Digital Commons Network^™

Gait Biomechanics In Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease After Revascularization, Sarah Baker

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a cardiovascular disease manifesting blockages to arteries while limiting blood flow to the legs. Patients with PAD have pain/tingling in calves, thighs, and/or buttocks emanating by physical activity called intermittent claudication. PAD causes physical function limitations and increases cardiovascular morbidity by 3-6 times. PAD becomes particularly more prevalent with age. Patients with PAD walk differently than their healthy counterparts. Surgical revascularization to restore blood flow is the typical intervention, but whether walking patterns are restored following surgery has not been studied. This study compared walking patterns of patients with PAD at baseline and six-months post-revascularization. …

A Comparison Of Balance Between A Smoker And Never-Smoker, Robert J. Barber

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) the third leading cause of death in the United States.” “While COPD is defined in terms of fixed airflow limitation, it’s also characterized by the frequent association of complications outside the lung, including compromised balance.” Research has shown “medio-lateral (i.e., side-to-side) balance is altered in patients with COPD compared to controls and is further affected by challenging sensory systems (e.g., eyes closed or uneven surface).” “Smoking increases risk for onset of COPD”, therefore the objective of this study was to investigate balance in smokers. It’s hypothesized that smokers will demonstrate balance deficits, compared to never-smokers. …

The Influence Of Humorous Priming And Situation Type On Generation Of Malevolently Creative Ideas, Reo W. Newring

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Creativity is usually considered a positive attribute, but what happens when creativity is used to generate a harmful product? Malevolent creativity (Cropley, Kaufman, & Cropley, 2008) refers to a clever, original product with negative valence, or intention to harm. The purpose of the current study was to examine predictors of malevolent creativity, expanding on existing knowledge and exploring a new area, specifically humor. Humorous primes were used to evoke malevolence, in the form of dialogues between two cartoon characters engaged in highly aggressive, moderately aggressive, self-defeating, or neutral exchanges. Subjects were then provided with a hypothetical situation (problem) and asked …

Effect Of A Passive Exoskeletal Device On Locomotor Adaptive Ability In Healthy Human Subjects, James Nielsen

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Background: Functional mobility in stroke survivors is affected by the deterioration in bilateral coordination while walking. A passive exoskeletal device, the Kickstart (Cadence Biomedical, Seattle, WA), that provides assistance during walking may help correct asymmetrical gait patterns by providing different task constraints for each leg during gait training. Methods: 15 healthy young participants walked on a split-belt treadmill where the speed of each belt could be controlled independently. Each participant’s preferred walking speed (PWS), fast walking speed (FWS) and slow walking speed (SWS) was established. Participants then underwent the experimental protocol while either wearing or not wearing the exoskeleton. The …

Keep Calm And Meeting On: Meeting Professionalism And Stress, Kathleen Stibbs

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Purpose - Professionalism in the workplace can be a motivator for employees to be more attentive in their work. Without professionalism, employees may not have a positive image of their organization. Specifically, a lack of professionalism in meetings can elicit negative responses towards meetings and/or other attendees, which can lead to frustration and stress. Workplace meetings are common in nearly any organization, which makes achieving a greater understanding of meeting interaction and its impact all the more important. Consistent with Hobfoll’s conservation theory of resources, a lack of professionalism may elicit feelings of stress. The purpose of this paper is …

The Effect Of Observing Aggressive Interactions On The Personality Traits Of Danio Rerio, Jessica L. Bargstadt

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Social animals are easily influenced by other members of their species. Individuals will adjust their behaviors and actions both when observing another conspecific and when interacting with one. The effect that these social experiences can have on an individual vary in both magnitude and permanence, depending on the type of experience. We seek to examine the lasting effect that observing an aggressive interaction can have on the personality type of an individual.

Personality traits of Danio rerio will be examined in a novel environment setting in which the subject’s movements are recorded to determine their reactivity or proactivity in response …

A Needs Assessment Of Omaha Service Providers To Better Understand Maternal Well-Being, Tyler Patterson

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Background: In Nebraska just over 14% of mothers have reported feeling down or always depressed during the first year after the birth of their child. Research shows that many women who exhibit signs or symptoms of depression will not seek out help from a professional, with even fewer willing to go on medication. Thus, it is important to examine the current organizations mothers utilize and these organization’s resources for meeting the needs of mothers in the Omaha community. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore service providers’ (e.g., community organizations) perceptions of the needs of pregnant and postpartum …

