Minnesota Undergraduate Research & Academic Journal

Letter from the Editor

Alice Qian Zhang — 2024-07-10

Association Between Generational Trauma and Progressive Dementia Types

Maisie Simpson — 2024-07-10

BIPOC individuals (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) aged 75+ in the U.S. are over 4 times more likely to die from dementia than non-BIPOC individuals. Generational trauma and the epigenetic effects of stress could be a critical underlying factor for this stark difference. To date, no large-scale quantitative studies have explored the relationship between generational trauma and dementia. A first step in addressing that gap is to establish racial disparities in the rates of dementia between racial/ethnic communities. This project investigates whether, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American, and Latinx American individuals have a higher rate of death due to dementia than White/European Americans. Mortality data from years 2017 through 2019 was gathered from the CDC WONDER public database. Results suggest that there are differences in the rate of dementia deaths between the racial/ethnic groups (p < .001). The difference in dementia mortality rates between the white/European group and the BIPOC groups is alarming and raises many questions as to why this is. Generational trauma and epigenetic stress could be a potential reason, however there is very little research discussing this theory or the phenomenon of generational trauma in general. This investigation opens a discussion regarding accurate reporting and surveillance documentation, especially regarding vulnerable communities. With a better understanding of generational trauma and the transgenerational effects of stress we can better understand the importance of trauma-informed care and in turn create and implement appropriate, effective, culturally relevant preventative strategies targeted for individuals who are uniquely predisposed to dementia.

Cross-Feeding Does Not Affect the Evolution of Antibiotic Tolerance

Sydney Chen — 2024-07-10

Antibiotic tolerance refers to the ability of bacteria to survive short periods of high antibiotic concentration. This is distinct from antibiotic resistance, the ability of bacteria to survive indefinitely under a limited antibiotic concentration. Emerging evidence suggests antibiotic tolerance may be supported by increases in lag time, a delay before growth that can be quantified by the time taken for colonies to become visible. While tolerance is studied less than resistance, ecological influences from between-species interactions upon it are even less frequently studied. Cross-feeding is one such interaction, and a common occurrence in nature. To investigate the impact of cross-feeding on tolerance, the evolution of antibiotic tolerance was induced in both Escherichia coli monoculture and a mutualistic coculture of E. coli and Salmonella enterica. Cyclic exposure to ampicillin followed by growth in antibiotic-free media yielded evolved isolates of E. coli with delayed colony appearance time but no change in growth rate, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), or competitive advantage against the ancestral strain. However, the rate of tolerance evolution was unaffected by culture type. Additionally, a computational population model was able to replicate culture-independent tolerance evolution when lag time was the only mutable trait. Antibiotic tolerance appears to be uniquely unaffected by species interactions, demonstrating the need for ecological considerations in the study of tolerance and resistance.

Traffic Volumes Impact Sex Ratios of Painted Turtle Populations in Ramsey County

Annika Hellerud — 2024-07-10

Road mortality is currently one of the biggest threats to freshwater turtle populations. Female turtles cross roads more frequently than male turtles in order to nest, meaning they are more prone to road mortality. Ramsey County is a particularly useful place to study road-induced turtle mortality due to its diverse landscape with a variety of traffic volumes, road densities, and wetland areas. Our goal was to determine the extent to which the sex ratio of Ramsey County painted turtle populations can be explained by the traffic volume of nearby roads. We also asked if these relationships differed with age and distance from habitat to the nearest road. We placed hoop traps in six wetlands, and sampled turtle populations from mid-May through early August. Wetlands near higher traffic volume roads were more likely to have a male-biased sex ratio. Female turtles were found across a greater range of wetlands near roads with higher traffic volumes and across a larger range of distance to nearby habitats. Additionally, sex ratios varied greatly between different ages, with most captured adults being female and most juveniles being male. None of these results were statistically significant, however. Future work should continue to investigate the relationship between sex ratios and traffic volume, as well as the sex ratios within age structures of populations. In order to obtain an adequate sample size, future research should have multiple trapping seasons.

