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When the Jingle isn't Human: How AI-Generated vs. Human Composed Sonic Branding Shapes Consumer Response
Zecong Ma, Hong-Hee Lee, and Danielle Rangel
Sonic branding elements—such as sound logos and jingles—shape brand meaning by communicating cues that consumers process quickly and often implicitly (e.g., through affect, fit, and memory). Recent evidence suggests that even specific musical choices (like instrumentation in a sound logo) can shift perceived brand personality traits (e.g., sophistication, ruggedness), indicating that audio can function as a powerful identity signal rather than mere “background.” At the same time, generative AI is rapidly lowering the cost and increasing the speed of producing branded music, making AI-composed jingles a realistic and scalable tool for marketers. Yet consumer responses to AI-generated creative work are theoretically ambiguous. On one hand, AI may trigger skepticism or “algorithm aversion,” producing lower trust or warmth relative to human creators. On the other hand, in advertising contexts where the music’s role is instrumental (supporting mood and fit), consumers may rely more on congruence than on the creator, potentially attenuating authorship effects.
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ChopChop: The Digital Cookbook
Dominc McDevitt, Shane Misley, Adolfo Duran, Katie Cerda, and Kobie Henson
Many of today's home chefs still use the same limited methods of saving recipes that have been used for decades, i.e. handwritten notes, disorganized pdfs, screenshots, saved text messages, etc. Not only are these formats hard to keep track of and easily lost, but they also suffer the risk of becoming irrevocably damaged or stained in the cooking process. They are also notoriously hard to edit, which limits a chef's ability to tailor recipes to their taste, their available ingredients, or even just a different serving size. Another major issue with these approaches is the lack of easy sharing. Giving a friend a family favorite often requires photocopying, file sharing, or even manually re-writing the recipe, all of which are tedious and time-consuming. Worse yet, this assumes the recipe-sharer even has access to their recipes, which may not be the case when traveling or at a social gathering. All of these problems are our inspiration for developing ChopChop, a digital recipe management application.
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Visible and Invisible Empires: The Revival of the Ku Klux Klan 100 years ago
Christian Molina
Hatred and violence breed division, and that division breeds more hatred and violence. 1920s American politics was characterized by name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, whataboutisms, and violence. The nation entered a self-perpetuating cycle. Groups keen for growth, power, and profit captured the angry, stressed, and less-informed with lies and misleading numbers. In particular, the Ku Klux Klan captured nearly 4 million Americans, roughly 1 in 12 men at the time. But the Klan, large as it was on a local level, was led and masked by a handful of national leaders. The Klan was not just bands of rogue vigilantes cruising the streets and brutalizing people. Actually, the Klan's real power came from their formal organization and movement, led by smooth talkers and sophists who were protected by law. They published advertisements, hosted speeches, conducted outreach, rallied around key figures, and did all they can to capitalize on hate. When the hate they planted became violence, it was covered up and masked behind the organization's legal posturing. By focusing on just the local violent-doers, we risk missing their enablers; those elites who built the mask under which the violent-doers could act.
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SOX18 Unleashed Exploring the Transcriptomic Landscape - Differential Gene Expression Analysis via RNA Seq in Overexpressed SOX18
Van Nguyen, Kahlie Hernandez, and Monabelle Elbayeh
Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, and childhood sarcomas such as Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and Ewing Sarcoma (ES) are particularly aggressive with limited targeted treatment options. Despite advancements in cancer therapies, metastatic sarcomas still have a survival rate below 30%, emphasizing the need for new therapeutic targets. SOX18, a transcription factor has played a role in vascular development and endothelial differentiation, functioning as a key driver of angiogenesis. In cancer, increased SOX18 expression has been linked to dysregulated cell migration, invasion, and therapy resistance mechanisms. However, the extent to which SOX18 influences RMS and ES at the transcriptional level remains an open question. The cell lines (ES7, ES8, RH41, JR1) were sent for RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analyses to characterize the transcriptomic effects of SOX18 overexpression. By identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and enriched signaling pathways, this study seeks to find the potential mechanisms by which SOX18 contributes to sarcoma progression, therapy resistance, and immune evasion. We explore whether SOX18’s transcriptional influence in Ewing Sarcoma is primarily linked to immune modulation, extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, or epigenetic regulation. Given the distinct molecular landscapes of ES7 and ES8, this research also seeks to explore whether SOX18 exerts differential oncogenic effects in different Ewing Sarcoma subtypes, potentially guiding future therapeutic strategies targeting SOX18-driven pathways.
