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Honors Theses

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Regulation Of Weak Acid-Dependent Cell Death By The Msaabcr Operon During Biofilm Formation Of Staphylococcus Aureus, Sarah-Elizabeth M. Polley May 2020

Regulation Of Weak Acid-Dependent Cell Death By The Msaabcr Operon During Biofilm Formation Of Staphylococcus Aureus, Sarah-Elizabeth M. Polley

Honors Theses

Staphylococcus aureus is a dangerous human pathogen and a leading cause of both nosocomial and community-associated infections. Infection by S. aureus is a growing health concern due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance and the capability to form robust biofilms. Major constituents of the biofilm extracellular matrix are demonstrated to be released via controlled autolysis of a subpopulation of the biofilm. As indicated in past studies, the programmed cell death (PCD) of S. aureus grown in a biofilm microenvironment is potentiated by the buildup of acetate, a byproduct of glucose metabolism, which causes cytoplasmic acidification. Furthermore, it has been shown …

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Suspicious Minds: A Study Of The Attitudes That African Americans Held Regarding The Japanese During World War Ii, Timothy E. Buchanan May 2020

Suspicious Minds: A Study Of The Attitudes That African Americans Held Regarding The Japanese During World War Ii, Timothy E. Buchanan

Honors Theses

This thesis explores African American viewpoints about the Japanese, from just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor up to Allied occupation of Japan after the Second World War. The primary sources for this thesis include Black newspapers, the papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as oral histories from African American veterans. The goal of this research is to provide a historical view of the African American perspective, both in the United States and abroad. This thesis also aims to fill the gap in the scholarship on this topic by bringing different groups …

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Effects Of Sexualized Images In Media On Attitudes Toward Public Breastfeeding, Hannah J. Powell-Yost May 2020

Effects Of Sexualized Images In Media On Attitudes Toward Public Breastfeeding, Hannah J. Powell-Yost

Honors Theses

Although breastfeeding is known to promote both physical and emotional health in both infant and mother, many women are hesitant to breastfeed in public due to perceived attitudes toward public breastfeeding. This research explores the relationship between frequent exposure to sexuality in mass media and people's positions regarding breastfeeding. It was hypothesized that sexualized portrayals of the female body perpetuated in mass media would negatively impact individuals’ attitudes toward breastfeeding. No significant correlation was found between media exposure and negative attitude toward public breastfeeding. However, a few interesting results were observed. Individuals who responded positively to sexual media were more …

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Examining School Safety And Security: A Situational Crime Perspective, Jessica A. Barnett May 2020

Examining School Safety And Security: A Situational Crime Perspective, Jessica A. Barnett

Honors Theses

In recent years, an interest in focus of research addressing school safety and security has increased; however, this literature lacks a cohesive theoretical perspective for addressing solutions to school crime and violence. The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature on school safety and security. Then, analyze this literature in light of the situational crime prevention perspective. A literature search using Web of Science yielded 45 eligible studies. Results indicated that each of the 45 articles could be organized into one of the five mechanisms of Situational Crime Prevention: increasing effort, increasing risk, removing …

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Twisted Central Configurations Of The Eight-Body Problem, Gokul Bhusal May 2020

Twisted Central Configurations Of The Eight-Body Problem, Gokul Bhusal

Honors Theses

The N-body problem qualifies as the problem of the twenty-first century because of its fundamental importance and difficulty to solve [1]. A number of great mathematicians and physicists have tried but failed to come up with the general solution of the problem. Due to the complexity of the problem, even a partial result will help us in the understanding of the N-body problem. Central configurations play a ‘central’ role in the understanding of the N-body problem. The well known Euler and Lagrangian solutions are both generated from three-body central configurations. The existence and classifications of central configurations have attracted number …

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Assessing The Effect Of Bile And Oxygen Availability On The Redox Status Of Listeria Monocytogenes Strain F2365, Sukriti Bhattarai May 2020

Assessing The Effect Of Bile And Oxygen Availability On The Redox Status Of Listeria Monocytogenes Strain F2365, Sukriti Bhattarai

