Digital Commons Network^™

The Radon Transform And The Mathematics Of Medical Imaging, Jen Beatty

Honors Theses

Tomography is the mathematical process of imaging an object via a set of finite slices. In medical imaging, these slices are defined by multiple parallel X-ray beams shot through the object at varying angles. The initial and final intensity of each beam is recorded, and the original image is recreated using this data for multiple slices. I will discuss the central role of the Radon transform and its inversion formula in this recovery process.

Geodynamic Constraints On The Flow Of Samoan-Plume Mantle Into The Northern Lau Basin, Nathan Katsiaficas

Honors Theses

The northernmost portion of the Lau basin, South Pacific, features numerous geochemical and geophysical anomalies. These include: (1) a strong latitudinal gradient in the trace element and isotopic (Sr-Nd-Pb) enrichment of basalts erupted along the various back-arc spreading centers (BASCs) within the basin, (2) high 3He/4He (up to 28 times RA, where RA, the ratio in Earth's atmosphere, is 1.4 x 10-6) in basalts erupted along some portions of the BASCs (e.g., Rochambeau Bank), and (3) the presence of trench-parallel shear-wave splitting near the Tonga arc. The occurrence of these anomalies has been attributed to the southward flow of mantle …

Cameras, Satellites, And Surveys: A Multi-Platform Approach To Monitoring Lake Conservation Behavior, Daniel D. Homeier

Honors Theses

Shoreline buffers are essential to maintaining lake water quality and there are numerous methods for their assessment. There is uncertainty in the benefits and drawbacks of different shoreline buffer assessment methods. In this study I explore three methods of remotely assessing shoreline buffers in the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine: household surveys, geotagged shoreline photos, and satellite imagery. By comparing these three methods I will evaluate their accuracy and applicable scale when used to assess the presence and quality of shoreline buffers.

I used both parametric and non-parametric analysis to (1) evaluate the relative accuracy of 154 household surveys in …

Odd Or Even: Uncovering Parity Of Rank In A Family Of Rational Elliptic Curves, Anika Lindemann

Honors Theses

Puzzled by equations in multiple variables for centuries, mathematicians have made relatively few strides in solving these seemingly friendly, but unruly beasts. Currently, there is no systematic method for finding all rational values, that satisfy any equation with degree higher than a quadratic. This is bizarre. Solving these has preoccupied great minds since before the formal notion of an equation existed. Before any sort of mathematical formality, these questions were nested in plucky riddles and folded into folk tales. Because they are so simple to state, these equations are accessible to a very general audience. Yet an astounding amount of …

Isometries And Spontaneous Lorentz Violation In General Relativity, Greg Merritt

Honors Theses

General Relativity, or GR, is a theory which describes gravity as a manifestation of the curvature of space and time. While the other three fundamental forces in nature are represented as field theories, GR is a geometric theory. In the search for a way to reconcile the field theories for the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces with the gravitational force, a logical place to start is by re-expressing GR as a field theory. In doing so, we find that the theory contains a number of symmetries. When we solve the equations in GR, we find that by choosing certain solutions …

Examination Of Spatial Variations In Recrystallization Mechanisms In Quartz, Emma N. Beck

Honors Theses

S-C mylonites form as a result of non-coaxial deformation in ductile shear zones. Planes of weakness develop and delineate two domains, the S and the C Each of these domains accommodates variable amounts of strain. Sample WMSZ-188 exhibits subgrain rotation (SGR) recrystallization in the C domains, and grain boundary migration (GBM) recrystallization in the S domains. This partitioning of recrystallization mechanisms indicates either: (1) strain-rate partitioning during a single deformation event; or (2) a second, lower-temperature deformation event that over-printed the C domains. This study tests these two hypotheses. Optical and EBSD analyses were used to look for evidence of …

Should She Run? The Decision For Female Congressíenal Candidates, Laura . J. Maloney

Honors Theses

This study, “Should She Run? The decision for female congressional candidates,” explores Why Women decide to or not to run for Congress. lt focuses on the influence of state political Culture with a case study on the emergence of female candidates in the primaries for U.S. House of Representative races New England districts from 2002-2010. After running a series of general linear models, the study Ends that certain aspects of a state’s political culture do impact female candidate emergence in New England. Looking forward, it suggests that the key to shrinking the gender gap in the U.S. Congress is to …

