2017 Spring

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http://hdl.handle.net/11416/166

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 15
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    The Effects of Social Media and Self-Esteem on the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and Delinquent Behavior
    (Florida Southern College, 2017-05) Zunic, Destiny
    Social media and self-esteem are two highly researched topics that continuously have a daily impact on college students’ behaviors. For example, students communicate with one another about upcoming events, homework assignments, and the latest news on such media platforms as Facebook messenger, GroupMe, and Snapchat. Self-esteem, too, plays a key role in the college student’s experiences, influencing both positive and negative personal outlooks– and subsequent resulting behaviors. The growing interest in the topic of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) has loosely been credited to society’s mounting exploitation of social media. It is defined as a sociological concept pertaining to the social elements of a person’s feelings of missing out in any particular activity or involvement with other people (Hetz, Dawson, & Cullen, 2015; Vera, 2016). This also includes the feeling associated with wanting something, such as a newly released piece of technology (e.g. iPhone 7), that someone else possesses or displays (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013). For example, feelings of missing out may be present in the following situations: when a person’s friend group is hanging out and said person cannot be there, when a person utilizes an excess amount of time on social media to keep tabs on their peers, or when a person believes their experiences are not as rewarding as someone else’s. This overall emotion of feeling left out can impact any person at any given moment. However, college students may be particularly susceptible of FoMO because they are presumed to be easily influenced by their peers.
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    Millennials Changing the World? A Look at the Relationship Between College Students’ Values, Dreams of Travel, and the Desire to Make a Difference
    (Florida Southern College, 2017-05) Trout, Zoe
    This project explores the cultural interaction between millennials from the U.S. and residents in third world countries where they may volunteer, with a focus on how these young people view themselves and others, and, in particular, any “dominant culture” attitudes that might impact the volunteer experience. I explore three important relationships: between millennials and volunteering, millennials and their perceptions of themselves as the dominant culture, and millennials and people who are culturally different from them. I seek to understand the connection between the values and perceptions of young people who want to help and the likelihood that they will follow through with volunteering. A few themes stand out: a strong connection between diversity as a high value and a strong desire to volunteer outside of the US; money and career issues as significant barriers to volunteering; concerns regarding the misallocation of funds by coordinating organizations to the detriment of host countries; and a strong perception by participants that they had a strong skillset to bring in contrast to a weak perception that there was value in learning from residents in their host community. With this research, I hope to increase understanding of the gap between the strong desire for service and the lack of follow-through in volunteering, especially in cultures that are significantly different from our own.
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    How the Mighty Have Fallen: an Examination of the Luciferian Arc in Arthurian Legend
    (Florida Southern College, 2017-05) Wetz, Samantha
    Western society has long obsessed over and even fetishized Arthurian legend. Countless literary retellings and film adaptations of every genre clutter search engines and library shelves alike. Scholars are not exempt from the masses’ love of all things Arthurian. A search of “King Arthur” pulls up 99,983 articles on JSTOR, and Arthurian scholarship even has an entire scholarly journal, Arthuriana, devoted to the once and future king of Britain. So, why write another scholarly thesis on a topic that has been discussed to and past the point of boredom? While a plethora of texts exist on Arthur, and a lesser but still impressive number on his most famous knight, Lancelot, the religious connections between Christianity and Arthuriana only discuss the similarities between Arthur and Christ. Lucifer is conspicuously absent from the conversation. Considering the parallels between the stories of Lancelot – and by extension Lanval – and Lucifer, leaving the topic unaddressed would be an act of literary negligence.
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    The Effects of Atrazine Exposure on DNA Methylation in Drosophila melanogaster
    (Florida Southern College, 2017-05) Nicolodi, Victoria
    Atrazine is the second most commonly used herbicide in the United States with 80 million pounds being applied to farmlands yearly. It is a potent endocrine disrupter, as it acts as a xenoestrogen and causing estrogen dominance. Atrazine has been observed to cause behavioral, developmental, and reproductive changes in species such as frogs, salmon, and rats. Current research is looking at DNA methylation, which is the addition of a methyl group to the fifth carbon on the cytosine ring, as an epigenetic factor for gene expression controlling cellular processes such as gene suppression and genomic imprinting, In this study, Drosophila melanogaster were exposed to varying concentrations of atrazine and their DNA was extracted to observe and compare the changes in global methylation patterns. It is predicted that there were be global DNA hypomethylation in flies exposed to atrazine compared to those of the control. Data obtained showed that was some correlation between viable candidates produced and the concentration of the exposure environment, but not enough to be definitive. Through setbacks in the DNA extraction process, techniques for genomic DNA extraction from Drosophila melanogaster was developed.
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    Genetically Modified Statutes: the Commercialization of GMOs in America
    (Florida Southern College, 2017-05) Thiele, Danika
    In a world of modern commercialism and proliferation of various branding techniques, agriculture often is overlooked in life’s grand scheme. Often American assumptions regarding products and the actual informative labeling of said goods vary greatly. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), though highly controversial, will soon be limited by Federal Department of Agriculture guidelines regarding labeling. As a country, the US has no concise guidelines for labeling GMOs. This study questions whether this is in conflict with the consumer’s best interest, and if the American public believes they hold the right to know the processes involved in food production just as much as a food’s calorie content. In this study, 100 participants were asked to complete an anonymous online polling survey composed of seven questions to gauge interest in GMOs, while a second, separate focus group of 47 participants answered qualitative questions in a group-discussion format. The study found there is currently a lapse between informing food labels and consumer awareness, and, specifically, that the majority of consumers believe they hold the right to know how their food was manufactured. The study also found that GMOs are not of major concern to most of the participants, and they are less crucial to buying habits than price and conveniency of products.