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  Maoist Women Voices

  Marcos Gallo, Amber Bullock, Scott Sweeten, Stéfanie J. Morris, and Joshua D. Sims

  Mao Zedong, the leader of China's communist revolution, promised liberation from exploitation for all, including for women. However, government inefficacy and social inertia impeded meaningful change. Women in Communist China under the rule of Mao Zedong found their voice through civic activity because communist reform policies failed to instate gender equality.

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  PAMs: A Growing Field in Pharmacological Drug Development

  Marcel Hall, J. Kolb, B. Todd Jr., D. Pugh, B. Vance, B. Klienstuber, R. Drecketts, Doris Jackson, H. R. Arias, and S. N. Sudweeks

  Positive Allosteric Modulators (PAMs) are a growing field in pharmacology. PAM-5 and genisteincause acetylcholine (ACh) to elicit larger currents on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) without activating the channel themselves. In effect, PAMs increase the amplitude of currents at a synapse without altering the normal firing rate of the neurons.

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  Dead Men Speak: What Fremont Burials say about Fremont Society

  Rachel Hansen

  This project examined Fremont burials to determine whether the Fremont were a rank society. Because the data show that there are not elaborate burials with many grave goods the Fremont did not have rank differences in social status. It appears that the Fremont did have specialized ritual leaders (shamans).

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  Explaining Demographic Differences in Marital Quality: The Role of Mental and Physical Health

  Kara Henderson, Jessica Harris, Spencer Young, and Spencer James

  A vast body of literature has measured the demographic differences in marital quality. According to literature on marriage, the poorly educated, females, racial ethnic minorities, and premarital cohabitors report less marital satisfaction. The main focus and goal of our study is to link the various demographic differences with poor marital quality. Much of the research on marital quality has found a link between physical health and marital outcomes. The current research neglects the other factors of mental and physical health are related to marital satisfaction and conflict. We want to observe how mental and physical health may serve as mediators and as a link to demographic characteristics.

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  Novel Pharmacological Target: Characterization of a3b2 nAChRs expressed in Xenopus Laevis Oocytes

  Doris Jackson, Marcel Hall, J. Kolb, B. Todd Jr., D. Pugh, B. Vance, B. Klienstuber, R. Drecketts, and S. N. Sudweeks

  We have identified two subtypes of the novel a3b2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) found within interneurons of the hippocampus. This novel receptor may be a valuable pharmacological target in drug development for disease such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) which is largely characterized by degeneration of the hippocampus.

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  Neural Changes Associated with Rewards and Punishment Following Ego Depletion or Boredom

  Travis Z. Johnson, Michael Larson, Marina Milyavskaya, and Michael Inzlicht

  Our brain power is exhaustible. We are constantly trying to find ways to perform at our highest levels. There has been research that has shown that willpower--the capacity to exert self-control--is a limited resource that is depleted after exertion of the brain. Many studies have shown the negative effect that depletion has on daily decisions. Depletion can influence our day-to-day choices and actions in a variety of important ways. The neural mechanisms for ego-depletion are relatively unknown so our purpose is to measure the effects of ego-depletion, and then test ways that it can be decreased or reversed, thus finding a way to improve the negative effects of depletion.

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  Anxiety in college students: Implications from the CCMH database

  Payton Jones and G. Tyler Lefevor

  In 2013, an unprecedented 12.4% of college students were diagnosed or received treatment for an anxiety disorder. Using the Collegiate Center for Mental Health (CCMH) database, which includes data from over 140 university counseling centers, we analyzed covariates of anxiety concerns and the implications of these findings. We found that academic and financial concerns correlate highly with anxiety in college students, suggesting that the recent increase in college student anxiety may mirror the increases seen in the cost and importance of university education over the last few decades.

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  Treatment of Diabetic Neuropathy with Nitric Oxide Gel

  Daniel R. Lathen, David Walton, Yukino Strong, Jeff Ward, Conner Sugrue, Jonathan Trout, Devin Vanderwood, and Alonzo Cook Ph.D.

  Our study investigates a novel therapy to address a vascular factor that contributes to the development of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) using five experimental groups of a mouse model that spontaneously develops diabetes. The compound under investigation is a nitric oxide (NO)-donating topical gel which has potential as a treatment for preventing and treating DPN.

