2018-2019 Senior Honors Theses
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This collection contains theses produced by Class of 2019 Honors students
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Browsing 2018-2019 Senior Honors Theses by Title
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Item A Letter from San Francisco(2019-05) Scamardo, PeterImagine North America, the year 1763. The British have just defeated the French in the Seven Years' War. Now imagine that, in the aftermath of the war, the British agree to a form of Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan, creating the first Commonwealth nation. No Revolutionary War is ever fought, no United States are ever founded, no Manifest Destiny takes place. This thesis is a creative writing project and should be considered a portion of a novel that attempts to depict the North America where the aforementioned details were a reality.Item A Preliminary Investigation of Speech Disfluencies in Bilingual Urdu-English Children(2019-05) Naqvi, SyedaBilingual Spanish-English (SE) speaking children who do not stutter (CWNS) are known to exceed the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering based on data of monolingual English speakers. While this indicates the risk of misdiagnosis amongst SE speakers, it further questions how speech disfluencies present in other bilingual speakers. Urdu, the native language of Pakistan and its surrounding areas, is currently one of the fastest growing languages in the United States (US). The purpose of this study is to examine the speech disfluencies of bilingual Urdu-English (UE) speaking CWNS during narrative and conversational samples elicited in Urdu and English to provide preliminary information about this population. Participants included 3 bilingual UE children ranging in age from 5 years to 7 years and 11 months who were recruited from the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Findings indicate that, much like SE children, bilingual UE speaking children can meet or exceed the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering. The study also found UE children to display stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs) in the form of sound-syllable repetitions (SSR) and whole-word repetitions (WWR), which is identical to the findings in SE children. The results of this study may contribute to further research into the speech disfluencies of UE children, both CWS and CWNS, as well as other languages spoken in the US in order to contribute to the appropriate diagnostic criteria for stuttering amongst culturally and linguistically diverse populations.Item Air Fuel Ratio Control of a Spark Ignition Engine(2019-05) Yazji, JalalLean-burn operation in spark-ignition engines has shown promise in improving fuel economy and reducing harmful emissions in comparison with traditional stoichiometric operation. Close reference-tracking of the set air-fuel ratio profile is very crucial to healthy engine operation. What makes air-fuel ratio control challenging is the presence of a large variable time delay in the system's closed-loop, resulting mainly from the large distance traveled by the air-fuel mixture between the injection point and the exhaust. This thesis proposes modifications to an IMC-Smith predictor design employed to control the air-fuel ratio in a lean-burn engine. Matlab's Simulink provides a convenient platform to build dynamic models and simulate controllers, and for that reason, it is chosen to validate the proposed controller design and compare its performance to that of a PI controller and that of an IMC-Smith controller. Simulation results reveal the inadequacy of a basic PI controller in providing good reference tracking to a lean-burn profile. The proposed design shows very similar performance to a basic IMC-Smith controller in terms of overshoot and disturbance. However, its reduced settling time in comparison with the IMC-Smith controller (difference of up to 1.5s) renders it a more effective design at providing the desired level of reference-tracking.Item An Ab Initio Investigation of Structure-Function Relationships in Solid-State Electrolytes(2019-05) Wang, AudreySolid-state electrolytes (SSEs), or superionic conductors, are a promising method of energy storage and a safer alternative to conventional Li-ion batteries. However, the ionic conductivities of most known SSEs, a characteristic integral to battery performance, are not yet commercially competitive. Ionic conductivity in SSEs is often achieved through the interstitial hopping of the mobile cation, so understanding the energetics of the crystal structure is important. The objective of this thesis is to use density function theory (DFT) to investigate the relationships between crystal structure and ionic conductivity of SSEs. Activation energies were calculated using DFT and nudged elastic band theory for sulfide and oxide frameworks with either lithium or sodium cations. The energy pathways generated in this study were consistent with previous findings that materials with BCC structures have the lowest energy barriers and thus have the highest ionic conductivities due to their homogenous tetrahedral sites.Item As Pleasantly as the Human Condition Will Allow(2019-05) Little, WilliamThomas Hobbes is famous for his bleak world view. Yet, in a lesser discussed work, De Cive, Hobbes implores the sovereign that it ought to seek the happiness of the citizens. I seek to understand the concepts of duty and civic happiness as they appear in De Cive and only in De Cive among Hobbes' works, as well as to understand why this train is shed in the move to Leviathan. Ultimately, I conclude that civic happiness, for Hobbes, is a way of eliminating the threat poseed to the sovereign by the great, and that Leviathan does not discuss the concept because its focus has shifted away from the threat of the great and towards that of popular opinion.