Senior Honors Theses
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/4110
This collection gathers theses produced by students in the UH Honors College
Browse
Browsing Senior Honors Theses by Issue Date
Now showing 1 - 20 of 256
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item When Physicians Terminate Patients: Assessing the Effects of Termination on Health Disparities, the Benefits of Cultural Competency, and Viable Solutions(2017-04) Vu, PeterDespite efforts to curb health disparities within the United States, the inequalities remain. Consequently, this thesis aims to reduce health disparities by examining patient termination due to a lack of cultural competency within a vaccination framework. This thesis begins by reviewing health disparities and the role of termination within medical care. That section is followed by a discussion of the barriers to cultural competency as a reason for termination using vaccination as a case study. Next, the thesis analyzes the benefits of cultural competency. It concludes with viable solutions and examples to improve health and health care within the United States.Item PUBLIC PERCEPTION, APPROVAL OF AND BLAME ATTRIBUTION IN USING MILITARY DRONES: A GATEWAY INTO PUBLIC OPINION ON AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS(2018-12) Truong, JustinWithin the past two decades, technological advances and a growing public policy priority to reduce human casualty in the battlefield have pushed militaries around the world to develop increasingly automated capabilities that are characterized by a gradual decline in human involvement. Autonomous weapon systems (AWSs), which include Legal autonomous weapons (LAWs), are considered the next transformational stage in military technology, yet public understanding of the far-reaching implications of using these war-fighting machines remains limited, especially its material impact on interstate dynamics. Land-based, seaborne and airborne unmanned vehicles, colloquially known as drones, represent the machine-learning military technology that is closest to AWSs and serve as the basis for which AWSs will derive their development from. While true AWSs have not yet been developed and deployed, this thesis seeks to understand the public's current perception of military drones and how it affects approval for the use of drones in combat and blame attribution in scenarios of errors, such as unintended collateral damage. This is achieved by a combination of examining evolving scholarly debates on public opinion and the legal accountability of employing armed drones and a survey procedure to examine how the public views drones within the context of machine autonomy versus human control, how approving it is of using drones in war and finally how it attributes blame when presented with an erroneous outcome. Analysis of both the existing literature and the survey data suggests the public still struggles to comprehend the capabilities of drones along a wide spectrum of autonomy. Furthermore, the study's findings underpin the current scholarly position that considerable support for drone usage exists when the subject is framed in a vacuum, without including contextual information that truly characterizes the reality of that usage. However, when presented with that contextual information, the option of deploying a human combatant remains preferable to the public due to an aversion to collateral damage even when there is high military utility. Finally, the public tends to find the human element at blame when it is asked to assess a collateral damage, regardless of the level of automation or autonomy involved. These findings are all emblematic of a degree of distrust in AWSs and incoherent, underdeveloped legal thinking within the public on the subject of accountability, which promise to complicate not just the rules of war and international legal regimes but also the interstate dynamics among AWS-wielding nations when fully autonomous warfighting platforms become a full-fledged reality.Item Characterizing Agent Behavior Under Meta Reinforcement Learning With Gridworld(2018-12) Shah, NolanThe capabilities of meta reinforcement learning agents tend to be heavily depend on the complexity and scope of the meta task over which they perform requiring different models, learning algorithms, and strategies to perform well. In this thesis, we show the fragility of agent design and limitations of agents across Gridworld-based meta tasks of increasing complexity. We begin by building a characterization of the complexity of meta tasks within a domain generalization context. We run experiments that demonstrate the ability of agents to perform effectively on meta tasks parameterized with different environmental states, but similar underlying rules. Next, we perform experiments that expose the limitations of those same agents over tasks with different underlying rules, but similar observational spaces. These experiments show that generalization-based strategies