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Microplastics are a critical pollution threat due to the health risks they pose to humans and the greater marine ecosystems they are often found in. In an attempt to mitigate the amount of microplastic pollution found in the oceans, this literature review explored how and why mussels filter microplastics and if those mechanisms can be used as an avenue for large-scale pollution removal efforts. It was found that, although mussels are very efficient in the uptake of microplastic particles, they are not suitable for remediation efforts. Using them as filters is currently unfeasible as it could have negative effects on people and the mussels themselves. Furthermore, introducing new mussel species to a pre-existing community could have unintended ecological consequences. However, there is massive potential for mussels to be used as indicator species that could monitor the pollution concentrations in a given area.
KEYWORDS: mussels, microplastics, filtration

This literature review sought to answer the following questions:

1. How do mussels filter microplastics?
2. Are any specific mussel species preferable for filtration?
3. Can the mussel filtration mechanism be implemented into large-scale pollution management efforts?

These are valuable questions to answer as microplastic pollution continues to be an issue in today’s marine ecosystems. Without intervention to rectify the current levels of ocean pollution, the problem will continue to grow as more and more plastic is introduced to the environment. Mussels are a compelling potential solution as they naturally filter water in their immediate surroundings. The goal of this literature review is to discover a promising link between how mussels filter water in their environment and how microplastics can be filtered from the ocean.

Nature-based solutions, biological indicators, wetland ecology, fish biology

Mussels and Microplastics: Filtration Mechanisms and their Potential in Pollution Remediation Efforts

Previous research has found that cultural display rules and emotion expression vary across cultures. These cultures are often categorized into broad  categories (e.g. individualistic vs collectivist cultures; independent vs interdependent cultures). However, there is important variability within these broad cultural groups as well. For example, Mexican and Japanese cultures differ in their emotional expressions even though both are considered to be interdependent cultures. One interesting cultural group that is understudied  is South Asian culture. Most emotion research that focuses on interdependent cultures is conducted with East Asian cultures and generalised to other interdependent cultures. This paper investigates how South Asians differ from East Asians in terms of emotion expression and display rules and demonstrates why South Asian cultures are distinct from other cultural groups that were formerly assumed to be similar.

Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Development

This or That? Categorizing South Asian Emotional Display Rules.

Research on non-pharmacologic approaches to improve mental health in adolescents are lacking. Exercise has been proposed to improve mental health outcomes in adults. However, its impact on adolescents and the type of exercise that provides the most benefit are unclear. Esther will perform a systematic review of the literature to find randomized, controlled clinical trials that have attempted to address this question. She will collate trials that compare either aerobic or strength training vs. placebo or directly comparing aerobic vs. strength training. She will learn how mental health outcomes are objectively measured (e.g. standardized questionnaires (PHQ-9), symptom severity/frequency, psychiatric hospitalizations, need for pharmacologic treatment). In her review, she will comment on patterns across recent clinical trials, critique the quality of each study, and propose further questions that have yet to be answered by the literature.

Cardiovascular biology, immunology, cell and molecular biology, cancer biology, epigenetics, cancer, clinical medicine, public health, epidemiology

Comparing benefits of aerobic vs. strength training on mental health in adolescents

Title: The effects of the Internet and social media on attention among adolescents and young adults

The usage of the Internet and social media is increasing drastically day by day, affecting the cognitive processes involved in attention in adolescents and young adults who are the first generations that were born into this “connected” world. This paper will focus on reviewing the literature on this topic that exists today. However, it is crucial to keep in mind that the Internet and social media are the things humans have recently adapted to; thus, future investigations that will be available hold a very important place. The overall cognitive and neurobiological process of attention will be put forward with its relationship with the usage of the Internet and social media. Topics like multimedia tasking, attention span, ADHD, and IUD (Internet Use Disorder) will be touched upon, proceeding into the consequences of the possible impairments in attention due to the usage of the Internet and social media. Even though the consequences will be in groups of academic, mental and social, emphasizing that the lines between these are not distinct but rather blurry because they all are the cause or the effect of each other. The paper will then proceed onto suggestions and future investigation, where the discussion of what further research should be done on this topic will be held. Then, the conclusion part will summarize the general ideas and findings and aim to answer the research question.

Social Justice Issues, Psychology, Identity Development, Eating Disorders, Mental Health, Latin American Studies, Spanish, Developmental Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Career Psychology

“How does the usage of the Internet and social media affect the cognitive process of attention in adolescents and young adults? What are the academic, mental and social consequences of this impairment?”

