16812 research outputs found
Sort by
Internship With the Scarring Alopecia Foundation
No full textI interned with the Scarring Alopecia Foundation, the only non-profit organization working for resources for those living with scarring alopecia. My role was to create an end of year campaign to raise money, create content for all social media platforms, and create a 2024 content calendar
Immunohistochemistry Staining for DCX and GFAP in Axolotl Spinal Cord Reveals Migration Pattern of New Neurons and Radial Glial Cells in Regenerating Tissue
No full textAmbystoma mexicanum, commonly known as the Axolotl, possesses the unique ability to regenerate extremities and heal wounds at a rapid rate. Axolotls are considered paedomorphic salamanders, maintaining the juvenile features of Ambystoma tigrinum, their tiger salamander counterpart, into their adulthood. The axolotl nervous system varies from mammalian nervous systems due to their lack of astrocytes. Astrocytes are a type of glial cell within the central nervous system of mammals that act as the main injury reactive glial cells, as they produce neural scars at injury sites through a process called astrogliosis, preventing regeneration. Without astrocytes, neural scarring within axolotls does not take place, and ependymal reorganization can occur, allowing for nearly perfect regeneration of tissue. Within the processes of regenerating neurons and radial glial cells, Doublecortin (DCX) and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) respectively are hypothesized to aid in neural migration. By utilizing immunohistochemistry staining that targets DCX and GFAP within amputated axolotl tail spinal cords, I have labeled the migration of new neurons and division of radial glial cells. New neurons were found travelling out radially from the center of the spinal cord conjunction with RGC processes. I have found that they are primarily localized at the ventral portion of the ependymal layer within the spinal cord. This suggests that the developing ependymal tube secretes signaling molecules that direct the development of the cartilage rod formed by blastemal cells nearby
Associations Between ADHD Tendencies, Emotional Valence, and Physical Functioning in College Students
No full textADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by symptoms of inattention, disorganization, or hyperactivity-impulsivity according to the DSM V diagnostic code. Conceptualizing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires consideration of age and gender through comparison of emotional regulation to a standard population. For this reason, there is an emerging interest in ADHD research among college student response to academic, athletic, environmental, and psycho-social pressures of college life throughout the COVID pandemic. This research study explored associations between quality of life, self-reported anxiety using the GAD-7, self-reported ADHD tendencies using the ASRSv1.1, and results from the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). We assessed subject heart rate throughout the TOVA to determine associations in timing of physiological anxiety, which may represent underlying masking behavior. Participation was limited to Ursinus students between the ages of 18-23. We found a marginally significant difference of TOVA scores between gender, χ(1) = 5.638, p = .060. That is, more women had TOVA scores not within normal limits that otherwise indicated ADHD tendencies. We found repeated correlation of gender, self-reported anxiety, TOVA scores, and ADHD tendencies with a self-reported decrease in appetite. Specifically, there was a marginally significant difference of behavioral diet changes (decreased appetite) when experience times of stress among women compared to men, χ(1) = 4.970, p = .083. Additionally, participants who self-reported increased anxiety, scored not within normal limits on the TOVA, or who had a positive screening for ADHD tendencies, also reported a statistically significant decrease in appetite, χ(1) = 14.154, p = .028; χ(1) = 15.251, p = .004; χ(1) = 20.562, p = .002, respectively. We found a statistically significant increase in heart rate during the TOVA from 65bpm ± 10bpm to 94bpm ± 14bpm (p \u3c 0.001); an increase of 29bpm. Our results also indicate that TOVA Q2 heart rate statistically significantly predicts Q2 response time variability, F(1, 21) = 5.347, p = .031. The findings of this study will help provide insight into autonomic nervous system activity compared to college student task concentration and emotional valence
Digital Spark Presentation: Silverback Investment Partners
No full textIn this presentation, Benjamin Weir, Ursinus College Class of 2025, discusses his summer experience working with Silverback Investment Partners and their revitalization project for Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Digital Spark Presentation: Verge Cowork, A Place to Thrive
No full textIn this presentation, Grace Lynch, Ursinus College Class of 2025, discusses her summer experience working with Verge Cowork, a collaborative and community-centric coworking space located in Trappe and Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Protein Interactions between PAM-1, CDC-25.1, and CDK-1 in C. elegans
