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2024 Soars Conference Program, Unf Office Of Undergraduate Research

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

No abstract provided.

2023 Soars Conference Program, Unf Office Of Undergraduate Research

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Program for the 2023 Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

2022 Soars Conference Program, Unf Office Of Undergraduate Research

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Program for the 2022 Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS).

Alcohol Consumption And Anxiety Amongst College Students, Eardley Belime, Angela Wright, Nathan Jubran, Abigail Lake

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

“According to a national survey administered by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA 2020) and a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) anxiety is one of the top concerns regarding college students. (APA, 2013) This systematic review was done to determine if there is a relationship between alcohol consumption and anxiety in college students. A total of 26 articles published between the years 2010 and 2020 that were retrieved from Psycinfo met the inclusion criteria needed for the analysis. In looking at the relationship between anxiety and alcohol consumption, the mediators of …

Understanding The Spin-Glass State Through The Magnetic & Electronic Properties Of Mn-Doped Znte, A. Alcantara, S. Barrett, D. Matev, I. Miotkowski, A. K. Ramdas, T. Pekarak, J. T. Haraldsen

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

International Research Symposium Exhibitor and Honorable Mention

To gain insight into the spin-glass state of diluted magnetic semiconductors, we have examined the magnetic and electronic properties of Mn-doped ZnTe using density functional theory. Using a generalized gradient approximation, we investigate the electronic and magnetic properties for x=0, 0.25, and 0.50 doping levels using the magnetic moment of Mn2+ as guide for the dependence of the Hubbard onsite potential on the electronic structure as well as a geometry optimization to assure an anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) ground state which is consistent with a zero magnetic moment spin glass state. …

Editorial Work And Contextual Research On Materials Related To North Florida History In Unf Special Collections, Marisa Pechillo

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Digital Projects Showcase Exhibitor During the Summer 2020 semester, I participated in the course DIG3152 Intro to Electronic Textual Editing, taught by Dr. Clayton McCarl of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, during which I worked to edit two letters from the 1840s by Jacksonville resident Elisa Hatch. I transcribed and encoded the documents using TEI-XML, and created the exhibit to explain them. In the Fall 2020 semester, with the assistance of a generous grant from the UNF Office of Undergraduate Research as well as support from Dr. McCarl, Susan Swiatosz, and Jennifer Bibb, I was able to conduct …

Investigating The Roles Of The Canonical Wnt And Notch Signaling Pathways In Establishment Of The Tardigrade Anteroposterior Axis, Raul Chavarria, Frank W. Smith

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

The canonical Wnt (cWnt) signaling pathway plays a prominent role in establishing the anteroposterior (AP) body axis in many bilaterians. Later, this pathway typically interacts with the Notch signaling pathway to regulate posterior growth, a process that intercalates a relatively large mid-trunk region to the AP axis of many bilaterians. Tardigrades have lost posterior growth and the mid-trunk region that develops by this process. Therefore, we aimed to determine the roles, if any, of the cWnt and Notch signaling pathways during establishment of the highly compact AP axis in the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris. Gene expression of orthologs …

Systematic Review Of Water-Related Diseases In The Florida Environment, Mckinley Chapman, Amber N. Barnes

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Background: Florida’s environments are suitable reservoirs for many disease-causing microorganisms. Pathogens and toxins in Florida waterways hold the potential to infect vectors, animal and human hosts. Many conditions are reportable to the Florida Department of Health. Our objective in this review was to determine which waterborne, water-based, and water-related pathogenic organisms have been documented in Florida’s environments over the last twenty years. Methods: Nineteen databases were searched using keywords relating to the waterborne, water-based toxins, and water-related vector-borne diseases. Peer-reviewed journal articles were included if written in English, published between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2019, …

Opioid Epidemic On The First Coast​, Jeremiah Baclig, Noah Dedeo, Rukhaiya Husain, Iliya Kulbaka, Michelle Dedeo

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

The nation has been focusing on the opioid epidemic for many years. Aggregate quarterly data on opioid distribution at a general level has been available through the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) but cannot be used to do analyses on the effects of opioids in local areas. Quantifying impacts of the opioid epidemic at the local level has never been easy: what little data was provided by the DEA was not user-friendly, overly broad and did not follow the desired timeline of data collection. This project focuses on database exploration and uses statistical methods and Decision Tree …

Loneliness In Older Adults: The Unspoken Pandemic Under Covid-19, Jacob Perez, Kelly Perniciaro, Tes Tuason

