Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining The Utility Of The Military Service Sleep Assessment In U.S. Veterans, Sophie Vincent

Symposium of Student Scholars

Background: Veterans frequently report sleep disturbances. However, little is known about which military or life events most frequently influence veterans' sleep. The focus of this study is to report the specific military and life events that had the most negative effect on sleep quality in veterans by utilizing the Military Service Sleep Assessment (MSSA).

Method: Post 9/11 veterans (N = 373) completed an assessment battery examining sleep disturbances, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and of dysfunctional and recovery cognitions. Descriptives (i.e., mean and frequency), t-tests, X² tests of independence, residuals, and risk ratios were computed to examine the impact …

Gis For Public Health: Exploring Diseases Of Despair In Metro Atlanta, Chanice Brown

Symposium of Student Scholars

Diseases of despair are a set of behaviors that can cause a significant amount of mortality within a population. These behaviors, which typically include drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicides, have existed for quite some time. However, the idea of “Diseases of Despair” is fairly recent. In 2015, researchers Anna Case and Angus Deaton first coined the concept while studying an increase in mortality and decrease in life expectancy amongst middle-aged, white populations in different rural communities. They theorized that external pressures, like economic insecurity and increased morbidity, were driving these populations to seek out dangerous methods to relieve their stress. …

Applying Settlement Models Through Chemical Analysis In Bartow County, Georgia, Bryan A. Moss*

Symposium of Student Scholars

During the Middle Woodland Period (300 BC – AD 600), ceremonial centers began to rise throughout the Eastern United States. These centers were hubs for ritual feasting and religious activities related to the Hopewell Mortuary Cult of Ohio. This project will focus on the Leake site and its relation to the surrounding villages in Northwest Georgia, each of which contains Swift Creek sherds. The Swift Creek Complicated stamped pottery contains curvilinear lines which are not present in other decorations of the Middle Woodland period. Swift Creek pottery is prominent in Middle Woodland ceremonial sites and is integrated into the Hopewell …

Spatial Associations Of Liver Disease Rates With Socioeconomic And Health Risk Factors In Georgia, Nguyet Le

Symposium of Student Scholars

According to the CDC Cancer Statistics Report in 2020, Liver and Intrahepatic Bile Duct is the 6th leading cancer in both USA and the State of Georgia ranked by Rates of Cancer Death. Aflatoxin-containing foods, alcohol consumption, smoking, overeating, and other risky behaviors are among the factors linked to liver diseases. They have also been related to the socioeconomic status (SES) of individuals. The behaviors and SES of individuals are affected by the socioeconomic characteristics of the communities where they live. However, the relationships between the rates of liver diseases and community-level socioeconomic factors are not well studied. The objective …

Average Household Income In Relation To Individual Dietary Consumption Of Fruits And Vegetables, Liz Burchfield, Bella Spencer

Symposium of Student Scholars

The purpose of this analysis is to review data from the USDA Economic Research Survey in a data collection regarding FoodAPS National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey. Our data include a sample size of 4,826 participating households with 279 variables describing each household. Several variables were utilized which include average collective income for households, perceptions of fruit and vegetable prices and quality, self-reporting items about perceived fruit and vegetable consumption, and financial survey responses. With these chosen variables we made initial inferences that there would be a relationship between income and fruit consumption. We predict that throughout the duration …

Community Resilience: Conducting A Tornado Risk Assessment For Oklahoma City, Oklahoma​, Chanice Brown

Symposium of Student Scholars

On May 20th, 2013, the Newcastle-Moore tornado carved a 14-mile-long path of destruction through Oklahoma City, McClain, and Cleveland Counties. This event led to the deaths of 24 people, more than 200 injuries, and at least 2 billion dollars in damages. Tornadoes like the Newcastle-Moore are sporadic and technological advances have provided an extra layer of protection against them. However, researchers have found that one of the best methods for bolstering the safety of a community when facing such severe weather threats is developing a hazard mitigation plan. As such, the focus of this particular project was to identify the …

Profiles Of Resilience: Examining The Stories Of First Responder And Military Families, Kimberly Gomes

Symposium of Student Scholars

Background: Social support is a key factor in the development of resilience and is often derived from spouses and other family members. The current literature is limited in that there is no consensus about how resilience is defined and developed among individuals in high-stress occupations. Considering this, we aimed to interview military and first responder couples and examine how couples define resilience and navigate challenging experiences together.