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  Mule Deer Habitat Along the Wasatch Front

  Aaron J. Snow, Brad Halsey, Mike Smith, and Kaytee Howell

  Mule deer are prominent ruminants across the Northwestern United States. Their sensitive biology makes their habitat hard to come by. Their habitat requires adequate bedding, cover, feeding ground, and close access to water year round. To avoid high winds, low temperatures and heavy snowfall, the winter months often require mule deer to descend from their high elevation homes to the lower elevation valley, particularly in search of food and water. Descending into the valley often means intersecting with urban sprawl. We primarily want to see if the Wasatch Mountains in Utah County provide adequate mule deer habitat and secondly see if it intersects with urban regions.

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  Popular Music: Sexually Saturated? A Content Analysis of Sexual References in Popular Music

  Meghan Terry, Mariah Ramage, Crystal Gardner, Jessica Van Alfen, and Emilee Gregson

  Adolescents and young adults listen to 2-3 hours of music per day. The sexual content of that music is important to identify formation and how they perceive sex and relationships, and genre of music can influence lyrics. This paper analyzes the effect that genre has on both presence and attitude of sexual references in popular music. The sample consisted of 200 of the best-selling songs on iTunes. Results suggest a significant relationship between both genre and presence of sexual references and genre and attitudes toward sex. This study shows that sexual content is prevalent in popular music and could suggest that the lyrics we listen to can impact the way we perceive the world.

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  Putting Arens to the Test

  Tyler A. Balli, Justin Cannon, Blake Brailsford, Aubrey Kartchner, and Hallie Johnson

  For our History 202 class, Professor Larsen assigned us to read excerpts from William E. Arens' book called The Man-Eating Myth. The premise of Arens' book is that all of the instances of one group accusing the other of cannibalism are fabricated. If one digs deeply enough, they will not find reliable first hand accounts of cannibalism. Professor Larsen encouraged us to pick a society that was accused of cannibalism and to investigate whether or not the accusations were valid or not. After researching our group came to the conclusion that Arens was wrong in the case of the Maori. There is so much evidence to support that the Maori were indeed cannibals. However we did come to find that Maori cannibalism had been grossly exaggerated and therefore believed to be more widespread and frequent than it probably was in reality. Our poster depicts that the practice of cannibalism did indeed occur amongst the Maori, but that it had been exaggerated by European missionaries and explorers.

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  More Money, Less Problems? New Answers to Aid Allocation Questions

  Jackson Beazer

  I wanted to investigate how the economic growth of developing countries affects the amount of aid it receives. In a study of the models previously used in aid allocation research, I noticed that the literature alternates between aid per capita and total commitment amounts as the dependent variable. After trying both, I found that economic growth is significant in the aid allocation models, but not in the aid per capita models. I hypothesized that while aid per capita models embody an individual focus on the needs of the recipient country, total aid allocation models embody more of a focus on overall donor strategy. In order to support this theory, I categorized the previous aid allocation studies by their main argument of aid allocation ("donor interest" or "recipient need") and the dependent variables they used. The literature matched up very cleanly with my theory. This not only suggests a new way to measure the allocation of aid, but potentially means that researchers have been cherry-picking results to support their hypotheses in this area of study.

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  Connecting to Disconnect: Internet Access and Loss of Trust in Pre-Arab Spring Egypt

  Rolf David Dixon Jr.

  Research has shown that seeking out and deliberating with like-minded individuals can contribute to the fragmentation and polarization of societies. The study posits that the internet can contributes to just such like-minded reinforcement, via a phenomenon called the echo chamber effect. An analysis of the World Values Survey of Egypt in 2001 supports the claim that the internet can contribute to fragmentation and polarization, as measured by a lack of trust. The analysis shows that access to the Internet, even as early as 2001, with the limited penetration it had in in Egypt at that time, still had a measurable, significant effect on national unity as measured by trust for neighbors.

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  Seeing a More Complete Worker: Religiosity, Income, & Job Satisfaction

  Rolf David Dixon Jr.