Honors Theses

Although bile is a bactericidal agent able to disrupt membrane structure and cellular homeostasis, including the induction of oxidative stress, Listeria can tolerate bile and also utilize it as a signal to enhance infection and virulence. Preliminary findings showed that under anaerobic conditions, exposure to bile significantly lowered the amount of oxidative damage present in bile-resistant strain F2365 cells. Similarly, Listeria further elicits an adaptive immune response, wherein pre-exposure of the bacterium to stress during food processing or in the host prior to entry into the intestine increases bile tolerance. Based on these previous studies, we hypothesized that bile induces …

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Amplification And Potential Transformation Of Human Syntaxin-17 Into Model E. Coli, Taylor H. Gore May 2020

Amplification And Potential Transformation Of Human Syntaxin-17 Into Model E. Coli, Taylor H. Gore

Honors Theses

Membrane fusion is key to organism homeostasis and occurs when a transport vesicle fuses with a target compartment, merging the two membranes into one while releasing the contents of the transport vesicle into the target compartment. This process is controlled by SNARE proteins. Syntaxin-17 protein plays a crucial role in the fusion of the autophagosome membrane with the lysosome membrane, allowing for degradation of misfolded intracellular components and pathogens. Intriguingly, Syntaxin 17 has been identified as a target of herpesvirus tegument proteins, although the pathological significance of the Syntaxin 17 and tegument protein interaction is unclear. As a first step …

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“More Beautiful Than God!”: Hair And Makeup Design For Eugene O’Neill’S Ah, Wilderness, Jackson L. Jones May 2020

“More Beautiful Than God!”: Hair And Makeup Design For Eugene O’Neill’S Ah, Wilderness, Jackson L. Jones

Honors Theses

This thesis follows an undergraduate theatre designer’s process of designing and realizing hair and makeup for the University of Southern Mississippi’s Spring 2020 production of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! The student conducted a thorough script analysis, researched Edwardian style and society, and collaborated with the production’s artistic team to produce effective hair and makeup designs and fulfill practicum requirements.

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Investigating The Effect Of Hydrophilic Block Length On The Co-Assembly Behavior Of Amphiphilic Triblock Copolymers, Alexandra M. Garrett May 2020

Investigating The Effect Of Hydrophilic Block Length On The Co-Assembly Behavior Of Amphiphilic Triblock Copolymers, Alexandra M. Garrett

Honors Theses

Polymer vesicles and micelles have been of interest in the scientific community for the past few decades due to potential biomedical applications in areas such as drug delivery, nanoreactors, and biosensing. Polymer vesicles and micelles are formed through the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers. The objective of this project is to gain a better understanding of the influence of hydrophilic block copolymer length and composition in controlling the resulting morphologies from the co-assembly of triblock copolymers. First, a hydrophobic block composed of poly(methyl acrylate) was synthesized using reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization mediated by a difunctional chain-transfer agent. The block …

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Tectonic, Rebecca E. Holifield May 2020

Tectonic, Rebecca E. Holifield

Honors Theses

Tectonic is a collection of original poems accompanied by a critical preface.

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Analysis Of True Risk Lab’S Price Prediction Algorithm In Relation To Market Results, Chris F. Hua May 2020

Analysis Of True Risk Lab’S Price Prediction Algorithm In Relation To Market Results, Chris F. Hua

Honors Theses

The concept of beating the stock market is one of the main goals of financial investors and analysts. However, seasoned analysts and investors cannot perfectly predict the movements within the stock market. Machine learning (ML) is one prediction method that has intrigued the financial industry as a means of accurately predicting the market. Though the current prediction algorithms do not grasp every change in the stock markets, the models do provide a means of looking towards stock trends as a means to hedge an investor's or fund's portfolio against market declines by looking at the artificial intelligence (AI) results. This …

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Perturbation Of Lagrange Points In Effective Potential Simulations, Swapnil Bhatta May 2020

Perturbation Of Lagrange Points In Effective Potential Simulations, Swapnil Bhatta

Honors Theses

Lagrange points are analytically proven to exist at certain positions in a two-body gravitational system, simply as a function of the gravitational force governing the motion of the bodies and the centrifugal potential due to rotation, providing regions of varying effective potentials. In a system involving interactions between the gravitational forces of multiple bodies however, the position of the Lagrange points ought to change. The purpose of this research project is to verify that the change does indeed occur when a new body is introduced, and compute the perturbation in the position of these points given various parameters.

