SUMMER 2000 MAPS

ANTHROPOLOGY: "Celtic Heritage, Welsh Identity." Christina Hanson [Professor Douglas Caulkins]. This project involved a field study of CELTICA, a heritage site/tourist attraction/educational site in Wales, along with a sample-interview project on Welsh identity which replicates part of an NSF-funded study carried out by Caulkins and Trosset and six students in Wales in 1993. The two components are related by their focus on the construction of national/ethnic identity in Wales during a period of intense national interest and debate concerning the devolution of powers from Westminster to the new Welsh Assembly in Cardiff. The summer field study was followed in the spring semester of 2001 by a senior thesis.

ANTHROPOLOGY: "Development in the Solomon Islands." Joseph Grim Feinberg [Professor Kathryn Kamp]. This project explored the effects of development on the populations of the Solomon Islands and in particular focused on the development strategies pursued by the people of Anuta, which is a small island located to the east of the Solomon Islands. Data was collected in the places where there are largest concentrations of Anutans. This research explored how Anutan culture is affected by development, and how different development strategies are more or less successful, according to various criteria, including amount of material gain, distribution of benefits across society, affects on gender hierarchies, people's subjective perceptions of cultural changes and long-term sustainability of changes. This research culminated in an oral presentation and a major paper entitled "Development in a Polynesian Community in Papua New Guinea: To Migrate or not to Migrate."

ANTHROPOLOGY: "Archaeological Fieldwork in Namibia." Grant McCall [Professor John Whittaker]. This capstone dealt with the prehistoric finds in the remote area of Tsumkwe on the Kalahari rim of Namibia. This is one of the first documented Early Stone Age (ESA) sites in Namibia. Artifacts discovered last year were taken to the National Museum in Windhoek and analyzed by McCall and the curator of archaeology, Goodman Gwasira. This summer we returned to the Nhoma Dom to excavate the Tsoana site to reconstruct Namibia's ancient past and to shed light on the evolution of the human species. The information gathered from this research formed the basis for a publishable report and a senior thesis project.

BIOLOGY: "Female Fitness and Natural Selection in Asclepias syriaca." Davin Remington [Professor Christina Caruso]. This capstone project used an Iowa native plant, Asclepias syriaca, as the study species. All Asclepias species gather their pollen into packets called pollinia (Wyatt and Broyles 1994). Each flower produces ten pollinia, which allows counting in both the male and female components in fitness. Floral traits such as flower area and horn length were measured using a digital image analysis system. The strength and direction of selection on floral traits via female fitness were then measured using statistical regression methods. This study helped determine the importance of selection via female fitness in shaping the evolution of floral traits, as well as how the importance of female function varies with the environment. After completion of this project a paper was submitted for publication as well as a scientific poster based on project results. The data from these findings was also used for an independent project in the Fall of 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Selection via male function on floral traits of the hermaphroditic milkweed aslepias syriaca." Kate Ostergren [Professor Christina Caruso]. This research tested the prediction that selection on floral traits should be stronger via male function when reproduction is more resource limited. This included looking at the male function in the hermaphroditic milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, a species for which indirect measure of male function are available. This study was done at the Krumm Nature Preserve where floral traits such as inflorescences, number of pedicels, overall flower size, and lateral height were measured. Male fitness was measured by calculating the number of pollinia (sacs of pollen) removed from the flower. These data were analyzed using regression to estimate the strength and direction of natural selection.

BIOLOGY: "A Cladistic Analysis of Seria." David Rosenthal [Professor Kenneth Christiansen]. This project which began at the start of last summer had initially begun by a previous student research assistant. This person had collected data in order to conduct a cladistic analysis of the genus, Seria of Collembola. This genus occurs throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world with most species occurring throughout the tropics and subtropics of Africa and the Americas. This data was in the form of physical characters measured on each species being analyzed. We planned to finish the data collection, analyze the data, and produce a paper and campus presentation. I spent one week in Burlington, Vermont, working with Dr. Felipe Soto-Adames who currently holds a post-doc position at the University of Vermont. I was able to obtain the latest techniques from Dr. Felipe Soto-Adames for my independent research.

BIOLOGY: "Metapopulation Biology of a Tallgrass Prairie Plant." Emily Mohl [Professor Vince Eckhart]. This project used an Iowa native plant, Linum sulcatum, as a model system in which to study the evolution and ecology of annual species in tallgrass prairie. One objective was to analyze geographic variation in L. sulcatum for traits related to competitive ability, comparing patterns of variation to theoretical predictions. A second goal was to characterize the fragmentation of populations of this species, applying recent ecological theory in the field called metapopulation biology. These analyses will be relevant to conservation biology, as well as to the study of evolution of plant competitive ability. The final product of this research was a scientific paper detailing the findings. A scientific poster was presented at the Family Weekend poster session in September 2000. Further results were presented in March 2002.

