Delaware State University 2022 Research Day Program

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH DAY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022 dsuresearchday2022.vfairs.com

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Message from the President Message from the Provost and Chief Academic Officer Message from the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies Message from the Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Message from the Faculty Research Committee Message from the Graduate Student Association Delaware State University Graduate Studies and Research Delaware State University Graduate Student Association Delaware State University Honors Program Research Day Agenda Keynote Speaker Faculty Oral Presentations Graduate Poster Presentations Undergraduate Oral Presentations Graduate Oral Presentations 2021-2022 Honors Program Students 2021-2022 National Honor Society Inductees 2022 Research Presentation Moderators Honors Recital Program Acknowledgments

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Greetings!

Every year, Research Day makes a great impact on our community of learners and leaves an especially proud impression on me. As each of you demonstrates the work you’ve completed in our University’s research labs, including the questions you have yet to ask, you prove to yourselves, your professors, and to those who will toil after you in those labs… that you belong!

I have been speaking recently, beginning during Black History Month, about the psychologist Abraham Maslow whose development of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” helps to explain where we’ve been and where we’re going to ensure that each of you can achieve your greatest potential as scholars, scientists, and thinkers. Ours is a proud HBCU tradition built from mutual security, community belonging, and individual self-esteem… then on to the pinnacle—a peak where risk, ambition, curiosity, and knowledge converge. It is on that peak where you stand today.

I congratulate you and everyone with whom you’ve worked on your outstanding accomplishments.

Because of you, Delaware State University’s research community continues to grow, become more robust, and build in confidence. On your shoulders, future student scientists will stand, never questioning for a moment whether they belong but feeling certain of their welcome and potential before climbing on.

Today, I take great joy in witnessing the results of academic inquiry, scientific experimentation, and scholarly rigor. These are the moments upon which our collective understanding becomes stronger and upon which your future careers will be built. Today we honor your entrance onto the field of human endeavor.

It all matters,

Tony Allen, Ph.D. President

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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MESSAGE FROM THE PROVOST & CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER Dear Research Day Participants, On behalf of the Division of Academic Affairs, I welcome you to Delaware State University’s Annual Research Day. Our Annual Research Day represents the collaborative efforts between our Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors, the Research Committee of the Faculty Senate, and the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies. The generation of new knowledge is one of the hallmarks of a vibrant institution of higher education. Delaware State University has a legacy of providing access and opportunity to a diverse population of students from across the state of Delaware, the nation and the world. Ongoing engagement of our faculty in research and scholarship is the engine that continues to drive our aspirational research goals while the engagement of our students is one of the excellent ways that we reinforce learning and ensure their continued success. Our Annual Research Day provides the opportunity to showcase the scholarship and research of our students, faculty and staff across all disciplines. While diversely focused, all align with our University’s mission and strategic priorities.

My sincere thanks to Dean Gilliam-Johnson and the staff of the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies for coordination of this excellent engagement activity. I also extend my sincere thanks to the many faculty, staff and administrators whose continued efforts contribute to the University’s academic climate and culture and thus, the nation’s goal of broadening participation in under-represented areas. I also congratulate all of our participants, especially our students for their contributions to this activity. Please review the excellent abstract submissions, attend the presentations and engage our young scholars in fruitful dialogue regarding their current work and future aspirations. I am confident that the experience of doing so will leave you both enlightened and inspired.

I extend my best wishes for a successful research day.

Sincerely,

Dr. Saundra F. DeLauder Provost and Chief Academic Officer

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE, ADULT AND EXTENDED STUDIES Greetings: On behalf of Delaware State University’s Graduate Studies, I am pleased to welcome you to the Annual Delaware State University Research Day offered in collaboration with the University’s Honors Program and Faculty Senate’s Research Committee. As you will see, this event showcases diverse research interests and areas of scholarship on our campus. It also affords students, faculty, staff, and community participants meaningful opportunities for engagement.

Creating an environment for bringing together undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty has long been one of the most important hallmarks of the DSU experience. Devising occasions to introduce, contemplate and discuss topics relative to and distinctive of the conclave of communities representative of the University, promoting professional development and advancing scholarship are mainstays upon which the University has historically been predicated.

My congratulations extend to all of today’s participants as you take advantage of the meaningful interactions and dialog that flows through the day. I extend a heartfelt thanks to the faculty, staff and administrators who work tirelessly to prepare our scholars and day’s activities to uphold the rich legacy of Delaware State University.

I wish everyone a wonderful and productive day. Thank you for your support and joining us today in this very enriching learning experience.

Sincerely,

Dr. Patrice Gilliam-Johnson Dean, School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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MESSAGE FROM THE OFFICE OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING & HONORS

On behalf of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors (URELAH) under the Office of Student Success at Delaware State University, we congratulate all participants of the esteemed Annual Research Day. As high achieving academic scholars and faculty, you have persevered to accomplish research goals beyond challenges and obstacles.

To our scholars of the Delaware State University Honors Program, we salute you for not only maintaining a high grade point average, but you are also commended for your contributions of scholarly work in your field of study. The Honors Program under the Office of URELAH is designed to prepare scholars with an education that fosters intellectual growth and academic achievement, while readying them to standout with employers or be successful in graduate or professional schools after graduation. I am overwhelmed with pride as I watch each of you achieve each milestone on your journey to success.

To all undergraduate and graduate scholars of Delaware State University, we take this time at the Annual Research Day to celebrate you and your accomplishments. Your time and effort have truly shown through your excellent academic achievements. We celebrate you as our leaders of today!

To our outstanding faculty of Delaware State University, we thank you for teaching and sharing your knowledge of research to our scholars.

Each of you have created a positive and powerful impact that inspires our scholars to pursue their degree and research. Thank you for enriching our lives. We are better because of you.

Congratulations to all and may you continue to strive for excellence, remain innovative, and become agents of change. It All Matters.

Sincerely, Shonda L. Poe Director, Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Office of Student Success

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE FACULTY RESEARCH COMMITTEE Welcome to DSU Research Day 2022!

Thank you for joining us in celebrating the research conducted by students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty members at Delaware State University. At DSU, we are dedicated to teaching, which is so important, but we also have outstanding research programs, where we get grants, publish in top-ranked journals, and provide opinion and commentary in a number of outlets. As a University, we value this opportunity to celebrate the variety and depth of our scientific inquiry.

Delaware State University Research Day has become the premier academic event on campus, providing a venue at which the diverse array of research undertaken by faculty and students is showcased. Research Day provides a place and time to show the results of faculty and student research from the past academic year. It is also an opportunity to share innovative ideas.

Today’s activities are the result of a campus-wide effort that includes staff from the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies and the many faculty, students, and staff members who have worked tirelessly to support this special event.

We hope you will find this day an opportunity to take part in dialogue within your discipline and to engage researchers you might not have the opportunity to meet otherwise and strive to do so with openness and enthusiasm.

Go Hornets!

Sincerely, Faculty Research Committee Dr. Sangeeta Gupta (Chair) Dr. John Balzarini Dr. Akash Dania Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay Dr. SaeYeol Yoon

MESSAGE FROM THE GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION

Greetings Hornets, Welcome to Delaware State University’s Annual Research Day. I am pleased to attend this year’s Research Day exhibiting the diverse areas of research conducted by students, faculty, and staff. Research Day is a great occasion where innovative scholars collectively share their research expertise and engage in intellectual exchanges as well as celebrate the research accomplishments of the University’s brilliant undergraduate and graduate students!

We thank you for participating in this year’s Research Day and hope you are sparked with inspiration. Welcome!

Sincerely,

Dionne Williams Neuroscience Ph.D. Candidate President, Graduate Student Association

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH MISSION: The Office of Graduate Studies and Research supports the mission of the University by providing infrastructural support for the development and implementation of transformative, high quality, graduate and professional degree programs that prepare leaders for the complexities of the 21st century.

VISION: The Office of Graduate Studies and Research will promote the vision of the University by offering graduate and professional degree programs that conform to the highest standards required by respective accrediting and funding agencies in Delaware State University’s pursuit of excellence.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: The Office of Graduate Studies and Research will establish a structure along with processes and procedures to provide support in four key areas that it deems necessary for the successful matriculation of graduate students at Delaware State University.    

Admissions Processes — Establish an efficient and effective admissions process resulting in timely responses to graduate applicants.

Academic Quality — Review and implement policies and procedures to ensure the quality of our academic programs.

Student Services and Records Management — Implement and maintain a records management system for all currently enrolled graduate students consisting of admissions data, student progress to degree, admission to candidacy, defense of thesis or dissertation, time to degree, and graduation.

Co-curricular and Professional Development Activities — In collaboration with the Graduate Student Association and academic programs, the Office of Graduate Studies and Research will provide services and implement activities for graduate students that provide professional development and networking opportunities.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION MISSION: The Graduate Student Association supports the mission of the University by representing and advocating the interests of graduate students at Delaware State University, by providing a forum for free and open discussion of matters affecting this community, and by providing financial and organizational support for professional development and networking events within this community. Our desire is to create an environment for graduate students that provide co-curricular opportunities that advance student learning, foster respect from the University community, provide services for the University graduate community, and enhance the quality of life of the graduate student community.

GOALS: • • •

To provide a central agency by which the members may promote the interest and welfare of the University community.

To further the development of a wholesome relationship among the administration and the graduate student community.

To encourage the participation of graduate students in the identification of problems that relate to the graduate student community and to assist in the solutions to those problems.

OBJECTIVES THAT MEET GOALS: • • • •

Establish a mechanism for timely information and programming exchange that addresses the needs of graduate students.

Publish an annual report of summarizing graduate student accomplishments, activities, and needs for the next fiscal year.

Collaborate with departments in the development and/or implementation of professional development and networking activities for graduate students.

Establish a graduate student council with a representative from each program who can advocate the needs of their respective colleagues.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES AND COMPETENCIES: Participants will display proficiencies in the following areas: • • • •

Verbal and Written Communication — Participants in the graduate symposium will submit an abstract of their research or scholarly activity that will meet a content and formatting standard for acceptance. Symposium participants discuss their findings via a formal or poster presentation.

Critical Thinking — Participants will be expected to develop strategies to address issues that impact their community of scholars and provide feedback in a timely fashion.

Teambuilding/Interpersonal — Participants will be expected plan networking activities that will provide a positive impact for their community of scholars Scholarship — Participants will be expected to plan co-curricular activities that positively impact the intellectual climate at Delaware State University and surrounding community.

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM HONORS PROGRAM MISSION: The mission of the Honors Program at Delaware State University is to provide students with exceptional intellectual ability, motivation and commitment with superior learning opportunities that challenge them to reach new levels of academic excellence in scholarship and creativity.

HONORS PROGRAM VISION: As graduates of the Delaware State University Honors Program, our students will become the first choice of employers and graduate and professional schools because of their recognized achievements and potential for success.

2021-2022 HONORS COUNCIL: Dr. Clytrice Watson Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay Dr. Padmini Banerjee Dr. Myrna German Dr. Rachel Pulverman-Silverman Dr. Jesse Zuba Mrs. Terry Pauls-Smith

Associate Provost Honors Council Chairperson; Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Department of English & Foreign Languages Honors Program Assistant

HONORS PROGRAM ASSOCIATION VISION: The Honors Students Association (HSA) is dedicated to the cultivation, maturation, and outstanding academic achievement of the Delaware State University Honors students whose first priority is individual academic achievement while representing the University as a whole with honor and integrity. The HSA members provide social and scholastic support to the body and inspiration to all the Delaware State University students to achieve academic excellence.

HONORS PROGRAM GOALS: The main objective of the HSA is for its members to be activity engaged in and support the Delaware State University Honors program.

The goals of the HSA are: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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For each member to earn a minimum of 3.25 GPA for each semester.

To motivate, support, and encourage each member in the successful completion of the Delaware State University Honors Curriculum.

For each member to earn membership in the National Honor Society of his/her discipline.

To provide social and scholastic activities for its members.

To function as a unit body of academic leaders who seek to motivate the Delaware State University student body to achieve academic success.

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM The Honors Program is designed to create and nurture a community of academically bright and talented students who value, and are committed to, excellence and intellectual pursuit. The Honors Program provides its students opportunities to engage in classroom processes that de-emphasize formal, impersonal lecturing methods and passive note taking, and instead utilize methods of colloquia and symposia that encourage active intellectual participation, discussion and involvement in the search for knowledge.

The Honors Curriculum is a four-year program that begins with honors courses being offered in the fall semester of the freshman year. The curriculum consists of: 12 credits of departmental-based honors courses; 6 credits of honors colloquia; and an honors senior research thesis in the students’ major. Honors level courses do not entail more assignments than a regular course; however, honors courses incorporate classroom discussion and peer assessment, and require students to engage in a deeper level of thinking and analysis. Honors students should exhibit improved: a) b) c) d)

analytical/critical thinking and logical reasoning skills; problem solving and decision making skills; coherent and persuasive oral and written communications skills; and skills necessary to perform research at a professional level.

The Honors Living-Learning Community is designed to integrate curricular and co-curricular experiences that supplement classroom learning and academic curricula. Within the honors community, honors students interact with faculty, residential staff, and student and adult leaders in the Delaware State University community. Honors students participate in service to Delaware State University and the local Dover community. Honors students are given the privilege of honors residential housing. Additionally, honors students have membership in the Honors Students Association, where they are given the opportunity to participate in social and extracurricular events.

The Honors Curriculum consists of the following category of courses: • • • •

Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Colloquia/Seminars Departmental Honors Courses including sections of general education courses Independent Honors Research/Study Project Honors Senior Research Thesis

Honors students may be eligible for the following activities: • • • • •

Merit Scholarships Honors Student Housing Internship Opportunities Study Abroad Programs Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates

A prospective honors student must have: • • • • •

A GPA of 3.25 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) A minimum combined SAT score of 1050 (Mathematics and Critical Reading) with at least 450 in each section Recommendations by two (2) high school or college instructors A 400-600 word, typed essay explaining why one wishes to be admitted to the Honors Program A list of academic and extracurricular achievements/awards.

In April each year, the Honors Council co-sponsors Delaware State University Research Day, at which time, all students are given the opportunity to present their research papers and creative works prepared under the guidance of faculty members, before audiences of students, faculty and staff. An Honors Recognition Ceremony follows that evening which recognizes motivated students who strive for excellence in their academic pursuits.

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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RESEARCH DAY AGENDA Fifth Annual Delaware State University Research Day April 13, 2022 9 A.M. – 9:15 A.M.

WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS      

9:15 A.M. – 9:30 A.M.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER ADDRESS 

10 A.M. – 11 A.M.

Tony Allen, Ph.D. — President Dr. Patrice Gilliam-Johnson — Dean, School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay — Professor, Department of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Interim Associate Dean for Extension and Applied Research Dr. SaeYeol Yoon — Associate Professor, Department of Education Mrs. Shonda Poe — Director, Undergraduate Research, Experiential Leaning and Honors Ms. Dionne Williams — President, Graduate Student Association

Dr. Kwame Matthews — Associate Professor and Small Ruminant Extension Specialist at Delaware State University

STUDENT PANEL DISCUSSION Why I Choose My Major? And How Research Motivates Me for My Future Career Plan?      

Jameya Scott-Lester — Senior in Agriculture Science, Minor in Chemistry Marcus Teat — Graduate Student in Natural Resources Graduate Program Mariline Hilaire — Graduate Student in Animal Science Graduate Program Limmada Venkata Hemanth — Graduate Student in Plant Science Graduate Program Emily Andrade — Graduate Student in Natural Resources Graduate Program Niara Allen — Junior in Chemistry

Moderator: Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay — Professor of Natural Resources and Interim Associate Dean for Extension and Applied Research 11 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.

FACULTY RESEARCH FORUM: “ROAD TO R1” Panel Discussion: Preparing Strategic Plans – What does it take to reach R1?

Moderators: Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay/ Dr. SaeYeol Yoon — Professor of Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Interim Associate Dean for Extension and Applied Research/Associate Professor, Department of Education Panelists:  Dr. Renu Tripathi – Professor, Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science  Dr. Hacene Boukari – Professor, Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science  Dr. Akash Dania – Professor, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance  Dr. John Balzarini – Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

12:30 P.M. – 2 P.M.

FACULTY RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS Moderators: Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay and Dr. SaeYeol Yoon (7 min/Each Presentation) Faculty/ Staff Name

Faculty/Staff Presentation Title

Dr. Padmini Banerjee Dr. Myna German

Forced Migration, Displaced Lives: The Promise of Spirituality as a Coping Strategy for Making Meaning

Dr. Jan Christopher

Unemployment and Employment-to-Population During the Depths of the 2020 Pandemic-Induced Recession

Dr. Cara Gomez

Student Preference for Online Course Content Delivery: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dr. Miki Ii

DNA Repair and Neurodegenerative Diseases in Humans: C. elegans as a Useful Disease Model

Dr. Krishnanad Kulkarni

Deciphering the Genetic Basis of High-temperature Stress Tolerance in Blueberry

Dr. Jihye Lim

Integration of Sustainability in Advanced Textiles

Dr. Kalpalatha Melmaiee

Identifying New Genetic Resources for Blueberry and Strawberry Improvement

Dr. Karl Miletti-Gonzalez

12:30 P.M. – 1:30 P.M.

Cloning and Transfection of CD44-Intracytoplasmic Domain (ICD) Deletion Mutant Expression Vectors into MCF-7/CD44 Cells for Interfering with the CD44-ICD-Mediated Signaling Pathway

Ms. Julia Olsen

Are Wellness Outcomes Influenced by Prescriptive Instruction Among a Tactical Population?

Dr. Ali Paraseimehr

Genetic Variations among the Eastern Oysters within Delaware Inland Bays

Dr. Susmita Roye

Challenging Constraints, Crossing Confines: A Study of Eliza Draper

Dr. Weiping Song

Longhand or Digital? Integrating the Note-taking by Hand Practice into a STEM Classroom: What Did I Find?

Dr. Tanya Whittle

BRIDGE Opportunities Collaborative: Feasibility Assessment and Implementation

HONORS RECITAL Arts Center/Gallery See Program, Page 96 | Click here to join     

Jaden Adkins, tuba Tyree Dennis, tenor saxophone Jarret Hall, marimba Rashawn King, harpsichord Brass Quintet  Jaden Adkins, tuba  Elijah August, trumpet  Dylan Bottomley, trumpet  James Carey, horn  Malik Maillard,, trombone

 Accompanied by Dr. Joyce Chen, piano

2 P.M. – 5 P.M. GRADUATE POSTER SESSION 2 P.M. – 5 P.M.

UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS

5 P.M.

CLOSING REMARKS 

Dr. Patrice Gilliam-Johnson — Dean, School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER DR. KWAME MATTHEWS

Associate Professor and Small Ruminant Extension Specialist at Delaware State University Navigating My Journey Through Animal Science Dr. Kwame Matthews is an Associate Professor and Small Ruminant Extension Specialist at Delaware State University. He has a split appointment in Extension, research, and teaching.

He completed his Ph.D. at Tuskegee University in July 2016, where he worked on identifying chemical inhibitors for novel therapeutic molecular targets in Haemonchus contortus. He received his master’s degree at Delaware State University, where he worked on using plant dewormers (pumpkin seed and ginger) and breed resistance to reduce internal parasite infections in small ruminants and assisted with several parasite and reproduction research conducted by his advisors.

Since being at DSU, he has served as the PI and/or co-PI on 14 funded grants in Extension and research totaling approximately $2.9 million. He has co-authored 34 abstracts, mentored 37 students (undergraduate and high school) and graduated two master’s students in animal science research or experience, and serves as the faculty advisor for all animal science students currently at the University. Dr. Matthews has been serving as the chair for the Delaware Institute of Veterinary Medical Education (DIVME) since 2019 and a became a member of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Administrative Council. Currently, his research projects focus on the cost-effective, sustainable, and novel means of parasite control and prevention in sheep and goats.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS ARTS & HUMANITIES Challenging Constraints, Crossing Confines: A Study of Eliza Draper Dr. Susmita Roye Nothing signals the “challenging-constraints, crossing-confines” trajectory more than the uncharacteristically checkered life of Eliza Draper (1744-1778). Born in India, she was sent to England for education. Returning to India, the fourteen-year-old was married to Daniel Draper, an official twenty years her senior, with whom she shared neither tastes nor temperament. During her next visit to England to place her children in school, she aroused violent romantic passions in the literary giant, Laurence Sterne. The brief liaison came to an abrupt end when Draper commanded his wife to return to Bombay without delay, and from thereon, their conjugal relations deteriorated until Eliza eloped, causing a huge scandal.

Even such a concise overview of the course of Eliza’s life, as given above, makes one wonder at the daring crossing-overs she performed.

A memsahib, a traveler, an emigrant, a “Belle-Indian,” a girl-bride, a teenaged mother, the love-interest of a celebrated literary figure, the centerpiece of a scandalous elopement: what (real or figurative) boundary has she not leapt over? Besides stepping beyond geographical borders in her transnational journeys, she also violated gender strictures in crossing the private-public divide by overseeing the publication of the private love-letters sent to her by Sterne. She stands for diverse crossovers: gender, genre and geography. This paper aims at focusing on this unusual memsahib figure, who both impersonates as well as contradicts the 'types’ of her class. How does her standing at the crossroads of cultures and the milestones of history in the Indian subcontinent both empower and disempower her? Why, as a memsahib in the eighteenth century, is it both important for her to set norms and easy to break them? How does the male empire fare under her female gaze?

How does the fluidity of British status in the eighteenth-century India make it possible for her to elope and yet, emerge practically unscathed from that scandal? In searching for answers, this paper will attempt to chart the path to the solidification of the 'mem’ stereotype and of the Anglo-Indian identity, of how eighteenth-century crossovers preempted the free-flow and easy crossings in the latter stage of the Raj.

AGRO-SCIENCES Deciphering the Genetic Basis of High-temperature Stress Tolerance in Blueberry Dr. Krishnanand Kulkarni, K. P. Kulkarni*, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University N. Vorsa, Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, Rutgers University U. K. Reddy, Department of Biology and Gus R. Douglass Institute, West Virginia State University K. Melmaiee; Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University Blueberry (Vaccinium Section Cyanococcus) is an economically important small fruit crop native to North America but widely cultivated in several countries. The commercial relevance has been steadily growing for the past 2 decades due to increased awareness of the health benefits of blueberry consumption. The US is the largest blueberry producer with a market value of $904 million in the year 2020. Blueberry plants have stringent growth conditions, and slight increases in the temperature can have adverse impacts on growth and yield. Hence, understanding the genetic and molecular basis of high-temperature stress (HTS) tolerance in blueberry is essential. In this study, 260 F2 plants from V. darrowii x V. corymbosum cross were subjected to HTS at 40?C for 4 days in the growth chamber and evaluated for HTS tolerance traits. Significant phenotype variation was observed for all the measured traits in the F2 population. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) sequencing with a single restriction enzyme ApeK1 was used to genotype the F2 plants. The sequence reads were mapped to the first 12 scaffolds of the tetraploid variety Draper. The SNPs were filtered using (1) read depth, DP > 3, (2) minor allele frequency, MAF < 0.05, and call rate < 0.9. After quality filtering and trimming, 126,816 SNPs were obtained from the sequencing data. These SNPs were used for the genome-wide association study, which identified 1323 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly (p<0.01) associated with HTS tolerance traits. Further, an NCBI-BLAST search was made to identify the candidate genes information for the 245 SNPs. A number of these genes encoded molecular chaperone proteins and transcription factors reported to be involved in thermal stress or oxidative stress. The results from this study will help decipher the genetic basis of HTS tolerance in blueberry and future breeding plans.

Funder Acknowledgment: Authors thank the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) for funding (nos. 2018-38821-27744 and 2018-67014-27622)

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Integration of Sustainability in Advanced Textiles Dr. Jihye Lim, Department of Human Ecology – Textiles and Apparel Design, Delaware State University Advanced textiles are beneficial to improving human life with regards to comfort, protection, and safety, and the demand is continuously rising, specifically for textile products such as protective clothing, automotive fabrics, medical applications, etc., which could be subjected to the wet damage or contamination. The liquid-resistance/repellency allows fabric surfaces to prevent the penetration of liquid. The liquidresistant/repellent surface is designed in consideration of decreasing surface tension and enhancing geometrical structures in textiles.

However, chemical approaches can lead to diminishing or compromising performance after laundering or abrasion. In order to impart sustainable, strong resistance and repellency, fabric itself should be competent to perform even after the effect of chemical treatment was compromised. Thus, incorporating multi-scale geometrical structures in fabric needs to be considered important because void spaces generated in geometrical structures lead a surface to become sustainable and durable to resist/repel liquid.

Identifying New Genetic Resources for Blueberry and Strawberry Improvement Dr. Kalpalatha Melmaiee, Krishnanand Kulkarni and Amaranatha Vennapusa Dr. Melmaiee’s plant molecular breeding lab focuses on improving blueberry and strawberry crops. The current research projects focus on identifying and understanding molecular resources utilizing cutting edge tools such as Next generation sequencing and genotyping by sequencing. We are also identifying new genetic sources for various traits. She will be updating their research progress in these two crops.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA-NIFA 2020-38821-31083, 2018-38821-27744 and 2018-67014-27622

BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES Forced Migration, Displaced Lives: The Promise of Spirituality As a Coping Strategy for Making Meaning Dr. Padmini Banerjee, Dr. Myna German Professor, Department of Mass Communications, Visual and Performing Arts Through a focused review of literature on displaced lives, now increasingly ubiquitous across many swathes of the world, we explored displaced persons’ experiences and the implications of coping strategies especially spirituality as a way of finding and making meaning visa-vis effects of trauma and displacement — physical dislocation, loss of home and familiar surroundings, disruption of relationships, social capital, community, education, and livelihood. While many eventually do resettle and move on, often geographically greatly distant from their original homes, many in other countries, experiencing fresh challenges of adaptation to unfamiliar locations and circumstances often with severely reduced resources and lack of continuity, while facing varying levels of acceptance or hostility within their “host” environments, and dealing simultaneously with internal states of grieving, mourning, anger, regret, depression, anxiety, helplessness, and acute and chronic posttraumatic stress. In the long-term, younger displaced survivors tend to fare better than older displaced survivors; some become “stuck” while others re-invent themselves, surprisingly displaying post-traumatic growth and resilience.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES Are Wellness Outcomes Influenced by Prescriptive Instruction Among a Tactical Population?

Ms. Julia Olsen Those serving their communities, country, and preparing to do so, must protect and serve during challenging situations, both mentally and physically. Due to their rigorous environment, tactical operators, defined in this paper as police, military, fire, and ROTC students, have a high risk for mental and physical health issues as well as social isolation (Gold & Friedman, 2000; Orr, et al., 2019; Ritland, et al., 2019; Stonger, et al., 2020). Mental health, moving well, and the need for resilience can be engineered through evidence-based programs to meet the demand for enhanced wellness among the tactical population. Previous research has provided the groundwork to justify the need for further investigation that target tactical operators’ wellness.

An evidence-based program would meet the need for wellness techniques for this population. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of wellness instruction on perceived wellness, self-efficacy for wellness behaviors, general anxiety, and positive behavior change among tactical operators. The study has two aims: (1) to determine whether a six-week wellness intervention alters individual wellness, anxiety, and-or confidence in behavior change among tactical operators; (2) to determine whether a researcher-led wellness intervention which includes goal prioritization, affects behavior change in tactical operators.

A mixed-method, pretest-posttest experimental design is utilized. This study’s quantitative arm will measure the study variables of perceived wellness, self-efficacy for wellness behaviors, general anxiety, and positive behavior changes among participants in the two groups, the intervention group receiving instruction compared to the control group receiving no education, both over six weeks. This investigation’s qualitative arm will use narratives from the intervention to analyze for emerging themes of facilitators, barriers, and perceptions of wellness in tactical operators. Preliminary data will be presented.

BRIDGE Opportunities Collaborative: Feasibility Assessment and Implementation Dr. Tanya Whittle, Dr. Kevin Ralston, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Mr. Josue Jean-Baptiste, Admissions Office, Delaware State University During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice began offering Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program courses at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (JTVCC). With the success of the Inside-Out classes at JTVCC, the proposed research will examine the feasibility of adapting existing Inside-Out pedagogical principles and collaborate with community partners to develop and sustain Delaware State University (DSU) college courses in Delaware correctional facilities as a means to expanding access to vocation and college-level education for incarcerated students, building a bridge from incarceration to college matriculation and graduation, and expanding experiential learning opportunities for traditional DSU students. This will include integrating long-standing pedagogical approaches (I.e., Freire & Inside-Out Prison Exchange) with modern pedagogical techniques provided by evolving technological opportunities and innovations. The presentation will begin with a focus of how the expansion of educational opportunities to incarcerated students benefits the students and other stakeholders in the community and the Criminal Justice System, especially regarding job opportunities and successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals. We will then shift to an overview of how the proposed research will examine the feasibility of expanding the higher education opportunities for incarcerated individuals. This plan includes collaborative participatory action research that will collect data from a variety of populations, including individuals who are currently incarcerated and stakeholders in both the correctional field and higher education. The goal of the proposed feasibility study is to provide realistic policy and implementation recommendations to help improve the likelihood of successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals.

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FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DNA Repair and Neurodegenerative Diseases in Humans: C. elegans as a Useful Disease Model Dr. Miki Ii, Tatsuya Ii Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research/DIST DNA repair is essential for maintaining brain health in humans. Accumulation of DNA damage is associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The nematode C. elegans is a model organism and has been widely used to understand the mechanisms of human health problems in biomedical research. In this study, we investigated how DNA repair factors affect the development and maintenance of healthy neurons using C. elegans. We are particularly interested in the role of endoribonucleases in the maintenance of genome integrity.

During the two years at DSU, we found that various neurons in C. elegans are impaired in the mutant worms in which one of the DNA repair factors is mutated. Importantly, our mutant strains display dementia-like traits as well as ALS-like symptoms. By combining our preliminary data and the big data of humans, we identified that the DNA repair factors we are studying are potentially involved in the onset of these neurodegenerative diseases. This implies that our C. elegans neuroscience research applies to understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration that lead to dementia and ALS. C. elegans is an excellent model to study neurodegenerative diseases since a C. elegans hermaphrodite contains only 302 neurons and the neuronal network has been identified and mapped. The benefit of using C. elegans in biomedical research and an overview of our future research plan will be further discussed.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Delaware COBRE Neuroscience Research Program at Delaware State University.

Cloning and Transfection of CD44-Intracytoplasmic Domain (ICD) Deletion Mutant Expression Vectors into MCF-7/CD44 Cells for Interfering with the CD44-ICD-Mediated Signaling Pathway Dr. Karl Miletti-Gonzalez, Celine Jeun, Jessica Francois and Zymir A. Robinson Department of Biological Sciences, CAST The CD44 gene encodes a cell membrane receptor which normally undergoes a proteolytic cleavage within the cell membrane. This cleavage generates a 74 residues peptide known as the CD44 intracytoplasmic domain (CD44-ICD). This peptide can be translocated into the nucleus where it can regulate transcription. This transcriptional regulatory mechanism is not completely understood but Proximity Ligation Assays (PLAs) have shown that the CD44-ICD wild type peptide is in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) complex with Runx2 in the MMP-9 gene promoter region promoting its expression in MCF-7/CD44 cells. The main objective of this project is to determine whether the CD44-ICD-mediated signaling pathway can be interfered with. We hypothesize that transfecting CD44-ICD deletion mutant expression vectors in MCF-7/CD44 cells we will be able to inhibit the CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI. Seven deletion mutants were designed to lack a predicted alpha helix and two beta strands, individually or in combination. PLAs will be used to identify such potential inhibition since the number of fluorescent red dots, which represent CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI, should diminish. The associated signaling pathway that promotes the expression of the MMP-9 gene will be assessed by RTPCR of the MMP-9 transcript. We expect to identify one or more deletion mutants with the capacity to interfere with this signaling pathway. This approach might provide a molecular tool to modulate the aggressive phenotype that many cancer cells expressing CD44 display.

Funder Acknowledgment: DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.), NSF HBCU-UP RIA Award (K.M.), HHMI Inclusive Experiential Grant

Genetic Variations among the Eastern Oysters within Delaware Inland Bays Dr. Ali Parsaeimehr, Scott Borsum, Ming Liu, Gulnihal Ozbay Commercial oyster fisheries have a long history on the east cost of the United States, nevertheless limited information is available on the current genetic diversity and larval sources of local Delaware Inland Bays (DIBs). By this study, the Allele frequencies at eleven microsatellite markers were studied between two groups of spat collected from DIB, and we determined the genetic origin of oyster population at DIBs. The obtained genomic data were compared with the hatchery bred oysters used in local wild and restoration of Delaware Bay oysters. The analysis of pairwise FST value among the oyster populations indicated that, the Northeast High Survival (NEH) oyster had the highest genetic variation between the hatcheries and wild strains, while a higher ratio of similarity was obtained from DIBs groups. Further analysis of the genomic data using Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) revealed less genetic variations among the oysters’ population from the Delaware Bay (DB) and the two groups of PAGE 18

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FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS samples collected from DIB indicating their genomes have more similarities, whereas a higher genetic variation was observed from NEH samples.

