Digital Commons Network^™

How Does Polarization Affect The United States Supreme Court Decisions Concerning The Issue Of Birth Control Since Griswold V. Connecticut?, Jillian Pusateri

Academic Festival

While the original intent of the United States Supreme Court was to remain as a nonpartisan branch of government, partisanship has found its way into the system. The goal of this study was to identify the patterns of supreme court nomination, as well as decisions due to party politics concerning the highly debated issue of birth control, specifically abortion. Court case analysis from the Supreme Court will used in this study. The study will specifically analysis court cases on birth control and abortion. We expect to find that there is a noticeable split between two sides concerning the issue and …

The Evaluation Of Agritourism In Italy, Lucia Catino

Academic Festival

This research focused on the success of the agritourism industry within Italy. Considering the role of hospitality in the Italian tourism industry and its history as well as the need for a revival in rural areas and the agricultural sector. The results demonstrate how agritourism revitalizes the agricultural industry as well as the tourism industry and revives local ecosystems while demonstrating local goods and regionally famous products. In this paper I investigate the effect local products, farms and economics play into the agritourism business and vice versa.

Disibility Laws And The Education System: Enough To Protect And Properly Educate Disabled Students?, Rena Casalinhor

Academic Festival

Legislation and the education system has come a long way since the 1800’s, however, there is still much to be done in order to protect and equally education disabled students. Especially concerning centers for higher education where private funding does not necessarily account for accommodations and resources for students with disabilities. It is not yet a branch of education that was covered in any of the previous laws made. It was a blind spot that needed a political backbone in order to ensure these students with disabilities were still being taken care of all the way throughout the school system …

Remain Calm: How Emotional Responses Influence Perception Of Women Confronting Sexism, Sophia Rogers, Ashley Piney

Academic Festival

While previous studies show that people who confront prejudice are negatively perceived by others, recent research has focused on methods to mitigate these effects. In this study, we examined how the emotional tone of confronters ameliorates observers' negative perceptions. Specifically, we presented participants (N = 682) with a workplace scenario involving sexism between two characters, Emily and John. In all scenarios, Emily confronted John's sexist remarks, but we manipulated her emotional tone in the confrontation to be either angry, confident, calm, or sad. Afterward, participants rated Emily's competence, warmth, and unprofessionalism. Findings revealed that Emily was perceived as competent, regardless …

Cannabis Use Risk Level And Expected Positive Impacts Of Changing Use Among College Students Who Completed A Digital Form Of Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment (Sbirt), Katherine Anderson, Jessica Samuolis, Gianna Fucci, Kelly Sgombick

Academic Festival

Cannabis (also called marijuana) use is prevalent and increasing among college students and use is associated with a number of short-term and long-term consequences. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is one substance use prevention approach commonly used in campus counseling/health centers. Digital versions of SBIRT have been developed, such as ScreenU Cannabis, that allow for dissemination campus-wide. Although ScreenU Cannabis focuses on assessing risk and providing brief intervention and referral to treatment based on the risk level assessed, students’ qualitative responses within the screening may provide valuable insight regarding reasons to change use and expectations of benefits …

Alcohol Use Risk Level And Reasons To Change Among College Students Who Completed A Digital Form Of Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment (Sbirt), Madeleine Pralea, Annalise Baldi

Academic Festival

The focus of the current study was to examine college students’ alcohol use risk levels as assessed by an online Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program. Additionally, the study examined reasons to change alcohol use, readiness to change, importance to change, and confidence in success among students who reported high-risk alcohol use. Use of the digital SBIRT program helped to identify students drinking at high risk. In light of the variety of reasons to change provided by students at high risk, prevention and intervention efforts should be multi-faceted. More research is needed to better understand students’ importance, confidence, …

Negative Alcohol-Related Consequences And Triggers To Change Alcohol Use Among College Students, Isabelle Kovacs, Andrius Kulbis-Marino

Academic Festival

Alcohol misuse is prevalent among college students and is associated with a range of negative consequences. Although a large body of research exists focused on alcohol misuse among college students, less is known about triggers to change alcohol use. The current study examined students’ qualitative responses regarding readiness to change use that was asked as part of an online alcohol misuse screening. Students’ responses were coded and themes were identified. Additionally, the extent and co-occurrence of four common negative alcohol-related consequences, also asked in the screening, were examined.

