Category: OSCAR

Theatrical Trends in Contemporary Dance Allow Audiences to Reclaim the Arts

Author(s): Jessica Brown

Mentor(s): Susan Shields, Dance

The field of contemporary dance is currently riddled with a tragic misdiagnosis: that it’s not for everyone. This misconception is violating the innate human connection between artist and performer, and it’s overriding the central goal of contemporary dance: to make people feel something.
This research seeks to identify what may be done to make contemporary dance more accessible to the greater public. More specifically, it looks at what effect theatrical trends in contemporary dance have on audience understanding, emotional reaction, and retention of meaning during a dance performance.
This study utilizes a piece of contemporary dance choreography as a demonstration in a comparative experiment. The piece is manipulated in two ways: one version is an abstract minimal performance and the other is embedded with current theatrical trends (such as elaborate costuming, props, and mixed-media elements). Students enrolled in a general education dance course, will view the performances, complete a short survey immediately after, and a week following the performance. These results will be used to assess their understanding of the narrative of the work, their personal emotional reaction, and their retention of the main ideas.
It’s expected that greater understanding will occur through viewing the theatrical piece, as it would allow the audience to engage with multiple artistic elements as opposed to independent abstract movement.
These results are vital to the sustainability of the dance world as well as the richness of our communities. Exposure to artistic expression is key in generating greater empathy, collaboration, and creativity in our communities.

Where does art fit into your life? Or more specifically, where does dance fit in? When you are stuck in your nine to five, and have everything else in the world to do, why would you go to see dance or spare time thinking about it? While we can’t exactly answer that for you, we can at least try to help!

Hi. I’m Jessica Brown a Sophomore dance major at George Mason University with a grant from OSCAR to pursue research into the accessibility of contemporary dance. Me and my mentor Susan Shields, a long time professor and previous director of the school of dance at George Mason, want to figure out what we can do to make you feel that you belong in the contemporary dance world.

When we ask people about their views on contemporary dance, they tell us that they think it is cool, but they just don’t get it! They feel intimidated and have been conditioned to thing that their interpretations are wrong.

So, we got the whole dance department together from dancers, to directors, to costume techs and more, to conduct a study assessing what elements of a contemporary dance performance are best at improving understanding.

This is Anna Lopez. A third year student who so generously allowed us to use a piece she choreographed for the sake of our research study. And these are some of her amazing dancers who will be performing for our subject group.

To start the study, we took her original piece of choreography and created two separate extreme versions to use as performance demonstrations.

The first version is incredibly theatrical â€” it uses more props, costuming, lighting and stage design to tell the original story of her work.

The other version however, is very minimal. It tells the same story, but with none of these additions, only the movement.

In terms of operating the study, we have set up a comparative experiment that uses these two altered versions of the same dance to asses which is more meaningful to a specific subject group. Our subject groups is made of the lovely students that are enrolled in school of dance general education classes for the spring semester 2023.

These students have a basic understanding of dance and a baseline interest in the form but have not started the act of choreographing or directing. This makes them the perfect target audience for our study.

The study takes place in Harris theater where half the subject group will observe the more abstract version of the piece, and the other half will watch the theatrical version.

From there we will ask them to complete a survey immediately after viewing it as well as a week following the experiment.

We are asking them about their emotional reactions, their understanding of the concept and moral meaning of the dance and asking them if they would pay to watch a show like this in the future.

Susan and I will compare these results and asses whether or not theatrical performance elements had any affect on audience understanding and retention of meaning in a contemporary dance performance.

This study is so special to us because it is the first of its kind to happen in our department. It is not often that we as dancers have the time or the funding to pursue scholarly study within such a personal artistic practice. But the entire school of dance has come together to support our efforts and we are therefore paving the way for future dancers and artists to take similar academic risks.

Furthermore, as a society and culture we depend and thrive on art. It stimulates our ability to collaborate, connect with others, and think critically about the values that we hold.

We are thoroughly excited to see what comes of this study and expect it to be nothing other than groundbreaking.

Thank you for watching and we hope to see you in the theater soon!

College of Engineering and Computing College of Humanities and Social Science College of Science Honors College OSCAR Schar School of Policy and Government

Code Red

Author(s): Brookelyn Martinez, Bryson Amorese, Kate Strickland, Rheanna Tackeberry, Skye Johnson

Mentor(s): Toni Farris, Honors Department

https://youtu.be/7CcaFx9Jw7w

Code Red is a student-led project aimed at combating period poverty at George Mason University. The project was initiated in response to the growing concern of the inaccessibility of period products for women who struggle to afford them. The project adopted a multi-faceted approach that included writing to congressional representatives, donating period products to women’s shelters, and making informational posters.

The project’s first objective was to raise awareness of the issue of period poverty among policymakers. Members of the project wrote letters to their congressional representatives, urging them to support legislation that would make period products more accessible and affordable. The letters highlighted the challenges that women face in accessing menstrual products, especially those who live in poverty or experience homelessness. They also emphasized the importance of menstrual hygiene in preventing health issues such as infections and reproductive disorders.

The project’s second objective was to provide period products to women who cannot afford them. Code Red partnered with local women’s shelters and donated a range of menstrual products, including tampons, pads, and menstrual cups. These donations helped to ensure that women in need have access to basic menstrual hygiene products and can manage their periods with dignity and without shame.

Finally, Code Red aimed to educate the campus community about period poverty and its impact on women’s lives. The project created informational posters that were displayed around campus to raise awareness about the issue. The posters included information about period poverty, its causes, and its consequences, as well as tips for supporting women who experience it.

Our group code red is choosing to look
at the conflict of period poverty. Period poverty is described as the phenomenon
of being unable to afford products such
as pads tampons or liners to manage
menstrual bleeding in lieu of Sanitary
products Many people are forced to use
items like rags paper towels toilet
paper cardboard. This conflict affects
all sorts of women throughout the world,
in fact according to an article
published by medical newsstoday.com 500
million menstruating women lack access
to proper products. The article also
mentions a significant part of the issue
which is tax. As of June 2019, 35 states
in the U.S taxed menstrual products at
rates between 4.7 percent in Hawaii and
9.9 percent in Louisiana. This is not a new
occurrence for women as something known
as the pink tax exists. This is when
products marketed towards women are
taxed higher than the products marketed
toward their male counterparts. This is
part of the issue but the major issue is
still at hand. Women cannot afford the
products necessary to handle their
menstrual cycles. There are some options
to help out those who cannot afford the
products, these options include the
machines that can be found in public
bathrooms that women can put a quarter
in and get a menstrual product however
the issue with this option is that the
machines are rarely filled and when they
are filled the products are toxic and of
poor quality. Even the options given to
try and Aid with period poverty are
executed poorly. Our group wants to find
ways to help women who suffer from
period poverty get the products they
need as well as trying to make a change
to reduce period poverty. Women all
around the world grapple with the
inequities of being able to successfully
equip necessary menstrual items as a
result many are forced to experience the
burdens. Menstrual products are not a
need they are a necessity.
Social economic factors
disproportionately impact lower and
middle class consumers. Both groups
experience significant pressure from the
manufacturers and retail parties To
maintain that relationship the main goal
of the manufacturing party is
accumulating profit. one may directly
examine the underlying interests
positions and objectives of all parties
involved in the following conflict map
our conflict map covering period poverty
is complicated to say the least as there
are many variables when it comes to
accessible administrators health. For
parties we started with the
manufacturers retailers the middle class
and the lower class the main interest of
both the manufacturers and retailers is
profit despite what might happen to
Consumers. consumers are often loyal to a
company because it is what they have
known whether they have been exposed to
it by other consumers or happened upon
it. people are creatures of habit and
tend to stick to certain products
although companies have a loyal consumer
base because of the necessity of period
products if pushed too far their
base will dwindle. for consumers these
products are vital for Health Care
however because of this neither the
middle upper class nor the lower class
can get out of their relationship with
the producers and retailers
for middle class and upper class
consumers
because they oftentimes have access to
less harmful products and sexual health
education they’re less likely to get
illnesses like toxic shock syndrome
which are more often caused by poor
quality period products they therefore
have the means in education to invest
more in reproductive Health Products
lower class consumers do not have this
luxury
while both groups have a desire for safe
affordable products cheaper products
oftentimes contain harsher chemicals
that create dangers to Consumers due to
menstrual products being advertised as
pure to promote the idea of sterility
and safety in order to achieve this
whiteness bleaches chlorine carcinogens
and other reproductive toxins are added
these chemicals have been directly
linked to poor sexual health

