UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND ARTS EXPO

Currently, a great deal of information is conveyed through written online communication. However, this leads to a lack of important pragmatic, or contextual, cues that are present in face-to-face interaction such as body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions. One method to potentially reduce this issue is emoji usage. In this project, we studied face emojis and how they affect the interpretation of ambiguous text messages between people with different social relationships and hope... View the presentation.

In the English language, wh-question constructions give rise to gap positions in sentences, because the wh-phrase that corresponds with the object of the verb moves to the beginning of the sentence, leaving no word to appear in the typical object position. Typically wh-phrases are associated with just one gap, however, in some special cases, multiple gaps have been found to be associated with a single wh-phrase. These sentences are called Parasitic Gap Constructions and are... View the presentation.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a prevalent issue on a global scale, but the effects of such violence upon Asian/Asian American communities in the United States is compounded by their immigrant, refugee, and/or other historically marginalized identities. While current literature recognizes GBV as a public health issue of equity and social justice, anthropology closely examines the asymmetry of power by informing a holistic view of local contexts. The research examines the perspectives of Asian-identifying frontline workers... View the presentation.

Examining fertility knowledge and identifying knowledge gaps in those who may need to delay childbearing is essential, especially for individuals who may be pursuing higher education. Educating these individuals is also critical as prior research has confirmed that fertility awareness may modify future reproductive choices and outcomes. The primary goals of this project are to ascertain baseline fertility knowledge in well-educated undergraduate students and to determine the best educational methods to improve fertility knowledge. An... View the presentation.

There is a certain condition that exists in modern Japan that plagues people’s lives and causes their world to come to a halt. Here, the mere thought of leaving their room is unthinkable, let alone going to school or working. They fill their time with games and other mindless entertainment, continuing to live on in their world away from society. Such is the Hikikomori, or as it roughly translates to acute social withdrawal. By nature,... View the presentation.

Now more than ever, forecasting the outcomes of U.S. elections is an important and challenging task. Traditionally, statistical or political-science methods have been employed to better understand how individuals will vote. Our approach differs in that we use mathematical modeling. Adapting methods commonly used in epidemiology to understand biological disease transmission, we model the spread of political affiliation (Democratic or Republican) across states using differential equations. We simulate thousands of possible election scenarios, accounting for... View the presentation.

This project aimed to create a well-rounded digital marketing strategy for ChangEd, a student loan repayment application. We were tasked with improving the awareness, engagement, and consideration, areas the application needed to improve on. We created a digital and social media marketing strategy using primary research we conducted with their target audience (graduates, current students, and parents), suggesting ways to improve current paid and earned media, as well as introduce new approaches using our insights... View the presentation.

Potassium ions (K+) are one of the most abundant ions in intracellular fluid, affecting a wide variety of cellular processes in living organisms. In humans, irregularities in extracellular K+ levels contribute to pathologies including cardiovascular disease, immunological diseases, and some cancers. Despite the role of K+ ions, the detection, quantification, and monitoring of K+ remains difficult. While fluorescent indicators exist that can provide a fast, easy readout for K+ concentration, they are often nonspecific, particularly... View the presentation.

Bacteria interact intimately with humans, from “good” bacteria that live in our bodies to “bad” pathogenic bacteria that cause disease. Pathogenic bacteria express virulence genes, which help bacteria invade and attack their host. The ability to control virulence gene expression would help us treat infection more effectively. Several virulence genes in the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium have been observed to be heterogeneously expressed, which means gene expression levels vary among individual bacteria. However, it remains unknown... View the presentation.

Efficiency and equity have always been the key dilemma in local economic developments. On the one hand, economic prosperity is crucial for sustainable growth; on the other hand, the neighborhoods might undergo gentrification, transforming the area to appeal to high-end markets. Hence, vulnerable or indigenous residents might face displacements, and the neighborhood would lose its originality and authenticity. This thesis project takes a quantitative approach by using the difference-in-differences method to examine hybrid form of... View the presentation.

My research paper focuses on inequality in America specifically covering the incarceration system and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system. This is an important topic to study due to the high number of racially diverse individuals that are disproportionally affected and incarcerated due to the inequalities in the crime and criminal justice system. To investigate the extent of the issue, ethnographic interviews were conducted in a diverse sample of people by asking... View the presentation.

My research is a historical ethnography of depictions of the ethnic and cultural other in 19th century England. I was motivated to do this research by curiosity about how cultural and racial otherness and national belonging was constructed historically. Although my work does not directly relate to modern conceptions of national belonging, I was inspired to do my research by seeing ideas about this shift during my own lifetime. My work is a historical ethnography... View the presentation.

Previous research indicates that regret is a painful experience for people but often leads to enhanced self meaning and personal growth. In this study, we employ a narrative approach to explore the architecture and coping methods of regret experiences in late midlife adults. We relate variation in regret narratives told by 163 adults aged 55 to 57 to psychosocial adaptation, conceptualized in terms of psychological well-being and Erikson’s adult-developmental factors of generativity and ego-integrity. Two... View the presentation.

With concerns about how to feed an exponentially growing, increasingly obese population, humanity’s relationship with food is a pressing concern. Evaluating the evolutionary changes in the composition of gut microbiota (GM), defined as the microorganisms that live in the digestive tract, may offer insight into how human bodies have adapted to these changing metabolic and energetic needs. Host diet has proven to influence the composition and function of the GM, which subsequently affects human nutrition... View the presentation.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease reflecting the interplay of biological and social factors. Lower socioeconomic status (SES), food insecurity, and poor sleep quality are risks factors for obesity; yet, our understanding of the physiological mechanisms behind overweightness is limited. Leptin, a hormone which modulates hunger, could be a potential mechanism because resistance can develop and lead to energy imbalances. Leptin levels tend to be elevated by low quality sleep; although etevidence shows lower SES people... View the presentation.

