Digital Commons Network^™

What Color Are Purple Butterfly Wings: A Study Of Optical Structures, Victoria Halevy, Tyler Sterr, Bruno Deharak, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

At first glance, morpho butterfly wings appear to be a purple color. However, when they are held up to the light, they seem transparent. This is because morpho butterfly wings get their brilliant colors from the physical structure of the scales on the surface of the wing. This structure is a series of ridges spaced a few hundred nanometers apart. When light shines on these ridges, interference effects cause iridescence. We measured the spectrum of light reflected from a wing as a function of reflected angle and modeled these results mathematically. We also looked at morpho butterfly wings using a …

Elliptic Curves And Cryptography, Linh Nguyen, Andrew Shallue, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Expression Of Gene Product 126 From Phage Gizmo And Creation Of A Substrate, Manish Mandava, David Bollivar, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Endonucleases are enzymes which cleave DNA at specific nucleotide sequences. Homing Endonucleases (HEase) are a group of endonucleases that reside as open reading frames within self-splicing introns or inteins. After expression of the gene containing the HEase the HEase goes on to cleave a target site in a homolog of the hosting gene to induce homologous recombination turning the vacant homolog into a homing endonuclease gene (HEG). It is predicted that gene product (gp126) from the mycobacteriophage Gizmo encodes a HEase. To test whether the gene encodes a HEase the phage sequence of gp126 Gizmo was transferred into the his-tag …

Optical Cloaking By Aberation Correction, Joseph Richards, Julia Savich, Gabriel C. Spalding, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Light incident on a material is scattered and then continues its propagation in seemingly random directions. If one can force light to pass through a material and not scatter, however, then one could “see” through the material. This scattering of light can be described as aberration within the light. A technique used for “Aberration Correction” is adding phase-shifts to regions of light allowing for all wave fronts of light to interfere in a constructive manner. This is accomplished in the use of a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). The SLM, an array of linearly aligned crystals, allow for added phase shifts …

Creating And Implementing A Teaching Module For The High School Biology Classroom, Elizabeth Smith, William Jaeckle, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

The “nature of science” is an educational concept that encourages science teachers to teach students about the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. One way for students to experience the nature of science is through the creation and implementation of hands-on experiments. As a future biology teacher, I created a teaching module that incorporates an inquiry-based experiment that could be implemented into a high school biology curriculum. In this experiment, egg masses from the locally common freshwater snail Physa acuta were used to test the effect of rearing temperature on the rate of embryo development and survival. Within …

Shakespeare's Madwomen: How Elizabethan Theatre Challenged The Perception Of Mental Afflictions, Hannah Dhue, Dani Snyder, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

I would like to write about the perception of madness in Elizabethan England. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet will serve as my primary text and I will carefully examine Ophelia. However, it is my intent to use other works from the same era, perhaps even more examples from Shakespeare, to support my points.

Currently my research questions are as follows:

How did the theatrical representations of mad characters – particularly young women – in Elizabethan England reflect the perception of mental diseases and disorders at the time? To what extent were those representations serving as political comments? Were they typically in women …

Respondent Learning And Fatigue In Stated Choice Experiments, Derek Lindgren, Criag Broadbent, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Stated choice experiments have been shown to be a reliable valuation method for non-marketed goods and services. These experiments are usually conducted in a hypothetical survey form. Previous research has indicated that certain behavioral patterns in elicited respondents are inherent in the survey form and length. This study attempts to investigate if there is evidence of the behavioral patterns of preference learning and fatigue by analyzing data from two spate stated choice studies: 1) extensions to Constitution Trail in Bloomington/Normal, IL, 2) Riparian Forest Restoration in the Middle Rio Grande, NM. In comparing the estimated willingness to pays for each …

Understanding Attitudes Towards Interracial Relationships Among College Students, Nicole Pierce, Meghan Burke, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

The number of interracial couples in the United States remains low in today’s society. This study uses qualitative interviews and quantitative survey data from Illinois Wesleyan students to investigate the motivations, perceptions, and experiences of those who are currently, or were previously, in an interracial relationship. I also explore the attitudes of those who have not dated interracially, and the media’s impact on perceptions of interracial couples. I find that those who dated interracially did not see race as a deciding factor, but instead focused on personality, cultural similarities and differences, and appearances. Many students saw religion, peer and family …

Martin Luther: Vater Einer Allgemeinen Sprache? Martin Luther: Father Of A Common Language?, Annika Ewaldz, Adam Woodis, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Martin Luther is well known for his 95 Theses, in which he rejects the Catholic practice of selling indulgences; but it was his groundbreaking translation of the Bible into German that instigated the standardization of the German language. After his excommunication, Luther was in hiding in the Wartburg Castle, where he translated his Bible into a vernacular and cohesive form of the German language. Many different dialects were spoken throughout Germany at the time making communication between regions difficult. Luther’s translation soon became the most influential Bible in Germany and was disseminated quickly due to the recently invented printing …

Movin' On Up: Sodomy In Service In The White Devil, Kevin Brown, Joanne Diaz, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Renaissance England was marked by change. From the late 15^th century through the early 17^th century, the social atmosphere in England was thrown out of order. The rise of the middle class gave people money who weren’t supposed to have money. This deteriorated the established hierarchies of the time, blurring the lines between classes. Critics of John Webster’s The White Devil (1612) have yet to address these issues in conjunction with the homoerotic tones throughout the play. Webster is using sodomy as a trope to illuminate how mobility in service is a destructive, chaotic force. By exploring these …

In Pursuit Of The Ringel-Kotzig Conjecture: Uniform K-Distant Trees Are Graceful, Kimberly Wenger, Daniel Roberts, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Graph labeling has been an active area of research since 1967, when Rosa introduced the concept. Arguably, the biggest open conjecture in the field is referred to as the Ringel-Kotzig conjecture, which states that all trees admit a graceful labeling. In this talk, we will give a bit of background on the problem, as well as present our own results. Namely, that a certain infinite class of trees (called uniform k-distant trees) admits a graceful labeling.