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

Loneliness in older adults has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though loneliness has been a prior public health concern for this population. Loneliness is a perceived lack of social interaction when an individual desires more (Wong, 2017). COVID-19-related social isolation causes older adults to be vulnerable to the effects of loneliness, including increased risk to physical and mental decline, anxiety, depression, and an elevated likelihood of mortality (Levy et. al, 2018; Eldercare Locator, n.d.). Barriers to caring for lonely older adults are the effects of ageism, the increased vulnerability of this population during COVID-19, and …

Employment And Recidivism: An Analysis Of A Faith-Based Reentry Program, Emily Friedman, Caitlin J. Steckley, Rachel Simmons

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

Recently released criminal offenders are generally subjected to heavy stigma as they reenter society which is compounded by the general isolation that many feel upon release. Because of these difficulties, re-entry programs can be an effective, prosocial way for ex-offenders to reintegrate back into the community and workforce. This project was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a local faith-based, non-profit re-entry program in Duval County between 2015 and 2019. Prisoners of Christ (POC) services both low and high-risk offenders through their employment assistance and residential housing programs. We conducted quantitative research on POC participants utilizing …

Why Are You So Slimy?, Lindsay Dillman, James Gelsleichter, Laura Habegger

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The epithelium of vertebrates is a complex tissue that houses a large variety of cells with different functions. One of its most important functions is protection and in many cases this function is achieved by exuding copious amounts of mucous that fight off diseases, harmful toxins and overall protect the species from external invaders. Mucous, made of mucin, is produced by specialized epithelial cells called goblet cells. Among vertebrates’, fishes are perhaps one of the major groups known to produce mucous, particularly stingrays. The Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina is one of the few cartilaginous fishes known to inhabit both freshwater …

Using Ph And Cell Growth To Measure The Urease Activity Of Sporosarcina Pasteurii In Stuart’S Urea Broth With Bromothymol Blue, Olivia Wright, Terri N. Ellis

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Sporosarcina pasteurii can perform microbially-induced calcite precipitation (MICP)—when bacteria hydrolyze urea and precipitate calcium carbonate crystals. This has potential applications in biocementation, though there are many barriers to implementation. One way to overcome these barriers is to measure cell growth and urease activity of S. pasteurii. Because urea hydrolysis increases the surrounding pH, urease activity could be measured using Stuart’s Urea Broth with the pH indicator bromothymol blue. Additionally, a standard curve was generated to quantify pH change, and cell growth of S. pasteurii was measured before and after urea hydrolysis. It was found that that higher …

Thriving During Covid-19: Predictors Of Psychological Well-Being And Ways Of Coping, Lauren Boyd, C. Dominik Guess, Teresa Tuason

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

COVID-19 has led to global dramatic shifts in daily life. Following the biopsychosocial model of health, the goal of the current study was to predict people’s psychological well-being (PWB) during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic and to investigate which coping strategies were most common among people with low and high PWB. Participants were 938 volunteers in the United States who responded to an online survey during pre-peak of the lockdown in April 2020. The main findings were that all three groups of variables—biological, psychological, and socio-economic—significantly contributed to PWB, explaining 53% variance. Social loneliness and sense of agency …

Crosby Sanctuary Tree Survey, Lexi Lindsley

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

In partnership with the Duval Audubon Society, over 280 trees were identified and virtually tagged within their diverse 510-acre property known as the Crosby Sanctuary. A basic survey was performed that included plants >25 feet in height and within 25 inches from the ~1.5 miles of trails winding through the entire sanctuary. In addition, the locations and names of the identified plant species were input onto an online map of the Crosby Sanctuary. The updated map also contains the location of the pre-existing trails, rivers, and other features within the property. Due to the map …

Effect Of Imagined Support On Perceptions Of Stress, Emma Thompson, Jordan Zaenglein, Kalie Leon, Madelyn Shaw, Maddox Fillmer, Breana Bryant, Paul Fuglestad

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Social support is known to help buffer the effects of stress (Uchino et al., 1996). However, in many situations social support is unavailable, and imagining social support may help to reduce the impact of stress. Although imagined physical touch has been shown to be an effective stress buffer, little research has compared it to other types of imagined support (Feldman et al., 2010). Additionally, women tend to seek emotional support, whereas men tend to seek tangible support, but it is unknown if imagining those types of support will reduce stress (Reevy & Maslach, 2001). To gain greater insight into these …

