Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Estrogen And Arousal On Latent Inhibition, Michael Herron

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The behaviors of humans and animals are dependent on neurotransmitters and hormones that affect attention, alertness, and associative learning. These include the hormone estrogen (which plays an interesting role in cognition and attentional processes) and the neurotransmitter orexin (involved in wakefulness, arousal and goal-directed behaviors). Here we evaluated the roles of orexin receptors and estrogen in Latent Inhibition (LI), a measure of attention and associative learning. Latent inhibition is a behavioral phenomenon in which an organism's ability to associate new meaning to a familiar previously inconsequential (pre-exposed) stimulus is reduced when compared to associating meaning to a novel stimulus (non …

Crowdsourced Conservation, Emmy Heywood

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Since the 1800s, America has been known for its massive conservation projects–setting aside huge swaths of land in public parks and passing legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Now, new technologies are making a different type of conservation project possible, and conservationists are capturing massive amounts of data to inform conservation efforts through community involvement. These crowdsourced projects harness knowledge and skills of large groups of people who can contribute to conservation goals. For example, the internet platform Sciestarter connects 100,000 registered citizen scientists plus millions of onsite visitors with over 3,000 individual conservation projects. The global …

Associations Between Parental Attachment, Peer Attachment, And Moral Disengagement, Jonah Hickman

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The goal of this study was to understand whether quality of attachment relationships with parents and peers affects moral disengagement. Attachment styles, founded in our parent's responsiveness to us in early childhood (Bowlby, 1973) carry into adulthood and predict relational functioning throughout development (Simpson & Rholes, 2017). Early attachment generalizes to peer relationships in childhood and in adolescence (Dykes et al., 2008). Moral disengagement, justification of actions contrary to the character of the perpetrator, is a form of anxious and dysfunctional behavior (Bandura, 2016). It is used to preserve self-concept while violating core values (Bandura, 2016). There is evidence that …

Pure Breeding At Its Finest, Justin Hunter

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

This is a poster of my research on the affects pure breeding has on dogs and their health. There is a focus as well on the focus on neoteny and its affects on dogs.

How English Teachers Use Instagram And Other Social Media Platforms As Professional Development And Emotional Encouragement, Katharine Jenkins

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

How are high school English teachers using Instagram and other social media platforms as professional development and encouragement? This question is essential because the amount of information about education and teaching is constantly expanding, and through the use of social media platforms, teachers are now more readily able to communicate with each other. The widespread nature of social media has also created a new type of professional development through the past decade. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Teachers Pay Teachers, Twitter, and personal blogs offer professional development through the sharing of classroom materials, advice, and the collaboration …

Mitochondrial Pyruvate Consumption Decreases Glycolytic Flux In Postmortem Muscle, Natalie Keele

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Mitochondrial pyruvate consumption decreases glycolytic flux in postmortem muscleColor, water-holding capacity and tenderness are important aspects of meat quality that are impacted by pH. The pH of meat is primarily determined by the amount of anaerobic glycolysis that occurs postmortem. As glycogen is degraded, it will produce ATP, pyruvate and hydrogen ions that acidify the meat, and this acidification process is essential for proper meat quality development. In the absence of oxygen, pyruvate is converted to lactate to restore NAD+ necessary for further glycolysis. In this state of anoxia, mitochondria are often ignored due to their reliance on oxygen to …

College Students And Screen Time On Digital Devices During Covid-19, Bailee Kent

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

During this time of a global pandemic, people are most likely spending much more time on digital devices. That includes college students. It's natural when isolating or in quarantine to turn to digital devices for information and relationships. How much screen time is a good idea? Is there such a thing as too much screen time? Have college students thought of ways to reduce screen time? If so, has a digital detox been an option they have thought about? This project looks at college students and their screen time using a mixed methods approach. Two groups of students were surveyed: …

Examining Ages Of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Ut, Taylor Kenyon

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Around 97.6-975.6 million birds fatally collide with windows each year in North America. Bird age could be a contributor to the collisions. The central focus of our research project is to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between the age of an individual bird and the likelihood of a fatal collision with a human-made window. The data collection method that will be used for this project is a hybrid of primary and secondary research. Personally collected data regarding window collisions, will be obtained from daily surveys of the Classroom and Student Services (CSS) Building at the Utah State …

