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Nutritional Knowledge and Behaviors of Undergraduate Students
Get PDFPoor dietary behavior can lead to various chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and obesity. Because dietary intake takes time to impact health, observing diet knowledge in college students can be beneficial. This study sought to measure whether greater nutritional knowledge would translate to a healthier dietary intake. Nutritional knowledge and behavior were measured and then compared in 257 students in two different undergraduate classes - an introductory nutrition course and a standard biology course - which was the control group. Each class was given the same survey at the beginning and end of the fall semester. Results indicated that the knowledge of the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake, per the USDA, did not improve throughout the semester. There was no significant change in nutrition students that consumed vegetables daily, however the number of students that consumed fruit daily increased by 5%. Knowledge regarding saturated fats increased by 15%. The nutrition students decreased their saturated fat consumption by 1g, which placed their saturated fat intake at 10.2 g per day. Nutrition education had a positive impact on nutritional knowledge and did translate to the students’ diets in some aspects of nutrition, but not all of them. This indicates that nutritional knowledge is an effective way to improve dietary behavior, however knowledge is not always the only factor that will change behavior
Are Treaties the Solution to the World’s Piracy Problem? Using International Institutions to Defeat Blackbeard
Get PDFFor thousands of years, pirates have been a menace on the seas, yet somehow, they have also inspired generations of authors and directors to romanticize and trivialize their plundering in literature and film. Although piracy has generally decreased around the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere and European waters, it remains a global peril that continues to jeopardize maritime security and the commercial shipping industry. The economic impact of piracy may be on the decline; however, in 2017 alone, the economic toll of piracy in East Africa was $1.4 billion, which excludes West Africa, Southeastern Asia, and the Caribbean, all locations were piracy remains a critical hazard (Oceans Beyond Piracy, 2017). States are faced with two options when it comes to combating piracy: enact domestic legislation and join international institutions that address piracy. By examining these two paths in greater detail, this thesis will attempt to answer my hypothesis: the empirical question of whether or not states with increasing numbers of piracy incidents and attacks will join more piracy-oriented treaties. To do so, I will explore what contemporary piracy looks like, as well as provide a brief overview of how international institutions work and what piracy-oriented treaties look like in practice. In order to test my hypothesis, I have modified a data set from Brandon Prins’ Mapping Maritime Piracy Project by adding additional variables and collapsing the data. I ran several bivariate correlations and regressions between piracy and treaty participation variables. Nevertheless, no support was determined for my hypothesis, so I decided to analyze two case studies to further explore the relationship between piracy and treaty participation. This thesis concludes that international institutions may still be an effective tool to combat maritime piracy, but in the future, this problem may be best solved by a supranational body dedicated to alone to the elimination of piracy
The Application of Accounting Concepts Through Case Studies
Get PDFMy thesis addresses several important concepts of accounting principles. These concepts are explored through twelve different case studies that each help address a specific topic. The topics cover the treatment of items such as accounts receivables, property, plant, and equipment, long-term debt, shareholder’s equity, marketable securities, deferred income taxes, and revenue recognition rules. The methods used to complete these cases was to take the information I learned in class as well as reference my textbooks. It helped me to understand what the questions were asking and therefore the corresponding solutions. For each case, I had to search through each company’s financial statements to discover the significances of what was being reported. An important aspect of combing through the financial statements was to carefully read the notes to the financial statements. The notes held the most crucial information to answer the questions presented in the cases. Working through all of these cases taught me real-world uses of the information I was learning in all of my accounting classes. These practical applications were helpful because it taught me further how to take the information and apply it to the questions being asked. This thesis is set to explore several highly important and relative accounting concepts that benefited me greatly in my education and my real-life experiences as an intern in the tax practice of public accounting.
Accounting Principles: A Collection of Case Studies
Get PDFFor my thesis, I completed twelve case studies to analyze common accounting concepts with real companies and scenarios. Over two semesters, I was given the cases by Dr. Victoria Dickinson in a course specifically designed by the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. The purpose of the course and this thesis is to gain a better understanding of various accounting topics in respect to the current U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The case study titles are broad but each case take an in-depth discussion into specific areas with the use of short answers, calculations, and journal entries. Some topics, such as a financial statement analysis, examine the financial statements as a whole. While other topics, such as accounts receivable, discuss specific financial statement accounts in detail. Other miscellaneous topics in this collection include deferred income tax and data analytics.