Methods: We collected five distinct family stories wherein a member of the dyad was in a high-stress occupation (i.e., law enforcement and military personnel). All participants completed screeners to determine eligibility …

The Effect Of Mental Demand On Body Postures, Rodrick Adams, Valentina Niño

Symposium of Student Scholars

How we perceive our work has a profound relationship with how our body reacts to help facilitate the performance of our tasks. This is an observational study of the experiment in which participants performed tasks under four different conditions (baseline, interruptions, time, and alarm) and used NASA-TLX (NASA- Task Load Index) scores to assess their mental workload for each condition across six dimensions: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, effort, performance, and frustration level. We juxtaposed their NASA-TLX score with corresponding REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) scores while standing and RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) scores while sitting to determine …

Exploring The Interactions Between Cognitive Impairment, Depression, And Growth Mindset Among African Americans In The Covid-19 Era, Roger Otway

Symposium of Student Scholars

Depression is a common and complex psychiatric disorder that can affect people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds. It is currently characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and lack of interest in life (Depressive Disorders, n.d.). Depression can have an impact on an individual's attitude in life such as their growth mindset. A Growth mindset is an individual’s belief that their abilities can be developed and improved through effort and learning (Dweck, 2016). This way of thinking can lead to increased resilience, learning, and achievement. Another area that can impact depression and a growth mindset is cognitive dysfunction. Cognitive …

Promoting Future Orientation Among Youth Exposed To Violence, Amari Cody, Giselle Vazquez, Paige Giddens, Chanler Hilley

Symposium of Student Scholars

Despite declining rates of community violence in the United States, violence remains a pervasive public health problem that disproportionately affects children. Violence exposure has been linked to a multitude of negative consequences on children’s academics, behavior, mental and physical health, some of which have lasting implications. Future orientation is one of several positive “developmental assets” that may help to mitigate the risk of negative consequences associated with violence exposure. Although future orientation has been described in research in several different ways, studies typically find that youth who have higher general future orientation are better able to guide their current actions …

Study Into Postpartum Stress, Kaitlyn Coleman, Afekwo Mary Ukuku Ph.D.

Symposium of Student Scholars

Introduction: Postpartum depression is a major public health issue. Married or partnered women with ongoing low spousal support from partners are more likely to suffer from postpartum depression (Yaksi & Save 2021). Lack of emotional support from a spouse, verbal or physical abuse, and unintended pregnancies may further increase the risk of PPD (Kızılırmak, Calpbinici, Tabakan, & Kartal, 2021). This lack of support from the home adds to the stress and hormonal effects a woman may experience during and after her pregnancy. The purpose of this two phase study is to identify the impact of stress arousal on postpartum women …

Comparison Of Middle Woodland Settlement Models In Georgia And Ohio, Bryan A. Moss*

Symposium of Student Scholars

During the Middle Woodland period (200 BC – AD 400), there was an increase of cultural complexity and the rise of a mortuary cult throughout much of eastern North America. This cult included a wide interaction network called the Hopewellian Interaction Sphere, which dates to the Middle Woodland period in the Mid-West. This interaction, which reached into the Southeast, involved the exchange of information between groups in both regions. This project uses spatial analysis through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identify patterns in site layout and organization by comparing settlements in both regions. The focus of testing will be between …

Smoke But No Fire: Convicting The Innocent Of Crimes That Never Happened, Autumn Huber

