Sample Abstracts

By Clare Gorman (Mentor: Dr. Stacy Fifer)

For my LASURI project, I worked on translating a Congolese play from French into English. This play is called  Année Blanche pour Kalemba, and is written by Pierre Mumbere Mujomba. While translating, we came across problems expressing the societal implications of specific words, phrases, and ideas. These difficulties, however, helped me formulate my own idea of translation. From this experience, I’ve learned that the term “translation” involves more than just equating words from the original language of a text into another language; it also involves fitting a language’s understanding of words into the psychological and societal norms of the culture of the translated language. Dr. Fifer and I would split the play by scene; we would pick how to split particular scenes at the beginning of the week, and meet and discuss our work at the end of the week. We did this until    we had a rough draft completed. Then, we sent out this draft to readers to see if they understood anything, and if anyone had comments or suggestions.  In March, we had the fortune of working with Mujomba himself, which allowed us to gain insight as to how to go about editing our drafts.  With luck, we will publish our translation and have it read or performed in Chicago.

By Allyson Urista (Mentor: Dr. Kelly Quinn)

Women have increasingly taken significant roles in the military over the last 70 years. Women currently make up 15.16% of all the active duty United States Armed Forces, as opposed to 2% in 1950 (DMDC, 2014; Walker, 2012). This dramatic increase has created steady influence in U.S. military culture, particularly since the initiation of the Global War on Terror (Walker, 2012).  Despite this increase, there is still a dichotomy of gender expectations within the military (Williams, 2005).  Previous research in this area is thin, though it offers a modest start through the exploration of feminine perspectives within a predominantly masculine culture.  For instance, dimensions of femininity have been explored, such as the relationship of femininity to leadership (Walker, 2012) and the transformation of perceptions of femininity upon entry into a collegiate ROTC program (Silva, 2008). These limited perspectives however do not address the true meaning of owning femininity in military culture.  This study provides additional insight into how military culture and femininity intersect by examining data gathered through 20 unstructured interviews with women who are currently members of the US military.  Major themes and concepts related to the display and constraints of feminine identity will lead to a greater understanding of female roles in military culture and the ways in which women utilize their femininity to define themselves as competent leaders and service members.

By Victoria Gavaghan (Mentor: Dr. Thomas Park)

The naked mole rat is an extraordinary species that is studied as a model organism because it seems to thrive in a challenging environment of chronically low oxygen levels and chronically high carbon dioxide levels. Naked mole rats are unusual because they combine a challenging subterranean existence with extreme sociality, living in large social groups of up to 300 individuals, which depletes oxygen in their burrows. This research analyzed aspects of survivability, pulmonary edema, and cyclical behavior in the naked mole rate under levels of low oxygen (5%) and levels of high carbon dioxide (80%). These tests were subsequently performed on mice as a control. It was found that naked mole rats are much more resilient compared to mice under conditions of low oxygen, as well as, high carbon dioxide. In comparison to mice, which perish at an average of 18 minutes in low oxygen levels, naked mole rats survive the complete duration of a 5-hour exposure.  Also, naked mole rats show no signs of pulmonary edema whereas mice develop significant levels of pulmonary edema under the same conditions. This tolerance is consistent with what is known about the subterranean environment of the naked mole rat, where oxygen is periodically depleted in portions of their burrows. Although resilient under extreme conditions, there was no significance found for a circadian clock that triggers activity in naked mole rats when exposed to extreme conditions. In conclusion, one consequence of low oxygen exposure is edema as seen in high altitude sickness. Indeed the mice showed significant levels of pulmonary edema whereas the naked mole rats did not. The next step in this research is to look for the adaptations that enable the naked mole rat to survive conditions that are lethal to other mammals. Knowledge of these adaptations could provide therapeutic targets for illnesses such as high altitude sickness and traumatic oxygen deprivation as seen in heart attack and stroke.

By Beatrice Go (Mentor: Dr. Don Morrison)

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a human pathogen able to acquire and integrate exogenous DNA via genetic transformation. The proteins associated with this process are produced in a short period called competence. When competence is induced by any of several environmental signals, two competence regulons containing >30 genes are activated and expressed. Upon internalization of exogenous DNA, dsDNA is split into single-stranded fragments (ssDNA). The ssDNA is protected and processed by other competence regulon proteins before integration into the host chromosome. Among these proteins is the dedicated recombinase loader DprA, an integral protein binding ssDNA and promoting the activation of RecA, the ubiquitous recombinase. RecA, the focus of this project, is a necessary enzyme that controls genome maintenance and aids in homologous recombination. When competence occurs, RecA assimilates the donor linear ssDNA into the host chromosome by seeking homologous marker sequences and promoting displacement of resident strands. Measuring transformation efficiency to determinee the optimal length and concentration of linear donor DNA for provoking gene replacement has applications for targeted gene modification. A Ser127Leu substitution in the DNA Gyrase B of S. pneumoniae is known to confer novobiocin resistance. DNA flanking and containing this mutation was amplified by polymerase chain reaction for use in various novobiocin transformation experiments. We found that viable transformant yield increased linearly in proportion to DNA concentration below 100 ng/ml and reached half-maximal yield by 100 ng/ml. The size of donor DNA also strongly affected transformant level below 3 kilobasepairs; above 4 kb, the transformant count leveled off, though 300 ng/ml of 6-kb donor DNA provided the maximal yield. Future extensions of this research will attempt to determine exactly how many of the several genes copies carried in a competent cell are replaced during a single competence cycle. This research was supported by funds from LASURI and the NSF.

