JOURNYS Issue 12.1

Journal of Youths in Science

05 21

Volume 12 Issue 1

PARABENS AND CORAL REEFS Seongkyung Bae

DANGEROUS CULT MANIPULATION

Aafnan Alam

33

THE GOOD TRIP Jonathan Lu

Torrey Pines High School

San Diego, CA Scripps Ranch High School

San Diego, CA

Contact us if you are interested in becoming a new member or starting a chapter. or if you have any questions or comments.

Website: www.journys.org // Email: eic@journys.org Journal of Youths in Science Attn: Mary Anne Rall 3710 Del Mar Heights Road San Diego, CA 92130 1 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

table of

CONTENTS Journal of Youths in Science

Issue 12.1 - Fall 2020

3

Parabens and Their Effect on Coastal Coral Reefs Soyoung Amy Cho

7

Analyzing the Skewness and Kurtosis of Stocks Philippe Tok

11

An Analysis of Geosynchronous Orbits Using Mathematics and Physics Sehee Oh

16

The Minimum Height of a Strike Point of a Follow Shot with a Billiard Ball Yong Kyung Jo

21

The Effects of Dangerous Cult Manipulation: Neurological Damage Among Old and New Members Aafnan Alam

25

Variation in Pain Threshold and Tolerance in High-Risk Schoolchildren Mahbuba Sumiya

28

Investigating the Effectiveness of Bacteriocin and SIlver Nanoparticles Yunha Jo

33

The Good Trip Jonathan Lu

2 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

PARABENS AND THEIR EFFECT ON Soyoung Amy Cho COASTAL CORAL REEFS by: art by: Seyoung Lee abstract

There is a general concern regarding the extent of harm that the use of cosmetic and pharmaceutical products containing parabens as preservatives can have on coastal coral reefs. There has been little research focused on this study and the results obtained from various lab-based experiments are quite contradictory. Some observed significant damage caused to the reefs by these chemicals while others reported that the concentrations of these parabens were so low that lethal doses could exist in nature. Evidence of parabens in marine dolphin and fish tissue in accumulated concentration proves that bioaccumulation can occur in aquatic organisms, and it could happen in coral reefs as well.

In this research, we compared coastal areas with high parabens concentration as these are the regions with a high chance of bioaccumulation. Satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coral reef watch and images from X-Caitlin, an organization set up to monitor, collect data and communicate reef science through combining surveys and data from leading ocean researchers. These satellite images are accompanied by known concentrations of parabens used to assess the relationship between high concentration and coral reef bleaching surrounding coastal areas.

From the analysis of satellite data, researchers observed that the bleaching was mostly temperature-driven due to thermal stress. However, regions experiencing similar temperatures, with more swimming activity showed evidence of more bleaching compared to that of low swimming activity along the same temperature regions. Thus, bleaching occurs mostly in regions with a high concentration of chemicals as well as thermal stress.

I. introduction

Parabens are esters of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. Due to their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, they are often used as preservatives in various products in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industry [1-3]. They can be used by themselves or in a combination. Methyl and propyl parabens are the most widely used [4-5]. Evidence shows that these chemicals are disruptive to the human and marine endocrine systems. These parabens are linked to the progression of metabolic disorders like cancer and diabetes

3 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

[6-8]. Human exposure to these chemicals can lead to oxidative stress that arises due to the presence of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS arises when there is an imbalance between the amount of oxidants produced and the body’s ability to get rid of it after performing their function or recovering from the damage they cause to the tissues [9].

Wastewaters collected from hospitals and urban residential areas have a high concentration of parabens because they are used as preservatives in most care products [10-12]. These waters are disposed of at water treatment plants to remove the toxins before being discharged to water bodies. Parabens have moderate solubility in water [13] and therefore, some will be soluble in the aqueous phase at water treatment plants and be removed to a greater extent. The insoluble parabens will stick to the solid waste and end up in the environment. These could end up in bodies of water when it rains [14]. Additionally, humans use numerous personal care products like oils, lotions, and creams which they directly deposit into the oceans when they go swimming [15]. As the parabens are deposited into the water bodies, some will be broken down into various compounds whose toxicity to marine life, mostly to coral reefs is unknown. Others stick to marine sediments or coral reefs and slowly increase in concentration over time. According to the Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, 70% of all tropical reefs will be destroyed by 2050 [16].

Coral reefs provide a nursery ground for various fish species.

They also protect coastal communities from storm surges, help in water purification; most coral reefs are made up of filter feeder sponges that consume particulate matter that is suspended in water [17-18]. Their absence or decrease in numbers could lead to an increase in the concentration of particulates and other chemicals that are toxic to the water or marine life [19]. Additionally, because reefs have been used in the formation of various anti-cancer drugs and antiviral drugs for HIV, they are and will continue to be front runners in future medicine [20-21]. Maintaining them through using paraben-free products and keeping the ocean clean should be everyone’s priority.

An article published in America’s Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Environmental Science and Technology reported the appearance of these antimicrobials in marine life. Series of experiments were

carried out on various marine organisms from dolphins to smaller fish to research the amounts of parabens that were found in their body tissues [22]. These experiments found about 865 ng/g (nanogram/gram) of parabens in livers of bottlenose dolphins from Sarasota Bay, Florida. No significant research has been conclusively conducted to study corals and these antimicrobials. Because coral reefs act as water filters, they can possibly retain a lot of these toxins within and as a result of accumulated concentration; they might be destroyed in big numbers.

Coral reefs are made up of symbiotic organisms that thrive in close proximity with zooxanthellae, which are singlecelled symbiotic dinoflagellates [23]. These supply products of photosynthesis needed by the corals as an energy source. This relationship depends on the conditions of the waters they are in.

Any changes in water temperature, pH, chemical composition, and concentration cause stress to these organisms [24-25]. The zooxanthellae get expelled from their coral host in response to stressful conditions around the coral ecosystem, leaving behind a translucent coral skeleton mainly made of calcium carbonate hence appearing white (bleached) [26].

Preservatives used in the cosmetic industry are washed off into urban wastewaters in concentrations of over 30 Îźg/L (microgram/liter) and sometimes mg/L (milligram/liter) [27].

Liao et al [28] collected samples from Korea, Japan, and the United States. He determined the concentration of parabens in surface and core sediment samples of sewage samples in Korea.

His results showed that parabens in sludge and water sediments had a common source. Vertical profiles showed a gradual increase in the concentration of these chemicals (parabens) in sediments over time. Furthermore, there are reports of accumulation of lipophilic organic UV filters in marine sediments with concentrations measured in hundreds to thousands of ng/g dry weight [29]. Evidence from a few laboratory studies shows that organic filters can cause coral bleaching. There is a relationship established between the concentration of chemicals and the extent of bleaching. This leads to an assumption that parabens in certain concentrations are stressors to coral reefs.

The purpose of this research is to study the accumulation of parabens in coastal areas by analyzing intergovernmental data and compare it with the extinction of the corals.

II. methodology

Concentrations of parabens in coastal sea waters obtained from previous research were analyzed alongside satellite images showing bleached areas. This data, along with results obtained from other researchers were compared and conclusions were drawn on the overall impact of parabens on coastal reefs. Data was collected from onsite monitoring databases like X Caitlin global reef record, an organization set up to monitor, collect data, and communicate reef science through combining surveys and data from leading ocean researchers. Real-time data as well as archived data from the NOAA coral reef watch were also used to study how areas with presumed high paraben concentrations

were affected, through the analysis of the amount of bleaching caused.

Figure 1: General structure of parabens

The NOAA NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suit (VIIRS) was used to detect ocean color (radiance), by estimating the concentration of chlorophyll A and the data was used to correlate the relationship between bleaching and presence/absence of chlorophyll.

Figure 2: Shows the comparison between healthy and bleached coral reefs. Source: climatechangenews.com

III. results and discussion

For a long time, Florida coastal waters have experienced a high concentration of parabens, according to Xue et al. [22]. This indicates a possibility of greater deposition of these chemicals along the coast. Lee et. al. [27] collected sediment samples along the Korean coastal environments and investigated the contamination status and spatial distribution. He found out that both methyl parabens and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid were present in the samples. This was indicative that the extent of contamination did not only stop at the water, the sediments became contaminated as well, showing evidence accumulation.

Figures 1 and 2 show the basic structure of parabens, the bleaching process of coral reefs, and the reefs before & after bleaching.

Figures 3, 4, and 5 show satellite images of coral reef bleaching on January 1st, May 1st, and August 1st, 2019.

From these images, weather changes seem to be the most contributing factor to the change in color of the coral 4 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

indicating bleaching. However, the images also show that most bleaching occurs in places of high recreational activity, the presence of cosmetic products (like sunscreens, facial as well as body lotions and creams) in such places might play a role in facilitating the bleaching effect of coral reefs. It has been already established that corals get bleached once exposed to unbearable stress in its surrounding conditions [24]. There is also evidence from lab experiments that parabens in certain concentrations provide unfavorable, stressful conditions, leading to bleaching of corals [25]. The concentrations of parabens obtained from water samples were not strong enough to cause bleaching. As already discussed, not all parabens are soluble in water, allowing some parabens to adhere to corals or other sediments. If the researchers were to only take water samples, the results would be faulted as some parabens present would not be accounted for.

Therefore, if any form of accumulation were to be detected, these concentrations would be much lower than reality, which

could lead to undetected bleaching. Zhao et.al. [26] reported a higher accumulation of parabens and their metabolites in a concentration higher than those ever reported before in the marine environment. The majority of organisms’ samples taken had potential bioaccumulation evident and the target hazard quotient (the ratio of the potential exposure to a substance to the level that no unfavorable effects are expected) was higher than 1, which indicates that they could be absorbed into the organism’s body, causing harm.

Figures 6, 7, and 8 show satellite images of ocean color and how it has changed for January 1st, May 1st, and August 1st, 2019. Taking the Gulf of Mexico as an example, there is more ocean color in January and as the year progresses to August

Figure 6: Ocean color for January 1, 2019

Figure 3: Coral reef bleaching for January 1, 2019

Figure 7: Ocean color for May 1, 2019 Figure 4: Coral reef bleaching for May 1, 2019

Figure 5: Coral reef bleaching for August 1, 2019 5 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Figure 8: Ocean color for August 1, 2019

through May, we see a decrease in ocean color due to a decrease in phytoplankton blooms which is linked to problems like climate change and the disposing of parabens in the ocean. This is an indication of an increase in coral reef bleaching as the year progressed through the summer.

IV. conclusion

From satellite images, one can see that the majority of bleaching occurs during warmer conditions. This leads to inconclusive results as to whether the bleaching was caused by the presence of parabens or by temperature. Deaths of coral reefs are caused by a variety of stressors. These include soaring temperatures, salinity, winds, mechanical factors as well as changes in the chemical and the environment surrounding them. Based on the research obtained from laboratory experiments, parabens can cause bleaching of coral reefs if present beyond a certain concentration. Based on reports of bioaccumulation in fish and dolphin tissue, it can be proposed that this is a result of s the insoluble parabens adhering onto the corals, into sediments, or diffusing into the coral reef bodies where they are stored there over time. It is possible the coral and sediments slowly acquire these chemicals in small doses and they accumulate over time and cause catastrophes.

Coral reefs can be restored and as seen from the images, some areas have had lower ocean colors in one year but more color in the following years. This is because most bleaching is caused by environmental factors. Accumulation has yet to cause significant damage but as time goes on, the concentration will go to points of no return, and there will be a tremendous increase in coral death.

This study highlights the need to extensively study the effects posed by preservatives used in the cosmetic industry to the environment, most importantly coral reefs. Considering the tremendous advantages that coral reefs give to marine ecosystems, scientists should do their due diligence to analyze how the chemicals in the ocean affect them. Studies should be carried out in situ, on different coral strains for a prolonged period of time because the effects might vary from strain to strain. In most laboratory experiments to study the effects on aquatic corals, the studies are not as realistic as they should be.

Seawater and nutrients are added while other conditions are also controlled. However, in real aquatic environments, many conditions cannot be controlled and can, therefore, fluctuate throughout the year. Lots of effluents and toxins enter the aquatic environment, some of which react with parabens to produce more harmful byproducts that can stay longer in the environment and cause more damage. The experiments should, therefore, be carried out in conditions as similar to actual aquatic ecosystems as possible in order to draw unquestionable, accurate conclusions.

references [1] D.S. Orth, Use of parabens as cosmetic preservatives. Int. J. Dermatol. 19. 504-505.

1980.

[2] A. Herman, antimicrobial ingredients as a preservative booster and components of self- preserving cosmetic products. Curr. Mocrobiol, 76. 744-754. 2019 [3] N. Guven, O.F. Kaynak, Investigation of antimicrobial activity and antifilm of some preservatives used in drug cosmetics and food products, Mikrobiyol. Bul. 48. 94-105.

2014.

[4] V.O. Sattigeri, P.R. Ramasarma. Food additives/ liquid chromatography, Encyclopedia of separation science 2000.

[5]. D.R. Karsa, Biocides, handbook of cleaning/decontamination of surfaces 2007.

[6] L. Kolatorova, M. Duskova, J. Vitku and L. Starka, prenatal exposure to bisphenol and parabens and the impact on human physiology, Physiol. Res. 66 S305-S315. 2017 [7] R.I.Engeli, S.R. Rohrer, A.Vuorinen, S. Herdlinger, T. Kaserer, S. Leugger, D. Schuster and A. Odermatt, interference of paraben compounds with Estrogen metabolism by inhibition of 17 β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 18.

10.3390/ijsm18092007.

[8] P. Hu, X. Chen, R.J. Whitener, E.T. Boder, O.J. Jones, A. Porollo, J. Chen and L. Zhao, effects of parabens on adipocyte differentiation, Toxicol. Sci. 131.56-70. 2013.

