Research Week

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2152/15554

This collection contains work that was presented as a part of the University's annual Research Week. Research Week is the University of Texas at Austin’s annual celebration of undergraduate research and creative activity. Research Week is sponsored by the School of Undergraduate Studies and provides opportunities for undergraduates to explore UT Austin’s vast and diverse community of research and creative work, and to find ways of getting involved. If you are interested in submitting your Research Week poster to this collection, please complete this form and send it along with the file for your poster to tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 93
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    Towards freeness and fairness?: Regional variance in elections in Nigeria
    (2012) Ikegbunam, Chinyere Kimberly
    The Federal Republic of Nigeria is currently Africa's most populous nation, it's largest oil producer, and the 5th largest oil producer to the United States. Needless to say, this is a country with a tremendous amount of potential. Despite this, since its Independence in 1960, it has struggled to establish itself as a viable democracy. Scholars such as Idowu purport that "elections are the precursor to democracy". With this contention in mind, this project sought to add to the depth of knowledge on elections in Nigeria by examining both electoral violence and fraud regionally in Nigeria during its three most recent election periods.
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    Don't blame the grease, blame the TV: Soul food and the media
    (2012) White, Lauren
    The media has always portrayed soul food as unhealthy and indulgent, but essential to the African American community. While these stereotypes are still in place, a small group is on a mission to keep the flavor of the meals, but make it healthier. By examining the film "Soul Food", and selected episodes of "The Boondocks", and "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's", I plan to analyze the effect media representation has on the perception of soul food and how it is harmful to a movement aimed at decreasing diseases caused by an unhealthy diet.
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    Healthcare policy: Cost versus solutions
    (2012) Woolheater, Katelyn
    Healthcare is a dynamic policy issue, encompassing a number of multifaceted problem areas such as insurance, cost-efficiency, equity, and recourse allocation. As a result, legislation often addresses the broader problem piecemeal, on a one-issue-at-a-time basis. This project aims to examine this piecemeal process, with regard to the proportion of legislation devoted to amending prior bills and the proportion of legislation advancing novel solutions to pressing healthcare problems. Further, because legislation has often historically targeted specific populations, I examine which populations are most often targeted in reform efforts, and how targeted efforts play a role in legislative success. I analyzed major health care legislation through data gathered from the Policy Agendas Project as well as other policy databases, with a focus on three essential reform efforts including the successful New Deal implementation of Medicare and Medicaid, the failed Clinton effort, and the controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Using an original coding system to categorize the provisions bills and enable a clear breakdown of their content, I look at the proportions of each bill that are amendments to prior legislation and the proportions that are targeted to special populations. By accumulating enough data, I develop an average threshold of these proportions by comparing legislation that pass and that failed. My analysis reinforces the idea that policy makers often function as pluralists, and special populations will amass the most awareness, impeding more universal reform.
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    The Einsteinian Religion
    (2012) Yuan, Nancy
    Many religious affiliations use Einstein as their poster child. The question is, was Einstein a religious man? If so, how did he define his religious beliefs? The methodology employed is a quantitative paradigm centering on primary sources of Einstein's writings to ascertain his descriptions of his religious views.
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    Compare two methods to measure consonant perception in noise
    (2012) Morrow, Katherine; Sarah Williams; Chang Liu
    A common problem with measuring consonant perception in noise is the unpredictable audibility of each consonant (e.g., given the same signal level, some consonants are well audible, while others are not). The purpose of this project is to examine two methods in speech perception to solve this problem and also to evaluate their time efficiency and data reliability. These two methods, frequently used in psychological measures, are method of limit and method of constant stimuli. Preliminary results showed that the method of limit was more time efficient while both methods provided quite reliable data. The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods will be discussed.
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    The silencing of Mexico's journalists
    (2012) Romero, Lynn
    An explanation of Mexico’s current media trends, especially the murder of journalists, through an in-depth analysis of the ways in which Mexican media was shaped by PRI-party dominance, by a shift in political ideals beginning in the late 1980’s, and by the emergence of a monumental drug-war.
