| Natural Sciences |
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Assessing Babesia Microti Sensu Lato in Small Mammals in Northeast Florida
By: Kyla Marie Savick
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Joseph Butler and Dr. Kerry Clark
Babesia microti is the causative agent of human babesiosis. Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are the only proven vector and white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) serve as the main reservoir in northeastern United States. The aim of the present study was to determine if B. microti is present in small mammals in southeastern United States and to compare strains found in this study to reference strains from around the world. Blood samples were obtained from cotton mice, cotton rats, a flying squirrel, golden mice, rice rats, Virginia opossums, wood rats, and raccoons in northeastern Florida. DNA was extracted from the blood, and portions of the B. microti DNA (from 18S and β-tubulin genes) were amplified via nested PCR assays. Of the eight species tested, only cotton rats and raccoons tested positive for B. microti. Representative samples of the amplified DNA from these two species were sequenced and compared phylogenetically to reference strains of Babesia species. The B. microti found in the cotton rats most closely resembles B. microti sensu stricto, which is pathogenic to humans, and the B. microti found in the raccoons most closely resembles other raccoon strains of B. microti.
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Characterization of the Basigin-MCT1 complex in vertebrate retina
By: Vilma S. Carson
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Judith D. Ochrietor
It has been hypothesized that the cell adhesion molecule Basigin and the lactate transporter monocarboxylate transporter-1 (MCT1) interact to form a lactate shuttle necessary to fuel photoreceptor neurons in the retina. The purpose of this study was to characterize the interaction between the two proteins. Specifically, the amino acids within MCT1 that interact with Basigin were investigated. MCT1 is a large protein. Therefore, the complementary DNA (cDNA) for MCT1 was divided in half via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and each half was cloned into a bacterial expression vector to generate protein probes. The probes were then used to test for binding to Basigin isolated from mouse retina via enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). The results of the ELISA studies indicate that amino acids within the second half, or carboxy (C)-half, of MCT1 are used in the interaction with Basigin. Future studies will be aimed at determining which amino acids within the C-half of MCT1 are specifically involved.
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Photo-Induced Charge Movement (PICM) Sensors: Using Bathocuproine to Detect MgCl2, FeCl2, CuCl2, and CuCl
By: Svetlana Shkolyar
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Jay Huebner
PICM research deals with the development of sensor arrays for determining the presence and concentration of specific analytes (chemical to be sensed) in solution. The studies described here are preliminary investigations using one analyte per sensor to develop a database of information (i.e. photo-voltages at specified concentrations, selectivity, and other patters that could follow from the experimental data). The purpose of using one sensor at a time to test one analyte at a time is to develop the database and thus the knowledge to produce successful sensor arrays or even a small, portable sensor in the future. The goal of the studies described here is to do preliminary studies on PICM sensor responses and selectivity. A future application of this research would be for selective sensor arrays to detect metal ions, other elements and compounds from water and soil samples. Detecting toxins in the environment, or even detecting toxins possibly used in terrorism can also be direct applications of future PICM research.
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| Social Sciences |
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The Effect of Collective Bargaining on the Use of Innovative Police Policy
By: Kyle Christopher Veatch
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Steve Wilson
While there have been numerous studies examining certain aspects of the effects of collective bargaining, there have yet to be any empirical studies on the effects of collective bargaining on the use of police policy. This study looks to address this issue by examining the impact of collective bargaining on the use of three currently innovative police policies: early warning systems, civilian review boards, and the use of in-car cameras. Using data from the 2003 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, we look at municipal agencies with over 100 officers. Using bi-variate analyses we compare each of the three dependent variables to the independent variable, collective bargaining. Our study found significant findings for the use of civilian review boards and the use of in-car camera systems. Our study found that agencies engaged in collective bargaining were less likely to use the given program. This is important because no study has yet to examine the use of collective bargaining and its effect on policy use. Future studies should look closer at these types of issues using more complex analyses.
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Attributions and Cognitive Closure: Stereotypes of Perpetrators and Victims of Child Sexual Abuse
By: Dawn O’Connor
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Christopher Leone and LouAnne B. Hawkins
Compared to low need for cognitive closure individuals, high need for cognitive closure individuals were expected to make the weakest causal and responsibility attributions about sexual abuse in dyads consisting of female adults and male adolescents compared to other dyads. To assess need for cognitive closure, 129 participants responded to 42 items on the Need for Cognitive Closure Scale utilizing a 5-point Likert scale. To assess attributions of perpetrator and victim dyads, these same participants responded to 12 items on an altered Relationship Attribution Measure utilizing a 5-point Likert scale. These hypotheses were only partially supported. Limitations of this study (e.g., using only self-report measures) and future directions (e.g., alter relationship between perpetrator and victim) for this research were also discussed.
