All Abstracts

Dynamical friction is a physical mechanism thought to be responsible for pairing of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the aftermath of galactic mergers. It arises when a massive perturber traveling through a background medium (either gas or stars) creates in it a density wake. The wake, which trai...

Flagella are ‘whip-like’ extensions of the cell membrane with an inner core of microtubules arranged in a specific 9+2 configuration. Majority of Eukaryotic use flagella for movement. Flagella have several components: radial spokes, transition zone, centriole, membrane, central pair apparatus, i...

During ancient times, patriarchy fueled a clear and distinct division within society. However, we must acknowledge that within Ancient Philosophy, many women contributed great thought to the discipline.This research focuses on women philosophers of ancient Greece, Egypt, and Israel. This study explo...

30 Years of Scholarship: A Time Series of Spelman Research DataAs Spelman Research Day celebrates its 30th year, the members of the D.O.P.E. Arts collective have curated a mural that serves as an interactive and artistic data visualization highlighting the scholarship and contributions of our commun...

The interpolation of curves and surfaces is commonly used in Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). Historically, these methods have applications in automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries. More recently, their uses have expanded to computer animation. Various methods of interpolation in...

A self-driving car, also known as a robot car, autonomous car, or driverless car, is a vehicle that is capable of sensing the environment it’s in and moving with little or no human assistance. Currently, there are issues occurring with Tesla’s Auto Pilot that are causing many people to have cras...

Secondary data analyses were conducted using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to determine if there were gender differences in job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms. The sample was comprised of 4,482 men and women, ages 18-26. The majority of the p...

Representation of Black characters in animated television opens new possibilities for questioning tropes and stereotypes. This presentation analyses the way tokenism impacts the development of Black character portrayals across animated television shows whether the program aims at children or adults....

    This research aimed to investigate the trend of annual average precipitation (mm) in Georgia from 1950 to 2011. It was conducted through analyzing data from the U.S. Historical Climatology Network database. This data included the amount of daily rainfall (mm) between 1950 and 2011 of t...

Amoebozoa includes unicellular eukaryotic microbes that use pseudopodia to move and to feed. They are diverse, occupying many habitats including freshwater and marine environments as well as parasites affecting humans and other livestock. The biodiversity of Amoebozoa is mostly studied at a molecula...

Largely centered around white privilege, upper-class tradition and affluence, boarding schools are centers of socialization that have historically catered to members of a white, elite, and exclusive community. However, there remains a complicated nexus of race, class, and gender that needs to be exp...

 While birth control is lauded as a symbol of reproductive freedom, historically, it has been used to regulate Black women’s bodies and usurp their reproductive rights. In this project, I seek to uncover: (1) how historic abuse of Black women’s reproductive capacities informs their distrust of ...

My research investigates how ideological differences within the Black activist community have created a lack of intersectional advocacy in the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM). The dominant narrative, as publicized by both the media and BLM followers, centers cisgendered heterosexual able-bodied Bl...

Salmonella enterica is a Gram-negative, anaerobic pathogen that is one of the most common species of Salmonella found in the United States. Salmonella enterica account for ~99% of Salmonella infections in humans and other mammals. Antibiotic resistance spread can be facilitated by the use of antibio...

In a normal human eye, light coalesces to a central point on the retina, which is responsible for capturing all of the light rays and processing them to be sent to the optic nerve. Infrared light with a wavelength >700 nm is known to cause damage to the retina and the frontal eye, creating a physiol...

Childhood lead exposure occurs when a child is exposed to excess amounts of lead and tests confirm elevated blood lead levels (at or above 5 mcg/dL). Children under the age of 6 are particularly at high risk for lead poisoning and other adverse effects due to hand-to-mouth activity. With sources of ...

  Genomics is the study of the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes. Genomics underwent a major period of transition and progress with the start of the Human Genome Project in 1990. This research spawned several new analysis methods that revolutionized genomics research. This allo...

Compared to European American women, African American women report more common depressive symptoms, such as sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness. Emerging research suggests that African American women’s health outcomes, like depression, may be partially explained by women’s stress-coping beh...

Hinduism is often a victim of cultural appropriation and stereotypical portrayals in American media and markets. This research identifies the effect of these flawed depictions on the perception of Hinduism in the United States by American college students. In this research project, relevant lit...

De Casteljau’s Algorithm for Constructing Bézier Curves & Surfaces Abstract   The curves and surfaces of Computer-Aided Geometric Design (CAGD) are used in numerous industries and technologies. From the cups people drink from to the transportation they use to commute, people are surrounded by cu...

