Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating The Role Of The Etc In Listeria Monocytogenes During Ethanol Exposure, Amanda Fawcett

Honors Theses

To better understand how alcohol consumption negatively impacts our defenses against pathogens, I investigated how Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne pathogen that can cause serious infections, responds to ethanol exposure. More specifically, I investigated the contribution of the electron transport chain (ETC), which involves different proteins to carry out respiration, in L. monocytogenes survival in ethanol. Survival assays were performed under different physiologically relevant conditions for wildtype bacteria and mutants deficient in ETC components. I found that ETC mutants, compared to wildtype bacteria, exhibited significantly altered ethanol survival in a manner sensitive to oxygen levels. This suggests that ETC plays a …

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Additional Sodium On Grasshopper Growth And Development, Mark Ghastine

Honors Theses

In order to investigate why sodium, combined with macronutrients, led to a spike in grasshopper abundance in a Texas prairie field, laboratory and field studies were conducted in Ohio and Texas to understand if sodium has an effect on grasshopper growth and development. These effects could happen directly, by altering grasshopper physiology, or indirectly by altering the plant communities that grasshoppers eat. To examine direct effects, grasshoppers were captured, reared, and fed diets with varying amounts of sodium. Indirect effects were examined by collecting the most dominant plants within plots treated with different micro and macronutrients, and feeding them to …

The Role Of Follower Characteristics In Ratings Of Leadership Style: A Meta-Analytic Review, Reda Aldahan

Honors Theses

Leadership is among the most important research topics across a number of areas for years now - and it shows no sign of waning. A recent search of “leadership” on Amazon, for instance, returned over 70,000 active titles. One reason for this continued popularity is that leadership is a key component of most any effective organization. Most empirical research has centered on features about the leader him/herself (the “great person” approach). An increasingly important trend has looked at the impact of followers in the practice of leadership. A number of studies have emerged now that look at follower’s perceptions and …

Millions Displaced Tomorrow: A New Framework For Climate Migrants, Connor J. Lynch

Honors Theses

Millions of people are finding their livelihoods and security threatened as the effects of climate change intensify around the world. Migration as a response to the continuing ecological crisis is often the only pathway to safety. However, the future of such migrants is uncertain given the lack of mechanisms and systems to provide legal inclusion for displaced populations. In this paper, I challenge the existing international frameworks and point out the inadequacies in protecting victims of climate migration. To address these shortcomings, I suggest a new framework consisting of three features: systematic use of technology and data to determine populations …

Toward A Pa-Inhibitor Complex Crystal System: Influenza Polymerase Acidic Protein Fusion Constructs And Protein Expression, Rebecca Kramb

Honors Theses

Globally, three to five million people are afflicted on a yearly basis with serious illnesses due to influenza. In attempts to combat this epidemic, vaccines and antivirals are developed, yet they are not effective enough. The polymerase acidic protein (PA) is vital for viral replication, and inhibiting PA would potentially stop the virus from replicating. In order to inhibit PA effectively, the structure of the protein inhibition site is beneficial but has not yet been obtained because the site is blocked by another protein in crystal structures. Our solution is to fuse different proteins to PA to open up the …

Designing Fictional Spaces: Questionable Architecture That Supports Sustainable Design, Noël J. Michel

Honors Theses

This thesis presents the modeling of spaces described in short stories that are difficult to visualize. The three stories are Kafka's “The Burrow,” Borges’s “The Library of Babel” and Barthelme's “The Balloon.” Three-dimensional models were created based on the details provided by the authors in each story. Several 2-D images are then generated from these models to match specific scenes. This consideration of these works of fiction provokes the asking of several questions about the science, mathematics and engineering that underpins the stories. In all cases, questions about sustainability arise.