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Effects of Thought and Personal Need for Structure on Attitude Polarization
By: Ryan Gladding
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Christopher Leone
Self Generated Attitude Change People hold attitudes about a wide range of issues. People hold attitudes about issues ranging from toothpaste brands to foreign policies. One issue, for example, that has recently become salient in both the United States and Europe is illegal immigration. Consider two people sitting around discussing current affairs. One person mentions illegal immigration. The other person states that immigration is becoming a problem, but there are other things the government should worry about first. After a few minutes of thought, the gentleman that stated the government should worry about other things first blurts out that illegal immigration will be the downfall of this country! How could this person’s attitudes become so extreme in such a short period of time? When people are given an opportunity to think about an attitude object (e.g., persons, places, issues), their attitudes toward that attitude object tend to polarize (Tesser, 1978; Tesser, Martin & Mendolia, 1995). That is, attitudes that are initially favorable tend to become more favorable, whereas initially unfavorable attitudes tend to become more unfavorable. This phenomenon is referred to as self generated attitude change. Sadler and Tesser (1973) first researched this process of self generated attitude change by playing participants a recording of either a “likeable partner” that complimented these participants or a “dislikable partner” that criticized these participants. Participants were then asked to either think about their partner or were distracted from thinking about their partner. When given an opportunity to think about their partner, participants in a “likeable partner” condition held more favorable attitudes about their partner than did those participants in a distraction condition. Similarly, when given an opportunity to think about their partner, participants in a “dislikeable partner” condition held more unfavorable attitudes about their partner than did those participants in a distraction condition.
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Gender Influence on Perceptions of Healthy and Unhealthy Lifestyles
By: Tracy Budesa, Erin Egnor, and Lauren Howell
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Linda Foley
The purpose of this study was to determine if a gender bias exists in perceptions of a healthy vs. unhealthy lifestyle. The study was a 2 (male or female) x 2 (healthy or unhealthy) between subjects factorial design. College students (N = 53) read a scenario describing a lifestyle of a stimulus person. The participants then answered a 16-item questionnaire. The hypothesis that there is a gender difference in perceptions of a healthy lifestyle was not strongly supported. There was a strong main effect for the type of lifestyle with participants viewing the healthy lifestyle more positively. The hypothesis that participants who perceived themselves to be healthy would respond more positively to the description of the healthy lifestyle was supported for only two questions. In contrast to prior research, the results indicate that gender is not extremely important in regard to perceptions of an individual’s health.
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Individual Differences in Perception of People: Attitude Change in Personality
By: Brandon Robert Brace
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Christopher Leone
It was hypothesized that (1) people’s attitudes will polarize more and have greater belief consistency with an increased amount of time for thought than with less amount of time for thought, (2) people’s attitudes will polarize more and have greater belief consistency when instructed to think about individuals rather than groups and given a high opportunity for thought, and (3) people’s attitudes will polarize more and have greater belief consistency when instructed to think about individuals rather than groups, are given a high opportunity for thought if those people have a low personal fear of invalidity rather than having a high personal fear of invalidity. We manipulated opportunity for thought and target. We measured the personal fear of invalidity as a moderator variable. We measured attitude polarization and belief consistency. Participants were directed to give initial impressions to descriptors of nonspecific individuals or groups. Participants were then directed to think about some of those descriptors as rebel insurgent individuals or groups. Although our hypotheses were not supported, other findings were significant. Plausible alternative explanations, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
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Relations between Preschool Children’s Planning Ability, Self-Regulation and Early Literacy Skills
By: Adam Less
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Susan M. Perez
Thirty preschool children (18 boys, mean age = 54 months, SD = 6.82, range = 39 to 67 months) were recruited from a local University preschool center. Experimenters visited the preschool on one occasion and administered planning and inhibitory control tasks. Teachers’ reported on children’s temperament and data regarding early literacy skills. Consistent with expectations, teacher-rated attention focusing and inhibitory control were associated with better observed inhibitory control. Results unexpectedly showed that higher observed inhibitory control and lower teacher-rated anger/frustration, sadness, high intensity pleasure, and impulsivity, and higher teacher-rated inhibitory control and soothability were associated with a greater number of trials needed for successful completion of the two planning tasks. Perhaps children with better inhibitory control and lower overall difficulties in temperament were more likely to persist to completion in the face of task complexity.
