Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling Residential Foreclosures In Kent County, Kaitlyn Ratkowiak

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Residential Foreclosures in Kent County have become commonplace in the past few years. In this project, we hope to analyze data on foreclosures since 2004 to learn more about the mounting crisis, with the hope that we can identify neighborhoods at risk of foreclosures and its associated consequences.

Use Of The Chambira Palm (Astrocaryum Chambira) In Rainforest Communities Of The Peruvian Amazon, Anel Guel, Jim Penn

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

We proposed to research the use of chambira palm fibers and the sale of chambira crafts in four communities located about 100 miles from the city of Iquitos, Peru. In this part of the Peruvian Amazon, women are organized into groups that work to obtain the fibers and sell their products in a sustainable way, and at the same time promote the cultivation of the palm trees in their family gardens. As is the case with so many products from tropical forests, there is great geographic variation in the abundance of the resource (chambira) and variation in the amount of …

Progress Toward The Synthesis Of A Truncated Ergoline, Ryan D. Enck, Matthew Hart

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Many people are diagnosed with thyroid related disorders, and many more are unaware of their existing thyroid problems. T1AM, a naturally occurring metabolite of the thyroid hormone (TH), has been shown to activate the Trace Amine Associated Receptor 1 (TAAR1) and exhibits effects that oppose those of the TH. It is, therefore, likely that there is regulatory relationship between T1AM and the TH. In order to better understand this relationship, a compound must be developed that will effectively block TAAR1. Previously our lab has examined the two different mirror images of apomorphine. One of the mirror images inhibited and the …

Entrepreneurship / Small Business Programming Within Correctional Facilities, Nancy M. Levenburg, Nikki J. Powers

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The full-text download for this paper is an extensive abstract of the project.

Resurrection Machines: An Analysis Of Burial Sites In Ancient Egypt’S Valley Of The Kings As Catalysts For Spiritual Rebirth, Jarrett Zeman

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

In Ancient Egyptian tombs, processes associated with sympathetic magic acted as a direct catalyst for resurrection. Sympathetic magic, defined as an action, object or depiction whose effect resembles its cause, is reflected in royal tombs constructed during Egypt‟s New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE) in the Valley of the Kings. However, sympathetic magic has rarely been applied to Ancient Egyptian topics in an explicit fashion. As a result, the tombs of Amenhotep III (KV22), Seti I (KV17) and Ramesses IX (KV6) are analyzed as case studies of this phenomenon. Change and continuity evident in each tomb‟s architectural structure, decoration, and physical burial …

Patience: A Project In Translation, Donna St. Louis

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Translation seems to be a simple process: a translator with a strong command of two languages renders a phrase from Language A into Language B for the purpose of wider communication. Given her intimacy with both languages, it should be a relatively easy task to transport meaning from one language to another. Yet a superficial transformation of language is not enough to create a successful translation; rather, a translator must seek to grasp and communicate the literary heart of a piece, as well as convert the complexities of its linguistic skeleton.

I explored translation’s double nature by translating a French …

The Effectiveness Of Individual Identification Of Bobcats Using Automatically Triggered Cameras In Michigan, Karen Ickes, Paul Keenlance

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Through the research of bobcat (Lynx rufus) populations a better understanding of their range in lower Michigan can be found. The use of automatically triggered cameras is an effective way to obtain bobcat range and status information. Automatically triggered cameras allow for population studies to be executed without having to trap any animals.

