Christine Waugh-Fleischmann
Professor Carole Pawloski Adinkra Symbology and Art Education Implications for Exploring and Developing Meaning in Personal Context
The researcher explored the making of a textile called Adinkra cloth produced by the Ashanti people of Ghana, West Africa, and worn on specific occasions. The cloth is strip-woven, dyed, and printed with stamped images. The characters depicted on the stamps portray specific messages about the wearer of the garment. The symbols create a codification that could become interesting and informative lesson plans in the researcher's field, K-12 art education. Exploration of these symbols, meanings, and designs, as well as student development of personally meaningful symbology, could later be translated and transformed for use with elementary, middle, or high school art students by implementing the integration and appreciation of another culture and adapting it creatively to explore and include personal meaning.
Room 301, 2:45 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
Rachel Bricklin
Professor Allen Kurta Factors Affecting Daily Energy Expenditures in a Peripheral Population of Evening Bats (Nycticeius humeralis) All endothermic animals must balance the energetic costs and benefits of maintaining a constant, high body temperature (Tb). When these costs are small, maintaining a high Tb is worthwhile, but when these costs are high, some endotherms employ other strategies. The evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) has the ability to lower its Tb to conserve energy (torpor). I used temperature-sensitive radio-transmitters to measure the Tb's of tree-roosting evening bats at the northern edge of their range in Palmyra Township, Lenawee Co., MI. Heat is proportional to temperature, so Tb can be used to determine heat production. Since ambient temperature, rainfall, food abundance, age, reproductive condition, and body mass have all been shown to cause Tb fluctuations in bats, I looked at how these factors correlated with torpor use in this population. I found that a combination of factors affected energy expenditure. As global temperatures rise and wildlife move farther north, physiological data on peripheral populations are critical to understanding how species might be affected by climate change.
Room 300, 9:00 a.m.
Leah J. Cook
Professor Steven N. Francoeur
Effects of Road Salt on Photosynthetic and Enzyme Activity of Stream Biofilms
The application of salt on roads is used to reduce hazardous driving conditions but can pollute nearby aquatic ecosystems. To determine the effects of road salt on stream periphyton, we collected biofilms and stream water and manipulated sodium chloride concentrations (up to 30000 µS) in the laboratory. Photosynthetic activity was monitored by pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry, and fluorogenic substrates were used to measure leucine aminopeptidase, XXXXX-glucosidase, and phosphotase activities. Extra cellular enzyme activities were unaffected by salinity. Elevated salinity rapidly reduced photosynthetic activity. The magnitude of this reduction was dependent on dissolved salt concentrations, and photosynthetic activity recovered quickly after biofilms were placed with salt-free stream water. These results indicate that short-term salt exposure has strong negative effects on autotrophic microbiota and that these negative effects are reversible if salt stress is removed.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Elizabeth Habrecht
John Bennett
Vivian Burwell
Maurice Slaughter
Professors Daniel Clemans and Steven Francoeur A Survey of Microbial Diversity and the Effect of Eutrophication at Loesell and Paint Creek Wetlands
Wetlands play critical roles in the proper functioning of biogeochemical cycles in our watersheds. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi are fundamentally important in driving wetland nutrient cycles. In this study, we examined the microbial diversity of Loesell and Paint Creek wetlands and the effect of varying nutrient levels using culture-independent methods. To determine the dynamics of the microbial community, the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and the eukaryotic 18S rRNA gene were isolated from wetland biofilm samples. These genes were cloned and amplified in preparation for DNA sequencing. Sequences were identified using a variety of bioinformatics techniques and resources. The results of the experiment suggested that the microbial communities of the two wetlands were different. Further, the results suggested that experimental manipulation of nutrient levels affected the microbial composition of the wetland biofilms. Graduate students Sreelatha Ponnaluri, Jose Paul, Andrea Abbas, and Mercedes Quinteres were co-investigators on this project.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Jacob Job
Professor Peter Bednekoff The Effects of Winter Weather on Carolina Wren Populations in Different Habitats throughout Washtenaw County
Carolina wren (Thryrothorus ludovicianus) populations have historically reflected the severity of the previous year's winter, especially at the northern edges of their range. Their populations showed marked increases into New England and the Great Lake states until a string of harsh winters in the 1970s decimated their populations north of the Ohio River. Here, I used Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data from 1960-present, combined with weather data from the same time period, to show the relationship between Carolina wren detection and yearly snowfall in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Years with high snow-inch days were correlated with detection decreases the following CBC. I also looked at the effects of habitat type on the Carolina wren population in Washtenaw County with the use of 21 transects in three different habitats: rural, urban, and urban-park. Rural transects had significantly fewer wrens found than the other two, presumably due to temperature/snow differences.
Room 300, 9:20 a.m.
Olivia Munzer
Professor Allen Kurta Roost Fidelity of Evening Bats (Nycticeius humeralis) in Southeastern Michigan
Roosts provide bats with protection from environmental conditions and predators and a site for pup-rearing, hibernation/torpor, and social interaction; therefore, species and individuals may differ in their selection of roosts based upon physiological or behavioral requirements. Bats may switch to a more suitable roost or exhibit intra- and inter-annual roost fidelity as physiological and environmental conditions change. We conducted a two-year study investigating roost switching and roost fidelity of the evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis). In Michigan, there is only a single colony of evening bats known, and it is the northernmost colony. During the two-year study, we captured 75 evening bats and radiotracked 46. We confirmed 29 roosts during the study, 13 of which were used in both years. Individual bats exhibited intra-year fidelity. Although understanding the dynamics of roost fidelity and switching is beneficial for management purposes, few studies have investigated the intra- and inter-year roost fidelity of bats.
Room 300, 9:40 a.m.
Sreelatha Ponnaluri
Jose Paul
Andrea Abbas
Professors Daniel Clemans and Gary Huffnagle (University of Michigan) Colonization of Germfree Mice with Probiotic Bacteria to Create a Mouse Model for the Human Gastrointestinal Tract
The Altered Shaedler Flora (ASF) was made to colonize germ-free mice with microbes that were known to provide the host with essential nutrients and protection from pathogens. The purpose of using the ASF strains was to create a working model of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiota. With more research coming in, eighteen other key microbes in the GI tract have come into view. The main goal of this study was to incorporate these new microbes with the ASF organisms into the GI tract of germ-free mice to create a defined microbiota for research purposes. Molecular techniques were performed on the GI tract organs of colonized mice and were compared to culture data. Culture data showed that the microbiota demonstrated high levels of colonization, then leveled off after time. This study provides a model of the GI tract and the molecular tools and information needed to measure the microbiota after manipulation.
Room 310, 2:15 p.m.
Mercedes Tatiana Quinteros
Professor Marianne Laporte Design of a Microscopy-based Screening Method for Stomatal Development Mutant Genes in Arabidopsis Thaliana
Stomata are microscopic pores found in the epidermis of the aerial parts of plants. They have a critical role as regulators of gas exchange and water loss between the plant and the environment. The study of stomatal development has great significance, since stomata can regulate water loss, and the control of stomatal behavior offers a good approach for the creation of transgenic plants that use water more efficiently, for future improvement of crops. In addition, stomata represent a good cell model for research of cell patterning, differentiation, and development processes. In this study, a microscopy-based screening method for Arabidopsis plants was created to identify mutants and characterize unknown gene functions involved in stomatal development. The results could present a new contribution to the area of functional genomics and to the understanding of stomatal development in Arabidopsis.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Alexis Stein
Professor Aaron Liepman Determining the Function of Arabidopsis and Oryza Sativa CSL Genes through Heterologous Expression in the Moss Physcomitrella Patens
Plant cell walls are dynamic structures composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectins, and proteins that provide structural support and are barriers against pathogens and mechanical injury. Cell walls hold great promise as a source of renewable biomass for the production of biofuels. Much additional research is needed to determine how several cell wall components are biosynthesized before this valuable source of renewable biomass can be fully utilized. The cellulose synthase-like (CSL) genes are a diverse family of genes in plants considered possible candidates that encode enzymes, which biosynthesize plant cell wall polysaccharides. This study investigates this hypothesis by expressing Arabidopsis CSLB, CSLE, and CSLG genes and Oryza sativa (rice) CSLH and CSLF genes in Physcomitrella patens. The expression of CSLB, CSLE, CSLG, and CSLH proteins has been detected by immunoblot analysis. Future projects will focus on determining whether the expression of the CSL proteins has altered the cell wall composition of P. patens.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Joshua Stumpf
Professor Allen Kurta A Comparison of Roost Selection between Three Syntopic Species of Myotis
Northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis), Indiana bats (M. sodalis), and little brown bats (M. lucifugus) are uncommon species in the Great Lakes region of North America and coexist at few locations. During the summers of 2006-2007, we radio-tracked northern long-eared bats, Indiana bats, and little brown bats to roost structures in southeast Michigan, in an area that contains one of the largest remaining patches of contiguous forest in an area dominated by agriculture. We then used a recursive partitioning algorhithm to examine the differences between the roosts used by the forest roosting species and randomly selected trees within the forest. Indiana bats tended to use trees in later stages of decay with canopies that were further removed from the surrounding forest than randomly selected trees. Northern long-eared bats tended to be more plastic in their roosting preferences than Indiana bats, utilizing a wider range of trees in various stages of decay. Little brown bats roosted exclusively in man-made structures (buildings, bridges, etc.).
