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Sweat Cortisol as a Non-Invasive Marker of HPA Axis Activity: Evidence for Biological Convergence and Pharmacological Sensitivity
Isabella Baker
Cortisol is a primary biomarker of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity and is widely used to assess physiological stress. Traditional cortisol measurement relies on saliva, blood, urine, or hair, each with limitations in invasiveness or temporal resolution. Sweat has emerged as a non-invasive alternative compatible with wearable biosensing technologies. However, the biological validity of sweat cortisol remains unclear, particularly its relationship to systemic cortisol levels. We hypothesize that sweat cortisol demonstrates biological convergence with salivary cortisol and reflects systemic HPA axis activity.
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Modeling Structural Support to Facilitate Novel Treatments of Degenerative Disc Disease
Jose Luis Calderon
Over 600 million people worldwide suffered from low back pain in 2020, with projections for 2050 being over 800 million [1]. Annual costs associated with low back pain total over 450 billion dollars in the US alone [2]. This research serves as a proof-of-concept for the use of structural supports to facilitate intervertebral disc healing. This treatment would involve the implementation of these supports along with existing injection treatments to promote regeneration. In both models, along with the combined model, the ability for these supports to alleviate intervertebral disc height loss is shown. This indicates that these supports would serve to minimize disc height loss while injection treatments are encouraging healing of disc structures. With height loss minimized, the healing taking place would be encouraged along the optimal orientation, leading to lasting structural integrity.
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Dolls of The Twilight Zone: Representations of Gender and Female Agency During the Cold War Era
Josie DiCapua
Not many shows live in perpetual popularity as The Twilight Zone does. It is one of the few shows from the 1960s that lives on in the modern age, thriving beyond today's cultural weariness for black-and-white media, and undoubtedly a significant part of the cultural zeitgeist to date. There has been countless scholarship on the series, 156 episodes spanning across four seasons. Not every installment was a hit, but plenty of them were memorable enough for people to also dedicate time to study the cultural microcosm of post-war politics. The show uses the science fiction and horror genre to discuss all aspects of contemporary American society. That being said, there is a disheartening pattern present in the conversations around the series: the feminist lens is lacking. This is not because The Twilight Zone had nothing to say, intentional or not, because the Cold War represents an unstable period for gender politics. My project specifically focuses on women who find themselves in the twilight zone, working through the complexities of gender.
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Evaluating the Interaction Between Neu1-HER2 on the Expression of Fatty Acid Binding Protein 5 in MDA-MB-453 Cells
Priscilla Foster
Breast cancer is at the forefront of cancer deaths among women. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive its progression is the key to creating targeted therapies. A specific receptor tyrosine kinase, HER2, activated by heregulin (HRG), promotes breast cancer cell growth and development. This growth factor receptor is sialylated, and desialylation of HER2 causes autophosphorylation, which leads to activation of cellular signaling events. One of the oncogenes regulated by HER2 is FABP5, which is well known to increase resistance to retinoic acid-mediated growth suppression. The objective of this study is to understand the role of Neu1 on the activation of HER2 and the regulation of the downstream target, FABP5. Our results have demonstrated that blocking the activity of sialidase Neuraminidase 1 (Neu1) with oseltamivir phosphate (OP) in breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-453 suppresses HRG-mediated activation of HER2 and its downstream targeted oncogene, FABP5. Furthermore, silencing of the Neu1 protein with siRNA suppressed the phosphorylation of HER2 and reduced the protein expression of FABP5. Knowledge of the interaction between Neu1 and HER2 could reveal novel medical therapies against these types of aggressive breast cancer, potentially improving the effectiveness of treatment and patient health overall.
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The Beat Behind the Bark: Investigating the Effects of Music Tempo on Canine Physiological and Psychological States
Marley Lanier
Music is a universal component of human culture that has been demonstrated influencing emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses, specifically heart rate and hormonal responses (Mehr et al., 2019; Trappe, 2012). Recently, this research has expended to explore how music may affect non-human animals, particularly dogs, due to their roles as therapy animals, service animals, and human companions (Lindig et al., 2020; Gee et al., 2021). Being able to understand how music influences canine stress and relaxation hold important applications in environments such as shelters, veterinary clinics, and at home. One important feature of music is tempo, or beats per minute (BPM), which has been linked to changes in physiological responses in humans. While some past research has suggested that music can have a calming effect on dogs, findings related to speed of music have been mixed, with some studies demonstrating increased stress-related behaviors in response to faster-paced music (Bowman et al., 2017; Kogan et al., 2012). These inconsistencies among research suggests that the effect of tempo on dogs is yet to be fully understood. The present study examined if the BPM of music influences dogs’ heart rate, activity level, and oxytocin levels using a controlled lo-fi music track, presented at two different tempos. By isolating tempo as the primary variable, this study aimed to further understand how auditory stimuli could influence canine physiological and psychological responses.
