2020 Abstracts

Smith, Josh; Sam, Lizzy (Utah State University)
Faculty Advisor: Smith, Josh (Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Economics and Finance Department)

The relationship between immigration and crime is a perennial topic of political debate where extreme claims are often made with little empirical evidence provided. Academic research provides insights into how immigration to an area affects its crime rates. Overall, the existing research suggests that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than US citizens. The research also suggests ways that policies can be designed to account for the rare cases where immigrants are involved in crime. Specifically, the research suggests providing access to legal work opportunities.

Valencia-Garcia, Nelson Omar (undergraduate student); Coles-Ritchie, Marilee (faculty) (Westminster College)
Faculty Advisor: Coles-Ritchie, Marilee (Westminster College; School of Education, DUMKE Center for Civic Engagement)

This study contributes to the literature on the impact of service-learning on students of color by intentionally centering their experience within the critical service-learning courses. We align with critical service-learning framework that highlight "collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity" (Driscoll, 2008, p. 39). This work contrasts volunteerism or philanthropy as it aims to be grounded in reciprocity where students, faculty, and community partners work toward a common goal through sharing experiences, knowledge, networking, and resources. Historically, one of the founding principles of higher education is serving the public good often by applying academic expertise to society's needs rather than scholars being givers of receptacle knowledge. Also, research demonstrates that first-generation college students benefit from community service (Ting, 2003). Because graduation rates of low-income, first-generation, SOC continue to be lower than middle- and upper-class students, pedagogy that addresses the needs of SOC is vital, and it is crucial that instructors in institutions of higher education learn how to design service-learning that highlight their strengths.

Recently, higher education stakeholders have renewed efforts to develop more connections between the community and institutes of higher education. These efforts have included institutional mission statements that strengthen the emphasis on community engagement, promoting the legitimacy of community-engaged scholarship and developing centers for civic engagement to support faculty creation of service-learning courses. Despite this renewed effort, some aspects of the role and purpose of pedagogy in higher education are often overlooked (Berrett, 2012), especially for SOC (Boyle-Baise & Langford, 2005).

This study contributes to the literature on the impact of service-learning on SOC by intentionally centering their experience within the critical service-learning courses. This study contributes to the literature on service-learning pedagogy for SOC. Our findings demonstrate that well-designed pedagogy can enhance critical consciousness and community relationships while facilitating deep learning of the material. In contrast, the data also highlighted aspects of service-learning courses that were not culturally sustaining or effective and even harmful to SOC. These data could benefit educators in higher education with specific tools for creating meaningfully designed, critical culturally sustaining service-learning courses by connecting the SOC's strengths and demonstrating a keen awareness of their lived experiences.

O'Grady, K.A., PhD; Yirenya-Tawiah, Abena; Stewart, Mason (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: O'Grady, Kari (Brigham Young University, Nutrition Dietetics and Food Science)

In light of recent high profile cases of sexual assault on university campuses, BYU's Organizational Psychology and Societal Resilience Lab explored aspects of sexual assault at faith-based universities. The unique climate of faith-based universities provides insight into the influence of gender role stereotypes and religious expectations on women's vulnerability to sexual assault within the hook-up culture. The lab conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of 25 articles about sexual assault at university campuses, sexual assault at faith-based universities, hookup culture and the roles dating apps play in encouraging hook up culture. Themes were analyzed for their consistency, intersectionality and cross-variability. Emerging themes indicated that hookup culture reinforces masculine stereotypes and hyper-masculinity. These sterotypes are associated with higher endorsement of rape myth beliefs. The anonymity and prevalence of dating apps on college campuses creates an avenue for sexual assaults to take place. The location aware aspect of dating apps also presents the opportunity for users to find those in close proximity, thus making hook-ups more convenient. These apps give users the opportunity to present themselves in socially desirable ways. There is a stark difference between the way women at faith-based universities tend to utilize dating apps than their male counterparts.

Ashton, S. Jeramy (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: Mizell, Karen (Utah Valley University, Philosophy)

In 1968, the United States of America passed the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States. This Amendment and further enactments, policies and addendums changed the way many African American people (former slaves) were explicitly treated in regard to segregation and racial bias...or at least it should have.

In looking further into what a "belief" truly is (how they are formed, how they change), and then examining the "alief" in a similar manner, I will explain that because of society's deeply rooted aliefs, rational persuasion alone will never achieve social justice.

