Journal of Undergraduate Research
[PDF] Covering the 1972 Chisholm Campaign: Shaping Perceptions and Postponing Progress (207 KiB)
Andrea Diekman (Department of Women's Studies)
Jocelyn Stitt, Faculty Mentor (Department of Women's Studies)
In order to get their voices heard, groups with different interests and needs, often racially, socially, and economically marginalized groups, must take an active role in developing policies. Political representation is essential in articulating the need for change and then creating that change. However, African American women face a "double disadvantage" in gaining seats as political representatives. Both women and African Americans have different significant problems gaining political office than their male or white, respectively, counterparts do. African American women are especially disadvantaged because of their challenges with the interlocking oppressions of both racism and sexism. While there are many individual examples of the “double disadvantage” African American women face in American political elections, one specific female candidacy was examined in this study. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first black female to run for the Democratic Party nomination for president. She was also the only black and only female candidate competing in the primaries; however both the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Congressional Black Caucus did not endorse her. Questions sought to be answered in this content analysis research included: Why did NOW and the Congressional Black Caucus both decide not to endorse Chisholm in the 1972 presidential Democratic primary race? How did the chosen language by the media as well as the amount of coverage of Chisholm’s candidacy affect these groups’s choice to not endorse her? A content analysis was conducted to investigate these questions in order to identify areas that change needs to be made in order to increase the number of black women elected to political office.
[PDF] Three Dimensional Transient Asymmetric Flowfields in Physical Vapor Transport (1.05 MiB)
Joseph L. Dobmeier (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Patrick Tebbe, Faculty Mentor (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Physical Vapor Transport is a manufacturing process used to produce single crystals of semiconductor materials such as mercurous chloride (Hg2Cl2). In the past this time-varying process has been studied with numerical simulation by assuming axi-symmetric three dimensional flow or modeling the flow in two dimensions only. It is generally agreed that neither of these methods accurately represent the true behavior of the process. The purpose of this research was to extend the asymmetric model to three dimensions. The resulting data was then visualized and analyzed. The simulations were performed with a commercially available computational fluid dynamics software package called FIDAP on the 138-processor "supercomputer" here at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The visualization tool used was Tecplot 360. The results have shown that the flowfield is indeed asymmetric and cannot be characterized by a two dimensional simplification.
[PDF] Roommate Rants: Understanding Roommate Conflicts among MSU Students (365 KiB)
Kimberly Halpin (Department of Speech Communication)
Dan Cronn-Mills, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communication)
Roommates seem to go hand in hand with the college experience. Conflicts are inevitable in life and when a pair or small group of college students live together, conflict is likely to occur. The purpose of this study was to find out what conflicts roommates experience, how they communicate those conflicts, and how they resolve those conflicts. All conflicts would involve a Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU) student and their roommate(s). An online survey, consisting of twenty questions, was created and administered to Dr. Kristen Treinen's SPEE 100: Fundamentals of Speech Communication class; twenty out of 750 students responded. The results indicate that there was a variety of problems among the roommates, which were linked to various factors such as the number of roommates living together, first impressions, and the roommates' comfort or ability to bring up major or minor issues with their roommates, as well as other factors.
[PDF] On Sign-Solvable Linear Systems and their Applications in Economics (150 KiB)
Eric Hanson (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
In-Jae Kim, Faculty Mentor (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Sign-solvable linear systems are part of a branch of mathematics called qualitative matrix theory. Qualitative matrix theory is a development of matrix theory based on the sign (-; 0; +) of the entries of a matrix. Sign-solvable linear systems are useful in analyzing situations in which quantitative data is unknown or had to measure, but qualitative information is known. These situations arise frequently in a variety of disciplines outside of mathematics, including economics and biology. The applications of sign-solvable linear systems in economics are documented and the development of new examples is formalized mathematically. Additionally, recent mathematical developments about sign-solvable linear systems and their implications to economics are discussed.
