Abstracts
Economic progress and corresponding human consumption continue to deplete natural resources reserves through the extraction and processing of critical minerals. Critical minerals are defined in Executive Order 14017 as materials vital to the economic or national security of the U.S., vulnerable to supply chain disruption, and serving an essential function in the manufacture of a product, whose absence would have significant consequences. Removing critical minerals from the earth (mining) also has detrimental effects on the environment and human health. One possible strategy to mitigate the pollution, biodiversity loss, and waste production associated with mining is adopting the principles of a circular economy. A circular economy involves (among other principles) reusing, repairing, and recycling materials and products for as long as possible. The ongoing research in the Smith lab focuses on the novel application of existing and robust chemical processes for recovering critical minerals from current waste streams. The majority of our work involves using emulsion separation technology to recover lithium from oilfield brine and to separate samarium and cobalt from scrap magnets. The process development and current results will be discussed.
Kombucha tea has gained popularity for its antimicrobial properties, antioxidant activity, and polyphenol content. These properties are attributed to acetic acid and flavonoid production during fermentation, which lowers the pH of kombucha and contributes to the production of kombucha’s proposed health benefits. In this study, eight different types of herbal kombucha-fermented teas (HKFTs) were studied over a two-week fermentation period, during which the chemical profiles of the different HKFTs were analyzed. Colorimetric assays, such as the DPPH and the Folin-Ciocalteu assays, resulted in a positive increase of both antioxidant activities and polyphenol content as fermentation progressed in all HKFTs. The antimicrobial properties of the HKFTs were also measured against Escherichia coli, resulting in partial bacterial inhibition for the different teas regardless of their pH value. The results suggest that the chemical profile of kombucha changes throughout the fermentation process and is dependent on the organic material used to brew the tea.
This presentation traces the development, implementation, and subsequent real-world adventures of a faculty sabbatical project, addressing some current issues of academic scholarship in general terms, while also providing some discussion of translation studies and practices. The project in question was the result of several long processes that ended in a proposal to do a translation and anthology of works by Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina. The presentation describes the execution of the project (how works were chosen, the act of translation, review work with colleagues and a superstar research assistant, etc.) and also what has occurred in the time since the project was completed (work with the author and potential outlets for publication). To demonstrate each of these areas, a number of sample texts from the anthology will be presented and discussed.
Some historians and scientists tend to dismiss the medicine of the past as irrelevant, emblematic of a distant, backwards way of thinking that has nothing to teach us in the 21st century. In this talk, I explore how leading World War I psychiatric authorities in France approached what they viewed as the problem of soldiers’ "pathological" emotions, illuminating an important part of Western medical history and, at the same time, offering frameworks for thinking about today’s medicine as well. This intervention not only gestures toward a clearer understanding of how WWI French medical authorities approached their responsibilities as doctors and, for the first time in much of the Western world, as legislative consultants who shaped how dominant cultures imagine what it means for a body (including the body politic) to be healthy or sick; this work also makes visible ongoing prejudice surrounding human emotion, which we often treat as, at worst, a sickness, or, at the very least, as an inconvenience–rather than a source of useful information that reflects and drives our engagement with the world around us.
The American Institute of CPAs predicts that 75% of CPAs actively working today will retire in the next 15 years. With the declining number of accounting graduates and an even greater decline in the number of graduates pursuing the CPA license, alarm bells are being sounded about an extreme shortage of practicing CPAs in the coming years. My research delves into why this is a matter of public interest, the reasons behind the decline, and solutions as to what can be done to reverse the downward trend of accounting graduates.
The Westminster Entrepreneurship Center (WEC) serves as a dynamic hub for supporting small businesses and start-up companies through practical, research-driven solutions. Leveraging the talents of students and faculty, the WEC offers a range of services designed to address the core needs of emerging ventures. These services include comprehensive marketing strategies, social media management, accounting solutions, and guidance in business management and human resources development. By providing objective research and actionable deliverables, the WEC empowers entrepreneurs to make informed decisions, optimize operations, and achieve sustainable growth. Some of the project types have included: A regional sports complex A large medical device non-profit A bio-Pharmaceutical start-up A Logistics company A national industrial general contractor A growing restaurant Numerous other businesses in Lawrence County and other counties This collaborative environment fosters innovation and equips students with hands-on experience while contributing to the local economy.
