Urban sprawl has been a continued problem in many rural communities, including Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. This is why, every year, they choose to legally protect select agricultural lands to curb the effects of growing urban populations, namely from the Northeast part of the county near State College. We have been asked by the Huntingdon County Conservation District to rank the lands that have applied to be protected in order to determine which ones will be chosen. There is a specific set of criteria that we are given, and each land is given a score. The criterion is based on how likely a parcel is to be developed by contractors or businesses etc. Examples of criteria include; a property's road frontage, distance from developments or businesses, distances from other farmlands, and the percentage of land used for agricultural purposes. Using ArcGIS, we mapped out each of the farmlands and determined their potential for development as well as agricultural use. These lands were then given a score, ranked from highest to lowest, and given to the Huntingdon County Conservation District for them to choose which parcels they should preserve.  

The steady progress of computing power, as predicted by Moore's Law, has stagnated in recent years, leading the industry to focus on parallelism as the primary means of driving performance improvements. While parallel computing offers significant potential, it also introduces challenges related to non-deterministic behavior, especially in object-oriented programming languages like Java.

To address these challenges, researchers have developed Deterministic Parallel Java (DPJ), an extension to the Java programming language that enforces deterministic parallelism by default. However, current implementations of DPJ are primarily software-based, relying on the underlying hardware to provide the necessary performance and efficiency.

In this research project, I aim to explore the potential of implementing the DPJ approach in hardware, specifically on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform. By mapping the DPJ concepts directly onto reconfigurable hardware, I seek to achieve significant performance and energy efficiency gains, as well as investigate the hardware-software co-design opportunities that this approach offers.

The primary goals of this research are to (1) design and implement the first FPGA-based architecture that implements the deterministic methods utilized in DPJ, and (2) contribute to the broader body of knowledge in the field of computer architecture. Additionally, this project provides a valuable opportunity for me to gain hands-on experience with graduate-level research and to represent the hardware aspects of computer science at the Liberal Arts Symposium.

I will be presenting on a possible app design that uses system modeling to suggest the best hiking trails to users

This session will feature student work that has occurred as a result of partnerships with the community and will feature presentations that reflect on the projects, research and/or relationships built while taking a CEL course.

Several students who have participated in Language in Motion will present shortened versions of their presentations to share their cultures and/or the cultures where they studied abroad with the campus community.  Presenters will present for approx. 10 minutes each and we will have a time for question and answer at the end.

Mommy's Monsters started as just a name. It was the title of the Text-Based Ethical Game I knew I wanted to create for my English class, Ethical Game Design. I played with a text-based game creating software, Twine, and pretty quickly discovered that I had fallen in love with it. Not only had I fallen madly in love with this software, but I had, through creating this little text-based horror game, started to unpack deeply buried childhood trauma. Having an addict mother was something that shaped me, built me, and forever changed and inspired me. This project wasn't just variables and branching on Twine; this was therapeutic. In this presentation, I will take you through my creation process and explore how games, specifically horror games, can allow you to do things and process trauma as profoundly personal and special as what Mommy's Monsters did for me.

The United States military has a long history of intervention in foreign states. Despite this reputation, many US military interventions have failed to bring long-term peace and stability to unstable nations. It is commonly understood that US intervention is multifaceted, and many factors affect its efficacy. This paper hypothesizes that one reason United States military intervention fails is the oversight of tribal and clan-based authority in foreign states. Through a comparative analysis of case studies in Libya and Somalia, this paper will analyze the effect of US military intervention on lasting stability, and what role tribal governance played in these missions. 

My presentation will be about strategies to reduce fatal drug overdoses. I will be comparing two case studies of drug policy: Portugal and Oregon. My hypothesis is: Decriminalization and harm reduction have a mixed record, but Portugal’s success indicates that, if carried out properly, these strategies can be an effective way to reduce drug overdose deaths.

“Domestic students are not interested in international students.” My international friend confessed to me her feelings. While I struggled to respond at the time, I believe that the presence of international students has a positive impact on domestic students’ academic productivity. This study is about measuring the correlation between social interaction with international students and domestic students’ academic burnout. The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding as to how interaction with international students benefits domestic students’ academic producibility in order to verify the hypothesis that true social cohesion of immigrants into local society lifts all boats in society. This mixed-methods, exploratory study employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches, utilizing surveys with both closed- and open-ended questions to evaluate the experiences of domestic students. Through the analysis of their opinions on academic burnout, the research will examine whether stronger social interactions with international students lead to greater academic motivation, while a lack of such interactions correlates with higher levels of burnout. Given the pressing issue of exploitation and mistreatment of unskilled immigrants in my home country of Japan, as well as the global nature of immigrant abuse, this study seeks to highlight how fostering immigrant integration, rather than marginalizing or exploiting them, benefits society as a whole. 

