2019-2020 Senior Honors Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/6786

This collection contains theses produced by Class of 2020 Honors students

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 50

Socioeconomic Risk and Neural Correlates of Working Memory in Preschool-Aged Children: An FNIRS Study
(2019-04) Montgomery, Diana A.
Children exposed to early childhood poverty are at increased risk for learning and academic problems. Recent work has shown that poverty may affect neurocognitive systems that support higher level cognition, which may explain increased risk for delays. In this study, we investigated how variability in poverty exposure, based on family income, influences neural function and behavior during a working memory task in children aged 4 to 7 years. Children (n = 25) participated in a spatial working memory task while their DLPFC was monitored using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We found that low SES, based on family income, was associated with lower DLPFC activation. This points to one mechanism by which children exposed to poverty are at increased risk for problematic outcomes and has implications for early intervention and prevention.
Queer Culture in Aotearoa
(2019-05) Gonzalez, Sydney
In this thesis I explore queerness in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand utilizing historical sources, modern day texts, and interviews with members of the community. Major events like legislative rulings and pride parades will primarily be explored as markers of where we are in time through this essay. The goal of this thesis is to examine the layers of history that encompass queerness in Aotearoa up to present day. Utilizing survey results along with interviews of community members will provide insight to the cultural norms of queerness within Wellington that may not be easily visible otherwise. This thesis will be comprised of three main parts Queer Aotearoa which will focus on the history of queerness in Aotearoa up to present day. Subject Interviews and Analysis which is a condensed version of the transcribed interviews along with analysis of those interviews which includes the consumption of America media, utilizing social media as their primary form of social interactions, and coming out to friends before family members. The final chapter is Homonationalism in Wellington where I explore nationalistic tendencies within queer communities and events like pride.
Van der Waals Interactions in the Hadron Resonance Gas Model
(2019-08) Boggs, Aaron
The Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) and its phase transition on the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram have been at the forefront of high energy physics research for the past few decades. In order to study the QGP and its thermodynamic behavior, many experiments have been undertaken to recreate this state of matter at particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. In addition to experiment, several theoretical models of the QGP have been developed which can then be compared to experimental results. In this thesis, we attempt to successfully implement one of these models, the ideal Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model, along with an extension of the model which includes van der Waals type interactions between pairs of baryons and antibaryons, called the Van der Waals Hadron Resonance Gas (VDW-HRG) Model. In order to determine if our implementations of the two models were successful, we compare our results for several observables at zero chemical potential to the results obtained in [1]. The observables calculated include the system's pressure, energy density, entropy density, the speed of sound, and the speci c heat at constant volume. After determining that our implementation of the VDW-HRG model was successful, we then venture out into nite chemical potential and again calculate the system's pressure, energy density, entropy density, number density and the second order uctuation of baryon number using the VDW-HRG model. Our results at nite chemical potential using the VDW-HRG model qualitatively behave as one would expect them to on the QCD phase diagram, further verifying the success of our implementation.
Overcoming Imposter Phenomenon in Academic Faculty: Using Cognitive Processing Therapy to Address Distorted Perceptions
(2019-11) Flores, Jennifer R.
Despite recent research into the effects of imposter phenomenon (IP) on academic faculty members, there has been no research on empirically tested, non-clinical interventions that could help individuals address the distorted cognitions that are related to IP. Using elements from Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), we developed and tested a workshop intervention to determine the impact on participants’ imposter and Core Self Evaluation (CSE) scores, factors that influenced transfer of learning, the impacts that the workshop had on participants, and what changes can be made to increase the effectiveness. Results showed that after attending the workshop, academic faculty participants (n=19) reported lower imposter scores, increased CSE scores, and experienced increased agency over imposter thoughts and the resulting feelings and lower levels of pressure and anxiety. Based on follow-up focus groups, three main themes were identified regarding factors that had the most impact on participants’ transfer of learning and ability to address imposter thoughts after the workshop. Implementation of the workshop as a faculty development tool is proposed, however further research is suggested to determine impact on work outcomes and generalizability to a larger population.