BIOLOGY: "Characterization of Filamentation and Cell Division Regulation on Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP1." Snow Brook Peterson [Professor Leslie Gregg-Jolly]. This research investigated the filamentation of LGJ14, under what conditions it occurs, and how it compares to appropriate controls. Brook constructed a series of growth curves for different strains under different conditions, as well as microscopically monitored the growth forms in various treatments. Another step was to examine the growth of wild type ADP1 bacteria when the plasmid is introduced, to determine if it responds differently from LGJ14, which carries the lacZ reporter cassette. Brook also wanted to determine differences in filamentation in the presence and absence of MMC, a DNA damaging agent. Cell filamenting is related to DNA repair because in E. coli, some cell division inhibition genes, such as sulA, are under the control of the SPS response system, which is responsible for repair. If a sulA-type gene is found in Acinetobacter, that will provide further evidence for the presence of an SOS-type system in this organism. The expression of the gene tagged by the lacZ reporter cassette in LGJ14 is induced by DNA damage, so LGJ14 is a useful strain for studying how ADP1 responds in the presence of damaging agents. Brook presented a poster at Family Weekend, September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Characterization of an SOS-like DNA-damage inducible locus in Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP1." Christine Dolph [Professor Leslie Gregg-Jolly]. The first research objective involved sequence analysis of a previously cloned region upstream of the lacZ:Kmr reporter cassette in the ADP1-derived strain LGJ14. Sequence analysis was completed both for this partially sequenced 1.5 kb sub-region and for the remainder of the sequence further upstream which bears homology to the umuDC genes. This sequence data was used for further comparison with umuDC-like genes found in E. coli and other bacterial species in order to confirm the identity of the LGJ14 locus. To further explore the possibility that the LGJ14 locus is an SOS-regulated cell division inhibitor, we created a plasmid vector which carried the lacZ insert mutation in the umuDC-like region. The remainder of the research project was devoted to characterization of the newly derived ADP1 mutant strain.

BIOLOGY: "ftsK and sulA: Links Between DNA Repair and Cell Division Regulation." Abby Laatsch [Professor Leslie Gregg-Jolly]. This project explored DNA damage caused by ultraviolet light and chemical mutagens as a universal problem for which all organisms require a solution: a system of DNA repair. The mechanisms of DNA repair are highly conserved among organisms. I proposed to use portions of the E. coli sulA and ftsK genes as probes to find homologous genes of the ADP1 genome. After demonstrating that these probes bound to specific ADP1 sequences on a Southern blot, a DNA library in a plasmid vector was created. This library was transformed into a bacterial host so that each colony contained a different portion of the ADP1 genome. The gene-containing plasmids were isolated to determine their sequence. After sequencing, I was able to create knock-out mutations of and to overexpress the ADP1 sulA and fisK genes in order to understand their roles in DNA repair. Abby presented a poster at Family Weekend, September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Regulation of DNA Damage-inducible Genes in Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP6." Nathaniel Arnone [Professor Lesley Gregg-Jolly]. The LGJ14 Acinetobacter sp. Strain is an ADP6-derived strain that contains a lacZ reporter and kanamycin resistance cassette inserted into a damage-inducible Locus. This insertion provided a convenient method for visualization of the expression of damage-inducible genes. In order to isolate genes that regulate the damage-inducible response, LGJ14 was exposed to ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), which randomly produced point mutations in the genome. Colonies of interest were characterized using gap repair techniques and complementation by genomic library plasmids, so that a mutated segment of genome could be cloned. The details of those procedures depended on the specific LGJ14 mutants being examined. Results augment the existing knowledge about the way Acinetobacter corrects genomic damage. Since Rec A Homologues have been identified in eukaryotes, including humans (Shinohara et. Al. 1993), finds from this study could have applications to the way humans repair DNA. This research culminated in a poster presented at Family Weekend in September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Measurement of [ca]i in Lizard Motor Nerve Terminal in Response to Stimulation and Agonists." Amy Bailey [Professor Clark Lindgren]. Recent studies have shown that high frequency stimulation of the motor nerve to the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) results in an increase of intracellular calcium (Ca+2) in the perisynaptic Schwann cells (PSCs) a type of glial cell in the PNS, in the frog (Jahromi, et al., 1992) and the lizard, Anolis carolinensis (Lindgren, 1999). In order to measure the Ca+2 concentration specifically in the nerve terminal of A. carolinensis, the nerve with Ca+2 -green conjugated was loaded to dextran (a fluorescent Ca+2 concentration indictor that is excited by blue wavelengths of light and emits green wavelengths), stimulated the nerve, and visualized the resulting fluorescence with the laser scanning confocal microscope. Agonists were applied directly to the NMJ to determine if the Ca+2 could enter the nerve terminal independent of depolarization. This research drew on knowledge from neurobiology, cell biology, and animal physiology. Results were presented at a poster session at Family Weekend in September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Modulation of Post-tetanic Depression by Perisynaptic Schwann Cells at the Frog Neuromuscular Junction." Rick Heineman [Professor Clark Lindgren]. This capstone project explored the putative role of glial cells in the modulation of synaptic transmission. Specifically, I attempted to determine the contribution of Perisynaptic Schwann Cells (PSCs) to post-tetanic depression at the neuromuscular junction of the frog. Post-tetanic depression refers to a decrease in neurotransmitter release following repetitive, high-frequency activation of a chemical synapse. To determine what role, if any, PSCs play in this process, I first developed a method for eliciting a Calcium increase in the PSCs, independent of motor nerve stimulation. This required measuring Ca changes in the PSCs following application of chemicals, such as oxotremorine, ATP, and Substance P. Once I developed this methodology, I elicited a Ca response in the PSCs while monitoring synaptic transmission at the frog neuromuscular junction using intracellular recording. A corresponding change in synaptic transmission was taken as evidence of synaptic modulation by glial cells at the frog neuromuscular junction. This research culminated in a paper and a poster presented at the departmental poster session and also at Family Weekend in September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Effects of Orbital Compared with Medial Prefrontal Cortex Damage in Rats on Emotional and Non-Emotional Memory." Matthew Blankenship [Professor Nancy Rempel-Clower]. The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain that has recently become a topic of much research in the field of neuroscience. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of damage to the orbital prefrontal cortex (OPC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPC) in rats on tests that involve either spatial learning (non-emotional memory) or avoiding negative reinforcement (emotional memory). I planned to create electrolytic lesions in the OPC or MPC in rats, and to then evaluate their performance on the emotional and non-emotional memory tasks along with a group of control rats. Based on the different connections of these neural areas, we predicted that rats with damage to the OPC would show greater impairments on the emotional memory task, while rats with damage to the MPC would show greater impairment on the non-emotional task. Results were presented at the Biology Department summer research poster session and at Family Weekend in September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Expression of EMB-4 gene During Embryo Genesis in Carrots." Ryan Nitta [Professor Diane C. Robertson]. This capstone project monitored the embryogenic stages of carrots in which the emb-4 gene is expressed. In order to follow this expression, a b-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene system was used to generate transgenic carrot callus. This reporter system, consisting of the GUS gene regulated by the emb-4 promoter produced a blue precipitate in the embryo whenever the emb-4 promoter was activated. By studying the major embryogenic stages and the particular locations of expression, we could determine when and where the emb-4 gene was being expressed. In addition to this experiment, further analysis was conducted on year-old callus produced last summer. Embryos produced from this callus were analyzed for the patterns of expression of the emb-4 gene in different embryonic stages and in particular tissues of the embryo. Ryan gave an oral presentation, wrote a paper entitled "Expression of the emb-4 Gene in Somatic Embryos of Carrot (Daucus carota)," and presented a poster during summer 2000. A poster was also presented at Family Weekend, September 2000.

