Graduate Student Research Presentation Abstracts | Archive 2018

Recently, DNA has been broadly used on research area, including drug delivery. It can bind to small molecules because it has highly programmable structure and high efficient. Several published studies have demonstrated that DNA binding with small molecules to enhance their release. In this project, we are exploring DNA nano-scaffolds for binding to a neuroprotective minocycline (MO) for its releasing to a diseased area. It seems challenge to study their reaction with depending on specific concentration of divalent metal, which is Magnesium (Mg²⁺). Magnesium plays as bridge between DNA and minocycline through electrostatic charge and it is critical for the MO-DNA particle formation. We have demonstrated that, the encapsulation yield of MH and DNA is affected by the concentration of Mg²⁺, DNA length, and types of DNA nitrogen bases. The study will have important impact on drug delivery for spinal cord therapy.

In 1810, Alethia Browning Tanner purchased her freedom from Rachel Pratt for the sum of $1400. Tanner, enslaved in Washington, D.C., sold produce for Pratt near the White House and carried the business skills she acquired out of slavery. Upon gaining her freedom, Tanner went on to purchase and emancipate 22 people in the D.C. area over the course of her life. Despite her work as an abolitionist, scholars largely acknowledge Tanner for her dedication to the education of black children. Historical scholarship on the abolition movement, black activism, and manumission do not reference black women’s intentional use of manumission as activism.

Using primary sources such as slave records, deeds of emancipation, and regional periodicals, this project tracks slave purchases and intentional manumissions by black women. This project also explores the classification of slave manumission as a form of activism. Building a case for deliberate manumission as activism requires the use of historical scholarship by notable historians examining black women activists during the antislavery movement, manumission laws, and female slaveholders. Books and academic articles on slavery and abolition construct a narrative that compartmentalizes the intersectionality of gender and race. An analysis of the depiction of free black women and activism during the antebellum period lends to a broader discussion of the role of black women in the abolition movement while acknowledging the absence of black women in existing scholarship.

Adults who remember being “theater kids” observe that theater exists as a safe space for queer kids and others who feel different. Less clear is how much kids themselves can talk about theater and their sexual identities. Kathryn Bond Stockton describes the queer child as unavailable to itself in the present, appearing retrospectively as the “ghostly gay child” in memories of queer adults after the “death” of the (presumptively proto-heterosexual) child. This lurking queer child, whose presence cannot be fully acknowledged, finds a ready haunt in the theater, which, according to Marvin Carlson, is always haunted by the ghosts of prior performances. Queer performances of childhood are largely unacknowledged, carefully coded, or narratively denied despite the growing visibility in other media of the relationship between queer kids and theater. Both the category of “theater kids” and the roles available to them are ghostings of the queer child.

Fun Home (2015), adapted from Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel, is a rare instance of a musical portraying a child’s awakening into queer identification and provides an opportunity to see kids negotiating the ghosting of their identities onstage and off. In the song “Ring of Keys,” a 10-year-old version of Alison observes and identifies with a butch lesbian. Unable to articulate her desires precisely, Young Alison sings lyrics that cut off in silence where the words are unavailable. Performed in the round and in a non-linear form with three differently aged Alisons’ stories intertwined, Fun Home seems to make its queer story fully visible, but there remains a ghostly quality to Young Alison, who disappears for most of the last third of the show while the adult Alisons take center stage. In an intriguing instance of the ghosting of young people’s queer sexuality in/as theater, Sidney Lucas, who played Young Alison, drew on her experience of discovering and identifying with theater people to understand her role. This performance strategy suggests that, while the ghostly queerness of theater kids in some ways limits their representation on the stage, it also leaves them room to make choices about revealing their own identities.

Spouses may be involved in their partners’ diabetic diet through four distinct (but related) processes.  Specifically, spouses may have an impact on their partners’ eating behaviors by engaging in collaborative (dyadic) coping, diet-specific social support, and (both positive and negative forms of) diet-specific social control. Given the inconsistent findings in the literature on the correlates of social control, in particular, more research is needed to understand how this type of social influence compares to other types of spousal involvement, and whether spousal involvement in this form is potentially beneficial or detrimental for the patient. The current study sought to add to the literature by examining the dietary and emotional correlates of these specific social relationship processes among patients with type 2 diabetes. We examined data from an in-person interview and self-report questionnaire from 66 married/partnered patients from a diverse community sample of patients with type 2 diabetes. Results suggest that spousal involvement in a partner’s diabetic diet is common; in the past month 87.9% reported diet-related support, 83.3%  reported collaborative coping and positive forms of diet-related control, and 74.2% reported negative forms of diet-related control. Male patients reported their wives engaged in collaborative coping more than female patients’ husbands engaged in such efforts (d = .59). Male patients also reported receiving more negative forms of social control from their wives than female patients received from their husbands (d = .72). Multivariable regression analyses that included sex as a covariate revealed that collaborative coping and diet-specific support were related to diabetic dietary adherence and feeling appreciative/pleased (R² range from .10-.15). We also found that diet-specific support was related to healthy eating behaviors in general (R² = .09). Diet-related social control was unrelated to dietary adherence or healthy eating behaviors, but negative forms of control (pressure) were related to guilt and resentment (both R² = .11). Interactions with sex and marital quality were examined but were largely nonsignificant. This study will contribute to a further understanding of the specific social relationship processes that may have an impact on couples’ chronic disease management.

 The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of a program aimed to help working families in Southern New Jersey through the organization of collaborative social support services. The program model positions working families to achieve self-sufficiency through long-term action plans implemented by two involved caregivers and guided by a network of service providers. Surveys were administered on netbooks using MediaLab to families enrolled in the program. Both adult caregivers and the oldest adolescent completed the survey within 30 days of signing up for services to assess baseline family indicators. To assess the potential impact the collaborative services have on these families over time, families also were assessed at 6, 12, and 18 months later. The surveys contained questions on a variety of topics; at the current point, analysis is completed regarding caregiver financial situations, and overall health of both caregivers. For the quantitative analysis, repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run with the independent variable being time, or in this case, the baseline measurement, 6^th, 12^th, and 18^th month measurements, and the dependent variable being any of the multiple measurements used in the survey. The majority of the results were significant across the total model (p<.05). Positive changes over time were observed in the areas of education level, household income range, vegetables consumed, and substance usage. Negative changes over time were observed in the areas of unemployment status, living situation, alcohol usage, and healthy physical activity for both caregivers. Results were also compared to economic trends of families living in the same area in order to provide historical context to the analysis. With the exception of the ability to pay rent, the number of salad type meals consumed, prescription drug usage, and the number of days caregivers reported going hungry, both caregivers experienced similar changes over time. Future research that effectively measures adult engagement as well as ‘parental role’ may help shed light on why two adults who share child care responsibilities might have different trends. Additionally, analyses of the other variables will help to provide a more complete picture of the efficacy of this program.

 Latinas experience multiple oppressions because of their race, gender, language, and immigrant status. These oppressions is known as la lucha, which translates into “the struggle.” In this investigation, the struggle refers to experiencing violence from an intimate partner, facing discrimination for being an undocumented immigrant, or not being able to communicate in English. IPV takes many forms and injuries can be short-term or long-term including miscarriages, mental health disorders, permanent dysfunctions, chronic disease, and even death. The experience of Latino/a  victims of IPV is complex for multiple reasons.  For instance, Latinas often experience IPV in silence and because of migration status in conjunction with predominately machista (male chauvinist) cultural values, and lack of access to resources in their community, discourage many from seeking help. Risk factors for perpetrators of IPV at the individual level include age, education level, and income. Biological factors such as cognitive disorders; personal experience, such as witnessing IPV as a child; and behavior factors such as alcohol or substance misuse elevate intimate partner violence. Risk factor for victimization includes being female, younger age, lower socioeconomic status, history of prior abuse, and pregnancy. Women who experience IPV are also at greater risk for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. Policy implications are discussed. 