I investigate the patterns and properties of the hyperbolic plane when configured such that equilateral triangles are connected so that there are eight triangles at every vertex, focusing on the area and perimeter of such figures.

Students from Juniata College will highlight their efforts to provide Pennsylvania local education agencies with a virtual archaeology experience (VAE). VAE highlights many of the Commonwealth’s Revolutionary War fort locations and artifacts, Curriculum presented includes STL files available for reproduction via 3D printing or viewed virtually.

The role of social media in our everyday lives has grown enormously. No longer a harmless outlet for creativity and sharing our lives, social media is now a source of exercising power. This Senior Capstone project in English Literature examines its effects on the relationships between voters, candidates, and funders within the US political climate. Building heavily from Foucault's theories of power structures, the panopticon, and discipline, this paper applies and adapts theory to our modern media and relationships. Following the theory along with modern examples from TikTok, Reddit, and more, this paper compares our public perception of the role of the voter, candidate, and funder within a democracy to the reality of these roles within our own democracy.

Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta caretta) are a highly elusive species. Nesting success is affected due to the ever-changing climate, but further exploring the elements that make up climate is what’s being researched. This study investigates the nesting patterns of loggerhead sea turtles in relation to key abiotic factors, including king tides, turtle activity, and nest locations to take a look at the nesting success at the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center. The location monitored was South Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgetown, South Carolina. This island is owned by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and is home to a multitude of precious species. Ten summer nesting seasons worth of data were collected and analyzed, amassing over 2,000 nests total, with a success rate of 73%.

This presentation analyzes the scope and impact of Chinese propaganda across Taiwan’s social media landscape, focusing on one high-profile platform as an exemplar, TikTok. It explores how this platform, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is used as a tool to influence public opinion in Taiwan. The presentation assesses the extent to which users engage with Taiwanese independence and reunification ideologies on TikTok, comparing online behavior of two distinct demographic groups: older Taiwanese, who are typically more supportive of reunification, with younger Taiwanese, who are typically more in favor of independence. Through a comprehensive analysis of user engagement, the study investigates how different ideological narratives are promoted and received among Taiwanese users. By compiling performance metrics and documenting comment trends, the research establishes criteria for quantitatively assessing virality and impact of propaganda. The findings aim to contribute to the understanding of how digital platforms facilitate political influence and to offer insights into the broader implications of social media as a battleground for digital warfare in Taiwan. Ultimately, this article sheds light on the complex intersection between technology, politics, and public sentiment in Taiwan, highlighting potential differences in distinct demographic groups.

Given the forested nature of the Raystown Lake area and surrounding Huntingdon County regions, visitors who partake in the popular outdoor recreation activities have an increased risk of contracting tick-borne diseases (TBDs). TBDs pose a significant and debilitating threat to public health. The extent of tick abundance and tick-borne pathogens within Huntingdon County must be determined to effectively educate the public and safeguard their health. Therefore, we collected tick specimens using the CDC’s drag netting protocol for tick collection on ten, heavily trafficked trails throughout Huntingdon County. In addition to tick population abundance, the terrain parameters, temperature, humidity, canopy cover, location, and time of day were recorded. The collected specimens were speciated, and a subset of the samples have had their DNA isolated and analyzed for a full panel of tick-borne pathogens. A subset of pathogen-containing ticks will be subsequently sequenced and the genomic data analyzed. Supporting conclusions drawn from this study in 2023, the current 2024 data shows that a majority (62.2%) of the collected ticks were found in leaf litter with more than half (59.7%) of the ticks being in the larva life stage. In addition, analysis of the 2023 and 2024 tick specimens revealed that 20.8% tested positive for Borrelia species (the bacteria that cause Lyme disease), 14.6% tested positive for Babesia species (the bacteria that cause babesiosis), and 3.6% tested positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum (the bacterium that causes anaplasmosis). Additionally, forty specimens collected from the public of Huntingdon County have been tested for Lyme disease, with 27.5% testing positive.  By studying current and emerging tick-borne pathogens, we can identify trends in pathogen diversification and geographic expansion, which are crucial for effective disease management and prevention strategies to better educate the public across the impacted county.

En este panel, estudiantes de la clase Dioses/Robots/Amantes presentarán sus exploraciones sobre la creación en la literatura latinoamericana del siglo XX y XXI, enfocándose en dos categorías principales: los dioses y los robots (autómatas) e inteligencia artificial. A través de un análisis de obras de ficción, los estudiantes examinarán el poder creativo tanto humano como divino, así como los límites de estos poderes.

This study investigates if there is a significant difference between arsenic levels found in Rosa multiflora growing in developed areas vs R. multiflora growing in areas with less human impact. Arsenic is a heavy metal that is harmful to both plants and animals and can be bioaccumulated through the food chain. The results of this study can have implications for restoration sites and urban wildlife habitat. If plants located in developed areas contain higher levels of arsenic, animals and humans that consume those plants could risk higher exposure to arsenic. 