This manuscript is divided into three parts to correspond to …

Angry Tweets And Interest Groups, Sean Newhouse

Honors Theses

Social media have become a primary vehicle through which interest groups have sought influence on the U.S. political system. While the relationship between social media and politics has been studied, little research has been conducted into which posts, specifically from interest groups, receive the most public feedback. Through a content analysis, I coded more than 2,000 tweets from two pairs of diametrically opposed interest groups according to the type of language that was employed in the tweet (argumentative, agreeable, action-oriented) and the multimedia that was utilized (plain, photo, link, video). Tweets with argumentative language tended to receive more likes, retweets, …

Donald Trump’S ‘Presidential’ Rhetoric For The Wall: The Mobilization Of ‘Crisis’ Rhetoric On Behalf Of A Campaign Promise, Nicole Perkins

Honors Theses

Historically, Oval Office addresses in the United States have been given by presidents to unify the nation after a crisis. For example, George W. Bush gave an Oval Office address after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and Barack Obama delivered an Oval Office address after the San Bernardino shooting on December 6, 2015. On January 8, 2019, Donald Trump delivered his only Oval Office address to date in response to an “immigration crisis.” This crisis, according to Trump, can only be averted with the construction of a wall at the United States’ southern border. This presentation applies Barbara …

Where You Are And What You Know: Impact Of Location And Education On Individual Engagement With The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Emily V. Sandstrom

Honors Theses

The United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to include 17 goals and 169 targets that foster ongoing environmental, social, and global economic development and aims to accomplish each goal by 2030. There has been considerable enthusiasm in various sectors since the SDGs have been in place; however, there is still a significant amount of work to be done to engage experts and young scholars (the future experts) in the SDGs. According to Salvia, et al., researchers at institutions of higher learning from around the globe found a relation between locality and research, though questions remain concerning …

Effects Of Oxygen Levels And Short Chain Fatty Acid Exposure On Antibiotic Susceptibility In Listeria Monocytogenes, Samantha Neanover

Honors Theses

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive bacterium and foodborne pathogen responsible for causing a lethal disease known as listeriosis. Listeriosis tends to affect susceptible populations such as the elderly, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems. The infection is often treated with ampicillin and gentamicin, but despite antibiotic treatments, the mortality rate of Listeria infections remains high . In this study, we investigated environmental conditions that may impact bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics in order to increase antibiotic efficacy. Listeria is an enteric bacterium and as it transits through the intestines, it is exposed to short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such …

“When You’Re Done … You’Re Still Part Of Our Family”: An Exploration Of Gendered Scripts And Relationships In Prison Reentry Programs, Ruth Schultz

Honors Theses

Historically, the criminal justice system has been primarily composed of men; this lack of diversity led services to see offenders as an almost genderless category. The demographics of the criminal justice system has greatly changed, however. In 1990 there were 43,845 women under the jurisdiction of state and correctional authorities in the US (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995). As mass incarceration took hold in the United States, this population more than doubled; by 2017 the number of incarcerated women grew to 111, 360 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2019). Mass incarceration has led to an increase in rehabilitative programs and as …

“You Don’T Understand… It’S Not About Virginity”: Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, And Violent Masculinity On An Incel Forum Board, Joshua A. Segalewitz

Honors Theses

The “manosphere” is an online collection of antifeminists and men’s rights activists. Incels, short for involuntary celibates, interact in this space and have been labeled as extreme misogynists, white supremacists, and domestic terrorists. I engage with popular sociological theories of masculinity (including hegemonic, hybrid, and inclusive masculinities) to analyze dominant discourses on the website incels.is. The data for this project are comments from 100 threads randomly sampled from 4,532 total threads posted in 2018. Using a grounded theory approach, I first explore how incels think about sexuality as an economy, devising a scheme that places everyone in a sexual hierarchy …

The Turn From Radicalism: Self-Regulation Of The American Labor Movement, 1909-1919, Ryan Harrison Reed

Honors Theses

The American Labor Movement of the first decade of the twentieth century was a host to radical labor union organizers and diverse schools of radical thought. By 1919, however, the Movement had shifted away from radicalism toward more pragmatic cooperation between owners and workers. This thesis uses the national organ of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union to recount this same radicalism and traces its disappearance from the Labor Movement during and after American involvement in the First World War. Using events recorded in "The American Flint," it argues that the workers themselves, motivated by patriotic zeal or self-preservation, purged …

Agency Among Linguistically Diverse Students: A Comparative Study Of Adolescent English Language Learners In Chile And The United States, Kristen Travers

Honors Theses

It is projected that there will be 1.9 billion English learners in the world by 2020. Research has also shown that there will be at least one English learner in every classroom by the year 2025. As English language learners continue to grow all across the world, so does the need for well-informed teachers who look at the holistic learning of linguistically diverse students. Adolescent students who are seeking to learn another language, need support in using language in a way that will grow their understanding of themselves and the world around them. Ideas from renowned theorists such as Lev …

