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The Effects of Altered GABAergic Signaling in Microglia on Hippocampal-cortical Network Activity and Remote Recall
Ava R. Platt, Ryan A. Wirt, Amanda M. Leisgang-Osse, Emmanuel Flores, Lauren Crew, Dylone Braganza, Jefferson W. Kinney, and James M. Hyman Ph.D.
Memory acquisition and encoding are modulated by neural network activity between the hippocampus (HPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Research has shown that neuroimmune defense cells, glia, interact with neurons in both brain regions. However, little is known about glial-neuronal interactions, and how these interactions affect memory network activity and in turn, memory recall. Memory network activity involves a host of cellular excitation and inhibition. The primary neurotransmitter involved in inhibition is γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and receptors for this neurotransmitter can also be found on microglia. To better understand glial-neuronal interactions between the HPC and PFC, we utilized a mouse model (GABABFlox) with a knockdown of GABAB receptors on microglia, to alter microglial activity. Our lab utilizes electrophysiological recordings of neuronal activity related to learning and memory in the HPC and PFC. Mice were implanted with 64-channel implants to record from single cells and local field potentials (LFPs) while completing a conditioned place preference task to measure remote recall. Results showed that GABABFlox mice had remote recall (18days) deficits but intact recent recall (1day). We also found that GABABFlox mice had changes in multiple electrophysiological signals associated with memory processing, including: decreased gamma power in the HPC, impairments in theta-gamma comodulation in the cortex, theta and delta hypersynchrony between the HPC and cortex, and fewer sharp-wave ripples in the HPC. These findings suggest that GABAergic signaling on microglia may facilitate neural network systems involved in memory formation and recall, and that alterations in microglia may impair functions necessary for memory formation.
The Potential Health Effects of Bacterial Use in Self-Healing Concrete: A Systematic Literature Review
Brandon Polimeni and Moses Karakouzian Ph.D.
In due course, structures developed from concrete create microcracks exposing it to degradation via the reinforcement steel's formation of ferric oxide. The aforementioned declines the loading capacity and lessens durability. A corrective technique used to counteract the effects above is bio-mineralization, self-healing the crevices with microorganisms' metabolic processes. Literature has explored some specific organisms used, and the research strongly supports that the existing bacteria used positively strengthen the concrete's durability. This literature analysis examines if the selected microorganisms: Sporosarcina pasteurii, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus subtilis used in some current constructional methods will harm the health of consumers or those employees that have potential contact with those elements. Until this point, those strains used in this research appear to be nonpathogenic and safe to use with appropriate biosafety standards. Urease production was of concern due to its virulence factors, but the strains revealed no pathogenic outcomes within this review. After further examination, the concern for human health focused on the biological process that generates ammonium and carbonate via the urease enzyme within these bacteria. During the procedure of self-healing concrete, there is also a concern for ammonium exposure to employees and populations that live near these production sites. Ammonia exposure can cause bronchiolar and alveolar edema, depending on the amount consumed and the duration of human exposure. Sporosarcina pasteurii, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus subtilis exhibit no apparent harm to healthy humans within the analyzed studies; more information is necessary for the deduction of all potential harms.
The Influence of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Skill Acquisition in a Complex Motor Task
Nicholas Pudar and Milan Pantovic
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the motor cortex (M1) can improve performance in relatively simple motor tasks performed with the hand and arm. Only a few tDCS studies have examined complex, multi-joint tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of (tDCS) on skill acquisition in a complex, multi-joint arm movement in healthy young adults. 22 right-handed adults were randomly assigned to a tDCS or SHAM group, performing the overhand throws to a target. After the baseline-test block, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to locate the first dorsal interosseus muscle (FDI). Motor evoked potentials (MEP) were recorded in the resting FDI before and after 5 minutes of tDCS (current: 1mA). tDCS was applied for 20 minutes to the FDI muscle while subjects performed 5 practice blocks of overhand throws, ending with a post-test block of overhand throws 5 minutes after the 20-minute stimulation ended. Motor performance was quantified as endpoint error, MEP amplitude quantified cortical excitability. Percent change in endpoint error between the baseline and post-test block for both groups was compared with an unpaired t-test and the percent change in MEP amplitude before and after 5 minutes of tDCS. The percent change in endpoint error was greater for the tDCS group but failed statistical significance (-16.9 vs. -5.2%; P =0.127), the percent change in MEP amplitude was significantly greater for the tDCS group (49.7 vs. -13.5%; P = 0.012). A single-session of tDCS enhances cortical excitability and appears to improve motor skill.
