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  An Exploratory Factor Analysis of Climate Friendly Purchasing Choices

  Susan E. Gutierrez, Fred Vincent Y. Margallo, and Zihan Gong

  Climate change is negatively affecting the environment and all its inhabitants. People's increased awareness have made them more willing to adopt more climate friendly purchasing choices. The Climate Change Action Inventory measures how often individuals take actions that can reduce climate change. We focused on the Climate Friendly Purchasing Choices Domain. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the Climate Friendly Purchasing Domain to help us examine the factor structure.

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  You're So Harsh On Me: Meanness in Psychopathy and Perceived Family Criticism

  Jordan E. Hayes and Kayla McGinty

  Overall, the lack of research on percieved criticism, especially within populations that display meanness, show a need for research because just like mood, percieved criticism may change throughout the day. Understanding the relationship between psychopathic meanness and momentary patterns of percieved criticism among family members could provide helpful insight into social interactions and elucidating patterns of family dysfunction involved in the most antagonistic features of psychopathy.

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  The Global Effects of Climate Change: Detrimental Impacts on the Environment, Ecosystem, Coral Reefs, Human Health/Well-Being, and Global Economy

  Lucky Heng

  Despite criticism, scientists have been continuing to find more evidence to prove that the threats on the coral reefs around the world are real. The impact of rising climate temperature, pollution, ocean acidification, etc. has been leading to increasing amounts of mass bleaching and a massive decline in coral reefs in past decades. This research study utilizes a systematic literature review and secondary research to collect, analyze and provide evidence that climate change impacts the ecosystem, and marine life (coral reefs) species on the planet. By addressing the impact of climate change and its significance on the ecosystem and global economy. The research also shows the detrimental of climate change on coral reefs bleaching, health and its well being. Overall, the main objective of this research is to collect information regarding the causes, and effects, and study the impact it has on the ecosystem, coral reefs species and human well-being. By studying the detrimental factors that contribute to the cause of global climate change, greenhouse gases, temperature, and the ecological environment.

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  Growth of Pseudocotalpa giulianii Larvae in Sand from Different Dune Sources

  Cosset Hernandez Pena and Mandy Mountain

  Pseudocotalpa giulianii (PSGU) is an endemic species known to inhabit two sand dunes in Nye County, Nevada: Big Dune Recreational Area and Lava Dune. Differences in sand properties between Big Dune and Lava Dune could impact survival and growth of the larvae of P. giulianii. Use of permitted off-road vehicles (ORV) in Big Dune can impact its habitats and cause disturbances to local populations, including the Giuliani Dune Scarab as ORV activity is correlated with changes in dune vegetation. Lava Dune has no permitted ORV activity, however, differences in sand composition, including eroded basalt, have the potential to influence the life cycle of PSGU, specifically larval development as larvae reside beneath the surface of the dune sand for more than a year.

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  The Stability of the Speech-to-Song Illusion

  Jennifer Hsu, Brooke Booth, Jordyn Karns, and Rodica R. Constantine

  The Speech-to-Song (STS) illusion: when a listener is presented with multiple repetitions of a spoken phrase and begins to hear it as increasingly song-like. In the present study, we aim to verify anecdotal evidence that suggests the STS illusion is temporally stable and replicate existing evidence that excerpts transform to song by the third or fourth repetition and perhaps faster upon future encounters.

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  The Analysis of Radio and X-Ray Energetics of Fast Radio Bursts

  Emily Huerta

  Here, we analyze the graphs and figures presented in Laha et al. (2022) and compare their slopes to our figures. Laha et al. (2022) includes two graphs, one that shows a comparison between radio fluence vs. x-ray fluence and radio energy vs. x-ray energy. In these graphs, the slopes are anywhere from 3.3e-14 to 2e-5, which are much less than unity. Our figures are consistent with these values, also providing slopes anywhere between the same range. Strong limits on this ratio between radio and x-ray energetics can either support the magnetar progenitor model, or completely dismiss it. Since we found slopes much less than unity, our calculations strongly support the magnetar progenitor model for the 22 FRBs in this work.

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  Testing Wickelgren's Model of Interference and Decay

  Gabriel Hull and Isabella Lacy

  Two explanations have been proposed to explain forgetting: decay (forgetting occurs as a function of time) and interference (the mental activity can impinge on the consolidation of a recently acquired memory). Wickelgren (1974) proposed a model of forgetting which suggests that forgetting is a function of both decay and interference, best expressed as a power-exponential function. The present research will be the first to directly examine whether Wickelgren’s model accurately predicts the observed effects of these two components on forgetting. This research will further the study of human memory by improving current models, and helping to resolve the debate surrounding decay and interference.

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  Characterization of USP7 substrates in the brain

  Jose Itorralba, Sage Boss, Shahraiz Akbar, Hayley Baker, and Chinglan Chang

  Loss of function lesions in Ubiquitin-specific protease (USP) 7 are associated with intellectual disability, speech delay, autism spectrum disorder, and seizures. While the deubiquitinating activity of USP7 has been characterized in cancer, its role in neurological conditions is not understood. Here, we show that USP7 can regulate the development of the brain by localizing to synaptosomes in the hippocampus and stabilizing neural-specific substrates.

