Digital Commons Network^™

Leadership, Job Stress And Uncertainty Among Nurses During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Impacts And Implications In Lieu Of Pertinent Theoretical Constructs, Davis Woodson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing nurses in the United States. The study considered the effect of communication, self-efficacy, intolerance to uncertainty, and life satisfaction on nurses’ job satisfaction; additionally, this study considered the extent to which nurses perceived organizational response efficacy was predicted by their perceptions of communication and perceived threat susceptibility. A total of 191 nurses participated in the online survey. The study revealed that life satisfaction was positively predicted by communication, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in multiple regression analyses. Perceived communication positively predicted perceived organizational response efficacy …

Effects Of Static Mixer Geometry On Polyurethane Properties, Christian R. Dixon

Honors Theses

The field of additive manufacturing has gained significant academic interest in the past few decades with a recently developed type of three-dimensional (3D) printing. Reactive extrusion additive manufacturing combines precursor materials within a static mixer (SM) head, where polymerization begins before deposition. Variable static mixer geometries currently exist, but the relationship between mixer geometry and post-polymerization mechanical properties is undefined. To elucidate this relationship, a series of experiments with identical chemistry was performed using a high shear SM, a low shear SM, and a comparative batch reaction. While higher shear mixing trends with faster polymerization for step-growth polymerizations, consistent precursor …

Bears Ears National Monument: An Integration Of Social And Environmental Justice, Helen Greene

Honors Theses

In 2015, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition of the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Tribes submitted a proposal to President Barack Obama for the creation of Bears Ears National Monument. In 2016, using the power given to the president in the Antiquities Act, President Obama issued a presidential proclamation establishing the monument. But in 2017, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation that significantly reduced the acreage of the monument. Bears Ears is located in the southeast corner of Utah, and is a remote and geographically unique area of land that holds historical, cultural, and …

Emotional Intelligence As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Psychopathic Personality Traits And Relational Aggression, Aria T. Smith

Honors Theses

Psychopathy is a robust predictor of aggressive behavior and psychopathic personality traits have been shown to predict relational aggression in non-clinical samples of college students. Given the manner in which emotional intelligence appears to be useful in navigating complex social interactions, some have suggested that it may be involved in certain forms of deceitful or manipulative behavior, including those that may be part of relational aggression. The current project evaluated the role of psychopathic personality traits and emotional intelligence in the prediction of relational aggression among college students. In addition to examining the direct relationship of these variables to relational …

Season Pass: Southern Miss Sports Report, Mackenzie Hamilton

Honors Theses

Season Pass: Southern Miss Sports Report is a creative activity investigating the process of producing and releasing a weekly sports report. The series is composed of twenty-four two-to-three-minute episodes that recap the highlights, scores, and performances of Southern Miss Athletic teams. In addition to the sports reports, the show includes feature stories that provide insight into the lives of Southern Miss Athletes and Athletic Staff outside of the sports world.

Season Pass aired weekly on Southern Miss Athletics’ Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts from the beginning of September 2020 through mid-March 2021. In this manuscript, I detail the pre-production, production, …

“Sticks And Stones”: Experiencing Microaggressions From The Perspectives Of The Victim, Bystander, And Perpetrator, Emily Halvorson

Honors Theses

For over thirty years, microaggressions have been studied for their weight on members of groups like ethnic and racial minorities, women and members of the LGBTQ community. Microaggressions are the routine, derogatory interactions like slights gestures, snubs or minor insults. Microaggressions yield physical and psychological distress to victims and communicate to marginalized groups the biases and prejudices against them harbored by majority group members. My thesis study explored factors such as quality of psychical and psychological health, physical health symptoms, occurrence of physical pain, resilience, and self efficacy and relationships with racial, gender, and sexual orientation-based microaggressions. I analyzed these …

Breast Cancer Treatment Causing Cardiovascular Complications: How Can We Prevent It?, Abigail L. Reese

Honors Theses

Breast cancer has the highest incidence rate of any cancer in the United States, and it is the second most deadly. It comprises 30% of all diagnosed cancers in women, and it is predicted that the incidence of breast cancer will continue to rise. Most common chemotherapeutic agents utilized in the treatment of breast cancer are known to be cardiotoxic, each with differing mechanisms and possible damage done to the patient. In turn, cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer of women in the United States, and their prevalence is continually growing. It is unknown exactly how many women who …

Could Sox Be Better? : Exploring The Advantages And Shortfalls Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Christopher Clark

Honors Theses

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was ratified in 2002 to mixed reviews. Over the past 18 years, many researchers have come to different conclusions about the effectiveness of SOX. This paper proposes amendments to make SOX as effective as possible without increasing compliance costs and as cost effective as possible without decreasing efficacy.

