Undergraduate Research Posters

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  Why the American Superpower has Mediocre Educational Rankings

  Madeline R. Hays

  Although education holds implications for economic growth, scientific progress, and political participation, the United States remains on the lower end of educational quality compared to other industrial and first-world nations. Despite substantial efforts by the American government to mend this issue, reforms have yielded minimal improvement in results. Identifying the reasons for the declining nature of US education is essential in understanding how to improve the current academic state. Why has there been a decline in education quality in America compared to other first-world countries since World War II? In order to distinguish the characteristics correlating with low-achievement in the US, I examined cross-cultural comparisons between America and top-achieving nations. Once the absent or abnormal markers of American education were identified, I investigated possible roots through economic, social, and political perspectives. Results suggest the decline in American education is the consequence of lingering effects of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Standards Movement. These major societal events created a state of argument between levels of government and their partisan groups. Their products—misled reforms, drains of educational funding, poor curriculum decisions, and attempts at privatization—have contributed to poor academic achievement. Additionally, there are implications for the treatment of teachers and lacking precedence for core studies among the United States general population affecting academic success. With the knowledge of the issues and their roots facing American schooling today, the road to a more holistic and effective treatment of United States education becomes much more clear.

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  UMLS::Association - Measuring the Association Between Biomedical Terms

  Keith B. Herbert

  UMLS::Association - A Semantic Association Framework for Biomedical Texts

  Keith Herbert

  Natural Language Processing Lab, Department of Computer Science

  Introduction

  We present UMLS::Association, a software package to explore the semantic association of biomedical terms with applications for literature-based discovery. Literature-based discovery is an endeavour to ”connect the dots” for scientists between the topics of their research and those of unexpected relevance. However, many approaches rely on the exact wording for the ideas in the research papers being analyzed. The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) provides a way to map natural language phrases in these papers to sequences of abstract yet very specific concepts. These concepts are referred to as Concept Unique Identifiers (CUIs). We can identify which concepts are strongly associated by measuring how often they occur together within a corpus of biomedical texts and applying statistical techniques.

  Methods

  We measure the semantic association of CUIs with bigrams: pairs of CUIs that follow each other in some string of symbols. Research articles and clinical studies were first preprocessed by a UMLS tool that generates sequences of CUIs for every phrase within each sentence of the papers. Our framework then extracts bigrams from the CUI sequences to build a database from which we can calculate meaningful statistics for the association of two CUIs. We developed a utility to quickly return a variety of statistical association measures for any two concepts as well as an application programming interface to allow these association measures to be incorporated into new software packages.

  Results

  We evaluated UMLS::Association’s predictive performance for semantic association by running it on four datasets which had been tagged by human judges for semantic similarity and relatedness. The results show our semantic association measures to match human judgements on the association between concepts as well or better than current state-of-the art semantic similarity and relatedness measures.

  Conclusion

  UMLS::Association provides an easy to use framework for the semantic association of concepts within biomedical literature. Work is in progress to extend the reach of the bigram model with a directed graph representation of the many unique CUI sequences generated for each phrase in a sentence. A user friendly web application interface to our framework is also under development. Besides access to existing functions, it will also feature a directed graph visualization for the search results for concepts strongly associated with some query concept. This will allow any researcher to explore the semantic associations between concepts in a simple and intuitive way.

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  Risk Factors Associated with First-Year College Dropout

  Tiffany K. Ho and Divya Krishna

  Previous research has shown that a variety of factors can impact college student’s academic performance, including healthy nutrition, physical activity, substance use, smoking, early sexual activity, bullying, excessive television watching, internet use, and playing video games. The purpose of the current study was to explore possible predictors of dropout in students after their first year of college. Data came from the Spit for Science sample and were limited to individuals in the first three cohorts that answered the survey during the fall of their freshmen year (N=6105). Logistic regression was used to test a variety of risk factors, including mental/behavior risk factors, familial risk factors, stress/trauma exposure, and personality factors, in order to see whether or not there was a correlation between risk factors and dropout rates. Initially, multiple risk factors were found to be significantly associated with dropout. However, depression (OR = 1.04, p < 0.05) was the only factor associated with dropout after we included GPA (OR = 0.395, p < 0.001) as a covariate. Supplementary analyses revealed that many of the factors that were found to be significantly associated with dropout rates were significantly related to GPA, suggesting that these risk factors may influence dropout through their effect on GPA.

