University at Albany, State University of New York
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The Multifaceted Role of Glutamate at Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses
Get PDFOur thoughts, memories, and actions are finely controlled by the coordinated activity of neural circuits in the brain. Prior work has identified a multitude of molecular mechanisms that contribute to the generation of these higher order functions, yet we know very little about how our ability to learn and perform habitual actions change depending on how far neurotransmitters released from neurons can travel away from their point of release. This is the main focus of my work, which I carried out using a diverse toolbox and focusing on two brain regions: the hippocampus and the striatum. The hippocampus controls learning and memory. The striatum controls the execution of learnt motor programs. There are four main outcomes of this work, each of which is described in full details in an original publication. First, I identified that glutamate escape from the synaptic cleft varies at different times of the day, due to changes in astrocyte morphology, and activates different populations of receptors, due to changes in their expression level on the plasma membrane. These effects are triggered by corticosterone, a hormone that is released into the bloodstream in varying amounts at different times of the day. Second, I found that in vitro recording conditions that mimic more closely the composition of the cerebrospinal fluid, with specific reference to calcium ions, alter spillover mediated activation of a class of metabotropic glutamate receptors called mGluRIII. This results in changes in the spatial representation of the external environment in CA1 place cells. Third, neuronal glutamate transporters alter glutamate spillover and mGluRI expression in the striatum. Fourth, I found that the expression of this transporter at synapses formed between specific classes of striatal neurons is important to limit multitasking in mice. Taken together, these findings shed light on the importance of understanding the functional properties of synapses in vitro and in vivo to understand the operating principles of neuronal circuits. More importantly, they show how crucial it is to preserve their function to prevent the onset of cognitive and neuropsychiatric disease
Using Wearable Sensors for Gait Analysis: Measurement Accuracy for Linear Measurements
Get PDFThe emergence of “new media” has fundamentally reshaped human interaction, relying on algorithm-driven content saturation to shape user experiences and reinforce cognitive biases. While digital platforms offer unprecedented access to information and global connectivity, they also contribute to emotional disengagement, increased anxiety, and diminished critical thinking. “New media” often isolates individuals, encouraging passive consumption and emotional dysregulation. However, the challenge lies not in technological advancements but in society’s lack of critical engagement and effective regulation. This paper examines the misuse of new technology and its negative implications on human behavior. Incorporating evidence from journal articles, books, and personal correspondence, this study analyzes the psychological and societal consequences of “new media,” emphasizing the necessity of education, regulation, and individual awareness. Individuals who cultivate healthier relationships with the “new media” mitigate several negative effects. By fostering digital responsibility at the institutional, governmental, and personal levels, society can alleviate the adverse effects of “new media,” while preserving the benefits of technological innovatio
The Effects of Political Polarization on Congressional Oversight
Get PDFThe increasing political polarization in the United States has had affected the relationship between the Democratic and Republican Parties and their ability to work together so they can govern the country effectively. While numerous scholars have previously conducted research on political polarization, one important aspect that requires further research is the extent that polarization has affected the role of congressional oversight. In this study, I will examine the congressional committee investigations of the Iran-Contra Affair and the 2012 Benghazi attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. The analysis of newspaper articles, media reports, voting records, and public statements will reveal how the role of congressional oversight has changed. Congressional oversight has been essential to ensure that federal laws are being implemented as intended and to hold other branches of government accountable. However, this study has demonstrated that the increasing politicization of oversight investigations and partisan tone have altered oversight investigations to the point that members of Congress are more interested in how investigations can affect their party than holding other branches of government accountable
Third Parties as a Matter of Rhetoric: The Development of Third Party News Coverage, 1890-2020
Get PDFThere has been a lot of debate in academia over the reasons that third parties have traditionally fared poorly in the United States. Such explanations have largely ignored discussion of how the public\u27s perception of third parties have changed over the course of 120 years\u27 worth of elections and political evolution. By first taking a broad look at the prevalence of key terminology, and then drawing connections between the coverage of various campaigns, it can be noted that while third parties have lost a significant amount of esteem, the two party system itself has also declined relative to the mid 20th century, when it was widely seen as stabilizing and beneficial force in American politics
The Impact of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and STI Treatment during Pregnancy on Birth Defects in New York State
No full textBackground: New York State (NYS), and the United States overall, has recently experienced increases in the three nationally notifiable bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. These infections, particularly chlamydia and gonorrhea, may not always present with apparent symptoms, but remain transmissible until treated. There are potential long-term reproductive consequences of STI infections, including infertility and ectopic pregnancy. There is also prior evidence of adverse perinatal or infant outcomes associated with STI infections during pregnancy, including stillbirth and birth defects. This aims of this research were to: 1) describe the burden of and disparities in birth defects among persons infected with STIs during pregnancy in NYS between 2010 and 2020, 2) assess the impact of adequate STI treatment during early pregnancy on risk of birth defects among pregnant persons with chlamydia diagnoses, and 3) describe potential implications for public health programming and policy with regard to prevention of birth defects associated with STIs and/or their treatment in NYS.
