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  Feasibility and Acceptability of a Loving-Kindness Meditation among Socio-Economically Diverse Older Adults

  Carolyn Streb

  In Psychology one of the first theories we learn is Maslow's Need Triangle. Within this theory we learn that love and belonging is one the basic human needs an individual needs to develop. This continues to be relevant later in age. The lack of compassionate love can result in increase feelings of loneliness and subsequent deterioration of mental health therefore making individuals, specifically older adults, more vulnerable to suicidal behavior. Loneliness is a public health epidemic affecting more the 40% of older adults. Theoretical and empirical evidence implies that human beings can cope with adversity when they possess a repertoire of positive emotions such as love/compassion and these emotions are associated with better psychological wellbeing and cognitive reserve. These positive emotions can be amplified through interventions such as loving-kindness meditation (LKM).

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  Reshaping the Historical Narrative: Muslims in North Africa

  Mariam Sultan

  Immigration of diverse peoples to America has been continuous since the 16th century, especially in regards to Muslims, who have been an understudied and underrepresented group in historical literature, despite constituting a major faction of the first peoples in this country. The study reinforces why Muslims should be part of the historic narrative including the many contributions they made to the growth and development of the United States, and more broadly, the North American continent.

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  Identifying the Optimal Range of Fine Ground Waste Glass as Cement Replacement

  Stephanie Taylor

  The viability of finely ground waste glass as cement replacement is linked to the amount of time the concrete is allowed to cure. Testing beyond 91 days was rare, with only one study using an entire year. Replacement levels below 25% provided the best results in compressive strength. The parameters for future testing derived from this literature review will use ASTM C39/C39M-21 to test the compressive strength of specimens with 0%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% finely ground glass replacing OPC with measurements taken at 1, 7, 28, 56, 90, 182 and 365 days of curing.

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  Development of a Biobased Carbon Adsorbent for Treating Emerging Contaminants in Recycled Water on the International Space Station

  Savanna Vacek, Madeline Carroll, and Gabson Baguma

  The International Space Station (ISS) operates as a closed system. Water is recycled from humidity and urine and held in a wastewater tank; part of the Water Processing Assembly (WPA). Potable treated water is used indirectly in the Sabatier Reactor.The Sabatier Reactor is a key component in the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). Three main functions of ECLSS: water recovery, air revitalization, and oxygen generation Sabatier Reactor recently failed due to contamination of DMSO2, dimethyl sulfone, and DMSD, dimethylsilanediol. DMSO2 and DMSD are emerging contaminants that are not removed by the media used in the WPA due to their low affinity. DMSO2 and DMSD are introduced into the water system through personal hygiene products such as lotion, conditioner, and wipes, which all contain volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS). VMS are decomposed into DMSO2 or DMSD and are found in urine. Ambersorb 4652, a styrenic polymer adsorbent that is not biobased or sustainable, is the current media used in the multifiltration beds in WPA on the ISS. Costly and unsustainable, Ambersorb 4652 is challenged to remove DMSD and DMSO2 from recycled water. Granular activated carbon (GAC) works similarly to a styrenic polymer adsorbent and can be made from biobased materials. Ionic liquids are liquid molten salts at temperatures < 100 ℃ that are typically composed of large and unsymmetrical organic cations and organic or inorganic ions. Composed of a hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) and a hydrogen bond donor (HBD). Remarkable solvation ability for a broad range of natural and synthetic materials and compounds.

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  The Relationship Between Concussion History And Lower Extremity Biomechanics During A Land And Cut Task

  Nghi G. Vu, Warren O. Forbes, and Jason M. Avedesian

  In high impact landing tasks, athletes with a history of sports related concussion (SRC) have been found to demonstrate lower extremity (LE) biomechanics that are associated with elevated injury risk. However, the exact relationships between SRC history and LE biomechanics are inconclusive.