Can Dogs Detect A Surprising Event?, Emma Higley, Samantha Faeth, Nicole Alvira, Kaitlyn Borg, Marissa Colloca, Gabrielle Esposito

Academic Festival

Infants demonstrate object permanence understanding during violation of expectation tasks. These tasks consist of expected (e.g., ball stops at solid wall) and unexpected (e.g., ball rolls through solid wall) events. Infants look longer at the unexpected event as opposed to the expected event (Perez & Feigenson, 2021). Similarly, studies have shown that dogs present increased looking times during unexpected object permanence tasks (Pattison et al., 2010). In the current study, dogs participated in a violation of expectation task which investigated object permanence understanding. To conduct this study, dogs were positioned in front of a stage with a concealed opening in …

Low-Dose Drinking Water Bisphenol-A Does Not Alter Anxiety Or Cognitive Functioning In Adolescent Male Rats, Abigail Andre, Teresina Berni, Nicole Alvira, Lauren Maiolo, Alexandra Piasecki

Academic Festival

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an endocrine disruptor that regulates the effects of estrogenic, androgenic, and antiandrogenic systems. BPA is extensively used in the manufacturing of hard plastics leading to detectable BPA levels in body fluids of humans and animals indicating that BPA exposure is ubiquitous and has potential health hazards. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of adolescent exposure to low-dose BPA via oral ingestion in water on behavior and neuronal morphology in intact adolescent male rats. The dose given, a concentration equivalent to 40/µg/kg/day, is lower than daily safe-dose levels set by the United States Environmental …

Be Kind To Yourself: Examining How Self-Compassion Mediates The Relationship Between Minority Stress And Health, Samantha Cavalea

Academic Festival

Sexual minorities (e.g., LGB people) experience stressors specific to their minority status. Minority stressors are either proximal (intrapersonal) or distal (interpersonal), and both negatively predict mental and physical health. Self-compassion is the ability to hold one’s experiences of suffering with warmth and understanding, integrating aspects of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. A recent metanalysis (Helminen et al., 2022) found that self-compassion relates to minority stress and potentially helps buffer the links between stress and health. However, past work examined single aspects of minority stress and there is uncertainty in determining which types of stressors self-compassion may relieve. This study examined …

What’S Stressing You Out?: Analyzing Daily Experiences Of Minority Stress, Elisa Machado, Chelsea Signore, Ben Tesbir

Academic Festival

Minority stressors are unique experiences that are specific to marginalized groups, such as sexual minorities (e.g., LGB people). Past research has supported the connection between minority stress and negative physical and mental health; however, little is known about how minority stress is experienced in everyday life. For instance, most research studies include questionnaires that limit examples of minority stress. Similarly, little is known about which stressors are most frequent, and who they affect most (i.e., age, gender, sexual orientation). To address this gap, we analyzed open-ended responses from a daily diary study in which 112 sexual minorities self-reported stressful sexuality-based …

Determinants Of Quality Of Life Among Refugees Aging Out Of Place, Rebecca Barakat

Academic Festival

Refugees flee their home countries because of persecution and are resettled in countries such as the United States. The psychological trauma that refugees experience can impact their well-being. However, aging refugee experiences have been minimally explored through research. The main objective of this study was to achieve a better understanding of aging refugee experiences in regards to quality of life. We explored the relationship between sociodemographic and social connection factors with quality of life among aging refugees. There were a total of 108 participants (from Bhutan, Burundi, and Somalia), aged 50+, who completed a written questionnaire focusing on well-being scales. …

Nesting Site Variability Of The American Horseshoe Crab (Limulus Polyphemus) And Implications Egg Development Within Long Island Sound., Graham Templeman

Academic Festival

Limulus polyphemus, the American horseshoe crab, is a foundational species in their environment and plays a vital role in their ecosystems. The population of L. polyphemus in Connecticut has dramatically declined within the last twenty years due to overharvesting and loss of spawning habitat. Research regarding horseshoe crab nesting habits and the development of clutches must be conducted to better conserve this species. Horseshoe crabs have been observed nesting on rocky beaches, sandy beaches, and in marshes, so research was conducted to determine how habitat affects horseshoe crab egg development. We hypothesized that there would not be a significant …

Optimization Of The Oxidation Of 1-Phenylethanol, Caroline Faraday

Academic Festival

Microwave Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS) decreases reaction time, potentially increases yield and is a more efficient, greener approach to organic synthesis. This research focuses on optimizing the MAOS reaction conditions for the oxidation of 1-Phenylethanol to Acetophenone using chromium trioxide resin as the oxidizing agent and dichloromethane as the solvent. Factorial Design methodology is used to design the experiments and statistical analysis will be used to determine which factor, time, temperature, or wattage has the greatest effect on yield.

