Spring 2021 Student Scholar Symposium

Oral Session IV: 11:30AM-12:30PM

Click the link below to interact with these student presentations.
Oral Session IV- Rooms A-D


Abstract Volume and Quick Reference Guide
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ROOM A

Art

11:30-11:50AM
Dice
Presenter(s): Tipton Wolfley
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
This piece is a visualization of anxiety of destruction. The monotone palet used in this piece is both a limiting and intriguing use of light and shadow. By translating a violent and loud moment into a still image on the canvas the moment of extreme energy is captured and examined. This form is contrasted by two dice that are translucent. In some ways, the composition and incorporation of these two symbols create a new relationship and underlying parallels between the two forms. Similar in their power, different in most physical senses.

11:50AM-12:10PM
MARRIAGE
Presenter(s): Eugene Kim
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
MARRIAGE is a 7 minute video/study made from scenes of the Sailor Moon Series. Through data bending and glitch, MARRIAGE tells a greater story than the one shown in the anime: the relationship between colors, sound, and pixels. A glitch indicates a disruption of something that was designed to be "perfect." but a disruption can create something perfect within itself. By extracting the base of what everything digital is made of, there is a unique story told by the relationship of all the pixels in every source of digital media. Sailor Moon is not just about a princess saving the galaxy from evil. It is about the marriage of pixels that intertwines the digital world to reality. This video study frees the colorful squares that were once trapped in between the Sailor Scouts' outlines to create new shapes and relationships. This is no longer Sailor Moon.

12:10-12:30PM
Brainscape ~ Vivian Girls
Presenter(s): Emma Hudler
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
Brainscapes are landscapes of your mind, the typography of your brain. This piece is meant to be a personal brainscape, mixed in with inspiration from artist Henry Darger. Specifically, his epic titled In the Realms of the Unreal. In this epic is a collection of writings and illustrations about the stories of these Vivian girls. Darger is so interesting, these epics were discovered after his death. Giving him a posthumous career, thinking about how he was a custodian at a hospital and no one had any idea was so fascinating. Thinking about the connection between the world Darger was creating in his head, his own personal battles with mental illness as well as keeping this all a secret inspired the idea of a brainscape.

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ROOM B

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

11:30-11:50AM
The Relationship Between Exosomal Function and Field Cancerization in Breast Cancer
Presenter(s): Tessa Gittings
Advisor(s): Dr. Marco Bisoffi
Determining the relationship between exosomal function and field cancerization in breast cancer has the power to open new doors in cancer research, treatment options, and preventative measures. The specific correlation between exosomes and the etiology of field cancerization in breast tissues remains undetermined. This project addresses this gap of knowledge. The first part of the project summarizes the status of the published literature in this field. We then hypothesize that exosomes are involved in the development of field cancerization and tumorigenesis in breast cancer. To test this hypothesis experimentally, we propose to isolate exosomes from the established cancerous human breast cancer cells, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, and expose them to the non-cancerous cells MCF-10A, as well as vice versa. The first goal is to determine possible phenotypic effects, including increased or decreased proliferation and migration, which are markers of field cancerization. In these experiments, exosomal action may reveal that the cancerous cells may induce cancer-like qualities in the non-cancerous cells, while the non-cancerous cells may inhibit the cancerous cells. A deeper understanding of such actions will contribute to the prevention of secondary tumors after lumpectomy, a therapeutic procedure focusing on the conservation of breast tissue.

Environmental Science and Policy

11:50AM-12:10PM
California Drought Predictions
Presenter(s): Lauren Lynam
Advisor(s): Dr. Thomas Piechota
The issue of how future climate projections will affect California’s water availability are discussed in this paper. The unimpaired projected streamflows for eleven of California’s rivers are compared with their unimpaired historical flows using eight future climate models. Projected drought lengths, quantities, and intensities are statistically tested against historical values to determine variations from past streamflow to future streamflow. The models predict significant differences between historical and projected streamflows in all three categories. Potential impacts of such streamflow variations are also discussed.

