Montana State University Billings
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Item Mathematics for Social Justice(Montana State University Billings, 2021-04) Fisher, Elizabeth; Day, Corinne (Faculty Mentor)This research project shares findings from my study of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM), which is mathematics that focuses on promoting equity within the mathematics classroom, but also on empowering students to understand and confront inequities outside the classroom. As part of my project, I created my own SJM lesson featuring Indian Education for All. In this lesson, students will learn through math that there is something happening on the reservations that is causing them to have higher rates of COVID cases and subsequently more deaths. In this lesson, students will calculate the percentages of current COVID cases for each demographic population in Montana and analyze data and identify discrepancies in COVID rates among ethnic groups. This lesson helps students start conversations about why this is occurring, how federal policy affects life on American Indian Reservations, and discuss what they can do to try to help change this.Item Relationship between Language Patterns and Antisocial Personality Disorder(Montana State University Billings, 2021-04) Goettlich, Kiah; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)Background:Presently the diagnosis of personality disorders, particularly those that are concerned with manipulative traits such as those associated with Antisocial Personality Disorder, are extremely time consuming and variable from clinician to clinician. With the rise of social media platforms personal writings over time have become more widely available. If a new system of analysis were to be utilized as a way to help clinical assessments it could significantly reduce the time invested as well as the reliability of the data. Aim:This study was meant to investigate whether there are quantitative differences in language patterns of those identified with a personality disorder (through the use of the MCMI-III) and those without. Approach: Deidentified transcripts of the Adult Attachment Interview were formatted so that text-analysis could be run using the R-studio (Version 1.4.1103) software. The transcripts that were identified as persons with the disorder were randomly paired with those that were identified as not having the disorder. The content analysis included the complexity of the text through the use of each group's lexical diversity, lexical density, and word count. Sentiment analysis was run which assessed not only the number of positive words versus negative but also the most common words under each of those sentiments. Similarly, overarching themes can be seen when the most frequently used words of each condition are compared by themselves and then in pairs (using the bigrams data frame). Results:Based on previous research in this area, it was expected that those with the personality disorder would show themes that are more negative in nature (e.g., aggression, fear, etc.). When the sentiment analysis was run there were differences in common words based on sentiment. However, there were not significant differences when the analyses for the texts complexity were compared.Item Police Stops Analysis Within the Montana State 2009-2016(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Mazel, Jeannine; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)The purpose of this analysis was to uncover multiple correlations in Montana police stops occurring between the years 2009-2016. Data on the Montana police stops was obtained from The Standford Policing Project. The program Rstudio was utilized in order to calculate and reveal information and correlations surrounding the following:1) Most common race/gender/age group to be stopped; 2) Most common reasons for police stops; 3) Correlations between police stops and racial features; and 4) Geographical information and correlations for police stops across Montana roads, particularly for negligent homicide and DUIs.Item Trend of Internet Searches Related to "Coronavirus"(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Hughes, Emily; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)Very evidently, the coronavirus has become a worldwide issue that has sparked panic across many nations. This project examines how Google searches related to coronavirus have spiked and fallen within the last few months since the beginning of the pandemic. Using RStudio -a coding platform -and the specific function “trendyy,” the trend of searches will be shown in graphs, as well as tables. The results show that the searches spike around January and February, and that places such as Italy showed a larger peak in searches for the disease compared to the United States.Item Successful Growth of RIL Arabidopsis thalianaOffspring Based on Traits Shared with Parent Plants(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Herriford, Cailen; Comer, Jason (Faculty Mentor)This study was primarily focused on phenotypic observation of Arabidopsis thaliana offspring from the parent cross of varieties Columbia (CS933) and Landsberg (CS20). Arabidopsis was an ideal organism to use in this study due to its array of distinctive heritable traits and its relatively short life cycle. The offspring used in this study were recombinant inbred lines (RILs), which have been allowed to self-pollinate over a series of generations in order to fix their homozygosity. The RIL offspring of the two Arabidopsis thaliana parent varieties should exhibit a combination of observable traits from both parents. Given that Columbia grows in a warmer region, at a temperature closer to the conditions found in the growth room, it was hypothesized that these parent plants would grow more successfully than the Landsberg parent plants. By this same logic, it was hypothesized