Current Winners - 2024
First Place
Abbey Rode
果冻传媒麻豆社
“Listening Carefully: Disrupting Adultification during the Sentencing Process”
ABSTRACT:
Black children are often viewed as older and more responsible than their White counterparts (Epstein et al., 2017). The effect of adultification can be seen in many different domains of life, but especially within the criminal justice system. Studies show that Black boys are sentenced to longer terms than White boys of the same age (Goff et al., 2014). Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, I hypothesize higher level processing may disrupt the adultification process, using language that is stereotype in-congruent may increase elaboration and decrease adultification. Results suggest that using stereotype in-congruent language will significantly lower Black defendants' amounts of community service and potentially reduce adultification.
Abbey Rode is a Psychology Master's student.
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Second Place
Alexandra Pace
果冻传媒麻豆社
“Calves are Inflamed: A Burning Issue”
ABSTRACT:
Climate change is increasing wildfires, which release air pollutants like PM2.5. Exposure to wildfire-PM2.5 lowers milk production in dairy cows, affects calf health and metabolism, causes systemic inflammation, and can lead to death. Although systemic responses to wildfire-PM2.5 have been evaluated, the local response within the lung has yet to be described. To assess this, neonatal dairy calves were followed for the first 90-d of life, which aligned with Idaho’s wildfire season. Samples were collected before, during, and after naturally occurring wildfires. Lung inflammation was visualized using ultrasound. Immune cells were harvested from the blood and lung to assess cellular responses. Wildfire-PM2.5 increased lung inflammation for several days and altered immune cell populations within the lung and blood, indicating cell mobilization to combat inhaled PM2.5. As severe wildfires are expected to persist, mitigating wildfire-PM2.5 health deficits in dairy cattle will assist dairy producers in feeding a growing world population.
Alexandra Pace is a Animal Physiology Ph.D. student.
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Third Place
Mason Bull
Boise State University
“Tracking Greening of Alpine Watersheds: Classifying Landcover Change via Remote Sensing”
ABSTRACT:
The last 4 decades have seen a global increase in vegetated biomass due to increased temperatures and a steadily lengthening growing season. These changes promote a loss of ice and increase of plant cover and plant density, known as greening. This greening is seen more in arctic and alpine environments than elsewhere, and current literature states that new growth consists of low-lying tundra plants, as well as encroaching shrub communities into previously uninhabited rocky slopes. Global greening and upslope vegetation movement are well-documented phenomena at broad scales, but we have less understanding of greening mechanisms and spatial distributions of vegetation changes at the watershed scale. This study focuses on the Nellie Juan watershed in South Central Alaska, and seeks to understand the rates and mechanisms of landcover change in this coastal watershed. Understanding the interactions between vegetation and snowpack and relating these changes to regional topography will allow us to better understand changes to water storage in alpine regions under the stress of changing climate.
Mason Bull is a Geosciences master’s student.
Yoram Terleth
The Role of Water in Driving Unstable Ice-flow
People’s Choice
Seyedeh Melika Akaberi
Idaho State University
“Unlocking Viral Secrets: How Viruses alter Brain Function”
ABSTRACT:
This thesis explores how viruses interfere with communication in the brain, and their contribution to neurodegenerative diseases. The aims are: 1) Identify viral components capable of altering neuronal function, 2) Determine how viruses produce this effect. We show that Rabies, Herpes, and Covid-19 inhibit the function of nicotine receptors in the brain, revealing new insights into the relationships between viruses and brain disorders such as Alzheimer's. This work opens exciting new avenues for innovative intervention, and treatment.
Seyedeh Melika Akaberi is a Pharmaceutical Science Ph.D. student.
Seyedeh Melika Akaberi
Unlocking Viral Secrets: How Viruses alter Brain Function