succeed with meta tasks that sample from a small scope of base tasks with similar underlying rules, but break beyond that complexity. We also infer from observed agent behaviors that the limitations of agents are attributable to the nature of the model architecture and the meta task design. Furthermore, we run experiments that identify the sensitivity of agent behavior to physical features by augmenting the agent observation size. These experiments show a resilience to limited environmental information, but a lack of spatial awareness to abundant environmental information. Overall, this work provides a baseline for meta reinforcement learning with the Gridworld task and exposes the necessary considerations of agent and environmental design.Item Translation as a Means of Cultural Identification and Cross-Cultural Communication(2018-12) Stemple, RachaelThe argument that this project presents is a moral one: that wide, indiscriminate translation of foreign language (specifically Spanish) literature in the United States would provide a wide array of both educational and cultural benefits. It consists of three parts. The first explores translation theory, poetry translation, and translator ability; the second discusses cultural importance of language, literature, and translations, as well as the benefits presented by translation; the third is a practical exercise in translation that uses and demonstrates the claims of the previous two parts.Item ASIAN-AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL INVISIBILITY AND POLITICAL ALIENATION(2018-12) Chuor, BaonganContemporary political scientists have found that Asians do not follow the traditional socioeconomic model that is often used to predict an individual's likelihood to participate in the United States political process. As such, they have begun to explore the barriers to political participation but only focus on the internal roadblocks. Therefore, this paper contributes to the nascent literature on this subject by studying external barriers, such as social invisibility and political alienation, by implementing an original survey at the University of Houston.Item Consequences of Tenure-Clock Extensions for Parents in Academia(2018-12) Alanis, JoseeThis thesis seeks to examine the potential consequences of tenure-clock extensions for parents in academia. I first propose that tenure-clock extensions will be associated with a longer period of time taken for faculty members to be promoted to the rank of full professor. In addition, I also propose that tenure-clock extensions are associated with a decrease in scholarly productivity. With the birth of a child, faculty may take on additional family responsibilities that decrease their availability for scholarly activities, however women are likely to be affected to a greater extent due to their primary role as a caregiver. My study indicated that tenure-clock extensions are not significantly related to time to promotion to full professor, but they are associated with a significant decrease in productivity.Item Lifetime Predictions of Actuation Fatigue for Shape Memory Alloy Notched Members(2018-12) Mehta, RutvikShape Memory Alloy (SMA)-based solid state actuators are an attractive alternative to conventional actuators when a small volume and/or large force and stroke are required. These alloys have the unique characteristic of being able to accommodate large recoverable strains through repeated martensitic-austenitic phase transformation. Insufficient understanding of the SMA "actuation" fatigue properties and lack of theoretical models for accurate prediction of fatigue life are the main limiters for their wider acceptance in engineering applications. The efficiency of the Smith-Watson-Topper model combined with the field intensity approach in estimating fatigue life for loaded notched SMA members undergoing thermal cycling is demonstrated. The field intensity approach adopted, which characterizes damage over a critical region where failure mechanisms are highly active rather than at a single point, is more reasonable from the point of view of fatigue failure mechanisms and more comprehensive from the point of view of explaining fatigue phenomena.Item THE UNEXPECTED 1870s/1880s RESPONSE TO THE MID-CENOMANIAN EVENT: AN INVESTIGATION IN THE IONA-1 CORE(2018-12) Lauckner, LiamThe emplacement of either the Caribbean Large Igneous Province (CLIP) or High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) is implicated in the triggering of the CenomanianTuronian Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE-2; ca 94 - 95 Ma). Evidence for a similar initiation mechanism for the Mid-Cenomanian Event (MCE; ca 96.5 Ma), a precursor to OAE-2 during which comparable environmental conditions persisted, is contradictory or absent. In this study, a reconstruction of mid-Cenomanian seawater 187Os/188Os from the Iona-1 core, SW Texas, the first for the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, tests the role of