Room 330, 2:45 p.m.
Peter Wilson
Professor Cara Shillington Developmental and Interspecies Differences in Water Retention in Tarantulas
Tarantulas are a widespread and diverse group of arthropods that inhabit a wide variety of climates. This study evaluates the differences in dehydration rates across five species of tarantula, from climates ranging from tropical rain forest to desert/scrubland. Data were also collected comparing water retention among differing age groups within each species. Fully fed and hydrated spiders were placed into a temperature- and light-controlled environmental chamber, and fully dehydrated oxygen was introduced to the chamber. The metabolic rate and absolute humidity of the outgoing gas was collected, and a mass-independent rate of dehydration was derived. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine any significant differences in the results.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
Roshini Fernando
Professor Hedeel Guy Evans Probing the Mechanism of Activation of Dihydroorotase by Aspartate Transcarbamoylase in Aquifex Aeolicus
Aquifex aeolicus is an ancient, hyperthermophilic eubacteria that thrives at temperatures close to the boiling point of water. The enzymes that catalyze de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis are associated in multifunctional complexes. The activity of one of these enzymes, dihydroorotase, is specifically and entirely dependent on the formation of a complex with aspartate transcarbamoylase, another pathway enzyme. To shed light on the mechanism of dihydroorotase activation by aspartate transcarbamoylase, several techniques were used including site-directed mutagenesis, gel filtration, affinity chromatography and enzyme kinetics. We (1) identify critical residues in a loop that normally occludes the dihydroorotase active site and is displaced in the presence of aspartate transcarbamoylase; (2) show that the enzyme requires one zinc for catalysis; and (3) identify hydrophobic regions necessary for protein-protein interactions.
Room 330, 9:00 a.m.
Andrew William Gray
Professor Deborah Heyl-Clegg Synthesis and Dye Leakage Assay of Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide 10-19 with Inhibition by Insulin 13-18
Islet amylin polypeptide (IAPP) is co-secreted along with insulin in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. During type 2 diabetes mellitus, human IAPP (hIAPP) fibrilizes to form amyloid deposits that are found post-
mortem in more than 95% of people with the disease. However, the actual cause of the disease may be cytotoxicity of the mechanism that forms those amyloid deposits. The self-aggregation of IAPP to form amyloid is inhibited by insulin due to the aromatic -stacking at the site where IAPP fibrilizes with itself and binds with insulin. Knowing this, the binding site of hIAPP residues was synthesized, as was the binding site of insulin residues. The ability of hIAPP 10-19 to disrupt membranes was tested using a fluorescent dye leakage assay with the peptide in increasing concentrations to determine the concentration dependence of membrane permeability. Insulin 13-18 was also tested for inhibitory activity.
Room 310, 2:15 p.m.
Balakrishna Kurva
d Polypeptide (hIAPP) plays an important role in the pathogenic development of type II diabetes. Small, soluble oligomer forms seem to be more cytotoxic
Professor Deborah Heyl-Clegg Synthesis and Purification of HLVEALYLV, an Insulin-based Inhibitor for Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (hIAPP)
Human Islet Amyloito XXXXX cells than mature fibers of hIAPP. In order to understand the mechanism of cytotoxicity of hIAPP to XXXXX cells and block its effect, a potential peptide inhibitor was designed. The region of insulin that binds to hIAPP to inhibit its aggregation is HLVEAYLVC. A truncated peptide analog, HLVEALYLV, was synthesized using the double coupling solid phase technique. Dye leakage studies were done in a model membrane system in order to test for inhibitory activity.
Room 310, 2:15 p.m.
Meenal Mhaskar
Professor Hedeel Guy Evans Protein-Protein Interactions between the Multifunctional Protein CAD and Protein Phosphatase 1
Uncontrolled cell proliferation, a hallmark of cancer, is invariably associated with CAD activation, a multifunctional protein that catalyzes the first three reactions in de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis. CAD is up-regulated by Erk1/2 MAP kinase phosphorylation at Thr456 just prior to the S phase of the cell cycle. Subsequent to S phase, CAD Thr456 is dephosphorylated by protein phosphatase 1 (PP1), resulting in down regulation of the pathway. Interestingly, a consensus sequence for PP1 targeting proteins is located immediately adjacent to Thr456, suggesting that the binding of PP1 might mask the MAPK phosphorylation site. Conversely, phosphorylation of Thr456 might impair the binding of PP1. Peptides were synthesized corresponding to residues 444-460 of CAD that encompass both the PP1 consensus sequence and Thr456, as well as two
mutant peptides in which Thr456 was replaced with Ala or Asp. We show diminished binding between PP1 and the Asp mutant, which mimics phosphorylated CAD.
Room 330, 9:20 a.m.
Vasumathi Molugu
Professor Steven Pernecky Determination of Microbial Metabolites in Rat Cecal Fluid by GC-MS
The purpose of this project is to develop a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry assay to quantify lactic acid, butyric acid, and other short-chain fatty acids secreted from microbial populations in the gastrointestinal tract of rats treated with a defined "diet" of microbial organisms. Variations in the levels of these metabolites and/or the microorganisms that produce them have been linked with microbial infection and allergic airway disease. Early studies to characterize the bis-TMS derivative of lactate using BSTFA were successful, and lactate was identified in germ-free animals and in germ-free animals that had been treated by gavage with a selected group of microorganisms. Butyric acid standard was well-resolved in the chromatogram, but the mass spectrum was not clear because the solvent used to support the reaction made difficult the characterization of the mass spectrum of the TMS derivative of butyrate. Derivatization of butyrate with 2,3,4,5,6- pentafluorobenzyl bromide in acetonitrile in the presence of N,N-Diisopropylethylamine solved this problem. By using this alternative method, we can unequivocally identify and quantify butyric acid by GC-MS.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Swathi Ramaraju
Professor Deborah Heyl-Clegg Pentapeptide Inhibitors of Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide as Potential Treatment for Type II Diabetes
The main aim of this work is to develop a good inhibitor for the human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) protein, which is responsible for the destruction of pancreatic beta cells Type II diabetes. The insulin fragment, HLVEALYLVC, makes contact with the hIAPP protein and inhibits its aggregation. The internal pentapeptide sequence ALYLV, which shows good inhibitory properties, was prepared by using single coupling solid phase peptide synthesis. In some analogs, alterations were made to the Y residue, which is thought to interact with hIAPP by pi-stacking interactions. The activity of the inhibitors on model membranes in the presence of hIAPP analog was studied by measuring dye leakage from vesicles using fluorescence spectroscopy.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Fatmagul Tuluoglu
Professor Harriet A. Lindsay Synthesis of the Bicyclic Core of Pyrrolizidine and Indolizidine Alkaloids
Pyrrolizidine and indolizidine alkaloids are classes of bicyclic natural products whose members have many interesting biological properties. In order to test the structural basis for this activity, we are developing a synthetic strategy that allows for variation of structural features. Specifically, our recent efforts focus on a strategy to form one of the five-membered rings present in these compounds. This strategy, along with similar plans for forming a six-membered ring, will be discussed.
Room 330, 9:40 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND THEATRE ARTS
Yi-Hsin Lu
Professor Patricia Zimmer Crossing the Border of Culture and Heart: Using Theatre as a Medium to Explore Social Issues and Bring Cultural Perspective
Folktales contain the treasure of a society and its culture. Theatre is a great medium for evoking empathy and stimulating thought. Both folktales and theatre also have pedagogical value because they teach not through overt didacticism but through liberating the imagination and providing emotional release. The theatre project "Mountains, Monsters, Sea: Legends of Taiwan" utilizes the frame of story theatre and techniques of interactive theatre to dramatize Taiwanese folktales for American elementary students. The presenter will describe how the play combines folktales, games, music, and songs to both introduce Taiwanese culture and to explore themes such as bullying and kindness. Strategies discovered for directing American actors in the presentation of diverse cultures will be shared. This project offers a new model for working with, discovering, appreciating, and reflecting upon multicultural experience.
Room 301, 1:45 p.m.
Meriah Sage
Professor Jessica Alexander Exploring Persona, Impacting Literacy
The presenter explores persona (speaker) and how it impacts performance of literature and subsequent comprehension of the text. Can orally interpreting persona impact literacy? The literature performed is not a full account of an event but rather a carefully crafted excerpt that punctuates the presenter's interpretation of the piece's persona. Through performance snapshots of the Newbery Award-
winning novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond, the presenter examines our understanding of character, events, and choices as seen through our own varying social and cultural understanding and personal objectives.
Room 301, 9:40 a.m.
