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Improving Healthcare Through Interdisciplinary Education, Johnathan Jacobs, Katreena Collette-Merril, Phd, Rn

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The culture of education prepares healthcare professionals in silos, then expects them to work collaboratively upon graduation. Medical errors, resulting from communication issues, are considered a leading cause of patient death. Interdisciplinary education of future professionals may prevent communication issues and reduce patient deaths. Interprofessional education (IPE) of undergraduates may improve communication of future professionals educated in universities without medical schools. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effect of interprofessional education (IPE) on undergraduate students’ attitudes of interprofessional work, perceptions of working together, and ratings of teamwork.

Childhood: A Paradise (English Translation), Emilie Mataja

Prose Fiction

No abstract provided.

Change For Women, Change The World, Kiana Stewart, Dr. Daryl Lee

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My project goal was to translate from French to English significant chapters of a study on gender-based violence (GBV) in Senegal documented by Dr. Fatou Diop Sall. Dr Sall is the head coordinator of GESTES, a Senegalese research group focused on gender equality. A previous group of BYU students and ORCA recipients translated sections of the document that focused on domestic violence, and published the translation with the WomanStats Project, which is the largest statistical database regarding the status of women in the world (Hudson, 2015). The chapters I translated deal with GBV in different spheres, specifically educational spaces (schools, …

Trf1 Mutations As A Mechanism For Telomere Length Maintenance In Cancer, Collin Sanderson, Jonathan Alder

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences found on the ends of chromosomes that serve to protect the genes contained within each chromosome. As a cell replicates, its telomeres shorten, eventually triggering cellular senescence or death. This serves as a tumor suppressive mechanism by limiting the proliferation of cells. All cancers must overcome this growth limitation by acquiring mutations that permit telomere elongation. Most cancers achieve this by acquiring activating-mutations in an enzyme known as telomerase. Some cancers do not express telomerase, and maintain their telomeres by other means including a mechanism called “alternative lengthening of telomeres” (ALT). However, there exists a …

Shame As A Moderator In Grace And Forgiveness Correlation Renamed “Grace, Forgiveness, And Shame In Latter-Day Saint Young Adults”, Taylor Mefford, Dr. Scott Richards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The subject of grace in psychological research has been relatively untouched, with only a few studies having been conducted in this area, mostly with a focus on creating measures for attitudes on grace. However, despite the existence of these validated measures, almost no published studies utilize them. Allen, Wang, & Stokes (2015) present one of those few cases where such measures are used, in which they address mental health outcomes related to grace and perfectionism. They also utilize the term legalism, which was used by Bufford, Sisemore, and Blackburn (2014) in their development of a holistic measure of grace. …

Ketamine As A Predictor Of Excessive Alcohol Intake: A Rhesus Monkey Nonhuman Primate Model, Ryno Kruger, Dr. J. Dee Higley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 2014, 8.7 million teenagers in the United States reported drinking alcohol, with the vast majority engaging in binge drinking¹. Due to the rise of underage drinking and alcohol abuse, it is of increasing importance to study variables that influence risk for alcohol abuse and alcoholism. To study these factors, I spent 10 weeks at the California National Primate Research facility (CNPRC).

How Does The Legality Of Polygamy Affect Domestic Violence?: A Case Study Of Nigeria, Jenah House, Dr. Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Do the presence and legalization of polygamous relationships affect domestic violence in developing countries? While there is some evidence that polygamous relationships influence domestic violence rates, present research on the subject is sparse. Even less discussed in the field is how the legalization of polygamy affects domestic violence. My research suggests that not only does polygamy influence domestic violence levels in the home, but that domestic violence rates vary based on the legality of polygamy. If the legalization and practice of polygamy together affect domestic violence, this will open up discussion on the viability and legality of polygamy within states—and …

Prenatal Androgens And The Stability Of Temperament And Anxiety: A Study Of Testosterone-Mediated Digit Ratios In Rhesus Macaques, Alexander Baxter, Dr. J. Dee Higley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) is the organizational force that masculinizes the brain. It has impact on other parts of the body as well. For example, PAE induces growth in the ring finger. Consequently, the pointer-to-ring-finger digit ratio (2D:4D ratio) is frequently used to assess PAE.¹ Though this phenotype is sexually dimorphic, research indicates that PAE’s effect on digit ratio may be in the opposite direction when comparing humans and nonhuman primates.²² Very few studies have investigated 2D:4D ratio in rhesus macaques (Macacca mulatta), and to our knowledge, none have reported a sex difference in digit ratio. The purpose …

