Digital Commons Network^™

Habitat Selection By The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx Californianus) In Rural North Texas, Elizabeth Jones

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Healthcare Resources For The Deaf Community: A Study Of Kalamazoo Area Hospitals, Rachel Kellogg

Honors Theses

Hospitals need to analyze all patient care delivery methods, and especially those designated for vulnerable populations. The Deaf community is a particularly unique and often overlooked vulnerable population because of the additional communication barriers that they possess. The goal for this research is to look at the current best practices for communication and treatment in hospitals from the perspective of the Deaf community. This research also looks at how or if these practices are being carried out in community hospitals. In order to obtain this information, interview questions were developed with the help of an ASL interpreter and two interviews …

Attitudes And Perceptions Of Texas A&M University -Commerce Students Toward Vegetable Gardening, Emily K. Lawrence

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Reach For The Stars, Jill Heilborn

Honors Theses

Literacy is a huge topic today, both in education and in politics. Many are asking questions like: How do we define it? How do we support its development? What is inhibiting literacy? Some programs, such as Read and Write Kalamazoo (RAWK), are working hard to support and encourage literacy in communities. I was able to work with RAWK to plan and teach a 4 hour Saturday workshop (for middle schoolers in the community) called "Reach for the Stars". It combined learning about astronomy with reading and writing.

In my thesis is a portfolio of pieces, which include:

- Literacy Narrative, …

Ceas Student Center Expansion, Turner Solterman

Honors Theses

Western Michigan University has had a long-standing tradition of engineering excellence. To keep up with the modern culture and to maintain that Western will be on the forefront of universities providing an excellent engineering education, an expansion to the current CEAS building on the Parkview campus is necessary. Aptly named the CEAS Student Center Expansion, this project will be a space exclusively for student engineering groups to work in a space where collaboration across different engineering disciplines will be as easy as walking across the floor to talk to someone else. Through the floor plans of the different alternatives …

Encore Dance Costume Rental: A Business Plan, Aubrey Utting

Honors Theses

Dance can be very expensive to participate in. One of the things making dance expensive is the high prices of dance costumes. Encore Dance Costume Rental helps solve the problem of expensive dance costumes by using a rental business model instead of traditional dance costume sales. This business plan details how this business will operate and create value for its customers.

The Relationship Between The Prevalence Of Hiv/Aids And Associated Socioeconomic And Behavioral Factors, Viktoria Kolpacoff

Honors Theses

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are a global epidemic affecting almost 40 million people. Studies show that the spread of HIV is associated with numerous and complex factors such as poverty, religious beliefs, hygiene practices, and gender inequalities. I analyzed the relationship between the prevalence of HIV and four socioeconomic and behavioral factors: per capita Gross Domestic Product, the Globalization Index, the Social Institutions and Gender Index, and literacy rates. I used logistic regression to regress the log-odds of becoming infected with HIV against the four associated factors and calculated an odds ratio for each …

Campus-Wide Sustainability At Texas A&M University-Commerce, Viktoriia Tabeleva

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Families And God-Human Interactions In Genesis, Josias A. Flores

Honors Theses

This study carefully analyzes the themes found in various interactions between God and humans in the book of Genesis, viewing them through the lens of family. The majority of the texts that record direct verbal communication between God and humans reveal that God initiates such encounters in order to develop and define healthy families. Themes found in the God-human interactions parallel previous conclusions in family studies research regarding family rituals. Motivated by insights from the behavioral sciences, this work contributes to the scholarly discussion surrounding families from a theological perspective and also provides practical implications for modern-day families.

Media Multitasking In Relation To Cognition And Socioemotional Well-Being: A Literature Review, Kaitlyn May

Honors Theses

With the rapid expansion of media use by children and adults, media multitasking (engaging in more than one media activity at a time) has rapidly become a lifestyle for American youth (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005). The aim of this systematic review is to examine the cognitive and socio-emotional impacts of media multitasking (MMT). This review analyzed 59 articles from 2006 to 2016 that investigated MMT across a range of ages, including pre-adolescents to adults, although primarily focused on college-aged students. Concerning academic and cognitive skills, media multitasking is detrimental to the learning of both those multitasking and other classroom …

You Tell The Tale: Interactive Retellings Of The Myth Of Orpheus, Christopher Mclean-Wheeler

Honors Theses

The thesis retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in an interactive narrative style. The interactive medium encourages readers to take an active role in storytelling by deciding what the protagonist does at key moments in the plot; each decision branches out into alternate story paths, allowing the adaptation to draw from multiple versions of the myth, particularly Ovid's The Metamormopheses and Virgil's The Georgics. The content chosen for inspiration is based on how it can offer new interpretations of and insight into this retelling of the familiar story.

