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The Knight Orientation Issue, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

Estimated date

Summer 2004, Graduate School Of Humanities & Social Sciences

CAHSS Graduate SGA Dialogues

No abstract provided.

Visual Evidence In Qualitative Research: The Role Of Videorecording, Sorrel Penn-Edwards

The Qualitative Report

Videorecording allows the researcher to record and replay the pictures and sound of an event. As such, it can be a valuable research tool. Nevertheless, it is not just a simple measuring instrument. As a qualitative research data gathering tool, video recordings should be authenticated. Researchers should indicate clearly the role of this tool in their work and discuss the factors that may have an influence on the way it is used or on the data analyzed. The substance of these factors is shown in inventoried form. This paper discusses these and advises how researchers may address the validity of …

The Knight Volume 14: Issue 15, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Using Genetic Sampling Of Hair To Confirm Origin And Identify Florida Panthers, Julia M. Rabolli

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This project investigates the origin of a puma currently living in a zoo in Ecuador. Although this particular puma (named Sasha) is assumed to be of South American origin there is some speculation that she was brought to South America from Florida in the early 1980s. In order to determine Sasha’s most likely geographical origin and subspecies, DNA was extracted from hair from three known Florida panthers as well as from one of Sasha’s cubs. The target gene for this research is the mitochondrial NADH-5 (ND5) gene that is passed on from the maternal parent. Several variations (haplotypes) in this …

The Highly Active-Antiretroviral Thearpy (Haart) For Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids), Raquel Appa

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The objective of this literature research project is to analyze how the highly active- antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for Acquired Immune Deficiency Disorder (AIDS) has decreased AIDS mortality by interfering with the reproduction of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) inside human cells, particularly helper T-cells. Once inside these cells HIV binds to CD4, the membrane protein characteristic of helper T- cells. Then the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase synthesizes a complementary strand of DNA. Once this DNA is incorporated into the cell’s genetic material the infected cell synthesizes viral protein. The HAART treatment uses a combination of three drugs (Protease Inhibitors, Nucleoside …

Exploring The Self-Esteem Of Dually-Diagnosed Homeless, Nicole Russo

Undergraduate Student Symposium

According to the 1997-1998 annual report from the United States Department of Children and Family Services the steady increase of homelessness in our nation is astonishing (U.S. Dept. of Children & Families, 1997-1998). Among the homeless population, 26% are mentally ill as well as substance abuse problems and they are classified as dually- diagnosed. Dually-Diagnosed Homeless Individuals are an extremely vulnerable subgroup with poorly understood needs (Drake, Osher, & Wallach, 1991). There has been paucity in research focusing on personality characteristics on dually-diagnosed homeless, especially in the area of self-esteem. The implications of a dually-diagnosed homeless individuals' self-esteem and how …

Why Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus Polyglottos) Face The Sun: An Evaluation Of Thermoregulation And Countershading Explanations Using Orientation During Overcast Conditions, Nicole Russo

Undergraduate Student Symposium

When the sun is near the horizon, Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) show a strong tendency to orient their lighter-colored ventral surfaces toward the sun. It is unclear whether the function of this orientation is visual conspicuousness, thermoregulation, or regulation of exposure to ultraviolet radiation. However, all three of these potential functions would not apply when sunlight is blocked by dense cloud cover. Thus, mockingbird orientation during overcast conditions should be random. To test this prediction, 50 mockingbirds were found during overcast but otherwise calm conditions and the compass orientations of their ventra were recorded. Compass orientations were strongly …

The Wonders Of Mathematica, Linda Sher, Claudia Cortes

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Mathematica is a powerful software that has the ability to solve small or large scale computations, graph, plot, analyze data, matrices, produced animated movies and much more. Matematica combines symbolic and numerical calculations into a unified, interactive environment easy to use for students, engineers, scientists and mathematicians. Mathematica is a calculator and a computer algebra software program that uses a high-level programming language. While working through math calculations, a notebook document keeps a report of : inputs, outputs, and graphics in an typeset form. You are able to edit, typeset equations that were entered in the notebook. Mathematica is copyright …

School Violence: Are There Ways To Prevent It?, Chad Nochimson, Michael Briante, David Landry