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Baker's yeast, is a well-studied model eukaryotic organism. Much of our knowledge about eukaryotic cell function comes from yeast studies, though nearly 10% of yeast genes remain uncharacterized. This study focuses on YKR004C, a verified gene of unknown function named ECM9, predicted to be involved in cell division and cell wall maintenance or composition based on previous studies. We investigated the sensitivity in stress conditions of an ECM9 deletion strain, compared to wild-type, to cell wall integrity. These results suggest that ECM9 is involved in cell wall maintenance and the regulatory pathway determining cell division readiness under stress. As part of the future direction, I plan to conduct a chitin content assay to evaluate chitin levels under stress conditions. Additionally, I will analyze the activity of key enzymes involved in cell wall synthesis, such as glucan and chitin synthase, through an immunoblot assay.

Join recently returned study abroad students as they share their experiences from around the world.  Come learn about the impacts of these experiences on their personal views and future career goals. 

Observing methods of governmental content moderation of misinformation and disinformation on social media. Evaluating the influence of recent EU legislation on social media moderation processes. Concerned with the Communications Decency Act and the Digital Services Act

This thesis will be looking less so at the surface level events that caused the war of the Spanish Succession and more at the individual people and their roles leading up to its start. By the end of the 17th century, it was a known fact that Charles II of Spain was going to die with no direct heir to ascend to the throne. At Charles’s death in November 1700, Philip of Anjou would be crowned king, and the Spanish crown would leave the Habsburg dynasty and land upon the head of a French Bourbon. This decision would launch the world into one of its first global wars. This thesis will provide a look at the context of how this world-altering decision was made, a commonly overlooked area of study on the War of the Spanish Succession. Many historians have taken a surface level textbook approach to it and have not gone into greater depths regarding the different contributing factors towards the start of the conflict. My main argument emphasizes that the buildup of the war is an overlooked area of study. Through the examination of the relations of the primary actors in European courts, a more profound understanding of why this war occurred can be found. Although not abundant, others have taken a marginally similar approach to the study of the War of the Spanish Succession and have been fundamental in the development of my work. Lisbeth Geevers attacks the pressures of Spanish court life and precedents of Habsburg courts in Spain and across Europe to understand how these events unfolded. Meanwhile, Wouter Troost examines the correspondence of kings to discern the origins of the war. All of this discussion is fundamental to the point my paper makes; that among the various legal, economic, and geographic reasons the War of the Spanish Succession started, the relationships of individuals also should be ranked among them.  

The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) is a migratory game bird in the northeast. A study in Connecticut detected elevated levels of Cadmium, which inspired our study to see if this issue is also faced by woodcocks in Pennsylvania. We tested soil and woodcocks’ primary food source, earthworms, which have previously been found to have Cd, to see if those were the sources of Cadmium in woodcock. We studied 25 American woodcocks and observed different concentrations of Cadmium and the effect it had on their liver, typically having negative reproductive effects. The samples were collected by different hunter harvests, window strikes, and roadkill across the state of Pennsylvania. We dissected the woodcocks and removed their livers and bones to see whether or not there are elevated levels of Cadmium and to see the trace of Cadmium in bones which occurs over time. Next, we dehydrated and rehydrated the samples with nitric acid in order to reconstruct the metals. We used an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure the concentration of Cd in each sample through different wavelengths. Our preliminary results indicate that 4 of the 25 woodcock in our study had elevated levels of Cadmium. 

Through a combination creative-research project, I investigate the underrepresentation of people with disabilities and Indigenous identities within American fantasy media. This marginalization has created stereotypical and harmful archetypes, despite the limitless freedom the genre inherently provides. As an aspiring storyteller, I combine my research with my personal project as a reflection on what I've learned and what I hope to achieve.

Social media platforms like TikTok have transformed political communication by allowing candidates to interact with a younger audience and craft their own narratives, engaging directly with the voters. Through TikTok’s unique format that emphasizes authentic, unpolished content, politicians can present different versions of themselves. This study examines how Kamala Harris’ campaign TikTok content contributed to the creation of gendered political narratives by shaping how her candidacy was presented and framed through campaign strategy and messaging. Since the platform is fairly new and becoming a new tool for political communication, there is limited research on how female politicians navigate gender expectations on TikTok. Using a qualitative content analysis of Harris’ official campaign account (@KamalaHQ), this research will analyze 30 randomly selected videos by using a random date generator from July to November 2024 and then focus on the most viewed video from that date. This represents about 4% of the total videos posted by the Harris campaign in this date range. This allowed me to examine whether her digital presence challenged or reinforced traditional gender stereotypes in political leadership. Additionally, this research will investigate whether or how intersectionality played a key role in shaping the campaign’s message, as her portrayal as a woman of color generates both support and heightens gendered and racialized scrutiny. While this research is ongoing, preliminary findings suggest platforms like TikTok offer female politicians opportunities to control their narrative differently than other platforms while simultaneously requiring careful navigation of existing gender expectations. These findings support existing research on gender bias in politics while providing new insights into the role of emerging social media platforms in political campaigning, particularly for women candidates.