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 Associations Between Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Religiosity and Hope(2019-05) Garza, MichealExtensive research has provided evidence that different levels of religiosity and hope positively correlate with people's life satisfaction, happiness, and well-being. Conversely, hopelessness or low levels of hope have been shown to predict maladaptive health behaviors such as anxiety, depression, and suicide. The aim of this study is to test whether people's religious orientation (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) is associated with degrees of hope above and beyond personality, demographics, and socio-economic traits. In a sample of 417 US adults, a regression analysis was used to test the incremental validity of an individual's religious orientation scale in predicting levels of hope. We controlled for personality traits using the big five inventory as well for demographics and parental socio-economic status. Contrary to my hypothesis, results evidenced that individuals with higher levels of extrinsic religiosity (vs. intrinsic) religiosity had higher levels of hope, above and beyond demographics and personality traits.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 Cicero and Roman Civic Education(2019-05) Pinell, PhillipThis thesis argues that Cicero equates civic education for Roman public statesmen with a moral education in Roman virtue, where the statesman learns the virtues of courage, prudence, and total dedication to his city, that lend to both proper and effective governance. Civic education, for Cicero, has two main components: learning by imitating exempla of Roman virtue, and acquiring universal knowledge by studying academic disciplines from philosophy and civil law to poetry, history, and music. However, Cicero never compiles his philosophy on education clearly or schematically into a single philosophical work, but rather he provides pieces of his philosophy of education over the course of several distinct works, each of which were written to address distinct Roman political climates. For this reason, this thesis contextualizes Cicero's philosophy of education in the respective political climates in which he wrote each of these works to understand how Cicero's conception of education addresses enduring political problems in Roman politics, especially regarding the disruption of the traditional Roman political order. I will also note a shift in Cicero's philosophy of education from De Oratore to De Officiis, as the former nowhere indicates that philosophy teaches virtue and the latter begins with the premise that philosophy teaches virtue.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 Distress Tolerance, PTSD symptoms, and Suicidal Ideation among Trauma-Exposed Inpatient Adolescents(2019-05) Barger, KatyObjective: The present investigation examined the moderating role of behaviorally-indexed distress tolerance (DT; operationalized herein as persistence in a cognitively demanding serial addition task) in the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and suicidal ideation in a sample of trauma-exposed inpatient adolescents. It was hypothesized that the relation between PTSD symptoms and suicide ideation would be positive among those with high (vs. low) behaviorally-indexed DT. Method: The sample included 50 adolescents ages 12-17 years (52.0% female; Mage = 15.1 years, SD = 0.51, range = 12 - 17 years) with exposure to at least one traumatic event. Participants completed measures of PTSD symptom severity, health-risk behaviors, DT, and depressive symptomatology. Results: Adolescents who endorsed a history of suicidal ideation reported significantly greater PTSD symptoms (M = 19.76, SD = 12.47) compared to adolescents who denied suicidal ideation (M = 9.24, SD = 9.16), t = -3.44, p = .001. Although moderation analyses yielded a nonsignificant interaction, visual inspection and statistical analyses of the simple slopes revealed a trending conditional effect of DT on the relationship between PTSD and suicidal ideation, such that the relation was positive at high and moderate levels of DT (ps = .06). Conclusions: Findings revealed a positive relationship between PTSD and suicidal ideation at moderate and high levels of DT; however, statistical significance was not achieved. Replication with a larger sample is