LIP activity in triggering the MCE. The absence of a prolonged unradiogenic Os-isotope excursion (low 187Os/188Os) during the MCE interval argues against CLIP involvement in the event's initiation. Instead, the coincidence of a muted unradiogenic Os-isotope excursion and elevated Hg concentrations with published 40Ar39Ar ages of 96.4 Ma of basalts from Ellesmere Island, Canada, suggests HALIP-related volcanic activity may have precipitated the MCE. In addition, the correlation of a pronounced radiogenic Os-isotope excursion (high 187Os/188Os) between Iona-1 and previous measurements from the English Chalk, Eastbourne, England, provides evidence for elevated pCO2, an accelerated global hydrologic cycle and increased continental weathering rates -- conditions known to exist during OAE-2 but previously only postulated for the MCE.Item Pain-related Anxiety and Smoking Outcomes: The Explanatory Role of Dysphoria(2018-12) Smit, TanyaScientific evidence suggests that pain-related anxiety may contribute to the maintenance of tobacco addiction among smokers with varying levels of pain. Yet, no work has investigated the relation between pain-related anxiety and cognitive-based smoking processes within a mechanistic model. Dysphoria may explain the relation between pain-related anxiety and smoking outcomes, as it is a construct that relates to pain and smoking outcomes. Thus, the current study examined the explanatory role of dysphoria in the relation between pain-related anxiety and three clinically significant smoking outcomes: perceived barriers to cessation, negative affect reduction motives, and negative mood abstinence expectancies. Participants included 101 (Mage = 32.74 years, SD = 13.60; 35.6% female) adult smokers. Results indicated that pain-related anxiety had an indirect effect on all dependent variables through dysphoria. The current findings provide evidence that dysphoria may serve to maintain maladaptive smoking processes in smokers with pain-related anxiety. Keywords: Pain, Pain-Related Anxiety, Dysphoria, Smoking, TobaccoItem SHORELINE STABILIZATION POTENTIAL OF RESTORED OYSTER REEFS IN GALVESTON BAY, TEXAS(2018-12) Miller, Erin A.Coastal wetlands provide many services for the areas that surround them including structured habitat, water filtration through the sediment, and dissipation of storm effects. Increasing rates of wetland loss are cause for concern in many coastal communities and habitats. There have been increased efforts to restore and protect coastal wetlands using living shoreline structures such as oyster reefs. One common method to first protect, and then facilitate wetland restorations, is to construct oyster reefs that can stabilize the shoreline. Oyster reefs (Crassostrea virginica) are valuable options for living shoreline structures because they have been measured to have vertical growth rates that can match or exceed current projections of sea-level rise. The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of restored intertidal oyster reefs on tidal flat sedimentation in the West Bay of Galveston Island. Sediment pins made of 7-ft-long PVC pipe were buried to a depth of 3 ft and an initial measurement of the elevation at the top was made to establish a baseline. These sediment pins were deployed at a restored oyster reef (n=6), and at a reference site (n=6), which lacks any restored reefs. Subsequent measurements of the sediment pin elevation were collected weekly between February-September 2018, and provide a proxy for the net sedimentation in the area. The site with the restored reefs experienced an overall trend of deposition, average of 0.5 mm, while the site lacking oyster reefs experienced net erosion, average of 0.4 mm. The results of this study may be utilized to direct management decisions for future restoration efforts of oyster reefs which could be used to mitigate erosion and other effects related to sea level rise and protect coastal communities as well as make decisions regarding future projects as well as assist in acquiring funding to continue existing projects.Item Macroeconomic Effects of Consumption versus Income Taxes(2018-12) Crawford, JacksonThis paper adds to the empirical literature on the effects of tax structure on investment with a panel data analysis of up to 120 countries from 1980 to 2015. Specifically, this paper uses the relative percentage between individual income tax receipts and goods and services tax receipts as the primary explanatory variable of interest. The results, which are robust across different dynamic models, suggest that most countries are too close to the lower bound of this relative percentage to be able to spur meaningful increases in investment by shifting taxation from income to consumption. However, outlier countries heavily dependent on income taxation, like the United States, may be able to achieve as much as a 10% increase in investment by making this shift.Item Exploration of a Holey Version of an NK Fitness Landscape(2018-12) Laroche, RobertEvolution