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  "Black People Don't Tip": Racism in the Restaurant Industry

  Hortance E. Houngbeke

  Due to discrimination, waiters are less likely to provide good customer service to their black dinners solely based on the assumption that they are poor tippers. The theory of discrimination is the foundation of this observational study where attentiveness is measured to reflect waiters’ avoidance of African American diners. Assuming waiters start with their preconceived notions about Black customers, this research will use the critical race theory to determine if waiters are less attentive to African American diners. To further understand the subtle discriminatory behavior of waiters toward African Americans, this study analyzes observational data from a sample of waiters (N=40). Findings reveal a subtle difference in attentiveness between races and a higher frequency of waiters’ interaction with White diners compared to African American diners. The study contributes to our understanding of social context of discrimination and the experiences of African Americans in restaurants.

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  Forensic Signatures for Production Conditions of Bacillus thuringiensis (str. HD1) Spore Cultures

  Dani Jabado, Cristina Stanciu, and Christopher Ehrhardt

  Chemical signatures that can indicate growth medium recipes or other key aspects of the production conditions are an important goal for forensic and biodefense agencies. In this study, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) profiles were analyzed from Bacillus thuringiensis spores grown five different published medium recipes. B. thuringiensis was chosen due to its biochemical, structural, and genetic similarity to B. anthracis, a Biosafety Level III select agent and the organisms used in the Amerithrax attacks in 2001. The relative abundance of 13 different fatty acid biomarkers, spanning four structure classes, was compared across all spore samples. Differences in the types and relative abundance of specific fatty acids was observed across each medium formulation, particularly within branched-odd and anteiso structure classes (e.g.15:0 iso, 17:0 iso, 15:0 anteiso). Spore cultures also varied in the proportion of unsaturated and saturated fatty acid biomarkers. When examining specific FAME biomarkers, CAD medium showed an average abundance of 30% for 15:0 iso, whereas LD 97 and Sch media showed average abundances of 23% and 27% respectively, and G-medium and G+Peptone exhibited average abundances of 22.5% and 23% respectively for the same fatty acid. Examination of the 17:0 iso fatty acid showed higher average abundances of 12% in CAD and 13.5% in G+Peptone, while showing lower average abundances of 10%, 8.5%, and 6% in LD, G-Medium, and Sch media respectively. Further differences in fatty acid content were also noted across the sporulation media, whereby CAD, G-Medium, and G+Peptone media exhibited an average abundance of 11.8%, 11.5%, and 11% respectively for 15:0 anteiso meanwhile lower abundances of the same fatty acid were noted in LD (8.5%) and Sch (9%) media. The results indicate that determining FAME profiles can be used to discriminate between a Bacillus thuringiensis species grown in different mediums, and that the amino acid content of each medium affects the FAME profile of the species in question.

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  Developing Information and Communication Technologies for Education in Haiti

  Nabeel Janjua

  Over the past few decades, much of the world has continued to experience economic development largely due to rapid growth in technology. Despite this progress, there are still areas that remain untouched by advanced technologies. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest nations in the world with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty (CIA, 2013). Many Haitians have no clean running water, about 21% have access to electricity, and almost 50% of the country is illiterate (Bank, 2012). The intense levels of poverty have resulted in lack of investment in human capital and lack of educational infrastructure.

  The Information and Communication Technologies for Education (ICTE) initiative in Haiti is a “Project of Hope.” ICTE can facilitate the acquisition of basic technological skills, while simultaneously contributing to poverty reduction and human development. In order for Haiti to succeed in the 21st century, students, young adults, and teachers need to develop technological knowledge and skills. Developing technological literacy and computer familiarity will help young Haitians participate in the digital economy and/or obtain jobs.

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  Socioeconomic Factors Associated with Cataract-related Blindness Treatment in Women in Rural Regions of Andhra Pradesh

  Kiranpreet Kaur 4198353

  Despite efforts of Vision 2020 in India, the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study (APEDS) extrapolated, in 2000, approximately 18.7 million blind people in India and also, projected an increase to 31.6 million blind people by 2020. Within the state Andhra Pradesh itself, preventable corneal blindness increased to 1.84% from 1.5% in the late 1980s.

  Numerous public health studies have been conducted to outline factors that cause and preclude treatment of avoidable corneal blindness in the India. Conclusively, the escalation of corneal blindness can be largely attributed to personal, social, and economic barriers in utilizing available eye-care services. However, due to the heterogeneity among regions in India, the degree and specificity of these respective barriers varies. Accordingly, no single approach can be implemented to effectively ameliorate eye health. Instead, population-based studies are required to understand individual regions and their varying levels of need.