By working through these cases, I improved my accounting knowledge and skills significantly. I felt more prepared throughout my audit internship due to what I learned during the course. Now with the completion of this thesis, I feel more prepared to start full-time as an audit associate. I believe readers will also develop a better understanding of these accounting concepts
Microbial Communities Associated with Dragonfly Nymphs Raised in Varying Concentrations of Amoxicillin
Get PDFThe bacteria on and within an organism make up that organism’s microbiome. Given interest in the use of antibiotics in agriculture and the effect of microbes on human health, more studies are needed on the microbial community composition of different organisms and how it responds to antibiotic use. This study investigated changes in the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria present in dragonfly nymphs exposed to differing concentrations of amoxicillin. Next generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used to identify cultures of these antibiotic resistant bacteria. Increasing the concentration of antibiotics the dragonfly nymphs were exposed to resulted in greater numbers of antibiotic resistant bacteria. From both amoxicillin + TSA and TSA-only plates, Proteobacteria was the most abundant phyla detected. Bacteroidetes was the major phyla detected in nymphs raised in 0% amoxicillin and plated on amoxicillin + TSA plates. There was a high relative proportion of members of the phylum Firmicutes in all samples plated on TSA plates. In the nymphs raised in 0% amoxicillin plated on TSA plates, members of Firmicutes made up the majority of their microbiome. This study demonstrates that the bacterial communities associated with dragonfly nymphs are affected by changes in the environment, and that exposure to antibiotic pollution likely increases the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria within aquatic insects
Active Shooters on Campus: University of Mississippi Employees’ Perceptions and Preparedness
Get PDFThe objective of this study was to examine university employees’ perceptions, knowledge, and preparedness of active shooter situations on campus, and how gender influences these factors. This study collected data from a broader survey of faculty and staff that examined crime on a college campus, perceptions about crime on campus, and knowledge about crime on campus. This research also serves as a companion piece to the research conducted by Mulvey (2018), where similar research questions were posed to a large sample of undergraduate students. As in Mulvey’s study, it was hypothesized that participants would report generally low levels of confidence in their ability to respond to an active shooter event (i.e., self-efficacy), with males tending to report greater self-efficacy than females. It was also hypothesized that females would report a higher perceived likelihood and a greater fearfulness of an active shooter event occurring. A cross-sectional survey was administered to faculty and staff members at the University of Mississippi. The data support these hypotheses. In terms of self-efficacy, the difference between males and females was statistically significant, t (247) = 3.19, p < .001. In terms of perceived likelihood, the difference between males and females was statistically significant, t(225) = -3.64, p < .001. Finally, in terms of fearfulness, the difference between males and females was also statistically significant, t(291) = -4.48, p < .001. Women were reportedly more fearful and had a higher perceived likelihood of an active shooter event occurring, while men reported greater self-efficacy pertaining to the occurrence of an active shooter event. These data suggest that employees on campus could benefit from increased availability of information and targeted training
Optimization and Cost Comparison of Reactor Types in a Styrene Production Process
Get PDFThe focus of this thesis is to use the equivalent annual operating costs of isothermal, adiabatic, and packed bed reactors in order to determine which reactor is most cost effective in a styrene production process. In order to understand the steps leading up to this comparison, background information is first given regarding chemical engineering design, optimization, and process simulation. This information was necessary for completing the ChE 451 design project, which was to analyze the base case styrene process before optimizing it, in fall 2018. The results of this project are briefly outlined in the second section. The third section discusses fluidized bed reactors and the process which must be taken to model it in Excel. In this project, the selected configuration is three fluidized bed reactors, each with a volume of approximately 83 cubic meters, in parallel. The last section discusses the calculation of equivalent annual operating costs for the isothermal, adiabatic, and fluidized bed reactors. Overall, fluidized bed reactors are found to be the most cost effective in the styrene process based on the equivalent annual operating costs; however, a comparison based on the net present value of the entire styrene process containing each reactor would yield a more accurate comparison
