Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of State Political Party Association On The Gender Wage Gap, Audrey Kelly

Honors Theses

Purpose: This study investigates whether political party association impacts the gender wage gap in the United States of America. This study is motivated by the minimal recent reduction in the gender wage gap, despite legislation presented to combat this problem. The study is also motivated by the impact of gender wage gap on females’ choice of major, which directly impacts the national economy.

Design/methodology/approach: Gender wage gap data is collected from 50 states and Washington D.C. for the year 2018 to examine whether political party association significantly impacts the gender wage gap. Mississippi is a proxy for the Republican …

Music Scenes, The Creative Economy, And Changing Your Backyard, William Ford

Honors Theses

City branding has become a popular tactic by cities looking to improve economic development, reputation, or attract tourists and businesses to move to its specific town or city especially with music branding. However, much of the research on city branding focuses on massive international cities.

This project focuses on how city branding can be implemented in a smaller setting, but more specifically how the uniqueness of a smaller town’s music scene can be the catalyst to an effective city brand. To do this, data from the Levitt Foundation was analyzed to get a better grasp on what qualities a smaller …

A Mobile Application For Crowdsourced Acquisition Of Urban Street-View Pedestrian Facility Data, Andrew Fink

Honors Theses

In recent years, pedestrians have been dangerously overrepresented in traffic crashes, and the pedestrian fatality rate has steadily increased during the last decade. Additionally, studies have shown that the majority of pedestrian-involved traffic accidents occur in urban non-intersections, which suggests that a more well-connected pedestrian facility network in cities would lower the rate of pedestrian involvement in traffic accidents. One way to improve the pedestrian facility network coverage is to first have up-to-date, accurate, and thorough data regarding the presence of existing pedestrian facilities. However, state departments of transportation have stated that the current methods of acquiring this data are …

Comparative Error Analysis Of The Black-Scholes Equation, Chuan Chen

Honors Theses

Finance is a rapidly growing area in our banking world today. With this ever-increasing development come more complex derivative products than simple buy-and-sell trades. Financial derivatives such as futures and options have been developed stemming from the traditional stock, bond, currency, and commodity markets. Consequently, the need for more sophisticated mathematical modeling is also rising. The Black-Scholes equation is a partial differential equation that determines the price of a financial option under the Black-Scholes model. The idea behind the equation is that there is a perfect and risk-free way for one to hedge the options by buying and selling the …

Cloning, Expression, And Purification Of Fadk And Its Application In Coa-Rna Capture, Jon-Michael L. Stork

Honors Theses

Coenzyme A (CoA) is an important enzyme cofactor involved in acyl transfer reactions. Recently, CoA and its various thioesters were found to exist at the 5’ end of RNA molecules. Although the function of these molecules is still unknown due to difficulties in their isolation, their existence at the 5’ RNA end reveals potentially novel biological roles of RNA. We are exploiting the broad substrate tolerance of the medium chain fatty acid-coenzyme A ligase (FadK), hypothesizing that this enzyme will accept biotinylated medium chain fatty acid substrates, creating biotin-tagged CoA-RNA. This modified CoA-RNA can later be captured using streptavidin affinity …

The Incorporation Of Lipids Into The Cellular Membrane Of Salmonella, Betsy H. Redfern

Honors Theses

Salmonella is a gram negative, facultative anaerobic food borne pathogen and is the leading cause of deaths related to food borne illnesses. In order to establish an infection successfully, Salmonella must be able to survive in the presence of various stressors that it encounters, namely changes in pH, oxygen availability, osmolarity and bile. Previous research has shown that exposure to bile causes a shift in fatty acid composition in the cell membrane of the enteric bacterium Enterococcus faecalis. Thus, this led to the hypothesis that Salmonella incorporates fatty acids into its cellular membrane following exposure to bile and thereby protects …

The Effect Of Therapy Dogs On Preoperative Anxiety, Morgan Royer

Honors Theses

Humans and animals have been companions for ages but that relationship and its benefits have only begun to be explored. Recently, animal assisted therapies have been used to improve both psychological and physiological wellbeing. One of the most popular therapies uses dogs. There are many research studies on the effects of therapy dogs on children and adults with results that have found that the companionship of a dog significantly decreases their stress levels in many different situations, including health care facilities. I investigated the effects of therapy dogs on adults’ anxiety before going into day surgery. Participants were patients from …

The Analysis Of Erlanger Hospital’S Suture Inventory Management Operations, Amanda George

