NIAGARA UNIVERSITY

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH CONFERENCE

AGENDA
Panel Presentations 9:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. St. Vincents Hall Coffee and Danish 8:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 210 Poster Presentations 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. Castellani Art Museum Lunch 12:00 p.m. 1:30 p.m. Castellani Art Museum

I want to extend a warm welcome to the 2013 NU Undergraduate Research Conference sponsored by the University Honors Program. Niagara Universitys dedication to research and academic excellence will be on full display during todays conference. I encourage you to attend as many of the panel and poster presentations as you can in order to show your support for the young scholars in our midst and to learn about the exciting research taking place here at Niagara. I am confident that the presentations will be informative and educational. I want to thank Ms. Kathy Sydor, academic assistant for the honors program, who has done most of the behind-the-scenes work necessary to make this conference a reality. Without her, there would be no conference. Finally, I want to thank all the participants and their sponsors for their hard work. The University Honors Program wishes them all the best in their future research and endeavors. Barnwell Dr. Michael Director, University Honors Program

April 19, 2013 St. Vincents Hall & Castellani Art Museum

PANEL PRESENTATIONS
ACCOUNTING: Professor John Hannon, Moderator 9:50 a.m. 10:10 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 209 William Munschauer: Business Incubation Facilities: An Analysis of Best Practices Among Various Facility Types and Their Benefits BIOCHEMISTRY: Dr. Robyn Goacher, Moderator 11:15 a.m. 12:00 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 310 Marie Albano: Differential Scanning Calorimetry of Hard Wood and Soft Wood Samples Treated with Biodegradable Enzymes Jessica Spellane: ATR and Transmission FTIR Analysis of the Enzymatic Breakdown of Lignocellulosic Material COMMUNICATION STUDIES: Dr. Kalen Churcher, Moderator 10:20 a.m. 11:30 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 205 Kerisa Bonville: Miss America: An Ideal Constructed by the Media Julie Hunt: Grief and Facebook Vincent Schiano: Young Adult Cancer Awareness: A Public Relations Campaign Alicia Wainwright: A Textual Analysis of Medias Portrayal of Refugees in Western New York COMMUNICATION STUDIES: Dr. Brian Murphy, Moderator

11:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 205 Stacey Czerwinski, Benjamin Sweet: Rape Culture COMMUNICATION STUDIES: Dr. Doug Tewksbury, Moderator 10:00 a.m. 10:20 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 205 Amanda Galster: The Uncensored Truth CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Dr. Craig Rivera, Moderator 10:40 a.m. 11:00 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 212 Riessa Johnson: Level of Education in Relation to Opinion on Capital Punishment HISTORY: Dr. Thomas Chambers, Moderator 9:00 a.m. 9:20 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 207 Gina DelGreco: Red Jacket and Seneca Autonomy in the War of 1812 HISTORY: Dr. Mustafa Gokcek, Moderator 9:20 a.m. 10:00 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 207 Alex Scherer: The Winter War and the Evolution of the Soviet Union Jerrie Strunk: Socialism in Soviet Education INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Dr. David Reilly, Moderator 11:15 a.m. 11:35 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 212 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: (continued)

Faith OMalley: The Argument for Implementing Quality Accessible Education and Creating Employment Opportunities to Successfully Reduce Human Trafficking in Underdeveloped African Nations INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Dr. Christopher Lee, Moderator 12:20 p.m. 12:40 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 212 Aaron Sydor: South American Development: The Chilean Exception MATH: Dr. Maritza Branker, Moderator 9:20 a.m. 9:40 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 312 Renee Landrigan: The Enigma of Beautiful Minds MATH: Dr. Marlo Brown, Moderator 9:00 a.m. 9:20 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 312 Kelsey Atwater: Applying Markov Chains to the Game of Blackjack MATH: Dr. Phong Le, Moderator 11:15a.m. 11:35 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 311 Victoria Hulse: Cryptography MARKETING: Dr. Peggy Choong, Moderator 10:20 a.m. 10:40 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 209 Mitchell Piper: Food Labeling: A Consumer Behavior Study POLITICAL SCIENCE: Dr. David Reilly, Moderator 11:40 a.m. 12:00 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 212