These results are explainable considering the unique NEH genetic signature due to its artificial genome, moreover it is likely that DIBs oysters have an origin from the DB oysters, however no sign of NEH genomic integration with DIBs or DB oysters was detected by this study.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA Capacity Building Grant Program and NSF DE EPSCOR Program

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & HUMAN SERVICES Unemployment and Employment-to-Population During the Depths of the 2020 Pandemic-Induced Recession Dr. Jan Christopher, College of Business National Economic Association This study seeks to investigate whether Minorities, particularly Blacks and African Americans, experience employment shocks prior, parallel, or later than the U.S. as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe negative effects on the U.S. economy. Two such effects are seen clearly in important employment-related measures, which are captured by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics as the: (1) the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) and the unemployment rate (UNRATE). This paper discusses employment-related pandemic effects by reporting and discussing EPOP and UNRATE from their peak, which was observed during the first quarter of 2020, to their trough during the second quarter of 2020. The unemployment rate (UNRATE) and the employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio are utilized on a monthly basis for the window of January 2020-January 2022 to derive at a “Recovery Gap” for EPOP and UNRATE. The initial results focus on intersectional variables of race and ethnicity with gender and persons 20 years and over. The results indicate that between March and April of 2020, the first phase of the pandemic-induced recession began, characterized by double-digit increases in the unemployment rate and decreases in the employment-to-population ratio. Economic conditions deteriorated within one month, followed by a less-than-full return of economic conditions to their pre-pandemic levels. The hypothesis considers whether long-term unemployment and employment-topopulation affect labor market regulations and population migration. Labor supply and demand statistics, between January 1, 2011, and January 1, 2022, particularly as they relate to the EPOP and UNRATE will also be discussed.

EDUCATION Student Preference for Online Course Content Delivery: A Cross-Sectional Study Dr. Cara Gomez, Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University Introduction: As higher education moves from a traditional face-to-face teaching platform to online learning, professors must adjust how they teach, present content, and engage learners. Simply transferring the same teaching styles from in-person to online may not be effective.

Additionally, faculty teaching in an online setting compete for attention against with other modes of technology or social media, and they may need to use innovative teaching and learning strategies to engage online learners.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify student preferences for online course content delivery and engagement.

Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study with convenience sampling. Students in the DSU fall 2020 Psychology of Physical Activity online (hybrid) course completed a researcher-written survey. Major Results: There were 24 total respondents, with a majority being sophomores (67%) and an average self-reported GPA of 3.1-3.5 (67%). Students responded that they retain delivered course content when there are quizzes embedded in the video lectures (79%) or if they have to write a summary of a video lecture (83%). Students are slightly more likely to skip through videos to get a few key points for a summary (24%) than to answer embedded quiz questions (20%). When asked for preferred delivery of online class content delivery, students preferred a video with embedded quiz questions (46%) compared to a video with a separate quiz (16%) or a video with no quiz (8%). If a professor had to deliver an hour of content, students preferred 15-minute (50%) or 10-minute (29%) videos compared to hour, half hour or five-minute videos.

Conclusion: Faculty teaching in an online setting must continuously identify student preferences. This small pilot study indicated that students prefer having embedded quizzes or summaries to help retain information rather than separate quizzes and prefer information being delivered in 10-15-minute windows. This study looked at student preference only, and not overall learning effectiveness. As technology changes rapidly, faculty should continuously assess both learner preferences and effectiveness to meet students’ needs.

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FACULTY ORAL PRESENTATIONS EDUCATION Longhand or Digital?

Integrating the Note-taking by Hand Practice into a STEM Classroom: What Did I Find?

Dr. Weiping Song Students in a general chemistry class were asked to take handwriting notes in Fall 2021. The purpose was to determine if longhand was indeed a more effective way to retain knowledge as reported. The investigation includes an initial survey and an exit survey. Three student learning outcomes (SLOs) at Remember, Understand, and Apply cognitive levels were compared to those in previous semesters. No significant difference on grades was found but students reported experiencing more mindfulness while taking notes by hand. Providing a skeletal note and combining both types of note-taking are found to be beneficial to improve knowledge retention in students.

Funder Acknowledgment: The author wishes to thank Center for Teaching and Learning at Delaware State University.

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Investigating the Relationships Between Physical Water Quality Parameters and Chloro-Phyll-A in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware Emily Andrade, Robert Allison, Aaron Bland, Mohana Gadde, Memory Nakazwe, and Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D. Delaware State University, Department of Agriculture & Natural Resources Oyster aquaculture returned to the Delaware Inland Bays with the issuing of shellfish leasing areas in 2018, bolstering local economies, improving water quality, and providing structured habitat for fish and invertebrates. Additionally, the Delaware Center for Inland Bays established three pilot artificial oyster reefs beginning in 2019 to restore the native oyster population and further improve the Inland Bay environment. Successful management of oyster farming and restoration efforts depends on continuous monitoring of oyster growing conditions.

A pilot water quality monitoring program was established in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, which included multiparameter continuous water quality instruments (sondes) deployed at sites of oyster aquaculture (Salley's Cove) and artificial oyster reefs (Camp Arrowhead and Big Bacon Island) from summer through late fall in the 2020 and 2021 field seasons. Trends in water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, total suspended solids, calcium hardness, and chlorophyll-a were examined with respect to oyster growing conditions. Sustained warmer temperatures likely pro-mote oyster growth and survival. Turbidity readings were in general high; large quantities of suspended matter dilute organic matter available for oyster consumption, reducing growth potential. These preliminary findings are expected to inform the management of Delaware oyster aquaculture and restoration efforts and shape the direction of future monitoring efforts.

Funder Acknowledgment: NOAA LMRCSC, NSF DE EPSCOR

Regulated Drought-Responsive Transcription Factor Genes in Sugar Maple Miss Oluwatomi Jacobs, O.E Jacobs, A.R. Vennapusa, K. Krishnanand, K. Melmaiee, and S. Elavarthi Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall.), a tree species native to the Northeastern part of the United States and Canada, is economically important for its hardwood, sugar syrup, and fall foliage tourism. Sugar maple is reported to be highly sensitive to drought stress, but the absence of genome-level studies has hindered understanding the mechanisms underlying their adaptation to stress at the molecular level.

Next-generation sequencing has emerged as an advanced tool for mining genes involved in stress responses. Among the gene families, transcription factors (TFs) as molecular switches regulate several pathways upon stress adaptations. Identification of such TF families is crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms and for developing the drought stress tolerance in sugar maple. With this, we identified several TF genes involved in stress response from the transcriptome data of sugar maple plants subjected to drought stress for 7, 14, and 21 days under greenhouse conditions. Our analysis revealed the significantly induced transcripts encoding the different types of TFs such as NAC, HSF, ERF, WRKY, and basic leucine zipper (bZIP). A few TFs showed differential expression commonly at all the drought stress periods (7, 14, and 21 days): a higher number of differentially expressed transcription factor genes were found in sugar maple ex-posed to 21 days of drought stress. In conclusion, our study offers the finding of novel TFs responsible for drought stress tolerance in sugar maple. Further understanding of the target molecules and validation provides the potential gene candidates for genetic improvement of the drought tolerance in sugar maple.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA, NIFA-McIntire Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Program and the Stennis Award

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Investigating the Relationships between Physical, Chemical, and Biological Water Quality Parameters in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware Mr. Juan Ramos, Robert Allison, Aaron Bland, Mohana Gadde, Memory Nakazwe, Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D. and Ali Parsaeimehr Delaware's Inland waters have seen a resurgence in oyster aquaculture. Therefore, water quality monitoring is essential for sustainable growth in shellfish farming and ongoing restoration efforts. Our objective of the study was to determine if there were correlations between dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and nutrients. Physical, chemical, and biological water quality parameters were measured within Rehoboth Bay, Delaware during the 2020 and 2021 field seasons. Correlative relationships were looked at between dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen and turbidity, turbidity and nitrate, and turbidity and orthophosphate. These parameters were explored using regression analysis as well as analysis of variance (ANOVA) within four regression graphs to compare these parameters that were recorded. Instruments used for collecting our data, YSI 556 Multi-probe, YSI 6 series sonde, YSI Exo2 sonde, and Aquafluor fluorometer. Water samples gathered were also taken and processed in Delaware State University's aquaculture lab, nutrient content using a 9500 YSI photometer. These comparisons allow for a greater understanding of the relation-ships that drive changes to and around aquaculture habitats. Additionally, the significance of this work is continuing to have a better understanding of preferences when it comes to the harvest culture of oysters since there has been a rise in demand upon recent recovery.

Funder Acknowledgment: EPSCoR, NSF

BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES Mitigating Substance Use Through Prevention Efforts in Sussex County, DE James Clark, Tana Connell, PhD, LMSW & Amy Habeger, PhD, MSW, LCSW Substance use disorder and opioid use disorder have been a prevalent issue amongst many communities. Delaware's counties, New Castle, Kent, and Sussex have reported drug overdose rates that exceed the nations average. The dominant explanation for this trend suggests the lack of service availability and accessibility significantly, in Sussex County. In this study, a qualitative research method was used consisting of semi-structured interviews conducted amongst three focus groups. This study explains identified problem areas and barriers Sussex County community members endure and suggested prevention strategies that could be advantageous to mitigate the experiences of SUD/OUD and reduce the rising overdose rates. The participants consisted of providers, community leaders, family members of Sussex County, and specialty populations as associated with area of study. Participant's responses were analyzed and provided significant data on prevention, treatment, and recovery services, provided identification of areas of improvement, and strategies to reduce SUD/OUD related mortality. A variety of perspectives were expressed to include stigma, service availability, accessibility, transportation barriers, educational and training needs, methods of identifying persons in need, and other reported themes. The views surfaced mainly into service availability, accessibility, and stigma, where these themes had major complexities. Participants were asked to suggest strategies that could increase access to SUD/OUD related services and the participants on a whole demonstrated the suggestion of education and training services and innovative accessibility.

The results of this study show an association between service availability and accessibility and indicate a need for early intervention services and more innovative services with increased mobilization to target all populations amongst the Sussex County Community, in addition to promote awareness and reduce stigma associated with SUD/OUD. Funder Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the Health Resources and Service Administration (Grant #G25RH40036).

Attitudes and Access to Evidence Based OT Practice Between the U.S. and West Africa Ms. Elizabeth Dziuba, Anita Asare, Ashley Calandra, Kabrina Horsey, Priscilla Ntia-moah, and Khai Roberts Master of Occupational Therapy Department, Delaware State University Attitudes and Access to Evidence Based Occupational Therapy Practice Between the United States and West Africa is a mixed method study which compares how occupational therapy practitioners in West Africa feel that their accessibility to evidence-based research is affecting their service delivery outcomes compared to occupational therapy practitioners in the United States. This study targets the adult population residing in West Africa and in the United States. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation was performed to evaluate occupational therapy practitioners' accessibility and perception of utilizing evidence-based practice. In addition, the study examines how accessibility to evidencePAGE 22

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS based research affects service delivery outcomes in occupational therapy between West Africa and the United States. If there is increased accessibility to evidence-based research, then there is an increase in service delivery outcomes.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Role of Heat Shock Protein 27 (HSP-27) in Reduction of Aggregated Transactive Response DNA Binding Protein 43 (TDP-43) Mr. Muhammad Abeer, Michael Gitcho, Department of Biological Sciences, DSU Transactive response DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is a major pathological protein found in both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. In all cases, TDP-43 aggregation was identified that presents faster disease progression. TDP-43 has previously been shown to bind to the small heat shock protein (HSP 27) but no functional evaluation of this interaction has been explored. HSP27 consists of an ?-crystallin domain that is involved in oligomerization and acts as a molecular chaperone for refolding proteins. In response to heat or stress, HSPs inhibit the aggregation of native proteins. Inducing expression of HSP27 has been shown to be protective of acute rejection after cardiac transplant, diabetic sensory neurodegeneration, and protects in a model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 17. In the present study, we examine the effect of HSP 27 overexpression on TDP-43 aggregation and mitochondrial morphology.

HSP and nuclear localization signal (NLS) transgenic mice were developed using Ca2+/calmodulin protein kinase (CK2) driver. Genotypes were verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We isolated the brain tissues and confirmed the double (CK2/NLS and CK2/HSP) and triple (Ck2/ HSP/NLS) transgenic mice by western blot analyses. Samples were then treated against multiple primary antibodies to understand the role of the respective proteins in the double and triple transgenic mice. We also plan to investigate the tissue morphology of these mice using immunohistochemistry. Using western blot we confirmed at least 6 mice for each group, such as wildtype, CK2/HSP, CK2/NLS, and CK2/HSP/NLS. Preliminary data suggest an increase in carboxy terminal TDP (TDP-CT) in CK2/HSP/NLS mice compared to the wildtype and CK2/NLS mice. We also noticed overexpression of apoE in CK2/NLS compared to the wild-type mice. Besides, samples were treated against human-specific TDP; no differences were observed between CK2/NLS and CK2/HSP/NLS mice. We will also investigate the level of HSP-27, ubiquitin, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), synapsin-1, and ubiquitin-binding protein p62. Our initial data confirms that we successfully generated a group of double and triple transgenic mice. Preliminary data also indicates altered expression of apoE and TDP-CT in these transgenic mice.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by a NIH-RISE grant by DSU.

Calcium Elevations and Synaptobrevin Role in Glutamate Exocytosis by Astrocytes Tobenna Amanfo, Dr. Van Talabattula and Dr. Murali K. Temburni Synchronous neuronal activity is a hallmark of developing as well as fully developed neuronal networks and is necessary for the functional organization of the brain. However, the mechanisms of the development of these synchronous oscillations are poorly understood. While existing models assume it as a process intrinsic to neurons, recent evidence suggests that astrocytes have an important role in the development of synchronous activity. We established pure neuron only and mixed (astrocyte and neuron) cultures on multielectrode arrays (MEAs) from the embryonic chick optic tectum. Our preliminary results indicate that astrocytes are necessary for synchronous activity of neurons in culture.

Mixed neuron and astrocyte cultures show random spiking activity which synchronizes over time whereas astrocyte-free neurons only show random activity without synchronization. Our model predicts that glutamate sensing at tripartite synapses via mGluRs elevates local calcium stores within astrocyte processes. With sufficient activation, the localized calcium elevation crosses a threshold causing a calcium induced calcium release (CICR) within the astrocyte leading to glutamate exocytosis. We targeted the SNARE protein Synaptobrevin (Vamp2) within as-trocytes as crucial for communication with neurons via exocytotic release of glutamate. We proposed to test this model by expressing a truncated Vamp2 subunit (Vamp2 DN) which acts as a dominant negative to block exocytotic release. Astrocytes expressing the Vamp2 DN are expected to release significantly less glutamate upon calcium elevation thereby reducing synchrony of neuronal activity. We have generated astrocyte lines expressing the Synaptobrevin dominant negative (Vamp2 DN) along with the glutamate sensor iGluSnFR. We demonstrate that Vamp2 DN expressing astrocytes have significantly reduced glutamate exocytosis when CICR is induced with Ionomycin. With these tools a more comprehensive molecular model for astrocyte involvement in the generation of neuronal synchrony can be developed.

Funder Acknowledgment: NSF FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Cytoplasmic Expression of TDP-43 in Aged Mice Displays Hippocampal Sclerosis-like Degeneration and Neuronal Loss with Reduced Lifespan Ms. Ashley Anderson1, Matthew Dopler1, Damian Osei-Kankam1, Stephani A. Davis1, James Dowell3 and Michael Gitcho1,2 Delaware State University 2Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research 3University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, U

1

TDP-43 functions as a heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein involved in mRNA transport, mRNA stability, transcription, mitochondrial metabolism, and forms stress granules in the cytosol. TDP-43 is the major pathological protein in frontotemporal dementia and ALS. Previously, TDP-43 pathology has been described in up to 50% of those with Alzheimer's disease. Recent evaluation of this cohort revealed a distinct pathological staging of TDP-43 proteinopathy in an aged population, which overlaps frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD-TDP) and Alzheimer's disease. This overlapping pathological cohort is named limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE).

Both human TDP-43 and TDP-43 nuclear localization signal defective (δNLS) driven it the hippocampus in an APP/PSEN1 background show severe neuronal loss in the hippocampus, a change in plaque deposition, aggregated tau, and a decrease in survival. Quantitative shotgun proteomics on hippocampal brain tissue reveal novel pathways that are directly involved in inflammation, APP regulation, phosphorylation, neurofilaments, mitochondrial metabolism, synaptic density, calcium flux, protein quality control, and mitophagy. This new pathological model provides a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of TDP-43 in the hope of discovering new therapeutic targets in AD, LATE, and TDP-43 proteinopathy.

Funder Acknowledgment: MBRS RISE Program at DSU funded by NIGMS, National Institute of Aging, Delaware IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence

Oxidative Stress Response in Human Endometriotic Cell Line 12Z and Human Endometrial Stromal Cell Line HESC Lechyna Mitchell and Karl E. Miletti-Gonzalez Endometriosis is a disease that affects primarily 10-15% of women during their reproductive ages. This condition approximately affects 176 million women worldwide. It is identified by the presence of endometrial glands/tissue growth and implantation outside of the uterine cavity and the only true confirmation of the diagnosis is through surgery. About 10-70% of women with endometriosis present abdominal pain and 35-50% of those diagnosed deal with infertility issues. Other symptoms may vary from dysmenorrhea to painful intercourse and irregular periods. Endometrial tissue can be found implanted in locations of the peritoneal cavity, such as the bladder, liver, kidneys, and the ovaries, where it causes inflammation. We hypothesize that the human endometriotic epithelial cell line 12Z and the control human endometrial stromal cell line, (HESC), will show a differential response to oxidative stress, implicated in the pathophysiology of this disease.

To test this hypothesis, we will treat both cell lines with hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammatory mediator, to create oxidative stress, and assess their oxidative stress response via a cell viability assay. Also, we will treat 12Z and HESC cell lines with plant extracts (ashwagandha, chamomile, soursop, and dandelion root) known to have anti-inflammatory activity and challenge the cells with hydrogen peroxide to assess potential effects on oxidative stress response modulation. These experiments are expected to provide initial data on the effect of these plant extract on the oxidative stress response of the endometriotic cell line 12Z and the normal control cell line HESC. Funder Acknowledgment: This project was supported in part by the DE INBRE program, with a grant from the NIH NIGMS (P20 GM103446), a DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.) and the NSF HBCU-UP Research Initiation Award Grant No. 1700228 (K.M.).

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Effects of Aging on Cholinergic Synaptic Release in the Central Nervous System Mr. DaShan Osborne, Hakeem Lawal Neuroscience Program, Department of Biological Sciences, Delaware State University Acetylcholine (ACh) is a ubiquitous chemical found in both the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). In the CNS, ACh is synthesized in the cytoplasm of cholinergic neurons and stored in synaptic vesicles. Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter (VAChT) is a protein that transports ACh from the cytoplasm to the synaptic vesicles. Despite the wealth of knowledge regarding the regulation of ACh synaptic transmission, including the fact that cholinergic decline is an important feature of aging, not much is understood about how cholinergic release is mediated late in the lifespan or the role of VAChT in that process. We are interested in systematically determining how ACh synapses are altered during aging, and what role changes in expression or function of VAChT may play in that process. Here we use Drosophila melanogaster as a model, and immunohistochemistry to visualize age related changes in the expression of VAChT, as well as changes in its localization to synaptic vesicles relative to the plasma membrane. For this study, Drosophila were separated into 3 age groups (0-7 days old; 28 days old; 56 days old), as well as male and female, per age group. The brains were dissected and visualized under a fluorescent microscope. Data from this study are still in the gathering stages. We hypothesize that there will be a change in the expression and localization of VAChT as the neurons age. Future studies will focus on synaptic physiology, and how age-related changes in VAChT effect synaptic transmission.

Funder Acknowledgment: RISE Fellowship Grant, HGBI Title III Grant, K01 Career Development Grant to H.O. Lawal

Ameliorating the Effects of an Environmental Toxin in a Drosophila Model of Parkinson's Disease Dionne Williams, Esther Abiona and Hakeem Lawal Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized in part by the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Although the precise cause of PD is not yet fully understood, environmental factors are known to contribute to the etiology of a vast number of cases. Rotenone, a pesticide that inhibits Complex 1 of the mitochondrial Electron Transport Chain, is one such toxin. Importantly, there is no known cure for PD and effective treatment options are severely limited both in number and efficacy. We are interested in developing neuroprotective strategies that may lead to more effective treatments for the disease. This project studies the effects of rotenone-induced toxicity in adult Drosophila melanogaster and the neuroprotective capacity of dacarbazine, a possible anti-PD drug that was identified in a previous pharmacological screen. We hypothesized that dacarbazine will confer both organismal and neuroprotection against rotenone-induced toxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. And we report that treatment with dacarbazine led to a partial rescue of organismal lethality induced by rotenone. Further, we measured the effect of rotenone on mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate (OCR) using the Seahorse Analyzer and tested whether treatment with dacarbazine can ameliorate the effects of the rotenone inhibition of the mitochondria and we present preliminary data on the effect of dacarbazine on OCR in adult Drosophila melanogaster brains and in Schneider (S2) cells. In addition, we utilized immunohistochemistry technique to count the Dopaminergic neurons in adult Drosophila melanogaster brains to further investigate the potential neuroprotective effects of dacarbazine in our Drosophila model of PD. In sum, our report shows the utility of a potential neuroprotective chemical against a model of PD and suggests a possible neuroprotective mechanism against the diseases.

Funder Acknowledgment: HGBI Title III Grant, NSF MRI Grant

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY Biocarbon Adsorbents for Mercury Adsorption Mr. Douglas J. Austin Jr., Dr. Yanfeng Yue Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University Physical Science and Engineering As a way to safeguard the future water supplies for the next generation, the purification of water bodies is paramount in science today. Water bodies in and around Delaware as reported by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources are contaminated with heavy metals including lead(II), arsenic(III), copper(II), and zinc(II). In this study, lignin a polymer will be used to create porous carbons to purify waters of the heavy metals. One of the goals of this research is to repurpose waste materials and unwanted invasive plant species to aid in protecting water bodies in Delaware. For the research, the hemp waste and lignin alkali along with sulfur containing materials will be ground into powder and then processed into activated carbons under an inert atmosphere. These carbon materials will be tested using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyzer to detect the specific surface areas and pore size distributions. X-ray diffraction will be used to examine crystallinity of the products, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy will be used to determine the concentrations of heavy metals before and after the activated carbon is used for the water purification. This research aims to adsorb heavy metals from water by using the activated carbon products made from natural abundant precursors and reduce metal concentration below the regulated concentrations as mandated by state and federal regulatory bodies (mercury 2 ppb, lead 15 ppb, arsenic 10 ppb, and cadmium 5 ppb). Biocarbon adsorbents synthesized from readily available plant materials are a useful way to help reduce waste from plant materials and remediate waterways of harmful metals. To date, our current research has been able to observe 199.7 mg/g adsorption capacity reducing Hg conc. in water from 10ppm to 0.06ppm at a pH of 6 at room temperature. Also, the materials synthesized have a surface area of 1413.972 m2/g. Further testing is needed under different conditions such higher and lower temperatures, pH, and initial dosage of Hg and carbon adsorbents.

Funder Acknowledgment: This program was made possible by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Grant No. 1757353 and the State of Delaware.

Advances in Rationally Composited Light Harvesting Films Using Element IV Compounds For Energy and Organic Electronics Applications Miss Destinee Thomas, Authors: Destinee Thomas, Wafaa Abousamra, Dan Yang, Leila Mouhtarim, Dt. Young-Gi Kim* Energy and Organic Electronics Lab, Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University The use of element IV composites for the applications in solar cells has sparked wide interest due to the promising possibility for high power conversion efficiency. Introducing the more stable class of molecular iodosalt compounds such as A2SnI6 with Tin is known to offer an oxidation of 4+ as opposed to 2+ that was observed from A2SnI6. The iodosalts can be promising candidate for providing green and/or eco-friendly chemistry compared to conventional perovskite composites that contain lead, which are known to be toxic to the environment.

In addition, the iodosalts can provide merits in solubility, air-moisture stability and yields in the synthesis. We demonstrate the advances in the synthesis of the salts adding another group IV elements and the rationally composited light harvesting films using the modified salts composite for energy and organic electronic applications.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by DOD HBCU-MI program.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY Affordable Electroactive Polymer Films for Energy Application Dan Yang, Destinee Thomas and Dr. Young-Gi Kim This work reports on the fabrication and characterization of electrically conductive polymer (ECP) electrodes which was modulated with novel secondary doping process. The ECP films were deposited using different coating methods on various substrates for finding sweet spot of the processing condition for energy application. The morphology was elucidated at a range of length scales using the atomic force microscopy. The deposited ECP films were found to form continuous polymer films showing affordable range of electrical conductivity, where the best electrical conductivity was observed from the film electrode treated with secondary chemical dopants and selective processing conditions. The optimal ECP film electrode is promising for advanced energy application including energy storage devices and ECDs. Funder Acknowledgment: Funding from Boron Molecular

EDUCATION Principals' Perspectives on Performance-based Compensation of Teachers Orville Plummer, Dr. Yewande Lewis-Fokum (Faculty Advisor) School of Education, University of The West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica Performance-based compensation of teachers has been proposed as a strategy to improve performance and accountability in the education system. This qualitative research study entitled, 'Principals' Perspectives on Performance-based Compensation of Teachers', was conducted to explore the views of secondary school principals concerning performance-based compensation of teachers. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to conduct interviews with six secondary school principals, selected by way of purposive sampling. Vrooms (1964) Expectancy Theory of Motivation was the theoretic lens used to explore the issues of principals' understanding of the concept of performance-based compensation of teachers, what principals consider as the major benefits of performance-based compensation of teachers, the major areas of concern regarding the implementation of a performance-based compensation of teachers, and recommendations of principals regarding performance-based compensation of teachers. The data was analyzed using Creswell's (2018) sixstep data analysis procedure. The findings were reported in relation to the research questions and the major themes that emerged. The main finding of the study is that while principals appreciated the value of performance-based compensation to improve teachers' performance and students' achievements, they were not in support of its implementation due to the inequities and inequalities in the education system in Jamaica. Inequality and inequity in the education system, teacher motivation and multiple factors affecting students' performance emerged as dominant themes. The findings suggest that the implementation of performance-based compensation in the context of the current inequities and inequalities would be challenging and may be hampered by a lack of support of principals. The study recommended collaborative efforts, led by the Ministry of Education to en-act policies for a more equitable system and a comprehensive performance manage system to drive performance and accountable at all levels. Future studies will focus on the perspectives of principals concerning performance-based compensation of teachers in the context of the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic through the theoretic perspectives of Vrooms (1964) Equity Theory of Motivation.

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS HUMAN ECOLOGY Oxidative Stability of Njangsa Seed Oil Ms. Bessem Akonjuen, Samuel A. Besong and Alberta N.A. Aryee Oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play a vital role in maintaining health and wellness in humans by minimizing the risk of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. However, PUFAs are unstable and susceptible to oxidative degradation due to the presence of two or more double bonds in their structure. This degradation leads to a reduction in the oil quality and loss/ production of volatile compounds which causes undesirable taste and flavor. Njangsa seed oil (NSO) contains bioactive PUFAs including alphaeleostearic acid, but it is prone to oxidation due to its PUFAs profile. Oxidative stability is one of the most important quality parameters of edible oils as it. determines their usefulness in technological processes as well as shelf life. The present work investigates the oxidative stability of NSO during storage during the 28-day period. The stability of the oil was determined by measuring free fatty acid (FFA) content, per-oxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (p-AV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, and oxidative stability in-dex on day 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28. Knowledge of the oxidative stability could serve as guide in developing effective strategies to protect/minimize oxidation in NSO. Funder Acknowledgment: USDA Evans-Allen grant (DELXANAA082018)

Evaluation of Prunus africana Bark Extracts as Natural Remedy for Breast Cancer Ms. Lucy Ebini, Dr. Alberta Aryee, Dr. Karl Miletti Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and breast cancer is the most common cancer in females. Chemotherapy is less effective in some cancer subtypes such as the triple-negative breast cancer. This has led to increasing interest in the exploration of alternative and natural remedies for breast cancer including medicinal plants. The aim of this study is to assess the apoptosis-inducing activities and signaling pathway of Prunus africana bark extracts as herbal remedies for breast cancer. The bark of P. africana extracted with selected absolute and hydroalco-holic solvents and edible oils were characterized with regards to their total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), pigment content, and antioxidant activities and apoptosis-inducing activities and signaling pathway on breast cancer cell lines. The extraction yield ranged between 3.22 and 12.47%, and the highest was obtained with aqueous ethanol (EtOH-50). The highest TPC was also determine in EtOH-50 extract. However, the absolute ethanol (EtOH-100) extract showed the highest TFC, antioxidant activities, and pigment content. The lowest EC50 (0.21) determined in the methanolic and ethanolic extracts were comparable to ascorbic acid, a known antioxidant. All the extracts and organic solvents (vehicle controls) negatively affected the triple negative breast cancer cells to a certain extent.

Funder Acknowledgment: The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from USDA NIFA Evans Allen (project # DELXHMEC2017).

Fatty Acid Content in Popular Snacks in the US - Using NHANES Data and Machine Learning (ML) Approaches Ms. Christabel Tachie, Alberta N.A. Aryee, Ph.D. Snacking is a common dietary habit in the US. It involves the consumption of energy-dense foods such as baked products (cakes), sweets and dessert (ice cream). The nutrients commonly found in these snacks include saturated fats, sodium and sugar. In the US, National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) is conducted yearly to gather data on the dietary patterns of people using a 24-hr recall. ML techniques, a subset of data science uses algorithms that can capture huge and unstructured data sets and integrate relationships among the data variables. The NHANES data from 2015 to 2018 will be analyzed in this study. The study focuses on the use of ML algorithms (Artificial Neural Network-ANN and Support vector Machine-SVM) to examine the contribution of popular snacks to the intake of nutrients (saturated fat, total fat) among consumers with respect to age, sex, race, income, and education.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA-AFRI-2021-67022-34148

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS HUMAN ECOLOGY Investigation of Environmental Parameters, and Vibrio spp. Levels in Oyster and Seawater from Slaughter Beach, Delaware, USA Ms. Devotha Tumushimiyimana, Devotha Tumushimiyimana1, Rosemary Ebirim2 , Ali Parsaeimehr2 , Wilbert Long III1 , and Gulnihal Ozbay1,2* Food Science and Biotechnology Graduate Program, Human Ecology Department, Delaware State University Department of Agriculture

1 2

Oysters play a significant role in the ecosystem and food chain. The filtration of water by the oysters results in the removal of sediments, bacteria, and nutrients which leads to the bioaccumulation of different types of microorganisms in oysters such as Vibrio spp. Of various Vibrio species found in the aquatic environment common human pathogens, including V. Vulnificus, V. parahae-molyticus, cause wound infections and gastrointestinal diseases. Other Vibrio spp., such as V. coral-liilyticus and V. tubiashii are known as shellfish pathogens.

Slaughter Beach, Delaware, USA has been considered as a potential area to establish an oyster hatchery. However, the Vibrio spp., and water quality parameters remain unknown in this region. The aims of this study are to investigate and evaluate the Vibrio spp., in seawater and oysters and determine the relationship between water quality and total Vibrio spp., levels in oysters and seawater. Our results revealed the highest presumptive larval pathogenic Vibrio in the seawater was observed in July, August, and October in sites 2 and 3 with a peak at 95 ± 7.2 CFU/100 mL for site 2, and the highest presumptive human pathogenic Vibrio in the sea water was recorded during early July at site 2 (148 ± 40 CFU/100 mL). The highest human pathogenic Vibrio in oysters was observed at site 2 during September (3.39 ± 0.01 Log cfu/100ml) and October (2.27 ± 0.03 Log cfu/100ml). Monitoring the pH of the sea water during the high tide and low tide at different sites during July to October demonstrated that the pH remained almost stable in a range from 7.22 ± 0.00 to 8.89. Analyzing the sea water temperature from the July to October revealed the highest sea temperature during high tide and low tide at site 2 during July with a peak to 28.96 ± 0.56 °C. Funder Acknowledgment: Special thanks to USDA-NIFA and NSF-EPSCOR Programs for funding this project.

PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Plasmonic Layered Bolometer COMSOL Multiphysics Simulation Test Daemar Casey, Kevin Diaz, and Dr. Mukti Rana Bolometers are devices utilized for measuring the power of incident electromagnetic radiation through the heating of a material where changes in electrical resistance depending on temperature. An infrared bolometer sensor or a microbolometer used as a thermal camera detector, where infrared radiation between 7.5um-14um targets the detector's material, heating it to, thereby changing its electrical resistance. Plasmonics or nanoplasmonics research focuses on the optical phenomena in the nanoscale vicinity of metal surfaces, where the plasmonic effect occurs at the interaction between free electrons in metal nanoparticles and incident light. In Nanoplasmonics, metallic nanoparticles dramatically enhance the interaction between light and matter as this effect only occurs when the wavelength of the metal nanoparticle is smaller than the wavelength of light. In this study, the truncated model of an infrared bolometer sensor is developed in COMSOL Multiphysics to examine the plasmon effect in the absorbing layer. COMSOL Multiphysics was a helpful tool in studying the plasmonic effect on the absorbing layer of the bolometer and utilizing the Electromagnetic Waves, Frequency Domain physics module in COMSOL Multiphysics software to simulate optical properties for the surface of the bolometer and surface electric field results. The incident light's power that struck the surface of the bolometer sensor was 62 nW/m for the bolometer sensor modeled in the nanoscale and the microscale. Results showed a trend for the absorption and surface electric field around the sensing layer of the nanoscale bolometer, outputting stronger values than the microscale bolometer. In conclusion, the nanoscale bolometer provided better absorption rate values than the microscale bolometer displaying how the interaction between light and metal nanoparticles can dramatically enhance the interaction between light and matter when the metal nanoparticle is smaller than the wavelength of the applied incident light. Future studies will focus on making the model 3D, improving the meshing in the simulation, and applying more parameters to see how the absorption layer's surface on the bolometer behaves in more plasmonic settings in the nanoscale vicinity.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by funding through the HBGI Title III Program and by the Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.

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GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Multitemporal Disaster Mapping Techniques Mr. Azubuike Okorie and Sokratis Makrogiannis (PhD) In the wake of a disaster, timely intervention or response is paramount to reduce fatalities, infrastructural damage, risk of environmental hazards, health risks, and other consequences. History is replete with records of several natural disaster events such as wildfires, floods, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis, that had adverse effects on the environment, quality of human life, and various intervention strategies had to be deployed to salvage the situation. A first step leading to the timely intervention of the response team is to identify the areas that have been impacted by the disaster. This process is often termed disaster mapping. In the past, disaster mapping was nearly an impossible task, but with advancements in remote sensing technology and image processing techniques, several disaster mapping techniques have emerged. These techniques range from the manual delineation of the post-disaster image, to detecting changes between pre-and postdisaster images. This work proposes the use of a change detection approach for disaster mapping. We experimented with some change detection techniques, such as image differencing, differential spectral indices, and Gabor TLC -- a two-level clustering technique using Gabor wavelet features. We evaluated the mapping accuracy of these techniques on seven disaster events, including two floodings, three wildfires, and one earthquake and tsunami, by calculating the dice score coefficient (DSC) between the change maps and corresponding ground truth.

Our results indicate that, on average, Gabor TLC produces more accurate mapping than the other techniques.

Funder Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (award #SC3GM113754) and by the Army Research Office under grant #W911NF2010095.

Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy and High Precision Sensing to Assess Instrument Drifts Mr. Al Alexis, Zakaria Juracka, and Amir Khan Over the past decade, there have been observations of a general increase of temperature in the Earth's atmosphere which greenhouse gasses are directly responsible for. To understand and help quantify emissions, we must be able to precisely locate and monitor emissions across the region. Tunable diode laser spectroscopy is the most common and widely used technique for the measurement of atmospheric trace species in the IR and mid-IR region. These laser-based sensors coupled with sensitive detection using Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy (WMS) offer a low-cost, precise, and highly sensitive solution. WMS has long been used by researchers as a tool to probe molecular transitions, measurements of trace gas concentrations, and physical parameters (e.g., the linewidth, absorption cross-section, density, velocity, etc.). In addition, WMS is a cost-effective, highly sensitive method employed in several trace-gas sensors with applications in atmospheric sensing for air quality and global climate change. As is well known, WMS second harmonic detection is the most common choice for measurements due to higher signal-to-noise considerations. Also, it is known that the most common limiting factor in such measurements is primarily due to optical fringing from optical components in the experiment. In this work, we will show that 2f-WMS harmonic detection of trace-gas species when used with long-term monitoring can also be used to assess environmental drift, stability of laser-based field prototypes. With this method of obtaining information, it is our goal to provide reliable and accurate equipment that can be equipped on unmanned aerial vehicles for better research and analytic data.

Funder Acknowledgment: This work was funded by DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM103446)

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES In vitro Effects of Hemp Extract on Eimeria Species from Goats Ms. Ayiana James, Kwame Matthews, Ph.D. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University Small ruminants act as multipurpose animals, providing the world with meat, fiber, skins, and milk. Unfortunately, coccidiosis stands as an ongoing issue for small ruminants like sheep and goats. Coccidiosis is a disease caused by the intestinal parasitic protozoa in the genus Eimeria (coccidia). When having the proper temperature, oxygen, and moisture, coccidia produces many eggs called oocysts that are released into the environment from feces. The oocysts become sporulated and infective in two to seven days in contaminated feed and water.

Coccidiosis impacts the small intestine of sheep and goats and may cause diarrhea (sometimes having blood or mucus), dehydration, fever, weight loss, anemia, wool breaking, and death. Therefore, it is important to prevent coccidia infection or treat animals immediately if infected.

The use of plant extracts is a promising alternative for the chemical control of coccidia which can be used by both conventional and organic farmers. Hemp extract is one plant extract that may reduce coccidia load as its cannabinoid properties are known to reduce bacterial, viral, parasitic, and protozoal activity. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of hemp extract on the prevention of Eimeria spp. sporulation. To complete this study, four grams of fecal samples will be added to 30 ml of distilled water, ground to a slurry and then filtered using cheesecloth. The unsporulated oocysts will then be placed in 12-well plates in triplicate wells per treatment. The treatments will be divided into negative control, positive control, and hemp treatments at varying concentrations of extract. Wells will consist of 100µl of unsporulated oocysts, 100µl of 2% potassium dichromate, and 100 µl of distilled water (control) or 100 µl of sulfa drugs (positive control). The treatment wells will consist of 100µl of unsporulated oocysts, 100µl of 2% potassium dichromate, and varying concentrations of hemp extract (25µl, 50µl, 75µl, 100µl, 125µl, and 150µl). Plates will then be incubated for 48 hours at 4°C and then sporulated and unsporulated oocysts be observed and counted via microscopy. It is expected that hemp extract will have anticoccidial impacts on coccidia sporulation Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University.

Examining Differences in Water Quality and how it Affects Oyster Growth in Rehoboth Bay, DE Kevin Knight, Aaron Bland, Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay Rehoboth Bay, one of the three Delaware Inland Bays, is a site of recently implemented oyster aquaculture and oyster artificial reefs. Oyster aquaculture is the farming of oysters to eat and artificial reefs help restore the wild oyster population. Oysters, both wild and farmed, help filter nutrients in the water and provide habitat to fishes and invertebrates. Oysters in Rehoboth Bay may help manage the excessive nutrient pollution affecting the Bay. Water quality can affect oyster growth, but it is not clear whether water quality changes across the Bay. This information could help oyster farmers and conservation managers find the best areas for oysters to grow.

The objectives of this project are to figure out if throughout the bay there are major differences in water quality and whether those differences may impact how oysters grow.

To test the hypothesis that there would be significant differences in water quality across Rehoboth Bay, seven sites in Rehoboth Bay were visited approximately every two weeks, weather permitting, from July to November 2020. Sites were either an aquaculture site, artificial reef site or a control site without oysters. Water quality was determined using a YSI 556 multiprobe system, an AquaFluor Handheld Fluorometer, and a Global Water WQ770 Turbidimeter, taking three readings per site visit. Collected water samples were filtered through a pre-weighed filter to determine Total Suspended Solids (TSS). Temperature, TSS, chlorophyll, and dissolved oxygen were the main factors used to determine whether or not the hypothesis was correct. The data were averaged out for each site by each month.

Four two-factor ANOVA tests were used to determine if there were significant differences in the parameters between the months and across sites. It was determined that, for each parameter, there was a significant difference by month and site. Differences between months were generally greater than those across sites. Based on literature values, it is unlikely that there would be significant differences in oyster growing suitability across the different sites.

Funder Acknowledgment: Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Delaware State University

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Examining Water Quality and Blue Crab Gut Volume in Blackbird Creek Kayla Mckinley, Jacquiline Maina, Gulnihal Ozbay Ph.D. Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) are an essential part of the Delmarva local economy generating millions in revenue. Marsh habitats are especially essential for juvenile blue crabs as they provide shelter from predators. 51% of the land surrounding Blackbird creek is agricultural land and as such is subjected to nutrient runoff. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine water quality conditions such as nutrient concentrations and investigate blue crab feeding behavior in Blackbird Creek, Delaware to determine the creek's suitability as a blue crab habitat. Blue crabs and water samples were collected at five sites with differing dominant vegetation in 2017, 2020, and 2021. Crab gut fullness and volume was determined as well as nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and orthophosphate concentrations. Nutrient analysis was conducted using a 9500 YSI photometer. Preliminary results indicate that the highest mean nitrate and ammonia level was at site 5 (0.44 mg/L and 0.068 mg/ L, respectively). All the nutrient concentrations were within Delaware's regulatory ranges for surface water quality. Crab gut content analysis shows the highest percentage of mean fullness and volume was also from site 5 (75% and 4.57 cm3, respectively). Site 5 is primarily dominated by Phragmites australis and likely has more food available for blue crab consumption.

Funder Acknowledgment: NOAA, USDA

The Delmarva Peninsula's Poultry Industry: A Look at Its Past to Understand Its Future Miss Dana Niemeyer This paper explains the history of the poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula with a focus on the commercial broiler industry. This paper was done in correlation to research completed as an intern at the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village. Part of this research was completed at the archives located at the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village and the Delaware Public Archives. This paper discusses the broiler industry on Delmarva, which began in Delaware, and has continued to evolve over time. It highlights the Chicken of Tomorrow Contest, marketing shifts, vertical integration, and scientific advancements that helped to improve the industry. It is important to understand the history of this industry to appreciate how far agriculture has advanced. Without learning about the history of an industry, especially one as expansive as the broiler industry, it is impossible to truly understand its impact. This paper will explain the history of the broiler industry on the Delmarva Peninsula and how this history has led to the modern broiler industry.

Impact of Fashion Consciousness on Retail Consumerism Miss Tiffany Oliver Aijanae Deshields Taylor Simmons Raeshawn Joffrion There are a number of factors that play a role in the decisions of consumerism among different types of people. Our research specifically focuses on the different buying patterns of fashion conscious consumers and those whose wardrobe revolves around simplicity and practicality. The purpose of our research is to better understand how each cohort thinks in regard to buying clothing and apparel. This will increase our knowledge of marketing tactics and better equip us to track buying patterns among consumers in our own fashion and retailrelated fields. To determine the differences between consumers motivated by fashion and trends and those whose priority is lifestyle and practicality, we created a survey questionnaire to highlight the contrasting purchasing decisions, motivations, and patterns of those who align within each group. This survey questionnaire offered insight about how often the participants shopped online and in-store, whether or not their primary motivations for dress were influenced by external factors of validation, image, or status, and whether or not their style of dress correlated with their personal self-expression. In our findings, we discovered that most people do follow trends, but still have their personal style as well. Most people make purchases based on their own likings and not to get acceptance from others. Everyone is their own person and has many different reasons for making purchases whether it's for gifts or just because they love fashion.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Horseshoe Crab Surveys in Local Beaches in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware Mr. Zachary Riggi and Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D. Atlantic horseshoe crabs are very important species both for their contribution in medical science and also ecologically such as their eggs for migratory shore birds. They are threatened by over-harvesting and loss of shorelines to human development that horseshoe crabs depend on for spawning. That's why conducting surveys on horseshoe crabs is imperative to keep the species safe from extinction. Horseshoe crab surveys is typically carried out during the months of May and June every year, when their spawning is at its peak, at night. Typically, surveys are done by two teams where one counts the number of crabs and the other reports the data. The results of the data have been used to determine the management of beaches, harvest limits of crabs, and horseshoe crabs' listing on the endangered species chart. The areas we are focusing on are local beaches that are not previously surveyed in Rehoboth Bay. With further data collection in small beaches, perhaps too small to include in the statewide survey program, we hope to gain further information about the population of horseshoe crab and provide educational opportunities for the residents near local beaches to become more aware about this historical species and create a community where people and nature can thrive together and spread awareness of this significant species.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

Assessing the Impact on Food Consumption Behavior through COVID-19 Pandemic Jalynn Sampson, Samuel Besong, Verona Mulgrave, Rose Ogutu, Bettina Taylor, Janet Antwi, Department of Agriculture, Delaware State University & Prairie View A&M University Poor dietary habits and lack of access to healthful foods are associated with diseases such as obesity, type II diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, a healthy diet is an integral tool in the management of lung disease which is a serious problem with COVID-19 patients. These diseases present significant public health challenges, affecting low-income Americans, specifically African and Hispanic-Americans. Consumer food shopping behaviors have undergone significant changes since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in early 2020. To slow down the transmission of the virus, many states took strong containment measures with restrictions on daily mobility. These COVID-19 containment measures might disrupt the food supply chains and limited access to markets and cause food insecurity. The pandemic may also affect the quality of consumers' diets. Consumers may shift towards greater consumption of processed food, such as convenience foods, junk foods, snacks, and ready-to-eat cereals (as a result of panic buying for foods with longer shelf-life, and supply chain disruptions). The proposed project is to: (1) assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Food consumption behavior and (2) develop strategies to assist low-income individuals to increase access to healthy food, improve nutritional status, and mitigate preventable diseases. Using strong collaboration among two 1890 Institutions, (DSU AND PVAMU) the PDs plan to develop train-the-trainer programs to expand the reach of food and nutrition education programs that target low-income and underserved communities. Through the proposed approach, the project will train Extension educators and provide them with the necessary tools to educate at least 400 consumers on nutrition education and healthy food choices during COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Spectroscopic Study of Gold Nanoparticles Distribution in Plants Ms. Jameya Scott, Feyza Candan, Gulnihal Ozbay and Yuriy Markushin The rise of nanotechnology development is causing necessary attention nowadays. Nanotechnology is currently present in various industries such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, veterinary medicine, and agriculture. Nanoparticles in agriculture are increasing as their use is seen as beneficial. In addition, plants serve as a source of oxygen and food for all living species and are the primary source for the ecosystem. In the current study, we are using extracts of the radish (Raphanus sativus) and from the cabbage (Brassica oleracea), which are a part of the Brassicaceae (mustard) family. The study's goal is to measure the quantity of nanoparticles in each plant compared to a control group. The radish and cabbage plants were infused with nanoparticles naturally from the spiked soil with the following sample preparation steps and the spectroscopic FT-IR data collection. We used 10nm and 20 nm-diameter gold nanoparticles in a serial dilution with water in the experiments. We did the following analysis of the obtained spectroscopic data to determine the quantity of nanoparticles. Each sample was measured three times for accuracy. Every trial for each sample had 15 minutes to dry to be measured thoroughly. The results of the experiments and conclusion are presented.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA Capacity Building Grant Program FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO-SCIENCES Preliminary Effects of Cucurbitacin B and E on Gastrointestinal Nematodes of Meat Goats Nyah Wilder, Mariline Hilaire and Kwame Matthews, Ph.D Small ruminants are important to the animal industry in the United States by providing meat, milk, fiber, by-products and a source of income for small and beginning farmers. However, barber's pole worm (Haemonchus contortus) is a potential gastrointestinal parasite that affect livestock production and causes a disease called haemonchosis. Globally, this disease is considered a significant threat to the small ruminant industry. Haemonchus contortus is extremely pathogenic as the adults feed by sucking blood from the mucosa of the abomasum and lays over 5,000 eggs, daily. This parasite causes severe anemia that may lead to death, weight loss, decreased milk production, poor wool growth, and edema due to hypoproteinemia (bottle jaw). For many years, anthelmintic treatments have been overused and mis-used in an effort to kill these parasites, leading to the parasites becoming immune/resistant to these treatments. Hence, the need for natural or alternative treatments that can be utilized to kill and prevent future parasitic infections. One of the alternative treatments of interest is cucurbitacin, that is a compound from squash, pumpkin, and other vine crops that are known to have anthelmintic properties. The objective of this research is to test the In vitro anthelmintic effect of Cucurbitacin B and E extracts on Haemonchus contortus. To complete this experiment, thirdstage H. contortus will be placed evenly (70 per well) in 24 wells plates and varying concentrations (50 µM, 100 µM, 150 µM, and 200 µM) of Cucurbitacin B and E dissolve in DMSO will be added to triplicate wells. Each plate will also include negative control (DMSO only) and positive control (moxidectin mixed with levamisole) in triplicate well. Parasites will be counted 24 and 48 hours after incubation to observe the effects of the Cucurbitacin B and E on parasite motility via microscopy. It is expected that Cucurbitacin B and E will have an anthelmintic effect on the third-stage H. contortus.

Funder Acknowledgment: The 1890 Land Grant Universities Center of Excellence to Motivate and Educate for Achievement (MEA) Program

Differential Expression of Genes in Response to Drought Stress in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Krystal Williams, Dr. Mayavan Subramani, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University Dr. Antonette Todd, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University It is particularly imperative to analyze a plant's molecular response in order to test its response to environmental stimuli. The purpose of abiotic stress testing is to assess how plants react to extreme conditions to determine how they will respond to their harsh environment.

The present study is aimed to understand the gene expression changes in the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in response to drought stress. Abiotic stress, such as drought, adversely affects the yield of common beans. Studying the drought stress responses might provide insight on how to better mitigate the effects of abiotic stresses in the future. Plant molecular responses are also determined by measuring the difference in gene expression between treated and control plants. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) is one of the methods used to determine the relative gene expression of drought-responsive genes in drought compared to controls. We designed the primers using transcriptomic data for genes up- and downregulated in the common bean subjected to drought stress. Eight primers were designed with fold changes greater than 2 for up-regulated genes and less than 2 for down-regulated genes. Based on the transcriptomic data, the following genes showed a fold change >2. Glycosyl hydrolase superfamily protein, S-locus lectin protein kinase family protein, transducin family protein / WD-40 repeat family protein and RAS-related small GTP-binding family protein. The downregulated genes such as disease resistance protein (TIR-NBS-LRR class) family, concanavalin A-like lectin protein kinase family protein, protein kinase protein with adenine nucleotide alpha hydrolases-like domain, and acyl transferase/acyl hydrolase/lysophospholipase superfamily protein were used for primer design. Genomic PCR was performed to verify the specificity of primers. Total RNA was isolated from the leaves of common bean plants and converted to cDNA. The cDNA was used as a template to determine the relative expression of genes between the treated and control plants.

We believe that the present study will help identify potential genes that will be used as target genes for improving drought tolerance in the common bean.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES The Importance of Health Literacy when looking at COVID-19 Misinformation Maya Bythwood, Donovan McNatt The global pandemic COVID-19 has been a confusing time that has taken the world and individuals by shock. As COVID-19 cases continue to climb, a lot of misinformation is apparent in society. The pandemic impacted societies differently with the poorest experiencing higher levels of morbidity and mortality. We will be addressing misinformation associated with COVID-19 through the lens of health literacy. Having undertaken literature review of health literacy — how people get health information and use over their life course — and understood the different typologies of health literacy, we make linkages between COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation and health literacy. We demonstrate the connections between COVID-19 misinformation/disinformation and lack of interactive and critical health literacy. Through this research we have been able to determine and identify the lack of several typologies of health literacy connected with misinformation.

Knowing Versus Doing: Essential Social Science Skills Kamya Cockey Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Delaware State University Sociological Research Methods is one of the most important classes that sociology students take because it shows how scholarly books, reports, and articles are created. Students are taught about different data collection methods and how to know which method would work better depending on the type of research that is being done. Even though students take research courses they may never see the actual process of real research. As a sociology student though I have been interested in research I never understood how complex it could truly be.

My engagement in a research project and the following tasks gave me the required research skills that I need to enter my field: transcribing, requitement strategies, responsibilities as a team lead, and survey distribution. These tasks taught me the difference between knowledge and experience. Regarding transcribing the first thing I had to figure out was how to create a transcript for the interviews being done. I found that breaking the interviews into ten-minute intervals and transcribe them that way made it easier to get them done while still being accurate. On requitement strategies I was responsible for emailing community centers, churches, and other environmental justice organizations. I found more success when I contacted people directly. I also took part in survey distribution where I learned that environment could affect how much data is collected. I now have a better understanding of sociological research that one can only gain from doing. I witnessed firsthand how time consuming and complex data collection can be. Every student should have the opportunity to do research so that they can enter into their respective field with experience.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study is being funded by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and by the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Delaware State University.

Exploring the Effects of a Myocardial Infarction in the Clinical Setting Miss Khamiya Davis, Department of Nursing, Delaware State University The CDC reports cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of death in the United States. New heart attacks happen to about "635,000 people in the U.S. each year, and 300,000 people a year have a second heart attack" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). A myocardial infarction (MI) is the medical term used in healthcare settings for a heart attack. A MI is a life-threatening emergency caused by an abrupt interruption of oxygen to the heart leading to irreversible death of the tissues of the heart. The ventricles of the heart are unable to contract and pump blood throughout the heart and to the rest of the body. This lack of blood flow can be due to many different factors but is usually related to a blockage in one or more of the arteries of the heart. The longer the MI remains untreated, the greater the area of infarction (tissue death), complications, and death. The frightening element of myocardial infarctions is that they can occur without cause or warning. The purpose of this research is to educate the public on the severity of myocardial infarctions with the hopeful intent to make them more identifiable and preventable to decrease the incidence of MIs as well as death by a MI.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES Beneficial and High-risk Exercises During Pregnancy Kristi Gomez Broadway Family Medicine Clinic, Minneapolis, MN; 2TRIA Orthopaedic Center, Minneapolis, MN Many pregnant women are choosing to exercise as the recommendations by American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and other organizations that have changed throughout the years. The female body experience metabolic, biochemical, and physiologic changes during pregnancy. Furthermore, exercise during pregnancy is beneficial to the health of the fetes and mother. The authors are convinced that physicians should assist to develop a reasonable exercise protocol for women based upon their previous activities levels. During exercising the women must be aware of any type of pain, aches, or other issues, this is a warning signs to terminate exercise. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published their recommendations are 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity exercise on most. Women should consider avoiding activities with a high risk of falling or trauma, such as sports to avoid are ice hockey, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, horseback riding, downhill skiing, and vigorous racquet sports. Participating in any type of high-risk activity can lead to complications during pregnancy. On the other hand, the recommended exercises in pregnancy include walking, hiking, jogging/running, aerobic dance, swimming, cycling, rowing, cross-country skiing, and dancing. These exercises will benefit the women during pregnancy can be health of the fetus and mother. In summary, cardiovascular benefits are the same for pregnant women and nonpregnant. All pregnant women should be evaluated for medical and/ or obstetrical contraindications before beginning an exercise regimen. Recreational and competitive athletes with uncomplicated pregnancies should remain active.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the Current Sports Medicine Reports: May 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 3 - p 147-153.

Exploring the Effects of Parental Education Regarding Risk Reduction on the Incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Ms. N'dea Hardy, Delaware State University Department of Nursing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a significant concern nationwide regarding premature deaths of infants ranging from 12 months and younger. SIDS is a multifactorial disorder where there is no direct cause of death. A thorough medical autopsy is performed to rule out any organic cause of death. When no definitive cause of sudden death can be concluded, it is ruled as SIDS. Yet, there is no way to identify which infants will fall short of SIDS. Therefore, it is important to protect all infants from the possibility of SIDS within hospital facilities and the home setting through patient education.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) established its first recommendations for safe sleep practices in 1992 with an effort to lower the incidence of SIDS. Throughout the years, AAP has further developed its recommendations to adjust with up-to-date research. Health care professionals are tasked with educating parents on AAP guidelines while emphasizing the importance of compliance. Despite education, compliance is not a hundred percent. Data suggests outside factors play a considerable role in a parent's decision to follow the recommended guidelines. These factors can range from cultural influences, personal preferences, to socioeconomic limitations. This literature demonstrates the impact preventative education has on reducing the incidence of SIDS.

Knee Cartilage Relating to Exercise Specifically in Squatting Range of Motion and Extremely Heavy Weights Curryn Henry Specific Aims: 1.

To find out the optimal path for knee joint range of motion in closed kinetic chain exercises 2.

To determine the effects of knee cartilage and optimal path knee range of motion from squatting exercises 3.

To determine if squatting exercises with heavy weight is a contributing factor to the degradation of knee cartilage.

Articular cartilage is a connective tissue that covers the ends of bones where they come together to form joints. Cartilage provides a lowfriction environment and cushions at the joint’s surface. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease where the knee cartilage wears away and has no way of coming back. Having a strong knee is imperative for anyone but especially in athletes. Parallel squats are optimal in most areas PAGE 36

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES of training. Whereas a large range of motion can contribute to fatigue, reduced proprioceptive feedback, and increases the risk of injury.

Research has proved that parallel squats produce the greatest muscle activation in the glutes but in the quadriceps (Rhea, Kenn, Peterson, 2016). Deep squats have improved individuals’ ability to perform deep squats, but do not enhance any other sports performance attributes.

Athletes should do parallel squats from 90-110 degrees anything more than that range of motion is increasing the risk of injury. Putting excessive weight on the knee when squatting puts more pressure put on the kneecap, putting more pressure on the meniscus cartilage, over time causing arthritis. Research has also proven that heavy workloads and frequent biomechanical stressors overtime cause the individual to be at a higher risk of osteoarthritis (Roberts, Jane-Law, Thom, 2019).

Effects of Protein & Carbohydrate Intake on Body Composition, and Hypertrophy in Active Adults Mr. Jordan Hinmon, Kinesiology Department at Delaware State University Millions of Adults in the US train daily to achieve the physically fit body they've always desired. Yet only 53.2% of Americans meet CDC physical activity guidelines in aerobic activity, and only 23.2% in both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities. Unfortunately, even less meet the nutritional standards to get them there. A meta-analysis was conducted on the effects of protein & carbohydrates on body composition and hypertrophy in active adults. This analysis was conducted to understand the ideal levels of nutrition needed to reach peak hypertrophy in the body to produce the body desired by many. One study done on college athletes tracked the effects of protein supplementation with resistance training (Hoffman et al., 2006). The process included a twelve-week training program with a four-day workout split, three-day dietary call log, and protein supplementation administered in three groups (1-1.4 g per lb, 1.6-1.8, 2). Results indicated a direct correlation between protein intake and muscle growth and strength increase, with better results amongst the higher end of protein supplementation (2 grams). Another study conducted on recreationally active adults tracked the effects of protein & carbohydrate supplementation (Hulmi, 2015). This process included two phases (Prep training phase without supplementation, training with supplementation), a sixteen-week workout plan (phase 1: 1-4, phase 2: 5-16), a four-day dietary call log, and three controlled supplementation groups (protein, carbs, protein & carbs). Results indicated that there is no correlation between carbs and hypertrophy, but there is correlation between protein and hypertrophy. Also, it was understood that despite no carbohydrate correlation in hypertrophy, the group with protein and carbs experienced more energy for their workouts compared to the other two groups. In conclusion, the metaanalysis of both studies has shown consistent with recent studies of protein correlation to hypertrophic results. However, more studies must be conducted on the basis of carbohydrates and the results of resistance training, with the aforementioned study showing signs of more energy output in resistance training workouts rather than hypertrophy.

Abstinence Syndrome in Neonates Miss Ny'Asia Lea, Daisia James, Delaware State University Department of Nursing Neonatal abstinence syndrome occurs in newborns that have been exposed to a substance during the gestational process. The substance can range from prescription medication to illicit drugs. The neonate builds a physical dependence on the drug during the gestational period.

Therefore, when the infant is born, the abstinence of the drug can cause adverse effects in the infant. These adverse effects can include high-pitched, shrill cry; irritability; tremors; hyperactivity with an increased Moro reflex; increased deep-tendon reflexes; increased muscle tone; disturbed sleep pattern; hypertonicity; increased body temperature; sweating; apnea; retraction; poor feeding; regurgitation; diarrhea; excessive sucking; and convulsions. These adverse effects last for varying amounts of time depending on the substance that the neonate was exposed to. The neonate can experience these adverse symptoms at a varying degree of intensity. The healthcare team will perform a wide degree of examinations to determine the substance that the neonate was exposed to and begin treatment. Treatments of NAS have often included Finnigan Scale, but recently a system known as "Eat, Sleep, Console" has been gaining popularity. Within this presentation, the effects of NAS on the newborn and family will be discussed. Additionally, the different forms of treatment will be assessed along with NAS outcomes.

Funder Acknowledgment: Dr. Tracy Harpe

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES Breaking the Cycle of Generational Trauma Miss Taylor Medler Delaware State University Mothers' ability to support children emotionally and physically impacts their children depending on their own trauma experiences and attended therapeutic services were examined. The traumas include but are not limited to partner domestic violence, homelessness, drug and/or alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, and more. The way this is examined is by receiving completed surveys that determined whether the mother has experienced any adverse experiences under the category of causing trauma and what they have done to persist through the effects. Whether the mother attended therapeutic services would affect how they managed to support their children emotionally and physically. Children that had mothers who did not seek treatment reflected poorly on their own adverse childhood experiences scale and image of self. A mother who received treatment for her traumatic experiences showed more of a positive impact on her children in comparison to the mothers who had not sought treatment. These findings established that when mothers try to help themselves through their personal struggles, it can affect their attachments to their children and model various levels of resilience for their children to acknowledge as well as affecting their own image of themselves.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

The Importance of Oral Health Care for the Critically Ill Ms. Anilu Paneda, Ngozi Azuogo, DNP, MSN, RN Department of Nursing, Delaware State University Effective oral health care is a crucial element in the care of critically ill patients to reduce respiratory complications. Patients in hospital intensive care units are often mechanically ventilated due to sedation requirements or critical conditions that impair their breathing ability. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common complication of mechanical ventilation occurring 48 hours post-initiation of mechanical ventilation. While potentially preventable, this particular hospital-acquired pneumonia is life-threatening and carries a high mortality rate. The etiology of VAP commences with the colonization of the oral cavity by respiratory pathogens due to salivary retention resulting from impaired swallowing, which promotes bacterial growth and is associated with the aspiration of contaminated oropharyngeal secretions. Furthermore, the endotracheal tube is a potential vehicle for pathogenic oropharyngeal organisms into the lungs from the oral cavity during placement and the growth of a biofilm on the surface of the tube poses an additional concern. Critically ill patients are often immunocompromised and are afflicted by comorbidities predisposing them to infection. There are various preventative measures in place that address the many risk factors of VAP. However, the oropharynx is recognized as the primary route of bacterial entry into the lungs during microaspiration. Thus, the focus of prevention of VAP is in maintaining proper oral hygiene through oral care practices, including toothbrushing and the use of oral care solutions, such as chlorhexidine. In the care of the critically ill, oral care, a simple intervention becomes a life-saving healthcare practice.

Drug Addiction Disparities amongst African Americans and White People in the United States Kina Saunders, Reference Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press.

Bailey, D Zinzi., Nancy Krieger, Madina Agénor, Jasmine Graves, Natalia Linos, and Mary T. Bassett. 2017.

What are the inequalities involved in policy construction and, disease and treatment disparities amongst African Americans who are addicted to drugs? Do white people have more support within drug addiction policy, disease, and punishment? Drug addiction is an important social problem to evaluate because of how it has a shaped social order (Lassiter 2015). The way the government originally treated addiction within predominantly black communities affects the treatment of how black people and drug addiction is viewed and evaluated today. Using qualitative and quantitative data, personal interviews, and social findings, this paper will show the difference between white and black peoples' experience involving drug addiction.

Racial disparity is a social problem that could have been avoided but instead has contributed to disparities that exist today. Race is a contributing factor to the undertreatment of African American communities plagued by drug addiction (Kim, Morgan, and Nyhan 2020). According to Kim (et al. 2020), during the crack epidemic from 1983 to 1995, more drug bills were made by lawmakers, opposed to the opiate epidemic. These laws PAGE 38

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES were more supported and resulted in a consequential stance towards people who used drugs. African American individuals who are addicted to drugs continue to struggle individually, as well as their families. A lack of treatment and understanding of African American drug users contribute to these factors. Drug addiction has a ripple effect on the lives of individuals and their family's education, finances, and environmental health.

According to Bailey, (et al. 2017), structural racism is the way in which systems have been groomed through institutions by inequality. As a result, disparities are the outcome of systems such as health, rehabilitation, criminal justice, housing, and employment that are supposed to benefit people in society. When more complex situations arise, such as, African Americans struggling with issues such as drug addiction the system fails them. This transition led to an invisible racial system that is known as the United States criminal justice system. This system became the determining factor of targeting people of color for as long as they are perceived as criminals (Alexander 2010).

Reference Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press.

Bailey, D Zinzi., Nancy Krieger, Madina Agénor, Jasmine Graves, Natalia Linos, and Mary T. Bassett. 2017. "Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions." America: Equity and Equality in Health. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from: https://doi. org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30569-X Kim, Jin W., Evan Morgan, and Brendan Nyhan. 2020. "Treatment Versus Punishment: Understanding Racial Inequalities in Drug Policy."

Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 45(2):177-209.

Lassiter, Matthew D. 2015. "Impossible Criminals: The Suburban Imperatives of America's War on Drugs." Journal of American History 102(1):126-140.