BIOLOGY: "Screening of Daucus Corota Goromic Library in l-ZAP for the emb3 Promotor." Dustin Gerth [Professor Diane C. Robertson]. This project focused on gaining a better understanding of gene regulation, especially that which occurs during the embryogenesis of carrots. Several genes have been identified which play an important role during carrot embryogenesis. Included among these is emb3, whose cDNA has been cloned into the plasmid pUC19. In order to study the regulation and expression of the emb3 gene, a GUS gene reporter system was constructed. The promoter from the emb3 gene was identified from a carrot genomic library and cloned into the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium containing the GUS reporter gene. The GUS gene ultimately produced a blue precipitate wherever its expression was activated. Agrobacterium containing this engineered plasmid was then used to make transgenic carrot tissue expressing the GUS gene. This system could then be used to determine what conditions lead to the expression of the emb3 gene, as well as when and where it is expressed. The products of this project included a final paper entitled "Screening of Carrot (Daucus carota) Partial Genomic Library for the emb3 Gene," a poster that was presented during Family Weekend in September 2000.

CHEMISTRY: "Mechanism of Formation and Stereochemical Characterization of Platinum (II) Complex Compounds With Sulfoxide-Containing Amino Acids." Ben Morgan [Professor Luther Erickson]. This summer research acted as a continuation of Professor Luther Erickson's study on kinetics, mechanism of formation, and stereochemistry of platinum (II) complexes containing potentially tridentate ligands, including olefinic and sulfur-containing amino acids. Ben employed spectroscopic techniques (especially nmr spectroscopy) to determine the mechanisms and products of reactions of the sulfoxide-containing amino acids, S-methl-L-cysteine sulfoxide and L-methionine sulfoxide with K2PtCl4. On completion of the work, Ben prepared a complete and documented scientific paper entitled "Mechanism of formation and stereochemical characterization of platinum (II) complexes of sulfoxide-containing amino acids" that described the procedures and results of this study. Ben also prepared a scientific poster and an oral presentation that was given to faculty and research peers in August 2000.

