Digital Commons Network^™

Form-Blindness And Its Implications: A Verification Study, Meredith G. Moody

Honors Theses

Form-blindness is not an eye problem. It is a perceptual inability to distinguish the small differences between shapes, colors, and patterns. This research examines this phenomenon by using a previously-established exam to study form-blindness and its implications. Demographic variables such as age, major, GPA, and sex are also looked at to see what potential impact they might have on a person’s performance on the exam. The form-blindness tests administered during this study were graded and then analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. In the end, no statistical significance was found for the demographic variables of age, GPA, major, …

Making Mississippi Cool: Craft Beer And The Creative Economy, Katherine E. Hogan

Honors Theses

The goal of this research is to define and explore two main constructs within Mississippi: craft beer as a phenomenon and the creative economy. As the two play a large role in many aspects of Mississippi’s culture and economy, characteristics of the two have the capability of interconnecting and building off the other. In this study, both craft beer and the creative economy in Mississippi will examined. The findings of this study will answer the question: is there a relationship between the the craft beer phenomenon and the creative economy?

A Tale Of Two Lakes: A Multi-Proxy Comparison Of Lateglacial And Holocene Environmental Change In Cappadocia, Turkey, Neil Roberts, Samantha L. Allcock, Fabien Arnaud, Jonathan R. Dean, Warren J. Eastwood, Matthew D. Jones, Melanie J. Leng, Sarah E. Metcalfe, Emmanuel Malet, Jessie Woodbridge, H Yigitbasioglu

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

No abstract provided.

Describing Barriers To Healthcare Access In The Homer Area, Alaska, Lisa M. Zatz

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Data on healthcare access barriers are lacking for any location in the state of Alaska. The current project set out to describe the barriers to healthcare access experienced by people living in the rural Homer Area of southcentral Alaska. Of the 124 surveys returned 50 (46%) of the respondents identified cost, lack of specialists, transportation, time, and mistrust/dislike of providers as barriers that had kept them from accessing local heathcare in the previous 12 months. Improving healthcare access for this rural population will require a paradigm shift in how we think about healthcare. Novel approaches to when, where, and how …

Dating Late Quaternary Alluvial Fills In The Platte River Valley Using Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating, Jacob C. Bruihler

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alluvial fills underlying the Platte River Valley in Nebraska record the geologic history of the Platte River in the late Quaternary. This study investigated the alluvium underlying the valley near the cities of North Platte and Kearney, Nebraska. Data obtained from sediment cores drilled in the alluvial deposits was used to investigate the changes in Platte River dynamics on a glacial – interglacial timescale. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating was used to determine burial ages of recovered sediments and to quantify the thicknesses of the late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial fills at each study area. Our geochronology depicts considerable differences …

The Social Side Of Software Platform Ecosystems, Cleidson R. B. Da Souza, Fernando Figueira Filho, Müller Miranda, Renato Pina Ferreira, Christoph Treude, Leif Singer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software ecosystems as a paradigm for large-scale software development encompass a complex mix of technical, business, and social aspects. While significant research has been conducted to understand both the technical and business aspects, the social aspects of software ecosystems are less well understood. To close this gap, this paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at understanding the influence of social aspects on developers’ participation in software ecosystems. We conducted 25 interviews with mobile software developers and an online survey with 83 respondents from the mobile software development community. Our results point out a complex social system based …

Uncanny Conversations: Depictions Of The Supernatural In Dialogue Lieder Of The Nineteenth Century, Delane J. Boyd

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

This thesis seeks to communicate the ways in which supernatural beings were musically depicted in dialogue Lieder of the Romantic era. Through analyses of a selection of nineteenth-century German art songs featuring both human and non-human participants within the textual conversations, this study endeavors to identify musical techniques composers used to distinguish between supernatural and mortal speech in songs presented as dialogues while composed for a solo singer. The document is organized into three sections. The first establishes a historical framework for the supernatural dialogue Lied through discussion of the context of German Romanticism, the roots of the prevalence of …

The Effect Of A Self-Regulated Vocabulary Intervention On Word Knowledge, Reading Comprehension, And Self-Regulated Learning For Elementary English Language Learners, Qizhen Deng

