All Abstracts

Performing well academically often opens the door to opportunity. Academic achievement can lead to acceptance into organizations, post-graduate study, and even positions of leadership. The pressure to achieve academically can sometimes be interpreted as requiring near-perfect performance. Therefore ...

This study explores the cultural expectations in China and how they affect college students. There is a strong culture of academic achievement in China, and Chinese students outperform much of the rest of the world on standardized exams. However, this high level of achievement comes at a price. Chin...

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders which affect over 100,000 people in the United States. A common complication of SCD is the blockage and subsequent damage to vascular endothelial tissue, leading to vaso-occlusive crises. These symptoms are accompanied by chronic pain, inflamma...

The mission of Spelman College's sustainability initiative "is to extend our reach and engage the Spelman community in authentic conversations that will increase awareness, knowledge, and action on campus.” With this in mind, a team of senior environmental science and studies majors proposed a con...

According to UNESCO, in the United States, about 29% percent of adults are reading at a basic or below basic level (UNESCO, 2010). Many adults who struggle with reading are parents. Research shows that parents contribute to the literacy success of children. The purpose of this research was to invest...

Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy is a technique that can be used to gain structural and behavioral information about gases and molecules. In contrast to the limitations presented in One-Dimensional Spectroscopy such as spectral congestion, this technique produces rotationally and vibrationally...

Primate immunodeficiency viruses have similar physical, morphological, and biochemical characteristics but differ in their behavior. Many African primates have coevolved with these virus, allowing for disease-free productive infection. Molecular variations may explain these variations in outcomes. T...

Graph theory is the study of connections. There are many applications of graph theory to other fields. In this project, we analyze different properties of graphs that imply the existence of certain sets of cycles in graphs. In particular, we investigate pairs of subgraphs that must be forbidden to i...

Midwifery and birthing practices are topics that have been thoroughly discussed in the history of medicine. Less known is the story of the Southern Black midwife. Their role is often marginalized, even ignored, in the literature. Through the analysis of primary accounts of midwives and those who sup...

The Southeast Regional Clinicians Network administered by the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is a practice-based research network that consists of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and state primary care associations (PCAs) in eight southeastern state...

This project examines the impact of the gender diversity on corporate boards on business performance for US S&P 500 firms. Corporate performance is measured by market capitalization, earnings per share, revenue and total return. Gender diversity is defined as the total number of women on a firm�...

Racially and economically identical families tend to migrate to specific locations by choice (Dill 2016). However, questions remain about differences in the standard of living between cities within similar financial brackets but different racial demographics. This project examines how the demographi...

There are several creeks and natural waterbodies in the Atlanta area that many people in the Atlanta University Center are unaware of. These waterbodies include but are not limited to Proctor Creek and Peachtree Creek. However, due to pollution, the water at many of the sites does not meet the quali...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which employment discrimination against transgender women in traditional workplaces results in a significant number of transgender women turning to sex work as a form of survival. Transgender unemployment is three times the national average, ...

Maternal mortality is a widely-used indicator of the political, social, economic and cultural landscape of a country. This project investigates the effects of selected macroeconomic drivers of maternal mortality in the time periods 2000-2001 and 2013-2014. Ordinary least squares regression is used t...

Given the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation (E&I) for economic growth, the question of what stimulates them is imperative. Recent research has focused on business training programs as a main driving force. However, these programs have been shown to have mixed effectiveness. Therefore, it...

In the Dominican Republic, there are remnants of oppression and atrocious discrimination which have detrimentally halted the attainment of equality for Afro-Latina women. This research explores the pattern of systemic femicide and gender violence which pre-date the 21st century as they have been per...

This research compares the Mit’a system, a communal pre-colonial migration, the exploitative colonial migration, and today’s criminalized coerced migration. I compare characteristics such as source of compulsion, ownership of labor and resources, and legality. Under the Inca Empire, conquered pe...

In 1981, the first case of AIDS was reported in the United States. Since then, over 700,000 cases of AIDS, and over 1.1 million cases of HIV been reported. Compared to other races/ethnicities, Blacks/African Americans account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses, of those living with HIV, an...

This study will focus on students’ ability to retain academic information in unconventional learning environments. The participants in this study are students (ages 6-18) enrolled in a mentoring program. The researcher will teach Spanish vocabulary and grammar to the participants in this non-conve...

Graph theory is the study of connections. There are many applications of graph theory to other fields. In this project, we analyze different properties of graphs that imply the existence of certain sets of cycles in graphs. In particular, we investigate the pairs of subgraphs we must forbid to imply...

Pharmaceutical testing on epigenetic effects of drugs is very limited. The use of vertebrates as preclinical research models is constrained by their long mating and generational times, leading to very low numbers of progeny to test and assess. In contrast, invertebrates such as insects are ethically...

Kryptopterus vitreolus, known as the glass catfish, is a small species of Asian glass catfish found in a series of coastal river basins of peninsular Thailand. The glass catfish is known as an electroreceptive fish, but is not known to be electrogenic. Bioelectrogenesis means the purposeful generati...

HIV is a public health problem in the United States which disproportionately impacts racial minorities. Current studies highlight the social determinants of health (SES, media, social stigma, etc.) on the spread of HIV. This study investigated media, HIV-related stigma, and perceived risk of HIV con...

Spectroscopy is the use of electromagnetic radiation to analyze the composition and behavior of matter (e.g., atoms and molecules). Recently developed three dimensional spectroscopy techniques yield spectra with higher resolution and less congestion than in 2D spectroscopy. This project focuses on t...

Spectroscopy uses the interaction between light and matter to create spectra that are used to determine the structure and behavior of atoms and molecules. The transition from traditional one-dimensional to two- and three-dimensional spectroscopy can give more information about the molecules or sampl...

Eritreans are the third largest refugee group arriving to Europe by boat. The glaring difference in life chances, rights and privileges among Eritrean political elites and the rest of the population has triggered a ravenous desire for young Eritreans to seek better opportunities and rights in exile....

Exposure to daily stressors has been shown to increase as individuals age. This study examines religious coping as a potential moderator of the relation between age and stress. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used to address this question. Between 1994 an...

Sports documentaries offer an opportunity to see just how much race matters in America. In the past thirty years, there has been a significant rise in the production of sports documentaries as athletes have become world-wide celebrities. Within a number of these documentaries a specific narrative ha...

The emergence of new leaves on woody plants marks the onset of the growing season and affects a host of ecosystem functions. Phenology is the study of natural annual phenomena, including the timing of leaf-out. Leaf-out is defined as the moment when the full shape of the leaf is visible on trees. Th...