Category: OSCAR

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Hagley Library & Archive Management

Author(s): Soo Yoo, Nguyen Pham, Ayan Diraye, Matthew Walsh, Maha Kaleem, Matteen Mahfooz

Mentor(s): Gail Therrien, IST Department

Abstract

Our capstone project involved working with the Hagley Museum & Library in Delaware, U.S. We enhanced the processes for Hagley’s archive inventory management to enable smoother operations for pulling and returning research materials, as well as viewing statistical information. We carried out this project because we value Hagley’s pursuit in supporting innovative research and hope to positively affect the processes for both archivists and researchers.

Audio Transcript

THE DIRTY CONSEQUENCES OF POOR SLEEP: MODELING GLYMPHATIC EFFICIENCY ACROSS DIVERSE SLEEP-WAKE CYCLES QUALITY.

Author(s): Alvaro Olmo Jimenez

Mentor(s): John Robert Cressman, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract

The glymphatic system plays a vital role in maintaining brain health by facilitating the clearance of metabolic waste, a process most active during sleep. This clearance is facilitated by changes in extracellular space due to glial and neuronal shrinkage, enabling enhanced flow of interstitial and cerebrospinal fluid. The relation between the change in brain volume and the effectiveness of the glymphatic system has already been described. Despite the evidence linking sleep to brain clearance, the relationship between the quality of the sleep-wake cycle and glymphatic system efficiency remains unexplored. Thus impeding the understanding of how disrupted sleep may increase vulnerability to neurodegenerative diseases by impairing brain waste clearance. This study investigates the relationship between sleep-wake cycle quality and glymphatic system effectiveness by utilizing an existing computational model of neural dynamics. We calibrated the model to replicate real brain activity – matching frequencies and activity with data collected through EEG– during healthy NREM and REM sleep. These cycles were modeled and their response in brain volume change examined to assess the performance of the glymphatic system. Then, parameters – such as ionic conductance or vascular volume– were modified to simulate poor or high-quality sleep-wake cycles and the glymphatic system’s response examined. Early findings suggest that high-quality sleep cycles induce higher volume changes and therefore better glymphatic performance. Nevertheless, further analysis is required to more fully assess the system’s behavior across all sleep conditions.

Audio Transcript

Hello everyone. My name is Álvaro Olmo Jiménez, and today I’ll be presenting my research on THE DIRTY CONSEQUENCES OF POOR SLEEP: MODELING GLYMPHATIC EFFICIENCY ACROSS DIVERSE SLEEP-WAKE CYCLES QUALITY.
First, we will start by explaining why we are doing this research. Basically,we know that there are established links between sleep and brain clearance. The glymphatic system acts as the brain’s cleaning system and during sleep changes in glial and neuronal cell volume expand the extracellular space, which promotes convective fluid flow and waste clearance. Nevertheless, the specific impact of sleep quality on the glymphatic functions remains unexplored. This knowledge gap limits our understanding on how disrupted sleep may contribute to neurodegenerative disease risk
Thus, this study aims to explain how the quality of the sleep-wake cycles affect the glymphatic system during sleep.
To do so, we first established what was going to be our indicator for sleep quality → Brain volume change. This is because variations in extracellular and intracellular volumes during sleep enhance the glymphatic performance. Also, because the release of sleep-promoting molecules like prostaglandin induces blood vessel dilation and further volume changes.
At this point, we could state that our main focus was to study how the volume change is affected by varying the sleep-quality.
Once we had our indicator for good sleep, we used an existing model of neural dynamics implemented with glial dynamics whose behavior is determined by the concentration of ions.
This model was calibrated to replicate real brain activity – matching frequencies and activity with data collected through EEG. For example, a frequency of 2.8Hz was used to simulate NREM and 5.6Hz to simulate REM.
Moreover, we used an electrical and a volume stimulation as parameters to determine the sleep quality. The higher these parameters, the higher the simulated sleep quality. Therefore, from a bigger volume stimulation, a bigger volume change and thus the better glymphatic performance.
In order to replicate regular sleep, we did numerous simulations. However, just the most significant ones are going to be shown.
In this figure we can see 3 different simulations. In the three of them, the same electrical stimulation is used. The difference between the high and low volume stimulation is that the stimulation effort is halved. We can observe that over 20 cycles, there is not a significant brain volume change if we don’t stimulate the volume and that there is some difference in the final volume depending on the stimulation.
Now, we can see the transmembrane potential change for the high volume stimulation. One can see that the voltage deeply decreases with the volume stimulation. This makes sense because while the volumes vary, ion concentration varies too. Thus, we can state that the alterations of pump dynamics and diffusion result in a decrease in the transmembrane voltage.
In this figure, which again outputs high volume stimulation over the last cycle of the simulation, we can clearly appreciate the change in frequency from NREM to REM with the change in volume. Also, for further visualization, the right has been done and the change in frequency revealed.
From these figures, which show the change of concentration of intracellular sodium and extracellular potassium over the last cycle between electrical and non-electrical simulation outputs, we can see how electrical stimulation is fundamental for the correct simulation of sleep dynamics. Although it does not seem that important for volume change, we can see that in the simulation with electrical stimulation there is a balance between the intracellular and extracellular potassium and sodium. While in the non electrical-stimulated run, there is no apparent difference. This happens because the ATP-pump is shut-off due to the low extracellular potassium and thus cannot transport these two ions correctly. Although these ionic effects may not seem that important, they can be highly significant, as they can alter the signalling properties of the neuron.

This figure shows how the overall volume change varies if the sleep quality is disrupted. It is important to remark that in the microarousals simulation, 3 random intervals ranging from 1 and 5 seconds for each cycle were done and volume stimulation was stopped. Something similar was done for the less quality sleep simulation. In it 3 random intervals ranging from 5 and 15 seconds for each cycle were done and volume stimulation force was halved.

We can see the final values for each volume in this next figure.

Although it seems that the volume decrease is higher in the simulation with microarousals – suggesting that it has better glymphatic performance than varying sleep quality simulation – it is not. This is because the microarousals last less than the low stimulation stages. Thus, the simulation (with microarousals) would have less volume decrease if both periods– microarousals and low stimulation stages– lasted the same.

Now, from this data we can conclude that as sleep quality decreases, we observe a reduction in both overall volume changes and thus in glymphatic efficiency. This is consistent with previous findings that link slow-wave activity and stable sleep patterns with enhanced interstitial fluid movement and metabolic waste clearance.

Moreover, while volume stimulation contributes to mechanical shifts in brain tissue, electrical stimulation proves essential for preserving ionic balance. Without it, ATP-dependent pumps like the sodium-potassium pump become ineffective, leading to disrupted ion gradients and impaired homeostasis.

This underscores the critical role of electrical activity in maintaining proper cellular function, beyond just facilitating volume changes. The breakdown of ionic regulation in the absence of electrical stimulation highlights the interdependence of mechanical and electrophysiological processes in sleep. Together, these findings reinforce the complexity of accurately simulating sleep.

