ikatkov/journal-of-student-research-hs-articles huggingface dataset:
Impact of Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles on Bacterial Growth
Authors: Jishnu Basu; Tiffany Grimes
Date: 11-20-2020

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease which causes the production of viscous mucus in airways which limits airflow and creates the perfect conditions for bacterial growth. Unfortunately, deaths due to bacterial infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients have increased as bacterial strains have developed antibiotic resistance.&nbsp; Researchers have found that silver nanoparticles offer a solution to growing antibiotic resistance due to how no resistance has been developed to them in clinical trials. Current research is focusing on the bio-synthesis of silver nanoparticles which does not produce the harmful waste products seen with the industrial production of silver nanoparticles. However, there is a lack of comparative research concerning the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles produced by different microorganisms, which is what the researcher’s work addressed. The researcher’s work primarily focused on determining how effective silver nanoparticles produced by different bacterial species were at inhibiting bacterial growth. Through the collection of nanoparticles via extracellular synthesis, antimicrobial assays were conducted to determine the efficacy of silver nanoparticles produced by different microorganisms. The results indicated that silver nanoparticles produced by B. subtilis were the most effective in inhibiting bacterial growth. This provides a crucial as research in the field should increasingly focus on bacteria which utilize assimilatory nitrate reduction like B. subtilis because of the increased efficacy of silver nanoparticles produced by this method in inhibiting bacterial growth in aerobic conditions. Advances in this area could increase the efficiency of nanoparticle production and make it viable for industrial production.
Plants are More Effective in Absorbing Volatile Organic Compounds from the Atmosphere than Air Purifiers
Authors: Aryaman Sokhal; Uttamesh Narayan
Date: 11-20-2020

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) have proved hazardous towards human health, especially Benzene and Formaldehyde. The research focussed on comparing the effectiveness of plants and air purifiers in absorbing VOCs from the atmosphere. The latter solution contains HEPA filters and activated carbon filters, both of which are known to absorb VOCs. Two variables were tested, which included the level of Formaldehyde (HCHO) and the level of Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC). The test was carried out by spraying equal amounts of deodorant in each room, one with the plant and one with the air purifier, to increase the amount of VOCs in the rooms in order to check how much was absorbed by the two levels of solutions. A pollution monitor was used to measure the VOC concentrations. After carrying out statistical analysis (paired sample t-tests) at the 95% confidence level on a software called JASP, it was shown that the plant used, Sansevieria Trifasciata, absorbed VOCs, especially Formaldehyde, more effectively than the air purifier.
Torsional Strength in Fused Filament Fabrication 3D Printing
Authors: Nathan Ng; Kate Flowers
Date: 11-20-2020

Among robotics enthusiasts, fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing has exploded in popularity. The ability to manufacture custom parts allows for a greater degree of freedom during the design phase. For example, mechanisms like the drivetrain, a hotbed of torsion forces, can be easily compressed to make room for additional functionality. However, such specific components are often unavailable for purchase. Therefore, the ability to manufacture custom torsionally resistant parts in an inexpensive manner is essential.  The objective of this study is to determine the FFF 3D printer settings that contribute significantly to a part’s torsional strength. This will be accomplished by altering either infill percentage or wall line count during printing while keeping all other settings constant among 30 individual test parts. Each part will be tested in a custom testing machine that applies a 9:1 gear reduction to simulate the maximum output torque of most hobbyist drivetrains. By measuring the amount of time each test part lasts before snapping, the setting granting the greatest increase in torsional strength can be determined.
A Violation of “One Country, Two Systems:” Chinese Encroachment on Hong Kong’s Democratic Autonomy
Authors: Ryan Selig, Bridget Gagne, Nick MacDonald
Date: 11-20-2020

Since 1997 Hong Kong has operated as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China under a policy known as “One Country, Two Systems.” An analysis of the critical period of 1997-2020 (which came to a close with the 2020 National Security Law) demonstrates the ways in which the People’s Republic of China has used its influence to limit the democratic autonomy and ideological independence of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. By breaking down China’s actions into three distinct sections of politics, media, and education this review addresses the many layers and facets of Chinese encroachment on the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. In the political sector, China has worked to limit democratic representation in Hong Kong via interference in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of Hong Kong’s government. In the field of media, China has used direct and indirect editorial action as well as economic influence to limit negative perceptions of Beijing. In the education system, China has taken a top-down approach to instill Chinese patriotism in Hong Kong’s curriculum to expand the support for China in Hong Kong’s youth. Tracking these violations of Hong Kong’s autonomy and also the people’s response demonstrates that although China continues to push the “One Country” aspect of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy, the people of Hong Kong will continue to fight for their freedoms as long as they have a voice.
A Novel Music Therapy Intervention Utilizing Pop Music to Reduce Adolescent Anxiety and Depression
Authors: Zhixing Huang; Natasha Duell
Date: 11-20-2020