Rush to Straightness: Compulsory Heterosexuality in Greek Letter Organizations

Megan Langsev — 2024-07-10

The social power observed within collegiate fraternities and sororities has long been a source of interest for social psychologists in observing their organizations’ social influences and ability to foster group mentality amongst their members. Limited research, however, has been conducted in analyzing how the powerful socialization of fraternities and sororities can influence the behavior of their queer members and their ability to instill an environment for compulsory heterosexuality within their spheres. This literature review seeks to define and investigate the role of social-collegiate fraternities and sororities in influencing compulsory heterosexuality behavior in their members. This review breaks down the components of compulsory heterosexuality and addresses the ways in which collegiate Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) adhere to this phenomenon by examining their influence on identity formation, heteronormativity, and sexism and gender expectations. This review also warns against leaving this environment unchallenged by examining the relationship between compulsory heterosexuality, the fostering of toxic masculinity, and the prevalence of rape culture within fraternities.

Procrastination of College Student: The Correlation Between Self-Efficacy and Academic Procrastination

Boyu Wen — 2024-07-10

Procrastination is becoming more common and far-reaching in today's society, and it has become imperative to alleviate it. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between procrastination and self-efficacy among psychology students. The survey was taken by 39 participants in a psy3001w class at the University of Minnesota. The study was conducted to collect data through the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Student (PASS) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). The correlation method was used for analysis. Our study did not find a significant relationship between academic procrastination and self-efficacy. Although the results were not significant, future studies could collect a larger sample and help students of different majors cope with their subject assignments.

Law and Collective Memory: International Military Tribunal for the Far East and Japanese Collective Memory of the Nanjing Massacre

Yuzhou Guo — 2024-07-10

This paper examines the role of law in influencing collective memory. It specifically analyzes how the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) shaped post-war Japan’s collective memory regarding the Nanjing Massacre, which is the mass murder of an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese civilians by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937 during World War II. An analysis of the Nanjing Massacre’s description in Japanese textbooks published from the 1940s to the 2000s, shows that the IMTFE’s narrative has become a prominent constituent of Japanese collective memory. Nevertheless, due to criminal law’s institutional logic, including the trials’ adversarial nature, criminal law’s focus on individual perpetrators, and IMTFE’s substantivized application of the law, the IMTFE record facilitates a selective remembrance of the Nanjing Massacre among the Japanese public and gives rise to ambiguous historical narratives. This case study sheds new light on the intricate relationships between the law and collective memory.

Liberation Movements in Urban Environments: A Case Study of the Oromo Liberation Movement in Finfinnee and the Twin Cities

Masnoo Adem — 2024-07-10

Oromos are the one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa and the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, yet are quite unknown across the world, primarily due to the decades of genocide, ethnocide, and academic repression experienced as a result of Ethiopian colonization. This paper analyzes the formation and shaping of the Oromo liberation movement in urban environments, namely Finfinnee – the capital city of the Oromia region of Ethiopia – and within the local region of the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Academic papers, books, newspaper articles, political statements and manifestos, and interviews were utilized to develop the research question and acted as essential primary information throughout this paper. As the daughter of two Oromo immigrants, oral history passed down from my parents was also used to guide this research. The analysis of this information shows that while the movement has become stronger and more united in Finfinnee in recent years, deliberate tactics against the movement by the current Ethiopian government have fractured and weakened the movement throughout the diaspora, including the Twin Cities.

Wandering Son’s Negative View of the Transgender Experience: An Emphasis on Pain and the Marked Absence of the Transition