With Obesity On The Rise, It Is More Important Than Ever To Live A Balanced And Healthy Lifestyle, Victor Dipierro

Academic Festival

It is no secret that obesity is on the rise in the U.S. Obesity causes health problems, death, and economic loss, and is bad for the common good of society. However, considering my message is about good mental and physical health, we need to pay attention to other factors such as excessive attention to body image, which can also be dangerous to our health and well-being. I believe that living a balanced lifestyle with daily exercise and healthy eating is essential to live a long life with both good physical and mental health.

Gender Differences In College Athletes Feelings Of Burnout, Coaching Treatment, And Well-Being, Erin Burgess

Academic Festival

If student-athlete perceives that the costs of their sport outweigh the benefits, they receive from it they tend to have increased burnout rates and stress (Dubuc-Charbonneau and Durand-Bush 2015). As student-athletes progress ages through college, female athletes are more likely to have increased stress-related burnout rates and a negative impact on their well-being (Purvanova 2010).

Women experience higher rates of stress and have more chronic stress than men (Purvanova 2010; Matud 2004). Stress and burnout are inversely related to well-being. Positive well-being helps athletes build positive relationships with their teammates and feel as though they are making more of an …

Think Before You Speak: Examining The Impact Of Ageist Labels On Perceptions Of Older Adults, Samantha Cavalea, Devin Mccarthy, Nicole Badia, Nicole Alvira, Victoria M. Federico, Maria Pandolfo

Academic Festival

The goal of this proposed study is to examine how the use of different labels of older adults affect our perceptions of them.

Identify Acoustic Predictors Of Gender Attribution Across Various Speech Tasks, Jonah Snapper

Academic Festival

Misattribution of gender occurs when the listener’s binary perception does not align with the speaker’s gender.

Gender dysphoria describes the psychological distress that results when sex assigned at birth and gender identity do not align.

Voice acoustics, word choice, and pragmatics guide perception, and intervention.

Anatomical, personal, and social factors influence voice acoustics.

Unguided modification of voice acoustics can lead to functional voice disorders.3

The Effect Of Postpartum Depression On An Infant’S Language And Cognitive Development, Alana Reilly

Academic Festival

Has it ever crossed your mind how terrifying and scary it would be for a mother-to-be to feel like a failure and constantly experience sadness and guilt? What if she felt as if she could not take care of her own child after birth? And what would the effect of these depressive thoughts be on the infant?

Postpartum depression is an illness and type of depression that can affect mothers after childbirth. They can experience extreme feelings of sadness, anxiety, changes in sleep, appetite, and energy, along with bonding issues with the baby. As research suggests, one impact of postpartum …

Environmental Factors May Drive Plant Size Differences Between A Restored And A Natural Marsh In The Housatonic River Estuary, Angelina Scarpello, Latina Steele

Academic Festival

Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) provides habitat for many species and prevents erosion along coastlines globally and is a common restoration target. However, restored and natural marshes often have different traits due to genetic or environmental differences. Previous data has shown that S. alterniflora from a restored marsh in Stratford, Connecticut are consistently smaller than those from a naturally occurring marsh in Milford, Connecticut. We aimed to determine whether environmental differences such as nutrients play a role in observed size differences by performing two greenhouse experiments in which we grew S. alterniflora shoots from each location 1) in identical conditions and …

How Context Shapes Our Concerns: Investigating The Causal Effects Of Social Identity Threat Concerns Using The Sitc Inventory”, Nicholas Granja, Fabiola Millien-Faustin, Noelle Debrot

Academic Festival

The Social Identity Threat Concerns (SITC) Inventory measures people’s concerns about being devalued because of their important social identities (e.g., being stereotyped, disrespected, marginalized, etc.). So far, research examining the validity of the SITC Inventory has been correlational. The objective of the present study is to examine the causal effects of social identity and context on social identity threat concerns, as measured by the SITC Inventory. We Predicted that people exposed to threatening social contexts would report greater social identity threat concerns than people exposed to non-threatening social contexts. Participants (N=###) were placed in either a threatening or a non-threatening …

The Impact Of Social Class On Health: How To Take Control, Jaycob Castillo

Academic Festival

The common misconception is that one’s health is predetermined, when in reality there are a number of factors and ways that people can alter gene expression.

