corrected for body size in the animal kingdom. These large brains have allowed primates to evolve the capacity to demonstrate advanced cognitive processes across a wide array of abilities. Nonhuman primates are particularly adept at social learning, defined as the modification of behavior by observing the actions of others. Additionally, primates often exploit resources differently depending on their social context. In this study, capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were tested on a cognitive task in three social contexts to determine if social context influenced their performance on the task. The three social …


The Effects Of Altered Prenatal Melatonin Signaling On Adult Behavior And Hippocampal Gene Expression Of The Male Rat: A Circadioneuroendocrine-Axis Hypothesis Of Psychopathology, Josh Ripple Jan 2010

The Effects Of Altered Prenatal Melatonin Signaling On Adult Behavior And Hippocampal Gene Expression Of The Male Rat: A Circadioneuroendocrine-Axis Hypothesis Of Psychopathology, Josh Ripple

Honors Theses

Disturbances in melatonin - the neurohormone that signals environmental darkness as part of the circadian circuit of mammals - have been implicated in various psychopathologies in humans. At present, experimental evidence linking prenatal melatonin signaling to adult physiology, behavior, and gene expression is lacking. We hypothesized that administration of melatonin (5 mg/kg) or the melatonin receptor antagonist luzindole (5 mg/kg) to rats in utero would permanently alter the circadian circuit to produce differential growth, adult behavior, and hippocampal gene expressionin the male rat. Prenatal treatment was found to increase growth in melatonin-treated animals. In addition, subjects exposed to melatonin prenatally …


"Hey, Hey, He Gay, He Gay . . . Okay" . . . Or Is It?: The Sociological Importance Of Bruno, Chris Bishop Jan 2010

"Hey, Hey, He Gay, He Gay . . . Okay" . . . Or Is It?: The Sociological Importance Of Bruno, Chris Bishop

Honors Theses

Sacha Baron Cohen is a British comedian who has garnered a great deal of controversy over the years. Through his characters, Ali G, Borat, and Bruno, he attempts to trick people into letting down their guards and revealing any prejudices (racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny, et cetera) that they may have. In doing so, each of his three characters has sparked a debate concerning the different issues they bring up: with Ali G, it was whether the character was racist or exposed racism; with Borat, it was whether the character was anti-Semitic or revealed anti-Semitism; and with Bruno, it is whether …


Income, Trade And Pollution In Central Asia, Russia And China: An Econometric Analysis, Tisorn Songsermsawas Jan 2010

Income, Trade And Pollution In Central Asia, Russia And China: An Econometric Analysis, Tisorn Songsermsawas

Honors Theses

The study performs a panel estimation of the relationship between per capita income, trade, and airborne pollution in the five Central Asian nations, Russia and China between 1992 and 2008. First, this study uses an environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC)- an inverted-U relationship between the increase in income and the level of environmental degradation - to examine how income and pollution are related. Second, the study uses a gravity model to estimate the effect of a regional trade agreement (Shanghai Cooperation Organization: SCO) on incomes and carbon dioxide emissions in the region. Empirical analysis confirms the existence of the rising …


The Blue Of, Chrissy Reilly Jan 2010

The Blue Of, Chrissy Reilly

Honors Theses

When I first started my thesis, I intended for my finished project to be a compilation of poems that aims to reflect and reveal several repeating themes of our society's collective unconscious, such as the relationship between the physical and spiritual aspects of being and the representation of women's lives, organized religion,adolescence, and mental illness. I proposed writing a chapbook of poetry that reflects an exploration of, and sensitivity to, the human unconscious mind, fears, and desires. Consulting other works of surreal, lyric, and confessional poetry, I sought to personallydevelop as both a poet and a psychology student. I made …


Semantic Categorization Of Unfamiliar Tunes In Older And Younger Adults, Samantha Ann Deffler Jan 2010

Semantic Categorization Of Unfamiliar Tunes In Older And Younger Adults, Samantha Ann Deffler

Honors Theses

The process of learning the categories of new tunes in older and younger adults was examined for this study. Tunes were presented either one or three times along with a category name to see if multiple repetitions aid in category memory. Additionally, toexamine if an association may help some listeners, especially older ones, to better remember category information, some tunes were presented with a short associative fact; this fact was either neutral or emotional. Participants were tested on song recognition,fact recognition, and category memory. For all tasks, there was a benefit of three presentations. There were no age differences in …