News reports were selected from research presented at the 15th Annual Graduate Exhibition, March 2000

Thinking Twice

By Jason Weiss

Can bilingual people think in their second language? It’s a question linguists have asked for a long time. One factor may be the tangibility of the word — for instance, “glass” can be touched, while “culture” can only be thought about. Another influence is the similarity of the word in both lan- guages. In Spanish, “glass” is vaso while “culture” is cultura. Natasha Tokowicz, a graduate student in psychology, found a third factor. She tested the speed at which bilingual people translated words. It took longer when people had more than one choice. For example, “glass” in Spanish could be vaso (a drinking vessel made of glass) or vidrio (the glass material itself). Tokowicz found that all three factors interact.

Cleaning the Crud

By Lisa Kienzle

Why bother cleaning a tube that just carries water, right? Wrong. At high temperatures, water leaves behind corrosion leftovers, “crud,” which coats the heating surfaces of steam generator tubes. If the crud is not cleaned off, the tubes could crack. But after chemical cleaning, the tubes no longer function as well. Arunjumar Sridharan set out to determine why. Sridharan, a gradu-ate student in mechanical engineering, studied the heat-transfer ability of chemi-cally cleaned tubes, brand-new tubes, and tubes that were covered with crud. The dirty tubes heated best, due to porous materials on the surface that promoted boiling. Chemical cleaning, while prevent-ing the cracking and corroding of the tubes, removed these materials so that the tubes were no longer able to heat as well, result-ing in decreased steam generator pressure.

Cheaper Grape Juice

By Gina Cancelliere

The grape juice industry wants to cut costs. One way is to reduce upkeep by letting grape canopies grow without pruning. Louise Comas, a graduate student in plant physiology and ecology, looked beneath the soil, at root dynamics, to see if this idea could work. How does pruning affect roots? Comas monitored root develop-ment for a year via underground camera. Each two weeks the videotapes were con-verted to computer images so she could analyze the roots’ metabolic activity. Comas discovered that the roots generally live for five weeks, regardless of pruning. So it is possible for grape canopies to flourish in the spring and summer without human intervention, that is, until the fall harvest.

Picture Talk

By Jenai Young

Imagine you are four years old. To ask your mom for a cookie you have to shift your eyes to a picture on a board in front of you. Many children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy rely on such symbol boards — or other Augmentative and Al-ternative Communication (AAC) systems — to communicate. Shelley Lund and Diane Millar, graduate students in com-munication disorders, compared symbols on common AAC systems to pictures drawn by children without disabilities. The AAC systems often used abstract symbols, such as a red cross for “help.” The child-ren’s own pictures were more detailed, yet easier to understand. The study suggests that AAC systems should use symbols that are easier for young children to relate to.