[9] P.D. Darbre, A. Aljarrah, W.R. Miller, N.G. coldham, M.J. Saver and G.S. Pope, concentration of parabens in human breast tumors. J. Appl. Toxicol. 24. 5-13. 2004 [10] D. Bledzka, J. Gromadzinska and W. Wasowicz, Parabens. From environmental studies to human health, Environ. Int. 67. 27-42. 2014.

[11] W.L. Ma, X. Zhao, Z.F. Zhang, T.F. Xu, F.J. Zhu and Y.F. Li, concentrations and fate of parabens and their metabolites into typical wastewater plants in northeastern China, Sci. Total. Environ. 10. 754-761. 2018.

[12]. W. Wang and K. Kannan, Fate of parabens and their metabolites in two wastewater treatment plants in Newyork state. United States. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50. 1174-1182.

2016.

[13]. F. Giordano, R. Bettini, C. Donini, A. Gazzaniga, M.R. Caira, G.G. Zhang and D.J. Grant, physical properties of parabens and their mixtures, solubility in water, thermal behavior and crystal structure. J. Pharm. Sci. 88. 1210-1216. 1999.

[14]. S. Sabater, D. Barcelo, N.D. Castro-catala, A. Ginebreds, M. Kuzmanovic, M. Petrovic, Y. Pico, L. Ponsati, E. Tornes and I. Munoz. Shared effects of organic microcontaminants and environmental stressors on biofilms and invertebrates in impaired rivers. Environmental pollution. 210. 303-314. 216.

[15]. W. Li, Y. Shi, L. Gao, J. Liu and Y. Cai, Occurrence and human exposure of parabens and their chlorinated derivatives in swimming pools. Environ. Sci. and Pol. Res. 22.

17987-17997. 2015 [16] S.A. Elias, Loss of corals, Encyclopedia of Anthropocene, 1. 245-258. 2018 [17] H.R. Lasker, a comparison of the particulate feeding abilities of three species of Gorgonian soft coral. Mar. Ecol, Prog. Ser. 5. 61-67. 1981 [18] E. Hades, M. Shpigel AND m. Llan, particulate organic matter as a food source for a coral reef sponge. J. Exp. Biol. 212. 3643-3650. 2009.

[19] D.V. Oevelen, C.E. Mueller, T. Lundalv, F.C. Van Duyl, J.M. de Goeij and J.J. Middleburg, Niche overlap between a cold-water coral and an associated sponge for isotopically-enriched particulate food sources. Plos one. 13. E0194659. 2018 [20] E.L. Cooper, K. Hirabayashi, K.B. Strychar and P.W. Sammarco, corals and their potential applications to integrative medicine. Evid. Based Complement. Alt. Med. 184959. 2014 [21] ND.H. Marchbank, F. Berrue and R.G. Eunicidiol, an anti-inflammatory dilophol diterpene from Eunicea fusca. J. Nat. Prod. 75. 1289-1293. 2010.

[22] J. Xue, N. Sasaki, M. Elanovan, G. Diamond and K. Kannan. Elevated accumulation of parabens and their metabolites in marine mammals from the United States coastal waters. Environ. Sc. Technol. 49, 20. 12071-12079. 2015 [23] M.S. Roth, the engine of the reef: photobiology of the coral-algal symbiosis, Front.

Microbiol. 5. 422. 2014.

[24] D.W. Sammarco, K.B. Strychar, responses to high sea water temperatures in zooxanthellate octocorals, Plos one. 8. e54989. 2013.

[25] S.L. Coles and B.E. Brown, coral bleaching-capacity for acclimatization and adaptation, Adv. Mar. Biol. 46.183-223. 2013.

[26] X. Zhao, W. Qiu, Y. Zheng, J. Xiong, C. Gao and S. Hu, Occurrence, distribution, bioaccumulation and ecological risk of bisphenol analogues parabens and their metabolites in the Pearl River Estuary, South China, Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, 180. 43-52. 2019.

[27]. J.W. Lee, H.Y. Lee and H.B. Moon, contamination and spatial distribution of parabens and their metabolites and antimicrobials in sediments from Korean coastal water. Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, 180. 185-191. 2019.

[28] Liao et al: parabens in sediments and sewage sludge from the United States, Japan and Korea: spatial distribution and temporal trends.

[29] M.M.P. Tsui, J.J.W. Lam, T.Y. Ng, P.O. Ang, M.B. Murphy and P.K.S. Lam, Occurrence, distribution and fate of organic UV filters in coral communities. Environ.

Sci. Technol. 51. 4182-4190. 2017.

6 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Analyzing the Skewness and Kurtosis of Stocks by: Philippe Tok

ANALYSIS OF DATA

Looking at the stock data provided

by Yahoo Finance [1], corporations ranging from LMT (Lockheed Martin), MSFT (Microsoft), TWTR (Twitter), DIS (Disney), BAC (Bank of America), GM (General Motors), BA (Boeing), and JPM (JPMorgan) can be seen to have participated in fairly different industries.

To have a fair comparison of the stocks price changes of these varying companies the stocks daily price changes were recalculated into the z scores (the amount of standard deviations from the mean price of the individual companies stock price over the 4 year period). When looking at the charts displaying the price of the stocks based on daily price changes, there seems to be a clear and strong positive trend in recent years (around the beginning of 2017) showing growth in basically every company.

However, at the onset of 2019, there seems to be a slight dip within the price of every corporation observed as shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.

abstract Many people all over the world attempt to profit from the stock market using a plethora of strategies. The statistical concepts of skewness, kurtosis, and the normal distribution model can be used to analyze stocks. The standard model, which is pertinent to the analyses of both skewness and kurtosis, is the idea that a normal distribution of data will have means and medians that are one of the same while 68% of the data falls into 1 standard deviation from the mean, 95% of the data will fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean, and 99.7% of the data will fall within 3 standard deviations of the mean, which is all neatly displayed in a symmetrical bell curve. On one hand, skewness is essentially the measure of asymmetry within a data set and which side of the median contains the most values that are distorting the distribution the most from the normal model. While on the other hand, kurtosis is used to gauge the extremities of the tails of data distributions. Using these methods of statistical analysis and R studio, I analysed a series of different stock returns to uncover their relationships.

7 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

In general, it could be assumed that the economy from 2016 to early 2018 was experiencing a steady growth, which then started to plateau around mid-2018, leading to a decline in growth around late 2018 to early 2019. Interestingly, this plateau in growth and eventual decline coincides with the start of the trade war between the U.S and China, which could signify that the tariffs enacted by the governments most likely had a somewhat significant effect on the growth of the economy.

When examining the stock data of the companies individually, by looking at figure 5, a majority of the companies’ stock returns appear to have skewnesses that fall within the normal distribution (a skewness value between -0.5 and 0.5 as shown in Figure 6) with the exception of GM and DIS.

According to Chen (2019), the director of trading & investing content at investopedia, this would indicate that the majority of these stocks will be more predictable since “investors commonly use standard deviation to predict future returns, but standard deviation assumes a normal distribution.”

[2] Furthermore, the stocks with the lowest skewness such as JPM and BA would most likely be the safest ones to invest in as they would be more predictable. However, a more negative skewness would also signal a higher risk in investing as it shows that a certain stock has a higher likelihood of having negative returns since there are more values on the negative side. In contrast to the skewnesses that tend to follow the normal distribution, the kurtosis of these stocks is rather far off from the normal distribution (which is a value less than four or five, as shown in Figure 7).

TWTR, who is relatively new to the public market, appears to have the most varied data, which is not only displayed by its larger interquartile ranges but also its extremely spread out outliers. Additionally, boxplots that have more asymmetrical outliers also tend to showcase higher skewnesses in the direction of these heavier outliers. One graph that also reflects most of the data’s kurtosis and skewness would be the Q-Q plots which show that all of the stocks deviate from the normal The boxplots of the different stocks side by side in Figure 8 make it obvious that they all contain outliers, as reflected by their large kurtosis.

According to Kenton, former managing editor of Kapitall Wire, “high kurtosis of the return distribution implies that the investor will experience occasional extreme returns” [3], which implies that investing in stocks with smaller kurtosises such as JPM and BAC will most likely involve lower risks with lower returns while investing in stocks with larger kurtosises such as MSFT, DIS, and TWTR will include higher risks with a chance of higher returns.

8 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

distribution due to their tails. However, the data points almost symmetrical reflection across the normal distributions line imply a relatively low skewness, since the higher outliers are being balanced by the lower ones, which is exactly the case when calculating the skewness. Examination of all these stocks from 2015-2019 has made apparent that even though some factors are pointing the stocks data to normal distributions, the majority of the evidence exhibits the opposite. The fact that stock returns don’t mirror a normal model is most likely one of the reasons why price forecasts aren’t very precise since many prediction models use a normal model.

The fluctuation of skewness and kurtosis measurements of LMT and MSFT over time from 2009-2019 are also something to consider. Table 1 shows the data recorded for the skewness measurements of both stocks depending on the year, while Table 2 shows the kurtosis of both stocks over the same period of time.

For the skewness of LMT, the average value is -0.0715 and its standard deviation is 0.6198 compared to MSFT’s average skewness of 0.1074 and standard deviation of 0.5527. When considering skewness on its own, LMT’s stock returns’ distribution is closer to having a normal distribution compared to that of MSFT. Interestingly, LMT on average has a negative

9 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

skewness, while MSFT has a positive average skewness value.

This indicates that MSFT stocks through 2009-2019 have a better likelihood of having higher positive returns since the positive skewness reveals that more values fall on the right of the median. Whereas LMT’s returns possess a negative skew suggesting that more values fall on the left of the median giving a higher possibility of receiving a lower return. When examining the standard deviations it appears that MSFT has less varied stock returns compared to LMT’s, although a close inspection of the dot plot showing the skewnesses over time, shown in Figure 9 and 10, reveals that the skewness data of LMT might be less varied and that the main cause for the larger standard deviation is the huge outlier in 2016. Nevertheless, in general, it’s evident that skewness over time varies quite a bit, especially considering that both stocks contain relatively high standard deviation.

In Table 2, the means and standard deviations of the kurtosis of both LMT and MSFT were also calculated. The average kurtosis of LMT over the 10 year period is 5.4121 and its standard deviation is 3.3188, while the average kurtosis of MSFT is 7.8017 and its standard deviation is 4.3329. Looking at these calculations, the average kurtosis of LMT is evidently smaller than that of MSFT’s, disclosing the fact that MSFT’s stock returns every year contain some more extreme values.

Meanwhile, LMT’s average kurtosis of 5.4121 conveys the fact that the distribution of LMT returns is close to the normal model; it also emphasizes that there are less extreme values within the data set. Considering that on average MSFT is seen to have heavier tails, ergo more variance and extreme values, therefore it’s no surprise that MSFT has a larger standard deviation since it would be predicted that the prices would vary over time and so the kurtosises would also vary a lot over time. One fascinating aspect is that the skewness plot of LMT and kurtosis plot of LMT shares a lot of similarities; the main similarity being the huge increase in both values during the years of 2016.

This phenomenon can be explained as LMT’s stock experiences a large increase in price during that time since the skewness is positive, while the large increase in price during certain days created a large tail to the right, hence the reason why the kurtosis value is so large. This huge increase in a short period of time is corroborated by the fact that LMT closed a corporate merger with Leidos Holdings, granting Lockheed Martin 1.8 billion in cash. [4] Overall, the relatively high standard deviations of the kurtosises would lead to the conclusion that the kurtosis values, just like their skewness values, also experience a fair amount of change over time.

DISCUSSION After examining both the skewness and kurtosis of both stocks over time, it’s fair to say that these values do fluctuate by some degree over time and that while some stock return distributions might get close to emulating the normal distribution, they’re still off by a magnitude. These variations would most likely explain why predicting stock market prices and their returns could sometimes have quite a large margin of errors. Even some of the best prediction models stocks will always have some unpredictability. However, when analyzing two stocks individually, it’s a safe assumption that LMT will provide a safer investment yielding smaller returns, due to its less extreme kurtosis and smaller negative skewness. On the other hand, MSFT has a more varying return increasing the risk, however considering its positive skewness and larger kurtosises it could also provide larger returns. To determine which stock to invest in, the trade-offs of risk and returns need to be made.

Yahoo Finance. (n.d.). Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://finance.yahoo.com/.

Chen, J. (2019, October 30). Learn About Skewness. Retrieved October 30, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/ skewness.asp.

Kenton, W. (2019, September 12). Kurtosis. Retrieved October 30, 2019, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/ kurtosis.asp.

Lockheed Martin. (2016, August 16). Lockheed Martin Successfully Closes Transaction To Separate And Combine IT And Technical Services Businesses With Leidos. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from https://news.lockheedmartin.com/201608-16-Lockheed-Martin-Successfully-Closes-Transactionto-Separate-and-Combine-IT-and-Technical-ServicesBusinesses-with-Leidos

10 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

An Analysis of Geosynchronous Orbits Using Mathematics and Physics By: Sehee Oh

|

Introduction

From the accomplishment of the Wright Brothers by building and flying the world’s first successful airplane in the 1900s, mankind continuously developed their aviation skills; not only staying in the sky that people can observe, but they have also gone out into space. Along with the mass investment and development of space shuttles, establishment of satellites also has progressed, giving tremendous benefits to mankind of knowing more about outer space.

With satellites, today people can observe how outer space looks like without the need of going out to space themselves.

Satellites orbit around the Earth, like the moon. The orbit of satellites that move at the same rate as the Earth does are called geosynchronous[1].

This is the reason why people can watch the information given by satellites continuously even though they are constantly moving. This article will demonstrate the mathematics and physics calculations of a geosynchronous orbit.

Art By: Jessie Gan direction [3]. For example, a runner who was running at her highest speed cannot stop running due to the resultant force, which wants her to remain in the same state. Her muscles must apply a force opposite to her momentum to stop. Next, the second law of motion refers to the famous equation, F = ma , in which F is the result of the forces, m represents the mass of an object, and a is the acceleration.

