Digital Commons Network^™

American Prisoners Of War In Vietnam Tell Their Stories, Ryan Frost

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to examine the experiences of Vietnam POWs, both those held in thejungles of South Vietnam and those in the Hanoi prison camps of North Vietnam based on POW narratives consisting of memoirs, autobiographies, and interviews. Early POW history depicts great differences between the two groups of POWs, giving the impression that Pilot POWS, who comprised the majority of prisoners in Hanoi camps, acted more honorably while interned in comparison to enlisted army POWS, who spent the majority of their captivity in the jungles of South Vietnam. This paper demonstrates the similarities in their experiences through these narrative …

From Opposing Sides : The Duality Of Citizens' And Their Government's Views On Town Squares, Zachary Powell

Honors Theses

The purpose of my paper is to explore how the State's and the people's views concerning town squares come together. I will focus mainly on the duality between these two views: one the one hand, the State uses these spaces to display its power and for physical security. On the other side, the populace sees these spaces as theirs, as central to their community as citizens. Furthermore, they see it as a place to confront their government. Where else would be better than the place where the government seems to take on physical form?

I will explore this duality in …

Kieft's War And Tributary Politics In Eastern Woodland Colonial Society, Nicholas Klaiber

Honors Theses

From the earliest interactions between the Dutch and native groups in the New World, cultural differences regarding the ideas of property and governmental jurisdiction created societal conflict. When native tribes in the vicinity of New Netherland began to consolidate into traditional political alliances based on tribute and protection during the mid-1630s, thereby undercutting theoretical European dominance in New Netherland and New England, the English and Dutch both aggressively used the native system by forcing tributary status on local tribes through armed conflict, ritualized violence, and the use of tribal extermination as symbols of power. For the Dutch, this movement was …

Postcolonial Melodrama : The Satanic Verses, The Mimic Men, The Namesake, Jason Przybylski

Honors Theses

The goal of this project is to explain the appropriateness of the genre of melodrama for understanding postcolonial literature. Throughout this paper I examine how reading postcolonial fiction as melodrama may help us both to understand postcolonial issues in new ways and, at the same time, to grasp how postcolonial literature changes and enhances the notion of melodrama.

Treasuring Identity : Subject-Object Relations In Beowulf, Becky Workman

Honors Theses

Beowulfs introspection leads him to seek glory and wealth to preserve his memory after death. Unlike the battles against Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulfs actions against the dragon clearly prioritize the winning of treasure over the safety of the people. Beowulf seems to believe that revenge upon the dragon is a justification for risking not only his life, but the stability of the leadership of his nation. The hoard that he wins illustrates how material objects are not necessarily longer lasting or more stable than mortals. Treasure's intimate connection with the human body in the social structure of the community …

A Comparison In Osteological Measurements Of Two Populations From East Tennessee, Corrine Vitek

Honors Theses

Forensic anthropology is the identification of skeletal remams in medicolegal death investigations. The foundation of forensic anthropology rests on "documented" skeletal collections, which provide a crucial repository of information from which experts can rely upon to make determinations about human skeletal remains. A "documented" skeletal collection is one in which the demographics (e.g., ancestry, sex, age, height) of each individual are supported by known facts about the decedent at the time of his/her death. A quantitative comparison between the Hamilton County Forensic Center's(HCFC) skeletal collection to the William M. Bass collection housed at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) …

An Analysis Of Service-Learning And Applied Anthropology, Danielle Nordbrock

Honors Theses

People think of others in comparison to themselves, and what they know. Anthropologists study a wide variety of things, this includes all different societies: simple and complex, ancient and modern, and in different locales. The perspective of an anthropologist tends to take on a unique cross-cultural nature, with comparisons oftentimes being central to the research. When anthropologists become engaged in a project and begin their fieldwork they experience a unique sense of understanding from living in such close proximity to another culture.

The Forest Service's Quest For Power And Money: Implications Of A Budget-Maximizing Agency, Allison M. Stewart

Honors Theses

The Forest Service manages land for a diverse array of purposes under the Multiple Use Doctrine. Many of these uses are incompatible and lead to conflict The goal of my research is to explain what guides the Forest Service's management decisions, since this is critical to understanding how conflicts are resolved, .and uncover alternative approaches that better protect the environment.