Burnout in Frontline Nurses as a result of COVID-19 Miss Angela Smith, Department of Nursing, Delaware State University & Wesley College The prevalence of burnout among frontline registered nurses due to COVID-19 is significant. Burnout affects how nurses perform at work, which can lead to nursing errors and compromise patient safety (Hoseinabadi, Kakhki, Teimori, & Nayyeri, 2020). Burnout is when a nurse endures so much stress that it hinders thinking abilities and patient care. Having an inadequate amount & unpleasant feelings regarding personal protective equipment (PPE), working longer shifts, pandemic acquired fear, and the lack of support during the COVID-19 pandemic, has subsequently caused a high prevalence of burnout in frontline nurses (Galehdar, 2020; Hoseinabadi, 2020; Morgantini, 2020; Stuijfzand, 2020). There will be additional hypotheses regarding burnout among frontline workers as a result of COVID-19. Future studies will include more in depth and accurate data due to the ongoing status of the pandemic causing increasing number of cases of burnout.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES CD44, a Potential Connector between Oxidative Stress Response and Cell Migration in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells Deonna A. Beard, Ameenah T. Jackson and Karl E. Miletti-Gonzalez Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have the least favorable prognosis, particularly in African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. Recent preliminary data on the H2O2-generated oxidative stress response of four TNBC cell lines, two derived from AA women (HCC70 and HCC1806) and two derived from EA women (HCC38 and HCC1143), showed that the AA women-derived cell lines were more resistant to oxidative stress than the EA women-derived cell lines. Interestingly, the most resistant cell line to oxidative stress, HCC1806 (an AA derived cell line) was also the most migratory in vitro and the only cell line in which we detected CD44 expression. Because an increase in oxidative stress can impair cell migration via an increase in Rac1 activity and CD44 can interact with Rac1, we hypothesize that CD44 might play a role of connecting oxidative stress response and cell migration in these cells. To test this hypothesis, we will carry out in vitro migration assays (in Boyden chambers and scratch assays) with all four TNBC cell lines, H2O2-treated and untreated. Also, we will measure the relative amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in each cell line. We expect to detect a lower oxidative stress level in HCC1806 compared to the other three TNBC cell lines due to its CD44 expression and an unaffected cell migration capacity.

Funder Acknowledgment: This project was supported in part by the DE INBRE program, with a grant from the NIH NIGMS (P20 GM103446), a DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.), DSU STAR U-RISE Grant No. 5T34GM136477 (K.M. & H.B.), the NSF HBCU-UP TEAL Program and the NSF HBCU-UP Research Initiation Award Grant No. 1700228 (K.M.) FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Characterization of Microbial Isolates During Decomposition Catherine Bertil and Dr. Anthea Aikins Delaware State University Decomposition is the process by which organic substances break down into simpler substances. There are 5 decomposition stages. They are the Fresh stage, Bloating, Active decay, Advanced decay, and skeletal. Environmental factors that affect the rate of composition are used in forensic investigations. These factors include the sun and the shade. The goal of this research project is to characterize randomly selected microbial isolates from the natural opening of pig carrion. We hypothesized that there will be unique microbial isolates in the different decomposition stages. To investigate my hypothesis, we will study the microscopic and colonial morphologies of each isolate. Additionally, we will use Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify the conserved 16S rDNA region of each isolate. Next, we will sequence the PCR product to reveal the identity of the microbial isolates. Future studies will determine unique microbial isolates during other decomposition stages. Knowing the unique microbial isolates in different decomposition studies, can be used in a forensic investigation to determine the time of death.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by Delaware State University HBCU-UP Program (NSF).

Characterization of Microbial Isolates from Selected Natural Openings in the Active Decomposition Stage of Pig Carrion during Winter Miss Kylie Bond, Dr. LaTia Scott and Dr. Anthea Aikins Department of Biological Sciences, Delaware State University There are many different types of bacteria that play a prominent role throughout the Active stage of decomposition. The purpose of this research was to study the influence of environmental factors on the microbial loads in the natural openings during the Active decomposition stage in the winter season. Specifically, we focused on samples taken from the Ears (E) and the Anus (A) of decomposing pigs. Knowing the unique microbial load during the different stages of decomposition and how environmental factors influence it can be insightful in a forensic investigation.

We hypothesized that there will be a unique microbial load found in the winter season compared to the summer season. We used selective/ differential media to gather information about the identity of the randomly selected isolates for our investigation. Additionally, we isolated DNA from our samples and used PCR to amplify the 16s region of the isolates to confirm the organism's identity via sequencing. Our data show most of the isolates to be Gram-positive cocci. Data from our finding will ultimately be compared with studies from other decomposition stages and seasons. This project is a collaborative work between Dr. Anthea Aikins' lab and Dr. Krystal Hans' research laboratory at Purdue University.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University Forensic Program - Dr. LaTia Scott, Purdue University - Dr. Krystal Hans

Characterization of Microbial Load from the Nose of Pig Carrion during Active Stage Elijah Lewis-Guy and Dr. Anthea Aikins Delaware State University, HBCU-UP TEAL Program Forensic Microbiology can be used for post mortem and crime scene investigations to determine the time of death. The stages and rate of decomposition is influenced by the activities of microorganisms in the decomposition process. The purpose of this project is to characterize microbial isolates in the nose of pig carrions in the Active decomposition stage. We hypothesized that there will be a unique microbial load in each natural opening during decomposition. To investigate our hypothesis, we performed microscopic and colonial morphological studies.

Isolates were cultured on selective differential media plates to determine their metabolic preferences and also to confirm their gram type.

Next, we will perform Biochemical analysis, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify the conserved 16s rDNA region, Gel electrophoresis and DNA sequencing to further characterize and identify the isolates. Our results thus far, show that we have 4 Gram positive organisms and 2 Gram negatives. More data will be gathered from our subsequent studies to identify our isolates.

Funder Acknowledgment: HBCU-UP TEAL Research Program, Delaware State University Department of Biological Sciences) Advisor: Dr. Anthea Aikins; Dr. Krystal Hans - Forensic Samples PAGE 40

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES The Aptabio Compound-6 As a Potential Therapeutic in Parkinson's Disease Models Ms. Gabriela Cabrera, Karina Hernandez, Anurupa Ghosh, and Y. Hwan Kim Department of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience Program, Delaware State University Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease and tends to affect people over the ages of 65 years. The main hallmark of this disease is protein aggregation, also known as Lewy bodies causing dopaminergic neuronal death in the midbrain of Parkinson's patients. Symptoms can include bradykinesia, tremor and impaired balance. However, the current drugs on the market aim to alleviate symptoms, instead of halting neurodegeneration. In response to this, our study tests the efficacy of the novel compound-6 as a potential therapeutic for PD. Our study constitutes of an in vitro and in vivo portion, where we tested the efficacy of the compound-6 in reducing preformed fibrils of alpha-synuclein (PFF)-induced toxicity in N27 dopaminergic cells and mice. Our results demonstrated that the compound 6 reduced cytotoxicity, increased cell viability, reduced oxidative stress and minimized protein aggregation. In our in vivo experiments, we used the PFF injected mouse model after injecting sonicated PFF stereotaxically to the striatum of C57BL/6 male and female mice bilaterally (aged around 12 months). This PFF injection caused an increase in phosphorylated alpha-synuclein and protein aggregation for inducing PD-related signs. Those PFF-injected mice showed the expected PD-like symptoms approximately four to five months postinjection. We then used 2 different dosages of 5 mg/kg and 25 mg/kg to gavage the mice for approximately five weeks. Behavioral tests including hindlimb clasping, pole test, rotarod, nesting and grooming, support that the oral treatment attenuated motor deficits in mice. Taken together, our results are promising to show that the AptaBio compound-6 can be a novel and effective treatment by halting neurodegeneration and promoting neuronal recovery in PD. Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the NIH U-RISE Program and Aptabio Inc.

TDP-43 Triple Mutation Mouse Model of ALS Mr. Keyshawn Cox, Matthew Dopler, Miranda Kotey, Charmise Preddie, Ashley Anderson, Sanaz Arezoumandan, and Michael A. Gitcho Department of Biological Sciences, CAST, Delaware State University Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is characterized by the death of the upper and lower motor neurons. Disease prognosis is characterized by progressive weakness of the arms and legs, leading to eventual paralysis with death from respiratory failure occurring at an average of survival of 3 years after diagnosis. Over 95% of all cases are pathologically characterized by cytoplasmic accumulation of hyperphosphorylated and ubiquitinated transactive response DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43). We have developed an inducible aggressive mouse model using three familial mutations in TARDBP that displays some of the behavioral and pathological features associated with ALS. Methods: A double transgenic mouse model containing three familial mutations in human TDP-43 was developed. The model contained a tetracycline response element expression (tetO-3X-TDP-43) with the neurofilament heavy promoter expressing tetracycline-controlled transactivator protein (NEFH-TA) throughout the spinal cord and brain. Expression of the transgene was turned off (+DOX) until mice were weaned (P21). Mice were evaluated for motor behavior through rotor rod and weighed for every week they completed the test. Biochemical analyses were conducted through Western blots Results: Biochemical fragmentation of TDP-43 is seen in the spinal cord and brain. A decrease in motor function leading to paralysis was observed at 45-60 days. NEFH/3XD mice have significantly decreased survivability compared to control. 3X-TDP-43 expressing male mice show a trend of insignificant decrease in weight while females have a significant increase in weight at 8 weeks. Increase in gliosis in mice expressing pathological TDP-43 was observed compared to control mice.

Discussion: This aggressive model can be used to drive expression in muscle, the hippocampus, and astrocytes to possibly develop viable targets for therapeutic intervention. This will help in our understanding of neurodegeneration in ALS, limbic predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), frontal temporal dementia (FTD), and other TDP-43 proteinopathies.

Funder Acknowledgment: National Institute of Aging, INBRE, COBRE, Alzheimer's Association New Investigator Research Grant

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Cloning and Transfection of CD44-Intracytoplasmic Domain (ICD) Deletion Mutant Expression Vectors into MCF-7/CD44 Cells for Interfering with the CD44-ICD-Mediated Signaling Pathway Celine Jeun, Jessica Francois, Zymir A. Robinson and Karl E. Miletti-Gonzalez The CD44 gene encodes a cell membrane receptor which normally undergoes a proteolytic cleavage within the cell membrane. This cleavage generates a 74 residues peptide known as the CD44 intracytoplasmic domain (CD44-ICD). This peptide can be translocated into the nucleus where it can regulate transcription. This transcriptional regulatory mechanism is not completely understood but Proximity Ligation Assays (PLAs) have shown that the CD44-ICD wild type peptide is in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) complex with Runx2 in the MMP-9 gene promoter region promoting its expression in MCF-7/CD44 cells. The main objective of this project is to determine whether the CD44-ICDmediated signaling pathway can be interfered with. We hypothesize that transfecting CD44-ICD deletion mutant expression vectors in MCF7/CD44 cells we will be able to inhibit the CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI. Seven deletion mutants were designed to lack a predicted alpha helix and two beta strands, individually or in combination. PLAs will be used to identify such potential inhibition since the number of fluorescent red dots, which represent CD44-ICD-Runx2 PPI, should diminish. The associated signaling pathway that promotes the expression of the MMP-9 gene will be assessed by RT-PCR of the MMP-9 transcript. We expect to identify one or more deletion mutants with the capacity to interfere with this signaling pathway. This approach might provide a molecular tool to modulate the aggressive phenotype that many cancer cells expressing CD44 display.

Funder Acknowledgment: This project was supported in part by the DE INBRE program, with a grant from the NIH NIGMS (P20 GM103446), a DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.), the HHMI Inclusive Experiential Grant and the NSF HBCU-UP Research Initiation Award Grant No. 1700228 (K.M.).

Optimization of PCR Amplification of the 16S rDNA Gene of Randomly Selected Isolates in Pig Decomposition Ms. Paige Hartsoe, Dr. Karl Miletti, Dr. Anthea Aikins Delaware State University After death, the body undergoes a multitude of physical and chemical changes during the process of decomposition. The time passed after death, or post mortem interval (PMI), is a crucial component in death investigations. Various factors such as time of year, location of the body, exposure to the elements, and artificial coverings can influence microbial load present on a corpse therefore influencing decomposition and altering the PMI. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a process used to create multiple copies of a specific DNA fragment, allows us to amplify the conserved 16S rDNA region of randomly selected microbial isolates collected from the eye of a pig in active decay and accurately identify them through sequencing. We hypothesize that the 16S region is best amplified under precise PCR conditions. To test our hypothesis 6 isolates were selected and DNA extraction was performed. PCR was then done at various annealing temperatures and DNA concentrations while different DNA ladders were examined to determine optimal conditions. Our test results showed that while bands were visible for multiple temperatures and concentrations, there were conditions where brighter bands with less nonspecific amplification present could be detected. The annealing temperature of 51.4°C was selected for future analysis and concentrations in the range of 75-150 ng/µl yielded clear bands. Next steps include purifying the sample and sending it out for sequencing, while microscopic and colonial morphologic studies will be conducted to validate the sequencing results. Future studies examining larger concentrations of DNA or different polymerases could further optimize the PCR results.

Funder Acknowledgment: National Science Foundation HBCU-UP Research Initiation Grant Award Grant No. 1700228 (K.M)

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES The Effects of 24W Blue Light on Multidrug-Resistant E. coli Proliferation Adiah Janvier1,2,*, Karina Hernandez Quijada1,*, Areli Martinez 1,*, Gabriela Cabrera1,2,*, Elena Rangel1,*, Anurupa Ghosh1,* and Yong-Hwan Kim1 The bactericidal effects of ultraviolet (UV) light are well established, but the effects of visible light treatment have not been extensively studied.

In this experiment, the suppressive effects of violet light and infra-red (IR) were assessed on the multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli. The bacteria were tested against five different lights: 4V, 3V-1IR, 2V-2IR, 1V-3IR and 4IR. The MDR E. coli was plated on LB agar plates at OD600. In addition to being tested at different wavelengths, the bacteria were exposed to different light exposures at the timepoints of 0, 1.5, 3, 6 and 12 hours at the distances of 50cm, 1m, and 2m. After the light exposure, agar plates were incubated for 24 hours to check the colonies. The control plates with E. coli were incubated without being exposed to any light treatment. After incubation, growth was quantified by counting the bacterial colonies formed, expressed in colony-forming units (CFU). As a result, we found that irradiation with 4V and 3V-1IR light treatment for 3, 6 and 12 hours either or both 50 cm or 1 m consistently showed effects on neutralizing and suppressing E. coli growth. Our results strongly suggest that the combination of violet light with IR can effectively prevent the cross-contamination of MDR bacteria.

Metabolic Potential Characterization of Triple-negative Breast Cancer Cells from African American and Eurpoean American Women Using a Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer Jade King, Amelia Mazza and Karl E. Miletti-Gonzalez Breast cancer is the most diagnosed female cancer and patients diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have the least favorable prognosis, particularly in African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. In a preliminary investigation on whether this health disparity is in part due to biological factors, we compared the H2O2-generated oxidative stress response of four TNBC cell lines, two derived from AA women (HCC70 and HCC1806) with two derived from EA women (HCC38 and HCC1143). A cell viability assay demonstrated that AA women-derived cell lines are more resistant to oxidative stress than EA women-derived cell lines. To further characterize these cell lines potential differences, we will measure and compare their metabolic potential, which describes their capacity to meet energy demands via respiration and glycolysis using a Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer and the Extracellular Flux Assay kit. We hypothesize that they will have different metabolic potentials along their ethnic origin group (AA vs EA women). The results from this experiment will provide additional information to start uncovering a potential connection between TNBC and genetic and/or epigenetic factors involved in its prevalence in AA women.

Funder Acknowledgment: This project was supported in part by the DE INBRE program, with a grant from the NIH NIGMS (P20 GM103446), a DE INBRE Pilot Award (K.M.) and the NSF HBCU-UP Research Initiation Award Grant No. 1700228 (K.M.).

Characterization of Microbial Load From the Nose of Pig Carrion during Active Stage Elijah Lewis-Guy and Dr. Anthea Aikins Delaware State University, HBCU-UP TEAL Program Forensic Microbiology can be used for post mortem and crime scene investigations to determine the time of death. The stages and rate of decomposition is influenced by the activities of microorganisms in the decomposition process. The purpose of this project is to characterize microbial isolates in the nose of pig carrions in the Active decomposition stage. We hypothesized that there will be a unique microbial load in each natural opening during decomposition. To investigate our hypothesis, we performed microscopic and colonial morphological studies.

Isolates were cultured on selective differential media plates to determine their metabolic preferences and also to confirm their gram type.

Next, we will perform Biochemical analysis, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify the conserved 16s rDNA region, Gel electrophoresis and DNA sequencing to further characterize and identify the isolates. Our results thus far, show that we have 4 Gram positive organisms and 2 Gram negatives. More data will be gathered from our subsequent studies to identify our isolates.

Funder Acknowledgment: HBCU-UP TEAL Research Program, Delaware State University Department of Biological Sciences Advisor: Dr. Anthea Aikins, Dr. Krystal Hans - Forensic Samples.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Characterization of Microbial Isolates from Selected Natural Openings during Active Decomposition Stage of Pig Carrions in Summer Miss Eliana McCray, Dr. Krystal Hans - Purdue University The different stages of decay and the insects that appear during those stages can be important to identifying the time of death.

Decomposition generally begins in the intestine, but for sampling purposes, we sampled from natural openings such as the Eyes, Nose, and Mouth. In this study, we isolated bacterial samples from decaying pigs in the active decomposition stage. There are five common stages of decomposition, Fresh, Bloating, Active, and Dry decomposition stage. This project studied the microbial load in two natural openings (AnusA and Eyes- E) of carions exposed to the sun and shade. We hypothesized that the summer temperature would promote unique microbial diversity in the selected sampled areas. To test our hypothesis, we characterized randomly selected isolates using selective/ differential media, biochemical analysis, and enzyme assays. We observed that most of the isolates were gram-positive bacilli (rod-shaped). Data from our findings will ultimately be compared with studies from other decomposition stages. This project is a collaborative work between Dr. Anthea Aikins' lab and Dr. Krystal Hans's Research Laboratory at Purdue University.

Funder Acknowledgment: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

High Surface Area Carbon Monoliths for Natural Gas Storage Ms. Elizabeth Michaelis, Elizabeth Michaelis - Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University Yanfeng Yue - Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University Natural gas can be an effective and an abundant energy source for vehicles. On top of that, natural gas also has been used to generate electricity and to heat buildings. However, an appropriate apparatus needs to be developed to have a sufficient amount of natural gas storage under at the ambient temperature and pressure. Activated carbon monoliths are one kind of the most efficient high-density adsorbents to store adsorbed natural gas at a relative low pressure. In the experiment, activated carbons from a biomass such as cellulose were prepared with activating agents which include zinc chloride, potassium hydroxide, or phosphoric acid at different carbonization temperatures. In order to form monolith structures, the most effective binders were assessed and identified. The porosity of the monoliths was characterized using nitrogen adsorption, the surface area and pore size were also evaluated. Methane adsorption will be tested to determine the amount of methane taken up by the carbon monoliths under different temperatures.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the Donors of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

Intensity Correlation Analysis of Ficoll Raman Spectra Miss Yahira Rivera, Bisola Bello, Mohamed Salih, Fatima Boukari, and Hacene Boukari PEMaCS Division, Delaware State University Biomacromolecular crowding is recognized to affect various biological processes such as cell signaling, protein folding and stability, binding of small molecules, and enzymatic activity. Our research interest has focused on developing and applying in-situ optical-based spectroscopy and imaging methodologies, combined with data-driven analytical tools, to probe and quantitate various chemical and physical processes in biopolymeric and cellular systems. Our overall goal is to develop data-driven (e.g. spectral and imaging) and physics-informed models that will be trained to identify and assess optical signatures associated with the structural and dynamical properties of diverse nanoparticles (e.g. proteins, amino-acids, metallic, bacteria) while dispersed in relevant samples.

As an experimental model, we have been using solutions of Ficoll 70 (~70KDa) and 400 (~400kD) biomolecules, two highly-branched, water-soluble polysaccharides, readily used in various biomedical applications. We report, here, results of analysis of changes of Raman

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES spectra of concentrated Ficoll solutions. Raman is powerful optical technique commonly used to measure and identify molecular vibrational modes -optical signatures. In addition to the Raman peaks of water (~1640 cm-1 and ~3200 cm-1) and dissolved O2 ( ~1556 cm-1) and N2 (~2330 cm-1) we observed a distinct Raman peak (~2900 cm-1) in the 1500-3500 cm-1 wavenumber range, which is associated with CH and CH2 stretching modes of Ficoll molecules. Further, as Ficoll concentration increases (up to 1000 mg/ml), the intensity of the CH/CH2 peak increases while the intensity of both water peaks decreases due to the reduction of water content. As a preprocessing step we have developed a systematic approach to subtract the contribution of water from the Ficoll spectrum. For analysis, we have applied the intensity correlation analysis (ICA) method to assess systematic changes of the Raman spectra with Ficoll concentration. ICA indicates an overall linear trend over the full wavenumber range, but also shows closed loops that can be attributed to slight shift of the profiles of the peaks. The results demonstrate ICA as a potential insightful tool for identifying Ficoll in chemical analysis of crowded biomolecular samples.

Funder Acknowledgment: NIGMS/ NIH (P20 GM103446), the DSU U-RISE program (1T34GM136477) , and the NSF Award Number 1955664

BUSINESS The Extent and Popularity of Immigration on Global Economic Activity Mr. Derek Hallock This research effort will obtain and analyze collected data on the occurrence of immigration and how this affects our economy. The purpose of this study is to bring knowledge about immigration to the viewer and why immigration can boost any economy if it is no longer rationed, outlawed, or placed on quotas. Multiple studies suggest when population growth through immigration increases, many things follow, such as, GDP will rise as well as GDP per capita, income among all people in the country will rise due to the increase of productivity, and many more jobs will be created because there will be more people in the labor force. In addition to immigration's effects on a country's economy, a discussion of remittances of monies returning to the host country will be discussed. Overall, immigration has its effects on all economies around the world.

Online Connectivity and Sociality: Balancing Benefits with Psychological Dangers Miss Jordyn Harris The culture of connectivity and online sociality has evolved in beneficial aspects; however, dangers are arising, causing many internal issues within the minds of users. While social media has become an intricate tool for professional and personal development, it has also become a source of conformity and mental illness. Dating back to the first social media platforms, users of all ages have fallen into psychological traps.

The most prominent mental illnesses caused by social media usage are depression, anxiety, poor self-image, and even physical harm and ailments. These mental issues are seen more in children and young adults. As online connectivity can ease users through separation anxiety and FOMO (fear of missing out), it can have adverse effects and cause severe mental dependency. The most popular social media platforms and/or apps are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok. Each platform has distinct features that lead users to become addicted as they make it easy to browse for hours. The engineers design the apps to target users' interests by collecting their data such as lifestyle tendencies, shopping history, and mutual relationships. There is a detailed science to social media and web-based communication that need to be broken down to combat. The number of worldwide social media users has grown from 2,860,000,000 people in 2017 to 4,620,000,000 in January 2022, equating to 58.4% of the global population. Pew Research Center reports that 86% of people 18-to-29-years of age use the mentioned platforms. 80% of individuals 30-49 years of age and 69% of adults and 81% of teens in America use the platforms. Several platforms have taken the information on rising mental illness and altered features to negate the issue. For example, users can hide the number of likes on their posts hoping to reduce the urge to compare engagement on others' posts. There are still changes needed to make online connectivity safer and more enjoyable for all users. While the many benefits of social media exposure and online connectivity are present, the dangers on users' mental health and lifestyle are prominent to the point of extensive damage.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BUSINESS U.S. and Thailand: Comparison of GDP between Developed Countries and Developing Countries Miss Nattavadee Khunsri The purpose of this paper is to compare the difference in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between the developed country (United States) and the developing country (Thailand), and the factors influencing their economy. GDP is calculated from the final value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country over a specific time frame. In other words, GDP is the total economic value generated in a country. It can mean that there is more income in the United States than in Thailand. In general, more people's spending in a country increases employment in that country. Government spending in various infrastructure projects, including net foreign investment monies in the United States has increased GDP. For calculating GDP, only the income generated in the country is counted. For example, the GDP of Thailand only measures the income generated in Thailand. Regardless of nationality, if a Thai person has income abroad, this will not be included in the GDP of Thailand. Generally, Gross Domestic Product in developed countries is higher than Gross Domestic Product in developing countries, which depends on many factors within the country; for example, in developed countries the literacy rate is higher than the literacy rate in developing countries. In developing countries, good infrastructure and a good environment keep the birth rate and death rate low, while in developing countries, the birth rate and death rate are high. The cost of living in developed countries may be higher, however, people may earn more than people in developing countries.

Causes and Effects of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-09 on the U.S. Economy Miss Ying Liu The global financial crisis in the years of 2007-09 was the largest crisis since the great depression. There were many factors that caused these crises to happen. Among those causes were inflation, where there is a rise in price levels in an economy. There also was unemployment; this is when many people didn't have jobs or a steady income. Over this time, the prices for housing started to rise significantly. These factors led to the great recession. Many banks filed for bankruptcy and interest rates were lowered. Around this time, the United States' banking system lost trillions of dollars because a significant portion of its assets had taken the form of subprime loans. Many businesses were also affected during this time. Businesses were required to lessen their expenses and how much they would invest in their businesses. This led to many businesses losing millions of dollars and decreased the demand for the products they were selling, due to the unemployment rates increasing. "Other major businesses whose products were generally sold with consumer loans suffered significant losses" (Duignan, 2019).

The Sullenberger And Haynes Plane Crashes Malachi Pankey, Polly Steenhagen, Ph.D Department of Aviation, Delaware State University Human Factors are one of the main causes of accidents in the transportation industry, and more recently has become increasingly important in air accident investigation and safety improvement. This study focused on two airplane crash cases to analyze and identify how human factors can prevent incidents.

Captain Alfred C. Haynes undertook an emergency at the Sioux City airport landing of the United Airlines flight 232 on July 19, 1989, when it developed mechanical issues and, in the process, he saved 184 passengers. Although 112 passengers died due to various factors, such as smoke inhalation and injuries, Haynes is viewed as a hero due to his ability to manage the flight even when the plane was severely incapacitated, and he had limited room to maneuver. Captain Chesley Sullenberger managed a similar disaster in which he landed a plane in the Hudson River, saving the lives of all the passengers and crew members who had been on board. The incident occurred on January 15 2009 when US Airways Flight 1549, which was flying from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, collided with a flock of birds, later identified

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BUSINESS as Canadian geese shortly after taking off. Unlike in Captain Hayne’s case, Captain Sullenberger had limited time in which to make the decision and his altitude and rate of descent may have made it impossible for him to attempt landing at the airports proposed. Both captains demonstrated a remarkable ability to make accurate decisions under pressure and to innovate in the face of serious mechanical incidents that resulted in the loss of control. They both performed exemplarily under pressure, saving lives. The pilots embraced and demonstrated the ability to engage in collaborative work processes as they planned and executed their response to the accident in a manner that ensured that safety was maintained at all times.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the Delaware State University Aviation Management Department, and by the Business Management Department at Delaware State University.

The Effects of COVID-19 on the U.S. Job Market and Labor Productivity Mr. Dayvohn Washington This research study examines the effects of COVID-19 on labor productivity as it pertains to the labor force participation rate (LFPR) and unemployment rate (UNR). The study categorizes by race and ethnicity as being Black or African American, White, Hispanic or Latinx, and Asian. The data used in this research collected from the FRED online database, which is the Federal Reserve Economic Data located in St. Louis. From FRED, we explore the LFPR of the four races/ethnic groups between the dates of Dec. 1, 2019 up to Feb. 1, 2022. In addition to this, we also pulled the statistics for the unemployment rate of the same four races/ethnicities within the same date parameters. We selected these two metrics because in conjunction with each other the LFPR and the UNR provide a better understanding of the economy's real employment status. After collecting, organizing, and examining the data, we analyze and conclude that every group regardless of race was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some racial groups, however, like Blacks/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx were affected to a greater degree and took a little longer to regain some semblance of normalcy.

CHEMISTRY Consolidating Molar Calculation through Silver Lake Water Quality Analysis Mr. Terron Adlam, Qiquan Wang Molar calculation is a fundamental requirement yet a difficult part in chemistry and biology study. Funded by NIH-INBRE MCURE Program, lab working opportunities at the Environmental Chemistry Research Lab in the Chemistry Department, Delaware State University (DSU) were provided for undergraduate students to participate. Water samples from Silver Lake beside DSU campus were analyzed for the values of six common parameters, including temperature, electric conductivity, dissolved oxygen, acidity, alkalinity, and chemical oxygen demand.

Titration technique was used as the major analytical method. Tap water was also analyzed as a comparison reference. Molar calculation was conducted in all solution preparation, standardization, and the majority of result calculation. Thus, the understanding and skills of participating students in molar calculation were greatly consolidated through this lab research in this program.

Funder Acknowledgment: NIH INBRE MCURE

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY The Synthesis of Nanoporous Metal-Organic Framework under High Pressure Mr. Jared Carney, Yanfeng Yue Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University A material's porosity is instrumental to its functionality, micropores (<2nm), mesopores (2nm - 50nm), and macropores (> 50nm) each having influence on specific purposes such as gas storage, electrical conductivity, and mass transportation.[1,2] The ability to manipulate a material's porosity allows the opportunity to tailor and optimize it to a specific task. To this purpose, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been a promising choice for such material. This research is intended to determine the viability of using applied pressure to directly modify the porosity of MOF-74, converting its intrinsic mesopores into micropores. N2 physisorption and pore size distribution serve to characterize the porosity of the metal-organic framework at set intervals of time spent under the applied load. Additionally, powder X-ray diffraction is used to observe the structural stability of the MOF as a result of the applied load. Initial results seem to suggest that applied pressure can convert micropores to mesopores, however, further analysis attempts have yielded conflicting data. As such, the experiment is ongoing; current data is not yet sufficient to make an accurate conclusion. Going forward, it is necessary to identify the potential causes for the inaccurate and imprecise data. Some key suspects include lingering solvent during sorption characterization, as well as instrument error of the pore analyzer. The results of this research may eventually offer a simple, straightforward method for pore modification, avoiding the use of meticulous methods incorporating careful application of temperature or use of chemicals. It may also spur research into other pressure related methods for modification of porous substances.

Funder Acknowledgment: Mentored Course Embedded Undergraduate Research Experience (MCURE) award from the Delaware INBRE Program.

Hemp vs. Them: A Comparative Analysis on the Bacteria and Health Safety of Plant Based Makeup vs.

Commercial Makeup vs. Counterfeit Makeup Destiny Jallow The purpose of this study is to show how plant-based make up is sustainable and safer than the standard make up available today. I also want to show how a plant-based product, specifically made from him can be beneficial to the human skin. The first part of my research will be creating a eyeshadow palette with its color being made from hemp. The second part of my project will be testing the palette I made against a commercial eyeshadow palette than is counterfeit and unregulated. I will be using the HPLC machine to measure the rate of bacteria against each product. Included will be swatch tests against the effectiveness of pigment in each product.

Funder Acknowledgment: Water's Corporation

Identification and Differentiation of Margarine using Optical Methods Mr. Caleb Mertus, Michael Moore, and Alberta N.A. Aryee Margarine is a household staple formulated using a variety of oils. There is a tendency to formulate margarines using cheaper oils with poor quality. Adulteration is generally stimulated by economic fraud, which have serious consequences on the health of consumers. Federal and international regulatory bodies enforce laws to protect consumers and ensure fair business practices. The complexity of mixtures of triacylglycerols and other components in margarine pose analytical challenges. Optical methods such as Polarized light microscopy (PLM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Confocal microscopy (CM) have emerged as rapid and non-destructive techniques. The aim of this project was to explore parameters that can distinguish between wholesome and adulterated margarines.

Polarized light microscopy (PLM), and Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to analyze crystal structure, size, distribution, amount and potential variation between two different commercial brands and laboratory-formulated margarines. About 1 - 2 mL of margarine were placed on preheated slides (70oC) and liquified over a period of several minutes. Pre-cleaned coverslips were placed on each slide and slight pressure was used to evenly spread the sample over the entire coverslip surface. Slides were cooled slowly to room PAGE 48

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY temperature. The slides were then imaged using PLM, or CLSM. Data was collected with a camera attached to the microscopes. Crystal growth was found to be different between samples. However, we noted that sample preparation plays a major role in size, distribution and number of crystals.

These modalities may offer a simple and inexpensive means to differentiate and authentic margarines and other foods.