  A central assumption to the study of individuals in work settings it to study only the those factors directly connect to the work context. The purpose of this study is to examine whether a more holistic approach to a generally very compartmentalized phenomena, such as job satisfaction, is in order. Using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data collected in 2000, I examine the effects of religious attendance frequency of job satisfaction under the hypothesis that religious attendance will have a statistically significant effect on job satisfaction and that that effect will be positive. The results show that there is indeed a highly significant relationship between religious attendance and job satisfaction, but that relationship is negative, and that there is no interaction effect at different income levels. The findings are then discussed within the context of paving the the way for further incorporation of more ‘holistic’ models of how employees relate to their work as well as a discussion of possible mechanisms explaining the negative relationship found in the data.

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  The Effects of Relatedness, Age and Orphan Status on Child Discipline

  Annie Edwards and Jini Roby

  Objectives: To study the effect that a child’s relationship to the head of the household, age and/or orphan status has on the severity of discipline received by the child in the home. We also looked at the effects of parental education level, parental beliefs in the necessity of physical punishment and parental attitudes regarding domestic violence on these outcomes.

  Data & Methods: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MISC4), UNICEF, 2010, for Ghana (n=54,453), Iraq (n=239,218), Vietnam (n=45,091), Costa Rica (n=22,558) and Ukraine (n=34,889).

  Three latent variables were created to determine discipline severity: mild, medium, and severe. Discipline was considered mild if the adult a) took privileges or a well-liked object from the child, b) explained why the child’s behavior was wrong, or c) distracted the child by giving her something else to do. Discipline was considered medium if the adult a) shook the child, b) shouted at the child, or c) spanked the child on the bottom. Finally, discipline was considered severe if the child was a) struck with an object, b) called a degrading name, c) hit or slapped on the face, head or ears, d) hit or slapped on the limbs, or e) beat up or hit repeatedly as hard as possible. Discipline was scored as 0=no discipline, 1=mild discipline, 2=moderate discipline, and 3=severe discipline.

  Relatedness was measured by whether the child was the offspring of the head of the household, a relative of the head of household (such as a grandchild, or niece/nephew), or a non-relative. Orphan status was measured as being either a non-orphan or an orphan. UNICEF defines an orphan as a child who has one or both parents deceased. Children in the study ranged in age from 2-14 years old. The authors controlled for caregivers’ attitudes towards corporal punishment for children, domestic violence towards women and the education level of both men and women.

  Results: In Ukraine (p

  However, our study found that the most significant predictors of child discipline are: parent’s beliefs that children require physical punishment to be brought up correctly (p

  Conclusions: Children in kin-care living arrangements, and some orphans can be at higher risk for severe discipline. This is important information for those involved in child social welfare worldwide.

  Maltreatment of older children is under-reported and most research in this area is more than 20 years old.

  Child welfare is significantly improved when parents are educated. This also includes education about corporal punishment for children and domestic violence towards women.

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  The Uncomfortable Facts About Korean Comfort Women

  Adam Farrell

  During World War Two the Japanese Imperial Army forced women across Asia into sexual slavery. As many as 200,000 women were victims of systematic rape and abuse. A majority of these women were Korean. After the war, the surviving victims returned home, but the pain of their past did not go away. Many of these women continued to experience discrimination, PTSD and were often ostracized by their own people. Japan has yet to deliver a state redress and official apology to the comfort women. Japan’s denial of the horrors experienced by comfort women during World War Two weakens the efforts made for human and women rights made over the past century and validates current modern day war crimes involving sexual violence. It is imperative that Japan does this before the remaining comfort women are gone.

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  Counterterrorism in Authoritarian and Democratic Governments

  Tai Gray

  This research project aims to determine if significant differences exist in the types of counterterrorism used by authoritarian and democratic governments. A case study of the counterterrorism methods used by the United States and Chinese governments shows that authoritarian governments' methods seem to be more extreme due to a greater influence over domestic media and public opinion, but similarities in the realm of human rights also exist that could suggest a more similar response between the two regime types.