Estimating The Effect Of Home Court Advantage On Wins In The Nba, Jason Kotecki, Robert Leekley, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

What is the effect of home court advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA)? Based on the Economic Theory of Professional Sports and the concept of shirking, teams should perform better at home than they do on the road. Descriptive statistics support this expectation. Therefore it is hypothesized that a home court advantage exists through the selected variables of attendance, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, fouls called by the referee, and days of rest. Following every NBA team and every game played over a three year span (2008-2011), this paper examines the probability of producing a win at home …

A Comparrision Between Formal Medical Spanish Terminology And The Terminology Used By Low-Income Hispanics, Kathryn Rothas, Christina Isabelli, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

It has been observed by Illinois Wesleyan students enrolled in the Medical Spanish course that when translating for patients in a clinical setting one of the two situations can occur: 1) the Spanish-speaking patient will use terminology unrecognizable by the student when describing their conditions or symptoms; or 2) the student translator will use terminology taught in their Medical Spanish course to describe conditions, symptoms and treatment instructions, but the terminology is unrecognizable by the Spanish-speaking patients. This miscommunication between the translator and the patient can lead to lack of treatment adherence or improper diagnosis due to a misinterpretation of …

The Prevalence Of Lead Fragments From Shotgun Slugs/Muzzleoader Bullets In Ground Venision Meant For Human Consumption, Genevieve Alexander, Given Harper, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Recent studies have shown that lead shotgun slugs and muzzleloader bullets often fragment inside game animals. The majority of ammunition types used in firearms that are permitted by the State of Illinois for hunting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) contain lead, which is toxic to both humans and animals that scavenge deer carcasses. Although many studies have examined the impact of lead bullet fragmentation in game animals from high powered rifles, few studies have documented the presence of lead fragments from shotgun slugs and muzzleloader bullets in ground venison meant for human consumption in Illinois. In this study, ground …

Decomposing Complete Graphs Into A Graph Pair Of Order 6, Yizhe Gao, Daniel Roberts, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Firstly, a graph G consists of a vertex set V (G), and an edge set E (G) of endpoints which relate two vertices with each edge. Also, a decomposition of a graph is a list of subgraphs such that each edge appears in exactly one subgraph in the list. In the field of graph theory, graph decomposition is an active field of research. A graph pair is a pair of graphs on the same vertex set whose union is the complete graph. Abueida and Daven studied decompositions of complete graphs into graph-pairs of order four and five. We are extending …

The Development And Characterization Of Dual Electrodes For Use With Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy, Colleen Leonard, Melinda Baur, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) utilizes electrode probes that can be positioned just abutting cells and can detect the presence of small quantities of chemicals known as neurotransmitters. In order to detect neurotransmitter release from PC12 cells, used as model neurons, the electrode must be positioned very close to the cell surface to detect the change in current that accompanies the oxidation/reduction of the neurotransmitters released. The peaks in current were analyzed in order to detect differences in release mechanisms, such as slow or fast-release. Furthermore, dual electrodes were made and characterized in order to monitor two different locations on a …

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (Tbri) For Adopted Children Receiving Therapy In An Outpatient Setting, Lauren Nielsen, Robert Lusk, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

This study explored the relationship between Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and treatment outcomes for adopted children participating in treatment services through The Baby Fold’s Adoption Preservation Program. Adopted children who have trauma histories may have their adoptions disrupted if they do not receive the proper therapy to improve their overall functioning (Purvis, Cross, & Pennings, 2009; Davis, 1999). This study investigates a new intervention, TBRI, and its impact on children with trauma histories who are receiving outpatient therapy at a local child welfare center. Specifically, this study examines whether family functioning and child functioning are improved after receiving the intervention …

Can Musicians Tell Sharp From Flat?, Cathryn Volk, Joseph Plazak, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

A musician’s awareness of intonation (i.e. “being in tune”) is an important skill. While musicians are highly sensitive to “out of tune” notes, research suggests that this sensitivity is categorical rather than absolute (Siegel & Siegel, 1977). If intonation is heard “categorically,” musicians’ classification of intonation errors (both magnitude and direction), would be expected to be poor. This experiment was designed to determine whether or not musicians could categorically perceive mistuned musical intervals, as well as to investigate the relative limits of absolute intonation perception. Ten undergraduate music students were tested on their ability to identify intonation errors within an …

Committee Thanks And Introduction, Illinois Wesleyan University

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

List Of Student Participants, Illinois Wesleyan University

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Snails? Incorporating The Nature Of Science And Primary Literature Into The High School Biology Classroom, Elizabeth Smith, Jeanne Koehler, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

In the high school Biology classroom, science is taught to be fixed, unchanging, and uninteresting to students. By incorporating the Nature of Science and primary literature articles into the science classroom, students can delve deeper into the ever-changing biology curriculum while also becoming a part of the scientific community. Teachers who incorporate these aspects into their academic teaching are finding that students are retaining the curriculum as well as probing deeper into the content by asking more thought-provoking questions (Handler & Duncan, 2006; Brill & Yarden, 2003). In this literature review of educational research, I explored how incorporating the Nature …

Complete 2014 Program, Illinois Wesleyan University

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Complete program and schedule of events for the 25th annual John Wesley Powell Research Conference.