Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Socioeconomic Status And Cognitive Function: What Is The Role Of Social Stress?, Zoe Prats

Honors College

Higher socioeconomic status (SES), as indicated by income, educational attainment, and/or occupational class, has been consistently related to higher late-life cognition; however, why and how these variables are related remain unclear. As low-SES individuals experience more stressful life events and perceive these events to be more stressful than their higher-SES counterparts, patterns of stress exposures and reactivity may in part explain this gradient. Thus, the goal of this study was to characterize the relationship between educational attainment and global cognition in a sample of older adults and determine whether social stress - a composite of family stress, spouse/partner stress, and …

Assessing State Communication Of Resources And Education Effectiveness For Well Owners In Northern Maine: A Case Study, James Greenwood

Honors College

Private well water is an essential resource in the state of Maine, as over 38% of

the state’s population relies on it every day (Johnson et al. 2020). Unprotected by the provisions of the national Clean Water Act of 1974, which keeps public drinking water sources safe through regulation, well owners have to protect themselves against harmful environmental contaminants that threaten their water. However, as noted by research and leaders in the drinking water field, well owners generally have low well testing behaviors, leaving their safety up to fate. A common reason for this, as research as observed more than …

Human Cryptosporidiosis: A Review And Staining Method, Amatullah Ahmad

Honors College

Cryptosporidiosis is increasingly emerging as the most significant cause of infectious diarrhea in humans and livestock. In humans, studies show that Cryptosporidiosis disease is more prevalent in the immunocompromised and young ones. However, outbreaks from contaminated water sources have caused disease in healthy adults, too. Two main species of the protozoan causative agent,Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis are responsible for most human infections. Cattle, pets, mice, and other livestock can transmit theCryptosporidiumparvumvariantsto humans through fecal transmission. Other species of Cryptosporidium can infect domestic animals, but their host range is narrow; therefore, they are not of significant concern to human health. …

Optical Illusions To Schizophrenic Delusions: How Your Brain Can Alter Reality, Kathryn Stanislaski

Honors College

Widely misunderstood, stigmatized and understudied, schizophrenia is often misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated. While people diagnosed with schizophrenia are often thought to misinterpret reality, they may be more adept at processing visual sensory information and perceive reality better than those without schizophrenia. Studies involving patients with schizophrenia have shown consistent and extensive insusceptibility of these patients to a variety of optical illusions. In this paper, I propose that when processing visual information, people with schizophrenia rely greater upon the dorsal stream and areas in the brain associated with bottom-up processing, as opposed to those without schizophrenia that utilize the ventral stream …

Implementing Landscape Design Principles To Improve Green Spaces And Promote Ecotherapy On A College Campus, Jessica Hutchinson

Honors College

As students in Maine are subject to harsh winters and a disconnectedness due to the pandemic, the creation of an ecotherapy focused garden may benefit the community at the University of Maine. Mental health is a rising concern within the United States, where anxiety has been the most frequent in students at 62.7% from a survey conducted by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (Son et al., 2020). Ecotherapy is the practice of holistic psychology where healing is derived from interactions with the surrounding ecosystem (Summers and Vivian, 2018). Through literature review and gardening, this creative project provides a green …