Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Preliminary Survey On The Biodiversity Of Wasps In Eastern Kentucky, Lorien Molstad, Zoe Baker, Julia Fitzpatrick, Bethany Lucio, Sean O'Keefe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Biodiversity is the measure of variability of interactions between living organisms within an area. Biodiversity contributes significantly to the production of different life sustaining resources and supports a diversity of ecological life. A greater biodiverse area can help maintain environmental balance and maintain ecological diversity and health. There are multiple economic, cultural, and scientific reasons as to why biodiversity is important. When assessing biodiversity, mammals and birds are commonly used as surrogates. The problem with mammals and birds is that there are relatively few species and relatively few individuals in an area, so quantitative assessment can be difficult. However, insects …

Photography Practicum: Learning The Basics Of Managing A Fine Art Photography Darkroom, Brooklin Routt, Allison Jones, Frazier Pack, Robyn Moore

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The photography practicum provides Art and Design student researchers with the practical experience of managing a fine art photography studio. Students learn how to operate, manage, and maintain industry-standard fine art archival inkjet printers as well as a fourteen-station traditional black and white darkroom. This project provides essential expertise and knowledge that students, as lab monitors, both share with other students and incorporate into their own fine art practice and professional activities. Student researchers learn how to mix, store, and dispose of photographic chemistry, provide daily assistance to undergraduate and graduate photography students, and generate ideas for improvements to the …

Survey Of Spiders Within Eastern Kentucky, Mercy Hailu, Bailey Bullock, Joshua Hicks, Eliana Eldridge, Sean O'Keefe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Biodiversity is known to be the variation of living organisms compromising several levels, beginning from genes, then species, communities, then finally ecosystems. Biodiversity is crucial in maintaining ecological balance, boosting ecosystem productivity, and determining the quality of ecosystem services such as pest management in agriculture. Being aware of biodiversity's importance can also help with the prevention of continuous threats to biodiversity and be best prepared to manage conservation challenges. Typically, mammals, birds, and plants are used to assess biodiversity. However, spiders may be effective in indicating environmental change because they are taxonomically quite diverse, species fill a variety of ecological …

Creating The First Genetically Engineered Eukaryote With Circular Chromosomes, Duncan Mcginnis, Melissa Mefford

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Prokaryotes and eukaryotes differ in their chromosome structure; prokaryotes have a single circular chromosome, while eukaryotes have multiple circular chromosomes. Linear chromosomes are more complex than circular ones and create problems for eukaryotes. Many of these issues are solved by telomeres—long, repetitive sequences of DNA found on the ends of most eukaryotic chromosomes. They protect the ends from harm and limit how many times a cell can divide. Two of our greatest medical challenges, cancer and aging, are closely related to telomeres; most cancers upregulate telomerase, and aging human cells display shorter telomeres. To investigate the evolution and function of …

Fungi In A Warmer World: Middle Miocene Fungal Assemblages And Diversity From Alum Bluff, Florida, Savannah Jones, Taylor Horsfall, Laikin Tarlton, Abigayle Caldwell, Liberty Smallwood, Jolene Fairchild, Libby Lennex-Stone, Alyssa Patel, Olivia Vanderespt, Ingrid Romero, Jennifer O'Keefe, Noelia Nunez Otano, Sophie Warny, Matthew Pound

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Fungi play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle, soil formation, and overall plant growth as terrestrial decomposers (1, 2). Thus, the study of fungi, especially in the fossil record, is critical to understanding how fungal assemblages will react to future warming events. Fossil fungi provide a large-scale, long-term dataset unavailable from modern records, allowing for the generation of viable paleoclimate reconstructions and predictions (3, 4). Despite their importance and advantages in forming ecological and climatological interpretations, deep-time fungi have been underutilized (3). The Fungi in a Warmer World (FiaWW) project aims to deliver the first global view of …

Risky Behaviors In Central Appalachia/Eastern Kentucky: Teen Pregnancy And Sexually Transmitted Infections, Allison Hyden, Lisa Shannon