It is no secret that Southeast Asia has long been a major source of opium production, providing a lucrative enterprise for European empires in the 19th-­20th century. The “Golden Triangle” region, where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand’s borders meet has been one of the world’s largest opium producers since the 1950s. Much has been written in Southeast Asian history about the economic and political impact of opium production in the region, but what of the human... View the presentation.

Life stories are strong predictors of identity, since the specific narratives adults tell about themselves represent individual differences in personality characteristics. One way researchers analyze these life stories in adults is by measuring the story’s coherence, which is comprised of a clear context, a linear chronology, and an explanation of why the specified events are important to the narrator. In doing so, researchers have found that more coherent personal narratives are related to better memory... View the presentation.

Recently, there has been a public push for the film industry to improve female representation; subsequently, DC and Marvel released female-­lead films Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel to critical praise and record box office figures. Strictly looking at industry measures of success (critics’ reviews and box office totals) it would appear that the film industry and movie­going public are demanding more films with similar female representation. However, public opinion cannot be captured by critical interpretation... View the presentation.

In the era of international volunteerism, mounting evidence suggests that the presence of unskilled and culturally unaware volunteers in the Global South fosters “voluntourism”, and endangers the very populations and institutions that volunteers want to help. Northwestern does not enforce a pre-trip curriculum for student organizations that coordinate private service trips, leaving the students to independently prepare themselves for their trip. This spring, eight students including myself intended to volunteer in Haiti through a Haitian-based... View the presentation.

The successful development of vaccines for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has been hindered because there are no identified tumor-associated antigens. As an alternative to peptide vaccines, the administration of tumor lysates has been investigated in TNBC to activate the immune system against tumors, wherein a mixture of tumor-specific lysates is administered to behave as antigens. The Mirkin group has previously demonstrated the capability of Liposomal Spherical Nucleic Acids (SNAs) to initiate antigen presentation and... View the presentation.

Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya was kidnapped on May 25, 2000 when covering a prison riot in Bogotá. Held hostage for 16 hours, the journalist was repeatedly raped and tortured in response to her journalistic work. Due to its level of brutality and impunity, Bedoya’s story has become emblematic in Colombia. Yet, hers is not an isolated case; it is instead the reflection of a systemic issue in a country historically affected by different forms of... View the presentation.

Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are proteinaceous organelles contained within prokaryotes used to facilitate reactions with increased efficiency, or to carry out reactions with intermediates that are harmful to the cell if released into the cytoplasm. Oftentimes, compartments are used to metabolize unique carbon sources, such as 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PD), whose metabolic pathway contains intermediates toxic to cell growth. These compartments are a kind of metabolic workshop in that they localize necessary substrates into a specific area, and... View the presentation.

On college campuses, one in five women will experience sexual assault in some capacity over the course of their undergraduate experience. College men in fraternities are three times more likely to commit sexually assaultive acts than non-Greek students. Despite pervasive knowledge that fraternity members are often involved in rape on college campuses, research has not fully examined the norms, attitudes, and behaviors that might underlie and perpetuate sexual assault in fraternities. Further, few studies have... View the presentation.

The theorists who developed Social Justice Education (SJE) claim that its goals are: to critically analyze how oppression operates on an individual, cultural, and institutional level, to harness empathy and respect for others, and, ultimately, to commit to working for lasting change. However, the literature lacks research on how to evaluate such programs. Social empathy—empathy that takes into account contextual understanding and social awareness—is associated with higher engagement in social action. I used a mixed... View the presentation.

This study reports on the results of a psychosocial questionnaire survey of professional symphonic musicians in the United States. The response rate was 12.36% (n= 395) and the sample was members of the International Conference of Symphonic and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) which is a conglomerate of the top 50 orchestras in the United States. Participants exhibited significantly higher depression levels than the general U.S. public prevalence rates listed in the DSM-5. 98.7% of musicians screened... View the presentation.

Situated in the heart of urban Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (1976) stands as a monument to the eponymous first president of the Republic of China (ROC). Consisting of a main memorial hall, opera theater, Western concert hall, and surrounding gardens, the memorial complex was constructed to commemorate Chiang’s life and to secure his role in Taiwanese history. Existing literature in English on the memorial is scarce and scholars who do... View the presentation.

Ode to Times Beach, MO (1925-1985) is a research poem written in Prof. Rachel Webster’s class during the winter quarter of the creative writing poetry sequence. Times Beach, MO was a rural, primarily agricultural town of over 2,000 people, evacuated in 1983 just before the largest flood in the town’s history, and after 260,000 gallons of waste oil containing dioxin were sprayed over the town’s roads from 1972-1976. The town was declared a Superfund site,... View the presentation.

In the midst of the Great Recession of 2008, corporate scandals overflowed newspaper headlines. Companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and others contributed to the most recent stock market crash on Wall Street. There is some evidence that the calculative mindset may have contributed to these corporations’ decisions to act unethically. An individual with a calculative mindset analyzes non-quantitative problems, such as social and moral issues, mathematically. When individuals crunch numbers, the mechanical, mathematical problem-solving... View the presentation.

The decision to breastfeed or formula feed is a largely contested one by mothers, healthcare administrators, and politicians. Yet, research suggests that both breastfeeding and formula feeding are healthy ways to provide nourishment to newborn babies. Considering this, I sought to analyze why this decision is such a site of contestation. I did this by critically analyzing the meaning-making work that breastfeeding discourse had for women during the historically significant moment when Rhode Island, Massachusetts,... View the presentation.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects over 422 million people worldwide. Within their multi-payer healthcare system, Germany has used standardized, evidence-based interventions called Disease Management Programs (“DMP”s) to manage T2D since 2002. Studies have shown markedly improved health care delivery and health outcomes, including reduced incidence of diabetic secondary complications, decreasing financial burdens of T2D in Germany. No such programs exist in U.S. healthcare. In 2017, diabetes care for 29 million T2D Americans cost $327 billion.... View the presentation.

