Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Autism, Kaileigh J. Sweeney

Senior Honors Projects

Understanding Autism

Kaileigh Sweeney

Faculty Sponsor: Carolyn Hames

Autism spectrum disorders are greatly misunderstood in today’s society.  In the United States, it is estimated that 1 in 110 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.  Despite this high prevalence, a great deal of the population is under the impression that a diagnosis of autism is straight forward and indicative of one set of devastating signs and symptoms.  However, the severity of this disorder can range from mild to severe. According to the National Institute of Health, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized …

Bond Volatility Transmissions Between United States And European Markets, Seth Kulman

Senior Honors Projects

Bond Volatility Transmissions Between United States and European Markets

Seth Kulman

Faculty Sponsor: Gordon Dash, Finance and Decision Sciences

Recent events have illustrated the degree of connection between the world’s economies.  Economic events occurring in one country are felt in countless others, most vividly demonstrated by the onset of a worldwide recession following the financial collapse in the United States.  Volatility no longer stays contained within one local economy.

The purpose of this study is to examine volatility spillovers between the United States and European bond markets.  To identify volatility effects in a given country, we will be using a …

“Drawing” Upon Your Students’ Creativity: Teaching (Your Subject Here) With Comic Books, Bruce Kessler

Mathematics Faculty Publications

During Spring 2009, Dr. Kessler created and published a comic book series that embedded math content into the story for 4th-6th grade students. The comics were well received in the classrooms at Cumberland Trace Elementary. Dr. Kessler contends that this approach to teaching and learning can be used in any content area, and is useful for engaging students who might not be as interested otherwise. This session will explore ways of utilizing the skills of your students to construct learning comics in your classes, regardless of the funds, technology, and artistic experience at your disposal. The session will include a …

K-X-Ray Emission In Fast O5+ On Ar Collisions, Tamer Elkafrawy

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

The goal of the present work is to observe x-rays from oxygen for the purpose of investigating resonant-transfer and excitation (RTE) [1], and projectile and target x-ray emission resulting from inner-shell capture. Projectile energies in the range 5-25 MeV will be examined to investigate RTE for heavy targets [2,3].

The Role Of Modality And Figurativeness On Semantic Processing: An N400 Study, Stephen Agauas, Elizabeth Miller

10th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2011)

It has been observed that words depicting actions (“jump”) produce activation of the primary motor cortex or motion processing regions of the brain in addition to language areas. Thus the first aim of current study was to investigate whether the modality of words (motion “skydive” versus auditory “babble”) would have an effect on the brain processes underlying semantic processing. Secondly, some studies have observed that the neural substrate for the semantic processing of figurative language may be different than for literal language; however, results are conflicting. We suggest this is because of the many confounds in existing studies comparing literal …

Graph Games: A Human Computing Game Framework, Ryan Alfuth, Matt Jara, Jeff Largent, Dan Simpson

10th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2011)

Graph Games is a suite of online casual games that make use of human computation to help solve several NP-complete graph problems. These problems are very difficult for computers to solve efficiently because they rapidly become computationally infeasible as their size increases. However, humans possess intelligent decision-making abilities that computers do not, so they can solve these problems more resourcefully than computers.

Graph Games seeks to harness these abilities to increase the body of knowledge about solving NP-complete problem by presenting problems in the form of puzzle-like games. Graph Games currently consists of three families of games, each being comprised …

Effects Of Population Dynamics And Competition On Parental Investment In Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis), Nickolas Davros, Jennifer Laroche

10th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance (2011)

Parental investment and competition are two important elements of life history strategies affecting reproductive success. The effect of parental investment on reproductive success in a west Michigan population of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) was investigated, including parameters such as feeding rates, sex of parent, type and size of items delivered to chicks, number of chicks, and age of chicks. We found all measures of parental investment related to provisioning of nestlings to be indistinguishable within mated pairs. We also determined that significantly more food was brought when parents had a large brood (3+ chicks) as compared with a small brood …

Designing And Preserving Special Collections, Sharon Bradley, Suzanne R. Graham

Presentations

Our collections' unique holdings can make the greatest impact to scholarship, and yet our special collections often suffer from a lack of staff expertise to preserve and describe unusual formats. An experienced special collections cataloger and a special collections librarian will share the basics of standards-based cataloging and preservation of these formats. Program will include hands-on practice with creating a metadata record for a manuscript and a photograph collection (with attention paid to perceived impact of RDA).