Ultimately, further research is needed in order to flawlessly replicate sleep, accounting not only for volumetric shifts and electrical rhythms, but also for how these elements dynamically interact over time. Accounting for the metabolic rate of the pumps.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

The Effects of Young Blood Plasma on NfL and GFAP following Traumatic Brain Injury Administration in Wild-type Mice

Author(s): Timothy Kochany

Mentor(s): Jane Flinn, Psychology

Abstract

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a major health concern, with there being over 200,000 TBI related hospitalizations in 2020. Repetitive mild TBIs (rmTBIs) lead to cumulative effects, worsening damage. Previous research demonstrated that young blood plasma transfusions may reverse factors of neurodegeneration in older populations, those with Alzheimer’s Disease, and those with TBIs.
Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) are proteins that act as biochemical markers that can be detected in blood to observe astrocyte activation and axonal integrity. Previous studies have shown that TBIs can induce neuronal death and contribute to neurodegenerative disease.
GFAP is a protein expressed by astrocytes that is involved in the injury repair of brain tissue. Overexpression of GFAP has been shown to correlate with lesion volume and TBI severity, as well as astrogliosis in releasing inflammatory mediators, such as cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS). This is part of the process of secondary injury during rmTBI. Neuroinflammation is a factor that contributes to neurodegeneration. This is pertinent because GFAP has been known to reflect glial responses to neuroinflammation.
Similarly, NfL is a protein found in the axon of neurons and is released into the plasma when injury or neurodegeneration is present. NfL is involved with structural support and aids in the conduction speed of action potentials. In previous studies, elevated levels of GFAP and NfL have been shown to signal the progression of neurodegeneration.

Audio Transcript

Hi everyone. My name is Tim Kochany. I’m a third-year neuroscience student at George Mason University and my project is The Effects of Young Blood Plasma on Neurofilament Light Chain and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein following Traumatic Brain Injury Administration in Wild-type mice. In the year 2020 alone, there have been reported over 200,000 hospitalizations related to traumatic brain injuries. This is a major world health concern because traumatic brain injuries have been known to lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as cognitive decline. Previous research has demonstrated that plasma from young mice injected into older mice has seemed to rescue deficits induced by traumatic brain injuries. My research focuses on two proteins that are involved in this process: Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, or GFAP, and Neurofilament Light Chain, or NfL. Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein is a protein that is expressed by astrocytes and is involved in the injury repair process of the brain. Similarly, Neurofilament Light Chain is a protein found in axons, which is a part of the neuron that helps propagate the signal from one neuron to the next, and overexpression of this protein has been shown to signal the progression of neurodegeneration. Repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries lead to cumulative effects, worsening brain damage. Prior to the current study, plasma injections and saline injections have been administered and the mice have been euthanized and plasma samples have been collected. There are four groups of mice: TBI plasma, TBI saline, sham plasma, and sham saline. Sham is if no TBI has been administered. For the procedure, I am going to be looking at and I’m going to be using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay or ELISA to detect protein quantities in the plasma from these mice. For this process, antibodies for the specific protein are going to bind to that protein and then we are going to detect protein concentrations by shining a specific wavelength of light through the sample. My hypothesis is that traumatic brain injuries will increase levels of both GFAP and NfL, with the groups receiving plasma injections slightly lowering these concentrations. This research has significant implications for the study of neurodegeneration and public health relating to traumatic brain injury treatment. Unfortunately, no results are available at this time, as I’ve had errors with our ELISA microplate reader malfunctioning to collect data. However, data will be available at the OSCAR poster celebration on May 6. If you would like to see a full list of my works cited, you can scan this QR code here.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

Is Executive Function Similarly Related to Behavioral Outcomes in Typically Developing and Neurodiverse Children? A Meta-Analysis.

Author(s): Armita Dadvar

Mentor(s): Sabine Doebel, Psychology

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of neurocognitive processes that support goal-directed thought and action. EFs are essential to child development, especially in its concurrent and longitudinal relation to both academic achievement (Allan et al., 2014; Blair et al., 2015; Spiegel et al., 2021) and school readiness (Blair & Razza, 2007). Research suggests that children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions show greater impairment in EF compared to their neurotypical peers (All, et al., 2024). The project investigated the relation between EF in young children and behavioral outcomes by conducting a mixed-effects meta-analysis. It explored whether the relation between child EF and behavioral outcomes varies depending on whether children are typically developing or have clinical, learning, or behavioral diagnoses. Detailed inclusion criteria were established and we conducted a systematic literature search across four academic databases. Abstract screening was performed to identify papers that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study. All eligible studies were identified, and the data was coded and analyzed with the help of MetaReviewer. For statistical analysis, we used CHE modeling through the metafor and clubSandwich packages on R-Studio. Results indicated no significant association between executive function and internalizing or externalizing symptoms, but a small significant trend linking better EF to fewer hyperactivity and inattention behaviors. No significant differences were found between neurodiverse and neurotypical children. However, better EF was significantly related to fewer externalizing problems in children with ADHD, and younger age was associated with a stronger EF–behavior relationship. These findings suggest that EF may be a modest intervention target for early behavioral difficulties, with future research needed to explore diagnostic-specific patterns and increase study representation for neurodivergent populations.

Audio Transcript

Hello everyone, my name is Armita Dadvar and this presentation is on my Honors Psychology Thesis titled “Is Executive Function Similarly Related to Behavioral Outcomes in Typically Developing and Neurodiverse Children?” which I completed with my advisor Dr. Sabine Doebel. Have you ever heard of the term executive function? Executive functions are the set of neurocognitive processes that help us engage control over our thoughts and actions, manage and retain the information in our brains, preventing undesirable thoughts and behaviors while prioritizing ideas and actions that are aligned with personal objectives. You might be thinking, why is executive function important to study in childhood? It is important because research has shown that executive function rapidly develops through childhood and essential to child development. It even has concurrent and longitudinal relation to academic achievement and school readiness. It also may be a key path through which socioeconomic status influences academic outcomes. Lastly, It is even believed to be more malleable than IQ and other general cognitive capacities and thus a good target for interventions. Over many years, numerous tests have been conducted by researchers to carefully evaluate EFs as they arise through childhood. Although we understand that EF is is related to many behavioral outcomes in typical developing children, we do not know if these relations are similar for children who are neurodiverse or have learning, behavioral, or clinical diagnoses that implicate brain areas supporting EF. The current project investigated, via a meta-analysis, the relation between EF in young children and behavioral outcomes, and whether the relation between child EF and outcomes varies depending on if children are typically developing or neurodiverse. Our research question is: Does the relation between child EF and behavioral outcomes vary depending on the population under consideration? We hypothesized that there will be stronger, more consistent executive function/outcome relations in neurodiverse vs neurotypical samples. For this meta-analysis, we were specifically interested in early childhood, executive function and related moderators, key moderators of population, socioeconomic status, age and gender and lastly three main behavior outcomes or externalizing, internalizing, and inattention/hyperactivity. in terms of methods, we first finalized the inclusion and exclusion criteria, then we conducted searches across 4 different bases. After collecting results from those searches, we screened a smaller percentage of abstracts and determined which do or do not meet the inclusion criteria. All eligible abstracts moved on to full text coding through Metareviewer. For statistical analysis, we used CHE modeling to account for dependency among effect sizes. We ran the models with the rma.mv() function from the metafor package in R and calculated robust test statistics using the coef_test() function from the clubSandwich package. This approach gives more accurate variance estimates and properly handles the fact that some studies contributed multiple effect sizes. We found no significant relationship between executive function and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, there was a small-to-moderate significant trend suggesting better EF might be linked to fewer hyperactivity and inattention symptoms.In terms of our hypothesis, we did not find meaningful group differences between neurodiverse and neurotypical children in these relationships.When exploring moderators, we found better EF was significantly related to fewer externalizing symptoms in children with ADHD. However, no strong associations were found for hyperactivity/inattention in ADHD or for group differences between ADHD and typical samples. We also found that the EF-behavior relationship became weaker as children got older. No effects were found for the sex moderator and SES could not be analyzed due to too much missing data. Our results suggest that better executive function may be modestly linked to fewer hyperactivity and inattention symptoms in young children, consistent with previous research. Future research should expand the number of studies, especially for neurodivergent children, examine specific diagnoses separately, and evaluate potential publication bias to strengthen conclusions. Thank you so much to my advisor, Dr. Sabine Doebel, the Developing Minds Lab, and my committee members Dr. Jennifer Brielmaier and Dr. James Maddux for their expertise and guidance throughout this project. Thank you to OSCAR for the funding of this project through the URSP. Lastly, here are my references and thank you all for listening.

Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution OSCAR

Feasibility of Implementing “Sponge City” Concepts in Gangnam, Seoul, to Mitigate Flood Risk

Author(s): Dayeon Shin

Mentor(s): Dakota McCarty, Department of Environmental Science & Policy

Abstract

Urban pluvial flooding, intensified by the climate crisis, poses escalating challenges for cities worldwide. In 2022, Gangnam District in Seoul, South Korea—a high-density, economically critical area—suffered catastrophic flooding, particularly between Gangnam Station and Seocho 2-dong. Contributing factors included low-lying topography, outdated drainage systems, and insufficient green infrastructure. To address these vulnerabilities, reliance on traditional grey infrastructure must shift toward integrated nature-based solutions, such as those advocated by the Sponge City model pioneered in China. This study analyzes the Gangnam and Seocho-Gu districts to identify the most influential variables driving flood risk and to strengthen predictive modeling for future events. A public survey of Seoul residents further informs local perceptions and priorities for urban flood mitigation.

Audio Transcript

This is the final presentation for the URSP program, which is the feasibility of implementing a sponge city concept in Gangnam, Seoul to mitigate flood risk. I’m Dayeon Shin, majoring in global affairs and this research is supported by professor Dakota McCarty from the department of environmental science and policy. Before I go through my research results, I want to give the background of this research briefly. In 2022, Gangnam district, which is a highly and economically developed area, experienced massive urban floods. The primary reasons pointed out lack of green spaces, outdated drainage infrastructure, and low-lying geographical features. To resolve this problem, the Sponge City concept can apply to mitigate urban flooding by expanding the green spaces. The sponge city is based on the nature based system to mitigate runoff water in highly developed cities and it is initiated from China.
I used the quantitative research method, which is public survey and data analysis, SHAP value identifying the most influential variables causing urban floods and collecting Seoul residents’ opinions.
So, in the results for the SHAP value, how the geographical elements affect the urban floods, so we can predict the urban flood based on the high influential elements rank. First is building_count, which is the most influential element with the high number of buildings affected by urban floods in the research areas. The second is the distance of road and river, which indicates that the more far from the road and river, it has less vulnerability in urban flood due to the aging or insufficient drainage systems, which means traditional draining focused on the fast draining. The downstream and NDBI which indicates the grey infrastructure were the following influential elements.
Next is the result for public acceptance from the survey. Over 50% of people do not believe Seoul’s current flood management strategies are effective, and do not trust local government authorities to effectively manage flood risks and people think that the Gangnam district office’s role is the most crucial. Additionally, through the survey, insufficient drainage systems, lack of green spaces, and inefficient urban planning were selected as top 3 challenges in the current flood management policy. Furthermore, the poor coordination among government agencies would be the main barrier.
In conclusion, making balance between green and grey infrastructure is a crucial solution and based on the former environmental policy development of Seoul, enforcement will be needed in making certain spaces for green in the building and parklet or using Chicago green alley as a green infrastructure can be applied as solutions to prevent it. No enforcement in constructing green spaces, no gangnam residents future safety.
These are my references, it was an honor to have this opportunity and thanks to huge support by Prof. McCarty, I hope this research contributes to the future flood prevention in Gangnam, Seoul.

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Monitoring Water And Air Quality at Mason

Author(s): Chayanan Maunhan

Mentor(s): Viviana Maggioni, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering

Abstract

Environmental quality plays a key role in both human health and campus sustainability. This
research project investigates air and water quality across George Mason University’s Fairfax and
Arlington campuses to better understand how campus operations, weather, and traffic contribute
to local pollution in suburban and urban settings.
The primary goal is to observe patterns and collect baseline environmental data that can support
long-term comparison efforts. While this is a short-term project, the findings will help identify
how differences in campus layout and activity, such as stream restoration at Fairfax versus dense
traffic at Arlington affect air and water conditions throughout the year.
By sharing results publicly, this research will not only contribute to ongoing sustainability
planning at Mason but also provide students with hands on experience and encourage data driven
decisions for future campus and community environmental strategies.

Audio Transcript

Have you ever wondered where stormwater goes after it runs off campus sidewalks, or how construction might affect the air we breathe?
At George Mason University, I’m working as part of the Patriot EnviroWatch project to monitor how our everyday activities impact water and air quality, and ultimately, the health of our environment.

Hello! My name is Chayanan Maunhan and I am an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason University. Today, I’ll be presenting my research work, which is part of the broader Patriot EnviroWatch project.

My specific focus within the Patriot EnviroWatch project is monitoring water quality across Mason’s Fairfax campus, along with participating in preliminary air quality data collection.
The photos you see here show a few of the key sites where I collected samples under different weather and seasonal conditions.
Research like this is critical because stormwater runoff can carry pollutants that harm local streams, rivers, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay, while air pollution affects campus health and sustainability.
By measuring these indicators, we can evaluate the effectiveness of campus restoration efforts and help guide future environmental management.

In my research, I primarily focused on monitoring water quality across George Mason University’s Fairfax campus.
I used Vernier probes to measure key water quality parameters: pH, turbidity, conductivity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration.
Chlorophyll levels, which provide insight into algae growth and nutrient enrichment, were measured using a Vernier spectrophotometer.
Although my main focus was water quality, I also contributed to preliminary air quality data collection at Mason’s Arlington campus using portable PurpleAir PM2.5 monitors.
The air quality data generally remained within EPA’s acceptable range, but a few instances exceeded 12 micrograms per cubic meter.
While still considered safe for most of the population, these elevated levels could pose some risk to sensitive groups, such as individuals with respiratory conditions.
These early results demonstrate the importance of continuing both water and air quality monitoring as part of Mason’s sustainability goals.

