Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
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Effect of Senescent Depletion of Nup93 in Endothelial Cells on Nuclear Shape and Size
No full textVascular aging, a chronic state of low-grade inflammation, is a known risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. As the innermost lining of the blood vasculature, endothelial cells (ECs) play a major role in vessel health. At the cellular level, appropriate nuclear structure determines proper cell functionality and homeostasis. Previous research identified nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) as crucial factors in maintaining nuclear integrity. Cell senescence has been shown to promote NPC degradation, leading to impaired nucleocytoplasmic transport. Age-induced loss of structural NPC component, nuceloporin93 (Nup93), in vascular endothelium increases pro- inflammatory signaling. However, the impact of NPC component degradation on the EC nuclear structure is undescribed. Due to Nup93’s role in NPC assembly, we hypothesized that targeted depletion of this protein would decrease nuclear size and disrupt its shape. To identify those changes, we employed a model of Nup93 depletion in endothelial cells, and through immunofluorescent visualization of the nuclear markers, we measured nuclear properties. Interestingly, loss of Nup93 in ECs increased nuclear size and decreased nuclear circularity, indicating the importance of proper nucleoporin expression in maintaining nuclear structure. Our findings signify the impact of Nup93 and cellular aging on nuclear shape and size, allowing to unearth more molecular mechanisms affecting nuclear structure
Applying Machine Learning in Identification and Prediction of Muscle Atrophy using EMG signals.
Get PDFAI: What it Can and Can’t Do
Get PDFFor those with no AI experience. Come find out what AI is, how it works, and how you can get started using it. Your students are already using AI, so you should learn how to use it to help them learn! Bring your laptop and play along
Design Thinking: Empathetic Problem Solving
Get PDFDesign thinking is the intersection of engineering design and social-emotional learning. Today’s learners must be empathetic problem solvers capable of defining problems and designing appropriate solutions to meet the user\u27s needs. Participants will experience design thinking through literature-based scenarios appropriate for early learners in this session. They will analyze and compare their models to those of others and compose a lesson that will engage students in the design thinking process
Fighting Leishmaniasis: Developing Small Molecule Drugs with Computer-Aided Drug Design and Synthesis
No full textVisceral Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease that kills around 70,000 people per year. It is most common in equatorial areas in both Africa and South America. Due to the deadly nature of this disease, research regarding its treatment must be taken more seriously. Leishmaniasis is spread through the bite of an infected sandfly, and can cause fever, weakness, and sores at the site of bites. By designing a small molecule that binds to and targets the Cysteine Synthase from Leishmania Infantum, we can try to incapacitate the parasite and treat the disease. Results of the experiment will be presented
Transcriptomic Mapping of Nucleoli Reveals Disruption of mtDNA and rDNA Gene Expression During H1N1 Viral Infection
No full textThe nucleolus is a membraneless subnuclear structure involved in ribosome biogenesis and cell regulation. This study aimed to determine whether nucleolar conditions reflect viral stresses in other parts of the cell. Human cells were infected with the H1N1 virus, and ARTR-seq was used to enrich nucleolar RNA for sequencing. Sequenced transcripts were mapped to the human genome, followed by differential expression and gene ontology analysis. A reduction in oxidative phosphorylation-related mRNA was observed in infected samples, which agrees with research demonstrating viral disruption of mitochondrial function via downregulation of mtDNA. Infected samples also exhibited more intronic rRNA and proportionally more protein-coding genes. By utilizing the nucleolus as a proxy for the rest of the cell, this technique offers a broad perspective of the cellular stress response to H1N1 virus, with possible applications to other viruses such as COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s diseas
Why is my Address not Unique? Discovering Entropic issues in IPv6 Addresses
No full textThe Internet Protocol (IP) undergirds the modern Internet, providing addresses to network devices and routing data packets between them. The first widely adopted version, IP version 4 (IPv4) uses 32-bit addresses to identify unique hosts. While ~4 billion unique addresses seemed sufficient, the explosion of Internet-connected devices over the last twenty years has depleted the pool of available IPv4 addresses.