  Accordingly, this research is an examination of the female population in rural regions of Andhra Pradesh through the analysis of two major studies (1) the impact of private/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on economic development and (2) sociological factors, namely economic and social aspects, engendering lack of utilization of eye-care services, in order to find a correlation between these two seemingly disparate studies.

  Overwhelmingly, the presence of private/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increases economic status of regions by increasing access to both education and employment opportunities. In comparison to developed, urban areas, NGOs presence in rural regions is significantly limited leading to discrepancies in economic development, and thereafter, lack of opportunity for economic and social growth for females. Correspondingly, for years, higher incidences of corneal blindness have plagued the female population residing in underdeveloped, rural areas of India, especially in comparison to female counterparts in urban areas. I found this to be significantly attributed to an intermittent and cyclic combination of sociological limitations, specifically lack of education/employment opportunities and cultural/societal restrictions, which, in turn, are linked to comparably diminished levels of private/NGO sector involvement.

  Only through understanding the correlation between these two aspects can intervention efforts be appropriately pursued to effectively reduce corneal blindness rates in this at-risk demographic group. This work increases our understanding of the limitations that exist in accessing treatment options for females and furthermore, obtained results can potentially be extended to other regions of India to create and implement similar public policies.

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  Relationship Between Caffeine Use and the Total Hours of Sleep Per Week

  Marlene A. Michniak

  Lack of sleep is a common theme throughout college students’ lives. Additionally, college students report being dependent on caffeine to perform their best.The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a link between how much caffeine students are using and how much sleep they are getting. The sample contained data from the 2011-2014 cohorts of the Spit for Science dataset. Both sleep and caffeine use data were collected at several points: first year fall semester (n=1799), third year spring semester (n=1918), and fourth year spring semester (n=859). Sleep data included the hours and minutes of sleep that students typically get per night. Caffeine use was asked by a simple yes or no “Do you drink any caffeinated beverages?” Independent sample t-tests were performed for each of the stated survey waves for caffeine use vs. the total hours of sleep of each cohort. The relationship between caffeine use and the total hours of sleep of the third year and fourth year spring surveys was found to be statistically significant (p=0.041 and p=0.034, respectively), with caffeine consumption related to decreased sleep. Additionally, linear regression was performed on both coffee and caffeinated soda use vs. total hours of sleep per week. Only first year fall semester (coffee) was found to be statistically significant (B= -0.514, p=<0.01). Sleep is an important part of well being, so additional research is needed to figure out how students’ sleep cycles are being affected in relation to their caffeine consumption.

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  Are Parental Involvement, Religiosity, and Relationship Quality Associated with Substance Use Messages in South African Families?

  Jerry L. Mize II and Wendy Kliewer

  Using transcribed interviews from a GEO- and UKZN-funded study with a low-income, multi-ethnic sample in Durban, South Africa (N = 272), messages regarding what caregivers recall saying to their children about drug use were coded into one of eight categories by a trained research team. Categories included: Just the Facts, Real Examples, Resistance Tactics, Drugs are Bad, Negative Consequences, Encouraging Abstinence, Zero Tolerance, and Use Responsibly. The contributions of 1) parent religiosity, 2) parental involvement, and 3) parent-adolescent relationship quality to the message content were examined. Few overall differences in message content were found across the predictors suggesting that alternative approaches to analyses might be beneficial.

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  Axon Initial Segment Loss is not Observed in the Hippocampus of a Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Mouse Model