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

English language learners (ELLs) represent an increasing population in U.S. public schools. Research reports from the past two decades suggest a persistent reading underachievement for ELLs. Academic vocabulary knowledge, due to its frequent use in academic texts, contributes significantly to ELL children’s English language development, reading comprehension, and general academic achievement. However, a gap of vocabulary knowledge exists between ELLs and their mainstream peers. One potential approach to address this issue is to help ELLs become mastery independent and proactive word learners. This study examined the effect of a researcher-led self-regulated vocabulary intervention on word knowledge, reading comprehension, and self-regulated …

Teacher Self-Efficacy In A Classical Christian Environment Versus A Traditional Christian Environment, Emily Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teachers in a classical Christian environment oftentimes are not taught in the classic manner themselves, requiring different training from that in teacher-education programs. This study compared teacher self-efficacy between traditional Christian-education environments and classical Christian-education environments. The purpose of this quantitative study was to discover if teachers’ perceptions of student engagement and instructional practices differ between a classical Christian environment and a traditional Christian environment. The research questions in this study explored whether teachers perceptions in traditional or classical education settings significantly differed with regard to student-engagement and instructional-strategies self-efficacy. This study was a causal-comparative quantitative research study with a …

Sources Of Information On The Trans-Pacific Partnership, Barbara H. Garavaglia

Articles

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a free trade agreement between 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. The agreement, signed by the U.S. and other participating countries in Auckland, New Zealand on February 4, 2016, “promotes economic integration to liberalise trade and investment” and “bring economic growth” to the region and participating countries. One reason for the sense of uncertainty, unease, and concern surrounding free trade agreements in general and the TPP in particular is that the negotiations are not public and …

Whiteness In Contemporary Feminist Campaigns : Free The Nipple., Laura Patterson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Algorithmic Settlements, Benjamin Anderson-Nelson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The position of the architect when designing is to arbitrate which information is relevant and which is not, and to do so across a broad spectrum of fields. Considering this, Christopher Alexander claimed as long ago as 1964, that “design problems are reaching insoluble levels of complexity.” This thesis focuses on informal settlement growth and how architects can investigate growth as a part of master-planning new housing. Drawing on case studies of settlements, video game logics, and existing architectural tools, a tool was developed to study the growth of settlements. This tool is based on cellular automata, a spatial and …

Reclaiming Identities: Intercultural Bilingual Education In Peru And Bolivia, Emily Malina

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project involves analyzing indigenous intercultural bilingual education (IBE) and the reclaimation of identity. The intercultural nature of IBE models has the potentional to cause an ideological transformation and reclamation of culture through indigenous autonomy and inclusion in nation-building processes. Through comparing the histories of Peru and Bolivia, it becomes evident that there is a correlation between historic polity structures and the successful implementation of IBE.

In Pursuit Of My Eye: A Book Of Photographs, Amanda Piela

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This book progresses chronologically through photos that represent pivotal moments in my life. I carefully selected the photos I have included in the book from thousands of photographs that I had never so much as even looked at after I shot them and dumped them onto hard drives. The book functions as a way to organize my journey through photography and extrapolate on what I have learned over the years. I refer to teachers, professors, peers and advisors that have influenced me in countless ways as well as friends that have modeled for me and supported me over the years. …

Arab Women In Development: A Postcolonial Legacy, Rachel Bass

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The way in which women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have been portrayed in international development and rights discourse is based on a narrow, ahistorical view of Arab/Muslim majority societies, which exhibits an overconfidence in the discipline of economics and the ideology of neoliberalism, or free-market economics. Based on arguments presented by anthropologists, feminist economists, geographers, sociologists, comparative literary scholars and others, I explore in this thesis the legacy of colonialism in MENA in its various incarnations: as physical colonization in the 19^th and 20^th centuries; as suppression of indigenous knowledge in favor of …

Ethnography And Analysis Of The Effects Of Racism And Creating A Black Family Tree, Courtney Garvin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This research looks at the effects slavery and racism has had on the ability to make an accurate family tree. This research is spurred by both the desire to document my family and by the unfortunate events of the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre on June 17th, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. Using archival research, interviews, and family documents to build an accurate family tree, this research looks at the ways in which systematic oppression has played a generational role in my family. By looking at my own family for this research, I look at the stigmas, behavioral, regional, and …