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2017), Central Appalachia had a teen birth rate 63% higher than the national rate. In the Big Sandy Region of Kentucky, the teen pregnancy rates per 1,000 females ages 15-19 were Floyd at 55.9, Johnson at 30.3, Magoffin at 57.3, Martin at 50.7, and Pike at 38.2. These were more than double the national rate (16.9) (Centers for Disease Control, 2021). Sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates within the area were also high. Chlamydia increased 200%, and syphilis increased 300% between 2011 and 2017; many of these cases were in young adults (Meehan, 2018). …

The Craft Academy Robotics Project, Daniel Brooks, Josh Day, Brianna Kayatin, Logan Lee, Shawn Nelson, Brady Sammons, Paul Zigo, Rachel Rodgers

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

To begin, the team’s research project consisted of a robot that could compete on a 12-foot by 12-foot playing field alongside 3 other robots. The robot had to fit within an 18in-by-18in limit, it could be made of a variety of materials and motors specified in the game manual to help it achieve the most amount of points possible. There are many ways to earn points in Freight Frenzy divided into 3 sections, Autonomous, Tele-Operation or “Op” for short, and End-Game: In the Autonomous section, the match starts with a 30-second Autonomous Period where Robots are operated only via pre-programmed …

Fungi In A Warmer World - Fungal Diversity From The Peak Warming Of The Miocene Climate Optimum As Recorded In The Latah Formation, Clarkia, Idaho, Usa, J. Fairchild, I. C. Romero, N. B. Nunez Otano, S. Warny, M. J. Pound, J. M. K. O'Keefe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Microfungi are a vital part of ecosystems as they help with key processes, such as carbon and nutrient cycling, especially through the actions of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic members (Nuñez Otaño et al., 2015, 2021; Willis et al., 2018). Microfungi can also be good indicators of plant biodiversity in an area because many fungal taxa are host-specific (Rutten et al., 2021; Francioli et al., 2021; Hu et al., 2021; Wijayawardene et al., 2022 ). Despite being crucial components in ecosystems, they are often overlooked. In the fossil record, microfungi have a high preserva􀆟on rate and they are often preserved close to …

Telomerase Activity Enhancement In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Mackenzie Neal, Hailey Rietz, Melissa Mefford

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Telomeres are located at the ends of eukaryotic linear chromosomes and are composed of repeated nucleotide sequences. One of their main functions is to protect chromosomal ends from being damaged. Telomeres cannot be completely copied during DNA replication so they gradually shorten during each replication cycle in what is known as the “end replication problem”. To counteract this problem, the RNA dependent enzyme complex telomerase works to extend telomeres and help protect the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres and the telomerase enzyme are heavily involved in the aging process and cancer progression. Telomeres gradually shorten with age and eventually become so …

Development Of Anti-Cancer Small Molecules To Inhibit The Base Excision Repair (Ber) Pathway By Binding Apyrimidinic/Apurinic (Ap) Sites In Dna, Ellen S. Ledford, Robert M. Tackett, Elizabeth M. Thomas

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Two of the main treatments available to patients with cancer are radiation and chemotherapy which both rely on the ability to induce DNA damage. One reason cancer deaths perpetrate is due to cancer resistance towards current cancer therapies. The Base Excision Repair (BER) pathway is involved in therapeutic resistance by utilizing DNA glycosylases that recognize and remove the damaged DNA base to leave the aldehyde. Apyrimidinic/Apurinic (AP) enzyme 1, APE1, then recognizes the aldehyde to trigger DNA repair. Alkoxyamines function to competitively covalently bind the aldehyde generated from the AP site. Once the aldehyde is covalently bonded with the alkoxyamine, …

