Post-colonial nation-state building in Morocco required a homogenization of the Moroccan citizen linguistically, culturally, and religiously resulting in an Arabo-Islamic identity. The latter came at the expense of Amazigh (indigenous) people, languages, cultures, and identities. Despite the opportunist state language officialization and recognition in 2011, Tamazight’s (Amazigh language) dissemination in...
The purpose of this research project was to highlight that there are different perspectives on mental health that stem from various experiences. All of these views should be valued and not discriminated against for any reason other than that they are different. As a child of Soviet Immigrants, I quickly...
By assessing infants’ movements, our research goal was to determine if particular movement characteristics are indicators for cerebral palsy (CP), a disorder caused by a brain injury to the fetus/infant that leads to impaired development of movement. Our research may contribute to developing an earlier diagnosis for CP, and therefore...
Codable robots, small electronic devices programmed with software or apps, have become popular toys for children to play with at home. During play, children learn about coding by programming their robot to move and behave however they choose. But given the novelty of coding, children may face impasses when coding...
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...
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...
An action potential (AP) is a shift in the membrane voltage of a neuron generally caused by a sudden ion influx, resulting in excitation, allowing for the cell to send signals across its neural network. Spontaneous excitation can be crucial for organizing neural circuits, especially in sensory modalities. For hearing...
he mapping of the human brain is one of the most challenging but important topics among the fields of research. The delicate, intertwined networks of neurons obstruct us from taking invasive measures to explore the wonders of the brain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a possible non-invasive technique for...
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...
For over a hundred years, psychologists have sought to understand the role of spirituality in human behavior and experience, and how it might relate to features of personality. This study considered personal narration of spiritual experience and how it relates to the personality traits of Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion,...
Research finds people reproduce incorrect information provided by their collaborative partners. These “social contagion” effects largely studied memory for information introduced during experiments (e.g., word lists), rather than preexisting knowledge. This study extends the effects of social contagion of memory to social contagion of knowledge: Does what people know to...
During pregnancy, mothers undergo a range of physiological changes including shifting hormone levels, modified immune function, and reduced gut motility. These changes are necessary to meet the pregnant mother’s increased energy needs and inhibit rejection of the fetus. The gut microbiota (GM) – the community of microorganisms that live in...
Much insight into infants’ neuromotor development can be gleaned from their spontaneous movements. Specifically, a greater understanding of neuromotor development is valuable for the early diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP), a neurological disorder resulting from brain injury or atypical development at an early age and is characterized by impaired movement...
Through framing, identical information can be portrayed in different ways. Existing literature finds that receiving positively framed information makes people more risk-averse than receiving negatively framed information, but disagreement remains on the strength of this effect and the conditions under which it occurs. In this study, 503 participants were surveyed...
When asked to imagine a computer scientist, males and females tend to report that they imagine a male. This perception can be detrimental for females’ computer science self-efficacy and may contribute to findings that as early as elementary school females are less interested in and less confident in their computing...
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....
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. \n\n We created a digital and social media marketing strategy using primary research we conducted with...
Media accounts report that the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement disproportionately affected Black communities and businesses, amplifying already- existing racial health and economic disparities. Black-owned small businesses experienced significant indirect and direct economic damages in Chicago, Illinois, and research literature is now striving to provide analyses...
The revitalization of endangered languages is both deeply personal and political, as language subjugation is directly linked to intentional efforts by colonizing powers to suppress and eradicate indigenous culture and dismantle local collective identity. Many studies have been conducted on how to promote endangered languages, but few evaluate the effectiveness...
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,...
A famous topic in mathematics involves the theoretically infinite nature of geographic coastlines. If one were to measure the perimeter of Great Britain, for example, the smaller the measuring tool, the larger and more accurate the measured perimeter would be. This phenomenon contains similar properties to the mathematical objects known...
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...
Race is a socially constructed category firmly embedded within a system of privilege and oppression that places White people at the top and Black people at the bottom. Though this system has tangible implications in the lives of individuals, much existing literature explores race on an arguably superficial level, without...
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are heavily studied because they share a similar genetic structure to humans. The skin patterns of zebrafish are comprised of horizontal stripes of different colored pigment cells. Accurately quantifying the cell size of various pigment cells in relation to their location on the skin is a crucial...
Experts have recognized the potential for religion to shape environmental attitudes. In recent decades, the world has seen the rise of faith-based organizations in tackling issues of sustainability, particularly those following Islamic ecotheology. Embedded in Islamic scripture is an emphasis on responsibility and accountability towards the Earth; Islamic environmental organizations...
