The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of health misinformation and the lack of credible health information as determinants of health disparities affecting the Hispanic population in the United States during public health emergencies. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a quintessential and relevant exhibit of a public health emergency, a review of literature was conducted to identify the interactions between the accessibility of health misinformation and credible health information in exacerbating pre-existing socio-economic barriers that affect the Hispanic population. The findings of this study were then analyzed to develop solutions for future public health emergencies to ensure that vulnerable communities are provided equally accurate and accessible health information as non-vulnerable communities in order to promote a more effective nationwide public health response. These solutions include providing more educational resources to help vulnerable communities find accurate information online and increasing surveillance of misinformation sources online, especially in the Spanish language.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of current advances and challenges in the field of bone tissue engineering. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify recent developments in biomaterials, scaffold design, cell sources, and growth factors for bone tissue engineering applications. Based on this review, an experimental proposal is presented for the development of porous composite biomaterials that may enhance bone regeneration, which consist of hybrid amyloid/spidroin fibers combined with a bioactive ceramic matrix. An iterative design process of modeling and simulation, production, and characterization of both the fibers and the composite material is proposed. A modeling and simulation approach is also presented for unidirectional fiber composite biomaterials using 2-point correlation functions, finite element simulations, and machine learning. This approach was demonstrated to enable the efficient and accurate prediction of the effective Young’s modulus of candidate composite biomaterials, which can inform the design of optimized materials for bone tissue engineering applications. The proposed experimental and simulation approaches have the potential to address current challenges and lead to the development of novel composite biomaterials that can augment the current technologies in the field of bone tissue engineering.

Visual presentation of information is one method of learning that has the ability to enhance STEM learning compared to learning solely through text. Educational psychology research is ongoing in the STEM field for how students can learn better through visual representations in their course material. The goal of this study was to assess student responses to visual mini-lessons related to course content in the cardiovascular unit in Animal Physiology (BIO360) at Arizona State University. Study participants completed a series of eight mini-lessons and a survey on their experience with the visual lessons. The results of the survey identify increased desire for visual learning materials in STEM courses. The study participants reported that they felt more visual aids in their STEM courses would increase their understanding of course content and that their classroom performance would improve.

Due to the elimination of the established instructional methods from the impact of COVID-19, the implementation of mass synchronous learning created a new strain of educational experiences for students that took a toll on social interaction. In the Spring 2022 semester, a survey was conducted of students that were previously or currently enrolled in the principal undergraduate biological sciences course, BIO 340: General Genetics, to assess both the prevalence of social interaction in the lives of the students and the potential ways this information could be molded to improve student’s educational and motivational experience. The results of this survey indicated that there was a considerable lack of social interaction and motivation among students that have taken or are taking BIO 340. Through a process of collecting qualitative data of students by 1-on-1 interviews, the majority of students requested that professors communicate with each other to learn more about ways they can incorporate social interaction as external technological applications and tools have been developed. Students brought up many external tools that professors in other biological sciences courses have been utilizing to engage student-to-student interaction and found these resources to increase their level of understanding and motivation. The driving interest behind this creative project is to understand the importance of peer-to-peer learning that may help guide professors that are new to synchronous teaching so that they may increase their level of understanding and comfortability of accessing resources that students themselves have shown to increase their educational experiences. The mixed-method design served as a means to understand what types of social interaction enhance students’ education and motivation.

Patients need to know current and available options for prosthetic devices. Devices are categorized depending on the region of amputation and their purpose. Retrospection on the history of prosthetic devices leading into modern ones allows for an interpretation of successes and necessary improvements moving forward. One promising avenue for prostheses is the development of neuroprostheses that much more closely resemble some of the functionality taken for granted in natural limbs. Proprioception, more commonly known as the ‘sixth sense’, would be a very desirable characteristic of these devices and is the subject of current research efforts. In the meantime, it is necessary to help patients evaluate what products are out there that identify more strongly with their individualized preferences.

Humans use emotions to communicate social cues to our peers on a daily basis. Are we able to identify context from facial expressions and match them to specific scenarios? This experiment found that people can effectively distinguish negative and positive emotions from each other from a short description. However, further research is needed to find out whether humans can learn to perceive emotions only from contextual explanations.