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  A Literature Review on Developments in Timber Design and Its Impact on Carbon Emissions

  Raquel Jackson

  Carbon dioxide emissions are a growing issue worldwide as urbanization and industrialization continues to increase (ie. Steel and concrete). Non-renewable resources limit steel and concrete production. Despite current methods to reduce greenhouse gasses, carbon emissions remain difficult to reduce from steel and concrete industries.

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  The Effects of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on Exports to Italy

  Stephen Johnson, Ryder Hankins, and Nathan Carter

  Italy imported 122,000 tons of soft wheat from Ukraine and 72,000 from Russia. During the current events international food and feed prices have increased by 8 to 22% causing mass shortages around the world. On top of the ethical and moral dilemmas of continuing business with Russia, insurance premiums have jumped 400% for doing business with the invading country.

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  Teaching How to Recycle Through the Medium of Virtual Reality

  Nathan Kassai

  Students, especially children in elementary and middle school, have difficulty focusing and or absorbing information from their courses. The problem lies in the scarcity of hands-on/interactive elements in classrooms as most lectures contain topics most students would be interested in but are presented in a monotonous way. To properly educate and inspire students to work on improving their academic knowledge, alternative educational mediums must be sought. Such mediums like Virtual and Augmented Reality allow students to interact with virtual objects to learn more about a wide variety of subjects, hence increasing their engagement and enjoyment in any particular topic. The educational platform used for this research allowed students to engage and participate in activities that allowed them to learn more about a particular subject, in this case, recycling. Results showed that those who used this platform had retained information better than those who used traditional classroom methods to learn by comparing test scores between the two groups. Such platforms should be integrated into classrooms to enhance students’ learning experience. For this research project, an Oculus Quest HMD was used to place students in a virtual environment. However, this HMD was priced around $300-$400 and many other HMD’s on the market are priced in the thousands. Despite this drawback, other mediums exist to educate students such as Augmented Reality (AR) since these types of applications can run on any smartphone. Future research entails exploring the medium of AR and determining what types of educational applications can come from it.

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  The Role of Interference in Short-Term Forgetting

  Monserrat Leal-Arcos, Gabriel Hull, Francisco Sanchez, Rhiannon N. Soriano Smith, and William B. Ridgway

  Two explanations have been proposed to explain forgetting: decay (forgetting occurs as a function of time) and interference (mental activity can impinge on the consolidation of a recently acquired memory). Wickelgren (1974) proposed a model of forgetting which suggests that forgetting is a function of both decay and interference, best expressed as a power-exponential function. The present research will be the first to directly examine whether Wickelgren's model accurately predicts the observed effects of these two components on forgetting. This research will further the study of human memory by improving current models, and helping to resolve the debate surrounding decay and interference.

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  Recognition Memory for Auditory and Visual Objects

  Sharica Lee, Alexa Salomon, Kevin Mohawk, and Laura Werner

  Visual object memory is superior to auditory object memory. Our past research showed that auditory memory was less sensitive to divide attention during study, which may be attributable to representational differences between auditory memory and visual memory.

  In the present study, we attempted to equate auditory and visual memory representations in order to adequately investigate the impact of dividing attention on recognition memory.

  Recognition memory is thought to rely on two distinct processes, recollection and familiarity. Recollection involves the retrieval of precise qualitative detail and is the most sensitive to dividing attention.

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  Investigating the impact of dividing attention on auditory and visual object memory

  Sharica Lee, Alexa Salomon, Laura L.S. Werner, Kevin D. Mohawk, and Maggie McMullin

  Recently, we found that dividing attention reduced recollection and familiarity for visual objects, but a different pattern emerged for auditory object memory: auditory object recollection was not affected by dividing attention. This could be attributable to differing levels of baseline performance with visual memory far exceeding auditory memory. Thus, we attempted to equate baseline performance in both modalities in order to adequately investigate the previous findings.

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  You Never Walk Alone: How BTS Supports ARMY Mental Health and Well-Being

  Melissa Le

  BTS is a seven-membered South Korean boyband with a fandom named "ARMY." Music is generally associated with increased mental health, but not all types of music genres have been studied yet. With the current rise of Korean popular music (K-pop), it is important to understand what makes this genre popular and why fans claim it has improved their mental health. As BTS is currently the most popular K-pop group globally, they provide a unique look at how their music can help fans with depression and anxiety.

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  Biochar Hydrophilicity Characterization by a Smartphone-Based Apparatus: Design, Construction, and Measurement Calibration

  Emma Letourneau and Suraj Pochampally

  Water contact angles are used to determine hydrophilicity, which is a material's attraction to water. A water contact angle of greater than 90 degrees indicates a hydrophobic material that repels water, whereas a contact angle of less than 90 degrees indicates a hydrophilic material [Fig. 1]. Water contact angles are measured through a goniometer, which can cost between $2000 to $10,000.

