Browse Exhibits (81 total)

What constitutes beauty? Do we only find beauty in places that society tells us are beautiful? In this project, I address these questions and explore the idea of finding beauty in dilapidated places. This project consists of photographing urban ruins, editing the photos, and then composing ekphrastic poems to further amplify and expand on the photos’ meanings. By exposing the viewer to these derelict scenes, I hope to recalibrate the viewer’s own standards of beauty. I aim to shed light on the hidden beauty I see amongst these evident ruins.

Faculty Mentor: Charlie Geyer

Modern Languages and Classics

Undergraduate

Honors College

Serotonergic neurons modulate brain activity by releasing the neurotransmitter serotonin onto other neurons through long cable-like processes called axons. In order to successfully do this, axons from serotonergic neurons must precisely reach target neurons. If not achieved, malformed serotonergic axons can cause behavioral disorders impacting mood, sleep, and appetite. Assisting in this, serotonin regulates the development of axon structure in addition to its role as a neurotransmitter. Neurons unable to synthesize serotonin develop more branches and longer axons, suggesting it normally limits branching and elongation. Despite this observation, the molecular mechanism of this process, termed serotonin autoregulation, remains unknown. Here we developed a novel culture method allowing identification and analysis of developing primary Drosophila serotonergic neurons. To validate the utility of the culture system, we treated them with extracellular serotonin and found that high levels of serotonin inhibited axon growth. This is the first demonstration of serotonin autoregulation in a culture system, and combined with the powerful genetic tools available in Drosophila will provide exciting new insights into the molecular mechanism of serotonin autoregulation of serotonergic axon development.

Faculty Mentor: Douglas Roossien

Department of Biology

Graduate Student

Graduate students frequently report intense stress which contributes to susceptibility to mental health difficulties (Evans et al., 2018; Marks et al., 2011). They are six times more likely to experience depression or anxiety than non-graduate students. Many seek psychological treatment and 50% report considering seeking mental health services (Hyun et al., 2006). However, 46% cite financial constraints as a barrier to receiving services (El-Ghoroury et al., 2012). Currently, there is no research on graduate students’ health insurance, despite potentially being an underinsured population at risk for poor mental health. It was hypothesized that lack of health insurance would predict greater stress, depression, and anxiety in graduate students. Data was collected from graduate students at Ball State University (N = 65), who answered questions about health insurance, depression, anxiety, and stress. The results indicated 21% of students did not have health insurance. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess how a lack of health insurance was associated with depression, stress, and anxiety. The results suggested there were significant differences between the groups F_3,61 = 334.67, p < .001 and lack of health insurance accounted for 13% of the variance in depression, stress, and anxiety. Discriminant analysis suggested that depression was most strongly associated with differences between groups (.67) followed by stress (.25) and anxiety (.01). The need for health insurance and the mental health of graduate students is discussed.

Faculty Mentor: Anjolii Diaz, Ph.D.

Psychological Science

Graduate

Food studies in media provide complex layers to the films that viewers quite literally consume, a fact complicated depending on how one analyzes food. Different theories, lenses, and contexts can change how food is used in film, much like how using different ingredients in a recipe can alter the final product. But why does food matter in film, and how do directors use food to create meaning? Food is often employed to symbolize greater significance or to prove a point that a director wants to assert in their film. For example, Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite (2019) utilizes food to symbolize social class: food is a vehicle in this film to show both the stark divide between the upper and lower classes and how such economic disparity can be perilous for society. Bong does this to warn viewers that class inequality is unjust by demonstrating how greed within different social classes warrants grave consequences. Ultimately, Parasite concludes with the patriarch of the ultra-wealthy Park family deceased while the extremely impoverished Kim family is divided, still dangerously poor, and suffering the death of their daughter/sister. While these may be extreme conclusions to draw from the film, Parasite aims to warn its viewers of the greed between social classes that could lead to such dismal ends. Bong accomplishes this through the placement of food: it symbolizes the class divide that each family struggles with in different ways.

Faculty Mentor: Emily Rutter

Department of English

Undergraduate

Economic growth is often not distributed uniformly across a country or state. This provides obligation to governments to provide assistance, such as grants, to reduce economic inequality between subregions. This thesis investigates how the allocation of Ohio state grant funding impacts economic development between counties. Data were retrieved from archival data sets available between the years 2010 through 2014. The data were analyzed to consider the spatial interaction between counties as the economic activity within cities can impact the economic activity in surrounding rural areas (Henry & Drabenstott, 1996). First, an OLS regression was conducted for each year of data and analyzed to determine if spatial autocorrelation was present. Then, spatial effects were captured by conducting regressions utilizing the spatial error model, the spatial lag model, and the spatial Durbin model. The spatial models and OLS model were compared using their AIC and BIC values. The results suggest spatial regression was not preferred to OLS in modeling the impact of grant funding, in the years 2010 through 2014. Additionally, according to our model, grant funding over the 5-year period had a small and statistically non-significant impact on overall economic activity in Ohio. However, the results also indicate spatial regression will likely continue to become more important in the analysis of grant funding due to both the theoretical implications and the presence of growing spatial economic inequality. This study opens several avenues for future research such as the substitution of the one-year and 5-year growth rates of real GDP per capita for the dependent variable and investigating the trend of spatial autocorrelation in years after 2014.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Pierce

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Graduate