I will examine the history of the Civil Rights and LGBTQIA+ movements with how beliefs restricted, discriminated and then promoted change. After analyzing how beliefs have played a role in the journey of these causes, I will use modern day empirical data from court cases, and current housing and institutional discrimination cases to help others to become aware of ones subconscious biases, or aliefs.

My purpose is to help all to become aware of such biases before attempting to enact social change. As a majority fail to incorporate change, to respond to such empirical data, to be receptive to rational persuasion and make a change even when we believe that that is what we should do. It is because of the inability to adapt, to adopt such changes in permanence that aliefs are often too difficult to overcome, therefore rational persuasion alone will never achieve social justice.

Mattei, Dustin; Angell, Emma; Truman, Savanah; Wood, Kyle; Holiday, Pam; Gonzales, Veronica (Dixie State University)
Faculty Advisor: Oxley, Robert (Dixie State University, Applied Sociology)

This presentation analyzes burnout and how it is created and reinforced contractually within our campus at Dixie State University. This is a study from the Quality of Life Initiative who is part of the Applied Sociology. This portion of the analysis focuses on burnout among the university staff and administration. Through literary review, it has been suggested that on school campuses, regardless of level and grade, there has been in increase in burnout among school counselors, administration, and staff. Burn out itself has many symptoms and suggested sources. Symptoms range in physical, emotional, mental, and socially. These symptoms include; chronic fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, and much more. Our research suggests that some sources that create burnout in the staff are; an increase in students who also are afflicted with burnout, a lack of resources available to manage the increase in student cases, the requirement of participation within the university, and also the compounding stress in their personal lives. The independent research team has also developed a survey instrument which is in circulation. The information that is gathered through the instrument has not yet finished being recorded and consolidated. However, we expect there to be information coordinate to the information that we have found through research.

Holiday, Pamela (Dixie State University)
Faculty Advisor: Oxley, Robert (Dixie State University, Applied Sociology Program)

May 2019, "burnout" was recognized and defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since the term was coined in the 1970's, society has changed dramatically through the advancement of technology and with the naive notion that progress would make life easier. Today, the term burnout describes "the consequences of severe stress and high ideals," in professions. This perspective of "high ideals" and "stress" describes an individual's pursuit of success in academics, occupation, and/or lifestyle. In this regard, the societal culture determines that individuals are self-actualized when they exceed the prescribed standards of production. Studies have shown the adverse effects of technology advancements leading to isolation, mental and physical health issues, and an overall increase in stress. Contrary to WHO's new definition of burnout as an occupational phenomenon, it has been linked through several studies to non-occupational symptoms and situations during an individual's lifespan. Chronic stress is cited as a fundamental symptom of burnout - and is used as a key marker in identifying useful data for this examination. The Institute for Social Research, as part of Dixie State University's Applied Sociology program, through The Quality of Life Initiative project is exploring the question, "How has burnout been accepted into societies contract?" Using content analysis, we will identify the societal cost of burnout with the advancement of technology in a techno-reliant era and its effects on the Saint George, UT area.

Anderson, Brianna; Williams, Amanda; Collins, Lois; Hoover, Natalie Renee; Martinez, Samantha Coyne; Huang, Hui; Fernandez, Sofia; Rhoden, Michelle-Ann; Rigaud, Joseph; Kirk, Chris; Lewis, Rhonda; Nilsen, Corinne; Colvin, Deltha (University of Utah)
Faculty Advisor; Diener, Marissa (College of Social and Behavioral Science, Undergraduate Studies and Family & Consumer Studies)

Each year, approximately 25,000 youth "age out" of foster care (Courtney, Piliavin, Grogn-Kaylor, & Nesmith, 2001). These foster youth often face barriers to higher education. In Utah, fewer than five percent of foster youth go to earn a college-degree (Hahnal; 2007; Dworsky, Napolitani, & Courtney, 2011). Foster youth who could pursue a bachelor's degree may not be encouraged to do so, as the adults surrounding them may underestimate their potential (Dworsky & Perez, 2010); Vacca, 2008). Despite the challenges youth in foster care face in the pursuit of higher education, many succeed and take advantage of education programs. A study reported that over 70% of foster youth aged 15 to 19 years old reported a desire to go to college, and an additional 19% reported a desire to attend graduate school (Tzawa-Hayden, 2004). The goal of the present study was to develop a better understanding of how to better support youth and address barriers in achieving higher education and to empower foster youth to have a voice in the system. The study interviewed 15 adults who were formerly in foster care, 10 foster parents, and 9 foster care stakeholders. In addition, interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using qualitative techniques. Themes identified were strengths of foster youth, emotional impact of foster care, and foster care best practices. These data will be used to inform the University of Utah First Star program about areas for improvement in the pathway to higher education they create for their students. This research study will provide insight into the facilitators and barriers to higher education from multiple perspectives and will empower foster youth to advocate for themselves through the use of narratives of adults formerly in foster care, whose voices are often excluded from foster care research.