Ophelia will be writing a research paper about agricultural sustainability on future martian colonies. The project will discuss the proposed missions to Mars and how we will colonize the planet in the next 50+ years, but will specifically focus on how to increase crop yields using cyanobacteria. Ophelia will conduct an experiment to assess the effect of cyanobacteria as a biofertilizer to see if they can be used to increased plant growth.

Astrobiology, deep-sea microbiology, environmental microbiology, extremophiles, life in hypersaline environments

How Anabaena can improve plant growth on Mars by acting as a biofertilizer

The project will be writing a review paper on the effect of edible coatings on shelf life extension of fresh cut fruits. We will use Google Scholar as our database.

Food microbiology, consumer packaged goods industry, brand management, brand marketing

The effect of edible coatings on shelf life extension of fresh cut fruits

Current work on aesthetic emotions shows that understanding and ease of processing of an artwork can lead to aesthetic pleasure and alternatively, a lack of understanding can lead to confusion and displeasure. It has also indicated that by impacting this processing, the contextualization of artwork, such as the use of a descriptive title, can influence a viewer’s aesthetic experience. In addition, the mere presence of an artwork in a museum space can increase the likelihood of interest and appreciation of the piece. The goal of this project is to compile a review of the progress and work in the area of aesthetic emotions research. Specifically, we hope to focus on how the environment or other people in the space impact the emotions of an artwork’s viewer. This will involve the review of past and current experiments that examine the factors that affect aesthetic emotional experiences. In addition, we will also look at theoretical papers that focus on this topic. We hope to understand how competing stimuli affect focus, understanding, and appreciation of artwork. We also hope to see how the presence and aesthetic experiences of other people affects understanding or emotion. This work can add to the field of aesthetic emotion research in providing a compilation of work to be easily accessed and built off of. In addition, it can possibly provide valuable insights on the role of distractions and emotion contagion in the field of aesthetic emotions. Lastly, this work can help both museums and viewers improve patrons’ understanding and appreciation of artwork.

cultural comparisons, emotion regulation strategies, interpersonal emotions, empathic accuracy, and emotion ideals

In what ways does the context (e.g. people and the environment) impact the emotions experienced by the perceiver of a piece of artwork?

The project topic is maternal mortality in women of color in the United States. The student still thinking about which target population the paper should focus on but she is lending on black American maternal health. The project is focused on a literature review in critiquing methods given three measures, first is to humanize the patient and the other two are still in process. The articles discuss methods to fight maternal mortality in women of color in the United States using the exclusions of only articles published within the last five years. At the end of the article, she going to give recommendations given those three measures to further discuss what is need to be done to address the high percentage of maternal mortality in women of color in the United States.

Public Health, Environmental Justice & Health Disparities, Healthcare Access, Global Health, Sociology, Epidemiology, One health, Environmental Exposures (Climate Change), infectious disease, Women's health, Immigrant Health

Literature review: Maternal mortality in women of color

Climate change affects countries worldwide, with people experiencing extreme weather events and loss of material possessions, increased exposure to certain pollutants, and adverse health impacts. The website will examine the effects of four areas relating to climate change: air pollution, water pollution, government action, and the personal carbon footprints of citizens. Each blog post will cover these topics for a new country, with international sources such as websites and government organizations serving as references. The climate impacts of nine countries from various locations and socioeconomic statuses will be examined to provide representative examples from around the world. Additionally, these countries will be of varying population sizes and densities to allow readers to learn about the range of contributions to and impacts of climate change on different countries and the actions of governments to prevent and mitigate future effects and contributions. The country posts will be consolidated into a google site that will be published for the public so that readers can learn about worldwide climate impacts. Readers will become more knowledgeable about other parts of the world and their climate situations and political climate change stances. The information will be provided in a concise and easily accessible format, which is currently not common on the internet. The target audience for this blog will be citizens from everywhere in the world who are interested in climate change and have some background knowledge about climate change. For readers to learn more about the country, references will be linked for each post, with some resources highlighted throughout the post for further reading.

Environmental Engineering, Air Quality and Atmospheric Chemistry, Sustainability, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Justice

How do countries from different regions of the world contribute to and feel the effects of climate change? In what ways are leaders and communities politically and socially responding to it?