Discovering Rett Syndrome (RTS) and Understanding Its Enigmatic Development
Fiorella Ramirez-Guasp, Chanel Chan, and Sukyeong Kim
The purpose of this research project is to compose a comprehensive timeline on the rare disease Rett Syndrome (RTS) in order to better understand its enigmatic development as well as furthering the public’s understanding on this degenerative disease. RTS is a panethnic progressive neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs nearly exclusively in girls. This syndrome is characterized by normal prenatal and neonatal development, followed by an onset of neurological symptoms with a mental stagnation anywhere around 6-18 months of age that involves a rapid loss in speech and acquired motor skills. There is limited knowledge about the molecular cause of Rett Syndrome, however, we do know that this X-linked disease involves a mutation that occurs on one of three domains located in the Methylcytosine-binding protein 2 (MeCP2). This ultimately results in the dysfunction or a loss of function of its gene product. While the MECP2 mutation is the primary focus of this project, its exact function is not completely known, but it is speculated to be responsible for the mediation of transcriptional silencing and epigenetic regulation of genes. Presently, there are no curative treatments for RTS; however, treatment of individuals afflicted with this disorder are encouraged to seek palliative care. Due to limited public understanding on this rare disease, the objective of this project is to help shed light on RTS discovery, development, as well as provide an avenue to raise public awareness.
Photovoltaic Panel Inspection and Maintenance
Diego Rodriguez and Paul Oh Ph.D.
Frequent inspection of photovoltaic panels is essential for keeping them energy efficient as well as increasing the panels longevity by ensuring they have little to no issues so they can keep running for as long as possible. The current process for inspection is very time consuming since solar panel fields are very big and current inspections are done manually. A much more time efficient as well as cheaper alternative to this problem is inspection with robots. The main focus for this project is the use of a motorized vehicle with a thermal camera attached to it to be able detect hotspots and micro cracks as well as other abnormalities in the panels. A 6 degree of freedom arm with a windshield wiper attached to the end effector is used to clean the surface of the photovoltaic panels to ensure the debri causing hotspots if removed. The goal of this research is to reduce the amount of work from humans as much as possible. The advantages of robot inspection are that robots are available to reach more remote destinations and it drastically reduces labor costs and is more efficient compared to manual labor. In this research the tests were implemented at a small scale but only require minor adjustments to have direct transitions to real world application.
Telecommuting The Future Towards Better Air Quality: A Case Study of India
Harmony Ruth and Kimberly Nehls Ph.D.
This study aims to answer the question on whether telecommuting offers a plausible and desirable solution to mitigating air pollution in India’s largest cities by looking at the causes of air pollution, its change during the pandemic, and how popular a remote work option is among India’s educated class. With a burgeoning population of over 1.3 billion people and accompanying growth in their services sectors, remote work has already been on the rise within the country and there are promising projections for its growth. Current research on the improved environmental quality during the pandemic largely focuses on the shut-down of the industrial sector with little attention paid to the impact traffic congestion has on impairing air quality. This paper finds that lessening traffic congestion in India’s cities leads to better air quality but may not be the most popular among workers and has overall significance for the health and safety of India’s citizenry if policies are utilized to promote remote work.
Toward A Quantum Neural Network: Proposing the QAOA Algorithm to Replace a Feed Forward Neural Network
Erick Serrano
With a surge in popularity of machine learning as a whole, many researchers have sought optimization methods to reduce the complexity of neural networks; however, only recent attempts have been made to optimize neural networks via quantum computing methods. In this paper, we describe the training process of a feed forward neural network (FFNN) and the time complexity of the training process. We highlight the inefficiencies of the FFNN training process, particularly when implemented with gradient descent, and introduce a call to action for optimization of a FFNN. Afterward, we discuss the strides made in quantum computing to improve the time complexity of machine learning; we study recent attempts to improve the time complexity of a neural network, including through a complete quantum analog and a hybrid analog. We propose to use the QAOA protocol to create a hybrid analog to an FFNN; supported by previous implementations of QAOA, we believe there is potential for expanding the QAOA algorithm toward a neural network. Finally, we describe the process for which we hope to implement the QAOA algorithm and how we will compare it to the runtime of a FFNN.
Isolation of Salt Tolerant Bacteria and Investigation of Perchlorate Biodegradation at High Salinity Conditions
Aymen Shafique, Yasaman Saedi, and Jacimaria Batista Ph.D.