One important factor in environmental monitoring is that conditions constantly change.
After rainstorms, turbidity and nutrient levels often rise due to runoff carrying sediments and pollutants into streams.
During hot weather, dissolved oxygen levels can drop, stressing aquatic life.
In dry periods, conductivity often increases because of accumulated salts.

My research activities included collecting water quality field data during different seasons and weather conditions, contributing to preliminary air quality measurements, and analyzing trends in environmental conditions.
These efforts help support Mason’s broader sustainability goals, including improving stormwater management and protecting the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

I would like to sincerely thank my faculty mentor, Dr. Viviana Maggioni, the Patriot EnviroWatch research team, and Mason Facilities for their support and collaboration.
I would also like to acknowledge the OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program for providing funding and making this research opportunity possible.

Thank you for listening to my presentation.
Through this research, I’m gaining valuable experience in environmental monitoring and helping protect both Mason’s environment and the broader Chesapeake Bay watershed.

College of Science OSCAR

Validations of Estrogen Assays in Baleen of North Atlantic Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis)

Author(s): Sarah Fenstermacher

Mentor(s): Kathleen Hunt, George Mason University Department of Biology & Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation

Abstract

Whale baleen has proven to be an accurate method in the retrospective longitudinal analysis of hormones. Baleen plates, the filter-feeding apparatus attached at the upper jaw in mysticete whales, continuously grow and represent a multi-year endocrine record that remains stable without undergoing post-mortem decomposition. While previous studies have quantified steroid and thyroid hormone concentrations in baleen from multiple species to evaluate different life-history events, the role of estrogens remains relatively understudied. Understanding reproduction in the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW), for example, is vital for accurate population estimate models.Therefore, archived baleen samples from 2 female NARW baleen plates were drilled every 4 centimeters using a dremel, and pulverized into a fine powder. Hormones were extracted from the baleen powder and Arbor Assays enzyme immunoassays (EIA) were used to quantify hormone concentrations. Three estrogen hormones: estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), and estriol (E3), were all validated for NARW baleen through parallelism tests using a pooled sample from non-pregnant females. This demonstrated a sample curve that was parallel to the standard curve, both of which were serially diluted samples: estrone (F1,8 = 0.09058, P = 0.771, r2 = 0.99), estradiol (F1,8 = 4.482, P = 0.0671, r2 = 0.98), estriol (F1,8 = 0.9084, P = 0.3685, r2 = 0.99). These hormones were quantified and compared to previously collected progesterone, stable isotopes, and confirmed calf-sightings to determine the behavior of these hormones during pregnancy, lactation, and resting periods. The data from these two females showed a spike in E2 at the end of pregnancy (after the progesterone (P4) spike) and was stable before pregnancy, which was the expected result. These estrogens appear to provide valuable insight in the study of reproduction (including gestation length and inter-calving intervals) in baleen whales.

Audio Transcript

Hi everyone! My name is Sarah, and I will be presenting my project on Validations of Estrogen Assays for Baleen of North Atlantic Right Whales. The samples used for this research came from the two whales pictured here…
Their names are Stumpy and Staccato, and they’re females who both died from vessel strikes in 2004. Ship strikes and entanglement are the two top-killers of NARW, and they are critically endangered with only 370 individuals remaining. Of those, only 70 are reproductively active females, meaning that the rate of population growth is limited to how often these females can have calves. Before these two were killed, they were a part of the breeding population; so they had documented pregnancies from regular calf sightings, and Stumpy also died with a full-term fetus.
Previous research on their baleen also confirmed that certain pregnancy hormones were elevated at the same time as these two were assumed pregnant, and subsequently seen with calves.
So what is baleen?
Baleen is keratin (the same structure as your fingernails and hair), and it is what they use to filter feed. It’s arranged in vertical strips that hang from the upper jaw as shown in these photos.
My mentor, Dr Hunt, was on the team that first determined that these baleen plates contain stable steroid and thyroid hormones, and repeated sampling along the length of a baleen plate can represent an endocrine record that spans multiple years of a whale’s life.
Because there is still debate in the large whale research community regarding length of gestation and exactly what happens during pregnancy, I was interested in re-examining these two females, this time, focusing on three estrogen hormones: estrone, estradiol, and estriol.

One of these hormones has been measured in NARW before (estradiol), but the other two (estrone and estriol) have never been measured in baleen whales before. We assumed that hormone extraction methods previously used would also work with these hormones, so we followed the protocol that Dr. Hunt developed.
Briefly, we measured the length of the baleen plate and used a dremel to generate powder every 4 cm along the length of the plate and then weighed the powder to 20mg. Hormones are then extracted from the powder using a MeOH-based protocol, followed by resuspension in assay buffer. Next, we performed enzyme immunoassays for each target hormone. This test allows us to calculate the target hormone concentration in each sample.

Because only one of these hormones has been previously validated for use in NARW baleen, my first objective was to ensure all three estrogen hormones could be reliably used in these samples. Specifically, I ran a parallelism test in each estrogen, and these are my results for that. On the x-axis of each graph, you see the log of the relative dose, and on the y-axis of each graph, you will see the percent of bound antibody. The goal for parallelism is for the standard curve to match the sample curve- both of which are made with serially diluted samples. I used a pooled dilution of non-pregnant samples from the two females (Stumpy and Staccato), and all three estrogens passed for parallelism. This meant that the sample curve was not significantly different from the standard curve (that means they were parallel to one another). We can see that the sample curve for E3 (estriol) only has 3 points; we did test other samples, but it appears a dilution greater than 1:4 did not have high enough concentration of the hormone to be detectable (but a 1:1 to 1:4 is detectable).

This project will continue into the summer, but I wanted to provide preliminary results of what we have seen so far. Because estradiol is typically a major pregnancy hormone, we wanted to assess it along the length of each baleen plate, providing longitudinal information during pregnancy, lactation, and non-pregnant (or resting) periods. We are working on continuing these assays along the length of the plate, so you will see some missing points, but we do have the results from one full pregnancy (in Staccato). Just to orient you on this graph, the x-axis provides the distance from the base (in cm), which really means time, and time moves forward from left to right (the very right side of the graph represents when the baleen plate was collected, meaning when she died).
On each of these graphs, the left y-axis and in the color blue, we can see the concentration of estradiol, while on the right y-axis and in the color green, is the previously published progesterone longitudinal profiles for each female. Stumpy on the left graph (a), has roughly the second half of a pregnancy shown on the left side of her graph (earlier in time), while Staccato (graph b) has an entire pregnancy and beginning of lactation shown. Though we are still working to fill in gaps, the results so far match what we expected. The hormone estradiol (E2) was relatively stable before pregnancy, but rose and peaked toward the end of pregnancy. Progesterone starts to elevate at the start of pregnancy, and maintains higher levels to the majority of a pregnancy.

