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Estimating the Number of Lattice Points in a Convex Polytope
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Mathematics
ABSTRACT: We will give some estimates for the number of lattice points in a convex polytope, which is described by a system of linear inequalities. We restate a result of Rosenberg [1] on orthogonal arrays using convex polytopes, and find that the number of orthogonal arrays is equal to the number of lattice points in a certain polytope. We examine methods for determining the number of lattice points in a polytope. We also find the volume of certain highly symmetric polytopes.
Joy Beise
Psychology
Preference for Delay of Gratification and How It Relates to Time Perception, Achievement, Social Responsibility, and Conscientiousness
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hal Bertilson, Psychology
ABSTRACT: Earlier work by Walter Mischel demonstrated that children who delay gratification score higher on accuracy in future time perspective, achievement, and social responsibility. The purpose of the present experiment was to extend the investigation to college students. The choice between a small candy bar now versus a larger candy bar later was used to classify participants as immediate or delayed choosers. Time perception was evaluated through a single self-reported estimate of one-minute duration. No significant results were found between subjects who made immediate versus delayed choices in their achievement, social responsibility or conscientiousness scores. Unexpectedly, individuals choosing the immediate, small candy bar had a more accurate perception of time.
Donald DeFoe
Political Science
The Lack of Involvement of African Americans in Politics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. George Wright, Political Science
ABSTRACT: This study of the lack of African-American political participation is based on several decades of research. Its main point is to recall political participation of African-Americans in the ′60s and ′70s and compares its parallelism to contemporary political participatory behavior. This research focuses on the politically implemented systematic obstacles to participation, the family′s role in political socialization, the environment′s role in political socialization and the ways in which these three entities nurture the current participatory enigma. The results of this study show that without a high level of education, blacks cannot obtain high socioeconomic status, which is needed in order to enhance and sustain their political participation.
Kathleen Dockter
Sociology
Analysis of Student Success in General Education Courses Offered Online: A Review of Online (E-Learning) Pedagogy in Higher Education
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Randy Gabrys-Alexson, Geography
ABSTRACT: Technology has become a tool not only for the teacher, but also for the student. Numerous courses are offered over the Internet both to undergraduate and graduate students. Many students enroll in these courses to take advantage of the flexible schedules and convenience (Dipman, 2000). Some experience with online courses has been found to be negative, rather than positive (Mayes, 1995), and was the impetus for further study into online learning and its efficacy.
The purpose of this study was to examine and ascertain the effectiveness of online, general education courses to support the theory that students taking general education courses in a traditional classroom setting would have higher success rates with traditional in-classroom pedagogy than those who took the same course content using online (e-learning) pedagogy. The success rate in this study was determined by level of satisfaction with the course and its delivery methods. For the purpose of this paper, the terms teaching and online learning will refer to electronic means of distributing and engaging learning by use of the Internet and related electronic media services and will not focus on other methods of teaching that utilize distance learning concepts.
Through this research it became apparent that each teacher approached online education differently. For example; there was no one place to define how a course should be managed, constructed, or delivered as there is in traditional education discipline courses. Use of this technology was more trial and error than an actual form or tool of pedagogy.
Survey results were inconclusive since the target population, i.e., freshmen, did not return any responses. This was partly due to the fact that the surveys were mailed out in the summer when the students had left campus and many of the student addresses were invalid. The responses that were returned were from upper level students and support the theory that online education is perceived as a positive media for delivery. The literature analysis shows a need and a continuing desire by educational facilities to incorporate a new online pedagogy into online courses. The overwhelming response from experts in the field proves that much work can and should be done to continue to improve our use of the Internet as a virtual classroom.
Mary Garness
Accounting
Bifurcation of Convertible Bonds: An Approach Allowing for Increased Faithful Representation in the Financial Statements
Faculty Mentor: Mr. Charles Reichert, Accounting
ABSTRACT: This study has found that the application of the proposed changes related to convertible bonds outlined in the Financial Accounting Standard Board′s Exposure Draft Accounting for Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Liabilities, Equity, or Both will allow for faithful representation of the nature of the compound financial instrument in the financial statements. Additionally, the synopsis provides a general outline of the potential earnings and balance sheet effects of equity classification of convertible bonds while further clarifying the pros, cons, and feasibility of pricing the components of the convertible debt.
Genevieve Gorny
Biology
Effects of Curcumin on LNCaP Prostate Cancer Cells
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jon Holy, Medicine, University of Minnesota Duluth
ABSTRACT: Dietary phytochemicals have come under increasing scrutiny as new chemotherapeutic drugs. Curcumin has been used as an anti-inflammatory agent, an antioxidant and investigated as a cancer chemoprevention agent. It has been recently reported that the phytochemical curcumin is able to induce micronucleation in MCF-7 breast cancer cells by perturbing mitotic spindle organization. However, it is not known whether this effect of curcumin occurs in other types of transformed cells. The purpose of this research is to test whether curcumin can also disrupt the mitotic spindle organization in a prostate cancer cell line. Observations were made using immunolabeling methods, viability assays and time-lapse movies of living curcumin treated cultures. LNCaP cells treated with 10-20 µM curcumin exhibited monopolar spindles and a higher percentage of mitotic cells than control cells. Cell counts showed that total number of cells decreased significantly with curcumin treatments, suggesting that M-phase was abnormal. Cells treated with 10-20 µM curcumin rounded up during mitosis as did the control cells, however, the outcomes varied, and included normal division, prolonged M-phase, and irregular departure form M-phase after long delays. Although curcumin resulted in monopolar spindle formation, similar to that reported for MCF-7 breast cancer cells, very few micronucleated cells were apparent after curcumin treatment. These experiments demonstrate that curcumin is able to disrupt mitosis in a number of transformed cell types, but that the end result varies depending on the specific cell line. The ability of curcumin to interfere with cancer cell division may be useful in the further development of this phytochemical as an anti-cancer agent.