  praveen mohanraju

  The axon initial segment (AIS) is fundamental for neuronal communication and action potential initiation, a characteristic which has been shown to be disrupted in inflammatory diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Previous work from our lab has shown AIS breakdown in layer 5 of the cortex in a mouse model of MS known as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Moreover, it was shown that AIS breakdown was independent of demyelination but temporally correlated with microglial inflammatory reactivity. In order to determine if this pathology is specific to the cortex or affects other regions of the brain, we exploited these EAE induced mice and investigated AIS integrity in the hippocampus, a region associated with cognitive dysfunction in inflammatory diseases. Additionally, we used a second model of microglial activation that was shown to have AIS breakdown in the cortex. This model relies on the injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Although LPS activates microglia, there is little to no direct effect on other immune cells, which is not the case for EAE. To test AIS stability in the hippocampus, EAE was induced in 12 week old c57bl/6 mice; LPS was injected into 11-12 week old c57bl/6 mice. AnkyrinG, which is an essential cytoskeletal scaffolding protein necessary for proper AIS structure and function, was used to examine AIS integrity through immunohistochemistry (IHC) combined with laser scanning confocal microscopy. Qualitative analysis of AIS produced by confocal imaging, displayed no prevalent signs of AIS shortening in early or late stages of inflammation in the EAE mouse model. The breakdown of βIV spectrin, a cytoskeletal protein that is also clustered in the AIS and is known to link ankyrinG-NaV to the actin cytoskeleton, was correlated with structural disruption of AIS. βIV spectrin breakdown products can be assessed by western blot analysis; however, no breakdown products were observed from the hippocampus of either LPS injected or EAE induced mice. These findings are preliminary but they indicate that the AIS has differential stabilities throughout the CNS, which may provide a tentative explanation for regional differences within the brain. Future studies will include quantification of microglial activation; we believe the depletion of microglial cells play a vital role in both maintaining AIS stability and AIS disruption. These cells are enigmatic and are known to play different roles in different regions of the brain. We are also interested in isolating these cells from the hippocampus and from the cortex in order to compare their expression profiles. Findings from these studies should shed light on the role microglia play in different brain regions during disease.

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  The Effects of Pet Ownership on Anxiety and Depression Among Trauma-Exposed College Students

  Dung N. Nguyentran, Marlene A. Michniak, James J. Jung, and Christine Q. Do

  Rates of anxiety and depression are prevalent in college students and can be attributed in part to stress and trauma-related events. However, studies suggest that pet ownership has the possibility of alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, negative emotions, and suicide. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between pet ownership and levels of anxiety and depression among those who have experienced a traumatic event. The sample was comprised of five hundred and forty-seven VCU students who completed an online survey from Spit for Science during their junior year. Linear regressions were performed to determine the nature and strength of the relationship between our two variables. After controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, personality, social support, and resiliency, we found statistically significant lower levels of anxiety and depression among pet owners compared to non-pet owners (p=0.004). This study reinforces how pets can impact our mental health, and lends further research to support programs such as VCU’s Center for Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI) and their Dogs on Call program.

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  Stall Seat Journal as a Social Norms Intervention for Risky Drinking among College Students

  Zackaria I. Niazi, Mariam Alshagra, Rhianna G. Ericson, Jinni Su Ph.D., and Linda C. Hancock Ph.D.

  Alcohol use is prevalent among college students and many participate in risky drinking behaviors over the course of their college careers, leading to negative consequences. The social norms theory posits that individuals behave based on their perceptions of peer behavior. Overestimation of peers’ problem behavior is associated with increase in their own problem behavior. The Stall Seat Journal (SSJ), developed by the Wellness Resource Center, is used in part to help correct common misperceptions, including those related to peer alcohol use. Our study aimed to see if Stall Seat Journal readership was associated with perception of peer alcohol use among VCU students and if perception of peer alcohol use was associated with alcohol use outcomes. We performed linear multiple regression for continuous dependent variables and logistic regression for binary dependent variables and controlled for gender and cohort. Responses from 4290 VCU Students who participated in the Spring 2015 Spit for Science Survey were used in this study. Stall Seat Journal readership was negatively associated with perception of peer alcohol use (β = - 0.05, p < .01). The correlation was weak but statistically significant. Perception of alcohol use was not significantly related to frequency of alcohol use (β = 0.01, p >.05), but was significantly associated with quantity of alcohol use (β = 0.20, p < .01) and likelihood of experiencing blackout (odds ratio = 1.12, p < .05). Based on our findings, Stall Seat Journal readership can be used to positively influence college students and potentially lessen risky drinking.

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  An Investigation of the Influence of Current Public Health Policies in the United States on the Prevalence of Rural Health Professional Shortage Areas

  Hayne Noh

  The healthcare professional shortage or maldistribution severely limits access to sufficient health care, affecting many Americans, particularly in rural areas. There is a range studies that agree that the health professional shortage is a pressing issue, but none that specifically evaluate the overall effectiveness and improvements to be made to government funded programs, such as Loan repayment and scholarship programs aimed at attracting primary care physicians to these rural underserved areas. This study analyzes both quantitative and qualitative data from 21 peer-reviewed journals about rural primary Health Professional Shortage Areas, Title-VII funded schools, and rural primary health care. Although effective Loan Repayment Programs and Scholarship programs are necessary to attract primary care physicians to rural areas, these programs may be improved by lifting stringent contract policies, increasing the overall allure of rural health care by early exposure to medical students through rural focused medical school curricula, sending physicians to underserved areas in groups, limiting the use of Health Professional Shortage Areas in determining need, and growing the collaboration between State programs and National programs. This work reveals innovative steps these programs can take in order to provide a greater number of rural Americans access to proper healthcare.

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  The LEGO System Makes Co-Creation Painless for the LEGO Group

  Seth A. Peacock

  Co-creation is using consumers to help innovate with a product. While the methodology of co-creation has been extensively researched, different products’ relative suitability to co-creation is rarely examined. This research examines the LEGO Group’s co-creation efforts including LEGO Ideas, LEGO Factory, LEGO Mindstorms NXT, and LEGO Architecture. These programs’ reliance on LEGO’s versatility, modularity, adult fan community, and fan LEGO building expertise are evaluated and compared to other firm’s co-creation efforts. The adult LEGO community’s custom LEGO creations, including fan-designed and fan-sold sets, commissioned sculptures, and LEGO robotics development all constitute consumer innovation independent of the firm; the LEGO Group may harness these innovations through co-creation. Because LEGO is a system and not a specific product, LEGO innovations can encompass licensing, new robotic components, and architectural scale models. This diversity of potential innovation allows the LEGO Group to take advantage of the diversity of adult LEGO fans’ expertise. LEGO hobbyists develop knowledge of the LEGO system that can make them skilled at LEGO set design, as designing a LEGO creation and designing a LEGO set are similar processes. LEGO is modular, so co-creation can be used both to develop new LEGO elements and to design LEGO sets composed of preexisting elements. LEGO set prototypes can be easily assembled and modified, and parts palette and parts count are easily understood design limitations. It is recommended that firms whose products are versatile, modular, and consumer-innovated pursue co-creation and co-promotion, and cautions firms without such products to adapt their co-creation and co-promotion accordingly.

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  “Doing Time Long After the Crime: How a Prison Sentence Today is Only the Beginning of a Felon’s Life-Long Sentence as a Pariah to Society”

  Mary C. Pollock

  This research seeks to explore the various difficulties in convicted felons’ life after their transition back into society. The research examines how an ex-convict’s finances, interpersonal relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners, lifetime opportunities, mental health, physical health, and living conditions are affected by the offender’s status as such an offender, as well as to consider ways in which these difficulties can be alleviated for future ex-offenders upon reassimilation into society after a prison sentence. Though indeed a broad topic, this particular brand of research seeks to highlight the exaggerated perception of the ex-con as a permanently damned member of society, condemned to the outer rims of their community, and forced to live a half-life while branded a criminal to all, even their loved ones.

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  Plant functionality across an environmental gradient

  Taylor L. Price and Julie Zinnert

  Community assemblages provide insight into ecosystem processes, both spatially and temporally. They interact with biotic and abiotic factors that vary with habitat structure, influencing community composition. Ecological theory demonstrates that species have the potential for a wide fundamental niche, but habitat range may be restricted by factors exposed to species in their realized niche. In barrier island ecosystems, edaphic and environmental characteristics (e.g. elevation and distance to shoreline) are major drivers determining where and how plant communities establish. Physical stressors, such as salt stress and drought influence community grouping and can alter plant function within the environment. With projected increases in sea level rise and storm disturbance it is important to understand how plant communities are organized across barrier islands, as most studies are limited to dune habitats and not inland plant communities.

  I analyzed plant communities across environmental gradients on a Virginia barrier island from dune to marsh. I established transects on Hog Island and assessed soil characteristics (i.e. carbon, nitrogen, pH), species composition, percent cover and specific leaf area. Elevation and distance to shoreline were obtained using recent Lidar imagery. Bray-Curtis ordination showed that position in landscape is an important driver in structuring dominant species such as the grasses Ammophila breviligulata, Spartina patens, and S. alterniflora. Elevation (r = -0.511) and distance to shoreline (r = 0.551) both show relationships with species composition and distribution across the island. Elevation was important in structuring dominant community types (i.e. dune building and marsh plants). Mantel test was used to determine if relationship exists between species cover and measured edaphic/environmental factors (r = 0.299, p > 0.0001). Percent carbon found in soil within plots was weakly related with distance to the inner portion of the island (r = 0.56). This reflects biotic processes that occur in interior portions of the island. There was no obvious relationship with percent nitrogen due to extremely low levels across the ecosystem. Understanding community structure across coastal ecosystems is necessary for predicting how shorelines and interior communities will be affected with projected sea level rise and increases in storm frequencies. An updated understanding of how biotic and abiotic drivers of community composition will provide information into predictive modeling of plant community and ecosystem level responses to change.

