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  “Children in Misery” or young crusaders?: the political utilization of children by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

  Murphy, Shayna (2020-05)

  This paper discusses the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s use of children for political purposes during their fight for Prohibition. In an effort to sympathize their mission and to create a sense of urgency around the banning of alcohol, members of the WCTU created an image of children as victims in their propaganda. However, the WCTU understood the importance of creating future voters, and so often created propaganda that presented children as active heroes. This conflicting portrayal of children showed that the WCTU used children as political tools and used such contrasting portrayals to reach a political goal rather than aptly represent children of alcoholic families. To understand this relationship between the WCTU and children, I analyzed posters created by the WCTU that present children as victims of alcohol and then content produced directly for children by the WCTU.
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  Chatbots: history, technology, and a case analysis

  Jay, Benjamin (2020-08)

  This thesis examines the more than 50 year history of chatbots that led to the development of Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. A chatbot, commonly known as a conversational agent, is a computer framework that can have a normal conversation with a user by using a natural language processor (Reshmi and Balakrishnan, 2018). The goal is to understand the psychological and mathematical theories that worked well throughout history, as well as those that did not, and the impact they had on the evolution of modern chatbots. This thesis incorporates these theories into a new chatbot created using Google’s chatbot AI platform called Dialogflow. By following a Coursera course titled Building Conversational Experiences with Dialogflow, this thesis creates a chatbot that can schedule tours of a school and can answer questions about the SUNY New Paltz 2020 Commencement ceremony. Creating even the most basic chatbot requires a comprehensive understanding of the underlying theories and extensive coding experience (Abdul-Kader & Woods, 2015). This thesis assumes a foundation knowledge of computer coding.
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  The devil can cite scripture for his purpose: Shakespeare’s use of the parable of the Prodigal Son in ​Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear​, and ​The Tempest

  Almeyda, Dariana (2020-05)

  Scholars have long identified the Bible as one of William Shakespeare’s main sources of inspiration. An extension to “The Devil Can Cite Scripture for His Purpose: Shakespeare’s Use of Biblical Allusions in ​The Merchant of Venice,”​ this paper explores Shakespeare’s implementation and reimagining of the parable of the Prodigal Son in ​Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear,​ and ​The Tempest.​ His manipulation of the parable creates a universal sense of morality for the characters in each play and serves as a common ground for audiences of his time to understand and better relate to his works. To modern readers, his reworkings of the parable also serve as a social commentary on sixteenth-century English society steeped in religious conflicts and motifs. He creates several characters that act like prodigals, a term socially recognized by its relation to the parable found in Luke 15, but also universally understood as both an adjective and noun to mean “spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant. / A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way” (“Prodigal”). ​Shakespeare’s various reworkings of this parable prompt a conversation about the price of forgiveness, love, and whether or not grace and mercy are truly free.
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  Exploring love languages: the key to building and maintaining healthy relationships

  Adams, Aryiah (2020-05)

  Communication is the heart of who we are as human beings. It is just as necessary as food and shelter because communication allows us to develop a civilized society that can transmit valuable information and knowledge. The desire to be loved and nurtured is also a fundamental human need that can be expressed through language. Through a series of interviews, the paper explores five “love languages” developed by Dr Gary Chapman used to communicate emotional fulfillment. The paper challenges the idea that time is a key component to the development of the five love languages. The research demonstrates that over time individuals discover their love language and that of their partner. Time further serves as a learning period that allows couples to recognize the emotional desires of their partner. Time then becomes the impetus for consistent acts of love creating growth between couples as they express love their partner accepts. The five love languages speak to the basic fundamentals needed to communicate love.
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  Designing an Instructional Informative Website for Pet Owners

  Jofre, Ana; Ortiz, Sherman; Jofre, Ana; First Reader; Lizardi, Ryan; Second Reader (SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 2020-12)

  Searching for pet owners' information on the world wide web can be difficult and confusing due to the many different websites on must scroll through depending on your search results. With the rise of social media, forums, online pet stores, and blogs there are more websites to look into. Although these websites have articles on pet information, they are often opinionated, lacking in follow up information or simply unfinished. This paper looks into the development of a site with the end users' navigation in mind for all their pets primary concerns. This website is made for user's accessing information about their pets. Using a classic template website builder, the site is able to be updated in real time with ease as more information becomes available. The website's user experience is evaluated by analyzing survey information. The end user experience, the most important aspect of any website, comprises navigation, clarity, and simplicity. Prototype website link: https://soaj926.wixsite.com/mysite-2

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