that offspring which share more traits with the Columbia parent would be more successful than those offspring which share many traits with Landsberg. The traits that were measured to determine growth success include silique number per plant and number of branch points off the main inflorescence (to determine fecundity), as well as the inflorescence height at the end of the growth period. Ultimately the CS20 parents were found to be less successful at surviving under the given conditions, as they showed the lowest averages in all the categories measured. The majority of the offspring shared two of the most distinctive phenotypic traits with CS933, floppy inflorescence and pointy siliques, while only one offspring line shared the blunt siliques and erect inflorescence found in CS20. Additionally, the most successful offspring lines tended to also be those plants with the largest rosette diameters, which was confirmed to be predictive of success by a linear regression analysis.Item Can a Conventional Deadlift Exercise Reduce Low Back Pain in Physical Therapy Patients?(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Cole, Alyssa; Shafer, Alex (Faculty Mentor)Low back pain is a common health condition affecting 50-80% of American adults. Traditional rehabilitation of the low back includes hip mobility/flexibility and core strengthening/stabilizing exercises. A conventional deadlift executed with proper form, promotes a neutral spine, core stabilization and hip mobility. PURPOSE:To determine the effect of performing a conventional deadlift routine on low back pain. It is hypothesized that the conventional deadlift will provide similar effects as the traditional low back rehabilitation program by reducing pain and improving function. METHODS:Forty participants seeking treatment for lower back pain at an outpatient Physical Therapy (PT) clinic will be recruited to participate in the study. Potential participants will be screened for inclusion/exclusion criterial prior to participation. Half of those who agree to participate will be assigned to the experimental group and receive the additional deadlift exercise routine incorporated into the standard PT administered therapy sessions. The other participants will be assigned to the control group (PT without additional deadlifting). Each participant will complete the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) during the initial visit, mid-point of treatment, and then again at the end of the intervention. The PT staff at the clinic have volunteered to administer the ODI assessment as well as the deadlifting intervention on behalf of the student researcher. EXPECTED RESULTS:Participant characteristics of age, sex, and injury history will be reported. ODI scores and length of treatment will be compared between groups using independent t tests. The results of this study can help to determine whether the benefits of strengthening of the core, hips and back musculature from the deadlift exercise improves patient outcomes beyond a standard low back rehabilitation program. Improving physical therapy treatment options for individuals with low back pain is a critical step in help individuals manage low back related pain and disability.Item Walking Does Not Significantly Improve Word Recall or State Anxiety in a Single Session: A Pilot Study(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Brandon, Connor; McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Mentor)Research suggests that exercise can improve memory ability (Labban & Etnier, 2011; Martins et al., 2013; Shih, 2017; Standage, 2010) and decrease anxiety (Blacklock et al., 2010; Knapens et al., 2009). The current study hypothesized that an exercise condition will recall more vocabulary words and have greater reductions in state anxiety compared to the sedentary control condition. Participants were randomly divided into either a sedentary control group or an exercise group. Both groups took the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire (STAI-AD). Both groups were then given ten minutes to learn15 vocabulary words while either sitting in a chair or walking on a treadmill at 3mph, followed by a 20-minute consolidation period. Participants were asked to recall as many words as they could remember from their task and took the STAI-AD a second time. Paired t-tests were performed for analyzing the reduction in state anxiety and amount of words recalled in both conditions. The pilot results showed the exercise group (n=4) did not remember more vocabulary words compared to the control group (n=2; t = 0.4078, p-value = 0.749). The exercise group did show greater reductions in state anxiety compared to the control group (t = 1.1847, p-value = 0.4298). However, both analyses returned statistically insignificant results due to small sample sizes. Further data will be collected to obtain statistical significance and retest the hypothesis.Item State Death Penalty Analysis(Montana State University Billings, 2020-04) Loy, Katherine; Dr. McMullen, Matthew (Faculty Advisor)The United States has used capital punishment since colonization. Over time some states have abolished it and others have not. There are many databases that have collected information on each state’s policy for the death penalty. Using these databases, I will take a deeper look at the death penalty in the United States as it varies from state to state. I will be using a few different death penalty databases, such as The Death Penalty Information Center, The Condemned and End of its Rope. After I gather data, using RStudio Cloud, I will analyze the data and generate statistics, graphs, and maps. The main areas I would like to look at are: which states still impose the death penalty, when did the other states abolish the death penalty, and what are the different methods of execution that different states use and how has that changed over time.