Seasonal Abundance And Sex Ratio Of Earwigflies (Merope Tuber) In Eastern Kentucky, Abigal Fagan, Sean O'Keefe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The earwigfly is a rarely seen insect in the family of scorpionflies. There are three species total, one in Brazil, one in Australia, and the third (Merope tuber), widespread throughout the eastern United states. In a 1984 study, Chris Maier collected 69 earwigflies between 1977 and 1982 from New England. Most of these were collected in July using sticky traps. He collected 43 females and 26 males (sex ratio 2.4:1). In a 2014 study, Skvarla, Hartshorn, and Dowling collected 77 earwigflies from Arkansas, mostly in August using malaise traps, pan traps, Lindgren funnels, and pitfall traps. They collected 58 females …

Pressure Injuries In A Clinical Setting: A Quality Improvement Project, Colby Pugh, Kayla Blain, Chloe Patrick, Clarissa Baker, Mackenzie Hopkins, Jarrett Elam, Suzi White

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The purpose of this quality improvement project is to develop a teaching tool aimed at decreasing the incidence rate of pressure injuries in the clinical setting specifically those in intensive care settings. Pressure injuries are a common preventable hospitalacquired complication. The occurrence of pressure injuries is higher in an ICU setting than in a non-ICU setting with 30% and 27.6% respectively during a one-year time period. The development of a teaching tool to be distributed to nurses' stations, staff workrooms, and nurse managers seeks to improve ICU staff nurses' education on the topic of pressure injures at a large urban …

What Majors Are Chosen By Undergraduate Students Leaving Accounting? A Review Of The Literature, Sarah E. Lager, Kimberly Fatten

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Undergraduate accounting retention research has focused primarily on why students choose an accounting major, but less is known about what programs students go to when they exit an accounting major.

Data Quality Analysis Of 200 Gev Center Of Mass Energy P-Au Collisions From Star, Keaghan Knight, Kevin Adkins

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

In proton collisions, fragmentation functions describe the probability that a given parton in the initial state creates a particular hadron in the final state. Understanding fragmentation is essential for a theoretical description of measured asymmetries that provide a glimpse of the proton's spin structure. Proton-gold collisions from the STAR detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory will provide a complementary result, using reconstructed jets, to the global data which comes mostly from electron-positron annihilation experiments. A first step in extracting fragmentation functions is to perform a quality analysis (QA) of the data. This poster shows a look at the data and our …

Funding Achievement In Kentucky, Brett Blair, James Masterson

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

It is no surprise that the proper education of a population ranks high on the list of important accomplishments within a society. After all, a population’s education can affect its ability to perform at a high capacity. The education of Kentucky’s children is no different. Recent years have seen large disparities in the resources available to each school in Kentucky, which could have effects on the educational output of regions in the state. Though research has been conducted on concepts such as school funding, educational quality, and education reform, this research tends to be lacking in specificity and consistency. (DeYoung, …

Quantifying Ant Populations To Measure Biodiversity In Morehead, Ky, Alyssa Turner, Jude Hall, Tayla Lee, Charles Lydeard, Sean O'Keefe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

To effectively conduct conservation efforts, we can use biodiversity to assess the condition of our environment. Biodiversity has been commonly defined as the variety and variability among living organisms within an area. When our ecosystems are at their best, they clean water, purify air, maintain soil, regulate climate, recycle nutrients, and provide food. Everything within an ecosystem is interdependent, so biodiversity is an important factor and indicator of environmental health. Indicators help us to measure and monitor pressures or threats in land and water use, habitat loss or invasive species, the state of species and ecosystems, the conservation response, and …

Economic Feasibility Of Rainwater Harvesting:A Case Study At Morehead State University, Riley Q. Williams, Vijay Subramaniam

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) was primarily considered as a source for freshwater supply or a conservation practice for over coming water shortages in drought prone areas. By retaining storm-water run-off for on site use, harvesting systems reduce the runoff volumes and pollutant masses entering waterways. Consequently, using roof-top RWH as a best management practice has been encouraged by many state and local governments. Some of the most interesting aspects of RWH are the methods of capture, storage, and the use of this natural resource at the place it occurs.