CHEMISTRY: "Thermodynamic Origins of a-Neutrotoxin-Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Complex Stability and Specificity." Rachel Okrent [Professor Mark Levandoski]. This project used thermodynamic and kinetic methods to examine the structural origins of binding specificity in a well-studied system: the binding of snake toxins to the nicotinic acetycholine receptor (nAChR). Although the endogenous ligand of nAChR is the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, several groups of molecules serve as agonists and antagonists, including nicotine, from which the receptor derives its name, and a variety of neurotoxins present in snake venom. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors function as ion channels at the postsynaptic membrane of skeletal muscle. The a-neurotoxins derived from snake venom function as antagonists, binding to nAChRs at sites overlapping that of acetylcholine. The binding of a-neurotoxins prevents the binding of acetylcholine and thus prevents opening of the ion channel; this causes paralysis and respiratory failure in bite victims. Length and charge distribution are two structural factors that may influence complex specificity and stability. This project was designed to evaluate these factors by collecting kinetic and thermodynamic data of a-neurotoxin-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor complex formation. The resultant conclusions increased understanding of the structural factors influencing molecular recognition. This understanding, in turn, helped in the rational design of drugs affecting the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, particularly anti-venom agents.

CHEMISTRY: "Probing Gas Phase Protein Conformations Using Mass Spectrometry and H/D Exchange." Sarah Evans [Professor Elaine Marzluff]. The amino acid sequence of a protein, through various intramolecular interactions of amino acid residues and intermolecular interactions with the aqueous environment, is responsible for the specific three-dimensional conformation of the protein. Past studies have used techniques such as hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography, or spectrophotometry to study protein structure. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) proves to be a promising new technique to probe protein structure. Ion trap mass spectrometry (ITMS) also proves to be a powerful technique to analyze protein structure as it allows one to isolate protein ions with selected mass-to-charge (mlz) ratios. Cytochrome c is a relatively hydrophilic protein, located in the mitochondria, that contains a heme group and is involved in electron transport in cellular respiration. Similar to cytochrome c, thioredoxin is a mobile electron carrier that participates in oxidation/reduction reactions in biological processes. In order to compare the solution conformers to the gas phase conformers of both cytochrome c and thioredoxin, we used ITMS coupled with H/D exchange over time to determine if charge state and/or the solvent in which the protein is dissolved affect the gas phase conformation of the protein. We used gas phase H/D exchange and tandem mass spectrometry to fragment protein ions with the particular charge states, thereby allowing us to make further inferences into the interactions that determine protein conformation for specific amino acid sequences in the proteins. Sarah presented her results at the Grinnell College Howard Hughes Medical Institute Symposium on Undergraduate Research in the Iowa Area, April 2002.

CHEMISTRY: "Determination of Binding Sites in Proteins Calmodulin and Troponin C." Emily Merrick [Professor Elaine Marzluff]. This capstone project was a continuation of research done in the Spring of 2000 by Christian Peterson ('00) that investigated the binding of melittin to calmodulin using mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometry is emerging as an effective tool to study interactions and is a rapid sensitive technique. Calmodulin is an intracellular calcium binding protein which mediates the calcium dependent activation of a large number of intracellular proteins. Calmodulin is an ideal protein on which to focus these studies because it is symmetric, binds four calcium ions and a wide variety of small ligands, both in its apo (absence of calcium) and calcium saturated forms. Binding sites were determined by combining solution Hydrogen/Deuterium exchange with collision induces dissociation in the mass spectrometer. The knowledge of binding sites enabled researchers to produce analogues to bind to melittin to countereffect the potentially hazardous effects of melittin binding to TnC. Emily also investigated how trifluoperazine (TFP), a powerful phenothiazine tranquilizer used medicinally as an anti-depressant, and melittin bind to calcium bound CaM and TnC.

CHEMISTRY: "The Use of Parahydrogen-induced Polarization to Analyze the Mechanism of Hydrogenation of the Early Metal Catalyst Titanocene Diphenylacetylene." Margaret G. MacDonald [Professor Andrew Mobley]. Margaret investigated the hydrogenation of unsaturated substates with the early metal catalyst, titanocene diphenylacetylene, Cp2Ti(C2Ph2) to determine the mechanism of this reaction. The catalyst was synthesized, used for hydrogenation and then analyzed through the technique of parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) in conjunction with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Once the ten-week research period was completed, Margaret gave an initial presentation to faculty and staff of the chemistry department and other student researchers, wrote a final paper entitled "Exploration of Early Metal Hydrogenation Reactions," and presented a poster at Family Weekend.

CHEMISTRY: "The Synthesis of Novel Organometallic Complexes and The Study of Their Reactive Behavior." Kwame Wiredu Nti-Addae [Professor Andrew Mobley]. Kwame investigated the synthesis of transition metal complexes containing nucleophilic stannylene ligands which exhibit double bond character between the transition metal and the tin atom (Cp2W=SnPh2 and Cp2Mo=SnPh2). Using transition metal hydrides (Cp2Wh2 and Cp2MoH2), also to be synthesized, Kwame attempted the synthesis of the nucleophilic stannylene using oxygen and moisture free organometallic techniques. Once the ten-week research period was completed, Kwame gave an initial presentation to faculty and staff of the chemistry department and other student researchers, wrote a final paper entitled "Synthesis of Transition Metal Stannylenes," and presented a poster at Family Weekend, September 2000.