Honors Theses

This paper evaluates the impact of using mechanical engineering and operations management principles to an inventory management system in Erlanger Hospital. Erlanger Hospital is a local, nonprofit hospital system in Chattanooga. Erlanger serves as a tertiary referral hospital and a Level I Trauma Center in the region. Therefore, they are heavily depended on during times of crisis or emergency [2]. This study focuses specifically on reducing the loss and ultimate waste of sutures across Erlanger’s surgery wing. A criteria for the appraisal of using mechanical and manufacturing engineering to improve the current system is established based on existing data regarding …

Lipid Modification In Aeromonas Salmonicida Through Exogenous Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Incorporation, Rachel Hofer

Honors Theses

Aeromonas salmonicida is a Gram-negative bacterium that can infect a wide host range of fish populations, including salmonids and non-salmonids as well as freshwater and marine life. A. salmonicida causes the disease furunculosis, which can cause lethargy, intestinal inflammation, ulcers, hemorrhaging, and death. The infection is spread through fish-to-fish contact, and the presence of infection can have devastating effects on cultivated fish populations. The purpose of this study was to explore the ability of A. salmonicida to incorporate polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) into its lipid profile and test the phenotypic effects thereof. A. salmonicida cultures were grown in minimal media …

Exploring The Potential For Rare And Common Borodinia Species To Acclimate To Change, Garrett Allen

Honors Theses

An important ecological question that remains unanswered is why some species are rare while others are common. Because the natural world is dynamic, in order to persist, species must successfully respond to the environmental changes they experience. The ability to be plastic may be especially important to the survival of species in the face of rapid environmental change because such quick change does not offer species time to migrate or adapt. Consequently, differential plasticity between rare and common species, with rare species possessing less plasticity than common species, could help explain the differing successes of persisting in a large geographic …

Influence Of Environmental Conditions On Fatty Acid-Induced Changes In Vibrio Cholerae Persistence And Pathogenicity, Abigail Doyle

Honors Theses

Vibrio cholerae, a Gram-negative bacterium, is responsible for the acute intestinal infection known as cholera. This illness is due in part to V. cholerae’s ability to sense and adapt to changing environments as it is ingested into the human body from brackish environments. It was shown in recent studies that this bacteria has the ability to uptake exogenous fatty acids, resulting in changes to V. cholerae persistence and pathogenicity. The aim of this research is to determine the extent to which these additional exogenous UFAs influence the persistence and pathogenicity of V. cholerae throughout its transitional period from brackish environments …

An Examination Of The Perception, Role And Impact Of Student-Led Clubs And Organizations On Student Development, Engagement And Success: A Small-Sample Study Of Extreme Users And Extreme Non-Users Using Service Innovation Methods, Bailey Coppedge

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was, first, to research what involvement in student-led clubs and organizations (SLCOs) contributes to student development, engagement, and success. Second, to understand the perceptions that students at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga have about SLCOs and their impact on the students’ development, engagement, and success. I posed three research questions: 1) What is the perception of SLCOs from the perspective of both uninvolved students and extremely involved students? 2) What drives students to become engaged in SLCOs? 3) What impact does involvement in SLCOs have on students’ development and success? My goal in conducting this research …

Experiences Of Adult Children With Previously Incarcerated Parents: A Qualitative Study, Opeletia Helton

Honors Theses

There are at least 1.5 million adult children of incarcerated parents in the United States based on research conducted in 2000. While research has been conducted on this population while they were under the age of 18, little research has focused on their reflection of their childhood experiences nor on their transition into adulthood. Existing literature provides insight on their experiences as it pertained to peer and caregiver feedback, child and development into adulthood, parent-child relationships, and intervention recommendations. An exploratory qualitative study is conducted with adult children of incarcerated parents (n=5) in order to gain insight into their experiences …

Is It Too Late For The Federal Government To Reverse Course On How We Legally Recognize Gender?, Stephanie Poget

Honors Theses

This paper focuses on the definitions and interpretations that govern the protections of transgender American citizens as defined by the Civil Rights Act as well as how the Trump Administration’s agenda might impact the transgender community. Included in this paper is a study of historical events and case law that illustrate the protections heterosexual American citizens have compared to that of transgender Americans.

