Digital Commons Network^™

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

Proceedings of GREAT Day

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, such as spinning, in mice. In prior studies in mice, a ketogenic diet (KD) successfully decreased repetitive behaviors. One hypothesis is that 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), …

Evaluating Social Vulnerability In Livingston County, Ny, Charles Canero Iii, Daniel Noone

Proceedings of GREAT Day

Social vulnerability refers to the differential capacity of communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse events such as natural disasters, public health emergencies, and economic disruptions. While national indices like the CDC/ATS-DR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) offer standardized frameworks to quantify this concept, their application often overlooks critical intra-county disparities, especially in rural areas. This study applies the 2022 SVI dataset to analyze social vulnerability in Livingston County, New York—a predominantly rural county in upstate New York. We integrate geospatial analysis, correlation matrices, and Lasso-regularized regression to assess how vulnerability varies across census tracts and to identify …

Rochester Elementary Schools: Progress, Challenges, And The Path To Equity, Aimee Maoriello

Proceedings of GREAT Day

How does the first city in New York State to desegregate its schools now present one of the most segregated school districts in the nation? This capstone thesis investigates the persistent achievement gaps in Rochester’s elementary schools, examining the long-lasting impacts of redlining, blockbusting, and racial covenants on educational outcomes of young learners today. Since its incorporation in 1834, Rochester’s residential demographics have shifted dramatically, resulting in a diverse population. The post-WWII migration to northern cities contributed to an explosive growth in the Black population by over 2,000% in Rochester. This demographic shift—while vital to the city’s cultural fabric—created challenges …

"What A Mensch Does Is Fight For Justice:" Judaism, Activism, And Agency In The Civil Rights Movement, Ethan Harris

Proceedings of GREAT Day

While it is commonly known that the Jewish community was a major contributor to the United States Civil Rights Movement, much of the historiography focuses exclusively on the eventual fall of the Black/Jewish alliance. These gaps fail to encompass the unique nature of the Jewish activist experience, let alone their contributions in progressing African American equality. This project aims to provide insight into the nuances of Jewish involvement in the movement, as well as highlight how many Jews employed their religious traditions to inspire years of successful activism. Additionally, there is a call to action for public education to include …

Senegalese Community Through Media, Genesis Flores

Proceedings of GREAT Day

This paper builds off another paper detailing the media representation in Dakar, Senegal. This paper will discuss the extent in which the media representation in Dakar represents the daily culture, the sense of community, and how the media in Dakar transfers over to the diaspora/ america (if such a thing even occurs). In order to engage in this discussion, the top popular newspapers and news channels will be used as primary sources, coupled with clips of interviews, social media, and scholarly articles. This paper will then discuss the effectiveness of media in Dakar and assess if the media has any …

The Gospel Of Resistance: How The Exodus Narrative Undermined Pro-Slavery Christianity, Lauren Reilly

Proceedings of GREAT Day

In the book of Exodus, God delivered the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and into the Promised Land. For enslaved people in the United States in the 19th century, the beginning of this story felt familiar, and the end felt hopeful. By resonating with the Israelites, African Americans in the United States formed a distinct identity and theology that leaned on the hope of God’s justice and deliverance. Scholarship on Christianity among enslaved people has largely presented Exodus as a tool in forming identity and a sense of hope that God will deliver them in the same way He …

Why Won't My Parlays Hit?: An Analysis Of The American Sports Betting Industry, Ian Palmieri

Proceedings of GREAT Day

This paper investigates the advertising of the American sports betting industry. The increased prominence of such messaging, including league partnerships and influencer endorsements, influences individuals to gamble at higher rates, especially young adult males. Analysis of a sportsbook’s partnership with a sports league, three popular YouTube Channels, and a self-administered survey consisting of Likert-scale and open-ended questions reveals that advertisers employ deceptive language and placement, leading to higher rates of sports betting and advertising wearout.

Examining The Sociology Of Diversity: A State Of The Literature Within An Emerging Subfield, Guadalupe Alicea, Julia Carter

Proceedings of GREAT Day

The sociology of diversity is an emerging field that examines how social differences, such as race, gender, class, and ability, intersect within institutions and everyday life. As diversity becomes a central concern in education, workplaces, and policymaking, scholars continue to debate not only what diversity is but also what it looks like in practice, how it is performed, who is responsible for enacting it, and how institutional diversity goals align–or fail to align–with broader social equity objectives. These key debates within diversity discourse aid to critically assess how SUNY Geneseo, self-defined as an “equity-based honors college,” engages with diversity initiatives. …