This investigation sought to determine if a cultural effect is providing a protective element against crime and violence within predominately Hispanic neighborhoods compared with predominately African American neighborhoods located in one of the most resource strained and violent cities in America. This analysis incorporated official crime statistics, gang data, victim and offender demographics, neighborhood observations, and responses from non-criminogenic city residents (n=160). Preliminary findings are mixed indicating the presence of several meditating factors across neighborhoods. Policy recommendations are discussed.

 Polymersomes self-assemble from diblock copolymers into spherical vesicles due to their amphiphilic nature. Previous works have utilized a wide variety of photo-responsive mechanisms to achieve delivery of cargo with high spatial and temporal resolution. In this work, hydrophobic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been incorporated into the membrane of PBD-b-PEO (polybutadiene(1,2 addition)-b-ethyleneoxide) polymersomes to create a photosensitive carrier ideal for targeted release. The shape and size of the incorporated metal nanoparticle gives rise to wavelength tunability due to shifts in their surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We have explored the interaction of a single pulse with a single polymersome using fluorescence microscopy by monitoring the release of fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (FITC-dex) which allows an effective pore size to be calculated.  Femtosecond, picosecond and nanosecond lasers are used to determine how the pulse energy and pulse width affect the size of pore generated. Controlling the pore size gives complete spatial and temporal control of the release rate of the cargo, making this system ideal for precision medicine and other targeted delivery systems. This work shows that AuNPs act as photosensitizers by lowering the pulse energy required to damage the membrane.

 Introduction:Caffeine consumption is prevalent among young adults (Frary et al., 2005) and may be linked to negative correlates such as alcohol abuse (Velazquez et al., 2011) and sleep disruption (Lund et al., 2009). Depressive symptoms and decreased risk of depression has also been linked with caffeine consumption (Wang, Shen, Wu, & Zhang, 2016). However, little is known about the motivations driving young adult caffeine use. This study examined the potential mediating role of motives for use in the relationship between caffeine consumption and depressive symptoms.

Methods:194 undergraduates (mean age=19.8, SD=3.5; 47% male; 51% white, 19% African-American, 13% Hispanic or Latino, 12% Asian, 5% other) completed self-report questionnaires assessing their frequency of consumption of coffee, energy drinks, tea, and soda (for coffee, tea, and soda, caffeinated versions of these beverages were specified; all energy drinks contain caffeine) and reasons for caffeine consumption (using a revised version of the Caffeine Consumption Questionnaire; Landrum, 1992).Frequency was assessed on an 8-point scale (number of days per week, 0-7) and log-transformed prior to analyses. A factor analysis using Varimax rotation was conducted on motives, yielding 4 factors. Regression analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2012) and SPSS.

Results:Analysis indicated that depressive symptoms were a significant predictor of self-medication motives (b=.110, SE=.025, p<.001) and that self-medication motives were also a significant predictor of total caffeine consumption (b=1.49, SE=.454, p<.005). This supports a mediation model, as the direct effect of depressive symptoms became non-significant when self-medication motives were incorporated into the model (b=.230, SE=.158, p>.1). A similar result was found for dependence motives, wherein depressive symptoms were a significant predictor of dependence motives (b=.104, SE=.030, p<.005) and dependence motives were a significant predictor of caffeine consumption (b=1.833, SE=.363, p<.001). This model was also found to have a non-significant direct effect of depressive symptoms on caffeine consumption (b=.201, SE=.149, p>.1).

Conclusions:These findings indicate that motives for use play a mediating role in these established associations. Further research is necessary to deepen the understanding of this complex relationship.

 Learning and memory have been central concerns of human understanding since the earliest eras of history. From Plato and Vives to Woodrow and Pavlov, psychologists have been dedicated to better understanding the ways in which learning and memory function and how they give rise to differences in intelligence and intellectual functioning. Until the 20^th century and early 21^st century, very little data supported a relationship between learning and memory, on the one hand and intelligence and academic performance, on the other. The present study will use participants’ performance on a specific set of discrimination problems to examine the potential relationship between these problems and academic achievement. If successful, the present study will provide further understanding of how learning and memory relate to intelligence and intellectual functioning.

 This study explored a new model combining self-presentation theory with personality judgment research. The Self-Presentation and Personality Judgment model integrates research on person perception and self-presentation by accounting for the role that motives and self-presentational goals play in social interaction. One element of this model is Presentational Payoff– the degree to which the impression one desires to make aligns with the impression formed by others. This study aimed to identify behaviors associated with Presentational Payoff (i.e., making a desired impression on others). Participants (N=60) completed self and other personality surveys before and after engaging in a brief ‘getting to know you’ interaction. Direct behavioral observation data from the interactions were coded and correlated with Presentational Payoff. Regarding extraversion, participants high in Presentational Payoff were more likely to “Behave in a cheerful manner” (r=.27) and less likely to “Act irritated” (r=-.31). Also notable, those who perceived that they had successfully made a desired impression were more likely to have actually made a desired impression (r=.46). Implications will be discussed.

 One of the key factors for child development is a sufficient amount of sleep. When parents were asked about their child’s sleep, 81% of parents reported that they believed that their child received a sufficient amount of sleep (Bonuck et al., 2016). However, Bonuck et al. (2016) found that 33% of children did not obtain the recommended amount of sleep, resulting in 25% not receiving enough sleep and about 10% receiving too much sleep. Night wakenings and sleep disordered breathing are two factors that can negatively impact a child’s sleep quality (Lavigne, et al., 1999). Externalizing behaviors such as hyperactivity and noncompliance are common in children who do not receive sufficient sleep or have poor sleep quality (Lavine, et al., 1999, Gottlieb, et al., 2003). This study hypothesized that children with an insufficient amount of sleep and with poor sleep quality will have more externalizing behaviors. This study also aimed to explore the differences between sleep in different ethnic groups. Caregivers of children between the ages of 1 and 5 completed three surveys which assessed demographics, sleep quantity, and sleep quality. Teachers also completed two surveys assessing daytime sleepiness and daytime behaviors. Ethnic minorities living in urban areas are at a higher risk of having poor sleep habits and poor sleep quality (Cabtree et al., 2005; Hale et al., 2009). This study aims to assess the needs of the children attending the Early Learning Research Academy, which may inform future interventions of how sleep health may be improved to ameliorate behavioral and academic outcomes. Pearson’s correlation and ANOVA will be used to analyze the data.

 The integration of computer science into the mandatory curriculum of all New York City public schools is part of a grand plan issued by the federal Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Education. Time spent talking with and learning about the adolescents attending a public all-girls school in NYC reveals that students find this a valuable and important policy. What follows is an exploratory glance at how girls of color at one low-income public school perceive both formal and informal aspects of computing and technology.

Based on participant observation, this research not only sheds light on the computing science and software engineering experience of girls who are often left out of conversations about STEM education due to their intersecting marginalized social locations, but also serves as an entry point into an interrogation of common beliefs about youth and technology. Importantly, this research may also demonstrate what a program that can boost and maintain interest in tech among a population that is considered underserved.