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A Comparison Of Egg Desiccation Tolerance And Development Under Different Temperatures For Three Common Aedes Mosquitoes, Shelby A. Hosch May 2020

A Comparison Of Egg Desiccation Tolerance And Development Under Different Temperatures For Three Common Aedes Mosquitoes, Shelby A. Hosch

Honors Theses

With the rise in global temperatures, invasive mosquito species like Aedes albopictus may be able to reach regions that were previously inhospitable to these species. Therefore, if A. albopictus were to potentially reach Puerto Rico, it would come into contact with the species of Aedes aegypti and Aedes mediovittatus in local containers, and it is unclear how the tropical temperatures and precipitation patterns would affect the co-occurrence of these three species. Egg desiccation and temperature dependent growth among the species were measured to test how these species hatched and developed during different humidity and temperature. It was hypothesized that there …

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Thiol-Induced Degradation Of Hydrogels Utilizing Multiresponsive Dithiomaleimides Crosslinkers, Kundu Thapa May 2020

Thiol-Induced Degradation Of Hydrogels Utilizing Multiresponsive Dithiomaleimides Crosslinkers, Kundu Thapa

Honors Theses

Hydrogels are hydrophilic, three-dimensional materials used as platforms for various biomedical applications such as drug delivery, biosensors, or as scaffolds in tissue engineering. The ability to degrade on demand in response to biological cues is particularly attractive whether dealing with microgels or if one aims to release an active ingredient from a scaffolding material. For instance, many cancer-remediation drug delivery platforms leverage the high concentration of glutathione, a thiol-containing tripeptide, found in cancerous cells. In this work, poly(ethylene glycol) acrylate hydrogels were fabricated using dithiomaleimide (DTM) moieties. DTMs are known to undergo thiol-exchange reactions favoring the dissolution of the hydrogel …

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The Typewriter And The Literary Sphere: An Analysis Of Turn-Of-The-Century Literature, Emma K. Holdbrooks May 2020

The Typewriter And The Literary Sphere: An Analysis Of Turn-Of-The-Century Literature, Emma K. Holdbrooks

Honors Theses

My thesis explores the typewriter’s impact on early 20th century American literature. By providing authors with the means to produce work accurately and effectively, the typewriter changed the process of writing. Typewriters also created job opportunities for women, who often served as typists. The typist became the foothold position that changed America’s perception of women in the work force and helped usher in a new social concept, “the New Woman.” To illustrate my claim, I show how the typewriter allowed poets like E. E. Cummings to experiment with spacing. Cummings made the typewriter’s standardization of text and spacing into …

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The Effects Of Light On The Bacterial Biomass Of Decomposing Leaf Litter In Freshwater, Savannah L. Underwood May 2020

The Effects Of Light On The Bacterial Biomass Of Decomposing Leaf Litter In Freshwater, Savannah L. Underwood

Honors Theses

Recent evidence has suggested that the presence of light (and in conjuction, periphytic algae) stimulates the growth and production of bacteria on decaying plant litter. However, the current method of measuring bacterial biomass, flow cytometry, drastically underestimates the bacterial biomass levels associated with litter samples. To determine and correct for this underestimation, the present study determined conversion factors using direct counting methods via epifluorescence microscopy. These conversion factors were then applied to flow cytometry counts for seven different studies. The studies analyzed the effects of light and other covarying factors on the bacterial biomass associated with various samples of leaf …

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Cloning And Expression Of Human Synaptosome Associated Protein 29 In E. Coli, Logan M. Ryals May 2020

Cloning And Expression Of Human Synaptosome Associated Protein 29 In E. Coli, Logan M. Ryals

Honors Theses

Acting as the chief mediators of vesicular fusion, soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) play a role in many intracellular trafficking events by moving opposing membranes into close proximity. One such event takes place in the process of autophagy. A key SNARE involved in autophagy is Synaptosome Associated Protein 29 (SNAP-29), which acts on the autophagosome membrane to promote autophagosome and lysosome fusion. Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) proteins ORF33 and ORF38 were demonstrated to interact with SNAP-29. The exact mechanism of this interaction is yet to be elucidated but it is hypothesized that these interactions allow KSHV to modulate …

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The New Künstlerroman By Women Writers, Hannah Phillips May 2020

The New Künstlerroman By Women Writers, Hannah Phillips

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

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Mathematical Modeling Of A Variable Mass Rocket’S Dynamics Using The Differential Transform Method, Ashwyn Sam May 2020

