There's not a lot of cool chicks out there: A regional study of climate change on passerine morphology over time

Tabitha Page, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Wildlife have been responding to climate change in many ways, and I decided to focus on if warming temperatures are influencing avian morphology by using museum specimens from the Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife Museum. This study focused on passerine birds collected from the 1880's up until 2022.

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Stories about Global Health in Humboldt County

Eden Donahue, School of Applied Health Faculty

College of Professional Studies

In a collaborative RSCA-funded project, the Cal Poly Humboldt Library and Nursing Program created five activities focused on global health. The inspiration for the project came as Cal Poly Humboldt was selected to host the National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition Making a World of Difference: Stories about Global Health. With a focus on activism within the local community, the Library and Nursing Program engaged students in a variety of projects and invited the community to events showcasing those projects. Come learn how local actions and activism make a significant impact on global health!

This Is All Simlish To Me: An Ethnographic Analysis of The Sims, A Virtual Life Simulation Video Game

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The scope of my research was to understand why Simmers created Sims and for what purpose. Ethnographic research took place over the course of 16 weeks on the Sims 3 and 4, forum sites, and YouTube videos. Through fieldnotes, participant observation, transcribed interviews, and surveys I was able to find three key evolving patterns, which was time investment, community building in game-play and participation in challenges and story-writing.Research findings reveal that the Simmers game-play is not only to pass time, but to achieve a goal that they have set for themselves which, allows them to connect with other Simmers, and creates a community based on shared interests.

Threat Appraisals: Mediator of Acculturative Stress and Wellbeing Among Armenian Americans

College of Professional Studies

Acculturative stress is the stress experienced by individuals when they are in the process of reconciling two or more cultures (i.e., their heritage culture and a new culture). Research suggests that stress is linked to individuals’ wellbeing. Moreover, wellbeing linked to acculturative stress may be explained by threat appraisal (i.e., how individuals perceive stress - as anxiety-provoking and unmanageable). The current study examines threat appraisal as a mediator of the relationship between acculturative stress and wellbeing amongst a community sample of Armenian Americans.

Threat Stress Appraisals Moderate the Relationship Between Social Support and Degree Commitment

College of Professional Studies

We examined the role of social support and perceptions of stress in predicting college students' degree commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students high in threat appraisals tend to interpret stressors as harmful or anxiety-inducing. These negative dispositional perceptions of stress are linked to lower motivation. Meanwhile, greater social support is related to greater college persistence, although students’ ability to cope can mitigate the beneficial effects of social support. We found support for a moderating effect of threat appraisals on the relationship between social support and degree commitment. Implications for student success and the importance of reappraisals are discussed.

Threats Mediate the Relationship Between Contact and Same-Sex Marriage Attitudes

College of Professional Studies

This study examines a mediating relationship between positive contact, perceived threat, and same-sex marriage. We hypothesized that perceived threat, both symbolic and realistic, mediates the relationship between positive contact and attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Findings indicate that positive contact relates to more positive attitudes toward same-sex marriage and in turn, less realistic and symbolic threat. For instance, if an individual had more positive contact with a gay acquaintance then they were less likely to believe that the legalization of same-sex marriage would threaten such things as their religious freedom (symbolic) or financial well-being (realistic).

Through The Eyes of Liberian Americans: The Post-Civil War Consequences on Liberia

Joy Mehn, Politics Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The research will focus on the experiences of Liberian Americans while fleeing the civil wars, that took place 1989-2003. The displacement was shaped by the human security policies made by the Liberian Government and the United States government. The relevance of this study is the placement of value on the experiences of those who experienced displacement. More often than not, the focus of migration in the global south is the economic factors and how those factors affect the Western world. This research is a way to project the stories of those who are often not heard, the Liberian people.

Through The Eyes of Liberian Americans: The Post-Civil War Consequences on Liberia

Joy Mehn , Politics Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The research will focus on the experiences of Liberian Americans while fleeing the civil war. This displacement is shaped by the policies made by the Liberian Government and the United States government. The relevance of this study is the placement of value on the experiences of those who experienced displacement. More often than not, the focus of migration in the global south is the economic factors and how those factors affect the Western world. This research is a way to project the stories of those who are often not heard, the Liberian people.

Tibetan Nationality: tourism, commodification, and souvenirs preserving identity.

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Over the summer of 2014 research was conducted in China and Tibet. The main focus of the research involved the social identity of the Tibetan people and the perception of the people and place through he yes of a tourist. In order to find the perceptions and identity of the people the tourism industry was analyzed using textual analysis and participant observation. Souvenirs in particular were a focal point of the research leading the author to a belief that however difficult and even destructive the tourism industry can be on a place and people in this case it seems that the industry may be serving as an mechanism of national identity preservation.

TIBIAL ACCELERATION AND EMG DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ISOCALORIC HIGH-INCLINE WALKING AND LEVEL-GRADE JOGGING

Taj Krieger, School of Applied Health Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

This study will aim to determine the effects of high-incline exercises on impact forces (tibial acceleration) and various muscle activation metrics, including peak force, the area under the curve, and fatigue parameters between isocaloric exercises: walking at a high incline and jogging on level grade.