so what is the advocacy plan for code
red in order to actively fight against
the effects we have taken approach to
address all issues of period poverty
which many women in our community deal
with we have identified three courses of
action that will make a meaningful
difference in the lives of those
affected by this pressing issue
our first step is providing immediate
relief to those experiencing the effects
of period poverty the second is to
openly educate students and members of
our community on the very important
issue that many women face and lastly
advocacy petitioning those who allow
period poverty to continue its harm
these all will make a significant
difference in addressing the issue of
period poverty and hopefully one day
ending it
action taken by code red includes all of
these options
the first course of action we have taken
is to provide immediate relief to those
affected by period poverty in order to
achieve this goal we have collected from
our community at Mason Gathering
essential menstrual products for
distribution to those in need
these products were donated to Greater
DC diaper bank and in addition to a
local women’s shelter called new
Endeavors that focuses on setting women
up to become self-sufficient by donating
to local organizations and shelters we
hope to make these products easily
acceptable to those who require them
the second course of action we have
taken is to openly educate students and
members of our community on the very
important issue of period poverty in
order to achieve this goal we have
created a comprehensive poster to raise
awareness of the issue that highlights
the detrimental reality of the effects
of period poverty and in addition to how
individuals can also play a role in
diminishing it
lastly we launched the petition to put pressure on
those who allow period poverty to
continue its harm by creating a template
email we encourage members of our
community to reach out there to their
elected officials including senators
congressperson and local legislators our
hope is that by a collective effort to
advocate for change we can create a
large amount of support that no one can
ignore

when it comes to the impacts of our
advocacy plan and action taken we have
short and long-term impacts long-term
impacts include educating people about
period poverty and spreading the word on
what they can do to help address the
issue also by reaching out to
legislators we expressed Our concern
over period poverty and our desires for
them to address the issue as for
short-term impacts this included making
donations of collected supplies to a
women’s shelter that will directly help
women locally that are struggling with
period poverty
some challenges that we have faced while
taking action against period poverty was
trying to educate people and get them
passionate about a topic that may not
directly affect them it could
be difficult to get people to care about
an issue that they are unfamiliar with
another challenge was patients people
want immediate results but a problem
like period poverty that has been
happening for a long time is going to
take some time to be addressed and
immediate results are unfortunately
unlikely

College of Humanities and Social Science Honors College OSCAR

Stopping the Spiral with Social Robots? Attitudes on Loneliness and Artificial Agents as Intervention in University Students

Author(s): Kylee Kennerly

Mentor(s): Elizabeth Phillips, Psychology

Across the world, loneliness has been increasing in the populations, with young adults within the university population, ages 18-24, experiencing the greatest rises in the amount of lonely individuals and amount of loneliness experienced by these individuals. Social technologies, in the form of artificial agents, may be capable of aiding young adults in managing their feelings of loneliness. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of loneliness through an extensive overview of the collegiate population. Within this study, we sought to identify the individuals most vulnerable to chronic loneliness, decipher the associated outcomes, and determine if technological services could serve as a viable method of intervention for some or all populations.
The study was conducted with 225 Mid-Atlantic university students, who completed an online survey regarding social experiences on campus and technology with a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Using the UCLA Loneliness Scale, we found that the sample displayed significant amounts of loneliness (M = 46.98, SD = 9.82), with LGBTQ+ individuals experiencing greater amounts of loneliness compared to their straight or cisgendered peers. Participants displayed somewhat positive feelings towards artificial agents as a potential intervention in loneliness, most highly rating Joy-For-All Companion Pet robots as an effective form of potential aid. The sample also displayed a weak positive association between maladaptive coping skills and loneliness, but no direction can be established.
Further research should further investigate causes of loneliness in university students, mental wellbeing of students, and attitudes towards different interventions in loneliness.

Hello! My name is Lee Kennerly. For the 2023 spring semester of URSP, I created a study entitled “Stopping the Spiral with Social Robots? Attitudes on Loneliness and Artificial Agents in University Students”. I was mentored by Dr. Elizabeth Phillips in the Psychology Department.

To give some context on my study: Nationwide, rates of loneliness have been increasing, with young adults experiencing the greatest increase of loneliness. These rates have been increasing over the past couple of years. But in particular, there’s been an increase since COVID-19, and this increase has not gone back down.

Chronic feelings of loneliness can create consequences such as depression, anxiety, delinquency, tiredness, and many other things which can be very impactful on a person’s life. Loneliness is also considered to be spiraling, which means that…let’s say, a person is experiencing depression because of their loneliness. Well, their depression can also lead to feelings of more loneliness. This creates a sort of cycle that can be very difficult for individuals to get out of. And for some, external intervention may be needed to help them.

One intervention that has been researched recently has been the idea of artificial agents or robots being used to help relieve feelings of loneliness. So, within this study, I wanted to look at rates of loneliness within George Mason University students and whether they would be interested or accepting of artificial agents to help with feelings of loneliness.

For this study, I created a survey for George Mason students to take to evaluate their attitudes on loneliness and artificial agents or robots. So, students answered a questionnaire that contained many items, such as demographic information; stuff based on their race, their age, or gender–things like that. As well as looking at feelings of loneliness, anxiety, stress, attitude towards robots and many more things. Within this specific study, we mostly looked at demographic information, the UCLA loneliness, scale, and attitudes towards robots.

After completing these surveys, students then rated their opinions on 4 different kinds of artificial agents. The human Avatar AI chat companion is a type of artificial agent that you interact with on something like a computer screen or a mobile phone screen where you can text or talk physically to an AI companion with an avatar and they will respond back to you. With the text-based AI chat companion: this is also one that you interact with through a screen where you can type to it, and they will type responses back to you. With the Joy-For-All Companion Pet robots: these are physical artificial agents that you can hold that will be able to run around or play with, and generally interact with individuals in a physical space. And the NAO Robot is also an artificial agent that can be used physically, and it has capabilities of things such as singing, dancing, talking, and walking.

From this study I found that the sample of students exhibited significant amounts of loneliness, with approximately 90% students experiencing moderate loneliness or greater, 44% experiencing moderately high loneliness or greater, and 4% experiencing high loneliness. These rates are considered fairly high for most samples, but they are pretty consistent for samples that specifically measure individuals in the 18-to-24 age range or the university students demographic. The survey also revealed that LGBTQ+ individuals exhibited significantly greater amounts of loneliness than their cisgender and or heterosexual peers.

Within the sample, students were fairly receptive of the idea of artificial agents potentially being an intervention for feelings of loneliness. The Joy-For-All Companion Pet Robot received the greatest amount of positive endorsements as an intervention for improving feelings of loneliness.

For further steps with this project, I would like to study the interactions between demographics and opinions on technology, artificial agents, and robots to see if there are any preferences based on demographic information such as race, age, or gender. I would like to look further into the George Mason University mental health landscape within the sample of students. I collected information on students’ anxiety, stress, depression, and other traits, and I would like to see where these are at with the sample as well as if any demographics are particularly vulnerable to any of those factors. And I would like to create comprehensive reports of these findings and discuss with the George Mason Student Life Faculty, or University Life Faculty, if artificial agents could be an appropriate intervention for feelings of loneliness and students at George Mason University.

So overall, that is my project for the URSP semester. Any questions, comments, or suggestions can be left in the comments section of this video, or I can be contacted with my school email, which is K K E N N E R [email protected]. Thank you so much for listening!