Mathematical Modeling Of A Variable Mass Rocket’S Dynamics Using The Differential Transform Method, Ashwyn Sam

Honors Theses

In this paper, the mathematical modelling of a rocket with varying mass is investigated to construct a function that can describe the velocity and position of the rocket as a function of time. This research is geared more towards small scale rockets where the nonlinear drag term is of great interest to the underlying dynamics of the rocket. A simple force balance on the rocket using Newton’s second law of motion yields a Riccati differential equation for which the solution yields the velocity of the rocket at any given time. This solution can then be integrated with respect to time …

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A Look Into The Impacts Of Tele-Optometry Expansion, Anna Hulsey May 2020

A Look Into The Impacts Of Tele-Optometry Expansion, Anna Hulsey

Honors Theses

Objective This study aims to assess the health and economic costs and benefits to society and patients resulting from the expansion of telemedicine into online refractive exams and to determine the likelihood of potential consumers to utilize such services. Methods A paper survey was distributed at the Inaugural Cempa Health Fair in October of 2019 to both vendors and participants. 105 responses were used to evaluate personal perceptions, practices, and likelihood across a diverse range of demographics. Responses were then entered and analyzed using descriptive statistics and percentages/frequencies. Results Results showed respondents were most attracted to online refractive exams due …

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Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Apolipoprotein A1 In Ionic Liquids, Benjamin Smith May 2020

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Apolipoprotein A1 In Ionic Liquids, Benjamin Smith

Honors Theses

High-density lipoprotein function is essential for the healthy processing of fats in the blood. The function of these proteins is determined by their conformational structure of chains of amino acids. Certain ionic liquids have been shown to interact with individual amino acids to affect the tertiary shape of the protein. These interactions can disrupt the native hydrogen bonds between amino acids which can either promote folding or denaturing of the protein. Our work focused on apoA-1, a high-density lipoprotein that binds to cholesterol for efflux from the body. We studied this protein in different ion-based liquids with sodium, chloride, and …

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Gender, Intertextuality & Market Demands: Publishing Children's Picture Books, Mackenzie Scott May 2020

Gender, Intertextuality & Market Demands: Publishing Children's Picture Books, Mackenzie Scott

Honors Theses

Children’s literature in the U.S. has long since reflected, and also influenced, the nation’s societal and cultural identity. The genre’s representation of gender has historically aligned with traditionally distinct and separate sex-typed roles of domestic or non-domestic behavior. Through textual analysis of 80 New York Times bestselling picture books between 2009 and 2019, this research seeks to determine if publishers and consumers are selecting titles that support or subvert stereotypical gender roles. Prior studies on gender representation in children’s literature have concluded that the prevalence of static, passive female characters and active male characters negatively impacts the identity development of …

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Forest Kindergarten And The Perception Of Parents, Rebecca Boyer May 2020

Forest Kindergarten And The Perception Of Parents, Rebecca Boyer

Honors Theses

This study investigates one public school forest kindergarten in the southeastern U.S. The purpose of this study is to determine the perception of parents of a kindergarten classroom context that is somewhat unique for U.S. public schools (forest kindergarten). The researcher believes that there is a unique perception that parents of forest kindergarten students have, and this study seeks to identify and describe them in order to inform 1) the participants and participating school system so that they can make informed decisions for this and future school-context reform models, and 2) the education research community at large so that U.S. …

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African Spirituality As Female Empowerment In The Works Of Yvonne Vera And Toni Morrison, Annie Dockery May 2020

African Spirituality As Female Empowerment In The Works Of Yvonne Vera And Toni Morrison, Annie Dockery

Honors Theses

This thesis will use close reading and postcolonial and feminist criticism to argue that Africans and African-Americans, and consequently the works of Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera and African-American author Toni Morrison, are connected by memory and rememory, including spirituality, generational trauma, oral tradition, and ritual reenactment and that this connection comes through the Middle Passage. The works of both authors reveal a transatlantic tradition of Black women employing African spirituality to challenge or overcome what bell hooks calls the oppressive systems of imperialist White supremacist capitalist patriarchies; however, despite the spiritual link between the peoples, Africans and African-American culture can …

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Development Of An Auto-Bioluminescent Lung Cell Line For Evaluation Of In Vitro Effects Of E-Cigarette Compounds On Normal Cell Proliferation, Olivia Morrison May 2020