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  The Impact of Urbanization on Mosquito-Borne Viruses

  Nikhita Puthuveetil

  Mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, and West Nile are rapidly emerging across the globe. Their emergence is often aided by the growth of their vector population, or the organisms that transmit the virus to the host. Urbanization and land use often destroys the habitat of the virus and its vector. However, the virus and its vector often survive despite the changes to its environment. The goal of this paper is to find out exactly how urbanization and changes in land use affect mosquito-borne viruses and how these viruses survive despite the destruction of their habitats. To understand how mosquitoes are affected by urbanization, I analyzed several observational studies on mosquito vector populations in different environments. I also studied several journal articles which specifically evaluated particular mosquito-borne diseases and examined how land use and climate affect the spread of disease. I also considered articles which offered theories on land use and disease emergence and presented solutions to prevent future epidemics. From these articles, I found that mosquito-borne viruses and their vectors are highly adaptable. Due to urbanization, some mosquito species become anthropophilic, they prey specifically on humans, and accordingly, the virus prefers humans over animals as their hosts. Urbanization often promotes mosquito population growth, thereby promoting virus population growth. From understanding how urbanization affects virus and vector populations, we can minimize disease emergence and prevent viruses and their vectors from becoming anthropophilic.

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  Perceptions of harm and addiction among dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes

  Julia S. Rozman

  Background: Tobacco harm perceptions are important factors in why individuals may initiate, substitute, and/or engage in dual or poly-tobacco use patterns. Identifying correlates of these perceptions is important for understanding why these cognitions may exist and help provide intervention targets. The purpose of the current study was to examine perceptions of harm and addiction among a sample of cigarette and electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users and examine whether these perceptions differ by demographics, other substance use, and tobacco use history.

  Methods: The current sample consisted of 29 individuals who consented to participate in a clinical laboratory study of dual cigarette and e-cigarette users during 2015-2016. Screening data for this secondary analysis included demographics, substance use, other tobacco use history, and perceptions of harm and addiction. Perception items asked about the health risk level for cigarettes and e-cigarettes and the level of harm compared to regular cigarettes and likelihood of addiction for variety of tobacco products (e.g., e-cigarettes, snus, nicotine replacement therapies [NRT]). Descriptive statistics followed by independent T-tests were used to explore differences in perception items by demographics, other substance use, and tobacco use history (p

  Results: The sample’s mean age was 39 years, and a majority were White males. Half of the sample completed some college or higher. Past 30-day alcohol use (55%) and ever trying marijuana (62%) were prevalent, and most were not concurrently using other tobacco products (79%). A majority (78%) reported that cigarettes were at least somewhat risky to health, while only 48% reported the equivalent for e-cigarettes. Participants rated most tobacco products as about same harm level or higher compared to regular cigarettes except for roll-your-own cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and NRT. All participants perceived regular cigarettes and chewing tobacco as having at least a moderate addiction risk. E-cigarettes and NRT had the lowest addiction risk ratings. Only perceptions of snus addiction risk differed by gender with males reporting higher ratings. By race, ratings for addiction risk for e-cigarettes and NRT differed significantly with Whites reporting lower ratings. Lifetime marijuana users had significantly higher harm perception ratings for e-cigarettes. Perceived addiction risk for regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes was significantly lower among those who used other tobacco products.

  Discussion: Among this sample, perceptions of harm and addiction were lower for e-cigarettes and NRT relative to regular cigarettes and other tobacco products. There were few perceptions that differed by demographics and other substance/tobacco use history. Dual users who used other tobacco products were more likely to perceive lower risks for cigarettes and e-cigarettes. This association may be because lower addiction perceptions drive greater tobacco use or alternative. Current findings support future investigation of harm and addiction perceptions particularly among individuals who use more than one tobacco product.

  Funding: This research was supported by an Internal Grant from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21CA184634 and the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Food and Drug Administration.