“Almost a Quarter of the World Feels Lonely.” This statement is based on a 2022 research report by Meta and Gallup, which analyzed interview survey data from respondents in 142 countries. But can it be true that nearly one in four people—approximately 3.2 billion humans worldwide—feel lonely? Or is the lonely population even greater than we think? Often lonely individuals blame themselves for experiencing this distressing feeling. They feel ashamed and misunderstood and conceal their emotions from others. This creative nonfiction journal called “We, the Origin of Loneliness” grounded in research explores the internal and external factors that transform us into lonely beings. In general, writings about loneliness mostly fit into two categories: either they are extremely scientifically driven, viewing loneliness as an equation, or they overwhelm the reader with sentimentality. However, both approaches lack emotional impact. By taking a phenomenological approach, I integrate concepts from humanities with those from social sciences to analyze loneliness holistically and capture the human lived experience. Alongside this etic, or outsider perspective, I employ an emic approach by conducting semi-structured interviews based on symbolism. Through Symbolic Interactionism, I aim to understand the subjective perception of loneliness and challenge its typically narrow definition. Loneliness is not necessarily a personal condition originating from missing social skills or certain characteristics, highlighting our flaws. Primarily, loneliness should be understood as two things: 1) a natural experience of the human condition, and 2) a societal issue shaped by economy, politics, and culture that not only threatens our communities but also our democracy. By educating about the origins, possible causes, and consequences of loneliness, I aim to reduce stigma, support greater empathy, and normalize the discussion of loneliness. My mission is to guide individuals and authorities toward promoting supportive environments that address the natural social needs of human beings.

In this interactive session, participants will have the opportunity to play with VR and share their perceptions about its use in educational settings.

Huntingdon county has a variety of freshwater springs, underground rivers where conditions remain nearly constant, all year. These springs are host to a vast number of organisms including crayfish and a species of freshwater shrimp, amphipods. Amphipods have been studied quite extensively at Juniata, but not their relationship with crayfish as a prey species. The goal of this experiment is to determine if crayfish have a size preference in the amphipods they hunt. This will be tested by setting up a series of fish tanks that contain both crayfish and a variety of amphipods at different sizes and monitoring them for a 5 day period to see who gets picked off and when. If the experiment is successful in proving that there is a size preference, then this might explain part of amphipod behavior. The working hypothesis is that crayfish will prefer the largest amphipods, and will eat them first then move down the sizes throughout the week. This is because the bigger amphipods are more nutritious and are possibly older and therefore, slower. 

I will talk about the reasons why Elon Musk shifted his support from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

A Review of Cultural Influences on Trauma and Interfamilial Relations Within the Latinx Community

Trauma has become a major area of study within the field of psychology. Research on trauma aims to understand many aspects of the experience, including; what causes trauma, what are the long term effects of exposure, and what interventions can prevent or treat trauma. Although trauma has been studied for many years, few lines of research attempt to understand trauma through a cultural lens (Raghavan & Sandanapitchai, 2020). This lack of inclusion limits our understanding of trauma, particularly how culture may influence perceptions and experiences of trauma as well as our knowledge of best practices for intervention for different cultural groups. By incorporating a cultural lens, researchers and practitioners may better understand people’s experiences and find more effective methods to treat trauma in minority populations, such as within the Latinx community. This literature review will summarize current research on trauma and explore the role of culture in better understanding and treating trauma. In addition, it will explore distinct aspects of trauma related to immigration and how these experiences may shape family dynamics. Lastly, based on the literature reviewed, recommendations for future research and practice will be shared. 

This literature review will first explore differences in definitions as well as appraisal of trauma within different cultures. Overall, researchers have struggled to find one core definition of trauma. For any definition, however, it is important to remember that understanding individuals’ perception of trauma are essential in defining the experiences (Engelbrecht & Jobson, 2016). Broad cultural differences, including connections to either individualistic versus collectivist cultures, influence one’s personality, beliefs, and outlook on the world. As a result, it shapes one’s perceptions and experiences. Individualistic cultures, such as the United States, value independence and self-reliance, while collectivistic cultures, such as El Salvador, emphasize the importance of the group as a whole and consider one’s identity in relation to others (Nickerson, 2023). These notable differences in perceptions of self and others likely influence how trauma is not only experienced, but also measured and treated. This review will examine the cultural factors that influence perceptions of trauma within a cultural group, how individual’s understand others’ perception of their experience, and how the victim’s response is understood. 

