Challenges Remain in Conducting Adequate Congressional Oversight

Restricte

An Exploratory Investigation Into Youth Tackle Football Safety in Mississippi

A football field in the south is a place where young men grow as friends and teammates, but, unfortunately, it is also a very dangerous arena. Players are often concussed, bruised, or have broken bones. These injuries are sometimes shrugged off, but there is increasing evidence that the injuries that young players sustain in their youth will impact their lives in years to come. In this thesis, I examine the current concerns in youth tackle football safety policy and what improvements can be made to the policies that exist. The literature provides evidence of current debate being had over safety; however, I conduct interviews with experts in the field throughout the state of Mississippi in order to better understand the issue as it relates to youth tackle football safety policies. I found that there are various philosophies surrounding the game of football and what to do to make it safer, there is a lack of adequate safety policies and oversight of those policies, and there is inadequate funding for equipment and personnel that help to make the game safer. These inadequacies do have a way to be improved. By using Kraft and Furlong’s Policy Process Model, I present various policy recommendations in order to better the safety of youth tackle football in the state of Mississippi

Brief Survey and Testbed Development for Blockchain Based Internet of Things

Blockchain and the Internet of Things are uprising in today’s technology world. Internet of Things or IoT are the devices with unique identifiers that share data or information over the internet whereas, Blockchain is a peer to peer network with a distributed ledger that contains a list of blocks that are linked together by cryptography. Fascinated and motivated by blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT), this thesis provides a review on blockchain based internet of things and also introduces a working testbed that integrates the two together. It also uses IoT device to invoke transactions into the blockchain. The reasons behind combining of blockchain and IoT is because the present centralized architecture won’t hold the exponentially growing use of IoT, blockchain implementation can reduce cost and moreover, decentralization will remove the bottleneck from the centralized server

Yield Stress Analysis With DV-III Rheometer

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the behavior of everyday substances (toothpaste, lotions, ect.) and chemicals through the analysis of yield stress. By measuring the flow properties of these products, one can determine the stability, uses, and other properties of a substance. Yield stress is experienced everyday from squeezing a tube of toothpaste, to stirring a batch of cake batter, or canning products in a factory. Yield stress along with viscosity helps us predict the behavior of chemicals, cosmetics, and food that we handle daily. Yield stress, torque, and strain values were measured with a DV-III Rheometer and the EZ Yield software. These values were graphed using Logger Pro and Microsoft Excel to demonstrate the trends of these values and the differences of them between each sample. For example, the stress verses strain graph represents a sample’s elastic energy, plastic energy, and point at which this transition occurs. Although not measured in this paper, when metals are graphed on this curve it can provide characteristics such as the degree of brittle or ductile behavior (4). Another useful graph is showing the fluidity of a sample by using its viscosity measurements. Samples that lose flow resistance with increasing heat result in a negatively sloped linear graph on an inverse log plot. Comparing yield stress between similar polymers and different brands of mayonnaise showed an unseen difference in products of seemingly identical composition. Other comparisons can show the difference in the behavior of Newtonian, non-Newtonian, and other categories of substances

Descriptive Study of Reading Comprehension Skills in Individuals with Down Syndrome

Problem Statement: Previous research has documented that individuals with Down syndrome are able to read and have identified strengths and weakness demonstrated within the reading domain, but research on their reading comprehension abilities is scarce. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze strengths and weaknesses of reading comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome, including within the word identification and language comprehension subdomains. Methods: Reading comprehension, word identification, phonological decoding, language comprehension, vocabulary, and syntax were the dependent variables in this study. Nine standardized assessments/subtests were used to measure these variables in 11 adolescents and adults with Down syndrome. Results: The results of this study revealed relative strengths in word identification, phonological decoding, and vocabulary. Weaknesses were found in reading comprehension, language comprehension, and syntax. Significant correlations were found between language comprehension and reading comprehension. Discussion: The results of this study suggest that language comprehension may have a strong impact on reading comprehension success in individuals with Down syndrome

Watering the Desert: Azraq, Public Opinion, and Environmental Post-Materialism

In this thesis, I analyze the physical, political, and societal transformations in Azraq, Jordan, caused by over-exploitation of the town’s aquifer. I also connect the changes I and others have observed in Azraq to two main theories: postmaterialism and its counterarguments, and the tragedy of the commons. In short, postmaterialism argues that societies that have advanced so that citizens do not have to devote their time and money to survival will have larger rates of environmentalism; the tragedy of the commons details the negative consequences of environmental degradation on those living around a common resource. In conducting the study, I carried out twenty-five surveys in Azraq that asked locals about the effects of the water shortage on their daily lives, their opinions on the national government’s water policy as it pertains to Azraq, and their opinions on the national government’s water policy pertaining to Jordan as a whole. Additionally, I conducted interviews with three Azraq farmers who discussed the impacts of government pumping from the aquifer on the agricultural sector; the president of the Azraq Wetland Reserve; and a representative of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. I found that the national government’s over-exploitation of the aquifer throughout the last three decades has led to increased environmental awareness in Azraq, which presents a direct counterargument to the postmaterialist thesis. I also found that Azraq presents a new way of understanding the tragedy of the commons, as the aquifer was once a common resource but is now controlled by the state. My findings imply that more shared, sustainable systems of groundwater governance will be necessary in the future

