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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Creators: School of Life Sciences
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to see if a correlation exists between young adults’ personal perception of thriving and a curated online and written course centered around thriving. The course, What Does It Mean for Ages 17 – 24 to Thrive, took place over the span of four weeks and focused on concepts of personal strengths, goal setting, gratitude and thriving. Through this course, students were expected to complete daily practices, weekly challenges and weekly reflections to help build healthy habits for their overall well-being. This course was created in hopes of seeing an improvement from the student’s levels and perception of thriving before and after the course. To collect data, the study began with qualitative interviews to gain an understanding of the participants and their current level of thriving. Throughout the duration of the course, data and feedback was gathered through the students’ assignment submissions every week. As the course came to a close, data was collected through a final round of qualitative interviews focusing on the students’ biggest takeaways from the course. In analyzing the data, one of the biggest challenges came from the students not having enough time to complete all of the daily practices. However, every student mentioned they were able to take something away from this course and hope to implement the exercises into their daily lives. One significant finding came from the survey question, “Do you actively think about your purpose in life?” Prior to the course, there was a mixture of responses stating yes, no, and somewhat. However, after the course, almost every student responded “yes” and one student responded “somewhat.” Overall, it is evident that young adults hope to thrive in life, however, their biggest challenge comes from finding enough time for themselves outside of school and work. This course allowed students to put thriving into perspective and allowed them all to grow.
ContributorsHunsaker, Jenny Ann (Author) / Heywoord, William (Thesis director) / Fehler, Michelle (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
As the world becomes more globalized and interconnected, foreign investment has become a popular way to enter new markets, to facilitate trade, and to stay competitive. As more and more companies are looking to expand internationally, it is important to understand how economic, political, infrastructural, competence, and socioeconomic factors of a region can and should impact these investments and investment decisions. Through a comparative analysis of Taiwan and Hong Kong, this report will demonstrate how these factors can impact an investing company and will offer guidance as companies determine how the structure, history, and resources of a region will impact their foreign investment decisions. Data surrounding these elements is becoming more widely accessible every day. Utilizing this information will help companies stay competitive and prepared as they expand internationally.
ContributorsOlson, Abigail Emma (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis director) / Collins, Gregory (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor, Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The temperature of exhaust pipes can be dangerous in dry areas where there is a lot of brush. The temperatures of exhaust pipes can reach a high enough temperature to start a fire if touching the dry brush, which ignites around 300°C. The goal of this project was to explore different techniques to limit the possibility of these brush fires. Specifically, different methods were explored to reduce the temperature of the pipe that would be contacting the brush. Fires can begin within seconds of contacting the hot exhaust pipes [10]. This experiment found that of the three options tested: exhaust wrap, heat sink with thermoelectric devices, and high temperature paint, adding a heat shield/sink is the best way to limit the high temperatures from igniting the brush. There was a cooling difference of nearly 100°C when a heat shield/sink was added to the bare pipe. The additional thermal mass as well as the finned heat sinks attached to the heat sink helped dissipate the heat from the pipe and release the waste heat into the surroundings. The increase in surface area in correspondence with forced convection from the surrounding air lowered the temperature of the metal in contact with the dry brush.
ContributorsHodges, Andrew (Author) / Benson, David (Thesis director) / Bocanegra, Luis (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This paper will examine the statistical significance of IRR dispersions caused by adjustments to property conditions. Many different economic metrics affect the returns and performance of real estate assets. During the underwriting process, many of these factors are considered and analyzed to find the true value of the asset given a set of market conditions. Because of the dynamic nature of the market, these factors fluctuate and therefore affect asset returns. Using Argus software, real estate managers can identify these variables and see how their adjustments affect asset returns in real-time. The beginning of this paper will start with an outline of the properties being analyzed, and well as financial information and market assumptions. For the statistical analysis, the Argus inputs that will be analyzed are:
1. Rental Revenue
2. Occupancy Rate
3. Tenant Improvements
4. Leasing Commissions
5. Operating Expenses
6. Capital Expenditures
7. Purchase Price
8. LTV
9. Debt Service Payment
10. Exit Sales Price
For the analysis, each variable will be individually adjusted without any changes to the other variables to ensure that changes in IRR are solely a result of the variable being adjusted. After the sensitivity analysis, each variable will be examined further the showcase differences in disparities and provide managerial insight. Finally, the findings will be applied to a modern-day scenario for additional insight on the practice use of the data. The importance of this data is that once analyzed, it can help real estate managers understand the main determinants of value in commercial real estate investments.
1. Rental Revenue
2. Occupancy Rate
3. Tenant Improvements
4. Leasing Commissions
5. Operating Expenses
6. Capital Expenditures
7. Purchase Price
8. LTV
9. Debt Service Payment
10. Exit Sales Price
For the analysis, each variable will be individually adjusted without any changes to the other variables to ensure that changes in IRR are solely a result of the variable being adjusted. After the sensitivity analysis, each variable will be examined further the showcase differences in disparities and provide managerial insight. Finally, the findings will be applied to a modern-day scenario for additional insight on the practice use of the data. The importance of this data is that once analyzed, it can help real estate managers understand the main determinants of value in commercial real estate investments.
