2019-2020 Senior Honors Theses
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This collection contains theses produced by Class of 2020 Honors students
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Item A comparison of speech patterns in children with cochlear implants and their peers with normal hearing(2020-05) Houston, HaleyPurpose: The current study investigates the speech patterns of young children with cochlear implants and their peers with normal hearing by comparing group differences on typical and atypical phonological processes, phonological whole-word measures, and segmental accuracy. Method: Data were collected from 30 English-speaking 5- to 7-year-olds (15 children with normal hearing and 15 children with cochlear implants) using a single-word elicitation task. The independent variables were hearing status group (cochlear implant users versus children with normal hearing) and typicality of phonological processes. The dependent variables included 6 typical versus 6 atypical phonological processes, phonological whole-word measures, and segmental accuracy measures. Results: Cochlear implant users versus children with normal hearing displayed differences on phonological processes, and there was a main effect of typicality of phonological processes. A statistically significant interaction between hearing status and typicality of phonological processes was also found, indicating that CI users had disproportionally higher percentage of atypical phonological processes than their peers with normal hearing. All of phonological whole-word measures and segmental accuracy measures displayed differences based on hearing status. Conclusions: Hearing status does affect phonological outcomes, but the speech patterns of cochlear implant users display unique patterns that distinguish them from their peers with normal hearing. Specific patterns emerged indicating that cochlear implant users’ speech patterns differ both quantitatively and qualitatively from patterns attested in their peers with normal hearing, providing novel and relevant insights for researchers and clinicians alike.Item A Dosimetric Evaluation of MiniPIX Performance Using In-situ and Simulated Environments(2020-05) Masek, Reed B.Space weather is becoming increasingly relevant as human activity in space and around grows. Primary contributors to this space radiation are galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) which continue to mystify scientists with their high energies and unknown origins. Despite the unknowns, active monitoring of the radiation environment beyond the Earth’s surface is important for the safety of commercial airlines and astronauts. This thesis examines the use of a MiniPIX camera as a relatively low-cost, portable radiation dosimeter used on-board high altitude balloon flights under the High Altitude Student Platform (HASP). The MiniPIX was housed within a miniature container designed to replicate the structure of the International Space Station (ISS). The goal of this construction is to model a complex and exotic environment, such as the ISS, using a simplified representation in attempt to reduce the high dependence of simulations for monitoring the dose received by human on commercial flights or in space by generalizing this methodology to other applications. Its performance is compared to simulations executed by the FLUKA transport code which strive to replicate the atmospheric environment and GCR sources during the HASP missions. The use of the simulations in this context is to validate the configuration flown on the balloon. The results from the simulations are not directly comparable to those from the balloon, but characteristic features within the simulated data are present. Lastly, results from experiments and simulations performed by others are examined and compared to the results from the HASP mission and the simulations performed in this study.Item A Novel Robotic Surveying Technique for Free-Falling Penetrometers(2020-05) Akinwande, Samuel I.Severe floods and sea level rise (SLR) are increasingly urgent effects of global climate change. Wetlands are natural buffers that prevent inundation and destruction from floods. Anthropogenic destruction of wetlands is reducing their effectiveness as flood buffers. Rapid and timely assessment methods are needed for the effective restoration of the wetlands. This thesis presents a novel method for performing free falling penetrometer (FFP) tests for soft wetland soils. The method involves the aerial deployment of a custom FFP using a consumer quadcopter. The method was tested in three soils to examine the effect of drop height on the FFP deceleration profile and penetration depth. Further tests were conducted to determine the force required to extract the FFP after a successful drop. The effects of speed and angle on extraction force was analyzed. Field tests were simulated by conducting limited indoor surveys with the FFP and a consumer drone. The custom FFP was successful in distinguishing wetland soils in drop experiments. The relationships between drop height, penetration depth and deceleration profile were characterized. Data from extraction tests revealed a linear relationship between extraction force and speed; and an inverse relationship between extraction force and angle. By utilizing techniques to minimize the extraction force, a consumer drone was successful in deploying and retrieving the custom FFP. Further field tests are needed to validate the robustness of the novel method. If proven reliable, this method will be useful in reducing the financial and labor costs associated with wetlands surveys.Item After Kahn at IIM(2020-05) Bhatt, RishmaAlexandra Tyng describes her father's design approach at the Indian Institute of Management as a combination of building typology and program. Library, classrooms, dormitories and teacher’s residences are designed as separate objects but are organized ‘around the idea of meeting’ in Tyng’s words.