Does The Mg/Ca In Foraminifera Tests Provide A Reliable Temperature Proxy?, Sarah Clark, Figen Mekik

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The Mg/Ca in foraminifera shells is commonly used as a proxy to estimate ocean temperatures in Earth’s past. However, studies have shown that both dissolution and salinity influence the Mg/Ca in shells of tropical foraminifera, which can cause paleotemperature estimates to be inaccurate. We measured Mg/Ca in shells of Globigernoides ruber and Globigerinoides sacculifer from core tops in the eastern equatorial Pacific. We compared our results with global core top data, which paleotemperature equations have been calibrated and published. We find that Mg/Ca values range greatly at the same surface ocean temperature. We also find that salinity and dissolution do …

Modeling Problem Solving: Creating And Evaluating, Kaitlin M. Downey, Nathan Barrows

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The purpose of this project was to create novice-level screencasts and to investigate students’ perceptions and usage of them. A survey of 61 general chemistry students revealed polarity, Lewis structures, molecular geometry, and bond polarity to be topics of greatest concern. Over 25 screencasts were created using Camtasia Studio software and a Dell TabletPC. A blog (http://mi-chemed.net) was created to host the tutorials and monitor student usage. After students registered and logged in to the blog, their viewing patterns were recorded. They were encouraged to comment on the content and technical features of the videos (e.g. animations). Online comments and …

Sublethal Exposure To Two Alkylphenolic Compounds And Their Influence On Development, Growth And Reproductive Behavior Of Crayfish, Steven J. Gauthier, Daniel A. Bergman

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Invertebrates make up much of the world's biological diversity. Their survival is fundamental to the maintenance of all life, and their ubiquitous distribution is useful when using them as biological indicators of pollution. Many invertebrate species are under threat of extinction due to exposure to various chemical pollutants. Crayfish are an important invertebrate that is affected by chemical pollutants, such as pesticide/herbicide runoff and industrial waste effluents. Crayfish are considered keystone species because they are an important resource for other species and consequently influence diversity and abundance. For these reasons, crayfish are important in terms of better understanding the effects …

An Examination Of Speciation, Extinction, And Evolutionary Relationships In Plants From Two Continents, Corey Davis, Timothy Evans

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Construction Of A Transgene To Analyze The Function Of The 3’Utr Of The Hdc Gene On Spatial Expression Of Histidine Decarboxylase In Drosophila Melanogaster, Embriette Hyde, Martin G. Burg

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Histamine has been shown to be an important neurotransmitter used in the nervous system of Drosophila melanogaster. Histidine decarboxylase (HDC) is the enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of histamine. All genetic information necessary for Hdc gene expression has been shown to be present in a 9.4kb genomic DNA fragment. A previous study fused the 5'-UTR of Hdc to the gene encoding eGFP. Microscopic analysis of flies transformed with the pHdc-eGFP transgene showed a weak pattern of eGFP expression in the nervous system as compared to histamine localization, indicating that another genomic region may be necessary for robust Hdc expression. Studies …

Determining Personality In Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Rebecca S.A. Brittain, Judith A. Corr

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Population Structure Of The Invasive Round Goby In Lake Michigan, Elizabeth A. Larue, Carl Ruetz Iii, Ryan Thum

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The recent establishment of the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), an invasive fish in Lake Michigan, provides a model system to view fine scale evolutionary and ecological processes that can create genetic structure within a population. We used seven nuclear polymorphic microsatellite markers (N = 11-17 per site) and measurements of fish total length, weight, and sex (N = 20-74 per site) on round gobies captured by minnow traps and angling among 12 sites around the entire shore of Lake Michigan to determine if evolutionary processes are present in Lake Michigan by characterizing population structure of the round goby. Specific objectives …

History In The Hands Of The Politicians: Lustration, Civil Society, And Unfinished Revolutions In Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, And The Czech Republic, David Merryman, Heather Tafel

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Water Evaporation From Atmospheric Aerosols, Patrick Louden, Christopher Lawrence

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

With the recent discovery of the ubiquity of organic material in tropospheric aerosols, it has been postulated that the rates of water evaporation and condensation into the aerosols could be affected by thin surfactant films, which could ultimately affect cloud formation. Nathanson et al. have begun to study the effect of water evaporation from sulfuric acid solutions through the short-chain surfactant, butanol. They have found that a nearly full monolayer of butanol fails to reduce water evaporation from the acid. This unexpected result raises many questions about the mechanism of water evaporation. We used molecular modeling to help answer some …