College of Science OSCAR

Switchbacks and Salinity: The Effects of Environmental Degradation on Tadpole Defense Mechanisms

Author(s): Layla Hasanzadah

Mentor(s): Laina Lockett, Stearns Center & Department of Environmental Science and Policy

Over the last 25 years, climate change has progressively worsened, leading to increased salinization of freshwater habitats in North America and causing widespread degradation of aquatic environments. This degradation is often caused by increased wintertime runoff containing road salts. These environments are often home to vulnerable wildlife, such as tadpoles. Tadpoles have been found to experience higher predation rates, slower burst-speed performance, and developmental and anatomical limitations after chronic exposure to increased salinity. Tadpoles may perform switchbacks when confronted with stressful stimuli (i.e., predators), in which they enact 180Â° turns, potentially rushing toward a source of danger instead of away. In this study, pickerel frog tadpoles (Lithobates palustris) were collected from a New Jersey wetland and exposed to three increasing levels of salinity. Switchbacks were counted in 3-minute trials where tadpoles were forced to swim in an O-shaped apparatus after an initial, 15-minute exposure to NaCl at their test concentration. After conducting an ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) and a Tukey’s HSD (Honestly Significant Difference) test, we found that there was a statistically significant difference between some treatment groups. These results suggest that exposure to road salts and other forms of salinization may impact tadpole defense mechanisms, though further experimentation is needed.

These days, we have become perhaps too familiar with the wide-reaching effects of climate change on everything from human health to weather patterns. However, a thing often overlooked is the indirect consequences of these effects on habitats other than our own. With natural disasters and pollution on the rise, animal species across the globe are currently having to adapt and survive in some of the most extreme and unnatural conditions to date. Frog species are no exception, especially during their most vulnerable life stage as a tadpole. Tadpoles are particularly susceptible to illness and even death for a variety of reasons. To start, tadpoles emerge from jelly-like, exposed eggs that their mothers lay en masse in bodies of water, leaving them somewhat defenseless against increasing aquatic pollution.

During this next stage as tadpoles, many developmental milestones occur that ensure the survival of these future frogs, all while their skin is still quite permeable to the environment. A pollutant of concern for tadpoles in North America, what with increasing runoff, is the leaching of road salts from urban areas into local bodies of water. Road salt usage during the wintertime has increased drastically in the US in the past 50 years, leaving experts concerned about runoff in local watersheds.

In prior studies, it has been found that unnatural salinization of tadpole habitats leads to higher predation rates, slower burst-speed performance, and developmental and anatomical limitations. In this study, I aimed to analyze the impacts unnatural salinization has on a newly discovered tadpole defense mechanism: switchbacks. Switchbacks occur when tadpoles perform 180-degree turns while actively swimming, potentially turning towards a predator or other stressful stimulus.

Switchbacks have not been widely studied, so we decided to further the limited research regarding this unique aspect of tadpole defense. Prior to experimentation, Pickerel frog tadpoles, otherwise known as Lithobates palustris, were collected from Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Monmouth County, New Jersey, from May 14th to 17th 2020. Experimentation occurred outdoors due to the constraints of the pandemic. In our study, tadpoles were exposed to a control and three different levels of salinity: 0, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2M NaCl.

After an acute 15-minute exposure, the tadpoles were forced to swim in an O-shaped apparatus for 3-minute trials, and the number of switchbacks were counted. Tadpoles were gently prodded with a rubber spatula after each 5 second interval of inactivity during the trials to both provide a stressful stimulus and encourage continuous swimming. An ANOVA test and Tukey’s post hoc test were used to determine the statistical significance of the results. After analysis, we found that only two of the six salinity level comparisons’ switchback differences were statistically significant: 0.05-0.1M and 0-0.2M.

These results imply that salinity may have some impact on tadpole defense mechanisms, but further experimentation is needed to determine the extent. Future experimentation would benefit from performing a MANOVA analysis testing whether switchback count and lateralization are correlated and adding additional salinity levels. Special thanks to OSCAR for our funding and to Dr. Tina Bell for making this project a reality. Thanks for watching!

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Artificial Star Laser Controller for Telescope Calibration

Author(s): Lina Alkarmi

Mentor(s): Peter Pachowicz, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ground and space-based telescopes are often calibrated using a network of “standard starsâ€ that are used as reference points. Currently, astronomers use the star “Vega’ as a reference point for calibration; however, modern methods such as the use of an artificial star are needed to increase the accuracy of the calibration. The goal of this project is to design a high precision laser controller to be flown on a spacecraft, which will provide a reliable and accurate laser light source to serve as an artificial star reference point for telescope calibration. Given the intended use of this laser controller, its error must be extremely low. Otherwise, fluctuations in the laser may cause improper calibration of the telescopes. This project aims for a percent error of less than 0.25% for the controller. Factors that can cause fluctuations in the laser output are temperature as well as the current supplied to it. In this project, a laser mockup design was created with thermistors and current sensors used to research the laser’s performance under different operating conditions. After designing and printing the laser mockup printed circuit board (PCB), preliminary results suggest that thermoelectric cooling (TEC) can properly maintain the temperature of the mockup to avoid fluctuation. Applications of this project arise in a variety of scientific fields. This laser controller will be used to calibrate telescopes that detect and analyze exoplanets and black holes, including the GMU telescope.

Hi everybody my name is Lina and I am a junior electrical engineering student here at GMU, and I’m presenting my project which is creating an artificial star laser controller to calibrate telescopes.

So starting off by talking about how telescopes are calibrated, what you need
is a reference star. Basically this is a base of all your measurements, and what you do is you can measure the light coming out from the Star and then you
can compare it to what is known for the reference star. So if they match, then your telescope is calibrated properly, and if they don’t match you can adjust
your settings.

So currently all SI traceable astronomical measurements are based on
measurements from one star named Vega that were taken in the 1970s which is a pretty long time ago. With modern astrophysics you need a
lot more precision and accuracy, so NASA and NIST need a new method to calibrate their telescopes so that way they can have more accurate measurements. Some other methods that you can use to calibrate a telescope is using an artificial star which is basically a very strong laser that’s also very
precise, and this way you can use it to act as a reference star instead of using
an actual star so this way you can control the light intensity. The goal of my project is creating a very high precision laser controller that will be flown on the spacecraft and will act as an artificial star to calibrate telescopes, and my goal is to have a very low percent error less than 0.25 percent. So here’s a block diagram of my full system so we have the laser driver which is supplying current to the laser itself and then we have the TEC controller
which is used as thermoelectric cooling which will control the temperature and keep it steady for the laser. Then we have two ADCs and then we have it all connected to a Raspberry Pi.
Taking a closer look at the laser driver, it has five volt DC power and
then it has these inputs so you can control the levels of the light intensity of the laser and current level. Then it has all these outputs that we’re going to track.
It’s the same thing with the TEC controller, so we have the temperature setting, the voltage setting, and then we have all of these outputs that will
tell us it’s working properly and that will sense the temperature and the
current.
Here’s a photo of my first prototype that I’ve been testing. This one has
the laser mock-up on it, so the two diodes right here and then it has a fan,
a heat sink, and then it has the TEC module which will maintain a steady
temperature right underneath the heat sink, and you can kind of see it in the
side view but the two wires here the red one and the black one are for the TEC. Maintaining steady temperature is really important to keeping the error
low so I designed a quick experiment to make sure that the TEC was working
properly. So the way the TEC works is that it can either heat or cool depending on the direction of the current, so if your current is forward then it’s heating and if your current is reversed then it’s cooling. I had three trials with three different current levels 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 A, and then I tested how well the TEC worked for all of them.
Basically I measured how long it took for the temperature to peak and then I
measured the maximum and the minimum temperatures for each one as you can see it here in the plots. For the first trial with 0.25 amps we have the temperature increasing up until about 30 degrees Celsius where it peaked,
and then I turned off the supply at 100 seconds which is when the peak time was, and then you can see it cool back down to room temperature. Then for reverse current, the orange one, it does the same thing but this time it’s cooling and then heating back up. For trial two it looks about the same, but the temperature time was a lot faster at 60 seconds this time versus
100 from before and the peaks are also a lot taller. Same thing for trial three with 0.75 amps, so this time peak temperature is at 58 seconds and the maximum and the minimum temperatures are a lot higher
than they were before.
Basically that tells us that TEC works properly and you can control the amount of current to control how fast you want it to heat up or what your
temperature is desired to be. Right now what I’m still working on is putting everything together and interfacing it with Raspberry Pi. I’m working on doing breakout boards like this one that you can see here, that will make
sure each chip is working properly before I put them all together.
Finally some applications of my project are calibrating NASA and NIST telescopes as well as the GMU telescope. They can also use this for dark
matter calculations and finding new exoplanets and black holes.
Thank you so much for watching!