Christopher Morrow: Inflation and Central Bank Independence PSYCHOLOGY: Dr. Susan Mason, Moderator 11:15 a.m. 12:10 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 209 Christa Mastro: Attitudes Towards Euthanasia Michael Mucci: Romantic Attraction and Mate Preferences Lizbeth Ortiz: Diversity Effects on Social Perspectives at the Secondary School and University Levels PSYCHOLOGY: Dr. Timothy Osberg, Moderator 10:45 a.m. 11:05 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 209 Erika Osberg: Predicting Changes in Alcohol Consequences During Freshman Year: A Multiple Mediation Analysis SOCIAL WORK: Dr. Clementine Laverman, Moderator 12:35 p.m. 1:15 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 311 Angeli Sareen: Evaluation for the Rainbow Squad Support Group Richard Thomas: A Study of Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Adolescent Students in Afterschool Programs

SOCIOLOGY: Dr. Todd Schoepflin, Moderator 10:00 a.m. 10:40 a.m. St. Vincents Hall 212 Alex Schmitt: Comic Books Influence on Society

Melissa Shafer: Is Niagara University Diverse? An Exploratory Study THEATRE: Professor Doug Zschiegner, Moderator 11:35 a.m. 12:30 p.m. St. Vincents Hall 311 Celine Keefe, Megan Kemple, Brianna Lanoye: The Essence of Lightning: A Glimpse into the Lives of Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas, and Marilyn Monroe

Cory Clugston: Effects of Accelerated Freeze-thaw Cycling on the Physical and Chemical Properties of HPDE-based Wood-polymer Composites Eric Stoutenburg: Analysis of Wood-polymer Composites After UV and Water Exposure Using Timeof-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectorometry COMMUNICATION STUDIES: Dr. Doug Tewksbury Jeannine Alsous: Bullying and the Media Kerisa Bonville, Robert Crates, Ashley Dilcher: Examining the Motivations for Hashtagging on Twitter Among College Students Julie Fonzi, Jillian Teeter: The Portrayal of Sexual Relationships in HBOs Sex and the City Kari Honomichl: Using Pinterest for Business: A Feminist Survey Study of Wedding Planners Using Pinterest for Website Targeted Trafficking and Business Development CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Dr. Talia Harmon Rebecca Besch: Death Row Exonerations: A Study of Wrongful Convictions That Attract National Attention EDUCATION: Dr. Michelle Ciminelli Kaitlyn Wager: Early Childhood Pre-kindergarten Education: Children Are Born to Play EDUCATION: Dr. Thomas Sheeran

POSTER PRESENTATIONS
BIOLOGY: Dr. Mark Gallo Matthew Lanning, Alexandra Mancuso, Sonja Opper: Characterization of Staphylococcus Isolates from White-tailed Deer Jawdat Mustafa: Analysis of Large and Small Colony Variants of Staphylococcus BIOLOGY: Dr. Mark Gallo, Dr. William Edwards Phil Crane, Madeline Hare, Andrew Mrzygut, Amanda Robbins: Isolation of Fluorescent Bacteria from the Niagara River BIOCHEMISTRY & CHEMISTRY: Dr. John Wang Erik Boldt, Jacob Hildebrand, Alexis Targus: Schrodingers Cat BIOCHEMISTRY & CHEMISTRY: (continued) Tim Larkin: Double Slit Interference BIOCHEMISTRY & CHEMISTRY: Dr. Robyn Goacher

Andrea DeRosa: Teacher Recruitment, Preparation Methods, and Professional Preparation Programs: A Comparative Analysis FINANCE: Professor Edward Hutton John Osberg, Kevin Ryan: Do Investors Rationally Evaluate Investment Fees? A Behavioral Finance Investigation HISTORY: Dr. Shannon Risk Philicia Beckles: Dutch Colonization of Guiana (Modern-day Guyana) HISTORY: Dr. Stefanie Wichhart Sarah Page: Under the British Raj: Women and Gender Expectations in British India Stephanie Vargas, Leah Schlehr: Shaping a Nation: The History of Likud Alex Davis, James Kerins, Phil Sutton, T.J. McCormick: Nuclear Policy in the Middle East Christopher Bosley, Frank Morabito, Don Reed: The Dynamics of the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Middle East Region HISTORY: (continued) Daniel McGovern, Naveen Ammar, Matthew Akindipe: Finding Peace in the Land of Promise