The Ottoman Han: Recovery Of A Lost Typology, Asli B. Germerli

Architecture Senior Theses

Developing countries around the world are coping with rapid population growth, the negative effects of globalization and the resultant political stress. Many of these cities have unique historical heritages and cultural identities that are being compromised by the monoculture and sameness of architecture that has come along with globalization. To preserve this historic fabric and cultural legacy, these cities must be willing to shape their future through self-expression driven by the local context. Yet, change is inevitable. The challenge is to find a balance between safeguarding the historical heritage while building new layers of history. In brief, the challenge is …

The Irish Republican Army Through Film, (1935-2014), Colleen B. Gottfried

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore the evolving relationship between terrorism and its visual representations and what these representations say about the reception of terrorism by audiences all over the world. This study examines thirty movies produced in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland between 1935 and 2014. These films portray different versions of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), an association founded in 1917 with the intent to end British control in Ireland and establish the Republic of Ireland. This thesis examines how concurrent events may have shaped the way filmmakers chose to portray the organization. For instance, if earlier …

The Relationship Between The Intensity Of Raccoon Roundworm Infection And Egg Production, Elizabeth Ritchie

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Look The Other Way, Karl Richard Alexander Jahnke

All Theses

Look the Other Way is a 2d animated short film based on the concept of a bird character evading a rising water level. The work is inspired by the artists Don Hertzfeldt, Bruno Bozzetto, and Matt Groening. The concept and production of the film spanned approximately four months.

Rub Some Dirt In It: Reconstructing Authentic Nineteenth-Century Great Plains' Sod Structures, Jessica Pearl Fortney

All Theses

This thesis addresses the question: What is the best practices for reconstructing sod houses from the nineteenth century that balances authenticity and practicality. After the Homestead Act of 1862, land west of the Mississippi became easier to acquire for farm land. Since there are few trees on the Great Plains, which makes the region ideal for farming, the new settlers employed an alternative building material, sod. The prairie sod was cut into bricks and stacked to form a structure. Structures that were dug out of a hill or ravine were called dugouts and others were structures with four walls built …

German Perceptions Of Poland And Russia In The Early Modern Period, George R. Stevens Jr.

All Theses

This thesis examines the views of Germans on the people and institutions of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Early Modern period. While German opinions of Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been well researched, there is a gap in the historiography for the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. German perceptions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia ranged from those who stereotyped the East as a backward, uncivilized place to be dominated or changed to those who appreciated and celebrated various aspects of Polish or Russian culture. By analyzing the views of German intellectuals, travelers, rulers …

Framing The Lowcountry: The Evolution Of The Region’S Vernacular Tradition, Brent Russell Fortenberry

All Theses

Timber-framing systems are the foundation of Early Modern vernacular architecture traditions. The fabrication, construction, and finish details of such assemblies are indexes of the character-defining features of building practices and the wider socio-cultural context. The Lowcountry of South Carolina is no exception. From the late seventeenth-century onwards builders from Old World traditions came together to erect unrivalled British edifices in the colonial and Early Republic periods. While other scholars have closely scrutinized and interpreted the framing traditions of the Chesapeake and New England, there has yet to be a consideration of the nature and evolution of the Lowcountry’s framing. Bringing …

Revisiting Critical Gis, Jim Thatcher, Luke Bergmann, Britta Ricker, Reuben Rose-Redwood, Daniel O'Sullivan, Trevor J. Barnes, Luke R. Barnesmoore, Laura Beltz Imaoka, Ryan Burns, Jonathan Cinnamon, Craig M. Dalton, Clinton Davis, Stuart Dunn, Francis Harvey, Jin-Kyu Jung, Elen Kersten, Ladona Knigge, Nick Lally, Wen Lin, Dillon Mahmoudi, Michael Martin, Will Payne, Amir Sheikh, Taylor Shelton, Eric Sheppard, Chris W. Strother, Alexander Tarr, Matthew W. Wilson, Jason C. Young

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article looks into the critical geographic information science (GIS) in approaching questions both emerging and enduring around the intersection of the spatial and the digital. It offers trading zones for discussion of issues, for building alliances and interrogating tensions, and for a constant dialectical process of critique and renewal. One tension running through critical GIS is the contradictory role it has played in addressing questions of social justice.

Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea L.) Seed Germination And Whole Plant Growth Response To Heat Stress And Association Mapping Of Bolting, Tallness And Erectness For Use In Spinach Breeding, Jessica Chitwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effect of temperature on spinach seed germination was evaluated using a total of nine spinach genotypes and seven temperatures: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 32, and 35 oC in growth chambers. Genetic variation was observed. ‘Donkey’, ‘Marabu’, and ‘Raccoon’ showed higher seed germination percentage with over 70% at 30 and 32 oC, indicating the three spinach genotypes had heat-tolerance for germination. However, all spinach genotypes except ‘Ozarka II’ had lower germination percentages of less than 30% while ‘Ozarka II’ had 63% at 35 oC, indicating ‘Ozarka II’ may be a source of heat-tolerance for seed germination.

Seed germination may …

Trade And Transport In Late Roman Syria, Christopher Wade Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the relative notoriety and miraculous level of preservation of the Dead Cities of Syria, fundamental questions of economic and subsistence viability remain unanswered. In the 1950s Georges Tchalenko theorized that these sites relied on intensive olive monoculture to mass export olive oil to urban centers. Later excavations discovered widespread cultivation of grains, fruit, and beans which directly contradicted Tchalenko’s assertion of sole reliance on oleoculture. However, innumerable olive presses in and around the Dead Cities still speak to a strong tradition of olive production. This thesis tests the logistical viability of olive oil transportation from the Dead Cities to …

Divining The Southwest: Liminality, Pragmatism, And Regionalism In "Death Comes For The Archbishop", Alex C. Blomstedt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work aims to explore the themes of pragmatism and liminality, particularly as they pertain to spirituality, in Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop. By taking an interdisciplinary critical approach to the novel, I will synthesize its spiritual affect into a sensibility called “pragmatic liminality.” Finally, I will connect this sensibility to other works in the Southwestern literary canon and elucidate the foundational importance that pragmatic liminality has to the Southwestern “sense of place” and its role in the larger narratives of regionalism in American literature.

Geospatial Analysis Of Droughts, Rice And Wheat Production, And Agrarian Vulnerability: A District-Level Study Of The Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index In India, Aaron Michael Shew

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Droughts have affected more people than any other natural disaster in the last century, causing billions in economic damages and millions of deaths. As the Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) have heated in the Indian Ocean, drought patterns across South Asia have changed; the Indian monsoon has become more volatile and less predictable. In this study, monthly self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (sc-PDSI) data for the time period between 1950 and 2009 were interpolated to India’s districts; then the data were analyzed for changes in frequency and severity. The data were further evaluated using Anselin’s Local Moran’s I Statistic to elicit …

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry Analysis Of Ground Deformation Within The Coso Geothermal Site, California, Erik Vaughn Brawner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Earth’s surface movement may cause as a potential hazard to infrastructure and people. Associated earthquake hazards pose a potential side effect of geothermal activity. Modern remote sensing techniques known as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) can measure surface change with a high degree of precision to mm scale movements. Previous work has identified a deformation anomaly within the Coso Geothermal site in eastern California. Surface changes have not been analyzed since the 1990s, allowing a decade of geothermal production impact to occur since previously assessed. In this study, InSAR data was acquired and analyzed between the years 2005 and 2010. …

Telling New Tales: Modernizations Of Chaucer In The Eighteenth Century, Eric Duane Larson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Any review of medieval culture and literature in the British eighteenth century requires some consideration for the modernizations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Effectively a collaboration that spanned the entire century, this project began with Dryden and Pope and continued in earnest with lesser-known poets like George Ogle and William Lipscomb. The resulting modernization of every Chaucerian tale between 1700 and 1795 revisits medieval themes, but it also displays contemporary anxieties through presentations of language, content, style, and rhetorical intent that are sometimes vastly different from Chaucer’s originals.

The modernization project is worthy of study, in particular because it reflects, across …