Digital Commons Network^™

Autonomic Recovery Following Post-Exercise Cold Water Immersion, Katherine Gurley

Health Sciences Student Scholarship

Katherine Gurley ’25, Biology and Health Policy Management major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Brett Romano Ely, Health Sciences

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session Wednesday April 23, 2025, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda

Remarks by the Chair of the Board

Remarks by the President

Action Items

• Appointment of Western Michigan University’s Tenth President
• Remarks by Shared Governance Leaders
• Remarks by the President Elect

Development And Validation Of A Dynamic Real-Time Risk Prediction Model For Intensive Care Units Patients Based On Longitudinal Irregular Data: Multicenter Retrospective Study, Zhuo Zheng, Jiawei Luo, Yingchao Zhu, Lei Du, Lan Lan, Xiaobo Zhou, Xiaoyan Yang, Shixin Huang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Timely and accurate prediction of short-term mortality is critical in intensive care units (ICUs), where patients' conditions change rapidly. Traditional scoring systems, such as the Simplified Acute Physiology Score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation, rely on static variables collected within the first 24 hours of admission and do not account for continuously evolving clinical states. These systems lack real-time adaptability, interpretability, and generalizability. With the increasing availability of high-frequency electronic medical record (EMR) data, machine learning (ML) approaches have emerged as powerful tools to model complex temporal patterns and support dynamic clinical decision-making. However, existing models are …

Student Research Symposium Schedule 2025, Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Student Research Symposium 2025 (Archived)

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (Pcos) On Pregnancy From A Nursing Perspective, Haylee F. Schultz

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome on pregnancy from a nursing standpoint. Nearly 5-10% of women in the United States are affected by polycystic ovarian syndrome during the reproductive years. This research aims to investigate how this condition impacts fertility and pregnancy risks. This initial research was completed through a review of existing literature accessed through databases such as CINNAHL and PubMed. Once all data is collected, the goal is to seek nursing interventions to lessen the effects of polycystic ovarian syndrome and increase positive pregnancy outcomes. This research is critical as …

061 - Leaf Litter Compost Soil Amendments In Created Wetlands May Drive Soil Microbial Succession Toward An Alternative Community Structure., Michelle Apodaca, Solangel Almonte

GREAT Day Posters

The loss of wetlands due to human activity has led to increased efforts in their creation and restoration. This study evaluates a created freshwater wetland and a natural forested wetland at the Mill Seat Wetland Restoration Area in Riga, New York. Since 2019, these wetlands have been subjected to experimental conditions involving leaf litter compost as a soil amendment. Previous research suggests that compost amendments enhance plant diversity, floristic quality, and nutrient availability while supporting key biogeochemical processes. However, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing indicates that the microbial community structure in amended wetlands may be diverging from that of reference wetlands. …

Dna And Bioinformatics Tools For Estimating Biodiversity In The Narragansett Bay, Emma Barry

Biology Student Scholarship

Emma Barry ’25, Environmental Biology major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Markert, Biology

Sustainable Brand Trust In Mobile Banking: A Case Study Of Bsi Mobile User Reviews On Google Play, Novian Tiandini, Haqqi Hidayatullah

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

In contemporary times, communication is important in resolving problems or crises in various field. One of them in digital transactions. The digital transactions are a frequently performed activity, including the use of mobile banking (m-banking), which has become an essential application due to the high volume of transactions utilizing it. Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) mobile is one of Indonesia's mobile banking services that experienced disruptions for several days in May 2023. Even BSI issued an official statement regarding the issue through their social media. This has the potential to affect users' trust in their brand, while a brand's strength is …

Through The Looking Glass : Diversity Through The Eyes Of A Dress Form, Amara Copeland

LSU Master's Theses

This article aims to look into educational institutions and how they address diversity using curatorial displays. Does fashion and costume curation add to the seclusion of luxury? Looking into this correlation, this study aims to answer these next couple of questions. How does museum curation add to fashion social norms? Is it a subconscious or conscious decision when deciding on a mannequin or dress form? How do museum and fashion curations add to the exclusion of minorities in the world of luxury? What is costume luxury, and who do we say can obtain it?