Is There A Doctor In The Book? A Study Of Female Physicians In Literature, Addy Kirkham

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Young children often look to characters in books, movies, and television to inspire their future career choices. This research project was designed to examine what female physicians in literature inspired young women to choose to become physicians. It is important to investigate the influences young women may or may not have had so that those inspiring characters if they exist, can be highlighted for future generations. To obtain data, I sent a survey to the Utah State University Pre-Med Club to gauge what literary influences inspired them to become doctors. I also interviewed three female doctors and recorded their influences …

Using Lichens As Bioindicators Of Air Pollutant Concentrations At Cache Valley Elementary Schools, Angelia Klein

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Air pollution causes an average of two or more years to be lost from the lives of Utahns. Pollution from idling is estimated to contribute to one third of all of Utah's emissions, but no studies in Cache County have examined how metal content in the atmosphere changes with distance from idling zones. Lichens can be used to monitor type and level of airborne contaminants in air pollution. The objective of this study is to determine if lichens' metal content varies with proximity to the idling zones in front of schools in Cache County. We predict that the lichens closer …

Modeling Reflectance Spectra Of Nanorod Arrays With Arrays Of Light Sources, Christian Lange

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

It is known that carbon-nanotube forests, nanopillar arrays, and other formations of quasi-periodic nanostructures of various materials (semiconductors, semimetals, and metals) can display a very low light reflectance over a wide range of wavelengths, and that the reflectance eventually starts to rise beyond an onset wavelength. As these materials can be quite reflective in planar form, this phenomenon indicates that morphology rather than material plays a dominant role. However, a quantitative analysis of the reflectance spectra of periodic structures has yet to be established. As a first step, we use an array of light sources to model the reflection from …

Analyzing Fatal Bird-Window Collisions Occurring On Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Jacob Larkin

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Fatal bird window collisions are often overlooked as minimally damaging to bird populations or viewed as inevitable collateral damage of human habitat expansion. In reality, these unnecessary collisions are truly monumental in number, and prove to be a serious threat to bird populations, especially endangered bird species. In the United States alone it is estimated that between 365 - 988 million birds fatally collide with man-made windows annually. We are focusing our study on fatal bird-window collisions occurring on the Classroom and Student Services Building (C&SS building) at the USU campus in Brigham City, UT 84302. We have selected this …

German Thought And Animality, Jack Leonard

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The question of whether and to what extent animals have minds is a key problem for philosophy, cognitive and animal science, and lived experience as a whole. This problem, which will be called "the Problem of Animality", concerns whether animals can be said to have the attributes of consciousness, thinking, moral worth, and other fundamental concepts.

The modern approach to what will be called the "Problem of Animality" had its genesis with the philosopher Rene Descartes. The Problem of Animality was not a question in itself for Descartes, but instead, a question that was answered through the application of his …

"Botley, You Need To Listen!" Exploring Young Children's Interactions With Robots While Learning To Code, Selendra Lewis, Rebecca Peterson, Kathleen Bullock

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Recently, there's been a surge of research about child-robot interactions as robots are being used in classrooms and homes in increasing numbers. Many of these studies are conducted in a laboratory-like setting followed by a survey. This project is unique in that we primarily rely on observational data in classrooms where students are using robots to learn math and Computational Thinking skills including Spatial Reasoning, Algorithmic Thinking, Debugging, and Decomposition. While the main purpose of the larger project is to develop curriculum and assessments for these skills, the structure of the FSRS project proposal allows us to also analyze these …

"God Would Certainly Scold!": Understanding Religion, Sex, And Nonconformity Through An Analysis Of Dickinson's "Over The Fence–" And Surrounding Poems, Hala Louviere, Jordan Forest, Talia Roundy

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

While a single poem of Dickinson's is full of meaning, analyzing the pieces that she placed before it thickens an initial understanding with additional perspective and nuance. To receive a fuller sense of Dickinson's interpretations of her final poem of one of her handbound collections, Fascicle 11, "Over the fence—" we analyze select poems of the eight sheets that proceed it. In nine lines, "Over the fence—" encapsulates the scope of Fascicle 11, depicting the ways in which women are both judged and limited within the social climate of 19th century America and within Christian religious communities. In this fascicle, …

