16812 research outputs found
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Untitled Book Stack
No full textThis book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1112/thumbnail.jp
We Shall Return
No full textThis book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1125/thumbnail.jp
Characterization of Ionizable Amphiphilic Janus Dendrimer Nanoparticles for Nucleic Acid Delivery
No full textAmphiphilic Janus dendrimers (JDs) are constructed from hydrophobic and hydrophilic dendrons, providing a synthetic alternative to lipids in genetic nanomedicines. Recently, ionizable amphiphilic Janus dendrimers (IAJDs) have emerged as a one-component delivery system for mRNA, offering an attractive alternative to four-component lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which are the leading nonviral vectors for mRNA delivery used by both Pfizer and Moderna in their COVID-19 vaccines. IAJDs assemble into vesicles using a simple production method by injection and have great synthetic capacity. In particular, IAJDs 97 and 97-D have been demonstrated to co-assemble with mRNA to form dendrimersome nanoparticles (DNPs) and successfully deliver luciferase mRNA in in vivo models. Here, we investigated the influence of buffer conditions on DNP formation in the presence and absence of polyadenylated (PolyA) mRNA. This work suggests that IAJD structure and pH influences DNP diameter, polydispersity, and zeta potential, which may have downstream effects on in vivo nucleic acid delivery. Future applications of IAJDs are being investigated, specifically in the stability and efficiency of small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery. We are currently establishing a model system for monitoring siRNA delivery using cells that express green fluorescent protein (GFP). Future work will demonstrate whether DNPs encapsulating siRNA can knockdown GFP expression
Untitled Book Stack
No full textThis book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1144/thumbnail.jp
Dosage-Dependent, Carboplatin and NG52 Show Synergistic Effect on Inhibiting Cell Proliferation in Breast Cancer Cell Line
No full textBT-549 (Breast Cancer), a highly invasive epithelial breast cancer cell line, was used to investigate the effects of two drugs: NG52, a selective kinase inhibitor and Carboplatin, a platinum-based DNA-alkylating agent. Using cell counting assays and calculating IC50 values, we examined their combined impact on cell proliferation. Results revealed both an antagonistic and synergistic effect dependent on concentration. Where the individual agents inhibited cell proliferation less effectively than expected. These findings show the complexity of drug interactions and provide insights into optimizing therapeutic strategies for highly invasive cancer types
Untitled Book Stack
No full textThis book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1147/thumbnail.jp
Social Identity and Belongingness: College Students’ Happiness, Life Satisfaction, and Personal Growth
Full text linkThis study examines how a mixture of psychological, social, and developmental factors influences processes by which individuals develop their identities throughout college. It was hypothesized that these processes would be different for first-generation college students compared to non-first-generation college students, for transfer students compared to non-transfer students, and for commuter students compared to non-commuter, residential students. To measure this, an online survey was constructed using established measures of happiness, life satisfaction, personal growth, affective forecasting as well as other psychological, social and developmental measures (e.g. psychological- contingencies of self-worth, e.g. social- university belongingness, e.g. developmental- emerging adulthood). Data was collected from currently matriculating students at a residential liberal arts college in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Initial exploratory analyses examined differences in identity exploration by level of self-focus for first-generation college students compared to non-first-generation college students. Hypothesis analyses revealed differences in university belongingness and identification as a college student between commuter and residential students. Multiple regression analyses revealed predictors of happiness, life satisfaction, personal growth, and affective forecasting
Structured Unfreedom: Improving Schools, Society, and the Relationship Between Them Through Meaningful Learning and Autonomy
Full text linkThis paper seeks to explore critiques of the structure of traditional US public schools and investigate alternative methods of schooling that have looked to address these critiques in various ways. I draw upon various educational theorists to argue that the structure of traditional public schools, through their lack of freedom and choice given to students (and oftentimes teachers), creates an environment where students do not care about or feel connected to their education and what they are learning in school. There are various foundational elements that contribute to this structure of school, such as the switching of classes and the grading and assessment systems. This passive form of education that is often the result of these systems can create disengagement between students and their schooling, as they often just do what they must do to finish an assignment or get a grade, regardless of whether they care about what they are doing. I argue that this feeds into the kinds of people we create in the outside world. I then draw upon alternative models of schooling with different structural values that provide more freedom, choice, and autonomy to students and teachers to explain the importance of these ideals in education. Ultimately, I argue that these ideals are essential to cultivate in students in our present world, but the current structure of schools does not fully allow for their cultivation
Antisemitism in Medieval Drama: The Villainization of Judaism in The Croxton ‘Play of the Sacrament’ and The York Corpus Christi Play
No full textIn early Middle England, Jews faced an onslaught of antisemitic violence as they were falsely accused of blood libels and the murdering of young children. This culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290, but although they had no legal standing in the country, antisemitism ran rampant in their absence. In this project, I will examine instances of antisemitism in medieval culture, specifically through its drama. The Croxton ‘Play of the Sacrament’ and The York Corpus Christi Play are two plays that display the antisemitism that permeated England throughout the Middle Ages by perpetuating stereotypes that Jews are violent and dangerous. Croxton and York both adapt a Passion narrative that works to uplift Christianity while painting Judaism as a sin, while simultaneously creating the implication that Jews are the murderers of Jesus Christ and therefore dangerous to Christ and Christianity as a whole. Each Jewish character in Croxton is led by their disbelief in Catholic doctrine to reenact the Passion of Christ, while the Jewish characters in York command for Jesus’ Crucifixion, causing both plays to affirm that Judaism itself holds a threat to Christianity. As Croxton and York portray the antisemitism prevalent in the Middle Ages, they simultaneously reflect stereotypes that we see in the present day. Both plays reaffirm antisemitic stereotypes that original audiences would have been familiar with, while encouraging them to maintain their line of thinking well into the future
Glass Ceiling
No full textI took this picture while visiting a friend who was studying abroad in Florence, Italy. This was in the Medici Chapel.
Submitted as part of the Spring 2025 Study Abroad Photo Contest.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/study_abroad_photos/1040/thumbnail.jp