Music interventions are gaining attention due to the evidence they improve health and cognition in elders. In the US, there is an increasing number of Mandarin-speaking elders whose cultural background affects their aging experience. After English and Spanish, Chinese is the third most spoken language in the US. Three and a half million households in the U.S speak Mandarin or Cantonese. However, there is little information regarding specific music choices or culturally-tailored music interventions for Mandarin-speaking elders to improve their health and aging experience. The purpose of this study was to gain insights into Mandarin-speaking elders’ views of aging, ageism, and the relationship between music and health. We conducted a qualitative study that involved interviewing Mandarin-speaking elders in Mandarin. The interview consisted of questions related to their cultural perspectives on aging, experience with ageism in the US, and the impact of music on their health. The participants selected music to play during the interview and discussed what the music meant to them and their thoughts on how music affects their health. Four interviews in Mandarin have been conducted to date. Initial findings reveal that filial piety and respect are recurring cultural themes that influence participants’ perspective and experience of aging. Internal ageism was identified in one of the interviews while the participant discussed their experience with ageism. Participants expressed that music benefits their health by providing emotional support and outlet, motivation, reminiscence of the past, brain activity, and stimulation through physical movement such as dance. The findings increase our understanding about the role of culture in the aging experience and music’s role in enhancing health for Mandarin-speaking elders. Future studies can use this information to develop music-based interventions tailored for Mandarin-speaking elders to improve their health.

The Climate-Ready Landscape Plants Project (CRLP) evaluates landscape plant performance under different irrigation treatments across six different geographic and climatic regions. Under the CRLP, four overlapping taxa Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’, Physocarpus ‘Little Devil’, Cercis occidentalis, and Cercis canadensis were chosen to investigate whether xylem anatomy changes in response to water deficits across three different planting sites: University of Washington, Oregon State University, and Utah State University. At each site, 24 replicates per taxa and 8 plants per irrigation treatment were tested under a two-year trial period. In year one, plants were established using the same water treatment. During year two, plants were introduced to irrigation treatments of 20%, 50%, and 80% based on the Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS). Plants were randomly assigned a position in the plot 2m away from each other under one of the three irrigation treatments. Stem cross sections were stained and imaged with vessel sizes analyzed using ImageJ. I expect both Cercis canadensis and Cercis occidentalis to display smaller vessels per xylem area reducing vulnerability to drought induced cavitation across the three treatments. I expect Cercis canadensis to display stronger acclimation to drought conditions because of its high tolerance for cold temperatures across the three sites. I expect Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’ and Physocarpus ‘Little Devil’ vessels to display lesser plasticity in xylem size and density across the three treatments and sites. Compared to the Cercis genus, Physocarpus is ornamentally selected and hybrids of the Physocarpus genus experience reduced water use efficiency with a lesser ability to acclimate to drought conditions. Most plants used for horticulture have not been tested under different irrigation treatments. This research can promote the production and utilization of low water-use plants to create well adapted landscapes under a changing climate for horticulture efforts on a local and industrial scale.

Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are known to have increased risk of cardiovascular complications. High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is a circulating lipoprotein responsible for removing lipids, such as cholesterol, from the blood and returning them to the liver, and is known to have a large impact on cardiovascular health. HDL is also known to have a protective effect on endothelial cells, which line the blood vessel walls, and it normally stimulates nitric oxide to cause an anti-inflammatory response. However, little is known about whether HDL from HIV patients has unique effects on the function of endothelial cells. I hypothesize that HIV-positive patients have increased inflammation due to impairment of HDL’s protective anti-inflammatory function. To test this, I am determining whether there is an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines in plasma from HIV-positive patients compared to control patients, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. I am also testing the hypothesis that HDL from HIV patients has a more pro-inflammatory effect on endothelial cells. I am culturing human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC) and treating them with HDL from HIV-positive and non-HIV patients, along with appropriate control stimuli, followed by in-cell Western assays to measure activation of NFkB protein, a master pro-inflammatory regulator. I am using the same methods to measure activation of Akt, an intracellular signaling protein that can activate the production of nitric oxide via the enzymatic activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase. I anticipate that HDL from HIV patients will cause increased activation of NFkB and decreased activation of Akt, which could explain, at least in part, the increased inflammation and cardiovascular issues in HIV patients. This research will begin to reveal possible mechanisms by which dysfunctional HDL may contribute to cardiovascular risks in HIV patients, and such findings could ultimately identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention.