Kayla Carrasquillo, Erica Crane, Daniel Wirth: ArabIsraeli Conflict: The United Nations and European Involvement Shanleigh Corrallo, Claire Curran, Jerri Strunk: Escape From Exile Alexandra Novak, Andrew Edwards, Leah Mason: Palestinian Politics and the Refugee Controversy LIBERAL ARTS: Dr. Kalen Churcher Pamela Beehler: Virtual Misogyny: How Women Are Depicted in the World of Video Gaming LIBERAL ARTS: Dr. Nancy McGlen Lydia Montesino: The Affordable Care Act and Population Health MARKETING: Professor Bohdan Pikas Gabriel Sorrentino: The Effectiveness of Online Advertising MATH: Dr. Michael Barg David Nash: What is cos2?

MATH: Dr. Phong Le Marissa McCarthy: Flexigons POLITICAL SCIENCE: Dr. David Reilly

Vincent Donner: Examining the Rentier State Theory Shelby Bixler: Does Narco-trafficking Fund Terrorist Organizations? Aral Egilmez: American Values: Opinions on Federal Gun Ownership Regulation Kenneth Joyner: Gun Ownership and Death Penalty Matthew Mulvihill: The Drone War: Pakistani Impact Ethan Rugani: Religiosity and Same-sex Marriage POLITICAL SCIENCE: Dr. Jamie Pimlott Stephan DUrso: Public Opinion of Affordable Health Care Act Michael Wachowiak: Public Opinion and Homosexual Adoption PSYCHOLOGY: Dr. Peter Butera Kelly Lawson: Food Aversion in Autistic Children PSYCHOLOGY: Dr. Timothy Osberg Claire Elling: Rape Myth Acceptance and the Dark Triad of Personality Traits PSYCHOLOGY: (continued) Crystal Lorenzo: Music Genre Preferences and Their Relation to Depression and Self-injury Amber Markham: The Dark Triad, Academic Performance Attributions, and Academic Dishonesty

Joanne McKeon: Personality and Social Correlates of the Dark Triad Andrea Paul: The Relationship Between Depression, Distorted Food Attitudes, and Diet Nutritional Quality Lindsey Seefeldt: College Student Veterans and Academic Coping Strategies PSYCHOLOGY: Dr. Susan Mason Danielle Raines: Implicit & Explicit Age Stereotypes Amanda Smith: Popular Psychology Myths SOCIAL WORK: Dr. Clementine Laverman Kathie Berry: Social Work Students Level of Preparedness to Work with the Elderly Population Tammy Boutilier: Social and Emotional Needs Assessment for School-aged Children Christopher Dalton: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Program to Reduce Recidivism SOCIAL WORK: (continued) Janice Diaz: Pre-testing a Consent Letter and a Questionnaire Developed for Future Use by Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Megan Eichele: Is a School Social Work Intervention Supportive in Changing a Students Academic Performance and Behaviors in a Classroom Setting? Michelle Guertin, Lana Tisi: Social Work Students Perception Regarding Presence of Spirituality and Religion in Social Work Curriculum Kristin Groot, Kristin Lampman: Examining the Effectiveness of Assertiveness Training in a Secondary School Keyla Iglesias: Evaluation of the Services Provided by Head Start Program Elizabeth Kennedy, Robyn Lawryk: Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Self-harm Rosemarie Lauzon: Evaluation of the Community Health Worker Program for High-risk Pregnant Women Celayna Martin: Evaluation of the Lets be CLEAR About Things a Communication Training Program Nattalie Masterson: Exploring Reasons for Requesting Emergency Financial Assistance

Katherine Pille: Undergraduates Feelings and Beliefs Towards Intimate Partner Violence Laura Reiser: Attitudes Among Healthcare Professionals Towards HIV-positive Clients Nessa Ross, Rachelle Wasserman: Evaluation of a Support Group for Victims of Domestic Violence Katilyn Rosso: Evaluating Behavioral Changes in Members of a Local Safehomes Program Christine Scheer: Assessing the Knowledge About the No Child Left Behind Act Among Education Majors Darcy Unruh: Assessing the Perceived Level of Burnout in the Child Protection Workers Tahera Vawda: Is the P.R.I.D.E. Training Program Effective for Prospective Foster and Adoptive Parents? Kristin Visalli: Assessing the Quality of the Relationships Between Siblings

SOCIAL WORK: (continued) Roberta McPherson: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supportive Services Offered to Parent to Maintain Custody of Their Children