The prevalence of adolescents' mental disorders, especially anxiety and depression, has become a critical social issue that needs to be addressed. Conventional music therapy could be a useful tool to help teens manage their symptoms. However, few kinds of research have explored the potential function of listening to pop music to improve adolescents’ mental state. This paper explored a pivotal approach to whether scientifically proven pop music can help prevent anxiety and depression. The paper developed a criterion that is used for selecting pop music with mentally beneficial elements and created a playlist with songs selected under the criterion. Two survey-based studies, containing a professional diagnosis scale and various questions, qualitatively and quantitatively examined the playlist’s emotional impact. In Study 1, results indicated that the playlist could relieve anxiety symptoms, with less influence in depression. In Study 2, regular control measures and qualitative questions proved that the selected music exerted its intended positive emotional effects onto the listener and indicated that listening to the music on a daily basis may be useful in improving and maintaining one’s healthy mental state. The results were promising and suggested great potential in future research. The scientific use of pop music as a self-help method beneficial in tackling anxiety and depression among teenagers could be a prospective field of study.
COVID-19: An Emotional Analysis
Authors: Udit Khattar; Mukesh Kumar
Date: 11-20-2020

In 2019, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread throughout the world. It was soon declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Following the declaration, many countries imposed lockdowns and various other restrictions on their citizens. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the differences in the emotional responses of the people, living in different countries, towards the lockdown. This was done by conducting an emotional analysis of the tweets of the citizens of Singapore, Italy, and USA after their respective governments’ announcement of the lockdown by using an emotion-analyzing software. The results showed that there were significant differences between the three selected countries in terms of several emotional responses measured. The study revealed that the differences were influenced by sociocultural differences of the respective societies, the citizens’ experience of the pandemic, and the efficacy of the government’s response.
Causal Inference with Mendelian Randomization to Explore Risk Factors of Diabetes
Authors: Amulya Agrawal
Date: 11-20-2020

Abstract—Since the dawn of time, health conditions have dictated life around the world. Gradually, through the advancement of medicine and technology, more and more treatments have been discovered to combat these conditions. One of these conditions is a disease known as diabetes. Even with a plethora of treatments being utilized by individuals internationally, diabetes continues to be the one of the leading causes of death worldwide [1]. Caused by a deficiency of insulin, a hormone created and released by the pancreas, diabetes renders individuals unable to effectively utilize glucose. With low amounts of insulin, cells cannot allow glucose to enter them and be used as energy for the body, leaving high amounts of glucose to build up in the bloodstream. Several factors have been suggested as a link to causing this insulin deficiency, resulting in diabetes. However, it is important to remember that there are two types of diabetes present, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. This report uses Mendelian Randomization to analyze contributing factors of Type 1 and 2 diabetes and explain the roles of confounds and genetics in the pathogenesis of the disease.
An Uncanny Partnership: Impact of Increased Awareness on Receptivity of Indian High Schoolers to Robot Teachers
Authors: Divyam Arora
Date: 11-20-2020

Robots have become an increasingly important part of our lives. They have been introduced in the education sector in the form of social robots with humanoid features that allow them to deliver lessons and interact with students. Despite the fact that research has shown that students aged 12 and below improve their learning when taught by robots and enjoy interacting with them, there are lingering concerns about their widespread use. The concerns include the lack of accountability, the impact of robots on normal socio-emotional development, and the dependence of robots on outside support. This research study aimed to assess the impact of increased awareness of the role of an assistant robot teacher in the classroom on the receptivity of high school students towards the inclusion of assistant robot teachers in the classroom. Specifically, the respondents were asked to rate their perceptions of the potential benefits of having an assistant robot teacher in the classroom before and after watching an informational video clip about an assistant robot teacher. The video clip features an Indian international school’s advocacy for the deployment of an assistant robot teacher. The results showed that the video clearly had a statistically positive impact on increasing the respondents’ receptivity towards having an assistant robot teacher. Based on the respondents’ responses, it is evident that they were clear about the strengths (vast knowledge repository, animation, graphics) and limitations (contextual response) of the robots.&nbsp;
The Effect of Temperature on the Spread of COVID-19
Authors: Shubh Goyal; Melanie Malinas
Date: 11-20-2020