Molecular Mass Of L-Arginine-Based Potentially Carcinogenic Heterocyclic Amines, Irene S. Hwang

Honors Theses

Investigation of cancer-inducing molecules in cooked foods has led to the discovery of mutagenic heterocyclic amines (HCAs) in meat. The amino acids creatin(in)e and L-phenylalanine form the precursors for these HCAs. Recent research here at Andrews University have found similar mutagenic HCAs produced from plant-based proteins when L-arginine, rather than creatin(in)e, is substituted in high temperature reactions (simulated cooking) with L-phenylalanine. Our research focused on developing HPLC methods to isolate individual candidates that are then screened for mutagenicity via the Ames test. Mass spectroscopy methods were also developed to identfy the molecular structure of these lead mutagenic L-arginine-based HCAs.

War Gaming Applications For Achieving Optimum Acquisition Of Future Space, Karel Marshall

Honors Theses

In 2014, the federal government spent nearly half a trillion dollars on contractor projects. The Department of Defense wants to develop an algorithm to optimize the acquisition of new technologies. This project makes us of game theory, probability and statistics, non-linear programming and mathematical models to model negotiations between governmental agencies and private contractors. If focuses on generating the optimum solution and its corresponding acquisition strategy for different contract types. This project culminates in a collection of MATLAB (MathWorks) programs and the newly developed strategy shows strong convergence to Nash equilibrium values and successful selection of optimum solutions.

Fluorescence Analysis Of Pamam Dendrimers, Ansel Nam

Honors Theses

Despite their lack of conjugation, polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are intrinsically fluorescent, and this fluorescent is somewhat manipulable through altering the dendrimer's solvent. This level of fluorescence is dependent on a number of the dendrimer's qualities: the pH of the solvent, the mass percent concentration of the dendrimer in solvent, and the generation size of the dendrimer. In past studies, fluorescent intensity increased as generation size increased and pH decreased. Thus, this research project will attempt to replicate those results as well as further analyze the efficiency of fluorescence of PAMAM dendrimer in comparison to fluorescein.

Synthesis Of A-Cyanostilbenes And Testing Of Their Anticancer Properties, Gabrielle Cook

Honors Theses

This research project involves synthesizing cyanostilbenes and testing their anticancer properties in breast cancer cells. Breast cancer is a global issue, one that great improvement has been found in the last few decades, but also one that remains a large killer. The components of the cyanostilbene hybrids have all been shown to have anticancer properties on their own, and we would like to see if we can increase these properties by combining multiple into a single hybrid. Then these cyanostilbene compounds are tested on Her2+ human breast cancer cells. The goals is to assess whether or not the cyanostilbenes have …

The Role Of Octopamine In Syllable-Period Selective Phonotaxis In Female Cricket Acheta Domesticus, Darley Magno

Honors Theses

Female crickets respond phonotactically to the calls of conspecific males. Females' phonotaxis has been reported to be variable, ranging from unselective to selectve in response to calls with varying syllable periods (30-90 ms). Octopamine, an intertebrate neurotransmitter, has been reported to increase aggressive behavior in crickets, (Stevanson et al. 2005) but the effects of octopamine on behaviors such as phonotaxis have not been investigated. The goal of this study is to determine the effects of octopamine on the syllable-period selective phonotactic response of females. Results suggest a decrease in phonotactic responsiveness shown by 5-10 day-okds after prothroacic nanoinjection of octopamine.