Methods: This study utilized de-identified matched data from the NYS STI Surveillance Registry and live births reported to the NYS Birth Defects Registry from 2010 to 2020. Descriptive analyses were conducted to investigate the burden of clinically-relevant birth defects associated with STI infections and to identify characteristics associated with clinically-relevant birth defects. A retrospective cohort study was conducted among pregnancies in NYS with only one chlamydia diagnosis during the first trimester of pregnancy between 2010 and 2020 to assess the impact of adequate chlamydia treatment during this timeframe on the risk of birth defects. Potential implications for public health programming and policy with regard to the prevention of birth defects associated with STIs and/or their treatment in NYS were identified based on the results of descriptive and log-binomial regression analyses.
Results: Clinically-relevant birth defects were more common among pregnant persons diagnosed with chlamydia, persons aged 20-24 years, persons who were non-Hispanic White, and persons residing in high poverty level zip codes at the time of their STI diagnosis. Pregnancies with evidence of adequate treatment for chlamydia diagnoses during the first trimester were more likely to have an infant with at least one clinically-relevant birth defect, though this finding did not hold in sensitivity analyses with chlamydia diagnoses or with adequate chlamydia treatment not restricted to the first trimester. Potential implications include tailored STI prevention, STI screening and treatment, and birth defects education for patients and providers; policy considerations such as required reporting of pregnancy status and negative STI test results as well as universal chlamydia and gonorrhea screening for persons of childbearing capacity of all age groups; and directions for future research to explore the role of STI treatment on birth defects.
Conclusion: Overall, we found disparities in clinically-relevant birth defects among pregnant persons with one diagnosis of chlamydia during pregnancy by age group, racial/ethnic groups, and zip code-level poverty categories. These results provide insight into populations within NYS with STI diagnoses during pregnancy who may be more impacted by clinically-relevant birth defects and, thus, may benefit from tailored education on STI prevention and birth defects for providers and patients. An increased risk of clinically-relevant birth defects among pregnancies with evidence of adequate chlamydia treatment during the first trimester may be biased by the restriction to live births and other limitations of these surveillance registries. However, the results provide important directions for future research into the role of individual STI treatment medications and timing of treatment during early pregnancy on the development of birth defects. This study also adds to the limited literature on STI treatment and birth defects and underscores the need for improved data reporting policies and further research in this area
The Association of Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY) with Cancer Risk: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Case-Control Studies (2013-2024)
Get PDFAbstract:
Cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally, influenced by a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and nutritional factors. Among these, the metabolism of homocysteine (HCY), a sulfur-containing amino acid derived from dietary methionine, has attracted growing attention due to its involvement in one-carbon metabolism and its potential link to cancer. Elevated HCY levels, a condition known as hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY), have been shown to disrupt crucial cellular processes such as DNA methylation and promote oxidative stress (OS)—both of which contribute to genomic instability and cancer progression. Disruptions in the folate and methionine cycles, as well as genetic polymorphisms like MTHFR C677T, can exacerbate HHCY and increase cancer susceptibility. This study aimed to explore the relationship between HCY levels and cancer risk through a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies, with the goal of elucidating the role of HHCY in cancer development.