Mathematics

12:10-12:30PM
On The Structure of Idempotent Semirings and\\Bunched Implication Algebra
Presenter(s): Natanael Alpay, Melissa Sugimoto
Advisor(s): Dr. Peter Jipsen
A distributive lattice-ordered magma (dl-magma) (A,^,v, . )$ is a distributive lattice with a binary operation . (dot) that preserves joins in both arguments, and when .(dot) is associative then (A,v, . ) is an idempotent semiring. It is shown that in a subvariety of top-bounded dl-magmas the binary operation is determined by two join preserving unary operations p,q using the term x . y=(px ^ y) v (x ^ qy). We obtain simple conditions on p,qsuch that . (dot) is associative, commutative, idempotent and/or has an identity element.
In previous presentations we gave a complete structural description for finite commutative doubly idempotent semirings where either the multiplicative semilattice is a chain, or the additive semilattice is a Boolean algebra. In the current work we show that the second description can be significantly generalized to the setting where the additive semilattice is a distributive lattice, dropping the assumptions of finiteness, multiplicative commutativity and idempotence in favor of the algebraic condition x . y =(px ^ y) v (x ^ qy) for two unary join-preserving operations p,q. In the case when the distributive lattice is a Heyting algebra, it provides structural insight into some algebraic models of bunched implication logic. We also provide Kripke semantics for the algebras under consideration, which leads to more efficient algorithms for constructing finite models.

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ROOM C

Health Sciences and Kinesiology

11:30-11:50AM
“Professor Eric Can’t Hear”: Developing and Piloting a Teaching Case Study for an Upper Division Neurophysiology Course
Presenter(s): Lexi Lee
Advisor(s): Dr. Caroline Wilson
Inspired by the true story of a Chapman University professor diagnosed with a brain tumor, a teaching case study was developed to help students learn neurophysiology concepts based on Professor Eric’s experiences. After researching the underlying pathophysiology, the professor was interviewed, learning objectives were identified, and a class plan was outlined for an applied human neurophysiology course (AHP 430). The main objective was for students to apply the professor’s real-life symptoms to topics related to hearing, balance, cranial nerves, radiological imaging, and clinical complications. The case study was organized into a jigsaw-style format, where student teams worked on four different scenarios. Three scenarios explored different pathophysiology topics and/or subsequent surgical outcomes. The fourth scenario discussed neurocognitive complications caused by increased computer screen time due to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study was piloted with students in Spring 2021 at Chapman University. Student understanding was evaluated with a brief content assessment (Kahoot) to consider the efficacy of the case study format. Participating students were surveyed to gather insight regarding timing, content, and suggested improvements for the case. Most students (81%) rated the case 5/5 for enjoyment, commenting on the engaging narrative and the opportunity to work as a team. A majority (75%) also rated the effectiveness of the jigsaw-style approach 5/5, although some students felt they missed information presented in the other scenarios.  The feedback was utilized to discuss and alter the case prior to submission for publication in the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Professor Eric’s story offers a personalized “why” and “how” to help pre-health students establish the connection between pathophysiology and real-life symptoms. For this student author, developing the case also provided an immense personal connection to understanding her treasured mentor’s condition.


Psychology

11:50AM-12:10PM
Race, Ethnicity, and Insurance: The Association with Opioid Use in a Pediatric Hospital Setting
Presenter(s): Vivian Luong
Advisor(s): Dr. Brooke Jenkins
Pediatric opioid-related poisoning and deaths have increased by 268% between 1999 and 2016. One risk factor for these poisonings may be receiving an opioid prescription at a young age. Given the established link between legitimate opioid prescriptions and later misuse in young adulthood, research focused on identifying relationships between sociodemographic factors with opioid and non-opioid prescribing is needed to understand opioid prescribing inconsistencies and promote safe pain management. Of interest, this study examined the association between race/ethnicity and health insurance payer type with pediatric opioid and non-opioid ordering in an inpatient hospital setting. Statistical analyses were performed with cross-sectional inpatient encounter data from June 2013 to June 2018 retrieved from a pediatric hospital (N = 55,944). Physicians ordered significantly fewer opioid medications, but a greater number of non-opioid medications, for non-Hispanic African American children than non-Hispanic Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, and non-Hispanic White pediatric patients. Moreover, patients with government-sponsored plans (e.g., Medi-Cal/Medicare) received fewer non-opioid prescriptions compared with patients with both HMO and PPO coverage. There was also a significant race/ethnicity by insurance interaction on opioid orders. Non-Hispanic White patients with "other" insurance coverage received the greatest number of opioid orders. In non-Hispanic African American patients, children with PPO coverage received fewer opioids than those with government-sponsored and HMO insurance. For non-Hispanic Asian patients, children with PPO were prescribed more opioids than those with government-sponsored and HMO coverage. Overall, these findings suggest that the relationship between race/ethnicity, insurance type, and physician decisions in opioid prescribing is complex and multifaceted. Given that consistency in opioid prescribing should be seen regardless of patient background characteristics, future studies should continue to assess and monitor unequitable differences in care.