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  A Statistical and Literary-Based Research Review of the 2023 US Homelessness Status in Contrast to Generational Record

  Marina Wong

  Discusses the United States' 2023 Homelessness status in contrast to generational record. The homelessness status seems to be increasing compared to generational record. Also discusses future direction and research potential of the topic.

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  Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Breastfeeding Information Provided during prenatal Care Visits in Clark County, Nevada

  Alexandra Maria Acosta and Smriti Neupane

  Breastfeeding information during prenatal care visits is associated with maternal race/ethnicity and maternal educational level. Black/African American race and college-level education are associated with increased breastfeeding information provided during prenatal care visits of Nevadan mothers.

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  Emotional Engagement to Music is Correlated with Enhanced Frisson Experience but not Misophonia

  Sarah Al-shimary, Nicole Datastanyan, Shelbie Silvers, Sivan Barashy, and Solena Mednicoff

  There is evidence that individuals who are particularly sensitive or intolerant to sounds are also more engaged or fascinated with positive sounds such as music.

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  The Influence of Prediction Error Strength on Recognition Memory

  Augustine L. Alvarado and Kevin D. Mohawk

  An important feature of learning and memory is being able to make predictions about our environments based on past experiences. However, our predictions are not always accurate. We may experience a prediction error (a mismatch between what was predicted and what actually occurred). Research has found that PE enhances learning and memory. The Predictive Interactive Multiple Memory Signals (PIMMS) suggests that PE facilitates learning and memory because it triggers a need to update our representation to reduce errors in the future. This study aims to replicate Greve et al., (2017), who found that PE enhances declarative memory of learned associations. A successful replication would result in better memory for items associated with PE compared to items consistent with expectations.

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  Uncovering Themes of Masculinity Within Male Friendships and Synthesizing Future Interventions

  Maria Isabelle Avenido, Valeria Aguilera, Kristin Vierra, and Diana Gutierrez

  Masculinity norms such as toughness, emotional stoicism, and homophobia are suggested to impede the formation of close male friendships. A lack of close friendships can lead to poor self-esteem and impaired psychological health. Boys and men who effectively build intimate relationships gain from peer support and companionship as well as a decrease in anxiety and depression levels. Scholars have yet to develop a data-driven intervention to assist boys and men in critically analyzing masculinity, thus the current study's findings will contribute to the development of these interventions that could encourage boys and men to properly assess harmful elements of masculinity and establish closer friendships.

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  Synthesis of Novel Chiral Phosphorothioic Acid Organocatalysts and Application to Synthetic Methodology

  Parsa Azaei

  Much research efforts have been centered towards the synthesis of novel Bronsted acid catalysts. These organocatalyst enable synthesis of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and bioactive small molecules under toxic-metal-free conditions by donating their protons, while not being consumed in the reaction. Chiral phosphorothioic acid have significant potential as novel organocatalysts due to their high modifiability of chirality and acidity under environmentally friendly conditions; however, synthesis of these organocatalysts are far and in between. Therefore, our research aimed to i) synthesize novel phosphorothioic acid organocatalysts and ii) to apply these novel catalysts toward new methodology development.

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  3-D Visualizations of Terrestial Exoplanet Interiors Generated with MAGRATHEA in Blender

  Tristan Benally and David Rice

  There has been significant progress in simulating exoplanet interiors in the past decade. With the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system in the last few years, there have been many publications presenting models to best characterize specific aspects of exoplanets in study. However, with more parameters and considerations for different characteristics of an exoplanet there will be a need to represent many findings into a comprehensive model in the future. We extend the capabilities of MAGRATHEA from a planet interior solver to start incorporating multi-faceted functions starting with generating 3-D terrestrial planetary visualizations using a 3-D open-source computer graphic software called Blender.

