Honors Theses

The age-old adage, “actions speak louder than words,” has become very relevant in communication in today’s society. With the growing amount of service oriented jobs, hard skills are not enough in today’s economic climate (Lazarus, 2013). In order to succeed, workers need both hard and soft skills. Hard skills are skills such as accounting or finance skills, whereas soft skills include verbal and nonverbal communication. A study by Albert Mehrabian, currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, is most famous for the rule of 7%-38%-55%. Mehrabian finds in any communication scenario 7% of information received is through the words spoken, 38% is through the tone of voice, and 55% is though bodily movements (depicted in Figure 1). According to this study, 93% of what is communicated is done through nonverbal communication (Mehrabian, 1981).

The Importance of Nonverbal Communication in Business and How Professors at the University of North Georgia Train Students on the Subject

Densely connected convolutional neural networks are currently one of the best object recognition algorithms. Given the plasticity of neural networks, the DenseNet algorithm should perform similarly in NLP tasks. In its attempt to verify whether the DenseNet algorithm can yield equally impressive results on NLP tasks, this paper has modified the DenseNet algorithm and tested it on text classification. For this purpose, three differently sized datasets have each been encoded as Tf-IDf vectors and word vectors and then the DenseNet’s performance on these different feature sets was compared to more conventional methods including Naïve Bayes classifiers and other neural networks. The paper finds that DenseNets can perform on par with these algorithms but scale especially well with large datasets and semantically rich features.

Densely Connected Convolutional Neural Networks for Natural Language Processing

The Corps of Cadets is a diverse group of individuals with different motivations for pursuing a college degree while participating in a Senior Military College ROTC program. The purpose of this study was to determine if gender, contracted status, or a combination of both influenced cadet self-efficacy levels. Self- efficacy levels were determined by surveying a company of cadets using an ROTC specific experience measure and behavior models measure, as well as Eisengerger’s abbreviated perceived organizational support scale, the Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule, and the Big Five Inventory. The hypothesis was that overall there would be a significant difference between males and females with males having higher levels of the self-efficacy antecedents measured. Additionally, it was hypothesized that in general contracted cadets would have overall higher efficacy levels.

Determining Differences in Self-Efficacy Between Male and Female Cadets at the University of North Georgia

The trend of taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has grown substantially in the past few years. This research is designed to examine different questions to different aspects of the SSB tax to get a better understanding of the effectiveness of the tax. Since the SSB tax is a sin tax, it is necessary to research some of the challenges that were imposed on prior sin taxes and to determine if the sin taxes work. I will also relate the specific challenges that the sin taxes faced and how they could relate to the SSB tax implementation. I also look into the health effects of SSB consumption and how they contribute to factors like obesity and diabetes. This prior research helped answer the question of whether SSB consumption is associated with obesity and diabetes. If it is determined that there is no association, then there is no need for a SSB tax.

Examination of Taxation on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

The nursing department at the University of North Georgia (UNG) has participated in a study abroad medical mission trip to La Romana, a large city in the Dominican Republic (DR), for the past six years. The nursing volunteer team partners with the Good Samaritan Hospital (Hospital el Buen Samaritano) in order to provide philanthropic healthcare to the local sugar cane plantation population. While the program since its inception has provided much-needed service to Haitian immigrants in the DR, this study seeks to improve the program’s service through research illuminating the problem of anemia in the area and identification of ways to improve adequate nutrition, parasite removal, and education.

Iron Deficiency Anemia in Haitian Immigrants Related to Inadequate Nutrition and Parasites

Quorum sensing is a form of bacterial communication that regulates group behaviors such as biofilm formation and production of virulence factors. As a result, inhibition of quorum sensing may prevent activation of pathogenesis in a number of bacterial species. Indoles are a type of signaling molecule found in many bacterial species and the indole derivative indole-3-carboxaldehyde has been found to inhibit quorum sensing mediated behaviors in Escherichia coli. Bromination may be a way to increase quorum sensing inhibiting properties of indole carboxaldehydes. The IC50s of three monobrominated indole carboxaldehydes were determined and compared to the IC50 of indole-3- carboxaldehye. IC50s of all three test compounds were significantly decreased from the control. There was not a significant difference between different bromination patterns, although two compounds showed a trend towards a reduced IC50 when compared to the third compound.

Effect of Bromination on Quorum Sensing Inhibition of Indole Carboxaldehydes

Type 2 diabetes is a disease that is chronic and difficult to manage that millions of Americans must learn to live with each day. Many people with type 2 diabetes have limited knowledge of the pathophysiology of the disease and factors that affect its progression. Guidance from healthcare in choosing the right diet and amount of exercise would be beneficial to improving the quality of life of patients living with this chronic disease. Education materials and opportunities are less effective in underserved populations due to factors such as the cost of transportation and fuel to clinics, the absence of Internet access to helpful educational websites, and the cost of food (Jessee & Rutledge, 2012). Communityinvolved clinics such as the Community Helping Place (CHP) Free Clinic in Dahlonega, GA have noticed this gap in knowledge and education and have implemented changes to benefit the population of underserved patients with diabetes in Dahlonega.

Prescription Boxes

Due to the ever changing advancements in technology, photography is a constantly growing field. What was once an art form solely used by professionals is now accessible to every consumer in the world. This study analyzes the history of photography from where it all began to where it is today. The literature being studied focuses heavily on the history of photography, specifically in the analog, alternate process, and pre-digital era, where the earliest discoveries were made in creating what is commonly known today as a camera. The goal of this research is to study the evolution and history of photography and use this information to predict where photography will go in the future with technology ever changing. The following research will cover the early discoveries of photography, how the technology evolved from film to digital, and where digital is today, predicting the use of photography in the future.

Evolution of Photography: Film to Digital

Genetic testing has opened new doors into understanding a patient’s future health. The human genome is extremely vast and complicated. Testing an entire genome for the innumerable genetic variants that have a bearing on the development of cancer is costly both in time25 and efficiency. Testing for just a single gene results in seeing a whole group of variations, which may or may not be pathogenic11. Pathogenic, in this case, is defined as a variant known to cause or increase risk of a disease, the degree of which is determined by how co-segregated it is with the disease16,17. One of the genes that is examined when looking at hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) often is Cadherin-1, or CDH1.

Identification of Clinically Relevant Regions of the Human CDH1 Gene for Determining Predisposition to Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989, marking the end of over 30 years of division between the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, and the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany. The two states were remarkably different: East Germany's economy was dictated by communism, and West Germany's by capitalism.(1) A similar situation exists today between North and South Korea, with the North ruled by communism and the South by capitalistic markets.(2) Many experts believe that the two Koreas are destined to eventually reunify as well. However, there are widely differing opinions on how such a reunification would occur. Should it occur, there would be massive economic consequences, both regionally and globally.(3) Therefore, preparation for reunification is essential.
By examining the fall of the Berlin Wall, one may be able to glean insight into how this Korean reunification may unfold. This is the essence of this study's hypothesis: whether an in-depth examination of the major events surrounding the divisions of Germany and Korea and the effects those divisions had on each country economically and socially, as well as an examination of the reunification of East and West Germany, will provide a model for Korean reunification in the future.