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Japan's 5-year Plan with India: Rethinking Cultural Homogeneity in the Workplace
Sydeny Nieto
In 2025, Japan and India had finalized the Japan-India 5-year Action Plan, where Japan will open their workplaces to over 500,000 Indian citizens over the next 5 years. While studies show how the plan would help fix labor shortage and population problems, it lacks public analysis and the data supporting Japan's readiness to take on this demographic change. This research addresses this gap by analyzing both economic benefit and public perspective toward migration. Highlighting broader impacts the plan would have on Japan's society, along with cultural challenges it may pose for Japan.
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Why Democratic Backsliding is Legal: Judicial Legitimacy and Institutional Decay in the United States
Sherlyn Ochoa
“In the United States, democratic backsliding is not a violation of the law—it is increasingly a product of it.” Democratic change often occurs through judicial interpretation Courts shape rights, participation, and equality Focus: how judicial legitimacy allows major democratic shifts—both expansion and restriction of rights
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From Stacks to Scholarship: A Legacy of the Louis J. Library (2000-2026)
Janet Ojinnaka and Diane M. Duesterhoeft
In 2027, St. Mary's University will celebrate the Dodransbicentennial (175th) anniversary of its founding.
In 2025, the Louis J. Blume Library celebrated the 25th anniversary of its renaming from the Academic Library. Here, we highlight some milestones from the library's history.More information can be found here: https://lib.stmarytx.edu/tour/timeline
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Comparative Analysis of MLP and CNN Models for Cardiac Arrhythmia Classification
Veltman Okey-Ejowhor and Vahid Emamian
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a record of the electric activity of the heart over time. ECG analysis plays a pivotal role in diagnosing critical heart conditions. Significant developments have been made in the realm of deep learning and applied artificial intelligence. These deep learning models have been utilized heavily because of their ability to analyze deep morphological features of each signal. The model architecture used in this study is a convolutional neural network (CNN) combined with a multi-layered perceptron (MLP). The MLP acts as an input filter that classifies normal heartbeat signals from abnormal. The CNN is the second filter in the architecture that classifies any signals marked abnormal by the MLP into one of five different arrhythmias: Normal, Supraventricular ectopic beat, Ventricular ectopic beat, Fusion beat, and Unknown beat. The CNN model had a validation accuracy of 98.214% after 10 epochs (iterations) of training and testing. The MLP model yielded similar results during testing with a validation accuracy of 92.305%. These models were trained on Google Colab’s A100 High-RAM GPU environment to ensure the models are robust and industry-applicable. The data used to train these models were made publicly available via resources such as PhysioBank and Kaggle.
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Muscular Degeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans by Microplastic and Chemical Exposure through locomotion analysis
Juan Pablo Olvera Rodriguez, Angelica Cue-Leon, and David Mares
We use Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a model organism to investigate the effects of microplastic and chemical exposure on muscle structure and function.
• Microplastics (MP) are pieces of plastic less than 5 μm, and Nanoplastics (NP) are less than 1 μm. Microplastics are man-made pollutants and have been found in the environment and in the food and water sources, including drinks from plastic bottles (Hu, 2020). • Our work relates environmental contamination to potential biological consequences at the muscular level, providing insight into how pollutants may contribute to degenerative damage.
• Polystyrene (PS) MPs alone and combined with di-butyl-phthalate (DBP) lead to reduced fertility and lifespan in C. elegans, with greater defects seen with MPS +DBP than either component alone (Maldonado et al, 2025). • Exposure to MPs of varying size and composition leads to reduced motility in C. elegans and other organisms. (Meng et al, 2025, Li et al, 2024 and Jewett et al, 2022). • Here we test for the effects of MP and combined DBP exposure on two complementary assays: ü Swimming Assays (locomotion, behavioral changes) ü Phalloidin Staining (muscle structure, physiological changes) • The assays will let us understand muscle degeneration caused by microplastics and chemicals. Using phalloidin staining, we can directly compare muscle fibers between normal and abnormal, resulting in uncoordinated swimming movements (Paquette et al, 2023).
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Investigating RAD14 Gene Nucleotide Excision Repair on G-Quadruplexes
Juan Pablo Olvera Rodriguez, Tyna Trevino, Yvette Gonzalez, and Georgia Romike
DNA is typically found as a double-stranded helical structure; however, it can be found in different types of structures, such as G-quadruplexes (G4s). These are structures formed when DNA sequences are rich in Guanines, which interact with each other by hydrogen bonding, forming stacked G-tetrads. These guanine-rich structures are known for interacting with DNA during important cell processes, such as recombination and replication, leading to instability and DNA damage (Grey et al., 2014). If not treated properly, these structures may contribute to mutations and cancer development. To solve these issues, cells have developed maintenance pathways such as Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER). NER is known for removing bulky bases by excising DNA damage segments (Scharer, 2026).
