Browsing by Subject "Cum Laude"

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Analysis of a Treadmill Based Human Power Electricity Generator
(2012-08-27) Mankodi, Harsh;
The modern challenge faced with the global energy situation is the growing energy demand and the strong dependence on unsustainable fossil fuels. Another concurrent issue is the adverse health and socio-economic implications of adult obesity. Human Power Generation, which uses metabolized human energy to generate electrical power, could potentially address both these challenges. The treadmill, one of the most popular exercise machines, presently consumes large amounts of energy while dissipating a majority as heat. The purpose of this thesis project was to design and develop a human powered treadmill generator and determine its power generation potential. The developed treadmill was based on a manual flatbed treadmill using an electromagnetic dynamo generator coupled to a front axle flywheel. A heavy duty rechargeable battery pack was used to store the generated energy and additional components to measure the generated power were included. The power generating potential of the generator was determined for varying belt speeds and angles of inclination, and compared with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) metabolic walking and running prediction equations to determine efficiency. The generator was able to deliver 140W peak power for a short period of time. Regression equations related the power generated to the belt speed, covering values ranging from an average 10.8±0.36W at 1.83±0.045m/s to 90.3±3.04W at 2.38±0.054m/s. The angle of inclination did not have a significant impact on energy generation. The max average efficiency obtained for the system in this study was 37.9±2.63%, assuming 25% gait efficiency. Possible applications for this concept include energy saving equipment in a gym, low-cost, simple to operate, and low maintenance solutions for developing nations, and as a tool to educate energy conservation. Also, the need for exercise in space with low gravity makes the treadmill generator a possible source for secondary power in future extraterrestrial environments.
Behavioral Finance: A Study of Gender Affects on Investing Decisions
(2012-08-27) Fish, Jenna;
There is a current debate in the literature as to whether females are more risk averse than males. The studies finding females to be more risk averse studied male and female behavior in the realm of retirement fund selection, while research finding that females exhibit similar levels of risk as males were studies comparing male and female mutual fund managers. In addition to these distinctly different contexts, much of the research that found females to exhibit similar risks as males were completed more recently. To further research the relationship between risk aversion and gender I am investigating what factors affect a person’s risk aversion and whether or not risk aversion is related to gender. My research comes from a study of college-aged students (ages18-22) participating in a classroom investing assignment where students were divided into groups randomly based on gender and given a hypothetical $500,000 to invest in the market with a goal of earning the highest returns. I find that females are shown to be more risk averse. Even when controlling for financial knowledge and experience, females were more risk averse.
Can We Determine Our Own Happiness? Core Self-Evaluation as Related to Job and Relationship Satisfaction
(2016) Fendos, Jennifer;
College is a double-edged sword in that it is often seen as a time of newfound freedom and fun, but also described as a core source of stress. Considerable research suggests that one’s tolerance to stress is directly related to personality factors that determine general life satisfaction. However, evidence suggests core self-evaluation, a personality factor consisting of self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability, is linked to not just general life satisfaction, but specific types of life satisfaction, such as one’s job. This study utilizes a survey to examine the relationship between core self-evaluation and college satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and coping skills among 161 college students. I find statistical significance in between all three relationships - core self-evaluation being positively related to job and relationship satisfaction and coping skills – and discuss the possible reasons behind why. These findings not only help to shed light on a new personality variable that can determine satisfaction, but also offer insight into how internal factors can manifest in one’s everyday life.
Critical Literacy & Performance: Language in Action
(2013-08-12) Redemann, Joseph;
My Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts degree was originally undertaken as a performance emphasis degree, in which I hoped to acquire the training to become a professional theatre artist and actor. I have since realized that I hope to inspire students to feel the same way that I did about the stage: confident, empowered, engaged in my learning. This project and paper depict the beginnings of the process by which I will teach and empower students through storytelling, writing, and acting in order to help them develop critical literacy skills that will help them critically analyze and engage with their society. Through these non-traditional media of education, students will discover new and exciting ways to learn in the classroom, as well as to apply their classroom educations to their real-life experiences, connecting the theoretical with the practical. One will notice that this project, while containing a syllabus, a syllabus rationale, and three lesson plans, this course plan is far from finished; this is intentional. My advisor and I determined to set specific goals for the end of this semester, but that I would not submit a project that will be a ‘capstone’ project, ending my college career and simply providing a ‘time capsule’ of my efforts on campus. I intended to create a project that would both show the trajectory of my education at this school and propel me onward into the next phases of my life. This class outline will never be entirely completed because my education will be a lifelong endeavor, and I will constantly be revising my educational practice and adapting it to the needs of the students I am with. That is the goal of a truly liberatory education: to serve the needs of the students. My thesis project takes this form because it not only shows what I have done, it indicates what I will do, serving my need to help guide me onward from this University as I seek to become an educator and activist for social justice.