Being Proactive: An Exploration Of How College Students Prevent Stress, Mikayla M. Woodard

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Stress is an increasing concern in college students because it can negatively affect them mentally, physically and socially. Though many studies have examined the efficacy of various stress management strategies for enhancing college student wellbeing and success, few have explored preventative stress strategies, This study, part of a larger exploration of college student stress and well-being, explored the preventative strategies utilized by college students to prevent stress, anxiety and depression. Individual interviews were conducted face-to-face or via Skype or FaceTime; they were also taped and verbatim responses were transcribed. Participants were asked open-ended questions in order to capture the participant’s …

Recruitment, Survival, And Parasitism Of Monarchs In Residential Gardens And Conservation Areas, Emily A. Geest

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are suffering from declining populations due to habitat loss. To help offset this habitat loss conservationists have encouraged planting milkweed gardens to increase the availability of host plants for larvae. A tachinid fly (Lespesia archippivora) that causes mortality parasitizes monarchs. Understanding the influence these gardens can have on parasitism rates and monarch recruitment is vital to evaluating their effectiveness. I am quantifying egg/larval abundance and demography at conservation areas and residential gardens. Additionally, I am collecting and rearing monarch larvae to compare parasitism rates in both areas. My preliminary results suggest that …

A Modular Robotic System For Assessment And Exercise Of Human Movement, Mohan Sai Ambati

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

This project targets the problem of developing a wearable modular robotic system, for assessing human movement and providing different types of exercises for the user. The system attempts to provide not only a variety of exercises (concentric, eccentric, assisted and resisted), but also to assess the change in variability of the movement as the subject shows functional improvement. The system will not only be useful for patients with sensorimotor problem such as stroke, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, but also for special populations such as astronauts who spend long periods of time in space and experience muscle atrophy. In this work, a …

Optimizing Campus Mobility With A Focus On Sustainability: A Graph Theory Approach To Intra-Campus Transportation Networks, Quinn M. Nelson

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The idea of public transportation is supported by most in theory but often heavily criticized by users when put into application. There are common tensions that are related to public transportation, as described by frequent users: unreliable, too crowded, and slow. The University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) is a growing metropolitan institution that uses a shuttle system to transport students among their three campuses daily. As of 2015, the current total student enrollment is approximately 16,000; UNO plans to enroll 20,000 students by 2020. The expected student growth is also reflected by the current construction of new buildings and expansion of …

Extra Curricular Activities: How Good Are They?, Sandra J. Vargas-Salinas 7799949

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The goal of this research program is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of college student stress, wellness, and engagement. Toward that goal, this study examined college student perceptions of the positive and negative characteristics of their experiences with extra-curricular and volunteering activities. Using an adapted version of the job demands-resources theory, we explored whether college students viewed these activities as resource-providing, where skills were developed and connections were built, or whether they were viewed as a demand in the service of merely building their resume. The study collected data from a variety of different college …

Bloody Drops: Dracula, Sexuality, And Walt Whitman, Saul Knoblauch

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The purity movement in Victorian England created a context where fluid sexuality was considered a threat to the bodies and souls not only of the current generation, but of the human race in general. Drawing on the reception Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass received in a time where decency laws preached conservative rigidity, Bram Stoker crafted Dracula to encapsulate Victorian anxiety and critique purity’s effectiveness. Using Whitman and his poems as a base for Count Dracula, the novel follows the struggle of the older generations to eradicate sexuality that threatens the Christian norms of the time by personifying these changes …

The Effect Of Leader Behavior On After-Action Review Outcomes, Kelly Prange

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Organizational safety concerns are a critical issue for firefighters. Interventions such as after-action reviews (AARs) may be implemented within firefighter teams to facilitate sensemaking and learning, as well as to foster safety norms. The current study investigated AAR leaders in a Midwest fire department and how their behavior improves individual perceptions of AAR quality, thereby influencing how firefighters perceive team and organizational safety norms. Building upon high-reliability organization theory and theories on the influence of leadership on culture, career firefighters were surveyed to test the mediation model. Results indicated that good AAR leader behaviors promote positive team and organizational safety …

