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  Climate Change and Its Effects on Maternal Mental Health

  Sara Cordero

  Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns primarily caused by human activities, which have facilitated more climate crises, such as floods, wildfires, hurricanes, etc. They tend to have the greatest effect on vulnerable populations, such as women and children. This study is aimed to view how climate change-related environmental stressors impact the mental health and well-being of mothers. A scoping literature review approach was used by analyzing scientific databases (i.e. APA-Psycinfo, Scopus, PRIMO) to find peer-reviewed papers that studied the effects of extreme weather events and climate change on maternal mental health. Results suggest that hurricanes, bushfires, and floods were the three main causes of poor maternal mental health. Two standout natural disasters that were most traumatic to the participants are Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Fort McMurray, Canada wildfire. Mothers who were evacuated from Fort McMurray had greater distress and more severe PTSD-like symptoms while Hurricane Katrina victims experienced a rise in food insecurity. The majority of these women were low-income minorities and over half reported an annual household income of <$15,000. A disproportionate number of these participants also experienced symptoms of depression, PTSD, and scored much higher on pregnancy-related anxiety/perceived stress surveys. Overall, there is little to no discussion of how the current climate crisis impacts maternal mental health. Eco- and climate anxiety are negatively affecting maternal mental health of women worldwide and more awareness must be brought to how it is an emerging threat to mothers as a whole.

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  Autonomous Driving Trajectory Prediction

  Carlos Funes

  Autonomous driving is undoubtedly one of the world's most revolutionary technologies, opening the door to a more secure traffic environment. This innovation has led to vehicles being able to drive by themselves without the necessity of a person behind the wheel, as well as cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and automatic emergency braking. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of work before autonomous driving becomes more popular among drivers. While at UNLV as an undergraduate student/research assistant, one of my goals is to learn how these technologies work to bring ideas into the automotive industry by refining solutions to problems within these mechanisms. As for now, my task has been to explore how an autonomous vehicle functions under trajectory prediction. This is done by creating a dataset for algorithm training and testing it by annotating twenty-second sequences using lidar point cloud data. The goal is to evaluate prediction model performance and visualize its results for a more advanced/precise self-drivable vehicle experience. Ultimately, wouldn't it be plausible to reduce the amount of stress linked with the dangers presented due to how distracted people behave on the road nowadays? Therefore, autonomous driving provides the possibility for public roads to minimize it.

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  Exploring Mental Health Providers' Willingness to Integrate Digital Applications for Gen-Z Students

  Chanlinee Karawek

  Mental health services have expanded significantly throughout recent years, alongside the virtualization of said services since the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, digital mental health applications (DMHAs) are now widely available. Generation-Z college students are a demographic that both grew up with this technology and is associated with a high risk of mental illness development during their time in higher education. Integration of familiar technology and necessary mental health services could potentially help address their unique psychological needs. This study explores mental healthcare providers’ perspectives on incorporating DMHAs into their therapy services to Gen-Z college students. An anonymous survey was distributed to 20 mental health professionals and their views on technology in their practice. Data was then analyzed using sentiment analysis, a machine learning technique that determines whether a participant’s opinion had a positive, negative, or neutral sentiment. Preliminary findings reveal that approximately 45% of sentiments were positive, 33% were negative, and 22% were neutral. While professionals expressed willingness to integrate a certain degree of technology into their practice, there were still concerns raised regarding ethics, confidentiality, technological challenges for both patients and providers, and potential disruptions to the therapeutic relationship. These findings suggest that although DMHAs can offer potential benefits to the patient, issues related to confidentiality, ethics, and technological competency may limit widespread adoption in mental health practices.

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  Alternatives to Screen Time Given in Parenting Advice

  Emma Romeo

  Screen time within the last decade is an area of rising interest, especially in a "Post-Covid" world. Despite a diversity of opinions being written and research being done on screen time, what is being presented as an alternative is lesser known. In this research, the aim is to identify types of activities that are presented to parents as alternatives' to screen time in parenting websites and blogs. This study uses qualitative content analysis of over 240 articles from 2019-2023 mentioning media use or screen time from two regularly consumed and popular parenting websites, Sheknows.com and Parents.com. The data so far shows three main types of alternatives are being presented. Productivity which includes chores, mediation and brain-teasers. Physical, this being activities like biking, hiking, sports, and physical games like tag. The last being enrichment, including hobby skills like painting and sewing but also DIY science projects and recycling. The popularity and frequencies of some suggestions over others hint at bigger inaccessibility for parents within online communities and highlight struggles in the lack of options for poor and disabled parents. It also raises implications and distinctions of off and online activities and their overall contributions to children's wellbeing. This paper hopes to further the understanding of online parental advice on topics of screen time and media use, in tandem with the off-line alternatives that websites suggest.