This research aims to understand the …

Functional And Comparative Genomics Of The C.Sojina- Soybean Interaction, Alejandra Maria Vargas Oyuela

LSU Master's Theses

Frogeye leaf spot (FLS), caused by Cercospora sojina, is a significant foliar disease of soybean (Glycine max) and is responsible for substantial yield losses worldwide. While management strategies rely on host resistance and fungicide applications, the emergence of new virulent races and fungicide-resistant isolates necessitates a deeper understanding of C. sojina host interactions and genomic variability. Here, we employed comparative and functional genomic approaches to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the C. sojina-soybean interaction. A dual RNA sequencing approach was used to identify transcriptomic changes in G. max cultivars Blackhawk (susceptible) and Davis (resistant) across multiple …

103 - Targeting G-Quadruplex Dna Using Groove Binding Compounds As An Anticancer Study, Anasophia Lee, Gadeer Al-Abdely

GREAT Day Posters

This research project investigates the effectiveness of groove binding compounds in binding to G-quadruplex DNA. Previous work by researchers within the field have shown that G-quadruplex (G4) DNA is a viable anticancer therapeutic target. Compounds that stabilize G4 have shown promising antitumor effects in preclinical cancer models. This project seeks to study drug-G4 interactions using fluorescence displacement assays and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Thioflavin-T (ThT) fluorescence displacement data have shown significant displacement of ThT bound to G4 DNA with certain groove binders, indicating G4 binding and stabilization. Circular dichroism spectroscopy displays the differential absorption of circular polarized light in the …

105 - Attention Bias Differences During Stressful Interactions, Kaelin Faery, Destina Tas, Sophia Licausi, Molly Flanagan, Isabell Matthew

GREAT Day Posters

Attention bias (AB) is a characteristic seen in individuals with anxiety, in which they attend to threatening or negative stimuli more frequently than neutral stimuli (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). To our knowledge, prior research investigating AB has not conducted experiments in true real-world situations, making results difficult to generalize to the real world. The present study adapted the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirchbaum et al, 1993) to assess attention bias in a real-life stressful situation. The TSST involves completing a brief speaking task in front of a panel; here the panel consisted of two confederates, one of which presents …

149 - Cannabis Use Attitudes, Frequency, And Emotion Regulation In College Students, Riley Kawola, Bridget Maddigan

GREAT Day Posters

Emotion regulation is the process through which people influence the emotions they experience and express, including the timing of emotional expression and experience (Gross, 1998b). Emotion regulation difficulties are a well-documented risk factor for substance use and misuse. Attitudes have been shown to directly impact behavior, specifically when they relate directly to the goals driving behavior (Baumeister & Finkel, 2010). When experiencing difficult or intense emotions, one may shift their attitudes to align with emotion regulation goals. We hypothesize that cannabis attitudes mediate the relationship between emotion regulation abilities and cannabis frequency. Participants were students (N= 72) enrolled in a …

124 - Movie Preferences And Emotional Desensitization, Riley Bowersox, Ashley Ilarraza, Peyton Cartwright

GREAT Day Posters

The purpose of this study was to assess the association between the enjoyment of different movie genres (i.e., thriller, horror, sports-themed, and romantic-comedy) and emotional desensitization to violent and gory stimuli. Ninety-three participants rated how much they liked the aforementioned movie genres. Next, they watched two video clips from two different horror movies (e.g., Saw X, Talk To Me, Final Destination 2, Final Destination 5, and Evil Dead Rise) for a total of seven minutes. Afterwards, participants reported their current positive and negative mood states. Results indicated that only participants who liked horror showed a reduction of fear and an …

106 - Trait Anxiety Relationship To Attention Bias During Social Interaction, Molly Flanagan, Kaelin Faery, Aj Ludlam, Hannah Belosky