So to summarize, assay parallelism validations were successful for E1, E2, and E3, which means that I will be able to analyze all three hormones along the length of both Stumpy and Staccato’s baleen plates. This furthers our understanding of the relationship between progesterone and the estrogens before, during, and after pregnancy. Once this is established, we may find similar patterns in other baleen whales, which will be interesting upon further study. This type of research will contribute to our understanding of large whale reproductive cycles, which is generally unknown, and will hopefully aid in population models and conservation efforts for this endangered species.

This project was funded by the OSCAR Undergraduate Research Student Program at George Mason. I’d also like to give a special thanks to my mentors Dr Hunt and Ms. Jelincic, for providing me with the guidance needed to complete this project. I also would like to acknowledge the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, for letting us borrow these archived baleen plates.
Thank you so much for listening and I hope you enjoyed learning about these incredible females, Stumpy and Staccato.

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Laser-Induced Graphene for Flexible Graphene-based Doppler Imaging

Author(s): Philip Acatrinei

Mentor(s): Pilgyu Kang, Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

While commercial blood fluid velocity sensors exist, many cannot be used on pediatric patients or require the child to have their chest open and exposed for sensing. If there was a smaller flexible device that could be surgically attached to the aorta, or the largest artery of the heart, then it would be useful for bedside monitoring of pediatric patients as well as adults. This is achieved with a device utilizing porous laser-induced graphene as a flexible high surface area electrode as well as PVDF-TrFE (poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)) as a flexible piezoelectric polymer. The combination of these two materials increases sensitivity, while retaining mechanical strength and flexibility. Unfortunately, the design of the device had to be changed halfway through testing so there is no data on the central frequency of the doppler device or how well it functions. With more testing, these figures will be known and the device can be properly tuned to achieve the performance numbers that are required by our collaborators at the National Children’s Hospital.

Audio Transcript

The video has the transcript embedded in Youtube’s closed captioning as well.

Hello everyone, my name is Philip Acatrinei, I am an undergraduate student
at the department of Mechanical Engineering for GMU
I’m working with Dr. Pilgyu Kang
to bring laser manufactured 3D Graphene for flexible graphene-based doppler imaging
This video is part of OSCAR URSP’s Spring 2025 Celebration
And without further ado, lets get into it!

So a little bit about our lab,
is, we have a background in 2D materials, micro and nano
manufacturing mechanics,
nano bio sensors, nano-photonics, opto-fluidics, optoelectronics, and plasmonics
We’ve done some collaborative research in the past with Cornell,
NSF, PARADIM, and CNF
but most recently we’ve done a little bit of collaborative research with NASA
and our lab is located at the IABR building
at SCI-TECH campus

So, after a cardio-
-vascular surgery, its really important
to have bedside monitoring of blood fluid velocity, mainly of the aorta
to determine heart health of the patient
that’s great for us adults
but in pediatric surgery, children have much smaller bodies.
and the devices that are currently available for monitoring blood fluid velocity
are made for adults
so for children, they are usually too large and bulky to properly use.
That’s why we believe that it is very important
to have pediatric
blood fluid velocity sensors
to have safe monitoring of post-surgery heart health for children

Now, some commercially available blood fluid velocity sensors
have their advantages and disadvantages
some advantages are:
they’re common in hospitals around the world and the hospital staff are already trained on their use
They’re reusable which means multiple patients can use
the same device
multiple times in the device’s lifespan
and they’re accurate
they have real-time accurate data collection, they can display data, they have data storage available.
But, as touched on before, they do have some disadvantages.
Now, because of their increased size, they increase the risk
so, to use the devices in pediatric surgeries
the child’s chest must stay open and exposed.
Now, that is not a good thing if you want to have a safe monitoring of
blood fluid velocity to determine heart health.
and, again they are not conformable
so they’re not flexible or conformable to the human body, meaning
the chest must stay open and exposed
to integrate these sensors
to monitor blood fluid velocity

Some of the state of the art research tries to address this,
by using the PPG optical method, the DBUD method,
or any other method but most of them
read blood fluid velocity unobtrusively through the skin/fat layer
this is great because it is unobtrusive
But,
this is also its greatest weakness because they must be placed very specifically
or, they must be only
usable on specific parts of the body, say your fingertip
or a specific artery and you have to
very very carefully place it over that artery to make sure you’re aiming for it.
so they have their pros and cons too

Now, our novel approach
is a conformable device specifically developed for children
so we wanted it to be smaller and thinner to ensure flexibility and conformability
the materials need to be body-safe, robust, and flexible
and we want to utilize two materials:
we want to utilize PVDF, or
polyvinylidene fluoride, its a flexible piezoelectric polymer
that is better for this application than traditional ceramic piezoelectric elements
that are not flexible
and we wanted to utilize laser-induced graphene
which is a flexible, high surface area electrode that better interacts with PVDF
and that better interaction increases device performance
so to go about how our
device works, I want to give a practical example

So, everyone has
experienced the doppler effect in their life, whether you know it or not
but as an example, we can take an ambulance
everyone has heard an ambulance drive by
where it sounds high pitched
when its coming towards you and the seconds it passes you it magically lowers in pitch
now, that difference from the heard frequency
that what you’re hearing, say the higher or lower pitch compared to the pitch that the ambulance is constantly putting out
is called the doppler shift
and the doppler shift is directly proportional to the speed that the ambulance is going, or that you are going in relation to the ambulance
and we use this doppler shift as our working principle

So we have two doppler devices, one is an emitter and one is a receiver,
we emit ultrasound at a specific central frequency that we know
it will bounce off of a red blood cell and scatter. It will lose or gain energy
either increasing or lowering in pitch, and by measuring
the shift from the original central frequency, we are able to tell the speed of the red blood cells passing by.

So, we have again an emitter and receiver
but we also use, because we have two, we use constant wave doppler
if we had one emitter that also acted as a receiver, we would get loss of information
as, it could only receive or send it could never do both at the same time
but because we have an emitter and a receiver, we’re able to have loss-less information which is really really great.
Now, our device is specifically tuned to an angle theta of 15 degrees, so that we target
around 4mm into the aorta, which is the center where the velocity is the fastest

So a little talk about the materials that I very briefly glossed over
I wanted to start with our 3D porous graphene
to manufacture it we use a photothermal process via laser, a CO2 laser
that we use to lase polyimide sheets
which make our laser-induced graphene. It makes it simple, scalable and cost-effective

Now, its unique properties are great for our
purpose in flexible electrodes.
So we used a, in this case we used a four point probe method to find the sheet resistance which we found to be 5.35 ohms
which is very low, which is excellent for electronic applications but because of the structure, its very mechanically flexible and strong
and it has a great high carrier mobility, which is great for high speed electronics.

