Office of Undergraduate Research

Darby Elaine Adams

Many legacies of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra are commonly known, the ideas of the Übermensch, which influenced Hitler’s ideas, and that “God is dead” to name two. This Honors Senior Thesis proposes to examine the reception of Nietzsche’s magnum opus from 1890, when it was first published in its entirety, until 1920. Analysis of the primary work and other consequent works from the artistic and literary movements, such as Expressionism and fin-de-siècle, will contribute to the understanding of the German-speaking culture and society of this time.

Ross Armstrong

An Economic Interpretation of Nevada’s Constitution will examine the economic reasoning behind the writing of the Nevada Constitution. Using Charles Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States as a model I will determine appropriate avenues of study and presentation. It will primarily include study of the personal backgrounds of the individuals in attendance at its writing to gain an understanding of their motives and impact.

Michael Beers

In my thesis, I will discuss why Albertsons, Inc. was unable to survive as a company following a string of mergers and acquisitions beginning in the mid 1990’s and thereafter. Although there are a number of reasons why this company no longer exists today, I will focus on the company simply not having the management skills and operational infrastructure necessary for a national grocery chain. I will show that although there are many benefits to growth, if a company is not prepared to handle what it is taking on, the company will ultimately cease to exist, as is the case with Albertsons.

Erwin Cornejo

James Heskett, a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS), argued in his HBS article that only “… few mergers and acquisitions meet expectations” (2004). Theoretically, M&A is a business growth-strategy of acquiring or merging different companies with due diligence, primarily to gain greater competitive advantage in the financial market; consequently, to add more value to the shareholders. However, due to its complexities, M&A transactions may fail to achieve its financial goals.

This paper aims then primarily to ponder and analyze a sample of public companies in gaming industry engaged in M&A activities by developing financial valuation techniques and corporate
strategies.

Erin Granat

My thesis will tackle the issue of the “Ugly American” through the medium of travel writing. With the social journalism of Mark Twain and Bill Bryson as my guide, I will compare my experiences from my recent study-abroad experience in Spain, where Americans are viewed unfavorably, with those of a forthcoming trip to Australia, where Americans are still well-regarded, to understand what is at the root of these perceptions.

Markus Hill

Yeast (Saccharomyces cerivisiae) will be introduced into solutions of various artificial sweeteners in the attempt of creating a low calorie anti-cariogenic alcohol. If an artificial sweetener that humans can not digest may be found as an acceptable yeast metabolite, then the alcoholic fermentation of yeast will produce an alcohol with the only calories coming from the ethanol itself. This could lead to a significant reduction in absorbable energy content.

Mallory Moore

Over the last 300 years, the portrayal of London in British Literature has shifted, and the city which was on= represented as tbc: site of learning and opportunity is now depicted as an immoral and chaotic space which corrupts its inhabitants. This shift is paraHe1e.d by a literary shift: the rise of the novel. I will argue the novel itself changes its shape along with the city it represents. I wiH investigate the decline in London's moral reputation by tracing its represmtahn in the British novel, using four key texts: Fielding's Tom Jones, Dickens's Oliver Twist, Woolf's M s - Dallowq, and Monica Ali's Brick Lane.

Jessica Hoge-Peters

Bruce Hoffman, professor at Georgetown University, stated the following in regards to the war on terror: “One of the problems with the kill-or-capture metric is that it has often been to the exclusion of having a deeper, richer understanding of the movement, its origins, and our adversaries’ mindset. Our adversaries are wedded to the ideology that informs and fuels their struggle, and, by not paying attention, we risk not knowing our enemy.” I strongly agree with Professor Hoffman and believe that recent events such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the London subway bombings should compel us to gain a deeper, more profound understanding of the ideology of Radical Islam in order to better know our enemy. My proposed project means to do just that.