Undergraduate Student Symposium

School violence is reported in the media almost everyday. It occurs mainly at the middle and high school levels and covers a range of violent acts perpetrated by students against other students. Violent acts have run the gamut from bullying all the way to shootings and stabbings. Some of the major causes may include social status among peer relations, economic level of the family and inter-family relationships. Other factors that play a role in the increases in violent acts could include the principal’s role, school environment, and discipline. Moreover, it is often not the children who openly show signs of …

Role Of Beta-Amyloid (Aβ) Protein In Alzheimer’S Disease, And The Controversy Surrounding Pib-Pet Imaging, Roselynn Bugayong

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a highly complexed, enigmatic disease that affects nearly 4 million Americans. Surprisingly, over 99% of those affected have sporadic or late-onset AD (SAD), whose causes are unknown. Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s disease has no clear cause-and-effect relationship: like unsolved murders, an enormous body of evidence must be collected that can trace steps in order to form hypotheses or to form a consensus in the medical community.

This literature review project focuses on describing recent scientific research into beta- amyloid (Aβ) plaques as a potential cause of AD and methods of observing these plaques in the living human brain. …

Racial Attitudes: The Effects Of Segregation On College Students, Micaela Mercado

Undergraduate Student Symposium

This study focused on racial segregation experienced in high school by college students and their subsequent attitudes toward race. Kenneth Clark in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka clearly demonstrated that psychological inferiority as a result of segregation greatly affected children’s self-esteem and self-image. In the present study, differences in racial behaviors and attitudes in relation to gender, ethnicity, and level of segregation in high school were explored in 52 undergraduate college students. Findings indicated differences of racial attitudes among male and female students. In one comparison between the genders, females exhibited less racial discomfort in relation …

L-Selectin And Its Probable Effects On Embryonic Development, Nancy Phillipe

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The intent of this literature review project is to summarize research that provides a new way to look at properties which dominate and regulate the molecular mechanisms that determine whether an embryo will implant itself or not. The main quest of this research was to determine if L-selectin is used by the trophoblast as an adhesion factor at the beginning of embryonic implantation. Maternal uterine epithelia was examined further to see if it produces L-selectin ligand during the same time period at which the trophoblast exhibits the L-selectins. The primary role of selectins is to promote the rolling and adhesion …

Doing Math With Mathematica, Bini Anchery

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of the poster will be to introduce Mathematica to those who are unaware of the topic and explain its capabilities.

It is a powerful tool that combines graphics, programming language, numeric and symbolic computations to other applications. It has a wide range of uses such as handling complex calculations that involve thousands of terms, giving technical presentations and seminars and doing numerical simulations that range from finding the derivative to chemical reactions.

As the individual works through the problems, a notebook keeps a complete report of the input and output, etc.

Symbolic programming is the basis for Mathematica. …

Discovering And Analyzing The Patterns Of Tripepetides, Jessica Jirani, Yuliya Poberezhnyak

Undergraduate Student Symposium

A tripeptide is a peptide containing three amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Like DNA and RNA, proteins are synthesized as linear polymers (chains) composed of smaller molecules, in this case amino acids. Unlike DNA and RNA, in which there are four nucleotides from which to choose, proteins are constructed from at least 20 amino acids having a variety of sizes, shapes, and chemical properties. Each amino acid has a backbone consisting of an amino (NH₂) group, an alpha carbon, and a carboxylic acid (COOH) group.

The order of the amino acids in a …

A Researched Review On Cooperative Learning And Jigsaw, Amanda Bergamasco, Ann Marie Hernandez, Sharon Vizcaino

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The topic of this literature review is to understand the effectiveness of the cooperative learning model and one strategy, jigsaw. The goals of the review are to identify the population for which the model and strategy are used, whether or not the use of this model is successful in the classroom, and to understand what successful outcomes are possible with the model and strategy. Additionally, the instructional cycle for cooperative learning and jigsaw are explored. Our review concludes that the use of cooperative learning and jigsaw can be used with varying age groups successfully. Proper teacher planning, instructing, monitoring, and …

Microarray Analysis Of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Exposed To Various Conditions, Michelle Jaffe, Stephen Berkowitz, Daveda Maharaj, Gelin Fils-Amie Jr, Roxana Ruyani

