Digital Commons Network^™

Policy Library- 130 Delegation And Authority Of The President And Presidential Succession, Indiana State University, General Counsel

Policy Library

Policy 130 Delegation and Authority of the President and Presidential Succession

Policy Library- 170 University Committees, Indiana State University, General Counsel

Policy Library

Policy 170 University Committees

Policy Library- 310 Faculty Duties And Responsibilities, Indiana State University, General Counsel

Policy Library

Policy 310 Faculty Duties and Responsibilities

Policy Library- 860 University-Related Websites, Indiana State University, General Counsel

Policy Library

Policy 860 University-Related Websites

Policy Library- 910 Right Of Expression, Indiana State University, General Counsel

Policy Library

Policy 910 Right of Expression

Tremblings, May 2024, Western Aspen Alliance

Tremblings

Climate change insurance: planting aspen seedlings as fuel breaks

Catherine Schloegel, Program Manager, The Nature Conservancy, Boulder, Colorado

Jordan Mead, Resource Specialist, Summit County Open Space and Trails Department, Frisco, Colorado

As climate impacts accelerate, mountain communities living near forested areas across the West will be at increasing risk of more frequent wildfires. To protect neighborhoods from high-severity wildfires, land managers frequently clear strips of forest around homes and roads. We examined the potential to plant true aspen seedlings in these fuel breaks to increase habitat diversity while maintaining a reduced risk of wildfire. Historically, aspen has acted as a …

"Facing My Own Misogyny": A Content Analysis Of Personal Essays On The Subreddit R/Exredpill, Aj Siegel

RhetTech

Digital misogyny, perhaps better known as the Red Pill or the manosphere, has been growing in popularity and, in doing so, spreading anti-woman and toxic masculinity. This community has existed for years, but as figures like Andrew Tate bring it into public consciousness, there is a severe lack of investigation into the possibility of rehabilitating from this ideology. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the subreddit r/ExRedPill, which is a support group for people trying to unlearn this form of misogyny. It explores a particular genre on the subreddit—personal essays—in which community members detail their experiences in …

Evaluating The Applicability Of Hernando De Soto's Theories In Context Of Bangladesh's Informal Housing Sector, Md Mohotasim R. Khan

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This research project examines Bangladesh's urban informal housing sector, aiming to understand the dynamics considering Hernando de Soto's theories, as articulated in "The Other Path." With 52% of urban residents living in slums, the study adopts a mixed-method approach, analyzing De Soto's framework, conducting literature reviews, case studies, and utilizing secondary data on urban informal housing. The objective is to identify structural and operational aspects of informal housing in Bangladesh and compare these with De Soto's observations in Peru. The significance is underscored by its focus on socio-economic perspectives, offering insights into the informal housing sector's impact on development indicators. …

Urban Harmony: Exploring The Interplay Of New Urbanism Qualities On Economic Prosperity And Psychological Wellbeing In Contemporary Cities, Crew T. Borgeson

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Now that most people live in urban places, answering which urbanism best provides citizen well-being becomes increasingly important. After nearly a century of suburban development, the significant drawbacks of urban sprawl are widely documented, namely the unsustainability and social impacts they incur. Many American cities, however, continue to chiefly expand in this way. What if cities were to make decisions not based on the status quo of today’s building codes but instead drew inspiration from great historical cities, applying their lessons to the unique challenges of the 21st century?

The New Urbanism movement aims to identify and incorporate the elements …

Promoting Due Diligence: The Role Of The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, And Information Security Standards On Financial Institutions Protecting Consumers' Non-Public Personal Information (Npi), Thomas G. Caballero

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) protects consumer financial privacy and limits what information can be disclosed by a financial institution to non-affiliated third parties. In accordance with the GLBA, the FTC is required to enforce the Privacy of Consumer Financial Information Rule. This thesis uses information from scholarly peer-reviewed articles and reports on compliance standards in storing consumer non-public data and data breaches to depict the current impact of information security compliance in the financial sector. Supported by statistics and quantitative analysis in the areas of cybersecurity laws and industry standards that promote the due diligence of compliance efforts in protecting …