Methods of Expressive Formal Design in Debussy's Sonata for Violin and Piano
(2019-12) Walker, Aaron D.
This paper will discuss Claude Debussy’s final work, the Sonata for Violin and Piano, in terms of classical sonata form. This analytical view is not chosen to suggest that the classical design was used as a model for this work, but to draw out associations between the forms that help us to better understand Debussy’s unique design and appreciate its novel construction. Such an investigation is valuable as a compositional study, exemplifying the freedom with which tonal relations and thematic repetition can be organized while still outlining a form which satisfies the desired balance between recurrence and variety. From historical and biographical perspectives, it gives us insight into Debussy’s stylistic development and how traditional forms, either strategically or unintentionally, are reflected or alluded to in the music of his final years.
Propaganda in Literature: A Study of the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the Writings of Robert of Torigni As Propaganda for Emma of Normandy and the Empress Matilda
(2019-12) Abbasi, Laila
This thesis is a study of the use of propaganda in contemporary histories written about Emma of Normandy and the Empress Matilda. The first source that is studied in depth as propaganda is the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written in the 11th century during the brief reign of Harthacnut in England (1040-1042). The second source that is examined is the writings of Robert of Torigni in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum (GND), written in the 12th century during a period of struggle in England between the Empress Matilda (the daughter of the previous English king, Henry I) and her cousin Stephen of Blois, known as ‘The Anarchy’. The Encomium displays multiple instances of romanticization of the Viking heritage of Emma’s husband, Cnut, and son, Harthacnut, with the intention of solidifying Emma’s control through the rule of her son. Similarly, the writings of Robert of Torigni are suggestive of the intent to create a reputation for the Empress Matilda of a wise and devout woman qualified to affect church matters in England. With both these women the issue of reputation and control, during periods of turmoil and uncertainty, can be seen. This leads to an understanding of the role that propaganda played in the 11th and 12th centuries, which further illuminates the understanding of propaganda today.
Comparing the Time Courses of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Attention in the Temporal Domain
(2019-12) Swami, Apurva
Attention shifts within and between time and space frequently during our everyday life. Attention can be controlled both voluntarily and involuntarily and the brain must choose which stimuli are most relevant to process. It is known that this shift in attentional control is costly for the brain in terms of time and resources. In comparison to the well-studied spatial attention, the time courses of top-down (voluntary) and bottom-up (involuntary) temporal attention are less well-known. We examined both top-down and bottom-up attention using the attentional blink and emotion-induced blindness paradigms respectively in order to better understand whether the hallmarks of top-down/bottom-up distinctions in spatial attentional control also occur in temporal attentional control. Participants searched rapid serial visual presentation streams for either two targets or one target following an emotional distractor image. The results showed that participants demonstrated an AB effect, but most likely failed to notice the emotional distractor images and therefore did not show an EIB effect. Due to the lack of the AB-like effect in the EIB condition, this study remains inconclusive as the data in the bottom-up attentional control (EIB) condition were not interpretable.
An Evaluation of the Number of Response Options for Scales in Psychology
(2020-04) Borjas, Maria
Self-report scales are used widely in the field of psychology. These scales tend to widely differ on scale format for many reasons including consistency, time issues, and convenience. Previous studies have found that scale format has an effect on response variance, and reliability, among other psychometric properties. However, these findings have been mixed. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of number of response options on response patterns and internal consistency. We used a 5- and 7-point scale of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem measure. Undergraduate college students were administered this scale with either 5 or 7 response options. We found that frequency and response patterns did not differ between the 2 scales, but differences in response patterns per item were present. There were also mean differences between scales, although these effects were small. The number of response options did not affect reliability. Using descriptive statistics and t-tests, differences were not detected between responses to items presented with the 5- and 7-point response scales. Further research assessing more than one measure and comparing even, and odd numbered scales is needed to better understand the effects of number of response options on response patterns.