Steven Stuglin
Professor Jeannette Kindred Conscious Tactics for Effectiveness: Comparison of Socialization Strategies in Practice
Entry into organizations involves passage through and engagement in a socialization act, process, or program. These programs can be carefully planned in attempts to achieve certain organization goals with newcomers. To this end, better understanding of the impacts of certain strategies is vital to the informed intentions of socialization planning. Through a two-part methodology, this study dissects two organizations in terms of environmental, temporal, interactional, and literary socialization elements. Each aspect is rated in terms of Van Maanen dyadic continuums. The study then incorporates an ACS and OID instrument to gauge the effectiveness of these socialization programs in terms of affective commitment and organizational identification. Finally the study draws links between different observed socialization strategies and their impact on overall socialization effectiveness.
Room 301, 2:05 p.m.
Anke Thorey
Professor Ray Quiel The Space between Aristotle and the Bush Administration: Considering the Impact of "Goodwill" on International Relations
Focusing on the Bush Administration's post-September 11 rhetoric, this paper investigates the impact this rhetoric had on the relationship between President Bush and the international community. Of particular interest is the importance of eunoia (goodwill) as an aspect of the speaker's ethos (credibility). Unlike competence (good sense) and trustworthiness (good moral character), goodwill has not found its way into the modern understanding of Aristotle's concept of ethos. A content analysis sheds light on the role the establishment of goodwill played in the overall loss of the Bush Administration's credibility and provides the basis to argue that eunoia should be treated as a major component of ethos as envisioned by Aristotle.
Room 301, 10:00 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Conan Baldwin
Professor David Crary The Consumption of Durable and Nondurable Goods
The researcher examined the consumption function using regression analysis and descriptive statistics. The study focuses mainly on the consumption of durable and nondurable goods, with these two relatively broad consumption categories ultimately being further disaggregated into seven relatively narrow categories. In addition to the inclusion of income as a determinant of consumption, the possible effects of the unemployment rate, the real interest rate, and inflation on consumption are examined. Also, the effect of the relative price of a particular durable or nondurable good on the consumption of that good is subject to particular attention in the project.
Room 352, 11:30 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Catherine Adams
Hannah Morales
Professor T. Daniel Seely Child Language Acquisition of Resultative Adjectives in English
Our project investigates the use and comprehension of resultative adjectives in first language acquisition. Resultatives are a well-documented class of adjectives in English that do not attribute inherent properties to a noun but characterize a change of properties. Thus, in the sentence Bill painted the wall red, the wall became red as a result of Bill's painting. Existing research has devoted a disproportionate amount of attention to the theoretical syntactic and semantic properties of resultative constructions while virtually ignoring them in acquisition studies. Our project has been developed using current psycholinguistic experimental protocols to test resultative adjective comprehension in children aged 3-5 years. The results of our research provide evidence to help characterize certain fundamental similarities and differences between fully formed and developing grammars.
Room 352, 9:00 a.m.
Kristin Adams
Professor Charles Cunningham "Curtains or Dynamite?": Socialism in Jack London's The Star Rover
Jack London's 1915 novel The Star Rover tells the story of professor turned prisoner, Darrell Standing, who goes from a member of the intellectual bourgeois to working class martyr. This presentation focuses on
the prison system, which becomes a metaphor for class conflict. In examining the relationship between the controlling and abusive prison authorities and the solidarity and struggles of the San Quentin inmates, the novel examines the relationship between capitalist hierarchy and the working class. The novel suggests that while socialism has been thus far thwarted by capitalism, the spirit of socialism will triumph.
Room 352, 10:30 a.m.
Nicole Bryant
Professor Elisabeth Daumer "Isn't that fragile?": Communication and Change in Muriel Rukeyser's "Waterlily Fire"
Muriel Rukeyser's "Waterlily Fire" functions as a physical entity, bringing the reader into dialogue with the feminine poetic speaker. The poem has a physical body that deconstructs and rebuilds in tandem with its contextual meaning. This changing poetic body is frequently aligned with the speaker's physical body, and her growing knowledge of that body creates a bridge, enabling her to communicate with others. As the speaker realizes herself as woman, she comes to recognize the world as a fluid entity empowered by communication.
Room 301, 10:30 a.m.
Jeffrey Butcher
Professor Christine Neufeld Abjection in Heart of Darkness
This paper applies Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Abjection occurs only when exclusion from the self takes place, creating the binary the self/the other. The paper analyzes the character of Marlow, showing how excessive exposure to the phenomenon of abjection causes one to become desensitized to it; thus one loses the natural human qualities that the self has innately inherited. Through Conrad's frame narrative, we witness Marlow lose a sense of separation from the other and, as a result, become the other-crossing the imaginary border and transitioning from the subject into the object of abjection.
Room 301, 11:30 a.m.
Lisa Chizek
Professor Doug Baker Constructivist Learning Through Wikis in the Writing Classroom
The researcher investigated the use of wikis in writing classrooms, exploring both composition and creative writing environments. Observations, notes, and reflections of the researcher's classrooms were used in support of literature to analyze wiki's growing place in the teaching of writing. In particular, the research focused on wikis as collaborative tools in the teaching
of writing, closely linking wikis to constructivist pedagogy. The researcher further contextualized the use of wikis in writing classrooms by highlighting diverse ways wikis could be utilized to enhance student writing and support community.
Room 352, 10:00 a.m.
Rachel DuBois
Professor Annette Wannamaker Harry Potter and Magical Multiculturalism: Using J.K. Rowling's Phenomenal Series as a Guide for Classroom Discussions of Diversity
Having sold more than 325 million copies, the Harry Potter series is an undeniable cultural force in children's literature. While the books are often read as straightforward fantasy-adventure tales, there are myriad opportunities for educators to use the texts to facilitate discussions of diversity, specifically in relation to gender, class, and race. This presentation examines the arguments for and against readings of the Harry Potter series as multicultural texts and presents multiple suggestions for using the books at the elementary and secondary levels.
Room 304, 3:35 p.m.
Monika Ehrlich
Professor Craig Dionne Passion Breeds Destruction: A Feminist, Revisionist Reading of the Macbeth Marriage
This presentation will offer a reading of the Macbeth marriage that diverges from those dominant in contemporary critical analysis. Working on the premise that the Macbeths are Shakespeare's "most thoroughly married couple," I will read the Macbeth union as a marriage of passion, and Shakespeare's play as a tragedy of passion. Here, both Macbeth and his Lady are destroyed by their mutual engagement in a marriage of the heart, as opposed to the more common interpretive trend that reads Macbeth as the tragic victim of his wife's ambition. My analysis will draw upon feminist and psychoanalytic criticism of Shakespeare's work, elements of the playwright's biography, and Elizabethan theories of marriage, such as those represented in premodern domestic handbooks and commonplace books.
Room 352, 3:35 p.m.
Julia N. Eussen
Professor Nancy Allen How Language Affects the Perception of-and Indirectly Defines the Success of-Public Policy
The student researched how the implementation of China's "One-Child Policy" has been presented in the media since implementation in 1979. The primary sources of information were documentaries made for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in the United States and for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in the United Kingdom. Additional news sources were articles from the New York Times (1980 - present day) and articles archived on the BBC website. The student took into consideration how language has changed (or not) over time in presentation of this topic and what influences the presentation may have on readers.
Room 352, 9:40 a.m.
Sarah Goletz
Professor Annette Wannamaker Maternity as Magic: The Search for the Mother in The Secret Garden
The speaker examines maternal imagery in The Secret Garden using the theory that the feminine Bildungsroman features a quest for identity driven by the search for the mother. Using Mary Lennox as the example, the speaker illustrates that the growth from child into young woman with an established identity is dependent upon the holistic transformative powers of several maternal figures. The speaker also addresses the need for the female protagonist to complete her development into young woman through the demonstration of her own, newly acquired, transformative maternal powers upon a surrogate child.
Room 304, 3:15 p.m.
Jennifer Goodhue
Professor Annette Wannamaker Blurring Genres: Bringing the Feminine Hero into Focus
The researcher explored genre blurring in children's literature as a deliberate act to create new spaces for the existence of the feminine hero. Feminine heroes are a necessary, evolving counterbalance to prevailing hero-tale narratives, which are defined by Margery Hourihan in her book Deconstructing the Hero (1997) as those centering around white middle- or upper-class males. As the main example for the thesis, the researcher examined the character of Candy Quackenbush, protagonist of Clive Barker's Abarat series, whose bravery, valor, and nontraditional behavior blur the lines demarcating traditional roles for adolescent female characters in fantasy literature. The author argues that Barker, well known as a fiction horror writer for adults, has blurred genres to create a series that blends fantasy, Bildungsroman, detective stories, and feminist and Marxist social critiques to provide fertile ground for the birth and success of the feminine hero as an evolving convention in children's and fantasy literature.
Room 352, 3:15 p.m.