Improving Breast Cancer Patients’ Disclosure Practices In The Workplace Through An Elearning Intervention- An Analysis On Interview Data From An Existing Intervention, Daniela E. Loya-Rivera

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Breast cancer diagnoses are rising yearly in the United States; these diagnoses among the 18–45-year-old age group means that many employed women are affected. Previous breast cancer disclosure interventions identify challenges faced following the diagnosis, as well as common themes and aspects in the breast cancer disclosure process in the workplace, however few have approached the process holistically. A pre-existing study conducted by faculty researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington originally planned to examine how individuals with breast cancer perceived the feasibility and acceptability of a theory-driven eLearning intervention on disclosure at work. The focus of this study …

The Mercy Of Saint Seraphim By Ivan Shmelyov: An Original English Translation, Nina Tarpley

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The Russian writer Ivan Shmelyov (1872-1950) is acclaimed not only in Russia, but also widely throughout Europe for his novels, short stories, and fairytales written with a marked depth of meaning, beauty, and expression. He wrote and published throughout his entire life ~ from the pre-revolutionary years in Russia, into the years of the Revolution, and eventually as an émigré in Europe. Although Shmelyov is celebrated throughout Russia and Europe both in academic and public circles, he is little known to the American people, and English-speaking peoples. In academic circles, scholarship on Shmelyov in the English language is extremely limited. …

Navigate The World Of Rfid: Diversity, Capabilities, And Constraints Of Readers And Tags, Rachana Pandey

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, a method for storing and retrieving data through electromagnetic transmission to an RFID tag, is revolutionizing inventory and asset management in various sectors, including healthcare. This research explores the applications of RFID in a medical setting. It assesses various RFID readers and tags, focusing on their functional capabilities, ranges, and limitations within a medical environment. Employing a comprehensive approach, the study integrates an extensive literature review, comparative analysis, and empirical data from both experimental simulations and real-world healthcare scenarios. The aim is to identify RFID solutions that optimize surgical equipment management, thereby enhancing both operational efficiency …

Synthesis Of Diallyl Silane For Biomedical Applications, Sybil Asher

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Several drugs have a limited ability to dissolve in water, making it challenging for them to be absorbed by the body and reach their intended tissues. Although silicon can increase hydrophobicity it is not well known. By incorporating silicon into the drug's composition, its solubility and permeability will increase, enabling effective absorption and widespread distribution throughout the body. The goal of this research is the development of 4-silicon 1,7 heptene (diallylsilane) which incorporates silicon into its structure. The approach to achieve this goal will be to use dichlorosilane as an electrophile and react it with allyl magnesium bromide (CH2CHCH2MgBr), a …

Establishing Employee Sense Of Belonging In A Busy Work Environment, Zoe A. Rodriguez

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This honors thesis capstone project explores the concept of an employee’s sense of belonging within a busy work environment. A department within ABC Company faces operational challenges regarding their daily tasks. The Honors contribution addresses the comparison between the busy work environment at ABC Company and existing literature to provide scholarly-supported recommendations and mitigation strategies for ABC Company. Existing literature underscores the importance of understanding contributing influences on an employee’s sense of belonging within the workplace. The honors contribution adds value by closing the information gap within companies that operate under a busy work environment and strategies of how to …

Effectivity Analysis Of Recommendation Algorithm: A Comparative Study Of The Performance Of A Hybrid Model And An Individual Recommendation Algorithm, Saniah Safat

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This study explores the effectiveness of a hybrid recommendation system for e-commerce by integrating content-based, collaborative, and popularity-based models. Traditional individual algorithms have inherent limitations, such as handling new users or items data sparsity and ensuring relevance and diversity in suggestions. The hybrid model seeks to overcome these challenges by leveraging the strengths of all three methods, thus potentially offering more precise, personalized product suggestions. The performance of each model and its integration into a hybrid system are evaluated through logistic regression analysis. Initial results indicate that the hybrid system significantly outperforms the individual models in terms of accuracy and …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Microbiology Undergraduate Students' Academic Performance At The University Of Texas At Arlington, Mohamed S. Abdalati

