Pain and unpleasant stimuli carry a negative hedonic valence, indicating an intrinsic aversiveness useful for avoiding harm. There are instances, however, of unpleasant stimuli carrying positive valence – such as the pleasure from spicy food, suggesting that pain and aversion can be decoupled. The Dhaka lab has discovered a small molecule Analgesic Screen 1 (AS1) which reverses the valence of a number of nociceptive and other aversive stimuli, whereby animals prefer normally aversive stimuli. Behavioral studies with zebrafish indicate that AS1 induces preference for noxious heat, painful chemical (AITC) and normally aversive dark environments. As positive valence or reward is often mediated by the neurotransmitter dopamine, we tested for the affects of dopamine antagonism on AS1-evoked behavior and found that the effects of AS1 are reversed by a D1 dopamine receptor antagonist. We currently propose that AS1 potentiates activity in the dopamine reward system in the presence of nociceptive and other aversive stimuli via D1R activation, thereby creating “pleasure from pain.” Understanding these pathways and the mechanisms underlying AS1 action, could provide a path forward for the development of novel therapeutics to treat debilitating pain disorders.

During the 19th Century, the Tigris River in the Ottoman Empire province of Iraq was an essential conduit for trade and travel between the East and the West. European, Ottoman, and Persian steamships plied the river from Baghdad to Basra and back, transporting goods and passengers. At present, there exists no detailed digital historical map of this significant waterway. Our project began with the Joseph Mathia Svoboda diaries. Joseph Svoboda, a European resident of Baghdad, worked as a purser on British Lynch Company steamships running between Baghdad and Basra. For about 50 years, he kept diaries recording his journeys, stopping places, cargos, passengers, weather, and events on the river. Our research project began by creating a schematic map based on Joseph’s accounts listing a number of stops the steamers made going up and downstream. Our next step is to identify the locations of the steamers’ stopping places on the river. We are exploring two options: the first, referencing 18th and 19th century maps of the river found in online map collections such as the David Rumsey Map Collection and the Library of Congress. The second option is using ArcGIS, a geographic information system with an extensive map database, to identify the places Svoboda mentioned. We expect to develop the map, either by manually plugging in the names in an empty, historically accurate terrain map, or by using the historical map database from ArcGIS to set up an interactive map. The finished digitalized map will be the first of its kind. It will help our project’s other research move forward. For example, the developed map will offer a clear visualization of Svoboda’s journey that could help our transcription team as they work with new diaries. It will also build a more comprehensive guide for scholars who study the history, economy, and geography of the Tigris and Ottoman Iraq in the 19th Century.

In 2016, Captain America brought comic books to the forefront of national discussion with a single phrase: “Hail Hydra.” These two words proclaimed Captain America’s allegiance to Hydra, one of Marvel Comics' most recognizable villains which has historically been used as an allegory for the Nazi Party. The moment incited a riot not only among comic book super fans, but casual onlookers as well. Many claimed that by aligning Captain America with Hydra, author Nick Spencer disregarded the character’s origin as an anti-Nazi propaganda piece and later history as a defender of American values, and gave fuel to the growing Alt-Right movement in the United States. However, this moment was not the first time that Captain America had joined the other side. In 1979, Captain America was briefly brainwashed into joining the National Force, an organization which acted as a clear allegory for the various white nationalist movements gaining power in the United States at the time. While Hydra and the National Force are comparable villains, the lenses through which the writers of both storylines present them reveal how views of white nationalism have changed in the United States. Through a comparative analysis of these two storylines, this paper examines the ways in which the Captain America comic books have reflected the shift in white nationalist movements from a largely condemned movement to a viable political force. This project provides a new lens to examine the history of white nationalism in the United States while building on the current body of scholarship arguing for the importance of comic books as a historical source.

Altruism encompasses an ethical principle that places significance on promoting the welfare of someone else, even at a cost to one’s self. In classic studies, young children and nonhuman primates have offered objects or moved items to help others. However, it is unclear whether this is evidence of altruism, because there was low self-cost. A stronger test would be to investigate infants’ willingness to give others high-value objects, such as desirable food. In the new research, we examined whether 19-month-old infants help others by transferring fresh fruit to an adult. This work tested whether infants can act altruistically and the generality of this tendency across trials. Infants (N=96) were randomly assigned to a group, either the experimental group (experimenter accidentally dropped and reached for fruit) or the control group (experimenter intentionally discarded and looked at fruit). In both groups, the fruit started in the experimenter’s hand and landed out-of-reach for the experimenter. Infants’ helpfulness was shown by whether they gave fruit to the experimenter (i.e., banana, grape, blueberry, strawberry). We hypothesized infants would be more likely to help in the experimental than the control group given that past work has shown infants can perceive the goals of others (e.g., reaching for fruit). We analyzed how often infants’ transfer high-value fruit as predicted by group, type of fruit, and test trial. We found that more infants helped in the experimental than the control group; we found that infants helped on the first trial, showing that they readily recognized the experimenter’s need. Infants’ willingness to hand over high-value food suggested that their helping behavior is an early form of altruism. Future research of infant helping behavior could examine the effects of low- versus high-value items on patterns of giving.

Secondary scholarship on life in Iraq during the period of direct rule by the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th century to World War I is minimal. A few primary historical texts have survived - these “forgotten texts” are largely individual accounts of daily life and business, which illuminate the events of a period of which little has been written. A study of such texts can prove valuable, allowing us to get to know individuals dwelling in Iraq and their lives. In this project, I explore the social networks of Joseph Mathia Svoboda, a British steamship purser living in Baghdad, through a collection of his diaries written between 1865-1908. Due to his family ties, profession, and vibrant social life, Joseph interacts with a wide variety of groups, from family, friends, religious and political leaders, to individuals of diverse backgrounds who he encounters throughout his travels; thus, his writings provide a fascinating viewpoint from which to study the Ottoman Empire. I conduct text and social network analyses of Joseph’s diaries, which involve visually mapping ties between people and analyzing the dynamics of the resulting structures. In my presentation, I will review the use of network analysis and entity detection methods in various contexts, such as literature, history, and the social sciences, and explore how these techniques can be applied to automate the extraction of persons mentioned from the diaries, and then subsequently visualize this information. In particular, I focus on Diary 47 of Joseph Svoboda’s diaries as a case study. In the future, the insights gained from this could be applied to the rest of the collection. As the diaries were written from Joseph’s young adulthood to old age, his narratives provide a unique opportunity to study societal relations in Ottoman Iraq.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed and second most deadly cancer in men. Almost all of these deaths are the result of a very progressed form called metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), which currently has no cure and is incompletely understood. Cancer-related mutations in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA transcripts have been found to contain various sequence or structural motifs that contribute to the regulation of these cancer-causing genes. These regions are extremely dynamic in their control over gene expression affecting mRNA stability and translation efficiency which have both been previously implicated in prostate cancer. However, the degree to which these mutations in the UTRs functionally contribute to prostate cancer remains poorly understood – especially in the 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR). A candidate gene list to investigate was constructed from an analysis of patient tumor sequencing data from a broad cohort of 230 localized and metastatic prostate cancer patients. I Gibson cloned wild type (WT) and mutant 3’UTRs from the candidate genes into luciferase plasmid constructs. Subsequent dual luciferase assay data revealed significant changes in protein expression between WT and mutant constructs most notably in the genes NCL and CLEC18B. Nucleolin (NCL) is a protein involved in the synthesis and maturation of ribosomes and is oncogenic in many cancers when overexpressed, while CLEC18B is largely unstudied. Given this existing functional evidence and my preliminary data, further investigation into the differential expression of NCL and the cellular mechanism through which it is achieved is warranted. My project focuses on elucidating the effects of 3’UTR somatic mutations on translational regulatory regions of the human genome, so that we may uncover new patterns in the progression of prostate cancer and subsequently elicit possible novel therapeutic targets with which to better treat these patients.