Second, this review will synthesize research on how the immigration process contributes to, but also has its own distinct forms of trauma. For example, the review will summarize research on exposure to violence (in home country and during the immigration journey) (e.g., Roy, 2022) ) family separation (choice versus policy) (e.g., Anakwenze & Rasmussen, 2021), and exposure to high risk settings in foreign land (high poverty neighborhoods, low social supports) (e.g., Anakwenze & Rasmussen 2021). A better understanding of the effects of these immigration-related experiences is needed to ensure the development of effective practices to address the ongoing mental health needs for individuals, families, and communities who experience them.

Relatedly, this review will examine research on the effects of these trauma experiences on family dynamics. Research on trauma exposure and parenting found that parents with higher levels of trauma exposure had higher levels of parenting distress, and higher levels of parenting distress is associated with a variety of negative child and family outcomes (Steele et al., 2016). Research on how these negative effects can be diminished, including the use of a social-ecological approach which contextualizes cultural experiences to find forms of resilience, may better support these parents and families. Within the Hispanic community, for example, story telling of family experiences and hardships may further promote resilience in themselves. This is best understood with the knowledge of family values and cohesion within this community, thus helping individuals find strength and support from family (Raghavan & Sandanapitchai, 2020).

Through the synthesis of this research, this project aims to provide recommendations on how a cultural lens can be used to improve the quality of trauma research and promote resilience in diverse populations. Through the identification of vulnerabilities and protective factors that impact collectivistic cultures, researchers will better understand factors of trauma adversity among a wider range of cultures (Ungar, 2010). It is hoped the synthesis of this research will help to identify how resilience is seen across collectivistic societies and can be promoted within social and community support, enhancing the familial connections embedded in the culture.

The Eagle Fund is a student-managed investment portfolio at Juniata College, established through a generous $100,000 donation by the late Klare Sunderland. It offers students the opportunity to develop practical skills in portfolio management and investment strategies.

At the 2025 Liberal Arts Symposium, the Eagle Fund team will present an annual update detailing their investment activities, performance metrics, and key outcomes from the past year. This session will highlight the portfolio managers' analytical approaches, decision-making processes, and the real-world financial experience gained through managing the fund.

A look at how Borges uses his work “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” to comment on creation as it relates to propaganda and its use in fascist ideologies. 

This study investigated the role of Eastern coyotes (Canis latrans) as bioindicators of environmental lead contamination in Pennsylvania, focusing on the impact of natural and anthropogenic sources, including lead ammunition. We measured lead (Pb) concentrations in the kidney and liver of 71 adult coyotes from 25 counties across the state using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Our results show that sex and weight of the coyotes did not influence Pb concentrations. While the average Pb concentration in the liver was within the normal range (2.06 ppm), four individuals exhibited abnormally high Pb levels. The concentrations measured in our study were significantly higher than those of lead measured in coyotes from another study in the southeastern United States. Further analysis of Pb isotope ratios using Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) revealed that the primary source of Pb in coyotes is lead shot, rather than geological or other anthropogenic sources. The study underscores the need for continued monitoring of lead in wildlife populations, particularly apex predators like coyotes, to assess the broader ecological impacts of lead exposure. Given the role of coyotes in Pennsylvania's ecosystems and their exposure to lead from ammunition, this research provides critical insights for conservation and wildlife management, especially in efforts to mitigate the harmful effects of lead contamination in wildlife and ecosystems. Moreover, the study is relevant to ongoing discussions regarding regulations on lead ammunition, supporting the need for policy changes aimed at reducing lead exposure in wildlife.

            Despite the heavy sanctions leveled upon the Russian Federation since the beginning of the full-scale conflict in February 2022, there has been little impact on the ability and willingness of the Russian government to continue fighting. My thesis addresses the question: have the sanctions on Russia achieved their goals? This paper hypothesizes that sanctions on Russia have been ineffective because of the failure to gather comprehensive international support for sanction implementation on the most critical targeted sectors of the Russian economy. By comparing economic data including GDP, inflation, and the exchange rate of the ruble, to the goals and results of sanctions, both in 2014 and 2022 (and beyond), this paper will analyze both the policy successes and failures seen in the use of sanctions within the Russo-Ukrainian conflict to determine the effectiveness of sanctions, and furthermore, uncover how (and why) they failed to halt the war. 

When a child is removed from their home and enters the throws of the American Child Welfare System, there are two main options for where they will be placed next: traditional foster care or kinship care. Put more simply, children are either placed with licensed foster parents or a relative.

