Past SROP Scholars

Cyprian Alaribe

Cyprian Alaribe

Truman State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. W. Bruce Johnson
How Fair is Fair Value Accounting
Quantitative financial reporting of asset values and liabilities using a single financial instrument has been debated and brought to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) attention for a number of decades. FASB's mission is to improve and establish new standards of financial accounting and reporting. The debate of fair value versus historical cost accounting is intrinsic to the evolution of financial reporting. Historical cost accounting requires that the numbers reported on accounting financial statements be recorded at the amount actually paid for an asset.
Josue Alcantara

Josue Alcantara

Marte University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Dan Tranel
Neural Substrates Supporting Acquisition and Use of Common Ground: A Comparison of Two Lesion Populations
Previous work with patients with hippocampal damage and profound declarative memory impairments using a collaborative referencing task that requires social interaction and constant communication with a familiar partner reported collaborative learning at an equal rate to comparison participants for referential labels resulting in rapid and efficient communication or “common ground” (Duff et al., 2006).
Michael Alvarez

Michael Alvarez

University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Mary Horne
Investigating the Regulation and Function of CyclinG2 Expression during Stress-Response Signaling Induced Cell Cycle Arrest
Premature senescence, the induction of long term growth factor irreversible cell cycle arrest, is induced by the oxidative effects of reactive oxygen species and high level expression of certain oncogenes such as activated Ras. This arrest response is thought to be important for prevention of cellular transformation and carcinogenesis.
Clarissa Brown

Clarissa Brown

University of Central Missouri
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Charles Grose
Identification of Viral Surface Proteins by Different Imaging Technologies
Surface viral proteins are visualized to investigate their location, prevalence and size. These are important viral protein characteristics because they can illuminate viral protein functions. Varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles, has proteins that can be visualized by different technologies. The virus has glycoproteins on its surface that have functions which include fusion, egress, and attachment.
Domonique Casper

Domonique Casper

Grambling State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Kathryn Gerken
Outcome Data for Teen Parents: A Longitudinal Study
In 1990-1992, our mentor Dr. Kathryn Gerken and some of her colleagues interviewed over 70 teen parents. Some had participated in intervention programs and others had not, so we will investigate to find out if there is a difference in long term outcomes between those who did participate in the intervention program and those who did not. The purpose of this study is to interview the same parents (mothers and fathers) to determine the long term effects teen parenting has had on their education, health, finances, employment, friendships, family relations, marital status, and emotional status.
Lavonna Connell

Lavonna Connell

Oakwood College
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. James Hall
The Association of Adolescent Victimization and Substance Use
Adolescent substance use is a growing public health problem that is associated with increases in criminal activity, school attendance and performance, and other problems (Wall & Kohl, 2007). A number of drugs have shown declines in usage in the findings of the 2006 Monitoring the Future data. However, the use of substances especially among adolescents is still a widespread issue. Approximately 48% of the young people in schools have tried an illicit drug by the time they graduate from high school.
Courtney Cornick

Courtney Cornick

Iowa State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Elizabeth Altmaier
Racial Differences in the Processes of Forgiveness
An interpersonal transgression can be a significant event in an individual's life. How individuals forgive after the transgression is something that has been studies for decades. However the literature has not considered diversity and racial differences in forgiveness. The current study considers racial differences in the process of forgiveness, and seeks to understand whether the race of the transgressor or the severity of the event plays a larger role in the processes of forgiveness.
Dorian Cowan

Dorian Cowan

Wake Forest University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Michael Lovaglia
The Role of Identity on Social and Self Perception
The study describes how identity is a defining factor in social perception. The report addresses several concepts of stereotype formation and how it relates to identity. A person's identity is a composite of several factors. Some basic and most visible features of an individual are gender, race and skin-tone. The study is a multilevel observation of self perception and social perception using participants of various backgrounds. Properties such as the participants' skin-tone, race, ethnicity, and gender were taken into account.
Rachel Cuevas

Rachel Cuevas

California State University, Long Beach
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Michael O'Hara
The Association Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Unplanned Pregnancy
Background Considering the negative health outcomes associated with unplanned pregnancies it is important to identify risk factors associated with such pregnancies. the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which symptoms of depression predict pregnancy planning, controlling for sociodemographic factors (age, education, marital status, living with partner, number of children living in the home, income, and ethnicity) and obstetric history variables (parity, number of full term pregnancies, and number of abortions).
Chelsey Daniels

Chelsey Daniels

Elizabeth City State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Geb Thomas
A Design for the Integration of Sensors to a Mobile Robot
The robot “localization” problem is the challenge of accurately tracking robots’ position. When the robot rolls along a surface, wheel slip causes the uncertainty in the robot’s position to increase. The longer the path, the more the errors increase. If several robots cooperate, they may be able to use each other and natural landmarks to measure their position as they move within a region. If they accurately determine their positions as they move, they will be able to create an accurate map of the environment. This research deals with the integration of sensors for a robot exploration team.
Amy Epps