As a class project for Cell and Molecular Biology, we were tasked with exploring whether Nucleotide Excision Repair Pathways can remove G-Quadruplex Structures (G4) [Figure 1] from DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast). From previous research in this field, we believe that NER-deficient yeast will be highly sensitive to treatment with G4-binding drugs due to NER removing harmful G4s and preventing G4-induced damage. We were challenged to replace the RAD14 gene in wild-type yeast with the URA3 gene. Which would then allow us to test our hypothesis of whether NER-deficient yeast has higher sensitivity to treatment with G4-binding drugs than NER-proficient yeast.
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Financial Literacy and Fraud Vulnerability in Digital Finance: Evidence from the 2024 NFCS
Mercedes Palacios Diaz
Digital finance has expanded rapidly through fintech platforms and cryptocurrency markets, increasing access to financial services while also exposing individuals to higher levels of financial fraud. Most research treats fraud vulnerability as a single outcome, without distinguishing between financial loss and the ability to recognize scams. This study examines how financial literacy shapes fraud vulnerability through its effects on fraud victimization and scam awareness, highlighting its dual role in reducing financial losses and improving scam recognition. Fraud vulnerability is therefore analyzed across two distinct dimensions: realized financial loss and scam awareness.
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Turn out, Having Latinx Faculty Doesn't Mean the School Sucks: The Faux Relationship Between Latinx Saturation Rate and Institutional Prestige
Julianne Pena
• 25% or more full time students that are of Latinx decent (U.S. Department of Education) • Since 1992, enrollment and attendance of students increased (Vela & Gutierrez, 2017) • Latinx students more likely to enroll in HSIs over non HSIs (Vargas et al., 2019) • Latinx faculty to Latinx students 146:1, White faculty to White students 10:1 (Vargas et al., 2019) • Overrepresentation of White faculty and Underrepresentation of Latinx faculty (Robertson, 2023) • Diverse faculty is impactful (Contreras, 2017; Dayton et al., 2004; Turner & Gonzales, 2014) Purpose: The purpose of this topic is to bring awareness to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), the misconceptions that come with prestige, and illustrating how students learn better through having a diverse faculty (Contreras, 2017; Dayton et al., 2004). Hypothesis: If university administrators are correct in their assessment of Latinx faculty as less valued, we would expect to see a negative statistical relationship between Latinx saturation rate and institutional prestige.
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MaddenLite
Sergio Pena
Sports simulations often rely on opaque, proprietary algorithms (like EA's Madden NFL). MaddenLite bridges the gap between sports analytics and interactive gaming by utilizing historical NFL Play-by-Play (PBP) data to drive a transparent, mathematically accurate simulation engine. The goal was to create a lightweight, UI-driven desktop application where users can simulate cross-era matchups (e.g., 2007 Patriots vs. 2025 Chiefs), manipulate rosters, and simulate entire seasons complete with official NFL tiebreaker protocols.
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Research Proposal: Enhancing or Replacing? A Qualitative Study of AI's Impact on Coaching Strategy and Team Dynamics
Mariana Perez Romero
Since early 2020’s, artificial intelligence has become widely accessible and increasingly adapt in everyday life. In sports, AI now plays a major role in performance analysis, training strategies, and real time decision-making. While these tools offer significant advantages, they also reshape how athletes and coaches communicate, interpret information, and build relationships. Sport is a space for relationships: communication between coaches and athletes, trust within the team, shared decision-making, and bonds that are built through experience. It is important to understand how AI is influencing these human dynamics. This study will explore how AI influences communication and interpersonal dynamics in sports, focusing on how athletes and coaches interpret and adapt to these tools in their daily practice
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Analyzing the Effect of Melatonin on B Cells' Expression of CD36
Caitlyn Pinaga, Gabriella Galdeano, Nayi Gonzalez, and Emma Welsch
• B cells specifically target pathogens and proliferate to make a plasma cell and secrete antibodies when stimulated. They use glucose as a main energy source but can also use fatty acids. • CD36 is a glycoprotein involved in the transportation and metabolism of fatty acids. • B cells express CD36 in unusually high levels in autoimmune patients. It is unknown as to how this occurs. • Melatonin is a hormone produced in the pineal gland, commonly known for its function in regulating the circadian rhythm. • Melatonin is also known as a master cell regulator and is believed to regulate almost all cell functions including the movement of energy to and from storage and its role in activating the immune system. The effects of melatonin on CD36 expression in B cells is still untested.