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  Poliovirus Detection in Las Vegas Wastewater

  Sage Boss, Hayley Baker, and Ching-Lan Chang

  Wastewater surveillance for poliovirus is a useful tool for spatial surveillance and evaluation of immunization efficacy. Polio testing in wastewater has been conducted since the 1980s in Finland and Israel, and the virus was recently discovered in New York. With increasing concern regarding the vaccination of children against the virus, there has been worry that polio cases could once again present themselves in the Las Vegas Valley. By testing for the virus in wastewater, we can monitor any new cases or outbreaks that occur and inform authorities as to the location and viral count. The wastewater samples were collected at various locations throughout the Las Vegas Valley and brought to the lab for analysis. Nucleic acids from the samples were isolated and purified, and complementary DNA was for further testing. The DNA was tested using quantitative polymerase chain reaction to determine the concentration of poliovirus in the starting sample. After several months of testing, no polio was identified in the wastewater. The qPCR data indicated that no poliovirus was replicated. This data is useful moving forward because it reveals that there were no major polio outbreaks in the areas that were tested. Further research would need to be conducted in order to ensure continuing safety from poliovirus in Las Vegas.

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  Microbial Life in Deep-Subsurface Environments: The Role of High Pressure in Biogeochemical Cycles

  Cheyenne Brokaw

  Ocean World: An ocean world is considered any planet or moon currently with a liquid ocean. While the deepest part of the Ocean (Mariana Trench, 11,000 mbsl, 110 Mpa) and the lithosphere host microbial life, it begs the question, How?

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  Lighting Little Shop of Horrors

  Arielle Brown

  The assistant lighting designer of a musical is responsible for supporting the lighting designer as they achieve their vision. During the production process for the musical Little Shop of Horrors (produced by the Nevada Conservatory Theatre), the assistant is responsible for creating and updating the paperwork related to the production. The Scene/Song Breakdown, Cue Sheet, and Group List are produced at the beginning of the process. Preset List, Effect List, Focus Palette and Color Palette Lists are produced during cueing and technical rehearsals. During technical and dress rehearsals, changes made to the production are updated in the paperwork. Once the show opens, the paperwork is archived to provide a record of the production for future reference.

  Along with working on show documents, the assistant lighting designer is also responsible for taking notes at production meetings. This aids the lighting designer in the collaborative process with other design departments. The assistant also helps keep track of blocking and changes made to the production.

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  Is there an app for that? Social support, depression, and anxiety among users of a digital mental health app

  Bryce V. Brown, Teresa J. Walker, Christine Guardian, and Matthew Schurr

  Perceived social support has been associated with mental health. Social distancing guidelines due to COVID-19 heavily shifted social engagement to digital formats. It is important to understand the role of digital mental health interventions in mental health outcomes.

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  Who is gonna see the shrink? Anxiety and depression's relationship to openness and willingness to engage in weekly psychotherapy

  Bryce V. Brown, Teresa J. Walker, Christine Guardian, and Matthew Schurr

  Digital mental health interventions may offer an alternative to in-person psychotherapy. It is important to understand attitudes about traditional in-person psychotherapy among app users to contextualize treatment seeking and better understand treatment options.

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  Differences in Negative Symptom Severity Across Bipolar Disorder With and Without Psychosis

  Gia Renemae Calip, Jessica J. Woodyatt, Erik Ringdahl, Sally Vogel, and Gregory P. Strauss

  There was no significant difference between BP+ and BP- groups. Significant difference were found in BP+ and SZ groups when tested for Affective Flattening and Alogia.Significant difference were found in HC and BP- when tested for Anhedonia-Asociality.

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  High School Environment in the Clark County School District

  Oscar Canale, John David Reyes, Asia Sunga, and Jay Tumanan

  Our group was interested in analyzing the high school public education system in the Clark County School District. As Las Vegas residents, it is important to know how the schools in our city are being affected, especially since many of us went to school here. It is also detrimental to know as it could potentially be the schools of our future children and generation. We took data from the 2017-2018 school year and decided to model the total index score of each high school based on four different variables. Chronic absenteeism is defined as the percentage of students in the school who missed 10% or more school days in the school years. Proficiency average refers to the percentage of the student body who are proficient in basic science, math, and English. CCR completion, or college career readiness completion is the percentage of students who completed a college and career readiness program. Lastly, the high school graduation rate 4-5 is the graduation rate of students from the high school after 4 or 5 school years attending it. We built a model and used STATA to create the descriptive statistics and eimpirical results. We also created scatterplots and bar charts to clearly see the relationships between the variables if there are any.