The first law regards specific situations when acceleration is 0, which means that the velocity never changes.

The second law expands the first law to general interactions of forces.

For instance, when we are standing still, a force called gravity pulls us downwards.

However, the reason why we do not go downwards is because there is another force that is maintaining us to remain on the Earth called the normal force. Due to the normal force, the resulting force frequently results 0. However, if this resulting total force changes and is no longer 0, the object begins to move.

Here is an example to help you understand how the second law of motion works.

Body

Starting with the basic concepts that need to be understood to analyze the orbit, let’s talk about Newton’s laws of motion, Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and circular orbits.

Newton’s laws of motion contain three laws. According to the first law of motion, without a force applied, an object remains at rest or uniform movement [2]. Objects that are moving continuously want to move and need to be acted on by an outside force to stop their motion unless the object that was moving would continue to move at the same speed and 11 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Figure 1: a bowling ball with force F

acceleration due to gravity. Hence, the y-axis velocity could be stated as below.

vy=Vsin(θ)-gt Figure 2: a golf ball with force F Figures 1 and 2 have one ball each; a bowling ball and a golf ball. If the bowling ball and golf ball were stationary initially, let’s say that we applied the same force of F for 1 second to each of them. The 7kg bowling ball begins to move with a speed of 1m/s and a 0.07kg golf ball begins to move with a speed of 100m/s.

Using F= ma, the force is 7N. Thus, this example demonstrates that acceleration differs a lot due to the difference of mass even though they applied the same force. Also, direction is an important aspect in the second law of motion. Since the velocity contains the direction, and acceleration is the rate of velocity difference in a second, it provides more accurate information to write the equation with vector notation.

For convenience, we will eliminate vector notations going forward, but keep in mind that many variables have directions.

Figure 3: a ball with mass m thrown in an angle θ with velocity V This picture shows a ball with mass m thrown with an angle θ with velocity V. The biggest difference from the example before about bowling ball and golf ball is that the force is applied with an angle in this picture. This makes the approach more complicated, but it can be solved with the same method. First, to figure out where the ball is going, let’s divide the direction of velocity into x-axis and y-axis. In this case, x-axis will refer to the horizontal velocity and y-axis will inform about the vertical velocity. In the x-axis, there is no outside force applied except that which results in the first velocity. Thus, acceleration is 0 due to the equation, F = ma. Hence, it shows that the ball has an uniform motion in its x-axis position. Using trigonometry, the x-axis velocity could be stated as

vx=Vcos(θ) For the y-axis, the initial velocity is Vsinθ. However the difference with x-axis is that the resultant force is not 0, which implies that another force is being applied after the initial launch. What is that force? It is the gravitational force. This force can be figured out with the second law of motion F = ma.

So the force of gravity becomes F = mg, where g is the constant

Overall, the picture shows an object with uniform motion in the x-axis and accelerating motion due to gravity in the y-axis.

This picture is an example of projectile motion. Satellites have circular motion, but since projectile motion is very similar to circular ones, let’s explore more of projectile motions. First, let’s take a look at velocity. Velocity is a slope of the graph with x-axis of time and y-axis of position of an object. Thus, it can be demonstrated with the graph below.

As shown in the graph, velocity is the slope of the timeposition graph. Using some calculus, we can express this limits, assuming time and position are continuous,

This can be written again in different forms.

Thus, it is clear that velocity can be obtained by differentiating the position of an object. Acceleration can be obtained with the same method. Acceleration is defined as the rate of change in velocity with time Δv / Δt.

Applying our expression for velocity,

Thus, we can also differentiate the position of an object to demonstrate acceleration.

12 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Using these formulas, let’s analyze projectile motion. Since acceleration, velocity, and position are able to be differentiated and integrated with respect to time, projectile motion would be much simpler to analyze when expressing it in terms of time. Acceleration on the x-axis is always 0 because there is no change in velocity. Acceleration on the y-axis is negative due to gravity. The formulas for horizontal and vertical acceleration are shown below.

ax=0 ay=-g We can integrate the above to obtain the velocities of each axis:

where G=6.67384×10-11Nm2/kg2 is the universal gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the mass of the objects, respectively, and r is the distance between them [4].

Finally, circular motion is the last concept to explore before analyzing satellites. Circular motion deals with any motion that is rotating about a fixed axis. Similar to linear motions, circular motions can be uniform or nonuniform. Uniform circular motion is circular motion with constant speed (note that it is not “velocity” in this case since the direction of the object is constantly changing, and since velocity is defined as the displacement over time, the velocity of the object would vary even if the object was moving at the same speed).

Circular motion is concerned with angles and how the direction of motion changes. The picture below allows us to see the motion of a particle moving in a circle at a certain time. We can derive x and y from the radius and the angle θ.

x=rcos(θ) y=rsin(θ) Lastly, let’s express the positions of each axis by integrating our previous results.

Hence, the projectile motion is easily analyzed by expressing acceleration, velocity, and position relative to time, through differentiation and integration.

Next, let’s take a look at Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Newton’s law of universal gravity states that every particle (objects) has a force of attraction to other particles.

Gravity, a specific kind of universal gravity, is a force between Earth and an object. Additionally, the magnitude of universal gravity may vary. For example, a person is an object too, though his or her universal gravity is too small to noticeably attract other objects like chairs or desks. In today’s language, this law of universal gravitation is defined between point particles. Point particles are ideal particles that do not take any space and are in 0 dimension. Any object with discrete mass can be represented in physics as a point particle regardless of their shape, size, or structure. Newton’s law of universal gravitation defines that the force of gravity is proportional to each mass and inversely proportional to the distance between the centers of the mass of the point particles. The masses of the point particles are called point mass. We can express the gravitational force pulling the two objects towards each other in an algebraic equation:

13 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we get

Let’s call s the length of the arc made by point P. Then s=rθ.

Thus, θ=sr. Next, we will figure out the speed. The average speed of the particle is distance, the length of arc s, divided by time t:

Differentiating the average speed will result in tangential velocity which is a velocity that is tangent to the circle at a certain point:

But since the velocity is not always tangent to the circle, we need another way to find velocity. In general cases, we will use angular velocity.

Whether or not the angular velocity is positive or negative differs from the angle. Thus, we can substitute angular velocity as tangential velocity to obtain one more equation:

v=rω Hence, using this equation, we can obtain a few more properties of circular motion. First, let’s say that the period of circular motion is T and the frequency would be f. It is clear that f=1/T since the period is the time for the object to rotate once and frequency is the number of rotations in a second. In uniform circular motion, the speed is constant. The equation above can be substituted into the angular velocity of uniform circular motion:

Not only angular velocity, but speed, angle, and acceleration of uniform circular motion can also be solved through frequency and period.

Figure 5: point F traveling to D and E (Finney, Advanced Placement Calculus 2016 graphic numerical algebraic fifth edition) The first picture shows an object that is in uniform circular motion with velocity of v1, v2 in each point A and B during the time ∆t. The second picture of ∆DEF is a picture that transferred ∆ABC to random points. In this case, DE -> is the vector which represents the change velocity. Thus, in these pictures, it is clear that two triangles, ∆ABC and ∆DEF are similar (SAS similarity). Hence, the statement below is true.

As ∆t approaches zero, ∆l, being the distance between point A and B, will converge to v∆t. With this and assuming that ∆t is an infinitely small number, we can find centripetal acceleration.

In both nonuniform motion and uniform circular motion, we can see that acceleration actually matters. This is because velocity is not constant, and acceleration plays the role of changing the direction. We call that acceleration centripetal acceleration.Let’s find the equation.

Figure 4: object traveling in circular motion

For this, the instantaneous magnitude of centripetal acceleration can be written as,

Finally, we can get centripetal force when substituting acceleration into Newton’s second law. Centripetal force allows for circular motion to be maintained. It is perpendicular to the direction of the motion and is in the same direction as centripetal acceleration.

14 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Conclusion

Now, let’s figure out an analysis of geosynchronous orbit of satellites. Since these satellites match Earth’s rotation, they have an oval-shaped orbit. Thus, there is almost no difference when we think of the orbit as circular motion. Hence, we can use the formulas we derived regarding Newton’s laws of motion, Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and circular motion.

We can apply the universal gravitation formula F = Gm1m2/ r^2 Earth with a mass M and radius R, and the second is the satellite with orbital height r and mass m1:

F is the universal gravitational force and Fc is the centripetal force. They are the same force expressed in different variables.

When we solve this equation, we get:

Since a period of the geosynchronous force should be a day, we can apply a function of period and frequency in this equation above. As stated in the Body section, v=2πr/T when r is distance between two objects, T is period, and v is velocity. Here, it is clear that r is (R+r). Substituting this,

Now, let’s substitute all the values in each variable.

Universal gravity constant is G=6.673×10-11, mass of the Earth is M=5.972×1024kg, period is T=3600×24s, π=3.141592…, and radius of the Earth is R=6371000 m.

When you calculate this,

r+6371000=42238000 r= 42238000-6371000 =3586700=35867 15 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Thus, the height of a satellite in geosynchronous orbit is 35867 km, and comparing this to the real geosynchronous orbit that the scientists have observed, 35786 km [17], there is only 0.226% error. We have succeeded in settling a result for the geosynchronous orbit of satellites by using mathematics and physics.

References

[1] National Geographic (2009). <Orbit> [2] Canright, Shelly; NASA (2009). <Geosynchronous satellites> [3] Zuber, Maria (2013). <Gravity Field of the Moon from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission>, American Association for the Advancement of Science [4] Gundlach, J.H (2007). <Laboratory Test of Newton’s Second Law for Small Accelerations>, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98 No. 15.

[5] Brown, Robert (2013). <Introductory Physics IElementary Mechanics>, Duke University Physics Department [6] Marion, Jerry; Stephen Thomton (1995). <Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems>. Harcourt College Publishers.

[7] Symon, Keith (1971), Mechanics. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. [8] Atkins, Tony; Escudier, Marcel (2013). A Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering. Oxford University Press [9] Shriki, Atara; David, Hamatal (2011), “Similarity of Parabolas- A Geometrical Perspective”, Learning and Teaching Mathematics.

[10] Knudsen, Jens M; Hjorth, Poul G. (2000). Elements of Newtonian mechanics: including nonlinear dynamics (3 ed.).

Springer.

[11] Vallado, David A. (2007). Fundamental of Astrodynamics and Applications. Hawthorne, CA: Microcosm Press.

[12] Rosenthal, Alfred (1968). Venture into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA. [13] Anderson, James. E. (1979). A Theoretical Foundation for the Gravity Equation. The American Economic Review [14] Wang, Liang-qing; Sun, Han-xu. (2007). <Circle Motion Analysis on a Spherical Robot>, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University.

[15] Reynaud, Serge; Jaekel, Marc-Thierry. (2005). <Testing the Newton Law at Long Distances>, International Journal of Modern Physics A, Vol. 20, No.11.

[16] Verlinde, Erik (2011). <On the origin of gravity and the laws of Newton>, Journal of High Energy Physics.

[17] April 2015 EH 24. <What is a geosynchronous orbit?> Space.com. Accessed July 21, 2020. https://www.space.com/29222geosynchronous-orbit.html

The Minimum Height of a Strike Point for a Follow Shot with a Billiard Ball By: Yong Kyung Jo | Art By: Lilian Kong

Introduction

Billiards is an easily accessible sport that is favored by many people. I myself enjoy billiards, and regularly go to the billiard room at least twice a week. In billiards, one hits a ball with a long stick known as a cue. Skills for playing billiards revolve around hitting the exact location on the ball (called the strike point), hitting with precise thickness, and hitting with an appropriate amount of force. All of these factors act together to lead to a successful billiard shot, and among them, this paper will focus on how to aim and hit at the exact strike point. This focus can be justified by the fact that all techniques in billiards require preciseness in aiming and striking. There are a variety of techniques in billiards (examples would be follow shots, draw shots, and masse etc.), and while all of these techniques seem almost physically impossible, the fundamental principle is that they all require one to hit at the exact strike point. In other words, the rotation that a strike gives to the ball changes its direction and course, which makes it the most important factor when performing various skills in billiards.

Among all of these, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first take a look at follow shots. In order to perform a follow shot in a desired direction, hence, in order to have a ball proceed in a specific direction even after colliding with another ball, what kind of conditions should

be met? The answer to this question would be that the billiard ball requires an advancement of rotations, meaning that the ball needs to roll across the billiard table without sliding.

This is what allows for the ball to proceed in direction the player intends to send it. By intuition, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possible to see that a ball will roll by hitting at a point higher than its midpoint.

However, the occurrence of a slide may be the cause of the ball being unable to head in the desired direction, and thus results in a missed shot. Consequently, this research aims to find the minimum height of a strike point that will allow the ball to roll without sliding.

Image 1: Billiard ball 16 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Body

To find the minimum height of a strike point that will allow the ball to roll without sliding, it is necessary to have some physical knowledge on an object in rotational motion.

Just like an object with translational motion has velocity, acceleration, and mass, an object with rotational motion has angular velocity, angular acceleration, and moment of inertia.

Angular velocity is a physical quantity that measures how fast an object rotates relative to a certain axis, and is denoted by the symbol ω. While acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity with respect to time, angular acceleration is the rate of change of angular velocity with respect to time, and is referred to as α. Hence, α = dω/dt The last physical quantity, the moment of inertia, is defined as the torque needed for change in angular acceleration, and is represented by the symbol I. The moment of inertia is determined by the body’s mass distribution and the axis of rotation, it is given by the following equation

(Here, r denotes the distance between the material point and the axis of rotation.)

So far, basic terminology has been defined. Now, rotating objects will be examined, and physical laws will be derived to explain their movements.