Deep QWOP Learning
(2017) Wu, Hung-Wei;
We apply a deep learning model to the QWOP flash game, which requires control of a ragdoll athlete using only the keys “Q”, “W”, “O”, and “P”. The model is a convolutional neural network trained with Q-learning. By training the model with only raw pixel input, we show that our model is capable of successfully learning a control policy associated with playing QWOP. This model was successfully applied to a non-deterministic control environment in the form of a ragdoll physics flash game.
Do low repatriations of foreign earnings impact cash flow? An analysis of the effect of Tax Code §965 on multinational corporations
(2016) Longley, Amanda;
The tax holiday on repatriations of foreign earnings instituted by the AJCA did not have the effect of increased U.S. investment its writers intended, but it was taken advantage of by many companies for different reasons. Congress has in recent years considered instituting another such holiday, but little research has been done on the effect of the holiday on companies’ financial health. After the holiday ended, many companies repatriated fewer earnings yearly than they had before the holiday, which may have affected companies’ cash flow. This study investigated the effect of the holiday on cash flow, with reference to several factors that may have added to the effect, using sample of thirty large multinational corporations. The factors examined include the extent to which a company’s operations were overseas, the use of tax havens, and the proportion repatriated of allowed unrepatriated foreign earnings were considered. Regression analysis indicated that the holiday had no statistically significant effect on cash flow, except in that a more extensive use of tax havens was correlated with decreased cash flow.
Geochemical Profiles of Three Deep-sea Hydrothermal Plumes of the Eastern Lau Spreading Center
(2013-08-09) Wendt, Kathleen;
Inputs from deep-sea hydrothermal vents influence ocean geochemical budgets worldwide. Hydrothermal vents produce buoyant and chemically dynamic plumes that are rich in trace seawater elements. The mineral diversity in lower plumes is a direct result of interactions between local geology, hydrology, and biology. Because of this, differences in geochemical trends among naturally occurring plumes are detectable. Past studies have focused on geologic and bulk-chemistry differences between hydrothermal vents (Ferrini et al. 2008; Baker et al. 2005; Pearce et al. 1995; Tivey et al. 2005), while mineral differences among individual plumes remain poorly understood. This study examines and compares lower plume geochemistry of three hydrothermal vents located along the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (ELSC). Deep-sea hydrothermal plumes were sampled by in-situ filtration using ROV Jason2 and the SUPR Sampler (Breier et al. 2009). Samples were collected 0.5 meters above each vent onto polycarbonate membrane filters. Plume particles on the filters were examined by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping. Subsequently, a total of 67 filter-bound particles underwent X-ray ray diffraction (XRD) to define the crystalline minerals. Differences among sites are compared and discussed regarding: (1) geologic setting; (2) vent fluid chemistry; and (3) lower-plume mineral species. Reduced metal polysulfides were detected in concentrations that coincide with previous bulk-chemistry studies (Mottl et al., 2011; Tivey et al., 2007; Ishibashi and Urabe, 1995). In addition, this study will introduce a new method to rate confidence levels associated with the identification of mineral species using X-ray microprobe XRD and XRF analysis.
Gesture: A Cyberphysical system to interpret American Sign Language
(2015) Sievert, Scott;
Language obstacles can often exist when hearing impaired individuals interact with others who are not well-versed in sign language. We propose and develop a system that utilizes commercially available, wireless armbands that are capable of detecting acceleration, orien- tation and electromyography (muscle activity) data. Our interpretation system is designed to translate gestures in a \word-by-word" manner by assuming that each sign language sign corresponds to a unique English word, which eliminates inter-word dependence and makes this a classi cation problem. Using convolutional neural networks as our interpretation al- gorithm, we achieve high classi cation accuracy of roughly 90% for a dictionary of 7 words as well as a \null" word.
