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The Hijab In The Quran And Its Effects On Muslim Women In The Western Society, Heba Omar Marzouk

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to present the contextualization of the hijab in the Quran, present the experiences of some Muslim women who wear the hijab, and analyze them through the frameworks of choice feminism and standpoint theory. This thesis consists of two main parts: the documentary and the thesis reflective writing. The writing portion is broken down into two parts: contextualization of the hijab and documentary analysis. The documentary is mostly made up of the responses from the three interviews that were conducted virtually through Zoom. The documentary analysis portion then analyzes the experiences of the three women, …

Perilous Place: Personal Stories Point To Possible Solutions To Widespread Flooding In The Mississippi Delta, Jared Poland

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and create journalistic stories highlighting the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Projects relationship to climate change while utilizing narrative storytelling techniques. Before explaining the methodology used for conducting research and interviews, the researcher describes the influence that innovations of mass communication channels have had on the way humans form groups and persuasively advocate for their positions. The researcher describes their historical perspective of mass media innovations that were vital considerations during their discovery and investigation of this politically divisive issue. The researcher more specifically focuses on the innovations that have occurred since the digital …

The Importance Of A Multidisciplinary Approach To Public Health: Addressing Food Insecurity Through A Biological And Sociological Lens, Chloe Grant

Honors Theses

Plants can sense the change of 1 ^oC in their growth environment and thus global climate change has a great impact on plant growth and development. The phenomenon that warm non-stress temperatures promote stem and petiole elongation, as well as leaf hyponastic growth, is collectively known as thermomorphogenesis. While it is known that the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor PIF4 is highly inducible by temperature elevations and controls thermomorphogenesis in dicots (e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana), the molecular mechanism underlying thermomorphogenetic growth in monocots is not clear. In this study, I identify PIF4 orthologs in several economically important monocotyledonous species and …

Development Of An Integrated Salt Cartridge-Reverse Electrodialysis (Red) Device To Increase Electrolyte Concentrations Of Human Blood Flow To Power Biomedical Devices, Caroline Campbell

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Emerging technologies in nanotechnology and biomedical sciences have led to an increase in biomedical implantable devices including cardiac pacemakers, artificial organs, drug pumps, and sensors. These devices require continuous stable and reliable power to operate, which creates the demand for the need to find a safe, reliable, and stable power source. A promising avenue for a power source for these devices is a miniaturized reverse electrodialysis (RED) biopower cell design that utilizes the salinity differences between bloodstreams that flow inside the human body. Initial results of the RED system demonstrate that higher gradient salinity differences between streams lead to a …

Case Studies Of Various Accounting Concepts, Astha Kandel

Honors Theses

Accountancy students enrolled in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College have an opportunity to choose an honors practicum route instead of writing a regular thesis. The students take two ACCY 420 classes taught by Dr. Victoria Lynn Dickinson as part of the practicum. In those two courses, students gain a better understanding of how accounting works in the real world. The thesis is made up of several cases that cover a variety of accounting theories and methodologies. Students are required to do thorough research while writing the cases and each of those cases is carefully reviewed and evaluated by Dr. …

Being Female And Indigenous: Barriers To Reducing Bolivia's Maternal Mortality Rates Under Evo Morales, Channell Cole

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to answer the question: What are the barriers to attempts to reduce Bolivia’s maternal mortality rate under Evo Morales? While Morales’ presidency began in 2006, the timeline is from 2004 to the present to account for changes due to his policy. Using activity theory and social capital theory, I argue that machismo and racism are two social factors that are barriers to efforts to reduce the maternal mortality rate. Machismo manifests itself uniquely in Bolivia, as I argue through a comparison to Paraguay. Machismo is also riddled with a history of anti-indigenous racism. I examine the Rockefeller …

Examining Construction And Reproduction Of The Educational Opportunity Gap: The Nation’S School Board Members Respond, Hallet Demouy

Honors Theses

This thesis explores opportunity gaps, often related to achievement gaps, in education via the analysis of school board members’ responses regarding challenges that face future education, students, and the public school system. The perceptions of these school board members serve to address the sources, prevalence, and effects of inequities that exist in widening (perpetuating) this gap between students. After discussing and elaborating upon the perceived challenges and barriers located in the institution of education, school board member responses will again be used to present potential ways and opportunities through which the achievement gaps, relating to the success rates and testing …

Pain Management Approaches & Experiences: A Systematic Review Of Racial & Gender Differentials, Ann Hoover