First of all, the following physical laws explain the translational motion of an object.

1. Newton’s Laws of Motion: An object with a constant speed (or at rest) will maintain its state unless acted upon by a force (Law of Inertia). The net force that acts upon an object is equivalent to the product of mass and acceleration of the object. Mathematically, this is expressed as ΣF=Ma (Law of Acceleration). Also, all forces that are exerted between two objects exist in equal magnitude and opposite direction (Law of Action and Reaction).

2. Momentum Conservation Principle: The momentum of an object — the product of mass and velocity — remains unchanged unless an external force is applied to it. Hence, even if n different objects collide against each other, the equation

holds. ( is the velocity before collision, while is the velocity after collision) 3. Impulse-Momentum Theorem: The change in momentum of an object is equal to the impulse that is 17 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

applied to it. Mathematically, this can be expressed as ∆p = m∆v = f∆t. (f is the force of impulse, and is the external force that acts upon an object.)

4. Law of Conservation of Energy: A system always has the same amount of total energy. Hence, its overall energy remains unchanged during conversion or transfer. Note that energy created by translational motion involves potential energy — energy by virtue of an object’s position (Ep = mgh), and kinetic energy — energy by velocity (Ek = 1/2mv2).

Now, let’s examine the physical laws involved in rotational motion by examining how they correspond to the laws of translational motion.

1. An object in rotational motion has the tendency to maintain its initial direction of rotation, and the overall torque that acts upon the object is equivalent to the product of moment of inertia and angular acceleration.

Mathematically, this can be expressed as ∆τ = Iα.

2. Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum: The angular momentum of a rotating object — the product of moment of inertia and angular velocity — remains unchanged unless an external torque is applied to it.

Hence, even if different objects rotate while colliding against each other, the equation

(ωk is the angular velocity before collision, while ω’k is the angular velocity after collision.)

3. Angular Momentum and Impulse: Let’s take a look at the relationship between change in angular momentum and the impulse that an object receives. First of all, angular momentum is the product of moment of inertia and acceleration, but can also be expressed as the vector product (cross product) between the momentum of translational movement and angular velocity. Hence, L = rp. If we assume, for convenience, that rotational motion is circular motion, then the cross product of the momentum and the distance vector between the axis of rotation and the material point, always has a constant direction. The change in angular momentum can hence be expressed as ∆L = r∆p = rm∆v = rf∆t, or ∆L = I∆ω.

Therefore, ∆L = I∆ω = rf∆t (f is the external force that acts upon an object in motion).

4. Law of Conservation of Energy: The fundamental concept that a system always has the same amount of total energy holds for rotational motion as it does for translational motion. Hence, its overall amount of energy remains unchanged during conversion or transfer. The difference between the two is that while translational motion involved potential energy and kinetic energy, rotational motion involves an additional type of energy — rotational kinetic energy ( Er = 1/2ω^2).

Of course, there are situations in which an object can be in both rotational motion and translational motion. In such cases, the velocity of the translational motion of a rotating object satisfies the equation v = rω, as well as the physical laws (which have been stated above) for both rotational and translational motion. In simultaneous rotation and translation, it is necessary to first separately consider the forces an object receives in each type of motion. This will allow identification of the force that causes rotation, and when rotation and translation are considered together, will then ultimately lead to finding the final velocity and acceleration.

The movement of a billiard ball, which is the subject of this research, can also be thought of as a combination of rotational and translational movement. Torque, moment of inertia, the relationship between translational and rotational motion, and the concept of a ‘strike’ are all involved in the movement of a billiard ball. Consequently, the main goal of this research would be to use the relationship between the change in momentum and impulse to identify the minimum height of the strike point that is necessary for the billiard ball to roll without sliding. Note that this experiment is based on the assumption that there is no air resistance.

Now, let’s start the process of finding the minimum height of a strike point that is required for the billiard ball to roll without sliding. In order to do so, it is necessary to find the moment of inertia of a billiard ball. A billiard ball can be considered a solid sphere with fixed density, and hence the next step would be to find the moment of inertia of a full sphere with radius R and mass M. It’s important to be aware of the fact that within the equation for moment of inertia

Image 3: A sphere as an infinitesimal set of thin solid spheres.

Now, since the moment of inertia of this sphere can be considered the sum of the same physical quantity for sufficiently thin cylinders, let’s first find the moment of inertia of a cylinder.

Suppose a cylinder has a radius of R’ and a mass of M’. Its surface area would then be π(R’)2, so A= πR2, and differentiating both sides of this equation with respect to r results in dA/dr = 2 πr. Thus, dA = 2πrdr Also, since this process of derivation was based on the supposition that the heights of the all of the cylinders are infinitesimally thin and uniform,

Hence, the variable r does not represent the radius, but the distance to the axis of rotation. Hence, the axis of rotation can become the z-axis, and the equation for a sphere can be expressed as x2 + y2 + z2 = R2.

Consequently, a solid sphere can be considered a infinitesimal set of thin solid cylinders that are perpendicular to the z-axis, as depicted in the figure below.

Image 2: A full sphere with radius R

T he moment of inertia of a cylinder would thus be

Now, to obtain the moment of inertia of the sphere, the same quantities for the cylinders should be stacked with respect to the z-axis.

Hence,

and the changes in the mass of the thin cylinders can be considered as follows. dM’ = ρπ(R’)2dz 18 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Also, since the Pythagorean theorem gives (R’)2 = R2 - z2, the equation on the moment of inertia of the sphere can be organized in terms of . Calculations lead to

Substituting ρ = M/V = (3m)/(4πR3) into this equation yields Isphere = 2/5 (MR2) Now, if a billiard ball has a mass of m, radius of r, and a strike is made at a height of h, then it is clear that h>r, since the strike must be above the center of the ball. Also, the moment of inertia of this billiard ball would be I = 2/5 (mr2). Now, suppose a force of f is exerted on the strike point for a short period of time (∆t seconds), and the ball thus started to roll across the table without sliding. The force f is assumed to be horizontal, i.e. parallel to the billiard table. The motions of the ball can then be considered based on its states in the three following moments.

1. State 1: The moment in which a force of f is exerted on a billiard ball initially at rest for ∆t seconds.

2. State 2: The moment in which a still ball starts moving at a velocity of vo due to the force f, and hence starts to receive a kinetic friction force. The ball starts moving precisely at this movement, so it is possible to assume that it only has translational movement and no rotational movement.

3. State 3: The moment in which translational movement and rotational movement occur together. Hence, the ball starts moving forward with a velocity of v1, and advances while rotating with an angular velocity of ω1.

The ball does not slide, so the relationship v1 = r ω1 holds.

The movement of a billiard ball was divided into three stages for convenience, and it is important to note that these stages do not occur in order, but occur simultaneously. Thus, the physical quantities within these stages should ultimately be equal. Now, let’s compare the physical quantities within each of the stages, based on the physical laws that were organized above. This will lead to h, the height of a strike point.

I. Comparison between State 1 and 3 These states each refer to the initial state created due to a strike, and the final state that results from the movement.

Thus, we are able to construct an equation in terms of h — the desired variable. Since a force of f was exerted on a stationary ball from a height of h, it can be stated that an external force exists from the perspective of an object going through translational movement. This allows us to think of the relationship between momentum and impulse. According to the physical laws that we’ve organized above, the equation m∆v = f∆t holds, and hence the following equation can be obtained.

19 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

If motion is observed from the perspective of rotational motion, it can be said that an external force exists. Hence, it would be necessary to examine the relationship between angular momentum and impulse. As stated within the physical laws above, ∆L = I∆ω = rf∆t, in which r is not the radius, but the distance between the strike point (the point on which a force was exerted) and the center of rotation. Since the center of rotation in such movement is the center of the billiard ball, h-r would be the distance between the strike point and the rotation center. It is thus possible to derive the following equation.

II. Comparison between State 2 and 3 The moment in which state 2 occurs can be considered as follows. A billiard ball that starts moving at a velocity of due to an external force will be affected by frictional force, and thus have its velocity decreased in state 3, to , a velocity of translational motion. Also, the momentum acts upon the center of mass of the ball, i.e. the geometric center of the ball, but frictional force acts upon the point at which the ball and the billiard table make contact. It can thus be said that the rotational motion of the ball is created due to friction.

As done in the previous comparison, let’s first think from the perspective of translational motion. In between state 2 and 3 acts an external force called kinetic friction force, so the law of conservation of momentum does not hold. We can thus examine the relationship between momentum and impulse, as done above.

First of all, the magnitude of the kinetic friction — the external force that acts upon the billiard ball — can be expressed as the product of coefficient of kinetic friction μk and the normal force N. Since the billiard ball does not move in a perpendicular direction, it is possible to discover that the normal force is equal to the gravitational force that acts upon the ball. Hence, N = mg, and the friction thus is F = μkmg. Now, since f = F within the equation m∆v = f∆t, ∆t would be different from the quantity ∆t above, and hence is ∆t’. Both stages are single moments, but are different in that ∆t refers to the time during which the force was applied, while ∆t’ refers to the time that elapsed while moving on from transitional motion to rotational motion. Therefore, the following equation holds.

The negative sign in this equation signifies that the frictional force acts upon the ball in a direction opposite from the movement of the ball.

Next, we should consider that in the perspective of rotational

motion, an external force called friction exists. Hence, it is necessary to check the relationship between angular momentum and impulse. In state 2, the ball has no rotational motion, and thus ωo = 0. Also, since the distance between the ball’s center of mass and the point which friction acts upon is r, substitution into ∆L = I∆ω = rf∆t yields the following.

5=6, so dividing both sides of this equation by μkmg∆t’ leads to (5/2)(h-r) = r. Consequently, the minimum height of the strike point — that will allow the ball to roll without sliding — is obtained by solving for h. h = (7/5)r

Conclusion The rotation created by friction is a rotational advancement in which the ball moves forward, so the signs in the equation above are all equal.

Now, let’s form a system of equations with 1~2, and find h, the height of the strike point.

First, let’s substitute I = (2/5)mr2, the moment of inertia of the sphere, into the equation

With this equation, ω 1 can be expressed in an organized form as shown below.

With v1 = rω1, one obtains

Substituting the value of v1 into 3 yields

Also, substituting the final velocity (v1) (which we’ve found through the equation above) into equation 1 results in mv1 = f∆t. Thus,

Lastly, let’s look at the equation

Substituting the three equations f∆t = (5/2)μkmg∆t’, ω1 = [5μkg∆t’]/2r, and I = (2/5)mr2 into 2 results in the two equations at right.

Previously, we’ve used a system of equations with the physical laws of translational motion and rotational motion in order to find the minimum height required for a billiard ball to roll without sliding. Consequently, it was possible to obtain the conclusion that a player should aim and hit at a point with a height of at least h = (7/5)r.

Now, let’s take a look at what would happen at a strike point of h > (7/5)r. Even if the billiard ball is hit with the same force of f for the same period of time, ∆t seconds, the distance between the ball’s center of rotation and the strike point would have grown, and hence the magnitude of the torque would have increased. Consequently, ω1, the angular velocity of the billiard ball, would also increase, and v1, the velocity at which the ball advances forward, would increase in accordance.

However, if the billiard table and billiard ball are made up of the same material as in the previous situation, then the magnitude of frictional force would be equal. If so, even in the current situation where the ball’s angular velocity and rate of advancement have both increased, could we still state that the ball is moving forward without sliding?

To state the conclusion first, the billiard ball would still roll without sliding. To see why, let’s refer to state 2 among the 3 states that the ball can be divided into after a strike is made.

A ball in state 2 is at an instant where rotational motion is about to occur with translational motion for the first time ever since force was initially exerted on it. However, since v1, the final velocity, has increased, the initial velocity of translational motion (vo) has also increased, and ∆t’, which is the time for which state 2 lasts, has increased in accordance. Hence, we can identify that the duration of the moment has slightly increased, and after it ends, the ball will roll. Therefore, if one strikes a point with a height greater than or equal to (7/5)r, then the billiard ball will roll without sliding.

References

[1] Beer F P. Mechanics for Engineers: Dynamics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2017.

[2] Johnston R Jr. Mechanics of Materials. London: Pearson; 2015.

[3] Walker J, Principles of Physics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2014.

[4] Serway Raymond A. Physics. Austine, TX: Holt McDougal; 201.

[5] Stamps Robert. Solid State Physics. London: Elsevier; 2017 [6] Serway Raymond A. Physics for Scientist and Engineers.

Belmont, CA: Thomson-Brooks/Cole; 2004 [7] Sibley Thomas Q. The Foundations of Mathematics.

Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2008 20 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

The Effects of Dangerous Cult Manipulation:

Neurological Damage Among Old and New Members By: Aafnan Alam | Art By: Seyoung Lee

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of cult recruiting through manipulation and the negative effects on humans’ brains as a result. People are easily deceived by cults’ manipulation, therefore this paper examines the effects of the recruitment techniques on cult members based on neurological evidence, responses from professionals, as well as treatments for reintegration back into society before and after emotional manipulation. The main goal of this paper is not to abolish cults, rather to examine the manipulation and explore the possibility of making cults safer; by understanding cult manipulation, perhaps this type of control could become ineffective as people become more aware of brainwashing techniques. This paper concludes that the negative effects of cult manipulation are significant and are hazardous to people’s health. By ensuring a safer, better environment for cult members, and continuing safer, improved treatment for ex-members, the harmful situation of cult manipulation can be eliminated.

The brain is an important organ that encompases the mind and soul. Therefore, wounds to the brain can cause detrimental effects on not only mental health, but also physical health. Developing technology has brought an understanding of the distinctive functions and patterns of the human brain. Researchers use Electroencephalogram (EEG), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CAT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to scan the brain and thoroughly understand its properties. The brain is composed of three main parts: the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The cerebrum and cortex-which is a part of the cerebrum- are the largest part of the brain and consists of the right and left hemispheres. Integration between the two (horizontal integration) parts is the key to reduce both their emotional charge and communicate them to others.