The study of local adaptation in plants is critical for understanding the evolution of traits that contribute to survival in a dynamic environment, the genes underlying them, and the general process of adaptation. However, in the study of natural, non-model plant species, population-level whole-genome sampling is not always feasible and can be costly. Therefore, there is a need for methods based on population-differentiation that can take a reduced representation of whole-genome data to identify loci... View the presentation.

Two popular critiques of Asian American Studies are its US-centrism within the Americas and its inherent valorization of race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic difference in its endeavors to critique and liberate its subjects from the same system. Though not able to fully tackle the latter, this project aims to address both of these issues by locating Asian American Studies theory in Mexico in regard to indigenous, not Asian, communities. During a four-month span in Yucatán, Mexico in... View the presentation.

Research has found that both schizophrenia populations and populations at clinical high risk for psychosis show alterations in facial affect expressivity, specifically blunting. However, it is unknown whether these alterations occur prior to onset, or whether they develop as a consequence of psychosis onset processes. The current study sought to examine a non-clinical psychosis (NCP) population, defined as those who experience infrequent and fleeting positive symptoms 1-2 times per year, to determine where along the... View the presentation.

Artificial agent development is motivated by the dream of making machines perform undesirable labor instead of humans. To replace humans in undesirable labor, it follows that the machines should not engage in actions that will lead to devastating consequences. They should be “moral” artificial agents. In my paper, I deal with two questions on this concern: 1. What should be the direction of moral artificial agent development? 2. Is the idea of a moral artificial... View the presentation.

Much has already been discovered about the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway and its involvement in patterning and tissue development in embryos, but the specific functions its key components play has not yet been fully elucidated. One potential component is the protein kinase Dop, which is involved in cellular trafficking. Here, I examine whether Dop’s role in cellular transport has an impact on Hh signal transduction. Immunofluorescent staining experiments were carried out on wing imaginal discs... View the presentation.

In the midst of the Great Recession of 2008, corporate scandals overflowed newspaper headlines. Companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and others contributed to the most recent stock market crash on Wall Street. There is some evidence that the calculative mindset may have contributed to these corporations’ decisions to act unethically. An individual with a calculative mindset analyzes non-quantitative problems, such as social and moral issues, mathematically. When individuals crunch numbers, the mechanical, mathematical problem-solving... View the presentation.

In the realms of higher education, the term “first-generation” is a buzzword and many universities pride themselves on the amount of first-generation students that inhabit their campuses. Broadly, first-generation college students are students whose parents did not attend nor graduate from a 4-year institution. First-generation students face unique challenges when compared to their continuing-generation peers and this can sometimes stem from a cultural mismatch. While there is much research done on the first-generation experience transitioning... View the presentation.

Standard narratives on the relationship between art and urban development detail art networks as complicit agents in processes of upscaling and gentrification connected to the political and economic elite. My thesis challenges the conventional narrative by investigating the relationship between grassroots art spaces, tied to local, community- based interests, and the urban political economy of development in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. Using archival, ethnographic and interview methods, I investigate three art networks—mainstream, do-it-yourself and... View the presentation.

Patients with psychosis experience deficits in multisensory integration (MSI), or the communication between different sensory modalities, such as sound and sight. One way to assess multisensory integrations is by utilizing voice-pitch tasks in which participants hear the pitch of their own voice artificially altered by a computer. When healthy individuals hear this computerized pitch-shift, they respond behaviorally by changing their own pitch. This is a reflexive attempt to “correct” a perceived error, demonstrating communication between... View the presentation.

The goal of this research paper is to analyze concepts of armed conflict and peacebuilding from a gender perspective using a feminist epistemology approach. I examine the impact of armed conflict on women, and the implications of women’s roles in armed conflict and in peacebuilding processes post-conflict. In doing so, I raise the question of how situations of armed conflict and peacebuilding influence women’s empowerment and contribute to the social transformation of predominantly patriarchal societies... View the presentation.

In the Marvel Comics series Moon Knight, a mercenary believes an ancient Egyptian deity has brought him back from the dead so he can become the eponymous superhero. However, the mercenary’s symptoms of schizophrenia suggest he is instead simply suffering from a psychological break. From 1975-1999, Moon Knight stories used this psychological-religious tension to explore the significance of mythology and religion in modern society. For my research, I examined the way Moon Knight stories represent... View the presentation.

It has been hypothesized that mindfulness-based programs with a primary focus on teaching self-compassion or empathy will have greater effects on self-compassion and empathy than will mindfulness-based exposure programs, which focus primarily on enhancing present moment awareness and reducing distress. However, because research on mindfulness-based exposure programs has centered on their potential to reduce distress and facilitate exposures, their effects on self-compassion and empathy are unknown. The current study’s goal was therefore to determine the... View the presentation.

Negative emotional behaviors, such as criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling, that spouses may show during conflict are key predictors of marital dissatisfaction. Existing research has focused on middle-class couples, but little is known about how these negative emotional behaviors predict marital satisfaction among couples from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. The present laboratory-based study sought to address this gap in the literature. Thirty-seven married couples (74 spouses) from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds (age: M = 41.98, SD =... View the presentation.

Over the last decades, there have been many changes in the business world that are associated with 52 percent of Fortune 500 companies either going bankrupt, being acquired by other companies, or ceasing to exist. One critical change is the transformation of the economy into a knowledge-based economy, where information and learning are key drivers of economic growth and productivity. In order to survive and thrive in this new business world order, many argue that... View the presentation.

