Digital Commons Network^™

Functionalized Nanodiamonds As Binding Platforms For Single-Stranded Dna, Mallory A. Chapman

Honors Theses

Nanodiamonds (NDs) offer a promising platform for biomolecular applications due to their stability, biocompatibility, and three-dimensional structure. This study focused on developing a nanodiamond–DNA complex in which streptavidin-functionalized NDs would form a protective shell around biotinylated single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), creating a core–shell system like an “M&M” candy with DNA at the center and a protective coating on the outside. DNA has many uses in nanotechnology, including DNA origami, nanomachines, and drug delivery systems, but its degradation limits its practical use, making protective strategies essential.

ND–DNA conjugates were prepared using biotin–streptavidin interactions and analyzed using gel electrophoresis. Initial separation on agarose …

The Influence Of Ole Miss And Nil On Local Business Strategy In Oxford, Mississippi, Benjamin D. Blossom Mr.

Honors Theses

This thesis argues that while NIL policies have introduced new financial and promotional dynamics, the relationship between the University of Mississippi athletics and the Oxford business community is still primarily shaped by long-standing, collaborative practices. The study focuses on how NIL is influencing these established relationships and the economic landscape of a college town where the university acts as a major economic driver. Through six in-depth interviews with Oxford business owners across retail, hospitality, food service, and events, the research finds that athletics, and football in particular, fuel much of the city’s economic activity. However, businesses see NIL-driven endorsements as …

Community Composition Of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria On The Mississippi Gulf Coast, Marisa Martin, Colin Jackson

Honors Theses

The Mississippi Gulf Coast is an important resource for transportation, economic development, and recreation. Given its economic and cultural importance, it is crucial to maintain clean and safe conditions along the coast for public health, but other than routine beach monitoring, few studies have examined microbial contamination of coastal waters in this region. This study aimed to determine the quantity, composition, and distribution of bacteria resistant to six different antibiotics (Vancomycin, Kanamycin, Tetracycline, Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, or Amoxicillin) in seawater at seven public beaches along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. No bacteria resistant to Ciprofloxacin were detected, and bacteria resistant to Kanamycin …

Prematurity And Special Education: Raising Awareness Of The Connections Between Preterm Births And Special Education, Nadia R. Corder

Honors Theses

In this thesis, the goal was to find the link, if any, between prematurity and special education, with regards to probability of special education and outcomes, and to create a means of professional development for not only special education teachers about prematurity risks and effects on students but also parental education about the possible procedures of their child’s education. This is accomplished through the organization of infographic pamphlets for parents and an online professional development presentation. Both these formats are compliant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility parameters. A literature review was conducted to achieve this goal using …

The Isoperimetric Inequality And Wirtinger’S Inequality, Mason Neal

Honors Theses

In this thesis, we present Hurwitz’s proof of the Isoperimetric Inequality, which roughly states that the area enclosed by a simple closed curve is always less than or equal to the area of a circle with the same perimeter. Hurwitz’s proof relies on Wirtinger’s Inequality. We survey results about periodic functions and Fourier series, and we use them to provide a proof of Wirtinger’s Inequality. We then give a new proof of a variant of Wirtinger’s Inequality due to Alzer and generalize this variant to higher powers.

Empirical Results From The Eliminations Of Municipal Minimum Parking Requirements, David A. Griffith

Honors Theses

Minimum Parking Requirements (MPR) are municipal zoning ordinances mandating a set number of off-street parking spaces for new developments. Since the 1950s, MPR has been the near-universal way American municipalities supply parking, though growing criticisms since the late 1990s have targeted the policy for distorting development patterns, imposing high costs, and subsidizing personal vehicle use. Beginning in the early 2010s and increasingly in the early 2020s, cities and counties across the United States have moved to reform or eliminate MPR. This paper is the first empirical study of the economic effects of these removals. Using a two-way fixed-effects difference-in-differences OLS …

Ready: Piloting An Inclusive Higher Education Program For Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities At The University Of Mississippi, Emily R. Davis

Honors Theses

The University of Mississippi is currently one of the few SEC schools that does not offer an inclusive higher education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs). An initiative to bring inclusive higher education to Ole Miss began as a passion project led by Honors College student Bailey Beaird and continued through 2024. Bailey worked diligently to research and design a model for implementing a four-year inclusive higher education program (IHEP). Ultimately, the decision was made by the administration to postpone advancement of a four-year program due to limited campus resources and concerns surrounding long-term sustainability. Instead, the …

Lifestyle And Activity Patterns Of The Classic Period Maya From Chac Balam And San Juan, Ambergris Caye, Belize, Abigail L. Hornbeck

Honors Theses

Bioarchaeological research often uses skeletal remains to reconstruct patterns of activity and labor in past populations. This study examines potential sex-based differences in long bone morphology among individuals from the Classic Maya sites of Chac Balam and San Juan on Ambergris Caye, Belize. These coastal communities participated in maritime trade networks, and daily activities such as cargo transport, canoe travel, and fishing may have placed distinctive mechanical stresses on the skeleton. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether measurable differences in bone structure between males and females reflect differences in habitual activity patterns.