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  It's Not as Bad as You Think: Detecting AI-Generated Voices

  Yong Qin Xu

  Advances in machine learning have opened up the world to a brand new frontier of fraudulent phone calls which the average person may not be in any way prepared for. From imitations of a loved one's voice to lifelike mimicry of human callers, telephone scams may become harder than ever to anticipate or prevent now that criminals have the help of AI on their side. This is why in my research paper, I aim to analyze and compare two existing methods of detecting the authenticity of human voice recordings in order to demonstrate and explain currently available technology that's capable of combating the potential threat of AI-generated scam calls. The paper aims to review previously published literature on the technologies used for voice authenticity detection, and describe how these technologies function in a way that novice students or even lay people can understand. The main goal of the paper would not be to condemn the use of AI technology all together but rather to demonstrate lesser-known tech in the machine learning field that's capable of assuaging fears common people may have about the future of AI. Currently, the paper compares the raw audio waveform analysis used by the RawNet2 neural network against a simple MFCC detection program meant for voice recognition, highlighting the principles behind their functionalities and their respective margins of error. The paper's analysis is aimed to highlight the conclusion that with these existing technologies, the future threat of AI-generated scam calls is not unavoidable.

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  A literature review of the City Beautiful movement and the 1905 San Francisco Plan by Daniel Burnham

  Miguel Baluyut

  Highlight themes, build a foundation for future research, identify research gaps and topics of inquiry. Previous literature review of the most heavily cited and influential studies on the City Beautiful movement and Daniel Burnham's significance in the movement.

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  Do Children Experience the Speech to Song (STS) Illusion?

  Brooke Booth and Rodica Constantine

  How development may alter perception. How musical and linguistic abilities develop. Top-down knowledge and its effects on perception. Potential diagnostic properties.

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  The Perfect Storm: Behavioral Finance in the Face of the Covid-19 Pandemic

  Aubrey Bucher and Kirk Silvernail

  US Stock Market Volatility 2020. Prevalent Behavioral Biases: Loss Aversion, Self-Attribution, Anchoring, Herd Behavior.

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  Analysis of Triton CG 110 Foaming Characteristics for use as a potential Fire Suppressant

  Addison Cobb and Jeremy Cho

  Background: Per-FluoroAlkyls (PFAs) are incredibly stable molecules which do not biodegrade. These chemicals have been linked with a series of health issues and environmental problems.

  Problem: PFAs have been identified in most drinking water supplies in the United States. Large Amounts of this is due to Aqueous Fire-Fighting Foams (AFFF’s), which contain PFAs, seeping into the groundwater supply.

  Solution: While little can be done about PFAs currently in groundwater supplies, replacing PFA-based AFFFs with newer Eco-AFFFs can halt AFFF contamination, and maintain firefighting suppression.

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  Intellectual Humility and Diversity

  Emmanuel Gutierrez

  Intellectual humility has many positive effects which include enhanced perspectives, collaboration & reduced bias, and continued learning & adaptability. Using a personal narrative about the application of intellectual humility, 3 goals will be possible: bringing awareness, increasing collaboration, and encouraging diversity.

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  The Emergence of “The School Shooter” as a Category of Analysis

  Rebecca Jimenez

  Policy Recommendation: Creating a more inclusive campus, administrative checks, recognizing the signs of violence, ineffective school punishments, putting a stop to stereotypes.

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  AI Integration in the Common Workplace: Beneficial or Harmful?

  Logan Karen and Kirk Silvernail

  Integrating AI in the Workplace: 77% of businesses are using or exploring AI. 35% of these companies are using AI. 42% of these companies are exploring AI.

  Benefits: Productivity and efficiency improvements, daily workflow improvements, resource optimization, cost reduction, innovation.

  Challenges: Job security, impact on mental health, psychological impact, ethical challenges.

  The path to Ethical and Effective AI Integration: Involve and educate employees, monitor on a continuous bases, identify and manage risks, find a balanced approach.

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  The COVID-19 Pandemic and Work From Home 2019-2021

  Maryam Raja, Caitlin J. Saladino, and William E. Brown Jr.

  Research Background and Methods: The ACS reports that by 2021 around 27.6 million individuals (17.9% of workers) worked from home. Pandemic affected commuting patterns and workplace systems.