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  In the World but Not of It: Responses of LDS Leaders to the Vietnam War

  Luke Miller

  This poster presents a summary of original research based on public addresses given by LDS leaders during the Vietnam War era. It identifies and describes four different ideological perspectives on the Vietnam War that high-ranking LDS leaders publicly advocated during these years. Given the enormous amount of influence that LDS leaders in the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have over Mormons, an analysis of their views is critical to understanding the beliefs and opinions of LDS members. Understanding the main points of agreement and disagreement among LDS leaders serves as a starting point to elucidate the evolution of the LDS Church since the 1970s.

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  Time Spent Outside the Home and Marital Conflict

  Hannah E. Murray

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  Adolescent Body Dissatisfaction and Emotional Distress

  Marina Potter

  Based on data from a nationally representative survey of adolescents in the U.S., this study examines the association between body dissatisfaction and emotional distress, mediated by family, peer, and school relationships. In a sample of 5,110 adolescent girls, I use least squares regression to estimate the models. I find satisfaction with family relationships, self-esteem, time with friends, peer victimization, and feelings about school to be associated with emotional distress. In addition, body dissatisfaction remains the strongest predictor of emotional distress, even when all other variables are held constant.

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  Marital Satisfaction, Error-observation, and the Brain: Harmful or Beneficial Effects of Spouse Observation?

  Chelsea E. Romney, Michael Larson, Jonathan Sandberg, Patrick R. Steffen, and Scott Baldwin

  Introduction

  Rewarding marital relationships are associated with many positive outcomes in one’s physical and mental health, including improved cardiovascular functioning, decreased depression risk, higher self-reported levels of happiness, and overall lower rates of mortality. The purpose of this study was to observe the differences in performance monitoring between males and females (while being observed by their spouses) using error-related brain activity (ERN). ERN is a response-locked, negative deflecting event-related potential (ERP) that occurs 50-100 milliseconds following an error. Heightened (i.e., more negative) ERN amplitude is associated with stressful or anxiety-provoking situations. Conversely, dampened ERN amplitude (i.e., less negative ERN) may be associated with positive emotions, such as increased life satisfaction or belief in God. Knowledge about the effects a spouse has on their partner when observing them in a task will shed light on the effects of stress in everyday life and how a spouse can influence these experiences.

  Methods

  A total of 66 heterosexual married couples (132 individuals) participated in the study. These participants were 18-to 55-years old, right-handed, and native English speakers. Then, using a 128-electrode sensor electroencephalogram (EEG) net, their event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured. Event related potentials are changes in the brain's electrical waveforms due to responses toward stimuli. Behavioral data was recorded during performance on a computerized reaction time task. Each participant completed three conditions in random order: 1) observed by their spouse; 2) observed by an unfamiliar observer; 3) no observer. The observer was told to track the number of errors the participant was making.

  Results

  When being observed by their spouse, females experienced greater ERN amplitudes (i.e., more negative) than males F(2, 176) = 5.12, p = 0.007, h² = 0.06. There was increased brain activity to the spouse observer than the confederate observer.

  Discussion

  In conclusion, females experienced higher reactivity to their errors than males under observation from their spouse. Research shows a relationship between negative ERN amplitude and anxiety. Our results have implications for spousal interactions and the role anxiety plays, especially for the female spouse, when it comes to feeling supported or threatened during stressful situations (i.e., the computerized task).

  An additional interpretation may have to do with gender-related support systems. Current literature suggests that both males and females seek females for social support. Perhaps males are showing dampened reactivity while being observed by their wives because they feel supported by her as a female, rather than as a spouse.

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  Tell Me About Your Relationship Status

  Monica Stebbing and Ian Marsee

  In a case study of five we used Skyped interview sessions to analyze micro facial expressions and code participants responses which asked questions about their relationship status and their thoughts on marriage. What we found is a correlation between perceived relationship quality and participants views on marriage.