Newspapers In The Transformative 1960s At The University Of Dayton, Brendan Zdunek

Honors Theses

This honors thesis focuses on the University of Dayton during the 1960s when the university transitioned from a small, parochial Catholic college to a larger, more secular institution. This change was rooted in much wider transformations taking place in both the Catholic community and broader society during the decade. During this period of transition, two major groups, Dayton residents and University of Dayton students, had differing opinions on the transition. Campus and city newspaper coverage of key debates helped shape public opinion. This thesis examines how the local Dayton Daily News and the University of Dayton student newspaper, Flyer News, …

Synthesis Of An Arylidene Pyrazolone And Its Effects On Glioblastoma Cancer Cells, Joanna Deonarine

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to develop a new technique to synthesize a heterocyclic arylidene compound using fruit puree catalysis and investigate its anti-cancer activity on glioblastoma cancer cells. Recently, there has been interest in heterocycles due to their anticancer properties and they have been used in almost two-thirds of the novel molecular anticancer agents. Varying fruit purees were used to synthesize a novel hybrid arylidene pyrazolone from 3-methyl-1-phenyl-5-pyrazolone and 4-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde by modifying methodology developed by Dr. Murray. This arylidene pyrazolone was then tested for its anticancer activity on glioblastoma brain cancer cells using Dr. Smith’s 12-well cell viability …

Queer Borders And Belongings: Reparative Storytelling From El Paso, Mary Mcloughlin

Honors Theses

At its best, queer theory exposes how reproductive heteronormativity functions to write gendered relational scripts ordered around roles of dominance and submission, but often queer theorists respond to the problematic relationships they identify with retreat and resignation. This thesis takes a different approach by looking to stories collected through a month of interviews at the border in El Paso, Texas in order to explore a queer ethic of repair which, through Iris Murdoch’s conception of love as “really looking,” disrupts and rewrites hegemonic relational scripts. First, I investigate the role reproductive heteronormativity plays in shaping hierarchical and patriarchal notions of …

Synthesis Of Peraza Crown Macrocycles, Alexis R. Smith

Honors Theses

As environmental pollution from heavy metals and transition metals continues to occur, it is important to find reliable ways to remove the contaminants from soil and water. Peraza crown macrocycles are one type of molecule that have been known to act as a ligand and trap transition metals, removing them from the environment. For this research a synthesis was proposed to create a peraza crown with four nitrogen atoms in the central binding ring, with quinoxaline groups to either side of the molecule to increase rigidity and thus the binding speed and efficiency. While the different subunits of the designed …

Racial Disenfranchisement And Its Impact On Political Participation In The United States, Cierra Dei Stewart

Honors Theses

Political participation, and in particular, the power to cast a vote, is crucial to representation in a democracy. This project seeks to explore the issue of racial disenfranchisement in the United States, both historically and in the present day, as well as its implications for the political participation and representation of racial minorities in politics and government. In analyzing the broad scope of this issue, I will research both federal and state laws. Until recently, the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States coupled with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have provided important barriers to …

Discovering Glioma Inhibitors Via Chemical-Genetic Screens In Drosophila Cancer Models, Jordan Terschluse

Honors Theses

Today, there are over 250 drugs being used to cure over 100 different types of cancer. We hypothesize that one of the drugs already being used in cancer treatment will either show positive or negative growth when applied specifically to glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor with poor prognosis. Using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and 150 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, we can induce tumors and track their growth in response to the drugs. This would open the doors to researching similarities between drugs present in hundreds of chemical libraries. Additionally, the drugs that prove successful through the screenings could start …

Traditional Funk: An Ethnographic, Historical, And Practical Study Of Funk Music In Dayton, Ohio, Caleb G. Vanden Eynden

Honors Theses

Recognized nationally as the funk capital of the world, Dayton, Ohio takes credit for birthing important funk groups (i.e. Ohio Players, Zapp, Heatwave, and Lakeside) during the 1970s and 80s. Through a combination of ethnographic and archival research, this paper offers a pedagogical approach to Dayton funk, rooted in the styles and works of the city’s funk legacy. Drawing from fieldwork with Dayton funk musicians completed over the summer of 2019 and pedagogical theories of including black music in the school curriculum, this paper presents a pedagogical model for funk instruction that introduces the ingredients of funk (instrumentation, form, groove, …