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Purification of DNA Origami Nanoparticles

Author(s): Mahin Chowdhury

Mentor(s): Remi Veneziano, Bioengineering

The main purpose of this undergraduate research project is to find a more efficient and viable method of purifying DNA origami nanoparticles with the intent of increasing its product yield. Based on studies such as “DNA Origami Presenting the Receptor Binding Domain of SARS-CoV-2 Elicit Robust Protective Immune Responseâ€ by Veneziano et al., the most optimal method for purification currently is to use filtration-based ultracentrifugation. The filters, AmiconUltra, assist in separating the desired nanoparticle structures from residual particles, oligonucleotides, or byproducts. However, this method of purification often leads to a low yield of DNA nanoparticles, which is not optimal to reproduce within a clinical or industrial environment. Due to this matter, the objective of the project is to test multiple purification methods and identify the best method (including the current method). These methods include the usage of filters with different membrane compositions, column-based bead purification, and others. The expectation set for this project is to observe and analyze the results of purification from each method, and depict the best method based on the yield.

WEBVTT

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Mahin Chowdhury: Alright, Hello! My name is Mahin Chowdhury, and this and this is ‘The Purification of DNA Origami Nanoparticles’. Firstly, I would like to thank Dr. Remi Veneziano for helping me with with this project from start to finish, and I would also like to thank the Oscar program for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So the overview of the project: DNA origami nanoparticles is a new vaccination method that represents the next generation of vaccine delivery to fight infectious diseases. The current method towards purifying these nanoparticles relies upon ultracentrifugation, using Amicon Ultra filters which typically result in a low yield

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00:00:37.060 –> 00:00:38.860
Mahin Chowdhury: In a laboratory environment this is-

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00:00:38.940 –> 00:00:40.710
Mahin Chowdhury: -standard, pretty all right.

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00:00:40.760 –> 00:00:57.070
Mahin Chowdhury: However, if you were to scale this up to the industrial level, it becomes a lot more complicated, as this will increase costs to manufacture and produce the nanoparticles. So the main objective is to find a way that that that could help reduce the cost or

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00:00:57.100 –> 00:01:00.760
Mahin Chowdhury: purify the the structures as much as possible

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00:01:02.340 –> 00:01:08.960
Mahin Chowdhury: The methods that we will be using: So we will be using 3 different DNA nanoparticles of

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Mahin Chowdhury: 3 different sizes, basically a 6-Helix Bundle, which is referred to as 6HB. Pentagonal Bipyramidal (PB), and Pentakis Dodecahedron (PD). As I mentioned, before, these particles are different than one another.

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00:01:22.730 –> 00:01:33.020
Mahin Chowdhury: They have different properties, shaped differently. There are some similarities between 6HB and PB in terms of size (base pairs).

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Mahin Chowdhury: Pentakis Dodecahedron, on the other hand, is a lot bigger.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So we will be trying to purify these 3 types of nanoparticles, using the methods shown below

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Mahin Chowdhury: The first method we use is the regenerated cellulose membrane filter. As you can see, we have the experimental concentrations retrieved from the trials and the theoretical that was calculated, based on the volume of a retrieved at the end of the trial.

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Mahin Chowdhury: As you can see, there are some differences between the theoretical and the experimental concentrations. I encourage you that you please pause and look through these diagrams.

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Mahin Chowdhury: These diagrams / data would be compared to the agrose gel that we collected via a gel electrophoresis.

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Mahin Chowdhury: These bright bands are the nanoparticles. These bands below are the staple strands, or any byproducts that may come off from purifying the actual nanoparticles.

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Mahin Chowdhury: These are what we’re trying to get rid of essentially, as you can see.

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Mahin Chowdhury: The brightness indicates the concentration of both the nanoparticles and the staple strands.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So the brighter it is, the more concentrated it is. Meaning, there’s more of it; there’s a lot in the actual solution.

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Mahin Chowdhury: As you can see the 30kDa, based on the each structure. You can see that each band becomes fainter and fainter as you go up the scale for the filters, which indicates that the filters

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Mahin Chowdhury: do purify the staple strands or byproducts as much as possible.

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Mahin Chowdhury: Moving onto trial 2.

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Mahin Chowdhury: We can see that it is also a little bit consistent in comparison to trial one, and

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Mahin Chowdhury: if you compare it to the gel from electrophoresis

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Mahin Chowdhury: you can see that these bands become faint or barely visible, which shows that it has become pretty pure, and

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Mahin Chowdhury: could often indicate that some based on the comparison with the theoretical and the experimental, we can determine whether or not we lost the majority of the nanoparticles, or we retain them, in which case some we lose a lot, and some we aren’t able to purify as much

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Mahin Chowdhury: Moving on the Spin X polyethersulfone filters.

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Mahin Chowdhury: These filters are used in the similar method with the Cellulose filters. As you can see-

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Mahin Chowdhury: -you have the 6HB. Which is similar in the theoretical and experimental. However, if you were to compare it to the agarose gel, you have a lot of stable strands, so you can’t always rely upon the numerical data / figure. You have to use both the data and the visual gel.

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Mahin Chowdhury: In which case you can see that many for, trial one at least, many of these are not that pure

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Mahin Chowdhury: Moving onto trial 2, using the same gel, it’s pretty consistent, not as pure as it would seem.

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Mahin Chowdhury: Especially for PD, since the bands are very bright.

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Mahin Chowdhury: The Spin Kleen columns by Bio-Rad. They have a very high theoretical concentration, but a low experimental, which typically indicates that we we lost a lot more of the nanoparticles, and, as you can see here.

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Mahin Chowdhury: we actually have a a lot more nanoparticles

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Mahin Chowdhury: band of nanoparticles, but not a band for the staple strand, which means that we were able to purify it. However, at the cost we lost a lot of product.

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Mahin Chowdhury: The same is consistent with trial, 2, in which case trial 2 also had some consist of the same consistency as trial one. We lost a lot more of the nanoparticles, but we were able to purify as much as we could.

36
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Mahin Chowdhury: Moving on to this Zbba spin desalting columns, we could see that the experimental concentration is really high compared to the theoretical concentration, and this is also backed up by the bands. The staple strand bands that we see here, especially for PD. Which are pretty bright, indicating that these are not as pure as it should be.

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Mahin Chowdhury: The same thing goes with the trial 2 same consistency.

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Mahin Chowdhury: It just shows that these are these columns are not a viable method towards purifying the nanoparticles.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So the conclusions

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Mahin Chowdhury: Based on the data, many different nanoparticles are best purified by a specific method. PD, for instance, is very well purified, using the 100kDa cellulose membrane filter

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Mahin Chowdhury: There is still some access that you may have, but

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Mahin Chowdhury: you still have a good amount of nanoparticles. The same goes with the other nanoparticles. They all have a different type of purification yield, depending on whether or not the method, the method, whether filter or column, can purify, based on its structure and size.

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Mahin Chowdhury: so as they as dated for some methods would just result in a setting pure structure, but with a high yield. Other structures

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Mahin Chowdhury: have a very pure structure, but a low you.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So is this optimal for industrialization?

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Mahin Chowdhury: Not as much.

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Mahin Chowdhury: It could be better, but it is mainly because we just don’t have a very viable method at this point right now. The current method is still the best method.

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Mahin Chowdhury: On the other hand, we were able to find that many different structures are purified better with different methods.

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Mahin Chowdhury: better way to purify each structure based on a different method that we can use.

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Mahin Chowdhury: So what’s next? The next? The next step is to continue searching for a better better solution. This is not the end. This is merely the beginning of finding a better way to purify these nanoparticles.

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Mahin Chowdhury: depending on the size or shape. we just have to find something that works for that specific nanoparticle.

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Mahin Chowdhury: Thank you so much for listening to my presentation. Please leave any questions if you have any. Once again. Thank you so much to Dr. Veneziano and the Oscar program, and thank you again for listening to my presentation. I hope you have a great one.