ContributorsMakhija, Aditya (Author) / Stapp, Mark (Thesis director) / Koblenz, Blair (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The topic of elder abuse is relatively unknown and not talked about among the general public. Traditionally, society values one’s life the younger that person is on the grounds that the younger person has most likely not experienced life to the fullest extent as much as the older person has. The point of bringing up this way of thinking is not to refute it but to point out that a product of this societal mindset is that the elderly population is often forgotten about or placed on a lower priority level when considering medical and safety issues. This is a major factor that contributes to the vulnerability of older persons, who often must give up their autonomy due to the aging process and learn to live while being dependent on a caretaker. Elders are often in situations where they are isolated from the rest of the world and place their trust in their caretakers to help them live out the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, the process of aging and becoming dependent opens up the opportunity for this vulnerable age group to be taken advantage of and abused. The National Council on Aging reported that about 1 in 10 elderly Americans that are 60 years old or older have been abused in some capacity, and only about 1 in 14 of these cases are reported (NCOA, 2020). As the world population ages, these statistics face the risk of getting worse and exposing more elders to abuse while less and less abuse cases are reported to authorities. This presents the opportunity for elder abuse research to guide healthcare institutions that are related to caring for the elderly on how to care for and prevent elder abuse from occurring; however, this research is quite limited in comparison to the research, treatments, and prevention programs developed for other types of domestic abuse. The aim of this paper is to create an overall understanding of elder abuse as a whole and get a sense of the state of elder abuse so recommendations can be made on how to proceed in bettering the current issues elder abuse faces.
ContributorsCampbell, Alexander Daza (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / Bolhofner, Katelyn (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
“In the Dark Room” consists of a body of poetry with accompanying visual art exploring themes of tenderness, violence, memory, and distortion. The poems revolve around the self, the beloved, and the body. The speaker reflects on notions of harm and love towards themselves and others as relationships begin to decay, fogging the mind of the speaker, leaving them feeling as if they are trapped in a haze, their sense of time, warped. The title of the project reflects this, as a dark room is commonly used to develop film photographs. The idea of developing images leads to ideas of perception and performance. The poems encapsulate the gauze the speaker lives in by balancing precise, physical details with emotionally charged moments of urgency prompted by the speaker’s uncertainty and desperation. Questions and commands are utilized to draw out the inner action in the speaker’s mind as well as to illuminate different layers present in the work. The corresponding photography and collage serve to highlight the emotional depth of the pieces, as well as add accessibility and interest for the public. The photographs function as stills from a film, adding an element of movement, inspiring visceral emotions that elevate the written work, while the collage ties the mediums together by reflecting central imagery through the inherent fusion of the form. The body of work aims to translate vulnerability into a relatable human experience by exploring the confusion caused by emotional wounds.
ContributorsSamons, Karson (Author) / Ball, Sally (Thesis director) / Diaz, Natalie (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This thesis project examines the stability margin for different rotor configurations for a quadcopter and compares them against each other to determine the most stable flight configuration possible. The first configuration develops a “standard” for quadcopters with each motor in a corner of a cube at a 60-degree angle from the Y-Axis. The remaining tests increase the angle five degrees per configuration, allowing the motors to get incrementally closer to each other until no longer viable. Five different tests are outlined below depicting the microscopic changes in the pitch and roll of the device. The on-board controller in the quad-copter tracks both the acceleration and gyroscopic movements of the device to obtain the stability margin of each test. Computational analysis is then used to calculate and compare the values found to determine the most stable configuration.
ContributorsCorino, Tyler Michael (Author) / Kuo, Chen-Yuan (Thesis director) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In its totality, “Love and Everything After” consists of five tracks. In musical circles, this is considered an EP (extended play), a collection of music longer than one song but generally more brief than a full album. Each track combines varying degrees of my own acoustic and piano instrumentation with modern production elements, all tied together with a corrected vocal and a quick mix and master by my producer who doubles as my sound engineer for this project. I will outline my experience with the creative process here as well as break down the development of each song. A fair bit of the lyrical composition is dedicated to background information that may seem to verge on oversharing, but alas, I am a writer. I consider verging on oversharing an inevitable cog in any successful songwriting operation. I’ve decided to tackle the songs in chronological order, prioritizing the time during which the bulk of the piece was first assembled.
ContributorsNelson, Christopher Michael (Author) / Wells, Cornelia (Thesis director) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Musculoskeletal heterogenous tissues are crucial for dissipating mechanical load during physical activity. Modern procedures to repair these tissues have proven inadequate to restore full functionality, thus there is a need for alternative reconstructive methods. Consequently, tissue engineered scaffolds can mimic the native structure of tissues and trigger a healing response. Heterogenous tissues like the tendon-bone junction consist of an interdigitated fiber alignment gradient from the tendon to the bone. It has been shown that electrospun fiber alignment gradients can be fabricated from the incorporation of magnetic fields. In this study, manipulating electrostatic and magnetic interactions from various electrospinning collector arrangements were investigated for creating an interdigitated fiber alignment gradient. The collector arrangement consisting of a magnet overlaid with razor cut aluminum foil proved to provide increased control over the interfacial shape. The rapid transition at the interfacial region was verified with brightfield microscopy revealing an interdigitated gradient from highly aligned fibers to unaligned fibers.
ContributorsBusselle, Lincoln Pierce (Author) / Holloway, Julianne (Thesis director) / Tindell, Raymond (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Despite efforts to recruit and retain female engineering students, only about 21.3% of bachelor’s degrees each year in engineering and computer science are awarded to women. The purpose of this synthesis is to understand the ways in which current research has explored how self-identity, engineering identity, and sense of belonging influence undergraduate women’s persistence. Analysis is focused around 4 themes that emerged: (1) Sense of Self: Self-Efficacy, Expectancy Value Theory; (2) Culture of Engineering: Engineering Identity; (3) Stereotype Threat; (4) Interdisciplinary Studies to Expand the Culture of Engineering. Conclusions of this synthesis may be used as opportunities for future engagement with these topics.
ContributorsTapia, Kayla (Author) / Ganesh, Tirupalavanam (Thesis director) / Velez, Jennifer (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05