CHEMISTRY: "Effects of Adsorption of Gaseous Ambients on the Photoluminescence Intensity of Powdered SrS Phosphors." Roshan Shrestha [Professor Lee Sharpe]. This capstone involved the investigation of the adsorption of variety of gases on doped strontium sulfide, and the effects of these gases on the photoluminescence intensity the phosphors. The focus of this work was to find out whether strontium sulfide based phosphors could serve as chemical sensors like CaS and CdS. Several activating agents were tested to determine which one would give the brightest photoluminescence and to see if there was a difference in the sensor response as a function of the activating agent or its proportion in the phosphor. Results from this capstone contributed to a publication in a scientific journal and poster presentation at Family Weekend, September 2000.

EDUCATION: "Gender Differences and Teacher-Student Interactions in Technological Instruction." Marisa A. Romanelli [Professor Martha Voyles]. This capstone project was part of an ongoing research project by Martha Voyles (Grinnell) and Gena Guttshow (University of Minnesota) (summer 1999). Voyles and Guttshow studied groups of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade girls and boys, separated by sex, building and programming robots using Legos and a program called RoboLab in a one week summer "Children's College" course at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. Data was collected in the form of written work, final programs, and a survey of interest, cooperation, and productivity. Six students from each class were videotaped daily, and twelve students, twelve parents, and all the instructors were interviewed. Marisa analyzed data from this prior research as well as helped plan the courses and course materials for and assisted in teaching the summer 2000 classes. Her capstone project focused on teacher-student interactions to determine whether teachers interact differently with girls than with boys. This research culminated in a paper and a poster presented at Family Weekend in September 2000.

EDUCATION: "Gender and Technology." Rachel Waller [Professor Martha M. Voyles]. Despite many changes in attitudes toward and expectations for women in the last thirty years, and despite many educational initiatives to encourage and include women in math and science, women are still underrepresented in many mathematical and scientific areas and are particularly under represented in engineering and computer science. Previous research has suggested that there is a sex difference in achievement and confidence in science, boys being more successful and confident than girls. Several researchers have suggested that one possible approach to this problem is the use of cooperative work for which there is evidence of its benefit to girls (Fennema and Peterson, 1987). The implication is that girls learn differently than boys. However, little is known about the mechanisms of cooperative work and how, why, or under what circumstances it seems to benefit girls. This research project examined the mechanisms of cooperative work by analyzing the verbal and nonverbal interactions that constitute small group work in order to develop a better understanding of what happens during group work and to compare the group work of girls and boys in same sex groups. The students in the study were enrolled in a course where they learned to program Lego robots. Videotapes of the students working in groups were transcribed and coded, and those codes were analyzed for differences between girls and boys. In addition, student self-assessment of group interaction, data from interviews asking students to describe how they learn best, and the skill students demonstrate in their final programs were examined to determine the relationship between those measures of student perception and achievement and the students' coded interactions. This research culminated in a paper and a poster presented at Family Weekend in September 2000.

HISTORY: "The History of the Midwest Conference." John Aerni [Professor George Drake]. John's capstone centered on four different areas: 1) compiling lists of conference champions in all sports; 2) gathering information from minutes of meetings that representatives of the various schools had from 1921 to present; 3) examining letters from 100 former athletes from various schools in the conference that explained how and why athletics aided them in college and were important in their later lives; 4) contacting current athletes in the conference to get their input on how athletics affects their lives. John researched and wrote two chapters of "History of the Midwest Conference," a book co-authored with George Drake. John also wrote an appendix of all of the Conference Champions.

MATHEMATICS: "Investigation on Cellular Automata." Nicole Nelson [Professor Marc Chamberland]. In the late 1960's, John Conway invented the Game of Life. This capstone studied how Conway's rules act on a finite, three-dimensional shape, specifically the torus. A Java code was written to play this game on the computer. The creatures were used that earlier Life experimenters had invented and watched how they evolved through time on the new Life torus. Once answers were found to specific questions, focus was on finding more examples or counterexamples to specific problems, looking for a theorem. The final step was proving and writing the theorem, which touched on areas of analysis from mathematics, cellular automata from computer science and perhaps even ecology. A detailed report was written and presented to the campus community at a Mathematics Journal Club meeting. Nicole also presented a poster at Family Weekend, September 2000.

MATHEMATICS: "Iterative Process Extensions." Dolph J. Robb [Professor Marc Chamberland]. This capstone was a continuation of Professor Chamberland's and Oleksiy Andricychenko's article "Iterated Strings and Cellular Automata," (summer 1999) in which they proved that "[a]11 strings [of rational numbers] of length n will eventually iterate to the zero-string if and only if n =2k for some k Î Z+." Dolph and Professor Chamberland further investigated the iterative process problem. They analyzed how different weights (used to compute the terms of new strings) affected the iterative process along a finite string of rationals. They worked to find a necessary and sufficient condition on n for which a string of length n iterates to the zero-string by some difference process. Dolph prepared an exhibition outlining his capstone and important results and presented it at Family Weekend in September 2000. He also presented his results at a Mathematics Journal Club meeting.