Funder Acknowledgment: Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences under grant number P20GM103446

The Combination of Blue Light and Infra-red Effectively Terminates Bacterial Growth Elena Rangel 1,2, Areli Martinez 1,2, Gabriela Cabrera 1,2, Karina Hernandez-Quijada1, Anurupa Ghosh1 and Yong-Hwan Kim 1,2 Department of Biological Sciences/Neuroscience program, 2 HHMI internship program, Delaware State University

1

It is well known that ultraviolet (UV) light is an effective method for halting bacterial growth. However, extended exposure to UV can have damaging effects on human cells. Thus, this has led to test the potential of visible light to terminate bacterial growth. In this experiment, we test the combination effect of violet light and infra-red against gram-positive, nonpathogenic Staphylococcus aureus. To identify the most optimal combination, we are testing five different lights for impeding the bacterial growth. The lights used were 4V, 3V-1IR, 2V-2IR, 1V-3IR and 4IR. The S. aureus was placed in a petri-dish containing agar after taking the OD600. Apart from testing different wavelengths, the bacteria were also exposed to each light for different time exposures of 0, 1.5, 3, and 6 hours. At the end of each time point, the plates were removed and placed for incubation. The control was kept in a dark area without a light exposure. Once the incubation period was complete, the bacterial colonies were counted to determine which light is most effective. In our preliminary results using S. aureus, we found that lights 4V, and 3V-1IR showed promising results in suppressing the growth of S. aureus after 6 hours of exposure. In general, the application of our findings can impact on preventing numerous bacteria originated infectious diseases and further can be feasible to viral diseases including COVID-19.

Funder Acknowledgment: Thank you to the HHMI Program!

HUMAN ECOLOGY Impact of Fashion Consciousness on Retail Consumerism Miss Aijanae Deshields, Tiffany Oliver, Taylor Simmons, Raeshawn Joffrion, Jihye Lim, Ph.D. There are a number of factors that play a role in the decisions of consumerism among different types of people. Our research specifically focuses on investigating the buying patterns of fashion conscious consumers, and that was compared to those whose wardrobe revolves around simplicity and practicality. The purpose of our research is to better understand how each cohort thinks in regard to buying clothing and apparel. This will increase our knowledge of marketing tactics and better equip us to track buying patterns among consumers in our own fashion and retail-related fields. To identify the buying behavior between consumers motivated by fashion and trends and those whose priority is lifestyle and practicality, we created a survey with 30 questionnaires to highlight the contrasting purchasing decisions, motivations, and patterns of those who align within each group. This survey questionnaire offered insight about how often the participants shopped online and in-store, whether or not their primary motivations for dress were influenced by external factors of validation, image, or status, and whether or not their style of dress correlated with their personal self-expression. In our findings, fashion conscious consumers tend to follow trends and buy more designer brands. In comparison to practical consumers, they are more likely to overdress during daily activities and they utilize fashion to present their personality and interest. Future study will focus on consumer behavior and buying pattern of athletes comparing to non-athletes.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS HUMAN ECOLOGY Impact of Fashion Consciousness on Retail Consumerism Miss Taylor Simmons, Tiffany Oliver, Aijane Deshields, Raeshawn Joffrion and Jihye Lim, Ph.D. There are a number of factors that play a role in the decisions of consumerism among different types of people. Our research specifically focuses on the different buying patterns of fashion conscious consumers and those whose wardrobe revolves around simplicity and practicality. The purpose of our research is to better understand how each cohort thinks in regard to buying clothing and apparel. This will increase our knowledge of marketing tactics and better equip us to track buying patterns among consumers in our own fashion and retailrelated fields. To determine the differences between consumers motivated by fashion and trends and those whose priority is lifestyle and practicality, we created a survey questionnaire to highlight the contrasting purchasing decisions, motivations, and patterns of those who align within each group. This survey questionnaire offered insight about how often the participants shopped online and in-store, whether or not their primary motivations for dress were influenced by external factors of validation, image, or status, and whether or not their style of dress correlated with their personal self-expression. In our findings, we discovered that most people do follow trends, but still have their personal style as well. Most people make purchases based on their own likings and not to get acceptance from others. Everyone is their own person and has many different reasons for making purchases whether it's for gifts or just because they love fashion.

And Still I Rise: The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Black Women in the United States of America Miss Kenisha Sutherland This article describes the myriad of ways that Black women gained their financial freedom during times of duress in the United States of America. Racism and sexism are among the factors that prompted Black women to begin their own businesses or enterprises. Black women entrepreneurs came about as a result of wanting to earn money for their labor and talents without being ridiculed or harassed more often than wanting to establish enterprises as a way to build a legacy. Due to the racial strife in America and stigmas against women these businesses were not properly recorded or documented and their place in history became lost. Cross referencing dates and locations of civil unrest in the United States with dates and locations of the businesses owned and operated by Black women begins to paint a picture of perseverance and economic tycoons. During the antebellum period of the United States of America Black women started businesses to self-purchase their own freedom and their family members freedom from enslavers. Throughout the civil rights era Black women owned businesses were used as meeting places for freedom fighters to organize their protests or as a safe haven. Currently during the COVID-19 Pandemic there have been nationwide protests condemning police brutality following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, at the same time Black women are starting businesses at the highest rate. Moving forward there needs to be an emphasis on the proper data collection of businesses ran by Black women. Without the documentation of this data the history of business and wealth accumulation by Black women creates a distorted reality of American history and the role Black women play in boosting the country's economy.

MASS COMMUNICATIONS, VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS The Influence of Madam C.J. Walker on the Black Beauty Industry Miss Ariel Hall This research paper will determine if the businesses owned by Madam C.J. Walker who is greatly known as the first self-made female millionaire in America had many lasting effects on the black beauty industry. The purpose of this research is to answer the following questions: What is the legacy that she left to her family which generates positive opinions of her even today? Do others feel that Madame C.J. Walker had a lasting effect on the way black hair care is used? Do present members of the black beauty industry feel she had a lasting effect on the industry? This research paper is using unstructured data. Some of the resources that will be utilized are images from the news media and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Some of the findings are that Madam C.J. Walker's businesses had an influence on making the market for black hair care more popular. Celebrity stylist, Lacy Redway said this on Walker's influence on black hair care, "She was always striving to find products to improve the health of textured hair, which is something I practice daily with my work. I think any dreamer would be able to identify with her determination," (Simeon, 2020).

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS MASS COMMUNICATIONS, VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS

The Young Entrepreneurs: Bringing Awareness to Business Ownership for Students under the Age of 25 Miss Alexxis Sanchious This paper investigates the encounters of understudy business visionaries to get their inspiration for chasing after understudy business ventures, carrying attention to a youthful business venture, their pioneering commitment, and their innovative difficulties including how they balance business and scholastic work. This study utilizes a quantitative exploration plan through meetings to acquire genuine knowledge into what it resembles being a youthful understudy business visionary going to an HBCU. Information assortment was done with the assistance of an encounter-telling organized interview guide and information investigation was directed utilizing a topical examination approach. Discoveries show that most respondents contemplated business ownership while in their senior secondary school level as a road for tending to individual monetary requirements. Results showed an inclination for pioneering exercises in different craftsmanship-related businesses for most respondents with areas, for example, correspondence planning and shirt printing and ruling. Furthermore, encounters show that respondents confronted monetary, functional, promotional, and administrative difficulties in their enterprising interests. It is inferred that fledgling entrepreneurs in our example profit by the abilities they procure as a component of their schooling to seek after business ownership as a step-by-step process for survival. Their innovative commitment for the most part center around potential open doors in their field of specialization in general and facing explicit difficulties on a gradual basis. It is suggested that policymakers in the scholarly world, industry and government cooperate towards situating fledgling young entrepreneurs to be growth oriented in any event, while picking their course of study.

PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Review of IV-VI Compounds for Infrared Photodetections Ifti Ahmed, Safwan Rahman, Shrey Tayal, Samrah Iqbal and Mukti Rana Layered two dimensional (2D) materials have attracted a lot of attentions due to their promising thermoelectric, optical and other properties.

2D nanostructured based thermoelectric generators and photodetectors have shown attractive results. In recent years, a lot of research is going on in this field to improve the thermoelectric and optical properties of these layered 2D materials either by doping, alloying, or synthesizing by different growth techniques. Among the 2D materials, graphene, black phosphorus, IVA-VIA compounds, Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising candidates in this field for their unique electronic, mechanical and optical properties. In this work, we present a comprehensive review of the development of 2d materials, specially IVA-VIA compounds in thermoelectric and photodetecting applications. We summarized some of the recent developments in improving thermoelectric and optical properties of these materials and outlined some synthesis techniques for fabricating them. We also summarized their potential applications as photodetectors for using them in the infrared spectrum. This review will help researchers know about the thermoelectric and optical properties of some nanostructured materials as well as their potential applications and inspire other researchers to advance this field of research.

Funder Acknowledgment: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Grant # FA9550-18-1-0283

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Intensity Correlation Analysis of Ficoll Raman Spectra Ms. Bisola Bello, Yahira Lopez, Mohamed Salih, Fatima Boukari, and Hacene Boukari Biomacromolecular crowding is recognized to affect various biological processes such as cell signaling, protein folding and stability, binding of small molecules, and enzymatic activity. Our research interest has focused on developing and applying in-situ optical-based spectroscopy and imaging methodologies, combined with data-driven analytical tools, to probe and quantitate various chemical and physical processes in biopolymeric and cellular systems. Our overall goal is to develop data-driven (e.g. spectral and imaging) and physics-informed models that will be trained to identify and assess optical signatures associated with the structural and dynamical properties of diverse nanoparticles (e.g. proteins, amino-acids, metallic, bacteria) while dispersed in relevant samples.

As an experimental model, we have been using solutions of Ficoll 70 (~70KDa) and 400 (~400kD) biomolecules, two highly-branched, water-soluble polysaccharides, readily used in various biomedical applications. We report, here, results of analysis of changes of Raman spectra of concentrated Ficoll solutions. Raman is powerful optical technique commonly used to measure and identify molecular vibrational modes -optical signatures. In addition to the Raman peaks of water (~1640 cm-1 and ~3200 cm-1) and dissolved O2 ( ~1556 cm-1) and N2 (~2330 cm-1) we observed a distinct Raman peak (~2900 cm-1) in the 1500-3500 cm-1 wavenumber range, which is associated with CH and CH2 stretching modes of Ficoll molecules. Further, as Ficoll concentration increases (up to 1000 mg/ml), the intensity of the CH/CH2 peak increases while the intensity of both water peaks decreases due to the reduction of water content. As a preprocessing step we have developed a systematic approach to subtract the contribution of water from the Ficoll spectrum. For analysis, we have applied the intensity correlation analysis (ICA) method to assess systematic changes of the Raman spectra with Ficoll concentration. ICA indicates an overall linear trend over the full wavenumber range, but also shows closed loops that can be attributed to slight shift of the profiles of the peaks. The results demonstrate ICA as a potential insightful tool for identifying Ficoll in chemical analysis of crowded biomolecular samples.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware INBRE program NIGMS/NIH (P20 GM103446), the Delaware U-RISE program (1T34GM136477), and NSF Award (1955664)

Sensitive Detection and Validation of Near-IR laser Sensors for the Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Ryan Bischof, Al-Alexis and Amir Khan Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Optical Science Center for Applied Research, Delaware State University This project shows sensitive detection of multiple rotational, vibrational transitions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O).

Wavelength modulation spectroscopy is a technique used to resolve overlapping transitions of CO2 and H2O. A near-IR distributed feedback fiberized laser operating in the wavelength range of 2000 nm - 2002 nm is used to probe the molecular transitions. The specified wavelength from the infrared laser is coupled in a Heriot design Multipass cell to enhance the detection sensitivity. Due to the precise nature of the detection, ambient thermal cycling impacts the sensor's stability, possibly due to thermal expansion on the mirror mounts.

A set of temperature cycling calibrations under a controlled environment are conducted to account for errors and discriminate "real" density variations from instrument drifts. A commercial CO2 sensor (Vaisala GMP343) with an accuracy of +/-3 ppm+1% of reading is also used alongside the IR-CO2 sensor to compare and validate CO2 readings for accuracy. We show significant advantages of the IR-sensor with commercial instruments, including spectroscopic studies to study molecular collision dynamics and simultaneous measurements of humidity with CO2. In addition to the controlled thermal test, both sensors are also used in the field to gather data over multiple days. Field measurements of both commercial and IR-CO2 sensors are intercompared to corroborate agreement between the datasets and diurnal profile cycles of CO2 at Delaware State University Campus. An automated LABVIEW software interface was developed to integrate and synchronize measurements from the IR-CO2 sensor and commercial CO2 instrument.

Funder Acknowledgment: This work was funded by DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM1.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Scoliosis Detection Using Computer Vision John Gabriel Camaclang, Fatima Boukari, Ph.D Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science Scoliosis is the occurrence of a curvature in the spine. Scoliosis occurs mostly in a child's growth spurt years, typically before puberty. Diagnosis/ detection is important, early detection can prevent increasing curvature of the spine before the condition becomes severe. Most cases of scoliosis can be treated relatively quickly if caught early. One of the more common ways to check for scoliosis without using an x-ray scan is by checking for unbalanced shoulders. In this project, Computer Vision is utilized to get real time footage of a person's shoulders to check for scoliosis. An "outline" of a person's skeleton is made to evaluate the person's shoulders whether they may or may not have scoliosis. To add, data is taken from the shoulder positions to power a Machine Learning model one day for better analysis of one's shoulders to detect scoliosis.

Evaluating the Reflective Spectral Profiles of Lipid Membranes in Relation to the Concentration of Cholesterol Mr. Minares Ehsani Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) are excellent model systems for studying physical aspects of biological membranes where the interaction between lipids and proteins takes place. The key advantage of GUVs is that they can be observed directly under the light microscope due to large sizes comparable to mammalian cells.

Numerous studies that have shown the effects of cholesterol on the phases and structures of the lipid-cholesterol membranes. The lipid "structures" inside the membrane ocean are known as lipid rafts.

Cholesterol (CHOL) increases the rigidity of lipid vesicles by forming raft-like structures. In this project, we focused on the lipid reflective spectral profiles obtained from the hyperspectral dark-field microscopy and we studied their correlations to different concentrations of cholesterol (10, 20, 30, and 40 mol% ).

Reflective spectral profiles of GUVs with 20 mol% CHOL were found to be distinctly different from the other concentrations in both peak wavelength and FWHM (full width at half maximum). This finding was consistent with other studies, suggesting that the hyper-spectral analysis technique can be used to characterize the phase and integrity of lipid membranes.

Funder Acknowledgment: We acknowledge support by the Delaware INBRE program.

Self-Made Virtual Assistant Brandon Elmore, Dr. Fatima Boukari, Computer Science Department, Delaware State University Virtual assistants provide room for improvement in efficiency in an individual as well as a team by allowing the automation of mundane or simple tasks, but there are so many different assistants to choose from. In order to rid myself of the choice between all of them I decided to create one of my own. In this presentation watch the growth of my virtual assistant as I build it from the ground up. My first goal was to make a program that could remind a user of google meets that they were invited to, then I thought why not allow any online meeting platform be detected and give the user a reminder. My next goal is to allow the user to populate any meetings they were invited to while still detecting meetings that were emailed to them. After that I plan to allow the user to create their own reminders using their voice much like other mainstream virtual assistants. My final goal is to use data collected from extended use to populate recurring meetings or reminders and to filter out any future conflicts. The current development is going smoothly with goals being met consistently, but there is always room for improvement. In the future I will continue to work on my personal project and implementing new features or improving user experience, maybe I can get the chance to add my ideas to one of the already existing virtual assistants.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS ARTS & HUMANITIES/PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Impact of Fashion Consciousness on Retail Consumerism Mr. RaeShawn Joffrion There are a number of factors that play a role in the decisions of consumerism among different types of people. Our research specifically focuses on the different buying patterns of fashion conscious consumers and those whose wardrobe revolves around simplicity and practicality. The purpose of our research is to better understand how each cohort thinks in regard to buying clothing and apparel. This will increase our knowledge of marketing tactics and better equip us to track buying patterns among consumers in our own fashion and retailrelated fields. To determine the differences between consumers motivated by fashion and trends and those whose priority is lifestyle and practicality, we created a survey questionnaire to highlight the contrasting purchasing decisions, motivations, and patterns of those who align within each group. This survey questionnaire offered insight about how often the participants shopped online and in-store, whether or not their primary motivations for dress were influenced by external factors of validation, image, or status, and whether or not their style of dress correlated with their personal self-expression. In our findings, we discovered that most people do follow trends, but still have their personal style as well. Most people make purchases based on their own likings and not to get acceptance from others. Everyone is their own person and has many different reasons for making purchases whether it's for gifts or just because they love fashion.

Funder Acknowledgment: Jihye Lim

PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Optimizing Image Registration using Genetic Algorithms Mr. Tré Johnson The potential of error when comparing data sets will always pose an obstacle. The objective is to efficiently compare images while maintaining the ability to discern applicable information about a particular data set. There is a process called Image Registration(IR), with the goal of comparing images from different times or viewpoints. It is well established in research areas, including agriculture, medical imaging, and computer vision.

Equipping image registration with genetic programming(GP) promotes a robust and automatic solution. GP proposes to create a pool of many solutions at random. Calculate its fitness. Select the strongest solutions. Merge those together and create offspring. And lastly, check to see if the solution from the offspring meets the criteria to end the cycle of reproduction.

We have found that using an IR method using genetic algorithms(GA) vs a non-rigid IR technique has proven itself to be quite optimal. Being as though the fitness value of the GA tends to score higher than the non-rigid approach. Although it is not absolute, these results prove that GA is a powerful tool for Image Registration.

In conclusion, with more research and time. Genetic Algorithms are expected to provide significant change to the way we optimize Image registration.

Raman Cascade Effect in Water Under Nanosecond Laser Excitation Ms. Milia Johnson and Aristides Marcano We report on the Raman spectra on distilled water under nanosecond laser excitation. We use a 10-cm pathlength glass cuvette containing the sample. We irradiate with 20 mJ, 10-ns pulses from an optical parametric oscillator in the blue region of the spectrum (410-450 nm).

We observe a ring of light which corresponds to the Raman effect. We collect the spectra from different ring sections by analyzing the ring using a monochromator. We measure a strong response corresponding to the stretching mode of the water molecule. We also report that the observed Stokes signal generates an additional peak understood as a Raman cascade effect. We confirm the presence of a secondary cascade Stokes signal by measuring their frequency shift. We also report the presence of additional peaks that the Raman cascade effect cannot explain. We conclude that these peaks are the contribution of the oxygen dissolved in the solvent.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University, DoD Center of Excellence Advanced Quantum Sensing PAGE 54

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Simultaneous Measurements of Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Monoxide Using Laser-based Sensors Miss Zayna Juracka, Yue An, Amir Khan Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas species with a significant impact on the earth's radiative forcing and the environment, whereas carbon monoxide is a pollutant that impacts human health. Simultaneous measurements of both species are critical to assess sources and sinks from emissions and profile urban and rural emissions. This project demonstrates this methodology by high-precision sensing of rotationalvibrational transitions of Nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide using an interband cascade laser operating at a 4.3 mm spectral region. We further use data-driven approaches, including machine learning and information theory, specifically kNN, which can be applied to photonicsbased sensors to quantify drifts and improve precision. kNN is a supervised learning method that finds the nearest neighbor of points.

These methods are used to classify signals from rotational-vibrational absorption spectra of Nitrous oxide (N2O) in the 4.3 mm region of the spectrum. The detection method utilizes the structural complexity of wavelength modulation spectroscopy signals and information encoded in the spectra. We create our basic training models by simulating the effects of temperature, pressure, and density fluctuations. Instrument (laser and detector) noise optical fringing effects can be incorporated in the models. This project is used to demonstrate that signal variation due to Trace gas density fluctuations can be discriminated from instrument drifts. The proposed methodology can accurately predict, detect, and evaluate short-term and long-term drifts in sensing systems.

Funder Acknowledgment: This work was funded by DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM103446).

Moisture Content Measurement Sensor in Soil Dr. ElijahSafwan Rahman, Ifti Ahmed, Gulnihal Ozbay and Mukti Rana Moisture content of soil is defined as the quantity of water it contains in the soil. Water content is used in a wide range of scientific and technical areas and is expressed as a ratio, which can range from 0 (completely dry) to the value of the materials' porosity at saturation.

Moisture may be present as adsorbed moisture at internal surfaces and as capillary condensed water in small pores. At a low relative humidity, moisture consists mainly of adsorbed water. At a higher relative humidity, liquid water becomes more and more important, depending on the pore size.

Water content in soil plays an important role in soil science, hydrology and agricultural sciences. Water content in the form of dissolved moisture in earth's crust, has an important role for groundwater recharge, agriculture and soil chemistry. If the moisture content of a soil is optimum for plant growth, plants can readily absorb soil water. Not all the water, held in soil, is available to plants. Much of water remains in the soil as a thin film. Soil water dissolves salts and makes up the soil solution, which is important as a medium for supply of nutrients to growing plants. Different plants need different amount of water to grow. Precise measurement of water content in soil is vital not only for plant growth but also for microbes and other animals to maintain balance and stability in ecosystem. Various methods had been used to measure the moisture content in soil. In a moisture measurement sensor, variation of moisture results in changing one of the measurable electrical or optical quantities. These quantities include among others - resistance, inductance, capacitance, permeability, permittivity and reflectance of light. An ideal soil moisture measurement sensor would be light weight, compact, low cost, easy to operate and maintain.

Among all soil moisture sensors, time domain reflectometry is the most popular one. This work describes and reviews various sensing mechanisms used to measure the moisture content in soil.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Automated Low Power Meteorological Sensors for Soil Flux Measurements Axel Rodriguez Trejo and Amir Khan Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Optical Science Center for Applied Research, Delaware State University Low-power semiconductor-based commercial meteorological sensors such as the AM2315 and the Modern Devices wind sensor (Rev-P) are ideal for sensing in a wide area for earth science applications. In-situations, soil flux measurements can be challenging, especially when the experiment is over a long period where different biogenic and abiogenic factors could drastically change with temperature or humidity over a long period. Therefore, high-precision measurements of temperature and humidity are needed while estimating emissions of greenhouse gasses from various sources and sinks. When determining the amount of sub-surface emissions from the soil, it is essential to determine the meteorological conditions, such as the wind speed, wind direction, and temperature and humidity. These parameters are required for soil flux and emissions rate of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. The fully automated, synchronized metrological sensor platform integrated into laser-based greenhouse gas sensors can accurately determine flux and spatiotemporal variability of soil emissions. This project shows the design and development of ultra-portable, low-power, microcontroller-controlled temperature/humidity sensors and wind sensors for field applications.

Funder Acknowledgment: This work was funded by DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM103446) from the N.I.H.

Modeling Light-Atom Interactions with Atomic Density Matrix Miss Zaha Shahdad, Mauricio Pulido, Renu Tripathi, Gour S. Pati Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, Delaware State University The atomic density matrix is a convenient model to study various quantum phenomena involved in the interaction of light with an atomic ensemble. Among the many energy eigenstates of an atomic medium, considering only two or three of the possible energy eigenstates that are associated with light interaction can sufficiently describe many of these phenomena. The atomic density matrix (ADM) package in Mathematica is used to simulate Rabi oscillations in two-level and three-level systems, and the saturation effect in a two-level system. The three-level system is modeled as a lambda scheme. The time-evolution of the two systems in the absence and presence of relaxation and repopulation effects are modeled and compared to each other. A steady-state calculation using density matrix equation reveals coherent population trapping (CPT) that takes place in a three-level lambda system.

Funder Acknowledgment: Supports received from DoD CoE-AQS (W911NF2020276) and NASA-EPSCoR (80NSSC17M0026) grants for this research

Raman Detection of Singlet Oxygen in Water and Heavy Water Ms. Portia Wiggins and Aristides Marcano We conduct Raman experiments aimed at detecting singlet oxygen in the water and heavy water. We discuss the possible Stokes signals generated in the process. We use a long path-length cuvette containing distilled water and pure heavy water. We excite the samples using the nanosecond radiation from an optical parametric oscillator in the blue region of the spectrum. We detect Stokes signals from the stretching modes of the solvent molecules. We also notice a peak in the red region that we attribute to singlet oxygen production. While stretching modes Stokes change for water and heavy water, the observed red signal does not change, supporting the hypothesis. We use sodium bisulfite as an oxygen quencher. This new solution shows no red peak confirming its origin. The method represents a new way of generation of singlet oxygen without a photosensitizer.

Funder Acknowledgment: National Science Foundation and Department of Defense PAGE 56

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Algorithm Development for Wavefront Sensing Mr. Brian Williams, Dr. Thomas Planchon, Delaware State University, Optical Science Center for Applied Research, College of Agriculture, Science and Technology This research has many opportunities to be used in microscopy to obtain a sensorless measurement of the aberrations induced by the biological samples imaged, and in adaptive optics strategies for light-sheet microscopy. This project seeks to explore an alternative method to generate this map without using an interferometer or Shack Hartmann sensors. To measure the wavefront of a laser, the main methods used are interferometers (self-referenced, or requiring a reference arm) or Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors. In the later, a 2D array of micro lenses sample the local curvature of the wavefront and generate a 2D map of the phase or wavefront of the beam. In our approach, the system uses the intensity profiles measured in several transverse planes along the propagation direction of the laser, while it slowly comes to a focus generated with a bidimensional spatial light modulator (SLM). The different intensity profiles are generated with focusing the beam using the SLM, while a phase retrieval algorithm allows to retrieve the incoming wavefront after several iterations and its convergence. We have also in our system an interferometer that is used to measure simultaneously the wavefront as a control to what the algorithm output gives.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).

Pressure Effect on the Structure of Calcium Cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9), a Thermoelectric Material Mr. Ameen Zerrad, Dr.Gabriel Gwanmesia Thermo-electric materials have important practical applications in power generation for converting heat into electrical energy and in solidstate refrigeration devices. Although the efficiency of thermoelectric oxides is generally lower than that of conventional thermoelectric materials such as sulfides and tellurides, oxides are chemically stable under adverse environmental conditions. Compared to conventional thermoelectric materials such as sulfides and tellurides, the oxides, although of lower efficiency, are chemically and thermally stable, inexpensive, and readily available. We measured the elastic velocities of a synthetic polycrystalline Ca3Co4O9, to 8 GPa at room temperature using ultrasonic interferometry techniques, in a cubic anvil apparatus combined with synchrotron X-ray radiation. Linear fit to the moduli data sets yields the elastic bulk and shear moduli [Ks =112 GPa ; G = 54 GPa] and their pressure derivatives [(?Ks/?P)T = 6.58 ; (?G/?P)T = 3.42 - 0.21 x P]. We observe a pressure-induced phase transformation in the Ca3Co4O9, at 2.8 GPa, revealed by an initial decrease in the bulk modulus and the Poisson's ratio to a minimum at 2.8 GPa with increasing pressure followed by a regular increase in the bulk modulus and the Poisson's ratio with further pressure increase to 8 GPa. Funder Acknowledgment: DOE

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES Student-Athletes Knowledge and Comprehension about their Sport-Related Injuries Ms. Tyesha Alston, Dr. Cara Gomez Introduction: The majority of student-athletes have experienced an acute or chronic injury, whether it was prior to college or happened in their collegiate years. Understanding the injury is imperative because assumptions is not an actual diagnosis. For example, an athlete has a sprained ankle, they may not know what structured were damage, proper care, or how severe their injury was.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the student-athletes awareness of their injury and identify if the student-athletes comprehend how the athletic trainers describe their injury.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey with convenient sampling. Student-athletes completed a survey on google forms related to their injury and knowledge of the injury.

Major Results: There were 30 total participants, the majority being females(61.3%) and the highest sport team that participated was track & field (25.7%). Student-athletes replied that only 19.4% experienced upper extremity injuries and 90.3% had lower extremity injuries. When it was time to name the injuries, 83% of athletes could describe their injury in medical terms. The students-athletes were asked how well they comprehended their injury and 77.4% responded positively. Student-athletes were asked have they gave a false rate of pain to return to play, and 54.8% said yes. Lastly, student-athletes were asked when an athletic trainer said to PRICE (protect, rest, ice, compression and elevate) or RICE an injury, did the athlete actually follow the instructions? About 90.3% said yes.

Conclusion: It is imperative to receive knowledge about injury and to honestly report pain levels because athletic trainers use that to guide clinical decision making. This data in the study indicate student have a working knowledge of injuries but often misreport pain levels.

Fear of Concussion Ms. Celine Biney, Dr. Cara Gomez, Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University Introduction: A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that affects the brain's function. Ten percent of all contact sport athletes sustain concussions yearly. Concussion diagnoses depend on accurate patient reports of symptoms.

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate whether athletes understand concussions, and what makes them suppress the symptoms they may be experiencing.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional research design survey. This survey contained inclusionary criteria of male and female collegiate athletes.

This study recruited participants via social media and via personal invitation. Participants completed an online researcher-designed survey through Google Form; data analysis was done via Google Excel. The intervention included 7 athletes who have/haven't experienced a concussion. These individuals had to answer a series of questions pertaining to what a concussion is and if they've experienced symptoms.

Results: Of the 7 participants, 85.7% were male and 14.3% were female, ages ranging from 21-23 years old, and they participated in either football, basketball, or track and field. 71.4% of the respondents have never experienced a concussion, while 28.6% have. Their symptoms included headaches, nausea, dizziness, light sensitivity, and confusion, with headache/pressure in the head having the highest percentage of 100%. Sixty percent of the respondents knew that you needed a minimum of 1 symptom to have a concussion. All participants knew you didn't need to be unconscious to experience a concussion. While 71.4% of participants have never failed to report a concussion, 28.6% have, due to the fear of never playing again or other things occurring.

Discussion: This intervention showed that there are athletes who are aware of what a concussion is and know what one feels like. This helps athletic trainers regarding the prognosis of a concussion because it forms a bridge to why some individuals don't report their symptoms.

Effects of Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate & Platelet-rich Plasma Injection for Rotator Cuff Tendon Tear Nyasia Carroll-Jackson, Sang Jun Kim, Eun Kyung Kim, Sun Jeong Kim & Da Hyun Song (Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research) Rotator cuff injuries are very prevalent here in the United States with nearly two million doctor visits per year being due to a rotator cuff problem.

A torn rotator cuff can be more than just an issue for athletes or physically active people but can cause shoulder pain for the general public, especially people of older age. This can prevent a person from completing everyday activities such as getting dressed or even sleeping. The purpose of the research study is to analyze how effective bone marrow aspirate concentration- platelet rich plasma injection would be in helping PAGE 58

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES to ease the pain of the rotator cuff tear. Twenty-four patients were selected and split into two groups with twelve in each. In the control group the patients were taught different exercises by an expert to rehabilitate the rotator cuff injury. The remaining twelve would be in the bone marrow aspirate- platelet rich plasma group which would receive injection of BMAC-PRP solution at the site of the tear. The patients who received the injections for their rotator cuff tear had shown signs of improvement with their pain levels. With all things considered, it can be said that bone marrow aspirate- platelet rich plasma injections have proven to aid in helping deal with the pain of a torn rotator cuff.

Knowledge and Distinction of Occupational Therapy in First-Year Undergraduate Students Morgan Easton, Dr. Cara Gomez, Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Wesley College of Health and Behavioral Sciences Introduction: Occupational therapy is a profession that is on the rise but many people, especially in minority communities, are unaware of what this occupation is and what they do. Only three percent of the occupational therapy workforce are African American, and more diversity is needed in the field. Many undergraduate students come into health programs with a set mind of what professions they would like to pursue, but some come to later realize that there are other careers they can get into with that degree.

Problem: There is a scarcity of information provided about occupational therapy, especially in minority communities, and there are few resources to help educate students on the variety of careers.

Method: This was a cross-sectional survey. The survey was designed based on a previously published questionnaire about knowledge of the occupational therapy profession. My survey consisted of eleven questions that were geared toward gaining insight on whether undergraduate students knew and/or understood what occupational therapy is. I used convenience sampling and I sent this questionnaire out to introductory 100 level (freshman) courses. The participants were asked to fill out and answer a series of questions that assessed their knowledge of occupational therapy. Some questions referenced what occupational therapists do and where they may work.

Results: The outcome consisted of 5 undergraduates 60% being freshman, 20% sophomores, and 20% seniors. For the questions that pertained to what occupational therapists do, majority of the responses showed that they do understand what an occupational therapist is.

On the other hand, when asked in what settings occupational therapists may work many chose the recognizable answers; this shows that there is not full clarity of the variety of locations occupational therapists can work in.

Conclusion: This data shows there is a good comprehension of what occupational therapy is and what they do, but there is still room to educate undergraduates on who they are, what it is they do, and in what settings they work. With this information, professors can see students are aware of other professions but, are not quite sure what they are and how to go about them.

Social Intervention Increases Support and Physical Activity for the Single African American Mothers Population Rebecca Ford, Rebecca Form, Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University Introduction: The health benefits of physical activity include increased muscle strength and endurance, bone and joint strength, and a reduced risk of diabetes and heart disease. African American single mothers risk many genetic heart conditions and stress, and exercise can be the solution.

Problem: Lack of support and finding the time or an appropriate workout deters African American single mothers from adopting an active lifestyle.

Methods: My intervention included four single African American mothers (age 40 to 50). The participants first recorded their initial level of physical activity, history of cardiovascular health issues, what benefit of physical activity excites them, availability, and their favorite forms of physical activity. Using a social and informational intervention, the participants completed step challenges, workouts, and yoga together.

Outcomes measures were social engagement, completion, and physical activity enjoyment. The intervention included a social group where the women walked 4,000 after work on Mondays and discussed the steps via phone; a 5-minute full-body workout virtually on zoom on Wednesdays; and a 10-minute virtual yoga session through YouTube on Sundays. After each session, the women took another survey measuring enjoyment and creating an opportunity to give feedback.