Kieren Wiley — 2024-07-10

The Japanese manga Wandering Son (2002-2013) centers around several transgender youth as they grow into high schoolers. Although it features many empathetic, realistic scenes of the transgender experience, its worldview is pessimistic, concluding with its characters being discouraged from transitioning. Its once-hopeful transgender protagonists are forced to suffer more and more as the series continues, traumatized without recourse. Ultimately, it becomes a question if Wandering Son is explorative or exploitative of the transgender condition. Transgender literary criticism of Wandering Son vis-a-vis its harmful aspects is limited to informal spaces, and not easily present in published academic discourse. This paper aims to elucidate the series’ critical flaws: a disappointing lack of familial support or mentorship, its overreliance on exhausted transgender tropes, and transgender-boy-to-cisgender-girl Yoshino Takatsuki’s “de-transition.” Another cause for concern is the potential influence of Wandering Son on its readership. Its non-transgender audience can put down the manga and leave the characters’ struggles behind, but the perpetual anguish of the transgender characters in Wandering Son offers closeted and vulnerable transgender readers – many currently living through similar forms of pain – only despair. Even though revolutionary in concept, Wandering Son is objectively not to be labeled as the epitome of transgender representation in the medium of manga. There already exists an abundance of narratives that disrespect its transgender characters, and like Wandering Son, only further dominant societal misconceptions of how we live and survive.

Zombified Patriarchy: The Role of Nature and Gender with the Undead

Megan Langsev — 2024-07-10

This paper examines the gender politics that influence the zombie genre through the lens of biopower and bio-essentialist philosophy. Zombie films perpetuate a perspective of masculine superiority over women and mankind domination over nature. The American film Night of the Living Dead (1968), a classic of the zombie genre, is contrasted against the Danish film What We Become (2015) to analyze the ways in which zombie-film tropes change or remain depending on cultural context.

The Ghost Amusement Scroll: The Assemblage of Ambiguous Ghost Stories and a Canvas of Self-Expression

Zoe Nguyen — 2024-07-10

Luo Ping (1733-1799) was one of the eight Yangzhou eccentric painters (also known as Yangzhou baguai) in the Qing Dynasty in China, renowned for their innovative approach to art. This project explores why Luo's Ghost Amusement scroll appealed to the scholars and literati of his time and how it became a visual work representing the Zhiguai theme in the eighteenth century. Rather than investigating the artist's intention and perspective to interpret his work, this paper focuses on the painting's quality of ambiguity and how it fascinated its audience. Then, the paper suggests that the painting's greatest appeal lies in its ambiguity, which prompts viewer interaction and self-expression. This paper utilizes biographical, social-historical, and psychoanalytical methods to contextualize the artist's influence and the painting's popularity. In addition, it offers a visual analysis to demonstrate the painting's quality and techniques, which significantly impacts audiences' interpretation. Following the analysis, it connects the painting with the rise of the Zhiguai theme in contemporary literature, especially with Pu Songling and other Zhiguai writers. In doing so, the paper aims to claim that the Ghost Amusement scroll grants its audiences a space for self-expression. The paper thus enables us to explore the "representation crisis" and censorship issue in the last Chinese imperial dynasty.

Unnatural Mothers: Queering Motherhood in Helen Elaine Lee’s Pomegranate

Olaitan Olanrewaju — 2024-07-10

Inspired by the tenets of queer studies, this paper explores Helen Elaine Lee’s novel Pomegranate as a reimagining of established norms surrounding motherhood. The dissonance of protagonist Ranita Atwater’s post-incarceration journey as a mother, especially when juxtaposed with Eldora’s revolutionary form of motherhood within the prison setting, serves as a focal point for critically examining how Lee’s Pomegranate challenges conventional concepts related to intimacy, lesbianism, and kinship. Drawing from the insights of scholars such as Shelley M. Park, Jennifer C. Nash, and Steven Ruggles, this literary analysis delves into the profound relationship between prison and motherhood. The dissonance in Ranita’s experiences becomes a powerful tool for dismantling the United States’ myth of the nuclear mother, and unraveling contradictions and conflicts embedded in conventional ideas. By juxtaposing these contrasting narratives, this paper aims to offer a radical vision of motherhood—one that transcends heteropatriarchal societal norms. This interdisciplinary approach extends beyond traditional boundaries, fostering a comprehensive understanding of how the queered mother dynamic within the walls of the prison challenges and disrupts heteronormative standards imposed by the state. In embracing the spirit of queer studies, this exploration not only contributes to a broader discourse on motherhood but also actively engages in reshaping our understanding of familial constructs. Through this lens, this paper aspires to offer a fresh and provocative perspective that not only explores the narrative intricacies of Lee’s novel but also advocates for an embrace of the possibilities of the prison, queerness, and queer utopias.