Combating Nursing Burnout: A Quality Improvement Project, Heather Randolph, Maddy Mcelfresh, Addie Short, Cailey Dahlquist, Jenna Bartley, Suzi White

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Nursing burnout costs the health care industry roughly 14 billion dollars a year. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased burnout rates. Many nurses feel overworked and underappreciated; this has caused a negative impact as it is influencing the rates of burnout among hospital staffing globally. Over half a million registered nurses have already left their profession nationwide due to stress and workload (Bruyneel, Smith, Tack, & Pirson, 2021). Burnout has diminished staff, depleted resources, and decreased quality of care.

Predicting Cryptocurrency Price Change Direction From Supply-Side Factors Via Machine Learning Methods, David Mayo, Heba Elgazzar

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Cryptocurrency prices are highly variable. Predicting changes in cryptocurrency price is a hugely important topic to investors and researchers, with much existing research on demand-side factors. The goal of this research project is to design and implement machine learning models to predict future cryptocurrency price change direction based primarily on supply-side factors. Different unsupervised machine learning techniques are used to build the predictive models. These techniques include K Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Naïve Bayesian Classifier, and Random Forest Classifier. A dataset of 10 daily supply-side metrics for three prominent cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and …

Genes Repressed After Dna Damage In Acinetobacter Baumannii Are Co-Regulated By Umudab And Ddrr, Mollee Flannigan, Xiaohong Li, Eric Rouchka, Deborah Cook, Janeele Hare

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

UmuDAb and DdrR coregulate error-prone polymerases in the multi-drug resistant opportunistic pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii, by repressing polymerase expression until after DNA damage. New evidence indicates that these proteins may also regulate other genes that are repressed following DNA damage. We performed an in silico analysis of RNA-Seq data from wild-type, ddrR, and umuDAb mutant strains to examine the expression levels of genes repressed after DNA damage. We used two different algorithms to analyze Cuffnorm- and HTSeq normalized gene counts. This analysis revealed nineteen (CuffDiff) or twenty-nine (DESeq2) genes repressed in wild-type cells that were derepressed after DNA damage in either …

Comfort Women: The Climax That Exposed Japanese Culture, Olivia Dale, James Masterson

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

When a nation attempts to erase the history of a marginalized group, the preservation of such narratives becomes critical. The genuine culture of a nation is exposed when that which officials attempted to hide is analyzed. The comfort women scheme conducted by the Imperial Japanese Government serves as an example of this phenomenon. The comfort women system was more than sex trafficking; it was the climax of a sexist society. Japan had a long history of organized prostitution before the Second World War, but during the conflict, the demeaning actions committed against women extended beyond the nation. The Japanese government …

Analytical Method Development For The Analysis Of E-Liquids, Calista Dean, Charlotte Gabbard, Emma Schmittzehe

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Electronic cigarettes are one of the most commonly used methods of nicotine delivery, especially among the adolescent population. Due to the lack of regulation in manufacturer labeling of refillable nicotine solutions (e-liquids), the actual concentration of nicotine and other additives is variable as compared to the reported values. Misreporting of nicotine content is a contributor in the development of nicotine dependency and potentially tobacco product dependency. The objective of this research is to develop reliable analytical methods to study the variations in nicotine levels in e-liquids, and to identify and quantify other potentially harmful additives in e-liquids. In this research …

Taking The Bull By The Horns: Gender Analysis In A Cattle Project In Indonesia, Febrina Prameswari

Sustainability and Social Justice

Women play a crucial role in agriculture, especially in cattle farming. However, gender inequality in livestock production remains a critical issue, as women usually have less engagement with livestock production, less control over finances, and less access to markets. The IndoBeef program in Indonesia was one of the first livestock projects to incorporate gender-specific activities in its implementation. The project used women-only focus groups, utilizing the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) combined with farm production data to address women’s needs in the cattle industry. I conducted a gender analysis of one of IndoBeef’s subsidiary projects, CropCow. The project did …