The Relationship Between Cold Stress Syndrome Mortality And Body Shape In Florida Manatees, Purin Chirachevin

Honors Theses

West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) are tropical and subtropical aquatic mamals that can develop cold stress syndrome (CSS) when subjected to water temperatures below 20'C for prolonge dperiods. This study investigtes the potential impact that cold winter water temperatures in Florida may have on manatee body shape as a selective force to reduce surface-area-to-volume ratio (SA:Vol; i.e. Bergmann's and Allen's Rule). Morphometric measurements collected from state-mandated necropsies (1974-2014) were used to calculate surface area, volume, and mass. We found that manatees that died of CSS on average had significantly greater SA:Vol and less mass compared to those that died …

Look At That Little Macho: Surveillance And Hegemonic Masculinity In Junot DíAz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Ludanne Francis

Honors Theses

No abstract available.

Natural Products In Weed Control: Allyl-Isothiocyanate Effects On In Vitro Velvetleaf Seedling Growth And The Influence Of Mustard Seed Meal On Soil Bacterial Populations, Stanford Shin

Honors Theses

Past research has shown that alyl isothiocyanate (AICT) and its sister ITC compounds are effective alternatives to herbicides in reducing growth in weed seedlings. In this project the effects of mustard seed meal (MSM), a source of AITC, on plant-associated soil bacteria populations was assessed along with the effect of AITC on velvetleaf seed in vitro germination. Results show that MSM reduces bacterial levels in the soil. Velvetleaf seed germination was inbibited by micromolar levels of AITC. These results suggest that MSM has the potential to impact velvetleaf growth in the field as well as becoming a weed management tool.

The Factors That Affect The Capitalization Of Digital Currencies In Developing Countries: An Assessment Of Security Risks And Their Effects, Joshua Tinotenda Pazvakawambwa

Honors Theses

Digital currency platforms such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are slowly but surely revolutionizing trade and commerce alongside their potential to impact people's economic lifestyles immensely. Digital currencies present a unique medium for humanitarian, mission, and more notoriosly arms and terrorism transactions around the globe. Various factors like security, legislature, and infrastructure affect the viability of adopting digital currencies in developing countries such as Zimbabwe. The research study assesses whether this technology's shortcomings outweigh the conventional means of exchange: hard cash, gold, and checks. Therefore, aiding stakeholders in making informed decisions concerning interfacing technology with economics in the developing world.

Investors' Reaction To The Passing Of The Indian Companies Act, 2013, Melisa Ann Ruhupatty

Honors Theses

This research seeks to determine whether mandated corporate social responsibilty (CSR) is value relevant to investors, specifically investors of Indian companies affected by the Companies Act, 2013 which requires companies meeting specific financial criteria to spend 2% of their three-year average net profits towards social initiatives. Recommended social initiatives include the development and implementation of environmentally sustainable businesss practices. Using the event study methodology, this study compares the cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) of companies recognized as CSR-active on the Bombay Stock Exccange (BSE) with those not recognized as CSR-active. Recognized CSR-active companies were determined through the use of the BSE …

Hispanic Hallyu: Comparing Boys Over Flowers Directed By Jeon Ki-Sang With Latino Telenovelas, Austin S. Huh

Honors Theses

The term hallyu, meaning Korean wave, was originally coined in the 1990s to describe the proliferation of South Korean popular culture throughout the world. This project focuses specifically on Hispanic populations within North and South America where--despite lack of geographical or cultural proximity to South Korea--Korean movies, dramas, and music have obtained widespread popularity. With respect to K-dramas, this project juxtaposes thematic elements between the K-drama Boys over Flowers directed by Jeon Ki-Sang and Latino telenovelas to determine if K-drama popularity can be ascribed to similarities in motifs between K-dramas and telenovelas.

Soil Sand Content, But Not Solil Myrosinase Enzyme Activity, Affects Mam Efficacy In Suppressing Weed Growth, Warit Chirachevin

Honors Theses

Mustard seed meal (MSM) has been shown to control weeds and pests in crop fields. Prior work showed that a sandy loam soil was superior to a silt loam soil in supporting velvetleaf growth suppression by MSM. To explore this difference, myrosinase enzyme activity was measured in both soils. Results showed no significant difference between the soils. Sand content in Michigan silt loam soil was manipulated in order to test the role of sand content on MSM efficacy in suppressing short-term velvetleaf growth. Results showed that sand enhanced the effect of MSM in suppressing seedling growth and germination.