Hermione Miles Gorney
Professor Heather Neff The Clothes Line
This project offers a space of metamorphosis, one of ordinary activity and meditation, connecting us to our elders and the elements. At The Clothes Line, water and air change the physical look and feel of material. Cloths have poems written on them, some in water-soluble and some in indelible ink. Intermittent actions of water and air change words and images they convey. The project consists of: Cloths of different texture and shape, a used piece of Clothes line, a water reservoir Base covered with material to suggest ground, Piping and Sprinkler to simulate rain, supports of "Tree" and Post, Recirculation pump to move water, Fan to blow air across line, Timers to regulate pump and fan, and Words/poems, including Clothes on the Line, Sex in the Rain, and Gravity.
Room 301, 10:50 a.m.
Jamie Jones
Professor Elisabeth Daumer From The Colossus to Ariel: The Transformation of Voice in Sylvia Plath's Poetry
My presentation analyzes Plath's progression and transformation of voice and suggests possible reasons for such a dramatic change in her poetics. In trying to understand Plath as not only a poet but a woman, we must be concerned with her early work as much as her later work. Many critics have read her poetry exclusively in light of her suicide and believe that the change in her voice came abruptly and was intended for shock value alone. My essay opposes this analysis and argues that Plath, through her poetry, progressively liberated herself from the judgment of men, above all her father and husband. Tracing the evolution of Plath's poetic voice from her early poems of mythology and depression to her mid-career poems of domesticity and grief, and finally to her unforgettable and passionate late poetry, my presentation seeks to illuminate the motives and emotions behind each voice.
Room 304, 2:05 p.m.
Ryan Kerr
Professor Annette Wannamaker The Father, Son, and the Holy Clone: Re-vision of Biblical Genesis in The House of the Scorpion
This research project explores the seemingly contradictory appropriation of creation metaphors in a science fiction novel focusing on a dystopian future. Using Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" and Fukuyama's ideas about posthumanism, this paper frames Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion as a posthuman text dealing with the inevitable questions about humanity arising in a world shaped by cloning and other forms of biotechnology. Using this frame, the researcher also examines how Farmer uses the language of Genesis specifically to understand and complicate the conception of humanity in her posthuman world. Specifically, it is the author's contention that Farmer portrays a posthuman, cyborg world in which a revisioned creation metaphor is necessary for humanity to survive and make sense of a strange new world. Without this new creation metaphor, Farmer's envisioned future cannot be made manageable.
Room 304, 3:55 p.m.
Scott Kowalewski
Eric Christensen
Professor Christine Tracy Balancing Act: Avoiding Bias and Achieving Balance in Today's Media Environments
Bias appears to be inherent in today's media outlets, especially television news. This bias is causing serious cultural, political, and social issues. This presentation looks at two local newscast pieces (regarding the same topic) and studies tone, design, and intent. When media ecology theories, which are the studies of media as environments, and the writings of media ecology theorist Neil Postman, and media literacy theorist W. James Potter are applied to these cases, they clarify and acknowledge the presence of biases. This analysis is critical today and helps public audiences achieve a more critical, thus balanced, approach to viewing news and other mediated experiences. With an awareness of goals and an active participation in mediated experiences, media-users can avoid bias and achieve balance.
Room 301, 9:20 a.m.
Hava A. Levitt-Phillips
Professor Melissa J. Jones "For so must all things excellent begin": Reading Pain in Spenser's The Faery Queene
In Book III of Edmund Spenser's The Faery Queene, the "vile enchaunter" Busirane abducts the virgin Amoret. Though he cuts out her heart and writes his charms in her own living blood, Amoret withstands Busirane's attempt to compel her love and emerges from imprisonment into a new level of generative agency. This presentation complicates modern readings of Spenser's text, which assign agency to the perpetrator of violence, object-status to its victim, and dismiss any productive use-value in the experience of pain. The dialogue between premodern and contemporary discourses of pleasure, pain, and power that I explore interrogates the assumptions of both periods about gendered violence and their consequences as they play out in the imaginative realm and the lived world.
Room 352, 3:55 p.m.
Alison Malburg
Professor Elisabeth Daumer Parturition: Realigning Women's Role in Society
Mina Loy's poem "Parturition" exposes women's potential for independence and power while highlighting their vulnerability despite and through the agency that they obtain during the labor of childbirth. In my presentation, I shall argue that Loy's treatment of the female body within "Parturition" reflects her understanding of how women's labor to bring forth life allows them to give birth to a new self. Therefore, Loy's treatment of the female body causes the poem to interact polemically with the feminist and political discourses present during the early twentieth century. I will place my discussion within the context of two competing discourses on femininity-social purity feminists and radical sex feminist with an emphasis on parasitism and abjection-that Loy both draws on and critically responds to throughout "Parturition."
Room 304, 2:25 p.m.
Emily Otto
Professor T. Daniel Seely WH-Movement in English and American Sign Language
Language universals are features of language that appear to be present in all languages of the world, or cross-linguistically. One proposed universal is that of WH-movement. This hypothesizes that WH-movement occurs in all languages, either overtly or covertly, and is leftward. The WH-element is moved from its base-generated position to a specifier of a complimentizer phrase located to the left of its base position. American Sign Language (ASL) is a language that is under debate about whether it contradicts this universal. Two hypotheses have developed: ASL follows this language universal, or ASL differs and the WH-element moves to the right of its base position. WH-movement is also subject to various constraints that restrict the movement of WH-elements. It has been shown that English is subject to these constraints, and it would seem that American Sign Language should also be subject to these same constraints.
Room 310, 2:15 p.m.
Daniel Parker
Professor T. Daniel Seely Reciprocity in Subordinate VP-Ellipsis
This study reports the results of a psycholinguistic experiment investigating the VP-ellipsis structure in (1a) on the interpretation in (1b). Foley et al. (2003) state that the interpretation in (1b), which I refer to as the reciprocal interpretation, is logically possible but ungrammatical. However, my study suggests that (1b) is in fact a "grammatical" interpretation for (1a), and I argue that this ambiguity is located at the level of the syntax. I then explore the consequences and implications of my analysis for current theory.
a. Calvin pounced on him because Hobbes did [pounce on him]
b. Calvin pounced on Hobbes because Hobbes pounced on Calvin
Overall, I provide a formal account of the reciprocal interpretation that supports current efforts in minimalist syntax to reduce the computational processing of referential indexing and minimize the complexity of the syntactic representation.
Room 352, 9:20 a.m.
Kayti Purkiss
Professor Ian Wojcik-Andrews The Invention of Hugo Cabret: Crossing Genre Lines
The use of different genres in the 2008 Caldecott winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, brings a new approach to the scene of children's literature. Selznick utilizes techniques found in graphic novels, picture books, and film to form a new and exciting genre. Through this amalgamation of genres, Selznick creates a new way for authors to express ideas. Through a discussion of form conveying meaning, the researcher discusses how Brian Selznick's use of various genres in The Invention of Hugo Cabret allows him to look at the past of children's literature and, through the combination of various genres, to look toward the future. Brian Selznick's glimpse into the future will give other authors the freedom to create books breaking genre boundaries in the realm of children's literature.
Room 352, 2:45 p.m.
Emily Russell
Professor Christine Neufeld Linguistic Anxiety in Robert Mannyng of Brunne's "Handlyng Synne"
Much consideration has been given to Robert Mannyng's "Handlyng Synne" and its stylistic importance to English literature, but little attention has been paid to the ways in which it negotiates the anxieties about the power of language that existed in the Medieval church. This gap in the scholarship seems particularly awkward given the apparent preoccupation with this subject within the text. Mannyng often uses cursing as a way to discuss the instability of the church's power and the permeability of the mental and of the spiritual realms. I will look at four exempla in depth in order to fully explore this idea. I've chosen these four tales because they seem to be typical in their construction and content. They also serve to showcase slightly different aspects of the issues surrounding cursing and confession.
Room 301, 11:10 a.m.
Theresa Smith
Professor Annette Wannamaker What's in a Name?: Language and Power in Three Works of Fantasy Fiction
In the course of their journeys towards autonomy, adolescents must cope with a number of never before encountered tasks, not least of which is the need to learn their places in societal and familial power structures. Adolescents must learn to balance their power with that of their parents and other authority figures. They must begin to make choices that will move them towards autonomy and separate them from the authority figures that had previously controlled them. Philip Pullman's Lyra, Jonathan Stroud's Nathaniel, and J.K. Rowling's Lord Voldemort illustrate the direct link between language and power when they symbolize their burgeoning autonomy by changing their names, thus symbolically murdering their parental figures. By committing these symbolic murders and assuming names of their own choosing, Lyra, Nathaniel, and Voldemort are, in Lacanian terms, utilizing language and the power language commands to assert their own claims to power as adolescents verging on adulthood.
Room 304, 4:15 p.m.