This study analyzes the findings about the spread of COVID-19 in regions of varying temperatures. This paper will use the analysis of public data to conclude how impactful temperature is in determining the spread of COVID-19. In addition, this paper will shed light on some trends and some historical relevance to other pandemics similar in genetic makeup and growth. There have been numerous claims that higher temperatures will cause COVID-19 to diminish quickly and die out during the summer months. Other viruses like the flu and influenza are more common, and they display signs of seasonality. For example, the flu occurs in the Fall and Winter months which is why people get vaccines or flu shots in the preceding months. The conclusion about temperature’s significance could also highlight the stage of severity of the virus. If the cases, start to drop for example, one could conclude that the virus is past its peak and will die out soon. Several states from the United States were monitored for their daily cases and temperature before being averaged into three-day intervals to depict a smoother trend. Both variables are public and accessible to all. The states were divided into colder states(New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois) and hotter states(Texas, California, and Georgia). The results varied and displayed different trends. The colder states seemed to have gone past their peak and displayed a downward parabolic form. The temperature and cases displayed an inversely proportional relationship. The hotter states showed a constantly increasing case count with the graph showing a spike around the same time. The hotter states displayed an exponential trend and it is hard to predict when and how much they will peak. These two differing trends suggest that the effect temperature can have is not obvious across numerous areas. Therefore, temperature does not appear as a significantly impactful determinant in the growth of COVID-19.
Reactivity-guided de novo molecular design and high throughput virtual screening of a targeted library of peptidomimetic compounds reveals charge-based structure-activity relationship of potential covalent inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2
Authors: Stephanie Sun, Kavya Anand , Ishani Ashok, Bhavesh Ashok, Ayush Bajaj, Varsha Beldona , Kushal Chattopadhyay, Audrey Kwan, Karankumar Mageswaran, Anvi Surapaneni, Atri Surapaneni, Pranjal Verma, Allen Chen, Ria Kolala, Andrew Liang, Ayeeshi Poosarla, Krithikaa Premnath, Karthikha Sri Indran, Jeslyn Wu, Aishwarya Yuvaraj, Harsha Raj, Tanish Sathish, Aashi Shah, Sarah Su, Kara Tran, Edward Njoo
Date: 11-20-2020

In December of 2019, a novel coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China, and has since spread around the world, leaving a largely unsolved biomedical problem in its wake. Upon entry into host cells, the main protease is essential for the replication of viral RNA, which is what allows the virus to replicate inside humans. Inhibition of the main protease has been investigated as a potential strategy for inhibition of the viral replication cycle. Here, we designed a combinatorial library of small molecules and performed high-throughput virtual screening to identify a series of hit compounds that may serve as potential inhibitors of the main protease. In our design of covalent inhibitors of the coronavirus protease, we modeled a library of 361 peptidomimetic Michael acceptor small molecules, which are designed to engage the nucleophilic cysteine residue in the active site of the protease in an irreversible 1,4-conjugate addition. We then employed a variety of computational tools to determine the binding affinity of our designed compounds when bound to the protease active site, where we determined that cationic side chains are potentially beneficial for inhibition of SARS-CoV-2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Approaching Stock Market Trading with Echo State Networks
Authors: Dev Patel, Krish Patel; Charles Dela Cuesta
Date: 11-20-2020

The US stock market is an integral part of modern society. Nearly 55% of Americans&nbsp; own corporate shares in the US stock market (What Percentage of Americans Own Stock?, 2019), and as of June 30th, 2020, the total value of the US stock market was over 35 trillion USD (Total Market Value of U.S. Stock Market, 2020). The stock market is also extremely volatile, and many people have gone bankrupt from poor investments. To minimize the risk and capitalize off the massive amounts of data on corporations and share prices present in the world, algorithmic trading began to rise. Trading algorithms have the potential for huge returns, and while many algorithms employ strategies like Long-Short Equity, very few attempt to use machine learning due to the unpredictable nature of the stock market. Many time series prediction models like autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), and even neural networks like long short term memory (LSTMs) often fail when predicting stock market data, because unlike other time series data, the stock market is almost never univariate, or follows seasonal trends. However, where other models come short, echo state networks (ESNs) excel, due to their reservoir like computing model, which allows them to perform better on messy, non traditional time series data. Using a combination of ESNs to predict prices, and clustering we created an algorithm model that can predict trends with over 95% confidence, but had mixed results accurately predicting returns.
The Role of Public Defenders Within the American Justice System
Authors: Brianna Fisher; Patti Thompson
Date: 05-18-2020