Swimmies

This thesis is based off the children’s book Swimmy, by Leo Lionni. The story develops into a series of paintings serving as a grand illustration of the narrative. Swimmy is about a fish whose companions were all eaten by a big tuna fish and now journeys the sea alone. Eventually, Swimmy finds more fish like its own, and together they swim as one large fish-form, scaring away the big tuna fish. The moral of this story is of perseverance and cooperation, showing how working together can overcome insurmountable obstacles in the face of danger. This group of paintings follows characters on their journey to find new friends. They are confronted with conflicts forcing them to collaborate and morph into different combinations, creating evolved characters with new powers. These characters portray encounters between humans, animals, and nature. The conflicts arising between them take place in a Surreal landscape and explore notions of habitat destruction. Harm to the environment is paradoxically represented, depicting it as lethal for human survival while characterizing nature as an organism forever maintaining homeostasis, through means of plant lifeforms sprouting out from the ruins to offer protection. The scenery develops playfully with bright colors and simplified forms to appear non-threatening while depicting macabre scenes. The process in creating the imagery pulls from Surrealism and relies heavily on chance and imagination, creating a make-believe environment full of fantasy and imaginary character

Case Studies of Standard Financial Accounting Procedures

What follows is a series of case studies concerning standard financial accounting procedures completed in the 2017-2018 academic school year. The following case studies dive into particular concepts and theories within financial accounting that I had not seen or been exposed. I was challenged throughout the year to dissect scenarios seen in the real world and attempt to solve real accounting issues. I was exposed to many different theories, methods, and situations where an inquisitive accounting mind was essential. The purpose of our honors accounting class was to complete, individually, various case studies in order to expand our accounting prowess. As opposed to other theses, this thesis covers a vast array of topics, thus, giving me a wider breadth of knowledge. Every case took numerous hours per week to finalize. Some cases were group work and some cases were individual work, giving our class experience working as a team and working by ourselves. Without this class, my intrigue with accounting would be drastically minimalized, and I would not have nearly as much exposure to real-life scenarios with accounting while still an undergraduate

Hit Me with your Best Shot: A Critical Analysis of the Resistance to Vaccine Utilization

Vaccines have provided humans protection from infectious diseases for centuries, yet the vaccination rate in the United States fails to come near one-hundred percent, allowing vaccine-preventable diseases to re-emerge in communities across the nation. Vaccines have proven to be a safe and effective method in preventing the spread of infectious disease, but vaccine resistance remains high due to false information perpetuated by anti-vaxxers, greatly impacting the vaccination rate in our country. This thesis, by means of a literature review, provides a critical analysis the resistance to vaccine utilization in the United States to determine what policy recommendations and interventions can be made to reduce the resistance to vaccines and increase the vaccination rate in our country. Vaccine hesitancy has been around ever since the creation of the first vaccine and as the years went on, the modern anti-vaxx movement gained ground, voicing concerns over the ingredients in vaccines, the number of vaccines children receive in their first year, and the belief of the myth that vaccines cause autism. Even after medical science and years of research have validated the safety of vaccines and have shown no link to autism, vaccine hesitancy is still an issue as anti-vaxxers push to receive exemptions for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. Several states offer these types of exemptions, furthering the low vaccination rates in the United States and putting citizens’ health and safety at risk. The findings of the critical analysis were comparable to the literature review: compulsory vaccine laws have proven to be a successful solution to increase vaccination rates; however, these laws are left up to the states, allowing many individuals to go unvaccinated as only Mississippi, West Virginia, and California do not allow religious and philosophical exemptions. In order to address the low vaccination rates in the United States, policy interventions must be made through the states, the federal government, health care providers, and community and government-based organizations to increase the vaccination rate in our country through measures intended to increase vaccine compliance. Without these policy interventions, our nation and our world will never be free from the threat of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases

Theoretical and Experimental Vibrational Modes of the Borane Pyridine Complex

Benjamin Wade Stratton: Theoretical and Experimental Vibrational Modes of the Borane Pyridine Complex (Under the direction of Dr. Nathan Hammer) The Borane Pyridine complex is a molecule that contains a dative bond between the boron and nitrogen atoms. A dative bond is a type of covalent bonding that occurs when both electrons come from the same atom. The B-N bond has been studied in several other molecules such as ammonia borane and determining the frequency at which this bond vibrates has been a topic of interest studied in these molecules as well as several others. This complex has another factor that makes it of interest, which is the pyridine ring it contains. While several studies on B-N bonds and pyridine have been performed separately in the Hammer lab this molecule contains both which makes it especially interesting. Borane pyridine, along with pyridine, was studied here using Raman spectroscopy and theoretical density functional theory calculations to characterize the vibrational modes. B3LYP and M06-2X methods were used along with 6-311+G(d,p), aug-cc-pVDZ, and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. It was found both theoretically and experimentally that pyridines interaction with the borane group causes its vibrational modes to be blue shifted. It was also found that when pyridine interacts with water through hydrogen bonding that its modes are also blue shifted, but this shift is smaller