Sarah Soebbing
Professor Phillip Arrington Selection and Spin: The Reality of Conditional Knowledge in Plato's Phaedrus
This paper seeks to update Plato's original notions of the role of truth in writing. In today's world, writing serves many purposes that would have been impossible to comprehend or envision in Plato's time. Instead of knowing the truth about all particular things of which we write, which was Plato's assertion, there are plenty of more modern writing situations where knowing the truth may not be necessary or even possible. Through looking at media, advertising, and the prevalence of "spin" in our society, this essay shows that Plato was really referring to "conditional knowledge" when he used the word "truth" in the context of knowing the truth about a subject truth before writing.
Room 352, 4:15 p.m.
Kate Williams
Professor Elisabeth Daumer "A Transparent Building": The Metaphysical Panopticon in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath
Using Michel Foucault's discussion of Bentham's Panopticon from Discipline and Punish, my paper will focus on Plath's poetry as a struggle against the panoptic gaze that is always watching her and of which she struggles to break free through the characters and voices she creates in her poems. My argument will center on the poems "Mirror" and "Daddy" to explore Plath as a writer and as a subject in her search for an identity away from the transparent Panopticon that oppressed her and that, as her poetry tells us, oppresses us all.
Room 304, 2:45 p.m.
Andrew Winckles
Professor Laura George The Prophetic Imagination of P. B. Shelley
In his Defense of Poetry, Shelley claims, "Poets, according to the circumstances of the age and nation in which they appeared, were called in the earlier epochs of the world legislators or prophets." Even a cursory glance at Shelley's poetry and political beliefs reveals a keen interest in what is wrong with the world and how to fix it. Most studies, however, fail to assess fully the cultural history of Biblical prophecy. Instead, they have confined their discussions of Romantic prophecy to discussions of prophetic inspiration, futurity, and rhetoric, divorcing the work from its radical impetus for social change and empowerment. The prophetic imagination, as utilized by Shelley, is in fact connected to an ancient tradition of radical challenge to authority. This study examines Shelley's poetry and prose (specifically The Defense of Poetry, "Queen Mab," and "The Mask of Anarchy") as intentionally prophetic texts that seek to critique the dominant consciousness of his (and future) times and energize a community of resistance to the status quo.
Room 304, 1:45 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND BILINGUAL STUDIES
Ya-ju Chuang
Professor Wendy Wang Acquisition of Attributive Adjective Order by Non-native Speakers of English
To examine the perception and acquisition of the attributive adjective order in English by Taiwanese English language learners (ELLs), the researcher asked a group of Taiwanese ELLs to arrange a variety of pre-selected attributive adjectives in an acceptable order. While the descriptive and statistical data showed that factors such as the associated contexts and interchangeability of adjective categories might affect their choice of the sequencing of the adjectives, the participants sure demonstrated a fairly good understanding of the English attributive adjective order. This finding seems to question the assumption that the acquisition of adjective order is intuitive of only native speakers. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research will be discussed.
Room 320, 10:30 a.m.
Laura Ramm-Christensen
Professor Cathy Day ESL Speaker Pronunciation and Accent Perceptions
This study investigates ESL students' perceptions of their own pronunciation challenges and how they perceive native speaker responses. The significance of speaking with a foreign accent is presented from speaker perspectives, including discrimination and career prospects. Suprasegmental strategies for the ESL classroom, rather than segmental instruction, are suggested to improve intelligibility.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Elizabeth Ravelo-Mckinney
Professor Deanna Mihaly La Tierra como Elemento de Inspiracion en Obras Literarias Latinoamericanas de las Epocas del Romanticismo al Modernismo (Land as an Inspirational Element in Latin American Literature from Romanticism to Modernism)
The researcher investigated the influence of land resources as an inspiration for Latin American prose from the periods mentioned above. Also, the researcher investigated the relationship between the inspiration of the land resources and the socio-economic developments of the Latin American countries during those periods. The analysis of the literature generated from those authors-Andres Bello, Gertrudiz Gomez de Avellaneda, Jose Marti, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Jose Maria Heredia-had special connotations for Latin American countries and their relation with the rest of the world, revealing the impact of economics on national literatures.
Room 320, 10:50 a.m.
Polly Ricciardo
Professor Carla Damiano Modern Society's Greatest Influence: The Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment Period had a profound effect in Germany and in America. Called "Die Aufklurung" in Germany and the "Age of Reason" in America, both cultures were establishing a new mentality towards the future roles of church and government in their respective countries. These simultaneous events took place in the 18th century. I will show through my presentation the similarities between these concurrent movements and how the ideas created during this time period continue to have a lasting effect on modern society.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Jacki Rinck
Professor Cathy Day The Adolescent Immigrant and Language Learning
Adolescence is a time of important social, emotional, physical and cognitive changes. In addition to these adolescent changes, immigrant youths must learn to adapt to a new culture. The researcher studied the goals an immigrant has when placed in a new society and the acculturation process, primarily as it concerns the adolescent learner. Studies revealed that stereotypes both affect the placement of the learner within the ESL classroom and the development of his/her identity. Furthermore, classroom relationships, motivation to learn, and ethnic identity, among other things, affect the acculturation process.
Room 320, 11:10 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
Tracy Aris
Professor Ted Ligibel A Cultural Landscape Inventory: Eli A. Gallup Park
The researcher created a Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) to assess and record this Huron River landscape, including its cultural and natural resources. Utilizing standards promulgated by the National Park Service, the CLI serves as a tool for preserving and perpetuating the significant characteristics and features of a historic landscape. This includes identifying general treatment plans and establishing preservation goals based on its significance, integrity, and use. Research revealed that as a designed historic landscape, Gallup Park is unlikely to yield important prehistory or historical information regarding the area. However, it retains integrity through its associations with significant events and trends in 20th century, including land use practices shaped by westward expansion, the City Beautiful Movement, and Planned Communities, each making significant contributions to broad cultural patterns in American history.
Room 320, 2:05 p.m.
Tegan D'Arcangelis Baiocchi
Professor Ted Ligibel Swimming Pools of Wesley Bintz: Form, Function, and Future
The researcher examined the preservation issues concerning Bintz Swimming Pools constructed between 1919 and 1967. Wesley Bintz gained national recognition for his patented ovoid above-ground swimming pool and bath house design, which cost less and used less land area to construct than a traditional sunken swimming pool. Its economical value and Art Deco design made Bintz Pools recognizable icons in large cities and small villages alike. Today, the same features that made Bintz Pools attractive to communities are leading to their demolition. This study focuses on the identification and approach to problems with restoration and adaptive reuse of Bintz swimming pools, including safety, accessibility, financial, and necessity issues.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Abby Boggs
Professor Ted Ligibel Conservation and Preservation of Brick Masonry
This poster will address the difficulties associated with conserving, repairing, and preserving brick masonry construction. It will show examples of historic and modern brick work and how reactions with the natural environment and man-made construction cause changes over time. Attention will be placed on how water can cause the most severe case of damage in brick masonry. The poster will also show practical solutions to stop deterioration and restoration practices for brick preservation and repair.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Dace Koenigsknecht
Professor Ted Ligibel The City of Eaton Rapids Historic Resource Survey Map: Enhanced Data Presentation Utilizing GIS, Access, and HTML
The architectural historian utilized GIS technology to better organize and present historical resource information gathered as an attempt by the City of Eaton Rapids to obtain National Register of Historic Places designation for its downtown commercial district. The scope of the project, originally a classroom assignment, was conceived with the following two goals in mind: (1) To provide personnel at the State Historic Preservation Office with a standardized, legible instrument for the interpretation of historic resource survey data; and (2) to provide the community with an easy-to-use interface that allowed public consumption of, and interaction with, the assembled information. Sources of the data were the city, which offered its GIS parcel layer and an aerial photograph, and numerous historic resource spreadsheets created by EMU graduate students. The final product, an interactive web-browser parcels map, offered a well-organized, standard report displaying historic resource data and photographs for each downtown parcel.
Room 320, 11:30 a.m.
Rebecca Torsell
Professor Ted Ligibel Monuments Conservation in Central Park
The intern participated in a ten-week internship for the Central Park Conservancy, which was funded through the Kress Foundation. The intern was involved in and completed various conservation activities. The primary task was to perform annual maintenance and preservation for 51 of Central Park's monuments; the majority of these were bronze. Bronze conservation consisted of non-ionic detergent washing and the application of a sacrificial layer of wax on the bronze sculpture surface, which was then buffed. The present and ongoing conditions were closely monitored and documented with field notes and photography. The intern also updated the CPC's Monuments database and formulated new innovations in regard to data entry procedures. Various special projects were also undertaken, including molding broken or replicated monument pieces and pointing on the Bethesda Terrace. D-2 testing was also performed on two masonry monuments.
Room 320, 1:45 p.m.