Kinship care has substantial benefits for children compared to traditional foster care. Studies have shown that children in these kinship placements exhibit lower levels of problematic behaviors even when evaluated across different age groups (Wu et al., 2015). Children in kinship care are also less likely to need secondary placements compared to traditional foster care (Jedwab et al., 2020). Kinship care placements also allow for easier interactions with the biological parents. This can be especially beneficial in cases where reunification with the biological parents is the end goal of placement (McWey & Cui, 2021)

While there appears to be certain benefits that kinship care provides, there are still children who fall through the cracks. Some children in kinship care remain subject to cycles of abuse and get removed from several kinship homes before finding a permanent home or, in some cases, aging out of the system at 18 and beginning life on their own. One study showed that 45.5% of children who were in kinship placements were in households below the federal poverty level compared to the 27.1% of those in foster care (Wu et al., 2015).

Despite this problem, the existing literature fails to adequately evaluate what factors within kinship care and legislation regarding kinship care lead some children to be more successful than others in these placements. That question is the aim of this study.

My presentation will include an evaluation of statistics that indicate “success” within kinship care and a comparison of varying implementations of kinship legislation leading me to provide a legislative proposal for future kinship refinement and success. 

Iron-mediated catalysis continues to grow as an attractive research area due to its low toxicity, natural abundance, and applications in organic synthesis compared to other metals. The steric and electronic properties of ligand systems are crucial in controlling a metal-based catalyst’s reactivity. Tripodal ligand systems, such as the amine triphenolate ligand, have been successful in literature to mediate catalytic reactivity with iron and other metal-based centers. An iron(III) amine triphenolate complex has shown promising catalytic activity for renewable carbon source polymerization, yielding the desired polycarbonate product. However, there are limited studies that emphasize how the steric strain induced by ligands consequently influences the complex’s electronic properties. In our research group, we have used 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) as a nonexchangeable axial ligand when synthesizing analogs to the iron(III) amine triphenolate catalysts reported in literature.  In this project, we seek to explore the impact of the steric bulk of this axial ligand. By analyzing crystallography data, this research aims to compare the structural parameters in the iron complex featuring both unsubstituted and substituted DMAP ligands. We intend to link the steric strain caused by these DMAP variations to the electronic properties of the iron(III) amine triphenolate complex. This study seeks to develop a framework for predicting and controlling the electronic properties of iron catalysts through steric manipulation to ultimately promote a more sustainable polymerization process.

In the United States, lead contamination in wildlife is a pervasive issue that affects the fitness of organisms across all trophic levels. The American woodcock finds itself at risk due to various aspects of their behavior and diet, including feeding on earthworms with potentially high lead concentrations and the possible swallowing of wayward lead shot or lead contaminated soil to serve as a digestive aid. This study seeks to shed light on the concentration of lead inside the bodies of American woodcock and in what organs this lead is accumulating, while determining if there is a correlation between this lead and the lead present in the environment of Pennsylvania. To this end, 24 American woodcock carcasses were dissected to obtain the organs most likely to contain accumulations of heavy metals (heart, liver, kidneys, and bone). These organs were subjected to analysis through an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer to measure the heavy metal concentrations present in each. These results were compared to data collected on the concentrations of metals in the soils and earthworms of Pennsylvania. A correlation between environmental lead in Pennsylvania and the lead found in collected American woodcocks would indicate that these migratory birds are being exposed to lead while in Pennsylvania and allow us to better understand the ways in which lead shot and other sources of anthropogenic lead travel through the American woodcock’s food chain.

Iron(III) amine triphenolates are important to society because they are catalysts that are used to form plastics from non-fossil fuel derived carbon. However, the synthesis of these catalysts are not exceptionally green and can cause harm to the environment and to public health. The reported synthesis of iron(III) amine triphenolates uses iron(III) chloride, tris(2-hydroxy-3,5-di-tert-butylbenzyl)amine, N,N-dimethylpyridin-4-amine, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane, and methanol, and requires heat and a long reaction time. In this study, we reacted the benzylamine precursor with iron(III) acetylacetonate in the presence of the tetrahydrofuran. This reaction uses ethyl acetate as a reaction solvent which makes the reaction greener. Through IR spectroscopy, we have found that this reaction creates the same product as reported in literature while creating safer biproducts and using less dangerous chemicals. In the future, we will continue to explore greener pathways for the synthesis of this complex in order to ultimately create cleaner plastics for everyday use. 

Wildlife conservation is an important factor in our world and there are many means to monitor our wildlife.  Species diversity is extremely important to observe in order to preserve the species residing in the location under observation.  Climate change has been a big factor in our world currently and it has been affecting migration patterns, species populations, and especially their diversity.  My project will be based in the wetlands of Old Crow and it will be focused on the species diversity of the birds in the area and how climate change (Temperature) affects it if it even does.  By researching this and analyzing the data gathered I will be able to help track the behavior of certain bird species in order to help us understand how they adapt to their surroundings.  The more we understand about the birds behavior the better we can be informed and effective in helping their species if they ever get into trouble.  We will also be able to know if temperature and climate change plays a significant role in species disappearing.  I will be sorting and compiling data in Old Crow from eBird.  I will also be compiling data on Huntington's weather over the course of the years from its climate records.  My results will be centered on what species remained in the months observed and what was the temperature at the tine.

