ABSTRACTS

2019 National McNair Scholars Conference at UCLA

Researcher: Baudelio Abrica

Presentation Title: Mexican American Youth’s Patterns of Identity Development: The Role of Post-Secondary Activities, Family Nativity, and Gender.

Research Focus: Ethnic Identity development of Mexican American Youth.

School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Presentation Type: Oral presentation

The purpose of the study was to examine ethnic identity (i.e., exploration, affirmation, resolution) during early adulthood among Mexican-origin youth. To address this aim, the current study examined ethnic identity in relation to salient contextual factors during early adulthood including of post-secondary activities (i.e., involvement in work and school), parents’ nativity (i.e., U.S. born versus foreign-born), and youth gender. Understanding ethnic identity development during early adulthood as related to these contextual factors is important because researchers have identified ethnic identity as a potential protective and promotive factor for ethnic minority youth. For this study, participants included were Mexican-origin two-parent families with adolescent offspring (N=246) who participated in a longitudinal study completed in 2012. Using survey interviews for both parents and youth, measures included the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS) (Umaña-Taylor, Yazedjian, & Bamaca-Gomez, 2004) along with parent and child background information. Background information included parent nativity, parent and youth gender, language use, and youth work and school status. Based on previous research, we expected that young adults (YA) who work and continue with their education will have higher levels of exploration and affirmation compared to those who do not work or continue their education, with differences by youth gender and parent nativity. The findings of this study will contribute to the growing literature on ethnic identity and the positive development of Mexican- origin youth.

 

Researcher: Nestor I. Hernandez

Presentation Title: Community Violence Exposures in Latinx Adolescence, Access to Health Care, and Well-Being Outcomes

Research Focus: Adolescent to Adult Health, community violence exposure, health care, health outcomes, well-being outcomes

School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Previous research has examined the impact of community-based violence exposure on mental and behavioral health on youth. This study focused on Latinx youth, who are underrepresented in research, and considered the mechanisms by which access to health care links exposure to violence and behavioral health problems.

Methods: Data were drawn from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Exposure to violence at Time 1 was direct personal victimization and indirect victimization, including witnessing violence and feeling unsafe. Health care at Time 1 included general access to care and psychological counseling. This study examines these factors and sub-types of victimization and their relationship to depressive symptomology and substance abuse at Time 2.

Results: Direct victimization and witnessing violence were associated with all three outcomes, particularly violent behavior and depressive symptoms. Access to care partial mediated these outcomes for Latinx youth.

Conclusion: Latinx adolescence exposure to violence had effects on mental and behavioral health in adolescence. Because access to care mediates well-being outcomes, policies supporting funds for health care services in the wake of community violence exposure may lead to a reduction in substance abuse and depression in Latinx communities. Policy makers should be aware of the complex dynamics of violence in communities.

 

Researcher: My-Linh Luc

Presentation Title: Infertility Treatment Decision-making, Continuity of Care, and Patient Well- being: Financial Costs and Implications

Research Focus: Infertility care and financial costs School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln Presentation Type: Oral presentation

Financial costs are an important part of decision-making in pursuing infertility treatment, however, research has yet to explore how patients communicate about financial costs of treatment. Exploring the financial cost of fertility care is important due to a lack of insurance coverage for reproductive care, forcing many infertile patients to rely on self-funding of fertility treatments. Therefore, we ask the following research questions: (1) How, if at all, do patients and providers talk about the financing of infertility treatment?, (2) How do patients factor in finances to their infertility treatment in decision-making?, and (3) How does the financial cost in fertility treatment factor into continuity of care? In order to answer these research questions, we are conducting secondary data analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews. Each interview will be coded via NVIVO 12 software.

The qualitative coding process will include three phases where we will identify potential themes, narrow to main themes, and refine the main themes for further analysis. Then, a theoretical memo will be completed for each transcript detailing theoretical ideas and insights, summarizing annotated comments, and identifying any similarities across previous transcripts. Grounded in previous research, we hypothesize financial costs are involved in the decision-making process.