[PDF] Impact of Text Messaging on Communication (224 KiB)
Heidi Hemmer (Department of Speech Communication)
Daniel Cronn-Mills, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communication)
This study used two focus groups to learn about college students and their use of text messages. All of the students were from the College of Arts and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. One focus group contained five females and other focus group contained five males. The main focus of this study was to find if text messages displaced face-to-face communication. The results of this study suggest text messages do have a displacing effect on face-to-face communication. But text messaging is not the only technology that has the displacement effect. This study also suggests males and females view text messages differently. The implications of the five themes that emerged are discussed in this study.
[PDF] Choosing Between Parametric and Non-parametric Tests (517 KiB)
Russ Johnson (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Mezbahur Rahman, Faculty Mentor (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
A common question in comparing two sets of measurements is whether to use a parametric testing procedure or a non-parametric procedure. The question is even more obvious in dealing with smaller samples. Here, using simulation, several parametric and non-parametric tests, such as, t-test, Normal test, Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, van-der Waerden Score test, and Exponential Score test are compared.
[PDF] Cluster B Personality Disorders Separated by Gender Expectations (349 KiB)
Brianna Kloss (Department of Speech Communications)
Rachel Droogsma, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communications)
Criticisms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000), the most widely recognized system for classification of psychological disorders in the U.S., including gender discriminating disorders and diagnoses, have existed for all editions of the DSM. Arguably, gender construction has a profound influence on the standards and evaluation of normal and abnormal behaviors. Concern for the presence of gender bias of personality disorders has been raised, in part, by the frequent diagnoses made according to gender stereotypes. The DSM-IV-TR characterizes personality disorders as marked distress and impairment caused by persistent and inflexible thoughts and behaviors that deviate from cultural norms (APA, 2000). Disorders are categorized into three clusters: (A) odd or eccentric, (B) dramatic, emotional, or erratic, and (C) fearful or anxious. With a specific focus on cluster b personality disorders (Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, and Histrionic), I conducted a rhetorical analysis to evaluate evidence of consistency with, or deviation from, gender expected behaviors: four masculine and four feminine expectations, explicated by Wood (2007). Similar underlying characteristics of criterion between disorders were masked by differences of gendered behaviors, i.e. impulsivity, which has been defined differently across the gendered disorders. Disorders were then compared based on similarity of diagnostic characteristics, level of gender consistency, and the prevalence and frequency of gendered diagnoses. Adopting a multidimensional approach for the diagnosis of personality disorders would be more comprehensive and would accommodate for individual human differences and support the development of new treatments.
[PDF] Evaluation of Pretreatment Methods in the Production of Ethanol from Cattail Leaves (381 KiB)
Kristen Krahmer (Department of Chemistry & Geology)
Elijah N. Wreh (Department of Biological Sciences)
James E. Rife, Faculty Mentor (Department of Chemistry & Geology)
Previous research in this lab indicated that cattails are a potential source of biomass for the production of cellulosic ethanol since their carbohydrate composition is comparable to that of other plants being considered for biofuel production. To further test the feasibility of using cattails for biofuel production, we tested various pretreatment methods on dried cattail leaves. Before polysaccharides in plants can be enzymatically hydrolyzed to fermentable sugars, the plant material must be pretreated to render the polysaccharides accessible to the enzymes. The purpose of this project has been to compare the efficiency of three pretreatment methods in preparing cattail biomass for ethanol production. In this project dried, powdered cattail leaves were pretreated either by autoclaving them with 2% sulfuric acid or 0.04 M acetate buffer at pH 4.8 for one hour or by incubating them overnight at 40 C° in 72% aqueous ammonia. In each case, the remaining solid was recovered, washed and dried. Samples of the dried, pretreated solid were treated with cellulase and β-glucosidase for times varying up to 24 hours. To compare the efficiency of these pretreatment methods, glucose liberated in these samples was measured by a glucose oxidase assay and high performance liquid chromatography. Glucose recovered in the original pretreatment liquid was also assayed.