This paper examines the inner workings of the legal system in connection with public defenders and their duties. The factors of total caseload, plea deals, waivers, and bench verdicts were implemented to create a comprehensive means of measuring work ethic, due to their significant presence in the everyday workings of public defenders. Through a meta-analysis of the five most densely populated African American cities within the state of Michigan, the combined and individual weighted mean effect sizes were calculated to determine if there was a strong positive or negative effect of the four factors mentioned above on work ethic. Additionally, both the upper and lower credibility levels were calculated to analyze their proximity to the weighted means. For all four factors tested, the weighted mean effect sizes relate a positive effect of the factors on work ethic, with all means falling closer to their upper credibility levels. These results confirm that the factors of total caseload, plea deals, waivers, and bench verdicts affect how cases are being handled and how clients are being treated.
A Colorful Impact: The Psychological Impact of Colors
Authors: Barbie West; Joshua Silberman
Date: 05-18-2020

This paper offers an analysis of research done by professionals and studies of said professionals recreated by an undergraduate student. The goal of this research was to identify a connection between colors and emotions. Through tests and surveys, there was a connection indication; however, it is still unknown the exact connection.
The Relationship Between Acidity and Short-Term Student Performance on Exams
Authors: Justin Raymond Croyle, Patricia Talarczyk
Date: 02-04-2020

All students have to take exams at some point in their schooling careers and often in overwhelming amounts. With tests carrying great importance, students try to optimize their performance on these tests in a variety of ways. A widely-practiced strategy is eating peppermint or candy during the test in hopes of boosting brain performance. Peppermint has been known to stimulate olfactory receptors in humans. Similarly, acidity is an alternative powerful taste stimulant. Although acidity stimulates taste receptors and not olfactory receptors, taste and smell are very closely related which makes peppermint and acidity have similar overall effects. Since peppermint has shown improved memory and cognition in students, this study will now examine how acidity effects brain performance. This inquiry was investigated by giving 84 local high school students beverages of ranging acidity levels and soon after having them complete a timed, four-function math exam to test their brain performance. With average test scores of 38.62, 36.05, and 40.02 for the highest acidity, medium acidity, and lowest acidity beverage respectively with a control (no drink) average of 39.33, acidity does not appear to have an effect on student brain stimulation (p=.53). In conclusion, there was no statistically significant correlation between acidity and student brain function, but this was only a preliminary study and similar concepts should be further explored in the future.
The Effect of Antibiotics on the Respiration of Microorganism in Northern Ohio Rivers
Authors: David Patrick Gonia, Patricia Talarczyk
Date: 02-04-2020

This experiment was conducted for the purpose of inquiring how the concentration of antibiotics, specifically Amoxicillin and Cephalexin, would affect the productivity of aquatic microorganisms within Northeastern Ohio rivers. In acknowledgment of the growing concerns over agricultural pollution, the study was devised to increase current knowledge of how the presence of antibiotics could affect aquatic microorganisms other the well-documented creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In order to achieve the research goal, water was collected from a Northeastern Ohio river and then tested with various amounts of antibiotics. Over the following five days, the concentration of dissolved oxygen was measured which was used to calculate the overall rate of respiration of the sample. The overall respiration rates of the samples with Amoxicillin were 0.0369 mg/L·hr (milligram per liter per hour) with no antibiotics, 0.835 mg/L·hr with 250 mg, 1.16 mg/L·hr with 500 mg, and  0.951 mg/L·hr with 750 mg. The samples with Cephalexin yielded rates of 0.963 mg/L·hr with 250 mg, 0. mg/L·hr with 500 mg,  mg/L·hr with 750 mg. These yielded R-values of 0.694 and 0.788 respectively.. This means that the null hypothesis was rejected, thus showing a statistically significant correlation. However, the alternate hypothesis was not supported as a positive correlation between the respiration rate and antibiotic concentration was shown.
The Relationship between Hamstring Flexibility and Level of Competitive Irish Dancers
Authors: Rosalia Motta, Patricia Talarczyk
Date: 01-07-2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential relationship between hamstring flexibility and competitive level of Irish dancers. Since the premier of Riverdance in 1994, Irish dance has grown in population and has geologically spread to locations previously unassociated with Irish culture. Resulting from these changes has been the establishment of more and larger competitions, as well as increased athleticism in the dance form. This study followed a quasi-experimental approach, and dancers volunteered to participate. Participants were first asked verbal questions for secondary data collection and data on performance level. Hamstring flexibility was then measured using the Straight Leg Raise (SLR) test for analysis. The data support the conclusion that higher level Irish dancers have higher hamstring flexibility than lower level dancers. Irish dancers seeking to advance into higher competition levels may use this information to incorporate more flexibility building into their training. Likewise, Irish dance instructors may devote more instruction time to assisting their students in building their hamstring flexibility efficiently and properly. Future researchers may investigate similar studies with other physical aspects, such as flexibility in the quadriceps. Alternatively, researchers may investigate the extent to which Irish dance adjudicators seek out high hamstring flexibility in the dancers they judge in comparison to more traditional aspects of Irish dance.