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  A Study of Improvement in the User Experience of UNLV's Campus Safety Mobile Application

  Mayra Carrera, Mustafa Diallo, Cecilia Garcia-Leon, Khristine Le, and Kristine Monsada

  In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), reported an average of 28,000 crimes on college campuses across the United States. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has taken measures to address campus safety through their app, RebelSAFE. However, there is little research showing how effective such apps are in aiding students through emergencies. This study aims to evaluate the usability of RebelSAFE through usability testing and surveys.

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  Development of a Novel Ionic Liquid-Coated Adsorbent for Treating Emerging Contaminants in Recycled Water on the International Space Station

  Madeline Carroll, Gabson Baguma, and Savanna Vacek

  Synthesize at least 3 biobased ionic liquids. Optimize method for conducting liquid-liquid extractions. Analyze and quantify how much DMSO2 is removed by the ionic liquids. Coat biochar with the most effective biobased ionic liquids.

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  Self-Blame Associated with Sexual Maltreatment

  Jessica Castillo and Mallory Constantine

  Sexually maltreated youth are at increased risk for developing thoughts of self-blame associated with their traumatic experiences (Melville et al., 2014). Self-blame increases risk of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and self-harming behaviors (Gorgi et al., 2019). Self-blame can cause negative side effects in development and adulthood, changing the trajectory of the child who was affected by sexual assault (Ullman et al., 2014). Recent studies suggest we must continue to investigate the role in shame in producing meaning making progress, and how it affects other emotions, cognitive learning, and emotion regulating strategies (McElvaney et al., 2022). In order to continue to improve the quality of life in individuals who have experienced sexual maltreatment, we must continue to uncover the secret nature of shame.

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  The Relationship Between Misophonia Sensitivity and Musicality

  Mae Ling Catayong, Sarah Uganiza, William Smithers, Aileen Corral, Sivan Barashy, Solena Mednicoff, and Destiny Gonzales

  Misophonia is a condition characterized by negative emotional reactions to certain everyday sounds. Musicality involves Active Musical Engagement (AE), Self-reported Perceptual Abilities (PA), Musical Training (MT), Self-reported Singing Abilities (SA), Sophisticated Emotional Engagement with Music (EM), and General musical sophistication (GM). Numerous active musicians have self-reported having misophonia, while anecdotal reports have shown that music can help treat misophonia symptoms.

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  Expanding the Library of Planet Building Materials in Magrathea

  Rosalie Chaleunsouck and Tristan Benally

  Exoplanets are often modeled with fully-differentiated layers of iron, silicates, water, and gas. The large pressure and temperature ranges within each layer results in changes of phase and mineral equilibrium. MAGRATHEA is an open-course planet interior structure code with a large library of equations of state for planet building materials. This allows for the user to build detailed planet models and test differing measurements of the equation of state. We extend MAGRATHEA's library to include upper-mantle materials and various phases of iron cores. We show the impact of these materials on the characterization of rocky planet interiors.

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  Infants' Intermodal Knowledge of Gender Using Faces and Voices

  Bijoux Cheun, Christina Saliba, Alexis Rice, and Marian Espina

  Infants begin to use intermodal knowledge to match male and female faces to the corresponding voice, in their first year of life.

  Infants have more experience with female faces which should lead to greater intermodal knowledge of female faces.

  Previous studies have found inconsistent results. This could be due to the type of stimuli used.

  This study uses several pairs of static and dynamic faces to investigate how methodological differences may impact infants' performance.