The Effect of King Harald Godwinson’s 200 Mile March from London to York on the Battle of Stamford Bridge: A Qualitative Study Using Experimental Archeology

Leo Dannersmith — 2024-07-10

The year 1066 CE is one of the most heavily studied in medieval, military, and political history. It was the year of the death of King Edward the Confessor of England, and was filled with strife. Many battles and military feats took place this year. This study focuses on one in particular: King Harold Godwinson’s march to York, where the English army covered over two hundred miles in five days and emerged victorious at the battle of Stamford Bridge. I attempted this march myself, covering over two hundred miles on foot in five days wearing period-accurate war gear. At the end of this march, I faced off against martial arts practitioners, fighting with period accurate equipment, and was able to use this data to analyze the march’s impact on my fighting ability. Using this information, the academic community will get a better understanding of the effects of marching in 11th-century armor and how it changes the performance of an army. The results of the study also shine light on certain controversies around the march. Many historians believe that King Harold’s entire force was mounted. This study supports this claim. I was unable to complete the full 200-mile march in four days, suggesting that the majority if not the entirety of the army were mounted. Despite this the project provides a pivotal viewpoint in understanding this military feat.

Spatial and Temporal Identification of Extreme Ultraviolet Flares in Solar Active Regions

Theo Mahaffey — 2024-07-10

An automatic method developed to perform flare-finding on Level 1 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) is described in detail. The data are spatially binned, preprocessed, and compared against a Gaussian white noise background. The methods of Berghmans and Clette (1998) provide the basis for the automated detection algorithm, and pertinent adjustments are made to address the high spatial resolution provided by AIA. Results for an observation of NOAA active region 12712 from 16:00-16:45 UTC on 2018/05/29 are presented. Future work may include investigation of the link between EUV active regions and periodicities found in various observables, including radio emissions and magnetic field. Accurate determination of the flare-frequency distribution for small flares is also a promising application of this method.

Improving Turtle Road Mortality Sampling Methods in Hennepin County, Minnesota

Annika Hellerud — 2024-07-10

Road mortality is an increasing threat to turtle populations in North America, and around the world. Across 30 sites in Minnesota specifically, more than 700 turtles were killed by vehicles in just one year. Hennepin County in particular has an urban landscape with wetlands that are often bisected by roads. Previous research has shown that proximity of a road to water, vegetative coverage, traffic volume, and time of year all contribute to turtle road mortality. Our goal was to find an optimal sampling method to reduce bias in turtle road mortality research in Hennepin County. 45 surveys were conducted, spanning 90 hours of survey time along 1,350 road miles from May 2021 through August 2021. Most dead turtles were within 100 meters of water and were more likely to be found on roads with higher traffic volume. Living turtles were more likely to be found on roads with lower traffic volume. The evidence suggests that to optimize the turtles found in each survey, researchers should monitor roads with higher traffic volume (>5,000 cars/day) that are within 100 meters of water.

Defeating Dyslexia: A Robust Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Hearing and Dyslexia to Achieve Early Diagnosis and Treatment

Rick Qian — 2024-07-10

Occurring in nearly 20% of children, dyslexia is all too often misdiagnosed or overlooked. Untreated, it can irreversibly disrupt the early learning period, preventing students from reaching their full potential. Thus, early and effective intervention is critical. Falling behind as a dyslexic creates challenges not only academically, but also emotionally and financially. The purpose of this study is to quantify the relationship between dyslexia and deficits in sound gap detection, expanding on the viability for hearing tests to support early diagnosis.

The relationship between dyslexia and auditory processing in gap detection is examined using the tool of meta-analysis. Data collected from 15 studies was analyzed with REDCap and R, and a Hedges’ g test and Robust Variance Analysis was performed on the data set. Poor ability to detect gaps in sound were significantly correlated to dyslexia through both well-established and novel methods. This study is the first work to specifically focus on gap detection in dyslexics, and the strength of relationship (g = 1.17) demonstrated in this study is one of the highest reported among metaanalyses for auditory processing tasks.