Amy Epps

University of Miami
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Pamela Noel
Service Learning in Community Participation in Research
Students in a service learning research course will be trained to utilize community participation in research methods to investigate the impact of parents' engagement in substance abuse treatment on their children's (ages birth to five years) social-emotional development. This will entail creating and maintaining a mutually beneficial collaborative partnership between the University of Iowa School of Social Work,, Area Substance Abuse council (ASAC), and Heart of Iowa child care center.
Irisbel Guzman

Irisbel Guzman

Sanchez University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Madeline A. Shea
Calmodulin Interactions with the NR1 Subunit of the NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) Receptor
Personality disorder can be traced back at least to adolescence. Previous research indicates that personality disorder found in adolescents is often linked to personality disorder when they become adults. The DSM defines personality disorders as having their origins in adolescents (APA, 1994). However, there are few studies of adolescent personality disorder, so our understanding of it is limited.
Asale Hubbard

Asale Hubbard

Iowa State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Malik Henfield
Ethnic Minority Students' Perceptions of Honors Programs
The goal of this proposed research is to design an conduct a qualitative study, using individual interviewing methods, on ethnic minority students (i.e., Asian-American, African-American, Native American, and Latina(o) who qualify for the Honors Program at the University of Iowa. More specifically, the study is designed to extrapolate their perceptions towards their experience at College X as high-achieving students.
LeMorris Hunt

LeMorris Hunt

Delta State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Mary Adamek
Music Therapy to Support Language Development in Young Children with Autism
The researcher reviewed literature concerning the goals, outcomes, and interventions used by music therapists to help young children with autism develop language skills. Young children with autism typically have problems in developmental rates, responses to sensory stimuli, speech skills, language skills, cognitive skills, and capacities to relate to people. Three primary approaches to language development are the developmental language approach, the naturalistic behavioral language approach, and the didactic behavioral approach.
Shannon Hutcheson

Shannon Hutcheson

Ohio State University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Kathryn Gerken
Outcome Data for Teen Parents: A Longitudinal Study
In 1990-1992, our mentor Dr. Kathryn Gerken and some of her colleagues interviewed over 70 teen parents. Some had participated in intervention programs and others had not, so we will investigate to find out if there is a difference in long term outcomes between those who did participate in the intervention program and those who did not. The purpose of this study is to interview the same parents (mothers and fathers) to determine the long term effects teen parenting has had on their education, health, finances, employment, friendships, family relations, marital status, and emotional status.
Brittany Jackson

Brittany Jackson

University of Wisconsin at Whitewater
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Lee Anna Clark
Personality Differences Related to Marital Status in Community and Clinical Samples
This research compares and contrasts personality differences in older and younger, single and married people, and among people of different races/ethnicities. Individuals in a university Clinical sample and a community sample completed the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP). This study examines whether unmarried individuals are higher or lower than married individuals in personality traits related to negative temperament, positive temperament, and disinhibition.
Milissia John-Baptiste

Milissia John-Baptiste

Southern University/Baton Rouge
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Lee Anna Clark
Relations Between the SNAP-Y and MMPI-A in a Clinical Sample
Personality disorder can be traced back at least to adolescence. Previous research indicates that personality disorder found in adolescents is often linked to personality disorder when they become adults. The DSM defines personality disorders as having their origins in adolescents (APA, 1994). However, there are few studies of adolescent personality disorder, so our understanding of it is limited.

Cristal Martinez

University of Texas at El Paso
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Ed Wasserman
Auditory Categorization by Pigeons

Categorization is one of the ways that humans make sense of the world. Putting things into groups gives structure and a sense of predictability to our lives. Cognition in this form causes actions and interactions with certain objects, sounds, people, and places to become meaningful. Our question is: is this ability unique to humans? To answer this question, we studied categorization in pigeons, using highly controlled sounds and a four-key forced-choice discrimination procedure.

Tanee Mason

Tanee Mason

Roanoke College
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Stewart Ehly
Mum is the Word: Increasing Vocalizations in a Child With Selective Mutism
Selective mutism is a psychological disorder that is characterized by the lack of speech in some social situations while in other situations speech remains unaffected. There are two hypotheses regarding the etiology of selective mutism. One hypothesis suggests that selective mutism is the result of increased anxiety and extreme shyness while the other hypothesis suggests that selective mutism may be the result of oppositional behavior. The purpose of this study was to increase the vocalizations in a selectively mute participant.
Kevin Montes

Kevin Montes

California State University at Dominguez Hills
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Anne Helen Skinstad
Student Gambling at The University of Iowa
There re 16 million college students currently enrolled in four year universities. Of those 16 million, over 160,000 students will have problems due to gambling. Along with problems directly related to gambling, student gamblers re at an increased risk of developing co-occurring disorders like major depression, alcohol abuse/dependence, and anxiety. Specifically, students that are male, twenty years old, and have parents without college degrees have a greater likelihood of becoming problem gamblers. Additionally, studies have shown that binge drinking an student gambling are highly related.
Osarumen Okunbor