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Running Scared of SCADA: An Analysis of the Vulnerabilities of America’s Infrastructure to a Cyber Attack
By: Ryan Tesnow
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Paul Harwood
Cyber terrorism is the new ever evolving enemy of our future. Its impact on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, which function within all America’s physical and cyber infrastructure, is so complex and perilous critical action must be taken. Over 75% of the world’s oil and gas pipelines are monitored and controlled by SCADA systems (Lewis 229). Factor in that almost 78% of internet attacks are traced overseas we must be aware of the 1.2 billion internet users worldwide (Verton). With over 5,000 airports, 3,000 government facilities, 104 commercial nuclear power plants, 5, 800 hospitals, 8,000 dams, and over 1,600 wastewater facilities we are all slaves to electrical power and in turn, the reliability of our cyber infrastructure (Verton). However, our biggest risk may lay in the fact that over 85% of our infrastructure is owned privately where cost efficiency flies high above systematic security. In my study I conducted more than ten interviews with high ranking government officials and also cyber security analysts. The hypothesis that our physical and cyber infrastructure are in critical danger was strongly supported by my research. Fundamentally, as technology continues to expand and systematic security becomes more necessary we must be skeptical of those that find solace in solely cost efficient initiatives.
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The Simon Effect as a Function of Temporal Overlap between Relevant and Irrelevant
By: Leslie Ann Drummond
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Debbie Wang
The Simon effect refers to an advantage in performance in a reaction time task when stimulus location corresponds to that of its response location even though the location of the stimulus is irrelevant. For example, if red or green color squares are presented randomly to the left or the right side, participants might be instructed to make a left response for the red square and right response for the green square. Reaction time is faster when the red square is presented on the left rather than on the right, and vice versa for the green square.
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| Health Sciences |
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The Relevance of Confucian Philosophy to Modern Concepts of Leadership and Followership
By: Sujeeta Dhakhwa, Stacey Enriquez
Faculty Sponsor: William Ahrens
The purpose of this paper is to discuss Confucian philosophy and compare its relevance to modern concepts of leadership and followership. It will demonstrate that both exemplify the same ideology, though separated by centuries of history. The paper first introduces the reader to the history of Chinese government and the life of Confucius as a teacher. Then it will expand on the importance of understanding his philosophy on leadership and followership as well as its impact on China’s political and cultural development. It will then examine three Confucian teachings on leadership and three on followership. Finally, with this information, it will discuss modern concepts of leadership and followership as they pertain to today’s world.
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Therapeutic Heat: Effects of Superficial and Deep Heating Modalities on Hamstring Flexibility
By: Nicole Lee Lounsberry
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Bernadette Buckley
Poor muscle flexibility has often been associated with injury. Therapeutic heating modalities are frequently used to increase the extensibility of the muscle. The purpose of this study was to compare immediate changes in hamstring flexibility following the application of superficial (moist heat pack) and deep (1 MHz ultrasound) heating modalities. Twenty-four college aged subjects met the inclusion criteria and volunteered for this study. Subjects reported to the Athletic Training Lab and received either the ultrasound or moist heat pack treatment. Hamstring flexibility was measured pre and post treatment using an active knee extension test with an inclinometer. An average of three measurements was used in the analysis. Subjects who received the ultrasound treatment showed greater immediate gains in hamstring flexibility. Therefore ultrasound would be the recommended treatment for increasing extensibility of the hamstring muscles.
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| Business |
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Guatemala: On the Road to Financial Transparency
By: Carrie N. Griggs
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Jeffrey Michelman
Corruption and poverty have long been linked with each other, but recent studies, such as the Corruption Perceptions Index and Standard & Poor's Corporate Governance Scores, have since strengthened this correlation. Even though progress has been made in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, the results of these studies reveal that much more needs to be accomplished before we see meaningful improvements in the world's poorest countries. In this research, we will focus on one country in particular, Guatemala. By examining the effect that culture, history, and politics have on Guatemala's corporate governance and financial environment, we will see the steps that need to be taken to lead Guatemala on the road to financial transparency.
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The Development of a Comprehensive Logistics and Transportation Software Technology Survey Instrument
By: Claudia Andreani, Rezell Cohen, and Kevin Welch
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. David Cantor
In this paper, we developed a comprehensive survey instrument that will be distributed to the leading U.S. Logistics and Transportation schools. We describe the specific procedures that were followed to build the preliminary version of our survey. We hope that this survey will help the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida learn about the leading software technology adoption patterns at our peer institutions.