This analysis first takes to task the popular expectation of kids as so-called “digital natives,” revealing that students understand technology as something they must work hard to learn. It goes on to explore their experiences of evolving attitudes towards the challenging work of learning computer science, confirming extant research findings that adolescence is a time of flux specifically in relation to perceptions of STEM. Their feedback also demonstrates that computer science programming reliant on collaboration and practical application may be especially important for garnering and maintaining adolescents’ interest. Finally, the more formal aspects of technology are set aside and analysis turns to perceptions of social media, which, informed by this population’s understanding of computer science, are more critical and nuanced than (adult) society at large generally gives them credit for.

 As an international student, I have experienced the difficulty of leaving the context I thoroughly know (the place I still sometimes refer to as home) and what it takes to build a new life in a new context.

Academia is moving towards a greater internationalization in which both students and faculty have diverse cultural backgrounds colliding in foreign contexts. Therefore, I ask: how do international students use social media, particularly Facebook, to acclimate to the migration process?

Research has shown that social media increasingly assists immigrants with the migration process as it gives them information in relation to practical, emotional or economic barriers or inquiries. The goal of this research was to analyze how a group of six international students, enrolled in the University of Copenhagen, used Facebook strategically in order to interact with their networks. Two hypotheses were outlined to interpret the strategic use of Facebook: on one hand, international students reinforced their national identity in front of their new international audience acting as ambassadors; on the other hand, they would also become interpreters of their new context to the audience in their countries of origins. Being an ambassador or an interpreter are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, these students would use social media to perform different identities or satisfy different gratifications.

Overall, the purpose of this research was to have a better understanding of the role social media plays for immigrant youth and how different identities are performed simultaneously in digital spaces.

 Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease that is reaching epidemic proportions. Despite the importance of remaining adherent, almost half of all diabetic patients do not meet appropriate glycemic targets.  Psychological factors, such as depression and ACEs, may have a significant impact on patient adherence. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the introduction of an evidence-based, integrative, and algorithm-based treatment approach that helped to screen and manage depression and ACEs, improved adherence in adults with T2DM.

Methods: This cross-sectional, feasibility study took place in a primary care office in South Philadelphia. Purposeful sampling yielded a sample size of 50.  Questionnaires were used to measure ACE scores and self-management behaviors; depression was screened using the PHQ-9 tool. Participants with an ACE score of > 3 were referred to psychiatry, and participants that screened positive for depression and had a hemoglobin A1C (HgA1C) > 7% were referred to a diabetes education center. Providers in this office were encouraged to utilize a diabetes/depression treatment algorithm when managing participants with T2DM and depression. Patient adherence was measured over 12 weeks using HgA1C, weight, and self-management behaviors.  

Results: There was no statistically significant improvement in HgA1C (p = 0.393), weight (p = 0.26), and self-management scores (p = 0.615) in study participants after 12 weeks. There was a statistically significant improvement in PHQ-9 scores (z = -2.579, p = 0.010), and a significant positive correlation between HgA1C and weight after 12 weeks (r = 0.305, p = 0.031).  No participant followed-up with psychiatry or attended the diabetes education center.  On average, the providers screened participants for depression or followed the diabetes/depression treatment algorithm 20% of the time.

Conclusion and Implications: Patient and provider resistance to change, along with socio-cultural effects may have impacted the results of this study.  Depression and ACEs are one of many factors that impair T2DM patient adherence. This study’s findings are not generalizable based on a number of limitations. Future research would benefit from exploring the reasons behind patient and provider non-compliance, as well as the impact of this study in other settings.

 Current literature hypothesizes that every emotion has distinct characteristics that distinguish it from other emotions in human beings. However, limited research has been done to determine the distinguishing characteristics of hate. This study aims to discover if the characteristics of hate are derived from the characteristics of both anger and contempt or is a standalone emotion with its own characteristics. The hypothesized characteristics of hate that this study will focus on are: antecedents(e.g. being caused by being humiliated, being caused by being exploited), appraisals (e.g. thinking you have low control potential, thinking that someone is trying to harm you), phenomenological characteristics (e.g. thinking someone is evil, thinking you are justified in attacking, feeling fixated and seething for extended periods of time), expression characteristics (e.g. having a cold stare, gritting your teeth), actions (e.g. looking for opportunities to take action against someone, excluding someone from your group), action tendencies (e.g. pointedly ignoring someone, yelling at someone), and emotivational goals (e.g. wanting to get rid of someone, wanting another person to suffer). Participants will be recruited online from undergraduate students at Rutgers University – Camden and from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to relive a time in which they are currently experiencing intense hate, intense anger, intense dislike or intense contempt, and then proceed to fill out questionnaire items assessing the presence of the fifteen hypothesized characteristics. If they are unable to think of a current situation, they will be redirected to recall and past experience instead. If they are still unable to recall an experience, all participants are redirected to an Anger questionnaire. Antecedent characteristics and appraisal characteristics will be on a scale of 1 to 9. Phenomenological, expression, action, action tendency, and emotivational goal characteristics will be on a scale of “not at all” to “very much”. MANOVAs, ANOVAs, and contrast t-tests will be used for the statistical analysis. If the hypotheses are supported, researchers may have a better understanding of how the emotion of hate is created and how hatred can potentially lead to violent crime.

 Introduction: Children with chronic health conditions, such as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), are at risk for poor health-related quality of life (HRQL). For children undergoing ALL treatment, child and family factors, such as child sleep quality and caregiver stress, impact child functioning during and after cancer treatment. This study evaluates caregiver stress as a moderator of the relationship between child sleep quality and child HRQL.

Method: Participants (N = 38) were recruited from the oncology unit of a children’s hospital. Caregivers completed self- or proxy-report of child sleep quality (Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire; CSHQ), caregiver stress (Parent Experience of Child Illness; PECI), child HRQL (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory; PedsQL) and demographic variables. Descriptive statistics were calculated and covariates were assessed. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to evaluate caregiver stress as a moderator of the relationship between child sleep quality child HRQL.

Results: Children were between the ages of 3 and 12 (M = 6.72, SD = 2.48) and a majority were males (61%). Children were approximately 12.10 months (SD = 8.49) since diagnosis. 71% of caregivers were mothers and caregivers were aged 20 to 52 (M = 36.63, SD = 6.65). Older caregiver age (r = .38, p = .02) and lower PECI score (r = -.38, p = .02) were associated with higher child HRQL. While the model predicting HRQL was significant [R² = .29, F(4, 33) = 3.37, p = .020] and accounted for 29% of variance of PedsQL scores, independent predictors, including the interaction term, were not significant.

Discussion: For children on cancer treatment, evaluating factors associated with child HRQL aids in identifying families who may benefit from additional psychosocial support. Assessing caregiver stress as a moderator offers insight into directions for intervention development aimed at promoting high child HRQL. This small, cross-sectional sample did not suggest that caregiver stress is a moderator of the relationship between child sleep quality and child HRQL, although results did indicate that caregiver age and stress are related to child HRQL. Continued research on modifiable components of HRQL is crucial to improving child and family outcomes during pediatric cancer treatment.

 Victimization is a risk factor for a variety of negative outcomes, and members of devalued minority groups, such as Hispanic youth, are at higher risk. Although Hispanic communities tend to have strengths which can act as protective factors against risk, other stressors are also common. Acculturative stress may make Hispanic youth more vulnerable to negative outcomes, including substance use. This investigation examines the relation between victimization, at-home language use as an indicator of acculturation, and illicit substance use among Hispanic and non-Hispanic high school students.

Victimization is a risk factor for substance use.  While stress related to acculturation has been linked to increased frequency of alcohol and tobacco use, less attention has been paid to the links between acculturation and illicit substance use although Hispanic youth report using illicit substances at higher rates, and report more victimization experiences. Nevertheless, few studies have examined contributions of home language-use to the relation between victimization and substance use. We hypothesize that victimization will relate to higher rates of illicit substance use. In addition, we expect that this relation will be moderated by Hispanic ethnicity and language-use at home, each indicating additional vulnerability.

