Recent political administrations have focused on issues surrounding immigration in the U.S., affecting the ways that immigrant communities are seen and treated. This project recognizes that the rhetoric used by political actors influences and perpetuates views about immigration, and asks the question of how rhetoric around immigration in the 21st Century has affected the identities and experiences of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Drawing upon interviews and secondary research sources, including print and social media, we construct an intertextual and diverse series of podcast episodes, which feature candid discussions with members of the immigrant community. These interviews allow us to gain a more personalized understanding of how public rhetoric, as perpetuated by political administrations and the media, have impacted and shaped the lives and identities of real individuals, families, and communities. Through this podcast, we hope to inspire conversation around the intersection between rhetoric, politics, and immigration, while providing more insight into and compassion for individual, real-world experiences of the immigrant community.

Water is universally critical for life on earth, and snowmelt plays an essential role in the hydrologic cycle, contributing up to 75% of water supply in much of the western United States. As a result, estimating the timing and magnitude of snowmelt is an integral water resources challenge; snow surface temperature observations are key to this issue. It is well established that snow melts at 0°C, so frequent snow temperature measurements supply crucial information for evaluating snowmelt. However, few ground observations of snow surface temperature are available, and those that are only represent a small area. By measuring infrared radiation, satellite thermal imaging can remotely determine surface temperature over large areas and time scales where ground observations are sparse or nonexistent. However, this imagery is limited by its coarse spatial resolution, which results in a blurring of temperatures across study regions. This challenge is especially prevalent for mixed pixels, or pixels with varied land surfaces such as a mix of snow and vegetation or changing topography. Thus, this project investigates how well satellite imaging represents snow surface temperature. Airborne thermal imagery were acquired by the UW Applied Physics Laboratory over Yosemite National Park, California, coincident with ASTER satellite imagery on 21 April 2017. I apply methods including data analysis and zonal statistics over the study area in order to compare finer resolution airborne imaging to coarser resolution satellite imagery. Furthermore, I calculate characteristics of land variation to evaluate where satellite imagery can be scaled for more accurate results. This project works towards the implementation of satellite thermal infrared for use in snow models, creating new datasets for hydrologists to more effectively plan our water resources.

Cancerous cells have a modified metabolism that supports their demands for increased proliferation. One of the essential molecules in cancer cell metabolism and proliferation is the amino acid aspartate. Aspartate is not only incorporated into proteins, but is also a substrate for nucleotides and other amino acids, including asparagine. Aspartate availability can constrain tumor growth rate, and the consumption of aspartate to generate downstream products can alter aspartate levels. One gene that draws from the aspartate pool is asparagine synthetase (ASNS). ASNS converts aspartate into asparagine, which is used in the production of proteins, but does not increase cell proliferation. Thus we hypothesized that ASNS expression and activity can affect aspartate levels. With this, we aimed to determine if ASNS expression could alter aspartate availability and change sensitivity to aspartate suppressing therapies. Since cancer cells express ASNS to varying degrees, my project sought to determine if ASNS expression could be used to identify those cancers that are most amenable to aspartate suppression therapies. To test this I generated cell lines that express ASNS in different ways and treated them with multiple electron transport chain inhibitors. Preliminary results suggest that cells that express ASNS to a higher degree are more susceptible to mitochondrial inhibitors. More broadly, this research sought to better understand the conditions that determine aspartate levels, and how to exploit those conditions to inhibit tumor growth in association with asparagine synthetase.

Leigh syndrome (LS) is a progressive neurological disorder which often manifests within the first year of life and is characterized by the gradual loss of mental and movement abilities accompanied by epilepsy. LS has been associated with loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in genes that encode for proteins present in complex 1 of the electron transport chain. LOF mutations in one such gene, NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) iron sulfur protein 4 (Ndufs4), are strongly associated with LS. Mice carrying a deletion of this gene exhibit symptoms similar to those found in humans, creating a relevant mouse model of LS. In this study, we investigated the effects of an Ndufs4 knockout on the neuronal excitability of both inhibitory and excitatory neurons located in different regions of the brain in LS mouse models. Two LS mouse models were generated by knocking out Ndufs4 in inhibitory or excitatory neurons utilizing LoxP/Cre technology. Mice carrying floxed alleles of Ndufs4 were crossed with VglutCre or GadCre driver mice. The progeny with excitatory or inhibitory neuron-specific Ndufs4 knockout and their control littermates obtained were perfused with phosphate buffered saline (PBS), then fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA). Brains from these mice were sliced and stained with c-Fos immunocytochemistry, then imaged to quantify neuronal activity. We hypothesize that neuronal excitability in both inhibitory and excitatory neurons will decrease after the Ndufs4 knockout, as mitochondrial defects would reduce the activity of both subsets of neurons. Findings from this study will potentially help understand the mechanisms for development of seizures in LS.

Mitosis produces two genetically identical daughter cells, each inheriting their own nucleus and a full set of replicated chromosomes from the parent cell. Inaccurate chromosome segregation can result in severe consequences like cancer and developmental defects. Microtubules are dynamic cytoskeletal components that provide the forces necessary to segregate chromosomes into their respective daughter cells during mitosis. The kinetochore is an assembly of proteins and protein complexes located on the centromere that binds to microtubule ends to attach chromosomes to the force-generating microtubules. The accurate segregation of chromosomes relies on the ability of the kinetochore to strongly bind chromosomes to microtubule ends. Ndc80 complex is an outer kinetochore component that binds microtubule ends and is required for proper chromosome segregation. Emerging cellular data suggests that multiple Ndc80 complexes interact with one microtubule end to facilitate chromosome separation. In vivo data suggests multiple Ndc80 complexes are arranged around microtubules. To closely model the native kinetochore-microtubule interface, we have begun to assemble a structured particle of multiple Ndc80 complexes in vitro using designed proteins that form oligomers. The particles have different geometries and stoichiometries. A method to couple Ndc80 complex to the designed protein was developed. We then tested the coupling efficiency under different temperatures and concentrations to optimize the reaction and ensure complete particle assembly. We found that the reaction goes nearly to completion with a 3:1 ratio of Ndc80 complex to designed protein at room temperature with a reaction time of thirty minutes. We will now measure the stoichiometries of the particles, which are designed to have four, five, or six Ndc80 complexes. Successful formation of these organized particles will allow us to measure the effect of geometry and stoichiometry on the ability of the Ndc80 complex to make strong attachments to microtubules.

The ability to actively reflect on one's own mental processes, or metacognition, plays a significant role in learning and executing complex tasks by interacting with different learning processes. This study examined the influence of metacognition on declarative and reinforcement learning (RL) mechanisms. I collected data from 221 undergraduates (139 female; age from 18 - 22, mean = 19.0) using a within-subjects metacognitive manipulation half way through the stimulus-response (S-R) learning task created by Collins (2018). The metacognitive manipulation aims to activate monitoring by drawing participants' attention to their own learning strategies and task performance. The task consists of learning blocks of differing lengths; the long blocks rely more on RL, while the short blocks can be completed with declarative or working memory processes. Contributions of declarative and RL mechanisms are also assessed through an incidental post-test given after an intervening task. If metacognition differentially affects declarative and RL, we expect a three-way interaction between the task phase (learning/post-test), block type (long/short) and metacognition (before/during). Results showed significant main effects of task phase (F(1,220) = 153.83, p = 6.32e-34), block length (F(1,220) = 527.29, p = 2.79e-102) and metacognition (F(1,220) = 18.00, p = 2.32e-05), with better performance during the learning phase, short blocks, and metacognitive manipulation. A significant phase by metacognition interaction (F(1,220) = 8.21, p = 0.0042) suggested that metacognitive monitoring improved test performance without interfering with learning performance. Future experiments will examine the possible mechanisms by which metacognitive monitoring facilitated long term memory retrieval.

Statistical learning—predictions based on pattern recognition from varied inputs—is critical in language development. People reference previous grammar encounters in their native language to recognize language patterns, and a strong understanding of statistical learning in language could help create interventions that enhance language development and pattern recognition. However, most research studies on statistical language learning have focused on a select group—monolinguals—ignoring the bilingual community that represent 43% of the world’s population. As such, I review current literature on the unique language learning processes of bilinguals and ask the following research questions: Does bilingualism affect language learning speed, and if so, does it increase or decrease it? When subjects first acquired their second language, what key factors (such as age, proficiency, and whether their second language can be considered another native language) are present? Are there advantages or disadvantages associated with bilingualism in regard to statistical learning and language and how does this compare in relation to monolingualism? To answer these questions, I examined 10 articles that focus on languages across numerous learned languages. A preliminary review of the literature shows that bilinguals have different processes of statistical learning in language development compared to that of their monolingual counterparts. They also indicate that age at which a language is acquired further affects these learning processes. Additionally, results could reveal advantages to bilingualism that strengthen these language learning processes. This literature review can inform future research and studies of the effects of more than one language on statistical learning in language development and point to the need for additional research on not only bilinguals, but also trilinguals, etc.