MATHEMATICS: "Equisum Hexagons." Emily Resseger [Professor Charles Jepsen]. Many mathematical problems concern the properties of a set of n points in a plane and the distances determined by these points. This capstone project examined the equisum hexagon, in particular the ababab hexagon, i.e., one whose sides have only two different distances that alternate. Questions to consider were: 1) Do all points of the hexagon lie on a circle? 2) Are all the angles of the hexagon equal? 3) How many different distances are determined by this equisum set? 4) Are there any integer solutions to this equisum hexagon? Other hexagons that have only two different sides lengths were investigated as well: aaabbb, ababbb, abbbbb. The findings from this project culminated in a paper entitled "Interpoint Distances in Equisum Hexagons with Two Different Side Lengths," a presentation at the Math/CS Journal Club and a poster presented at Family Weekend in September 2000.

MATHEMATICS: "Polyhedra with Integer Dimensions." Alex Ford [Professor Charles Jepsen]. This capstone investigated properties of certain polyhedra in 3-space. The focus was to determine if there are examples of polyhedra with integer sides when other measurements (e.g., volume) are taken to be intergers. A specific problem was: Find all pairs of figures, one a pyramid and one a box, that have the same surface area and volume, where the dimensions of the box are integers. Other geometric figures investigated were tetrahedra with integer sides and volume where faces are congruent triangles. Results of this research culminated in a paper entitled "Isosceles Tetrahedra with Integer Dimensions," a presentation at the Math/CS Journal Club, and a poster for Family Weekend in September 2000.

MATHEMATICS: "Difference Sets." Benjamin Skalland [Professor Emily Moore]. This capstone was a continuation and extension of the research Professor Moore carried out on difference sets. We studied a special type of difference set known as non-Abelian difference sets. One of the goals was to find previously unknown non-Abelian difference sets within groups of a particular size, or to prove that a difference set can't exist with that group. This was accomplished by using theory to narrow down the search for such difference sets, and then using a computer to either find the difference set or to conclude that such a difference set does not exist within that group. Benjamin presented his findings to Math Department faculty and at a Math Journal Club meeting in Fall 2000. He also presented a poster at Family Weekend in September 2000.

COMPUTER SCIENCE: "Clio: A Course Web History Analyzer." Rachel M. Heck, Kumail Nanjiani, Eleanor Raulerson [Professor Samuel Rebelsky]. The primary goal for this group project was to design a program for analyzing Web usage. There have been many attempts to build systems whereby people could easily analyze the use and efficiency of a website, but there has yet to be one which would meet the needs of the academic world. This group built the system "Clio." This system is based on previous research in the field, which presents a more complete analysis tool for tracking individuals. These paths are useful as a way to compare how "successful" and unsuccessful" students use the Web. Clio supplies detailed statistics about the visitors to a course website. The program uses a proxy server called WebRaveler to gather this data. Because Clio is geared to an academic environment, it will aid professors in writing more effective course Webs with easy to read textual information and clear visual representations of individual visitor paths through the site.

COMPUTER SCIENCE: "Hyper Media Research." Joshua Vickery [Professor Samuel Rebelsky]. Hypermedia is a mechanism for organizing and easily navigating a large quantity of information stored in documents and binary files by linking the information together. In its current form the World Wide Web supports one form of Hypertext through the use of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and the Hypertext Transfer protocol (HTTP). The goal of this capstone project was to both design and implement an algorithm which could analyze web pages for structural and contextual changes and use techniques of approximation for optimally re-referencing old locations. The implementation took the form of a Perl module used with the Ravel proxy server and the Annotation plugin system. Once a working model was established, testing was required to discover the effectiveness of the location algorithm. The project culminated in working software in the form of a Perl module and a linking service. A paper and presentation discussing the research process and the eventual findings were also be prepared.

COMPUTER SCIENCE: "WebRaveler: An Infrastructure for Transforming Pages on the World Wide Web." Pete Broadwell, Erin Nichols, Chris Kern [Professor Samuel Rebelsky]. This capstone group project involved research into new methods of utilizing hypermedia to enhance educational, scholarly and casual pursuits. Pete and Erin proposed to involve the use of a "proxy-server" to adapt the content of Web pages according to the preferences of individual users. Building on the work of a previous team (Kensler & Rebelsky 2000), they planned to complete this infrastructure and develop a number of page-transforming plugins that would prove useful in an academic environment. The infrastructure that would allow all of these alterations is a program called WebRaveler. Written in the Perl programming language, the WebRabveler program may run a proxy server on a remote machine to service multiple users or on the user's own machine for a single user. In these cases, WebRaveler maintains account information about the user(s) and alters pages according to user preferences. There is also the option of running WebRaveler plugins directly on pages stored on a Web server. This approach effectively creates new, dynamically altered pages that anyone can access without using a proxy server. The end result of the WebRaveler research group effort was a well-documented program package that is easy to set up and able to operate in many different configurations, a written paper that details their findings, and a public presentation of their results.