Leslie M. Van Veen
Professors Ted Ligibel and Henry Aldridge The Michigan Theater: 80 Years of Community Involvement
The Michigan Theater has served as Ann Arbor's premiere venue for feature films and live shows for eighty years. To celebrate this important milestone, the Michigan Theater Foundation has commissioned a book that will chronicle the theater's colorful history as a movie theater and tell the story of its rescue from the wrecking ball and rebirth as a vibrant showcase for the arts in downtown Ann Arbor. The project will include creating a database listing every film and live event that played at the Michigan Theater since l928, interviewing the dozens of people who helped to save the building, and reproducing historic and contemporary photographs. The Michigan Theater is a community-based and mission-driven locality that has been restored to its former glory and into one of the greatest historic theaters in the country. This project will maintain the continuity of operation as well as demonstrate the successful evolution of the Michigan Theater.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
Marcus K. Adams
Professor JoEllen Vinyard The War Within: Soldiers' Resistance Movement during the Vietnam Era
The Soldiers' Resistance Movement, which took place during the Vietnam War, is perhaps the most important social movement in the history of the American military. Responding to a highly unpopular war, the soldiers of Vietnam began to question their role in what many consider to be a conflict built on lies. While the government expected some resistance, the soldiers' unity of purpose eventually forced the Military to respond. This paper examines the soldiers' revolt as it grew throughout the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in a protest movement that helped to end the war.
Room 352, 10:50 a.m.
Kari Brown
Professor Ronald Delph German Wives and Witches
Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has been characterized as a hotbed of witch hunting and was infamous for its severe treatment of witches. German women received the brunt of accusation, particularly those who deviated from the accepted societal roles of women. This study explores the question: Why were women who remained outside the traditional gender mold accused of witchcraft? Using a contemporary manual for witch hunters and secondary works on early modern German society, this paper points to evidence of a shift in the role of women from a public to a privatized domestic sphere. German society exalted the married woman who submitted to her husband's authority, nurtured her children, and managed the household. Any woman who did not conform to this role could be and often was accused of witchcraft.
Room 352, 1:45 p.m.
Latasha Berlinda Hailey
Professor Joseph Engwenyu "Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned:" The Church's Policy of Racialization and the Rwandan Genocide
In 1994, the small African country of Rwanda experienced one of the most horrific genocides known to date. In a country where 90% of its citizens are affiliated with a Christian church, many Rwandans sought protection from the death squads in the numerous churches scattered across the region. Yet the death squads, in conjunction with church officials, utilized those holy grounds as the country's killing fields. The church's role in the genocide extended past the immediate acts taken in 1994. The researcher will investigate the structure of the colonial state, the church construction of ethnic division, and the church involvement in the genocide in 1994. Through the examination of these three elements of the church practices in Rwanda, the church's sole purpose in Rwanda was to control an entire country through the use of organized religion.
Room 301, 3:15 p.m.
Rob Hardman
Professor Ronald Delph Rising Dowries, Spiking Nuns
This paper investigates the growth in the number of patrician women who became nuns in Renaissance Venice and Florence between 1425 and 1530. Renaissance Venetian and Florentine marriage patterns reveal that many upper class women were simply priced out of an ultra-competitive marriage market by hyper-inflation, as their families could not afford to come up with the soaring cost of the dowry required to make a suitable match for their daughters. Young patrician women found themselves shunted off to nunneries instead of marrying. While the results were the same, this paper argues that the catalysts behind the inflation and the resulting changes in the gender dynamic in each city were distinctly different.
Room 352, 2:05 p.m.
Caleb Klingler
Professor Steven Ramold Brighter Hopes: Eastern Michigan University in the Civil War
The American Civil War was a violent and catastrophic event in American History. The horror of the battlefield cannot be fully realized unless witnessed firsthand. Through personal experiences, historians gain valuable insight into the events surrounding the soldiers' experiences. Veterans of the American Civil War faced experiences for which they were not prepared, as the war would prove them inadequate to face the new challenges brought on by the Industrial Revolution. The men of Company E, 17th Michigan Infantry Regiment, formed in 1862, from college students from Michigan State Normal College, proved as ill-prepared for combat as many other soldiers did at the beginning of the war. These men are a valuable case study for understanding recruitment in 1862 and the understanding why they suffered high rates of casualties. Their experiences during the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam in September 1862 illustrate the horrors that the enlisted men faced when lessons from 1861 were not implemented.
Room 301, 3:55 p.m.
Geoffrey K. Krempa
Professor Robert Citino Reacting to Hitler: The Foreign Policy of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania, 1933-1939
The foreign policies of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania from 1933 to 1939 were examined through the paradigm of Hitler's major foreign policy achievements. These included his appointment as Chancellor in 1933, the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, and, finally, the invasion of Poland. Specifically, the reactions of these four nations to German international action and their own respective relationships with each other were examined. It was found that their respective foreign policies ended in failure due to their respective inabilities to substitute shortsighted national objectives that were focused on regional revision at the expense of their neighbors for regional security directed against German expansionism.
Room 301, 3:35 p.m.
Wendy Molloy
Professor Ronald Delph From Monastery to Marriage: The Closing of the English Convents
This paper examines the problems of English nuns as they were forced out of the monastic life during the English Reformation and explores why their newfound freedom was not so much a liberating event for these women but rather resulted in placing limitations upon them in sixteenth-century Tudor society. Primary sources such as monastic records, acts, and treatises reveal the numerous hardships and issues facing monastic and religious lay women before and after the Reformation. This study also reveals the different religious roles of Protestant women as wives and as single women. In general, this study underscores the problems concerning the elimination of convents, where women, "freed" from their religious vocation, lost an avenue for agency that English Protestantism did not provide for or replace.
Room 352, 2:25 p.m.
Allison E. Stein
Professor Joseph Engwenyu West African Griots and Their Struggle to Survive in the Modern World
The researcher investigated the history and profession of West African griots, primarily Senegalese gewel, as they are known in this region, and their struggle to survive in modern day Africa. Griots are artists of words. They cover all genres of oral art and can be genealogists, historians, advisors, spokespersons and mediators, exhorters, interpreters and translators, musicians and composers, teachers, or praise singers. Griots have been an important component of West African culture for centuries. Despite many obstacles, most notably their low rank in the caste system and the invasion and influence of Western culture, they have managed to thwart extinction. The research revealed the survival of the griot is due to the ability of these artists to fuse their traditional artistic styles, customs, and instruments with modern technology and the use of mass media.
Room 301, 9:00 a.m.
David M. Walton
Professor Joseph Engwenyu Asinamali ("We have no money!"): The Tradition of Independent Labor in South Africa
Independent trade unions in South Africa emerged because of the exclusion of blacks from registered union membership and the general collective bargaining process. The inherent nature of the exploitation of native South African workers placed them in an extremely vulnerable position. While white labor militancy raised the stakes for unions as a whole, their own vulnerability to state and capital, coupled with their complacency towards the plight of the non-white worker, reveal the reasons that the independent South African labor movement evolved as it did. The independent labor movement reflected a growing determination to acquire a permanent place in the new white order by blacks. This hope resulted in a substantial amalgamation of various sectors of the independent trade union movement. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) epitomizes this amalgamation. This presentation examines the early phase of development of independent labor organization in South Africa and its effects upon the broader black equality movement.
Room 301, 4:15 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
Lee Ann Soltis
Linda Joegiono
Professor Andrew Ross Sensor Placement for Distributed Signal Detection in Two Dimensions
This paper explains an algorithm for placing sensors on a two-dimensional field so as to minimize the total distance between the sensors and the fusion center, while keeping the probability of detection over a given field relatively high and the probability of false alarm relatively low. Using MATLAB, we wrote a program that minimizes total transmitted power, subject to a detection probability constraint and a false alarm probability constraint. We conducted computations with different numbers of sensors on a square field with the fusion center located at a corner of the field. We discovered that, as in the one-dimensional case, a uniform placement is often not optimal.
Room 300, 10:00 a.m.
Ke Zhu
Professor Xiaoxu Han Incentives and Purchase Prices for Motor Vehicles
Constructing price indexes for customer motor vehicles from highly disaggregated data is a challenging problem in both in motor-vehicle financing and applied statistics. In this study, we develop a new approach to this problem. The price indexes for consumer motor vehicles are calculated using data collected from a national sample of dealerships. The dataset contains disaggregated data on actual sales prices and quantities, along with information on customer cash rebates, financing terms, and more. In our work, the actual cash and financing incentives taken by consumers are included in the measurement of consumer vehicle price. On the other hand, the vehicle price indexes are calculated under different assumptions about what constitutes a "new" product in moving from one model year to the next.
Room 330, 3:55 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC AND DANCE
Joshua Jobst
Professor Garik Pedersen Absolute Pitch Development Through Learned Melodies: A Method
Absolute pitch can be developed in children and adults through the use of aural association, associating the first note of a melody with the pitch one wishes to learn. Absolute pitch, commonly known as "perfect pitch," is the musical ability to perceive auditory stimuli so as to produce and/or label sound(s) without the aid of an external source. Common manifestations of this ability include naming or singing a pitch without a reference or identifying the key of a musical composition. Historically, absolute pitch was considered to be an innate ability. However, recent evidence demonstrates that learned melodies encode in the brain both relative and absolute pitch information, thus corroborating aural association as an effective method for developing absolute pitch.