The Anti-Civilizational Queer: Reconceiving the Subject-Subject Consciousness of the Radical Faeries
(2020-04) Foreman, Jacob
The first section of this thesis is a consideration of Harry Hay’s writings about “subject-SUBJECT” consciousness and Sanford’s critiques thereof. A refutation of Hay’s writings on the topic, which is not a central component of Sanford’s dissertation, is where Sanford’s work ends. I find it important to present the conversation between these two Faeries, Hay and Sanford, as a backdrop for my own exploration of the topic. My consideration of subject-subject consciousness is noticeably different in form than either of theirs, however. Hay’s writing on the term is epigraphic and bombastic; Sanford’s writing, while mixed with affect and narrative in other areas, is purely theoretical on this point. My writing on subject-subject consciousness dispenses with Hay’s melodrama and moves nearer to Sanford’s narrative academic style while prioritizing my own experience and operating within a crudely phenomenological framework. Because of the nature of this academic work, my thesis here is inseparable from my involvement with myself and the Faeries. The work of myself that I am doing here thus begins as I reconceive subject-subject consciousness by interweaving my experience of Faerie community and texts that have helped me comprehend and embody Faerie relationality. The second section is an analysis of the term which I have, along with Sanford, come to most closely identify with the ethics of Faerie community: attention. I primarily define attention using the writings of Simone Weil, principally through an examination of attention’s counterpart, force. The clarity with which Weil explicates what she terms force allows me to discuss force’s antidote, attention. I more fully form my conception of attention by examining the closely Faerie-aligned novel The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, in which I locate a series of scenes of communal healing and mutual aid. [note on scenes] These scenes lead my discussion to the embodied nature of attention, which I again primarily conceive of through the negative. Attention at this point in my writing will be seen as the antidote of trauma, here understood in one facet as the corporealization of force. I rely here on the work of Marian Dunlea, which incisively explores how we can identify and counteract the embodiment of our trauma. Section three is then an approach toward Faerie ethics from the starting point of the subject’s relationship to themself. I draw primarily from Judith Butler’s writing about the subject’s partial self-opacity. I, however, move beyond the subject via the anti-civilizational critique of Baedan, a queer anarchist journal out of Seattle. I explore what Baedan terms domestication and the struggle against it within Faerie community, which can be seen as attempts to bring the subject in communion with themself. The alienation of the subject from the human – a reformulation of Butler’s subject’s partial self-opacity via a discussion of Agamben’s consideration of apparatuses, itself a building upon Foucault’s thought of the same term – is combatted as a means of realizing an ideal of ethical relationality that I view as aligned with the mandates of attention. I thus position Faerie ethics as aligned with the embrace of civilization’s decomposition elucidated by Baedan. Finally, I explore Faerie gender practices as a site of the refusal of civilization. I challenge Butler’s drive toward intelligibility in her conception of gender performativity by linking intelligibility to subjecthood and therefore civilization. I consider how Faerie gender practices instead emphasize our inherent unintelligibility, which exposes a drive within Faerie community toward what Butler terms precarity. I then link precarity to chaos and explore ways that an embrace of precarity and chaos has been exhibited to me in Faerie community. I further conceive of precarity and chaos, as conditions of our existence, to be necessary sites of embrace in the pursuit of ourselves. This leads me to what I perceive to be the call of Faerie ethical relationality.
Sakimirai
(2020-04) Faour, William
This thesis, a fiction novella, examines themes of nostalgia, perception against reality, redemption and forgiveness, and the inner human. Drawing from a mix of literary classics by greats such as Shakespeare, Morrison, Asimov, Orwell, and Steinbeck as well as real-world experiences, it places an adult in her childhood home and examines her attempts to recreate the past, asking us to what length one will go to satisfy our goals. The human mind holds an all-encompassing power that may change the significance of events large and small, so this work intends to answer the following questions: how valuable a tool is nostalgia; what can one do in the face of crushing perceptions that may warp reality; what constitutes as redemption, and how can one act when forgiveness isn't granted; and what truly defines the inner human, a being under the mind's gripping control?
Hermite-Gauss Quadrature with Generalized Hermite Weight Functions and Small Sample Sets for Sparse Polynomials
(2020-04) Vu, Brian-Tinh D.