Leigh Syndrome (LS) is the most common pediatric mitochondrial disease, and it is associated with loss-of function mutations in genes that encode for proteins in Complex I of the electron transport chain. Mutations in a gene called NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) iron sulfur protein 4 (NDUFS4) is linked with LS which results in many neurological symptoms and neurodegenerative biomarkers in afflicted patients. Prior studies have discovered that many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by disturbances in circadian function, which can impact disease symptoms and worsen quality of life. However, it remains unknown if disruptions of circadian function are a characteristic phenotype of all mitochondrial diseases and Leigh Syndrome in particular. In this study, we investigated the integrity of the circadian rhythm in conditional knockout (KO)-models of LS. KO-models carried the mutation in either excitatory (glutamatergic) or inhibitory (GABAergic) neurons. We generated mice with Ndufs4 KO restricted to glutamatergic or GABAergic neurons using LoxP Cre technology. To examine circadian rhythm patterns, we placed each mouse in an individual cage with a running wheel and infrared (IR) sensor. Mice were maintained on a 12:12 hour light-dark schedule where the light period began at 7:00 AM. Mouse wheel activity and home cage locomotor activity were recorded and subsequently analyzed offline using ClockLab Analysis. Our initial results showed that Ndufs4 KO in excitatory neurons leads to severe disruption of circadian rhythms in which locomotive activity was not synchronized with a light-dark cycle, whereas Ndufs4 KO in inhibitory neurons had no detectable effect on circadian rhythm. These results reveal that disruptions in circadian function are present in Ndufs4-related LS, particularly due to excitatory neurons. A better understanding of circadian rhythm disruptions in LS can lead to further research on a molecular level to discover underlying characteristics of LS and become an identifier for the progression of LS.

The diet of the common raven is generally known, but no study has yet looked at the changes in foraging habits over the course of a year. We set out to answer this question to get a better understanding of raven's seasonal reliance on anthropogenic resources. In addition to overall foraging trends, we also studied how individual identity as well as age, sex, and territorial status affected foraging locations. To monitor foraging, we trapped and attached GSM tags to ravens within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These tags allowed us to gather location data from the birds as often as every 30 minutes throughout the day across a full year. I identified foraging points as high-density groupings where at least one bird spent one consecutive hour during the day. I determined the land use/cover associated with each point by overlaying them on a satellite image provided by Google Earth. We found a significant shift in the use of anthropogenic and natural resources across seasons. The percentage of foraging points at anthropogenic resources decreases from 88.3% to 21.9% between fall/winter and spring/summer with the most used resource being gutpiles generated from hunting (22.5% in fall/winter). This information, as well as the results from our continued data gathering, will provide wildlife managers with the information required to most efficiently limit large raven populations and mitigate their effects as predators on sensitive species. Currently, ravens are often controlled through lethal methods. Our study informs managers on important food sources that could be managed to reduce the population size instead of directly removing ravens.

Communal roosting, during which two or more individuals of a species gather for the night, is exhibited by a wide range of taxa, including birds. There are both costs and benefits to communal roosting, making it an important behavior to study when investigating the natural history of a species. Many birds in the family Corvidae form communal roosts, including the common raven (Corvus corax). While many short-term, localized studies of raven roosts have been completed, this study is one of the first to use new generation GSM tracking devices, which utilize cell networks to upload location data, to intensively study raven roosts across a large spatio-temporal scale. Using this technology, I am able to identify individual ravens’ roosts by tracking daily movements to and from sleeping sites during winter months. GPS datapoints, time of sunset/sunrise, satellite imagery, and opportunistic observations are used to determine the location of roosts each day. This study of ravens within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem aims to answer questions about whether there are demographic differences in roost site fidelity and roost substrate use. I found both territorial and vagrant ravens use a wide variety of roost locations and roost substrate types, including trees, cliffs, buildings, and powerline towers. Native raven populations are dramatically increasing across the western United States, causing human-wildlife conflict and negatively impacting sensitive wildlife species. Further investigation of raven spatial distributions in this ongoing study will add to our knowledge of raven natural history and aid wildlife managers in making effective conservation decisions.

It is known that plant-pollinator relationships are central to the proper functioning of agricultural and ecological systems. Of the many navigation pathways pollinators use, floral scent signaling for insects is the most complex yet also the most at-risk from atmospheric human activity. Oenothera pallida, a primrose, interacts with the hawkmoth pollinators Hyles lineata and Manduca sexta, via this scent pathway. Because of their reactivity with floral scent, human-released ozone and NO2 (NOx) are the main perpetrators of scent degradation. To understand the impact of scent degradation on moth responses, I recorded changes of antennal and behavioral responses of these moths to unaltered versus degraded scent, expecting a poorer response to the degraded scent. Moth antennae act as the site of odor reception, bearing sensory hairs that detect odors, allowing the moths to navigate to scent sources. I conducted electroantennographic experiments (EAG) to record the electric signal from the insect antennae in response to each scent blend, with the degraded scent representing the impact of NOx interactions. Following the EAG, I then conducted wind tunnel behavioral experiments to investigate the impact of odor degradation on behavior, and to understand the relationship between antennal and behavioral responses in these moths. I expect that the EAG experiments will have a lower antennal response to NOx degraded scents in comparison to the normal, unaltered scent blend. Likewise, the moths might have reduced behavioral responsiveness to the degraded scent, linking the chemical biology of the scent interaction to the feeding and pollination behavior. This work has broader implications regarding the importance of plant-pollinator relationships, especially when considering environmental and agricultural health as well as the issue of food security in our changing climate.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer with a recurrence risk of ~40%; however, prognosis for low-risk, stage I disease is excellent with primary surgical management. The role of post-operative radiation therapy (PORT) is controversial as it can cause significant and acute long-term side effects. Here, we assess the efficacy of PORT on local recurrence (LR) rates in patients with pathological stage I MCC with primary tumors on the head/neck (HN) vs. non-head and neck (Non-HN) sites. One hundred forty-seven MCC patients treated from 2006-2020 were identified from an IRB-approved prospective registry who had ‘low-risk’ disease: pathological T1 primary tumor resected with negative margins, negative pathologic node status, and no immunosuppression. LR was defined as tumor recurrence within 2 cm of the primary surgical bed. I led compilation of the cohort, and contributed to discussion of results, and development of the figures and manuscript. Seventy-nine patients received PORT (30 HN, 49 Non-HN), and 68 patients were treated with surgery alone (30 HN, 38 Non-HN). Addition of PORT was associated with a decreased risk of LR across the entire cohort (5-year rate: 9.5% vs. 0%, p=0.004), with 6 LRs in the surgery alone group. The addition of PORT significantly reduced LR rates among HN patients (21% vs. 0%, p=0.034). Conversely, no LRs were observed in Non-HN patients. No significant MCC-specific survival differences were observed. For low-risk MCC of the extremities and trunk, excellent outcomes were achieved with surgery alone. However, HN MCC was a risk factor for LR that was significantly reduced with PORT. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of primary tumor site location for prognosis and treatment of MCC to determine patients that would benefit from PORT and those that can be spared the toxic side effects of radiotherapy.

Network goodness of fit (GOF), which deals with determining if an observed network could have been drawn from a particular graph model, is a common method to identify network structures and a prerequisite of further network analysis. In this talk, we will present a method that constructs a test statistics using advances in Random Matrix Theory, which traces the limiting behavior of the leading eigenvalue of the observed graph's adjacency matrix to perform network GOF. We show that under many network models - such as the Degree Corrected Stochastic Block model (DCSBM), the Beta model, and the Aggregated Relational Data (ARD) - our method performs well in identifying the correct model with high precision and low computation time. We further extend our method to the popular Latent Space model, and develop an algorithm that fast-and-accurately predicts the underlying dimension of the true model. With precision grows with network sizes, our algorithm enables better estimations for large-scale networks with minimal computational cost.

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) is a sexually transmitted pathogen that is estimated to infect around 23 million people per year and there are not any approved vaccines that are therapeutic (that act in infected subjects) or preventative (that would prevent an infection). Most vaccines that we use today rely on injecting antigens subcutaneously or intramuscularly in order to elicit an adaptive immune response. However, with mucosal pathogens, mucosal immunity might be preferential because having local immunity in the site of the first pathogen exposure has the best chance at preventing the spread of infection beyond the pathogen portal of entry. My hypothesis is that a mucosal immunization would prime memory cells to reside in vaginal tissues and provide better protection for HSV-2 than other routes of immunization. From preliminary data, intranasal immunization was found to be effective in protecting mice from an HSV-2 infection. I have also characterized the role of CD8+ T cells in preventing infection in order to provide insight into the role of mucosal immunization for HSV-2. This work contributes to the efforts to make an effective vaccine to prevent HSV-2 mediated disease. 

Code-switching (CS) refers to a multilingual speaker’s alternation between two or more languages in a single context of communicative discourse. It is important to study how children code-switch during narrative production because though there is existing research on code-switching and its prevalence in conversational settings where one may be inclined to code-switch based on conversational needs or factors, there is limited evidence on its prevalence during narrative tasks. Importantly, there is also minimal research on how the occurrence of code-switching may differ with language proficiency. In this study we will answer, (1) In what instances do children enrolled in immersion programs code-switch from Mandarin to English during narrative production? And (2) how are these instances affected by grade level and level of exposure? We hypothesize that as bilingual students progress through the immersion program, prevalence of code-switching during narrative production will decrease as proficiency in Mandarin increases. Thus we expect the number of instances of code switching to decrease as participants’ proficiency scores and their grade level (i.e. 1st, 2nd grade) increases. Participants involved were school-aged (1st-6th grade) children enrolled in a Mandarin-English (ME) immersion program in Oakland, California. Children completed a story-telling task, presented by a native speaker of the language being tested. Mandarin narratives were based on the wordless picture book “Frog Goes to Dinner”. Speech samples were collected and recorded over Zoom and then transcribed on CLAN software. Instances in which individuals of each grade level code-switch during a narrative task were coded from transcripts. We present data on the prevalence of code-switching in a controlled environment. Data collection is complete and analysis is in progress. Code-switching may be indicative of level of proficiency in narrative story telling in a second language (L2) for bilingual students.

Environmental stress and threat influence feeding behavior in animals, but how that interaction occurs is still largely unclear. Neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), part of the extended amygdala, have dense projections to the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) in the brainstem. We have uncovered projections in these neural circuits that link the modulation of feeding and threat assessment in mice. This project aims to investigate and characterize these previously unrecognized neural circuits with the incorporation of a variety of optogenetic, surgical, and histological techniques. We used Cre-dependent anterograde and retrograde viral tracers in order to trace the anatomy of these neural circuits, and found functional projections from inhibitory (GABA) and excitatory (glutamate) populations in the BNST to neurons in the PBN. We also used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) to isolate the mRNA of these projections. This proved useful in separating and identifying the molecular expression profile of different GABAergic and glutamatergic subpopulations. Furthermore, we used a variety of behavioral assays to determine the BNST-PBN circuits’ role in feeding and threat-response behavior. We used fiber photometry to track the activity of GABAergic (vGAT) and glutamatergic (vGLUT2) populations during these behaviors, and found that vGAT and vGLUT2 populations have differing roles in threat and feeding behaviors. vGAT neurons increase their activity during feeding and decrease in response to threat, while vGLUT2 neurons decrease their activity during feeding and increase in response to threat. We also used optogenetic activation of these neurons to determine their causal role in behavior. With activation, vGAT populations drive place preference, operant positive reinforcement, and increased feeding. Conversely, vGLUT2 populations drive place aversion, operant negative reinforcement, and reduced feeding. These findings characterize the distinct nature of BNST-PBN neural circuits and the mechanism behind the evaluation of threatful stimuli and the integration of feeding.