No full textCaenorhabditis elegans are transparent nematodes used as model organisms for genetics research as their simple organ systems allow us to make and observe the effect of genetic mutations within the reproductive system to better understand fertility. The puromycin sensitive aminopeptidase PAM-1 is needed to regulate oocyte maturation and oocyte to embryo transition in C. elegans. In wildtype C. elegans a maturation promoting factor (MPF) regulates oocyte maturation. MPF is activated by CDC-25.1, a phosphatase, and is made inactive by WEE-1.3, a kinase. When MPF is active the oocyte matures to be fertilized, and when MPF is inactive oocytes are unable to mature. When wee-1.3 expression is knocked down in wildtype C. elegans, MPF is overactive, and oocyte maturation proceeds too quickly. However, when wee-1.3 expression is knocked down in pam-1 mutants, oocyte maturation is promoted normally, indicating that pam-1 mutations partially protect C. elegans from defects in oocyte maturation. WEE-1.3 is one of many proteins involved in maturation and oocyte to embryo transition. My research looks to address if CDC-25.1 and CDK-1 proteins interact with pam-1 mutants similarly to WEE-1.3, protecting C. elegans from defects in maturation and oocyte to embryo transition. To do so, I will use DIC and confocal microscopy to observe oocyte maturation rates of wildtype and pam-1 mutant C. elegans when the expression of these proteins is knocked down. If interactions are present this would give us a better understanding of the specific role each protein plays in the maturation and development of C. elegans
Literature’s Representation of Mental Illness in Women: Recognition, Power, and Agency in a Restrictive Society
No full textThis paper investigates how nineteenth-century literature has been a site of resistance and representation regarding mental illness in women. The novels that are examined and analyzed are Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Both novels were published in the late 1800s and follow the life experiences of a female main character who struggles with mental anguish, displaying symptoms that can be read as symptoms of mental illness. Both novels seek to give insight into the internal lives of women. The authors develop extremely complex heroines who are faced with a multitude of challenges when it comes to achieving fulfillment and happiness. Adding to the deterioration of these characters’ mental health, both women find themselves in restrictive environments. Between social structures, societal expectations, and gender-based discriminatory treatment from men, the main characters experience a feeling of being trapped. Their mental, emotional, and physical struggles are dismissed by other characters and by society. This paper argues that while people have personal experiences of mental illness, the context for women exacerbates the mental struggles for the heroines in these novels, revealing that Tolstoy and Chopin’s commentary is then about how nineteenth-century societies contribute to the damaging of mental health for women
Revelation and Refusal: Movement and Stasis in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (1991 and 2013)
No full textThis project examines how the embodied and affective movement of characters in Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America (1991 and 2013) signifies these characters’ status as either catalysts for progress or agents of stagnation in relation to the moral panic surrounding sex, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. I carry out a queer cultural analysis of Kushner’s original and revised script of Angels in America alongside recordings of the play as it was staged at the Walter Kerr Theatre of New York in1994 and the National Theatre of London in 2017.
I use “Threshold of Revelation”—the play’s phrase for describing the experiential space in which characters come to know things about one another—as one facet of the trifocal conceptual lens through which I investigate movement and statis throughout Angels. More specifically, Threshold of Revelation expands the primary definition of “movement” as a physical act into a second and pivotal meaning as a figurative shift into enlightenment. To consider characters’ relation to this Threshold of Revelation more fully, my queer cultural analysis puts forward two additional conceptual lenses, namely what I call a Threshold of Refusal and a Threshold of Stasis. Through these lenses, I closely, carefully, and critically analyze the embodied movement of characters as dictated by stage directions and seen in on-stage recordings of the play as well as interpret how dialogue and actor-specific voice inflections signify emotional shifts within the aforesaid ‘thresholds.’ Ultimately, I explore how these thresholds and movements define characters’ relation to homophobic ideology and the subsequent commentary these relations make about the lives of real individuals who hold similar beliefs