Jorgensen, Leteasha; Hinkson, Kent; Brooks, Malisa; Bryan, Craig (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: Hinkson, Kent (Utah Valley University, Behavioral Science)

Alcoholism has become a large concern for the United States military, beginning decades ago. With the abundance of challenges faced by service members (e.g. multiple deployments, being away from social support for longer periods of time, injury and death, etc), alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism during these times and continues after they have left the military. Veterans are at increased risk of comorbid substance use disorder and other mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. With the prevalence of several different types of traumas occurring in and around military service, the question was raised if the type of trauma a veteran experiences results in different rates of alcohol consumption. The hypothesis was that certain subpopulations (based on type of trauma) within a sample of veterans would have higher rates of alcohol consumption than others. Data was collected on the amount of alcohol that is consumed, as well as trauma the types of trauma participants may have experienced including categories such as assault, natural disaster, sexual assault, and exposure to war zone. Analyses of the data suggested that interpersonal traumas were associated with increased drinking when compared to non-interpersonal traumas, with the exception of sexual assault which is non-significant. Further inspection identified that when sexual assault is split between inappropriate touching or non-penetrative assault, coercive rape, and forcible rape, the associations between trauma type and alcohol use vary significantly with coercive rape having a strong negative relationship with alcohol consumption. One possible explanation for this is that those who survived a coercive assault desire to remain focused and cognitively capable of avoiding such a situation again. With veterans having such higher rates of trauma exposure, understanding how this relates to alcohol consumption can help facilitate mental health treatment in a variety of ways.

White, Justin; Dahl, AnnElise; Harmison, Dillon; Klein, Jenni; Lemons, Anne; Simmons, Jordan; Mansfield, Cade; White, Leigh (Weber State University)
Faculty Advisor: Mansfield, Cade (Weber State University, Psychology); Shaw, Leigh (Weber State University, Psychology)

Contrary to stereotypes, past research indicates that people become more emotionally positive across adulthood. Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory posits that with shortened time horizons over the lifespan people focus more on emotional satisfaction and meaning in life (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). This "positivity effect", is found in the fact that relative to younger adults, older adults show biases toward superior processing of positively valenced emotional stimuli (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005). Personal relationships are a key source of satisfaction and emotional well-being and from the standpoint of Socio-emotional Selectivity theory, positivity in relationships is thought to be highly prioritized by older adults. Yet, according to classic and contemporary developmental psychological theories such as Erikson's Psychosocial theory of development and Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood, younger adults should also prioritize positivity in relational functioning. There has been less theory and research that has focused on understanding how midlife adults process emotionally rich relational experiences. To better understand emotional and cognitive processes across adulthood, the current study explores age-related differences in the emotional impact of a difficult relational experience (a time one perpetrated harm against another) and age-related differences in the linguistic features of adults' narratives of these experiences. Two hundred and eighteen adults ranging in age from 20 to 69 were recruited to participate in the study through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. Participants were asked to recall a time when they did something that negatively impacted a personally important relationship and to then vividly recall it for 2 minutes. Then they completed a battery of questionnaires about the memory. Finally, participants wrote narratives about the memory. Data are being analyzed only for those participants who recalled memories consistent with the prompt and passed attention checks during the protocol (n = 194, female = 110, Mean Age = 43.32, SD = 13.82).