Undergraduate Student Symposium

DNA microarrays offer the ability to produce genome-wide gene expression profiles, which can be used to identify genes that may play an active role in various biological processes. The well-studied organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used in an attempt to utilize DNA microarrays in order to examine the gene expression profiles of yeast exposed to varying conditions: aerobic versus anaerobic environments, glucose versus lactose media, weak versus dense cell cultures, and non-UV-C versus UV-C light exposure. After growth reached an optimum optical density, yeast cells in each culture were lysed and the RNA was isolated and transformed to cDNA. Finally, the …

Friendships Across The Lifespan, Jennifer Haselberger, Greta P. Zuniga, Jennifer Odige

Undergraduate Student Symposium

During infancy we begin to develop social skills and learn how to deal with the people around us, especially family and friends. During infancy, we develop different types of attachment styles. Studies show that about 70% of infants acquire a secure attachment style, in which the infant uses the mother as a secure base, but ventures off to explore the surroundings. About 10% develop a resistant style, in which the infant remains near their mother but resists physical contact with her and may even hit or kick her. This infant is wary of strangers. Another 15% develop an avoidant style, …

Caffeine Effects On The Predatory Behavior Of The Orb-Weaving Spider, Argiope Argentata, Regina L. Vesci, Nicole J. Russo

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Argiope argentata are orb-weaving spiders--meaning that their webs are a sticky spiral wound around radii extending from a central hub. A. argentata have poor vision and depend on vibrations in their web for detection of prey. A. argentata are large spiders; the female is 25mm and the male is 10 mm. They build webs that are approximately 80cm across. Research thus far on spiders and drugs have focused on web-building behavior after depressants or hallucinatory substances have been administered. Research on stimulants and predatory behavior has not been addressed. The proposed research is an exploratory study investigating the effects of …

Application Of Openmosix Computer Clusters For Acceleration Of Distributed And Parallel Computational, Denis Voitenko

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The openMosix is an Open Source extension to the Linux kernel. This kernel extension turns a network of ordinary computers into a supercomputer for Linux applications. Such cluster has proven to be extremely low maintenance yet very useful in solving computational problems in the areas of distributed and parallel computing such as compression, cryptography, mapping and neural network algorithms. The presentation will attempt to explain the basic configuration and the inner workings of such cluster.

Chaperoning Disease Treatment Into The 21st Century, Maria Farrell

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Chaperones function as the cell’s quality control system in a number of different ways. Simply put they are protein complexes that help fold new proteins into their working form, refold proteins that have been damaged, protect against protein aggregation, and tag severely damaged proteins for degradation. Because they most notably respond to damaged proteins caused by cellular environmental stresses such as proteotoxic heat shock, they are often called heat-shock or stress proteins and are classified by their molecular size, cellular compartment and function (e.g. Hsp 90). The chaperones are ligand specific, cylindrical protein complexes that make life and death decisions …

Adhesion Of Transferrin To Fda Group Iv Contact Lenses, Po-Jui (Bryan) Lin, Tehsin Siddiqui

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Contact lenses are widely used as a replacement for eyeglasses to correct vision. The adhesion of tear proteins to contact lenses contributes to lens deterioration, and may lead to vision problems and ocular pathology. Tears contain a large number of proteins, among them being lysozyme, albumin, transferrin, lactoferrin, immunoglobulins and tear lipocalin. Here we report studies of the adhesion of transferrin to FDA group IV (high water ionic polymer) contact lenses. Lenses were incubated in a solution of transferrin for 1, 2, 3, and 4 days, and transferrin adhesion was determined using the bicinchoninic acid (BCA) assay. Transferrin adsorbed to …

The Nsu Technology Student Help Site: Ideas To Actions, Angela Quintero, Jennifer Shaw, Jason Mcgwire, Lisa Barnes, Donna Cooper

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Technology students at NSU have many resources, but there are none that are made by students, for students. With this project, current technology students pass on their knowledge and research to new students, creating a network of help and support within the student body, not to mention within the University as a whole. The project uses an annotated format to list web sites that were academically relevant and useful for students. These annotations were categorized according to department (Technology), course (such as TECH 4900), and subject divisions within the course. Within these categorizations were listings of web sites that students …