Life In Color, Lucy Wilhelms

Honors Theses

I have always been fascinated by collections of short stories; I love how authors manage to seamlessly tie different crests of life together, uniting both theme and motif. Theme of place is particularly useful, notably as a starting point. If the short stories all take place within the same universe, a cameo from an earlier short story lends an air of magic to the tales. However, I do greatly appreciate the less-magical stories featuring life at its pinnacle of unacknowledged third-person agony. The concluding message is what really intrigues me, though. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories almost always conclude with …

Let Them Eat Cake, Courtney Yeager

Honors Theses

My mother has always said she belongs in the kitchen. Sure, she voted in presidential elections and wasn’t surprised when I, as a seventh-grader, mentioned that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wanted all moms to find a real job. But whenever I glanced up at my childhood home, tucked neatly into the hillside towering over town, I envisioned my mother dicing zucchini or fingering the grout between counter tiles as she pored over hardback cookbooks, turning pages as delicately as she would crack an egg.

A Poet Of The Sikhs: Aesthetic Embodiment In The Poetry Of A Young And Elderly Bhai Vir Singh, Todd Curcuru

Honors Theses

Bhai Vir Singh, famous 19^th and 20^th century Sikh poet, writer, and scholar is remembered for his great literary achievements and proliferation of the Pubjabi language. Raised in the Punjab, India after the fall of the Sikh kingdom to the British, Vir Singh grew up in a time of religious turmoil due to Western influence. Joining the Singh Sabha reformation movement, he dedicated his life wholeheartedly to return contemporary Sikh identity to its foundational roots as present in the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth.

Despite his desire to return to a fundamental Sikh identity, Bhai Vir Singh …

Forecasting The Future: The Early United States Weather Bureau, Robert T. Canning

Honors Theses

The national weather service of the United States came into being in 1870 for the practical utility of the American people. The interaction between weather, agriculture, and commerce provided the impetus for the inception of the service. Many historians put forward the notion of an obdurate weather bureau, a scientific backwater with no interest in modernization until after World War II. I disagree with this popular historiography and instead offer a history of the weather bureau’s attempts to institute the latest meteorological practices that takes into consideration the burdens and obligations of the bureau, as well as the historical context. …

Mediums Change, Fears Stay The Same, Lucy Wilhelms

Honors Theses

Although generally dismissed by scholars as being overly sentimental or superstitious, the gothic genre has survived for over four centuries and maintained significant cultural appeal, outlasting the sentimental novel and the travelogue as popular literature. What, then, makes this genre different? What is so special about the gothic?

In my thesis, I examine the evolving cultural appeal of the gothic genre that keeps it attractive and relevant for readers by tracing the gothic text, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, through its initial inception and its subsequent adaptations. As a novel, The Woman in Black both repeats and revises …

What Causes Ministers Of Finance To Get Fired?, Bradley Turner

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to establish the determinants of turnover in finance ministers. Based on an original worldwide data set, political and economic factors are considered for 58 countries. While the same political factors affect Minister of Finance turnover in both advanced and developing economies, the economic variables that matter differ between the sub-samples. Finance minister turnover is higher during years that there is also presidential turnover. Further, emerging economies have a higher Minister of Finance turnover than developed economies during years without presidential turnover. Results largely hold for robustness checks.

The Effectiveness Of Capital Controls On Capital Inflows In Emerging Markets, Kathleen A. Davis

Honors Theses

Capital flows have become increasingly more volatile over the past

decade, causing growing concern in emerging markets over the potential damages

large sudden capital inflows and outflows can cause those economies. Capital

controls have been used since World War I as a way to try to control these flows.

After being abolished nearly everywhere, they have recently been reintroduced in

a number of countries. The main analysis of this paper looks at the effect of the

capital controls on capital inflows from 2000 through 2010 in an 8 country sample

of emerging markets who have recently implemented changes in their …

From Pond To Pump: Microalgae As A Feedstock For Biodiesel, Anna H. Leavitt

Honors Theses

The global reliance on fossil fuels is an unsustainable practice that has led to the depletion of finite resources and the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to global climate change (Demirbas 2010). Transportation accounts for about a third of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States. Demand for oil continues to increase and resources are becoming more uncertain. Increased production of renewable fuels such as biofuels can help ease the dependence on fossil fuels. Although interest and production in biofuels has been increasing in the past decade, current feedstocks do not meet efficiency needs and some …

