WeBWorK Tutorials For Statistics II

The goal of this project was to create enhanced WeBWorK problems for the topics of One-Way and Distribution Free models, which are covered in Applied Statistics II at WPI. Current literature was reviewed and interviews were conducted in order to determine a tutoring method that resembles how professors tutor students. A new Perl package was created to facilitate the creation of these problems. The new problems were tested against existing WeBWorK problems and recommendations were made based on the results

Managed Account Plans

Due to recent economic changes, Aon Hewitt has begun research into an alternative pension plan called a Managed Account Plan. To provide Aon Hewitt with information about the risks of the MAPs to employers, this MQP simulated a population and that population’s additional liabilities at different guaranteed rates. The final model compares the risk of a MAP against a traditional Cash Balance plan. The analysis has shown that MAPs have potential benefits and warrant further research

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu