Sexual harassment engenders post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in targets, and disproportionally affects women (vs. men) in the United States. Critically, many harassment cases in the U.S go underreported. For instance, only 25% of women formally report instances of harassment to their employer and less than 20% of women describe sexually harassing behavior at work as “sexual harassment.” The current project explores whether women’s self-perceptions of gender-prototypicality impacts the reporting of sexual harassment. Specifically, it explores whether the extent to which a woman views herself as prototypically feminine promotes the reporting of harassment after it occurs. To begin to explore this hypothesis, we first test whether women can be primed to feel prototypically feminine (vs. masculine; Study 1). Second, we describe our experimental methodology, and predicted results, for testing whether feelings of sexual harassment can be engendered in women in the laboratory. Implications for the reporting and reduction of sexual harassment are discussed, along with theoretical and empirical extensions related women’s individual differences.

The lack of intimacy has long been known to contribute significantly to our mental health and psychosocial adjustment. Empirical research has substantiated strong connections between the fear of intimacy and other mental health problems such as depression. One could expect that the fear of intimacy poses as an obstacle to forming intimate relationships. The lack of such intimate relationships causes the individual to feel lonely and precedes a negative cognition as seen in depressed patients. Many other psychotherapy patients, too, experience intimacy deficits. Not much research has delineated the mechanisms underlying fear of intimacy. Specifically, when we say that we fear intimacy, what do we really mean? In this exploratory research, we are investigating how dyads with different levels of intimacy can possibly interact with each other to derive a certain level of connectedness within the relationship. For example, it is possible that both individuals with high fear of intimacy can still connect well with each other and form a close relationship. What then, in this scenario, is causing the relationship to work? For individuals with different levels of fear of intimacy (i.e., one high, one low), what should we expect to see in terms of connectedness within the dyadic relationship? In this research, we investigate these issues in a sample of 35 dyads (people in ongoing relationships, including friendships, family, and romantic partners) who were recruited for a larger intervention study to improve relationships. We attempt to integrate our findings with what is known from social psychology about relational functioning to explain the interaction of different levels of fear of intimacy within the dyadic relationship. This research advocates the importance of early screening of individuals' fear of intimacy and raising awareness for those at risk of difficult dyadic relationships.

Nondestructive 3D pathology is poised to play a transformative role in biomedical research and precision medicine in the decades to come, helping to usher pathology into a digital 3D era. Recent improvements in high-throughput volumetric microscopy, including light-sheet microscopy, have made it feasible for large pre-clinical and clinical specimens to be imaged in toto within reasonable time frames [Glaser, et al., Nature BME, 2017; Glaser, et al., Nature Communications, 2019]. However, these imaging methods depend upon the quality and reproducibility with which fluorescent labeling and optical clearing of thick tissue specimens is performed. In particular, while high-quality volumetric datasets can be acquired with pain-staking optimization and iteration of manual tissue-preparation protocols, high-throughput imaging assays demand that these methods be highly consistent and require minimal labor. We developed a protocol for automated micro-controller-based labeling and clearing of clinical specimens in order to generate volumetric imaging datasets that consistently mimic the appearance of “gold-standard” H&E histology. Archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks are first de-paraffinized with a combination of heat and xylene removal of paraffin wax. Next, specimens are put in an acidic, ethanol and water solution so that an aqueous nuclear and eosin labeling step can be achieved. This otherwise labor-intensive, two-day procedure is a critical step for automation since manual processing can lead to variabilities that will affect downstream labeling and clearing performance. Finally, specimens are cleared with a non-toxic clearing agent for refractive index-matching and 3D microscopy. By using automated micro-controller-based buffer exchange hardware, we demonstrate the reliability of these low-cost and convenient methods for imaging a diverse range of tissues. These methods will facilitate pre-clinical and clinical studies with large numbers of tissue specimens, such as those needed to validate the benefits of 3D pathology for clinical decision support.

Globally, wetlands provide important ecosystem services and are critical to supporting wildlife and biodiversity. Anthropogenic disturbances, such as road construction, have a negative impact on wetland health and have dramatically reduced their number worldwide. In response to the damage caused by road construction, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) mitigates the consequent reduction of functions and the loss of wetlands through restoration efforts, including the monitoring and eradication of invasive vegetation (e.g. reed canary grass). WSDOT currently maps and monitors invasive species on the ground, which is challenging as they are hard to access due to inundation and dense vegetation. Compared to field survey methods, drones have the potential to quickly and safely survey large areas, reducing human effort and cost. By focusing on a single mitigation wetland site, we investigate the use of drones as an effective tool to accurately survey reed canary grass. We use object-based image analysis (OBIA) to create maps of reed canary grass cover and test the accuracy of the map using visual interpretation and confusion matrices. Results will inform about the difference in map accuracy between three drone sensors, an add-on 5-band (red, green, blue, red-edge, near-infrared (NIR)) camera and two built-in 3-band (reed, green, blue) cameras. We discuss opportunities and limitations of using drones as a tool to map invasive species. Additionally, we highlight the considerations that ecologists and natural resource managers must take into account when using drones for wetland monitoring. In conclusion, we identify future areas of research that include testing the repeatability of these methods at additional wetlands and increasing the suitability, number, and timing of the field data in support of this work.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) refers to brain damage resulting from an external force resulting in temporary or permanent impairment of cognitive, physical, and psychosocial functions. Following TBI, widespread neuronal loss occurs, and ischemic and inflammatory processes can greatly increase the extent of neural injury beyond the initial mechanical injury. Microglia are specialized immune cells in the brain that constantly surveil the extracellular environment and respond rapidly to damage by proliferating, phagocytosing debris, and releasing cytokines and chemokines that orchestrate recruitment and regulation of peripheral immune cells to the injured brain post-TBI. With the emergence of chemogenetics, a method by which engineered proteins interact with previously unrecognized chemical activators, inhibitory control can be exerted over microglia activation in a highly specific fashion allowing for precise targeting of brain regions and fewer off-target effects relative to traditional pharmacological approaches. The Weinstein lab aims to examine the effects of targeted inhibition of microglia activation using G-protein coupled receptors called Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs). Normally, following traumatic brain injury, the CD68 promoter region is upregulated, resulting in increased microglia expression. However, the inserted HM4Di DREADD gene utilizes this promoter to express the DREADD receptor, and the downstream effects result in neural inflammatory response inhibition. We hypothesize that microglial inhibition will reduce proliferation and local cytokine levels after TBI, thus modulating the inflammatory microenvironment, especially when inhibition is initiated early after TBI. To determine efficacy of DREADDs, we quantify microglia number and proliferation using immunohistochemistry and stereology. We use computer software to capture multi-channel fluorescent images and montages for use in cell counting following stereological methods for random, unbiased sampling of cortical tissue across the TBI epicenter and penumbra. We anticipate that regions expressing activated DREADDs, which should inhibit microglial activation, will have reduced microglia post-TBI relative to controls.