Symposium of Student Scholars

“Smoke but no Fire” published by Jessica Henry provides various discussions of no-crime wrongful convictions of those who are innocent. Throughout this novel, the evaluation of forensic error, police roles, judiciary roles, and misdemeanors bring to light the phantom crimes that occur within our criminal justice system. The criminal justice system brings the injustice of those wrongfully convicted to the eyes of readers worldwide. Part of this research provided throughout her novel includes the National Registry of Exonerations, short for NRE, which assesses evidence of exonerations of those who were innocent and those who remain inside the four walls of …

Opioid Use Disorder In The Active Service: Incidence Rates And Behavioral Health Considerations, Brian A. Moore, Sophie Vincent, Michael Schlenk, Anne White

Symposium of Student Scholars

Military service members experience occupational specific injuries that often result in chronic pain, and comorbid behavioral health concerns that may be exacerbated by opioid use. Despite the vast amount of research examining substance use in the military, there is a dearth of literature examining the incidence of opioid use disorder (OUD). The present epidemiological study aims to examine the incident rate trends of OUD diagnoses among active duty service members between 2016 and 2021. The present study utilized data drawn from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) to conduct a retrospective cohort study and calculate the incidence rate of OUD …

Investigating Driver Evasive Maneuvers Of Takeover Responses In Automated Vehicles, Tammy Trinh, Rory C. Bailey, Alex A. Garcia, Christian D. Disclafani

Symposium of Student Scholars

When an automated vehicle (AV) is about to crash, would the speed of the AV (slow vs. fast) affect the steering direction of a human driver who attempts to control the vehicle and avoid the collision? Answering this question provides AV manufacturers insight into how they can produce a safer AV experience for human drivers. Considering that a left turn at a T-intersection allows a greater time budget to make the turn than a right turn which requires sharper steering, we hypothesized that drivers traveling at faster speeds would be more likely to turn left and drivers traveling at moderately …

Jaws And Effect: A Preliminary Archaeological Analysis On Shark And Ray Remains From The Coastal Florida Site Of Marineland, Isabella Rosinko

Symposium of Student Scholars

Marineland is a coastal Florida site, located in the East and Central archaeological region, and occupied from the Middle Archaic (5000-3000 BC) to the St. Johns I and II periods (AD 500-1565). My focus will be on faunal remains dated between the St. Johns I and II periods. For this project, I will be conducting a zooarchaeological analysis of shark and ray remains. Zooarchaeology is the study of animal or faunal remains found in archaeological contexts. The faunal remains present at Marineland encompass a number of species, from terrestrial mammals to crabs. Historically there has been little archaeological significance given …

Wavelet Analysis Of Behavior Inhibition, Makayla Mcginnis, Bryant Giles

Symposium of Student Scholars

Poor impulse control is a sign of numerous psychological disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity syndrome (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD). In contrast, high levels of impulse control are correlated with academic achievement and other positive life outcomes. Because of this, it is important to understand how the brain functions when it is attempting to inhibit behaviors. This study examined impulse control using the stop-signal task while measuring brain activity with EEG. The sample consists of Kennesaw State University undergraduate students (n = 25). The stop-signal task requires the participant to respond to a particular stimulus as fast …

Understanding The Contributions Of Hormonal Contraceptives And Cortisol Levels To Fear Learning In Women, Sahil Bardai

Symposium of Student Scholars

Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder than men. Eighty-five percent of women in the US will use hormonal contraceptives at some point in their lifetime. Women who use hormonal contraceptives show heightened startle reactivity to a threatening stimulus. Previous results from our lab showed a significant increase in fear-potentiated startle (FPS) in women who were on hormonal contraceptives compared to women who were naturally cycling. These results stayed consistent throughout three acquisition trials. Others have shown that the use of OCPs (oral contraceptive pills) is related to the dysregulation of the HPA-axis and elevated …