Comprehensive Analysis Of Zinc Oxide And Titanium Dioxide In Mineral Sunscreen Formulations, Jaden C. Bonfietti, Dhia A. Habboush

Academic Festival

The inorganic materials of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide were analyzed through in vitro and physical tests to show their significant role in a sunscreen formulation scope. On-market formulas and lab-made prototypes were tested together to understand the relationship of finalized products and the formulation creation process, while highlighting sustainability efforts within personal care and cosmetic formulations. With a UV Spectrophotometer, Sun Protection Factor (SPF), broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection, and critical wavelength were explored, while skin-like substrate and a UV light visualized the differences between formulas.

Visual Assessment Of A Meiofaunal Community, Ashley Guglielmi, Lilly Bove, James Moore

Academic Festival

Our goal was to determine if visual identifications of meiofauna to high taxonomic levels could be sufficient to document community changes, or if genetic identification would be required. Visual identification is cheaper, but a more time-consuming method.

Here, we used visual identification at higher taxonomic levels (e.g., phylum, class) to assess diversity, evenness, and the nematode to copepod ratio (N:C) at Seaside Park (Bridgeport, CT). Typically, diversity and evenness are expected to be high in a healthy community, and the N:C low. At Seaside Park we expect the diversity and evenness to be low and the N:C to be high …

The Forgotten Generation, Besjana Ugrinaj

Academic Festival

This study examines the acculturation discrepancies endured by first- and second-generation individuals.

•Aim 1: Identify & examine the discrepancies endured by first- & second-generation.

•Aim 2: Contribute to a body of knowledge on generational statuses & their influences on parental involvement, academic achievements, & feelings of guilt/shame.

You Look So Good For Your Age: First Steps Of Creating A Measure Of Daily Experiences Of Ageism, Francesca Davenport, Angelina M. Wargo, Angela C. White, Ava K. Bjelka

Academic Festival

Ageism refers to the combined stereotypes, prejudice, and discriminatory behaviors based on someone’s presumed age. Older adults are viewed with mixed (ambivalent) perceptions, such that they are viewed as being warm, but not very capable. Thus, there are multiple forms of ageism. Hostile ageism refers to the overtly negative ageism, whereas benevolent ageism refers to the seemingly kind form of ageism that still reinforces negative stereotypes (e.g., giving your seat to someone, assuming they are fragile or weak). Most research on ageism has referred to attitudes, both inter-and intra-group, directed toward older adults and aging. This work has found that …

The Impact Of Pronoun Use On Job Qualification And Hiring, Kerrin Silcox

Academic Festival

The study aims to analyze the effects of gender identity prejudice in the workplace environment. In addition, it works to investigate the effects of pronoun use on attaining different workplace positions.

Baseline Macroinvertebrate And Infauna Communities In An Eroding Salt Marsh Prior To Restoration, Madison Eaton

Academic Festival

Salt marsh restoration is key for resilient coastlines. Invertebrates are key components of salt marsh food webs, serve as water quality indicators, and provide ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling. This study collected baseline invertebrate community data in an eroding Spartina alterniflora marsh with unvegetated sediment seaward of the marsh cliff at Stratford Point, Connecticut as a reference point to assess future restoration. We hypothesized that the existing invertebrate community would resemble that of a mudflat more than a mature salt marsh. We surveyed macroinvertebrates in quadrats along four transects (higher and lower intertidal within the vegetated area; higher and …

Through Their Eyes: How Students View Growth Mindset Teaching In Middle And High Schools, Lauren Simak, Katrina Brown, Abigail V. Wilk

Academic Festival

Through Their Eyes: How Students View Growth Mindset Teaching in Middle and High Schools

When teachers communicate growth mindsets – or the belief that student intelligence is malleable vs. fixed – their students report greater belonging in the classroom, show increased motivation, and perform better. However, extant research on the benefits of teacher growth mindsets focused exclusively on college student samples. Thus, the purpose of the present research is to determine how teachers’ mindset beliefs affect middle and high school students in the classroom. Specifically, we examined how students perceived four dimensions of growth mindset teaching: (1) messages about success …

Relationships Between Personality Factors, Stress And Gpa, Chloe Yagy, Madeleine Pralea, Kayla Fitzgerald, Joelys Morel, Jenna Vargas

Academic Festival

•Has undergraduate stress increased over the years? •Is Conscientiousness positively correlated with GPA? •Is Neuroticism positively correlated with stress? •Investigate the correlation between neuroticism and GPA. •Investigate correlations between other traits, GPA, and stress.