Unity Decomposition To Simplify Challenging Integrals: A Crossover Between The Real And Complex Domains, Gavin George

Proceedings of GREAT Day

Integrating functions in the real domain tends to be challenging and can become complex as more functions and terms are inserted into the integrand. Shifting our lens to the complex domain can greatly simplify integration and the ability to deter mine trends among the primitives of families of functions. The trend relevant to this research paper is integral to finding the primitive function of higher-order elementary reciprocal functions by converting them into a summation of simpler terms. This result agrees with the results obtained from the residue theorem. Relating to fundamental complex analysis techniques such as the De Moivre theorem, …

The Role Of Actuarial Discretion In Discrimination In Auto Insurance, Michael Abrams

Proceedings of GREAT Day

In today's auto insurance industry, rate discrimination against people of color and lower-class individuals is rampant, but unseen by those outside of the industry. This is due to the proliferation of individualist perceptions of the operations of the auto insurance industry among social scientists and legal scholars in calculating insurance rates. It operates on the basis of risk calculation, backed up by actuarial measures that serve to single out minorities living in low-income areas. Driving history, insurance history, zip code, homeownership, and credit are among the most common measures used by insurance companies to calculate insurance rate, are shaped by …

Cholera, Community, And Commiseration: A Social Historical Look At The 1854 London Cholera Epidemic, Emily Meisenzahl

Proceedings of GREAT Day

Although people are most impacted by epidemics, a majority of the existing scholarship on Victorian London, public health, and the London cholera epidemics are based in political and economic history rather than lived, bottom-up narratives. The scholarship on the 1854 cholera epidemic, for instance, almost exclusively centers physician John Snow and largely ignores social history. Therefore, my thesis builds upon and contributes to these existing fields by focusing on the lived experience of the 1854 cholera epidemic among everyday urban residents. Through this paper, I intend to highlight how Londoners utilized letters and petitioning, Punch Magazine, and the “To the …

Icu Decision Tool Impact On Rebound Hyperglycemia, Daniel J. Donovan, Emily Highsmith, Sonya Khan, Michelle Horng

Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement

Hyperglycemia, defined as a blood glucose level ≥180 mg/dL in the hospitalized patient, is linked to negative outcomes including longer hospital stays, increased infection risk, and higher morbidity and mortality rates. In addition to critically ill patients with diabetes, hyperglycemia can develop in individuals without diabetes due to factors such as steroid use, continuous tube feedings, and an elevated stress response. Patients who have uncontrolled hyperglycemia are often placed on continuous insulin infusions (CII), but rebound hyperglycemia frequently occurs after CII discontinuation if the maintenance insulin regimen (MIR) is insufficient. Implementation of a MIR decision support tool integrated within an …

Metabolite Profiling Of Chamaelirium Luteum (False Unicorn) Roots And Related Commercial Products By Hptlc And Lc-Msms, Wendy Strangman, Wilmer Perera, Wilmer Perera

Oxford ICSB

Throughout history, medicinal plants have been used as herbal treatments in women’s health.  However, they remain poorly characterized at the chemical level, limiting standardization and safety assessment. Chamaelirium luteum (false unicorn), traditionally used for reproductive health in the Eastern United States, has previously been shown to possess both conventional steroidal saponins as well as more rare open-chain saponins whose bioactivities are largely unexplored. Incorporation of C. luteum into commercial products, and subsequent overharvesting of wild populations has increased the urgency for robust methods to verify authenticity and detect adulteration. In this study, we coupled HPTLC-based profiling with detailed LC-MSMS analyses …

The Texture Of A Threat:: Convolutional Neural Networks & Obfuscated Malware Detection, Kaelyn Haynie

Liberty University Research Week

Accurately detecting malicious programs is an expanding field of research for machine learning (ML), with a novel approach incorporating a bytecode-to-image pipeline that produces images representative of software. These images are provided to convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to be examined for malicious pattern indicators. However, CNNs struggle to generalize these patterns effectively while still being robust against adversarial data, an issue which this research addresses with adversarial training. In this paper, three unique CNN architectures (a DBFS-MC-inspired baseline, MIRACLE, and PSP-CNN) are trained for binary classification with 15,000 benign and malicious software samples encoded into images for Android, Windows, and …

Dynamic Structural Load Identification, Sam Kim

Liberty University Research Week

Structural Health Monitoring is a critical tool for analyzing infrastructure resilience. However, measuring dynamic external loads, such as wind, traffic, or seismic activity, remains a major engineering challenge. In order to address this “Inverse Problem” in structural dynamics, this study proposes a deep learning-based approach for structural load identification. To precisely reconstruct unknown force histories from vibration responses, a hybrid Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture is created. Convolutional layers can filter raw data, and LSTM takes the refined features from the CNN and reconstructs the time-history force distributions. Combined, these two methods create an effective …