This thesis derives a Gaussian quadrature rule from a complete set of orthogonal lacunary polynomials. The resulting quadrature formula is exact for polynomials whose even part skips powers, with a set of sample values that is much smaller than the degree. The weight for these quadratures is a generalized Gaussian, whose negative logarithm is an even monomial; the powers of this monomial make up the even part of the polynomial to be integrated. We first present Rodrigues formulas for generalized Hermite polynomials (GHPs) that are complete and orthogonal with respect to the generalized Gaussian. From the Rodrigues formula for even GHPs we establish a three-term recursion relation and find the normalization constants. We present a slight modification to the Christoffel-Darboux identity and the Lagrange interpolation polynomials, and proceed to derive the roots, weights, and estimate of the error for the generalized Hermite-Gauss quadrature rule applied to sufficiently smooth functions. We illustrate the quadrature rule by applying it to two examples. Finally, we apply a major result from compressive sensing relating a matrix's coherence and sparse recovery guarantees to the quadrature setting.
Civilian Voices from the Iraq War: Profiles of Iraqi Refugees in Houston
(2020-04) Kazmi, Wafa-e-fatima
Following the Iraq War of 2003, a rich stream of information analyzing PTSD in American soldiers, the realities of war, and other important narratives began to appear. However, in part because journalists were embedded primarily with the American military, not enough attention was given to civilians in Iraq. Few Americans know how the war affected infrastructure, communities, and daily routines of ordinary Iraqis were affected. Equally lacking are intimate, complex narratives about the lives of those Iraqis who fled the war, many of whom came to the United States. With the exception of comprehensive and illuminating refugee profiles by writers such as Kimberly Myer and Peter Holley, the few narratives about Houston’s refugee population lean towards blithe notions of the American dream, rather than the experience of living in the wake of war. This project serves to elicit voice from those whose narratives are nearly invisible in the American mainstream. In this regard it centers the experience of Iraqi civilians in a context that has tended to marginalize them. In this creative nonfiction piece, I explore how the Iraq War (2001-2011) impacted civilian life in Iraq, especially with regard to curfews, family life, access to healthcare, and physical and mental health changes both during the invasion and its aftermath. The profiles also show how Western reports of the war differed from Iraqi civilian accounts of what was happening on the ground, and the larger implications of this dissonance. Through the narratives of a mother, a translator, and a journalist, the continuous theme of violence against civilians is presented, as well as an understanding of how Western media’s negligence in representing an accurate civilian narrative led to growing tensions in Iraq.
Searching for the Quantum Chromodynamic Critical Point
(2020-04) Mroczek, Débora
Under extreme temperature and density conditions, the quarks and gluons that are normally confined to nucleons are able to move freely in a state known as the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Currently, droplets of QGP can be created experimentally using heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It is known from first principle quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations that the transition from nuclear matter to the QGP is a crossover if the system has a net baryon density of zero, which has been consistent with experimental results. One of the key questions in the field is whether QCD exhibits a first-order phase transition at large baryon densities. In this scenario, a critical point would mark the end of the crossover phase transition and the beginning of the first order line. In this thesis, I detail my study of the implications of the presence of a critical point on the QCD phase diagram. In the first part of this work, I construct a family of equations of state matching lattice calculations at low baryon density, and including a critical point in the correct universality class. I then employ the equation of state I developed in the analysis of a possible critical point signature that can be detected experimentally at RHIC. I also use a Feed-Forward Neural Network to identify critical point configurations that result in inconsistent thermodynamics.
Serialized Comic Book Storytelling As Modern Myth-Making
(2020-04) Bui, Justin
This work sets out to investigate serialized comic book storytelling as a medium through its low-culture historical roots and the unique qualities it possesses. In doing so, it identifies the characteristics integral to the medium like decentralized narrative authority, long-running continuity, and multiformity: all of which help differentiate the serialized comic book from more conventional forms like literature or film. This work also closely analyzes one of the most popular examples of successful serialized comic book storytelling. By using The Amazing Spider-Man, and the body of work surrounding the Spider-Man character as a case study, those same integral characteristics of the format can be verifiably evaluated in a real-world context. Finally, this work compares the serialized comic book to Ancient Greek storytelling through myth and theater. The same multiformity and fluidity that defines comics is key to understanding mythic storytelling. By drawing that comparison, it becomes clear that serialized comic book storytelling, with all of its unique formal characteristics, bears the closest modern resemblance to a new form of mythmaking.
