University Libraries

By Maureen Schlangen

The latest theses from students in the University Honors Program are now available in eCommons, the University of Dayton’s open-access institutional repository.

Honors theses, each the product of several semesters of research under the guidance of a faculty mentor, have consistently high readership — more than 84,000 downloads from their first availability in April 2015 through June 2020 —  partly because of the strength of the research and partly because of the relevance of their topics to present and emerging issues. 

“Honors students that opt to complete a thesis as part of their honors diploma spend two years immersed in their research projects,” says University Honors Program associate director for research Nancy Martorano Miller, associate professor of political science. “With the guidance and support of their faculty mentors, honors thesis writers have submitted projects that make significant contributions to their disciplines. Many of these students also present their research at academic conferences and will succeed in having their research published in academic journals.”

The 2020 batch examines a wide range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. Most students made the full text of their research available for download, though some chose to provide only abstracts because they’re preparing to submit their work for publication or because they conducted sponsored research that is now proprietary.

Spring 2020 theses (Alphabetical by author last name)

• The Role of Follower Characteristics in Ratings of Leadership Style: A Meta-Analytic Review (Reda Aldahan)
• A Language of Silence: Analyzing the Effects of Sexist Language on Women’s Classroom Experiences (Emily Battaglia)
• Metal Layer Architectures for 2D TMD Heterostructures (Anna K. Benton)
• Understanding Chemolithotrophic Reduction Mechanisms from the Dark Marine Biosphere (Anna Gwendolyn Blair)
• Capes and Catechesis: The Use of Comic Books to Catechize Catholic Youths (Lindsey Bronder)
• Machine Learning for Cyberattack Detection (Kayla Chisholm)
• Inhibition of Bacterial Efflux Pumps Via Plant Derived Compounds (Ethan James Dawson)
• The Development of a SCFA Analysis Method and the Examination of Factors Affecting Listeria Pathogenesis (Ashton Dix)
• Liquid-Liquid Equilibria Studies of Potential Organic Solvents as Ethanol Extractants from Aqueous Solutions (Grace Docken)
• Compost Amendments on Urban Soils vs. Water Retention (Anna Louise Drew)
• The Eastern Europe Britain Wanted: Serbian Independence as recorded in British Newspapers, 1867 (Sarah H. Eyer)
• Investigating the Role of the ETC in Listeria monocytogenes during Ethanol Exposure (Amanda Fawcett)
• Direct and Indirect Effects of Additional Sodium on Grasshopper Growth and Development (Mark Ghastine)
• The Effects of Technology on Student Interest in STEAM Education (Paige Elizabeth Innes)
• Finding the switches that activate animal genes through a combined in silico and in vivo approach (Chad M. Jaenke)
• Design of an Enhanced Cellular Model for the Assessment and Tracking of Nanomaterials (Maggie Jewett)
• Combating Antibiotic Resistance Using Plant-Derived Compounds (Emily Jones)
• Barriers of Low Health Literacy in Achieving Informed Consent (Wyatt Kaiser)
• Toward a PA-Inhibitor Complex Crystal System: Influenza Polymerase Acidic Protein Fusion Constructs and Protein Expression (Rebecca Kramb)
• Effects of Ischemic Preconditioning on Maximal Exercise and Metaboreflex Activation (Serafino LaGalbo)
• The influence of riparian invasion by the terrestrial shrub Lonicera maackii on aquatic macroinvertebrates in temperate forest headwater streams (Michelle N. Little)
• Millions Displaced Tomorrow: A New Framework for Climate Migrants (Connor J. Lynch)
• Queer Borders and Belongings: Reparative Storytelling from El Paso (Mary McLoughlin)
• Designing Fictional Spaces: Questionable Architecture that Supports Sustainable Design (Noël J. Michel)
• Effects of Oxygen Levels and Short Chain Fatty Acid Exposure on Antibiotic Susceptibility in Listeria monocytogenes(Samantha Neanover)
• Angry Tweets and Interest Groups (Sean Newhouse)
• Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Drugs on the Drosophila Glioma Model Involving the Pi3K; EGFR Pathway (Patricia Katherine Parker)
• Novel Zinc Porphyrin and Bacteriophage PEV2 Combination Therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms (Erin Elise Pellot)
• Donald Trump’s ‘Presidential’ Rhetoric for the Wall: The Mobilization of ‘Crisis’ Rhetoric on Behalf of a Campaign Promise(Nicole Perkins)
• The Turn from Radicalism: Self-Regulation of the American Labor Movement, 1909-1919 (Ryan Harrison Reed)
• Where You Are and What You Know: Impact of Location and Education on Individual Engagement with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Emily V. Sandstrom)
• Weaponization of The Socialist Label in Modern American Politics (Matthew Schubert)
• “When You’re Done … You’re Still Part of Our Family”: An Exploration of Gendered Scripts and Relationships in Prison Reentry Programs (Ruth Schultz)
• “You Don’t Understand… It’s Not About Virginity”: Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, and Violent Masculinity on an Incel Forum Board (Joshua A. Segalewitz)
• Patience, Young Grasshopper: Analyzing the Fungal Components of the Grasshopper Gut Microbiome (Staci Seitz)
• Plant Extracts and Efflux Pump Inhibition (Henry Shay)
• Synthesis of Peraza Crown Macrocycles (Alexis R. Smith)
• The Effects of Remote Ischemic Preconditioning on Cognitive Function and Exercise Hyperemia in Isocapnic Hypoxia (Jenna N. Sorensen)
• Racial Disenfranchisement and Its Impact on Political Participation in the United States (Cierra Dei Stewart)
• Youth Sport Concussion Management (Cordell J. Stover)
• Confederate Continuation: The Visual Rhetoric of Confederate Monuments in Postmodernity (Ethan Andrew Swierczewski)
• Discovering Glioma Inhibitors via Chemical-Genetic Screens in Drosophila Cancer Models (Jordan Terschluse)
• Agency Among Linguistically Diverse Students: A Comparative Study of Adolescent English Language Learners in Chile and the United States (Kristen Travers)
• Traditional Funk: An Ethnographic, Historical, and Practical Study of Funk Music in Dayton, Ohio (Caleb G. Vanden Eynden)
• Integrating International Students into the Campus Community at UD (Natalie Weikert); thesis completed in December 2019
• Newspapers in the Transformative 1960s at the University of Dayton (Brendan Zdunek)

Readers can also browse and search for theses from 2015 to the present in the University Honors Program collection in eCommons.