College of Public Health OSCAR

The Structural Determinants of Health: How Structural Racism Facilitates Community Violence in Washington, DC

Author(s): Nadia Altaher

Mentor(s): Debora Goldberg, Public Health

https://youtu.be/8ovMauNmhqE

Racism is deeply embedded in social determinants of health, establishing racial health inequities in populations of color. Recent measures have been taken to address this issue in Washington, DC including the 2020 Racial Equity Achieves Results (REACH) Amendment Act, which focuses on racial equity, social justice, and economic inclusion. To further these efforts, there is a need to understand the relationship between structural racism, unemployment, poverty, and violence. This research explores the correlation between historic racism, social determinants of health, housing policies, and community violence in Washington, DC. Methods include mapping racial covenants from 1940 to 2010, neighborhood displacement, and social determinants of health. Current mortgage lending in the neighborhoods across the city was used to measure the housing market and lending discrimination. Demographic data, drawn from various sources, were used to measure social determinants of health across statistical neighborhoods. Findings indicate Wards 5, 7 and 8, in South and Eastern parts of DC, have the highest rates of crime, unemployment and concentrated poverty, lowest house lending rates, and experienced the most housing displacement from 1940-2010. The district’s racial dissimilarity index of 70.9 indicates that the city is still highly segregated and that zip codes play a significant role in individual health and exposure to violence. To achieve health equity, measures must be taken to dismantle structural racism that include community based participatory research and policies that incorporate a historical context of the problem as well as voices of community members.

Hello, everyone. My name is Nadia Altaher. And today I’ll be discussing my research project on the structural determinants of health, specifically how systemic racism facilitates community violence in Washington, DC.

So what is structural racism? Why is it important? It is a product of history but has adapted its contexts over time to create conditions that allow for worse health outcomes in racially marginalized populations. And we still see these worse health outcomes and disparities today as we higher rates of maternal mortality, lower life expectancy, and worse mental health outcomes among racially marginalized populations. It permeates in the various social determinants of health which is the environment in which people live, work, and play. And determines a lot of out health outcomes. As you guys can see, health equity and health equality are completely different as health equity strives to provide greater resources and attention to disadvantaged populations. Structural racism is a driving force many of these health inequities we see today.

So why conduct this research? Well, previous research has shown that mental health problems are more prominent among populations experiencing racism or discrimination. While young individuals are disproportionately impacted by community violence, certain populations are more at risk than others, specifically those experiencing systemic racism, bias, discrimination – which all impact adverse childhood experiences and the environment in which they grow up in. So drivers for violence impact communities of color and place residents at greater risk for poor mental health outcomes, tying metnal health and community violence aspects and their social determinants together. So I wanted to look at this theoretical framework between historic racism, social determinants of health, as well as housing and lending policies in DC as they have affected gentrification, community demographics, as well as community displacement over time. I did this by measuring racial covenants from 1940 to 2010, looking at current and previous housing and lending policies, as well as demographic data from DC department of health.

So my results have found that Wards 5, 7, and 8 – historically black neighborhoods (according to the Racial Covenants) are characterized by the highest poverty rates, gross rent rates, and violence mortality rates. They also have the lowest life expectancy, educational attainment, and income levels.

They are coincidentally make up the majority of the Non-Hispanic Black community as 93.7% to 98% are located in Southeast and Northeast DC. While the non-Hispanic White population is about 61.1% to 72.8% in Northwest and Southwest DC. Ward 3, the highest percentage of White Americans has a higher life expectancy by 16 years compared to Ward 8 which also has a 6 times higher rate of infant mortality, which is also an indicator for systemic racism.

I also wanted to point out that the racial dissimilarity index in DC is 70.9, meaning that 70.9% of White residents would have to move to achieve complete White/Black integration in the city, concluding that the city continues to be highly segregated.

The DC homicide rate is 16.0 per 100,000. That might seem low, but it is three times higher than the national average of 5.3. 74% come from firearms and 26% from suicides. But the most important thing to look at is that 94% of the victims were Black and 88% were males living in Wards 5, 7, and 8. As you guys can see the browner the color, the higher the violence mortality rate.

So this is a table I created looking at the population make up of these wards and their current social determinants such as violence mortality rate, life expectancy, median income, and unemployment. And how they drastically change looking at the Wards 1-3 from Wards 5-8.

So I wanted to look at the DC housing and redlining policies as they have impacted the placement of housing that people currently have in the city. So historic redlining comes from the 1933 New Deal Project which used to further segregation efforts by refusing to lend mortgages in neighborhoods of color while ensuring mortgages and reinvestments in white neighborhoods. It led to lasting impacts of generational wealth and property ownership as Black individuals were less likely to own a property of value and live in disinvested communities that were deliberately maintained by racial segregation. According to a study done on DC Housing in 2005, less than 10% of lending applicants in underserved census tracts were denied loans inequitably. And many public housing projects have been slated for private redevelopment, adding to existing waitlists for rent vouchers to assist underserved populations for private housing.

So what does all this mean? Why is it important? Why should we address this? So drivers for structural determinants of health have a long-standing impact on community violence in Washington, DC. Community trauma from adverse childhood experiences stemming from concentrated poverty, low-quality housing, and community segregation from redlining practices during the Jim Crow Era play a significant role in perpetuating community violence to this day. It was found that the availability of affordable housing shapes families’ choices on where they live and has the potential to relocate low-income families to substandard housing in neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty and crime, and fewer health care services.

So my conclusion from this research project was to look more into the anti-racist housing policies to understand gentrification and violence in low-income DC neighborhood and understanding the historical contexts that allowed for current community demographics and individual displacement. I also wanted to look more into how we can prevent crime and invest in community safety – what changes must be made to community infrastructure involving diverse approaches with youth that are multi-sectoral, include public-private partnerships and have multiple stakeholders in the community.

Thank you for listening! I would like to acknowledge my mentor, Dr. Debora G. Goldberg. The college of public health, GMU undergraduate research scholars program, and the Office of Student Scholarships, Creative Activities, and Research for funding this project. Thank you everyone. I hope you have a great day.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

The Effect of 3D/VR on the Perception of Robot Humanlikeness

Author(s): Min Ji Kim, Rydia Weiland, Sara Weiland

Mentor(s): Dr. Elizabeth Phillips, Psychology

Humanlikeness is a quality possessed by social robots tasked for human interaction. This quality has remained ambiguously defined in literature, despite the notion that social robots with humanlike qualities tend to be better received by users. Currently, the Anthropomorphic Robot (ABOT) Database serves as a validated resource for robot designers and researchers to reference a robot’s humanlikeness score. However, one of the limitations of this database is that the scores are based on 2D images of the robots, rather than based on the actual embodied robots. To combat this limitation, the current study aims to research if having the robots in a 3D Virtual Reality (VR) space makes a difference in the humanlikeness scores. This current study focuses on collecting the humanlikeness scores of robots in VR, and further aims to compare the scores with the scores that are currently listed in the ABOT Database. To accomplish this, 16 robot models were put in a VR environment where participants rated the humanlikeness of each robot. All the robots were previously rated in the current ABOT database so the scores from the VR environment and the ABOT database could be compared. Results from 11 participants show no significant difference between 2D humanlikeness scores and 3D/VR humanlikeness scores. The results of this paper will validate the progression of continuing to build a 3D visualized database of humanlike robots while providing further context for how perceptions of humanlikeness differ throughout 2 and 3-dimensional spaces.

Hello, everyone. My name is Rydia Weiland and I’m an undergraduate at George Mason University studying Psychology for the purpose of understanding social robots and our perceptions of them, as well as how to make them better companions, teammates, and assistants.