Melgar, Emiliano; Calligaro, Thomas; Wendt, Carl; Delsescaux, Jeffery; Bernard, Henri; Robles, Alma; Claes, Pieterjan; Rojas, Miguel; GarcIa, Martha; Castillo, Sabrina; Garber, James; Kenneth, Hirth; Grove, David; Hoopes, John; Juarez-Rodriguez, Octavio; Argote-Espino, Denisse; Santos-Ramirez, Marco; Lopez-Garcia, Pedro; Manrique-Ortega, Mayra; Mitrani, A.; Casanova-Gonzales, Edgar; Jimenez-Galindo, L.; Ruvalcaba-Sil, Jose; Solis Ciriaco, Reyna; Curado, Jessica; Laclavetine, Killian; Cruz, R.; Manzanilla, Linda (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Forest, Marion (Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Anthropology); Allison, Jim (Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Anthropology)

The collecting of antiquities has been popular since Roman times. In recent years, however, this practice has become more and more disheartening for archaeologists as they try to piece together history. Private collections donated to museums often lack the provenience of the artifacts and include many fakes. Such is the case with the collection of greenstone artifacts privately donated to BYU's Museum of Peoples and Cultures starting in the 1970s. An analysis of this collection strove to develop a methodology of identifying the fake from the authentic artifacts through non-destructive methods. Initially, visual examination of the artifacts was completed including microwear analysis and recording the color and density of the stones. Further authenticating methods included microscopy, X-ray florescence, and SEM (scanning electron microscope). Through a thorough examination of the density and color of the stone as well as the elements present as shown by the PXRF scan, an endeavor was made to identify what stone the artifact was made of and its source. Using the resulting data, a detailed catalog was created of the artifacts. Employing these same analyses, museums everywhere can check the authenticity of donated collections and possibly source the artifacts.

Smith, Heather; Chellamuthu, Dr. Vinodh (Dixie State University)
Faculty Advisor: Chellamuthu, Vinodh (Dixie State University, Mathematics)

The Zero Waste movement aims to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, incinerators, and recycling through education on more sustainable choices. Individuals are educated on how to avoid single-use items, reduce, reuse, and compost as much as possible, and recycle when necessary. Making more sustainable choices on an individual or family level can be a significant part of the solution to plastic pollution and climate change. We developed an individual-based model that shows the relationship between idea dissemination, individual choices, and waste collection. The model is based on statistical data concerning waste, pollution, and idea dissemination to better understand how education about Zero Waste can efficiently reduce landfill contributions and help the local economy. Our results from this model can help policymakers make decisions about waste management, and influencers educate people on the Zero Waste movement.

Jake, Baldauf; Nolan, Cole; Zabriskie, Brinley (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Zabriskie, Brinley (Brigham Young University, Physical and Mathematical Sciences)

Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines data from multiple studies. This is particularly useful in clinical research when multiple studies produce conflicting results or when reaching a definitive conclusion on the effectiveness of a medication. Determining the extent to which these studies differ from one another due to differences in treatment administration and patient populations is key to identifying treatment efficacy. Estimation of the differences the studies demonstrate is known as heterogeneity. Estimating the heterogeneity test statistic tau for meta-analysis is key to ensuring the validity of clinical research. We investigate the ability of available heterogeneity methods for dichotomous data by analyzing data from multiple clinical trials; we have found that specific methods of estimating heterogeneity outperform others while a select few consistently underperform. Understanding which method performs best will allow clinical researchers to better estimate heterogeneity, thereby improving their ability to find new treatments.

Knudson, Adam; Faught, Nolan (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Kempton, Mark (Brigham Young University, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences)

Resistance distance is a form of metric on connected graphs that becomes exponentially difficult to compute as the size of a graph increases. We examine the resistance distance on a class of graphs that may be decomposed into chains of some graph G and derive a generalized formula for the resistance between any two vertices. We apply this formula to a subclass of these graphs, named flower graphs, and proceed to give an explicit formula for Kemeny's constant and the Kirchhoff index of these flower graphs.

Jonah Nicoll; Zach Clement; Hal Svien; Gary Burlingame (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Burlingame, Gary (Brigham Young University, Psychology)

Aims: Many practice guidelines place cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as the gold-standard treatment for psychotic disorders. Our previous meta-analysis on group psychotherapy for schizophrenia (Burlingame et al., under review) employed a strict set of inclusion criteria (e.g., RCT, use of 2 measures, comparison groups, etc.) limiting the number of CBT studies applied to patients presenting on the psychosis spectrum. It found no meta-analytic evidence for group CBT (GCBT) ameliorating psychotic symptoms but only included 5 studies. This meta-analysis will be less restrictive to include more interventions under a broader GCBT umbrella to extend our earlier findings.