In this paper, I present a brief history of the Forest Service's management over the past century. Particular attention is given to explaining trends in timber and recreation management. Following the historical presentation, I attempt to identify a set of …

The Continuous Struggle For Representation In The Venezuelan State, Gabriel Reyes

Honors Theses

One definition of democratic participation is a process whereby citizens influence or control those who make major decisions affecting them. Throughout Venezuela’s history, citizens have suffered under governments that aimed to limit their participation in the state. This research argues that the current Chávez regime, though seeking to concentrate power for itself in the executive branch, has also forged a space for democratic participation through its Barrio Adentro program.

In its introductory chapter, this paper examines Venezuela’s political development through a comparative lens and aims to situate Barrio Adentro within the country’s unique history. First, it shows how the political …

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Carbon Dioxide On The Decay Rates Of Superoxide, Michael Jay Walsh

Honors Theses

The radical dioxygen anion, superoxide has been shown to react with carbon dioxide in nonprotic and aqueous systems. Indirect evidence suggests that superoxide also reacts with carbon dioxide and carbonate species dissolved in water. This study involved conducting experiments to determine the decay rate of superoxide in the presence of carbon dioxide and carbonate species. Experiments were conducted by sparging an alkaline bicarbonate buffer with carbon dioxide and measuring the decay rate of superoxide added to the solution. Although the specific reaction mechanism and rates have not been determined first order superoxide decay rates as high as 3.8x10-2s-1 were obtained …

Jess – A Java Security Scanner For Eclipse, Russell Spitler

Honors Theses

Secure software is the responsibility of every developer. In order to help a developer with this responsibility there are many automated source code security auditors. These tools perform a variety of functions, from finding calls to insecure functions to poorly generated random numbers. These programs have existed for years and perform the security audit with varying degrees of success.

Largely missing in the world of programming is such a security auditor for the Java programming language. Currently, Fortify Software produces the only Java source code security auditor; this is a commercially available package.

This void is what inspired JeSS, Java …

Liberalization Of Village Banking In Guatemala: Structural Differences In Village Banking Institutions, Erica L. Hill

Honors Theses

The International Year of Microcredit in 2005 facilitates public awareness campaigns of microfinance initiatives. Village banking allows microfinance services to reach a wider geographic region, with particular emphasis on rural regions and the poorest sector of society. It attends to those marginalized by a history of repression and conflict. In Guatemala, ethnic diversity and its accompanying social divisions have deep roots. Guatemala is an important case for village banking because of its economic reliance on village banking, the size of the country, and the large number (9) of VBIs in the country. Recent literature calls for an increase in flexibility …

The Synthesis And Characterization Of Bicyclooxacalixarenes, Kevin J. Selby

Honors Theses

Bicyclooxacalixarenes were synthesized in high yield via a selective, room temperature Sn Ar reaction of phluoroglucinol with 2,6-dichloropyridines. Functionality on the 2,6-dichloropyridioe was varied by changing the electron-withdrawing groups in the 3 and 5 positions (using chlorine, nitro groups, and cyano groups) and the side-chains in the 4-position (using ethyl, butyl, phenyl and ρ-tolyl groups). The resulting cage-like molecules were studied by X-ray crystallography and tested for metal complexation.

Extension Of National Membership: Government Promises, Immigrant Expectations And The Impact On The Foreign Population In Germany, Justin Dubois

Honors Theses

This study posited that the gap between the governmental goals and actual outcomes of the Reform to the Citizenship Law of 1999 was produced by a variety of factors, the most influential one being the institutions of the Federal Republic. Other suggested variables were domestic public pressure and a failure in policy implementation. The earlier chapters of this study concluded that these three factors did in fact contribute to the goals-outcomes gap of the citizenship reform.

Role Of Private Owners In The Conservation Of Exotic Species, Jessica L. Beetz

Honors Theses

This study examines the private ownership of exotic species, a topic very relevant to conservation that has long been ignored in the public sphere of policy and discussion. The private ownership of exotic species is a multifaceted issue that affects not only conservation, but also the domestic industry, world trade and education. The volume of trade in live animals is remarkably high and growing, making studies that investigate the implications of this trade on the endangered and threatened species even more pressing. This thesis investigates whether or not animal species held in captivity by private owners benefit conservation of their …

Governmental Resistance In International Intellectual Property Rights, Emily Honig

Honors Theses

The field of intellectual property, roughly defined as "a product of the intellect that has commercial value," is one of the growing fields of international legal debate, as the economies of the world become increasingly interconnected and the world's corporations operate overseas with increasing frequency. The literature in the field of international law and intellectual property rights (IPRs) tends to suggest that states, for political or economic reasons, have little choice but to bow to the wishes of multinational corporations (MNCs) and provide increased protection for IPRs. However, there are a number of cases that show that under certain circumstances, …