Arlington Community Garden: The Benefits Of Community Gardens And Keeping Them Sustainable, Laurel Dalton

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

In a project for the Environmental Center Leadership Program, Laurel Dalton investigates the importance of community gardens, the issues they often face, and some possible solutions which were utilized for the benefit of the Arlington Community Garden at the Tree Hill Nature Center. Community gardens are a valuable resource to build community, allow participants to connect to nature, and help alleviate food insecurity. The foremost issues for the sustainability of community gardens are the lack of a sufficient, continuous workforce of paid workers and volunteers, and a lack of funding. To alleviate this issue for …

Gamma Rays From Massive Star Clusters G25 & G27, Abagael Barba, John W. Hewitt

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

Cosmic rays have baffled astronomers for over a century, as all potential origins have yet to be determined. Most of these galactic accelerated atomic nuclei are thought to be created in two possible fashions: from a supernova, or within a massive star cluster (MSC). In this study, we analyzed gamma-ray emission coincident with two MSCs named G25 and G27. Using NASA’s Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), we confirmed that the sources of gamma rays are spatially extended and emit up to the maximum energies observed by the LAT. So far, only the closest MSC to Earth …

Modulation In The Expression Levels And Protein Localization Of Cell Volume And Actin Cytoskeleton Associated Proteins By The Slit/ Robo Signaling Pathway In Glioblastoma Multiforme., Montserrat Roberts, Natanael Zarco, Hugo Guerrero- Cazares

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and malignant primary brain tumor in adults1. Even after surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation, the average patient survival rate is 14 months2. Recent studies indicate that GBM tumors that contact the lateral ventricles within the subventricular zone (SVZ) tend to migrate and recur at distal locations after surgical resection3. One important signaling pathway in Neural Progenitor Cells (NPCs) migration from the SVZ to the olfactory bulbs is the Slit/Robo signaling pathway4. Slit2 proteins are produced by the choroid plexus and create a gradient across ependymal cells. Slit2 proteins then interact …

Eclp Invasive Plant Project: Spot The Invaders, Aida Washburn

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

An Environmental Center Leadership Program Project

Amelia Island is home to many beautiful native plants, but some invasive species have taken residence in the beach area and caused issues to the ecological system. The invasive plants outcompete our native species and can disrupt the shore bird and sea turtle nesting sites. Invasive plants also destabilize our dunes. A native plant is identified as a species that has naturally existed in each place for an extended length of time. Whereas an invasive species displaces and prevents native species from establishing. The goal of this project was to remove invasive plant species …

Last Straw: The Effect Of Guilt On Pro-Environmental Behavior, M. Ryan Nugent, Heather Barnes Truelove

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Although many environmental campaigns have pushed to eliminate plastic straws from daily consumption, concerns have surfaced that an increase in the simple behavior of refusing plastic straws will generate less action toward more effective pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). This study implemented a guilt manipulation to urge participants to reduce their straw use and tested spillover effects to various household and travel PEBs. 234 Mturk participants (34% women) indicated their current PEBs at Time 1 and were randomly assigned to the guilt condition or a control condition. One week later (Time 2), participants completed a survey of the same …

Israel's Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestinians, Bria Riepe

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The carving of Palestine to create a ‘Jewish State’, Israel, has imposed upon the Israeli and Palestinian people the necessity of separation on highly unequal terms and qualities of human existence. Since Israel’s creation, millions of Palestinians have been forcibly removed from their homes, displaced, rendered refugees, and continue to exist under severe Israeli military occupation. According to Israeli immigration laws, displaced Palestinians are prohibited from returning to their homes, joining their families in Israel or the occupied territories, and even from entering the ever-expanding borders of Israel. This has occurred alongside a high immigration rate through Israel’s Law of …

Political Influences By The Catholic Church And Spanish Government In Colonial Mexico, Dorian Barboza

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The land of Mexico prior to colonization was composed of various large cities that upon colonization much of the land became New Spain. During this pre independence era of Mexico’s history the Indians were subjected to many changes in their culture through the Catholic Church and the Spanish Government. Religious conversion was accepted by the Indians as means to stop directed violence to the unconverted. The multidialectal cultures embraced Castilian as a common language that facilitated communication with the Spanish colonizers and between villages. The desire to integrate into the new Catholic and Spanish system gave rise to Indian litigation …