This presentation is based on my recent contribution to the edited volume Breaking Point: Russia, Ukraine and the Future of International Relations, published by Rowman & Littlefield. The chapter on which this presentation is based presents a variety of data commonly used to assess relative power in the international system, including measures of both economy capacity and military expenditures. These data illustrate the Russian Federation’s relative position compared to other global powers and also among states within the post-Soviet region. The essay discusses the relationship between the relative regional and global balance of power, and Russian foreign policy behavior as it relates to the Russia’s ongoing rivalry with the West as well as its increasing dependence on its "no limits" alignment with China. The essay discusses the sustainability of Russian foreign policy in light of these shifting material conditions and the Russia Federation's aspiration to protect its influence in Eurasia and continue to act as a global great power.
Although there has been an increased interest in the postsecondary experiences of high achieving students in the last ten years, in their systematic review of undergraduate honors programs, Rinn and Plucker (2019) identify a gap in the literature related to research on high achieving students and the undergraduate programs that serve them. They explain that the current research that exists on academically talented undergraduates tends to focus on topics related to college choice, personality characteristics, programming and career counseling. The current project accessed a sample of high achieving students from a rural liberal arts college to study how academically talented students place value on aspects of their educational experiences, including experiences within interdisciplinary courses. Q Methodology, or the systematic study of subjectivity, was utilized with a sample of 23 student participants. The participants were asked to rank-order 28 pre-selected statements from the literature associated with high achieving students, from “most agree to disagree”. The researchers then used the computer program PQMethod to establish statistical correlations and factor analysis (i.e. groups q-sorts together that have been done similarly). Three statistically significant factors emerged from the analysis that suggest the following patterns in subjective student experiences: (1) performance-based self-esteem seems to heavily influence how some students experience the educational process, (2) it is possible that flexible course designs, such as allowing students to re-do assignments and offering flexible due dates, provide a sense of freedom for some students to engage in deeper learning practices, and (3) students are varied on the value that they place on strict grading policies. These findings have the potential to inform effective pedagogical approaches.
Nature therapy involves an individual connecting mindfully with nature, a process which has been demonstrated to improve one’s physical and mental health. Because stress is not an easy subject to measure, our study involved objective measures (ex: heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability, sleep score, stress score, and salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels) and subjective measures (ex: surveys). For the first half of the four-week study, individuals continued their daily routines for baseline stress measurements. During the second half, participants completed nature therapy activities to determine if the nature therapy reduced the stress measurements. The goals of our study included assessing the impact of nature therapy on the objective and subjective measurements of stress in this small pilot study and determining which stress measurements are best for larger, future nature therapy studies. This study, involving human subjects, was approved by Westminster’s Institutional Review Board, and confidentiality was maintained on all participant data. The results of our data show statistical significance in perceived stress. More in-dept data is continuing.
This project sought to develop elements for a pilot television show borrowing from the style and using techniques from TikTok. Sanderson's summer scholar research involved working with Professor Weaver to create segments for a potential show that explores Westminster's green scene, targeting older kids while adapting from the paradigm of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy." The goal was to create entertaining content with educational information embedded in it. The summer research also overlapped with summer scholars in Environmental Science, where student Avery Keenan joined Dr. Patrick Krantz to study data about honeybee swarms. Hallie Hughes looked into nature therapy with Dr. Helen Boylan.
During the process of embryogenesis and tissue repair, intracellular mechanisms determine the fate of a cell. What are these mechanisms and when are the decisions made? While external cues play a factor in these decisions, my interests focus internal cues of cells and the control of gene expression during the decision-making process, such as cell and tissue differentiation. The Mexican salamander Ambystoma mexicanum (axolotl) is an excellent model for this field because juveniles and adults are capable of regenerating significant portions of their bodies, such as limbs, tails, jaws, and even the central nervous system. Students who work with me in my lab are interested in factors that might influence the regeneration rate of limbs and expression of homeotic selector (hox) genes involved in limb regeneration.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, as well as emotion dysregulation. Growing research demonstrates that ADHD is associated with many psychosocial impairments. One especially important impairment associated with ADHD is nicotine consumption. ADHD is highly comorbid with nicotine consumption across the developmental lifespan. ADHD-like symptoms and nicotine use can be studied in the general human population but also through the use of preclinical animal models. This presentation will provide an overview of animal and human research aimed at improving our understanding of the relationships between nicotine consumption, ADHDlike behaviors, and ADHD treatment.
