Digital Commons Network^™

Sangaku In Multiple Geometries: Examining Japanese Temple Geometry Beyond Euclid, Nathan Hartmann

Honors College Theses

When the country of Japan was closed from the rest of the world from 1603 until
1867 during the Edo period, the field of mathematics developed in a different way
from how it developed in the rest of the world. One way we see this development
is through the sangaku, the thousands of geometric problems hung in various Shinto and Buddhist temples throughout the country. Written on wooden tablets by people from numerous walks of life, all these problems hold true within Euclidean geometry. During the 1800s, while Japan was still closed, non-Euclidean geometries began to develop across the …

Proceed With Caution: Safety, Peace, And Collective Responsibility, Rebecca Potts

Honors College Theses

Throughout my childhood, my parents often took me out into nature to go hiking, camping, and just explore. Now when I am in nature, I am reminded of my childhood and reflect on the memories of safety and comfort that I experienced, but through the lens of the person that I am today. As I have learned about and engaged with people in my community, I realized that their experiences and views of being outdoors and in the environments that I grew up feeling comfortable in are much different than mine. These different experiences are based on factors such as …

Quantum Dimension Polynomials: A Networked-Numbers Game Approach, Nicholas Gaubatz

Honors College Theses

The Networked-Numbers Game--a mathematical "game'' played on a simple graph--is incredibly accessible and yet surprisingly rich in content. The Game is known to contain deep connections to the finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over the complex numbers. On the other hand, Quantum Dimension Polynomials (QDPs)--enumerative expressions traditionally understood through root systems--corresponding to the above Lie algebras are complicated to derive and often inaccessible to undergraduates. In this thesis, the Networked-Numbers Game is defined and some known properties are presented. Next, the significance of the QDPs as a method to count combinatorially interesting structures is relayed. Ultimately, a novel closed-form expression of …

The Contradiction Of The Welfare Dictatorship: The Stasi’S Role In Preserving And Undermining East German Human Rights, Mallory Wooldridge

Honors College Theses

Constructed four years after WWII in a kind of pendulum swing response to the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was an experiment in socialism. Under the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED) no East German was to go hungry, unemployment would be eradicated, housing guaranteed, women treated as equals, and human rights interwoven into the fabric of this socialist society. However, SED socialism in practice did not conform to this original vision and would eventually represent the disillusionment with the socialist project as a whole.

This project seeks to understand human rights in the …

Simulation Of Li Dendrite Inhibition In Lithium Battery By Phase-Field Method, Yao Ren

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Lithium (Li) dendrite growth poses serious challenges for the development of Li metal batteries which also stops the footsteps of human utilizing the environment-friendly new power source. Replacing liquid electrolyte with solid electrolyte can not only inhibit the dendrite growth by mechanical suppression, but also introduce more possibilities to the electrochemistry of battery. However, the underlying mechanism is still not fully understood, and most theoretical works focus on pure liquid electrolyte, ignoring the mechanical strain effects. Here we developed a phase-field model which simulates the Li dendrite growth to study the competition between diffusion and deposition rates, the pure elastic …

No Such Thing As A New “Normal”: The Future Of Teaching In A Pandemic World, Victoria Benard

Honors College Theses

Due to the many changes wrought on our society by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers in high schools have had to dramatically alter their methods of teaching in order to comply with new rules and regulations. These guidelines, deemed safe by the CDC, have completely upended traditional high school classrooms and left teachers scrambling to effectively teach their content and assess student learning. The purpose of this research is to determine the successes and/or failures of high school teachers’ teaching strategies that have undergone dramatic adaptations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. One goal of this research is to produce a concise understanding …

Georgia Library Spotlight: Augusta-Richmond County Library: What’S The Fic?: A Library Podcast, Leah Holloway

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Georgia State Legislative Update: End Of Session 2022, John Mack Freeman, Angela Cortellino

Georgia Library Quarterly

An update on relevant bills relevant to Georgia librarians that were passed in the 2022 Georgia legislative session.