Engagement Of Latino/Hispanic Msm In Hiv Prevention, Natividad Hernandez

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Nationally, men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be significantly affected by HIV compared to other populations. Surveillance data indicates that in Nebraska, between 2011 and 2015, over 55% of new HIV cases were MSM.¹ More specifically, the majority of new HIV cases in the state of Nebraska are reported in Douglas County.² The rate of Hispanic Latino males living with an HIV diagnosis is 2.3 times of white males.³ Similarly, the rate of Hispanic/Latina women living with HIV diagnosis is 3.4 times that white females.³ It is important to identify culturally appropriate messages …

Range Of Motion And Walking Distances In Subjects With Peripheral Artery Disease, Henamari Ybay

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is caused by blockages in the lower extremity arteries that results in pain during walking known as claudication. Gait variability has emerged as a functional assessment in older and pathological groups1. A healthy gait pattern demonstrates stride-to-stride fluctuations within a certain range of values.2 This study uses standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV) to assess the magnitude of variability in the time series. . We compared variability before and after surgery that restores blood flow to the legs of patients with PAD.. Thirty-nine subjects were recruited from the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center. The setup …

Effects Of Serial Subtractions On Elderly Gait Speed In A Virtual Reality Setting, Taylor Leeder

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Falls are the leading cause of fatal injuries in older adults aged 65+ with one in three adults falling each year. Cognitive processes are involved in gait, and thus, as cognitive changes are normative with age, this may impact fall risk in the elderly. Sixteen older adults aged 70.8±5.3 years took part in a dual-task (DT) study where they walked on a split-belt self-paced treadmill with and without a virtual reality (VR) setting while simultaneously performing a serial subtraction (SS) task. For SS, individuals were given a random 3-digit starting number and told to subtract by three from that number …

Meditation As An Intervention For College Students, Ameen Wahba

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

College students face a variety of stressors and are increasingly susceptible to mental health disorders. Meditation is considered a secular intervention to aid in well-being as well as an aspect of the religious or spiritual experience. In regard to application in daily life, many individuals are unaware of the varieties of meditation available. This work will aim to demystify the practice of meditation in a practical context, specifically focusing its simplicity and lack of cost. Focused Awareness meditation, Open Monitoring Meditation, and Compassion Meditation will be compared and contrasted for their varying benefits in the context of the life of …

Landscape Features That Predict The Occurrence Of Shorebirds In Agriculture Fields During Migration In The Rainwater Basin, Nebraska, Lindsay Ann Brown

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Some upland shorebird species are undergoing population declines. During their northward migration, these species primarily stop and use agricultural landscapes. This behavior is concerning because these landscapes are typically lower in resources, which could compromise energy demands during migration. There is a lack of information on what landscape features influence where species stop and on how the species use agricultural habitats. To close the gap, I compared landscape features between site where species-present and where were species-absent sites and developed models to predict migratory stopping sites. I focused on three uplands species: American Golden-Plovers, Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and Upland Sandpipers. Each …

Treadmill Walking In Claudication, Shane Lentz

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

INTRO. Claudication is lower leg pain that resides with rest. There are two potential causes of claudication: Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) and Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (LSS). Vasculogenic claudication is the defining characteristic of PAD. There is little research that exists to differentiate the two forms of claudication and there is little no non-invasive to determine which condition is causing the claudication. The purpose of this study is to utilize biomechanics to distinguish between individuals with claudication that arises from neurogenic versus vasculogenic causes. METHODS. Four LSS subjects completed a walking test on a treadmill (Gardner Test). The treadmill is pressure …

Accommodations At Uno; What You Don't See, Steph Hengen

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

At the primary and secondary levels, students with disabilities receive supports by law through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 Plans. However, students with disabilities at the post-secondary level are typically required to self-identify and request supports independently (Getzel and Thoma, 2008). This poster describes the demographics of students who were registered with the Accessibility Services Center at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the Spring of 2016. Those who attend this poster session will have a better understanding of the population who receive support through the Accessibility Services Center and what that support looks like.

Identification Of Genes Involved In Diauxic Shift Of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Through Gateway Node Analysis., Emily Pachunka

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The use of high-throughput assays, or experiments yielding large data sets, in biological research has become a standard practice in laboratories throughout the world. Because such investigations have the ability to produce high volume and comprehensive data sets, it is then important to develop methods that allow researchers to quickly pull meaningful information from an overwhelming amount of data. Network modeling has become a popular technique for visualizing and analyzing large biological data sets. A network is a basic graph with nodes and edges (i.e. social networks) that also integrates complex principles of graph theory for deeper analysis and pattern …