False eyewitness testimony is a well-known phenomenon that was published a few years ago. False eyewitness testimony is when the eyewitness of a legal case wrongly encodes information about the details of a crime. This phenomenon is caused by physiological reasons, such as witness’s health conditions, age, and cross- race bias. According to past research, this phenomenon occured in about 69% of 395 cases evaluated. With a high percent rate of the false memory formed, the question leads to whether or not the victims will have a false memory based on the information that was given out through a false eyewitness testimony. Thus, this paper will be focused on investigating the victims’ false memory with several informative research papers. This paper will analyze three relevant research articles identified through Google Scholar. The first paper talks about how time might change the accuracy of eyewitness memory. The second paper reviewed focuses on the impact of trauma on memories of abuse which can specifically relate to the victim’s testimony. The last paper uses college students to better understand how the construction of narrative occurs when a story is told through a perpetrator or victims point of view. These papers will be reviewed to help answer the question of how different factors affect eyewitness and victim’s testimonies. This paper will also outline gaps in the literature relating to this topic and identify areas where future research should focus. These findings could be insightful when assessing the reliability of the victim’s testimony in courtroom cases.

neuroscience, neuroimaging, data science, psychology, clinical research

How do false eyewitness testimonies affect the victim’s testimony and memory of the details and process of the crime?

The green energy job market is growing consistently, excluding pandemic losses. Green energy jobs have overtaken fossil fuel jobs in electric power generation (EPG), and they are beginning to command a presence in fuels jobs. Demand for green energy workers is very high, and green energy employers are having trouble finding qualified workers to fill their open positions. In addition, real wages in this sector are increasing, the jobs are stable, and workers have more choice as to which parts of the US they want to live in than they would if they worked a fossil fuel job. Meanwhile, workers are being pushed out of fossil fuel jobs, and this has caused fossil fuel dependent communities to languish. However, workers pushed out of fossil fuel industries do not seem to be shifting to green energy jobs, despite their attractive qualities. This is caused by numerous major barriers. Active solutions are starting to form amongst major institutions, showing that there is a real problem and potential for opportunity in this area. My solution is to take this job transition online, consolidating the workers, employers, and necessary re-trainings in one place.

Economics, Statistics, Data Science, Natural Language Processing, Labor Economics, Industrial Organization, Antitrust, Economics of Education,  AI/ML, Text Analysis, Macroeconomics

Creating and Accelerating the Shift from Fossil Fuel Jobs to Green Energy Jobs

Saranika wants to look into the environmental impacts of water and soil contamination. Specifically how the Ph of soil can effect plant growth. We are exploring the process of presenting the appropriate background for the research questions and developing a sound experiment that will hopefully render sufficient results. 

Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Leadership, Graduate school application, interview and career fair prep, Engineering

Effects of Ph on soil viability 

Throughout the hot and arid months, ( May - September) anthropogenic impacts are causing wildfires to spread immensely in California and are inflicting devastating damage on the surrounding environment. Normally, naturally occurring fires are one of the best things that could help stabilize forest ecosystems. However, human impacts on the environment, ranging from increased fossil fuel consumption to growing logging industries have caused wildfires to spiral out of control. When the natural biosphere gets thrown out of balance, mass death and loss of biodiversity follows. This decrease in biodiversity could cascade into the extinctions of thousands of flora and fauna species across the West Coast. With the world's population increasing and more stress being put on natural resources, there is a growing fear that humans will eventually destroy the ancient forest biomes if no steps are taken to end the aforementioned phenomena. Currently, the techniques used to help control wildfires are not enough to stop them from causing massive damage to California’s biosphere.  Messy cleanups after logging operations and other careless human behavior are still the biggest reasons behind preventable wildfires. If the climate crisis and other human activities are not addressed immediately, the state could lose its most species-rich areas forever. 

behavioral science, social psychology, data science

California in Flames : A Literature Review on the Causes and Effects of Wildfires

This study aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation about the current and future impacts of technology on professions and the employment of human labor. The onset of language processing tools from a myriad of companies and the continued digitalization and automation of workloads have led to growing interest in the impacts this could have across the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Some professions face the threat of AI displacement, some have their workload modified, while others remain unimpacted. Measuring and discussing these shifts and changes is a primary goal of this study. This was done qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative research of experiences, opinions, and personal insights was first performed to provide a nuanced understanding of possible implications and broad trends. Quantitatively, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was then utilized in the construction of linear regression tests to determine whether there are significant relationships between increased AI adoption and employment gain/loss. This research ultimately showed the complex and varying impacts of AI in specific sectors. In the primary sector, statistical analyses reflected a general trend of moderate displacement from AI adoption due to possible compatibility between employees and machines. In the secondary sector, employment is shown to continue to rise despite AI adoption. Generally, AI adoption in that sector is more likely to shift the nature of work instead of replacing laborers. The tertiary sector remains more ambiguous. Because of its large nature and expansive list of industries, understanding the impacts of AI holistically is difficult.