is an incredibly complex process that has been the subject of scientific study for well over a century. The complexity of evolution has made discovery by empirical studies alone challenging, as they often offer only a glimpse into much larger patterns. This has increased the importance of theoretical models to research in the field, which allow predictions to be made for empirical studies and enable these studies to be analyzed in a broader theoretical context. One set of models that have been especially important are those of fitness landscapes. These models describe the relationship between each genotype in a set and its fitness value and have been useful in understanding the mechanisms of divergence and speciation. Computationally, fitness landscapes can be produced to better represent the multidimensional nature of true biological systems. One insight of multidimensional landscapes is that they contain networks of genotypes of the same fitness, through which evolution and speciation could occur by neutral mutations alone. With the Nk model, the ruggedness, size and dimensionality of created networks can be adjusted. By imposing a fitness threshold on a quantitative trait specified by the Nk model, I am able to investigate how epistasis in the quantitative trait impacts the development and characteristics of these neutral networks of genotypes. In this thesis, I explore the properties of this novel fitness landscape model and examine how landscape features influence the structure and composition of neutral networks. I show that the neutral networks that exist in landscapes of varying levels of epistasic interaction respond very differently to increasing fitness thresholds.Item THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND DATING APPLICATIONS ON SEXUAL BEHAVIORS(2018-12) Momin, RamshaGreater engagement with social media sites such as Facebook has been found to increase college students' perceptions of sexual norms by exposing them to content suggesting greater approval of risky sexual behavior than they have previously encountered (Young & Jordan, 2013). The aims of the present study were to examine whether other students are more influenced by social media and dating apps to participate in sexual activity than the participants themselves are, and to examine which platforms (social media or dating apps) are more influential. Results showed that participants who use social media assumed that others are more influenced by social media to participate in sexual activity than they themselves are, participants who use dating apps assumed that others are more influenced by dating apps to participate in sexual activity than they themselves are, and no difference in perceived influence on dating apps compared to social media was found.Item Tricks of the Trade: Selected Li-ion Battery Modeling Techniques(2018-12) Theriot, DwightLi-ion cells are used in countless applications today, and their use will only increase in the future. It is crucial for researchers to be able to model Li-ion behavior in order to protect consumers, manufacturers, and equipment from the potentially catastrophic effects of thermal runaway, while delivering a high-performance energy storage solution. This paper presents the most widely used methods for modeling Li-ion cells in an easy-to-read fashion, in order to provide a "one-stop-shop" for researchers developing and refining new models. Models are categorized into empirical and analytical models, and seminal studies for each are laid out in detail, as well as modifications that enhance their utility and/or efficiency. Thermal runaway models are presented in detail, including various triggering mechanisms. Summary tables presented here will allow researchers to quickly review existing literature in order to identify knowledge gaps and models which can be used for a variety of applications.Item FROM PRIESTS TO PROSTITUTES: TRAUMA, SHAME, AND THE FORMATION OF THE SEXUAL SELF IN THE EARLY WORKS OF JAMES JOYCE AND JOHN MCGAHERN(2018-12) Strickland, AshlieThe dynamics of early- to mid-twentieth- century Irish Catholicism that run across Joyce's and McGahern's early semi-autobiographical narratives, thwarted expectations of family, trauma, and shame, work together in The Dark and have a paralyzing effect on Young Mahoney, who spends the novel striving to be a person who is the opposite of his father. Whereas Joyce's most famous alter ego. Stephen Dedalus, ultimately (if temporarily) escapes Catholic Ireland at the end of Portrait, McGahern's Young Mahoney is held back by constant, emotionally crippling reminders of his father that pervade every space he enters, whether it is domestic, religious, or community.Item Using Competition Assays to Assess Dormancy: Effects of Gene Knockouts on Growth in Micrococcus luteus(2018-12) Zimmerer, ReneDormancy is a survival growth state some bacteria enter under stressful environmental conditions, such as nutrient deprivation. Dormancy is