These right and left hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum performs the “elite” functions, such as interpreting the five senses, other’s reasoning, emotions, learning, and movement. The cerebral cortex is divided into 21 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

four parts (concerning this paper, only three are important): the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the temporal lobe.

In simple terms, the frontal lobe deals with personality, judgement, and reasoning; the parietal lobe handles language, the five senses, and memory; the hippocampus, located in the middle part of each temporal lobe, manages physical activity, mental stimulation, nutrition, socialization, and spirituality.

These functions are not exclusively handled by each lobe, nor do they work in isolation. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the amygdala, are related to trauma on the brain and brain manipulation [1].

Thus, researchers have investigated the effects of trauma and manipulation of the brain, specifically the amygdala, ACC, and PFC; however, these measures have not been correlated directly with the techniques performed by cults. Due to the mass media coverage and widespread knowledge on how cults operate, cults are known for a very sensible reason: they are known to either indoctrinate people and manipulate them for their leader’s selfish benefits, or, occasionally, to help better their community. This paper will research the dynamics of cult recruitment through manipulation and the reasons people are easily deceived by cults’ manipulation. By understanding this aspect, perhaps cult manipulation could become ineffective and awareness about the brainwashing will be raised, ensuring safety to former and prospective cult members with better cultsystematic-rules put in place.

Literature Review Neurological Effects of Manipulation and Trauma

Neurologically, manipulation and trauma have multiple negative effects on the human brain. The brain is considered to be split into multiple parts. It is the control center for humans, more logical as it processes language and emotions. Cults attack the brain through manipulation by strictly altering the way people think, inflicting psychological trauma to the brain.

Annie Lennon, a writer, believes the way cults cut off free-

thinking and expression can lead to devastating effects. “As cults tend to discourage and severely punish those who question their leaders or practices, they tend to prevent both vertical and horizontal integration from happening. This means that negative emotions are more likely to get stuck into depressing mindsets (eventually surfacing as trauma), while critical thinking and reasoning are suppressed” [2]. Cults target the right brain through the manipulation of emotions; strong emotions correlate with changes in function, which can possibly halt the PFC, ACC, amygdala, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and temporal lobe. EEG, PET, CAT scans, MRI and DTI can all help in understanding how specific parts of the brain react to emotional-cult-manipulation. The amygdala will respond with the feeling of fear if it perceives a danger or threat; it also becomes hyperactive when affected by PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), an aftermath among many after leaving a cult, which can initiate excessive fear to those who experience trauma stressors [3]. When the brain is dealing with all the negative emotions, this overactivity can possibly lead to chronic stress, fear, increased irritation and anxiety, and disruptions among the normal functions of the brain.

The main part of the brain affected by trauma is the hippocampus. In a study led by Quan Zhang, MD at China’s Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, researchers looked at the relationship between the hippocampus and the amygdala in coal miners suffering from PTSD after surviving a gas explosion and found that the volume of their hippocampus was smaller that than of others who were not suffering from PTSD [3]. Ex-members and present cult members resemble the coal miners as both groups experienced trauma, PTSD, and their memories were most likely extremely vivid and constantly on their minds. This effect provokes one’s fightor-flight response and triggers survivors’ trauma in small ways which can result in fear, stress, and panic because the victims cannot differentiate between their past trauma and the present situation [4]. When compared to the size of a normal hippocampus, a cult member’s hippocampus is significantly smaller. While the amygdala senses a negative emotion such as fear, the prefrontal cortex “will rationally react to this emotion.

After trauma though, this rationality might be overridden and [one’s] prefrontal cortex will have a hard time regulating fear and other emotions” [4]. While the coal miners suffered from a gas explosion, cult members experienced trauma from another source, brainwashing. This study shows how dangerous and hurtful cult manipulation can truly become. Cult leaders cleverly manipulate prospective members into joining their cults, inducing altered brain activity upon some members with traumatic experiences. Prolonged stress and trauma can lead to cortisol-induced brain volume reductions in hippocampus and other regions, and worsen mental health.

Anecdotal Evidence

People who have managed to survive the experience of being in a cult leave to find that readjusting to societal norms is even

harder. Many barely manage to survive being in a cult, much less adjusting to life outside after. Different cults have different god(s) and beliefs they worship, as well as rituals they undergo.

The Lynman Family, a cult Guineviere Turner grew up in, had many rules to follow. She had no contact with anybody outside her family and other cult members; she was homeschooled and never saw a doctor, having been raised to believe that she would eventually live on Venus. The cult had their own doctor, and did not allow any outsiders pry into their community; this isolation led to easy manipulation. These circumstances impacted her when she was eventually rejected by the cult and had to face reality. When Turner arrived at her first public school, she realized she was simply a stranger in a stranger’s land. She dressed in homemade clothes, liked different activities from children her own age, and worst of all, she was socially awkward. “Never having met anyone who hadn’t known me since [she] was born, [she] hadn’t grasped that direct eye contact with someone for more than a few seconds makes [someone] seem very weird” [5]. As a result of her seclusion in the cult, her brain never adjusted to proper communication experiences a healthy child should have.

Like Turner, Diane Benscoter similarly described her experiences at a cult into which she was recruited. The cult she joined was particularly skilled in manipulation: she “had come to believe that the second coming of Christ had occurred, that it was Sun Myung Moon, and that [she] had been specially chosen and prepared by God to be his disciple” [6]. She was easily manipulated and forced into this cult, becoming a devoted member. After having been deprogrammed, Benscoter became a deprogrammer herself, a person who kidnaps members for cults. She was soon arrested and questioned about how she had come to a point in her life at which she was doing underground railroad business. Eventually, the term memetics - the study of 22 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

information based on an analogy- gave her the answer. Memetics, also known as a meme, is an idea which duplicates in the human brain and moves from one side of the brain to the other, similar to a virus. Benscoter described how exactly she was manipulated and what strategies the cult used on her.

“In 1974, I was young, I was naive, and I was pretty lost in my world… These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing when you are emotionally vulnerable.

What happens is that circular logic takes over. ‘Moon is one with God. God is going to fix all the problems in the world. All I have to do is humbly follow.’ … [This] creates ‘us’ and ‘them,’ ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ And it makes anything possible, makes anything rationalizable” [6].

This pure emotional manipulation makes anything rational, anything possible, as Benscoter said. This technique is prominently used in cults, along with deprogramming to ‘safely’ ensure members remain in the cult. However, this conditioning hurts the member neurologically, as seen in Benscoter’s case. Her hippocampus was found to be smaller, and the mental trauma she recieved was long lasting. In this anecdotal observation, it is possible Benscoter’s hippocampus was smaller due to mental trauma, however, the study did not address her having a small hippocampus to begin with, and could have had a lack of mental stimulation during critical periods which prevented normal developmental growth. Although many newly recruited members enter the cult in the hope of saving themselves or becoming free and welcomed, often in destructive cults, the opposite happens as some members feel emotionally and even physically exhausted.

Professional Statements and Studies

When researching the impact of cult manipulation and brainwashing members, psychologists and researchers play an important part in analyzing and understanding the different depths of neurological impact. Researcher Michael D. Langone is a psychologist who specializes in research regarding cultic groups and psychological manipulation. Langone compares cult manipulation to Debility-Dependency-Dread (DDD) syndrome. Cults do not have the power of the state at their convenience, therefore, they cannot forcibly gain members.

Thus, recruiters must persuade or brainwash prospective members using what specifically appeals to each person the most. As a result, recruits commit themselves by agreeing with the group’s rules of thinking, feeling, and acting, since they have been manipulated [7]. Cults use this method to retain recruits and draft vulnerable members. Physical threats and emotional manipulation take place as they are viable options for recruitment. These methods impact members greatly, as neurologically, their way of thinking and functioning is changed and controlled.

A journal by Gudrun Swartling, O.T. and Per G. Swartling, M.D also discusses the different ways cults can manipulate and expand their control over new and former members. Swartling 23 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

and Swartling (1992) state, “severe and long term psychiatric problems have been recognized in former students of the Word Of Life Bible School [a cult]. Almost half of the 43 individuals interviewed had experienced psychosis-like symptoms, and one out of 4 had attempted suicide. Anxiety, feelings of guilt, and emotional disorders were common.” This intense influence of power and manipulation can lead to long term psychological deficiencies and trauma (see appendix A for more information on New Psychiatric Symptoms In 43 Former Bible School Students). In 60% of cases from the World of Life, parents noticed prominent differences in their children’s appearance after joining the cult. “Body posture became tense, with a frozen facial expression and eyes that were staring or had an absent or evasive look” [8]. Children in cults can easily become manipulated since their brains are still developing and take in new information permanently, therefore their attitudes and actions can relentlessly change. Cults can manipulate not only adults, but even the children of future generations. Cult manipulation can result in difficulty adjusting to life for new members, and previous ones as well.

Discussion

The results of this research support the notion that cult recruitment and manipulation within the cult can alter the brain neurologically, but may not necessarily harm the brain.

Cults are fast-growing communities due to the usage of brain manipulation when recruiting members; this strategy harms different parts of the brain, provoking mental illnesses such as PTSD as well as reinstituting past trauma among members of the cult or ex-associates. Many members enter a cult vulnerable, as noted by the anecdotal evidence and professional statements.

This provides a pathway for narcissistic cult leaders to easily abuse their members mentally and physically. For instance, the mindset of coal miners after a gas explosion can be compared to that of cult members. Cult members can acquire PTSD, depression, anxiety, and many other forms of mental illnesses as a result of cult manipulation. As a result, their hippocampuses will become smaller. Their memories will become very distorted as well, and their emotions will grow unstable. This hurts the different lobes of the brain, especially the right brain. Members and ex members will be in constant fear, anxious, and unhappy as their health will start to decline.

The limitations in this paper consist of anecdotal evidence, outdated sources, and faulty cult leader diagnosis. The anecdotal evidence of ex-cult members were used to provide evidence as to how trauma and brain manipulation damaged them physically and mentally. This creates a definite limitation as the statements from people could have been biased, false, or even consistent with memory gaps. However, when discussing the neurological impacts of cult members, it is significant to include cult members’ perspectives. For future studies, researchers should consider factual studies that confirm the harmful effects of cult manipulation in order to ensure societal safety. Different studies using ex-cult members and current

ones should be conducted, measuring the difference in neuron activity and damage from being recruited to leaving or escaping by using EEG, PET, CAT scans, MRI, and DTI. By introducing accurate and controlled studies of the neurological effects of cult manipulation, society can prevent the increasing number of mental health issues and death rates throughout the world as a result of cults; this can lead to a stronger and healthier generation of people for the future.

Life is full of good and bad experiences. It is necessary to educate society about cults as every story has another side to it.

If a cult community is not performing harmful acts among its members, one need not act as a hero and should mind their own business. By identifying the negative neurological correlations to individuals currently in or having left cults, society can improve and protect othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; health from dangers such as cult manipulation.

magazine/2019/05/06/my-childhood-in-a-cult.

[6] Benscoter, D. (2009). How Cults Rewire The Brain [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/diane_benscoter_how_cults_ rewire_the_brain?language=en.

[7] Langone, M. D. (1996). Clinical Update on Cults.

Psychiatric Times. Retrieved from https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/clinical-update-cults/ page/0/1.

[8] Swartling, O.T. & Swartling, P.G. (1992). Psychiatric problems in ex- cult members of World of Life. Cultic Studies Journal, 9(1), 78-87. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/ record/1993-13684-001.

References

New Psychiatric Symptoms In 43 Former Bible School Students Gudrun Swartling contacted seventy former followers of the faith movement, Word of Life, all over Sweden. The followers attended Bible school for a period of one to two years.

Interviews by telephone or personal visit took place with 43 of the 70 individuals. Six declined to participate or had returned to the movement; 21 former Bible school students had not been reached or were not psychologically fit for an interview. Gender distribution is even, however the younger age group dominates, with 80% under 25 years of age.

The interview group is homogeneous in that all had received the same kind of systematic Bible school instruction; the interview consisted of homogeneous questions for everyone. The result is a combination of answers and personal observations.

The majority of the subjects were found to have a substandard, declining health after exiting the movement.

[1] Mayfield Clinic. (2018, April). Anatomy of the Human Brain. MAYFIELD Brain & Spine.

Retrieved from https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-anatbrain. htm.

[2] Lennon, A. (2019). How Cults Change Your Brain: Neuroscience. Labroots. Retrieved from https://www.labroots.com/trending/neuroscience/15729/ cults-change-brain.

[3] Zhang, Q., Zhuo, C., Lang, X., Li, H., Qin, W., & Yu, C. (2014). Structural Impairments of Hippocampus in Coal Mine Gas Explosion-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. PLoS ONE, 9(7). Retrieved from 10.1371/journal.pone.0102042.

[4] Thatcher, T. (2019). Can Emotional Trauma Cause Brain Damage? Retrieved from https://highlandspringsclinic.org/can-emotional-traumacause-brain-damage/.

[5] Turner, G. (2019). My Childhood in a Cult. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www. newyorker.com/

Appendix A

24 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Variation in pain threshold and tolerance in high-risk schoolchildren By: Mahbuba Rahat

Abstract

|

The present study examined variation in the physiologic stress response in 3rd and 4th grade schoolchildren. Students were drawn from the Oak Park School District, a largely low income and minority district outside of Detroit, Michigan, with low state test scores. A total of 22 students (9 female, 8-10 years old) completed the cold pressor task (CPT), a widely used and validated marker of physiologic stress. The CPT was adapted for children, and involves immersing the right hand up to the wrist in cold

Art By: Kevin Song water (at 10±1°C). The main outcome measure was pain threshold, measured in the time (in s) elapsed from when the child’s hand is immersed in the water to the time that they reported first experiencing pain, and pain tolerance, measured as the time (in s) elapsed from when the child’s hand is immersed in the water to the time it was voluntarily removed (maximum 180 s). Across the sample, there was substantial variation in pain threshold (range = 1-180 s, M = 58.2 s, SD = 70.3 s) and pain tolerance (range = 1-180 s, M = 88.9 s, SD = 79.1 s). Nine students kept their hand in the cold water for the maximum amount of time (180 s). Pain threshold was highly correlated with pain tolerance, p < 0.001.

