2015 URCA Abstracts for Oral and Poster Presentations
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Oral & Poster Presentation Abstracts ______________________________________________________________________________ Amy Ackerman, New College Faculty Mentor: Martina Thomas, New College Civic Engagement and the Development of Collaboration between Community Organizations The presenter, a community engagement intern, used a Girl Scout program to work with the Beacon House in Walker County, Alabama, a home for girls in the DHR system. The program engaged the girls on topics of anti-bullying and self-esteem. The presenter saw an opportunity to create a sustainable program by creating a curriculum of resources with program samples and train women at Hope for Women, an organization that helps women become drug-free and independent, to become the mentors and volunteers. The poster will discuss the execution of this program and the significance of why this program will be important to both organizations. Alison Adams, Biological Sciences Faculty Mentor: Laura Reed, Biological Sciences QTL affecting genotype-by-diet interactions of pupal body weight Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is a complex disease that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world today. It is identified by an assortment of symptoms such as obesity, insulin resistance, and elevated blood lipids. This disease and its various phenotypes can be modeled in Drosophila melanogaster. In a previous study of MetS, our lab implemented a round-robin crossing scheme on approximately 800 isogenic lines from a recombinant inbred line population, and a linear regression was used to determine genotype, diet, and genotype-by-diet interactions. Statistical analysis revealed quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with pupal weight. Here we report on the functional analysis of genes within the QTL significant for gene-by-environment interactions through differential gene expression and the testing of mutant pupal body weights. Brianna Adams, English Faculty Mentor: Yolanda Manora, English Mapping Oppression: A Geocritical Reading of Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place This paper analyzes the fictional space in Gloria Naylor's novel The Women of Brewster Place (1982) through a geocritical lens and considers the extent to which Brewster Place functions both as a carrier of identity and as an iteration of existing power structures throughout the novel. While several critics (Sarah Vinson, Rocio Davis, Karen Walker) have noted the novel's emphasis on community and collective memory and have identified Brewster Place as a space of both oppression and of potential liberation, little work has been done to connect these themes back to the built environment of Brewster Place through a geocritical lens. First articulated by French theorist Bertrand Westphal in 2007, geocriticism is an interdisciplinary literary theory which draws from other fields such as geography, architecture, urban planning, and philosophy in order to examine the relations between people and their environment. In this paper, I examine how the place Brewster Place shapes identity formation and serves as a representation of political power structures. Then, by considering the novel itself as a built environment, I apply concepts common to urban planning and to geocriticism to argue that the novel's physical attributes-its form and structure-reflect the text's attempt to strike a balance between opposing binaries such as the individual and the community and European and African identity. William Alexander, Communicative Disorders Faculty Mentor: Angela Barber, Communicative Disorders Analysis of parent competence who have children with ASD through Project ImPACT intervention Previous research indicates that children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). have far better outcomes when their parents feel confident about the intervention methods (Kasari et al., 2010). 1 *The information presented here is intended to represent exactly what was submitted by the student. Errors can occur in the transfer process. Parents are more likely to feel invested and confident in their child's intervention when they are included in the intervention itself, rather than passively observing a therapist providing the intervention (Ingersoll et al., 2006). However, little research has examined which particular aspects of parent- implemented ASD interventions empower parents to feel most confident about working with their child to improve communication. Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) is an intervention curriculum that equips parents with routines and activities to help promote social- communication for their child with ASD and, therefore, serves as an ideal intervention to examine preferred intervention techniques with parents. The purpose of this research is to analyze which aspects of intervention delivery are most preferred by parents who have young children with ASD enrolled in Project ImPACT intervention. Semi-structured interviews using the Parent Treatment Satisfaction Scale and the Parent Sense of Competency Scale will be conducted with parents involved in Project ImPACT sessions. Questions asked pertain to overall confidence associated with parenting a child with an ASD, the parents' confidence while implementing intervention techniques, the vernacular the clinician uses that helps empower the parents, and the type of presentation model the parents prefer (i.e. coaching, observation, demonstration). Seven families are currently enrolled in the Project ImPACT intervention study and will be asked to participate in this interview. The data collected from these interviews will provide future clinicians information on how their teaching style is affecting the parent's confidence in targeting intervention methods in the hope and, thus, may impact their relationship with their child. Husam Ali, Chemical and Biological Engineering Faculty Mentor: Nicole Powell, Psychology Analysis of Aggression and Popularity in Children Sociometry is the measurement of social relationships. In this research, students from multiple different schools filled out a questionnaire asking about their relationships between classmates. The questions range from who is the most liked child, who is the least like child, and who teases the most. Using this sociometric data will allow the researchers to understand the interactions between classmates. After taking the sociometric data, it is run through a statistical analysis program. This program then reveals the correlation between popularity and aggression. In addition to comparing popularity and aggression, the relationship between boys and girls are compared against each other. Aggression is known to be a main component in children misbehaving. By using the correlation between aggression and popularity, it may help in determining why children misbehave. Liz Alley, Management and Marketing Faculty Mentor: Chip Brantley, Journalism Call from Selma Researching the unsolved murder of James J. Reeb, a Boston pastor who was killed in 1965 outside a restaurant in Selma while in Alabama to participate in civil rights protests. No one has ever been convicted of Reeb's murder, and the case has not been exhaustively reported. We have worked to present this story and the broader context of the Civil Rights Movement, Selma in 1965, and the reaction of the nation in a web-based narrative to be published in April 2015. Lauren Anderson, Political Science Faculty Mentor: Dana Patton, Political Science Family Leave Policy I will be presenting my policy brief research regarding paid family leave. I will be researching multiple aspects for the policy proposal: such as parental, familial, and maternal leave, and deciding on an appropriate time frame for said leave. I will research existing policies in other countries, the economic effects in those countries, and the government structure of successful policies similar to the United 2 *The information presented here is intended to represent exactly what was submitted by the student. Errors can occur in the transfer process. States to formulate the best implementation. However my ultimate goal is to create a paid family leave policy that can be taken equally by the heads of the family unit to share responsibilities for newborns, child care, and other potential personal reasons. My policy brief will be presented on a poster by framing the context and importance of the problem, existing policy attempts, and policy recommendations. Rahni Argo-Bryant, Telecommunication and Film Faculty Mentor: Sim Butler, Communication Studies The Culture of Comic-Con: Planning as an Extension I spent a week in San Diego, California studying the culture surrounding Comic-Con International in July 2014, the largest fan convention in the United States with over 150,000 attendees. In my report I argue the immersion into the world of Comic-Con is extended into the planning before the convention and to an extent the online communities reporting on Comic-Con as well. The method of study of the culture used was Ethnography, a form of study that involves careful observation and participation of a specific culture to learn about the social and cultural lives of the group. Particular aspects of Ethnography used were artifact collection, observation and participation, and ethnographic interviews. The results I found were that Comic-Con attendees did in fact participate in the culture of Comic-Con long before they even got there. Some planned extensively with color-coded spreadsheets with all the panels they wanted to attend. Others used online resources such as blogs dedicated to the convention.