>CHANGE SLIDE< Today I want to talk to you about humanlike robots. We're going to explore what a humanlike robot is, why they're important in modern society, and how our perception of them changes when they are presented in 3D, particularly virtual reality. To start, though, let's talk about social robots. >CHANGE SLIDE< First question: What are social robots and what is robot humanlikeness? >CHANGE SLIDE< A social robot is a robot an autonomous bot that has been tasked with communicating and/or interacting with a human being or another autonomous agent. Oftentimes, these robots are considered to be embodied and are built with human interaction in mind (dont imply that all robots are humanlike) Many social robots are humanlike and some are not. Thus, we get a whole range of designs that possess a degree of humanlikeness, or in literal terms, how similar the robot physically looks like a human being. >CHANGE SLIDE/SHOW EXAMPLES< Some examples include Jibo up here in the top left, which was a social robot intended on living with you in your home and providing entertainment and companionship for the whole family. Aibo the dog robot on the bottom was made by Sony for the purpose of, you guessed it, being a robot dog companion. And last but not least, Nao to our right is a social robot that can be programmed for a huge variety of tasks, but he is popular in settings such as healthcare centers and as an assistant for various companies to inform and entertain visitors. >CHANGE SLIDE< So, something that these three and many other wonderful robots share is a quality called humanlikeness, or the degree to which a robot resembles a human being. As for why their humanlikeness matters, literature shows that a human-likeness effect exists, wherein people's responses to more humanlike robots tend to be more positive. However, people's receptiveness towards the robot is affected depends upon the context in which they are used (for example, an industrial robot with low humanlikeness scores versus a medical assistant robot with a high score). And of course, there is the issue of robots being perceived negatively once we hit the uncanny valley which we want to avoid. So, it's important to have a way to systematically quantify humanlikeness in terms of design because we may want to make certain adjustments depending on the task and context the robot will be in. Alright, so we've determined humanlikeness of social robots is important. How do we go about measuring it? >CHANGE SLIDE< In the past, a systematic way to determine a robot's humanlikeness did not exist. Until the anthropomorphic robot database showed up! The Anthropomorphic Robot Database (ABOT) database is a database that stores over 250 humanlike robots with associated humanlikeness ratings based on the robot's appearance in 2D. The original ABOT study found that humanlike appearance is based on three dimensions - body manipulators, face, and surface - and as such, each robot has a unique overall humanlikeness score. From this data, a predictor model was made that intends on predicting a robot's humanlikeness based on the image that has been input. This research is fabulous because it offers a way to systematically quantify the concept of humanlikeness beyond initial One limitation of this database, though, is that presently, data for these bots only exist in 2D. So, my goal with this project is to expand upon this work. >CHANGE SLIDE< My project takes 16 robots from the Anthropomorphic Robot Database and visualizes them in 3D through representative models of the robots. The purpose of visualizing these robots in 3D is to understand if having a more holistic view of the robots changes how they are perceived, vs viewing a 2D image of the robots. VR has been established as an effective way of increasing a sense of immersion as well as realism. If we can bring these robots to 3D, we may be able to save a lot of money and time with a more lifelike example of how these robots would look before they're even produced. So without further ado, Let's take a look at the actual procedure. Prior to the experiment, participants took a basic demographics questionnaire, as well as completed a virtual reality sickness questionnaire to measure their propensity for experiencing VR sickness. This was to cover the concern that VR can cause some degree of discomfort for participants. Luckily though, since our experiment was conducted entirely sitting, most participants scored pretty low and were able to participate. >PLAY VIDEO< During the experiment, participants were asked to wear an HTC Vive Pro 2 headset and make selections onscreen with the controllers. Participants had the option of rotating the robot 360 degrees as well as adjusting it's position relative to them. They read a short instructional segment and proceeded to rate robots on their physical humanlikeness from 0 to 100, with 0 being not humanlike at all to 100 being extremely humanlike. The robot models are scaled within the environment to their real-life size as best possible. After the experiment is over, the participant removes their headset and is thanked for their time. So, let's talk about what that participant data showed. Our results from an independent samples t test was performed to compare the humanlikeness scores between Vr and the 2D ABOT database scores. The robot scores in 2D vs 3D were found to not be significantly different from each other. So, since robots rated in VR tended to be rated similarly to that of their 2D image counterparts, there are a few possible interpretations of these results. Firstly, this may contribute evidence for researchers and designers who were looking to confirm if the original ABOT database's predictor tool is indeed an effective way to assess their design's humanlikeness. If VR represents a more realistic model but scores remain unchanged, it could be that using the 2D image predictor is sufficient and we do not need to go to the next stage of using VR with 3D modelling for a more accurate view. Another possible interpretation is that the perception of overall humanlikeness does not change whether the robot is presented in 3D vs 2D. As humanlikeness is still relatively new in literature and what is known is limited, this result would help expand the breadth of what is known about the perception of humanlikeness in multiple dimensions and give way to potential follow up studies to narrow the concept further. >CHANGE SLIDE< To touch briefly on some limitations of this study, we were working with a low sample size of only 11 participants and robot models that were chosen based on availablity, rather than an even distribution of low humanlike robots to high humanlike robots across the board. >CHANGE SLIDE< In conclusion, though we obtained a null result, we are nevertheless excited by the potential benefits of continuing to conduct research on robot humanlikeness in VR. We plan to add more models in the future and continue participant data collection into the summer, and hope that more companies will make available their models in 3D format so that we may visualize them and assess their humanlikeness in VR. Thank you so much.[/expand]

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

Assessing reproductive hormones in adult female blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) by analyzing historic baleen samples from the 1940’s

Author(s): Nadia Gray

Mentor(s): Kathleen Hunt, Biology

Monitoring reproductive parameters such as gestation period and calving intervals in blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) populations is difficult due to limitations in hormone data collection methods for large whales. The most significant hindrance is that it is impossible to collect blood samples from these animals due to their size; therefore, alternative methods for hormone analysis must be investigated. Recent studies have shown that hormones like progesterone can be detected in baleen powder of other mysticete whale species like bowhead (Balaena mysticetus) and North Atlantic right (Eubalaena glacialis) whales. I hypothesized that baleen from female blue whales would contain regions of high progesterone indicating prior pregnancies. To test this, I ran enzyme immunoassays to quantify progesterone from serial samples taken along the length of historic baleen plates of four female blue whales, two of which were known to be pregnant upon capture. All of the specimens in this study were originally captured by post World War II era Japanese commercial whaling vessels and are archived at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This time period overlaps a pause in commercial whaling globally, and predates significant impacts of climate change, implying a relatively low stress environment for this population compared to recent years. Most baleen plates had several broad regions of high progesterone, as predicted, with patterns suggesting a 2-year calving interval for all but one female. A possible reason for this outlier could be due to the age of the individual, as she was the smallest individual in the sample size and may have not yet been reproducing. Two individuals known to be pregnant at death had high progesterone in the most recently grown baleen, as predicted. These findings may clarify historic norms of reproduction in blue whales, and could be helpful for comparisons to modern populations.

