URSP Student Alexis Jenkins Studies the Development of Japanese Hip-Hop Subculture

I studied abroad at Akita International University in Akita, Japan for the Fall 2015 semester. While there, I participated in the school’s hip-hop dance team. I was fascinated by all of the exposure I had to the Japanese hip-hop subculture, including a trip to perform in a dance showcase at a neighboring university. My experiences inspired me to explore the topic further. I wanted to learn about how and why the subculture developed and the effects it has had on the population and Japanese music industry. My research question is as follows: How can American cross-cultural influence on young adults in Japan be observed through the development of the Japanese hip-hop subculture?

For my project, I am planning to interview Japanese college students about their experiences with hip-hop. In order to be able to interview people, I had to complete an application for the Institutional Review Board. This process took a few weeks because, in addition to writing interview questions and the application in English, I had to translate a lot of the materials to Japanese. After submitting, I revised as necessary. Besides this process, I have been reading scholarly articles every week and meeting with my mentor bi-weekly.

One cool “discovery” I have made came from a scholarly article I read recently. The article discussed the theory of “hybridism” and how it applies to Japan. Basically, according to the author, Japan’s culture is such that it is able to take on aspects of other cultures and those aspects eventually become Japanese; Japanese culture is like a sponge. I found this really interesting and it supported some of my observations as a participant in Japan’s hip-hop culture.

This project relates to my long-term goals because I hope to return to Japan in the near future. I am actually submitting my application to the JET Program soon, which, if I am accepted, will provide me with the opportunity to live in Japan for at least one year as an assistant language teacher for school-aged children. The experience of speaking with Japanese students for my project and researching a specific aspect of Japanese culture will prepare me for living in Japan again and interacting with people.

URSP Student Alexis Garretson Explores Budgets of National and State Parks

This semester I am working on a project exploring the budgets of national and state parks in Virginia. Specifically, I am interested in identifying any differences in management priorities and budget totals between parks managed by the federal government and the state of Virginia. Last semester I was a student at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation, where I was able to learn more about natural spaces in Virginia and the policies that impact them, especially Shenandoah National Park. During my time in Front Royal, a large section of Shenandoah National Park caught fire. I started reading a lot about wildfire policies in the US and learned that in 2015 more than 60% of the US Forest Service budget went to fire suppression. This number seemed incredibly high, and led me to wonder how budget priorities differed across management authorities. My first step in this process was to request the comprehensive budgets from the natural parks in Virginia. While I wait for these budgets, I am reading smaller budget documents about priorities for the different management authorities in Virginia. I have also been reading a lot of literature about what the differences between state and federal practices are in other parts of the country, especially in the western United States. The most interesting thing I discovered this week is that some western states engage in something called ‘land banking.’ This is where states can sell off trust lands that have low recreational value to purchase lands more suitable to recreation. It’s an interesting way that states can prioritize recreational activity on public lands. I’ve also been preparing my datasets for when I receive the budgets. I am using a program called GIS to catalogue different geographical data about the parks, for example, how far the parks are from a water source or what physiographic region they are in. This will help me control for the different situations the parks are in. Long term, I am interested in the intersection of economics with conservation and natural resource policy. Specifically, how can we build better institutional structures to encourage conservation and natural recreation? I hope to continue exploring these questions in graduate school and in my future career. 

URSP Student Lynn Bonomo Studies the Relationship between Nosema Infection and Bumble Bee Food Choice

This semester, I research Nosema, a fungal gut pathogen, in bumble bee workers and the relationship between Nosema infection and bumble bee food choice. I became interested in my project last spring after taking a class with my current mentor, Dr. Forkner. I wanted to have experience with both field and lab research techniques and  joined an ongoing research project on bumble bee queens. After I started working, I decided to expand the research to examine worker bees and collaborated with my mentor to develop a project for URSP.  I am fascinated by the research because it is critical to preventing the current decline of bumble bees, which are essential crop pollinators.

