Honors Thesis Collection
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Honors Thesis Collection
As of January 2018, the complete online archive of the Honors Thesis Collection is located at http://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/3483.
The items below only represent a portion of the collection and are included in the complete collection located at the link above.
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ItemA Re-Creation of Mary Wigman’s Ceremonial Figure Emphasizing the Noh Theater and Butoh Elements(University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-05)This project is a re-creation of Mary Wigman’s Ceremonial Figure that aims to highlight and re-contextualize the Noh Theater and butoh influences. Mary Wigman, along with other modern dance pioneers, was inspired by Eastern cultures that she deemed exotic and closer to nature. Beginning in 1925, Wigman was inspired by Noh Theater and its use of the mask as a transformative element. Noh Theater is a ritual theater formed through possession rituals that began in the 1300s. Wigman, in turn, inspired butoh, an avant-garde Japanese dance form that was also inspired by Noh Theater and began in the 1960s. The re-creation of Wigman’s Ceremonial Figure is thus an attempt to reconcile modern dance's history of borrowing movement without context and Wigman's hope for a transcultural dance form. To construct the re-creation, I studied butoh exercises, Wigman’s choreographies, and Noh Theater’s structure. From butoh, I utilize the technique and quality of the movement. From Wigman, I utilize the performative quality, movement, and theme. Lastly, from Noh, I utilize the transformative element, character development, and mask technique.
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ItemAssessment of Anti Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Activity in Bidens biternata and Mangifera persiciformis(University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-05)The disease known as herpes, caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV), is a common infection resulting in lesions on the mouth or genitals. At least half of the population of the United States has experienced infection by HSV. There is presently no preventative vaccine for HSV and resistance to acyclovir, the only currently available therapy, is increasing. This signals a need to find other chemotherapeutic agents to use in treatment. This research evaluated extracts from two plants, Bidens biternata and Mangifera persiciformis, both used in traditional Chinese medicine, for potential anti herpes properties in a cell culture system. Both of these plants have shown high anti herpes activity. Bidens biternata showed 6% cytotoxicity from its most active fraction; however, this fraction failed to reliably inhibit HSV. We report an unknown isolated compound from M. persiciformis that has shown nearly 90% virus inhibition with 6% cytotoxicity at 50 μg/mL. This promising compound will be evaluated for structural identification in a future project. ii
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ItemTolerance of Gay-Straight Alliances in Public Schools: LGBT+ Adolescents’ Struggle for Support and Coexistence(University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-05)Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT+) people has been prevalent throughout U.S history. Through the endurance of much legislative and social oppression, same-sex couples now have the right to marry. However, there is still social opposition. A commonly recognized support organization for LGBT+ individuals, primarily high school-age adolescents, is the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), an extracurricular student organization in public schools that provides a supportive place for these adolescents to unite with heterosexual allies away from an atmosphere that otherwise maybe occupied by homophobia and bullying. In 2016, Franklin County High School (FCHS), in rural Tennessee, established the county’s first GSA with much unanticipated resistance. This study examined 8 community members’ support for and opposition to the GSA through semi-structured interviews. Participants were divided into three groups based on their positions toward the GSA: Group 1: Strong Support, Group 2: Conditional Support, and Group 3: Strong Opposition. Findings show that supportive participants felt that LGBT+ adolescents needed a place to escape bullying and find allies. Conditional Supporters thought that LGBT+ adolescents experienced much more bullying than heterosexuals, but the participants were concerned that the GSA would get special treatment as a school club. Those who strongly opposed the GSA felt that LGBT+ adolescents were not bullied any more than other students and that the GSA was unnecessary and dangerous to have in school. Each participant gave recommendations of ideas that might lower conflict between students of differing sexual orientations, which are accompanied by any available research.
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ItemDisruption and Development: How the Uneven Growth of Mexico has affected Intellectual Property in the Yucatan Peninsula(University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-05)Disruption and Development: How the Uneven Growth of Mexico has affected Intellectual Property in the Yucatan Peninsula by Sierra Sulema Sotelo Spring 2017. The Yucatan Peninsula has historically been known as “A world apart” from the rest of Mexico, but given rapid globalization this is changing. It is imperative to understand the unique resources each country or region is capable of producing such as intellectual property in the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. For these reasons, this thesis focuses on the reasons behind Yucatan Peninsula’s lack of significant intellectual property creation through critical analysis of Mexico’s Foundational Factors, including, but not limited to, geography and foreign relations, and compilation of data, this thesis will display how the Yucatan Peninsula, by no fault of its own, has fallen behind its Western counterparts and is not utilizing intellectual property to its full potential. Countries cannot afford to lose the opportunity to create and own intellectual property and the Yucatan Peninsula has continually missed out on opportunities due to lack of knowledge on intellectual property and systematic neglect by its own government.
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ItemA Child’s World: A qualitative study of the social and cultural construct of kindergarten children(University Honors College, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017-05)The purpose of this study is to study the social and cultural constructs of Kindergarten children. Since the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), more attention and focus has been placed on voices of children. The researcher wanted to find out what children think of their school, home life and their emotions. A qualitative study was conducted with 30 Kindergarteners at a local elementary school in fall 2016. Through small group focus interview and work sample (children’s drawing), in-depth data were collected. Adopting Urie Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework, this study envision to study the implication of the data on children’s construct of childhood. The data will be coded and analyzed according to emerging themes. The results and findings of this research are useful to parents and educators across the world.