Interdisciplinary – Page 15 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Interdisciplinary

Silicon Oxynitride Derived from Rice Hull Ash (RHA) as An Anode Material for Lithium-ion Batteries

Climate change has increased the urgency to replace current energy production and storage techniques with more eco-friendly ones. Of all efforts that have been dedicated to improving the performance of the lithium-ion batteries (LIB) present in the market, Ulvestad et al. demonstrated that LIB anodes containing SiNx exhibit significantly higher capacities than commercial graphite anodes. Herein, we explore and optimize the performance of silicon oxynitride as an anode material for LIB. Carbothermal reduction of rice hull ash, an agricultural waste that is composed of carbon and SiO2 that intimately mixed in nano-scale, was used as the production methods in attempts to access high-performance anode materials in environmental- and economical-friendly processes. Factors such as temperatures, atmosphere, heating duration were adjusted to investigate their effects on Si2N2O yields in the products . Heretofore, it was found that: 1) higher reaction temperatures (1350-1600 °C) and longer treating durations (2-8 hours) lead to higher conversion of SiO2 in the starting materials; 2) the gaseous atmosphere (N2, NH3, N2+H2) is an essential factor determining the Si2N2O:Si3N4 ratio in the products. Future plans will focus on the influence of different densities of starting materials (pellet vs. mound powders). Testing and analyzing the electrochemical performance of the optimized products would be the goal for the longer-term.

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Taking a Stand: The Effect of Social Issue Stance-Taking on Human Capital Attraction

Companies can attract human capital, or potential employees, through wage incentives and non-wage incentives, such as commitments to causes like workplace diversity and environmental sustainability. This project examines the question of as these commitments to social issues become more prevalent in recruitment efforts, does this make companies more likely to support them. A data set of every job posting in the United States over the past decade is being analyzed by a code written in the program R that automatically sorts job postings based on keywords relating to specific non-wage incentives. In order to test the functionality of this code, smaller samples of the data set are being analyzed by manually searching for these keywords. The expected results of my role in this project is that by analyzing the smaller samples of the dataset, the main code will be validated in classifying job postings. We hope to find that this is a reliable way to find a company’s commitment to social issues and if so, that we can apply this technique to other demographics regarding the job market.

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El Problema con el Marianismo: ERI and Intragroup Discrimination in Latinx Women

Past research asserts that Latinx children receive differential treatment and socialization based on their gender, and this likely relates to their ethnic-racial identity (ERI) in adulthood (Raffaelli & Ontai, 2004). The present study aims to understand the relationship between Latinx adult women and how they perceive discrimination. The study also examines other ways that discrimination and ERI may affect Latinx women. This study focuses on the topic of marianismo (defined as a gender norm in Latinx culture that emphasizes familism, dependency and submissiveness in women (Sanchez, Smith & Adams, 2018) as opposed to machismo) and the ways in which traditional values and intragroup discrimination towards women in the Latinx community affect self-esteem and other mental health factors. Marianismo also encourages passivity in women while machismo emphasizes assertiveness in men (Nuñez et al., 2015). Data were collected using a Spanish-language Qualtrics survey completed by a large sample of adult Latinx women from the United States. I hypothesize that Latinx men will score more positively on measures of ERI affirmation and resolution than women and will likely have higher self-esteem and less depressive symptoms. Measures used for this Spanish-language study include a Self-Esteem Measure, a Depressive Symptoms Measure, and an ERI measure. The ERI measure assesses the topics of ERI exploration, affirmation, and resolution (Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015). Projected results provide insight into the relationship between Latinx women’s ERI and their mental health, while also delving into the complexity of intersectional identities as they pertain to overall well-being. Key words: Latinx, marianismo, Ethnic-Racial Identity, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, gender, discrimination

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Neurophysiological correlates of language processing

We examine the N400 as a response to single words. Prior to each target word a prime word is presented that may be semantically related to the target anomalous word. We then measure the brain wave response through the scalp using EEG to look at the electrical activity in the time for the duration of the stimulus. After cleaning data of artifacts such as those due to blinking, heartbeat, or saccades we then take compute the average event-related potential (ERP) for each subject and condition. Beyond the existence of the N400 and its relative amplitude with relation to conceptual similarity of the primed and target words we are particularly interested in the latency of the N400 which has hitherto only been influenced by subject age. Specifically , the speed of the priming words’ utterances could affect the brain response. We concluded from these measurements and subsequent analysis [Data is still being analyzed and no conclusion have been made at this stage yet]. This conclusion however has implications for our current understanding of semantic memory and underlying natural language processes of the brain.