By Matthew Perlman (Mentor: Dr. Kevin Tucker)

The roots of a set of polynomial equations correspond to geometric objects called algebraic varieties, the fundamental objects of study in algebraic geometry. I study singularities of these varieties, which are points where the variety fails to be smooth. The F-signature function is a characteristic p invariant of these singularities designed to encode information related to the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity and the F-signature, two invariants that measure singularities. In all known cases, the F-signature function of a polynomial limits to a piece-wise polynomial as p goes to infinity. However, this behavior is not well-understood and this function is notoriously difficult to compute. For example, it is not known whether the F-signature of the polynomial f=x³+xy³ limits to a piece-wise polynomial. In this paper, I will introduce algebraic varieties and the F-signature function, and then I will discuss this example, which I have computed for my capstone project.

By Nanci Alanis Alcantara (Mentor: Dr. Kristine Molina)

Latinas experience a disproportionately higher prevalence of obesity than their non-Latina white counterparts, with a prevalence of 45% compared to 35% for all females. Latinas also face a number of stressors that put them at greater risk of obesity. However, we do not know which stressors are associated with obesity for Latinas, and whether they matter differently by nativity status (U.S. vs. foreign-born). We investigated whether stressors were independently associated with body mass index among Latinas, and whether these associations were moderated by nativity status. We conducted a series of weighted linear regression analyses using the Latino female subsample (N = 1,427) of the National Latino and Asian American Study.  We included self-reported measures of everyday discrimination, family burden and cultural conflict, neighborhood safety, and psychological distress as our independent variables. Our outcome measure was self-reposted BMI, using the standard formula: weight in kilograms (kg)/height in meters squared (m²). Weighted multivariable analyses showed after controlling for sociodemographic factors, only everyday discrimination was associated with higher levels of BMI among Latinas (B = .08, SE = .03, p < .05). Moreover, this association was moderated by nativity status (B =  -.20, SE = .07, p <.05), such that the adverse effects of discrimination on BMI were stronger for U.S. born Latinas. Our findings have implications for responding to group-specific needs related to the role of discrimination and its association with increased risk of higher BMI levels, and for the development of tailored prevention efforts for reducing obesity among Latinas, one of the largest growing segments of our population.

By Matthew Beifuss (Mentor: Dr. Stephen Engelmann)

This paper explores the political-theoretical implications of the transition from Lamarckian to neo-Darwinist evolutionary paradigms at the end of the nineteenth century, particularly in imagining a post-imperial world order. Building on the work of David Weinstein and Robert Richards, we examine shifts in the voluminous oeuvre of “our great philosopher, Herbert Spencer” (Darwin, Descent of Man), especially in dialogue with J.S. Mill, Darwin, and August Weismann. Spencer’s attempt to give liberal utilitarianism a naturalist basis was deeply reliant on Lamarckian use-inheritance, and the political conclusions he drew from it were anti-imperialist, but in the context of a thoroughly imperial “civilizational” cosmopolitanism and globalism. At least in Europe, Spencer’s failure to adapt his sociology and political theory to the emerging modern synthesis doomed it to a creeping irrelevance, and ceded the scientific high ground to the racial nationalism of theorists like Rudolf Kjellen. Our point of departure is a close reading of the fascinating “Progress, Its Law and Its Cause” (1857), and we close with some reflections on the possible political implications of post-genomic critiques of neo-Darwinism in our neo-liberal context.

By Blessing Obioma (Mentor: Dr. Amy Bailey)

The majority of studies on the relationship between corruption and poverty focus on the effect of corruption on poverty. This study, however, intends to explore the relationship between perception of corruption, trust and individual poverty levels in Nigeria. I will utilize data from Afrobarometer Round 4: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Nigeria, 2008 (ICPSR 34009), a sample of 2324 Nigerian citizens, to evaluate whether trust and perceptions of corruption in government and public officer are associated with poverty. I predict that those confronted with economic hardship or will be more likely to perceive officials as more corrupt than individuals that are in better economic conditions. Since corruption and trust are related, I also predict that individuals in more difficult economic situations will be less trusting of officials than those in better living standards. Results from a linear regression reveal a statistically significant relationship between perception of corruption and poverty such that individuals in poor economic situations perceive government officials as more corrupt than those in better living condition. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between trust and poverty.