Investigating the role of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) in the Mid-Cenomanian Event (MCE): Nd, Sr, and Os isotope evidence from the Iona-1 core
(2020-04) Wren, Olivia
Based on Earth’s climate cycling history of icehouse to greenhouse states and isotopic proxies for paleoclimate and environmental conditions, there is a direct relationship between volcanism, weathering, ocean circulation, and the carbon perturbations that define these cycles. Ocean anoxic events (OAEs) occur during Earth’s greenhouse states. The OAEs are defined as periods of increased oxygen depletion (anoxia) in the global ocean and are identified in lithostratigraphy as globally traced units of black shale. While geochemical constraints of ocean anoxia are well documented, the biogeochemical triggers of these anoxic events are not well understood. It is theorized that the Cenomanian-Turonian Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2; ca 94 Ma) was at least partly triggered by the emplacement of a large igneous province (LIP) based on Nd isotope data indicating enhanced nutrient content in seawater from increased hydrothermal activity (Eldrett et al., 2014; Jenkyns et al., 2010). The Mid-Cenomanian OAE (MCE; ca 96.5 Ma) may have been a prelude to OAE2 (Coccioni and Galotti, 2003). Understanding the paleoclimate of the MCE would contribute to a better understanding of OAE2 and how OAEs may be related. However, there is scarce evidence for the MCE’s environmental conditions. This study reconstructs the mid-Cenomanian Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (KWIS) seawater εNd, 87Sr/86Sr and 187Os/188Os from Shell’s Iona-1 research core of southwest Texas to test the role of changes in ocean circulation and the emplacement of a LIP in triggering the MCE. The modern ocean ranges in εNd values of -14.340.13 to -8.00.3 (Flierdt et al., 2016). The MCE data from this study show a positive εNd excursion (-4.14 to -0.56) likely as a result of a highly radiogenic εNd input from submarine volcanism. The emplacement of the Caribbean large igneous province (CLIP; 98.7 Ma) was carried northward into the KWIS by the migration of the equatorial Atlantic Tethyan water mass during the early Cenomanian (Serrano et al., 2011; Eldrett et al., 2017). This northward migration of the Tethyan water mass with high nutrient contents from volcanic input may explain the positive εNd excursion and contribute to the onset of ocean anoxia observed in the MCE.
The Impact of Family Structure in Determining Individual Risk Attitudes among African American Girls
(2020-05) Obi, Tracey
Most papers find that women are more risk averse than men; the one consistent factor across research is that environment shapes a person’s risk preferences. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamic (PSID) and a field experiment, we are able to examine the factors that influence individuals risk attitudes. My thesis will look at two distinct family environments, a nuclear family versus a single mother household, with emphasis on the African American community. In a nuclear family, usually, the man is the breadwinner and decision maker, a child has the influence of both a father and a mother. A father’s influence has been linked to have an impact on a child’s emotional development and their attitude towards others. In a single-mother household, the woman is the breadwinner and the decision-maker, she has to work as well as take care of the child. If that child has no male influence, she might grow up being encouraged to take more risks. Therefore, my hypothesis is, girls who grow up in single-mother households might be more risk loving than girls who grow up in a nuclear household. We find that African American girls who grow up in a single mother household are less risk averse compared to girls who grow up in a nuclear household. However, boys who grow up in a single mother household are more risk averse than boys who grow up in a nuclear family. These results show that there is a male-female gender gap in risk attitudes among those who grow up in nuclear family households.