An Analysis Of The Pollinators Of Echinacea Purpurea In Relation To Their Perceived Efficiency And Color Preferences, Carmen Black

Honors Theses

This study aimed to better understand how insects interacted with species of Echinacea in Tennessee and specifically their preference to floral color. Based on previous studies I expected the main visitors to be composed of various bees, beetles and butterflies. Based on previous studies, I hypothesized that most bees (especially social bees) would most likely pollinate the purple/violet morphs of the flower versus the white morph. I also expected the bees would have the most visits to the coneflowers versus any other taxonomic group. I believe bees to be the majority of pollinators based upon the results of Stucky, Gadd, …

Design During A Pandemic: Application Of The Well Building Standard To Historic Engel Stadium, Laurel Getty

Honors Theses

Can buildings prevent the spread of disease through their design? This study argues that by employing the WELL Building Standard to an adaptive reuse project during the COVID-19 pandemic, human health and wellbeing is increased. Research shows that adapting existing buildings to the WELL Building Standard improves air quality, promotes clean contact, and strengthens immune systems (The International WELL Building Institute, 2020). Additionally, adapting existing historic structures maintains cultural significance within the community. This thesis creates a hypothetical adaptive reuse plan for adapting Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee into Engel Concourse, a gathering place for students, UTC faculty, and community …

Governmental Repression: The Cases Of China, Akbar Rahmani

Honors Theses

This thesis explores what factors can explain why the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) response to two pro-democracy movements – 1989 Tiananmen Square and the 2014 Umbrella Movement – had varied repression levels. Specifically, this thesis will explore the impact of social media, breakdowns in government cohesion, and the type of protest on governmental responses. This research finds that a breakdown in government cohesion during the 1989 protest caused the declaration of martial law and the use of tanks followed by infantrymen. Although the 2014 protest was regime-threatening, social media constrained the government’s ability to use alternative media and harsh repression. …

Young Adult: A Poetic Exploration Of Modern American Life, Ellie Bixler

Honors Theses

Adrienne Rich, in her 1993 essay “Someone Is Writing a Poem,” writes “In a political culture of managed spectacles and passive spectators, poetry appears as a rift, a peculiar lapse, in the prevailing mode.” In this collection, I make my own attempt to part with the prevailing mode. I use my poetry as a means of engaging and contending with the American socio-political dialogue that often feels both deeply pervasive and largely inaccessible. Grounded in the thematic conventions of political and ecological poetry, this collection is an exploration of what it means and how it feels to come of age …

A Metabolomics-Based Approach To The Screening Of Endometrial Cancer: Development Of A Gas Chromatography-Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry-Based Method, Allycia Lee

Honors Theses

Endometrial Cancer (EC) is the most common malignant tumor of the female reproductive tract. Currently there are no methods for effectively screening EC, but one method that is thought to be useful in screening EC is metabolomics. Metabolomics involves the analysis of metabolites which are low molecular weight inorganic and organic chemicals that are substrates, intermediates, and by-products of enzyme-mediated biochemical reactions in the cell. Previous research shows that the metabolic signature of EC patients are discernable from those of healthy patients. To aid in the development of an effective screening method for EC, blood serum, urine, and saliva samples …

Building A (Great) Wall: A Semiotic Analysis Of The Rhetoric Of President Donald J. Trump, Lauren Gilmore

Honors Theses

When Donald J. Trump announced he was running for president of the United States, the country was thrown into division. He was an abnormality as a presidential candidate and a rhetorical oddity since so many of his messages were ones of ignorance and bigotry rather than understanding and inclusion, the expected rhetoric of a president. Through a semiotic analysis, this study aims to understand who the people were that supported Trump, why his rhetoric appealed to them, the ways in which Trump talked about America and its people, and how his supporters interpreted his language. Semiotics is the study of …

Presidents And Populist Politics, Brooke Sobo

Honors Theses

Populist language is a common rhetorical practice of United States Presidents. There is a breadth of literature on the study of populism and populist language, yet few studies identify populist language as reimagining the relationship between president and people. This paper identifies populist language as a political tactic of presidents and links the tactic’s use to the cultivation of authority and legitimacy. A central theoretical foundation of this paper rests on Skowronek’s concept of political time and authority structures. Through the use of four case studies spanning the presidencies of Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump, this …

Factors Impacting The Decision To Report Sexual Assault: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Swaney