Revolving Green Loan Funds And Implementation At Siuc, Carly Freiwald

Honors Theses

Over the past few years revolving green loan funds have been implemented at about fifty schools all across the country to help fund sustainability projects on their campus. These green revolving funds are used to invest in sustainability projects that lower operating expenses, for example, energy bills. The savings that these projects produce then get sent back to the fund and are reinvested in additional projects. These loan funds have been incredibly helpful in furthering the sustainability goals of colleges, while also helping to save the universities money. My research included looking into how other universities are implementing these revolving …

A Phylogenetic Analysis Of Polygyridae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) Based On Mitochondrial Dna Sequence Data, Nicholas A. Defreitas

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Facebook Sharing Habits And Its Effect On Personal Privacy, Bryan M. Bubulka

Honors Theses

Over the past several years many individuals have jumped on the social networking bandwagon to create Facebook accounts linking their lives to the outside world, over four hundred million according to Facebook (Facebook, 2012). Whether it’s your personal privacy or property, knowing what information to post or share on social networking sites such as Facebook could be the key in protecting both. This research will focus on possible privacy concerns within social networking sites using Richard Mason’s groundbreaking PAPA (Privacy, Accuracy, Property, and Accessibility) Framework (Mason, 1986). The PAPA Framework will be used to identify what is being shared on …

Ogawa Mimei's Children's Stories: A Case Study Of The Rise Of Childhood In The Context Of Westernization And Japanese Modernization, Alexandra E. Kint

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine the influences of westernization, the tension between Japanese modernity and tradition, and the stories of Hans Christian Andersen on Ogawa Mimei’s children’s stories. I begin the body of my thesis with a brief historical background of Japan, beginning with the start of the Meiji period in 1868. Within the historical section, I focus on societal and cultural elements and changes that pertain to my thesis. I also include the introduction of Hans Christian Andersen in Japan. I wrap up the historical section by a description of Ogawa’s involvement in the Japanese proletarian literature movement and …

Verifying Harder's Conjecture For Classical And Siegel Modular Forms, Davia Sulon

Honors Theses

A conjecture by Harder shows a surprising congruence between the coefficients of “classical” modular forms and the Hecke eigenvalues of corresponding Siegel modular forms, contigent upon “large primes” dividing the critical values of the given classical modular form.

Harder’s Conjecture has already been verified for one-dimensional spaces of classical and Siegel modular forms (along with some two-dimensional cases), and for primes p 37. We verify the conjecture for higher-dimensional spaces, and up to a comparable prime p.

Transnationalism And Identity: The Concept Of Community In Ghanaian Literature And Contemporary Ghanaian Culture, Devin M. Geary

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I use anthropology, literature, and adinkra, an indigenous art, to study Ghanaian concepts of community from an interactive standpoint. While each of these disciplines has individually been used to study the concept of community, the three have not previously been discussed in relation to one another. I explore the major findings of each field—mainly that in anthropology, transnational informants find communities upheld; in literature, transnational characters find the opposite; and in adinkra, there are elements of both continuity and dissolution—to discuss Ghanaian constructs of community in the transnational world. Throughout time, there have always been transnational individuals …

Food Safety Attitudes In College Students, Rachelle Booth

Honors Theses

College students are one of the most at-risk population groups for food poisoning, due to risky food safety behaviors. Using the Likert Scale, undergraduate students were asked to participate in a Food Safety Survey which was completed by 499 students ages 18-25. Data was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS statistical software. Four conceptual definitions regarding food safety were defined as: general food safety, bacterial food safety, produce food safety, and politics associated with food safety. Knowledge seems to be an important factor in shaing student's attitudes regarding general and bacterial activity. Ethnicity plays a role in how people view the …

Exercise Dependence And Eating Disorders Among College Students, Shelli Meulemans

Honors Theses

Background. Excessive exercise can become an addiction known as exercise dependence (ED). -- Findings. We used the Exercise Scale Test (EDS-21) and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) to assess the prevalence of ED and eating disorders. We discovered that out of 520 participants, 3.3% could be characterized as at-risk for ED, 51.5% as nondependent-symptomatic, and 45.2% as nondependent-asymptomatic. The prevalence of being at-risk for eating disorders was approximately 8%. -- Conclusions. It seems that the prevalence of ED and eating disorders at Andrews University is similar to the general population.