Richard Kraus

Rare earth elements are fascinating to study because they exhibit complex physical properties that vary with 4f electron occupancy. Specifically, gadolinium is interesting because there are multiple structural phase transitions accessible below pressures of 100,000 atmospheres (atm) [1] which should exhibit signatures in the photoluminescence spectra. Photoluminescence spectroscopy is an extremely important technique capable of giving insight into the electronic band structure of a sample. In this experiment, I will use photoluminescence spectroscopy to investigate the evolution of the electronic band structure of gadolinium as a function of pressure and phase.

Deanne Leonard

Color vision models assume that the perception of “white” reflects a neutral point in the neural coding of color, yet this central assumption remains largely untested. This study will investigate individual differences in perceptual judgments of white. Subjects will select the RGB mixture on a monitor that appears white either during dark adaptation or during adaptation to a steady chromatic field. Correlating across subjects will allow me to test whether the appearance of white is tied to the individual’s sensitivity. Together these results could provide an important and novel test of how color is encoded by the
human visual system.

Jeffrey Leong

Pancreatic lipase-related protein 2 (PLRP2) is a digestive lipase produced by pancreatic cells and secreted into the gut for digestion of fats. PLRP2 has been recently identified in cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) upon induction with the cytokine IL-4. In addition to PLRP2, lymphocytes store numerous death-inducing pro-apoptotic proteases that are released upon CTL encounter with antigenic stimulation. I propose that CTLs exocytose granules containing PLRP2, which subsequently binds to target cell membranes and promotes necrotic or apoptotic cell death pathways.

Neal Morton

With its inception in 1980, CNN gained a 16-year lead on the Arab news network Aljazeera in the field of professional journalism. Despite its experience, CNN, as my preliminary research suggests, seems to be cheating its American viewers with lower standards of international reporting. This project will analyze CNN and Aljazeera’s reporting of the same events, showing a need to be more concerned with how Aljazeera proves more balanced and thorough in its international coverage. The organizations will be judged by shared reporting standards of voice, accuracy, in-depth investigation,
skepticism and multiple sources to determine whether CNN has earned or if Aljazeera should be given “The Most Trusted Name in News.”

Max Murphy

Consider a general surface, which may have lumps, curvature, and other strange shape. Because the surface can be weird, the length minimizing curves within the surface can be very unobvious. While these curves will always exist in theory, in general they can be extremely difficult or impossible to calculate, since their solution can correspond to a coupled system of nonlinear differential equations. Because of this, it would be very beneficial to find a way to bound this minimum length, that is, to find a range for the minimum length which would be easier to calculate.

Irene Seelye

This study will look at Olympic Style Fencing geographically to see where it has grown in the United States and by how much over the last twenty years. It is the intent of this study, using that information coupled with the physical and political geography of the nation, to analyze whether or not the internal divisions of the United States Fencing Association (USFA) are still practical, or if the rapid growth of the last twenty years has outpaced the current divisions, creating a need for the divisions to be redrawn for better organization and efficiency in the future of the sport.

Christina Sexton

After a short introduction of some key words and concepts related to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), this report then briefly discuses my proposed research study. I plan to increase adherence to an early arrival policy by tutors in UNR’s Early Childhood Autism Program. I will take data both before, during, and after an intervention of my own design, then summarize my results into a comprehensive research report

Rachel Sumner

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects many young children and their families. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has been scientifically proven to effectively treat these children, and for this reason is the treatment of choice for young children with autism. Support for this comes mainly from studies that remediate specific behaviors such as dressing or toileting, however, and not from studies that focus on more global or comprehensive outcomes such as improved academic, intellectual or social outcomes. Were ABA to pursue research of that sort, it would be in a far better position than it is currently to support the claim that it is the treatment of choice for young children with autism.

Kevin Wolff

We will conduct a survey of therapists, both locally and nationally to identify factors that may play a role in therapists' job satisfaction, morale and burnout. The survey will include psychotherpists with different educational backgrounds, different training experiences, different caseloads as well as different types of therapies practiced and different personal practices. This will allow the role these factors play in the therapists' overall well being to be evaluated.

University of Nevada, Reno
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