Christianity’S Impact On Deaf Culture In Latin America, Alexzandra Newman

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

International Research Symposium Exhibitor and Project of Merit

For hundreds of years, Christianity has made a huge impact on Latin America with at least 90% of people claiming to be part of one of its various denominations. This impact can be seen even in minority communities like the Deaf community. Historically, many churches had a tendency to shun the Deaf population due to the idea of the individual or family sinning greatly. However, this mindset began to shift once Deaf schools were established and churches began to welcome Deaf people into their services. Going forward, this poster will look at …

Gender Differences In Pro-Environmental Behavior Intentions, Katherine Pride, Sarah Cline, Cassandra Branham, Lauren Toledo, Heather B. Truelove

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Previous research has found gender differences in pro-environmental behavior (PEB) performance. Women typically score higher on environmental concern and show stronger inclination to engage in private or domestic PEBs (Tindall et al., 2003) and Allen et al. (2015) found that women are more likely to engage in efficiency upgrade PEBs. However, men show higher prevalence towards performing public PEB (Hunter et al., 2004). The present study recruited 313 Mturk participants. They were randomly assigned to one of six different norm levels. After exposure to a norm level, the experimental groups were provided the opportunity to perform the PEB. Participants then …

Love The Customer: Principles Of Interpersonal Relationships Applied To Social Media, Tracey Kyles

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Social media has changed the way virtually all of us communicate and its influence is far-reaching. Companies have even adapted and tweaked their marketing strategies to more personal approaches to reach their audiences. This is especially evident in recent years. We can see, for example, fast-food Twitter accounts attracting the attention of online users through witty personas and sarcastic tweets. Observing this phenomenon is what motivated me to look into relationships between brands and followers. Here, I refer to interpersonal relationship theories to uncover what encourages these kinds of relationships as well as discover which methods deliver the most positive …

Opposite-Sex Friendship Initiation: Some Dispositional Differences In Self-Monitoring, Abigail Masterson

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Project of Merit Winner

Compared to low self-monitors, high self-monitors have an unrestricted orientation to sexual liaisons and view friendships as activity-based (see Fuglestad & Snyder, 2010, for a literature review). These two tendencies suggest high self-monitors are more likely than low self-monitors to initiate opposite sex friendships for sexual purposes. To evaluate this prediction, 133 male and 135 female heterosexuals completed the 25 item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974) and the Reasons for Friendship Initiation Scale (Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001). Using participants’ self-monitoring and sex as predictors in multiple regression analyses, high self-monitors more often than low self-monitors cited the …

Editing The Eartha M. M. White Collection: Collaborative Projects While Staying At Home, Carol Lynne Hemmingway

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Digital Projects Showcase Exhibitor Award

Editing the Eartha M. M. White Collection is a collaborative electronic editing project that first began creating, editing, and publishing transcriptions of documents from the Eartha M. M. White Collection in 2016. Since Spring 2020, Carol Lynne Hemmingway has headed the project as its student leader. The project has since been presented by Hemmingway as part of the course material for Dr. Clayton McCarl’s DIG3152 Intro to Electronic Textual Editing course that summer and for the virtual 2020 National Humanities Conference with Dr. McCarl, Dr. Felicia Bevel, and Susan Swiatosz, who all play key roles …

Use Of Framing In Online Healthcare Reporting By Local News Stations, Grace Gillen

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

The purpose of this research project was to look critically at what differences in quality and style, if any, could be identified in online news coverage of healthcare in the Orlando-Daytona-Melbourne Nielsen market area. With the internet accounting for an ever-increasing portion of how consumers get information, it is crucial that local news websites keep up with the demands of their audiences. Since Florida is known to have an older population, a topic like healthcare arguably should carry more weight to stations here than it does to those in other locations. In regard to health communications specifically, …

Monitoring The Night Sky For Iceact, Andre Sierra Alderete, John W. Hewitt, Warren Huelsnitz

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

The neutral subatomic neutrinos are astronomical messengers that can provide us information to investigate the most violent astrophysical sources: supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. As these astrophysical neutrinos freely travel from their point of origin without being scattered by interstellar magnetic fields, we can analyze these particles by observing cosmic-ray air showers on the Earth’s atmosphere. These are produced by the energetic neutrinos by interacting with the air particles that produce a wavefront of Cherenkov radiation. To better identify these background neutrinos, IceCube, the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, constructed an imaging air Cherenkov …