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Prenatal care is a widely administered preventative care service, and its adequate use has been shown to decrease poor infant and maternal health outcomes. Today however, in the United States, preterm birth rates remain among the highest in the industrialized world, with low socioeconomic women having the highest risk of

Prenatal care is a widely administered preventative care service, and its adequate use has been shown to decrease poor infant and maternal health outcomes. Today however, in the United States, preterm birth rates remain among the highest in the industrialized world, with low socioeconomic women having the highest risk of preterm births. This group of women also face the greatest barriers to access adequate prenatal care in the United States. This paper explores the viability of short message service to help bridge gaps in prenatal care for low socioeconomic women in the United States and provides areas for further research.
ContributorsMiles, Kelly Nicole (Author) / Ketcham, Jonathan (Thesis director) / Santanam, Raghu (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2014-05
DescriptionA look at current 3D printing capabilities, and exploring the potential for additive manufacturing to transform the economy in the future.
ContributorsBennewitz, Chase (Co-author) / Paul, John (Co-author) / Parker, Kerry (Co-author) / Maltz, Arnold (Thesis director) / McDowell, John (Committee member) / Fujinami, Chris (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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Description
Sports is a business. Basketball is no different. Every rule change that has been enacted in the history of the game has been to make the game more exciting because that makes people buy tickets and helps the franchise's bottom line. I delve into the history of the rule changes

Sports is a business. Basketball is no different. Every rule change that has been enacted in the history of the game has been to make the game more exciting because that makes people buy tickets and helps the franchise's bottom line. I delve into the history of the rule changes and submit my own rule changes to make the game more exciting.
ContributorsSaar, Eric James (Author) / Tomasch, Kenn (Thesis director) / Edsall, Larry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2013-12
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Description
Journalism, by its very nature, is limited, often adhering to a repetitive format and narration style. Consequently, the depth of journalistic stories will always hit a barrier. Fiction, on the other hand, provides an elegant solution by exploring the world through a myriad point of views including complete omniscience. This

Journalism, by its very nature, is limited, often adhering to a repetitive format and narration style. Consequently, the depth of journalistic stories will always hit a barrier. Fiction, on the other hand, provides an elegant solution by exploring the world through a myriad point of views including complete omniscience. This thesis explores the link between journalism and fiction by taking real-world scenarios and exploring them without journalism's limitations. It includes three novellas totaling 25,000 words drawn from true-to-life research papers, news stories and manifestos to paint a realistic picture of a technological reality in the near future, a style of writing one might call futurecasting. The thesis also contains an analysis of the techniques used in contemporary fiction and an analysis of their implementation within the novellas. The goal of the novellas is to let researchers to explore the impact of their work before its mass dissemination in order to shape societal, national and international policy responsibly. Similarly, novellas like this and others similar allow society to discover the beauty of science through fiction. These are some of fiction's greatest roles in science and society.
ContributorsPacini, Jason Daniel (Author) / Zachary, Gregg (Thesis director) / Russell, Dennis (Committee member) / Giarrusso, Theresa Walsh (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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Description
Sport is a widespread phenomenon across human cultures and history. Unfortunately, positive emotions in sport have been long vaguely characterized as happy or pleasant, or ignored altogether. Recent emotion research has taken a differentiated approach, however, suggesting there are distinct positive emotions with diverse implications for behavior. The present study

Sport is a widespread phenomenon across human cultures and history. Unfortunately, positive emotions in sport have been long vaguely characterized as happy or pleasant, or ignored altogether. Recent emotion research has taken a differentiated approach, however, suggesting there are distinct positive emotions with diverse implications for behavior. The present study applied this evolutionarily informed approach in the context of sport to examine which positive emotions are associated with play. It was hypothesized that pride, amusement, and enthusiasm, but not contentment or awe, would increase in Ultimate Frisbee players during a practice scrimmage. Further, it was hypothesized that increases in pride and amusement during practice would be differentially associated with sport outcomes, including performance (scores, assists, and defenses), subjective social connectedness, attributions of success, and attitudes toward the importance of practice. It was found that all positive emotions decreased during practice. It was also found that increases in pride were associated with more scores and greater social connectedness, whereas increases in amusement were associated with more assists. The present study was one of the first to examine change in positive emotions during play and to relate them to specific performance outcomes. Future studies should expand to determine which came first: emotion or performance.
ContributorsKuna, Jacob Anthony (Author) / Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Danvers, Alexander (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
The widespread and rapid adoption of mobile phones into urban Morocco is significantly impacting the lives of middle to lower class individuals who interact with this technology. These impacts fall into one of two societal spheres: social and economic. Socially, mobile phone use is altering the way that place-making practices,