Making Forests, Making Communities: An Ethnography Of Reforestation In Monteverde, Costa Rica, Megan Brown

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Reforestation is not just planting trees in the ground. More than net increase in forest cover, reforestation is a complex political endeavor undertaken by both humans and non-humans and a popular climate change mitigation tactic. However, little research has examined the dynamics between selection of specific reforestation strategies, health, and community resilience, particularly with attention to entanglements between the lives of both human and non-human forest dwellers. This ethnographic work, based on six months of in-person fieldwork and six months of digital ethnography, examines reforestation and forest relations in Costa Rica’s Monte Verde zone, a region which experienced widespread deforestation, …

Encouraging Healthier Habits In Children, Krysta Hughes

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Childhood obesity rates in America are the highest they've ever been. In this research we are focused on encouraging healthier habits in children. The method used was an observational, cross-sectional online survey of 5 children and 4 parents. All of the children and parents wanted to pick healthier behaviors after reading my book. A Qualtrics survey was used to record each surveyor's response. Further research on this topic should include researching how many children have began to implement healthier habits and measure if the rate of obesity in children has been affected through yearly health visits.

Behavioral Choices Of Apple Snails, Pomacea Maculata, Under Varied Chemical Landscapes, Andrea Adams

Theses

Habitat choice is a critical behavior for organisms to successfully survive and reproduce. These choices are dictated by available environmental information about potential predation risks or food patches that form the organism’s sensory landscape. This study specifically focused on the behavioral choices of two invasive apple snail (Pomacea maculata) populations exposed to varying predation threats. We collected snails from Florida and Alabama which were used in laboratory experiments with varied sensory landscapes. Trials consisted of controls with no cues (FL: n = 7, AL: n= 7), an attractive treatment with introduced food cues (FL: n = 4, AL: …

Wpa News 117 (2022), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Spring 2022), number 117

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Drivers And Barriers Of The Transition To Regenerative Agriculture Within The Eu’S Common Agricultural Policy Reform: Comparative Analysis With The Us Farm Bill, Samantha Gish

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the wake of multiple crises, such as climate change and international conflict, there is increased urgency to ensure a stable food system. Additionally, changing priorities of citizens have fostered the desire for sustainable production of food. One innovative method of food production is regenerative agriculture and in this practice the main goals are to increase system resilience, improve soil and sequester carbon. This is done through practices such as no tilling, cover and intercropping, and incorporation of livestock into crop fields. Although great in theory, these practices go against traditional agricultural practices and therefore the policy currently in place …

“Somos Un Pueblo Fumigado”: Un Análisis De La Lucha Contra La Fumigación Y Sistema De Agronegocios En La Provincia De Buenos Aires, Samuel Brooks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación estudia el movimiento contra el sistema de monocultivo de soja transgénica, la fumigación con “agrotóxicos,” y los grandes agronegocios en la provincia de Buenos Aires. Con la información de tres entrevistas y una visita a un encuentro de habitantes de pueblos fumigados, examino los diferentes “marcos” que el movimiento tiene para describir las formas en que ellos expresan el problema actual, las soluciones que proponen, sus métodos para motivar a la gente, y la perspectiva del movimiento en general. También, incorporo perspectivas académicas para profundizar el análisis de las diferentes áreas de discurso en el movimiento y definir …

Conservation And Variation In Agricultural Landscapes: A Survey Of Insect Populations Across Naranjilla Cultivation Methods In The Eastern Andean Cloud Forest, Ian Zakelj

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study compared insect biodiversity among five sites in agricultural landscapes and natural forest in the El Placer community in the valley of the Rio Pastaza in the eastern Andean cloud forest. The area is of vital importance to conservation, as it falls in the ecological corridor between the Sangay and Llanganates national parks. The primary crop produced by the residents of El Placer is naranjilla, and it is cultivated in a variety of manners, mostly with intensive chemical use. The goal of the study was to find out which types of practices were the least harmful to the insect …