Preterm infants in the NICU often require supplemental O2 (ie. Hyperoxia) to ensure healthy oxygen intake. One consequence of supplemental O2 therapy can manifest as airway (AW) hyperreactivity, which is an underlying feature of lung disease (ie. bronchopulmonary dysplasia) and various wheezing diso...

Although the EPA regularly monitors ground-level ozone in the US, information about regional intra- and inter-regional transport comes from the measurements of ozone profiles, as they encompass concentrations in the middle and lower troposphere. The 2011 DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface ...

Misuse of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance being at an all time high. Microbiologists are seeking new antibiotics to solve the problem. We tested whether combining antibiotic-producing bacteria increased their antibiotic production. Three uncharacterized bacteria displaying antibiot...

Little research has considered the unique factors Black women face that may affect their binge eating disorder (BED) symptomatology. The purpose of the present study is to investigate group differences in income and racial makeup of neighborhood on BED symptoms among Black women. In addition, the cu...

The goal of this research study is to gain an understanding of the mechanism of antibiotic resistance in plants. Previous investigations revealed a link between metal uptake and antibiotic resistance, such as, a decrease in iron uptake in plants exposed to kanamycin. We hypothesize this relationship...

Human-Robotic Interaction is an emergent field that has been studied for years in much breadth and depth. The use of robots as emotional and therapeutic support aids has been researched with aging and socially exceptional individuals. As conversation based agents such as Siri and Alexa are becoming ...

Horizontally transferred genes (HGTs) are a result of transferred genetic material across species and is not a result of direct descent. HGTs are common in prokaryotes but typically rare in multi-cellular eukaryotes. However, rapid accumulation of genomic information has recently identified increase...

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is an obligate human pathogen that causes gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease in humans that is becoming untreatable given high levels of antibiotic resistance expressed by N. gonorrhoeae. N. gonorrhoeae was shown to form biofilms in vivo and in vitro. Biofilms are aggreg...

Human activity and development over the last century has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, offsetting the natural greenhouse effect and creating drastic changes in daily life. One major effect of this increase in carbon emissions is the increase of extreme weathe...

The purpose of this study is to explore the early specialized school experiences of young children who have cochlear implants, hearing aids, and varying degrees of deafness. This study explores how aspects such as speech, technology, curriculum, and behavior play a part in the child's development in...

Why is the healthcare system failing for mothers and young children in Lao People’s Democratic Republic? This research will analyze the socio-political effects of Lao PDR to better understand why the infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality rate are drastically high. The main argument of t...

  Plants acquire essential nutrients from the soil through their roots. In the process, they may absorb many antibiotics such as kanamycin that are harmful to plants. Therefore plants such as Arabidopsis have evolved resistance mechanisms that involve the adjustment of metal uptake. We propose a mo...

  Genome sequencing is a technique that identifies the order of nucleotides in a DNA sequence of an organism. This process is the most successful for large animals like humans and plants, however, genome sequencing of microbial eukaryotes is still advancing. Microbial Eukaryotes like Amoeba have ve...

Mental health, particularly mental illnesses are overlooked and seen as nonexistent in the African American community. Many people are not aware of the mental health issues that impoverished Black Queer people endure, “LGBTQ individuals are almost three times more likely than others to experience ...

Death feigning or thanatosis is a well-known anti-predator defense seen in the animal kingdom including in the confused flour beetles (Tribolium confusum). We hypothesize that red flour beetles(T. castaneum)like confused flour beetles will feign death in the presence of predators. Adults and larvae ...

The scholarly discussion on colorism has focused primarily on the disadvantages dark-skinned African Americans face, while highlighting the advantages light-skinned African Americans have such as having a higher chance of being hired at a job or having a higher salary. For this research, I am focusi...

From minstrelsy to jazz music, white Americans have always had a fascination with the culture of urban Black Americans. My research seeks to dissect this fascination of black culture through the careers of Jean Michel Basquiat and Virgil Abloh. Jean Michel Basquiat gained acclaim in the arts scene u...

The built environment includes all of the physical parts of where we live and work. This not only includes homes and buildings, but also infrastructure including sidewalks, parks, open space, and green space. The built environment influences physical health to combat obesity and other chronic diseas...

Arising from the first outbreak at the 1967 American Legion Convention, to re-occurring incidents across the nation, Legionnaires Disease (LD) is a dangerous strain of pneumonia. Derived from the Legionella pneumophila bacteria, LD has persistence and resistance built into its cellular code. Classif...

 This ethnographic research project aims to explore the Black vegan food business scene in Atlanta. While living in Atlanta for school I have discovered a thriving Black vegan or plant-based community in the city. There are approximately nineteen vegan restaurants in the city and nine of them a...