Development Of An Auto-Bioluminescent Lung Cell Line For Evaluation Of In Vitro Effects Of E-Cigarette Compounds On Normal Cell Proliferation, Olivia Morrison

Honors Theses

The effects of smoking have long been studied; however, with the rise of electronic cigarettes there is a growing interest in the effects of this smoking substitute. Marketed as a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes, the popularity of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has dramatically increased. This has demanded regulatory methods to be put into effect, however, scientific study is only beginning on the new fad to determine the impacts of its use on the human body. The present study aims to examine the biological effects of lung cell exposure to tobacco alkaloids found in electronic cigarette filling solutions. We hypothesize …

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College Student Perceptions Of System-Culpability In The Frequency Of Wrongful Convictions: Gauging The Importance Of Respondent Characteristics, Merideth Smith May 2020

College Student Perceptions Of System-Culpability In The Frequency Of Wrongful Convictions: Gauging The Importance Of Respondent Characteristics, Merideth Smith

Honors Theses

Prior literature has highlighted several factors that contribute to wrongful convictions and described the frequency in which these factors influence wrongful convictions; they include mistaken eyewitness identification, mishandling of forensic evidence, and misconduct among criminal justice professionals. The literature concerning perceptions of the influence of these factors on wrongful convictions is limited, however, by its failure to consider the impact of respondent characteristics on their perceptions. In this study, I extend this line of research by examining the influence of respondent characteristics on perceptions of the culpability of criminal justice actors, contamination of forensic evidence, and mistaken eyewitness identification in …

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Complex Conversations: A Creative Exploration Into Language Used Over Direct Messages On Social Media Platforms, Arden Craft May 2020

Complex Conversations: A Creative Exploration Into Language Used Over Direct Messages On Social Media Platforms, Arden Craft

Honors Theses

This paper details a series of paintings that explore how the language used virtually over direct messages (DMs) on social media platforms can allude to how complex notions of gender, violence, and behavior function in reality. This research questions how forms of communication or interaction exist within different spaces and contexts, as well as how the recontextualization of language can disrupt power and produce new forms of interpretation. This paper acts as a secondary source of knowledge in relation to the paintings under review and provides further explanation of their conceptual motivations. In particular, the paintings engage with Sara Ahmed’s …

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Mutually Exclusive: A Survey Of Ethical Decision Making In Technology, Connor Mcpherson May 2020

Mutually Exclusive: A Survey Of Ethical Decision Making In Technology, Connor Mcpherson

Honors Theses

People make hundreds of decisions every day. Developers, security consultants, operations engineers, designers, and engineers all make small decisions that affect the final product. The values people choose to promote and ignore appear in the constraints and biases of the products they craft. This paper discusses the process of developing, distributing, and analyzing a values survey to computer professionals and students in East Tennessee. I use advanced calculations of significance and beta for chi-squared tests to determine significance and discuss the ethical conclusions from the survey’s data.

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Reframing Severed Representations: From Biography Towards A Psychoanalytical Reading Of Caravaggio’S Self-Portraiture, Alyson Mcgowan May 2020

Reframing Severed Representations: From Biography Towards A Psychoanalytical Reading Of Caravaggio’S Self-Portraiture, Alyson Mcgowan

Honors Theses

Perhaps one of the most celebrated artists of all time and responsible for ushering in a new style of art during the Baroque period, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio continues to emerge from the pages of history and captivate art historians and art lovers alike. He has been the focus of countless scholars and art critics since his emergence as an artist in 16th century Rome. This research will provide a fresh analysis of two of the artist's verified self-portraits, The Young Sick Bacchus c. 1593 and David with the Head of Goliath c. 1610, using Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. By doing …

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Boundary, Costs And Trade-Offs In Reserve Design Systems, Justus Hurd May 2020

Boundary, Costs And Trade-Offs In Reserve Design Systems, Justus Hurd

Honors Theses

Due to limitations in funding and natural resources, it is infeasible to construct perfect reserve systems for large populations of critical species. For this project, our objective is to formulate a reserve design model that minimizes the distance between reserve sites meeting a threshold of biodiversity features subject to a species coverage constraints. Coupled with other spatial characteristics including reserve size and configuration, the boundary of a reserve system is of key importance. While positive area effects are gained when selecting additional sites, negative boundary length effects are also experienced. For example, it is costly to implement and maintain boundary …

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