Honors Theses

Health care disparities and the social determinants of health (SDOH) are beginning to integrate into public and political narratives of systemic inequities. Pain management is a wide-reaching domain of health care, with complexities arising from the subjectivity of pain and the implications for clinical care. In this thesis, I conduct a systematic literature review to explore the effects of race and gender on pain assessment, diagnosis, and treatment through a health equity lens. While much of health care disparity research emphasizes the effects on population health outcomes, these findings redirect attention to the tangible impacts of discriminatory encounters and experiences …

‘Con Los Brazos Abiertos’: Venezuelan Migration And The Humanitarian State Under Ecuador's Moreno Administration, Madeline Cook

Honors Theses

In its 2008 Constitution, Ecuador enshrined radically inclusive principles of universal citizenship and legal protections for migrants, written in a moment of historic Ecuadorian emigration. Yet in the wake of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and President Lenin Moreno’s shift towards austerity, how has his administration (2017-2021) responded to the Venezuelan migration in policy and in political discourse? Through an analysis of legal documents including ministerial agreements, legislation, executive decrees, and the VERHU visa, this paper outlines a pattern of legal restrictions levied on Venezuelan migrants. Additionally, this paper employs a qualitative content analysis of the Moreno administration’s political discourse, including …

Assimilation, Association, And Modernism In The Urbanism Of The French Third Republic, Thomas Bleeker

Honors Theses

The regime of settler-colonialism present in Algeria during the French Third Republic (1870-1940) facilitated a certain mythos of Republican French renewal. Given the value French culture places on aesthetics, the colonial architecture and urban forms in French colonies was treated quite seriously. the intense political conflict and directed acculturation which characterised European imperialism, the colonial city brings many of the interactions between culture and politics into sharp relief. This thesis adds to the previous literature concerning colonial urbanism by examining the colonial ideologies embedded within Le Corbusier's master plans for Algiers. His work remains influential and controversial within architecture and …

Typology Of Projectile Points/Knives From Upper East Tennessee, Zoen Mclachlan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Projectile points/ knives (PPKs) are categorized by morphology, also called typology, and associated with cultural periods. A total of 64 PPKs in collections in the Archaeology Lab at East Tennessee State University were curated as untyped and without provenience. They were allegedly collected from ground surveys in Upper East Tennessee, but without archaeological context research had not been prioritized. The importance of such research lies in the fact that few publications exist on the region of Upper East Tennessee and many reference books on lithic typology portray PPKs through illustrations of the ideal morphology of each type. The challenge herein …

The Divergence Of Gay Rights In Taiwan, South Korea, And Japan, Evan Barker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This is a comparative study between Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan that explores the differences of each society's values and politics to understand their current gay rights record. In light of Taiwan's legalization of marriage equality in 2019, this study compares all three countries to find the differences that possibly caused this progression of gay rights in Taiwan, but not in South Korea and Japan, which are notorious for their apathy toward the LGBTQ community.

Motivation And The Young Writer: Reimagining John Dewey's Theory Of Experience, Billy Cryer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Issues of motivation remain a perennial topic among teachers of English Language Arts and first-year college composition courses. While modern evidence-based research in educational psychology has yielded fruitful avenues for harnessing motivation in writing instruction, in recent decades, industrious composition scholars have also turned to history for insights on composition pedagogy. In this study, I also embark on a historical excavation to glean from our composition forebears regarding motivation in writing instruction. In particular, I examine how the educational writings of John Dewey were translated into the English classroom during the Progressive Era. More specifically, I seek to recover how …

Defining Intelligence Failure: A Puzzled Discourse, Gabriel Isaiah Koshinsky

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A specter is haunting the U.S. Intelligence Community, and this specter is intelligence failure. Up to the present day the Intelligence Community (IC) continues to be mired with allegations of intelligence failure from the media, policymakers, academics, and practitioners alike. An initial review of literature shows a common definition of intelligence failure remains elusive and deficient. This study seeks to add to the scholarly discourse and benefit continued research around intelligence failure, through an attempt to produce a working definition through a systematic review of existing definitions. This study used a systematic review method to examine over 210 sources from …

Examining The Demographic And Situational Characteristics That Predict News-Media Coverage Of Bias Homicides:, Caitlin Tidwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from …

The Geographical Tendencies Of Serial Killers In The United States, Charlene Niles