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  Examining the Psychological Adjustments of Neurotypical Siblings of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Determining the Efficiency of Support Groups

  Swathi Deo Sambatha

  Neurotypical siblings of individuals with behavioral disorders are reported to have complex, complicated psychological adjustments that vary significantly due to a multitude of sociodemographic factors. In addition, these children are at risk of mental health disorders and negative psychological symptoms. Support groups or extensive social support are known to increase intra-communication and create better sibling dynamics between the neurotypical and autistic siblings. This paper investigates such complications to the psychological adjustment of neurotypical siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and determines the implications of the utilization of support groups/social support. The analyzed trends and reportings of multiple studies were noted and compiled to form the current study’s data. The results indicated that nearly all the neurotypical individuals have a definite number of complications in their psychological adjustments despite the socio-demographic factors studied like gender, age, birth order, and family size. In addition, the impact of the support groups/social support was significantly effective amongst neurotypical individuals of all sociodemographic factors in lessening the number of complications present through education and therapy. In conclusion, the psychological adjustment is definitely complicated to an extent, but the complication is lessened with facilitated social support/support groups. This conclusion indicated that monitoring the psychological and behavioral development of the neurotypical children is important when autism is diagnosed in the family, as their psychological adjustments need to be stable and healthy allowing for better relationships and overall well-being. The implications of the data for further research and implementation are overviewed.

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  Ethnic Diversity of Boards of U.S. Companies: Business Sustainability and Group Dynamics

  Saajan Sappal

  Ethnic minorities are significantly underrepresented on the Board of Directors of large US firms. White males comprise nearly twice the proportion of directorships of Fortune 1000 companies as they do the total US population. Ethnic diversity in corporate governance is valued as an asset per two prominent theories: Resource Dependence theory and Agency theory. However, Ethnic diversity on the Board of Directors can also impair the group process per Status theory and constraints such as tokenism and marginalization. This paper is aimed at developing both a theoretical and empirical understanding of the value of ethnic minorities on the Board of Directors of Fortune 500 Food Service and Production firms as it relates to financial performance. Analysis of Fortune 500 Food Service and Production firms finds a positive correlation between ethnic diversity on Board of Directors and market value, return on assets, and return on investment. As a result, empirical evidence suggests that future pressures aimed at increasing diversity in corporate governance may prove financially valuable.

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  The Implementation of Memantine for Recovering Stroke Patients

  Keerthana Shankar

  Recovering stroke patients go through rehabilitation to fix the paretic limbs and adapt to the nerve damage. Recovery consists of repetitive tasks that are designed to guide the plastic brain to adapt to new movements and gain muscle memory in those movements. Rehabilitation is strongly dependent on the brain’s plasticity, which is enacted through increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF has been proven to be increased through aerobic exercise, a common element found in rehabilitation programs. It is vital that the exercises performed in rehabilitation result in higher brain plasticity due to the limited time window of the critical period. Certain requirements such as maximum heart rate and frequency of exercises performed must be met to increase the plasticity in brain. These requirements are not always possible for every patient going through rehabilitation due to their differing activity levels. Understanding the relationship between time, exercise, plasticity, and recovery is essential to finding alternative treatments to exercise that can be used to increase brain plasticity. Memantine, an Alzheimer’s drug tested in rats regarding motor function, is a viable drug to increase plasticity. In several rat models, memantine was proven to increase cognitive function and BDNF levels in the brain, which is vital for the recovery of stroke patients. For patients that are not physically or mentally capable of meeting the requirements needed to increase plasticity, memantine can be administered as an alternative or conjoined treatment, so that patients may go through rehabilitation training and recover with a positive functional outcome.

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  The Effects of Eastern versus Western Cultures on Women's Perceptions and Disclosure of Mental Illness

  Whitney Roxanne Sherrick

  Mental illnesses and the stigma that surrounds them have caused societal unrest since the development of the modern human. However, there remain differences in the way individuals perceive mental illness, allowing various levels of stigma to arise. The focus of this research is to determine the contrast between the views of Western and Eastern cultures concerning mental health status - exploring how cultural expectations for women affect their perception, and disclosure, of mental illnesses. This research involves studies that examined societal expectations for Western and Eastern cultures, and experiments measuring the perceptions of mental illness from individuals with various heritages. Articles concentrating on the factors that influence one’s disclosure of mental illness were included, as well. My research has discovered that there is a strong correlation between culture and one’s perception of mental illness. Western cultures are more likely to embrace, and thus, treat psychological ailments, due to the increased levels of social acceptance and available treatment options. Eastern cultures, however, are less likely to seek treatment or disclose their mental state at all, because of the social stigma associated with having a mental illness. More intensive research must be completed to determine the direct implications upon women. Uncovering the principal reasons for the existing stigma will expose it directly, and create opportunities for populations to become educated on the realities of mental illness. This will allow for disorders of this caliber to be more widely accepted, and thus, cause the social stigma associated with them to eventually dissipate.