Some more advantages of it
are that it has an increased surface area, so the interface with PVDF is increased
and the electrochemical properties are increased for device performance
and again its mechanically flexible

so a little bit more about PVDF, or polyvinylidene fluoride
it starts off as a liquid that we pour, and then we cure it at 140 degrees Celsius to become a polymer
and because it starts off as a liquid
when we pour it on top of our laser-induced graphene, which is a porous structure,
the porous structure almost acts like a sponge, sucking in the PVDF liquid
so when it turns solid, we have a really incredible interface
between the PVDF and the laser-induced graphene with that high high surface area.
So we can not only have a cost effective additive manufacturing process
for putting the PVDF there, we can adjust the central frequency which is important for the human body
as 10 megahertz is the ideal
central frequency for going through the skin, skin and fat, and,
by changing the thickness of the PVDF layer, which is very easy to do
we can adjust the central frequency to whatever we want
and, PVDF is very flexible, its a very flexible piezoelectric polymer
that is perfect for wearable electronics or flexible electronics that we’re interested in

And a little bit about PDMS which I didn’t touch up on
It is the substrate that we place our sensor on to keep it at the 15 degrees angle theta
PDMS, also known as polydimethylsiloxane, is a sort of silicone
so, it starts off in two parts, a base and a curing agent as a liquid
you can then pour it into a mold and then when we remove it from the mold, we get a very flexible silicone
which is great because it is cost effective, it means we can do whatever we want for molds, its incredibly mechanically flexible
but, the most important thing for us is that it is optically clear
it does not effect our ultrasound waves in any way shape or form as its passing through
it doesn’t refract or lose energy which is incredible for us
and for what we are trying to achieve. So to test sensor performance

we do either d33 characterization, using an LCR meter
to determine piezoelectricity after poling and we use a phantom heart model which can set blood fluid velocity
and we can test our sensor readings against what we know the blood fluid velocity to be, to determine accuracy

Now some conclusions, we have found some advancements in acoustic transducers
via the laser-induced graphene and PVDF layers
we found some innovations in wearable electronics, all of these being flexible and conformable to the human body
now, I did want to say, there were some setbacks with this project over the semester
in the first half of the semester, we worked with a design
and we finished it and we got it ready for testing and then our collaborators at Children’s National Research Institute
told us that it wasn’t good enough and we had to redesign
and so the second half of the semester we spent redesigning and producing the new redesigned
thing, so unfortunately we were not able to test this semester with the d33 characterization or phantom heart
but we hope to do that very soon
and for potential applications we hope to see it used in pediatric surgeries and integrate it with a wireless platform for bedside heart health and blood monitoring

some acknowledgements I wanted to make were for Noemi Lily Umanzor who helped make the CAD model of the
device the new updated device’s design
she also helped me do some basic tasks around and made my life definitely a little bit easier with this project
I wanted to acknowledge the Chitnis lab and give a thanks to Dr. Parag Chitnis and especially Ehsan for helping us pole the PVDF and use their poling machine that they have on Fairfax campus
I want to thank our collaborators at George Washington University and our
contact with Children’s National Research Institute Dr. Kevin R. Cleary
And yeah, I think that is all– I can’t take questions unfortunately because this is a video, but I hope you can find me
on the day that we are doing posters which should be May 6th, and I’ll see you there! Thank you.

College of Science OSCAR

Behavior of Estuarine Crab Hosts as Affected by Parasite Infection

Author(s): Kiersten Jewell

Mentor(s): Amy Fowler, Environmental Science and Policy

Abstract

Parasites are an understudied portion of ecosystems, considering the impacts they have on their host species. Marine invertebrates such as crabs serve as both primary and intermediate hosts for several different parasite species. In the Chesapeake Bay region, the white-fingered mud crab (Rhithropanopeus harrissi) has been shown to host entoniscid isopods (Cancrion and Cryptocancrion spp.), a rhizocephalan barnacle (Loxothylacus panopaei). Given previous studies that parasites can change host population densities, alter predator-prey dynamics, and impact food web function, we sought to determine how parasite infection affects crab host behavior in the presence of a predator. These parasites are not trophically transmitted; if the host dies, they do too. Therefore, we hypothesize that infected crabs will spend more time hiding and resting compared to uninfected crabs. To test predator response, crabs were placed into an aquaria with open space and shelter habitat available. Their habitat use and behavior were videoed and calculated before and after the addition of a blue crab predator scent cue. Preliminary results show that uninfected crabs spend less of their time moving and more hiding and resting, as compared to their infected counterparts. This project will continue in the fall of 2026, expanding the sample size of crab hosts across all infection statuses.

Audio Transcript

Hello my name is Kirsten and I am an undergraduate researcher in Dr Fowler’s aquatic biology lab here at the Potomac Science Center, and my project for Oscar for this semester is looking at parasite infections in crab hosts and how it affects the behavior at- specifically the white finger mud crab or Rhithropanopeus harrisiiand two parasites that are found in it. One is Loxothylacus panopaei which is a parasitic barnacle that is actually invasive to the Chesapeake bay and it is a barnacle that creates an externa on the outside of the crab’s reproductive organs and it has a lot of morphological changing properties. It feminizes the male crabs and it completely castrates all crabs. I’m also looking at a species of Cryptocancrion which is an entoniscid isopod. The thing about both these parasite species is they are not tropically transmitted. That means thatif the host dies the parasite dies. So this led me to hypothesize that an infected crab is going to spend less time doing bold activities. That means it’s going to have an increase in hiding and resting and a significant decrease in moving around- especially in the presence of a predator. So what does it look like for us to test this? We have an aquaria setup where we are simulating conditions of both presence of predator and absence of predator. We use scent cues which are frozen ice cubes- the predator cue ice cube has frozen water that a blue crab was marinating in and the control ice cube has plain water with no predator scent. The aquaria has water that the crabs are acclimated too, a base layer of substrate along the bottom, a shelter that is comprised of PVC and tiles, as well as a red light because red is the go-to for crab behavioral studies, and a hammock that is saran wrap where the ice cube can rest.
For each crab each experiment starts with an acclamation period where they’re allowed to be in the tank for 20 minutes before they are videoed. Then we start the video and we record a control period – so this has no scent ice cube- It is just the crab in the tank. And then we add either the control ice cube or the predator ice cube with the scent cube and we record again. Then afterwards I analyze this with for an ethogram. So I have a whole suite of behavior options and a suite of location options. At 30 second intervals I record what the crab is doing and where it is, So for our preliminary results we simplified these behaviors into three categories: resting, moving, and hiding. This graph is showing theproportion of times that crabs are spending in these different activity levels per their infection status. And as you can see the uninfected crabs are actually showing less time moving and more time resting and hiding. This graph is again showing proportion of time I these different activity bins but it is showing these in the different cue presences. So we have the control, the predator, and the no cue. And we would expect there not to be a big difference between the no cue and the control cue because there’s no scent on that control cue. But we are noticing here on this percent change graph that there is a
difference which is indicating that maybe it is the ice cube itself that is impacting the crab’s behavior not so much the scent cube I am continuing this project in the fall as an independent research project where I will be increasing the amount of replicates we have across all infection statuses. So hopefully this will allow us to draw some cool conclusions about how parasite level is affecting crab behavior and itwill culminate in a publishable unit. I want to thank you guys for listening and thank you Oscar for funding this project for the spring of 2025.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