Data come from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) administered by the Centers for Disease Control in New Mexico. The YRBS is an anonymous, self-report survey given in public high schools. Youth reported second language use at home, which we used as an indicator of acculturative stress. Youth also reported on whether they ever used illicit substances. We computed a cumulative risk score indexing victimization, summing endorsed experiences.

We used binomial logistic regression to test the primary study hypotheses, including a three-way interaction term predicting any illicit substance use, which was statistically significant (Exp(B) = 2.31; 95% CI: 2.25 – 2.37; p < .001). Additional regressions decomposed the interaction effect. There was a significant interaction between language and victimization among Hispanic youth (Exp(B) = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.82 – 0.94; p < .001). Analyses also confirmed main effects of both language and victimization among this group (Victimization: Exp(B) = 2.14; 95% CI: 2.07 – 2.22; p < .001; Language: Exp(B) = .83; 95% CI: .78 – .88; p < .001). Further analyses indicate that there is a strong relation between victimization and substance use among Hispanic youth in non-English speaking households (Exp(B) = 1.99; 95% CI: 1.87 – 2.12; p < .001). Amongst non-Hispanic students, there is a significant interaction between language and victimization (Exp(B) = 1.65; 95% CI: 1.46 – 1.86; p < .001). The relation between victimization and substance use was highest amongst non-Hispanic youth in non-English speaking households (Exp(B) = 3.87; 95% CI: 3.45– 4.34; p < .001). Consistent with our hypotheses, victimization is related to the likelihood of illicit substance use, evident across all analyses. Contrary to expectations, Hispanic youth in non-English speaking households were at the lowest risk of substance use related to victimization. This indicates a protective factor within non-English speaking Hispanic families that mitigates the effect of victimization on substance use.

 Until recently, members of the LGBTQ+ community were compelled to live “in the closet,” keeping their sexuality or gender identity to themselves as a result of rampant, normalized homophobia and transphobia. In 2015 LGBTQ+ people gained the right to marry in all fifty states, and public opinion regarding LGBTQ+ people has shifted toward the positive (Flores, 2014). In spite of these improvements, there is still a great deal of homophobia that exists in the U.S., making it common for members of the LGBTQ+ community to not be “out” to all members of their social networks. Studies looking at outness have often found that a higher level of outness relates to higher self-esteem (Strain & Shuff, 2010; Legate, et al., 2012; Ryan, et al., 2015; Kosciw, Palmer, and Kull, 2015) and other positive outcomes, such as academic success (Kosciw, Palmer, and Kull, 2015). In addition, outness has been positively associated with relationship satisfaction (Reeves & Horne, 2009; Knoble and Linville, 2012).  This study extends past research by examining these constructs more comprehensively by separately questioning both partners of lesbian and gay couples. Findings reveal that these constructs tend to be associated among the two members of a couple, but outness does not appear to predict self-esteem, and relationship satisfaction.

 The nineteenth century saw an influx of mass printing, with an array of different types of publications available to the public. One type of publication were illegal publications of licentious print. Licentious print consisted of erotic and pornographic prints that included imagery, novels, newspapers, and brothel guides. Brothel guides were guide books of brothels and prostitutes within the city. Historians have analyzed brothel guides as another form of illicit print and have looked at brothel guides to understand prostitution in print and society’s interest in prostitution. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz in Rereading Sex: Battles Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-century America discussed how they would take on attributes of other forms of literature because they were illegal under the obscenity laws. The attempt to pass off the guides as another form of legal publication altered the language of the brothel guides, forcing the reader to understand the double language of the guides. The language also consisted of hidden ‘criminal’ language that was deciphered by police commissioner, George Washington Matsell, of New York in his book Rogues Lexicon. Featured in the back of the guides were advertisements for goods that were connected to the world of prostitution, such as abortion pills and condoms. The advertisements linked the brothel guides to the larger market and introduced goods to the realm of prostitution. Using previous scholarship on prostitution and erotic publications, I analyze brothel guides, their connection to the market and how the brothel guides advertised prostitution.

 This paper explores the spatial relationship between health outcomes and the distribution of concentrated poverty and residential segregation across U.S metro areas. Much empirical attention has traditionally been placed on the link between economic inequality and health. However, the link between concentrated metro level poverty and health has yet to be unpacked in full, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between the spatio-temporal dynamics of poverty and the still strong residential sorting by race across U.S. metro regions in affecting the unequal distribution of metro level health outcomes. This paper recognizes a gap in the research by looking at the effect of concentrated poverty on the processes furthering disparities in health attainment through economic isolation of neighborhoods and increasing geographic marginalization of urban populations. The author constructs a multilevel model to analyze pooled data for the years 2001 and 2010 from the BRFSS and ACS national level surveys at both the individual and metropolitan levels of analysis. The analysis consists of a series of multilevel models utilizing a panel of 86 contiguous U.S. metros. Spatial indices of racial segregation and poverty concentration are constructed using the Global Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation measure. The second component to the analysis relies on spatial autocorrelation and the estimation of the Global Moran’s I index using GIS software to identify and quantify hot spots of high poverty within MSAs, as well as identify trends and changes over the time period of the analysis as these relate to health outcomes and risk factors. Preliminary results show a relatively strong, persistent, and significant association between the metro-level geographic distribution and patterning of concentrated poverty (concentrated poverty tracts defined as those census tracts with a poverty rate of 40 percent and over) and the level of health disparities for a given MSA – the spatial concentration of poverty works to exacerbate the impact of person level poverty at a given level of metro wide poverty. The paper concludes with implications for urban policy solutions toward expanding the scope of social and economic policies in health inequities among urban communities.

 “what am I, Dr. Caldwell? Am I alive? And, what about the children?” were the questions that Melanie, a second generation fungus-infected ten-year old, asked through her youthful innocence in the 2016 zombie-apocalyptic movie The Girl with all the Gifts. Similarly compelling quests have been pursued by the demi-children (clone children) of the dystopian futuristic novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

What is common in both the novels, which were later made into motion films, is not just the quest for, and crisis of, identity among the child-like rescuers but also the binary of innocence and threat that they present to the reader/viewer. The two movies successfully build the tension around the child-like figures whose performances shift from innocence, to survivalism, to machine-like followers, to opiate-like addicts.

Through the enigmatic figuration of a child I would like to talk about the child’s love-hate relationship that it shares with innocence. Innocence is a recurring theme in the multiple readings of child that compels one to travel ahead in time and save the image forever as it also, while presenting itself as threat, enables one to travel back in memory to celebrate the time that one misses in the present.

 This poster presents methodological and ethical quandaries from ‘Digital Artefact Vs Digital Fingerprint: An Ethnography of Gangs Online’, conducted as part of my Master’s Degree. Findings from this research can be found in ‘“Going Viral and Going Country”: The Expressive and Instrumental Activities of Street Gangs on Social Media’ in Journal of Youth Studies, 2017. It will discuss how the concept of ‘do no harm’ developed by Sociologists to prevent research harming participants, the researcher or the researcher community, had additional complexities for my research. Ethical complications arose due to the participants being not only children but children involved in crime. I will demonstrate how working within ethics criteria I did not introduce the term ‘gang’ my participants and how the legally binding Child Protection framework ultimately placed limits on children’s voices for their own protection but as a result left me vulnerable. Placing me in the difficult and somewhat powerless position of a covert researcher ‘lurking’ online where I was exposed to high levels of trauma through the consistent finding of images and videos of physical and sexual violence towards children. Raising questions about how we extend ethics to the online space ensuring that participants and researchers are safeguarding in equal measure. Taking seriously the harm we could do to ourselves even if our work is ‘just’ online.