needed. The findings emphasize the need for early intervention focused on use of appropriate ways to regulate distress, especially among adolescents with high DT.Item Effect of Word Origin in Romance Bilinguals(2019-05) Vasquez, MelanyEnglish is a Germanic language which has, over time, been influenced by Latin and Ancient Greek and borrowing from other European languages, including French, Dutch, and German. Words in the English language which originate from Latin are usually of technical or academic register and acquired at later ages in development. This type of vocabulary is usually used by scholars. The English language also contains a word from the Anglo-Saxon/Germanic background. This words usually are of lower academic register and are learned at an earlier age. The purpose of this study was to see if speaking a romance language could be advantageous for bilinguals, especially in continuing higher levels of education. We used a lexical decision task where participants were presented with Latin origin words and non-words and Anglo-Saxon/Germanic origin words and non-words. The task consisted of deciding if the stimuli presented was a word or non-word. The hypothesis for the current study was that non-romance language speakers would be more accurate at identifying Anglo-Saxon root words, and romance language speakers would be more accurate at identifying Latin root words. Also, romance language speakers should be better at recognizing that presented pseudowords are in fact non-words due to their background in romance languages influenced by Latin. On the other hand, non-romance language speakers should have a harder time recognizing that presented Latin pseudowords are in fact nonwords. Results: overall romance language speaker participants scored higher on accuracy when presented with Latin origin stimuli but took longer at identifying the stimuli. Interesting enough romance language speakers also scored higher in accuracy when presented with Anglo-Saxon/Germanic origin stimuli. On the other hand, non-romance language speakers scored higher in accuracy at recognizing Latin origin non-words.Item Estimating the Impact of Preparatory Teaching Experience on Teacher Retention(2019-05) Tran, MichelleAbout 21 percent of Texas teachers leave the profession within the first three years of teaching. Taking advantage of variation in required preparatory teaching experience -- called student teaching -- hours across educator preparation programs (EPPs), this study uses pooled Texas administrative data to adapt Boyd et al.'s (2006) conceptual model of the effects of EPP characteristics on teacher retention. A logistic regression with year and program fixed effects estimates substantial gains from increasing the number of hours required for student teaching. In fact, increasing the number of hours required for student teaching from one semester (0-300 hours) to two semesters (301-600 hours) can increase the odds of retaining a teacher for one year by 54.4 percent. An increase from one to four semesters of student teaching is correlated with a 70.9 percent increase the odds two-year teacher retention. A state mandate for two semesters of student teaching would raise the state's one-year teacher retention rate to 74.6 percent and a mandate for four semesters of student teaching would raise the state's two-year retention rate to 63.4 percent. However, there are decreasing marginal returns to additional hours of student teaching in terms of retention. The number of required hours for student teaching represents an important yet singular aspect of teacher preparation and state policies should expand their focus on teacher preparation beyond student teaching requirements.Item Examining the Relationship Between Compassion and Trauma to Heal PTSD(2019-05) Posada, GriseldaLong associated with veterans returning home from war, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a worldwide health concern that impacts people from all walks of life. Dramatic and tragic life events such as sexual abuse, mass shootings, and natural disasters can be devastating not only for the victims, but also for their families and communities. The high prevalence of traumatic stress has prompted researchers to look beyond modern medicine towards complementary and alternative methods (CAM), notably holistic practices rooted in ancient wisdom. One area that has received considerable attention in recent years is the healing and transformative process of compassion, a spiritual concept that lies at the core of all religious and ethical traditions. In spite of increased interest, however, there is much confusion as to what compassion actually is. Moreover, there is a paucity of scientific research that examines in what ways and to what degree compassion -- suffering with others -- is able to alter the presence of psychological trauma. To date, the vast majority of studies on this topic focus on self-compassion and compassion fatigue. As scholars and scientists increasingly acknowledge the fundamental value of compassion, it will be necessary to more fully explore the relevance of transpersonal experiences in relation to mental health