Recent research suggests that the "American Dream" of income mobility may be becoming increasingly hard to obtain. Datta and Schmitz explore the role of government spending in socioeconomic opportunity by determining which state government spending components are associated with increased income mobility.

With the advance of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is now applied widely in society. In the study of AI, machine learning (ML) is a subfield in which a machine learns to be better at performing certain tasks through experience. This work focuses on the convolutional neural network (CNN), a framework of ML, applied to an image classification task. Specifically, we analyzed the performance of the CNN as the type of neural activation function changes.

The authors looked at the ability of machine learning algorithms to interpret language given their increasing use in moderating content on social media. Using an explainable model they were able to achieve 81% accuracy in detecting fake vs. real news based on language of posts alone.

Cardiovascular diseases are the largest cause of death globally, making it a critical area of focus. The circulatory system is required to make the heart function. One component of this system is blood vessels, which is the focus of our study. Our work aims to demonstrate the numeric relationship between a blood vessel's diameter and the number of pumps needed to transport blood.

The authors looked at whether youth use of marijuana related to later high-risk drug use. Using survey data from 2010-2019 they found that youth marijuana use did correlate to an increased risk of high-risk drug use.

Here, recognizing the difficulty associated with tracking the progression of dementia, the authors used machine learning models to predict between the presence of cognitive normalcy, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease, based on blood DNA methylation levels, sex, and age. With four machine learning models and two dataset dimensionality reduction methods they achieved an accuracy of 53.33%.

The authors investigate the negative effects stress has on teen mental and physical health. Through a survey, they give Virginia teens a voice in revising the Health and Physical Education curriculum to include a standards of learning (SOL). Notably they identify factors contributing to stress levels including homework level, amount of free and sleep time, parental pressure and family encouragement.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical systems that utilize bacteria and are promising forms of alternative energy. Similar to chemical fuel cells, MFCs employ both an anode (accepts electrons) and a cathode (donates electrons), but in these devices the live bacteria donate the electrons necessary for current. In this study, the authors assess the functionality of a photosynthetic MFC that utilizes a purple non-sulfur bacterium. The MFC prototype they constructed was found to function over a range of environmental conditions, suggesting its potential use in industrial models.

Here, seeking to identify an optimal method to classify tree species through remote sensing, the authors used a few machine learning algorithms to classify forest tree species through multispectral satellite imagery. They found the Random Forest algorithm to most accurately classify tree species, with the potential to improve model training and inference based on the inclusion of other tree properties.

Gamma radiation can be produced by both natural and man-made sources and abnormally high exposure levels could lead to an increase in cell damage. In this study, gamma radiation was measured at different locations and any correlation with various geographic factors, such as distance from a city center, elevation and proximity to the nearest nuclear reactor, was determined.