The Pioneer Research Journal

The Pioneer Research Journal An International Collection of Undergraduate- Level Research Volume 3 2016 The Pioneer Research Journal An International Collection of Undergraduate-Level Research Contents Contributing Readers. iii Foreword. xi Selection Process. xiii Culture and Pain: The Effect of Culture on the Production of Endorphins in the Brain (Neuroscience) . 1 Author: Joshua E. Roth School: Northside College Preparatory High School – Chicago, Illinois, United States Pioneer Seminar Topic: Understanding the Sense of Touch through Neuroscience Locating Obnoxious Facilities: Minimizing Risk and Cost of Disposing and Transporting Hazardous Waste (Mathematics) . 27 Author: Rahil Bathwal School: Jamnabai Narsee International School – Mumbai, India Pioneer Seminar Topic: Network Optimization: Facility Location Problems High-Rise Organicity: A Proposal for a Bamboo-Themed Skyscraper (Architecture) . 47 Author: Xi Yue (Kelly) School: The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University – Guangzhou, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: The Skyscraper Molecular Transistors: The Effects of Test Molecules on the Conduction Patterns of a Lithium Nanowire (Chemistry) . 65 Author: Isaac Ick School: Dobyns-Bennett High School – Kingsport, Tennessee, United States Pioneer Seminar Topic: Computational Quantum Chemistry vii How Effective is Fiscal Policy in Correcting Income Inequality? (Economics) . 85 Author: Tongxin Zhang School: WHBC of Wuhan Foreign Languages School – Wuhan, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Monetary Policy and the Great Recession Study of Neural Circuits Involved in the Intuitive Decision Making Process in Teleostei (Neuroscience). 111 Author: Pranav Bharat Khemka School: Jamnabai Narsee International School – Mumbai, India Pioneer Seminar Topic: The Decision Making Brain From the Dark Knight to Francis Underwood: Twenty-first Century Noir Heroes (Film Studies) . 139 Author: Lu Zeng School: Shenzhen Foreign Languages School – Shenzhen, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Film Noir and its Contexts Impact of School Facilities on the Quality of Senior High School Education in China: A Quantitative Study (Political Economy) . 149 Author: Chen Zhou School: Jiaxiang Foreign Languages School attached to Chengdu No.7 Middle School – Chengdu, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Political Participation in the Global World The Neural and Cognitive Basis of Dreaming (Neuroscience) . 165 Author: Ria Tomar School: Mission San Jose High School – Fremont, California, United States Pioneer Seminar Topic: The Decision Making Brain A World of Possibility: Tier-Oriented Base-Storage Network for CCN Routing (Computer Science) . 181 Author: Yuchen Xu School: The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China – Beijing, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Rethinking the Internet Architecture Comparing and Contrasting Economic Development: The Case of Malaysia and Singapore (Economics) . 193 Author: Alesha Wong Yun Ying School: Tenby International School– Setia Eco Park, Malaysia Pioneer Seminar Topic: An Overview of the U.S. Macro-Economy viii The Silver Lining Behind the Darkness: Social Media as an Innovative Tool to Combat Sex Trafficking in Southeast Asia (Culture Studies) . 209 Author: Yutong Huang School: The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University – Guangzhou, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Globalization and International Migration The Market Efficiency of “Smart Money” During the Tech Bubble (Economics) . 233 Author: Kevin Li School: Naperville North High School – Naperville, Illinois, United States Pioneer Seminar Topic: Stock Market Crashes Characterization of Chitosan/PVA Scaffolds with Chitosans of Different Average Molecular Weights for Tissue Engineering (Chemistry) . 243 Author: Zijun Zhang School: Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University – Beijing, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Glycoscience: From Materials to Medicine Athena’s Spoiled Olives – How Institutional Flaws of the European Union and Greek Politics Shaped a Failing Economy (Political Science) . 253 Author: Sean Hu School: Pacific American School – Hsinchu City, Taiwan Pioneer Seminar Topic: Political Institutions of the World East European Jewish Children’s Health Conditions on the Lower East Side, New York City, 1890-1914 (History) . 291 Author: Yibing Du School: The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China – Beijing, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: Topics in the History of Public Health Potential for Developers and Investors in Diabetes Apps to Profit by Improving the Chinese Healthcare Industry (Business) . 