Presentations given by students that submitted to the research journal
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Melanie Martinez - 2023
Melanie Martinez
The Hispanic-serving Institution (HSI) designation is a test of character. Colleges and universities in which 25 percent or more of the student body self-identifies as “Hispanic” can qualify as HSIs. If a sufficient percentage are low-income, and if the institution has low core expenditures, it is also eligible to receive Title V funding. Remarkably, there are no mechanisms in place to ensure that Title V money is used to narrow gaps in the school’s opportunity and reward structures. The vacuous, undefined space that characterizes Title V functions as something of a projective test that reveals each HSI’s true values and assumptions about what counts as fairness and equity. Institutions that genuinely care about Latinx students intentionally center them in their grant applications; others assume that helping all students means helping at least some who identify as Latinx. This paper discusses the on-going failure of the US Department of Education to hold HSIs accountable for spending Title V funds in ways that are beneficial to Latinx students. In so doing, it critiques the neo-liberal metrics by which HSIs are judged and recommends new methods of assessing the impact of the designation and the use of Title V funds. It concludes by arguing that lessons learned from the vast literature on culturally responsive evaluation and assessment (CREA; Hood et. al., 2015) can be used to guide strategic planning in ways that shift power into the hands of the students whose identities made the funds possible.
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Zoe Parra - 2023
Zoe Parra
During the Covid-19 pandemic, access to movie theaters was restricted, and online streaming became the primary way for movie consumption in the US. Moreover, the audience’s mentality was seriously influenced by the drastic changes in their daily life. However, the impact of these changes on the audience’s preferences for movies is underexplored. This study utilizes content analysis, a hybrid deductive and inductive coding approach to identify relationships between plot and genre in the highest-grossing films between the years 2017 - 2022. This study builds upon the idea that every story is told using one of the seven basic plots and genres as a means of classification for this set of films. By utilizing the seven basic plots, genre categorization, and the official descriptions released with each film this study investigates how the audience’s preferences were affected by the 2020 covid-19 global pandemic. The results show notable changes in the types of films that were most consumed such as an increase in comedy and horror genre movies along with an increase in comedy and overcoming the monster storytelling plots.
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Carolina Pinales - 2023
Carolina Pinales
John Bowlby’s theory of attachment is found to be a way of explaining why bonds are important in being formed for both physiological and psychological needs to be met in human offspring. However, attachments also exist within and betweenspecies. This study examined 11.71 hours of video recordings of a beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) mother-calf pair housed at SeaWorld Texas over two years of the calf’s life.It was expected that as the calf matured, mother-calf swims would decrease while solo swimming increased. of the duration of myriad behaviors were recorded and included mother-calf swims, solo swims, affiliative behaviors and agonistic behaviors. Although mother-calf swims stayed consistent across the first two years, solo swimming initiated increased. Evidence of secure base and safe haven use was observed between the calf and his mother as was maternal intervention and other caregiving behaviors by his mother. These different interactions suggest that the bond between the mother and calf could be described as an attachment e. Additional study of beluga mother-calf relationships could determine if belugas form specific types of secure or insecure attachments
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Jacob Rodriguez - 2023
Jacob Rodriguez
This research aims to provide analytical review that explains the history and prospects of the Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble with its repertoire, investigate the production, the recorded works, and composers for the Backburner Tuba-Euphonium Collective’s debut album: “A Little Monster Music,” while also discussing the biography and objective of the Backburner Tuba-Euphonium Collective. This paper includes the oral and written history behind the Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble and the Backburner Tuba-Euphonium Collective; this paper provides two oral interviews with two professional Tuba-Euphonium players, named Dr. Clayton Maddox and Dr. Matthew Mireles. In these interviews, both Dr. Maddox and Dr. Mireles share their biography while also reviewing the general condition of Tuba-Euphonium ensembles and their motivations for Backburner. The approach to researching this topic involved an examination of all the recorded works and composers for the repertoire of the Backburner Tuba-Euphonium Collective, and then it was also required to collect the biographical data behind Backburner. After collecting data, it was instructed to communicate an analysis of the recorded works that are in the Backburner’s debut album: “A Little Monster Music.” This interpretation is also referred to as creating “liner notes,” which essentially illustrate a listener’s perspective of the portrayal and pervading theme or character of the piece. The contention for the reader was to explain why documenting the history and momentum of Tuba-Euphonium Ensembles is crucial to the continuity and respect for the instruments, while also inspiring a consensus to understanding and listening to the recorded works for Tuba-Euphonium Ensembles and Backburner.
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Jacob Silva - 2023
Jacob Silva
Depression and anxiety are major public health concerns as they affect over a million Americans every year and have numerous adverse outcomes. Research exploring the linkages between depression and anxiety with drug abuse has remained minimal. Results derive from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (n = 1,252), a study that ascertained the stress and health status of predominantly African Americans and White Americans from Davidson County. Results indicated a significant relationship between depression and violent crime (rape), as well as depression and drug abuse. Similarly, a significant relationship was identified between anxiety and violent crime (rape and physical assault), as well as anxiety and drug use. This study provides insight into the prevalence of drug abuse in relation to depression and anxiety that developed due to traumatic experiences via violent crime victimization.
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Kai Solonka - 2023
Kai Solonka
“Neuropenitentiary” utilizes the naturalist-compatibilist interpretation of free will presented by Daniel C. Dennett in “Freedom Evolves” (2003) to argue for the brain’s tragically natural fallibility in preserving autonomous agency when afflicted with trauma (PTSD, developmental trauma, etc.). When juxtaposed with the naturalistic framework provided by Dennett, Bessel Van Der Kolk’s recent (2014) in-depth medical and academic accounts of trauma (whether in the context of PTSD, intergenerational trauma, or developmental trauma) elucidated in “The Body Keeps the Score” present necessary and sufficient conditions for the loss or obstruction of autonomous agency on a physiological level – in that humans’ evolutionarily developed sense of rationality, made possible by the neurophysiological functions of the brain in an attempt to maintain homeostasis through hormonal regulation and conceptual recollection, is jeopardized by the overwhelming stressors of a traumatic event. Finally, this paper ties these points together to elucidate the loss of individual autonomy at the hands of trauma itself and provides an explanation for free will as an evolutionary development, contingent upon the efficiency of neurophysiological function. As an example, “Neuropenitentiary” encourages the continued study of naturalistic free will for the advancement of its ancillary application to other similarly concerned interdisciplinary fields.
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Kevin Trinh - 2023
Kevin Trinh
This paper presents a Python-based toolset for translating custom language code into assembly language for a virtual machine. The toolset includes a lexer module for tokenizing the code, a parser module for generating an abstract syntax tree (AST), and a compiler or semantic analyzer module for translating the AST into assembly language instructions. The research focuses on the design and implementation of these components, utilizing top-down recursive parsing. Extensive testing ensures accurate translation and execution of custom language code. The toolset's flexibility enables future enhancements and support for diverse virtual machine architectures. The results demonstrate successful translation, highlighting the power and versatility of the developed toolset. This research advances language processing and compiler design, facilitating the seamless execution of domain-specific languages on virtual hardware platforms.