Advancements in HIV prevention include current pre-exposure prophylaxis strategies (PrEP), which are effective for men, but not for women due to poor partitioning of antiretrovirals (ARVs) to the female reproductive tract. One strategy for sustained delivery of ARVs to the female reproductive tract is the integration of ARV-releasing reservoirs with established intrauterine devices (IUDs). To this end, our lab has investigated reservoirs containing polymer-drug conjugates (drugamers), where the HIV integrase inhibitor raltegravir (RAL) is covalently attached to a polymer through a hydrolysable linker. However, current drugamers release RAL too rapidly to achieve our target of 1-3 years of IUD-mediated delivery. Our current work is directed at redesigning the RAL drugamer linker to extend the duration of release from 30 days to at least one year. We hypothesize that converting the ester linker of our current drugamer design to an acetal carbonate will slow the rate of RAL release, since the rate determining step of acetal carbonate hydrolysis does not involve the particularly acidic hydroxyl of RAL (pKa = 6.6). To date, I have synthesized the required acetal carbonate monomer by forming a carbonate-linked methacrylate through acyl substitution chemistry, and conjugated RAL to this methacrylate through an SN2 reaction. We fully characterized this monomer using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Additionally, in a release study in cell media at 37C, I measured the rate of hydrolysis to be approximately 30 times slower than in the current lab monomer. Future directions include polymerizing the monomer and measuring RAL’s rate of release from the drugamer. We plan to attach other antiretrovirals with hydroxyls to the acetal carbonate linker and measure the rate of release from these drugamers as well. These preliminary findings are promising and will inform the design of drugamers for the long-term prevention of HIV.

Experiencing a stressful situation in the presence of another person can lead to two distinct outcomes: a decrease in fear response (social buffering) or an increase (social contagion). Understanding these phenomena and the factors influencing them is essential for advancing the treatments for anxiety and fear-related disorders. In this study, I am investigating how gender and social context can impact fear response and risky decision-making. To do this, I am using a naturalistic foraging task that allows rats to exhibit a wider range of behaviors and provides data that more accurately reflects real-world scenarios beyond the laboratory. The study involves alternating between paired and single trials where rats (n = 10) venture from a safe nest to retrieve food in an open arena where a realistic aerial predator can emerge. I am measuring fear responses to the predator through various quantitative variables, including the latency to leave the nest, the latency to retrieve the pellet, and the number of attempts made. I have concluded data collection on the male pairs, revealing an unexpected trend: male rats displayed greater fear responses in paired trials, indicating social contagion rather than the anticipated social buffering. This preliminary finding suggests that the presence of a single companion may heighten fear responses. I hypothesize that female rats will show a similar (intensified) trend because they tend to be more cautious foragers.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer amongst men in the U.S. It relies on androgens that bind to the androgen receptor (AR), which increases the transcription of genes associated with the growth and proliferation of the prostate cells. For the AR-driven prostate cancer (ARPC), current treatments involve decreasing androgen levels (Androgen Deprivation Therapy) or inhibiting the ARPI (Androgen Receptor Pathway Inhibitors). However, around 15% of patients develop resistance to these treatments, resulting in a type of prostate cancer called neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). NEPC cells are no longer dependent on AR activity, which makes this subtype difficult to treat with the current treatment options in the clinic. To better understand the biology of NEPC, we focused on gene expression at the protein synthesis level and found that NEPC has a decreased level of a tRNA called Arg-TCT-1-1. Following Arg-TCT-1-1 tRNA overexpression in NEPC, we detected elevated expression of AR downstream targets via qPCR and western blot. NEPC with high Arg-TCT-1-1 also responded to an AR inhibitor called enzalutamide as measured by cell viability assays. To further investigate the role of Arg-TCT-1-1 in prostate cancer, we used shRNA-mediated knockdown of this tRNA in prostate cancer cells with high AR expression and measured changes in gene expression. This study will provide important insights on the role of Arg-TCT-1-1 during the differentiation process from ARPC to NEPC.