Jason Krause
Electical and Computer Engineering
Controlling Robots with Image Processing
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rocio Alba-Flores, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth
ABSTRACT: This research seeks to give some guidance on developing an image-processing algorithm that can be used to control or pilot a robot in a certain way. An algorithm was developed to find an object within an image. The images used for the research were taken with a digital camera. Two types of objects were used, a square and a sphere. Quadtree decomposition was used to locate the quadrant in which the object was located. The image-processing algorithm developed worked successfully. There were some limitations to the image processing. These limitations included the object′s size within the image, the location of the object, and background noise in the image. Some suggestions were given for future improvements to the image processing. One future improvement would be to increase the number of objects that could be found in the image. Another improvement would include a histogram evaluation in the image processing.
Shainell Oachs
Biochemistry
Systematic Esterfication of ß-Cyclodextrin by Acid and Base Catalysts
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ron Caple, Chemistry, University of Minnesota Duluth
ABSTRACT: Regioselective and Esterfication of ß-Cyclodextrin was achieved by the reaction of a butyric anhydride solution mixed with a sulfuric acid or a pyridine base catalysts. Thus, yielding an acylated ester product along with carboxyl and butyric acids. Through the use of proton, carbon NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF/MS will aid in the structural characterization of the major and minor products.
Jaimie Olson
Social Work
A Definition of Poverty for Duluth, Minnesota
Faculty Mentor: Ms. Elizabeth Blue, Social Work
ABSTRACT: This research was designed in order to develop a regional definition of poverty for Duluth, Minnesota and to develop an understanding of the perceptions about the causes of poverty in Duluth. A sample of 98 key informants from business, non-profit, low-income, general population, elected officials, government employees, and faith communities were interviewed. Conclusions were that the perceived causes of poverty were: low wages, lack of education and training, discrimination, and growing up in poverty. Perceived areas to be solutions for poverty were: creating affordable housing, increasing economic development, promoting higher wages, dealing with discrimination, emphasizing education, and focusing on children.
Melanie Steele
English
The Pinnacle Development of the Stream-of-Consciousness Technique as Demonstrated in James Joyce′s Ulysses
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maureen Salzer, English
ABSTRACT: James Joyce′s Ulysses is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, due largely to the innovations of the literary technique known as stream-of-consciousness. Joyce did not invent the stream-of-consciousness technique, which relays the pre-organized thoughts of the character as they are conceived, without comment from the narrator. Within Ulysses, however, Joyce took the technique to its pinnacle of development. Much of the impact of Joyce′s stream-of-consciousness can be seen in the context of an accumulation of trends that had been building throughout the Romantic and Victorian literary periods. By taking the narrative to the extreme, Joyce pushed the stream-of-consciousness technique into the mainstream and made it one of the most commonly used techniques in twentieth century literature.
Aubrey Tuders
Psychology
A Multi-State Comparative Analysis of Abuse in Nursing Homes
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Carroll, Psychology
ABSTRACT: This is a pilot study, which attempts to research resident abuse in nursing homes in relation to the present and future shortage of nursing staff in the United States. This study compared rates of reported abuse in nursing homes to the number of nursing staff hours per resident per day in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The hypothesis - that states with a high rate of workload in relation to the staff number in nursing home positions will have a high rate of abuse - was not clearly supported.
Paul Winterscheidt
Criminal Justice
Education and Attitudes: A Comparison of Community College and University Students′ Attitudes toward Female Police Officers
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gary Keveles, Criminal Justice
ABSTRACT: The influence of two-year and four-year criminal justice programs on students′ attitudes toward female police officers was investigated. Forty-nine male and female undergraduate criminal justice majors attending a small, Midwestern liberal arts university were compared to a sample of sixty-eight male and female undergraduate law enforcement students attending two small, Midwestern community colleges. The data shows slight, consistent differences in the attitudes of community college and university students toward female police officers. Unfortunately, the small sample sizes limit the validity of these conclusions.
Kym Young
Art History
Matriarchal Heritages in Women′s Pottery: An Examination of Similarities in West African and Native American Women′s Pottery Traditions
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary Pulford, Anthropology
ABSTRACT: What makes pottery a woman′s art? What sets a woman crafter apart from the men who practice the same or similar art forms? Spirituality, sexuality, social custom, and oral tradition all play a part in defining women′s art. But the traditions that accompany these art forms go much deeper than the definitions surrounding ′traditionally defined women′s roles′.
Women potters in tribal cultures have developed specialized traditions that have enabled them to step above known cultural standards of inheritance, status, and gendered roles. This research examines two diverse cultures for similar aspects of pottery traditions and development with regard to the specifically delineated role of pottery as women′s work.