Table Of Contents (V. 28, No. 3)

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Hitting The Brakes On Child Trafficking: An Analysis Of Anti-Trafficking Legislation In Viet Nam, Linh K. Dai

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Viet Nam is considered a country of origin for child sex trafficking, especially to Thailand, Cambodia, and China, all significant destinations for child sex tourism, a form of prostitution. Despite existing laws and policies in Viet Nam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, child trafficking operations in the region have flourished. Viet Nam has been characterized as a country whose “[g]overnment . . . does not fully meet the [Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s] minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.” Viet Nam has demonstrated its commitment to preventing human trafficking, both within and …

Title Ix & Disparate Impact: The Harmful Effects Of Abstinence-Centric Education, Olivia S. Lanctot

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Throughout the United States, schools are failing to provide students with comprehensive sex education that equips student with the life skills necessary for healthy relationships. This shortcoming has numerous psychological, emotional, and physical health consequences for the American youth. This Note will focus on how abstinence-centric curricula can influence sexual and teen dating violence. Presently, only one state requires instruction on consent, leaving most students to first encounter consent education or anti-harassment training in higher education institutions or the workplace. In light of the high rates of violence many young people experience before turning eighteen, this instruction often comes too …

Standby Guardianship For Incarcerated Custodial Parents, Lyla R. Bloom

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

When a child’s custodial parent is incarcerated, the child is left to either live with relatives who do not have the legal authority to make decisions for him or to live with strangers by way of the foster care system. This Note identifies standby guardianship laws as a means to better care for children of incarcerated parents by expanding an already existing legal framework. Currently, standby guardianship laws allow custodial parents suffering from debilitating illnesses to grant legal custody over their children to another adult for the length of their incapacity without terminating their own parental rights. This Note argues …

Preimplantation Genetic Testing: A Fundamental Right, Julianna S. Swann

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Unlike many European countries of similar economic, social, scientific, and political advancement, there is virtually no regulation of preimplantation genetic testing in the United States. This Note will explore preimplantation genetic testing and demonstrate that potential parents in the United States have a right to conduct said testing under the umbrella of the fundamental right to privacy. This Note will demonstrate the need for the regulation for preimplantation genetic testing that will comply with the Undue Burden Test set out in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, while acknowledging and supporting the fundamental right of potential parents to conduct testing. This …

Ending School Brutality, Nicole Tuchinda

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Children, especially Black children, are killed, traumatized, injured, and terrorized through assaults, solitary confinement, inappropriate handcuffing, and other excessive applications of physical force upon children in public schools. The state employees enacting such maltreatment are not just police. They are mainly teachers, principals, and security guards, and they are given authorization by law for purposes of “educating,” “disciplining,” and “maintaining order” in public schools. Scientific research does not support the use of physical force to improve behavior, however. This Article describes the problem of school brutality, the excessive, unwarranted, and traumatizing use of physical force by state employees upon students. …

Lgbtq Emerging Adults And Covid-19, Allison P. Powell

Sociology and Anthropology Honors Theses

Emerging LGBTQ adults experience a period of major developmental milestones complicated by multiple marginalizations, and now, a global pandemic that has disrupted the social world. Both emerging adulthood and the COVID-19 pandemic are short but intense periods occurring concurrently for young people at this time, and both factors influence the spheres of housing, family, school, and friends for LGBTQ emerging adults in this study. Emerging adults are at particular risk of being negatively affected by the ways the pandemic has altered their life course and social world, and LGBTQ emerging adults are even more at risk due to their marginalized …

The Right To Repair In The Digital Era: An Analysis Of The Issue From The Perspective Of The Vulnerable Subject And The Responsive State, Michael Francisco Young

Computer Science Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

All The Feels: Building A Chatbot To Assist Students Struggling With Depression, Sara Julieta Tagarot

Computer Science Honors Theses

Inspired by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the mental health of millions of people, specifically college students, this thesis focuses on the development of a chatbot to assist those struggling with depression. The bot has three main tasks: identify the user’s mood and respond with the appropriate encouraging words, suggest activities that would improve the user’s mental health state, and provide resources in case of emergencies.