Mathematicians are trained to communicate their research to other mathematicians with a fairly unique set of rules. When writing an article, the author’s job is to provide rigorous, concise proofs, usually intended for other experts in the field. However, writing an undergraduate textbook in mathematics requires a different set of skills, and even the most talented mathematicians need a little help. In this talk, we will discuss my scholarly work as an Associate Editor for the Mathematical Association of America’s undergraduate textbook series: how I got the job, the editing process, and my future involvement.
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive research study was to describe the persistence strategies used to overcome professional barriers by women with STEM degrees who are working in a STEM role. Using social cognitive career theory (SCCT) of selfefficacy, two research questions (RQ) were developed to understand the phenomenon: 1. What experiences with professional barriers have been encountered in the workplace of women with STEM degrees who are currently working in a STEM role? and 2. How do these women with STEM degrees describe their experiences with their persistence strategies? To identify support factors women applied to persist in their roles, an online questionnaire was sent to 974 potential participants and posted to social media, and 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted. From RQ1, two themes emerged: environment and obstacles to perseverance. These supported SCCT of self-efficacy through both social persuasion and physical and emotional states. From RQ2, three themes surfaced: expectations, goals and objectives, and lifelong learning; these reinforce SCCT’s outcome expectations, personal goals, and self-efficacy as it pertains to personal performance accomplishments and experiences. Based on the study’s findings, practical workplace and educational applications emerged. Stakeholders in STEM organizations can improve women’s persistence through nonjudgmental support, networking and mentoring, career pathing, learning plans, and continuous learning opportunities.
Before students meet their fullest learning potential in our classrooms, a specific series of needs must be satisfied to attain high levels of achievement. Prioritizing students’ overall well-being is essential for establishing an enriching learning environment for optimal student growth and success. Using the motivation theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, my research focuses on implementation practices of restructuring syllabi, classroom delivery and instruction to better meet the needs of university students. Using this research-based framework to connect physical, emotional and social needs within the learning environment helps instructors promote students’ holistic growth, impact and increase student motivation and engagement, and design instructional strategies that will enhance classroom management by creating an inclusive learning environment for all students and disciplines.
Prior research suggests that women face several obstacles while working to ascend the organizational chart within professional sports. These suggested obstacles include sexism, biases, verbal and physical harassment and toxic organizational culture. However, little is known about the experiences of women who have navigated the barriers and attained leadership positions in professional sports organizations. The purpose of the current study is to explore the experiences of these women. This study will initially utilize a systematic literature review to examine existing empirical research of women employed in a leadership position in men’s professional sports organizations. Additionally, through semi-structured interviews, data will be generated from women currently in leadership positions to better understand how they perform gender and how bearing the weight of invisible and emotional labor is associated with this performance of gender.
This presentation argues for including study of the Old Order Amish (OOA) in higher education diversity requirements. Amish culture presents differences from the essential principles of a liberal arts education as well as from the values and social organization of the larger dominant culture. Furthermore, existing research and the multiple dimensions of Amish distinction invite study from multiple disciplines. My arguments for Amish diversity classification are as follows. First, the Amish population is rapidly increasing and expanding geographically, increasing the need for non-Amish cultural competency. Second, the Amish experience occasional prejudice and discrimination from and significant misrepresentation in the non-Amish population. Third, religion is inadequately represented in higher education diversity curricula. Fourth, Amish societies reveal growing levels of income and wealth inequality whose analysis is a core concern of diversity mandates. Finally, learning about this ethno-religious community invites students to grapple with cultural relativism and constitutional principles, as illustrated in case studies of gender stratification and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Western Pennsylvania has been a crossroads for travelling humans for over 19,000 years. Rivers and riverside paths can help find low passes when travelling through the mountains east and west or between the mountains when travelling north and south. During the 17th and 18th centuries, travelling south to north through western Pennsylvania took on an extra layer of meaning. For people fleeing from enslavement, Western Pennsylvania was a place where they had to dodge bounty hunters, find allies, and connect to a final route out of the country and away from the jurisdiction of fugitive slave laws. As a seat of abolitionist thought, Pittsburgh was not a leader in words like Boston or action like Rochester, but it was a key point of connection that gave escapees the strategic options necessary to keep their pursuers guessing. Uniquely in western PA, some who were making their escape up the Atlantic coast and turned inland at Philadelphia might meet those who were making their escape up the Ohio river valley as well as those travelling north via Cumberland, MD. As a set of stations in the underground railroad, towns in Western Pennsylvania were meeting places and switching yards where groups of escapees from multiple points of origin could find each other and work together to set up their next steps toward self-emancipation and freedom. Exploring this distinctive place in the history of freedom-seeking, abolitionist activism, and civil disobedience can show us the long arc of Western Pennsylvania’s story as a place that welcomes strangers and offers help to people in their times of trial.