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FishEasy
Jake Ryan Rankin
The purpose of FishEasy is to create an all-in-one fishing application that supports both beginner and experienced anglers through education, recommendations, and data tracking. Many new anglers struggle with understanding gear, knots, bait, and locations, while existing tools often limit access through paid features. FishEasy addresses these gaps by providing:
• Educational Tutorials for knots, rigs, and beginner guidance • Smart Recommendations based on location, species, and conditions • Catch Logging & Analytics to track performance • Regulation Awareness for legal fishing practices
Overall, FishEasy aims to make fishing more accessible, efficient, and easy to learn for all users. -
Effects of Thermal Decomposition on the Chemical and Crystal Structure of Teeth
Aislinn Reyes, Chris Rightsell, Gabriela Azcárate, Ivet Gil-Chavarria, and Arturo Ponce
• This research arose from a need to obtain information from dental organs to aid identification processes of burned bodies found in the Mexican desert. • Teeth are mainly comprised of hydroxyapatite (HAp) [1], an inorganic crystalline mineral. • Studies have been done focused on certain parts of the process of thermal decomposition [2,3,4], but none have outlined a comprehensive timeline. • The purpose of this study is to investigate the crystal structure and chemical composition of the byproducts of thermal decomposition.
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Evaluation of prosthetic and orthotic technologies using AI technology
Iris Reyna, Samerial Brown, Gary Guerra, and Ed Khu
Individuals with lower limb prosthetics have amputations and abnormal limb motions, which poses a high risk of injury when doing everyday activities. In this field, evaluation of individuals' prosthetics are done through biomechanical analysis and gait analysis. This analysis is used to study human movement and evaluate the mobility and quality of life of amputee patients as well as determining the modifications, positioning, and alignment needed to ensure stability with prosthetic and orthotic technologies (Kumar & Bhowmik, 2024). Trunk flexion has importance to the study because of its impact on lower limb kinetics, kinematics, the increase of ground reaction forces, stride parameters and joint movements. Trunk acceleration shows the functional mobility of an individual during assessment, the higher the acceleration the faster the trunk (Warrener, et al., 2021).
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UltraGPS: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Ultrasonic Positioning System
Scott Roelker Murillo and Nnamdi Jesse Onwuzurike
We want to raise the bar in high school robotics. In Texas, and likely in many other states as well, high school robotics has reached a roadblock when it comes to autonomous navigation. In many competitions, the autonomous portion sees few, teams successfully completing tasks that require positioning and guidance. In modern robotics, it is no longer sufficient for a robot merely be “remote controlled.” They need to be able to navigate independently and adapt to the environment around them. To achieve this goal a positioning system is needed to develop the foundational algorithms for autonomous controls. However, these systems are often prohibitively expensive or proprietary, preventing their use at the high school level. To address this challenge, we continued the work done from senior design project to developed a simple, open-source, low-cost positioning system designed for use in high school environments to advance the state of educational robotics.
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How Do People Sit in Cars? Reproducibility of Vehicle Seat and Body Positions for Individual Occupants
Nathan Sadler and Kobie Henson
Some crash investigators have assumed that different people having the same stature and gender will reliably choose the same (or a similar) seat adjustments each time they sit in a specific make and model of automobile [Lee]. Knowledge of how a person sits in an automobile is important, because position and seat adjustment can have a significant influence on the way force is distributed throughout a human body during a collision, as they move relative to the vehicle and then contact various components within the interior [West]. However, conclusions reached from such exemplar studies depend on whether assuming that similar-sized people sit and adjust their seat in the same way in the same vehicle is correct. To further assess the variability in how people sit in vehicles, a technique called photogrammetry was used to measure chosen seat adjustment (seatback angle, cushion height and horizontal position) and corresponding seated position using a variety of volunteers recruited to sit multiple times in the passenger and driver seat of two different vehicles. Photogrammetry, a method of obtaining accurate three-dimensional measurements of objects using multiple photographs containing fixed reference points, was chosen as an efficient and non-obtrusive method to document both seat position as well as occupant position within their seat. Photogrammetry has been used for decades in multiple fields to obtain non-contact 3D measurements of object shape.
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