The global coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the way people and institutions interact with one another. In the United States, there has been an observable and documented increase in xenophobia and a breakdown of social and institutional trust. Consistent with a US history of scapegoating other populations for major crises,...
Homelessness and menstruation are constructs and processes that are plagued with stigma. For decades, academics have researched menstruation and homelessness as separately stigmatized experiences. However, in the process, scholars have overlooked the converging and intersectional nature of the stigma surrounding homeless menstruation. \\n\\nThrough library research and records, this paper analyzes...
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,...
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,...
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...
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...
The goal of this project was to better understand the pathogenesis behind rheumatoid arthritis(RA), an autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the joints. Despite affecting around 1.3 million people in the United States, its causes are not well-understood. Previous research at Pope Lab indicated that when compared to the healthy controls,...
Negative body image in women has been a prevalent issue throughout history. Societal expectations have left many women feeling insecure and dissatisfied. Current research has indicated that oftentimes negative body image is passed down from mother to daughter. While there is a variety of research on mother-daughter interactions with body...
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...
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...
"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...
Forecasting the outcomes of U.S. elections is a relevant and complex task that has been approached in many ways, most commonly incorporating statistics or proprietary methods that include some degree of subjectivity. Our approach differs from this convention in that we use multidisciplinary methods from applied mathematics. Specifically, we use...
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...
In everyday conversation, individuals actively process speech in order to comprehend and respond in real-time. As a word unfolds, listeners activate possible lexical candidates and actively determine the target word as they receive more information, a process referred to as incremental processing. This process requires knowledge of one’s native spoken...
We think data is definitive, but our perception of it contains bias from expectations and motivations. For example, when Democrats and Republicans view the same depiction of global temperature trends, Democrats see an increasing trend, while Republicans see overall flatness. Could prior beliefs bias our perception of relations depicted in...
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...
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...
Listeners have difficulty understanding speech in environments containing background noise. This difficulty is exacerbated for listeners with hearing loss, which is often attributed to the degradation of the speech signal caused by interfering noise, impaired hearing, hearing device processing, or a combination of these factors. To resolve and understand speech...
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...
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....
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....
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...
Harbor seal whiskers exhibit a tapering elliptical geometry uniquely suited to detect wakes (trails of water produced by upstream bodies) in ways a regular, tapering, or elliptical cylinder cannot. Previous studies into the matter have relied on idealized representations of the geometry the whiskers seem to take on and have...
Free space optical communication (FSO) offers a promising solution to the “last mile” bottleneck of high-speed telecommunications. Data is encoded using a modulated laser and optically sent through the air to a receiving photodetector. Although this requires FSO systems to have direct line-of-sight between the emitter and receiver, this is...
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...
The basal layer of human epidermis is composed of progenitor cells that both self-renew and differentiate to form stratified epidermal tissue; this process requires strict, dynamic regulation of gene expression. The Super Elongation Complex (SEC) regulates gene expression at the level of transcription elongation by releasing RNA Polymerase II from...
In the past few years, educators have been pushing for an integration of the arts into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning in order to promote innovation and creativity in these fields. The present study explores the relation between creativity and STEM learning among young children in digital and...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"The goal of our research has been to create software that extends the benefits of virtual reality
(VR) to mathematics education. We report on the design and evaluation of a VR application meant
to support students’ reasoning about objects in three-dimensional (3D) coordinate systems and to
explore the possibilities of...
In humans, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is co-morbid with major depressive disorder. Individuals who are exposed to stress prior to a traumatic event have an increased likelihood of developing PTSD. To study this increased vulnerability, a rat model was developed using the Stress Enhanced Fear Learning (SEFL) paradigm. This study...
According to the principle of free fall, only gravity acts upon an object in midair. However, as with all scientific principles, free fall plays out differently in practice. In my experiment, I first tested to see the effect of changing the glycerol weight-percentage of a drop of glycerol-water on its...
This project is comprised of primary source research on the field of semiconductor microscopy. We were interested in determining a more interdisciplinary application of this technology, as the most frequently cited applications are for defense purposes such as drug screening or infrared imaging. When we researched, we found that these...
The Modern Orthodox Jewish (MO) community currently functions on the fantasy that MO teens are receiving all their messaging around sex from their Jewish schools and communities. The messaging these students receive tells them to refrain from sex and touching people of the opposite sex until marriage. This messaging can...