There are few concerns greater than those of a parent with an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD). How is she or he going to be taken care of as she or he ages? The government provides services and support in the pursuit of care and services, but how does that process work from the parent’s perspective? This study explored these questions by interviewing caregivers in this situation and learning how they understand... View the presentation.

When navigating through space, the brain must integrate sensory information with past experiences to choose behaviors that are most likely to produce a positive outcome. Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) expressing dopamine receptor 1 (D1) and dopamine receptor 2 (D2) receive sensory and motor information from cortical and midbrain regions to modulate locomotion; how these cells are differentially activated in changing environments can contribute to sensory-dependent behavior selection. Dopamine release is evoked during unpredicted reward... View the presentation.

Each successive wave of immigrants to America has faced prejudice founded in fear and uncertainty. Immigrants from Italy were particularly discriminated against in the early years of their arrival, from 1880 through 1920. They faced violence, racial slurs, and media attacks based on an unsubstantiated stereotype of criminality. This project set out to discern how the Italian immigrant community in America, through the case study of the city of Cleveland, evolved from being despised and... View the presentation.

Children are impressionable customers, and the media they consume influences their behaviors and perceptions. Gender stereotypes are highly prevalent in children’s media, which can often lead children to create idealized images of what boys and girls should be. This paper explores advertising in children’s television commercials given changes in our society promoting gender equality. Researchers studied commercials from 20 different television programs for children to find differences in male- and female-targeted advertisements. Commercials were coded... View the presentation.

This thesis analyzes the role segregation and white flight played in the development of New York City’s suburban Westchester County, particularly in regards to how white flight from (and within) New Rochelle during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s was presaged by the racial reification of the suburb’s communal boundaries during the preceding four decades. Historians have charted how white flight after World War II trapped Blacks within urban spaces that public officials proceeded to devalue... View the presentation.

One of the most dynamic in South Asia, Pakistan’s vibrant and outspoken media is de facto credited to the media liberalization policies of 2002 by President Pervez Musharraf. Yet, the country’s media landscape, particularly the private news channels, are known to be sensational for their exaggerated reporting style. Using Pakistan’s two mainstream news channels, Geo News and BOL TV, as case studies, this research digs deeper into the history and establishment of private TV channels... View the presentation.

Drill rap, a subgenre of hip-hop intimately connected to Chicago street life and brought into the nation’s musical mainstream by Chicago rapper Chief Keef, sounds and means differently than traditional forms of hip-hop. Unlike most hip hop, drill is outwardly unconcerned with mobility. This project explores drill’s departure from hip-hop’s traditional aesthetics and messaging, considering what about Chicago gave rise to this departure, the extent to which the departure categorizes the subgenre, and what the... View the presentation.

With 80% of US hospitals seeing limited English proficient patients on a regular basis, language assistance services are a pivotal component of ensuring equal access to health care. State and federal civil rights policies guarantee the provision of language assistance services to limited English proficient hospital patients. However, local civil rights advisory committees report hospitals do not adequately comply with these policies. Through the development and analysis of an original dataset of qualitative interviews with... View the presentation.

Affective science has long been interested in the coherence between different emotion response systems (e.g., subjective emotional experience, behavior, physiology). Although evolutionary functionalist accounts of emotion hold that emotional coherence should be related to greater adaptation, few studies have analyzed links between emotional coherence and well­being. Thus, in this laboratory-based study, we examined the link between emotional coherence (specifically the coherence between behavior and physiology) and dispositional well­being in a sample of 41 adults (22... View the presentation.

Potassium ions (K+) are one of the most abundant ions in intracellular fluid, affecting a wide variety of cellular processes in living organisms. In humans, irregularities in extracellular K+ levels contribute to pathologies including cardiovascular disease, immunological diseases, and some cancers. Despite the role of K+ ions, the detection, quantification, and monitoring of K+ remains difficult. While fluorescent indicators exist that can provide a fast, easy readout for K+ concentration, they are often nonspecific, particularly... View the presentation.

Ode to Times Beach, MO (1925-1985) is a research poem written in Prof. Rachel Webster’s class during the winter quarter of the creative writing poetry sequence. Times Beach, MO was a rural, primarily agricultural town of over 2,000 people, evacuated in 1983 just before the largest flood in the town’s history, and after 260,000 gallons of waste oil containing dioxin were sprayed over the town’s roads from 1972-1976. The town was declared a Superfund site,... View the presentation.

Recently, there has been a public push for the film industry to improve female representation; subsequently, DC and Marvel released female-­lead films Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel to critical praise and record box office figures. Strictly looking at industry measures of success (critics’ reviews and box office totals) it would appear that the film industry and movie­going public are demanding more films with similar female representation. However, public opinion cannot be captured by critical interpretation... View the presentation.

It is no secret that Southeast Asia has long been a major source of opium production, providing a lucrative enterprise for European empires in the 19th-­20th century. The “Golden Triangle” region, where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand’s borders meet has been one of the world’s largest opium producers since the 1950s. Much has been written in Southeast Asian history about the economic and political impact of opium production in the region, but what of the human... View the presentation.

Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya was kidnapped on May 25, 2000 when covering a prison riot in Bogotá. Held hostage for 16 hours, the journalist was repeatedly raped and tortured in response to her journalistic work. Due to its level of brutality and impunity, Bedoya’s story has become emblematic in Colombia. Yet, hers is not an isolated case; it is instead the reflection of a systemic issue in a country historically affected by different forms of... View the presentation.