A comprehensive literature search identified 1880 studies, of which 31 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 4937 cancer cases and 6053 controls were included in the analysis. The results indicated a significant association between elevated HCY levels and increased cancer risk, with a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 1.18 (95% CI [1.04, 1.33]). Additionally, a meta-analysis of mean differences revealed significantly higher HCY levels in cancer cases compared to controls (pooled standardized mean difference = 1.56, 95% CI [0.11, 3.01]). These findings highlight the potential role of HCY as a biomarker for cancer risk, though significant heterogeneity across studies suggests the need for further research to understand the underlying mechanisms and the impact on different cancer types
Teacher Noticing to Scaffold Knowledge‑Building Inquiry in Two Grade 5 Classrooms
Get PDFIn classrooms that implement student-driven, collaborative knowledge building, there is a lot for teachers to attend to in student work, alongside numerous ways of interpreting and responding to what is noticed, giving rise to countless possibilities of furthering students’ inquiry and discourse. The current study aims to make sense of these possibilities by identifying patterns in a veteran teacher’s reflective noticing of student inquiry in two Grade 5 classrooms. Using a Knowledge Building approach, the fifth graders studied the human body systems supported by a collaborative online environment (Knowledge Forum) over an eight-month period. The teacher kept weekly journals to record her reflective noticing of student inquiry and envisioning (planning) of possible ways to facilitate deeper knowledge building work. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyzed the teacher’s reflective journal entries to identify critical themes characterizing the teacher’s attention, interpretation, and planning of responsive moves. Visual network analysis further traced multiple pathways of teacher noticing and envisioning, each involving attending to specific changes in student inquiry and discourse, interpreting these changes within a temporal context, and envisioning responsive actions that could be taken up with her students. The teacher’s responsive moves focused on leveraging student-generated ideas to unfold new possibilities of deepening, expanding, or better co-regulating their inquiry and discourse. The findings shed light on how teachers may work with emergent processes of student-driven inquiry to scaffold ever-deeper knowledge building in a collaborative community
Symbols of Sovereignty and How They Speak to Us: Reading Contemporary Wampum Artwork in New York State Museums
Get PDFContemporary Haudenosaunee artworks in exhibit spaces across New York State are bringing cultural information and counter-historical narratives to the public that they might not encounter otherwise. Artwork that includes wampum depictions or materials has heuristic qualities that can engage viewers with Haudenosaunee ways of knowing and relating. Wampum heuristics and Haudenosaunee scholarship are employed to interrogate how wampum materials were collected, categorized, and researched by the New York State Museum during the salvage anthropology era. The narratives embedded in wampum artworks are traced from this salvage era history, throughout the century between the salvage era that began at the end of the 19th century and the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, up to the early 21st century, in which artworks incorporating images or themes of repatriated wampum are increasingly displayed in museum spaces. Museum professionals and Haudenosaunee artists collaborate on efforts to decolonize museum spaces by revisiting and reframing how Native American people, history, and material culture have been represented in Western institutions of learning. Within these efforts, there are many success stories but also a variety of tensions and problematic tendencies towards centering whiteness in cross-cultural environments, resulting in the Native American partners bearing an inequitable amount of the emotional and at times antagonizing strain of bringing about meaningful change. Examples from the lived experience of museum professionals, artists, and researchers demonstrate how epistemologically structuring relations around treaty frameworks can redress the traumas and inequities of our shared past, present, and future
Between Languages and Religions: Omar ibn Said\u27s Voice in the Arabic Narrative and English Translations
Get PDFThe Life of Omar ibn Said (1831) is a narrative written by an enslaved person in Arabic and went through multiple English translations over the centuries. This article examines the ways in which these translations involve the nineteenth-century Christian agenda as well as the translators’ decisions in the twentieth-first century that multiply Omar ibn Said’s voice. In response to the recent scholarship’s effort to find Omar’s “true self” in his writings, which shows the meshing of Christian and Islamic faith, I aim to foreground his voice as a powerful presence at the intersections of the two languages and religions. My reading of Omar’s narrative is informed by other scholarly works on American slave narratives and emphasizes the displacement and multiplicity of his voice, while I argue that his narrative also deepens our reading experience of multi-faceted American literary traditions by introducing criticism of slavery through the Islamic teaching that complicates the description of the “merciful master.