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Adhesion of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to Thermoplastic Materials Used In Fabricating Medical Devices: Patient Consequences
Dev V. Mehta
Burn injury patients wear supportive orthoses made by heat-forming sheets of thermoplastic material (Figs. 1 & 2). Bacteria cause severe soft tissue infections in patients wearing contaminated orthoses. Thermoplastic medical devices can develop biofilms that include antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria, which significantly reduces the number of available treatment options. A biofilm is a community of microorganisms that share resources allowing them to exist in a nutrient-limited environment. Biofilm microbes secrete extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) that attaches them firmly to a substrate surface while protecting them from harmful substances, including antibiotics. Bacteria living within biofilms on inanimate surfaces can survive for extended periods of time. Will the solution type affect the recovery of 2 different antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria from the surface of thermoplastic materials?
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Navigating the NICU Without Words: A Case Study of a Spanish-Speaking Mother’s Healthcare Experience
Emma Norris
Research on NICU experiences largely focuses on majority-language families; non-English-speaking families are understudied (Cleveland, 2008). The Family Integrated Care model promotes parent-infant connection and shared decision-making to improve outcomes (Wreesmann et al., 2020). Language barriers impede parent-provider communication, increasing miscommunication and parental anxiety (Kynoe et al., 2020; Ardal et al., 2011). The purpose of this research is to explore communication experiences and barriers between English-speaking and bilingual NICU nurses and a Spanish-speaking NICU mother.
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Thermal Characterization of Robust Ionic Liquids for Energy Production
Riya Patel
Ionic liquids (ILs) are salts with low melting points that exhibit high thermal stability, negligible volatility, and tunable properties. The objective of this research was to determine the vapor pressure and activation energies of selected ionic liquids using thermogravimetric analysis and evaluate their true thermal stability.
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Role of Identification in Bystander Intervention During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Retrospective Analysis and a Novel Student-Led CPR Training Initiative
Suhas Patil
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of mortality in the United States, with survival largely dependent on early recognition and prompt bystander intervention. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use are critical components of early care and are associated with improved patient outcomes. However, both recognition of cardiac arrest and bystander response remain inconsistent, contributing to gaps in pre-emergency medical services (EMS) care. Bystander response is further limited by lack of training and uncertainty in recognizing cardiac arrest and performing CPR. Access to CPR training is often constrained by time and cost barriers, reducing participation among the general population. Additionally, few scalable, high-quality programs exist that are specifically designed to train undergraduate students, despite universities representing a large and accessible population.
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Amyloid Precursor Protein Products Attenuate cAMP in PMVECs
Dylan Peters
Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizes a host of virulence factors. One of these virulence factors is the type three secretion system (TTSS). This needlelike apparatus transfers exoenzymes from the bacterial cytosol into the host cell cytosol. One of these exoenzymes, exoenzyme Y or ExoY, binds to its eukaryotic cofactor and begins producing cyclic nucleotides, including cAMP thereby elevating intracellular cAMP. Paradoxically, P. aeruginosa that exclusively express ExoY (ExoY+), producing this increased cAMP signal, disrupt a PMVEC monolayer across 4 hours. When using another lab strain of P. aeruginosa (ExoYK81M) that has a mutation rendering ExoY inactive, the monolayer remained intact across this same time frame. TTSS and ExoY competent P. aeruginosa have been shown to induce PMVECs to release cytotoxic amyloids. One of these amyloids, Aβ, has been shown to bind to the β2 adrenergic receptor, leading to its internalization. Recently, our lab has found that sterile media supernatants or what we designate as “Cytotoxic Supernatants” from a primary infection with P. aeruginosa attenuates β-agonist induced elevations in cAMP. Could Aβ play a role in attenuating stimulated cAMP production?
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Skin Assessment in Nursing, Medical and Physical Therapy Student Education: Skin Tone Variation
Alexa Posey
Pressure injuries (PIs) involve impaired skin integrity due to unrelieved pressure over a bony prominence. PIs can be categorized by the depth of the injury and by six stages: Stage 1, 2, 3, 4, unstageable, and deep tissue pressure injury. The most common way the Stage 1 is described is as an area of nonblanchable erythema. Nonblanchable erythema often cannot be observed in darker skin tones. This description is taught first in textbooks and reinforced during observation in the clinical setting. Healthcare textbooks provide essential information and basic information necessary for healthcare students before they enter into practice. Evidence indicates that there is limited equitable information related to skin and skin disorders in many healthcare textbooks. It is essential for nurses, and other healthcare professionals such as physical therapists and physicians, to know and understand how to perform an accurate skin assessment and to identify various skin conditions in all skin tones and specifically, identify what PIs look like in all skin tones.