Situated in the heart of urban Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (1976) stands as a monument to the eponymous first president of the Republic of China (ROC). Consisting of a main memorial hall, opera theater, Western concert hall, and surrounding gardens, the memorial complex was constructed to commemorate Chiang’s life and to secure his role in Taiwanese history. Existing literature in English on the memorial is scarce and scholars who do... View the presentation.

Artificial agent development is motivated by the dream of making machines perform undesirable labor instead of humans. To replace humans in undesirable labor, it follows that the machines should not engage in actions that will lead to devastating consequences. They should be “moral” artificial agents. In my paper, I deal with two questions on this concern: 1. What should be the direction of moral artificial agent development? 2. Is the idea of a moral artificial... View the presentation.

In the Marvel Comics series Moon Knight, a mercenary believes an ancient Egyptian deity has brought him back from the dead so he can become the eponymous superhero. However, the mercenary’s symptoms of schizophrenia suggest he is instead simply suffering from a psychological break. From 1975-1999, Moon Knight stories used this psychological-religious tension to explore the significance of mythology and religion in modern society. For my research, I examined the way Moon Knight stories represent... View the presentation.

Each successive wave of immigrants to America has faced prejudice founded in fear and uncertainty. Immigrants from Italy were particularly discriminated against in the early years of their arrival, from 1880 through 1920. They faced violence, racial slurs, and media attacks based on an unsubstantiated stereotype of criminality. This project set out to discern how the Italian immigrant community in America, through the case study of the city of Cleveland, evolved from being despised and... View the presentation.

This thesis analyzes the role segregation and white flight played in the development of New York City’s suburban Westchester County, particularly in regards to how white flight from (and within) New Rochelle during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s was presaged by the racial reification of the suburb’s communal boundaries during the preceding four decades. Historians have charted how white flight after World War II trapped Blacks within urban spaces that public officials proceeded to devalue... View the presentation.

This project aimed to create a well-rounded digital marketing strategy for ChangEd, a student loan repayment application. We were tasked with improving the awareness, engagement, and consideration, areas the application needed to improve on. We created a digital and social media marketing strategy using primary research we conducted with their target audience (graduates, current students, and parents), suggesting ways to improve current paid and earned media, as well as introduce new approaches using our insights... View the presentation.

One of the most dynamic in South Asia, Pakistan’s vibrant and outspoken media is de facto credited to the media liberalization policies of 2002 by President Pervez Musharraf. Yet, the country’s media landscape, particularly the private news channels, are known to be sensational for their exaggerated reporting style. Using Pakistan’s two mainstream news channels, Geo News and BOL TV, as case studies, this research digs deeper into the history and establishment of private TV channels... View the presentation.

Examining fertility knowledge and identifying knowledge gaps in those who may need to delay childbearing is essential, especially for individuals who may be pursuing higher education. Educating these individuals is also critical as prior research has confirmed that fertility awareness may modify future reproductive choices and outcomes. The primary goals of this project are to ascertain baseline fertility knowledge in well-educated undergraduate students and to determine the best educational methods to improve fertility knowledge. An... View the presentation.

Bacteria interact intimately with humans, from “good” bacteria that live in our bodies to “bad” pathogenic bacteria that cause disease. Pathogenic bacteria express virulence genes, which help bacteria invade and attack their host. The ability to control virulence gene expression would help us treat infection more effectively. Several virulence genes in the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium have been observed to be heterogeneously expressed, which means gene expression levels vary among individual bacteria. However, it remains unknown... View the presentation.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease reflecting the interplay of biological and social factors. Lower socioeconomic status (SES), food insecurity, and poor sleep quality are risks factors for obesity; yet, our understanding of the physiological mechanisms behind overweightness is limited. Leptin, a hormone which modulates hunger, could be a potential mechanism because resistance can develop and lead to energy imbalances. Leptin levels tend to be elevated by low quality sleep; although etevidence shows lower SES people... View the presentation.

With concerns about how to feed an exponentially growing, increasingly obese population, humanity’s relationship with food is a pressing concern. Evaluating the evolutionary changes in the composition of gut microbiota (GM), defined as the microorganisms that live in the digestive tract, may offer insight into how human bodies have adapted to these changing metabolic and energetic needs. Host diet has proven to influence the composition and function of the GM, which subsequently affects human nutrition... View the presentation.

The successful development of vaccines for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has been hindered because there are no identified tumor-associated antigens. As an alternative to peptide vaccines, the administration of tumor lysates has been investigated in TNBC to activate the immune system against tumors, wherein a mixture of tumor-specific lysates is administered to behave as antigens. The Mirkin group has previously demonstrated the capability of Liposomal Spherical Nucleic Acids (SNAs) to initiate antigen presentation and... View the presentation.

Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are proteinaceous organelles contained within prokaryotes used to facilitate reactions with increased efficiency, or to carry out reactions with intermediates that are harmful to the cell if released into the cytoplasm. Oftentimes, compartments are used to metabolize unique carbon sources, such as 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PD), whose metabolic pathway contains intermediates toxic to cell growth. These compartments are a kind of metabolic workshop in that they localize necessary substrates into a specific area, and... View the presentation.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects over 422 million people worldwide. Within their multi-payer healthcare system, Germany has used standardized, evidence-based interventions called Disease Management Programs (“DMP”s) to manage T2D since 2002. Studies have shown markedly improved health care delivery and health outcomes, including reduced incidence of diabetic secondary complications, decreasing financial burdens of T2D in Germany. No such programs exist in U.S. healthcare. In 2017, diabetes care for 29 million T2D Americans cost $327 billion.... View the presentation.

The study of local adaptation in plants is critical for understanding the evolution of traits that contribute to survival in a dynamic environment, the genes underlying them, and the general process of adaptation. However, in the study of natural, non-model plant species, population-level whole-genome sampling is not always feasible and can be costly. Therefore, there is a need for methods based on population-differentiation that can take a reduced representation of whole-genome data to identify loci... View the presentation.

