Digital Commons Network^™

Confederate Symbols And Media Coverage: A Look At Mississippi Newspapers Over Time, Madison Elizabeth Heil

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine how the media coverage of Confederate symbols in Mississippi has changed over time by focusing on the following events: the banning of flag sticks at the University of Mississippi athletic events in 1997, the removal of the Mississippi state flag from campus in 2015, the modification of the song Dixie at football games in 2009, and the banning of the song from athletic events in 2016. A sample of news articles featured on the front page of three different Mississippi-based newspapers were reviewed through content analysis by two trained coders for changes …

Graphic Design And The Cinema: An Application Of Graphic Design To The Art Of Filmmaking, Kacey B. Holifield

Honors Theses

When the public considers different art forms such as painting, drawing and sculpture, it is easy to understand the common elements that unite them. Each is a non-moving art form that begins at the drawing board. Using line, color and shape to evoke a particular response from audiences is what ties these fine arts together. Graphic design, however, tends to separate itself from the fine arts. Because of its later development in the art world, as well as, its operation within modern technological developments, graphic design is driven by the idea of communicating to large audiences. In this way, although …

Real-Time Translation Of American Sign Language Using Wearable Technology, Jackson Taylor

Honors Theses

The goal of this work is to implement a real-time system using wearable technology for translating American Sign Language (ASL) gestures into audible form. This system could be used to facilitate conversations between individuals who do and do not communicate using ASL. We use as our source of input the Myo armband, an affordable commercially-available wearable technology equipped with on-board accelerometer, gyroscope, and electromyography sensors. We investigate the performance of two different classification algorithms in this context: linear discriminant analysis and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) using various distance metrics. Using the k-NN classifier and windowed dynamic time …

A Comparative Analysis Of Curriculum Content Among Undergraduate Integrated Marketing Communications Programs, Braxton A. Jones

Honors Theses

The following thesis is an analysis of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) undergraduate programs. This thesis asks what the characteristics of an ideal undergraduate IMC program are and does any existing program have all these characteristics. The rise of IMC as a communication approach, combined with its adoption by many companies as the new marketing standard, has led many different universities to offer a curriculum in IMC, but the curriculum varies greatly. Since it is still a new subject, colleges place the new program in different disciplines, including the business school, the communications program, and the journalism department. While there are …

Autism Spectrum Disorder: How Does Transitional Planning From Preschool To Elementary School Benefit Educational And Social Success?, Shakeika K. Everett

Honors Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder that impacts millions of people worldwide on a daily basis. While most adults with autism have received, and continue to receive, the proper assistance in engaging in everyday life, children with autism face more challenges that impacts their engagement socially. Many intervention methods have been researched and implemented to assist in communication and social involvement for children with ASD. However, little research exists on helping young children with ASD effectively transition, both academically and socially, from one educational environment to another. This research will contain a case study of a six-year-old child enrolled …

A Rhetorical Criticism Of Anti-Era Cartoons, Josie A. Burks

Honors Theses

Over the course of American history many battles have been fought to ensure that equality was extended to the citizens of the United States. With momentum from the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, a bill was introduced to Congress in 1923 that sought to ensure equality for the women of the nation, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Though this bill was later reworded and reintroduced in every subsequent session of Congress, it would not be until 1972 that the bill would become a household name. This thesis analyzes the rhetorical elements that are at play within a selection of anti-Equal …

A Study Of Stress Levels Of Students, Rebekah Currie

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Human And Conspecific Gestures By Capuchin Monkeys To Solve An Object-Choice Task, Lindsay Paige Schwartz

Honors Theses

Most primates live in highly complex social systems, and therefore have evolved similarly complex methods of communicating with each other. One type of communication is the use of manual gestures, which are only found in primates. No substantial evidence exists indicating that monkeys use communicative gestures in the wild. However, monkeys may demonstrate the ability to learn and/or use gestures in certain experimental paradigms since they¿ve been shown to use other visual cues such as gaze. The purpose of this study was to investigate if ten brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were able to use gestural cues from monkeys and …

Understanding The Karoo: Investigating The Function Of A Copulation Call In Female Wild Turkeys Meleagris Gallopavo, Callie Grey

Honors Theses

Even with the vast amount of research regarding mating vocalizations and their adaptive functions, the copulation call of female wild turkeys, Meleagris gallopavo, has yet to be described. The purpose of this study was to describe this novel call, referred to as karoo and to test three hypotheses for its function. Previously collected data in the form of video tapes and data sheets provided the basis of this study. Dr. Richard Buchholz conducted experimental trials in 2008 and 2009. Male behavioral data was recorded on the videos. The videos and the data sheets were used to collect female behavioral data. …

Visual Branding In Graphic Design, Leslie E. Kirk

Honors Theses

Brands are all around us - no matter where we go, no matter what we do. As consumers, we are bombarded by images of logos and advertising campaigns every day. However, we rarely think about the process by which brands enter our lives. Before any product is ever produced or sold, it must first be branded. Every idea, from initial sketches to patented logos, supports a branding strategy, or the decisions a production team has made about what will drive a consumer to choose their brand over that of their competitors.