The widespread and rapid adoption of mobile phones into urban Morocco is significantly impacting the lives of middle to lower class individuals who interact with this technology. These impacts fall into one of two societal spheres: social and economic. Socially, mobile phone use is altering the way that place-making practices, time construction, and gender roles are being negotiated. These changes are brought about by the phenomena of time/space compression and constant connectivity that these devices enable. Economically, cell phone use is enabling an ease and efficiency of communication that significantly reduces the costs of information transfer. For micro-entrepreneurs, this cost reduction activates pre-existing social networks and generates job opportunities and social status in ways never before possible. The cumulative result of these social and economic shifts is the creation of societal gap that runs down a technological fault line, fundamentally differentiating the day-to-day strategies of those who interact with mobile phones from those who do not.
ContributorsHagan, Melynn Louise (Author) / Ali, Souad (Thesis director) / Mousa, Neimeh (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Description
The progression of men's basketball and football players' careers through the means of colleges and universities has become the beaten path as of late. The problem with this path is that it is full of corruption. Players on men's collegiate basketball and football teams suffer the consequences of the many

The progression of men's basketball and football players' careers through the means of colleges and universities has become the beaten path as of late. The problem with this path is that it is full of corruption. Players on men's collegiate basketball and football teams suffer the consequences of the many issues surrounding the current collegiate systems including recruiting violations, financial injustices, disregard of proper educations, and much more. Rather than attempt to tackle the many problems within the NCAA and its schools head on, the solution may be to provide an alternative route for players coming out of high school, who wish to pursue a professional career in their respective sport. By analyzing the current structure of baseball's major league and minor league, some aspects may be taken and implemented into new leagues for basketball and football, or potentially the National Basketball Association's existing Developmental League. After analyzing the economical impacts these proposed leagues could have on communities throughout the United States, reasonable changes to the structures of basketball and football can be made. The results show that it would be most beneficial to pursue the implementation of certain aspects stemming from baseball's minor league into the NBA D-League, rather than attempt to formulate new leagues at this time. The results of these changes to the NBA D-League would then be further analyzed to determine the steps worth pursuing further in the sport of football.
ContributorsWhitmore, David Arthur (Author) / Mendez, Jose (Thesis director) / Jarvie, Brittney (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
This thesis aims to enhance K-6 Education in the United States by developing recommendations for how technology is utilized in the classroom as a means to teach collaborative skills. By applying the technological capabilities we have today to the Common Core State Standards that are gradually being adopted and implemented,