GREAT Day Posters

Trait anxiety is an individual’s tendency to appraise situations as threatening, avoid anxiety-provoking situations, and demonstrate high baseline physiological arousal (Elwood et al., 2012). Attention bias (AB) is a characteristic seen in individuals with anxiety, in which they attend to threatening or negative stimuli more frequently than neutral stimuli, but no studies have examined this relationship in a real-world social setting (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). Here, we test the hypothesis that more anxious individuals have an attention bias during a real-world social interaction. Trait anxiety is tested at the beginning using an STAI-T questionnaire, with higher scores indicating higher levels …

148 - Perspective Taking And Dispositional Empathy With Nature: The Mediating Role Of Connection To Nature, Anna Arehart, Joseph Healy

GREAT Day Posters

Dispositional empathy for nature is an important predictor of pro environmental intentions. However, relatively little is known about the psychological precursors of dispositional empathy for nature. We predicted that connection to nature would mediate the relation between perspective taking and dispositional empathy for nature. Our reasoning is based on findings that link empathy to dispositional empathy for nature (perspective taking is a component of empathy for other humans), and our hypothesis that feeling connected to nature should increase empathy for nature. Undergraduate participants (n=117) at SUNY Geneseo completed an online survey that included measures of perspective taking of other humans, …

153 - The Role Of Black Seed Oil (Thymoquinone) On Repetitive Behavior And Neuroinflammation In Spinning Mice, Ashley Biondi

GREAT Day Posters

Repetitive behavior is characterized as repetitive actions with no purpose, which is a common feature in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). What we are trying to see is if environmental interventions can reduce repetitive behaviors in mice. In prior studies in mice, a ketogenic diet (KD) successfully decreased repetitive behaviors. One hypothesis is the reduced spinning is due to the KD being an anti-inflammatory. Neuroinflammation, which refers to inflammation in the central nervous system, may offer a link between diet and ASD, and other disorders. In a convergent approach, this study uses another known anti-inflammatory, Thymoquinone (TQ), to try and reduce …

158 - Devonian Nowakia From The Genundewa Limestone, Upper Devonian, Western New York, Emma Johnson, Liam Mcaneney, Chloe Rayburn, Rory Salter, Colleen Strong

GREAT Day Posters

Nowakia are microscopic conical fossils of unknown affinities, possibly mollusks, characterized by an ornament of rings and ridges. Nowakiids have been found and studied in Devonian limestones from the Czech Republic and China, but not specifically from the Genudewa Limestone in western New York. Our goal was to quantify the abundance of nowakiids and other dacryoconarids from the upper and lower beds of the Genundewa limestone. Rock samples were collected at both Eighteen Mile Creek near North Evans, and Jones Bridge Road near Geneseo. Materials were collected using chisels and sledge hammers, then crushed, split, and scanned using optical microscopes …

162 - Examining The Involvement Of P27 And P57 In Clobetasol Induced Quiescence In The Vulvar Cancer Cell Line, Umscv-4., Claudia Marsello

GREAT Day Posters

Quiescence is a reversible cellular state where a cell exits the cell cycle and ceases replication in response to stress. Cells can re-enter the cycle once the stress is alleviated. Emerging evidence suggests that cells in a quiescent state may contribute to the long-term dormancy of cancer cells. Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) is a rare form of female genital cancer, and while its treatment and diagnosis remain poorly understood, ultrapotent topical corticosteroids like clobetasol are commonly used to treat vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS), a skin condition that can precede vulvar cancer development. Our studies show that a subpopulation of …

163 - New York State Agriculture And Dairy Policy, Delaney Livermore

GREAT Day Posters

Due to barriers set in place by various state agriculture policies, small dairy farmers in New York have a hard time making a profit, and staying afloat in the industry. As a result, it can be difficult to make dairy farming a career as a smaller dairy farmer, as the labor intensive work doesn’t have as many benefits as other careers do in today's society. However, the dairy industry isn’t growing, it’s just becoming more capitalized. With the rise of corporate farming, and the decrease in small/local farming, there is less diversity in the industry. This leads to a multitude …