Changes in BDNF in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease with APOE4 and Tau compared to wild type mice

Author(s): Jasmine Mendoza

Mentor(s): Jane Flinn, Psychology

Abstract

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by two biological components: an increase in both amyloid beta (Abeta) and hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau). According to the dual pathway hypothesis, Abeta and p-tau accumulate independently yet simultaneously. A possible mechanism for the dual pathway hypothesis is Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a protein which plays a central role in neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. The E4 isoform of APOE is most commonly associated with a higher risk for late-onset AD, though recent research indicates APOE4 may play a neuroprotective role when not in the presence of Abeta. Another protein that plays a neuroprotective role is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is essential for neural plasticity and therefore learning and memory. Decreased amounts of BDNF are correlated with more severe cognitive deficits associated with AD, and APOE4 and Tau have previously been found to reduce BDNF levels. However, there has yet to be a study that examines the effects of APOE4 and Tau on BDNF in the absence of Abeta. The present study aims to fill this research gap using Western Blots on 4 different genotypes of mice (E4 x Tau, Tau, E4, and wild type) to target BDNF.

Audio Transcript

Hello everyone, my name is Jasmine Mendoza and my mentor is Dr. Jane Flinn, and my project is titled “Changes in BDNF in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease with APOE4 and Tau compared to wild type mice.”

To begin, I’d like to define some key terms in my project. Alzheimer’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects learning and memory. Late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease is typically diagnosed in individuals age 65 and up, while early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, which is much less common, is typically diagnosed in individuals below the age of 65.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is an essential protein for learning and memory, as it promotes neuronal growth and plasticity. In contrast, Apolipoprotein E, or APOE for short, is a protein that helps metabolize fats, and there are three different alleles of the APOE protein. There’s APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4, with APOE4 being commonly associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, and it’s considered a high risk-factor for the disease.

Finally, the two key biological components of Alzheimer’s Disease are the peptide amyloid beta, or Abeta, which accumulates into plaques, and a version of the protein tau which has an excessive amount of phosphate groups attached to it, which is referred to as hyperphosphorylated tau, or p- tau, and this hyperphosphorylation causes it to accumulate into tangles.

The previous literature on Alzheimer’s Disease has largely found that APOE4 has detrimental effects on AD patients, usually exacerbating the cognitive deficits associated with the disease. For instance, the dual pathway hypothesis proposed by Small & Duff suggests that the accumulation of Abeta and p-tau happens independently but still parallel to each other, which eventually leads to neuronal death and cognitive decline, and that this accumulation may be facilitated by APOE4. Likewise, APOE4 has been found to reduce BDNF levels, which results in more severe cognitive deficits, as BDNF is a neuroprotective protein, therefore the reduced amounts of it are associated with more severe cognitive deficits, as found by Laske et al. in 2011. However, a recent study done by a graduate student who is also in my mentor’s lab, found results that suggest APOE4 and Tau may play a neuroprotective role when they are not in the presence of Abeta. The current literature has not yet examined how APOE4 and Tau interact with BDNF in the absence of Abeta, so this study aims to address that gap in the literature, and is also a continuation of that 2024 study by Booth in my mentor’s lab.

So, because this study is a continuation of the previous Booth study, the brains used come from mice that were separated into four different genotype groups and two different metal ion supplement groups, as those were the groups used in the Booth 2024 study. The four different genotype groups are those with APOE4, those with Tau, those with both APOE4 and tau, and wild type mice without either APOE4 or tau. The two metal ion supplement groups are those with zinc and those without any metal ion supplement. So, this study will use Western Blots, which is a technique which targets specific proteins and isolates them from other proteins in biological samples. And, the proteins are targeted through the use of antibodies which bind to the target protein and are prevented from binding to any other proteins by a process called gel electrophoresis. The primary antibodies that we’ll be using in this study are BDNF, of course, and Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, or GAPDH, which will be used as a loading control. The secondary antibody will be mouse anti-rabbit, which will bind to the primary antibody and make it easier to visualize and quantify BDNF. And then the data will be analyzed in SPSS. As for the possible implications of this study, the findings of Booth (2024) were unlike those of previous studies examining the effects of APOE4 in Alzheimer’s Disease, as most previous studies, as we’ve discussed, have found negative effects of APOE4, while the results of his study actually found a possible neuroprotective effect that APOE plays. In his study, Booth does suggest that the ages of the mice used may have been a mediating factor in this effect, because the mice were younger, so it’s possible that APOE4 only plays a neuroprotective role in younger individuals. Thus, a future study could possibly examine the effects of APOE4 on BDNF in different age groups. Nonetheless, what we are hoping to find with this study is more information on the interaction of APOE4, Tau, and BDNF in Alzheimer’s Disease mice, which could eventually lead to new possible treatments involving APOE4 and Tau.

Finally, I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. Jane Flinn, as well as everyone in the Flinn lab, and I would also like to thank Dr. Karen Lee and URSP as a whole for providing funding and guidance throughout this project.

And here are my references. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my study.

College of Science OSCAR

Assessing symbiont diversity in restored and wild coral populations in Honduras

Author(s): Karina Cabrera

Mentor(s): Jennifer Salerno, Environmental Science and Policy Department

Abstract

Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (A. cervicornis) corals are important reef builders on Honduran reefs, and their coverage has declined by >90% since the 1970s due to disease and bleaching. These corals form obligate symbioses with photosynthetic dinoflagellate endosymbionts, and different symbiont taxa provide the host coral with benefits that aid coral resilience, such as thermotolerance or disease resistance. Ongoing coral restoration projects in Honduras have not yet identified the symbiont taxa in their corals, which is helpful to ensure effective restoration. Here, we used restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis to screen and identify symbionts from 266 wild and restored corals across different reef sites. This information will be given to the restoration programs, enabling them to assess the genetic and symbiotic diversity of their restored corals and improve their approach to slowing the population decline of these important corals.

Audio Transcript

Hello, everyone. My name is Karina Cabrera, and I am a Junior here at GMU pursuing a BS in Geology and a minor in oceanography. Today, I will be talking about the work I have done this semester to develop a protocol for identifying coral symbionts in elkhorn and staghorn corals.

Corals are important ecosystem engineers that build up coral reefs and provide habitat for extremely diverse organisms to live in, supporting as many as 1/3 of marine species. They also benefit human communities near the coast by supporting ecotourism and reducing coastal erosion. In the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn corals were historically dominant reef-builders but have experienced over 90% decline in the past 4 decades due to bleaching and disease.