Perchlorate (ClO4-), known as a highly soluble oxidizer contaminant, has been detected in soil and groundwater throughout the United States for the last two decades. Biological reduction has been seen as a promising technology through which perchlorate reducing bacteria (PRB) occurring naturally in most environments utilize ClO4- as an electron acceptor. However, biological reduction of perchlorate is influenced by high salinity levels because the PRBs’ activity is hindered at salinities over 1%. The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of salinity (NaCl: 0-6.5%) on perchlorate biological reduction. Actual soil samples from the contaminated site containing PRBs were used and acclimated in broths with different salt concentrations and later the cultures were tested on their reduction abilities using perchlorate (150 mg/L) as an electron acceptor (450 mg/L) and acetate as an electron donor. Gram-staining results revealed that there has been consistent growth of salt tolerant bacteria observed at each salt concentration level (0-6.5%). The variety of bacteria are displayed with the diverse shapes present under the compound microscope, from Gram-positive bacilli to Gram-negative cocci. However, it is important to consider that the reduction kinetic is slow even as the perchlorate reduction has been observed at 6.5% NaCl concentration. This will be further studied as the experiment is still running to obtain more promising results regarding perchlorate reduction and salt tolerant bacteria isolation. The conclusion drawn so far is that there are salt tolerant bacteria in this soil which can degrade perchlorate at environments with high salt concentration.
Collective Risk of Construction Development on Desert Tortoise Populations
Paulina Smith
Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are threatened, extremely territorial reptiles living on a rapidly-shrinking landscape. This literature review was conducted with the goal of determining whether the desert tortoises of the Mojave Desert are experiencing compounded effects from construction development which are not reflected in mortality/fecundity calculations in the current literature. Seventeen peer-reviewed sources were identified from the last 20 years which related to roads, railroads, wind-harvesting, solar energy, and man-made barriers/flood control centers in the Mojave. Current literature reveals that researchers do not have the time nor resources to pursue long-term studies on all of the possible effects on this threatened species, largely because the desert tortoise reaches sexual maturity extraordinarily late. Likewise, because tortoises travel many miles for mating, they are likely to encounter more than one form of anthropogenic activity in their habitat. Because construction projects involve multiple disturbances to the landscape, these studies have not captured the full scope of threats these animals face. However, in spite of the “snapshot” provided by each of these studies, little has been done to implement the authors’ suggestions regarding construction development on desert landscapes. Although the authors were specific in their recommendations, these suggestions have been largely ignored by developers. In conclusion, short-term studies may not be the most effective approach for discovering the anthropogenic stressors placed on this species, and a long-term monitoring study with compounded effects taken into account would provide a more accurate projection of this species’ survival.
Determining Organic Content in Soil from the Mojave Desert using Loss-on-Ignition
Edgar Toro, Lindsay Chiquoine, and Scott Abella
Measuring the soil organic carbon (SOC) is of vital importance to soil science ecology. With the approaching challenges that rapidly changing weather patterns and temperatures bring, it is becoming more important to be able to measure the organic carbon levels in soil quickly, accurately, and cheaply. Currently, existing methods can very accurately deduce organic carbon levels but are lacking in speed and cost. Using alternate methods such as Loss-On-Ignition (LOI) can make up for lacking speed and affordability and have been shown to be very accurate under the right conditions. Ultimately, having a secondary method to quickly and easily get rather accurate results could be useful to preliminary investigations. The primary objective is to use LOI to accurately estimate the soil organic compound levels of low-elevation Mojave Desert soil. Using soils that were collected from wildfires spanning 15-20 years old, LOI procedures were tested using a factorial design including crucible size, temperature, and time. Using 5 mL crucibles, temperatures ranging from 300 to 600°C and time periods ranging from 2 to 8 h were used in different combinations to obtain the best results. The r2 values were examined for these factorial combinations to determine the most convenient and accurate combination. The results showed that 600 °C at 6 hours had the best results, with an r2 of 0.602. As these are just preliminary results, running a set with a much larger sample size must be done to ensure that the results are consistent.
Borna Vaezi and Djeto Assane Ph.D.
To submit a research paper that shows how a well-functioning public-option healthcare plan can increase economic output, raise GDP, lower healthcare expenses, and increase the life expectancy of the average American. A thorough review will be done looking at economic & social factors that a functioning, non-price gouging, and non-profit health insurance plan that is open to all American citizens can have deep positive effects on total productivity, wages, capital expenditures on meaningful investments by both firms & people, as well as juxtaposing the current system with one that is possible to achieve.