Contemporary Flute Music By Argentine Composers, Erica Nightengale

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Aside from Alberto Ginastera and Astor Piazzolla there are very few known composers from Argentina. Both Ginastera and Piazzolla have written well-known pieces for flute; however, the known flute repertoire from Argentina is small in comparison to other countries. This is due to a number of factors including the high cost of publication in Argentina; because of this composers aren’t able to circulate their works. Pieces are discovered by word of mouth and rarely make it outside of the country. This research aims to collect and expose contemporary flute works by Argentine composers. The works collected represent a variety of …

Effects Of Inquiry Based Learning On An Undergraduate Precalculus Course, Jessica Wilson

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

MATH 1340 has a history of high DFW rates. This is true not just at UNO but nationally as well. An Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to teaching this course could be a possible solution. In the fall 2016 semester I assisted Dr. Matthews with a MATH 1340 course. This class focused on problem solving in groups with little lecture time and many student presentations. To compare our class to the traditionally taught precalculus class we gave a pretest and posttest to both sections. After performing a two sample t-test on the data we found that students in the IBL …

Correlation Networks: Causative Relationships From Gene Expression Data, Grogan W. Huff

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Genes that share expression conditions show a biological correlation, and no modern method of visualization displays these intricate co-expression patterns better than a graph. Structural observations about a co-expression graph can reveal the secrets of the biological system that it models, but experimentally validated co-expression graphs are pain-staking work to produce. Present day correlation network analysis shows potential for drawing conclusions from large volumes of biological systems data in an inexpensive and easy-to-produce way, however, work remains to confirm the appropriateness and scope of such methods for specific, scientific application. Toward this effort, we generated a Pearson correlation network from …

National Opera Association: Opera Scenes Competition, Grace A. Kolbo, Roni Shelley Perez, Marcel Daly, Elijah Brown

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In January 2017, two UNO Opera Workshop scenes were selected to compete in the National Opera Scenes competition at the National Opera Association Convention in Santa Barbara, California. In this presentation the UNO students that represented UNO at this convention (Elijah Brown, Marcel Daly, Grace Kolbo, and Roni Shelley Perez) will discuss the process of selecting, assembling, and rehearsing scenes with UNO Opera Workshop, the mission of the National Opera Association, and their experiences competing in a national competition. Additionally, video footage from the competition will be shown. These students will be presenting at the UNO Research and Creative Activity …

Understanding Queer/Trans Identity And Faith: An Intersectional Approach, Patrick Dunlap

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Understanding Queer/Trans Identity and Faith: An Intersectional Approach combines the results of several academic projects completed in an attempt understand the intersections of queer/trans identity and faith and presents these projects as complete work, highlighting themes present throughout them, and provides recommendations for further efforts.

Deaf Education And Mental Health, Katherine Schwartz

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Previous research has indicated that deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) students are more at risk for being identified with mental illness. Unfortunately, research has also indicated deaf educators are ill-equipped to provide the necessary support to these students and their families. This lack of knowledge and confidence to address such problems can and does have detrimental effects on students in and out of the classroom. Students with mental health issues struggle not only cognitively, but also socially and emotionally. To address the issue, a pilot study was conducted to examine deaf educators’ current abilities to work with students with …

Managing And Maintaining A Vibrant Summer Undergraduates Research Experiences Program, Karelle Aiken, Ria Ramoutar

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

An intensive undergraduate research experience is a game changer for student success. Directing a summer undergraduate research experiences (SURE) program has many challenges. Faculty may find themselves involved in almost every aspect, from issues such as research mentorship and budget management to seemingly minuscule ones like solving glitches with Wi-Fi access and parking tickets. Regardless of the type of task, all, large or small, will impact the overall quality of the participants’ experiences. Ensuring that the program remains vibrant and relevant from year to year requires organization that also allows for flexibility and creativity. In 2017, we will direct the …

Small Scale Heterogeneity In Vegetation Structure In A Patch-Burn-Grazing Landscape, Eric G. Behrens

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Disturbances are drivers of spatial change in the plant communities of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Fire and large herbivore grazing are prevalent disturbances that maintain the vegetation structure and create spatial heterogeneity in vegetation at various scales. The fire-grazing disturbance interaction occurs when areas that have been recently burned are followed by intense grazing due to the high quality of forage regrowth. This interaction has been managed in tallgrass prairies in a homogenous method using uniform burning and grazing and a heterogeneous method using patch-burn-grazing (PBG). Vegetation heterogeneity at a large scale has been studied in PBG and uniformly managed …