characterized by a severe decrease in metabolic activity where bacteria become viable but not culturable (VBNC), which is measurable by plating and counting colony forming units (CFU). This decrease in metabolic activity also reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics as they are less able to enter cells. For this reason, understanding the mechanism of initiating, sustaining, and resuscitating bacterial dormancy is critical for improving treatment of bacterial pathogens utilizing dormancy to evade antibiotic treatment. Competition experiments can measure the relative fitness of bacterial populations by co culturing the two (or more) populations and allowing them to compete for the same resources. My goal was to use a simple competition assay to measure the relative fitness of wild-type Micrococcus luteus to gene knockout strains of genes suspected in the mechanism of dormancy, such as the uspA616 gene. First I demonstrated that the pigment synthesis gene, crtE, in M. luteus is a neutral site in both nutrient rich and nutrient poor media. Knockout of the crtE gene ([delta] crtE::kan) produced white bacterial colonies, as opposed to yellow colonies in wild-type M. luteus. The [delta] crtE::kan bacterial strain was found to have similar fitness to wild-type and was therefore used as an easily identifiable wild-type substitute in all other competition experiments. With the white [delta] crtE::kan M. luteus strain I then show that the UspA616 gene knockout ([delta] uspA616::kan) strain has similar fitness to wild-type M. luteus in nutrient rich media, but is significantly less fit in nutrient poor media.Item Ironic Narrative in Nikolai Medtner’s Second Piano Concerto(2019) Bellah, Eric M."No one tells such tales as Kolya [Medtner]" proclaimed Rachmaninoff after hearing his friend–Nikolai Medtner–present his Op 51 Skazki[Fairytales] at a private party. Medtner was, along with his contemporaries Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, one of the great pianist/composers of the Russian Silver Age; in fact, the three together are sometimes referred to as the Triumvirate of the Silver Age. Unlike the other two pianists, however, Medtner only concertized for financial reasons, preferring to spend his time composing. One of Medtner’s unique qualities as a composer was his interest and ability in storytelling through music. While a lot of music illustrates a narrative (whether on purpose or not), Medtner usually set out to convey some sort of story in his pieces. This is evidenced throughout his oeuvre, but is most clearly seen in two sources. First, in his own writing when he expounds on his beliefs in The Muse and the Fashion that music, through melody and theme, should strive to convey an idea, tell a story, or capture an emotion. Second, in his Skazki, thirty-eight short character pieces for solo piano, most of which contain programmatic instructions of some variety. Op. 35, no. 4, for example, is inscribed with a quote from King Lear. These sources help to confirm that narrative is an important feature of Medtner’s compositional style. None of this interest with storytelling is surprising given Medtner's education and childhood interests. As a boy, his parents read all sorts of stories to him and his siblings. Some of Medtner’s favorites became Russian Fairy Tales, plays by Shakespeare, and the works of Pushkin and Goethe. Medtner’s interest in these texts manifested later in life, when he wrote over one hundred songs for soprano and piano, with twenty-nine being settings of Goethe poems, and thirty settings of Pushkin poems. Beyond literature, Medtner also loved Schumann's Märchenbilder, and sought to emulate it later in life with his own Skazki. This love of literature, poetry, and storytelling carried through his entire compositional life. Despite the admiration of his fellow musicians, and a comfortable income from composing, teaching, and performing, Medtner's music never received wide acclaim outside of Russia and (to a lesser extent) England. In an interview in 1970, Vladimir Horowitz said, "Why nobody plays Medtner? He is [a] wonderful composer. Piano composer-in some ways deeper than Rachmaninoff...There are special colors-perfumes-complex rhythmic counterpoint." Medtner, like Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, was also one of the mostly highly regarded pianist/composers of the early twentieth century, concertizing all over the world and writing music from his teens until close to his death in 1951. However, outside of the piano world and Russia, he never received much attention for his compositions. Medtner’s lack of widespread popularity as a composer is possibly due to his somewhat conservative nature, which showed itself in both his demeanor and his music. He disagreed so strongly with the "new music" being created by composers like Schoenberg that he wrote his own treatise explaining and defending his aesthetic ideals. Geoffrey Tozer comments in his biography on Medtner: "Faced with three decades of shifting style, compositional vogues, and musical fads, Medtner remained faithful to the standard of clarity of purpose he learned from a lifetime of classical performance. Above all, he considered himself Beethoven's student. Reflecting his approach 'in defense of the fundamentals of musical art,' the composer later wrote (in Muse and Fashion) of the essence of theme, melody, form and rhythm, and of the 'principal meanings' and 'unwritten laws that are the foundation of musical Language.' In later years, Alexander Glazunov called Nikolai Medtner 'an artist guarding the eternal laws of art.' " Medtner, regardless of what other composers were doing, consistently followed his own artistic beliefs. Although Medtner's music has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in the last twenty-five years, it is still not widely known. Unpacking Medtner's compositional techniques can add a great deal to our understanding of how far classical forms can be stretched and, most important to Medtner, how to tell a story through music. The primary goal of this thesis will be to demonstrate how Medtner, through the manipulation and subversion of normative Concerto form, outlines an ironic narrative in the first movement of his second piano concerto.Item 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.Item JANNIS KOUNELLIS, CARLA LONZI AND THE APPROPRIATION OF THE WORKERISM MOVEMENT'S IDEAS IN UNTITLED (12 HORSES) AND AUTORITRATTO(2019-05) Schrripa, GiuliaThe focus of my thesis is the appropriation of the methodology of Workerism in Untitled (12 Horses) by Jannis Kounellis and Autoritratto by Carla Lonzi. The project started out of my curiosity for the history of "poor" material choices of the Greek artist. The turn toward a more sociopolitical analysis was facilitated by the reading of L'orda D'oro, a book about the Italian cultural revolution that coincided with 1968. Through the book, I learned about the concept of con-ricerca, the methodology of the workerism movement. Con-ricerca is based on gathering first-hand experience of factory life and oral interviews of workers. I realized that there were parallels between the methodological approach of con-ricerca and the immersive dialectic that Kounellis established between the viewer of Untitled (12 Horses) and the composition itself and between Carla Lonzi and the artists she interviews in Autoritratto.Item [IN]FORMAL: Fascism + Everyday in the Merkato(2019-05) Westry, Tyler"By contrast, the idea of accumulating everything, of establishing a sort of general archive, the will to enclose in one place all times, all epochs, all forms, all tastes, the idea of constituting a place of all times that is itself outside of time and inaccessible to its ravages, the project of organizing in this way a sort of perpetual and indefinite accumulation of time in an immobile place, this whole idea belongs to our modernity." -Michel Foucault Foucault argues that the accumulation of historical archives creates a "heterotopia," removed from itself, existing outside of time, a space contradictory and incompatible to its surroundings. These elements create a distinctly Ethiopian culture, specifically in Addis Ababa; a space removed from its time, in the past, in the present, a combination of cultural and temporal experience. The Italian conquest of Ethiopia sought to apply a rationalist organization to Addis Ababa, grounded in a focus on new history making, ignoring the existing historical implications and conditions of the heterotopic context. The resulting modernist structures and planning abandoned in the city exist out of place in the sprawling, organic figure ground of Addis Ababa yet are absorbed seamlessly into everyday life. This thesis revisits the fascist plan of the Mercato neighborhood of Addis Ababa, proposing the resulting informal reality of the formal plan creates a heterotopia that is uniquely Ethiopian. Tensions between Christianity and Islam created a substantial population of traveling merchants while the Italian conquest of Ethiopia sought to apply a rationalist organization to Addis Ababa, ignoring existing historical implications. These foreign influences in Ethiopia created a heterotopic landscape in Merkato -- the open-air market of Addis Ababa -- that ignores the intent of the fascist plan it inhabits. Today, Chinese investors influencing the Ethiopian government to increase development and regulation in this regional market hub are met with heavy resistance by its residents as proposed developments continually ignore Merkato's history. Foreign investors should rather develop projects that implement new technologies to evolve the traditions of making and self-sufficiency to remain relevant as the national economy shifts away from its reliance on coffee exports toward production of manufactured goods. The expertise of China as a global leader in manufacturing and fabrication instead can provide a positive example for the future of Merkato.