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  The Relation Between Infant Construction Strategy and Language Development in Toddlers

  Gullnar Syed, Emily C. Marcinowski, Stacey C. Dusing, George F. Michel, and Eliza L. Nelson

  Infants learn from interaction with physical objects in their environments. Object construction, or merging individual objects into a single structure, has been linked previously to language. Items and toys can be structured and combined with similarity to word combinations (Greenfield, 1991). Infants initially combine 2 objects and then graduate on to combine 3 pieces or more. Words are put together in comparable ways, with each word corresponding to an object, and a sentence corresponding to a single structure. The purpose of this project is to explore how construction ability in infants affects language ability in toddlers. We hypothesize that the more advanced the infant’s construction ability at 14 months, the more advanced their language ability will be at 24 months. Methods: At 14 months of age, 47 infants were given 2 sets of nesting cups to assess construction strategy while video-recorded (Greenfield, Nelson, & Saltzman, 1972). Construction strategies coded included “nothing,” (no cup combination), “pairing,” (one cup placed on or inside another cup), and “potting,” (two or more cups placed in or stacked on a third cup). Expressive and receptive language was assessed at 2 years of age using the Preschool Language Scales, 5th edition. Data was analyzed with a regression model, using Hierarchical Linear Modeling 7 (Student version). Results: Infants who combined objects scored higher on expressive language (βs 9.52-14.3, ts(44) 2.19-2.62, ps 0.01-0.03), than infants who did not combine objects at 14 months (β₀₀=92.82). No differences were found for construction strategy and receptive language (βs 5.49-11.79, ts(44) 1.67-0.98, ps > 0.102). Conclusion: The ability to combine cups at 14 months is related to higher expressive language scores. We speculate that the ability to combine toys lays a foundation for combining words into sentences, while language comprehension may originate from other mechanisms. Further studies may assess the number of objects paired successfully and the complexity of construction with success and complexity of sentence structure at different time points throughout early childhood.

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  How and Why has American Media Shifted the On-Screen Image of Asian Americans from Stereotypical Roles to Lead Roles?

  Sohail A. Syed

  Growing up as an Asian American, I never really had a role model of sort that I could relate to entirely. There were the general characters in movies that I looked up to but there was never that one character that I could possibly see myself as because there was never any lead characters that looked like me. Every time an Asian character was showed on-screen they were never a normal relatable person; they were always rather a living stereotype or unrealistic. Asians are always portrayed as intellectuals that are very awkward and geeky or one who has a very thick ethnic accent. Apart from Aladdin and Jackie Chan there never was a core Asian character who I looked up to as a role model. So, growing up there was always a stigma towards me that I had to be very Asian or very smart.

  Ever since Asians immigrated to the United States, they were being portrayed by the media in one form or another. The portrayal was often stereotyped extensively which affected the public’s viewpoint towards Asian Americans. But in the recent decade the portrayal of Asian Americans has shifted to a more positive and everyday image. So, I wondered about how this happened and asked my research question, “How and Why has American Media Shifted the On-Screen Image of Asian Americans from Stereotypical Roles to Lead Roles?”

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  Can A Metallated Cyclen Species be used to Prepare New Odorants?

  Jalynn Taylor-Farmer

  Scientists in the fragrance industry are constantly searching for new odors to create as well as new, more efficient processes to create them. Scientists mainly look for new ways to synthesize fragrances that will reduce the impact on the environment, produce them at lower costs, produce higher yields, and sometimes to produce a more potent odor [4]. In this research, we investigated the use of metallic macrocycles and/or metal-dioxygen chemistry to prepare new fragrances.

  Cyclen (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane) has significant uses in many pharmaceutical and medicinal research developments such as advances in targeted cancer and Alzheimer’s agents. Macrocyclic amines like cyclen are valuable because of their highly selective metal ion chelation. Cyclen was used as a ligand in this research to coordinate a central chromium ion. A similar reagent was employed in the synthesis of a similar intermediate found in the Chemistry and Biodiversity book for the synthesis of (-)-b-Santalol. The (-)-b-Santalol compound was reported to be the “most interesting” component of East Indian Sandalwood Essential Oil . The characteristics of reactivity and odor of the odorant synthesized with the metal-cyclen species were compared to literature with the use of GC and H-NMR data results. We aim to investigate whether the metal-bound cyclen scaffold can be used to influence the stereochemical outcome of a Diels- Alder reaction relevant to the synthesizing of a sandalwood fragrance.