Toward the Use of Drones for Photovoltaic Panel Inspection
Fausto Vega
The monitoring of photovoltaic panels is an essential task to maintain the efficiency of the power plant. The conventional form of inspection consists of manual inspection with a thermal camera which takes several days as fields contain thousands of panels. Solar panel installation is costly, and the installation does not guarantee maximum power generation without proper maintenance and handling. A drone with a thermal camera payload was developed to reduce labor costs as well as increase efficiency of the inspection as it can survey the field with a large field of view. Several image processing methods were used to process the incoming thermal camera feed to effectively detect hotspots. The purpose of this research is to investigate an alternative inspection method to speed up the process. A proof-of-concept field was generated with several pieces of wood and heat pads in certain sections which represent hotspots in the panels. The drone effectively followed a pre-planned trajectory to inspect the sections in the field and notify the user if a hotspot was detected. Once this hotspot is detected, the crew can provide the necessary maintenance to allow the panel to function efficiently. The drone was tested in a controlled environment, therefore it is expected for occlusions and detection errors to happen in a field with actual panels, yet that is planned to be addressed in future work.
A Qualitative Review on Mammography Interventions among Asian American Women
Sayeda Tazim Zaidi, Raisa Kabir, and Chia-Liang Dai
Breast cancer (BC) is a leading type of malignancy and the second most common cause of cancer-related death among women around the world. The occurrence of BC has been increasing in Asian American (AA) women. Early detection through mammography is an effective means to reduce mortality associated with BC. However, there is a paucity of data and interventions regarding mammography promotion interventions among AA women. The purpose of this study was to evaluate current interventions for promoting mammography among AA women and suggest recommendations for designing successful interventions. A review for peer-reviewed journal articles in PubMed Central, MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, and Scopus was conducted over the past 15 years for mammography interventions among AA women. A total of eight interventions met the inclusion criteria. Of these, one used the randomized controlled trial (RCT), one used quasi-experimental design, four used pretest-posttest designs, one used single-group time series design, and one used cross-sectional survey. Among the intervention approaches were community workshops, designing religiously tailored interventions, patient navigator care management model, medical interpretation services for limited English proficiency patients, delivery of grocery store-based education, and utilization of health belief model/health promotion model. A paucity of interventions, utilization of small sample sizes, just one randomized controlled trial, and just one intervention based on behavioral theory were some of the limitations of the interventions. Future interventions must be culturally tailored to specific subgroups of AA, be behavioral theory-based and utilize robust randomized controlled trials.
Identifying Determinants of Breast Cancer Screening Through Mammography Among Asian American Women
Sayeda Tazim Zaidi, Raisa Kabir, and Chia-Liang Dai
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women around the world. In the US, approximately 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer over the course of their lifetime. There is a growing incidence of breast cancer among Asian American (AA) women. Breast cancer screening by mammography is the most effective early detection method to reduce mortality but AA women have the lowest utilization rates. This study aims to identify the determinants affecting mammography among AA women. A literature search in PubMed Central, MEDLINE, and CINAHL was undertaken to include all peer-reviewed studies published within the past 20 years about determinants affecting mammography in AA women. A total of 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, six used secondary data, nine used cross-sectional surveys, and one used a qualitative design. Only three studies used behavioral theories (health belief model and transtheoretical model). Six studies reported the rates of obtaining mammography in AA which ranged from 53% to 82%. The primary positive determinants were U.S. citizenship, education, knowledge of guidelines, health insurance, having a primary care provider and their recommendation, years of residency in the U.S., and knowing someone with a history of breast cancer and/or undergone mammography. The negative factors were less acculturation, perceived religious discrimination, logistical barriers, and religious barriers including impingement on modesty. There were variations among determinants based on national origin. There is a need for utilizing behavioral theories in designing interventions to promote mammography among different subgroups of AA women.
A Comparison of Eating Behaviors
Zybrell Zayas, Alexis Parsha, Mialene Liwanag, and Kimberly Nehls Ph.D.
How do eating behaviors differ in Japan, in comparison to the United States? How is it deemed healthier? Eating behaviors and diet has become an important factor due to the increasing statistics of obesity in America. Japan, known for its unique style of eating, and has shown the cultural basis of its standpoint on food, which has diverted its culture away from the adverse health effects that the U.S is known for. With the focus on the comparison of the U.S larger portion size to traditional Japanese meal size, there is an overall large effect on health and wellness. The Japanese traditional diet of washoku emphasizes the use of seasonal ingredients. It characterizes the importance of the food dishes being in harmony with nature and the nutritional needs of the human body. The American diet, is usually meat, eggs, and dairy with a high emphasis on sugar consumption. Washoku emphasizes the elements of Cultural differences, and how tradition is emphasized in Japanese meals. Our research will use the following datasets: Self-assessment of health of diet among U.S. shoppers in 2015, Distribution of diets followed by consumers in the United States in 2018 in 2019, Leading food-related habits in Japan as of 2020, Most popular food trends in Japan as of November 2020 and The Role of the Japanese Traditional Diet in Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Patterns around the World. These datasets will guide through examining primary differences on the basis of nutrition, portion size, and cultural differences.