Honors Theses

The present study aims to understand the reasons behind a survivor’s decision to report or not report their experience(s) of sexual assault and identify themes involved in the decision-making process. While there are numerous quantitative studies that examine the factors around a survivor's decision to report or not report their sexual assault account(s), the qualitative perspective on this topic is lacking among the literature. Using a qualitative approach, the purpose of this study seeks to answer the following research question: what factors influence sexual assault survivors' decision to report or not report their experience? We hypothesized that individuals who reported …

Retrospective Analysis Of Injuries And Persisting Injury Effects Among Students Who Have Participated In Club Sports And Intramural Activities During The Prior Year, Daylia Wallace

Honors Theses

Research suggests that previous injury and history of sport-related concussion place athletes at a greater risk for subsequent injury. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the validity of self-perceived wellness and performance capabilities survey responses for retrospective classification of the injury risk status of individual athletes as a means to estimate risk magnitude for intramural and club sport athletes. The surveys used to collect this data were the Sport Fitness Index (SFI), Overall Wellness Index (OWI), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Survey (DASS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The SFI was a strong discriminator (AUC= .728) …

American Sissy: Original Poetry, Jonah Stokes

Honors Theses

The creative art of poetry is a complex form, yet the fundamental aspect of the poetic form is of experience. The experience of the poet as well as the experience of the reader reading a poem is what is defined as the crucial element of poetry in this creative endeavor. This study analyzes works of contemporary poets who successfully portray the art of experience in their work. Looking at Romantic and marginalized poets, this study seeks to understand the complexity of poetic experience. The introduction is followed by a series of poem's that emphasize the experience of the author.

Reading On The Home Front: The Evolution Of U.S. Children’S Literature And American Values During Wartime Conflicts, Sophie Barton

Honors Theses

Children’s print culture is an understudied dimension of American history. It is well established that children’s history is vital to understanding the role of the child in American history and how modern childhood has developed. This study aims to uncover how children’s print culture plays a vital role in understanding how children’s perspectives changed and the varied messages adults imposed on children during the Civil War, World War One, and World War Two. In this Honors Thesis, I study various types of print productions including short stories, comics, and school textbooks in order to understand the various ways adults attempted …

Efficacy Of Stress Relieving Interventions Through Zoom, Francesca Cable

Honors Theses

Due to the 2019 outbreak of the Coronavirus disease, stress-reducing group activities such as exercise have been restricted, so people have instead relied on the Zoom interface to participate within a virtual space. However, whether or not certain methods to reduce stress can be translated from in-person to online is unknown. This study was designed to randomly assign fifty-two participants to one of three groups: mindfulness meditation session, mindful yoga session, or stress-relieving self-acupressure session. Participants were to complete a survey measuring stress immediately before and after engaging in the intervention. I hypothesized that participants will have significant decreases in …

Race, Sex, Exoneration, & Compensation: How Do They Relate? What Is Done? And What Needs To Be Done?, Sarah Emily Still

Honors Theses

Previous literature has noted multiple causes of wrongful conviction including mistaken eyewitness identification, false confessions, ineffective assistance of counsel, crime lab error, and prosecutorial misconduct. Over time, more wrongful convictions caused by these factors are overturned through the help of organizations such as the Innocence Project. With these increasing exonerations comes the increased needs of exonerated people. The previous literature has exemplified that exonerees have unique needs (Simms, 2016), but these needs are often not met by the compensation that is available (Chunias & Aufgang, 2008; Mandery et. al, 2013). This occurrence is problematic given that exonerees had to lose …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Reactivity Of Organometallic Complexes For Catalytic Carbon-Hydrogen Bond Activation, Sophia Neglia

Honors Theses

Styrene can be produced directly from benzene and ethylene through an atom economical oxidative hydroarylation process. In this process, an electrophilic homogeneous transition metal catalyst activates the C-H bond in benzene. I propose to explore this reaction in two fronts: 1) the synthesis of electron-poor trans-spanning bidentate pyridine ligands and 2) the computational study of pyridine-functionalized bidentate diimines. The trans-spanning ligand will utilize either a Ru(II) or Co(III) metallohinge with cis-coordinated 2-ethynylpyridine ligands. The complex [(p-cym)Ru(PMe3)(C2-2-py)2] (1) where (p-cym = para-cymene and C2-2-py = 2-ethynylpyridine) can be prepared from (p-cym)Ru(PMe3)(Cl)2 and HC2-2-py in the presence of lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide (LiHMDS). Complex …

Analyzing The Social Aspect Of E-Cigarette Prevention With College-Aged Consumers, Emily Wilson

Honors Theses

This research investigated how social aspects influence college-aged e-cigarette users’ decision to use or quit using these devices. We conducted interviews of 10 young adult e-cigarette users and past users to explore three main topics: their experience with e-cigarettes, their evaluation of selected picture and narrative-based advertisements, and preventative phrasing they would suggest for future advertisements. We identified that social influence on young adults’ e-cigarette consumption/cessation revolved around three primary themes: availability of the device, peer pressure, and change of perspective. More importantly, we discovered that the effect of these themes would differ, and the source of the social influence …