Hi, everyone! My name is Nadia Gray. I’m an Environmental and Sustainability Studies student, and for this semester I’ve been working with Dr. Kathleen Hunt of the Biology department here at George Mason, and my project is assessing reproductive hormones in adult female blue whales by analyzing historic baleen samples from the 1940’s. So let’s talk about the blue whale. So this is a marine mammal, and it is the largest animal ever to have lived. As far as we know. it is about as big as 3 school buses lined up bumper to bumper, and as heavy as 25 African elephants in one room and on average, they can live anywhere between 80- 90 years. And the reason why we’re talking about the blue whale is because, despite the fact that commercial whaling has been banned since 1986. This animal is still considered endangered by the IUCN Red List. This is due to other stressors, such as climate change, and although their population is increasing, we still have yet to see stable numbers. And that being said, we also don’t know that much about blue whale reproduction, and that is because these animals are too large to collect blood samples, from which is how hormone data is generally generated. There have been some studies trying to use other methods, such as fecal samples, respiratory vapor, and blubber collections. However, just do the nature of these animals. It is a very difficult method. For this project we’re going to be looking into using baleen as a method. and balen is the keratin-based apparatus you see growing inside of a whale’s mouth, and it is used to filter feed out krill. And for this study we’re also going to be looking at the steroid hormone progesterone, and that is because in high amounts we believe that progesterone can indicate pregnancy. For our research questions we’re going to be looking at is progesterone on detectable in historic baleen. How long is the gestation period of a female blue whale? And what was the number of calving intervals during the mid to late 1940’s. The sample size that we looked at in this project consists of 4 adult females, 2 of which were pregnant upon capture, and 3 of which had an intact root. And that is an important piece of data, because baleen grows similarly to how teeth grow where it has a root that anchors into the gums, but isn’t necessarily visible. So if you were to cut at the gum line, you’d be losing out that little last piece of data. The first step is to collect your samples. So this was done by drilling along the length of each baleen plate and collecting powder samples every centimeter. next up is to weigh out the powder of each centimeter of the baleen plate. We measured out around 20 grams for each specimen. And then you can move on to the extraction process, which is where you are, adding methanol to the powder, and that is what pulls out the hormones. And then the next step is, you are going to remove that methanol that has been sitting in the powder and separate it from the powder pellet that you see there. Next, you’re going to move on to the reconstitution phase which this is after you have dried down that previous methanol sample, and you are essentially rehydrating it so you can create samples with it, and then you’re going to have to go ahead and dilute those samples, because the progesterone, and sometimes is too high in specimens to be able to actually read it. And for my specimens. All of them were one to 4 dilutions, except for one that was one to 40. And then finally, you can move on to the assay portion. So each sample that you have created is going to go into each of these wells, and once you’re done with that, it’ll look something like this and then you can place the assay tray into what is called a spectrophotometer. And this brings us to our results. So this is what the raw data looks like. Everywhere you see light colors. That is what is considered to be high progesterone, and everywhere you see is dark. That is what we consider to be low progesterone, and the unit that is used in the spectrophotometer is called ocular density. And then this is what the final data ends up looking like. These graphs are made through a program called Prism, and if you are interested in a more in depth description of what is going on with each of these graphs. You are going to have to look at my poster of the same name, but essentially anywhere you see, a yellow bar is what we consider to be high progesterone. and on average, we found that these whales were experiencing, on average, of a 2 year calving interval, with the exception of
Figure D, which that one only had 2 high progesterone points, and prior to that was all low progesterone, which we later found out was the smallest world population, so this could potentially indicate that she had not yet been reproducing, because she might have been younger than the other specimens in this sample. And then the next steps: The purpose of this research is to generate baseline data for future hormone studies in blue whales. So essentially we are creating a control group and by testing whales from other time periods we can use this and determine what is considered normal reproduction. This knowledge can also be used to apply towards future management plans of the species. And this brings us to the end of the presentation. I would like to thank Dr. Michael Mcgowan and John Sosky from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history. I’d like to thank Allie Case and Dr. Kathleen Hunt over at side Tech at George Mason University, as well as Dr. Alyson, Fleming and Malia Smith, of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

College of Science OSCAR

Analyzing the Effect of an HIV Protease Inhibitor Drug, Ritonavir, in Women Undergoing Surgery for Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Author(s): Naomi Alemayehu

Mentor(s): Emanuel Petricoin, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine

Introduction: Ritonavir is a protease inhibitor that is currently used to treat HIV. This project aimed to identify changes in expression levels of proteins associated with G1/S checkpoint and inhibition of apoptosis.
Methods: Pre-treatment (n=6) and post-treatment (n=6) breast tissue sections, from patients who received Ritonavir treatment, and control patients (n=7), who did not receive Ritonavir treatment, were obtained. Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) was performed to investigate the expression of selected endpoints.
Result/Conclusion: Rb (S780) was found to be significantly lowered by Ritonavir (p= 0.0047). Ritonavir also decreased the expression of several proteins involved in the inhibition of apoptosis pathway, such as Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3), Stat3 (Y705), and Steroid receptor coactivator (Src). Our results demonstrate that Ritonavir is effective in inducing apoptosis in breast cancer tumors by interfering with the inhibition of apoptosis pathway and G1/S checkpoint

I am Naomi, and I will present my research project, which focuses on analyzing the effect of an HIV drug on breast cancer patients.

Ritonavir is a drug that is currently exclusively used to treat HIV patients. However, recent research has shown that Ritonavir also has anti-tumor properties. Ritonavir is believed to stop the progression of tumors and induce cell death in breast cancer. This project aimed at characterizing the effects of Ritonavir on the inhibition of the apoptosis pathway and G1/S checkpoint. To accomplish this purpose, a core biopsy was taken from 14 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. These patients were then divided into a control and treatment group. The control patients received conventional therapy while patients in the treatment group received Ritnoavir twice a day for 5 days. After this, tumor sections were removed from all of the patients by the type of surgery of their choice.

The endpoints analyzed by this project were mainly from G1/S CHECKPOINT, NF-KB signaling, APOPTOSIS REGULATION, and INHIBITION OF APOPTOSIS.

The tissue sections from each patient were deparaffinized, dehydrated, and stained with hematoxylin. The stroma from each sample was collected by Laser Capture Microdissection and lysed using an extraction buffer. In preparation for Reverse Phase Protein Array analysis, the lysates were printed onto nitrocellulose slides and probed with 35 antibodies. The slides were scanned and analyzed with Microvigene software.

These scatterplots represent the expression values of Cyclin E1 and CDK2 in the treatment and control groups. The P values were obtained by comparing the fold changes in the treatment and control groups. The results demonstrated that there was a decrease in the expression of Cyclin E1 and CDK2.

As you see from these graphs, the same trend was observed from ATM (S1981) and CDK2. These proteins also decreased significantly in the treatment group when compared to the control groups.

Overall, Ritonavir decreased the expression of proteins in the inhibition of apoptosis and G1/S checkpoint. Our data also showed that, in the treatment group, patients exhibited similar protein expression patterns to each other before Ritonavir treatment as well as after ritonavir treatment. Our data strongly suggest that further investigation of the effect of Ritonavir on breast cancer will be useful in the treatment of breast cancer.
Thank you for watching.

College of Engineering and Computing OSCAR

Effect of Inflammation on lipid nanoparticle performance

Author(s): Peter Touma

Mentor(s): Caroline Hoemann, Bioengineering

Characterization of nanoparticles was conducted on various samples for the purpose of analyzing the concentration of the samples and their particle counts. The samples studied were liposomes composed of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine (PSPC), and platelet microparticles. Nanoparticle characterization was conducted on these samples in order to better understand the results of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analyses that were previously conducted on the same samples to test their binding ability to the Lox-1 protein. The data collected by SPR analysis showed that the PSPC sample had the greatest binding to the SPR sensor chip. However, the particle count or concentration of a sample is known to influence the accumulation of the sample. To measure particle count, samples were diluted in filtered deionized water and analyzed using a Zeta View instrument. The Zeta Viewer is equipped with a camera that collects up to 11 images at high magnification to analyze particle size and density. Results showed that PSPC had a mean concentration of 7E+13 particles per mL with a mean diameter of 213.7 nm and polydispersity of 209.5 nm – 217.1 nm (range). Platelet microparticles were found to have a mean concentration of 9.93E+10 particles per mL with a mean diameter of 176.9 nm and polydispersity of 176 nm – 178.5 nm. These results indicate that PSPC liposomes had a 1000-fold particle count compared to the platelet microparticles. Future experiments will require Zeta View analysis of the particle count and subsequent SPR tests with several dilutions, to calculate the binding constant of each sample type.