Female and male students did not differ in pain threshold or tolerance (ps > 0.4). Relative to younger students, older students demonstrated a higher pain threshold, p = 0.006.

Age was not associated with pain threshold, p = 0.16.

These results suggest substantial variation in pain threshold and tolerance among a sample of highrisk schoolchildren. Variation in stress response, as measured via pain threshold and tolerance, may be useful for identifying children at highest risk of stress and associated negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety, school underperformance, cardiovascular disease).

Introduction

Relative to their more affluent counterparts, lower income, minority schoolchildren are at higher risk of stress and associated negative outcomes (e.g., educational underperformance, truancy, anxiety) [1, 4]. Stress can negatively impact the body’s physiological responses to stress, which can trigger a variety of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional problems, including anxiety, depression, and cardiovascular disease [5]. The present study examines variation in psychophysiological response to stress in 3rd and 4th grade schoolchildren. Students were drawn from the Oak Park School District, a largely lower income, minority district, with low state standardized test scores (e.g., see https://www. mischooldata.org/).

25 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Methods

A total of 22 students (9 female, 8-10 yrs) completed the cold pressor task (CPT), a widely used and validated experimental model of physiologic stress (see Figure 1). The CPT has been used to measure the response of the autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious functions (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate) that modulates the “fight or flight” response to stressors [7]. The CPT was adapted for children using ethical recommendations and involves immersing the right hand up to the wrist in cold water (10±1°C) [2, 3]. The main outcome measures will be pain threshold, measured in the time (in s) elapsed from when the child’s hand is immersed in the water to the time that they reported first experiencing pain, and pain tolerance, measured as the time (in s) elapsed from when the child’s hand is immersed in the water to the time it was voluntarily removed, up to a maximum of 180 s.

Figure 1. Cold pressor task. Image from Von Baeyer, Piira, Chambers, Trapanotto, & Zeltzer (2005) [6]. Children are instructed to submerge their hand up to the wrist in cold water (A). Pain threshold and tolerance was measured by child self-reports(B). Pain threshold is the moment (in s after submersion) in which the child feels pain, and pain tolerance is the moment (in s) in which the child removes his/her hand from the water.

Results

Across the sample, there was substantial variation in pain threshold (see Figure 2) and tolerance (see Figure 3); pain threshold ranged from 1-180 s (M = 58.2 s, SD = 70.3 s), and pain tolerance ranged from 1-180 s (M = 88.9 s, SD = 79.1 s). Nine students kept their hand in the cold water for the maximum amount of time (180 s). Pain threshold was highly correlated with pain tolerance, r(22) = 0.7, p < 0.001. Female and male students did not differ in their pain threshold or tolerance (ps > 0.4). Relative to younger students, older students demonstrated a higher pain threshold, r(22) = 0.56, p = 0.006 (see Figure 4).

Age was not associated with pain threshold, p = 0.16.

Figure 2. Pain Threshold. Histogram of pain threshold across the sample (N = 22 students). Pain threshold is the moment (in s after submersion) in which the child reports feeling pain.

Figure 3. Pain Tolerance. Histogram of pain threshold across the sample (N = 22 students). Pain threshold is the moment (in s after submersion) in which the child reports feeling pain.

Figure 4. Correlation between student age and pain threshold. *Positive correlation, p = 0.006.

26 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Conclusions

Results of this study show substantial variation in pain threshold and tolerance among 3rd and 4th grade schoolchildren drawn from a high-risk school district near Detroit, Michigan. Overall, we found that pain threshold and tolerance were highly correlated, and that pain threshold (but not tolerance) improved with age. Given that pain threshold and tolerance in the CPT are linked to autonomic function and the way that childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bodies respond to stress, the CPT may be useful for identifying children at highest risk of stress and associated negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety, school underperformance, cardiovascular disease). At-risk children can be targeted for behavioral interventions that can enhance autonomic functioning (e.g., mindfulness-based techniques) [8].

References

[1] Antworth, R. H. (2009). Factors associated with public school chronic absenteeism. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1126/stke.3302006pe18 [2] Birnie, K. A., Noel, M., Chambers, C. T., Von Baeyer, C. L., & Fernandez, C. V. (2011). The cold pressor task: Is it an ethically acceptable pain research method in children? Journal of Pediatric Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsq092 [3] Birnie, K. A., Petter, M., Boerner, K. E., Noel, M., & Chambers, C. T. (2012). Contemporary use of the cold pressor task in pediatric pain research: A systematic review of methods.

Journal of Pain. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2012.06.005 [4] Carlson, E. A., Sroufe, L. A., Collins, W. A., Jimerson, S., Weinfield, N., Hennighausen, K., â&#x20AC;Ś Meyer, S. E. (1999). Early environmental support and elementary school adjustment as predictors of school adjustment in middle adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558499141005 [5] Joyner, M. J. (2016). Preclinical and clinical evaluation of autonomic function in humans. Journal of Physiology. https:// doi.org/10.1113/JP271875 [6] Von Baeyer, C. L., Piira, T., Chambers, C. T., Trapanotto, M., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2005). Guidelines for the cold pressor task as an experimental pain stimulus for use with children. Journal of Pain. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2005.01.349 [7] Wehrwein, E. A., Orer, H. S., & Barman, S. M. (2016).

Overview of the Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology of the Autonomic Nervous System. Comprehensive Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c150037 [8] Zenner, C., Herrnleben-Kurz, S., & Walach, H. (2014).

Mindfulness-based interventions in schools-A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(JUN). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00603

27 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Investigating the Effectiveness of Bacteriocin and Silver Nanoparticles By: Yunha Jo || Art By: Jessie Gan Abstract

With food waste as one of the major issues faced by the world, many countries are looking to develop different methods to reduce the waste. One of the possible methods is the use of bacteriocin, ribosomally-synthesized bacterial antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria and silver nanoparticles, which are known to enhance antibacterial activities. The objective of this research was to test the effectiveness of bacteriocin produced from l.sakei combined with silver nanoparticles produced from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The effectiveness of bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles were tested against Escherichida Coli and Staphylococcus aureus, major bacteria in causing food-borne diseases in humans.

Introduction

Food waste has been one of the major issues faced by countries around the world, with almost one-third of food produced being wasted [1]. The economic losses due to food

waste amount to 1.3 billion USD, around 900 million dollars in environmental costs and 400 million dollars in social costs.

[2] As a result of this loss, many countries are looking for ways to solve this issue. Some of the current approaches to solving the issue include extending shelf-life of food products. New types of food packaging such as edible coatings and modified atmosphere storage are used to extend the shelf life. [4] Another method would be to use bacteriocin.

Bacteriocins are ribosomally-synthesized bacterial antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria. [5] They can kill or inhibit bacterial strains closely related or nonrelated. These characteristics of bacteriocins are effective for controlling bacterial growth in different medium, and as a result, bacteriocins are most often used as food preservatives, anti-biofilm agents, and additives or alternatives to existing antibiotics. [6] Bacteriocins are produced from lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which is a group that occurs naturally in food and have been used in dairy products safely. [7] This makes bacteriocin a great alternative to chemical preservatives.

Bacteriocin can be produced from lactobacillus sakei, which can be found in kimchi, Korean fermented vegetables. [8] The effectiveness of bacteriocins can be enhanced through the use of nanoparticles. Studies have shown that nanoparticles improve properties and antibacterial activities of bacteriocins.

[9] Silver nanoparticles have proven to be especially effective in enhancing the antibacterial activities of bacteriocins. [9] Due to this, silver nanoparticles will be used in the experiment in order to investigate how the

28 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

effectiveness of bacteriocins change when silver nanoparticles are added. Silver nanoparticles can be synthesized from different methods, including physical, chemical, and biological methods. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) can be used in synthesis of silver nanoparticles and have been proven to have a potential role as antibacterial agents. [10] Silver nanoparticles synthesized from TCM will be used in the experiment.

The objective of this research is to test the effectiveness of bacteriocin produced from l.sakei combined with silver nanoparticles produced from TCM. In order to test this, Escherichida Coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were used, as they are major bacteria in causing foodborne diseases in humans. [11] As applications of the research, films that contained bacteriocin and nanoparticles were developed.

Preliminary Experiment and Results

In order to determine which substance was most effective for creating bacteriocin, a preliminary experiment was done.

First, a culture medium was created using 11.5g of De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) Agar and 35g of Nutrient Agar.

MRS Agar and Nutrient Agar were then each dissolved in 500 mL of distilled water in separate flasks. The flasks were placed into the autoclave for 15 minutes at 121 degrees Celsius, then poured onto the Petri dishes and set to cool to create culture mediums.

Secondly, the lactobacillus was cultured. 100 μl of kimchi, yogurt, and probiotics liquid were extracted and put into Eppendorf tubes (microtubes). Then, 20 μl of each liquid were measured using a pipette then poured onto Petri dishes.

Each of the liquid was streaked using loops, sealed, then put into an incubator to cultivate lactobacillus. After a couple of days, the Petri dishes were taken out of the incubator and examined for the appearance of lactobacillus. As kimchi exhibited the most growth, kimchi lactobacillus was utilized to test for effectiveness against bacteria.

Cultivated kimchi lactobacillus was scraped off using a loop then put into a microtube containing 100 μl MRS broth.

The optical density for the mixture was then measured. The microtube was placed into a centrifuge to separate bacteriocin from the liquid. After the centrifuge, the mixture was filtered using a supernatant filter. 20 μl of S. Aureus and E. Coli were measured, poured onto two Petri dishes, then spread across the dishes to create bacterial lawns. Dispense discs were then placed on each dish and 10 μl of filtered lactobacillus were poured onto the discs. The dishes were then placed in an incubator at 37°C and observed for a few days. After a few days, the dishes yielded no significant results.

In order to create effective bacteriocin, 100 μl of kimchi, yogurt, and probiotics were poured into the microtube along with MRS broth. The microtubes were then placed into an incubator. After a few days, the liquids in microtubes were 29 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

taken out, filtered, and tested for effectiveness against E. Coli and S. Aureus using the same methods described above.

The clear zone was observed for kimchi lactobacillus against E.Coli bacterial colonies.

These results indicated that kimchi lactobacillus was the most effective in creating bacteriocin, so in the following experiments, kimchi lactobacillus and L.sakei were used.

Bacteriocins were created from lactobacillus grown from L.sakei. Lactobacillus was dissolved in distilled water, centrifuged, then filtered in order to get bacteriocin.

Procedures and Results Part 1: Bacteriocin and Silver Nanoparticles Produced from TCM Extract

50 grams of TCM waste and 200 mL of distilled water were mixed in a 2-liter Erlenmeyer flask then placed into Autoclave for 80 minutes. The mixture was then put into a centrifuge, then the supernatant was put into microtubes.

Next, the effectiveness of bacteriocin produced from TCM extract was determined. In the first microtubes, 1 mL of TCM extract and 20 μl of lactobacillus were mixed. 1 mL of TCM extract was put into another microtube to act as a control group. In the third Eppendorf tube, 1 mL of MRSB and 20 μl of lactobacillus was mixed. 1 mL of MRSB was put into a microtube to act as the control. In the final microtube, 500 μl of TCM extract and 500 μl of AgNO3 were placed. All five microtubes were placed into an incubator and left for three days. After three days, the microtubes were taken out and their optical densities were measured.

Table 1: Comparing Optical Densities of MRSB-grown bacteriocin and TCM Extract-grown bacteriocin

Figure 1: Mixture of 500 μl of TCM and 500 μl of AgNO3

As shown in the table, lactobacillus grown from TCM extract had a significantly low amount compared to lactobacillus grown from MRS B. On the other hand, it was shown that Silver nanoparticles can be produced from TCM extracts. Thus, TCM was chosen as the medium for cultivating silver nanoparticles and not bacteriocin.

Part 2: Determining the Effectiveness of Bacteriocin and Silver Nanoparticles

In order to determine if bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles indeed had better effectiveness, a series of experiments was done. Agar and Pullulan were used to observe their characteristics and determine which one was most suitable for creating films in the end.

Six microtubes were prepared. In three microtubes, 1 mL of Pullulan was poured. In the other three, 1 mL of Agar was poured. In one microtube, 200 μl of Silver Nitrate was placed.

In another microtube, 50 μl of bacteriocin were placed. In the final microtube, 200 μl of Silver Nitrate and 50 μl of bacteriocin was placed. These steps were repeated with three other microtubes, with the new microtubes containing 1 mL Agar instead of 1mL Pullulan. This way, the effects of bacteriocin, Silver Nanoparticles, and the combined effects could be observed, as well as the characteristics of Agar and Pullulan.

Two culture mediums were prepared. 20 μl of E.coli were then spread onto one medium and 20 μl of S.aureus on the other. Six disc papers were prepared. Two of the disc papers were dipped into microtubes containing Pullulan from above then each placed on a different culture medium. In the end, two culture mediums were produced, each with three disc papers each dipped in different solutions in the microtubes.

These disc papers were then placed into incubators for three days and changes were observed.

For Agar, each of the disc papers was placed onto different culture mediums and bacterial growth was observed for each of the mediums.