These findings could influence how future diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia advances. Early detection is key to effective treatment, and auditory testing is viable at pre-reading ages. Auditory processing as a major deficit in reading disorders also supports the hypothesis that hearing is the fundamental cause of dyslexia, affecting future treatments to address auditory issues more directly and bringing the field one step closer to defeating dyslexia.

Changes in Wage Returns to Education: A Comparative Regression Analysis of the United States and Indonesia in the 1970s and 1990s

Pranav Sundararajan — 2024-07-10

This paper compares the wage returns to education between the United States of America and the Republic of Indonesia in two historical periods (the 1970s and 1990s) via a log-level regression of Mincer earnings functions to explore how the present relationship between education and income in both countries has been shaped by past trends in education and returns in the labor market. In essence, it asks the following research question: To what extent does an additional year of schooling affect wage returns in the United States compared to Indonesia in the 1970s and 1990s? The research finds that an additional year of schooling brings statistically more significant wage returns in Indonesia compared to the US in the 1970s and 1990s, by around 3 to 6% purely if a percentages-based relative comparison is made. Within each country, however, the effects of education on wage returns between the 1970s and 1990s vary. Returns to education for an additional year of schooling fall by 2.5% in Indonesia between 1976 and 1995. However, the returns rise in the US by 1.6% between 1970 and 1990. In consideration of other covariates, the effect of gender on wage returns is more pronounced compared to potential labor market experience and hours worked per week by the individual in question.

Reconsidering The American Dream: A Statistical Analysis

Kevin Jacobson — 2024-07-10

The United States has observed appreciable GDP growth since the 1940’s, both in aggregate and per-capita terms. Accompanying advancements in technology, productivity, and social justice, one might expect a promising future for the next generation. After all, upward social mobility is the national ethos of the U.S., better known as the American Dream. At a time when wage stagnation and income inequality are becoming forefront concerns for young Americans, this paper seeks to determine if the American Dream is a living promise or a naive ideal. Specifically, this study uses statistical methods and historical data to estimate the effect of childhood socioeconomic status on future wages, conditional on a set of controls. Indeed, we find that parental income is a statistically significant predictor, with a p-value of 0.033 for the full sample and 0.007 for the low socioeconomic status (SES) sample. Our findings suggest that income inequality will continue to increase in the future, raising concerns about sustained GDP growth.

Tackling Tuberculosis: A Comparative Dive into Machine Learning for Tuberculosis Detection

Daanish Hindustani — 2024-07-10

This study explores the application of machine learning models, specifically a pretrained ResNet-50 model and a general SqueezeNet model, in diagnosing tuberculosis (TB) using chest X-ray images. TB, a persistent infectious disease affecting humanity for millennia, poses challenges in diagnosis, especially in resource-limited settings. Traditional methods, such as sputum smear microscopy and culture, are inefficient, prompting the exploration of advanced technologies like deep learning and computer vision. The study utilized a dataset from Kaggle, consisting of 4,200 chest X-rays, to develop and compare the performance of the two machine learning models. Preprocessing involved data splitting, augmentation, and resizing to enhance training efficiency. Evaluation metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and confusion matrix, were employed to assess model performance. Results showcase that the SqueezeNet achieved a loss of 32%, accuracy of 89%, precision of 98%, recall of 80%, and an F1 score of 87%. In contrast, the ResNet-50 model exhibited a loss of 54%, accuracy of 73%, precision of 88%, recall of 52%, and an F1 score of 65%. This study emphasizes the potential of machine learning in TB detection and possible implications for early identification and treatment initiation. The possibility of integrating such models into mobile devices expands their utility in areas lacking TB detection resources. However, despite promising results, the need for continued development of faster, smaller, and more accurate TB detection models remains crucial in contributing to the global efforts in combating TB.