(Tyng,141) She writes that Kahn is also interested in the ‘pols’ of Ahmedabad, the semi-public alley cluster of homes for a larger family unit, and sought to bring some of the formal qualities into the organization of the program elements. The formal geometry of forms and voids make the reading of the informal pol network difficult to read in the final design, however. This thesis reintroduces the pol network into the geometric campus in order to project an urban, hybrid habitation of the isolated university, and investigates the problem of European design sensibilities grafted onto Gujarati space.Item Against the Machine(2020-05) Cadenhead, Erin P.With its preoccupation with misogyny and violence towards women, the Romance genre instructs its female readers how to react to what has become unavoidable in a patriarchal world. Unfortunately, the abuse perpetrated by the Hero towards the Heroine counters the educational intentions of the genre and sends the wrong message. The readers of the Romance who see themselves in the Heroine– particularly the modern day, independent Heroine of the Time Travel Romance– are taught that in order to achieve their desired ‘happy ending,’ they must forgive their abusive significant others. Through satire and feminist edits to Janice A. Radway’s Narrative Logic of the Romance, Against the Machine addresses the presence of domestic violence and misogyny in the Time Travel Romance, and offers an alternative way to write in the genre.Item 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.Item An Evaluation of the Number of Response Options for Scales in Psychology(2020-04) Borjas, MariaSelf-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.Item Bathing in History - Damascus(2020-05) Alhakeem, Gada“England knows Egypt; Egypt is what England knows; England knows that Egypt cannot have self-government; England confirms that by occupying Egypt; for the Egyptians. Egypt is what England has occupied and now governs; foreign occupation therefore becomes “the very basis “ of contemporary Egyptian civilization.“ (Said 34) Knowledge in the hands of the powerful is a tool to shape the identity of the weak. Identity is shaped firstly through dominant environments and secondly through reason. Multiple overlapping imperial cultures (Aramean, Greek, Roman, Umayyad, Ayyubid, Ottoman, and French) in Damascus demonstrate the tie between knowledge, identity, crisis and the space of the city. Colonial planning and social elements of the city are molded and adjusted over time to fit the values of each empire. A surviving archetype- the bath- is the most dominant social evolutionary element in the city, although under a threat due to the development of modern Damascus, private residential baths, and the lack of Skin-ship values and traditions, especially between 1940s- 2004. Today’s civil war and the constant fear of death brought modern residents to value social traditions of the old city and gave rural and suburban refugees of Damascus a social and hygienic refuge . This thesis proposes revealing a contemporary Syrian identity by re-imagining the bathhouse.Item Civilian Voices from the Iraq War: Profiles of Iraqi Refugees in Houston(2020-04) Kazmi, Wafa-e-fatimaFollowing 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.Item Comparing the Time Courses of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Attention in the Temporal Domain(2019-12) Swami, ApurvaAttention 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.Item Design and Analysis of an Origami-Inspired and Hydrogel-Activated Flood Barrier(2020-05) Gorman, Matthew T.Flooding is the most common natural disaster in the U.S., resulting in billions of dollars in damage to personal property and public infrastructure each year. Portable, quickly activated flood barriers are required to mitigate the damage risks posed by floods. A novel, origami- inspired flood barrier is proposed that utilizes hydrogels to swell automatically through a large volume change upon contact with water. Brief reviews of the fields of hydrogels and origami are provided in this work. Tests were conducted to characterize the swelling, deswelling, and reswelling properties of sodium polyacrylate, the hydrogel used throughout this work. Three different origami designs were analyzed as candidates for the final flood barrier design: the trapezoidal prism design, the square bellows design, and the semi-cylindrical prism design. Finally, initial flood barrier prototypes were developed. Proof-of-concept tests were used to verify the effectiveness of these prototypes as flood barriers.Item Development of a Monte Carlo Algorithm for the Prediction of Acid Site Distribution in Zeolites(2020-05) Hiew, Shu NingZeolites are porous aluminosilicates that afford exceptional benefits as catalysts in the petrochemical industry, or for vehicle emission control, to name a few. The presence of aluminum (Al) in the silicate (SiO4) framework creates a charge defect, which leads to Brønsted acid sites when compensated with a proton. If the defect is compensated by a metal cation, a Lewis acid site is formed. For metal-exchanged zeolites, in