Chelerythrine Chloride And Its Effects On Phonotactic Behavior In Female Crickets Acheta Domesticus, Haneul Shin

Honors Theses

Selective phonotaxis by female crickets has been shown to be variable. Mechanisms which underlie such behavioral variability are being studied. Juvenile Hormone III is a neuromodulator that has been shown to increase selectivity in phonotactic behavior of female crickets. In an attempt to further explore its effects on the behavioral responses of femaile crickets, experiments have been performed with chelerythrine cloride that is known to have an opposite effect of Juvenile Hormone III. Chelerythrine chloride, a potent protein kinase C blocker, has been hypothesized to block the effect of Juvenile Hormone III which acts through a protein kinase C pathway, …

A Comparative Study Of Perspectives In Musical Structural Features And Emotional Stimuli, Cibele Maia Burke

Honors Theses

Music psychology has become increasingly popular in music research given the ability of music to evoke strong emotions. However, there are not many studies that have investigated the mechanisms that induce these emotions. One of the characteristics of recognized composers in Western Art Music is their ability to manipulate musical devices in a way that will evoke an emotional state within the listener. This study looks into theories and perspectives regarding the influence of music upon emotions (such as the Doctrine of ethos) while analyzing certain musical structural features and their impact on emotional expression. By comparing musical works and …

Fish Populations In A Changing World, Christine Booker

Honors Theses

Freshwater ecosystems in North America face many threats including habitat degradation, fragmentation, and hydrological changes to the river system. This is especially obvious in Southern Appalachia region, which is a hotspot for freshwater biodiversity. Large inputs of sediment from coal mining and nutrients from agriculture degrade water quality. Dams and other stream modifications have led to changes in the habitat and hinder migration. Numerous native and endemic species have small isolated populations that are threatened by extinction. Recovery rates of species depend on numerous factors, including abiotic and biotic ecosystem factors and the natural history of the species. Species like …

Eleanor Of Aquitaine: A Musical Examination, Rachel E. Lachut

Honors Theses

Eleanor of Aquitaine lived from c.1124 to 1204. In that time, she was the wife of two kings, a mother to three kings, a patron of the arts, and the heir to, and perhaps primary ruling force of, an area that is the equivalent to nearly half of modern France. Her life, full of both personal and political intrigue, has been the subject of several artistic works, ranging from poetry to film. While the proliferation of media has been beneficial in maintaining her memory in the intervening centuries, it has also contributed to a wealth of misinformation about her life. …

Assessing Electronic Voice Phenomena Through Speech Science, Cassie C. Axtell

Honors Theses

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) are unexplained voices captured on audio recording, allegedly paranormal in nature (Buckner & Buckner, 2012). Little research exists on listener’s perception of EVPs to date. The field of speech science involves the study of the production, transmission, and perception of human speech. Many concrete elements from the study of speech science have the potential to be applied to the interpretation of EVP content. Several works of literature were reviewed to assess current EVP analysis practices Interviews were conducted with various paranormal investigation societies across the nation to gather information on the general practices involved in EVP …

A Gene Ahead Of The Game: A Look At Sports Genetics, Jessa Hay

Honors Theses

The entertainment industry known as sports is one with high popularity all over the globe. Humans work their whole lives to be able to perform at the highest level, whether that be professionally or on the Olympic stage. However, people may train and train but always end up falling short. This is not due to their lack of dedication or commitment, but simply they are not genetically favored to play that sport. Our genetic makeup plays a bigger role in our athletic ability than we may think. Although training is important when it comes to excelling in the sports world, …

Discrimination Against Women In The Sport Industry, Kelsey Whalen

Honors Theses

Discrimination against women in the workplace has been a widespread topic throughout society for quite a few years. According to the National Partnership for Woman and Families (2017), women make 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. While this number statistically represents the wage discrimination women face throughout all industries, it is also important to look at other discriminatory factors women face as well. More specifically in the male-dominated sport industry, we see women represented in extremely low numbers. While women may lack the interest to occupy jobs in this profession, this does not entirely explain the underrepresentation. In …