All Abstracts

Home interiors often allude to who inhabits them. Black home interiors include visual references as to the worldly understanding of its inhabitants. The walls are adorned with pictures and objects that seemingly constitute a black aesthetic and represent the materiality of black interiority. Focusin...

Neisseria meningitidis, an agent of bacterial meningitis, is carried by 70% of the healthy population, where it forms biofilms in the human oral and nasopharynx. A biofilm is an aggregate of surface-associated bacteria enclosed in an extracellular polymeric substance matrix, often associated with in...

The field of cellular reprogramming has the potential open avenues for disease modeling and personalized medicine. Many protocols have been developed to differentiate embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells into neurons, but a simple and efficient method for creating matured neurons i...

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths of males in the United States. Although it is usually treatable, advanced or metastatic prostate cancer can be mortal. Our laboratory examines the use of various diet-derived compounds as potential chemotherapeutic agents for advanced pros...

Zero-tolerance policies in schools require severe disciplinary action regardless of the number of infractions or offenses (Skiba 2010). These zero-tolerance rules can result in children being suspended and even expelled from school. Schools relinquish their responsibility to the students they were b...

There is a well-documented and long-standing disparity between the reading levels of African American children and their European American peers (Craig, 2006). The assessments used to determine student reading levels have been criticized. Washington (1996) proposed that most child language developme...

Most political research is concerned with Presidential elections. However, congressional elections are more relevant to the interests of citizens. Research about congressional elections in specific districts such as majority-minority districts is scarce. Examining voting in majority-minority distric...

Trichosphaerium is a polymorphic, multinucleated, marine amoeba. It contains spicules consisting of calcium carbonate embedded in the glycocalyx covering that encapsulates the cell membrane. Microbial eukaryotes usually have definite shape and very few are observed to show multiple morphologies that...

From 1966 to 1979, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution redefined China’s political and historical atmosphere for rural Chinese women. Although there is literature that examines gender reforms, family reform and women rights, there is limited scholarly work about how rural women's labor force...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the sea surface temperature in a region over the Atlantic ocean and hurricane and tropical storm frequency in the United States. Of late, there seems to be an increase in the number of hurricanes making landfall in the United State...

African American women are more susceptible to experiences of gendered racism, which is a hybrid phenomenon constructed by the intersection of racism and sexism (Essed, 1991). In order to cope with experiences of discrimination, African American women may alter their self-presentation to fit social ...

Circadian rhythms are behavioral and physiological changes that occur on a 24-hour cycle. The timing of these rhythms are set by a biological clock located in the hypothalamus of the brain which is set by the timing of light input. Abrupt changes in the light-dark cycle, such as an altered light-dar...

  Invasive species are organisms that are not native to a specific location and can potentially cause harm to their new community. These organisms are not harmful simply because of what species they are, instead they are harmful when they enter foreign habitats and disrupt the flow of the ecos...

STEAM education is an approach to learning that encompasses the use of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math, to guide critical thinking and problem solving (Schweingruber, Pearson, & Honey, 2014). This teaching method is a kind of culturally responsive pedagogy because most chidl...

Antibiotics kill the bacteria or make it harder for them to grow. However, some bacteria are no longer affected by these drugs and are termed as “resistant”. Antibiotic resistance is when bacteria have the ability to resist the effects of antibiotics and continue to thrive in spite of treatment....

In 1202, Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician, created a mathematical sequence to model the reproduction of rabbits. Fibonacci used his sequence to explore patterns found in multiple areas outside of mathematics such as: nature, art, and architecture. Additionally, the Fibonacci sequence can be found...

Music plays a vital role in the way a film is perceived and accepted by its audience. In this study, film, music and melody are approached from a musical, psychological, and emotional point of view. This project seeks to understand the psyche and emotions of a listener/viewer. I will analyze the mel...

In our culture, black women are not seen as important entities to help preserve and protect the African American culture, but are seen and treated as sexualized objects. Negative stereotypes govern the black woman. Strong public disinterest in uplifting black women has detached them from their true ...

This study examined whether there is a relationship between maternal rank and infant social behavior in the green monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) of Barbados. Previous research on vervet monkeys suggests that maternal rank is strongly associated with infant rank and social behavior (Horrocks & Hun...

In “Blogging while Black,” Catherine Knight Steele invites us to consider blogs as “sites where black women interrogate the intersectionality of race and gender from a black feminist perspective” (2). Because my project is rooted in English-language literature, I analyze the role of a blog ...

As of 2015, there are 29 independent nations where French is an official language, also known as francophone countries. Francophone countries are in five of the seven continents including Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Out of the 29 francophone countries, only 3 of them are in the top 10...

The issue of global warming or climate change, has fostered a great deal of interest to ecologists around the world. Climate change is a significant topic because of its adverse effects on the life cycles of several mammals and plants. The study of the impacts made by climate change on the timing of...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies among men worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. In many cases, PCa develops slowly, but it can be more aggressive and metastasize to other parts of the body. Our recent studies ...

African American (AA) men are disproportionally affected by prostate cancer (PCa) compared to men of any other ancestral background. Previous studies suggest that there are genes that play a role in PCa development and metastasis. Studies have also shown that during cancer progression, cancer cells ...

Compared to European Americans, African Americans are half as likely to use mental health services (Lukachko, Myer & Hankerson, 2015). Also, African American women use services at lower rates compared to African American men (Neufeld, Harrison, Stewart, Hughes, 2008). Research suggests that seve...

The purpose of this study is to explore creative education (focusing on art education) and its impact on children’s development. There is a documented need for quality art education, as art has been used as a means to engage students in the learning process. As young children require hands-on acti...

Diabetes is a disease in which the blood glucose levels of an individual are unnaturally high. The development of the disease is caused by a lack of insulin production. The island of Trinidad and Tobago has experienced a dramatic increase in the percentage of citizens who are diabetic, hypertensive,...

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease of impairment in the production of or responsiveness to the pancreatic hormone, insulin. Pediatric patients with diabetes are often deemed to have insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM). Without insulin, children cannot keep their blood glucoses (BG) within a target ra...

Child development can be greatly influenced by prenatal and postnatal experiences. Recent primate studies have shown that prenatal stress can exacerbate behavioral outcomes. Competing demands can cause mothers to become psychologically unavailable to infants, which can disrupt normal development. Fu...

This project is inspired by a poem by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. His work, “Borges y Yo” was written in prose and focuses on the conflict of identity between Borges the individual and Borges the author. Critics such as Roland Barthes, who wrote “The Death of an Author”, believe ...