One problem small companies face when trying to get …

The Modernity Of La Mode: A History Of The French Revolution Through The Lens Of Fashion, Culture, And Identity, Bithy R. Goodman

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I explore the cultural history of the French Revolution and its relation to the modern era which ensued. Many historians have studied the French Revolution as it relates to culture, the rise of modernity, and fashion. I combine the unique histories of all three of these aspects to reach an understanding of the history of the French Revolution and fashion’s role in bringing about change. In the majority of literature of costume history, discussion of fashion surrounds its reflective properties. Many historians conclude fashion as a reflection of the broader cultural shifts that occurred during the Revolution. …

But Is It Art?: The Significance Of Graphic Design In The Modern Era, Johnny Franklin Miles Iii

Honors Theses

The subject of this thesis is graphic design: specifically, the history of graphic design from the Victorian Period in the late nineteenth century until the end of the Modernist Era around the mid-twentieth century. This time period encompasses perhaps the most important developments in the brief history of graphic design, therefore it is a good place to start when considering the central question this thesis process of whether graphic design is art. The terminology used to disucss the hsitory of graphic design in this thesis--the Romantic Era, the Modernist Era, the Postmoderinist Era--is the same terminology used to describe the …

Making A Difference Through Design, Haley Brooke Hill

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I discuss the following four novels: Meridian by Alice Walker, Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell, The Summer We Got Saved by Pat Cunningham Devoto, and Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund. In these novels, I look at the relationships between black female characters and white female characters. I analyze the ways in which their relationships are formed, the historic background that provides the setting for their relationships, and the author’s personal relationship with the text. Looking at cross-racial relationships among women in these novels shows that the authors attempt to reconcile relationships in …

Imagining Anti-Semitism : Artistic Representations Of The Dreyfus Affair, Alexa Stemmler

Honors Theses

The industrialization and large-scale urbanization of France in the nineteenth century drove many working-class people to Paris. With new disposable income and leisure time, they flocked to the boulevards, department stores and cafes of the capital to amuse themselves or simply to wander around the city. Though 1848 was to be France's last real political revolution, Paris remained the scene of cultural and social innovations due largely to this street culture; the mob was as powerful at the tum of the century as it had been in 1789. Vanessa Schwartz writes, "The crowd and the experience of belonging to an …

A Designer’S Portfolio, Hallie Landon Marshall

Honors Theses

The professional graphic design portfolio is a window into the graphic designer’s soul: reflecting both the personal style of the artist and the artist’s ability to adapt their skill and creativity to the needs of a particular project. The designer’s portfolio is also his introduction to the interview and career processes. This portfolio was created to reflect the designer’s lifelong interest in publications and to become the first step in a graphic design career. The project included development of the design pieces; printing and mounting the portfolio; and creating a digital portfolio by designing a website in Adobe Flash. The …

Cultural Imposition Or Cross-Cultural Communication: An Auto-Ethnographic Exploration Of Christian Missionary Rhetorics, Marian Draffin

Honors Theses

This project is a tropological and visual exploration of the rhetorics of Christian missionary culture written in an auto-ethnographic mode. The texts explored include a sample of recruitment brochures produced by mission's organizations, recorded accounts of those who were affected by missions, either as a missionary or as a member of the respondent culture, and journals and photographic images from my own short term missionary work. This exploration is driven by my curiosity about the power dynamics of Christian missionary work: Is the work of a Christian missionary culture a type of cultural imposition and domination? Can Christian missionary work …

Self-Similarity In Network Traffic, Francisco Chinchilla

Honors Theses

It is critical to properly understand the nature of network traffic in order to effectively design models describing network behavior. These models are usually used to simulate network traffic, which in turn are used to construct congestion control techniques, perform capacity planning studies, and/or evaluate the behavior of new protocols. Using the wrong models could lead to potentially serious problems such as delayed packet transmissions or an increase in packet drop rates.

Traditionally, packet arrivals were assumed to follow a Poisson arrival process. Although Poisson processes have several properties that make them easy to work with, they do not accurately …

The Reemergence Of The Goddess Image In Contemporary Art, Tara E. Patrick

Honors Theses

The goddess image, and its use in art and life, has a long history. The historical uses are explored through a brief history, followed by an expansion and discussion of the contemporary uses of the goddess image in the art of three Michigan artists: Ann Burian, Katheryn Trenshaw, and Ruth Zachary. The goddess image in art reflects a change in the spirituality of contemporary times.

Design Principles And Applications In A Corporate Trademark The Krystal Company, Kurt Hyder

Honors Theses

This Honors thesis sets out to examine some significant aspects of corporate trademark design. The thesis will provide an analysis of a corporate trademark program, focusing on the recent trademark change by The Krystal Company. I wish to point out early in the paper that certain features of Krystal's design program, such as uniform, package, and architectural design were reviewed only briefly. This restriction was necessary to keep the research from becoming too vast and losing sight of the main objective of trademark design. The thesis consists of three main parts: a) The principles of design and graphic design, b) …

Concept Formation And Development In The Congenitally Blind Child, Kimberly J. Franco

Honors Theses

T.D. Cutsforth once stated that "no single mental activity of the congenitally blind child is not distorted by the absence of sight." Blindness permeates the intellectual functioning of language, thought, comprehension and conceptualization. Ultimately, the child lacking vision will both understand and respond to the world in a manner unlike that of a sighted child. This incongruous interaction breeds frustration since the blind are a minority in a world which concentrates on the characteristics, needs, behaviors, and accomplishments of sighted individuals. Lacking the visual modality, the blind rely on the information about the objective world which they receive from people …