Lidar Field Data Collection For 3d Cartography, Danny Jang

Symposium of Student Scholars

Remote sensing using LiDAR technology for terrestrial mapping can be done using airborne or ground-based methods. Ground-based methods of LiDAR scanning have the favorable advantage of being much more cost-effective compared to the majority of aerial choices (balloons and drones might overcome this advantage in the future) for small-area large-scale cartography. LiDAR data collection has been traditionally utilized for urban applications, forest applications, agricultural applications, and geoscience applications. This student research aims to use the data gathered from this process for crafting 3D maps using cost-effective 3D printers.

Detecting Bacterial Species From Ancient Human Skeletal Samples, Ariel Owens, Daisy Mcgrath, Tsai-Tien Tseng

Symposium of Student Scholars

Diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) via morphological analysis is difficult and often inconsistent. With next-generation sequencing (NGS), ancient host microbiomes can be subjected to metagenomic analyses for the detection of TB in silico. Suitable bioinformatic workflows are needed for reliable ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of causative agents. This study aims to enhance available bioinformatic screening methods to create more suitable bioinformatic processes and generate insights in relation to TB.

This research utilizes publicly available NGS data accessed through the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Initial quality control steps included adapter trimming with Trim …

The Importance Of Creation: Lessons From The Collision And Performing Justice Projects, Mariah Johnson

Symposium of Student Scholars

The Collision Project is a performance-based project that introduces young artists to an inspiration which drives them to create their own performative art. During my time participating in Kennesaw State University's 2022 New Connections Collision Project, I had the privilege of working alongside the talented youth graduates in the Department of Justice system. Through my first-hand experience and by examining the works through the lens of Megan Alrutz’s book Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth: Performing Possibility, I learned the importance of personal expression through creation. Projects such as our Collision Project and Alrutz’s Performing Justice Project present highly beneficial …

“It’S Getting Hot In Here”: Climate Change And Tensions Surrounding Environmental Injustice For Minority And Low-Income Communities, Symone Gaskin

Symposium of Student Scholars

Our current climate crisis presents the perfect opportunity to address other social ills that reflect environmental injustice. The purpose of this research was to explore if, when, and how climate change disproportionately impacts minority communities. A thematic analysis was developed through the creation of a literature review matrix comprised of twenty academic and practitioner articles. This thematic analysis uncovered four key themes: implications in the workplace, the housing market, the economy, and the standard of health. Consequently, confirming the disenfranchisement of marginalized groups in relation to the environment, this research uncovered the long-lasting effects of systemic racism as an important …

Are Basic Care Homeless Shelters Beneficial To The Homeless, Lucy Karanja

Symposium of Student Scholars

This research aims to analyze homeless shelters that only provide basic care, i.e., food and shelter, to individuals experiencing episodic or chronic homelessness. Evaluating the effectiveness of these shelters and their ability to help individuals overcome homelessness. Research in this area suggests that there are commonly seen factors that result in homelessness, and although there are noted gender differences, these factors include aspects such as mental illness, substance abuse, poverty, illness, disability, violence, and a lack of access to resources, i.e., education, income, affordable housing, social support. All of these are complex on their own to address and only grow …

Analysis Of Brainwaves Using Flanker Paradigm, Kyle Vlahos, Richard Mcconnel

Symposium of Student Scholars

This study done was used to look at how a stimulus that may be distracting or unimportant can impact brainwaves. The study used a test called the flanker paradigm which gives the participants multiple stimuli of X’s or O’s in a line of three. Only the middle stimuli were important, requiring the participant to select the left button for O and right for X. On either side of the central target, the flanker stimuli could be neutral if the stimuli were not a letter, mismatch if they were different from the target letter, and match if the stimuli were the …

