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Mitochondrial Dysfunction And Reactive Oxygen Species In Neurodegeneration, Leah Farina

Honors Theses

Neurodegeneration leads to the loss of normal anatomy and physiology of the neuronal system in a human body. The hallmark of most neurodegenerative diseases is abnormal folding and accumulation of proteins within neuronal cell bodies that is not present in healthy people. These changes in normal protein metabolism often lead to neuronal cell death and failure of the affected regions of the central nervous system. Abnormal protein accumulation may be attributed to dysfunctional mitochondria and damage by reactive oxygen species. In addition to causing altered protein accumulation, dysfunctional mitochondria and an excess of reactive oxygen species also lead to errors …

Cultural Conflict In Medicine: A Moral Debate Between Paternalism And Patient Autonomy, Hannah Webb

Honors Theses

In today’s society filled with globalization and mass movement of people and ideas, there is an ever present question of how each individual society fits into the overall culture of a diversified country such as the United States. The idea of the US as a melting pot has triggered the inability to create a “one size fits all” style of living. In terms of medicine, westernized practices are typically accepted in a majority of the world. However, conflicting traditional practices as well as religious beliefs are still present in some areas of the world as well as in the US …

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 …

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 …

The Implication Of Patient-Based Interventions Leading To A More Effective Treatment Of Anticipatory Nausea & Vomiting In Cancer Patients, Katelyn Delaney

Honors Theses

In the last thirty years, greater attention has been drawn to the aggressive methods of cancer treatment and the aversive conditioned symptoms they come to elicit. Anticipatory nausea and vomiting is one such aversive conditioned side effect and is significantly prevalent in cancer patients who undergo treatments like chemotherapy. In response to the ineffectiveness of pharmacological interventions to control these symptoms, behavioral intervention methods have grown as a topic of research. The implications of these behavioral interventions (including cognitive/attentional distraction, meditation and systematic desensitization) have proven effective in the treatment of the anticipatory nausea and vomiting and reducing patient anxiety. …

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 …

Mechanisms Of Neuroprotection Against Retinal Ganglion Cell Loss Using An In Vivo Glaucoma Model, Kevin Heinze

Honors Theses

Glaucoma is an incurable ocular disease characterized by apoptotic cell death and degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide (Quigley and Broman, 2006; Quigley et al., 1995). While current treatments are effective at slowing vision loss, glaucoma’s multifactorial etiology has made it difficult for researchers to identify a target for treatment that will permanently halt RGC degeneration. Previous studies have proposed a glutamate-induced excitotoxic mechanism of RGC death in glaucoma, and neuroprotective agents have been investigated to prevent this effect. One agent, acetylcholine, has been shown to initiate pro-survival signaling cascades …

A Holistic Approach To Therapy And Management Of Lower Back Pain, Lauren Ross

Honors Theses

My thesis project is focused on the concept of pain. It is a compilation of input from my intern advisor, a licensed physical therapist, and from my thesis advisor, a professor within the Integrative Holistic Health and Wellness department. It is an exploration of the origin, effects, development, types, perception, costliness and treatments of low back pain, through a holistic, anatomical, neurological and integrative approach. My research is expressed through a thorough power-point project with several diagrams, pictures and information, as well as a research paper containing significant detail.

This thesis project effectively defines what pain is in the body …

The Importance Of Anger Management Programs In Elementary Schools, Brittany Esterline

Honors Theses

Anger is a universal feeling. Everyone feels angry at some point in their life, and maybe even on the daily basis. Although it is often described as a negative emotion, anger is actually a healthy and natural emotion that should be expressed. It is how one responds to their anger that often disguises anger as an unhealthy emotion. Children who never learn to cope with their anger in a healthy way often struggle physically, mentally, emotionally, and academically.

“According to information obtained by the Learning First Alliance, 15 percent of students are only able to fit into an academic environment …

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 …

God Only Knows: Family In The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson, Jordan Rossio

Honors Theses

This project looks at the theme of surrogate families in the first three films of director Paul Thomas Anderson, and shows how these films share a common theme. That theme is how these surrogate families that we create can often become more important and powerful than the families into which we are born. The research is drawn from mostly primary sources. These include magazine, newspaper, and television interviews with the director as well as the audio commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries that are featured on the DVDs of the films. The conclusion of this project found how this theme …

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 …

"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 …

Ancient Egypt And The Middle East Unit, Grade Six, Joshua Kaylor

Honors Theses

This is a unit plan, which is teaching about the physical geography of Egypt and what daily life in Ancient Egypt was like. This unit was created using TCi’s History Alive textbook, which laid out the expectations in the form of I can statements. It also laid out different activities that the students could do to better understand this material. My unit plan is taking the TCi activities and adapting them to what I thought was best for my students. This unit plan also contains a reflection of how teaching chapter 7 went for me, when I taught it during …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Effect Of Product Density On Perceived Price And Quality, Joshua Jc Holston

Honors Theses

This study explores whether product density affects crowding, perceived quality, and perceived price of products within the retail space. The goal is to determine whether product density directly affects customers’ perceptions of price and quality of merchandise within retail spaces. It tests the hypotheses that increased product density will lead to an increase in crowding perceptions but a decrease in perceived price and quality. The study uses photographs of retail spaces with differing densities to manipulate product density and an online questionnaire to gather data. A student sample is used to collect the data. ANOVAs are used to determine the …

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 …

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, …

Many Roads To Social Satisfaction? Social Anxiety, Social Interaction Format, And Social Belonging, Mohamed Mi Ismail

Honors Theses

This study explored how different social interaction formats (face-to-face versus virtual) influence individuals’ belongingness need satisfaction and interaction enjoyment. Furthermore, it also explored how personality variables related to social anxiety (i.e., Interaction Anxiousness, Fear of Negative Evaluation) interact with social interaction format to influence belongingness needs satisfaction and enjoyment. Participants engaged in a conventional face-to-face interaction or a virtual interaction (via Instant Messenger) with a same-sex confederate on a between-subjects basis. Participants then indicated the extent to which the interaction satisfied fundamental social needs (e.g., self-esteem, belonging), their positive and negative mood, as well as how much they enjoyed the …

Differentiating Instruction For Gifted Learners In The Regular Classroom: A Quick-Reference Guide For Teachers, Sarah E. White

Honors Theses

Today’s educators face the daunting challenge of presenting mandated curriculum content to a very diverse set of students. Furthermore, their success as an educator is often determined by the scores their students earn on standardized tests at the year’s end. Focus is therefore shifted to the struggling student population, and meanwhile, the advanced learners may be left to their own devices, at least as far as their education is concerned. While pullout programs are in place in some school districts, students usually spend the majority of their time in the regular education classroom, where their needs must be adequately met. …