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to higher education, impacting students' academic performance. This study investigates the effects of the pandemic on microbiology undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) A retrospective cohort study design was employed, analyzing academic records of 3,059 microbiology undergraduate students from 2020 to 2022. Results indicate a significant decline in academic performance for both cohorts of general and nursing microbiology students during spring 2020 and 2022. A literature review explored the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic performance during the pandemic. Literature shows students of lower economic status experienced more …

Christianity And Covid-19: Comparing Dallas-Fort Worth Churches' Conflicting Pandemic Responses, Steven Andrew Shaw

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw global confusion from individuals, organizations, and governments alike. Religious institutions, able to influence the attitudes of mass congregations, were not excluded. This research studies how Christian churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex navigated the pandemic in vastly different ways, following widely opposing lockdown procedures and holding conflicting views on COVID-19 vaccines. After Texas’s initial restrictions on in person gatherings in March 2020, the 101 churches in this study relied on social media to communicate to their congregations about their responses to COVID-19. These social media pages, acting as …

An Office Of Their Own: First Ladies And Their Changing Influence On American Society, Imogen Dauphine Hofer

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Changing societal roles and expectations have dictated the lives of women throughout history. Though the nature of such norms varies by time and place, gendered ideologies have always shaped women’s opportunities. The wives of American presidents are no different. As women, they were impacted by these social ideals, but as First Ladies, they were also placed in a unique position to effect change in U.S. society. This paper discusses the effects of shifts in gender roles on the power, influence, or control by examining the experience of a First Lady from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. I posit that …

Investigating Rural Traffic Dynamics: A Traffic Study On E 2nd Street Intersection’S Behavior And Safety, Ma Anjelika Rose T. Pineda

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Traffic studies guide engineers in designing road networks to ensure smooth traffic flow and public safety. Such studies assess the need for traffic control devices to manage vehicle flow safely and efficiently. This is crucial at intersections which pose high risks of collision and congestion. A traffic analysis at the intersection of Island Grove and E 2nd Street on the FM-4 roadway in Cleburne, TX was conducted to evaluate the sufficiency of the current traffic control device. TxDOT warrants and standards and a field study were utilized and performed to justify the substitution for a traffic signal at the intersection. …

The Effect Of Academic Self-Efficacy On Sleep And Academic Performance: A Moderation Analysis, Nhien Nguyen An La

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

While research acknowledges the independent effects of sleep and self-efficacy on academic outcomes, the potential moderating role of academic self-efficacy (ASE) on the relationship between sleep and academic success remains unexplored. Academic self-efficacy has been consistently associated with students' motivation, goal setting, and resilience, while sleep quality predicts cognitive functioning and memory consolidation. Thus, this project addressed the gaps in the literature by examining these three variables collectively among 371 UTA college students using a cross-sectional survey design. Results suggested that among the subscales of ASE, only ASE academic performance in class significantly predicted academic performance (p < .001), while sleep quality and the remaining three subscales did not. Additionally, ASE interaction at school was found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between sleep and academic performance (p < .001). The findings of this study could have implications for educational interventions aimed at enhancing student achievement and promoting self-efficacy in academic settings.

Ratings Creep: The Increase In Offensive Content In Movies Over Time, Alexandria N. Tatum

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Aggression, influenced by a range of factors including media exposure, remains a significant societal concern. Drawing from Bandura's social cognitive theory, it is important to examine violence in media because its exposure can have a long-term effect on the viewers. Furthermore, studies suggest a correlation between media exposure and aggressive behavior, emphasizing the need for comprehensive analysis of content portrayal. To regulate exposure to offensive content, movies are usually ranked using the MPAA’s rating system. Yet, there has been an observed ratings creep in this system (i.e., the progressive escalation of offensive content in films). The current study hypothesizes that …

Global Perspective On Child Abuse: Socioeconomic Influence And Reporting Systems, Ifeoluwa N. Ayandiji

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Methane Cracking Technologies For Hydrogen Production And Reduction Of Greenhouse Gases, Alisa E. Pjetrovic

