THE UNIVERISTY OF ALABAMA - Graduate School - The University ...

David Hardin, John Duffey, Britton Farrell, and Stephanie Cantu, Computer-Based HonorsProgramFaculty Mentor: Dr. Uzma Raja, Department of Information Systems, Statistics, andManagement ScienceText Mining In Deaths of Premature InfantsOur research is the application of text-mining techniques to premature infant dischargesummaries from UAB hospital. We have created a parsing program to clean the data in thedischarge summaries, and we are using text mining to build a predictive model. This model willhelp predict infants that may be at risk of further health problems. Our research will benefit UABhospital, specifically, and these techniques may be applied in models throughout the healthcareindustry.Corrine Harris, Department of EnglishFaculty Mentor: Dr. Anthony Bolden, Department of EnglishHip-Hop and Its Effects on Young Black WomenHip hop is forced to deal with many social problems which may influence its content andstructure. One effect that hip hop has had is in how beauty is portrayed. When people begin to setthe standard of beauty as the solitary, acceptable form there can be detrimental effects on society.Another effect of hip hop is how many artists portray sex as a commodity. Young people seethese images and replicate them accordingly. Many young women therefore experience highlevels of “internalized low self-esteem” and try to gain some control and power in their lives byusing sex.Patrick Sean Harris, Department Geological SciencesFaculty Mentors: Drs. Harold Stowell and Joshua Schwartz, Department of GeologicalSciencesRocks of FiordlandWestern Fiordland on the South Island of New Zealand is interpreted as a Paleozoic to Mesozoiccontinental margin volcanic that was active along the eastern edge of the Gondwanasupercontinent. A large part of this region includes most of the rocks dating back to the Permianand Mesozoic eras. Previous tests preformed on these rocks shows slight errors in the rocks’crystal chemistry. I will crush the rocks to a fine powder to put on the XRF machine todistinguish between the different chemistry of the minerals. I will then polish thin sections to putin the electron microprobe to distinguish any zoning that may occur.Travis Hartin, Department of PsychologyFaculty Mentor: Drs. Ed Merrill and Frances Conners, Department of PsychologyImplicit Learning of Young Children and AdultsImplicit learning is an important form of learning to both children and adults. While implicitlearning is typically viewed as age-independent, other abilities that vary with age, such asselective attention, may influence the outcome of implicit learning. Young children and collegestudents were administered two visual search tasks to analyze possible relationships betweenimplicit memory, age, and selective attention. Participants were asked to locate a target letter (ablue rotated T) amongst distractors (red and blue rotated L’s) over a series of trials. Resultsindicated both groups displayed implicit learning, whether selective attention was required forlearning or not.43