Results: The women were very interactive. They perceived the zoom calls as support to complete the physical activity and comforting to know other women had the same goals. The participants indicated the intervention was "enlightening" and a "wake-up call" regarding their current physical activity levels. The yoga session was the most enjoyed, receiving an average high score of 5 out of 5. The workout videos proved the convenience of living an active lifestyle, as well as the zoom calls also provided support. All participants attempted the workouts and enjoyed the experience.

Discussion: This intervention showed yoga was the most enjoyable activity. The qualitative data indicated this intervention brought awareness of the severity of the inactivity of African American single mothers and knowledge of how to incorporate small amounts of physical activity throughout the week. A limitation to this study was the length of time.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES Occupational Therapy and Increasing Access to all Health Care Improves Quality of Life on Native Reservations and Preserves Native American Heritage for Generations to Come Ms. Courtney Forgan Native American culture is so often put on the backburner of busy modern-day American Culture. Native culture, stories, their heritage, and the mention of their genocide is forgotten hundreds of years later. The reason why reservations still exist is also often forgotten. Reservations were founded as concentration camps in a sense to hold the native "savages" as colonists took over North America to build on this new, promising land they had just "founded". Intentionally, these reservation camps were put in the most extreme, inhabitable environments to kill off any survivors. Tactics such as disease-ridden blankets to wipe out the rest of the race were tried, and if that didn't work they put enemy tribes in the same space as a form of torture and entertainment, in hopes to rid of the rest. As hundreds of years pass the effects of this forced relocation and lifestyle impacts the native American race and heritage today. Because environmental conditions are so harsh, the everyday life of these people living on these reservations is tough on the body. Diabetes, arthritis, addiction, substance abuse, mental illness, and more substantial health problems are prominent within the native community because of their way of life and lack of resources. Everyday resources that many take for granted elsewhere such as an abundance of healthy grocery stores, hospitals, and other health services, are rare and spare on the reservation. Incorporating and improving the reservation's access to therapy and other allied health services will and have been shown to improve the quality of life for these natives and their generations to come. Occupational therapy in particular is prioritizing the goals and aspirations within the individual and native community. Strengthening and healing the current population from decades of hardships and disease will strengthen those generations to come and lift the forced burdens of their past off their shoulders.

Freshman Kinesiology Students Prior Knowledge of Allied Health Profession Physical Therapy Keyonna Hawkins, Cara Gomez, Public and Allied Health Sciences Department, College of Health and Behavioral Sciences

Kinesiology is the study of human movement. Students who major in Kinesiology can work in various allied heath care professions, including Physical Therapy. Physical therapists are movement experts who improve quality of life through prescribed exercise, hands-on care, and patient education. However, students may not know the school and education level of Physical Therapy.

Problem: This study sought to determine undergraduate freshmen students' prior knowledge of being a Physical Therapist.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with convenience sampling. Participants were recruited by sending a survey link to freshmanlevel classes at Delaware State University. This was a researcher-designed survey with questions related to students' prior knowledge of the profession.

Results: Two total students completed the survey, one male and one female. They rated their knowledge of anatomy as a 3/5. Both students understand they must complete an average of seven and a half years of school including both undergrade and graduate school. When asking about Physical therapy, they mentioned taping and making sure people are not hurt anymore, or not including much information at all. The students gave the idea of working at schools and hospitals as a Physical Therapist, but were unable to describe additional work settings.

Conclusion: A majority of the freshman students do not know a lot about Physical Therapy. The study indicated that students have minimal knowledge of Physical Therapy. Coming into college, it is important to have a good amount of information about a profession in the field. As freshmen continue to go through their courses, they will learn more about their profession. As a first-year student, they would benefit if they knew more about the profession of physical therapy before start course furthering their major in kinesiology.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES Assessing Co-Morbidities in Individuals with Diabetes Considering Their Social Economic Status Deyneisha Jackson and Von Homer, Ph.D. Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University The human body is a very complex organism and throughout the years we have adapted and updated our health care system, so that we can better understand it. Yet, there is still so much for us to learn. Diabetes is a disorder that occurs when there is too much sugar in your blood. This diseases affects about 34.2 million people in the world today. Diabetes, if managed properly is a disease that you can lie with, but not it can have life altering symptoms. The health care system has come a long way at making sure that they are assemble to everyone, but even though it is available. That doesn't guarantee that you are getting the same quality as someone with a higher social economic status.

In this study, I hypothesized that having a higher social economic status would decrease the chance of developing co-morbid conditions in chronic diseases, such as diabetes. My information that was collected stemmed from journal entries from rehabilitation journals and neuroengineering journals. Found that there were significant gradients in people with co-morbid conditions that were in a lower income compared to people in a higher economic status.

Future studies I would focus on if certain co-morbidity conditions are more prevalent in other due to statuses and also status affect their quality and the availability they have on their health car options.

Funder Acknowledgment: Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University

The Physical and Mental Benefits of Cannabis Therapy Brandon J. McCombs Advisor Ms. Taylor Mclntosh, Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University Introductory Statement: My research topic will discuss the benefits of cannabis use from an athletic stand point and how it could be used in many different ways to benefit athletes across the globe, mentally and physically.

Purpose: The reasoning I choice this topic is to bring light on new and past research on cannabis and how some athletes have come forward and told their own stories on the beneficiaries action of cannabis and what and how it helped them perform and recover Approach: Using my resources I will research and pin point what are the most important aspects to get my point across, having done some research already I have a better understanding on what's needed to be done, I will discus the different ways cannabis is consumed and the most beneficial way for a athlete and also the backlash that cannabis consumers get for their usage.

Findings: Research states that cannabis is very helpful in reducing pain and inflammation for injuries, also studies show that it helps with anxiety and depressive states. More athletes come out about their cannabis use to show the true benefits that it truly holds and how it's a great resource for athletes Conclusion: The main objective is to show the world and the board my findings and how athletes around the world can benefit from cannabis usage and how the label people place on it isn't as true as it seems. There has been wonderful research groups that show the true benefits of this drug to help physical and mental evolve athletes way of life.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES ACL Tears in Women's Elite Sports with the Specific Aims on the Key Differences in the Opposite Gender That Contribute to the Higher Rate of ACL Tears in Women's Sports Daejon Merchant There have been quite a few worldwide studies that have shown that female athletes have a significantly higher rate of ACL injuries than their male counterparts. In fact, in many studies it has been apparent that women are two to four times more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than men. It's common knowledge that men and women are built differently, but the cause of an ACL injury for both genders is the same with the injuries happening primarily during a activity that involves landing from a jump with low and or inadequate knee flexion, unanticipated movements during play or quick and sudden direction changes while in play. Most people in the health field know that there is a lot of physiological differences in women compared to men but, a lot of people don't know which differences that attribute to the greater influx of ACL injuries in women. In this paper I will be talking about some of the main differences that play a part in the increase injury of women and their ACL's. The first being Women generally have a wider pelvis, which means that the thigh bones angle down more sharply than men and put significantly more pressure on the inside of the knee. Women also have a narrower intercondylar notch which is the groove in which the ACL travels through in the femur. They also have a smaller ACL, which can make them more prone to ACL injury. Studies have also shown that women's ligaments tend to have more fixability and elasticity than men's and that may sound good at first but that can reduce the knee's ability to cushion impact. There has even been research that has talk about how a woman's hormones can have a part in ACL injuries in the female population. In My research paper I will be discussing the types alternative that many people came up with in order to counter the massive increase in ACL tears in female athletes. Such as proper strength training, balance training, proper equipment wear and proper technique. I will be researching the best method in which we can reduce this problem that has be a issue in women's sports for a long time.

Human Growth Hormone Doping in Sports Melanie Nieves Sports are activities involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another. Most sports require athletes to be explosive when performing. Professional athletes find that increasing muscle mass, endurance, and strength are pivotal for sports performance which highlights 4 major components: skills, strength, endurance, and recovery. Human Growth hormones (HGH) are a naturally occurring hormone in the human body that plays an important role in human physiology. Athletes have found that supplementing HGH helps increase their lean body mass helping athletes being explosive and on top of their game.

Behavioral Intervention Promotes Increase in Physical Activity Frequency in College-Aged African American Females: A Single-Group Pilot Study Ms. Ishe'ah Rollerson Introduction: Physical activity is defined as bodily movements which result in energy expenditure and is important for college students.

Underclassmen often lack of physical activity and have eating habits that lead to the freshman fifteen. Behavioral physical activity interventions can be used to help these students.

Problem: Freshman fifteen is a problem many incoming students endure during their first year of college. Although those students may gain weight for various reasons, such as physical inactivity and changes in eating habits, this weight gain is not surprising, considering that college is a significant lifestyle shift for them. Despite the healthy options available, unhealthy processed foods can be more tempting.

Methodology: This is a single-group pilot test of a behavioral invention to increase the frequency of physical activity in college-aged females. I completed this intervention by posting on the social media sharing app, Instagram where I recruited 3 participants who had gained the freshman fifteen. Baseline and post-intervention data was collected via a survey. The intervention included physical activity counseling and each participant creating a SMART goals and tracking their workouts. Outcomes measures included minutes of physical activity, daily steps, and knowledge of healthy eating.

Results: Before this intervention, my participants were inactive or partially active (0 days per week). During the two weeks of the PAGE 62

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES intervention, the participants engaged in physical activity three times a week and met the recommended 150 minutes per week. They also self-reported healthier eating habits and indicated increased healthy eating awareness.

Conclusion: After completing this intervention, I learned that students encounter multiple barriers which collide with campus life.

Students with poor physical activity and eating habits can put on weight unaware. An individualized behavioral intervention displayed positive outcomes regarding the decrease in weight, physical activity, and better eating habits. If completed again, I would choose a wider demographic group of students which would result in a broader range. This information was important because freshman fifteen has affected many students, both current and prior, who do not have any knowledge or encouragement to better themselves and their living habits.

Investigation of the Time and Return of Executive Functions after Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury?

Miss Jamila Seidu Background: Traumatic spinal cord is when there is sudden fracture, dislocation, crush, or compression to any of the regions to the spinal cord, it is more common with males that are between the ages of 29 thru 43. In the United States there are about 296,000 persons currently living with SCI, causes ranging from vehicular accidents, falls, violence, and sprot injuries. In 2020 there were about 331 million cases in the United States. 54 cases per 1 million people and 17,900 new cases each year. Each region of the spinal cord controls a certain function, so depending the region that Is injured Treatment of injuries depend on the severity and the nature of the injury. Treatment can range from rehabilitation to medicine or even assistive devices. Some of the therapy treatments are aquatic therapy and an assistive device is any variation of a ReWalk device. Aquatic therapy is treatments of exercise performed in water, in this case for physical rehabilitation. This form of therapy has shown to lead to the reduction of spasticity. The ReWalk exoskeleton is a wearable robotic device that provides gait training and mobility for people with lower limb disabilities.

Approach: Studies have been done on the individual benefits of using aquatic therapy and the ReWalk exoskeleton. With the ReWalk device out of 60 possible candidates 5 completed the study. The five candidates completed a study in which mobility outcomes were measured and assessed before, during and after there walking speeds were higher and walking distance was farther. Knowing this information, looking at the aquatic therapy to compare which for of therapy is better in the long run. With the aquatic therapy, it is a case on one individual, who went through a six-week study. What was being examined was test that was done before, during and after the study. With this information we can examine which of the following therapies are better for spinal cord injuries.

Injuries in Amateur Golfers: A Cross-Sectional Study Miss Taylor Simoneau, Cara Gomez, Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Delaware State University Introduction: Golf is a sport that can be played by people of all ages with varying levels of ability; it is also a sport that uses the whole body and takes a substantial amount of time to play (typically between two to five hours). Because of the taxing nature of this sport, golfers can sustain a variety of injuries.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of injury in amateur golfers, areas most commonly injured and the most common cause of the injuries.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study. The survey tool was designed by the researchers based on a previously published golf injury questionnaire. The survey was distributed via social media. The population was a convenient sample of amateur golfers of all ages and talent levels. Data was collected via Google Forms and analyzed via Excel.

Major results: Seventy responses total were received (48 males, 22 females), with 75.7% of respondents citing sustaining one or more injuries from golf. The most commonly injured areas were the back, wrist, shoulder and knee. Most common causes of the injury were related to overuse, ground conditions, swing mechanics and a failure to warm up prior to practice/play. Half of the injuries sustained were chronic, while the other half were acute.

Conclusion: This study and the data collected could be very helpful to coaches, physical/athletic trainers and any medical staff that work with amateur players; it could also be helpful to players themselves. It allows those populations to better understand the typical injuries golfers will come in with, which could lead to a smoother rehabilitation, prevention and strengthening process. This data showcases the importance of rest and a proper warmup, as those are two of the leading causes of injury. It also promotes the importance of having a coach to aid in proper swing mechanics to prevent injury.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES A Research Review of Diagnosing CTE In Living Patients Miss Alexandra St. Pierre, Delaware State University Dr. Homer Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that is the result of multiple and repetitive head traumas. The reason for my interest in the topic is because I have personally had 12 concussion my most recent one, I am still recovering from, I also have multiple people around me who have had many concussions due to playing sports for example; football, lacrosse, and soccer. Participating in contact sports puts athletes at a higher risk for developing CTE than someone who lives a sedimentary lifestyle because they are at a higher risk for being exposed to head traumas such as concussions or repetitive hits to their head. Due to my multiple concussions, I have personally noticed memory loss short term and long term and poor impulse control. The doctor told me that I most likely have CTE but there is no way to diagnose it unless I am dead which makes me want to research the topic in order to find a way to diagnose CTE without the patient having to be dead in order to help prevent more extreme cases of CTE. The sooner there is a diagnosis the sooner that athletes can stop putting themselves at risk to have further complications in their life because they continued to subject themselves to head trauma by continuing to play their sport. To be able to diagnose CTE in a living patient would help to decrease the risk of further damaging their brain and helping to improve the quality of life in the future, because continual trauma on the brain leads to a worsened quality of life as you age, because aging already causes the brain to diminish but when there is damage to the brain the process begins quicker, for example, the brain scans of a person with CTE are very similar to that of someone with Alzheimer's.

CTE is a relatively new concept to a lot of people but, it has been known about since the 1920s with it first being written about and called Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. "The neurofibrillary degeneration of CTE is distinguished from other tauopathies by preferential involvement of the superficial cortical layers, irregular patchy distribution in the frontal and temporal cortices, propensity for sulcal depths, prominent perivascular, periventricular, and subpial distribution, and marked accumulation of tau-immunoreactive astrocytes".(Oxford) The symptoms can be subtle for CTE including "apathy, anhedonia, decreased appetite, hypersomnia, feelings of worthlessness, and passive suicidal ideations" (JAMA neurology).

New cases of CTE are being discovered every day. Post concussive syndrome and CTE can present themselves in very similar ways "clinically CTE is believed to include neuropsychiatric, cognitive and motor deficits that manifest years after implicated concussive or sub concussive events" (McKee et al., 2009). After a concussion typically the patient has no symptoms and returns back to normal within three months but in about 10% of the cases result in persistent somatic, affective, cognitive, and/or movement impairments that never fully stop.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

Let's Get Active Kids: A Behavioral Intervention to Motivate Youth to Engage in Physical Activity Ms. Lauren Staples, Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences, Delaware State University Introduction: According to the CDC, less than one-quarter (24%) of children ages 6 to 17 years old participate in 60 minutes of physical activity every day. At least 45% of children who live in poverty are overweight or obese compared to the 22% of children who live in a household with incomes 4x the poverty levels. Regular physical activity can help children and teens improve cardiorespiratory fitness, build strong bones and muscles, control weight, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. It can also help children reduce the risk of developing health conditions such as heart disease, cancer, or obesity as they age.

Purpose: My study aimed to help children and teens increase their physical activity levels using positive reinforcement motivation.

Methodology: My study used a behavioral approach founded on the Trans-Theoretical model. The specific determinants I focused on were motivation, attitude, and reinforcers. Each participant completed a pre-and post-intervention survey and motivational questionnaire. I met with each participant to develop SMART goals and a physical activity plan with rewards based on their motivators.

Major Results: There were 3 participants ages 5 to 15. Before the intervention, two participants (5 and 15 yo) were sedentary, and one participant (13 yo) exceeded physical activity recommendations. Each student received personal counseling and motivational reinforcement to increase their physical activity levels. After the intervention, each participant met or exceeded their goals and improved their physical activity levels. The participants reported that the rewards used to motivate each participant in their sessions played a significant role in aiding each participant to do well in each session and encouraging them to reach their goals.

Conclusion: Many children are not meeting physical activity recommendations. This small-scale pilot study indicated that personalized rewards motivate children to increase their attitude towards and engagement in physical activity.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES The Use of Social Media to Increase Knowledge and Attitude Toward Physical Activity in Young Adults Taylor Steed, Dr. Cara Gomez, Public and Allied Health Sciences, WCHBS, Delaware State University Introduction: Physical activity can have immediate and long-term health benefits. Most importantly, regular physical activity can improve your quality of life. Most young adults do not get the recommended amounts of physical activity and physical inactivity is the fourth leading causes of death, especially in adults.

Problem: One factor to the lack of physical activity in this population is a lack of knowledge of the benefits of physical activity and the implications of inactivity.

Methodology: This was a single-group post-test study investigating the self-reported effects of a social informational intervention on knowledge and attitude toward physical activity. The target population were young adults who are active on Instagram. The reach of this social media intervention was over 200 male and female young adults. Participants answered pre-intervention questions on a social media poll. The intervention included posting informational activity and the use of interactive social media posts. I made pre and post poll questions on social media based off the informational flyer about physical activity that. I reached out to these participants by using interactive social media posts.

The two outcomes measured that were used are the knowledge gained from the flyers and the attitude towards physical activity.

Results: Eighty-five percent of the people who viewed the social media information indicated they wanted to be more physical active.

Ninety-five percent indicated that the flyers increased their knowledge of physical activity, with the remaining five percent saying they want to learn more. Eighty-eight percent of people indicated the information positively increased their attitude toward physical activity.

Conclusion: The results indicated that social media is a simple way to distribute information. The number who interacted with my social media post and the results are what went well. I learned my flyer should be less wordy next time. information is important because this shows that social media can effectively influence people gain knowledge and change their attitudes toward physical activity.

The Importance and Prevalence Rates of Stretching for Delaware State University Student-Athletes: A CrossSectional Report Ms. Lynette Urena, Dr. Cara Gomez Introduction: Flexibility is one of the five health-related components of physical fitness and is the ability to move a joint through its complete range of motion. Moving a joint through its entire range of motion is vital for proper biomechanics. Stretching can also be used to warm up and cool down muscles, aiding in decreasing sore muscles. Collegiate student-athletes are experiencing high numbers of soreness after and prior training sessions, and infrequent stretching or poor stretching technique can cause stretching to be ineffective. Purpose: This study aimed to identify the student-athletes stretching activity frequency.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey research using convenient sampling. Student-athletes at a local HBCU completed a selfreport stretching activity questionnaire. This survey also sought to identify student-athletes knowledge of the benefits of stretching.

Results: There were 20 total respondents, with a majority being female (95%), sophomores and seniors (30%), and soccer players (60%).

Student-athletes responded that they feel muscle soreness after training sessions (85%) and some do not (15%). The respondents report stretching prior training sessions (70%) and post training sessions (55%). In addition, there are some athletes that take their time to stretch during free time (55%).

Conclusion: A majority of the student-athletes agreed and understood that stretching is essential for consistent performance. Also, they agree that stretching helps to prevent muscle injuries, which are common in student-athletes. However, not all athletes consistently stretch.

Further research can identify why these athletes are not stretching despite knowing the value of stretching and how to improve stretching rates among student-athletes.

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES Characterizing Mechanisms of the Phantom-Limb Pain and Determining of Treatment Miss Katelyn Watson, Department of Kinesiology, Delaware State University 80% of patients who suffer from limb loss develop chronic phantom-limb pain. Phantom-limb pain is a difficult to treat chronic pain. In order to treat the pain, a level of understanding of the mechanisms is necessary. In a previous study, upper extremity amputees were investigated through a questionnaire and scored on the different items such as reason for amputation, medical treatment, prothesis use, and more. In this study, they found that further research was needed in order to assess factors associated with PLP. Since PLP is classified as neuropathic, they believe that there is damage to the peripheral or central neurons in the brain. Psychological factors do not seem to play a role in contributing to the pain but maybe the severity of the pain and also the grief over the loss of the limb. Most patients have a normal psychological profile.

Further studies will include animal models with closely related amputations. It will detect phantom-like behaviors in the animals which will help us in identifying the factors that lead to PLP. Commonly used treatments for PLP include pharmacological, surgical, anesthetic, psychological, and others such as prothesis training or acupuncture.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

Discovery of PTN as a Serum-based Biomarker of Pro-metastatic Prostate Cancer Lauryn Williams, Shiqin Liu, Arvind Muruganantham, Busola Alabi, Sofia Prieto, and Tanya Stoyanova Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection , Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA Prostate Cancer is one the most common types of cancer that can lead to death within men from ages 65 and older. There are rare cases where men that are between the ages of 40-50 are susceptible to being diagnosed with PC as well. The average mortality rate of those with prostate cancer is estimated to be about 35,000 for 2021. Overall, there is a 5 year survival rate for those that have any form of PC, whether it only being in that localized area or spreading to other organs of the body, even though the percentages of these change. Furthermore, there has been a decrease over the years in the mortality of those with PC secondary to new forms of treatment and biomarkers that have been discovered/created.

The PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is the biomarker that is used in order to treat those with prostate cancer. However, there have been a few obstacles that have occurred while using this biomarker. PSA is unable to differentiate between patients that are in the beginning stages of PC that do not need management versus those that have a crucial amount of PC that need treatment. Majority of the Cancers that are using the PSA have been noted to be very over treated and many individuals have questioned the usage of PSA as a screening tool for Cancers.

Secondary to this, this has led to the development of new biomarkers such as: PCA3, prostate health index, STHLM3 test, and Select Mdx. These new biomarkers have been more successful in indicating PC within males, however they are able to identify cancers that may not cause harm to one's body at all and can over detect the cancer that is present. Researchers have been able to discover that men with an intermediate level of PC have been more successful in recovering by a non-interventional approach. Moreover, the biomarkers being used should have a great impact on being able to reduce the mortality rate as well as decreasing the amount of over detection.

Funder Acknowledgment: NIH, members of Dr. Stoyanova's lab

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UNDERGRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC & ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES Examining the Effects of Resistance Training on Adolescents Ms. Waliah Witter, Fiona L. Morris, Geraldine A. Naughton, Joanne L. Gibbs, John S. Carlson, John D. Wark Wayne L. Westcott, PhD, Department of Exercise Science, Quincy College, Resistance training offers many health benefits such as weight loss, building muscular strength, improving one's physical functionality, whether it is flexion, extension, or abduction of a joint, and managing and preventing conditions such as osteopenia by helping to increase bone mass density. Although resistance training is known to provide a plethora of benefits for adults, it is often not advocated for in adolescents. One study done by the University of Melbourne and Victoria University examined how focusing on a strength-building program could affect the premenarcheal population (ages 9 & 10) strength and bone mineral density (BMD) response over the course of 10 months.

The study was conducted by assessing the girls' bone mineral using a densitometer and strength using two dynameters while also taking into account their calcium intake and pubertal development. Participants followed a program developed by a strength and conditioning coach which entailed weight-bearing, strength bearing exercises that brought stress to the bicep and tricep muscles of the arm, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, trapezius, deltoid, rectus abdominis, and major muscles of the legs such as the quadriceps and hamstrings. The results of the study found the group that participated in the strength-building program had a higher body composition considering an increase in lean muscle and also an accrual of bone mineral density. The results suggest strength-building exercises have a positive correlation with increased bone mineral density which decreases the risk of injuries and fractures.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO- SCIENCES Aragonite Saturation as an Indicator for Oyster Habitat Health in Delaware Inland Bays Ms. Tahera Attarwala, Amin Boukari, Memory Nakazwe, Jackie Maina, and Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University Oyster farming in Delaware is a crucial industry, bringing in $300,000 to $500,000 in sales every year. Oysters use calcium carbonate ions in the form of aragonite and calcite to form their shells. Ocean acidification can lead to a decrease in carbonate ions making forming these shells difficult. When aragonite saturation state falls below 1, it is considered undersaturated and may cause calcifying organisms to become stressed and their shells to dissolve. Therefore, measuring the aragonite saturation state yields crucial insight into the suitability of habitats to support oyster growth. This project aimed to calculate the aragonite saturation state from seven sites within Delaware Inland Bays to determine their feasibility in supporting the establishment of oyster farms and additional reef efforts.

Monitoring was conducted biweekly from July to November 2020 and 2021. Temperature, salinity, alkalinity and pH were measured using YSI methods. Using the Seacarb program package in the R programming language, aragonite saturation state was calculated with the water quality parameters: temperature, salinity, alkalinity, and pH as inputs. In 2020, a majority of the aragonite saturation states were undersaturated, with the average values of all sites remaining below a saturation state of 3. The highest registered average aragonite saturation value in 2020 was 1.31 at the Redefer control site and the lowest value was 0.55 from the Bay City control site. These values may impact the suitability of these sites for sustainable oyster farming and reef efforts. The 2021 data will expand on aragonite saturation trends in the Bay. Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA Capacity Building, Grant Award No. 2016-06642

Identifying Plant Structural Variations among Different Germplasm of Strawberry for Potential Resistance to Anthracnose Fruit Rot Mr. Venkata Hemanth Limmada, V. H. Limmada*1, A. R. Vennapusa1, Michael Moore2, K. Melmaiee1.

1 Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Delaware State University 2 OSCAR Imaging Facility, Delaware State University Strawberry (Fragaria ? ananassa) is highly profitable specialty crop in the United States and the world's second largest producer. Strawberry fruits are well-known for their color, sweetness, and nutritional value, but their production is threatened by various viruses. Among, the anthracnose fruit rot and root necrosis produced by the fungus Colletotrichum acutatum is a devastating fungal disease in strawberry and causes significant losses to its production. Introducing the anthracnose-resistant strawberry cultivars is an alternative approach for minimizing disease incidence. The study concentrated on discovering anthracnose resistant lines to achieve this goal. In the present research, we have characterized thirty-one strawberry accessions for their morphological attributes, such as leaf trichomes using environmental scanning electron microscopy to identify the resistance factors associated with the number and type of trichomes in the genotypes.

Trichomes (leaf appendages) are important constitutive defense mechanisms which acts as a physical barrier against the locomotion and feeding of pests and pathogens. There are two types of trichomes described in strawberry plants, first were unicellular long and thin simple trichomes (non-glandular), located mainly on leaf veins and leaf margins, mostly on the underside of the leaf. The second were multicellular uniseriate glandular trichomes. These trichomes consisted of one basal epidermis cell, several stalk cells, and a single rounded head cell.

Glandular trichomes are known to release chemical compounds and are associated with the plant resistance mechanism. Resistance was correlated with the density of trichomes, both glandular and non-glandular, present on the surface of the leaflets of strawberry genotypes.

These structural differences were integrated with in vitro leaf-disc assay method and measured disease incidence, chlorophyll content and lipid peroxidation upon fungal infection. The results revealed an intrinsic relationship between the number of trichomes on the cultivar and the disease incidence rate of the anthracnose and physio-biochemical mechanisms. Resistant genotypes, morphological traits and resistant mechanisms that were identified in the present study will provide a promising tool for exploitation of breeding programs aimed at developing anthracnose resistant cultivars and genetic diversity.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA-NIFA

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO- SCIENCES Comparing Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes to Examine Feeding Trends in Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus) across Vegetation Zones in Blackbird Creek, Delaware Ms. Jackie Maina, Matthew Stone Gulnihal Ozbay, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Evaluating the feeding habits of aquatic species is vital as it provides insight into aquatic management in aquaculture and conservation.

Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes are used as tracers of nutrient flow in food webs. The carbon isotope δ13C is used primarily to trace the source of food mainly from primary producers, while the nitrogen isotope δ15N indicates the trophic level of species and dietary shifts. In this study, stable C and N isotope ratios were compared in blue crabs collected from different sited in Blackbird Creek, Delaware. The sites comprised of varying adjacent marsh vegetation. In the preliminary results, we found significant difference in δ13C in blue crabs from different sites with a reported average range of -19.47 % to -21.28 %. There was also a significant difference in δ15N values, which ranged from 9.32 % to 13.44 % in blue crab tissues. These preliminary results from the N isotope suggests difference in feeding habits of blue crabs collected from various sites.

Funder Acknowledgment: USDA NIFA CBG Award# 2017-38821-26439

Microplastic Formation and Their Interactions with Microflora Miss Cassandra Miller, Ali Parsaeimehr, Ph.D. and Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D

Microplastics (MPs) are defined as plastic particles that are less than five millimeters in size. MPs are found globally at different ecosystems and due to their small size MPs are easily intake by a wide variety of species from zooplankton, fish, penguins and even humans. Studies reveal MPs have been linked to pathological stress, false satiation, reproductive difficulties, local enzyme synthesis, decreased growth rate, and oxidative stress in organisms. MPs may interact with soil fauna by altering the soils texture, structure and biophysical environment, and it potentially affects the fertility and functionality of the soil. Changes in soil hydrologic characteristics caused by MPs may influence soil microbial biodiversity, and it potentially affects critical symbiotic connections in terrestrial ecosystems, such as mycorrhizal and nitrogen fixing bacteria. Evidences point to this fact that, MPs have a direct negative impact on 700 aquatic species worldwide, including sea turtles, penguins, and various crustaceans. MPs may quickly accumulate and release organic pollutants such as DDT, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and other additives present in water during manufacturing, increasing their concentration. Furthermore, since MPs have high hydrophobicity, some contaminants, such as heavy metals, antibiotics, and chemical compounds, become adsorbent on their surface, in this regard MPs may serve as a vector to spreading these hazardous compounds with a negative higher impact to our ecosystem. The objective of this study is to share the global concerns on the MPs impacts on Microflora. We expect to find opportunistic microflora on the microplastic particles that may serve as threat to the aquatic species.

Funder Acknowledgment: NSF EPSCOR WICCED Project

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS AGRO- SCIENCES Eastern Oysters Spawning and Impact on Recruitment, Water Quality, and Species Diversity in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware Mr. Marcus Teat, Jacqueline Maina, Memory Nakazwe, Theresa Venello, Ph.D., Gulnihal Ozbay, Ph.D. Rehoboth Bay is part of Delaware's Inland Bay system and spans thirteen square miles. It is connected to the Indian River Bay in the south, the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal to the north, and other freshwater bodies. Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations in the bays have decreased due to overharvesting and disease. Without eastern oysters, the frequency of algal blooms can increase in areas that reduce dissolved oxygen and lower the survivability of marine wildlife. However, eastern oysters' ability to be natural filter feeders may help control nutrient levels and improve water quality, species diversity, and the productivity of fisheries. The purpose of this project is to understand how artificial oyster reefs and aquaculture can affect water quality, biodiversity, and oyster recruitment in Rehoboth Bay. Two oyster reefs, two oyster farms, and three control sites were chosen. Four oyster shell bags were deployed at every site and are left in the bay for five weeks before being retrieved. Each site is also monitored by a YSI-556 Multiprobe to collect dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, conductivity, ORP, and salinity data. Water samples are also processed in the lab for TSS, nitrate, nitrite, orthophosphate, and turbidity. Total Chlorophyll-a is monitored at each site using Turner Design Fluorometer. Recent results from Dr. Ozbay's lab show that artificial reefs have the highest and oyster farms have the second highest, species richness, and recruitment. Control site Sally Cove Control had the highest species diversity, while aquaculture performed the best overall between habitat types. Literature also shows that eastern oysters begin spawning between mid-June and mid-September and our further efforts will target this timeline to obtain better data outcomes.

Funder Acknowledgment: We acknowledge NOAA LMRCSC Grant #NA16SEC4810007, National Science Foundation EPSCoR Grant No. 1757353 and the State of Delaware.

BEHAVIORAL & HEALTH SCIENCES The Impact of Racism and Violence on College-Aged Students Miss Mone't Williams, Dr. Kevin Ralston Dr. Kimeu Boynton Previous research examining the trauma associated with racism has primarily focused on health issues experienced by older adults, and less research has specifically examined a college-aged population. The current study examines how experiences with racism and threats of violence impact psychological and emotional trauma for college-aged adults and how this trauma impacts their daily lives. A sample of young adults aged eighteen to twenty-five who were currently enrolled at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) completed an online survey consisting of open-ended and close-ended questions that asked about their experiences with racism and violence, and how these experiences have impacted various aspects of their lives. Specifically, the online survey focused on information about participants' experiences with various types of racism, threats of violence, the impact of their experiences with racism and threats of violence, and their recommendations for how to reduce these impacts for those who reported experiences of racism and threats of violence. A sample of an equal number of young adults aged eighteen to twenty-five who were not currently enrolled in college completed the same online survey.