With commercial-free tiers on streaming services and other ways for consumers to avoid watching commercials, advertisers’ use of hybrid marketing messages and branded entertainment continues to increase. This presentation reports the results of a study that examined how exposure to one type of promotional message—brand placement—may impact consumers’ identity formation. It also discusses how one faculty member is planning on resuming research related to the topic by shifting focus to a younger audience and helping a senior, capstone student explore brand placement in video games.
Measuring musicality is of fundamental importance to music researchers who may be interested in understanding musical behaviors and their impact on peoples’ actions. However, this seemingly simple task is fraught with challenges. Narrow, skill-based measures of musicality can be time-consuming to administer, not naturalistic, and necessarily culturally situated. Recently developed measures of musical sophistication have attempted to capture musical behaviors more broadly, but are burdensome for participants due to time constraints and cultural context. Although less nuanced, established single-item measures can relieve the difficulty of administration.
The Big Thicket is the traditional name for a bioregion of southeast Texas just north of the Gulf coast between the Trinity and Neches rivers. It is a rare example of what ecologists call an “ecotonal complex,” an area in which a plurality of recognizably distinct ecosystems overlap and interact with each other. My current book project, titled Contact Zone: Supernature and Culture in the Big Thicket, is an interdisciplinary study of the intersection of environmental phenomena and religious practice in the Big Thicket. Engaging contemporary religious studies, ecological philosophy, local field science and folklore, Contact Zone reads the Thicket as a site for rethinking what we think we are talking about when we talk about religion: namely, human cultural techniques for mediation and negotiation with nonhumans.
Younger adults tend to show a bias toward negative (vs. positive and neutral) information in attention and memory, while older adults shift away from this negativity bias and sometimes show a bias for positive information. This coincides with a trend toward greater life satisfaction and emotional well-being as we age. I will talk about research examining how these trends manifest in the neural response to emotional stimuli, how they interact with the self-relevance of information, and how age affected emotional well-being and memory during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An important component of programs designed to reduce transmission of some of the world's most important vector-borne diseases, such as Zika virus and malaria, is the use of chemicals for reducing risk of human-vector contact. The number of chemicals for such uses is becoming increasingly limited due to an assortment of factors (e.g., bans, environmental concerns, potential adverse effects on human health, etc.;). These issues, in conjunction with increased disease problems, prompt a need to identify and develop alternative vector contact prevention methods, such as repellents. Over the last two years, experiments in my lab have evaluated several commercial and experimental mosquito repellents against Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, two important disease vectors. In addition, I will be presenting information on some of my laboratory field activities involving the collection of biological material from harvested black bears in northwestern Pennsylvania. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of local wildlife as reservoirs and/or sentinels of tick-borne diseases in the region.
Histone mRNA is a unique amongst mRNA molecules in animals due to a highly conserved element known as the 3’ stem-loop. This element replaces the vastly more common poly(A) tail. This unique structure and its binding partner, the Stem-Loop Binding Protein (SLBP), combine to regulate the expression of histone mRNA, a key event for maintaining the proper stability of DNA in cells. Being able to rapidly degrade histone mRNA is an especially key event, as over-expression of the mRNA leads to DNA packaging instability, which has catastrophic events during cell division. Dr. Lackey’s research focuses specifically on this rapid degradation and an enzyme, the 3’histone exonuclease (3’hExo), that helps catalyze this early part of degradation. Dr. Lackey and his students use a combination of biophysical lab techniques and computational simulations to better understand the way that this small modification affects the stability of both the stem-loop and the stem-loop/3’hExo during the degradation of histone mRNA.