Recent progress in synthetic biology has focused on utilizing probiotics as therapeutic production factories in the gastrointestinal environment to treat GI-related diseases. Although oral administration of probiotics is a convenient method for patients, a key challenge lies in the poor survival rate of probiotics in gastric and intestinal areas. Engineered living materials (ELMs), which are comprised of genetically engineered microbes embedded in a polymer matrix, present a novel formulation for orally-administered probiotics. Herein, we developed ELMs containing probiotics in a protein-based polymer matrix, aiming to enhance their viability in the GI tract. The ELMs’ photocurable polymer matrix allows us to 3D print our formulation into oral tablets. To form our protein-based polymer matrix, we functionalized bovine serum albumin with polyethylene glycol diacrylate. We then added a photoinitiator and E. coli Nissle genetically engineered to produce tryptamine (an anti-inflammatory agent) and subsequently photopolymerized this resin to 3D print probiotic tablets. We placed these tablets through a simulated gastrointestinal tract and observed cell escape using optical density measurements and cell viability through live/dead staining and fluorescence imaging. Liquid-chromatography mass-spectrometry was used to quantify the extent of therapeutic bioproduction in vitro by our ELMs over time. Overall, we found that the ELMs successfully delivered viable probiotic cells able to perform in situ therapeutic bioproduction. Furthermore, we observed that encapsulation of probiotics in ELMs yielded a higher survival rate of cells in the GI tract, suggesting that our polymer matrix formulation protected cells and allowed for extended proliferation and colonization in the colon. These findings are also supported by our observations that ELMs produced significantly higher amounts of tryptamine in the GI tract compared with non-ELM, free cells. The findings from our study can be applied to further development of orally-administered probiotic therapeutics, and show promise for future directions in drug delivery.

Nitrogen is a vital nutrient for plants, but excess nitrogen fertilizer has negative environmental impacts. Understanding the dynamics of how nitrogen moves through plant systems is thus scientifically and environmentally relevant. One aspect of nitrogen cycles is nitrogen fixing bacteria, or diazotrophs. Diazotrophic endophytes are such bacteria that live inside plant tissues. As part of the EndoPop project, our group is studying the effect of diazotrophic endophytes in poplar plants under nitrogen limited conditions. In these experiments, fertilizer with high or low nitrogen concentration is supplied to plants with and without endophytes, however, the dynamics of nitrogen in the pot-plant system are not well characterized. To gain a deeper understanding of the endophyte effect, it is vital to understand the nitrogen dynamics within the pot-plant system to see how endophytes alter these dynamics. A mechanistic mathematical model can provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of the system. To address this, I developed and implemented a compartmental model for nitrogen dynamics in a potted plant system, incorporating water balance, growth, and fertigation regimen as factors in the model. Additionally, endophytes are added to the model to address the change that endophytes would induce on nitrogen dynamics. The model is validated with growth and nitrogen content data from greenhouse experiments on the effect of endophytes on poplar plants under high and low nitrogen conditions. Potential insights from the model include characterizing nitrogen dynamics in the pot-plant system, which will be informative in setting up future experiments, and separating how the effect of endophytes on nitrogen dynamics contribute to the overall endophyte effect in poplar.

This poster describes a qualitative study highlighting the intersection of ethnic identity and Christian faith in shaping South Asian college students’ perceptions of LGBTQ+ individuals. Current sociopolitical climates toward LGBTQ+ individuals in South Asian countries tend to be hostile, and even South Asian communities within the United States can reflect similar beliefs. Zaidi (2014) found that shame in the South Asian community was in conflict with a desire to express one’s queer identity among South Asian youths (Zaidi, 2014). Moreover, environmental factors such as the religious setting might contribute to varying perspectives regarding LGBTQ+ individuals; in the current study, we highlight faith-based higher education institutions (i.e., Christian university) as an institution that can shape views regarding LBTBQ+ folks and their experiences. We conducted 6 semi-structured interviews with South Asian college students enrolled in a Christian university located in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. Our three-member research team transcribed the interviews, coded the transcriptions, and placed the codes in themes according to Braun and Clarke’s (2006) guidelines for Thematic Analysis. The four themes that we identified include support for LGBTQ+ people on campus, Christian messaging around LGBTQ+ identity, South Asian communities, and participant’s own attitudes. These major themes also included subthemes, some of which are campus advocacy and protests influenced participant’s beliefs, feelings of an internal struggle, attitudes of South Asian communities, and individual affirming attitudes. Broadly, we found that the participants viewed their own South Asian communities as generally silent or passive in LGBTQ+ dialogues, and that their Christian campus promoted both helpful and unhelpful conversations about the topic. We will present some implications for practice in higher education around fostering an inclusive space for LGTBQ+ individuals, especially as they pertain to intentional integration of culture-specific (e.g., South Asian) and religious (e.g., Christian) perspectives.