 An examination of the transculturation of Jazz and its manifestation in nationalisticexpression in Japan, this paper argues that rather than being a mere copy of an American art form, Jazz exists in Japan with its own set of tropes, symbols and meanings within film, literature, and popular culture. It examines the absorption of Jazz into Japanese mass culture from the Taish? “Jazz Age” of the 1920s until the Post-Occupation era, and reflects on the continued impact of Jazz on present-day Japan.

 Although the role of electrostatic interactions and mutations that change charge states in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is well-established, many disease-associated mutations in IDPs are charge-neutral. Earlier, we studied the effects of the disease-associated Val66Met substitution at the midpoint of the prodomain of precursor brain-derived neurotrophic factor (proBDNF) using fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Val66Met substitution is found in 25% of the American population, which has been widely studied for its association with aging-related and stress-related disorders, reduced volume of the hippocampus, and variations in episodic memory. We found that the local secondary structure, transient tertiary contacts, and compactness of the protein are correlated to backbone configuration around residue 66. The midpoint location and the substitution at the most highly charged region of the protein played a critical role in causing the conformational changes of Val66Met substitution. To gain further insight into the generalizability of the found mechanism with which a hydrophobic-to-hydrophobic substitution can effect the IDP’s conformational ensemble and, to further establish the significance of substitution location, we studied 5 more hydrophobic substitutions at residue 66. We report on fully-atomistic temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations of the 90 residue proBDNF for Ala66, Ile66, Leu66, Phe66 and Tyr66 sequence. Analyzing and comparing the residue level insight from all 5 simulations helped us in further establishing the significance of charge-neutral mutations in IDPs.

 Prior research has found evidence for social class signals in the domains of physical appearance, cultural objects, thin slices of behavior in interactions, and speech. In the domain of speech, research suggests that speech style and accent are social class signals. Most research has focused on style and accent, but little research has examined the particular parts of speech, specifically the pronunciation of individual phonemes, as a social class signal. The current study examined audio files of 249 speakers uttering isolated words from a national archival data set. Trained coders, naïve to study hypotheses, listened to the speaker utterances and judged any deviations from dictionary defined pronunciations of words. Overall, speaker social class indexed by education and occupation status was positively correlated with fewer speech deviations from standard definitions (r=.26), and remained associated even after controlling for speaker age, vocal pitch, gender, and race. Surprisingly regional variation in deviations from dictionary defined pronunciation were small and unreliable. Results indicate that class signals reside in subtle pronunciation differences in individual phonemes.

 The development of good executive function skills, like attention and inhibitory control, help children do well in life and meet developmental milestones. Positive experiences in children’s lives help promote good executive functioning. Better child executive function skills have been linked to more positive student/teacher relationships at school, suggesting a positive correlation with growth in the student’s executive functioning. Our aim is to test what sort of relation exists between student/teacher relations and executive functioning among a sample of preschoolers in Camden. We hypothesize that student/teacher relationships higher on warmth and lower on conflict will relate to higher executive functioning.

We collected data in collaboration with  the Early Learning Research Academy (ELRA) as part of a larger study on school readiness. The participants (n = 72) were between the ages 3 and 5 years old and completed assessments of attention and inhibitory control with a research assistant. Specifically, we consider data from the Flanker task of the NIH Toolbox (iPad App Version). Teachers also filled out  a teacher-report questionnaire, the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire, asking about student-teacher relationship dimensions of closeness and conflict. A multiple regression revealed no relation between teacher-student relationship and child executive functioning, controlling for child age (TS relationship: B = 0.08; StdErr B = 0.54; p = 0.88). An additional multiple regression tested for independent effects of closeness and of conflict in the teacher-student relationship on child executive functioning, again controlling for child age. No significant associations exist (Conflict: B = 0.14; StdErr B = 1.42; p =.93; Closeness: B = 0.10; StdErr B = 2.39; p =.97). Results will be discussed with respect to strengths and limitations of the design.

 In biochemical pathways, many enzyme functions are regulated by inhibition byproducts, or product feedback inhibition. In this project, artificial sensing circuits are designed to channel the transfer of intermediates in multi-enzyme reactions. Swinging arms play important role in multi-step, catalytic transformations in multienzyme complexes. Proximity assembly circuits will be implemented to swinging arms to control the release and activation of swinging arms to control the transport of intermediates in enzyme reactions. Proximity assembly circuits are composed of single-stranded DNA molecules to regulate the pathway activities and specificities. In order to regulate the multienzyme pathway, which will be implemented on DNA nanostructures for controlling and switching pathway activities to produce different final products depending on specific inputs. Proximity assembly circuits for controlling swinging arms has been created with toehold design for DNA strand displacement, resulting in releasing of swinging arm. Currently, to increase the signal production for more sensitivity, we are utilizing the hairpin assembly circuit to amplify the assembled enzyme/cofactor nanostructures. Eventually, the proximity assembly circuits will be applied to detecting biotargets with signal amplification in a small test tube and visible color change.

 Thyronamines (TAMs) are decarboxylated thyroid hormone derivatives. They were postulated to exist in 1976 but the first two were not discovered until 2004. We have now discovered seven new TAMs in the brain and adrenal medulla. TAMs are derived from the amino acid tyrosine as are dopamine and norepinephrine which are neurotransmitters, so their structures are similar. Having a similar structure does not necessarily mean that the function will be similar, but it may. To try to understand TAM function we are using synaptic nerve terminals (synaptosomes) treated with three different salt solutions (balanced salt solution (BSS), Hi K+, Hi K+/low Ca). After treatment, we analyzed the supernatant versus the pellet to see whether the TAMs are released from the synaptosomes. We found that TAMs are released upon stimulation like neurotransmitters are. In addition, we injected TAMs into mice to see the effects that they have on thermoregulation and locomotor activity. The TAMs examined so far have caused hypothermia with little effect on locomotor activity. Thus TAMs may be a new class of neurotransmitters that regulate body temperature.

  The research fellowship I received this year as a David K. Sengstack recipient allowed me to visit critical memory sites in Mannheim, Germany related to my dissertation project on Postwar Black German Adoption. At the St. Josef’s Kinderheim (Children’s Home) I was able to take many photographs of the facility as well as of their archive. These photos tell an important story about many Black German children’s early life experiences in the orphanage in the 1950’s and also of returning adult adoptees from the US in recent years, who are searching for their personal adoption histories and maternal roots.

 As increasing numbers of researchers, parents, and youth are rethinking the traditional school system as the default educational experience in the United States, African Americans particularly have been the steadiest-growing homeschooling demographic (Ray, 2015). My dissertation examines ethnographic accounts – through participant observations and interviews with fifteen African American homeschooling families and their children – that reveal a variety of complex motivations and initiatives surrounding families’ homeschooling lifestyles. Despite much of the broader literature that deems homeschooling a neoliberal exercise in privatization that merely entrenches social reproduction, (Avery-Grubel, 2009; Hanson-Thiem, 2008), my research complicates this notion when examining the ways African American homeschoolers enmesh themselves within educational reform conversations, some viewing homeschooling as a form of agentic protest. Youth accounts similarly disclosed narratives of both marginalization and agency inside/outside the traditional school system.

 

We used the Scalar platform to create a multimedia “book,” which allows us to utilize different visual aids, such as videos, graphics, audio files, and pictures, among others, to demonstrate the various ways in which language mediates de realities of Macondo and its inhabitants.