The qualitative data from the survey was examined using a grounded theory approach and the quantitative data from the survey was analyzed using multivariate statistics to assess and compare the impact of trauma between the participants who were currently enrolled and not currently enrolled in college. Results of this study provide insight into trauma experienced by young adults, especially young adults of color. The information can assist practitioners with developing strategies for working with young adults, especially counseling centers on college campuses. While the young adults who were currently enrolled in college were enrolled at a HBCU, the results can still provide insight for practitioners primarily working with young adults enrolled at other types of universities. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & HEALTH SCIENCES COVID-19's Impact on Adolescent's Perception of Mental Health Upon the Return of In-Person Learning Miss Malone Lowry, Sydney Bliss Morgan Brady Kristen Maltman Ashley Pope Adolescence marks a critical time to develop patterns of mental and physical health for continued quality of life throughout the lifespan.

Developing these patterns in a healthy manner could have been maladapted from the pandemic's effects, causing schools to reverse their style of learning and make them change from in-person learning to online learning. In turn, it created barriers to access adequate resources, feelings of low motivation, decreased attention, and social isolation. This cross-sectional study specifically looks at the following aspects of mental healthself-efficacy, social supports, anxiety, and depression in school-aged adolescents (14-18 years of age), to bring awareness to this population and the need for occupational therapy (OT) services. This study was conducted in Delaware and New Jersey through St. Elizabeth and Smyrna high school. The students took the survey via computer. All demographic information was kept confidential, excluding age, grade level, and gender.

Participants were free from any intellectual disability the school is aware of and understood/spoke English. To participate, the student must have obtained a completed caregiver consent form stating yes for participation. Some exclusionary factors included adolescents who receive accommodations or those with a learning disability, as well as students who are in a hybrid learning platform or students who received an education fully virtual. It is hypothesized that school-aged adolescents will display a higher level of their self-perception of mental health when they return to in-person education. A total of 12 questions were provided for each student to answer on a scale of 1-5 (1- being not confident and 5- being very confident). The 12 questions consisted of 9 multiple choices and 3 open-ended questions. Upon collection of those results, a thorough analysis of the responses was done through the use of SPSS. An outcome evaluation will be completed at the end of the next school year to see if changes have been implemented in the school system after our research has concluded. This evaluation is beneficial to express the distinct value of occupational therapy as mental health practitioners in the school setting.

Perceptions of Delaware Beach Accessibility Between Individuals with Mobility Aids and Those Without Miss Sarah Asbury, Dantzler Lambert, Donata Leckie, Morgan Madonna, Shea McFarland, Brittany Weiner Master of Occupational Therapy, Wesley College of Health and Behavioral Sciences This study aims to determine how individuals who use and do not use mobility aids perceive Delaware beach accessibility. It is hypothesized that people with mobility aids will have reduced participation in beach activities compared to people who do not use mobility aids, based on the perception of beach accessibility. A survey distributed to the public measured the perception of beach accessibility and data was compared through statistical analysis.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

The Effect of the Type of Occupational Therapy Service Delivery on the Perceived Stress Levels of Caregivers Erin Benson, Sara-Ashley Kinney, Anyssa Mesa, Colin Nulty, Emily Rafferty, and Rachel Simmons. Marcella Legath OTR/L, Department of Occupational Therapy, Delaware State University The aim of this research was to examine the perceived stress levels of caregivers whose child is participating in telehealth OT services vs. inperson OT services. The purpose of this research was to examine teletherapy as an emerging practice due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

With new ways of delivering and receiving therapy services, it was important to gain a better understanding of the perceived stress levels of caregivers whose children were attending OT services in person or online. Caregivers were being utilized as the primary participant as they are directly involved in the care of the child's OT services. With that, the OT practitioners improve the quality of care through telehealth by decreasing barriers and increasing reach to rural and underserved communities. To gain a better understanding of caregivers' perceived stress levels, a survey was distributed to participants. Survey questions asked the caregivers to rate their perceived stress levels during various situations and how frequently they experienced the stress related to the child's OT services. It was hypothesized that caregivers with children receiving inperson occupational therapy services would have higher perceived stress levels than those whose children receive telehealth services.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BEHAVIORAL & HEALTH SCIENCES The Impact of COVID-19 Quarantine on Play Skills Laura Cursi, Caitlin Alaimo, OTS; Mackenzie Babb, OTS; Abigail Beachy, OTS; Abby Krupa, OTS Play is an integral part of childhood development. As children grow, play is how they learn about themselves and their world. Through play, children can practice physical, cognitive, and social skills needed throughout their lives. The population for this study included occupational therapy practitioners, physical therapists, certified occupational therapy assistants, speech language pathologists, and teachers who work with children ages six-eight years old. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Delaware in March 2020, students could no longer attend school in person. This limited their social interaction with other children their age, thus restricting their play and socialization opportunities.

The teachers that fit the inclusionary criteria were recruited from these school districts: Appoquinimink, Brandywine, Christina School District, Capital, and Smyrna. The healthcare professionals were recruited from outpatient clinics, hospitals, private clinics, and the schools listed above. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected through surveys completed by the participants working with children ages six to eight years old. The surveys measured the perceived effect of COVID-19 quarantine on cooperative play in children ages six to eight.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

Attitudes and Access to Evidence Based OT Practice Between the U.S. and West Africa Ms. Elizabeth Dziuba, Anita Asare, Ashley Calandra, Kabrina Horsey, Priscilla Ntiamoah, and Khai Roberts Master of Occupational Therapy Department, Delaware State University

Attitudes and Access to Evidence Based Occupational Therapy Practice Between the United States and West Africa is a mixed method study which compares how occupational therapy practitioners in West Africa feel that their accessibility to evidence-based research is affecting their service delivery outcomes compared to occupational therapy practitioners in the United States. This study targets the adult population residing in West Africa and in the United States. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation was performed to evaluate occupational therapy practitioners' accessibility and perception of utilizing evidence-based practice. In addition, the study examines how accessibility to evidencebased research affects service delivery outcomes in occupational therapy between West Africa and the United States. If there is increased accessibility to evidence-based research, then there is an increase in service delivery outcomes.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

Effect of Occupational Therapy-Based Sleep Interventions on Perceived Sleep Quality for Individuals with Insomnia Miss Lana Kaykov, Eugene Hong, Joshua Steinman, Madison Tillem, Breanan Whalen Insomnia is classified under the DSM-5 as a sleep disorder that can cause disruptions in daily occupations. Efficient routines, environmental factors, and emotional state of mind are factors affecting both falling asleep and sustaining sleep. The purpose of this study is to determine if occupational therapy-based sleep interventions involving these factors are effective in enhancing sleep quality for patients diagnosed with insomnia. It is hypothesized that OT-based sleep interventions do have a positive impact on sleep quality for individuals with insomnia. The participants fit the inclusionary criteria and were recruited from Colorado State University's sleep clinic run by a CBT-I trained occupational therapist. Quantitative data was collected from this retrospective study through surveys completed by the participants. These surveys measured participants' perceived sleep quality while receiving occupational therapy interventions. Results of the surveys supported the hypothesis.

Funder Acknowledgment: Delaware State University

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Calcium Elevations and Synaptobrevin Role in Glutamate Exocytosis by Astrocytes Tobenna Amanfo, Dr. Van Talabattula and Dr. Murali K. Temburni Synchronous neuronal activity is a hallmark of developing as well as fully developed neuronal networks and is necessary for the functional organization of the brain. However, the mechanisms of the development of these synchronous oscillations are poorly understood. While existing models assume it as a process intrinsic to neurons, recent evidence suggests that astrocytes have an important role in the development of synchronous activity. We established pure neuron only and mixed (astrocyte and neuron) cultures on multielectrode arrays (MEAs) from the embryonic chick optic tectum. Our preliminary results indicate that astrocytes are necessary for synchronous activity of neurons in culture.

Mixed neuron and astrocyte cultures show random spiking activity which synchronizes over time whereas astrocyte-free neurons only show random activity without synchronization. Our model predicts that glutamate sensing at tripartite synapses via mGluRs elevates local calcium stores within astrocyte processes. With sufficient activation, the localized calcium elevation crosses a threshold causing a calcium induced calcium release (CICR) within the astrocyte leading to glutamate exocytosis. We targeted the SNARE protein Synaptobrevin (Vamp2) within astrocytes as crucial for communication with neurons via exocytotic release of glutamate. We proposed to test this model by expressing a truncated Vamp2 subunit (Vamp2 DN) which acts as a dominant negative to block exocytotic release. Astrocytes expressing the Vamp2 DN are expected to release significantly less glutamate upon calcium elevation thereby reducing synchrony of neuronal activity. We have generated astrocyte lines expressing the Synaptobrevin dominant negative (Vamp2 DN) along with the glutamate sensor iGluSnFR. We demonstrate that Vamp2 DN expressing astrocytes have significantly reduced glutamate exocytosis when CICR is induced with Ionomycin. With these tools a more comprehensive molecular model for astrocyte involvement in the generation of neuronal synchrony can be developed.

Funder Acknowledgment: NSF

Assessing the Role of Cortical Astrocytes in Spinal Muscular Atrophy Miss Tiffany Bamfo, Melissa Harrington, Ph.D. Jianli Sun, Ph.D. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a debilitating disease that has long been characterized by the loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord.

As it pertains, there is evidence indicating that increasing levels of SMN protein in SMN-deficient motor neurons alone is not effective in providing long-term rescue of the phenotype. Such findings suggest that non-neuronal cells, such as astrocytes, may play an important role in the pathology of SMA by promoting synaptic connections among motor neurons. In this study, it is hypothesized that both the physical and functional properties of cortical astrocytes are affected by SMN-deficiency and may serve as a viable target area for treatment in those diagnosed with SMA. These cortical astrocytes were isolated from the brains of mice pups of the SMA ?7 mouse model to form primary astrocyte cultures. Once cultured, these cells were used to perform western blot and immunocytochemistry experiments. Results show that reduced SMN protein levels are detected in these non-neuronal cell types and may contribute to morphological changes observed in SMNdeficient cortical astrocytes. Ultimately, these findings suggest that outside of lower motor neurons, other necessary components of the motor circuitry system may be impaired by reduced SMN protein levels. Future studies will include multi-electrode array (MEA) and calcium imaging techniques to observe how such differences may affect the functional properties of both cortical and cerebral astrocytes, as well as their ability to support neuronal growth.

Funder Acknowledgment: This proposal was supported in part by the Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGI) Program at DSU, Title III Grant.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Cerebella of SMA-Affected SMND7 Mice Exhibit Cellular, Structural, Functional, and Connectivity Abnormalities Nicholas Cottam, Christine Charvet, Melissa Harrington, Jianli Sun Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a disease that affects 1 in every 6,000-10,000 individuals at birth, making it the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. SMA is best defined by motor neuron dysfunction due to a deletion or mutation in transcripts of survival motor neuron protein (SMN), leading to degeneration and dysfunction in the anterior horn of the spinal cord. However, due to the key roles of SMN in cellular function, a growing number of studies support that SMA is a multi-system disease. The cerebellum has received little attention, even though it plays an important role in motor function and widespread pathology has been reported in the cerebellum of SMA patients.

Previously, using the SMNδ7 mouse model, we used T2w and DTI scans from MRI of ex-vivo P12 mouse brains to acquire volumetric measurements and connectivity information. We found that cerebellar volume was differentially affected relative to the whole brain. We found an overall decrease in connectivity, and inferior peduncular tracts were the main tract diminished by SMA. We also documented diffusivity metrics that can represent axonal health. Fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity were most affected, indicating altered axonal structure in the cerebellum. Analysis of Purkinje cell (PC) robustness revealed PC loss and structural degeneration specific to posterior cerebellar lobules. DCN and peduncular astrocyte robustness was analyzed; DCN neurons showed higher staining density, while peduncles showed significant loss in area, density, and stain intensity. Analysis of cerebellar layer thicknesses showed a decrease in the molecular (ML) and external granule cell layer (EGL), yet only in the posterior lobes. Astrocytic stain density and optic intensity were also analyzed for all lobes, and posterior lobes of SMA-affected cerebella showed decreased stain density in the ML and internal GL. Additionally, migrating granule cell density was calculated in the ML and increased in both affected and unaffected lobes of SMA cerebella. We conclude that the cerebellum is showing distinct phenotypes in response to SMA, and more work is required to fully document whether the cerebellum exhibits defects in response to SMN depletion or as a downstream effect of lower motor neuron degeneration.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by NIH P20 Grant No. GM103653.

CHEMISTRY The Implementation of Group IV Elements in Polymeric Electron Donor and Acceptor Materials for Energy and Optoelectronic Application Mrs. Wafaa Abousamra, Destinee Thomas, Tasia Walker, Young-Gi Kim* Energy and Organic Electronics Lab, Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University The use of traditional energy sources based on fossil fuels has caused many negative affects to the environment. Recent years society has encouraged the discovery and improvement of alternative energy sources more beneficial to the restoration of the environment. Renewable sources such as solar energy are one of the best candidates for the energy solutions. Previously, solar cells utilized inorganic materials for harvesting the solar energy. Studies have shown the development of solar cells using light harvesting polymers to be promising. The main idea in polymer solar cells (PSCs) is utilizing the concept of electron donating and accepting characteristics of conjugated polymers.

Polymers such as conjugated electron donor and acceptor (D-A) polymers are known to show the advancement of variable optical properties, flexibility, light weight and good processability. These advancements have introduced them to many optoelectronic applications including polymer solar cells, light emitting diodes, biosensors, and organic field effect transistors. In this research, we adopt a molecular engineering strategy for enhancing the optical, electronic, and processing properties of the conjugated D-A polymers. The modification of the electronic properties is one of major interests in this research to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) via the molecular engineering. Group IV elements including silicon, germanium and tin offer unique chemical and electronical properties which makes them suitable candidates for the utilization in organic and inorganic semiconductors as active layers. Implementation of group IV in the D-A polymer backbone offers niche energy levels for improving the light harvesting capability. In this presentation, we demonstrate the use of group IV materials of tin and germanium to address the advancement of application in the solar cells. Promising characterization techniques have been considered to evaluate the materials including proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported in part by the MBRS RISE Program and DOD HBCU/MI program.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY The Synthesis Methods of Hemp-Biofuel and its Properties Genell Addison In the recent years, there has been a push in the Cannabis industry to utilize a multitude of its products for several usages in research.

Cannabis sativa, or hemp is a major focal point in current studies due to its diverse properties and various applications. A specific application is its ability to be converted into a sustainable biofuel. In the diesel industry there has been an advancement towards the use of lignocellulosic biomass such as hemp. There are numerous synthesis methods to produce hemp biofuels. One technique that has been identified to produce biodiesel via base-catalyzed transesterification. Whereas another process, cellulolysis, uses Cannabis sativa plant material to release cellulose to be fermented into an alcohol that is then converted into a biofuel. Both methods yield similar products that differ in their properties. Again, hemp has many applications and in the current climate, anything that promotes an alternative means to harvesting energy, automotive gasoline, and fuels encourages a promising future for the global environment.

Funder Acknowledgment: Historically Black Graduate Institute (HBGI) section of the Title III Grant

Synthesis, Characterization of Cellulose/Chtosan/Polysulfone Mixed Matrix Membrane Shehu-Alimi Elelu, Kimberly Milligan, Cherese Winstead Novel Cellulose/chitosan/polysulfone (CA/CS/PS) Mix Matrix Membrane membranes were prepared via interfacial polymerization method and studied by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy (UV–vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDX). The characterization revealed that PS nanoparticles dispersed homogeneously within the Cellulose/chitosan matrix. The mechanical properties of the product were investigated. The results showed that the PS content influenced the mechanical properties of CA/CS/PS Mixed Matrix Membrane membranes.

Scientific Literature Review – Impact of HEMP on COVID-19 Mrs. Jamie Holmes My presentation will encompass an overview of COVID-19 and its variants, as well as current scientific evidence on the impact of HEMP on COVID-19, specifically cytokine storm. Since cannabinoids regulate the immune system, have anti-inflammatory properties, and have an effect on respiratory and cardiovascular function, I present the use of cannabis and its influence on COVID-19 symptoms and based on cannabinoids' mechanism of action and hypotensive properties.

Funder Acknowledgment: HGBI

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY Electrochemical Reductive Grafting of Bromine Film on Glassy Carbon Electrode from Aryldiazonium Gold (III) Salt and Photothermal Mirror Property Daniel Orefuwa, Bizuneh Workie, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, and Aristides Marcano, Ph.D., Department of Physics, Delaware State University Modifying the surfaces of materials such as metals, semiconductors, carbon, and polymers is an important step in making them useful in many different applications because it changes the properties of the materials. Electrografting aryldiazonium gold (III) of [Br-4-C6H4N2] AuCl4 complex at a glassy carbon electrode in acetonitrile (CH3CN) with tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAHFP) as a supporting electrolyte leads to the formation of gold-aryl film. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies of 1.00 mM solution of the complex showed one irreversible reduction peak at 0.0762V vs Ag/AgCl, KCl (satd.) with glassy carbon electrode. K3[Fe(CN)6]3-/4- electron transfer, and sonication experiments in organic solvents and water showed an efficient grafting and robustness of the grafted film with the glassy carbon electrode. The photothermal mirror (PTM) property of time evolution of PTM signal of the glassy carbon substrate in the absence of film, and glassy carbon with bromide (Br) aryl gold film showed no significant difference indicating that the limited coating effect is probably because of absorption of light photons occurs mostly in bulk. Further studies will examine other inorganic anions such as chloride (Cl), fluoride (F), and iodide (I) diazonium salts to determine the films effect on photothermal mirror properties.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University.

Utilizing Machine Learning to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease Mr. Joshua Patterson, Kimberly Milligan, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University Cherese Winstead, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University A major factor in the disease influence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the expression of ADAM17; if this protein can be blocked, IBD symptoms can be reduced. Cheminformatics was employed to accomplish this effect. A large non-redundant data set of compounds with reported IC50 values against ADAM17 (the receptor of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α) was obtained from ChEMBL and employed in a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) study. The inhibitors were described by a set of 12 fingerprint descriptors and predictive models were constructed from 100 different data splits using decision tree/random forest algorithms. A bioactivity app was then constructed to predict the pIC50 values of newly discovered compounds.

Funder Acknowledgment: LSAMP Bridge to Doctorate; HGBI

Low Bandgap (LBG) Electron Donor and Acceptor Molecules for Optoelectronic Application Ms. Tasia Walker, Dan Yang, Leila Mouhtarim, Young Gi-Kim* Low Bandgap (LBG) electron donor and acceptor molecules has grown in increasing interest within the past several decades. Recently LBG optoelectronic molecules are gaining momentum for many commercial applications due to their excellent thermal stability, good electrical conductivity, relative ease of synthesis, and environmental stability. The synthesis of LBG electron donor and acceptor molecules has been widely studied varying the choice of functional group and monomer; thus, tailoring their performance on the final properties. This discussion will delve into the influence of monomer and different intermediates on the band gap. The future applications of LBG electron donor and acceptor molecules are surmised to be dependent upon the aforementioned variables which could achieve different performance; therefore, it is possible to engineer the properties of LBG electron donor and acceptor molecules according to the requirement and needs for optoelectronic applications.

Funder Acknowledgment: DE NASA EPSCoR RID Seed Grant Program, HBGI and PDF

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS CHEMISTRY Dual Dopable Electroactive Macromolecules for Energy Application Dan Yang, Marshall Fahey, Tasia Walker, Leila A Mouhtarim and Dr. Young-Gi Kim Dual dopable electroactive macromolecules (DEMs) are promising energy materials, for which the p- and n- dopable conjugated materials can serve for building modern energy devices including OSCs, FETs, SCs and ECDs. The use of interfacial layer of nanostructured modulating layer is one of the promising methods, inducing desirable optoelectronic characteristics from the energy devices. In this presentation, we report the utilization of DEMs for building up the dual p- and n-dopable DEM electrodes. The electrode can be used for making various types of energy devices. The charge transfer between DEM and charge collector was reported to be modulated by using nanostructured interfacial layer, which used to be characterized using optical, electrochemical and electrical instrumental analysis techniques. We will address the process and merits of the utilization of DEMs based on the nanostructure interfacial layer in the presentation.

Funder Acknowledgment: DE NASA EPSCoR RID Seed Grant Program and PDF-DSU

EDUCATION K-12 Mathematics and the STEM Curriculum for the 21st Century: Gender Transformation in Primary and Secondary School Mathematics for College and the Workforce Preparation Ms. Charmaine Allen, Dr. R. Marsteller Tawbush et al., (2020) and Banilower (2012) research revealed that the role of mathematics has been traditional and was individually placed as part of a curriculum set of subjects, designed for teachers to impart content in order to prepare students to sit a final exam. Hom, (2014) shared that other countries diversified integration of Math with science, technology and English. Different level exams were given for K-12 students (Grades 1-6 at the primary level), and for Jamaica, in the primary school system, Primary Exit Profile (PEP), the primary school achievers began preparation at Grade 4 and continued to Grade 6 for an exit examination. Consequently, Furner et al., (2007) conciliated the integration of math and science, as the disciplines have shared variables for ease of understanding. STEM Curriculum refers to the secondary/ high schools, where the high schools tend to the arts and sciences of the curricula, while the secondary schools trains in vocational learning along with prerequisite subjects. They are supervised by the Overseas Examination Commission (OEC), a Cambridge International Partner, also managed the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and Cambridge International Examinations (GCE) for CSEC, CAPE, GCE and CCSLC. The expected option for mathematics certification should have envision a passing rate increase. Spencer-Ernandez (2016) discussed the concerns of the variety of exams, approaches, pass rate not substantially improved, and girls that excelled over boys irrespective of the exams.

Bourne (2019) related to the yearly reality of general exposure of low grade levels in mathematics faced by Jamaica as an issue. Also, the onslaught of the invariable challenges of Covid-19, made the quest for improvement more problematic. Subsequently, Williams, (2021) reported that math passes for CSEC and CAPE were not satisfactory, which attested to the current state of mathematics in Jamaica.

Additionally, Smith, (2021) Jamaica Teachers Association President, commented that he was not surprised by the decline in CXC Maths and English passes on the recent CXC 2021 results; DSU Public Forum (2021), revealed views of scholars and public arena influencers, on the impact of Jamaica's Primary and High School Math Education on the workforce on questionable concerns of its delivery.

Funder Acknowledgment: DSU Masters in Education faculty, especially Dr. K. Borwn, Dr. N. Rathee, fellow colleagues of Cohort EDUC 61 and 60

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS EDUCATION Underperformance Of Unattached/at-risk Adolescent Black Males Students From Inner City Communities Ms. Ingrid Blackwood Much is at stake in our societies when we observe at risk adolescent black male students underachieving. The under-achievement is oftentimes as a result of many contributing factors. Therefore, in order to understand these factors these questions were asked: what are some the underlining causes for adolescent black males underperformance? How can educational leaders effectively address this issue and why young adolescent black males are not performing optimally to complete high school and to matriculate to higher learning? In this study it is hypothesized that "at risk adolescent black male students living in inner cities underachieve/underperform." Past and current work were examined which indicated that with some of the challenges faced, they are out of these student's control. However, with urban sprawl emerging, more inner cities are visible. These emerging inner cities come with their own set of challenges from low level income household, unstable parenting, gang violence, etc. Therefore, this phenomenon maybe with us for some time. Information was collected quantitatively with supporting literature review, citing the challenge to adolescent black male under-achievement as a global challenge. One that should never cause educational leaders to lose hope but rather stay focused and positive in eliminating it. Future studies will focus on how this challenge can be eradicated as educators and students push through all odds to succeed.

Funder Acknowledgment: DSU, MED Course -EDUC 682, Robert Marsteller

Social Justice in Education at a Glance, Prospects and Challenges Mr. Jasper Tamba Chouwoe, Dr. Korsor Social Justice is a phrase that is increasingly widely-used and for that purpose runs risk of becoming platitude. This Concept Paper clarifies and brings texture to the meaning of the phrase or term "Social Justice" by addressing its relevance and importance to the discipline of Education, to counter injustices, inequality, racism, etc. The concept paper provides an invaluable resource. As one of the landmarks in education, the concept paper provides the conceptual framework, historical background and rationale for understanding the necessity and significance of social justice in education. The concept paper continue to enlighten, educate, and inspire all those teachers, academics, and others who refuse to accept the status quo of oppression and instead insist on working for a better world.

Social and Task-Related Antecedents to Black Male Teacher Retention and Success Mr. Micah Edwards School districts across the nation work to increase the representation of Black male teachers and despite those efforts, representations remain low. The purpose of this research study is to understand how a Black male experiences social and task-related challenges while teaching and the impact of those antecedents on retention and success. The experiences of Black male teachers are confounded by social boundaries, the negotiation of interaction between colleagues, and self-doubt that make school-based experiences less rewarding. The findings from this study can contribute to a better understanding of understudied factors that have contributed to the shortage of Black male teachers.

Perceiving a Stress-free Campus: A Mobile App Intervention Ranita Ganguly Research with adults suggests that contemplative practices such as meditation and relaxation techniques have a variety of benefits, from improving awareness to reduced stress and anxiety. Increasingly, these practices are being adapted in educational settings to foster the development of key self-regulatory skills required for improved academic achievement as a learning outcome. This research study determines the impact of an adapted meditative strategy and relaxation technique on anxiety and stress level through empirical evidence that supports the introduction of contemplative practices for a stress-free university campus.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS EDUCATION Effective Strategies for Strategic Financial Management for Higher Education Institutions in Jamaica Mrs. Marlene Lawrence-Grant, Miss Vesta Ancel Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kornel Brown Department of Education, College of Humanities, Education & Social Sciences In this age of globalization, the key to survival and success for any Higher Education Institution is to cultivate an environment that practices the use of strategic planning and management. Our society is plagued by a slew of geopolitical, social, and economic uncertainty that can cause any institution, individual, or even a country to face adverse times. Thus it's important that the approach to managing uncertainties is strategically taught about and executed. Strategic financial management is the arm of strategic planning that aids institutions in the change process. Strategic Financial Management takes into account the understanding, managing, and organizing of an institutions' assets (fixed or current) and liabilities in such a way that it stares the organization in the line of success. This study aims at providing higher education institutions leaders in Jamaica with strategies that can be adapted and tailored to meet the desired objectives and goals of the institutions.

The research was conducted using the appreciative inquiry approach. Three participants were selected using the convenient sampling technique and the data collection method deployed was a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis was used to form the meaning of themes derived from the data. It was revealed that there are ten common well-practiced strategies that Higher Education Institutions in Jamaica can use for effective strategic financial management.

Conclusion: Many higher education institutions have mastered financial management but many are yet to master strategic financial management hence it's important that higher education institutions develop the mechanism that will help them sustain their existence in an overpopulated market. Thus the recommendations from this research can be used as guidelines for higher education institutions whether private or public to ensure viability and sustainability.

Nutrition Education in Schools, Is it Beneficial? A Study on the Effects of Nutrition Education on Third Through Sixth Grade Elementary Aged Students and Healthy Food Choices Mrs. Natashia Morris-Harrison, Phyllis Brooks Collins In recent years the number of overweight or obese children has climbed to epidemic proportions. Childhood overweight and obesity contribute to chronic health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer.

These health disparities will follow children into their adult lives unless an intervention is made. These same health disparities affect children and their families and may affect a child's learning environment. To combat the risk of such disparities, an intervention is needed. Research has shown that nutrition plays a significant role in learning. School leadership must be concerned with school-aged children's health and well-being and willing to support programs that promote health and wellness improvements. Therefore, a nutrition education intervention should be implemented.

Studies have shown that nutrition education programs such as Choose Healthy Food Fun Fitness (CHFFF) or Brighter Bites have effectively educated children on making healthier food choices which could ultimately reduce childhood overweight and obesity and its effects. This mixed-method cross-sectional study will determine if children in primary schools will make healthier food choices after a nutrition education intervention.

Childhood obesity has been and will continue to be a threat to children in the United States and worldwide. The chronic diseases that follow children who are overweight or obese have lifelong implications. These children are destined to become overweight or obese adults with chronic health conditions unless an intervention is made during earlier life stages (childhood). Implementing effective nutrition education programs in schools is one possible solution. Studies have shown that the CHFFF nutrition education program effectively reduces childhood overweight and obesity, however, this is one of many programs that is aimed at school-aged children. With continued and possibly modified nutrition education intervention, the nutritional needs of the nation's children will be met. This study can support the effectiveness of nutrition education interventions for students. Additional long-term studies to track the participants in these programs would help determine the success of these programs, which would mean that the skills gained are utilized long-term.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS EDUCATION Stress and Coping Strategies Among Jamaican Nursing Students Enrolled at a Community College Evrette Samuels-Bailey, Dr Richard Phillips, Ph.D., Department of Education, Delaware State University The causes of stress among nursing students are multifaceted and include extensive and intrinsic factors. Furthermore, stress may lead to medical disorders, accidental injuries, suicide, poor academic performance, and increased dropout rates from the program. Despite various strategies to alleviate stress, it has become an ongoing global concern among undergraduate nursing students due to its upsurge. The availability of multifactorial strategies is critical for solving this problem. Given this, further studies are recommended. The purpose of this study is to investigate stress and coping strategies among Jamaican Nursing Students at a Community College to deal with stressors they may experience.

The study will employ a descriptive cross-sectional survey approach to answer the research questions: (1) What is the prevalence of stress among nursing students at a community college in Jamaica? (2) What causes of stress among nursing students at a community college in Jamaica? (3) What is the impact of stress on nursing students' social, psychological, and physical wellbeing enrolled at a community college in Jamaica? (4) What coping strategies can be adopted by nursing students in Jamaica to alleviate stress during their nursing training? These students will be chosen by simple random from a population of 162. The researcher will collect quantitative data from 115 year two, three and four nursing students via face-to-face structured questionnaires. The researcher will use standardized previously designed questionnaires and scales by Deasy et al. (2014) and Oketch-oboth and Okunya (2018) to collect the data for the study. The researcher will also obtain data by accessing the academic transcripts of participants one month before the questionnaire is distributed. Data collected quantitively will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students and Teachers Ms. Donna-Neisha Steele and Kornel Brown, Ph.D., Department of Education, Delaware State University The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light as to the heightened psychological effects associated with the shift from more traditional learning spaces to more remote learning ones on both students and teachers. Education as we know it has been altered to fit our current reality of maintaining social distance. Hence, implications for students and teachers' mental health and wellness unfortunately have arisen.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the main stakeholders of education (students and teachers) have been affected by the pandemic with reference to their mental and emotional health. To garner this information, a qualitative online survey was designed to collect data from sixty (40) respondents from Jamaica. Results showed that all two groups of respondents have experienced a great deal of mental and emotional anguish. Students suffer from a lack of pertinent services offered while physically in school. They also experience academic decline as months of growth have led to significant regression. Teachers have experienced increased levels of stress owing to several factors.

Most teachers shared that not only have their work responsibilities increased, but they also have to be concerned with their duties as parents with respect to their own children's education. In conclusion, students and teachers alike have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With this in mind, it is imperative that policy makers consider the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on students and teachers; the unique needs of our most important stakeholders in education and put measures in place to effectively mitigate the mental and emotional effects of the pandemic.

A Qualitative Comparative Study of Higher Education Institutions Mission Statements Ms. Yu Sun, Zhe Wang, Department of Translation and Interpreting, Changchun Humanities and Sciences College Ying Zhang, Department of Translation and Interpreting, Changchun Humanities and Sciences College Mission statements prescribe an organization's nature, positioning and future direction, a public image that the organization endeavors to set. There has been an increasing interest among the academia towards how higher education institutions draft their mission statements in which core values are upheld and all stakeholders' concerns are related. This study aims to explore what are most referred aspects of mission statement and how are they related to higher education promises as a whole through content analysis of multiple researches. The result shows that there are significant differences of mission statements narrations due to various cultures, geographic regions, and nations, in spite of common shared core values and distinctive objectives undertook by higher education everywhere. Besides, some countries and regions weigh certain values and missions of higher education sector over others.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS EDUCATION Meta-synthesis Article Reduction Analysis and Process Experience Mr. Brandon Toole The dissertation process can be overwhelming with decisions such as committee selection, topic selection, methodology, developing chapters one through three, etc.. It can be overwhelming and stressful. This presentation outlines the process and methodology used in identifying articles and the reduction modeling in selection for inclusion in a meta-synthesis research design.

PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Rapid, Broadband Sensing of Chemical Warfare Simulants Using Mid-infrared Spectroscopy Miss yue an, Mohammad A. Khan, Associate Professor Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Optical Science Center for Applied Research Several chemical warfare chemicals have fingerprint spectral signatures in the mid-infrared region of the spectrum. For instance, Sarin is one of the most lethal warfare agents that is a highly toxic synthetic chemical organophosphorus compound. Due to complex chemical structure and large absorption and collision cross-section, the molecular linewidths of such chemicals can cover a broad range of spectral width.

Detection of such molecules in the mid-infrared region is sensitive which requires broadly tunable sources and detection methods. We show a rapid detection methodology of such chemicals using proxy methane and nitrous oxide atmospheric bands in the 7 µm to 8 µm region which also have fingerprints region of several hazardous chemicals. Methane absorbs strongly in the wavelength range of 3 µm to 8 µm, nitrous oxide has absorption from 5 µm to 8 µm. As the large wavelength range that they have covered, we use molecular rotational-vibrational transitions of CH4-N2O and well-resolved peaks in the spectral region of 6.88 µm to 7.6 µm for detection. The detection was performed by a continuous wave multiplexed quantum cascade laser source capable of an ultra-wide tuning range from 6.88 µm to 11.05 µm.