 Cancer recurrence and migration remains a persisting challenge in oncology. As such, accurate models of tumor growth in the laboratory (in vitro) are critical to our continued understanding and treatment of the disease. This project aims to use one such model—the 3-dimensional spheroid—to measure the effects of novel targeted therapy combinations on different cell lines. Two cell lines were explored in this experiment: UM-SCC74A (a tongue squamous cell carcinoma) and HCT116 (a colorectal carcinoma). Spheroids were formed by culturing cells in ultra-low attachment well plates for 24 hours, allowing the cells to coalesce and form a 3-dimensional sphere. An extracellular matrix was added in some trials to further improve the accuracy of the model. Spheroids were cultured in the presence of drug for 48 hours, then allowed to grow in drug-free media following washout. Spheroid size and viability were assessed via imaging and Cell-Titer Glo assays, respectively. The results from both cell lines echoed those obtained in 2-dimensional assays and validated the efficacy of our drug combinations in a 3-dimensional setting. These models could provide an intermediate step between 2-dimensional in vitro experiments and those conducted in live organisms (in vivo). The success of this model in supporting different cell lines affirms the robustness of this approach and its potential for use with a wide variety of cancers.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder characterized by chronic lung infections involving various organisms, including the gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Antibiotics, such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SMX), play key roles in treating CF infections; these drugs inhibit bacterial growth by disrupting important bacterial metabolic processes. SMX specifically inhibits folate metabolism, causing DNA damage that results in bacterial cell death. However, S. aureus is able to persist in CF pulmonary infections despite treatment with antibiotics, and evidence suggests that S. aureus does so through adaptive mutations. Our goal is to identify the adaptive mutations of S. aureus during SMX exposure in vitro, to understand how this pathogen persists and to prevent the emergence of resistance. We grew S. aureus in the presence of super-inhibitory SMX concentrations for 24 hours in Luria Bertani broth. We sampled the culture at specific timepoints and measured viable bacterial counts on chocolate agar; we evaluated all resulting colonies for SMX susceptibility and associated genetic changes. Surprisingly, we identified mutants that survived SMX treatment carrying diverse adaptive changes not associated with folate metabolism or DNA repair, suggesting previously-unknown lethal effects of SMX against S. aureus. These mutants carried mutations predicted to decrease production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - toxic compounds produced by all cells during aerobic respiration and in response to stress. Our results indicate ROS may play a role in SMX-mediated S. aureus cell death, suggesting that treatments that augment the effects of ROS could improve antibiotic efficacy. We are now exploring the involvement of ROS in S. aureus killing by SMX using engineered S. aureus strains with knockout and overproducing mutations in ROS detoxification genes. This study will help us better understand SMX’s mechanism of action and S. aureus’ response to this drug, in order to improve the treatment of diverse infections caused by this pathogen.

HSV-2 is a sexually transmitted disease of global importance, with an estimated infected global population of over 500 million people, as estimated by the WHO. HSV-2 is a lifelong infection which results in painful, recurrent lesions in the genital area. Previous research has shown that high numbers of regulatory T cells (suppressive immune cells important for maintaining tolerance) are present in the mucosal tissue alongside traditional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (T cells important for an adaptive immune response), and their role is not fully understood. The reporter strain “Nedel” is a strain of HSV-2 with an inserted mNeonGreen fluorescent marker, allowing us to visualize HSV-2 infection. Our current project is to characterize the viral kinetics of the reporter strain of HSV-2 and compare it with WT HSV-2, as well as visualize the virus in infected cells via immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. We have infected mice intravaginally with both strains of virus, collected vaginal washes for plaque assays (to determine viral load) and harvested their vaginal tracts for flow cytometry. Our first round of experiments have shown that while the general frequency of immune cells were comparable, there was significantly lower activation of these cells in the Nedel-infected mice as compared with the WT-infected mice. In ongoing experiments, we have infected the mice with a higher dose of Nedel virus in an effort to make infection more comparable to WT, and we will be harvesting vaginal tracts for flow cytometry analysis to see whether we can visualize the mNeonGreen. Our overall goal is to utilize the Nedel HSV-2 strain to investigate the role of regulatory T cells in modulating anti-viral immune response, with a broader goal of finding treatments and an effective vaccine for HSV-2.

 Cannabis sativa is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. In humans, Cannabis sativa is commonly used to alleviate anxiety and pain, among other things, in medical and recreational contexts. In mice, intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of its primary psychoactive compound, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) produce a characteristic triad of behavioral responses consisting of hypolocomotion, hypothermia, and analgesia. However, injections of THC do not accurately represent how humans typically administer THC, which primarily consists of inhalation and oral consumption. To better model a typical route of administration used by humans, we developed a voluntary oral consumption paradigm in mice whereby THC is formulated in gelatin. Following habituation, mice were given ad libitum access to THC gelatin for 2 hours. We measured the triad behaviors immediately following consumption to determine whether voluntary oral consumption of THC-gelatin using this paradigm induces acute cannabimimetic behaviors. Due to the slow pharmacokinetic activity of orally consumed THC, we measured triad responses immediately, 1 hour, and 2 hours after consumption. To compare our relative THC-gelatin-induced cannabimimetic behaviors to published data, we replicated the triad experiment and demonstrated our ability to obtain dose-dependent triad responses by using i.p. injections. At high concentrations (4mg/15mL) of THC-gelatin, cannabimimetic behavioral responses matched those of mice treated with low-dose (3 mg/kg) of THC i.p. injections. From these initial studies we conclude that development of THC-gelatin formulation triggers characteristic cannabimimetic behavioral effects in mice. These results suggests that classical THC and cannabinoid-dependent behaviors in mice can feasibly be studied with a more translational model (Funded by DA051558). Optimizing an oral administration model of cannabinoids in mice will enable future research on the pharmacology of oral cannabinoid therapeutics. 