Additionally, we hypothesize that economic burdens may affect how patients view their patient- provider relationship and shape expectations of how health providers communicate treatment plans, thus affecting their treatment decision-making and continuity of care.

 

Researcher: Logan Miller

Presentation Title: An Examination of Pop-out in Dynamic Visual Search

Research Focus: Visual attention and perception

Mentor: Dr. Michael Dodd, Department of Psychology

School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Visual attention and perception are fundamental building blocks of human behavior. The primary purpose of vision is to allow us to represent and interact with the external world, with visual attention being a critical moderator of perception. It has been repeatedly reported that in certain visual displays, objects will “pop-out,” so that they are detected very quickly, independent of how many distracting items are in the display. However, recent research has demonstrated that static pop-out displays do not lend themselves to pop-out in situations where the display is dynamic (Jardine & Moore, 2016). The present study, adapted from Jardine and Moore (2016) has participants detect targets in dynamic displays with the critical target display being denoted by a bounding frame. Critically, we included additional stimuli to determine more fully how dynamic motion influences pop-out (color, orientation, predictability). Our results replicated Jardine and Moore with orientation (near chance accuracy), though better with color, but also low accuracy with predictability. This shows that pop-out is a low-level perceptual process that can be impaired in dynamic displays, but the mere fact that something is dynamic is not enough to get rid of pop-out. Critically, this suggests that pop-out is relevant to real world perception in situations in which our visual input is routinely changing.

 

Researcher: Nancy Nguyen

Presentation Title: Defining the Mechanisms of Action of Isocyanide Compounds

Research Focus: What is the mechanism of action of isocyanide compounds?

School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

The human body is typically unharmed when in the presence of different microorganisms. It is only when the body’s immune system is damaged or if there is a high concentration of pathogens within the body that a person will become ill or infected. Our body tries its best to fight off infection. When it is unable to, people typically turn towards antibiotics or antifungal drugs.

However, because of overuse and other reasons, antibacterial and antifungal resistance has created a call for new antibacterial and antifungal compounds. Isocyanide compounds have been shown to have antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-cancer properties, but very little is known about their biochemical effects. Our research aims to understand the mechanism of action of isocyanide compounds. We plan to conduct a genetic screen of the Saccharomyces deletion collection on solid media containing a model isocyanide compound, para-nitrophenyl isocyanide, to identify genes that render the mutant strains resistant or hypersensitive to the compound. We hypothesize the isocyanides impact metalloprotein function in microbes. Our findings will have impacts on the development of natural products as antifungal compounds.

 

Researcher: Juliana Rodriguez

Presentation Title: Verification and Discrimination of Emboli Present in Cerebral Circulation Through Use of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound

Research Focus: Biological Systems Engineering

School: University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Cerebral blood flow is one of the many crucial systems in the human body. Certain situations can arise wherein the health of cerebral blood flow could be at risk of complications. Examples of health complications that impair blood flow are strokes and congenital heart defects. Strokes arise when particles, termed emboli, are present in the blood flow and find their way into the brain through arteries. With particles in the brain’s blood flow, blockages occur which in turn lead to strokes. Similarly, congenital heart defects are important as their presence may require surgeries which can introduce foreign material (i.e. emboli) that may cause strokes or neurological defects (O’Brien et al., 1997). Transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) is a technique capable of detecting blood flow in the brain as well as emboli; however, the algorithm for emboli detection in present-day TCD is not always accurate (Truemper and Bashford, 2016). As such, our lab has created an algorithm to better detect emboli, which improves on the present algorithm. In particular, this study focuses on creating a flow phantom to mimic the blood flow in a cerebral artery to test how well the new algorithm verifies emboli presence. The knowledge that present algorithms are not adequate for clinical use is well known; our results will allow improvement of emboli detection so it can be fully implemented into clinical care and improve quality of care for many people.