Sustainability In School Architecture: Learning From Tradition And Modernity, Jose Quezada

Honors Theses

The terms "sustainability," "sustainable." or "green" are often used to define products or processes that ironically result in limited or negative environmental benefits. Today, our contemporary building construction industry tends to solve environmental performance issues with technological solutions that in some instances have become superficial "green" practices. At times, they lead to counterproductive outcomes and tend to disregard environmental lessons and processes used in the historical buidling traditions. The best traditional architecture responds to local environmental issues using the generational lessons from the past and present. The goal of this thesis is to identify how the best sustainable building practices …

The Discriminating Mother : Own V. Alien And Male V. Female, Eric Mcdaniel

Honors Theses

The Discriminating Mother: Own v. Alien and Male v. Female It is o en stated that one of the greatest bonds that exists is between mother and child. Previous research has shown that mothers experience modi cations in their brain chemistry and structure due to the e ects of pregnancy, parturition, and motherhood in animal models (Lambert & Kinsley, 2012). If an individual cannot have children of her own she may chose to adopt a child to l ll that niche and rge a similar bond. One may ask, however, whether this bond between mother and child is equivalent in …

Elucidation Of B-N And B-P Stretching Vibrations Using Raman Spectroscopy And Electronic Structure Calculations, Dana Nicole Reinemann

Honors Theses

Boron-nitrogen (B-N) and boron-phosphorus (B-P) dative bond stretching vibrational frequencies were studied using vibrational spectroscopic methods and electronic structure calculations. There has been a great controversy over the assignment of B-N dative bond vibrational frequencies for many years with a range of inconsistent assignments in the literature. The B-N dative bond stretching frequency in N-methyliminodiacetic acid (MIDA) esters was analyzed here using infrared, Raman, and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic methods and compared to the results of electronic structure calculations employing the MP2 and M06-2X methods with a triple zeta basis set. The mode including the B-N stretching motion proved to …

Your Body Is A Temple: Type-2 Diabetes In Mississippi And The Potential Role Of The Black Church In Diabetes Education And Intervention, Jonathon Troy Jackson

Honors Theses

Type-2 diabetes and obesity are two major health complications that are affecting many Mississippians, namely the African American population. A substantial amount of research has been conducted that explains the high prevalence rate of type-2 diabetes and obesity in the African American community as partially due to many secondary factors, including the Southern cuisine, food scarcity, physical inactivity, and poverty. Recently, efforts to reach the African American population about diabetes education and prevention in other Southern states have been directed to faith-based organizations. Researchers have hoped that faith-based intervention might be better suited at helping a wider audience in a …

Into The Magic Mirror: The Narratives That Reflect Our Lives And Dictate How We Should Live, Chany Fehr Buchanan

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the influence fairytales have on society, how they dichotomously reflect cultural worldviews yet set standards for appropriate behavior and prescribe hegemonic ideologies. It specifically explores the fairytales told in America over the last couple of centuries, examining how those stories have evolved in correlation with the shifting values of the country. Each chapter lays a foundation for how certain characters are normally portrayed in fairytale tradition - the hero, the beauty, and the villain - and then evaluates how our culture has Americanized those figures, consequently making each of them less idealistic or archetypal and evolution of …

The Effect Of Extended Durations Of Walking In Different Footwear On Measures Of Muscle Activity, Kacie Brooke Childers

Honors Theses

In 2010, nearly 3.1 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported among private industry employers resulting in an incidence rate of 3.5 cases per 100 full time workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the fatal occupational injuries in 2010, 14% were attributed to falls. Forty-five percent of falls have been attributed to inappropriate footwear, and occupationally induced muscle fatigue has been identified as a contributing factor to falls. Different footwear types have been shown to effect muscle fatigue levels during walking and standing. In an occupational setting, workers generally endure relatively small workloads for extended durations. …

The Effect Of Calcium Concentration And Ph Levels On The Proteolysis Of The Two-Domain Neural-Cadherin Construct, Matthew Lafayette Dove

Honors Theses

Neural Cadherin (NCAD) Is a classical cadherin that plays a critical role In synaptogenesis and regulation of synaptic plasticity. One of Its characteristics as a classical cadherin Is Its calcium-dependent resistance to proteolytic cleavage. However, Candida albicans, the most common fungal pathogen of humans, has a virulence mechanism In which host tissue Is Invaded by degrading cadherin with secreted aspartyl proteases (SAPs). To Investigate the conditions In which this Invasive species proteolyzes cadherin, we used a-chymotrypsin as a model protease and the first two domains of Neural Cadherin (NCAD12). We performed time-dependent, Ca^^- dependent, and pH-dependent proteolysis of NCAD12 to …