Digital Commons Network^™

Diagnostics For Ultracold Plasma Experiments, Lauren Rand

Honors Theses

The goal of this experiment was to observe the effects of variations of experimental conditions on the ultracold plasma that formed as a result. The wavelength and power of the ionizing laser were varied to change the electron temperature and plasma density. The delay between the ionizing laser and the field ionization pulse was changed as well. In each case, plasma evolution and the resulting distribution of Rydberg states were observed. It was found that both electron temperature and plasma density directly affected the plasma lifetimes. However, neither electron temperature nor plasma density nor delay length had an effect on …

"Contentment In My Heart": Evangelical Women And Spiritual Journeys, Elizabeth A. Doran

Honors Theses

This honors thesis is an in-depth, qualitative study of a central Maine evangelical church. My focus is on five women and their religious journeys and experiences as Christian women. I explore a number of issues: the appeal of this church community to contemporary women; the connections and the contrasts between what the church leaders espouse and what ordinary female members believe; the ways in which the women develop their own personal relationships with Christ, the evangelical tradition, and other members of the community; and my own journey as a student of sociology and a qualitative researcher.

The Effects Of Eating Behaviors And Exercise Patterns On The Processing Of Food And Exercise Related Stimuli, Carrie Potter

Honors Theses

The effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for eating disorders has established a link between cognitive processes and unhealthy eating behaviors. However, the relationship between individual differences in unhealthy eating behaviors that are not related to clinical eating disorders, such as overeating and restrained eating, and the processing of food related verbal stimuli remains undetermined. Furthermore, the cognitive processes that promote unhealthy and healthy exercise patterns remain virtually unexplored by previous research. The present study compared individual differences in attitudes and behaviors around eating and exercise to responses to food and exercise-related words using a Lexical Decision Task (LDT). Participants …

The Worth Of A Comfortable Shoe, Kristina Mellinger

Honors Theses

The topic that I have chosen allows me to research not only the health concerns for wearing high heels (which was my original intent), but also the psychological, cultural, and historical aspects of wearing high heels and even shoes in general. This has allowed me to have endless possibilities during my research. I have learned many interesting facts about the history of shoes, and I find myself reading into the wee hours of the night just to learn more. My interest in this topic is derived from my own experience of wearing uncomfortably high heels. When I wear these ridiculous …

Reading Joycean Comedy And Faulknerian Tragedy: Exploring The Significance Of Location, Literary Influence And The Possibilities Of Heroism With Leopold Bloom In Joyce’S Ulysses And Quentin Compson In Faulkner’S The Sound And The Fury And Absalom, Absalom!, Colin R. Cummings

Honors Theses

The distinct similarity between Joyce’s and Faulkner’s philosophical concerns (the affirmation of life in spite of its myriad difficulties), and the striking disjuncture between their aesthetic approaches (comedy for Joyce and tragedy for Faulkner), is where my interest in this project began. I sought to explore the lives and works of both writers in order to get a sense of how two artists could attempt to convey a similar message through such different means. The first thing I explore is a number of similarities between Joyce’s and Faulkner’s personal worlds (particularly their intimate connections to location) and their sources of …

Developing A Standardized Checklist Curriculum To Improve Checklist Performance Under Normal Workload Flight Operations, Jared K. Neterer

Honors Theses

Checklists are a fundamental element to a safe and secure flight environment. Checklists are designed to aid pilots while performing crucial tasks during predetermined flight segments. However, checklists are of little use if procedures are not followed. Basic skills on how to properly use a checklist need to be trained to proficiency with novice pilots to ensure continuous and proper use.

Cosmological Vision(S) : History, Modernism, And American Renewal In Hart Crane's The Bridge, Lauren Grewe

Honors Theses

With the help of recent Crane studies, along with my own ear, I intend to prove the worth of Crane's myth of bridging as a way of responding to and eventually reforming the Elitonian vision of the modem world. The Bridge counters Eliot as a way to offer hope to the modem world in place of despair, as a way to offer a system of belief that is neither dogmatic nor futile, that incorporates a vision of the future just as much as a vision of the past.