MUSIC: "Popular Composition." Matthew Warne [Professor Doug Diamond]. For this capstone project Matthew worked intensively on the exploration and production of music. Matthew spent 10 weeks composing music with the goal of producing six complete songs in the popular genre. The project resulted in a public performance in fall 2000.

PHILOSOPHY: "Liberal Political Philosophy and the Gay Individual." Joseph Nelson [Professor Johanna Meehan]. This capstone considered the relation of the state to the sexual identities and activities of the citizens. Of central importance to this project was the relation between political notions of autonomy and justice and the social institution and political imposition of heterosexuality. Joseph explored the notions of justice and freedom which are at the heart of the liberal project, and he argued that the denial of political recognition and civil rights to lesbians and gay men leaves the political project of the Enlightenment unfulfilled.

PHYSICS: "Simulations in Gamma-Ray Astronomy." Frederick P. Beukema, Morgan Page [Professor Charles Duke]. Studies of the properties of high-energy gamma rays by astrophysicists at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory near Tuscon provide insight into the most energetic processes in the universe. These include the acceleration of particles by accretion disks and jets at super massive black holes and by shock waves associated with supernova remnants. These studies rely on accurate computer simulations of the atmospheric showers created by these high-energy gamma rays. The incoming gamma rays interact with the atmosphere by producing electron-positron pairs which in turn lose energy by emitting bremsstrahlung photons; in addition, the positrons may annihilate producing two high-energy photons. In this way, the cascade proceeds through the atmosphere producing a large number of high-energy electrons, positrons and gamma-rays. Because of their high energy, the electrons and positrons may emit Chernkov light which the Whipple telescope can observe. The intensity and direction of this light is a measure of the energy and direction of the incident primary gamma ray. Thus, the goal of computer simulations of this process is to provide a connection between the observation on the telescope camera and the energy and direction of the gamma ray that produced the shower. The Grinnell team, known as Grin SOC and an associate member of the Whipple Research Collaboration, worked closely with a team from Iowa State University to redesign the telescope component of the simulation code. This complex code had three parts: "Kascade" which produces the shower, "Cherenkf" which produces the Cherenkov light, and "Detector" which models the telescope. "Detector" suffered from a lack of flexibility and had incomplete sections, especially when applied to the planned seven-telescope Veritas array. Stefan LeBohec, an ISU postdoctoral associate, provided a skeletal version of "Detector" so that individual projects such as modeling the mirrors or the camera of the telescope could be completed by the Grinnell group. The Grinnell group also planned to study data analysis methods for a new camera at the Whipple Observatory; this camera has a complicated array of photomultiplier tubes. Finally, they hoped to address the problem of storing large databases of simulated Cherenkov showers. Fred and Morgan presented a research paper, a physics seminar during the fall semester, and poster presentations at Family Weekend, September 2000, and at the summer Research Poster Presentation in October 2000.

PHYSICS: "Flavor Violation and CP or T Violation at a Muon Collider." Sarah Nuss-Warren and Sarah Campbell [Professor Loretta Johnson]. This project reflected research by both students to study flavor violation with CP or T violation in neutrino interactions. Both students focused on separate applications of this study, but worked in parallel paths and therefore could verify calculations and interpretations with each other. One of the students looked at the neutrino interactions as they affect long-baseline experiments, such as the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) in Illinois and the Imaging and Calorimetric Neutrino Oscillation Experiment (ICANOE) in Switzerland. A long-base experiment is one in which neutrinos are detected very far from their source. The other student was interested in the effects of CP and T violation with flavor violation in a muon collider. A collider accelerates a specific particle and then directs it to either collide with accelerated particles of the same type or with its accelerated antiparticle, a particle that is exactly the same as the original except with an opposite charge. Students produced a paper detailing their research and findings and presented a poster at Family Weekend in September 2000. A paper entitled "Neutrino Oscillations II" was presented at the Physics Seminar, Fall 2000.

POLITICAL SCIENCE: "Political Values in Russian." Andrew Civettini, Cara Kitagawa, Bradley Oremlend, Adam van Alstyne, Kasia Piekarz [Professor Robert D. Grey]. This group MAP was phase two of a three-phase project. Phase one (spring 2000) consisted of the group acquiring necessary background on Soviet and post-Soviet political, social and economic history, and the more specialized area of Soviet/Russian public opinion. Phase two (summer 2000): The group used this background to generate interesting hypotheses about Russian public opinion. After learning to use SPSS and how to analyze surveys on Russian mass attitudes provided by research teams from the University of Glasgow, Harvard/Duke/Columbia and the University of Iowa, the group tested their hypotheses, and wrote first drafts of their MAP papers. Phase three, in fall 2000, involved revising those drafts for presentation at the Iowa Conference of Political Scientists in late October.