Over the past semester, three Juniata College criminal justice students conducted internships in the Huntingdon community as part of their education. These students worked at the Huntingdon Police Department, Public Defender’s Office, and County Probation Office. These internships represent all three major organizations in the criminal justice system. In this presentation, these students will discuss their experiences at their organizations and their community-engaged learning. Students will explain how they witnessed firsthand the administration of justice, policing, criminal adjudication, corrections, criminology, research methods, and ethics. Specifically, each student will discuss their internship location, their duties at their organization, its connection to their criminal justice education at Juniata College, and ways that these experiences prepared them for the future. 

Pennsylvania coyotes (Canis latrans) are a top-level opportunistic predator, making them an effective test subject for heavy metal bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Heavy metals accumulate in the environment and can cause lasting health effects in wildlife and humans. This study aims to use coyote’s nails to measure heavy metal concentrations over time. The heavy metals of interest are nickel, lead, arsenic, cadmium and zinc. Based on a study of canid nail growth, nails grow at about 2 mm/week at around two years of age. Thus, measuring heavy metals in nails would give us a very recent snapshot of what the coyote was exposed to. A total of 49 coyote nail samples were collected at the Mosquito Creek coyote hunt with sterilized hedge trimmers. The nails will be divided into three sections: base, middle, and tip. The base of the nail reflects the most recent exposure. The nail sections will then be digested in nitric acid and run through the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to get the concentration levels of different heavy metals. We will also compare these concentrations to those found in the liver and bone of the same individuals. For metals like lead, the liver has a half-life of a few weeks to a month; and the bone would show the accumulation over their entire life.

We will explore the properties of the numerical range of a 2x2 matrix over the finite field Z_p[i]. The numerical range of a matrix A is the set of outputs x*Ax, where x is a vector with x*x=1. Numerical ranges can take a number of shapes, and categorizing matrices by the shape of their numerical range can inform us about their Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues. Particular attention is paid to the case where the numerical range is all of Z_p[i] except for a missing line. 

Fort Halifax was a French and Indian War fortification that was occupied for 14 months. Due to its destruction, little is known about life in the fort and its original layout. In 2021, the Juniata College Cultural Resource Institute rediscovered Fort Halifax. Since then, there have been three excavations and hundreds of hours of research on the site's material culture. By analyzing records, reports, and letters from the occupation of Fort Halifax and the archaeological findings of the 2021, 2023, and 2024 Fort Halifax Field Schools run by Juniata College, this presentation examines the enriched history that emerges from taking a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the lives of soldiers during the 14 months of occupation. Pairing history and archaeology provides a historical background to understand Fort Halifax’s role in the French and Indian War while highlighting the stories that artifacts can tell about life within the fort. 

“In recent years there has been a global shift towards illiberalism. As a conceptual replication of Dunwoody et al. (2022), this study utilizes the Fascist Authoritarian Model of Illiberal Democracy (FAMID) to examine its implications in a US and Mexican sample. A total of 954 participants responded to questions measuring threat othering, conspiracy-oriented propaganda adoption and support for illiberal policies. Results indicated partial support for the FAMID model’s application among the US and Mexican samples.”

Advocacy is an important issue now more than ever on college campuses. Our research aims to assess advocacy on the Juniata campus and report on the reaction to advocacy on a peer level, as well as the need for it. We will review reasons as to why advocacy among our peer group (college aged adolescents in 2025) has had a significant drop off, and how to aid these issues. 

The United States has an increasing issue of drug abuse, and current prevention strategies are not effectively targeting youth populations. To decrease drug abuse in youth, we must analyze the current strategies identify and determine which have been the most effective. I will focus on the best policy approaches to reduce illicit drug use in youth and teens in the United States. This question helps to address the longstanding issues of drug use and highlights the limited success of past and current interventions. Existing research for youth is limited, but we know what has worked for adult populations, and the success of smaller-scale youth-based programs.

The American woodcock [Scolopax minor] and many other species have accumulated heavy metals within the organs, largely as a result of environmental pollution. These heavy metals can pose a detriment to the life and health of these individuals and the populations as a whole. This study aims to measure concentrations of heavy metal including lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, nickel and copper in the heart, livers, and bone taken from American woodcock. Each organ processes and accumulates heavy metals differently: The heart shows the circulatory system, the liver shows the filtration of the metals, and the bones showing developmental growth of the individual with lifetime exposure. We are then comparing differences between each organ to determine the presence and accumulation of each contaminant.  The process of this study includes the dissection and processing of the samples that are then analyzed through an Induced Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer to obtain concentrations of heavy metals. With preliminary data, there are noticeable trends in the concentrations of metals in each organ including elevated levels of lead, zinc, and nickel in the bones rather than the heart or liver, elevated levels of cadmium, arsenic, and copper in the liver as opposed to the heart and bones. If significant variations are observed between different structures of the American woodcock, we will conclude which heavy metals are most prevalent in each structure and consequently, which bodily systems are disproportionately impacted by environmental contamination.

