Current Scholars

I was inspired to research non-pharmaceutical treatments for Alzheimer's after witnessing my grandmother's journey with the disease, from her diagnosis to her unfortunate passing. Given my current qualifications and degree plan, I feel best equipped to evaluate exercise as a non-pharmaceutical treatment and its relation to the disease's progression. I am using hippocampal atrophy, one of the biomarkers of Alzheimer's, to measure progression.

Under the guidance of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Kulbaba, I will measure the change in hippocampal volume of patients with Alzheimer's and/or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) throughout their exercise program.

Veterans, as well as military service members, are having challenges adapting to civilian life. Many of our veterans return with emotional and cognitive trauma. Yet, they are coming back from military service overseas and wanting to pursue a higher education. Evidence shows that the challenges that veterans face when transitioning from a military life to a college life can be hard on them emotionally as well as academically. Often, these veterans do not have the proper support to help them through this new chapter in their life. Giving these veterans the proper emotional and practical support is crucial because otherwise they encounter difficulties in achieving their goals. Particularly after coming back from deployment, they need reassurance that they are going be helped. (S. Lopez, 2014).  Research has shown, for example, that veterans with PTSD in college get less sleep than the usual college students.  Studies also indicate that if a veteran does not get the proper care for their mental disorder, they will have a very difficult time achieving their educational goals. (M. Lopez, 2017).  Findings from research illustrate how the psychological impact of combat-related trauma exposure can impact classroom integration and academic achievement when there is not compensating support. 

This study will explore how first-generation Latinx college students' cultural norms and family expectations impact their educational journey.  These students experience unique stresses when attempting to reach their academic goals due to pressure placed on them to uphold specific values of their home and heritage. Many must also overcome immigration status, poverty, discrimination, low self-esteem, higher depression and attempted suicide rates, gender stereotypes, and limited English proficiency.

By highlighting the unique experiences of first-generation Latinx students, I hope this research will help inform university programs and retention efforts aimed at this population.

My research intends to examine the issue of femicide in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, which is the killing of women based on gender. This phenomenon has led to violent deaths and ongoing threats that endanger the fate of all women and girls who live in this city. I argue that the machismo culture (masculinity) within this society and in the Mexican government threatens these women, especially those of a specific sociodemographic profile. Activist groups have stood firmly against this issue of violence against women but have not proven effective, failing to address this root cause. This study reviews the background of these heinous crimes and addresses the need to demand accountability from the state that has failed to protect females in their jurisdiction.

As more Hispanic families adopt the discipline style of corporal punishment in the form of spanking prevalent in the United States, more Hispanic children suffer negative consequences.  My research intends to show these results carry over into adulthood and affect how the now-adult children use this discipline tactic themselves.  I further intend to prove that "Positive Parenting" techniques change the negative cycle and allow the children to grow up with a more positive child-parent relationship, which can further continue the positive process.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that affects joints and tissue through inflammation responses. Because there is no cure, treatments such as heat (HT), cryotherapy (CT), as well as synthetic drugs such as Methotrexate (MTX) are used to treat RA. A systematic review resulted in a meta-analysis to observe the effectiveness and safety of these three treatments in patients with active RA and lab models using mice, both evaluated through prior experimentation. This review will weigh the benefits of each treatment against adverse side effects. It will be used to justify whether or not a particular treatment is necessary or should be implemented for an individual with RA. Those with prior health conditions or taking medication other than MTX were excluded from each experiment. Their eligibility was readily critiqued at the beginning of the treatments to help support that these studies are relevant to the meta-analysis.

The research focuses on the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in the European country of Spain during the 20th century. During World War I and II, and the Cold War, Spain experienced several internal conflicts that isolated their history. The goal of this research is to demonstrate that the church-state relationship during Franco’s rule was unique before the Second Vatican Council. Additionally, it aims to illustrate that the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World helped shift the church-state relationship in Spain while Franco was still a dictator. The marriage and divorce laws will be analyzed during the 36-year period to measure whether the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution was effective with its changes in Spain. Research in the future will involve Italy as a comparative framework to view the similarities and differences before and after the Second Vatican Council in a predominantly Catholic country. 

Emotional abuse is a distressing problem that many children face. One’s personality is affected by adult influence and different environments. In Hispanic households, it is common for parents, or caregivers, to express themselves using profanity. I aim to provide an understanding that an adverse experience such as emotional abuse can negatively affect a child. The generational trauma that adults carry with them, although unfortunate, is no excuse to psychologically harm an innocent being. My research focuses on children, specifically those of Mexican descent, and how processing emotions related to this type of trauma can cause them to become reserved.

This research study is being conducted to investigate expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) as a viable treatment option for respiratory, voice, or swallowing difficulties post COVID-19. This four-week study will have voluntary participants complete an initial respiratory assessment to provide a training baseline. They will be seen weekly to adjust the respiratory trainer to strengthen the affected muscles. After the four-week home training program, the participants will complete a final respiratory assessment. The theory is that EMST training will improve these patients' respiratory, voice, or swallowing difficulties.

Just in the United States, plants are responsible for attacking 50,000 different pathogens including fungi, viruses, bacteria, and nematodes. In recent studies, Capsella burse-pastoris and Parthenium hysterophorus has shown to contain a wide range of chemicals including flavonoids, alkaloids, polypeptides, choline, acetycholine, histamine, tyramine fatty acids, sterold, organic acid, amino acids sulforaphane, vitamins and many other compounds. Along with this, it has been proven that Capsella burse-pastoris and Parthenium hysterophorus have a long history of having antimicrobial activity. Physicians have used this plan to treat hematuria and menorrhagia. The medical properties of anticancer have been investigated but maintain a literature gap in conducting all possible anti-cancer research variables in these two plant extractions.

My research aims to explore male conformity to masculine norms (here on abbreviated CMN) within different populations at a university. Specifically, I intend to examine the severity of CMN in male "students" compared to male "student-athletes." I will use the Masculine Norms Inventory-46, a nine-factor measure that gauges traditional and nontraditional masculine norms. The research supports that the construct of masculinity and male-specific roles entail the following values: Winning, Emotional Control, Risk-Taking, Violence, Power Over Women, Playboy, Self-Reliance, Primacy of Work, and Heterosexual Self-Presentation. The survey takes these values and presents questions on a 4-point Likert-type scale. More conformity or adherence to the values equates to greater "masculinity." I hypothesize that male "student-athletes" conform more heavily than male "students."

Mississippi and Hawaii are on the opposite ends of health equity in the United States, with Mississippi having the lowest health equity and Hawaii having the highest. I am analyzing how health disparities impacted low-income minorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. My hypothesis is that if Mississippi creates a healthcare system that provides educational resources similar to those in Hawaii, low-income Mississippians will be more likely to obtain better health care.

This study will explore how first-generation Latinx college students' cultural norms and family expectations impact their educational journey.  These students experience unique stresses when attempting to reach their academic goals due to pressure placed on them to uphold specific values of their home and heritage. Many must also overcome immigration status, poverty, discrimination, low self-esteem, higher depression and attempted suicide rates, gender stereotypes, and limited English proficiency.

By highlighting the unique experiences of first-generation Latinx students, I hope this research will help inform university programs and retention efforts aimed at this population.