With the limited addresses remaining, a global shift to IP Version 6 (IPv6) is underway. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, providing a pool 296 times larger than IPv4. To ensure uniqueness, the last 64 bits or Interface Identifier (IID) must be sufficiently random. However, the collected addresses show that millions share the same IID.
This paper asks, why are there IIDs that repeat in the seemingly infinite address space? To answer this, we take addresses from the IPv6 Observatory and remove any that have insufficient entropy or deterministically generate their IID using the interface’s link layer address (Extended Unique Identifier-64) to find the source of this problem. From those entropic addresses, we examine allocation to Autonomous System Numbers (ASN) and identify affected Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Using routers from those ISPs, we discover why these random addresses are not random
Leveraging Geospatial Techniques to Understand Flood and Rainfall Dynamics in Urban Cities
No full textUrban flooding is an incessant challenge due to extreme rainfall and inadequate drainage infrastructure. This study explores the paradoxical relationship between rainfall intensity and flood occurrence in cities like Chicago. Leveraging Google Earth Engine (GEE), we integrate Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) datasets from Sentinel-1 at every 10-day cycle for flood mapping, and daily scale CHIRPS: Rainfall Estimates from Rain Gauge and Satellite Observations datasets for rainfall patterns, to create a comprehensive view of factors driving flood risks. With its flat terrain and continuous urban sprawl, Chicago, with its large-scale flood management initiatives such as Tunnel and Reservoir Project (TARP), still faces challenges from heavy precipitation events and aging infrastructure. These contrasting landscapes provide a compelling backdrop to understand how physical geography, urbanization, and the impact of varying rainfall intensities influence flood dynamics. Preliminary findings suggest that areas with high rainfall intensity and effective water management systems experience lower flood incidence than regions with moderate precipitation but aging drainage infrastructure. This research addresses the need for localized strategies and large-scale perturbations to mitigate flood risks and highlights the correlation between rainfall and hydrological resilience. For interdisciplinary stakeholders, a high-resolution flood inundation model offers insights to address urban flood challenges effectively
Redefining Western Blot Standards: A Novel Approach for the Reliable Detection of Amyloid-Beta Oligomers (AOs) in Alzheimer’s Research
No full textNeurotoxic amyloid-beta-oligomers (AβOs) accumulate in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, driving cognitive decline and dementia. Determining their size via Western Blots (WB) could help create targeted therapies, yet exposure to detergent SDS could potentially lead to significant changes in the subunit association. Moreover, improper sample or antibody concentrations can cause primary antibody cross- linking, resulting in misleading signals (e.g., a stronger signal in wild-type controls that lack AβOs). Such inconsistencies have led researchers to overlook WB for AβO studies. This study adjusts SDS levels in the sample and running buffers and sample and antibody concentrations to minimize oligomer dissociation and antibody cross-linking, re-establishing WB’s viability for AβO research. Our preliminary results indicate that when using modified initial conditions - 0.0375% SDS Running Buffer, 0.0% SDS Sample Buffer, 3.75μg sample, and 0.1μg/ml NU2 antibody concentration - for the WB on mice samples, the expected results (low signal in wild-type samples, strong signal in 5xFAD) can be consistently obtained. This indicates that removing SDS from the sample buffer allows WB to be used on AβOs accurately while maintaining its high overall resolution. These findings can help optimize WB for AβO research and, generally, for studying molecules that self-associate
Quantifying Ozempic’s Impact: Sentiment-Based Drug Evaluation with BERT and Mistral Models
No full textSemaglutide, sold under the name Ozempic, is a medication that aids in blood sugar management as well as weight loss in individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Ozempic is frequently advertised as an effective weight loss drug due to the uncontrolled popularity stemming around it from social media.
The purpose of this study is to understand the public opinion and real-life testimonials regarding the use of Ozempic via Youtube comments. I trained BERT and Mistral models for sentiment classification and thematic pattern recognition using a labelled dataset of generated content. Three major perspectives were identified to focus on: users of Ozempic, the families of users of Ozempic, and the general public. This study utilized natural processing language (NLP) to analyze sentiment patterns, issues repeated over time, and the general perception of the effectiveness of the drug of different people. The results provide information on the qualitative effects experienced by users of Ozempic outside the clinical setting and the views that shape the perception of Ozempic in public