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Why Economics Does Not An Ethics Make: A Case Study
By: Sarah Fernandez
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Elizabeth Kanon
This essay is a multidisciplinary case study of environmental injustice. It demonstrates that misuse of the environment can ultimately impact humans unjustly and further that attempts to remediate injustice in one area merely shifts the burden of injustice to others. After providing the historical, sociological and scientific facts surrounding the 50-acre site, an ethical assessment is presented. It was determined that the actors in this case study were not employing any ethical valuing in their decision making process, but rather relied upon economic values to make their choices. The authors then suggest that judging them from within their own economic valuing system that the actors’ decisions had failed to meet their own values, i.e. good economics.
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| Humanities and Fine Arts |
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Pardon Our French: French Stereotypes in American Media
By: Lauren Ferber
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. John Davies
According to the mental models approach to media effects, Americans with no French contact are more likely to believe media display a more accurate picture of the French culture than in reality. Forty undergraduate students participated in a study to test the following hypotheses: (1) Viewers without French contact will accept more stereotypical statements than viewers with French contact (2) Viewers with French contact will have a longer response latency when assessing the truth value of stereotypical statements. Twenty participants had previous knowledge or experience of French culture and 20 did not. The participants watched a film clip, answered questionnaires, and completed a reaction time test and Q-sort. The Q-sort data was analyzed with a principal components factor analysis and the results indicate partial support of contact influencing stereotype acceptance.
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The Aural in Beloved
By: Jody Morgan
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Samuel Kimball
I know that my effort is to be like something that has probably only been fully expressed perhaps in music . . . Writing novels is a way to encompass this-this something. Toni Morrison (Mckay, 152) In an interview with Christina Davis, Toni Morrison describes her writing as “aural literature . . . because I do hear it” (230). Beloved is a particularly rich example of Morrison’s “aural literature”, literature which sounds and resounds. In an interview with Paul Gilroy, Morrison elaborates that these sounds are primarily musical: “My parallel is always the music, because all of the strategies of the art are there . . . music is the mirror that gives me the necessary clarity . . .” (81). In Beloved, music is the medium through which the characters express their innermost painful memories, memories otherwise unable to be expressed in language. In fact, in a world where black were called animal and subhuman, words were weapons against slaves. Therefore, blacks in the novel turn to music to find expression. Though special attention has been paid to the music in Beloved of late (at least four articles in 2006), these critics have failed to note the extent of music’s role in the novel and its relation to the novel’s overarching theme, namely how music expresses what cannot be said in words. Maggie Sale has noted that Morrison uses the musical technique of call-and-response but has not explained how this technique is significant to the plot and the outcome of conflicts, and to the existential vision of the novel. Instead in Sale’s article, “Call and Response as Critical Method: African-American Oral Traditions in Beloved,” she argues that “call-and-response patterns provide a basic model that depends and thrives upon audience performance and improvisation, which work together to ensure that the art will be meaningful or functional to the community” (41). In essence, Sale argues that call-and-response is a technique dependent of the reader’s participation outside the novel and does not render meaning in itself through the characters. Against Sale, I argue that the meaning of the novel is not a product of musical techniques but is in the music itself. The following sections investigate the aural in Beloved is all its significance.
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The Cultural House in Ostrov and Its Relation to Czech Secession Style
By: Dita Dlugosova-Knappova
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Karen Carter
Architecture in the former Czechoslovakia was heavily dominated by Soviet influence after the Communist Coup in February 1948. The research presented in this paper focuses on a building called the Cultural House, which was created during the worst times of political repression in the 1950s in a small town of Ostrov, located on the Czech western border with Germany. (Fig.1) It is in my opinion that for the Cultural House in this town, Czech architects were able to integrate their Austrian and Czech teachers’ ideas from the pre-World War II period and mixed Secession styles with Socialist Realism, in part because of the lack of control in this town from the central government in this short time period from 1947 to 1960. The town of Ostrov has two parts: the Old Town, (Stare Mesto), established in the fourteenth century, and the New Town, (Nove Mesto), built in a very short time between 1947 and 1960. The context of the New Town’s origin is closely connected with the post-Second World War period in Eastern European block countries. The main reason for its development was the discovery of the world’s largest sources of uranium in the nearby town of Jachymov. The New Town is a complex garden town that was established as a housing estate for the Jachymov’s Uranium Mines concern. Political prisoners were sent to the newly formed forced labor camp in the town of Jachymov to work the mines. The periphery of Ostrov was built to house the prison guards along with their families and then later the incoming miners. As the demand for housing rose, the New Town was expanded and later other people settled there. In twelve building stages that spanned almost thirteen years, this town provided homes for nearly 16,000 inhabitants.
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