Understanding International Student Retention With Hope And Social Connectedness: A Mixed Methods Study, Elizabeth Mathews, Isabel Deitch, Nathaniel Hastings, Stephen Ellison

Liberty University Research Week

With the rise of internationalization in higher education, universities often face the issue of international student attrition due to adjustment-related issues. Previous research has identified a variety of potential contributors to international student retention, mostly relating to integration into the university’s social and academic systems. Additionally, intentional social interactions in the host culture have been found to catalyze international student adjustment and are associated with long-term outcomes such as higher life satisfaction. Research on hope in college students supports the idea that higher levels of hope are associated with better academic outcomes (e.g., higher grade point averages; GPA). The international …

Environmental Limitations Of A Low-Cost, Cots Lora Meshcore Node Network, Robert Thompson, Alexander Weir, David Zelinsky, Hannah Murai, Judah Sotomayor

Liberty University Research Week

No abstract provided.

Notification Efficiency, Lashundra Rucker

Liberty University Research Week

No abstract provided.

Short Time, Lasting Impact: Teaching Pediatric End-Of-Life Care In One Day, Mckenzie Taliaferro

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Background: Pediatric nurses working in specialities that experience end-of-life, death, and post-mortem care, often feel unprepared for the emotional toll and lack adequate support systems (Camera et al., 2024). Nurses report feeling under prepared due to a lack of hands-on opportunities before graduation (Richoux, et al., 2022).  Pediatric death is a traumatic experience for families and nurses. Previous studies have shown that hands-on education increases nurses' confidence in caring for patients at the end of their lives (Cole & Foito, 2019; Noyes et al., 2023).

Method: A one-day, hands-on workshop on pediatric end-of-life was created and offered to nursing students …

Hptlc: The New Front Line Of Global Botanical Surveillance, Tiên Do, Ilona Trettin, Ehab Mahran, Sonja Drobnjak

Oxford ICSB

Quality control of botanicals is approaching a breaking point. Regulators, industry, and pharmacists are now forced to answer questions faster and at larger scale than ever before: What plant is actually in the product? Is it the right species—or a look-alike? Is it pure or adulterated? Is it safe? Is the chemistry consistent? And how can labs make confident decisions when analytical capacity and staffing are finite? This presentation demonstrates how modern HPTLC— far beyond its historical role as a simple identity test— now provides clear, interpretable chemical evidence that supports analyst with a practical tool for risk-based surveillance of …

Shame, Blaming Others, Forgiveness, And Depression, Louis Alvey, Bonnie Mckinney, Caroline Vaile, Hannah Murch, Jichan Kim

Liberty University Research Week

Depression is a pervasive mental health disorder often worsened by the damaging effects of shame. This creates a critical need for applied research to identify protecting coping mechanisms for use in clinical settings. To address this problem, this study employed a rigorous cross-sectional quantitative methodology, surveying adults to test whether forgiveness and blaming others moderate the well-established relationship between shame and depression. The study's robust statistical analysis revealed that while the maladaptive tendency to blame others worsens depressive symptoms, self-forgiveness acted as a significant moderator that effectively deactivated the harmful impact of shame. Ultimately, this research provides actionable, real-world solutions …

The Beauty Of Uniquity: A Biomechanical And Statistical Analysis Of Pitchers With Anomalous Arm Angles, Benjamin Marshall

Liberty University Research Week

In today’s modern age of analytics, fans have more information than ever before about anything in the world of sport. Starting with the introduction of Statcast to Major League Baseball, the push toward analytics has reached new heights in the last decade. One such analytical addition is new metrics for pitching mechanics, specifically a comprehensive understanding of things like release point, spin, rotational axis, and arm angle. This initial study examined the factors that contributed to the success of qualified pitchers from the 2025 MLB season with unique arm angles, specifically below 30°, compared to their counterparts with a more …

3d Printed Square Packing: Making Math Accessible For Everyone, Joseph Holt, Jacob Drambi

Liberty University Research Week

Making math tangible and accessible to everyone has always been an ongoing process, and as a part of that process this study aims to take steps forward in the area of square packing. Mathematics can often seem theoretical and aloof, something only for those in their “ivory tower.” Making mathematics into something tangible, something that anyone can see and, more importantly, play with, brings the extensive and invaluable field of mathematics down to an accessible level for everyone to use and enjoy. This study investigates square packing, the problem of deducing the smallest square that can contain a given number …