Implementing Variations 6.0 Pilot, Uconn 2010-2011, Anna E. Kijas

UConn Library Presentations

This presentation examined implementation of Variations 6.0 (open-source system) at UConn from the perspective of a music librarian. Focus is placed on the importance of collaboration between University Library ITS and the M&DA Library, as well as the creation of a realistic workflow model, pilot timeline, and any challenges that were met along the way. Additionally, the decision behind choosing Variations 6.0 as a possible replacement for the current digital audio reserve system (at UConn) is discussed and the implications associated with providing streaming access to albums rather than single-tracks. This presentation was presented at the Northeast Regional Computing Program …

A Riverbank Filtration Demonstration Project On The Banks Of The Kali River In Southwestern India (Poster), Pamela Cady, Thomas B. Boving, Bheemanagoud Sahebagoud Choudri

Discovery@URI

One solution to India’s pressing safe drinking water needs is riverbank filtration (RBF). To evaluate the performance of RBF under the hydrogeological and climatological conditions of southern India, a small scale RBF system was installed in a village near the Kali River in the state of Karnataka. A series of hydraulic and tracer tests were carried out along with periodic geochemical monitoring of various water sources in the study area. Silica tracer data used to determine the relative contribution of surface and groundwater to the RBF system indicate that this RBF system derives approximately 27.6% of its water from the …

Poetry And Diversity: The Power Of Miserly Words In Teaching, Samuel Hinton

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

I share perspectives on selected everyday issues that have a multicultural import. Some of the poems presented are from The Road To Kenema And Other Poems (2003). I contend that there is a connection between poetry and diversity, and that teachers could use poetry to introduce difficult topics, and develop critical thinking with their students in all disciplines.

Hypoxia Mediated Selection In Breast Cancer, Vanessa R. Santos

9th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium and Celebration

Understanding the consequences of tumor hypoxia has importance to both basic and applied cancer research. Using green fluorescent protein expressed ductal carcinoma in situ cells (cells of relatively less invasive natural among other types of breast cancer) kept in buffered and glucose rich media; cells were cultured under hypoxic conditions. Each day for ten days, one tissue culture dish is removed and counted for viability, toxicity, pH, and total cell count. These counts are then compared to a control kept in the incubator. Once 20% of the original sample remained viable, the cells were returned to normoxia and allowed to …

Conference Presentations, Paul Lavery

Graduate Research School Scholarly Works

This session focuses on the key aspects of presenting at conferences, including designing a presentation, delivery and networking.

Evaluating Classroom Assignments: Planning For Grading, Deanna L. Keith Dr.

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

National College Entrance Examination, Praying To Confucius, And Good-Fortune In China, Samuel Hinton

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The purpose of this paper is to explore connections between the National College Entrance Examination, Confucius, and Belief in Good Fortune in China. These strands are discussed using the “analysis of narrative method” (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2009.) Some parents solicit the supernatural power of Confucius to help their children pass this examination. Prison authorities in a part of China have attempted to rehabilitate prisoners by having them study and take a test on the Analects of Confucius (Ames, 1999).

Worship of Confucius

The purpose of this paper is to explore connections between the National College Entrance Examination, Confucius, and …

Picture-Pretty Presentations, Posters And Promos: Creative Design For The Creatively Challenged, Jennifer Kelley, Christine Kickels

Library Scholarship

Does your library have a graphic designer on staff?  Institutional licenses for Adobe InDesign? A hefty budget for promotions?  If you answered “What? Are you kidding?” to any of these questions, this breakout session is for you.

Creative, eye-catching and informative publications and presentations are easy to design without expensive resources and without relying on PowerPoint or Publisher templates and Word clip-art. Presenters will share examples of evolving promotional design from their own experiences and provide no-nonsense strategies for designing posters, handouts and presentations that will  both inspire and inform.

In addition, attendees of this breakout session will learn how …

E-Books In The Catalog: Managing Marc Records In Batches, Bonnie Figgatt

Librarian Publications

The Sacred Heart University Library provides catalog-based access to thousands of electronic books. This session presents the Library’s strategies and experiences with batch processing MARC records for e-books. Topics include aspects of retrieving and loading records, customizing and editing records using MARCEDIT, and using Millennium review files and global update to maintain and enhance e-book access.

Bonnie Figgatt, MLS, MA, gave this presentation, about providing and managing access to electronic books in an academic library, at the Innovative User’s Group (IUG) 19^th Annual Conference in San Francisco, April 2011.

Scholarsarchive@Jwu: The Power Of Open Access Publishing, Erika Gearing

Library Staff Publications

An institutional repository is an excellent vehicle for publicizing the quality of research conducted by the faculty, staff, and students, and for sharing unique institutional collections with a wide audience. Through the Scholars Archive, JWU scholarship and collections are able to gain more global visibility via the web. This has the potential to attract new students, researchers, faculty, and funding, as well as further increase Johnson and Wales’ reputation as an institution of higher education.