  Biochar is a porous carbon material created from biological waste products, that is pyrolyzed (i.e. burned) in a low-oxygen, high heat environment. Biochar can be used to remove contaminants from water and remediate soil while reusing waste, making it an excellent environmentally-friendly material. The biochar feedstock type and pyrolysis temperature impacts the resulting biochar's material properties, including hydrophilicity.

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  Identification of lipid species: potential biomarkers for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma

  Kit Yee Leung and KayLee Freitas

  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer. HCC is associated with cirrhosis. Poor survival rate of HCC is due to diagnosis of HCC at late stage.

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  Are They Satisfied Enough to Go Above and Beyond?

  Alexandra Lungu

  Drawing on self-determination theory, this study examines the relationship between paradoxical leadership and service employees' work behaviors.

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  Palm Oil and Exported Deforestation

  Anja Marcusiu and Alexis Osorio

  Palm oil is used in our everyday lives through: Beautify/hygiene products; Bioenergy; Food. Indonesia and Malaysia account for 85% of the world's palm oil production, making them the largest exporters. Because palm oil is a highly productive crop and is in high demand, how do companies integrate sustainability to limit deforestation and preserve biodiversity?

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  Forgetting in Item Recognition and Pattern Separation

  Mateo Marquez and Rhiannon Soriano Smith

  Forgetting is commonly defined as the inability to access information that was once successfully encoded and could be retrieved with a cue, but now leads to memory failure (Frankland et al. 2013).

  Memory representations based in the hippocampus engage in pattern separation and are more prone to decay than interference (Sadeh & Pertrzov, 2020).

  Extra-hippocampal representations are more prone to interference than decay (Hardt et al. 2013).

  Pattern Separation refers to keeping memory representations distinct from one another.

  Is there more decay in pattern separation and more interference in item recognition?

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  School Standard

  Adrian Montenegro

  Neglecting the importance of student education only serves to decrease the morale amongst students. These new implementations are only reminders of the danger present in today’s schools. Unfortunately, communities are never the same after a tragedy, impacting generations to come. Why are students still being punished after the tragedies.

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  Nuclear Power Plant in Las Vegas

  Ryan W. Murray

  This research focuses on the impact of a “Nuclear Power Plant in Las Vegas” or ‘NPP in LV’ for short. Nuclear power is clean, has no greenhouse gas emissions, and has a moderate cost of kilowatt hours. Las Vegas, or more specifically Clark County uses Gas power plants to produce a majority of their electricity. My project will show what a nuclear plant could do if built in the city of Las Vegas. What is a Nuclear power plant? The EIA’s definition is “A nuclear power plant uses the heat that a nuclear reactor produces to turn water into steam, which then drives turbine generators that generate electricity” (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020). Currently the U.S. uses two types of nuclear reactors, either Boiling-water or Pressurized-water nuclear reactors. The most used currently is the Pressurized-water reactor. EIA explains “A steam generator is a giant cylinder filled with non radioactive water (or clean water). Inside the giant water-filled cylinder are thousands of tubes filled with the hot radioactive water from the reactor core that eventually bring the clean water to a boil and turn it into steam. The radioactive water flows back to the reactor core to be reheated, and once reheated, returns to the steam generator” (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020). The main advantage of the pressurized water reactor is that it will only contaminate a fixed amount of water which is constantly reused inside the system.

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  Malice Within Meanness in Psychopathy Predicts Unrestricted Sociosexuality

  Michal Newhouse-Van Vlerin

  This study examines the relationship between the Meanness in Psychopathy-Self Report Short Form (MiP-SR-SF) and the Sociosexuality Orientation Inventory-Revised (SOI-R). It links the fields of personality and sexual functioning.

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  U.S./Russia Export Relationship

  Adam Nishino, Mohammad Saad Bin Shahzad, Yonathan Assefa, and Trel Lakindanum

  Russia and the United States have a long history of trading as early as 1913. Over the years, Russia has become a notable player in US imports. By using the United States Census database and the Office of the United States Trade Representative database. In short, our research will discuss the trade relationship between Russia and the United States over the last century, through history and data analytics, and its effects on trade and politics to the rest of the world.

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  Climate Change Hope Scale: Factor Analysis in an Adult Sample

  Gemma Ortega, Steven J. Glover, Jesse Tabaczynksi, and Orei Z. Odents

  Willpower - how much individuals believe that set goals can be met. Waypower - the extent to which individuals can think of strategies for accomplishing those goals.

  The Climate Change Hope Scale (CCHS; Li & Monroe, 2017) was designed to measure three aspects of hope: 1. Personal sphere willpower and waypower (WP) 2. Collective sphere willpower and waypower (CW) 3. Lack of willpower and waypower (LW).

  A three-factor model fits the CCHS among adolescents. The purpose of our study was to determine if the three-factor model fits the CCHS in adults.