Figure 2: On left: Petri dish with E.Coli with Pullulan mixtures. On right: Petri dish with S.aureus with Pullulan mixtures

Figure 3 Pictures of individual disc papers dipped in pullulan observed under a microscope. A) E.coli and bacteriocin. B) E.Coli and silver nanoparticles. C) E.coli with bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles D) S.aureus and bacteriocin. E) S.aureus and silver nanoparticles.

F) S.aureus with bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles

Figure 4 Petri dishes spread with E.coli and S.aureus with discs dipped in AgarA) E.coli. B) E.coli with bacteriocin. C) E.Coli with silver nanoparticles. D) E.coli with silver nanoparticles and bacteriocin. E) S.aureus. F) S.aureus with bacteriocin. G) S.aureus with silver nanoparticles. H) S.aureus with silver nanoparticles and bacteriocin.

Notice that clear zones were observed around Silver nitrate and bacteriocin mixture in S.aureus and E.coli. This demonstrates that the effectiveness of bacteriocin indeed increases when mixed with silver nitrate. Furthermore, seeing that the clear zone around the paper disc dipped into bacteriocin and silver nitrate mixture was the biggest.

With this, it can be concluded that the mixture is the most effective.

Differences between Pullulan and Agar were also observable. While Pullulan remained as a solution even after a long time, Agar quickly hardened after a little period of time. In addition, Pullulan melted when put

30 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

into water, while Agar absorbed water. Considering the nature of the investigation and possible applications as bio preservative films, it was decided that Pullulan would be better for creating films because Pullulan would be more effective in releasing Bacteriocin and Silver nanoparticles into food products.

Part 3: Testing the Effectiveness of Different Combinations

Given that the effectiveness of Bacteriocin increases when silver nitrates are added, an investigation into whether bacteriocin and silver nitrates could both be cultivated from TCM waste. Silver nitrates can be produced from lactobacillus as well. This indicates that when lactobacillus and silver nitrates are both cultivated from the same medium, the growth of lactobacillus may decrease after a certain amount of time.

Eleven different test tubes were prepared. (From now on, these test tubes will be referred by their numbers)

The test tubes were placed into an incubator and changes were observed after 7 days.

Next, the effectiveness of these mixtures in inhibiting bacterial growth was determined. On the first culture medium, E.coli was spread, then five disc papers each dipped in test tubes 2, 5, 8, 10, and 11 were placed. On the first culture medium, E.coli was spread, then five disc papers each dipped in test tubes 2, 5, 8, 10, and 11 were placed. On the second culture medium, E.coli was spread, then five disc papers each dipped in test tubes 3, 6, 9, 10, and 11 were placed. These steps were repeated with S.aureus in two more culture mediums.

All four culture mediums were placed in an incubator for two days and the following changes were observed.

Figure 6 Petri dishes with Paper Discs dipped into the solutions A) E.Coli with solutions 2, 5, 8, 10, 11. B) S.aureus with 2, 5, 8, 10, 11. C) E.Coli with 3, 6, 9, 10, 11. D) S.aureus with 3, 6, 9, 10, 11

The results of the experiment showed that bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles had greater effectiveness in inhibiting bacterial growth. It also showed that 0.3 mL of silver nanoparticles was most effective.

Part 4: Determining Cultivation Methods of Bacteriocin and Silver Nanoparticles

Table 2: Test tubes and their contents

Figure 5: Test Tubes 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 (Note 1, 4, and 7 were taken out because silver nitrates were not added)

31 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Next, it was observed whether the effectiveness increased when bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles were cultivated using different methods.

First, 200 ul of bacteriocin from lactobacillus were prepared then mixed with 300 μl of Pullulan. 200 ul of TCMcultivated silver nanoparticles were mixed with 300 μl of Pullulan as well. Then, 100 μl of bacteriocin, 100 μl of silver nanoparticles, and 300 μl of Pullulan were mixed. Finally, 200 μl of the mixture from test 5 above were mixed with 300 μl of Pullulan. The four mixtures were placed into an oven for 30 minutes until they became films. These films were then placed onto four culture mediums with E.coli spread onto them. The changes were observed for the following days.

The results showed that bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles mixed together after cultivated differently have better effectiveness against bacteria.

Figure 7: Films created from different mixtures A) E.Coli with Bacteriocin. B) E.Coli with Silver Nanoparticles.

C) E.Coli with B and Ag mixture. D) E.Coli with B and Ag cultivated from the same medium.

Discussion

Although bacteriocin and silver nanoparticles were not tested on food products, the experiment has yielded enough results to demonstrate that bacteriocins and silver nanoparticles will be effective in extending the shelf life of products. The films made using bacteriocins and silver nanoparticles could be used in extending the shelf-life of liquid products such as soup as they readily dissolve in water.

Since bacteriocins are already being used in dairy products, the films can also be applied to those products.

The users of the films can also control the amount of silver nanoparticles and bacteriocin present in the films. The results of the research have demonstrated that the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles and bacteriocin differ based on how much are present, so the users can manipulate the amounts to obtain maximum efficacy. Different amounts can be used for different purposes across fields.

In addition to this, the dangers of silver nanoparticles have to be considered. The toxicity of silver nanoparticles have been researched thoroughly: once silver nanoparticles are transported to cellular and orgasmic levels, they can be quite deadly to humans. [12] This issue can possibly be solved by controlling the amounts of silver nanoparticles and bacteriocin that are put into the films. Creation of bacteriocin may hinder growth of silver nanoparticles, so by adding more bacteriocin to the films, it can minimize the possible dangers posed by silver nanoparticles.

Citations

[1] Schanes, Karin, et al. “Food Waste Matters - A Systematic Review of Household Food Waste Practices and Their Policy Implications.” Journal of Cleaner Production, Elsevier, 8 Feb. 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0959652618303366.

[2] “FAO.org.” Food Loss and Food Waste | Policy Support and Governance | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Policy Support and Governance | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao. org/policy-support/policy-themes/ food-loss-food-waste/en/.

[3] “What Governments, Farmers, Food Businesses – and You – Can Do about Food Waste.” FAO, www.fao.org/news/

story/en/item/196377/icode/.

[4] Saini, Gaganpreey Kaur. “Extending the Shelf Life of Agricultural Products: Five Approaches for Success.” Global Food Safety Resource, 18 Aug. 2017, globalfoodsafetyresource. com/extending-the-shelf-life-of-agricultural-productsfive-approaches-for-success/.

[5] Yang, Shih-Chun, et al. “Antibacterial Activities of Bacteriocins: Application in Foods and Pharmaceuticals.”

Frontiers in Microbiology, Frontiers Media S.A., 26 May 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033612/.

[6] Hammami, et al. “Editorial: Application of Protective Cultures and Bacteriocins for Food Biopreservation.”

Frontiers, Frontiers, 21 June 2019, www.frontiersin.org/ articles/10.3389/ fmicb.2019.01561/full.

[7] Silva, et al. “Application of Bacteriocins and Protective Cultures in Dairy Food Preservation.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 15 Mar. 2018, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ fmicb.2018.00594/full.

[8] Kwon, Min-Sung, et al. “Lactobacillus Sakei WIKIM30 Ameliorates Atopic Dermatitis-Like Skin Lesions by Inducing Regulatory T Cells and Altering Gut Microbiota Structure in Mice.” Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers Media S.A., 14 Aug. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pmc/ articles/PMC6102352/.

[9] Fahim, Hazem A, et al. “Nanotechnology: A Valuable Strategy to Improve Bacteriocin Formulations.” Frontiers in Microbiology, Frontiers Media S.A., 16 Sept. 2016, www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5026012/.

[10] Sun, Wenjie, et al. “Enhanced Stability and Antibacterial Efficacy of a Traditional Chinese MedicineMediated Silver Nanoparticle Delivery System.”

International Journal of Nanomedicine, Dove Medical Press, 26 Nov. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC4251751/.

[11] Gutiérrez, Diana, et al. “Incidence of Staphylococcus Aureus and Analysis of Associated Bacterial Communities on Food Industry Surfaces.” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology, 15 Dec. 2012, aem.asm.org/content/78/24/8547.

[12] Stensberg, Matthew Charles, et al. “Toxicological Studies on Silver Nanoparticles: Challenges and Opportunities in Assessment, Monitoring and Imaging.”

Nanomedicine (London, England), U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3359871/.

32 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

THE Written By

Jonathan Lu

GOOD Psilocybin and the Future of Psychedelic Medicine

TRIP ARt By

Amy Ge

*Disclaimer: this article is not meant in any way to encourage the use of illicit substances. Psychoactive medicine is often extremely potent and should only be used under the prescription of a licensed medical professional or in a clinically safe setting. Research on psilocybin is still very preliminary and at least several more years of testing should be undertaken before any definitive conclusions on its safety or effects are made.*

Awakening “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Famously declared

by Dr. Timothy Leary in reference to the psychedelic experience, these words became the defining ethos of the 1960s counterculture movement. Known for its hippie culture and political activism, the movement waged war against traditional values and standards, calling for racial and gender equality, sexual liberation, and an end to the war in Vietnam. But what fueled many of these protests were the potent psychedelics lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and magic mushrooms, drugs supposedly used to reach higher realms of consciousness.

Their hallucinogenic effects gripped the nation as America was sent for a rough and difficult spiritual awakening.

In an effort to control the social disarray, the government classified psychedelics as Schedule I Drugs [1], outlawing both recreational and scientific use.

However, even after the counterculture movement ended, the regulations endured and locked away the chemicals for decades. But recently, a Johns Hopkins research team led by Dr. Roland Griffiths has revitalized research on a psychedelic called psilocybin, the active ingredient in the Psilocybe genus of mushrooms (magic mushrooms), and their findings are promising. Their initial investigations into the chemical’s therapeutic and spiritual effects call for a profound reinvention of our understanding of the brain and foretell of an emergence of psychedelics into mainstream medicine.

33 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

A Taste of the Mystical Interestingly, psychedelic use by humans is nothing new. Magic mushrooms have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and could have actually played a key role in the cultural evolution of early humans. Commonly found growing on the feces of grass-grazing animals, the mushrooms might have been harvested by early hunter-gatherers, who then found themselves in for a profound, revelatory “trip.”

Modern humans also seem to have developed an interest in these fungi, but this time, they’re taking a deeper, more scientific look into its effects. In a 2006 study conducted by Dr. Griffiths, researchers gave healthy volunteers a high dose of psilocybin (30 mg/70 kg) and recorded its effects. Unsurprisingly, the participants experienced perceptual changes and hallucinogenic effects; however, they also recounted feeling spiritual emotions like “sanctity” and “transcendence” and encountering the “ultimate reality.” Even two months after the experiment, “67% of the volunteers rated the experience with psilocybin to be either the single most meaningful experience of his or her life or among the top five most meaningful experiences of his or her life,” comparable to the “birth of a first child or death of a parent” [2]. Continued follow-up revealed increased positive mood, better social relationships and other emotional benefits lasting up to a year.

In experiments performed with psychologically distressed participants, the results are even more fascinating. With Dr. Griffiths again leading the charge, the research team conducted a randomized, double-blind trial with terminally-ill cancer patients, aiming to measure psilocybin’s effect on people with severe depression and death anxiety. Patients were given either a low dose (1-3 mg/70 kg) or a high dose (22-30 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin, with the low dose serving as the control group. Notably, researchers found that the high dose treatment group reported significant decreases in clinician-and self-rated measures of depression and anxiety (Figure 1). In about 80% of the patients, improvements in mood and sense of life-meaning were sustained at the 6 month follow up, and in 70%, their psychopathologies had remitted to a healthy level [3].

Dr. Stephen Ross, a fellow psilocybin researcher commented on the findings, stating “it is simply unprecedented in psychiatry that a single dose of a medicine produces these kinds of dramatic and enduring results” [4].

Additionally, research suggests that it is the “mystical experience,” or the hallucinogenic trip, itself that produces most of the positive effects of psilocybin, rather than its unseen neurochemical interactions. However, these hallucinations aren’t always guaranteed, and they often vary widely in intensity. In a study conducted with 15 longterm smokers, researchers combined cognitive behavior therapy with psilocybin treatment and measured its efficacy in curbing smoking addiction. After the treatment, 12 out of the 15 smokers (80%) reported abstinence enduring at least 6 months, confirmed by breath and urine testing.

They were then asked to rate their subjective encounter with the transcendental experience, and these ratings were then compared with corresponding ratings of the three smokers who didn’t abstain. Analysis showed that the smokers who did abstain reported higher ratings of mystical experience, even though the overall drug intensity was the same among both groups, thus suggesting that the “good trip” was crucial to many of the lasting benefits of psilocybin [5].

The Plunge

Figure 1: Effects of psilocybin on clinically significant response and symptom remission rate of depression and anxiety. Asterisks indicate that the low and high-dose groups were significantly different at 5 weeks (p>0.001); data shows that results were sustained at 6 month follow-up.

Terms of Use: This figure is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Full terms can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0/legalcode. It is attributed to Roland Griffiths, Matthew Johnson, Michael Carducci, Annie Umbricht, William Richards, Brian Richards, Mary Cosimano, Margaret Klinedinst. Original source: “Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial.” Journal of Psychopharmacology, doi:10.1177/0269881116675513 Volume 30, Issue 12, Pages 1181-1197. Published 2016 Nov 30 Published by SAGE http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5367557/?report=classic

Psilocybin has a wide range of psychological and physiological effects, though as stated above, its most profound consequences seem to arise from the transcendental experience or psychedelic “trip.” During the trip, psilocybin produces a host of perceptual changes, often causing auditory and visual hallucinations. Colors change in hue and intensity, objects appear to change shapes, and perceptions of time fall apart, with “minutes potentially feeling like hours and vice versa” [6]. Psilocybin also elicits intense mood changes, sharpening experience of positive emotions like euphoria/peace and less commonly, negative emotions like anxiety/fearfulness [2]. However, the mushrooms have comparatively milder physiological effects, mainly causing pupil dilation and occasionally, stomach discomfort, nausea, or vomiting [7].