Exploration of Thiol-Michael Addition Bioconjugation to Extend Polymers of a Protein-Based Hydrogel
Get PDFHydrogels have been explored for many biomedical applications, including targeted, in situ drug delivery to avoid the negative side effects associated with systemic delivery. In our work, we are exploiting the high affinity, calcium-dependent binding between calmodulin and its target peptides to create a biomaterial for in situ, extracellular drug delivery. Genes were engineered to make two protomers, Calmodulin Collagen-Like Protein (CCLP) and Peptide Collagen-Like Protein (PCLP), that will spontaneously self-assemble in situ due to the high Ca2+ concentration in the extracellular space and provide tunable, targeted drug delivery in a biocompatible hydrogel. One important factor that would dictate the potential utility and application of this hydrogel is the geometry of the protomers involved. Longer polymers have higher levels of entanglement and thus form gels with greater integrity. We used Thiol-Michael addition chemistry to bioconjugate our protomers with polyethylene glycol (PEG) crosslinkers in order to fine-tune the physical properties of the resultant hydrogel, such as elasticity and viscosity. We took advantage of the base-catalyzed Thiol-Michael addition mechanism and performed reactions between the cysteine residues of our genetically-engineered protomers and both divinyl sulfone and maleimide-based PEG crosslinking reagents. We studied the extent of bioconjugation and the effects of factors including concentration of reducing agent and denaturant, temperature, identity of the Michael acceptor, and the ratio of crosslinker to protein. Results were assayed by gel electrophoresis. We found that maleimide-PEG reagents are far more reactive than those based on divinyl sulfone, and at a lower pH. Additionally, bioconjugation is most promoted by the presence of 1 mM TCEP (reducing agent). Temperature and urea do not have significant effects on the reaction. The three constructs we tested were all modifiable, but we see particular potential in our CCLP Bis-Cysteine construct because it is capable of multiple bioconjugation reactions due to its bifunctional nature. The chemistry described here can be used to fine-tune the physical properties of the hydrogels formed by our protomers for a wide array of applications
The World’s Game, but not America’s: An Analysis of Soccer’s Disposition in the United States
Get PDFGlobally, soccer is the most prominent sport, drawing devoted fans from nearly every country in the world. The World Cup grosses the highest attendance and viewership rates of any international professional sports tournament. For many countries, the game of soccer is a source of national identity and pride. Despite soccer’s global impression, the sport has failed to fully captivate its American audience. The introduction of the professional men’s league, Major League Soccer (MLS), in 1996 spurred interest. The sport has experienced slight growth in popularity, but its national attendance and viewership ratings are trivial in comparison to America’s elite three sports of football, baseball, and basketball. After twenty-three years of the most successful professional soccer league in American history, soccer should not be significantly overshadowed by the elite three in the way that it is today. Soccer’s disposition in the United States has been of much discussion in recent years; especially after restructuring the United Soccer League (USL) and the ongoing misconduct occurring among soccer’s international governing body, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). My thesis work aims to answer the following question: why is soccer the most popular sport in the world but has failed to be so in America? In order to answer this question, I apply a theoretical framework constructed through relevant news and sports articles, scholarly and academic journals, scientific investigation, personal interviews, and personal experiences to analyze what causes soccer to be unable to come to fruition in the American sports industry. The results of this investigation conclude that a root cause of soccer’s disposition is accredited to cultural differences between individualistic and collectivist societies. These culture differences factor in to many facets of the sports industry, including the sports media, financial investment, audience attentiveness, and athlete interest
An Analysis of Financial Accounting Fundamentals Through Case Studies
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to analyze and discuss a broad range of financial reporting topics. This paper was developed over the course of a year in the Honors Accountancy Independent Study class led by Dr. Victoria Dickinson. It is organized into a series of 12 case studies that each examine a specific accounting issue or topic. This required using all resources available to research and understand the specific topics and companies at hand. This process gave me an advanced knowledge of financial accounting beyond the traditional accounting classroom lectures and textbooks. As a result, writing this thesis acquainted me to what accounting looks like in a real-world context