Room 301, 2:25 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
Chakravarthi Nagolu
Professor Weidian Shen Studying Scratching Mechanism of the Clearcoats and Improving the Technique and Devices/Materials in Automobile Refinish Work
As the tribological properties of the clearcoats used in the automotive industry are improved, new coats possess much stronger scratch resistance. This change makes body refinish work difficult. To improve technique and materials in automobile refinish work, we carried out mechanical and tribological properties tests on a variety of clearcoats in their original state, as well as at different five stages during the refinish work, to study the scratching mechanism of the coats in a project sponsored by 3M. The test results will be presented, followed by a discussion of how to improve the refinish technique and devices/materials.
Room 330, 4:15 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Christopher A. Blough
Professor Dogan Koyluoglu Fostering Local Government Cooperation: Revenue Sharing Between Local Governments Using Contractual Agreements
The challenge of funding local government services in Michigan has historically placed local government units in direct competition against one another for tax base in a "winner take all" model. The geographic boundaries of incorporation defining Michigan's townships, villages, and cities are often viewed by local government leaders as sacred because the local unit's tax base typically funds 40-60% of the local jurisdiction's operations. Local government leaders have new options, including contractual agreements provided under P.A. 425 of 1984. This presentation features exploratory research employing GIS resources to explain how contractual land transfer in exchange for sharing tax revenues has benefited communities financially, politically, and economically.
Room 320, 2:25 p.m.
Karen Cokley Cross
Professor Jeffrey Bernstein The Impact of Public School Education Finance Models On Equity: Is There A Best Way?
The research analyzes the impact of education funding structures on the equity of school funding. The study first identifies four primary funding models employed by state governments (foundation, full state, flat grant and guaranteed tax base) and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each, ultimately assessing the equity impact of each funding structure.
Room 300, 3:35 p.m.
Kylee Guenther
Professor James Ivers Property Taxes and Unemployment Rates: The Slippery Slope of Michigan's Stagnating Economy
The purpose of this research project is to determine if there is a positive correlation between unemployment rates in Washtenaw County, Michigan, and property tax delinquency. This is a very important topic because unemployment rates in Michigan are the highest in the nation. If a relationship is found between property tax delinquency and unemployment rates, there could be new ways to help keep home owners from losing their homes.
Room 300, 3:55 p.m.
Bruce A. Hammond
Professor Raymond Rosenfeld Proposed Growth Strategies for the City of Flat Rock's New Economic Development Program
Although the city has experienced tremendous growth in single-family residential construction, Flat Rock's commercial growth has lagged behind. This presentation recommends economic growth strategies for the newly created economic development program for the city of Flat Rock. It identifies four development strategies for local economic development, studies the feasibility of each one of these strategies for Flat Rock, and recommends a Brownfield development plan for redevelopment of older parts of the city.
Room 304, 10:30 a.m.
Heather Laird
Professor Joseph Ohren
Islamic Nonprofits and the Events of 9/11
This presentation investigates how the events of 9/11 affected eight Islamic nonprofit organizations in their ability to raise funds. The study, a time series analysis covering a six-year period from 1999-2005, concludes that, although a number of Islamic nonprofits were closed down by the U.S. Government following the events of 9/11, fundraising revenues for other Islamic nonprofits not targeted for suspicious financial activity increased over the six-year period. The research also points out the need for a comparative study of the effects of 9/11 on fundraising revenues of Islamic (serving Muslims) nonprofits and those with Arabic names but serving non-Moslems.
Room 304, 11:30 a.m.
James McFarlane
Professor Joseph Ohren The Digital Divide: A Toolkit for Community Leaders
Numerous municipalities across the U.S. are planning and implementing wireless broadband projects. This presentation summarizes existing business models employed by community leaders in implementing such systems, emphasizes the benefits of such efforts, and describes the efforts to develop a wireless system in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Since wireless technology requires complex networking, engineering and precise design in order to work proficiently, this presentation points out the need for the municipalities to understand and to appreciate all the dynamics of these complexities in order to efficiently implement useful wireless technology.
Room 304, 11:10 a.m.
Kimberly McGrath
Professor Bruce Carroll The Role of International Education in Social Sciences
Any type of education is a benefit to the individual being educated and to society as a whole. International education adds value to this process in immeasurable ways. However, long periods of foreign study are prohibitive for many students. Study abroad is an underutilized resource that fills a niche between traditional international education and traditional domestic education by opening opportunities for those not able to study internationally for long periods of time.
Room 320, 2:45 p.m.
Julia E. Sutton
Professor Joseph Ohren Providing Services to Clients with Limited English Proficiency in Compliance with Executive Order 13166
Current and projected shifts in the U.S. population reflect an increase in diversity and language demographics due to recent immigration. Because of this shift, many government jurisdictions, agencies, and private organizations are already experiencing a greater need for translation and interpretation services in order to provide assistance to clients with limited English proficiency (LEP). In response to such changes and federal policy initiatives, organizations have had to revise their policies or initiate new programs in order to cope with the demand. This presentation provides an overview of the current policy environment and policy alternatives for organizations and recommends strategies for addressing this need.
Room 300, 4:15 p.m.
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Kevin Alschuler
Theresa Lynch
Professors Flora Hoodin and Michelle Byrd Whom Do Scoliosis Patients Turn to for Support? Does It Matter?
The diagnosis and treatment of the chronic spinal condition Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) corresponds with a critical period in social development. AIS patients' sources of social support and the resulting effect on their health-related quality of life is unknown, but the visibility of the deformity and duration of treatment makes the problem evident to others. Participants were 521 individuals assessed for social support, quality of life, disability, and psychological factors. Patients reported significantly higher social support when supported by their spouse/partner or family member compared to their doctor. Low social support was significantly correlated with lower quality of life and higher depression, anxiety, catastrophizing, and pain anxiety. These findings suggest that low social support is a risk factor for mental health problems and should be a concern of medical providers. Graduate student Gregory Pouliot was a co-investigator on this project.
Room 310, 2:15 p.m.
Kylene Bavers
Professor Alissa Huth-Bocks Predicting Child Maltreatment
The prevalence and increasing incidence of child maltreatment, along with its negative consequences, is well documented. Research has found related risk factors, but a sufficient intervention model has yet to be identified. This literature review will examine how several factors related to maternal functioning are associated with a woman's risk status with regard to child abuse potential. I will review the literature examining mothers' perceptions of their childhood relationships with parents, expectations about being a mother, perceptions of social support, and child maltreatment potential. One hundred pregnant women are being recruited from southeastern Michigan to participate in a larger study at EMU. Data will be available at a later date to empirically examine relationships between these and other variables. Findings are expected to help facilitate the design of preventive intervention programs.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Jillian B. Carey
Professors Flora Hoodin and Michelle Byrd Complementary and Alternative Medicine Utilization in Individuals with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Little is known about the utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in individuals with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). CAM is defined as treatment that is not conventional medical care (CM). Three hundred and three adults with AIS participated in an online survey of health insurance, medical treatment, scoliosis related quality of life, disability, and pain catastrophizing. Results indicated that chiropractic care was the most used CAM treatment, followed by massage, yoga, acupuncture, and others. CAM users reported higher incomes, more pain catastrophizing, greater disability, lower pain-related quality of life, and lower satisfaction with management of their scoliosis. These findings suggest pain is an important factor in CAM use. Additionally, CAM users' lower satisfaction with management suggests adults with AIS may seek CAM treatment when they find CM insufficient or are generally dissatisfied with CM and CAM options. Graduate students Kevin Alschuler, Theresa Lynch, and Gregory Pouliot were co-investigators on this project.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Lauren Earls
Professor Alissa Huth-Bocks The Relationship between Personality and Adult Attachment
This study examined the relationship between the Big Five personality domains of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness from the Five Factor Theory of Personality with Attachment Anxiety and Attachment Avoidance derived from Attachment Theory as applied to adult relationships. Participants were 245 college undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 47 (M = 22.2), who represented the gender and ethnic composition of Eastern Michigan University. Results indicated that Attachment Anxiety was significantly positively related to Neuroticism and significantly negatively related to Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Results also indicated that Attachment Avoidance was significantly positively related to Neuroticism and significantly negatively related to Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness. In addition, results indicated that Attachment Avoidance might constitute a separate personality domain beyond the Big Five. Theoretical implications will be discussed.
Room 300, 1:45 p.m.