307 Author: Cheng XU School: WHBC of Wuhan Foreign Languages School – Wuhan, China Pioneer Seminar Topic: How the Business Models of Emerging Apps Can Improve Healthcare ix The Pioneer Research Journal 1 Culture and Pain: The Effect of Culture on the Production of Endorphins in the Brain Joshua E. Roth Author background: Joshua E. Roth grew up in the United States and currently attends Northside College Preparatory High School, located in Chicago, Illinois. His Pioneer seminar topic was in the field of neuroscience and titled “Understanding the Sense of Touch through Neuroscience.” INTRODUCTION Pain is well known to have a variety of different effects on the human body. It can be described in a multitude of ways, including sharp, dull, chronic, and acute. Pain information is received from sensory stimuli using specific pain nerve fibers, which are then transmitted to the brain, creating the perception of pain. One might assume that every person feels pain the same way, to the same degree, and interprets pain the same way as everyone else. However, perception of pain is not uniform or consistent across all people and it can be affected by a variety of factors. One of the most important and well- documented factors that can influence the perception of pain and its effect on it is culture. People’s culture can change the way that they feel pain (Turner and Chapman, 1982, Melzack and Wall, 1983). However, even though it is well known that culture can play an important role in perceiving and managing pain, little is known about the physiological mechanism that may be initiated by cultural practices to manage or block pain. Do cultural practices and perceptions cause a person to release endorphins? Do people manage pain or perceive little pain during painful cultural practices as a result of the placebo effect? These are questions that current research cannot answer. In order to answer these questions, culture must be isolated as a factor in the perception and management of pain. Such an experiment would isolate the effects of culture by eliminating the placebo effect and endorphins by administering naloxone, which is known to block receptor sites from endorphins. By administering naloxone to native people participating in cultural practices, it can be determined if the lack of pain cause by participating in cultural practices can be caused by endorphins or other physiological changes in the person. In order to set up the experiment, it is important to first explain the anatomy of pain and delve deeper into sensation and how sensation leads to pain. The next section will focus on the perception of pain and the ways in which it can be inhibited. This includes a discussion of naloxone and the placebo effect. The paper will then address the challenge of measuring pain and the different methods and scales that have been developed to measure it as well as the weaknesses of each. Next, the role of culture in pain perception will be explored followed by a discussion of the ways in which different cultures manage pain. The cases of the Stere-Mawe tribe of the Amazon and the indigenous people of the Deccan region in India will be presented. The perception of pain in these two groups will be studied in the experiment. Before explaining the experiment, the paper will return to a discussion of the role of culture in pain perception in order to establish the focus of the experiment. Finally, the precise methods of the experiment along with possible results will be presented. 2 The Pioneer Research Journal THE ANATOMY OF PAIN The anatomy of a neuronal cell is essential to understanding sensation and pain. The neuron (or nerve cell) is composed of several important pieces: the dendrites, the soma, and the axon. The neuronal membrane separates the spherical soma (the center of the cell) from the outside and is filled with a fluid rich in potassium called cytosol. Within the cell body of a neuron are the same organelles found in all organic cells. Everything within the cell membrane is called the cytoplasm (excluding the nucleus). The cytoskeleton of a neuron is held within the neuronal membrane and gives the neuron its characteristic three- dimensional shape (Bear, 2007). Figure 1-The Anatomy of the Neuron (Fox, 2016) The axon, as opposed to the soma and organelles, is unique to the neuron – no other cells have axons. Axons are characterized by a lack of ribosomes and rough endoplasmic reticulum (rough membrane which holds ribosomes) and a different protein composition than the soma. Ribosomes are crucial to the functioning of the cell, as they synthesize new proteins from amino acids and information transferred by messenger RNA. Because no protein synthesis occurs in the axon due to a lack of ribosomes, all of the proteins found in the axon are made in the soma. The different proteins found in the membrane of the axon allow it to transfer information over great distances. The diameter of the axon is very important, as the thicker the axonal diameter,

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