Power And The Rejection Of The Competent Attitudinal Deviant, William Stanton

Honors Theses

This thesis describes an empirical investigation of the rejection of the deviant and operates under the hypothesis that a powerful leader will be more tolerant of those who disagree with him or her than would a low power leader. Before presenting the results of the study, this chapter will provide an overview of previous work on this topic. In the next few pages I will present a review of the available research concerning group reactions to deviancy, namely that groups reject deviants. Then, I will review available research concerning the psychological effects of power. By the end, this thesis will …

Deliberative Democracy At The Local Level, Tony Derosa

Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the role that deliberative democracy can play in local politics. Deliberative democracy is a theory that posits discourse among free and equal citizens as a route to better public policy outcomes, a more just society, the fostering of social capital, and the cultivation of civic virtues. While both liberals and civic republicans have endorsed the theory, it stands in direct contrast to the economic theory of democracy. This view equates citizens to consumers, whose private preferences are to be aggregated by the political system. Votes are the equivalent of capital in the market, according to the economic …

Upgrade Of A Raman Spectrometer With Modern Computer Control And Data Acquisition For Studies Of Hydrogen Bonding In Pyrimidine, Austin Howard

Honors Theses

The restoration of a Cold War era high resolution Raman spectrometer to working order as well as its control and data acquisition upgrade using a Labview program authored for this purpose are discussed. The restored Raman spectrometer was used in an investigation of intermolecular interactions involving pyrimidine. Following in this manuscript are three chapters. The first chapter is a brief description of the history and theory of Raman spectroscopy as well as some details of the instrumentation used in Raman spectroscopy. The second chapter contains technical details of the restoration and upgrade of the high resolution Raman spectrometer. The third …

Accounting For Carbon Credits: Convergence Of Us Gaap And Ifrs, Robert Preston Derivaux

Honors Theses

The thesis concerns the search for a converged International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) standard to account for carbon credit trading schemes. Many nations, including those in the European Union, have adopted carbon credit trading schemes In order to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon emissions trading schemes present many accounting challenges, including the exact nature of the credits and hovj to measure the obligation to which credits will be applied. However, there is not a standard to address these accounting Issues. The short-lived former standard was withdrawn because of extensive shortcomings. Currently, participating …

The Emergence Of Biotechnology In The State Of Mississippi: A Review, Whitman Scott Dowlen

Honors Theses

This publication was written with the intention of performing an analysis of the present in-state bioscience initiative and subsequent Mississippi industry incumbents. Hopefully, this publication will be employed as an informative tool to Mississippi residents, universities, policy makers and private corporations considering investment in research and development in the state of Mississippi.

Christian Society Is Not Yet Ready For This: Fyodor Dostoevsky's Christianity, Mark Douglas Gregory

Honors Theses

By investigating the characters of these three novels as well as their beliefs and disbeliefs, my desire is to gain a greater knowledge of Dostoevsky’s personal religious views. As a child, Dostoevsky grew up in the Orthodox Church at the behest of his parents, but as a result of his time in prison and other tragedies, we see a noticeable movement towards an emphasis on Christ, as well as the selfless love he exemplified. In this thesis, we will examine Dostoevsky’s conviction that, in spite of the depravity of men and their inclination towards baseness, it is not only possible, …

Connections, Aynslee Elizabeth Moon

Honors Theses

I am a painter and my thesis work talks about connecting to people through a shared experience. I spent Christmas break and spring semester as a traveling painter, putting all my brushes, paints, mediums, boards and my travel easel in my car. I sought to find the quiet, simple moments in people’s lives and put them on a surface. By sharing these simple moments with people I found a connection in painting from life that I cannot find when painting from a photograph. As I continued painting and writing I began to think about modem technology and how it has …

An Exploration Of Factors Increasing Male Involvement In Couples' Hiv Testing In Malawi, Mary Margaret Peterson

Honors Theses

Each year HIV is responsible for approximately 75,000 deaths in Malawi and for creating 550,000 (75%) of Malawi's orphans (UNdata, 2006). UNAJDS and the World Healtli Organization recommend HIV testing as an important measure in preventing transmission to future sexual partners and children. However, only 20% of Malawians aged 15 years and above had ever participated in HIV testing (Machinjili, 2006, p.l3). Heterosexual contact is the primary' mode of HIV transmission and is responsible for 90% of Malawi’s HIV infections, making couples an important target for testing (Zanera & Miteka, 2004, p.l85). In Malawi, 93% of pregnant women receive antenatal …