 Background: Alcohol use disorders (AUD), which are on the rise among women in recent years, have been associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACES), intimate partner violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder among women. While the U.S. is becoming increasingly more racially/ethnically diverse, it is unclear whether these correlates of AUD that have been reported among mixed racial/ethnic samples of women generalize to specific racial/ethnic groups of women. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine associations between ACEs, intimate partner violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder with AUD separately among White, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Black women using data from wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC).

Results: In the adjusted models that controlled for other variables, only adult intimate partner violence was associated with past year AUD for all three racial/ethnic groups of women. In the adjusted models, childhood physical abuse and living with a household member with a substance abuse problem before age 18 were associated with AUD among White and non-Hispanic Black women, childhood sexual abuse was associated with AUD for White women, living with a household member who was incarcerated before age 18 was associated with AUD for Hispanic women, and past year posttraumatic stress disorder was associated with AUD for non-Hispanic Black women.

Discussion: These findings suggest more differential than universal correlates of AUD among white, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women. More studies are needed to examine whether findings reported in mixed racial/ethnic groups of women generalize to specific racial/ethnic groups of women and develop an evidence base of information for diverse populations of women. Given the uniform association between intimate partner violence and AUD, it is unfortunate that wave 3 of the NESARC does not assess intimate partner violence. Future waves of the NESARC should resume assessing intimate partner violence in order to further understand how this type of violence is associated with women’s AUD and effectively treat these co-occurring problems among women.

 The self-assembly of amphiphilic di-block copolymers into polymeric vesicles, commonly known as polymersomes, is an area of high interest in research due to the potential applications in the field of drug delivery. Polymersomes are fully synthetic robust vesicles composed of a hydrophobic membrane and a hydrophilic core, providing the ability for stable dual-encapsulation of a variety of molecules. Methods have been developed for triggered encapsulant release using ultrafast, single-pulse irradiation with visible and near infrared light to provide a non-invasive method of achieving spatial and temporal control. We have shown that the incorporation of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) within the vesicle membrane provides wavelength specific vesicle rupture at 532 nm. The wavelength dependence of our polymersome system can be shifted by altering the plasmonic mode of the nanoparticles by way of shape and composition.

 According to the latest U.S. Department of Education reports (2017), the percentage of young English Language Learners (ELLs) has risen exponentially in the last 20 years, reaching a record high of 9.4% (or 4.6 million students) in the 2014-2015 school year. The majority of this group has Spanish as their home language (77.1%) and is clustered between kindergarten and first grade. The multilingual community of Camden, New Jersey reflects this nation-wide trend with 42% of its residents reporting that Spanish is spoken at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). The rapidly growing number of Hispanic students in the city’s education system necessitates the implementation of inclusive education programs that facilitate the acquisition of the majority language while supporting the heritage language (HL).

The present study analyzes the morphological development of 33 bilingual children (pre- kindergarteners: N=10; kindergarteners: N=13; first graders: N=10) in both the majority language (English) and the HL (Spanish). Participants were recruited from an urban Catholic school located in Camden, NJ, which has one of the highest rates of school-aged children who speak a language other than English at home (40%). Data collection consisted of the completion of a battery of tests: a modified version of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment (BESA; Peña et al. 2014) and an elicited narration task. Results from two experimental tasks describe their receptive and productive morphological knowledge involving the nominal and verbal domains in both languages. This presentation will contrast the children’s comprehension and production performance for the linguistic property of third person -s morphology within the English data sets. Further, it will analyze the significance of this asymmetry in order to support the claim that linguistic assessments should include testing at these two levels to determine bilinguals’ performance. 

This study is part of a larger project that aims to add to the limited body of research regarding child Heritage Speakers’ grammars during the critical time of their linguistic dominance shift as a result of schooling. Further, the data contributed to the formation of a dual-language pre-school program at the research site.

 Accurate limb volume computation is an essential component for physicians and clinicians who treat patients with lymphedema, a condition where the body has a buildup of lymphatic fluid within the tissue due to a malfunction or damaged lymphatic system, to utilize in determining the stage and/or progression of the disease.  Currently, the computational methods available do not accurately depict the volume of an upper extremity.  Within this study we use a prospective, cross-sectional design to compare three computational methods Truncated Cone (TC), Modified Truncated Cone (MTC) and Corrected Modified Truncated Cone (CMTC) to Water Displacement, a gold standard in volume calculation.  MTC uses circumferential measures starting at the wrist including the palm and fingers progressing up the UE in 4cm increments to the midpoint between the elbow and the armpit; (2) CMTC using the same as MTC except the height of each truncated cone is calculated based on the circumference differences; (3) truncated cone (TC) using the same method as MTC but excluding fingers while assuming 4cm increments on the palm.  We evaluate the percent differences found between each of the three computational methods and water displacement followed by an ANOVA with Bonferroni adjustment using p<0.05 for statistical significance is present.  The mean percent difference between MTC and WD is 0.11% (s.d. = ± 1.74), CMTC and WD is-0.11 % (s.d. = ± 1.75), whereas the percent difference between TC and WD is -9.68 %(s.d. = ± 1.90).    The percent difference between MTC and WD as well as CMTC and WD was significantly different than the difference between TC and WD (p < 2 x 10^-16) adjustment; however, the percent difference between MTC and CMTC was not significantly different (p = 1.00).  These pre-pilot data suggest that CMTC and MTC are interchangeable with one another and may hold promise as accurate measurement techniques comparable to WD.   Additionally, our data show TC underestimates volume found with WD by 9.68 % on average – a difference which might pose a clinical barrier to evaluating the efficacy of lymphedema management.

 Rebekah Sheldon argues that the child acts as a “mode of timekeeping” (3) as it grows into the future. In addition to the child’s body acting as temporal memento, the material stuff generated by the presence of the child also acts on future anxiety. “The future the child points to is the adult who stands where the child no longer is” (Sheldon 37), and so too does the material of childhood, including the stuff that preserves the future’s child: childproofing. The installation of locks, bumpers, and gates in the homespace acknowledges the known dangers of the past while simultaneously preparing for the unknown dangers of the present, ushering the child into a future life. As the tangible expression of ambivalence, childproofing objects play out a childhood safety narrative that may not meet the needs of the future’s child. Sheldon argues that the child is “put in an age riven between unprecedented technoscientific control and equally unprecedented ecological disaster” (3). While technology preserved the child for the future, the stuff required to make that happen lingers, hurting the planet the child was purposely preserved to inherit, asking the question: has the child moved into the future or simply preserved the present in the future?

 Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) are pentameric ligand gated ion channels, critical to signaling across synapses and the neuro-muscular junction. While sensitive to boundary lipids, nAChR have been shown to be functionally dependent on cholesterol. This dependence on cholesterol has led to the hypothesis that nAChR resides within the cholesterol rich liquid ordered domains.  Using the MARTINI force field, coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulations were preformed, with nAChRs in quasi-native ternary membranes. Native nAChR membrane composition has an abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), saturated fatty acids, and cholesterol. The two PUFAs chosen for these simulations were Docosahexaenoic acid and Linoleic acid.

These simulations display nAChR consistently residing in the PUFA enriched disordered domain, remaining nearby the liquid ordered domain. Analysis of boundary lipid composition confirms nAChR boundary lipids are enriched in PUFAs. Further analysis of nAChR subunit-domain interaction show alpha subunits preference for cholesterol rich domains, while beta subunits show preference for PUFAs. Lastly, analysis shows PUFAs and cholesterol binding non-annularly nAChR.

