Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Cognitive Decline And Contact Sports: The Relationship Between P3 Amplitude And Sub-Concussive Head Impact, Elizabeth Kerman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study sought to explore the effect of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts on the P3 event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and measures of movement kinematics. University students participating in collision, contact, and non-contact sports at the club and varsity level completed a cued visuomotor adaptation task. Results indicated that participants who estimated experiencing four or more sub-concussive head impacts per week display a significantly reduced P3 amplitude across both normal and adaptive trials. Additionally, participants who estimated experiencing less than four sub-concussive head impacts per week displayed no significant changes in P300 amplitude between “switch” and “stay” trials. This research …

True Price Of A Pack: Tobacco Expenditure And Height-For-Age In Indonesia, Madeline Helfer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

While the negative impact of tobacco on the health of smokers is well known, the ways in which smoking impacts the health of the smoker’s children is less understood. This study explores whether tobacco expenditure increases the risk of stunting among children under the age of five in Indonesia, where smoking and stunting rates are among the highest in Southeast Asia. Given the severe income constraints faced by poor Indonesian households, large tobacco expenditure potentially “crowds-out” spending on nutrition, worsening the nutritional health of children in smoking households. To examine this relationship, I use a sample of children under the …

The Battle Between Expertise And Misinformation To Influence Public Opinion: A Focus On The Anti-Vaccination Movement, Alexandra Bongiorno

Undergraduate Honors Theses

How do experts and anti-vaccination advocates effectively influence public opinion? This study examines the role of experts and non-experts in influencing public opinion. It uses the anti-vaccination movement as a case study to observe the antagonism between expert opinion and misinformation and how they are perceived by and influence the public. In particular, I examine the relationships between social media, misinformation, and expert opinion and how these relationships impact individuals to form their opinions. Additionally, I measure individual components such as science education background, ideology, and social media use to determine the effects of personal factors on opinion formation. I …

Laurence Sterne: A Different Way Of Approaching The Notion Of Life In The Early Novel, Robert Metaxatos

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis employs the later philosophy of Michel Foucault to think through the unique set of socio-cultural problems that emerged alongside the early novel. I endeavor to explain the development of “biopower” and the concomitant (yet historically grounded) concept of a mass population in order to round off a nettlesome tendency among historicist rise-of-the-novel critics to focus on the creation of a bourgeois individual at this time. To that end, the texts of Anglo-Irish author Laurence Sterne bear out a unique narratorial response to biopower that begins with the ‘body’ of his work: i.e., Shandeism. Signaling the importance of the …

Message Reframing & Covid-19 Safety Precautions, Elise Coberly

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Past research found that the personality aspect Orderliness was more strongly associated with conservatism, while Compassion was more strongly associated with liberalism. The present research aimed to examine whether framing COVID-19 safety precautions (about mask wearing, social distancing, and vaccination) with an Orderliness or Compassion focus would make the message more receptive to liberals and conservatives. We hypothesized that reframing the messages to match with the participants’ personality and ideological leanings would lead to greater support for the message. In our study (N = 679), participants read a COVID-19 safety precaution message with either an Orderliness or Compassion frame …

Welcoming The Game Changer Of Human Society: A Defense Of The Moral Permissibility And Obligations Of Human Genetic Engineering, Yongkang Li

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2018, a Chinese scientist, Jiankun He, announced the birth of two HIV-resistant babies through his experiment of human genetic engineering. This incidence has soon shocked the entire scientific community and invoked public outrage towards He’s corrupt moral integrity.

However, this event should also act as a harbinger to the human society that the technique of human genetic engineering is rapidly approaching maturity. In that case, how should we respond?

This thesis focuses on the moral issues surrounding human genetic engineering and advertises an accepting moral attitude to this booming technology. This thesis will first discuss the types of human …