There is growing use of technology-enabled contact tracing, the process of identifying potentially infected COVID-19 patients by notifying all recent contacts of an infected person. Governments, technology companies, and research groups alike have been working towards releasing smartphone apps, using wifi-connected devices, and distributing wearable technology to automatically track "close contacts" and identify prior contacts in the event an individual tests positive. However, there has been significant public discussion about the tensions between effective technology-based contact tracing and the privacy of individuals. To inform this discussion, we present the results of seven months of online surveys focused on contact tracing and privacy, each with 100 participants. Our first surveys were on April 1 and 3, before the first peak of the virus in the US, and we continued to conduct the surveys weekly for 10 weeks (through June), and then fortnightly through November, adding topical questions to reflect current discussions about contact tracing and COVID-19. Our results present the diversity of public opinion and can inform policy makers, technologists, researchers, and public health experts on whether and how to leverage technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19, while considering potential privacy concerns. 

Aptitude tests are commonly used to measure an individual’s potential to learn a new skill or succeed in a new domain. However, psychometric measures of aptitude are constrained by issues of measurement validity and are susceptible to systemic biases. An alternate neuropsychometric approach is to leverage individual differences in task-free brain characteristics to measure aptitude. Previous researchers have employed this approach using task-free electroencephalography (EEG). Specifically, their work has provided evidence that higher power in the beta frequency band (~13-29.5 Hz), particularly over the right hemisphere, predicts as much as 60% of the variance in the rate at which individuals learn a second-language or a programming language. However, it is unclear what drives this observed relation between beta power and learning rate. The current study explores the mechanistic explanation of this relation, and hypothesizes that this relation is driven by either individual differences in motor control or cognitive control more generally. To test these hypotheses, we tested if individual differences in behavioral measures of motor control (i.e., the Stop Signal task) and/or cognitive control (i.e., the Simon task) mediate the relation between task-free beta power and language learning rate. Contrary to our hypotheses, neither measure of cognitive or motor control mediated the relation between beta power and learning rate. The results of the present study extend previous work relating beta power and learning rate, but future work is needed to elucidate the mechanism driving this relation.

As the K-12 student population in the U.S. becomes increasingly multilingual, language development in multilingual populations must be better understood. Currently, research including Chinese (Mandarin)/English bilingual children's lexical complexity is insufficient. Lexical Complexity (LC) is the sophistication and variation of word choice in an individual's lexicon. LC is the focus of the study because it is an important aspect of one’s vocabulary knowledge, which is the foundation for academic success for all school children. The current study investigates the English LC of students (Grades 1, 3, 5/6; total N = 64) who are emergent bilingual learners enrolled in a Mandarin/English dual language immersion program in an American public school. Key research questions include: Does LC vary across different grade levels? What is the relationship between LC and grade in school? The children’s LC was measured with a word definition task. In the task, each student was asked to define ten high-frequency nouns one at a time. Their responses were audio-recorded and transcribed by CLOx, a web-based transcription tool. To inspect oral discourse, CLAN, a linguistic software program, measured constructs for LC such as the Type-Token Ratio (TTR) and the Mean Length Utterance (MLU). Larger TTR and MLU scores show greater proficiency and diversity in speech. Words with higher complexity typically contain two or more morphemes and are defined by low-frequency usage. In SPSS, ANOVA and post hoc tests were conducted to investigate statistical significance. The results indicate that the 5/6th-grade student group received significantly higher TTR and MLU scores in the word definition task compared to 1st and 3rd-grade student groups. The 5/6th-grade's substantial LC is most likely due to typical language development patterns and sustained input in both languages through schooling. Implications for bilingual children’s lexical development, and potential influences from family background and instructional settings, will be discussed.