A Study Of The Design And Manufacturing Of An Elevated Dog Feeder, Lena Turner

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

The senior capstone which students in the Center for Manufacturing Excellence program partake in was the basis for project. The Dog Box is an elevated dog feeder with an internal food storage compartment. It was designed for medium to large dogs, and can hold over 40 lbs of dog food. The internal storage compartment has drawer access and contains a plastic tote that will hold the food. The purpose of the design was to create an aesthetically pleasing elevated dog feeder that would double as a storage device, and elevated feeding can help prevent health issues in large dog …

A Crisis Of Masculinity: The Rise Of The Afd And The East German Man, Chandler Molpus

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine how a crisis of masculinity in the former German Democratic Republic has contributed to the rise of the far-right party, Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). In the first chapter, I argue that east German men feel left- behind politically, economically, and demographically. In the second chapter, I compare results from the 2017 Federal Bundestag election to demonstrate that east German men are more likely to vote for the AfD than any other demographic group in Germany.

The Boricua Dialogues: Puerto Rican Identity In Conversation & Photography, Jonathan Borton

Honors Theses

[Thesis has no abstract.]

Mind To Mirror To Life: Sexual Health From A Body Positive Lens, Kacey Richardson

Honors Theses

Body image and sexual health are inextricably linked. It is crucial for college students to understand the importance of body image within sexual health in order to capture the full scope of sexual well-being, although most existing sexuality education resources for college students fail to make this connection. This thesis demonstrates the necessity for comprehensive sexual health education that incorporates a focus on body image to promote the health and wellness of college students. Using an intersectional outlook, the thesis evaluates existing resources and presents the contents of an original workshop titled “Mind to Mirror to Life: Sexual Health from …

Atlantic Abolition In The Borderlands: The Interesting Narrative Of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, Alexandra Bicknell

Honors Theses

In 1854, the Geo. E. Pomeroy & Co. published An Interesting Narrative. Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, a native of Zoogoo, in the interior of Africa (A Convert to Christianity,) with a Description of That Part of the World; including the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants in Detroit, Michigan. Baquaqua’s narrative did not gain as much attention as others in the genre published around the same time. The narrative only survived in eight copies though it was published by an editor that was able to sell hundreds of thousands of copies of an essay to a similar audience. This …

The Effects Of Involvement In Religious Practices On Recovering Substance Users., Taylor Currier

Honors Theses

This paper reviews empirical studies focused on spirituality and its effects on those in the recovery process from substance abuse. This paper will look at qualitative studies as well as quantitative research to see which form has derived the best results on how spirituality has affected substance abuse recovery. Prolonged recovery is the goal for those that struggle with substance use. Behavior change is an important in sustaining sobriety with those dealing with addiction. It is predicted that those who engage in spiritual growth within their community have a higher likelihood of prolonged recovery than those that do not believe …

Scott Boerma: A Study Of His Musical Compositions And Conducting Career, Qiuxian Lu

Honors Theses

Scott Boerma is a well-known wind music composer and conductor. In this paper, I will examine his career development as a composer and conductor. I will include brief analyses of some of his musical compositions based on form, orchestration, usage of harmonic and melodic devices, etc. I will also talk about his conducting methods when he conducts different pieces and conveys various musical ideas. There are three sections in this thesis: 1) Scott Boerma’s musical journey (how he became a successful composer and conductor); 2) Analyses of his compositions: Fanfare for a Golden Sky, Bora Bora, Shadows, Poem, and Cityscape …

Memory, Migration, And Family In 1960s And 1970s Northern Ireland, Abigail Parmer

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Role Of Rap1a In Medial Arterial Vascular Calcification, Amelia Grace Haydel

Honors Theses

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States with one of the major contributors being vascular calcification, characterized by the deposition of calcium-phosphate hydroxyapatite. Once thought to be a passive process due to aging, medial vascular calcification is becoming better understood as a tightly regulated, cellmediated process. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) within the medial arterial layer respond to inflammation, oxidative stress, and changes in pyrophosphate levels, which induce differentiation into osteoblast-like cells. Fibroblasts within the adventitial layer (AFBs) also alter their function in response to vascular calcification signaling, although this is largely understudied. The AGE/RAGE …