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  Development of Experimental Rocket for Component and Payload Acceleration Load Testing

  Drew Nemeth, Jake Pettitt Ph.D., and Brendan O'Toole Ph.D.

  With a burgeoning commercial space industry in the United States, more reliable and cost effective methods for qualifying critical flight components are required in order to reduce the costs of spacecraft development programs. Electronic payloads designed to undergo high acceleration loading during military and civil rocket flight have proven especially difficult to properly flight test prior to operational use. This paper describes the design, construction, flight testing, and post-flight analysis of a single stage launch vehicle with an intended apogee of 50,000 feet and maximum velocity in excess of Mach 2 with a simulated electronic payload. Software suites including OpenRocket, RasAero, and AeroFinSim were utilized in order to confirm rocket stability, a projected flight outline, and structural integrity of the airframe and fin composition/attachment that commonly fail during supersonic flight regimes. The airframe was primarily constructed of G12 filament wound fiberglass tubing in addition to a composite fin can centered around CNC’d G10 fiberglass cores with a wet carbon fiber layup by hand. Flight roll control was achieved via the onboard reaction wheel, which was constructed of 3D printed components and inertial measurement sensors. The completed vehicle experienced a successful flight to 42,000 ft, maximum velocity of Mach 2.2, and maximum acceleration of 16 G. The airframe and all components were safely recovered and in working order post-flight. A successful test of the simulated electronic payload was performed and a low cost flight verification method was established.

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  The Relationship Between Racial Microaggressions and Multiracial Identity Turbulence

  Aimy Paulsen

  Efforts to understand the development of Multiracial identity have gained traction in recent years, with studies focusing on different socialization factors to explain the common struggles that Multiracial individuals face. This online cross-sectional study sought to understand the association between microaggression experiences and Multiracial identity. I recruited 140 adults who were proficient in English and identified with two or more races to explore the relationship between racial microaggressions, challenges in Multiracial identity, and how they are racialized by others—street race. Microaggressions are subtle, ambiguous, or unintentional slights that can cause stress in marginalized individuals. For this study, Multiracial identity turbulence (MIT) is when individuals with two or more races feel indifferent, uncertain, or insecure about their racial identity. I hypothesized that MIT would positively correlate with microaggression experiences (H1) and also with observed microaggressions happening to family members (H2). It was expected that participants who indicated their street race as “White” would report less microaggressions than others (H3). Lastly, I expected that individuals who responded differently to the self-perceived race and street race measures would have higher levels of MIT (H4). Although H1 and H2 were not supported through correlational analyses, creating categorical groupings revealed a two-way interaction between identity types and street race on microaggression experiences. H3 had no significant support, but presented some interesting outcomes that deserve further exploration. These findings may promote a holistic understanding of the diverse and nuanced experiences of Multiracial individuals for families, researchers, and mental health practitioners working with this population.

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  Central Americans in Las Vegas

  Emily Salazar

  The Las Vegas Valley has become home to a large Salvadoran and Guatemalan population with no clear understanding of the reason for its growth. Upon arrival to the United States, many Latin American immigrants will often struggle with the language barrier and the lack of resources at their disposal. This study aims to uncover what factors and advantages made the Guatemalan and Salvadoran communities choose to stay in Las Vegas Valley, as well as the contribution these populations have made to this metropolitan area. I will first examine published scholarship that uncovers the reasons on what initiatives made central Americans migrate to Las Vegas and what programs could have been used to flourish this population. I will then compare the collected scholarship to oral history interviews from the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada to determine whether or not a similar relationship can be formed. The comparison leads to believe that many similar points were connected but there is still a disconnect with the interviews. An aspect in particular, that was not adequately addressed, is that of the subjective influence of the American Dream. Throughout the past 30 years, the Las Vegas Latin community has grown immensely and is believed to continue to expand with the ever-evolving metropolitan culture.

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  Police Shootings in the Mountain West, 2015 - 2021

  Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio

  The Washington Post publishes and regularly updates a dataset regarding the use of deadly force by police since 2015. This study extracts data for five Mountain West states (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and presents a regional perspective on the total number of individuals shot and killed by police, including demographic variables such as race, gender, and age. Two additional variables are included in this examination: the presence or absence of mental illness in the decedent, and the presence or absence of a body-worn camera in incidents of deadly police force. Collected from January 1, 2015, to March 17, 2021, these data are exclusive to deaths resulting from a police officer shooting an individual while on-duty. In-custody deaths, non-shooting deaths, and deaths occurring while an officer is off-duty are not included. Between 2015 and March 17, 2021, 808 individuals were shot and killed by police in the Mountain West. Within the region, New Mexico ranks first for police shootings per million people, followed by Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. In all five Mountain West states, a majority (more than 95%) of individuals shot and killed by police were male, and a majority (70%) of decedents were between the ages of 18 and 44. Most fatal encounters did not involve the presence of mental illness in the decedent, nor the use of a body-worn camera on the part of the police.

