Senior Honors Theses (UMKC)All Honors students are encouraged to undertake a six-hour Senior Honors Thesis their senior year.https://hdl.handle.net/10355/450302024-03-28T17:35:00Z2024-03-28T17:35:00ZAccents and Second Language Acquisition: Comprehension and Intelligibility of Accented FrenchRobertson, Morganhttps://hdl.handle.net/10355/659992018-09-28T09:38:57Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZAccents and Second Language Acquisition: Comprehension and Intelligibility of Accented French
Robertson, Morgan
The following study assesses the correlation between accent and perceived comprehension and
intelligibility. Native speakers of French performed two judgment tasks and a transcription task
on non-native French learners’ recordings to determine if there is a relationship between accent
and comprehension or intelligibility. The study found that though there was a correlation
between accent and perceived comprehension, there was not any substantial relationship between
accent and intelligibility, or actual comprehension. The results of this study can help teachers of
French as a foreign language set realistic goals for students that result in intelligibility rather than
becoming native-like. The findings of this study can also help alleviate some of the social stigma
that surrounds accents and comprehension.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZAdaptive Ecosystem Management: A Systemic and Pragmatic Approach to Environmental Problem SolvingBarton, Taylorhttps://hdl.handle.net/10355/463212020-09-03T11:17:49Z2012-05-01T00:00:00ZAdaptive Ecosystem Management: A Systemic and Pragmatic Approach to Environmental Problem Solving
Barton, Taylor
Efforts to address anthropogenic climate change to date have yielded little in the
way of significant, long-lasting results. Human activities continue to wreak havoc on
the natural world and the causes of our continuing damage are both fundamental
and systemic. In this paper, I will argue that the methodology currently used to
create, discuss, and enforce environmental issues is flawed and I will propose an
alternative methodology that captures the goal of environmental management in its
process. This methodology is called adaptive ecosystem management and is
informed by pragmatic philosophy and systems theory. Adaptive management
addresses communication barriers between fields and groups, allowing for
cooperative and effective discussion of environmental problems and possible
solutions. I will discuss the process of adaptive management and its three main
components: experimentalism, place sensitivity, and multi-scalar analysis. By
focusing environmental problem solving at the community level, applying rigorous
experimentalism to possible solutions, and considering these solutions from many
different perspectives within and outside the community, the solutions applied to
environmental problems are made to be more sustainable and effective. I will
conclude by discussing examples of situations in which adaptive management has
been applied and can be applied for practical solutions to environmental issues.
Principal advisor: Professor Jim Sheppard; Includes bibliographical references (page 31)
2012-05-01T00:00:00ZAn Analysis of Discipline in a Post-Pandemic EraBeaubien, Daniellehttps://hdl.handle.net/10355/953022023-05-31T09:40:22Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZAn Analysis of Discipline in a Post-Pandemic Era
Beaubien, Danielle
This work is a literature review of Michel Foucault and a series of philosophers on how discipline has been altered in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This work uses Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality as primary literature to define
terms such as Discipline, Discourse, Construction of identities, and Normalizing power. I use these terms to interpret some of the social changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of work culture and life outlook. Since this is a philosophical and sociological analysis, the conclusions largely rely upon hypotheses of how the pandemic has changed the ways we view and understand socialized self-regulation and the powers that govern us. Since discipline dictates that we govern ourselves, the suspension of several social structures during the pandemic also allowed for the dissolution of discipline. The pandemic provided us all with unprecedented
time to reflect upon our lives and situations. The suspension of social structures harshened the lines between individuals and institutions which highlighted the power dynamics usually disguised by deeply ingrained self-regulation.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZAnalysis of Obesity (ob/ob) and Diabetes (db/db) Mutation Syndromes on Hypothalamic Medial Basal Nucleic Neuronal Degeneration in C57BL/Ks] MiceGriffin, Brookehttps://hdl.handle.net/10355/463622021-07-30T14:17:08Z0004-01-01T00:00:00ZAnalysis of Obesity (ob/ob) and Diabetes (db/db) Mutation Syndromes on Hypothalamic Medial Basal Nucleic Neuronal Degeneration in C57BL/Ks] Mice
Griffin, Brooke
The influence of the diabetes (db/db) and obese (Db/Db) genetic mutations on the
hypothalamic medial basal nuclei neuronal structure was studied in C57BLIKsJ mice strains by
morphometric analysis of medial basal nuclei which are known to have glucoregulatory neurons.
Brain tissue samples of C57BLIKsJ mice strains were analyzed histomorphometrically at various
stages of development of expressed diabetes Type II and obesity syndromes in order to compare
the strain and genomic influences on neuronal viability in the hypothalamic ventromedial (VMH)
and arcuate (ARC) nuclei of mutant and age-matched control mice. Both obese (Db/Db) and
diabetic (db/db) mutant C57BLIKsJ mice showed an increase in the number and distribution of
degenerated neurons in the VMH and ARC nuclei in comparison to the corresponding controls.
The mutation-associated exacerbation of the normal age-related neuronal loss, as observed in
control MBH nuclei, was temporarily associated with the overt expression of the hyperglycemic
component of the obese and diabetes syndromes in aging C57BLIKsJ mice. The data suggests
that the hyperglycemic condition, which characterizes the (db/db) and (Db/Db) mutation in
C57BLIKsJ mice is causally associated with the pronounced, premature MBH neuronal
degeneration in these strains of mice. The alterations in brain glucose metabolism, bioamine
content and function, and hormone sensitivity which are known to occur in these mutant .
C57BLlKsJ mice may be associated consequences of the observed changes in MBH structural
integrity and neuronal competence, with the severity of the mutation-associated changes being
relative to genetic background of the murine strain.
In the Laboratory of David R. Garris, School of Biological Sciences; Includes bibliographical references (page 13)
0004-01-01T00:00:00Z