Funder Acknowledgment: This work was funded by DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM103446).

An Automatic Development System for Live Cell Segmentation and Tracking Mr. Onyekachi Williams, Yibing Wang, Nagasoujanya Annasamudram, and Sokratis Makrogiannis, PhD Automated cell segmentation and tracking enables the quantification of static and dynamic cell characteristics and is an essential part in medical image processing. The purpose of this research is the development of techniques for fully automated cell segmentation, tracking, lineage construction, and quantification. This work mainly concentrates on two areas: cell segmentation and cell tracking. We first introduce a PDE-based, joint morphological and level-set cell segmentation technique. In this model, a non-linear diffusion PDE model is employed to detect cell motion in the spatio-temporal domain. Feature maps are obtained by feature detectors to detect blob-like features that correspond to cells. Then, a probabilistic edge map is computed by Parzen density estimation method. Watershed transformation is applied next, to delineate the moving cell regions on edge map. The final segmentation result is obtained by a region-based level set method.

Clustered cells are separated by a signed distance transform-based approach.

Furthermore, we developed a tracking by detection approach for cell tracking in time-lapse microscopic imagery, after obtaining the cell label map from segmentation. The method employs motion prediction and minimization of a global probabilistic function for each set of cell tracks. We also describe the strengths, applications, challenges of our method. Furthermore, we present an evaluation of our framework and its competitiveness in comparison with other algorithms of the literature that are evaluated using the ISBI Cell Tracking Challenge metrics on various datasets.

Our algorithm has been progressively improved for efficiency and to produce better results in comparison with many other algorithms to track, segment and quantify cells.

Funder Acknowledgment: This study was supported by the Army Research Office of the United States Department of Defense under award #W911NF2010095.

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GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE Mechanical and Thermal Stability of Optical Sensors Mr. Zakaria Juracka, Al Alexis, and Mohammad A. Khan This project investigates the mechanical and thermal stability of laser-based sensors when exposed to thermal cycling under field conditions.

To better understand the effects of temperature variations on in-situ field measurements of trace-gas species, we utilized a mid-infrared laserbased portable sensing system for simultaneous sensing of methane and carbon dioxide for different areas around the state of Delaware.

Laboratory-based thermal assessment and impact of temperature cycling on the laser-based instrument provide accurate stability metrics for field operations and error correction strategies. The sensing system will provide an in-situ, simultaneous sampling of methane, water, and oxygen isotopes with high resolution and fidelity. These low-power, portable laser-based sensors are ideal for air-quality networks and the creation of high (spatial) resolution maps of emissions in cities, helping identify health-related events in specific areas around the state. Our current precision for open-path sensors is 10 ppmv (1- sec. sampling) of atmospheric CO2 and 25 ppb (10- sec. sampling) of atmospheric CH4.

Coupled with 3-D printing technology - a single-step manufacturing process of building an object by creating a layer at a time, we can design and create complex parts faster than traditional manufacturing methods with high accuracy using various materials. Current and future research seeks to acquire ideal methodologies for long-term field deployment of sensor modules by understanding the thermal effects of various materials based on metals and polymers (e.g., aluminum and Delrin) material profiles on mirror mounts and overall sensor design.

Funder Acknowledgment: DoD- Army Research (ARO) W911NF-20-1-0316, NSF Award #2011728 and NIGMS (P20 GM103446) from the National Institutes of Health

Mammographic Imaging Classification using Patch-based Sparse Analysis Techniques Ms. Chelsea Harris and Sokratis Makrogiannis Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, Delaware State University Diagnosis of breast cancer is often achieved through expert radiologist examination of medical images such as mammograms. Computeraided diagnosis (CADx) methods can be useful tools in the medical field with applications such as aiding radiologists in making diagnosis decisions. However, such CADx systems require a sufficient amount of data to train on, in conjunction with efficient machine learning techniques. Our Spatially Localized Ensembles Sparse Analysis (SLESA) machine learning model uses local information within breast imaging (i.e. digital mammograms) to learn and classify imaging patterns. To achieve greater efficiency and robustness within our method when applied to larger datasets, we have integrated dictionary learning techniques into our SLESA model and developed a new method for patch sampling for image decomposition that we denote PatchSample decomposition. The PatchSample method differs from our previous approach, our BlockBoost method, in that larger dictionaries are constructed that hold not only patch specific information, but a grand collective of localized information. These recent model enhancements along with sequential validation on the DDSM dataset according to breast density has improved our classification performance and has given insight into how to effectively apply our methods on larger dataset.

Experimental results have reached up to 71.09% classification accuracy (ACC) and 75.17% area under the ROC curve (AUC) using PatchSample decomposition on low breast density subjects of the DDSM dataset.

Funder Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (award #: SC3GM113754) and by the Army Research Office under grant #W911NF2010095. We acknowledge the support by Delaware CTR-ACCEL (NIH U54GM104941) and the State of Delaware.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

GRADUATE ORAL PRESENTATIONS PHYSICS, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE TIDAQUNET: Tissue Identification and Quantification Network for Mid-Thigh CT Segmentation Nagasoujanya Annasamudram, Taposh Biswas, Dr. Sokratis Makrogiannis Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delaware State University Adipose tissue segmentation and quantification has high clinical importance for assessment of muscle decomposition and tissue depositions.

As humans age, adipose tissue increases and muscle mass decreases. Muscle and regional adipose tissue distributions are indicators of chronic diseases like obesity, metabolic disorders, type-2 diabetes, and osteoarthritis. In this work, we developed a fully automated system for segmentation of bone tissues, muscle, and adipose tissue from the CT scans of mid-thigh region. We implemented a deep learning architecture of U-net for segmentation of muscle, intermuscular adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue, cortical bone, and trabecular bone. One of the major challenges in deep learning is to provide a diverse set of data for training the network. Another limitation of multiclass tissue segmentation is class imbalance, because larger structure may dominate the training process and introduce classification bias.

We evaluated the segmentation accuracy of the network by cross-validation techniques using CT scans obtained from the BLSA study. We obtained an overall DSC score of 91.5% for segmentation of the mid-thigh regional tissues. Performance evaluation results leads to the observation that our method produces particularly good accuracy rates and is competitive with current methods used for quantification. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first deep learning techniques used for tissue quantification.

Funder Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (award #: SC3GM113754) and by the Army Research Office under grant #W911NF2010095.

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2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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Esther Abiona Cherish Abraham Mc Lean Alexys McLean Stanley Ashley Wiggins Aviana Giovane Barnes Deonna Beard Aaren Berkley Kennedy Blancher Ashanti Bradley Page Bralyn Elijah Brown Gabriela Cabrera Kamil Cameron Keyairrra Carroll Courtney Coates Yeda Couto-Erickson

Senior Junior Freshman Freshman Freshman Junior Junior Junior Junior Sophomore Freshman Freshman Junior Freshman Freshmen Sophomore Freshman

Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biology Computer Science Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biology Computer Science Biology Forensic Science Biology Biological Sciences Forensic Biology Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biological Sciences: Health Professions Agriculture Animal Science Forensic Science Biological Sciences: Health Professions

Taylor Davis Anderson Sophia Elliott Aliyah Ford Jessica Francois Khala Francois Rakheti Garrett-Mills Maurio Goings Jordyn Harris Zuri Hobson-Gladney Kayla Howell Jabrenee Hussie Miller Iyonna

Junior Senior Senior Junior Freshman Junior Junior Senior Sophomore Sophomore Junior Freshman

Agriculture: Pre-Veterinary Science Biomedical Research Biology Biological Sciences Biological Sciences: Health Professions Biology Neuroscience Biological Sciences Agriculture Chemistry Computer Science Biological Sciences: Health Professions

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Ameenah Jackson Blauser Jenna Ciara Jones Williams Keimora Smith Lauren Marcellus London Garbutt Malcolm Kayla Mc Kinley Z'Nayah Mc Quillar-Moody Eliana McCray Victor McMillian Caleb Mertus Malachi Moody Dana Niemeyer Roqibat Oluyadi Anilu Paneda Muhammad Salahudin Zaha Shahdad Ashley Stamper Lawrence Taylor Robert Turner Destiny Walker Eryn White Krystal Williams Lauryn M. Williams Taia Williams-Rivera Elsie Wyngaard Cosme Zachary Robinson Zymir

Senior Freshman Sophomore Freshman Freshman Senior Freshman Sophomore Sophomore Junior Junior Freshman Senior Senior Junior Senior Junior Junior Junior Sophomore Sophomore Senior Senior Senior Senior Senior Junior Freshman Freshman

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

Biological Sciences Chemistry for Health Professions Chemistry Computer Science Natural Resources Engineering Physics: Electrical Engineering Computer Science Environmental Science Biological Sciences Forensic Biology Chemistry Biological Sciences: Health Professions Engineering/Physics Pre-Veterinary Science Biology Biological Sciences Biological Sciences Engineering Physics: Optical Engineering Biology Engineering Physics: Electrical Engineering Agriculture: Plant Science: Agronomy Biological Sciences Pre-Vet Agriculture Biological Sciences Computer Science Agriscience Education and Equine Business Management Biology Biological Sciences: Health Professions

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2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Young Antonio Amir Bishara Trinidy Brockington Johnson Deena Stewart Destiny Carmen Graham Tiffany Gray Jordan Hinmon Joshua Holloway Rosiere India Fields Jalen La'Andra Miller Aminah Miller Braya Page Malachi Pankey Yanique Spencer Frank Striplet Kishaye Williams Caitlyn Wilson

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Freshman Senior Senior Freshman Freshman Sophomore Junior Junior Sophomore Freshman Freshman Junior Junior Junior Senior Senior Sophomore Senior Sophomore

Sport Management Aviation Economics Business Administration Finance: Financial Economics Management: Marketing Management: Business Economics Accounting Aviation: Professional Pilot Sport Management Business Management Business Administration Finance and Banking Marketing Aviation Management Management: Marketing Management: Human Resources Management Business Management General Management

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Smack Aniya Claire Augustin Dawson Bryanna Jelani Bryant Maya Bythwood Kelly Camara Anissa Cartagena Mikiah Chavis Taylor Coleman Inaaya Coleman Christina Cooper Reitnauer Delaney Destiny Dennis Samuels Eunicsa King Faith Maya Gray Ella Green Kayla Harmon Casie Heath Madison Holmes Lakia Hope Kayce Jackson Gray Jalyn

Freshman Junior Freshman Junior Sophomore Freshman Junior Sophomore Senior Sophomore Sophomore Freshman Junior Freshman Freshman Sophomore Sophomore Senior Junior Junior Junior Senior Freshman

Elementary Education (K-6) Law Studies Liberal Studies English/Communications Criminal Justice Political Science Political Science Criminal Justice Education: Elementary Mathematics Education Mass Communication: Public Relations & Advertising Elementary Education (K-6) Education Forensic Biology Political Science Middle Level Education Criminal Justice Education: Elementary English Mass Communication: Convergence Journalism Criminal Justice Sociology Elementary Education (K-6)

Cristiana Johnson Anisa Johnson Johnson Jordan Poquette-Burton Kyla Ardavia Lee Muhammad Marlynnae Amelia Martin Trinity Moody Heyward Moshe' Engram N' Jaia Naziah Nelson Brooke Oliver Kennadie Patterson Jewel Phillips Allena Monet Pollard Leera-Caesar Renee Merina Seldon Cole Skylar Jones Skylar

Junior Sophomore Freshman Freshman Junior Freshman Junior Sophomore Freshman Freshman Sophomore Senior Sophomore Senior Sophomore Freshman Junior Freshman Freshman

English Middle Level Education Elementary Education (K-6) Forensic Biology Political Science Early Childhood Education (Birth-) Elementary Education Political Science Physical Education Music Industry Middle Level Education Criminal Justice History Mass Communications Mass Communications Criminal Justice Mass Communication: Public Relations Middle Level Education Mass Communication: Public Relations

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Kayla Smith Deja Janae Smith-Showell Lewis Tariq Sydney A. Watson Amia Watson Destiny Wharton Mauniyah Williams Nala Wyatt Coleman Xamara

Sophomore Sophomore Freshman Junior Junior Senior Sophomore Junior Freshman

Elementary Education Criminal Justice/Sociology Music Industry Forensic Biology Mass Comm: Digital Media Arts Mass Communications Criminal Justice Criminal Justice Mass Communication: Public Relations

WESLEY COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Annie Addison-Cujoe Chavara Bartley Brianna Bullock Dylan Chi Prichard Chloey Fleurima Danielle Khamiya Davis Jackson De'Amoni Aaliyah Diggs Lega Dinga Tia Epps Kylie Ferry Amirah Fields-Lofland Geligne Franklin Courtney Greenlea N'dea Hardy Nia Henderson-Long Winfrey Hunter Jamila Jackson Daisia James Starling Jasmine Hill Jayla Surmyah Jean-Baptiste Baker Jillan Love-Stroman Jirair Brianna Johnson Williams Jordan Miller Kaitlyn

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Sophomore Junior Junior Junior Freshman Freshman Senior Freshman Junior Junior Freshman Senior Sophomore Junior Junior Junior Senior Freshman Sophomore Senior Freshman Freshman Sophomore Freshman Freshman Freshman Freshman Freshman

Social Work Psychology Psychology Kinesiology Psychology Public Health Nursing Psychology Nursing Nursing Biological Sciences Nursing Nursing Psychology Social Work Nursing Psychology Kinesiology Psychology Nursing Psychology Psychology Nursing Nursing Nursing Psychology Kinesiology Psychology

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2021-2022 HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS WESLEY COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Reve Kent Scott-Roberts Kihianna Ferry Kylie Omiliya Lawrence Ny' Asia Lea Ariel Mason Imani Mathurin Taylor Medler Markland Michelle Gabrielle Mills Esther Njuguna Raven Quander Nasya Rahman Diamond Rivera Jahnaye Robinson-Stockton Crawford Shakora Vella Shanon Hope Angela Smith Aisli Torres-Landeros Rebekka Twine Akaylia Walker Wainaina Wanjiku Khaliyah White

Sophomore Freshman Freshman Sophomore Senior Junior Sophomore Junior Freshman Senior Junior Sophomore Junior Senior Junior Freshman Freshman Senior Senior Sophomore Sophomore Freshman Sophomore

Psychology Nursing Nursing Nursing Nursing Nursing Psychology Psychology Nursing Psychology Nursing Biological Sciences: Health Professions Nursing Nursing Psychology Psychology Social Work Nursing Psychology Psychology Nursing Nursing Kinesiology

Ny'Asia Yates

Junior

Nursing

Crista Yeary

Sophomore

Psychology

Shamaya Young

Junior

Social Work

Jackson Zariah

Freshman

Psychology

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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2021-2022 NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES

ALPHA CHI HONOR SOCIETY/Delaware Alpha Chapter SPONSOR: DR. SAMUEL HOFF SPONSOR: DR. DAWN LOTT Alpha Chi is a co-educational honors society whose purpose is to promote academic excellence and exemplary character among college and university students and to honor those who achieve such distinction. Criteria: Top 1% of junior or senior class (minimum 3.9 GPA)

ALPHA DELTA MU NATIONAL SOCIAL WORK HONOR SOCIETY SPONSOR: DR. ANTHONY HILL FOUNDER: DR. ERNESTINE BRITTINGHAM The primary objective of Alpha Delta Mu is to encourage, stimulate, recognize and maintain superior scholarship in social work education and to advance excellence in social work practice. Criteria: A student must be a Social Work or Social Welfare major, have demonstrated leadership ability, a high standard of personal behavior and a dedication to social work practice.

Baccalaureate Students: 3.0 GPA Overall, 3.50 GPA in all Social Work classes, junior status and 20 hours of volunteer work that is NOT a part of field practicum.

Graduate Students: 15 semester hours or equivalent in Social Work, GPA of 3.5 or above, 20 hours of volunteer work that is NOT a part of field practicum.

The members of this organization hold an induction ceremony every spring semester, and current members are encouraged to make presentations at Honors Day.

ALPHA KAPPA MU HONOR SOCIETY/ Upsilon Pi Chapter (designated for Law Studies Program enrollees) SPONSOR: DR. SAMUEL HOFF Founded in the 1990s, this honor society promotes high scholarship and encourages sincere and zealous endeavors in all fields of knowledge and service. It cultivates a high order of personal living and develops an appreciation for scholarship and scholarly endeavors in others.

Membership is open to students of junior or senior classification who rank in the upper 20 percent of their class with a cumulative gradepoint average of 3.25 or above.

ALPHA RHO XI ENGLISH HONOR SOCIETY SPONSORS: DR. MYRNA NURSE and DR. JESSE ZUBA The Delaware State University chapter of Alpha Rho Xi was established in 2010. Criteria: A minimum GPA of 3.45 in courses focused on English language and literature; minimum cumulative GPA of 3.25; completion of at least three semesters or five quarters of college work; completion of at least two courses in English language and literature beyond English Composition I and II; and references from two English faculty members.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2021-2022 NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES

BETA GAMMA SIGMA SPONSOR: DR. CARLOS RODRIQUEZ In December 2006, the College of Business at Delaware State University was accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, AACSB International. Following this important achievement and in its quest for excellence, the College installed a Chapter of the International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business and to foster personal and professional excellence. BGS has inducted more than 875,000 outstanding students into memberships since its founding in 1913.

Today, these members serve in corporate, government, nonprofit, educational, and other management positions. Members reside in more than 190 countries around the world. BGS has established more than 600 collegiate chapters in all 50 U.S. states and 45 countries. Notable members include Nobel Prize winners, Olympians, inventors, CEOs of major global companies and nonprofit organizations, deans of the top business schools, and others who are making the world a better place at all levels of contribution through social enterprise, service, and leadership. Beta Gamma Sigma is a proud member of the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS).

CHI ALPHA SIGMA NATIONAL ATHLETE HONOR SOCIETY/ Delaware Alpha Chapter SPONSOR: DR. SAMUEL HOFF Chi Alpha Sigma National Athlete Honor Society granted a charter to DSU in 1999. The criteria for induction include a 3.4 or higher overall grade point average, junior-senior status, and one or more letters earned in an intercollegiate varsity sport.

Krew Bouldin

Baseball

Maurio Goings

Football

Alexis Roberson

Softball

Jordan Haddaway

Baseball

Jawain Granger

Football

Marisa Browning

Triathlon

Jordan King

Baseball

Marcus Winfield

Football

Volleyball

Miguel Rivera

Baseball

Dominik Fragala

Men's Basketball

Malgorzata Andersohn

Tre'Zhan Selby

Baseball

Fahim Jenneto

Men's Basketball

Marija Egic

Volleyball

Stefanny Toala

Bowling

Michael Worthington

Men's Basketball

Alayna Lacy

Volleyball

Aaren Berkley

Cheerleading

Forrest Booker

Men's Track

Erika Lindqvist

Volleyball Volleyball

Kylie Bond

EQ

Gabrielle Cabrera

Soccer

Kaylee Williams

Anastasia Brugger

EQ

Nicole Drapluk

Soccer

Isyss Jones

Women Tennis

Anabelle Cimoli

EQ

Geligne Franklin

Soccer

Rebekka Twine

Women's Basketball

Abbey Craver

EQ

Lexis Henry

Soccer

Taylor Simoneau

Women's Golf

Justina Johnson

EQ

Jada Lee

Soccer

Molysha Brwon

Women's Lacrosse

Mirey Kurkcuoglu

EQ

Eriona Shabani

Soccer

Emily Campanelli

Women's Lacrosse

Jordan Melegari

EQ

Telisa Washington

Soccer

Dorlan Coehins

Women's Lacrosse

Amhya Pooler

EQ

Kianna Webb

Soccer

Nina Dillard

Women's Lacrosse Women's Lacrosse

Jenna Waddington

EQ

Elizabeth Whitney

Soccer

Gwenna Gentle

Elsie Wyngaard

EQ

Sydney Hoffman

Softball

Taylor Steed

Women's Lacrosse

Kersten Zehner

EQ

Sandrea Hord

Softball

Lakia Hope

Women's Track

Jake Bridel

Football

Courtney Koohel

Softball

Ardavia Lee

Women's Track

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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2021-2022 NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES

KAPPA DELTA PI INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY Kappa Delta Pi is an International Honor Society for Education majors. Requirements for induction: All students must be education majors; undergraduates must be second semester sophomores and have a 3.0 or better, and graduates must have a 3.25 or better.

KAPPA OMICRON NU HUMAN ECOLOGY HONOR SOCIETY/NU ALPHA BETA SPONSORS: DR. CAROL GIESECKE AND DR. JUNGMI OH Nu Alpha Beta Chapter of Kappa Omicron Nu was chartered at DSU in April 2011. Criteria: Inductees must have completed 45 semester hours of coursework and be in the top 25% of the class.

LAMBDA PI ETA MASS COMMUNICATIONS HONOR SOCIETY Alpha Alpha Gamma Chapter SPONSOR: MS. AVA PERRINE Co-Sponsor: DR. FRANCINE EDWARDS The Alpha Alpha Gamma chapter of Lamba Pi Eta was founded at DSU in 2008. Membership in Lambda Pi Eta comprises undergraduate students majoring in the field of communications, who have achieved a high level of academic excellence. To be eligible for membership, students must have completed 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) in undergraduate credit courses; have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 and a 3.25 in the Mass Communications major; and be currently enrolled as a full-time student in good standing.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF LEADERSHIP AND SUCCESS (NSLS)/ Delaware State University Chapter CO-ADVISORS: DANIELLE K. CRAIG AND STEPHEN A. SMITH BUILDING LEADERS WHO MAKE A BETTER WORLD — We are the dream supporters. We build leaders, support people in achieving their goals, and improve the world in the process. We get people to ask the all-important question, "What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?"

Then, give students the tools they need to drive their future forward, establish themselves as leaders among their peers, and build real-world skills that will help them excel in the workplace.

Board Members: Damani Eason, Student President | Kayonna Whorms, Student Vice President | Kayla Pickney, Treasurer Brianna Demanczyk, Success Networking Team Coordinator | Paityn Morgan, Publicity Chair | Kayla Pinkney, Fundraising Chair Totianna Reeves, IT Coordinator Aaliyah Francis Alexandra Luna Anaiya Pierce Angelica Paneda Anne Marconi Asia Ridley Christopher Gresham Cianna Shelton Dylan Molineaux Dymond Brown Erica Acox Haley Scott Ian Smith Imani Douglas PAGE 92

Jahmir Brown Jelissa Warren Jocelyn Hernandez Kayla Pinkey Kayla Howell Kayonna Whorms Kenisha Sutherland Leah Jackson Lillie Hunter Madison Edwards Malachi Proctor Mia Offutt Nadine Beckford Najae Shannon

Olivia Archer Omilya Lawrence Paityn Morgan Rashaad Lathern Renee Leera-Caesar Shaiyan Bell Shakiya Charles Shamaya Young Sophia Elliott Stanley Waite Sydney Glisson Taylor Davis-Anderson Theodore Anderson, Jr. Trevor Selby

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2021-2022 NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES

NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR COLLEGIATE SCHOLARS/ Delaware State University Chapter The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high achievers. The DSU Chapter was established in 2008. Criteria: Students must be of freshman or sophomore status and have a GPA of 3.4 or higher.

NURSING HONOR SOCIETY SPONSOR: DR. YVONNE STRINGFIELD The Delaware State University Department of Nursing Honor Society (founded in 1993) abides by the rules of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Its purpose is to strengthen commitment to the ideals and purposes of the profession. Criteria: Students are required to have completed one-half of the Nursing curriculum, and rank in the upper 35% of the graduating class and meet the expectation of academic integrity. An outstanding undergraduate student must have a GPA of at least a 3.0 with only 2 semesters of clinical course work and an outstanding graduate student must have a GPA of at least 3.5 and completed 2 semesters of the Master’s Program.

OMICRON DELTA EPSILON INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN ECONOMICS/ Beta of Delaware SPONSOR: DR. JAN E. CHRISTOPHER Omicron Delta Epsilon International Honor Society in Economics was founded at DSU in 1996. Criteria: Undergraduates: completion of 12 semester hours of economics courses, attainment of at least a “B” average in economics courses and an overall “B” average in all classes, and a class standing in the upper one-third. Students do not have to be economics majors but must have a genuine interest in economics in addition to meeting the other requirements. Graduate: completion of one semester of full-time work, with attainment of a “B” or better average.

Students: Chelsea F. Longmore and Kishaye S. Williams

PHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL WORK HONOR SOCIETY Phi Alpha Theta was originally chartered as a Sigma Tau chapter at DSU in 1970. It is open to History majors with an overall 3.0 GPA and 3.1 GPA in their major.

James Clark Kyla Caple Shaunna Alexander Brooklyn Delong

Mayda Berrios Syntera Caldwell Rachael Emile Justina Mattos

Jordan E. Montgomery Yarely Moreno Karizma Williams Shamaya L. Young

PI ALPHA THETA HISTORY HONOR SOCIETY SPONSOR: DR. NIKLAS ROBINSON Phi Alpha Theta was originally chartered as a Sigma Tau chapter at DSU in 1970. It is open to History majors with an overall 3.0 GPA and 3.1 GPA in their major.

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2021-2022 NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES

PI GAMMA MU INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE HONOR SOCIETY/ Delaware Alpha Chapter SPONSOR: DR. SAMUEL HOFF Pi Gamma Mu International Social Science Honor Society granted a charter to DSU in Fall 2006. The Delaware Alpha Chapter held its first induction of members in Spring 2007. Requirements for induction include a 3.0 overall grade point average and junior-senior status in political science, history, sociology, psychology or philosophy.

PI SIGMA ALPHA POLITICAL SCIENCE HONOR SOCIETY/ Upsilon Pi Chapter SPONSOR: DR. SAMUEL HOFF CO-SPONSORS: DR. AKWAI OSEI AND DR. IFEYINWA UDEZULU Pi Sigma Alpha is open to political science majors who have junior or senior class status and who have maintained a minimum 3.0 grade point average in the major and overall. The Upsilon Pi Chapter was chartered at DSU in 1995.

PINNACLE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY SPONSOR: DR. AMYSTIQUE Y. HARRIS-CHURCH DSU FOUNDER: MS. JANET JOHNSON “91” Pinnacle is a national honor society that recognizes the achievements of adult and nontraditional students. PINNACLE was founded in January 1983 by Dr. Frank Julian of Murray State University in Kentucky. On November 1, 1989, Delaware State University received its charter as an institution member of PINNACLE. Selection for membership in PINNACLE represents the highest achievement of academic performance and out-of-class accomplishments. Criteria: Students must achieve a 3.0 or better cumulative grade point average, junior or senior status, must have completed a minimum of 30 hours at DSU and be at least 25 years or older, and must have been involved in at least three oncampus or off-community service organizations.

PSI CHI INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY SPONSOR: DR. JARID GOODMAN Psi Chi International Honor Society in Psychology was established at DSU in 1981. Criteria: Students must have a cumulative GPA and a Psychology major GPA of 3.0 and a minimum of 9 credit hours of psychology courses completed at DSU.

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

2022 RESEARCH PRESENTATION MODERATORS

Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.

Alberta Aryee John Balzarini Janet Blade Jan Christopher Phyllis Collins Frann Franklin Cara Gomez Hwan Kim Jinjie Liu Sokratis Makrogiannis Aristides Marcano Yuriy Markushin Kwame Matthews Kalpalatha Melmaiee Karl Miletti-Gonzalez Kimberly Milligan Gulnihal Ozbay Yvette Pierre Kevin Ralston Mukti Rana Knolan Rawlings Megan Rothermel Bettina Taylor Renu Tripathi Raymond Tutu Onur Yavuz Yanfeng Yue Jesse Zuba

Department of Human Ecology Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Department of Sport Management Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance Integrated Studies Program Department of Social Work Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences Department of Biological Sciences Department of Mathematical Sciences Department of Mathematical Sciences Department of Physics and Engineering Department of Physics and Engineering Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of Biological Sciences Department of Chemistry Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of Education Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Department of Physics and Engineering Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences Department of Public and Allied Health Sciences Department of Human Ecology Department of Physics and Engineering Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Department of Mathematical Sciences Department of Chemistry Department of Languages and Literatures

FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

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Dr. Tony Allen, President Dr. Saundra DeLauder, Provost and Chief Academic Officer

MUSIC PROGRAM Dr. Akwasi Osei, Interim Dean College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences Dr. Charlisa Edelin, Chair Mass Communications, Visual and Performing Arts Dr. Derrick Thompson, Music Program Director

Presents Under the Auspices of

THE HONORS PROGRAM

Mrs. Shonda Poe, Director Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors

HONORS RECITAL Wednesday, April 13, 2022 12:30 PM Delaware State University Arts Center/Gallery

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

PROGRAM Mrs. Shonda Poe, Presiding Prelude in C Major, BWV, 553………...Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Rashawn King, Harpsichord

Teutonic Tales……………………………………….Robert W. Smith (b. 1958) I. Freya Goddess of Beauty and Love II. Damon Tanz Jaden Adkins, Tuba

The Old Castle………………………………Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) from Pictures At An Exhibition Tyree Dennis, Tenor Saxophone

Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra…………………Ney Rosauro (b. 1952) III. Dança (Dance) Jarrett Hall, Marimba

Quintet in Bb Minor, Op. 5…………………………..Victor Ewald (1860-1935) Jaden Adkins, Tuba Elijah August, Trumpet Dylan Bottomley, Trumpet James Carey, Horn Malik Maillard, Trombone

Accompanied by Dr. Joyce Chen, Piano

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The Music Program, under the leadership of Dr. Derrick Thompson, Music Program Director, and Dr. Charlisa Edelin, Chair of Mass Communications, Visual and Performing Arts, extends acknowledgment and appreciation to the following:

Dr. Tony Allen, President Dr. Saundra DeLauder, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Mrs. Shonda Poe, Director of URELAH Dr. Mable Morrison, Coordinator of Honors Recital Mrs. Jennifer Gunther, Director of Arts Center/Gallery Mrs. Maranda L. Thompkins, Secretary

Instructors of Students Performing in the Honors Recital: Dr. Joyce Chen Dr. Frank Gazda Dr. Patrick Hoffman Dr. Brian Levels Mr. Stephen Tipping Student Performers and Ushers _____________________________________

Delaware State University 1200 North DuPont Highway Dover, Delaware 19901 chess.desu.edu/music

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FIFTH ANNUAL DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH DAY | APRIL 13, 2022

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Graduate Student Association gratefully acknowledges the support of the following individuals and organizations: Dr. Tony Allen, President

Honors Council

Dr. Saundra DeLauder, Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Honor Societies’ Sponsors

Dr. Clytrice Watson, Associate Provost for Academic and Student Services

Faculty Research Mentors

Faculty Senate Faculty Research Committee Graduate Council Deans, Chairpersons, Program Directors and Advisors Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Mrs. Shonda Poe, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Mrs. Danielle Craig, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Mrs. Terry Pauls-Smith, Honors Student Program Assistant Title III Ms. Carlene Jackson Ms. Jessica Wilson Mr. Jean Charlot Dr. Mable Morrison, Associate Professor of Music, Coordinator of the Honors Recital Dr. Derrick L. Thompson, Music Program Director/ Director of Choral Activities Office of Graduate Studies and Research Staff Dr. Patrice Gilliam-Johnson, Dean, School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies Mrs. Terry Jeffries, Assistant Dean, School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies Ms. Cheryl L. Still, Director of Graduate Student Support Services Mrs. Lolita London, Administrative Secretary Dr. Myna German, Professor, Mass Communications, Performing and Visual Arts; Graduate Writing Specialist Mrs. Angenette Kelley, Graduate Processor Mrs. Rebecca Eastridge, Graduate Office Assistant

Session Moderators Graduate Student Association Officers Ms. Dionne Williams, President DSU Research Day Planning Committee Mrs. Terry Jeffries, Chair Mrs. Shonda Poe, Office of Undergraduate Research, Experiential Learning and Honors Dr. Sangeeta Gupta, Chair of Faculty Research Committee Dr. Gulnihal Ozbay, Honors’ Council Chair and Faculty Coordinator Dr. SaeYeol Yoon, Chair of Faculty Research Day Planning Subcommittee Ms. Cheryl Still, Coordinator Mrs. Terry Pauls-Smith, Undergraduate and Honors Coordinator Ms. Danielle Craig, Undergraduate and Honors Coordinator Mrs. Lolita London, Committee Secretary Mrs. Angenette Kelley, Graduate Processor Mrs. Rebecca Eastridge, Graduate Office Assistant Ms. Jennifer Gunther, Director, Arts Center and Gallery Marketing and Communications Dr. Dawn Mosley Ms. Jennifer Rickard Mr. Stuart Grooby Mr. Devin Bonner Ms. Jasmine Couch Mr. Brandon Maddox Mass Communications and Visual Arts Mr. Zachary Kimball

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FIFTH ANNUAL

DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH DAY Office of Graduate Studies and Research Graduate Student Association Honors Program Faculty Research Committee

OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH 302.857.6800 | GRADSTUDIES@DESU.EDU | SGSR.DESU.EDU