Bird-Window Collision Mitigation At Usu's C&Ss Building, Brigham City, Utah, Hunter Martin

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Bird-window collisions are often not thought about as if they are a major problem to bird populations worldwide. This is not the case as bird populations are threatened by these collisions. In the United States alone it is estimated that 97.6 - 975.6 million birds fatally collide with human-made windows annually, and another 16 to 42 million collide in Canada per year. Our focus is to investigate a possible window collision problem and explore different mitigation efforts to prevent these collisions at the USU-Brigham City campus (Brigham City, Utah, 84302). We hope to determine how many fatal bird-window collisions are …

Take A Chance Or Play It Safe? The Influence Of Risk Orientation On Public Opinion Toward Immigration Policy, Emilee Matheson, Lizzy Bickmore

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Despite well-documented potential gains from immigration, US immigration policy strictly limits immigration flows. This divergence between policy and research findings may be driven by negative individual attitudes toward immigration. Certain factors such as age, education level, political ideology, religion, and exposure to immigrants have all been shown to impact an individual's preference on immigration policy. Other theories, such as the labor market hypothesis or the fiscal burden hypothesis, point to the perceived economic threats of immigration as a leading cause of anti-immigration sentiment. Our paper focuses on risk orientation, a characteristic that determines an individual's trade-offs between risk and return, …

How Communication Between Secondary English Teachers And Their Students During A Pandemic Has Changed, Allison Mcmurry

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

How has online learning affected teachers' communication with students, particularly regarding feedback for writing assignments? The increase in technology as well as current unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic have led to an increase in online learning at all education levels. This being said, online learning comes with many challenges that aren't present in a face-to-face setting. Through a case study of teachers' experiences with communicating online as well as surveys of current English teaching majors that have experienced the student side of online learning, these challenges and opportunities are described. The results may suggest best practices drawn from …

Still Life With Three Puppies, Jenna Mills

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

During the nationwide Covid-19 shutdown, there has been a surge in demand for man's best friend. As American animal shelters have issued calls for help amidst strained resources, adoptions have reached a level never before seen. Being isolated for an uncertain amount of time has encouraged many American families to bring home a new four-legged member. These so-called "Pandemic Puppies" have been a ray of sunshine in a dim world situation.

Few artworks could better represent the current pet-owning situation than Paul Gauguin's "Still Life with Three Puppies". Although painted in 1888, many similarities can be drawn between the painting …

Dog-Headed: Outcast To All, Wesley Mills

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Cynocephali are a group of mythological, dog-headed, humans that appear throughout various cultures. Despite the wide range of region and time period in which they are used, they consistently represent a quality of "otherness".

Dogs In Police Work, Jackson Morley

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

This research project discusses canines and their involvement in police work. Why do we not have more police dogs? K-9 units are very effective and helpful, but there are also several drawbacks. Police dogs are extremely expensive, they also can be used as an abuse of power, having too many canine units also can be unnecessary for every event of police work. Having police dogs as a specialty unit in a specific region would be effective though.

Cytokine Indicators Of Inflammation In Mice Fed A Western Type Diet, Emily Mortensen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Colorectal cancer is currently the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and is projected to cause 53,200 deaths during 2020. The risk of colon cancer increases by 8-20% in individuals who suffer from colitis, which is inflammation of the colon lining. Colitis is common in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The development of colorectal cancer is complex and can be associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, which has been shown to be affected by diet. Disruption of the gut microbiome can lead to the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria …

National Security & Climate Change, Madison Mortensen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Certain scientific subjects are often divisive or technical, which makes those topics difficult to discuss with audiences outside the scientific sphere. One way of getting around this obstacle is to cater scientific communication to different target audiences to cut through any audience biases. In order to accomplish that, a communicator needs to understand the relationship between audiences' worldviews, and what they know, feel, and do regarding the subject at hand, and then how that relationship influences the types of media audiences trust and to which they respond positively. The following study investigates the worldviews of a military audience with respect …