[PDF] A New Look at Nonprofit Online Fundraising: Persuasion through the Means of Credibility and Psychological Consistency (181 KiB)
Kaytlin M. LeMier (Department of Speech Communication)
Kristen Cvancara, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communication)
A study was conducted to examine how the persuasive elements of a message contribute to non-profit organizations' potential to gain financial support. The purpose of the study was to apply theories of persuasion to advance an understanding of the underlying elements relevant to successful fundraising appeals. The two main constructs examined were credibility and psychological consistency. Applied to the context of non-profit fundraising, credibility refers to the judgments granting institutions and/or donors make about the believability of the non-profit organization or its individual representatives, and psychological consistency refers to donors' internal drive to reduce inconsistencies between their behavior and their beliefs, values, or attitudes. The method of investigation involved a secondary research analysis of existing literature to illustrate how the level of credibility donors associate with an organization is likely to impact the effectiveness of fundraising messages, and to articulate the influence psychological consistency plays in the desire and motivation for donors to support non-profit fundraising efforts. Presented as a professional report, this study reviews the implications of the findings and offers specific ways in which non-profit organizations can improve the effectiveness of fundraising attempts via examples grantwriting and online fundraising campaigns.
[PDF] Reflections on the Conduct of Research with Human Subjects Across Two Cultures (173 KiB)
Kimberly M. Maas (Department of Sociology & Corrections)
Elizabeth Sandell, Faculty Mentor (Department of Educational Studies: Elementary & Early Childhood Education, College of Education)
This study examined the potential benefits, challenges, and barriers faced by university students and research colleagues who were involved in international partnerships for cross-cultural research projects between the United States and Russia. In scholarly investigations in the United States, research subjects must be informed of the precautions that will be taken to protect their safety and their privacy (Amdur, Bankurt 2002). Particularly in Russia, there are no counterparts to the procedures followed by university institutional review boards for working with human subjects. Furthermore, international partnerships have faced new challenges as a result of the restructuring of American security since the events of September 11, 2001. This study focused on trust in international partnership, challenges of funding and institutional support, reliability of data, and the influence of institutions on research processes. Researchers used grounded theory and auto ethnography to code and inductively analyze data from semi-structured interviews and personal experiences in the field.
[PDF] Mathematical Modeling of Tick-Borne Encephalitis in Humans (287 KiB)
Michael Meyer (Department of Biological Sciences)
Amanda Kriesel (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Geoffrey Peterson (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Namyong Lee, Faculty Mentor (Department of Mathematics & Statistics)
Anne-Marie Hoskinson, Faculty Mentor (Department of Biological Sciences)
We have developed mathematical model of Tick-Borne Encephalitis to better understand their phenomena and dynamics. We also have studied the relationship between vectors and their hosts in this disease. This project will show our modeling process and biological understanding through a computer simulation.
[PDF] Selling Gender: Gender Role Portrayals in Contemporary Magazine Advertisements (462 KiB)
Laura Pelletier (Department of Speech Communication)
Daniel Cronn-Mills, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communication)
This study presents a content analysis of gender role portrayals and male and female objectification in contemporary magazine advertisements. A total of fifteen magazines were analyzed from a two-month period to determine if gender role portrayals have changed or remained the same as earlier studies. The first analysis looks at product categories most and least often advertised by male or female models. The second analysis looks at the sexual portrayals in magazine advertisement and the rate of objectification of male and female models.
[PDF] You`ve Got Mail: Identity Perceptions Based on Email Usernames (519 KiB)
Laura Pelletier (Department of Speech Communication)
Warren Sandman, Faculty Mentor (Department of Speech Communication)
Do you "know" who is e-mailing you? How do people construct identity when there is no face-to-face communication? This study explores the idea that email recipients use the email username of the sender as a mediated cue to make basic assumptions of the identity of the sender. A total of 215 participants completed self-report surveys asking their perceptions of a fictional work group member including sex, age, race, and work productivity. Most participants were able to create a basic identity of their fictitious group member based solely on their email username.