The Politics Of Judicial Restraint : The Rehnquist Court And The New Federalism, Sarah J. Vinson

Honors Theses

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the Supreme Court under his leadership have been charged, respectively, with leading and enacting a federalism revolution. From the beginning, Rehnquist, first as an associate justice and later as Chief Justice, has displayed a commitment to notions of constitutionalism, originalism, and federalism. In the years before Rehnquist joined the Supreme Court, the idea of federalism, what Felix Frankfurter described as "the happy relation of States to Nation," certainly underwent numerous transformations, altering it from what was originally intended into a doctrine far friendlier to the expansion of national power at the expense of the …

"I Respectfully Dissent" : Intellectual Leadership In The Nation's Highest Court, Alison M. Smith

Honors Theses

The right of an individual to dissent from the ideas of his or her peers, or even his or her government, has been one of the defining characteristics of American civil society. The United States itself was founded as a result of American colonists' dissenting from the British government, and our Constitution established a governmental system that would not only accommodate, but encourage a process of deliberative democracy in which the views of both the many and the few would be taken into account and considered thoroughly. A system of internal checks and balances between the legislative, judicial and executive …

Congress, Religion, And The Cold War Consensus From 1952-1956, Alexandra Clark Layfield

Honors Theses

The Congress of the 1950s unanimously passed seven different pieces of legislations related to religious faith from 1952 to 1956. The fact that these congressional actions passed with little or no dissent and the fact that the congressmen supporting the legislation offered similar rationales (e.g. the Cold War) told much about the early fifties. The fifties were a decade stereotyped as conservative and conformist during which citizens held family and religion above all else. I conducted research over about a twelve month span which overlapped with the eight month period in which I was writing the body of the thesis. …

Collegiate Athletics Recruiting: Marketing A New Game Plan, Emily Douglas Evans

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I took an in-depth look at the collegiate recruiting process, in light of recent scandals and rule changes that, if implemented, could prevent confusion and future scandals. I conducted interviews containing open-ended questions with 18 college coaches, 15 Ole Miss supporters (alumni and non-alumni), and 15 current In addition, a quantitative survey was student-athletes, representing interviewed and student-athletes. given to 80 current Ole Miss both men's and women's sports, surveyed cited gray areas that still exist in NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) rules and gave suggestions for how the recruiting process could be To prevent future scandals, …

An Early Evaluation Of The Impact Of Section 404 Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On The Reports Issued By Public Accounting Firms, Austin Thomas Jones

Honors Theses

The reports issued by public accounting firms on ninety companies internal control over financial reporting were analyzed. The internal control reports gathered from the EDGAR database on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The resulting data demonstrated different proportions of adverse pressed by different accounting firms, different proportions of adverse opinions issued for different size companies, and inconsistencies in the reports issued by separate accounting finns. An unexpectedly small number of adverse opinions were issued for the companies in the sample. Significant inconsistencies exist in the reports issued by various accounting firms. These inconsistencies point to the ambiguity …

Six Middle Americans Respond To Thomas Frank's Question, 'What's The Matter With Kansas?' An Analytical Commentary On Populism And American Political Life, Rebecca Ruth Reyenga

Honors Theses

The American Populist movement of the 1800s, politically represented by the People’s Party, was the largest third party movement in the history of America. It is a movement that many authors have tried to reevaluate to better understand how grassroots movements, like Populism, begin and to discover what the Populist movement brought to the political scene that did not previously exist. In his book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas? How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America,” Thomas Frank analyzes the Populist movement of the late 1800s and compares it to the new populism of today. According to Frank, this …

Differences In Convention: Serious Vs. Comic In Turn-Of-The-Century British Literature (1885-1915), Christopher Michael Mossing

Honors Theses

This thesis attempts to prove that the serious fiction of the late Victorian, the Edwardian, and early modernist eras of British literature differs fundamentally from the comic fiction of the same region and period in the way that it deals with chance. In serious works, authors do not allow acts of chance to dictate the responses of their characters, while the authors of comic works seem to be under no such restriction. To prove that this difference in convention exists, the thesis examines works from a handful of representative authors. For the serious, the thesis examines Thomas Hardy’s Tess of …

Picric Acid Degradation In Sterilized Sediments From The Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, Minden, Louisiana, Stephanie Kimberly Rice

