Honors Senior Capstone Portfolio

This Honors Senior Capstone Thesis seeks to present an analyze the current war between Ukraine and Russia by comparing an contrasting three countries\u27 responses to this international crisis--Poland, France, and Germany

Aesthetic Revolutionaries : Picasso and Joyce

Picasso’s Cubist works and Joyce’s Ulysses transcend tradition, merge time and space, and radicalize form. By accomplishing these feats, the two men become seminal embodiments of Modernism. This thesis examines the conceptual and formal qualities shared by Cubism and Ulysses. With particular attention given to changing concepts of space and time, similarities between the works are related to four characteristics generally attributed to Modernism: deviance from tradition, an emphasis on form, fragmentation, and appropriation of popular culture. The monumental effects of these works on society are examined in the conclusion. The legacy of these aesthetic revolutionaries is unavoidable and continues to infuse Western society in the twenty-first century

The Profit and Loss Report on Animal Rights: How Profit Maximization Has Driven the Stagnation of the Legal Identification of Animals as Property

The concern for the wellbeing and humane treatment of animals continues to grow in the United States. However, while public opinion on how animals should be treated has largely changed, the legal classification for animals has not. Nonhuman animals today, just as in centuries past, keep only a property classification in the law. This classification, which we humans assign to furniture, jewelry, and paper plates, comes with a set of legal rights held exclusively by the owner of the property. These rights bestow upon the owner the abilities to sell, use, and destroy the property as they see fit with little regard to factors outside of the owner’s mere whim. This property classification, while perfectly suited to inanimate objects, does little to adequately address the pain and suffering felt by a sentient nonhuman animal. Many articles exist exploring the psychological aversion towards giving nonhuman animals the same rights as humans or exploring the deficiencies in statutes intended to protect animals. This Article, however, takes a different look at the status of nonhuman animals in the law and instead looks at the role capitalism has played in maintaining the property classification. To accomplish this goal the Article looks to one of the few other instances of sentient beings classified as property, the enslavement of African Americans, and the role capitalism played in driving and maintaining the institution of slavery past the economic purpose. Additionally, the Article discusses some of the animal rights issues that exist and how the current legal field fails to protect the nonhuman animals involved. Finally, the Article considers the psychological and emotional opposition to human rights and suggests a compromise that can advance the nonhuman animal’s interests to some degree while resulting in minimal impact on the average person’s day to day exploitation of nonhuman animals

Addressing burnout: a shift to the progressive work model

Worker burnout is a prevalent global issue and has persisted for decades. Commuting, traffic, and work schedules conflicting with personal responsibilities are just a few of many frustrations workers often experience as a part of the current way of working. This research brings light to a new work model that mitigates worker burnout. Maintaining focus on the worker, this study asked: Does a progressive organizational work model mitigate burnout? The Progressive Work Model (PWM) is a forward-thinking framework used to organize work activities and processes within an organization that meets the work-life balance needs of the modern workforce by mitigating burnout. I constructed the PWM by drawing from burnout, flexible work practices, the traditional work structure (9-to-5), work-life balance, the culture dimension of individualism/collectivism, and psychological safety climate literatures. This new work model entails forms of work that deviate from the current way of working to align with the modern work-life balance needs of workers that are increasingly expected in practice by empirically testing choice facilitated autonomy, flexible work practices, and work-life programs across cultures. The research methodology was primarily a quantitative study of individuals across the globe who are part of the workforce. Primary survey data from 8,484 individuals from six continents and 81 countries was collected by distributing a survey via international job boards Glassdoor and Indeed. Findings revealed helpful and important guidance to change the way we work, so organizations across the globe can find the courage to progress beyond the current way of working to meet the progressive needs of the modern workforce

Oral Cancer Awareness and its Determinants among a Selected Malaysian Population

Objective: To assess oral cancer awareness, its associated factors and related sources of information among a selected group of Malaysians. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on all Malaysian ethnic groups aged >= 15 years old at eight strategically chosen shopping malls within a two week time period. Data were analysed using chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression. Significance level was set at alpha<0.05. Results: Most (84.2%) respondents had heard of oral cancer. Smoking was the most (92.4%) recognized high risk habit. Similar levels of awareness were seen for unhealed ulcers (57.3%) and red/white patches (58.0%) as signs of oral cancer. Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, education, occupation and income were significantly associated with oral cancer awareness (p<0.05). Conclusions: There was a general lack of awareness regarding the risk habits, early signs and symptoms, and the benefits of detecting this disease at an early stage. Mass media and health campaigns were the main sources of information about oral cancer. In our Malaysian population, gender and age were significantly associated with the awareness of early signs and symptoms and prevention of oral cancer, respectively.Article Link: http://koreascience.or.kr/article/ArticleFullRecord.jsp?cn=POCPA9_2013_v14n3_195

Particle-in-cell simulation study of the scaling of asymmetric magnetic reconnection with in-plane flow shear

We investigate magnetic reconnection in systems simultaneously containing asymmetric (anti-parallel) magnetic fields, asymmetric plasma densities and temperatures, and arbitrary in-plane bulk flow of plasma in the upstream regions. Such configurations are common in the high-latitudes of Earth's magnetopause and in tokamaks. We investigate the convection speed of the X-line, the scaling of the reconnection rate, and the condition for which the flow suppresses reconnection as a function of upstream flow speeds. We use two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to capture the mixing of plasma in the outflow regions better than is possible in fluid modeling. We perform simulations with asymmetric magnetic fields, simulations with asymmetric densities, and simulations with magnetopause-like parameters where both are asymmetric. For flow speeds below the predicted cutoff velocity, we find good scaling agreement with the theory presented in Doss et al., J.~Geophys.~Res., 120, 7748 (2015). Applications to planetary magnetospheres, tokamaks, and the solar wind are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasma