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The Effect of Cannabidiol on the Oxidative Stress Response of C. elegans
No full textOxidative stress is an important factor in several health issues including aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases (Rodriguez et al., 2015). Antioxidants are substances that can mitigate oxidative stress and are therefore important for human health. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one such antioxidant as well as a relatively new and popular product on the market, therefore researching its effects is an important endeavor for the sake of public health (Atalay et al., 2019). The purpose of this study is to test the antioxidative qualities of CBD using C. elegans as a model organism and Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to induce oxidative stress. It was hypothesized that the C. elegans populations exposed to both CBD and H2O2 would have a lower mortality rate compared to those exposed to H2O2 due to CBD’s antioxidative properties. The C. elegans were separated into 4 groups (control, H2O2, CBD, and both) with 5 populations each and were all observed over the course of a school day. The findings of the research were inconclusive as no C. elegans died during the observation time period. The reasoning for this is most likely that the H2O2 were far too diluted to cause death in the C. elegans over the observation time period
The Effects of the Antidepressants Trintellix on the Mortality Rates of Daphnia magna
No full textWith the increase in depression in Americans over the age of 12 by over 10% in the last decade there is also a consequential increase in the production of antidepressants as well. With the average age of 48 more than 58% of adults have been found to be prescribed antidepressants. The cause of the mass production of these antidepressants can cause pollution on a dangerous scale if the antidepressants are not handled correctly. The purpose of this research was to find the impact that antidepressants could have on the environment by measuring the mortality rates in the highly sensitive daphnia magna. The objective of this research was to find how the antidepressant would affect the daphnia magna in different amounts. To do this experiment 3 groups were experimented on and given different amounts of antidepressants. This experiment showed that there was an increase in mortality rates of the daphnia magna from the control group. The experiment had also not lasted long enough to test the idea if reproduction would have also been slowed. A One-Way Repeated measures Anova test (F(86)=3.039 showed that there was a significant difference between all three of the groups. The significance of this test shows that the effects of pharmaceutical pollutants such as antidepressants can have a detrimental effect on the environment
Validation of Hit and Avoid Task as an Aphasia Assessment Tool
No full textAphasia is a mental disorder that impairs a patient’s ability to perform speech-based activities, which includes ‘phonological’ and ‘semantic’ aspects of said activities. While many techniques are currently being researched, used, or suggested for assessing a patient’s phonological and semantic processing skills, little research is done on the capabilities of the Hit and Avoid Task (HAAT), a task that involves patients hitting and avoiding words that fall from the top of the screen with a cursor. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the worth of the Hit and Avoid Task as a method for assessing the phonological and semantic processing skills of post-stroke patients with aphasia. It was hypothesized that while Hit and Avoid would not be as effective as the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), it still would perform reasonably well while taking less time. The Hit and Avoid Task results and the lesion maps of subjects from the Center for Study of Aphasia Recovery (C-STAR) databases were imported into NiiStat, which was able to correlate phonological, semantic, and spatial processing to various lesion regions. With voxel-wise lesion-symptom mapping, only semantic processing led to voxels surviving the correlation threshold; however, it is still considered insignificant considering how few voxels survived. With atlas-based lesion-symptom mapping for both semantic and phonological regions of interest, multiple relevant regions survived the threshold but were not able to differentiate between semantic and phonological behavior
Responsive Photonic Structures Based on Hydroxyl-propyl Cellulose and Cellulose Nanocrystals
No full textThe coloration of many organisms, such as butterflies and marble berries, relies on structural color and not the pigments that many are familiar with. In additive manufacturing, the use of structural color currently includes cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films and hydroxyl-propyl cellulose (HPC) solutions. The objective of this project was to combine these two processes, creating vivid CNC-HPC solutions suitable for 3d printing. The helical pitches of CNC and HPC were manipulated in this experiment by using different concentrations of CNC and HPC in addition to the use of HPC and polyethylene glycerol (PEG) as additives. This provided control over what colors were produced. In testing how the use of additives effected the color of CNC films, it was found that the color was enhanced. However, when adding these films to the HPC solutions, they tended to lose visibility in the prints. Additionally, it was found that by adjusting the settings of the 3d printer, it is possible to control if the color shown may be dependent on the angle a viewer is looking from. Exploring this would allow for a larger variety of prints to be made through an alternative to those with uniform color. Future directions include the addition of grinded CNC films to HPC solutions at a later point in the mixing or printing process, as well as the discussion of applications for structural color outside of 3d printing and films
Proof of a New Fibonacci Identity
No full textA second order recurrence relation Fn is called Fibonacci sequence if it satisfies that F0=0, F1=1, and Fn= Fn-1+Fn-2 for n ≥3. Fibonacci used this sequence to model the breeding of a population of rabbits. Fibonacci numbers are also connected to many other different topics of pure mathematics, applied mathematics, art, and economy including number theory, binomial coefficients, Pascal\u27s triangle, Wall Street stock market, and the Milky Way. In this presentation we show the solution of a new identity related to Fibonacci numbers. This was an open problem that appeared in The Fibonacci Quarterly as B-1305. Our original solution was submitted for publication to the same journal and is under consideration
Design of An Infant Car Seat with a Cooling System and Alert System for the Safety of an Infant Left in a Car
No full textIn recent years, there have been cases of children being left in enclosed vehicles and dying due to hyperthermia. In 2021, there were 23 deaths due to children being left in cars (Hot car deaths, 2022). Fifty-four percent of children are forgotten in vehicles thus, a solution should be developed to save the lives of the infants (Hazizan et al., 2020). The purpose of this study is to design, prototype, and test an alert and cooling system for an infant car seat to prevent these deaths. The engineering goal for this project was to combine two existing systems: one functional alert system and one functional cooling system. The design used thermoelectric coolers, a passive infrared motion sensor, a GSM module, and an Arduino. The thermoelectric coolers were connected to heatsinks which cooled the car seat at 26 degrees celsius. And at 25 degrees celsius, the alert system sent an alert using the GSM module. Then, the design was tested in a car by simulating the high temperatures by setting the air conditioning to high. The results of the study showed that the cooling system was able to reduce the temperature of the car seat from 26 degrees celsius relatively down to 23 degrees. Furthermore, the alert system also was successful on all the trials made sending a text to the experimenter. Based on these results, the design produced in this study showcases proof of concept to cool an infant in a car seat and to send an alert to the responsible adult
Role of TGFbeta2 in cardiac neural crest cells
No full textNeural crest cells (NC) are multi-potent cells which originate in the dorsal neural tube and migrate to the mammalian heart during embryonic development. Defective migration of NC results in defects in the outflow tract region of the heart at birth (i.e., congenital heart defects, CHD). In this project, genetically engineered mice embryos with selected loss of transforming growth factor beta2 (TGFβ2) gene in the NC (i.e., Tgfb2 CKO) were used and compared with wildtype (i.e., normal TGFβ2 gene) to determine the role of TGFβ2 in NC migration and heart development. The NC were genetically tagged (by combining with mT/mG+/- reporter transgenic mice) by a green-fluorescent protein (GFP) in both Tgfb2 CKO and wildtype embryos to track NC migration and quantification in the heart during embryonic development. Fluorescent microscopic images of serial tissue sections of multiple embryos (three or more embryos/group) from Tgfb2 CKO and wildtype embryos. These images were captured by using GFP filters (green color) in a fluorescent microscope. The amount of GFP fluorescence (green color) was quantified by NIH Image J (Fiji) software. The data showed that the number of GFP-positive NC was significantly increased, and more NC were present in both outflow tract and inflow tract regions in Tgfb2 CKO embryos. In conclusion, the results indicate that TGFβ2 is required for a controlled cardiac NC migration, survival, and proliferation in the heart during embryonic development. This information will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in congenital heart disease
Prebiotic dimer and trimer peptide formation in gas-phase atmospheric nanoclusters of water
No full textInsight into the origin of prebiotic molecules is key to our understanding of how living systems evolved into the complex network of biological processes on Earth. By modelling diglycine and triglycine peptide formation in the prebiotic atmosphere, we provide a plausible pathway for peptide growth. By examining different transition states (TSs), we conclude that the formation of diglycine and triglycine in atmospheric nanoclusters of water in the prebiotic atmosphere kinetically favors peptide growth by an N-to-C synthesis of glycines through a trans conformation. Addition of water stabilizes the TS structures and lowers the Gibbs free activation energies. At temperatures that model the prebiotic atmosphere, the free energies of activation with a six water nanocluster as part of the TS are predicted to be 16 kcal mol−1 relative to the prereactive complex. Examination of the trans vs. cis six water transition states reveals that a homodromic water network that maximizes the acceptor/donor nature of the six waters is responsible for enhanced kinetic favorability of the trans N-to-C pathway. Compared to the non-hydrated trans TS, the trans six-water TS accelerates the reaction of diglycine and glycine to form triglycine by 13 orders of magnitude at 217 K. Nature uses the trans N-to-C pathway to synthesize proteins in the ribosome, and we note the similarities in hydrogen bond stabilization between the transition state for peptide synthesis in the ribosome and the transition states formed in nanoclusters of water in the same pathway. These results support the hypothesis that small oligomers formed in the prebiotic atmosphere and rained onto earth\u27s surface
Solidarity and Strife After the Atlanta Spa Shootings: A Mixed Methods Study Characterizing Twitter Discussions by Qualitative Analysis and Machine Learning
Get PDFBackground: On March 16, 2021, a white man shot and killed eight victims, six of whom were Asian women at Atlanta-area spa and massage parlors. The aims of the study were to: (1) qualitatively summarize themes of tweets related to race, ethnicity, and racism immediately following the Atlanta spa shootings, and (2) examine temporal trends in expressions hate speech and solidarity before and after the Atlanta spa shootings using a new methodology for hate speech analysis.
Methods: A random 1% sample of publicly available tweets was collected from January to April 2021. The analytic sample included 708,933 tweets using race-related keywords. This sample was analyzed for hate speech using a newly developed method for combining faceted item response theory with deep learning to measure a continuum of hate speech, from solidarity race-related speech to use of violent, racist language. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on random samples of 1,000 tweets referencing Asians before the Atlanta spa shootings from January to March 15, 2021 and 2,000 tweets referencing Asians after the shooting from March 17 to 28 to capture the immediate reactions and discussions following the shootings.
Results: Qualitative themes that emerged included solidarity (4% before the shootings vs. 17% after), condemnation of the shootings (9% after), racism (10% before vs. 18% after), role of racist language during the pandemic (2 vs. 6%), intersectional vulnerabilities (4 vs. 6%), relationship between Asian and Black struggles against racism (5 vs. 7%), and discussions not related (74 vs. 37%). The quantitative hate speech model showed a decrease in the proportion of tweets referencing Asians that expressed racism (from 1.4% 7 days prior to the event from to 1.0% in the 3 days after). The percent of tweets referencing Asians that expressed solidarity speech increased by 20% (from 22.7 to 27.2% during the same time period) (p \u3c 0.001) and returned to its earlier rate within about 2 weeks.
Discussion: Our analysis highlights some complexities of discrimination and the importance of nuanced evaluation of online speech. Findings suggest the importance of tracking hate and solidarity speech. By understanding the conversations emerging from social media, we may learn about possible ways to produce solidarity promoting messages and dampen hate messages
Greenville County 2022 Election Turnout
No full textThis site, created using ArcGIS StoryMaps, provides mapping data related to voter turnout during the 2022 election in Greenville County. The site was commissioned by Greater Good Greenville.https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/storytelling/1010/thumbnail.jp