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Targeting the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Improve Depression and Anxiety in Parkinson’s Disease
Brock Renicks
Around 40% of people with Parkinson’s Disease experience depression and anxiety (Zhao et al, 2025). Depression and Anxiety have been said to be localized to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brunoni et al, 2016). Transcranial Direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to modulate depression and anxiety by targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Sreeraj et al, 2023). It is beneficial due to its cost, portability, and simplicity of use. Thus we will be assessing the efficacy of tDCS in reducing depression and anxiety in individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.
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Piloting a Pediatric Screener for Assessing Emergent Literacy with Preschool Children
Nafia Sarhadi
From infancy, children develop literacy knowledge, which provides them with the needed skills for reading in primary school (Castillo-Rabanal &Heitmayer, 2025). Before children start to read, they develop skills that involve increasing their rhyming, alphabet, and vocabulary knowledge. Literacy is considered a social determinant of health as it plays a role in one's physical, social, and emotional maturity (Lesauxet. al, 2007). The Bay Area Women Coalition, (BAWC) Inc. has partnered with the Autism, Pediatric Language & Literacy (APLL) Lab to implement PEEL, following modifications identified by the community. The current pre-to-posttest assessment is unsuitable for community participation. An efficient method to assess change is needed.
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Comparing Two Emergent Literacy Screeners: The Reading House and Star Early Literacy in a Florida Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) Program
Jaime D. Swenbeck
Emergent Literacy (EL) refers to the foundational skills that develop from birth through the preschool years and support later reading success (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008; Levy et al., 2006). These include basic Print Concepts, Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, Letter-Sound Knowledge, and Emergent Writing (Piasta et al., 2021; Puranik et al., 2011). Because they serve as predictors for later literacy success, accurate identification of children struggling to learn EL skills is important. There are various types of tools, ranging from screening tools to diagnostic assessments, that measure children’s EL skills, with assessment times ranging from 10-15 minutes to 45-60 minutes. In a recently conducted project in the APLL Lab, a standardized, norm-referenced tool was used to measure 4-year-olds’ EL skills via Zoom before and after families’ participation in an 8-week, home-based parent education program that uses shared-book reading to support children’s early literacy skills. Although comprehensive, there were limitations to using the norm-referenced measure in the previous investigation (Henbest et al., in press). Pre- and post-assessments were administered using the Assessment of Literacy and Language (ALL; Lombardino et al., 2020), which took 45 minutes per administration and was conducted entirely on Zoom. This was not ideal for preschool-aged children. We needed a screening tool that would incorporate a naturalistic, shared-book experience while assessing children for risk of reading deficits. The Reading House (Hutton et al., 2019) evaluates multiple EL skills and serves as a shared-book screening tool, with administration time of ~10 minutes.
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Improving Honors College Communication and Engagement Through a Canvas LMS Redesign
Riana Taylor
The purpose of this project was to redesign the Honors College Canvas page to improve student engagement, foster a stronger sense of belonging, and enhance communication by providing easily accessible resources, with the goal of creating a more inclusive and connected Honors community.
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Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Antihypertensive Therapy Chosen Through Maternal Hemodynamic Profile Analysis
Margaret Weimer
In treatment of emergent hypertension, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends both oral labetalol and nifedipine, with no preference shown between the two. These medications have different mechanisms of action. Studies have suggested that consideration of hemodynamic profile may be an effective way to determine medication, but have not considered the Rule of 55, a simple calculation to predict hemodynamic profile.
Goals: 1. Determine if tailoring the antihypertensive to patient’s hemodynamic profile is associated with better control of blood pressure. 2. Determine if the Rule of 55 is an accurate method to determine hemodynamic profile.
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Digital Marketing and Communications for Non-Profit Organizations on the Gulf Coast
Marion Bell
Non-profit organizations play a vital role in the social and economic conditions of South Alabama and the surrounding areas. From providing essential social services to fostering cultural enrichment to supplying disaster relief efforts, these organizations equip society to care for our communities and encourage our economy. In an increasingly digital world, digital marketing and communication strategies give non-profit organizations the ability to communicate their mission, engage with stakeholders, and mobilize resources. This study aims to identify the current digital marketing strategies for Gulf Coast non-profit organizations.