Rural areas experience more barriers to accessing mental health care (Cheesmond et al., 2019). Attitudinal barriers, such as stigma and stoicism, and structural barriers, like limited insurance and transportation access, are identified as key factors affecting service initiation. Demographic factors also play a significant role in shaping these barriers. The study aims to explore these barriers by gathering information from local providers and proposing evidence-based improvements for the local mental health service.

The Waypoint is the result of over 6 years of work in multimedia production. 

The story follows Kordan and Trephor as they are on opposite sides of a planet wide conflict between The Orchard, a plutocratic solar-system-wide government, and the Insurgency, composed of the Orchard’s downtrodden citizens on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.

 I spent the first 3 years writing the manuscript and then I later decided to make it into a graphic novel. I was inspired by popular comic stories such as The Watchmen and Invincible as well as movies like Star Wars and Dune.  

Through the advisory of Jared Lagroue, Hannah Bellwoar, Robb Lauzon, and Rob Boryk, I’ve navigated the intricate challenges of this task, such as creating written and illustrated drafts, developing coherent compositions for each page, and developing the many personal and overarching narratives within the short story.

Skin permeability is a measure of how chemicals penetrate our skin barrier, the upper layer of the epidermis.  Knowledge of how permeable our skin is essential to determining safe and effective levels of toxins and topical drugs. Currently the method for testing skin permeability is ex vivo/in vitro experiments which involve using actual skin samples from either humans or animals. Reliable molecule dynamic (MD) simulations offer an additional way to collect information on skin permeates. MD simulations cut down on experimental cost and resources, and reduce human exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. For this research, I have been investigating different skin permeants including those often used in sunscreen products.  I am looking at different ways to reliably calculate the skin permeability constants including an accelerated weighted histogram (AWH) method and umbrella sampling methods.   

Jorge Luis Borges explora el lenguaje como una fuerza divina e inestable, capaz de construir y desestabilizar la realidad, como se evidencia en Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Las ruinas circulares y El Golem. A través de estas obras, Borges muestra cómo el lenguaje no solo moldea la percepción, sino que también puede imponer ficciones como verdades absolutas, reflejando cómo las ideologías totalitarias y la religión utilizan narrativas autorreforzadas para controlar la realidad. Su crítica al fascismo y a la construcción social de la religión se enlaza con el análisis del episodio Creating God de Hidden Brain, que argumenta que la religión surgió para garantizar cohesión y orden, no como una verdad intrínseca. Borges advierte que tanto las ideologías como la religión adquieren poder no por su veracidad, sino por su capacidad de generar certezas ilusorias, invitando a cuestionar la estabilidad de los sistemas de creencias y la maleabilidad de la realidad construida por el lenguaje.

Pattern recognition is an important cognitive function that enables individuals to process and anticipate complex information in dynamic environments. This ability is particularly vital in sports, as athletes must rapidly interpret visual patterns to make rapid and informed decisions under dynamic, high-pressure sporting environments. Building upon previous research on expertise-driven cognition, our primary objective is to investigate whether sport-specific pattern recognition surpasses general pattern recognition in accuracy following physical exertion. We hypothesize that soccer athletes will demonstrate higher accuracy in the soccer-specific pattern recognition task than in the general pattern recognition task. Additionally, given prior research indicating male advantages in visual-spatial cognition at a population level, we explore potential gender-based differences in prediction accuracy, particularly within sport-specific contexts. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed data from collegiate soccer players. Participants completed a soccer video-based task (measuring sport-specific pattern recognition) and Raven’s Progressive Matrices (assessing general pattern recognition) in randomized order. Accuracy rates were compared across tasks and between genders. Results will be presented and discussed. 

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Team cohesion, motivation, and stress resilience are important psychological factors that influence sport performance and well-being. There has been previous research on these variables but only independently; the interplay between cohesion, motivation, and stress resilience remains under examined. Based in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study aims to investigate whether cohesion, specifically task cohesion, will improve motivation, particularly intrinsic motivation, and subsequently stress resilience. Participants (Juniata collegiate football athletes) will engage in a psychological skills training (PST) program oriented towards enhancing team cohesion during spring training which lasts four weeks.  Prior to beginning the PST program, participants will take a series of questionnaires assessing variables of interest. After the PST program concludes, participants will again complete the same series of questionnaires to determine whether metrics of interest changed. Results will be presented and discussed.