Petrography, Geochemistry, and Geochronology of Cretaceous Porphyry Intrusives near Red Lode, Montana
(2020-05) French, Logan
There are many localities of Cretaceous porphyry intrusives in and around the Beartooth Range and particularly along the Beartooth Front near Red Lodge, Montana. Although Rouse et al. (1937) carried out a study devoted to them, they have been almost ignored since then and today new methods are available in order to further our understanding of their history. In recent decades, there has been some confusion as to the age of these rocks due to their proximity to Paleogene porphyry felsic to intermediate intrusives. In contrast, Cretaceous porphyry intrusive rocks represent intrusion prior to the main Laramide thrusting of the region. These are felsic porphyries ranging in composition from andesite to dacite and all have large plagioclase phenocrysts with prominent zoning. The initial geochemical data suggests that these intrusives are the result of fractional crystallization. Geologic observations of the region have shown through relative geochronology that these rocks are late Cretaceous in age and this has been confirmed by preliminary geochronology by Barry Shaulis which provided an age of 93 Ma, and by this study which yielded an age of 96.7 +/- 1.77 Ma.
Amman: Jordanian Identity after Modenrism
(2020-05) Salameh, Petra K.
The Municipality of Greater Amman sought from the early 1950s to frame Amman as the Modern City of the Middle East. To reach such a goal, they instated five urban planning commissions over the course of fifty years. The base of all five plans was laid out in 1955 by Max Lock and Gerald King, two British planners, to produce urban plans and guidelines on how the city should expand, build new structures, and a site plan for Lock’s Civic Center. The following master plans reorganized the same components of the civic center while ignoring the neighboring demographic. The establishment of institutional buildings in the middle of a dense, low-income neighborhood has left the site sterile and unused. The relocation of the Friday market, from its original site to a smaller and less accessible site, was the most recent addition to the site. My thesis proposes the placement of the National Library, the last unbuilt component from the 1955 master plan, on the same site as the Friday Market.
Identity in the Writings of Lucian of Samosata
(2020-05) Loos, Stefan T.
The second-century CE Greek sophist, rhetorician, and satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-185 CE) presents a complex figure in his writings. A native of the province of Syria who wrote in Greek under the Roman Empire, Lucian’s identity and perspective on the world around him seems complex and often self-contradictory in his works. In light of Lucian’s complexity, readers and later scholars have sometimes tried to pigeonhole his identity into simple terms of “Greek,” “Syrian,” or “Roman.” This thesis offers an alternative view, applying the postcolonial lens of “discrepant identities” to Lucian’s literary personae in his writings. Lucian’s self-portrayal shifted between his works due to a variety of factors stemming from Roman imperial rule. Through a series of case studies of Lucian’s works (De Dea Syria, Heracles, De Mercede Conductis, Apologia, and Patriae Encomium) this thesis shows the malleability of Lucian’s self-presentation within his literary corpus due to his evolving circumstances, the broader context of the Roman Empire, and the pressures of unfavorable stereotypes. Finally, as a figure with a sizable literary record, Lucian offers an excellent model of how the identities of other provincials may have shifted as a response to the necessities of life in the heterogeneous Roman Empire.
Parent-Adolescent Attachment Patterns in Inpatient Adolescents with Comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder and Substance Use
(2020-05) Saubon, Frances
Although Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is often comorbid with substance use (SU), both have been associated with unique attachment strategies. BPD is associated with preoccupation and disorganization while SU is associated with dismissal and disorganization. Taken together, adolescents with comorbid conditions may appear more disorganized and lack a clear pattern of strategies. Previous research on attachment and comorbidity has not studied how these may present differently in adolescence, a period when most symptoms are first presented, and early interventions are most effective. Therefore, the present study examined attachment patterns of inpatient youths (N=392) with BPD and SU alone, as well as with comorbid BPD and SU. Using a multi-method approach, we utilized self- and parent-reported questionnaires and clinical interviews. Our findings suggest that comorbid adolescents were significantly less likely to report disorganization when compared to youth with BPD only. In addition, comorbid adolescents scored higher in dismissal with both parents and idealization with their fathers, though this effect did not reach significance. Overall, our findings provide information on how health care providers can assist adolescents with comorbid conditions based on their specific attachment needs.

Browse

Browsing 2019-2020 Senior Honors Theses by Issue Date