Loggina Báez Ávila

This graduate student in psychology is the author of a doctoral dissertation entitled, Análisis comparativa de los procesos de planificación cognitiva entre jóvenes que practican deportes y no practican deportes (Comparative Analysis of the Cognitive Planning Processes among Youth Sports Participants and Non-Participants). Despite the essential role that planning plays in sports, very few research studies associate cognitive processes with participation in sports. Báez Ávila’s study responds to a gap in psychology research. Her work compares the average scores of young people between 14 and 16 years of age through a cognitive evaluation system. She also has organized a focus group to explore the planning processes, tools, and strategies used by basketball players. It is hoped that the results of this study will support changes in public policies that push for strengthening school physical education curriculums.

Marinilda Rivera Díaz

As a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Social Work, Rivera Díaz studies the interrelationships of democracy, child welfare, and mental health. Her research, financed by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), focuses on the dismantling of mental health services in the Puerto Rican government’s healthcare reform plan, the  profits reaped by pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers, and the current economic crisis. In her study, she will lay the groundwork to implement a culturally sensitive public mental health policy that includes an alternative community model for social workers and would meet the needs of the child/youth population. She will develop the study with qualitative and quantitative data that she will collect from 214 participants through questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups.

Carmen Yadira Avedaño

In December 2008, this student from the UPR-RP Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technology defended her master’s thesis, a comparative investigation of three Latin American young children’s libraries: the Biblioteca Infantil Miriam Álvarez Brenes at the Universidad Nacional de Heredia, Costa Rica; the Bebeteca de la Biblioteca Infantil Paralelepípedo in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico; and the Sala Mi Primera Biblioteca at the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Public Library in Caguas, Puerto Rico. The study analyzes the history of each of these library units, the objectives that guide them, their administrative processes, the development of their collections, information organization and access, physical space, and the level of community integration and involvement. She finalized her work by building a model titled Manual for Creating a Young Children’s Library. 

Yanira Enríquez González

This graduate student in chemistry studies Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), an opportunistic pathogen considered to be one of the most common bacteria among in-hospital patient infections. This bacterium causes tissue damage, cell death, and can even contribute to the host’s death. It typically infects immunocompromised patients such as those who suffer from cystic fibrosis, cancer, or AIDS. In her dissertation, Enríquez González investigates a fast, sensitive, and selective method of detecting PA toxin A. The ultimate goal of her research is to design and build a low-cost electrochemical biosensor to aid in the early detection of the bacterium before it develops into an infection, thereby lowering mortality rates.