[PDF] Expression of 9/13 Hydroperoxide Lyase in Cucumber Leaves (467 KiB)
Samee Ranginwala (Department of Chemistry & Geology)
James Rife, Faculty Mentor (Department of Chemistry & Geology)
Fatty Acid 9/13-Hydroperoxide Lyase (9/13-HPL) in the cucumber plant is an enzyme that cleaves either 9- or 13-hydroperoxides of polyunsaturated fatty acids to form volatile C9 or C6 aldehydes respectively. Since these aldehydes may play a role in the plant's defenses against pathogens (K. Matsui, et. al. Phytochemistry 67 (2006) 649-657), the enzyme is stress induced during vulnerable times such as when the plant is injured. In order to better understand how this enzyme is induced, we tested the effect of various factors on transcription of the 9/13-HPL gene. We specifically tested factors that have been shown to induce defense responses in other plant systems. Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction was used to quantitate levels of 9/13-HPL mRNA. In initial experiments, the effect of mechanical wounding of cucumber cotyledons on the transcription levels of the 9/13-HPL gene in wounded tissue and unwounded leaves was examined. In subsequent experiments, the effects of mechanical wounding coupled with treatment with methyl jasmonate, ethylene or norborandiene (an ethylene antagonist), was tested. The RNeasy Plant Minikit from Qiagen was used to isolate mRNA from the plant tissue. SYBR Green was used as the detection system for Real Time PCR.
[PDF] Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement (716 KiB)
Melissa Seifert (Department of Art)
Alisa Eimen, Faculty Mentor (Department of Art)
The Black Power Movement found its beginning in the late fifties with sit-ins and freedom rides, which conveyed a new racial consciousness within the black community in the United States. However, these initial forms of protest were non-violent. The civil rights movement did not see a great deal of violence until nineteen sixty five when Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party. Through the pages of the Party's weekly newspaper the Black Panther, resident artist Emory Douglas used his drawings to persuade action and vengeance. His work was similar in style to the work of Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. While these artists thrived in the culture of the nineteen sixties, Douglas was widely unpopular, or rather unrecognized, despite what I will argue is an obvious resemblance. In contrast to Douglas' work, critics wanted to see non-resistant ideas portrayed in art. These could be found in the work of Warhol and Lichtenstein. But even when Warhol's work began to convey images of race and violence there was no change in his popularity. This begs a comparison between the popularity of Douglas and Warhol, as they both depicted scenes of violence. Upon comparison, the conclusion that Douglas' art was unacceptable for discriminatory reasons, lack of an influential audience, and also for its subject matter, which transformed the weak protestor into an armed and powerful force, can be reached. Women's role in the Party will also be discussed in comparison to the typical image of the female in the nineteen sixties culture.
[PDF] Educational Fiscal Policy and Its Effects on How Our Children Learn: Comparing Minnesota and Illinois (666 KiB)
Sally Anne Stenzel (Department of Political Science)
Kevin Parsneau, Faculty Mentor (Department of Political Science)
First, Minnesota and Illinois educational policies are compared. The main difference is that Minnesota funds their public schools from the state level, while Illinois funds theirs from the local level. Unfortunately, Illinois' fiscal policies lead to districts receiving unequal funding. As one might assume about this funding system, a wealthier district would receive more money, while a poorer district would receive less. Meanwhile, Minnesota strives to achieve equal funding across all districts. Then test scores and graduation rates are compared between the states to reveal if a correlation between funding and achievement levels exist. To further the study, test scores and graduation rates between wealthier and poorer districts in both states are compared as well. In addition, other variable factors for low achievement levels besides funding, such as poverty rates, pupil/teacher ratios, and technology, are accounted for.
[PDF] Relationship Violence: Risk Factors for Adolescents (160 KiB)
Antoinette Wall (Department of Women's Studies
Barbara Keating, Faculty Mentor (Department of Sociology)
The term domestic violence usually elicits a picture of an adult relationship where the man batters a woman. This picture is an accurate picture, but there are other individuals who are affected by domestic violence. Couple from all socioeconomic backgrounds, including homosexual and adolescent couples can face domestic violence situations. Research on adolescent relationship violence is fairly recent. Adolescents seem to be a population missed by general society when it comes to being involved in relationship violence. This paper strives to examine risk factors such as self-esteem, rigid sex-role ideas, parents' & in violent relationships, and friends who are in violent relationships that could predispose adolescents to become either perpetrators or victims of relationship violence.
Editor: Barb Bergman
Faculty reviewers: Vicki Luoma, Curt Germundson, Aaron Budge, Steven Losh, Rick Auger
Student peer reviewers: Brittany Borg, Josephine Greve, Breanna Patsch, Mackenzie Albright