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Changes in Health Behaviors After the Onset of Covid-19 and Differences Between Men and Women

With the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, many people’s daily lives and routines changed dramatically. Several studies have looked at how these changes impact health behaviors but seldom have looked at how changes in health behavior differ by gender. This study aims to examine changes in health behavior and identify if there are differences between men and women. Health behaviors are defined as anything that could have a negative or positive impact on health, specifically we looked at sleep, diet, exercise, smoking and drinking. Participants completed a survey asking how their health behaviors have changed since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Research will still need to be done on how we can address these differences and why some populations are more likely to have changes in health behavior. However, these results will help guide public health efforts to target specific populations.

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Mental Health & COVID-19

The purpose of this research is to understand the experience of COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic-related stress and the factors that exacerbate or buffer stress. This study is important simply due to the fact that COVID-19 has overall put more stress on the average person, so it is important to gather data during these trying times in order to see how much rates of stress, depression, hypertension, mania and other mental health ailments have taken a toll on the average person. With the pandemic in full effect, we are seeing a rise in mental health crises among minority populations. It is important to analyze this data and see what solutions can be implemented to combat this vital situation here in the United States.

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Examining Resistance in Military Occupations

The original research project in my first year of UROP was a historical analysis of different wars throughout history using factors outlined in Dr. Marcum’s research to determine whether a military occupation occurred, and then to determine whether or not the occupation failed. The current project is my independent research idea that looks at the military occupations from the perspective of the occupied countries rather than the occupiers. My initial goal of the project was to examine various cases of occupations and any instances of resistance from the occupied countries to figure out a framework for analyzing types of resistance. I used previous research done on resistance for occupations in Korea and Taiwan in Japan as my background research. In Resistance to alien rule in Taiwan and Korea (Hechter, Mateson, Hale 2009), the article conducts a comparative analysis of Japanese colonial rule in Korea versus Taiwan and how different factors of the colonial rule affected the duration and strength of the resistance in these two countries. Using this previous research, I examined resistance in the Mexican-American American War in 1846-1848 and the French Indochina War of 1858-1862 to see how the resistance strategies compared, and identified what factors contribute to the differences in resistance.

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Making Learning Visible in the Clinical Team-based Simulations

In the medical field, the technique of “breaking bad news” is incredibly important for future doctors and social workers to practice and receive meaningful feedback on. Our research team transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted over 150 medical simulation videos to analyze body language, tone of voice, and responses to see how students reacted to feedback from debriefers. A methodology was employed for multimodal sentiment analysis, which consists of gathering sentiments from available simulation videos by extracting audio, visual, and textual data features as sources of information. Then, this information can be used to predict and analyze a trainee’s emotional states when receiving feedback. As this study is still in process, conclusive findings cannot be stated but thus far the findings show a range of different reactions to the feedback ranging from negative deactivating to positive activating. Overall, the goal is to optimize the feedback given in order to fully prepare future medical professionals for the critical task of delivering bad news. This research is valuable to the future of medical education, as analyzing the quality of feedback given can help to optimize these patient simulations and better prepare medical students for real-life situations.

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Making Learning Visible in the Clinical Team-based Simulations

In the medical field, the concept of “breaking bad news” is incredibly important for future doctors and social workers to practice and receive meaningful feedback on. The moment a medical professional tells a family member bad news, that instance stays with the patient’s family for the rest of their life. Our team transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted over 150 medical simulation videos to analyze body language, tone of voice, and responses to see how they reacted to feedback from debriefers. Our goal is to optimize the feedback given in order to fully prepare future medical professionals for this critical task. This study was conducted on a sample of over 150 fifteen-minute videos of medical students debriefing with supervisors about their breaking bad news patient simulation.

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