Parental And Relational Aggression, David A. Nelson, Craig H. Hart

Faculty Publications

Where do children get their basic tendencies to act aggressively? One possibility is that it varies by the type of parenting received, particularly for young children, who tend to spend more time with their parents than do older children and adolescents. This chapter considers the expanse of research focusing on parenting as it corresponds with relationally aggressive tendencies in children, adolescents, or emerging adults (including similar constructs labeled as indirect or social aggression). Relational aggression subsumes indirect, covert, hostile behaviors where target children are not directly confronted (e.g., gossiping, talking behind one's back; see Chapter 2). It can also be …

Complimentary Medical Frameworks: Hmong Shamanism In France And Thailand, Madison Harmer, Dr. Jacob Hickman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Current social science literature outside of anthropology has attributed Hmong difficulties adapting to Western health care to their traditional healing practices, claiming that successful integration only occurs as the younger generation discards traditional beliefs (Franzen-Castle & Smith 2013). Ethnographic research conducted in France and Thailand refutes these claims; Hmong of younger and older generations utilize both the state medical system and traditional healing, integrating these systems instead of treating them as ontologically distinct (and thus in competition with each other). Many researchers and medical personnel studying or working with Hmong populations have ignored models of ontological holism because of the …

Social Integration And Emotional Regulation, Kimberly Stevens, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Midlife adults face a wide variety of physiological, emotional, and cognitive stressors that place them at risk for impaired physical health and longevity. Social integration—which includes high levels of social engagement as well as maintaining a diverse network of social roles—has been shown to protect against the negative effects of these stressors and decrease mortality rates (Holt-Lunstad, 2010). Research has suggested that “social buffering” provides protection from the physiological effects of stress (Cohen, 1985). In fact, Sheldon Cohen hypothesized a “social buffering” pathway, which suggests that social integration effects psychological and physiological exposure to and reaction to stress (Cohen & …

Mismatch Negativity Event-Related Potential Elicited By Speech Stimuli In Geriatric Patients, Dana Pierce, David Mcpherson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Much of the research done in the field of speech perception has focused on the behavioral aspect of language and not on the functionality of the brain itself. For our research, we focused on the neurological processes of speech perception through Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) ¹ and brain mapping. This allowed us to visualize the processes that the brain must go through for successful speech perception. Specifically, we were interested as to how the brain may differ in its processing of speech information in young (18 to 27 years of age) and senior (65 to 80 years of age) individuals. For …

Peer Mentored Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workshop For Adjusting College Students, Meredith Pescatello, Dr. Tyler Pedersen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Brigham Young University (BYU) has over 30,000 students, and many of them face difficult personal and psychological challenges. These may include adjusting to school life after returning from a mission, coping with academic demands, finding balance between work and school, or dealing with difficult roommates and families. Although BYU and other universities provide counseling services to assist students, these services are stretched thin and many cannot meet the needs and demands of students (http://www.standard.net/State/2016/09/08/USU-studentgovernment- declares-mental-health-crisis). This project explores whether or not a peer-led intervention teaching skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) could effectively meet some students’ needs. DBT training is …

Child Malnutrition In The Philippines: Using Experimental Design To Understand Nutritional Supplement Adoption, Marissa Miller, Dr. Scott Sanders

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Liahona Children’s Foundation (LCF) is a faith-based community organization that seeks to “nurture the potential of children to lead healthy and productive lives by eliminating malnutrition and providing educational opportunities among LDS (Latter-day Saint) children and their friends”. They do this by providing health initiatives include growth monitoring and nutritional supplementation. They are piloting the use health education lessons. In this field study, I evaluated the LCF program and initiated a randomized control trial to test the effectiveness of the health education lessons. The purpose of the project is to assess the effects of nutritional supplementation and basic nutritional education …

Psychological Effects Of Parental Divorce In Adulthood, Alexander Wambach, Dr. Kevin Shafer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The United States has experienced a greying of divorce over the last 25 years. During this period, the divorce rate among couples aged 50 and older doubled, and almost 25 percent of divorces that took place in 2010 involved someone 50 years of age or older (Brown and Lin 2013). Many of these older divorcing couples are likely to have children who are already adults at the time the divorce takes place. Qualitative evidence indicates the adult children of late-life divorce are negatively impacted in some way (Greenwood 2012). I hypothesized that adults who have a parent that is recently …