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Methane reformation and methane pyrolysis involve separating, or cracking, the components of methane, leading to the production of hydrogen gas, and in the case of pyrolysis, solid carbon. Because methane is known as a leading cause of climate change, these technologies are gaining attention as the global community moves to address methane as a greenhouse gas. This study aims to assess, through a systematic literature review, the current state-of-the-art methane cracking technologies based on seven technology criteria: hydrogen production capability, environmental impact, value of carbon produced, reaction stability, operating temperature requirements, energy requirements, and Technology Readiness Level (TRL). This study …

Stem Cell Potency: Automated Vs. Manual Segmentation In Adipogenic Differentiation, Zachary Armstrong

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Important cell processes can be captured and analyzed with live-cell imaging followed by computational analysis. Current methods of microscopy image analysis involve manually segmenting cells, often done by multiple researchers, which is time-consuming and can limit the accuracy and throughput of the desired data. By implementing deep learning algorithms, captured images can be automatically segmented which greatly reduces the time required to do so and can possibly improve the accuracy of desired data. A newly developed deep learning algorithm pipeline, Lipid Locator, will be utilized to automatically segment acquired images of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC). More specifically, ADSC with fluorescently …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Consumer Tastes, Preferences, And Purchasing Behavior, Abbey Jin Beeck

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in the global consumer landscape, particularly in the realm of apparel. This project delves into the crucial importance of understanding the multifaceted effects of COVID-19 on consumer behavior within the apparel industry. The research explores the dynamic shifts in consumer tastes, preferences, and purchasing habits in response to the pandemic, shedding light on their far-reaching consequences. In addition, the pandemic has disrupted traditional retail formats, leading to store closures and reduced foot traffic. This has pushed retailers to innovate by integrating technology and providing unique in-store experiences to attract customers back to …

Investigation Of The Impact Of Neighborhood Environments On Alzheimer’S Disease And Alzheimer’S Disease-Related Dementias (Ad/Adrd), Darashagam Nahal

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

There is an increased interest in understanding the impact of neighborhood environments on cognitive functioning, cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). Surprisingly, there has yet to be a comprehensive review that consolidates the findings from studies conducted in this specific field. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively investigate the influence of eight neighborhood environments on AD/ADRD. The seven key neighborhood environments that are investigated in this study include: i) socioeconomic status, ii) food environments, iii) physical activity resources, iv) social cohesion, v) crime, vi) non-crime safety, and vii) healthcare services. This research conducts a …

Queering The Beginning: A Poetic Exploration Of Genesis And Creation, Bradford C. Huddleston

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The Bible is one of the most influential texts in Western literature, shaping literature, politics, and culture since its introduction. The book of Genesis contains some of the most iconic stories from the Bible, such as the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Flood, and the Tower of Babel. This project will break down the text through literary analysis and the creation of a poetry collection to reveal how the text understands and explores the concept of queerness. The Book of Genesis contains a variety of queer concepts that are often neglected by traditional Biblical scholarship. This poetry collection aims to queer …

Latinas In A Hispanic Serving Institution: A Social, Political, And Economic Landscape, Cyntia Lopez Lara

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The purpose of this study is to explore the progress of Latinas in the United States by focusing on first-generation female students in a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) who self-identify as Hispanic and/or Latin American. Furthermore, this study considers the contributing factors to their change and development, primarily through education. This study focuses on the shared and unique experiences of being first generation Mexican-America through the Latina experience in higher education. The research questions are: (1) What career fields do Latin American and Hispanic women pursue? (2) What impact do role models, gender roles, and culture have on their career …

Anxious Scrolling: Prosocial Behavior Social Media Content Implications, Brianda P. Rocha Hernandez

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This study explores the effects of exposure to prosocial social media videos on anxiety. In this modern age of social media, many people have reported that their mental health is negatively influenced by social media. Many social media videos that millions of people are exposed to could contain hateful or dangerous content that can negatively impact a person’s mental state. Past research has not mentioned the effects of prosocial social media videos on anxiety, but related papers have been published. Prosocial behavior is behavior that is described as helpful, and positive, and promotes a welcoming social community. In related research, …