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    Improved yttrium and zirconium abundances in metal-poor stars
    (2012-01) Violante, Renata
    We present new abundances of the lighter n-capture elements, Yttrium (Z=30) and Zirconium (Z=40) in the very metal-poor, r-process rich stars BD+17 3248 and HD 221170. Very accurate abundances were obtained by use of the new transition probabilities for Y II published by Biemont et al. 2011, and Zr II by Malcheva et al. 2006, and by expanding the number of transitions employed for each element. For example, in BD+17 3248, we find log(Epsilon)=-0.03 +/-0.03 (Sigma=0.15 from 23 lines) for Y II. As for Zr II, log(Epsilon)=0.65 +/- 0.03 (Sigma=0.1 from 13 lines). The resulting abundance ratio is [Y/Zr]=-0.68 +/- 0.05. The results for HD 221170 are in accord with those of BD+17 3248. The quantity of lines used to form the abundance means has increased significantly since the original studies of these stars, resulting in more trustworthy abundances. These observed abundance ratios are in agreement with the r-process only value predicted from stellar models, but is under-abundant compared to an empirical model derived from direct analyses of meteoritic material. This ambiguity should stimulate further nucleosynthetic analysis to explain this abundance ratio.
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    "What role will you play?" Exploring metaphors for work in Teach For America narratives
    (2012-04) Jackson, Taylor
    This thematic analysis examines stories written by Teach For America corps members about their experiences teaching in low-income school districts across the United States. The data were collected from the personal blogs of corps members hosted on the Teach For America web site. By uncovering themes in the narrative constructions of non-profit members’ experiences,these findings expand empirical understandings and practical insights of how members of organizations metaphorically conceptualize their roles, orient themselves to others in their work environment and define success. Further, this research reveals situations commonly experienced across organizations that contribute to job frustration and burnout. Those in or interested in nonprofit jobs or careers will find this report a useful overview of the metaphors people use to conceptualize their roles, identify the roles of others, define success and make meaning out of their experiences in light of the demands of nonprofit work, tensions between expectations and reality, and possibilities of achieving personal and organizational goals.
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    Population dynamics of Gambusia affinis in an urban creek
    (2012-04) Bonney, Ben
    It has long been known that vicarience events such as storms can shift fish populations in the wild, but the effects of vicarience events in urban freshwater streams has been poorly studied. An observational study was conducted by measuring the population size of five different species of fish in Waller Creek at five locations that run through the University of Texas campus and the surrounding areas over a period of 16 months. It was found that all species of fish can be displaced downstream over dams with only a moderate storm, but the distance they are displaced varied with the general size of the fish species and the severity of the storm. This understanding of population dynamics in urban creeks allows for the possibility of predictive modeling of vicarience phenomena, as well as the possibility for better assessments of urban creek health.
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    Voting in the Texas Legislature compared to the U.S. Congress
    (2012-04-02) Hung, Daniel
    What variables affect the way Texas State Representatives vote? Studies have shown that campaign contributions to members of the U.S. Congress do not necessarily affect the way they vote. This study examines whether this is also true for the Texas Legislature. I will look at the payday lender bill (HB2594, which will regulate the industry), where the payday lender industry has contributed more than $1 million dollars to Texas politicians and see if it affected the way Texas State Representatives voted. Then I will consider other variables such as the location of pay day lenders, and the ideology rating of State Representatives. These payday bills take place in the 82nd Texas Legislature, where the state representative is composed of 101 Republicans, and 49 Democrats.