Laszlo Erdodi
Professor Renee Lajiness-O'Neill Differences in Regional Cortical Activation Patterns between Adults with ADHD and Normal Controls during a Continuous Performance Test
This study will investigate differences in cortical activity between adults with and without ADHD using magnetoencephalography (MEG). MR-FOCUSS images of cortical activity will be generated from participants while engaging in a continuous performance test (CPT). It is hypothesized that an overall decrease in activation will be observed in the right inferior parietal cortex of ADHD patients relative to controls suggesting a reduction in the ability to sustain attention and vigilance. Also, ADHD patients will have decreased activation in the cerebellum relative to controls indicating impairment in error detection. Finally, a reverse lateralization pattern is expected across CPT conditions between normal controls and ADHD subjects. Implications of these findings for the etiology and diagnosis of ADHD will be discussed. Graduate students Dan Jacobson, Michelle Gallaway, Wendy Dorman, and Emily Barba were co-investigators on this project.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Leanna Fortunato
Professor Carol Freedman-Doan Long-term Predictors of Consistent Condom Use by Adolescent Girls: A Comprehensive Health Behavior Model
In recent years, as the threat of HIV/AIDS has grown, there has been a significant effort to promote safe sexual activity, particularly among young people. Currently, the only effective means of protecting against the continued spread of STDs and HIV among the sexually active is consistent condom use. While there is extensive research that demonstrates the correlates of condom use, there is considerably less research that adequately predicts consistent, long-term condom use. This poster will utilize a comprehensive health behavior model to predict long-term condom use in a sample of adolescent girls in heterosexual relationships. The data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which contains three waves of data spanning adolescence through early adulthood. Regression analyses will be utilized to determine the ability of the comprehensive health behavior model to predict consistent condom use from adolescence into young adulthood. Additional analyses will be conducted to determine if ethnic differences influence the predictive value of the model for various ethnic groups. These data will provide valuable information about the long-term predictors of consistent condom use that can be used to inform the development of effective sexual education programs.
Room 350, 9:00 a.m.
Erin Henshaw
Professor Carol Freedman-Doan Goals and Challenges of Faith-Based Sex Education Programs: Perspectives of Youth Leaders
This study explored the kinds of sex education programs for youth available in Mainline churches. We wanted to understand program goals, challenges of discussing this issue within faith settings, and youth response to these programs. The sample included Mainline and Evangelical Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish/Unitarian churches/synagogues with memberships over 300 within a 25-mile radius of our area in Southeast Michigan. These criteria produced a potential sample of 73 churches/synagogues. Religious sex education programs are free to explore with adolescents the biological, social, and psychological consequences of early sexual debut, contraceptive use, and multiple sexual partners. This study is the first to examine the kinds of sex and relationship programs conducted in Mainline religious institutions. Findings from this study lay the groundwork to begin a larger study dismantling the components of some of the more frequently used programs to see which components, if any, have an impact on adolescents' sexual behaviors.
Room 350, 9:20 a.m.
Nasreen Islam
Professor Stephen Jefferson Suicidal Ideation among Asian Americans: The Contributory Roles of Perfectionism and Shame
Although suicide is a tragic event for any ethnic group, recent research suggests Asian Americans may be disproportionately vulnerable to this behavior. Consequently, researchers and clinicians are conducting more research with this population to better understand this trend. Preliminary findings suggest that perfectionism and shame may play a large role in predicting suicidal ideation in this population. However, the exact nature of this relationship is unclear. The purpose of my project is to elucidate the contributory role of these variables in predicting suicidal ideation in Asian Americans. Toward this end, I have hypothesized two causal models. While my first model hypothesizes that shame may moderate the relationship between perfectionism and suicidal ideation, my second model posits that shame mediates this relationship. By explicating these two models, I hope to offer a theoretical framework that inspires more empirical research in this area as well as improving treatment approaches for Asian populations.
Room 352, 11:10 a.m.
Valentina Ivezaj
Amy S. Collings
David Saunders-Scott
Nancy E. Angelella
Ashley A. Wiedemann
Professor Karen Saules Do Rates and Predictors of Binge Eating Differ by Gender and Race?
The researchers investigated the rates and unique predictors of binge eating for men versus women and for those of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. A web-based survey was completed by 895 college students who fell into White, Black, or Bi/Multi-Racial categories. Chi-square analyses were conducted to compare the frequency of binge-eating behavior, binge-eating symptoms, and binge-eating disorder among all groups by gender and ethnicity. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of binge eating for each group. Data revealed that binge-eating behavior is quite common across gender and racial groups. While Black and White males commonly engage in binge eating, they do not tend to report a sense of loss of control. However, Bi/Multiracial men do experience this feature, more so than all other groups. Findings also highlight gender and ethnic differences in the predictors of binge eating. Graduate student Kevin Alschuler was a co-investigator on this project.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Daniel A. Jacobson
Professor Renee Lajiness-O'Neill Role of Amygdala in Social Functioning of Individuals with VCFS
This study investigates the relationship between amygdala volumes and social deficits in individuals with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). Volumetric measures of amygdala based on magnetic resonance imaging will be compared among 6 VCFS individuals and 6 controls. In addition, scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) will be correlated with amygdala volumes in patients with VCFS. It was hypothesized that after covarying for total brain volume, VCFS patients will exhibit larger amygdala volumes in both right and left hemispheres relative to controls. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that larger amygdala volumes in patients with VCFS would be associated with increased social anxiety and decreased social competency as measured by the CBCL. Implications for the role of the amygdala as a substrate of social processing and social competency in individuals with VCFS will be discussed.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Douglas Jones
Professor Karen Saules Exploring the Impact of Pre-Treatment Personality Assessment on Therapeutic Outcome
The prevalence of personality disorders in the general population (10-13%; de Girolamo & Dotto, 2000) and in clinical populations (30-70%, Moran, 2003) has been well established. Moreover, the detrimental impact of personality-disordered symptomology on treatment outcome for other psychological disorders is well known (Chiesa et al., 2002). Since assessment to determine the presence, or level of, personality disorder symptomology is not routinely administered in most behavioral-health clinics, a study was conducted to determine the utility of pre-treatment personality assessment, as measured by the NEO-PI-R, on treatment outcome, as measured by the OQ45.2 total symptom distress change score. The subjects were randomized to conditions in which the therapists had or had not received their clients' pre-treatment NEO-PI-R results. Preliminary findings suggest that clinically distressed individuals, whose therapists had been given the results of their NEO-PI-R, reported a greater reduction in symptomology during the first six sessions of therapy.
Room 300, 3:15 p.m.
J. Robert Parker
Professor Alida Westman Religious Orientations: Concerns about the Nature of Quest
Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Quest orientations were studied in students at a Midwestern state university (N = 185) and at a Southern Evangelical Christian university (N = 87), and in established members of a Midwestern Evangelical Church (N = 30). On average, state university students were least Intrinsic; Evangelical students were intermediate, and established church members were most Intrinsic. On average state university students were most Extrinsic, but Evangelical students and church members did not differ from each other. However, there was no significant difference in Quest orientation between groups. Further, the Extrinsic and Quest orientations were correlated in all three groups. The reason for this correlation is unclear and needs to be studied. It may be that the Quest concept is multi-dimensional and needs to be re-conceptualized, as also suggested by Beck & Jessup's (2004).
Room 350, 9:40 a.m.
Lesley A. Pawluk
Professor Renee Lajiness-O'Neill Frontal and Parietal Activation during Working Memory Differentiates Dyslexia from Controls as Revealed by Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
Atypical right and bilateral hemispheric brain activation in temporoparietal regions is reported during nonword reading in individuals with dyslexia during functional neuroimaging. We hypothesized similar aberrant activity would be evident during verbal and spatial working memory (VWM and SWM) in individuals with dyslexia compared to controls as measured by Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a current density imaging technique. Results revealed that VWM activated more rapidly than SWM and required a volleying of neural activation at approximately 200-290 ms in bilateral frontal regions. Parietal regions were activated in a domain specific manner in controls but not during VWM in dyslexia. More focused activation in supramarginal and postcentral gyri (approximately 230-245 ms) and left frontal regions (approximately 469-583 ms) was evident in controls during SWM, while dyslexic subjects activated more diffusely. Results suggest that individuals with dyslexia may have fewer resources available for the maintenance and manipulation of phonological and visual information during reading.
Room 310, 9:30 a.m.
Gregory S. Pouliot
Professors Flora Hoodin and Michelle Byrd What Factor Analysis Reveals about Body Image and Satisfaction with Treatment in Individuals with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is a spinal deformity that may impact quality of life (QOL) in both the short and long term. The Scoliosis Research Society Questionnaire (SRS-22r) is a reliable and valid disease-specific measure of QOL for AIS. Its psychometric qualities when administered online to patients with AIS in adulthood are unknown and thus were examined in this study. Study participants (n = 311) were categorized into treatment groups: those who have had surgery and those who were braced or had no treatment (nonsurgical). Results of factor analyses indicated that when all individuals with AIS were considered together, the factor structure was similar to the paper-and-pencil administration of the SRS-22r. However, when the nonsurgical subgroup was analyzed independently, the relationship changed between items associated with the SRS-22r subscales, "self-image" and "satisfaction with management of care." Thus online administration of the SRS-22r may yield subtle differences that warrant further investigation. Graduate students Theresa Lynch, Kevin Alschuler, and Jillian Carey were co-investigators on this project.
Room 310, 11:00 a.m.
Nicholas G. Velissaris
Professor Renee Lajiness-O'N