Much has already been discovered about the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway and its involvement in patterning and tissue development in embryos, but the specific functions its key components play has not yet been fully elucidated. One potential component is the protein kinase Dop, which is involved in cellular trafficking. Here, I examine whether Dop’s role in cellular transport has an impact on Hh signal transduction. Immunofluorescent staining experiments were carried out on wing imaginal discs... View the presentation.

Patients with psychosis experience deficits in multisensory integration (MSI), or the communication between different sensory modalities, such as sound and sight. One way to assess multisensory integrations is by utilizing voice-pitch tasks in which participants hear the pitch of their own voice artificially altered by a computer. When healthy individuals hear this computerized pitch-shift, they respond behaviorally by changing their own pitch. This is a reflexive attempt to “correct” a perceived error, demonstrating communication between... View the presentation.

There are few concerns greater than those of a parent with an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD). How is she or he going to be taken care of as she or he ages? The government provides services and support in the pursuit of care and services, but how does that process work from the parent’s perspective? This study explored these questions by interviewing caregivers in this situation and learning how they understand... View the presentation.

When navigating through space, the brain must integrate sensory information with past experiences to choose behaviors that are most likely to produce a positive outcome. Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) expressing dopamine receptor 1 (D1) and dopamine receptor 2 (D2) receive sensory and motor information from cortical and midbrain regions to modulate locomotion; how these cells are differentially activated in changing environments can contribute to sensory-dependent behavior selection. Dopamine release is evoked during unpredicted reward... View the presentation.

Currently, a great deal of information is conveyed through written online communication. However, this leads to a lack of important pragmatic, or contextual, cues that are present in face-to-face interaction such as body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions. One method to potentially reduce this issue is emoji usage. In this project, we studied face emojis and how they affect the interpretation of ambiguous text messages between people with different social relationships and hope... View the presentation.

In the English language, wh-question constructions give rise to gap positions in sentences, because the wh-phrase that corresponds with the object of the verb moves to the beginning of the sentence, leaving no word to appear in the typical object position. Typically wh-phrases are associated with just one gap, however, in some special cases, multiple gaps have been found to be associated with a single wh-phrase. These sentences are called Parasitic Gap Constructions and are... View the presentation.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a prevalent issue on a global scale, but the effects of such violence upon Asian/Asian American communities in the United States is compounded by their immigrant, refugee, and/or other historically marginalized identities. While current literature recognizes GBV as a public health issue of equity and social justice, anthropology closely examines the asymmetry of power by informing a holistic view of local contexts. The research examines the perspectives of Asian-identifying frontline workers... View the presentation.

There is a certain condition that exists in modern Japan that plagues people’s lives and causes their world to come to a halt. Here, the mere thought of leaving their room is unthinkable, let alone going to school or working. They fill their time with games and other mindless entertainment, continuing to live on in their world away from society. Such is the Hikikomori, or as it roughly translates to acute social withdrawal. By nature,... View the presentation.

Now more than ever, forecasting the outcomes of U.S. elections is an important and challenging task. Traditionally, statistical or political-science methods have been employed to better understand how individuals will vote. Our approach differs in that we use mathematical modeling. Adapting methods commonly used in epidemiology to understand biological disease transmission, we model the spread of political affiliation (Democratic or Republican) across states using differential equations. We simulate thousands of possible election scenarios, accounting for... View the presentation.

My research paper focuses on inequality in America specifically covering the incarceration system and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system. This is an important topic to study due to the high number of racially diverse individuals that are disproportionally affected and incarcerated due to the inequalities in the crime and criminal justice system. To investigate the extent of the issue, ethnographic interviews were conducted in a diverse sample of people by asking... View the presentation.

Previous research indicates that regret is a painful experience for people but often leads to enhanced self meaning and personal growth. In this study, we employ a narrative approach to explore the architecture and coping methods of regret experiences in late midlife adults. We relate variation in regret narratives told by 163 adults aged 55 to 57 to psychosocial adaptation, conceptualized in terms of psychological well-being and Erikson’s adult-developmental factors of generativity and ego-integrity. Two... View the presentation.

My research is a historical ethnography of depictions of the ethnic and cultural other in 19th century England. I was motivated to do this research by curiosity about how cultural and racial otherness and national belonging was constructed historically. Although my work does not directly relate to modern conceptions of national belonging, I was inspired to do my research by seeing ideas about this shift during my own lifetime. My work is a historical ethnography... View the presentation.

Efficiency and equity have always been the key dilemma in local economic developments. On the one hand, economic prosperity is crucial for sustainable growth; on the other hand, the neighborhoods might undergo gentrification, transforming the area to appeal to high-end markets. Hence, vulnerable or indigenous residents might face displacements, and the neighborhood would lose its originality and authenticity. This thesis project takes a quantitative approach by using the difference-in-differences method to examine hybrid form of... View the presentation.

Life stories are strong predictors of identity, since the specific narratives adults tell about themselves represent individual differences in personality characteristics. One way researchers analyze these life stories in adults is by measuring the story’s coherence, which is comprised of a clear context, a linear chronology, and an explanation of why the specified events are important to the narrator. In doing so, researchers have found that more coherent personal narratives are related to better memory... View the presentation.

In the era of international volunteerism, mounting evidence suggests that the presence of unskilled and culturally unaware volunteers in the Global South fosters “voluntourism”, and endangers the very populations and institutions that volunteers want to help. Northwestern does not enforce a pre-trip curriculum for student organizations that coordinate private service trips, leaving the students to independently prepare themselves for their trip. This spring, eight students including myself intended to volunteer in Haiti through a Haitian-based... View the presentation.

