The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of virtual reality meditation (VRM) for symptom management in outpatients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The specific aims of this feasibility study include: 1) examining the feasibility of implementing VR meditation; 2) determining the acceptability of using VR-delivered meditation; and 3) exploring a patient’s experience of using VR-delivered meditation for symptom management. RA is a chronic disease that affects more than 1 million people in the U.S. While recent advances in medicine have shown promising results in managing physical symptoms, a large portion of outpatients with RA still suffer from fatigue. Recent studies have found that fatigue may be managed through meditation, but VR meditation has yet to be tested and deployed in this population. This feasibility study implements a mixed-methods design. Eight adults (18 years and older) with clinically-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis were enrolled from a local rheumatology clinic. Participants used a VR headset incorporated with meditation software over the course of four consecutive weeks. Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures of fatigue, pain, depression, anxiety, physical activity, and mood were collected at baseline and weekly intervals for 4 weeks. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture the patient’s experience of RA, fatigue, as well as experience of the virtual environment. I was personally in charge of analyzing the interview transcriptions and adding coding measurement tags for the quantitative analysis. Results are currently pending. Expected results include that participants will find VRM both feasible and acceptable for fatigue management, and that participants will report reduced fatigue levels after using the VR device. Results of this study will inform future clinical trials using VRM, implementation of VRM into clinical use, and give a better understanding of the patient’s experience of utilizing VRM for fatigue management.

Progress in addressing the simultaneous demands for increasing speed and miniaturization in electrical and computer engineering is to its greatest extent bounded by material stresses under thermal shock. Higher speeds require higher power dissipation, and smaller unit volumes make adequate power dissipation more difficult to achieve. Although there already exists a large body of research concerning endpoint thermal failure in semiconductors, there is little research available on the topic of pre-failure behavior of circuit designs containing semiconductors. Our goal is to subject a circuit containing a semiconductor-based diode to the failure mechanism of thermal shock and test the conductivity of the circuit under drastically changing ambient thermal conditions. We will then use this data to experimentally determine any observable behaviors that qualify as pre-failure symptoms. The resulting observations will be used to determine the efficacy of simulation softwares like LTspice in predicting thermal behavior of a diode circuit under extreme and rapid temperature fluctuations. Our theory is circuit simulation softwares do not account for extreme ambient thermal changes. After completing statistical analysis we will compare the experimental results to simulated results of a duplicate circuit subjected to equivalent temperature parameters and determine if we can reject our theory.

Cell quiescence is defined as the reversible state of a cell in which it does not divide but retains the ability to re-enter cell proliferation. Quiescence can either be programmed or injury-induced. The phenomenon is influenced by mTORC1 signaling, a target for cancer therapeutics. Improved understanding of the mechanisms behind stem cell quiescence holds potential for future therapeutics against tumorigenesis. Cancer biology research in the past have suggested a correlation between mTORC1 activity and mitochondrial fusion and biogenesis. To pinpoint how mitochondrial dynamics influence stem cell quiescence, I radiated, dissected, and imaged UAS-Gal4 Drosophila models with specific mitochondrial gene knockdowns. As hypothesized, Drosophila ovaries with mitochondrial biogenesis and inner-membrane fusion knockdowns failed to exit quiescence after radiation. To further confirm our hypothesis, I am now directly quantifying the mTORC1 activity of mitochondrial knockdown Drosophila lines. Once collected, our data will contribute to ongoing research in cancer therapeutics.

Understanding the spread of COVID-19 is important to all aspects of our life in this pandemic. The more we know about how COVID is transferred from one person to another the more quickly we can come up with counter-measures and protective practices. One of the key ways we know that the disease spreads is on water droplets expelled as we talk and breathe. The spread of these droplets should match our understanding of the spread of an aerosol, which we here model using Computational Fluid Dynamics. We use the popular CFD platform OpenFOAM to simulate the spread of aerosols in a 3D model of our physics lab room. In conjunction with the computer simulation, we construct a small scale physical model of the lab room, and with the help of a high speed camera and fluorescent dye, we track the actual spread of water droplets expelled into the enclosed space. These comparative experiments help us to understand where the simulated model needs refinement and provide valuable insights into how we can combat the spread of this pandemic.