http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6650 A journal of undergraduate student research http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28252 The Historical Jesus and the Slave of the Centurion: How the Themes of Slavery, Sexuality, and Military Service Intersect in Matthew 8:5-13. Koepnick, Erik When the identity of the slave in the Gospel narrative of “The Healing of the Centurion’s Slave” is studied through historical-critical research, the written and earlier oral traditions of the story indicate that the miraculous act is true to the historical Jesus. Also, by exploring the slave’s identity as a slave, same-sex love interest, and military recruit—and the 1st century C.E. implications thereof—the author concludes that the historical Jesus understood the sexual relationship between the centurion and his slave, and healed the latter based on the faith of the former. Jesus never spoke negatively about homosexuality and never offered sociological or theological discourse pertaining thereto. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 82-92 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:14:21 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28250 A Contradictory Constitution: Forgotten Hypocrisies in the Blueprint of Democracy Knitt, Joseph The following essay investigates the contradictions of the modern concepts linked to the U.S. Constitution and the actual ideologies of those who wrote it. While it may be viewed as a beacon of modern democracy today, it contains several contradictory and outright racist portions pertaining to Blacks. Although those contradictions and racist laws have been rectified, it is important that we remember they are still in there. If we cannot learn from the mistakes of those before us, we will more than likely make those same mistakes again. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008, pp. 26-33. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:14:10 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28248 Effects of Music and Choice Listening on Arousal Changes. Miller, Katie Brazeau, Christina Fuiten, Melissa Woelfel, Jessica This study based its method on Pitzen and Rauscher’s 1998 study, testing 60 participants between classical stimulative, sedative, or no music conditions and choice or no choice exposure conditions. We calculated results using two 2 X 3 design (Condition X Music) completely randomized factorial analyses of variance for mean difference of heart-rate (HR) before and after the exposure condition and for state anxiety, a short-term form of anxiety. Findings indicated that mean HR difference increased in the no choice condition compared to the choice. Participants scored significantly higher state anxiety for choice-stimulative as compared to the no choice-stimulative condition. Additionally, participants in the no choice-no music condition showed significantly higher state anxiety compared to those in the no choice-stimulative condition. For future research, experimenters may include the skin conductive measure galvanic skin response (GSR) as a second dependent variable. Finally, participants could wait 5 to 10 min in order to acclimate to the testing environment. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 73-81 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:13:38 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28246 Use of Screen Real Estate on University Home Pages. Zinoviev, Alexander In this project, the home pages of the 11 comprehensive universities in the University of Wisconsin System were analyzed and compared according to categories suggested by Jakob Nielsen. This research clearly defines eight categories of screen real estate and then uses them to compare home pages of each university. Results show that the universities do not use space efficiently and that they vary according to how they use their Web sites for such things as promoting themselves or providing content of interest. Design suggestions are offered for improving the allocation of screen real estate on university home pages: use design that takes advantage of the entire screen; allocate more space to content of interest and navigation; and limit use of self promotion content and filler. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 64-72 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:13:24 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28244 Robert Venturi and His Contributions to Postmodern Architecture. Kahl, Douglas This paper examines the major contributions of architect Robert Venturi to the field of Postmodern architecture during the 1970s. Many of Venturi’s buildings were small in stature, designed for a specific location and site, and only large when necessary. Designing for a specific site was not traditionally done during the first half of the 20th century. The Modern movement was a stark, plain, and disengaging form of architecture from which Venturi took enormous strides to distance himself. Venturi’s interpretations of what Postmodernism should be included intense historical symbolism from the particular region in which he intended to build. For him, a schoolhouse being designed for the state of Georgia ought to be different from a school being designed for Washington state. The cultural history that a community’s citizens share varies intensely from city to city, a realization that Venturi worked to address through Postmodernism. Eventually fed up with the generic feel Modernism projected, Venturi took the quote “Less is more” from Mies van der Rohe, a staunch Modernist architect, and mockingly declared that “Less is a bore.” Venturi’s brand of Postmodern architecture was anything but boring. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 55-63 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:13:03 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28242 Prolonging the War for a Permanent Peace: Wisconsin Soldiers and the 1864 Election. Karel, Scott The main focus of this essay was to find out what the motivations were for Civil War soldiers from Wisconsin in their choice for president in the 1864 election. The decision was a difficult one: they could either stay with the incumbent president or choose George McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was well-liked by the majority of his men, and through the summer of 1864 it appeared as though the Lincoln administration was not managing the war efficiently. An examination of the soldiers’ journals and personal letters indicates that, although many men questioned Lincoln’s capability to lead the Union to victory, the soldiers were forced to vote against McClellan after the Democratic Convention adopted a party platform that endorsed peace with the South at any cost. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 44-54 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:12:47 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28240 Failed Sisterhood: Expectations and Betrayal Between the Women of the Antebellum South Filidoro, Erica Mistresses and slave women in the antebellum South lived and often suffered together under an oppressive patriarchy. They all endured a kind of enslavement in a system that reduced all women to the property of White men in some way. Previous historians have argued that this kindled gender solidarity between White and Black women. Others have argued that issues of race, class, privilege, and jealousy prevented the formation of any sense of sisterhood between the two groups of women. However, the issue is more complex than simply discovering whether there was or was not gender solidarity. Although antebellum women did not achieve any real unity, mistress journals and slave narratives reveal that on rare but important occasions they acknowledged the possibility of sisterhood and responded with guilt, betrayal, or anger at their failure to achieve it. These subtler nuances reveal a complicated relationship between mistress and bondswoman under slavery that transcended easy definitions according to race, privilege, or gender. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008, pp. 34-43. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:12:25 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28238 Does an Inverted Yield Curve Predict Recessions? DeRosier, Ryan This paper examines the factors that determine the rate of growth of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. economy for the years 1976-2006, with an emphasis on the role of the yield curve in predicting economic growth. Using multiple regression analyses, I examined the impact of a number of independent variables, including year, year-squared, the money supply, the unemployment rate, the lag distribution of unemployment, the inflation rate, the lag distribution of the inflation rate, the current account balance, the lag distribution of the current account, and the yield curve. I found that an inverted yield curve raises the probability of a recession in the next period; this relationship is statistically significant. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008, pp. 8-15. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:34:45 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28236 Gender and GDP Contributions: The Effects of Culture Graham, Elizabeth This paper uses Ordinary Least Squares regressions to examine the cultural, demographic, and geographical sources of differences in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributions of women. These cultural variables include religion, level of female education, fertility, political representation, and the mean age of marriage. The results show that culture has considerable explanatory power for female labor force participation rates, the gender wage gap, and women’s contributions to GDP. Surprisingly, fertility rates were not found to have any impact on women’s contributions to GDP. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 3, 2008 pp. 16-25. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:34:06 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28234 Oshkosh Scholar DeRosier, Ryan Graham, Elizabeth Knitt, Joseph Filidoro, Erica Karel, Scott Kahl, Douglas Zinoviev, Alexander Miller, Katie Brazeau, Christina Fuiten, Melissa Woelfel, Jessica Koepnick, Erik A journal of UW Oshkosh undergraduate research Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22347 The Labors of a Race: Labor and Leaders in the Twentieth Century Marker, Erik Since the mid-19th century, labor activism in the African American community has shifted from least to most important in the Black freedom struggle. The roles of major figures like Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington are crucial in understanding the rise of the African American Labor Movement. A trend of merging social and labor goals from the post Civil War era to the late 1960s culminated with the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 2, 2007, p. 91-98. Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:28:33 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22345 Rieske Iron-Sulfur Isoforms in a Unicellular Cyanobacterium Schettle, Sarah Rieske iron-sulfur proteins (ISPs) are integrally involved in photosynthetic electron transport chains and thus closely linked to energy production and its regulation in cyanobacteria and plant chloroplasts. The cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has three Rieske proteins, PetC1, PetC2, and PetC3, whose specific roles are not well understood. Here we describe two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting used to investigate the PetC1 Rieske protein in native Synechocystis and to confirm its absence in a mutant with an inactivated PetC1 gene. These studies revealed a “trail” of PetC1 Rieske protein spots migrating at the same molecular weight on 2D gels but at different isoelectric points. This “stuttering” phenomenon suggests covalent modifications that may reflect oxidative damage or modifications of the protein involved in biochemical signaling reactions. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 2, 2007, p. 81-89. Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:28:19 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22343 Synthesis of Pterocarpan Cabenegrin A-II. Bodoh, Bruce Cabenegrin A-II is a molecule found in small quantities in the South American plant commonly called Portuguese Snake Herb, and is useful as a snake and spider anti-venom. Cabenegrin A-II occurs in these plants as a mixture of compounds. It belongs to the biologically active class of compounds known as pterocarpans. Synthetic methods for preparing cabenegrin A-II and other pterocarpans are highly valued. This research develops a novel route to construct the core portion of cabenegrin A-II, which is common to all pterocarpans. This method will allow us to synthesize both ends of the molecule separately. The fragments are then bonded together while the pterocarpan core is synthesized. The strategy used in these experiments will be useful for constructing other biologically important pterocarpans. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 2, 2007, p. 71-79. Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:28:09 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22341 Preservation and Immortatlity: The Transition From Oral to Written Culture in Iceland. Knitt, Joseph The following article comes from Dr. Barbara Crass’s Anthropology 300: The Viking World class during the Spring 2006 semester at UW Oshkosh. It is intended to provide insight on the transition from an oral to a written culture in Iceland. A set of necessary achievements appear to have been in place that were consistent with other cultures that have established written cultures. When these pieces were put together around the turn of the last millennium (circa 1100–1200 CE) they allowed the transition to occur. The main items of this change were Iceland’s excellent history or narrative storytelling, an exceptional cast of storytellers and poets, and the introduction of the written word to the Icelanders by Christian missionaries. Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 2, 2007, p. 63-69. Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:27:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/22339 The Invisible Woman: Eve's Self Image in Paradise Lost. Whitfield, Jonathan This article is a feminist, deconstructive analysis of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Taking the perspective of the story’s main female character—Eve—the article seeks to understand how gender affects interpretation and how Milton’s interpretation of the old biblical story hints at some of the problems of gender roles and “institutionalized misogyny” that are so much a part of our Western tradition. Milton’s Eve has been created from a man, subjected to his rule, and punished for her alleged inferiority. She has been placed in a world that is not her own, her intellectual powers limited, her ability to define herself and her world prevented. Hers is an existence defined by men, and this is a paper dedicated to understanding her perspective—the female perspective. Is she the foil that tradition says she is? Or is she the hero, the first great seeker of knowledge? Oshkosh Scholar, Volume 2, 2007, p. 57-61. Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:27:49 GMT