Faith-Informed Practice And The Challenge Of Religious Trauma: Insights From Christian Residents In Counseling, Nicole Taylor, Breanna Mcneal

Liberty University Research Week

This study explored the perceptions and emotional experiences of Christian counseling residents working with clients affected by religious trauma. Residents brought personal faith perspectives into their clinical roles, shaping how they understood and engaged with clients’ harmful or distressing religious experiences. Participants described empathy alongside moments of cognitive and emotional dissonance when clients’ narratives conflicted with their own beliefs. They highlighted challenges related to value conflicts, countertransference, bracketing personal convictions, and discerning appropriate spiritual integration. Findings underscore the need for targeted supervision and training to strengthen clinical preparedness for navigating faith-informed tensions in work with religious trauma.

Faith-Based Practices And Health: The Role Of Faith-Based Guided Meditation In Managing Type 2 Diabetes, Willie Velasquez

Liberty University Research Week

The purpose of my study was to investigate how faith-based guided meditation influences health management behaviors and individuals with Type 2 diabetes. Specifically, I examined its effects on glycemic control, stress levels, and emotional well-being. Current diabetes management approaches, such as medication, diet, and exercise, often fail to address psychological and spiritual aspects critical for effective self-management. Grounded in the Biopsychosocial Model of Health, this mixed-method study explored the potential of faith-centered meditation to promote improved self-care behaviors and enhance emotional resilience. The research included a sample size of 40 participants, male and female, ages 18-60, of diverse backgrounds, divided …

National Trends And State-Level Correlates Of Medications For Opioid Use Disorder Utilization Among Treatment Admissions In The United States, 2014-2023, Prince Osei Sarpong, Emmanuel Owusu, Manasvi Shiyani, Michael Ago Tetteh, Naa Komley Commey

Liberty University Research Week

Background: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) reduce overdose risk and improve retention in care, yet implementation at treatment entry remains uneven across the United States. Study objectives and hypotheses: To examine national and state-level patterns in MOUD use at treatment admission from 2014 through 2023 and to identify state-year characteristics associated with higher utilization. We hypothesized that MOUD use would vary substantially across states and would be lower in state years with greater structural disadvantage.

Methods: A repeated cross-sectional ecological study was conducted using the Treatment Episode Data Set-Admissions public use file. The analytic sample included adult admissions from …

Analyzing The Association Of Coated Gold Nanoparticles Utilizing Yeast Cells, Olivia A. Greiner

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have proven to be versatile technological tools, especially in the field of biomedicine. GNPs can be functionalized through different coatings for tasks like drug delivery, diagnostics, and biosensing. To further understand how GNPs can be altered for use as a biomedical tool, the cellular association of GNPs coated in different combinations of polyethylene glycol (PEG), sodium citrate, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and rabbit anti Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (antibody) with yeast cells was evaluated. This was tested through two main sample groups coated in either a base layer of sodium citrate or PEG. Each group had three samples that …

Advancements In Extraction And Co-Extraction Of Botanicals For Standardization And Efficacy, Rory Coleman

Oxford ICSB

Historically, botanicals have served human health in traditional medicine and supplementation due to their bioactive components. Efficient, clean extractions and clinical validation have become fundamental technologies, rendering access to libraries of efficacious products. However, cost, regulatory status, and speed to market have kept many botanicals in single or simple form. Mixtures of such single botanical extracts often require large quantities for effect, influenced by chemical composition, concentration, and delivery format. During the extraction and concentration process, exogenous "bioenhancers," e.g. piperine or oil blends for hydrophilic molecules, often become a necessity, exasperating the problem.   Here, we will delve into the development …

Botanical Hepatotoxicity: Are We Accurately Characterizing Risk Vs. Hazard, Rick Kingston

Oxford ICSB

No abstract provided.

Decades After Exposure: The Continuing Burden Of Asbestos-Related Diseases In The United States, Hannah Mnayarji, Luke Montgomery, Tunde Adebola

Liberty University Research Week

Many consider diseases caused by asbestos exposure to be antiquated conditions that are rarely observed today. However, asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) have long latency periods, meaning that the time between exposure to asbestos and the onset of disease typically ranges between 20-40 years. Since the last import of asbestos to the United States was in 2023, occupational exposure has continued into recent history. This study hypothesizes that there has not yet been a decline in asbestosis and mesothelioma incidence and mortality–two conditions primarily caused by asbestos exposure–indicating that the latency period between asbestos exposure and disease occurrence persists into the modern …