particular, the Al distribution and probability of forming paired Al sites in the framework determines the metal speciation and, in turn, the selectivity and activity of the catalyst. This thesis project aims to create an algorithm that can estimate the Al distribution and probability of forming paired Al sites in zeolites based on user-defined parameters: a) Silicon-to-aluminum ratio (SAR), b) simulation temperature, c) number of trials generated for statistical analysis, and d) Al-Al interaction energy. Two different implementations of a Monte Carlo algorithm were tested and evaluated for zeolites with CHA, MFI and MWW framework structures. The traditional (MC1) and modified (MC2) Metropolis Monte Carlo Methods have different means in generating the initial guess for the Al distribution. In MC1, the initial population is random while conforming to Löwenstein’s rule, while in MC2, Löwenstein’s rule is used to generate an initial guess with maximized density of Al site pairs. Even though MC2 has a higher computational cost than MC1, MC2 is better than MC1 because it is less prone to error and has a higher overall efficiency. The final algorithm generates population statistics that are in full agreement with expected results for the provided Al substitution energies and the probability of forming paired Al sites.Item Disability Policy and Completion and Retention Rates in Higher Education(2020-05) Alex, AprilAccording to the National Council on Disability (2015), students with disabilities attend postsecondary education institutions at similar rates to students without disabilities. Among students that received special education services and had been out of high school for up to eight years, 59 percent enrolled in postsecondary education (Hinz, Arbeit, and Bentz 2017). However, their retention and completion rates are much lower. Only 35 percent of students with disabilities earned a four-year degree in eight years while 60 percent of students finished in six years (National Council on Disability 2015). The question this thesis investigates is, what explains why they experience lower retention and completion rates? Conceivably, lack access and accommodation should be a hindrance to completion and retention rates but federal laws guarantee students with disabilities sufficient means of access and accommodation (Hayes 2009; Bowman 2011; Rothstein 2008), Scholars recognize that while laws and policy adequately address reasonable accommodation and access, actions appear to be lacking when it comes to the inclusion of students with disabilities (Stone 2015; Kurth and Mellard 2006; Huger 2009). Studies show that one of the major factors that influence persistence and completion is student involvement in the academic and social life on campus with faculty, staff, and peers (Kurth and Mellard 2006; Mamiseishvili and Koch 2010). Meanwhile state and federal law are often silent on the topic of inclusion because they have to be reconciled with the universities’ academic freedom policies. To investigate the influence of inclusion on retention and completion rates, this study first considers federal disability policy in higher education and the laws and policy of three states - Texas, New York, and California - relating to access, accommodation, and inclusion. Second, it analyzes the applicability of the model of universal design of instruction (UDI) for the field of disability theory. The UDI includes principles of access, accommodation, and inclusion. Third, the study analyzes the disability policy of one university in three states – University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Buffalo in New York (UBNY), and University of Houston (UH) and compares their policies to the model of universal design. Of the three states studied, only New York and California, have a law explicitly requiring the inclusion of students with disabilities in the university setting. All three states are active in adopting policies that address inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education. UBNY met the most principles in the UDI model by providing faculty, staff, students, and the overall campus community with the most guidelines, mandates, and trainings. Although UCLA and UH met the same amount of principles, UCLA met each principle to higher degree than UH. UCLA provided faculty and staff training on the principles of UDI whereas UH offered none. Overall, both UCLA and UH offered very few policy guidelines and mandates for the model of UDI and emphasized reasonable accommodation over full inclusion. Overall, full inclusion must be emphasized more in order to improve retention and completion rates among students with disabilities in higher education institutions.Item Exploring Food Safety and Occupational Behaviors Among Platform-to-Consumer Online Food Delivery Couriers(2020-05) Hodges, Jack R., Jr.In the digital age, consumers have the opportunity to utilize new channels when making purchasing decisions. In the restaurant industry, one of these new channels is online food delivery (OFD), wherein guests order food from restaurants via mobile applications such as DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub. The food these customers order is delivered by couriers, who in the industry function as independent contractors and are able to perform deliveries on their own schedules. The global OFD industry recorded nearly $31 billion USD in sales in 2018, up from $26 billion in 2014. As this industry has grown, food safety experts have been cognizant of the potential public health risks