This thesis aims to enhance K-6 Education in the United States by developing recommendations for how technology is utilized in the classroom as a means to teach collaborative skills. By applying the technological capabilities we have today to the Common Core State Standards that are gradually being adopted and implemented, officials can improve the quality of education across the country and create classroom environments conducive to knowledge acquisition and skill development.
The research begins with the history of standards, starting with traditional outcome-based standards. It then delves into the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), which highlights the type of skills 21st century students are expected to develop and master by the time they enter college and careers. Next, it explores the hot topic of Education to this date: Common Core State Standards. In the midst of educational reform, these standards seek to add consistency across the nation in regards to what students should know at each grade level and also encourage teaching of the 21st century skills. This section briefly details the content of Common Core English Language Arts and Mathematics standards.
After summarizing P21 and Common Core, this report shifts into its focused 21st century skill: collaboration. As one of the 4 C’s that P21 and Common Core emphasize in their standards, it is imperative to research critical elements of collaboration as they relate to groups and teams of all ages. Even more specifically, collaboration is a practice that is becoming more and more standard in business across all industries, so it is a skill that is highly in demand for students to acquire. In regards to collaboration, Executive Vice President of Verizon, Bob Mudge, states, “companies are able to innovate much more quickly and even create solutions to problems that may not be prevalent issues yet” (Mudge 1). The standards expect that students will be prepared to collaborate in college and careers, so key elements of collaboration in those settings—in-person or virtual—need apply or be simplified to K-6 collaborative environments. This section also analyzes a case study experiment on young children about how technology functionality and design enables, encourages, or enforces collaboration.
Next, this thesis reviews three case studies that represent evolution in our understanding of technology’s role as a support system in teaching and learning collaboration. The first case study shows how simple handheld devices assisted in correcting weaknesses in a variety of collaborative and organizational skills. The second study utilizes interactive tabletop technology to realize the idea of tracking collaborative ability in real time through synchronized audio and touch recording. Finally, researchers assess the effectiveness of one student to one device (1:1) initiatives by gathering student-reported data before and after the program’s implementation, which largely speak to the direction of many schools’ technology strategies.
To supplement all of the secondary research above, the researcher of this thesis conducted interviews with nine K-6 teachers to gather their insights on collaboration and how they facilitate it. They explain how they use technology in their classroom to enhance the learning environment. Additionally, they give opinions on what could be done to make collaboration more easily taught and facilitated, as well as what would better develop their students’ collaborative skills.
The compilation of this information then leads to implications of what needs to be present, from a technology standpoint, to more effectively teach collaborative skills to our schoolchildren. This includes a brief industry analysis of a program that already exists, as well as recommendations for new technology that considers the research conducted throughout the paper. Another implication addressed centers on the instruction and facilitation of technology and the digital divide that can result from varying competency among teachers, which brings to light the need for proper technology development programs for educators.
ContributorsPetrovich, Nicholas Hugh (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Lonnie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
The Lightning Audio capstone group, consisting of Brian Boerhinger, Rahul Nandan, Jaime Ramirez, and Niccolo Magnotto (myself), united in the effort to prove the feasibility of a consumer grade plasma arc speaker. This was achieved in group's prototype design, which demonstrates the potential for a refined product in its conventional

The Lightning Audio capstone group, consisting of Brian Boerhinger, Rahul Nandan, Jaime Ramirez, and Niccolo Magnotto (myself), united in the effort to prove the feasibility of a consumer grade plasma arc speaker. This was achieved in group's prototype design, which demonstrates the potential for a refined product in its conventional interfacing, casing, size, safety, and aesthetics. If the potential for an excellent ionization-based loudspeaker product were realized, it would be highly profitable in its reasonable cost of production, novelty, and place in a large and fitting market.
ContributorsMagnotto, Niccolo John (Author) / Roedel, Ronald (Thesis director) / Huffman, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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This research study concerns the issue of gender diversity that still persists in STEM education, especially in computing-related fields. Females are so severely underrepresented in computing education that the diversity in the fields is even less than that in physics in K-12. This research study seeks to address the problem

This research study concerns the issue of gender diversity that still persists in STEM education, especially in computing-related fields. Females are so severely underrepresented in computing education that the diversity in the fields is even less than that in physics in K-12. This research study seeks to address the problem of low female participation in computing-related fields. For the purpose of the study, two versions of surveys were distributed. One was filled out by 94 local elementary school students that mostly in 3rd-4th grade; the other went to 399 college freshmen in W. P. Carey School of Business. It asks questions, including if students are interested in learning STEM, and what reasons explain them having interest or no interest in STEM learning. Meanwhile, the study aims to unveil if there are any gender discrepancies in regards to STEM learning. Besides those dynamics, three factors—attitudes toward learning computer skills, logic, and coding—are examined for indications on students’ interest in STEM learning.
The results suggest no indication that female students are necessarily less interested than male students in studying computing-related majors, despite that female students find working with computers and coding more difficult. Female students have diverse and varied interests that are non-computing-related, which could be an underlying factor that contributes to their “lower” participation in those majors. While self-interest is the key factor that influences students’ decisions in pursuing STEM majors or non-STEM majors, they also consider job market outlook an important factor. Compared to female students, male students tend to cite family influence in deciding whether to study STEM majors. Furthermore, showing positive attitudes toward working with computers, learning new computer skills, and even coding indicates both male and female students’ potential desires to pursue computing-related majors or careers.
ContributorsZhou, Xingyan (Author) / Lin, Elva (Suh-Yun) (Thesis director) / Hsiao, Sharon I-Han (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05