On college campuses, one in five women will experience sexual assault in some capacity over the course of their undergraduate experience. College men in fraternities are three times more likely to commit sexually assaultive acts than non-Greek students. Despite pervasive knowledge that fraternity members are often involved in rape on college campuses, research has not fully examined the norms, attitudes, and behaviors that might underlie and perpetuate sexual assault in fraternities. Further, few studies have... View the presentation.

The theorists who developed Social Justice Education (SJE) claim that its goals are: to critically analyze how oppression operates on an individual, cultural, and institutional level, to harness empathy and respect for others, and, ultimately, to commit to working for lasting change. However, the literature lacks research on how to evaluate such programs. Social empathy—empathy that takes into account contextual understanding and social awareness—is associated with higher engagement in social action. I used a mixed... View the presentation.

This study reports on the results of a psychosocial questionnaire survey of professional symphonic musicians in the United States. The response rate was 12.36% (n= 395) and the sample was members of the International Conference of Symphonic and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) which is a conglomerate of the top 50 orchestras in the United States. Participants exhibited significantly higher depression levels than the general U.S. public prevalence rates listed in the DSM-5. 98.7% of musicians screened... View the presentation.

In the midst of the Great Recession of 2008, corporate scandals overflowed newspaper headlines. Companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and others contributed to the most recent stock market crash on Wall Street. There is some evidence that the calculative mindset may have contributed to these corporations’ decisions to act unethically. An individual with a calculative mindset analyzes non-quantitative problems, such as social and moral issues, mathematically. When individuals crunch numbers, the mechanical, mathematical problem-solving... View the presentation.

The decision to breastfeed or formula feed is a largely contested one by mothers, healthcare administrators, and politicians. Yet, research suggests that both breastfeeding and formula feeding are healthy ways to provide nourishment to newborn babies. Considering this, I sought to analyze why this decision is such a site of contestation. I did this by critically analyzing the meaning-making work that breastfeeding discourse had for women during the historically significant moment when Rhode Island, Massachusetts,... View the presentation.

Two popular critiques of Asian American Studies are its US-centrism within the Americas and its inherent valorization of race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic difference in its endeavors to critique and liberate its subjects from the same system. Though not able to fully tackle the latter, this project aims to address both of these issues by locating Asian American Studies theory in Mexico in regard to indigenous, not Asian, communities. During a four-month span in Yucatán, Mexico in... View the presentation.

Research has found that both schizophrenia populations and populations at clinical high risk for psychosis show alterations in facial affect expressivity, specifically blunting. However, it is unknown whether these alterations occur prior to onset, or whether they develop as a consequence of psychosis onset processes. The current study sought to examine a non-clinical psychosis (NCP) population, defined as those who experience infrequent and fleeting positive symptoms 1-2 times per year, to determine where along the... View the presentation.

In the midst of the Great Recession of 2008, corporate scandals overflowed newspaper headlines. Companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and others contributed to the most recent stock market crash on Wall Street. There is some evidence that the calculative mindset may have contributed to these corporations’ decisions to act unethically. An individual with a calculative mindset analyzes non-quantitative problems, such as social and moral issues, mathematically. When individuals crunch numbers, the mechanical, mathematical problem-solving... View the presentation.

In the realms of higher education, the term “first-generation” is a buzzword and many universities pride themselves on the amount of first-generation students that inhabit their campuses. Broadly, first-generation college students are students whose parents did not attend nor graduate from a 4-year institution. First-generation students face unique challenges when compared to their continuing-generation peers and this can sometimes stem from a cultural mismatch. While there is much research done on the first-generation experience transitioning... View the presentation.

Standard narratives on the relationship between art and urban development detail art networks as complicit agents in processes of upscaling and gentrification connected to the political and economic elite. My thesis challenges the conventional narrative by investigating the relationship between grassroots art spaces, tied to local, community- based interests, and the urban political economy of development in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. Using archival, ethnographic and interview methods, I investigate three art networks—mainstream, do-it-yourself and... View the presentation.

The goal of this research paper is to analyze concepts of armed conflict and peacebuilding from a gender perspective using a feminist epistemology approach. I examine the impact of armed conflict on women, and the implications of women’s roles in armed conflict and in peacebuilding processes post-conflict. In doing so, I raise the question of how situations of armed conflict and peacebuilding influence women’s empowerment and contribute to the social transformation of predominantly patriarchal societies... View the presentation.

It has been hypothesized that mindfulness-based programs with a primary focus on teaching self-compassion or empathy will have greater effects on self-compassion and empathy than will mindfulness-based exposure programs, which focus primarily on enhancing present moment awareness and reducing distress. However, because research on mindfulness-based exposure programs has centered on their potential to reduce distress and facilitate exposures, their effects on self-compassion and empathy are unknown. The current study’s goal was therefore to determine the... View the presentation.

Negative emotional behaviors, such as criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling, that spouses may show during conflict are key predictors of marital dissatisfaction. Existing research has focused on middle-class couples, but little is known about how these negative emotional behaviors predict marital satisfaction among couples from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. The present laboratory-based study sought to address this gap in the literature. Thirty-seven married couples (74 spouses) from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds (age: M = 41.98, SD =... View the presentation.

Over the last decades, there have been many changes in the business world that are associated with 52 percent of Fortune 500 companies either going bankrupt, being acquired by other companies, or ceasing to exist. One critical change is the transformation of the economy into a knowledge-based economy, where information and learning are key drivers of economic growth and productivity. In order to survive and thrive in this new business world order, many argue that... View the presentation.

