The Honors College

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the design process as a methodological tool, apt for solving complex problems with the goal of affecting positive change in the lives of individuals. The major components of this process include skill development, re- search, conceptualization, production, and refinement. Here, these elements are put to task to address the needs of children on the autistic spectrum, specifically where social learning is concerned. The final product takes the form of an application designed and developed on the iOS 5 platform for iPad devices.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the first regional free trade agreement to incorporate extensive provisions for environmental protection. While increasing trade is undoubtedly the most important aspect of the agreement, environmental considerations and sustainable development are also important and worthy of pursuit at a regional, cooperative level through the creation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).

Prison overcrowding has caused a multitude of problems in the United States and internationally. California’s prison conditions were so poor they were acclaimed to be a violation of the eighth amendment. European mass incarceration has caused a strong emergence of tuberculosis. These are just a few stories of the dangers associated with overcrowding. Studies have shown decreasing crime rates and increasing prison populations since the 1990s and it is becoming increasingly important to determine the cause of these high incarceration rates and prison overcrowding.

This thesis examines the role of the iron sword in Ireland in the early medieval period (c. 400-600 AD). The sword as material culture indicates interaction and trade between Ireland and other societies, specifically Roman Britain. The Irish iron sword, in resembling the Roman sword despite its Celtic predecessors, signifies more participation with the Roman Empire than previously assumed.

The earliest fossil evidence of life found on Earth is up to 3.8 billion years old (Gray 2010). Life during this time endured conditions on Earth very different from what they are today. There was no ozone layer to protect the surface from UV light, and the UV fluxes from the young Sun were much stronger than they are today. There were also enhanced solar magnetic events, such as flares and magnetic storms, and an increased variability in the solar luminosity(Gray 2010).

A chlorin, H2TPCS4, was produced by a one-pot diimide reduction reaction of the corresponding porphyrin, H2TPPS4, using p-toluenesulfonyl hydrazide as the diimide source. The seven and a half hour to three day reaction was accelerated using a microwave reactor, resulting in a one hour reaction that had a 74% yield of chlorin.  The reaction was also accelerated by applying pressure to the microwave-assisted reaction, so that a twenty-five minute reaction had a 58% chlorin yield. 

This project was completed during the spring semester I spent as an exchange student in San Jose, Costa Rica. I attended a language immersion program at La Universidad de Veritas, a private architecture and design institute with a program geared toward Spanish language-learners. For three months I had Spanish class from 8am until 12pm five days a week and an "Alternative Approaches to Health Medicine" course - taught in English - every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

Parturition is dependent on complex physical and biochemical changes in the composition and strength of the cervix via a biological process called cervical remodeling. Collagen types I and III comprise nearly 85% of the dry weight of the cervix and are responsible for the tensile strength of the cervix during pregnancy. Changes in the rate of production and degradation of collagen, as well as changes in their extracellular organization, have been identified in late pregnancy and implicated in the changing integrity of the cervix.

The file is a concept as old as computers themselves. Even before computers had disks for storing files in memory, their programs and data were filed away in physical paper copies. After the transfer from paper to disk, file management became a key part of computer usage, growing in importance as the users' needs to access, edit, copy, delete, or view information about those files also grew. In the modern world, most file managers are very similar, each having nearly the same advantages, disadvantages, and features as the rest.

Vesicular stomatitis virus(VSV) is currently being studied as an oncolytic agent for the treatment of a variety of cancers. An important correlate of anti-tumor activity is the stimulation of natural killer (NK) cells, a specially type of lymphocyte. To determine the ability of VSV to activate NK cells, the natural killer cell line NK-92MI was infected with recombinant wild-type (rwt) and matrix (M) protein mutant (rM5IR-M) strains of VSV. rwt virus is a potent inhibitor of host gene expression, including expression of genes in the type I interferon (IFN) antiviral responses.