Economic prosperity, better quality of life, and a hopeful future are key aspects that migrant individuals seek when coming to America. Migrants who find work in the U.S. often times send money and resources back to their native countries in hopes of improving the lives of their families. Indeed, re...

Antibiotic resistance has become one of the most concerning threats to mankind. Our nation faces 23,000 deaths annually due to antibiotic resistance. Neisseria gonorrhoea (Ngo), a Gram-negative bacterium that causes gonorrhea, has evolved high levels of resistance to a wide range of antibiotics and ...

 This research examines the economic activities of China and Africa by contextualizing the nature of this association and interrogating the ramifications of this deepening relationship. Despite much hysteria in recent works, formulated on the claim that China’s presence on the African continent i...

This paper seeks explore what happens when the activity of sewing is infused with a love for painting and design. Through fashion design, with a concentration in tailor-made bodysuits, I invite the investigation and exploration of self-expression, materialistic ingenuity and perception as it relates...

In 2017, Georgetown University’s Law Center published a groundbreaking report entitled Girlhood Interrupted that analyzed how the “adultification” of young Black girls has contributed to further racial inequities in schools through violent discipline practices which ultimately culminate in...

I use photography to lure observers in a dialogue with themselves where they're encouraged to re-evaluate their ideas on identity. I work toward challenging the stereotypes that affect various identities, and suggesting new ways of seeing and thinking that go beyond societal norms. Being that I, too...

In the small flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, IREG1 (Iron Regulated Transporter 1) is involved in iron transport. This study is focusing on the characterization of IREG1 mutants to ultimately assess how iron transport is affected by citrate and kanamycin. Insertional mutants from the Salk Colle...

Biofilms are aggregates of bacteria that adhere to surfaces and display increased resistance to antibiotics. Two main healthcare concerns are the disinfection of surgical surfaces and equipment and the treatment of infections in humans. Individuals infected with biofilm-forming bacteria present recu...

On nearly every surface and inside almost every organism, there are millions of tiny microbes that are invisible to the naked eye. Some of these microbes, known as symbionts, live in symbiosis or within other organisms. These tiny microbes include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Honeybees (Apis mellif...

Civic Education in K-12 educational curriculum has an important relationship with civic engagement and voter participation in the broader community. Campbell and Nieme (2016) theorize civic exams are most effective in forming political knowledge among youth in states where these exams serve as requi...

Nationally, African American women only represent 156 of the current 22,000 Ph.D.s in physics and astrophysics earned between 2016 and 1972 [1]. As a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field, physics lags behind all other fields in the representation of Hispanic and Black stude...

Bacteria that break down red blood cells (hemolysis) are usually pathogenic to humans. Some soil bacteria can display hemolytic activity. In this experiment, we sought to isolate soil bacteria with hemolytic activity and study their impact on yeast growth, as a model for eukaryotic cells. The bacter...

This study examines the correlation between migration and cultural rejection in women of the African diaspora, namely, latinas and Black women in America during the 20th century. Research acknowledges that there is an identity dilemma that exists in people who migrate from one country to another; th...

Microgels, soft hydrogel particles, are of interest for applying in the development of new biological, chemical and technologies, including promoting bacterial adhesion inhibition and organic coatings. The objective of this research project is to analyze the interfacial properties between poly n-iso...

Metastasis is responsible for the majority of breast cancer-related mortality. Through systematic testing of breast cancer cell lines in vivo, we have identified a strong correlation between metastatic potential and genetic dependency on Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), an inter-mitochondrial g...

According to studies made in USA, children of both sexes and races start school with roughly similar potential to learn. Their scores on IQ tests are approximately equivalent when gender difference was controlled. Yet, test scores of female students decrease over time until when children move up the...

    Both male and female red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, have a high mating rate. Male beetles demonstrate clear pre-copulatory mate choice. We hypothesized that male choice is affected by the environment and test if male mate preference varies when the males' environment is changed. In t...

After-school and community programs provide a significant amount of insight into both the effective and ineffective practices that can be used to promote youth development. According to research, for students who are considered at risk (i.e., coming from impoverished backgrounds, violent neighborhoo...

  This presentation offers research on the degradation of the environment through noise pollution. Noise pollution from human created noise activities impacts biodiversity and quality of life for all elements in and of the ecosystem. Our research will include observations and effects that noise pol...

This EPA Campus Rainworks Challenge project centers on implementing an extensive green roof on the Facilities Management Services (FMS) building of Spelman College as a way to help manage stormwater runoff. The green roof will be implemented using trays filled with vegetation that will capture preci...