This unfortunate decrease not only puts reef ecosystems at risk but also threatens the organisms that depend on reefs for survival, including humans. One way to combat this decline is through coral restoration, and specifically a method called coral gardening, in which samples are taken from wild corals and then grown in controlled conditions so that the coral population for staghorn and elkhorn corals are restored. Despite this collection method being an easy and fast way to restore corals additionally helping increase population numbers, because this process relies strictly on asexual reproduction, it also means that the coral host and symbiont diversity decreases over time.

These photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts form obligate symbiotic relationships with the corals, and different symbiont taxa provide the host coral with benefits that aid coral resilience, such as thermotolerance or disease resistance. Because of this, understanding the phylogenetic diversity of these symbionts will help improve the effectiveness of coral restoration efforts. I am working with four coral restoration programs in the Bay Islands of Honduras, seen on this map, but these restoration programs do not currently have the necessary molecular facilities or financial resources to perform molecular symbiont identification. To address this need, my URSP project focuses on developing a relatively cheap and efficient assay to identify the coral symbionts.

Samples were collected from wild and restored populations of the two coral species being restored in Honduras, staghorn and elkhorn corals. 100 wild corals were collected from sites all around the island of Roatan, and 166 restored corals were collected from the four different restoration programs on Roatan and Utila. To identify the symbionts in these samples, I developed a protocol based on polymerase chain reaction (or PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP), originally developed by Rowan and Powers. This protocol amplifies the 18S rRNA gene in the symbiont and then cuts up the DNA. These different length fragments from different DNA sequences are what cause different banding patterns. These different patterns then correlate to the taxonomic clades that the symbionts belong to. As you can see these are the banding patterns for clade a, b, c, and d. Getting into my results, I first optimized the PCR step. Based on the original protocol, which incorporated lower-quality DNA extractions, I was not getting good amplification of the target gene from most of the samples as shown in this PCR blank gel. This is due to the DNA being too short for the banding to show up. Because this gene is very long, I switched the protocol to use higher quality DNA instead and received much better results. In this optimized gel there are clear bandings due to the DNA being of higher quality and longer. I am now working to optimize the RFLP portion of the protocol. The restriction appears to be working from the gel there is some banding appearing at 30 minutes and there is some double banding patterns present, which is expected for these symbionts, but was not separated enough so I let the gel run for an hour and saw that it had become blurry. Because of this, my next steps are to try optimizing the time in which the gel is run since an hour seems too long, but 30 minutes is not enough for the bands to become clear, so hopefully reducing the time will give us better and more clear results. Once I have optimized this portion of the protocol, I will screen all the wild and restored corals and share my results and the protocol itself with the four restoration programs in Honduras. This will help them design out planting schemes that maximize genetic diversity and ensure that the restored populations mimic the diversity found in the wild. This will help improve the effectiveness of restoration efforts in Honduras and help to build future reef resilience against ongoing climate change.

This research would not have been possible without the OSCAR URSP Program and the environmental science and policy department here at mason. Thank you to Teagen Corpening, Jennifer Keck, and all of the RIMS interns who helped to collect samples and made this research possible. Finally, I acknowledge all the funders who supported this project. Thank you for your attention!

College of Science OSCAR

Navigating the Healthcare System: Barriers and Resources for Individuals from Low-Income and Immigrant Backgrounds.

Author(s): Kabir Toor

Mentor(s): Blake Silver, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Abstract

This study investigates the barriers individuals from low-income and immigrant backgrounds face when navigating the U.S. healthcare system. While much existing research focuses on health outcomes, this project centers on the process of accessing care, including how individuals identify needs, seek services, and confront structural and cultural obstacles. The project originally involved an anonymous online survey featuring multiple choice and open-ended questions distributed through community organizations, hospitals, and doctors’ offices. Due to time limitations, primary data collection was minimal, and peer-reviewed scholarly sources were analyzed to identify trends aligned with the study’s goals. The literature revealed consistent barriers such as healthcare costs, limited insurance coverage, communication difficulties, transportation challenges, and fears related to immigration status. Facilitators of access, such as community health centers, family support, and bilingual social workers, were also commonly cited. Findings emphasize that even insured individuals often struggle to access care, illustrating a gap between insurance coverage and actual service use. These findings suggest a need for reforms that address not just insurance coverage but also cultural, logistical, and systemic obstacles. Underscoring the importance of community-informed research and policy interventions that reflect the complex experiences of low-income and immigrant individuals across the healthcare landscape.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Kabir Toor, and I’m a student in the Department of Biology at George Mason University. Today, I’ll be presenting my research project titled “Navigating the Healthcare System: Barriers and Resources for Individuals from Low-Income and Immigrant Backgrounds.”

Accessing healthcare in the U.S. is challenging for many, but especially for individuals from low-income and immigrant backgrounds. My research asks: How do individuals from these communities navigate the healthcare system, and what barriers and resources shape their experiences? While much existing research has focused on health outcomes, this project focuses on the process of accessing care itself—how individuals recognize needs, seek services, and confront obstacles along the way.

Existing studies show that access to care is shaped by insurance status, financial barriers, language differences, and trust in healthcare institutions. For example, the author DeVoe et al. (2007) found that having insurance doesn’t always guarantee actual access to services. Further, Ngondwe et al. (2024) emphasized that immigrant communities often face additional bureaucratic and cultural hurdles. Given limited primary data collection, I analyzed trends across multiple major scholarly sources to anticipate key themes my survey was designed to capture.

The original study design involved creating an anonymous online survey distributed through community centers, hospitals, and doctors’ offices. The survey included multiple-choice and open-ended questions aimed at individuals identifying as low-income and/or immigrants. Participants were asked about their experiences navigating healthcare, including barriers encountered and resources utilized. Although direct survey responses were limited this semester, the survey framework was developed and approved for community distribution.

Using peer-reviewed studies as reference, several consistent themes were identified. For Barriers: High healthcare costs, insurance gaps, communication difficulties, and transportation challenges were identified. For Facilitators: Access to community health centers, family support systems, and bilingual healthcare providers were identified.  It is important to note that even individuals with insurance often struggled with actual access to needed services, showing that coverage alone is not enough.

Due to timing constraints, comprehensive primary data could not be collected during the allotted time. The current findings are based on anticipated trends and literature synthesis rather than direct participant responses. This limitation highlights the need for continued participant outreach to fully validate the study’s themes.

Moving forward, I plan to continue gathering survey responses through additional outreach at community centers and clinics. Once a robust sample is collected, I will perform a qualitative analysis using open codebook methods. This process will allow for the identification of emergent patterns directly from participants’ narratives, strengthening the study’s contributions to healthcare policy and access research.

So what are the implications, well, the findings suggest that reforms must go beyond expanding insurance access to address cultural, logistical, and systemic barriers. Community-driven solutions and culturally competent healthcare systems are critical to bridging gaps in access. This project reinforces the importance of centering underserved voices in future healthcare policy discussions.

I would like to thank Dr. Silver, my mentor, for his ongoing support and guidance. I would also like to thank the OSCAR URSP for funding this research, and I would like to thank the Department of social science at George Mason University. That concludes my presentation. Thank you for your time and attention.