Two complementary methods were used …

The War On American Consumers, William C. Morrill V

Honors Theses

In this work I seek to discuss the various avenues that consumers have been abused by both individual corporations and wider market trends. I also attempt to shed light on how recent consumer advocacy movements have been gaining momentum to combat these issues. The background information for this work has been collected through years of personal observation of the issues at hand. The areas of technology, automobiles, and agriculture that are featured prominently throughout the essay are all topics of either personal impact to myself and family or things that I have a hobby-like interest in. I have kept up …

The Associations Between Problematic Social Media Use, Social Media Appearance Preoccupation, And Sleep Quality Among Emerging Adults, Lily Gisclair

Honors Theses

Emerging adulthood is a critical developmental window in which significant transitions increase vulnerability to mental health challenges. Additionally, emerging adults are spending large amounts of time on social media sites. Recent literature suggests that problematic social media use and social media appearance preoccupation could all play a role in increased anxiety, depression, and poorer sleep outcomes in young people. However, to our knowledge, few studies have directly examined the associations among all of these variables specifically in the emerging adult population. The current study was designed to examine these associations among 178 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and …

Esports Cosmopolitan Canopy, Reice Hicks

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns the area of sociology. Specifically, it is a sociological study of a community on Ole Miss’s campus and how they form what is known within the sociology field as a “cosmopolitan canopy,” a term coined by Elijah Anderson. Using this term, I proceed to prove not only how the Ole Miss Esports club falls under this jurisdiction, but the effects of esports on the youth as a whole, both positive and negative. All of my data was extracted via literature review, online research, note-taking, visual observation, and one-on-one interviews with people involved with the club. The entire …

The Role Of Media Coverage Of Conflicts In Shaping Public Opinion: Exploring The Cnn Effect In The Russia-Ukraine War, Grace A. Landry

Honors Theses

This study examines how media coverage of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 influenced public opinion and policy discourse in the United States through the lens of the CNN Effect, agenda-setting, and framing. Focusing on the initial reporting is important because it captures a moment of high uncertainty, when audiences and policymakers were most reliant on journalistic framing to interpret the conflict that is still ongoing today. This research utilizes a qualitative content analysis to analyze fifteen news articles from three major U.S. newspapers, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, covering the …

Temporal, Spatial, And Socioeconomic Patterns Of Intimate Partner Violence In Los Angeles, Alexis O. Haiar

Honors Thesis

This study examines temporal, spatial, and socioeconomic patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Los Angeles using a quantitative, data-driven approach. Crime data from the Los Angeles Open Data Portal were analyzed alongside median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau to identify patterns across time, location, and economic conditions. IPV incidents were filtered from the dataset and analyzed using descriptive statistics, data visualization, and statistical modeling techniques. The results indicate that IPV incidents exhibit consistent temporal patterns, with higher frequencies observed during evening hours and on weekends. Monthly and seasonal analyses show variation in overall incident levels, but …

Staff Education To Improve Appointment Adherence In Outpatient Behavioral Health, Yvonne Joseph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Strategies U.S. Defense Industry Government Contractors Use To Train Unskilled Workers, Dartagnan Holmes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

County Policy Enforcement And Fentanyl Overdose Rates In North Carolina, Christopher Lyle Parks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Factors Associated With Depression Among First- And Third-Year Medical Students In The Caribbean And United States, Fernando Juan Quirindongo Belvis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The 2017 U.S. Recognition Decision On Jerusalem: Human Security Implications For Israelis And Palestinians, Joel Patrick Essome Tillard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploring North Carolina’S Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative In Rural Communities, Annie Belle Perry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Effective Strategies Senior Leaders Use To Promote Women In Leadership Positions To Increase Organizational Performance And Profitability, Fedena L. Mathis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploring Male U.S. Veterans’ Experiences After Becoming Estranged From Their Children Following Divorce, Christy Lynn Amacker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The #Blackgirlmagic Of Educational Leadership: Self Identity And Leadership, Sascha Elayne Naa Yarkai Quartey

Educational Leadership Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

The ongoing underrepresentation of Black women in PK–12 principalships and district-level leadership roles impacts equitable representation in educational decision-making spaces and the opportunities for students to see leaders who reflect and affirm their identities. Existing research highlights barriers such as hypervisibility and invisibility (Alfred, 2018), isolation, stereotype threat, and limited mentorship (Dumas, 2022; Julien, 2019), and yet these experiences may not be connected to leadership theory in ways that honor the resilience, cultural knowledge, and transformative practices Black women enact. This study addresses that gap through an autoethnographic examination of a personal leadership journey as a Black woman in PK–12 …

Becoming Mandan: The Collaborative Life History Of Robert O’Brien, Douglas D. Meigs

Sociology and Anthropology Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This thesis examines how separation from—and later discovery of—an Indigenous family and culture shapes ethnic identity formation. Grounded in Charles Horton Cooley’s theory of the looking-glass self, it uses collaborative life history methodology to analyze the process of Indigenous identity formation experienced by Robert O’Brien, a Native American orphan who discovered his Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) heritage as an adult. Drawing on two decades of reflexive research, unstructured interviews, participant observation, and archival documents, the case study shows how O’Brien’s sense of identity developed in response to shifting and often contradictory social mirrors.

Enhancing Community Transitions For Outpatient Behavioral Health Clients, Sylvia Chonya

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Evidence-Based Dementia Communication Strategies Educational Module For Providers, Renie Efuetngu Leke Tazisong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Spiritual Intelligence And Emotional Intelligence On Resilience Among Nurses, Ira Dell Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of The Prapare Social Determinants Of Health Screening Tool, Munachiso Iheonunekwu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Staff Education On Post Discharge Follow Up Care To Improve Staff Knowledge, Collins Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Staff Education Program On Medication Reconciliation In Primary Care With Integrated Pain Clinic, Jemimah Nimako-Mensah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Coherent Breathing As A Stress-Reduction Intervention, Ete Kwegang

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.