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in eukaryote evolution. HGT is known to be widespread in prokaryotes and allows for the rapid acquisition of phenotypic traits. HGT can explain how genes are independently transferred to multiple unrelated species....

“Black, lesbian, mother, warrior poet” Audre Lorde asserts that, “it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are... about to be birthed, but already felt.” This inherent feeling inspired my investigation of the legacy of ancestral memory conveyed through poetry. Poetry has...

Self-compassion is defined as offering a nonjudgmental understanding to oneself. Agency refers to the sense of control individuals feel they have over their actions and the consequences of those actions. We hypothesized that some sense of control is required to exhibit self-compassion, yielding a po...

The CDC defines obesity as a Body Mass Index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile . A report written by Bell et al., indicates that approximately 12.5 million children between the ages of 3 to 12 have been affected by childhood obesity. According to the state of obesit...

  Flagella are projectile organelles that tell us about the organism’s mechanisms for mobility and sensory structures. Flagella are highly conserved structures among eukaryotes and are found in many microorganisms and cells of multicellular organism including ovaries, sperm, and kidney. Flagella ...

Islamophobia in France stems partially from the relationship the country has had with Muslims and Arab-states in the past, including France’s colonial history, shaping current treatment of and sentiment towards Muslims. Helbing and Traunmüller (2016) seek to understand how a nation’s religious ...

Black and brown girlhood has rarely been imagined in terms of the "bildungsroman" which has largely been understood as a genre which chronicles a white male protagonist's psychological maturity from child to adult. As such, these particular femme coming-of-age stories have been relegated to the marg...

Diabetes is a major source of morbidity and mortality in South Africa. Epidemiologic studies estimate that 7% of adults aged 21 to 79 (3.85 million people) have diabetes. Economic support for diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV are significant in the region; however, what is not known is whether b...

There is significant research in the use of various technologies to assist with global disaster relief efforts. Due to the ability of robots to work long hours, go without food, water, shelter, resources that humans could not; makes them optimal for use in these specialized circumstances. This resea...

Black American partisanship has been predictable in federal, state, and local elections for the past five decades. Previous academics explored the significance of party identification during elections when the candidates are Black and the voters are majority Black, finding that Democratic Party iden...

  In an interdisciplinary analysis of Black women’s diasporic geographies entitled Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle, Katherine McKittrick argues, “Black matters are spatial matters…Black women’s histories, lives, and spaces must be understood as enmeshing wit...

The endosperm and embryo are the results of double fertilization in flowering plants. These structures rely on each other for successful seed development. In the early stages of Arabidopsis seed development, the endosperm grows rapidly while the embryo grows slowly. After endosperm cellularization, ...

Within the field of social justice, the levels of social support and discrimination perceived by marginalized groups is often highlighted. Typically, marginalized populations are less supported and subjected to more discrimination in society. As a result, their experiences can translate into outcome...

Microgels are hydrogel micron-sized particles, that are used in a variety of biologically-related applications. Microgels are hydrogels in particulate form and can be synthesized to be environmentally-responsive. Microgels are most often observed in colloidal suspensions, however in this research, t...

The City of Atlanta is susceptible to flooding from Chattahoochee River. The magnitude of damages caused by past floods has motivated re-assessment of current flood infrastructure and policies for emergency preparedness and response. Therefore, it is important to provide flood hazard information to ...

Zero-length crosslinkers are used in reagent systems for bioconjugation.In this project, copolymerized poly-n-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) – co – acrylic acid (AAc) [90/10] microgels are the targeted reagent systems for bioconjugation, because of their unique ability to change in size, in direct ...

This research positions dance as ideology for embodying Black culture while dismissng Black bodies. Through cultural appropriation, non-Black dancers have increasingly begun to imitate and impersonate Black aesthetics in the post-modern dance era, most notably in commercialized dance. Based on a soc...

  Where there is a Black power movement, there is a Black arts movement. Black arts movements shape the course of the diasporic narrative and reclaim the vitality and dignity of Blackness by critiquing colonial and racist ideologies that distort African history and identity. Born out of th...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of breastfeeding on the relationship between executive functioning and math achievement for preschool-aged African American children. Although the effects of breastfeeding have been widely researched, the cognitive effects of breastfeeding o...

  Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a pathogenic sexually-transmitted bacterium, is becoming untreatable due to increased antibiotic resistance. Related commensal (non-pathogenic) Neisseria species are found in the human oral and nasopharynx, but are rarely studied. Here, we seek (1) to characterize the in...

    Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the etiological agent of the STI, gonorrhea. Resistance to ceftriaxone and azithromycin, the currently recommended treatment for gonococcal infections, is increasing world-wide. Strains resistant to ceftriaxone contain a mosaic penA gene that encodes a highly mutated p...

The purpose of this project was to observe the ex ovo early development of chick embryos. Our goals were to be able to routinely maintain normal development up to embryonic day 10, and to be able to analyze the normality of development by using a skeletal staining technique to observe both cartilage...

  Coherent three-dimensional spectroscopy is a new technique under development. In spectroscopy, experiments are usually carried out in the first dimension. Adding a second dimension offers a variety of advantages such as decreased spectral congestion, allowing one to observe the resolution of the ...

 In 2005, students at Spelman College established The Spelbots Robotics Team where they could engage in departmental activities, innovative projects and scholarly endeavors across campus and throughout the community. The goal is to encourage students and young women of African descent to explore ro...

The purpose of this research is to analyze the multifaceted factors that affect foreign direct investment (FDI) in African and Asian countries. The Asian region has experienced several decades of economic growth. During these periods of economic growth, Southeast Asia also experienced an increase in...

Absence is the notion that one is nonexistent or has departed from person or place for an extended period of time. In today’s society, the divorce rate has climbed to nearly 50 percent, often resulting in single-parent households led by mothers. In some of these single-parent homes, the relat...

In order to determine the localization and function of these C. burnetti proteins with the host cell, we constructed fusion proteins of each open reading frame(ORF) with mCherry, GFP, and FLAG peptides and expressed them in either eukaryotic cells or C. burnetti. We found the post infection CBU-1636...

The purpose of this study is to explain the effects elementary schools in the Chicago Public School system have on students’ collegiate performance. This experiment focused on identifying whether different types of elementary schools - traditional public schools, magnet schools, charter schools, o...

  The soil is an environment inhabited by a large/diverse population of bacteria, many of which can produce antibiotics that can be harmful to plants. Plants have evolved genes that confer antibiotic resistance. In Arabidopsis WBC19 confers resistance to the aminoglycoside kanamycin. We assessed th...

    Feelings of exclusion and maternal closeness are large determinants of wellbeing in humans, yet few people take the time to understand why these aspects of life affect people so deeply. This study surveys 4,882 young people between the ages of 18 and 26 to determine whether or not maternal clo...

Pharmaceutical testing on epigenetic effects are very limited. The routine use of vertebrates as preclinical research models is constrained by their long mating and generational times, leading to very low numbers of progeny to test and assess. In contrast, invertebrates such as insects are ethically...

Elly and Zelle--an original play by Maxine Ford--was created for elementary school students and discusses the complexities of friendship--especially those that occur when proper communication does not happen. This story follows Elly, an elephant, and Zelle, a gazelle, who are on a mission to achieve...

The Civil Rights era was greatly impacted by Muhammad Ali’s resistance to westernized European social norms and protest against racial prejudice in the mid-1900s. Ali undergoes a series of changes of his identity and asserts himself as Muslim activist, using his athletic background as the foundati...

Black Twitter, a subculture with a Black frame of reference within the popular social media site Twitter, acts as a “counterpublic” that engages in critical dialogue and resists hegemonic power. As part of this counterpublic vocalizing Black issues, it has in recent years targeted the representa...

The purpose of this research is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the immersive teaching method used in foreign country education systems is implemented in immersion schools in the United States. The goal of this research is to gain insight on how the immersive methods may be beneficial f...

Previous findings have shown that socioeconomic status and parental education has been associated with the behaviors children display in classroom settings. Further research explores the relationship between the behaviors African-American students display in the classroom and their socioeconomic sta...

 In the operating room, a team is required to effectively perform surgical procedures; part of this team includes a unique duo, an attending and a resident. This dynamic exists due to the nature of teaching hospitals, in which resident autonomy is encouraged. When the dynamic bet...

The objective of our study is to address the relationship between food insecurity, unmet needs and ART adherence in youth living with HIV (YLWH). Previous research shows that food insecurity and unmet needs are substantial barriers to medication adherence and it has been analyzed specifically as it ...

Funk music is a fundamentally crucial genre when discussing the history of Black music genres. This genre was created at a time of extreme change for the Black community in the United States. Civil rights laws were passed to give voting rights and fair housing to the newly integrated citizens. Altho...

    Shiga toxins (STXs) are virulence factors of Escherichia coli and Shigella strains that cause disease in humans. Members of the Shiga toxin family are composed of a pentameric array of glycolipid-binding B-subunits and a single enzymatic A subunit that inhibits ribosomal function. Globotriaosy...