Osarumen Okunbor

University of Missouri/Columbia
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Greg Gray
Evaluation of Light Diagnostics Human Metapneumovirus Direct Immunoflourescene Assay on clinical Specimens
Human metapneumovires (hMPV) is a newly discovered respiratory pathogen with limited epidemiological data available. currently, the only available method to diagnose hMPV is by cell culture followed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The purpose of this clinical trial is to test the performance of a new diagnostic method. Light Diagnostics Human Metapneumovirus Direct Immunoflourescence Assay (DFA), in comparison to RT-PCR for the diagnosing of possible hMPV infection in random clinical specimens.
Rosaura Orengo

Rosaura Orengo

University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Erika Lawrence
Do Conflict Recovery Skills Buffer the Effects of Marital Conflict on Marital Satisfaction?
Almost half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. Marital discord and dissolution have been shown to have a negative impact on the emotional and physical well-being of spouses and their children. There is a wealth of evidence documenting the negative effects of poor conflict management skills (also known as poor problem solving skills) on marital satisfaction and existing prevention programs target problem solving skills almost exclusively. However, such efforts are only moderately effective at preventing marital distress and divorce.
Suncerrae Perry

Suncerrae Perry

University of Wisconsin at Whitewater
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Malik Henfield
Ethnic Minority Students' Perceptions of Honors Programs

This qualitative research study uses individual interviewing methods, on ethnic minority students (i.e., Asian-American, African-American, Native American, and Latina ((o)) who qualify for the Honors Program at an institution in Iowa. More specifically, the study is designed to extrapolate their perceptions towards their experience at an institution in the state of Iowa as high-achieving students.

Ayanna Porter

Ayanna Porter

McKendree College
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Laura Frey Law
The Relationship Between Personality Variables and Pain Perception During a Dynamic Fatigue Task
My research project for the next eight weeks consists of examining individuals personalities using various psychological questionnaires and determining how personality effects a persons perception of exertion and pain. I will be collecting data using human subjects who will perform a repeated series of isokinetic elbow flexion contractions through a normal range of motion (5-100 degrees) trying to achieve a peak torque of 75% of their initial maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). The participant will continue this cycle until they can no longer reach the 75% MVC level (signifying 25% fatigue).
Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera

Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera

University of Puerto Rico at San Juan
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Dan Tranel
Psychosocial Stress: Sex Differences in Cortiosl Response and Speech Productivity
Psychosocial stress causes physiological responses in the body. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993) is a psychological procedure that allows experimenters to induce stress under laboratory conditions. The procedure allows experimenters to investigate test subjects’ stress levels across multiple measures (cortisol, heart rate & subjective reports), and to investigate sex differences in stress responses (Kudielka & Kirschbaum, 2006).
Antu Schamberger

Antu Schamberger

Loyola Marymount University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Dan Tranel
Development of Common Ground in Social Communication in Patients with Right Hemisphere Damage
Recent studies on communication have demonstrated that to be able to participate in effective high level communication, the usage of short-hand is commonly developed. Short-hand is based on this idea of “common ground” (Clark, 1992). Our study tests the hypothesis that subjects with right hemisphere damage (RHD) will be impaired in the acquisition and use of common ground in the social interactions with a familiar communication partner.
Tonia Tiewul

Tonia Tiewul

Hunter College
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Sergio Paradiso
The Blood Supply of the Human Insula
The insula is a cortical structure within the brain that lies buried underneath portions of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. Functional imaging studies have implicated it in a number of different brain functions, including addiction, emotion, visceral pain, and olfaction. Due to the deep location of the insula within the brain, the most common method of studying it is via functional imaging. Imaging studies recently have attempted to subdivide the insula to better delineate functional differences.
Angela Watkins

Angela Watkins

DePaul University/Chicago
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Fred Woodard
Zora Neale Hurston: Memory, Identity, and Performance
Memory, Identity, and Performance make up the key conceptual framework for describing and analyzing selected works of Zora Neale Hurston. All three elements in this framework emerge as critical components in Hurston’s work as an anthropologist, and as a writer of fiction and non-fiction. The objective of my research is to develop and utilize a methodological process which will allow me to categorize emerging themes that are marked by Hurston’s memory, identity, and performance of “Negro culture” in her works.
Tasha Williams

Tasha Williams

Pepperdine University
Participation year
2007
Mentor
Dr. Kristine Fitch
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural relations grow in importance as society expands into a global community. A key aspect in the successful growth of the global community is interpersonal relationships between people from different cultures. Scholars have studied intercultural friendship related to relational dialectic theory and conflict while creating approaches to understand the dynamics of intercultural friendships. I propose a study to examine how conflict episodes affect or alter intercultural friendships and how conflict is enacted in intercultural friendship dyads.