associated with OFD. Sources report that, in isolated incidents, drivers associated with the most prominent delivery platforms have been witnessed touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands, stealing food, and intentionally tampering with food. While some food delivery outlets such as caterers face regulation that requires specialized procedures for the temperature control of time and temperature control for safety foods, delivery companies generally are not. There is little research on the food safety behaviors of OFD deliverers, which is cause for concern as consumers become increasingly aware of foodborne illness outbreaks in the foodservice industry. This study aims to tackle this perceived gap in the scientific literature by performing a food safety knowledge and behavior survey using online food delivery drivers as subjects and conducting exploratory qualitative analysis of structured interviews with experienced OFD deliverers.Item Finding Home in the Sunbelt: A Study Of Salvadoran Activism In Houston 1980-1999.(2020-05) Martinez Alvarenga, ManuelThe decade of the 1980s witnessed an unprecedented migration wave from Central America to the United States. Migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala made their way north, seeking to escape the worsening living conditions in their war-torn countries and settled in cities like Houston creating far-reaching demographic changes. This Honors Thesis centers the activism of the Salvadoran migrant community in Houston during the decades of the 1980s and 1990s to explore the deep connection shared between Houston based religious groups and Central American migrant activists. By analyzing Oral histories from Salvadoran migrants that lived in Houston in the 1980s, media portrayals of migrant groups and organizations in Houston, and archived documents from the Rothko Chapel, I highlight the narratives surrounding the unlikely cooperation between Houston based religious organizations and Dominque de Menil with Central American aid groups and individuals that were connected to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. In so doing, this work presents a new perspective regarding Houston’s history of migrant communal and political activism, along with the formation of the sanctuary movement and the larger Central American diaspora in the United States.Item Ghosting I. M. Pei(2020-05) Rabitoy, ColetteIn 1980 I. M. Pei completed his design of the Chase Tower, a building that has still holds the title as the tallest in Houston. The project was built with funds from the late 70's Oil boom along with a surplus of other banking and office infrastructure. In 1984 Pei designed a drive-through bank as an addition to the Chase Tower, built four blocks away at Milam and Congress Street. The pinwheel one-story structure ignores its potential connection to Buffalo Bayou. Today, online banking as well as real estate pressure on a one-story full block site makes the drive-through obsolete, and the location on the bayou leaves the building vulnerable to flooding. The building is abandoned, and its lot is used for parking and loitering. This project explores obsolescence in architecture and aims to build on I. M. Pei's legacy by reimagining the future use of the drive-through bank and its connection to the sub-grade surrounding landscape.Item 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.Item Home Address(2020-05) Mayden, MelindaThis manuscript aims to do exactly what it claims to in the title—to address home. Home is a word that gets used without thought and often multiple times per day. “Let’s go home” and “I’m on my way home” are thrown out over dinner parties or phone calls. Advertisements that plaster the side of apartment complexes tell the passerby, “If you lived here, you would be home by now.” Home Address contains five short stories, each of which strive to contextually define and redefine “home.” This collection explores aspects of the stories’ characters’ homes, or lack thereof, and the effect that can have in warping, creating, or breaking down personal identities. Home is not a place, or a relationship, or a blood relation, or a material thing. It is none of those things. It is also all those things. I hope that those who read Home Address and who feel as if they have no real home can be encouraged by these stories which show the ways home is a concept, not a concrete reality, and that it can continue to be shaped throughout any individual life.Item How Can We Refer to God?(2020-05) Mayorga, Layla Y.When we talk about objects in the world, we picture them as existent objects. However, unlike most names, if the word God refers, it does not do so in the same way, other names refer to a physical object. The term God has no image at the result of any causal interaction with God Himself. Nevertheless, we still use the word God in the same way we use any other name, thereby prima facie indicating that it does refer, even if it does so by a different mechanism than other titles. Since we have no image of God other than false images, how is it possible to refer to God? I affirm that the word God refers to through revelation and preserves its referential causal chain through inspiration and forms of life. Although we were not revealed the word of God as the writers of the Bible, through the activities of linguistic communities and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can refer to God.Item 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.
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