Change In The European Court Of Human Rights: Accession Of Eastern And Central European Member States, Rachel Morgan West

Honors Theses

The research idea originated as a result of interest in Russian human rights which then expanded to include all of Eastern and Central Europe. This work seeks to explore the effects of the Council of Europe’s (COE) Eastern and Central European member states on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or the “Court”). The in-depth publishings of ECHR itself provided the greatest source of information for this work. Part I provides a brief history of the ECHR up to 1989 when expansion to Eastern and Central European states first became possible. Parts II, III, and IV focus on three …

Crowning Glory: A Sociological Study Of Gender In The Beauty Pageant System, Lee Taylor

Honors Theses

This thesis provides a sociological examination of the personal experiences of beauty pageant participants in the South. By deconstructing the ideal view of women in beauty pageants, I attempted to answer how pageant contestants view their individual participation in the oppressive framework of the beauty pageant contest. In order to provide an in-depth analysis on the role of gender in beauty pageants, I conducted personal interviews and field study observations. Additionally, I researched current online sources and scholarly publications concerning gender and beauty pageants. The beauty pageant system demands that young women alter their bodies and personalities in order to …

The Butterflies: An Original Film Produced Throught The University Of Mississippi In August 2008, Winsor Yu-Liang Yuan

Honors Theses

This paper is an account of a student’s original short film from the first stages of its artistic intention to its completion. The film is entitled The Butterflies. The paper provides a close inspection of the evolution of the film’s artistic intention, how that intention was realized, and how it was not realized. It describes the hardships, stresses. triumphs, and victories of the filmmaker during months of preparation and production.

Acoustics In Highly Concentrated Wormlike Micellar Materials, Najat Ahmad Al-Sherri

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to verify the results of a previous study (Gladden and Mobley, 2008) conducted to determine the acoustical parameters, attenuation and sound speed, in the viscoelastic material of wormlike micelles. In this experiment, narrowband acoustic waves at ultrasonic frequencies were propagated through worm-like micellar solutions of varying concentrations (50 mM, 75 mM, 100 mM, 200 mM) across a range of temperatures. The measurements were performed using a pulse-echo technique and the echoes (representing wavelets that have traversed the sample twice) were then analyzed for signal loss and sound speed utilizing the Hilbert transform. The resulting …

No Place For You, My Love: Negotiation Of Home And Identity In Eudora Welty's Delta Wedight, The Optimist's Daughter, And The Bride Of The Innisfallen, Mallory Nicole Blasingame

Honors Theses

This thesis inspects the tension between home and travel in Eudora Welty’s fiction and life, using Delta Wedding as an example of home and the prescriptive identity it often confers. The Optimist's Daughter as evidence of the trials of returning home to find it changed, and four stories from The Bride of the Innisfallen as examples of the freedoms of leaving home and embracing placelessness. In examining these three works, I attempt to discern what the characters’ diverse perspectives and experiences reveal about the complex and sometimes unacknowledged realities of home, whether through their reliance on it as a source …

Coover's Encyclopedi Satire: The Public Burning Revisited, John Mauldin

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to explore Robert Coover’s The Public Burning, provide a brief exploration of the encyclopedic form, and subsequently establish The Public Burning as an encyclopedic narrative. It seeks to reanalyze the work through the lens of the encyclopedic narrative, primarily utilizing the critiques of Edward Mendelson. In addition, Northrop Frye and Richard Hardack are also cited extensively for their works the encyclopedic fonn. While the form has been recognized for the better part of a decade now, there is still a relatively small amount of criticism available on the form and on Coover’s work has gone relatively unnoticed …

Perceptions Of Nursing Students Regarding Patient Suffering, Molly Marie Shivers

Honors Theses

The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experience of nursing students in situations involving the suffering of a patient. Through analysis of interviews of senior nursing students, six themes were gathered. The themes discovered were: Student nurses in the face of suffering, desire knowledge and support from faculty: allowing time for student interaction and sharing prior to and post experience is important; Student nurses in most cases have prior experiences with suffering that color the student nurse professional view of suffering; Student nurses stay busy in the face of suffering, feel helpless and without interventions, however, …

The Ontology Of Number, Garrett Michael Strickland

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I hope to offer a historical summary of the discussion of the ontology of number. I will begin with the origins of the argument, focusing primarily on the first two major players, Plato and Aristotle, and I will continue to the major players and positions of the debate as it stands today. This done, I will give some of my own insights and impressions on the subject, and I will discuss which, if any, of the positions seem acceptable and why.