Hello, my name is Peter Touma, and today I’ll be sharing my undergraduate research with you all. I hope you enjoy. My research from this semester consisted of a nanoparticle analysis using a ZetaView instrument in one of the labs at the Manassas SciTech campus. Micro particles are nano sized extra cellular vesicles that are released from cells that are known to carry procoagulant surfaces with an anionic charge due to the presence of phosphatidylserine within them. The long term objective of the project is to measure the binding affinity of these micro particles to scavenger receptors, such as lectin-like oxidized lipoprotein receptor one, or simply called lox-1. To this end, the goal of the experiment was to measure the diameter and concentration of synthetically made lipid nanoparticles that contain phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylcholine, as well as platelet-derived particles from a human donor. To prepare the samples, liposomes containing phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine were prepared and platelet microparticles were collected from a healthy consenting donor. The lipids were then suspended in PBS, extruded using varying filter sizes to form liposomes, and stored at 4 degrees Celsius until use in the experiment. The platelet microparticles were previously generated from another experiment using, again, a human donor. A citrated blood sample was centrifuged at 200 xg for five minutes at room temperature to first clear the sample’s red and white blood cells. Then the supernatant was centrifuged again, this time at a higher degree of 1500 xg for 10 minutes to pellet the platelets. These platelets were then washed and citrated isotonic saline and then resuspended in half the original volume of in isotonic saline with two millimolar CaCl2. The platelet samples were then pipetted into half milliliter aliquots and incubated for 30 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius in the presence of thrombin. The resulting platelet clot was then centrifuged again, and 25 microliters of the supernatant-containing platelet microparticles was frozen for use in this experiment. To conduct the experiment, the samples were first diluted in filtered water before injecting into the ZetaView machine. This is to ensure proper analysis, and it goes with the standard operating procedure of the machine. Four cycles were conducted using the microparticles, one of which was at first omitted but then later added back into the study to see a comparison with and without it. And three cycles were carried out using the PSPC liposomes. The initial cycle was recorded and used in the data, but the data was interpreted both with and without it to see the difference that or any possible difference that may arise. The purpose of collecting the data that we collected was the concentration in the particle size of particles. And this was just the overall particle count of our samples. Here we have three scatter plots, one depicting the platelets with cycle A, or the initial cycle, one of the platelets without the initial cycle, and one of the PSPC liposomes alone. Seen in the scatter plots, the PSPC liposomes had an overall larger diameter or size than the platelets. And the average particle size of the platelets seemed to increase when we removed the initial cycle from the analysis. Here, we have a table. Here in this table, we see, again, the mean particle size of our samples, as well as the concentration of our samples as well. And it’s followed by the dilution factors for each cycle, as well as the particles for frames and numbers of channels included for analysis. The number of channels included is important because the ZetaView uses 11 total channels, and not all of them are typically seen to be readable for the machine. Well, here we see that the liposomes actually had 1,000-fold higher concentration than the platelet micro particles at 7 times 10 to the 13th particles per milliliter. And we also see that the concentration of platelet microparticles increased, as did the particle size when removing the initial cycle. So using the ZetaView analysis, we obviously found out that the particle size and concentration of the PSPC liposomes was greater than the micro particles. The platelet micro particles also showed an increase in size and concentration when omitting the first cycle from the data, showing that the collected data initial cycle may be quite different than from the other cycles. With the measurements taken in this study, it will be beneficial to conduct further analysis and further analyze results from a previous SPR experiment or surface plasmid resonance so that we can better understand the binding affinities of both of these particles onto the lectin 1 protein, the lox1 protein. Typically, it’s best to conduct SPR analysis with similar particle counts and concentrations. So nanoparticle tracking analysis, such as this experiment, should usually be done prior to SPR and will be done prior to SPR for future experiments. That is all I had. I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank you for your time.

College of Science OSCAR

Calving intervals inferred from progesterone patterns in historic baleen of female fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus)

Author(s): Piper Thacher

Mentor(s): Kathleen Hunt, Biology

Reproductive patterns were once a cryptic topic in whale physiology due to the inaccessibility of obtaining endocrine data from mysticete whales. However, recent advanced approaches in measuring hormones in baleen reveal the possibility of obtaining multi-year reproductive hormone profiles from various species of mysticete whales. Hormone analysis of baleen thus offers a tool to evaluate how ecological and anthropogenic pressures impact whale physiology. We investigated progesterone patterns in historic WWII-era baleen of four female fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) to (1) develop the first longitudinal hormone profiles of fin whales and (2) evaluate gestation periods and calving intervals in a time period when global climate change was minimal and there was a cessation of commercial whaling. Historic baleen plates from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History were drilled every other centimeter to obtain a pulverized powder for hormone extraction. Enzyme immunoassays were run to measure progesterone concentrations of each whale (4 females, pregnant at the time of capture) over ~3-4 years. Results indicate a likely one- to two-year calving interval in fin whales, but with notable individual variation. This pilot study helps provide a baseline of female fin whale progesterone patterns, thus offering data that can be compared to modern-day whales that are subjected to the effects of climate change. Future research can assess the influence of modern anthropogenic stressors by identifying abnormal reproductive patterns which can influence recovery efforts and management strategies.

Hi, my name is Piper Thacher, and I am a senior majoring in Environmental Science and Policy. For my URSP project this semester, I was mentored by Dr. Kathleen Hunt to determine possible calving intervals of female fin whales from the late 1940s. This was done by creating the first-ever longitudinal profile of progesterone using historic baleen samples. So, for a brief background on fin whales, they are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN red list so there are around 100,000 left and their main threats are vessel collisions and entanglement. We currently have a knowledge gap on the hormones of fin whales and because of that, we cannot determine if modern-day whales who are subjected to climate change are having altered reproductive cycles. So, this project aims to fill that gap. Typically, blood samples are taken to measure hormones, however, that is not possible for a whale. Scientists can use feces, earwax, and blubber, to look at hormones but that only tells us the hormones of the individual for that specific day and the samples do not remain stable over time. Luckily, within the last decade, advanced approaches to measuring hormones in whales were discovered. This new approach involves baleen. So, for those who do not know what baleen is, it is a filter-feeding apparatus in the mouths of certain whales, and here is a close-up of one baleen plate that was actually used for my project. These baleen plates are made from keratin and grow over time similar to our own fingernails. So as the baleen grows hormones are accumulated within it, so it essentially provides a time series of the whale’s hormones for a said number of years. Now this is a more recent finding, however, it was confirmed that different steroid and thyroid hormones such as cortisol, progesterone, and thyroxine are detectable in baleen which leads us to the core of my project. We hypothesized that there would be periodic spikes of progesterone over the length of the baleen plates that may indicate past pregnancies. So, my first goal was to create longitudinal progesterone profiles of four female fin whales that were captured by Japanese commercial whaling vessels. These four females were all pregnant upon capture in February of 1948. The second goal was to determine what the normal gestation periods and calving intervals were for fin whales. And what I mean by normal is what were their reproductive cycles like at a time when there was a cessation of commercial whaling, and the effects of climate change were minimal. This goal is important because it really helps provide a baseline of female fin whale progesterone patterns, which can, in the future, offer comparable data to modern-day whales that are subjected to those anthropogenic factors. So, there are three major steps in the methods for my project. The first is the preparation and extraction. So, baleen was pulverized into a powder every odd centimeter from the base to the tip. Then we take 20 milligrams of power from every odd centimeter, add methanol, decant, and evaporate every sample to get pure dried hormone extracts. And here is what my setup looks like and in those tubes are the weight-out baleen power. The next step is to reconstitute the samples and make a 1 to 4 dilution because the hormones are so highly concentrated. Now the last step is to put the samples into an enzyme immunoassay and when we compare the readings from the plate reader to a standard curve, we can determine the amount of progesterone in the sample. So, this is a little bit of what the process looks like. I have added a stop solution here to end the 30-minute colorimetric changing stage. And then we take the plate and record the optical density. So, for my results, these are the longitudinal progesterone profiles of the four female fin whales. These results show high progesterone spikes that may indicate a possible one to two-year calving interval with notable individual variation and we are assuming each baleen plate has a 3 to 4-year timeline. We can see that our prediction of progesterone spikes indicating pregnancies is confirmed because all of these whales were pregnant when captured and we can see a spike leading up to their death which is at the 0cm from the base. The one oddball at the top right that had its baleen cut from the base rather than being pulled so we are missing the most recent growth which may be why we don’t fully see a spike there. There is a dramatic individual variation when it comes to the average progesterone levels of each whale some have spikes that go as high as 300 nanograms of progesterone per gram of baleen while another has up in the 3000. So, for the next steps, we first want to use stable isotopes to determine the actual timeline of the baleen and this can help solidify when the breeding seasons were and if they match the progesterone spikes on these figures. We also want to expand the sample size so I will be continuing this work so we can get a larger population size. In the future, we also plan to run stress hormones like cortisol and corticosterone to map any correlations between reproductive and stress hormones. So, I wanted to take a moment to thank some amazing people who made this project possible. My mentor Dr. Kathleen Hunt, I am so privileged to have worked with you and I am excited to continue working with you. Allie Case you essentially were a second mentor to me and I’m so thankful for you and your guidance. Also, all of my co-authors who made this research even possible. The Smithsonian Museum of natural history for letting us use their baleen archives and lastly George Mason’s College of Science and the OSCAR program for supporting this research I am so appreciative of you all. I included a QR code if anyone would like to look at references or my other work. Thank you so much everyone for listening this project was an amazing experience.