My long-term goals are to go to graduate school in biology and to pursue jobs in the conservation field.  I would enjoy working as a researcher at either a non-profit, aquarium or zoo, or even in the federal government and being able to apply my research outcomes to make a difference. This research project helps me learn field and lab techniques I will need in the future, and provides me with experience in species conservation. All of these skills will make me able to conduct research on my own in the future.

Over last spring and the summer, I collected all the bumble bee workers I needed while helping to collect bumble bee queens. Since the semester has started, I have been processing my worker bees to make pollen slides to assess food diversity and to check the pollen and bees for Nosema.  More recently, I have been counting and analyzing the pollen diversity of the fuschin-stained pollen slides. After the data have been collected, I will analyze the data with regression tests and seeing if there is a correlation between pollen diversity and Nosema infection loads and will use ANOVA to look for species differences in infection rates and food choices.

I have discovered that research is a creative process overall. In undergraduate courses, the labs have usually already been practiced hundreds of times and the process and techniques have been perfected. Working on your own research requires you to be flexible and adaptive to changes that you need to make. You have to be willing to try something new or change techniques in order to get the data necessary for your research. Over the semester, my process and project has evolved and changed to what works best with the available equipment and what I can complete in a semester.

URSP Student Timothy Reid studies the Elements of the Rank 2 Free Group

I am Tim Reid and I am a senior mathematics major. I am doing mathematics research in the field of abstract algebra. Research in pure mathematics is trying to solve unsolved problems that are brought up in previous research literature. In my research project I am studying elements of a set called the rank 2 free group. The elements of the free group are called words, and we are studying how these words can be used to represent deformations of objects in the real projective plane.

I began this project when I started working at the Mason Experimental Geometry Lab (MEGL). At MEGL we study unsolved math problems by using a method called “experimental mathematics.” Experimental mathematics refers to writing computer programs to generate data sets related to the problem, looking for patterns in the data set, using the patterns to form conjectures, and then trying to prove those conjectures. This semester we began investigating how the words can be used to represent the deformations. To assist in understanding how the words can represent the deformations, I am writing a computer program visualize the deformations in the real projective plane. So far I have learned how the deformations work in general but we are still investigating how the words are related to them.

My goal after I graduate is to enter a PhD program in mathematics and then eventually work as a researcher in mathematics. This research project is my first research experience in mathematics and it has only increased my interest in the subject. 

URSP Student Allison O'Neill Studies and Isolates Aquatic Humid Substances

My name is Allison O’Neill and I am a sophomore Biochemistry major. This semester, Fall of 2016, I am doing research under Dr. Foster to isolate aquatic humic substances and study their chemical structure as well as numerous physical properties. When I was first introduced to this project, I was originally interested in working as an assistant to one of his graduate students in the lab. However, I talked with Dr. Foster more and we decided on a project that I would be best suited to work on. As of now, I have had many opportunities to gain experience working with other researchers in my field of study, as well as working in a chemistry lab and contributing knowledge to my field. Having this experience will help me prepare for my later goals of going to medical school and studying to become a doctor.

My project took a while to get off of the ground. There is not a concrete method to extract humic substances from an aquatic source, but Dr. Foster and a previous undergraduate student of his, Zohair Khan, had developed a technique after reading many articles on the subject. They came up with a glass column packed with the resin DAX-8 that the water samples would be filtered through. However, our first attempt at working with the column resulted in it breaking and we had to go back to the drawing board. After a month of reconfiguring and waiting patiently for parts to come in, I was finally able to start my research.

A typical week for me consists of collecting water samples from various water sources in the Potomac watershed. Then I take them back to the lab and perform a simple distillation of the water, place the filtered sample in the cooler, and have the samples filtered through the resin within 48 hours. Then the resin will be backwashed and deionized. Finally, the samples will be ready to be further analyzed. This can become very overwhelming and time consuming, but I get a lot of support from Dr. Foster and he has helped me understand how hard, yet rewarding, research can be. Ultimately, the biggest thing that I have learned from this experience is to be patient. Since I was unable to start my research right away because of the broken equipment, I had to learn to be patient and prepare for other aspects of my research in the mean time. Furthermore, I plan on continuing this research into next semester, since I will not have enough time to finish everything I planned on this semester.