The Effect Of Caffeine On The Bacterial Populations In A Freshwater Aquarium System, Adrienne M. Gibson, Roderick M. Morgan, Alexey G. Nikitin

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Caffeine is becoming a common chemical found in the environment but, little research has been done to understand the environmental effects of caffeine, including dissolved caffeine in aquatic systems. The goal of this research study was to begin to understand how caffeine may interact with aquatic environment, using the bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas, commonly found in the aquatic habitat. We found that Pseudomonas shows an increase in growth when exposed to caffeine, which results in a change in spectrophotometric absorbance, increase in bacterial colony count in the presence of caffeine, and in bio-film like sheen appearing on the glass …

Where Have All The Physical Educators Gone? Hint: It Is Not Higher Education, James E. Bozung, Colleen Lewis, Mary Schutten

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Capillary Electrophoresis Based Microbial Detection And Separation, Ryan Nelson, Andrew Lantz

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) represents a significant tool for the separation of microorganisms as well as the detection and isolation of Candida albicans (CA) fungus in human blood. There currently exists few rapid means by which biological pathogens can be tested, at low concentration, in blood, and other organic matrices. Other common chromatographic techniques, such as GC, HPLC, IR and MS do not have the capability of analyzing living microorganisms, nor the ability to separate them with any precision. CE offers the rare opportunity to separate individual cells by the charge to size ratio as well as their isoelectric focusing point …

Conversion Of Cellulose To Value Added-Chemicals, Shane Mcgrath, Dalila Kovacs, Jim Krikke

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Biomass-derived feedstock is of growing importance in the development of new synthetic pathways for commodity and specialty chemicals. Utilizing basic catalytic concepts such as hydrolysis, dehydration, isomerisation, and other common transformations of sugar in biomass conversion has already produced significant advances in the fundamental understanding of biomass conversion.

Despite the progress that has already been made, very few studies are dedicated to understanding the fundamentals of cellulose conversion under heterogeneous catalytic conditions. This is due to the complexity of both the catalytic steps at the metal/support interface and the structure of cellulose itself, being a highly functionalized homopolymer, characterized by …

Sex Differences In Innate Immunity In Tree Swallows, Bradley J. Houdek, Michael P. Lombardo, Patrick A. Thorpe

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Evolutionary theory predicts that exposure to more diverse pathogens will lead to the evolution of more effective immune responses. The innate immune system defends the host from pathogens in a non-specific manner and is an important first-line of defense. We predicted that female Tree Swallows have more robust innate immunocompetence than males because females are exposed to more microbes during the breeding season than are males. This is because (a) females participate in extra-pair copulations with multiple males exposing them to sexually transmitted microbes (STMs) (e.g., bacteria, fungi, viruses), (b) the transmission of STMs during copulation is asymmetrical because ejaculates …

Making The Writing Center A Writing Environment, Samantha A. Howard, Ellen Schendel

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Do writers' environments affect their work and their productivity? If so, how, and why? My

presentation outlines what an ideal writing space could and should be for various kinds of

writers.

Presently, writing centers do not necessarily encourage writing within their spaces. I explain

reasons why writing centers should remodel their spaces so that writers can write in the center,

rather than simply drop by for tutoring help, as is the typical writing center practice. Writing

centers already pride themselves by running on a model of active and social learning, which

would only be expanded by creating spaces for writers …

Rook Polynomials In Higher Dimensions, Nicholas Krzywonos, Feryal Alayont

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

A rook polynomial counts the number of placements of non-attacking rooks on a board. In this paper we describe generalizations of the definition and properties of rook polynomials to "boards" in three and higher dimensions. We also defefine generalizations of special two dimensional boards to three dimensions, including the triangle board and the board representing the probleme des rencontres. The number of rook placements on these three dimensional families of rook boards are shown to be related to famous number sequences, such as central factorial numbers, the number of Latin rectangles and the Genocchi numbers.