Corporate Sports Sponsorship: An Analysis Of Fan/Consumer Attitude And Purchase Behavior`, Jaime Marie Weaver

Honors Theses

Despite the increasing popularity of sponsorship of sports, there remains a lack of understanding of its effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine the growing business practice of corporate sponsorship, and ultimately the effects of spots sponsorship, specifically intercollegiate sports at the University of Mississippi, to determine the effects on consumer attitude and behavior. In depth interviews with key informants in the sponsorship process and fan surveys were conducted to gather information regarding current sponsorships. Results suggest that sports properties and corporate sponsors agree on objectives of sponsorship; however, consistent effectiveness tracking methods cease to exist. In addition, …

Internal Controls And Regulation Of The Not-For-Profit Sector: Increasing Transparency For Churches, Sarah Catherine White

Honors Theses

Regulation of for-profit organizations and fraud within them are commonly researched areas; however, many overlook the need for adequate internal controls and regulation of the not-for-profit sector, particularly religious not-for-profit organizations. Fraud has been a problem in this sector for a while, but it is frequently neglected due to the false sense of security that people have when dealing with not-for-profits. The not- for-profit sector is much less regulated than the for-profit sector, and religious not-for- profit organizations are not subject to any of the regulations that other not-for-profit organizations face. In order to gather appropriate data for determining ways …

A Few Good Women: Break Through Roles In Three War Plays, Bobby Ellis Pelts

Honors Theses

A Few Good Women: Break Through Roles in Three War Plays (Under the direction of Colby Kullman)

This thesis explores the roles played by women in three war plays: Lysistrata by Aristophanes, Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, and A Piece ofMy Heart by Shirley Lauro. The thesis describes the ways in which the characters of each of these plays defy traditional social expectations of women in wartime. These characters challenge the ideals of femininity and "proper" behavior while defying the typical roles of wife, mother, and nurse in war. The thesis argues that the context of war …

Antibiotics, Herbs, And Magic: Health Practices In Contemporary St. Petersburg, Christine Shu

Honors Theses

In St. Petersburg, Russia, two seemingly conflicting health doctrines, western medicine and alternative medicine, play significant roles in residents' health culture. I define alternative medicine as all health practices that use such natural products as herbs, natural honey, water, seeds, berries, and even animal products, and as such unobtrusive body therapies as acupuncture, massage, yoga, or animal therapies. I define western medicine as all treatments that involve the manipulation of ingredients in a chemistry laboratory (such as antibiotics, antiviral drugs, antihistamines. or pain killers) and all body therapies intrusive to the body (such as operations). Through interviews with St. Petersburg …

A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis Of The 2008 American Presidential Election, Willow Beverly Nero

Honors Theses

Agenda-setting theory, based on the idea that journalism has a strong correlation to audience opinion and evaluation of issue salience, shows the unportance of how the media present the news. Naturally, media values vary across cultures, wherein some news outlets serve only to inform and others approach news through partisan positions or evaluative tactics. Especially during a time of media upset in the United States, it is important to examine U.S. media values and those of other cultures. This thesis looks at some of the dominant and documented differences in newspaper reporting in France and the United States, using Patterson’s …

Power Play: How Grassroots Democracy Has Affected Rural Chinese And The Chinese Communist Party, Mcdaniel Drake Wicker

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Graph Theoretical Problems Computable By Networks Of Finite Automata., Cameron Taylor Byrum

Honors Theses

Graphs are a popular model in mathematics, and automata, or abstract models of machines, are a useful tool in computer science. Our research looks at combining these two powerful fields. We will begin by looking at some pre liminaries of graph theory and automata theory. We also discuss other meth ods for recognizing graph properties such as algebras, grammars, and monadic second-order logic. We will then explore the concept of “intelligent graphs,” or networks of finite automata operating at each vertex of a graph, and we will show implementations for using such networks to solve labryinth problems and to compute …