Image colorization is the process of artificially coloring a black and white image such that this fabrication appears realistic and authentic to the viewer. There are many nontrivial applications of this process, such as the colorization and augmentation of historical photos as well as the removal of color tone filters...
Children come to understand race within a historically-established racial hierarchy, but they have the agency to accommodate or resist this establishment as they form their own racial identities. Previous research identified distinct narrative types that either reinforce existing societal structures (Master Narratives) or disrupt them (Alternative Narratives). The Counternarrative...
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,...
Past research suggests that stereotypes about collective identities (i.e. race, ethnicity, and gender) shape aspirations. However, less is known about how actual representation of collective identity relates to aspirations. The proportion of an identity in a given career will be used as an indicator of numeric representation and I hypothesize...
This project was originally motivated by a lifelong love of the Harry Potter series and a teenage love for fan fiction and other fancreated works. I was motivated to do research when I stumbled upon the lack of inclusivity in many fan communities, which I found to be shocking. In...
Women in developing countries occupy a unique role in the economy that is often underappreciated, informal and highly vital to the country’s economic stability. Despite their high productivity and output, women in countries such as Morocco lack support from their government and communities as well as the infrastructure necessary to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Skeletal sexual dimorphism presents itself in humans primarily through the anatomical shape of the cranium and pelvis. However, some physical anthropologists maintain that climate could have an effect on human sexual dimorphism. Despite ongoing research pertaining to climatic effects on soft tissue or size dimorphism, little to no research has...
Previous research has shown that bodily gesture aids in learning words and is useful for musical expression. However, no studies to date have examined the use of gesture in learning words and music together. The original impetus for the present study was observing students with cognitive disabilities learn musical songs,...
With a large sphere of activity and ability to transfer data through wireless communication system, drones have proven to be more and more useful in both research and manufacturing. Whether by allowing researchers to collect measurements or filmmakers to attain aerial shots, the use of drone has allowed collection of...
In indoor environments, bacteria face selective pressure to carry antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) from antimicrobial substances used in furniture, building materials, and personal care products. Humans rely on antibiotics to clear bacterial infections, so understanding the way in which these genes are transferred, i.e., on mobile genetic elements, is critical....
This study aims to advance our basic understanding of how we perceive objects in our environment. It’s unclear whether we understand object structure based on only how we perceive or on how it truly exists in the world. Examining eye-movements provides insight into how our visual system represents and understands...
Due to their ability to be engineered for specific cellular targeting, nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as promising drug delivery vessels for immunotherapeutic and vaccination treatments. However, a major unsolved obstacle for cell-specific nanoparticle delivery is non-specific circulatory clearance by the mononuclear-phagocytic system(MPS). Comprised of various phagocytic cells, the MPS removes...
The bacterial CRISPR/Cas9 system shows promise as a genome-editing tool to treat human disease. It is integral to understand the binding and unbinding kinetics of Cas9 to its target DNA to study specificity of the Cas9 protein. Standard practices involve the use of negatively charged polymer Heparin to reduce unspecific...
Given any polyhedron in R3, we can cut it open along its edges, flatten it out, and obtain a polygon in the plane R2. In this project, we explored the opposite process, an open question that was first posed about 70 years ago: given a polygon in R2, what is...
Anxiety disorders are the most common group of mental illnesses in the United States and affect over 15% of the population. Prior work utilizing electroencephalogram (EEG) to investigate event-related potentials (ERPs) from the scalp has shown success in isolating certain neural correlates related to increased risk for developing anxiety disorders....
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by flashbacks of the traumatic event and high comorbidity with major depressive disorder (MDD). Prior stress is known to increase the likelihood of developing PTSD after experiencing a traumatic event. Currently, PTSD is diagnosed clinically, its biological etiology is not known...
Expanding on research done on the mental health and happiness benefits associated with romantic relationships, this study investigates whether identity denial, the experience of being socially denied one’s chosen identity by having others refuse to acknowledge that identity, presents a challenge for bisexual people within committed romantic relationships. For straight,...
Physiological linkage (i.e., the covariation of moment-to-moment physiology between individuals) is thought to play an important role in relationship functioning. The present study examined physiological linkage across interbeat interval (IBI) and skin conductance levels (SCL) in a sample of married spouses (N=106) during both a pleasant and a conflict conversation...
A survey of adults (n = 706) found low levels of awareness of two social movements aimed at decreasing weight stigma: the Fat Acceptance Movement and Health at Every Size movement. For HAES, providing a brief story of an overweight person who endorses HAES improved perceptions of the movement.