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  The Effect of Lanthanides on Corn Growth

  Savanna Vacek

  Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) offer a reliable source of reclaimed water for irrigation. Metal-based chemicals (i.e. coagulants) are frequently employed in wastewater treatment, and residual metal ions remain in the treated wastewater, which could result in application of these metal ions to agricultural fields and crops. This study focuses on an emerging coagulant containing lanthanum. The behavior of lanthanum reclaimed water (LaRW) towards corn growth is barely known. Thus, if we are to recycle LaRW to support corn growth, the effects of LaRW on corn growth need to be studied. Corn kernels were grown in varying lanthanum concentrations (0-5000 mg La3+/L) to establish a toxic limit of La. Upon selecting the toxic limit, corn kernels were grown with LaRW in a greenhouse setting. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), enzymes, proteins, and anti-ROS compounds were studied. The presence of lanthanum in water promoted biomass, radicle, and plumule growth at less than 100 mg La3+/L when compared to controls. However, increasing the concentration above 100 mg/L attenuated radicle and plumule elongation with almost no biomass development at 5000 mg/L. The decrease in radicle-plumule elongation and failure to germinate might be attributed to increased malondialdehyde and superoxide production (yet to be confirmed). The production of these compounds increases the peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, reducing seed viability. Furthermore, the superoxide scavenging enzyme is easily destroyed by O2-, reducing the growth chances of the seeds. These results provide insight into the development of LaRW guidelines to be used in corn irrigation.

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  Lovingkindness Meditation Alters Sense of Self in Non-Meditators

  John Watt

  The COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest have increased individuals’ stress, anxiety, and social isolation. In response, a resounding call has gone out for more resources to buffer the effects of this psychological burden. One free and accessible resource is meditation; lovingkindness meditation is particularly beneficial and increases positive emotionality, psychological well-being, prosocial behavior, and social connectedness. Meditation is theorized to confer these benefits through fostering an allocentric spatial frame of reference. An allocentric spatial frame of reference is a view of the self that extends beyond the boundary of the body and is accompanied by a heightened sense of connection to the world as a whole. While other meditations have been found to foster more allocentric spatial frames of reference, lovingkindness meditation is absent from the literature on this topic. The current study examined if a short lovingkindness meditation increases allocentric frames of reference in a sample of non-meditators. One hundred and ninety-four non-meditators took the Spatial Frame of Reference Continuum – 7 points to measure their spatial frames of reference before and after a 13-minute lovingkindness meditation. Data analysis revealed that the lovingkindness meditation had a moderate positive effect (d = 0.54) on individuals’ allocentric spatial frame of reference. Future researchers should compare the effectiveness of lovingkindness meditation with other types of meditation. A regular lovingkindness meditation practice may help individuals expand their sense of self and access positive benefits that will help them deal with the stress and anxiety of current events.

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  The Gender Wage Gap as it Relates to State Partisan Control and Pay Equity Policy

  Candace Wells and Kenneth Miller Ph.D.

  This study offers an explanation to the interstate variation of the gender wage gap in the United States. Looking at political explanations as an answer for the wage gap’s persistence, I hypothesize that Democratically controlled state government positively impacts the state having pay equity policies, and that having these pay equity policies positively impacts the state’s gender wage gap. Using U.S. Census Bureau, National Conference of State Legislatures, and American Association of University Women with U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau data, I find that while there is a correlation between Democratically controlled state legislatures and pay equity policy and a correlation between Democratic majority legislatures and a narrower gender wage gap, there does not appear to be a direct association between pay equity policy and the state’s gender wage gap. The findings suggest that partisanship of the state legislature plays a key role in the wage equity policy of a state, as well as the reasoning that longstanding Democratic majorities have already passed policy to combat the apparent causes of the gap, and that more in depth policy is thus necessary to completely close it.

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  College Students' Health Insurance: A Focus on Foreign-Born Students' Healthcare

  Phuong Le

  This research is to explore the uninsured rates of foreign-born students from the age of 18 to 24, including those who study abroad in the United States from foreign countries, immigrants of the U.S. who are green-card holders, and residents/citizens who were not born in the U.S. It is found that there is no significant difference between Asian foreign-born students and other racial groups of foreign-born students, suggesting that there may not be a big cultural difference in perceiving health insurance among foreign-born students. In general, foreign-born students are 19.34 percentage points more likely to be uninsured. Statistical analysis has shown that there is a significant difference in uninsured rates between U.S-born and foreign-born students. Health insurance for international students is historically not as readily accessible nor has a good value. Thus, despite contributing greatly to the U.S. economy, this group of international students usually struggle when it comes to obtaining information on healthcare and utilizing the insurance plan that they are required to purchase. Due to school mandates, a large portion of foreign-born students who are international students are required to have health insurance in order to attend schools, while foreign-born undergraduate students who are not international students are not required to. In light of such differences in how health insurance is mandated on these different groups of students as well as other cultural factors that are applicable for foreign-born students in general, future research with relevant data would be helpful in identifying any health insurance disparity existing between international students and domestic students.