FCRH 15th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

This paper will discuss the effects that race has when it comes to allowing people to become refugees. In today’s world being a refuge can be taken in one of two ways: they are either accepted as a refuge or denied. Based on the race that they come from, research has shown that countries favor and allow entrance to refugees that come from white backgrounds, in comparison to those that come from black, indigenous, Asian, or even middle eastern backgrounds. In 2022, it was approved that over 100,000 refugees were allowed to enter the United States, however, before the conflict in Ukraine, which a predominately white nation, the United States had stronger refugee laws, even if there were conflicts in places such as Haiti, the Middle East, and other places in Africa. Here I will be investigating the correlation that there is amongst people of color being allowed in the United States from past twenty years (2002-2022), and how race has influenced that choice. Although not a lot of research has been done on the acceptance of Ukrainians in the United States, there has been a lot of research and legislature passed that has limited the among of people that are incoming to the US as refugees of color. Finally, I will be looking at the sanctions and legislations that have been passed to prevent refugee movement and how race has played a role on those decisions.

Esperanza Diaz

Fordham College at Rose Hill

The aim of this research project was to analyze the impact of the horror genre in entertainment on the brain. The impact reviewed is through the form of data that monitored how both the physical areas of the brain changed through exposure, and monitored recorded responses of participants of studies. We know that fear plays an important role for human survival, and this project in a sense is an effort to gain a better understanding of artificially created fear. There were several studies and collected data that this project analyzed. In two of the studies analyzed, participants watched horror movies while in an MRI scanner. In a second study, participants answered structured questions after going through a haunted house. The project found that activity in the brain increases in both sensory areas of the brain and the frontal cortex, the former being more significant. It also found similarities and differences between acute and anticipatory fear. Anticipatory fear increases neural synchronization in 'threat response networks,' with these changes being both to perceptual input and attentional control. Acute and anticipatory fear also showed distinct neural pathways. Another area this project analyzed was subjects’ enjoyment out of the horror stimulation, as we11 as behavior that resulted from it. While participants recorded high levels of enjoyment in conjunction with when they reported high levels of fear, there was not enough data to show a strong statistical relationship. What was found however, is that highly motivated individuals were more likely to experience enjoyment when experiencing higher levels of fear.

Sebastian Guccione

Fordham College at Rose Hill

Pollution is a critical factor in determining the severity of one’s asthma symptoms. In recent decades, it has been on the rise due to increased car ownerships across all types of neighborhoods. This causes frequent congestion on the roads, especially in major cities, causing higher pollution levels. Moreover, in densely populated areas like the Bronx, asthma cases occur at disparagingly larger rates. Though most asthma research focuses on children, our study centers on college students, specifically those who reside in or commute to Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus. The University is situated among areas that vary in levels of air pollution, with some sectors near Fordham Road containing more traffic pollution compared to those near the Botanical Gardens. Undergraduate students with asthma completed a survey to assess and reflect on the severity of their asthma symptoms when residing or commuting to and from such sectors. We hypothesized that students in closer proximity to Fordham Road will experience more severe and worsening symptoms of asthma. In regards to this current case series, the results of the survey suggest that the general severity of asthma symptoms in students remain mild to moderate regardless of where students are situated on campus. This study demonstrates that there is room for research on college housing locations in relation to traffic pollution and its impacts on students and their asthma experiences, and there is indeed potential for analyses with other ages, demographics, and conditions as well.

Syeda Rahman, Johnny Morocho, Sarah Choudhury

Fordham University Rose Hill

Traumatic brain injuries are caused by a violent blow or jolt to the head. They are characterized by neurological dysfunction and cognitive impairment. There are several mechanisms that can inflict a traumatic brain injury, blast is one of these mechanisms. Blast-related TBIs occur as a result of explosive blasts, where no direct blow to the head occurs yet damage is inflicted to the brain. Primary blast waves cause the brain to shift in the skull due to overpressure leading to contact inside the skull causing lacerations to the brain. The most obvious population that blast related traumatic brain injuries effect is the military. Increased use of explosive devices in modern combat has made blast exposure a far greater threat to soldiers than it once was. Blast related brain injury occurring among soldiers is strongly associated with PTSD, cognitive decline, and physical health problems after soldiers return home. Understanding the blast-related traumatic brain injury is important for protecting combat troops' cognitive health. This literature review outlines the key research concerning the topic of blast related traumatic brain injury, brings the findings into discussion and proposes future directions for the field of neuroscience research.

Olivia McNeil

Fordham University

This research article examines the origins and impacts of diasporas and underrepresented ethnic groups through a multi-layered study of 'Zainichi Koreans' — Koreans who migrated to Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea and lived there since the early 1920s, as well as their descendants who are born and raised in Japan. By examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by examining the factors that gave significance to Zainichi identity while illustrating its complicated, fragmented, and even (in-)visible presence in a country viewed as a homogenous nation-state. The analysis was conducted through ethnographic research of the experiences and challenges of second-and third-generation Zainichi Koreans, alongside a variety of news articles, newspapers, and published reports. and scholarly articles. The case studies studied highlight four significant aspects of this community: the complex identity of "Zainichi" bound to nationality and political association, the perseverance of Korean identity through education, significant factors of integration in mainstream Japanese society, and experiences of discrimination as a Korean This paper contributes to understanding the political behavior of transnational ethnic diasporas in Japan by explaining how Zainichi remain unrepresented and irrelevant in Japanese society despite working to preserve their Korean identity.

Kia Fatahi Faz Abad

Fordham University, Department of International Studies

According to the World Health Organization, public greenspaces encourage both mental and physical health and help to reduce mortality and morbidity in urban residents (WHO, 2017). Studies have shown, however, that greenspaces are not equitably accessible to everyone. Often low-income communities and communities of color face barriers in accessing greenspaces (Urofsky & Parks 2022). This project aims to investigate the relationship between New York City’s racial makeup and its residents' access to greenspace. Specifically, this project compares the average park acreage per capita with the racial makeup in each of the five New York City boroughs. Park acreage was taken from the Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and data on the demographics of each borough was taken from the NYU Furman Center database. We hypothesize that if racial makeup is compared with the greenspace access of each borough then the boroughs with greater minority populations will have less average acreage of greenspace per capita because redlining has been prevalent in New York City development.

Maxanne Millerhaller

Fordham College Rose Hill, Foundations in Research Engagement

Drug addiction is a disorder which negatively impacts the lives of millions. Yet, despite decades of research, treatment options are limited. Developing new treatment options will require a better understanding of the brain including the brain regions and neurobiological pathways involved in processing of drug rewards. One brain region suspected to play a role in drug addiction is the ventral pallidum (VP). Previous lesion studies have implicated the VP in the formation of drug-context associations. However, currently, very little is known about the different cell types in the VP and whether they contribute to addiction. In order to better understand the role of VP in drug addiction, I tested the hypothesis that one VP cell population, the VP cholinergic projection neurons (VP-CPNs), are key mediators of the VP’s involvement in the formation of drug-related associations. To do this, we first lesioned VP-CPNs using the diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR)/diphtheria toxin (DT) system;DTR is injected into the VP of ChAT-Cre mice, where the DTR will be expressed only in VP-CPNs, prior to CPP. All mice are then injected with diphtheria toxin, which kills any cells expressing DTR by binding to it; thus only the VP-CPNs of the experimental group were lesioned, while the VP-CPNs of the control group remain intact. Then mice were then tested using Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) to cocaine in mice, a classic behavioral model which measures associations formed between the rewarding effects of a drug stimulus and the environment in which those effects were experienced. Following the experiment, I confirmed that VP-CPNs were lesioned only in the experimental group using immunofluorescence labeling and microscopy of ChAT, a marker specific to cholinergic neurons. Additionally, data from CPP showed that both groups exhibited normal CPP behavior on conditioning and testing days; however, the experimental group showed expedited extinction of CPP behavior on consecutive extinction days. These data suggest that VP-CPNs do not play a key role in the acquisition of drug-related associations in CPP behavior. However, these findings suggest that they may instead contribute to the persistence of these conditioned associations. This indicates that VP-CPNs are involved in the long-term, potentially maladaptive learning related to cocaine, and may represent a valuable neurobiological target for the treatment of drug addiction.

Daphne Baker <dbaker17@fordham.edu>

Fordham University, Department of Biological Sciences

A tremor is a neurological disease which causes unintentional movement of a body part, typically in the hands or arms. Tremors are known to affect over 10 million people per year, and are frequent in cerebral disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, affecting fine motor skills. Aids have been made to assist in daily activities, but they fail in terms of individual use and customizability. Bilateral Alternating Stimulation Technology (BLAST), commonly used for reprocessing therapy (PTSD), inputs tactile external stimuli occurring in a rhythmic side-to-side pattern. Coin-cell vibrating motors coupled with a BLAST sensation provides a vibrating sensation to the patient’s wrist without restricting their daily actions. The principle behind this is to create white noise in the brain, causing a distraction to mitigate the involuntary hand tremors. Using this system, a wearable, watch-like device is being developed that will allow for full control of detecting the magnitude of the tremor using accelerometer data taken from the participant’s wrist to determine the strength of the vibrations needed by the counteraction technology. A custom bluetooth app was developed to allow the customization of the strength of the vibrations from the motors and the timing between the alterations. In the future, the watch will be further developed to automatically toggle the strength of the vibrations depending on the magnitude of the tremors as calculated by the built-in accelerometer. The watch combines BLAST Technology along with custom usability to help patients combat a daily struggle. Its non-invasive technology makes the device suitable for everyone.

Grace Pluemacher

Fordham University, Department of Physics/Engineering Physics

While paraphilias and other forms of deviant sexuality have become a less stigmatized and more thoroughly studied topic in recent years, there is an overwhelming male focus in the available literature. The sexuality of women in general is another understudied topic, and though it is becoming more researched the amount of literature still does not compare to the wealth of research on male sexuality and does not encapsulate every facet of women’s experiences with sexuality, with a particularly glaring absence of data regarding paraphilias in women. My goal is to gain a further understanding of the nature of female sexuality, and how the variety of paraphilias found in women differs from the variety found in men, as well as to help dispel the common notion that paraphilias and sexual deviance are exclusively male phenomena. An exhaustive search of several online psychology databases yielded ten results, which were then synthesized to create a holistic model of the information produced by female paraphilia research. Through this, I found that although paraphilias generally present more frequently in men, there are a significant number of women with paraphilias; additionally, there are some paraphilias that were repeatedly found to be more common in women, namely masochism and exhibitionism. Rates of comorbidity of paraphilias between the sexes were found to be statistically similar in multiple studies, suggesting that despite other sex differences in the wider paraphilic population, the experience of having paraphilic interests is the same for both men and women.

Diana Paradise

Fordham University, Department of Psychology