173 - Isolation & Rna Sequencing Of An N. Crassa Fsd-1 Dna Binding Domain Mutant Strain, Sophia Bahm, Leila Doerrer

GREAT Day Posters

Neurospora crassa is a model filamentous fungus that is widely used in a variety of genetics research. It is a reproductively versatile organism, with the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually. N. crassa leaves many questions unanswered in regards to its mating behaviors. Specifically, we focus on how the transcription factor fsd-1 regulates mating behaviors of this fungus. Expression of fsd-1 allows for successful mating whereas strains with a deletion of fsd-1 (Δfsd-1) are functionally sterile. The focus of this study is the isolation of RNA from a mutant strain of Neurospora crassa containing a variant of the fsd-1 …

179 - Chromosome Assembly Factor 1b In Zebrafish Retinal Development, Stephen Welsch, Dan Coffee, Zachary Gilly, Thadar Noe, Olivia Gibeault

GREAT Day Posters

Zebrafish possess the ability to regenerate body parts such as the heart, fins, pancreas, brain, spinal cord, kidneys, and retina. When zebrafish retinal damage occurs, Müller glia divide and create neuronal precursor cells, which go on to become replacement retinal neurons. This allows zebrafish to recover from retinal damage. However, mutant zebrafish cannot fully develop and regenerate retinal cells. In particular, the good effort (gef) mutant allele of the chaf1b gene is characterized by a period of normal development, followed by cell death in highly proliferative developing tissues, including the retina, brain, and pectoral fins. The gef mutant retinal cells …

181 - Investigating The Role Of Flexible Loop Mutations In Malate Dehydrogenase: Structural And Kinetic Impacts On Enzyme Catalysis, Jay Glass, Andrew Mcfadden, Harshdeep Singh

GREAT Day Posters

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) plays an essential role in metabolism by catalyzing the reversible conversion of malate to oxaloacetate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. This reaction, which also generates NADH, is critical to metabolic homeostasis across species. Although the general structure and function of MDH are well-characterized, the contribution of its conserved “flexible loop” region to substrate binding and catalysis remains insufficiently understood. In this project, we investigated how point mutations within this loop affect enzymatic activity in Citrullus lanatus (watermelon) glycosomal MDH (wgMDH), a model system with a well-characterized expression protocol and sequence. We introduced four site-directed mutations—R130A, R130E, R124K, …

187 - Exposure To Thc Throughout Adolescence Produces Long-Term Deficits In An Object Recognition Task In Rats, Hermei Herman, Marianna Santabarbara, Sarah Gusefski, Charlie Wilson

GREAT Day Posters

With the recent legalization of cannabis across various states, it is becoming more accessible for both medicinal and recreational usage. However, within the medical community, there has been a rise in the possible adverse health concerns of the recent emergence of its recreational use. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is one of the 113 cannabinoid compounds that are more commonly used for its medicinal purposes to treat certain medical conditions, alleviating symptoms of nausea, lack of appetite, and bodily pain. Yet, THC is still largely used recreationally, and one of the primary users are adolescents. The long-term effects of THC exposure are still …

194 - Wetland Restoration Using Leaf-Litter Compost And Mosses: Using Shannon Diversity, Floristic Quality Analysis, & C:N Ratios To Determine Effectiveness, Talia Weidberg

GREAT Day Posters

Natural wetlands provide ecosystem services such as carbon storage and biodiversity habitat. Anthropogenic impacts have degraded and destroyed wetlands, leading to loss of these services. Finding optimal restoration strategies is essential to recovering these ecosystem services and mitigating climate change. This study focuses on the change in the plant community over time; determining species composition, species diversity, and overall plant quality (FQA and C:N) in one created wetland under experimental conditions in which leaf-litter compost was added and one nearby natural forested wetland. The created wetland was divided into four transects (4 x 50 meters), two of which were kept …