Adolescence is a critical stage of development, a time in which social relations are pivotal to feelings of connectedness, belongingness, and wellbeing. Amidst the rise in usage of widespread social media platforms, adolescents have begun to seek out online-only friendships (OOFs), prompting our lab to explore the prevalence and quality of these social connections. We first gathered data from adolescents (n = 5756, ages 10-18) in Peru in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. In 2023, we repeated and refined our prior analyses after gathering data from adolescents in Bolivia (n = 1071) and Uruguay (n = 647). We administered a Qualtrics survey asking participants to self-report on the number and perceived quality of OOFs and IPFs (in-person friendships), using the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman and Buhmester, 1985). I served as a Research Assistant (RA) for the interACT Lab. I reviewed the literature on online friendships, performed data cleanup, and assisted on statistical analyses of our data. Given the lack of prior research on the topic, our lab sought to explore the quality of online friendships in order to provide a foundation for future investigations. Currently, our lab is analyzing the quality of IPFs vs. OOFs on the basis of self-reported levels of support, closeness, trust, and similar-interests. 79.8% of adolescents in our sample have OOFs. In addition, preliminary findings indicate that IPFs have more negative qualities than OOFs, and that OOFs have more negative qualities than IPFs . This work is important because not only does it examine adolescent technology usage in regard to social connectivity, but it also presents findings from the Global South, which is often underrepresented in psychology research. Our findings provide an understanding of the benefits and downsides of engaging in online-only friendships for adolescents in South America, a region that is too often underrepresented in psychology research.

Perineuronal nets are extracellular matrix structures comprised of chondroitin and dermatan sulfate-glycosaminoglycans (CS/DS-GAGs). Histological imaging of brain PNNs is achieved using Wisteria floribunda agglutinin (WFA) labeling of PNN CS/DS-GAGs, while composition can be determined using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Although these methods are used to determine PNN CS/DS-GAG abundance and composition, it’s unknown whether brain fixation or processing influence these outcomes. We first explored whether tissue processing, using cryosectioning (CRYO) or paraffin embedding (PE), influence PNN analyses. Ten mice were perfused with PBS and post-fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA). Brains were cut sagittal, and one hemisphere was prepared as floating tissues (CRYO) and the second hemisphere was processed as direct mounted tissues (PE). Histochemical analyses show a 78.9% reduction in hippocampal WFA+ PNNs in the PE processed hemisphere compared to CRYO processed side. LC-MS/MS analysis of hippocampal CS/DS isomers also showed differences between each method. In a second cohort of mice, we determined that fixative (4% PFA vs 10% formalin) did not influence hippocampal WFA or CS/DS isomers between groups, suggesting tissue processing (not fixative) influences PNN analyses. We then explored whether we could correct for these CS/DS baseline differences. By comparing CS/DS isomers isolated from CRYO vs PE processed tissues within each mouse, we discovered reproducible correction factors for each isomer. Adjusting the CRYO group using these factors normalizes baseline compositional differences between CRYO and PF groups. To determine translational relevance, we compared hippocampal CS/DS isomers between three CRYO vs PE prepared non-human primate (M. nemestrina) tissues and observe similar baseline CS/DS differences. Adjusting the CRYO prepared group using corrections factors normalizes the baseline composition. These results provide strong, translational evidence that tissue processing greatly influences both PNN glycan histology and composition analyses, and that corrections must be made to account for baseline differences before comparing groups.