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Show MESSAGE FROM STEVE ROENS Greetings and welcome to the 2013 Undergraduate Research Abstracts. I want to congratulate all of the students w h o have published their cutting edge research in this thirteenth edition. Once again in 2013, as in our past editions, we celebrate the growth of undergraduate research at the University of Utah. This year w e have seen a significant increase in the number of abstracts w e publish describing the research and creative projects accomplished under faculty supervision by our most talented undergraduates, along with the funding to support that research and creative activity. This issue of the Abstracts contains contributions by many students who received assistantships from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). UROP provides undergraduates with opportunities to work one-on-one with faculty sponsors on research and creative projects. UROP, along with the Undergraduate Research Abstracts, the Undergraduate Research Symposium and the other research opportunities for undergraduates with which w e are involved, are part of the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). To find out more about UROP and other opportunities for undergraduate researchers, please visit our website at http://our.utah.edu/. I would like to recognize the students in the Honors College, the Health Sciences LEAP Program and the Undergraduate Student Experts on Teaching program (USET) whose abstracts appear in this journal as well as students w h o participated in the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in April, and those w h o participated in the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) hosted by Utah State University in February, and all other students across the campus w h o have worked on research/creative projects with faculty sponsors, and whose abstracts are included here. In order for undergraduate research/creative projects to take place, faculty sponsors are indispensable. I want to acknowledge these accomplished professionals who, with full teaching loads and extensive commitments to their o w n research, generously give of their time to mentor students in research and creative projects. I would like to thank Jill Stephenson, Administrative Program Coordinator, for recruiting Honors students' abstracts for the journal and Lisa Aspinwall for providing Psychology Senior Thesis students. I would also like to acknowledge the 27 students w h o participated in this year's "Research Posters on the Hill" event at the Utah State Capitol, whose abstracts are published in a special section of the journal, as well as Associate Vice President for Research Cynthia Furse whose office sponsors the event and Jason Perry, Vice President of the University's Office of Government Relations and Natalie Tippets who provided ample support for the event. I am most grateful to Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Hardman and Vice President for Research Thomas Parks. Without their help w e would not have been able to provide students with the rich experiences in research and creative work that they received this year. Finally, I am especially grateful to UROP Administrative Assistant Andrea Haag for her excellent work organizing both Research Posters on the Hill and the Undergraduate Research Symposium and to Associate Director Jill Baeder, w h o is unquestionably the face and spirit of U R O P and the organizational and editorial force behind the Undergraduate Research Abstracts, to Cindy Greaves w ho provides invaluable technical and advising help and finally to Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Martha Bradley for her support, encouragement, and forward looking ideas Steve Roens UROP Director |