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Law enforcement agencies operate with the belief that serial murder occurs in geographical areas where groups engaging in high-risk lifestyles are prevalent. While such a conclusion does seem logical, it has never been challenged using empirical data. My thesis challenges this assumption through factual analysis. A literature review revealed what other researchers in the field estimate are the reasons behind a serial killer’s choice to operate in a given area. Research will be conducted by implementing data from the Radford/Florida Gulf Coast University Serial Killer Database and the United States Census Bureau to examine the geographical patterns of serial murder …

Alcohol Abuse And Misuse Amongst Homeless Persons In Northwest Arkansas, Reilly Gibson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol misuse and abuse has been found to be a detrimental risk to individuals having significant impact on their overall health and well-being. Any comprehensive attempt at examining the intersection of alcohol abuse history along with one’s risks and resources as it relates to abuse history among homeless individuals is missing. Using in-depth interviews among homeless adults in Northwest Arkansas (n=168), the current study examines the role of social vulnerabilities, individual risks, and social and psychological resources in explaining alcohol abuse history. Findings support the hypothesis that a person’s vulnerabilities and risks are associated with alcohol abuse histories. Persons who …

“They’Re Bringing Drugs... They’Re Bringing Crime... They’Re Rapists”: Exploring Latino Immigration, Crime, And Voting Patterns In The 2016 Presidential Election, Brogan Estelle Arguelles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The political race for the 2016 United States President brimmed with conflict over an array of issues, notably Latino immigration from Mexico and Latin America to the U.S. The rhetoric of then Presidential Candidate Donald Trump centered around the idea that Mexico was not sending its finest immigrants; that, in place, they were sending rapists and criminals. This rhetoric was heard loud and clear and has since affected various U.S. policies and programs that actively exclude Latino immigrants. Using census data from 2015, rates of immigration and rates of violent crime were compared against 2016 election results, all at the …

A Financial And Environmental Impact Analysis On The Implementation Of Electric Vehicles For The Washington County, Arkansas Sheriff's Department, Lauren Chadwick

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the Biden administration has provided implication that the hope is for state and local governments to adopt net zero emission federal vehicles, it is important to see how this might work for a county in a rural area of Arkansas. Applying this real possibility to the local Sheriff’s department will aim to create a case either for the implementation of electric vehicles or prove to show that it is not a feasible solution.

This research will compare the financial advantages and disadvantages of this order along with the possible environmental impact that this solution can attribute to. Focusing on …

Teachers’ Stress, Anxiety, And Depression: What Are Special Education Teachers Experiencing?, James H. Potter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that people in the teaching profession have high levels of stress and often report increased levels of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Students’ academic progress may have adverse effects when their teachers have high-stress levels or report mental distress. Those who teach special education often face high levels of stress. However, there is little research considering special education teachers’ job-related health. This study collected data on 598 general and special education teachers in the United States. This study compared the endorsements of both stress and psychopathology between special education and general education teachers. This research found that …

Brown Moral Panic: Racism In The Trump Era, Carlos Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to examine the language used by news media to report Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric against Mexican immigrants, from the beginning of his presidential campaign to the El Paso Massacre on August 3rd, 2019. The study focuses on the latest moral panic in the United States against Mexican immigrants (2015 to 2019) using qualitative methods. The research examines how Trump’s racist anti-immigration rhetoric is depicted in news media categorized as neutral. The study focuses on the Associated Press (Neutral Center), New York Times (Neutral Left) and Reuters (Neutral Right).

Official Misconduct And Error Correction Mechanisms In Exonerated Death Penalty Cases, Kamali'ilani Theresa Elizabeth Wetherell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There has been an average of approximately 3.9 death penalty exonerations annually in the United States since 1973 (DPIC, 2021). Wrongful convictions and executions constitute grave and irreversible errors. Studies show official misconduct is one of the leading causes for wrongful convictions and exonerations. Misconduct by police, prosecutors, and judges includes a wide range of behaviors such as coercing confessions, depriving rights to legal counsel, threatening witnesses, and concealing evidence. Operating under the due process model, the adversarial legal system is designed to detect and prevent any procedural violations of defendant’s rights, including official misconduct. Utilizing Packer’s (1964) due process …

Who Participates In The Skilled Technical Workforce After College And What Are Their Educational Pathways?, Xianglei Chen

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

The skilled technical workforce (STW) comprises workers in occupations that require significant science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) skills but not a bachelor’s degree for entry. The United States had over 17 million STW workers in 2017, and is expected to be short about 3.4 million workers who are qualified for the available STW positions by 2022. Despite the important contribution of the STW to the U.S. economy, the policy discourse on the STEM workforce has largely focused on workers with bachelor’s or graduate degrees, overlooking those without a 4-year degree. Consequently, knowledge about the STW is limited. This paper …