Roughly an hour after ingestion, the chemical begins to take full effect, typically with a sudden transition from reality to the mystical. This abrupt plunge often elicits emotions of anxiety and psychological distress, although these typically subside as the trip continues. Each dose of psilocybin lasts about 6-8 hours, but there are lingering effects that endure for several hours afterwards [8]. Any complex activity would likely be impossible during the peak of the “trip,” and even in the “comedown,” activities like driving are extremely dangerous.

34 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Although most psychedelic experiences include periods of anxiety and discomfort, there are occasionally “bad trips,” which are predominantly negative. These trips are often nightmarish and stressful, and time dilation can make them feel much longer. They may also cause feelings of anxiety or paranoia that persist for hours or even days after taking the drug. However, external stress-inducers like the person’s mindset or setting can have a big influence on the quality of the mystical experience. Thus, taking the drug in a familiar environment or with a sitter to provide reassurance can reduce the likelihood of going through a bad trip [7].

Severe physiological side effects from psilocybin are very unlikely: according to a 2017 Global Drug Survey [9], psilocybin is considered to be one of the safest drugs, less toxic than alcohol. In addition, psilocybin is generally considered non-addictive [10], as the mental and physical challenges of the psychedelic trip deter continued use. The human body also builds a tolerance to the drug very quickly, so a dose that might have induced a mystical experience today would likely not have a significant effect tomorrow [11].

Although psilocybin appears to be a relatively benign drug, medical professionals still regard it as mostly unsafe and unfit for recreational use. Indeed, researchers in the studies rigorously screened volunteers to ensure that certain medical conditions like bipolar disorder or anxiety disorder would not interfere with or be exacerbated by the drug [12].

Hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is another condition thought to arise from taking psilocybin, although evidence for it is sparse and poor quality. HPPD is more commonly caused by LSD and induces negative flashbacks of psychedelic hallucinations during normal, waking consciousness‒a never-ending trip. Indeed, many of the long-term side effects of taking mushrooms are relatively unknown; thus, psilocybin must be used carefully and prudently to avoid unexpected psychological trauma or

The Science Behind Psychedelics

To better understand psilocybin’s effects, scientists have started to delve deeper into its neurochemistry and interactions with the brain. Although psilocybin research is still nascent and relatively contentious, most scientists agree that the chemical has a similar structure to serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for regulating mood, aggression, cognitive function, sleep, etc [6, 14]. Higher levels of serotonin are correlated with increased sense of self-worth, happiness, and mental focus, while lower levels bring about depression, anxiety, and neuroticism [15]. Many modern antidepressants (i.e., Zoloft, Prozac) are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), and work to pharmacologically increase the amount of serotonin in the brain by preventing its reuptake after it’s been released into the synaptic gap between neurons.

35 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Since psilocybin is structurally similar to serotonin, it is hypothesized that the drug may interact with the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor in the brain, thereby eliciting its substantive and enduring effects [14].

In addition, psilocybin’s interactions with the serotonin receptors could provide evidence of its potential to stimulate new neurological development. Beyond serotonin, the 5-HT2A receptor also regulates the production of brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a molecule that controls neurogenesis (creation of new neurons) and neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to reorganize and form new connections). By interacting with these receptors, psilocybin may actually help the brain create new neurons, a process regarded as very rare in adult humans [16]. But indeed, studies have shown that psilocybin helps facilitate reorganization of the brain’s entire neural framework, sprouting new connections in previously unrelated regions [17]. There are also reports of drug-induced neurogenesis in mice, with most of the neurogenesis occuring in the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for memory and learning. Studies performed on mice and rabbits found that low doses of psilocybin helped them learn new behavior faster than their control group counterparts [16]. Although this research hasn’t been tested on human subjects yet, the findings indicate promising potential for psilocybin to improve cognitive function.

Psilocybin is also shown to induce noticeable and enduring personality changes among adult humans.

According to researcher Katherine MacLean, “personality rarely changes much after the age of 25 or 30,” so the dramatic effects of magic mushrooms are incredibly intriguing [18].

Studies have shown that psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions by decreasing activity in the amygdala, the region of the brain responsible for processing emotions like fear and anxiety [19]. By lowering amygdala activity, psilocybin elevated moods in healthy volunteers, lowering personality trait neuroticism and increasing openness.

Continued research into psychedelics may yield even more profound benefits that have been locked away for decades due to administrative regulation. However, as frontiersmen like Dr. Roland Griffiths and Dr. Stephen Ross continue to push for academic legalization, the scientific world is waking up to the potential of psychedelics as therapeutic and spiritual endeavors, offering new insights into the strange universe we call home.

Return to reality Beyond laboratory tests and clinical trials, psilocybin is making headway into the mainstream, with cities like Denver, Colorado and Oakland, California decriminalizing1 its usage. The FDA has also been reexamining psilocybin, designating it as a “breakthrough therapy” for the treatment of severe depression, a status used to help accelerate research on a drug that shows potential for substantive improvements over existing medication [20].

It’s easy to understand why psychedelics seem so unpalatable at first glance. Losing touch with reality is often quite terrifying, and the drug craze of the 1960s left a bad impression on the public. But perhaps the verdict was cast too soon. Perhaps it’s time to exhume these maligned fungi from the archives of history.

Psilocybin could hold incredible therapeutic potential for our increasingly psychologically distressed society, and it may also hold the key to a long-lost higher state of consciousness. Its effects are nothing less than profound, and future research may call for a complete reinvention of the psychopharmaceutical industry and a new, spiritual understanding of the human brain.

Notes: 1. Decriminalization is often conflated with legalization, but the terms actually describe distinct legal statuses.

Decriminalization of psilocybin removes its major, legal consequences, but its use is still technically illegal.

Law enforcement deems its recreational use as of little importance, and when prosecuted, possession would not lead to criminal punishment but rather a civil fine. Legalization of psilocybin, however, would remove all legal prohibitions against it, including manufacturing and distribution.

References

[2] Griffiths RR, Richards WA, Mccann U, Jesse R. Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology. 2006;187(3):268-283. doi:10.1007/ s00213-006-0457-5 [3] Griffiths RR, Johnson MW, Carducci MA, et al. Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2016;30(12):1181-1197. doi:10.1177/0269881116675513 [4] Psilocybin Decreases Depression and Anxiety in Some Cancer Patients.

The Scientist Magazine®. https://www.the-scientist.com/the-nutshell/psilocybindecreases-depression-and-anxiety-in-some-cancer-patients-32423.

Accessed March 25, 2020.

[5] Garcia-Romeu A, Griffiths R, Johnson M. Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction. Current Drug Abuse Reviews.

2015;7(3):157-164. doi:10.2174/1874473708666150107121331 [6] Psilocybin. drugscience.org.uk. https://drugscience.org.uk/druginformation/psilocybin/#323651718174051. Accessed March 25, 2020.

[7] Kathleen Davis FNP. Psilocybin and magic mushrooms: Effects and risks.

Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/308850#abusepotential. Published January 17, 2019. Accessed March 25, 2020.

[8] T B. How Long Does Psilocybin Stay in Your System? Verywell Mind. https:// www.verywellmind.com/how-long-does-psilocybin-stay-in-your-system-80319.

Published October 28, 2019. Accessed March 25, 2020.

[9] Winstock A, Barratt M, Ferris J, Maier L. Global Drug Survey 2017.

Global Drug Survey. https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/wp-content/themes/ globaldrugsurvey/results/GDS2017_key-findings-report_final.pdf. Published May 24, 2017. Accessed March 25, 2020.

[10] Johnson MW, Griffiths RR, Hendricks PS, Henningfield JE. The abuse potential of medical psilocybin according to the 8 factors of the Controlled Substances Act. Neuropharmacology. 2018;142:143-166. doi:10.1016/j. neuropharm.2018.05.012 [11] Are psilocybin mushrooms addictive? Drug Policy Alliance. https://www. drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/are-psilocybin-mushrooms-addictive. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[12] Mitrokostas S. 10 potential risks of taking ‘magic’ mushrooms. Insider. https://www.insider.com/are-magic-mushrooms-dangerous-2019-1.

Published January 24, 2019. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[13] Hatfield RC. Effects of Psilocybin Mushrooms: Hallucinogenic Shrooms.

DrugAbuse.com. https://drugabuse.com/psilocybin-mushrooms/effects-use/.

Published December 12, 2019. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[14] Rupp M. Psychedelic Drugs and the Serotonergic System. Sapiensoup Blog. https://sapiensoup.com/serotonin. Published May 31, 2017. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[15] Bergland C. The Neurochemicals of Happiness. Psychology Today. https:// www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201211/the-neurochemicalshappiness. Published November 29, 2012. Accessed March 29, 2020.

[16] Varley TVT, Varley T, Ba, Hampshire College, Ba, Hampshire College. Do psychedelics trigger neurogenesis? Here’s what we know. Psymposia.

[17] Brodwin E. How Tripping On Mushrooms Changes The Brain. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/magic-mushrooms-change-brainconnections-2014-10. Published October 29, 2014. Accessed March 26, 2020.https:// www.psymposia.com/magazine/do-psychedelics-trigger-neurogenesis-hereswhat-we-know/. Published November 9, 2019. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[18] Pappas S. ‘Magic Mushrooms’ May Permanently Alter Personality.

LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-personalitylong-term.html. Published September 29, 2011. Accessed March 26, 2020.

[19] Kraehenmann R, Preller KH, Scheidegger M, et al. Psilocybin-Induced Decrease in Amygdala Reactivity Correlates with Enhanced Positive Mood in Healthy Volunteers. Biological Psychiatry. 2015;78(8):572-581. doi:10.1016/j. biopsych.2014.04.010 [20] Saplakoglu Y. FDA Calls Psychedelic Psilocybin a ‘Breakthrough Therapy’ for Severe Depression. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/psilocybindepression-breakthrough-therapy.html. Published November 25, 2019. Accessed March 29, 2020.

[1] Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) Uses, Effects & Hazards. Drugs.com. https://www.drugs.com/illicit/psilocybin.html#legal-status. Accessed March 25, 2020.

36 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

ACS San Diego Local Section The San Diego Local Section of the American Chemical Society is proud to support JOURNYS. Any student in San Diego is welcome to get involved with the ACS San Diego Local Section. Find us at www.sandiegoacs.org! Here are just a few of our activities and services:

Chemistry Olympiad

The International Chemistry Olympiad competition brings together the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most talented high school students to test their knowledge and skills in chemistry. Check out our website to find out how you can participate!

ACS Project Seed

This summer internship provides economically disadvantaged high school juniors and seniors with an opportunity to work with scientist-mentors on research projects in local academic, government, and industrial laboratories.

College Planning

Are you thinking about studying chemistry in college? Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where to start?

Refer to our website to learn what it takes to earn a degree in chemistry, the benefits of finding a mentor, building a professional network, and much more!

www.sandiegoacs.org 37 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

President Kevin Song

Editor-in-Chief Jessie Gan, Katherine Izhikevich

Vice Presidents Jade Nam, Gwennie Liu

Assistant Editor-in-Chiefs Jenny Han, Jason Cui

Coordinators Ben Hong, Riya Irigireddy, Ashvin Kumar, Erica Wang

Copy Editor Grace Zhou

Contributing Writers Soyoung Amy Cho, Philippe Tok, Sehee Oh, Yong Kyung Jo, Aafnan Alam, Mahbuba Sumiya, Yunha Jo, Johnny Lu

Contributing Editors Rhea Gandhi, Jenny Han, Jerry Huang, Ore James, Sumith Nalabolu, Mahbuba Sumiya, Rinna Yu, Aidan Zhang

Design Manager Kevin Song Designers Gwennie Liu, Irene Pi, Kevin Song, Jessica Yu Scientist Review Board Members Ceren Yardimci Tumay, James Gerber, Benjamin Grinstein, Aneesh Manohar, John Allen, Ricardo Borges, Christina Hoong, Tapas Nag Staff Advisor Mrs. Mary Ann Rall

Graphics Manager Amy Ge Assistant Graphics Manager Julia Liu Graphic Artists Jessie Gan, Amy Ge, Lilian Kong, Seyoung Lee, Lesley Moon Web Designer Logan Levy

Dear Valued Reader, Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re very excited to present the first issue of the 2020-21 JOURNYS cycle, Issue 12.1! First, we would like to thank our amazing staff members and give a shoutout to our dedicated editing staff and Vice Presidents. In addition, we would like to express our gratitude to our graphics and design managers and artists for their time and patience despite our inability to hold workshops.

As many of you know, COVID-19 has shifted our world in unprecedented ways, and JOURNYS has done its best to flexibly adapt to the situation weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve all been thrown into. As a science journalism organization, JOURNYS continues to advocate for public knowledge and spread scientific news in these trying times.

We ask our readers to consider the importance of being informed of the world around us and staying in touch with how STEM impacts our daily lives. Our goal has always been, and continues to be, to establish a collaborative community to make scientific knowledge and high school research accessible to pre-collegiate students. Science communication is now more important than ever before, and we would like to commend the authors who continued to spread scientific awareness in the current situation.

In addition, we would like to continue to thank our strong supporters, the American Chemical Society and Brain Corp, for their generosity in funding us to make our work possible, and our scientist review board members, for donating their valuable time. These are the scientists and professors who believe in the potential of young, driven STEM students, and are encouraging the future generation of researchers, engineers, and science journalists.

Going forward, we already have issue 12.2 in process and an overwhelming number of submissions for further publication.

We are glad to see that the pandemic has opened up opportunities for students to try their hand at science journalism, and we hope that you are as excited as we are to see what the future has in store for JOURNYS. Thank you for your continued support, and stay safe!

Kevin & Jessie 38 | JOURNYS | FALL 2020

Journal of Youths in Science

2020-2021