This study is being expanded to compare complex quasi-native synaptic and oocyte membranes. The oocyte membrane, in particular, is an optimal model for studying lipid-protein interactions, because it has a lower abundance of n-3 PUFAs compared to the neuron. From our simulations, we find that differences in membrane composition are especially noticeable around nAChRs. Given that nAChRs no longer exhibit partitioning preferences in oocyte membranes, our initial simulations suggest that oocytes do not provide a sufficiently native-like environment for nAChR.

 This study examines the relation between victimization, strengths and assets, and academic functioning among high school students who completed the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (NM YRRS). Youth who experience higher levels of victimization are at risk for worse developmental outcomes, such as lower grades in school and poorer educational functioning (Nakamoto & Schwartz, 2009; Martz, Jameson, & Dellinger Page, 2016). However, many youth who experience victimization go on to function competently, despite riskRes. Resilience science suggests that this is the product of protective factors, which buffer the negative effects of risk, and/or promotive factors which may compensate but do not have special significance in the presence of risk (Masten, Cutuli, Herbers, & Reed, 2008). This study uses a resilience framework to test for possible protective effects relevant to the relation between victimization and academic outcomes.

This study tests the following hypotheses: a) There will be a relation between victimization and academic outcomes (negative relation with grades and positive relation with missing three or more school days without permission), and b) Youth strengths and assets will moderate the relation between victimization and academic outcomes.

The YRRS, administered biennially to public high school students throughout New Mexico, is a 114-tem self-report questionnaire that asks about demographic characteristics, a variety of risk factors, protective factors, and health, mental health, and academic indicators. Relevant to the current analyses, victimization scores were the sum of whether each of four experiences were endorsed (bullying, dating violence, sexual violence, and skipping school because of feeling unsafe), youth asset scores were the average of 14 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (indexing relationships with family, teachers, and peers, engagement in extracurricular activities, and boundary-setting at home and school), and academic outcomes were self-reported (dichotomized indicators of earning grades of mostly A’s and B’s or not, and having three or more unexcused absences or not). 

In 2015, 8,304 students completed the NM YRRS. Analyses test each hypothesis with separate binary logistic regressions predicting grades and predicting unexcused absences, controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Consistent with hypotheses, victimization was negtively related to grades (Exp(B) = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.74 – 0.88; p < .001) and positively related to unexcused absences (Exp(B) = 1.70; 95% CI: 1.56 – 1.85; p < .001). Contrary to expectations, neither relation was significantly moderated by asset scores (predicting grades: Exp(B) = 0.91; 95% CI: 0.81 – 1.02; p = .11; predicting unexcused absences: Exp(B) = 1.08; 95% CI: 0.96 – 1.21; p = .23), although youth asset scores did independently predict better outcomes as a main effect, consistent with a promotive factor conceptualization (predicting grades: Exp(B) = 2.19; 95% CI: 2.00 – 2.39; p < .001; predicting unexcused absences: Exp(B) = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.51 – 0.62; p < .001). We will discuss results from a resilience perspective, underscoring the importance of attending to both risks associated with victimization as well as strengths and assets for providers who work in high schools and other settings with high-school aged youth.

 Changes in environmental temperature has been shown to significantly impact the foraging patterns, resource preferences, and ingestion efficiency of arthropods, which could lead to changes in interaction strength between consumers and their resources. These behavioral and physiological changes may be a response to shifts in the nutritional needs of an organism due to increased metabolic rate at higher temperatures. Currently, most work regarding the nutritional ecology of arthropods has focused on herbivorous insects, with work on predator nutrition only recently becoming more common. As such, nutrition-focused studies exploring the effects of temperature on predator-prey interactions are scarce. Here, we tested the hypothesis that elevated temperatures result in an increased preference towards lipid-rich prey in wolf spiders (genus Pardosa) due to the effects of temperature on metabolic rate. Spiders were kept at natural or elevated temperatures and allowed to feed ad libitum on either lipid-rich or protein-rich house crickets (Acheta domesticus). Crickets were raised on either lipid-dense or protein-dense media to control nutrient content. We found that at high temperatures, spiders attacked and consumed more prey than spiders in low temperature environments. Additionally, at high temperatures spiders given lipid-rich prey extracted more nutrients from their prey as compared to spiders given protein-dense prey. Together, these results provide evidence that arthropod nutritional needs and predator-prey interactions are temperature dependent, and suggest that warming could have potentially profound effects on food web structure and function.

 The discovery of biocompatible or bioactive nanoparticles for medicinal applications is an expensive and time-consuming process that may be significantly facilitated by incorporating more rational approaches combining both experimental and computational methods. However, it is currently hindered by two limitations: 1) the lack of high quality comprehensive data for computational modeling, and 2) the lack of the effective modeling method for the complex nanomaterial structures. In this study, we tackled both issues by first synthesizing a large library of nanoparticles and obtained comprehensive data on their characterizations and bioactivities. Meanwhile, we virtually simulated each individual nanoparticle in this library by calculating their nanostructural characteristics and built models that correlate their nanostructure diversity to the corresponding biological activities. The resulting models were then used to predict and design novel nanoparticles with desired bioactivities. The experimental testing results of newly designed nanoparticles were consistent with the model predictions. These findings demonstrate that rational design approaches combining high quality nanoparticle libraries, big experimental datasets and intelligent computational models can significantly reduce the efforts and costs of nanomaterial discovery.

 Camden City public schools have been plagued with historically high levels of drop-out rates and a system that is failing to provide all children with quality education. As a response, the Rutgers-Camden Community Leadership Center (CLC) developed the Rutgers/LEAP Enterprise in 1992 to build an educational pipeline from cradle to college all along Cooper Street in Downtown Camden.  The CLC, as part of Rutgers, serves as an anchor to develop comprehensive community development programs for children, families, and university students to build bridges between theory and practice and the university and the community. 

This study sought to examine and provide evidence of the birth to college pipeline model through the case study of the Early Learning Research Academy (ELRA) and the LEAP Academy University School in Camden, New Jersey. Using ELRA and LEAP as zones of practice, observation, and collection of best practices, following theories of community capital and social inequalities, the CLC has created and continuously sustained Cooper Street’s educational corridor.

As a result of the pipeline, the CLC has facilitated a successful program that has a 100% graduation and college placement for all students attending LEAP since the inaugural class in 2005. Over 1,700 students are currently within the birth to college pipeline amongst five buildings located along Cooper Street in downtown Camden. The project has solidified a comprehensive educational corridor for students to begin their education as infants and proceed all the way to college, transforming the educational landscape within the community.

The findings from this project highlight the importance of the birth to college pipeline model?that an educational trajectory within one geographic area overseen by a university can improve the educational, social, and economic outcomes of children and families who have been marginalized and under-served by traditional bureaucracies and institutions.

 In May 1973, readers of Ebony Jr!, a new magazine for African-American children, flipped through the pages to find content devoted to black history and culture. Children read about the importance of Langston Hughes and encountered fictional stories starring African-American children. The magazine also presented African-American child readers with images of black athletes. During Ebony Jr!’s run until 1985, children read about the lives of professional and amateur athletes. A photo of Hank Aaron greeted children who were interested in learning about the techniques of hitting a baseball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar encouraged readers to pursue higher education. Children also read about peers who participated in sports, including young athletes who aspired to participate in the Olympics.  While outlets such as Ebony, an adult African-American lifestyle magazine, and Sports Illustrated provided readers with images of black athletes, these images were rarely depicted within children’s periodicals.