The Effects Of Religious Upbringing On The Sexual Behavior Of College Students, Marissa S. Dass

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of religious upbringing on the sexual behavior of college students and their willingness to engage in drug or alcohol usage. A comprehensive questionnaire was composed and filled out by a total of fifty students on the main campuses of Nova Southeastern University and Florida Atlantic University. The questionnaire asked a series of questions ranging from age and ethnicity to type of religious upbringing and influence of religious upbringing on the individual’s sexual practices. The results of the survey were quantified to either prove or disprove the hypothesis. Analysis of the …

Self-Esteem, Family Relations And Suicide Among College Students, Andrea Boucher, Katerina Sovanova, Isaura Orozco, Alyssa Persaud, Avinash Persad

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. claiming 29,350 lives per year. Suicide rates among youth (ages 15-24) have increased more than 200% in the last fifty years. However, it is higher for the elderly (ages 85+) than for any other age group. Suicide can be prevented, but many people are just unable to see any other alternatives to their problems. It is noted that suicidal people often give various warning, but others are often unaware of the significance of these warnings or unsure of what to do about them. It was once thought that just …

Rocket And Egg Drop Project, Rezwan Alam, Andrew Barry, Nika Ferdowski, Adam Finkelstein, Fahd Sattar

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Our project is to use our knowledge of kinetic energy, aerodynamics, and shock absorption to build our own rocket. These aspects of mechanical physics will determine the height of our launch and the physical strain on the rocket’s structure. In order to measure the effects of these acting forces, we will design, build and launch a rocket without the aid of a modeling kit.

This rocket will be used in an experiment to test the limits of its performance with respect to its passengers. Our rocket will launch with three eggs inside of it. These eggs will act as a …

Rhetorical Criticism As A Method Of Understanding History And The Art Of Persuasion, Cammie Cacace, Theodore Chamberlain

Undergraduate Student Symposium

U.S. history has been shaped by the speeches of great individuals. Democracy is built upon freedom of speech, which allows even the least privileged to speak the truth and their concerns to those in power. Those of privilege have given many of the great speeches in our history. However, some of the best have been delivered on behalf of all people in this country, and in the world. It is important that these archives of freedom and democracy be studied not only so we can understand the power of political rhetoric, but so that we can understand the events that …

Obesity In Immigrants, Ana Rodriguez

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Obesity is one of the main health problems in the United States. The number of immigrants is increasing dramatically over the years. (Satia-Abouta, Patterson, Neuhouser, Elder, 2002). Immigrants to the U.S. often acquire new eating patterns as they become accustomed to the American products, fast-food culture and sedentary lifestyle. The acculturation to the American lifestyle places immigrants at risk for obesity. (Thompson, Coronado, Solomon, 2004). The purpose of this research is to create an awareness of the problem immigrants are having when immigrating to the U.S. Since this problem could be the cause of more health problems such as hypertension, …

Orientation Preferences In Birds, Lessette Magnotta

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Most bird species have a dark dorsum and lighter ventrum. A possible explanation for such a color pattern could be countershading, which makes a bird less conspicuous to predators. The level of conspicuousness depends on the orientation of the bird with respect to the sun. In order for the bird to successfully camouflage itself, it must face its dorsum towards the sun when the sun is at low elevation. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether countershaded and non-countershaded birds do in fact orient with respect to the sun. A goniometer was used to measure angles of perches …

Using An Optimization Method To Determine The Parameters Of The Accommodative System Of The Eye, Yuliya Poberezhnyak

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Abnormal binocular vision occurs in a broad range of disorders including strabismus, amblyopia, heterophorias, large fixation disparities, and anomalous refractive conditions. The examination and treatment of these problems are the major tasks in optometry clinics. However, the concepts and parameters used in clinic are not closely related to the parameters in the interactive model of the accommodative and vergence systems (Hung and Semmlow, 1980; Jinag, 1997). In this study, we used a mathematical optimization method (Zheng, et al., 1978) to determine these parameters for patients with normal and abnormal binocular vision and compare the results in the estimated parameters to …