STEM

Today, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, with a striking effect on one in ten people aged 65 and over. Music therapy (MT) is a non-pharmacological treatment for AD that is particularly significant because, as AD progresses, patients maintain their music memory despite the loss of other cognitive functions. This knowledge begged the question: how frequently is clinical music therapy used to treat Alzheimer’s disease? Is everyone who can benefit from music therapy being exposed to it? These questions will be addressed using case study research that will determine the frequency of music therapy usage in care facilities and explore the underlying reasons, if any, behind resistance against MT. Qualitative data will be gathered through interviews with music therapists and activity directors at care facilities to determine various perspectives on the effectiveness of MT.

Millions of lives were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we as a nation are fortunate to have vaccines available to people. But what about all of those infected with COVID-19? CRISPR can serve as a treatment method. CRISPR is a phenomenal piece of technology that has the ability to edit genes in target regions and replace them with other genome sequences. This research paper will aim to cover the background of CRISPR, structure of CRISPR and COVID-19 genomes, and lastly whether CRISPR is an effective treatment method.

Sterilizing or disinfecting narrow-lumen instruments and endoscopes is a highly difficult process. Although plasma sterilization is promising and effective against a broad spectrum of microorganisms, its effectiveness is dependent on the density of the excited particles generated by plasma that attack the microorganisms through erosion. A numerical simulation method is used to study the transport and density of the excited nitrogen molecules in a narrow lumen. The gas properties are calculated using the gas kinetic theory, and different lifetimes are assumed for excited molecules. The simulation results show that the survival of excited particles in a lumen increases more than 10 times when the pressure is reduced by a factor of 10. It is highly recommended that the plasma be operated at lower pressure to increase the sterilization efficiency of narrow lumen devices.

This research project will focus on constructing a self-driving model car using an Arduino along with infrared and ultrasound sensors. The infrared sensors are used to specifically detect heat sources, which simulate living creatures in the path of the car, while the ultrasound sensors are used to determine the actual distance between the object and the car. In the end, the car is expected to be able to travel from a designated point on a four by four meter grid with obstacles to the end.

Patients of Alzheimer's disease can struggle with extreme memory loss that deeply affects them and the people who care about them. Aside from focus on a medical cure, research has shown that music therapy can have behavioral and cognitive benefits and help patients access their autobiographical and episodic memory through its emotional components. This research project uses interviews to perform ethnographic research with care takers and care facilities to investigate a potential relationship between the amount of music exposure and experience and the effectiveness of the music therapy.

Most people who are not speedcubers assume that solving the Rubik’s Cube quickly requires fast turning speeds and the memorization of hundreds of algorithms. Many avid speedcubers argue, however, that these factors are not as important as they are perceived to be. This research project aims to quantitatively analyze the correlations between various speedcubing-related variables to determine what makes a better speedcuber.

Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are the 7th leading cause of death in the world. Specifically, Alzheimer’s disease is a currently incurable neurodegenerative disease that affects millions worldwide. Yet, one thing that scientists do not completely understand is why Alzheimer’s is especially prevalent in elderly African American populations. Current research suggests that African Americans could have a higher risk of developing the disease due to the varied physical manifestations of the disease in different races and socioeconomic factors, but it has been difficult to obtain more information because previous research studies have excluded African American and other minority populations from data. Because of this, minority communities, especially African American communities, still suffer from a disproportionately high rate of Alzheimer’s. The inquiry approach for this research is correlational research, which will be used to study how much known factors are correlated with higher risk of Alzheimer’s in African Americans over the age of 65 compared to other ethnicities over the age of 65. Using data from the NACC database that includes information about sociodemographics, family history, dementia history, neurological exam findings, the APOE genotype, clinical diagnoses, and more, statistical analysis will be performed.

Guided by the neurocognitive model of Nightmare Disorder, my research attempts to correlate PTSD and non-PTSD related Nightmare Disorder with several factors. This research project will use database data to look at which brain structures and brain activity patterns are correlated with different types of Nightmare Disorder. This project also collects surveys from adults with chronic nightmares in an attempt to correlate anxiety, mental activity, screen usage, and panic with chronic nightmare severity and with PTSD vs non-PTSD-related nightmares. Hopefully, this study will elucidate the different causes of PTSD and non-PTSD related Nightmare Disorder and lead to better treatment and understanding of the condition.

The Greenland Ice Sheet retreat is a very clear and quantifiable metric by which climate change can be evaluated. Recent studies have suggested that the ice sheet melt will continue to contribute to sea level rise, meaning that mapping the future expectations for changes in the ice sheet is vital. In this study, satellite and aerial imagery of the region around the Jakobshavn Glacier spanning from 1985 to 2020 was loaded into and analyzed in QGIS, with the areas of ice retreat to both the north and the south being mapped out manually. The data analysis indicated that the areas of fastest retreat are closest to the fast-moving marine outlet glacier. A significant acceleration in the retreat of the ice sheet between the two periods was also noted. The study shows that the vicinity to a glacier likely impacts the retreat rate of the ice sheet around it, specifically muting ice-climate feedback further away, a factor which ought to be investigated further in the future to better model such regions.

Because of COVID-19, people are forced to shelter in place, which disrupts not only their daily lives and normal routines, but also the economic and social standings of the world. To date, not many studies have been conducted to analyze the relationship between environmental factors and COVID-19. In this study, various environmental factors such as air pollution, air temperature, and air humidity will be studied to see if there is any correlation between these factors and the number of COVID-19 cases. Having a clearer understanding of the relationship between the amount of COVID-19 cases and the environment will provide information on how different factors impact virus transmission and how the virus spreads. It will also help determine the best timing or conditions for immunoprophylaxis, also known as the prevention of disease through passive or active immunity.