  Research Findings: The data presented in Table 1 account for all workers aged 16 and above. Among Mountain West states, Nevada reported the smallest percentage of home-based workers in both 2019 (tied with Colorado) and 2021. Table 2 presents population data for Mountain West MSAs with populations of 1 million or more and percentage of home-based workers with a margin of error in both 2019 and 2021.

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  Auto-tracking Techniques for Defining Hip-joint articulation with Biplanar X-ray

  Ethan Yamamoto, Ike Brown, and Kennedy Wharton

  Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) provides a tractable and potentially predictive model for human hip dysplasia and OA. CHD can be identified by assessing the joint laxity, femoral head coverage and wear on the hip joint. The goal is to develop an understanding of the intraarticular mechanics of the hip joint and how hip-joint dysfunction impacts these mechanics. To achieve our goal, we needed to develop a system to track the hip joint.

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  Foster Youth in the Mountain West

  Zachary Billot

  Number of children adopted from foster care vs. waiting to be adopted from foster care in the Mountain West, FY2020

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  Adolescent Athlete Perceptions of Gender Differences in Coaching

  Ivannia Cabrera

  How is the preference for coaching intertwined with sports? Do athletes differ in their perceptions of having a male or female coach? Is there an obvious preference between the genders? What kind of behaviors are associated with each gender?

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  Analyzing Hippocampus Based Behavior in Model Mice

  Tiria Carr

  Model organism must discern between familiar and novel stimuli after delay. Hippocampal dependent processes involved in spatial pattern recognition. Latency in trial responses and reward collection is measured, as well as trial accuracy.

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  Retroviral Protease (RVP) DDI2 is a Viable Alternative for Full-Length (FL) DDI2

  Ethan Chi

  Proteasome inhibitors are drugs used to treat multiple myeloma. Currently, three are approved by the FDA.

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  Influenza and Wastewater Surveillance

  Tiffany Familara, Hayley Baker, Anthony Harrington, and Ching-Lan Chang

  Quantitative PCR led to identification of influenza A viral RNA at three schools in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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  Streaming's Effect on American Media Exports

  Aviel Geronimo and Jonathan Swanberg

  The Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is largest in the United States with a total value of $660 Billion in 2020. The global M&E industry is valued at approximately $2 Trillion. New technologies have allowed for the advent of streaming services for music, television, film, books, video games, and more. Streaming services allow media exports to be easily accessed by consumers domestically and abroad.

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  Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 Prevalence Using Wastewater Surveillance

  Moonis Ghani, Hayley Baker, Nabih Ghani, Anthony Harrington, and Ching-Lan Chang

  SARS-CoV-2 RNA was successfully detected in the wastewater samples. PMMoV concentrations varied little, meaning it was a valid control. The diversity of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations indicated varying levels of infection within different parts of the community. PCR and WGS can help determine viral load and identify variants.

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  Correctional Spending and Sexual Violence in State Prisons

  Suzanne Lara

  Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA). Nevada PREA Coordinator Marissa Pons. Sexual Violence: Nonconsensual behavior or act of sexual nature by Staff to an Incarcerated individual. Attempted, Completed, Threatened, Requested.

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  Interrelation on Cultural and Culinary Differences of Two Country Borders: The Mexican Immigrant

  Merci Silva-Acosta

  Background and Methodology: Culinary CustomsCultural Traits

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  The Fiscal Impact of Marsy's Law: A Financial Analysis of Victims' Rights Policy in Nevada

  Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio

  Since 2008, the "Marsy's Law" campaign has sought to embed in state constitutions a specific and lengthy set of victims' rights. In 2018, voters ratified "Question 1" in Nevada which broaded the definition of the term victim to any person directly and 'proximately' harmed by a criminal offense. As a result, Marsy's Law opens the door to the interpretation of the word "crime" and the word "victim."

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  Predicting the Next Pandemic: Utilizing wastewater-based epidemiology as a novel technique for detecting mpox DNA

  Austin Tang, Michael Moshi, Hayley Baker, and Ching-Lan Chang

  Mpox cases are trending downward in Las Vegas, aligning with national trends. The study demonstrates that it is possible to extract mpox DNA directly from wastewater and quantify the genetic material using qPCR. This research indicates that WBE can be utilized to give a relative abundance of virual nucleic acids in wastewater, giving opportunities for early-warning systems and other public health interventions. Mpox remains a global threat to public health, continued surveillance of MPXV using wastewater is necessary to ensure that we can detect unusual spike in viral DNA level. Mpox detected in the wastewater samples will be sequences to check for potential mutations in the genome.