196 - Perfectionist Self-Presentation And Social Media Motives As Mediators Of Narcissism And Problematic Social Media Use, Gabrielle Diverde, Nieve Mahood, Anna Arehart, Kaela Dimanlig

GREAT Day Posters

According to the Compensatory Internet Use Theory (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014), individuals may use social media to compensate for challenges they may experience socially and/or to meet certain psychological or emotional needs. This compensation may increase the risk of problematic social media use, including addiction and stalking behavior. Researchers have linked both grandiose narcissism (exhibitionism, self-importance, and reflecting self-perceptions of grandiosity and dominance) and vulnerable narcissism (hypersensitivity to the opinions of others, defensiveness, and insecurity) to problematic social media behaviors. We examined both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism as predictors of social media stalking and addiction, with perfectionistic self-presentation and social media motives …

198 - Genetic Variation And Endosymbiont Incidence In The Introduced Ant-Mimicking Spider, Myrmarachne Formicaria, Milo Miller, Brooke Sikora, Brenna Dunn

GREAT Day Posters

We examined the genetic and endosymbiotic diversity of the ant-mimicking jumping spider Myrmarachne formicaria, a spider native to Eurasia whose presence in North America has expanded over the past several decades. Non-native populations often exhibit reduced genetic diversity, so patterns in genetic diversity may help demystify their number of and source of introduction events. Prior sequence analysis of several mitochondrial genes revealed little genetic variation within M. formicaria across most European and North American populations. One of this study’s aims was to sequence two nuclear genes, 28S rRNA and Histone H3, to expand the number of genetic loci available for …

200 - Topographical Individualized Neuromarkers In Children With And Without Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, Julia Massoni, Grant Edmondson, Natalie Riedy

GREAT Day Posters

The Topographical Individualized Neuromarkers (TIN) project uses an innovative approach to analyze topographical patterns of brain function to discover biomarkers for mental health. In previous studies, neurotypically developing children show a distinct nonlinear connectivity pattern from the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) to the insula, with a maximum at the mid-dorsal ACC, compared to those at risk for anxiety who show a decreased, more linear pattern within these regions (Taber-Thomas et al., 2016). In the current study, we focus on the topographical functional connectivity patterns in children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the limbic system, a composition of different neural …

203 - Investigating The Impact Of Invasive Mussels On Ecosystem Dynamics In Conesus Lake, Jacey Balcarczyk, Zander Cole, Kurt Schirrmacher, Emily Szczublewski, Jacalyn M. Wittmer

GREAT Day Posters

This study examines how invasive mussels influence ecosystem dynamics in Conesus Lake, the westernmost Finger Lake in New York. Conesus Lake has experienced cultural eutrophication, remediation efforts, and ongoing challenges such as hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, and invasive species such as Dreissena polymorpha and Dreissena bugensis. Using lake sediment archives, this study analyzes invasive mussel body size and morphology over time to assess their ecological impacts. Two 150 cm sediment cores from the south basin were analyzed using a Geotek multi-sensor core logger. Sub-fossilized mussel shells were identified to species level, and body size metrics—including length, height, and dorsal curvature—were …

204 - Examining The Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Ability And Cannabis Use Frequency, Nicolette Faller

GREAT Day Posters

Emotion regulation is known to play a role in substance use behavior (Weiss, et. al., 2022), but the relationships with cannabis are not yet widely studied. This analysis examines how emotion regulation (ER) ability, measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) 18 (DERS-18; Victor & Klonsky, 2016) is related to cannabis use frequency, measured by the Drug and Alcohol Frequency Questionnaire - Cannabis Use (DFAQ-CU) (DFAQ-CU; Cutler & Spradlin 2017). The hypothesis stated lower ER ability is a predictor of higher cannabis use frequency. 153 participants completed an online questionnaire including these measures, and the data were analyzed …