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Perceptions of Power and Consent: The Role Gender, Race, and Sexual Orientation in Shaping Public Perceptions of Student-Teacher Affairs
India Campbell
Sexual violence is a taboo topic. It is especially challenging to acknowledge child victims. Sexual violence in schools is particularly hard to acknowledge. No parent wants to consider the possibility of sending their child to a predator every day. This phenoma has been researched for decades from various angles. This project will contribute to the research that looks at the ways race, gender, and sexual orientation influence perception of victimhood.
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The Search for Slow Particles and Magnetic Monopoles with NOvA
John Clark
Singular magnetic poles, north or south, have been theorized to exist for hundreds of years. In the modern day, the elusive singular magnetic pole still remains undiscovered. The appearance of this particle would help confirm many Grand Unified Theories, GUTs, and revolutionize our understanding of some of the fundamental forces of the universe. Fermilab's NOvA collaboration is working on ways to screen and detect magnetic monopoles and other slow-moving particles coming from outer space alongside their main mission to study neutrinos. The aim of this work is to determine and improve the Far Detector’s efficiency at identifying slow moving particles. It was determined that using a slicer time window of 25 μs and an energy cut of 100 ADC units is optimal for extending the detectable range of slow-moving Monte Carlo simulated magnetic monopoles from a lower end of β = 3 × 10−4 to β = 2 × 10−4 with an improvement or no sacrifice to efficiency. With some sacrifice and change to these settings, simulated particles as slow as β = 5 × 10−5 can be detected.
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TOUJOURS BEAUCOUP: Representations of Childhood and Education in 20th Century French Literature and Cinema
Delaney Drury
This project explores French literature and cinema with significant representations of education for the purpose of examining to what extent educational ideals are upheld or undermined.
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Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoY Enzymatic Activity Inhibits ExoS-Induced Caspase-3/7 Activation but not Cytotoxicity in PMVECs
Connor Holm
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aer.) is the most common cause of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) in ICU patients. Different combinations of exoenzymes (S, T, Y, and U) are found in P. aer. strains. ExoY is most often associated with VAP in ICU patients. ExoY infection of pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) induces cell rounding but does not activate intracellular caspase-3/7 or cause cell death. ExoS and ExoT infection of epithelial cells leads to caspase-3/7 dependent cell death. Previous studies using epithelial cells show that ExoY alleviates the cytotoxic effects of ExoS and ExoT. Here, we sought to determine whether ExoY inhibits ExoS and ExoT induced caspase-3/7 activation and cell death in PMVECs.
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Influence of Hearing Loss on Self-reported Hearing Ability and Listening Fatigue in Persons with Aphasia
Ashlyn Kilgore
Aphasia is an acquired disorder, often caused by stroke, that results in language deficits. It can greatly impact a person's ability to communicate with others. Cognitive deficits may accompany aphasia. Additionally, hearing loss is a disability likely to co-occur with aphasia, as they both most commonly impact the same age group. When a person has hearing loss, the quality of the auditory signal is degraded when it reaches the brain. The poor signal quality, compounded with linguistic and possible cognitive deficits that are associated with aphasia, makes it more difficult for persons with aphasia (PWA) to comprehend speech.
For all people, listening takes effort and attention. The Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL) model is an adaptation of Kahneman’s Capacity Model for Attention that helps explain the effort required to listen effectively. Increased effort depletes cognitive resources and leads to listening fatigue. Listening fatigue, when compounded with aphasia and hearing impairment, can exacerbate difficulties comprehending speech. This study examined self-reported listening ability and listening fatigue in people with aphasia and hearing loss.
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Acceptability and Competency of Motivational Interviewing (MI) Training and MI Spirited Communication in an Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Program
Grace Koons
Motivational interviewing (MI) has been slow to be integrated into nursing curricula despite its positive impacts on patient care because availability of experts for training, time for implementing MI during patient care, and methods for evaluating competency of students. This study aims to determine acceptance of brief MI Spirited Communication (MISC) training among undergraduate and graduate nursing students and determine level of competency in MI of undergraduate and graduate nursing students who have completed MI training.
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Linear Dicyclopentadiene Copolymers: Synthesis and Thermal Analysis
Connor Lewis
To retain the existing advantages of L-pDCPD and to enhance its material properties, an incorporation of functionalized comonomers is being investigated. It is hypothesized that such functionalization will allow for higher theoretical molecular weights, increased oxidative resistance, and more durable thermal properties following air exposure. The use of heteroatoms in exemplary oxa-norbornene-based compounds is thought to strengthen intermolecular interactions and thus improve the structural stability of L-pDCPD. To better understand the polymerization initiated by GC3 and to identify potential ROCM processes, IR-active nitrile and hydroxyl groups were specifically incorporated. For this study, the comonomers were synthesized from exo-3,6-epoxy- 1,2,3,6 tetrahydrophthalic anhydride with either 4-aminobenzonitrile or 4-aminophenol.