Justice According To Reinhold Niebuhr And Gustavo Gutiérrez, Rebecca L. Miller

Honors Theses

Reinhold Niebuhr and Gustavo Gutiérrez were two influential theologians. Niebuhr was a Protestant neo-orthodox theologian and Gutiérrez was a Catholic liberation theologian. Both tackled the theological topics of justice and reformation. Niebuhr and Gutiérrez came to similar conclusions on these topics although they shared no explicit connections. Despite this, these two thinkers are not widely compared in scholarship. There is an academic tradition of treating Catholicism and Protestantism separately. This tradition could explain why the similarities between the two are overlooked. This essay explores the beliefs of Niebuhr and Gutiérrez on justice and reformation to demonstrate the similarities and argue …

Theoretical Studies Of Naphthoquinone Reactivity Toward Amines, Kevin Lee

Honors Theses

Quinones are a class of organic compounds containing a six-membered unsaturated cyclic ring with two carbonyl groups and are biologically relevant due to their ability to participate in redox reactions. Experiments have showed that quinones can induce protein modifications including oligomerization and polymerization by binding to proteins. To complement these experimental studies, theoretical studies of naphthoquinone reactivity toward an amino group were conducted. The reactions between three naphthoquinones, 1,2-naphthoquinone (ONQ), 1,4-naphthoquinone (PNQ), and 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (HNQ), and methylamine, a N-containing nucleophile, were investigated. For each naphthoquinone, the first step of both 1,2- and 1,4-additions at all possible C=O positions were examined. …

Virtual Existence And Its Ambiguities: How Postphenomenology Of Technology Clarifies Our Situation In A Digital World., David Karlo King Ii

Honors Theses

For many contemporary western societies, digital technology has become a pervasive aspect of the day-to-day lives of many individuals, and a large philosophical conversation has resulted around how the use of such technologies changes our lives. Postphenomenology, a relatively recent philosophical development, offers a distinct approach to discussing technology from a practical, situated orientation. While this approach has roots in phenomenologists like Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, it attempts a more contingent and empirical project that more thoroughly discusses the existential implications of human/technology relationships. In this paper, I trace the roots of postphenomenology in the works of Heidegger and …

A Net-Zero Framework For Farms: A Business Plan, Lauren Dunn

Honors Theses

With current agricultural methods causing an abundance of environmental problems, LDEC, LLC is an environmental consulting firm created to address these environmental impacts in the Southeast region of the United States. Examining an industry overview of small dairy farming (a dairy farm having fewer than 500 cows) in the state of Tennessee, LDEC, LLC looks to potentially impact the farming industry on a larger scale. The research for LDEC, LLC is centered on utilizing net-zero technologies in order to address energy usage, water consumption, and waste build-up on farms and reduce their side effects. The success of net-zero initiatives in …

The Legal Status Of Personhood In The Wake Of Genetic Editing, Tessa C. Ross

Honors Theses

Policies and laws regarding human health require continual examination as technologies improve, and genetic editing technologies that have the ability to modify a person’s DNA are unquestionably relevant to examine. The technologies most intriguing to investigate are those with the ability to directly edit the nuclear genes (segments of DNA within the nucleus of cells) through techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 and Cpf1. This study intends to answer the questions of how should policy develop to accommodate for the improving medical technology of genetic editing and how could genetic editing technologies affect the legal status of personhood for the purposes of …

Interactions Of Fentanyl With Gp120 In The Central Nervous System, Meagan Buchanan

Honors Theses

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has affected more than 75 million individuals worldwide. HIV not only affects the peripheral system through the targeting of T cells, but also causes adverse effects in the central nervous system. Individuals suffering from HIV often experience neuropathic pain and are prescribed opioids to combat the chronic pain. Along with the increase of opioids prescribed to HIV patients, the number of deaths related to the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has increased drastically. Drug abuse and HIV are interlinked epidemics; individuals who are HIV positive and referred to as “NeuroAIDS.” The HIV envelope protein, gp120, has been …

The Antifungal Occidiofungin Disrupts Morphological Switching In The Polymorphic Fungus Candida Albicans, Aaron Albee

Honors Theses

Occidiofungin is a natural antifungal compound produced by Burkholderia contaminans MS14. Prior work has been shown occidiofungin to be effective against Candida albicans in its nonpathogenic yeast form. However, C. albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that requires a morphogenic switch to a filamentous form to cause disease. As previous work focusing on the non-pathogenic form has shown distinct biochemical and morphological changes with occidiofungin exposure, I hypothesis that the filamentous form of this fungi will also undergo identifiable changes that can be characterized. To this end, cells induced to undergo morphological switching in the presence of occidiofungin were analyzed by …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Undergraduate Research Programs At Mississippi State University For Developing Science Professionals, Isabella Joann Durham

Honors Theses

Since 2013, Mississippi State University has been offering research experiences for undergraduates through formal programs which pair high-performing students in collaborative research with faculty mentors. The purpose of these programs is to provide students with the opportunity to enhance scholarly activity, participate in the discovery of new knowledge, and become a part of the scientific community. We tested the hypotheses that undergraduate research improves student participants’ educational experience (including personal and professional development), enhances retention of talented students in science careers, and leads to discovery of new information that contributes to the larger body of knowledge, while also looking at …