Albinism In Africa: Examining Identity Formulation, Corinne Tinkham

Honors Theses

Albinism is a genetic condition that often intersects at disability and perceived notions of race; this double-stigmatization has proved problematic for people with albinism living in Africa, who not only appear physically different from others in their community but are also commonly regarded as ontologically different. Individuals with albinism in Africa undergo frequent challenges throughout their lifetime that significantly shape their identities. This process of identity formation begins in early childhood and is greatly impacted by unequal access to healthcare and schooling, harmful rumors and mythologies surrounding the condition’s origins, violence, workplace discrimination, income inequality, and many other factors. In …

Understanding Shear Thinning Using Brownian Dynamics Simulation, Mackenzie Nicole Wall

Honors Theses

In this work, we study the changes in structure during the shear thinning regime using Brownian Dynamics with a simple steady-state shear flow of binary charged colloidal suspension. Previous research has analyzed the viscosity, radial distribution, elasticity and plasticity of materials with rheo-SANS experimentation; however, less research has been conducted to replicate the experiment through computer simulations. With Brownian Dynamic Simulation, this study was able to reproduce the results obtained in a recent rheo-SANS experiment and it also explored the viscosity, radial distribution, elastic and plastic behavior of a system under different parameters. The comparison of simulated data with experimental …

The Effect Of The Apolipoprotein A1 (Apoa1): The Stability And Folding In Potassium Chloride Environment, Alexandra Paladian

Honors Theses

Healthy levels of potassium chloride (KCl) can significantly affect the workings of the cholesterol level of the human body and how they pertain to an individual person. The search for a better salt additive for the human diet can provide a better option for people who experience high cholesterol levels and heart disease. The study focuses on the experimental design of the Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation of the Apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1) in the potassium ion solution environment to determine the stability and folding of the protein. The study also compares its data to the previous experimental design of chloride ions …

Troglofauna Of Van Buren And White County: A Survey Of Four Caves In The Mideastern Cumberland Plateau, Gavin Page

Honors Theses

The Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee has the highest cave-obligate biodiversity in North America. Cave-obligate species are entirely restricted to subterranean habitat and demonstrate unique troglomorphy. These species are categorized as troglobionts. However, because of their isolated occurrences, theses species are vulnerable to a variety of disturbances. This issue is furthered in the fact that only approximately 7% of the caves in this region have been surveyed. Of these caves that have been surveyed, only a small portion were professional entomological surveys, while almost no cave has ever been extensively repeat sampled. This study involved newly sampling one cave and repeat …

Accessibility, Aesthetics, And Community: Lessons For Designers From The Zine Archives, Lilith Jackson

Honors Theses

This text is an exploration into the importance of inclusion of zines and zine culture in the education of designers and other creatives. It provides an argument that zines offer valuable lessons for contemporary designers through exploration of the accessibility and materials used in zine making, the aesthetics developed within the rise of zines, and the communities involved in making and reading zines. With an emphasis on three zines; Fantasy Commentator (1943), Sniffin’ Glue (1976–77), Riot Grrrl (1970s-1980s), the text discusses the short and long term benefits of zines, zine making, and zine culture.

Increasing Stress Tolerance In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Using Lipocalin Genes, Ximena Leon

Honors Theses

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a microorganism that is commonly used in industries, but its productivity is significantly hindered by its inability to resist high stress levels found in industrial processes. By increasing stress tolerance in S. cerevisiae, its role in industrial processes could be maximized. The objective of this study is to determine if complementation of lipocalin genes into the wildtype and knockout strains of S. cerevisiae can increase stress tolerance against a variety of stressors. We identified the knockout yeast strains, ALD3, ALD4, PDX3, and ILV1, as being sensitive to various stressors including salinity, heat, oxidative, and osmotic stresses. Arabidopsis …

An Exploration Into Constructed Space, Lauren Elise Williamson

Honors Theses

Our interactions with and experience within the built environment are mediated by design. Evident in the infrastructure and conventions of modern society, designed experiences perpetuate existing values and construct new values by directing attention and movement in space. One’s sensory awareness of space through mindfulness and perception is integral to uncovering the systems of control that design frequently renders invisible. Through a cross-examination of ma, dérive, stroll gardens, and maps, this paper positions tourism, specifically Rock City, as an example of constructed space. Experience tourism leverages physical layout and perceptual elements before, during, and after visiting the spectacle. Tourism sells …