The Importance Of Experiment Replication In Understanding Distribution Of 'Alalā Seed Retention Time, Camilla Moses

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Hawaiian forests have suffered damages from climate change, introduced plants, and introduced animals that trample or graze on the native vegetation. The 'Alalā, a native Hawaiian bird that is being reintroduced from captivity, is a disperser of native plants and can facilitate the restoration of native vegetation in Hawaiian forests. If the seed retention time and the flight paths of the 'Alalā are known, we can estimate the distribution of the seeds they disperse and see the effect the species has on forest restoration. In this study, the seed retention time of the 'Alalā is predicted from body mass using …

Congo 1961: Tracking Cia-Backed Weapon Smuggling In Africa's Copper Belt, Brian Mott

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

In 1960, the newly independent Congo erupted into civil war. Belgium, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union all rushed to influence the outcome. Congo sits atop some of the richest mineral deposits in the world; it was a critical Cold War battleground. The CIA came to the aid of one of the warring parties: the rebel state of Katanga. One of the critical ways they aided Katanga was by supplying otherwise unavailable weaponry. I focus on one instance of arms smuggling in particular: when three fighter jet aircraft were smuggled to the rebel Katangan regime. Historians have not …

(2,3)-Cordial Digraphs, Jonathan Mousley, Manuel Santana

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

This presentation is about graphs (the vertex-edge kind, not the y = f(x) kind). A graph is a mathematical object that represents objects and some relationship among them; the objects are represented by vertices and the relationships are represented by the edges. Graphs have applications in just about every field imaginable, including artificial intelligence, social network theory, and parallel computing theory. A directed graph is a type of graph used to represent relationships that are one-sided or not symmetric. We discuss a graph labeling scheme on directed graphs introduced by LeRoy Beasley called a (2,3)-cordial labeling. In …

Static Heat Exchanger For The Wireless Charging Of Electric Vehicles, James Mullen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The USU College of Engineering partnered with the Aspire NSF Engineering Research Center to develop wireless charging pads for electric vehicles. These concrete pads, when placed in roadways, charge the batteries of electric vehicles that pass over them. As the pads charge vehicles, they produce excessive thermal energy (heat), which dissipates slowly through the surrounding concrete. This excess heat reduces the efficiency of the charging apparatus and can damage the imbedded electrical components. To manage the pad temperatures, the USU Nanoscale Thermal Energy Lab proposed to submerge the heat-generating elements in a Phase Change Material (PCM). As a solid, a …

Identification And Characterization Of Pd-L1 In Bovine Placentas, Andre Nguyen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Successful bovine pregnancy requires that the maternal immune system modulate T lymphocytes. Program death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an inhibitory protein that is associated with immune tolerance and modulation of T cells. Previous studies have linked PD-L1 to suppressing T cell activity and modulating cytokine production, therefore, inducing maternal tolerance and acceptance of the fetus. PD-L1 may be a possible mechanism involved in establishing successful bovine pregnancies. To this day, no evidence of PD-L1 RNA or protein was found in bovine placentas. We hypothesize that PD-L1 is present in the bovine placenta and its expression differs between trimesters. To analyze the …

Dogs In Ancient Egypt, Ella Olson

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The Ancient Egyptians are infamous for their love of cats, but what about dogs? It turns out that dogs were equally loved and praised in Egyptian culture. A large part of this comes from the religious significance of dogs- they are connected to the afterlife through Anubis, the god of the dead, and were thought to act as companions and guides to humans in the afterlife. Anubis is an interesting god to look at because he's one of the oldest and most respected gods. In today's terms, we refer to him as having a jackal head, but the Egyptians considered …

How Alternative Proteins Are Helping Consumers Reduce Their Carbon Footprint, Samantha Petersen

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The alternative protein market is trending toward creating more animal product alternatives, not just meatless meat. Alternative protein is a growing market that creates meat alternatives for groups like vegans and vegetarians. Large meat companies are starting to invest in meatless meat research and technology. Reducing meat consumption is one of the best ways to reduce land and water usage as well as reducing carbon emissions.