The Value Of Education Between Two African American Male Populations In A Rural Southern Community, Quentin R. Tyler, Stacy K. Vincent, Tiffany C. Monroe

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

This study identified perceptions of education by low performing and college track African American males in a rural town in Southern Kentucky. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory and Symbolic Interactionism, the researchers explored how 16 young men value a secondary and postsecondary education. Selected by their administrator at two high schools, the males were identified as college track or low performing. The findings revealed that both groups identify racial relations as a barrier to educational achievement; however, college track males believed education would assist in overcoming racial divides. Additional findings highlight a difference in perception based upon the …

Reframing Law's Domain: Narrative, Rhetoric, And The Forms Of Legal Rules, Stephen Paskey

Journal Articles

Legal scholars typically understand law as a system of determinate rules grounded in logic. And in the public sphere, textualist judges and others often claim that judges should not "make" law, arguing instead that a judge's role is simply to find the meaning inherent in law's language. This essay offers a different understanding of both the structure of legal rules and the role of judges. Building on Caroline Levine's claim that texts have multiple ordering principles, the essay argues that legal rules simultaneously have three overlapping forms, none of which is dominant: not only the form of conditional, "if-then" logic, …

Warrior Dialogue In Samuel: Honor, Shame, And Divine Proxy, Robert A. Kranz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discourse between warriors plays a role in several battle scenes within the books of Samuel. The repartee is a way for the narrator to add color and depth to the narrative and develop essential themes. Social-scientific criticism has often examined these interactions through the cultural lenses of honor and shame. Peristiany, Bourdieu, and Pitt-Rivers are just some scholars who developed cultural frameworks based upon the importance of honor and shame in the Mediterranean region. Malina, extrapolating from North African cultural studies by Bourdieu, developed a challenge and response model for the acquisition of honor as depicted in the Bible. However, …

Major League Baseball Fans’ Climate Change Attitudes And Willingness To Adapt: Climate Vulnerability Vs. America’S Pastime., Jessica R. Murfree

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change threatens the ability to enjoy sport around the world, including in the United States. While the scientific community reached consensus regarding the presence and severity of climate change near the turn of the twenty-first century, that same agreement has not been met across the American general public. Major League Baseball (MLB) is particularly vulnerable to climate change in the U.S. due to its season duration, geographic footprint, and largely outdoor nature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between U.S.-based MLB fans’ sport identification and their climate change attitudes, perceptions of climate change risk, and …

Artistry In Air: The Story Of The Younkins, Beth Lewis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For sixty years, a Northwest Arkansas family has dominated the world of general aviation by drawing upon its wealth of expertise, innovation and exceptional talent. Jim Younkin, an electrical engineer, invented an autopilot series that revolutionized the industry. His son, Bobby became one of the top aerobatic pilots in the world and Jim’s grandchildren, Matt and Amanda, also became critically acclaimed performers in the air show business. Like his father, Matt is ranked among the best of pilots in the industry. Jim also received national recognition for his stunning recreations of and restorations of historical aircraft. Bobby operated Younkin Airshows, …

From Deficit To Strength: The Educational Influence Of Single Black Mothers On Their Sons’ Academic Achievement, Tyre’ D’Vallion Jenkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experience of single Black mothers’ in supporting their sons’ academic achievement and to better understand their overall success. Historically, research that has been conducted on single Black mothers is viewed from a deficit lens (Copeland, 1977; Grier & Cobbs, 1968; Karon, 1958; Moynihan, 1965; Pettigrew, 1964). The role of single Black mothers has been grossly misunderstood, insinuating that they would be economically poor, uneducated, and lacked effective parenting skills. This study incorporated phenomenological and narrative methodologies, such as semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and observational field notes to capture the participants’ …

Aiming To Reenact: The Efficacy Of Military Living History As A Learning Tool, Leah T. Glenn

Museum Studies Theses

People around the world have been fascinated with recreating the past since antiquity. Over the past century, however, the presentation of historical information using various forms of human interaction and animation has gained increasing attention, at least in the historic site community if not largely accepted among academic historians. Utilizing a number of non-traditional tools to create a multisensory experience for visitors, this “living” history aims at entertaining the public while providing insights into the past not easily gained through more academic means. Further, there have been many sites, particularly those with a military theme, that have chosen to utilize …