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    The impact of African American academic-professional student organizations on African American college students' adjustment & career goals
    (2013) Birks, Lauren; Bentley-Edwards, Keisha
    Research suggests that a major component in helping African American students successfully adjust socially and academically at a Predominately White Institution (PWI) is their involvement in a Black student organization (Guiffrida & Douthit, 2010). Involvement in an affinity group organization provides African American students the opportunity to connect with African American faculty and students who they can identify with and support each other in many areas of the college experience. Through an online survey African American undergraduate and graduate students reflected on their student involvement in various student organizations and how these organizations impacted their college and career development. The present study hypothesized that African American academic-professional student organizations have more positive impact on African American student college adjustment and career goals than any other student organizations. Results show that African American Academic-Professional student organizations greatly impact students' emotional, academic, interactions with faculty, and professional adjustment and development.
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    Music's contribution to the formation of self-identity through regressive listening
    (2014) Gingoyon, Megan
    The purpose of this study is to determine how we as listeners use music as a means of expressing and forming our self-identity. How does music contribute to who we are, and how we express ourselves? What is it that makes music so important and personal to us? In order to help me find an answer to these questions I took courses on the history and rhetoric of popular music in the United States. What I have learned is that what enables us to do these things is something that Theodor Adorno has termed “regressive listening,” which he defines as the regression to a state of primitivism while listening to music. Regressive listening involves a theme of repetitiveness that results in the loss of one’s identity, as we grow accustomed to only listening to the type of music the culture industry imposes on us. After taking these classes however, I have learned, that there is a different, but positive definition of regressive listening, the regression into our memories while listening to songs that are the most meaningful to us. This type of regressive listening helps cause the formation of one’s identity. When we listen to a certain song, we relate it to our past experiences. This, in turn, helps us to solidify our sense of identity and gives us a sense of who and what we want to be like in the future.
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    Event-centered semantics: Using clustering algorithms to group events that typically occur together
    (2014) Nguyen, Travis; Wenzel, Jeane; Erk, Katrin
    There is evidence that in processing sentences, people use their real-world knowledge about how events unfold, including what participants an event typically has, and which events follow other events. Our research takes event-based approaches to problems in computational semantics, or automatic natural language understanding, that traditionally use single-word-based approaches, such as determining word similarity. In our research, the first task is to determine the similarity of events computationally. To do so, we process large bodies of text to extract event mentions and context information. Then, our team members convert the events to vectors whose components indicate their similarity to other events. Using this vector space, we can cluster the events, where events in the same cluster may indicate events that occur together in a real-world situation. Our research has several applications, including determining similarity of words or events and event paraphrasing.
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    Evaluation of a community-based intervention (STOP-DM) for Korean Americans with type 2 diabetes: Measured vs. perceived health outcomes
    (2014) Woolheater, Katelyn
    Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious health problem in Asian-American communities, including the Korean American immigrants (KAI), one of the most underserved and understudied minority populations in the US. More than 50% of KAI have no health insurance and rarely receive routine checkups. As a result, KAI with asymptomatic chronic diseases, such as DM, go undiagnosed and inadequately treated. These health risks are further compounded by low health literacy levels. KAIs with type 2 DM urgently need effective interventions that help them achieve better glycemic control and restore their self-confidence with regard to diabetic management. Methods: To address this critical need within the KAI community, Dr. Kim’s research team designed and executed a NIH funded translational study trial (NIDDK R18) of a community-based glucose control intervention program for Korean American immigrants (KAI) with type-2 diabetes mellitus (DM). This project tests the effectiveness of a multifaceted DM management program (STOP-DM) with regard to the cultural and social needs of KAI with type 2 DM. This evaluation includes data analysis, interpretations, and dissemination of the findings with regard to cultural tailoring and health literacy enhancement of the intervention. Findings: Data analysis is expected to support the belief that the self-help aspect and tailoring strategies significantly improve intervention outcomes by empowering patients through enhanced knowledge of DM and diet, utilizing available technology to develop the ability to self –monitor their glucose control status, facilitating better communication with their health care providers, and enhancing health literacy and general problem-solving skills.
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    Censorship in the art classroom: The shifting line
    (2014) Robbins, Ryan; Henkel, Sarah; Strickland, Abbi; Powell, Heidi
    Our poster researches the role of censorship in the art clasroom and analyzes the positive and negative outcomes of censorship using both opinion and fact.