Use Of Internet-Based Diabetes Self-Management Education: Emmi Solutions, Esther Pak

Master of Public Health Capstone Presentations

Diabetes is a serious public health problem in the United States and in Philadelphia. A 2007 CDC report stated that 7.8% in the US and 10.4% in Philadelphia had diabetes. While the key to managing one’s diabetes and lowering the risk of its adverse health outcomes is adherence to diabetes management guidelines, the prevalence of these behaviors among adult diabetics in the US remained relatively low. Attendance at a diabetes self-management class was particularly low (55.4%), which is of concern because of the importance of education in a patient’s adherence to diabetes-maintenance behaviors. Emmi Solutions recently developed three Internet-based diabetes …

Tired Of Sifting Through 3 Million Search Results? How To Become A Google Super Searcher, Carol A. Watson

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Most popular search engine on the Internet because it is so effective. Yet how many of us have stared at that single box interface and wondered how to approach our search? Better yet, how many of us have sifted through thousands of search results knowing the answer exists but frustrated at not being able to find it?

However, understanding how Google works and following a few simple rules can make you a Google super-searcher in no time.

Helpful And Harmful Religious Beliefs In Therapy, Suzie Ceplina

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

Presentation of information for counselors working with religious or spiritual clients. Learning objectives include: strengths and limitations, assessment of spiritual or religious beliefs, identification of harmful religious or spiritual belifs, and techniques in addressing harmful religious/spiritual beliefs in counseling.

The Effect Of Military Deployment On The Parents Of Those Deployed, Ashley Hinkamper, Cody Carson, Erica N. Johnson

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

This study proposes to examine the psychological effects of military deployment on the parents of those deployed. Questionnaires will be administered to parents of active-duty and recently discharged marines via the internet. Whether deployment is to an area where there is substantial risk of injury or death or to an area without such risk will be assessed. Parents’ personal distress, efforts to cope with stress, and attitudes towards mental illness and its treatment will be evaluated. We hypothesize that parents of those deployed in danger zones will report greater distress, and that distress will be influenced by media exposure and …

The Effects Of Smoking And Memory In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Proposal, Kathryn Kalvoda, Andrew D. Ronquillo

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

The Effects of Smoking and Memory in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Proposal

By Kathryn E. Kalvoda and Andrew D. Ronquillo

Many individuals suffer with high stress and life-changing memories. These memories are hard to erase and many are forced to deal with them for the rest of their lives. These experiences can cause an increase in vulnerability to a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, a disorder in which recurrent thoughts of traumatic events detrimentally influence an individual’s quality of life. One particular source of stress reduction is to engage in smoking cigarettes. Smoking in general leads to many health problems. …

A “Peak” At The Algorithm Behind “Peaklet Analysis” Software, Bruce Kessler

Mathematics Faculty Publications

In response to a problem posed by faculty at the Applied Physics Institute at Western Kentucky University, the speaker has developed an algorithm for providing an automated analysis of spectrum data for the purpose of determining the elemental composition of the item generating the data. A full, non-provisional patent application has been filed on the idea, and a full marketing campaign has started to license software implementing the algorithm. This presentation will give a brief explanation of the mathematics in use in the algorithm, and will give some examples of the software in action.

Environmental Assessment & Monitoring Regime For Atrazine In Drinking Water For Kentucky

Student Research Conference Select Presentations

To describe occurrence in the environment & sampling regime of atrazine in public water supplies in Kentucky.

Surface Geometry And Heat Flux Effect On Thin Wire Nucleate Pool Boiling Of Subcooled Water In Microgravity, Troy Munro, Andrew Fassman

Presentations

The motivation of this nucleate boiling research is to understand the effects of surface geometry and heat flux as applied to a thin wire heater. This will further the understanding of the fundamental behaviors of boiling onset, steady state heat transfer, and bubble dynamics with respect to nucleate boiling with the goal of creating efficient thermal management systems for future space applications. Using three different thin platinum wire geometries and five different power levels, subcooled water was boiled over a period of approximately 30 seconds for 15 parabolic arcs to simulate microgravity. To represent the trends in bubbles behavior across …

How To Turn Your School Into A Fair Trade Institution, Natalia Choi

Fair Trade Universities' National Convergence

No abstract provided.

Social Media For Social Good, Charlie Harris

Fair Trade Universities' National Convergence

No abstract provided.

Imo Social & Fair Trade Programme, Laura Johnson

Fair Trade Universities' National Convergence

No abstract provided.

The State Of The Fair Trade Movement, Jeff Goldman, Executive Director

Fair Trade Universities' National Convergence

No abstract provided.