Learning From Public Spaces In Historic Cities, Cody Josh Kucharski

Symposium of Student Scholars

Successful public spaces in cities are key for enhancing social cohesion and improving health and safety. Learning from historic cities involves the development of representational and analytical tools aimed at capturing their essence as places of human interaction. The research reports findings of the spatial analysis of twenty Adriatic and Ionian coastal cities, which addresses the question of how the network of public spaces calibrates different degrees of spatial enclosure necessary for creating successful social interactions. Cities in the littoral region include well-preserved historic centers that are renowned for the successful integration of urban squares into the urban fabric. For …

The Mediation Basic Psychological Needs Has On Leaderships Styles And Outcomes, Eric Zhu

Symposium of Student Scholars

There has been a focus on which leadership styles relate to certain outcomes, such as burnout, organizational commitment, and positive/negative affect. It appear that what predicts whether or not a person feels positively or negatively about their organization and how much burnout they experience is not predicted by leadership styles in and of itself, but rather how the leadership style satisfies or frustrates basic psychological needs. Although organizational commitment does not seem to be predicted by basic psychological needs solely and that leadership style does play a significant, if secondary, role in its prediction, I believe that to be due …

Ethics Of Inclusive Digital Rhetorics: Communicating Public Health On Social Media, Cristy Kennedy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Virtual adjustments associated with the COVID-19 pandemic caused state and national government agencies to emphasize digital health communication (Hope, 2021), prompting users to turn to social media platforms for medical information (Walwema, 2021; Doan, 2021). This surge of social media usage left marginalized groups digitally underserved, highlighting the need for an ethical and universal strategy for the dissemination of health information (Baldwinson, 2018). New and universal content strategies following ethical guidelines would encourage preventive health behaviors in an inclusive and objective manner, minimizing misinformation and rhetorical barriers.(Cuello-Garcia et al., 2020).

Our presentation engages these interconnected issues and applies the results …

Analysis Of Vertebrae Pathologies Of Grave A650 Chryssi Island, Crete, Greece, Abbey E. Bartmess, Susan Kirkpatrick Smith

Symposium of Student Scholars

This study of multiple, co-mingled adult individuals located in grave A650 on Chryssi Island, Crete, Greece, examines the prevalence of several pathologies of the vertebrae. This grave was built into a collapsed Late Minoan period house (1400-1100 B.C.E.). Grave A650, which likely dates to the 5th – 7th century C.E., shows evidence of being used over a long period of time and may have served as an ossuary. The pathologies of approximately 30 recovered vertebrae, both complete and incomplete, show signs of degenerative joint disease, spondylolisthesis, and body expansion. Researching this data aims to accomplish a comprehensive understanding of what …

Who Were Mississippian Period Artists And What Was In Their Toolkit?, Riley James

Symposium of Student Scholars

The Mississippian Period lasted from approximately 1000 to 1550 CE and occurred in the regions of the North American Southeast and Midwest. Society followed a strong system of hierarchy with major settlements with mounds and palisades exerting political control over smaller towns and villages. In Georgia, the most notable Mississippian period site and settlement is Etowah, which belonged to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). The SECC was an exchange network of culture and spirituality that dominated most of the Mississippian period and is largely defined by its iconography and artifact trends. It is the general consensus that most Mississippian period …

Ptsd And Suicidality Among Student Service Members And Veterans (Ssm/Vs), Kimberly Gomes

Symposium of Student Scholars

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a commonly diagnosed condition among student service members and veterans (SSM/Vs). Many SSM/Vs who report PTSD symptoms also report suicidal ideation and/or suicide attempts. Consequently, it is important to understand which factors may buffer or contribute to the risk for suicide among SSM/Vs with PTSD to inform appropriate interventions and future research.

Methods: A sample of student service members and veterans (SSM/Vs) from five southern universities (N = 377) completed self-report measures of PTSD symptoms (i.e., PCL-5), suicidality (i.e., DSI-SS), dysfunction, and recovery (i.e., DRDI). We conducted two moderation analyses to examine interactions …