Hydrostatic Drive for a Wind Turbine
(2013-08-12) Horvat, Bryan;
One of the main issues with conventional wind turbines is their reliability and expensive maintenance. To address this issue, the Innovative Engineers student group and the Center for Compact Efficient Fluid Power at the University of Minnesota came together to form a research team to develop and test a relatively new wind turbine technology in the field: a hydrostatic transmission for wind turbines. A hydrostatic transmission is a pump and motor fluidly coupled using hydraulic lines. This has several advantages including increasing the reliability of the wind turbine, making its maintenance easier and improving the efficiency of mid-sized wind turbines by allowing the turbine to set the rotor rpm independently of the generator rpm. Research at the University of Minnesota has indicated that the energy output of a conventional mid-sized wind turbine can be increased on average up to 4% by adding a hydrostatic transmission (Thul, 2011, p. 40). To test this, a small (~1kW) wind turbine will be constructed and will be fitted with sensors including hall sensors, a pressure transducer, and a wind speed anemometer. An Arduino microcontroller was used to read all the sensors, store the data and control the wind turbine by controlling the current through the generator and the displacement of the hydraulic motor. The rotor RPM and pressure measurements for the pump were compared to the RPM and current outputs of the generator to determine the efficiency of the hydrostatic wind turbine. While the efficiency results are not conclusive yet, the turbine shows promise to be an efficient and reliable solution. Leakage, high efficiency loss at low wind speeds and weather all pose challenges for the design of this sort of a turbine, but these issues can be overcome.
Metalinguistic Skills of Children with Varying Language Abilities
(2018) Ashlyn, Kriegel;
This study examined the differences between the performance on metalinguistic tasks between children with typical language development and those with weak language skills. Research Bilingual children will be used as a base for stronger metalinguistic abilities and I will discuss what bilingual children’s metalinguistic abilities taught researchers and how it applies to monolinguals and monolinguals with language impairment. Studies also typically use normal language acquiring monolingual children as a control group to compare to bilinguals and/or monolinguals with language impairment. Results indicate that bilinguals have the strongest metalinguistic abilities and monolinguals with language impairment the lowest. I then will include my own research done in Dr. Lizbeth Finestack’s Child Language Lab, comparing monolingual typically developing and low language skilled children between the ages of 4-8 years. This study will use a variety of examinations, looking at verbal skills, nonverbal skills, low-language skills, and metalinguistic skills. The paper concludes that monolinguals with low language skills have impaired metalinguistic skills which influences the strength of their verbal language abilities.
#NiUnaMenos: How a movement can create and maintain political salience through social media
(2019) Swee, Sheridan;
Ni Una Menos, an Argentine feminist movement, has spread throughout Latin America largely due to its use of social media. As an organization, they are able to hold a role of social accountability for both the Argentine government and society overall, keeping women’s rights in the spotlight as an issue that has yet to be resolved. This study examines Ni Una Menos’ Twitter account since its formation in 2015 by organizing tweets qualitatively, then quantitatively. General patterns can be found through this process, leading to a deeper analysis of how the organization has evolved over time, and how they continue to fight for women’s rights.
Pharmaceutical Companies See a Pot of Gold: Why are Pharma Companies Inverting to Ireland?
(2015) Brown, Colin Sawyer;
A recent trend has seen U.S. pharmaceutical companies flocking to Ireland. The main motivation has been called a tax inversion, where the company will relocate to another country with lower tax rates in order to save money. The United States government has become very concerned over the lost revenue from these companies. This paper looks further into the motivation behind inversion and what drives a company beyond the tax implication to engage in an inversion. The four drivers in this paper are revenue structures, industry origins, ownership structure and legal factors. This is addressed through a case study which examines the drivers by comparing the pharmaceutical industry to the software industry. Through evaluation of the case study, ownership structure, revenue structure and industry origins are all found to have an impact of the firm’s decision while legal factors do not. Future research can be expanded to other industries that may have similar characteristics to the pharmaceutical industry in order to examine potential companies that may want to engage in an inversion.

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