Fintech, finance, macro/microeconomics, stock market

Analyzing the Impacts of A.I. on Employment and More in the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sectors

Predicting stock prices after an earnings report is incredibly difficult for even seasoned investors. Veer's project will be to utilize machine learning to create a multi-modal model that estimates the price of a stock immediately after an earnings report. He will do this by combining an LSTM model and a sentiment model. He will combine the two using a model he writes himself. Afterwards, the multi-modal model will be evaluated for accuracy. This project requires gathering stock market data and scraping earnings reports. 

Robotics, Machine Learning, Generative AI, Quantitative Finance, Algorithmic Trading, Statistics, Computer Science

Earnings Price Prediction for the Stock Market

First, the paper will explain the basics of quantum computers by comparing quantum computers to classical computers, like the difference between classical bits and qubits. Also, the paper would include information about the specific differences between classical computers and quantum computers that are relevant to the problems I will discuss in my paper, for example, how often quantum gates work vs. classical gates. Then, I would research why quantum computers are believed to be faster than classical computers. There is no proof that our current classical algorithms are the fastest, even though quantum algorithms can theoretically beat current classical algorithms. Then, I would explain how quantum computers can be better than classical computers, potentially including cases or scenarios that help explain this. I would have to conduct some research for problems where we can find a good classical algorithm and then see how quantum algorithms can outperform these classical algorithms. I would also consider if other similarly structured problems could work similarly. Finally, I would explain the current progress of quantum supremacy and link that to the fundamental explanation I initially provided about quantum computing and classical computing.
Moreover, I would have to explain how they are implementing these problems on quantum computers, finally explaining how the issues are done faster on a quantum vs. a classical computer. I can also use simple mathematical explanations can also be used for problem explanations. I might want to look into the timespans used to estimate how long it takes for classical computers to solve. Also, I can look into the idea that classical algorithms are not the best now and can become better to lower a quantum advantage.

Physics, Quantum Physics, Quantum computers, Quantum information theory, information theory, quantum optics, optics, electromagnetism, Lasers, Gravitational Wave Astronomy, LIGO, Feedback and Control Systems

Quantum Advantage: How Do Quantum Computers Perform Faster than Classical Computers in Some Situations?

Mohna will write and send this to me this week

Evolution, Zoology, Genetics, Genomics, Cancer, Computational Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Marine Biology, Microbiology

What is the impact of covid-19 of the treatments and outcomes of patients with cancer?

This article investigates the presence of certain characteristics in mediated corporate online personae as a predictor of the presence and intensity of a parasocial relationship (PSR) developed with that persona. While present research on the topic of parasocial relationships focuses more so on the behaviors and interactive exchange of corporate and media personae with the individual (Labrecque 2014) and the impact of PSRs in general on consumer attitude and behavior, this article elaborates on the impact of anthropomorphic marketing on the intensity of a parasocial relationship. Drawing on the consumer-brand relationship literature with regard to parasociality,  this article investigates whether this marketing ultimately affects both individual and group attitude and behavior towards the corporation vis a vis its anthropomorphic social representation. Information is collected from survey participants primarily based in the United States who complete a questionnaire, whose items are adapted from several existing scales well-verified in literature concerning parasociality in consumer-brand relationships. These scales will measure for parasocial interaction, parasocial love, customer citizenship, willingness to provide information, and loyalty intentions of the respondents. We predict that anthropomorphic characteristics will positively predict the strength of parasocial relationships developed with that character, and in turn, intensified parasocial relationships with anthropomorphic brand figures will positively predict positive word of mouth (pWOM) and customer citizenship behavior (CB). Consumer-brand literature has consolidated the relationship between the  perceived behaviors and interactions of a media persona as contributing factors to a long-term parasocial association with the persona; critical analyses of the intrinsic characteristics of the personae as predictors of loyalty are less common. With the rapid virtualization of entertainment media, an analysis of the factors that contribute to the strongest parasocial relationships with corporate personae is a topic of interest to marketing researchers in that this understanding allows for creating more effective and impactful corporate media personae in the future.

Social psychology, romantic relationships, friendships, parenting, well-being, socioeconomic adversity, public policy, race-ethnicity, discrimination, culture

How does the nature and intensity of a parasocial relationship with a brand influence openness to and customer satisfaction with said brand?

Many bacteria live healthily in our bodies providing us with necessary protection against pathogens and diseases. To exploit these compounds further, we need to first identify these compounds and make them in a large quantity that can be used for treatment. These compounds can be identified through computational genome mining approaches with the publicly available genome sequences of identified bacteria. Ethan will review the therapeutic compounds that have been discovered from the human microbiota, and how they can or have been used in treatments. He will also look at where this field will be going in the future.

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