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  The Effects of Loss Aversion and Investment Type on the Sunk Cost Fallacy

  Veronika Tait and Harold Miller JR

  The sunk-cost fallacy (SCF) occurs when an individual makes an investment with a low probability of a payoff because an earlier investment has already been made. It is considered an error because a rational decision maker should not factor in now-irretrievable investments, as they do not affect current-outcome likelihoods. Previous research has measured the tendency to commit the SCF by using hypothetical scenarios in which participants must choose to make a future investment or not after making an initial investment. Loss aversion, the preference for uncertain over certain losses, may be related to SCF. In this study, participants were asked to complete a time, effort, and money questionnaire in which they could decide whether or not to continue investing in each hypothetical scenario. They also completed an endowment-effect task. A mixed design ANOVA indicated no significant difference in SCF occurrences across initial investment amount. There was a significant main effect of initial investment type, indicating SCF ccurrences were greatest when the initial investment type was money, less for time, and least for effort. Lastly, loss aversion was not positively related to SCF.

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  Attachment & Hope of Institutionalized and Reunified Children in Ghana

  Bryan A. Teuscher and Jini Roby

  Purpose: There are over two million children living in institutional care worldwide. Research consistently shows that living in institutions negatively affects children’s social attachments. The impact of orphanage care on perceived hope has received little attention. Increased hope is related to decreased feelings of depression, anxiety, and loneliness and increased academic achievement, adaptive coping styles, and even improved athletic performance. This study examined how hope for the future may be impacted by perceived social attachments.

  Methods: The sample consisted of 148 children aged 8-18 living in 13 orphanages in Ghana. The independent variable of attachment was made up of fourteen hypothetical situations in which the respondent was asked who they would like to join them for each scenario. The Children’s Hope Scale used six items on a six point Likert scale to assess the belief in one’s ability to pursue desired goals (agency) and use strategies to achieve them (pathway).

  Results: The mean score on the Children’s Hope Scale was 16.52 out of 36 with a standard deviation of 6.6. Ordinary least squares regression was used with the combined hope score as dependent variable and the combined social attachment score as independent variable, with gender, age, and number of siblings living in the orphanage serving as control variables. A significant relationship was found (b=.271; p

  Implications: When compared with average scores of hope in other child samples (27.03) the children living in orphanages showed nearly an eleven point lower average score on hope. Additionally, there is evidence to support the relation between increased social attachment figures and increased hope. Since orphanage care is so drastically related to poor attachment relationships it is likely that staying in orphanages also has a significant impact on a child’s level of hope for the future. The evidence of this study combined with previous research about orphanage care suggests that family based care is superior to institutional care.

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  The Segregating Effects of the Social Construction of Academic Quality

  Maika M. Tuala

  Brown v. Board concluded 60 years ago that “separate but equal” schools are “inherently unequal”. Yet, schools are more separate and unequal today than four decades ago. Take the district that I have been studying, for example. The north side has mostly affluent white students attending B+ schools while the south has 80 percent poor minorities in D+ Schools

  
  Ironically, school segregation practices are none existent, and today, poor minority parents have more opportunities to choose schools for their children rather than attending low performing zoned schools. In fact, this district offers ideal opportunities for school choice. The parents in my study can send their kids to any school they choose. Researchers show that parents list academic quality as the most important criterion when choosing schools. However, no research has asked how poor White and minority parents construct academic quality. In my thesis, I ask precisely this question, and my findings shed light on why this segregating line exists when theoretically it should not.

  
  To explore this question I randomly selected and interviewed 92 parents from the 11 schools in the southern region of the district. Two findings emerged. First, a majority of these parents insisted their children attended good schools, and they reject school grades as an indicator of academic quality. Why? Parents say, “Those grades speak more of the demographics of the school than the actual teachers”. They acknowledge that many parents, in the southern region, lack time and resources to supplement education. Second, they construct academic quality through three social interactions with enthusiastic teachers, passionate administrator, and happy children. These factors were consistently offered as evidence of a “good school”, despite low test scores.

  
  My work has two major implications. First, school choice theories assume parents will choose higher quality schools to maximize their children’s academic potential. However, not all parents think that school test scores and grades are accurate indicators of school quality. Rather, the parents in my study emphasize positive social interactions as superior evidence of school quality. Because school choice policies ignore how school quality is socially constructed differently by parents from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, school choice will continue to reinforce a line which segregates poor minorities from affluent Whites. Second, the finding that academic quality is socially constructed suggests that further reproduction of inequality and segregation will continue to exist. Unless policies address these issues directly, separate will still be “unequal”.