Vlast' I Vlist' Power And Influence: Lgbt Violence In Chechnya And Activist Responses, Victoria M. Henretty

Modern Languages & Literatures Honors Theses

In my research I provide a genealogy of the LGBT violence in Chechnya that began in 2017. Beginning in the Soviet period, when sexual citizenship entered public discourses, and through the post-Soviet period. I turn to Diane Richardson’s theory of sexual citizenship and Bert Kulpa and Anna Mizielinska’s writings on contemporary peripheries to approach sexual citizenship in Russia and the Caucasus with a critical lens that decenters Western perspectives. I provide a historical primer on the imperial relationship between Russia and Chechnya in order to further explain how imperial dynamics impact sexual citizenship. I turn to LGBT activism since the …

From The President, Karen Manning

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Tannin-Free Grain Sorghum Varieties On The Metabolizable Energy, Performance, And Intestinal Health Of Poultry, Alissa Moritz

All Dissertations

The single largest cost of poultry production is the cost of feed, and it is favorable to seek more sustainable, alternative feed ingredients to reduce the competition between human, animal, and industrial users. Grain sorghum is a potential alternative feedstuff to minimize the dependence of corn by the poultry industry. Not only is it nutritionally similar to corn, but it is tolerant to dry, sandy soils, which allows it to grow successfully in arid climates. This is highly desirable because of its potential to alleviate the production pressure of growing other cereal grains like corn that are less tolerant to …

Incorporating Human Effects In Quantifying Mechanisms Of Stream Fish Community Structure Using Metacommunity Theory, Lauren E. Stoczynski

All Dissertations

Metacommunity theory incorporates local and regional factors to understand how biotic communities are structured across the landscape. Despite established knowledge of how humans impact aquatic systems, inclusion of anthropogenic factors in metacommunity studies have been largely ignored. Additionally, alpha, beta, and gamma diversity can all be explored at the metacommunity level to investigate mechanistic drivers of community structure. Beta diversity can be further partitioned into turnover and richness difference components, each with different mechanistic drivers. Streams provide an excellent study system for metacommunity research because of the dendritic structure of watersheds and the natural delineation that watershed boundaries provide. Large-extent …

Essays On The Economics Of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Aspen Underwood

All Dissertations

Electric vehicles (EVs) have peaked people’s interest since the first electric-powered vehicle was developed in the 1830’s. By the 1890’s EVs were the most common vehicle in the U.S. However, due to issues with charging batteries and limitations of the electrical grid, EVs were left behind as gasoline vehicles became commonly available in the early 20th century. Several attempts to repopularize EVs over the last 100 years suffered from difficulties with limited driving ranges, but today, expanded driving ranges and improved charging capabilities have made EVs a real alternative to gasoline engines. The possibility of zero-emission transportation made possible by …

Designing And Evaluating Accessible E-Learning For Students With Visual Impairments In K-12 Computing Education, Earl W. Huff Jr

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores the pathways for making K-12 computing education more accessible for blind or visually impaired (BVI) learners. As computer science (CS) expands into K-12 education, more concerted efforts are required to ensure all students have equitable access to opportunities to pursue a career in computing. To determine their viability with BVI learners, I conducted three studies to assess current accessibility in CS curricula, materials, and learning environments. Study one was interviews with visually impaired developers; study two was interviews with K-12 teachers of visually impaired students; study three was a remote observation within a computer science course. My …