Parental Knowledge, Attitudes, And Intentions Regarding Hpv Vaccination In Religious Populations, Kristina Hall, Dr. Wendy Birmingham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 79 million Americans are currently infected with HPV (“Human Papillomavirus (HPV)”, 2016). In fact, it is so common that most sexually active adults will be infected at some point in their life (“Human Papillomavirus (HPV)”, 2016). While HPV is in many cases innocuous, if it persists, certain strains may cause genital warts or several types of cancer. Nearly all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, along with many vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, mouth and throat cancers (“HPV and Cancer”, 2016). Cervical cancer in particular is one of the most deadly …

Baseline Effects Of Lysophosphatidylcholine And Nerve Growth Factor In A Rat Model Of Sciatic Nerve Regeneration After Crush Injury, Ryan L. Wood, Keaton S. Karlinsey, Austin D. Thompson, Mark N. Rigby, Greggory D. Boatright, William G. Pitt, Beverly L. Roeder, Scott C. Steffersen, Alonzo D. Cook

Faculty Publications

Schwann cells play a major role in helping heal injured nerves. They help clear debris, produce neurotrophins, upregulate neurotrophin receptors, and form bands of Büngner to guide the healing nerve. But nerves do not always produce enough neurotrophins and neurotrophin receptors to repair themselves. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is an important neurotrophin for promoting nerve healing and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) has been shown to stimulate NGF receptors (NGFR). This study tested the administration of a single intraneural injection of LPC (1 mg/mL for single LPC injection and 10 mg/mL for multiple LPC injections) at day 0 and one (day 7), two …

Understanding Biracial Women's Identity Formation, Tinesha Zandamela

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This qualitative study study seeks to identify themes and patterns concerning biracial women’s experiences in the U.S. It is intended to help expand what researchers currently know about what it means to be biracial in the U.S. If society at large has not dictated a script for multiracial persons because they are not even fully recognized as a racial group throughout the US, what can the experiences of these biracial women tell us about the current sociological theories of identity construction? Utilizing six interviews with half-black women and three sociological theories, this paper seeks to answer that question. Ultimately, this …

Understanding The Neural Networks Of Eye Movements In Reading, Trenton Jackman, Dr. Steven Luke

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Reading is a part of everyday life. Humans read street signs, textbooks, emails, manuals, novels, and many other things. While reading we move our eyes 2-4 times per second. Each movement is called a saccade, and each pause between movements is called a fixation. These eye-movements allow us to move our fovea (area on the retina that is responsible for sharp central vision) to attend to pertinent information in the world. While reading, or just looking around, we don’t think about moving our eyes; our brain does this instantly and innately.

Fixation-Related Fmri And Syntactic Networks In The Brain, Brent Foster, Dr. Steven Luke

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Humans comprehend language at varying levels of complexity. Syntax, in particular, deals with the arrangement of words and phrases into meaningful sentences. For instance, in English we expect most sentences to follow some variation of the order “Subject–Verb–Object” such as “The boy (Subject) ate (Verb) cake (Object).” On the surface, such grammatical rules seem simple. However, our understanding of how the brain implements these rules to understand sentences is incomplete.

Redefining The Measurement Of Pornography Consumption, Stephen Hatch, Dr. Scott Braithwaite

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Pornography consumption has grown over the past decade with the industry’s leading providers reporting billions of more views with each passing year (Pornhub.com, 2015). The Internet has facilitated the social acceptance and spread of pornographic material, and it is believed that approximately 40 million Americans view pornography regularly. With such a large number of Americans viewing pornography, and providers reporting more video views, it is unsurprising to learn that the pornography industry generates more income than professional basketball, football, and baseball combined (Cooper, 1998; Ropelato, 2006).

The Mediation Between Intrinsic Religiousness And Positive Mental Health, Mason Ming, Scott Richards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Religiousness has gained more attention in psychological research and literature in the past few decades (Allen & Heppner, 2011; Cervantes & Parham, 2005; Worthington et al., 2003). Richards and Bergin (1997) noticed a spiritual energy in the United States that has “created a powerful cultural demand for psychotherapists to be more aware of and sensitive to religious and spiritual issues” (p. 6). The burgeoning interest in religiousness has resulted in psychological researchers studying the effects of religiousness on mental health (Oldham, 2009), and have found varying results across time. Early research on the topic of religiousness and mental health, conducted …

How Drug Treatment Availability Affects Child Abuse, Michael Ricks, Dr. Lars Lefgren

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The consumption of illicit drugs is on the rise. In 2013 the number of people in the United States who admitted that they had used an illegal drug in the last month rose to an all-time high of 24.6 million (NIDA). As drug use spreads across the nation, so do efforts and initiatives to curb its rampant negative effects, ranging from stricter law enforcement, more comprehensive treatment, and broader inoculation efforts. While it seems that few of these interventions have proven to be effective—let alone cost effective—Swensen (2015) demonstrated that more available significantly reduces the number of drug related deaths …

College Students’ Understandings Of, Perceptions Towards, And Usage Of Canned Foods Based On Exposure To Canned Foods During Childhood, Robert H. Drury, Lora Beth Brown, Pauline Williams, Dennis Eggett, Rickelle Richards

Undergraduate Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

Objective: To evaluate if frequent usage of canned foods in childhood households affected college students’ current understandings of, perceptions towards, and usage of canned foods.

Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted based on data collected from students who completed The Perceptions and Use of Canned Foods questionnaire. ANOVA statistics were used to make comparisons between students exposed (ECF; n=65) and not exposed (NECF; n=237) to canned foods during childhood.

Results: Compared with NECF, the ECF more strongly agreed that canned foods counted towards United States’ dietary recommendations (p

Conclusions and Implications: Frequent usage of canned foods during childhood …

Toward Understanding Posttraumatic Stress And Depression Among Trauma-Affected Widows In Sri Lanka, Jessica E. Lambert, Alyssa Banford Witting, Spencer James, Lakmal Ponnamperuma, Thulitha Wickrama

Faculty Publications

Objective: In this study, we applied conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to explain high rates of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among war- and disaster-affected Tamil widows in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. We hypothesized exposure to potentially traumatic events and severity of current contextual problems would influence PTSS and depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through loss of psychological (view of self), environmental (sense of community), and energy (physical health) resources. Method: Trained research assistants interviewed a convenience sample (N = 381) of women, using established measures of the constructs of interest. Data were analyzed using …

Combatting Labor Exploitation In The United States By Modifying Visas For Migrant Workers, Paige Herrmann

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The current statutes addressing labor trafficking in the United States are insufficient in protecting migrant workers from labor exploitation. A solution to this often overlooked problem is to introduce flexible visas which allow migrant workers who have been victims of labor exploitation to seek new employment in the United States while remaining in valid legal status, affording them freedom from abusive employers.

A New Medical Malpractice Tort System: It's Time To Prioritize The Patient, Jaden Cowdin, Tyler Lindley

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The current medical malpractice tort system often promotes inefficiency and perverse incentives for doctors. Attempts at reform, to date, have been largely ineffective or harmful to the patient. A total overhaul—including a state-run medical review board, a centralized no-fault compensation fund, and a publicly accessible black mark database—should be tailored and enacted by each state.

Mdma-Assisted Psychotherapy For Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Review Of The Literature, Erin Solomon

Student Works

A growing number of people suffer chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Amoroso & Workman, 2016; Buoso, Doblin, Farré, Alcázar, & Gómez-Jarabo, 2008; Mithoefer, Wagner, Mithoefer, Jerome, & Doblin, 2011; Oehen, Traber, Widmer, & Schnyder, 2013). The most popular treatments, including exposure therapy, may not be effective for some people (Amoroso & Workman, 2016; Mithoefer et al., 2011). Treatment dropout and suicidality are high among people for whom therapy is minimally effective (Amoroso, 2015; Amoroso & Workman, 2016; Mithoefer et al., 2011; Oehen et al., 2013). Researchers have begun to investigate 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy as a possible treatment for PTSD …

The Destruction Of Cultural Heritage In The Yemen Conflict: Legal Implications And State Responsibility, Benjamin Passey

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Since 2015, a violent war has waged in Yemen between rebel forces and a Saudi Arabian led coalition. This conflict has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, an unparalleled humanitarian crisis, and the flagrant disregard and violation of international humanitarian law. A silent victim of the conflict is Yemen's millennia-old cultural heritage. Dozens of ancient monuments, historical buildings, and museums have been systematically targeted and destroyed by the coalition in unprecedented acts of cultural warfare. This paper examines the culpability of the Saudi led coalition in committing war crimes, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the …

More Than Just A Trim In The Workforce: The Barriers Of Inconsistent Occupational Licensing In The United States, Ethan A. Schow

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

In the United States today, inconsistent occupational licensing requirements create barriers for professionals crossing state lines. In order to deal with this multistate problem without resorting to federal oversight, the states should consider forming an interstate compact to oversee and make recommendations for licensing requirement standardization and uniformity. This compact could oversee licensing for many professions. Multistate coordination has been successful before in other areas such as taxation of multistate businesses. Standardizing occupational licensing requirements would make initial licensure and subsequent relocation easier for professionals, and it would provide consumers with uniform quality of services and uniform protection of their …