care. My thesis incorporates religious and nonreligious perspectives to interpret what is known about compassion, suggesting that a compassionate disposition can heal the trauma associated with PTSD. The spiraling sociocultural and environmental strife we continue to experience is indicative of the presence of individual and collective traumatic stress -- it bespeaks our vital need for compassion.Item Experimental Study of Flow Patterns and Pressure Drop in Cocurrent Gas-liquid Down Flow in a Packed Column(2019-05) Stroh, ChristinePacked bed columns are widely used throughout many chemical processes to carry out reactions between gas and liquid reactants requiring a solid catalyst. Flow patterns and their associated pressure drops are two important parameters that can optimize the operation of these reactors. However, the analysis of these parameters is usually above the understanding of the operators who control the reactors. This thesis evaluates these parameters in a laboratory scale packed column, compares the results to literature values, and analyzes the data in a simpler way using parameters easily found with equipment in a chemical plant. The experimental data reasonably fit the well-known Tosun flow map and a modified Lockhart-Martinelli correlation. New analysis showed that when plotted as a pressure trace standard deviation normalized by its average versus its gas flow rate, the data had a visual change in slope whenever the flow pattern transitioned, giving operators a simpler way to identify transitioning flows.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 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 From the Mind of(2019-05) Ward, AubreyA collection of poems from Aubrey Ward's undergraduate college career, this senior honors thesis represents the best of Aubrey's creative endeavors at the time of his graduation from the University of Houston in May 2019.Item Ha Noi Impermanence: Reinterpreting Collective Housing(2019-05) Tonthat, BenjaminThe former citadel of Hanoi represents a landscape that has been continuously manipulated by both foreign entities and the current administration. Despite its initial purpose of being a symbol for fortification and monumentality, Hanoi's ruling sector has expressed an adaptability to the numerous violations imposed upon it over time. Hanoians, in particular, when compared to the rest of Vietnamese society express a notable sense of cultural fluidity that draws from their repeated conflicts with outsiders and allows them to remain flexible with their identity. The perimeter of the original, highly-formal citadel is the most important location to the capital city's sacred history and current growth, so further intervention along these avenues underscores the inherent complications of the past. This thesis proposes to study the implications of impermanence within the original citadel area through the reinterpretation of collective housing along the imprint of the sacred wall. While the numerous elements of Hanoi's history have been seemingly erased by successive regimes, the existing networks have actually seen a layering of imposed changes rather than a complete eradication. These layers express a fluidity that characterizes Hanoi's governing center and, in turn, reflects the flexibility of the Vietnamese identity.Item HELP-GIVING ORIENTATION AND PERCEPTIONS OF SUPPORT: A MODEL FOR NEWCOMER ADJUSTMENT IN NURSE PRECEPTOR PROGRAMS(2019-05) Miziol, PaulModern healthcare systems are faced with increasing challenges beyond the traditional realms of patient care. Nurses function as indispensable care providers yet widely publicized are the challenges nurses face upon entering new hospital environments. Research has shown nurse preceptor programs are beneficial in reducing new nurse hire turnover but wide-scale differences in preceptor programs make consensus on what constitutes a good preceptor program difficult. Looking into the interpersonal factors relevant to preceptor-preceptee relationships is a way more applicable data can be gathered for the development of better preceptor programs. This thesis presents a model for nurse preceptor help-giving orientation and its relationships to newcomer adjustment through perceptions of support. Data was collected through a large hospital system with 231 new nurse hires and 100 nurse preceptors completing the survey. Significant relationships were found between preceptor autonomous help-giving and both instrumental and emotional support, (β = .80, p < .01) and (β = .78, p < .01) respectively. Preceptor autonomous help-giving had significant relationships directly with both task mastery and performance, (β = .38, p < .01) and (β = -.33, p < .05) respectively. No significant relationships between social adjustment and any other model variables were established. Findings indicate that autonomous help-giving has a powerful role in newcomer adjustment while also establishing the need for additional research on interpersonal aspects of preceptor programs as only some newcomer adjustment variables were related to preceptor help-giving orientation.
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