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Item type:Item, Access status: Embargo , Structured sound and the temporal organization of vigilance behavior(2026) Yost, JakeAuditory noise is often treated as a background condition or source of interference, yet noise contains measurable spectral structure that may shape attention and performance. Prior research suggests that noise can influence arousal, sustained attention, and response variability, but these effects are unlikely to be uniformly helpful or harmful. This thesis examined whether pink, white, and brown noise functioned as structured auditory contexts during a visual vigilance task. Participants completed a sustained signal-detection task in which they monitored a moving Gabor stimulus for subtle rotational changes while exposed to one auditory condition. Traditional behavioral outcomes, including hit rate, false alarm rate, response time, d′, β, and criterion c, were analyzed alongside distributional, recurrence, multifractal, and scan-path measures. Traditional Signal Detection Theory and mean response-time analyses did not show clear omnibus differences among the three sound-profile conditions. However, temporal and eye-movement analyses indicated that performance organization remained informative even when average behavioral outcomes were broadly similar. Response-time recurrence provided descriptive evidence about behavioral organization, whereas scan-path analyses provided the strongest nonlinear evidence: scan-path MFDFA supported participant-level profile interpretation, and scan-path RQA showed a condition difference in laminarity. These findings support the thesis in modified form. Pink, white, and brown noise should not be evaluated only by whether they improve or impair average performance; they may also be examined as structured contexts in which vigilance behavior unfolds over time. Future research should test longer vigilance tasks, larger samples, additional sound profiles, physiological measures, and individual-difference predictors.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Invoking power: restoration of Native American women's power through the Mississippian Earthmother(2026) Wilmot, Trista LouiseHistorians and scholars have written much in feminist Indigenous studies about the Native women who call North America, or Turtle Island, home. But when historians wrote about Mississippian women or their descendant communities, they left out crucial information about these women and how they lived day to day. They have also failed to realize just how much their religions shaped their worlds. Earthmother was a Mississippian deity that can still be seen today in the rituals and ceremonies of the Southeast Indigenous nations who descend from the Mississippians. Through research into archaeological and iconographic records, evidence of how Earthmother shaped women's roles and gave them power over certain aspects of society can be seen. If the teachings of Earthmother could be restored, women could regain their sacred power and take a more prominent place in their communities.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Differential extraction: a comparison of SpermX and Sampletype i-sep DL-MB(2026) Wheeler, EvanDifferential extraction is a modified extraction that was developed in 1985 to separate male DNA (sperm cells) from female DNA (epithelial cells) in mixed samples. This process presents challenges such as the loss of male spermatozoa cells and the potential for epithelial cell carryover. Recent advancements in DNA analysis kits have improved separation during the differential extraction process. In this project, Biotype’s Sampletype i-sep® DL-MB and InnoGenomic’s SpermXTM kits were compared to a variation of the Qiagen DNA Investigator Kit to determine cell separation efficiency and sensitivity. Ease of use and processing time were also taken into consideration. Mixed samples at semen concentrations of neat, 1:10, and 1:100 dilutions were created and extracted according to the kit protocols and quantified with Quantifiler TrioTM. Results obtained from triplicate testing show that SpermXTM is highly effective at isolating the sperm fraction from neat and 1:10 sperm samples. SpermXTM yielded an average of 0.75 ng/μl compared to 0.22 ng/μl for neat and 0.12 ng/μl compared to 0.041 ng/μl for 1:10, when correlated with i-sep® DL-MB. Conversely, the i-sep® method outperforms SpermXTM in extracting DNA from the epithelial fraction. Notably, the DNA quantities from SpermXTM at 1:100 dilution were similar to those from i-sep® at the same dilution (0.031 ng/μl and 0.028 ng/μl), and both methods surpassed the Qiagen DNA Investigator Kit. Future applications for SpermXTM and i-sep® DL-MB would be to develop a way for the protocols to be automated or for the kits to be used in cold cases.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , Reclaiming the narrative: Native American representation, images, and storytelling in contemporary film and media(2026) Turley, MariaHistorically, Native American characters and stories have been fraught with stereotypes and misrepresentation. Previous research has demonstrated Native Americans remain significantly underrepresented in mainstream media and are frequently portrayed through historical or clichéd narratives that fail to reflect the complexity of contemporary Native American life. Scholarship on media sovereignty has emphasized the importance of Native American participation in storytelling and visual production. As the number of Indigenous and Native American projects reaching mainstream media has peaked in recent years, questions remain regarding how audiences perceive these portrayals and how Native American media professionals navigate the entertainment industry.In this mixed-method study, the researcher employed a qualitative research design informed by Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs). The study conducted semi- structured interviews with nine Native Americans with experience in the entertainment industry. In addition, survey research examined audience attitudes toward Native American representation, authenticity, realism, stereotyping, and Native involvement in writing and directing. Interview participants stressed the importance of expanding Native representation beyond conventional narratives, advocating for more contemporary and nuanced portrayals that more accurately reflect the complexity of the Native American experience. Overall, these findings provided an important foundation for understanding how Native American media professionals navigate the industry as well as how audiences react to it. The survey findings similarly emphasized the importance of creative agency in Native American projects. Audiences generally perceived Native American representation as improving. However, respondents reported concerns regarding stereotypes, lack of complexity, and limited contemporary representation. Interview and survey findings suggest meaningful representation extends beyond visibility alone and requires Native involvement in writing and directing Native American stories. This study contributes to existing scholarship regarding media sovereignty by combining the lived experiences of Native American media professionals with audience perspectives. However, the study is limited by its reliance on online survey recruitment and a non-random sample, which may not fully represent broader audience populations. Similarly, the limited number of interviews does not represent the diversity of all Native American tribes, each of which are distinct. Future research should continue documenting Native American experiences in the entertainment industry. In addition, research should continue examining Native American films, television shows, and streaming content in conjunction with audience reception.Item type:Item, Access status: Open Access , The educational value of Red Dead Redemption II: analyzing law and order, environmental pollution, and tuberculosis in Rockstar's blockbuster video game(2026) Stephens, B. LewisReleased in 2018, Red Dead Redemption II (RDR2) is a video game set at the demise of the American frontier that explores historical themes such as racism, environmental pollution, Indigenous communities, capitalism, corruption, Manifest Destiny, and more. As of 2026, RDR2 is the third best-selling video game of all time. Production on the game began in 2010 following the release of its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption (RDR). The eight-year development cycle permitted designers ample time to ensure RDR2 is historically accurate to its setting of 1899, though some discrepancies exist. The game’s open world features five states representative of American cultures and climates with environments, weaponry, transportation, and technology allowing the player to experience life at the end of the nineteenth century. In 2021, RDR2 became the subject of a college course at the University of Tennessee Knoxville taught by Tore Olsson, a professor of the American South. Called “Red Dead America,” his class examines the violence and dilemmas presented in RDR2 through an academic lens. This thesis expands on Olsson’s work in arguing for the efficacy of RDR2 as a mode of “edutainment” (educational entertainment) by utilizing primary and secondary sources to analyze the historicity of three facets of the game—law and order, environmental pollution, and tuberculosis—and their roles in the settlement of the American West.