Methods: A literature search identified nearly 20 more randomized controlled trials that included in our previous analysis that evaluated some form of GCBT in treating psychosis. Three main outcomes will be assessed: schizophrenia-specific measures of psychotic symptoms, treatment-specific measures assessing treatment aims, and general measures assessing broad functioning.

Results: Preliminary results are still being calculated. Subgroup analyses will include Burlingame et al.'s (under review) CBT categorization and include interventions broadly focused on behavior and cognition, including social skills interventions that also emphasize cognition (viz., Granholm et al., 2005, 2007).

Discussion: Results will be framed in relation to Burlingame et al.'s (under review) meta-analysis. It is likely that the stricter classification of CBT resulted in an attenuation of the effects with a psychosis population. Furthermore, there is a general lack of agreement on what interventions should be labeled CBT (nb., Wampold et al., 1997; Wampold & Imel, 2015).

Keywords: group treatment, schizophrenia

Larsen, Aaron; Chow, Sum (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Chow, Sum (Brigham Young University, Mathematics)

Many definitions and fractional derivative operators are used in the application of mathematics. This paper analyzes a newly presented definition of the fractional derivative by R. Khali, el al. Numerical methods, specifically the finite difference method using boundary conditions, are applied to the Bagley-Torvik equation. This equation is used to describe the motion of a rigid plate in a Newtonian fluid. This results of using this new definition are then compared to those of the known fractional derivative operators of Riemann-Liouville and Caputo.

Islam, Mohammad; Heiny, Erik; Robles, Francisco; Ram, Trevor (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: Islam, Mohammad (Utah Valley University, Mathematics); Heiny, Erik (Utah Valley University, Mathematics)

In this project, we investigate two methods to detect trend in the time series data, of which one proposed method what we call it "ADM- Average Difference Method" gives the estimate of trend , and the other method what we call it "AMD-Absolute Max Difference" determines if there is any trend in the time series data. Both methods are applicable to linear and nonlinear time series data. We assess the quality of our proposed methods and compare our methods with nonparametric Mann-kendall test through Monte Carlo simulation by calculating the power of the tests. The power comparisons show that ADM- Average Difference Method performs better than Mann-Kendall test when there is no autocorrelation in the time series observations and non-monotonic autocorrelated series. However, absolute max difference method works well compared to Mann-Kendall test for detecting the trend when data are autocorrelated. Finally, we use our proposed method along with those in use to detect trend in two standard datasets -Alta Snowfall data and Nile river water flow data. ADM was able to detect trend in the Nile water flow data as did MK test, which is supported by the visual identification. On the other hand, AMD method failed to detect the trend in the Nile data. For Alta snowfall data, our proposed methods and MK test didn't find any trend over time as supported by visual inspection result.

Evans, Parker; Han, Jianlong (Southern Utah University)
Faculty Advisor: Han, Jianlong (Southern Utah University, Mathematics)

A Lengyel-Epstein system, describing the reactions of chlorite-iodide and malonic acid(CIMA), is studied through methods of numerical analysis. These reactions, describing certain natural patterns such as the recurring stripes in zebras, are examples of Turing Structures, with a non-diffusion rate application. The stability of the steady state solution of this system is analyzed to modelend-term behavior of such phenomena. We develop some numerical schemes that guarantee positive solutions and realistic applications. These numerical schemes model and verify of the theoretical results for the system.

Taylor, Ammon; Otterson, Jisun; Chellamuthu, Vinodh (Dixie State University)
Faculty Advisor: Chellamuthu, Vinodh (Dixie State University, Mathematics)

Dengue fever is one of the most common mosquito borne infections, and it is commonly spread in tropical climates. It can only be spread from the bite of a female Aedes aegypti mosquito. Wolbachia is a natural bacteria found in around 60% of all mosquito species, but it is not found naturally in the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the mosquito primarily responsible for the spread of Dengue virus. By infecting the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with Wolbachia, it will slow the growth of any viruses the mosquito may carry, including Dengue. One of the objectives of the proposed project is to develop a temperature-dependent mathematical model in order to predict the spread of the Dengue virus between mosquitoes and humans. Moreover, to make our simulation show the optimal range of temperature as well as what times during the year Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes should be released in order to be as cost-effective as possible. Furthermore, we will design a robust GUI that could be used by mosquito abatement centers in order to determine optimal strategies in order to most efficiently mitigate the disease outbreaks.