My paper examines the relationship between race and sport in African-American children’s media during the 1970s. I focus on Ebony Jr! because of its position as the second African-American children’s magazine since W.E.B. DuBois’ The Brownies Book (1921). As a didactic text, Ebony Jr! aimed to promote an ideology of racial uplift. Through sport, Ebony Jr!  promoted values of hard work and determination, the importance of family, and investment in middle class leisure practices. While these values were present in Ebony, content in the magazine for adults also addressed issues plaguing African-American athletes such as discrimination and the discourse of essentialized racism. Ebony Jr! primarily erased narratives of oppression within profiles of athletes and crafted childhood as a protected space. Through this, Ebony Jr! worked to craft sport as a meritocratic space for black child readers. Ultimately, I argue for the importance of including childhood and youth studies perspectives within the field of Sport History and examining children’s media as valuable texts for understanding the transmission of ideologies regarding race and sport.

 Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) represent a class of understudied but functionally important proteins that lack definite secondary and tertiary structure. The diversity of an IDP’s conformational ensemble over time makes them notoriously difficult to characterize experimentally. Thus, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been employed in order to gain a unique, atomistic glimpse into the equilibrium characteristics of these proteins. Unfortunately, though, many of the available MD force fields and solvent models that dictate these properties have been developed and validated with the study of structured biomolecules in mind. Here, we examine a number of disordered peptide systems with respect to numerous popular force fields and implicit solvent models in order to determine which combination of parameters delivers the most accurate representation of experimental data.  Doing so delivers valuable information for groups who wish to undertake an MD investigation into the properties of these IDP systems with hopes to better understand them.

 The concept of the School-to-Prison pipeline describes a journey undertaken by many students who are forced to attend under-resourced schools and are subject to exclusionary disciplinary practices, such as suspensions and expulsions. These practices have become fairly ubiquitous due to schools utilizing them for an increasing number of student misbehaviors. Additionally, schools have grown in their dependance upon law enforcement as a tool to maintain order, contributing to the chances of students having contact with the criminal justice system. Furthermore, it has also been demonstrated that these problems are experienced disproportionately by black male students and much research has explored this issue. However, researchers have also noted the need to better understand the impact of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on black girls, as well.  

This research project seeks to advance this line of inquiry by researching how black girls’ educational experiences are influenced by harsh disciplinary practices. The central research questions are:  Are there racial differences in the application of school disciplinary practices among elementary and secondary school-age girls? If so, how are their infractions classified differently? How do differences in discipline impact black girls’ experiences of schooling?

In pursuing this project, I hope to discover insights about the impact of harsh disciplinary practices on the academic achievement and other educational outcomes of students who experience it.

 The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) is an excitatory neurotransmitter receptor that mediates muscle functioning by forming nAChR-associated, lattice networks. At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), synaptic and intracellular proteins, notably Agrin, MusK, and rapsyn, ultimately stabilize these highly dense networks. Interestingly, experimental evidence suggests that cholesterol-rich domains, known as lipid rafts, directly facilitate signaling among Agrin-Musk and rapsyn, and their presence is essential for healthy nAChR clustering. In spite of their importance, the structural and functional mechanisms of lipid domains are currently unknown. Alongside cholesterol, Docosahexaenoic acid omega-3 fatty acids (DHA-PUFAs) are prevalent at the NMJ, correlate with domain formation, and strongly promote neuronal health. In the present study, we computationally explored the role of DHA-PUFAs on nAChR clustering in the presence and absence of lipid domains. Within coarse-grained model membranes, nAChRs consistently partitioned into flexible, liquid-disordered domains; boundary lipids were rich in DHA-PUFAs regardless of the number of nAChR molecules, but preventing domain formation also reduced the likelihood of these acyl chains aggregating around nAChR. Taken together, our findings suggest that by inducing domain formation in membranes, DHA plays a critical role in the early stages of nAChR oligomerization.

 Liver is central to the metabolism of almost all the foreign substance. Most drugs are rendered hydrophilic by cytochrome P-450 enzyme system in the hepatocyte, yielding water-soluble products that are then excreted by the kidney or the gastrointestinal tract [1]. Liver is therefore exposed to high concentrations of drugs and metabolites, making them vulnerable to drug toxicity [2], [3]. Hepatotoxicity of drugs are of great concern to the pharmaceutical industry. It was demonstrated that up to 11% of liver failure cases could be attributed to hepatotoxic drugs [3]. Drugs continue to be withdrawn from the market due to their unexpected hepatotoxicity which is not fully recognized in the preclinical and clinical trials [4]. In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration released a related guidance documents for pharmaceutical companies to address drug’s hepatotoxicity during preclinical safety testing [5], [6]. However, the traditional experimental testing methods in these documents are expensive and time-consuming. With the advent of critical advancements in in vitro testing approaches, in particular High Throughput Screening (HTS), there has been a rapid accumulation of chemical toxicity data which can be capitalize to increase our understanding of drug hepatotoxicity [7]. These toxicity data, which exist both in structured formats (e.g., deposited into PubChem and other data-sharing web portals) and as unstructured data (papers, laboratory reports, toxicity web site information, etc.), possess the four v’s property of “big data” and contain toxicity information related to both chemical and biological data. In this “big data” scenario, there is an unmet need to develop novel alternative approach by integrating chemical information and biological data to evaluate drug toxicity, especially hepatotoxicity potential for new and existing chemicals. The success of models depends on two major factors: (i) accuracy of primary data used for model development; (ii) rigor of modeling approaches and computational tools applied to analyze the data. The closely interrelated Specific Objectives of this project address these issues as follows:

Specific Objective 1: To compile and cure a comprehensive, chemical hepatotoxicity database including chemical structures, PubChem short-term bioassays information, and in vivo toxicity.

Hepatotoxicity datasets which are reported in literatures, as well as Toxicity Reference Database (ToxRefDB) will be collected as major sources of animal hepatotoxicity data, and PubChem will be used as a source of the short-term bioassay data.

Specific Objective 2: Develop rigorously validated and externally predictive models of hepatotoxicity prediction by combining conventional chemical toxicophores with short-term bioassay data.

Using data generated under Objective 1, we will develop novel hybrid hepatotoxicity models by integrating chemical toxicophores into bioassay data. The goal of modeling will always be to achieve most accurate prediction of hepatotoxicity, but the nature and interpretation of models will vary depending on the type of data used for modeling.

Specific Objective 3: Develop novel mechanism-driven models by integrating adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) into hybrid models generated from Objective 2.

The ultimate goal of this project is to provide an applicable workflow for using both chemical information and existing biological data (i.e. PubChem assays) to developing novel mechanism-driven computational models with high predictivities. These models will afford prioritized candidate compound selection for in vivo toxicity testing and will ultimately allow chemical risk assessment for complex toxicity endpoint and provide all possible adverse outcome pathways (AOPs).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY

In this work, 1) we curated and merged all available in vivo hepatotoxicity data obtained from the literature and public database resources, which yielded a comprehensive database of ~4,000 unique compounds that could be categorized as hepatotoxic or non-hepatotoxic in human. This comprehensive database will be released for others doing hepatotoxicity related research. 2) For compounds in this datasets, ToxPrint Chemotypes from ChemoTyper® were used to generate potential structural toxicophores and biological responses were profiled against the PubChem® database. Then, PubChem biological data were clustered based on chemical-in vitro bioassay relationships. By integrating toxicophore information into bioassay information, the predictivity of hybrid models were further improved. These novel hybrid models performed better than the control simple hepatotoxicity models. 3) The chemical-in vitro-in vivo relationships obtained from these bybrid models can be integrated into several adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). This study developed new computational read-across models based on substantial publicly available data that can be used to predict the hepatotoxicity of new compounds and elucidate novel mechanisms of injury by integrating chemical and biological data into toxicity pathways.