Penalized Estimation Of Autocorrelation, Xiyan Tan

All Dissertations

This dissertation explored the idea of penalized method in estimating the autocorrelation (ACF) and partial autocorrelation (PACF) in order to solve the problem that the sample (partial) autocorrelation underestimates the magnitude of (partial) autocorrelation in stationary time series. Although finite sample bias corrections can be found under specific assumed models, no general formulae are available. We introduce a novel penalized M-estimator for (partial) autocorrelation, with the penalty pushing the estimator toward a target selected from the data. This both encapsulates and differs from previous attempts at penalized estimation for autocorrelation, which shrink the estimator toward the target value of zero. …

Methodological Considerations For The Study Of Cognitive Reserve And Its Relationship To Cognitive Decline In Older Adults, Kerry A. Howard

All Dissertations

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a key construct in promoting healthy cognitive aging. Methodological inconsistencies have limited the ability for researchers to make broad conclusions about relevant life experiences that may build CR and delay cognitive decline. This dissertation explored notable issues within the operationalization of CR based on proxy life experiences by applying a systematic approach toward understanding the use of CR, as well as an understanding of consequences of inconsistent operationalization. The project had three aims: review and explore the association between various CR proxies utilized in the literature and develop a composite score for CR, describe differences in …

Characterization Of Mef2c-Related Disorders: Genotype, Phenotype, And Gene Pathway Dysregulation, Jessica Ann Cooley Coleman

All Dissertations

MEF2C­-related disorders are characterized by intellectual disability, developmental delay, lack of speech, seizures, stereotypic movements, hypotonia, and brain abnormalities and are caused by pathogenic alterations involving the MEF2C gene. Despite published cases, MEF2C­-related disorders are difficult to recognize clinically. These studies sought to further characterize MEF2C­-related disorders by investigating the genotypes, phenotypes, and gene functions (or dysfunctions) associated with the disorder.

Tremors have been reported in some patients with MEF2C­-related disorders, but the concept of tremors has been complicated by vague definitions and numerous categorization methods. We performed a concept analysis following the Walker and Avant …

Integrating Fire Responses To Combat Wildfires, Jonathan Leonard Badal

Electrical Engineering

Each year wildfires cause significant loss of property, worsen people’s health, and destroy multiple ecosystems. On average, a wildfire season costs anywhere from 7.6-62.8 billion dollars due to fire containment, repair, and restoration [1]. It can take decades to recover from the crippling loss of land and take even longer to fully restore it. However, with the implementation of a robust early detection system, these losses can be significantly reduced. The current process for identifying wildfires involves visual identification, phone call alerts, and media tools primarily driven by park rangers and public reporting. Unfortunately, this system is not preventative and …

My Body Is A Question Mark Lit From Within, Lisa Marie Schrad

Graduate Thesis Collection

In her MFA thesis “My Body Is a Question Mark Lit from Within,” Lisa Marie Schrad explores through poetry the body and its different appetites—hunger for justice, for healing, for God, for home, for wonder. Along the way, the poems also make clear that the path toward fullness and satisfaction must inevitably pass through a deep, brave commitment to knowing the full truth about ourselves. When a light shines out from inside the body, what shortcomings are exposed? What goodness is revealed? And how do we live in the world responsibly, kindly, from the space in-between our questions and their …

Humor Writer Of The Month: David Misch, Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Blog

Our Humor Writer of the Month is David Misch, a comic folksinger, stand-up comedian and screenwriter whose credits include Mork and Mindy, Saturday Night Live and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Vicarious Trauma And Doctoral-Level Trainees: Self-Care Practices, Elisabeth B. Gibson

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Research reflects correlations between trauma history and motivation to pursue a career in clinical psychology and mental health professions. Professional longevity is a concern for clinicians in general, especially for clinicians with a trauma history who work with people suffering with trauma conditions. Trauma histories measured by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), are likely to be present within students of doctor of psychology training programs, and may influence doctoral trainee readiness and ability to engage clients in clinical work. Self-care is thought to not only support overall well-being, but to also mitigate the negative consequences of stress associated with clinical work. …