Honors Theses

Picric acid is an explosive historically produced and disposed of at the Louisiana Army Ammunitions Plant (LAAP). The potential for natural degradation was investigated in two studies by creating picric acid slurries with four LAAP samples of sediment of variable composition. While the first study combined the sediment with picric acid without alteration to the sediment, the second study sterilized the sediment before the slurries were created. The purpose of the soil sterilization was to quantify the role of microbes in the degradation process. In the first study, picric acid concentrations decreased 10 to 18% the first day, attributed to …

Freedom Of The Press In A Post-September 11 World: A Global Perspective, Melissa Erin Sindelar

Honors Theses

Since the attack on the United States on September 11, most governments around the world have tried to decrease the likelihood of terrorists attacking their own countries or working within their own countries. Lawmakers have passed new legislation to control citizens’ activities. Many of these laws have tread upon human rights, including the right to a free press, which a majority of countries around the world have constitutionally protected. These new circumstances combined with the lack of respect and protection by police and government officials around the globe have created an unsafe world for journalists. The year 2004 will be …

News Media Consumption And Perceptions Of Poverty Within A Sample At The University Of Mississippi, Erin M. Smith

Honors Theses

The American news media are the cultural shapers of today’s society. Their many stories create a visual sense of reality for the consuming public, and many media critics have begun to call foul for their many misrepresentations of minorities, in particular their over-representation of black poverty. These representations have been shown to have substantial influence on the public’s perception of poverty, which may shape the attitudes and beliefs toward certain policy implementation. To test the validity of such claims, a quantitative instrument was distributed over the course of two days at the University of Mississippi. Also, the survey was designed …

New Methods Of Marketing And Manufacturing For A Startup Optical Internet Retailer, William Sharp Whitaker

Honors Theses

The internet has allowed commerce to become more efficient and more profitable for companies involved in retail. The retail optical industry has failed to capitalize this opportunity and this thesis explains how it can be done. The opportunity to increase profits exists for optical labs in the form of inexpensive Mexican labor. By committing investment into a lab south of the Mexican- American border, business owners have a great deal to gain. This thesis explains how to operate manufacturing in Mexico and how to conduct operations more efficiently than American competitors. By following some industry standards of marketing and evaluating …

Correlates Of Obesity And The Metabolic Syndrome In African-American Adolescents, Tasheitha Vontre Butler

Honors Theses

As the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst Americans increases, there is an increased risk in individuals for the development of the “metabolic syndrome.” The “metabolic syndrome,” which is characterized by abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance, puts those diagnosed with it at an increased risk for certain chronic illnesses, including Type II diabetes and coronary heart disease, research investigates the possible correlates between obesity and the metabolic syndrome in a group of 10-16 year-old African-American participants in the University of Mississippi’s National Youth Sports Program (NYSP). The results show that there are indeed correlates between obesity and the …

Analytical Tools For Studying Phosphorus And Nitrogen Lake Nutrient Dynamics And Their Application To The Field, Ivan Mihajlov

Honors Theses

In order to evaluate the causes and conditions that lead to cyanobacteria blooms in northern temperate lakes, studies of nutrients such as total phosphorus, total nitrogen, phosphate, and nitrate are necessary. Sensitive, environmentally friendly and cost-effective techniques were developed to detect ppb-level nitrates and phosphates in the lake water. Phosphate was analyzed by luminol chemiluminescence, while the quantification of nitrate was performed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) using indirect UV detection, with a background electrolyte consisting of pyromellitic acid, hexamethonium hydroxide and triethanolamine. Sample injection methods for the CE were optimized for the analysis in Belgrade Lakes, Maine. Vertical profiles of …

Investigation Of Iron (Iii) Desferrioxamine B Oxalate Ligand Exchange By Uv-Vis Spectroscopy: The Next Step In Developing A Quantitative Analytical Method For Measuring Bioavailable Iron In Marine Ecosystems, Ken L. Pitter

Honors Theses

To date there are no analytical techniques designed to exclusively measure bioavailable iron in marine environments. The goal of this research is to develop such a technique by isolating the bioavailable iron using the terrestrial siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFB). This project contained many challenging aspects, but the specific goal of this study was to develop a robust analytical technique for quantification of Fe(III)-DFB complexes at nanomolar concentrations. Past work showed that oxalate (Ox) promotes photodissociation of Fe(III)-DFB to Fe(Il), and we are specifically interested in the mechanism of this process. A model was developed using known thermodynamic constants for Fe(III)-DFB …