PSYCHOLOGY: "Influence of Environmental Stimuli on the Problem Solving Ability of College Students and Older Adults." Lisa R. Grimm [Professor Janet M. Gibson]. This capstone project was to expand and strengthen the experiment "When is a bicycle not a bicycle?" that Professor Gibson conducted. The experimenter presented a word problem, containing ambiguous wording, to a small group of subjects who only asked Yes/NO questions of the experimenter to find the problem solution. Objects placed in the room were biased toward an interpretation of the ambiguous wording. Lisa's project was to test all of the subjects individually instead of in the group format, which provided more data points and avoided any possible problems of having both individual and group data. She tested adults over the age of 60 in addition to college students to examine possible age effects with the environmental manipulations. During the problem solving section of the study, the subjects were asked to give a pre-test confidence rating and "warmth" ratings during the session to determine if subjects' subjective ratings support a systematic or insight method of problem solving. Finally a variety of extra tasks examined possible correlational variables: An individual's ideal time of day for testing, creativity, and vocabulary could be correlated to the amount of time needed to solve the word problems. Also, a previously implemented questionnaire was expanded to help determine relationships between problem solving ability and an individual's knowledge of similar problems, and like/dislike of word problems. The outcome of this project was a paper and poster presented at Family Weekend in September 2000.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES: "Differing Religious Significations of Blood." Trinity Zan [Professor Kathleen Skerrett]. This capstone project dealt with the comparative religious inquiry into the significance of blood. Trinity investigated when blood is given a positive signification and when it is given a negative signification in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian contexts. This project focused on blood as sacrifice (positive signification) and blood as pollution (negative signification). One major concern is why women's blood is considered dirty and polluting by these three major western religions. This summer project was the first phase. Trinity continued this project during the academic year. "Taboo or Table-talk: Women Speaking on Menstruation" was presented on campus May 2001.

Trinity continued to work on her research on menstruation taboos during the fall and spring semesters of 2000/2001. She decided that she wanted to find out whether the theories that she had researched over the summer were applicable to contemporary American women's experiences. She designed a project to interview local middle-aged to elderly women of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish backgrounds about their memories and experiences of menstrual taboos. Trinity then compared her own findings with the findings of larger studies on American women. She then assessed theoretical approaches in the context of contemporary women's attitudes and experiences, and presented her paper, first, to an audience of Grinnell students and faculty and, second, after revising her paper, to an audience of the local women who had been the subjects of her interviews. She received positive and constructive responses from both these audiences. In Trinity's case, the decision to present her research to local Grinnell women, rather than an academic audience, was a conscientious choice.

SOCIOLOGY: "A Study of MICA as a Non-profit Learning Organization." Laura Jackson, Jennifer Headley, Matthew Magee, Meredith Hellmer, Megan Delphia Shanks [Professor Chris Hunter]. This project continued research that Kent McClelland and Chris Hunter have been conducting on the local community action agency, Mid-Iowa Community Action, or MICA. This research involved close analysis of interviews with staff members of MICA who were interviewed over a two year period beginning in 1996, and ethnographic observation of staff. The overall goal of the project was to understand better how this innovative community action agency operates, especially in terms of MICA's goal of becoming a Learning Organization. Specific topics investigated include: the effects of a subsidiary organization involving top leadership members on organizational change and management in a learning organization; differential reactions to organizational change in a social service organization; the spread of "family development" goal-setting rhetoric and practice to the rest of the organization; differences in culture and shared vision between segments of MICA; differences in employees' commitment to social service work and to the organization; and solutions to the problem created by spatial dispersal in a rural multi-county community action agency. The findings from this project were presented at the Social Studies Student Paper Conference in Spring 2001.

SOCIOLOGY: "Cultural Differences in Beliefs About the Importance of Romantic Love." Amy Walters [Professor Susan J. Ferguson]. The goal of this project was to gain an understanding of how the history of romantic love in China and Japan, as well as the growth of romantic love in the United States, shapes the attitudes and marriage patterns of the women in Asian American communities. People in the United States have developed a sense of an "ideal mate" with whom they fall romantically in love and therein find their marriage partner. On the contrary, China and Japan are rooted in Confucian value systems and take more than just love and attraction into consideration when selecting a mate, and as a result, they argue that their relationships are more durable. Many Chinese and Japanese people find the American process of marriage and divorce based on romantic love as selfish because it ignores the needs or desires of family members and society as a whole. They believe that the American view that a marriage based on anything other than love is morally condemned or pitied is irrational because it fails to encourage, or even accept, marriages that take into account a wider range of qualities when selecting a mate. However, if the antiquity and endurance of the Confucian family system were tested amidst the continuous influence of American society, would Chinese and Japanese attitudes about love and marriage show similar resilience? To better understand how United States immigrants with Asian descent balance the roles of two conflicting cultures in order to construct their beliefs about romantic love and marriage, present literature on the subject was researched and data analyzed to determine what factors determine for a particular Asian American woman the extent to which Chinese and Japanese family values carry on in the United States. This research resulted in a paper presented at the Second Annual Social Science Research Conference on campus February 2001, entitled "The Importance of Romantic Love as a Relationship Value Among Chinese American and Japanese American Women."