Children are impressionable customers, and the media they consume influences their behaviors and perceptions. Gender stereotypes are highly prevalent in children’s media, which can often lead children to create idealized images of what boys and girls should be. This paper explores advertising in children’s television commercials given changes in our society promoting gender equality. Researchers studied commercials from 20 different television programs for children to find differences in male- and female-targeted advertisements. Commercials were coded... View the presentation.

Drill rap, a subgenre of hip-hop intimately connected to Chicago street life and brought into the nation’s musical mainstream by Chicago rapper Chief Keef, sounds and means differently than traditional forms of hip-hop. Unlike most hip hop, drill is outwardly unconcerned with mobility. This project explores drill’s departure from hip-hop’s traditional aesthetics and messaging, considering what about Chicago gave rise to this departure, the extent to which the departure categorizes the subgenre, and what the... View the presentation.

With 80% of US hospitals seeing limited English proficient patients on a regular basis, language assistance services are a pivotal component of ensuring equal access to health care. State and federal civil rights policies guarantee the provision of language assistance services to limited English proficient hospital patients. However, local civil rights advisory committees report hospitals do not adequately comply with these policies. Through the development and analysis of an original dataset of qualitative interviews with... View the presentation.

Affective science has long been interested in the coherence between different emotion response systems (e.g., subjective emotional experience, behavior, physiology). Although evolutionary functionalist accounts of emotion hold that emotional coherence should be related to greater adaptation, few studies have analyzed links between emotional coherence and well­being. Thus, in this laboratory-based study, we examined the link between emotional coherence (specifically the coherence between behavior and physiology) and dispositional well­being in a sample of 41 adults (22... View the presentation.

The research question concerns the correlation between Global Positioning System (GPS) error signals and geomagnetic activity in the ionosphere. The purpose of this investigation was to learn more about the correlation between GPS errors and geomagnetic activity in the ionosphere. Additionally it was to investigate the specifics of this correlation to find out exactly what values and measurements in the GPS system are affected and involved. In this project, the GPS errors were determined by... View the presentation.

Arrhythmia is a disease characterized by abnormal electrical signals in the heart that results in ineffective pumping. Stethoscopes, as well as EKG's, are used to diagnose arrhythmia. Modern Stethoscopes diagnose arrhythmias with a 40 percent accuracy rate. EKGs, on the other hand, diagnose with an high accuracy rate but can be very expensive. Sometimes, money on EKGs can be wasted if you had a benign arrhythmia, i.e. heart simply skips a beat. This application/program analyzes... View the presentation.

4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (or 4-MCHM) is a toxic chemical used in coal power plants. A 2014 chemical spill released a crude form of 4-MCHM, greatly affecting the surrounding community and environment. This chemical is often used in factories to clean coal, and was thought to be safe to use. After the spill, 4-MCHM has been tested on mammals such as rats and guinea pigs, causing decreased activity and mortality. In humans it has caused skin irritation and... View the presentation.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of common household paints, and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that they contain, on Drosophila melanogaster. Previous research has demonstrated a correlation between VOCs in paint and the development of conditions like asthma in humans, as well as to disruptions to the central nervous system. Procedure: Three different paints were tested for harmful effects on Drosophila melanogaster. Four experimental groups were prepared: a control,... View the presentation.

Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of antioxidant protection against UVB radiation and to determine which antioxidants out of Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Oxide, and Vitamin E most effectively prevent UVB radiation from damaging cells as well as to design an in-vitro model that can help test the ultraviolet absorbing capabilities of different natural antioxidants. Procedure: Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a model organism in this project as they have a similar anatomy and physiology compared to... View the presentation.

The purpose of this experiment is to test the effects of varying levels of the geomagnetic field on the mortality levels of the tardigrade species, Hypsibius dujardini, since different magnetic fields are present on other planets and tardigrades are extremophiles. Due to their extreme resilience, tardigrades could be a solution to humanity's overpopulation problem and its eventual migration to other planets through the possibility of biological terraformation. However, the effects of planetary factors such as... View the presentation.

Purpose: What are the effects of antioxidants on the climbing abilities of fruit flies exposed to dental resin? Research: Free radicals are highly reactive particles containing unpaired electrons in their valence shells and seek to fill in empty spaces within their valence shells. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) containing oxygen are one of the most common free radicals and can lead to potential DNA damage and diseases including cancer, immune diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. On the... View the presentation.

Purpose: To determine the inhibitive properties of metal ions on catalase activity as well as to determine which antioxidant most effectively diminishes the inhibitory effect of the most inhibitive metal on catalase activity through chelation and compare it to a synthetic chelator, EDTA. Procedure: Set up a gas-collecting apparatus. For Part 1, to determine which metal inhibits catalase the most, test H2O2 alone for negative control, test catalase for positive control, catalase + copper, catalase... View the presentation.

Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the build up of various metal ions. These metal ions start to build up on the brain’s neurons. The build up of these metal ions start to create a protein that is known as Tau protein. The purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate the effects of metal ions, EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) and turmeric on catalase activity. Also, to inhibit catalase function on neurons. The hypothesis for the experiment was... View the presentation.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are free radicals containing oxygen that seek to fill in empty spaces within their valence shells. ROS are especially harmful to embryos and fetuses as they interfere with cell signaling leading to birth disorders. In contrast, resveratrol, an antioxidant, pairs unpaired electrons in ROS before oxidation can occur. Therefore, I studied the effects of the resveratrol-containing foods, blueberries and red grapes, on the movement abilities of fruit flies exposed to dental... View the presentation.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Currently, 33% of cases are misdiagnosed. The use of Artificial Intelligence could reduce the chance of error leading to possible earlier diagnoses which could be the difference between life and death for some. The objective of this project was to develop accurate Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Neural Network (DNN) algorithms to create a application for assisted heart disease diagnosis. My project compared the ML model... View the presentation.