http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/challengerresearchjournal/rss Recent eScholarship items from Challenger Research Journal Fri, 15 May 2026 11:58:01 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v574701 <p>In South Asian culture, the topic of mental health is extremely stigmatized. For young adults who are susceptible to facing various obstacles that impact their mental well-being, it is important to examine the cultural factors that contribute to the stigma surrounding this topic. Delving into the behaviors and perceptions of South Asian college students in the United States uncovers the multitude of intertwined influences that impact the development of one’s mental health. This study aims to answer the question, “What are the behaviors and perceptions surrounding mental health for UC San Diego students who are South Asian?” An online survey was implemented to collect data from 148 South Asian students at UC San Diego, introducing a mixed-method design to draw findings. The results revealed that mental well-being is significantly shaped by the interaction of sociocultural factors, such as family dynamics and pressures, experiences of stereotyping, comfortability with discussing... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v574701 Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Sharma, Shivani https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j51h80n <p>Public open spaces are important parts of the campus landscape and serve a variety of roles. Previous research has shown that certain characteristics of public space, such as greenery and places to gather, provide community building and well-being benefits for students. These spaces may function as “third places” for students, a place to gather outside of home and work, and facilitate the place attachment process, the formation of deep and positive bonds between people and place. This project uses photovoice, a participatory research method, to understand the roles and meanings public open space has for some students at the the University of California San Diego (UCSD). After discussing their selected public open space with 10 students at UCSD, elements which promote place attachment was revealed, including: positive emotions, natural elements, social elements, and logistical elements. For students at UCSD, different spaces serve different functions, ranging from quiet, restorative... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j51h80n Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Tran, Jarvis De Assis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0n96t3z6 Challenger Research Journal Volume 6 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0n96t3z6 Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Sharma, Shivani Tran, Jarvis De Assis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gs109vz Alumni Spotlight: Mohnish Alishala https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gs109vz Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Tran, Johnny https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9m98555w Challenger Research Journal Volume 5 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9m98555w Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Johnson, Brooke Danielle Daggao Chen, Jingyi Paez, Joshua Hagiwara Gupta, Mira Liu, Veronica https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bx9r39s <p>This research investigates the perpetuation of domestic violence (DV) in China by analyzing how social norms and institutional practices collectively contribute to the challenges faced by individuals experiencing DV. Despite the implementation of China's Anti-Domestic Violence Law in 2016, its effectiveness in protecting DV survivors' rights has been subject to scrutiny among researchers. This research aims to understand whether law enforcement and judicial responses post-legislation effectively align with policy objectives to mitigate DV issues. It hypothesizes a dissonance between the DV legislation and social norms emphasizing family and social harmony and non-interference in family affairs. Focusing on specific DV cases and incorporating the meta-analysis of secondary empirical data, archived governmental reports, periodicals, interviews, Confucian writings, and prior scholarly insights, this study examines how social norms and institutional practices in governmental agencies... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bx9r39s Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Jingyi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w96r1tp Alumni Spotlight&nbsp; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w96r1tp Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Hariprasad, Meghana https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g35g4gv <p>This paper evaluates the potential for mutual aid to serve as a framework for a new way of life through a biopsychosocial theoretical lens and a literature review. This paper works to help better understand how we, as a society in the United States can reimagine what a world would look like if we used mutual aid as a framework for a way of life through a public health perspective. The study draws on examples from Blue Zones and community health interventions using mutual aid in Japan, Cameroon, Latin American populations, and other communities of the world to illustrate how mutual aid can be implemented on both micro and macro levels from local community cultures to broad nation-wide policies in the US. The findings suggest that mutual aid can be utilized as a model for other facets of life and society as a whole. By encouraging people to work together and support each other, mutual aid can create more resilient and cohesive communities. These findings have important implications... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g35g4gv Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Gupta, Mira Hagiwara https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dr8251f <p>Readiness, often defined as the level at which students meet the qualifications to succeed in college and career, has long been a metric of the success of K-12 education in preparing students for post-secondary lives. In Oakland, California, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has highlighted their top priority as “All students graduate college, career, and community ready.”, implementing different goals and actions throughout the years to achieve this priority. However, what does it mean to be ready for college, career, and community? How does the district measure readiness and support initiatives targeted at increasing student readiness? The aim of this study is to understand how school districts, focusing on OUSD, back up their goals of preparing students for the real world. Through a critical approach, this in-depth case study seeks to shed light on how metrics of readiness are understood and used by districts in supporting students. The implications of this study... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dr8251f Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Liu, Veronica https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qs1d2jt <p>This research focuses on and serves as the foundation for the creation of a theatrical world, supporting the play’s structural narrative to raise awareness of a historical event and to spotlight historically silenced and suppressed voices of color. The gasoline baths occurred at the El Paso, Texas border in 1917 when Mexicans were inhumanely disinfected with toxic chemicals as they sought entrance into the U.S. as a result of discriminatory beliefs and practices. Primary research will include published articles and books, focusing on the event that will serve as source material for the play developmental process. Secondary research efforts will include U.S. immigration policies of the time as well as identifying key historical figures. Carmelita Torres, a central figure in the event, will serve as the main protagonist and voice of the play. The narrative will showcase her advocacy for her community as well as demonstrate the gender bias role of women. Ultimately, this play... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6qs1d2jt Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Paez, Joshua https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cf7p9jc <p>Clinical trials are crucial in developing safe medical treatments and combating diseases. However, the ethical considerations surrounding research involving human subjects have been an ongoing topic of debate. Existing ethical policies aim to ensure the accuracy of research findings and protect the well-being of participants. Nevertheless, these policies have been rooted in Western scientific and medical systems, which historically exploited communities for the benefit of privileged individuals and capital accumulation, perpetuating domination and settler colonialism. While ethical policies alone cannot erase these harmful legacies, they have globally failed at holding researchers, companies, and institutions accountable for their impact on communities. This failure has led to exploitation and unintended harm in disenfranchised communities with under-resourced health systems and limited access to healthcare resources. To address these challenges, this literature review proposes... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cf7p9jc Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Johnson, Brooke Danielle Daggao https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fj1w32b <p>This article highlights the relationship between&nbsp;wuxia (martial heroes) and jidaigeki (period&nbsp;drama) action films and state censorship in the&nbsp;1930s and 1940s. I first introduce readers to key&nbsp;East-Asian literary conventions that portray&nbsp;righteous warriors who incarnate their moral&nbsp;codes with swords. I then illustrate the political&nbsp;contexts in 1930s China and 1940s Japan which&nbsp;caused the popular film genres of wuxia and&nbsp;jidaigeki to become politically problematic and&nbsp;therefore strictly censored. I closely examine&nbsp;director Bu Wancang’s 1931 wuxia film A Spray of&nbsp;Plum Blossoms and Kurosawa Akira’s jidaigeki&nbsp;1945 film Treading on the Tiger’s Tail,&nbsp;investigating creative solutions each director&nbsp;found in order to release their respective films&nbsp;despite censorship pressures. There are three&nbsp;inventions both directors pioneered in their&nbsp;work, namely “ostensible exactness” in setting;&nbsp;“patriotic... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fj1w32b Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Pan, Zerui https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bj6t646 Editorial Board, Reviewer Board &amp; Consulting Staff https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bj6t646 Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hv7v14v <p></p><p></p><p>Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells&nbsp;2 (TREM2) is a surface receptor expressed in&nbsp;macrophages during tissue injury. This receptor&nbsp;plays a role in driving phagocytosis and&nbsp;dampening inflammation. Because of this, it&nbsp;plays a large part in diseases such as Alzheimer’s&nbsp;disease, liver fibrosis, and metabolic syndrome.&nbsp;Each of these diseases all have a population of&nbsp;TREM2-expressing macrophages that does not&nbsp;exist in healthy tissue. However, the exact&nbsp;pathway in which TREM2 is involved in these&nbsp;diseases is rather unknown. Macrophage gene&nbsp;expression is regulated by a variety of&nbsp;transcription factors such as ATF3 and TFEB.&nbsp;These transcription factors have been suggested&nbsp;to be involved in some of the disease processes&nbsp;mentioned above by RNA-seq or ChIP-seq&nbsp;experiments.</p><p></p><p>The research question we addressed was how these two transcription factors directly affectvtranscription... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7hv7v14v Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Alishala, Mohnish https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2w01z5rq Alumni Spotlight https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2w01z5rq Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Kleiner, Iliana https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hm235jp Letter From the Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2hm235jp Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Haleem, Farah Guan, Sally https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21g1g7vw <p>Artificial intelligence systems leverage large&nbsp;datasets with iterative processing algorithms that&nbsp;identify patterns to create an additional layer of&nbsp;expertise. This transformational power operates&nbsp;in tandem with ethical risks. The dominant&nbsp;narrative behind AI is simultaneously stigmatized&nbsp;and misunderstood: with exponential growth of&nbsp;the ubiquitous technology leaving public&nbsp;awareness in the dust, it's becoming increasingly&nbsp;important to balance enthusiasm for AI's&nbsp;enormous promise with a sober understanding&nbsp;of its moral risks. This study seeks to characterize&nbsp;the public opinion of AI in high-risk,&nbsp;domain-specific applications. To that end, a poll&nbsp;was administered to American adults. The results&nbsp;of the study reveal that the great majority of&nbsp;survey respondents have a neutral or optimistic&nbsp;perspective on AI in particular high-risk domains.&nbsp;The study concludes by presenting a standard&nbsp;heuristic... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21g1g7vw Sun, 3 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Flores, Christian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30b6h0gk Challenger Research Journal Volume 4 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30b6h0gk Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Pan, Zerui Alishala, Mohnish Flores, Christian