Edge Effects And Diversity Of Understory And Canopy Cloud Forest Beetles, Mallory Barbier

Honors Theses

Habitat fragmentation results in edge effects— changes in diversity and community composition along high-contrast forest edges. To date, a study of edge effects on beetle diversity has not been performed in tropical cloud forests, and few studies compare communities at both understory and canopy levels. Using bottle traps, I sampled canopy and understory beetle communities in a tropical lower montane cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica across three distances (edge- 15 m, middle- 100 m, far- 205 m) along an edge-to-interior transect into the forest. According to the Shannon-Weiner diversity index, the site with the most diversity was the middle …

Poster, Expanded, Lynnae Strait

Honors Theses

The poster is a fundamental part of graphic design that has existed since the 1800s. Throughout the years, its purposes and aesthetics have changed, but its format has adapted very little. This thesis project sought to define the traditional format of the poster, and then challenge the definition to expand the audience’s understanding of what a poster is and isn’t. This project’s primary goal was not to create aesthetically unique poster, but to create a poster that redefined the format—which would likely result in the achievement of the former goal as well.

The definition was derived by viewing and understanding …

Yield Stress Analysis With Dv-Iii Rheometer, Leah Margaret Cook

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the behavior of everyday substances (toothpaste, lotions, ect.) and chemicals through the analysis of yield stress. By measuring the flow properties of these products, one can determine the stability, uses, and other properties of a substance. Yield stress is experienced everyday from squeezing a tube of toothpaste, to stirring a batch of cake batter, or canning products in a factory. Yield stress along with viscosity helps us predict the behavior of chemicals, cosmetics, and food that we handle daily. Yield stress, torque, and strain values were measured with a DV-III Rheometer and …

Deducing The Reproductive, Behavioral, And Learning Effects Of Developmental Cannabinoid Exposure In Zebrafish, Marisa L. Kutchma

Honors Theses

With the spreading legalization of marijuana, it is important to investigate the effects of two of its active ingredients—Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC and CBD differ in that THC exerts psychoactive effects, while CBD does not. Thus, CBD is renowned for its analgesic effects in treating a variety of ailments, for example, childhood drug-resistant epilepsy. In addition, there is an increase in reports of prenatal CBD usage. As it is increasingly used, research has fallen far behind the proliferation of CBD and more needs to be done, particularly in the developmental realm. This study utilizes a developmental origins of …

United Families Through Interior Design, Marissa Heintz

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the current problems and support systems within the foster care system and how it could be improved upon. It studies the removal process of children from a hurtful home, the common reasons for placement within foster care, what some of the major problems within foster care are based surveys and existing research. Furthermore, this study seeks to understand the different perspectives of those involved in foster care including; biological parents, foster parents, children and social care workers. In order to better understand what would be best for all of the people involved, research also explores the effects …

Time Course Effects Of Repetitive Social Defeat Stress On A Prefrontal Cortex-Dependent Cognitive Flexibility Task, Shaffer Hannah

Honors Theses

Stress is known to change the structure and function of the brain in animals and humans as well as their behavior. It has a high correlation with the development of psychiatric disorders as well. We looked to investigate how repetitive intermittent social defeat stress using the resident-intruder paradigm in rats affected a cognitive flexibility task. The task used was a set-shifting protocol known to be associated with the function of the prefrontal cortex. Measurements on the task were taken intermittently between social stress sessions to determine short-term effects and 10 days after the last social stress session to measure long …

The Meaning Of Song Type: Exploring Behavioral Responses Of Field Sparrows To Three Simple Song Types, Eliza Foli

Honors Theses

The frequency, rate, and overall quality of a male’s song may indicate the singer’s physical quality, either as a threat or as a potential mate, and are used for species recognition. However, the degree to which a song must differ acoustically to communicate different information about the singer remains unclear. Analysis of male field sparrow simple song recorded in southwest Michigan revealed three structurally distinct clusters of simple song that differ in frequency characteristics. We hypothesize that songs in each cluster convey information about the singer and that receivers respond more strongly to songs more similar to their own song. …

Isolation And Characterization Of A Novel Terpenoid From The Needles Of Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus), And Its Potential Relation To Climate Change, Samantha Hack

Honors Theses

Climate changes is one of the most serious threats facing the future of our planet, and with is we will see drastic changes to water levels global temperatures, and atmospheric conditions. Modeling future atmospheric conditions is crucial if we are to plan for and mitigate the consequences of climate change – while important, these models will not be useful to future scientists unless various parameters, such as BVOC emission to the atmosphere, are accounted for and included in computer models. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) are predicted to be a major component of future climax forests as their abundance increases …