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ROOM D

Political Science

11:30-11:50AM
Cybersecurity Threats on Voter Fraud: Fact or Fiction?
Presenter(s): Zyer Abdullah
Advisor(s): Dr. John Compton
In the age of technology, there has been an increasing amount of hysteria within the public regarding election fraud and the impending possibility of various cybersecurity attacks which seem to threaten the very fabric of the core institutions of US Democracy. This paper will aim to research the various aspects of voter fraud using survey data from the 2020 and 2016 American National Elections Study. After evaluating various research and data on this issue, I have found that there is a lack of understanding on nuances of voter fraud as there can be different variations of it, be it malware, or denial of service attacks (DOS’s).  By evaluating the data from the elections studies, I believe that my findings will gauge different variables such as education, gender, and immigration which will ultimately yield to greater answers on whether cybersecurity threats on national elections are viable or simply a result of paranoia.

11:50AM-12:10PM

How Education Impacts the Voting Habits of Different Races

Presenter(s): Jake Steinbock
Advisor(s): Dr. John Compton
Research on the voting differences of college educated white voters, black voters, and Hispanic voters has focused on the sole fact that minorities will most likely vote democrat. This has led to a lack of research on the fact that while college educated people vote less republican, college educated minorities vote more republican. While the majority of minorities will vote democrat, in 2016 and 2020 there has been a trend in which the amount of college educated minorities who voted republican was greater than the amount of non-college educated minorities. In fact, college education of minorities does not seem to impact their party preference. This author argues that this could be a very interesting research topic because the education of white voters impacts their voting patterns greatly. The project will research why the minority vote is not affected by education level. Utilizing the survey data from the 2016 American National Election Survey, the author will evaluate how education level and minority status influence voting patterns and specifically why education does not affect the way minorities voted in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. This author expects to find that the cultural and political ideals of black and Hispanic voters are not affected by education because of the systemic racial bias combined with growing up in a country as a minority.

Religious Studies

12:10-12:30PM
Returning To The Land: Applying The Values of Indigenous Practices to Support The Environmental Movement.
Presenter(s): Carla Frias
Advisor(s): Dr. Nancy Martin
Indigenous peoples are socio-cultural religious groups that are profoundly connected with the environment. Among their traditions there is a clear understanding that humans, plants, and animals are part of an interdependent system that work in harmony with each other in order to survive. They respect the sun as a life force that allows their crops to grow; They thank plants for giving them the medicine to heal; And they view animals as more than food sources, but as teachers that have important lessons that can help them grow. Indigenous peoples have studied the details of the natural world, and have created an array eco-centric practices founded on values of creativity, sustainability, and appreciation. As the world faces an accelerating loss of biodiversity, scientists are turning to indigenous wisdom and “ethnosphere” cultures to understand how to create a proper and sustainable evolution of life on earth.
This paper will explore the values embodied in traditional indigenous practices and how a holistic understanding about the natural world can help support the environmental movement. I will first describe the eco-spiritual traditions and ceremonies of indigenous people and how they maintain connection by working with sustainable agricultural practices. I will then describe the evolution of indigenous belief, and what lessons can be rescued from their culture in order  to create a stronger relationship with nature. As more people become aware of the environmental crisis, the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of indigenous people can inspire values of spirituality and sustainability. The environment is not a machine that provides rich resources, but a sacred interconnected web of forces that allows life to exist earth. It is time to respect the true sacred beauty of nature - the place we call home.
 

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